I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: RADIOHEAD PUBLIC LIBRARY (2020).

Today, Radiohead changed their website to the Radiohead Public Library.  About which they state:

Radiohead.com has always been a) infuriatingly uninformative and b) surprising. The most surprising thing to do next, therefore, is to suddenly become incredibly informative. So that is what we have done. We present: the RADIOHEAD PUBLIC LIBRARY, an online resource containing videos, music, artwork, websites, merchandise, and assorted ephemera.

As a librarian, I love that this is what they are calling the site, and I love the idea that they will single handedly get the word library into many many search engines.

So what is it?

Well, really it’s kind of a tumbler page, meaning it is weird and chaotic and hard to find things (very much unlike a library).  But there is a vaguely chronological format (color coded).

But like at a library, you can find links to work that has been historically tough to find online.

You can also register for a library card.  The card is a downloadable image file where you can attach a photo of yourself (and then laminate it, of course).  I was kind of bummed that my number was so high (I’m in the 102,000 range), but I didn’t look at the site until late in the day. And actually I’m pretty thrilled that at least 100,000 people had visited the site before me.  Unless these numbers are randomized, of course.

The library contains he band’s albums, B-sides, non-LP tracks, behind-the-scenes photos, TV appearances, promotional performances, webcasts, full-length concerts (2006 and 2012 Bonnaroo) , a store with newly reissued T-shirts and lots of Stanley Donwood’s artwork.

I suppose most Radiohead die hard fans have all of this stuff already, but it sounds like they have updated the quality of a lot of the works.  Plus, it’s fun having it all in one place.

Also, Colin Greenwood, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, Philip Selway, and Thom Yorke will each serve as a “librarian” for a day.

Get your library card now!

[READ: January 14, 2020] “Visitor”

The narrator explains that a visitor showed up in his doorstep about a month after his father’s funeral. He had flown in from Kingston, Jamaica.  He told the narrator that he was the narrator’s father’s lover.

The narrator said no way but agreed to let the man in.

The visitor was Asian (lots of Chinese in Jamaica, he said).  His boots were too big, his pants were too tight.  The visitor began to tell him things about his father that checked out.  He hated reggae, couldn’t cook and didn’t have a favoirte color.  Eventually he said “your father and I were just kids.  Lasted five years, on and off.”

The visitor said that the narrator looked just like his father–“but you’re chubbier.”  “Hey!”

The narrator’s father was born in Jamaica. He’d his wife in Toronto then moved to Houston where the narrator lived now.

The narrator asked him if they stayed in contact over the years, but the visitor asked him how they would have done that.

It also turned out that the visitor didn’t want anything.  Except maybe a place to stay and some food while he was in town.

The visitor was insanely trusting.  When the narrator asked, What if I’d told you to fuck off?, the visitor replied,

“You didn’t.”
“At least not yet.”
“You won’t. Everything worked out.”

The narrator himself was gay, although he couldn’t even begin to imagine his father in a gay relationship.  He had a fuck buddy, Joel, whom he told everything.  Joel was sympathetic about the visitor. The next day at work he told Funke.  Funke proves to be a pretty funny voice of reason.  She asked if he believed the visitor. The narrator said he didn’t know, but he couldn’t ask his family about it, now could he?

He and the visitor have lengthy, mostly one-sided conversations.  The visitor admits that he wasn’t there when his father left Jamaica–it was too hard, he didn’t want to know.

The visitor said some things that seemed profound or poetic at least

“All Jamaicans are poets,” my visitor said.
“That’s bullshit,” I said.
“It’s poetry,” my visitor said.

The visitor was delighted to hear that the narrator as gay and had a boyfriend.  He said he didn’t know if things with Joel would work out because things were complicated.  “Nothing’s that complicated,” the visitor said.

There’s an interesting ending where the narrator talks about visiting his father a few months before he died.  There were some questions he had but he wasn’t in the habit of asking his father questions.  Now he never can.