I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: DEQN SUE-Tiny Desk #476 (October 5, 2015).

Deqn Sue and her producer Kelvin Wooten play three songs at this Tiny Desk Concert.  And although she is the name and voice of the set, I’m more impressed by him.  He is sitting in front of a keyboard, holding a bass guitar.  He plays the bass, loops it and then plays it live again.  While the bass is looping he;s playing keyboards and all the while there’s percussion and other sounds that he’s programmed.

NPR had played “Bloody Monster” a while back.  It’s a wonderful kiss off song about a person that she thought was a friend until she called her “nigger” (which is addressed in the second verse).  The chorus is surprisingly poppy:  “Shimmy shimmy cocoa pop, you’re a crazy bitch.  I don’t even like that word, but for you I think it fits.”  It’s fun and bouncy.

The second song is “Flame.”  She says it’s the only song she’s written about love–most of her songs are more socially aware.  It’s got a cool bass line, although I don’t like her voice on this song.  She seems to sing better when it’s louder and faster.

“Magenta” is the first song they wrote together.  She explains that magenta is about the color you feel when you’re not specifically one: you’re not pissed, so you’re not red, you’re not sad so you’re not blue and you’re not scared so you’re not yellow.  You’re a mixture–magenta.  Each verse starts with her singing “I am a color” in a deep distorted voice.  It’s pretty cool.  The song is interesting and has some cool ideas in it.

Overall though I’m not all that impressed by her.  I feel like she’s close to being amazing, but hasn’t quite gotten there yet.

[READ: February 1, 2016] Kick-Ass 2

This book picks up right where the last one left off.

Hit Girl is still training Kick Ass (and beating the crap out of him), but she might have to give up.  Her mom is really fragile right now and if something happened to her, it would kill her mom.

And then we see that Red Mist has returned and set up a superhero brawl in Manhattan streets.  But that’s coming in the near future. The rest backtracks a bit.

Dave has joined a superhero gang–like a real-life X-Men called Justice Forever.  He is friends with a guy named Doctor Gravity (who claims that he has made a pole that can increase gravity (actually it’s a baseball bat wrapped in tinfoil).

We learn the backstories of the members of Justice Forever and we also see that Red Mist is calling for a group of super villains to flesh out his own army.

Justice Forever, in addition to beating up bad guys, also does work in soup kitchens and generally tries to do go.  And Dave is psyched to be part of something like this.  Until his dad finds his costume.

The night that that happens is the night that Red Mist’s team, including Mother Russia, a giant scary looking woman who used to be Vladimir Putin’s bodyguard, goes on the attack.  He destroys Justice Forever’s headquarters and does some horrifying things to the team (including their dog) and has now officially christened himself The Mother Fucker.

The Mother Fucker is not a normal villain–he goes out and kills innocent people all over the place–kids playing on the street and other random civilians.  He doesn’t care at all (even some of his henchmen are a bit freaked out by him).

Several things happen in the next few chapters–the police begin taking in everyone in a superhero costume–whether good or bad–to try to contain the vigilantes.   In the process Dave’s father confesses to being Kick Ass and is taken to jail.  But this merely leaves him exposed to all of the bad guys in the world  And soon Kick Ass has a real cause to fight for.

The rest of the book sees the battle royale commence, with Hit Girl back in the fold .  But just as Dave is about to get revenge on The Mother Fucker, his more human side kicks in and so do the police.

It’s up to Hit Girl to save him again, but this time, with so many police around, she’s an easy target and the book ends with her being taken in by the police.