SOUNDTRACK: GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS-Live at Massey Hall (July 8, 2014).
I don’t know all that much about the Great Lake Swimmers. I have heard of them (for years), but never actually heard them, I guess.
They are a five piece who play thoughtful folk songs. Their tempo is varied with some upbeat songs and a few slower ones.
The lead singer is Tony Dekker and when he is joined by violinist Miranda Mulholland on vocals their harmonies are quite lovely.
“Think That You Might Be Wrong” is a slower song with a kind of sad violin and great harmonies.
“Put There By the Land” has a kind of fun build up with everybody “warming up” making strange sounds especially the guitar and drums, before the song kicks in properly. The addition of the pizzicato violin really elevates the song. I love the way in ended kind of noisily with some thundering drums as it segues into “Pulling on a Line.”
“Your Rocky Spine” opens with a banjo (Erik Arnesen) and changes the tone of the music–Dekker’s voice seems a bit higher too.
“Everything is Moving So Fast” opens with a cool mini drum solo (Joshua Van Tassel)–not a show off solo just a cool rhythmic exploration that leads to the quiet thoughtful lyrics. There’s some wonderful harmony vocals from Miranda at the end as well as a little upright bass solo (Bret Higgins).
They brought in a string quartet to play with them, although I can’t tell if it make much of a difference since they already have a violin.
They end with “I am Part of a Large Family” which opens with another “warming up intro” which is fun. It’s builds to a wild and fun climax with a ripping violin solo. An excellent show ender.
These guys should certainly be in heavier rotation on folk shows.
[READ: March 20, 2018] Evil Librarian
Sarah was reading the sequel to this book (Revenge of the Evil Librarian) and I thought it sounded pretty funny. So she encouraged me to read the first one.
I really enjoyed the combination of teen romance and demonic villianry. There’s an obvious antecedent in Buffy, but this goes in very different directions.
I also enjoyed the way the story was paced. The book felt very long–which I know is a contradiction–and could have been a lot shorter. But I think the stuff that fleshed it out was what made it so much fun, so I’m glad it wasn’t shorter
It opens on our heroine Cynthia. She is crushing hard on Ryan. Ryan is like TV sitcom architect/kindergarten teacher–jobs that people have that work well in sitcoms but that no one really has in real life). He is a jock who loves musical theater. He hangs out with all of his jock friends. But he has an amazing voice and is the lead in the school’s upcoming production of Sweeney Todd.
And he’s single!
All of these things led me to think that he might be a demon himself. But the story isn’t doing hat (thankfully). The story is more focused on the real, obvious demons. I especially enjoyed the way the beginning was paced. While Cynthia is thinking about Ryan her best friend Annie comes in and is super excited about the new librarian. He is young and hot and adorable and he has this amazing charisma.
Cynthia meets him and gets a crazy physical reaction from him. He seems puzzled by her reaction although no one else notices anything. So we know something is up and she knows something is up, but I like that the book doesn’t tell us explicitly whats up for quite some time.
The title of the book is not a ruse. He is evil. And he is able to easily seduce anyone with just the touch of his hand–that was the spark that Cynthia felt. Soon enough half of the school seemed to be zombified. She even sees Cynthia touch their Italian teacher’s hand and he seems to go int o a trance himself–is Annie doing his bidding too?
It’s only when Ryan’s friend Jorge gets really zombieish that she is willing to see if Ryan can see what’s going on. Of course he doesn’t believe her. It’s a crazy idea. But when she runs off to the library, he follows her (does he like her too?) And when they open the door, well, lets just say all her suspicions are confirmed.
A delightful trope throughout the book is that Cynthia really wants to kiss Ryan. Her nerve endings are constantly telling her to get closer and closer to him. But she is waiting to see if he will make the first move. And there are so many opportunities, why won’t he make a move?
So Cynthia, with Ryan’s help sets out to stop the librarian and to save Annie (and the rest of the school , ultimately). But Annie has been totally possessed by the librarian and when Cynthia tries to save her, she tells Cynthia that she is sick of being a good girl, being perfect, never skipping school, getting As–she hates what the future holds in store for her. This demon, (for Annie knows what he is), offers her a future that she never imagined for herself and which she is totally excited about. This was such a wonderful interjection because even though yes, Cynthia knows Annie is possessed, what if deep down this is what she really wants? Should she really try to take that from her best friend? Especially when she meets a guy whose only wish is to be taken into the demon realm the way Annie is.
Cynthia’s attempts to take down the librarian have an unintended effect–she winds up distracting him which allows other demons to sneak into the portal. So instead of just one demon there are now some 30 demons. Good grief.
Well, through some supernatural assistance, she learns that there’s a big demon show-down coming up and maybe she can use that to her advantage somehow.
But, in a hilarious conceit–the demons all want to see Sweeney Todd–it’s their favorite musical–and Ryan is rumored to be amazing. Cynthia is in charge of the stage crew. So at least Ryan and Cynthia have some time since.
The juxtaposition of comedy and serious threats (people do die) was wonderful. And the love of musical theater was really enjoyable too–their performance of Sweeney Todd sounds quite memorable.
I rather enjoyed the way the story ended–in such a way that I can’t imagine how the sequel will be spawned from it. But I’m looking forward to reading it
I Just Read About That... 
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