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Archive for the ‘Greed’ Category

Luke Gordon and Alex Huntley–The Beaverton Presents Glorious and/or Free: The True History of Canada (2017)

Posted in Advice, Africa, AHI, Alex Huntley, Beavers, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Choose Your Own Adventure, College, Culture Shock, Daredevils, Death, Doctors, Drinking, Etiquette, First Nations, Funny (ha ha), Greed, History, Hockey, Indigenous Peoples, Japan, John A. Macdonald, Justin Trudeau, Laura Secord, LGBTQ, Louis Reil, Luke Gordon, Marilyn Bell, Marriage Trouble, Mary Pickford, Military, Money, Morality, Nature, Nostalgia, Oddities, Parenting, Racism, Regrets, Religion, Research, Revenge, Sanford Fleming, Sexism, Susanna Moodie, The Beaveron, Tiny Desk Concert, Trivial Pursuit, War, World War I, World War II on January 18, 2018| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: AHI-Tiny Desk Concert #693 (January 16, 2018).

AHI is apparently, inexplicably pronounced “eye.”  He is an Ontario-based singer.  There’s nothing strikingly original about his sound, but his songs are pretty and thoughtful and his voice has a pleasing rough edge.

Bob says,

AHI’s gruff but sweet voice and openly honest words were my gateway to this young Ontario-based singer. AHI says he sings Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” at the end of every set with a sense of hope. It was powerfully moving, without a note that felt clichéd or overly nostalgic. At that moment, I knew he needed to play a Tiny Desk Concert.

With a tasteful band comprised of Frank Carter Rische on electric guitar, Robbie Crowell on bass guitar and Shawn Killaly (a man of a million faces) on drums, AHI put his heart into three songs in just about 11 minutes, all from his debut album We Made It Through The Wreckage, which came out a year ago this week.

“Alive Again” builds slowly, but by the time the chorus comes around and he adds some whoops, the song really moves. I’m quite intrigued at the constant soloing from guitarist Frank Carter Rische.  It’s virtually nonstop and really seems to propel the song along.  It’s a catchy and fun song the way each round seems to make the song bigger and bigger.

About “Closer (From a Distance)” he says, we all have relationships.  Some are good; some are bad and some are just awful.  You may care about someone with your whole heart only to realize that you care about that person more than they care about themselves.  No matter how strong you are your strengths may not be as strong as their weaknesses.  Sometimes the only way to save the relationship is to walk away–“maybe we’ll be closer from a distance.”   This is a really heartbreaking song.  The lyrics are clearly very personal and quite powerful.  And the soloing throughout the song is really quiet and beautiful.

“Ol’ Sweet Day” is bouncy and catchy with a propulsive acoustic guitar and lovely licks on the lead acoustic guitar.  The drums are fun on this song as Killaly plays the wall and uses his elbow to change the sound of the drum at the end of the song.

The burning question that is never addressed is way he is wearing a helmet –motorcycle? horse riding?  It stays on the whole time.  At one point he even seems to “tip” his hat.  How peculiar.

[READ: December 8, 2017] Glorious and or Free

The Beaverton is a satirical news source based in Canada.  It began as a website in 2010 and then added a TV Show in 2016 (now in its second season).  To celebrate 2017, the creators made this book.

They have divided the history of Canada into 13 sections.  As with many satirical history books, you can learn a lot about a country or a time from the kinds of jokes made.  Obviously the joke of each article is fake, but they are all based in something.  Historical figures are accurate and their stereotypes and broadsides certainly give a picture of the person.

Some of the humor is dependent upon knowing at least a little about the topic, but some of the other articles are just broadly funny whether you know anything about it or not.

When we made this book our goal was to transport readers back to grade school to remember what they were taught n Canadian history class.  And so what if your teacher was hungover most of the time?

~30,000 Years of History in About Four Page (3,200,000,000 BCE – 1496)

“What the hell is that?”  –God after forgetting he made beavers. (more…)

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Charise Mericle Harper–Crafty Cat and the Great Butterfly Battle (2018)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Ants, Art, Butterflies, Canadian Music, Caterpillars, Charise Mericle Harper, Children's Books, Crafts, Edvard Grieg, Etiquette, First Second :01, Frédéric Chopin, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Greed, Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Schumann, Set at School, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on January 16, 2018| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: DANIIL TRIONOV-Tiny Desk Concert #691 (January 12, 2018).

It has been quite a while since there had been a classical pianist on Tiny Desk.  And man, what a return.  Trionov is just stunning and he makes some of the more complex piano pieces in musical history seem easy.

NPR’s Tom Huizenga has written a splendid blurb which I’m putting here because he covers far more than I could:

When we invited Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov to play a Tiny Desk concert, we rolled out the big guns. In place of the trusty upright, we wedged a 7-foot grand piano behind Bob Boilen’s desk in preparation for the artist who The Times of London called “without question the most astounding pianist of our age.”

That’s a pretty lofty claim, but watch and judge for yourself. His performance here is extraordinary. Still in his 20s, Trifonov seems to have it all: jaw-dropping technique and interpretive skills beyond his age. He’s also a composer — the night before his NPR visit, he played his own knuckle-twisting piano concerto at the Kennedy Center here in Washington, D.C.

But for his Tiny Desk show, Trifonov focused on Chopin, beginning with the mercurial “Fantaisie-Impromptu” in C-sharp minor, a work that mixes sweeping melody, turbulent passion and wistful repose. Hunching close over the keyboard with feline agility, Trifonov’s slender fingers glide effortlessly. He coaxes the instrument to sing tenderly in the slow central section.

Trifonov follows with a pair of short tributes to Chopin by his peers. Robert Schumann’s “Chopin” accentuates the lyrical side of Chopin, filtered through the German composer’s forward-looking harmonies, while Edvard Grieg’s “Hommage à Chopin” offers volatility, lovingly rendered.

The smartly programmed set is capped with more Chopin, but with a nod to Mozart: the finale from a set of variations based on an aria from Don Giovanni. It gives Trifonov a chance to display his lightness of touch, plus a few pianistic fireworks. Smiling, he treats the tricky filigreed runs and hand crossings as if it were a child’s game. Look closely and you can see the piano shake.

So Trifonov plays four pieces.  The middle two are quite short.

Chopin: “Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66”  This is one of my favorite pieces.  The fast part is jaw-dropping and the slow part is achingly beautiful.  His fingers flow over the keys like he was simply petting a cat.

Schumann: “Chopin. Agitato” (from Carnaval)  Trifonov says Schumann wrote a tribute to Chopin called “Chopin,” which was a portrait of the man.   This is a quiet, delicate piece and it is so much fun to watch his hands float seemingly weightless above the keys.

Grieg: “Hommage à Chopin, Op. 73, No. 5”  This tribute focuses on the more stormy and turbulent aspects of Chopin’s faster work.  It slowly builds in intensity with very fast finger work.

Chopin: “Variations on ‘Là ci darem la mano‘ (from Mozart’s Don Giovanni) – Coda. Alla Polacca”  Chopin wrote a variation of Mozart’s Don Giovanni.  This is the finale. There are some amazingly intense runs up and down the keys in this piece as well. And again a lot more bouncing around with his left hand to high notes.

This was a tremendous Tiny Desk Concert.

[READ: December 13, 2017] Crafty Cat and the Great Butterfly Battle

I really enjoyed this third Crafty Cat book.  Anya continues to be an unreasonable character (and I want someone to stand up to her!), but her awfulness allows for some good humor and good setups in this book.

The book opens with Crafty Cat saving an ant after dusting it with glitter (the ant now feels pretty special).  But then it’s soon time for Birdie to get to school.  She tells us that they are picking roles for the class play about butterflies.  Everyone is supposed to pick a bug they want to be:  “Be creative in your choices, we don’t need ten ladybugs.”  Birdie confesses that she is going to be the butterfly she has even crafted a small model of the wings that she can make.

Then Evan shows up.  He rescues a glittery ant from the sidewalk (that was amusing)  and then reveals that he is going to be an ant for the play.  When Birdie says she’s going to be the butterfly, Evan has reservations.  When they enter the school we see 10 students all wanting to be the butterfly–especially Anya.  And image HER surprise when other kids want to be the butterfly–which is her role, after all. (more…)

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David L. Carlson & Landis Blair-The Hunting Accident: A True Story of Crime and Poetry (2017)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Biography, Blindness, Cigarettes, Cigarettes After Sex, David L. Carlson, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Greed, Guns, History, Humiliation, Landis Blair, Law, Leopold & Loeb, Morality, Murder, Nathan Leopold, Prison, Richard Loeb, Suicide, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on December 29, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: CIGARETTES AFTER SEX-Tiny Desk Concert #684 (December 13, 2017).

I only know of Cigarettes After Sex from when NPR played a song of theirs and Bob asked us to guess whether the singer was a man or a woman.

Greg Gonzalez has one of those wonderful voices that is deep and husky and sounds feminine (although his speaking voice is very deep).

This Tiny Desk Concert is very quiet (like The XX).  It is just Gonzalez on heavily echoed guitar and vocals and his unmoving, emotion-free longtime bandmate Phillip Tubbs on spare keyboards.

Although there’s not a lot to these songs, the melodies are truly terrific.

The three songs sound very similar–unmistakably them.

“K.,” the opening track to this Tiny Desk Concert – and the opening cut to the band’s eight year-long awaited debut album – is especially memorable. The lyrics are simple and easy to remember: “Kristen, come right back/I’ve been waiting for you to slip back in bed/When you light the candle.”

Amazingly, for almost half of each song, there are no keyboards, just the guitar.  So that extra, gentle wash of music sounds huge.  “Apocalypse” has the lovely swooning chorus of “you’ve been locked in here forever and you just can’t say goodbye” and “Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby” follows that same pretty structure (although it’s my least favorite of the three).  With the minimalism:

each note and each word seems to count for more  …  and the office environment of the Tiny Desk Concert [may work better] than in a club, where just the chatter of a crowd can drown out this gentle music.

[READ: November 1, 2017] The Hunting Accident

I loved this book. Everything about it was utterly fantastic.  The story, the way it was told, and the amazing drawings of Landis Blair

The book opens on a snowy day in Chicago in 1959.  A boy whose mother has just died has moved from sunny California to miserable Chicago to live with his blind father, Matt.   The boy had lived with his mother since he was four (his mother’s mother thought that his father was a trouble and that they needed to get away from him).  So he barely knew his father.  And now it was time to find out everything about the man.  Like, first off, how he became blind.

The father told the boy all about the hunting accident.  He and his friends were screwing around, playing by the train tracks.  They were having fun scaring each other.  All the kids were afraid of real life bogeymen Leopold & Loeb local murderers.  The boys even believed they found the pipe in which Leopold & Loeb stuffed their victim.

There’s even little reminder of the crime:

In 1924, two wealthy educated men kidnapped and brutally murdered Bobby Franks, a 14-year-old neighbor…just for the thrill of it… to see if they could commit “the perfect crime.”

Anyhow, the boys had a shotgun and heard a deer.  When one of those boys shot at the deer he missed and his Charlie’s father right in the face.

Soon Charlie must learn what it is like to live with a blind man–how everything must be in the exact same place.

Charlie’s father writes all the time (on a braille machine).  He writes about morality and poetry.  He quotes Dante.  And soon, Charlie’s dad was having Charlie help with the writing–by proofing and checking things (Charlie learned a lot at the same time).

Charlie’s grandmother also said that Chicago was dangerous, but not for Charlie.  He got along fine. He even made friends with Steve Garza–the coolest kid in the neighborhood.    Garza was so cool he bummed cigarettes off of Charlie (from his dad–even though Matt, counted them and got mad about it).

Charlie also began getting involved in extracurricular activities–he loved tap dancing and tried the cello–two things his father appreciated. But soon Steve and his buddy started pressuring Charlie.  He “left” his tap shoes at the park, he stopped playing cello and he got involved in some ugly things.

Garza wanted to join the JPs–a local mob related gang.  But he was too young so he started the Junior JPs and soon enough that involved theft.  And since they were dumb, they were easily caught.

And that’s when the truth comes out.

I was already hooked into the story and then I was blown away.  Charlie’s dad did not lose his sight in a hunting accident.  Charlie is furious that his dad lied to him.

Garza convinces Charlie to head for Canada to avoid the cops.  (The third guy has already gotten there and is at a free-love commune or something).  Charlie is prepared to drive them both (he’s the one with the car after all).  And then his dad tells him the whole truth, which gets Charlie to pause.

The rest of the book cover’s Matt’s story.

He was poor in 193os Chicago and got mixed up with the wrong crowd.  His did go blind from a gun shot, but it was a very different setting–and it led to prison.

On the day he got to prison, the same prison that Leopold and Loeb were in, Richard Loeb was killed in the shower.  This left Leopold alone.

Charlie asks if he met Leopold.   And Charlie’s dad says that Nathan Leopold is the reason for his divorce.  What?

Turns out hat not only did Charlie’s dad know Nathan Leopold. He was Leopold’s cell mate.  Since Loeb was killed there was concern that Leopold might be next.  And since Matt was blind, they were put together under watch.

After Matt was out of prison, Leopold sent him a letter (in braille) which the grandmother intercepted.  Matt had never told anyone he was in jail, and that made Matt a Liar.

Matt was miserable in jail.  He couldn’t see, his father was disappointed in him and he had nothing to live for.  He just wanted to die, but that was pretty hard to do under constant supervision. We see daily life for a blind man in jail–food stolen all the time and knocking his cellmate’s things over.

Leopold was angry and bitter and wanted nothing to do with a blind man.  But soon, Leopold began talking to Matt about the life of the mind–something he realized that Matt lived all the time.  Because he couldn’t see everything was in his mind. Leopold used to hold educational lessons in the library at the jail.  He also showed Matt how to make a Glim Box (a way to use a spinning coin to light a fire to light cigarettes).

Matt tells Leopold that he has no family.  Meanwhile, Leopold’s dad visits every two weeks (the visits are awkward and uncomfortable but are a way for Leopold to get things from the outside).

Soon, Leopold is trying to convince Matt to learn Braille.  Why?  well, this gave opportunity for Leopold to learn it to and thereafter he could read after lights out.  (Leopold was a master of many languages and picked up braille easily).

And that’s when Leopold persuaded Matt to read Dante’s Inferno.

The story of Matt’s imprisonment jumps back to the present where Charlie is still annoyed with his father, but is really interested in the story. Especially when he leans that his father almost committed suicide there.

I loved the philosophical ideas in the story–they way the book interprets both Plato and Dante for the everyman .  I loved that Matt’s story runs throughout the book and I loved the whole idea of a blind man helping one of the most notorious criminals of he 20th century.

This story is thought-provoking and exciting at the same time.

The only thing that I feel was left out–did Charlie wind up going to jail or not?  It’s never addressed.

The end of the story and that final two-page spread are just breathtaking.

I also love that David L. Carlson more or less found out about this amazing true story by accident.

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Deborah Willis–“Eva” [The 2017 Short Story Advent Calendar #14] (2017)

Posted in Adventure, Canadian Content, Child Development, Christmas Album, Circus, Freaks, Greed, M. Ward, Menstruation, Santa Claus, Scientists, She & Him, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Zooey Deschanel on December 14, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SHE & HIM-Christmas Party (2016).

The first She & Him Christmas album was a little flat, a little dull.  So I wasn’t that excited to get a new one.  But this one is so much more fun than the first.

Zooey Deschanel feels much looser and freer and the music is more lush and not so restrained.  It’s still not anything like the craziness that Zooey Deschanel is capable of. In fact, there’s a lot of restraint.  But some fun is certainly have, mostly as little asides.

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” starts the album and you can hear the big change.  There’s a choir singing behind her which sounds huge (in comparison) and Zooey puts a nice vibrato on her voice.  There’s drums and a bouncy beat.  This album feels very much alive compared to the first one.

“Let It Snow” slows things down.  But it’s and jazzy very appropriate to the song.

“Must Be Santa” is a silly fun track.  This one has accordion and a bouncy backing chorus.  Like in the Dylan version, they list the presidents along with the reindeer.  But it hurts a lot that after the first batch of presidents, they tack on Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton, which hurts a lot.

“Happy Holiday” has a pretty, echoey guitar and Zooey really shows off her voice nicely.

“Mele Kalikimaka” is a favorite Christmas song.  This version is a little delicate compared to the more rocking version, but it does capture a Hawaiian spirit.

“Christmas Memories” is a bit too slow for my liking but it is a pretty song.

“Run Run Rudolph” M sings lead.  This song is kinda dumb when you actually hear the words.  I’m surprised they didn’t upend gender stereotypes on this one like they did on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

“Winter Wonderland” a duet with Jenny Lewis.  It’s fun to hear another voice with hers.  There’s a goofy moment where Jenny sings, “we can pretend he is Jerry Brown.”

“The Coldest Night of the Year” is a nice sweet duet.  When the chorus comes in with Ward in the backing vocals it sounds really great.

“A Marshmallow World” is perfect for her.  Fun and bouncey and surprisingly restrained for what it could have been.

“The Man with the Bag” is pretty and old-fashioned-sounding.  Zooey does this style very well.

“Christmas Don’t Be Late” This normally hyperactive song is almost like a dirge.  I don’t know why the excitement has been removed from it.  It’s a bummer way to end the record.

[READ: December 1, 2017] “Eva”

Once again, I have ordered The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This year, there are brief interviews with each author posted on the date of their story.

Hello. Welcome. It’s finally here: Short Story Advent Calendar time.

If you’re reading along at home, now’s the time to start cracking those seals, one by one, and discover some truly brilliant writing inside. Then check back here each morning for an exclusive interview with the author of that day’s story.

(Want to join in? It’s not too late. Order your copy here.)

This year I’m pairing each story with a holiday disc from our personal collection.

This story is really wonderful.  It’s sad and strange and powerful.

It opens with a man visiting “the hairy child” in Quetzalenango.  The girl is Eva.  Her mother hopes this man is a doctor.  But he is not.  He is a representative of Doña Teresa de Miraflor, a Cuban heiress who was setting up the Society of Scientific Knowledge in Havana. (more…)

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Charise Mericle Harper–Crafty Cat and the Crafty Camp Crisis (2017)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Alun Piggins, Art, Big Country, Black Flag, Canadian Music, Charise Mericle Harper, Children's Books, Crafts, Cupcakes, Etiquette, First Second :01, Fred Eaglesmith, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Greed, Hüsker Dü, INXS, Jen Foster, Killing Joke, Neil Young, Paul Linklater, Rheostatics, Set at School, The Mellow Grove Band, The Morganfields, The Pogues, The Waterboys, U2, tagged on December 10, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Fall Nationals, Night 3 of 10, The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (December 10, 2005).

This was the 3rd night of their 10 night Fall Nationals run at the Horseshoe.   Each night’s show has gotten longer, with this one reaching almost two and a half hours.

Ford Pier is back on keyboards.  They are joined by Alan Pigguns for a couple of songs and Jen Foster on accordion.

Throughout the show, someone is yelling “Legal Age Life” It never gets played–so that ought to teach you something about shouting requests.  But they are very friendly to the folks from San Diego who get lots of shoutouts.

The opening band was The Mellow Grove Band, and Tim says, “I’d only ever heard The Mellow Grove Band on CD.  I wanted to see them live.  They totally blew me away.

“Saskatchewan” is a beautiful slow opening with twinkling pianos.  Martin sang the first verse through his robot voice and it sounded pretty cool, but seemed to throw everyone off–no one did backing vocals and no one caught on to the chord changes.  Dave says he screwed him up with that robot voice, so they start over and it sounds great (and you can hear someone yell “Thank you, Martin”).

As the song ends, Martin plays a few lines of “Hey Hey, My My” before the final piano keys twinkle out and the rhythmic clapping of “Rain Rain Rain” picks up.  Dave is playing the bongos and Martin calls out “Bongo Davey!”  Dave keeps playing and Mike shouts: “You’ve got your whole life ahead of you!  You go!    Dave says “Bongo solo is supposed to be at the end of the show.”  Mike: “This is the end of the show.”  Tim: “No, it’s now or never.  Let him go a bit.”  When “Rain Rain Rain” starts, you can hear the loud woman singing along with him.  It even makes Martin chuckle.

During “Polar Bears and Trees,” Dave interjects, “the land of polar bears and trees, that’s Canada.”  Then Martin says “Hi there” which gets the Martin fans nutty.  Before singing “The Tarleks,” He does a lot of talking in the Tarlek voice: “Love what you do.  Dave Bidini, your books are such great books.  Mike, your production work…fabulous.”

Dave send the next one out to people who aren’t from:  Toronto, Scarborough, Markham, Etobicoke or  North York. Mike: what about Mississauga.  Dave says you know I don’t even acknowledge Mississauga,  mike.  You know that all of the worlds problems stem from Mississauga, let’s face it.  Tim: Our last drummer was from Mississauga.  Triumph was from Mississauga.

They play a delightful “We Went West” and then start talking about hydrating.  Dave mentions “precious bodily fluids.  It all comes back to Stanley Krueger, Krubrick.  Someone put liquid acid in my bottle of water.  Everybody knows it was the guys from San Diego.  They scored liquid acid at Queens Park today (they shout “last night”).  And you thought it was a Tylenol.

“PIN’ starts with the outro music and then launches into the intro with lots of strummed acoustic guitars.  There’s pretty twinkling sounds at the end with Martin stating “On the Dirty Blvd.”

During “Mumbletypeg,” Dave states: “We’re Klaatu from Etoboicoke.”   During the outro, three of them are all singing different things in a chaotic fugue.

While people are shouting out their requests, Dave says, “Thanks for your requests, we’ll get to them later.  Or not.  You’ll go home disappointed but we’ll have your money.  That’s the way it is. That’s the rock n’ roll business.”

This seems to get the audience riled up and I hate that you can hear people yelling and talking loudly during the opening quiet part of “In This Town.”  Whats’ wrong with these people?

Dave adds an intro to “Power Ballad For Ozzy Osbourne” “Death to you and death to me / death to the head of the company / corporate whores and superstores bring death to the future that i see / death to the men in pistols and pointed hoods who run F.M. radio and Hollywood.”  There’s some really  pretty vocals at the end of the song before Martin and I assume Ford take turns screaming the last note.

Why is someone hollering during the quiet beginning of “Northern Wish”?  Martin sings “gonna launch it from my garage.” And after that Martin seems to get lost but Dave is there to help him out.  At the “we don’t need submarines” (fucking hate em).  And then someone starts doing a doot doot submarine sound.  And then at the end, Martin is still doing the “land ho” when the band kicks into the “launch it from my pad” section.  Then Martin starts singing another verse and Dave says I believe it’s the end of the song.  So they do the land ho part again and everyone (even the crowd) sings along.

Martin: I think somebody slipped some ludes into my bottled water.   I was just enjoying the sweet grooviness of what was going on and I fell into a dream.”

Then up comes Jennifer Foster on the squeeze box.  She’ll be accompanying on “Who Is This Man And Why Is He Laughing?”  Dave: It’s a Michael Philip Wojewoda composition and it goes something like this (he plays drums really fast). Martin: “Put Dave behind the drum kit, he can barely contain himself.”  By the end on every fourth beat the audience starts shouting “oh!” in time.

We’d like to invite another beautiful person for tonight’s program, Alun Piggins.  Alun: “I’m just flattered that you called me beautiful, Dave.”  That idiot is still shouting of r”Legal Age Life” and Dave says, Al didn’t learn that.  Dave says “we;re gonna act like we didn’t discuss what to play.”  Ford: “I didn’t”  Alun: “Was that you, Mike?”  Mike: “No that was Ford, another smart ass in the group.”  Let’s do Fred.

They do a cover of Fred Eaglesmith’s “Freight Train.”  It sounds so different from anything else they play.  There’s even a harmonica solo.  It really rocks and sounds great.  I never heard the song before.

Note: When I write about kids books I try to keep the music somewhat clean.  It doesn’t always work.  And since I’m in the midst of this Rheos marathon who are usually only mildly dirty and am doing First Second books, I didn’t expect what comes next.  So, if you’re easily offended skip the next paragraph.

Alun asks if he can do a Christmas song. After some abuse, he says it’s a lonely Christmas song about a guy who spends Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day masturbating to internet porn.  Probably at triple xmas dot com.  Dave asks, Is this like that McLean and McLean song “Merry Christmas Handjob.”  Alun: No, I wrote this one.”  Dave is insulted by the McLean song saying “he calls it a handjob but he’s actually masturbating.  You know how fucked up that song is?”  Mike: “Is that from Toilet Tricks?”  Dave laughs and then admits that he does like the song. Alun’s song is called “Dirty Dirty Dirty Dirty Christmas” and it’s pretty damned dark.

When it ends, Mike notes: That man was in The Morganfields (a thrash/folk act).

“Here Comes The Image” has cool long keyboard solo and effects.  And a woman keeps shouting for “Making Progress,” but they don’t play it.

Dave says they’re going to play three songs from Whale Music, and that they’ll be doing the whole album on Wednesday.  And that tomorrow night is the all-ages show.

“King Of The Past” is a bit sloppy although Martin plays a great solo at the end: “ride that wild stallion, Martin.”  During “RDA”  Tim is pretty much screaming the backing vocals and laughing like a maniac.  Then Dave throws in a few choruses of “I’m So Bored with the U.S.A.” and starts chanting:

we have no voice
when force is the noise
when force is the sound
when guns are the melody
when wrongs are the truth
when the newspapers are the crime

Which sounds eerily prescient for 2017.

“California Dreamline” is kind of sloppy but “Feed Yourself” is really intense.

After the encore, Dave plays his two acoustic songs, “Last Good Cigarette” which he says is “our White Stripes tribute” and “My First Rock Concert.”  The end gets a kind of reggae style and Dave sings in an almost reggae-but-really-inaudible way.  Then Dave asks Ford what shows he saw at 14.  And boy does Ford have a list

Big Country, Killing Joke, The Pogues’ first European tour, Black Flag, Husker Du.  And that’s when I became a non-U2 fan.  During the Unforgettable Fire tour, when he was singing Pride and Martin Luther King was projected and I thought…this is….  Dave says, “I’m pro U2.”  Mike: “Martin and I are more into the spy plane, actually.”  Martin: “Dave said the War tour was awesome. The Waterboys opened.”

Another request for “Making Progress.”  But Martin says, “Let’s go back to the 1950s with this next number.”  Mike: “When nuclear energy was still hopeful.”  They play “Torque Torque” which segues into ” a rollicking Claire.”  Paul Linklater comes up for a solo as well.

You can hear someone ask Dave something and he says, March 2007 at Massey Hall we hope (and that did come to pass).

They end this lengthy show with a wild “Satan is the Whistler,” which they have been doing very well lately.

[READ: October 17, 2017] Crafty Cat and the Crafty Camp Crisis

I was surprised to see that this second book had come out already (and a third one is due soon).

In this book Birdie is excited to go to Craft Camp. Birdie and Evan had a deal.  He would go to Crafty Camp and afterward she would go to his house to play Pumpkins & Pirates.  And when she loses the game, she will watch him do the victory dance.

She has high expectations for what this camp will be like–a big table full of brand-new craft supplies?  Maybe the walls will be sparkly and decorated with all the cool crafts we’re going to make?

Her best friend Evan is running late and there’s an amusing scene where he shows up but has to go to the bathroom.  While he’s in the bathroom she gets a visit from Cloudy who tells her that she is a good friend.  But Cloudy won’t tell Evan to hurry because it doesn’t do bathrooms.

Evan also bursts her bubble–“Craft Camp. It’s just in our regular classroom at school.” (more…)

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Charise Mericle Harper–The Amazing Crafty Cat (2017)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Art, Canadian Music, Charise Mericle Harper, Children's Books, Creaking Tree String Quartet, Cupcakes, Etiquette, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Greed, INXS, Rheostatics, Set at School, TruthHorse, tagged on December 9, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Fall Nationals, Night 2 of 10, The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (December 9, 2005).

This series of shows contains the final Rheostatics live shows that are left to write about–except for their “final shows” and their “reunion shows” (which I really hope to see some day).” This was the 2nd night of their 10 night Fall Nationals run at the Horseshoe. Ford Pier was once again on keyboards.

This show was slightly longer than the previous night.  Unlike the 2004 Fall Nationals, however, they are not promoting an album, so there is a lot more diversity of songs.  Although there are a few “new” songs.

As the show starts, Dave says, Thanks to TruthHorse for the films.  [TruthHorse is a sketch comedy troupe who makes a lot of short films.  Like this one].

They have a lot of fun teasing the intro of “Onilley’s Strange Dream.”  You can hear Ford Pier and Martin occasionally playing the melody, but it takes almost four minutes before Dave says “we’re trying to set the record for playing the longest sustained G chord…. Ronnie Milsap currently has the record.”  Ford Pier goes on a lengthy bullshit rant about Medieval scholars and Boethius and chords and colors and physical and celestial bodies.  He says essentially that the G chord should make you think of the color blue and the sun.  After five minutes, Martin starts singing.  He doesn’t seem to recall all the lyrics, but Dave helps him out.  The song fades out and picks up with an interesting opening to “Fan Letter To Michael Jackson.”  It’s pretty rocking with a lengthy jam in the middle and a big keyboard section (“Ford are you ready to feel alive.”).

Dave chats with the audience: “How old are you?  Happy 22nd.”  The belligerent man with “her” says “Sing it to her, I’m not joking, right now.”  What? “Happy Birthday.”  Dave: “Oh if we did that the union would be all over us.  I don’t even now it.  We’ll dedicate this completely inappropriate political rant to you, if you’d like.”  That rant would be a rocking “Bad Time to Be Poor.”  Dave introduces Tim: “Straight from the Czech Republic.”  Tim: “Slovak.”  Dave: “That’s what I meant.”  Tim ask the birthday girl: “Are you Heather?  Oh.  Three birthdays today.”  Dave: “There have been three babies born here tonight and they have all been named Rheostatics.”  Mike: “Just imagine the cruelty on the school ground.”

“Record Body Count” has a lot of organ in the background which changes the sound somewhat.  Next comes “Four Little Songs” which they start but don’t actually get going.  Mike: “What, no melody?”  The song takes off and sounds good.  Then for the third verse: “Here’s Ford Pier to sing you a song.” Over a circusy keyboard melody he sings about a magnificent driver.” No sure if it’s a real song or improv.  At the end Ford Pier plays the “soulful sounds” of Canadian Airlines.  The music they would play as you boarded….before they folded.

Then comes Tim’s new song, “Sunshine At Night.”  It rocks with a good thumping bass line.   It’s followed by “the civic premiere” of a new Martin song “Teen On The Staircase.”  It’s pretty spare to start.  And it’s either not finished or Martin is just having a hard time.  It’s got simple lyrics:  “Teen on the staircase, wash your interesting hair.”   They get lost on the song and finally jump to the chorus.  The lyrics seem very stream of consciousness.

Dave chastises someone: “It’s very dangerous to hide beer bottles under the poinsettia.  You;ll cut your foot.  What are you doing?  You must be from Brampton.”

Mike says: “Fuck the sophistication, let’s go with the stupid”  Dave messes up the first line of “Me and Stupid”  “What the fuck happens in this song anyway?”

“The Tarleks” starts in the wrong key. No one notices and they get along quite well and then stop.  “Shit that was sounding good.”  Then Ford picks up his earlier thread: “This is what I was referring to, it was moving a different organ than we are used to.”  He mentions INXS and a New Sensation. And then Martin says “INXS is one of the only relevant bands from the 80s.”  Which is a pretty bold statement.  They pick up where they left off in the correct key.

Next comes two of Dave’s acoustic songs “Song Ain’t Any Good” & “Pornography.”  It makes me laugh that there’s a line in “Song Ain’t Any Good” that dismisses writing songs about unicorns or cats, and yet later they play Happiness which is about cats.

“I Fab Thee” comes as a surprise. It’s a rollicking bouncy version where Martin sings “caught you masturbating” which is not in the original kids song.

Dave notes that “Were entering the shank part of the evening.”  I didn’t know what it meant last time either.

Ford asks if anyone noticed that there’s a different backdrop this evening.

Then it’s two Tim songs, “Introducing Happiness” and “Marginalized.”  Marginalized has some trippy synths which takes some of the bite out of the crunchy guitars.  But it sounds kind of funky this way.

Mike asks if anyone has a drum key and amazingly someone does (why doesn’t he?)  Then Tim asks if anyone has 20 bucks.

Dave has some kind of guitar trouble during “The Land Is Wild” but they don;t get sidetracked.  It’s followed by “Dope Fiends and Boozehounds” in which the middle drum solo section finds Dave playing the guitar soloing riff from another song (I can’t place).   They take a break and for some reason, Martin mentions again that he smokes Gauloises Blue just like John Lennon and Bruce Cockburn.

After the break, Tim plays a solo version of a new Violet Archers song “Truth.”  It will appear on 2008’s Sunshine at Night.  Dave mentions that  they have the Violet Archers debut album as well as Martin’s solo albums and Dave’s books.  Ford talks about positive visualizations and about his 2005 accomplishment list.  One of them was playing a Fall Nationals.   “The other 9 or 10 items on the list… once the first domino has fallen… there’s three whole weeks left.”

Then comes two bird songs. “Take Me In Your Hand” is slow and spare–at first just drums and acoustic (with some keys on top).  There’s no coda at the end.  After making him feel like a  little bird, then comes “Little Bird, Little Bird.”

Someone requests “Whats Going On.”  Dave says we’re doing our whole whale music album Wednesday.  They guy says, I have an exam.  Well, you’ll have to fail.  You can surely fail a course to come and see us.

The last three songs are fun rocking versions of “PIN,” “Fish Tailin'” and “Soul Glue.”  For the last song, someone starts playing “Soul Clue” and then stops and Mike chants: Veto.  But then they play it again and everyone is happy.  The show was just over 2 hours.  And as they walk off, they thank Creaking Tree String Quartet and TruthHorse.

[READ: July 7, 2017] The Amazing Crafty Cat

This was a cute book about crafting and creativity.  I was totally caught off guard the way it started.  We see Crafty Cat in her room creating something (and saying Purrfect, which I didn’t like).  Crafty Cat keeps an eye out for colors and shapes that work together.  And with lightning fast paws, Crafty Cat makes it look easy. Crafty Cat has made a panda clip and Crafty Cat is a Big Winner and a Crafting Genius!

But then we hear a voice say “Birdie, you’ll be late for school.”  And that’s when we learn that Crafty Cat is the imaginary alter ego of a little girl named Birdie.

I was so relieved by this because I was afraid that the whole book was going to be Crafty Cat making crafts (which would have been a strange book, to be sure).

This breaks the Crafty Cat spell–she’s not ready to go to school just yet.   And she certainly doesn’t want to talk about homework.

But nothing can really bring her down because today is her birthday!  And everything will be perfect because she has a box of panda cupcakes!  She imagines that everyone will love them, even the mean girl, Anya.  (The flashback to Anya’s birthday is really hilarious–her birthday treat was playing a game called “I’m the queen and you’re all my loyal servants.” (more…)

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Tony Abbott–The Crown of Fire [The Copernicus Legacy: Book Four] (2015)

Posted in Adventure, Art, Big Books, Bombs, Children's Books, Christmas Album, Death, End of the World, Fears, Greed, History, John Zorn, Mike Patton, Murder, Museums, Nicolaus Copernicus, Religion, Research, Revenge, Scholarship, Sci-fi, Supernatural, The Pope, Threats, Tony Abbott, Travel, Violence, War, YA Books on December 5, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JOHN ZORN’s A Dreamer’s Christmas (2011).

You can never say with certainty what kind of music you will get with a John Zorn record.  It could be beautiful; it could be scary.  It could be chaotic; it could be traditional.  There’s could be death metal or gentle jazz.  There could be vocals or not.

Some time in 2008, Zorn started yet another project.  This one was called The Dreamers and it proved to be on the mellow, jazzy side of his spectrum.

The members have been Cyro Baptista − percussion; Joey Baron − drums; Trevor Dunn − acoustic and electric Bass; Marc Ribot − guitars; Jamie Saft − keyboards and Kenny Wollesen − vibes, chimes, glockenspiel.  For A Dreamer’s Christmas, Mike Patton (notorious for making a racket) sings some delightful vocals on 2 songs.

The album contains eight tracks: six traditional and two original Zorn compositions.

“Winter Wonderland” is played on vibes.  There’s a cool repeating bass signature that bounces the song along and a groovy jazzy keyboard background before the electric guitar comes in to play the main riff.

“Snowfall” is just lovely with more vibes and a delicate guitar and twinkling piano.  There’s even some hand drums to add some cool percussive effects.  the songs is primarily a lovely piano instrumental.  I don’t understand why I don’t know this song.  Why isn’t it on other Christmas albums?  It’s lovely.

“Christmastime is Here” is, indeed, the song from The Peanuts movie.  The main melody is guitar and vibes and this version is possibly more entertaining than the original.

“Santa’s Workshop” is a John Zorn composition.  It’s faster and a bit more upbeat than the others, but with a really groovy riff and some fun vibes to match it.  There’s also a fun keyboard solo.  This song first in perfectly with the others.

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”  begins with a quiet and somber piano playing the melody.  It’s a lovely piece with some fun piano noodling.

“Let It Snow” starts with a bell and a rather funky bass line.  After a minute or so the guitar takes over to play the main melody.  There’s some weird and wacky 70s keys playing around in the background that you don’t really notice right away.

“Santa Claus is Coming to Town” is the first odd-sounding track on the disc.  The guitar is plucked and the percussion seems to be all kinds of small wooden things clattering around.  I assume someone is playing the rims of glasses as well.  That goes on for a minute before the piano comes in and it gets very jazzy (with an upright bass).  It sounds a lot like the kind of piano playing featured in Charlie Brown.  The end of the song features a kind of whispered, slightly sinister take on the lyric by Patton.

“Magical Sleigh Ride” is the second Zorn original.  It is a swift-moving treat–fluid bass, repeated guitar licks and solos, and a fast percussion beat before the melody kicks in.  After about 2 minutes there’s a pretty wild and rollicking guitar solo.  It’s the most intense thing on the record (which isn’t very intense really) but all along the jazzy pianos and percussion remains.  Its followed by a similarly exuberant vibes solo.  It’s another great Christmas song and fits in perfectly with the others.

“The Christmas Song” returns to the traditional with a lovely, quiet piano rendition of the song and a nice vocal delivery from Mike Patton.  Patton is in perfectly deep-voiced crooner mode and it suits everything perfectly.  There’s a lengthy piano solo in the middle and then Patton finishes the song.

The disc ends with everyone wishing us a Merry Christmas.

It is a surprising and wonderful Christmas album worthy of addition to everyone’s collection.

[READ: November 26, 2017] The Crown of Fire

This is the fourth and final book in the Copernicus series.  There is no third or fourth mini book (I wonder why there wasn’t at least at third one).

I found this book to be exhausting and depressing.   And that’s because for the most part that’s how the characters felt–exhausted and depressed.  I also felt more exhausted by the series than I apparently felt after book three.  I thought I had stopped because I was burnt out on the series, but that’s not the impression I get from reading my post.  But this book did get very dark for most of its 500+ pages.

Lily and Darrell are together by themselves and they are fleeing once again.  They eventually find someone who will help them leave the country in a cargo ship–two weeks in a tiny hold by themselves.  Even Darrell who is still crazy about Lily finds it a bit much.

Back in the other part of the world, Becca Wade and Sara have just gotten a message from Roald.  But it turns out to be a trap. (more…)

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Tony Abbott–The Golden Vendetta [The Copernicus Legacy: Book Three] (2015)

Posted in Adventure, Art, Big Books, Bombs, Children's Books, Chisel, Death, End of the World, Fears, Greed, History, Leonardo Da Vinci, Murder, Museums, Nicolaus Copernicus, Religion, Research, Revenge, Scholarship, Sci-fi, Supernatural, Ted Leo, Ted Leo + Pharmacists, Threats, Tony Abbott, Travel, Violence, War, YA Books on December 4, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TED LEO-Tiny Desk Concert #680 (December 4, 2017).

Up until now, I have more or less missed Ted Leo and all of his phases.  The blurb notes:

How you listen to Leo depends on when his work came into your life. If you’re a back-in-the-day type you might rep for Chisel, his ’90s punk outfit born on the Notre Dame campus and bred in Washington, D.C. If you’re just tuning in, you may have witnessed his understated comedy chops in arenas like The Best Show on WFMU and a highly enjoyable Twitter feed. At the center of this bell curve are those who found Leo at the dawn of the 2000s — when, at the helm of what’s most commonly called Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (shout-out to the typographical variants still mucking up iTunes libraries), he kicked off a run of five stellar albums in just under 10 years, each one urgently attuned to its political context and yet defiant in its ideas of what punk could sound like and whose stories it could aim to tell. Fans will tell you the songs about eating disorders and missing old ska bands felt just as vital to their moment as those that explicitly took on Sept. 11 and the Iraq War.

I know Ted Leo from when he played with Aimee Mann as The Both (they did a Tiny Desk show) and I am aware of Ted Leo + Pharmacists (the above mentioned typographical variant), but I somehow never really heard him/them.  I didn’t even know he was a Jersey guy.  (My friend Al is a big fan, I recently learned).

Recently, WXPN has been playing his new song “Can’t Go Back” which is wonderfully poppy and catchy and which I sing along to each morning.  Leaning more about him (and how funny he is in the Tiny Desk show) makes me want to see what I’ve been missing.

I obviously had no idea about his punk past, so I was pretty surprised to hear the feedback and heavy guitar of the first song here “Moon Out of Phase.”  Leo sings pretty hard on this song, too.  It’s fairly simple musically, but there’s a bunch going on lyrically that’s fun to pick out.

[After] the bone-rattling slow burn “Moon Out of Phase,” he smiled and explained the song was perhaps “a little heavy for noon — but, practically speaking, it helps me get the cobwebs out.”

“Can’t Go Back” couldn’t be more different. It’s catchy and not at all heavy.  It has backing vocals (provided by Leo himself) and just swings along.

 It’s a bit faster than on record, and as the blurb notes:

By the time he hit the first chorus of “Can’t Go Back,” a danceable bop about accepting that the life you have isn’t quite the one you planned for, any remaining cobwebs had been scattered to the wind.

Interestingly for being such a guitar based guy, there;s no solos on the songs (and yet they’re not short either, the first and third songs are about 4 minutes long).  Rather than a solo on “Can’t Get Back,” there’s a cool guitar chord progression.

He seems unsure of the quality of that song (not sure why–because he doesn’t hit those high notes perfectly?)  But then says he’ll finish off with a request.  “I’m a Ghost” is an old song that he doesn’t usually play solo, but figured he would because of the time of year (guess this was recorded around Halloween).

He tells an amusing story about someone asking about the first line: “I’m ghost and I wanted you to know its taking all of my strength to make this toast.”  The person asked if the toast was “a toast” or a ghost pressing the lever down on a toaster and “the hand of the frosty apparition is just going through the thing.”  He says it was originally “a toast” but now it is absolutely about the toaster, that’s the greatest metaphor for so many things.”

It’s really about “alienation from the political process.” It’s more rocking, like the first song, but with a catchy chorus like the second song.  This is a fun set and a good, long-overdue introduction to Ted Leo.

[READ: April 6, 2017] The Golden Vendetta

This is the third full-sized book in the Copernicus series.  It follows the mini-book about Becca.

I enjoyed this book more than the second one.  I enjoy the sections where they have some downtime and aren’t just running around.  And there was more downtime in this book.  I was also really intrigued by the way it began.

The families had been reunited and them separated.  So Darrell and Wade and the adults Kaplans were living in a hotel under an assumed name.  And Lily and Becca were also together under assumed names–but they were not allowed to contact the boys.  This went on for two months.

In that time Galina Krause had been inactive.  We learn that she had been in a coma, but the good guys never find that out, they’re just in the dark for months.

Until Galina wakes up and is on the move again.  And then everyone is on the move.

The families travel under assumed names but are still followed relentlessly by the bad guys. (more…)

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Tony Abbott–Becca and the Prisoner’s Cross [The Copernicus Archives: Book Two] (2015)

Posted in Adventure, Art, Bombs, Children's Books, Death, End of the World, Fears, Greed, Hamilton Leithauser, History, Murder, Museums, Nicolaus Copernicus, Religion, Research, Revenge, Scholarship, Sci-fi, Supernatural, The Glen Echoes, The Walkmen, Threats, Tiny Desk Concert, Tony Abbott, Travel, Violence, Walter Martin, War, YA Books on December 3, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: WALTER MARTIN-Tiny Desk Concert #679 (December 1, 2017).

Walter Martin’s name didn’t sound familiar.  So this blurb helped:

Best known as a singer and multi-instrumentalist with the band The Walkmen, Martin has spent his solo career making unabashedly joyful, sweetly innocent and playful music perfectly suited for quirky four-part harmonies.

I sort of know The Walkmen; I know them more as an outlet for Hamilton Leithauser.  But after watching this, I find Martin to be a more satisfying performer.

I really enjoy his easy singing style and the every loose way he has with his guitar and with the songs in general.

Only Walter Martin would bring a barbershop quartet to the Tiny Desk.   The barbershop quartet is known as The Glen Echoes, a group of singers he found online and met for rehearsals the day before coming to NPR. It works particularly well on the song with which he opens this performance, “I Went Alone On A Solo Australian Tour,” a brilliant and comical call-and-response story-song about, well, going alone on a solo Australian tour.

“I Went Alone On A Solo Australian Tour,” is indeed really enjoyable.  Martin is casual and I love how the quartet starts out singing with him, then questioning him and then just acting like casual acquaintances–he asks them questions, too and they sing the responses.  All without losing the pacing.

It’s funny but also thoughtful.

The second song, the equally charming if slightly more wistful “Me And McAlevey,” is about a dear friend who lives in Maine.  It’s about friendship and loyalty and life as a middle-aged father.

The song is relatively simple and straightforward, but the guitar picking is delightfully complex and pretty.  I really like his vocal delivery and the way he ends his verses.

Martin closes with “Sing To Me,” his best-known song, thanks in no small part to its appearance in an Apple ad.

He describes it as the romantic centerpiece of his children’s album.  It is a pretty song once again, with lovely sentiments.  The pianist switches to electric guitar for a rather different sound.

The whole Tiny Desk Concert is delightful and makes me want to check out more of his stuff.  There’s no mention of who play what, but the mudsicians were:  Josh Kaufman; Jamie Krents; Brian Kantor; Richard Cook; Ken Sleeman; Mike Holmes and  Al Blount.

[READ: March 28, 2017] Becca and the Prisoner’s Cross

This is the second (and final) novella in the series.  It comes between books 2 and 3.  And, as the title suggests it is all about Becca.

The end of book 2 had Becca “materialize” on a boat in the past–right next to Nicolaus Copernicus.  It was a weird ending for a book that while sometimes magical, seemed to follow some kind of reality.  But this was different.  What could it mean?

Well, this novella explains it all (sort of).  We suspect that Becca’s proximity to the Kronos device when it went off triggered something.  (I keep wondering if it has something to do with her hurt arm which, frankly, shouldn’t hurt anymore, it has been two weeks, right?).

Anyhow, what we determine is that Becca is sort of passing out at home and her mind is travelling to Copernicus.  No time passes at home, but she is able to spend time with the scientist.  The best reveal comes early in the book when Copernicus senses that someone is there as well. (more…)

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Tony Abbott–The Serpent’s Curse [The Copernicus Legacy: Book Two] (2015)

Posted in Adventure, Art, Big Books, Bombs, Children's Books, Death, End of the World, Fears, Greed, History, Murder, Museums, Nicolaus Copernicus, Phish, Religion, Research, Revenge, Scholarship, Sci-fi, Supernatural, Talking Heads, The Rolling Stones, Threats, Tony Abbott, Travel, Violence, War, YA Books on December 2, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-Live Phish Downloads 7.6.98 Lucerna Theatre, Prague, Czech (2007).

After finishing recording “The Story of the Ghost” in Vermont and Bearsville in upstate New York, Phish embarked on June 27th for a short European tour.

What’s interesting is that the official comments about this show talk about hoe legendary it was, and my takeaway was just how often someone (usually Trey) messes up.

“Buried Alive” is a surprising opening track.  It rocks and segues into a choppy “AC/DC Bag.”  The song ends with a funky section that segues into a 15 minute “Ghost.”  “Ghost has a fast and scorching middle jam section.”  I’m going to include some of the online notes here:

They deconstructed Bag’s concise jam into a perfect segue to the centerpiece of the show – a fast, funky and furious “Ghost.”  You can clearly hear the sonic flourishes layered over a driving groove with confident vocals that seethed energy. The dynamic feel of “Ghost” lent deep drama to the lyrics, highlighted the loops and effects and provided an ideal platform for some hairy soloing. Page migrated from piano to synthesizer, Clavinet to Rhodes in a floating conversation with the band. Eventually “Ghost” took on an electronic tinge that hinted at the deepest post-hiatus improvisation. This was fueled by Trey’s Hendrix-esque leads with bent tone and pitch into a series of shifting polyrhythmic counterpoints. Expanding until it seemed the room would explode, the music evolved into a funky groove with starts and stops punctuated by the now-roaring crowd.

“Ghost” segues into Talking Heads’ “Cities” which has a really sharp (weird) drum sound.  There a lengthy intro before the song starts properly.  The choruses are really slow (and someone plays a wrong chord).  But the song end with a really groovy solo that encourages people to clap along.

“Cities” started in double-time and shifted effortlessly into normal rhythm for the first chorus and the rest of the song. With the lyrics “a lot of ghosts in a lot of houses”, “Cities” continued the eerie theme of this already-historic performance, blending a smooth, creative vibe with an aggressive, rocking attack. Seemingly on cue, the band dropped out of “Cities” and left Trey to end the song alone with the clapping crowd. The momentary pause after Cities was the first time the band stopped at all, having linked Buried > Bag > Ghost > Cities into a powerful opening sequence for the ages.

“Limb By Limb” is mellow with Trey on guitars.

 “Limb By Limb” followed. Written by Trey on a sequencer with a drum part intended to stump Fish, Limb is always a feat of execution. This performance exhibited an added sense of dynamics no doubt spurred on by the intimate setting, highlighting restrained melodic dialogue among the whole band. While sometimes this jam breathed fire, this groovy interlude danced intricate circles around the glowing embers, leaving space for Fish to lay down some outrageous fills and cymbal work. Trey’s final solo culminated in repeated guitar fanning, which brought the song to a cathartic close.

Then comes “Train Song” and “Roggae” which gets more mellow by the end.

“Train Song” provided a moment of tranquil reflection in the middle of the set. The second-ever live “Roggae” followed, giving a chance to show off more new material in a new country as the band fashioned a coda with so much inherent space that the notes hung slightly suspended between phrases.

The 12 minute “Maze” perks everyone up.  There’s a lengthy keyboard solo followed by a nice solo from Trey.  During Maze the band stopped on a dime to thank the audience (and appreciate the architecture) , then finished the song.  It’s amazing how tight that was.

“Maze” blossomed into an electric improvisation starting with Page’s lively organ solo followed by a cacophonous solo from Trey who shredded unabashedly until the whole band telepathically stopped on a dime for him to say “We hope you’re all having a good time tonight…we just want to say that we really appreciate your support and how much we enjoy playing in Prague here.” Page interjected “We love the architecture” while Trey continued “I don’t think we got a chance to thank you last night so we just thought we’d take this moment to thank you very much.” After a quick countdown, the band re-entered the song in the exact shred-space they’d occupied before the acrobatic stop. After Maze, they closed the first set with Golgi Apparatus that had a rave-up ending with Trey shouting, in an apparent nod to the World Cup Soccer quarterfinals, “Jon Fishman, Jon Fishman, Hey, Ho, Hey, Ho”.

I noticed that “Golgi Apparatus” has a whole series of mess ups—someone is in the wrong key and can’t get free.

Set Two opens with the fast verses of “Julius” and then the slow staccato “Meat.”

Set two began with a swinging “Julius” that got everyone moving and Fishman passionately testifying at the highest peaks. “Julius” led into “Meat,” a new song. “Meat” returned the show to its initial ghoulish theme, confounding the audience with its multiple stops and starts. Immediately after Meat came a soaring, adventurous “Piper.”

“Piper” is 19 minutes long with a scorching solo in the middle.

“Piper” stretched nearly twenty minutes and bumped up against the boundaries already shattered by “Ghost.” Piper sped into a ferocious jam characterized by intense guitar runs … before it settled into hard rock with plenty of room for the whole band to explore. Like the experimental “Ghost” in set one, “Piper” was fearless, building to massive peaks before floating off into a slower, more minimal section accented by loops from Trey and Mike atop Page’s piano and Fish’s cymbal rolls. This part of “Piper” hinted at “Fikus,” part three of the “Ghost” trilogy, becoming slow and funky before locking neatly into the rowdy reggae of “Makisupa Policeman.”

“Makisupa Policeman” is a little goofy and fun. “Petrov” (Page) sings lead vocals. During this song there’s a drum solo and Trey tells the audience that if the solo is long and boring they should just whistle to make him stop.

As he scatted around the lyrics of “Makisupa Policeman,” Trey uttered the key phrase, “stink-kind”, adding a touch of home with “policeman came to Vermont!” He handed things off to Page for a piano solo (calling him “Petrof” after the logo visible on the rented piano) during which Page developed a ska feel. Trey announced a drum solo next, saying if Fish soloed too long the crowd should start whistling, as the band did when he talked too much. Fish played along, rendering a minimal solo of high hat, kick drum and rim shots, returning to the song in the nick of time. After some dancehall-style dub effects, the band finished Makisupa and dove into David Bowie.

The 13 minute “David Bowie” has lengthy washes of guitars and some noisy parts.

A thematic jam hinted subtly at Santana before riding a dissonant wave into the ending changes of the second and final Bowie of the European tour. With scarcely a pause, Page hammered out the opening notes of Loving Cup, cementing the status of this magical night.  it segues into Loving cup a loose jam

“Loving Cup” is a loose, fun version running almost 10 minutes.  There is much cheering at the “I know I play a bad guitar” line.

The encore is “Possum.”  It’s kind of slow and loping but fun.

The band returned for an encore and repaid the rowdy crowd’s enthusiasm with Possum. The audience clapped along for a bit eventually leaving the band to a textbook performance that was at once conscious and passionate, restrained yet explosive. Trey dropped a quick tease of “Stash” as he propelled “Possum” through machine-gun fans entwined with soft, dynamic sections that made this a perfect encore for such an intimate show. As the crowd filtered into the streets of Prague it was clear that this had been an unforgettable night that could only have happened when and where it did.

So there’s two takes on the show.  You can read all of Kevin’s essay here. and I’m going to re-listen to this show to hear the magic foe myself.

[READ: March 6, 2017] The Serpent’s Curse

This is the second full-sized book in the Copernicus series.  After reading the Copernicus Archives book I noted that the event of that book are not referenced in this book, but I was wrong.  There are several mentions to San Francisco.  It’s not a huge gap and you wouldn’t be lost without reading it, but it is odd that he would reference a book that apparently some people don’t read.

This book is pretty large–480 pages.  And I feel like it was kind of slow.  Or perhaps they just spent way too much time in Russia.  Or, and this is most likely the case–they spent the whole book looking for one relic.  And 500 pages is a lot of traveling for one item.

I’m bummed that I felt this way at the end because in the beginning I thought it was really exciting.  And Abbott filled in some things that a nitpicky reader might nitpick about with some interesting new developments.  One of the things that one has to wonder about is how this normal family will be able to jet set around the world.  Well, that comes with the assistance of a best-selling author with millions of dollars at his disposal.  Convenient? Sure.  But it’s a nice development.  The author, Terence Akroyd writes exciting thrillers (so of course he is interested in the plot) and he has a personal vendetta against the bad guys, so he’s happy to help out with money and resources, like his jets and technology. [That author is presumably not based on reality].

Terence also has a son, Julian, who is apparently pretty hot.  But he’s a few years older than our protagonists so presumably nothing will come from that.  Despite all of the potential romance between Wade and Becca in the first book and parts of this one, nothing is progressing on that front. (more…)

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