SOUNDTRACK: THE DISTRICTS-The Districts (2014).
The Districts are a band from around Philly. They are very popular there. I saw them live with a crowd that knew every word to every song (I didn’t know them that well and felt a little out of place).
The band was in high school in Lititz, PA when they formed. They independently released a couple of EPs and an album, Telephone in 2012 (while they were sophomores).
This EP was their first for a label (Fat Possum) and has three newly recorded songs from Telephone as well as two new songs.
“Rocking Chair” opens the EP. There’s some Americana-ish guitar melodies and the some loping, rocking chords. There’s also a couple of “whoos” and a full on “oooh” singalong part near the end. Rob Grote’s voice is old-in-a-young-body, with some nice gruffness.
“Lyla” is a slower, moodier piece with some really pretty guitar fills at the end of each verse. There’s some loose, rambling dah dah dah’s near the end of the song that are very fitting to the feel of the record.
“Funeral Beds” starts out with quiet guitar and a harmonica! There’s some slide guitar-sounding parts, giving it a desert feel. The drums start as simply a thumping bass drum. At three and a half minutes, the drums amp up to include some martial snare beats. And then the song takes off, rocking on to it’s five and a half minute conclusion.
“Long Distance” is my favorite track on the record. It’s got a great melody, some clear guitars and jaunty rocking chord changes. It’s got a big raucous sing along chorus. After almost five minutes the song drops away for a simple thumping bass line and the whole band singing the chorus.
“Stay Open” ends the EP with a bit more raucousness–alternately slow and rocking controlled sloppiness.
It’s a great introduction. They would follow this with a terrific full length the next year.
[READ: September 19, 2020] A Beginner’s Guide to Free Fall
This book came across my desk and it sounded really interesting. I’d never heard of the author–this is his second novel–but there was something about the title and the cover that grabbed me.
And boy did I really enjoy this book.
The book starts four months from now, with the narrator trapped under a car that has crashed into the sea. It’s an inauspicious beginning, but proves to be the logical conclusion for a man whose life went from amazing to horrific in one day.
Davis Winger is the man trapped. He has a lovely wife and daughter. He has a very cool job (he designs roller coasters) and he is well liked by everyone. Even by his sister, Molly, with whom he has a great relationship. Molly proves to be an excellent co-protagonist. Indeed, her story proves to be more interesting than his.
One of the things I liked about this story right from the get go were the little details. Like that he and his sister constantly challenge each other to think of a failing business model.
Like:
“A store called Closed.”
“So, just to be clear, hanging in the window is a sign that reads CLOSED.”
“That, Molly Winger, is just plain awful… I’m so proud of you.”
Another little thing that I loved was that Davis’ “stepmother” (technically she’s not) is named Peti. Every time he talks to her, he tries to throw in a Tom Petty lyric (which she does not get at all).
Peti: “[Your dad’s] a bit of a Nervous Nelly about choking.”
Davis: “Come on Peti, ‘Don’t Do Me Like That.'”
I was hoping there would be more of these, but there’s only about four in the book.
Molly writes a column for the local weekly paper. The paper is constantly in danger of folding, but the owner really likes her, so she is never in danger of losing her job, as others are.
Davis is similarly loved at his job. So much so that he is regularly offered a job at the competition (Are there really competing roller coaster design firms? Maybe they are just engineers in general, roller coaster designers in specific). But today was not such a good day.
A theme park had just opened up Davis’ new log flume and an accident had occurred. The log had flipped and a girl was trapped underneath it. She was not seriously hurt, but this was obviously very bad. Until they could get to the bottom of it, the firm needed Davis to take a (paid) leave of absence.
Davis takes this the very wrong way, believing that he is being fired. This was one aspect of the story I didn’t care for. Davis is incredibly stubborn about this–and kind of jerky in other ways too (he went from being liked by all, to being really quite bratty). His boss explains time and again, that it’s just optics, but Davis believes they blame him. So he does what any bratty man would do. He goes out and gets hammered in the middle of the day.
His wife comes to pick him up at the bar. When she tells him to call his boss to clarify things, he gives her his phone. He’s too drunk She takes the phone and sees a message She asks him “Who is Jacqueline and why does she miss you?”
Davis had met Jacqueline on a business trip. Davis had always been faithful, never thought about cheating on his wife. He loves Britt very much and feels lucky to have met her. But he was surprised how easy it was to play into the flirtations of a stranger and then to sleep with her.
What is interesting about this story is the way Davis feels afterward.
There was guilt, shame, even the recognition that from then on, every day for the rest of his life, he’d have to live with the worry that Britt could discover this potentially marriage-ending transgression. But just as powerful and twice as surprising, was the disappointment. It hadn’t been worth it. No one had ever said anything about that.
So, yes, Davis cheated on his wife, which makes him despicable. But I’m intrigued that he genuinely regrets it even before he is caught. And the sincerity of his regret makes it all the sadder that Britt (who is wholly justified in doing so) kicks him out and refused to consider him. It is certainly problematic in thinking of Davis as the victim, but the story doesn’t exactly do that. He admits his guilt. The question is whether Britt should accept his apologies, or if his transgression was too egregious.
Davis moves into a crappy apartment complex The Deluxe Apartments–“a name that was not so much irony as outright ridicule.” He befriends his next door neighbor, McGuinn. For McGuinn, I couldn’t stop picturing Deidrich Bader’s character in Office Space.
McGuinn is a former baseball player. But he is also a poet and a thoughtful guy. Except that he chews tobacco and seem to have prostitutes over every night. He proves to be an excellent friend to Davis and when he meets Molly he is quite smitten.
Molly, who is in her thirties, is dating Zach, who is in his young twenties. She likes him enough. But mostly it’s inertia keeping them together. They have very little in common, like the fact that he wants to take her to Vegas to a horror movie convention. She hates Vegas. She hates horror movies. Zach’s only saving grace is that he is a Big Brother and is really good at it–the boys he looked after really liked him. These two boys were abandoned by their parents and a foster mom had taken them in and given them a good life.
An important biographical detail is that Davis and Molly’s mother ran out on them when they were small. Their dad dealt with it very well. Peti had been a family friend and she more or less filled in for their mom. But they made a point of never talking about her.
Once, in college, Molly went to visit their mom. Her best friend Sklyer Jones looked her up online). Her mom hugged her and then told her to never come back. Skyler is a wonderful character. Both for moving the story forward and for just being a cool person to have in a book. Sklyer and Molly met in college with a very funny story. They took a psych class together and Skyler wound up becoming a therapist.
Skyler encourages Molly to write a new column for the paper, one where adult women who were abandoned by their mother as children describe what their life has been like. Call it Motherless Daughters! Molly loves the idea, but who will ever allow her to interview them? The first person that Molly gets is Sklyer’s client. And the new name of the piece is genius: Maternity Leave: Tales of Deserted Daughters.
Eventually Davis starts to settle into his new routine. He is miserable and keeps begging Britt to take him back. The only consolation is that he gets to see his daughter. Then he gets an idea, inspired by his daughter, for a brand new roller coaster. He begins working on it. (As well as doing other amusing and/or demeaning things at the Deluxe).
After a few weeks, Maternity Leave really takes off. It gets syndicated and Molly is offered to do a podcast.
And McGuinn (who says he has been reading the column) asks out Molly (while Zach is in Vegas). Even though he is totally not her type, he proves to be charming and very funny. He eventually reveals some (not disgusting or sad) secrets and they bond very nicely (even if Davis disapproves).
There are tons of very funny scenes–like when Davis sees Britt in Target and tries to hide from her. Or with the high school girl at the Deluxe who likes to harass Davis, but eventually has to ask him for homework help in physics (who betetr to ask than an engineer). Or the scene with Molly and Wyatt the A/V guy. or pretty much anything McGuinn says.
There’s also some wonderful minor characters, like Bo, who is rehired when Molly’s column takes off. She invites Molly to go see The Districts.
The popularity of Molly’s column has consequences for her. Davis’s proposed roller coaster also seems like a real winner. They are both going to have to make some serous choices. As is Britt (who is really underutilized–she has a fascinating backstory but it is not delved into very much).
It’s a great to have a book full of well-intentioned but flawed characters. I couldn’t put this story down and I’m really looking forward to reading his first book, Thank You Good Night.
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