I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: ANGELICA GARCIA-Tiny Desk Concert #968 (April 15, 2020).

I saw Angelica Garcia open for Phoebe Bridgers.  Her show started off okay but she totally won me over by the end.  She played guitar, she looped her voice and synths and was really impressive.  She also sang some songs in Spanish.

Well, two years later, Angelica Garcia is very different.

The biggest change is the amount of color she has added (when I saw her she was in a black floral print dress).  She is also embracing her heritage a bit more than when I saw her.  It was present then, but it is way out in front here.

Angelica Garcia decorated the Tiny Desk with colorful fabrics, orange flowers, a fuchsia dress, and a great deal of pride in what she calls her “Salva-Mex-American” heritage. Her song “Orange Flower” got my attention back in 2016, but I thought of her only as a Virginia rock and roller. Not anymore. Angelica Garcia’s music in the 2020s embraces her heritage, her life growing up in Los Angeles, and the ranchero music she heard from her family.

The show opens with a sample of a high pitched voice (presumably hers) saying “I wanna be like her.”  It works as a repeated sample in “Guadalupe.”  In this song

Angelica expresses respect for La Virgen de Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico, singing “I wanna be like her.” Guadalupe inspires her to declare that “power isn’t defined by your physique.”

But power comes from the loud rocking guitars from John Sizemore (what a great raw sound).  Josh McCormick plays big electronic drums, including some electronic cowbells.  In between the power chords, the melody is provided by a quiet and interesting keyboard sound from Ryan Jones

And let’s not overlook Garcia’s impressive voice.  She has power and a lot of diversity in her delivery.  She might even sound better than she did when I saw her.

The middle of the song has a breakdown where she and percussionist Kenneka Cook sing together a kind of scat.  Anchoring all of this is really great bass sound from Chrissie Lozano.

For “Valentina in the Moonlight” Angelica plays the quieter guitar melody (she’s really good).

This song is slower and quieter, a love song.  When the whole band kicks in, the song gets really full, with quiet guitar chords from Sizemore, while Garcia plays the main melody.  You can clearly hear Lozano’s nice bass sound in this song.

Angelica moved to Virginia at age seventeen. The songs she sings at the Tiny Desk, all from her album Cha Cha Palace, reflect the way she was seen, or more to the point, not seen, in her new home. “Jícama” captures that feeling of invisibility:

“Jícama” starts out with cha cha sounds.  Angelica sings with a pronounced accent.  I really like the splash cymbal sounds that accent her song.  When the whole band kicks in there’s a real Tex-Mex vibe  which feels like a children’s song melody, perhaps the best way to get the message across

“I see you, but you don’t see me
Jícama, jícama, guava tree
I been trying to tell ya but you just don’t see
Like you, I was born in this country.”

Angelica Garcia has definitely changed.  And for the better.

[READ: May 2, 2020] Strong Female Protagonist

Strong Female Protagonist is a webcomic which is on hiatus (although I don’t know for how long).

We’ve had this book floating around the house for a while and I’ve been meaning to read it.  I loved the title–so simple, so terrific.  I finally grabbed it off the shelf and decided today was the day.

I didn’t really know what the story was about and I found myself very surprised.  This proved to be a superhero story with a difference–a huge difference.  Both the origin story of the superpowers and the exploration of the ethics of superpowers are handled in a very different way.

One oft he big differences right up front was the language–these people say bad words… a lot.  It’s while reading this book that you realize you’ve never heard Superman or Spiderman say “fuck.”  But then these superheroes are not superheroes in the conventional sense.

The book starts out with Alison Greene in college.  She shows up at a 99% protest with her friend Violet.  There’s a super villain helping out the cops and Violet starts talking smack. Alison is shocked until she realizes that the reason Violet is being tough is because Alison is there.  Alison is offended–don’t ever use me for my powers again.

Then she talks with her friend Hector, another superhero known as Pint Size.  He tells her about things that are going down, and that she’s Mega-Girl and….  She asks him not to tell her who she is.  She has given up being a superhero and just wants to try to live a somewhat normal life.  Alison has super strength and is invincible.

Then there’s a flashback to her encounter with Menace.  Hector believes that Menace defeated her, but that’s not what happened.  When she arrived at Menace’s lair, he greeted her and surrendered.  He took off his helmet and revealed his name, Patrick.  Why was he doing this?  Because he found files.  Files that showed that children with Superpowers were killed before superheroes became a regular thing (more back story on that).  They killed innocent children because they were afraid of these children.

Patrick lays it out–I’m not powerful enough to be a villain.  You’re not smart enough to be a hero.  Nobody’s scared of us or we’d have a  “closed” file on us.  What are you gong to do, fling poverty into the sea  Smash all of us into a better tomorrow?  Nobody thinks we can change the world, and they’re right.

Oh, one of the great things about this story is that when it was an online comic, there were rollovers and hyperlinks on some panels.  They have included these as notes at the bottom of the page.  So on this page, (Menace is a mindreader), the note says *Mind readers must get really frustrated trying to explain things to people.

Alison is taking a philosophy class and she fails a paper.  Her teacher says that since she is superhuman she cannot know the human experience so he fails her.  Alison complains to the dean and they get the professor fired, which she did not want. She just wanted an honest grade.  When she confronts the professor, he reveals that his husband died in a battle she was a part of.  Just as she realizes this, Cleaver bursts through the school walls.

Mega-Girl put Cleaver away but he broke out because his cleaver arms are even sharper than they were before–his superpower is mutating at an alarming rate making his blades deadlier but also slowly killing him.

Alison is ready to fight–she loves fighting.  She’s good at it and nothing feels quite as good.  So she and Cleaver tangle.  Pint Size comes to her rescue by shrinking to a microscopic size and doing all kinds of things internally.

The next surprise comes with the story of Feral, a woman who has the ability to regenerate body parts.  Mega-Girl is invincible, and is not harmed by bullets.  Feral is harmed by bullets but easily regenerates her parts (which is gross according to the note).  They were friends (even after Feral tried to kiss her and Alison didn’t want that).

Turns out that Feral is in the hospital (how could that be?)

So Alison and Patrick drive to see her.  Their car trip is very amusing because Patrick can read her mind (he lets her know the bathroom stop is coming up without her saying anything).  But also because he doesn’t like to hear music with lyrics because he doesn’t like hearing a voice disconnected from the thoughts.

Its like if you’d only every watched movies with the Director’s Commentary and then you were forced to watch an old silent film.

Movies just stress him out. Later they watch Looney Tunes which he cracks up at (and then explains them in very funny details).

It turns out that Feral wants to help people in the best way she can.  She wants to donate all of her bodies parts to people in need.  Since she constantly regenerates she can donate organs multiple times a day. But she will be in constant agony.  It’s a price she’s willing to pay.

While she’s there a superpowered person pops in next to her.  His name is Johnny Temple.  He’s from England: a fashion designer who can teleport.  He has a funny observation about American superheroes.

America is supposed to be the most powerful county in the world and when this worldwide situation happened, you all put on masks and tights. Why?

She says they were fourteen years old and grew up on comics. Feral never wore a costume probably because she was poor, she probably couldn’t afford spandex.

The worst part is that when Feral is in the hospital planning to do good, there are protesters outside her window with “God hates Nefs” signs (I don’t know what Nef refers to but I’m sure it’s a superpower thing).  Other signs include “Devil DNA” and that people don’t want superhero organs.

Alison says tells feral that her idea is crazy. She can’t fix the world, she can only help one person at a tame and that’s not going to change underlying problems in the world like poverty or injustice.  Feral says if Mega-Girl can find a one-punch solution to all the world’s problems, she’ll quit her plans.  The footnote: *All I have to do to stop you torturing yourself is to figure out how to stop bad things from happening?  That’s it.”

There’s a dramatic conclusion to this scene which makes Alison go talk to Cleaver.  He is being held in place by lasers.  *The US government can afford all kinds of fancy laser restraints, but TV to watch? Sorry.

She reveals that she knows his origin story (he had an abusive stepfather).  When his superpowers came in, he killed his stepfather but his mother shot at him and he killed her too.  He never knew is she realized it was him or not.  He has lived with the regret ever since.

Cleaver thinks she is going to try to talk him in to being a good guy but she’s not.  She tells him that she fantasizes about killing people all the time.  Cleaver is shocked.

She could show up at Klan rallies with an I beam.  Force politicians t pass universal health care and all the people who says she’s a monster?  “Every day I don’t kill a thousand fucking people they should throw me a god-damned tickertape parade.”

*”You and I are not so very different Mr Bond.”  “Yeah, I know.”  “What really?”  “Yeah we’re very similar do you want to talk about it?”

She says the only thing that will make her happy is everything perfect for everyone forever.  Cleaver says that’s insane.  She agrees.

She asks if she can come back and talk once in a while.  He says sure,.

Chapter four finally flashes back to the origin story–and holy cow is it poignant.  We see young Alison (no powers yet) being mad that she now has a baby sister.  Her dad, a very cool dad, convinced her that she would be a great big sister and that her baby sister is looking up to her.  She becomes a dedicated big sister. Her dad is also a social worker who helps the homeless (no wonder she’s a good person).

It’s during a soccer game that Alison’s powers come out. She is embarrassed and hides from the world for a few days.  Her parents understand, so Alison has

*that very particular form of guilt that comes from lying to your parents, knowing they know and knowing they’re not going to call you out on it.

Then President G.W. Bush comes on TV to say that global biological phenomenon has happens creating biodynamic individuals with unimaginable destructive potential.  The government wants to keep everyone safe but they also want to keep the individuals safe–this is a health and humanitarian crisis.  The footnote

*Yes we could have made GW goofy but I think (hope) he would have gotten it together for a speech about the DISCOVERY OF SUPERHEROS.

Before that broadcast is over Menace cuts in.  He says he has superpowers and there is no superhero to stop him. This isn’t a comic book.

As the broadcast ends, Alison runs out side and crushes rock with her hands.  She realizes she has superpowers.  Then she tries to fly (but falls hard).

*Dont be greedy it wouldn’t really be fair if you have invulnerability, super-strength AND flight.

Then we see Alison go to a government facility where she meets Half Pint and begins her new life.

But before the book ends, we flash back to the present.  She gets the word that her dad has cancer.  She says she’ll move back home to help but he says “I know yo wanna hep but driving me to chemo doesn’t exactly sound like a job for Mega-Girl.”

The note here says

*I think its fascinating that so many fictional heroes are orphans.  I know it has deep profound mythological roots that are significant on a Jungian level, but sometimes the choice to make a character an orphan is because the writer is uninterested in dealing with the main character’s family or finds family life an impediment to their main character’s identity.  Not exactly intellectual laziness, but also not a purely aesthetic choice.

And THAT’s why this is a different superhero book.

The end oft he book has a color section set in Ind.  I’m not aware of any superhero comics from other countries.  Do they exist and if so I want to see one.  Anyhow this book is set in India where a superhero takes the form of the god Ramesh.  And he is not a nice person.  What a fascinatign story and I cant believe it’s only 4 pages long.

So this is book one. Book two is out but the web comic seems like it has stalled somewhere along the way.

I’m definitely going to read book two, though.