SOUNDTRACK: TRUPA TRUPA-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #44 (July 3, 3030).
Trupa Trupa is a band from Poland who play some really great indie rock. They were supposed to be touring the U.S. and doing a Tiny Desk, but instead they are home.
In a little dirty rehearsal room basement in Gdańsk, we find Poland’s great rock band Trupa Trupa on lockdown. Had it not been for COVID-19, this band would have been behind my desk this week, but as it is, they’ve settled into their rehearsal space.
Their songs are pretty intense, but this Home Tiny Desk features lighter versions of the songs.
They open their set with “Another Day,” from the 2019 record Of The Sun. It has a great throbbing bassline Wojciech Juchniewicz while singer Grzegorz Kwiatkowski plays acuostic guitar. He says its the first time he’s played the acoustic guitar in a really long time.
There’s a cool theremin-type sound that is coming from Rafał Wojczal. The credits say the instrument is called an ondes Martenot, but this is a homemade device–and it sounds pretty cool.
I’ve seen them perform this; it’s always had an apocalyptic feel, but now the words “another day, waiting for another,” prompts Grzegorz to mention how this has turned into a quarantine song. Grzegorz tells us that life in Poland has been difficult in this young democracy, but they are staying optimistic and playing music. There’s darkness in the basement, yet their music is a bright beacon.
“Dream About” starts with a snappy drum from Tomasz Pawluczuk. Kwiatkowski plays as scratchy rhythm on the guitar before Juchniewicz plays a great rolling bassline that runs throughout the song until it abruptly stops for a some single notes. Then it resumes again. Wojczal adds some guitar before bringing that Martenot back.
“None of Us” is slow and deep basslines. Initial vocals come from Juchniewicz who has switched to guitar. The acoustic guitar is more prominent on this song. And Juchniewicz’ fuzzy electric guitar sound is deep and menacing.
Their U.S. Tour was cancelled, but they weren’t going to play near me. Maybe when they come back they can squeeze in a Philadelphia date.
[READ: June 20, 2020] Bagombo Snuff Box
This is a short story collection that I read when it came out. When I read all of Vonnegut’s books a few years ago, I decided to re-read this collection. It has only taken me several years to get to it.
But what a great bunch of short stories.
The Preface explains that these stories were written in the 1940s and printed in magazines before he had written his first big novels. After the War, there were many magazines that featured fiction, so Kurt was able to make some good money on the side while he worked at General Electric. He left the company in 1950.
Vonnegut has an introduction as well. He talks about the beneficial effect short stories can have on a person. He also says he generally feels good about these stories although he feels a bit badly for the way some (many) of the women are treated–not that Vonnegut specifically treated them badly, but that was sort of the way it was then.
Thanasphere
An astronaut (this is way before the space race) is floating around the heavens and hears voices. He believes it proves that this is where the dead go when they die–their spirits accessible to all. The government can’t let this news out!
Mnemonics
An office worker uses mnemonics to remember things. Using these techniques freed up hours every day–which was a blessing and a curse. His mnemonic device is beautiful actresses.
Any Reasonable Offer
A real estate agent is dismayed to learn that the very rich people looking at all of the richest houses may not be actual buyers. In fact, they may be using the open houses as a kind of vacation. Pretty funny stuff, and an interesting idea.
The Package
In this story a married couple has returned from a trip abroad to a fully modern and updated home. It has every conceivable (and some inconceivable) modern feature. They are meant to show off the home to a magazine (wearing different outfits in each room). But they get an unexpected visit from a fellow who always treated the husband like he was nothing. How dare he come here at this great time for them? But what if his life wasn’t as great as they assumed.
The No-Talent Kid
This is the first of several stories about George M. Helmholtz, head of the Lincoln High School Marching Band. He is obsessed with the band and nothing else. The No-Talent Kid is Walter Plummer, a kid who thinks he is great but is just lousy at clarinet. He wants nothing more than to be in the band, so when Walter learns that Mr Helmholtz really wants to buy a gigantic bass drum from another band, he thinks he can use it as leverage to get into the school band.
Poor Little Rich Town
Newell Cady is an efficiency expert. He can make places ten percent more efficient just by looking in a room. When he arrives in the small town of Spruce Falls, the town leaders are thrilled to have him and plan to do everything they can to make him happy–and to hopefully bring in other successful men like him. But when he tries to make this quaint little town more efficient, well some people don’t like to be told what to do.
Souvenir
A man tries to sell a watch to a pawnbroker. The shop owner tries to undersell the man until the man starts to tell the story of how he acquired this particular watch. It’s a harrowing tale of treachery during World War II. And when the final line is revealed–about the origins of the watch–it’s a great surprise.
The Cruise of The Jolly Roger
This was my least favorite story. I felt like it never really went anywhere. Essentially, a man leaves the Army and he buys a small boat which he names The Jolly Roger. He feels unwanted and unappreciated until he is reminded that soldiers did great things for our country.
Custom-Made Bride
In this story an accountant is trying to do the books for an artist named Otto Krummbein. Otto has a ton of money but no common sense about it at all. He has no accounts of what comes in and what goes out–it is too pedestrian for him. He also has a wife, Falloleen, who is perfect in every way–exactly as he “designed” her to be. But has Otto recently sat down with his wife and realized how much he has changed the woman he fell in love with? This story starts as one thing and goes admirably in another direction altogether.
Ambitious Sophomore
Here’s another story about George Helmholtz and his band. In this one a musician is very insecure. But with a new uniform–one tailored to make him look like a star instead of a pear he can really strut his stuff. How much is the school willing to pay to make Helmholtz happy.
Bagombo Snuff Box
This is a story of a man making up his life to impress people. His glorious past is all fake.
The Powder-Blue Dragon
In this story a young man with nothing saves up a ton of money ($5,600 in the 1940s) to buy a one of a a kind Marittima-Frascati. It was gorgeous, it went super fast, but it did not make him a man.
A Present for Big Saint Nick
This is a pretty dark story. Big Saint Nick is a mobster. At his Christmas party all of the (legitimate) people who work for him (like his accountant) have to bring their children to a party so they can and say nice things about him. Or else. This children hate and fear him and one of them even says so. But when Nick gets a present from The Family, the kids might have a good Christmas after all.
Unpaid Consultant
Harry has married Celeste Divine the singer. Since he no longer needs to work he has become obsessed with the catchup-ketchup-catsup industry. He knows everything about it and will tell anyone everything he knows. When he man meets Irving Bunting, owner of a catchup factory looking to sell, why Harry has a thing or two to talk to him about. This story will also teach you about the world thixotopy–how a ketchup can be like a solid and a liquid.
Der Arme Dolmetscher
In this story a soldier who knows very little German is called on to be translator for the Army. He was overheard singing a German song and they assumed he knee a lot more. All of his negotiation comes form a guide book. Hope the German guy know English as well as he know Geerman.
The Boy Who Hated Girls
In this band story Mr Helmholtz devotes all of his attention to only five standout band members. But once he stops focusing on them they tend to drift a bit. He is oblivious to what he’s doing to these kids.
This Son of Mine
This is a pretty sad story about fathers and sons. A man invested in a factory. He offered to partner with his best friend but the friend who chose not to. Now the friend is an employee while the first man is the manager. The friend an excellent worker and his son is a chip off the old block–he shoots skeet like his old man, he works hard like his old man and his skill at his job seven better than his old man’s (or so it seems). Meanwhile the boss’ son doesn’t want to inherit the factory. He wants to be an actor. Or something, anything, else. The two boys don’t really talk much until on one trip the friend’s son reveals how unhappy he is living in his father’s shadow.
A Night for Love
The daughter of a security guard was out on the town with the son of the guard’s boss. The kids were late and the security guard was nervous. His wife wanted him to call up the boss and complain. And when he does he discovers that his wife and his boss once had a date on a romantic night just like this. If their date had been better things might be very different.
Find Me a Dream
A man at a country club in Creon NY meets a woman who is about to marry someone there. For all the wrong reasons.
Runaways
Two teenagers are in love. They run off without their parents’ blessing. But when her father is the mayor of a small town, it’s big news. The parents are furious and everyone knows about it. But even when they are returned, you still can guarantee they’ll stay. What if the parents decide to let the lovebirds see what it’s like when you have nothing in common.
2BR02B
I feel like this is one of Vonnegut’s first intense sci-fi type stories. Set in the future, population must remain at a constant level. Before a new baby can be born someone must die. When people are ready to die they call 2B R(naught )2B. It’s wonderful. Everyone loves the man who came up with this system. Except for perhaps the man whose wife is pregnant with twins.
Lovers Anonymous
This story was pretty good until the sexist attitudes that crept in. The gist is that a woman reads Woman: The Wasted Sex; or the Swindle of Housewifery. Her husband also read it and realized how bad things were for his wife who was very smart and quite unhappy. The narrator’s wife also wants to read it, but he was a magic bookmark to keep her in her place. It is a funny punchline, but given the sexism, it doesn’t play well.
Hal Irwin’s Magic Lamp
This story, surprisingly, deals with race. Hal Irwin made a lamp to look like Aladdin’s lamp. His plan was to impress his young wife by rubbing it and having things appear. He hired Ella, a black woman, t be the genie. His wife wasn’t impressed by this and found that she really got along with Ella–who as about to have a baby. Hal Irwin made his money in the stock market and when it crashed he had noting left. But his wife had Ella.
This is a really enjoyable collection. They are definitely not as great as his novels, but they are really fun to read.
Leave a Reply