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Joyce Carol Oates–“I.D.” (New Yorker, March 29,2010)

Posted in Alex Lifeson, Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Peart, New Yorker, Rush, Set in New Jersey!, Short Story on April 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-Hemispheres (1978).

Or maybe this is my favorite Rush album.

And what’s not to like?  A naked man on the cover, a 20 minute song (in 6 parts (which is a sequel to a previous song!)), and a 9 minute instrumental.  It’s prog rock heaven.

The “title” track is a continuation of a song from the last album (and so is called Cygnus X-1 Book II; Hemispheres)).  It’s a thoughtful look at balancing the two halves of the brain: love and reason.  In true epic style, the forces are represented by Apollo, bringer of Wisdom and Dionysus, bringer of Love.  Apollo teaches the people how to fend and care for themselves.  They’re thrilled and delighted with themselves until they feel kind of empty inside.

Dionysus arrives: he teaches them love and music, dancing and drinking.  And they embrace this wholeheartedly.  But this leads to cold and starvation.

And so, as is natural, the people were split with the two sides coming forth [hey this sounds familiar].  And of course, they fight each other.

It gets a little confusing from there when the spaceship from Part 1 arrives and after telling his story of going through the black hole it unites the fighting forces (You can also hear musical snippets from Part 1).  And yet, musically it works wonders.  The epilogue is a peaceful, well-written acoustic bit that sums up the themes of the song quite nicely.

The second side has three tracks: “circumstances,” a short, heavy rocker that I have always loved.  I think the main reason is because each time they enter the chorus, Neil plays either 1, 2 or 3 cymbal crashes depending on which verse they’re in (math geek!).

The next song, “The Trees,” is another classic.  Starting quietly, with a classical style acoustic guitar, we learn that there is trouble in the forest.  As the song rocks to an end, the trees are all keep equal by hatchet, axe and saw.  Over the years I’ve thought of many different explanations for this song.  And to me that’s the mark of a good story.

The final song is probably my favorite Rush song.  “La Villa Strangiato” is a 9 minute instrumental with a dozen sections and is subtitled “An Exercise in Self-Indulgence.” It is a tour de force showcasing all their skills.  I was delighted that they had started playing it live again on their more recent tours.  And, I was even more delighted to see that the middle section featured Alex telling a ranting, random, crazy story.  Alex has always been very silly, but it hasn’t come out all that much musically. So, this was a great opportunity for him to let loose.  I have no idea what he was rambling about in any of his bits, but the snippets I’ve heard have all ben quite funny.

This was definitely the heyday of prog rock, and yes, it is sadly missed.

[READ:  March 28, 2010] “I.D.”

It’s been a little while since I’ve seen a Joyce Carol Oates story anywhere.  For a time, it seemed like I read one every few days.  So it’s nice to have her and her gruesome stories back.

This story focuses on a young girl, Lizette.  As the story opens we learn that she is feeling the effects of a beer buzz and it is making her 7th grade math class drag on.  (We later learn that she had about a quarter of a can of beer, but that’s still too much at 13)!

She is currently concentrating very hard on getting a napkin with her lipstick print to classmate, J.C.  J.C. has been left back and he is baaaad.  Lizette is wearing lipstick because her mother didn’t come home last night.  In fact, Lizette is not sure when her mom last came home.  It’s been a few days at least. But then, her mom has left her alone before, so she’s not terribly concerned. (more…)

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Steven Heighton–“Bystanders” (The Walrus, April 2010)

Posted in Adventure, Anthrax, Culture Shock, Death, Megadeth, Metallica, Nature, Slayer, Steven Heighton, The Walrus on April 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: Big 4 Thrash Tour (2010).

During my recent trip down metal memory lane, I learned that the Big 4 Thrash bands may be touring together.  The Big 4 would be: Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer.

When I was a young metal dude, these were definitely my big 4.  I own the first 5 or so albums by all of these bands.  Megadeth was the first to fall out of favor (around 1990), then Anthrax (around 1993), then Slayer (around 1994) (although they came back nicely in the last few years) and the Metallica (around 1997 although really they’ve drifted the furthest from the thrash world, and probably I should’ve stopped sooner).

I haven’t really listened to any of these guys’ newer releases (although I did get Slayer’s 2001 release, God Hates Us All–and I wanted to add this wonderful quote from Araya, who sings of ever so much death and destruction: “when you see someone and if you’re a human being you respect them and treat them as human beings”), so I can’t say that I’m the target audience for this tour.  However, I am delighted that these 4 bands, whose music I loved while growing up, are still together and still touring.

I wonder what the audience make up for this show is?  Is it old fogeys like me (who are still younger than the band members, at least) who would have wet themselves for this tour back in 1989, or is it a new generation of thrash kids who would mosh the crap out of me?

Either way, I won’t be going to this concert (in Poland or in Greece for that matter) but nor will I be going should it come to a theater near me.  But I’ll be delighted to hear how it goes.

[READ: March 29, 2010] “Bystanders”

I was prepared not to like this story (actually an excerpt from a novel).  It is set on a mountainside on the border of China and Tibet.  And it was about mountain climbing, a subject about which I care very little.  And as it started  feared it was going to be another story about battling with the elements on top of a mountain, blah blah.

But rather, the story went in a different direction entirely.  While the young protagonist is watching the sun set on the mountains she hears gun shots.  Ad i the distance, she sees a man fall.  The guides come over to offer her a hand but she refuses.  They force her down behind the rocks as they call for her father.  Then she flashes back to another time when her father selflessly came to someone’s rescue.

There were many cool ideas in this story.  I loved the idea that she was sitting in two countries at the same time.  I loved even more the later idea that the glacier has moved the border between the to countries and that soldiers had to remeasure and replace the flag.  But really, it was the final line, “that by making his care, his very life and limb, equally available to all, he deprived [his family] of an exclusivity they had a right to expect” that was incredibly moving.

I don’t know that I’ll track down the novel Every Lost Country, but I did enjoy this excerpt quite a lot.

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Dale E. Basye–Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go (2008)

Posted in Adventure, Anthrax, Bob Dob, Boredom, Children's Books, Dale E. Bayse, Death, Demons, Fears, Goths, Kiss, Public Enemy, Supernatural, Yuck! on April 1, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: ANTHRAX-The Greater of Two Evils (2004).

I loved Anthrax when they first burst onto the metal scene back in 1983.  They were fast and heavy and totally great.  As they matured, they got delightfully silly, releasing a couple of novelty hits (with Public Enemy!) and really showing off their juvenile side.  (Big baggy shorts and crazy haircuts).  Then some time around 1993 I stopped listening.

Whether it was because my metal cred was running out or whether I just didn’t like what they were doing, I’d given up on the mosh kings.  Around that time, they switched singers from Joey Belladonna to Jon Bush and the difference is striking.  Belladonna had a strong, high pitched, soaring voice that rose above the trash.  While Bush has a deeper, tougher voice, and he sort of forces his way on top of the beat.

I haven’t given the Bush-era Anthrax much time, but I recently learned that they (like Kiss) re-recorded songs from their first few discs with Bush now on vocals.  Okay, so unlike the Kiss version, these songs sound totally new.  A new singer brings a totally new sonic dimension to the disc. But they have also re-recorded the music, which in most cases sounds better: recorded on better equipment, less sludgy.  But it also sounds different: different drumbeats or (as is often the case, furious double bass drumming), and the solos mixed into separate speakers and all kinds of other studio tricks.

And yet overall, I’m not that excited by the set.  I just don’t like Bush over Belladonna for these songs.  Bush’s voice is tough.  And their new songs are almost brutally heavy.  Some of these older tracks work with Bush’s voice.  However, there are a few which relied more on soaring sounds (like “Indians”) or demanded a little more subtlety (like the outstanding “N.F.L” which Bush sounds a little hamstrung by.

Anthrax is definitely a different band, but they still play loud and furious.

[READ: March 26, 2010] Heck

I found this book because someone put it in the wrong place in the library. I was looking for Easy Reader for my son, and someone had put this book at the front of that section.  I went to move it, but it looked interesting enough that I decided to read it.  Serendipity!

The premise of the book is that Heck is where you go when you die if you’re under 18.  They’re not quite sure where you’re going to wind up, so you have to go through Heck, which is basically school, until they can sort out which layer of Hell you’re going to wind up in.  Needless to say Heck is full of bad kids (and bad demons).

Our two bad kids are Milton and Marlo Fauster.  Marlo is a troublemaker from way back.  She is a petty thief and is always up to no good.  Milton is a good kid.  He never did anything bad in his life, and he always gets abuse from Marlo.  As the book opens, Milton and Marlo are sprinting down the corridor of a mall where Marlo has just stolen something. She is planning on wreaking havoc with Grizzly Mall’s centerpiece: The State’s Second-Largest Bear-Themed Marshmallow Statue (that cracked me up).

The kids run to the center of the mall where they are cornered by security.  Marlo is trying to think of an escape plan when Milton notices his classmate Damian.  Damian torments Milton every chance he can get.  And now, he is standing at the top of the marshmallow bear with matches.  Milton also notices a fuse sticking out of the bear.

One explosion later, the kids find themselves no longer attached to their bodies, as they are rapidly sliding down to Heck.  Marlo deserves to be there, she’s a bad egg.  But what about Milton?  It turns out that Marlo had slipped an item into Milton’s backpack, and therefore he technically stole something as well.  A technicality but true nonetheless.

The rest of the book shows the kids in their gender segregated classes.  The boys learn physical education from Blackbeard the pirate and ethics from Richard Nixon (the Nixon bits were hilarious, and yet I can’t imagine many kids getting the jokes).  The girls, meanwhile, learn home ec from Lizzy Borden (do kids know who that is) and singing from an angel who is on a teacher exchange program. (more…)

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Gitty Danesharvi–School of Fear (2009)

Posted in Children's Books, Culture Shock, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Gitty Danesharvi, Kiss, Mad Scientists, Neurotics, Ozzy Osbourne, Set at School, Smarty Pants on March 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Sonic Boom (2009).

Kiss has been kicking around in one incarnation or another for the last few years: original line up with make up, another line up with no make up and now this new line up: original makeup with two new people in the Peter and Ace positions (I wonder what happened to Bruce Kulick?).

There’s something disingenuous about having a fake Ace and a fake Peter, because in the past they always changed makeup for new members. So, this gives the impression that the original members are here (even though you can see that they are different men under the makeup).

But, Gene says it’s about the band, not the people.  So, whatever.  The first song, “Modern Day Delilah” is as good as any song they’ve done in two decades.  It’s heavy and catchy and the band sounds great.  But I feel like each song produces diminishing returns.  “Russian Roulette” loses me because the lyrics are seemingly for two different songs: one in the verses, one in the chorus (not that one should ever look too deeply at Kiss lyrics).

“Never Enough” sounds like a pretty typical 90’s Kiss song (except the melody is totally Ozzy’s “Flying High Again.”  “Nobody’s Perfect” is one of those poppy Gene songs that’s kind of throwaway but works well as a light-metal song.

The most egregious errors on this disc are the two anthems.  If ever there was a band who thrives on anthems, it’s Kiss.  But their best anthems are about partying and rocking.  These anthems are about standing united together (and we’ll ask the former members of Kiss about that).  “Stand” is about being there when you’re down. “All for the Glory” is a similar theme (we’re all for one), but it fares better musically.  It is weird though that fake Peter sings it in  voice that sounds a little bit like real Peter.  It’s also weird that “When the Lightning Strikes” features fake Ace that sounds a wee bit like real Ace.

On some better notes, I rather like the silly pun of “Danger You, Danger Me, Dangerous.”  And, “I’m an Animal” sounds a like Creatures of the Night era Kiss, which is a good thing.  The final song is an anthem that they got right.  It’s about partying and features a silly “Say Yeah!” chorus.  And that’s what Kiss does best.

The bonus disc is this new lineup re-recording classic Kiss songs. It’s a weird thing and  number of  bands seem to be doing it lately. I’m not entirely sure why.  Most of the songs sound exactly the same, but where they deviate from the original I don’t think they work as well (yes, I’m  traditionalist).  Although I like the less disco-ey version of “I Was Made for Lovin’ You.”  But if you’re not going to radically change anything, then why bother?

And to hear the by now 60-something year-old Gene Simmons singing about a 16-year-old is just majorly creepy (before it was statutory, now it’s statutory and gross) if he keeps going, he’ll be living the lyrics of “Goin’ Blind,” “I’m 93, you’re 16.”

So, this is a good effort from the band.  It has received pretty rave reviews, which I don’t think it quite deserves.  But it’s better than a lot of their middle period discs.

[READ: March 20, 2010] School of Fear

I ordered this book for our library’s Spanish collection.  When it arrived it looked intriguing, so I found an English copy and set out to read it.  I enjoy this sort of children’s book: adventure, schooling, fears, books that don’t insult kids’ intelligence.

And this book doesn’t.  I’m not even sure exactly what the age range is supposed to be because some of the jokes are quite sophisticated.  However, as I will get to shortly, the older the reader is, the less likely that she will fall for the “surprise” of the book.

But let’s start at the beginning.  The premise of the book is that if you have a terrifying, crippling fear, The School of Fear will cure you of it.  But the school is incredibly secretive, so secretive, in fact, that no one knows about it (except for the precious few who can help you get help there). (more…)

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Kim Dong Hwa–The Color of Heaven (2003/2009)

Posted in 19th Century, Alex Lifeson, Boredom, First Second :01, Foreign Books, Geddy Lee, Graphic Novel, Kim Dong Hwa, Manhwa, Marriage (Happy), Nature, Neil Peart, Romance, Rush, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Trilogy, YA Books on March 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-A Farewell to Kings (1977).

Although I recently said that Caress of Steel is one of my favorite Rush albums, I’m really torn between a number of their albums from the 1970s.  I’ve loved A Farewell to Kings since the time I got it: it’s over the top, and it showcases all of the band’s strengths.

The opener “A Farewell to Kings” features a wonderful classical guitar intro that morphs into a heavy rocking masterpiece.  There’s time changes galore and it’s all over in just about 5 minutes.

It’s followed by “Xanadu,” one of Rush’s all time great epics.  Tubular bells, cool guitar effects, Rush’s first great use of keyboards-as-effects, even a cowbell solo all open this song with sufficient grandeur for what’s to come.  A slow vocal intro leads to a super fast exploration of Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan.”  Whenever people wondered why Neil’s drumset was so big or why Alex (and Geddy) had doublenecked guitars, they needed only listen to this to be amazed that three men could play it all.  11 minutes long and not a wasted second.

One of Rush’s biggest hits and perennial favorite “Closer to the Heart” comes next and it still sounds pretty fresh all these years later.  “Cinderella Man” is an overlooked track on this disc, but it showcases Rush’s drift away from the individualism vs state of 2112, and move toward the individualism of doing what’s right for all: “he held up his riches to challenge the hungry.”  It also features a blistering solo from Alex.  “Madrigal” is a very short acoustic song, quite a departure for the time but a nice delicate track before….

“Cygnus X-1.”  The other epic on this disc.  And right from the start you know you’re in new territory here.  A fully distorted voice, bells echoing like they are floating at sea (or in outer space), all kinds of build-up lead to a noisy bass line coming from far away in the depths of space.  And after 2 and a half minutes of build up, the whole band kicks in with this off kilter heavy rocker.  It’s basically the story of a space ship flying into a black hole. It also features some of Geddy’s most screechy vocals.  I wish I could remember the exact quote, but my friend Joe’s bandmate had a wonderfully derogatory description of the end of this song.

But aside from the end, the main body is great.  From the 5 minute mark, the song is a catchy, driving song as the Rocinante flies through the galaxy.  From the 7 minute mark, the song is seemingly caught in the black hole, as the song drifts about, compressing the song into a manic session of fast fast fast riffs and Geddy’s tortured screams.  It’s pretty intense, and guaranteed to alienate as many people as it wins.

The album features so much experimentation, and it’s wonderful to see a band with so much creative energy release a disc with so many fantastic moments.  Very few records take risks like this anymore.

[READ: March 21, 2010] The Color of Heaven

This final book of the Kim Dog Hwa’s trilogy is a wonderful conclusion to this sweet story.  If you’ve read my previous two posts about these books, you know that this is the story of, Ehwa, a young woman as she matures in rural Korea several generations ago.  By this third book, she has turned 17 and has met the love of her life.  Sadly for her, Duksam has had to leave suddenly.  At the end of book two, he set sail in part because he was fleeing an angry mob, but also in an attempt to make money as a fisherman so that he can save up for his beloved Ehwa. (more…)

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Roberto Bolaño–2666 [Week 10] The Part About The Crimes (4 of 5) (2004)

Posted in Big Books, Black Flag, bolanobolano.com, Death, Drinking, Drugs, Fridays, Gangsters, Infinite Zombies, Kiss, Larry David, Natasha Wimmer, Roberto Bolaño, Suicide, Translation, Virginity (Loss of), Wikipedia, Yuck! on March 29, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-KISSology: The Ultimate Kiss Collection, Vol. 2: 1978-1991 DVD (2007).

In addition to containing Kiss Meets the Phantom, this DVD contains concert footage, music videos and some interviews.  We see Peter Criss being interviewed on CNN (!) by a woman in a tank top (ah, the early days of 24 hour news) about leaving the band.   Of course, this doesn’t hold a candle to the actual music video for “Shandi” one of the cheesiest of cheesy Kiss videos.

This early 80s period is one of disco, operas and unmasking, and it is generally considered their low point.  I however, happen to enjoy this weird period.  While I acknowledge it’s not very “good,” I enjoy it much more than their mid-80s makeup-fee period.  (The often maligned The Elder has a weird kind of charm of the over-extended-effort).  So, I am of course sad that it is so under-represented here.  Although we do get a few clips from the long defunct show Fridays (I wish they would have shown more of the show itself, as it bought us Larry David and Michael Richards (and is mentioned in Black Flag’s “TV Party”, but that show seems to be locked away in a vault somewhere).

Disc 2 features an Australian tour during 1980, where the Aussies go crazy for them, and the band plays accordingly.  There’s also the final (or one of the final) shows they did with makeup.  And then the first show the did without makeup (1983).  And, naturally we see the highly undramatic “unmasking” on MTV, a hilarious attempt at TV news by the ever-flappable J.J. Johnson.

The concert in 1987, (The Crazy Nights Tour) is pretty bad.  This was a time when the band still played the early makeup songs, but they seemed to care so little about them, that it’s kind of embarrassing (Paul’s contempt for singing “Love Gun” in a way that even vaguely resembles the original is rather shocking).  Even Ace is phoning it in at best.  (Of course, Gene is a ham from the start so he’s always on).

After watching that last show I was not looking forward to the final Detroit show (The Hot in the Shade tour–a disc I liked more than most of the late 80s discs, even if the cover conceit of a sphinx with glasses is about as lame as you can get), but I was surprised at how great the band sounded.  They seem energized and like they were having a lot of fun.  Bruce Kulick definitely rocks hard (although I am a little disappointed that he felt compelled to change some of Ace’s signature guitar solos).  And it ends the disc on a very high note.

The collection ends with the death of drummer Eric Carr.  Which is certainly a downer, but seeing the shows that he played in are definitely a high point.  I’m fairly certain, however, that I can’t bring myself to watch Vol. 3 of this collection.

[READ: Week of March 22, 2010]  2666 [pg 513-564]

More deaths. I am starting to get worn down by all the murders (and I can see that I am. not. alone.) and by the cavalier attitude of the police (which is either a coping mechanism for them or just a case of simply not caring).  I am very much looking forward to Part 5!

However, there were some breakthroughs this week! One of the murderers was captured and found to be a member of Los Caciques [blackbird?] gang.  [UPDATE: 6/27/2012:  Thanks to Oscar in the comments for the update on what <<cacique>> means.]

Amidst the usual murders was a suicide.  Perla Beatriz Ochoterena, a teacher, wrote that should couldn’t take it anymore.  Juan de Dios Martínez talks to Elvira Campos about it, but they didn’t come to a valid explanation.  Was it because of the dying girls? Would that drive anyone to kill herself? (more…)

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James Hannaham–God Says No (2009)

Posted in Demons, Depeche Mode, James Hannaham, LGBTQ, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Racism, Religion, Sex, South, Virginity (Loss of) on March 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MONSTER MAGNET-God Says No (2001).

It’s not often I have a disc with the same name as a book.  But lo, here they are.  I’ve no idea if the album inspired Hannaham at all (or if he even knows of it) although the title track song does rather work well with the book, with lines like:

You won’t get caught if you don’t get queer/And you’ll be ready for a new frontier  You try and live And God says no.

I had loved Monster Magnet’s Powertrip quite a lot.  So, I was more than willing to get this follow up.  I’m a little disappointed in the disc overall, but I’m not entirely sure why.  It’s not quite a sharp as Powertrip, but it’s also not quite a trippy as their earlier stoner rock releases.

Having said that, there’s some great tracks here.  It opens very prominently with “Melt” and the phenomenal heavy rocker “Heads Explode” which features delightfully obscure lyrics like “I am a pillar of salt.  You’ll never be worse than me.”  And then comes, “Medicine 2001” another fast, chunky rocker.

There’s also some other way-out (for Monster Magnet) tracks, like the bluesy slide guitar sleaze of “Gravity Well.”

I think it’s the tracks at the end that kind of drag the disc a little bit “Queen of You” is an interesting slow track, but at nearly 7 minutes and coupled with the 7 minute “Cry,” it’s a bit too much all at once.  The final track, “Take It” is a weird, weird (for Monster Magnet) keyboard and drum machine track. It’s very mellow (and sounds like early Depeche Mode), and works as a weird experiment.  The actual final track is a bonus track, “Silver Future” which rocks once again.

I’m pleased that Monster Magnet experiments so much, but it feels like a full disc of MM songs with an extra EP of experiments tacked on.  I’m not sure what they could have done differently, but for some reason the disc falls a little short.

[READ: March 18, 2010] God Says No

This is a very simple tale of an overweight black man struggling with life in the 1990s.  The twist on the story is that he is not struggling because of his race or his size.  He is struggling because he is a good Christian man who is, without question, homosexual.

The book is written in first person and as such it reads like a memoir (although the main character has a different name than the author).  You can’t help but wonder how much of this book is true (although really it doesn’t make any difference), especially when one of  the characters dies.  It feels like tribute to an actual person.

The book opens with Gary Gray living in a dorm at a Christian college.  He is completely obsessed with his roommate, a hunky white guy who walks around in his boxers.  The roommate is clearly not interested in him, in fact he goes so far as to say he is repulsed by Gary (for being fat and black, in addition to anything else he may find flaw with). (more…)

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James Franco–“Just Before the Black” (Esquire, April 2010)

Posted in Blue Öyster Cult, Boredom, Cars, Death, Drinking, Drugs, Esquire, James Franco, Short Story, Suicide on March 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001).

It’s something of a shame that BOC has fallen off the radar so much.  While never a big seller, they’ve been a surprisingly good singles band.  And on this disc, they have a couple of songs that could have been big hits if anybody still cared about them.

“Dance on Stilts” is their most interesting song in quite some time.  It’s catchy, it’ got a cool riff and it’s got a great keyboard sound that you could easily hear on rock radio.    “Here Comes That Feeling Again” could also have been a pretty huge hit, even now on a mellow rock station, it would work very well.  In fact, the whole disc plays wonderfully within the classic rock style.

Cyberpunk author John Shirley (who wrote a song called “Transmaniacon” based on a BOC song) wrote most of the lyrics for this disc.  And the band seems inspired by the subject material because throughout the disc, the riffs are solid and catchy and the songs are great.  “One Step Ahead of the Devil” has the great BOC keyboard sound that punctuates the chorus, while “I Just Want to Be Bad” is a silly song that surpasses it clichés with a  cool unexpected minor key riff.

Since the band has only released two albums since Imaginos, it’s faint praise to say that this is their best album in that time.  But this album is definitely one of their best released.  Whereas Heaven Forbid sounded like a standard collection of BOC songs, this one seems like a collection of superior tracks based on the classic BOC format.   BOC fans who were unsure if it was worth tracking down these latter day discs would do well with this one.  The final track, “Good to Feel Hungry” is pretty silly and is definietly something of a throwaway, but aside from that the whole disc is very solid.

[READ: March 20, 2010] “Just Before the Black”

This is the second story by Franco that I’ve read.  I’m torn about whether I think he ought to be a good writer or not.  I’ve enjoyed his acting, but when an actor switches to another medium, it’s always tough to know whether he’s serious.  Of course, Franco has gone to writing programs, and is in pursuit of his PhD, so I think his writing motives are pure.  It’s also interesting to wonder if there were any writers who inspired him to want to write.  In the two stories I’ve read, his style has been terse, and I’ve wondered if Hemingway was an inspiration.

This one started off short and brusque (typical of Esquire fiction), and I was afraid I wasn’t going to enjoy it.  But after a few paragraphs, the heart of the story came to light and I found it really fascinating; the story morphed from a tough guy story about two dudes hanging out in a car to an introspective story bout two dudes hanging out in a car. (more…)

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Roberto Bolaño–“The Return” (Harper’s, April 2010)

Posted in Blue Öyster Cult, bolanobolano.com, Chris Andrews, Death, Ghosts, Harper's, Roberto Bolaño, Short Story, Supernatural, Translation, Yuck! on March 25, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Heaven Forbid (1998).

After Imaginos, it seemed like Blue Öyster Cult was all wrapped up.  (Of course, they tour all the time, so I guess they’ll never officially go away).  So it was something of a surprise to hear that they had a new album out back in 1998.

The album cover is dreadful, but the music is actually pretty good.  It sounds like a good compendium of BOC styles, all updated with a late 90s sound.  You get heavy songs, light ballads, and even a cover of an old BOC hit.

The album opens with “See You in Black” a really heavy chuggy guitar sound, much heavier than anything BOC has done before.  (And lyrically, he wants to see her in black because that means her husband is dead).  And yet by the time of the fourth song, “X-Ray Eyes” we’re back in familiar keyboard-heavy poppy territory.

The second song, “Harvest Moon” is actually quite nice, and would likely have been a hit single a decade or so earlier.   By the time we get to “Damaged” we’re in the pretty traditional heavy boogie sound of their earlier discs.

“Cold Gray Light of Dawn” sounds like late period BOC.   And “Real World” offers one of the first tweaks of the BOC sound: acoustic guitars in a rocking song. The disc ends with a reprise of the earlier hit “In Thee.”  It’s live and sounds good in this all-acoustic guitar format (and since Allan Lanier plays on the disc, it’s okay that they re-recorded it).

There’s very little in the way of mind blowing songs here, but if you’re a fan of BOC, and you’re not sure what you’ll be getting with this disc, fear not.  Bloom’s heavy songs are typical of the heavy BOC sound and Buck Dharma has hit his stride with his poppy tracks ala “Burnin for You.”

[READ: March 21, 2010] “The Return”

I intend to read the other Bolaño books once I’m done with 2666, but the publishing world seems to be conspiring to make me read them all before that.  This story is another one from the forthcoming The Return, translated by Chris Andrews.

And whether it was the unusual subject matter or the translation itself, this is one of my favorite of his short stories so far.  The premise of this story is quite simple, and it is set up in the first paragraph.  The narrator has recently died, and he shares two pieces of news: there is life after death and Jean-Claude Villeneuve is a necrophiliac.

The story follows the narrator after his death (he died on the dance floor).  His spirit leaves his body (like that scene from Ghost) and floats around following the body as it goes through the process of post-death existence.  The narrator is funny, with snide comments about himself and the workmen who are caring for him (and how he can’t watch his own autopsy).  But it’s when his body is carted off the premises that things get really interesting. (more…)

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Brief Interviews with Hideous Men [film]

Posted in David Foster Wallace, Death Cab For Cutie, Demons, Infinite Summer, John Krasinski, NPR/PRI/PBS, Research, Smarty Pants on March 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

[WATCHED: March 17, 2010] Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

This film is based on the short story collection Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace.  The book is a collection of short stories.   The majority of the stories are indeed, brief interviews (although some are unrelated). And the film is an adaptation of these interviews.  It did pretty poorly at the box office and has met with largely negative reviews.  And I think for the most part that’s understandable.  If ever a film was made for a select audience, it was this.  And it’s very easy to see why a vast number of people either didn’t like it, or didn’t get what he was trying to do.

The interviews in the book are designed so that you only hear the responses of the “subject.”  You never hear the initial o follow-up questions, and you don’t learn anything about the questioner.  In an NPR interview, John Krasinski reveals that DFW told him that he felt that the stories were a “failed experiment.”  He wanted to create a character without actually writing anything about her specifically.  He wanted the reader to insinuate who the interviewer was based upon the answers and reactions of the subjects.  He felt that he was not successful in doing so.

When Krasinski read (and re-read) the stories, he pictured who the interviewer was.  And so in his script, he created an interviewer (because a movie without the interviewer would have done even worse at the box office!).  His interviewer is a young woman who is working on a post-doctorate in feminist studies.   When Krasinski told DFW this, DFW told him that that is exactly who he had in mind.  This great interview reveals how excited Krasinski was at getting DFW’s blessing. (more…)

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