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Archive for the ‘Donuts’ Category

Nata Albot–Be Our Guest. Discover Moldova! (2019)

Posted in Alex Parker , Andrew Rayel ft. Emma Hewitt, Aspic, Blacklist, Borş acru, Bătute, Carla's Dreams, Chocolate, Cighiri, Cook Book, Cristina Perciuleac, Dan Balan, Doina Cioca, Donuts, Hans Green, Infected Rain, Ionel Istrati, Iova, Irina Rimes, Kharcho Soup, Lazy Apple Tart, Lazy Găluşte, Lia Taburcean, Mark Stam, Mihail, Misha Miller, Nata Albot, Natalia Gordienko, Nicoleta Nuca, Plăcinte with Potato Filling, Prăjiţei, Saltison, The Motans, Tosh, Twisted Plăcintă with Cheese and Leek, Valeria Stoica, Vanotek, Yuck! on August 21, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE BEST MOLDOVAN SONGS OF 2019 (2019).

I read this book about Moldova and realized that I didn’t know a thing about the country.  So while looking up Moldovan music, I found this collection on YouTube.

I’m sure it’s quite subjective, but it’s a start for hearing some Moldovan pop songs.  There’s a bit of diversity here.  Most of these songs are dancey.  Many of them are in English (apparently Moldovan singers sing in English, Russian or Ukranian, typically).

I’ve noted songs that are in English, with a very brief description of any songs that aren’t straight up dance songs.  I’ve also put in bold my favorite tracks.

  • 01. Vanotek – Back To You [eng]
  • 02. Irina Rimes – Cosmos
  • 03. Misha Miller – What Mama Said [eng]
  • 04. Valeria Stoica – Get Back [eng] (slower, almost folky singer songwriter)
  • 05. Dan Balan – Hold On Love [eng]
  • 06. The Motans – August
  • 07. Hans Green – Run Uma [eng]
  • 08. Iova – Hit The Gas [eng] (interesting sounds and melody)
  • 09. Dan Balan – Numa Numa 2 (dance with steel drums)
  • 10. Blacklist ft. Carla’s Dreams – Tequila (rap)
  • 11. Nicoleta Nuca – N-am Pierdut Nimic (pop singer)
  • 12. Mark Stam – Doar Noi (power ballad)
  • 13. Tosh – Simplu (slow ballad)
  • 14. Mihail – Who You Loved [folky, gravelly voice]
  • 15. The Motans – Versus
  • 16. Nicoleta Nuca – Nu Sunt (diva)
  • 17. Mark Stam – Vina Mea (power ballad)
  • 18. Ionel Istrati – Wake Me Up [eng] (poppy with a big drop)
  • 19. Carla’s Dreams – Sub Pielea Mea (this band is very popular, featuring a masked singer who raps and other things)
  • 20. Natalia Gordienko – Drunk (Pyanaia) (diva–I can;t tell from the video if she is happy or in anguish)
  • 21. Infected Rain – Black Gold {heavy metal) [A growling female singer with heavy chords and lots of synth]
  • 22. Lia Taburcean – La Nunta Asta (folk/polka) [This song is a lot of fun]
  • 23. Andrew Rayel ft. Emma Hewitt – My Reflection (dance banger)
  • 24. Carla’s Dreams ft. INNA – Te Rog [Not as heavy as the other Carla’s Dream songs]
  • 25. The Motans ft. Delia – Weekend (folk dance)
  • 26. Misha Miller ft. Alex Parker – Fix Your Heart (eng)
  • 27. Valeria Stoica – Empty Air (eng) [Folky dancey singer songwriter]
  • 28. Irina Rimes – My Favorite Man [interesting vocal manipulations in a dance song].

[READ: August 20, 2020] Be Our Guest.  Discover Moldova!

I saw this book at work and decided to check it out since I know nothing about Moldova.  I didn’t realize that it was primarily a cookbook.  There’s also some cultural information, but you would check it out for the traditional Moldovan dishes as prepared by Nata Albot and her mother.  It was originally published in 2018 as Hai la masă, puișor! and translated by Doina Cioca.

Nata Albot is a blogger, TV producer, journalist and a media manager from Moldova. She has had several popular shows on radio and televisions in Moldova since she was 16 years old. She graduated from the Law School of Moldova State University. She produced the TV series “Aventura Americană” about Moldovan students spending their summers working and traveling in the United States. In 2013 she moved from Chișinău to Montreal.

This is her second cookbook.

It features

  • Salads
  • Breakfast
  • Snacks
  • Vegetables
  • Mains Course
  • Meat
  • Pastries
  • Winter Preserves
  • Dessert

Albot is big into fresh vegetables (radishes, cucumbers, peppers) in her salads, but is not above throwing in some beef heart.  While most of the recipes were interesting and a few sounded fantastic, some of them were…questionable.  Like Soured Milk.  For this drink, you boil milk, add sour cream, cover and let sit for 2 to 3 days.  The picture is even more revolting than the description. (more…)

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Anthony Veasna So–“Three Women of Chuck’s Donuts” (New Yorker, February 10, 2020)

Posted in Anthony Veasna So, Cambodia, Donuts, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Short Story, Uncut, Violence, Whitney, Wilco on February 10, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: WHITNEY-“Far Far Away” (from WILCOvered, UNCUT Magazine November 2019).

The November 2019 issue of UNCUT magazine had a cover story about Wilco.  It included a 17 track CD of bands covering Wilco (called WILcovered or WILCOvered).  I really enjoyed this collection and knew most of the artists on it already, so I’m going through the songs one at a time.

I have only recently heard of Whitney, although I understand they are quite popular.

This is a muted bedroom-sounding recording.  There’s a folky acoustic vibe with acoustic guitar and piano and slide guitar.  It’s weird that the sound is all kind of compressed together making it sound really small.

The (double) slide guitar solo is quite pretty.

[READ: February 9, 2020] “Three Women of Chuck’s Donuts”

The title of this story gives you no indication at all what the story is about, which is pretty interesting.

The only connection is that the story is set in Chuck’s Donuts.  We learn pretty quickly that there is no Chuck.  Indeed, the owner never knew anyone named Chuck, but she thought that name sounded nicely all-American.

The owner is a Cambodian woman named Sothy.  The other two women of the store are her daughters Kayley and Tevy (who is four years older an Kayley).  Sothy wonders if her shop should be open 24 hours a day or just normal business hours.  Should she really have her daughters work the night shift?

A couple of weeks ago the night employee quit.  For the summer the girls would work the night shift with her and all the saved money would go to their college fund.

As the story opens at 3AM, a man walks in and orders an apple fritter.  He sits at a booth and stares out the window.  He doesn’t respond to their chitchat, he just looks out the window until he stops looking out the window, then he leaves, fritter untouched.

Kayley wonders if he is Cambodian, but Tevy says that not all Asians are Cambodian.

Three days later the man returns and does the same thing

The girls cant stop talking about him.  They even squabble about him. Sothy sees that the man is distracted by them and that he soon leaves.  But she tells them not to worry, that he’s Khmer.

They desperately want to know how she knows that.  “Of course he is,” Sothy says. (more…)

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Matthew Sullivan–Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore (2018)

Posted in Adoption, Black Sabbath, Bookstores, Death, Denver, CO, Donuts, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Library Related, Marriage Trouble, Mystery, Prison, Puzzles, Sex, Suicide, Violence, Yuck! on February 27, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD-Flying Microtonal Banana (2017).

2017 was a massive year for KGATLW as they pledged (and kept that pledge) to release five albums in the year.  This was the first.

Flying Microtonal Banana starts with the same sort of relentless frenzy that Nonagon Infinity had.  Just witness the stomping, grooving repetition of “Rattlesnake,” a catchy, 7 minute song whose lyrics are primarily “rattlesnake.”

The difference comes in the title of the record.  It’s not banana, it’s microtonal.  The banana in question is the yellow microtonal guitar that Stu Mackenzie uses on the album (and live).  It’s a custom-made guitar modified for microtonal tuning, which allows for intervals smaller than the semitones of Western music.  Since the new guitar could only be played with similarly tuned instruments, the rest of the band got their gear tricked out with microtonal capabilities.

This gives many of the songs a distinctly Middle-Eastern sound.  As does the inclusion of the zurna, a wind instrument which is almost constantly loud, high-pitched, sharp, and piercing.  Not an inviting description, but the instrument adds some interesting sounds and textures to the disc.  “Rattlesnake” is so catchy, though, that the zurna just feels like one more component.

“Melting” lets up the intensity with a wonderful guitar/vocal melody and some great synth accents.  As the song grooves along there’s some cool sounds and textures throughout the vocals and background sounds.  The solo comes from a slightly distorted synth–the ever-rising melody is catchy but leaves you wanting more.  The microtones really come out in the middle of the song, where the guitar/vocal melody experiments with all the various microtones that their instruments could achieve.

“Open Water” has a ringing guitar melody and a sinister chorus about open water.

Open water
Where’s the shore gone?
How’d I falter?
Open water
Height of the sea
Will bury me
And all I see is
Open water

There’s a very cool microtonal guitar solo throughout the middle of the song.   When the zurna comes in it brings a whole new kind of tension.

The rest of the album is made up of shorter songs.  They don’t exactly segue into each other, but they do feel like a suite of sorts.  Except that each one focuses on a different style (not at all unusual for KGATLW).

“Sleep Drifter” is sung in a near whisper, almost comforting, as it follows the nifty rising chorus melody.  The interstitial guitar riff is really cool, too.  “Billabong Valley” returns to their Western style from earlier albums.  It is sung by Ambrose in his very different vocal style.  There’s a staccato piano and an interesting western-inspired microtonal riff.  “Anoxia” slows things down with a twisty guitar.  The zurna contributes to a trippy ending.

“Doom City” sounds like early Black Sabbath with deep notes and a strangely hippie tone with lots of echo.  Then it picks up speed and adds some wild zurna tones.  There’s even some high-pitched laughs giving an even weirder feel.  I love that the speed jumps between slow and ponderous and speedy and hurried. “Nuclear Fusion” has a staccato rhythm.  For this one, not only does the lead vocal follow the interesting guitar melody, but there’s a deep harmony voice following along as well.   I always love when they add organ sounds to the song, like this one.  And the deep voices as the beginning and end are pretty awesome.

The final track is the instrumental title song.  It explores all manner of microtonal solos both on guitar and zurna.  It opens with bongos and congos and just takes off from there with the screeching zurna melody.  It’s catchy and weird like t he rest of the album and it ends with the winds blowing things away.

That’s the banana itself on the right.

[READ: January 2019] Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore

I was attracted to this book because of the title.  I knew literally nothing about it, but the blurb called it a smart, twisty crime novel.  I typically don’t read crime novels, but I’ve had pretty good luck with books set in bookstores, so it seemed worth taking a chance.

And, wow, what a delightfully convoluted story.  It was absolutely full of surprises and puzzles.  In the past I would have tried to figure out he puzzles myself, but since the answers to the puzzles were given right after the puzzles were shown, I got lazy and let the book do the work for me.   And what a fascinating bunch of characters Sullivan has created.

Lydia Smith works at the Bright Ideas Bookshop in Denver.  She has been there for a while, but she’s keeping a low profile.  She grew up in Denver and had a reasonably good childhood.  Then, suddenly something horrific happened and she and her father moved into a remote cabin outside of Denver where neighbors were nowhere near.  Her father, who was once a loving librarian too a job at a county prison and became a hardened policeman.

The event is hinted at in the beginning.  In the middle we get a vivid description of her perception of the event.  The rest of the story unpacks it.

After living in the woods, Lydia left her father, without saying a word.  She returned to Denver and hadn’t spoken to him for years.

She loves the security of the Bright Ideas Bookstore.  The store is populated by the Book Frogs, old men mostly, who spend hours and hours here browsing books.  They are all eccentric in some respect, but they are harmless–and most are thoughtful.

But as the book opens, one of the younger Book Frogs, Joey Molina, her favorite one, hangs himself–right upstairs in Western History.  She tried to take him down, to save him, to do something.  But she was too late.  As she was trying be helpful, she saw that he had a picture in his hand.  It was a picture of her when she was a little girl.  A picture she had never seen before.

What a great opening chapter! (more…)

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Luis Alberto Urrea–“Christmas Eve, 1944” [The 2018 Short Story Advent Calendar #24] (2018)

Posted in Airlines, Airplanes, Canadian Content, Christmas Album, Donuts, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Hingston & Olsen, Los Straitjackets, Luis Alberto Urrea, Nick Lowe, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, War, World War II on December 24, 2018| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NICK LOWE AND LOS STRAITJACKETS-“Christmas at the Airport” (2014/2013).

I probably like Nick Lowe a lot more than I realize.  I know I like his songwriting more than I realize.  And I love Los Straightjackets.  A perfect pairing.

This is not a moving, treacly holiday song.  And yet neither is it a bitter, what-has-the-season-come-to song.  It’s just one of those things that happens, and he’ll take in (humorous) stride.

It wasn’t until celebrated songsmith Nick Lowe’s 2013 curio, “Christmas at the Airport,” that someone expressed in song what it was like to watch the hopes of holiday cheer fade right before our eyes, on a snow-covered runway in late December. Recorded live in 2014, at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club, backed by Nashville’s neo-surf band Los Straitjackets, Lowe takes us through all the stages of Christmas-time travel grief, one verse at a time.

Stage One: Bemusement. Gazing out the window of his cab upon arrival at the airport, Lowe notices that the place is beginning to look more like the front of a Christmas card than an international travel hub. But even as the tarmac takes on ever-increasing layers of soft, white, wintry down, the full gravity of the situation hasn’t yet sunk in enough to truly unnerve him yet.

Stage Two: Realization. The cold, hard reality of the protagonist’s circumstances suddenly hits home. The fickle finger of fate is pointing at everyone in the airport as if to say, “Nobody’s going anywhere this Christmas. Have you seen that snow outside?” Tempers flaring all around him, Lowe sneaks into a secluded spot for a catnap, maybe hoping things will somehow look better when he awakes.

Stage Three: Transcendence. We’ve all had to buck up sooner or later in this kind of situation, find a way to make a homebound holiday fun. For Lowe, that process entails playing with the TSA equipment in the agents’ absence, turning the baggage carousel into an amusement-park ride, and even scrounging some fast food from the refuse.

And all set to a chipper, surf rock tune.

[READ: December 24, 2018] “Christmas Eve, 1944”

Once again, I have ordered The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my third time reading the Calendar (thanks S.).  I never knew about the first one until it was long out of print (sigh).  Here’s what they say this year

Fourth time’s the charm.

After a restful spring, rowdy summer, and pretty reasonable fall, we are officially back at it again with another deluxe box set of 24 individually bound short stories to get you into the yuletide spirit.

The fourth annual Short Story Advent Calendar might be our most ambitious yet, with a range of stories hailing from eight different countries and three different originating languages (don’t worry, we got the English versions). This year’s edition features a special diecut lid and textured case. We also set a new personal best for material that has never before appeared in print.

Want a copy?  Order one here.

Like last year I’m pairing each story with a holiday disc from our personal collection, although this song is an NPR curio.

At first I was concerned because this is a Christmas war story (and those really only go one of two ways).  But in fact it turned out to be awesome.  One of the most moving stories I have read in a long time. (more…)

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Phish (BB&T Pavilion, Camden, NJ, August 7, 2018)

Posted in BB&T Pavillion, Camden, NJ, David Bowie, Donuts, Jon Fishman, Madison Square Garden, Mike Gordon, New York City, Page McConnell, Phish, Trey Anastasio on August 7, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 7, 2018] Phish

Having enjoyed two Phish shows at Madison Square Garden, and really seeing what it’s like to go to multiple shows by the same band when they mix up the setlists so much, I was pretty psyched to hear that Phish were coming back to NJ for two shows on a short summer tour.

After the immense spectacle of the Baker’s Dozen, in which they repeated no over thirteen shows (thereby messing up every statistic-driven fan who likes to recount the last time a song was played, this tour was shaping up to be a more traditional fan favorites (or not) package.  This was actually perfect for me because as I start keeping tracks of the songs I need to see live, I realize that I need a lot of the staples to fill out my chart. (more…)

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The Story of Canada in 150 Objects (1867-2017) (2017)

Posted in #ITMFA, #RESIST, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Acting, Alice Munro, Art, Bagels, Basketball, Bears, Beavers, Bison, Books about music, Books about writers, Canada geese, Canadian Content, Canadian Geographic, Canadian Music, Canoeing, CBC Radio 1, CBC Radio 2, CBC Radio 3, Computer Programming, Cricket, Crokinole, Curling, Donuts, Douglas Coupland, Environmentalism, Essays, Field Recordings, First Nations, Five-pin bowling, Friendship, Funny (ha ha), Grey Cup, Group of 7, Heliskiing, Hockey, Interviews, Inuit, Inukshuk, Inunnguaq, John McCrae, Language, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Maple syrup, Nanulak, Native Americans, Non-fiction, Nostalgia, Pauline Johnson, Pemmican, Poetry, Poets, Political Humor, Porky's, Poutine, Qimmiq, Racism, Research, Rheostatics, Ringette, Santa Claus, Scholarship, Science, Scientists, SCTV, Snow, Stanley Cup, Stompin' Tom Connors, Technology, The Tragically Hip, The Walrus, Tim Horton's, Tom Thomson, Trivial Pursuit, Walruses, War, Will Ferguson, tagged on August 28, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, ON (December 11 1996).

This is the final show on Rheostatics Live in which the band is opening for The Tragically Hip.

For this show, the intro music is also from The Wizard of Oz, but this time it’s Judy singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”  It’s just one verse before fading out and then guitars fading in for Martin to play “A Mid Winter Night’s Dream.”

Turns out that this setlist is similar to the one from Buffalo with a lot of new songs.  Although there are a few older/more popular songs in places.

The new songs include “Fat” which sounds great of course.  I gather they are maybe sharing a microphone because at the end Dave says “See you in the next song, Martin.”  “Okay, Dave.”  This leads into a perfect version of “All the Same Eyes.”

Martin says “We are the Rheostatics.”  Dave says “We are the Rheostatics, not to be confused with The Howell Brothers (?).  They couldn’t make it but we got their jackets.  It’s nice of you to come out early.  We’re playing selections from our new record. Get it before it’s reduced to clear.”  (You can hear someone laugh on tape).

This is a segue into the single “Bad Time to Be Poor.”  It’s followed by another Tim song, “Claire” with the acoustic guitar opening in place.  There’s another lengthy guitar solo, although it’s not quiet as exciting as some of the other ones.  But Martin was saving up for a spirited version of “California Dreamline.”

They end their set with a rough rocking “Feed Yourself.”  During the spoken part, they slow things down to just a bass and washes of guitar.  It’s a pretty intense ending and a good preparation for The Tragically Hip.

[READ: June 25, 2017] The Story of Canada in 150 Objects

In celebration of Canada’s 150th year, Canadian Geographic and The Walrus created this special issue–a fun way to describe many elements of Canadian culture through “objects.”

The objects are grouped in vague categories.  Some have just a few words written about them while others get a few pages.  Some are humorous, some are more serious.  Most are happy or amusing, some not so much.  And all of it together paints a diverse and complex portrait of the country–as well as teaching this person from South of the border a number of things I did not know.

It’s with comic pride and humility that the first object is politeness (which is not an object at all, of course).  The amusing thing about this article about “politeness” is that while the author of it is very pleased to be so polite, he also can’t wait for his fellow Canucks to forget to be polite so he can rub it in with a extra smarmy “You’re Welcome.” (more…)

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Phish (Baker’s Dozen Night #13: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, August 6, 2017)

Posted in David Bowie, Donuts, Jimi Hendrix, Jon Fishman, Madison Square Garden, Mike Gordon, New York City, Page McConnell, Phish, Trey Anastasio, Vida Blue, Willie Nelson on August 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 21, 2017] Phish [I’ll be attaching some video clips later]

I had imagined going to all 13 shows at MSG.  I knew it would never happen (maybe if I was single and lived closer to NYC).  I saw a number of people who did go to all 13 shows.  Some looked pretty good.  Others looked pretty beat.   Last night I sat next to a guy who went to 10 and a woman who went to 8–she looked much better than he did.

Each night on this run has been pretty spectacular.  The sets have been great, the band has sounded fantastic and their energy never flagged.  There were several shows in the run that in retrospect I would have loved to have been at.  But I assumed first and last night would be a fun way to go.

As soon as I saw that they weren’t repeating any songs, I decided to keep track of what had been played to see what was left.  I don’t normally like to “know” what a band is going to play so I wasn’t trying to guess the setlist, but I wanted to make sure that I was going to get some songs that I wanted to hear.  I joked that if they kept playing my “top rated” songs, the show would be a 45 minute “Minkin” with dips into “No2” and “Riker’s Mailbox” [Phish jokes… nevermind]. (more…)

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Phish (Baker’s Dozen Night #1 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, July 21, 2017)

Posted in David Bowie, Donuts, Harry Nilsson, Jon Fishman, Josh White, Junior Senior, Led Zeppelin, Madison Square Garden, Mike Gordon, New York City, Page McConnell, Phish, Trey Anastasio on July 21, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 21, 2017] Phish

I really enjoyed the Phish concert I saw last summer.  I knew I wanted to see the guys again, and I was really surprised to hear that they were doing a 13 night residency at Madison Square Garden.  I briefly thought…could I do all 13?…and then reality came crashing down on me.  I took a chance on 4 shows in the Phish lottery and amazingly I got all 4.  But I decided to sell 2 and just go to the first and last nights (making that two shows three weeks apart).

One of my tickets was being delivered to a buyer before the show and I was running late, so I had to hasten to MSG and managed to get to my seat by 7:25 for the promised 7:30 start.  Well, I was kind of annoyed that they didn’t start until 8.  I mean, start at 8, that’s fine, but don’t say you’ll start at 7:30, especially given how stressed you made me.

At any rate, I knew the theme of the show was coconuts, but since it was the first night, I didn’t really know what that meant.  It turned out that they were going to play a few songs that had a coconut theme (and have continued that for each night so far). (more…)

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A.M. Homes–This Book Will Save Your Life (2006)

Posted in A.M. Homes, Books about writers, Canadian Music, Constellation Records, Consumerism, Donuts, Drinking, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Lullabye Arkestra, Marriage Trouble, Neurotics, Sun Ra, The White Stripes, Unreliable narrator on April 8, 2009| 1 Comment »

homesSOUNDTRACK: LULLABYE ARKESTRA-Ampgrave [CST044] (2006).

ampgraveI’m not sure what’s up with the spelling of Arkestra (Sun Ra tribute, perhaps?), but “Lullabye” is certainly a misnomer.  “Ampgrave” on the other hand is a pretty good summary of the music on this record.

The band is basically a drum and bass duo.  And yet, they are so much more.  The bass runs the show, with the bass lines being loud and furious.  There are also several guests who provide horns, organ, violin and my favorite addition: “screaming.”  This complete package makes for a loud, bruising, soulful unholy mess.  And it’s really fun.

The disc won’t appeal to everyone. The opening track “Unite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” is where the “screaming” really comes to the fore, and will certainly scare off the weak-hearted.  Which is a shame, as track 2 mellows out with some good soulful tunes (albeit utterly distorted, let’s not forget). There’s some other weird and wonderful tracks.  “Y’Make Me Shake” is a great rocking track with excellent horns to provide nice moments of melody.

The disc ends with a great one-two punch of “Bulldozer of Love” and the wonderfully titled “Ass Worship” two noisy, chaotic tracks that find a killer melody under all that distortion.

I hate to use the White Stripes as a frame of reference because it’s kind of lazy, but they are a two-piece playing soulful, distorted rock.  But the White Stripes are practically bubblegum pop when it compares to the racket these guys make.  It’s a lot of fun, if you like your fun noisy.

[READ: March 31, 2009] This Book Will Save Your Life

While it didn’t save my life, I enjoyed this book very very much.

This book follows the life of Richard Novak.  As the book starts, Richard seems like a type A workaholic who is too consumed with his work and routine to really enjoy anything.  When he gets an inexplicable yet frightening pain, he calls 911 and is taken to the hospital.   And this rather mundane opening leads to a hugely complicated back-story and a hugely complicated fore-story (?) in which all aspects of Richard’s life meet in a house in Malibu.

For, you see, Richard was something of an asshole.  Richard’s ex-wife, is another Type A personality who is as absorbed in her work as he is in his.  When he is offered a job in California, requiring him to leave New York, his wife said, go if you want to.  And he did, leaving his wife and his son Ben (seven at the time) with minimal contact and, eventually, little participation in his son’s life. (more…)

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Jory John (editor)–Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country: Kids’ Letters to President Obama (2009)

Posted in Art, Barack Obama, Buggles, Children's Books, Consumerism, Donuts, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gravy, Jory John, McSweeney's, Military, MTV, Political Humor, The Art of Noise, War, Yes on March 11, 2009| 1 Comment »

thanksSOUNDTRACK: YES-90125 (1983).

90125We had a snow day Monday, and since we were all home, I thought it would be fun to bust out some old records.  As soon as the opening chords of “Owner of a Lonely Heart” crashed out, Sarah gave me a “What made you think of playing this?” look and then said “What made you think of playing this?”

And there is no answer.  I saw it and figured it would be fun to hear. And it was.

Now, as an olde Yes fan, I should probably not like this album.  My favorite Yes album is Relayer, so really I have no business liking this.  First, it has no really long songs, second, it’s totally poppy, and third, it tries so hard to create hit singles.  And yet, I loved it then, and I still enjoyed now.   What’s interesting about it is that even though it was rather state of the art at the time, it doesn’t sound dated now.  Probably because, for instance, the orchestral hit in “Owner” has been sampled so much, it still sounds contemporary.

And so side one (for so it was at the time) has three songs that were hit singles: “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” “It Can Happen,” and “Changes” (which is probably the most “Yes” sounding of the bunch).  Even “Hold On” while not a single, gets recognition for being on the popular side one of the disc.

Side two features another great hit song, “Leave It” (with vocal sampling galore).  Although I think by the end, the disc loses some steam, and “Hearts” is a bit of a drag.

I knew that Trevor Horn was involved with this disc.  But since there have been multiple members in Yes, including two Trevors (!), I’d never really kept it all straight.  So, Trevor Horn was responsible for The Buggles (“Video Killed the Radio Star”) as well as The Art of Noise.  Their song “Close (to the Edit)” was a great video staple on MTV back in the 80s.  It features three gentlemen in suits and a very disturbing little girl smashing the hell out of musical instruments.  This song, which came out the same year as 90125 samples “Owner of a Lonely Heart” so the circle is complete.

Trevor Horn clearly had a big impact on the band and on 80s music in general, which is probably why the disc sounds so good all these years later.

[READ: February 27, 2009] Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country

I couldn’t recall the exact title of this book, so when I typed on Amazon.com “letters obama” I was surprised (although I shouldn’t have been) to see TWO books that fit this description already.  I suppose it makes sense that such compilations are being made (in fact, it seems that Obama could reignite the economy through merchandising of himself alone).  The second book isn’t due out till April, so I guess McSweeney’s have expediency on their side. (more…)

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