SOUNDTRACK: PICTUREHOUSE-“Sunburst” (1998).
Picturehouse drummer Johnny Boyle was in the Irish Drummers book. I was unfamiliar with them, but apparently they were pretty huge back in the late 1990s (at least in Ireland). Boyle played on this album (Karmarama) and the follow up.
“Sunburst” was apparently all over Irish radio when it came out. After a fun opening drumfill, this song falls into a gentle indie rock vein. There’s some lovely harmonies, some nice gravelly vocals from singer Dave Brown and a big soaring “what a day” chorus.
The end of the song bops along on series of bah bah bahs and and a tasty fuzzy guitar solo.
It’s a delightful jangly pop song and was understandably a big hit
[READ: March 15, 2021] “Girl with Lizard”
I was sure that I had read this story, or something like it, before. But this is the first story by this author that I have read. This story and the resulting short story collection Flights of Love were translated by John E. Woods.
The story concerns a boy and a painting. It was a painting of a girl looking at a lizard on the beach. His mother and father called it “The Girl with the Lizard” and his mother referred to the girl in the painting as “The Jewish Girl.” The painting played a large role in the boy’s childhood. He napped under the painting every day during nap time. He became very familiar with the details of the painting, which had a pride of place in his father’s office.
He became so familiar with it that when asked to describe a painting in detail for school, he was excited to write about this one. He stared at the painting and took in all the details. He marveled that when he was little he had to look up at the girl and now that he was older the two were at eye level with each other.
His father admired the essay but told him that the painting was very important and it would be much better if people didn’t know they had it. He said it was valuable and din;t want anyone to steal it. He refused to say anything more about it and over the boy’s life, he never learned the provenance of the painting, But his father certainly believed it was valuable. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 