Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for December, 2021

Hassouna Mosbahi–“Truman Capote” [Tunisia] (translated by William H. Hutchins) [The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar #22] (2015/translation 2015)

Posted in Alberto Manguel, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Canadian Content, Christmas, Hassouna Mosbahi, Hingston & Olsen, Prostitution, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tunisia, William M. Hutchins on December 22, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:  hiatus

[READ: December 22, 2021] “Truman Capote”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my seventh time reading the Calendar.  The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check this link where editor Alberto Manguel is providing daily commentary on each of the stories he selected for this year’s calendar.

I read this whole story believing it was written by Truman Capote and believing that perhaps (as with many of the other authors in this collection) he originated from a place I didn’t realize.  And that Hassouna Mosbahi was a person or perhaps a place that I’d never heard of.

And I thought it was really weird and meta that Truman Capote was writing about himself and that he was writing about himself as if he were dead.  It seemed like a pretty crazy conceit.

Whoops.

This story is introduced by a narrator who relates his forgetfulness.  He has arrived home in Tunisia, but he’s not sure why.  Eventually he discovers a telegram that informs him his grandmother has died.  While he is in the center city he sees Truman Capote in his white suit and hat. (more…)

Read Full Post »

KT Tunstall / Dina Hall (Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA, December 21, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Dina Hall, KT Tunstall, Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA on December 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: December 22, 2020] KT Tunstall / Dina Hall [rescheduled from May 5th 2020 and June 28th 2020 and December 22, 2020 and July 9, 2021]

KT Tunstall and Sellersville Theater did everything they could to make this show happen. This was the fifth rescheduled date.

I’m not even entirely sure if Dina Hall was still opening at this point.

I almost feel bad not going to this show I’ve been following it so carefully.  But of the three venues where KT was playing near me, this was the most inconvenient and least likely for me to go to.

Nevertheless, I’m happy it finally happened.

Dina Hall is a folksinger from Bethlehem–originally from Sayreville NJ. When she’s with her full band she rocks out a bit more. I’m not sure if this was a solo or a band show.

Read Full Post »

Leo Tolstoy–“The Three Hermits” [Russia] (translated by Leo Wiener) [The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar #21] (1886/translation between 1862 & 1939)

Posted in Alberto Manguel, Canadian Content, Christmas, Hingston & Olsen, Leo Tolstoy, Leo Wiener, Religion, Russia, Short Story, Supernatural, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Translation on December 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:  hiatus

[READ: December 21, 2021] “The Three Hermits”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my seventh time reading the Calendar.  The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check this link where editor Alberto Manguel is providing daily commentary on each of the stories he selected for this year’s calendar.

By the time I saw Leo Tolstoy I was getting a little annoyed by the end of this collection.  Nothing against Tolstoy at all–we should all read him more, but again, I wanted a contemporary writer to get excited by.

And then this story turned out to be exactly the same as Ray Bradbury’s story (obviously Tolstoy was first), but it was less satisfying.

Basically, a bishop is aboard a ship and is told by the pilgrims on board that there’s an island nearby with three very holy hermits.  Naturally the busybody bishop needs to see them to make sure they are praying correctly. So he disrupts the entire voyage, making everyone else delay their travels for at least a full day, so he can be a pain in the ass to these poor hermits.

He tries to teach them about god, but they don’t understand him. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Chen Xuanyou–“Ch’ien-niang” [China] (translated by Wayne Schlepp) [The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar #20] (fl. 779/translation 1990)

Posted in Alberto Manguel, Canadian Content, Chen Xuanyou, China, Christmas, Fairy Tales, Hingston & Olsen, Romance, Short Story, Supernatural, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Wayne Schlepp on December 20, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:  hiatus

[READ: December 20, 2021] “Ch’ien-niang”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my seventh time reading the Calendar.  The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check this link where editor Alberto Manguel is providing daily commentary on each of the stories he selected for this year’s calendar.

As with Homer and Hans Christian Andersen, I am fairly surprised that Manguel went back to the Tang Dynasty (even if it the Golden Age of Chinese literature) to find a story.  Especially since “’Ch’ien-niang’ is a Chinese version of Sleeping Beauty with a twist.”

Ch’ien-niang is a legend that the narrator had often heard of.

Ch’ien-niang was designed to marry Wang Chou.  But Chou was to be sent away instead. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Muriel Spark–“A Member of the Family” (Scotland) [The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar #19] (1985)

Posted in Alberto Manguel, Canadian Content, Christmas, Hingston & Olsen, Muriel Spark, Romance, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:  hiatus

[READ: December 19, 2021] “The Fire Balloons”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my seventh time reading the Calendar.  The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check this link where editor Alberto Manguel is providing daily commentary on each of the stories he selected for this year’s calendar.

This is the story of Trudy, a young woman who pretends to be much younger in order to win a suitor.

Trudy met the man, Richard, on vacation.  She and her friend Gwen had gone to Austria and after a couple of days they ran into Richard, who had known Gwen for years.  (more…)

Read Full Post »

Hans Christian Andersen–“The Travelling Companion” [Denmark] (translated by M.R. James) [The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar #18] (1835/translation 1930)

Posted in Alberto Manguel, Canadian Content, Christmas, Death, Denmark, Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen, Hingston & Olsen, Short Story, Supernatural, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Trolls, Violence on December 18, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:  hiatus

[READ: December 18, 2021] “The Travelling Companion”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my seventh time reading the Calendar.  The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check this link where editor Alberto Manguel is providing daily commentary on each of the stories he selected for this year’s calendar.

I have mixed feelings about including a Hans Christian Andersen story here.  On the one hand, I don’t think I have ever actually read an HCA story (of course I know many of them).  So on the one hand it was interesting to do so.  But, as with Homer, there was no from the last century and a half in Denmark worthy of inclusion here?

In this story a Poor John’s father dies immediately.  So Poor John sets off with his few belongings to seek his fortune.

The first night he slept under the stars and in the morning gave some coins to a beggar.  Later that night, he happened upon a church and made to sleep there for the night as the weather was worsening. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Mavis Gallant–“From the Fifteenth District” (Canada) [The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar #17] (1979)

Posted in Alberto Manguel, Canada, Canadian Content, Christmas, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Ghosts, Hingston & Olsen, Mavis Gallant, Paris, France, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 17, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:  hiatus

[READ: December 17, 2021] “From the Fifteenth District”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my seventh time reading the Calendar.  The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check this link where editor Alberto Manguel is providing daily commentary on each of the stories he selected for this year’s calendar.

I thought  had read more by Mavis Gallant, but apparently I hadn’t.  This is a light and amusing ghost story, set in the fifteenth district of Paris.

But Gallant has an amusing twist on the concept right from the start.

A deceased soldier says that he is haunted by the entire congregation of St. Michael and All Angels on Bartholomew Street.  Since he received his posthumous purple heart, people await for him to come and receive communion, and the crowd gets larger every year. (more…)

Read Full Post »

The Joy Formidable / Cuffed Up (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, December 16, 2021) [POSTPONED]

Posted in Coronavirus, Cuffed Up, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, The Joy Formidable, Underground Arts on December 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: December 16, 2021] The Joy Formidable / Cuffed Up [moved to October 27, 2022]

indexThings were looking up, shows were back, we had a vaccine.  And then shitty people refused to get the vaccine and it mutated and now we’re back where we were a year ago with shows getting postponed.

I was really looking forward to this show.  It would have been a great show to end the year on (I would have gone to this one if they had been in town).

The Joy Formidable are from Wales.  The trio Ritzy Bryan, Rhydian Dafydd and Matt Thomas play diverse sounds, but tend towards guitar based rock in various formats).  They even sing in Welsh sometimes.  Their newest album into the blue brings back some of the noisier sounds that the band used on early albums and explored their way away from for a time.

Cuffed Up is an L.A. based band who is getting a lot of buzz.  They play rocking songs with a great dual vocal set up between Sapphire Jewell and Ralph Torrefranca.  I was glad to have heard of them when this tour was announced and I look forward to experiencing them live.

I’m really looking forward to when this is rescheduled.

Read Full Post »

Chicano Batman (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, December 15, 2021) [rescheduled date, rescheduled again]

Posted in Chicano Batman, Los Retros, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer on December 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 15, 2021] Chicano Batman [rescheduled from May 3, 2020 and June 16, 2021]

I’ve enjoyed a bunch of Chicano Batman songs over the last few years.  When I saw the Tiny Desk concert, they seemed so cool, that I really wanted to see them live.

This show was postponed twice.  I waited until a couple of weeks before the show to get tickets, and I had no idea it would be my last show before COVID struck again.

The band started in a delightful way.  The (new) keyboardist came out first followed by their (absolutely insane) drummer Gabriel Villa.  The keyboardist started hitting a cowbell and Villa laid down a funky beat while bassist Eduardo Arenas and guitarist Carlos Arévalo came out to rapturous applause.  Moments later, singer Bardo Martinez came on stage in an Adidas tracksuit.

The band used to dress in full matching suits, so this was a bit of a surprise.  I was also surprised at how mellow and low key Martinez was.  I would almost say he wasn’t into the show, but he definitely was.  I guess he’s just a low-key kind of guy.

I had moved away from the center of the stage because a bunch of people wouldn’t leave their masks on.  I wound up in front of Arévalo who was a lot of fun to watch (his solo during “Color My Life” was awesome).  But to me, Chicano Batman is all about the bass lines.  Arenas lays down great lines and his sound was fantastic. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Moacyr Scliar–“The Dwarf in the Television Set” [Brazil] (translated by Eloah F. Giacomelli) [The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar #16] (1999/translation 1999)

Posted in Alberto Manguel, Brazil, Canadian Content, Christmas, Dwarfs, Eloah F. Giacomelli, Hingston & Olsen, Moacyr Scliar, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Unfunny, Violence on December 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:  hiatus

[READ: December 16, 2021] “The Dwarf in the Television Set”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my seventh time reading the Calendar.  The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check this link where editor Alberto Manguel is providing daily commentary on each of the stories he selected for this year’s calendar.

This story made me a little uncomfortable because of the whole “dwarf in the television set” aspect.  Manguel describes it as a fantastic farce, but the whole thing felt weird and unfunny.  Maybe I would have thought it was funny if I read it when it came out.

The dwarf lives inside a gigantic color TV.  The TV is owned by Gastão (who owns a department store with many TVs). (more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »