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Archive for the ‘First Second :01’ Category

Boaz Yakin and Nick Bertozzi–Jerusalem: A Family Portrait (2013)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Babies, Boaz Yakin, Canadian Music, Constellation Records, Death, Fears, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, History, Jerusalem in My Heart, Marriage Trouble, Nick Bertozzi, Religion, Sivan Perwer, Violence, War on September 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »

jerusalemSOUNDTRACK: JERUSALEM IN MY HEART-If He Dies, If If If If If If [CST114] (2015).

ififif Since 2005, Jerusalem In My Heart has been Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (all music) and Charles-Andre Coderre (all visuals).  This is only their second album, however, because they were always more of a live band.

Obviously there’s no real visual component to the record.

Since I don’t know all that much about this band, I rely on the Constellation records website for my information.  Thus:

Moumneh expands his compositional palette on If He Dies, If If If If If If, exploring new deconstructions and juxtapositions of both traditional and popular Arab musical currents, with an album that oscillates between powerfully emotive vocal tunes and instrumental works that primarily make use of Radwan’s expressive acoustic playing on buzuk as a point of departure.

The album’s first song “Al Affaq, Lau Mat, Lau Lau Lau Lau Lau Lau (The Hypocrite, If He Dies, If If If If If If)” opens the disc with a short piece of processed vocals.  The Arabic traditional voice is mildly auto-tuned which sounds kind of cool.  [FROM CST: One of Moumneh’s finest melismatic a cappella vocal performances].

Track 2, “A Granular Buzuk” is a 7-minute instrumental piece of Moumneh on buzuk with pulsing electronic background music.  [CST: the buzuk is processed, re-sampled and otherwise disrupted through Radwan’s real-time custom signal patches]. As with a lot of this record, pretty instrumental passages are interrupted and taken over by noise—this time a kind of mechanical scratching.  It ends with some quietly ringing percussion as the electronics all slowly drift away.

“7ebr El 3oyoun (Ink From The Eyes)” is a vocal track with an electronic drone.  It sounds traditional and mournful, but about 3 minutes in, a drum and buzuk keeps time and the song grows a bit more upbeat.  [CST: languidly plaintive vocals set against a gradually accelerating riff underpinned by hand percussion].

“Qala Li Kafa Kafa Kafa Kafa Kafa Kafa (To Me He Said Enough Enough Enough Enough Enough Enough)” has incredibly loud static with a buzuk playing in the background.   After a minute and a half the static drops away and the background is filled with a quiet pulsing kind of static.  You can finally hear the instrument being played in all its glory.  [CST: a scabrous white noise intervention wherein the entire audio mix is fed through a contact mic placed in Radwan’s mouth].

“Lau Ridyou Bil Hijaz (What If The Hijaz Was Enough?)” is mostly synth–again an old sound with metronymic electronic percussion and quiet vocals. It’s all kind of muffled and very retro.  [CST: Moumneh continues to channel his love for Arabic pop and Casio/cassette culture with this silky lo-fi dance].

“Ta3mani; Ta3meitu (He Fed Me; I Fed Him)” is a faster piece.  Echoed vocals and drones rest behind a fast buzuk melody.  [CST: he pays homage to the until-recently-exiled Kurdish poet and singer Sivan Perwer on this traditional-minded, unadorned folk tune].

“Ah Ya Mal El Sham (Oh The Money of Syria)” opens with a loud vocal and a flute mirroring the voice.  It runs for seven-minutes and ends quietly.  [CST: a tour-de-force drone piece built from Bansuri flute (performed by guest player Dave Gossage)].

The disc ends with “2asmar Sa7ar (The Brown One Cast A Spell),” a fast buzuk solo played over the relaxing sounds of oceans waves.  It has a cool melody and runs quickly and then calmly for some five-minutes before the disc ends with more waves lapping against the shore.  [CST delicate acoustic number set against the sound of waves recorded on a beach in Lebanon].

As with the previous record, song titles employ the transliterative characters used in Arabic phone texting, which I think is pretty cool.

[READ: March 30, 2016] Jerusalem

With a title and subtitle like that you know this isn’t going to be a fun and lighthearted story.  And it is not.  The introduction explains how this is the story of a family, but it is more about the land and the strife that has been there for generations.

A lengthy history of Jerusalem is given, but for the purposes of this story the most recent action is the 1929 dispute over prayer rights which led to riots.  And then the British imposed the White Paper of 1939 which blocked Jewish immigration and was in place as the Nazis were riding to power. This led many Palestinian Jews to regard the British as hostile. And yet many Palestinian Jews joined the British army to fight the Nazis in Italy and the Middle East.  At the same time there were underground forces of Palestinian Jews who were attacking the British.

The action of this story takes place in 1945.

There is also a history of the Halaby family about whom this story is concerned.  Yakov Halaby was born after a series of girls were born in his family.  His father vowed that if they had another son they would move to Jerusalem.  After Izak was born they did so.  But Yakov was jealous from the start.  And he made Izak’s life miserable.  Eventually Izak left and married an Egyptian woman and they both moved back to Jerusalem. (more…)

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Ian Lendler and Zack Giallongo–The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents Romeo and juliet (2014)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Acting, Animals, Cat Stevens, Children's Books, Christmas Album, Cows, Death, Elephants, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Gorillas, Graphic Novel, Ian Lendler, Lions, Monkeys, Moonshadow, Play (Drama), The Muppet Show, Tiny Desk Concert, William Shakespeare, Witches, Yusuf, Zack Giallongo on September 15, 2016| Leave a Comment »

rjSOUNDTRACK: YUSUF/CAT STEVENS-Tiny Desk Concert #411 December 9, 2014).

catAs this Tiny Desk Concert opens, Bob Boilen tells his story of being 17 years old and saving up money to buy a guitar so he could learn Cat Steven’s “Father and Son.”  He says he’s now old and has a son and the song still means a lot.  And that introduction makes the song even that more emotional when he plays it later.

It’s a shame that he is so known for the controversy about the fatwa back in the 1980s, but his conversion to Islam is pretty interesting: “In 1976, Cat Stevens almost drowned off the coast of Malibu. In his panic, he says, he shouted, “Oh, God! If you save me, I will work for you” — at which point he recalls a wave that came and carried him ashore. He converted to Islam, changed his name and left the pop world after one last album in 1978.”

He released his first non-spiritual album in decades in 20o6.  He released another one in 2014, which was a record of some originals mixed with standards and blues covers.  He plays two songs from this album here (which is a bit of a disappointment, as I could have easily listened to him play the entire Greatest Hits album).  But these two songs are quite nice.  “I was Raised in Babylon” is a bit dark, although his voice sounds great.  “Doors” was originally written for the musical Moonshadow.  It’s a delicate ballad.  And it also as a religious impact with the final line being “God made everything just right.”

In between these two he says he doesn’t know what to play next, but he has some kind of gadget that he scrolls through.  And he chooses “The First Cut is the Deepest.”  He comments maybe some people know I wrote this one, it wasn’t Rod Stewart.  I really like this song a lot.  It sounds different from the record because it’s just him and his guitar, but his voice is unmistakable. and he sounds great.  And if it makes him feel better, I’ve never even heard the Rod Stewart version.

He dedicates “Father and Son” to Bob and it’s just as beautiful as the original.  And yes, it should make you tear up, especially if you have a child.

After listening to this Tiny Desk I really wanted to see him play live.  I know that he is currently on tour and will actually be in Philly on this very night.  There are still tickets available, but since the cheapest seats cost nearly $200, I’ll be skipping this one.

[READ: April 4, 2016] The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents Romeo and Juliet

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, in which the zoo animals put on a play of Macbeth.  Well, the zoo is ready again for their next performance.  I enjoyed that the audience is aware of the previous play–the kids are even wondering why it’s another tale of woe instead of something happy.  Later when the lion (who was in Macbeth) comes out, someone addresses him as the character from that play.

What I thought was interesting about the way this play was done was that they made the story kid friendly.  I liked this and that it allowed me to share this story with my kids.  Rather than being lovers, Romeo and Juliet want to have a play date, and rather than killing themselves at the end, they wind up hibernating. (more…)

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Aristophane–The Zabîme Sisters (2010) [translation 2010]

Posted in Aristophanes, Drinking, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Humiliation, Matt Madden, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Violence, Yuck! on September 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »

zabimeSOUNDTRACK: ST. PAUL AND THE BROKEN BONES-Tiny Desk Concert #410 (December 6, 2014).

stpaulPaul Janeway stands on Bob Boilen’s desk wearing gold shoes  and singing his heart out.  Janeway is the lead singer of St. Paul and the Broken Bones, a seven-piece soul band based out of Alabama.

Janway has a powerful voice and sings in a very old-school soul style.  The Broken Bones consist of two guitarist, a keyboardist, a trombone, a trumpet and drums.

They play three songs, “Half the City,” and “Call Me” (in which he does some great shuffle dances on the desktop and seems to almost fall off the desk) are full throttle dancing soul music.  The final song is kind of a sad song, a story about how the band got together called “Broken Bones and Pocket Change.”

There’s a funny moment when Bob asks if he’s hot way up there and he Janeway replies, “Is it hot?  Naw man, we’re from Alabama.”

The band was fairly new back in 2014, but I see that as of this week, they have a  new album coming out. So good for them.

[READ: March 1, 2016] The Zabîme Sisters

When I read this book, back in March, I had been reading a lot of First Second graphic novels (I’m very close to having read them all!).  And reading this publishers entire catalog has led me to read amazingly detailed and interesting stories about real events.  And that’s pretty awesome.

This story is set in Guadeloupe, but unlike some of the other real-life stories of horror and degradation that I’ve read, this one is a simple story of childhood in a Caribbean island.

Not a lot happens, and yet the story is charming and enjoyable.

The story is told in 3 parts.  It is about three sisters, I’m not sure if they are triplets or just close on age.  I like how they have similar features but distinctive hair. (more…)

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Lat–Town Boy (1980) [translated 2007]

Posted in #10yearsof01, Art, Beavis and Butthead, College, Comic Strips, Dublin Guitar Quartet, First Second :01, Lat, Parenting, Philip Glass, Religion, Set at School, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, YA Books on September 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

town-boy SOUNDTRACK: DUBLIN GUITAR QUARTET-Tiny Desk Concert #409 (May 15, 2015).

dgqWhen I first listened to this brief concert for some reason I didn’t realize that the quartet were playing Philip Glass.  Of course, once he stated that that’s who they were playing, it became quite obvious–but having Glass played on acoustic guitars instead of synths or violins, is quite an unusual experience.

The music is still rigidly repetitive, but there is a great deal of warmth added with the guitars (and the human element as well).

The Dublin Guitar Quarter has been around since 2002 and they play pretty much only contemporary and new pieces (despite being dressed in suits and playing on “classical” guitars).

They play two pieces, with two and three movements of each piece respectively.  They were originally recorded for strings, so these guitar transcriptions change things quite a lot (especially in Mishima).

The first piece is called “Company.”  They play Movements 2 and 3. What’s most impressive about the first piece is that you can hear all of the musical lines.  Glass often interweaves line up line of music ad you can see each guitarist playing these lines on high guitar notes and low notes while the other play accompaniment–transcribing these must have been a real challenge.

The loud chords are practically heavy metal chords on the guitar as opposed to what the strings might sound like.  And for all of the repetition, these two movements of clock in at less than four-minutes total.

It’s interesting to listen to the original after this and hear how it’s clearly the same piece but it sounds so very different.  From tone to drama, everything is changed.

The final pieces are three movements from Mishima.  In Mvt 3 there is some fast picking while the other three play chords.  It’s also fun to watch them all doing similar but distinct things through the middle of the movement.  This doesn’t have the fast lines that Glass is known for but it has a lot of loud repetitive notes.

What’s so interesting is that original is full of drums–and parts of only drums.  Obviously these aren’t present here, but the music resonates in a similar (but again, distinct) way.

Mt 2 is a slow meditative piece, and is far shorter than the original (which is also full of drums).

The final piece opens with some chords and then grows very beautiful as the Glass riff takes on an almost prog rock feel because of the guitar and the way the bass notes contrast so wonderfully with it.  It is short in this and the original and is great excerpt to listen to.

  • Glass: String Quartet No. 2, “Company,” Mvts. II & III
  • Glass: String Quartet No. 3, “Mishima,” Mvt. III, “1934: Grandmother & Kimitake”
  • Glass: String Quartet No. 3, “Mishima,” Mvt. II, “November 25: Ichigaya”
  • Glass: String Quartet No. 3, “Mishima,” Mvt. XI, “1962: Body Building”

[READ: March 24, 2015] Town Boy

This book was written (and drawn) in 1980.  First Second books had it translated and published in 2007.

I found Lat’s first book, Kampung Boy to be quite charming.  It was about a boy growing up in a small village in Malaysia in the 1950s.  This is the sequel and it is about moving from the village into the town and being a teenager.

This book is a little less episodic than the first.  Most of the story is laid out as text on one page and a drawing on the next.  But the drawings also have speech bubbles, so there’s a lot of different things going on. (more…)

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Paul Pope, JT Petty & David Rubin–Battling Boy: The Fall of the House of West (2015)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Bill Frisell, David Rubin, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, JT Petty, Murder, Paul Pope, Revenge, Sam Amidon, Superheroes, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on September 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

west SOUNDTRACK: SAM AMIDON & BILL FRISELL-Tiny Desk Concert #408 (December 1, 2014).

amidonThe first time I listened to this Tiny Desk Concert, I didn’t like Sam Amidon’s voice at all–he sings with a strangely flat delivery–almost monotone–but never actually off pitch.  It’s rather unusual sounding.

But the second time I listened I found it kind of interesting–compelling in an unexpected way.  I was also able to really hear what Bill Frisell was adding to the songs.

“Blue Mountains” is a folk story-song.  It is played with a very simple acoustic guitar piece and then, of course, Frisell’s interesting leads and chords that dd more and more texture as the song progresses.  The whole things is grounded by Shahzad Ismaily’s delicate drumming.

After the song, Amidon says, “Good morning, welcome to Washington DC.”  For “Pat Do This, Pat Do That,” a song about he banjo, Amidon switches to banjo.  This was my favorite of the three songs.  He plays the banjo very high on his chest (without a strap) and he plays quite fast.  It’s hard to decide to listen to Frisell’s interesting chords or to Amidon’s great banjo playing  For this song Ismaily switches to bass, which gives it lovely low end.

For the final song, Amidon gives a very long introduction about falling asleep on a pillow but dreaming that it is a little fuzzy donkey.  It’s a very strange introduction that doesn’t really end satisfactorily.  The final song is him on guitar, Frissell on electric and Ismaily on bass for a time and the switching over to drums.  Midway through Amidon switches to violin and plays a wild solo that he accentuates with a screeching voice.

It’s a most unusual and somewhat unsettling Tiny Desk Concert.  And I know I won’t be seeking out any more music by Amidon.

[READ: March 26, 2015] The Fall of  the House of West

This book follows The Rise of Aurora West with that cast involved.  I really enjoyed the resolution of the mystery of Aurora’s mom’s death, but otherwise I was kind of unimpressed by this book.

As with the previous book, I hate the way Rubin draws faces, especially Aurora’s–there’s too much face and not enough expression (conversely, his profiles are lovely).

Much of this story is fairly simple.  Aurora believes that she knows who killed her mother and she intends to get revenge.  But her father, the superhero Haggard West doesn’t want her to investigate on her own.  And her bodyguard/teacher is not going to let her do the work on her own, either. (more…)

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Maris Wicks–Human Body Theater: A Nonfiction Revue (2015)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Brad Wells, Children's Books, Cute, First Second :01, Food, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Maris Wicks, Nature, Pink Floyd, Poo, Research, Rinde Eckert, Roomful of Teeth, Science, Tiny Desk Concert, Wally Gunn on September 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »

humanSOUNDTRACK: ROOMFUL OF TEETH-Tiny Desk Concert #404 (November 10, 2014).

teethRoomful of Teeth is an acapella group (with a drum on the first song).  The singers  all tend to sing notes (or words) in a rather unsettling style.  As the blurb says, “Mix a bit of yodeling with Tuvan throat singing, add in a pinch of Sardinian cantu a tenore, fold in compositions from cutting-edge composers and you have the vocal group Roomful of Teeth. This eight-voice ensemble, which includes the 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, is gleefully dismantling the traditional definition of ensemble singing right before our ears (and teeth!)…. The agility of the voices and multicolored blend they achieve are extraordinary.”

And that’s all so accurate.  Everything is kind of unsettling and strangely beautiful. But definitely unsettling.

The first song was written by Australian Wally Gunn and is called “The Fence Is Gone.”  There are so many different sections.  It reminds me a lot of the middle of Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother.  With singers having an almost atonal operatic movement.  But in between lyrics, the vocalists are largely singing going “oh ha” or just “bah bah.”  It’s really fascinating.  And the more I listen to it the more I wonder how they know just what (somewhat unusual) note to sing.  The blurb adds: “verses emerge from an infrastructure of “oh-ha” syllables and a simple drum pulse, ending with women’s voices, tight in harmony, like a chord from a Casio keyboard.”  That Casio remark is pretty spot on.

Before the second song, one of the men says that the “women are going to so do a song.”  The men leave and Rinde Eckert’s “Cesca’s View”  begins with a kind of yodeling (really good yodeling). After which the three remaining women sing a beautify low melody very hymn-like.  Then the yodeling comes back (with some beautiful high notes at the end).  Then they all come together to do the the yodelling melody very pretty harmonies.  The blurb adds “In Rinde Eckert’s “Cesca’s View,” imagine a lonely cowgirl on some windswept plain. Estelí Gomez gets her yodel on, beautifully, while the three other women vocalize in close, barbershop-style harmony. It literally ends on a high note.”  When the four are singing together, it’s really pretty.

The final song was written by the founder of the group, Brad Wells.  “Otherwise” features some very intense bass notes from the men and high notes from the women.  The blurb says “Warm, rounded tones in male voices contrast with a steely sheen from the women and a high drone like a Tibetan singing bowl. The harmonies take a tangy, almost Bulgarian turn, then we get something truly otherworldly. A pulsing, slightly creepy Sardinian “bim-bom” vocalise buzzes like a gigantic cicada.”   The Bulgarian comment is really spot in as the women absolutely sound like the Bulgarian choirs.  And that “bim bim bom” section is so alien and otherworldly.  I love when they throw in some  little “hey ya” mixed in.  But the most amazing thing has to be “Dashon Burton’s operatic baritone [which] soars above it all.”  His voice is really intense.

At first I didn’t really like their music, but after a few listens I could really appreciate what they were doing.

[READ: May 1, 2016] Human Body Theater

Maris Wicks is the illustrator for another First Second non-fiction book I loved called Primates.  I thought her drawings were perfect (and also really cute).  And she has done it again. Never have brains and bowels and viruses and allergies been so adorable!

But despite the cuteness of the drawings (and the title), this is a real, genuine nonfiction book about the human body.

Wicks covers just about everything you might want to know about how our bodies work.  It is geared toward children (she does discuss reproduction, but in very basic terms), but it is full of so many details that I think many adults will find they learn things from this book.  I know I sure did. (more…)

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Christophe Blain–Gus and His Gang (2008) [translation 2008]

Posted in #10yearsof01, Alexis Siegel, Bandits, Chris Blain, Christophe Blain, First Second :01, Gangsters, Graphic Novel, Horses, Making Movies, Old West, Parenting, Tiny Desk Concert, Trains on August 31, 2016| Leave a Comment »

gus makingSOUNDTRACK: MAKING MOVIES-Tiny Desk Concert #403 (November 8, 2014).

Making Movies is a multifaceted band.  The lead singer/guitarist (Enrique Chi) and bassist (Diego) are brothers from Panama who grew up in Kansas City.

In addition to these two, the band has a keyboardist who also plays the bongos, as well as a drummer/percussionist who busts out a guitar at the end.

Enrique, upon explain the band’s origins says “Our music is all messed up.  Sometimes it comes out in English, sometimes in Spanish.”  The rhythms are from Panama but are mixed in with the keyboardist’s Mexican heritage.  They even have some interesting instruments like the tiny acoustic bass guitar a Panamanian guitar and a donkey jawbone.

“Pendulum Swing” has a cool guitar riff (chords played very high on the neck, giving a distinctive alt 90s feel).  The vocals even do some simple “oh ohs.”  Enrique’s voice sounds strangely familiar (but I can’t figure out why and I know he’s not someone I’ve heard before because he also sings in Spanish).  I love that the keyboardist plays the bongos during the verses and then adds textures to the chorus.

“Cuna De Vida” starts with some more high-pitched guitars and looped voices before some dancey rhythms are added from the bongos and drums.  Enrique mostly plays very high chords on the guitar and there’s more “Oh oh ohs.”  The song is sung entirely in Spanish and sounds very different from the other two (but still with that alt 90s feel).  By the end of the song there are bongos, drums and cowbells as the song builds. It’s fun to her the chorus sung in Spanish as it ramps up at the end.

“Chase Your Tail” opens with looping high notes on the guitar.  It sounds much more alt rock–except that the drummer is playing the donkey jawbone and cowbells.  The song is really catchy and fun.  When it seems like the song is over, the drummer grabs his guitar and Enrique plays the tiny Panamanian guitar.  They play a very fast rhythm and he sings in Spanish with fun loping bass notes (and great Mexican style oh oh backing vocals).  And when you think it’s all over, the drummer steps up on the zapateado board and does a rhythmic tap dance.

Making Movies was putting out their debut album at this time.  I hope they had success with it.  I’d like to hear more.

[READ: May 15, 2016] Gus and His Gang

I’m fascinated by First Second’s relationship with French artists. It seems like half of their early releases were originally published in French.  And this one is no exception.

What’s also funny is that the French artists seems to have a very distinctive style.  Even if they don’t look alike, there’s something very “French” about the way they draw.  I did consider that this book might have been drawn by Joann Sfar, but it was all done by Blain,  And like many of those other book this was translated by Alexis Siegel.

This book has 13 chapters, although they may also be independent stories.  I’m unclear about that. In fact I’m unclear about a lot of this story.  Like why does Gus, the lead character have a nose that would be about 18 inches long?

It’s funny and makes him instantly recognizable, but it’s such a weird idea.  And why does the titular Gus disappear about half way though never to return?  Is this an excerpt?  Is it only part one?  The colophon is very uninformative. (more…)

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Joseph Bruchac and Will Davis–Dawn Land (2009)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Alternate Reality, Banks, Death, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Huh?, Joseph Bruchac, Myths, Native Americans, Revenge, Supernatural, Threats, Tiny Desk Concert, Will Davis on August 30, 2016| Leave a Comment »

dawnSOUNDTRACK: BANKS-Tiny Desk Concert #401 (October 30, 2014).

banksI’d never heard of Banks before this Tiny Desk Concert.  The blurb says that “Banks’ terrific full-length debut, Goddess, is constructed out of layer upon layer of electronics, beats, samples and other means of submerging the singer’s voice in swirling accoutrements…. On record, she’s placed at the center of lavish productions, each suitable for throbbing remixes and banks of swirling lights.”

In this version, it is just a keyboard and a drum box, so her voice is exposed.  But I actually found her voice was a little annoying.  Especially during the verses, where she uses too much vibrato.

On the first song, “Beggin For Thread,” I enjoyed the choruses where she sang loudly and with less affectation.  Although it was during “Alibi” that I particularly didn’t like her voice–too much yea yea yea with a ton of vibrato.

For “Brain,” the accompaniment is acoustic guitar rather than piano.  It has a very different feel although I liked it even less.  I’m curious to see what their record sounds like with her voice buried, but I’m not going to find out.

[READ: June 1, 2016] Dawn Land

Dawn Land was a novel that Joseph Bruchac wrote in 1993.  The novel (as explained in the afterword) details the oral traditions of his people as filtered through a fictional story that he was inspired to write over a burst of about six weeks.

I may have enjoyed this graphic novel more if I’d known the original story first (I also didn’t know that Bruchac was Abenaki Indian, so I wasn’t sure what to think about the story in the first place–appropriation is such a hot topic these days.  Of course having said that, I’d never heard of the Abenaki Indians before either (they lived in what is now New England).

I found the story a little confusing.  But before getting into the story, I loved the artwork.  In black and white, Will Davis conveyed so many amazing scenes and scenery–perfect depictions of people and animals and yes, giants. (more…)

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Tony Cliff–Delilah Dirk and the King’s Shilling (2016)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Culture Shock, Fantasy, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Revenge, Sexism, Supernatural, Tea, Tiny Desk Concert, Tony Cliff, Violence on August 28, 2016| Leave a Comment »

dirkSOUNDTRACK: ANTHONY D’AMATO-Tiny Desk Concert #398 (October 20, 2014).

damatoI’d never heard of Anthony D’Amato before this Tiny Desk Concert, and yet his music sounds vaguely familiar.  D’Amato sings fast, upbeat acoustic folk rock with a full band behind him.

“Was a Time” starts out with just him and his guitar.  But after the first verse the whole band kicks in and the song really takes off.  There’s some harmonica between verses and a big Whoo! before the end of the song.  The song is a fun romp, fun to sing along to until you realize the chorus: “there was a time that I loved you / I don’t love you any more.”

He introduces the second song “Good and Ready” and says “we’ll start whenever Derek is… good and ready.”  This song sounds very different as it opens with a cool soulful bassline.   After that opening the song proper begins with Amato’s acoustic guitar and the electric guitar playing a loud slide guitar riff.  This song is a bit more positive, despite the repeated line of I don’t wanna wake up,” the chorus is “I don’t wanna wake up if it ain’t next to you.”

All three of these songs use the same verse style with the first words of every line being repeated over and over.  In the first song, every libe starts, “There was a time….” In the second, each line begins “I don’t wanna wake up….”  The final song, “Ludlow,” changes things a little bit although each verse stats with the opening “First the…  then the….”

I felt a little  for his backing vocalist Katy Pinke, because while everyone else is doing things, she’s just standing there occasionally sinking a word or two.  Although for “Ludlow” he and Katy sing a quiet duet.

D’Amato writes catchy, rather pleasing songs.  I wonder why I haven’t heard of him before.

[READ: July 2, 2016] Delilah Dirk and the King’s Shilling

Much like I wrote about the first book: I enjoyed this story quite a lot.  Cliff’s drawing style which was peculiar but ultimately very satisfying.  And more importantly, he tells a great story.

But this book was even more satisfying than the first.  I have also changed my opinion of Cliff’s artistic style somewhat in that I think it is really fantastic.  It is definitely unusual–realistic but not exactly–and he has such amazing control of expressions.  Even moreso in this book in which Delilah goes into polite society and so much must be conveyed through expression.

Plus there’s a lot of action, too. (more…)

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Sara Varon–Sweaterweather & other short stories (2016)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Animals, Ásgeir, Boxing, Cats, Charlie Yoder, Danica Novgorodoff, Deer, Dogs, Eun-ha Paek, First Second :01, Food, Funny (ha ha), Giant Robot, Graphic Novel, Interviews, John Grant, Mice, Sara Varon, Short Books, Short Story, The Leonard Lopate Show, Tiny Desk Concert, Travel, Wayne Kronenfeld, WNYC--93.9 New York, Yunmee Kyong on August 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »

sweater SOUNDTRACK: ÁSGEIR-Tiny Desk Concert #397 (October 18, 2014).

asgeirÁsgeir Trausti Einarsson is an Icelandic singer songwriter.  He has a beautiful soft soaring voice.  He released his debut album Dýrð í dauðaþögn in Icelandic (it became the biggest-selling debit in Icelandic music history).  A year later he reissued it in English (with translation help from John Grant who was living in Iceland) as In the Silence and finally (the version I have, as a 3 disc set with the Icelandic and English discs as well as a selection of bonus songs.

“On That Day” is a pretty, guitar based song (Ásgeir plays the main melody line and has guitar accompaniment (and backing vocals) from his childhood friend Julius Róbertsson.

For the final two songs, Ásgeir switches to piano.  “Torrent” has gorgeous vocal harmonies. It’s interesting how much more deliberate this song feels–not quite staccato, but the piano chords don’t really ring out, letting each note stand on its own.

For this Tiny Desk, he stripped down the songs, getting to their core.  They’re not flashy, they’re just lovely.

The final song he plays, “Higher” is the first song on the record (interestingly “On that Day” is the final song on the record).  It has a very slow, delicate piano melody and is also soothing and beautiful.

And in a cool synchronicity at the end of the show Bob tells Ásgeir  that he’s playing at the same piano that John Grant played on a few months earlier.

[READ: July 2, 2016] Sweaterweather

Back in 2003, Sara Varon published her first book called Sweaterweather.  This collection includes all of the original 8 stories as well as a few more.  Each story gets a brief introduction from Varon which makes me like her even more (she’s quite funny).

Most of the stories are short(2-3 p[ages) and most don’t seem to have a title.  The contents page is actually thumbnails from each story.

When I first saw Varon’s style, I wasn’t sure what to make of it.  It is so innocent and childlike.  And I have really grown to love it–especially when these sweet animals characters (they’re pretty much all animals) tackle some intense feelings. (more…)

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