SOUNDTRACK: PHOEBE BRIDGERS-Tiny Desk Concert #677 (November 27, 2017).
Phoebe Bridgers has an incredibly delicate voice. And yet despite its delicacy it is also really powerful (as evidenced by the note she holds at the end of “Motion Sickness”).
I know the original of “Motion Sickness” which has a big raw guitar and a powerful chorus. Her entire sound is stripped down here, with just pianist Ethan Gruska and violinist Rob Moose accompanying her on her quiet guitar.
Together, they celebrated the occasion with languid renditions of three of the album’s best songs: the sad and seductive “Demi Moore,” a drastically muted “Motion Sickness” and a piano-driven take on Bridgers’ first-ever single, “Killer.”
“Demi Moore” has some interesting synthy sounds accompanying Phoebe’s gentle guitar. I really like the way the violin is playing somewhat unsettling notes rather than gentle accompaniment. I cannot figure out what this has to do with Demi Moore, though.
As noted, “Motion Sickness” is very different. It’s a little less catchy somehow (I really like the contrast of the guitars and her voice on the original). But the song sounds really pretty this way (and I am charmed at the way she seems to be smiling throughout the song).
She describes “Killer” as being about murder. It includes an unsettling conversations about Jeffrey Dahmer and Bridgers singing without her guitar. It’s a stark piano song that really lets you hear how pretty her voice is.
I’m very curious to know what she typically sounds like live.
[READ: May 13, 2017] My Brilliant Friend
In what I thought was the final issue of The Believer (it went on hiatus for a couple of years), Nick Hornby says he really enjoyed My Brilliant Friend. So I decided to check it out (since it’s part of a series and was compared tangentially to My Struggle, I decided to keep a running tally of pages just in case I decided to read all four of these books).
I haven’t read a ton of Italian writers, I gather. And while that doesn’t really impact the quality of the story (or the translation by Ann Goldstein) the book does talk about locations that I’m pretty unfamiliar with.
Evidently there is intrigue about the identity of Elena Ferrante (the name is a pseudonym). I didn’t know that until after I read the book and looked up to see how many more books there were. Ferrante (I’ll go with she, because why not) has written four books in this series and three other books with out her identity being discovered. I suppose the reason her identity is interesting is because this book seems to be autobiographical. Of course what do you call an autobiography by a pseudonym?
This book opens with an index of characters (which I had forgotten about and wished I’d consulted because there are a few characters who get a little confusing–and so many nicknames and diminutives!)
Then the story begins and Rino has called Elena to say that his mother is missing. Rino is the son of Lila, Elena’s oldest friend. They are currently 66 years old. Lila is also the subject of this book–but back when the girls were young. And Lila’s disappearance (she had wanted to disappear for years) is the inspiration for Elena to write these books.
Elena and Lila were two girls who grew up near each other in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Elena was shy and Lila was strong-willed, After a summer of playing independently of each other but always within each other’s sights, they finally bonded when Lila threw Elena’s doll into the stairwell of Don Achille’s house. Elena responded by throwing Lila’s doll into the same well.
Don Achille was the fearsome monster in town–like the ogre of fairly tales. All children were forbidden to speak to him And yet with each other as support, the girls manged to climb his stares and demand their dolls back. Of course, he has no idea what they are talking about, so he gave them some money and shooed them away. And that sealed their bond.
The girls go to school together. Elena defers to Lila in everything, and it is generally accepted that Lila is the smartest child in school–although she is also one of the most defiant.
The village where they live is small and there is much taunting between boys and girls–the boys who throw rocks at the girls are the one who wish to date them later in life.
When their schooling is over it is of course assumed that Lila will go on to further schooling and Elena hopes to as well. But both of their families are poor. Through some finagling and surprises Elena turns out to be the one who goes to school while Lila stays at home and works with her father at his shoe store.
Elena doesn’t do very well at school until Lila coaches her in how to study, how to learn. In fact, Lila, despite not being in school, seems to be reading everything that Elena tells her that she is learning in school–and doing much better at it, honestly.
But once Elena learns the secrets to good study habits she is more or less able to leave Lila behind in the academic world. And I love how the title of My Brilliant Friend is used in two different ways here–a nice surprise.
We watch these two girls’ live converge and diverge over the years of their adolescence. Elena becomes and intellectual powerhouse and Lila becomes a local beauty. Elena had been hit on by boys for years–she always turned them down–and Lila, who was skinny and flat-chested had nothing. But soon enough, Lila has many suitors–suitors who are willing to fight for her. And Elena is stuck with sloppy seconds–a boy she doesn’t even like.
One of the fascinating things about the story is that all of the characters are in this small village–everyone knows everything about each other. So we watch the boys grow from cocky show-offy men, to chastened, dismissed characters. Boys who believed they were kings turn out to be less so.
There are some wonderful backstories to many of the characters as well. There is a murder of one of the strongest men in town–and everyone assumes they know who did it. There is a poet who dedicates his book to a married woman–causing her endless trouble and heartache. And there’s the whole business of Lila’s shoe designs. She has the idea of designing beautiful couture shoes. They are of course far too expensive for the local town, but they are gorgeous. This drives her father mad, but one of her suitors insists that these shoes be made.
The cover of the book shows a bride and groom, and indeed, there is a wedding. To me the most shocking thing is that by the end of Book 1 (when the wedding does occur) the girls are just barely 16 years old. What could go wrong?
I was thoroughly engaged in the first 200 or so pages of this book.
Everything about it was intriguing and compelling. The school work, the romances, the horrifying incident at her summer job on the beach. But as the book continued along, I found that Elena’s insecurities about Lila were just too much. She always compared herself to her best friend. And that’s normal. But towards the end, the comparisons were so over the top and Elena seemed so insecure that I just wanted to shake her out of it. I get that she can be jealous that her best friend is getting married and that she fears she’s being left behind, but come on they are 16 years old and Elena is very successful–there was no one to tell her she was doing the right hing?
The sequences where Lila is preparing to get married–and the hatred that her mother and sister-in-law show her all led to some great comic scenes that alleviated those insecurities, but there were about 30 or 40 pages that were quite a slog to get through before it picked up at the end.
I haven’t been compelled to read the rest of the books, but I think I might in the new year.
Leave a Reply