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Archive for the ‘Drugs’ Category

McSweeney’s #12 [Unpublished, Unknown &\Or Unbelievable] (2003)

Posted in Aimee Bender, Aleksandar Hemon, Alicia Erian, All Songs Considered, Andrea Deszo, Andy Lamey, Ann Cummins, Ashley Warlick, Ben Ehrenreich, Boredom, Chad Simpson, Darin Strauss, David Ebershoff, Dean Wareham, Death, Douglas Coupland, Drinking, Drugs, Emma Forrest, Essays, Excerpt, Frank Ocean, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gabe Hudson, Glen David Gold, Henry Bean, History, J. Malcolm Garcia, J. Robert Lennon, James Boice, Jennifer Egan, Jess Walter, Jessica Francis Kane, Jill Bialosky, John Henry Fleming, Jonathan Lethem, Judy Budnitz, Julie Orringer, Katie Roiphe, Laird Hunt, Letters, Marc Nesbitt, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Memoirs, Myla Goldberg, Native Americans, Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, Peter Orner, Prince, Rachel Sherman, Racism, Rene Nuijens, Rhett Miller, Rick Moody, Robots, Roddy Doyle, Ryan Boudinot, Salvador Plascencia, Sarah Raymont, Set at School, Sex, Shann Ray, Short Story, Sibylla Brodzinsky, Stacey Richter, Steve Almond, Steve Stiefel, Steven Millhauser, Tara June Winch, Travel, Valerie Sutton, Violence, Virginity (Loss of), War, Wythe Marschall on December 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »

12SOUNDTRACK: FRANK OCEAN-“Bad Religion” (2012).

frankoI didn’t know anything about Frank Ocean until I started looking at all of the  Best Albums of 2012 lists.  He was on everyone’s list and was pretty near the top of all of them.  So it was time to check him out.

It  turns out that he’s affiliated with the Odd Future collective, whom I’ve talked about in the past.  But he’s also been on a lot of big name records.  Channel Orange is his debut album (that’s not a mixtape) and the big surprise seems to be that this song (which he sang live on Jimmy Fallon) is about a male lover.  And I guess that’s progress.

So Ocean sings a slow R&B style, and I have to say his voice reminds me of Prince a lot.  Which is a good thing.  I really like this song.    It has gospelly keyboards (but in that Purple Rain kinda way).  And a really aching vocal line.  It’s really effective and it’s really simple.  And I think that’s what I liked best about this song and others that I’ve heard–he’s really understated.  Crazy, I know.

Now I do not like R&B, it’s one of the few genres that I just don;t get.  And yet there’s something about this album (the tracks I’ve listened to) that is really compelling.  It’s not awash in over the top R&B trappings, and it doesn’t try too hard.  It’s just Frank  (not his real name) and his voice over some simple beats.  A friend of mine recently said that all of a sudden she “got” this album, and  I think I may have to get it as well.

[READ: December 30, 2012] McSweeney’s #12

At the beginning of 2012, I said I’d read all of my old McSweeney’s issues this year.  I didn’t.  Indeed, I put it off for quite a while for no especial reason.  Now as the year draws to an end, I’m annoyed that I didn’t read them all, but it’s not like I read nothing.  Nevertheless, I managed to read a few in the last month and am delighted that I finished this one just under the wire.  For those keeping track, the only issues left are 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 10, 38, (which I misplaced but have found again) and 42, which just arrived today.  My new plan in to have those first four read by Easter.  We’ll see.

So Issue #12 returns to a number of different fun ideas.  The cover:  It’s a paperback, but you can manipulate the front and back covers to make a very cool 3-D effect (by looking through two eyeholes) with a hippo.  The colophon/editor’s note is also back.  Someone had complained that he missed the small print ramble in the beginning of the book and so it is back, with the writer (Eggers? Horowitz?) sitting in Wales, in a B&B, and hating it.  It’s very funny and a welcome return.

As the title suggests, all of the stories here are from unpublished authors.  They debate about what exactly unpublished means, and come down on the side of not well known.  And so that’s what we have here, first time (for the mos part) stories.  And Roddy Doyle.

There are some other interesting things in this issue.  The pages come in four colors–each for a different section.  The Letters/Intro page [white], the main stories [pink], the Roddy Doyle piece (he’s not unpublished after all so he gets his own section) [gray] and the twenty minute stories [yellow].  There’s also photographs (with captions) of Yuri Gagarin.  And a series of drawing that introduce each story called “Dancewriting”–a stick figure on a five-lined staff.  They’re interesting but hard to fathom fully.

LETTERS (more…)

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Grantland Quarterly, Number 4 (2012)

Posted in Alex Pappademas, Amos Barshad, Anachronisms, Andy Greenwald, Aziz Ansari, Baseball, Basketball, Beastie Boys, Biking, Bill Barnwell, Bill Simmons, Books about music, Books about writers, Boxing, Brian Phillips, Bryan Curtis, Carles, Charles P. Pierce, Charlie Pierce, Chris Connelly, Chris Ryan, Chuck Klosterman, Contests, Creed, Cycling, Daniel Kellison, Dave McKenna, David Hill, David Jacoby, David Shoemaker, Drugs, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Essays, Football, Girls, Grantland, Harris Wittels, Hockey, Hua Hsu, James Brown, Jamie Allen, Jason Oberg, Jay Caspian Kang, Jay-Z, Jeff Chang, Jonathan Abrams, Katie Baker, Ken Dryden, Louisa Thomas, Mad Men, Mark Lisanti, Mark Titus, McSweeney's, Molly Lambert, Nickelback, Olympics, Peter Orner, Prince, Public Image Ltd, Racism, Rafe Bartholomew, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Religion, Rembert Browne, Sexism, Shane Ryan, Short Story, Sixto Rodriguez, Smarty Pants, Soccer, Table Tennis, Tara Ariano, Tennis, Tess Lynch, The Sopranos, Van Halen, Violence, Wesley Morris, Wright Thompson, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA, Zombies on December 27, 2012| 1 Comment »

grantladn4SOUNDTRACK: PUBLIC IMAGE LTD-“Poptones” and “Careering” on American Bandstand (1980).

abThe Dick Clark article below alerted me to this bizarre gem–PiL “playing” on American Bandstand.   The article talks about John Lydon ignoring the lip synch, climbing into the audience and generally disregarding the show’s script. The video suggests something sightly less sinister (although maybe for 1980 it was outrageous–do you really cross Dick Clark?).

Dick Clark himself announces the band nicely, and then the crazy off-kilter bass and simple guitar of “Poptones” kick in.   Lydon runs into the bleachers with the kids (most of whom are dressed in New Wave finery not unlike Lydon).  They shriek with glee when he comes nearby (do any of them know who he is?  I have no idea).  When Lydon’s spoken rambling come in a little later you can’t help but wonder what the hell they are doing on AB.

Then, Lydon starts grabbing people from the audience and pushing them towards the stage–something I believe was unheard of on AB.  The fans dance around to the impossible-to-dance-to “Poptones.”  The song ends and Dick asks John if he wants the kids out there for song two.  Yes, song Two!  He does and John faux lip synchs through “Careering,” avoiding cameras at all costs and dancing with the kids–one of the most egalitarian performances I can think of from Lydon.

And listen for Dick asking Jah Wobble his name (reply THE Jah Wobble) and him saying, nice to meet you Wobble.  What a surreal moment–wonder what Dick thought of it.

Enjoy it here:

 

[READ: December 28, 2012] Grantland 4

Grantland continues to impress me with these books (and no, I have not yet visited the website).  My subscription ran out with this issue and I have resubscribed–although I take major issue with the $20 shipping and handling fee.  I even wrote to them to complain and they wrote back saying that the books are heavy.  Which is true, but not $5/bk heavy.  The good news is that they sent me a $10 off coupon so the shipping is only half as painful now.

This issue’s endpages were “hypothetical baseball wheel-guides created by JASON OBERG–they were pretty cool and a fun idea.  They look very retro, but use contemporary batters, pitchers and catchers.  I’d like to see them for real.

Each issue makes me like sports a little bit more, but not enough to actually watch  them.

(more…)

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McSweeney’s #41 (2012)

Posted in Aimee Bender, All Songs Considered, Boredom, Cassandra C. Jones, Chris Flynn, Death, Deb Olin Unferth, Drinking, Drugs, Eileen Van Neerven-Currie, Essays, Excerpt, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gracia Lam, Henry Bean, History, J. Malcolm Garcia, Jess Walter, Jesus Christ Superstar, John Brandon, Jowhor Ile, Kelsey Dake, Letters, Marriage Trouble, Matt Rota, Max Shoening, McSweeney's, Memoirs, Native Americans, Racism, Robots, Ryan Boudinot, Sex, Short Story, Sibylla Brodzinsky, Steven Millhauser, Swans, Tara June Winch, Thomas McGuane, Tony Birch, Track, Violence, Viveca Mellegard, War on December 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »

41

SOUNDTRACK: SWANS-Live at All Tomorrow’s Parties, October 2, 2011 (2011).

swansatpBefore Swans released this year’s amazing The Seer, they toured supporting their previous album (with a number of songs from The Seer included). This set has two songs from The Seer, “The Apostate” and “The Seer, Pt 1” together they comprise 50 minutes of the nearly two hour show.  The set also includes “No Words No Thoughts” (24 minutes) and “Jim” (a teeny 6 minutes) from 2010’s My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky.  The final track is an eleven minute version of “I Crawled” which goes all the way back to 1984’s Young God EP.

I would never have thought of Swans as a jam band, and yet here they are, with 5 songs in 2 hours.  Although unlike jam bands, they aren’t showing off their musical chops or noodling solos, they are created expressive and moody soundscapes–not as scary as in days of old, but very intense nonetheless.

The set sounds great, although I imagine this would be more enjoyable to watch than to listen to (there a great swaths of music where there’ s not a lot happening).  I wonder what Gira is doing during these stretches.  My friend Phil (or Phillipe Puleo as Gira calls him here) plays drums on the album and on this tour, and I have to say he must be exhausted–man he hits the drums hard.

I listened to this show before I heard The Seer, but it didn’t prepare me for what the album would contain.  Now having heard that album, I appreciate this live show even more–they really master these long songs.  I am going to have to try to see them the next time they swing by.  I admit I used to be afraid at the thought of seeing them because their early music was so intense, but this seems to be a different Swans now, one that an old man like myself could even handle.

The set is no longer available on NPR.

[READ: December 10, 2012] McSweeney’s #41

The cover of this issue has a series of overlapping photographs of lightning.  I didn’t really look at it that closely at first and thought it was an interesting collage.  Indeed, Sarah said it looked like a science textbook of some kind.  But when I read the colophon, I learned that Cassandra C. Jones finds photographs of lightning and (without manipulating them digitally) places them together so that the lightning bolts create shapes.  And indeed, that is what is going on.  And it’s amazing!

The cover’s pictures create a greyhound running (front and back covers show different stages of the run).  There’s also circles and a rabbit running.  It’s incredibly creative and very cool.  You can see some of her work at her site.

The feature of this issue is that there are four stories from Australian Aboriginal Writers, a group that I can honestly say I have never read anything from before.  There’s also beautiful art work accompanying most of the longer stories, three gritty non-fiction pieces and some letters, most of which aren’t very silly at all.

LETTERS (more…)

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Ludmilla Petrushevskaya–”Ali-Baba” (Harper’s, November 2012)

Posted in Drinking, Drugs, Harper's, KEXP 90.3 FM--Seattle, WA, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, Mudhoney, Russia, Short Story, Violence on November 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MUDHONEY-Live on KEXP, March 14, 2006 (2006). 

I was never a huge fan of Mudhoney.  Of all the Seattle grungy bands, Mudhoney was always near  the bottom for me.  Some of their stuff was great (“Touch Me, I’m Sick” is undeniable) but I never really got into them.

Having said them, this set taken from the Under a Billion Suns album is really good.  It’s more political than their earlier stuff, but the band still sounds heavy and loud and right on.  “Where is the Future” (“Where is the future that was promised us?  I’m sick to death of this one”) really summarizes their sound–slightly off sounding vocals, slightly off sounding verses and a great chorus.  “It is Us” (“I’ve seen the enemy and it is us”) features some of the more extreme vocals moments in the band’s sound.  And then the chorus is surprisingly catchy.

“Empty Shells” sounds like a hardcore song from the 8os, slightly awkward verse and then a gang-shouted chorus.  “Hard On for War” is kind of funny (but yet really not) about how since all the men at war it’s important to have sex with him as much as possible.  (“These lovely lonesome ladies don’t ignore me anymore.  Now I know why dirty old men are always pushing for war.”

As with every other heavy, angry band, it’s always funny to hear them being chatty and friendly with  the DJs.  They’ve been around Seattle forever and are very nice and happy to talk about their upcoming shows.  Mark Arm, incidentally has been interviewed in Metal Evolution, the 11-part series of VH1 that I have been enjoying a lot lately.  And he seems like a funny guy in that documentary as well.  Maybe it’s time to reassess those early CDs.

Hear this set here.

[READ: November 1, 2012] “Ali-Baba”

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s last story in Harper’s was called “Medea,” and now she has “Ali-Baba.”  In this one, Ali-Baba is a woman who has a drug and alcohol addiction.  Her mother continually tries to get her help, but this inevitably fails, especially now that the mother is in the hospital and Ali-Baba has free access to the house.

Ali-Baba has sold a few large books from her mother’s library to get some cash and is now out on the prowl at a bar.

Strangely though, this story opens with Victor, a man who has more or less given up on women.  He sees Ali-Baba dancing seductively, but he ignores her, believing that women would have no interest in him.  Eventually they wind up next to each other and they begin talking.  Seeing how unused Victor is to attention, she feels a strange tenderness towards him and even buys the last round.

But she is  especially delighted to learn that he lives alone (and not with his mother).  So she goes home with him. (more…)

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Douglas Coupland–Girlfriend in a Coma (1998)

Posted in Babies, Canadian Content, Cancer as plot device, Douglas Coupland, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, End of the World, Hospitals, Kurt Vonnegut, Sex, Supernatural, The Smiths, Violence, Virginity (Loss of), Yuck! on October 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE SMITHS-“Girlfriend in a Coma” (1987).

Big bouncy basslines open this poppy little ditty that belies its happy music by saying “I know it’s serious.”  The song is catchy and poppy and then there are some strings and martial drums and in 2 minutes it’s over.  What a strange and wonderful single from the Smith’s final album.

The single came with two B-Sides.  “Work is a Four Letter Word” which I never realized was a cover until reading about it now.  Of course it does seem very un-Smiths upon reflection.  And apparently Johnny Marr hated it.  “I Keep Mine Hidden” is the second B-Side.  I thought I had heard every Smiths song, but I don’t recognize this one at all.  It’s an okay song, not exactly a great hidden gem or anything.  If it were on the album, you;d say it should have been a B-side.  So, well done, lads.

The craziest thing about this whole single–three songs–is that it is under 7 minutes long in total.    Ah, I remember the 80s.

[READ: October 14, 2012] Girlfriend in a Coma

I’m glad I watched the short film Close Personal Friend just before reading  this because it really did put forth a lot of the ideas in this story.  The crazy thing is that I read  this book in 1998 but I didn’t remember very much of the story until the very end (which is surprising given how over the top some of the scenes are!).

And, let’s not overlook the Smiths connection.  Not only is the title a Smiths song, but there are dozens of instances where Coupland includes Smiths song titles and lyrics, sometimes in conversation.  In a short succession I saw: the queen is dead, oscillate wildly, bigmouth strikes again, hand in glove.  It’s like a scavenger hunt.

But on to the book. (more…)

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Douglas Coupland–“Fire at the Ativan Factory” (Disco 2000) (1999)

Posted in Canadian Content, Corporate skewering, Decadence, Douglas Coupland, Drugs, Marriage Trouble, Short Story, Silversun Pickups, Smashing Pumpkins, U2 on October 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SILVERSUN PICKUPS-Live at KEXP October 27, 2006 (2006).

I liked Silversun Pickups’ album Swoon quite a bit.  True, the singer sounds uncannily like Billy Corgan, but the shoegazer swirls of music were so sonically interesting that I couldn’t resist.

The lead singer/frontman is very funny and very engaging–he has great patter, and it’s clear that they all feel comfortable at KEXP (who were major promoters of the band).  This set comes from their first album, which I don’t know at all.  And I found it a little samey.

The production–washes and layers of music kind of flattened it out a bit.  It’s true that the melodies are good and his voice is compelling in the way that Billy Corgan’s is, but this set just never sticks with me.  I don’t know if that’s to do with the songs from the first album or if maybe live they’re not that interesting, but I didn’t love this set as much as I wanted to.

You can hear it here and a bunch more sets from them here.

[READ: October, 10, 2012] “Fire at the Ativan Factory”

Now that I’ve finished with Vonnegut for a while, I was planning on turning my attention to some new books, and then I stumbled upon this short story by Douglas Coupland–another author whose oeuvre I plan to read (I’ve actually read most of his books already, but they were over a decade ago so I’m going to go through them again).

Douglas Coupland is not one for short stories.  As far as I can tell this is one of the few stories he has published.  (this is going by Wikipedia, because his own homepage, which one would assume would celebrate all things Coupland, leaves out quite a lot of things).  This short story was published in a U.K. released fin de siècle  compilation called Disco 2000.  I’ve never heard of the collection.  And I certainly wasn’t going to hunt too hard to track it down, even if there are a bunch of interesting writers in it (end of the century malaise is so twelve years ago).  But fortunately and somewhat inexplicably to me, Barcelona Review has a full text copy (in English and Spanish(!)) on their site. (more…)

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Kurt Vonnegut–Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons (Opinions) (1974)

Posted in Bombs, Book Reviews, Books about writers, Carl Sagan, Cigarettes, Communists, Culture Shock, Dan Wakefield, Death, Drugs, Essays, Fears, Herman Hesse, Hunter S. Thompson, I.S. Shklovskii, Kurt Vonnegut, Ladies Home Journal, Morality, Of Monsters and Men, Play (Drama), Playboy, Rita Rait, Threats, Travel, Violence on September 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: OF MONSTERS AND MEN-Live from Iceland Airwaves (2011).

This brief set was recorded at KEX hostel in Reykjavik, Iceland (how on earth KEXP in Seattle was there I don’t know).  This set was performed before the release of their debut EP, although “Dirty Paws” which they play was not on that EP.  “Little Talks” their (reasonably) huge hit them was on the EP and is on their full length album–it’s a great duet (and reminds me a bit of Stars).

There’s an amusing fail in the horn solo on “Lake House,” which is kind of surprising, but not terribly tragic or anything.  The band sounds great, especially in front of a home country crowd (I love hearing them say “Takk” at the end of the songs).  There’s five songs in all, and by  the final one, they feel  sound like they’re really enjoying themselves.

[READ: September 1, 2012] Wampeters, Foma & Granfaloons

This collection contains essays reviews and speeches.  So it’s non-fiction.  Except that, ever the contrarian, Vonnegut includes one fiction piece–a short play.  The title of this book comes from three words from his novel Cat’s Cradle: “a wampeter is an object around which the lives of many otherwise unrelated people may revolve.  The Holy Grail would be a case in point.  Foma are harmless untruths, intended to comfort simple souls.  An example: ‘Prosperity is just around the corner.’ A granfallooon is a proud and meaningless association of human beings.”

That all comes from the preface.  The preface also says that there are people who have collected everything he has ever written (even stuff he has forgotten about) but he will not let most of that see the light of day.  Here he has whittled down the least embarrassing stuff for publication.  He also explains that at some point (supported by reading this) he decided to stop giving speeches; to stop “talking” and to concentrate on writing.  So he did.

The final straw for this was a comment from the President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  Vonnegut had prepared a speech.  The president reread it and hated it, but the president told Vonnegut that nobody would actually listen to the words: “People are seldom interested in the actual content of a speech.  They simply want to learn from your tone and gestures and expressions whether or not you are an honest man.”

While Vonnegut’s essays are powerful and effective, it’s the Preface that really tells it straightg.”Not nearly as many Biafrans were butchered by the Nigerians at the end of the war as I had thought would be.  At a minimum those damaged children at the exact middle of the universe will be more honorable than Richard M Nixon.  [Nixon] is the first president to hate the American people and all they stand for.”

Get ready for a happy collection. (more…)

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Grantland Quarterly, Number 3 (2012)

Posted in Alex Pappademas, Amos Barshad, Andy Greenwald, Baseball, Basketball, Bill Barnwell, Bill Simmons, Books about music, Books about writers, Boxing, Brian Phillips, Charles P. Pierce, Charlie Pierce, Chris Connelly, Chris Ryan, Chuck Klosterman, Contests, Cycling, David Jacoby, Dreams, Drugs, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Essays, Film & TV, Football, Grantland, Harris Wittels, Hockey, Jamie Allen, Jay Caspian Kang, Jonathan Abrams, Katie Baker, Ken Dryden, Louisa Thomas, Mark Titus, McSweeney's, Michael Weinreb, Molly Lambert, Olympics, Racism, Rafe Bartholomew, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Religion, Rembert Browne, Sexism, Shane Ryan, Short Story, Smarty Pants, Soccer, Tara Ariano, Tennis, Tess Lynch, The Office, Van Halen, Violence, Wesley Morris on August 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS-“Magic Johnson” (1989).

Just before the Red Hot Chili Peppers totally took off and became stadium stars, they released Mother’s Milk.  It was a commercialized realization of their three earlier more raw sounding funk rock records.  It was one of my favorite records of the late 80s.

Since Flea is interviewed in this issue of Grantland, and since he’s still a fan of the Lakers, it seemed like a good time to mention this song.

It opens with some martial drums (from then new drummer Chad Smith) and band chanting about M A G I C.  The lyrics are sung very quickly (I’m not even sure what they say half the time).  About 80 seconds in some wild guitar work burst forth, but it’s largely a chanted song of bass and drums.  There’ s a brief jam at the end where Flea shows off some great basswork and John Frusciante gets to do his thing again.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard it played anywhere (maybe at Lakers games?), so here’s a chance to hear it:

[READ: May 8, 2012] Grantland 3

One thing is for sure, Grantland loves it some basketball.  Basketball is the most widely covered sport in the published Grantlands so far. (The first issue even looked like one).  Since basketball is such a pop culture-referencing sport it actually works pretty well as a subject–with lots of different angles–especially given the state of the NBA lately.  Some other things on the Grantland staff’s minds include–the dangers of football and inadequacy of helmets to protect kids and Tim frickin Tebow (still!).  I don’t think an issue has past without talking about him yet.  I realize that’s a function of the time of these publications but… ew!

Nevertheless, the writing remains exciting and interesting, even for a non-sports guy like me.

(more…)

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Kurt Vonnegut–Welcome to the Monkey House (1968)

Posted in Adventure, Books about writers, Cancer as plot device, Chess, Communists, Consumerism, Culture Shock, David Foster Wallace, Death, Decadence, Dictionary, Drinking, Drugs, Dystopia, End of the World, Fears, Funny (ha ha), History, Hitler, Humiliation, Kurt Vonnegut, Ladies Home Journal, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, Military, Pink Floyd, Sci-fi, Scrabble, Sex, Short Story, Suicide, Supernatural, The Future, War on August 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PINK FLOYD-Alan’s Psychedelic Christmas (1970).

I’ve always loved Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother.  I have no recollection of how I stumbled upon this live bootleg, but when I saw that it contained one of the few live recordings of “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” I had to give it a listen.

So this show is from 1970 and was recorded in Sheffield just before Christmas (Nick Mason evidently introduced the show while wearing a Santa Claus suit).  The sound quality is pretty good given that it is 40 some years old.  There’s a bunch of hiss, and the quieter talking bits are hard to understand, but the music sounds fine.

So the show opens with “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” and what is so silly (and I assume funny to watch (a little less funny on bootleg) is that the band made and ate breakfast on stage.  As Collectors Music reviews writes: “This is the only known live recording of ‘Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast’ but also hosts an amazing performance by the band which included them making morning tea on stage which is audible. Just like most of their earlier performances, the performance of “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” slightly differs from the album version due to some nice jamming done by the band, especially Gilmour with his delay pedal.” As I said, some of the audio is static and hard to make out in this song–the band is conversing during their tea, but who knows what they are saying.  And who know what is o the radio.

Then the band gets down to business.  One of things I love about this period Floyd which is so different from their later work is that the played really long spacey jams often with very few lyrics.  So we get a 12-minute version of “The Embryo” (the only available studio version is a very short one on Works which is quite a shame as the song is really good).  A 14-minute workout of “Fat Old Sun” which is usually only about 5 minutes.

There’s a great version of “Careful with that Axe Eugene” and “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” (15 and 12 minutes respectively).

Then in a killer version of “Saucerful of Secrets,” just as they get to the end, there’s a power failure (at least according to the song title).  The band is rocking out just hitting the climax when suddenly all you can hear are un-miked drums.  Ha. After a couple of minutes, power comes back and they pick up from just before where they left off.

Then the band launches into a full 31-minute version of “Atom Heart Mother” complete with horns and choir  of voices.  It sounds quite good (the horns seem a little sketchy but that might be expected with such staccato music).

The set ends and the band needs an encore.  Apparently they couldn’t remember anything else because they just re-do the last few minutes of “Atom Heart Mother” again.

One of the things that cracks me up about these shows in the 70s in England, is that the audience is so polite. Their applause sounds like a classical theater rather than a rock show.  And with a bootleg you know they didn’t try to make the audience sound bigger than they are.

The whole package is a fun trip.

[READ: August 17, 2012] Welcome to the Monkey House

So this book is Vonnegut’s second collection of short stories.  But there’s a twist.  This collection contains all of the short stories from Canary in a Cat House except one. It also contains many of the stories he had written since then as well as stories not collected in Canary.  So you get basically 18 years worth of stories here.  And it’s interesting to see how much he has changed over those years (during which he wrote 5 novels, but not yet Slaughterhouse Five).

Since I read Canary a little while ago (see comments about the stories here), I knew that his 50’s era stories were influenced by WWII.  So it’s interesting to see how his stories from the 690s are not.  They deal more with day to day things and, of course, abstract concepts about humanity, although politics do enter the picture again once Kennedy is elected .

  • Where I Live (1964)

This was a good story to open with because it shows the then-later-period Vonnegut’s mindset and location.  This story is about Barnstable Village on Cape Cod (where I assume Vonnegut lived since there are a number of stories set on the Cape).  This is a very casually written story about an encyclopedia salesman who goes to the local library and sees that their two encyclopedias are from 1910 and 1938.  I enjoyed this line: “He said that many important things had happened since 1938, naming among others, penicillin and Hitler’s invasion of Poland.”  He is told to talk to the library directors who are at the yacht club.  I love the attitude that Vonnegut creates around the village which “has a policy of never accepting anything.  As a happy consequence, it changes about as fast as the rules of chess.” For really, this story is about the Village more than the encyclopedia salesman, and it’s an interesting look at people who move into a new place and want it to never change. (more…)

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Amy Parker–“Rainy Season” (Narrative Magazine, Winter 2012)

Posted in Adventure, Amy Parker, Boredom, Drinking, Drugs, Kiss, Narrative, Sex, Short Story, Van Halen on August 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Crazy Nights (1987).

I’m going to make a bold statement here—Crazy Nights is worse than The Elder.  Whereas The Elder was a mistake–weird songs, a bizarre concept, it showed some pretty ballsy moves.  Crazy Nights on the other hand is just a pandering mess.  There’s keyboards.  Keyboards!  The band has always been money makers (Gene Simmons’ face could be on the $100), but at least usually their music would find its own version of poppiness.  But this album sounds like any generic metal album from the late 80s.

“Crazy Crazy Nights” is an obnoxiously poppy sell-out of a song (although it is at least catchy, but man…).  “Fight Hell to Hold You” is the exception to the disc, a solid song from Paul with a good chorus.  But “Bang Bang You” is as dumb as it sounds.  It has cheesy keyboards, a lame riff and even has the audacity to reference “Love Gun.”  It’s hard to fault Bruce Kulick for his wild playing, but it seems so out of place on this disc–as if his crazy solos will make the album heavier.  Much like on Asylum, he gets a song to wail on the opening: “No No No” which is sort of winning by virtue of its non-stop propulsion (like say, “Hot for Teacher”).  But it’s not really a song so much as a series of connected sounds.

  “Come Hell or High Water” is pretty close to being a good song, perhaps the rest of the album taints this one too.  What’s especially crazy about the keyboards on “My Way” is that they sounds straight out of Van Halen’s 1984. [None of this is to imply I don’t like Van Halen, I just don’t want Kiss sounding like them].  “When Your Walls Come Down” feels heavy in comparison to the rest of the disc, especially when followed by the super-ballad “Reason to Live” (which despite myself I kind of like).  “Good Girl Gone Bad” is generic lyrically and musically.  “Turn on the Night” brings more cheese and more keyboards.   And “Thief in the Night” ends the disc on a reasonably high note.  But the problem is that the music is such generic pop metal that it’s hard to be inspired by any of it.

I’m kind of surprised Kulick stuck around during this–two albums in a row!.  Although he did get to show off his squealing chops, so maybe he was happy.

[READ: August 10, 2012] “Rainy Season”

This story came in second place in the Narrative Magazine Fall contest.  I had been putting off reading it because it was quite long and I didn’t really have enough time to devote to it.  When that time finally arrived, I was glad I waited.

This is a story about Jill and Maizie.  Their father works at the Thailand consulate (something to do with drugs).  And so the girls have been living in a gated compound for three months in Chaing Mai, Thailand. They are bored out of their minds.  They are not permitted to leave the compound, they are the only Americans around and all they can really do is watch Gone with the Wind (which they have memorized).  The girls have been trying to make the best of things, although it’s not always easy.  Especially given the way their father is.

Their parents got divorced some time ago and the girls have never lived in the same place for more than two years.  What’s worse is that their father is working all the time.  So when he is around, he’s not really around for them.  He is very strict about arbitrary things but is completely blind to others: “Maizie and Jill aren’t allowed to pierce their ears until they’re sixteen, he says. But he goes on trips to the Golden Triangle and leaves them alone in the house.”

Maizie is younger and she is super cute with comment-worthy blonde hair.  She gets away with a lot.  Jill is older.  She is no longer cute and she is resentful of both her father and her sister.  Of course, they only have each other, which Jill resents a bit too. (more…)

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