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Archive for the ‘Digression’ Category

What I learned…(14) [Judging a book by its title]

Posted in Brock Clarke, Digression on September 19, 2007| Leave a Comment »

I was walking past the New Books shelf in our library last week and saw a book called An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England by Brock Clarke. What a great great title! How could I resist? Now, I know you should never judge a book by its cover (but of course I do), but should you judge a book by its title? We’ll soon find out, as I put aside the two other books that I had started (and by jiminy, there’s a new terry Pratchett coming out any minute too!) to dive into this wonderfully titled book. So far (70 pages in) it lives up to its title. We’ll see if he can keep it up, and we’ll see if I have a started a new superficial way of deciding books. Frankly, this title is quite a relief, after spending all day looking up books called Destiny (8 different authors in our library system) or Second Chance (8 authors…shame on you James Patterson and Danielle Steel) or Darkness (4 authors), and if nothing else, Clarke should be applauded just for the title. Of course, today, I saw a positive review in Entertainment Weekly, so I’m going to try and jump on the bandwagon before there is one.

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Alice Munro–“Fiction” (Harper’s, August 2007)

Posted in Alice Munro, Antony and the Johnsons, Bjork, Canadian Content, Digression, Harper's, Marriage Trouble, Short Story, The Sugarcubes on September 17, 2007| Leave a Comment »

harpers.gifSOUNDTRACK: BJORK-Volta (2007).

volta.jpgOkay, so Bjork is from Mars. Volta is her newest album. I’ve been a fan of Bjork since the Sugarcubes, way back when. I’ve also really enjoyed her solo recordings. I used to get all of her singles and videos and things, but in recent years she seems to have released a new full length reissue of a concert or remastered disc on a monthly basis. So, I had to go cold turkey.

Then Volta came out. I saw a live performance of two of the songs on Saturday Night Live, and they were pretty different, even for her. It seems like Bjork has had a unifying sound on each of the last few albums. On Volta, it is a horn section. This is a more organic sound than some of her recent electronic releases. And, overall, I find that it doesn’t work all that well for her.

Bjork’s voice is, and I mean no disrespect because I love her voice, but it has many similar qualities to a horn. It is loud, she can hold notes for a long time, and it can often be quite brash. And, she is an alto, which many of the horns are too. So, I find that her voice blends in too much with the music. Whereas on previous records, her voice really stood out. There’s a similar problem in the duet with the ubiquitous Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons). Their voices are so similar, that any sense of conflict or drama is really lost. (I’m not mocking Antony’s voice. It is quite sublime on his own records, but I feel that it doesn’t do much for “Dull Flame of Desire,” even though the song itself is great.)

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Jasper Fforde–First Among Sequels [Book 5] (2007)

Posted in Adventure, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Digression, End of the World, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Jasper Fforde, Meta, Sci-fi, Supernatural, Technology, Time Travel, Tori Amos on September 14, 2007| Leave a Comment »

firstamong.jpgSOUNDTRACK: TORI AMOS-American Girl Posse (2007).

americandoll.jpgI had been pretty down on Tori records since Scarlett’s Walk, which I felt was kind of blah. The Beekeeper followed and it didn’t do that much for me either. So, I was basically not that excited when this latest record came out. I probably would have gotten it eventually, but then my wife bought it for me for my birthday. Thank you!

Because, this is easily her best album since From the Choirgirl Hotel. It has everything that I felt her last two albums were missing: real tempo changes, really powerful singing, and great, great hooks.

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What I learned…(13) [The British and WWII]

Posted in Black Adder, BritLit, Bruce Robinson, Digression, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Red Dwarf, Richard Thompson, The Young Ones on September 5, 2007| 2 Comments »

I’ve been a fan of British entertainment, especially comedy, since I was a little kid. The first time I saw Benny Hill on Channel 9 at a past-my-bedtime hour, I knew it was something special. Not because it was particularly funny (which at the time I thought it was), but because it was unlike anything that the U.S. was making. Then I discovered Paul Hogan (true, an Aussie, but still under the UK banner). Then came the Comedy Holy Grail of Monty Python’s Flying Circus . I couldn’t get enough of Monty Python and of course, Fawlty Towers. This led to more contemporary works like The Young Ones and Black Adder and Red Dwarf, and I’m still hooked.

One thing that has been in the back of my mind for quite some time is the Brits’ constant use of World War II in their entertainment. Comedians, writers and musicians of a certain age tend to use WWII as a component of their work. This came up again in Bruce Robinson’s book. It is a constant in Richard Thompson’s work. It is essential to latter Roger Waters work, both in and out of Pink Floyd. Monty Python plays around with it, and many other comedians do too.

I think Americans lazily think of the British as pretty much like us. And this has been even more prevalent with the recent Bush/Blair relationship. And despite my love of British entertainment, I am guilty of imagining the Brits to have similar shared experiences (common language can do that I suppose). So, it made me wonder why we in the U.S. don’t seem to have WWII so ingrained in our cultural entertainment. Sure, we have our swing bands, and the iconic photographs and even Saving Private Ryan. But it seems like we have a “Mission Accomplished (for Real)” checkmark next to it, and we’re happy it’s over and that’s that.  Even in my family, my dad was in WWII, and yet it wasn’t really a big deal when I was growing up, or even in his personal history.  Weird.

It was then that my wife reminded me that the British were bombed in the war, that it really hit home for them in a way that it never did here. Even though Pearl Harbor was American soil, and we did experience air raid drills and blackouts, we didn’t have the impending threat and fear as directly as the British did. All of this is of course common knowledge, and I feel foolish for not thinking about it before. And yet, somehow I never put these pieces together. Of course, British artists were impacted by WWII because it directly impacted their lives, their towns, their families.

There really isn’t a point to any of this other than to stop wondering how come there’s another British song/story/joke about WWII. I’ll just go back to enjoying it.

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What I learned…(12) [Vacations]

Posted in Digression on August 19, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Why did I think I would get a lot of reading done on vacation? I am always optimistic that I will read magazines and books and just get all caught up. On some vacations that may be possible, but this one was visiting friends! Was I crazy? I brought four magazines and a book. The magazines were all pretty easy to polish off, I mean an article here and there and I’m done…right? Well, sort of. It took until the last day to finish the magazines and then on the last day… a trip to the beach no less…nothing. I guess when you factor a kid into the mix, and in this case 2 kids, reading is low on the totem pole. The only thing that was nice was that our hosts were impressed that we even attempted to read at all!

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Me–On Vacation

Posted in Adventure, Digression on August 11, 2007| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: A whole bunch of things.

We’re off on a 4 day trip to the state that’s round on the ends and high in the middle.  Why not offer some suggestions for future reading/listening while we’re gone.

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What I learned… (11) [Torture Porn]

Posted in Brendan Connell, Bret Easton Ellis, Digression, Torture Porn on August 7, 2007| 1 Comment »

Yesterday, I engaged in a discussion about the term Torture Porn. In a recent review (see The Translation of Father Torturo below) I used the phrase and then retracted it. Torture Porn is a phrase that I’ve been reading about a lot lately with regard to a new spate of horror films. So, why do I retract the observation about the book, which was quite violent and included scenes of torture? The torture porn genre of film seems to be about pushing the envelope for what you can do in a film. This has always been true of movies, in which filmmakers must make everything bigger and better. Whether the jokes are funnier or grosser, whether the explosions are bigger and louder or whether the horror move is scarier or grosser (the other kind of gross). Torture Porn is a lazy phrase. It’s a quick way to apply a label to something complex. I admit it was lazy of me to throw out the term for the book, and there’s really no excuse for laziness, except for being lazy. When the Friday the 13th movies started multiplying, each sequel needed to outdo its predecessor with something even more disgusting (remember the 3D one that had the popping eyeball?). (more…)

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What I learned… (10) [The Internet]

Posted in Digression on August 2, 2007| Leave a Comment »

The internet is an amazing thing.  I recently wrote a review of a short story collection.  I really didn’t like this one particular story.  A few weeks after posting it, I saw there was a referral to it.  When I checked out the referrer, it was the author of said story!  I decided to see what he had said about my review, but all he said was that he thought it would be fair to include positive and negative reviews of his work.  I found this very noble, and decided to check out the rest of his blog.  Turns out he has some other works out.  One in particular, a novel, really struck me as having a great premise.  So, I checked it out from our library and am half way done and I really like it so far.  I’m looking forward to writing about it, because I now have a soft spot for the author.  I’m not changing my short story review, but I hate being a meany, so I’m glad I’ll have a happier review for him some time next week.

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What I learned… (8) [Typos]

Posted in Digression on July 12, 2007| Leave a Comment »

I am a terrible typist.  I have known this for some time.  I learned to type by a hunt and peck method which is now a basic knowledge of the keyboard, but really, that’s all.  I almost never use my pinkies.  It’s horrible.  As a result I make egregious typo’s and misspellings, even though I am quite a good speller.  Overall, I find this presents a very poor public face.  I have been re-reading my posts and realized how much I need to proof before publishing.  And to you, my readers, I apologize.  I fear that my bad typing has left a shameful scar across the validity of anything I have to say.  So, I have been correcting my old posts.  I think they now meet a minimum standard for English.  But it has also meant I haven’t been keeping up with new posts, which I will endeavor to get back on track.  The funny thing about the bad typing is that my handwriting is just atrocious, and barely legible.  You’d think I would have learned the second time around.

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What I learned… (7) [ALA]

Posted in Digression, McSweeney's on June 22, 2007| Leave a Comment »

My wife is away at the ALA conference. One would think that this would afford all kinds of time for reading. And then one would need to factor in two things: a two year old never stops and there are lots of things to be done around the house. How is it possible that she gets ANY reading done at all? Suffice it to say that this will not be a productive reading weekend. Although I am just about done with McSweeney’s #19. With any luck that T.C. Boyle story won’t take me 4 days to read!

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