I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BEN GIBBARD-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #5 (April 4, 2020)

I feel like Ben Gibbard released the first new quarantine song.

On March 26 he released “Life in Quarantine,” and it’s the first song he plays in this Home Concert: “Hello, this is Ben Gibbard, welcome to Tiny Desk, Seattle style.”

Some of the other Home Tiny Desk Concerts were uplifting and lighthearted, but Ben’s mood is pretty down.  He lives in Seattle where things were very bad first.

And with that, the heavy-hearted Death Cab for Cutie frontman performs his newly written song from America’s first coronavirus hotspot, Seattle. The song is called “Life in Quarantine,” and it’s not only portrait of his city’s current state; it’s a gift to that city. Ben is donating money from streaming and purchases to Aurora Commons, a self-described “welcoming space for our unhoused neighbors.”

It’s a pretty song, but very sad (as you might imagine).  And Ben is not planning to cheer us up for the rest of the show.

And as if there weren’t enough sadness, Ben performs an homage to songwriter and musician Adam Schlesinger of the band Fountains of Wayne, who passed away on April 1 from complications due to COVID-19. Ben was a long admirer of Adam’s music and sings us one of his favorite Fountains of Wayne songs, as well as a song Ben wrote for The Monkees’ Good Times album, a record that Adam produced.

“Me & Magdalena” (The Monkees song) is slow.  It’s similar to The Monkees’ version, although Ben’s delivery makes the song sound even sadder.

He talks about Fountains of Wayne and how he and Chris Walla took a road trip San Francisco and listened to the debut FoW record the whole way down and back.  His favorite song was “She’s Got a Problem.”  Even though I think of FoW as being poppy and cheerful, this song, in keeping with the mood, is not.

I really like Death Cab for Cutie and Ben Gibbard, but this is one show I won’t be listening to again, it’s just too much of a downer.

[READ: April 10, 2020] Black Canary: Ignite

I believe S. brought this home because Meg Cabot wrote it.  I haven’t read any of Cabot’s books, but S. is a fan. This is Cabot’s first graphic novel (it somehow seems odd that it’s a DC book).  I don;t know if Black Canary is a familiar character (I’ve not heard of her, but then I’m not much of  DC fan).

This book is part of DC’s Zoom imprint which means its written for younger kids (which also means I’ll like it more than standard DC fare).

Dinah is the daughter of Detective Lance.  She is thirteen and is in a band.  She wants to try out for the Gotham City Junior Police Academy (during Career Week).  Both of these things make her father angry.  She believes its because she’s a girl, but he says that Gotham is just not a safe place to live. [So why not move?].

The Joker has escaped [again].  One thing I dislike about DC is that it seems that everything is about The joker and Arkham Asylum, must have no security at all.Her friends Kat and Vee are in the band with her.  They are also cheerleaders, and suggest that Dinah try out for cheerleading instead of the Junior Academy.  Dinah wants to help people–cheerleaders help by making people smile, you know.

As the first chapter ends, a hooded figure asks from the shadows if Dinah Lance really wants adventure, then she’ll give it to her.  This figure also throws something at a black bird in a tree.

The next day at school, as they sign up for the battle of the bands, one of the boys says they should call themselves the freaks because that’s what they are.  When Dinah screams at him, he falls into a garbage can and the glass cabinet with the school trophies shatters.

Principal Vogel comes running out and instantly blames Dinah.  She has it in for this girl for sure.  The Principal believes that somehow Dinah was also responsible for her broken coffee mug and other unexplained happenings around school. When she calls Detective Lance in, to talk about Dinah, she hands him a pamphlet: Does Your Child Have A Superpower?  But he tears it in half and storms out.

That night, Dinah is working at her mom’s flower shop when the caped woman enters.  She causes a fire in the store.

Dinah’s mom comes clean–she has the power to emit supersonic sounds from her mouth.  It seems that Dinah has inherited this.  Her mom was once Black Canary (and still has the outfit).  That’s how she met Detective Lance.  The caped woman is Bonfire, a woman that Black Canary helped to put away.

Tensions mount in various ways–especially as Dinah tries to shield her friends from her secret identity–always the hardest part about being a superhero.  Her friends even kick her out of the band!

Will the band get back together?  Will Dinah wear her mom’s mask?  Will she use the same alias as her mother?  And will there be more of these books?

I know the answer to some of these questions, but not the last one.  I don’t know that I’d read another one if there was.

The illustrations from Cara McGee are fun though–soft and interesting–not as dark and brooding as most DC comics tend to be.