I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: APANHADOR SÓ-“Prédio” (Field Recordings, May 13, 2015).

Apanhador Só  is from Brazil.  At the beginning of the video you see the guys in the band gathering…junk.   Childen’s toys boxes of refuse and homemade instruments.

The video starts and the singer explains that Prédio means building.  He says the song is about a different vision of life, a different perspective.  As it pans back we see that the only conventional instruments are a floor tom and a guitar.  And all kinds of weird other things.

In this video, shot during SXSW in Austin (2015), its members coax rhythms and beats from a trunkload of found items, including a children’s bicycle and other playthings. The resulting performance of “Prédio” is the stuff of hip-swaying joy.

The song starts with one of them tapping a bicycle bell.  Soon he starts keeping time by spinning the wheel and clacking the spokes.  Then he switches to a jug of some kind that changes the sound as he uncovers the opening.

There’s even a kazoo solo.

Near the end of the song, there’s wonderful breakdown where you can see then hitting and kicking everything at their feet-all kinds of junk that makes a cool cacophony.  The song is really catchy and lovely, although I admit I was more focused on what they were playing more than what they were playing.  (The items rather than the melody).

[READ: January 4, 2017] “Invasion of the Martians”

This was the funniest , most enjoyable thing I’ve ever read by Robert Coover.  Probably because it is so base and straightforward, it transcended some of his usual stylistic things.

A Senator from Texas is in bed with two women–the Secretary of the Interior (whom he calls the Secretary of the Posterior) and his intern–when he gets the news that Martians have landed in his home state.

He greets them warmly with Southern hospitality, but they don’t seem to speak any civilized languages.  They also don’t have any papers.  As the Senator was explaining this to them, they shot him.

He staggered back but was otherwise unharmed.  And then he plans retaliation.

When he gets back to his room, the intern is still there.  She prepares to resume their activities, but when she pulls down his pants, all that is left there is what she describes as ” pimple.”  Clearly the Martians did something to him after all.

And now he’s really mad and he wants to nuke the bastards.

Scientists say that of course we can’t fire nukes in our own country.  One scientist even suggests that the Martians might just multiply if they are divided.  The Senator will not hear anything like that sort of namby pamby talk.

But then even worse news happens for the Senator–the intern went to the media to talk about his pimple.  Now he has to take care of that firestorm as well.  But the only way anyone will believe him is if he shows his manhood to the press.

He went to his doctor to see if anything could be done, but the doctor said that he’d never seen anything like it and no, it wouldn’t grow back.

The way that Coover has the Senator prove himself is hilarious.  The final two paragraphs are laugh-out-loud funny.  With the final line being utterly hilarious.

If you only read one story by Robert Coover, it should be this one.

For ease of searching, I include: Apanhador So, Predio.