I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BABY ROSE-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #31 (June).

I had not heard of Baby Rose until her recent Tiny Desk Concert.  Now here she is at home and her voice is once again remarkable.  With all of the music stripped back, she sounds even more like Billie Holiday.

The depths of sorrow and passion the D.C. native digs into with such conviction has come to be reliably awe-inspiring. It’s the reason her Tiny Desk concert earlier this year stopped us in our tracks. And it’s the reason we’ve invited her back to bring the heat once again, albeit from a safe and secure distance.

Even though Baby Rose’s pianist Timothy Maxey is in the same room with her, he is sitting pretty far away.

The set opens with “Pressure,” a song that accentuates her voice.  Up next is a new song, “Marmot,” which “she hadn’t performed live until this Tiny Desk (home) concert.”

The final song is one that has been getting some airplay.

Earnest intention is the reason Baby Rose’s music has found a place on HBO’s hit series Insecure. In this bedroom mini-show, Rose performs “Show You” (which was used to underscore this season’s most dramatic romantic plot twist).

I don’t have HBO; I’ve never even heard of the show,so I can’t comment on that.  It sounds an awful lot like the other two songs.  But somehow I’m fascinated that she can sing like that while seated.

[READ: June 18, 2020] “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”

In a post about Bubblegum recently, Jeff mentioned this story which I had not heard of.  Indeed, I have read very little Ursula Le Guin–not for any reason, I just haven’t.

He described is as short but sad, and I wanted to see how it tied to Bubblegum (it does, but I can’t say how without giving anything away).  It’s also wonderfully written.

My first observation is I can’t believe it was written in 1973 because it fees very contemporary.  The details are vague enough that it could be anywher at any time, which is pretty genius.  Although that vagueness actually made it a little bit hard for me to get into the story at first.

But about half way through the vagueness fades and the details come in and are excruciating.

The story begins with a narrator describing Festival of Summer on the land of Omelas.  The celebration is full of joy–even the horses have adopted the excitement of the celebration as their own.

The narrator takes a fascinating approach to telling this story as well.  The narrator says that the people are not simple.  Tthey are happy.  There is no king. They are not barbarians.  There is religion but there are no temples.  Although the narrator does not know the rules and laws of their society.

After a paragraph or so describing the contentedness of the people, the narrator warns us not to think that the people of Omelas are goody- goody: “smiles, bells, parades, horses, bleh.”

Dispel this idea because Omelas also has orgies.  There is also a drug, drooz, which brings a lightness and brilliance to the mind and limbs. But it is not habit forming.

Finally, the narrator asks if we accept the city’s joy. No?  Then the narrator will describe one more thing.

And here’s where the specificity grows.  There is something hidden away that is necessary for the people of Omelas to feel the way they do.  There is a contract that it must continue or the people’s happiness will be gone.  Everyone knows of it.  Some are ashamed of it.  When young people learn about it for the first time they are full of rage.  Some would like it to stop, but they know there’s nothing they can do–it would destroy Omelas.

The title comes in the end, the ones who walk away from the Omelas, because they can not bear to be a part of it.

Le Guin tells this story perfectly/