Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Harper’s’ Category

Thomas Bernhard–“In the Tower” (Harper’s, May 2016)

Posted in Excerpt, Fountains of Wayne, Harper's, Michel de Montaigne, Oscar Wilde, Short Story, Thomas Bernhard, Tiny Desk Concert, Unreliable narrator on April 23, 2016| Leave a Comment »

may2016SOUNDTRACK: FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE-Tiny Desk Concert #164 (October 6, 2011).

fowI have never really gotten into Fountains of Wayne even though a) they write incredibly Cathy indie pop, the kind of music I rather like and b) their name comes from a store that I have driven by many times in my life.  I think I didn’t like their first single when it came out or something, so I just dismissed them and never looked back.

Which is a shame because this set is full of delightful, slightly dark pop gems.

Fountains of Wayne put out a couple records in the 1990s and then went away and put out a couple more in the 2000s.  There are two excellent songwriters in the band singer guitarist Chris Collingwood and bassist Adam Schlesinger.  Schlesinger has been writing pop hits for (a lot of) movies and other lucrative gigs.   Clearly he has a knack for pop goodness.  And Fountains of Wayne is on the good side of pop.

“The Summer Place” opens with bouncy chords (the two guitarists play acoustic guitars).  But despite the poppyness, the lyrics are a little dark: “She’s been afraid of the Cuisinart since 1977 / now when she opens up her house she won’t set foot in the kitchen.”  I love the harmony vocals and how the second acoustic guitar sounds vaguely like a violin on the single notes.  “Valley Winter Song” is an older song.  It still has that sound–catchy guitars, nice harmonies and a notable bass line.

“A Dip in the Ocean” (like the first song, it comes from their then new album) features a prominent bass line and wonderful oohs and ahhs.  The lyrics are clever and funny.  Based on these two songs, I’d say that the 2011 album is pretty excellent.

When they ask if they can do one more, Stephen Thompson says that “that clock is one song fast,” and they launch into one of their older songs, the lovely ballad, “Troubled Times.”  The video of the song gets cut off just before the end, but if you listen to the audio you can hear the last few chords.

My friend Steve yelled at me for not liking this band, and I can see that he was right.

[READ: April 21, 2016] “In the Tower”

I had been trying to get caught up on all of the Harper’s stories that I’ve read.  These next two get me caught up to the present, with a couple really old ones left. And man, these two stories are pretty dark.

This is an excerpt from a short story (it must be a long short story).  The narrator, now forty-two years old, explains that he has found a refuge from his family–his tormentors–in the tower of their house.  The tower is a long-unused library which he was familiar enough with to know that the left side was philosophical books and the right side was belletristic books.  He was told over and over to not go into the library.  But it was his refuge.

He grabbed a book, it was by Montaigne.  He didn’t know what he was grabbing as he didn’t light a lamp for fear of mosquitos.

Much of this excerpt is filled with a kind of perverse Oscar Wilde litany:

“In every one of my statements there was nothing but this mockery and scorn in which they will one day perish, but I think that one day I will perish in their mockery and scorn.”

“Our unhappiness isn’t something we are talked into, unlike our happiness, which we talk ourselves into daily”

After several paragraphs denouncing his parents as conflating everything he has ever said he says he has always been in good hands with Montaigne.

“My family was too late in seeing that they had bred their destroyer an annihilator….How often they said that they would have preferred a dog to me, because a dog would have guarded them and cost less than me.”

As the excerpt ends and he is hiding with his Montaigne, he hears his family looking for him saying they hope nothing has happened to him.

It’s hard to know what is really going on, as this narrator sounds totally paranoid, but I didn’t love the excerpt enough to want to find out more.

Read Full Post »

Dorthe Nors—“Hygge” (Harper’s, April 2016)

Posted in Belle and Sebastian, Buddy Holly, Dorthe Nors, Harper's, Huh?, Jeremy Messersmith, Misha Hoekstra, Short Story, Star Wars, Steve Earle, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Unreliable narrator on April 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »

april16  SOUNDTRACK: JEREMY MESSERSMITH-Tiny Desk Concert #158 (September 19, 2011).

jeremyI had never heard of Jeremy Messersmith before this show (the blurb even comments how it’s a shame more people haven’t heard of him since he is so sweetly poppy).

He looks a bit like Buddy Holly although my first though when he started playing was that he sounded not unlike Belle & Sebastian.  But there is more to his music than a simple reduction like that.

Messermith plays five songs (FIVE!).  For the first three he has a four piece behind him–big jangly electric guitar, a cello and a drummer accompanying his really nice picking style.

In “Toussaint Grey, First in Life and Death,” the electric guitar is mostly picking as well.  It’s a gentle song and you can really hear his voice well.

In “Knots” the tempo picks up with bigger drums and louder electric guitar.  I also love the picked cello as a bass guitar (this is the song that reminded me so much of B&S).  But by the end it is wholly his own (the falsetto note at the end is great).  This song is super catchy.  I love the break in the song when the drums kick in again.

For “Violet” the cellist switches to keyboards and the guitar plays some big jangly chords.  The chorus is great once again–super catchy and poppy.  Even better, there’s some great background Bah bahs and then other oohs of harmony.  But it’s the switch to an even higher note at the end of the bah bahs that totally had me hooked.

For the final two songs it’s just him and the cello.  His picking style on “A Girl, A Boy, and a Graveyard” is wonderful.  His voice sounds like someone although I can’t quite place it, but I love it.   The song is sweet and delicate.

Before the final song “Tatooine,” (which is about Star Wars obviously) he says that Steve Earle was in not too long saying that now songwriters write songs for nerds, and so this one is for the nerds.  The first line is “twin suns of Tatooine taught me everything I know.”  Pretty nerdy alright.  It’s just him and the keyboard on this, and the song is perfect this way.

I’m really looking forward to hearing some studio version of these songs.  This Tiny Desk was quite a find.

[READ: March 12, 2016] “Hygge”

I have read several stories by Dorthe Nors and I’ve found most of them a bit odd.  And so was this one, which was translated from the Danish by Misha Hoekstra.  I’m not even sure what the title means.

I’m unclear about a lot of things in this story.  How old is the narrator?  He is at an old folks’ home with a woman named Lilly. She has made the place nice for him (cleaned the dead leaves off the windowsill and put the budgie under its cover so it can go to sleep).

They’d had a fight earlier–she’d said that thing about his face–but she was trying  be nice now.  And she wanted everything to be cuddly.  Her hand was “inside the waist of my trousers.” (more…)

Read Full Post »

Don DeLillo–“Plexiglass” (Harper’s, April 2016)

Posted in Don DeLillo, Excerpt, Harper's, Huh?, Marriage Trouble, Parenting, Sean Rowe, Tiny Desk Concert on April 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »

april16SOUNDTRACK: SEAN ROWE-Tiny Desk Concert #157 (September 16, 2011).

seanropwe Rowe (rhymes with how) is a burly, bearded folk-singer-songwriter.  When he’s not singing he is into wilderness survival and primitive living.

Before the third song he tells a lengthy story about going out into the woods with just a knife and surviving on whatever he could find.  If you’re interested in his stories, you can read about them on his site.

Rowe plays three songs.  For the first, “Night” he stands and plays a rather delicate guitar.  I don’t love his voice though, especially during the ending “where is my lord?” part.

I was amused by him when he said that for $200 he would eat the toast that is on the shelves behind him.  Robin asks if it’s really that hard out there.

He plays a different guitar (and sits on a stool) for “Bluegrass Baby.”  He sings and plays louder on this song.

The final song, “Surprise,” is my favorite.  I like the repeated riff that he plays, and his voice seems to work better with this louder song.  I especially love the great strumming/picking thing he does at the end

For sure, Rowe is a fascinating character.

[READ: March 13, 2016] “Plexiglass”

This is an excerpt from DeLillo’s novel Zero K (I do like that Harper’s tells you that it is an excerpt right from the get go).

I found that I didn’t rally like DeLillo’s last excerpt that I read.  His books are pretty complex and multifaceted and typically an excerpt doesn’t do it any kind of justice.  And while I enjoyed this one more, it still felt very spare.  And without context clues it’s kind of hard to get invested in the story.

Especially since in this case all of the characters seem to be rather unemotional themselves. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Lesley Nneka Arimah–“Glory” (Harper’s, March 2016)

Posted in Diego Garcia, Elefant, Harper's, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Parenting, Religion, Tiny Desk Concert on April 20, 2016| Leave a Comment »

HarpersWeb-Cover-201603-302x410-21SOUNDTRACK: DIEGO GARCIA-Tiny Desk Concert #156 (September 12, 2011).

diegoDiego Garcia is an Argentine-American singer-songwriter.  When I saw the set up of guitar and cello I actually expected a more classical style.  But rather, Garcia is writing some beautiful, catchy songs about love and loss.

The blurb says that his album Laura is meant to be listened to as a full story, not just a few singles.  Since we only get four songs here I don’t know what part of the story we’re missing, but the songs we hear are pretty great.

“Nothing to Hide” is really quite lovely.  Diego sings and strums while Daniel on cello plays some aching notes.  Despite the aching quality the song is actually strangely upbeat sounding as well.

“You Were Never There” is interesting for where he plays the chords (way up on the neck).  And the cello plays the melody quite nicely (even taking a solo).  The song is poppy for such a dark sentiment.  The other guitarist, Zeke, plays a nylon-string acoustic guitar and adds some cool high notes (and a solo) as wonderful accents to what Garcia is playing.

“Under This Spell” begins with some minor chords and a much darker sound.  The tempo is fast again and the harmony vocals during the chorus really make it pop.

After the third song he asks if they can play a fourth song, “Would you mind?” (Who would ever say no?).

“Stay” features some really nice classical style playing from the nylon string guitar as Diego accompanies on strummed guitar and Daniel does some nice oooos as backing vocals.  I don’t really like the fluttering vocals he does in the middle of this song, though.  It might work better in studio or with a loud song, but it jut sounds weirdly affected here.  Nevertheless the way the song ends so dramatically really makes up for it.

I had never heard of him before, although apparently he was the leader of the band Elefant.  I get a sense that these songs tell a full story, and I’d like to hear the whole thing.

[READ: April 4, 2016] “Glory”

There was so much that I enjoyed about this story.  I loved that the main character Glory’s real name is Glorybetogod and how her parents (in Nigeria when she was born) believed that this would set her on the right path: to be smart, to attend church regularly and to “never stray from the Word (amen!).”  But in fact this name has given her nothing but trouble especially since they moved to the U.S.   She would always have to provide copies of her birth certificate for nearly every document and her Facebook account was constantly getting deleted because of their “real name” policy.  Her parents wanted the best for her, but it was her grandfather who was straight with them all: “That girl has something rotten in her, her chi is not well.”

And he proved to be correct as misery and failure followed her everywhere.  While some might say it was fate, a lot of it was her poor decision-making skills.  Like deciding when she was 5 to put her finger into a sleeping dog’s mouth.  And now at thirty she is disappointing everyone by working a terrible job at a call center.

And that is why that night she has written a suicide note and has a handful of sleeping pills. (more…)

Read Full Post »

David Lipsky and Alexander Abrams–“The Packaging (and Re-packaging) of a Generation” (Harper’s, July 1994)

Posted in Alexander Abrams, David Lipsky, Essays, Excerpt, Fortune, Generation X, Harper's, Phosphorescent, Publishers Weekly, Slackers, Spin, Time, Tiny Desk Concert on April 18, 2016| Leave a Comment »

00011SOUNDTRACK: PHOSPHORESCENT-Tiny Desk Concert #153 (September 1, 2011).

phospI know Phosphorescent from a Newport Folk Festival Concert a number of years ago.  I remember liking the show, although I feel a little disappointed by this Tiny Desk Concert.  This show is just Matthew Houck and his guitar.

The blurb says that Phosphorescent specializes in “free wheeling weariness.”  And that seems to be true.  It also says that Houck’s voice is weary after a lengthy tour and could barely speak which made his voice sound even more weary.  Phosphorescent was wrapping up months of touring and Houck could barely talk, let alone sing solo for 20 minutes on camera. We quickly hooked him up with as much herbal tea as we could find and coaxed that crooked croon back to life.

I found all four songs to be pleasant and, yes a little weary-filled.

I know that Phosphorescent is basically a solo project for Houck.  but when I heard the Newport Folk festival show back in 2013, he had a full band with him.  And I think the fuller sound made his songs sound, well, fuller.

“My Dove, My Lamb” is a pretty song, gently picked with a rather lovely sound and good lyrics.  After “We’ll Be Here Soon” he says that  “The Mermaid Parade” is in the same key with a lot of the same chords, “I’m okay with that if you are.”  The songs do sound rather similar. Before “Los Angeles” he says he has a new guitar with new tuning.  I can’t iamgine what he means by that.  Is he playing all of his sings with the strings tuned differently?

All four songs were pleasant, but they didn’t make me want to get his record.

[READ: January 26, 2016] “The Packaging (and Re-packaging) of a Generation”

Since I found the essay by David Lipsky in the recent Harper’s I decided to see if he had written anything else for Harper’s over the years.  In fact he hadn’t, but they had excerpted a portion of a book that he co-wrote, Late Bloomers: The Declining Prospects of the Twentysomething Generation.  Interestingly, on Amazon, only Alexander Abrams is listed as an author, but only Lipsky’s bio is given )no respect for Gen X).  Of course, the book is only available used since it is 22 years old, but as the slackers say, whatever.

Back in the 90s I read an enjoyed a lot of books about my generation–Gen X–from insightful commentary to parody.  And I’m somewhat surprised that this one missed my radar–although the title is a bit of a downer, let’s be fair.

The Publishers Weekly Review from back then states “In this sweeping and often dull analysis,” but for what it’s worth I found this excerpt to be pretty interesting.  Now if that could be sustained for 224 pages is something else entirely. (more…)

Read Full Post »

David Lipsky–“Family Business: Mr and Mrs Nabokov’s half century” (Harper’s, February 2016)

Posted in Anthony Hamilton, Book Reviews, Butterflies, David Lipsky, Harper's, Letters, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, Tiny Desk Concert, Vladimir Nabokov, World War II on April 17, 2016| Leave a Comment »

feb20156SOUNDTRACK: ANTHONY HAMILTON-Tiny Desk Concert #517 (March 28, 2016).

anthamI don’t know Anthony Hamilton, probably because he is a soul singer and I don’t listen to soul music.  He’s won Grammy’s and everything!  He and this band The Hamiltones (nice) had just played for the Obamas, and they came to the NPR offices afterward.

The first song, “Amen,” is new and he says was his attempt to write an R. Kelly song.  The other three songs are apparently the ones that have made him famous.  The songs are “Best of Me,” “Cool” and “Charlene.”

I love his American Flag jacket/sweater or whatever it is.  And his voice and the voices of The Hamiltones are pretty sweet.  No doubt if I listened to soul music, I’d have a lot of Hamilton’s discs.

[READ: January 26, 2016] “Family Business”

This essay was an interesting mash-up of two writers that I’d like to read more of.  I am a fan of Nabokov’s although I have read but a smattering of his work.  And I have enjoyed what I’ve read by Lipsky, although I have yet to delve into his fiction.

This is a book review of the recent publication of Vladimir Nabokov’s letters to his wife Vera throughout the length of their mostly happy fifty-two year marriage.  Sadly, Vera’s letters were destroyed (by her), although as it turns out, she didn’t write very much back to him anyway.

This is the kind of book review that I find exceedingly enjoyable. It sums up what the book has to say and then lets me know that while I might enjoy reading it, I don’t actually have to.  Not that he gives away spoilers–are their spoilers if you know what their life is like already?  But he really gets the gist of the letters and their life. And frankly, I don’t need to be that intimate with the writer, even if I do enjoy his works. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Joseph O’Neill–“The Trusted Traveler” (Harper’s, February 2016)

Posted in Bonnie Raitt, Harper's, Joseph O'Neill, Radiohead, Short Story, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Tiny Desk Concert on April 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »

feb20156SOUNDTRACK: TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND-Tiny Desk Concert #516 (March 25, 2016).

ttbandAs I write this, there is no band I am more tired of than Tedeschi Trucks Band.  It seems like they are everywhere.  Coming home from somewhere the other night, there was a whole hour of a radio show devoted to them.  Gah.

When I first heard about them I was interested.  Their story was fairly compelling–husband and wife join forces to make some music.  And then I heard the song they played and I though, huh, Bonnie Raitt and a blues bar band.  That’s fine.

I’ve grown sick of th eone song they’ve been playing a lot, but I enjoyed this Tiny Desk.

Their music is certainly fun–a lot more so in this live setting than on record.  And it’s very cool in “Just as Strange” to watch Derek Trucks play solos while using that slide on his finger.

“Don’t Know What It Is” fares better–the horns add a nice touch and the song gets treated more like a jam than a song.  I love watching Tedeschi play the bitchin wah wah solo.  There’s a lot of toe tapping in this song.  And after the hand clapping section, the song really takes off–the sax solo is tremendous.

The song segues into the one I’ve been hearing on the radio a lot–the one I assumed was Bonnie Raitt.  The problem for me with this song is that the verses are the exact same melody as Radiohead’s “High and Dry” and I keep waiting for the song to turn into that–which it doesn’t.  I don’t love the chorus so much but I really like the horn riffs at the end of the song and the guitar solo is wicked (I don’t think the end is as good on the studio version).

So after watching this I have grown to like them better.  Their musicianship is pretty stellar.

[READ: January 21, 2016] “The Trusted Traveler”

This was a fascinating story in that I loved some parts of it, didn’t like other parts of it and was amazed at how the main crisis developed and then was basically abandoned.

As the story begins we learn that the narrator and his wife Chris have received an annual visit–right after tax season–from Jack Bail, a CPA who is a former student of the narrator.  The narrator loathes this annual visit.  And I loved the reason why: “For some reason, almost anything that has to do with Jack Bail is beyond my grasp, I can’t even remember having taught anybody named Jack Bail.”

He feels worse for his wife Chris, because Chris actually remembers things about Jack and his life. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Jeremy M. Davies–“My Diagnosis” (Harper’s, February 2016)

Posted in Crosby Stills Nash and Young, CSN&Y, Graham Nash, Harper's, Illness, Jeremy M. Davies, Parenting, Short Story, The Hollies, Tiny Desk Concert on April 6, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Sfeb20156OUNDTRACK: GRAHAM NASH-Tiny Desk Concert #515 (March 14, 2016).

nashI only realized after reading this blurb that he was in The Hollies.  I’ve really only known him from CSN&Y.  And that makes sense now why “Bus Stop” (a song I’ve known forever but never knew the name of) sounds so familiar.

Nash plays guitar (and harmonica) and sings and he’s accompanied by Shane Fontayne on guitar and harmony vocals.  The duo sound great.  Nash’s voice is clear and sounds amazing (because he’s 74 but even if he weren’t).  Obviously I missed the mega harmonies of CSN&Y, but as a solo performer he really shines.

The first song he plays is “Bus Stop” and it sounds wonderful.  I miss some of the inflections that are in the original–but this is clearly a solo rendition (and it has been 50 years after all).

The other two songs are from his new album.  “Myself at Last” he says was the first song the recorded and that it was done in one take (and that musicians love that).  It’s a lovely song with a very Graham Nash feel (imagine that).  I love the chord progression in the bridge and the slight delay in vocals for the chorus.

For the final song, “This Path Tonight,” he asks us to imagine “an incredible rock and roll band playing with us.”  Even though the song isn’t fast, it has a real sense of urgency in it.  The chord progression is intense, and I imagine that with a band this song would be even more exciting.

[READ: January 20, 2016] “My Diagnosis”

This is the kind of story that reads more like an exercise that was later developed into a full story.

The opening of the story is that the narrator’s mother has made the narrator’s diagnosis public.

And the rest of the story is the narrator’s way of obfuscating what that diagnosis is–possibly from herself but definitely from her mother’s friends. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Michelle Huneven–“Too Good to Be True” (Harper’s, December 2015)

Posted in Drinking, Fears, Harper's, Michelle Huneven, Parenting, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Y La Bamba on April 4, 2016| Leave a Comment »

dec2015SOUNDTRACK: Y LA BAMBA-Tiny Desk Concert #143 (July 21, 2011).

ylabambaWith a name like Y La Bamba, I expected, a band, possibly from Mexico, singing in Spanish.  So imagine my surprise that the band is from Oregon and sings (almost) entirely in English.

The band’s musical make up is really interesting–accordion, percussion, guitar and lot of singers.  Lead singer Luz Elena Mendoza’s (who is Mexican..I was sort of right) voice is cool and unusual, passionate and anguished and perhaps a little intimidating.

For the first song “Crocodile Eyes,” Mendoza’s voice is right up front as she sings and plays guitars.  And her voice is a little surprising.  But it’s even more surprising when the (rather loud) drums come rumbling in after the first few seconds (it’s especially disconcerting because you can’t see the drummer).

But perhaps the most impressive thing about Y La Bamba is the backing singers.  Two bearded men sing wonderful “whoah ho hos” to accompany her as she sings.

For “Fasting In San Francisco” the guitar switches to one of the (unbearded) men.  And instead of percussion there is a wonderfully clear xylophone that adds a beautiful counterpoint to the plucked guitar.  On this song the backing vocals sound amazing.  I especially loved the middle section “I’m a fragile dandelion” where that line is repeated in many different ways (including spoken) and then all the singers break in to a series of fugue-like “doh” notes at different pitches–it is mesmerizing,.

“Hughson Boys” opens with fast acoustic guitar picking.  And the vocals are a duet with the guitarist and Luz Elena.  This song is not quite as anguished, but the harmonies are once again wonderful–and his falsetto vocals at the end are a great touch.

There’s a story about Luz Elena Mendoza on NPR (from a few months earlier) where they have some of their studio songs available to stream).

This was such an unexpected treat–totally not what I anticipated and a band I definitely want to hear more from.

[READ: January 11, 2016] “Too Good to Be True”

I didn’t know Huneven before reading this story.  And I was a little dismayed that the story was going to be about A.A.

However, it was about A.A. in a very unexpected way.

The protagonist is a woman named Harriet. Harriet had bottomed out not too long ago and lost the job that she really liked.  She was recently hired by a woman name Lois.  Harriet and Lois met at an Al-anon meeting and now Harriet is their housekeeper.  Well, Lois and her family are very wealthy and they have a maid and a babysitter.  So, technically, Harriet is more if a personal chef–making far more money than she ever would as a chef somewhere else.

As the story opens Harriet has agreed to take Gayle to A.A.  Gayle is Lois’ daughter.  Gayle is the middle child between a successful older sister in college and an adorable younger brother (he was a happy accident).  Gayle was an A student until she left one day at age 15 and didn’t come back for several months.

As they are driving to the meeting, Gayle tells Harriet the details of all the things she did (and people she did) to score drugs on the streets.  Gayle was dragged home once but left again twelve hours later.  She had been in forced rehab but it never took.  And now, this time, Gayle is getting clean on her own accord.  She saw a vision of her future as a successful international business woman and she intends to see that through.

So, in addition to A.A., she is studying Mandarin and being an exemplary daughter.

But then one night, as has happens so many times before, Gayle doesn’t return.  Gayle’s dad assumes that something bad happened to her–an assailant or the like.  But Lois assumes she hopped in the back of car and is getting high again.

Harriet has been told so many details of Gayle’s past.  She knows that yes Gayle wants to get clean but also, yes, she spoke so fondly of the highs she had. She doesn’t know what to think.  The police, aware of Gayle’s past, assume she has left as well.

Every phone call brings a charge of fear.  And while Lois says that she would rather Gayle were dead than missing–it would be so much better to know-of course, she also obviously hopes she isn’t.

This is an unhappy story and no real ending is going to shine a bright happy light on it.  But the route that Huneven went was unexpected.

I don’t really like stories like this in general, but it was well told and very engaging and the details (like the phrases that Gayle learned in mandarin) were great.

Read Full Post »

Art Spiegelman–“To Laugh That We May Not Weep” (Harper’s, January 2016)

Posted in Art Spiegelman, Art Young, Bernie Sanders, Charlie Hebdo, Fantagraphics, Funny (ha ha), Harper's, History, Political Humor, Steve Earle, Tiny Desk Concert, Treme on April 3, 2016| Leave a Comment »

jan2016 SOUNDTRACK: STEVE EARLE-Tiny Desk Concert #123 (April 25, 2011).

earleSteve Earle is pretty cool.  He’s a country outlaw who is a socialist and an outspoken Bernie Sanders supporter.  He is a vocal opponent of capital punishment.  He’s also written a song “directed towards the state of Mississippi and their refusal to abandon the Confederate Flag and remove it from their state flag.”

For this Tiny Desk it’s just him and his guitar as he sings songs from his then new album.

He opens with “Waitin’ On The Sky” and says it’s the first time he’s played it in front of people.  He has to restart the song because “debris from a Cobb salad shifted in his throat.”  He also forgets some of the words, but it still sounds great.

He is very chatty with lots of stories about the recording of the record and how a song that he mentions isn’t on the record, but it is on a download or vinyl.  “We used to make records for girls and now we make them for nerds.”

“Every Part Of Me” is a slow ballad, it’s quite pretty.  His voice sounds good and hard-worn as he sings.  He says it is “the song you’re most likely to hear on the handful of radio stations that actually play me.”

While tuning before his third song he says that he is  involved with a show called Treme “that’s ‘treme,’ just like it sounds… if you’re French.”  In the show he’s a street performer in New Orleans.  He says that there are non-traditional buskers–professional musicians who sing on the streets for tips (hundreds of dollars a day).  And he tells about the turf wars that began in the 80s.  Eventually an agreement was reached between the players.   That’s all a lead in to a song that is on the Treme soundtrack called “This City.”  It’s a touching song about New Orleans.

I’d always thought that he was much more “country” sounding, and maybe he is on record, but at least here, he is simply singing well writing and well-though out songs.

[READ: February 23, 2016] “To Laugh That We May Not Weep”

This is a brief essay about cartoonist Art Young.  Young would be 150 years old this year and Spiegelman says that Bernie Sanders would have been the best birthday present we could have given him.  Because Art Young was a radical! Political !! Cartoonist!!!  (the oblivion trifecta).  The only concept less inviting is a political radical.

Spiegelman says that once upon a time political cartoonists were very powerful (although in some respect they still are, as you can see by the the murdered Charlie Hebdo artists).

Young was a talented cartoonist who drew for all kinds of publications.  He was never convicted for his drawings, but he was put on trial for libel.  He was found not guilty; he drew a picture of himself sleeping with a caption “Art Young on trial for his life.”

Spiegelman contends that political cartoons are usually short-lived and timely but that Young’ are more timeless–and perhaps sadly still relevant.  And that he was never shrill or humorless. (more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »