Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for August, 2021

Simon Rich–New Teeth: Stories (2021)

Posted in Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, Amelia Meath, Babe Ruth, Babies, Baseball, Corporate skewering, Death, Fantasy, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Humiliation, Josh Gad, Megafaun, Molly Sarlé, Monsters, Morality, Mountain Man, New Yorker, Pirates, Short Story, Simon Rich, Sylvan Esso, Technology, Wye Oak, Yuck! on August 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FLOCK OF DIMES-Tiny Desk Concert #246 (August 10, 2021).

Flock of Dimes is a fun band name.  It’s the solo project of Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner (I thought Wye Oak was a solo project as well–no, it’s a duo).  [Gee, why wasn’t Andy Stack invited to this sing along?]

For this Home Concert, the solo project turns huge with nine people sitting around having a big ol’ sing along (I’ll assume they are all vaccinated and that this was filmed before Delta took off).

The setup is pretty simple: three guitars (I love that the guys on the couch are lefty (Michael Libramento, baritone guitar) and righty (Alan Good Parker, tenor guitar) so it looks appealingly symmetrical). some percussion and a lot of voices (the men on the right of the screen seems somewhat less invested).

The friends who are singing along include the three singers from Mountain Man: Amelia Randall Meath, Molly Sarlé and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig.  Meath is also in Sylvan Esso and her bandmate Nick Sanborn is also present (he’s one of the less invested men).  The set is filmed at Sylvan Esso’s new studio in Durham, N.C., called Betty’s.

“Two” is a bouncy number with lots of percussion.  I like the way the backing singers join in from time to time, but not constantly–it introduces new voices throughout.

One of the invested men is percussionist Matthew McCaughan from Bon Iver–he’s got a full complement of instruments at hand.  Joe Westerland (from Megafaun) is the other percussionist, he’s just a bit more subtle in his actions, but you can see him gently tapping through “Two.”

“Price of Blue” is a little slower but it has a wonderful melody.  The harmonies really standout on this song.

I don’t know the originals of these songs, but I have to assume the blurb is correct

These acoustic performances actually shed new light, thanks to radiant and radically different arrangements, while fully capturing the warmth we look for from Tiny Desk concerts.

Whatever the case, the backing vocals are tremendous.  You can really hear Molly Sarlé’s gorgeous harmony vocals.

“Awake For The Sunrise” feels like an old fashioned fire side sing along.  I’ve enjoyed Wye Oak’s music but I don’t know it very well.  I rather like Wassner’s delivery here–but i feel like these songs might not be as good without these harmonies!

[READ: August 12, 2021] New Teeth

I’m guessing that Simon Rich had a baby.

This collection of stories is loaded with stories about little kids.  And that’s all right because he has a very funny take on being a parent.

The other stories tackle the corporate environment and are full of fish-out-of-water stories.

“Learning the Ropes” is about being a new parent.  But it is written from the point of view of two pirates. And hilarity ensues.

What’s odd to me is that in his first books, his stories were really short, but I feel like lately his stories have gotten much longer–sometimes too long.  This one in particular kind of dragged at times, because it’s pretty much a one-note joke: what? pirates raising a little girl?!  One pirate is a concerned parent which means he wants them both to care about the child.  It’s got a few very funny moments, and of course, when the pirates who speak in pirate style (“The only man I trust is me first mate”) say things like “Arr… it be called ‘limit testing.’ She be acting out because she be craving discipline,” well, that’s classic Simon Rich right there. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Primo Levi–“Bear Meat” (New Yorker, January 8, 2007)

Posted in Alessandra Bastagli, Mountain Climbing, New Yorker, Primo Levi, Short Story on August 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:  BEN HOWARD-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #245 (August 9, 2021).

I don’t really know who Ben Howard is.  he is not one of “The Bens” (that was Ben Folds, Ben Kweller and Ben Lee).  For this Tiny Desk (Home) Concert it’s just him and his guitars.  But the blurb suggests the album these songs are from is quite different.

Having spent time with Collections from the Whiteout, Ben Howard’s sonically adventurous fourth album, I was curious to see how he would adapt these songs to the Tiny Desk (home) concert format. So when the opening shot shows Ben in a room alone, an acoustic guitar in hand, it was both an “oh yeah!” and an “uh-oh” moment. Gone were all those textures that he, Aaron Dessner, and a load of talented musicians had worked on, but front and center was that delicate, reflective voice that I love. It’s a voice that, in the recent past, was often swarming in effects and buried in reverb.

Ben plays four songs.  The first, “Follies Fixtures” is on acoustic guitar.

So as Ben Howard opens his Tiny Desk with the album’s opening track, I found myself zeroing in on the oblique and painterly images of “Follies Fixtures”: “Walk with me to the burning spire. / We can count the dеad on Ender’s pyre. / The dusty towns whеre the number’s found / Don’t quite match the missing.”

This song reminds me of Jose Gonzales in this format.

Howard then switches to electric guitar for the rest of the songs.  He adds drum machine for “Far Out.”

“Thanks for having me and allowing me to play the slight variations of songs that I’m forced to settle with at the moment,” Ben says, and with that he kicks on the drum machine …. Watch those fingers on the guitar and hear that tone. “Far Out,” indeed.

His guitar playing is really something in this song, with soft chords and lot so harmonics as well as great use of the low note riffage in between.

“I I Forget Where We Were” is a moody song–he creates soft chords that swell as he sings.

He later premieres a new tune, “Oldest Trick In The Book.”

He laughs saying he just spent the last ten minutes tuning his guitar so we’ll be happy to know he’s in tune.

This song is the slowest with some really deep resonating bass notes (and no drum machine).  It’s fun watching hi play a solo and low notes at the same time with his finger picking style.

[READ: July 15, 2021] “Bear Meat”

This very short story was translated from the Italian by Alessandra Bastagli.

It begins with the comment that spending evenings in a mountain hut after a four- five- or six hour climb is pretty wonderful. The people you find there don’t speak much.  But these clumbers should not be confused with the ones who do speak a lot–hot shot clumbers, extreme climbers.  The adventurers may be worthy but this story is not about them.

The narrator arrived and there were several men there–eating and drinking.  Once the wine began flowing (at that altitude and temperature it is a metabolic necessity) they began talking about their initiation into serious climbing. (more…)

Read Full Post »

K. Eason–How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge: Arithmancy and Anarchy: The Thorne Chronicles Series, Book 2 (2020) [audiobook 2020–Nicole Poole]

Posted in Adventure, Advice, Aliens, Assassination, Audiobooks, Deafness, Duology, Fairies, Feminism, Funny (ha ha), Gender, K. Eason, Magic, Multiverse, Nicole Poole, Outer Space, Political Humor, Sci-fi, Science, Violence on August 10, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: Summer 2021] How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge

The only thing better than finishing an awesome book is discovering that there’s a sequel and the quality and integrity of the sequel is just as strong as the original story.

Everything from the first story is in place here: the characters, the narrator, the tone, and, delightfully, Nicole Poole to read it.

Obviously, there are massive spoilers in this book for the first story.  So make sure you read that one first.

But to sum up, Rory successfully avoid an arranged marriage (while not upsetting her arranged husband).  She is able to shut down a coup on Urse and ultimately kick-starts a revolution.  Not bad for an under age Princess.

But she is done with being a Princess.  She rescinds her life and goes off to become a space pirate.  She has taken her former royal bodyguards, Thorsdottir and Zhang (so yes, there’s even more time given to these two great characters!) with her.  They pledge to protect Rory so they guess they just go with her?  And Jaed has come along with them too, mostly because he has nowhere else to go (literally) and he crushes on Rory, too.

So Rory’s team aren’t so much space pirates as do-gooders.  They are more like salvagers who might intercept smugglers (this is the equivalent of her telling her mom she’s going to follow Phish and make jewelry).

And for all concerned, Grytt is still in the story although as it starts, she is on Lanscott farming sheep (!) with Rory’s former betrothed Ivar (!!) former crow prince of the Free Worlds of Tadesh {No they are not “together” Grytt is mostly just minding the poor boy while she is “relaxing”).  Grytt by the way needed more implants after the last book and is probably 3/5 mecha to human.  Which she seems to prefer, honestly. (more…)

Read Full Post »

K. Eason–How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse: Arithmancy and Anarchy: The Thorne Chronicles Series, Book 1 (2019) [audiobook 2019–Nicole Poole]

Posted in Adventure, Advice, Aliens, Assassination, Audiobooks, Deafness, Fairies, Feminism, Funny (ha ha), Gender, K. Eason, Magic, Multiverse, Nicole Poole, Political Humor, Sci-fi, Science, Violence on August 9, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: Summer 2021] How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse

This book title appealed to me immediately.  And I loved it.  The story is convoluted in the best way and Nicole Poole is an excellent reader.

The one bad thing about an audio book as opposed to reading the book yourself is that you don’t get to see how certain words are spelled (although it saves all the trouble of trying to figure out how to pronounce them).

The book is set in a futuristic world where space travel is common and war is far more common.

Rory was born into the Thorne family as something of a surprise.  There hadn’t been a female offspring in the Thorne family for ten generations.  The name Rory was reserved for first born males.  But it was determined that the name was gender-neutral enough that the girl could also have the name, no matter how unsettled it made people.

Then Eason sets about establishing this world–with great detail and thoroughness.  Some of which I’ll try to capture. The story is set on the Thorne Consortium, the planet where Rory’s father is King.

Rory’s mother is the Consort.  She was from Kreshti, “a small independent and allied planet on which skill with combat training was considered both a plain necessity.”

Incidentally, the narrator is telling the story as a history lesson and she is far from neutral.

They are both served by the Vizier, a man gifted in arithmancy and scholarship.  “Finding quaint, forgotten, and neglected customs was his second favorite pastime in the multiverse. Explaining to others the relevance of those ancient customs was the first.”

The Vizier discovered that it was customary to invite the faeries to bestow blessings on each new born girl.  The King is annoyed by this–it never happened for any of the boys (and they had invented void-flight with no magic needed). (more…)

Read Full Post »

Japanese Breakfast (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, August 7, 2021)

Posted in Dolly Parton, Japanese Breakfast, Little Big League, OHMME, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on August 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 7, 2021] Japanese Breakfast

A few nights before this show, Union Transfer sent out this message

Japanese Breakfast have requested that all attendees for the remainder of their tour be vaccinated OR have tested negative for Covid in the 48 hours prior to attending a show.

And nothing made me happier than reading that.  We arrived especially early thinking that the vaccination process would be slow, but the UT staff were efficient and friendly and I think everyone was pleased to feel safe and secure.

And anyone not vaccinated?  Well, fuck em, they can stay home.

I saw Japanese Breakfast three years ago and found the show to be a lot of fun.  I also bought a fun poster that proudly adorns our breakfast area.  Since then, they have released a new album and S. has really gotten into them.

When it was announced that Japanese Breakfast would be playing the first post-pandemic show at Union Transfer, I knew we’d want to go.  I grabbed tickets immediately and it sold out almost as fast.  They added a second show and then a third show.  One of those shows was actually BEFORE our show, which meant we didn’t get to go to the venue’s inaugural show, which was a tiny (very tiny) but disappointing.

She ultimately wound up selling out five nights in a row–a Union Transfer record.  Go Michelle!

She also noted that the folks on our night were “spicier” than the Friday night crowd.  No doubt because we were the big fans who grabbed tickets right away.  Or she was just saying that. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Mannequin Pussy (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, August 7, 2021) [JAPANESE BREAKFAST]

Posted in Best Coast, Japandroids, Mannequin Pussy, OHMME, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on August 7, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 7, 2021] Mannequin Pussy

I had tickets to see Best Coast back in March of 2020.  I like them, but the primary reason I wanted to go was because Mannequin Pussy was opening.  I had seen them open for Japandroids in 2018 and really wanted to see them again.  Best Coast had cancelled their tour and while they are coming back early next year they had a new opening act.

So I was pretty psyched to find out that Mannequin Pussy were opening for Japanese Breakfast (whose tickets we had for a while already).

Mannequin Pussy are now officially a trio (they were a quartet when I saw them last), with the core of marisa “missy” dabice–guitars & vocal; colins “bear” regisford–bass & vocals and kaleen reading–drums.   Although they were a five piece on stage with a “new” guitarist and keyboardist (not sure who they were).

They came out, the red lights went on (I forgot about those terrible-for-photos lights at Union Transfer) and proceeded to play two brand new songs.  Somehow I had missed that they released the Perfect EP earlier this year.  They sounded great–Missy’s voice a terrific mixture of pretty and screamy.  “Control” set the stage followed by “To Lose You.” (more…)

Read Full Post »

Modest Mouse (The Met Philadelphia, PA, August 5, 2021)

Posted in Modest Mouse, Philadelphia, PA, The Met Philadelphia on August 6, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 5, 2021] Modest Mouse        [pictures to come]

I wasn’t planning on Modest Mouse being my first show back after 500+ pandemic days.  In fact, I didn’t even think they were my first show back (Japanese Breakfast on Saturday was first, I thought). I bought tickets for this show but forgot to write it on the calendar.  Thankfully, a reminder email got me totally psyched to be back.

This was my fifth time seeing Modest Mouse.  I laughed when I saw that last time I wrote:

I don’t ever plan to see Modest Mouse, they just sort of appear and they worm their way into my calendar.  And frankly … I’ll definitely go again if I can.

Obviously that was true as well this time.

I wish that there was a vaccination and mask mandate in place at The Met, because regardless of how vaccinated everybody may have been, there were a lot of unmasked faces in the pit with my masked one.

After a year and a half it was almost comforting to se that all of the irritating people came out for the show as well.  But I was in a good space, so I acknowledged their irritations bit didn’t get irritated.  I was fairly close to the stage, but there were some last minute pushers who forced me a little back.  I also tried my best to leave some distance between me and the others (but that was nigh impossible).  There were the requisite tall boys right in front of the stage and (I had forgotten about this behavior) a short girl (woman? it was hard to tell) who barreled her way right in front of me, dragging her boyfriend (father?) with her.  She also later tried to start a mosh pit but no one was biting.  And of course, by the end of the night there was the very sloppy drunk woman who was falling all over herself (and her boyfriend) who had to leave early.

After a 30 minute wait between bands, Modest Mouse came out.   And the crowd went nuts.

I noted last time that

The main draw for me at a Modest Mouse show is the thought that I’ll hear songs I haven’t heard live before.  I didn’t know if that was possible on my now fourth show but amazingly, they played 8 songs that I hadn’t heard live before.  They have over 100 songs officially released, so I don’t imagine hearing all of them, but I have heard 55 songs at four shows, which again, is amazing

That was not an issue for me this time.  I just wanted to hear live music.  They did play seven songs I hadn’t hear live before.  But six of them were from the new album The Golden Casket.  One was from the Interstate 8 EP.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

The Districts (The Met Philadelphia, PA, August 5, 2021) [MODEST MOUSE]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, The Districts, The Met Philadelphia on August 5, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 5, 2021] The Districts

I was supposed to see The Districts play at Union Transfer on March 12.  COVID-19 had just found its way into New Jersey and Pennsylvania and I was being very cautious so I decided to skip the show.  It was a safe decision, but one that I now regret as it would have been a pretty great final show of the year.  Shows pretty much completely stopped after that.

I was able to watch The Districts play at (virtual) Philly Music Fest which was fun (but not the real thing).

So I was pretty excited to hear that they were announced as the opening act for Modest Mouse.  They would be the first live band I’d seen and the symmetry made me pleased.

They sounded great, but I was a little bummed that their set was only 6 songs in 30 minutes.  I didn’t keep track of the songs, assuming someone out there would have updated the setlist page, so I only know four of the six songs played.  And the shows around it have slightly different setlists, so I guess I’ll never know.

They opened with “If Before I Wake” and introduced their new drummer (who was really good).  I feel like the crowd was a little subdued for these Philly favorites. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Graham Norton–Holding (2016)

Posted in Death, Drinking, Graham Norton, Ireland, Irish Writer, Marriage Trouble, Mystery, Romance on August 4, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: July 2021] Holding

Graham Norton is a fairly peripheral entertainer in our lives  I’ve always enjoyed him when I’ve watched him, but I don’t watch him very often.  He’s a good (and funny) talk show host, but who knew that he also wrote novels?  And not comic ones.

This story is a mystery set in the remote Irish village of Duneen.  They have one policeman (guard), Sergeant P.J. Collins who is overweight and alone.  Collins is central to the story, as are Brid Riordan and Evelyn Ross.

Brid Riordan is a wife and mother and she is unhappy.  She’s been drinking a lot and her husband has been getting on her case about it–even taking the kids away to his mother’s a few times.

Evelyn Ross is the youngest of the three Ross sisters–a wealthy trio of (orphaned and single) women living in a large estate called Ard Carraig. Abigail and Florence are her older sisters and they dote on Evelyn because a) she found their father when he hung himself and b) she was more of less left at the altar.

Nothing much happens in Duneen.  The biggest news is the development that’s going up.  And what they find when they start to dig the foundation–human bones. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Colleen AF Venable, Stephanie Yue–Katie and the Catsitter (2021)

Posted in Cats, Children's Books, Colleen AF Venable, Cute, Funny (ha ha), Stephanie Yue, Summer, Summer Camp, Superheroes, Unfinished series on August 3, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: July 2021] Katie and the Catsitter

I have enjoyed everything I’ve read by Colleen AF Venable.  This is her first middle grade graphic novel.  And it is fantastic.

So much fun and so much going on!

The artwork is by Stephanie Yue who also drew her Guinea P.I. books and it is a perfect match.

In this story Katie is a little bummed because her friends are going off to summer camp and she can’t afford to go.  She puts up a sign in her apartment offering her services, but she finds that she’s really not very good at anything (she can’t lift heavy groceries, she kills plants).  Finally, she asks if she can work for the bodega owner downstairs.  He loves Katie, but she is too young.  He offers her a consolation lunch of “baby kale, blue cheese, craisins… those are basically candy.”  But all she wants is a PBnJ.

It’s all pretty normal.

Except that in this world there are superheroes and super villains.  The most famous superhero right now is The Eastern Screech, a guy whop dresses like an owl. (more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »