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Archive for the ‘Authors’ Category

Domhnall O’Donoghue–Crazy for You (2020)

Posted in Brú na hAbhainn, Bulls, Death, Domhnall O'Donoghue, Ireland, Irish Writer, Romance, Unlikable main character, Vacation, Violence on August 2, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: July 2021] Crazy for You

Clooney Coyle is an Irish actor on the Irish language soap opera Brú na hAbhainn.

He is vain but amusing.  He is invited to his best friend Isla’s house for a party.  Isla is a school teacher and she is inviting the staff over for a Halloween party. Unfortunately an insufferable volunteer named Vonnie insisted that she be invited.  Isla has complained to Clooney about Vonnie many times and he is tickled to meet someone so obnoxiously self-assured and assertive,

Vonnie arrives and she is a horror show.  It’s a shame, though, that O’Donoghue had to make her fat and ugly in addition to loud and obnoxious.  But she walks into the party, insults the host, insults the guests, takes wine that isn’t hers (she didn’t bring anything to the party) and is a general nightmare.  But Clooney is intrigued by her and decides to treat her nicely.

When he was younger, he was picked on for being gay in rural Ireland so he understands the need to shine when others put out your spark.  And soon enough he pledges that they are friends for life.

Vonnie has the best line ever: “As an adult, I am an artist.”  She says this all the time and everyone looks at her the same way…. wtf does that mean.  She means that all children are artists, but she is an adult who is an artist.  She also has a gallery which Clooney promises to go to.  Her art is terrible and she charges him admission.  When she insists that he sit for a portrait, and them charges him a sitting fee he still manages to say that they are friends for life.

And that’s what sets her off.

Vonnie becomes insanely jealous.  And that’s when the book goes from the outrageous to the ridiculous and all believability is lost. (more…)

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Amy Meyerson–The Imperfects (2020)

Posted in Amy Meyerson, Austria, Death, Diamonds, Film & TV, Funny (ha ha), History, Parenting, Philadelphia, PA on August 1, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: July 2021] The Imperfects

I saw this book at work–I didn’t think I’d be seeing as many interesting books at work with my new position, but here was one that I wanted to read!

The title was interesting and the concept was eye catching right from the start.

The story seems fairly simple.  There is a grandmother–Helen Auerbach–and three grandchildren.  The grandchildren are estranged from their mother, who is peripherally in contact, and their father, who thy have not seen in decades.  They are also kind of estranged from each other because of some bad choices each of them has made.  Incidentally all of the children are Millers, not Auerbachs from their estranged father.

The book opens in Vienna 1918 with a historical moment that weighs heavily on the rest of the story.  I didn’t really like the writing style of that section–it was not what i was expecting and I hoped the rest of the story wouldn’t be written in that way (and it wasn’t, thankfully).  But I enjoyed the way that moment ultimately tied into the story. (more…)

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Richard Rayner–“After the Movie” (New Yorker, April 30, 2007)

Posted in Aurora, Massive Attack, New Yorker, Norway, Richard Rayner, Short Story, Suicide, The Beatles, Verftet Festival on July 31, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: AURORA-Verftet Online Music Festival 2020 (April 20, 2020).

In April 2020, Norway’s Verftet Music Festival streamed an online concert:

Get ready for Verftet Online Music Festival, Bergen’s largest virtual concert festival, where we can enjoy great music together. We want to turn despair and frustration into innovation and positivity, and invite everyone to a digital festival experience out of the ordinary – right home in your own living room.

Aurora played a 45 minute home concert for Verftet which you can see online.

The show starts with her at the piano (an unusual sight), playing the lovely ballad “Animal Soul.”  Then the drums start and Aurora and her band play a fantastic cover of the Massive Attack/Liz Frasier song “Teardrop.”  It sounds pretty cool on piano and even though Liz Frasier’s voice is unique in the world Aurora sounds terrific.

“Warrior” sounds very different from the recorded version, because it’s still rather quiet (although louder than the other songs).  Silja Sol has taken over piano and sings absolutely gorgeous harmonies.  Hearing the song stripped down shows what a powerful song it i

“All Is Soft Inside” opens with quiet echoing guitars and features more great backing vocals from Silja.  Although when Aurora sings a capella for a few beats it shows how great her voice is.  This song is really terrific.

Then she says something very Aurora: “I’m itching on my bum but I don’t want to do it on camera,  can you just film Magnus while I scratch my butt.”

Followed by some sage advice for pandemic times: “Its okay to be worthless, no not worthless, unproductive… we don’t have to do more than just exist sometimes.”

“Through The Eyes Of A Child” is a beautiful with just her and Silja on the piano.  The a capella verse with the deep and high harmonies sounds wonderful.  The song builds with the rest of the musicians adding in the guitar and drums.

“The River” grows bigger but is still restrained.  As is “Queendom,” her huge dance hit.  But even in this stripped down very it is still catchy and super fun.

“The Seed” is a wonderfully dark and powerful song.  For this quiet version, Silja plays quiet echoing guitar and the song builds into an intense climax (which is still quite restrained compared to the original).  But we can’t overlook the deep vocals from Magnus on the drums.

The set ends with a beautiful cover of The Beatles’ “Across The Universe” a song that will “take us away, a dreamy song… a perfect world… a beautiful hippie paradise.”  It’s a lovely gentle cover with amazing harmonies from Silja.

[READ: July 20, 2021] “After the Movie”

This is a very dark story.  It’s about Ed, a writer and filmmaker whose recent books have flopped.

He and his wife had just come back from the movies and his mood was foul.  He went to bed without saying good night to the kids.  Instead of falling asleep, he found himself sitting up and crying,

He genuinely considered killing himself.  He had no money coming in, they had borrowed against the house.  They had nothing left.  He was nothing,

Muldoon had called him this afternoon from Amsterdam.

Ed sat in bed and remembered back to when he was trying to perk up his friend Muldoon who was then having a similar slump. Ed encouraged him to hang in there.  And look at Muldoon now. (more…)

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Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O’Connell–Laura Dean Keeps Breaking up with Me (2019)

Posted in Advice, LGBTQ, Mariko Tamaki, Romance, Rosemary Valero-O'Connell, YA Books on July 28, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: Summer 2021] Laura Dean Keeps Breaking up with Me

Someone in the house brought this home from the libary and I knew I’d be reading it too.  I really like Mariko Tamaki and would read anything she wrote.

This story is about teen romance.  It’s set in Berkeley and has one of the biggest LGBTQ+ casts I’ve seen in a long time.  Since it’s set in Berkeley it’s not an issue, it’s common and cool.  It was great to read that.  I also like that she included a few segments about the earlier LGBTQ+ pioneers who made it safe for the younger generation to feel so safe.

The book opens with Freddy (Frederica) Riley writing to an advice columnist Anna Vice.  We see Freddy at a dance with her friends, including her best friend Doodle I love when characters have names like that).  Freddy is waiting for the titular Laura Dean to come to the dance.

Laura Dean is a tall, blonde, popular girl.  Their meeting story is adorable and Laura Dean is immediately charming. (more…)

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Patrick Freyne–Ok, Let’s Do Your Stupid Idea (2020)

Posted in Babies, Essays, Funny (ha ha), George Saunders, Hospitals, Humiliation, Irish Writer, Military, National Prayer Breakfast, Parachutes, Parenting, The Irish Times on July 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST

[READ: Summer 2021] Ok, Let’s Do Your Stupid Idea

I saw this book at work and loved the title.  I actually assumed it was a novel.  I’d never heard of Patrick Freyne and had no idea who he was.  In fact, by the time I’d read the first few essays I still had no idea who he was.  And that didn’t really matter all that much.

I suppose if you know him as a features journalist for The Irish Times, you would have some preconceived notions of what to expect.  But I tend to like “memoirs” by unknown-to-me people better than those by celebrities.  This is even addressed in the Preface.  His best friend says

“If I was going to read a book about someone’s life, it would be someone like Julius Caesar or Napoleon or some famous general”
…
“You know  there’s a whole genre of work that’s basically memoir writing,” I say.  “People who aren’t particularly famous witting about their lives.”
“Really?  Are you sure?”

That made me a little nervous abut going in but I figured if he put that in, it would probably all be pretty funny. (more…)

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David Sedaris–“Road Trips” (New Yorker, November 27, 2006)

Posted in David Sedaris, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Hitchhiking, Iris, Lars Vaular, LGBTQ, New Yorker, Norway, Sex, Verftet Online Music Festival on July 26, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: IRIS-Verftet Online Music Festival 2020 (April 1, 2020).

In April 2020, Norway’s Verftet Music Festival streamed an online concert:

Get ready for Verftet Online Music Festival, Bergen’s largest virtual concert festival, where we can enjoy great music together. We want to turn despair and frustration into innovation and positivity, and invite everyone to a digital festival experience out of the ordinary – right home in your own living room.

I was completely unfamiliar with Iris, but she was the only other singer whose set was still streaming.  Because Aurora is a Norwegian singer in the same range, I feel like Iris’ voice sounds similar to hers.  But that’s a lazy comparison.

I suspect that she is a bit more poppy than this set lets on.  Like the Silja Sol set, it feels like a more “unplugged” kind of show.

It opens with “crawl for me” with she her singing to a guitar.  It’s quiet and powerful.  The rest of the band comes out for “mercy” which is “how i would like to to not show me any.”  There are washes of guitar s and keys, including a very cool, almost sinister keyboard sound in the end.

A cellist arrives for “kroppsspråk” which is a cover of a Lars Vaular song.  It’s kind of rapped–but in Iris’s more singing way.  It seems like the original is very dancey and she has dialed it back.

After a gentle piano solo version of “giving in” (her voice is lovely in the spare setting), she played “from inside a car,” my favorite song of the set which  has a breathy quality that I really like.

Then she throws in a Beatles cover.  “Here, There and Everywhere” is a beautiful gentle cover with just her voice and an acoustic guitar.

“hidden springs” stays with the acoustic sound, but she moved to a more techie processed vocal for “your mind, the universe.”  She has a few technical glitches for this song but when they are resolved her voice sounds very cool as it starts and then turns into a much bigger song.

As they prepare the next song she jokes that you shouldn’t eat crackers in bed, which proves to be the opening line of “hanging around you/crackers,” a sweet sounding breakup song.

Before the final song she mentions that all of her band is wearing band T-shirts: Iron Maiden, Metallica, Kiss and um, Reservoir Dogs(?).  It’s an amusing look for such a gentle show.

Before starting “romance is dead” she encourages everyone to visit my You Tube channel for recipes.  This set ending song is soft and lovely, just piano and strings and her beautiful voice.

[READ: July 15, 2021] “Road Trips”

When David was a kid, his father rallied the families on their street in Raleigh to plant maple trees.  For years they were tiny, pathetic things.  Now, decades later they are tall and majestic creating a canopy down the street where his father still lives.

He was home visiting his father who brought him to a block party.  At the party a teenager saw David’s father and groaned “Lou Sedaris, who invited her?”

“My son is gay,” the boy’s mother announced as if none of us had figured this out yet.  David was blown away that someone could casually announce this on the street where he grew up.  As a young homosexual David played all the games that the other closeted kids did.  Dated girls and claimed that sex before marriage was what dogs did–a true union of soles could take eight to ten years!

He kept his secret until he was twenty.  But he would have kept it longer had a couple not picked him up when he was hitchhiking.  It was 1 AM and he was picked up by a Cadillac with people his parents’ age in it. (more…)

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Claudio Magris–“Curving Time in Krems” (Harper’s, June 2021)

Posted in Anne Milano Appel, Aurora, Claudio Magris, Huh?, Norway, Philosophy, Romance, Short Story, Silja Sol, Translation, Verftet Online Music Festival on July 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SILJA SOL-Verftet Online Music Festival 2020 (April 5, 2020).

In April 2020, Norway’s Verftet Music Festival streamed an online concert:

Get ready for Verftet Online Music Festival, Bergen’s largest virtual concert festival, where we can enjoy great music together. We want to turn despair and frustration into innovation and positivity, and invite everyone to a digital festival experience out of the ordinary – right home in your own living room.

Sadly, most of the performances are unavailable, but this one from Siljia Sol (who is also Aurora’s backing vocalist) is streaming.

She plays ten songs in about 40 minutes, singing entirely in Norwegian.

“Kometen” is a two minute opener.  It has trippy synths and feels like an introductory lullaby.  Silja has an amazing voice, with quite a range.  Here it is soft and childlike.  But “Superkresen” turns into a fully 80s dance song.  It fits perfectly with the totally80s visuals of her set.

“Hatten” continues the bounciness.  This song feels poppier with a quietly soaring chorus.  “Hultertilbult” is more guitar-based and feels more organic.  As does “Ni Liv” which has a more prominent bass line.  This song has nice soaring backing vocals from her guitarist.

I don’t know the originals of these songs at all, but this feels like a restrained rendition.  Not quite unplugged, but perhaps more suitable for watching on your couch.

For “Stemning” she moves to the piano and plays a quiet ballad–her voice is lovely here.

The dancing returns for “Løgneren.”  Throughout these songs, Silja’s voice reminds me of Aurora’s, probably because her voice is essential to all live Aurora songs (and because they are both Norwegian).  With Aurora Silja hits incredibly high soaring notes and she really doesn’t do that in her own songs.  Although she does hit some high notes here.

“Semmenemme” has a more rhythmic approach–with almost a rapping vibe.  “Eventyr” cranks up the guitar more with a nice groove behind it.

“Dyrene” ends the set with the most catchy song of the bunch.  It is more subtle but features some nice soaring high vocals in the chorus.

It’s fascinating listening to ten songs and having no idea (at all) what they are about.  I’m very curious to hear if her recorded output has a more or less 80s vibe going on.

You can stream the set here.

[READ: July 10, 2021] “Curving Time in Krems”

This story was really cerebral and metaphysical. as such it took a really long time to get to the point.  It was also an incredibly long story for what amounts to: boy calls girls he had a crush on and wished he had done so sooner.

The main character is an academic invited to a dinner party in Krems, a city that “resembles Vineta, the city submerged by waters.”  Snow had fallen making the oblivious old town even more deserted.

A woman at the dinner insists that her cousin attended classes with him and spoke about him recently.  He tells her this is impossible as he did not have female classmates.

He figures out that the woman is talking about Nori S.  But Nori was a grade ahead of him and there’s no way she would remember him.

For a seventeen-year-old boy, a beguiling eighteen-year-old girl is more inaccessible than a Hollywood diva is to a professor [that’s a weird simile, there].

(more…)

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E.C. Osondu–“Wealth of Memory” (Harper’s, June 2021)

Posted in Aurora, E.C. Osondu, Harper's, Immigrants, Memory, Short Story, The Future on July 23, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: AURORA-“Cure for Me” (2021).

Aurora seems to be a lot more prolific these days.  Or, at least, she’s more visible–releasing playlists and lots of other online items.  She has also released this new single.  I was delighted to hear it get some airplay on SiriusXM’s Alt Nation.

Starting with a slinky synth sound and a pulsing beat, Aurora sings in a whispery voice.

I run from the liars, the fuel on the fire
I know I created myself

As the bridge comes in she sings an uncharacteristic deep note (accentuating her accent a bit) and then after 45 second the super catchy chorus bursts forth

It’s the most dancey song she’s done so far (even more so than the dancey “Queendom”) and it’s positive and self-affirming:

I don’t need a cure for me
I don’t need it

If you don’t feel like moving to this song, you need to listen again–it’ll get you.

About this song she writes (from NME):

Like always, I got inspired by a really huge, dark and horrible thing that happens in the world. The first seed of inspiration came from thinking about the countries where it’s still legal to do conversion therapy for gay people and lesbians. I just thought that’s so pointless. The first idea was me saying, ‘I don’t need a cure for me – just let me live, man!’”

She continued: “Why is it so difficult for people to just let others be themselves? Then I thought that it could mean many other things. People tend to believe quite quickly that something is wrong with them if they’re not like the people they see in front of them. It’s so sad that it doesn’t take much for us to really doubt ourselves.”

Right on.

[READ: July 20, 2021] “Wealth of Memory”

This story comes from a book called Alien Stories.  This title has multiple meanings, obviously.

I love the way the story is set up:

One of the things he found most fascinating about America was that there were memory Stores on almost every street corner.  A person could simply walk into any of the stores and sell heir memories for money.

What a wonderfully succinct introduction to this world.

There were other things he liked about America–twist off beer bottles!–but he was most intrigued by the Memory Stores. (more…)

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David Sedaris–“Old Faithful: Testing the limits of love” (New Yorker, November 29, 2004)

Posted in Bleachers, Coronavirus, David Sedaris, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Quarantine, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Yuck! on July 22, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLEACHERS-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #235 (July 12, 2021).

People love Jack Antonoff and Bleachers.  I feel like I’m supposed to be blown away by him, but I’m not.  In fact I thought that I had seen him live, but it was actually Porches (not the same thing but sort of similar).

Both as producer extraordinaire and artist in his own right, Jack Antonoff has had an outsized impact on the past decade in pop. And yet, even with such maximalist aims, Antonoff clearly understands the effectiveness of scale: that the most enduring tracks are often intimate portraits.

Surrounded by greenery, the footage is interspersed with close-up angles filtered through an old-school finish (scan the wide shot and you’ll spy a video camera perched on the piano, plus one very tiny desk, too).

They play three songs.

The set opens with “91,” the album’s ambitious opening cut.

The songs opens with the two saxophone players standing really close to each other (where’s the social distancing guys?).  This song is a kind of story song with a lot of words.  The whole presentation reminds me a lot of Tom Waits (no bad thing) or Bruce Springsteen (which I guess makes more sense since Bruce sang on a song of his).

It’s followed by a bombastic revision of “Stop Making This Hurt,” which gets a slick saxophone rewrite courtesy of Zem Audu and Evan Smith.

“Stop Making This Hurt” opens in an interesting way with staccato sax from (l-r) Zem Audu and Evan Smith while Antonoff stabs some piano notes.  I suppose I would like this more if it didn’t sound exactly as it does.  Piano and sax are really just not my thing and that’s pretty much all these songs have.  Mikey Freedom Hart adds keys, but it’s mostly bass notes adding depth to the song.

Springsteen sings on the studio version of “Chinatown.”  Interestingly I felt like this version sounded more like Meatloaf than anything else.  Musically I enjoyed this song and Antonoff seems like a nice guy, but I’ll not be seeing Bleachers anytime soon.

[READ: July 15, 2021] “Old Faithful”

This essays opens with David finding a lump on his tailbone–never a happy discovery.  It was a cyst or a boil–“one of those words you associate with trolls.”

Just sitting hurt him–and forget about laying down.  He threatened that boil–“I’m going to go to a doctor if you don’t go away.”  It didn’t listen.

He says he didn’t go to the doctor because it would have been very expensive in London (really?  Don’t they have NHS?).  But mostly he was afraid of hearing that he had “lower-back cancer” and they’d have to “remove his entire bottom.”

He suffered with the pain believing he was setting a good example for Hugh who tends to moan and complain–a splinter gets into his hand and he claims to know how Jesus Christ felt. (more…)

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Jaclyn Moriarty–The Whispering Wars (2019) [Kingdoms and Empires #2]

Posted in Children's Books, Coronavirus, Dragons, Elves, Fairies, Funny (ha ha), Jaclyn Moriarity, Jambinai, Magic, Parenting, Prison, Quarantine, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series, Water Sprites on July 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JAMBINAI-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #234 (July 09, 2021).

Why oh why oh why do all the best Tiny Desk Concerts have to be so short?

This show is AMAZING and it’s only 12 minutes long.  Meanwhile, some other bands have dragged theirs out for almost twice as long.  Alas.

I was introduced to JAMBINAI (like many others I’m sure) at the 2018 winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Korea.  Their set was spectacular and it blew me away.  In reality, the band is much smaller than that spectacle produced, but their sound is still huge and intense.

I don’t think I’ve ever used the word “fierce” to describe a Tiny Desk, but that’s precisely what JAMBINAI has created in this (home) concert. The show begins in front of a massive recreation of my desk and what happens next … well, no spoilers here. Filmed in an immersive media art museum created by an organization known as d’strict on Jeju Island, this Korean band contains multitudes.

JAMBINAI plays traditional Korean instruments, but adds rock guitars and bass.

At its heart, JAMBINAI’s music mixes elements of metal, noise and Korean tradition. There’s full-on distorted guitar, bass and drums, but also a haegeum (a fiddle-like instrument), a piri (a type of flute), a taepyeongso (a reed instrument) and a most appropriately named instrument, a geomungo (a giant Korean zither). We also hear some delicate vocals in the mix.

The two pieces performed here include 2015’s “Time of Extinction” and the more recent and epic “ONDA.”

“Time Of Extinction” is the song they played at the Olympic and while it’s only three minutes long it feels epic and really encompasses their sound.  It opens with a plucked geomungo creating the simple riff.  After 20 second Ilwoo Lee plays a feedbacking guitar note and then Jaehyuk Choi comes crashing in on the drums.  At the same time, the visuals blow your mind.

The basis of the song is Eunyong Sim’ geomungo rhythm and Bomi Kim’s keening haegeum solo.  The guitars add a terrific tension to the basic melody.  In the middle of the song when it’s just drum and Byeongkoo Yu’s bass playing, the thumping is broken by the fully distorted guitar You don’t expect Ilwoo Lee to bust out a taepyeongso and play a traditional and rather discordant horn solo on top.  Just when it seems the song is about to launch to a new direction it’s over.  Just like that.

There is something so unearthly about the geomungo–it’s percussive and stringed and you can feel it rumble and thump ta the same time

“ONDA” is 8 minutes long and opens with Ilwoo Lee playing a saenghwang an amazing looking wind instrument that I cant quite fathom.  He plays a terrific sounding melody with it –almost patronal. Except for the low electronic chords underneath it

Then comes the rumble–the thundering drums and bass and a fast repetition from the geomungo.

Then Bomi Kim sings a gentle, calming echoing vocal line that sound magical under the rumble. After a verse of so Ilwoo Lee joins in on harmony vocals and they sound terrific together.

The song builds in intensity, as lwoo Lee adds the guitar, then it pulls back as Lee plays a piri solo that becomes a call and response with the haegeum.

There’s a wild jamming solo section that grows super intense.  The way it builds to a climax and is followed by huge crashing chords (and great visuals) is monumental.  Everyone joins in singing for the last minute as the melody soars and soars.

Maybe 12 minutes is all we can handle.

[READ: July 1, 2021] The Whispering Wars

This book is related to The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone in that it is set in the same land (The Land of Kingdoms and Empires).  But it is set some thirty years before the adventures of that book.  Through some magic (this is a magical land), we do see Bronte briefly. but if she ever starts to give way anything about the future, she is instantly sent back to where she came from.

In the first book we are aware of the Whispering Wars as being a big event in the past.  This book explains how they started.

This book is told by two (sometimes three) alternating narrators.  There is Finlay, who lives at the orphanage and Honey Bee who lives at the fancy Brathelthwaite school.

How they wind up alternating chapters isn’t explained until much later, which I rather enjoyed (both the delay and the explanation).

As the book opens, Finlay explains that it is time for the annual Spindrift (the town where they live) tournament.  The kids at the orphanage looks forward to this event because they can show up the rich kids.  Finlay is a super fast runner, as is his friend Glim.  The twins Eli and Taya aren’t super fast but they are very strong and good with their hands (and can multitask like nobody’s business).  There’s also Jaskafar, a tiny boy who sleeps on top of the wardrobe–his storyline is very funny until he is the first Orphan to be taken. (more…)

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