Posted in Adventure, Anarchy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Contests, Death, Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog, Fantasy, Felicia Day, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Greed, Humiliation, LGBTQ, The Guild on June 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »
I’m very late to this show, I know. But then I have an excuse: I don’t like watching TV/movies/etc on my computer. So, even when I watched the awesome Dr Horrible, and the commentary told me all about Felicia Day’s online show, I didn’t investigate.
It took our friend Megan telling us that we could Instant Watch it on TiVo before we decided to check it out. And the only reason I’m glad it took so long to watch is because we were able to watch all three seasons back to back (to back). (more…)
Posted in Adventure, Art, Bible, Big Books, Death, Demons, Fishing, Funny (strange), Grateful Dead, Herman Melville, Huh?, Infinite Zombies, Moby Grape, Racism, Religion, Whales on May 31, 2010| 5 Comments »
SOUNDTRACK: MOBY GRAPE-Moby Grape (1967).
Moby Grape is one of those bands that I’ve always heard of but had never heard. I know, their debut is 43 years old and yet I’d never heard it. Well, thanks to the internet (lala.com, RIP as of today), I was able to listen to what I assumed was their Greatest Hits. If only I had done a modicum of research. The disc I chose was Legendary Grape, which it turns out is not a greatest hits at all, but is actually some weird pesudo-Moby Grape record released in 1989 under a different band name due to legal protractions, but then reissued as Moby Grape. It was rather uninspired and nothing at all what I thought it would sound like. Nothing dreadful, just nothing worth thinking that this band “legendary.”
So, with a little research, I learned that their first album is what I should have been checking out. Moby Grape is the eponymous release and it sounds much more like what I assumed this psychedelic era-band would sound like. This disc is pretty much in keeping with what a band that produced an album cover like this would sound like.
It’s sort of a folksy Grateful Deadish sound. But they move beyond a simple genre with a host of writers and instrumentalists contributing their own thing, man. So there’s a few rocking numbers, a few ballads, and a bunch of other fun things. To me the most notable thing is that in a time when trippy psychedelic songs were long events, Moby Grape played mostly short songs (the longest one is the final track at 4 minutes, but most are around 2 minutes long).
I think I may be too far removed from this scene to really appreciate the disc. I like what I hear, and a second listen made it even more enjoyable, but I can’t imagine investing a lot of time with the band.
[READ: Week of May 31, 2010] Moby-Dick [Chapters 19-41]
Plug #1:
In case you didn’t see it on Infinite Zombies, Daryl has created what he calls Moby-Diction, which allows you to search the text for any word and see where and how often it occurs. Geek heaven!
Plug # 2:
A visual treat is found at Matt Kish’s monumental: One Drawing for Every Page of Moby-Dick, which is pretty well explained by its title. It is an amazing site (sight) to behold.
Now, back to our story.
Week 2 of the Moby-Dick read is amusing because it continues a minor thread that has been going on for some 100 pages (of my edition): When are we going to meet Captain Ahab? We hear a lot about him, including a portent of doom from Elijah, but he doesn’t appear until Chapter 28.
Elijah, meanwhile, appears on the Nantucket streets. He reveals himself to Ishmael and Queequeg as a sort of homeless man who asks them if they’re sailing with Ahab. When they say yes, of course, he warns them about some bad things that happened to Ahab and his leg and future portents of doom. Ishmael is a bit freaked by the guy, especially when Elijah seems to be following them, but he tries to out the madman out of his mind. (more…)
Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, Big Books, Chowder, Damion Searls, Dazed and Confused, Funny (ha ha), Herman Melville, Infinite Zombies, Led Zeppelin, Mastodon, Religion, Whales on May 24, 2010| 2 Comments »
SOUNDTRACK: LED ZEPPELIN-The Song Remains the Same (1978).
I don’t normally try to have my soundtracks correspond to the book. But since Andrew suggested that Mastodon’s Leviathan was a good match, I decided I’d try to have all six Soundtracks relate to the book some how.
The obvious starting point was Led Zeppelin’s “Moby Dick” and where better to look than at the over-the-top live version contained here.
As a classic rock guy, I grew up worshiping Led Zeppelin. And I have no way of objectively talking about their music, really. However, when I was in college, some guys in my dorm played this particular release all the time and claimed it to be the best CD in the history of music.
And thus, I have a delightfully convoluted relationship to this live album. I used to really dislike it: extended jams of silliness rather than rocking live tracks. However, as I’ve gotten older, and I’ve begun enjoying jam bands more, I see the enjoyment of this kind of show. And yet I read a review of this very disc the other day that described it as being a few shows past Led Zep’s prime, and I think that’s pretty valid.
I haven’t heard any of the other recently released live discs (which are supposed to be amazing). But this one feels overblown and pretentious. And there’s nothing wrong with that if that’s the kind of band you are, but Led Zep was not that (until later); they were meaty and heavy.
This version of “Moby Dick” is 12-minutes long. Over 10 minutes of it is a drum solo. This always reminds me of the line from Dazed & Confused: “Man, I ain’t belivin’ that shit about Bonham’s 1-hour drum solo…I mean, 1 hour on drums…you couldn’t handle that shit on strong acid, man.” The rest of the disc is the same way: long solos that don’t really showcase virtuosity, they just sort of go on and on. I do like the kevboard solo in one of the songs, but the “ah ah” part in “Dazed and Confused” is pretty silly.
In some ways, the song “Moby-Dick” (and the album itself) is like the book: a product of its time. In 2010 , if you played a ten-minute drum solo (even Rush have added electronic horns and a swing number to Neil’s drum solo) you’d be mocked. But back in the 70s, it was a badge or honor. Similarly, Moby-Dick seems quaint and weird to most contemporary readers. And yet, put in context, it’s funny and surprisingly forward thinking. And I suppose the music does make a good background for reading it, too.
[READ: Week of May 24, 2010] Moby-Dick [Chapters 1-18]
So, the instigators at Infinite Zombies are hosting a read along for Moby-Dick (and yes, the hyphen is supposed to be there). I’m going to be a contributing writer to this shindig, so I’m going to curtail what I say here somewhat [see my post about religion, here]. Also, unlike Infinite Jest and 2666 which had difficult, multi-charactered, multi-layered, confusing plots, Moby-Dick is fairly straightforward. And so, there’s not a great need for in-depth story summary (not to mention each of the 100+ chapters is titled, so you know what’s going to happen in each one!).
But with that out of the way, let’s see what I can say about this book. Oh, one more thing, I’ve been trying to include page numbers in my citations, but there are just too many versions of this book (and I am using one for my reading and another for my copy-and-paste-quotes–the whole book is available at that link), so I’m just going with Chapters.
I was joking with some friends recently that their sister thinks Moby-Dick is very funny. And I have to say I was surprised about how funny it was, too. Not gut-busting funny, mind you, but funny enough. (more…)
Posted in Adventure, Annie Holmes, Anthony Doerr, Art, Arthur Bradford, Ben Marcus, Bridget Clerkin, Daniel Handler, David Means, Death, Fantasy, Funny (strange), Greil Marcus, History, Jack Pendarvis, John Hodgman, Jonathan Ames, Jonathan Lethem, Julie Klausner, Lisa Brown, McSweeney's, Mike Leigh, Mona Awad, Nick McDonell, Sarah Vowell, Sean Casey, Short Story, Silver Mt. Zion, Stephen Elliott, T.C. Boyle, Tim Carvell, Tom Barbash, Violence on May 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra-Kollpas Tradixionales (2010).
Silver Mt. Zion are back! And they are noisy!
This disc continues their fine output of haunting, rambling epics. The opener is a 15 minute slow builder called “There is a Light” and the finale is a 14 minute story called “‘Piphany Rambler.” In between we have a couple of multi-part tracks: “I Built Myself a Metal Bird” and “I Fed My Metal Bird the Wings of Other Metal Birds” which are some of the fastest tracks they’ve recorded. The other “suite” is 3 versions (and spellings) of the title track.
The one consistent thing about Silver Mt . Zion (in whatever version of their name they employ) is that they write incredibly passionate music. It’s often raw and it swells and ebbs with feeling. I especially enjoy the (multiple) climaxes that fill all of the longer songs. And when the band brings in the horns and the strings and the whole group sings along, it’s very affecting.
The one thing that I’m still not totally on board with is Efrim’s voice. On previous releases, I bought it because he sounded very angsty, but I’m starting to think that the tenor of his voice just doesn’t work with the bombast of the music. When the backing singers chime in, the sound is glorious, but I find his voice to be simply the wrong sound. There’s a few parts on the disc where he sings in a lower, softer register, and I found them really moving. I think if he sang all of the parts like that, they would impact the songs more strongly (and maybe even be more understandable).
I realize that the vocals are an essential part to the disc, and I definitely get used to them after a few listens, I just feel like the whole disc (and not just the music) would be amazing if Efrim used that deeper register more.
Nevertheless, the music is really fantastic, and if you buy the LP, you get some great artwork, too.
[READ: May 13, 2010] McSweeney’s 34
After the enormous work of Panorama, (McSweeney’s newspaper (Issue 33)), they’ve returned with a somewhat more modest affair. Two slim books totaling about 400 pages Each is a paperback. The first is a collection of short stories artwork, etc. The second is nonfiction work about Iraq. Both books are bound together in a clear plastic slipcover (with a fun design on it). [UPDATE: I cannot for the life of me out the books back in the cover. They simply will not sit without ripping the plastic. Boo!]
The first collection opens with a Letters column, something that we haven’t seen in years! And, as with the old letters column, the letters are absurd/funny/thoughtful and sometimes just weird. (more…)
Posted in Adam Rex, Adventure, Art, Children's Books, Chuck BB, Collecting, Contests, Eli Horowitz, Mac Barnett, McSweeney's, Mystery, Puzzles, Rheostatics, Scott Teplin, Short Books, Smarty Pants, The Beatles, Travel, YA Books on May 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: My Volkwagen Jetta hates The Beatles.
Lately, I have been playing some Beatles discs in my car. And my Jetta clearly hates them.
First it was Please Please Me, when the entire CD player shut off mid-song. It had lost all power. I had to bang on it for about 5 minutes before it came back on.
The player played other discs fine after that. Then, last night I played A Hard Day’s Night and half way through the disc it shut itself off again. This time I was able to power it back on, but it wouldn’t play the disc anymore. I ejected it and put in a new disc which worked fine. When I put A Hard Day’s Night back in, same spot on the disc (“Can’t Buy Me Love”), and the player was totally off: no power at all.
A bit more pounding on the face and it came back on, and today played a Rheostatics disc with no trouble. I guess I’ll not be listening to The Beatles in the car again. Is it because the Beatles recorded versions of their songs in German but they weren’t included on the disc?
[READ: May 8, 2010] The Clock Without a Face
This review is about my first read of this book. When I get to the end you’ll realize why there will have to be a second read and updated review.
This is an amusing tale. And also a confounding (and evidently very real–see the bottom paragraph!–) mystery. (more…)
Posted in Adventure, Bon Iver, Book Reviews, Books about writers, Collecting, David Foster Wallace, David Lipsky, Death, Death Cab For Cutie, Demons, Essays, Fantasy, Ghosts, Gods, Golems, Graphic Novel, Grizzly Bear, History, Illusion, McSweeney's, Michael Chabon, New Moon, Radiohead, Religion, Research, Supernatural, The New York Review of Books, Thom Yorke, Word usage on April 24, 2010| 1 Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: New Moon Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2010).
Back in the 90s, it seemed like every week there was a new soundtrack featuring an unreleased song from some great alt rock band. This meant huge sales for soundtracks, even if for the most part they weren’t solid start to finish. In fact, mostly you got three great new songs, three pieces of rubbish, one great song by a band you’d never heard before and two or three okay tracks.
The inclusion of a new Death Cab for Cutie song was the big news about this soundtrack. And overall, the reviews were positive. And I’m pleased to say there aren’t really any horrible songs here. (I have no idea how the soundtrack fits in with the movie as I haven’t seen it and probably never will).
But as with that old soundtrack formula: we get a few good songs by reasonably well-known bands: Death Cab for Cutie, Thom Yorke, Bon Iver & St, Vincent, Muse, Grizzly Bear. And then there’s a whole bunch of good rock songs. The disc plays as something of a sampler of downcast, mellow alt rock. In fact, the back half of the disc sounds like a pretty decent alt rock radio station from the last decade or so.
Some of the tracks even sound like 90s alt tracks (Hurricane Bells, that song is 16 years old right? And Sea Wolf, you’re channeling Peter Murphy, I know.) The final two tracks are okay. The Editors is kind of a Nick Cave via Joy Division sorta spoken word ballad. And I admit I’m a little disappointed in the Lykke Li track–they got hyped beyond their ability. The final track is a piano score, which is fine.
The biggest surprise to me is how much that Death Cab for Cutie songs sounds like a Rush song. I’ve never considered that the bands sound anything alike before, and yet from the moment the song opens, that could be Geddy Lee singing, and that whole guitar structure is very Rush-like. Maybe they should do a cover of it.
[READ: April 20, 2010] Maps and Legends
This is a collection of 17 non-fiction pieces by Michael Chabon. The pieces cover everything from book reviews, essays about reading and writing, comic book and comic book artists and golems.
The opening essay is about the modern short story and it sets the tone for the entire book. Interestingly, this essay talks about the state of entertainment and how “Entertainment has a bad name. Serious people learn to mistrust and revile it. The word wears spandex, pasties, a leisure suit studded with blinking lights. (13). This very topic is at the heart of the David Lipsky/David Foster Wallace book (and in fact Chabon is mentioned in that book as well.) Ah, serendipity. (more…)
Posted in Adventure, Big Books, bolanobolano.com, Books about writers, Communists, Culture Shock, Death, Fears, Foreign Books, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Gustav Courbet, History, Humiliation, Infinite Zombies, Military, Natasha Wimmer, Nazis, Newspapers, Paul Simon, Roberto Bolaño, Romance, Sci-fi, Sex, Ska, Suicide, Translation, Travel, Vampire Weekend, Violence, Wikipedia, Yuck! on April 19, 2010| 2 Comments »
SOUNDTRACK: VAMPIRE WEEKEND-Contra (2010).
I absolutely loved Vampire Weekend’s debut album (and still do). It was my favorite record of last summer and always makes me think of summer fun and hijinx. Critics trotted out the “world/ethno/Paul Simon” vibe when discussing the album. But I really didn’t hear it. I mean, yes I suppose it was there but the album felt more like a punky ska album of fun.
On this, their follow up, it’s as if they took all those critics to heart and decided to make the album that everyone was describing. This disc emphasizes all of the ethnic music sounds, and downplays the guitars and more rock elements. I was a little disappointed by this on the first listen or two. However, subsequent listens showed me that the songwriting was still there and it was just as strong.
There’s still lots of rocking elements, it’s just that they are hidden under the other divergent influences. But for the most part, the album is still bouncey and full of fun summer tunes. There are three songs that slow down the pace, “Taxi Cab” and “Diplomat’s Son” (at 6 minutes, it’s a little long). And the final song “I Think Ur a Contra” is a bit too divorced of beats (it works as an end to the disc, but I’d never listen to it on purpose).
The rest of the disc however, is very enjoyable, and I find that the 7 other songs work just as well as anything off the debut. “Horchata” is a delightfully fun world music treat (I hear Paul Simon, yes, although come on, Graceland came out 24 years ago!). “White Sky” has delightfully catchy falsetto screams. “Holiday” is practically classic ska and “Cousins” has a delightfully tricky guitar riff.
This feels like a band who has matured and experimented and yet not lost track of who they are. I’m really looking forward to their next release.
[READ: Week of April 12, 2010] 2666 [pg 702-765]
Last week I concluded that
It almost seems as though Bolaño is saying that even Nazi Germany is better than Santa Teresa.
Oh how wrong I was. Despite the fact that I found the bulk of this section enjoyable and fascinating (twisted and dark certainly, but fascinating nonetheless), the ending killed me. The opening’s entire writers among writers, within writers, with communist party members and secret diaries was completely captivating. And then it is all shattered by the reality of WWII. (more…)
Posted in Adventure, Big Books, Death, Dystopia, End of the World, Military, Red Dwarf, Sex, Technology, The Beautiful South, The Dead Milkmen, The Future, Violence, WMMR 93.3 FM--Philadelphia, PA, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA, WYSP 94 FM--Philadelphia, PA on April 10, 2010| 2 Comments »
SOUNDTRACK: Philadelphia Radio Stations (circa 1990 and 2010)
There’s a Dead Milkmen song called “The Big Sleazy” in which the chorus is
“I hate MMR I hate YSP/You know that classic rock/Does not interest me.”
I’ve always been amused by the song, especially when I travel to Philly and hear these stations. That song is from 1990, so 20 years later I’m not sure what the band would think of their new playlists.
But one thing I never really noticed before is the middle verse which is about one of my favorite Philly stations WXPN. The verse is:
I hate what they’ve done to XPN
Those folk Nazis ruined my favorite station
I hate what they’ve done to XPN
If you hear it now it’s just a pale imitation.
Now, I have no idea what XPN was like before, but, yea, I can see that he folk Nazis are in charge. Of course, I rather like that. However, XPN also plays a bunch of artists who are broader than the folk label, so I wonder if they have changed even more since 1990.
History is fascinating, innit?
[READ: April 3, 2010] Trinity
Collins Gibson is a patron at our library. He has been working on this book for a few years now. The first time I looked at a bit of it, it was a novel. I hadn’t seen him for a while and now he has brought the book back as a screenplay.
I didn’t read enough of the original novel to know whether this works better as a novel or a screenplay, but given the very visual nature of the story, it seems like screenplay fits the story better. And so, since Collins is a good guy, I’m going to do my part to get the word out about the story. (more…)
Posted in Adventure, Canadian Music, Death, End of the World, Graphic Novel, Kathleen Edwards, Math, Military, Research, Smarty Pants, Terry Moore, War, Yuck! on April 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: KATHLEEN EDWARDS: Back to Me (2005).
This is Kathleen Edwards’ middle disc. It continues in the vein of her first, although I think her voice sounds smokier and better. The opening two tracks are stellar, catchy, snarky/funny and just fantastic.
She has a few mellower songs on this disc (and I’m not a big fan of mellow country folky music). But as with some of my other favorite singers, her passion and her lyrics make even a slower song interesting.
“Summerlong” is another song that seems like it was a hit long ago. It just sounds so comfortable and catchy that I feel like I’ve known it forever. BUt even better is the slide guitar fueled “What Are You Waiting For?”
Strange as it sounds, I think I like her first album overall better than this one; however, there are more songs on Back to Me that I like more than those on Failer. Whatever the case, Edwards is a great songwriter with a wonderful voice. And I certainly look forward to more from her in the future.
[READ: April 3, 2010] Echo
I have been reading Echo since Issue 1. But my subscription lapsed, and I wound up missing an issue. So I put off reading it until I managed to get the back issue. Which I finally did. Phew!
And now I was lucky enough to read a huge chunk up through issue 20. And I have to say tit is absolutely preferable to read Terry Moore in large chunks rather than one issue at a time. (Of course, I’ll still be subscribing and reading as I go, because missing that issue killed me!).
Several new developments have occurred since Issue 11 or so. The most important one is that it is clear that Annie and Julie’s DNA are merging. Julie is able to hear more and more of Annie’s thoughts. But also, because Annie has melded with this alloy (and the alloy is, for lack of a better scientific way to explain it…magic), Julie has gained healing powers (in addition to crazily explosive powers). (more…)
Posted in Adventure, Anthrax, Culture Shock, Death, Megadeth, Metallica, Nature, Slayer, Steven Heighton, The Walrus on April 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: Big 4 Thrash Tour (2010).
During my recent trip down metal memory lane, I learned that the Big 4 Thrash bands may be touring together. The Big 4 would be: Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer.
When I was a young metal dude, these were definitely my big 4. I own the first 5 or so albums by all of these bands. Megadeth was the first to fall out of favor (around 1990), then Anthrax (around 1993), then Slayer (around 1994) (although they came back nicely in the last few years) and the Metallica (around 1997 although really they’ve drifted the furthest from the thrash world, and probably I should’ve stopped sooner).
I haven’t really listened to any of these guys’ newer releases (although I did get Slayer’s 2001 release, God Hates Us All–and I wanted to add this wonderful quote from Araya, who sings of ever so much death and destruction: “when you see someone and if you’re a human being you respect them and treat them as human beings”), so I can’t say that I’m the target audience for this tour. However, I am delighted that these 4 bands, whose music I loved while growing up, are still together and still touring.
I wonder what the audience make up for this show is? Is it old fogeys like me (who are still younger than the band members, at least) who would have wet themselves for this tour back in 1989, or is it a new generation of thrash kids who would mosh the crap out of me?
Either way, I won’t be going to this concert (in Poland or in Greece for that matter) but nor will I be going should it come to a theater near me. But I’ll be delighted to hear how it goes.
[READ: March 29, 2010] “Bystanders”
I was prepared not to like this story (actually an excerpt from a novel). It is set on a mountainside on the border of China and Tibet. And it was about mountain climbing, a subject about which I care very little. And as it started feared it was going to be another story about battling with the elements on top of a mountain, blah blah.
But rather, the story went in a different direction entirely. While the young protagonist is watching the sun set on the mountains she hears gun shots. Ad i the distance, she sees a man fall. The guides come over to offer her a hand but she refuses. They force her down behind the rocks as they call for her father. Then she flashes back to another time when her father selflessly came to someone’s rescue.
There were many cool ideas in this story. I loved the idea that she was sitting in two countries at the same time. I loved even more the later idea that the glacier has moved the border between the to countries and that soldiers had to remeasure and replace the flag. But really, it was the final line, “that by making his care, his very life and limb, equally available to all, he deprived [his family] of an exclusivity they had a right to expect” that was incredibly moving.
I don’t know that I’ll track down the novel Every Lost Country, but I did enjoy this excerpt quite a lot.
I Just Read About That... 