SOUNDTRACK: BEDOUINE-Tiny Desk Concert #737 (April 30, 2018).
Bedouine has a lovely clear voice. She’s a genuine folk throwback treasure, without being retro. Her songs are remarkably simple and yet they are rich and almost enchanting. There is something about the way she sings that makes you want to listen, to lean in and hear what she has to say.
Her guitar playing is also very pretty. Again, a reasonably simple finger-picking style. but it is simultaneously precise and warm.
I saw her live recently and she held an entire club rapt despite being an opening act for two much louder bands. So who is Bedouine?
Azniv Korkejian is Bedouine, a singer and acoustic guitarist who echoes sounds from the 1960’s North American folk songwriters, but with vocal inflections that feel closer to Leonard Cohen than to Joni Mitchell or Joan Baez. This is as spare as music can be – songs stripped to their essence and just gorgeous.
Azniv Korkejian was born in Aleppo Syria. Her parents were Armenian and she spent her childhood in Saudi Arabia. But a green card lottery win found her family moving to Boston and Houston. Eventually she made her way to Los Angeles with important time spent in Austin, Texas and Savannah, Ga. The name she chose, Bedouine, reflects the traveler, the wanderer in her.
She plays three songs, just her and her guitar. The songs don’t diverge that much from each other. She even jokes that the second song is a different song than the first one, she promises.
“One of These Days” is a pretty song that seems so optimistic because you can feel the smile in her voice as she sings. But as with much of what she plays, there is a kind of melancholy to it.
“Solitary Daughter” opens with the same chord (and picking) but soon shifts textures. I love her delivery on this song in which she lets her voice drop a register and adds a kind of Laura Marling spoken word style to part of it.
The middle third is just stunning
I don’t need the walls
to bury my grave
I don’t need your company
to feel saved
I don’t need the sunlight
My curtains don’t draw
I don’t need objects
to keep or to pawn
I don’t want your pity
Concern or your scorn
I’m calm by my lonesome
I feel right at home
And when the wind blows
I get to dancing
My fun is the rhythm of air
When it’s prancing
“Nice and Quiet” is an intimate love song, but one tinged with sadness. It has such a charming and sweet melody, which really sums up her music pretty well.
[READ: March 5, 2018] The Prince and the Dressmaker
Jen Wang is back with an outstanding book. I absolutely love her drawing style. The look of her dressmaker, Frances, is just adorable. I love her clothes, I especially love her face, which is cartoony but not caricature-y. The prince’s nose is huge but not overtly comical and adds a distinctive element to the story.
But what makes this book stand out even more than the art is the story.
The Prince is holding a ball. When the scene pans back we see horse-drawn carriages. In other words, the time is sort of nebulously olde. The women are dressed fancy, with petticoats. There is much stress around town because all the young women wish to go to the ball.
A woman storms into a couture shop with a mud-covered dress. Her daughter decided to play in the dress and it is ruined. Can then makes something for her in time? Frances is available and the owner gives her the job.
Frances talks to the young lady. She hates dressing up, hates going to balls and asks to “look like the devil’s wench.” Frances winds up staying up late and when Lady Sophia Rohan appears at the ball she is delighted to be dressed all in black with fur sleeves, a see-through skirt and high stockings. The room is full of gasps.
Back at the shop, the dress is called an abomination of taste and distinction. The owner is furious. Frances says she was giving the client what she wanted but the owner informs her that the client is the woman who pays (her mother) not the girl. He is just about to fire her when a mysterious man comes in looking for the creator of that dress.
The man tells Frances that he represents a client who would like to hire her for three franc a week as a personal seamstress. She is thrilled.
She is brought to a beautiful home where the client has mock ups of dresses and designs to show off to Frances. While she is looking at he designs and talking to the client about style, an accident reveals that the client is actually the prince–he would like her to make dresses for him. But he is mortified–he says that his parents would disown him and his life would be over. She is calm through the whole thing asking what difference does it make, this is my dream job.
We find out that his servant also knows and he says it is none of his business.
And thus, this book is a look at a transgender prince. And it is marvelous.
Frances makes some amazing dresses and Sebastian loves them. He loves them so much that he wants to go out in public as Lady Crystallia. That first night in that gorgeous dress Crystallia wins a popularity contest.
The next day, Frances is amazed at how brave and powerful Lady Crystallia was compared to the shy Sebastian. He says “It’s weird, I don’t feel like Prince Sebastian could lead a nation into battle, but Lady Crystallia could.”
Despite his delight, his parents are none the wiser. And they are desperately trying to set him up with eligible ladies. He starts leading a double life–going out on “dates” in the day and going out as Lady Crystallia at night.
Every design that Frances comes up with is instantly ripped off in the city.
He takes Frances to the country where he meets the designer Madame Aurelia. She loves Lady Crystallia’s clothes, and Lady Crysatllia tells Aurelia that Frances loves her. Frances is invited to a designer show.
Back at home, Sebastian meets more suitors and publicly tells them that he can’t marry them. This stresses out his father, the King, so much that he has a heart attack (but doesn’t die). This make Sebastian think hard about his life. He realizes that he can’t risk his secret. People love the designs and they all want to meet Lady Crystallia’s seamstress. But if people start to associate Frances with Prince Sebastian, they are going to put two and two together. He says they can no longer work together.
She is devastated because of how much she cares for Sebastian. And now of course, she is out of work. She runs into a friend of Sebastian’s, a young man whose father owns the store Trippleys. He offers her work and life with Trippley’s is great. Except that her dresses are no longer couture, they are commercial. They are safe. They are boring. She is ready for her showcase, but she doesn’t love what she’s made.
But the show must go on, right. If only Sebastian were around to inspire her.
Meanwhile, things have been going downhill for the Prince. He is soon to be wedded. He goes out for one last night as Lady Crystallia. He gets really drunk and his secret is revealed.
Obviously his life is over. So he flees.
The ending of this book is absolutely fabulous. And I love the sentiment that is expressed about royalty: in a world where departments stores exist, where do kings and princes even fit in anymore?
When is this book set? I’m not exactly sure. I love how modern it is for what feels like an old story.
This book is another great one from First Second #10yearsof01
Leave a Reply