SOUNDTRACK: &More (Chill Moody & Donn T)-Tiny Desk Concert #835 (March 25, 2019).
&More is a fun, warm, sweet band. And when the Concert opened, they totally rocked. The guitarist had a great distraction-filled sound and the opening riff was terrific–rocking and heavy. Then singer Donn T begin singing and all of the rock left and the song became a gentle R&B song.
That song was “My Own Light.” I found it odd that Chill Moody started rapping midway through, making this a rock, R&B and rap. And indeed, “&More’s music is often about the experience of being black in America, blending hip-hop and R&B with a motivational message and a Philadelphia flair.”
&More is Philadelphia Rapper Chill Moody and singer Donn T, along with their crew.
After the first song he asks hows she’s doing and he tells a story saying big challenges are for people with big destinies. We are all sorely challenged and we need to keep that in mind to improve our future.
She asks how he is, He says it is his birthday. Bob then brought out a concealed strawberry shortcake (his favorite) for his 34th birthday. Its strawberry shortcake. He says, “that’s my favorite jawn right there.” He continues,
Some of you may have a beer. I handed them out I bought them I can guilt you into drinking on my birthday.
His toast: May all things be nice things.
The second song is “Future Come Around’ features Donn T. singing in a deep voice in between fast impressive rapping from Chill. Ty Lemar adds some nice backing vocals. There’s some subtle drumming (Marlon Lewis)
I first discovered &More while sifting through hundreds of Tiny Desk Contest video entries last year. Their standout video was for a song called “WHOA,” which is also the third song they played during their visit to the Tiny Desk. It’s a song that expresses exasperation at current events, when words just can’t be found, and when all one can say is, “whoa!” But despite the intensity of the subject matter, much of what &More, Donn T and Chill Moody play stays positive. You can hear it in the refrain of the song: “The hate you give, won’t stop and let you think; the love you save keeps you on the brink.” The positivity is infectious.
Chill starts the song, “This jawn right here is called, ‘WHOA.'” The guitar (Jake Morelli) is great with some funky bass (Norwood Long III) as well. Dan Rouse: keys
My favorite part was that keyboardist Dan Rouse is wearing a Wawa-inspired logo that says “Jawn.”
Learn about Jawn at Atlas Obscura
It is an all-purpose noun, a stand-in for inanimate objects, abstract concepts, events, places, individual people, and groups of people. It is a completely acceptable statement in Philadelphia to ask someone to “remember to bring that jawn to the jawn.”
I was more taken with jawn than the music, but it is a fun Tiny Desk.
[READ: April 2017] An Unkindness of Magicians
I picked up this book pretty much explicitly because of the title. I have always enjoyed collective nouns, and I love when people come up with new ones. An “unkindness” just seems like a perfect collective noun, especially for a bunch of magicians.
Howard creates an amazing world, one that adjacent to our own. It’s set in New York City, but there is an underworld called The Shadows where magic resides. That magic lives in our world as well. The Magicians are secretive, of course. They walk among us and there are penalties if you reveal magic to the mundane world. But they have bars and social events and, like nearly any secret society, there are Houses.
The Houses are ruled by (most often) a patriarch. Some Houses are very powerful, others less so. But every generation or so, there is a Turning, when the wheels of Magic rotate and someone else may have a chance to rule the Magical world.
Each Turning is usually every generation. But this year a turning has been called unexpectedly early and there has been a lot going on in the magical world recently.
The current leader of the magical realm is House Merlin, run by Miles Merlin. And yet, after a family fight, Miles’ son Ian has been banned from House Merlin. And for this upcoming Turning, Ian has offered his services to House Prospero.
This means that Ian’s sister will be magicking for House Merlin. Ian and his sister get along very well, but they are concerned about their father, who seems to be losing both his magic and possibly his facilities.
As the book opens, a woman named Sydney walks into the center of a busy Manhattan intersection. She is unseen by anyone. After a moment, all of the cars in the intersection leave the ground, continuing as if nothing was weird. None of the drivers notice. The cars lower seamlessly and she walks away. Then she receives a text: the job is yours. It was from House Laurent, an untested an somewhat lackluster house–the perfect way to stay unnoticed at the start.
Miranda Prospero had also recently kicked her son out of the House. Grey Propsero was consoling himself with his friend Laurent. This feud started because Grey liked pushing the boundaries of magic–in ways that left Miranda uncomfortable. This time he had gone too far. But we won’t know why for many many pages.
Meanwhile Harper Douglas was out for revenge. A magician had killed one of her friends–seemingly randomly thought. Indeed, the murder didn’t even seem magically related–but she knew it was. She knew a little bit of magic but not enough to help her cause. She is able to secure a job at a legal firm which represents some magical clients (magicians need lawyers too, probably more so than mundanes). The firm is in panic mode because of the Turning and Harper is willing to anything to get closer to the information she needs.
The final connection is between Madison and Sydney. They are friends and Madison works at the law firm where Harper just got hired.
It’s fascinating how much the machinations of these magicians is dependent upon the law–and how much these two connections impact the book.
I really enjoyed the way that Sydney reveals why she is so involved in this contest. Both in the way that magicians secure their magic and in the surprising twist at the end of the book.
The excitement of the book is from the battles in the Turning, because the further along the contests go, the higher the stakes. Early contests are showy and kind of funny. But later ones get more serious.
The problem with the book is that the final, more serious contests don’t really have the pay off for the buildup. The contests end rather quickly without a lot of magic on display. Of course, no one really wants to read twenty pages of people contorting their faces and hurling spells, so this under-reporting is fine.
Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. It was a fast and fun read with a different exploration of magical capabilities.
I Just Read About That... 
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