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Archive for the ‘New Yorker’ Category

Karl Ove Knausgaard–“Come Together” (New Yorker, February 17 & 24, 2014)

Posted in Biography, Don Bartlett, Excerpt, Foreign Books, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Karl Ove Knausgård, Morgenbladet, New Yorker, The Aller Værste!, The Clash, The Kids, The Police, Translation on June 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_02_17_14Columbo_spine.inddSOUNDTRACK: THE ALLER VÆRSTE!-Materialtretthet (1980).

matThe Aller Værste! were a Norwegian new waves/punk band with elements of ska thrown in.  I only know of them because of this story, but I decided to check out some of their stuff since it is so relevant to the story.

This was their debut album, which has been ranked as the number 6 best Norwegian album of all time (by Morgenbladet, a Norwegian weekly newspaper).  The album opens with lounge piano and trombone before breaking into a ska-inflected “Du sklei meg så nær innpå livet.”  Lead singer Chris Erichsen sings in some unusually deep voices (some of which seem comical) in “Dødelige drifter.”  “Døgnflue” is a two-minute punk blast with a loud Farfisa organ running throughout.

“Bare du som passer på” has a distinctly Clash feel in the vocals.  “For dem betyr det lite” is powered by that organ sound, while “Bare en vanlig fyr” is very guitar heavy (and may have a different singer).  This is probably my favorite song on the album, there’s some great sections in it.

This sound of punk sensibility with a prominent organ (an vocals in Norwegian) really make The Aller Værste! stand out in 80s rock.  “Må ha deg” has some interesting backing vocals and sounds like a Clash inspired ska song (with more crazy vocals).  It has a slow instrumental section with a twangy guitar solo.

“Igjen” is 90 seconds of punk (but not very harsh punk).  The next few songs are all about 3 and a half minutes long.  “Bare ikke nok” has call and response vocals and an unexpected beat.  “Hong Kong” slows the sound down, with a prominent bass riff.  “De invalide” is an upbeat song with horns.  “Hekt” has some dissonant guitar over almost funky bass and a serious breakdown at the end.  “Discodrøv” has very fast drums as it opens, but it turns into a rollicking song with disco bass and big horns.

“Oppvekst” follows those horns with some fast (ska-like) guitars.  “Materialtretthet” opens with some great, wild bass and continues wit a very fast-paced song.  This is another favorite (it’s interesting that the title track is also one of the shorter songs on the record).  “Menneskelig svikt” sounds quite raw, with echoey distant guitars and vocals.  “Blank” is the final song on the album (reissues have added more tracks).  It has a distant echoey harmonica acting as a melancholy sound behind the vocals.

I hope that Karl Ove’s book somehow gets this disc in print, I’d like to listen to it on more than YouTube.

There’s a live version of the song mentioned at the end of the story here:

[READ: June 11, 2014] “Come Together”

I know that this is an excerpt form the third part of My Struggle which I plan to read in say six or eight months.  But I decided to read it anyway in part because I was intrigued by the cover picture, which is of a record sleeve with a man on a bicycle and the wheel is the inner label of an album.  That, coupled with the title “Come Together” made it pretty apparent that this would be about music.   And so it was.

As I said, this is excerpted from Karl Ove’s third book in the My Struggle series, which is called Boyhood.  I’m intrigued that this book is set in his teenage years since the first two were set much later–it actually felt like Book 2 caught us up to the present).  At any rate, this is one small section (chock full of details) about being young and being in love with music and with girls. (more…)

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Yiyun Li–“A Sheltered Woman” (New Yorker, March 10, 2014)

Posted in Babies, Fears, Federico Aubele, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Parenting, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Yiyun Li on June 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_03_10_14Steininger.inddSOUNDTRACK: FEDERICO AUBELE-Tiny Desk Concert #350 (April 21, 2014).

faFederico Aubele is an Argentinian singer-songwriter.  He sings in both Spanish and English. And in this Tiny Desk Concert, he plays pretty guitar solos between songs which makes the three songs all seem like one long piece.

His guitar playing is clean and beautiful on the nylon string guitar.  He plays in the quintessential “South American”/”classical” style [some might even call this Flamenco, Paul].  And his voice is low and deep but also expressive.

The three songs here are “Laberinto Del Ayer,” “This Song,” and “Somewhere Else.”  They are each quite pretty and melancholy.  And when he starts speaking in Spanish at the end of the third song, his voice is definitely enticing.

[READ: June 10, 2014] “A Sheltered Woman”

In this story, the second or third I’ve read by Yiyun Li, the main character is an older women who goes by the name of Auntie Mei.  Auntie Mei is a first month nanny–she stays for only the first month, to make sure that the mother is breastfeeding correctly and that everyone is prepared to move on–her skills are very specific to the first month.  And she is in very high demand among Chinese immigrants.

She has worked for 126 families in the last eleven years.  And she never gets attached to any of the families–calling each mother Ma and each child The Baby.

With this new mother who, like all the other mothers is Chinese (but who wants to be called Chanel), Auntie Mei is having a bit of a hard time.  The mother is disinterested in her baby, claims to have postpartum depression (Auntie Mei says “Don’t speak nonsense”) and even had a dream that she drowned her baby in the toilet.  Mostly, Chanel is angry that her husband is not around–he has been away on business since the baby was born.  We later learn about the strange details of their marriage.

Auntie Mei tries not to get involved.  She keeps telling Chanel (and others in the story not to tell her details).  She feeds Chanel a thick soup (designed for breastfeeding) and massages her breasts when she does not produce milk.  But after a few days Chanel says she quits and leaves the baby entirely in Auntie Mei’s charge.  Auntie Mei protests but she can’t allow the baby to die so she takes over.  Chanel simply watches TV and complains–she won’t even go buy groceries. (more…)

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Tessa Hadley–“Under the Sign of the Moon” (New Yorker, March 24, 2014)

Posted in New Yorker, Quilt, Romance, Short Story, Tessa Hadley, Tiny Desk Concert on June 12, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_03_24_14Juan.inddSOUNDTRACK: QUILT-Tiny Desk Concert #351 (April 26, 2014).

quiltQuilt play soft, 60s era hippie music.  Lead singer Anna Fox Rochinski (who reminds me of a young Susan Dey) has a lilting gentle and quite pretty voice.  And the rest of the band layer gorgeous harmonies over these complexly patterned songs.  The hippie imagery comes across on the lyrics too.  Take “Arctic Shark,”, which has a really enticing melody and Anna’s pretty voice singing lyrics such as “How can I proceed with thee? This eastern harbor’s full of grief All my heavy dreams are simply a luxury Horses in the pepper tree and the lighthouse floating in the sea.”  The “lead” guitar sounds like a sitar, which is pretty neat and continues with that 60s theme

On “Eye Of The Pearl,” Lead singer Shane Butler has a sleepy look that fits in well with the gentle dreamy songs. His voice is a little too delicate for my liking (but the backing vocals bring the song to life.  The whole feel seems like it was transported out of the 60s folks scene.  “Mary Mountain” is a bit more uptempo and as the whole band is singing together, it sounds really full and complex. Like the other songs this one seems to have several distinct parts, although this song’s parts are even more distinct—with loud chords interchanging with quiet plucking.

The final song is “Penobska Oakwalk.” Shane sings lead on this one, but his voice almost seems to delicate (whne Anna’s backing vocals come, in the song comes to life). I’ll have to hear if the studio version is the same (no, in the studio version, his voice is appropriately loud).  This one ends with this interesting series of images:

I’ve been packing bombs for a man in an idle tower.
Who traded this land for an open hand of flowers. How did we get so
Language deflated the zeppelin of the conscious. How did we get so
And now we return through the means of our destruction. How did we get so

Although they may be a little too idealistic, it warms the hippie who lives in my heart.

[READ: June 9, 2014] “Under the Sign of the Moon”

I have enjoyed most of Tesla Hadley’s stories even if the they are a little bit sad.  This one is a little bit sad, too.  It focuses on an older women who is on her way to Liverpool to visit her daughter.  She is taking the train, and marveling at the route that they take (one section is chiseled through a mountain).  She would like to be with her own thoughts (she has a lot going on), but a man sitting next to her feels compelled to talk.  First he tells her about the building of the railway line through the mountain, then about Liverpool.  She tries to give him the hint by opening and reading her book while he is talking to her, but he keeps interrupting, at one point even asking how the book is.

I enjoyed the way he was described as chameleon-like person–his accent seemed to change whenever he talked about a different place and he seemed the kind of person who would just make up anything to have something to say.  And, gah, the way he is dressed!  Like he is still stuck in the sixties, but with none of the coolness of that decade.  He is a little bit younger than her but she feels that he may actually be flirting with her which she thinks is ridiculous given her age and how asexual she feels lately.

She is thrilled to finally arrive at the station, to be away from this man.  But as she gets off of the train, her daughter texts to say she will be at least 30 minutes late.  She decides to go for coffee.  The man is in the cafe–he clearly wasn’t following her–and he is all by himself.  He has nothing to read and no phone to look at.  She feels sorry for him and decides to sit with him.  (more…)

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Louise Erdrich–“The Big Cat” (New Yorker, March 31, 2014)

Posted in Louise Erdrich, Marian McLaughlin, Marriage Trouble, Minnesota, New Yorker, Sex, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert on June 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_03_31_14Sempe.inddSOUNDTRACK: MARIAN McLAUGHLIN-Tiny Desk Concert #363 (June 7, 2014).

marianMarian McLaughlin is a singer-songwriter from Washington D.C. who has self released one album.  In this Tiny Desk setting McLaughlin plays an acoustic guitar (and some very unexpected chords) and sings while a string trio plays very eccentric melodies (and often not the ones you might expect) behind her.

Indeed, McLaughlin sounds like she might be right at home at a Renaissance Faire (her long hair and floral dress speak to that as well).  Her voice isn’t especially quirky but her delivery certainly is. And when the strings really get going (as they do in many places) the music is really powerful and more than a little off-beat.

“Heavier-than-air” seems to have many parts in its 4 minutes. While “Ocean” brings in some amazing low end with the bowed double bass and cello.  It also has an extended violin solo which is quite pretty.

“Horse” is the most intense song of the three, opening with an interesting guitar motif and that great bowed bass.  True, it’s unusual to hear the line “we are in debt to our equine friends” and later, “rhythm like a paradiddle,” but when the strings (but not the guitar) start playing a super-heavy almost heavy metal riff for a few bars, it is really intense.  There’s no question that McLaughlin is a unique voice, and I imagine that mainstream success will elude her.  But I really admire this kind of eccentric songwriting, and I am curious to check out her album at bandcamp.

[READ: June 9, 204] “The Big Cat”

I enjoyed this story quite a lot although I didn’t really care for the title (in relation to the story, the title itself is fine). There were so many images and turns of phrase that I think would have been much more interesting as a title. But if that’s all one has to complain about, that’s no too bad.

This story is from the point of view of a man who was happily married to a woman who snored.  In fact all of the women on her side of the family snored.  One holiday visit with her family he had many sleepless nights listening to the crazy loud racket of “the rip saw” (Elida’s mother) “the welders” (her sisters) and the polisher (Elida herself).  He says “sometimes they snored in unison—which was terrifying” (this made me laugh out loud).

They have a daughter together, Valery, who does not snore–as of yet.

He and Elida were from Minnesota but they lived in Hollywood for a time.  He was a relatively successful minor actor—lots of commercials, TV shows, etc and she was a film editor.  They were becoming successful in their jobs.  But then when Valery was 12 and unhappy in school, Elida decided it was the nature of Hollywood, so they moved back to Minnesota.  This ended his acting career so he found new work doing something else. (more…)

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Jonathan Lethem–“Pending Vegan” (New Yorker, April 7, 2014)

Posted in Animals, Consumerism, Food, Johnnyswim, Jonathan Lethem, New Yorker, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Whales on June 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_04_07_14DeSeve.inddSOUNDTRACK: JOHNNYSWIM-Tiny Desk Concert #352 (April 28, 2014).

johnnyIt was with this Tiny Desk Concert that I was able to get the numbers of the more recent ones.  They proudly announce that this was the three hundred and fiftieth TDC.  Which is pretty hard to believe.  They have almost a year’s worth.  And it seems lately that they have been putting them up at the rate of more than one a week.  How;sa guy ever supposed to catch up?

So I’d never heard of Johnnyswim before.  The band is comprised of husband and wife Abner Ramirez and Amanda Sudano.  They sing duets mostly but he seems to have the main voice.  And it is booming and powerful.  They have been street buskers and they have a great chemistry with each other and the audience (she says she wants to have his baby someday).

The two start as duo then for the last song the full band comes out.  And their third song with the full band “Diamonds,” is a big catchy uplifting anthem that could be absolutely huge, especially with the big sing along oh’s.  And yet the thing is, I don’t really like their voices.  I completely understand the appeal of catchy sings like “Home” and “Falling For Me,” but I just didn’t really enjoy them.

I imagine their songs will be in soundtracks this summer and I’ll get tired of hearing them.  But for now, they’re just not my thing.

[READ: June 6, 2014] “Pending Vegan”

I enjoyed most of this story because it deals with issues that I think many carnivores (at least those who are relatively sensitive) deal with—how do you eat animals but also like animals.  And yet this is not a preachy story.  I also liked it because it is set at Sea World, a place that the narrator (and many people) find questionable (at best) with regard to its animal care.

The protagonist, Paul, is taking his family to Sea World even though he really doesn’t want to go.  His wife thinks its important for their kids to see the animals before they are all gone. Paul is also quitting the antidepressant Celexa, which his therapist (a very funny, inappropriate man who says things like “black folks and Orientals”) says will make him see a lot of bad things (like bums and pickpockets) wherever he looks.

We also learn that in his own mind, Paul has changed his name to Pending Vegan.  It was a bit of a mortification but something that he felt was a step in the right direction (even if he still ate what he wanted).  He of course doesn’t know how to explain this name change to anyone (especially his daughters).  And of course, he doesn’t know how to explain the questionable (at best) behaviors at Sea World.  But he toughs it out for his family. (more…)

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Roddy Doyle–“Box Sets” (New Yorker, April 14, 2014)

Posted in Drinking, Dublin, Ireland, Irish Writer, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Roddy Doyle, Simone Dinnerstein, Tiny Desk Concert on June 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_04_14_14Blitt.inddSOUNDTRACK: SIMONE DINNERSTEIN-Tiny Desk Concert #362 (June 2, 2014).

simoneSimone Dinnerstein plays several of Bach’s two-part inventions.  And my jaw hits the floor.

I like Bach–I like his elaborate arrangements and the way he makes the piano (or harpsichord) sing.  But I never really thought about how hard these pieces are.  Watching Dinnerstein play these–simply watching the amazingness of her fingers–has blown me way.  And if I may say, her fingers aren’t long slender graceful things, they look a lot like mine.  So she doesn’t seem to have that advantage of an octave and a half reach or anything.  I am amazed that her two hands can work so independently.  And it sounds beautiful.

She groups them together into three segments and between each segment she talks a little about Bach and about playing these difficult pieces.  Her story about learning these as a child and then teaching them to children is really fascinating (and funny).

I have no idea how many Inventions Back wrote, but this set list is: Inventions Nos. 1, 6, 8, then Inventions Nos. 9, 10, and finally Inventions Nos. 12, 13, 14.

Check this out.

[READ: June 3, 2104] “Box Sets”

How can Roddy Doyle, who does funny so well, also do domestic unhappiness with such verisimilitude?

In this brief story, just as Ireland is getting through the worst of the economic depression and Sam and his wife Emer are feeling like they can exhale, Sam is let go from his job.  Now he’s been on the dole for three months.  And he is miserable.  The only good thing is that he has been watching box set seasons of all of the really good TV that everyone’s been talking about.  He feels foolish watching it all after the fuss about them has ended, but he’s still glad to watch it.  And Emer is great through the whole thing, always cheerful, always trying to make him feel better.  Always with a smile.  But Sam is getting darker and darker.

Then one night when Emer says they’re going to a friend’s house on Friday, Sam says he’d rather not.  He reminds her that at their last get together he was stumped when someone asked him what he did.  He just doesn’t want to go out anymore.  Emer tries to comfort him but fails.  He just gets madder until he throws a coffee mug and it shatters.  He takes the dog for a walk down to the seaside to cool off. (more…)

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Thomas McGuane–“Hubcaps” (New Yorker, April 21, 2014)

Posted in Baseball, Drinking, Humiliation, Juana Molina, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Parenting, Short Story, Thomas McGuane, Tiny Desk Concert on June 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

SCV1_TNY_04_21_14Brunetti.inddOUNDTRACK: JUANA MOLINA-Tiny Desk Concert #361 (May 31, 2014).

juana I had heard of Juana Molina but had never heard anything she sang. In fact I didn’t really know anything about her. So, she’s from Buenos Aires and is 51 this year. She has released 6 albums. I don’t know if they all sound like this, but these threes songs are really cool and interesting. The sounds are wholly unexpected—weird effects on guitar and on keyboard. Interesting samples (played by all three members) and delightfully odd backing vocals all accompany Molina’s pretty voice (she sings mostly in Spanish).

   “Eras” opens with a stuttering guitar line that proves to be not a guitar at all. By the time the song moves along there’s a groovy guitar line, spare vocals (at one point counting mostly in Spanish uno tres cuatro cinco seis (yes there’s no dos)) and a very catchy chorus.

   “Wed 21” has an insane guitar riff that in addition to being unusual in itself is also crazily wobbly. Then there’s processed vocals which act almost as a percussion instrument.  All of this once again leads to a super catchy chorus.  When the strange noises reappear after the chorus it sounds even more peculiar.

Molina proves to be very familiar with the Tiny Desk Concerts.  She is excited to be there, which is always fun to see in a performer. She also says that now she knows what people are looking at when the scan the audience.

   The same odd vibrato guitar opens “Sin Guia, No” as well. After a slinky voice (Molina’s voice is delicate and whispery for much of the songs but can get big and loud as needed) with some interesting backing vocals (that sound like they are coming from a well), Molina adds a new guitar line to the mix.  There’s a lot of music coming from this trio.  And I like it a lot.

[READ: June 4, 2014] “Hubcaps”

Stories about 70s families are pretty much always sad.  In the decade of smoking and drinking parents and of neglected children, there’s never going to be happiness there.  Although there is sometimes comedy.  And yet for all of the sadness of the fictionalized decade, I often enjoy reading about it.

This story opens with Owen knowing that when his parents break open their first cocktails in the later afternoon, that’s pretty much the end of the night for them–and a chance for Owen to sneak out.  Mostly he goes to the homemade baseball field(!) of his friends the Kershaws.  The oldest Kershaw boy is a good athlete, the middle one is working on his paper route and the youngest is physically and mentally challenged.  But they all love baseball, especially the youngest, Ben.  And given his specialness, he is excellent at remembering statistics of baseball.  Owen finds his knowledge fascinating, so he hangs around with him on the bus and sometimes after school.  Ben is also pretty good at baseball, so he is always picked for a team.  As is Owen.  It seems idyllic, except for Owen’s family life.

But Owen manages to catch and raise some tiny turtles (don’t get too attached to them). (more…)

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Lyudmila Ulitskaya–“The Fugitive” (New Yorker, May 12, 2014)

Posted in Art, Bela Shayevich, Communists, Drinking, Elvis Presley, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, New Yorker, Roy Orbison, Short Story, Timber Timbre, Tindersticks, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation on June 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_05_12_14Chast.inddSOUNDTRACK: TIMBER TIMBRE-Tiny Desk Concert #355 (May 10, 2014).

timberI wanted to like this band because I think their name is very clever. But I just don’t enjoy this kind of slow song.  Ten years ago I wouldn’t have even given this a chance, but since I have embraced the Tindertsicks, I have a lot more patience from this kind of music, but I just can’t get into this—it’s way too slow and meandering for me.  They play three songs, “Hot Dreams,” “Run From Me,” and “Grand Canyon.”  The second song “Run For Your Life” has a mellow Elvis vibe (I don’t like Elvis either), and when they break into the staccato guitar chords it sounds like Roy Orbison’s “Running Scared” (Nope, don’t like Orbison either).  I do like the way it builds but it’s not enough to sell the song for me.  And when you get to the lyrics, I’ll just say that the world did not need another song in which the singer calmly says “Run from me, darlin’, you better run for your life.”

[READ: June 4, 2014] “The Fugitive”

I really loved this story by Ulitskaya (which was translated from the Russian by Bela Shayevich).  What I liked about it was that there wasn’t a lot of plot exactly, because it centered on the mind of the “fugitive” who is an artist in Communist Russia and is persecuted for his drawings.

As the story opens, the police have come to his house and question his wife.  They are there for Boris Ivanovich (yes, there is a problem for me with compound Russian names, but I found this was pretty easy to get through after a few pages) because he has made some drawings that put Communism in a bad light (letters made of bologna that spelled out “Glory to the Communist Party” with a price tag of 2 rub. 20 kop.

Once the police leave (he presents a document that gives him temporary safety), he flees Moscow to the distant village of Danilovy Gorki–a tiny settlement of five houses.  He stays with his friend and fellow artist Nikolai.  The country life is a novelty as he does all of the things that country folk do.  And he feels largely safe because he is far enough away from prying eyes.  He doesn’t even write to his wife for fear of giving himself away.  This also means that he can have wild sex with a woman who is visiting for the holidays–Anastasia (“She’s so educated.  But such a slut!”).  Eventually he tells his friend that he loves this life because it is so anti-Soviet, but the friend replies that it is not anti-Soviet, simply a-Soviet.  (more…)

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Shirley Jackson–“The Man in the Woods” (New Yorker, April 28, 2014)

Posted in Ages and Ages, Fables, Fantasy, Funny (strange), New Yorker, Shirley Jackson, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Trees on June 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_McCall_HorseCarriage.inddSOUNDTRACK: AGES AND AGES-Tiny Desk Concert #358 (May 20, 2014).

ages I knew one song from Ages And Ages so far (the wonderful song “Divisionary (Do The Right Thing)”), and I was interested to hear what else the band did.  Well, they open this Tiny Desk Concert with a great burst of multiple harmonies and fugues—when you have 8 people in your band you can really showcase diversity in vocals (there’s only 6 here at the Tiny Desk and there’s 7 in the band photo but NPR says 8 so, your guess is as good as mine). “Light Goes Out” has that great opening and then it turns into a pretty quick indie rock song.  I really enjoy the way the different vocalists (and three guitars and one piano) really pile on the sounds.  Even the percussion elements add something to this joyful song.

“Divisionary (Do The Right Thing)” sound great in this context—the way the women play with harmonies is just fantastic.  It starts slowly, with a strummed acoustic guitar, then more and more voices join the mix.  The harmonies that the women sing (which I don’t think are on the record sound great).  “No Nostalgia” has a traditional folk sound (with that shaker as a cool percussive element).  It’s probably the most traditional sounding song of the bunch, but again those many voices of harmonies sound great.

They are one of the few bands to stretch out to 4 songs on a recent Tiny Desk, and their fourth is “Our Demons” a great song with more great voices coming in.

If I was unsure just how good Ages and Ages is, this tiny Desk Concert sold me.

[READ: June 1, 2014] “The Man in the Woods”

This is the second of a group of recently uncovered stories from Shirley Jackson’s papers which the New Yorker has published.

Even though this story is timeless–there is really no indication of when it is set, and any clues seem to be more mythological than real–when reading it I assumed it was written a while ago.  There’s something about the language that just reads “not contemporary.”  And I think that’s interesting in and of itself.

But as I said, this story feels timeless–it has a mythological/fairy tale mystique about it which starts right off the bat when we see the main character, Christopher, walking in a very deep, very dark forest.  He has been walking for countless days and the forest has been getting more and more close–as if the trees were leaning in on him.  He is all alone until a cat starts following him “trotting along in the casual acceptance of human company that cats exhibit when they are frightened.”  And thus, the two continue deeper into the woods with Christopher saying to the cat that the path must lead somewhere.

And it does, an hour or so later, they come upon a bend in the path which leads to a small house.  He approaches cautiously but is quickly welcomed by the young “not so young as he would have liked, but too young, seemingly, to be living in the heart of a forest” lady named Phyllis.  There is another lady called Circe who is making food.  The warmth of the cabin and the smell of the food warms Christopher to his core.  And the cat makes himself at home quickly as well.  But the ladies are a little odd, and Christopher dare not make himself too comfortable.  Especially when they call out the head of the house. (more…)

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Dana Goodyear–“Long Story Short: Lydia Davis’ radical fiction” (New Yorker, March 17, 2014)

Posted in Books about writers, Dana Goodyear, Essays, Lydia Davis, Marcel Proust, New Yorker, Paul Auster, Russell Edson, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Word usage, Yasmine Hamdan on May 31, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_03_17_14Liniers.inddSOUNDTRACK: YASMINE HAMDAN-Tiny Desk Concert #359 (May 24, 2014).

Yysamineasmine Hamdan is a Lebanese singer-songwriter.  The three songs she plays here are sung in Lebanese (I assume).  Sung with just the accompaniment of one guitar, Yasmine sings and sways her way through these beautiful songs.  It’s actually fun to just see her move while she sings, she’s so loose and relaxed and yes, sensuous.

The most interesting thing is that Hamdan had only just met guitarist Gabriel Gordon when they traveled down together from New York that morning. They’d never rehearsed together, so the interesting guitar lines he’s playing sound great even though they might not be what she intended.  (I wish there was a little more information about this partnership in the blurb).

“Beirut” is a song form the 1940s and she does some interesting vocal things by using her hands around her mouth.  “Deny” and “Shouei” are beautiful songs that Hamdan has written and the two of them sound just great together.

[READ: May 27, 2014] “Long Story Short”

I have been one of those readers who doesn’t really know what to make of Lydia Davis, so I found this article very interesting and helpful.  It allowed me to appreciate her super short stories a lot more.  For yes I have mused about why “she doesn’t call them poems or fragments.”  The answer: “She prefers the deeper associations of the word ‘story’.”

I was interested that she is considered “one of the most original minds in American fiction today,” and I tend to agree that she is because no one else really writes like her.  Her Collected Stories has “some two hundred pieces” in just over 700 pages.  This is thirty years worth of work.

But I also liked seeing the succinct comment “like many things that Davis writes, [a letter] had started out sincere and then turned weird.”  In this case the letter she wrote to a frozen peas manufacturer was published as the story “Letter to a Frozen Peas Manufacturer.”

I didn’t know much if anything about Davis, so this article acted as a biography as well.  She dated writer Paul Auster and while he write his traditional stories, Davis struggled to do the same.  Her stories never came together or seemed to be about normal things, as her mother commented: “Why don’t you write about your travels or something more cheerful?”  But it was when she started reading very short stories by the poet Russell Edson (of whom I’ve never heard), that she hit upon the idea of writing very short stories and “The Thirteenth Woman” was her first successful attempt. (more…)

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