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Archive for June, 2021

Roger Agnell–“Ice Cream and Ashes” (New Yorker, June 11, 2007)

Posted in Anthony Burgess, Coronavirus, Double Indemnity, Essays, Film & TV, New Yorker, Phillip Sarde, Quarantine, Quest for Fire, Remember the Night, Rod Wave, Roger Agnell, Steve Buscemi, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Trees Lounge, Tremors on June 6, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ROD WAVE-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #201 (April 29, 2021).

I was shocked when this show open and Rod Wave started singing because his voice was terrible!

He couldn’t hit the notes and he’s straining all over the place.  So I was rns out shocked to read

 It’s been said that Rod Wave could be an R&B or blues singer in another era. With this Tiny Desk concert, anchored by the interplay of flute, piano, bass and drums, he seems to suggest: Why not this one?

What?  The rest of the blurb gives some context, I think.

The first song Rod Wave performs in his Tiny Desk concert comes with a bit of a wink. The St. Petersburg, Fla., rapper interpolates Drake’s “Over My Dead Body,” the delicate intro to Take Care. Like Drake, Rod Wave makes sad, melodic rap music.

The rest of “OMDB” is rapped and his rapping is pretty solid, but man, when he sings, it’s so awkward.

He talks about his new album after the song and I honestly didn’t understand a word he said the first time.  How can a decent rapper be such a bad speaker?

I like the music on “his 2020 hit record ‘Rags2Riches.'”   Live flute always sounds great and it sounds especially good here when Tomoka Nomura-Jarvis plays against the slow bass from Franckelson Brunot.

I’m always surprised when I find out someone I have never even heard of is huge: “he’s quite clearly one of the biggest rappers in the country right now.”  So obviously I don’t know anything.

“Street Runner” starts with a sampled female voice–I assume that’s what the (“featuring Ruth B.”) refers to–and piano from Gil Smith.  Drummer Hosny Franck mixes organic and electronic drums to good effect on this ballad.  But I swear he is flat when he sings “higher and higher.”

The set ends with “Don’t Forget.”  Tomoka Nomura-Jarvis switches to saxophone (which I like a lot less than the flute).  Although the end of the song features an instrumental jam that I quite like.  Especially the drum flourishes from Franck.

[READ: June 1, 2021] “Ice Cream and Ashes”

The June 11 issue of the New Yorker had several essays under the heading “Summer Movies.”   Each one is a short piece in which the author (many of whom I probably didn’t know in 2007 but do know now) reflects on, well, summer movies.

Roger Agnell says that summer movies don’t have to be about summer [true] and don’t have to open in the summer [um…].

He argues that summer movie are movies that come up with friends on a long drive or hanging out or just before bed: “What was the name of the movie where the cow falls down a well and everybody’s looking for that famous old Irish tenor?”  Of course now we would just look it up, but in 2007 we had to … no wait, in 2007 we could look it up, too.

Some summer movies are counter-classics.  1940’s Remember the Night which isn’t Double Indemnity, or Tremors the Kevin Bacon vs underground-monster-worms movie that made sequels and has ended up on TV at all hours. He even mentions Trees Lounge, which opened and disappeared in a nanosecond [but which I really liked].  Steve Buscemi directed, wrote and starred.

But the bulk of the essay is about Quest for Fire, a movie that I have seen maybe way back in 1982.  I think of it (or the title at least) fairly often, but I don’t remember much about the movie.  His summary makes it sound pretty good. (more…)

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David Sedaris–“The Way We Are” (New Yorker, February 19 & 26, 2007)

Posted in Coffee, Coronavirus, D.R.A.M., David Sedaris, Drinking, Drugs, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Homophobia, New Yorker, Normandy France, Quarantine, Racism, Regrets, Shelley, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Yuck! on June 5, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SHELLEY [fka D.R.A.M.]-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #198 (April 26, 2021).

I’m always puzzled by the FKA in a singer’s name.  Is it part of the singer’s name? Is this singer’s official name Shelley FKA D.R.A.M.?  I don’t think so, I think it’s just for us to know who Shelley used to be.

When D.R.A.M. played the Tiny Desk back in 2017, he made a couple of things clear to us: His playfully dynamic personality was primed for the spotlight, and beneath the catchy hooks, there’s a real singer waiting to come out. For his Tiny Desk (home) concert, he does a complete 180. “It’s like a new beginning. Full circle. So this time, call me Shelley.” he says, following the opening track, “Exposure.” Everything is new. Silk pajamas and slippers replace the trench coat and plush beanie, and thanks to lifestyle changes, he’s slimmed down quite a bit and goes by his government name now: Shelley.

I enjoyed D.R.A.M and his vulgar silliness.  But Shelley is one of those singers who intends to hit every note every time he holds a long note.  He whines up and down the octaves constantly and I hate it.  I know that there are listeners who love this as the blurb admires

The shift from lighthearted melodic hip-hop to full-on R&B crooner shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s seen him perform live. It feels like it’s his way of saying, “Now that I have your attention, allow me to introduce myself.” We still get glimpses of the “Big Baby” here and there — the charm, a little bit of silliness, and the million-dollar grin — but other than that, it’s grown folks business and vocally flawless performance.

For the Shelley Show, he gathers a groovy band in front of a massive bookshelf and runs through selections, including the premiere of “Rich & Famous” from his upcoming self-titled project, due out on April 29, his late mother’s birthday. If D.R.A.M. was the ploy to break into the music industry, then Shelley is the longevity play.

“Exposure” and “The Lay Down” really accentuate his new vocal style.  But I liked the music of “Cooking With Grease.”  The simple drum beat from Keith “KJ” Glover and then the live viola from Yuli (a highlight throughout).  Sensei Bueno follows the melody on guitar and the song grows from there.

Of the four songs, I liked “Rich & Famous” best.  Trey Mitchell plays a grooving bass line, the backing singers Crystal Carr and David Fuller are ah ha-ing.  Sensei Bueno is wah wahing the  guitar and SlimWav is floating the keys around.  Shelley’s voice stayed low and less whiny.  Is he really going to try to make it with the name Shelley?

[READ: May 10, 2021]  “The Way We Are”

Reading this essay in 2021 was a really uncomfortable experience.  David Sedaris is not afraid of saying a risqué thing or three. But it’s amazing how much things seem to have changed in 13 years.

This essay begins in Normandy with David saying that the city shuts off the water without any warning.  Usually it’s a construction project or something.  It usually happens when David gets up around 10:30, which is practically the middle of the day for Hugh and the neighbors.

What they do at 6AM is anyone’s guess, I only know that they’re incredibly self righteous about it, and talk about the dawn as if it’s a personal reward bestowed on account of their great virtue.

The last time the water went off, David had a coffee problem. In order to think straight, he needed caffeine.  In order to make this happen he needed to think straight.  One time he made it with Perrier which sounds plausible but isn’t.  He tried leftover tea which might have worked if the tea weren’t green.  This time he decided to use the water in a vase of wildflowers that Hugh had picked. (more…)

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Curt Pires, Eric Pfeiffer, Colin Bell–The Forevers: Volume 1 (2020)

Posted in Colin Bell, Curt Pires, Drinking, Drugs, Eric Pfeiffer, Graphic Novel, Kurt Cobain, Manic Street Preachers, Murder, Suede, Suicide, Supernatural, The Verve, Violence, Want To Read The Next One on June 4, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MANIC STREET PREACHERS-“Die in the Summertime” (1994).

I really liked the Manic Street Preachers in the late 90s.  Perhaps ironically, I learned about them after the strange disappearance of lyricist and guitarist Richey Edwards, and really liked the first few albums that they put out without him.  I went back and listened to their older stuff later, but I still prefer Everything Must Go.

Nevertheless, The Holy Bible (where this song comes from) is a pretty great album.  And “Die in the Summertime” is really cool.  It opens with tribal drums and a nifty almost Middle Eastern sounding guitar riff.  When it kicks in after a brief intro, it’s more raw and heavy than their later stuff–was that Edwards’ influence?

I listened to this song a few times and will clearly have to dig out The Holy Bible for another listen.

Obviously Edwards looms over the band and clearly looms over this story.

The guitarist vanished on 1 February 1995 and is widely presumed to have taken his own life, but a body was never found and there is no definitive proof that he died by suicide.

[READ: May 31, 2021] The Forevers

This was a fairly simple (and familiar) story, but it was told in a very interesting way.

Ten years ago seven friends (or maybe not friends exactly) made a pact. They performed a ritual asking for fame and fortune.  And it worked.  They have all become very successful.

Each chapter has a title from a song.  The first is “Die in the Summertime” (3:07) [by Manic Street Preachers].

Ten years later we cut to Jamie Ashby–a strung out superstar singer (who looks an awful lot like the Irish guy from Lost, who was also a strung out rock star).  He is in a bad way.

Then we meet Daisy Cates.  She is a successful model,  But the person who takes her home does not have good intentions for her.

I liked the way their two stories paralleled on the same page with a different background wash of color.

Jamie does a show and when an old geezer says he’s washed up, he punches the guy and makes tabloid headlines,  We find out in the next chapter that the geezer was Robert Plant–ha!

Chapter 2 is “The Drugs Don’t Work”  (5:05) [by The Verve]. (more…)

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Ben Costa & James Parks–Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo: The Middle-Route Run [Book 2] (2018)

Posted in Ben Costa, Children's Books, Coronavirus, Graphic Novel, James Parks, Lake Street Dive, Ogres, Quarantine, Supernatural, Surreal, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series, Want To Read The Next One on June 3, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: LAKE STREET DIVE-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #199 (April 27, 2021)

I feel like I was meant to like Lake Street Dive.  They seemed to get heavily promoted in the same breath as bands that I like.  And yet I really don’t like them.  I particularly don’t like this deep dive into “blue-eyed soul” as they call it.

Having said that, though the first song, “Hypothetically” is a very catchy song.  The blurb mentions the addition of the new keyboardist and I was going go say that his keyboard solo is the one thing I don’t like in the song.

Lake Street Dive filmed its Tiny Desk (home) concert where the band is most at home: on stage at the “biggest little venue in NYC,” Pete’s Candy Store. All five band members managed to squeeze onto a stage no larger than the actual Tiny Desk to shine a spotlight on the Save Our Stages Act. Congress passed the $15 billion grant program last December as part of the $900 billion coronavirus relief bill.

I was starting to like “Same Old News” until the new guy started singing.  So that’s two strikes against keyboard and vocalist Akie Bermiss.   Although the keyboard sound he picked for the solo in this song is much better–and his backing vocals are a nice addition.

In the middle of the home concert, bassist Bridget Kearney recalls driving to the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn for a gig at Pete’s, then driving back to Boston the very same night, long before they ever sold out Radio City Music Hall on the other side of the East River.

I don’t really care for Rachel Price’s voice either, but I really like Kearney’s speaking voice.  She plays a great upright bass, but I think I might like them if she sang instead.

“Anymore” is slow just keys and rim shots from Mike Calabrese to open.  I’m quite intrigued by guitarist Mike “McDuck” Olson who stands there quietly playing and looking at his guitar neck the whole show.

“Making Do” ends the set and I found that I liked it best.  It’s a little faster, more upbeat and while I don’t like the verses that much I like the way the song bounces into the chorus melody which is pretty tasty,

So I guess there will be a few songs from them that I like.  And that’s okay.

[READ: February 15, 2021] Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo

I didn’t love Book 1 of this series, but I had Book 2 already.  And when I heard it’s supposed to be a trilogy, I figured, oh why not finish it.

The first book doesn’t really come into play so much–mostly via some amusing cameos.  Rather, our heroes are on the road, continuing their quest for Epoli and Rickety’s identity.  But as it starts out we see them caught in a tree trap, hanging upside down. How does a goo get caught in a rope trap?  No idea.

They fail to escape and then the Bogril junkman from book one happens upon them.  Rickety is excited, but the Bogril doesn’t remember them at all.  Nonetheless he is wiling to trade for their freedom.  They try to follow him, but he is too fast and soon Rickety is captured by The Kobold Witch of Murbletoad Marsh.

She wants to use parts of him to bring her beloved pet back to life.  But Shnookles comes back as a much bigger and scarier creature than she intended.  And now he speaks for the Gloom King, telling Rickety that the Gloom King will come for him soon enough.

Since Rickety was taken apart, he attached other bones that were lying around to himself.  Turns out the arm he attached is a master digger. This comes in handy in a few places later. (more…)

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Amy Chu, Alexander Chang, Maria Laura Sanapo–Red Sonja and Vampirella Meet Betty and Veronica (2020)

Posted in AFROPUNK, Alexander Chang, Amy Chu, Colombia, Coronavirus, Death, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Josie and the Pussycats, Maria Laura Sanapo, Murder, Quarantine, Red Sonja, Superheroes, Supernatural, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Vampirella, Vampires, Violence, Want To Read The Next One, YA Books on June 2, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ChocoQuibTown-Tiny Desk Meets AFROPUNK: #204/196 (May 2, 2021).

Tiny Desk Meets AFROPUNK was the opening event of AFROPUNK’s “Black Spring” festival. The virtual celebration, hosted by Jorge “Gitoo” Wright, highlighted outstanding talent in Afro-Latin and Afro-Caribbean music across the globe. Our showcase featured four artists who honored their homes and celebrated the art their heritage has inspired.

 ChocQuibTown–named after the coastal area the trio hails from–is a family affair comprised of siblings Miguel “Slow” Martinez and Gloria “Goyo” Martinez, the latter of which is married to Carlos “Tostao” Valencia. In 2000, the trio formed to promote their neglected corner of Colombia’s culture; today, ChocQuibTown’s music blends the traditionality of Afro-Latin jazz with the modernity of hip-hop to create a singular, yet versatile sound.

They play what I assume is a medley of six songs in fifteen minutes.

“Somos Pacífico” has grooving bass from Braulio Fernández and little horn blasts from José González.

“De Donde Vengo Yo” shifts gears when Tostao starts singing lead the repeated “ah has” from Eignar Renteria and Yaima Saurez are very fun.  Goyo raps and then Slow raps.  Rapping in Spanish has a really nice flow.

“¡Tú sabes!” Carlos “Tostao” Valencia exclaims after Colombian hip-hop trio ChocQuibTown performs its second song, the energetic “De Donde Vengo Yo.” “ChocQuibTown, straight from Colombia, from the Pacific coast,” he says. “We call it Africa inside Colombia, we got the flavor, we got the flow.”

The rest of the songs are much quieter.  “Pa Olvidarte” has soft acoustic guitar from Alejandro García and keys from Daniel Rodríguez “Noize.”  They sing softly in nice harmony.

“Qué Lástima” is another slow ballad, this one sung by Slow, with gentle percussion from Carlos Palm.  “Lo Que Quieras Tú” segues smoothly into “Cuando Te Veo” which is a little bouncier and fun to start but it slows down for Goyo’s vocals.  As the send the song out, Tostao does some sound effects scratching and singing Tiny Desk and blapping.

[READ May 30, 2021] Red Sonja and Vampirella Meet Betty and Veronica

I don’t understand crossovers.  Well, I understand some, when they make sense.  It’s ones like this that I don’t understand.  Did someone just say, Wouldn’t it be cool if Red Sonja and Vampirella teamed up and went to Riverdale?  I guess so.  And sometimes the most ridiculous crossovers make the best stories.

Amy Chu wrote this story with Alexander Chang’s assistance on book 5.

Now, I don’t watch Riverdale, but I know the show.  So obviously this isn’t old school Betty and Veronica.  But neither, I don’t think, is it Riverdale-based either (or maybe it is).  I’ve also never read Red Sonja or Vampirella books.  So really this crossover event is not for me.

And yet, I did enjoy it.

The book opens with a teacher getting killed and then a shot of Red Sonja and Vampirella in the woods.  Now, I realize that these two characters were created by men, and that’s why they are dressed as they are.   Red Sonja could not be dressed more impractically for fighting as she is wearing a hooded cape and a chain mail bikini.  I mean, the absurdity of dressing like that for combat is monumental.  The cape alone would cause her no end of grief.  Vampirella is at least wearing clothes–a cleavage enhancing skin tight tank top and super low cut off jeans.  But hey, she’s a seductress, right?

I guess I was surprised that Amy and artist Maria Laura Sanapo would keep these costumes. But they do need to establish the characters traditionally first, right?  It was a nice surprise when a few pages later, Betty & Veronica (who aren’t at all disturbed by a woman in a chain mail bikini with a large sword) invite them over and dress them in regular clothes (still sexy) so they blend in. (more…)

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Justin Giampaoli, Andrea Mutti, Vladimir Popov, Sal Cipriano–Starship Down (2020)

Posted in Aliens, Andrea Mutti, Butcher Brown, Caves, Coronavirus, End of the World, Graphic Novel, Justin Giampaoli, Quarantine, Religion, Russia, Sal Cipriano, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Vladimir Popov on June 1, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BUTCHER BROWN-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #195 (April 21, 2021).

I was getting Butcher Brown confused with benny the Butcher whom I’d just heard of.  So I was quite surprised when Butcher Brown’s set proved to be really jazzy.  And funky.

That’s the thing about Butcher Brown: are they playing jazz … or funk … or soul? They scoff at the limitations of adjacent genres with the expertise of master musicians who’ve played together so long that they flow from one vibe to the next without missing a beat. … Butcher Brown takes to a restaurant’s rooftop terrace in the band’s hometown of Richmond, Va., for a home concert and sizzles from the first note.

They play four songs in 16 minutes.

The band opens with “Sticky July,” a tune every bit as catchy as its name implies; think rollerskating with a popsicle under a cloudless sky of blue. When you think you’ve figured it out, keyboardist DJ Harrison switches it up, launching into a solo so funky you wonder if it’s a new song, that is until Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney brings us back home with some sweet trumpet.

There’s some grooving bass throughout the song from Andrew Jay Randazzo, but it’s after a minute and half when Harrison gets that funky dirty keyboard going that the song really shifts gears.   The song settles back into the groove for a trumpet solo and ends with Morgan Burrs playing a pretty guitar solo.

They slide into “Camden Square,” but not before Tennishu introduces the band, thanks their parents, and shouts out Ann Paciulli, who provided the old-school desk seen in the video. Viewers of a certain vintage may recall interminable afternoons spent sitting in a tiny desk just like that one.

“Camden Square” has some cool almost wah wah bass sounds for the simple but intriguing riff.  Then Tennishu picks up the sax and plays the main melody.  Burrs plays a lengthy jazzy guitar solo in this one while Corey Fonville keeps the beat tight.  i really like the way they slow things down dramatically at the end.

“#KingButch” is next, a stank-face hip-hop head-bobber that once again proves they can do it all.

I enjoyed the music of “#KingButch” but the rap felt a little flat to me.

They close with “Tidal Wave”: smooth, delightful, classic.

I enjoyed this song as a nice jazzy and yes, smooth ending.  I really like the sound that Harrison gets from that keyboard.

[READ: May 30, 2021] Starship Down

This book was put out by Dark Horse which was a surprise to me because it’s a short book and not tied to any other franchise.  It’s nice to see them doing something a little differently.

I had just read Rogue Planet and was expecting something equally violent.  But this story went in a very different direction.  First off, it is set on earth.  Second, nobody dies (well, not “on screen” anyhow).

Dr. Jocelyn Young, a cultural anthropologist is flown to the frozen north to the mining village of Vanavara, Russia, to investigate a dig.  But this is no fossil hunt.  International tensions are high about this.  Yes, some important new cave painting were found, but those are actually a coverup for something much bigger.

As she heads down into the cave they show her the paintings which are pretty interesting then she turns and sees the giant space ship frozen in the ice. (more…)

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