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Archive for the ‘Boredom’ Category

David Foster Wallace–[Week 3] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Allstonians, Big Books, Books about writers, Boredom, Boston, MA, Canadian Content, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Drinking, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Infinite Summer, James Joyce, Morrissey, Pearl Jam, Postmoderism, Prison, R.E.M., Racism, Religion, Russell Brand, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Suicide, The Smiths, WYYY 109 FM: The Largest Whole Prime on the FM Band on July 10, 2009| 2 Comments »

jesySOUNDTRACK: MORRISSEY-Years of Refusal (2009).

years ofI’ve been a fan of The Smiths for years.  And I think that Morrissey’s debut, Viva Hate, is on par with much of the Smiths’ catalogue.  Over the years his output has been mixed, but with Years of Refusal he comes fighting back with a really solid disc.  The disc is so good that if one had no idea of who he was, one could easily get into it with no preconceived notions of Morrissey, The Smiths or any of that glorious past.

From the start, the disc rocks out. That’s right, Morrissey totally rocks, with a real attitude.  “Something is Squeezing My Skull,” in addition to being quite funny, has one of Moz’s most loudly sung choruses in like, forever.  The martial beat of “Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed” showcases Moz’s “political” songwriting without ever losing its catchiness.  “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris” is a pretty classic Morrissey song, complete with a simple picking guitar riff.

“All You Need Is Me” has some great squeaky guitars and recalls Morrissey’s own “I Don’t Mind If You Forget Me”), while “When Last I Spoke to Carol” has a Mexican feel, which is different for him.  And “That’s How People Grow Up,” the single, has one of those classic Morrissey lines in which he subverts expectations with a left-field word choice: “So yes there are things worse in life than never being someone’s sweetie.”

The end of the album is full of longer songs which tends to skew the rollicking feel of the disc. (In the first 8 songs only 3 are over 3 minutes while the last 4 songs are each over 4 minutes).  Nevertheless, “It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore” is a wonderfully caustic song and the album closer, “I’m OK By Myself” is just fantastic, and I find myself singing “I don’t need you, or your morality” because they way he sings it gets stuck in my head for days.

There’s also a bonus disc which includes an interview with Russel Brand which is very funny indeed.

Welcome back Morrissey.  Well done, sir.

[READ: Week of July 6, 2009]  Infinite Jest (to page 227).

While looking for this cover of Infinite Jest (the one that I most associate with the book even though I never owned a copy with this cover), I noticed that Powell’s Books is selling a first edition hardcover copy of IJ for $450. The copy that I am currently reading is also a first edition hardcover.  If anyone wants to send me like $400 for it, just let me know!

On my Week Two post, I had a comment that criticized me for giving out spoilers.  While I disagree, I will preface this and future posts by saying that I will certainly be discussing what has happened in the week’s read (including footnotes endnotes and future footnotes endnotes if they are referred to in current footnotes endnotes), I will not intentionally reveal any spoilers.

On to Week 3 of Infinite Summer.  And at this point I not only feel good about the book, I feel somewhat refreshed. This whole week’s worth of reading has been fairly easy and often very funny.  We’re past the initial shock that you’re running a marathon, and are into that 3rd or 4th mile where you just start to feel good and enjoy the scenery.  I also hate to admit this, but I really want to peek ahead into the next week’s reading.  But no, I am going to pace myself!

I also have a question for faithful readers who are actually trying to map the location of the book.  I lived in Brighton, MA, very close to Boston College as well as in a location nearer to Allston, MA.  I have a vague sense of exactly where Enfield is supposed to be located, but if anyone has used the details in the book to map out where Enfield would be, do pass it along (someone has probably created a Google Map for it, but I haven’t actually checked).

This week’s reading had a lot of lengthy sections that focused on one person/issue for multiple pages which is either great or terrible depending on how you like this book broken up.  And TA DA!  The Chronology is spelled out very clearly! (more…)

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Neil Gaiman–The Graveyard Book (2008)

Posted in Adventure, Boredom, Children's Books, Dave McKean, Death, Demons, Fantasy, Minnesota, Neil Gaiman, Supernatural, The Replacements, Threats on June 10, 2009| Leave a Comment »

graveyardSOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Stink EP (1982).

stinkThe Replacements followed their shambolic Sorry Ma, with this little EP.  8 songs in 14 minutes.  If you were going to check out one of these two releases, this is the one to get.  If for no other reason than at 14 minutes it certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome.

And song-wise, this album is pretty amazing.  The first track, “Kids Don’t Follow” opens with a live recording of the Minneapolis police breaking up a party.  Not sure if this was a band party or not, but the Replacements had to change their name from The Impediments because they got banned from a local club because they were too drunk and disorderly.

But even though this album has all the trapping of a hardcore record (check out the sleeve design, and, of course, the name of the EP).  And look at these song titles: they’re almost a parody of punk attitudes: “Fuck School,” “White and Lazy,” “God Damn Job,” “Dope Smokin’ Moron.”  Once again, the band plays fast, but not terribly angry songs.  Rather than being angry ragers, the band sounds more like drunken teenagers.  And so the chorus  of “God Damn Job” stays with you so and wind up singing the infectious but inappropriate to sing in public “Gaaahhhhhd Damnit.  Gaaaaaaahhhhhhhd Damnit. God Damn!”

It’s only White and Lazy that features anything like the hardcore trappings the album suggests.  The opening of the song is almost folksy, but when they hit the 90- second mark they bust out a true hardcore section: speed, shouty lyrics and more speed.   It’s very cathartic.

But best of all, Stink features “Go” the first song by Westerberg that is truly awesome.  It’s slower than the rest, and features a great chorus with a cool screaming guitar.  Over his career, Westerberg would writes some amazing anthems, and this is the first.

Although this isn’t their final raucous record, future records will drift from this attitude.  And this condenses their stuff into 15 minutes.  The whole album sounds like it will fall apart before they finish it, but finish it they do.

[READ: June 6, 2009] The Graveyard Book

Sarah gave me this book for my birthday, with an exciting IOU: that she would get Neil Gaiman to sign my copy when she meets him at ALA this summer.  So I got that going for me.  Which is nice.

I’ve been a fan of Gaiman’s for years.  And yes, Gaiman’s Sandman was what got me interested in comics, so thanks Neil.  Plus, as a Tori Amos fan, you pretty much have to love Neil, as their symbiotic relationship goes back almost twenty years now.

Having said all of that I haven’t followed his post comics career all that closely.  I read American Gods, but I don’t recall all that much about it.  My brother-in-law Tim tells me that it’s amazing, so I will likely go back and read it again someday.

So, what about this book, anyhow.

There’s a chapter of this story available in his M is for Magic collection.  Interestingly in the introduction, he notes that, it’s Chapter 4 which he wrote first.  Huh.  So, it seemed familiar to me when I started reading it although it didn’t seem totally familiar until I got to Chapter 4. (more…)

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Sheila Heti–The Middle Stories (2002)

Posted in Boredom, Coldplay, McSweeney's, Sheila Heti, Short Books, Short Story, Unlikable main character, Virginity (Loss of) on March 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »

hetiSOUNDTRACK: COLDPLAY-Prospekt’s March EP (2008).

prospecktThis EP was released hot on the heels on Viva La Vida. So hot, in fact, that since our copy of Viva was lost, I listened to this EP first.

If you absolutely love Viva La Vida, and wish it were longer, than this EP is perfect for you.  It has three remixes of songs from Viva.  I find the “Lovers in Japan [Osaka Sun Mix]” to be more satisfying that the original.  The opening track “Life in Technicolor ii” fleshes out the instrumental from Viva into a 4 minute song with lyrics.  And then there’s “Lost+” which tacks on an ill-fitting rhyme from Jay Z.

The rest of the disc is new songs in the vein of Viva.  They all contain that orchestral feel of the disc, especially “Glass of Water.”  Although the last track, “Now My Feet Don’t Touch the Ground” the a title that you would think would be over the top, is a more acoustic style ballad.

None of this is essential listening, but as a fairly cheap EP, it’s a not a bad addition to the Coldplay collection.

[READ: March 19, 2009] The Middle Stories

This seemed like it would be a fun little book. The cover (hand vandalized by Canadians, the website promised) has a photo of a man (see above). [In my picture, he is adorned in with a birthday hat, balloons and candles. I bought this from McSweeney’s recently (for a $5 sale, I believe) even though it was one of their first published titles.

Heti has two stories in McSweeney’s issues (#4 & #6), which are included here, but which I didn’t remember from before.  And that’s enough introduction. I really didn’t like this short story collection at all. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–“Wiggle Room” & D.T. Max “The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace’s struggle to surpass Infinite Jest (New Yorker, March 9, 2009)

Posted in Big Books, Books about writers, Boredom, Corporate skewering, D.T. Max, David Foster Wallace, Demons, Love, New Yorker, Rush, Short Story, Smarty Pants, Suicide, Work on March 6, 2009| 1 Comment »

newyorkerSOUNDTRACK: LOVE-Da Capo (1967).

dacapoA few years ago, my friend John gave me Love’s Forever Changes. I’ve enjoyed that disc very much and decided to get some other Love music.  I chose Da Capo (their second album, and the one just prior to Forever Changes) for two reasons.  One: Rush did a cover of “Seven and Seven Is” on their Flashback CD and two: there’s an 18 minute song on it, and I love me an eighteen minute song.

The first side is a bunch of shorter songs; each one is quite charming. In fact, “Orange Skies” is so sweet, complete with flute solo, that you can pretty much hear Arthur Lee smiling all the way through it.  The song is borderline cheesy, and yet I can’t help but find myself walking around singing “orange skies, carnivals and cotton candy and you….and I love you too.”

“Stephanie Knows Too” is kind of angular with a weird jazzy interlude.  And “Que Vida” is just a poppy little number that is fun and interesting.  It fits well with “The Castle,” another stop/start song that has a beautiful guitar melody at the opening.  The side ends with a classic psychedelic track “She Comes in Colors.”

The only oddball of the side is, paradoxically, the single “Seven and Seven Is.” It’s a fast rocking number with the fascinating chorus of “Oop ip ip Oop ip ip, yeah!”  Perhaps the only line that’s stranger is “If I don’t start crying it’s because I have got no eyes.” And this was the single?  Clearly Arthur Lee liked his psychedelia.

Then we move to the 18 minute gem.  Well, in fact, “Revelation” (the first song ever to take up an entire side of an album) is something of a disappointment to me.  It is basically a jam that sounds like it was done in one take, although since Arthur Lee was a taskmaster I doubt very much that it was one take.

It’s starts promisingly enough with a rapid harpsichord intro, but it moves into a fairly mundane jam session. There’s a great line from a Paul F. Tompkins skit, in which he says that jazz is just music of solos: “everybody gets one, it’s not like regular music where only the best dude gets one, in jazz everybody gets one.”

And that’s the case with this song.  The solos go: guitar, harmonica, vocals (Arthur Lee improvising some pretty lame segments (Mostly about how he feels good), and let me tell you, he’s no Jim Morrison when it comes to this sort of thing), another guitar solo, a clarinet solo (!), then a bass solo and finally a drum solo, rounded all out with a harpsichord outro that mimics the beginning.  The problem is that none of the solos (excepting the guitar) is particularly noteworthy, and it’s not recorded especially well.  It’s all rather flat.  In particular the sing along part, where Lee is screaming and whatnot, it’s just not convincing, especially since the band doesn’t seem all that excited about the proceedings.  I got tired of it at after about 5 minutes (although the opening of the clarinet solo which sounds an awful ot like a flock of geese is pretty cool).  It’s a shame really, because I wanted to like this track a lot.  Nevertheless, it hasn’t put me off of Love.

[READ: March 3, 2009] “Wiggle Room”

This week’s New Yorker featured not only a story by David Foster Wallace but also a sort of biography/obituary of him.  D.T. Max, a name straight out of Wallace’s imagination, writes a moving and depressing epilogue to the story of DFW.  (It’s available here) The main thrust of the article is that DFW had a hard time writing fiction after Infinite Jest, but that he had been working on a new book (which, although unfinished, is due to be published sometime this year). (more…)

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Colson Whitehead–“The Gangsters” (New Yorker, December 22 & 29, 2008)

Posted in Boredom, Christmas Album, Funny (ha ha), Gangsters, Holidays, New Yorker, Sufjan Stevens on January 9, 2009| Leave a Comment »

TNY 12.22&29.08 cvr.inddSOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS–Astral Inter Planet Space Captain Christmas Infinity Voyage-Songs for Christmas Vol. VIII (2008).

sufjan-viiiI downloaded this disc from an online source.  And no I don’t feel bad about it because it wasn’t officially released, so no one is losing money.  If it ever gets released I’ll surely buy it.

Volumes VI and VII are unavailable anywhere, so maybe when he finishes vol X, Asthmatic Kitty will release another box set of his Christmas EPs.

So this disc is a radical departure from the five volumes in the box set (who knows what he got up to from 2006-2007).  It is so different that I had to wonder if it is actually his release or just an internet prank. I mean, the cover is crazily different, the title is outrageous, and the music is…well, I’ll get to that.  On the other hand, Sufjan’s voice is so distinctive, that it’s hard to see how anyone could have pulled that off.

The title certainly implies space-age keyboardy stuff and that is exactly what you get.  There are virtually no acoustic instruments at all (except for “Christmas in the Room,” which is done mostly on piano.)

The traditional songs include: “Angels We Have Heard on High”  which has a fully electronic sound, but which works very well with the ethereal nature of the song.  “Do You See What I See” on the other hand is very mechanized.  It has vocals processed through a robot voice for some of the song.  And the backing vocals seem to be deliberately dissonant. The chorus, on the other hand is still quite cool.  “Good King Wenceslas” has the same electronic robot type voice, but that voice performs the entire song.  It’s disconcerting at best.  “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” is a keyboardy instrumental, with space effects thrown in for good measure.  “Joy to the World” is next to last.  It runs over seven minutes and is very mellow.  As with his previous recording of the song, I don’t care for the pacing of this version.  It’s very slow and meandering for what I often think of as a, well, joyous song.

“Christmas in the Room” is an original that is sung by someone other than Sufjan (no liner notes for the download).  It’s the only song that is not electronic, being done on a piano (although there are some keyboard flourishes in the background). “The Child with the Star on His Head” is a 13 minute (!)  song that is primarily instrumental. The first half of the song is very mellow (with gentle horns and a mellotron, I think).  The last 7 minutes are a cycle of the same refrain (with la la las) and a gorgeous trumpet solo (!).  The final three minutes are sort of a keyboard winding down, almost like a space ship lullaby.  It’s a beautiful piece even if it is wholly unexpected on a Christmas EP!

[READ: January 6, 2009] “The Gangsters”

I enjoyed this story immensely.

This line sort of sets up the basis of the story: “According to the world, we were the definition of paradox: black boys with beach houses.” (more…)

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