I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: GAELYNN LEA-“I Wait” Tiny Desk Family Hour (March 12, 2019).

These next few shows were recorded at NPR’s SXSW Showcase.

The SXSW Music Festival is pleased to announce the first-ever Tiny Desk Family Hour showcase, an evening of music by artists who have played NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert, at Central Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, March 12 from 8-11pm.

If you’re going to put together the first-ever Tiny Desk Family Hour — an epic night of Tiny Desk-style concerts, held at the wonderful Central Presbyterian Church in Austin during SXSW Tuesday night — you might as well kick things off with a core member of the Tiny Desk Family. Gaelynn Lea won 2016’s second annual Tiny Desk Contest with the barest of ingredients: a few swooping violin strokes, a loop pedal and her fragile-but-forceful voice.

At the Tiny Desk Family Hour, Lea performed in that same spare configuration. She closed with a powerful song called “I Wait,” which addresses the way people with disabilities — Lea herself has brittle bone disease, and works as a motivational speaker and teacher as well as a musician — are frequently left out of social justice movements. It’s Lea at her best, as her warm, intense, hauntingly beautiful voice is shot through with a clear sense of purpose.

This song is wonderful.  The looping is simple but effective–the notes are menacing and effective, while the unlooped pizzicato notes add just the right amount of rhythm to this otherwise sparse song.  For this song is all about the lyrics.  Lea details what it’s like to be handicapped–not in the world at large, but within protest movements which supposedly have her best intentions at heart.

So when you hear them
Make claims of progress
Take a good look
And see who isn’t there
We need a seat now
At the table
So please invite us
Or don’t pretend to care.

When Lea brought “I’ll Wait” to an abrupt close, the audience’s soft collective gasp gave way to the night’s first standing ovation.

It’s a stunning ending.

[READ: February 12, 2019] The Creepy Case Files of Margo Maloo #2

I really enjoyed the first book in this series and I’m happy to see the follow-up.

It opens with a recap from Charles Thompson, a future reporter (who uses a tiny reporter’s pad to write down his thoughts).  He talks about how he met Margo Maloo, the “Monster Mediator” and how with her help, he was able to locate and deal with a troll in his house.  And by “deal with” he means befriend.  For although Margo is a mediator between monsters and humans, she is mostly interested in the safety of the monsters.

Thompson has dozens of readers, he thinks, and maybe this is why Margo wants his help.

She will not be getting any help from Charles’ friend Kevin, who wants nothing to do with any monsters (unless they come in toy-form, like the Battle Beanz).

As the book opens, Margo invited Charles over.  This means he needs to take the subway (a first for him).  Kevin shows him how to us the subway (but won’t go with him).  Margo’s house is dark and creepy and there’s an old guy (Margo’s Uncle Vikram) who welcomes Charles in.

Margo has a new, easy case and she’d like Charles to come along to take some notes.  The monster in question is an Imp.  This Imp is not where it belongs.  It’s a baby, but is causing mischief.  It turns out the imp’s family used to live in an attic, but when the family moved, the baby was trapped in a chest and moved into the new place with them.  It really wants to get back to its family, but when Margo and Charles return to the old house, it has been demolished.  Word is that the imps family is safe, it’s just a matter of finding them and reuniting the family.

Later, when Charles gets back home he tells Kevin about his work and they think that maybe they should form an organization–Secret Monster Organization for Kids Everywhere (SMOKE).  It’s while they’re talking that Charles introduces Kevin to Marcus, his Troll friend (who has an awesome Battle Beanz collection).

Margo has invites Charles out to the mall because there’s some activity there.  Turns out, some teenagers think there are monsters there so they keep sneaking in and looking into more and more rooms and corners.  There are monsters there–vampires–but Margo wants them to stay hidden.

The vampires are teenagers.  Turns out they are vegan and only drink coconut water (it has virtually the same electrolyte balance as blood and is a great source of potassium).  Although not drinking blood prevents them from growing up so they will remain teenagers forever (so they don’t do the horrible things their parents did). They vampires have a band (and they’re pretty funny).  It turns out the human teenagers also have a band (called Creepy Pasta) and they want to record their video in the abandoned mall.

When they’re gone, the vampires come out and rave about the band–“they GET it you know?” “I though the bassist was amazing.”

As the book reaches its end, they still haven’t found a home for the imp and Margo gets a creepy message on her machine–creepier than usual.  This one isn’t asking for help, it’s telling her to back away from the monsters.

Good thing there’s a sequel.

The end pages include some case files about various monsters (with updated notes from Margo)

We learn about the Blob, Imps, Lizard People and Vampires (Margo has lots of updates on them).

I still don’t love Weing’s drawing style, though.  It really never resonated with me, and at times I found it off-putting.  Which is a shame since the story is so fun.