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Archive for the ‘Magazines’ Category

David Khoury & Tucker Nichols–“Austerity Program” (The Believer, March/April 2010)

Posted in Books about writers, David Khoury, Epistolary Novel, Mark Dunn, McSweeney's, Political Humor, The Believer, Therapy?, Tucker Nichols on May 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THERAPY?–One Cure Fits All (2006).

I’ve always liked Therapy?’s brand of aggro-alt metal/whatever you call it.  Their earlier stuff was harsh and dark. During their middle years they grew surprisingly commercial (although they’ve always had a bit of a commercial side to them, even at their harshest).

The last album I got from them was 2003’s High Anxiety (the first in a series of grotesque and unpalatable CD covers which culminates with this horrorshow).  I think the band must have lost any kind of distribution deal in the States, because it is still very hard to find these later discs (without paying way too much for them).

I was delighted to find this one on Lala.  And it stands as a pretty solid Therapy? disc.  They have always had guitars that sounded very sharp, almost electronic, which I thought really exemplified their take on angry literate metal.  And this disc opens up with it (after the 30 second “Outro”)

Their earlier tracks (like the awesome “Teethgrinder”) employed sonic tricks that really propelled the songs onto genius territory.  These songs are a bit more conventional, and yet they’re hardly commercial.  The most likely single would be the “ballad” (which also rocks pretty hard near the end) “Dopamine, Seratonin, Adrenaline.”

The back half of the disc is more melodic and catchy (a sort of reversion back to their middle period?). The only song that veers too far into pop territory is the closer, “Walk Through Darkness.”  It’s almost a bit cheesey, especially after all the heaviness of the earlier tracks.

It’s a fun disc, and a shame that it (and those BBC Sessions, which I am drooling about!) have yet to get a proper release in the states.

[READ: April 28, 2010] “Austerity Program”

In one of the letters to The Believer this month a reader suggests that they start printing fiction.  No reply is given to the letter.  At the same time, here is a piece that is certainly fiction.  There is no comment or explanation attached (which is surprising as The Believer usually tells us everything that’s going on in the magazine.

So, I’m going to treat this as a short story.  Tucker Nichols is responsible for the art direction, while David Khoury wrote it.  It is printed as a series of letters on official letterhead (with a logo but no name) stationary.

Much like with the novel Ella Minnow Pea, the “austerity” is a cost saving measure in which letters are removed from general use. (more…)

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E.L. Doctorow–“Edgemont Drive” (New Yorker, April 26, 2010)

Posted in Boredom, Cars, Death, E.L. Doctorow, Metallica, New Yorker, Nostalgia, Set in New Jersey!, Short Story on May 1, 2010| 3 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: METALLICA-Kill ‘Em All (1983).

Although I don’t think I remember exactly when this disc came out, I was pretty big into heavy metal (the heavier the better) back in 1983.  I can remember this was my freshman year of high school, and I’m fairly certain I bought this LP pretty soon after it came out (thanks to the awesome radio show mu-mu-mu-mu-mu-metal shop).

Kill ‘Em All has always been a touchstone for thrash metal.  And listening to it now, it’s hard to believe that the Metallica of 2010 is the same band.  Or, more to the point that this bunch of kids would have grown into this same bunch of adults.

Kill ‘Em All is raw. Really raw.  And yet it sounds (even at this stage) well mixed and very professional (no mean feat given the rather silly cover art).  The guitars, even though the distortion is cranked up, do not sound muddy.   The vocals are mixed perfectly so you can actually understand (most of) the growly lyrics (this is before James Hetfield learned how to sing).  The drums are really fast (possibly one of the fastest bpm at the time).  And of course, Cliff Burton kept wonderful rhythm while Kirk Hammett was soloing all over the place.  And while “Anesthesia–Pulling Teeth” is kind of a silly addition on a thrash album, it does showcase Cliff’s bass work.

The amazing thing is that this twenty-seven year old album still sounds relevant in the metal world.  And no doubt it will continue to influence young metal bands in the future.  And for a fantastic review of this disc (and an awesome selection of best-of-1983 releases), check out wallnernotweller.  This is what my site would look like if it were only about music.

[READ: April 22, 2010] “Edgemont Drive”

I haven’t read much E.L. Doctorow, but I’ve liked what I read.  And it was nice to read someone who writes so differently from the kind of things I’ve been reading lately (Bolaño etc).  It was especially nice because I was fairly certain where I the story was going to go and it didn’t go anywhere near where I expected. (more…)

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Michael Chabon–Maps and Legends (2008)

Posted in Adventure, Bon Iver, Book Reviews, Books about writers, Collecting, David Foster Wallace, David Lipsky, Death, Death Cab For Cutie, Demons, Essays, Fantasy, Ghosts, Gods, Golems, Graphic Novel, Grizzly Bear, History, Illusion, McSweeney's, Michael Chabon, New Moon, Radiohead, Religion, Research, Supernatural, The New York Review of Books, Thom Yorke, Word usage on April 24, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: New Moon Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2010).

Back in the 90s, it seemed like every week there was a new soundtrack featuring an unreleased song from some great alt rock band.  This meant huge sales for soundtracks, even if for the most part they weren’t solid start to finish.  In fact, mostly you got three great new songs, three pieces of rubbish, one great song by a band you’d never heard before and two or three okay tracks.

The inclusion of a new Death Cab for Cutie song was the big news about this soundtrack.  And overall, the reviews were positive.  And I’m pleased to say there aren’t really any horrible songs here.  (I have no idea how the soundtrack fits in with the movie as I haven’t seen it and probably never will).

But as with that old soundtrack formula: we get a few good songs by reasonably well-known bands: Death Cab for Cutie, Thom Yorke, Bon Iver & St, Vincent, Muse, Grizzly Bear.  And then there’s a whole bunch of good rock songs.  The disc plays as something of a sampler of downcast, mellow alt rock. In fact, the back half of the disc sounds like a pretty decent alt rock radio station from the last decade or so.

Some of the tracks even sound like 90s alt tracks (Hurricane Bells, that song is 16 years old right?  And Sea Wolf, you’re channeling Peter Murphy, I know.)  The final two tracks are okay.  The Editors is kind of a Nick Cave via Joy Division sorta spoken word ballad.  And I admit I’m a little disappointed in the Lykke Li track–they got hyped beyond their ability.  The final track is a piano score, which is fine.

The biggest surprise to me is how much that Death Cab for Cutie songs sounds like a Rush song.  I’ve never considered that the bands sound anything alike before, and yet from the moment the song opens, that could be Geddy Lee singing, and that whole guitar structure is very Rush-like.  Maybe they should do a cover of it.

[READ: April 20, 2010] Maps and Legends

This is a collection of 17 non-fiction pieces by Michael Chabon.  The pieces cover everything from book reviews, essays about reading and writing, comic book and comic book artists and golems.

The opening essay is about the modern short story and it sets the tone for the entire book.  Interestingly, this essay talks about the state of entertainment and how “Entertainment has a bad name.  Serious people learn to mistrust and revile it.  The word wears spandex, pasties, a leisure suit studded with blinking lights. (13).  This very topic is at the heart of the David Lipsky/David Foster Wallace book (and in fact Chabon is mentioned in that book as well.)  Ah, serendipity. (more…)

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David Lipsky–Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace (2010)

Posted in Airlines, Alanis Morissette, Big Books, Books about writers, Cars, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Culture Shock, David Foster Wallace, David Lipsky, Death, Demons, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Infinite Summer, Infinite Zombies, Minnesota, NPR/PRI/PBS, Rolling Stone, Smarty Pants, Suicide, Travel, William T. Vollmann, Yuck! on April 23, 2010| 4 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: ALANIS MORISETTE-Jagged Little Pill (1995).

In this book, DFW considers himself to be absolutely useless when it comes to music.  He doesn’t know anything at all.  He says he listens to Bloomington country radio stations until he can’t take it anymore and then he switches over to the alt rock station.  He’d never even heard of Nirvana until after Cobain’s suicide.

And so, the soundtrack for the book is R.E.M., Bush (two songs) and Alanis.  In fact, there’s a surprisingly long section devoted to Alanis in the book, including DFW’s admittance that he would love to have a date with her for tea.  He admits that she is pretty much manufactured angst and yet there’s something about her that he finds irresistible.

At this stage (2010), the whole Alanis thing seems almost adorable in it’s “controversy” or “hype” or whatever.  It’s still hard for me to be objective about the quality of Jagged Little Pill (I mean, Flea plays bass on it so it must be good, right?).  I really enjoyed it at the time, perhaps because of its rawness or its honesty (which was pretty novel at the time, especially from a woman), all packed in a clean production of course.  There’s also something weirdly appealing to me about her (really not very good) voice.  She seems just off enough for all of this to be really sincere.

And of course, the nastiness of “You Oughta Know” was pretty astonishing for pop radio at the time.  True, there’s songs on here that make me cringe now (there’s a lot about her that makes me cringe) and yet there’s still some really enjoyable stuff here.  Even the perennially mocked “Ironic” for all of its flaws has a stellar chorus.

Now that the “women in rock” phase of alternative music has passed, there’s very little music like this being made anymore.  So it’s kind of fun to reminisce about this stage of my musical life, warts and all.

Oh, and by the way, I also grew up watching Alanis on “You Can’t Do That on Television,” so it was pretty exciting to see a child star that I knew make it big.

I never liked Bush though.

[READ:April 21, 2010] Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself

As I mentioned, I was super excited to get this book and I treated it like the artifact it is: trying to read it in one sitting (impossible) or at least in as compressed a time as possible to preserve the stream of consciousness attitude of the book.

For, as the subtitle doesn’t quite state, this is five-day conversation between David Lipsky and David Foster Wallace.  The tape recorder was running for most of these five days and what we get is a literal transcript of the conversation (with much of Lipsky’s parts excised).  It is an all-access pass to the mind of the man who wrote Infinite Jest as the hype of the book was really taking off and as his brief promotional tour for the book was winding down.

Lipsky was (is) a reporter for Rolling Stone. DFW’s Infinite Jest was the huge media hit (#15 on the bestseller list) and the hype was outrageous.  DFW had begun a (sold out) reading tour which actually began the day before the book came out, so he rightfully notes that no one could have actually read the book by then, they were just there because of the hype.  And Lipsky himself is part of this hype.

Lipsky was sent to do a profile of the wunderkind, literature’s next great hope (RS hadn’t (hasn’t?) covered a young author like this in a decade at least).  The idea was that Lipsky would tag along with DFW, go to the last readings on the tour, an NPR interview, and spend most of their time together: planes, rental cars, hotel rooms, etc generally just hanging out with tape recorder running. (more…)

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Roberto Bolaño–“Prefiguration of Lalo Curo” (New Yorker, April 19, 2010)

Posted in bolanobolano.com, Chris Andrews, Foreign Books, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gangsters, Infinite Zombies, New Yorker, Pornography, Roberto Bolaño, Sex, Short Story, The Space Negros, Translation on April 22, 2010| 7 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK:  THE SPACE NEGROS Do Generic Ethnic Muzak Versions of All Your Favorite Punk/Psychedelic Songs from the Sixties (1987).

I stumbled upon this CD again when I was looking for a Sparklehorse disc (alphabetical you see).  I originally discovered this album when I was a DJ in college and the absurdity of the title instantly grabbed me.

And never has a title so accurately described the music within (except for “the space negros” part which is just weird).  Anyhow, the disc is indeed a collection of generic ethnic muzak recordings.  But it predates that late 90’s “ironic” muzaky recordings of hipster songs.

Nevertheless, it is muzaky background versions of songs from the sixties (and a few originals).  The difference comes in the instrumentation: zithers, harpsichords, clarinets, autoharp, etc.  In other words, this isn’t a guy making cheesy Casio recordings of classic songs.  This is a collection of musicians reinterpreting songs for fun (and presumably to get high to?).

The most noteworthy songs for me are “Silas Stingy/Boris the Spider” medley and The Stooges’ “We Will Fall.”  In fact, I didn’t recognize any of the other songs on the disc (the 13th Floor Elevators and The Electric Prunes are the only bands that I recognize aside from The Who and The Stooges).

So, this is clearly a labor of love.  Whether or not you will love it depends on your tolerance for trippy muzaky renditions of songs that sound like they’re from an Indian restaurant/hash shop circa 1964 (that exists on the moon?).  The CD reissue includes thirty more minutes of tunes which are all just listed as More Generic Muzak (no covers here).   It’s strange that these more nebulous bonus tracks really tend to show off how good the rest of the disc is.  Sure in part that’s because the other tracks are actual songs, but it also shows how well the weird musical approach to these songs works when it is focused with a good starting point.

The Space Negros (headed by Erik Lindgren) made several discs, but it’s hard to find a lot of information about them online.  Even their own website is surprisingly devoid of information (although you can buy the disc!)

[READ: April 19, 2010] “Prefiguration of Lalo Curo”

Even when I try to stop reading Bolaño, the stories keep arriving in my mailbox.  This story (to be released in his forthcoming story collection The Return) looks at the history of Lalo Curo.  For those of us reading 2666, Lalo Curo figures prominently in The Part About the Crimes.  And in 2666 his history is given.  So this short story is a bit confusing within the canon of Bolaño.  2666

In this one, Lalo’s mother, rather than being raped and impregnated as a young girl (as had all of her mother’s mothers) was a porn star.  Lalo was born Olegario Cura (surname Cura (The Priest) because his father was a priest).  And, as with all my favorite Bolaño stories, there’s all kinds of fun questions regarding narrator and intended reader.  Lalo’s mother “Connie Sánchez was her name, and if you weren’t so young and innocent it would ring a bell” along with her sister and friend were all stars in a series of porn movies.  The man behind the movies was a German [another thing that recurs in Bolaño] named Helmut Bittrich.  Helmut treated them well, and the whole production company felt like a (weird, certainly) family.  In fact, Connie made films even when she was pregnant with Lalo (lacto-porn!).

Connie had tried legitimate theater (even Broadway!), but eventually, her career went towards porn.  The bulk of the story is given over to (graphic) descriptions of all of her films.  But the most interesting section is about Bittrich’s understanding of “the sadness of the phallus.”  After all those graphic scenes we get this remarkably poetic moment:

he’s naked from the waist down, his penis hangs flaccid and dripping. Behind the actor, a landscape unfolds: mountains, ravines, rivers, forests, towering clouds, a city, perhaps a volcano, a desert.

Pajarito Gómez is the male actor described above.  He is the primary male in all of the porn films.  He wasn’t well endowed, but he had a special kind of presence on screen.  As the story ends, Lalo goes in search of Gómez and finds him easily. They share a moment, watching movies and reconstructing the past.

It’s an interesting story, one that fully fits within the Bolaño landscape.  Bolaño is pretty obsessed with porn, and this story is obviously no exception.  It may not be the best introduction to Bolaño’s work, and yet in many ways, it’s pretty much Bolaño in a nutshell.

For ease of searching I include: Bolano, Sanchez, Gomez

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Diane Williams–“Ten Stories” (Harper’s, May 2010)

Posted in Diane Williams, Flash Fiction, Harper's, Holidays, Short Story, Sonic, South, Sweet Tea, The Dead Milkmen, Waffle House on April 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE WAFFLE HOUSE Jukebox, Williamsburg, Va (2010).

My family doesn’t normal eat in chain restaurants.  We’d much rather buy local.  So, even if TGIF is good, we don’t know that.  And we pretty much never eat anywhere that has a drive through.  It’s a silly principle, but we have so few principles, that we can usually stick to it.

The big exception comes when we travel!  Especially to the south.  Because there is nothing as exciting as the Waffle House or the Sonic logo.  (I want to do Hardee’s but the Dead Milkmen have spoilt it for me).  And, mmm, sweet tea!

Anyhow, we were enjoying the awesome Pecan Waffles at a Waffle House in Virginia and the quiet jukebox suddenly shouted Turn It Up!  And proceeded to play some kind of honky tonk song.  We were startled.  But it did add some ambience to the place.

I’ve no idea who the singer was or what song it was, and I’m not about to track it down.  But what started off as a pretty obvious twangy honky tonking song ended up being quiet enjoyable.  The guitars were pretty rocking, there was a wild solo at the end, and then the song was over.

It wasn’t quite as enjoyable as the biscuits and gravy, but it was fine nonetheless.  Although the sweet tea was a little too sweet.

[READ: April 17, 2010] “Ten Stories”

Since I’ve been on vacation, I thought I’d come back with a simple, easy story.  This turned out to be ten stories, all of about 3 pages.  And, even though Williams recently won the Pushcart Prize (for a different story), I really got nothing from this collection at all. (more…)

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Junot Díaz–“The Pura Principle” (New Yorker, March 22, 2010)

Posted in Boredom, Cancer as plot device, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Drugs, Junot Díaz, Language, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Punks, Set in New Jersey!, Short Story, Smarty Pants, The Dead Milkmen, Violence, Word usage on April 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE DEAD MILKMEN-Big Lizard in My Backyard (1985).

My friend Alison said the other day that she had “Bitchin’ Camaro” stuck in her head.  And soon thereafter, so did I.  So Philadelphia’s Dead Milkmen are a bratty punk band.  They skewer all kinds of things: pop culture, racists,  right wing pigeons, junkies and, quite possibly, music itself.

This first record showcases quite a breadth of song styles.  Although they stay comfortably within the realm of two-minute punk, they plays “blues,” “jazz,” and even “surf.”  Interestingly, their guitars are quite treble-filled which is a bit unusual for a punk band (typically pretty bass heavy). And yet a song like “Swordfish” (“I believe in swordfish!”) has a pretty wild and creative bass line running through it.

But I think the Milkmen are most well-known for their lyrics.  So Big Lizard starts in right away with lyrics that could easily offend the wrong target: ‘Cause we hate blacks and we hate Jews/And we hate punks but we love the F.U.s.”  Of course, the chorus reveals the truth: This is a tiny town and we don’t want you hanging round.”

“V.F.W.” stands for veterans of a fucked up world.  “Beach Song” opens up like a beach song until you get the bratty, screamed lyrics: I don’t wanna be on the beach NO FUN!.”  Of course, “Violence Rules” tackles a real issue: “violence rules, guns are cool and we’ve got guns in our school.”  And there’s the twisted, “Takin’ Retards to the Zoo.”

We also get one of my favorite catchy lyrics (from “Nutrition”): “I’ve got nowhere to go/Just hang out on the street/My folks say I’ve got no ambition/ At least I give a shit/About the stuff I eat/Yeah! I care about nutrition.”

Only 6 of the 21 songs are over 2 minutes, so musical styles definitely come fast.  Rodney Anonymous’ vocals are snotty and funny (even when the lyrics aren’t especially funny, the delivery is).  We only get one song with Joe JAck Talcum singing (he’s the whiny guy).  It’s so hard to tell if his delivery is serious at all, and yet I find it very endearing (and he’ll get much more prominence on later discs).  So, this disc is fairly simple, but it works very well for what it is: in your fast, bratty music, that is quite often very funny.  It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty darn good.

And it features “Bitchin’ Camaro.”  I’m going to go to a hardcore show and see F.O.D.

[READ: March 23, 2010] “The Pura Principle”

I have been intending to read Díaz’ The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao for quite some time.  I just haven’t yet.  So I was pleased to get a chance to read one of his short stories to get a feel for his writing.

One thing I had been told about Oscar Wao was that it mixes English, Spanish, Spanglish and a kind of ghetto slang which makes the book shall we say, more difficult to read if you’re a suburban gringo like myself.  But hey it’s set in New Jersey, so at least I know the towns he’s talking about!

This story is like a short story version of that summary of the book.  The writing is indeed in English, Spanish and Spanglish (and when the second sentence–the crux of the story– is “No way of wrapping it pretty or pretending otherwise: Rada estaba jodido” you know this is not your typical English short story.  I still don’t have an exact translation for that sentence (and it took a while to realize that Rafa was a person’s name) but I got the gist, and I was delighted by how much I followed the story. (more…)

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Joyce Carol Oates–“I.D.” (New Yorker, March 29,2010)

Posted in Alex Lifeson, Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Peart, New Yorker, Rush, Set in New Jersey!, Short Story on April 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-Hemispheres (1978).

Or maybe this is my favorite Rush album.

And what’s not to like?  A naked man on the cover, a 20 minute song (in 6 parts (which is a sequel to a previous song!)), and a 9 minute instrumental.  It’s prog rock heaven.

The “title” track is a continuation of a song from the last album (and so is called Cygnus X-1 Book II; Hemispheres)).  It’s a thoughtful look at balancing the two halves of the brain: love and reason.  In true epic style, the forces are represented by Apollo, bringer of Wisdom and Dionysus, bringer of Love.  Apollo teaches the people how to fend and care for themselves.  They’re thrilled and delighted with themselves until they feel kind of empty inside.

Dionysus arrives: he teaches them love and music, dancing and drinking.  And they embrace this wholeheartedly.  But this leads to cold and starvation.

And so, as is natural, the people were split with the two sides coming forth [hey this sounds familiar].  And of course, they fight each other.

It gets a little confusing from there when the spaceship from Part 1 arrives and after telling his story of going through the black hole it unites the fighting forces (You can also hear musical snippets from Part 1).  And yet, musically it works wonders.  The epilogue is a peaceful, well-written acoustic bit that sums up the themes of the song quite nicely.

The second side has three tracks: “circumstances,” a short, heavy rocker that I have always loved.  I think the main reason is because each time they enter the chorus, Neil plays either 1, 2 or 3 cymbal crashes depending on which verse they’re in (math geek!).

The next song, “The Trees,” is another classic.  Starting quietly, with a classical style acoustic guitar, we learn that there is trouble in the forest.  As the song rocks to an end, the trees are all keep equal by hatchet, axe and saw.  Over the years I’ve thought of many different explanations for this song.  And to me that’s the mark of a good story.

The final song is probably my favorite Rush song.  “La Villa Strangiato” is a 9 minute instrumental with a dozen sections and is subtitled “An Exercise in Self-Indulgence.” It is a tour de force showcasing all their skills.  I was delighted that they had started playing it live again on their more recent tours.  And, I was even more delighted to see that the middle section featured Alex telling a ranting, random, crazy story.  Alex has always been very silly, but it hasn’t come out all that much musically. So, this was a great opportunity for him to let loose.  I have no idea what he was rambling about in any of his bits, but the snippets I’ve heard have all ben quite funny.

This was definitely the heyday of prog rock, and yes, it is sadly missed.

[READ:  March 28, 2010] “I.D.”

It’s been a little while since I’ve seen a Joyce Carol Oates story anywhere.  For a time, it seemed like I read one every few days.  So it’s nice to have her and her gruesome stories back.

This story focuses on a young girl, Lizette.  As the story opens we learn that she is feeling the effects of a beer buzz and it is making her 7th grade math class drag on.  (We later learn that she had about a quarter of a can of beer, but that’s still too much at 13)!

She is currently concentrating very hard on getting a napkin with her lipstick print to classmate, J.C.  J.C. has been left back and he is baaaad.  Lizette is wearing lipstick because her mother didn’t come home last night.  In fact, Lizette is not sure when her mom last came home.  It’s been a few days at least. But then, her mom has left her alone before, so she’s not terribly concerned. (more…)

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Steven Heighton–“Bystanders” (The Walrus, April 2010)

Posted in Adventure, Anthrax, Culture Shock, Death, Megadeth, Metallica, Nature, Slayer, Steven Heighton, The Walrus on April 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: Big 4 Thrash Tour (2010).

During my recent trip down metal memory lane, I learned that the Big 4 Thrash bands may be touring together.  The Big 4 would be: Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer.

When I was a young metal dude, these were definitely my big 4.  I own the first 5 or so albums by all of these bands.  Megadeth was the first to fall out of favor (around 1990), then Anthrax (around 1993), then Slayer (around 1994) (although they came back nicely in the last few years) and the Metallica (around 1997 although really they’ve drifted the furthest from the thrash world, and probably I should’ve stopped sooner).

I haven’t really listened to any of these guys’ newer releases (although I did get Slayer’s 2001 release, God Hates Us All–and I wanted to add this wonderful quote from Araya, who sings of ever so much death and destruction: “when you see someone and if you’re a human being you respect them and treat them as human beings”), so I can’t say that I’m the target audience for this tour.  However, I am delighted that these 4 bands, whose music I loved while growing up, are still together and still touring.

I wonder what the audience make up for this show is?  Is it old fogeys like me (who are still younger than the band members, at least) who would have wet themselves for this tour back in 1989, or is it a new generation of thrash kids who would mosh the crap out of me?

Either way, I won’t be going to this concert (in Poland or in Greece for that matter) but nor will I be going should it come to a theater near me.  But I’ll be delighted to hear how it goes.

[READ: March 29, 2010] “Bystanders”

I was prepared not to like this story (actually an excerpt from a novel).  It is set on a mountainside on the border of China and Tibet.  And it was about mountain climbing, a subject about which I care very little.  And as it started  feared it was going to be another story about battling with the elements on top of a mountain, blah blah.

But rather, the story went in a different direction entirely.  While the young protagonist is watching the sun set on the mountains she hears gun shots.  Ad i the distance, she sees a man fall.  The guides come over to offer her a hand but she refuses.  They force her down behind the rocks as they call for her father.  Then she flashes back to another time when her father selflessly came to someone’s rescue.

There were many cool ideas in this story.  I loved the idea that she was sitting in two countries at the same time.  I loved even more the later idea that the glacier has moved the border between the to countries and that soldiers had to remeasure and replace the flag.  But really, it was the final line, “that by making his care, his very life and limb, equally available to all, he deprived [his family] of an exclusivity they had a right to expect” that was incredibly moving.

I don’t know that I’ll track down the novel Every Lost Country, but I did enjoy this excerpt quite a lot.

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James Franco–“Just Before the Black” (Esquire, April 2010)

Posted in Blue Öyster Cult, Boredom, Cars, Death, Drinking, Drugs, Esquire, James Franco, Short Story, Suicide on March 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT-Curse of the Hidden Mirror (2001).

It’s something of a shame that BOC has fallen off the radar so much.  While never a big seller, they’ve been a surprisingly good singles band.  And on this disc, they have a couple of songs that could have been big hits if anybody still cared about them.

“Dance on Stilts” is their most interesting song in quite some time.  It’s catchy, it’ got a cool riff and it’s got a great keyboard sound that you could easily hear on rock radio.    “Here Comes That Feeling Again” could also have been a pretty huge hit, even now on a mellow rock station, it would work very well.  In fact, the whole disc plays wonderfully within the classic rock style.

Cyberpunk author John Shirley (who wrote a song called “Transmaniacon” based on a BOC song) wrote most of the lyrics for this disc.  And the band seems inspired by the subject material because throughout the disc, the riffs are solid and catchy and the songs are great.  “One Step Ahead of the Devil” has the great BOC keyboard sound that punctuates the chorus, while “I Just Want to Be Bad” is a silly song that surpasses it clichés with a  cool unexpected minor key riff.

Since the band has only released two albums since Imaginos, it’s faint praise to say that this is their best album in that time.  But this album is definitely one of their best released.  Whereas Heaven Forbid sounded like a standard collection of BOC songs, this one seems like a collection of superior tracks based on the classic BOC format.   BOC fans who were unsure if it was worth tracking down these latter day discs would do well with this one.  The final track, “Good to Feel Hungry” is pretty silly and is definietly something of a throwaway, but aside from that the whole disc is very solid.

[READ: March 20, 2010] “Just Before the Black”

This is the second story by Franco that I’ve read.  I’m torn about whether I think he ought to be a good writer or not.  I’ve enjoyed his acting, but when an actor switches to another medium, it’s always tough to know whether he’s serious.  Of course, Franco has gone to writing programs, and is in pursuit of his PhD, so I think his writing motives are pure.  It’s also interesting to wonder if there were any writers who inspired him to want to write.  In the two stories I’ve read, his style has been terse, and I’ve wondered if Hemingway was an inspiration.

This one started off short and brusque (typical of Esquire fiction), and I was afraid I wasn’t going to enjoy it.  But after a few paragraphs, the heart of the story came to light and I found it really fascinating; the story morphed from a tough guy story about two dudes hanging out in a car to an introspective story bout two dudes hanging out in a car. (more…)

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