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Archive for the ‘Harper’s’ Category

Jeffrey Eugenides–“Bronze” (New Yorker, February 5, 2018)

Posted in Books about writers, Consumerism, Drugs, Excerpt, Harper's, Jeffrey Eugenides, LGBTQ, Poets, Providence, RI, Sex, Smarty Pants, Wolf Alice on February 5, 2018| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: WOLF ALICE-My Love is Cool (2015).

I liked this album when it came out, but it didn’t blow me away.  I enjoyed the band blend of shoegaze and grunge.  But when I listened to it more, I realized there was a lot more going on–some folk roots, some interesting electronic sounds and a surprising pop sensibility.

When I saw them live at a small club in Asbury Park, the band blew me away with their cathartic sound and really tight rhythms.  They were also quite a bit heavier loud–really rocking out some of these songs and speeding up the tempo, too.

As such, the album feels a little slow, but if you get past that (and you should) it works really well to all of the band’s strengths.

“Turn to Dust” opens with gentle guitars and trippy electronic sounds (that one descending note is great).  Ellie Roswell sings softly with a gentle echo (I like that you can hear her accent in some of the words too).  It’s a fantastic opening.  “Bros.” speeds things up a bit but it doesn’t get any heavier, yet.  “You’re Love’s Whore” has a cool bass line and low backing vocals.   Like the other two songs, it’s also very catchy.

“You’re a Germ” adds some loud guitars to the music.  There’s a lot going on in this song and it kind of forces its way into your brain: “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 / you ain’t going to heaven / cause I’m dragging you down to hell.”  It’s the first time Roswell screams and she’s got quite the shriek.  “Lisbon” slows things down until the wildly chaotic chorus (featuring some insane drumming).  “Silk” is a slower, moodier song with interesting whispered vocals.  The chorus once again proves to be very catchy the way the music falls out but the vocals get bigger.

“Freazy” has a cool drumbeat and a shuffling rhythm.  “Giant Peach” has an unexpected bass line midway through the song.  But the biggest surprise comes with “Swallowtail.”  It’s a folkie acoustic song and it’s sing by drummer Joel Amey.  It is really quite a surprise to hear a different voice, but it works really well.  It’s got a really interesting chorus with Amey hitting a nice falsetto midway through.  I fond it to be a real earworm.

“Soapy Water” is a more pop-oriented song with heavy synths, but it’s go their unmistakable thump.  “Fluffy” rocks the album to an end.  Its got screaming guitars and a wonderful buildup to the screaming chorus of “Sixteen, so sweet.”  (This song really rocks, live).

The final song is a quiet song with thumping tom toms.  The vocal melody is a gentle rising and falling melody with quiet guitars.   Tacked on the end is a bonus song, called “My Love is Cool.”  It’s a minute and a half of quiet guitar and Roswell’s almost whispered singing.

The band covers a lot of territory on this album, but they own it all pretty well.  It’s worth a listen.

[READ: January 30, 2018] “Bronze”

I’d be very surprised if this was not an excerpt.  It just feels too big for it to be a short story (although it wraps up in a rather tidy manner).

There are two major threads running through it.  There’s one set in 1978 when a college freshman, Eugene, is returning to school on the train.  He was high and he was dressed flamboyantly–a white fur coat, pink sunglasses, a scarf at his neck. He wanted to be beautiful or at least noticeable.  He was seeking a seat, but the train was packed.

Eugene was late to the train because he was hanging out at his friend Stigwood’s house in New York City.  Stigwood had a boyfriend from Venezuela visiting.  Eugene and Raphael were hanging out when Stigwood came home and stuck his hand down Raphael’s pants–which made Raphael shout “I am not your slut!”  Eugene watched, fascinated, before realizing he was late for the train and he ran all the way to the station.

Eugene wanted to be a poet so when he got to the space between trains he recited out loud Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro.”  It calmed him.

In the next car a man offered him a  seat.  Eugene thought, “Not again, everywhere I go.” (more…)

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Isaac Bashevis Singer–“Inventions” (New Yorker, January 26, 2015)

Posted in Aliza Shevrin, Amadou & Mariam, Communists, Dreams, Ghosts, Harper's, Isaac Bashevis Singer, New Yorker, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation on January 26, 2018| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: AMADOU AND MARIAM-Tiny Desk Concert #695 (January 19, 2018).

Amadou & Mariam are musicians from Mali.  And they have a pretty fascinating history.

The story of Amadou and Mariam is still worth telling almost 40-years (and eight albums) into their career because it speaks well to who they are, the obstacles they’ve had to overcome and the positive yet realistic attitude that has made them such an international success. Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia met when they were children in Mali’s Institute for the Young Blind. Both had lost their sight when they were young and they began performing together. Later, in the 1980s, they married and began a career together.

As Amadou and Mariam said when their newest album, La Confusion was released, “We seek to make people happy with our music, help humanitarian causes and share positive messages about the good work being done by people in every corner of the world.”  Amadou & Mariam  bring some of the most lyrical melodies and joyful sounds we’ve ever had at the Tiny Desk, and their performance comes while their country endures great turmoil, including a coup and insurgencies.

Typically, they play with a bigger band but they stripped down their sound to a keyboard, a percussionist and a backup singer while the couple holds it all together with Amadou’s stuttered melodic guitar and Mariam’s sweetly gruff voice.

They play three songs.

“Bofou Safou” has a great slinky keyboard opening melody.  Amadou plays this cool understated guitar that’s pretty much always in motion But mostly I love watching the drummer pound on that giant gourd thing.

I love the clothes that Mariam and Amadou are wearing–a cool purple on blue pattern with each of the outfits made from the same material, but with the stripes going in different directions on each.

“Dimanche à Bamako.” opens with more of that cool riffing from Amadou and the audience clapping along.  Amadou actually sings leads on most of this song.

“Filaou Bessame” opens pretty big and clappy with a kind of disco feel to it.  It slows down in the middle with Mariam taking a little vocal section before it starts up again.  I love the discoey bass keyboard riff at the end.

The music from Mali is really fun and I’d love to see a show like this live.

[READ: July 21, 2016] “Inventions”

This story was translated from the Yiddish by Aliza Shevrin.  Singer died in 1991, so I’m not sure if this is a recently found story or an old one.

What’s particularly fascinating about this story is thew way it is framed.  The narrator says that since he moved to the country, he finds that he falls asleep by ten o’clock and he sleeps soundly until about 2 AM.  He feels totally rested and ready to do something.

One night he was inspired to create a story.  It would be about a Communist theoretician who attends a leftist conference on world peace and sees a ghost.

So he just summed up what his story would be about and then he proceeds to tell the story.  But it is told very casually–as a man retelling a dream, rather than as someone writing a short story. (more…)

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Anne Carson–“1 = 1” (New Yorker, January 11, 2016)

Posted in Anne Carson, Chastity Belt, Feminism, Harper's, Huh?, New Yorker, Swimming on January 11, 2018| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: CHASTITY BELT-I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone (2017).

Chastity Belt began as a kind of funny punk band with a message.

They have grown more sophisticated with each release.  And the humor has drifted away (except in their hilarious visuals), replaced by a kind of low-key, nonchalant attitude.

And with this album Chastity Belt exposes an unexpected vulnerability and a relatability.  Sure I miss songs like “Nip Slip,” but their song writing and playing has developed so much that I really love what they present now.

“Different Now” opens this third album with a very pretty lead guitar line–nothing too complex, but quite lovely.  And when Julia Shapiro starts singing, other things seem different now, too.  Her voice is gentle and her lyrics are even more thoughtful.  I love the way the two guitars intertwine later in the song and the main vocal melody of the song is really fun.

Lyrically the band still speaks about self empowerment:

You’ll find in time
All the answers that you seek
Have been sitting there just waiting to be seen
Take away your pride and take away your grief
And you’ll finally be right where you need to be

“This Time of Night” rocks a bit harder in the rhythm guitar but has a gentle echoing middle section.

Gretchen Grimm’s song “Stuck” is another highlight–a slow song that builds nicely with a catchy chorus and cool distorted guitar deep in the mix.  “Complain” has a catchy wooziness that sounds great too.  And they haven’t given up on feminism either:

I’ve had a drink and ate some stuff / Now I’m already bored / A couple of bros said some shit I’m choosing to ignore

Themes of being bored at parties abound in Chastity Belt songs.

“What the Hell” slows things down with an acoustic guitar as the main rhythm.  I love this lyric: “If I look at my phone again, I’ll just wanna die / Aside from that, I feel all right”

Its amusing to me that “Something Else also reflects on that phone: “But I got up on my own / And I looked at my phone / We’re all talking about nothing / I wanna do something cool / And I wanna get paid / And wake up feeling great every day”

“Used to Spend” starts slow and kind of dark and then tuns into a gauzy distorted middle section.

I love “5am” for the way the opening sounds like a long-lost Sonic Youth song–unexpected chords and intertwining guitars.  Even the delivery is not unlike Kim Gordon.  This song also has outro that is almost as long as the rest of the song.  It features some repeated guitars and some wailing feedback-filled soloing (more Sonic Youth again).   It’s a fantastic song.  And is a perfect album ender.

There are three bonus tracks.  Bonus tracks are kind of a mixed blessing in that they’re nice to have but they kind of ruin the natural arc of the record.  All three of them are kind of quiet and dreamy.  But it’s also a good opportunity for other members of the band to sing:

“Don’t Worry” is sung by Gretchen (when I saw them live she and Julia switched places for this song).  Lydia sings “Bender.”   And then Julia ends the disc with “I’m Fine.”  These are nice songs to add on, but do feel a bit more like bonus songs–or like songs from a gentler album.

I’m very curious to hear where the band goes next, as their skills improve and their feminism deepens.

Oh, and they are really fun live.

[READ: March 20, 2016] “1=1”

How strange that Anne Carson had fiction published in Harper’s and the New Yorker at the same time.

And they were both elliptical and hard to parse.

The story begins “She visits others. Before they’re up, dawn, she walks to the lake, listening to Bach, the first clavichord exercise, which she plans to have played at her funeral someday, has had this plan since she first heard the music and, thinking of it, she weeps lightly.”  That’s a sentence boyo.

So the first two paragraphs are about her swimming, the challenges of it, the intensity of it and apparently how the time in the water allows her to get into her own head.

Then her visit ends. (more…)

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Diane Williams–Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine (2016)

Posted in Boredom, Christmas Album, Diane Williams, Fears, Feminism, Flash Fiction, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Harper's, James Taylor, McSweeney's, Sex, Sexism, Short Books on December 18, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JAMES TAYLOR-At Christmas (2006).

James Taylor is a folk icon with a smooth voice.  It seems like it would be perfect for a chill Christmas album.

Well, since I last heard Taylor (1976’s Greatest Hits album) he has gotten a little away from that folk sound (imagine that) and more into a kind of bland(er) adult-contemporary sound.  This album has hints of light jazz in it too.  And, worse yet, he tries to lighten some of it up with humor.  Gasp.

When we got this disc we were so disappointed that I don’t think it has been listened to since.  Well, it wasn’t as bad as I remembered, but it’s a pretty long slog through the holidays (and it was nominated for a Grammy, of course).  Almost any one of these songs is a fine addition to any Christmas mix, but too many will put everyone to sleep.

This was originally released in 2004 and distributed by Hallmark Cards, which really does tell you all you need to know.  This was resequenced and a couple new songs were added.

“Winter Wonderland” has all the jazz trappings–muted trumpet, brushes on drums and Taylor’s voice which isn’t quite as comforting as it used to be.

“Go Tell It On the Mountain” sees him modifying this song somewhat and turning it far away from the gospel tradition.

“Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” has him scatting and be-bopping a little…which is not really his forte I hate to say.

“Jingle Bells” has him making it jazzy.  It’s a bit too much frankly.  Especially when it’s followed by

“Baby It’s Cold Outside” a duet with Natalie Cole, which really tells you everything you need to know about this disc–safe, safe choices.  The “joking” in this song was meant to be cute, but it comes off a little creepy.

After getting annoyed by the first half, I felt like the rest of the album worked pretty well.  He lays off the jazzyness and focuses on his voice.

“River” open with a pretty “Good King Wenceslaus,” on the acoustic guitar.  It switches to a fine version of Joni Mitchell’s “River.”  This is my favorite song on here and it was not included on the original Christmas release of 2004.

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” sticks in my head because he changes the words from “from now on” to “in a year our troubles will be out of sight.”  Why so specific?  And why every time?

“The Christmas Song” In this nice version, he sings “some holly and some mistletoe” like Paul McCartney does.  Interesting, as I don’t think he’s a vegetarian.

“Some Children See Him.”  This is a song I was unfamiliar with until a couple of years ago.  It’s quite sweet and suits him well.

“Who Comes This Night” I didn’t know this song at all.  But again the piano and bells suit his voice better than the jazzy songs.

“In the Bleak Midwinter” is a slow song, but man he slows it down even more.  And the disc ends with “Auld Lang Syne” which is surprisingly long and would be much better served without the “wailing” guitar solo.

Not every Christmas CD can be a winner.

[READ: June 16, 2017] Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine

This is the third McSweeney’s book in a row (all read around the same time) that I really didn’t like.

It’s not surprising, as I tend to not like Diane Williams’ stories at all (looking back, I don’t think I’ve ever liked anything she’s written).  I only read this because McSweeney’s sent it to me.

The book jacket is just covered with hagiography about what great writer she is and how she upends convention and stuff like that.  But to me, these aren’t stories at all.  And most of them don’t even make sense as themselves.

Rather than saying much more, I’m just posting some stories in full, to show what I mean. (more…)

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Salvatore Scibona–“Tremendous Machine” [The 2017 Short Story Advent Calendar #6] (2015)

Posted in Bing Crosby, Canadian Content, Charlie Parker, Christmas Album, Ella Fitzgerald, Harper's, Jimmy McGriff, Joe Williams, Patti Page, Piano lessons, Rosemary Clooney, Salvatore Scibona, Sex, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 16, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: CHRISTMAS REMIXED 2 (2005).

I loved the first one of these CDs and this disc is only slightly less exciting than the first.  The songs continue in the same vein: most of the songs remain faithful to the original with just an upbeat drum track underneath the vocals.  I know many of these originals even less well than the last disc, so I’m sure many parts are manipulated in different ways.  But it’s all in good fun and really gets these songs moving, tastefully.

Joe Williams-“Jingle Bells” (Bombay Dub Orchestra Remix)
I love the wah-wah guitars that propel this song along.   The mephasis on the way he say o’er also makes me smile

Jimmy McGriff–“The Christmas Song” (Tonal Remix)
This is primarily a surf guitar melody with big horns thrown in as needed.  The beat rocks along wonderfully.  Therre’s even a groovy organ solo in this instrumental

Bing Crosby & Ella Fitzgerald-“Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer” (John Beltran Remix)
I really need to hear the original of this.  Bing and Ella have a blast together.  There’s some really fun backing vocals too.  All the remix seems to do is add some swinging drums and it sounds great.

Charlie Parker-“White Christmas” (King Kooba Remix)
This instrumental features some long-winded solos from Parker that kind of take us way from the main theme.  It’s a bit of a wandering song, but still ok.

Rosemary Clooney-“Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” (MNO Remix)
There’s a great beat throughout this song.  Rosemary’s vocals are a little spare compared to everything else.  There’s more music than singing, but maybe the remix just spreads out the few words more.

Patti Page-“Frosty The Snowman” (Rondo Brothers Remix)
This moves along quickly with the children’s choir interspersed as needed.

CSSR State Philharmonic-“Good King Wenceslas” (Patrick Krouchian Remix)
This song has a lot of loops, with the opening riff repeated a lot.  The main thing about this instrumental is the way it gets compressed and then gets loud again.  There’s not much to it, but it’s fun.

Charles Brown–“I’ll Be Home For Christmas” (Ohmega Watts Remix)
This song is particularly oidd because it sounds like  70s song with the synth and guitar.  I actually thoughtit was Stevie Winder.  I guess not all of the songs are classic.  There’s not much to it and it’s not the classic “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” either.

Bing Crosby-“White Christmas” (Kaskade Remix)
The original is slow and sentimental.  This version makes it dancey but it doesn’t lose any of Bing’s vocal stylings.  Simply putting drums on it changes everything.

The Berlin Symphony Orchestra-“Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy” (Red Baron Remix)
I love this song, the way the drums are used, the way the strings are re-purposed.  It’s terrific.

Vic Damone-“Winter Wonderland” (Future Loop Foundation Remix)
This song is fast with lots of washes of music.  I’m not really sure what the original sounds like, but this version is chopped up to make it all much faster.  It’s a cool remix.

Mahalia Jackson-“Silent Night” (46bliss Remix)
Once again, by putting a drum beat to this song it changes the tone completely.  I’m not sure that this is the best song to remix, but it sounds good this way.

It has been over ten years since this disc came out.  I assume there won’t be any more, which is a real shame as there’s so many more songs to play with.

[READ: December 16, 2017] “Tremendous Machine”

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 is the first (and possibly only) story I’d read before (from Harper’s in 2015).  I liked it then and enjoyed it this time.  Here’s what I said then (more…)

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James Tate–“Terminix” (Harper’s, June 2007)

Posted in Harper's, Huh?, James Tate, Pandas, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Tower of Power, Work on August 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TOWER OF POWER-Tiny Desk Concert #775 (August 13, 2018). 

I don’t listen to a lot of soul, but when the soul is firing, it is utterly infectious.

And when the soul is performed by veterans (Tower of Power formed in 1968), it’s even better.

The Tower of power features five horn players, a bassist, guitarist, drums and keys.  And they all gathered behind the Tiny Desk.

When the 10 members of Tower of Power were in place behind Bob Boilen’s desk, strategically positioned around the band’s famous five-piece horn section, their first collective blast three beats into the sound check literally made the video crew jump. It was more a force of nature than a sound, and an impressive display of the “five fingers operating as one hand” concept of band cohesiveness.  A band this big will inevitably have some members come and go, but it’s important to note that the original songwriting nucleus of bari saxophonist Stephen “Funky Doctor” Kupa and bandleader/tenor saxophonist Emilio Castillo continue to write and perform, as does original drummer David Garibaldi.

Meanwhile, lead singer Marcus Scott stood on the desk.  And man he was a powerful singer.  He could wail and hit some fantastic high notes while he was at it.  He really sets the stage well with “On the Soul Side of Town.”  It’s a new song and is nearly five minutes long/

The backing vocals are dynamite as is the wonderfully retro-sounding keyboard solo from Roger Ray.

Things quiet down for a guitar solo from Jerry Cortex that takes a few seconds to get gong but it sounds great once it gets there.

The other two songs were classics from their 1973 album Tower of Power.  The backing vocals sound old school (and totally right on).

The first “So Very Hard to Go” was introduced: “If you ever had your heart broken before, you’ll understand the words of this song.”  It’s a surprisingly mellow track after the wildness of the first song.  And as the blurb notes, “the playing, the passion and the precision remains unchanged after all the years.”

The next song has Marcus asking “the eternal question.”  “What is Hip?”  starts with a wailing guitar solo and then asks some questions, most of which are still more or less relevant  today:

So you want to jump out your trick bag
And ease on into a hip bag
But you ain’t just exactly sure what’s hip
So you start to let your hair grow
Spend big bucks to cop you a wardrobe
But somehow you know there’s much more to the trip

So you became part of the new breed
Been smokin’ only the best weed
Been hangin’ out on the so-called hippest set
Being seen at all the right places
Being seen with just the right faces
You should be satisfied
Still it ain’t quite right

You done even went and found you a guru
In your effort to find you a new you
And maybe even managed
To raise your conscious level
As you striving to find the right road
There’s one thing you should know
What’s hip today
Might become passe

By the end with the Scott leading everyone on to call and response cheers, it’s impossible not to feel good.

[READ: January 22, 2017] “Terminix”

This was a willfully deceptive story ad I enjoyed how crazy it would make anyone working in such a situation.

The narrator worked at a job that he felt was totally beyond his comprehension.

Finally, he asked the boss’ secretary is she could shed light on the work they did. She said, of course not

“It’s all set up so you can do your job without knowing. You’re supposed to enjoy the mystery of it.  I know I do. It’s very satisfying to me at the end of the day to know I’ve helped out without knowing anything. You have so much less baggage to carry home with you,”

He asks her is it has anything to do with pandas.  She laughs but doesn’t know.  He said there was a huge order of bamboo.  She says she assumed it was something to do with missiles.

Later the boss came to him ans asked what he and his secretary talked about. (more…)

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Akil Kumarasamy–“New World” (Harper’s, August 2017)

Posted in Akil Kumarasamy, Culture Shock, Death, Diet Cig, Harper's, Marriage Trouble, Racism, Rain, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on August 3, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: DIET CIG-Tiny Desk Concert #641 (August 2, 2017).

The guys at NPR have raved about Diet Cig for quite some time.  Especially their live show.  They played at a small club near me and I thought about going but I couldn’t make it.  So I was happy to hear they played a Tiny Desk so I could see what all the fuss was about.

Diet Cig is yet another duo:

with drummer Noah Bowman propelling the high kicks and constant pogo bounce of guitarist and singer Alex Luciano. With a candied voice, she sings of being on the cusp of adolescence — but underneath that bright veneer Alex sings truth to power, and about what it means to be a punk in a skirt, dealing with disrespectful souls. “I think you’re the kind of guy / who would meet me at a party / and forget my name / and try to take me home all the same,” she sings on “Sixteen.”

And while the songs do have some angst, it’s the incredibly happy infectious nature of Luciano that made me instantly fall in love with them and berate myself for not going to see them in a small club when I had the chance–I see they’re selling out shows in London now.

They play 3 songs in 9 minutes (and the last one is pretty extended because Luciano is dancing all over the place: on desks, on the drums, everywhere.  None of the songs are terribly complex, but that’s fine.  They’re charming pop punk nuggets

“Sixteen” is what gets the parental warning. Its starts off slowly:

when I was sixteen I dated a boy with my own name / it was weird in the back of his truck / moaning my own name while trying to fuck

then it picks up and Alex starts bouncing around.  And although the song is kind of sad, “I’ll never barbecue again, and you can keep all of your shitty friends” she can’t stop smiling all the way through.

“Tummy Ache” is when she really starts dancing–doing high kicks and bouncing around all while playing nonstop guitar.  The lyrics are simple but great: “I don’t need a man to hold my hand / and that’s just something you’ll never understand.”

“Harvard” is the first song they wrote.  It has the amusing chorus of  “fuck your ivy league sweater.” She bounces all over the place, climbs on the desk, steps over to the drums and plays the last chords from the bass drum.  As the final chord rings out she reaches into her fanny pack and throws confetti all over herself as she jumps down.

The set is delightful and adorable and boy, I hope when they come back to the area it’s to another small club.

[READ: August 2, 2017] “New World”

This story centers around a global event that I know nothing about.  That combined with some confusing lineage angles made this story less satisfying for me than it should have been.

The story is about the independence of Ceylon (currently Sri Lanka) from Britain.  The story presumes we will know a few details about this event (I knew none: Independence from Britain occurred in 1948, but had a convoluted history trying to attain full independence).  I assume knowing that is useful to the story.

But for our story the impact is more local.  When the new prime minister Don Senanayake spoke first in English and then in Sinhala–no one knew what he was saying–but they all heard the word Ceylon.  Sir William (no last name given) left the country on the eve of independence and he left all of his property to Mr Balakumar, the Tamil manager.

The story is written from a “we” narrator: “We didn’t see Selvakumar approach.”  The “we” are married ladies (who mustn’t be too old, although they do mention husbands at one point).  They are mostly interested in Selvakumar’s story.

This character was fascinating but slightly confusing–at one point he says of himself:  “How can an Indian bastard be prime minister?”  Selvakumar worked for Mr Balakumar, and the man often whipped the boy for doing a poor job (I loved the grotesque detail that he was beaten so hard with the sugar cane that he “smelled like brunt molasses.”

But the real conflict for Selvakumar is with a boy named Muthu.  Muthu, they said, would grow up to be like his father Mr Padmanathan who thought of himself as a big boss.  Muthu was 10 and that was the only reason his father allowed his son to have a friendship an “Indian coolie.”  Muthu would teach Selvakumar whatsoever he learned in school.  The thing that stuck with Selvakumar the most was Marco Polo and his travels.

While the village was celebrating its independence, a storm came through the village.  The rain came hard and fast and began to knock down the poorly made houses.   It flooded the ground, which turned into raging torrents.  When the rain subsided, the people slept “by the ruins of our homes.”  And yet despite the destruction, they knew that Independence would be a more lasting and powerful event for them.

As they assessed the damage, it became clear that Selvakumar was missing.  Had he been killed?  Everyone scoured he area for him.

But I found this part really confusing.  The main part of the story was full of so much detail that I was really surprised by how unstraightforward the end was.  .

This sentence, once unpacked, makes sense but reading it in context created so many visuals that I couldn’t parse it right away.

By the time we discovered the yellow-tipped butterfly on the fat corpse, Muthu’s father had rounded the hillside, dragging his son by the ear with one hand and comforting the wailing Mrs. Balakumar with the other.”

So much is going on there.

Suffice it to say that someone has died.  But something else largely unexpected has happened as well.

The end of the story sees the women imagining their future and the future of the boys in the village as well.

There was a lot going on in this story and I felt like some things came just out of the blue. It was strange how the story begin speaking of the future as one thing but then things changed dramatically after the storm.  Although apparently not because of the storm.

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Patrick Modiano–“Le Réveillon” (Harper’s, August 2017)

Posted in Death, Excerpt, Fairuza Balk, Food, Goths, Harper's, Mark Polizzotti, Patrick Modiano, Sex, The Craft, The Smiths, The Waterboy, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation on August 2, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FRAGILE ROCK-Tiny Desk Concert #635 (July 14, 2017).

Fragile Rock are an emo band.  But they are not your typical emo band because they are a band of puppets.

And for just 15 minutes on a glorious spring day in Washington, D.C., National Public Radio became National Puppet Radio.

It was the real-life breakup of band leader Brently Heilborn that led to the formation of the woefully woven band Fragile Rock. But these aren’t just any puppets — no. They are emo puppets, armed with drums and guitars and glum tales to tell, with songs like “Wake Up to the Breakup” and “I Am Sad (And So Am I)” that which draw from the spastic boogie of The B-52s and the laments of The Smiths. At one point, you’ll see Fragile Rock empty a bag of “bloodied” socks, tossing them into the crowd, before breaking into the song “Socks Are Murder,” a playful take on The Smiths’ thoughtful “Meat Is Murder.”

The band consists of seven puppets (handled by 8 performers) and three actual musicians (see below for the details).  They play three punky songs.  And I wish I liked the songs a little more.  There’s something that doesn’t quite live up to the visual fun of the band.

“Wakeup To The Breakup” is a fast punk song, but the song isn’t quite as catchy as I’d like.  But I do like the spirit of the song and the amusing “crowd surfing” of Milo S.  I also enjoyed the amusing commentary afterward: “There’s so many sad breakup songs… but sometimes it’s a wonderful thing.  So if anyone came here today with someone you don’t want to leave with… that song legally counts as your conversation.”

The second song is a lot more catchy (and a bit funnier).  As an introduction, Milo says, “A lot of you don’t want us to get political on National Puppet Radio.”  But they need to speak out that “Socks are Murder.”  The lyrics are largely clever: “argyle is a lie / with every step a puppet dies.”  I rather like the way the chorus starts with him dead panning “Socks Are….”  “socks are murder!”  When the song ends, he glowers: “We don’t appreciate your laughter.”

Before the final song, Milo says “We’re very happy to be here at the legendary Tiny Desk Concert.  We’re assuming we set the bar so high this will be the last one.  So we’d like to close out the series….”  The backing puppets all look aghast: “It’s not funny!”  The song is dedicated to everyone’s dark muse, “Fairuza Balk.” It’s the catchiest of the three with great backing vocals.  I like at the end when the final line is “She was in The Craft” and the guitarist chimes in.  “And The Waterboy.  She was in The Waterboy, etc.”

And in the spirit of the day Fragile Rock managed to crowd surf a puppet bringing giggles to a crowd of reporters, editors and friends, while puppets depicting NPR hosts Susan Stamberg, Michel Martin and Robert Siegel (the latter actually received a playful kiss from none other than Nina Totenberg) — all created by NPR’s own puppet master Barry Gordemer — objectively observed.

As the video ends, you can see the puppets getting of the elevator and then sitting behind the NPR microphone.

It’s a very fun, make no mistake.  I just don’t think I’d enjoy the songs without the visuals.

  • Musicians

    Milo S. (lead vocals, handled by Brently Heilbron); Nic Hole (bass, handled by Megan Thornton); Kyle Danko (guitar, handled by Chadwick Smith); CoCo Bangs (drums; handled by Taylor Love and Luke Wallens); The Cocteau Triplets (back up vocals; handled by Emily Cawood, Kim Stacy, and Bryan Curry); Cindy Ward (bass); Ryan Hill (guitar); Jayme Ramsay (drums)

[READ: August 1, 2017] “Le Réveillon”

This excerpt comes from a 1977 untranslated novel called Livret de famille.  It was translated by .

The piece begins as we learn of the death of Fats.

The narrator was 18 when he met Fats.  He was introduced to the large man (the nickname was not ironic) by a cabaret girl, Claude.  At midnight she would appear on stage wearing a mink coat and evening gown.  She would perform a striptease while two white toy poodles capered around her and snatched her underthings as she removed them.

Fats was a regular presence at her shows and would leave notes for her afterwards.  When she introduced Fats to the narrator, Fats laughed that the narrator had the same name as brand of cards in Italy, so he began calling him Poker. (more…)

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Philip Roth–“Eric Duncan” (Harper’s, August 2017)

Posted in Acting, Aldous Harding, Books about writers, Essays, Harper's, Nazis, New Zealand, Nico, Racism, Religion, Set at School, Set in New Jersey!, Threats, Tiny Desk Concert, War on August 1, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ALDOUS HARDING-Tiny Desk Concert #640 (July 28, 2017).

Aldous Harding is a singer from New Zealand.  Her second album, Party, is full of deeply personal songs with memorable melodies and spare instrumentation.  Aldous Harding’s musical partner for the Tiny Desk is Jared Samuel Elioseff .

I was mesmerized by her performance right from the start.  Her voice is deep and sultry like Nico’s, and I imagined that she was French the way she enunciated.  There’s something about her face–she seems to be filled with what…? disdain? emotion?  as she sings these song.  She grits her teeth, protrudes her lower jaw, makes fascinating expressions all to convey her meanings.

The first song she performs,”Imagining My Man,” is about what she calls the “tender and frightening thoughts that come with being in love,” and what you witness while watching her are often painful, pensive expressions that are as important to the song as the notes being played.

I really like this song a lot–the simple melody, the fascinating delivery and the wonderful touch of a strange little zip sound after each singing of “all my life….”  The way she sings “if you get down” introduces yet another strange expression and an even stranger vocal delivery.  It all borders on comical, but she is not funny she is baring emotion.

In introducing “Blend” she gives Jared the guitar and says “I’m really sorry for what you’re about to see me do, but it’s all for the good of the song.”  And I genuinely can’t tell what she’s talking about.  She doesn’t do anything expect change the drum sound on the keyboard.  This song is whispered and the guitar plays gentle picked notes.

For the final song, “Horizon,” she takes away the guitar, stands up and says “thanks for watching” with a smile.  She stands singing the final song which I think is my favorite.  The expressions she uses as she delivers the first few lines is really intense–almost like a verbal threat:

I broke my neck dancing to the edge of the world, babe
my mouth is wet, don’t you forget it, don’t you lose me

The fact that she stands straight, dressed all in white–unmoving except for some hand gestures–just adds to the subtle intensity of her performance.

[READ: August 1, 2017] “Eric Duncan”

Philip Roth retired from writing in 2012, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t get more new material from him (although this isn’t exactly new, since it is from 2008).  This excerpt comes from remarks he gave at his 75th birthday celebration and will be collected in a forthcoming volume.

This is his recollection of the first things he ever wrote on his mothers Underwood typewriter.  In 1943, Philip’s mother was teaching him to type–white keys with black letters and number which “constituted all the apparatus necessary to write in English.”

He says that as soon as he mastered touch typing, he wrote his first title: “Storm Off Hatteras.”  But he says that instead of writing his own name, he wrote by Eric Duncan: “There’s little that can bestow more confidence and lend more authority than a name with two hard c’s in it.” (more…)

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Joseph O’Neill-“The Mustache in 2010” (Harper’s, July 2017)

Posted in Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Harper's, Jesus and Mary Chain, Joseph O'Neill, Marriage Trouble, Mustaches, Set at School, Short Story, The Shins, Tiny Desk Concert on July 31, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE SHINS-Tiny Desk Concert #639 (July 24, 2017).

Although this is billed as The Shins, it is actually James Mercer solo (although really The Shins are more or less Mercer’s solo gig anyway).

Mercer plays three songs with just his voice and acoustic guitar: two new tracks and one that reached back to 2003 from the album Chutes Too Narrow.

The first two are slow and very folky–I don’t know the new album yet.

“Mildenhall” has a country flare and is something of an autobiography.  “I thought my flattop was so new wave until it melted away.”  The chorus is nice: A kid in class passed me a tape a later chorus reveals: “a band called Jesus and Mary Chain.”     Started playing his dads guitar and that’s how we get to where we are now.”  I love the unexpected ending chord.

“The Fear” is a delicate, simple song that fits perfectly with his voice.  It’s also quite sad.

“Young Pilgrims” is the recognizable song from Chutes to Narrow (the song even mentions that phrase).  It doesn’t sound that different in this stripped down format–there’ some missing extra guitars bit other wise the acoustic format fits it well. The biggest difference is that he seems to be singing in lower register here.

In fact none of the songs sounded like him exactly and I think that’s why– he usually sings in more of a kind of higher pitch, so it’s interesting to hear it slower and lower.

[READ: June 29, 2017] “The Mustache in 2010”

I really enjoyed the story.  I loved the strange way it was constructed and that even though it didn’t seem to start as a story, it certainly was one.

It begins

Social historians will record that in the early twenty-first century, the fashion for a clean-shaven face lost its dominance in metropolitan North American Bourgeoisie society.

After some lengthy discussion about the merits of various facial hair construction ,we meet Alex, a youngish (36 is youngish in New York City) businessman.  He availed himself of this trend by shaving only every third Monday.  His growth was dense and black.

One morning he realizes that he had left large sideburns, which amused him.  Thereafter he “subtracted facial hair so as to create an amusing residue.”  He never wore the stylized looks outside, they were private jokes for him and his wife.  Although there was always a scream of horror because he would sneak up on her.

This all l leads to some more details about Alex.  He was Québécois living in New York.  His English was fine but “fell just short of the level required for wittiness.”  This left him with an unjustly wooden personality.  So his wife was always looking for nonverbal diversion for him. (more…)

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