I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: JEN CLOHER-Live at Newport Folk Festival (July 29, 2018).

Even though it was half a year ago, NPR is still posting some shows from the Newport Folk Festival Festival.  This one is kind of hard to find, since it’s not with the other Newport Folk Festival shows, so here’s the link.

Jen Cloher is a great Australian singer-songwriter/punk.  I have seen her live twice. Once opening for Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile and once on her own.  She is dynamic and brash, funny and clever and a great frontwoman.

When she opened for Kurt & Courtney, she was a solo artist, but when I saw her headline, she had a full band (the same line-up as Newport).  And her set rocked.

The setlist she played for Newport was a truncated version of the full set list she played for us.  But she also played two different songs.  The first was “David Bowie Eyes” and “Toothless Tiger.”

She opened both sets with “Regional Echo” and “Forgot Myself” (oh god, oh god, oh god).  The album is really good, but her lives show packs more punch.  Her band is great: Jen’s wife, Courtney Barnett, on electric guitar and Bones Sloane from Courtney’s band on bass plus the amazing kick ass drummer Jen Sholakis.

The “new song” is actually an old song, “David Bowie Eyes” which she says is “for anyone who likes Patti Smith..”  It’s a sweet poppy number with (of course) interesting lyrics:

She got David Bowie eyes
One is green and one is blue
I’m sure one of his is brown
But what can I do?
Come on say you’ll be
Mapplethorpe to my Patti
Just kids living on a shoestring dream

It’s followed by “Sensory Memory” one of my favorite songs of hers.  The melody is wonderful and the lyrics are so bittersweet.  After “Shoegazers” which has some great noisy soloing from Courtney, comes “Toothless Tiger” the other “new” song (which is also old, both of those songs are from her 2013 record).  It’s more on the snarky side, with some backing vocals from Courtney.

I love “Analysis Paralysis” for the lyrics (of course)–kangaroos in the pool–but also for Courtney’s wailing guitar solo.

When we saw Kurt & Courtney, they played Jen’s “Fear is Like a Forest” and it was fun to hear it live.  When I saw Jen, like in this version, it was a very different, rocking song and Courtney takes a verse or two.  The set ends with Cloher’s awesome anthem “Strong Woman,” a great song for these times and for all times.

Cloher may get over shadowed by her famous bandmate, but she is an amazing songwriter/performer herself with all kinds of charisma.

SET LIST:

• “Regional Echo”
• “Forgot Myself”
• “David Bowie Eyes” *
• “Sensory Memory”
• “Shoegazers”
• “Toothless Tiger” *
• “Analysis Paralysis”
• “Fear Is Like A Forest”
• “Strong Woman”

*not played at my show–the songs below were played at my show.

1. Mount Beauty**
2. Stone Age Brain **
3. Great Australian Bite**
4. Name in Lights**

[READ: January 19, 2019] The League of Lasers

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Star Scouts (it had been almost two years since I read it).

It helps to have read book 1 to get the full understanding of this story, but this one stands on its own pretty well, too.

The book opens with a one-eyed creature in a cloak firing a blast at earth.  A blast directed at Avani Patel (the hero f book 1).  Avani and her Star Scouts (all aliens except for Avani’s friend Jen) are rocking out in their terrible rock band.  After the song, we see that Mabel the alien is still sniping with earthling Jen (Mabel made friends with Avani and was shocked to learn that Avani had friends back home).  The explosion hits earth, but it’s not a missile, it is a messenger.

The messenger is for Avani.  The handwritten (on lined school paper) note invites her to join the The League of Lasers–a special squadron of the Star Scouts.  How can she say no?

But how will she tell her father?  Well, that problem is actually more for Jen because as soon as Avani says yes, she is transported to the League of Lasers just as Avani’s dad has gotten home.  Avani’s dad doesn’t even know that Avani is in Star Scouts (he thinks she is in Flower Scouts), in fact, he doesn’t even know about Star Scouts–he doesn’t think there are aliens.  Until he goes into Avani’s room and meets some (who are trying bt failing to hide).

Meanwhile, the League of Lasers are off on their test mission. They are to survive in a wild world for a week with nothing but League of Lasers Multitool (which is digital and allows you to create virtually anything in hard lasers–like axes, spaceships, even giant robot exoskeletons.

Avani’s ship is piloted by Ollov, a know-it-all, but actually not knowing much robot which pretty quickly crashes both Jen and…. Pam. Pam is Avani’s arch nemesis–a methane-breathing alien who made her life at Star Scout camp a living hell.

Avani’s dad is surprisingly cool about the whole thing (although Avani is totally grounded when she gets back) and he insists that he go to space and help find his daughter–he even gets his old scout uniform on.

Avani finds herself on an alien planet (although now she is the alien).  She uses her scouts skills to make a lean-to and settles in for the night amid rumbles and other noises.  Lawrence clearly had a ton of fun creating all of the creepy slimy aliens.  After catching some food in a trap, the next thing Avani catches is Pam.  And Pam is not happy about any of this.  They realize that the have to work together in order to survive and an alliance is formed.  The alliance is hilarious at first when Pam takes off her helmet–she can breathe the methane air–and her hair is totally gorgeous (we hadn’t seen that before).

While on the planet, Pam saves Avani and then Avani saves them both.  They realize that they really need to work together to get off of this abandoned planet.

Meanwhile back at Star Scout HQ, the team is setting off to find Avani.  Jen and Mabel are put on a team, which is awkward.  And Avani’s dad is not sure what is going on either, but spirits and confidence are high.

While Pam is creating a signalling device, Avani comes to a realization–the planet is inhabited!  Unfortunately, Pam’s signalling device has taught her the same thing.  And that’s when it really hits home that they are the aliens here–and what would earthlings do if they found aliens?  This gets the two of them fleeing through the woods.

It’s only when the two of them try to steal some vegetables for dinner that they are found. Luckily for them they are found by a young boy who loves outer space as much as they do.  By modifying their communicator they can all understand each other and the boy, whose name is Frank, talks about how much he loves science fiction and outer space.  The problem for him is that their nebula gas has never allowed him to see any stars.

They have a great night watching sci-fi and eating snacks until the morning when the police catch them.  Well not exactly catch–they flee on a great colorful cow.

The Star Scout rescue squad is having a rough time–they are stung by a space jellyfish and now nothing works–they are adrift.  The downtime does allow for Mabel and Jen to have a moment (which is nice) but they’re not getting any closer to Avani.  Until her dad gives them an old earth tradition–when your vehicle breaks down, you get out and push.

Frank tells Avani and Jen about BASA–the planet’s space organization and when the pair realize that there is a space ship on the planet, they have a plan of escape.  But how can two prisoners get a spaceship that is heavily guarded?  And how much trouble is Frank going to be in when the leaders realize that he helped them escape?

I loved this story.  The dramatic ending was both exciting and sweet.  I hope that Lawrence has more Star Scouts planned

The end of the book shows a brief explanation of how Lawrence creates his books from start to finish.  It’s interesting and informative.