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Archive for the ‘M.J. Cosson’ Category

Murray Shaw and M.J. Cosson (illustrated by Sophie Rohrbach)–Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Speckled Band [On the Case with Holmes and Watson #5] (2010)

Posted in Adventure, All Songs Considered, Arthur Conan Doyle, Children's Books, Christmas Album, Graphic Novel, Julian Koster, M.J. Cosson, Murray Shaw, Mystery, Short Books, Sophie Rohrbach, The Flaming Lips on December 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

holmes 5SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-“Silent Night/Lord Can You Hear Me” (2008).

FlamingLipsSilentNight-e688b9521eb5a5b691fc125bf0de77277e6fb7e9-s1The last Flaming Lips Christmas song I heard was their rendition of “White Christmas” which is creepy and just awful.  For this one, they picked a much prettier song (“Silent Night”) and they don’t mess with it at all.  They keep it very simple–echoed keyboards and some backing vocals with Wayne Coyne’s autotuned voice singing properly.  It is certainly not the best version of the song I’ve heard, but it is at least pretty.

The song segues into “Lord, Can You Hear Me” which follows the same simple instrumentation as “Silent Night” and nearly keeps the same melody.  It’s not so much a song as a coda to “Silent Night.”

This single came out around the time of Christmas on Mars and includes as the B-side “It’s Christmas Time Again.”

[READ: December 6, 2013] Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Speckled Band

Since I’m going to write about a few of these, I’ll keep up this little intro bit so I don’t have to re-write the general ideas/criticisms.

These are indeed the actual Arthur Conan Doyle stories just severely edited and truncated.  In other words, a lot of the story is cut out and yet the original language is still in place (at least I hope it is, I hope contemporary writers didn’t write the dialogue), so for young kids I think the wording is a little confusing.  The drawings are a little too simple for my liking as well.  They do effectively convey the story, but I didn’t like the very basicness of them.  I feel they make the stories seems a little more childlike than they actually are.

Having said all that however, I found the graphic novels to be a compelling introduction to Sherlock Holmes’ shorter stories (although not for my 8-year-old apparently).

This is the last book of the series that I have read–there are apparently 14 as of this writing.  I don’t think I’ll be reading any more as I feel like I am getting such a small amount of the story that it would be more worthwhile to simply read the actual stories (which I had planned to do anyhow).  Reading these feels like I’m getting the answer to the puzzle ahead of time. (more…)

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Murray Shaw and M.J. Cosson (illustrated by Sophie Rohrbach)–Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Dancing Men [On the Case with Holmes and Watson #4] (2010)

Posted in Adventure, All Songs Considered, Arthur Conan Doyle, Children's Books, Christmas Album, Graphic Novel, John Vanderslice, Josh Ritter, Lucius, M.J. Cosson, Murray Shaw, Mystery, Short Books, Sophie Rohrbach, St. Vincent, The Flaming Lips on December 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

holmes4SOUNDTRACK: BOB AND ROBIN’S EXCELLENT HOLIDAY ADVENTURE, NPR, December 19, 2013 (2013).

bobrobinEvery year NPR airs a holiday music special (I’ve been posting from them for the last few days).  Initially, they were like any of the episodes, with descriptions of the songs.  Then they became a music only playlist (which was kind of nice).  Then they added some guests.  Last year they did a very enjoyable story of Bob and Robin together having a party that no one came to.  This year, today, they have released the 2013 edition.

In this story, Bob and Robin are driving to Kansas in a huge snowstorm.  They listen to some carols on the radio.  And then when the snow gets too bad they pull over into a small hotel.  Then Bob falls asleep and is visited in his dream by Annie Clark (St. Vincent), John Vanderslice, Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips), Josh Ritter and Jess Wolf (Lucius) who tell some great memories of Christmas.

The songs they play are wonderfully diverse as usual (although there’s no Hanukkah songs this year, as Hanukkah was last month).  They range from standard favorites (Burl Ives’ “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”) to very traditional songs (“Coventry Carol” an instrumental “sleigh Ride”) to funny songs (“Christmastime for the Jews”) to a brand new one: The Flaming Lips playing “Silent Night/Lord Can You Hear Me” (which completely makes up for their dreadful “White Christmas” from several years ago).

This is a wonderfully enjoyable story/holiday special.  Listen and enjoy.

[READ: December 7, 2013] Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Dancing Men

Since I’m going to write about a few of these, I’ll keep up this little intro bit so I don’t have to re-write the general ideas/criticisms.

These are indeed the actual Arthur Conan Doyle stories just severely edited and truncated.  In other words, a lot of the story is cut out and yet the original language is still in place (at least I hope it is, I hope contemporary writers didn’t write the dialogue), so for young kids I think the wording is a little confusing.  The drawings are a little too simple for my liking as well.  They do effectively convey the story, but I didn’t like the very basicness of them.  I feel they make the stories seems a little more childlike than they actually are.

Having said all that however, I found the graphic novels to be a compelling introduction to Sherlock Holmes’ shorter stories (although not for my 8-year-old apparently).

This story features the fascinating name of Hilton Cubitt.  He comes to Holmes with a confounding problem. He has discovered a slip of paper with stick figured men drawn on it.  When he showed it to his wife, she absolutely freaked out.  But she won’t tell him why.  So he brings the paper to Holmes to figure out what the heck is going on.

Since I haven’t read the original of this story,  I feel like the graphic novel is a better medium for this story because of the titular dancing men.  Perhaps the original has drawings in it, but if not, the graphic novel’s version which contains the stick figures corresponding to letters is a very successful way of quickly showing the trick.  (Even if, again, I don’t love the illustrations).

Holmes can’t do much with one slip of paper–he can’t even decode the pattern because there’s so little to go on.  But then more dancing men appear, and Cubitt brings more evidence to Holmes.  Holmes is able to crack the code (I couldn’t, but I wonder if there was more information given in the real story?).  Anyhow, Holmes has cracked the code, but that still doesn’t really solve the problem, which is the message within the code.

This may have been another case where more information would have made the story a bit more compelling.  It seems a little too easy that the “bad guy” is spotted, giving Holmes a pretty easy capture. Nevertheless, I do love a good puzzle and I’m curious to read how well the dancing men are described in the original.

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Murray Shaw and M.J. Cosson (illustrated by Sophie Rohrbach)–Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Blue Gem [On the Case with Holmes and Watson #3] (2010)

Posted in Adventure, All Songs Considered, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bootsy Collins, Children's Books, Christmas Album, Graphic Novel, M.J. Cosson, Murray Shaw, Mystery, Short Books, Sophie Rohrbach on December 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

holmes3SOUNDTRACK: BOOTSY COLLINS-“Sleigh Ride” (2006).

I4evern 2006, Stephen Thompson from NPR made a list of the Best, Worst and Weirdest Holiday Albums. One of the weirdest is Christmas is 4-Ever by Bootsy Collins.  Starting with the wonderfully weird cover art.

Bootsy starts out by thanking Mrs Claus and then calls himself Booty Claus.  He tells us also that he named his weird reindeer Chucky coz he’s funky.

Once the song itself starts, the verse is pretty straightforward, but it’s interspersed with Bootsy’s peculiar sultry talking.  About 2 minutes in (the song is 6 minutes long) a new singer introduces some new lyrics, although it quickly gets back on track.  The song also features a crazy fiddle solo from Charlie Daniels.

What I find so weird about this song is the presumed funk doesn’t really seem to be in the music.  Bootsy’s speaking is certainly funky, but the music itself doesn’t have a lot of funk.  And yet, by around 4 and a half minutes I was starting to feel it (perhaps it was the bow wow wows).

Experience it yourself

[READ: December 7, 2013] Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Blue Gem

Since I’m going to write about a few of these, I’ll keep up this little intro bit so I don’t have to re-write the general ideas/criticisms.

These are indeed the actual Arthur Conan Doyle stories just severely edited and truncated.  In other words, a lot of the story is cut out and yet the original language is still in place (at least I hope it is, I hope contemporary writers didn’t write the dialogue), so for young kids I think the wording is a little confusing.  The drawings are a little too simple for my liking as well.  They do effectively convey the story, but I didn’t like the very basicness of them.  I feel they make the stories seems a little more childlike than they actually are.

Having said all that however, I found the graphic novels to be a compelling introduction to Sherlock Holmes’ shorter stories (although not for my 8-year-old apparently).

This was one of my favorite of the five stories I read because of the humorous (in my opinion) way that the titular blue gem was hidden–and ultimately found. (more…)

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Murray Shaw and M.J. Cosson (illustrated by Sophie Rohrbach)–Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure at the Abbey Grange [On the Case with Holmes and Watson #2] (2010)

Posted in Adventure, All Songs Considered, Arthur Conan Doyle, Children's Books, Christmas Album, Graphic Novel, Julian Koster, M.J. Cosson, Murray Shaw, Mystery, Short Books, Sophie Rohrbach on December 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

holmes2SOUNDTRACK: JULIAN KOSTER-“Frosty the Snowman” (2008).

sawThe name of this track doesn’t prepare you for what lies inside.  For that, you need the album title: Singing Saw at Christmas.  Julian Koster (who is part of the Elephant 6 collective) and has a love it or hate it voice, also plays the singing saw (another love it or hate it sound).

And so, in 2008 he released an album of Singing Saw Christmas Carols.  And NPR played it on their Holiday Show.  The version is simultaneously beautiful and terribly unsettling.  It’s hard to even know what it is if you aren’t aware that it is a saw (I at first guessed theremin).

I enjoy hearing it (and it is very short), but I don’t think I could bring myself to listen to a whole album.

Koster released a short holiday video in which he plays a song and tells a story.  To watch him play the saw (with a fellow saw player, tune in around 3:50).

[READ: December 6, 2013] Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure at the Abbey Grange

Since I’m going to write about a few of these, I’ll keep up this little intro bit so I don’t have to re-write the general ideas/criticisms.

These are indeed the actual Arthur Conan Doyle stories just severely edited and truncated.  In other words, a lot of the story is cut out and yet the original language is still in place (at least I hope it is, I hope contemporary writers didn’t write the dialogue), so for young kids I think the wording is a little confusing.  The drawings are a little too simple for my liking as well.  They do effectively convey the story, but I didn’t like the very basicness of them.  I feel they make the stories seems a little more childlike than they actually are.

Having said all that however, I found the graphic novels to be a compelling introduction to Sherlock Holmes’ shorter stories (although not for my 8-year-old apparently).

This story also struck me as unusual (perhaps I just have certain expectations of Holmes’ that are not quite right).  Holmes usually comes across as cocky (and frankly, obnoxious) when he finds a clue.  In this case he seemed almost deferential to the police (maybe the modern interpretations of Holmes show him to be more obnoxious).  Even though he felt things were not right about the clues, he didn’t insist upon correcting them immediately.  He even took the police’s word for things (unheard of!).  Although perhaps that was all planned out because of what happens at the end. (more…)

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Murray Shaw and M.J. Cosson (illustrated by Sophie Rohrbach)–Sherlock Holmes and a Scandal in Bohemia [On the Case with Holmes and Watson #1] (2010)

Posted in Adventure, All Songs Considered, Arthur Conan Doyle, C., Children's Books, Christmas Album, Graphic Novel, James Brown, M.J. Cosson, Murray Shaw, Mystery, Short Books, Sophie Rohrbach on December 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

holmes1SOUNDTRACK: JAMES BROWN-“Soulful Christmas” (1968).

Ibrown enjoy the funk.  And I enjoy funking up The Christmas.  So this seemed like a song or album I should have been familiar with already.  And yet I wasn’t.  I fear I know too much of Brown’s less than stellar 80s work rather than his awesome 60s and 70s work.

So NPR played this song in the 2010 Holiday Show, and I was immediately grabbed by the funky bass of the song.  The song is all about how much Brown loves us and wants to wish us a Happy Christmas and New Year.

The song doesn’t really deviate from the funky bass line (and indeed why should it?) and it turns more or less into an improv.

The song gets a little weird around 2 and a half minutes when he starts telling us how much he loves his fans, well, because they buy his records and come to see his shows (that’s why he loves us so).  It’s a weirdly worded sentiment, but I’m sure it’s heartfelt.  Next year there may have to be more funk at Chritsmastime.

[READ: December 5, 2013] Sherlock Holmes and a Scandal in Bohemia

I’m always looking for interesting graphic novels for the kids, so I was pretty excited to see this Sherlock Holmes collection (although maybe more for myself than them).  In fact, C. didn’t seem that interested in them.  I was a little surprised as he enjoys detective stuff but when I read this first one I felt the language was a little stilted (for a comic book).  These are indeed the actual Arthur Conan Doyle stories just severely edited and truncated.  In other words, a lot of the story is cut out and yet the original language is still in place (at least I hope it is, I hope contemporary writers didn’t write the dialogue), so for young kids I think the wording is a little confusing.

The drawings are a little too simple for my liking as well.  They do effectively convey the story, but I didn’t like the very basicness of them.  I feel they make the stories seems a little more childlike than they actually are.

Having said all that however, I found the graphic novels to be a compelling introduction to Sherlock Holmes’ shorter stories (although not for my 8-year-old apparently).

This story introduces us to the infamous (in Holmes’ circle) Irene Adler, the woman who was able to best Holmes. It seems like a really odd place to start this series of books if you are new to Holmes, because Holmes more or less admits that Adler has outsmarted him, which seems to undermine his skills somewhat.  This story was the first short story to feature Holmes, but he had already appeared in two novels.  So readers were familiar with his skills, whereas contemporary readers might wonder what the fuss is about., which you don;t get to read here. (more…)

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