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David Foster Wallace–[Week 3] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Allstonians, Big Books, Books about writers, Boredom, Boston, MA, Canadian Content, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Drinking, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Infinite Summer, James Joyce, Morrissey, Pearl Jam, Postmoderism, Prison, R.E.M., Racism, Religion, Russell Brand, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Suicide, The Smiths, WYYY 109 FM: The Largest Whole Prime on the FM Band on July 10, 2009| 2 Comments »

jesySOUNDTRACK: MORRISSEY-Years of Refusal (2009).

years ofI’ve been a fan of The Smiths for years.  And I think that Morrissey’s debut, Viva Hate, is on par with much of the Smiths’ catalogue.  Over the years his output has been mixed, but with Years of Refusal he comes fighting back with a really solid disc.  The disc is so good that if one had no idea of who he was, one could easily get into it with no preconceived notions of Morrissey, The Smiths or any of that glorious past.

From the start, the disc rocks out. That’s right, Morrissey totally rocks, with a real attitude.  “Something is Squeezing My Skull,” in addition to being quite funny, has one of Moz’s most loudly sung choruses in like, forever.  The martial beat of “Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed” showcases Moz’s “political” songwriting without ever losing its catchiness.  “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris” is a pretty classic Morrissey song, complete with a simple picking guitar riff.

“All You Need Is Me” has some great squeaky guitars and recalls Morrissey’s own “I Don’t Mind If You Forget Me”), while “When Last I Spoke to Carol” has a Mexican feel, which is different for him.  And “That’s How People Grow Up,” the single, has one of those classic Morrissey lines in which he subverts expectations with a left-field word choice: “So yes there are things worse in life than never being someone’s sweetie.”

The end of the album is full of longer songs which tends to skew the rollicking feel of the disc. (In the first 8 songs only 3 are over 3 minutes while the last 4 songs are each over 4 minutes).  Nevertheless, “It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore” is a wonderfully caustic song and the album closer, “I’m OK By Myself” is just fantastic, and I find myself singing “I don’t need you, or your morality” because they way he sings it gets stuck in my head for days.

There’s also a bonus disc which includes an interview with Russel Brand which is very funny indeed.

Welcome back Morrissey.  Well done, sir.

[READ: Week of July 6, 2009]  Infinite Jest (to page 227).

While looking for this cover of Infinite Jest (the one that I most associate with the book even though I never owned a copy with this cover), I noticed that Powell’s Books is selling a first edition hardcover copy of IJ for $450. The copy that I am currently reading is also a first edition hardcover.  If anyone wants to send me like $400 for it, just let me know!

On my Week Two post, I had a comment that criticized me for giving out spoilers.  While I disagree, I will preface this and future posts by saying that I will certainly be discussing what has happened in the week’s read (including footnotes endnotes and future footnotes endnotes if they are referred to in current footnotes endnotes), I will not intentionally reveal any spoilers.

On to Week 3 of Infinite Summer.  And at this point I not only feel good about the book, I feel somewhat refreshed. This whole week’s worth of reading has been fairly easy and often very funny.  We’re past the initial shock that you’re running a marathon, and are into that 3rd or 4th mile where you just start to feel good and enjoy the scenery.  I also hate to admit this, but I really want to peek ahead into the next week’s reading.  But no, I am going to pace myself!

I also have a question for faithful readers who are actually trying to map the location of the book.  I lived in Brighton, MA, very close to Boston College as well as in a location nearer to Allston, MA.  I have a vague sense of exactly where Enfield is supposed to be located, but if anyone has used the details in the book to map out where Enfield would be, do pass it along (someone has probably created a Google Map for it, but I haven’t actually checked).

This week’s reading had a lot of lengthy sections that focused on one person/issue for multiple pages which is either great or terrible depending on how you like this book broken up.  And TA DA!  The Chronology is spelled out very clearly! (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 2] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Big Books, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Dave Eggers, David Foster Wallace, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gangsters, Hawaii Five-0, Hüsker Dü, Hill Street Blues, Infinite Summer, Meta, Postmoderism, Set at School, Suicide, Technology, The Who on July 2, 2009| 7 Comments »

jestSOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Zen Arcade (1984).

zen arcadeWhen I was younger and more amused by things like this, it amused me that Hüsker Dü’s first three records were a live album an EP and a double album.  They just couldn’t put out a regular old LP?

It also amused me that they put out a song on this disc that was almost as long as their EP and was even almost as long as their Live record.  Such was the difference of Zen Arcade.

In reading about it lately I have learned that it is sort of a concept album (Someone even called it the Quadrophenia of 80s punk).  I gather I simply never paid enough attention to the lyrics to realize that (although it does explain “Hare Krshna”).  There’s also a lot of talk about how influential this disc was.  That may also be true, although I can’t say for sure.

Perhaps the most notable thing is how the disc is not just straight punk. Up to this point the Hüskers had released fast, straight ahead punk.  Distorted guitar and often screaming vocals.  And indeed, Zen Arcade starts off that way “Something I Learned Today” is a classic Hüsker Dü pop punk song.  It’s got a cool opening bassline and super distorted guitars, and yet its got a sing along chorus.  And “Never Talking to You Again” continues Grant Hart’s streak of great catchy punk.  This one includes acoustic guitar, though, just to break things up a bit.  It’s with Track 5 “Dreams Reoccurring” that you know things are going to be very different this time around.  This 2 minute song is full of reversed guitars sounds and all kinds of weird tape mixing.  It’s quite trippy and unlike anything else that the band had done.

As we near the middle of the disc, “Whats Going on Inside My Head” and “Masochism World” are absolute punk vocal shredders (so you know they’re not really going soft).  As the disc ends, “Turn on the News” plays around with recorded Newscasts, not a new concept, but new for them.  And then, of course, the final track, “Reoccurring Dreams,” a reprise of “Dreams Reoccurring” that goes on for 13 minutes of squalling feedback and demented solos (with a cool, if disconcerting, guitar motif).

One of my favorite facts about the disc is that it was all recorded in one take (except for, as the liner notes point out, 2 tracks that started too fast) and there were no overdubs.  It was mastered just as quickly so that the whole thing to about 85 hours to make.  It’s amazing that anything done that quickly can be that good.  But such is the case of this disc.  There’s a clunker or two in the mix, but how could there not be with all that energy bouncing around?

[READ: Week of June 29, 2009] Infinite Jest (to page 151)

After Reading the Infinite Summer site, I see that I got at least one thing wrong.  Mario is in fact not Hal’s younger brother, but is Hal’s older, but not oldest, brother.

I ordered 2 copies of IJ for our library since we did not have any (!).  I’ve been sneaking peeks in the second copy which has the above cover.  And an intro by Dave Eggers, which I enjoyed.

Also, when I dropped my old copy, a whole bunch of small squares of paper fell out: notes that I took the first time through.  I started to look at them but it revealed too much so I stopped.  I’m going to try and read this as purely as possible.

So, surprisingly (or perhaps un-) new characters are coming fast and furious in week two, (up to page 151). (more…)

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Periodical: Mother Jones

Posted in Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Book Reviews, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Drugs, Essays, Military, Mother Jones, Political Humor, Racism, Religion, Smarty Pants, The Progressive, Threats, Violence, War, William T. Vollmann, WMDs on June 30, 2009| 1 Comment »

mojoBack oh, fifteen years ago, I subscribed to Mother Jones.  I also subscribed to an unvaried assortment of political mags: The Nation, The Progressive, and In These Times.  But as I grew less politically motivated, I slacked off on the subscriptions.  I just didn’t have time to read all of that.

Recently, I added Mother Jones to my Google Home page.  I started seeing some good headlines, so I thought I’d look into resubscribing.  And for $10, I got a year.

At first I was a bit disappointed in it.  The first issue I received had the cover story: Who Ran Away With Your 401K?  And frankly, it’s gone, I don’t really need to see the trail of footprints leading to a culprit that will never be punished.  And that is the general focus of MoJo: Follow stories that no one is covering; muckrake, if you will.  And they’re very good at it.  And yet, most of the time I feel like nothing really comes of it.  Knowing that someone is at fault doesn’t make them pay for it (most of the time).

The other problem I had was with what we can call liberal guilt.  I’ve got better things to worry about, frankly.  So, when I get an article like this in the current issue: What’s Your Water Footprint? And the subtitle is If you thought calculating your carbon impact made you feel guilty, just wait….  Well, I’m not going to read that.

So the magazine starts like most magazines: the Out Front section is full of short articles that are usually depressing.

I do enjoy Conspiracy Watch, a small box that delves into a current conspiracy (by any side of the political spectrum) and sees if there’s any merit to it (with a rating in tinfoil hats).

There’s usually a look at someone in the administration and then some heavy-hitting articles.  This particular issue is all about the Drug War.  So there’s an article about drug violence in Mexico.  But then a more light-hearted, I suppose, article about drugs in the U.S., including a timeline for drug issues, was more interesting.  This particular one was a first-person account of the war on drugs.

The muckraking article was about the car dealers who steal from military families. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 1] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Big Books, Boston, MA, Canadian Content, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Drugs, Dystopia, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Hüsker Dü, Infinite Summer, Minnesota, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Suicide, Unreliable narrator on June 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

jestSOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Land Speed Record (1982).

landspeedMentioning Hüsker Dü during the Replacements reviews made me bust out their records too.  Land Speed Record was their first release, and it always amazed me that their first record was a live record.

It is an amazing blast of hardcore punk.

It is poorly recorded, stupidly fast and impossible to follow.  The CD is divided into two track (sides one and two) despite the 17 songs.  Most of the songs are simple, balls-out screaming punk.  In fact, it’s surprising how much you can tell it is Hüsker Dü given how shouty Bob Mould sounds.

In truth, it’s not entirely impossible to follow one song to the next (there are times when you can hear the choruses (“Guns at My School” and “Do the Bee” stand out).  But really it’s a pretty shocking discovery for anyone familiar with their alterna-pop that would come later.

The one real highlight is the final song, “Data Control.” It slows the pace and adds some mood (although it’s not that easy to discern).  But it contains a great deal of depth (for this album) and suggests that maybe the Hüskers were going to be more than a simple hardcore band.

The funniest part is that after the 25 minutes or so of noise, Bob Mould says, “we’ll be back for another set.”

[READ: Week of June 22, 2009] Infinite Jest [78 pages + endnotes]

So as I said, I’m going to be doing this Infinite Summer thing, reading 75 or so pages every week.  I haven’t figured out what I’m going to say each week, just some observations and characters to help keep things straight.  But there will be spoilers, so be warned.

Having read this before certainly helps put some context on things, even if I don’t remember a lot of the book.  But, for instance, it helps to know ahead of time that the “Year” chapter headings have been subsidized.  However, I don’t remember the chronology of them at this point.  See below, footnote endnote for more on the chronology.

The characters:   (as of page 78): (more…)

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