SOUNDTRACK: TRACY SILVERMAN-Tiny Desk Concert #368 (June 28, 2014).
T
racy Silverman is an electronic violinist. In addition to playing the violin, he uses loops to build his sound (I love how many people are using loops these days). Not only that, he has created his own violin–a six string with frets on the three low strings. (It’s also shaped more like a guitar than a violin). He gets an incredible breadth of sound out of it (and he is an amazing violinist as well).
He plays three tracks. The first is “Matisse: La Danse,” which really shows off the breadth of his instrument and the effects that he uses.
The second piece he introduces by saying how much he loves listening to NPR and composer BJ Liederman. So for the second song, which he calls “Sonata No. 4, Opus 37 “All Notes Considered”” he uses pieces of the themes from All Things Considered and Morning Edition. It’s at once familiar and new, and it’s quite pretty. He then takes a video of the studio for his Facebook feed.
The final song “Axis And Orbits/Mojo Perpetuo” opens with a trippy pizzicato section, which sounds echoey and almost underwater. As that section loops, he plays slow, long bowed notes that seems to bring you into outer space. By the end, after some interesting scratchy guitar-like sounds, he moves into a much faster solo section which really shows of his chops.
I’d never heard of Silverman before but I was pretty impressed with his technique and technology. It’s a pretty wild ride of music–such diversity and unexpected sounds our of a simple (or not) violin.
[READ: July 5, 2014] Water Baby
I recognized the art from Ross Campbell immediately. He writes and draws Wet Moon and I find his style (he draws women who are very powerful and very sexual) arresting and confrontational. This book almost seems like it doesn’t belong at Minx, which tended to skew a little younger. Even though these girls prove to be younger than I thought, their dress (or lack of—there’s a lot of underwear and tight shirts) is quite risqué (although it proves to be less explicit that Wet Moon).
The story itself was rather unexpected as well. Brody is a surfer girl. She has cool punky hair and a rocking bod. But in the first few pages, she is out on the water when she is attacked by a shark and loses a leg. When she wakes up her best friend Louisa is there, taking care of her. Since Brody’s mom is working full time, she asks if she can stay with Louisa —the answer is yes, and Louisa becomes an essential part of Brody’s life. Many of Campbell’s stories focus on the young people, rather than the parents.
Brody soon learns to use a prosthetic leg (and crutches when necessary), but she can’t stop dreaming about the shark (which gets bigger in her dreams and sometimes has legs or comes through walls—it’s pretty terrifying).
Brody gets a call from Jake, and old boyfriend. Brody hates Jake now and even says she’s off of boys for good. But he shows up anyhow—he’s blond and hot and maybe a little stupid. Stupid or not he is a total mooch and he asks to crash with them for a few days. Jake is clearly crushing on Brody, but he is also making moves on Louisa (who has bigger boobs and tighter shirts). He even brings a third girl over to fool around with (which freaks out everyone else in the house). But it’s not until the girls wake up one morning to see that Jake has thrown up all over their house that they evict him—which means an immediate drive to Rochester NY. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 