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Archive for the ‘Graphic Novel’ Category

Cyril Pedrosa–Three Shadows (2007) [translation 2008]

Posted in #10yearsof01, All Songs Considered, Andrew Bird, Culture Shock, Cyril Pedrosa, Death, Edward Gauvin, First Second :01, Ghosts, Graphic Novel, Myths, Parenting, Supernatural, Tiny Desk Concert on June 28, 2016| Leave a Comment »

3shadSOUNDTRACK: ANDREW BIRD-Tiny Desk Concert #536 (May 31, 2016).

andrewbirdI haven’t known too many of the recent Tiny Desk performers, but I do know Andrew Bird.  I heard him on NPR and was quite taken with his whistling (one of his trademarks).  I bought his album, but learned after listening to it that I prefer him more in small doses and single songs rather than a whole album.

And while I didn’t love the album (it’s good but didn’t blow me away), these three songs are pretty great.

That whistling is present a lot during this Tiny Desk Concert.  The first song “Are You Serious” has a lot of whistling and is an incredibly catchy song (possibly because it has a very similar melody to “Oops I Did It Again”?).  Regardless of the reason, this song is really fun.  One of the delightful things about Bird, in addition to his whistling is that he also plays violin in number of different ways.  He strums it like a guitar for the beginning of the song and even plays a plucked solo (while still holding it like a guitar).  There’s also some “proper playing” by the end of the song.

“Roma Fade” also opens with his whistling and violin plucking and then shifts to s much more uptempo violin bowing.  It’s got a very catchy melody and again I love how he switches from plucked violin notes to bowed melody.

“Capsized” is a song I have been hearing on WXPN quite a bit.  I had no idea it was him and I really liked it so it was a surprise treat to hear it here.  I don’t recall if the radio version opens this way but in the Tiny Desk, there’s a great fast violin intro and some bowed upright bass rumbling.  The verses are great but it’s the the catchy chorus “and when you wake up” that rules the song.  There’s a cool plucked violin solo and some more nice bowing.

The band he has (bass, guitar and drums) also sings great harmonies which really make these songs sound big.  It’s a great Tiny Desk and means I’m going have to dig out the album I have and give it another spin.  And actually it is good, just a bit more mellow than I like.

[READ: March 10, 2016] Three Shadows

I really liked just about everything in this graphic novel.  I was struck almost from the start by Pedrosa’s drawing style, which relished in loops.

The first page has a boy and his father walking in the garden.  The tree is comprised of circles, the man’s pipe is producing circle smoke rings, even the apples in the trees are swirling circles.  The whole pages looks to be in motion.  And it has a very interesting folk-art feel.  On the next page the trees are simply big swirling circles.  It’s really visually striking.

However, once a story begins “Back then life was simple and sweet,” you know that the story isn’t going to be a happy one.

But it does start off peaceful.  This small family–mom dad and little boy live in an idyllic little house far from the world.  But one day, their dad sees three shadows on the top of the hill.  He gets really freaked out about them even though they don’t come close.  His wife thinks that he is overreacting, but every time he sees them, he knows they are up to something.  And then one night they come in adn try to take the little boy. (more…)

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Zack Giallongo–Broxo (2012)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Carrie Rodriguez, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Javier Solis, Jeff Smith, Lola Beltrán, Supernatural, Tiny Desk Concert, YA Books, Zack Giallongo on June 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »

broxoSOUNDTRACK: CARRIE RODRIGUEZ-Tiny Desk Concert #535 (May 27, 2016).

carrieCarrie Rodriguez is also from Texas.  She sings in both Spanish and English, plays guitar and violin and has a wonderful stage presence.  Her voice is powerful and confident and her duet partner Chip Taylor is a perfect accompanist for her.

Her first song is called “I Dreamed I Was Lola Beltrán.”  Beltrán is one of Mexico’s most highly regarded ranchera singers.  In the lyric she sings, “and you were Javier Solis” (he was another highly regarded ranchero singer).  The end of the lyric is “and we were baile baile baile while you sang to me.”  It’s quite romantic.  Rodriguez plays the four string guitar while Taylor plays slide guitar.  Given the instrumentation, this song could feel very country, but it doesn’t primarily because of the way she sings–more sultry than country with a dapple of ranchero on top..

She introduces the second song, “Llano Estacado” by saying that her grandmother is from there.  It’s up near the panhandle with ghost towns and strange people up there.  She says people there pronounce the town Lano es Tacado.  Taylor switches to electric guitar and she stays on the four string acoustic. There’s some wonderful Spanish pronunciations there.  This feels more like a cowboy song (except for the buzzy electric guitar).

Somebody brings her a beer (or maybe champagne) which she says is perfect as the final song is a drinking song “Noche de Ronda” (a night out on the town).  She says that in this song, “She is singing to the moon because her lover isn’t with her because he is out with his friends having a good time.”  Taylor laughs and says, “it’s a fictitious song.”

He plays guitar.  She sings a beautiful Spanish and hits some lovely notes.  After a lengthy introduction, the song turns into more of a Spanish lullaby (with some very fast lyrics).  It’s a really beautiful ballad. Then, about four minutes in, Carrie picks up a violin and begins playing a solo.  After about a minute of beauteous soloing, she shifts gears and starts playing a wild solo fiddle with scratchy bowing and some really fast playing. It’s fun and intense and  the whole solo lasts about 4 minutes.

Rodriguez really showcases all of her talents in this Tiny Desk.  She’s a force to be reckoned with.

[READ: February 15, 2016] Broxo

The drawing style of this book reminded me a lot of Bone.  Between the setting and the way the human characters looked, it had a very Jeff Smith feel.  On closer inspection, there are enough dissimilarities to make Broxo its own.  And it’s compelling in a very different (and darker) way.

What is particularly interesting about this story is how elliptical it feels.  The story begins with a woman, Princess Zora of the Granitewings, reaching the top of Peryton Peak in search of the Peryton Clan.  But we don’t learn all that much about her or all that much about the world she’s in (we get enough to make the story work, but that’s about all).

Peryton Peak looks abandoned, there’s no sign of human life.  While exploring, she is set on by little ferret-looking creatures, but she quickly gets rid of them.
 (more…)

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JT Petty & Hilary Florido–Bloody Chester (2012)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Death, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Greed, Hilary Florido, JT Petty, Murder, Racism, Religion, Robert Ellis, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on June 26, 2016| Leave a Comment »

chester SOUNDTRACK: ROBERT ELLIS-Tiny Desk Concert #534 (May 23, 2016).

robellisRobert Ellis is a singer-songwriter who I was unfamiliar with (a familiar refrain in recent Tiny Desk Concerts).

Ellis is from Texas and his voice rings of country singers.  But his guitar playing and song styles sound more Americana or singer-songwritery than country.  he walks a fine line, which probably means he is loved by neither faction.

He plays three songs.  The first sees both men (him and Kelly Doyle) on electric guitar, with a catchy riff and fun chord progressions.  (Their suits are pretty spectacular too).

After the first song, Ellis says, “I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce my favorite guitar player on the planet, Kelly the Telly Doyle.”  After a pause he smiles and says, “There’s only two of us up here so there’s only two things I could have said” to much laughter.

“Driving” was written about being in Nashville TN and going nowhere. But it is a masterful piece of guitar work with him (on acoustic) and Doyle (on electric) playing these wonderful fast lines that overlap and intertwine and sound amazing together.  The vocal melody line is fast and familiar, but it’s those recurring fast guitar lines that are really wonderful.  And indeed, Doyle does some wonderful pyrotechnics on his electric guitar, including a nice harmonic at the end.

For the final song, “California,” Ellis switches to piano with some more nice guitar harmonics from Kelly.  His voice sounds very familiar on this song–it’s a slower more expansive piece that allows him to sing bigger.  I like the way the chorus seems to work as a continuous melody after it seems like it ought to have stopped.  There’ a real 70s vibe to this song.

I’m always curious to see if I’ll hear more from someone like Ellis after seeing him on the Tiny Desk Concert.

[READ: February 19, 2016] Bloody Chester

This is a story of the Old West.  I don’t especially care that much about the Old West.  It seems so totally unreal that I never know what actually happened.

This story starts out especially dark with a boy named Lady Kate getting beaten up in a bar.  We back up on the story a little and realize that this boy is Bloody Chester.  He was a feared tough guy based on reputation. True, his last name was Kate, but Bloody Chester suited him well.  Until he had an unfortunate experience with a lady of the evening and his reputation changed from Bloody Chester to Lady Kate.  And that’s when the abuse came.

Trying to get by in town is now pretty tough.  He drinks a lot and all he has left is his horse.

The one major problem I had with this story is that Chester looks like he’s about 12 years old–like the other young people.  While I’m not doubting that young kids did horrible things in the Old West, they seem too young for everything that happened (especially the lady of the evening). (more…)

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Danica Novgorodoff–Slow Storm (2008)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Andy Shauf, Canadian Music, Death, Fire, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Horses, Racism, Sexism, Soak, Threats, Tiny Desk Concert, Unlikable main character, Violence on June 25, 2016| Leave a Comment »

slowstormSOUNDTRACK: ANDY SHAUF-Tiny Desk Concert #533 (May 20, 2016).

shaufI was unfamiliar with Andy Shauf although once he started playing, I thought his songs sounded familiar.  One of the more interesting thing about him is his singing enunciation (which reminds me a bit of SOAK for a recent comparison–although she is from Northern Ireland and he is from Saskatchewan).

It’s interesting to me that Shauf plays only rhythm guitar–all of the melody lines and solos come from his keyboardist.  It’s also interesting how motionless Shauf is.  He stands quite still and doesn’t even really move as he sings (his voice is mellow but not exactly quiet).

“The Magician” has as some great riffs from the keyboard and some interesting chord changes as the song draws to and end.  And of course, Shauf’s calming, delightful voice (complete with do do do dos) make the song quite lovely.

“To You” sounds similar to the first–same basic tempo and tone, with nice little fills that elevate the song from a simple chord structure.

His final song, “You’re Out Wasting” is “an older song” from his last album.  There’s another great melody running through this song and it’s a bit more uptempo.

I’m not sure if it’s his hair or his posture but he looks uncomfortably hunched-over while playing.  But that doesn’t stop his voice from sounding great and his songwriting from being really enjoyable.

[READ: February 2, 2016] Slow Storm

I really like the way Novgorodoff works with watercolors to create cool backgrounds. However, I don’t really like the way she uses her pen–I don’t care for the look of her characters.  And I don’t love the hand lettering all that much either.

This story is one that I wouldn’t read if it weren’t a First Second book.  And while I’m glad I read it and I found the convergence s of characters to be really interesting, it was a rough road getting thee.

The story begins with no words, just a series of images that juxtapose a tornado/storm and the Kentucky Derby.  The storm is hitting a barn where horses are kept, so these horses are also running, but hey are frightened of course (I especially didn’t like the style of the frightened horses).

Then we see a man get hurled by the tornado into a barn. (more…)

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Pénélope Bagieu–Exquisite Corpse (2010) [translated 2015]

Posted in #10yearsof01, Alexis Siegel, Books about writers, Boredom, Death, Exquisite Corpse, First Second :01, Foreign Books, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Humiliation, Models, Pénélope Bagieu, Sex, Steve Kimock, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation on June 24, 2016| Leave a Comment »

corpseSOUNDTRACK: STEVE KIMOCK-Tiny Desk Concert #532 (May 16, 2016).

kimockI’d never heard of Steve Kimock before.  He is a guitar player, evidently known for his improvisational playing.

Based on that, I was doubly surprised that the first song not only had vocals, but that they were by someone else in the band (the unnamed female pianist).  “Careless Love” sounds incredibly familiar.  Even on the first listen, it sounded like I’d heard it before–the vocal melody and her voice, the bass riff, everything seemed familiar, although I’m still not sure if I actually know it.

Kimock’s guitar is metal (or aluminum).  It’s quite unusual looking–all shiny and silver.  It’s a hollow body but it sounds unlike an acoustic guitar.  He’s joined by Bobby Vega on bass–and his bass is so smooth (even on this acoustic).

For the second song, he switches to a hollow bodied electric guitar.  He says that “Tongue N’ Groove” is an oldie for himself and Vega (for whom it is also very early in the morning).  The singer switches to piano for this instrumental that has a light jazzy feel.  It’s quite a lovely song.

For the final song, “Surely This Day,” he switches to an acoustic guitar which he plays across his lap (and uses a slide).  This is beautiful solo song with some wonderful moments.

[READ: February 15, 2016] Exquisite Corpse

I really enjoyed this First Second comic.  It was translated by Alexis Siegel and it doesn’t feel translated at all.

This is the first book by Bagieu that I have read and I immediately loved her style which has simple lines but also subtle shading.  It feels at time realistic and at times cartoony.

The story focuses on Zoe.  She is working as a kind of model–a pretty girl who stands near things like cars or boats or whatever.  She doesn’t love the job (who would) and on the second day we see a guy honks her ass.   The other models are doing the work part-time to put their way through school, but Zoe is the only one with no other options.  They tell her she should change jobs or stop complaining. (more…)

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Asaf Hanuka, Tomer Hanuka, Boaz Lavie–The Divine (2015)

Posted in Asaf Hanuka, Boaz Lavie, Daymé Arocena, Death, Dragons, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Myths, Supernatural, Tiny Desk Concert, Tomer Hanuka, Violence, Yuck! on June 23, 2016| Leave a Comment »

divibne SOUNDTRACK: DAYMÉ AROCENA-Tiny Desk Concert #531 (May 13, 2016).

daymeDaymé Arocena is a Cuban singer with a powerful voice and a great sense of fun.

“Madres” opens the set. This may be the first song I’ve ever heard that uses a rain stick (or box in this case) as a prominent source of percussion.  After a minute and a half of beautiful a capella singing (in Spanish, I believe) the six-string bass comes in with a very unusual syncopated riff.  And then comes the staccato piano–it has a very jazz feel.  After a minute of this, the song settles into a groove and gets really catchy. The music is very jazzy (the piano especially) with some really complex bass lines.

And it’s amazing to watch Daymé smile big as she sings (and shakes her maracas).  It’s even more amazing to read that she is only 24!

She ends the song by singing a thank you to everyone for being here today, and then thanks President Obama for going to Cuba (this was around March 25, 2016).  Then she is so cute introducing the second song, “Crystal,” written for a boy “the kind of boys you get in your life who give you nothing.”  It opens with jazzy pianos and her powerful voice (singing in English this time). There’s some wild bass soloing in the middle of the song.  The end of the song features her scatting and improvising and making some fascinating vocals sounds.  It’s really fun.

She says that in the 1970s it was obligatory for Cubans to study Russian.  She is only 24 so she never did, but she wrote this groovy song “El Ruso” about that time.  This story is very jazzy with a catchy riff and more cool scatting.  The blurb talks about how since the U.S. has opened up communication with Cuba, that we may be getting more Cuban music here. And that’s no bad thing.

[READ: March 10, 2016] The Divine

This is an ugly story.

It was inspired by the AP photo of 12-year-old Thai warriors smoking cigarettes (see bottom of the post). These twins, Johnny and Luther Htoo, held 800 people hostage in 2000.  They led a group called “God’s Army” and fought the Burmese army.  It was said that the twins  had magical powers.

And that is the basis for this story.

It opens with a very ugly American, Jason.  He is a soldier who describes the joy he received in shooting animals from his helicopter: zebras, parrots, etc. Until he wound up shooting a dragon.  A dragon, man!

We see this soldier trying to convince his coworker Mark (in some kind of science lab) to return to Quanlom–it’s a ton of money for only two weeks’ work.  The ostensible job was to explode volcanoes to try to get the minerals out of the mountains. (more…)

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Jim Ottaviani, Leland Myrick–Feynman (2011)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Big Books, Biography, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Inventions, Jim Ottaviani, Lara St. John, Leland Myrick, Marriage (Happy), Martin Kennedy, Matt Herskowitz, NASA, Research, Richard Feynman, Science, Serouj Kradjian, Technology, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence, War, World War II on June 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »

feynman SOUNDTRACK: LARA ST. JOHN-Tiny Desk Concert #530 (May 9, 2016).

laraWhen Lara St. John released her first CD it made ripples because of the way she appeared on it (presumably topless).  But if that was a stunt to get people to listen, it was a good one because the music on it was phenomenal (and the disc sold very well).  St. John is masterful on the violin and has released a dozen or so CDs of herself playing.

I have never seen her play before and it is a marvel watching her fingers  fly (and slide) all over the neck of the violin (including some absurdly high and fast notes).

The first piece is “Czardashian Rhapsody.”  It is an amazing mashup of two songs by Martin Kennedy: Czardas, the most familiar Hungarian melody for violin and Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, the most familiar Hungarian melody for piano.  He merged them into a real barnstormer.  It’s 6 minutes of switching back and forth between the familiar melodies and very gypsy-esque sections (and some very long held notes).

The song is 6 minutes of musical acrobatics.

Although this is billed as St. John’s show, much recognition must go to her pianist Matt Herskowitz who is also magnificent.

St. John clearly has a sense of humor since she named her new album Shiksa.  She says the album actually has ten different titles because every culture has a word for “big Canadian chicks” like herself.

The second piece is “Sari Siroun Yar” by Serouj Kradjian.  She says it was the first song she heard when she went to Armenia in the lat 1980s.  It is a bittersweet Armenian troubadour song.  While this song is much more mellow than the first, it still showcases some amazing playing on both musicians’ parts.  The opening notes she plays high on the fret board which gives the violin a very different sound–almost breathy.  And the main melody is quite lovely.

The final song is once again a wild one.  “Oltenian Hora” is one that St. John arranged herself.  It plays off a catalog of violin tricks, St. John explains, practiced by traditional Romanian gypsy fiddlers: rapid-fire whistles, bird calls and slithery harmonics, all in a variety of off-kilter rhythms.  I’ve never seen some of the things she does on the violin (those bird calls are amazing).  And by the end she is bowing so hard the bow seems about to break.  It is way intense and really awesome.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a violinist get out of breath from playing so hard before, but she deserves all of the applause.

[READ: March 15, 2016] Feynman

This is a graphic novel biography of Richard Feynman.  Ottaviani worked as a nuclear engineer, programmer and reference librarian, so you can trust him.

I have respected Richard Feynman for years.  I have a few of his books, although I can’t say I have read them intensely.  I knew that he was considered an amazing professor–making really intense subjects easier for the layman to understand.  And many of his lectures are available as audiobooks.

But there was so much about him that I didn’t know.  And this biography (which runs nearly 300 pages and is jam packed with information) covers nearly all of it.  Including excerpts from his own publications and attaching a massive bibliography for more works by and about Feynman. (more…)

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John Baxter, Joshua Faudem, Koren Shadmi–Mike’s Place: A True Story of Love, Blues and Terror in Tel Aviv (2015)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Blues by the Beach, Bombs, Death, Drinking, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, History, John Baxter, Joshua Faudem, Koren Shadmi, Marwan Barghouti, Monika, Non-fiction, Racism, Religion, Sex, Tiny Desk Concert, Travel, Violence, War, Yuck! on June 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »

mikesplace SOUNDTRACK: MONIKA-Tiny Desk Concert #529 (May 6, 2016).

monikaMonika is a superstar in her native Greece (her full name is Monika Christodoulou).  She is a charming woman with a big voice and a bigger stage presence.  She incorporates theatrical notions in her performance too (the fact that she has a shirt that looks like a mime’s kind of encourages that idea): “throwing” stars, flying, sleeping.

It is hard to believe that the blurb says used to sing sad songs, as she is so fun and bouncy.  But there’s this biographical note:

her recent transition from singer of sad songs to purveyor of upbeat jubilance came after she nearly lost her life in a boat fire; she had to swim eight hours in the dark to safety without food or drinkable water. These days, it’s all about a great band grooving, her joyful voice, and that infectious smile.

Wow.

She sings four songs.  The first, “Yes I Do,” opens with what I assume is a lyric about the then current moment: “24th of March has arrived and I think it’s Thursday?  Washington is beautiful out there but we don’t really care.”  It has a kind of circus opera feel.  And Monika’s voice is a marvel–powerful and beautiful with a good range.

monika2For the second song, “Shake Your Hands” she asks if everyone is ready to dance a little.  She climbs up on the desk and as she sings the slow opening, when she gets to the “I love you” moment, she sings without the mike and is as loud as when she uses it.  Once the song kicks in, it has a big disco beat: wah wah’d guitars and a funky bass line.  She encourages everyone to sing along: “Even if you don’t understand, just repeat, okay.”  The song ends with a very fun extended ending of staccato chords.

“Hand in Hand” has a kind of gospel quality (a big group sing along of the opening lines), although it is a brief, transitional song before “Secret in the Dark” begins.  She straps on a guitar for this final song which has a discoey riff and a fuzzy keyboard sound.  It’s really fun.

I’d never heard of Monika, but she seems like the kind of pop/dance star that would be really fun to see live.

[READ: April 1, 2016] Mike’s Place

Somehow I missed that word in the subtitle: True.  I didn’t realize that this was a true story until the very end.  The story was really good before I knew that and it makes it even more amazing after I found the truth.

In Tel Aviv, Israel, John Baxter (Jack), a filmmaker has come to cover a story.  He goes into a local bar called Mike’s Place for a meal.  He is greeted warmly and is told that there is live music every night of the week.  They proudly state that Mike’s is a place where people of all stripes comes to congregate and do anything but talk about politics.

It turns out that there are already people making a documentary about the subject who John came to cover (Marwan Barghouti) so Jack  decides to give up. (more…)

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Boaz Yakin & Joe Infurnari–Marathon (2012)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Boaz Yakin, Bryce Dessner, David Lang, Death, Eighth Blackbird, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, History, Humiliation, Joe Infurnari, Marathon, Revenge, Robert Honstein, The National, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence, War on June 20, 2016| Leave a Comment »

marathon SOUNDTRACK: EIGHTH BLACKBIRD-Tiny Desk Concert #528 (May 2, 2016).

8thEighth Blackbird is described as a “new music ensemble” from Chicago.  That means they play classical music that is new and “different.”  The sextet says that looking at each other–being able to communicate–is essential for playing these complex pieces, which calls for an interesting arrangement behind the Tiny Desk.

The first piece is actually two pieces called “Wave the Sea” and “Brushy Fork” from a suite called Murder Ballads by Bryce Dessner (better known as being in The National) .  The piece opens with a flute solo by newest member Nathalie Joachim, and then some complex series of notes and timings from the rest of the band–this is cerebral music that you must really pay attention to.

“Pulse,” from Robert Honstein’s three-movement Conduit is a much more gentle piece, far less frenetic and more mellow. It opens with Matthew Duvall’s vibraphone, Yvonne Lam’s violin, Lisa Kaplan’s piano and Michael J. Maccaferri’s clarinet which all seem to get added in one at a time until it is all just one consistent piece.  Nicholas Photinos’ cello offers some low end while the flute seems to float above the whole piece.  The song seems like it could just keep going forever as a very slow, beautiful round.

The final piece is by David Lang (an artist they have played for many years).  “learn to fly” returns to that frenetic tempo of the first piece .  Opening with wild syncopated piano notes (it looks impossible to play) and added to by the flute, clarinet and cello.  And just when you think the whole piece will remain in this style of complex syncopation, a violin solo bursts forth and soars for a few bars before returning to the melody.

I don’t listen to a lot of classical music, but I really enjoyed this Concert a lot.

[READ: March 1, 2016] Marathon

While overall I have really enjoyed the First Second books that I’ve read, this one I found really confusing and not exactly enjoyable.

The story begins in 490 BC.  Unbelievably it says the temperature is 106 degrees Fahrenheit (but sure, why not).  A man is running from Athens to Sparta (distance 153 miles).  Then there’s the confusing title: Athens: Twelve Years ago. Which I assume means 12 years before 490 BC–where we see some young boys racing.  Eucles won the race.  It is shocking to everyone that he is the son of a slave.  The slave defeated the Kings “own bastard son Phillipus.”   And so the King cuts off Phillipus’ head.

When he fails a test shortly thereafter, Eucles’ parents are executed.

Yup it’s that kind of story.

The king is Hippias.  He is exiled soon after the events of 12 years ago. (more…)

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Eddie Campbell–The Fate of the Artist: An Autobiographical Novel with Typographical Anomalies, in which the Author does not appear as Himself (2006)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Alan Moore, Angry Cook, Artists, Constellation Records, Eddie Campbell, First Second :01, Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Honeybee, Huh?, Joy Division, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, Meta, O. Henry, Silver Mt. Zion, Theatricals, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on May 31, 2016| Leave a Comment »

fateart SOUNDTRACK: THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA-Kollaps Tradixionales [CST063] (2010).

kollaspThis album was released as a CD and as double 10″ vinyl.  Each “side” is about 15 minutes long.  And, interestingly, each side has a kind of theme, I guess.  It also includes the shortest song the band has recorded.

“There Is a Light” is one of my favorite songs they’ve done.  The guitar and strings play off each other perfectly and the song ebbs and flows very nicely.  Efrim sounds pretty drunk in his vocals, which gives the whole thing a shambolic quality that contrasts nicely with the elegance of the music.  Of all of their songs, I think this one really captures the intensity that these band can generate with the swelling strings and pounding drums.  At 6 minutes, the whole thing slows to a halt but is then resumed with a new, even more interesting section.  Over reverbed guitars, a series of horns and backing vocals singing “la las” flesh out the lead vocals.  I really enjoy the way the strings swirl around the vocals only pausing to let the words “One Step Two step” come out in staccato vocals.  But the main strings riff that follows these verses is so pretty, I could listen too just that.  This all ends around 9 minutes, when the final part begins with slow guitar and horns.  The vocals come in singing the title “there is a light.”  It starts quiet but soon enough the full choir of voices joins in as the music swells.  After a few round of verses, the song ends with the female choir singing, “Tell me there is a light.”

The second “side” is the “metal bird” side.  It stars with “I Built Myself a Metal Bird” which opens with rocking guitar chords and fast drums–the most overtly rock song they’ve done so far.  The vocals are screamed and staccato.  Things never really let up for the whole six minutes–there’s a concurrent violin solo while the lyrics are sung.  The second half of the song changes things a bit–with more dramatic strings playing.  In the last thirty seconds the tone changes a bit and things do mellow out for the conclusion.  That leads into the second bird song

“I Fed My Metal Bird the Wings of Other Metal Birds” is quite different from the first.  It opens with slow electric guitars and quiet strings.  There’s noisy guitars and other strange atmospheric sounds for the first three and a half minutes when it finally settles into an uptempo string song with more great violin riffs.  At fiver minutes (of 6) the bowed bass takes over the main line and the accompanying strings help to move things along.  There’s only about 30 seconds left when the vocals come in and they are nearly drowned out by the music.

The third side is the “Kollpas” side with three songs.

For “Kollapz Tradixional (Thee Olde Dirty Flag)” the piano comes back with quiet chords and gentle strings accompanying quiet vocals. .  The song stays quiet as different instruments come to the fore.  At around 5 minutes (of 6 in total) a guitar solo winds its way to the end of the song.

After this there is a 1 and half-minute song “Collapse Traditional (For Darling).”  It’s a gentle ballad played on strings with layered vocals.

“Kollaps Tradicional (Bury 3 Dynamos)” opens with pizzicato strings and a fuzzy meandering guitar.  About 2 minutes in, the loud chords strike and the drums kick in with a fairly complex rhythm.  About half way in, one guitars start playing in each speaker and the vocals begin.  Two voices begin singing against each other keeping an interesting rhythm with their staccato phrasing and the thumping drums,.  The last two minutes feature a guitar solo and vocals following a similar pattern as the guitar.

The final side has one 14 minute song “‘Piphany Rambler.”  The song begins with distant guitars and plucked strings.  The vocals are quiet, nearly whispered.  A refrain of “don’t sleep” surfaces from the quiet.  At around 5 minutes the guitars and strings grow louder and the song properly starts.  But even this section is fairly slow, as if preparing to build up to something else.   It’s the strings and their insistent three note melody that really unites the song.  About midway through things slow down even further (with some cool retro organs sounds amidst the strings).  And the song turns into a very catchy string filled section with the vocals working very nicely with the melody.  This section grows louder and more raucous as it heads to the conclusion.

SMtZ has made many diverse styles of albums over the years, and this combination of rocking songs and delicate strings is probably my favorite.  For this one, the lineup has shrunk to a five piece of

Thierry Amar: Upright bass, electric bass, plucked piano, vocals
Efrim Menuck: Electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mellotron, vocals
Jessica Moss: Violin, plucked piano, vocals
Sophie Trudeau: Violin, plucked piano, vocals
and David Payant has taken over for Eric Craven on drums, organ, piano and vocals

[READ: March 15, 2016] The Fate of the Artist

I didn’t love Eddie Campbell’s Black Diamond Detective Agency, and that was manly been because of the art.  That didn’t really bode well for this story.

But Campbell does an incredible thing with this book.  He mixes text and many different kinds of pictures–including comic strips and photographs, to create a fascinating story of his own disappearance.

The story begins “One day the artist wakes up with the disquieting feeling that it has all gone wrong….  It is difficult to obtain sympathy for this condition.”

And then the Artist disappears and all that is left is a picture.  “Most people would leave a note.” “Yes, well he left a picture.” (more…)

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