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Colin Winnette–“Jack and Jim Who Lived by the River” (Lucky Peach, No. 17: Breakfast: Winter 2015)

Posted in Colin Winnette, Fish, Food, Huh?, Lucky Peach, Phish, Short Story on September 2, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-A Live One (1995).

Phish has released virtually every show that they have played in some recorded format (not to mention all of the shows that have circulated as tapes).  But before all of that, it took them five studio albums before the released their first official live record.  And while it is not one show, it is a great collection of their more popular live songs.  There’s some really long jams (30 minutes for “Tweezer”) but also some normal length songs (several under 5 minutes).

If you ever want to know anything about Phish, they are probably the most well-documented bands around.  Their fan base is encyclopedic (if they didn’t follow Phish, they would be really into sports stats, clearly).

So a cursory search will tell you

Each track on the album was recorded at a different live show in the United States during Phish’s 1994 summer and fall tours. Several of the songs have never appeared on studio albums and the track “Montana” is not really a song, but actually a two-minute excerpt from the longform improvisation that followed “Tweezer” during the band’s show in Bozeman, Montana.  On A Live One, “Montana” serves as a prelude to the epic “You Enjoy Myself”, one of the most well-known versions of that song.

“Bouncing Around the Room” is light and fun, a great start to a show.  I was really happy when I finally got to see it live.  It segues into a a rather quiet “Stash.”  There’s a lot going on in the solo with the chorus repeating and then a solo resuming.  It’s followed by a slow Gumbo with The Giant Country Horns: Peter Apfelbaum – tenor saxophone; Carl Gerhard – trumpet; Dave Grippo – alto saxophone; James Harvey – trombone; Michael Ray – trumpet.

“Montana Jam” is a short instrumental segue into “You Enjoy Myself.”  As stated above, this is a killer version of “YEM.”  There’s a funky bass solo, there’s many elements to the jam including a section where they chant “ahhh way um way um.”  After 15 minutes, the end is a five-minute “voice jam” with them making crazy sounds.  It devolves into a lot of clicking and other weird noises.  “YEM” would normally end a set but this one it’s followed by a rousing “Chalk Dust Torture” (a song that I really wanted to see).  The disc ends with a really rocking “Slave to the Traffic Light,” that has a mellow solo until everyone builds it up hugely at the end.

Disc two opens with “Wilson” (I was really excited to see that one live).  The “Tweezer” on this one is a much darker version—with lots of weird solos and crazy sounds including keyboard sirens.  The song kind of thuds and lumbers along and then turns into what sounds like a heavy metal riff—distorted guitars and bass–until it eventually returns to a rocking jam.  They start doing the “Tweezer” riff again but it segues into a new jam with noisy guitar and funky keys.  There’s a whole lot more going on in these 30 minutes).

“Simple” is rocking fun and ends with them singing in a whisper.  This version of “Harry Hood” sounds great with all three parts connected by lengthy jams.  The drums are quite prominent in this song with Fish doing all manner of drums fills.  The disc ends with Squirming Coil which is primarily a long and pretty jam, with some really nice solos.

Since it’s a well curated live album, it’s really a great place to start exploring their love shows.  And the sound is fantastic.

Some people care about this sort of thing, so these songs come from:

  • “Stash,” July 8, 1994, Great Woods Center for the Performing Arts, Mansfield, MA
  • “The Squirming Coil,” October 9, 1994, A. J. Palumbo Center, Pittsburgh, PA
  • “Harry Hood” October 23, 1994, Band Shell, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
  • “Tweezer,” November 2, 1994, Bangor Auditorium, Bangor, ME
  • “Chalk Dust Torture,” November 16, 1994, Hill Auditorium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
  • “Slave to the Traffic Light,” November 26, 1994, Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
  • “Montana,” November 28, 1994, Field House, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT
  • “Gumbo,” December 2, 1994, Recreation Hall, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA
  • “You Enjoy Myself,” December 7, 1994, Spreckels Theater Building, San Diego, CA
  • “Simple,” December 10, 1994, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, CA
  • “Wilson,” December 30, 1994, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
  • “Bouncing Around the Room,” December 31, 1994, Boston Garden, Boston, MA

[READ: March 10, 2017] “Jack and Jim Who Lived by the River”

I tend to not really like the stories in Lucky Peach.  That’s not entirely fair, because some of them are quite good.  But many of them, like this one, are just kind of weird an unsatisfying.

Jim doesn’t like to each much fish in the morning, but Jack sure does. He eats fish because “we are Jack and Jim who live by the river, and we are excellent fisherman.”

Jack smokes his fish while he drinks a beer and then he goes over to see Jim who has just woken up. (more…)

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The Story of Canada in 150 Objects (1867-2017) (2017)

Posted in #ITMFA, #RESIST, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Acting, Alice Munro, Art, Bagels, Basketball, Bears, Beavers, Bison, Books about music, Books about writers, Canada geese, Canadian Content, Canadian Geographic, Canadian Music, Canoeing, CBC Radio 1, CBC Radio 2, CBC Radio 3, Computer Programming, Cricket, Crokinole, Curling, Donuts, Douglas Coupland, Environmentalism, Essays, Field Recordings, First Nations, Five-pin bowling, Friendship, Funny (ha ha), Grey Cup, Group of 7, Heliskiing, Hockey, Interviews, Inuit, Inukshuk, Inunnguaq, John McCrae, Language, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Maple syrup, Nanulak, Native Americans, Non-fiction, Nostalgia, Pauline Johnson, Pemmican, Poetry, Poets, Political Humor, Porky's, Poutine, Qimmiq, Racism, Research, Rheostatics, Ringette, Santa Claus, Scholarship, Science, Scientists, SCTV, Snow, Stanley Cup, Stompin' Tom Connors, Technology, The Tragically Hip, The Walrus, Tim Horton's, Tom Thomson, Trivial Pursuit, Walruses, War, Will Ferguson, tagged on August 28, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, ON (December 11 1996).

This is the final show on Rheostatics Live in which the band is opening for The Tragically Hip.

For this show, the intro music is also from The Wizard of Oz, but this time it’s Judy singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”  It’s just one verse before fading out and then guitars fading in for Martin to play “A Mid Winter Night’s Dream.”

Turns out that this setlist is similar to the one from Buffalo with a lot of new songs.  Although there are a few older/more popular songs in places.

The new songs include “Fat” which sounds great of course.  I gather they are maybe sharing a microphone because at the end Dave says “See you in the next song, Martin.”  “Okay, Dave.”  This leads into a perfect version of “All the Same Eyes.”

Martin says “We are the Rheostatics.”  Dave says “We are the Rheostatics, not to be confused with The Howell Brothers (?).  They couldn’t make it but we got their jackets.  It’s nice of you to come out early.  We’re playing selections from our new record. Get it before it’s reduced to clear.”  (You can hear someone laugh on tape).

This is a segue into the single “Bad Time to Be Poor.”  It’s followed by another Tim song, “Claire” with the acoustic guitar opening in place.  There’s another lengthy guitar solo, although it’s not quiet as exciting as some of the other ones.  But Martin was saving up for a spirited version of “California Dreamline.”

They end their set with a rough rocking “Feed Yourself.”  During the spoken part, they slow things down to just a bass and washes of guitar.  It’s a pretty intense ending and a good preparation for The Tragically Hip.

[READ: June 25, 2017] The Story of Canada in 150 Objects

In celebration of Canada’s 150th year, Canadian Geographic and The Walrus created this special issue–a fun way to describe many elements of Canadian culture through “objects.”

The objects are grouped in vague categories.  Some have just a few words written about them while others get a few pages.  Some are humorous, some are more serious.  Most are happy or amusing, some not so much.  And all of it together paints a diverse and complex portrait of the country–as well as teaching this person from South of the border a number of things I did not know.

It’s with comic pride and humility that the first object is politeness (which is not an object at all, of course).  The amusing thing about this article about “politeness” is that while the author of it is very pleased to be so polite, he also can’t wait for his fellow Canucks to forget to be polite so he can rub it in with a extra smarmy “You’re Welcome.” (more…)

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C.P. Boyko–“In the Palace of Cats” (The Walrus, July/August 2017)

Posted in Adventure, Alternate Reality, C.P. Boyko, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Cats, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Motels, Pink Floyd, Rheostatics, Short Story, Spies, Surreal, The Tragically Hip, The Walrus, tagged on August 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Le Colisee, Quebec City, QC (November 30, 1996).

This is the same show that the Double Live version of “Saskatchewan” was taken from. It is also the show Dave wrote about in On A Cold Road.

This is also one of only two shows on Rheostatics Live that was recorded in Quebec.  Once again, they are opening for The Tragically Hip.

The show opens with some recording in French–no idea what it is–a hockey game?

The “Saskatchewan” is of course beautiful.  I love the way it gets really heavy near the end.  It’s also fun to hear a different recording of it (you can really hear them chanting “home Caroline, home Caroline.”

Next comes “Fat” one of the few songs they also played in Buffalo.  And then after a very brief “Digital Beach” they segue into “Claire.”  This version of “Claire” is really pretty on all counts.

As the band introduces themselves: “We are the Rheostatics,” you can hear someone in the audience shout slowly and clearly: “Bad. Time. To. Be. Poor.”  Dave asks what’s that man shouting?  “Bad. Time. To. Be. Poor.”  Martin shouts: “WHAT?”  The guy then deliberately shouts: “We came here to see you guys.”  I don’t think the band ever heard it, which is a shame as it’s such a nice sentiment and well executed.

The band plays “Four Little Songs” which is always fun live.  Afterwards, Martin says, “See four songs in one.”

Don (who is not as chatty as Dave Clark but does talk quite a bit) tells everyone “This next song [Bad Time to Be Poor] is the current single from our new record which you can buy here at the venue.”  Dave: “Well said, Donnie.”

The crowd is quite enthusiastic about the band prompting Dave to advise: “Save a bit for The Tragically Hip.”

This version of “Sweet Rich Beautiful Mine” does not feature Tamara Williamson, but it still sounds good.  Although toward the end of the song things get kind of staticky which is a bummer.  The warpy sound continues for a bit but it clears up near the beginning of “Dope Fiends.”  The song is wonderful.  At the end, Martin repeats “dark side of the moon” first quietly and then a lengthy falsetto on “moooooooooon.”   The guys mutter things during this section: “Pink Floyd,” “Side 2” before launching into the rocking ending.  The roaring song ends with a gentle version of the “You Are Very Star” lullaby, possibly the first version on the site.   There is whistling and falsetto lyrics as the band whispers good night.

It’s like a complete show in miniature.

[READ: June 21, 2017] “In the Palace of Cats”

This is The Walrus‘ Summer Fiction Issue with new fiction & poetry from 6 writers in total.  I won’t be reviewing the poetry, but I’ll be talking about the three short stories.

This story was really fun and weird.  It began as one thing, turned into a few other things and then resolved itself all with bizarre turns without ever losing its internal logic.

The story opens as a teen spy caper with Andrew bringing Hillary a message in secret code.  The message from Andrew is for Hillary so obviously no code is needed,  But they are spies, so everything must be encoded.   She goes off to decipher it–using a dictionary and selecting the word just prior to the word that Andrew wrote.

Greetings Math Princess.  The Candy Ninja is ready to move.

She was amused/dismayed that even copying words out of the dictionary he spelled one wrong: needeled (for needled). (more…)

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James Tate–“Terminix” (Harper’s, June 2007)

Posted in Harper's, Huh?, James Tate, Pandas, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Tower of Power, Work on August 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TOWER OF POWER-Tiny Desk Concert #775 (August 13, 2018). 

I don’t listen to a lot of soul, but when the soul is firing, it is utterly infectious.

And when the soul is performed by veterans (Tower of Power formed in 1968), it’s even better.

The Tower of power features five horn players, a bassist, guitarist, drums and keys.  And they all gathered behind the Tiny Desk.

When the 10 members of Tower of Power were in place behind Bob Boilen’s desk, strategically positioned around the band’s famous five-piece horn section, their first collective blast three beats into the sound check literally made the video crew jump. It was more a force of nature than a sound, and an impressive display of the “five fingers operating as one hand” concept of band cohesiveness.  A band this big will inevitably have some members come and go, but it’s important to note that the original songwriting nucleus of bari saxophonist Stephen “Funky Doctor” Kupa and bandleader/tenor saxophonist Emilio Castillo continue to write and perform, as does original drummer David Garibaldi.

Meanwhile, lead singer Marcus Scott stood on the desk.  And man he was a powerful singer.  He could wail and hit some fantastic high notes while he was at it.  He really sets the stage well with “On the Soul Side of Town.”  It’s a new song and is nearly five minutes long/

The backing vocals are dynamite as is the wonderfully retro-sounding keyboard solo from Roger Ray.

Things quiet down for a guitar solo from Jerry Cortex that takes a few seconds to get gong but it sounds great once it gets there.

The other two songs were classics from their 1973 album Tower of Power.  The backing vocals sound old school (and totally right on).

The first “So Very Hard to Go” was introduced: “If you ever had your heart broken before, you’ll understand the words of this song.”  It’s a surprisingly mellow track after the wildness of the first song.  And as the blurb notes, “the playing, the passion and the precision remains unchanged after all the years.”

The next song has Marcus asking “the eternal question.”  “What is Hip?”  starts with a wailing guitar solo and then asks some questions, most of which are still more or less relevant  today:

So you want to jump out your trick bag
And ease on into a hip bag
But you ain’t just exactly sure what’s hip
So you start to let your hair grow
Spend big bucks to cop you a wardrobe
But somehow you know there’s much more to the trip

So you became part of the new breed
Been smokin’ only the best weed
Been hangin’ out on the so-called hippest set
Being seen at all the right places
Being seen with just the right faces
You should be satisfied
Still it ain’t quite right

You done even went and found you a guru
In your effort to find you a new you
And maybe even managed
To raise your conscious level
As you striving to find the right road
There’s one thing you should know
What’s hip today
Might become passe

By the end with the Scott leading everyone on to call and response cheers, it’s impossible not to feel good.

[READ: January 22, 2017] “Terminix”

This was a willfully deceptive story ad I enjoyed how crazy it would make anyone working in such a situation.

The narrator worked at a job that he felt was totally beyond his comprehension.

Finally, he asked the boss’ secretary is she could shed light on the work they did. She said, of course not

“It’s all set up so you can do your job without knowing. You’re supposed to enjoy the mystery of it.  I know I do. It’s very satisfying to me at the end of the day to know I’ve helped out without knowing anything. You have so much less baggage to carry home with you,”

He asks her is it has anything to do with pandas.  She laughs but doesn’t know.  He said there was a huge order of bamboo.  She says she assumed it was something to do with missiles.

Later the boss came to him ans asked what he and his secretary talked about. (more…)

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Philip Pullman–The Scarecrow and His Servant (2004) [audiobook 2005–Graeme Malcolm]

Posted in Adventure, Audiobooks, Bandits, Birds, C., Children's Books, Corporate skewering, Courtroom, Delusions, Environmentalism, Fantasy, Food, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graeme Malcolm, Greed, Humiliation, Law, Nature, Philip Pullman, Revenge, Romance, Scarecrows, War on August 16, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: April 2016] The Scarecrow and His Servant 

I was looking for a story that C. and I could listen to in the mornings when I drove him to school.  I didn’t want it to be too long (our commute was only 15 minutes), but I wanted it to be really enjoyable.

I know Pullman from the His Dark Materials series which I loved.  But I didn’t know much else by him.  This story seemed unusual, to say the least, but it was a perfect length–about 3 hours–for morning drives.

The audio book was read by Graeme Malcolm, and he did an amazing job–he had a great variety of voices at his disposal and he really made the story come to life.

The story is really quite unusual.  It begins with the history of the titular scarecrow.  How a man made him–and gave him a lovely turnip for a head–dressed him smartly and tucked a piece of paper, to show ownership, into his jacket pocket.  Pretty much straightaway, he is stolen, and then stolen again and then one more time until he is very far from home standing in a field.

And then he is struck by lightning and comes to life! (more…)

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Kathryn Siebel–The Trouble with Twins (2016) [audiobook 2016–Cassandra Campbell & Katherine Kellgren]

Posted in Adventure, Audiobooks, Cassandra Campbell, Cats, Child Development, Children's Books, Explorers, Fantasy, Fears, Fire, Funny (ha ha), Giants, Greed, Hospitals, Humiliation, Idiots, Júlia Sardà, Jealousy, Katherine Kellgren, Kathryn Siebel, Language, Marriage Trouble, Nightmares, Parenting, Regrets, Runaways, Set at School on August 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: August 2017] The Trouble with Twins

I grabbed this book because it seemed kind of interesting.  I see also that this book was released in the UK as Missing Arabella, which I think is a slightly better title).  I wasn’t entirely sure if we’d like it.  I mean, we don’t have twins and this is about twins and I wasn’t sure that our 12-year-old boy would like a book about twin girls.

But holy cow was this book outstanding!  It was utterly hilarious and the way it was read aloud was genius.

The book begins with this wonderful setup:

And so it begins in front of the fire, the story of two twin sisters.  One remains with her family in their lovely country house, where yellow roses perfume the air.  The other waits for her in another house, where she stands alone at huge arched windows.  She is restless, pacing wooden floors that creak in the night when a cat jumps down from the bed to chase at shadows.

And then in different typeface:

“What are their names?” the girls asks.  “The sisters.”
“Arabella and Henrietta.”
“Are they lonely,” asks the girl.
“They belong together,” says the mother.  “And it makes them sad to be apart.”
“Can’t you tell a happy story?” the girl asks.
“With puppies and a garden?”
“Yes!” says the girl.
“I’m only telling it the way my mother told it to me,” the mother says.
“And will there be puppies?” the girls persists.  “Or only gloomy girls at windows?”

(more…)

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Edward Eager–Half Magic (1954) [audiobook 1999–Words Take Wing Repertory Company]

Posted in Adventure, Audiobooks, Boredom, Cats, Children's Books, Edward Eager, Fantasy, Fire, Funny (ha ha), King Arthur, Magic, Marriage (Happy), Time Travel, Unfinished series, Words Take Wing Repertory Company on August 14, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: August 2017] Half Magic

I grabbed this book at the library not realizing that Tabby had just started reading it on her own.

The selling point for me on this was that it was described as being “set in Ohio in the 1920s, yet fresh and funny now as the day it was written.”  And that was totally true.  This book was very very funny and the location and time was pretty much irrelevant.

This is the story of four (very precocious) children: Jane, Mark, Katharine and Martha. The beginning of the book has a great time creating and addressing their characters:

Jane was the oldest and Mark was the only boy, and between them they ran everything.

Katharine was the middle girl, of docile disposition and a comfort to her mother. She knew she was a comfort, and docile, because she’d heard her mother say so. And the others knew she was, too, by now, because ever since that day Katharine would keep boasting about what a comfort she was, and how docile, until Jane declared she would utter a piercing shriek and fall over dead if she heard another word about it. This will give you some idea of what Jane and Katharine were like.

Martha was the youngest, and very difficult.

The children’s’ father was dead and their mother worked full-time.  They were looked after by Miss Bick:

Miss Bick came in every day to care for the children, but she couldn’t seem to care for them very much, nor they for her.

(more…)

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Maria Parr–Adventures with Waffles (2015) [translated 2013] [audiobook 2015–Luke Daniels]

Posted in Adventure, Audiobooks, Chickens, Children's Books, Cows, Death, Doctors, Foreign Books, Guy Puzey, Horses, Hospitals, Kindness, Luke Daniels, Maria Parr, Marriage (Happy), Norway, Radio, Translation, Waffles, World War II on August 13, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: August 2017] Adventures with Waffles

I saw this book in the library and the title sounded interesting. The blurb on the back when enticing as well, so I grabbed it for our family road trip.

I had no idea that the book was a translation of a Norwegian story (Vafflehjarte) nor that it had already been translated into English as Waffle Hearts (a much more accurate, and frankly much more satisfying title).  I gather from a little research that Waffle Hearts is a British translation and Adventures with Waffles is an American one (although they both have the same translator, Guy Puzey).

The story is about Trille and Lena, two kids who live next door to each other in the village of Mathildawick Cove in Norway.  Their village is small and there are only 9 kids in their grade.  Lena is the only girl. The bully Kai-Tommy wishes she weren’t in their class.  But Trille feels that Lena is his best friend (he hopes it is reciprocated, but is unsure).  She is wild, she is spontaneous, she is dangerous.  And she is a lot of fun. (more…)

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Jeanne DuPrau–The Diamond of Darkhold: The Fourth Book of Ember (2008) [audiobook 2008–Katherine Kellgren]

Posted in #RESIST, Adventure, Audiobooks, Bandits, Children's Books, Completed Series, Death, Dystopia, End of the World, Explorers, Fire, Fraud, Greed, Horses, Humiliation, Idiots, Jealousy, Jeanne DuPrau, Katherine Kellgren, Language, Marriage (Happy), Morality, Power Failure, Sci-fi, Superstitions, The Future, Wendy Dillon on August 7, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: August 2017] The Diamond of Darkhold

The end of the previous book (the prequel) left me in very good spirits about this final book.  This one had not come out while I was working at the public library so I didn’t know about it and the title and cover puzzled me.

But whatever, it was time to see how this series ended (I assume its over).

But, oh no!  Another new audio book reader!  This time Katherine Kellgren.  Kellgren has the unenviable task of following up Wendy Dillon’s establishment as a reader.  It was a little disconcerting hearing Doon and some other characters who had very distinctive voices portrayed differently.  In fact, I wasn’t all that impressed by her reading at first because the characters kind of sounded the same.  But as soon as new characters entered the picture I was really thrilled with her reading.  The diverse voices she brought to the story were outstanding.

So what happens in it?

The story picks up about nine months after the Emberites left Ember.  Winter is coming upon them and things are very hard.  People are also getting sick (some people have died).  (more…)

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Jeanne DuPrau–The Prophet of Yonwood: The Third Book of Ember (2006) [audiobook 2006–Becky Ann Baker]

Posted in Audiobooks, Becky Ann Baker, Children's Books, Death, Dogs, Dystopia, End of the World, Greed, Jeanne DuPrau, Language, Morality, Prequel, Religion, Sci-fi, Snakes, Superstitions, Trilogy, Unfinished series, War on August 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: August 2017] The Prophet of Yonwood

I did not enjoy the second book of Ember much at all.  I wasn’t even going to continue with the series, but I was intrigued at this being a (shorter) prequel.

This book came out when I was still working at a public library so I remember the cover quite vividly.

But when I put in the disc I was shocked to realize that the narrator was different!  Where was beloved Wendy Dillon?  That was disappointing.  Worse yet, this book was set in the South so the new narrator, Becky Ann Baker, had a whole lot of Southern to speak to us, which I don’t care for in an audio book.

So there were already two strikes against this.  And then it turned out that the story has literally nothing to do with Ember at all.  Well, that’s not strictly true, but it is set in America (at an unspecified future date) where global stresses are tense, but in which life goes on.

Set with a backdrop of global war, the United States is up against the “Phalanx Nations,” and unless changes are made, war seems imminent.

Into this we see Nicole (Nickie) Randolph, an eleven-year-old girl visiting Yonwood, NC, with her aunt Crystal.  Nickie’s grandfather recently died and Nickie’s mother and aunt want to sell the property, called Greenhaven, and be out of Yonwood.  For reasons either unclear or which I don’t remember, Nickie is travelling with her aunt and not her mother, which is a little odd, but whatever. (more…)

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