SOUNDTRACK: KANYE WEST “Bound 2” (2013).
I dislike Kanye West. He strikes me as a colossal ass. So I was shocked how much I really liked his last album. In addition to great melodies, I liked how audacious it was. And now he has a new album (with no cover apparently) and this new single.
The song samples Brenda Lee (of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” fame) Ponderosa Twins Plus 1 and has no actual beats. And the amazing thing is that Kanye does his own thing—his own particular form of rapping—over the repeated do wop sample “Bound to Fall in Love.” (That’s the Ponderosa Twins). It’s not quite right—his flow doesn’t quite follow the melody that‘s playing. And of course, this old school sweet song has “I wanna fuck you hard in the sink” rapped over it. There are times when it sounds like he is rapping despite the song that is playing along—as if someone was playing it and he had to fight to be heard over it.
I respect how contrary the song is. Especially when a new nicely sung part comes across—it may be a sample (Charlie Wilson), I’m not sure, but it comes out of nowhere and brings in a beautiful melody. And it is interrupted mid flow as well. The whole song feels like pieces thrown on top of each other. And after two or three listens it starts to make sense.
Kanye may be crazy, but he knows music. Ah ha, honey.
[READ: June 18, 2013] “An Inch and a Half of Glory”
When I saw that Hammett was the first author in this Fiction issue of the New Yorker, I automatically assumed that the stories would all be noir (especially since they all have a black and white cover picture). Perhaps that was presumptuous as I have never read Hammett before, (although he is known for his detective stories). But indeed, this story isn’t noir at all. Nor is there any detective work involved. It seems tied to the issue by virtue of his name, not the actual story (which had not been published before).
The story is simple enough, There’s a fire on the second floor of a building,. A crowd has gathered to watch and wait for the firemen. Then someone notices a small child in the third floor window. The child isn’t afraid and there aren’t any flames yet so the people kind of just watch the kid and say that the firemen will be along any second. But when a woman in the crowd chastises the men for not helping the baby, the men as a group (7 or 8 of them) charge into the building.
They hear sirens almost immediately and they all leave. Except for Earl Parish. Parish decides that he is going to do something about this. Even though he knows the other men will be mad at him for continuing on when they all left. Then he changes his mind, but he knows he can’t leave now…now that he has stayed. So he plunges onward, finding the boy and bringing him out to safety.
The next day in an inch and a half column, he is referred to by name as having saved the boy from the fire. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 