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Archive for the ‘Harper’s’ Category

Barry Hannah–“Rangoon Green” (Harper’s, November 2010)

Posted in Barry Hannah, Esquivel, Funny (strange), Harper's, Huh?, Short Story, Stereolab on December 17, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: STEREOLAB: “So is Cardboard Clouds” (2010).

I’ve been listening to Stereolab for something like 15 years now.  They are definitely a “have to been in the mood” kind of band.  Their music is a blend of electronica, especially krautrock, but with an Esquivel/bachelor pad twist.  And, of course half of the songs are sung in French (and are often about politics).

Aside from a few stylistic decisions over the years, the band hasn’t changed very much in style (or substance).  And yet, each new disc is a cause for curiosity.  Will it be long and meandering electronic booping music or short and catchy electronic booping music.

NPR had a preview of their new CD Not Music until basically the day before I clicked on the link (I must subscribe to these new release streams).  But I was able to listen to a couple of songs.  The first I chose was “So is Cardboard Clouds”.

It’s almost four minutes and opens simply and quietly with a repeated motif under Laetitia Sadier’s vocals.  (One of the fun things about Stereolab is never knowing if Laetitia is singing in French or English.  Her enunciation of English words is so peculiar that it’s not always evident that she’s actually speaking/singing English until you read the liner notes.

At about the two-minute mark, the song jumps into a far more rocking style.  It sounds like horn blasts repeated over and over at a fairly fast clip.  And this sets the tone for the speedier second half of the song.  Then the rocking part and the bubbly beats merge until the end which is all instrumental.

Musically, there’s nothing as much fun as a song that catches you off guard, and the tone shift one certainly does.  Even after a couple of listens, that switch to the faster section comes as a surprise.  Each parts of the song highlights the different aspects of  Stereolab’s styles and they’re throwing in enough newness to keep it interesting.

[READ: November 14, 2010] “Rangoon Green”

I’ve never heard of Barry Hannah before; he evidently died in March.  This story will come from his final collection of stories.  And I wanted to like it.  I really did.

The epigram was quite enticing: “Rangoon Green, trophy holder third place in the national storyteller telloff.  Murfreesboro, Tennessee 2011”

The story then begins with Rangoon himself telling how pissed he is that he came in third.  Again.  Obviously, he explains, the first place winner slept with a judge and the second place winner was a local so of course there was cheating there.

I was really getting into this idea of a storyteller telling a story about losing a storytelling contest.  But then it want pear- shaped, with talk of arson and fireworks and all kinds of things and man it went on for a long time. (more…)

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Téa Obreht–”Twilight of the Vampires” (Harper’s, November 2010)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Built to Spill, Essays, Gustav Flaubert, Harper's, Leptirica, Lydia Davis, Téa Obreht, Vampires, Violence, William T. Vollmann on December 15, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BUILT TO SPILL-There is No Ememy (2009).

I’ve liked Built to Spill for quite a few years (I first encountered them on Perfect from Now On), but they always hang just below my radar when I think about great albums.  Nevertheless, many of their songs have landed on compilations I’ve made.

I listened to this disc a few times when it came out and when I popped it in again today I couldn’t believe how well I knew the whole album and how much I really, really liked everything on it.

This may in fact turn out to be my favorite BtS disc.  It isn’t radically different from other releases of theirs, but there’s some ineffable quality that seems to raise the whole disc above the fray.  The total package is fantastic.  The first few songs are quite short, just over three minutes each (which is surprising after the release of the live album which had so many extended songs and solos (a 20 minute cover of Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer”).

Of course there are a few extended jams as well.  Four songs are over six minutes long (and three of them make up the last four tracks, so the disc does to tend feel a little heavy at the end–although “Things Fall Apart” has a horn solo (!) and “Tomorrow” has some unexpected time changes).  But the first long song, “Good Ol’ Boredom” has a great chugging riff that hold ups to the six minutes very well.  The nearly seven minute “Done” has a wonderfully effects-laden end section. The solo is pretty lengthy, but the backing music/sounds keep the whole thing interesting.  Of course, there’s also “Pat” a two and a half-minute blast of punk abandon.

Doug Marsch has a pretty high voice, but it never grows whiny or annoying, and in fact, it has a kind of gravitas to it.  And it is more than matched by the full band sound on the disc.  Martsch’s lyrics are also wonderfully unexpected [“Is the grass just greener because it’s fake?”].

BTS has made a great album and I’m going to have to revisit their back catalog too.

[READ: November 14, 2010] “Twilight of the Vampires”

This was a banner issue of Harper’s (I’ve felt kind of down on the magazine lately, but it made up for itself this month).  We have the Lydia Davis/Flaubert stories, a lengthy piece by William T. Vollmann and the cover story about Rupert Murdoch (which I won’t be posting about).  In fact, normally I don’t post too much about non-fiction (recent obsessions notwithstanding), but this particular piece was by Téa Obreht, one of this year’s New Yorker 20 Under 40.  Obreht had barely had anything published when they selected her, and so I figured it would be easy to keep tabs on her.  So here’s a nonfiction to add to her two stories.  (And it’s about vampires!)

Obreht is originally from Russia (her family is apparently still there).  As the essay opens, she is going to meet her mother in Belgrade for their trip to Serbia.  Their ostensible reason to travel to the Balkans is to find out about vampires.   (But when her mother injuries herself before the trip is about to commence, it convinces her mother that the whole trip is possessed by devils).

But why travel to the Balkans in search of vampires when her adopted homeland of America is overrun by vampires right now?  Because as she relates, our vampires are rather different from theirs. (more…)

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Lydia Davis–Five Stories from Flaubert (Harper’s, November 2010)

Posted in Death, Fears, Flash Fiction, Funny (strange), Gustav Flaubert, Harper's, Lydia Davis, Prefab Sprout, Record Labels on December 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PREFAB SPROUT-Let’s Change the World with Music (2009).

This album was unreleased back in 1992 (it was supposed to be the follow-up to the wonderful Jordan: The Comeback).  Record label confusion left it shelved for many years.  It’s been released now because lead Sprout Paddy McAloon has been having health issues and won’t be releasing any new Sprout music anytime soon.  So he has released this album in what is essentially demo form.

Unlike many demos, though, this one is pretty fully realized.  It’s full of keyboards (where there might be strings for instance) and there are no backing vocals (or any other musicians), and yet for all of that, it doesn’t sound like a scratched out demo or a home-recorded cassette (and Paddy sings his heart out).  There are certainly moments (most evident in the drums at the beginning and end of songs) that sound kind of sparse, but the bulk of the disc is fully formed and quite well realized.

The opening is pretty odd, with Paddy (who normally has a soaring tenor voice) speaking a deep almost rap over a funky beat.  In fact, as the song continues, with Paddy’s voice returning to “normal,” that funky beat continues.  Nevertheless, but the time the sweeping dreamy chorus kicks in we’re back to less funky, more smooth sounding Sprout that I know and love.

Like Steely Dan, Prefab Sprout is not really meant to be enjoyed by the young.  It’s borderline treacly, it’s very sweet and earnest, an my high school self would have scoffed at my enjoying them at all.  And yet for all of that, the songwriting is really magical.  There is religious imagery all over the disc, but it’s there to convey the magical power of music.  And it’s entirely authentic.

And when you combine that with Paddy’s voice its adult contemporary music that is still interesting (certainly too interesting to be played on pop radio).  I think the real key to the success of the disc is the unpretentious, unforced and completely unironic joy that Paddy gets from music.  And there’s nothing wrong with that.

[READ: November 14, 2010] “Five Stories from Flaubert”

I really enjoyed Madame Bovary many many years ago when I read it.  Recently, writer Lydia Davis translated Madame Bovary and her translation is supposed to be exceptional, light years above the translation that I read.  One of these days I plan to read her version.  In the meantime, I’ve got these little short short stories.

I had a hard time deciphering what these little stories were, exactly.  The introduction says that they are “adapted from letters Flaubert wrote to his lover.”  So I guess Flaubert gets a co-writing credit?  There’s a couple more stories online at The Paris Review (but you need to buy the issue to get all ten). (more…)

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T.C. Boyle–”What Separates Us from the Animals” (Harper’s, October 2010)

Posted in Animals, Belle and Sebastian, Gilmore Girls, Harper's, NPR/PRI/PBS, Susan Faludi, T.C. Boyle, Unlikable main character, World Cafe Live on December 8, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: BELLE AND SEBASTIAN-World Cafe Live [downloaded from NPR] (2006).

This is a live in-studio session promoting The Life Pursuit.  David Dye conducts an interview between songs (we learn what “Funny Little Frog” is about and how “Seymour Stein” came to be).

Stuart and Stevie are animated and in good form and the band sounds excellent.  On “Funny Little Frog” in particular they sound like they’re really enjoying themselves.

The session is only 25 minutes long, but they play 4 songs: “Funny Little Frog”, “Meat and Potatoes,” “Seymour Stein” and “Sukie in the Graveyard.”  It’s worth a listen and it’s available here.

[READ: November 6, 2010] “What Separates Us from the Animals”

For some reason I always put off reading T.C. Boyle stories, even though I invariably enjoy them.  And this was no exception.  I saw that it was a fairly long story and I waited to read other things in this issue of Harper’s (Susan Faludi–where has she been all these years? and another NASCAR article–my second one in a few months after the article in McSweeney’s, which is pretty surprising since I’ve never seen more than a second of a race).

But back to Boyle.  I loved the technique involved in this story.  The narrator is a critical woman who makes claims towards being reasonable about her criticisms.  And the thing is, her criticisms are entirely justified and yet her attitude makes you want to disagree with her. It’s a very cool conceit–an unlikable narrator whose opinions happened to be your own.

What she’s critical of is the new doctor who arrives on their island (I’m gathering it’s Nantucket).  He was picked out of a couple of applicants to be the island’s only doctor, handling basic problems and issues (especially during the summer tourism season) but always with the understanding that serious problems would have to go to the mainland.  In addition to his salary he would receive free lodging in an older, historic house.

She met him on the night of his arrival in order to get him set up in the house.  She immediately invited him to dinner. He accepted for the following night and arrived at their own beautiful house in paint-spattered jeans and dirty work boots.  He ate well and then fell asleep on their couch.  Obviously, this did not set things off on the right foot.  But what was worse was that this dirty demeanor spilled over into the rest of his life: his car has a flat tire for two months and worse, his examination office is filthy too (something I’m totally on board with criticizing).  They’re also concerned with the state of the historic house, which no one has seen yet–what no invitations to cocktails? (more…)

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Wells Tower–”Bird-Dogging the Bush Vote” (Harper’s, March 2005)

Posted in Culture Shock, Essays, Harper's, Lush, Metric, Outside, Political Humor, Religion, Wells Tower, WRFF 104.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on December 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: METRIC-“Gold Guns Girls” (2009).

I mentioned to Sarah that WRFF plays this song all the time and that I really liked it but I had no idea what the band or even the song title was because they never say it.  And, I couldn’t really figure out any of the words (I’m usually working with loud tools) to investigate online.

Well, we were in the car the other day and, of course, they played it again.  Happily, the Prius has a “message” button on the radio that tells you the names of the band and the song title (if the radio station provides it).  Huzzah, here’s the song (hilariously, they played it on the way home from our Halloween party too, proving my point that they really over-play this song).  But I still think its great.

I’ve been interested in Metric for a while (there are members of Broken Social Scene in the band) but for some reason I never listened to them.

This track opens with a fast guitar riff which is undercut by this cool bass riff.  Over the top staccato vocals (that come in unexpectedly) and a nice harmony type vocal (like later period Lush) make this opening really captivating.

The repeated chorus “Is it ever gonna be enough” (with I think whispered “enough”s in the background) remind me so much of the mid 90s alt rock that I love so much.  I have no idea if the rest of the disc is like this, but I have finally bitten the bullet and decided to order the whole thing.  I hope I’m not disappointed.

[READ: 2005 & October 25, 2010] “Bird-Dogging the Bush Vote”

A while ago I read a whole bunch of pieces by Wells Tower.  I intended to read all of the pieces I could find by him and I discovered he had written a few pieces for Harper’s as well as the articles for Outside.  I’m fairly certain I read this story back in 2005 when it came out, as it sounds kind of familiar, but maybe I, like Tower himself, was too bummed with the results to actually read about it in detail.

In this piece, Tower decides to go “undercover” and volunteers at some Bush/Cheney offices in Florida (a pivotal state that year and one in which malfeasance was predicted on a large scale).  Tower is unabashed about his distaste for Bush (to us, not to the Floridians).  He admits that he did feel a bit of hope in the President right after the events of September 11, 2001, but by September 12, he was already disgusted with him again.

And so he spends a few weeks in Florida actually asking people to vote for Bush in hopes of finding something out of the ordinary.  Which, aside from some real mean spiritedness (which I’m sure was the same in the Kerry camp), there was nothing scandalous to report.   Although I will say that the example he gives (telling a Democrat that voting was on the day after the actual election, which I’d seen in a number of other places too, really pisses me off despite its fairly innocuousness and no doubt ineffectiveness–as a librarian I hate telling lies to people). (more…)

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Wells Tower–“Under the God Gun” (Harper’s, January 2006)

Posted in Boredom, Death, Essays, Fears, Futility, Harper's, Military, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, War, Wells Tower on November 23, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-Unplugged (1992).

The video of this nearly twenty year old concert came with the remastered version of Ten.  I hadn’t had a chance to watch it until now.  While watching I was pretty certain that I had seen the show either when it aired or sometime right after.  Some of the scenes, maybe from “Alive” looked familiar.  And when “Porch” was ending I had this vague memory of Eddie climbing on the stool and writing something on his arm (he writes “Pro-Choice”).

This is a seven song set of tracks from Ten (Dave Abbruzzese is drumming with them).  And, as advertised, it is unplugged.  Except that it really isn’t.

This set was recorded in 1992 (Unplugged started in 1989).  In my estimation, “Unplugged” shows were a chance to really strip down, play all acoustic and get really mellow (the Nirvana one (1993) is quite a good example) .  But here, we get Mike McCready and Stone Gossard (and all of their hair, holy cow!) playing acoustic guitars.  But Jeff Ament (and his crazy hat) is playing an electric bass (which is funny since in recent years he has been playing a standup bass).  Dave Abbruzzese is banging the crap out of his full set.  I mean, really the only thing that makes this unplugged at all is that the guitars are acoustic, but McCready still plays his rocking solos full tilt.

Nevertheless, the set sounds great.  Eddie barely talks (something about a love song to his surf board and a mumbled line about “State of Love and Trust”), and it’s pretty much all business.

“Oceans” works well in the Unplugged setting…Ament’s watery bass is the real star.  But difficulty sets in with “State of Love and Trust.”  It is just too fast, too loud, and too rocking to really be considered “Unplugged.”  So from then on, we’ll throw the Unplugged label out the window and just rock.  Of course, when the solos kicks in and you hear this really distant acoustic guitar instead of McCready’s ripping electric, you think, well, maybe I’d rather have it plugged.

“Alive” opens kind of in an unplugged state, but again, but the end, it seems like McCready is fighting against the other “plugged” guys.

Title criticisms aside, the set is great.  The band sounds in fantastic form and by the end (when Eddie is falling off and climbing onto his stool) even Ament is getting silly and jumping on the drum set.  It’s a good view (and a good listen too).

[READ: November 10, 2010] “Under the God Gun”

I honestly didn’t think I would like this article and I wasn’t looking forward to it.  I didn’t quite understand the subtitle (Battling a fake insurgency in an imitation Iraq) and in general I don’t enjoy articles about military training and the Iraq war, etc.

And when it started, I was confused by what was happening until I got to the third paragraph where he mentions a prosthetic arm being applied to an amputee.  Then I re-read the beginning and I was pretty well hooked.

The article looks at the fake governance of Talatha and its small villages like Mosalah.  All of this exists within the borders of Louisiana at the army training based called Fort Polk.  It shows how these fake villages were created from the ground up to look just like an Iraqi city.  They even pay citizen extras to be Iraqi citizens (they get paid about $220 a day and are required to speak no English).

In these fake towns they run military training exercises that are designed to replicate the actual conditions in Iraq (hence the prosthetics, fake blood, explosions and lack of English).  It’s a fascinating look at something that I had no idea existed. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–readings [audiobooks & downloads 2000-2005–David Foster Wallace]

Posted in Audiobooks, Boredom, David Foster Wallace, Death, Depression, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Harper's, History, Language, Short Story, This American Life on October 31, 2010| 1 Comment »

[LISTENED TO: October 20, 2010] Readings

This (all too brief) collection of readings by David Foster Wallace includes several excerpts and a few shorter pieces.  I’ve noticed that there seem to be more and more videos (audios) of DFW reading on YouTube.  If I had time I would try to gather all of these videos (or even just try to watch them), but for now, I’ll stick with what’s at the David Foster Wallace Audio Project.

The Consider the Lobster reading is an excerpt from”The View from Mrs. Thompson’s”.  I’d never heard him read this piece before and it is a fascinating look at the events of 9/11/01 from Bloomington, Indiana.  I haven’t read the piece in a few years and it was quite affecting to hear him read it aloud.  The introduction was also interesting because he mentions that this is the quickest piece he has ever written (I wonder how many drafts he was able to do in that short period). (more…)

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John Berger–“A Brush” (Harper’s, September 2010)

Posted in A House, Art, Harper's, John Berger, Short Story on August 28, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: A HOUSE-“More Endless Art” (1991).

Lar, my encyclopedia of music, pointed me to this second version of “Endless Art” by A House.  The original was all male artists.  This follow-up is all female artists.

I enjoyed this version very much, and it made me realize that I was tired of the original song because of the lyrics, not the music (listening to spoken word bits over and over can be exhausting). So, now I get a new version of the song with brand new lyrics to think about.

The video doesn’t go anywhere near the conceptual peak that the first one achieved, I’m not even sure who made it.

Watch it below, or look for the “Endless Art” single.

[READ: August 21,. 2010] “A Brush”

I read John Berger’s Ways of Seeing back in graduate school.  It’s a group of essays about perception and art.  I had no idea that he wrote anything else, and promptly forgot about him.  So, imagine my surprise to see this piece of fiction written by John Berger (and a little research indicating that it is the same guy).  I liked Ways of Seeing but it didn’t impact my life in any major way, this was all just an interesting (to me) coincidence.

I wasn’t really sure what to think of this story as it opened.  It talks of a paint brush.  And the wording of it was a bit odd, I felt:

I want to tell you the story of how I gave away this Sho Japanese brush.

But it’s the description of the brush that I found so compelling:

I drew often with it. It was made of the hairs of horse and sheep. These hairs once grew out of a skin. Maybe this is why when gathered together into a brush with a bamboo handle they transmit sensations so vividly. When I drew with it I had the impression that it and my fingers loosely holding it were touching not paper but a skin. (more…)

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Anonymous–“Los Malos” (Harper’s, September 2010)

Posted in A House, David Noriega, Death, Drugs, Essays, Fears, Harper's, James, Roberto Bolaño, Violence on August 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: A HOUSE-I Want Too Much (1990).

I Want Too Much saw a bit of a stylistic shift from the sort of generic indie rock of the first album.  Dave Couse’s voice begins to really come into its own with a lot of yelping and higher notes.

The album overall is more experimental, a good stepping stone towards I Am the Greatest.  This is probably the last A House record I bought (from Amoeba Records!).  And again, had I bought it in 1990, I think I would have loved it.

As it is, it reminds me, once again, of the era (in fact, this album reminds me a lot of James circa 1990).  The lyrics are slightly more deep than on the first disc, but I honestly can’t say that the songs really stick out for me.

I may have come to the party too late for this one.

[READ: August 20, 2010] “Los Malos”

This was something of a banner issue of Harper’s for me.  I’d been kind of down on the magazine over the last several months as I felt the really good stuff just hadn’t been here.  But this issue was packed with great articles.

I was keenly interested in this article because I have recently read Roberto Bolaños’ 2666.  That novel is concerned with the senseless and random killings of so many women around Juarez, Mexico.  That news story seemed to be just catching on in the mainstream press when it was supplanted by this new horror story that border cities in Mexico are hotbeds of drug-related murders (of men and women).  Strangely, I don’t know if the Juarez situation has calmed down or if this is a concurrent mass murder scenario along the border. (more…)

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Amy Hempel–“The Orphan Lamb” (Harper’s, September 2010)

Posted in Amy Hempel, Arcade Fire, Flash Fiction, Harper's, The Daily Show, Yuck! on August 17, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ARCADE FIRE on THE DAILY SHOW: “Ready to Start” & “Month of May” (2010).

My friend Lar recent wrote a scathing review of Arcade Fire’s new album.  I haven’t heard it at all, so I can’t talk about it.  However, these two songs are from the new disc.

I have to say on first listen neither one wowed me the way their earlier tracks did.  However, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post, their live show is really incredibly energetic and fun (even confined to the small set of The Daily Show).

This was especially evident with the second song, which opens with a megaphone and features lots of screaming.  The live set up includes two drummers and two violins. They are truly a band to behold onstage.

We’ll just have to see about The Suburbs though.

[READ: August 15, 2010] “The Orphan Lamb”

I was pretty turned off by the opening paragraph of this story (a rather over-the-top gruesome account of bloodletting).  But since the whole story is only three paragraphs, I decided to proceed.

And I’m glad I did.  The second paragraph gives a nice twist to the bloodletting of the first, adding a huge dose of humanity. (more…)

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