I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: VICENTE GARCÍA-Tiny Desk Concert #701 (February 2, 2018).

Singer-songwriter Vicente García plays a delicate acoustic guitar and has a pretty crooning voice.

The blurb says that he

is still relatively under the radar, but performances like the one he gave at the Tiny Desk are starting to turn some heads.

García’s music isn’t dominated by his native Dominican Republic, but you can hear it in every note. His poetic lyrics are like short stories, sung by a voice both plaintive and evocative, yet always distinct.

“San Rafael” is quite a pretty song echoing the beauty of San Rafael.

Before “A La Mar” (the title of second album which means ‘to the sea’) he introduces [unclear] Vasquez from Dominican Republic on percussion and Ricardo Muñoz from Bogota on the keys.  There’s a neat moment where he plays a harmonic on the guitar in a rather unusual way.  The delicate percussion really adds a lot, as does the bass line plays on the keys.

“Dulcito e Coco” opens with a lovely guitar melody and a close up of the fascinating percussion box that Vazquez is playing–a purple, strangely-shaped box that seems to get different sounds where you strike it.  The song stays quiet throughout although it does get a bit bigger by the end.

 

[READ: November 13, 2017] Silly Rhymes for Belligerent Children

I was so excited to see Trace Beaulieu in person.  Ans even though this book is available everywhere, it was especially neat to buy it from the man himself and get him to autograph it.

It is subtitled A Yucky Big Book of Rainy Day Fun for Belligerent Children & Odd Adults with Nothing Better to Do.  The illustrations are by Len Peralta who apparently has not done anything else I’ve read even though his work looks so familiar and is really good.

So what is this?

Well the title is pretty accurate.  Trace has concocted snarky funny poems.  Most of them are pretty short (and in this format are often two or three lines per page) and accompanied by an illustration).

“The Pets of Martin Tugger” is about a man who had a dog named Slugger (the illustration shows just how peeved that dog is).  But there’s more: a cat, a turtle, a bison and a caribou.  This one doesn’t have a particularly good punchline, but the drawings are quite funny.

“Becky Webber” is about a girl who throws up on the narrator’s nap mat.

“The Not-Well Forest Wumpus” is a revolting sickly green creature.

“The Witch” is one of my favorites–it has more to do with road debris than witchcraft and it has a lengthy, amusing footnote describing just what the heck he is talking about.

“Roger Podger: Amateur Scientist, Backyard Chemist” is a longer poem with a really funny punchline about being a smart scientist.

“The Ballad of Remy Biddle” is a pretty poor pun on bootleg booze, which I imagine few children–belligerent or otherwise–would get

But “Bully Woe, Tiger Boy” is very short and to the point and quite funny.

“Groggy Froggy” is about a poor, trapped frog.

“The Chicken” was one of my favorites, not only because it describes in great detail all that a chicken can do for you, the illustration gives even greater detail about what a chicken can do for you.

“The Bryozoa Vs The Honeybee” is perhaps the most obscure thing I have ever read.  I’m still not sure what a bryozoa is.

“Pets & Parasites” is all about the terrible diseases you can catch from your pets: “don’t worry if your pet might bite, just check it well for parasites,”

“Donny Yum Yum Doyle” is all about a boy who eats literally anything–dirt, bugs, paint, dog food.  Until what he thought was an Easter Peep proved to be something else.

“The Sled” is a sad tale of exuberance.

And the final one “My Hairs” is all about growing old–not for kids, really, but I’m sure they will laugh.

Is this a somewhat slight work?  Sure. Am I glad I have it?  You bet.

Thanks, Trace.

For ease of searching, I include: Vicente Garcia, Ricardo Munoz