SOUNDTRACK: GINA CHAVEZ-Tiny Desk Concert #472 (September 22, 2015 ).
Chavez’ voice is poppy but a little deep, almost muscular which I rather like. Or perhaps its just confidence, the blurb notes “the intense openness and warmth of her performances.”
“Fire Water” is primarily a capella and percussion (with interesting clicks and shakers and even a guy whispering “ahhh” ). A few bass notes enter near the end, but other wise it is a very stark song.
“Miles Da Millas” is dedicated to a fiend of a friend who died recently. He loved Tiny Desk Concerts. Whenever someone mentioned a new band he would say “But do they have a Tiny Desk?” So this makes Gina feel like she’s made it This song, a cumbia, is bilingual with the chorus in Spanish. And her voice is just as strong if not more so in Spanish. It’s fun when the percussionist yells and whoops and overall it’s a nice groovy song. It’s a little weird that she hums a trumpet (quite well, admittedly) when there is an actual trumpet player in the band. They take turns so I guess it’s kind of duet.
When introducing the final song, she says spent 8 months in El Salvador doing mission work teaching English in an all girls’ school. Things are really bad down there, so she started a college scholarship fund called Niñas Arriba. This song “Siete-D” is about a wild ride on the 7D bus from Soyapongo to San Salvador. Soyapongo is the home of the MS13 gang, the place where guide books tell you not to go.
It’s a fun song (sung entirely in Spanish) with a cool “Sube! Hey! ho!” chant. It’s a bouncy song with some great trumpet work. There’s even a rap in Spanish
[READ: September 9, 2016] The Complete Peanuts 1987-1988
I felt like after the major highs of the last few books, this one fell into a bit of a repetitive pattern. This is not to say there weren’t memorable moments in the book, but there were a lot of variations on a similar jokes (especially with Spike in the desert–how many different ways can you make a joke about a cactus looking like a person with his arms up? About fifty, I guess).
But perhaps it seems like things have changed because On 1-11 1987, that heading that has been there for so long–the hand-drawn looking “Peanuts featuring Good Ol’ Charlie Brown” had been replaced by a computer-generated font that just says “Peanuts.” It also felt like the drawings looked different somehow–thicker lines, somewhat less polished? And in July of 1988 it seems like Snoopy looks rather different. His ears are much smaller for one thing. That seems to go away though. But it’s some time round here or maybe even in a previous book that Schulz started drawing circles for eyes on Snoopy from time to time–mostly to express distress or angry. But Snoopy is meant to have dots or sixes for eyes–the circles always look weird. And sometime they look poorly drawn, if I may say so. Especially on October 12 1988 (he’s supposed to look aggrieved, but they still look sloppy for Schulz).
And then, a huge shock to the system! The daily strips go from 4 panels to 3. Three panels! What gives? Is it because many of his fourth panels didn’t really have a punchline so much as a commentary on the punchline? It’s mind blowing! After thirty some years, he is finally messing with the format! (more…)
I Just Read About That... 