SOUNDTRACK: SYLVAN ESSO-Tiny Desk Concert #429 (March 30, 2015).
I haven’t really gotten into Sylvan Esso (NPR loves them), although there was something about the show that made these songs, which I’d heard before, gel for me. Perhaps it was seeing Amelia Meath dance (or make that hilarious face). Or her commenting about how quiet the room is and that maybe everyone could “move like the seaweed in Ursula’s cave.” Maybe it was the preposterous shoes she is wearing. Or maybe it was watching Nick Sanborn play around with this new to him equipment.
Or maybe it was just time for me to “get” them. They have a great chemistry in this setting, and Meath’s voice is really pure and beautiful. I love that she often sings without moving the microphone to her face.
They play three songs: “Coffee,” “H.S.K.T.,” and “Come Down.”
It’s also hilarious that her dad sends her texts messages during the show (which she reads to us while Sanborn is trying to fix the equipment).
This is a great set and funny banter from this charming band whom I should listen to more.
[READ: April 3, 2015] Five Dials 32b
The email that accompanied this issue explains what those words in the title mean.
In Maori, there’s a word for the extra bit of time added at the end of a game, perhaps after the final minutes of a rugby match. Wā tāpiri is the noun. We’ve decided to make this our wā tāpiri issue. At the beginning of June we released an issue dedicated to new New Zealand writing. Our wā tāpiri issue offers extra time for you to read some of the wonderful Janet Frame’s correspondence and look at a few untamed paintings from Shane Cotton. We’re pleased to be able to include them in our extended New Zealand special.
So there’s only two things in this extra issue. Some letters and some art. I enjoy these little extra issues, and this one is especially cool.
JANET FRAME-Correspondence: Camping in Our House
This is a series of letters passed between New Zealand author Janet Frame and poet Charles Brasch. In 1963 and 1964, they share some nice compliments. And then in 1969 they talk about what home (New Zealand) is like, while she is away at Yaddo. First off, it’s interesting to hear that a) Yaddo was around in 1969, b) just how many famous people were in residence and c) the interesting details of residence there. We also learn about some troubles in New Zealand but how they pale in comparison to the troubles in the States where “West Virginia has just passed a law which reads ‘police or mayors shall be guiltless if anyone is killed or wounded in an attempt to put down a campus disturbance even if this victim is only a spectator'” (Jesus!). Meanwhile she is happily staying for free in Yaddo and getting a lot of work done. There is also a facsimile typed letter from 1967 (which is fun to read and to see that people made mistakes back then and just fixed them with pen) in which she talks about first going to Yaddo.
JUSTIN PATON-“Shane Cotton’s The Haymaker Series”
Paton introduces Cotton’s Haymaker series which is indeed 5 panels on the wall of a gallery (each piece is presented in this issue too). He describes how the New Zealand artist references other artists well as his own previous works in these panels. He references the carved heads from his Tradition History & Incidents (from 2009), in addition to many other. But this is not a retrospective piece. This introduction really gives some great context for the works (which I talk about below before having read this introduction).
SHANE COTTON-The Haymaker Series
From Page 10 is the Haymaker series, mechanical and geometric prints in front of a gray foreboding background which looks like a storm.
The final page shows some photos from the launch of issue 32, including a link to a video by Lail Arad who was at the launch. It’s a quirky video for her song “Everyone is Moving to Berlin.“
This is the final EP available from the We Arrive Alive 
I Just Read About That... 