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Archive for the ‘Canadian Content’ Category

Bryan Lee O’Malley–Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life (vol. 1)

Posted in Adventure, Books about music, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Oni Press, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Sex Bob-omb, Short Books, Sonic Youth, Supernatural, Threats, Video Games, Violence, YA Books on August 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

pilgrimSOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH -SYR 1 Anagrama (1997).

syr1

After Washing Machine, Sonic Youth began recording a series of EPs (that gradually grew into longer discs) in which they explored their improvisation/longer piece needs.

And so SYR1 was released.

It contains for tracks and runs about 25 minute.  It’s not simply guitar feedback or waves of distortion.  Rather it is songs built around themes which are followed to their logical ends.

Thee EPs aren’t for everyone. There’s no lyrics, there’s no choruses.  It’s sort of like how the end of “The Diamond Sea” was a chance for SY to let loose and see what happened. I can’t even say that the songs and motifs are necessarily memorable (although I’m led to believe that some have cropped up on the proper albums).  I don’t listen to these a lot, but they are fun to put on from time to time, if you’re in an avant garde mood.

[READ August 9, 2009] Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life

I had read this book a few years ago.  But I had read it in bits and pieces over several weeks, and so I didn’t feel like I had a real grasp of the story.  This is especially true because the story begins simply enough and then turns into a wild hallucinogenic story that is very funny, very very funny, in fact, but also incredibly surreal.

When I was at BEA in New York this year I ran into the guy from Oni Press who told me that they are making a film of Scott Pilgrim, which is pretty fantastic.  I’m rather looking forward to seeing it.  But because there are so many interesting visual things going on in th graphic novel, I can’t help but wonder how they will transform them.  And also, Book 6 of this series may be written with a different ending from the film, so that should be fun, too.

But speaking of the visuals….

O’Malley’s style is utterly fascinating.  When I first started reading, I felt like the artwork was “sloppy” in that sort of stylized sloppiness that people take some time to achieve.  (I think mostly this is because of the character’s eyes.  They are a refined sort of manga but the pupils are so large that i found it disconcerting.)  But when reading it through this time, I realized not only is it not sloppy, it is meticulously designed in a very cool way.  Take Scott’s hair, which is commented about through the series.  I’m not going to go and spout on about how long he must have spent getting his hair just right, but clearly there was effort and planning in the length and style, even if it is primarily drawn with a  few broad triangles. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 8] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Big Books, Boston, MA, Canadian Content, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Death, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Gangsters, Garbage, Infinite Summer, Marriage Trouble, Meta, Paul F. Tompkins, Prison, Set at School, Sonic Youth, Sports, Suicide, Technology, Tennis, The Future, The Sound of Young America, Violence, Yuck! on August 15, 2009| 5 Comments »

ij8SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Experimental Jet Set, Trash & No Star (1994).

ejstns“Bull in the Heather” is one of my favorite Sonic Youth songs.  I love everything about it (even if I haven’t got a clue what it’s about): the simple opening, the switch to harmonics, and, my favorite part, the drum break that leads to the chorus (who ever heard of getting a drum break stuck in your head?).

There’s a lot to speak for this disc even though it seems to be overlooked (as the empty spot between Dirty and Washing Machine).  Take the absolute variety of textures, and the almost surreal mixtures of styles within (short) songs (like “Bone” which opens with super fast paced drumming and howls from Kim and then breaks into a very mellow (and catchy) chorus).

For sheer variety: the disc opens with an acoustic guitar strummer by Thurston (“Winner’s Blues”), and then, after the single “Bull in the Heather,” there’s the 2 minute noise-fest “Starfield Road.”  This is followed by the cool and catchy “Skink,” which is like Kim’s version of the slinky and cool “Self-Obsessed and Sexxee.”  This is definitely Kim’s disc, she sings about half of the songs, and shows a great variety of styles here.

“Androgynous Mind” is one of those weird songs that has a wonderfully catchy vocal line but where the music is pretty much abstract nonsense.  And speaking of catchy, this disc continues with SY’s notion of sing along choruses (even if what you’re singing doesn’t make a lot of sense (“Screaming Skull” fits that bill perfectly)).  And then “Quest for the Cup” does a 90 degree turn after the intro.  All of these shifts and changes occur in less than half an hour.

The last 20 minutes or so settle the disc down somewhat (except for the brief “In the Mind of the Bourgeois Reader,” but the 7 minute closer “Sweet Shine” ends the disc on a mellow note.

This is also the last SY disc produced by Butch Vig.  Vig’s production is often described as clean. But Vig doesn’t clean up the noise that SY makes, he just makes it, I guess, crisper would be a better word.  Compare the way that Garbage’s “Vow” opens with a big grand noise and then stops dead after a few seconds.  Vig seems to be a master of controlling noise to make it stand out more.  And in that respect, his technique really shines through on this disc…it feels almost mechanical in its precision.

From this point forward, Sonic Youth would break away from this style of music into a freer and looser almost jazz feel, so even if the album title doesn’t make literal sense, it describes the disc quite well.

[READ: Week of August 10] Infinite Jest (to page 589)

Last week, showed Gately’s car speeding through Cambridge.  He runs over a discarded cup which we follow as it sails down the street and hits the Antitoi’s door.  It was very cinematic.  Discussions abound about whether IJ could (or should) be filmed.  I’m not going to add to that discussion but I did want to mention what I see as the filmic way the book written.

In many movies you are introduced almost casually to many of the protagonists, seeing them in their most typical place of employment or hang-out spot or some such thing.  And in films, it doesn’t seem that weird to get a two minute or even 30 second establishing shot of character A before jump cutting to character B.

And that’s how IJ starts, with all of these jump cuts, establishing shots, of characters.  Clenette’s scene is hard to read, but if you saw it in a movie, you’d say, okay that’s her character.  And, for the most part you would expect her to reappear later in the movie. I’m not sure what anyone expects to happen in IJ, so who knows what we think the Clenette scene is about, but realistically, the character has to come back, even if what she said didn’t make any sense at the time.

And as movies go, so does the book, cutting back and forth between scenes building the stories along as they inevitably intertwine.

It’s also not unheard of to have what seems like it may be the end of the chronological story appear first (we haven’t seen any return to the Year of Glad yet).

And so, yes I will say a thing about the filmic possibilities of  this book.  Sure the book is long, and yet so much of the book is description, stuff that in a movie can be done with an establishing shot, even a slow one.  The whole Joelle/overdose scene which covers so many pages could be filmed rather quickly.  So could Eschaton. The question of course is how much would be lost in translation.  And that I can’t answer (although I expect quite a lot).

Be a hell of a film, though.

ijdot

So, in a few places, especially on Infinite Tasks, people have been mentioning some crucial information that happens on Page 17.   I felt bad that I didn’t recall anything that happened on page 17, so I went back and re-read this section (and how weird is it to re-read parts of a book that you haven’t even finished yet?)

And so Page 17 feels like a major spoiler!  It feels like so much is given away!  It feels like such an essential part of the story that it’s amazing how it’s sort of tossed off in a hallucinatory sequence.

I think of John N.R. Wayne who would have won this year’s WhataBurger, standing watch in a mask as Donald Gately and I dig up my father’s head.  There’s very little doubt that Wayne would have won.

Wow.  So much packed into those two sentences!  Holy cow.

And, the end of that sequence has an orderly ask Hal, “so, yo, then man what’s your story?”

Is that the device that sets up that Hal is telling this whole book?  I just blew my mind.

ijdot

This week’s reading begins with the aftermath of The Escahton debacle.  Or the precursor to the aftermath, anyway.  And it features the color blue. A lot.

It also gets to a question I’ve been puzzling about for sometime: why isclouds every IJ book jacket/promotional material designed in a sort of cloud motif. Well, in the section we lean that Uncle Charles’ office is decked out in an unsettling cloud wallpaper (which is coincidentally the same wallpaper as Hal’s dentist).  It has only appeared briefly so far, so it seems odd that it would take on such an iconic feel.  But we’ll see if it comes back.

(more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 7] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Big Books, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Death, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, Fables, Funny (ha ha), Infinite Summer, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Suicide, Technology, Tennis, The Future, Threats, Violence, Voivod, Yuck! on August 7, 2009| 8 Comments »

ij7SOUNDTRACK: VOIVOD-Nothingface (1989).

nothingfaceIn light of Marathe and the Antitois, and Quebec separatists everywhere, I figured I’d mention my favorite CD by a rocking Quebecker band.  When Voivod started they were a rumbling thrash band.  They put out an album with the wonderful title of RRRÖÖÖAAARRR.  They were very fast, very loud, and their singer had a really peculiar delivery style.  I later learned that this was because he’s a Quebecker and French is his first language.  Since he sings in English, his stresses and emphases are off-kilter, (and the guitarist seems to play to this particular feature, so the music is off-kilter as well) making for a very surreal experience.

They were probably my first inroduction to really cool French names.  Because even though they had stage names (Piggy, Blacky, Snake, and my personal favorite: Away) their real names were foreign and cool like Denis D’Amour and Jean-Yves Theriault.

Nothingface is the pinnacle of their prog-creative energies.  It is a fantastic progressive-rock/heavy metal hybrid.  There are fascinating time-changes, with cool atmospheric aspects that counterpoint the heavy sections.  And the overall theme of the album is technology gone awry.

On their previous records, melody was not really evident.  And it’ hard to believe that a disc that is so full of time changes could still be melodious.  Yet the bridge of “Nothingface” is quite pretty, which, again, counterbalances the weird chord structures of the solo section.  There’s even an awesome cover of Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” that adds some cool metal guitars to an already trippy song  The Floyd version is spacey and psychedelic.  Voivod add an element of menace to the song.  Very cool.

And then there’s a song like “Missing Sequences” which has 4 different sections in the span of less than two minutes.  An opening that is slow and spacey, interrupted by a loud “Now!” which brings to a weirdly chorused verse that morphs into a rough staccato bridge followed by a speedy guitar break and then yet another verse style.  By the time we hit the 2:30 mark, the song breaks down into a bass-only sequence.  And then it mostly repeats itself. That is, until the ending minute which is something new entirely.  It sounds impossible on paper and yet it is done seamlessly and is one of my favorite tracks on the disc.

There’s also the weirdly propelling and compelling “ground and rock and sand come crumble tumble down” sequence of “Pre-Ignition” that throws a cool catchy riff in the midst of a fast charging song.  And “Into My Hypercube” has some fantastic riffs, including another really cool bass-only section.

And the whole album works great with headphones.

In the 1990s, metal bands experimented with lots of different genres and effects, but it was this 1989 release that really highlighted what kind of fantastic music you could make within the strictures of heavy metal.  Voivod makes some pretty unusual sounds with their instruments (guitar most of all), and the album can be a challenge, especially if you like you music light and easy), but for me, this is one of the best discs around.

[READ: Week of August 2] Infinite Jest (to page 508)

50% through.
Halfway House, er, I mean Half Way Home.
Thoughts:

The rewards are coming quickly now.  There seems to be a payoff every few pages.  I am totally loving this book and the environment it has created.

Since the Boston Marathon is mentioned in the book, I’ll say that we are currently at the 14 or so mile point (downtown Wellesley).  Congratulations, you have just made it through “Screech Tunnel.”  [See the Boston Marathon route here.]

ij

I’ve been going on and on about chronological years and when exactly Subsidized years started.  I even quoted other people who had calculated the actual year that Subsidized time was set up.

And, of course, all this time, all we had to do was to look at the NAME of the Year of Yushityu 2007 Mimetic-Resolution-Cartridge….  As this clever thread shows, others figured out pretty early in the reading that the 2007 in the year was a pretty big clue as to what year Subsidized Time began.

(Presumably non O.N.A.N. countries do not follow Subsidized Time?  And the, again, presumably Japanese made Yushitsu is on numerical-year-time.  Or is that a thread that has already been discussed already?).

I am pretty embarrassed to have realized this at this late a date, and I’m delighted that everyone let me figure it out for myself (and that no one was cruel enough to rub it in.)

Now if you wanted to argue against the Yushityu 2007 as a dead giveaway to the year, you could say that, for instance, Microsoft Products don’t always indicate the year that they came out.  But for confirmation of Yushityu, we can use a perpetual calendar.

We learned that November 7th is the the day of the exam that Schacht is taking.  This is a Saturday class.  The perpetual calendar show that Nov 7th falls on a  Saturday in 2009.  Therefore YDAU=2007.   I’ve been trying to use all this logic to puzzle this information out, and here the author basically just TELLS us it from–well, not the get go exactly–but from a pretty early point.

All of this self-flagellation is also because of my own lack of clock-watching in the book.  I have somewhat obtusely not been following the chronological dates very carefully.  It was only when I consciously realized that Marathe and Steeply are having their mountainside chat in April/May of the YDAU when all of the events at E.T.A. and Ennet House are taking place in November that it dawned on me that the time line was not only present, it was pretty important.

So, I spent some time crafting a general timeline of events–something I haven’t seen anywhere else, (but then I haven’t actively been looking for it because I don’t want to get Spoiled).   So at the end of this post I’m going to put my timeline of events thus far. I’ll see how important it is to update it in future posts.

But now on to the book:

This week’s reading jumped back and forth between topics a bit more frequently. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 6] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Andrew Womack, Big Books, Boredom, Boston, MA, Canadian Content, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Death, Demons, Digression, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Holidays, Humiliation, Infinite Summer, Meta, NASA, Neurotics, Politicians, Postmoderism, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Suicide, Technology, Tennis, The Future, TiVo, Violence, Yuck! on July 29, 2009| 5 Comments »

ij4SOUNDTRACK: The Best Albums of the Year

morningAndrew Womack, fellow Infinite Summer player and founder of The Morning News has begun retroactively listing The Best Albums of the Year for each year since 1978.  This is a project that I have often thought about doing myself, yet never had the time to sift through all the music I have.

I was delighted to see how much I not only knew, but also agreed with his decisions.  Although if I’m honest, my list would have more metal and less new wave in it.  But the overall tenor is pretty on par with my feelings.

But, imagine my surprise to see that on the 2004 list I barely knew any of the discs at all!  I wonder what happened to make us diverge so much in that one year.

Anyhow, it’s a noble, well, not noble so much as worthwhile pursuit.  One that we can all enjoy.

[READ: Week of July 27] Infinite Jest (to page 434)

In the August 2009 issue of Wired, they have a little scroll across the bottom of one of the pages that lists  “Word Counts”.  King James Bible: 784,806; Where the Wild Things Are: 338; Infinite Jest: 483,994.  So, at almost halfway done we’ve read over 240,000 words!

Also, I haven’t sufficiently acknowledged some of my fellow Infinite Summer bloggers.  So I want to send a shout out to Infinite Tasks.  I especially enjoyed this post which takes a decidedly more philosophical approach than I did about a section that I found really enjoyable.  And Chris Forster, who gives a lovely discussion about Eschaton.  And I would be remiss if I did not mention Infinite Zombies, just because he may have written a letter here but his posts always get sucked up into spam, so I’ll never know.  (And because the posts are really thoughtful and worth reading too).

But enough back patting, onto the book.

solIt was a fun place to pick up reading.  At the small paragraph where I left off, we learn that the Statue of Liberty’s book now advertises that year’s Subsidizer.

On a couple of occasions there is the suggestion that the year 2000 is the first year of Subsidization, as they talk about things being different in the new millennium.  Although Matthew Baldwin’s argument here is very convincing which would make Subsidization begin in 2002.

And then we return to A.A.

(more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 5] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Big Books, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Corner Gas, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Death, Digression, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, End of the World, Eschaton, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Infinite Summer, Neurotics, Postmoderism, Rick Mercer, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Suicide, Technology, Tennis, The Future, The Kids in the Hall, The Tragically Hip, The Walrus, Toilets, Violence, Work, Yuck! on July 24, 2009| 6 Comments »

in hereSOUNDTRACK: THE TRAGICALLY HIP-We Are the Same (2009).

Itragically hip first heard of The Hip when I saw their video for “Nautical Disaster.” This is back in the day when I first got Canada’s MuchMusic on my Brighton, MA cable system, and when I actually watched Music channels. Anyhow, the song was intense and very cool and it built to a great climax, and I was totally hooked.

I got their back catalog and continued to get their new releases.  Since then they’ve released some really good songs, and some pretty good discs.  It almost feels like since their live disc they decided to switch from intense songwriting to more simple, straightforward rock. This is a little disappointing to fans of their intense stuff, and yet if you accept the change in style, the music is quite solid.

So this disc seems to be shooting for an even broader, more commercial appeal.  And, in the first half, at least, they emphasize a more folksy/country feel.  All of this should make me flee from the disc, and I think longtime fans are pretty disappointed by it.  And yet, I can’t get over how much I like it. There’s something slightly off about the Tragically Hip that keeps them from being overtly commercial.  So that even when they release a disc like this, which is quite mellow in places, it still sounds alternative.  Maybe it’s Gord Downie’s voice, maybe it’s something in the melodies; whatever it is, it keeps this disc from being blah.

The final track, Country Day” seems to sum up the overall feel of the disc: meandering country roads.  And “Queen of the Furrows” is about farming.  The opening few songs have a Neil Young folkish feel, since “Morning Moon” and “Honey Please” have big catchy choruses with folky verses

“Coffee Girl” actually reminds me of a serious Barenaked Ladies type song, which is disconcerting coming from the Hip, but could possibly become a hit (it’s probably their most overtly commercial song I can think of since “My Music at Work”).  Actually, I take that back, one of the final tracks on the disc, “Love is  a Curse” sounds like it’s their last ditch attempt to have a big hit in the States.  And if they were a more well known (or on a bigger label) it would be a huge hit.  It rocks pretty hard and screams radio friendly.

The Hip of old do surface on two songs though: “Now the Struggle Has a Name” is one of those great sounding Hip songs:  as you’re singing along to the swelling chorus you wonder why they aren’t huge down here, and then you realize the song is 6 minutes long and will never get on the radio.   There’s also a 9 minute song, and the good news is that it doesn’t get boring (no mean feat).

The second half of the disc has more loud guitars.  The cool riff of “The Exact Feeling” is pretty great.  While “Frozen in My Tracks” is probably the weirdest track on the disc, with a very cool, off-sounding chorus.

So yeah, the disc has horns and strings and is maybe a little too polished and produced.  But the songwriting is still stellar.  I’m sure that if I had heard these songs now without knowing the Hip, I wouldn’t be all that impressed.  Maybe as I get older I’m less critical, or maybe I’m just happy to mellow out a bit more.

[READ: Week of July 20] Infinite Jest (to page 367)

Even though last week I said I would keep to the Spoiler Line Page, I am breaking the promise already.  I just couldn’t stand the thought of leaving a passage unfinished, so I just continued to the section break of Gately’s A.A. meeting.

When I first read IJ way back in 1996 I, like most Americans, didn’t really think too much about Canada.  I liked a lot of Canadian music and The Kids in the Hall were awesome, but beyond that I was pretty oblivious to our neighbors to the north.  Since then, I have become something of a Canuckophile.  I did Curling for two years and have visited up North a number of times.  We even had a Canadian satellite dish where we watched most of our TV (like Corner Gas and The Rick Mercer Report) until that moderately legal company was sued out of business.  Now I subscribe to The Walrus which keeps me well informed. Anyhow, this is all to say that I have a greater understanding of Quebec separatists and the state of US border relations.  This makes this whole Marathe-Steeply section more interesting to me this time around.  I sort of went from Hal (apolitical) to a quarter of the way to Avril in my understanding.

But before we get to that, lets get into the book and learn about Orin. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 4] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Big Books, Boston, MA, Canadian Content, Colin Meloy, Consumerism, David Foster Wallace, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Infinite Summer, Ivan Goncharov, Postmoderism, Set at School, Sonic Youth, Sports, Suicide, Technology, Threats on July 18, 2009| 4 Comments »

ij autographedSOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Daydream Nation (1988).

daydreamNormally I like to review a band’s albums chronologically.  But because in this post [which I just stumbled upon] on Infinite Summer, Colin Meloy mentions that he bought a copy of Daydream Nation at the same time as Infinite Jest, and since I was talking about Sonic Youth anyway, well, it seemed like an easy fit.

So Daydream Nation is generally rated as Sonic Youth’s best album, with most people calling it a masterpiece.  I actually came to Daydream Nation pretty late in my SY appreciation.  I had gotten EVOL but really got into them with Goo. And as I worked my way around their catalog, Daydream Nation was always the big double album that I put off getting.  All of this is to say that I’ve never loved Daydream Nation as much as every one else.

But I’ve been listening to it a lot recently, and my opinion is definitely changing about it.  The thing that always got me about Daydream Nation was that the first two songs are fantastic, in fact, “Teen Age Riot” has always been one of my favorite songs.  And even “The Sprawl,” Kim’s cool, nasty song is great.  But somewhere in the middle of the noisy instrumental section of that song, I always sort of faded out, and couldn’t really get into it.

What I have since learned is that if you actually focus on the disc, you know, not just as an interesting listen but as something to really get into, it’s quite intense.  Like “Providence,” a song that I never really listened to before is a very interesting piece.  (I also didn’t know that that Mike Watt was the voice on the answering machine).  And “‘Cross the Breeze” is a noisy ramshackle song that when you really listen is pretty darn amazing.

One of the things that I didn’t really like about the disc was that the songs themselves were very pretty, and the noisy instrumental sections of the songs always felt sort of tacked on, like they need to keep the songs from being commercially viable. It was never like an organic fit.

Indeed, the main sections of many of the songs are commercial and catchy.  The general image of Sonic Youth is of guys with screwdrivers wrenched into their broken guitars, strangling every last note out of them.   And yet, the opening guitar riff of “Teen Age Riot” is beautiful. And, of Course, “Eric’s Trip” is supremely catchy.  Once again, the guitar riff for “Total Trash” could easily be a pop song were it not 7 minutes long.  And the opening of “Candle” is quite pretty as well.  “Kissability” is another song that could be a pop single, if it were ever so slightly less twisted (of course it wouldn’t be as good, but that’s not the point).

But with each subsequent listen, I’m appreciating more and more of it.   I still feel that Goo has a more organic use of noise, with the crazy feedback sections seeming to stem from the songs quite naturally.  Nevertheless, since Daydream Nation came first, it certainly gets  kudos for originating the style.

[READ: Week of July 13] Infinite Jest (to page 283)

That’s not my copy of IJ autographed, it comes from this flickr stream.  I do have an autographed copy of A Supposedly Fun Thing… which has a similar smiley face.

I feel the need to apologize to Infinite Summer readers in that somehow I missed the page with the Spoiler Line Pages listed.  Okay, this is ingenuous, I didn’t read all of the website, and so I just never saw that listing.  I was more or less going on a 75 +/- page count, so I may not have been right on time with the Spoiler Line.  Now that I actually printed a copy, I’ll be keeping to a more proper schedule.  So, apologies if I messed up anyone’s read!

Also, I feel I have erred egregiously in my first three posts by referring to the Endnotes as Footnotes, which they clearly are not.  And I will be going back and amending that in the previous posts.  I also get  a swift rap on the knuckles for such a grade-school error.

I recently saw on InfiniteTasks, this hilarious link to a DFW/NASCAR article on the Onion, and while it is of course, very funny, I found this Onion link to be far more Infinite Summer appropriate:

Girlfriend Stops Reading David Foster Wallace Breakup Letter at Page 20

The whole piece is very funny, and there’s an “excerpted photo” which I’m attaching at the bottom of this post.

But on to the book.

This week’s reading was much more focused in terms of who we’re talking about: lengthy sections regarding select groups, rather than a few pages of random or unknown characters. (more…)

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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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Lisa Moore–“Water Eveywhere, 1982” (The Walrus, June 2009)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, History, Lisa Moore, Marriage (Happy), Moxy Fruvous, Short Story, Sloan, The Walrus, Weezer, Wikipedia on June 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »

walrus juneSOUNDTRACK: MOXY FRÜVOUS-Thornhill (1999).

thornhillThe final “proper” Moxy Früvous disc is something of a return to the days of Wood (see, the cover art isn’t silly at all, and it’s a photo not a drawing). It’s not as dire and claustrophobic as Wood but it also doesn’t really have too many silly moments.

Unlike Wood,this disc feels very full, very robust.  My initial response was minor disappointment that it didn’t have many silly moments (except, perhaps “Splatter Splatter”).  And yet, after many listens I’ve concluded that it’s is one of their richest, most complex discs, and it’s very rewarding.

The opening song “Half as Much” is very full and sounds not unlike Canada’s own Sloan.  In fact, the whole disc sounds a bit more like Sloan than any other previous comparisons.  “You Can’t Be too Careful” has great full harmonies (and actually sounds a bit like Weezer (!)).  “I Will Hold On” is another great acoustic power song where they harmonize wonderfully.

“Earthquakes” is a silly rollicking song, (at least as rollicking as this disc can do).  “When She Talks” is almost too delicate for its own good, but the melody is really strong.

Then you get to the crazy song “Splatter Splatter.”  This song rocks. And it’s quite funny, with the noir guitar lines and the horror movie conceit. I want to hear it again and again and again.

“Independence Day” spins out a wonderful chorus after a somewhat uninspiring start.  And the ending track “My Poor Generation” is a great, winning song.  It’s a bit somber, but again, the full chorus redeems it.

Their albums tend to suffer from late-album mellowness.  And even if their songs are strong, the song placement tends to make you ignore those latter tracks.  But the albums are still really good.

Moxy Früvous are often described as a silly band, but their overall output belies that designation.  Rather, they were just a great band.

[READ: June 25, 2009] “Water Everywhere, 1982”

This story was a tough one for me.  It references a real event in Canadian history that I never heard of: the sinking of the Ocean Ranger, in 1982 (this Wikipedia article will fill you in on the history of the ship).

Helens’ husband was aboard the Ocean Ranger.  The story deals with her (in)ability to cope with the news. Not much “happens” in the story but it pays very great attention to grief and how a whole community is affected by tragedy.

The story is available here.

For easier searching I’m also adding this spelling: Moxy Fruvous.

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Jospeh Boyden–“The True Sorrows of Calamity Jane” (The Walrus, July/August 2009) [Summer Fiction Issue, Genre: Western]

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Joseph Boyden, Moxy Fruvous, R.E.M., Sex, The Walrus, Violence, Western on June 29, 2009| Leave a Comment »

walrusjuly SOUNDTRACK: MOXY FRÜVOUS-You Will Go to The Moon (1997).

moonMoxy Früvous’ fourth disc is their most well-rounded. It runs a full gamut of styles from pop to silly to ragga and a capella.

“Michigan Militia” begins the disc with a banjo-fueled rap about well, the Michigan Militia. It is topical, (meaning dated, although I suppose they are still around) and takes a pointed look at right-wingers. “Get in the Car” is upbeat and poppy, an R.E.M.-type alterna-rock song. “Ive Gotta Get a Message to You” is a Bee Gees cover! And it is as catchy as the Bee Gees can be (although far less disco-y).

“Lazlo’s Career” is a smooth folksy acoustic track with fun interstitial bits.
There’s some mellow tracks in the middle, until “No No Raja” breaks out some cool middle eastern sounds. “The Incredible Medicine Show” is a great psychedelic-Beastlesesque song about plastic surgery and other quick fixes. Catchy and pointed.

Meanwhile, “Your New Boyfriend” is fast paced and great (“Your new boyfriends a bit…of a right wing shit”). “Kick in the Ass” is hilarious barbershop (with drums) song about people who deserve a kick in the ass (telemarketers calling during supper, that guy who wrote the book about the bell curve). “Boo Time” is a jazzy fast paced bit of nonsense.

“Love Set Fire” would be the closest to “The Drinking Song” or “Gulf War Song” (from Bargainville), but doesn’t quite reach the majesty of those masterpieces. And finally, the title track is a full a capella treat about futuristic life on the moon.

There’s a funny thread on Amazon reviews about this disc being anti-American.  Yet really the only people who should be offended by “Michigan Militia” is the Michigan Militia.  It’s not anti-USA it’s anti-creepy-right-wing-separatists.  Plus, listen to all of the US fans singing along to it on Live Noise.

[READ: June 24, 2009] “The True Sorrows of Calamity Jane”

This story is the final of the four stories in The Walrus‘ Summer Fiction Issue.  This one is described as a Western, although it’s only a Western in that it is set in the West and concerns Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok.  Now, I don’t know a single thing about these two characters, historically.

Did they date?  Beats me.  But in this story they did. And the narrator is the offspring of Calamity Jane (but not Wild Bill).  (more…)

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Rivka Galchen–“Real Estate” (The Walrus, July/August 2009) [Summer Fiction Issue, Genre: Haunting]

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Funny (ha ha), Gordon Lightfoot, Moxy Fruvous, Political Humor, Rivka Galchen, Short Story, Supernatural, The Walrus on June 29, 2009| Leave a Comment »

walrusjuly SOUNDTRACK: MOXY FRÜVOUS–The “b” album (1996).

bAfter the somberness of Wood, Moxy Früvous no doubt had to get some nonsense out of their system.  And this collection of “b” sides is full of nonsense.  It is funny and silly and smart and sassy and I think it winds up being many people’s favorite discs, despite being only about 20 minutes long.

It’s a bit silly and possibly dated (allmusic chides the Rush Limbaugh song (“The Greatest Man in America”) for being dated, although scarily here we are 12 years later and he’s back.  And the song is still spot on.

So we have ten songs, and they’re all great.  “I Love My Boss” is an a capella ditty about well, loving your boss.  I mentioned “Johnny Saucep’n” as the reason I got into MF in the first place. Man what a great song, a near-acapella beauty with an unreasonable list of foodstuffs (try this as fast as you can:

Basil endive parmesan shrimp live
Lobster hamster worchester muenster
Caviar radiccio snow pea scampi
Roquefort meat squirt blue beef red alert
Pork hocs side flank cantaloupe/sheep shanks Provolone flatbread goat’s head soup
Gruyere cheese angelhair please
And a vichyssoise and a cabbage and a crawfish claw.

How anyone can keep it straight, sing it fast and make it sound so good is beyond me. “Ash Hash” is a humorous look at smoking a bit too much hash. “Gord’s Gold” was the one song I didn’t like on this disc, until I got the Gordon Lightfoot album and realized that this is a kind of twisted tribute to GL.

“Big Fish ” is a fantastic song (and more or less the only “real” song on the disc, although the childlike voices singing the chorus are a bit silly); a pointed song about growing up conservative. “Jenny Washington” is a silly song about outrageous talk shows. “The Kids Song” has a lot of fun with rhymes and the idea that kids can help with our problems (since they are the future):

Is there something you like? (squirt-gunning my dog!)
Is there something you hate? (when my turtle ate my gerbil)
Is it fun to take a bath (no…sometimes…yes)
Should Quebec separate?

This is Moxy’s silliest side. Not for all, but certainly for me.

[READ: June 24, 2009] “Real Estate”

The third story in The Walrus’ Summer Fiction Issue is listed as the haunting genre (as opposed to a horror story) and that makes a lot of sense.  The story is not scary; it is about a woman who lives with ghosts.

She moves into an apartment that is owned by a relative but is going to be sold.  It is largely empty and she is staying there to keep an eye on it and show it when it needs showing.

She soon realizes that there is someone else in the building.  She hears him walking around but never sees him.  She also has the bizarre sensation of thinking she has food in the fridge but when she looks it is invariably something else.  This seems to happen most often with string cheese. (more…)

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