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Archive for the ‘Corporate skewering’ Category

Periodical: Harper’s

Posted in 19th Century, Abba, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Essays, Free Speech, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Harper's, Lewis Lapham, Military, Natural Disasters, Phish, Political Humor, Religion, Smarty Pants, War, WMDs on May 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »

harpers 1993I first heard about this magazine from my friend Ailish’s then-boyfriend, Dave (this was sometime in 1993, I would guess).  Dave fancied himself an artiste: he typed his novel on a portable Underwood, loved Henry Miller and read Harper‘s.   I liked him, but was always confused by his pretensions since he didn’t really fit the bill.  But regardless, when we visited, I always read his Harper’s. I very quickly got hooked on it and have been subscribing ever since.

Harper’s is another one of those magazines that I don’t immediately get excited about receiving because there’s always the possibility that there will be five really long articles that I want to read in it.  And who has the time for all of that? Perversely, I am secretly delighted when there is only one story that I want to read in that month’s issue. But I know that if I’m going to read something in it, it will be good.

Clearly the high point of the magazine is Harper’s Index.  The index is a list of various statistics.  The gimmick, if you will is that everything is written in such a way that the answer can be given in a numerical value.  for example: “Amount the ABBA tribute band Bjorn Again says it was paid to play a concert for Vladimir Putin in January (2009): $27,500; Estimated street value of drugs seized last March at three Phish reunion shows in Hampton, Virginia: $1,200,000.” (more…)

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McSweeney’s #4 [Timothy McSweeney’s Trying, Trying, Trying, Trying, Trying] (Late Winter, 2000)

Posted in 19th Century, Amy Fusselman, Ben Miller, Christopher P. Riley-Zaleniev, Colin Meloy, Corporate skewering, Dee Dee Myers, Denis Johnson, Digression, Dreams, Edgar Allan Poe, Essays, Fables, Flash Fiction, Franz Kafka, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), George Saunders, Haruki Murakami, J. Robert Lennon, Johannes Vermeer, Jonathan Lethem, Joshua Bearman, Joshuah Bearman, Jules Verne, Katherine Anne Porter, Lawrence Weschler, LGBTQ, Lydia Davis, Marcy Dermansky, Margaret Keane, McSweeney's, Meta, Orson Welles, Paul Collins, Paul Debraski, Paul Maliszewski, Pink Floyd, Postmoderism, Rachel Cohen, Rick Moody, Sarah Vowell, Sean Wilsey, Sheila Heti, Sherwood Anderson, Short Story, The Decemberists, The Smiths, Vladimir Nabokov, Walter Keane, Wikipedia, Willa Cather, Wislawa Szymborska on May 29, 2009| 5 Comments »

scan0014SOUNDTRACK: COLIN MELOY-Colin Meloy Sings Live! (2008).

colinColin Meloy is the lead singer and songwriter for the Decemberists.  This is a recording of Meloy’s solo acoustic tour from 2006.  The recording is from several venues on the tour, although it is mixed as if it were one concert.

Meloy is a great frontman, and this translates perfectly into the solo atmosphere.  He is completely at ease, telling stories, bantering with the crowd, and generally having a very good time.

The set list includes some popular Decemberists songs as well as a track from Meloy’s first band Tarkio (whom I have never heard, but figure I’ll get their CD someday).  Meloy also adds a couple of covers, as well as snippets of songs added to his own (Pink Floyd’s “Fearless” gets a couple of bars, as well as a verse from The Smiths’ “Ask.”)

This disc is not going to win anyone over to the Decemberists, as Meloy’s distinctive voice is a love it or hate it deal.  However, if you’re on the fence about them, hearing these songs solo can only convince you of what great songs they are.  The Decemberists add a lot of arrangements to their songs.  You get a lot of interesting and unusual instruments.  Which I like a great deal.  But to hear that these songs sound great with just an acoustic guitar is testament to Meloy’s songwriting.

The intimacy of the venues also really lets these songs shine.

[READ: May 29, 2009] McSweeney’s #4

This is the first time that McSweeney’s showed that it might be something a little different. #4 came, not as paperback book, but as a box full of 14 small, stapled booklets. Each book (save two, and more on those later) contains a complete story or non-fiction piece.

There is something strangely liberating about reading the stories in this format. It gives me a sense of accomplishment to finish a book and put it down, so having 14 makes it seem like I’ve accomplished a lot.
This was also the first issue that I’m certain I didn’t read when it originally came out, for whatever reason. So, it’s all new to me.

DIGRESSION: When I was looking up publications for my Wikipedia page about McSweeney’s publications, I kept encountering records for these individual booklets.  This was rather confusing as I couldn’t find any other records or ISBNs for these booklets.  Rest assured they are all collected here. (more…)

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Roy Blount Jr.–Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof: Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips and Secret Parts, Tinctures, Tonics and Essences; With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory

Posted in 180-G's, Books about writers, Carl Kasell, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Digression, Dip-in Books, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Les Claypool, Negativland, Peter Sagal, Poetry, Political Humor, Primus, Roberto Bolaño, Roy Blount Jr., Set at School, Set in New Jersey!, Smarty Pants, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me, WRSU 88.7 FM--New Brunswick, NJ on May 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

juiceSOUNDTRACK: WRSU 89.7 FM.

wrsuComing straight out of Rutgers University in New Brunswick (my grad school alma mater), this was the first station that I happened upon while I was scanning the lower numbers on the radio station.

The brief set that I heard was amazing.

I heard the end of a song that I didn’t know, but which I found very intriguing. It was followed by Les Claypool’s new track “Mushroom Men” (which was wonderful) and then the 180-Gs doing an a capella rendition of Negativland’s “Christianity is Stupid.” I had heard about this band but never heard one of their recordings.  First, if you’ve never heard Negativland, then you’re missing out.  They are a surreal band of audio collagists, playing with sounds and samples and all kinds of weird things.  To have an a capella rendition of a five minute song, the bulk of which is a spoken loudspeakered voice saying “Christianity is Stupid” goes beyond bizarre into the sublime. I have tuned to this station from time to time and each DJ plays his or her own weird and often wonderful thing. What a great experience.

[READ: May 14, 2009] Alphabet Juice

My mother-in-law gave me this book for Christmas because she heard about it on NPR and thought I’d like it. And boy was she right.

waitI hadn’t heard of this book, although actually I’m sure I had–but I ignored it.  Roy Blount Jr is on Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me, NPR’s news quiz, almost every week.   We love the show because it is funny and it tests your awareness of what’s going on in the world (both serious and ridiculous).  And we try our best to get our kids to let us listen to it each week.  (more…)

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Periodical: Geek Monthly

Posted in Arcade Fire, Artists, Authors, Book Reviews, Corporate skewering, Fantasy, Film & TV, Food, Foreign Books, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Futurama, Geek Monthly, Graphic Novel, Magazines, Magic, Music, Smarty Pants, Technology, TiVo, Video Games, Work, Yuck! on April 1, 2009| Leave a Comment »

geek1I have a Periodicals page already, but I rarely look at it or update it.  So, over the next few months I’m going to mention a magazine that I subscribe to.  When I’m all caught up, I’ll remove that page.

I was inspired to do this when I got the latest Geek Monthly. I stumbled upon Geek magazine last year when I was gathering magazines for the library’s annual magazine survey.  I really enjoyed it and when I saw the next issue it was a Futurama feature, so naturally I had to subscribe right then and there.

And since then I have not been disappointed.

They have fun geek quotes from famous and non-famous people.  Some short articles about tech gadgets and new products. And an Ask Alienware category for high tech and gaming questions.

geek2They’ve also started a Green section (this latest one has a computer built into a cardboard CPU unit…very cool).

They also have a music section (six album reviews and an interview with a cool geeky person).  This latest issue has a great interview with Will Oldham & The Arcade Fire.

There’s obviously the interview with the cover person (Zach Braff & Nathan Fillion are recent cover stars).  Plus, there’s other film-related articles.  (An interview with Wallace Shawn and an inevitable piece on Battlestar Galactica).  There also usually an opinion piece about a film or TV topic, and sometimes a debate on a subject (Film Adaptations of Books).  There’s also a regular Rant from Mark Altman, and Secrets of a Lady Geek.

As you get near the back, you get film reviews (mostly sci fi & horror, but there’s also some comedies and documentaries), and DVD reviews.   And, of course book reviews (comics and otherwise).

And then you get one of my favorite sections: product reviews.  The Office Arsenal shows awesome gadgets that you can bring to work (sadly I don’t work in an environment where Nerf rockets and Super Soakers would be appreciated.)  But the best part has to be random reviews at the back of the magazine.  Things like: MyGlowKeys, or Van Dorn Gourmets Onion Dip and Bath Bomb, or the thing that’s been making me laugh for days: FX Neo: Hard Minty Eyedrops, which has the hilarious review: “Hard. Minty. Eyedrops.  I can’t think of two more terrible adjectives for something I’m supposed to stick in my eye.  Hot stabby eyedrops?  Grating infectious eyedrops?  Nope, can’t do it.” (more…)

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Trenton Lee Stewart–The Mysterious Benedict Society (2007)

Posted in Adventure, Canadian Music, Carson Ellis, Children's Books, Contests, Corporate skewering, End of the World, Funky Web Sites, Handsome Furs, Mystery, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Sunset Rubdown, Technology, The Decemberists, Threats, Wolf Parade on March 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

benedictSOUNDTRACK: WOLF PARADE-At Mount Zoomer (2008).

zoomerThis album made many best of lists of 2008.  It is considered a side project of both Spencer Krug (of Sunset Rubdown) and Dan Boeckner (of Handsome Furs).  I’d not heard of either band, but I was very intrigued by this disc and I’m so glad I got it.

Every track has something outstanding about it, be it a cool guitar break (“Soldier’s Grin”)  or a cool keyboard break (“Language City”–which builds to a rollicking climax).  While “Bang Your Drum” has multiple parts, each one weird and wonderful.

“California Dreamer” has  wonderfully sinister soundtrack, with a great rocking chorus. And it’s followed by a surprisingly upbeat “The Grey Estates” (keyboard pop at its best).

The albums ends with the epic “Kissing the Beehive”: a ten minute track with several parts to it.  The first seven minutes just fly by, and then the song breaks down into a quieter feel.

It seems rare that an album comes out of nowhere to me (even if the album didn’t come out of nowhere for people who loved their first release (which I also have not heard) or the two main songwriter’s OTHER projects, but I’m very glad I found this one.  Its frenetic pacing and overall quality made it one of my favorite releases of 2008.

[READ: March 9, 2009] The Mysterious Benedict Society

While you can’t judge a book by it’s cover, you can certainly check it out because of it. I saw this book on our shelves and brought it home calling it The Decemberists’ book.  It was only later on that I realized that the cover (and interior) art is by Carson Ellis, who is, indeed, the primary artist for the Decemberists.

The second selling point was the blurb on the back cover: “Are You a Gifted Child Looking for Special Opportunities?”  How can you not say, “Why, yes, I think I am.” This blurb appears in the book in a newspaper and is the catalyst for the young children (orphans and runaways mostly) who will show up for the challenging test that comprises the beginning of the book. (more…)

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John Hodgman–More Information Than You Require (2008)

Posted in 19th Century, Boston, MA, Corporate skewering, Dip-in Books, Frank Zappa, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), History, Jennifer Toth, John Hodgman, Jon Stewart, Political Humor, Sigur Rós, Smarty Pants, Swedish Music, Technology, The Daily Show, The Sound of Young America, Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!, Time Travel, Unreliable narrator on March 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

more-infoSOUNDTRACK: Dungen-4 (2008).

4Vill du tala svensk?

Even if you don’t speak or understand Swedish, Dungen plays music that is pretty universally understood.  The album feels more or less like an all instrumental affair.  There are some songs with words, but they are all sung in Swedish. So, no, I have no idea what he’s singing about, and in that respect it feels all instrumental.

Like the previous discs, 4 feels like a blast from the psychedelic days.  It is trippy, at times loud and raucous, (with some amazing guitar workouts) and even has flutes on a few tracks.

The big difference between this disc and the previous releases is that there’s a lot more piano.  This has an overall calming effect on the music.  And in some ways, I think I don’t like this disc as much as previous ones.

The piano really comes to the fore on track 2 “Målerås Finest” which to me sounds like a a tribute to one Zappa’s instrumentals (it reminds me of “Peaches en Regalia,” although I don’t mean to suggest it’s a rip off at all). “Samtidigt 1 an 2” are the major instrumentals of the disc.  They also remind me of Zappa in that they feels like a snippet from some crazy guitar jam session.  (Zappa releases a lot of  “songs” like this on his …Guitar… albums. On this disc, we’re privy to about 3 minutes of wild guitar solo but since they fade in and then fade out at the end we have no idea how long the jam went on.  The final track “Bandhagen” also feels Zappaeque, but maybe it’s just the staccato notes that Zappa also uses to such good effect.

“Fredag” has a feeling like some of the more otherworldly Flaming Lips songs.  And “Mina Damer Och Fasaner” has a choppy heavy metal sound that really stands out from the disc.

Really there isn’t a bad song on the disc, but for some reason it doesn’t move me quite as much as the others.  I don’t want to bring a negative vibe to the review.  I’m sure if this was the first Dungen CD I had, I’d think it was amazing, I just got spoiled by them.

[READ: February 14, 2009] More Information Than You Require

John Hodgman is a man you will no doubt recognize from the Mac Vs PC ads (he’s the PC). He’s also a contributor and guest on The Daily Show. When this book was released he promoted it on The Daily Show, and on the Sound of Young America. It sounded really funny. And I was delighted that Sarah got it for me for Christmas. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #2 [Blues/Jazz Odyssey? “Pollyanna’s Bootless Errand.”] (Late Winter/Early Spring 1999)

Posted in Adventure, Amanda Davis, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Ana Marie Cox, Bill Clinton, Brent Hoff, Colleen Werthmann, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Dave Eggers, Flash Fiction, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Glasgow Phillips, GQ, Graphic Novel, Heidi Julavits, John Hodgman, Jonathan Lethem, McSweeney's, Mekons, Meta, Neal Pollack, Paul Collins, Paul Maliszewski, Politicians, Sarah Vowell, Short Story, Sigur Rós, Smarty Pants, Supernatural, The Baffler, The Believer, Zev Borow on March 17, 2009| 3 Comments »

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Click here for larger image

SOUNDTRACK: SIGUR RÓS-Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust (2008).

sigurSigur Rós are nothing if not ethereal.  Their music is constantly floating up in outer space somewhere.  So imagine the surprise when the first song of this disc opens with some thudding drums.  And, there are acoustic instruments aplenty this time around.  Their previous disc Hvarf/Heim had them playing a number of acoustic pieces in various unexpected settings.  And clearly the experience must have been a good one.

“Illgresi” is largely played on an acoustic guitar and “Ára Bátur” opens with a very pretty piano melody.  But lest you think this is Sigur Rós unplugged, “Ára Bátur” turns into a nearly 9 minute epic complete with orchestra, choir and as much ethereal sounds that you can cram into one song.  Indeed, a few songs before that is “Festival” another nine minute epic.  Although like in the beginning, there is a lot of bass, and a lot of drum.

But despite all of the musical changes, the band is still clearly Sigur Rós.  Jon Thor Birgisson’s voice is still unmistakable, and his lyrics are still inscrutable.  In fact, the final song, “All Alright” is sung almost entirely in English(!) and I didn’t realize until I just read about it recently.

In some ways this disc is not as satisfying as previous Sigur Rós releases as it doesn’t take you to quite the same planes of existence as past discs have.  And yet, in other ways it is more satisfying as it shows an earthbound side of them, allowing us to see their craft in action.

Despite any criticisms, Sigur Rós is still an amazing band, and this is an amazing record, too.

[READ: March 14, 2009] McSweeney’s #2

McSweeney’s 2nd issue retains some of the features from the first, and yet, some things have changed.

Similarities:

First: The cover retains that very wordy style that the first issue had.  There are more jokes (a good pun about Big Name authors).

Second: The letters column is still there.  What’s different is that in addition to some unusual letters (including the complete address of a letter writer), there are conversational letters between Gary Pike and Mr. McSweeney.  There’s also several small entries from Brent Hoff.  We are also treated to a letter from Jon Langford of the Mekons, Sarah Vowell, and a piece from Jonathan Lethem (the last of which was put in the letters column because they didn’t know what else to do with it). (more…)

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Kasper Hauser–Sky Maul: The Unauthorized Catalog Parody (2006)

Posted in Arrested Development, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Dip-in Books, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), How I Met Your Mother, Kasper Hauser, Oddities, Smarty Pants, The Cure, The Onion, The Sound of Young America, Time Travel on March 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

skymailSOUNDTRACK: THE CURE-The Cure (2004).

cureI’ve been a huge fan of The Cure since my friend Garry introduced me to them circa 1985.  I saw them twice in concert, I overplayed Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, and even got the giant Boys Don’t Cry poster.

And then I grew up.  I basically stopped getting Cure albums around Wild Mood Swings (which was only two albums before this one even though it was nearly a decade ago).  I eventually got Bloodflowers when a friend said it was very good, and I agreed.  But it took me a long time to get this one (I think I was tired of the persistent “last album ever” deal).  Nevertheless, I still like the Cure, and I do like this one.

This self-titled disc is very familiar sounding. In fact, it’s as if someone told Robert Smith: make a greatest hits album but with all new songs.  And that’s more or less what you get with this disc.  It doesn’t have a theme like Disintegration or The Top.  There are manic highs and lows all over the album.  In fact, on several songs Robert is happy and in love, and on others he will never be in love.  Rather than depression, it’s almost all schizophrenia.

It starts in a very downbeat fashion (“Lost”) with scowling, reeling vocals despite him singing about being “so happy and so young.”  The mood continues on “Labyrinth” with its sinister, somewhat Egyptian sounding guitar line.

And then you get two of Robert Smith’s upbeat songs, “Before Three” (“The happiest day I ever knew…”)  and “Until the End of the World” (“I couldn’t love you more!”).  You know they’re happy songs when he drifts into that impossible falsetto.  “Anniversary” is one of their dark songs like ” A Forest” with that great Cure drumming tribal drumming. And there’s the single “alt.end,” which is, simply, another great single from The Cure.

The sonic landscape continues with another falsetto song “(I Don’t Know What’s Going ) On.” And then we’re back to the aggrieved and angry “Us or Them” where Robert almost repeats a line from “The Kiss”  “get your fucking head out of my world” (the original being “get your fucking voice out of my head”).

The only questionable song is the final one, “The Promise”.  And the only reason it’s questionable is that it’s 12 minutes long. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for The Cure, since the aforementioned “The Kiss” is 6 minutes of delightfulness.  But I think 12 might be a bit too long.  Nevertheless, it lets the album end on an angry, bitter note, just as it began.  Symmetry, after all.

I guess I’m still a Cure fan after all these years.

[READ: March 8, 2009] SkyMaul

I heard about this catalog through a plug from The Sound of Young America.  They said it was selling cheap on Amazon, so I snatched up one of the last remaining copies.

This catalog is hilarious.  Obviously, it is a parody of the Sky Mall catalog that you look at on airplanes when you have run out of everything else to look at, and have no intention of purchasing anything from (unless you are Barney Stinson [I tried to find a link to his Sky Mall compulsiveness, but there are no official ones, so if you just Google “barney skymall” tons of things comes up].

Many parody titles don’t live  up to the hilarity they promise.  This boils down to a couple of reasons: They are so true to the original it’s hard to tell them apart; they require a deep awareness of the original in order to really appreciate the joke; most people who know they original that well actually LIKE the original, and don’t want the parody.

SkyMaul however, is that rare beast: a parody that is very funny but is also full of crazily inventive and absurd humor.  Unlike many of the very specific parodies that exist, SkyMaul allows for across-the-board humor, so it never gets bogged down in finding that “perfect parody moment.”

SkyMaul works similarly to The Onion, in that some of the items in this catalog are direct parodies of existing items (Atheist motivational posters; the first ever Milk vacuum–for when people put unwanted milk on your cereal), and others are simply utter nonsense (like the Llamacycle (a llama with a wheel for front legs, or the Air Straightener “Stop Breathing Disorganized Air!”)).

There were a number of things that had me laughing out loud and thinking of people who would love to read this (Happy Birthday, Matt).

The genius of the book is dividing the catalog into smaller subsections (just like the real thing) which allows them to diversify their products.  Some subsections include: The Image Sharpener; The Statuetory (Meeting and Exceeding Your Home Statue Needs); J. Crewcifix (Extreme Religion Since A.D. 33); Tomorrow’s Garage Sale (Filling up you home, office, and storage areas); NASCAR Stepdad; WhadjaGITme? (Toys for demanding kids…); Shemail (Doodads for ladies) [Although that’s not as good as Arrested Development’s designer Shemále]; Heavy Petter (pushing animal product on people]; The Nicest Gift (is to let people deal with stuff on their own); Coming Soon (the store 4 sex toys ‘n’ stuff).

You get the idea of where this catalog is going. And to top it off there’s even a crossword puzzle in the back.  This may have been the funniest part of the book, so don’t skip it!  Sample entry: Q: Superman’s weakness. A: Chocolate.

To see some examples from the book, click here.

Oh, and in case you’re like me, you didn’t know that Kasper Hauser is not a person but a comedy troupe.

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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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Lucy Thomas–Jokes Told in Heaven About Babies (2003)

Posted in Corporate skewering, Dave Eggers, Dreams, Essays, Flash Fiction, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Lucy Thomas, McSweeney's, Short Books, The Beach Boys, The Flaming Lips on February 2, 2009| Leave a Comment »

jokesSOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Transmissions from the Satellite Heart (1993).

transIt’s easy to see how people could cry about the Lips moving to a major label.  I mean, comparing this to Hear It Is, they’re like different bands. Except that they’re not.  They’re still the same band, they’re just better, more refined, more mature (maybe) and they know how to use their previous experiments in a way that assists and strengthens the music.

Pretensions aside, this was the disc that scored them their biggest hit, “She Don’t Use Jelly.”  It’s a super catchy, slightly annoying, certainly borderline novelty song (except that all Lips songs are borderline novelty, they’re so weird).  I was thrilled when I saw the Lips on the Soft Bulletin tour and they not only played “Jelly,” they made a big party out of it with balloons and all kinds of fun.

“Jelly” isn’t entirely representative of the album, but, if you really listen to it, it’s not that far afield from the rest of the disc either.  “Turn It On” is the first time you can really hear all the elements of the Lips coalescing into what they would one day become.  Wayne’s voice is coming in close to what we know now, and the musicianship is quite good.  “Pilot Can at the Queer of God” (see, their titles haven’t sold out!) on an earlier disc would have been a messy shambles, but their refined sense makes this a fantastic song with cool backing vocals and everything.  A sort of punk Beach Boys if you will.

“Chewin the Apple of Your Eye” could actually have been a B-Side of Soft Bulletin, in its simple acousticness.  “Superhumans” starts showing off the kind of interesting drum sound that would be a staple of their later releases (this disc welcomes drummer and main contributor Steve Drozd, so that makes sense).

“Be My Head” is another fun Beach Boysesque song. It’s such a simple, happy song (complete with ahh’s in the background).  The distorted guitar isn’t overpowering.  The only thing that is decidedly not Brian Wilson is the lyrics (“You can be my head, I’m through with this one).

“Moth in the Incubator” seems to summarize their whole career in one song.  An acoustic intro, a noisy, crashing middle section and then a slight weird yet catchy as hell melody to close.

Track 9 is listed as “********” but its’ actually a song called “Plastic Jesus” from the film Cool Hand Luke.  A short acoustic song.

The disc ends with the really cool “Slow Nerve Action” a very simple riff, but it is played so differently from the rest of the album, (almost like a professional guitarist?!).  A simple song but very catchy.  An excellent end to a great disc.

[READ: January 26, 2009] Jokes Told in Heaven About Babies

I can’t really say how disappointed I was by this book.  And primarily I was disappointed because the title is awesome and has so much potential.  However, the title is neither accurate nor expounded upon.  That’s right, the book with probably the funniest title published in 2003 is misleading. (more…)

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