I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SEVYN STREETER-“It Won’t Stop” (Field Recordings, August 6, 2014).

The blurb for this song totally cracks me up (especially 4 years removed) because not only did this song not seep into my collective consciousness, I’ve never heard of it. Nor have I heard of Sevyn Streeter.

Although it is funny that just last week my wife and I were utterly mocking people who name their child a number–what else did George Costanza tell them to do? And how misspelling it like this is even worse.

Anyhow, here’s the blurb:

In the spring of 2013, songwriter and R&B singer Sevyn Streeter released a song called “It Won’t Stop,” which she’s called her “baby.” Over the year and change that’s followed, the song has sunk into our collective consciousness through commercial radio play and a music video viewed more than 35 million times, and on the recommendation of a growing group of critics and fans. The lyrics are vernacular, warm, unpretentious, while the performance demanded by the music is not for the meek. Away from a studio — and air conditioning — in a New Orleans boxing gym, Streeter executed with muscle and grace.

Having mocked the blurb, the song itself is pretty.  I’ve no idea what the original sounds like, but this version is done with just two acoustic guitars–one of whom seems to be playing some bass melodies from time to time.  Streeter sings and warbles all over the song and does those R&B quivering notes that I hate, but she does have a nice voice.

But damn is this song long.  Why is a pop song five minutes long?

It’s neat that they filmed this Field Recording [Sevyn Streeter Knocks Us Out] in a boxing gym–how on earth were they able to eliminate all of the ambient noise?  It almost seems like it’s not live.

[READ: February 8, 2018] “Microstories”

This is a collection of flash fiction pieces which may or may not be connected.

Rain
Never ending rain seemed to be the truth until the day he was born.  While everyone was delighted for him that he never had to experience it, he lived with regret that he would never have the chance.

Divorce
He is dressing for his grown up daughter  What a strange thing to have to do–how infrequently he sees her, how should he look.  No idea what happened at the end of it though?  An earthquake?

Thirteen
His son was born on the 13ths.  Unlucky.  He is now in jail.

AT&T
The same robot voice is used in all prisons.  Each time he calls he wonders if he is paying extra for that 40 second introduction. He calls so often he had a conversation with it

Fat Liver
Hurrah, no more foie gras. But honesty aren’t there more important things to worry about

War Stories
Can friends be distinguished by what they wear?

Home From College
She counts her mother’s missing fingers–two more gone to the disease.  But when she counts her mothers, she has only one.  No matter how much you take away , she is always one whole.

Giblets
This was a disturbing story on a few levels.  The first is that she says her dog has four legs, like the number of days in the week–her religious upbringing was so strict and harsh that she has excised the weekend entirely from her life.  When she hears that some people pray on Tuesday as well…

Automatic
As a man gets older, a son wants to help him, but every assistance just takes some of his father’s power away from him.

Message
A T-shirt has inspired him to write America went way too far looking for slaves.  Plenty niggers in the mirror for sale.

Northstar
Like with automatic, this story shows some one regret at another’s concession.  This time about anal sex.  She found it quite un-sexy but when they final did it he wondered if she would ever forgive him or he her.

Party
Aunt May is celebrating her 83rd birthday.  She is in a wheelchair and will soon die from a clip left inside of her at the surgeons.  But for now, she he has all the energy in the world.

Paris Morning
Birds do as they wish

Haiku
I found this story to be strangely one-sided.  It says that Richard Wright moved to France and chose to write entirely in haiku.  He says it is a man giving up on his life and choosing to write in a structured form that was not his own.

Writing
You won’t learn to write any better.  This is one of those irritating pieces where Wideman excises words from his sentence to make a point, I assume.

Where is the man. Where gone.  What on his mind.  … A story is never until after the writing.

Passing On
Life changes in an instant–what sense it did make is gone.

Trouble
He has car trouble.  He is directed to one place then another.  He feels like he’s speaking a second language.  He wants someone to fix the problem.

Breath
Sometimes you feel so close its like we’re cheek to cheek sucking the breath of life from the same hole.