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Archive for the ‘Death’ Category

Alice Munro–“Floating Bridge” (New Yorker, July 31, 2000)

Posted in Alice Munro, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Cancer as plot device, Death, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Pee, Ra Ra Riot, Short Story on August 28, 2019| Leave a Comment »

coverSOUNDTRACK: RA RA RIOT-“Endless Pain/Endless Joy” (2019).

indexIn 2007, Ra Ra Riot released an album of chamber pop loveliness.  There were strings and lots of soaring melodies.  The songs were gentle and sweet and the lyrics were thoughtful.

Twelve years later and I would never have guessed this was the same band.

“Endless Pain/Endless Joy” starts with crashing drums and a fast bass line.  The lyrics are sung in his high register but they are almost whispered, or at least sound like they are far away.  After the first verse, the bass doubles down and the rumble grows.

When the chorus finishes, the guitars come clanging in, angular and discordant, playing a clash of sounds for a few measures before departing.

The second half of the song increases the urgency with the fast paced drums and bass, but it adds lots of backing sounds–synth stabs, guitar swirls and other noises until, with ten seconds left, that clatter comes back–crashing through to the end.

It’s largely the same band members, but wow, what a difference a decade makes.

[READ: August 20, 2019] “Floating Bridge”

Neal and Jinny have been together for over 20 years.  Jinny is 42 and Neal is 16 years older.  She always assumed she’d outlive him. Then she got the news.

The oncologist said the news wasn’t great.

Neal went to pick yup the girl who would be staying with them to help out.  He knew her because she worked in the kitchen of the The Correctional Institute where he worked.

The girls’ name was Helen.  She was tough but Neal tried to break through her shell–that’s the way he was. (more…)

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Julian Barnes–“The Story of Mats Israelson” (New Yorker, July 24, 2000)

Posted in Death, Hospitals, Julian Barnes, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Short Story, Sweden, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends on August 24, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“Girl, You’re So Weird” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

This song is around 3 and a half minutes.  It starts out crashingly loud with a catchy synth melody that will later be used for the vocal line.  Then it quiets down to a sneaky/spooky synth melody.  The vocals fit into the spooky sound in as it seems like Wayne is singing in a kind of strangled way.  It’s possible that the lyrics weren’t made up on the spot.  But who knows:

Girl, you’re so weird, your pain and your fear
Has paralyzed your mind, I wish you’d get high
You’re so tight, you’re always thinking right
Tonight, when it’s late, you should smile, masturbate
So, girl, you and me can watch each other pee
With holographic shirts we’ll shine under blacklights
Lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights

The guest on this is New Fumes.  I don’t know anything about him except that he has played with the Lips in the past.  This song feels like filler except that the sounds between verses are really cool.

It also feels pretty much like the end of a record.  But there’s one more song to come

[READ: August 20, 2019] “The Story of Mats Israelson”

This story was enjoyable but sad.  I had read the first six or so pages and then had to put it down for the night.  I was looking forward to finishing it because the first few pages were so good.  But the last couple pages really emphasized a sadness I did not expect.

The story is written as if it is from a long time ago.  In this small Swedish village, people earned their spots–in church pews, or where to keep their horses.  If you took that spot you were shunned.

This village is full of gossip. The gossip is my favorite part of the story. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Strangers in Paradise XXV #10 (2019)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Adventure, Completed Series, Death, Egyptology, End of the World, Feminism, Graphic Novel, Lilith, Math, Murder, Neon Indian, Parenting, Supernatural, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Violence on August 22, 2019| Leave a Comment »

download - 2020-05-20T121917.708SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“Is David Bowie Dying” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

This six minute track starts with scraping and electronic sounds and a two note guitar melody that rise sand falls. Neon Indian, an electronic chillwave band, is the guest on this song

Around 2 minutes the music turns optimistic and soaring and then it  mellows out with trippy sounds. The lyrics change to

At the mountain, you scream
Now the fountain reveals
As you do want and make you whole
Goodbye, goodbye

The mellowness lasts for about a minute then the angular guitars returns.  This second half feels less harsh and more trippy, although the wild effects are still in place.  This sequence runs through to the end as they repeat

Take your legs and run
Into the death-rays of the sun

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #10

This limited series ends with this issue.

Katchoo is the voice over as she worries about the five years the earth has left to exist–she will have this hanging over her head as she returns home.

Francine reports that her mother is doing fine–she has the will to be alive to watch her grandchildren grow up.  This, of course, makes Katchoo even sadder.

Back home, the girls are up in the air vent wondering why Aunt Libby is crying.  But she’s not.  It turns out that there is a heavily tattooed man with a gun telling her that he plans to kidnap the two little girls because the dykes who live there have a lot of money and he intends to get the ransom for them. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Strangers in Paradise XXV #9 (2018)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Adventure, Death, Egyptology, End of the World, Feminism, Graphic Novel, Lilith, Math, Murder, Parenting, Supernatural, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Unfinished series, Violence, Yoko Ono on August 21, 2019| Leave a Comment »

download - 2020-05-20T121901.285SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“Do It!” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

This three-minute interlude is mostly thumping drums and percussive noises with a repeated sample of someone (I assume Yoko Ono) saying “Do It!”

There’ a grooving bass line.  With all of the attention paid to Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd, it’s easy to overlook how good a bassist Michael Ivins (and has been with Wayne from the beginning).  I assume that’s him playing on this song.

The samples are tinkered with as the bass propels the song forward.  It’s a nifty little transition piece.

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #9

The cover image of this issue has nothing whatever to do with the contents.  That is true for many of the issues, but it’s disturbing for this one because it suggest something is going to happen but it’s actually something similar but ultimately very different.

In New England, Katchoo doesn’t want to believe that the woman walking across the snow is Lilith.  She doesn’t want to believe any of this.

They go inside and there’s a cookie jar.  Zoe goes to take one but Lilith says that they are for the raccoon who likes to sneak in at night and pillage my kitchen.
Zoe: “You have a raccoon?”
Lilith: “Not anymore.”

They look at the scroll  Rachel reads it “This is how he did it and this is how you undo it”  Then she looks at Lilith and snarls, “Why did you write this?”

Zoe asks He who?  Jet say they’re talking about God an how to blow us all kingdom come. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Strangers in Paradise XXV #8 (2018)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Adventure, Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes, David Bowie, Death, Egyptology, End of the World, Feminism, Graphic Novel, Lightning Bolt, Lilith, Math, Murder, NASA, Parenting, Supernatural, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Unfinished series, Violence on August 20, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“I’m working at NASA on Acid” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

This song starts out with NASA voices and beeps.   The beeps turn into a rhythm and after a cool echoing guitar the song takes on almost a spaghetti western feel.  even with the bowed cello

The song features Lightning Bolt, a noise rock duo, and I assume they join in the fun in the middle of the song.

After three minutes, a pretty guitar melody leads to a sped up voice saying 1, 2,3, 4 as it soars into the next chaotic and wild section.  The riff speeds up, the drums and distortion increase and the song feels like an epic take off into outer space.

It runs for about two minutes and then slows down.  Way down.  After a backwards countdown 4,3,2,1, the song resumes as a gentle folk song kind of like “Space Oddity.”  It’s pretty cool.

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #8

Katchoo is flying to Boston.  The voice over has a nice moment where we see just how much she loves Francine.

She lands and heads to Jet’s garage.  She tells Jet that she has something to give her.

They get into Katchoo’s car which is surrounded by ravens.  They seem to be following her.  I love Terry Moore’s art throughout this series.  He does realistic portrayals of women perfectly (even if sometimes I can’t tell some of the women apart).  I love the way he draws Jet so distinctively as well.  But those ravens, um, not so much.

Jet has no idea what the container is and when Katchoo explains the contents she thinks Katchoo is joking. Why did Stephanie send her to Jet if Jet doesn’t know what it is? (more…)

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Terry Moore–Strangers in Paradise XXV #7 (2018)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Adventure, Colombia, Death, Egyptology, End of the World, Feminism, Graphic Novel, Grinderman, Math, Murder, Nick Cave, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Parenting, Skottie Young, Terry Moore, The Birthday Party, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Unfinished series, Violence on August 18, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“You Man? Human???” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

Nick Cave’s most recent music has been quiet pretty and tender.  It’s easy to forget that he has often been a wild man of Australian punk.  His Grinderman albums emphasized that noisy history of his and this song seems perfect for Cave.

In fact, this track seems like a song he could have released with the Birthday Party forty years ago. It’s abrasive and kind of rambling–although with more modern production and sounds. It also has a slow pummeling bass notes with lots of chaotic drumming.

Unlike most of the songs on the record which have falsetto vocals, Cave’s deep voice really stands out.  He is reciting a fairly crazy story of pools and chlorine and how you can touch him if you want.

Quintessential Cave mixed with a few Lips.

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #7

Katchoo was falling off a cliff.  In the wide shot we see there is water down below (and a small boat).

She lands in the water and rockets down pretty far (some creepy eels greet her before she takes off back up to the surface).

The man on the boat tries to fend her off with a long pike, but he’s no match for Katchoo who avoids the gun shots until the boat takes off.

Back home, we see Francine and her (cool) Aunt Libby in some relative domestic happiness–Katchoo hasn’t warned her about he gunman yet.

Koo resists taking out the garbage. Francine asks, “when do you want to do it”  “Later when I grow up.”

When she puts the trash in the bin, she smells…something.  Which we see is a pile of cigarette butts and a shoe.  But she is called in before she sees what it is.

Katchoo goes to a small hotel.  There’s a man sleeping in the tub.  I’m unclear what that is meant to signify, but Katchoo leaves before he wakes up.

The book ends back home with Koo unable to sleep (she is reading I Hate Fairyland, by Skottie Young).  She heads downstairs (at 3AM) and sees a male shadow looking in their glass windows. Yipes!

Don’t mess with these cute kids, you hear me!

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Terry Moore–Strangers in Paradise XXV #6 (2018)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Adventure, Colombia, Death, Egyptology, End of the World, Feminism, Graphic Novel, Hospitals, Jim James, Math, Monkeys, Murder, My Morning Jacket, Parenting, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Unfinished series, Violence on August 17, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“Children of the Moon” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

Lately, Jim James has been going in a more mellow direction after the pretty heavy psychedelia of Circuital in 2011.  But this song stays in that heavy psychedelic vein with a big distorted guitar riff and distorted vocals from James (and Coyne, I assume).

It’s that weird mix of creepy and catchy that the Lips do so well.  You can clearly hear James on the lead vocals, but who knows who is contributing vocals to the rest (the oh oh ohs).  The guitar solo is all distorted and reversed–a noisy explosion of sound.

This song is barely four minutes and it’s followed by another noisy short one before the album segues back into quieter terrain.

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #6

Katchoo was given coordinates to meet Stephanie.  The coordinates put her way off the grid in Colombia.  As she waits, a guy on a moped drives up and a monkey hops off and delivers a package (that’s pretty adorable, honestly).

Katchoo can only assume things are bad since Stephanie didn’t show.  She can’t imagine what is in the satchel (she hopes it’s not Francine’s head).

But no, it is a tube and in the tube is an ancient piece of papyrus–Cleopatra’s mathematical ideas. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Strangers in Paradise XXV #5 (2018)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Adventure, Death, Egyptology, End of the World, Feminism, Graphic Novel, Math, Murder, Parenting, Sci-fi, Tame Impala, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Unfinished series, Violence on August 16, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“Children of the Moon” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

I’m not exactly sure when Tame Impala became huge.  I actually didn’t even realize they were huge until this past summer when I saw them. I’d always just liked their modern psychedelia.  I gather they’ve been huge for a while.  But I don’t think they were huge in 2012 when this album came out.  So really, Tame Impala was just another cool indie rocker singing along with the Flaming Lips.

None of the songs on this album are particularly “poppy” what with all the distortion and noise on them.  But this song is certainly one of the catchiest.  The guitar melody (which is very Flaming Lips) is simple and instantly grabbing.  The vocals are high falsetto–which are probably Wayne and Kevin Parker together.

After a trippy middle instrumental, the song resumes with acoustic guitar an a nice sing along.  It feels like a solid combination of The Lips and Tame Impala.

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #5

The island that Katchoo woke up on is called Bonbi, a private island in the Riviera.  The person waiting for her is Tambi.

Tambi proceeds to give Katchoo a history lesson about Cleopatra and the history of Base Phi Mathematics.

I don’t know that much about Cleopatra, so I’m going to assume that the history here is true.  I don’t know a thing about Base Phi Mathematics, so I don’t know whether Cleopatra knew anything about it. I’ll assume Moore did his research.

Anyhow, Base Phi Mathematics is also the foundation for he Alaskan Collider that exploded and caused all the trouble for Katchoo.  (Yup, I’m skimming the hard science). (more…)

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Terry Moore–Strangers in Paradise XXV #4 (2018)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Adventure, Death, End of the World, Feminism, Graphic Novel, Murder, Parenting, Prefuse 73, Scotland, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Unfinished series, Violence on August 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS AND HEADY FWENDS-“Supermoon Made Me Want to Pee” (2012).

2012 saw the release of this very strange collaborative album.  Whether The Flaming Lips had entered the mainstream or if people who’d always liked them were now big stars or maybe they all just liked doing acid.  Whatever the case, The Lips worked with a vast array of famous (and less famous) people for this bizarre album.  Here it is 8 years later. Time to check in.

This is (almost) the shortest song on the album at just over 3 minutes. And it’s kind of a transitional song.

There’s not a lot to it.  It’s fast and propulsive with a never-ending bass rumble and vocals (singing the words “coming up”) going higher and higher in pitch which makes it all seem more intense.

After two minutes the song seems to peak, settling down in to gentle washes with swirling sounds floating around.  It segues nicely into the next song, “Children of the Moon.”

The collaboration on this song is with Prefuse 73.  Prefuse 73 is a producer known mostly for hip hop, but also other sound effects.  It’s hard to know exactly what he contributed, but I think the collaboration works well.

[READ: August 1, 2019] Strangers in Paradise XXV #4

This issue also feels like a transitional issue.

Issue 3 ended with Katchoo possibly chasing a guy who ran away.

But it also ended with her being very sick.

Those two facets combine right away as Katchoo tries to catch the man on foot but quickly succumbs to pneumonia.

This is some of Terry Moore’s most impressionistic drawing–even if the fields of Scotland’s Isle of Skye are beautifully rendered, the people are all in motion.

When Katchoo passes out in a field, a woman in a hat spies her and, upon seeing who she is, picks her up and brings her to a nearby cottage. (more…)

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Mark Z. Danielewski–The Fifty Year Sword (2005, 2012)

Posted in Atelier Z, Claire Kohne, Clairo, Death, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Happy Birthday, Mark Z. Danielewski, Michele Reverte, Novella, Orphans, Regina Gonzales, Supernatural, Surreal, Swords, Unreliable narrator, Violence on August 11, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: CLAIRO-“Bags” (2019).

It seems like 2019 is the year of lo-fi women.  There’s a lot of great songs but great artists mining the same field of guitar-based, quietly sung catchy songs.

Clairo’s “Bags” is the latest of this style of song.

There’s a shoegaze vibe to the song both in the woozy guitars and Clairo’s distant vocals.  The melody is catchy but the big hook comes from what I assumed was a whispery, vibratoed synth line, but which a live video tells me is actually a guitar line.  It’s 11 notes long and meanders in a rather compelling way.

I’m curious what the rest of the album will sound like.

[READ: August 2019] The Fifty Year Sword

I’ve really enjoyed Mark Z. Danielewski’s meta fictional books. He makes the book itself, not just the words, part of the story.

This book is a novella.  Even though it’s nearly 300 pages, most of the right pages are blank and the left pages are mostly written in a poem-fashion with lots of white space.

(It’s a huge waste of paper, because the book would still work of text was on left and right, but whatever).

Neverthless, the design is really pretty.

This story has a design element that means there are a lot of colors in the book.

The conceit is that there are five orphans telling this story. Each is designated by a different colored quotation mark.  The orphans interrupt each other constantly (which is what gives the pages the look of poetry). (more…)

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