I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK:  NINA DIAZ & Y LA BAMBA’s LUZ ELENA MENDOZA-“January 9^th” & “Living Room” NPR’S SOUTH X LULLABY (March 20, 2017).

I was intrigued by this pairing because Luz Elena Mendoza has a shirt buttoned up to her neck and, from the angle of the first song, it appears that she has her long sleeves down, while Nina Diaz (originally from Girlfriend in a Coma) is wearing a sleeveless T-shirt with tattoos showing up and down her arms.  They seem somewhat mismatched.  Until they sing.  (And also during the second song when it becomes obvious that Luz Elena’s arms are covered in tattoos as well).

The two have never played together, but after NPR Music paired them in the courtyard of St. David’s Episcopal Church for a late evening performance, we’re beginning to wonder why not. They’ve both played the Tiny Desk (Diaz twice, once with Girl In A Coma) and both navigate complex emotions and notions of identity in their music. Also, they just sing beautifully together, Mendoza’s yodel swirling in Diaz’s gritty croon.

Luz Elena’s song “Living Room” is first.  She plays guitar and sings. It’s a short song with Nina’s nice high harmonies over Luz Elena’s deeper voice.  The blurb also notes: Mendoza shares a brand-new song here, “Living Room.” When the two harmonize its confession — “I feel like I’ve been undressing all my thoughts in front of you” — it is, in tandem, starkly intimate and separate.

Nina Diaz’ song “January 9^th” is a bit more fun (partially because I know it from her Tiny Desk Concert, but also because it’s a bit more upbeat).  I like Diaz’ singing quite a bit.  Mendoza’s backing vocals add nicely to the “bad one/sad one” part of the chorus.  The blurb adds: “It’s a bluesy ballad with a through line of ’60s pop, a tribute to her late grandmother, cooed and howled into a warm Austin evening.”

Future collaborations should be called for.

[READ: June 27, 2016] Explorer: The Lost Islands

This is the second in series of graphic novel short stories edited by Kazu Kibuishi, the creator of Amulet.

The three books are not related to each other (aside from thematic) so it doesn’t matter what order you read them in.

This first one is all about “lost islands.”  What was neat about this book was that since the premise of an island is so broad, the stories were all very different.

JAKE PARKER-Rabbit Island
My favorite part of this story was the look of it.  Parker has created a short story that looks like it came from an old newspaper–the pages seem to be yellowing and even the graphic style seems old-fashioned.  The story is a pretty simple one.  On rabbit island all of the rabbits work very hard all week and then relax at the beach on weekends.  But one rabbit, Vincent, was busy all the time.  He was a tinkerer and he made a robot who could help with his chores.  Soon enough other rabbits asked for help with their chores as well and after a not very long time at all, the robot appeared to be doing all the work.  But what happens if you rely too much on a machine?  Seems to me that the rabbits got pretty lazy pretty quickly, but the point was well taken.

CHRYSTIN GARLAND-The Mask Dance
In this story, a boatman offers to take a girl to a party on an island.  She has a lot of work to do, but when the boatman tells her that her father is there too, she decides to go along with it.  The party is intense and fun, but things are never what they seem and this story proved to be a little scary.

JASON CAFFOE-Carapace
I loved this story because of the story itself and the weird and cool drawings.  A boy appears on a mysterious island (I love that he just shows up there).  He can’t figure out how to do anything. But when he sees a giant crab carapace, he think he at least has some shelter.  But the crabs ghost yells at him for trying to take his old body.  When the boy is sorry the ghost decides to help him.  He shows him how the animals on the island survive and the boy adapts.  But when the boy learns that the ghost isn’t really happy, he decides to help the ghost out using the knowledge he gained.  I loved the story of helping hands and also of the fun twist at the end.  (Although I didn’t love the boy’s nose).

DAVE ROMAN & RAINA TELGEMEIER-Desert Island Playlist
This was an unusual story.  A girl floats ashore on a deserted island.  She has a few random things (iPod, a box, but not much else.  As she wanders around, she finds a baby.  The baby is unattended although there are toys for her.  Then she meets a woman who has been living on the island for a long time. They have a strange amount in common and the end is a little trippy.  I loved the drawing but I wasn’t crazy about the story which was a little too elliptical for me.

MICHAEL GAGNE-Loah
This story is all about non human life. Loah is a kind of fish (a very cool looking one). She is special and well-liked.  But one day things began to go wrong (the only problem I had with this story was that this section was not tied very well to the story).  But it all fits together nicely after that. It was simple but cool.

KATIE SHANAHAN & STEVEN SHANAHAN-Radio Adrift
This was a peculiar story about a mage trying to hatch a pixie.  Apparently only a certain sound can get the pixie to hatch, and this mage, Wiya, has been trying everything to find that sound.  She finally comes across the sound on the radio and goes down to the floating station to meet the source of the voice. Then we learn a bit about the radio DJ as well. It felt like there was a  little too much crammed into this story.

KAZU KIBUISHI-The Fishermen
This was my favorites story of the bunch.  This story was set at sea (obviously) and as we open the sea is telling the captain that they should turn back. But the captain will not be denied and he continues.  And on the top of the next page they have caught a giant fish (whale-sized but more fish-like).  And it begins pulling them. They get dragged on for quite some time until they come across an uncharted island.  And the panel at the bottom of page 119 was the creepiest most awesome panel I’ve seen in a long time. I won’t give any more away , but  I loved the premise of this story.

And because of these stories I have decided to read Amulet too.