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Archive for the ‘Ghosts’ Category

James Kochalka–Superfuckers (2010)

Posted in Alternate Reality, Christmas Album, Death, Drugs, End of the World, Funny (ha ha), Ghosts, Graphic Novel, James Kochalka, Jealousy, Poo, Revenge, Sufjan Stevens, Superheroes, Supernatural, Unlikable main character, Violence, Yuck! on December 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »

superSOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS Christmas Infinity Voyage: Songs for Christmas Vol. 8 (2008).

sufjan 8Back in 2008, a Vol. VIII of Sufjan’s Christmas recordings was leaked on the internet.  It was called Astral Inter Planet Space Captain Christmas Infinity Voyage-Songs for Christmas Vol. VIII and I talked about it here.  When his official release came out volume 8 was similar yet different from the leaked one.  The song tracks were almost identical, but the versions (and lengths) were rather different.

The leaked version of the disc has this track listing:

Angels We Have Heard on High  5:00
Do You See What I See  4:59
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear   :48
Christmas in the Room  4:50
Good King Wenceslas  2:15
Joy to the World  7:49
The Child With the Star on His Head 13:15

And the official version has this track listing

  Angels We Have Heard on High  4:04
Do You Hear What I Hear  9:14
Christmas in the Room  4:32
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear    :48
Good King Wenceslas  4:18
Alphabet St.  1:36
Particle Physics 1:04
Joy to the World  5:25
The Child With the Star on His Head 15:13

So what’s the difference

 

“Angels We Have Heard On High”—The leaked version has a lengthy warbling keyboard introduction and is the real song.  The official version is an original song based on the hymn.  I like the way the opening melody changes expected direction in mid line.  I also enjoyed the “oh ho ho hos.”  This is pretty much the only traditional sounding song on the disc because the rest get pretty unusual electronic treatments

“Do You Hear What I Hear”  The leaked version (with a different title) was autotuned and slow (and only 4 minutes).  The official version is also autotuned, and is filled with electronic percussion. It quickly goes weird and crazy, but I like it.  It’s 9 minutes long and the last five minutes are a crazy freakout of autotuned nonsense.

“Christmas in the Room” is a song about being alone with someone you love for Christmas—pros and cons (although there seems like a lot sadness in the song). The autoharp is pretty though. [The leaked version is a bit louder with electronic music rather than autoharp].

“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” in both version this is a short (less than a minute) electronic version of the traditional song.

“Good King Wenceslas” is also crazy and electronic with lots of strange inserted sounds and lines from other songs.  [The leaked version is only 2 minutes and while still electronic is far less crazy].

“Alphabet St” continues some of the nonsense in Wenceslas—lyrics about being sexy. “Particle Physics” is also 1 minute long of space sounds that merge into

“Joy to the World” is also slightly off-sounding (with lots of different instruments). It starts kind of pretty but goes really wild with the electronics and the autotune and by the end it’s just crazy electronic freakout.

“The Child With the Star on His Head” opens the official version with someone saying “desperately seeking Santa take 3.”  Despite it being super long (in both version) the song itself is really quite pretty.  It’s very Sufjan with great falsetto and an unexpected melody.  The two versions are similar in construct but after the opening few minutes they diverge pretty radically.  At around 5 minutes an electronic sounding, totally fuzzed guitar solo begins and it adds a very strange element to it—a kind of psychedelic outer space sound, which doesn’t quite fit the mood. [Interestingly, in the leaked version, the solo is pretty much the same notes, but it is far less spacey and effects filled.  It has more of a classic rock guitar solo (kind of David Gilmour-ish]. The solo lasts longer in the new version too.   That pretty much accounts for the two minute discrepancy.  The rest of the song plays out mostly the same, although again, the leaked version is kind of pretty and sweet (with la las and a horn solo) while the official release is all electronic and gets crazy here and there.  The end of the song is a denouement–horn based in the leaked and all electronic in the official.

I’m not really sure which release I prefer, because the electronic stuff is really kind of wild and fun (although not very Christmassey).  But the leaked version is really quite nice.

[READ: December 11, 2014] Superfuckers

I know Kochalka mostly from his children’s books, which are weird and warped and really really funny.  Most of them seem to star his son’s head imposed on his weird cartoon style (so funny).

So imagine my surprise to discover a book of his called Superfuckers.

Superfuckers is a “collection” of “issues” of the “series” Superfuckers.

It opens with issue #271 (from 2005).  And within five or six panels, we get every single curse word you can imagine from our “superheroes.”  Indeed, they really don’t “do” anything.  They just sit around and yell at each other (calling everyone gay or slut or some such), get high (on a staggeringly odd number of things) and plot to take over the gang. (more…)

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Emmanuel Guibert & Joann Sfar–Sardine in Outer Space (2000) [translated 2006]

Posted in Adventure, Children's Books, Christmas Album, Emmanuel Guibert, Fantasy, First Second :01, Foreign Books, Funny (strange), Ghosts, Graphic Novel, Huh?, Joann Sfar, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Outer Space, Pirates, Sasha Watson, Sufjan Stevens, Superheroes, Translation on December 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

sardineSOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS and HIS UNWITTING COHORTS present I am Santa’s Helper even more songs for Christmas Vol. 7 (2007).

sufjan 7This is the first of Sufjan’s Christmas albums to really deviate from the style of the first six.  First off, there are 24 songs on the disc and second, it is 42 minutes long.  Most of the songs are between 1 and 2 minutes, although there are a couple of longer ones too.  There are a large number of songs that are traditional sounding and which have a beautiful chorale of voices supporting it.  But interspersed with these are some nonsensical tracks that sound mostly like goofy kids songs–out of tune, hastily created, sloppy and a lot of fun (I imagine he recorded these songs with the adults’ children while they were in between takes).  It’s surprising that the songs are interspersed like they are since the serious one are so pretty and the weird ones are so weird.

 It’s a ramshackle collection with some real highlights.

“Christ The Lord Is Born” pretty piano instrumental under a minute long.
“Christmas Woman” a big song with lots of orchestration (and clocking in at over 5 minuets).  With lots of backing vocals and a crazy sloppy guitar solo. I love it.
“Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light” 1 minute of piano and chorus: traditional and pretty (this is a Bach song).
“Happy Family Christmas” piano and slightly wonky guitar and after the first verse a bunch distorted chaotic nonsense (with someone “singing” a guitar solo).  The first really weirdo song on a Christmas release of his.
“Jingle Bells” Continuing with the weird style, the “dashing through the snow” part is done with a very off guitar melody and kids laughing during the “laughing all the way” part. It’s silly and funny.
“Mysteries Of The Christmas Mist” 2 minutes of piano and other noises (this is one of many short Sufjan originals).
“Lift Up Your Heads Ye Mighty Gates” another pretty choral piece with many voices.
“We Wish You A Merry Christmas” crazy nonsense of sloppy silly singing and crazy out of tune guitars.
“Ah Holy Jesus” a slow pretty piano song with chorus
“Behold! The Birth Of Man, The Face Of Glory” a slow piano number, also pretty.
“Ding-a-ling-a-ring-a-ling” raucous and wild, with crazy guitars.  It’s 2 minutes of silly nonsense. It ends with someone saying “let’s do a real song”
“How Shall I Fitly Meet Thee?” pretty piano instrumental with voices.
“Mr. Frosty Man” sloppy guitars and nonsense.
“Make Haste To See The Baby” accordion and piano in a slow sombre song.
“Ah Holy Jesus” (reed organ version) this is the second version of this song.
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” straightforward and pretty with some over-orchestration later in the song
“Morning” pipe organ and flute in a nice instrumental.
“Idumea” the vocal chorale comes back on this sad song.  It is over 3 minutes long and is rather disturbing.
“Eternal Happiness Or Woe” a creepy kind of song with ringing bells and sounds of, well, woe.
“Ah Holy Jesus” [a cappella] the prettiest version on the disc.
“I Am Santa’s Helper” this is a funny song in which the only words are “I am Santa’s helper, you are Santa’s slave.”
“‘Maoz Tzur’ (Rock Of Ages)” a 42 second traditional Jewish hymn done on piano.
“Even The Earth Will Perish And The Universe Give Way” a low bass organ opens this final track on this long and often times weird Christmas disc.

But this is not the weirdest of Sufjan’s Christmas EPs.

[READ: December 5, 2014] Sardine in Outer Space

Sardine is a children’s book published by First Second.  It was originally published in France (and in French) and was translated by Sasha Watson.  There are six Sardine books out.  And I fear that this is one series that I’m really not very interested in finishing.

The inner flap says No Grownups Allowed, so I imagined that the story would be funny and a little naughty.

But really it’s just kind of uninspired.  Sardine is a young girl who works with (or lives with anyhow) the pirate Yellow Shoulder (who is apparently her uncle?) on his outer space pirate ship.  They spend nearly every story (each story is about ten pages) battling the evil (and suitably stupid) Supermuscleman and his evil henchman Doc Krok (a weird orange creature who looks like a walking sweet potato).  There’s also Little Louise, a boy who is Yellow’s..henchman? and may not be all that bright and a cat creature who doesn’t really do much. (more…)

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Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez–Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft (2008)

Posted in Christmas Album, Death, Demons, Fears, George O'Connor, Ghosts, Graphic Novel, Joe Hill, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Revenge, Sufjan Stevens, Supernatural, Violence, Yuck! on December 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »

lcoke1SOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS and FRIENDS present Gloria songs for Christmas Vol. 6 (2006).

sufjan 6I was planning to write about Sufjan Steven’s first collection of Christmas albums, but I had forgotten that I had already done so back in 2009 [Vol 1 here; Vol 2 here; Vol 3 here; Vol 4 here and Vol 5 here.]

The next five volumes (from 2006-2010) came out in 2012.  This collection bucks the rather traditional tradition he had established with the earlier volumes.  Indeed, as the discs progress, they get more and more unusual.

But this first disc is quite traditional sounding.  It has 8 songs and is about thirty minutes long.

“Silent Night” is very pretty with gentle acoustic guitars and lots of backing vocalists. The solo is kind of a singing saw I think—a little odd, but neat.
“Lumberjack Christmas/No One Can Save You from Christmases Past” is filled with fiddles and is quite sweet (with a very familiar melody (and ho ho hos).
“Coventry Carol” I love the introductory melody of this song, it’s so pretty.  The voices feature multiple harmonies;  it’s quite lovely.
“The Midnight Clear” despite the title and first line, this is not “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear,” but a song inspired by that one. This is a very pretty song with a complex melody and lots of filigree in the instrumentation.
“Carol of St. Benjamin the Bearded One” I love this instrumental opening (about 90 seconds) which plays with a twist on “Hark Hear the Bells” and then plays some different instrumental sections but always returning to that Hark section. It’s very cool.  When the vocals come in it mellows out quite a bit and is still very pretty.
“Go Nightly Cares” has a very Elizabethan feel to it.  It’s a lovely 15th century instrumental.
“Barcarola (You Must Be A Christmas Tree)” is 7 minutes long. It begins slow but gets bigger and bigger with a section from Do You Hear What I Hear (the “following yonder star” melody)
“Auld Lang Syne” is a very pretty version on acoustic instruments with lots of singers.  It’s a nice way to end the EP.

[READ: December 5, 2014] Locke & Key 1

I heard about this graphic novel series when Joe Hill was on Seth Meyers’ show.  I didn’t really know too much about his writing style but I knew he wasn’t someone I was anxious to read (even if his book Heart Shaped Box must have something to do with the Nirvana song, right?).

But Seth made this graphic novel series sound really compelling, so I decided to check them out.  There are six collections in the series and they are all available now.

The first collection is called Welcome to Lovecraft and it sets the story in motion pretty much from the get go.  As the book opens we see two creepy looking youths harassing a pretty woman.  We see that they have killed at least two people, and things don’t look good for the lady.

Then we cut to some kids.  An older boy, Tyler; a young teen girl Kinsey (with dreadlocks and piercings) and a little boy. Bode.  They are all complaining about how much they hate living where they are.

Jump cut to a funeral with a bright red urn and Tyler looking down at it. (more…)

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Tom Angleberger [Sam Riddleburger]–The Qwikpick Papers: Poop Fopuntain! (2007)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Children's Books, Daniel Pinkwater, Funny (ha ha), Ghosts, John Congleton, Molly Hatchet, Poo, Set at School, Short Books, Surreal, Thurl Ravenscroft, Tom Angleberger, Witches, Yuck! on October 31, 2014| Leave a Comment »

 qwikpSOUNDTRACK: THURL RAVENSCROFT AND DISNEY FRIENDS-“Grim, Grinning Ghosts” (1960s).

hauntThis song is the theme to Disney’s Haunted Mansion.  I’ve been to the Haunted Mansion perhaps a dozen times and I recognized a line from it (when the ghosts appear next to you in the ride), but I can’t say I ever paid attention or even thought about to this song before.

It was brought to my attention by John Congleton during his excellent interview with Bob and Robin on NPR.  The whole interview was outstanding–I learned so much from him–but I wanted to focus on this song because he raves about it (and because it is Halloween).  And because I absolutely wanted to type the name Thurl Ravenscroft.

  He loves the vocals by Thurl (who was also the singer of The Grinch songs) and the bizarre chord progression: Am, B, Am, B♭, Am, F, Am, F7, Am, E7, Am.  And about the song, he says:

When I was a kid, I was so attracted to this song, but I was scared of it. The record would sit with my other records and I would see it in there, and I would be like, ‘Do I have the bravery to listen to it right now?’ And sometimes I would, and I was mesmerized by it. But the then I grew up, and I went back and listened to it, and was like, ‘This is brilliant. This is really, really well done.’ I never in my entire life heard background vocals that sounded as tight as that. Never in my life. The harmonies are the tightest harmonies I have ever heard ever. And it’s like, this is for a silly kid’s record — but they were committed to making something special. Everything about that song is incredible to me.

So yes, it’s a goofy song, and if you don’t pay too much attention to it, it’s just a not very scary ghost song, but there’s a lot going on (hand it to Disney for being really into their production values).  Like this note from Wikipedia: “the organist actually played the song backwards to achieve the discord that the composer intended.”

Not bad for a song you only hear if you go on a ride.

[READ: October 19, 2014] Poop Fountain!

I have enjoyed just about everything that Tom Angleberger has written (interestingly, he is famous for his origami Yoda series, which I actually like less than his other books).  This book was actually his first book published.  But he published it under the name Sam Riddleburger and it was called The Qwikpick Adventure Society.  It has clearly been republished since he is now famous.

I brought the book home for Clark but he said he didn’t really like the way it was written (it is typed with handwritten comments).  I actually found it very easy to read and thought it was a super fast read–two hours at most.

So the book starts with a note from Tom Angleberger in which he says that before he wrote books he was a reporter and one of the stories he wrote was about a sewage plant in Crickenburg, Virginia (which is not a real town).  His original article was about how the local sewage plant was getting over-burdened by all the new residents and so it would need to be enlarged.  He went to interview the manager and man did it stink.

He says that many years later a guy called him up to say that he had found a bunch of papers (including his article) in a Qwikpick gas station.  And that’s how he came across this first person account of an adventure to the same sewage plant.

He then tells readers that this was in 2000, before kids had cell phones or the internet, when kids basically just did stuff outside.  And that is how the Qwikpick Adventures Society’s trip to see the Fountain of Poop came about–thre bored kids looking for something to do. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 5] The Pale King (2011) [Pale Summer §27-§34]

Posted in Big Books, Boredom, Boredoms, David Foster Wallace, Death, Demons, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Ghosts, Law, Memoirs, Meta, New Yorker, Pale Summer, Religion, Research, Supernatural, Taxes, Today's Accountant on August 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »

tpk6SOUNDTRACK: BOREDOMS (various).

borepageBoredoms are an experimental noisy band from Japan.  I am completely unqualified to talk about them as I only know snippets of their output.  But I have always been intrigued by them.  Lead dude Yamataka Eye has been the main impetus behind the band.  And it seems like exactly the kind of noise/music one might play if one were horribly bored.

Yoshimi P-We is the longest serving drummer with the Boredoms.  She is the “Yoshimi” in the title of The Flaming Lips’ album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

Over the years they have gone from outright nose (listen to the track “Bubblebop Shot” from Soul Discharge or “We Never Sleep” from Onanie Bomb Meets the Sex Pistols which is mostly screams and drums) to a more ambient (but still noisy) style. They performed a live show with 77 drummers  on 7/7/07.

They’ve even changed their name to V∞redoms.

Here’s an interesting clip of the band from All Tomorrow’s Parties in 2012, being a lot less noisy but still pretty weird.

[READ: August 11, 2014] Pale Summer Week 5 (§27-§34)

There were a few things in this week’s reading that seemed to contradict other things in the reading.  This is not surprising as Pietsch says that there were things that he knew DFW would eventually change.  The notes at the back of the book (yes, I peeked, bit no spoiler here) say that there were different possible plotlines for some of the characters and even a duplication of a weird character trait.   But it’s funny to see it evolving in front of you.

In §27, Sylvanshine seems to be able to control his Random Fact Inference somewhat–and he seems to be using it rather than being inflicted by it.  This is either a big change or a cool development in Claude’s life.

There is also what I think is an actual mistake: two people have the same number: 907313433 (see §30).

In another “unfinished” issue, the surveillance in §29 is one of those situations that would certainly have been explained in greater detail (or had another scene about it).  I initially assumed they were doing surveillance for deadbeat companies (maybe for new vehicles), but there are indications (in later sections) that perhaps something else is going on, maybe to do with the Glendenning/Lehrl issue that Reynolds and Sylvanshine are talking about in §30.

One thing that I hadn’t explicitly noticed earlier, but which comes out in Cusk’s section below is the idea that “more information is not better.”  While this seems to be very true for their job, it can certainly be a debilitating world view and I wonder if that is at play as well. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 4] The Pale King (2011) [Pale Summer §23-§26] #palesummer14

Posted in Big Books, Boredom, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Death, Demons, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Ghosts, Law, Memoirs, Meta, Negativland, Pale Summer, Research, Sex, Taxes on August 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

tpk4SOUNDTRACK: NEGATIVLAND-“Nesbitt’s Lime Soda Song” (1987).

limeThere are multiple references to Nesbitt’s soda in this book.  I am unfamiliar with Nesbitt’s except in this funny little song from Negativland (on their album Escape from Noise).  I have always liked this song, perhaps because it is so simple (and is an actual song) amidst the chaos of the album.

A simple strummed guitar introduces this quaint song about everyday frustrations:

We spent a lovely summer, my wife Elaine and me,
We bought us a great big motor home, with a shower and TV,
We was camping and having a great time, watching Brokaw on Today,
Till a bee flew into the Nesbitt’s Lime Soda, and we had to throw it away.

Now most of the time I’m a peaceful man, but I lost my temper that day,
Just one last bottle of Nesbitt’s Lime Soda, and we had to throw it away.

I’m including the second verse not only because of the sodas listed, which I find endearing, but also because of the phrase “good old Mountain Dew” which reminds me of something DFW would say:

I brought a case of Nehi, and Double Cola, too,
A half a dozen Upper 10’s, and good old Mountain Dew,
I bought a quart of cola-a, to get me through the day,
But just one bottle of Nesbitt’s Lime Soda, and we had to throw it away.

I think most of the Nesbitt’s in the story is orange (that was their big seller) but Nesbitt’s did actually did have a Lime (or I guess Lemon-Lime) soda as well

[READ: August 4, 2014] Pale Summer Week 4 (§23-§26)

After last week’s massive 100 page section inside of one person’s head, it’s nice to get back to some of these smaller sections.  I’m particularly pleased to have another David Wallace section, as I find his the most entertaining.

§23

This is a brief First person section that begins: “Dream:”  Rows of foreshortened faces, many blank doing endless small tasks. It was his psyche teaching him about boredom.  He was often bored as a child, but that boredom was not actual boredom.  Back then he worried and fretted a lot, feeling the “sort of soaring, ceilingless tedium that transcends tedium and becomes worry” (253).  It was anxiety with no object.

He was the nervous delicate son, as opposed to his brother, the gifted driven son whose nightly piano practice coincided with their father’s return from work.  I section that says “after the incident with my own son” (254) reminded me that someone suggested that “Incarnations of Burned Children” may actually fit into this book and it seems like that could be applicable here, although I shudder to think it.  In psychotherapy he realized that his family was Achilles.  His brother was the shield and he was the heel. His father was a warrior, but his mother’s role was unclear. (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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David Foster Wallace–[Week 1] The Pale King (2011) [Pale Summer §1-§9]

Posted in Airlines, Big Books, Boredom, Canadian Music, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Death, Demons, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Ghosts, Law, Memoirs, Meta, New Yorker, Pale Summer, Religion, Research, Taxes on July 14, 2014| 4 Comments »

tpk1SOUNDTRACK: PALE KING-“An Airing” (2013).

paleNope, I never heard of the musician Pale King until I searched for a song to put here.

This song begins as a piano instrumental (with some keyboards layered over).  It swells and lifts through some simple chord changes.  A martial beat comes in from time to time to give it some urgency.

This might actually work as a the opening credits to the never-to-be made movie of The Pale King, or perhaps a soundtrack to §1 (which is a short prose poem type of thing).

At about 1:45, some guitars burst through (adding some drama), and the drums grow louder.  It builds slowly until it starts to taper off and ends much like it began

I don’t know much or anything about the artist except that he’s from Toronto and he has a bandcamp site where you can hear this track.

[READ: July 14, 2014] Pale Summer Week 1 (§1-§9)

In other Summer Reading Group posts, I have tried to summarize chapters, make connections between characters that I may have missed in earlier readings of the book and, just tried to be more microscopic about my reading.  I don’t usually philosophize too much about the stories, but I do wax poetic from time to time.  Having said all that, The Pale King presents its own unique challenges because the book is unfinished.  So it’s not always clear if any connections can be made from chapters that are elliptical. DFW in particular likes to write scenes without naming characters, giving the reader something to discover later on, perhaps.  So you may have a scene that has no named people in it, but their speech patterns or details are referenced later, allowing you to piece things together.

There is definitely some of that piecing going on here, but as I said, when a book is unfinished, and this one was largely pieced together by editor Michael Pietsch, it’s not clear if you are missing something or if it simply isn’t there.  So there will be some speculation, and some omissions for sure, but we press on.

A further complication is the collection of Notes and Asides at the end of the book.  Some reveal information about characters that is not necessarily evident in the book, some talk about things that might have happened or even might have been removed if DFW had played around with the text more.  In general I am not going to read these now, so as to avoid spoilers.  But I may insert them later (with spoiler warnings) to make it easier to make sense of the book later.

The primary setting for the book is the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, IL set in 1985.  Editor Michael Pietsch (in his thoughtful and helpful Editor’s note which is mandatory reading if you are going to read the novel) says that DFW described the book as “torandic,” with elements coming in and going out over and over.

The other key question is just how unfinished is this?  We have no idea.  It feels like it could go on for a ton longer, and yet it no doubt would have been edited down to a more manageable size afterwards.  There are sections that seem like they could have more and others that seems like they would have been trimmed a lot.  And then of course, there could be other things that never even saw the light of day.  None of that should keep anyone from reading the book though. (more…)

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Flinch: a collection of stories to inspire wonder…and question the darkness within us all (2014)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Andrew Richardson, Anton McKay, Birds, Bobby.N, Boredom, Cancer as plot device, Chris Bolton, Chris Bones, Christian Read, Christian Scott, Colin Wilson, Culture Shock, Dave McKean, Death, Disease, End of the World, Fears, Ghosts, Graphic Novel, Greed, Hauschka, James Barclay, Justin Randall, Mark Welsh, Mel Tregonning, Michael Katchan, Pigeons, Ray Fawkes, Revenge, Shaun Tan, Short Books, Short Story, Skye Ogden, Terry Dowling, Tom Bonin, Tom Taylor, Volker Bertelmann, Weekend Edition on June 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »

flinchSOUNDTRACK: HAUSCHKA-“Improvisation,” “Random Gifts” and “Mt. Hood” in the NPR studios (2010).

hausckaHauschka is German composer Volker Bertelmann and he plays the prepared piano.  What that means is that he places things on and in the piano to alter the sound of it.  (Nothing he does creates any permanent damage).

Mostly he creates percussive sounds with things like bottle caps,Tic Tac boxes and skewers.  And while it sounds simple, it is really quite ingenious.

This Vimeo link shows him talking to Guy Raz at NPR about the random materials that Raz has given him and then demonstrating how they change the sound of things.  Then he plays the “Random Gifts.”

The Youtube Video below shows another improv piece from the same day using different items.

This Vimeo link to him playing “Mt. Hood” shows off his use of ping pong balls.

All of his songs are fairly simple and fairly slow, primarily because the preparations add resonances and percussion that would overwhelm if he played faster.  Thus his pieces are often moody and reflective

Hauschka has a new album out as of this month called Abandoned City.  Every track on the new CD is named after a city that has been abandoned, that is vacant.  And his spare oftentimes eerie music goes very well with that theme.

There’s lots more videos of him on YouTube which are worth checking out.

[READ: June 23, 2014] Flinch

I was grabbed by the cover of this graphic novel.  The book is so short that I was really surprised to see that it was actually a collection of short stories.  As you can tell from the subtitle, this work is going to be dark and more than a little creepy.  And it is.  And while there are some similar visual styles, it’s interesting to see just how different these 13 stories can be.  Most of the stories use very few words, relying instead on the power of the visuals.  And it works pretty well.

I didn’t think any of them were especially creepy or dark, although the first one is kinda gross.  I enjoyed them for what they were, short stories that revel in the darker side of life.  I hadn’t heard of most of the artists.  The only one I knew was Shaun Tan. (more…)

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Arthur de Pins–Zombillenium: 1. Gretchen (2010)

Posted in Arthur de Pins, Canadian Music, Demons, Foreign Books, Funny (ha ha), Ghosts, Graphic Novel, Magic, Rheostatics, Vampires, Witches, Zombies, tagged on February 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »

zombieSOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Record Runner, In Store Acoustic, Ottawa, ON (November 29 1996).

I haverecord already posted about this show before.  And I concur with my assessment of what I said last time.

But I wanted to add a few things.  This was recorded by someone in the audience, I assume.  The sound is good (you don’t hear the audience at all, which strangely almost makes it seem like there is no one there).  But it’s not perfectly clean.

This is an acoustic set done on the morning of their second night opening for The Tragically Hip.  (Dave says that you shouldn’t buy their new shirts at the show that night because they had to charge the same amount as the Hip and you will be able to get their stuff cheaper when they come by again in a few months).

In addition to some interesting renditions of fan favorites, we have a fan singing “The Ballad of Wendell Clark.”  It’s notable not only because of the fan singing it but because they doesn’t really play that song live, at least not circa 1996/1997.  They also throw in some Stomping Tom Connors during the song.

As an intro to “Four Little Songs” Dave says that they were planning on writing a bunch of different little songs so that you might never know which ones they would play on any given night.  He says it’s very easy to write little songs like that and it would be fun.  That seems to have never happened though.  You don’t hear too many acoustic Rheostatics shows.  You can download it here.

[READ: February 11, 2014] Zombillenium No 1

The cover of this book was so arresting I had to check it out.  I don’t know Arthur de Pins.  He’s a French artist and this is his first book to get distribution in America, I believe.  You can tell he’s European from the artwork–I wonder why that is.

Well, I loved this story.  It is very very funny and extremely twisted.  And there is something about the main character Gretchen that is so appealing (I love that her nose is so strangely bulbous, which makes her even cuter, somehow).

As the story opens, we see a man hitchhiking.  After a few panels, it is revealed that he is a mummy. One car speeds away from him, but another soon pulls up.  It is driven by a vampire and there’s a skeleton in the passenger seat. They know who he is, and they’re bringing him back where he belongs.  Which is to Zombillenium: “The Family Amusement Park for Chills and Thrills.” (more…)

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