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Archive for the ‘Drugs’ Category

Arthur Conan Doyle–“The Man with the Twisted Lip” [The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes] (1891)

Posted in Arthur Conan Doyle, Drugs, Murder, Mystery, Sherlock Holmes, Short Story on March 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.

[READ: March 4, 2024] “The Man with the Twisted Lip”

The sixth story in this collection was rather slight and seemed to have a lot more set up than actual mystery.

It was especially odd because it begins with a woman coming to Holmes (and specifically Holmes’ wife) for help finding her husband.  He has been going to an opium den for quite some time, but he always returns.  But he hasn’t been home for two days!

Holmes goes to the den and finds the man.  He puts him in a cab, but while he’s there, Holmes catches his attention.  Homes has been undercover in the opium den because of a case that he’s on.  He asks Holmes to help him.

The case is fairly straightforward.  A man left his home to go to the city to get presents for his children.  On the same day, his wife heads to the city to pick up a package.  While she’s in town, she sees her husband in the window of the opium den.  When she goes to investigate, she is foiled by the den owner.  The police are quickly called and the only person they can find is a beggar Hugh Boone who is well known to everyone (he has orange hair, a giant scar and a twisted lip).  There’s no sign of the missing man except for his clothes and an open window.

It is presumed that the man was tossed out the window into the sea and is now dead.

Holmes puzzles over this for a night and then reaches the conclusion that solves the mystery.

I know that some of the mysteries are ones that can be solved by the reader, but this one has a lot of details that the reader couldn’t possible know.  In fairness, I guess Holmes wouldn’t know them either.

On the other hand, the backstory about the missing man is pretty interesting and that alone pretty much makes the story a good read.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The four novels of the canon:

  1. A Study in Scarlet (1887)
  2. The Sign of the Four (1890)
  3. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
  4. The Valley of Fear (1915)

The 56 short stories are collected in five books:

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
  2. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
  3. The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
  4. His Last Bow (1917)
  5. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) contains 12 stories published in The Strand between July 1891 and June 1892

  1. “A Scandal in Bohemia” (June 1891)
  2. “The Red-Headed League” (August 1891)
  3. “A Case of Identity” (September 1891)
  4. “The Boscombe Valley Mystery” (October 1891)
  5. “The Five Orange Pips” (November 1891)
  6. “The Man with the Twisted Lip” (December 1891)
  7. “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” (January 1892)
  8. “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” (February 1892)
  9. “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb” (March 1892)
  10. “The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor” (April 1892)
  11. “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” (May 1892)
  12. “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” (June 1892)

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Arthur Conan Doyle–“A Scandal in Bohemia” [The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes] (1891)

Posted in Adventure, Arthur Conan Doyle, Drugs, Mystery, Sexism, Sherlock Holmes, Short Story on February 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: February 4, 2024] “A Scandal in Bohemia”

Many years ago I was on a bit of a Sherlock Holmes kick.  I read the first two novels and then couldn’t get a copy of this collection, so I guess I forgot about the detective.  Since i have recently listened to a couple of Sherlock Holmesisn books I decided to track down the next book to read.

And I was quite surprised to realize that while Arthur Conan Doyle did write a lot of Sherlock stories, most of them were short stories, not novels (See the list below).

So since these were short stories I decided to give a crack at them.

This first one “A Scandal in Bohemia” is quite well-known as it introduces HER–the woman–Irene Adler.  In this first story Adler befuddles the genius who is Sherlock Holmes.

The story is remarkably tame–even Watson says so as he writes of the case.

The King of Bohemia is meant to be married.  But Irene Adler has a photo of the two of them together that she is using to blackmail him.  She threatens to have the photo get out to the public ass soon as he announces his marriage.

The King is a mildly comical character because he is quite smitten with Miss Adler (who is from New Jersey!).  But she is not of his class so he cannot pursue anything with her.

He has tried several different ways of getting the photo back (legal and decided illegal), but has had no luck. (more…)

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Joseph Keckler (ArtYard, Frenchtown, NJ, February 2, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in ArtYard, Drugs, Frenchtown NJ, Funny (ha ha), Joseph Keckler on February 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 2, 2024] Joseph Keckler

I saw Joseph Keckler open for Sleater-Kinney five years ago.  It was a great and memorable performance:

The short version is that he has an utterly amazing voice.  It is deep and rich and operatic and I can honestly say I have never been in the presence of someone who could sing like that before.

But he doesn’t sing opera.  Well, he does, sort of.

He came out on stage and didn’t introduce himself.  He asked us how we were doing and then said that he wasn’t doing great.  Then he turned on a laptop and played a musical motif and he began to sing in beautiful Italian.  The video screen behind him projected the translation of the words.  And they were hilarious.

It was a song about going to a party and eating shroom-laced chocolate.  Then walking home and wanting to kill himself until he remembered he had to brush his teeth.  It is called, naturally enough “Shroom Trip Opera.”

I saw that he was touring and then I was shocked that he was playing in Frenchtown (not all that far from me).  I was thrilled to discover there was a performance space closer than Philly.  So he introduced me to this location as well. (more…)

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Caleb Crain–“Easter” (New Yorker, September 26, 2022)

Posted in Caleb Crain, Death, Drugs, New York City, New Yorker, Short Story on January 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: January 2, 2024] “Easter”

This story follows two events in Jacob’s life.

They are placed concurrently often with no discernable change in the narrative.  And that makes sense since Jacob is stoned for most of it.

Jacob had driven from Houston to Galveston to visit Stu. Stu was a college friend.  They had gotten stoned together but never just the two of them–always in a group.  So Jacob was a little nervous.

But they quickly got stoned and all was well.

The other story was a few days earlier when he flew from Harvard to Texas to be with his family for Easter break.  They were all going to stay with Jacob’s grandparents.  Jacob’s grandfather had been a doctor and often self-medicated.  He also medicated his wife.  But since he was no longer practicing, his prescriptions were not always safe. (more…)

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Kami Garcia; Gabriel Picolo–Teen Titans: Beast Boy (2020)

Posted in Beast Boy, Death, Drugs, Gabriel Picolo, Graphic Novel, Kami Garcia, Raven, Supernatural, Teen Titans on July 13, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: May 20, 2023] Teen Titans: Beast Boy

Kami Garcia has written (and Gabriel Picolo has illustrated) a trilogy of books about Raven and Beast Boy from the Teen Titans.

I only know about Teen Titans from teen Titans Go! which I think is hilarious and (which I realized years after watching it) has nothing really at all to do with the actual Teen Titans who are serious (and kind of dull in a DC comics way).

But these stories are interesting and seem to be breaking out of the darkness that DC is under with these lighter (but not nearly as light as Teen Titans Go!) origin stories.

As with all comic book characters, origin stories are canon.  Until they need to be modified for the new series. I don’t know what the actual origin stories of either of these characters are, but I enjoyed these quite a bit.

This story begins in Georgia where teenaged Garfield Logan (Beast Boy) has a bucket list that mostly includes gaining weight and muscle.  As he leaves the house, his parents ask him if he has taken his Aminotrianidol, to which he says yes, just like every day.  This is a supplement that they say he absolutely must take every day.

Garfield and his friend Stella drive to the county fair to watch their friend Daniel ‘The Tank” Tanaka win a hot dog eating contest.  Stella is an online gamer with thousands of followers.  Garfield is bummed because he doesn’t have a thing that he’s good at. (more…)

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Brian Level, Ryan Ferrier, Kate Sherron, Crank!–Silk Hills (2022)

Posted in Brian Level, Crank!, Death, Deer, Drugs, Graphic Novel, Guns, Huh?, Humiliation, Kate Sherron, Moths, Oni Press, Ryan Ferrier, The X Files, Violence, Yuck! on May 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.

[READ: May 9, 2023] Silk Hills

I haven’t been reading that many graphic novels lately.  My daughter made the excellent point that our local library has an excellent graphic novel collection but that it hasn’t been updated in quite a while.  So I was pleased t o see this book at work, especially since it was from Oni Press, a reliably weird publisher.

I don’t know any of the contributors: authors Brian Level (has written for Star Wars and Marvel) and Ryan Ferrier (has written lots of indie books and written for Marvel and DC).  Crank! is Christopher Crank who has done lettering for just about everyone.  Kate Sherron has a very distinctive visual style (which I see a lot of people don’t like).  I thought it was pretty cool and unusual–it reminded me a bit of Jeff Lemire’s style.

I have been listening to a book of short stories from The X-Files, and this book immediately made me think of the X-Files.  It’s also the kind of story that either should have been longer or should have had fewer hallucinatory passages and had more explanatory pages.

Beth Wills is a former Marine turned private investigator.  She lives in New York City but is sent to an unnamed rural community called Silk Hills.  It must be pretty far, as a gas station attendant remarks on her New York plates, but we don’t know exactly where Silk Hills is.

I enjoyed the interactions with Wills and the gas station attendant also a former military man (out six years). (more…)

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Nick Kent–The Unstable Boys (2021)

Posted in Amsterdam Netherlands, Books about music, Books about writers, Death, Drinking, Drugs, Nick Kent, Poo, Pornography, Prostitution, Sex, Sexism, Sexual Assault, The Pretty Things, Violence on March 5, 2022| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE PRETTY BOYS-“Midnight to Six Man,” “Don’t Bring me Down,” “Rosalyn.” (1966, 1964, 1964).

The Pretty Boys are referenced a lot in this novel and I realized I never knew them.

According to Classic Rock History, these are t he band’s top three songs.

I guess as a reference point, I can see what Kent was going for.  The lead singer sounds like a bit of a wild man, with lots of screams.  Each song is a kind of rowdy garage rock. They’ve got a lot of energy, but very mid 60’s energy which really doesn’t appeal to me.

And none of the songs have anything remotely resembling the kind of musical genius that the guitarist in the novel is supposed to have.

So I wasn’t missing anything.

[READ: February 28, 2022] The Unstable Boys

I’m usually a pretty good judge of books when I see them at work.  We get a lot of novels that I would never read, but we occasionally get a gem that I’d never see anywhere else.

I looked at The Unstable Boys and thought I had a gem.  And it started out as one.

The book is about a fictional band from the 60s called The Unstable Boys.

The opening of the book is clippings from various articles about the band.

They were a mix of personalities with two talented members, an array of drummers and a lead singer called The Boy who was a force of nature.  He was, simply, an asshole.  But he was charismatic and unpredictable and people were intrigued by him.  They had a hit, they were poised to do some big stuff and then their second guitarist died.  They were about to go on a major American tour and wanted to postpone.  But the label wouldn’t let them.  The label threw in some new members for the tour and the band imploded.

Guitarist Ral Coombs was a really talented and sensitive musician.  He and The Boy nearly came to blows.  They vowed to never reunite or even speak to each other again.

Then the story begins properly.  We meet Trevor Bourne. He is recently single and, as a freelance writer, not very successful.  He had written a story about The Unstable Boys a while back, but hasn’t had much success lately.

Enter Michael Martindale.  He is a very rich and successful fiction writer.  (more…)

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J.P. Oakes–City of Iron and Dust (2021)

Posted in Adventure, Art, Death, Drugs, Goblins, J.P. Oakes, Pixies, The Fae, Violence, War, Yuck! on February 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: February 15, 2022] City of Iron and Dust

Like a bird attracted to shiny things, when I see an interesting-looking book come by my desk at work, I decide to read it–no matter how big my tipping over pile of other books to read happens to be.

I dithered about reading this book and I had a slightly hard time getting into it (probably because I wasn’t exactly sure if I wanted to read it).  But it got very good and very exciting very quickly.

The book is broken up into chapters and each chapter is broken into subsections about a particular character

Jag.  She is the daughter of one of the big goblin families in the City of Iron.  But she longs for a world where goblins don’t dominate and persecute the rest of the fae.  She’s an idealist who goes to fae bars trying to feel something more than the money and power her family has.

Sil.  Sil is half goblin half Fae.  She is Jag’s half sister.  But she was brought up to be an assassin.  And her only purpose in life is to protect Jag.  Later on, we are shown the brutality she suffered to become such a formidable creature.  She has no opinions of her own. (more…)

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David Sedaris–“Easy, Tiger” (New Yorker, July 11 & 18, 2011)

Posted in Black Motion, China, Coronavirus, David Sedaris, Drinking, Drugs, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Germany, Homophobia, Japan, Language, New Yorker, Quarantine, South Africa, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Tokyo, Japan, Translation, Yuck! on July 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLACK MOTION-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #233 (July 8, 2021).

 Black Motion specializes in Afro-House and this set is infectious.

Afro-House has spread joy and healing across the country of South Africa, transcending local boundaries to become a thriving global dance phenomenon. In my experience, Its indigenous sounds and percussive rhythms drench the soul and heart with healing powers and cultivate communion with the infinite.

This Afro-House set is brought to life thanks to several featured vocalists and guest musicians.  Black Motion’s Tiny Desk (home) concert, recorded at the former residence of Nelson Mandela, feels like a spiritual sound bath. The South African production duo turntablist Bongani Mohosana of the Zulu tribe and percussionist Thabo Mabogwane of Sotho tribe — open their set with “Mayibuye iAfrica,” a cry for Africa to return to its culture and history.

“Mayibuye iAfrica” opens with a fun introduction.  There’s whooping, growling, cawing, (from DJ and producer Bongani Mohosana and keyboardist Almotie “Alie-keyz” Mtomben).  There’s some great percussion (producer and drummer Thabo Roy Mabogwane’s set has over ten different drums and a few cymbals).  Then, after a minute or so Siyabonga Hosana Magagula’s grooving bass and Lifa “Sir_Lifa” Mavuso’s slow but perfect-sounding guitar enter the picture.

Then the singers come in singing a beautiful chorus.  The three of them are: Lusindiso “Jojo” Zondani (tenor), Gugu Shezi (soprano) and Noxolo Radebe (alto), and there voices gel wonderfully.

Up next is “Rainbow” which shuffles along with the DJs sampling and a simple keyboard melody (that sounds a bit like The Way It Is).

South African singer Msaki makes her third appearance in our (home) concert series, after earlier credits with Black Coffee and our Coming 2 America special. She lends her vocals to “Marry Me,” a soulful jam from Black Motion’s 2020 album, The Healers: The Last Chapter.

Next up is “Marry Me.” Msaki sings lead vocals on this song which has a grooving echoing lead guitar. “Alie-keyz” plays a cool retro organ solo before “Sir_Lifa” jams out a guitar solo.

Interestingly, Msaki’s voice was relatively deep, but on the next song, “Joy Joy,” Brenden Praise’s voice is pretty high (in the choruses).  For the verses, he sings a bit deeper.  I like the way the backing vocalists sound like gospel singers here.

“Imali,” featuring Nokwazi, soothes the lingering remnants of pandemic fears,

The snare drum introduces the colorfully dress Nokwazi who sings “Imali.”  Her call and response singing is really great, as is her intense, growling style.

Tabia closes with the lilting “Prayer for Rain.”

Tabia comes out for “Prayer For Rain” and says “let’s pray” as she sings some wordless notes to warm up the song.  When she starts singing, I don’t know what language she’s singing, but the passion is palpable.  And the thunderclap that DJ Bongani Mohosana adds at the end is a welcome touch.

This is a powerful and moving (emotionally and physically) set of songs.

[READ: May 10, 2021]  “Easy, Tiger”

After reading David’s story about shopping in Tokyo, it was funny to go backwards and read about one of his first few trips abroad and how he started learning the local language(s).

He says that he had been using Pimsleur Japanese and felt fairly comfortable when in Japan.  But on this trip he was also going to Beijing and he had forgotten to study.

But this is not so much about China as it is about learning languages in general.

Since he doesn’t drive, phrases like “as for gas, is it expensive” don’t really help him out.  But he uses “fill her up please” when asking for a tea refill.  He also gets to say that he is a man with children since they do not have a phrase for “I am am middle aged homosexual…  with a niece I never see and a small godson.”

He recommends Pimsleur for pronunciations and memorization.  But he also likes Lonely Planet. (more…)

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Ryan O’Sullivan, Plaid Klaus–Void Trip (2018)

Posted in Canadian Music, Death, Drugs, Graphic Novel, Huh?, Outer Space, Plaid Klaus, Rheostatics, Road Trip, Robots, Ryan O'Sullivan, Violence, War, tagged on June 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Sonic Boom, Toronto, ON (September 5 2019).

Back in 2007, when the Rheostatics said farewell, who ever would have guessed that they’d be back in a record store for an album release event.  But here they are, playing in a record store and answering a formal Q&A.

For the release of the Here Come The Wolves album the Rheos did a Q&A at the record store Sonic Boom in Toronto with Laurie Brown.  Her interview is included here but the video can be found here.  The band then did a 45 minute set of new songs which may have been the first time since reforming that Hugh Marsh did not play with them as he was in Europe at the time. Luckily Eric Mac Innis traveled to Toronto from the Maritimes for this event and recorded it for everyone to hear.

After a 40 minute interview (which is quite nice), the four guys are going “to try to play the first five (actually six) songs of the record.”  Which is the first side of the record.

They tune up. Martin jokes “this is the Ravi Shankar portion” and DB says “our record is actually a Doors tribute album.  Every song starts in a minor key.”

They start after two minutes with “Vancouver.” The recording is very spare–like they are holding back for the small space.  The entire middle part is instrumental with maybe Dave noodling away until Martin comes back to sing the rest.  The end rocks a bit more.  Martin throws in a hint of a Journey song in the solo.  Tim: “We still haven’t quite learned that one yet.”   DC: “I did.”

“AC/DC On The Stereo” has big guitar chords and a few false intros (it’s weird without High’s violin).  “Rearview” sounds really nice in this setting.

DB: we used to do these things at the Rivoli–live rehearsals.  I’d like to bring that back.  Super fun.  We worked songs out.  It was entertaining for us.  Maybe not the audience.  I remember them being really full and then that thing turned up on YouTube of us spanking Dave Clark on the ass.  The Rivoli was very dark.  [whisper: people deal guns there?  Don’t go downtown, Dave.]  There’s no one–12 of our friends there.  You can buy gum at the Rivoli.

“Here Come The Wolves” is next.  Martin tunes while Dave gives a big drum intro.  Wanna see my tuner?  Here clip this on the head stock.  [Ha ha ha Now that’s comedy].  How you doin?  The song works well.  Everyone claps at the pause and then Martin does his part.

They thank Michael Phillip Wojewoda, Chris Walla, Gus Van Gogh for working on the album and Martin tells a funny story about MPW’s disgusting dreadlock.  Mike has left Dave has known him since he had that beaver-shaped dread in the middle of his hair it had a gray core–it was oxidizing in the middle.  Never leave a Rheostatics shows or the band will tell stories about you.

DC: I was being nice to the guy and you guys are tearing him a new one  Martin: that’s not a new one that’s something he did.  There’s nothing wrong with dreadlocks.  DC: I’m just stirring the pot.  MT: Stirring a big pot of dreadlock stew–it makes a fine broth.  We were on tour with the Dough Boys (Dreadlock Stu).

Next song is by David Clark.  DC: Martin, pick your favorite chord, don’t look.  Martin plays an insane chord and the song starts.  After the song DB: remember that chord, it’s pure gold.

Sympathetic vibrations.  DC starts talking about sympathetic advice he received from a luthier.  never leave your instrument in a case (they die), have them on stands in the noisiest part of the house they will vibrate and stay in tune.  DB says that’s bullshit.  Martin says it’s largely bullshit, but not totally.  Pick up an acoustic guitar that’s been in a case it will sound like shit; pick up a cheap one that’s been out and it will sound good.

DB: You learned that all from a Lutheran?
DC: Yes he nailed it to me.

Buy the record upstairs on the mezzanine level.  They play a jazzy number: buy the record in the mezzanine. How much does it cost?  $1.79.  No, that’s not even the tax.

They end with another song by Tim: “Music is the Message.”  We’re gonna play it and go.  It’s slow and pretty–sounds good, although the backing ahhs are a little crazy.

[READ: June 15, 2021] Void Trip

I saw this book on the shelf at the library and thought the title sounded promising.  The cover also looked pretty cool, so I brought it home.

As the book opens, we see Ana and Gabe stealing fuel from a tanker in the desert.  Gabe is much older than Ana and they seem to be arguing about their (confusing) plans.  They are quickly interrupted by the owner of the truck–a rather large but cute humanoid creature with a furry face.

Ana tells him that space pirates were trying to steal his fuel and she and Gabe frightened them off.  The trucker is grateful for the help but when he is visited soon after by a white robot, he’ll wish he wasn’t so gullible.

Ana and Gabe are the last humans alive (according to the back of the book, although I’m not sure it says that anywhere in the story).  They are headed to Euphoria, a sort of promised land planet.

They stop off at a rest stop where a humanoid elephant with lots of trunks (Ganesh-like) joins them to indulge in froot (various psychedelic drugs).  Mooreberry gives psychedelic experiences; Gaimangos turn everything into a fairytale.  Busiekhini will taste like the best food you’ve ever had.  (Those names are pretty good).  He eats it and hilarious trippiness ensues. (more…)

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