I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BASIA BULAT-Live at Massey Hall (July 10, 2014).

Baia Bulat is an adorable singer.  She plays autoharp and ukulele and seems incredibly upbeat.  She also has a soaring, delightful voice.

About Massey Hall she says, “It’s not a stadium or a club, it feels huge and intimate ta the same time.”

She opens with “Run” in which she plays the autoharp (and you can actually hear it amid the other instruments).

Next up is a new song “Five, Four” with Basia on guitar with a cool almost sinister bass line.

For “Wires,” she stays on guitar.  This song is almost aggressively upbeat and is much more upbeat.  It also has a fun middle section in which she sings an Ooooh melody  (like a solo) into a microphone with a distortion that makes it sound a bit like a kazoo. Its super catchy.  She even takes that microphone and walks around, ultimately hopping of the stage and sitting in the front row (and the guy next to her of course pulls out his phone) to continue with the oohs.

“Tall Tall Shadow” is a slow moodier song with a great big chorus. They leave the stage and come back (I’m surprised they left in the whole encore scene).

When they comeback she says, “We’re on a curfew so we’re going to try to not get in trouble.”  For an encore it’s her and two other women.  One is playing a small 8-string ukulele as they sing “Before I Knew.”

When it’s over she asks, Am I allowed to sneak one more in?  Try not to get kicked out of Massey Hall!  She gets out the ukulele and plays that wonderful melody of “It Can’t Be You.”  Then she walks away from the mic and sings her heart out.  You can’t always hear her that clearly, but you can hear her hitting the soaring notes.

It’s funny that she worries about curfew and then sings a rather long song.

But it’s a great collection of songs and a beautiful set.

[READ: March 15, 2018] Beautiful Music for Ugly Children

I really enjoyed Kristin Cronn-Mills’ book Ugly Fake which was kind of novel/graphic novel hybrid.  This is one of her earlier stories and it is all novel.  It is about music and teen angst and high school.

And it’s about a girl named Elizabeth who is in fact a boy and wants to be known as Gabe.  He has recently revealed this to his parents and his best friend, Paige.  Paige has been nothing but supportive.  His parents are a little more mixed about it.  And of course he hasn’t told anyone at school.  But since he dresses gender-neutral he has always been made fun of a school–where they know that he is Elizabeth.  He is somewhat surprised that the boys make fun of him more than the girls–calling him he-she-it.  Undoubtedly they are threatened by his looks.

But he is a senior, and school is almost over.  He can certainly cope until it’s time to move away to the city.

In the mean time, he has a DJ gig that is the best thing ever.

Gabe’s neighbor John is an old timey DJ.  He apparently was the first DJ to ever play Elvis on the radio.  He has been Gabe’s mentor and neighbor for years.  Gabe loves music as much as John does.  And John has arranged for Gabe to do a one hour shift at KZUK.  Gabe has decided to call the show Beautiful Music for Ugly Children.  The first night isn’t perfect, but he’s a natural on thee air.

Gabe hasn’t told John yet about his transition but Paige tells him that John is the easiest person to tell.  So finally Gabe reveals his secret.  And John is totally cool.  He has seen it all, and it doesn’t change how he feels about Gabe.   It will take him a while to get used to calling him Gabe rather than Liz, but he is totally nonjudgmental.

By the third week of Gabe’s show, he is developing quite the fanbase.

Each chapter is titled in the same style: John Burrows [Gabe’s neighbor] is the new Elvis because he played Elvis first.”  “Paige Bennett is the new Elvis even though she could give a rat’s ass.”

As Gabe’s fan base grows, the followers (the ugly children) start doing things in his honor.  Small things, but things nonetheless. He’s pretty excited to see the reaction. There’s even a girl who calls up for a request and she is clearly flirting with him. Gabe likes women, so he’s pretty excited that a woman is talking to him.  But he is obviously freaked out to show himself in public–he doesn’t have the right equipment after all.

The first displays of loyalty refer to Gabe’s discussion of a person’s A side and B side.  This is Gabe’s way of saying that his A side is Elizabeth but his B side, the secret side, is Gabe.  Later that night, they see graffiti Mitch’s A side = Mitch.  Mitch’s B side= Stan!

Then Gabe discovers that there’s a contest a The Vibe 89.1.  The prize is an opportunity for a daily night show at he top 40 pop station in the Twin Cities.  Gabe and John are going to work on the magical playlist for this show for several months .

Things seem to be going surprisingly well for Gabe given the circumstances.

Paige is still awesome (although she has a boyfriend whom Gabe dislikes).  Gabe has also been fantasizing about Paige a lot–she;s really pretty, they’ve been friends for years and they trust each other completely. But he has no idea if she feels that way about him–he assumes she can’t. But he’s not willing to break that chance.

However, when Mara, a girl from school who doesn’t really know Liz asks him out he decides to take a chance.  When she realizes that he is actually that girl from school she freaks out.  And soon enough she lets everyone in the Ugly Children Brigade know that Gabe doesn’t have “a turntable.”

And soon all of Gabe’s happiness goes down the crapper.

He loses some fans from the show (although he does gain new ones) but worse is that some of those fans start to threaten him.  Perhaps the most perplexing thing for Gabe is that one of the hottest girls in school now suddenly seems even more into him.  Clearly she must have heard the news about Gabe.

The positive thing is that Paige broke up with her boyfriend and has been spending a lot more time with Gabe.  And she seems to be a lot closer to him than ever before–or is that his imagination?

Gabe has so many t hings going on right ow the last thing he needs is for two jerks in Halloween masks to show up and threaten to beat him (and Paige) up.  When John gets hurt in the confrontation, Gabe’s priorities shift pretty dramatically.

This story that was full of fun talk about music gets serious pretty quickly. It addresses transgender issues in a meaningful and realistic way.  When the consequences of people’s actions grow more serious (so serious that John’s estranged daughter comes to check up on him), this story gets very intense.

The one thing I have to alert readers to is that if you are pacing yourself, the book ends about ten pages earlier than it seems it would.  That’s because the end features a note from the author on transgender issues. It’s a really great essay that talks about all aspects of gender fluidity.  It’s interesting to see what has changed and what hasn’t in the six years since this was written.

This was a great story and I’m really glad I read it.

Plus, aside from the Elvis love, Gabe’s taste is pretty great.