I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: NINA DIAZ-Tiny Desk Concert #561 (August 26, 2016).

And here it is four and a half years later.  Nina Diaz has gone from wearing dark jeans and a v neck sweater (stripes in the purple family) to wearing a Sonic Youth T-shirt with the neck collar torn off and the sleeves removed.  Her arms are covered in tattoos.  Her hair is long and down and she’s got pink eye shadow on.  Here’s a comparison photo.

Her voice sounds much more powerful as well.

I’m fascinated by her bassist who is playing a seven string bass (and has crazy hair).  And I’m intrigued that there’s a dedicated melodica player in this show.

As she sings “January 9th” you can see how much more confident she is (not that she was nervous in 2012).   She sings her songs with real power and sway in her body.  The song opens with some cool bass lines (he really uses all of the 7 strings, which I like).  And as the song moves along the backup band sings harmonies which sound very good.

“Dig” has a bunch of cool things going on.  There’s an interesting, somewhat sinister main guitar melody, a cool bass line and a slide guitar from the second guitarist.  I really like the way she delivers the lines in the middle of the song–a kind of accent that works great with the lyrics.

As she opens “For You” she says she’d like to “hopefully have it on in the background when someone’s losing their virginity.”  And with a lyric like “For you I’ll go all the way.  I scream your name,” it seems pretty likely.  It begins with just her voice and acoustic guitar (with the other guitarist playing some melodies too).  The song is a sweet tender ballad and when she asks at the end if we can picture someone losing their virginity to it, the answer is certainly yes.

[READ: March 1, 2016] “The Teacher”

This story goes in some interesting directions.  It begins with the narrator (I) talking about the “girls” Betty and Maeve.  They are good girls, who do whatever they can to help people out.  In their apartment, they have taken in pregnant teens, boys caught stealing and even, once, a suspected sex offender (which didn’t make the town happy).

Maeve types documents and Betty reads manuscripts for a publisher.  And that’s how they met Dr. Chacko.

Betty received Chacko’s manuscript.  It was really long and handwritten. So Maeve copied it out on the computer and they both fell in love with the content.  When they tried to explain the book to the narrator they couldn’t do it in any way that made sense to her.  They also failed to describe him to her as well.

In the last few months they had gotten him a space in New York City where he could practice his philosophical/meditative craft.  They were also looking for a cheap place for him to live.

The narrator has a cottage on her property and the girls insinuated that he could live there.  After some consideration, he moves in.

Chacko is no problem at all.  She barely even sees him, except for his daily bike rides to the train station.

Curios, one day she dries to the city to see his workshop.  And frankly, she doesn’t get it.  She drove him home and they were mostly silent except for his singing.

Then she literally stumbled over him a few weeks later.  And they finally talk.  Soon the narrator starts doing nice things for him. Small things, but nice nonetheless. This makes Maeve insanely jealous.

But the narrator finds him fairly easy to talk to and they wind up having a drink together.  And then a meal together.  Maeve and Betty see him eating with her and they are horrified that they two are eating meat (the girls are vegetarian and assume he is also, although he is not).  This enrages Maeve, although Betty is more mellow about it.

As the narrator gets closer and closer with him, Betty continues to find stories about him that show that maybe he’s not as good as he says.  The narrator doesn’t know if they are true or retribution.  The guru is upset and makes plans to leave, but she convinces him to stay.  Or perhaps he convinces her to let him stay.  He starts doing some woodworking chores around her house (he is skilled at that).

So just who is using whom here?  And what is the motivation of anyone?

The story ends in a strangely ugly but positive way.  You may want to say I told you so, but the person you say it to probably doesn’t care.