SOUNDTRACK: TIM DARCY-Tiny Desk Concert #620 (May 15, 2017).
I really like Darcy’s band Ought, but I don’t really like this solo concert. In Ought, I find his voice contrasts nicely with the punky music (and his arch delivery of the kind-of-spoken-words if entertaining to me). But here he’s singing some pretty straightforward songs and I find his affected delivery to be kind of annoying. The blurb name checks Roy Orbison and I’ve never liked Orbison’s voice either. So I guess that makes sense
Darcy plays four songs–he’s on guitar for three of them.
“Still Waking Up” is first. He says that “Joan Pt. 1, 2” is more of a rocker on the record but he’s taking it down–wonder if I’d like it more as a rocker? Musically I like the way it switches gears for Part 2 and I like his voice a lot more for this second part. “Sledgehammer And The Rose” is a new one. I like the slinky guitar lines at the end of each verse. For the final song, “What’d You Release?” Toronto songwriter Charlotte Cornfield plays piano (with no guitar). His voice is a bit deeper on this one and it works pretty well with the slowness of the piano.
But I gather I’d prefer him with his band.
[READ: March 22 2017] “Herman Melville, Volume 1”
The previous Lodato story that I read concerned a young meth addict. This one concerns a twenty year old homeless girl.
She remains unnamed throughout the story and we learn snippets of her past. Her father apparently committed suicide recently and she has nobody else. Her only thought about him is that she hopes someone is watering the grapefruit tree in his backyard.
She had been experimenting with running away–she gathered a lot of her stuff and some money and would head to the Greyhound station. She would hang out there for a while and then ultimately go home. Then one day Evan was there. He smiled at her and commented on her skateboard and banjo. She began to cry and he held her and they have been togetehr for the past seven months. He has even proposed to her (although nether one has mentioned in since, so who knows if it meant anything).
Speaking of the money, she has quite a lot of it. She took all of her savings and she has been making money busking with her banjo. Evan has discouraged her from spending money so they can save up for when they settle. And they find that they can get a lot of free stuff if they look in the right places.
But she has been looking for Evan all day. She’s got his bag (which is very heavy–it contains the titular Melville biography which is massive) and she has been looking all over town for him. She is getting nervous both because she doesn’t know where he went and because it’s getting colder. The temperature means that the casual hikers are no longer around, but the hardcore–kinda scary guys are still around. One guy in particular seems to be following her.
When this guy (whom she calls Lawrence of America) finally corners her, she is ultimately rescued by a woman who lives nearby. The woman had seen the girl earlier and offered to help her, but the girl refused. Obviously she kept an eye on her, and she brings her back to her house.
The whole house scene is surreal because we see it all from the girls point of view and we don’t know what the woman’s motive is. The woman seems a little flaky, but the girl is so suspicious that we don’t know what is a nice gesture and what has ulterior motives. Especially when the woman brings out sherry and won’t let the girl say no to any of it.
So she has to wonder a number of things. Why is Evan not hanging around anymore. Did he leave her (they’re some pretty good clues that he has). What is up with this lady who is plying her with booze but also being very nice to her. And where is she going to sleep that night?
The end of the story (before the epilogue) is still unsettling. The epilogue tidies things up quite a bit, and while it has a great final line, it just raises so many more questions. I rather enjoyed this piece–the tension was nicely balanced by the humor and the metaphor of Melville was a nice running thread.
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