I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SHIRIM KLEZMER ORCHESTRA-Klezmer Nutcracker (1998).

I love this klezmer version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker.

The first 7 songs of the disc are the popular, quickly recognizable melodies from the ballet.  But each song has been klezemerfied–which means minor keys and clarinets and spirited dances that are really peppy.

So even though the musicianship is top-notch, there’s plenty of humor here.  As this review puts it

It combines the zany wit of a Spike Jones with the class and craft of a Duke Ellington and recasts the Nutcracker as a Hannukah classic with images of a dancing Latkes Queen and marching Macabees.

The humor even extends to the titles:

A Klezmer Nutracker

• Kozatsky ’till You Dropsky
• Dance of the Latkes Queens
• March of the Macabees
• Araber Tants
• Dance of the Dreydls
• Waltz of the Rugalah

The rest of the disc is made up of Other Klezmer Classics.  Despite the abundance of Satie, these songs don’t quite do it for me.  They are fine, but Gustav’s Wedding and Romanian Rhapsody are a bit too long.  Although Hungarian Goulash is wonderful

Perhaps I just prefer the songs with which I’m familiar.  Having said that, the second half is full of very good klezmer, so don’t dismiss it outright.

• Gustav’s Wedding 4:25
• Romanian Rhapsody by G. Enesco 4:40 (see, these two are too long)
• Gnossienne 1 by E. Satie
• Gnossienne 2 by E. Satie
• Gnossienne 3 by E. Satie
• Hungarian Goulash (based on Brahms)
• Nekhome–Solace (after “Prelude 4,” Chopin)
• Turk in American
• Russian Bulgar
• Gymnopedie 3 by E. Satie

[READ: July 9, 2017] 100 Girls

I really enjoyed this book (first in a series apparently), and was about to say it’s really good for an Orphan Black-type premise, and then I saw that it came out in 2005–many many years before Orphan Black. So, three cheers for the originality then.

The book begins with Sylvia waking up from a nightmare.  Right off the bat the drawing style is notable–Todd Demong’s style is really interesting–angular and exaggerated but not “cartoony,” the proportions and angles make the story more hyper-real than cartoony, which is pretty great.

When she wakes up, she hears her parents talking about her…how she has changed and become more difficult.  Her dad blames it on her being a teenager, but her mom thinks its something more.  As she walks to school with her friends, we see that a car is doing surveillance on her.

Cut to a sciencey building with a lady and some guys in suits,  The lady (Tabitha) has a chat with one of the guys, and she is pleased that they have placed sights on Sylvia.  She says that they will finally be able to move on to the next stage of their program.

When Sylvia gets to school, we see her do some amazing things in gymnastics class.  This impresses one of the boys, although his girlfriend immediately comes over and gives Sylvia a hard time.  This leads to a confrontation a little later–one that doesn’t go well for the other girl.  At all.  But it also means that Sylvia gets into trouble. So that night she decides to run away.

Her being alone gives the spies a chance to grab her.   And that’s when we see the extent of Sylvia’s massive strength and super dexterity.  Once she has taken out all of the guys, a girl who looks just like her (but with a rainbow mohawk) congratulates her on the good work she just did,

And in a cool, but gross, twist after the new girl tells Sylvia about the “others” like them, the girl dies–allowing Sylvia to absorb her “powers.”  And so, enhanced Sylvia uses her powers to track own the other clones.  Sylvia and her “friends” work to hunt other girls.

But back in Tabitha’s office, things are not so good.  Each time their team track a down a girl, they are attacked by Sylvia.  And there is much carnage  This makes Tabitha’s bosses pretty unhappy.  They tell her that her experiment is over in no uncertain terms.  That’s when she tells her team to wake the rest of the clones–to set their plan in motion.

The end of the book shows a confrontation and the information that the series is to be continued.  The final scene shows Sylvia/not Sylvia with glowing eyes (which I don’t like–I find her human features much more satisfying) with the promise of much more to come.  I’m curious to lean more about his series,

But now looking online it seems very likely that there are no more books or even single issues  Gah!