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Archive for the ‘Magazines’ Category

Callan Wink–“Dog Run Moon” (New Yorker, September 26, 2011)

Posted in Callan Wink, Consumerism, Dogs, Futility, Ironweed, Marriage Trouble, MST3K, New Yorker, Poetry, Short Story, Threats, Tom Waits, Violence, William Kennedy on October 3, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TOM WAITS-Small Change (1976).

Half-naked woman on the cover and all (Wikipedia say that this might be Elvira, before she was “Elvira”), this is what people thing of when they think Tom Waits: That gravelly voice is in full form here, with poetic rants and bluesy, drunken musings.

The opening track, “Tom Traubert’s Blues (Four sheets to the wind in Copenhagen)” (I love that many of these titles have parenthetical additions) features the repeated chorus from “waltzing Matilda” which is kind of cheating, but which certainly makes this song potent and memorable.  “Step Right Up” is a skit and scat sales pitch for a miracle product.  It’s a wonderful piece of snark aimed at hucksters (this actually makes sense given that nearly 40 years later he still hates advertising (according to this interview on NPR)).

“Jitterbug Boy” is a mournful piano ballad.  It makes me think of William Kennedy’s Ironweed (of course, Waits was in the film of Ironweed, so maybe that’s got something to do with it).  “I Wish I was in New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward)” has a very Louis Armstrong feel to it (I never noticed how close this early style is to Armstrong until I started playing “What a Wonderful World” for my kids (no Tom for them yet). And of course, the Ninth Ward was really devastated by Hurricane Katrina, so maybe they should have used this as their anthem.

“The Piano’s Been Drinking” is forever etched in my mind from Mystery Science Theater 3000–Tom Servo does a wonderful Tom Waits impersonation.  Incidentally, Waits himself had been drinking, quite heavily at the time.  The track “Pasties and G String” is a scat-fueled description of the lady on the cover, more or less.  It’s accompanied by simply drums and a cymbal and is not too dissimilar from “Step Right Up.”  “Bad Liver and a Broken Heart” begins and ends with the melody of “As Time Goes By” and ends with a confession to drinking too much.

A song like “The One That Got Away” is Waits rambling around with his poetry in his gravelly, slurry followed by a sultry saxophone.  It sets a mood faster than anything I know.  Of course, if you don’t want that mood, you won’t want this album.

Of his first four albums, this one is my favorite (just ahead of Closing Time).  I’m not a huge fan of his early work, and I don’t listen to it all that often, but it’s a perfect treat when the mood strikes.  Waits also was beginning to get into something of a rut.  Despite his varied styles per album, all of the albums were beginning to blend a little.   There are still some great songs coming, but it would take until Swordfishtrombones before he went really far afield from this comfort zone.

[READ: September 21 2011] “Dog Run Moon”

This is one of those stories that seems so pointless that you can’t stop reading.  The good thing is that it was so well-written and engaging that its pointlessness is part of its charm.

As the story opens, Sid is running stark naked through a desert landscape–his feet are bleeding, he is covered in the red dust from the ground and there is a white Spaniel running alongside him.

Essentially, the entire story is that Sid has stolen this dog from Montana Bob and his friend Charlie Chaplin.  They caught him and he ran away with the dog through the desert.  As I say, it’s kind of pointless because he’s running naked and barefoot and they are chasing him on ATVs–he’s obviously not going to escape.  But what makes the story worth reading is the way the plot is irrelevant (except that it tells you a lot about Sid), because it’s really the impetus for his actions that comprises the story. (more…)

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Ann Beattie-“Starlight” (New Yorker, September 19, 2011)

Posted in Ann Beattie, History, Marriage (Happy), Memoirs, New Yorker, Political Humor, Richard Nixon, Short Story, Tom Waits on October 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TOM WAITS-Nighthawks at the Diner (1975).

This is Waits’ third album, a live recording (!) which was actually recorded live in the studio. But not the way most bands record live in the studio. The producers brought in tables and chairs and created a bar-like atmosphere into the (evidently rather large) studio.  Then they invited fans in to watch the performance. Wild, man.

Just as wild is the bebopping and scatting that Waits does here. The opening “Emotional Weather Report” is all kinds of comical phrasing and silliness about himself.  It’s funny and quite enjoyable.  And it makes it feel like a nightclub.  He also introduces mos of his sings with a story, and for most of the songs, the introductions are almost longer than the song.  The two-minute intro to “On a Foggy Night” is full of Tom’s storytelling–but in a much more improv jazzy style.  Indeed, it’s not entirely clear when the intro ends and the song begins.

The intro to “Eggs and Sausage” has the very funny conceit that the food he has eaten in some greasy spoon is pretty frightening.  The veal came down to beat the shit out of his coffee, but the coffee wasnt strong enough to defend itself.  Nice.  “Better Off Without a Wife” he talks about having an evening just to yourself, you know, for pleasure.  We all do it, he says, but I’m not weird about it; I don’t tie myself up or anything.

Overall, this is a fun album.  It’s loose, the crowd is at ease and so is Tom.  It’s long album–about 70 minutes, which might be a little too long, but you get the whole vibe of a night out–good stories and good music.

[READ: September 21, 2011] “Starlight”

This story is four short pieces.  The titles should tell you everything you need to know about the content: “Mrs. Nixon Joins the Final Official Photograph,” “Mrs. Nixon reacts to RN: The memoirs of Richard Nixon,” “Brownie,” and “Mrs. Nixon’s Thoughts, Late-Night Walk, San Clemente”

So, clearly these are four short pieces that delve into the mind of Richard Nixon’s wife, Pat.  I don’t know a lot about her or about Nixon himself, really (I know all the highlights or low lights but I haven’t really ever looked into the man aside from what the sitcoms say about him).

So when I was reading the first excerpt I just couldn’t get into it.  I didn’t know who the people were for sure.  I assumed Ollie was Ollie North, but who knows.  I almost didn’t read any more, I was so uninspired by the first one.  But the next day I decided to try again.  (more…)

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Yi Mun-Yol–“An Anonymous Island” (New Yorker, September 12, 2011)

Posted in Culture Shock, Foreign Books, Heinz Insu Fenkl, Marriage Trouble, Monty Python's Flying Circus, New Yorker, Poetry, Sex, Short Story, The Eagles, Tom Waits, Translation, Yi Mun-Yol on October 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TOM WAITS–The Heart of Saturday Night (1974).

What would be more shocking–hearing this and then going to Bone Machine, or listening to Bone Machine and then hearing this. Holy cow. Tom’s voice is so NOT Tom Waits on this record. It kept me thinking of The Eagles or something. The tone, the pacing, I kept expecting him to bust out “Desperado.”  He also has some crazy beat-inspired poetry (what the kids today call spoken-word pieces)  Indeed, these spoken pieces would stay with him in one form or another for his whole career.  But seriously, how much a man can change in thirty years!

Like Closing Time, this album has several different styles.  Primarily, it has a sloppy, bar sound, the sound that Closing Time‘s cover conveyed.  And that sound is all over “New Coat of Paint.”   But there’s also piano ballads.  And those ballads, combined with Waits’ non-gravelly voice, give “San Diego Serenade” and “Shiver Me Timbers” that Eagles’ ballady sound.  And then “Semi Suite” brings back that muted trumpet. 

“Diamonds on My Windshield” is a beat poem set to a walking bass.  It’s clichéd, except that no one actually does it as well as Waits.  And although I don’t really like the blues in general, I enjoyed “Fumblin’ with Blues” quite a bit.  There’s something about Waits’ sloppy (but not) style  that makes the song interesting.  Even though this is considered a classic, this album is just not really my style and it’s one I listen to quite infrequently.

[READ: September 21, 2011] “An Anonymous Island”

This story is translated from Korean by Heinz Insu Fenkl.  

I felt like the heart of this story was completely unoriginal in content; and yet I can’t tell if it is a common story, if it is a kind of folklorish story, if it’s sort of a story from ancient writings or if it’s just something that happens.

The beginning of the story shows a woman listening to her husband.  He is watching the television,bemoaning the fact that anyone can be anonymous these days (this struck me as a funny sentiment given how much everyone in America bemoans the lack of privacy or the fact that everyone is on the internet).  You can get off at one bus stop past your own and no one knows you.  Back when he was a kid everyone knew everyone else, a village was a family.  And as the woman listens, she flashes back.

The flashback is to when she was a teacher in a small village.  A village where everyone is related.  Everyone treats each other with respect and deference.  Except for one man, Ggaecheol.  Ggaecheol is a bum–he has no job, he has no home.  The village tolerates him because he is an idiot and he is impotent.  But whenever he wants a meal, he simply walks into someone’s house and sits down and says, feed me.  Which they do.  Typically he sleeps outside, but when it’s cold, he walks into someone’s house and sits at the foot of their bed.  He says he wants to keep the woman warm, so the men, amused by his impotence, allow this.

There’s an old Monty Python skit in which the town idiot, despite being mocked by all, does great with women.  The punch line, showing the idiot with a couple of hot girls in bed with him: “I may be an idiot, but I’m no fool.”  And so it is with this story.  The bum is sleeping with everyone in town.  (more…)

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Haruki Murakami–“Town of Cats” (New Yorker, September 5, 2011)

Posted in Bruce Springsteen, Death, Funny (strange), Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin, New Yorker, Short Story, The Eagles, Tim Buckley, Tom Waits, Translation, Travel, Van Halen on September 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TOM WAITS-Closing Time (1973). 

This is the first official Tom Waits release.  There’s a couple “Early Years” collections which are really fascinating for how much he doesn’t sound like the 21st century Tom Waits, but these at least show glimpses of the man to come.  There are some songs on here that I knew of from different artists, and had no idea TW had written them  (Tim Buckley covered “Martha” the same year this came out (that’s pretty amazing), The Eagles covered “Ol’ 55” on their album the following year.  However, Van Halen’s “Ice Cream Man” is not a cover of Tom’s song). The funny thing about the record is how much he sounds like a late 70s lounge singer. How can an album as stripped down as this sound of an era? I don’t know, but it does. It’s also nice to know that his opening song “Ol’ 55” has had such a long life.

My wife does not like Tom Waits, but I think I could sneak this album past her.  You can tell that it’s Tom (before years of abuse to his vocal chords).  His voice is in fine non-gravelly form, just a little bass heavy.  And he is crooning to us.  He even has one of his sweet songs (“Midnight Lullaby”).  It’s hard (but not impossible) to imagine that this man would have turned into the man from Bone Machine.

As I was saying about the mid 70’s, the style of songs here could easily have been played on the same radio station as Springsteen (this album came out the same year as Greetings from Asbury Park–and Springsteen made famous “Jersey Girl” one of Tom’s early songs).  Indeed, many of these songs were covered by other artists.  The funny thing to me about the album is that although Tom is the pianist, I feel like the album is more focused on the trumpet (that muted trumpet seems to be everywhere (giving the album more of a jazzy feel than a rock feel).  And yet, despite this overall jazziness, “I Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love with You” and “Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)” is a pretty straight-ahead folk song.  There’s also the beautiful ballad “Martha” played only on piano–such a gorgeous melody.  Perhaps the least exciting song is the instrumental ballad “Closing Time.”  It’s a simple piano melody with more trumpet.  There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just not that inspirational.

I find that as I get older I like this album more (which is somewhat ironic since he recorded it when he was 24).  It’s tempting to say that the album–with its many styles–is unfocused, but Waits’ albums all seem to follow in this multiple-styles vein.  He’s not afraid to try something new (see his entire output since 1983).  But this one is a surprisingly straightforward album.  I can’t wait to see if Sarah likes it.

[READ: September 21, 2011] “Town of Cats”

Murakami is (in my limited experience) a master of the surreal. And yet for his more recent short stories, he seems to be switching into more of a story within a story conceit.  And that’s fine too, because the stories and the stories within the stories are clever and creative and still a bit surreal.

This story starts out a little awkwardly: at Koenji Station, Tengo boards a train with absolutely no destination in mind.  He can get off anywhere that he wants, he decides. He imagines going to the beach and enjoying a nice day.  But then he realizes that all along he has ben heading in one specific direction: to visit his father in a nursing home.  This is especially surprising for Tengo as he has not visited his father in over two years (and Tengo is his only relative).

As Tengo thinks back to his childhood, it is full of nothing but anger.  Anger that his father took him on his work (collecting fees for Japanese TV) every Sunday and that Tengo never had any chance for fun.  In fairness to Tengo’s father, Tengo’s mother died when Tengo was just a baby and his father had to take care of him as best as he could.  But there was no love, no warmth, no emotion.  And the more he thought about his father he realizes that that’s what his father was like–no intellectual curiosity of any kind.  Just work work work.

And yet Tengo can’t shake a memory from when he was only a year and a half or so of his mother standing near hs crib with a man who wasn’t his father kissing her naked breasts.  This memory has always been with him and he can’t help but wonder if his father really isn’t his father at all.  (more…)

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Alice Munro–“Dear Life” (New Yorker, September 19, 2011)

Posted in Alice Munro, All Songs Considered, Biography, Books about writers, Canadian Content, Essays, Memoirs, New Yorker, Tom Waits on September 29, 2011| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: TOM WAITS-Live Glitter and Doom tour, Atlanta GA, July 5, 2008 (2008).

I downloaded this concert–which was recorded at the Fox Theater in Atlanta Georgia from NPR.  In the introduction, Bob Boilen says the concert is over two hours, but the page says (and the download comes in) at about 1 hour and 45 minutes, which is still plenty of Tom Waits.

This is a great show.  Although it focuses on the more recent albums, the show covers quite a span of his career: from Real Gone (“Hoist That Rag”) and Bone Machine (the album that introduced me to Mr Waits), all the way back to Heartattack and Vine (“On the Nickel”) and even three songs from Rain Dogs.

His band sounds great, tight as a drum, even playing Waits’ off musical assortments with no problem (is Casey Waits on drums Tom’s son?). There’s clearly some visual stuff going on that we are not privvy to here–the band has a good time towards the end of the set with some musical jokes.  And there’s some fun vamping and a number of good Waits stories (including the “pastika” one from the live album, see below).  He doesn’t play “Day After Tomorrow,” one of the most moving war songs I’ve ever heard, which I think is good.  It is so emotionally charged (unlike his other ballads which are moving but not quite so powerful) that I thin it would bring the whole set down.  Rather, this is more of a rumpus-filled show.  And we’re all the better for it. 

All in all, this is a great document of Waits’ live shows.  His voice sounds great and the band (including a few special guests) is fantastic. 

Later in 2009, Waits released Glitter and Doom Live, a document from this tour.  What’s nice in terms of this show is that the setlist is different for this show than it is for the album.  The album has songs from various venues on the tour, so you get different performances anyhow, but quite a lot of the songs are new here.  So even if you have the album, this is a unique experience.

Also, check out this amusing video interview:

[READ: September 20, 2011] “Dear Life”

This kind of piece is one of the reasons I don’t write about nonfiction that much.  How do you review someone ‘s life?  More specifically, how do you review a short excerpt about someone’s childhood (is this leading to a full length memoir?).  Nevertheless, I love Alice Munro, and this look into her childhood in Wingham, Ontario is fascinating.  I never really conceptualized that Munro is 80 years old.  She grew up with an outhouse and what seems like a one room schoolhouse.

What’s more interesting is that the town where she grew up more or less disappeared once people started building houses on the other side of the river (higher up the hill).  All but the poorest people moved to the new higher elevations, thereby evacuating the town and leaving only the tiny school left (the school she was so excited to get away from!).  Munro remembers many of the bad things in her life–getting whipped by her father for disobeying, walking to school and being teased and even not being allowed to go to a new friend’s house because the friend’s mother was prostitute!  But unlike in a full length memoir, Munro is able to skip past these memories pretty quickly by talking about how when she got older things were smoother (and the room where the whippings took place was converted into something else). (more…)

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The Best American Non Required Reading 2002

Posted in Adrian Tomine, Adventure, All Songs Considered, Basketball, Camden Joy, Dave Eggers, David Schickler, David Sedaris, Death, Dinosaur Jr., Drinking, Drugs, Elizabeth McKenzie, Eric Schlosser, Essays, Excerpt, Funny (ha ha), Gary Smith, Graphic Novel, Heidi Jon Schmidt, History, Jenny Bitner, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Keith Pille, McSweeney's, Meenakshi Ganguly, Michael Finkel, Michael Kamber, Military, Newspapers, Pranks, Racism, Religion, Rodney Rothman, Sam Lipsyte, Sara Corbett, Scientists, Seaton Smith, Sebadoh, Seth Mnookin, Short Story, Sports Illustrated, The Onion, Travel, Violence, War, Work, Zoe Trope on September 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: DINOSAUR JR.-Live at the 9:30 Club, Washington D.C. October 8, 2009 (2009).

This was one of the first shows I downloaded from NPR.  I’ve been a fan of Dinosaur Jr. since my friend Al turned me on to Green Mind back in college.

This is an amazing show created by the original Dino Jr. members.  This tour is in support of their second album since reuniting, Farm. This set-list is an outstanding mix of old songs, new songs, Barlow-sung songs and even some songs from when Barlow and Murph weren’t in the band.  (Green Mind is still my favorite album by them).

When the band reunited there was much joy, and I’ve said in reviews of the newer albums, I’m not entirely sure why.  I mean, Dino Jr has always been about Mascis, and it’s not like Barlow is such an unusual bassist (although Murph’s drumming is always solid).  I’ve nothing against Barlow (I love Sebadoh and Folk Implosion) or Murph, it just seems odd to get excited about having them back in the band aside from nostalgic reasons.

Having said that, the band sounds amazing (and yes, Barlow does get to sing on “Imagination Blind”).  What never really came across to me until hearing all of these great songs live was that Mascis has always been a great pop song writer.  These songs are catchy as hell. But Mascis buries them under loud squalling guitars and a voice that is almost whiny, almost off-key, a total slacker voice.  (But you’ll notice it is never actually off-key.  He must work very hard at that.)

By the nd of the show Mascis chastises the audience for not moving (we obviously can’t see what they’re doing), saying he forgets that people don’t move in Washington, D.C.  But during the encore break, NPR host, Bob Boilen, points out that Mascis himself doesn’t move either–he just stands in front of that wall of Marshall stacks (Boilen wonders how he can hear anything anymore).  And looking at the pictures it’s comical the way he looks, surrounded by amps.  The picture above doesn’t fully do it justice, but check out the extra photos at the NPR page.  And while you’re there, listen to this show. It is amazing.  For a total slacker, Mascis can rock a guitar solo like nobody’s business.

[READ: July 20, 2011] The Best American Non Required Reading

I’d been meaning to read this series for years (yup, Eggers fan), But I have a hard time starting “collections” because I feel like I’d rather be reading a novel.  Nevertheless, I have most of these Nonrequired books, so it seemed like I should dive into one and see what it was like (I don’t think the year really matters all that much–some of the articles are topical but most are not exactly).  Then Sarah said this would be a great book to read on vacation because it’s all short essays, and she was right.  It was perfect for late nights when I wanted something to read but didn’t feel like getting involved in the novel I was reading.

DAVE EGGERS-Introduction
Eggers’ introduction is actually a partial short story about kids who go swimming in pools around town. It reminded me of the opening of Life After God by Douglas Coupland, but of course, lots of kids did that so I’m not saying it was “lifted” from DC.  The story “ends” (it doesn’t really end so much as stop) with an interesting scene between two unlikely kids who get caught.

After this story Eggers includes these three notes about the collection: It’s not scientific, It’s alphabetical, and We had a lot of help with this.  Of the three, it’s the middle one that’s most useful because Eggers says that you shouldn’t necessarily read them in order just because they are printed this way: “In the first half of this collection, you get a good deal of hard journalism, primarily about war and refugees, from Afghanistan to the Sudan, followed immediately by a number of less serious pieces, about malls and Marilyn Manson.  We didn’t group anything by theme , and won’t be offended if you skip around.”  This was good to know (not that we needed the permission of course), but yes, the beginning of the book is pretty heavy. (more…)

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Issac Newton–Letter to the Publisher (Philosophical Transactions, March 26,1672)

Posted in All Songs Considered, History, Isaac Newton, Philosophical Transactions, Real Estate, Senses Fail, Technology, Telescope, Titus Andronicus, Vivian Girls on September 25, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: REAL ESTATE-“Beach Comber” (2009).

I found this song through a fascinating series of clicks.  Yesterday’s song from Real Estate was a pick for Fall.  And next to it was a link entitled Ridgewood, N.J., Why Here? Why Now? I grew up right next to Ridgewood and I spent a lot of time there as a kid.  So it’s pretty exciting to hear that there’s a mini-music scene happening there.  With Senses Fail, Vivian Girls, and Real Estate coming from Ridgewood and Titus Andronicus coming from Glen Rock, Bergen County is totally hip (even my hometown of Hawthorne seems to be considerably cooler than it was when I left ten years ago–there’s a coffee shop!).

Back back to the song.  I don’t enjoy this track quite as much as yesterday’s song from their new album.  It’s missing a little of the fuzz that I really enjoyed from “It’s Real” (I find the picked guitar a wee bit too clean for my tastes).  Indeed, for me, “It’s Real” is a small change but a giant leap sonically.  Neverthleess, the verses and chorus are really quite pretty.  And yes, the song does feel very summery and beachy.

Because they’re from my neck of the woods, I’m giving them the very curious distinction of having their song paired up with a letter from Issac Newton.  Imagine the search results that will bring people here.  Imagine, crazier still, that an image search for this Letter from Newton could produce their album cover.  Woah.

[READ: September 15, 2011 (three hundred and thirty-nine years after publication!)] Letter to the Publisher

What better way to start off a Sunday than with a letter from Issac Newton?  Yes, this is really an article from Issac Newton.  And it’s available pretty freely just by searching for the title words, although JSTOR has a nice searchable version of it available.  (This is the final JSTOR article for a while, after this it’s back to the 21st century).

What I especially loved about this letter was that the “long s” is used throughout the letter (like the word Congrefs in the bill of rights–see right).  It makes it a challenge to read, but that is by no means the only challenge.  According to the introduction, this letter contains “some more suggestions about his New Telescope, and a Table of Apertures and Charges for the several Lengths of that Instrument.”

And if you think that the wording of that is ungainly, try reading the letter itself.  (more…)

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Anna M. Shih–“The Patented Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich: Food as Intellectual Property” (Gastronomica, Winter 2002)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Anna M. Shih, Food, Gastronomica, Law, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Real Estate, Slate.com on September 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: REAL ESTATE-“It’s Real” (2011).

Right from the start, the combination of the fuzzy guitar picking and the whacking drums was a major draw for me.  Finding out that these guys are from Ridgewood, NJ (a town away from my hometown) was a little icing.

This is a charming little pop ditty.  It propels along at a nice clip, it’s got a catchy chorus and it makes me feel warm and sunny.  And for all of that it’s not even three minutes long. That’s a nifty little trick.

Interestingly, in NPR’s discussion of the song, the guys play the song “Easy,” but for some reason the full length song is for “It’s Real.”  And I actually like “It’s Real” more, so good for the mix up.

[READ: September 15, 2011] “The Patented Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich”

I actually read this Gastronomica article before the other one, but this seemed like a good Saturday subject.  This article is the kind of thing I don’t normally write about.  I read a bunch of non-fiction and for the most part I don’t bother ever posting about it because, really what’s the point of summarizing a nonfiction piece.  Most of them I don’t have an opinion about, I just say hmm, interesting.  But since I’m doing some special articles that were pointed out to me from JSTOR, I’m going to include this one for historical amusement (even if unlike the hobo memoir, this article is less than ten years old).

Anyhow, this brief article looks at the patented Smucker’s Uncrustable Sandwich.  At the time, these were novel, but now they are ubiquitous.  Smucker’s had taken two discs of white bread, filled them with an inner casing of peanut butter and then stuffed the PB with a splooge of jelly.  It’s the shell of PB, which keeps the jelly from touching the bread and the crimping method to squish the breads together that really seal the patent.  And, I admit, that despite the mockery they received for patenting a PB&J, I think they did hit on some novelties and have earned their unique status.

But the article proceeds to tell how other companies tried a similar idea and were summarily sued.  So Shih unpacks the patent to see what Smucker’s has protected and how a lawsuit might be avoided (in short, Smuckers covered their bases really well (as you’d expect from a corporation), so it’s unlikely that a mom and pop PB&J machine will withstand the scrutiny).  (more…)

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Jared Diamond–“Animal Art: Variation in Bower Decorating Style among Male Bowerbirds Amblyornis inornatus” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, May 1986)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Art, Birds, Depeche Mode, Essays, Fanfarlo, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Jared Diamond, Poker, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Scholarship, Sparks on September 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FANFARLO-“Replicate” (2011).

This is the final Fall Music song I’m going to mention.  “Replicate” was Robin Hilton’s song of choice for the fall, and I can see what he liked about it–there’s a lot of unusual sounds going on (in many ways it reminds me of Sparks or maybe sort of early Depeche Mode, although no one in the discussion mentioned them).  It opens with a series of staccato string notes over a repeated lyrics (“it’s gonna, it’s gonna, it’s gonna…happen soon”).  The strings build and build, but they stop before any major climax; they are replaced by a fast, kind of spazzing keyboard melody with more repeated vocals, (“it’s gonna, it’s gonna, it’s gonna…happen soon”).  The staccato notes come back and both sounds build to another near-climax.

Until the chorus comes in with its supremely catchy but very cold “oohs”.   Even the end builds but does not quite achieve the climax one would expect, although it is still satisfying.

It’s a very clinical song, cold and detached (the instrumental break has wood blocks that sound like a woodpecker banging a tree on a winter’s day).  But the vocals are so warm, that they disarm the song of its coldness even if the chorus is “Will it replicate inside our bodies now?”   At first I really didn’t like the song, but after a couple of listens, I really heard what Robin Hilton enjoyed.  And I would like to hear more from them.

The video is pretty neat too:

[READ: September 19, 2011] “Animal Art”

This article was probably the most “academic” and “scientific” of them all five of the JSTOR articles I read.  And by that, I mean, that it was researched and tested and full of abbreviations and as a result it reads very dry.  Which is a shame (well, actually it’s not a shame, the scientific requirements are essential for there to be an academic article published)–what it needs is a cool popular version to lighten it up a bit (and it needs better pictures as well).

The article looks at the bowers of the bowerbird.  The bowerbird is a family of 20 species of bird found in New Guinea and Australia.  Bowerbirds are noted and named for the bowers that the males construct to win a mate (see photo at right).  What’s interesting is that the different species of bowerbird construct similar nests but do things quite differently (some “glue” the sticks of their nest together with either spittle or insect secretions while others weave their sticks together).  But they are all very particular about the nests they build:

When I shifted the position of a decoration, the bower owner either restored it to the original position or else discarded it in the forest.  Decorations changed from day to day as birds replaced wilting flowers and rotting fruit with fresh ones.

The articles sets out to discover whether the traits that the male bowerbird develop in their nests are inherited or are learned.  Diamond believes that they are learned because birds that are not very far apart use different techniques, but immature birds are often seen observing the adult birds to presumably learn from them.  The nests are built by the males, but, similarly, the immature females go with the adult females to inspect the nests, thereby learning what traits to most look for in a nest.

But what seems to have inspired this paper was the bowerbirds’ proclivity for choosing colors to decorate their nests: most use flowers and mosses from the surrounding area, arranging them in beautiful colors.  What Diamond did was to take colored poker chips (a series of uniform shape, size and texture) with varying colors to see if the bowerbird would choose based on color (his scientific conclusion is that it’s really impossible to tell because who knows what other variables are at play, but his more satisfying conclusion.  is that the birds decorate by color.

So, Diamond put the poker chips in front of their bower (on the moss “mat” that looks like a welcome mat).  And with one group of birds:

Within 10-30 minutes [three birds] picked up all chips regardless of color and discarded the in the forest.

While for a different group of birds, they quickly discarded any white chips (and one bird discarded the yellow chips as well).  There was a marked preference for colors in this order: Blue>purple>orange>red>lavender>yellow>white.  While these birds not only embraced the chips and used them for their decorations, other birds stole chips from their rival makes’ nests:

When I placed three chips of each color at bower W6, bird W5 stole within 3hr all blue, orange and purple chips, two red chips and no yellow, lavender or white.

(Poor W6 bird–he really has nothing).  But the study shows that the birds hate the white chips!  He even created a chart that showed that most of the birds kept 100% 0f the blue chips, and most of the purple chips while dismissing almost entirely the yellow chips; none of them kept any white ones.  (One bird in the study seemed to be quite a pig–this is the one who stole from W6–he kept far more than the other birds, including 100 % of orange an 66% of yellow–i wonder if the females thought he was a gaudy show off?)

Incidentally, this study was done in 1986, so it does not account for the more recent discovery that bowerbirds will basically use any old crap to build their nests, provided it is colorful.  Many people find this sad, but the birds don’t seem to mind.   In the article, the author says that one of the birds came up to his colleague, stood on his shoe, and tried to steal the blue docks that he was wearing.  Here’s a picture of a bowerbird with a whole bunch of blue clothespins.

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Suzanne Toczyski–“Jean-Baptiste Labat and the Buccaneer Barbecue in Seventeenth-Century Martinique” (Gastronomica, Winter 2010)

Posted in 18th Century, All Songs Considered, Big Books, Essays, Excerpt, Fishing, Food, Gastronomica, History, Jean-Baptiste Labat, Linda Sue Park, Los Campesinos!, Memoirs, Palm Worm, Pirates, Religion, Suzanne Toczyski, Travel, Yuck! on September 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK–LOS CAMPESINOS!-“By Your Hand” (2011).

I’ve enjoyed Los Campesinos!’s records in the past and I’m pretty excited about the prospect of a new release.  This song doesn’t deviate too far from their previous releases although to my ear it sounds a bit more musical (more instruments, more vocals) and less abrasive.  The basic elements are still there:great lyrics delivered in a more or less spoken way, followed on its heels by big shouty sections (and the whole band seems to be shouting along on this one).

This song also feels a little warmer, although the lyrics “by your hand is the only end I’ve foreseen” is either really dark or really naughty depending on how well it correlates to the verses.  Regardless, the chorus is catchy and fun to sing and the lyrics are wonderfully twisted.  Los Campesinos! have done it again.

And here’s the video.

[READ: September 16, 2011] “Jean-Baptiste Labat and the Buccaneer Barbecue in Seventeenth-Century Martinique”

I was interested in this article because it talked about the boucan and the buccaneer, and both of these things were mentioned in Book 9 of The 39 Clues.  It was a weird sort of coincidence that the boucan which I had never heard of before should appear in two things that I read about week apart (and then this weekend the Pa Renaissance Faire was pyrate themed!).   I was also interested because of the way this article was presented in the email to us: “if you have ever wondered on what foods a seventeenth-century missionary from the island of Martinique dined, check out this article from Gastronomica. (Hint: They include manatee, lizard, and parakeet)” made it a must-read.

While the article does, indeed make mention of these foodstuffs, it is by no means the extent of the article.  Rather, Toczyski looks at what Labat, a French priest and a missionary, wrote in his extensive chronicle about his stay in the Caribbean.  In particular, she focuses on the amazing breadth and depth of his gastronomical accounts (which includes details about all the meals they ate en route (the ship was amazingly well stocked–they even had a garden on board, which was under guard day and night (!); and then on the island he also talks in loving detail (with recipes) of all of the native dishes that he would eventually consume (including turtles, frogs and the palm worm (see picture at right (the picture and an awesome description of eating the palm worm is here at Boots in the Oven, at the bottom of the page).

(more…)

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