I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SUNNY WAR-Tiny Desk Concert #910 (November 13, 2019).

Sunny War says twice that she’s not going to talk.  She saves all of her words for her songs.

Her voice is soft and gentle, but her words are strong.

The first song “If It Wasn’t Broken” features the chorus “how would you know you had a heart if it wasn’t broken?”

Further lyrics in this slow and simple song:

so you lost your baby
so you lost your job
so you lost all faith
in the one you call god.

Dang.

These are words from a young woman who has been homeless, busked on city streets and Venice Beach, left home feeling she was a burden to her distraught mother, had her life complicated by drugs, and yet still found a way to pick up a guitar and bring joy to others.

Her songs aren’t complicated, but they feature some really excellent fingerpicking.  “Got No Ride” has a lot of beautiful interludes (including one part where she is fingerpicking and bending a string at the same time).

Sunny War began learning guitar from her uncle at around the age of seven. One of the early songs she learned was The Beatles’ “Blackbird,” an almost prophetic tune with the line, “Take these broken wings and learn to fly.” But it was the fingerpicking that was the attraction for Sunny War. She loved playing guitar that way as opposed to strumming and, as you watch this Tiny Desk, you’ll see what a fluid and remarkable guitar player she’s become.

The song also features some extra bass lines from Aroyn Davis (The first song didn’t really have noticeable bass).

“Love Became Pain” is a lot faster, with some really impressive guitar work.  Clearly from the title, though, this isn’t a happy song either.  I like the shuffle drums that Paul Allen gets using brushes on the cajón.

The final song, “Shell” opens with the lines:

“Before you rip your girl to shreds / Be sure you really want her dead.”

With such a pretty melody, too!

Much like her name, Sunny War’s music is a wonder of contradictions.

[READ: February 2, 2020] Rust: Volume 4

This book concludes the Rust saga.

Like the first book, there are a ton of pages with no dialogue.  This story is wonderfully told with just visuals.  And Lepp’s visuals are really amazing–what he accomplishes with such  limited color palette is really impressive.

The book starts with a flashback to the war 48 years ago.  It’s been awhile since I read the first book but I feel like this intro pages are exactly the same.  We see Jet Jones rescue a man by creating a large shield.  I’m not sure if there;s some more significance.  I’m also not sure if we’re supposed to know who the man is.

But the story quickly jumps back to the Taylor’s farm.  The really menacing robots are closing in.  Oz has a shotgun in ready.  And the engineer is carrying Jet Jones’ limp body away with him.

The robots arrive (why does it amuse me that they open the door) and Oz shoots, which awakens the family.

A terrible battle commences in the house with all of the people getting hurt, but with all of them doing a good job of harming the robots.  Jet comes in at the last second and smashes up some of the robots.  In the process reveals his mechanical arm.  The family is shocked, except for Oz.  Roman is furious that Jet lied.

But My Aicot says he can’t lie–he’s just a machine.  Then he tells the rumor of a rogue bot.  Jet says it’s not true, but before that can go on the engineer shows up and says its time to go.

They ask why he created Jet and he says they needed hope.  The war had gone on too long and everyone missed their family..they’d forgotten what they were fighting for.  She created a reminder.

Jet says he needs to stay to help the farm, but Roman and Jesse refuse to speak to him.

As Jet and the engineer walk away, they notice a massive robot stomping toward the Taylor’s house.  Jet starts to fly back, but he and the engineer are trapped by soldiers sent to destroy them both.

The giant robot makes it to the Taylor farm and more fighting, with far more destruction, occurs.  I love when Amy stands up to him.  Ava and Amy are my favorite characters for sure.

Then something happens that I’m a little unclear about.  Another robot comes and fights the first one?  And then it rains?  And I think I know why the fight ends, but I’m not entirely sure.

There’s an epilogue that shows Roman typing his last letter to his dad.  He says they all have to leave the farm because everything has been destroyed.  They’re all heading to the city.

The ending is vague with the possibility of future stories (although I don’t think there are going to be any more) or at least an interesting life path for Oz.

This story didn’t do what I was expecting it to, and that’s fine.  I loved the small, intimate nature of the characters and the setting.  And I loved the drawing style.

I wish there was a lot more information though–about the war, about the people who died in it and about the robots.  So this proved to be a small slice of a much bigger story that will never be told.