Obviously I enjoy the books I read, and I look forward to the books I have on my pile of “to read” books. But recently, even though I am anxious to get a jump on Superbad, the book (no relation to the movie), I felt that I needed a change of pace. Something completely different to give my reading a shock.
As you all know, my wife is a YA librarian, and is the soon-to-be president of the Young Adult Library Services Association. Astute readers will have guessed where this is going by now, but the short version is that I decided to check out some YA books.
YA novels, in general, do not comprise a genre that I read much. Primarily because I am no longer the Y part of YA. However, I am not averse to them, and have enjoyed many teen-protagonist stories. The Inkheart series is great. The Golden Compass is fantastic, and of course, young Potter. But all of those books are of a more “literary” mindset than much in the YA world (at least that’s what my limited exposure to it suggests).
So I grabbed three YA novels based on the titles, and based on some past discussions I’ve had with Sarah about her favorite books. And this is what I’ve discovered about the genre:
1) The books are short. And fast. The three books I chose all clock in at around 250 pages. And, the type is much bigger than most of the adult novels I read. I’ve been able to polish off a good 80 or 90 pages at lunch. Think of how this will add to your “books I read this year” list! But this may also have to do with: (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: THE BEATLES-Let It Be (1970) & Let It Be…Naked (2003).
I may have mentioned before that I wasn’t a huge fan of the Beatles. This has changed as I get older, but in high school and college I didn’t really want anything to do with them. My freshman roommate in college announced on our first day that he thought that all bands were devil worshipers, and that the only music he was allowed to listen to at home was the Beatles. Consequently, he only had the Beatles on CD (and, curiously INXS Kick). That’s enough to make you hate the Beatles forever.
SOUNDTRACK: GRUFF RHYS-Candylion (2006).
I’ve mentioned before that I really like Super Furry Animals. This is the lead singer’s solo album. It sounds very similar to an SFA album, although it’s a little less bizarre, a little less indulgent (which somehow seems odd for a solo album, but whatever.) Overall, it sounds somewhat more mellow, but it’s not exactly a mellow affair. The title song is a pretty little ballad. However, the album also has some great, if not rocking, then certainly rollicking songs that are great to sing along to like “Cycle of Violence” and “Now That the Feeling is Gone.” There’s lots of la la’s and Whooos! to add to the exictemnet.
SOUNDTRACK: CARLA BOZULICH-Evangelista [CST041] (2007).
This record comes from the mighty 
She has a very strong voice, and sounds not unlike Diamanda Galas, meaning she can hit the high notes, and the powerful notes, and the screechy notes, and tends to be a bit scary from time to time. In the context of the Geraldine Fibbers, it was really an amazing thing to behold.
SOUNDTRACK: COHEED & CAMBRIA-
one would tend to think that deep dark heavy metal is contained within. In fact, I was pretty sure that I was in for a heavier sort of Dream Theater. The imagery of this collection is very dark/scary/spooky, and I was told many times that the band was quite prog-rockish, often sounding like Rush. Oh, and the singer sounds like a woman.
SOUNDTRACK: MICRODISNEY-Big Sleeping House: A Collection of Microdisney’s Finest Moments (1995).
Microdisney was founded by Cathal Coughlan and Sean O’Hagan. These two then went on to form respectively, the Fatima Mansions and the High Llamas (and O’Hagan worked with Stereolab as well). If you’ve ever heard Fatima Mansions and High Llamas, you will not understand how these two ever worked together.
and Gideon Gaye 
are really beautiful. Meanwhile, the Fatima Mansions play angry noisy rock, and perpetuate the slogan “Keep Music Evil.” Viva Dead Ponies 
is certainly recommended, if you can find it! Clearly, these men started in one place together and drifted apart. However, you can see the kernels of these future bands in Microdisney.
SOUNDTRACK: NEIL YOUNG-Live at the Fillmore East (1970) & Live at Massey Hall (1971).
Live at the Fillmore East. This is a fun, rowdy little disc. I’m confused as to why it’s only 6 songs, as surely they would have played more at the time, but I’m not going to spend any real time figuring that out. The first two songs, “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” and “Winterlong” are fuzzy, brief versions of these cuts. They’re a good opening in prep for the twelve minute “Down By the River.” Two more short songs, “Wonderin'” and “Come on Baby Let’s Go Downtown” barely prepare you for the 16 minute “Cowgirl in the Sand” conclusion. I didn’t know that “Downtown” was a “Crazy Horse” song and not a Neil song. I’m not even sure where I know it from, but it was as familiar as most of his tracks. And it was interesting to hear one of the other guys sing the song.
Live at Massey Hall. The same quality is evident on this recording as well. But this record is just Neil solo. It’s a more mellow affair, with the songs being pretty evenly split between acoustic guitar and piano. This disc has 17 songs on it and only one runs over 5 minutes (actually the closing “Dance, Dance, Dance” runs pretty long too, but it’s basically 2 and a half minutes of applause which Neil really should have cut).
SOUNDTRACK: MONSTER MAGNET-4 Way Diablo (2007).
My friend Matt and I saw Monster Magnet open for Aerosmith in Scranton, Pa many many moons ago. We had never heard of them, but were really impressed by their set. I especially enjoyed the song he introduced as “I Know Life’s a Bummer, Baby, But That’s Got Precious Little to Do with Me.” (Fact is, I was sold by the title alone). This song would of course be “Bummer” from the Powertrip album. That album became the soundtrack of our summer.
SOUNDTRACK: SIGUR RÓS-Hvarf-Heim (2007).
Sigur Rós put on one of the greatest live shows I’ve seen. There was nothing “special” about it , in that there were no real pyrotechnics, there was just a very simple film playing on a screen behind them, but somehow they took over the small theater I saw them in…I can’t remember which one, maybe The Limelight in NYC…and I had a tremendously trippy experience. Normally, I’d chalk this up to the surrounding smoke, but this time it was definitely the music. The high notes, the swirling tunes, the coda to a sing in which the singer snag into the pickup of his guitar (a very weird thing to see), and then used some of his guitar effects on his voice; wow. I actually had to sit down after the show.
I Just Read About That... 