I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: CARRTOONS, KAELIN ELLIS, KIEFER AND THE KOUNT-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #229 (June 28, 2021).

This is one of the more unusual Tiny Desk Concerts that I’ve seen.  Essentially the NPR team asked these musicians to make remixes of NPR theme music.  I haven’t heard of any of the musicians before, but I gather they are well known and regarded.

Over the past year and some change, beatmakers Carrtoons, Kaelin Ellis, Kiefer, and The Kount took to social media individually and often collaboratively to cook up productions, often resulting in viral moments and never-seen-before glimpses into their creative process.  As we continue to celebrate 50 years of NPR, Tiny Desk was determined to take part. To honor the iconic themes from our news programs, we asked these four producers to come up with their own spin on the All Things Considered theme (written by Don Voegeli) the Morning Edition theme and the theme for Weekend Edition (both written by B.J. Leiderman).

The blurb describes them as beatmakers. I don’t know what that means exactly (in my mind it has nothing to do with instruments), but for this set, each guy plays an instrument or two.  Clockwise from the bottom left Kaelin Ellis: drums, The Kount: percussion, Kiefer: piano, keyboards and Carrtoons: bass.

Most of the themes are under 30 seconds, so it’s interesting to hear them stretched out.  It’s also interesting that they didn’t simply play the theme and them jam it.  each one uses a part of the theme, but the songs go in very different directions.  The addition of bass and drums certainly changes the sound, as does their new jazzier feel.

“All Things Considered (Remix by Carrtoons)” Kiefer plays a variant of the original (quite similar) and then plays a kind of staccato piano like the news urgency music.  I like the way those original eight notes keep returning.   This new song is all of 1 minute long.

“Morning Edition (Remix by Kaelin Ellis)”  This one sounds really different with an intro (lots of bass and drums).  It’s not until the middle that the jazzy chords reveal themselves as the Morning Edition melody.  I feel like you can’t hear all that much percussion on these tracks although the bongos are audible here.  and I like the little cymbals near the end.  This song is about two minutes,

“Weekend Edition (Remix by Kiefer)” I like that this one opens with that iconic ascending melody, but dissipates smoothly.  It’s also interesting that the middle melody is still there, only stretched out. Kaelin’s drums are pretty great on this track and Carrtoons’ bass is pivotal throughout.

[READ: June 1, 2021] The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone

S. read book three in this series, not realizing it was book 3.  She then read the books in reverse order, ending with this one.

Well, I decided to read them in the correct order.  And while I haven’t read 2 or 3 yet, book 1 was fantastic.   I loved everything about this book–the plot, the illustrations and especially the writing style

Jaclyn Moriarty has created a hilarious and thoughtful young narrator and the ways in which she has to deal with adults makes for some very funny scenes indeed.

The premise is that Bronte Mettlestone is ten years old and has just found out that her parents were killed by pirates. She’s not really that upset though because she never knew them.  They abandoned her at the doorstep of an aunt when she was just a baby.  They were adventurers and couldn’t be tied down by a child.

The humor comes right away, with the announcement that Bronte’s parents were killed.  They receive a telegram which says that they were “taken out by cannon fire.” Aunt Isabelle is furious about that phrase.  Could they not have chosen a less flippant turn of phrase?

So Bronte was raised by her aunt Isabelle with help from The Butler.  They see that her parents will says that Bronte must take a series of trips, by herself to visit all of her other aunts and give them each a present (the present is included with the will).  The details of the trip are spelled out in very specific detail–how long she is to stay with each Aunt and how to get from one to the next.  To make things worse, the will has been sealed wit faery stitching, which means if she doesn’t do what the will says, there will be terrible consequences.  Essentially Bronte must follow these rules exactly or OR PEOPLE COULD DIE!

So obviously this is world where magic exists, although Bronte herself has had little exposure to magic.  She says the only thing she knows about magic comes from the book The History of the Kingdoms and Empires.

There are two types of magic that are worked by thread.  There was bright thread which was used by True Mages like Faeries and elves and water sprites.  Then there was shadow thread used by dark Mages like witches and Sterling Silver Foxes.  The third kind was binding thread which Spellbinders used to stop Shadow Magic from doing its work. Initially the thread was real, but now they can do their magic with imaginary thread. 

She sets off to meet Aunt Sue and her loud cousins (Sebastian, Nicholas, Connor and Benjamin).  As she is introduced to each she shakes hands and says their name.  “She keeps saying our names” said the middle cousin.  She gets along with them quite well even though they are mostly fascinated by her.   They go to the Festival of Matchstick –a celebration of the Elves.  During the Festival she saves a baby (which was accidentally put in the river) and becomes a hero among the locals and the Elves.  This exciting tale was long enough to be its own short story!

Next she went to Aunt Emma’s house.  Aunt Emma lives in a seaport.  She is an artist.  But she is not at the port to meet Bronte when she arrives. Is she a forgetful artist? Indeed not, she is in jail!  This tale was also exciting and long enough to be its own short story.  Bronte is able to use deductive reasoning and help from the librarian and Emma’s friend Sugar Rixle (“What sort of name is that?” I demanded. It’s her sort of name., the man countered.”)  to prove that Aunt Emma is not guilty.  She also helps to save a Water sprite from drying out.

Bronte is a hero again!  But she will not be a hero in every town that she visits.

Up next is Aunt Clare.  And nothing exciting happens with Aunt Clare.  Indeed Bronte has to go with her to a convention: The Annual Convention of Mathematics Teachers: An Investigation of Long Division, Long Multiplication, an the Careful Placement of Numerals in Columns.  But all is not as it seems because these are not mathematicians–the conference was a ruse.

She doesn’t stay long there for next she is off to Aunt Sophy–her youngest aunt who is a veterinarian.  Aunt Sophy looks after magical creatures like dragoons (she speaks fluent dragon, in fact).  Nothing exciting happens with Sophy.  Except that Bronte gets to ride a dragon!

Next she went to visit aunt Nancy, where she started an avalanche.  Nancy is a cold and distracted aunt.  She thought Bronte was coming serval hours later than she actually did and then blamed Bronte for being on time.  Her house was also freezing.  It’s a miserable boring couple of days (Nancy’s children are away at school).  She cant wait to get to the next aunt (who is on a ship).

But on her last day she indeed started an avalanche.  She was caught up in it and ultimately winds up in front of Nancy’s daughter’s boarding school, beaten and bruised. The girls, Imogen, Esther and Astrid are delighted with her.  And the feeling is mutual.

She is now two weeks off schedule!  But the faeries can forgive such a thing if it was an accident, which it was.

Finally she gets to the ship.  Her Aunt Maya and Aunt Lisbeth are the captains, and they are excellent hosts.  Bronte has a wonderful time and even meets two kids her own age: Taylor and Billy.

When they meet, Taylor holds her hand up in the air and says “High five.”

Oh, Taylor, said Billy, Nobody ever knows what you mean by that and yet you persist, what?”
Taylor shrugged, took a hold of my wrist and raised up my arm.  “You just slap my palm, It’s like a way of saying hello.”

Billy has his own quirks as well, saying things like, “They play guitar, what?” and “Welcome aboard, what?”  It’s an affectation. People find it infuriating, he says and he’s trying to stop.

They also, when the go on a brief shore leave, find a boy who looks like he was thrown overboard. He looks familiar, and he has some important news about pirates.

Bronte briefly stays with is Aunt Alys.  She is the queen of the Mellifluous Kingdom. How did she become queen?  She was visiting when they had a vacancy.   Took up the reins of power and by all accounts she’s been doing a super job running the place.  Aunt Alys explains that the Kingdom runs on music.  Their trumpet player is sick–does she think she can play trumpet to save the kingdom?  She doesn’t meet her cousin because Alys sent him away–she had word that he was going to be attacked by pirates.

The final aunt is Aunt Carrie.  There’s a very funny sequence where Bronte climbs a hill and sees a couple of kids playing. But they are actually standing still.  When she gets closer she realizes that they are enacting a painting that she saw on her journey.  What the?  The story behind this is terrific.

Aunt Carrie is very sad.  She sent away the man she loved because she thought their lifestyles were too incompatible.  She has been in the doldrums ever since–doing nothing but going to work, eating very little and having no joy in her life.  Bronte aims to fix that over the few days that she’s there.

The journey ends at Aunt Franny’s

She is hosting a party for all of the aunts to get together and send off Bronte’s parents properly.

But it turns out that her journey has been more than just a way to meet her relatives.  There’s a plan afoot and she has to put together everything she’s observed on the journey thus far to enact it,

This book was so funny–the writing style was wonderfully amusing.  And the story was pretty exciting.  I had a hunch about a  few things but the way they were revealed was pretty outstanding.  I can’t wait for book 2.