I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: LONE BELLOW-Tiny Desk Concert #268 (March 4, 2013).

I know the Lone Bellow song “You Never Need Nobody,” a song that has great harmonies.  But I don’t really know much about them beyond that song.

For this Tiny Desk Concert, there are three players—two guitarists, Brian Elmquist and Zach Williams, and one mandolin player, Kanene Pipkin.  Williams, is the primary singer, and all three have amazing harmonies.

“You Never Need Nobody” is a bit slower than the recorded version and while it lacks something that I like from the recording, this version makes up for it in other ways.  At the end, they are wonderfully tight when they hit that dramatic pause.

Its possible the singer is sickly as he sniffs quite a bit through the second song, but his voice sounds great.  At the end, she jokes that he is sweaty and he really is.

“Two Sides Of Lonely” is much slower but the chorus is powerful with their harmonies.  You can see how hard the lead singer and the mandolin player are singing–even the blurb says “with Zach Williams singing every word as if it’s the last time he’ll ever get the chance.”  The bridge is just gorgeous.

On “Teach Me To Know” it’s fun to watch their hands strum in synch.  This song is faster with some cool little guitar lines.  There are just wonderful harmonies all the way through.  As the blurb says, “Their voices harmonize with Williams’, sometimes making vocal power chords and at other times supplying delicate textures.

“You Don’t Love Me” jumps right in with big harmonies.  For this song, Williams puts down his guitar–presumably so he can sing even more intensely.

It’s really amazing seeing bands put so much intensity into their music.

[READ: January 20, 2017] LastMan 4

This book was originally written in French (and called Lastman there as well).  These editions were translated by Alexis Siegel.

The art is black and white (and grayscale) and the characters are what I can only describe as very French looking. The faces are very minimal, with some of them looking almost bleached out but for eyes and a mouth.  Some of the men are rather grotesque-looking while the women are getting sexier with each book (one quite over the top).  No question about the age level of this series now–things are getting much darker and much more intense–keep the kids away.

In the previous book, a bunch of thugs were all ogling a pop star in a magazine, wondering if “they were real or fake.”  In this book we actually meet the pop star (but we don’t learn if they are real or fake).  Her name is Tomie Katana and she was married to Richard for a while before he left.

We also find out (finally) what Richard did to make him flee the city.  It has to do with a previous fight–I suspect we will learn more details about exactly what happened in a later book.

The book opens in Zotis Inc, the company with the biggest pop stars, the biggest sporting events and the biggest everything.  Including The Fight Fist Funeral Cup.  Marianne is talking to one of the executives of the company who sets her up with a car and a hotel for the night.  When Tomie hears her mention Richard, she runs out to try to talk to her. She even runs out into the street–fighting off paparazzi–but to no avail.

Meanwhile across town , Richard is talking to Milo Zotis, head of everything.  Because of the “scandal,” Richard now owes Zotis and his investors a lot of money.  He is persona non grata in this town, and yet Milo has a proposition for him.

On the way to the hotel, Marianne and Adrian jump out at the stadium, hoping to see Richard.  She tries to shield him from the unthinkable violence in the city–shootings and drugs and junkies and everything.  They meet a dorky reporter who is trying to break the story about Zotis’ involvement in all of this, but who mostly just gets pushed around.  He takes a shine to Marianne and Adrian.  He shows them to the entrances of the stadium, but while the mom and child are allowed in, he is not.

When the two get upstairs they see Richard.  Adrian is excited to see him but Marianne is furious.   And then Milo hears about how Richard and Adrian were partners in their battle–he thinks it’s very funny.  After much argument, Marianne says that she and Adrian will fight in the Fight Fist Funeral Cup.  And Milo agrees–thinking the ratings will be fantasia.  Milo threatens that Richard will be fighting as well.  And his partner will be…Cristo Canyon (complete with mask, now repaired).  Woah.

There’s a good deal of fun and fanfare about the fights with two sports announcers Karl and Jayce as color commentators.  And when they interview Richard, many of the fighters watching the show vow to kill him for returning.

Marianne and Adrian are in the preliminaries. The big violent thugs refuse to fight a little boy and his mom.  Finally one agrees to but will take it easy on him.  But Adrain’s powers have gotten stronger and he easily defeats the thugs (in wonderful ways).  Marianne’s powers are even more impressive than that.  They make it to the next round.

They become a quick sensation–getting on the cover of tabloids and everything–especially when the Richard connection comes out.

As the volume comes to an end, Richard and Marianne finally have it out–and they realize that they each have a part of the map that Richard made.  While they are talking, they ask Tomie to look after Adraina.  She’s not happy about it, but he is such a nice kid, that she is taken with him.  She introduces him to video games (Adrain’s wide-eyed attitude about the city is awesome–his reaction to an escalator is hilarious).

Two things happen as this volume comes to an end.  Adrian and Tomie wind up outside (without bodyguards) where they are threatened by a guy with a knife (this impacts Adrian for many scenes).  And one of the suited men acknowledges that Richard made it to the Valley of Kings–although we don’t know why he shares that detail yet.

This story is growing more complex and exciting as it moves on.  There are currently six books in English, although I think there are more in French. I’m very curious to see where all of this leads.  And honestly I don’t see how it can be resolved in two books.