SOUNDTRACK: LAURA MARLING-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #10 (April 16, 2010).
I have become a huge fan of Laura Marling over the last few years. I was so looking forward to her solo performance this past March. It was one of my bigger coronavirus disappointments that the intimate show is not going to be rescheduled.
Marling has been doing regular guitar lessons about her own songs (her tunings and playing style is unique and wonderful to see demonstrated). You can see the past (and future) ones here.
(While many artists have postponed the release of their new music in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, Laura Marling rushed to change the release date of her album from late summer to April.
As of right now her album is only available digitally. The physical release is slated for summer.
On this Tiny Desk (home) concert, we find her in her living room, with an intimate performance of songs from her just-released record Song For Our Daughter. The album is an homage to a future generation of women and to Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter, a collection of essays addressed to a fictional daughter. The warm, home setting makes room for Laura Marling’s extraordinary voice to shine.
“Held Down” has a lot of backing vocals and arrangements on the record and this stripped down version sounds amazing without it all.
“Strange Girl” demonstrates her deeper singing style in a fast and bouncy song.
“Song For Our Daughter” is a slower song, beautiful and thoughtful.
I just cannot get over how beautiful her voice is. These personal performances almost make up for not seeing her live.
[READ: April 20, 2020] Mac B. Kid Spy: The Impossible Crime
This is the second book in a new series illustrated by Mike Lowery. It begins
My name is Mac Barnett. I am an author. But before I was an author, I was a kid. And when I was a kid, I was a spy. An author’s job is to make up stories. But the story you are about to read is true.
This actually happened to me.
It’s 1989 and Mac is at the mini golf course. But he is there not for the mini golf but for the video games. He is playing Spy Master 2–the arcade update to the home game. Mac was just about to beat the big boss–something no one else had ever done before. People were cheering him on. Except for Derek Lafoy (who did not invite Mac to his birthday party in the previous book). Derek called him Mac Barn Head and chanted “Choke!”
But this book isn’t about video games, its about the Queen of England who called Mac at the golf course to tell him that she thought the Crown Jewels were going to be stolen again. (In the previous book Mac helped rescue the Crown jewels for the Queen).
Mac worries about his favorite jeans which he had to trade away in the previous book. He asks:
Nobody is going to steal my pants are they?
The Queen began coughing horribly “I beg your pardon?” she said.
“The first time I went on one of these missions, somebody stole my best pair of blue jeans.”
“Ah your trousers. In Britain ‘pants’ means underwear.”
This misunderstanding /joke turns up a bunch and is always funny. As is Mac’s reaction whenever the Queen tells him something he disagrees with like when the Queen says
And isn’t a good story the greatest treasure of all?
“Hmmm,” I said.
Mac flies to England and meets the Queen (and her 11 corgis). He is very hungry (he didn’t eat at the golf course) but when the Queen brings in delicious-looking food [steak and whatnot] it all goes to the corgis–oldest one first. The lesson: respect your elders.
The queen shows Mac this note:
Tomorrow night I will get what my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather did not. I will not be stopped. We have been waiting 318 years.
Then the queen tells him the context
I shall tell you a story A true story. In 1671–
“Oh boy,” I said.
The story is that in 1671 a man named Thomas Blood stole the Crown Jewels and a guard named Edwards saved them. The queen is sure that it’s Thomas Blood’s descendant who is going to do the crime.
She locks Mac into the room with the crown jewels and the Beefeater (named Holcroft) from the previous book who sneered at him. They are going to stay in the room with the jewels all night. They take turns sleeping. Holcroft goes first, but when Mac falls asleep too, no one is watching the jewels and when he wakes up, the jewels are gone!
It’s a locked-room mystery. The Queen is upset that the jewels are stolen, but she loves locked-room mysteries! So she and Mac talk about their favorite locked room mysteries (perhaps you’ve heard of some of them).
When Mac thinks about the contents of the room, and what the thief could have used to steal the jewels, he says maybe the man used the axe in the room to cut the table in half. Two halves make a whole, so you climb through the hole and escape.
The line was silent for a while.
“It’s a play on words. Whole and hole.”
“That’s a terrible joke.” [No it’s not, it’s hilarious].
Mac seeks out he the great, great, etc. grandson of Thomas Blood and is convinced that Jerry Blood is not the criminal (he’s a much nicer guy than a thief would be).
Mac says he knows who it is. He can solved the locked room mystery!
The gift that the Queen sends him for solving the mystery is hilarious.
Leave a Reply