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Archive for the ‘Fears’ Category

Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm–Babymouse: Our Hero [#2] (2005)

Posted in Cats, Children's Books, Cupcakes, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Jennifer L. Holm, Kids Corner, Matthew Holm, Mice, Set at School, Short Books, Superheroes, The Amoeba People, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on May 31, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE AMOEBA PEOPLE-“Cosmology, Your Futon and You” (2010).

I found out about The Amoeba People from the Kids Corner Top Ten Songs of 2010 list (this was number one).

The Amoeba People are a fun, weird kids band who write clever, often science-based songs.  This song has a wonderful bass line that opens the song.  There’s suitably weird space sounds (theremin) and a nice choral chorus).

Lyrically it’s a distorted spoken story full of clever word play.  It features a whole lot of facts about outer space (and jokes about futons).   And while you won’t get all the lyrics on the first try, it rewards repeated listens.

You can hear the track here.

[READ: April 16, 2011] Babymouse: Our Hero

This is the second Babymouse book (nope, I’m not reading these in order, which goes against a lot of my neuroses, but I think I can handle it).

As this story opens, Babymouse oversleeps and misses her bus.  And right from the start the fantasy/dream sequence kicks in.  The voices that try to wake her are not her bratty sister, but her adoring fans!  And when she misses the bus, the walk to school is really a trudge through the desert…will she survive???

It’s all quite funny, especially the “voiceover” which she can obviously hear, and with which she argues from time to time. (more…)

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Camilla Gibb–“The Principles of Exile” (The Walrus, July/August 2007)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Books about writers, Camilla Gibb, Canadian Content, Fears, Firewater, KEXP 90.3 FM--Seattle, WA, Letters to Cleo, Religion, Short Story, The Walrus, Violence, Yuck! on May 29, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FIREWATER-Performance from KEXP, July 3, 2008 (2008).

I loved Firewater when their first two albums came out and I even saw them once open for Letters for Cleo (a great show by both bands).  Then I more or less lost touch with them.  And it turns out that lead Firewater dude Tod A. had been out of the country for a while.

The interview (and concert) with them details his distaste for the Bush administration and his decision to get the hell out of the country for a while.  So he spent three years traveling around India, Turkey, Pakistan and then returned with this album.  I wasn’t aware of any of that, or even that they had a new album out in 2008.

Firewater had a very cool (and reasonably original) sound when they came out back in 1996.  They had a middle eastern vibe even back then which they blended nicely with theatrical pomp and a whole lot of punk.  They threw everything together into a rollicking good time (even if the lyrics were very dark indeed).

The 2008 album The Golden Hour seems a bit more upbeat (touring the world did him good) although it hasn’t changed the overall style of the music.  This live set includes several new musicians for Firewater, and their array of skills (and instruments) is great.  But the most surprising thing to me is how friendly and jovial Tod A. is.  As I said, I knew the band as being kind of angry, so hearing him be fun (and inviting the KEXP volunteers to sing gloriously chaotic backing vocals on “Beirut”) is really cool.

In total the band does four songs: “Hey Clown,” “Electric City,” “6:45,” and “Borneo.”  I think the biggest surprise for me is how short the songs are.  Not punk short, but more like pop song length.  And super catchy as well.

It’s a welcome return to a great band.  Although I see they haven’t released anything else since 2008.

[READ: April 4, 2011] “The Principles of Exile”

This was a fascinating and very sad story which had multiple layers and went in many unexpected directions.  It was really great.

As the story opens, Manny is sent to get some “special” cheese from a shop.  The cheese is called halloumi, and the best kind is made in a bucket behind their counter.  He is sent for this cheese because his mother is making a special dinner.

The dinner is in honor of Monsieur Sarkis’s new book.  There was a fatwa leveled against Sarkis for his previous book.  And that previous book (naturally) went on to be a best seller.  Well, Manny’s father had the publishing rights to the book (normally his publishing house was on the verge of bankruptcy, so a huge best seller was a big deal for them).  They didn’t even mind the fatwa.

Until it started to affect them personally. (more…)

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New Yorker essays about 9/11 after the death of Osama bin Laden (New Yorker, September 24, 2001)

Posted in Ahron Appelfeld, Airlines, Amitav Ghosh, David Foster Wallace, Death, Denis Johnson, Donald Antrim, Essays, Fears, John Updike, Jonathan Franzen, New Yorker, Rebecca Mead, Religion, Roger Angell, Susan Sontag on May 12, 2011| 3 Comments »

[READ: September 24, 2001 & May 9, 2011] Talk of the Town

After 9/11, I read everything about the incident (like the multiple comics that came out).  About a week after 9/11 my friend Al and I went down to Hoboken and absorbed the decay (and I can’t help but wonder if that’s why I’ve developed adult asthma).  My 9/11 story is no more compelling than anyone else’s and may even be far less compelling (you can read a snippet at Al’s blog, should you care to).  Anyhow, when this issue of The New Yorker came out (with the amazing cover that you can’t really see here–the towers are in a shiny black that reflects the light), I read all of these accounts and recollections.

I came upon them again recently when I was doing a New Yorker search for Jonathan Franzen.  I recently read all of his New Yorker entries, but when I saw that he had one that was part of this 9/11 issue, I decided to put it off.  It was reasonably close to the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, and I told myself I’d wait until then to reread and see what I thought.

And then President Obama gave the order to capture and kill Osama bin Laden (hooray!) and that seemed like a far more propitious reason to go back and re-read these articles.  Now I can feel a bit lighter about the whole thing (just a bit, but a bit can be a lot).  And so, here’s a somewhat facile reaction to these reactions.

I’ll preface by saying I can’t imagine what it must have been like to write something, anything at that time.  Some people respond well to pressure and tragedy and perhaps that’s what happened here.  I can’t help but wonder how paralyzing it must have been for other writers (as it was for most people).  So that these writers had the wherewithal to write anything coherent is pretty amazing.  And the fact that the could express the range of emotions that they do is extraordinary. (more…)

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Keith Ridgway–“Goo Book” (New Yorker, April 11, 2011)

Posted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cibo Matto, Fears, Gangsters, New Yorker, Sex, Short Story, Stereolab on May 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: CIBO MATTO-“Sugar Water” (1996).

We have been rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  In episode one of season two the (then) hip band Cibo Matto appeared, playing “live” at the Bronze.  It was the first time they had a “real” band on the show.  In season one there was an occasional live band, Sprung Monkey (they were in the first episode pretty prominently) but Cibo Matto were the first “national” band–with a hit single or two–to be on the show (and look, there’s Sean Lennon in a dress!).  The song works pretty well here for the atmospherics and moodiness.

I really liked Cibo Matto when they came out.  Sure, they were kind of a novelty, (two Japanese singers with an Italian band name who sung a bunch about food) but then the late 90s were all about novelty.  Of course, even within the realm of the alt rock 90s, a song called “Know Your Chicken” was pretty unusual (noisy and weird) .  “Sugar Water” on the other hand, is a moody piece.  It’s slow with delicate keyboards and a (very mildly) spooky verse.  But the overall feel is a kind of “space age” one for notes and tones.  It also has a kind of Stereolab-vibe (especially in the la las).   It’s a catchy song and I enjoyed hearing it again after all thee years.

Not to mention the video is suitably curious.

[READ: April 8, 2011] “Goo Book”

This is a strangely sentimental story for one that starts out with the sentence: “It was fucking hot.”  In fact, the story is strangely sentimental for a story about a gangster’s apprentice (and one which has so much cursing!).

The protagonist is a young man who is a petty thief.  Mostly he steals from tourists (I was pleased that when he took he thought was a wallet but which turned out to be a notebook, he then gave the book to a kid to make sure the tourist got it back–stealing money is one thing but returning the notebook showed a decency that I approved of).

But he also worked for Mishazzo as his driver. (And I have to admit that perhaps the one flaw of the story is that I couldn’t follow the timeline at all).  Mishazzo is a gentleman who owns a lot of businesses.  And the driver was told explicitly that he didn’t know anything.  At all.  He just drove.  And the driver was fine with that.  He asked no questions.  And the driving was fine–usually to one of Mishazzo’s coffee shops for an undetermined  length of time.  So he started carrying a bottle with him in case he had to pee (he wasn’t allowed to leave the car), and started smoking like a fiend.  But the money was good, and he honestly didn’t know what Mishazzo was up to (he assumed it wasn’t good, but he also assumed it wasn’t that bad either). (more…)

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Helen Humphreys–“Franklin’s Library” (The Walrus, July/August 2005)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Canadian Content, Death, Dinosaur Jr., Fears, Helen Humphries, John Keats, My Bloody Valentine, Placebo, Short Story, The Walrus, Travel, Yuck on April 28, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: YUCK-Live at SXSW 2011 (2011).

Yuck has been on my radar for a little while.  I’ve heard very good things about them but hadn’t heard them until this concert.

They play a kind of distortion fueled alt-rock circa late 90s shoegazing style (and everyone laughs about this because the members are all like 20 years old).  Comparisons abound (Dinosaur Jr. My Bloody Valentine) but the one that I hear that no one else seems to is Placebo (for attitude of vocal style more than anything else).  But yes, what the band does with feedback is certainly enjoyable.

This is a great introduction to the band.  They sound fantastic live.  Although I admit that my impression is that this is a band that would sound great on a studio recording (think MBV).  And this show makes me want to go and get their debut album.

They play 8 songs here which vary from fast rockers to ballads to the 8 minute feedback epic “Rubber.”  Perhaps the most interesting thing about the band, though, is the singer’s speaking voice.  He seems so out of his element talking to the huge (and appreciative) Texas crowd, that you have to wonder if they’ve ever played live before (except that his voice sounds great while singing and the band is totally confident).  It’s just funny to hear him awkwardly addressing the crowd (with a meekness that rivals Droopy Dog):  “Our name is Yuck and this song is called “Suck” and those words rhyme with each other”.  Yikes.  But really it comes across as charming more than anything else and since the band sounds great it doesn’t hurt the crowd’s appreciation.

I’m looking forward to hearing their album.  You can listen, watch (!) and download their set from NPR.

[READ: March 28, 2011] “Franklin’s Library”

This was the second story in The Walrus’ 2006 Summer Reading Issue.  It was a lengthy and rather complicated story.  There were really two stories, although in the end, she tied them together okay.

The story opens with a look at a young sailor.  The sailor has agreed to join the Erebus on its first expedition to the frozen north.  The title of the story comes from the ship’s library.  The sailor is young and more than a little afraid, but he is comforted by the scope of the ship’s library: leather-bound volumes in the hundreds.  The library looks to be the only place where one can have a little peace and quiet (aside from your bunk which is barely larger than you). (more…)

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Seven Love Letters: Meditations on Desire (The Walrus, July/August 2005)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Best Coast, Books about writers, Canadian Content, Carrie Brownstein, David Bezmozgis, Dreams, Fantasy, Fears, Jonathan Lethem, Juli Zeh, Leonard Cohen, M.G. Vassanji, Margaret Atwood, Religion, Romance, Sex, Sheila Heti, The Muffs, The Walrus, Travel on April 27, 2011| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BEST COAST-Live at the 9:30 Club, Washington DC (2010).

Best Coast made Carrie Brownstein’s best album of the year accolades, but when I listened to the track she selected for the post, I wasn’t all that impressed.

But I have to say that live, Best Coast blew me away.  Bethany Cosentino, the lead singer and guitarist has an amazing stage presence.  She is charming and funny and very silly (and I guess she loves cats).  The band sounded tight and impressive and even though the songs are kind of dopey bubblegum pop, they are drenched in enough noise and rock to make them really wonderful

They seem like they should have come around during the 90s, when all those rocking female bands were all over the map.  And so this is like a wonderful blast from the past.  Best Coast is sort of like The Muffs (except they write love songs) and other bands that play really catchy pop but bury it under a layer of fuzz and rock.  This is a great set available on NPR, and will definitely get me to check out their album a little more.

[READ: March 28, 2011] “Seven Love Letters”

Six of the seven letters here were later collected in the book Four Letter Word which I reviewed in September 2009.  When I reviewed the book, I didn’t give very much in the way of detail, I just summarized the letters.  I’m going to copy what I wrote then (since my thoughts didn’t change all that much), and I’m going to include a few more lines about some of the pieces (original stuff is in italics).  I’m also including titles which (for some reason) were not given in the book.

I’m also not sure why Sheila Heti’s story did not appear in the book.  (It’s only 4 paragraphs and is, indeed, a letter so why not include it?)  If you enjoyed the book, think of this story as a Bonus Feature. (more…)

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Yiorgos Skabardonis–“Pericles” (The Walrus, July/August 2005)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Canadian Content, Culture Shock, Death, Fears, Humiliation, Military, Short Story, Surfer Blood, The Walrus, Violence, War, Yiorgos Skabardonis on April 26, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SURFER BLOOD-Live at SXSW (2010).

I really enjoyed Surfer Blood’s album Astro Coast.  There was something familiar about it, yet it never aped any sound exactly.  It’s a fun collection of upbeat almost-summer music.

This live set is a great representation of the band.  They don’t break from the CD all that much, but the band is lively and generous.  They play 7 songs, all of them fast and fun (they say that one song is going to be slow, but it seems to wind up as fast as the rest-and someone in the crowd shots “Play another slow one”).

There’s some good banter and the audience is very appreciative.  It’s great set and worth checking out even if you don’t know them yet.

[READ: March 28, 2011] “Pericles”

This story is set in Greece in 1941.  Bulgarians have occupied the land.  And as the first few paragraphs explain, a thief has come to steal some goats.  The goatherds catch the man (a Bulgarian) and kill him.

When the Bulgarians find out, they take it very seriously.  The army travels to the village and rounds up every single male and all of the young females and intend to shoot them in the center of the city.

The story pulls back to explain that during the occupation all of the men were forced to do labor.  This even includes Pericles, the strongest man in the village.  Before the occupation, he was a helpful giant, able to throw four bundles of hay at a time.  Of course, Pericles was also fearsome, and if he got drunk (which he did from time to time) everyone in the town hid until he sobered up (except for his diminutive wife who could calm him down with a look). (more…)

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Jonathan Franzen–“Farther Away” (New Yorker, April 18, 2011)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Birds, Books about writers, Daniel Defoe, David Foster Wallace, Death, Essays, Fears, Guitar Player, Harper's, Jonathan Franzen, KEXP 90.3 FM--Seattle, WA, Memoirs, Nature, New Yorker, Orson Scott Card, Sarah Vowell, Smarty Pants, Sonic Youth, Suicide, Thurston Moore, Travel on April 18, 2011| 4 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: THURSTON MOORE-in studio at KEXP, March 11, 2008 (2008).

This interview was headlined ‘Thurston Moore: Not a “Real Guitar Player”?’ which is pretty funny.  The Sonic Youth guys have been defying conventional guitar playing for years.  And then in 2008 Thurston put out a solo album called Trees Outside the Academy, a beautiful delicate album of acoustic guitar songs.

The interview covers this very subject and concludes that maybe back when they started he wasn’t a guitar player, but now, 25 years later, he certainly is.  Moore is charming and funny and relates a very amusing story about being on the cover of Guitar Player and then embarrassing himself in front of one of his idols.

But this download is all about the songs.  Thurston (and violinist Samara Lubelski–who plays great accompaniment, but doesn’t really get any on air time to speak) play four songs from Trees: “Sliver>Blue,” “The Shape is in a Trance,” “Frozen Gtr” and “Fri/End.”  He sounds great in this setting, especially under close scrutiny.  I’d always assumed that there was a lot of improv in the SY guitar world, so to hear him play these (admittedly not difficult) songs flawlessly is pretty cool.  I actually wondered if he’d be hesitant (he admits the acoustic guitar is a fairly new thing for him), but not at all (although he says he screwed up on a chorus, but I never heard it.

It’s a great set and its fun to hear Thurston so casual.

[READ: April 14, 2011] “Farther Away”

The subtitle of this essay is “‘Robinson Crusoe,’ David Foster Wallace, and the island of solitude.”  As with Franzen’s other recent essays, this one is also about birding.

Franzen explains that he is hot off the work of a book tour (for Freedom) and is looking for some solitude.  He decides to travel by himself to the island of Alejandro Selkirk, a volcanic mass off the coast of Chile.  The island is named after Alexander Selkirk, the Scottish explorer who is considered the basis for Robinson Crusoe.  As such, Franzen decides to travel to the remote island, decompress and read Robinson Crusoe while he’s at it.  The locals call the island Masafuera.

I haven’t read Robinson Crusoe as an adult, so I don’t know the ins and outs of the story.  Franzen has a personal resonance with the story because it was the only novel that meant anything to his father (which must say something about Franzen’s father, no?).  The upshot of what it meant to Franzen’s father was that his father took him and his brother camping a lot as a way to get away from everything.

However, for Franzen, on his first experience of being away from home for a few days (at 16 with a camping group), he had terrible homesickness.  He was only able to deal with the homesickness by writing letters.

When he arrives on Masafuera, Franzen’s writing really takes off.  He has some wonderful prose about this treacherous space.  Although he comes off as something of a yutz for relying on a Google map to learn about the terrain and for bringing an old GPS which has more or less run out of battery. (more…)

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Randy Boyagoda–“Water Spider” (The Walrus, March 2006)

Posted in Africa, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Culture Shock, Death, Demons, Fears, Jane Siberry, Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Boyagoda, Rheostatics, Short Story, Squarepusher, The Walrus, Violence, War on April 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-2067 (2004).

This was the Rheostatics’ final release.  I’m not sure if they knew this would be their last disc, but it kind of feels like they are throwing everything they can into it.

It opens with a delicate song from Martin which reminds me of Jane Siberry (the “row upon row” section).  Although at about 4 minutes it starts rocking out.  It’s a kind of meandering song, which is odd to open an album with.

It’s followed by “Little Bird Little Bird” a great folky song form Bidini.  But the disc really come alive with “Marginalized” a song that reminds me in some ways of “Horses,” as it is rocking and a little twisted (it seems surprising that it came from Tim Vesely).  It’s got some great guitar and an impressive keyboard solo (!) from new member Michael Phillip Wojewoda.

“The Tarleks” follows (with some fun frog noises). It opens slowly (as Martin songs tend to do) but once it really takes off, its got a great riff with his wonderful dramatic pauses and really funky sound from the bass/keyboards.  Then we get the wonderfully odd “Power Ballad for Ozzy Osbourne.”  It’s a kind of joke (but not really) about rock performers aging gracefully.  Bidini gets a bunch of songs on this disc, and here he gets two in a row, with the bizarrely wonderful “I Dig Music.”  The subtitle is “The Jazz Animal” and it tells you a lot about the song…it is indeed a kind of high-octane jazz.  But it has many different segments (and a lyric that references Squarepusher).

“Here Comes the Image” is a 6 minute track from Vesely which sounds very much like his more mellow tracks.  I’m not sure his tracks belong in the middle o f a disc because they tend to really bring the momentum to a halt.  Although it is a pretty song, it’s quite mellow (the organ solo at the end is pretty sweetly retro).  It’s followed by the five-minute slow instrumental “Who is This Man and Why is He Laughing?”  It really feels like an album ender.

So when “The Latest Attempt on Your Life” comes in, it revitalizes the sleepiness that those two songs imbue.  This track has the wonderful repeated chant “Everyone hates you, you sing like a woman”).  “Polar Bears and Trees” follows and it’s another kind of crazy song from Bidini.  It has such simple verses but the chanted “hey hey ho ho” rocks hard and is wonderfully fun.  (The lyrics are clever too).

Vesely returns with the beautiful, wonderfully catchy “Making Progress” which has another great retro keyboard solo at the end. The final track “Praise This Mutilated World” is one of the most beautiful songs in their output.  It starts as a fairly simple acoustic track (Bidini knows a good melody).  At about two minutes in, the band joins in with amazing harmonies.  The quiet parts keep coming back only to be overwhelmed by the harmonies once again.  The last two minutes are a spoken section.  It goes on a bit long, but is redeemed by another gorgeous chorus.

There’s a bonus track which is a very electronic version of  “Record Body Count.”  So this disc is definitely overly long in some places.  There are some great parts to the disc, but it feels like it could have used a good editor.  Nevertheless, since it’s the band’s final release, respect is due.

[READ: March 15, 2011] “Water Spider”

This very short (three-pages) story turned very dark rather quickly.

It opens with an African man, Bokarie, settling into his life as a convenience store clerk in Ottawa.  We learn that he was granted asylum, and that he has the scars to prove it.  He was quite nervous about leaving his country, and he still puts cinder blocks behind his door, to discourage uninvited guests.

At the same time, the action of the story concerns the accidental drowning of Caitlin, a young girl who presumably got too close to the creek when it overflowed.  The town is obviously distraught that one of their youngest and most innocent kids was killed, and they are planning a memorial service.  They are encouraging everyone to wear pink to the service and are even hoping to get a wreath put on the town’s crest.

Bokarie looks on this entire scene with a kind of bemusement.  His life in Africa was full of death.  Most of it horrifying.  So he seems somewhat unsure of what to make of the town’s outpouring for one lost child.  And then the story slowly reveals a shocking truth.

The truth is NOT that he killed Caitlin.  That’d not how the story is going (I didn’t really think it would go there, but it was a possibility).  Rather, the truth comes out about Bokarie himself, and his life back in Africa.  And it’s frankly horrible.

As the story draws to a close, Bokarie makes a decision that is going to impact the community.  It’s a little unclear what his motivation is, but it opens so many possibilities, that it really brings out a whole new realm to the story,

In some ways this story reminded me of Damon Galgut’s “An African Sermon (from The Walrus July/Aug 2004)  which also had an African character whose past has a hidden element and which turns out to be much darker than originally laid out.

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Jude Watson–Beyond the Grave [The 39 Clues, Book Four] (2009)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Adventure, Children's Books, Egyptology, Fears, Jude Watson, Kids Corner, Mystery, Technology, The Amoeba People, Threats, Travel, Trout Fishing in America, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on April 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: Kids Corner on WXPN (2011).

Kids Corner is a great radio show on WXPN (88.5 Philadelphia).  It airs Sunday through Thursday night at 7PM.  It’s also available online (you can listen live at 7PM!).  In addition to some smart radio for kids (Science Thursday!), there’s quizzes and call in stuff and lots of music.

Most of the music is funny/novelty stuff.  From standard bearers like “Weird Al” Yankovic, to great bands like Trout Fishing in America, to the ancient novelty song “Star Trekkin” and my new favorite kids’ band The Amoeba People.

Every night they have a contest for song of the day, which anyone can vote in (democracy in action!).

Check out the last six years of Ton Ten songs (Steve Martin’s “King Tut!”).  And be sure to tune in, you just might just learn something.

[READ: March 2, 2011] Beyond the Grave

This fourth book in the series excited me because it broke with the format of the kids traveling to two cities with no help.  When they land in Egypt, they are greeted by an old friend (whom they never met before).   This old friend,  Hilary Vale, is actually a friend of their grandmother, Grace.  Grace went to Egypt every year and spent her time with Hilary, traveling, seeing the sights and, of course, looking for clues (although Hilary didn’t know any details of what Grace was up to).  Hilary (and her grandson, Theo) play a helping role in the book, and I have to say that it was nice to let the kids have a little breather with some people that they can trust.

They also get to go to a super fancy hotel room (using Alasdair Oh’s frequent number card).  Of course, as is the way with cool spy stories, the super fancy hotel turns out to be the stronghold for the branch of the Cahill family that Alasitar Oh is part of (I still can’t keep those branch names straight).  They pretty easily access the super spy area of super cool hotel suite.  (Because they have Alastair’s card, they are given the fancy suite).  Of course, once they are in the secret room, Alastair’s uncle, the sinister Bae Oh, knows that they’re there (he owns the hotel).  And they are suitably trapped.

While in the stronghold, the kids learn a little bit about the items they are seeking in Egypt (there is a fake statue in the room).  But mostly they’re concerned about trying to escape.  Thanks goodness thier au pair (who getts cooler with each book) has been paying attention. (more…)

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