I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BOMBINO-Tiny Desk Concert #301 (September 7, 2013).

So who or what is Bombino you, like me, are probably asking.  Well:

Omara “Bombino” Moctar is a Tuareg guitarist, born in Niger.  There’s something alluring and charming about Bombino, whose childlike face belies his fierce, hypnotic guitar playing. The familiarity in his music stems from the blues, a common thread between American music and Africa for obvious reasons. Bombino grew up on the music of Jimi Hendrix, whose sound keeps getting sent back and forth from America to Africa and back again.

Bombino plays three songs.  They’re all pretty lengthy with a lot of guitar playing.  But none are instrumental.  However, I certainly have no idea what he’s singing.  In addition to Bombino, there; a rhythm guitarist, a bassist and two drummers–one playing a djembe I believe and one playing that drum that you thump with your fist–I can’t find the name of it.

• “Tamiditine” has a Western sounding melody
• “Her Tenere” opens with a lengthy guitar solo–and o course his guitar has that distinctive tinny guitar sound  This one is really catchy.  I assume he is singing real words, but it just sounds like “deh deh deh.”
• “Imuhar” feels a bit more Nigerian, than Western–it’s interesting to hear the distinction in scales there.  Overall this has a long jamming quality to it.

Before listening to the Tiny Desk Concerts, I’d never listened to music like this and I’m grateful for the exposure to it.

[READ: January 24, 2017 ] Snow White

Matt Phelan continues to make great graphic novels.  This one is an adaptation of Snow White.  I assumed it would be a fairly straightforward telling of the fairy tale, but Phelan changes the setting of the story and makes the whole thing far more “real,” which is a neat trick.

Phelan has moved the setting of the story from the forest to the glamour of 1920s Manhattan.  It is just before the Depression and the city is hopping!  Bright lights, (for a black and white book anyway), dancing and money everywhere.

And amid this, a young girl is born.  Samantha White is a few years old in 1918.  As she runs through central park her mother calls to her: Samantha…Snow!  The girl responds to this name, but as she turns around, her mother cough up blood into a handkerchief (virtually the only color in the book).

Ten years later, we see that the new Queen of the Follies–an anonymous chorus girl–has risen to be the new star of Ziegfeld Theatre.  Snow’s father is smitten with her.

And in the next chapter, Snow is sent off to boarding school and the Ziegfeld star is shown looking far less sweet than she did on stage.  Snow’s father is a tycoon of the market.  And when the crash hits, he is spared any trouble. She smiles at him and says he is the only man clever enough to survive the market crash, but he looks at her and seems suspicious of her–that his success may have been something more than luck.

And then… Snow’s father dies “unexpectedly.”  As the dancer and Snow meet with the lawyer, we learn that at the least moment, he had his will changed so that the bulk goes to Snow, not his wife.  The wife is outraged.

The only way she can get her hands on the fortune is if Snow is out of the way. And you know that she will put that plan into action.

In one instance, Snow is chased through the city but is rescued by a group of boys who go by the name The Seven.  They agree to watch out for her.  But who could expect that a magic apple would remain faithful to the original and be the thing that starts all the trouble.

The story began with a strange scene of what we learn is Snow White in a “glass coffin.”  It circles back to that in a very clever way.  And the last few pages allow Phelan to introduce some of his beautiful colorful watercolors to the book.

Phelan continues to impress as an artist and a storyteller (since he is essentially making up this story anew).  This story seems a little dark for a kids story, but then most fairy tales are pretty dark at heart.