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Archive for the ‘Authors’ Category

Meng Jin–“Our Humans” [The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar #13] (2018)

Posted in Canadian Content, Chanukah Album, China, Christmas, Coronavirus, Dave Grohl, Death, Funny (strange), Greg Kurstin, Hingston & Olsen, Huh?, Meng Jin, Mountain, Old Age, Quarantine, Shadows, Short Story, Surreal, The Hanukkah Sessions, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Trains, Work on December 13, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KURSTIN x GROHL-“Mississippi Queen” (The Hanukkah Sessions: Night Three” December 12, 2020).

   Producer Greg Kurstin (who I have not heard of) and Dave Grohl (who I have) decided that, rather than releasing a Christmas song this year, they would record eight covers of songs by Jewish artists and release them one each night for Hanukkah.

“With all the mishegas of 2020, @GregKurstin and I were kibbitzing about how we could make Hannukah extra-special this year. Festival of Lights?! How about a festival of tasty LICKS! So hold on to your tuchuses… We’ve got something special coming for your shayna punims. L’chaim!!”

The third night is a rocking version of a Mountain song.

Talk about making a mountain out of a mohel … named Leslie Weinstein at his bris, the singer of our next band built a wailing wall of guitar as Leslie West. Check out our take on a track from Leslie’s monolithic band, MOUNTAIN.

Unlike yesterday’s song, I know “Mississippi Queen” very well. I’ve been a fan of Mountain and even saw them live thirty or so years ago.

Kurstin plays synth and the opening guitar line sounds perfect–he gets a really good guitar sound in this session.

Grohl plays drums and sings.  He’s singing in more of his screaming style for this song which works pretty well.

The joke in this one is that he is using a cup as a cowbell.  The cup is duct taped all over the place and as the song opens, Grohl says “I’m fucking this cup up real bad.”  Kurstin says it’s worth it.  And I agree.  This song rocks.

They play with split screen on this one–during the solo, there’s four shots of Kurstin’s hands.

The only bad thing about this song is that it’s so short!

[READ: December 13, 2020] “Our Humans”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my fifth time reading the Calendar.  I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable.  Here’s what they say this year

You know the drill by now. The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories from some of the best writers in North America.

This year’s slipcase is a thing of beauty, too, with electric-yellow lining and spot-glossed lettering. It also comes wrapped in two rubber bands to keep those booklets snug in their beds.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check back here to read an exclusive interview with the author.

It’s December 13. Meng Jin, author of Little Gods, always keeps carbon copies in triplicate. [Click the link to the H&O extras for the story].

I found this story very confusing and not very enjoyable.

It is set in some kind of futuristic society, but hat doesn’t seem to matter all that much.  The narrator works at a job “in those day we still employed a number of humans.”

She was an unusual sight there–being (somewhat) young and (clearly) female.  Most people assumed she was a consultant.

Once she leaves work, the story changes entirely.

On the train she sees a little girl–unsupervised: “young people are rarely seen in the city these days.”

The train breaks down in the middle of nowhere.  The girl encourages the narrator to go with her.

Everyone in the story calls her jiejie (which means older sister).  She seems disconcerted by this.

As they walk through the dark, the little girl tells her that they have become their shadows.  They can’t walk through any unlit spaces, obviously.

She gets back to her apartment. It is pitch dark.  She feels she has lost herself but then she bumps into Duowen, a man from work.  Their mouths meet.

This story really lost me.  I was really interested in the futuristic society and the bots (and their gradual falling apart), but the whole thing with the shadows just didn’t seem very compelling.

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Amber Sparks–“A History of Heart Disease” [The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar #12] (2012)

Posted in Amber Sparks, Burger King, Canadian Content, Chanukah Album, Christmas, Coronavirus, Dave Grohl, Death, Drake, Greg Kurstin, Heart Attack, Hingston & Olsen, Quarantine, Short Story, The Hanukkah Sessions, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KURSTIN x GROHL-“Hotline Bling” (The Hanukkah Sessions: Night Two” December 11, 2020).

Producer Greg Kurstin (who I have not heard of) and Dave Grohl (who I have) decided that, rather than releasing a Christmas song this year, they would record eight covers of songs by Jewish artists and release them one each night for Hanukkah.

“With all the mishegas of 2020, @GregKurstin and I were kibbitzing about how we could make Hannukah extra-special this year. Festival of Lights?! How about a festival of tasty LICKS! So hold on to your tuchuses… We’ve got something special coming for your shayna punims. L’chaim!!”

The second night is a grooving version of a Drake song.

You might be surprised to learn that this superstar is… Canadian. He’s never hidden the fact that he was M.O.T. … so a generation of Jewish parents could tell their kids “if Drake took the time to study for HIS Bar Mitzvah, you can too.” Ladies and gentlemen…challah at your boy….DRAKE!

I may be the only person in the world who has not heard the original of this song (or seen the video).

Kurstin plays synth and gets a nice full sound.

Grohl plays drums and sings.  I can’t comment on if he’s trying to sing like Drake, but he is definitely singing in his crooning voice, not his screaming voice.

There’s no stick drops in this song (although there’s some nice variety in the drum sounds).  The humor in this one comes from Grohl doing a dance with a menorah (this may be the “Hotline Bling” dance?).  It’s slow motion and very amusing.

I can’t decide if I want to hear the original of this song or not, but I do rather like this version of it.

[READ: December 12, 2020] “A History of Heart Disease”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my fifth time reading the Calendar.  I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable.  Here’s what they say this year

You know the drill by now. The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories from some of the best writers in North America.

This year’s slipcase is a thing of beauty, too, with electric-yellow lining and spot-glossed lettering. It also comes wrapped in two rubber bands to keep those booklets snug in their beds.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check back here to read an exclusive interview with the author.

It’s December 12. Amber Sparks, author of I Do Not Forgive You, finds the drive-thru a little too impersonal. [Click the link to the H&O extras for the story].

This is a very short story (four pages in these little booklets).

It begins with Glen’s father dying in a Burger King when Glen was five.

The next paragraph jumps to Glen at thirty, married with a little girl and a job teaching.  He and his wife are having problems.  She has gained weight and he is scared of the way his body sinks into it.

Glen is wrapping the ankle of a student, Jenny, when his wife calls to say that his mother died.  Heart attack. (more…)

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David Burr Gerrard–“Must Be Peopled” [The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar #11] (2017)

Posted in Babies, Beastie Boys, Canadian Content, Chanukah Album, Christmas, Coronavirus, Dave Grohl, David Burr Gerrard, Funny (ha ha), Greg Kurstin, Hingston & Olsen, Quarantine, Short Story, Social Media, The Hanukkah Sessions, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 11, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KURSTIN x GROHL-“Sabotage” (The Hanukkah Sessions: Night One” December 10, 2020).

  Producer Greg Kurstin (who I have not heard of) and Dave Grohl (who I have) decided that, rather than releasing a Christmas song this year, they would record eight covers of songs by Jewish artists and release them one each night for Hanukkah.

“With all the mishegas of 2020, @GregKurstin and I were kibbitzing about how we could make Hannukah extra-special this year. Festival of Lights?! How about a festival of tasty LICKS! So hold on to your tuchuses… We’ve got something special coming for your shayna punims. L’chaim!!”

The first night is a ripping version of Beastie Boys’ Sabotage.

As the only Rock and Roll Hall Of Famers with a lyric about kugel, we thought it would be a shanda to not kick off this party with New York’s (and Abraham’s) finest…known by some as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedenego, known by others as Ad-Rock, Mike D, and MCA…known by their Imas and Abbas as Adam Horovitz, Mike Diamond and Adam Yauch… Beastie Boys!

Kurstin plays synth (the bass is not quite as cool sounding as the original, but is otherwise pretty spot on).

Grohl plays drums and sings.  The singing is hilarious because he does his best Beastie Boys vocal style, including a tinge of an accent.

The video is done in one take, including a moment where Grohl drops his drumstick (the video mockingly points this out).  But he manages to get it back without any real damage to the song

This is a fantastic introduction to this enjoyable new tradition.

[READ: December 11, 2020] “Must be Peopled”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my fifth time reading the Calendar.  I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable.  Here’s what they say this year

You know the drill by now. The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories from some of the best writers in North America.

This year’s slipcase is a thing of beauty, too, with electric-yellow lining and spot-glossed lettering. It also comes wrapped in two rubber bands to keep those booklets snug in their beds.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check back here to read an exclusive interview with the author.

It’s December 11. David Burr Gerrard, author of The Epiphany Machine, kindly requests that you un-tag him from that photo.[Click the link to the H&O extras for the story].

This story was hilarious and dark at the same time.  It was an opportunity to live out a perverse fantasy and then to see what doing so would send back your way.

The narrator says that he and Kate often joked about ranking friends’ baby pictures from cutest to ugliest.

I mean, who hasn’t?

Anyway, Kate has left the narrator, so he is now going to start ranking.  Publicly.

He begins by saying “Maryanne Jameson is the curtest baby on my feed Congratulations, Maryanne!!!!”

Within seconds many people have liked the post–primarily Maryanne’s mom and her friends.  (more…)

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Adam O’Fallon Price–“Vera Something” [The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar #10] (2020)

Posted in Adam O'Fallon Price, Canadian Content, Christmas, Coronavirus, Hingston & Olsen, Hotels, Michael Kiwanuka, Quarantine, Romance, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert on December 10, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MICHAEL KIWANUKA: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #112 (November 16, 2020).

Michael Kiwanuka was on my radar for a few years, although I never actually knew who was singing these songs that I liked.

His previous album Love & Hate was hugely praised (although I missed it that year).  It and his most recent album Kiwanuka are fantastic. His songs are big with lots of electric guitar parts.  They are catchy but complex.  And his voice is just amazing–somehow quiet and powerful at the same time.

The warm texture of his voice and tenderness of his soul belie the depth of his songwriting, which ranges from sociopolitical works to songs revealing the inner chambers of self-exploration.

For this Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, Kiwanuka performs

from a “rainy London” flat that’s dimly lit with a vintage feel.

Kiwanuka plays five songs, but they are very different from the album versions.  Three of these songs are played on acoustic guitar.  This shows that the kernel of these songs is wonderful without and soaring electric guitar.

The Mercury Prize-winning musician evokes an all-encompassing softness in spirit as he leads viewers into the “Light,” the first of five songs in his Tiny Desk (home) concert.

The first two songs “Light” and “Hard To Say Goodbye” (both from Kiwanuka) are played on acoustic guitar.  They are pretty and gentle, warm and inviting.

He switches to the electric guitar for “Hero” (also from Kiwanuka).  On the album, the song is broken into two parts (I never realized this).  You can hear the difference in the parts very distinctly here as part two sounds really different from the first.  He stays with the electric guitar for “Cold Little Heart” (the opening track from Love & Hate).  You can hear the consistency in his songwriting with this earlier track.

He returns to Kiwanuka for the final song, “Solid Ground.”  But he plays this song on an organ–a beautiful rich sound.

Even with the different instrumentation, the songs retain their essential sound.  This set offers wonderful insight into Kiwanuka’s performance.  (That’s Kiwanuka on stage in the movie Yesterday, by the way)

[READ: December 10, 2020] “Vera Something”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my fifth time reading the Calendar.  I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable.  Here’s what they say this year

You know the drill by now. The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories from some of the best writers in North America.

This year’s slipcase is a thing of beauty, too, with electric-yellow lining and spot-glossed lettering. It also comes wrapped in two rubber bands to keep those booklets snug in their beds.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check back here to read an exclusive interview with the author.

It’s December 10.  Adam O’Fallon Price, author of The Hotel Neversink, would walk five hundred miles, but not a step further.  [Click the link to the H&O extras for the story].

This story felt very different from the other ones so far.  I was certain that it was an old story.  It is set in the 1950s and I believed it was written then and that’s why it felt so different.  It wasn’t, it is very current.  Then I read in the link above that this story was a chapter from the novel The Hotel Neversink.  However, this chapter was removed from the novel because it didn’t quite fit.

I don’t know if Adam tweaked this into a short story or if it remains as it was.  But it feels slower, yes, like from a novel.  And although it felt slower, it was in no way less engaging.

Sam met Vera at the Hotel Neversink in the Catskills–during a singles event.  They were both from New York City, in their twenties and more or less pressured by their parents to find a mate.  They had a surprisingly good time together.  Sam had taken her picture (with his Polaroid) and she had written her phone number in the white part. (more…)

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Kelly Luce–“Parade for the Dead and Dying” [The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar #9] (2016)

Posted in Aaron Copland, Canadian Content, Christmas, Coronavirus, Death, Disneyland, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Hingston & Olsen, Kelly Luce, Michael Boriskin, Old Age, Parades, Quarantine, Short Story, Surreal, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert on December 9, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: COPLAND HOUSE: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #110 (November 13, 2020).

Every Tiny Desk (Home) Concert is unique.  But this one seems extra special.

the desk – and the home setup – for this performance beats them all. The location is the home, and not so tiny writing desk, of Aaron Copland, America’s beloved composer.

Copland, who would have turned 120 on Nov. 14, gave us Appalachian Spring, Fanfare for the Common Man and Rodeo, among many other works that helped define a singular American sound.

These pieces are familiar to anyone who has listened to any classical music anywhere (or Emerson, Lake & Palmer).  But these three pieces were ones I didn’t know at all.

The set begins with one of the composer’s earliest pieces in a jazzy vein.

The piece is called “Three Moods: III. Jazzy.”  It is an upbeat, yes, jazzy, bouncy piano piece.  That last all of 80 seconds.  It is indeed, as Michael Boriskin says, delectable.

Michael Boriskin plays Copland’s own piano. He’s the artistic and executive director of Copland House, located an hour north of New York City in the lower Hudson River Valley. What was once Copland’s home is now a creative center for American music.

Up next, Boriskin plays a duet with violinist Curtis Macomber.

The Violin Sonata that follows embodies America’s wide open spaces, filled with possibilities.

“Sonata for Violin and Piano: I. Andante semplice – Allegro” is the only major piece Copland wrote for violin. It is sombre and pretty, with a kind of back and forth violin and piano.  There’s lots of lengthy, slow, almost mournful violin parts.

Macomber departs and is replaced by flutist Carol Wincenc.  They play “Duo for flute and piano: II. Poetic, somewhat mournful; III. Lively, with bounce.”  Those descriptors are part of the title and also describe how the music is to be played.  This piece

 was actually written at the very desk seen in this video.

The first part is slow and sad, while the second one is much more fun and bouncy.  The middle of the second part has a a sow staccato dialogue between the flute and piano.  There’s a fun moment where the flute and piano play the exact same very high note and the sound is really unusual.

I found these pieces to be less engaging than his more famous pieces.  But maybe that’s just because I am much more familiar with them.

[READ: December 9, 2020] “Parade for the Dead and Dying”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my fifth time reading the Calendar.  I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable.  Here’s what they say this year

You know the drill by now. The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories from some of the best writers in North America.

This year’s slipcase is a thing of beauty, too, with electric-yellow lining and spot-glossed lettering. It also comes wrapped in two rubber bands to keep those booklets snug in their beds.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check back here to read an exclusive interview with the author.

It’s December 9.  Kelly Luce, author of Pull Me Under, can always pull a quick U-turn if she misses the exit. [Click the link to the H&O extras for the story].

I love how this story started in a kind of surreal location and then did a U-Turn and wound up in an even more surreal place.

Palmsville, Florida, has decided to have a parade for the dead and dying.  The floats were from various hospitals.  County supplied four bodies from the morgue to ride on the back of one of the floats.  Mount Sinai putthree geriatrics (and their ventilators) in a convertible. (more…)

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Catherine Lacey–“Cut” [The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar #7] (2019)

Posted in Black Lives Matter, Canadian Content, Catherine Lacey, Christmas, Coronavirus, Feminism, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Futility, Hingston & Olsen, Huh?, Humiliation, Mickey Guyton, New Yorker, Old Age, Quarantine, Racism, Sex, Sexism, Sexual Assault, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert on December 7, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MICKEY GUYTON-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #108 (November 9, 2020).

Mickey Guyton is a country singer, which is probably why I have never heard of her.  And yet, when Guyton sang her first song, I never would have guessed she was a country singer.

Her first song “Black Like Me” is beautiful.

In June, after the killing of George Floyd, Guyton released “Black Like Me,” which tells her own story in a way that gently but resolutely calls for change.

Her desk holds the book that inspired it.  Her voice is powerful and there’s not a twang in sight.  The lyrics are sensational, with the excellent chorus:

if you think we live in the land of the free
you should try to be black like me.

The only problem I have with the song is that although the piano accompaniment from Lynette Williams is lovely, I feel that the song deserves a much bigger arrangement.

I love the arrangement of the next song “Salt.”  Soulful keyboards, the Afro-Caribbean instruments of percussionist Paul Allen, Jon Sosin’s acoustic guitar.  She sounds a lot more country music in her delivery (there’s an actual delivery style that you can hear as she sings, even without the twang).  I liked this song, and I think it’s clever, but after the resonance of the other two songs, this one–a warning to men about women–seems beneath her.  Although the lyrics are pretty clever.

In February, as protests against sexism intensified in the country world, she debuted “What Are You Gonna Tell Her” and it caused an instant sensation.

She sang the he song at the ACM awards and was the first African-American woman to sing an original song at the awards–in 2020!

It’s back to just piano again–maybe the more important songs are more spare?  For some reason, the music of this song makes me think it could fit into Hamilton.  And the lyrics, once again, are terrific.

She thinks life is fair and
God hears every prayer
And everyone gets their ever after
She thinks love is love and if
You work hard, that’s enough
Skin’s just skin and it doesn’t matter
And that her friend’s older brother’s gonna keep his hands to himself
And that somebody’s gon’ believe her when she tells
But what are you gonna tell her
When she’s wrong?

Wow.

[READ: December 7, 2020] “Cut”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my fifth time reading the Calendar.  I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable.  Here’s what they say this year

You know the drill by now. The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories from some of the best writers in North America.

This year’s slipcase is a thing of beauty, too, with electric-yellow lining and spot-glossed lettering. It also comes wrapped in two rubber bands to keep those booklets snug in their beds.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check back here to read an exclusive interview with the author.

It’s December 7. Catherine Lacey, author of Pew, presses every button in the elevator on her way out.  [Click the link to the H&O extras for the story].

I read this story back in April, when it was printed in the New Yorker.  It’s the only story in this collection that I’ve read before so far.  It was bizarre and I loved it.  I’m going to post a briefer version of my original post which you can read here.

This story started out is such an amusing way:

There’s no good way to say it–Peggy woke up most mornings oddly sore, sore in the general region of her asshole.

But it’s not an amusing scene at all.  It burns when she uses the toilet and she finds blood in her pajamas.

She could see a cut but only when using a hand mirror while she was crouched at the right angle.  But even so, her groin “was that of a middle-aged woman and not as strictly delineated as it once had been.”  Nevertheless, whenever she looked for it she always “paused to appreciate the inert drapery of her labia.”

The cut was there, but it seemed to migrate.   She tried to look it up online, but only found porn.  Adding Web MD brought back porn in doctor’s offices.  And adding Mayo Clinic introduced her to people with a fetish for mayonnaise. (more…)

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Alexander Weinstein–“The Final Days of Father Troll” [The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar #6] (2012)

Posted in Adele, Alexander Weinstein, Canadian Content, Christmas, Coronavirus, Death, Fairy Tales, Hingston & Olsen, Parenting, Quarantine, Short Story, Snowman, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tiana Major9, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Trolls, Violence on December 6, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TIANA MAJOR9-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert # 107 (November 6, 2020).

I had never heard of Tiana Major9 even if

in August Adele took to Instagram to call the song “Same Space?” “absolutely stunning!!” (The post was liked more than 430,000 times.)

Interestingly, she does not play that song in this set.

She begins her Tiny Desk with an ending of sorts: the devastating “Collide,” written for the final sequence of Lena Waithe’s critically acclaimed film Queen & Slim.

“Collide” opens with a gentle (but high note) bass melody from Benjamin Bekantoy and Tiana singing.  Then some softly echoing keyboards from Daniella Bernard follow the melody.  After the chorus, the acoustic guitar from Gaetan Judd comes in and plays along.  Tt all sounds very pretty.

It’s followed by “…Exclusively,” a chill love ballad.  Tiana’s voice really is quite lovely.

Later, she shows off her range and timbre on “Think About You,” a stunning love song that infuses elements of jazz, alternative R&B and her Jamaican roots. The sweetness in its refrain “I need more hours in the day … just to think about you” feels like a blueprint for how to spend the third wave of quarantine.

“Think About You” is a slightly faster song with a more uptempo bass line. There’s fun jazzy instrumental vamp with her more or less scatting along with the musicians.  That’s my favorite part.

“Lucky” is an upbeat song with some cool bass slides.  Once again, Tiana’s voice absolutely shines here.

Never did find out what the heck her name means, though.

[READ: December 5, 2020] “Fast Hands, Fast Feet”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my fifth time reading the Calendar.  I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable.  Here’s what they say this year

You know the drill by now. The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories from some of the best writers in North America.

This year’s slipcase is a thing of beauty, too, with electric-yellow lining and spot-glossed lettering. It also comes wrapped in two rubber bands to keep those booklets snug in their beds.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check back here to read an exclusive interview with the author.

It’s December 6. Alexander Weinstein, author of Universal Love, figures he’ll just have leftover rocks for lunch.  [Click the link to the H&O extras for the story].

This story is a fairy tale (as the title suggests).

It is written in several short sections.  In the first, Father Troll Watches his Children Hunt, Father Troll is saddened that his children have to resort to eating rocks.  He was injured recently by humans and is not able to bring home proper food as he’d like to.

Father Troll tells Mother Troll about his fears and his concerns–he should have taken more sheep this summer, etc.  He should have killed more humans before they had a chance to hurt him.  Father Troll also thinks about other trolls–younger trolls.  He imagines the fun he could have with a youthful female troll.  Until he looks at himself and realizes they would never want him. (more…)

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Martin Riker–“Four Minutes and Thirty-Three Pairs of Sweatpants” [The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar #4] (2013)

Posted in Books about music, Canadian Content, Christmas, Coronavirus, Fleetwood Mac, Funny (ha ha), Hingston & Olsen, John Cage, Katie Pruitt, Martin Riker, Quarantine, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on December 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KATIE PRUITT-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #102 (October 26, 2020).

I was supposed to see Katie Pruitt open for City and Colour, but those shows were cancelled.  I didn’t know who Pruitt was at the time, but since then, her song “Experience” has been getting a lot of airplay on WXPN.  And I really like it.

I thought it was either a new or newly released Fleetwood Mac song.   Both Katie’s (fantastic) guitar sound and (more importantly) her vocal delivery sounds like classic Fleetwood Mac.  Even Zach Witcher’s bass seems to fit perfectly.  And the way he plays along with that super catchy opening and closing riff is perfect.  She adds a cool guitar solo to the end of the song, too.

She says that “Out of the Blue” is about letting someone go and growing from it.  It’s a slower song with more pretty guitars (and soft drums from Ross McReynolds).  It almost feels loungey with the echoey guitar and her delivery.  Witcher gets a nifty high note bass solo before Pruitt plays a solo of her own.

After the song, she says, “It’s been a hard year.”

“But one thing about painful experiences is that … it forces you to grow.” Expectations offers myriad scenes of such transformation, documenting Pruitt’s journey from a Southern Catholic childhood to adulthood as an out lesbian who, as she sings in “Loving Her,” is “staying true to who I am.”

“Loving Her”was another song by Pruitt that I knew by Pruitt.  She released it on national Coming Out Day.  It’s a lovely love song about loving who you want and loving yourself.  The lyrics are great.  Here’s sample

You see, I used to be ashamed to write a song that said her name
‘Cause I was too afraid of what they all might say
But if loving her is wrong and it’s not right to write this song
Then I’m still not gonna stop and you can turn the damn thing off
If loving her’s a choice, she’s all I’m gonna choose
No way you could sway me in another’s favor
Some people choose Buddha or Jesus or booze
But her body’s my temple and her soul is my savior

Now I’m even more bummed that the show was cancelled.

[READ: December 4, 2020] “Four Minutes and Thirty-Three Pairs of Sweatpants”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my fifth time reading the Calendar.  I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable.  Here’s what they say this year

You know the drill by now. The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories from some of the best writers in North America.

This year’s slipcase is a thing of beauty, too, with electric-yellow lining and spot-glossed lettering. It also comes wrapped in two rubber bands to keep those booklets snug in their beds.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check back here to read an exclusive interview with the author.

It’s December 4. Martin Riker, author of Samuel Johnson’s Eternal Return, prefers the term “loungewear.”  [Click the link to the H&O extras for the story].

Yesterday’s story was a little tough for me to read. But today’s story was fantastic.  I loved it immediately.  The nod to John Cage’s 4’33” was great but the story doesn’t have anything to do with Cage.

It is written from the point of view of a female musician. She say the story she wants to tell deals with Byron Brandt and Peter Smith.

Peter Smith is a minor celebrity now, but when they dated, he was a struggling artist.  Actually, she was the struggling artist, working four jobs, while he sat around and did very little. (more…)

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John Kendrick Bangs–“Over the Plum-Pudding” [The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar #1] (1901)

Posted in Amnesia, Andrew Lang, Arthur Conan Doyle, Canadian Content, Christmas, Coronavirus, Dragons, Drinking, Funny (ha ha), George Meredith, Gracie and Rachel, Hall Caine, Hingston & Olsen, John Kendrick Bangs, Meta, Quarantine, Richard Harding Davis, Rudyard Kipling, Sherlock Holmes, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert on December 1, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: GRACIE AND RACHEL-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #98 (October 19, 2020).

I only know Gracie and Rachel from a previous Tiny Desk Concert.  I was entranced by that performance and am similarly entranced by this one.

Gracie and Rachel are perfect musical mates. Their styles conjure contrast, with Gracie Coates’ more pop-leaning keyboard melodies alongside Rachel Ruggles’ classical background. They’ve been honing their orchestral pop sound since high school. These days they share space in a NYC apartment and are grateful to be able to “commute from their bedrooms” at a time when so many collaborators can’t be together.

They open with “Strangers.”  Gracie plays the keyboards and sings lead with a wonderfully breathy voice.  Rachel plays the violin and then starts adding in percussion and singing higher (sometime haunting) backing vocals.

They’ve just released their second album, Hello Weakness, You Make Me Strong. The title of the album reflects their positive attitude despite angst.  The duo made much of this music in the past year and a half, in the very room they’re performing this Tiny Desk (home) concert

On “Ideas,” they sing together a classical melody with a tinge of autotune.  Then the song shifts to the delicacy of Gracie’s keys and Rachel’s pizzicato violin.

The lyrics to “Ideas” highlights that attitude by encouraging us to dig inside ourselves and discover our creative spirit” “So take your little ideas / Make them a little bit stronger / Throw out the ones you can’t / You don’t need them any longer.”

When the drums come in they are deep and heavy and there’s a very cool bass slide (triggered by Rachel on the SPD-SX sampling pad).  I love the highs and lows of this song.

“Sidelines” features Rachel playing the drums live (on the sampling pad with mallets) while Gracie sings and plays the keyboard melody.  For the bridge, their voices intertwine in a lovely way, weaving in and out of each others melodies.  Then Rachel picks up the violin and adds some more lovely pizzicato to the song.  When she adds her soaring backing vocals its really quite angelic.

“Underneath” is a song about getting underneath ourselves. Rachel plays squeaky, haunting violin melodies to accompany the keys.  There are several parts to this song and I love the way they sound so different–from the strummed violin in the bridge to the rising vocal line of the chorus.

These songs are definitely poppy but they have an unusual sensibility that must come from Rachel’s classical ideas.  The songs are really wonderful and I’m curious what they sound like when fully fleshed out on record.

[READ: December 1, 2020] “Over the Plum-Pudding”

This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my fifth time reading the Calendar.  I didn’t know about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh), but each year since has been very enjoyable.  Here’s what they say this year

You know the drill by now. The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories from some of the best writers in North America.

This year’s slipcase is a thing of beauty, too, with electric-yellow lining and spot-glossed lettering. It also comes wrapped in two rubber bands to keep those booklets snug in their beds.

As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check back here to read an exclusive interview with the author.

It’s December 1. To officially kick off the 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar, here’s a story about truth, fiction, and characters who can’t tell the difference from the late author and humourist John Kendrick Bangs.  [Click the link to the H&O extras for the story].

This story contains some parodies of other writers and uses them as an excuse for why the editor’s own Christmas collection did not get published on time.

It opens with a note from Horace Wilkinson, the editor at Hawkins, Wilkes & Speedway Publishing.  He sets out to explain why the advertised Christmas book “Over the Plum-Pudding or, Tales Told Under the Mistletoe, by Sundry Tattlers” was never published.  He has been getting questions from the authors who were supposed to be paid for their work when the collection was published.  He wants to publicly set the record straight.

Right off the bat, he places the blame entirely on the shoulders of Rudyard Kipling.  This made me chuckle. (more…)

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César Aira–Ema, The Captive (1981) [translated 2016]

Posted in Argentina, Armenia, Babies, César Aira, Chris Andrews, Concubines, Coronavirus, Death, Homelessness, Pregnancy, Quarantine, Rape, Sex, Sexism, Tigran Hamasyan, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence, Yuck! on November 30, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TIGRAN HAMASYAN-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #110 (November 11, 2020).

I have never heard of Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan.  I really enjoyed his solo pieces here and am somewhat surprised to read that he often plays with others.

The first piece,

“Road Song,” features a melody Hamasyan wrote in 2008, but recorded with a quintet on his imaginative 2013 album, Shadow Theater. He frequently plays a solo version of it live, but had never played it alone in a studio until now.

It starts quietly.  Then he begins whistling (!) which makes it even more haunting.  At around 4 minutes his  left hand rhythm remains slow and steady while his right hand flies all around the keyboard.  It’s wonderful.

That’s followed by “Our Film,” from Hamasyan’s latest and most enterprising release, The Call Within. This performance mirrors the intensity and sentimentality of the album version, but here it’s more intimate and fanciful.

It also has pretty, haunting melody (with more whistling).   It picks up the pace in the middle and gets almost frenetic (around 11 and a half minutes into the video) before settling down again.  It’s amazing how it all holds together with the more staid left hand.

The last tune, “A Fable,” is the title track of his 2011 solo album, which was inspired by 13th century Armenian writer Vardan Aygektsi.

This piece is flowing and a bit more upbeat.  He really gets into it and starts grunting at one point.

Hamasyan is a jazz pianist, but his foundation comes from Armenian folk music.  Perhaps that’s why i like this so much–it is very jazzy, but is grounded in traditional melodies.

[READ: November 30, 2020] “Ema, The Captive”

This is one of Aira’s earlier (and longer) stories.

I’m fascinated that his earlier stories seem to be grounded much more in reality–blood and gore–rather than fantastical ideas.  Although calling this story grounded in reality is a bit far fetched as well.

This is the story of Ema (at one point in the book it is mistyped as Emma) a woman who goes from being a concubine to running a successful business.  The story (translated by Chris Andrews) is broken into several smaller anecdotes as Ema’s life progresses.

But it starts out with no mention of Ema at all.

Indeed, the opening chapter is revolting. A wagon train carrying prisoners is heading across the Argentinian desert (set in the nineteenth century). (more…)

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