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Archive for the ‘Authors’ Category

Tobias Wolff–“All Ahead of Them” (New Yorker, July 8 & 15, 2013)

Posted in Against Me!, Culture Shock, Humiliation, LGBTQ, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Sex, Short Story, Tobias Wolff, Transgender on July 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_07_08_13Hunter.inddSOUNDTRACK: AGAINST ME!-True Trans EP (2013).

trueThis EP (free for a limited time) contains two acoustic songs from punks Against Me!  (The gentleness of the acoustic songs is belied by this stark cover).  I have an older Against Me! album which I like and which is quite punky.  But since that album the lead singer Tom Gabel has gone through gender reassignment surgery (and his fans mostly stayed with her, which is pretty awesome).  Their newest full length Transgender Dysphoria Blues is due out in the future and this is a little acoustic taste of what’s to come.  Both songs appear to be about his transition.

The first one, with the interesting title of “FuckMyLife666”, is an upbeat song (musically), while lyrically it is a song to someone—possibly himself?  It’s about avoiding regrets and embracing a new life.

The second song is a big darker (musically) although it does have a big bright chorus with the final line of: “Does God bless your transsexual heart?”  It’s very very catchy and I find myself singing that rather awkward line to myself during the day.

I’m not sure exactly what the future has in store for Against Me!, but it seems like Laura Jane Grace is planning on keeping the music coming.

[READ: July 15, 2013] “All Ahead of Them”

This story opens with a misunderstanding—at least that’s what we hear Bud saying into the phone.  He quickly looks for an excuse to get off the phone and then starts playing with the cigarettes that he found in the hotel drawer.  (He promised he’d quit smoking after the wedding which was just six days ago).  We also quickly learn that the misunderstanding has to do with his new wife and that it proves that she is a liar.

Of course, his wife, Arden, has a history of changing the truth (as many of us do).  Even her name, which he thought was so artistic-sounding, is fake.  Well, it is real now, but she was originally call Nedra (after her father’s mother) and she reversed the letters.  This of, course hurt her father, who loved his dear mother, and who refused to call her Arden—even during his wedding toast.  She hadn’t even told Bud that she had changed her name until moments before he met Arden’s father—and only as a preparation that her father wouldn’t call her Arden.

The original Nedra’s story is pretty interesting in and of itself.  She was a beautiful and talented singer, although her day job was as a music teacher in a Buffalo high school.  She was arrested for selling marijuana (during the brutal Rockefeller laws of the 1970s) to other teachers.  She was given 25 years in jail.  After three of those 25 years, she hanged herself.  Arden’s father was very young when this happened and he never really got over it (as can be expected). (more…)

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Craig Davidson–“Firebugs” (The Walrus, June 2013)

Posted in Canadian Content, Craig Davidson, Death, Fire, Mystery, Robin Thicke, Short Story, The Walrus, Vampire Weekend on July 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

june 2013SOUNDTRACK: VAMPIRE WEEKEND-“Blurred Lines” (2013).

vampblurRobin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” is a huge hit (with a NSFW video).  And I gotta say that I find it insanely catchy, too.  It’s pretty irresistible.  So why not cover it?

Vampire Weekend’s new album is less formal than their first two–relaxing styles and adding a bunch more humor to their sound.  And they make a surprisingly good cover of this song.  Their version is quite faithful to the original (even mimicking the sound a lot).  But at the same time, the band is having a lot of fun with the song as you can tell primarily from the backing vocals.

You can tell hear it’s Vampire Weekend, but it also doesn’t quite sound like them–a neat trick.

Check out their cover (which is not a live concert track, but was recorded for BBC’s Live Lounge (so it sounds good)) at Stereogum.

[READ: July 15, 2013] “Firebugs”

This was, I think, the longest story I’ve seen published in The Walrus.

It begins with several paragraphs describing fire–physical, psychological, intense descriptions.  Since I didn’t realize the story was so long, I actually wondered if the whole story would be like that–if there were going to be no characters in it.  But there are, and quite a few.  And the story is focused on two of them.

Blake Kennedy Jr was a firebug as a kid.  Then he became a fireman (seems this is not so uncommon of a history for firemen and may stem from the desire to control fire).  After many good years, he was injured during training and had to get a desk job. Now he investigates suspicious fires.  Perhaps coincidentally, there was a rash of arson during the year he was born.  Those fires were technologically set–the arsonist used the spark from a telephone to ignite a can of gasoline. Of course, the killer would place the call when he was far enough away.  And he was never found.

This year’s arsonist’s is much more simple–a milk jug of gasoline with a homemade wick left on the front porch.  It is a slow burn, with the gasoline not exploding.  It’s actually the fumes that catch fire, not the liquid.  So, when the wick burns down, the whole thing doesn’t ignite until the milk jug melts and the gas spills out.

Blake is investigating the death of Detta, an older woman who tried to run out during the fire (the state of her feet must have been incredible, he determined). (more…)

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Jill Sexsmith–“Somewhere, a Long Happy Life Probably Awaits You” (The Walrus, July/August 2013)

Posted in Canadian Content, Death, Humiliation, Jill Sexsmith, Live from Mountain Stage, Marriage Trouble, Neurotics, Pokey LaFarge, Short Story, The Walrus, Trees on July 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

walrusjulySOUNDTRACK: POKEY LAFARGE-Live on Mountain Stage (2012).

pokey2I really only know Pokey LaFarge from NPR (they’ve embraced them, but I haven’t heard them anywhere else).  Pokey and his band plays a mix of early string-band music, ragtime, country blues and Western swing, in a completely un-ironic way (they dress the part as well).  Like Squirrel Nut Zippers, but even more so.

Interestingly, I know the first song “La La Blues” from a previous performance (on a Tiny Desk Concert) and I actually liked that version better than this one.  This entire performance feels a little too loose.  Which is weird because the music is designed to be loose, but in the previous performances there was a little more structure which made the songs jump out a little more (or maybe the recording just isn’t loud enough).

There’s 5 songs in total: 4 originals include “Central Time,” “Drinkin’ Whiskey Tonight,” and “Won’tcha Please Don’t Do It.”  And a Jimmie Rogers song called “Peach Pickin’ Time in Georgia.”  This final song feels more authentically of the time than LaFarge’s originals but only barely, just barely (perhaps its the “gal pickin’ time” line).  And yet “Won’tch Please Don’t Do It” sounds just right too.

The best joke in the set is when Pokey says they have 78 RPM records for sale (they really do).  But that they don’t have any that night because they are sold out!

LaFarge is an engaging live performer (even if the crowd seems subdued here).  And while I don’t see myself buying any of his records, I would like to see him live–it seems like a fun show.  Check it out here.

[READ: July 15, 2013] “Somewhere, a Long Happy Life Probably Awaits You”

The prefatory paragraph that precedes up this story seems so light-hearted: “Manfred met Elizabeth when she interviewed for a position at his fortune cookie company.  She was a greeting card writer looking to branch out.”  That is an actual quote from the story, but in the story, it is a flashback after the main action of the story has begun.

When the story begins, Elizabeth is trying to protect a tree in her front yard.  It has gotten Dutch Elm disease and is to be cut down this summer.  She would like to know when, but she is only told between may and September.  While she is not going to go crazy protecting this tree, she would like some actual notification, so she can be there to say goodbye.

Going crazy, it turns out is an important thing to note, though.  Because Elizabeth from time to time goes on “safaris.”  These safaris can last an indeterminate amount of time, and in some cases may even require Manfred to track her down.  Like when she was protesting the war in front of a building (where no one else was) or, as in one case, when she was frolicking in a sprinkler in her underwear. (more…)

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Kris Bertin–“The Eviction Process” (The Walrus, July/August 2013)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Arcade Fire, Canadian Content, Drinking, Drugs, Fears, Kris Bertin, LGBTQ, Nils Frahm, Sarah Neufeld, Short Story, The Walrus, Violence, Yuck! on July 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

walrusjulySOUNDTRACK: SARA NEUFELD-“Forcelessness” (2013).

neufeldSara Neufeld has a new album coming out on Constellation Records.  Neufeld is the violinist for Arcade Fire–not someone you think of as a “special” violinist or someone who necessarily stands out in the band.  But her violin here is haunting and beautiful.

The album is pretty much her and her violin with occasional accompaniment.  On this track she is accompanied by pianist Nils Frahm (whom I don’t know).  The song was recorded in a parking garage giving it an incredibly expansive sound.

It opens is a somber tone with repeated triplets.  But once the pianos come in, the triplets become slightly more positive.  For a time.

There is something very simple and yet very pleasing about this track–it doesn’t alter itself very much over its three minutes and yet the subtle variations in notes can really affect the mood of the song as it is playing.

[READ: July 15, 2013] “The Eviction Process”

I don’t know why I’m always surprised by stories that go dark.  But this story is very dark indeed.

It begins with two men and an autistic boy (who proves to be the son of one of the men) visiting The Champ in the hospital.  The Champ is one of their roommates and they have come to tell him that he is being evicted.  They are nervous as anything because The Champ is not afraid to use his considerable strength in a fight (and the narrator has a stashed bottle of vodka in his pants that he would hate to see smashed).

But The Champ takes it very well, considering he is now homeless.

Their next stop is back home where the eviction process continues.  The next person is Morgan, but Morgan is passed out from huffing keyboard duster.  So, they’ll get him later. (more…)

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Mona Awad–“When We Went Against the Universe” (The Walrus, July/August 2013)

Posted in Boredom, Canadian Content, Mona Awad, Pond, Sex, Short Story, Summer, Tame Impala, The Walrus, Yuck! on July 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

walrusjulySOUNDTRACK: POND-“Giant Tortoise” (2013).

pondWhen I first listened to this song I wasn’t all that excited by it.  In part I’ll admit it’s because I was listening with only one earbud (a work hazard).  When I was finally able to listen with both earbuds, the song grew exponentially, turning it from a kind of mundane classic rocker into a trippy psychedelic classic rocker.

There’s not much strikingly original about this song–the sound is totally retro, the riffs are pretty simple, even the recording technique is nothing all that exciting.  And yet when you put it all together in this big soundscape, the song is much more than the sum of its parts.

The guitars are big and expansive like their native Australia, the vocals are soft and processed, and the ending instrumental section is very trippy.  Oh, and three of the members of Pond are also in Tame Impala.  Not a bad side project at all.

[READ: July 15, 2013] “When We Went Against the Universe”

In this story, two girls play a game in which they ask the universe questions and do whatever the universe dictates.  The game, which they call Fate Papers, is very simple.  They take two scraps of paper and write Yes on one and No on the other.  One of the girls holds out her hands and lets the scraps drop.  Whichever lands first is what they do.  And they never go against the universe.

The girls live in Mississauga (which they call Misery Saga) and they have done everything that young teens can do that summer–they’ve eaten all the snacks, hung out at all the places, even talked about everything they could ever want to talk about.

The girls go to McDonald’s and get McFlurrys.  When they are about to leave, Mel, the more daring of the two, says that the three businessmen sitting at the other table were checking her out.  She says she has been emanating sex all day and these men responded.  And so Mel proposes that they should offer to suck off the men for money–at least $50 each.  The narrator goes along assuming that nothing will come of it.  But Mel is serious.  She imagines just how much they could get from each of them (even more because they are virgins).  And she drags the narrator to the bathroom so they can make sure they look good and to see if they guys checked them out as they walked past.

When the narrator realizes that Mel is serious, she says it’s time to do Fate Papers.  The papers say Yes. (more…)

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Three Poems–(The Walrus: Summer Reading Issue, July/August 2013)

Posted in Canadian Content, Death, Derek Webster, J. Mascis, Mazzy Star, Poetry, Poets, Suzannah Showler, The Walrus, Vincent Colistro on July 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »

walrusjulySOUNDTRACK: J MASCIS-“Fade Into You” (2013).

jmazzy I really liked this Mazzy Star song when it first came out.  Over the years I have gotten a little tired of it–it was a bit overplayed and a bit too…something.  So it’s nice to have this remarkably faithful cover from J. Mascis.

Mascis is of course the singer from Dinosaur Jr, and is usually fond of screaming guitar licks and wild vocals.  But one must not forget that Mascis is also a king of melody (underneath the noise are beautiful pop gems).  And this simple acoustic song fits very well with his vocals style and falsetto.  There are some beautiful overdubbed guitar licks, and it never veers into the treacle at all.

I prefer Mascis’ to the original now.

Perhaps more fascinating than the cover is why he has released it:  It accompanies a limited edition (360 pairs) of shoes.  [So limited edition that my size is sold out already].

The shoes are vegan (or however you phrase that) and feature a purple faux suede and a stripe from Mascis’ guitar strap.  As the write up says: In addition to having a design inspired by J Mascis’ guitar strap embroidered on the back, the purple shoe comes with an exclusive 7″ picture disc of Mascis covering the Mazzy Star classic “Fade Into You”.

And I have to say that the $75 price tag is surprisingly cheap for a limited edition/star inspired/benefit type shoe.  You can buy a pair (maybe) here.  Or just listen to the song at Pitchfork.

[READ: July 15, 2013] Three Poems

This issue of The Walrus is the Summer Reading issue.  It includes three short stories and three poems.  In light of my recent decision to try to read more poetry, I was pleased to see three poems here, even though in my head Summer Reading is all about Fiction.

Since there are only three poems (by different authors), I’m going to mention them all in one post, as I hate to write more words in a post than the author did. (more…)

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Shelagh Delaney–A Taste of Honey (1959)

Posted in Absolutely Fabulous, Babies, Charles Dickens, LGBTQ, Marriage Trouble, Morrissey, Parenting, Play (Drama), Pregnancy, Prostitution, Racism, Shelagh Delaney on July 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

honeySOUNDTRACK: HORRIBLE HISTORIES-“Charles Dickens” (2013).

dickensHorrible Histories is a British children’s show.  They tell you histories of people and things in fun ways. Like this.  (It sounds awesome).

This biography of Charles Dickens (which lyrically is amusing as well as informative) is done in the style of The Smiths.  The music is very clearly The Smiths and of course the singer hits all of the Morrisseyisms that he can.  In addition to some actual Smiths lines (Dickens take a bow, heaven knows I’m miserable now), the song more or less mashes up “Heaven Know I’m Miserable Now” and “This Charming Man.”

It’s very funny and catchy as well.  Check out the joy:

[READ: June 30, 2013] A Taste of Honey

I discovered this play because it was mentioned in a documentary about The Smiths,  It was one of Morrissey’s favorite movies; he quoted a line from it in “Reel Around the Fountain” (I dreamt about you last night and fell out of bed twice”) and the song “This Night Has Opened My Eyes” is basically a summary of the play (with lines from it).

It’s a fairly modern story for 1959 England (Delaney was 18 when she wrote it), but it seems like rather a downer to be a favorite film/play.

It is the story of Jo, a young girl who is stuck in the dreaded life of living poor in Manchester (The river the color of lead).  She has no father around and her mother, Helen, (described as as a semi-whore (!), is quite unpleasant). Indeed, the opening scene of the play is the two of them bickering in a hole in the wall flat that feels dirty just by reading it.

Eventually a man comes along who promises to take Helen away from all of this.  He may be her pimp (specifics are not really given in the story and I wondered if they would be more obvious if it was 1959 (or in the movie).  But it’s clear that he has money and seems to be willing to bring Helen home.  At the same time, he is terribly mean to Jo–treating her worse than her mother does.  By the end of the scene, he takes Helen away, leaving Jo on her own. (more…)

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Nick Hornby–Songbook (2002)

Posted in Aimee Mann, Ani DiFranco, Badly Drawn Boy, Ben Folds Five, Bruce Springsteen, Concert, Decadence, Essays, Marcel Dzama, Mark Mulcahy, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Memoirs, Nelly Furtado, Nick Hornby, Paul Westerberg, Rod Stewart, Rufus Wainwright, Sex, Short Books, Soulwax, Suicide, Teenage Fanclub, The Bible on July 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

songbookSOUNDTRACK: songs from Songbook (2002).

songbook2Songbook came with an 11 song CD.  I’m curious, given the way he speaks so lovingly of the songs in the book how come more bands/labels didn’t want to be included on it.  The proceeds went to charity and it would just be more exposure for the artists.  There were a lot of songs I didn’t know and would love to have heard (or would love to hear while I was reading).  And frankly I see no downside to throwing a track on a compilation which is a collection of someone’s favorite songs.  Of course, things were very different in the music world in 2002.  Now, someone will just make a playlist on their iPod of theses songs, and post them to Spotify.

PAUL WESTERBERG-“Born for Me.” I’m much more of a fan of Westerberg with the Replacements, as he got a little too polished as a solo guy.  But this song has a fun, shambolic quality to it (it doesn’t even sound like Westerberg singing).  It wouldn’t be a favorite song of mine, but it is a nice one.

TEENAGE FANCLUB “Your Love is the Place Where I Come From” and “Ain’t That Enough.”  I really like Teenage Fanclub a lot.  They are one of my favorite jangly pop bands.  So these two songs rank pretty high for me.  Although I admit to liking their slightly more rocking songs a bit more, “Your Love” is a very pretty ballad and “Ain’t That Enough” is just gorgeous.

THE BIBLE- “Glorybound” Hornby says he knew these guys.  It’s an okay song, a little too slick for me and very of its time.

AIMEE MANN-“I’ve Had It”  I like Aimee Mann very much.  I can’t say that I paid a ton of attention to the lyrics of this song (I didn’t know it was about touring) but I’ve always liked it—the understated yet beautiful melody and chorus are very nice.

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT-“One Man Guy” I like Rufus a lot.  I don’t own any of his music, but I really like everything I hear from him.  His delivery is so louche, it makes me smile every time.  This song is actually one his father wrote and sang many years ago (very differently).

ROD STEWART-“Mama You Been on My Mind” Hornby’s essay on Rod Stewart is hilarious.  And his defense of early Stewart is wholly believable.  I, of course, know Rod from his later, laughable stuff, so I never considered his early work  But this track is pretty good.

BADLY DRAWN BOY-“A Minor Incident” Sarah and I love Badly Drawn Boy, and this soundtrack in particular.  Hornby’s discussion of how he Damon got to do the soundtrack is very interesting.

BEN FOLDS FIVE-“Smoke” I’ve liked Ben for years now (going to see him in two weeks).  This song has always been a favorite both for the lyrics, which are great and because that weird harp-type sound is him playing the strings of his grand piano with a pick.

MARK MULCAHY-“Hey Self Defeater” I don’t know Mulcahy at all.  This song has a beautiful wavery guitar and gentle vocals (it’s funny to read about Hornby rocking out when most of this disc is quite mellow).

ANI DIFRANCO-“You Had Time” I was a huge Ani DiFranco fan back in the day, but this song is unknown to me, or should I say unfamiliar to me.  It’s on one of her very early albums.  Perhaps it’s more that I must have ignored the piano opening, which Hornby pays close attention to and really explains it in a useful way, showing how it is more about a beautiful melody being born from chaos.  And now I respect the song a lot more.

[READ: 2002 and July 1, 2013] Songbook

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve written this very book in my head….  A list of favorite songs and why they are so important to me?  How cool is that.  I have no idea how come Hornby got to write it (I know, High Fidelity), but still, what a nice cozy assignment.  And to have this book illustrated by Marcel Dzama is even cooler.

This book came out in 2002 after About a Boy (and in the year that About a Boy was being turned into a film).  Hornby had recently hooked up with the McSweeney’s gang and began writing for The Believer in 2003.

I had no idea that the book was released in the UK under a different name (31 Songs) or that they also released an accompanying CD (A Selection of Music from 31 Songs) with 18 songs on it (see my comment above about CDs).  Although we got fewer songs on the disc in the US, at least ours came with the book. (more…)

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Caleb Crain–”Outside T-Club” (Harper’s, July 2013)

Posted in Caleb Crain, Drinking, Excerpt, Harper's, Jenny Hval, Justin Timberlake, LGBTQ, Robin Thicke, Rockettothesky, Travel on July 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

julySOUNDTRACK: JENNY HVAL-“Innocence is Sexy” (2013).

hvalI saw this video on Stereogum.  I was actually intrigued by her last name: Hval.  Then I read a bit more about her–she’s an experimental Norwegian singer with four albums out (two under the name Rockettothesky).

I watched the video and was so mesmerized by it that I didn’t even really notice the music the first time through.  In the video, Jenny has her body filmed in all manner of unexpected angles and poses–she is shaving parts of her body, strategically positioning other parts of her body.  And pressing and squeezing her flesh in ways that are not often shown.  She is also jogging (both in a jogging outfit and in a dress–the juxtaposition is fascinating.  And then there’s the dress that appears to be made of latex.  At a time when men (Justin Timberlake and Robin Thicke) are making videos of naked women, Jenny makes us question what we see and why.  It’s very cool.

It’s also interesting musically.  The first words of the song are: “That night I watched people fucking on my computer.”  The song has an interesting guitar riff playing behind her spoken words until she starts singing with a vaguely operatic Middle Eastern tonality.  After a more mellow verse, Jenny ends a with a fascinating little scale of notes.

The same confrontational style of singing occurs at the end when the music stops and she keeps singing “in and out and in and out” in a less then pleasing manner.

As I say I am fascinated by her.  Although I can’t help but wonder if this would be a case of more exposure being less satisfying.

[READ: July 11, 2013] ”Outside T-Club”

In this story, which an excerpt from a novel called Necessary Errors the narrator, Jacob, pulled out some significant pages about Eastern Europe from a travel guide. He hid the rest of the book in the garbage, keeping only the pages on gay life in Czechoslovakia.

He was living in Boston, but was heading to Prague.  This was after his boyfriend moved away to start a new job for a men’s magazine.  He had sent Jacob a postcard which tried to make it seem like Jacob would be on a  fun adventure, and he imagined Jacob hooking up with a tall dark Russian guy.

Turned out Czech men were neither tall nor dark. (more…)

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Sheila Heti–“Mini Ching” (Harpers, July 2013)

Posted in Advice, All Songs Considered, Beck, Canadian Content, Excerpt, Harper's, Sheila Heti, Short Story, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on July 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

julySOUNDTRACK: BECK-“I Won’t Be Long” (2013).

beckSo Beck has a new song out, too (on NPR they’ve been saying this is the year of the cicadas–bands are resurfacing after years of dormancy).  I’ve actually heard this a few times on WXPN, but I never realized it was Beck and it has left no impression on me.

It’s tough to say it doesn’t sound like Beck since every album is different, but this song really doesn’t sound like him.  The drums are cheesy drum machine drums (like from the early 80s), the keyboards are cheesy keyboards (like from the early 80s), and the song is really really simple (with a strange instrumental break in the middle).  And its five minutes long.  It just doesn’t make a big splash like Beck usually does.

This is all leading me to say I don’t love it.  I usually really like Beck’s gamut of music, but this is a little too bland for me (the last minute or so adds some more details which are more interesting).  I suspect if it wasn’t Beck it wouldn’t get played at all.  I wonder if this is going to be a whole album of this style of music.

[READ: July 11, 2013] “Mini Ching”

This is an excerpt from “How to Be Good When You’re Lost.”  In it, Heti interprets six of the sixty-four hexagrams that comprise the I Ching.  I don’t know exactly what the I Ching is.  I mean, I know vaguely what it is but not exactly.  I assume that there is no real explanation for the hexagrams?

The four excerpted here are #53 Gradual progress; #24 Return  #49 Revolution #33 Retreat.

Again, I don’t know how many others have “interpreted” these mystical hexagrams.  But Heti creates are wise fortune cookie-sounding advice for each one. (more…)

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