SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-What is a Man (2000).
This is a soundtrack to a TV mini-series called The Sins (which I know nothing about). The song (for there is only one) is a cover of a Four Tops song (which I do not know). The “B-side” is an instrumental version of said song.
And, sadly, that’s all that comes on this disc. It’s a good song, yes, but at a combined total of about 5 minutes, it’s rather skimpy as a disc (Hey that’s what singles used to be back in the day). Normally I don’t encourage the downloading of tracks (I’m more of a physical medium kind of guy), but I think if you’re looking for this for this particular song, you’re much better off just downloading it. I don’t think it’s available on any other discs.
[READ: October 24, 2009] “The Balloon”
[UPDATE: November 25, 2009] For the new review of the story, click here.
I just received a copy of Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts and have learned that the version of “The Balloon” that I read and which I linked to below is NOT the entire story.
Aside from a couple of inexplicable word changes (!) the version online leaves out the final four paragraphs. And, with Barthelme’s prose being so dense, that’s quite a lot of information.
This changes my reading of the story quite a lot as there is now a DIFFERENT ENDING! So I have to more or less disown this review. But I will leave it up for posterity. I’ll include a new review when I finish the short story collection.
[original review commences here]
David Foster Wallace in a Salon.com interview, said that this was “which is the first story I ever read that made me want to be a writer.” I have recently read a few Barthelme pieces (that were in Harper’s) and I found them to be weird, kind of interesting, but nothing inspirational.
But, heck, why not see what got DFW going?
So this story was, in fact, very cool. It was written before the pieces that were in Harper’s, and, as with most artists who end up in a weird and out-there place, he started off in a reasonably normal place. In other words, this story is actually something of a story with a beginning and sort of an end. There’s no plot, per se, but the story does lead somewhere. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 