I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: MOUNTAIN MAN-“You and I” (from WILCOvered, UNCUT Magazine November 2019).

The November 2019 issue of UNCUT magazine had a cover story about Wilco.  It included a 17 track CD of bands covering Wilco (called WILcovered or WILCOvered).  I really enjoyed this collection and knew most of the artists on it already, so I’m going through the songs one at a time.

Mountain Man is a trio of three women with beautiful voices.  They often sing a capella or with one guitar accompaniment.  There music is quiet, designed for you to lean in to hear better.

The original song is a gentle folk song (with some gently rocking moments).  Mountain Man make it even more gentle.  The original has a vocal harmony from Feist.  Having a two harmony voices makes this version even more special.

Alexandra Sauser-Moning plays guitar (and maybe sings lead?) while Amelia Meath and Molly Sarle sing gorgeous harmonies.

As with everything Mountain Man does, it’s delicate and lovely.

[READ: February 11, 2020] The Time Museum: Vol. 2

Volume 2 opens up with very little explanation about what happened before.  In fact, it jumps right in the middle of a chase.  A purple creature with four tentacles is running away from Delia in an amusement park.  The purple creature is a kid and he doesn’t know why he’s being chased.  Delia communicates through her wrist watch that the kid has the Icono de Prestigo.

The rest of the beginning of the book has Delia’s Epoch Team chasing this (very fast) kid as he flees with the Icono.  The kid finally settles in the middle of an exhibit for Monstro the Terrible.  They freak out and don’t want to see the kid hurt, but he says his dad works there and the exhibit has been empty for years.  Which proves to be false as immediately Monstro (who looks a lot like the monsters in Stranger Things) awakens and swallows the kid.

Through some brave and disgusting techniques the kid and the icono are rescued.

After all of that, the kid hands over the icono and says its probably all melted anyway.  What?  Then they see him walk by with another one–the icono is actually a container for an ice cream sundae.  The Team was hundreds of years too late to save the actual relic.  When they return they are given a reprimand.

Titus asks why its so important to maintain the timeline–things throughout history have been destroyed because of bad decisions.  The answer is the standard time travel answer: if we intervene, where do we stop?  All of history must never belong to one way of thinking despite how noble we believe our intentions to be.

Later Delia asks Titus to meet her after dark.  She wants to show him something.  He is imagining a romantic moment, but she wants to show him a portrait that has been hidden by a curtain. It shows that Uncle Lyndon and the evil Gray Earl were co-founders of the museum.  Titus is shocked and angry.  Angry that Delia didn’t tell him sooner and angry at Uncle Lyndon for lying about the museum.  After a verbal battle Delia says she trusts Uncle Lyndon and he should to.

The next day Titus is outside training everyone–he wants to see Delia and the rest of the team get in better shape after all the running they did in the amusement park.  Delia is ready to go and then over comes Tara who throws herself at Titus.  I didn’t really expect there to be romantic subplots in this series.

Delia tells the girls that she regrets the run.  The other two girls say “You know what we did–slept and ate pancakes.”  When Delia reveals she’s jealous of Tara and Titus, Michiko asks why she didn’t just ask him out. Delia says she’s team leader and it would be weird.  Michiko says there’s probably no rules about that.  Then Delia turns the tables on her and as asks her about Dex.  Michiko says she tried but Rex wasn’t responsive.  The girls offer her sympathy.

Later Delia meets Pauline, a girl from London in the 3000s. Shes plying a guitar and is definitely very cool.  She even has a band and invites Delia to come check them out.

As part of the Epoch team’s punishment they are going to have a new squad leader.  And it is President Nixon.  What?  Why on earth did Loux choose Nixon? I am so puzzled by this choice.  Do kids know enough to find this significant or funny?  Do kids even know who Nixon was?  Is he making fun of Nixon?  There’s no real mockery.  Trying to revitalize his image?  It’s a really weird and very distracting choice.   Even more so since because of Loux’s really unusual drawing style, Nixon doesn’t really look anything like Nixon.  Very weird.

Nixon’s training involves a lot of studying and very specific physical techniques like they’ve never had before.   Some of it is fun and cool and some is just puzzling.

It’s also puzzling that Titus is jealous that Delia has been hanging out so much with her punk guitarist friend–who is showing her how to play guitar.  He claims hat he’s mad that she’s hanging out with someone not from their squad, but that’s hard to believe.  I mean, I get that he’s jealous, but why of Pauline?  It does seem like she’s interested in Delia as well, but how would he know that?   Finally, it takes Dex to point out that everyone thinks he’s interested in Tara, maybe that’s why Delia doesn’t hang out with him.  When Titus asks why he didn’t go out with Michiko, they get into an argument and challenge each other to a battle for honor.  The battle is on these floating platforms where they attack each other with foam mallets (like in American Gladiators).  They actually wind up having fun and then everyone goes swimming.

But soon enough Nixon is back with their very important mission.  They are going to Versailles in 1778 because someone is messing with the time line.  It is important because that’s when France recognized the United States as a sovereign nation and pledged to help in the war of Independence.  If things go wrong America could lose the war and not exist at all.

They travel back in time to Versailles in period costume which is pretty fun–especially as they deal with 18th century manners.

While they are at the ball, Delia sees The Gray Earl and he offers for her to join him on his team.  He mocks her for being demoted to assisting Richard Nixon, saying she is much better than that.  He offers her some tantalizing secrets (like how he and Lyndon founded the time museum) if she agrees.  Delia says no way.

When she reconnects with the team, they follow the trail and get caught in a time loop, which is always fun in a time travel story.  Moments later they meet themselves from a few hours later but one of them is not there.

Loux has a lot of fun with the time paradox.  The kids enjoy hanging with themselves (the future kids are in spandex, the present kids are in period costume).  The best part is that Greer and herself are just full of compliments to each other “Greer you look absolutely ravishing in that gown.”  Thank you, Greer, and you’re looking fit in that spandex lass.”  Greer is definitely my favorite character (and that hair!).

Then the Gray Earl runs into Titus and offers him the same deal as Delia.  But he gives Titus a key to unlock a perpetually locked door in the museum.  Behind that door are all the answers to why the Gray Earl does what he does.  (And it is quite shocking).

The end of the story get very surreal with the kids meeting a giant mechanical creature known as The Supreme Leader.  They’re not sure how to fight him, but then Michiko’s gym teacher shows up (!).  He is also a giant mechanical-seeming creature of course (like a Godzilla movie).

When Delia and the team reunite with Titus, there is an emotional climax that is sure to make Titus think twice.

However, as the team escapes we see the Gray Earl telling The Supreme Leader that everything is going to plan.

The end of the book shows two big moments.  When Pauline sees Delia and Titus holding hands she is crushed.  And what Titus sees something behind the locked door–which I can’t even comprehend at this point.

I didn’t love this book as much as the first one. I found a lot of decisions in the storytelling to be weird.  The whole opening sequence was so long for it to not have any real resolution, and the whole Nixon thing was just bizarre.  However, the ending was really good and very exciting.  I am curious to see what Loux has planned next.