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Archive for the ‘Funny (ha ha)’ Category

Raina Telgemeier–Smile (2010)

Posted in Biography, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Humiliation, Parenting, Paul McCartney, Raina Telgemeier, Set at School, Teeth, The Beatles, YA Books, Yuck! on February 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »

smileSOUNDTRACK: THE BEATLES–Let It Be…Naked (2003).

220px-LetItBeNakedI talked about this once before and mentioned how I was anticipating a huge difference between this version and the original.  But really, most of the changes are quite subtle.  Reading a bit more about it, it seems like McCartney mostly wanted to fix “The Long and Winding Road” and then took the time to tweak little things (he fixes some bum notes for instance).

This seemed like a chance for Paul to take the record back from Phil Spector, although I guess Spector didn’t really do all that much to the album—he really only tweaked four songs: Across The Universe, I Me Mine, Let It Be and The Long And Winding Road.  And so Paul removes Phil’s hand on those–and those are really the most notable changes.  As for the rest of the disc, he took out all the chatting between and silly songs (Dig It and Maggie Mae) and adds “Don’t Le Me Down,” from the rooftop concert.

I assume that if I were a Beatles die hard, I would immediately notice all of the changes on this disc.  But, for a casual listener, here’s what I noticed: “Get Back” is even shorter than the original.  “Dig a Pony” is the same rooftop, although it seems to be mixed better.  “For You Blue” has a bit more acoustic guitar but is otherwise not too different.

“The Long and Winding Road” has the most notable changes.  The strings and chorus are removed.  The dramatic BUH BUH before the chorus is still there–almost more pronounced on the organ.  I like this version more than the original, although I have to say it sounds an awful lot like Wings or McCartney solo in this version.

“Two of Us” doesn’t sound all that different—a little cleaner maybe.  “I’ve Got a Feeling” sounds a bit cleaner too–apparently it is a composite of the two versions from the rooftop concert.  “1 after 909” sounds about the same–a little cleaner and with out the Danny Boy at the end.  This version makes it sounds even more like an “old” song since the rawness of the recording has been removed.

“Don’t Let Me Down” was not on the original.  This version was taken from the rooftop concert.  And it sounds great here.  Strange that it wasn’t included in the first place.  “I Me Mine” removes the chorus and overdubs, and sounds a bit more rocking.  “Across the Universe”–I like this version a lot better.  It’s much cleaner and really lets the music shine, rather than there being so much echo on it.  “Let It Be” is stripped down as well, and the guitar solo sounds a little different.

In general, I like this version better, although I do miss the funny bits a little.  This feels more like a record than a soundtrack to a film.  But again, the changes aren’t that substantial overall.

[READ: January 10, 2015] Smile

I had heard of this book–I’d heard that it was a huge sensation.  Of course it wasn’t really on my radar of books, so I wasn’t really sure what it was about.  I read an interview with Telgemeier recently which made the book sound really interesting so I decided to check it out (and was frankly surprised that there was a copy in the library).

And I really liked the book a lot.  From the little I knew about it, I assumed it was just her life with braces (and from the interview, I gathered that her little sister was really a pain–she apparently is a big presence in the sequel).  Well, the sister is a pain, but that’s mostly in the beginning of the book (the sister is very funny and they tease each other mercilessly).  Yes, the book is about braces, but it ‘s about much more than that.

Oh and it’s also autobiographical, which was pretty obvious.

So, Raina is in 6th grade and she is scheduled to get braces.  She is freaked out about this, of course, because everyone makes fun of people with braces.  (Although they never made fun of me and I understand they don’t anymore, but we’ll see if my kids need them).  Although she has lots of friends, so they should support her. (more…)

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Simon Rich–Spoiled Brats: Stories (2014)

Posted in Fantasy, Fears, Fiona Apple, Funny (ha ha), Guster, Humiliation, Morality, New Yorker, Religion, Sex, Short Story, Simon Rich, The Beatles, Yuck! on February 11, 2015| 2 Comments »

spioiledSOUNDTRACK: THE BEATLES-Let It Be (1970).

letOf all the fascinating details about Beatles releases, I don’t think any are more fascinating than the details about Let It Be.  I’m not even close to understanding everything that went on here.  But in a nutshell, it seems that they went into the studio to record an album called Get Back. They were even going to film the whole things.  It got scrapped.  Some members quit the band then rejoined.  And then they recorded Abbey Road.

And then the band did a concert on a rooftop (almost exactly 46 years ago!).  And soon after they broke up. Then some producers decided to release Let It Be as a soundtrack to the documentary made about their recording.  They used some of the material from Get Back and some from the rooftop concert and then Phil Spector got involved and put all kinds of strings on everything and then the album was released in the UK on my first birthday.

There’s lots of snippets of dialogue which seem designed to make it feel like a soundtrack (which it doesn’t).  There’s really short snippets of songs, there’s raw live songs, there’s overproduced string laden songs.  It’s kind of a mess.  But in there are some good songs too.

“Two of Us” is a pretty folkie number that I like quite a lot although I first became familiar with it from a Guster cover (which is pretty fine.  I never quite understood the title of “Dig a Pony,” but it’s a big weird sloppy song. It’s kind of fun to sing along to—especially the falsetto “Beeeecause.”  This song was recorded from their rooftop concert and it feels rawer than some of the other songs.

“Across the Universe” is a lovely song.  Evidently Lennon didn’t contribute much to Let It Be, so they threw this on to give him more content.  I actually know this more from the Fiona Apple version (which I think is actually better than this processed version). I don’t really care for the strings and echoes feel on this version. “Dig It” is a short piece of nonsense. It was exerted from a lengthy jam but for some reason only this little snippet was included on the record–it sounds odd here.

“Let it Be” is quite a lovely song. I don’t really care for the Phil Spectorisms that were done to it—the strings and choruses seem a bit cheesy.  At the same time, the guitar solo (which is quite good) sounds too raw and harsh for the song.  “Maggie Mae” is a traditional song, another bit of fun nonsense.  I like “I Me Mine,” it’s rather dark and the chorus just rocks out.  “I’ve Got a Feeling”, was also recorded on the roof, so it feels raw.  There’s some great guitars sounds on it. Evidently it was initially two songs, and Lennon’s part (the repeated “everybody” section) was added to it.

“One After 909” sounds so much like an early Beatles song–very traditional rock and roll (which means I don’t really like it).  Although the version is raw sounding (it was also recorded from the rooftop) so that’s kind of cool. Huh, Wikipedia says “the song was written no later than spring 1960 and perhaps as early as 1957, and is one of the first Lennon–McCartney compositions.”   “The Long and Winding Road” is where all the controversy comes from.  McCartney hated what Phil Spector did to his song.  He HATED it.  And I have to agree.  It sounds nothing like the Beatles–it sounds very treacly and almost muzaky.  It feels endless.  At the same time, I’m not even sure if the song is that good–it’s so hard to tell after all these years. I think it kind of rips off the transition in “Hey Jude” which was used to much better effect.

“For You Blue” is a simple blues. I like it better than most of the Beatles’ blues, perhaps because of John’s slide guitar (and the funny comments through the song–which makes it seem like the band actually liked each other).  “Get Back” ends the disc as a fun rollicking romp.  I really like this song, although I’m surprised at how short it seems–I thought there was a lengthy outro.  The end of the song (and the disc) has John asking if they passed the audition–lots of fun going on in this contentious recording session.

So it’s not the best career ending disc, although I guess as a soundtrack it’s pretty good.  I’ve never seen the film, and I’m kind of curious to after having walked through all of these Beatles albums.

[READ: January 19, 2015] Spoiled Brats

I probably read too much Simon Rich too close together, but it’s so hard to resist him.  I’ve said before that I enjoy his shorter pieces the most, but there were some longer ones in this one which were really good as well.

This is the first book where I thought that Rich went a little too dark (although not as dark as Sarah thought he did).  That’s sort of the point of the book, though, to look at people (especially people named Simon Rich) who are horrible human beings.

“Animals” [New Yorker, April 10, 2013] opens from the point of view of a class hamster.  He is tormented by the children in the class and he knows that when Simon Rich is supposed to feed and give them water that their lives might just be over.  The Simon character is hilarious, and it’s nice to see that revenge is sweet.

“Gifted” wonders what if a child isn’t so much gifted as Satanic–how many euphemisms will be used for this one child?

“Semester Abroad” is the diary of a girl who has gone abroad–to another planet.  And how her insensitivity is handled during an intergalactic crisis.  I enjoyed this one a lot. (more…)

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David Sedaris–“Leviathan” (New Yorker, January 5, 2015)

Posted in David Sedaris, Eugene Hutz, Funny (ha ha), Les Claypool, Mushroom Men, New Yorker, Pig Hunt, Tom Waits, Travel on January 31, 2015| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: LES CLAYPOOL-Of Fungi and Foe (2009).

fungiAfter doing the various solo records, Les spent some time making the Elecjan5tric Apricot movie and soundtrack (which I don’t know).  Then he was asked to score music for a video game and a movie.  He did so and then used these templates for the completion of this solo album.  As he explains:

I was commissioned to write soundtrack music for two projects that promised to have quite a bit of very intense and unique imagery. One was for an interactive game about a meteor that hits Earth and brings intelligence to the mushrooms within the crash proximity and the other was about a three thousand pound wild boar that terrorizes the marijuana fields of Northern California. Obviously the makers of the subsequent Mushroom Men game and Pig Hunt film were very aware of my tastes and perspectives because the music oozed from me in such a natural way that I believe it came as much from my pores as it did my mind. This music became the foundation of the songs that fill this collection. With a few added tidbits and a bit of gypsy sauce, I inflict upon you… OF FUNGI AND FOE

As such the album is thematic and consistent. But the musical theme is very dark and very bass heavy (which makes sense given that it is Les).  But it’s quite claustrophobic and hard to listen to all the way through. Some of the later songs are probably pretty good but it’s hard to get to them.

I talked about the album in 2010, and said:

The disc is very percussion heavy, with lots of rather long songs.  And although I love long songs, I love long songs that aren’t the same thing for 6 or so minutes.  I also rather miss Claypool’s voice.  He doesn’t sing a lot of these songs in his typical falsetto.  There’s a lot of very deep voiced, rather processed sounding voices here (it works great on the muh muh muh mushroom men, but not so great elsewhere).  Because when you combine that with the bass and percussion, it’ really hard to hear what he’s on about (and Claypool lyrics are half the fun).

Plus, we know that with Primus’ own brand of weirdness, a little goes a long way.  So, hearing the same bizarro riff for 4 minutes can be trying.

The first 4 tracks are all really solid.  But that 5th track, “What would George Martin Do?” just sucks all the life out of the disc.  The same goofy riff for 6 minutes with completely unintelligible lyrics.  Ouch.   But “You Can’t Tell Errol Anything” picks up the pace somewhat with a wonderful Tom Waits-ian soundtrack.  The addition of Eugene Hutz on insane wailing vocals brings a wonderful new level of dementia to the disc.

Listening again, with context from recent albums I had a similar but more forgiven attitude.  I find the opening song “Mushroom Men” to be fantastic.  It is wonderfully weird—with great use of the whamola to create very strange theme.  It’s one of his best songs.  There is something fun in “Amanitas.”   I love the riff and sentiment of “Red State Girl.”  “Boonville Stomp” is indeed a stomp, although I find it a bit tedious.

Interestingly, I now love “What Would Sir George Martin Do” for the carnivalesque feel to it. But I agree with my old self in that it’s a goofy lark of a song and should be 2 minutes not 6. The disc ender, “Ol’ Roscoe” is a really sad drinking and driving song–one which I don’t like to listen to.

So, it’s a mixed bag of songs, but would be curious to see how they work in the video game and movie (although I don’t think I’ll ever watch the movie).  Huh, turns out you can listen to a number of these songs on YouTube.  Of course I wonder how they were uploaded and how I can get a copy–the instrumentals are really cool.

[READ: January 24, 2014] “Leviathan”

Sedaris begins by explaining how as people get older they become crazy in one of two ways.  Either animal crazy (as in dog crazy: when asked if they have children they are likely to answer :”a black Lab and a sheltie-beagle mix named Tuckahoe…. Then they add–they always add–‘they were rescues.'”

The second way is with their diets.  His brother Paul has all but given up solid food (at 46 he eats much they way he did at 9 months old).

He also teases the people who eat things that supposedly stave off disease which the drug companies don’t want you knowing about.  Hi sister says “Cancer can definitely be cured with a vegan diet…”  His sensible response?  “If a vegan diet truly did cure cancer, don’t you think it would have at least made the front age of the New York Times Science section.”  He says that Paul has been eating apricot seeds for some time (although any more than four can be dangerous since they contain cyanide). (more…)

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Simon Rich–“Amazing Proposal Stories” (New Yorker, October 13, 2014)

Posted in DJ Disk, Funny (ha ha), Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Metallica, New Yorker, Peter Gabriel, Primus, Romance, Stanley Clarke, The Police, The Reddings, XTC on January 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »

oct13SOUNDTRACK: PRIMUS-Rhinoplasty (1998).

Rhinoplasty_primusThis is a kind of follow-up EP to Miscellaneous Debris–a covers and live song compilation EP that runs 48 minutes.

While there are some of the same artists covered, there are also a few surprises.

XTC-“Scissor Man.”  I didn’t know the original of this song, but I like the cool bass and the chorus’ da da da da nyow”  They tack on about a minute and a half of extra nonsense at the end, but it’s a still a fun cover.  The original is quite similar (Primus should be commended for getting more people into XTC, although it’s a small shame that this song is on the same album a “Making Plans for Nigel”).  See the original:

Peter Gabriel-“The Family and the Fishing Net” is next and fortunately this song is off a different Peter Gabriel album (although it is also called Peter Gabriel)  The original of this song is 7 minutes long (Primus lops off 30 seconds).  The Primus version is quite faithful (which shows just how odd the PG version is).  You can compare here:

The first surprise (sort of) is their cover of Stanley Clarke’s “Silly Putty.” It’s obvious that Claypool is a huge fan of Stanley Clarke, it’s just an unusual sound to hear from Primus.  There’s some turntable scratching by Disk from the Invisibl Skratch Piklz.  The song is quite faithful to the original spirit (although the original had horns).

The next surprise is “Amos Moses” as done by Jerry Reed, a honky-stomping song if ever there was.  And their version is honky-stompin and pretty much right on to the original–a huge surprise to me.

The Police-“Behind My Camel” is an unusual choice –a Police song with no words?  It’s one of their weirder songs too, and Primus does it perfectly. (If not a bit heavier with more popping bass).

“Too Many Puppies” is the first song the Les ever wrote.  I believe that this is how it was originally written, although it is listed as a remix.  It sounds quite different–watery bass instead of popping bass and no I don’t like it as much.

Metallica-“The Thing That Should Not Be” is quite faithful to the original, even down to Les’ growly singing.  He says in the Primus book that he wished he had sung it more like himself and I kind of do too–I’d have liked to hear a bit more “Primus” in the version as well.  But it’s fun to hear them do other people’s songs reverentially.

There are two live bonus tracks.

“Tommy the Cat” is a fun wild live version–it has changed somewhat over the years–a little faster and Les’ singing is rather different.  This version is 9 minutes long.  The first part is the song proper (I love that Ler plays the same wild guitar sounds perfectly and Brain is perfect with the drums).  But this song also features a bass solo at around 3:31 (which is primarily Claypool playing the song “The Awakening” from his Holy Mackerel album (it’s a cover from the Reddings) and a drum solo at 5:30 (which is okay, nothing special).  By 7:30 the song more or less resumes till the end.

It blends right into a live version of “Bob’s Party Time Lounge” (from The Brown Album).  It’s one of my favorite recent songs from them  and the live version is quite good.

As with Debris, this is a really enjoyable stopgap–one that shows how normal the band can sound, but which also lets you see just what formed Primus.

[READ: January 12, 2015] “Amazing Proposal Stories”

In this one page story, Simon Rich gives us three “amazing” proposal stories.

The first one comes from Alice.

On Valentine’s Day her boyfriend did something really special, which involves a ship, the US Embassy and, uh, hostages.

The second one comes from Kayla. (more…)

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M.T. Anderson–Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware (2006) M. T. Anderson’s Thrilling Tales (Pals in Peril Book 3) [audiobook 2009–Marc Carman]

Posted in Adventure, Anachronisms, Audiobooks, Children's Books, Culture Shock, Delaware, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Gangsters, M.T. Anderson, Marc Carman, Meta, Monks, Revenge, Stare-Eyes, Technology on January 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: December 29, 2014] Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware

delWe are now hooked on the Pals in Peril series.  This, the third book, promised to be the funniest and weirdest yet.  I mean, look at the title.

But this book proved problematic for us for two somewhat related reasons.  The first is that we usually listen to longer books like this when we have a lot of driving to do.  We didn’t have any major big drive ahead so we wound up listening in small chunks, which was a little confusing.  The kids were able to follow quite well, but after a couple of weeks some details are bound to get lost.  The second reason is that this book is long.  It was a 6 hour audio book as opposed to the 3 hours of the other two books.

The brevity of Whales on Stilts was a real treat.  In it, Anderson wrote that he didn’t like to write action scenes because they were all the same.  Same with chase scenes.  But in this book, he has our heroes slogging through the wilderness for literal days (and almost an entire disc).  It got a little samey, I feel–especially since we were listening in small chunks at a time.

This is not to say that the book wasn’t enjoyable. There were hundreds of hilarious moments in it.  Even in the duller sections, he often threw in an absurd joke (or ten) that made me laugh.  So maybe if we had listened all at once this would have held up better.  But honestly it was only the middle that was kind of trudging (when they were trudging) because the beginning and end were great.

This happens to be another book where reading it would have been entertaining in other ways–the characters of Delaware have virtually no vowels in their names.  Mark Cashman (who did another awesome job reading) does a fine job saying their names, but I had to find a print copy in the library because I needed to know how these crazy words were spelled.

So, what happens? (more…)

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Derek Kirk Kim–Tune Book 2: Still Life (2013)

Posted in Alternate Reality, Art, Christmas Album, Derek Kirk Kim, Fears, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Les McClaine, Loreena McKennitt, Short Books, YA Books on December 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »

stilllife SOUNDTRACK: LOREENA McKENNITT-A Winter Garden (1995).

mckenneitLoreena McKennitt has a beautiful voice.  This EP is a beautiful holiday selection (not really Christmas exactly, so that’s fine).  There’s five songs, one of them is from one of her albums as well.

“Coventry Carol” has an excellent full sound–McKennitt’s beautiful voice fits this olde song quite nicely.  “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” opens with Indian sounding drums and a cool fretless bass.  When the fiddles come in it retains a vaguely middle Eastern sound.  It’s a bit long, but very cool.

“Good King Wenceslas” has flutes and cello and nice percussion.  It’s a lovely version.  “Snow” opens with a pretty flute (that has since been co-opted by Titanic).  It’s a pleasant song if bordering on a wee bit too much.  “Seeds of Love” is a pretty song, but it doesn’t feel very seasonal to me.

Overall this is a nice winter record.  It’s not so much Christmasey as pagan.  It’s very pretty and the traditional instruments sound great.  The fact that it’s only 22 minutes is also nice.

[READ: December 19, 2014] Tune: Still Life

So I didn’t spoil the first book, but I can now safely reveal that Andy Go has signed up to be a human living in an alien zoo. He gets $250,000 for his year of service and he gets to go home for the weekends.  Not bad.  He is bummed that he didn’t get to tell Yumi that he loved her, but he can always go tell her this weekend, right?

In the meantime, he gets to enjoy that everything has been perfectly re-created to his specifications.  In fact, the aliens downloaded his memory and replicated everything exactly as he remembered it–his favorite foods, his favorite TV shows, even the magazines under his bed (wow).  Now he just has to learn to pee in front of gawkers and it will be the best job ever.

It even turns out that his bosses are nice.  Well, the one boss is.  She is young (and, yes, sexy even is she has no facial features) and pleasant to him.  She is also amazed by his art.  Sadly, her father is a mean ballbuster.  He hates his art.  In fact, he hates all art.  Their version of reality has done away with art and has ensured that no one has any creativity of any kind.  They even have news feeds piped into their heads 24 hours a day (or however long their day lasts).

Andy also learns that he has a neighbor–Mo.  He and Mo communicate through the air vents.  Mo is an amusing, teasing guy who gives Andy a hard time.  He also tells Andy two things that change Andy’s perception of his job.  The first is that they will send him a female eventually and the second is that the contract he signed stipulates that he will be in the zoo for life, not for a year.  Thud. (more…)

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Nikolai Gogol–The Night Before Christmas (1926) [translated 2011]

Posted in Christmas, Christmas Album, Constance Garnett, Demons, Foreign Books, Funny (ha ha), Marriage Trouble, New Directions Pearls, Nikolai Gogol, Poo, Rivers Cuomo, Russia, Short Story, Translation, Witches on December 24, 2014| Leave a Comment »

gogolSOUNDTRACK: ANDY WILLIAMS-Merry Christmas (1965).

awxmasMan, I love some Andy Williams at Christmastime.  I don’t really know much about him at other times of the year and I imagine that I would never listen to him, but he is one of the voices of Christmas. I like his voice so much even if I don’t love all the songs on this record.

His “Sleigh Ride” is the essential version–boppy and fun–you can imagine zipping along on a sleigh with jingle bells bouncing along.

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is a bit slow, but “Winter Wonderland” sounds great.  His “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” is fun–he can really belt out those notes and “Silver Bells” is also a highlight.

The choice of “My Favorite Things” (from The Sound of Music) is unexpected, as it has nothing to do with Christmas, but his rendition is wonderful.  “Christmas Holiday” is a song I don’t know but Williams belts it out as well.  “Do You Hear What I Hear” is also great.

“Some Children See Him” is a fascinating song that I haven’t heard too much (although Rivers Cuomo does a cover of it(!)).  It’s all about how children from different countries see Jesus a different way (a rather progressive idea).

“Little Altar Boy” is a slow and somewhat ponderous song that I’m unfamiliar with.  The final two songs “Mary’s Little Boy Child” and “The Bells of St. Mary” are pretty but not fun (as you would assume from the titles).

So I love about half the disc and like most of the rest.  Williams has an earlier Christmas album as well.  I think I’d like to pick and choose between the two discs for a great Williams collection.

[READ: December 23, 2014] The Night Before Christmas

I had intended to read all Dickens stories this week.  And then my latest New Directions Pearl arrived and it was this one: The Night Before Christmas (also translated as Christmas Eve) by Nikolai Gogol.  Well, that put a change in my plans.

I don’t know much about Gogol, although apparently he wrote only short stories (no novels).  My book has a quote from Dostoevsky that says, “We all came out of Gogol’s overcoat.”  So imagine my surprise when this night before Christmas is actually about witches and the devil and affairs with beautiful women!

The story is set in Dikanka, Ukraine.  It is Christmas Eve and, according to legend, that is the night in which the devil is free to perform tricks and torment people.  Before the devil comes, we see a witch flying around the sky collecting stars.  The devil decides that he is going to steal the moon–this will make it very dark so he can create even more mischief.  The moon proves to be very hot, and he winds up juggling it a few times until he gets it into his pocket.

The devil decides to get back at Vakula, the village blacksmith.  In addition to being the blacksmith, he is also an artist and he has painted some really cruel pictures of the devil on the side of the church.  And the devil is pretty miffed about this.  So he sets an elaborate plan in motion. (more…)

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Derek Kirk Kim–Tune Book 1: Vanishing Point (2012)

Posted in Alternate Reality, Art, Christmas Album, Derek Kirk Kim, Fears, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Short Books, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, YA Books on December 21, 2014| 1 Comment »

tune1 SOUNDTRACK: STUCK IN THE CHIMNEY (2000).

StuckinthechimneyThis is the second Parasol records Christmas sampler.  I was more excited about this one, but it turns out to be similarly mid-tempo and kind of dull.  Even the band I was excited about The Soundtrack of Our Lives created an uninspired song that I’d never listen to more than once.

THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES-“Jingle Hell (Stuck in the Chimney)” Done to the basic music of “Blister in the Sun” (but slightly different and on keyboard)—a punk blast which then gets really silly full of nonsense.  If this had been an indicator of the rest of the album, I may have enjoyed it more.  THE GREEN PAJAMAS-“O Holy Night” Guitar based, pretty if a little slow.  WHITE TOWN-“December” Nice harmonies a pretty song (even if the lyrics are rather dark).  NEILSON HUBBARD-“Merry Christmas (Whereever You May Be)”  I love that it opens with a toy piano (always fun) but then it slows down way too much.  ABSINTHE BLIND-“Silent Night” Guitar version (which is a nice change).  This is a quiet song with lots of singers—pretty but not sappy.  FONDA-“Last Christmas” I don’t generally like this song (what a weird sentiment) but this version’s simple strummed guitar is cool.  SUKILOVE-“X-Mas for Aliens” Slide guitar and a blues riff propel this slow, funny song.  GEORGE USHER GROUP-“Christmas in the Lion’s Den” Rocking guitar with a heavyish riff.  JENNIFER JACKSON-“Blue Christmas” Slow sad version of the song on simple guitar and vocals.  ERIK VOEKS-“Cruel Tide” A slow minor key riff lets you know this song is not a happy one.  DOLEFUL LIONS-“Jesus Christ” A slow song (I mean jeez look at their name) about Jesus’ birth.  VITESSE-“Ice & Ribbons” a new wave sound, but rather mopey.  FRIENDS OF SOUND-“I Don’t Want Presents” Cool guitar notes and interesting sounds but slow drawly female vocals.  JOHN HOEFFLEUR AND REBECCA RURY AND STEVE UCHEREK-“Christmas @ Friedrich’s” With his deep voice folkie guitar (sounds a bit like Mike Doughty) this song (which is kind of funny) is probably the catchiest song on both discs.  TOOTHPASTE 2000-“7-ELEVEN CHRISTMAS” I enjoyed Toothpaste 2000 on the other disc too.  This one is weird sounding fun and of course it being about 7-11 is also amusing. Then a rocking guitar comes in, and it’s even better.  JOE ALGERI-“Computer Xmas” Light song about getting cool stuff for Christmas.

Overall this disc is better than the first one.  But it’s not something I want to put on a lot.

[READ: December 15, 2014] Tune: Vanishing Point

I love everything Derek Kirk Kim does.  But this series may be the best one yet.  It is funny, it has great art and it is ever surprising.

Andy Go, an art student wakes up to find himself in, a replica of his house being watched by a whole bunch of aliens.  What the heck?

We flash back to see Andy and his two art school friends congratulating themselves on finishing yet another year of school.  They bemoan their lack of coolness until Yumi, the girl who Andy has a massive crush on, comes over.  She celebrates with them and they all wonder what they will do next year.  Until Andy says that he is dropping out of school.  He says he doesn’t need a piece of paper to say that he is an artist.  He has applied for jobs all over the place and they should just come pouring in.  You know what that means. (more…)

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Simon Rich–What in God’s Name (2013)

Posted in Christmas Album, Funny (ha ha), Gods, Humiliation, Kissing, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Morality, Religion, Short Books, Simon Rich on December 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »

rich nameSOUNDTRACK: AN OLDE WORLD CHRISTMAS (European Holiday) (1990?).

olde worldWhile yesterday’s Norwegian Christmas album was awesome, this one falls very very short.  The premise of the album is so promising: Christmas songs from around the world.  There are Spanish, French, English, German, Scandinavian and Italian songs here!

Well, the problem is that this entire record was recorded (apparently) by one guy on a keyboard with five preset sounds.  It is so disappointing.  I mean sure it’s pretty (sort of).  But there is no sense at all that these are different countries’ songs.

For instance, “Angels We Have Heard on High.”  Who knew that that was originally a French song?  Not me.  And in no way does this keyboard instrumental version of “Les Anges Dans Nos Campagnes” convey that it is anything other than “Angels We Have Heard on High.”  How about the fact that we get “O Tannebaum” instead of “O Christmas Tree”?  Well, without words, what’s the difference?

So, there are pianoish sounds and harpsichordish sounds and a flute-ish sound.  And this would probably be a nice thing to put on as you were falling asleep on Christmas Eve and wanted visions of synthesized sukker plomme dancing in your tête.  Thank goodness I got it for 99 cents.

[READ: December 16, 2014] What in God’s Name

When I grabbed Simon’s Rich’s last story collection, I also grabbed this novel, assuming that, you know, it would be hilarious.  And it is.

This story is set in Heaven, Inc.  The CEO, God, is more interested in watching NASCAR than actuality attending to any miracles or crises on earth.  In fact, we learn that Earth was created primarily to produce Xenon, and that humans were just a pet project of some angels.

Angels, yes.  The entire story is written from the point of view of some angels working in heaven.

We meet Craig who has been in Miracles for a few years.  And there’s a new addition to the team Eliza who spent many years working in Prayer Intake but really wanted to move up to Miracles because it just sounded so much more interesting.

One of the best parts about the story is the way Rich envisions angels performing small miracles every day–adjusting the world without transgressing any of God’s major laws (gravity, physics, that sort of thing).  When an angel goes too far (like when Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 pints in a game because God liked him and the angel wanted to impress Him), that angel gets punished.  So I loved watching the convoluted ways angels did things to make people act or react.  Small things to help avoid getting a paper cut or assist in catching a fish. (more…)

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Aparna Nacherla (State Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ, December 14, 2014) [JOHN OLIVER]

Posted in Aparna Nancherla, Funny (ha ha), John Oliver, NASA, New Brunswick, NJ, Pets, Set in New Jersey!, Space Force, State Theatre, Travel on December 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 14, 2014] Aparna Nacherla

nanI’m updating this post in July of 2020, because Aparna Nancherla deserves her own post.  When we saw her, she was hilarious.  Since then she has gained some noterirty and I am always pleased to see her on TV shows (most recently in the Steve Carell-created Space Force).

This is what I wrote about her in my post for John Oliver, but I wanted her to have her own heading.

S. and I were excited to see John Oliver.

The show opened with an Indian woman stand up.  Nothing is more thankless than being an opening act for a comedian.  For starters, we didn’t know there would be an opening act.  Then we didn’t find out until we saw in tiny letters on the tiny marquee in the foyer that there would be an opening act.  And we pushed through the doors so quickly that I never saw her name.  And of course they announced it, but I don’t remember what they said her name was.  And even worse I can’t seem to find it online anywhere (searching for “Indian female comedian” did not help).  And we never got a program (if it was indeed listed in there). (more…)

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