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John Baxter, Joshua Faudem, Koren Shadmi–Mike’s Place: A True Story of Love, Blues and Terror in Tel Aviv (2015)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Blues by the Beach, Bombs, Death, Drinking, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, History, John Baxter, Joshua Faudem, Koren Shadmi, Marwan Barghouti, Monika, Non-fiction, Racism, Religion, Sex, Tiny Desk Concert, Travel, Violence, War, Yuck! on June 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »

mikesplace SOUNDTRACK: MONIKA-Tiny Desk Concert #529 (May 6, 2016).

monikaMonika is a superstar in her native Greece (her full name is Monika Christodoulou).  She is a charming woman with a big voice and a bigger stage presence.  She incorporates theatrical notions in her performance too (the fact that she has a shirt that looks like a mime’s kind of encourages that idea): “throwing” stars, flying, sleeping.

It is hard to believe that the blurb says used to sing sad songs, as she is so fun and bouncy.  But there’s this biographical note:

her recent transition from singer of sad songs to purveyor of upbeat jubilance came after she nearly lost her life in a boat fire; she had to swim eight hours in the dark to safety without food or drinkable water. These days, it’s all about a great band grooving, her joyful voice, and that infectious smile.

Wow.

She sings four songs.  The first, “Yes I Do,” opens with what I assume is a lyric about the then current moment: “24th of March has arrived and I think it’s Thursday?  Washington is beautiful out there but we don’t really care.”  It has a kind of circus opera feel.  And Monika’s voice is a marvel–powerful and beautiful with a good range.

monika2For the second song, “Shake Your Hands” she asks if everyone is ready to dance a little.  She climbs up on the desk and as she sings the slow opening, when she gets to the “I love you” moment, she sings without the mike and is as loud as when she uses it.  Once the song kicks in, it has a big disco beat: wah wah’d guitars and a funky bass line.  She encourages everyone to sing along: “Even if you don’t understand, just repeat, okay.”  The song ends with a very fun extended ending of staccato chords.

“Hand in Hand” has a kind of gospel quality (a big group sing along of the opening lines), although it is a brief, transitional song before “Secret in the Dark” begins.  She straps on a guitar for this final song which has a discoey riff and a fuzzy keyboard sound.  It’s really fun.

I’d never heard of Monika, but she seems like the kind of pop/dance star that would be really fun to see live.

[READ: April 1, 2016] Mike’s Place

Somehow I missed that word in the subtitle: True.  I didn’t realize that this was a true story until the very end.  The story was really good before I knew that and it makes it even more amazing after I found the truth.

In Tel Aviv, Israel, John Baxter (Jack), a filmmaker has come to cover a story.  He goes into a local bar called Mike’s Place for a meal.  He is greeted warmly and is told that there is live music every night of the week.  They proudly state that Mike’s is a place where people of all stripes comes to congregate and do anything but talk about politics.

It turns out that there are already people making a documentary about the subject who John came to cover (Marwan Barghouti) so Jack  decides to give up. (more…)

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Boaz Yakin & Joe Infurnari–Marathon (2012)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Boaz Yakin, Bryce Dessner, David Lang, Death, Eighth Blackbird, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, History, Humiliation, Joe Infurnari, Marathon, Revenge, Robert Honstein, The National, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence, War on June 20, 2016| Leave a Comment »

marathon SOUNDTRACK: EIGHTH BLACKBIRD-Tiny Desk Concert #528 (May 2, 2016).

8thEighth Blackbird is described as a “new music ensemble” from Chicago.  That means they play classical music that is new and “different.”  The sextet says that looking at each other–being able to communicate–is essential for playing these complex pieces, which calls for an interesting arrangement behind the Tiny Desk.

The first piece is actually two pieces called “Wave the Sea” and “Brushy Fork” from a suite called Murder Ballads by Bryce Dessner (better known as being in The National) .  The piece opens with a flute solo by newest member Nathalie Joachim, and then some complex series of notes and timings from the rest of the band–this is cerebral music that you must really pay attention to.

“Pulse,” from Robert Honstein’s three-movement Conduit is a much more gentle piece, far less frenetic and more mellow. It opens with Matthew Duvall’s vibraphone, Yvonne Lam’s violin, Lisa Kaplan’s piano and Michael J. Maccaferri’s clarinet which all seem to get added in one at a time until it is all just one consistent piece.  Nicholas Photinos’ cello offers some low end while the flute seems to float above the whole piece.  The song seems like it could just keep going forever as a very slow, beautiful round.

The final piece is by David Lang (an artist they have played for many years).  “learn to fly” returns to that frenetic tempo of the first piece .  Opening with wild syncopated piano notes (it looks impossible to play) and added to by the flute, clarinet and cello.  And just when you think the whole piece will remain in this style of complex syncopation, a violin solo bursts forth and soars for a few bars before returning to the melody.

I don’t listen to a lot of classical music, but I really enjoyed this Concert a lot.

[READ: March 1, 2016] Marathon

While overall I have really enjoyed the First Second books that I’ve read, this one I found really confusing and not exactly enjoyable.

The story begins in 490 BC.  Unbelievably it says the temperature is 106 degrees Fahrenheit (but sure, why not).  A man is running from Athens to Sparta (distance 153 miles).  Then there’s the confusing title: Athens: Twelve Years ago. Which I assume means 12 years before 490 BC–where we see some young boys racing.  Eucles won the race.  It is shocking to everyone that he is the son of a slave.  The slave defeated the Kings “own bastard son Phillipus.”   And so the King cuts off Phillipus’ head.

When he fails a test shortly thereafter, Eucles’ parents are executed.

Yup it’s that kind of story.

The king is Hippias.  He is exiled soon after the events of 12 years ago. (more…)

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Simon Rich–“The Foosball Championship of the Whole Entire Universe” (New Yorker, May 9, 2016)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Anachronisms, Art, Florist, Foosball, Funny (ha ha), Humiliation, Juno, Kimya Dawson, New Yorker, Short Story, Simon Rich, Tiny Desk Concert on June 15, 2016| Leave a Comment »

592016SOUNDTRACK: FLORIST-Tiny Desk Concert #527 (April 29, 2016).

floristFlorist is a quiet band–they remind me a bit of Kimya Dawson from the Juno soundtrack.  There are four members of the band–lead singer/guitarist Emily Sprague and a drummer who has only one drum and plays very sparsely. And then there are two guys who switch between bass/guitar and keyboards.  In this Tiny arrangement, the keys are right next to the guys which makes it very easy for them to switch back and forth–I wonder if it works so well on a bigger stage.

I knew the first song, “Vacation” from an earlier All Songs Considered show and this live version sounds pretty much like the recorded version.  Sprague has a very gentle voice–almost a whipser (but not mumbling or anything).  And her guitar playing is really pretty.  I remember Bob Boilen talking about how much he liked her lyrics like:

Like when I used to ride roller coasters with my dad / When a swimming pool in a hotel / Was a gift from God / Like, love, we’re like a family / I don’t know how to be

The song is mostly just her singing until the end when the bassist sings (also very quietly) a duet with her

At least I know that my house wont burn down down to the ground / or maybe it will / if I’ve been in love before and I’m pretty sure I have / I’m pretty sure that my house could burn down down to the ground tomorrow.

 Between the first and second song the bassist/keyboardist holds down some notes while the others tune and get ready to play.  They’re the most un rock n roll looking band I’ve seen, with them dresses in cozy clothes as they calmly prepare for the second song.

“Cool and Refreshing” sounds that way.  The melody is really pretty once again.  And Sprague’s vocal line is quite lovely.  And the lyrics:

Think of me by the creek in cutoff jeans holding onto / Something that has meaning to me / I don’t really think my life will ever make me / As happy as Kaaterskill Creek

I like the middle of the song when everything drops away except for the lone synth note.

The notes ring out after the second song when Emily finally looks up and says “Thanks everybody” before looking sown and starting the third song, “1914.”  This vocals are a duet, and musically it is just the two guitars.  It’s a very simple song, sparsely conveying the idea of a farewell letter from 100 years ago:

Please remember to feed the cat.  Please remember that I’m never coming back.  I was born in 1994 / I as born in the 70s / I was born in 1823 and you were born right next to me.

Florist was touring recently.  I imagine it must be the quietest show you could ever go to.  But also a very pretty show.

[READ: December 13, 2012] “The Foosball Championship of the Whole Entire Universe”

The premise of this piece is very simple–it is indeed the foosball championship of the whole entire universe.  And the players are eleven-year old Nathaniel Rich and seven-year old Simon Rich.

This “joke” more or less tells itself, but Rich is able to add wonderful details to the story of it to make it much funnier than just the title.  Nathaniel’s Blue team has won all 83 matches, but this game–the last of the summer vacation–is for all the marbles.

Rich has broken the “story” down into analyses of Keys to the Game.

Like Coaching, in which we learn all about Coach Simon’s style (as told by the “players”): “Coach cries a lot” or “the last time we lost, coach attacked us.  It was scary because even though he’s just a boy, he’s also a giant–fifty to sixty times our height.” (more…)

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John L’Heureux–“Three Short Moments in a Long Life” (New Yorker, May 9, 2016)

Posted in Bonnie Raitt, Books about writers, Death, Dodgeball, Eric Clapton, John L'Heureux, Marriage (Happy), New Yorker, Peter Frampton, Short Story, Suicide, Tiny Desk Concert on June 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »

592016 SOUNDTRACK: PETER FRAMPTON-Tiny Desk Concert #526 (April 27, 2016).

framptonI’ve never been a big fan of Frampton.  Never disliked him, just never got into him.  It always made me laugh that Frampton Comes Alive was so huge and yet I only ever knew two songs from it.  And in my head the only thing he was known for was that voice guitar thing.

So it’s interesting to see him now, considerably older with much less hair. Indeed he changes the lyrics to the first song “All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)” to “I don’t care now that I’ve…lost some hair.”  For this song it’s just him playing an acoustic guitar and singing–no effects.  (This is all in tour of his new Acoustic Classics album).  It’s interesting to hear him playing such a folkie song (which sounds a bit like Eric Clapton).  But the more important thing is that his voice sounds great.  Many singers his age simply don’t have the voice anymore, but he certainly does.  He hasn’t lost anything.

For the second song, “Lines On My Face,” he is joined by Gordon Kennedy.  Kennedy has been his writing partner for decades.  Together they wrote some of Frampton’s classics as well as a song for Eric Clapton and Bonnie Raitts’ new single “Gypsy in Me.”  He says that this song is something he wrote a long time ago and it’s still a favorite.  While Kenendy plays acoustic backing chords, Frampton plays some good solos on that acoustic guitar.

For being Peter Frampton, he was actually very humble and self-effacing and rather funny.  There’s a good moment when he says he didn’t expect quite this many people.  “You hear like “clap clap clap….”

Of course, I know “Baby, I Love Your Way.”  I’m not exactly sick of it, but I don’t go out of my way to listen to it.  However, in this new acoustic format I really got to listen to the song anew.  It’s really quite a nice song.  And when the crowd spontaneously chimes in and sings along he seems genuinely pleased and it makes the song t hat much better.

This Tiny Desk made me appreciate Peter Frampton in a way I never thought I would.

[READ: June 10, 2016] “Three Short Moments in a Long Life”

I enjoy when a story has Parts.  This one has three and they all connect, which is even better than three discrete parts.  But this story, which covers a man’s life from childhood to old age is really quite a downer.  It speaks volumes about the futility of life without actually ever saying anything about it.

Part 1 is called The Spy (although I’m not entirely sure why).  In it, the narrator talks about Beverly LaPlante.  He and Beverly were in second grade together.  She was very shy and cried a lot.  They both hated recess and he was afraid to get lumped in with–the kids made fun of her a lot.  Midway through the year she left the school and that was that.

Third grade meant a new teacher and he had a crush on her.  Then one day during dodge ball he noticed that there was a new girl.  And her name was Beverly LaPlante.  But there was no way she was the same girl, right?  She wasn’t shy at all, in fact, she ended the dodgeball game by cursing out some of the losers.  He was upset that he sweet teacher didn’t yell at her.  When she finally said something to the girl, Beverly shouted “Jesus Christ and shit, piss, fuck!”

The narrator prayed that night–he prayed that Beverly would die.  He immediately took it back but it was too late.

Part 2 is called The Writer.

In this brief part the boy is grown up.  He is a writer, and has written several books which no one cared about.  While he was thinking about writing, there was a knock at the door.  He opened it and there was Jesus: “he had long blond hair and those eyes that follow you around the room.”  Except of course it wasn’t Jesus, right?  It was a just a guy looking for work or change.

Part 3 is called The Substance of Things Hoped For.

As the section opens the man is now eighty–lying on his bed unable to move.  We learn that he has Parkinson’s and is being taken to the hospital for pneumonia.

He has felt like a burden to his wife and some time ago tried to kill himself. It failed obviously but she told him if he ever did that again she’d kill him herself: “She’s a genuine saint, the real thing, without any pious crap, so she’s not always easy to live with.”

He is in the hospital for a while, marveling at the attendants and how young they seem.  He wonders if and when he is going to die.

This last part seemed really extraneous and not very meaningful.  I realize that it was meant to wrap everything up but I would have preferred to have the two parts together and let me imagine the third.

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Alexandra Kleeman–“Choking Victim” (New Yorker, May 2, 2016)

Posted in Advice, Alexandra Kleeman, Babies, Bonnie Raitt, Huh?, Humiliation, Lake Street Dive, New Yorker, Parenting, Short Story, Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Tiny Desk Concert, Unlikable main character on June 11, 2016| Leave a Comment »

522016 SOUNDTRACK: SISTER SPARROW & THE DIRTY BIRDS-Tiny Desk Concert #525 (April 25, 2016).

sistersparrowI was intrigued by the name of this band, but I was so disappointed to find out that they were another soul/blues band fronted by a woman who sounds like Bonnie Raitt.  Between Bonnie Raitt’s new album, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Lake Street Dive and now this band there’s just too much of this music that is basically the same.  And then there’s the song titles: “Sugar” “Catch Me if You Can” and “Mama Said.”

I also had to laugh at the men in the band each one of the six has a beard.  And I got  a big kick out of the harmonica player who looks like he’s trying to be bad ass, but it’s really hard to look like a bad ass when you are blowing harmonica. And the lead singer does all of those bluesy things that drive me nuts—”sing it with me, “can you play that thing for your mama, now,” etc.

Having gotten that out of the way, the band is really quite good.  The sax player has some great solos and the trumpet player sounds good too.  And, while I mocked the harmonica player, he is really good—especially on the second and third songs where he plays an electric harmonica and really wails (he is also the brother of the lead singer).  Speaking of the lead singer, her voice is great.  She’s a tiny little thing but man can she belt out notes.  And she’s got the great ability to “sing” mmm hmmms and have them be really loud—a good bluesy front woman.  The lead guitarist is really good too whether he’s playing with a slide or doing some lengthy solos, the band really rocks.  Frankly you’d have to be a corpse not to tap your foot along to the rhythm or smile at this skinny redhead belting out these notes.

But I would never be able to tell them apart from the other bands I mentioned earlier.

[READ: June 10, 2016] “Choking Victim”

This was the second story in a row that I found hard to believe (and which I didn’t understand the title of).

Karen is in her mid-thirties and has recently had a baby.  She is depressed and doesn’t understand why everything is so different in her life.

The thing that I couldn’t quite get in this story was whether or not all of the people who gave her dirty looks (and there a lot) were in her head or in reality.  I simply don’t believe that so many people would give her a dirty look just as she walks down the street: “When she pushed her baby through the park in a bulky red stroller, people watched her with curiosity and pity.”

Her husband was away for two weeks and she had a hard time with the baby.  It was especially disconcerting to Karen because at six months old her baby wasn’t really talking–hardly even babbling. (more…)

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Lara Vapnyar–“Waiting for the Miracle” (New Yorker, April 25, 2016)

Posted in Culture Shock, Drinking, History, Julia Holter, Lara Vapnyar, Laurie Anderson, Marriage (Happy), New Yorker, Regina Spektor, Russia, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert on June 10, 2016| Leave a Comment »

425 SOUNDTRACK: JULIA HOLTER-Tiny Desk Concert #524 (April 22, 2016).

Jjuliahulia Holter also has a theatrical style although her touchstone would be someone more like Regina Spektor (I found a similar style in their delivery).

“Sea Calls me Home” has a cabaret style in her delivery and songs structure.  She plays piano with a small band of upright bass, violin and drum.  I really like the sound (and solo) of the violin later on in the song.

“In the Green Wild” has a very jazzy feel with the upright bass playing a jazz line and the drums playing a jazzy rushed sound.  The violin plays some random high almost dissonant notes that work very well.  For the beginning, Julia doesn’t play piano, she sing-speaks kind of like Laurie Anderson—including the unusual intonation and emphases.  The rest of the band sings backing vocals that are higher and ethereal.  About half way in, she begins playing piano and the song settles sown a bit. The way she sings is unusual and a little unsettling—she looks up at the ceiling more or less the whole time.  Her piano notes are simple and I like the way she plays without looking at the keys.

After that song she speaks briefly.  Her personality is pretty nonexistent–she doesn’t smile or even seem to look at anyone. She sounds rather bored as she says okay we’ll play another song.  Thanks for listening.  That turned me off of her music a bit.

The final song, “Betsy on the Roof,” is the longest, about six minutes long.  It sounds similar to the first one–theatrical and somewhat operatic.  There’s a story in the song, but my favorite part is the middle where she sings a scale up to the roof and then the band rocks out.  The end of the song is fascinating as she sings her nice melody and plays atonal tones on the piano.  I enjoyed t he theatricality of this music a lot, but I would have preferred not to see her performance.

[READ: June 10, 2016] “Waiting for the Miracle”

This is the story of Vadik and his arrival in New York from Moscow.  It was a snowy day as he landed at J.F.K.  Despite the snow blanketing the skyline, it was still exciting. as he descended.  He had just received his work Visa authorizing his stay in the U.S. for three years.  He was staring work in Avenel, NJ.

His friend Sergey, who lives in Staten Island, came to pick him up.  All that Vadik wanted to do was explore the city–walk aimlessly and see what happened, but Sergey wanted to take him to his house.  And Sergey’s wife Vica wanted to see him too–in their past Vadik and Vica had been an item although and Sergey stole her away.  Vica made dinner for him and so he agreed to go to the Island.

On the way to the house, the most improbable thing is that Sergey is listening to a Leonard Cohen CD and singing along.  (Vadik likes Sergey and admits that he is still handsome, but his voice is terrible and has always been terrible.  And it’s especially bad especially for Leonard Cohen.  I say this is improbable because Cohen’s music appears later in the story  too. (more…)

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Colin Barrett–“The Ways” (New Yorker, April 18, 2016)

Posted in Babies, Benjamin Clementine, Books about writers, Colin Barrett, Drugs, New Yorker, Poetry, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert on June 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

418SOUNDTRACK: BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE-Tiny Desk Concert #523 (April 18, 2016).

benjI have literally never seen or heard anyone like Benjamin Clementine.  He sits very tall with the piano keys quite low for him.  And he has such an effortless almost careless way of playing and yet his notes are precise and perfect.  He also faces away from the piano and sings more or less to the audience–as if his voice and hands were two different creatures.  And what a voice!

As the first song, “Condolence,” opens he plays the melody with his left hand, leaving his right hand on his lap as he sings with an intense operatic style.  But not operatic exactly, it’s more like a theatrical voice—like he is performing a dramatic recitation. But also singing these intense, powerful notes (with a vibrato that almost seems comical but is definitely not).  He sprinkles in some high piano notes almost as an afterthought, the way he casually places his hands on the keys.  And all this time, he is sitting on a stool and more or less facing the audience.  The song is five minutes long.  It doesn’t exactly seem to have a chorus–there are lyrical parts that are repeated, but it feels less like a conventional song and more like a story set to music.

When the song is over and he speaks.  He seems so shy and quiet, “Hello America.”  He has a very thick British accent (but now lives in France).

For “Gone” his hands seem to dwarf the piano.  The melody is simple and pretty and then he begins singing with just one word, a low “I” held for five seconds with vibrato.  After that, the lyrics are more or less spoken with his thick middle class accent.  He sings the middle section (with the higher piano notes) and seems to be singing in an upper class accent.  After hitting a long note, he speaks a few lines before singing the last word: “gone” with some beautiful piano notes to accompany.

“Adios” is a much more frenetic musically, but it also feels theatrical.  It is 7 minutes long.

After an intense first section about regrets and bad decisions, there is a spoken section in which he talks of angels and then he switches to a high tenor voice singing an operatic section (like the angels).  As the angelic section ends, he says, “I don’t understand them but as always, they come, they sing to me and they leave eventually.”  The intro music is so catchy and the angelic part so unexpected.  The song is unique.  Definitely not for everyone, but really impressive.

[READ: June 6, 2016] “Anhedonia, Here I Come”

This is the second or third story of Barrett’s that I’ve read.  And like previous stories it took me a while to realize it was set in Ireland.  This is of course my own bias as if I lived in Ireland I’d probably assume it was set there.  But I didn’t.

And frankly the location is irrelevant because this story is about a poet and his attempts at coping with the un-understanding world.

Bobby Tallis is a skinny twenty-something.  He lives in an old housing estate that is populated mostly by old people.  He had nothing to do with them.  Really all he does is walk six miles every day so he can buy weed from a schoolgirl (see, this could be anywhere). (more…)

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Sarah Shun-Lein Bynum–“The Burglar” (New Yorker, April 11, 2016)

Posted in Books about writers, Film & TV, Grace Slick, Jimi Hendrix, King's X, New Yorker, PJ Harvey, Racism, Sarah Shun-lein Bynum, Seratones, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on June 8, 2016| Leave a Comment »

41116 SOUNDTRACK: SERATONES-Tiny Desk Concert #522 (April 15, 2016).

seraThis Seratones show totally rocked!  And it was a nice change of pace from the slower bands who have been on the Tiny Desk lately.

The lead singer and guitarist is A.J. Haynes.  She plays guitar with a pick on her thumb and has a very clean guitar sound.  Her voice is really lovely—powerful and strong and covering multiple styles from Grace Slick to PJ Harvey.  The blurb says

Haynes grew up singing in the Brownsville Baptist Church, learning to sing out to and hit that back wall without a microphone.

And that’s apparent from the ease she has at singing.  The rest of her band is really great too.  Continuing the blurb:

bassist Adam Davis heard a lot of American rock’s greatest guitarist, Jimi Hendrix, as well as the amazing voice of Janis Joplin. The rest of the band is rounded out by the drumming of Jesse Gabriel, who is spare but there with a sharp backbeat, while guitarist Connor Davis rocks with lyrical grit.

Although I had to laugh because Haynes seems to be having so much fun while her bandmates are rather stonefaced.

They play three songs and they are all great.  “Don’t Need It” rocks out like nobody’s business.  Haynes is a charismatic (and adorable) lead singer with a big afro and a great smile.  “Get Gone” has a much more bluesy sound.  I like the way she delivers the line: “Suns coming out like you knew it would.”  After each verse she gives a big high-pitched “ooh oooh.” And then comes back with a growly low voice.  I love that she’s alternately belting out notes and then singing falsetto.

“Chandelier” has a great funky groove.  When the song sorta stops and just the drums kick in she gives a delightful giggle.

I was really delighted with this band whom I’d never heard of before and I definitely want to check out their recently released debut album.

[READ: April 11, 2016] “The Burglar”

I enjoyed the way that this story was structured.  One paragraph at a time with a dot in between them.  This allowed for a strange juxtaposition of time, with some things happening simultaneously and others possibly out of sequence.

There are several characters in the story.  There is a the burglar (known primarily as “he”); there is the wife who is waiting for exterminators to come to the house–she’s out and hopes to get home before they do).  There is the husband, who is off at work.  His job is fascinating, he’s writing his first script for a TV pilot.  The producers of the show want it to be edgy and different.  The character he is working on (the only person named in the story) is Emmet Byron Diggs, who is falsely accused of killing his wife.  Emmet is black, but the producers don’t want him to think about that as he develops the character.

The story rotates through these characters.  We see the scriptwriter and the producers talking about the show: a time travel show in which Emmet is going to start killing people.

The burglar encounters a dog in the house and tries to figure out how to deal with it.

The wife is racing to get home.

And Emmett is also walking down a street checking out the twenty-first century world he’s in.

Okay so the burglar is in the woman’s house.  But she hears him upstairs and assumes he is the exterminator.

And then the burglar hears her and tries to figure out what he’s going to do.  He calls out, “Just the cleaning crew.”  he berates himself for saying such a weird thing and she thinks its weird that the exterminator would call himself the cleaning crew.

And that’s when the phone rings and it’s the exterminators calling to say they’ll be late.

How does this real-life scenario play out at home while her husband is trying to create a similarly fictionalized setting on the page?

The stories even began to overlap somewhat with action in both stories taking place in a kitchen.  By the end of the story it’s not entirely clear what’s even happening, at least to me.  And yet despite or because of this confusion, I really loved the story.  It was intense and strangely funny at the same time.

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Kevin Canty–“God’s Work” (New Yorker, April 4, 2016)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Kevin Canty, Melanie, New Yorker, Palehound, PWR BTTM, Religion, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert on June 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »

4416SOUNDTRACK: PALEHOUND-Tiny Desk Concert #521 (April 11, 2016).

palehoundPalehound sounds like they would be kind of a scruffy roots rock band.  But they are about as far from that as you can get.  Rather, Palehound are the embodiment of alt indie rock–a literate confessional songwriter playing spare grungy music behind her emotionally wrenching vocals.

Back in February, Palehound played a showcase for NPR (you can see it here).  In the live setting, the band was noisy and rocking and singer/guitarist Ellen Kempner’s distortion was turned way up.  She doesn’t shred, but she makes a giant noise.  She is backed by a bassist and a drummer–spare but effective.  And her voice is comfortably uncomfortable meaning her angry lyrics and intentionally less than pretty singing works perfectly for the music she writes.

But for this Tiny Desk, she strips away a lot of the noise and lays bare both her sound and her voice.  As the blurb says, these three spare, nervy renditions of songs from 2015’s Dry Food are, naturally, a bit rawer and more exposed… But, with the aid of drummer Jesse Weiss and bassist Davood Khoshtinat, Kempner uses that intimacy to her advantage.

The first song, “Pet Carrot” opens with a simple guitar riff and Kempner’s delicate  voice singing “my best friend is a parrot and I say things that he won’t mind” (this part reminds me a bit of the melody from “Brand New Key” from Melanie.  When the band kicks in (bass and drums) they ground the song.  Her guitar style isn’t flashy at all but it works really well with her understated vocals.

She switches guitars (“the old switcheroo”) and Bob says they admired this guitar.  She says they were on tour with PWR BTMM who are so glittery so she bought whale stickers and bejeweled the guitar.  Bob says that PWR BTTM will be here in Feb (so not only did Palehound’s show air two months later but it was put out after PWR BTTM’s).

For “Dry Food,” her vocals are much deeper and even more delicate.  Her guitar playing is great—picking the high notes with her fingers and playing bass notes with her thumb.  The drum is simple–keeping the beat–while the bass adds a low end.  Again, the lyrics are great: “You made beauty a monster to me so I’m kissing the ugly things I see.”

The final song, “Dixie,” is just her singing and playing guitar.  It’s a simple ballad, but not a happy one.  I like the way she repeats the last line of each verse–like a poem.  The song feels like a dream and confessional at the same time:  “People that I’ll never meet have been showing up naked in my dreams and I try to close my eyes but I really want to see their breasts like eyes are staring back at me, their breasts like eyes are staring back at me.”  I love the slow chord she plays at the end of each verse too—a punctuation after each thought.  And then this line: “The hair that’s in my shower drain has been clogging up my home.  And I try to scoop it up but I wretch until I’m stuck just stare and gag into a Dixie cup, just stare and gag into a Dixie cup.”

With her full band there’s a lot more dissonance both in her guitar sound and the chords she plays (and she talks about new merch–Nail Polish called Nailhound by Palehound).  This band is really something.

[READ: January 23, 2013] “God’s Work”

This is a story of faith and questions.

Sanders is a college aged boy (I think–it says sophomore, and they live near a college, so I assume he is in college).  His mother is a devout woman who goes door to door with pamphlets inviting people to Fellowship.  They aren’t Mormon–in fact I can’t decide what their religion is.  They don’t believe in hell, just a void, but she says that, of course, you would rather have God’s eternal love than nothingness.

Sanders loves his mother and his faith is certain.  But he is a teen-aged boy with urges and an imagination.  And being around college-aged girls (while he must wear a heavy black suit) is unsettling.

Most people simply shut their doors in his mother’s face (which does not deter her) but every once in a while people invite her in.  Sometimes for good reason and other times to give them a hard time. (more…)

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Ian McEwan–“My Purple Scented Novel” (New Yorker, March 28, 2016)

Posted in Books about writers, Fraud, Humiliation, Ian McEwan, Marriage (Happy), New Yorker, Sex, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert on June 6, 2016| Leave a Comment »

328SOUNDTRACK: MOTHERS-Tiny Desk Concert #520 (April 8, 2016).

mothersMothers is an unusual band.  There are four members (which isn’t that unusual) but their music has a number of elements that makes them hard to classify.  Their songs are slow and somewhat meandering, with a lot of ethereal qualities. There’s no drums and the bass is spare.

On “Too Small For Eyes,” lead singer and guitarist Kristine Leschper sings in a very high, delicate voice and she plays vibratoed guitar lines high on the neck of her guitar (she even holds the guitar very high on her body).  There’s another guitarist who plays similarly high notes and a keyboardist who is playing single notes that sound almost like a steel drum—in the most nontropical way ever.  The music is pretty and feel  like it could float away at any second.  But Leschper’s voice veers towards the harsh from time to time which comes as a surprise.  And as the song nears the end (it’s unclear just how long this song is going to be since there’s no conventional structure—the song could go for 20 minutes longer), the guitars start playing a slightly more dissonant sound.

“Burden Of Proof” is similarly slow with washes of spooky keyboards growing louder.  If they didn’t pause between songs I would have thought it was the same song.  The second guitarist is on the floor playing with effects pedals.

As the song ends, the music continues as the bass player thumbs some notes to keep the sound going.  The second guitarist and keyboardist switch places.  When I first listened to the show without watching I thought they only played two songs.

The third song sounds a little different from the other two (it is a newer song not on their debut album).  The guitar line is a little deeper.  Like the first song, this one turns a little unsettling in the middle with notes that don’t quite seem t go with the music.  It feels like things are slightly awry as they play.  The song returns to normal and then as it reaches the end there is that slightly seasick-sounding wave of keyboards that bring the song to its conclusion.

The blurb says that, kind of like with Ane Brun, the band chose to play their most mellow songs for this show.  In some ways that makes sense, but it also lost me as an audience member because I felt like their music was too samey.

[READ: April 6, 2016] “My Purple Scented Novel”

I’ve enjoyed just about everything I’ve read from McEwan, but this is by far my favorite story from him.

It is about two writers–Jocelyn Tarbet and the narrator, Parker Sparrow.  Forty years ago, they went to school together and were the best of friends.  They took holidays together, made love to each others’ girlfriends and even tried a homosexual relationship.  That last attempt didn’t work–they were repelled by each other’s penises.

But that was fine, because they were each successful in their own way.  Parker had his story published first.  But soon after Jocelyn had his story published.  And things were great.

Until Jocelyn wrote a TV play and made a fortune.  (more…)

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