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Archive for February, 2022

J.P. Oakes–City of Iron and Dust (2021)

Posted in Adventure, Art, Death, Drugs, Goblins, J.P. Oakes, Pixies, The Fae, Violence, War, Yuck! on February 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: February 15, 2022] City of Iron and Dust

Like a bird attracted to shiny things, when I see an interesting-looking book come by my desk at work, I decide to read it–no matter how big my tipping over pile of other books to read happens to be.

I dithered about reading this book and I had a slightly hard time getting into it (probably because I wasn’t exactly sure if I wanted to read it).  But it got very good and very exciting very quickly.

The book is broken up into chapters and each chapter is broken into subsections about a particular character

Jag.  She is the daughter of one of the big goblin families in the City of Iron.  But she longs for a world where goblins don’t dominate and persecute the rest of the fae.  She’s an idealist who goes to fae bars trying to feel something more than the money and power her family has.

Sil.  Sil is half goblin half Fae.  She is Jag’s half sister.  But she was brought up to be an assassin.  And her only purpose in life is to protect Jag.  Later on, we are shown the brutality she suffered to become such a formidable creature.  She has no opinions of her own. (more…)

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Zapiro–Call Mr. Delivery: Cartoons from Sowetan, Mail & Guardian and Sunday Times (1999)

Posted in Abortion, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bill Clinton, Charles Schulz, Cigarettes, Comic Strips, Coronavirus, Corporate skewering, Daily Maverick, Environmentalism, Funny (ha ha), Hergé, Liars, Lies, Mail & Guardian, Nelson Mandela, Olympics, Peanuts, Political Humor, Politicians, Racism, Robert Mugabe, Sexism, South Africa, Sowetan, Violence, Zapiro on February 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: February 20, 2022] Call Mr. Delivery

This is Zapiro’s fourth book and it’s the first time, I think, that he’s put himself into the cartoons.  And it seems like maybe the world is getting to him.

Although his first appearance is in the meta-joke:

“Only one tiny minority welcomes the formation of Louis Luyt’s new political party” : Cartoonists.

But later by March 1999 he is on a therapist’s couch.  The therapist asks “when did you first experience this feeling of uselessness.  Zapiro says “this week suddenly reality seemed weirder than anything I could come up with.” (And the world hasn’t even gotten to trump yet).

It’s the end of the Mandela era and his successors don’t seem to be shaping up very well.

Although Mandela gets one nice shoutout.  He parts the waters for the Lockerbie Breakthrough and Libya asks if anyone ever get blasé about this sort of thing.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report had to have any negative mentions of F.W. DeKlerk removed.  And Desmond Tutu seems under attack from the left, right and centre (PAC, IFP, FF, ANC, NP, TRC). (more…)

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Lucy Dacus / Indigo De Souza (Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ, February 26, 2022) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Asbury Park, NJ, Bruce Springsteen, Indigo De Souza, Lucy Dacus, The Stone Pony on February 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 26, 2022] Lucy Dacus / Indigo De Souza

I saw Lucy Dacus play back in October.  I didn’t plan to go to this show because I had just seen her.  I was supposed to see Indigo De Souza, but her show was postponed.

Then I looked into this show to see if there were still tickets available, but it was sold out.  No big deal.

But then this show became legendary.

Lucy threw out her back a few weeks ago and has been performing while lying on a couch. That would have been pretty fun to see. (more…)

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Marco Benevento (Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, February 25, 2022)

Posted in Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, Deer Scout, Elton John, José González, Karina Rykman, Leon Russell, Marco Benevento, Philadelphia, PA, Pink Floyd, The Knife on February 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 25, 2022] Marco Benevento

Almost exactly five years ago to the day I saw Marco Benevento headline a show at the Ardmore Music Hall.  That show blew me away, it was so much fun.  The whole band: Marco on keyboards, Karina Rykman on bass and Andy Borger on drums were terrific.  And the three of them laid down a fantastic groove all night.

The trio was almost the same tonight. This time Dave Butler was on drums, but it was still Marco and Karina.  I looked up Karina and found that she is 23, which means she was 18 last time!  She was fantastic then and even better tonight.

There was supposed to be an opening act: Deer Scout.  But for whatever reason, they didn’t come and it was announced a few days ago that Marco would play two sets.

I arrived a little later than I wanted to, but he didn’t go on exactly at 8, so that was fine.  I was also amused because for the first time in a while, I was one of the youngest people there.

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead had played three nights in Philly a few weeks ago and it was clear that people who were at that show were here as well (Marco plays with JRAD, although his music is not similar at all).  There was a lot of tie-dye and a lot of long gray beards.  I decided not to get mixed up with that crowd so I hung back a bit. (more…)

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The Beths (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, February 24, 2022)

Posted in National Treasure, New Zealand, Philadelphia, PA, The Beths, Underground Arts on February 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 24, 2022] The Beths

The Beths are from New Zealand.

I really enjoyed hearing them talk between songs–super cool accents.

They only have two albums out but they have a pretty rabid fan base–if the guys who sang along loudly to everything were anything to go by.

The Beths were originally supposed to play King Fu Necktie in April 2020.  The show was moved to World Cafe Live, but was ultimately cancelled because of COVID.  They scheduled a new date at Underground Arts for January, but that got pushed back a month as COVID cases rose again.

And then, finally, they were here! (more…)

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Lunar Vacation (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, February 24, 2022)

Posted in Lunar Vacation, Philadelphia, PA, Pivoting, The Beths, Underground Arts on February 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 24, 2022] Lunar Vacation

The Beths were supposed to play shows in 2020 at World Cafe Live.  First in April, then in August.  Then that was all scrapped and then rescheduled for January 2022.  That was then pushed back until February.

Weakened Friends were slotted to open for them over these shows.  But the new show had Lunar Vacation signed up for them.

And they were delightful.

They are from Atlanta, and I had to laugh when singer Grace Repasky asked if anyone did the Wordle yet.  When we acknowledged that we had, she commented that it was a very British word (Bloke). (more…)

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Billie Eilish (Prudential Center, Newark, NJ, February 22, 2022)

Posted in Billie Eilish, Finneas, Newark, NJ, Prudential Center, Set in New Jersey! on February 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 22, 2022] Billie EIlish

Back in 2019, I bought tickets for my daughter and I to see Billie Eilish’s tour in 2020.  I was really looking forward to it because I’d heard that she put on an amazing show.

I was especially looking forward to the energy and the visuals.  Then COVID came in and we watched with bated breath as concerts were cancelled.  And then she postponed the whole tour.  Ultimately, she cancelled it.

And actually that proved to be not a bad thing in the long run.  The opener we had was much better than Denzel Curry.  And our new seats proved to be terrific.  When she announced the tour for the new album, we were given a pre-sale code since we had tickets for the earlier show.  Then in May of 2021 I grabbed tickets and waited nine months!

The only bummer was that this new tour was for her newly released, more mature album (she’s all of 18).  And I didn’t really like it.  I thought it was kind of bland.  I love that Billie is singing and not mumbling like she does on the first album–and I was really impressed by her voice.  But I found the album lacked the dynamics of the first one.

She was performing most of the album live.  Although I see that in the previous tour she did a whole middle section of covers, which I don’t really like, so that’s okay then.

I also thought she’d dress like the album.  But nope, as you can see she was good old punky Billie.  And she played 26 songs and performed for about an hour and forty-five minutes.

(more…)

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Dora Jar (Prudential Center, Newark, NJ, February 22, 2022) [BILLIE EILISH]

Posted in Billie Eilish, Dora Jar, Newark, NJ, Prudential Center, Set in New Jersey!, Willow on February 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 22, 2022] Dora Jar

Originally Willow was supposed to be the support act for Billie Eilish.

My daughter and I were pretty excited about that because Willow’s new album is really good.  And, she had announced a headline tour, which we didn’t really want to go to.  This was an easy opportunity to see her.

Then a few days before this tour began, Willow dropped out of the tour.  She gave an excuse that, to my ears, sounds very lame:

Due to production limitations, I am unable to put on the show that I believe you all deserve.

It sounds noble, but let’s be honest, it’s not like the opening act’s performance was suddenly stripped down.

At the last minute, Dora Jar, an artist I’d never heard of, signed on.  I listened to a song online.  Thought it was fine and then forgot about it. (more…)

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Zhang Xiaoyu–The Village Teacher [by Cixin Liu] (Graphic novel #3 2021) [originally written 2001; translated 2021]

Posted in Barack Obama, Cancer as plot device, China, Cixin Liu, Death, End of the World, Graphic Novel, Outer Space, S. Qiouyi Lu, Set at School, Supernatural, Surreal, Talos Press, Translation, Violence, Zhang Xiaoyu on February 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: February 2022] The Village Teacher

This book came to my work and it was quite a challenge to catalog.  Cixin Liu is a Chinese science fiction writer.  These are graphic novel adaptations of his short stories.  But he did not write the graphic novels.  However, I wanted them linked together because there are going to be sixteen of them and they should all go together.  If you put them under Liu, then they go into the Chinese authors section.  But these are American books created for American audiences.  (I wound up making it an American series under Liu’s name).

Anyhow, I had never heard of him before, but these books are blurbed by none other than Barack Obama.

So I decided to take a look at them.

This book is also called The Rural Teacher in translated form.

After the complex intensity that was The Wandering Earth, this story is much more simple.  But it is not less intense.

There are two storylines.  I’m not sure if in the written work it’s less clear that the story lines are at the same time.  It felt like for a powerful effect, they would not be obviously simultaneous, but I’m not sure how he could have done that.

The story starts on a school in a rural village.  The teacher is teaching the kids about outer space. (more…)

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Pinegrove (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, February 18, 2022)

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Pinegrove, Union Transfer on February 20, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 18, 2022] Pinegrove

This is my fourth time seeing Pinegrove.  I have a sweet fondness for this band.  They were my first (and only) show at the First Unitarian Church–a show that was so vibrant and alive that I remember it very well even five years later.

Their shows don’t have a lot “going on,” just a lot of good music and a band that sounds better and better.

This new tour is in support of their new album 11:11.  I didn’t like this album as much as their previous collections–the songs were a little too slow for my liking (although there are some terrific songs on it).  They played the entire album (not in order) which might seem like a bummer given how I wasn’t crazy about the album

But instead, the band sounded so good, so dynamic, that it made me like the new songs far more than I did.  Perhaps it was the way they were spaced out.  Or maybe it was mixing older songs with the new ones.  Whatever the case, it made the new songs sound fantastic.

(more…)

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