I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: KING CRIMSON-The Elements Of King Crimson – 2016 Tour Box (2016).

This was the third Tour Box containing material that is similar in spirit, but different in fact to the previous two.

As always, it starts with the Wind extract, the sound of Fripp’s mellotron warming up and a voice saying “I prefer the early ones.”  It segues into a beautiful instrumental of “Moonchild.”  Once again, the lyrics are interesting in the song, but it sounds great without them.

The music stays in somewhat chronological order of release, but often with contemporary versions.  Like the 2015 recording of 1970’s “Peace” (which is okay) and “Pictures Of A City” (which is great).

“Prince Rupert’s Lament” is a two and half-minute guitar solo which has the Toronto crowd from the previous track overlaid, making this recording sound like a live one, when it is in fact an except from the recording session of Lizard.  There’s a rehearsal of the full 10 minute “Islands” from 1971 or so.

Then a “new” song, the two and a half-minute 2014 “Threshold Soundscape” which segues into the 2014 live version of “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part I” which is quite bass heavy.  Up next is a recording session of “Easy Money” without all the bells and whistles.

Then comes two live recordings from 1974.  “Improv I” which is full of gongs and guitars and chaos and segues into “Doctor Diamond.”  This is a song I had never heard before.  It never had an official release and this version seems like they’re just trying it out, like they weren’t really sure about the words, especially.  It’s heavy and  more than a little odd.

After a 30 second clip “From the Drummer’s Stool” which is the a drummer playing the intense “21st Century Schizoid Man” drums, the full song is played from 1974, sounding quite old in the mix.

The second disc continues with all manner of things in no particular order.

There’s more extracts from Lizard, this time a very pretty solo piano version of “Prince Rupert Awakes.”

And them it’s on to a non-Crimson album.  “The Other Man” is an alternate early version of the song from the Jakszyk, Fripp, Collins album A Scarcity of Miracles which I don’t know at all.

Next comes “Making Of Discipline,” it’s clips from bulk of the album spliced together into one song.  It’s very nifty.  There’s a demo instrumental of “Walking on Air” and then a three-minute live track called “Radical Action (to Unseat The Hold of Monkey Mind).”

There’s a demo of “Meltdown” (with guide vocals) and then a 40 second clip “From the Drummers’ Stools I” and a 20 second clip “From The Guitarist’s Stool I” which is part of the 21CSM solo.

Then comes some heavy stuff.  “The ConstruKction Of Light” live from 2014 with no vocal tag at the end followed by the bizarre Beatles mashup “Tomorrow Never Knew/Thela” live from 2000.

There another sample “From the Drummers’ Stools II” this one from “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic I” which is followed by “Nuages” (which I read as Nu-ages.  It’s trippy with bouncy bass

There’s a 2014 recording of the slow, jazzy “The Light Of Day” also originally from Scarcity of Miracles. It’s followed by a Lizard excerpt “From The Guitarist’s Stool II” and then a fast complicated 40 second 2014 soundcheck for “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic I.”

Moving away from that classic business, we jump to a new mix of “Dinosaur” from THRAK.  It’s followed by a final 45 second “From The Drummers’ Stools III” and then concluding with a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes.”  This version is from 2000 and I find it kind of weak, especially compared to the powerhouse versions they would unleash later.

Overall there’s some cool stuff on this box, but I feel like there’s a bunch of stuff that’s not quite my Crimson taste.

[READ: January 12, 2018] The Nix

The Nix received some pretty positive reviews and I was quite interested to read it–even though I had no idea what it was really about.  It’s not until nearly page 100 that we find out what the title even means.

The Nix (in the story, not the novel itself) is a ghost story from Norway.  The protagonists’s mother heard about The Nix from her Norwegian father.  The Nix was a horse.  It encouraged you to ride it.  When you did, it never stopped running until it ran off a cliff with you on it.  In modern terms, The Nix is a person–usually someone you think you love. Someone who will leave you.

Summarizing the book is either really easy or something of a challenge depending on how many aspects you want to include.

The book more or less follows one man–starting with his failing writing career and then flashing back to how he got where he is.  That sounds pretty dull, but the book is set on the backdrop of contemporary America–from the rebellions of hippie parents to the rebellions of the 99%ers.

There’s also these wonderful subplots that prop up the main story.

The book begins in Summer 1988.  Samuel’s mother kisses him good night and is then never seen again. The next morning his father asks if there used to be more pictures on the wall.  And then they notice that all of her things are gone–she had been slowly removing her things and then simply left–with no forwarding information.

The book quickly jumps to 2011 and The Packer Attacker.  A woman was sitting in a park in Chicago having lunch.  She was surprised by a motorcade that came through the park.  At the head of the motorcade was Governor Packer, a right wing bully.  Overcome with rage at the turn of the country, the woman grabbed a handful of gravel and threw some in the direction of the Governor.  One of the small pieces hit him and suddenly the whole thing escalated to where she was now known as The Packer Attacker.

Samuel, now an adult, is a professor at a small college.  When we first meet Samuel at school, he is dealing with a student who has plagiarized a paper.  She is indignant that she is being held to standards.  It is a wonderful indictment of colleges, entitlement and duplicity.  My favorite part of this section is when the student teacher conference is framed around logical fallacies with headings like Petitio Principii or The Circular Argument; Appeal to Pity;  False Analogy and how each of these arguments is then demonstrated by the student, Laura.  It’s terrific

Samuel also plays World of Elfscape.  He is Dodger the Eleven Thief and he has been spending more time than he’d like to admit in the world (he is a level 90 elf).  And my god he hopes the school never finds out that he is playing on campus on a school computer.  He has a guild that he often fights with.  The leader of the guild is a guy name Pwnage.  More on him later.

Samuel was playing video games when The Packer Attacker made the news and had no idea this was going on.  So when a lawyer called him up to say that his mother was the Packer Attacker, he was confused for a number of reasons.

Pwnage is a middle-aged divorced man. He is really really into World of Elfcraft.  He has several computers dedicated to the game and many different characters and guilds. He is very highly ranked with a ton of goods.  As his character slowly unfolds we see just how desperately he needs the Elfcraft world because his real world is the pits.  He can’t seem to get started on a new life regime.  His wife has left him.  He does almost nothing but play this video game and he is dangerously unhealthy.  He also never speaks to anyone in real life.  So the scene where he goes to a health food store to get proper food to start a new diet ends with him almost getting kicked out of the store because he is so insecure.

Samuel owes his job to a promising career as a writer. He wrote a story, he was selected as a promising young writer, offered a contract to write a book and scored a job based on this. But he has had writer’s block since and has produced nothing.  He gets gentle and then not so gentle nudges from his Agent, Periwinkle.  Periwinkle is a hilarious character who has moved up through the ranks of publishing and is now in the “business of entertainment.”  He is making a ton of money of the new pop star Molly Miller and her hilarious song/videos [chorus: You have got to represent].  She is writing a tell all book called Mistakes I’ve Made So Far.  Isn’t she like 16?  Officially 17, but really she’s 25.”

Whats the book about?

You want it blase enough that it wont hurt her image, but it can’t be boring because she has to come off as glamorous.  You want it smart enough that people won’t say its bubble gum pop sold to 12 year olds, but not too smart because 12-year olds are, of course, the principal audience. And obviously all celebrity memoirs need one big confession…I am strongly in favor of an innocently small episode of lesbianism.

By this time, Periwinkle is basically telling Samuel point-blank–if he doesn’t produce a book immediately, Samuel will have to pay back all of the advanced money (which he has already spent).

While they are talking, Periwinkle mentions the Packer Attacker and how there is a story there.  Samuel–who has no love for his deserter mother–says that he can write a scathing book about her.  Periwinkle says that if he can do that he won’t owe them the other book–and he may make some money too.

Part Two flashes back to summer 1988.  Samuel’s mother has left him and Samuel is puzzled and lost. He wanders the neighborhood and meets a boy who is hanging around in the woods.  This boy, Bishop, is a loose cannon.  He is presently catching and killing small animals in the woods–and smearing the blood on himself.  He was immediately taken with Samuel and informed him that they would need to toughen Samuel up.  Bishop has aspirations to be a five-star general in the Army and, as such, he plays a lot of video game.

Bishop was recently kicked out of private school (his revenge on the headmaster is genius and deadly) and was going to be in school with Samuel. There’s a tremendous scene where Bishop is sent to the principal (who is not afraid to use corporal punishment).  Everyone who goes to the principal comes back in tears.  But not Bishop. He came back more cocky than before and he earned everyone’s respect.  Bishop also went headlong after a bully and humiliated him in the most brutal way around.  You feel great that the bully gets it, but did it go too far?

Bishop becomes a crucial friend to Samuel–especially since the departure of Samuel’s mother has left his father pretty useless as well.  He winds up spending a lot of time at Bishop’s house (in a gated community–they are quite wealthy).  But more important than that is that Bishop has a sister, Bethany, and Samuel is smitten at once.  Bethany plays the violin and is, at least to Samuel, a stunning beauty.

Jump to 2011.

Samuel has driven to Chicago to meet his mother for the first time in two decades.  He discovers that she had a past before she had him.  He believed that she lived in her home town all her life, married his father and that was that.  But it turns out that she has a story as well.  And her story is Good!

Faye was really smart in school.  So smart that she dreamed of going to college, of getting away from the life that was expected of her in Iowa in 1968.  She dreams of going to the Chicago Circle school.  But its right in the middle of the Chicago protests and riots.  There is no way her parents will let her go to that school.  Faye was a good kid, and the less-than-good kids didn’t like her much.  One of the not-so-good girls sets up a trap for her that she falls into.  A Trap so devious, so appalling, that her parents would rather her go to Chicago than see her any more.

After returning home, Samuel and Pwnage meet in real life (at a sad former strip club that still looks like a strip club).  Pwnage plans to use his online connections to help Samuel with this whole Packer Attacker story line.  His help is misdirected and a bit nuts, but he offers some very interesting advice.  He says that every person you encounter is either an enemy an obstacle a puzzle or a trap.  He also uses his connections to discover the identity of a woman in the one photo of Samuel’s mother that he has.  This woman, Alice, has led a fascinating life.  When Samuel talks to her, and she hears of the man who is prosecuting Faye, she freaks out, because she has a story to tell.

Back in 1968 when Faye was at school, she met Alice, a counter cultural feminist.  Alice ran in a powerful counter cultural circles.  She and her feminist friends met at a counter cultural newspaper run by a guy named Sebastian.  Sebastian has more charisma than brains and often tried to get in trouble with the police.  He felt that the more attention brought to an event the more excitement it brought to the event.  And so he tempted the police to arrest him all the time–and yet somehow he always came out unscathed.

Sebastian became a little infatuated with Faye.  But Alice was very protective of this young woman from the middle of nowhere.  She decided to look after Faye.  Alice’s own nightly adventures were also pretty spectacular.  Those night will impact events for Alice in really unexpected ways.  The section ends with the Chicago riots at the Democratic national convention–a ground’s eye view of events which is exciting and terrifying.

And Alice’s parents are watching every moment on TV.

Back to Samuel’s story.

Events cause Bishop and his family (and his sister) to move.  Bethany has moved on and seems to forget about him, but he has never forgotten about her (they shared a very special moment back in the day).  Bishop also seems to forget, but that’s because he was wrapped up in the military.  Many years later, Samuel has an opportunity to reconnect with Bethany–written as a choose your own adventure.  And we learn what has been going on with her and her brother.

There are so many excellent threads in this story–each one is as compelling as the next.  And the way that Hill ties them all together is wonderful.  Including a trip to Norway, spying policemen, incredibly surprising revelations and sex and drugs and people crashing through a plate glass window.

I enjoyed this book quite a lot.