I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: DEODATO-Prelude (1973).

I know this artist because of Phish.  For years I thought that they “wrote” the discoey, funky. super cool version of “Also Sprach Zarathustra” which they play at a lot of shows.

I should have realized that the “Deodato” in the credits was the actual arranger of this cool piece, but I guess I never really thought about it.  I’ve no idea where the realization came to me, but once it did I decided  to check out the album from which it comes.

It turns out that Deodato is Eumir Deodato de Almeida (Brazilian Portuguese: [ẽʊ̃ˈmiχ djoˈdatu]; born June 22, 1942) is a Brazilian pianist, composer, arranger, and record producer, primarily in jazz but who has been known for his eclectic melding of genres, such as pop, rock, disco, rhythm and blues, classical, Latin and bossa nova.  Prelude was his first album released in the U.S. (released when he was 31) and eighth overall.  In addition to making over 30 albums, he has also been a producer and arranger on everything from Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration” to Bjork’s albums Post, Telegram, and Homogenic

“Also Sprach Zarathustra” begins with twinkling and guitar noises for 30 seconds before the 5-note funky keyboard comes in.  And then about a minute in the horns join to create the familiar Richard Strauss “Also Sprach Zarathustra” crescendo.  Even though that melody is barely a minute long, this version is 9 minutes long with a lengthy funky keyboard solo occasionally punctuated by horns.  It then switches to a more rocking sound with a 70s sounding guitar solo.  It really never loses the funk for the entirety of the piece.

“Spirit Of Summer” is a slow moody song that sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a noir film with slinky horn lines and jazzy bass.  I love the opening and how it then switches to an almost easy listening string section before adding a mellow keyboard solo and a surprising very fast flamenco guitar solo as well.   The song is only four minutes and ends with a flute solo and then a return to the opening horns.

“Carly & Carole” is an easy, mildly funky jazzy number.  There’s lead flute combined with the keys that push the song along.

“Baubles, Bangles, & Beads” is a jaunty five-minute romp that sounds like it would have been very popular at swinging parties in the 1970s.  There’s more flute and keys and two lengthy wild Santana-like guitar solos that run through to the end of the song.

“Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun” opens with a mournful flute that sounds a lot like the weird Snoopy interludes when he is the World War I Flying Ace in the old Peanuts cartoons.  The melody is quite nice and is then repeated by several instruments throughout the piece.   After 2 minutes it tuns into a swinging jazzy number with a flute solo and wah wah guitars and a bright trumpet solo.  I see now that this piece was done by Debussy and this is another arrangement.  It is not used in Peanuts although Schulz does reference the song in a strip.

“September 13” ends the disc with an upbeat funky song with groovy bass and keys and wah wah guitars.  There’s a wild mildly distorted guitar solo with fun effects put on it.  It’s a fun way to end an album that is short but really captures a moment in time.

[READ: September 3, 2019] Herbert’s Wormhole Book 2

I accidentally read Book 3 before Book 2.  I am embarrassed that that happened because I am a librarian and I should know better, but I checked on Goodreads and must have read a paperback reprint pub date and though that book 3 was in fact book 2.

Having read book three I basically knew a lot of what happened in book 2.  But primarily this is because in book 3 they make offhanded comments to things they did in book 2.  Incidentally, while I was reading book 3 I thought it was a really fun, bold move on the author’s part to reference adventurers that we hadn’t read about.  That should have dawned on me but I just persisted in believing that the author was being really daring. Oh well.

Knowing what happened didn’t really spoil anything, because the book is silly and funny anyhow.

This book opens with a paneled cartoon recap of book 1.

It’s followed by a hilarious opening sequence in which Alex’s dad has become hooked on video games.  He was trying to bond with Alex over Alex’s love of video games.  But in book 1, Alex’s memory of video games is wiped out.  So now his father is playing them and Alex doesn’t really see the point.  But Alex’s father is now as addicted as Alex was.

Meanwhile Alex’s mom is concerned about Alex (again).  She is thrilled that he is no longer playing video games, but she thinks it’s weird that he and his friends wear silver suits and hang around on the jungle gym so much.  And they keep talking about aliens.  It doesn’t seem…normal.  So she decides to sign him up for a sleepover camp in the Merwinsville public park.

When Alex gets to the jungle gym, Sammi and Hebert are already there.  Sammi is saying to Herbert that it must be weird to hang out with your 111 year-old self, but Herbert assures her that his 111 year old self is just as much of a genius as he is so everything is excellent there.  Sammi says she never wants to meet her 111 year-old self.  Alex says of course he wants to meet his, because his would be a ton of fun.  And they both wonder why they haven’t yet.  Perhaps they’re dead already?

Soon enough, the kids are back through the wormhole into Merwinsville future,where everyone is happy to see them.  As the great AlienSlayers, they even have a headquarters at the tippity-top of City Hall.  There they have a super computer (for Herbert) which is, for some reason, very sarcastic, and it has a built in smoothie bar (for everyone).  The one thing that’s askew here is Alex.

Alex believes that when they slayed the aliens in book one it was all real and not a simulation.  Herbert and Sammi know the truth but don’t want to tell him because it makes Alex so happy to think he is a hero.  But this also makes Alex a insufferable as he keeps wanting to slay new aliens.   When Alex (again) asks if there an any impending alien attacks,  Sarcasmatron informs them  “Oh yeah…tons of em…The odds are a tetraquadzillion-to-one, so do the math.”

The only exciting thing that’s happening in Merwinsville right now is that the Mayor (who loves the AlienSlayers) is about to break ground on the new Flee-a-seum.  It’s going up in honor of Flee Day, the day when the Klapthorians attacked their planet and all the G’Daliens fled their home.  For it was this fleeing that led the G’Daliens to Earth and their eternal bond with humans.  Of course, Sammi thinks the idea of celebrating the day you fled your home is absurd but there’s no talking the mayor out of anything.

The only person not excited about the AlienSlayes is GOR-DON.  He is still angry about what they did to him and his beloved museum and he is also mad because he knows the AlienSlayers are fakes (he found the video game box after the AlienSlayers “destroyed” the aliens).  But no one will believe him.  Especially now that he lost his job and is living in the basement of the museum next to the Trash Disintegration Unit.  GOR-DON hatches a plot that is…unusual.  He decides to dress as a reporter GOR-DONNA and “interview” the Slayers’ friend, Chicago.  Chicago is very excited at the prospect of being on TV and he loves showing off about how well he knows the AlienSlayers so of course he agrees to meet her.  What kind of secrets will Chicago reveal?

The one interesting twist on the whole time travel aspect of the story is that Old Man Herbert didn’t live the same timeline as our heroes did.  “The instant you went through the wormhole, you split off from my reality and created a completely different parallel event path.”  In Old Man Herbert’s timeline, Sammi went to a swim meet, Alex was embarrassed to be seen in his N.E.D. suit and took it off–so there was no wormhole.  They just grew up as three people who knew each other.

Old Man Herbert did know Old Man Alex though.  Alex was, like he was in the first book, terrified of the aliens.  Well, the guy who would become Old Man Alex was still afraid of the aliens (because he never had the memory of video games erased) and he spent his whole life saying that the aliens were bad (much like GOR-DON is doing now).  But Alex kept telling everyone who would listen that the aliens were monsters until he had the nickname “Fraidy-Cat Filby.”  Eventually he moved to the dark side of the moon and no one has seen him since.

During all of this, Alex just grows more and more angry.  He’s angry at his friends for not taking the AlienSlayer thing seriously.  So, he decides to go solo.  So he grabs his old Mexican wresting mask and puts underwear over his N.E.D. suit to become El Solo Libre!  His first mission is to find his Old Man self.   And maybe to kick some more alien butt,

When GOR-DONNA hears of this solo activity, she sets out to trick Alex into doing something really dumb.  GOR-DONNA contacts the Klapthorians and allows Alex to show off his inflated ego.  The Klapthorians (a very efficient race) hilariously schedule Earth’s destruction into their calendar and set a date.

We can see where this climactic scene is heading–Alex, who is not an alien slayer has just brought wicked aliens to the earth.  How will he fight them alone?  And will the other two AlienSlayers ever reveal the truth…or help him?  And how will he find his 111 year old self on the dark side of the moon?

I loved the way they dealt with the Klapthroians (shades of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy when they arrive on Earth) and that the end of the book sets up so many things for book 3.

Oh and the cartoons by Rohitash Rao are once again, hilarious.  I especially love that an entire chapter is taken up with a cartoon of them travelling through the wormhole–and their expressions differ each time.