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George Saunders–“Liner Notes” (New Yorker, June 23, 2014)

Posted in Andrew Lloyd Webber, Beyonce, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Funny (ha ha), George Saunders, Led Zeppelin, Meat Loaf, Monty Python's Flying Circus, New Yorker, The Allman Brothers Band, Tim Rice, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Tom Waits, Word usage on September 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »

june23SOUNDTRACK: MONTY PYTHON-“Rock Notes” (1980).

mpThis skit (more of a monologue) comes from Monty Python’s Contractual Obligation Album, the first Python album I ever bought.  It’s not my favorite bit from them, but it’s short and wedged in the middle of the rest of the album which means that I know it by heart.  Now, the skit is most famous for naming Toad the Wet Sprocket (Eric Idle says he tried to come up with the most absurd name he could think of and there it was).  The band featured Flamboyant Ambidextrous Rex who fell off the back of a motorcycle.

What I tend to forget is that the rest of the joke is all about one band Dead Monkeys who have just broken up again.  They were together for ten years, but for nine of those years the band had other names.  Primarily, the names are fishy: Dead Salmon, Trout, Poached Trout in a White Wine Sauce, Dead Herring.  Then they ditched the fishy references for Dead Loss, Heads Together, Dead Together and ultimately Helen Shapiro.

This extended riff is rather silly and I’m not even sure it’s appropriate for a joke on bands.  I can’t think of many bands who have broken up and reformed under new names (I mean, yes, there’s a couple, but not enough to warrant this extended joke).

And yet, I still remember the joke, so it must be something, right?

What do I think of Dead Duck? or Lobster?

[READ: September 16, 2014] “Liner Notes”

This Shouts & Murmurs piece begins so strongly that I was super excited to read it.  Saunders riffs on liner notes in albums, specifically failed albums.  His liner notes are for the album 2776: A Musical Journey Through America’s Past, Present & Future which is just another attempt to “engage with the vast sweep of American history” via the musical epic.

The best joke is citing Meat Loaf’s “Ben Franklin Makes Love in a Foggy Grove of Trees” (which failed to translate to live performance).  [I would totally listen to that song].  He then talks about a Tim Rice-Andrew Lloyd Webber production of “Johnny Tremain” which was too intellectual for a nineteen-seventies audience.  But I feel like Saunders goes off track when, instead of staying with the slightly absurd realism, he jumps the shark by saying that the songs were too risqué “for a staid culture that, at that time, still believed that babies came when you left a pastel turtleneck rolled up in a wad overnight.”  It broke me right out of the exaggerated realism into the realm of outrageous farce.

Which is a shame because returning to real artists like Tom Waits making a biography of Jesse James called “A White-Trash Rambling Christ Figure Just Shot Your Brother, Amigo” is pretty darn funny. (more…)

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Rivka Galchen–“The Late Novels of Gene Hackman” (New Yorker, December 9, 2013)

Posted in Books about writers, Etiquette, Gene Hackman, New Yorker, Rivka Galchen, Short Story, The Replacements, The Tonight Show on September 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_12_09_13Banyai.inddSOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-“Alex Chilton” (live on the Tonight Show) (2014).

matsI was pretty surprised to hear that the Replacements were going to be on the Tonight Show (and even more surprised to hear that they were going to play “Alex Chilton.”  I didn’t realize they were touring (or reunited or whatever they are), and I knew that at least one of the former members had died.  So, really this version of The Replacements is just Paul Westerberg singing and Tommy Stinson on bass.  The other two guys Dave Minehan on guitars and Josh Freese on drums are new as of 2012 (but have a history of working with Westerberg).

It was great to hear this song.  I never saw them in their heyday, when I understand the odds of them being drunk were 100% and the odds of a great show or a disastrous show were 50/50.

I’ve no idea how sober the guys were, but this version of the song was super sloppy (in a good way) and made it seem like they were channeling the ‘Mats of old.  Guitarist Minehan has played on Westerberg’s solo albums, so there is a connection, and he seemed to get that “can’t be bothered to hit every note” vibe.  Even Westerberg was skimpy with all of the words (was he having fun or annoyed at being there?  who knows).  But they weren’t sloppy bad, especially when the song ended and they added on a coda–they were all super tight and right on tempo.

It was good to hear, but I have to admit I like the album version better.

[READ: June 26, 2014] “The Late Novels of Gene Hackman”

Rivka Galchen had two short stories in the New Yorker in 2013, one in January and now one in December.

The story is about J, a young woman who makes presentations to older people, in this case in Key West, Florida.  She had accepted the invitation to the writers conference because it was going to be in February in Florida, and that seemed like a good time to be warm.  J was allowed to bring a guest, and she decided to invite her stepmother, Q, rather than her husband.  She felt a little sorry for Q, whose latest business venture had failed and whose hair was turning gray.  J is under the impression that Q is having financial troubles, she keeps talking about things that make it seem like she does, but J can never get a straight answer out of her.

They were picked up by M (this initial thing was a little confusing but ultimately more comical, I decided) who had organized the convention.  M had married a much younger woman, but she had recently died.  “Of something.”  M also had an eye patch, and J told Q not to stare at it, “‘I would never stare at an eye patch,’ Q said.”  (more…)

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Shaun Tan–The Bird King and Other Sketches (2011)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Books about writers, Graphic Novel, John Marsen, Oddities, Shaun Tan, Shaun Tan, Sketches, Supernatural, Surreal, Tirzah, Tricky, Wall-E on August 31, 2014| Leave a Comment »

birdkingSOUNDTRACK: TRICKY-“Sun Down” (2014).

trickI really liked Tricky’s first few albums.  He came back with a good album last year and now he has a new one called Adrian Thaws.  It is currently streaming on NPR.

I listened to the whole album and I like it quite a lot.  There’s a decent variety of stuff, most of which is really fantastic.  There’s a few tracks I’m not so sure about.  But one of the key things is that Tricky’s claustrophobic and slighty off-kilter style is at the forefront here.  Especially in this song.

It begins with a kind of tribal sounding beat and then some distorted bass notes.  There’s a clock ticking in the background as Tricky’s voice (sometimes doubled) speaks/raps his slow style.  It feels close up and dark.  When guest vocalist Tirzah sings the female parts, she continues that slightly echoed, slightly muffled style that doesn’t really shed any brightness on the song.

Sure, there’s a chorus, but it’s not the reach out and grab you kind.  Rather, it just pushes the song along to its inevitable conclusion.  The keyboards noises that end the song create an uneasy feeling as the beat continues until the song ends with a ticking clock.

It’s great to have Tricky back in form.

[READ: July 1, 2014] The Bird King and other sketches

I’ve been marveling over Shaun Tan’s work this summer, so I was delighted to see this book as well.  The Bird King is, as the subtitle says, a collection of Tan’s sketches. He gives a brief introduction about how he was unsure whether or not to publish them as they are clearly unfinished, but so many of them are so beautiful in their “what might be” stage, that it’s hard to deny their value.

I mean, the very first picture, called “Bee-eater” is magnificent (it’s at the bottom of the page here).  It is part of the first section called Untold Stories.  This includes several of the pages from the comic Flinch that I read back in June.  I said I didn’t love the pieces then (I didn’t realize he did the cover of that book as well).  But I see now that I like the drawings better out of the context of that book, which was more about spooky and unsettling things.  I don’t think of Tan’s work as spooky or unsettling, rather it’s more magical, so seeing this series of titled pencil drawings together was really cool.

The second section is called Book Theatre and Film (I didn’t know that he was a creative consultant for Wall-E), and it includes samples from his books (like Eric and The Red Tree) as well as stills from movies that were made of his books like The Lost Thing as well as earlier books which I don’t know like John Marsen’s The Rabbits and covers of other books (like Tender Morsels). (more…)

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Shaun Tan–The Red Tree (2001)

Posted in Children's Books, Graphic Novel, Oddities, Sesame Street, Short Story, Supernatural, Surreal on August 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

red treeSOUNDTRACK: ELVIS COSTELLO-“Monster Went and Ate My Red 2″

elvisOf all of the songs that I might think would get turned into a children’s song for Sesame Street, I must say that “The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes” was pretty low on the likelihood list.  It’s one of my favorite songs, but what might you do with it for the Street (and why would you pick a sorta popular song from 40 some years ago?).

I can’t answer the last part, but you can tell by the title what you’d do with it:  turn the angel into a monster and the shoes into the number 2.  And now Elvis can’t count to ten because the monster ate his red two.  Lyrically it stretched credibility somewhat, but when accompanied by the video in which Cookie Monster does in fact eat a number 2 that is red, it all makes a kind of weird sense.

True, Elvis never sings the “She said drop dead and left with another guy” line.  In fact, Elmo sings that verse in which he goes and gets another red two.  But, just when you think it’s all good, there’s a surprising twist.

And, best of all, Elvis looks like he’s having fun.

[READ: July 1, 2014] The Red Tree

It was surprising seeing this children’s book come across my desk, but since I love Shaun Tan’s work, I was excited to read this one (his other children’s books are gorgeous).

This story is quite dark–perhaps a little too ark for my six-year-old, although I feel like she could relate to it on some days (perhaps the wording was a little much even if the feelings were spot on).  And she has red hair too.

The story opens with a girl sitting in bed with the caption that “Sometimes the day begins with nothing to look forward to and thing go from bad to worse.”  Sure everyone has experienced days like that.  And the drawings are wonderful–in this case, the girl’s bed is swamped by leaves. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 7] The Pale King (2011) [Pale Summer §46-§47]

Posted in Advice, Big Books, Boredom, David Foster Wallace, Echo & the Bunnymen, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Huh?, Marriage Trouble, Memoirs, Meta, Pale Summer, Psychiatry, Romance, Supernatural, Taxes, The Big Bang Theory, The Exorcist on August 25, 2014| 1 Comment »

reySOUNDTRACK: ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN-“The Cutter” (1983).

echoI’ve never been a huge Echo & The Bunnymen fan, but I do like their greatest hits.  This is one of them, and it’s a song I’ve liked from pretty much the minute I heard it.  Ian McCullough has a Jim Morrison vibe in his vocals, and there are interesting Eastern melodies and pieces thrown into the song (like in the intro).  These give it an unconventional feel, even though the main melody is pretty straightforward.

I have no idea what the song is about–I sing along without really thinking about it.  And the “spare us the cutter” chorus, complete with screechy guitar chord is pretty dynamic.  As is the loud drum change during the “drop in the ocean” part.

By the end of the song the drums seem to sound bigger, and the fills really propel the song to the end.  It’s a fine song by a band that I’m not sure I need to hear more of.

[READ: August 25, 2014] Pale Summer Week 7 (§46-§47)

After the pile of small chapters that last week gave us, this week offers just two.  One is a very lengthy discussion between two characters.  The other is another piece of the Toni Ware puzzle.  I enjoy the way the first of these sections balances the medical, the emotional and the supernatural.  And it makes me laugh that Drinion’s supernatural bit is never addressed directly in any way–it just is–as assuredly as Rand’s psychological problems just are.  But I do find it interesting that more people have talked about Rand’s problems than Drinion’s (even though his is as fascinating as he himself is dull).
(more…)

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Patrick Jennings–My Homework Ate My Homework (2010)

Posted in Acting, Beastie Boys, C., Children's Books, Funny (ha ha), Muckaferguson, Patrick Jennings, Set at School, Short Books, T., They Might Be Giants, Unlikable main character, Wonder Showzen on August 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

myhomeSOUNDTRACK: MUCKAFERGUSON-“MC Speller” (2010).

muckaI had never heard of Muckaferguson.  Okay, that is not true, as I see I made a post about them because of the They Might be Giants song “John Lee Supertaster.”  Because the real John Lee is a indeed a supertaster and was in the band Muckaferguson. (And John Flansburgh of TMBG produced this album).  So there.  But I still hadn’t heard them until now.

This song comes from that album.

The album is a flurry of genres and styles, and amid all of this, we get this old school beat box rap (sorta early Beastie Boysish).  And I like it because it is quite funny.  And since it’s only a minute and a half long, I’ll put all the lyrics, because I can’t pick a favorite line:

my name is mc speller and i like to spell…s p e l l spells spell. mc speller and i love to spell…q u e u e spells queue.

he’s a maniac, ya’ll. here comes the heart attack, yo. chris likes food. andy like atari. i like the work of john baldessari. my rhymes are fresh and my moves are hard. i play the plastic guitar like baudrillard.

my name is mc speller and i like to spell…d a d spells dad. mc speller and i love to spell…r h o n g spells wrong.

i’m mc scared of bees, ya’ll cause you know that i’m scared of bees, ya’ll. when i see a bee i run because by definition i’m scared of bees.

yo, i’m comin’ to you straight out of sutton in suburban south london. white, middle class, educated 20 something. i got me degree in pure mathematics. i don’t like to rap i’m just being sarcastic.

r i g h t spells right, mc speller’s gonna spell all night, talkin’ about. n i g h t spells night, mc speller spells everything right

Despite the kid friendly nature of some of some of these songs, the album as a whole is definitely not kid friendly (I mean, look at the cover and, frankly the band’s name).  The song “I Wanna Get…” is all about getting, well, F’d up, so be mindful.  But many of the songs are delightfully witty.

John Lee, incidentally, is also responsible for the show Wonder Showzen, so if you know the show, you get a sense of the kind of mischief he makes.

[READ: August 9, 2014] My Homework Ate My Homework

Regardless of how I felt about Guinea Dog 1 and 2 (overall I liked them quite a bit), it was impossible not to snap up a book with a title like this.  Especially when the book is about a ferret.  (The cover is by the same artist as the Guinea Dog books, which led me to assume the style was similar, which it was).

This book is about 10-year-old Zaritza (the unusual name is never explained).  She is… dramatic.  And is a fan of dramatic….  pauses.  She is incredibly excited to be playing Calamity Jane in the upcoming traveling theater production of Calamity Jane.  She has watched the film dozens of times and has her “Calam” down perfectly.

The problem is that if she doesn’t bring her grades up she’s won’t be allowed to do extra curricular activities.  Like drama.  She is not the best student, so rather than actually doing her work, she decides to do some extra credit.  Like bringing the classroom pet Ferret home for the weekend.  She hates the ferret.  She hates its smell, she hates its look. Hates it.  But she needs the credit.  And so it comes home.  And then she forgets to close the cage door and the ferret gets out.

Panic!

While the ferret is out, and they are trying to catch it, Zaritza hears something–gnawing.  And that’s when her homework ate her homework. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 2] The Pale King (2011) [Pale Summer §10-§21] #palesummer14

Posted in #palesummer14, Big Books, Boredom, Collective Soul, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Death, Demons, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Ghosts, Law, Memoirs, Meta, Outer Limits, Pale Summer, Religion, Research, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Sylvanshine, Taxes, The Black Crowes, The Toadies, The Twilight Zone, Van Halen on July 21, 2014| 2 Comments »

tpk2SOUNDTRACK: SYLVANSHINE (2014).

sylvanOne of the fun things about doing these summer posts is finding appropriate music to each week’s write up. I like to find something related to what’s down below.  Last week it was an artist named Pale King.  This week it’s a band called Sylvanshine.

Sylvanshine is a cover band from Texas.  According to their web site, they play covers of Collective Soul, Van Halen, The Black Crowes and Stevie Ray Vaughn. I didn’t listen to any of their live tracks, but the excerpt of their version of The Toadies’ “Possum  Kingdom” is pretty spot on.

Learn all about them (or book them) at their website.

[READ: July 21, 2014] Pale Summer Week 2 (§10-§21)

Week two continues some of the characters’ lives and introduces us to them at the Service.  It also has a couple of very lengthy passages in which people spout their opinions about aspects of the country and the Service which are thoughtful and, frankly, very interesting and would work as good meme quotes, if you liked that sort of thing.

§10

This is a two-paragraph chapter about bureaucracy “the only known parasite larger than the organism on which is subsists.”

§11

A list of syndromes/symptoms associated with Examination Postings in excess of 36 months (ending with “unexplained bleeding”).

§12

Leonard Stecyk is back in this short chapter.  He is an adult now. He is walking door to door to introduce himself to his presumably new neighbors, and to offer to the neighbors the Post Office’s 1979 National Zip Code Directory–“his smile so wide it almost looked like it hurt.”

§13

An unnamed character is inflicted with nervous profuse sweating.  (This character will be identified later).  This chapter also has footnotes (as did the Author’s Foreword), although these footnotes are in the third person (as is the chapter).  Does this mean it is written by Dave Wallace too?  It is another thoroughly detailed chapter that I find very enjoyable to read even if it doesn’t advance the “story” much. (more…)

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Xanadu (Christ Church Neighborhood House, Philadelphia, PA, July 13, 2014)

Posted in Art, Electric Light Orchestra, Gods, Grease, Magic, Olivia Newton-John, The Tubes, Xanadu on July 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

mazeppa[ATTENDED: July 13, 2014] Xanadu

The movie Xanadu has been a long lost guilty pleasure of mine since I was a kid. I remember watching the movie and not caring that it was weird or, stupid or whatever. I loved Grease and therefore I loved Olivia Newton John.  And while I didn’t love E.L.O., I certainly loved the soundtrack to this movie about, well, whatever it was about.

I have the soundtrack on vinyl, and I clearly listened to it hundreds of times because when the songs popped up in this production, I knew if not all the words, then certainly the melodies.  I haven’t seen the movie since the 80s, though, and I didn’t watch it before going into this play.  And, indeed, I didn’t even know that the play was different from the movie, but I am so glad it was.

The musical (which was on Broadway) takes the basic sketches of the movie (which was pretty much just sketches anyway) and makes a new, very funny and very meta- (jokes about the movie and about the 80s among other things) look at the original, while keeping the characters and the music.  And man did I laugh a lot.  It helped that I knew the movie, but it wasn’t necessary for full enjoyment.

The basic plot is that Sonny is an artist.  He is inspired by a mural of Greek muses.  And after he gives up on his latest painting, the muses come to life and decide to inspire him.  The main muse is Clio who will come to earth “with an Australian accent” (for Olivia Newton John, of course) and call herself Kira.  Kira plans to help Sonny to open a club.  A club where there will be roller disco.  Naturally there is a bad guy–the creator of the club who once loved music but is now all about money.  And, since there are gods involved, there is bound to be mischief, as Clio’s sisters don’t want to see her get Xanadu as she was promised.  Their mischief is to make her fall in love–which will get her banished from Mt Olympus.

Amazingly enough, this crazy plot is much simpler and sensible than the original movie plot. (more…)

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Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki–This One Summer (2014)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Canadian Content, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Jillian Tamaki, Lorde, Mariko Tamaki, Marriage Trouble, Patton Oswalt, Pregnancy, Summer, YA Books on July 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

onesummSOUNDTRACK: “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC-”Foil” (2014).

foil;I wasn’t a huge fan of Lorde’s song “Royals.”  I liked it enough but it never really blew me away.  Al’s parody “Foil” seems obvious and yet it is such a wonderfully twisted take on the song that I think it’s just fantastic.

The video is set up like an infomercial (with Patton Oswalt as the director).  And it begins simply enough with all of the useful things you can do with aluminum foil (foy-ul).

What makes this better than a simple jokey song about using foil for your leftovers is that midway through the song, he tackles the more sinister uses of foil–keeping aliens out of your head.  The way the video switches from bright infomercial to sinister Illuminati conspiracy show is great.  And, amazingly enough he is able to keep the same bright Lorde-isms all the way through.

[READ: June 30, 2014] This One Summer

This One Summer is the second collaboration between Mariko and Jillian Tamaki.  In Skim, Jillian’s drawings reflected a very Japanese style of artistry, while in this book, the drawings are far more American/conventional.  This isn’t a bad thing at all, as they complement the story very nicely.

This is a fairly simple story (despite its length) about a family that goes to Awago beach “where beer grows on trees and everyone can sleep until eleven” each summer.  The protagonist is a young girl, Rose.  She is an only child and she looks forward to seeing her friend Windy there–they only see each other on these summer vacations.  Windy is a year younger, although she acts older and braver.  The girls are thrilled to swim, to watch horror movies and eat all the junk that they can.

But in this one summer things are not idyllic.  What I really liked about this story was that although nothing really happens to Rose or Windy, stuff happens all around them, and of course it impacts them as well.

The first thing is that Rose is finally interested in boys, specifically the boy who works at the convenience store in town, Duncan.  But Duncan is older–probably 17 and is dating a girl named Jenny. He teases with Rose and Windy but in a dismissive older brother sort of way–exactly the way that makes a crazy crush develop for Rose.  Windy and Rose are young, but are not that young–so they are full of misinformation.  And when they hear the older girls–Jenny’s friends–in town talking about things–abortions, oral sex–they learn more without learning everything . (more…)

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Fred Chao–Johnny Hiro: The Skills to Pay the Bills (Book 2) (2013)

Posted in Adventure, Asaf Avidan, Food, Fred Chao, Funny (ha ha), Grand Puba, Graphic Novel, King Kong, Revenge, Wankelmut on July 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

hiro2SOUNDTRACK: ASAF AVIDAN-“One Day/Reckoning Song (Wankelmut Remix)” (2012).

wankelYesterday I talked about Asaf Avidan and his song “Reckoning Song (One Day).”  His (live) version has 15 million views on YouTube.  But the remix by Wankelmut (which Avidan had asked Wankelmut to take down, but he refused) has almost 150 million hits.

The first song is a slow keening lament.  The remix adds a dancey beat and speeds up the vocals (mostly removing pauses, not really speeding up his voice at all–it’s high enough as it is).  And now that I’ve listened to both versions a few times, I’m totally hooked).

I think I like the verses better in the remix (the drum beat helps), but I like the chorus of the original better–the power comes through a lot more in the chorus of the original.  I’m glad the remix left in the yodelly aspect of his voice in the chorus, though.

I imagine that this remix has introduced a lot of people to Avidan, and that’s a good thing too.

You can see both below, first the original,

then the remix:

 

[READ: June 20, 2014]  Johnny Hiro Book 2

This book continues the exploits of Johnny Hiro and his beautiful girlfriend Mayumi.  There’s no listing of “originally published” so I don’t know if these came out as individual books, like the first collection of story did. So I’ll just assume that these were first published in this book.

The first story gives us a peek into Johnny’s past when Mayumi is having lunch with a coworker (and Johnny is hauling ass to get to the lunch date on time).  When he skids up to the table, he realizes that he knows the other woman–in fact, he almost moved in with her.  But just as things get really uncomfortable (Johnny never told Mayumi about her), King Kong reaches across the patio and pulls her away.  And, just as Johnny had to save a woman from Gozadilla in book one, he has to save woman from King Kong.

Which means more chases through New York City, a fascinating (if not sad) backstory about King Kong and another hilarious save via Mayor Bloomberg (wonderful to see him again). The connection to L.A. about King Kong is fantastic.

In the second story, the owner of the house that Johnny and Mayumi are staying in comes back for a few weeks, this introduces a new person to play off of, with new concerns–it;s a nice addition.  The only bad thing is that Alex curses like a storm–I don’t recall there being any curses in the first book–so that puts this book squarely into the older teen area (which isn’t really a bad thing, since there is talk about romantic relationships and some behind closed door scenes that kids might have to many questions about–but I feel like the big monsters might entice kids into reading it). (more…)

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