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Archive for the ‘Magazines’ Category

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala–“Aphrodisiac” (New Yorker, July 11 & 18, 2011)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Hamilton Leithauser, Jealousy, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Short Story, The Walkmen, Tiny Desk Concert on January 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »

2011-07-11-18-ulriksen-birdsSOUNDTRACK: THE WALKMEN-Tiny Desk Concert #234 (July 29, 2012).

The Walkmen perform a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR headquarters in Washington, DC on Tuesday, June 26, 2012.

I know Hamilton Leithauser, the singer of The Walkmen, more than the band itself.  He has gone solo since 2012 and released some songs that have gotten a lot of attention.  Leithauser has a very powerful voice.  Form the blurb I gather that The Walkmen used to be a bit louder/punkier.  But for this set, Leithauser plays an acoustic guitar so this band isn’t getting too abrasive, that’s for sure.

The first song “Heaven” has a swirling guitar and bass motif that reminds me instantly of some 1990s songs.   The song is really catchy and Leithauser never lets up with his powerful singing.  The blurb comments on his voice, that it gives the songs “grit and grace, not to mention hair-raising intensity that feels a little jarring coming from a bunch of guys in crisp button-up shirts.”

“We Can’t Be Beat” begins as a slow verse with just acoustic guitar and singing.  Then the electric guitar plays some ringing notes as the drums play delicate percussion along with it.   About half way through the song, he holds a really long note (“so looooong” and then the whole band picks up the song with a loping sound that propels the song very nicely.

“Love Is Luck” has a nice beat and some great guitar sounds. It’s another catchy song from the band.

I enjoyed this set quite a bit, although I found that after listening a few times I got a little tired of Leithauser “woah oh ing” so much.

[READ: July 21, 2016] “Aphrodisiac”

The aphrodisiac at the heart of this story is interesting and subtle–it doesn’t even exactly seem like a part of the story until the end.

But I found the bulk of the story a little too long and unrelated to the aphrodisiac to be really enjoyable.

The story is about Kishen, a university graduate who had big plans to write a novel about India–to be really sunk into the Indian experience.  He had gone to school in Cambridge, but was now living back home in New Delhi with his mother and older brother Shiv.  Shiv had recently gotten married and Kishen was meeting the bride for the first time.  Her name was Naina.

Kishen found her to be kind of stupid.  However because of his own hang ups, she was the only person he felt comfortable talking to.  She seemed to accept him and even made him part of her circle of girlfriends–they all seemed to be amused by him. (more…)

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William Trevor–“The Woman of the House” (New Yorker, December 15, 2008)

Posted in Boredom, Caveman, Irish Writer, Money, New Yorker, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Waiting, William Trevor on January 24, 2017| Leave a Comment »

dec15SOUNDTRACK: CAVEMAN-Tiny Desk Concert #207 (April 10, 2012).

caveman Bob Boilen really likes Caveman.  He picked their 2011 album as one of his favorites of the year.

I find their music to be absolutely fine.  But I feel like I’m missing the pop hooks–perhaps it’s different in this stripped down session.  Two guitars bass keys and drums.  The band plays four songs.  “My Time” is a poppy bouncy song.  “Easy Water” is moody with lots of shimmering guitars.

It turns out that the guitarist Jimmy Carbonetti has a shop in the East Village called Cobra Guitars. He made all of the band’s guitars.  Each one is built one at a time.  So there’s a nice plug for the shop.

“Old Vampire” has ringing guitars.  It’s a fun instrumental jam with the singer playing drums along with the drummer.  This song segues into “Old Friend,” another shimmering echoing song.

I really like the sounds the band has–their gentle echoing guitars sound great.  And the singer’s voice fits quite well.  The song even have some catchy spots, but there’s nothing dynamic about them for me to really latch onto.

[READ: March 16, 2016] “The Woman of the House”

The thing that I didn’t like about this story at first proved to be one of its strongest assets by the time I reached the end.

I found the writing to be stiff and rather unwelcoming. It was almost as if the author was trying to keep you out.  I didn’t care for that, but I see how well it worked for the underlying theme of the story.

The plot is pretty straightforward.  It opens on an old man in a wheelchair.  To younger men have come to his house and have offered to paint it.  He haggles with them–gives them a hard time–but they remain stone-faced and silent until he finally agrees.  He asks if they are Polish (the story is set in Ireland) and they nod.

They are not Polish, but it doesn’t matter, they can be if it will serve them.  The man knows that Polacks are good Catholics, which is why he agrees to their work. (more…)

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Amos Oz–“Waiting” (New Yorker, December 8, 2008)

Posted in Amos Oz, Drive-By Truckers, Jill Sand D'Angelo, New Yorker, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Violence, Waiting on January 23, 2017| Leave a Comment »

tny 12.08.08.indd SOUNDTRACK: DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS-Tiny Desk Concert #574 (October 24, 2016).

drivebyI have never listened to this band.  Their name turned me off right from the start, so I’ve never given them a chance.

I never even knew exactly what they sounded like.  And I’m still not entirely sure if this is what they typically sound like.  But this set is full of mostly uptempo folk rockers that explore some pretty intense subjects.

The first two songs are sung by Patterson Hood with his gravelly voice.

I am somewhat surprised to see that there were two Tiny Desk Concerts in a row with the word Umpqua in it.  But while Blind Pilot’s “Umpqua Rushing” is about a relationship, Drive-By Truckers’ “Guns Of Umpqua” is about the horrific shooting at Umpqua Community College in rural Oregon last year.

There’s apparently always been a serious political current in their music, but it’s been somewhat hidden. But for this album, they started writing songs that address what’s going on right now.  For “What It Means,” he explains, “I wrote this song a couple years ago. I’d honestly be really happy if it was just outdated and something we could leave in the past, but that’s certainly not the case right now.”  It is about the killing of young black men like Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin.

The final song “Once They Banned Imagine” is sung by Mike Cooley who has a much deeper voice.  He says this song is “about things staying the same, and not necessarily in a good way.”  This has more of a country feel, but with some pretty piano.

I wouldn’t say I’ve become a fan, but I’m far more open to their music than I was before hearing this Concert.

[READ: March 14, 2016] “Waiting”

This is only the second Amos Oz story I’ve read (this was translated by Jill Sand D’Angelo and Amos Oz).

It is very simple story, in which not a lot happens (hence the title).

Set in the old village of Tel Ilan, this story follows Benny Avni, the head of the District Council.  He was a considerate man and was well liked by the people of the village.  As is stated any times, “he walked pitched forward, with a stubborn gait, as if he were fighting a strong headwind.”

Benny was sitting in his office in the afternoon when a knock came at his door.  A man named Adel brought him a note from his wife.  Adel has seen her sitting on a bench in the park.  The note cryptically said “Don’t worry about me.” (more…)

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Daniyal Mueenuddin–“In Other Rooms, Other Wonders” (New Yorker, December 1, 2008)

Posted in Blind Pilot, Daniyal Mueenuddin, Jealousy, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Pakistan, Parenting, Sexism, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert on January 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »

nydec SOUNDTRACK: BLIND PILOT-Tiny Desk Concert #573 (October 21, 2016).

blind-piot

I really only know Blind Pilot because of NPR–they are favorites of a few of the hosts of All Songs Considered.

I don’t know their music well, but I remember enjoying what I’ve heard.  But I was still surprised by this Tiny Desk Concert because in addition to guitar and drums, there’s an upright bass (bowed and plucked), a ukulele, the ubiquitous Tiny Desk harmonium and a set of vibes!

Evidently since 2008 the band has expanded from a duo to a sextet.

The band plays four songs.  They are lovely folk song.  The vibes add a cool touch to some otherwise simple melodies.  “Umpqua Rushing” is a pretty song with a very catchy bridge.

Introducing “Packed Powder,” Israel Nebeker explains that it stems from when he was a teenager and they used to modify legal fireworks to make them more interesting.  This is my favorite of the four songs primarily because of the wonderful backing vocals during the chorus–when everybody sings “I want to see how the POWDER BURNS!”  It’s a great moment (or three) in the song.

“Don’t Doubt” is a mellow song, quite pretty, with some more lovely harmonies.

They planned to play three songs, but when Israel asks how many they should play, someone on the staff says “…four.”  So someone in the band then says, should we play, “Hot for Teacher” or “Jingle Bells.”  They decide to play “Joik #3.”  Israel explains that it was his first  attempt to write a song called “Joik.”  “I could tell you what that is, but you have Google…and an amazing team of researchers here.”

He says that before the album came out, Ari Shapiro aired it on NPR.  It’s a pretty song and Israel’s voice sounds especially powerful on it.  And, again, when the band sings the loud harmonies, it sounds terrific.

[READ: March 15, 2016] “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders”

Many authors seemed to get two stories in the New Yorker in 2008, but this has to be the closest gap between stories–Sept 15 to Dec 1.

Like the previous Mueenuddin story, the actual story part is pretty simple to recap.  And the sizable length of the story is mostly taken up with details and interior feelings.

And like the previous story, this one is set in Pakistan and looks at someone who might be able to move up a level of class, but who knows that it is a hard road.

The story begins simply enough. Husna needed a job. (more…)

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Edwidge Danticat–”Ghosts” (New Yorker, November 24, 2008)

Posted in Billy Bragg, Death, Edwidge Danticat, Gangsters, Haiti, Joe Henry, Lead Belly, New Yorker, Radio, Short Story, Threats, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on January 21, 2017| Leave a Comment »

TNY 11.24.08 cvr.fnl.indd SOUNDTRACK: BILLY BRAGG & JOE HENRY-Tiny Desk Concert #572 (October 17, 2016).

bragg-henryI don’t really know who Joe Henry is (although I see that he has released 13 albums).  I’ve heard his name mentioned a bunch of times, but I can’t really place him to any specific music.  Billy Bragg, on the other hand, I know very well.

The two recorded an album this year.  And the NPR blurb is pretty interesting:

Earlier this year, Billy Bragg and Joe Henry set off on a journey. They boarded a train in Chicago, bound for Los Angeles. Each time the train stopped for more than 20 minutes in cities like St. Louis and San Antonio, they’d grab their guitars, hop off, find the waiting room and record an old railroad song. The result of this journey is an album called Shine A Light: Field Recordings From The Great American Railroad.

Their voices sound very different and as a result they play off each other very well.

The duo used Lead Belly as a jumping off point for much of this music.  Bragg explains that the jumping off point for this music is a book he has been working on about when British pop music went from being jazz influenced to being guitar led.  In 1956 Lonnie Donegan became the first Briton to get into the charts playing the  Lead Belly song “Rock Island Line.”

On the second song “Hobo’s Lullaby” Henry explains, the railroad is a mythic poverty–railroads conjure a romance in all of us even if we’ve never ridden a passenger train.  As they start, Bragg hasn’t re-tuned his guitar.  He says it’s always him who messes up.  But he usually plays solo, so “If I put something in the wrong key I just sing it in that key and hope no one notices–fortunately my audience… no one comes to hear me sing.”

As they are about to start, he says, “Sorry mate it was a beautiful intro.”  Henry looks at him and says, “It was,” to much laughter.

Before the final song, Henry says he was listening to Lead Belly since he was 15.  “Midnight Special” was a train that ran past Sugarland Prison in Texas.  The story was if the train’s light shined on you as it swept across the yard, that you would be the next to get paroled.

Even though these songs are old,

This concept record could be seen as a nostalgia trip, but both Bragg and Henry will emphatically say that it’s not. These songs and this journey celebrate the modern railroad as a major economic engine and a still-vital form of transportation.

[READ: March 10, 2016] “Ghosts”

Danticat often writes about Haiti and the troubles that arise there.

This story is set in Bel Air–the Baghdad of Haiti. Children in the neighborhood enter art contests by drawing posters that say “It’s not polite to shoot at funeral processions.”

The protagonist is Pascal Dorien.  He is a good kid who tries to stay out of trouble.  His parents own a small restaurant which has the unfortunate location of being in the heart of gangland (his family lives in a nearby town which is a little safer).  Luckily for them (sort of) the gangsters who make the restaurant their evening hangout are kind to the family and think of their place as their haven.

The family originally sold pigeons (both live and as meat) but then the gangsters started buying them to use in a ritual which involved drinking the pigeons’ blood mixed with evaporated milk.  His parents hated this and eventually stopped selling the bird.   Nevertheless the money they made for this ritual allowed them to expand and make even more money.  Which they hoped would allow their children to flee Haiti for safer locations. (more…)

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J.M.G. Le Clezio–“The Boy Who Had Never Seen the Sea” (New Yorker, October 27, 2008)

Posted in Adventure, Deborah Treisman, J.M.G. Le Clézio, New Yorker, Ocean, RDGLDGRN, Set at School, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation on January 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »

tny 10.27.08 cvr fnl.inddSOUNDTRACK: RDGLDGRN-Tiny Desk Concert #571 (October 14, 2016).

rdgldI’d never heard of RDGLDGRN before this show.  The colors in the band’s name represent the band members: Red (Marcus Parham), Green (Pierre Desrosiers) and Gold (Andrei Busuioceanu), and they wear their respective colors all the time (although I didn’t realize that Andrei’s shirt was gold until after reading this).

The blurb tells us that “if you go to a RDGLDGRN show, you’ll see a traditional stage set-up with a full complement of instruments… you can hear and feel the excitement of a full-blown band and a full drum set.”  However, with “their recent experimentation with Brazilian-style percussion over acoustic versions of their songs, they decided that an all-acoustic set infused with Brazilian vibes would make for the perfect Tiny Desk concert.”

They start with their new single “Karnival” a fun song played on ukulele with lots of percussion.  Green does most of the rapping although everyone sings.   After this they played unplugged versions of some of their best-known songs (although not known by me, obviously).

Before starting “Chop U Down” they say don’t sing along with this one, you’ll mess us up!  Gold plays a scratchy guitar and red plays a simple melody on the high notes while Green raps away.  It has a very catchy chorus especially the way the other singers add parts to the song.

When it’s over Gold tells us that the best part of a RDGRNGLD show is when Green forgets a verse (I don’t think he did, but it seemed like he almost did).  Green says the last time he forgot words, he freestyled a verse and no one noticed the mistake.

“Doing The Most” is more sung than rapped—they have great voices.  I really like the melodies of this song.  This is the song where the audience is meant to sing along (to the insanely catchy buh bah bah bah part).  All the while, Gold was keeping the beat on the guitar body.

They had only prepared three songs, but they were having so much fun, they decided to do a fourth. For this last song they semi-freestyle something.  Green started rapping and they played along.  It’s not very long and for some reason is called “No Pixar” (Freestyle) (I didn’t hear them say the word Pixar at all), but it’s a fun song and his freestyling is quite impressive.

I still don’t know much about RDGLDGRN, but it was a fun show.

[READ: March 10, 2016] “The Boy Who Had Never Seen the Sea”

J.M.G. Le Clézio won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2008.  Which pretty much means I’d better like this story, right?  Well, it turns out that this particular story was written in 1978 (and was translated by Deborah Treisman) so that gives me a pass, I think.

Actually I did enjoy this story, although I found it most unusual.

It didn’t read like a 1970s story, but it certainly had a much less plot-driven feel.  It seemed relaxed and like it wanted to just unfold around the reader.

It begins in the first person.  The unnamed narrator is talking about a boy called Daniel.  Daniel (who had a jaw like a knifeblade–I didn’t like that this specific detail was mentioned twice and then not put to any use) wanted to be called Sinbad.  He had read the Adventure of Sindbad many many times.  It may have been the only book he ever read and he carried it with him everywhere. (more…)

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Yiyun Li–“Gold Boy, Emerald Girl” (New Yorker, October 13, 2008)

Posted in Fears, Haley Bonar, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Parenting, Romance, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Yiyun Li on January 14, 2017| Leave a Comment »

2008_10_13SOUNDTRACK: HALEY BONAR-Tiny Desk Concert #570 (October 11, 2016).

Haley Bonar was born in Canada but raised in the U.S.  She haleyis a folksinger with a country leaning (but without the twang).   For this Tiny Desk, Haley plays acoustic guitar and sings lead.  She had a keyboardist who sings great harmonies.  And behind them there’s a guy playing electric guitar (with great echoed effect), a bassist and a drummer.

“Hometown” has a great catchy chorus (well, and verse too).  It’s upbeat but melancholy at the same time.  There’s a very cool echoed slide guitar solo in the middle of the song.

Bonar doesn’t speak much, expect to joke about the appropriateness of the second song.  “Jealous Girls” is slower and moodier.  (“Jealous girls don’t have no fun unless they’re sure they’re the only one).  The middle section of this song is really cool, the way it changes the mood.  She doesn’t play guitar on this one, but there’s some great lyrics at the end of the song:

And you turn up your guitar
In another shitty bar in another shitty town
And you wonder when you’ll wake up
Yeah you wonder when you’ll wake up
From this long distance daydream of
Playing while girls scream
Alone in a hotel
Like piss in your ice cream

I love that the way this end part is sung and played it seems like it’s going to transition to another part.  But that’s just the end.

“Called You Queen” is a fast folkie song.  I really like her delivery on the verses. The chords for the chorus are fairly obvious but are really catchy anyway.  It’s a really good song.  The abrupt ending (with a hint of echo on the guitar) is spectacular

I didn’t know Bonar before this set, but i really liked it.

[READ: March 9, 2016] “Gold Boy Emerald Girl”

Yiyun Lee had a story in a 2008 May issue of the New Yorker as well.  I have enjoyed pretty much all of her stories. This one was quite different from the others in that the whole story has a feeling of inevitability to it.  And yet it was a kind of gentle inevitability that almost didn’t seem to be there.  Or something.

The story is about two adults, Siyu, 38 and Hanfeng 44.  The opening paragraph tells us that she was raised by her father and he was raised by his mother.

Siyu knew Hanfeng’s mother because she was a Professor and Siyu worked for her a while ago.  But the Professor is now retired and Hanfeng has moved back home after a stint in America to live with her.

And we see now that the Professor has set the two up on a date.

The story is told in a very gentle, unhurried way, as befits the story of these two who have taken their time with thee lives. (more…)

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Daniyal Mueenuddin–“A Spoiled Man” (New Yorker, September 15, 2008)

Posted in Culture Shock, Daniyal Mueenuddin, Greed, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Revenge, Short Story, The Secret Sisters, Threats, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on January 13, 2017| Leave a Comment »

nySOUNDTRACK: THE SECRET SISTERS-Tiny Desk Concert #564 (September 12, 2016).

secretsisThe Secret Sisters are, in fact, Lydia and Laura Rogers, two sisters from Alabama.  They sing pretty folk/country or even traditional songs and have wonderful harmonies.

“Tennessee River Runs Low” is from the point of view of the river (and is really quite delightful).  It comes complete with an “oh de oh de oh de oh” section.  The music is pretty simple (just a little strummed guitar) and their wonderful voices.

After the first song she says that she has seen lots of Tiny Desk Concerts and they’re thrilled to be there.  It’s more spacious than you might think.  They could square dance there–except they can’t square dance.  She says that it feels kind of like being a zoo animal.

The second song is “a super duper sad song.”  Since their previous record came out they have both gotten married–to different men, she clarifies.  (Well, they are from Alabama, they joke).  They don’t know what to write about anymore–who wants to hear happy songs?

“You’ve Got It Wrong” is indeed a sad ballad–a very pretty, very traditional sounding country song.  Their voices really sell it.

Before the final song, she says that “if you want to be happy and in a good mood don’t ever come to one of our shows.”  They only play downer music. She explains that  they grew up singing gospel in a church that had no musical instruments.  It was only their voices and no solos or choirs.   She didn’t realize they were learning how to sing at church–that’s where their harmonies come from.

So they are doing an old gospel number, “Flee as a Bird.”  The melody of the verses its wonderful–the kind I’ve never heard in a church song before.

I would never see these guys in concert, but fora Tiny Desk, their songs were quite lovely.

[READ: March 7, 2016] “A Spoiled Man”

This was a lengthy story that seemed to speak to the futility of life.

There were a lot of details which made the story really interesting, but as I think about summarizing it, I realize that the story is bombastically a man lives, succeeds, fails and dies.

Fortunately Mueenuddin tells a lovely winding story that shows just how much a man’s life can change.

The story is set in Islamabad and the main character is Rezak, “a small, bowlegged man with a lopsided, battered face.”  He is outside of the mansion of a local man who has recently married an American woman.   The woman proves to be a nice person who genuinely seems to enjoy her new life.  In Pakistan.  And people liked her as well.

Rezak tried to make himself useful around the mansion. Despite his appearance, he is a strong man and he does wind up helping the workers.  At the end of the day they invite him for dinner, but his pride makes him refuse. (more…)

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Aleksandar Hemon–“The Noble Truths of Suffering” (New Yorker, September 22, 2008)

Posted in Aleksandar Hemon, Books about writers, Corinne Bailey Rae, Food, New Yorker, Tiny Desk Concert, Travel on January 12, 2017| Leave a Comment »

922 SOUNDTRACK: CORINNE BAILEY RAE-Tiny Desk Concert #566 (September 16, 2016).

cbrI don’t really know Corinne Bailey Rae.  Her name sounds familiar, but I don’t think she’s who I thought she was.  Evidently she won a Grammy a few years ago, but that doesn’t really help me.

For this Tiny Desk, she sings three songs.  She plays an acoustic guitar with a folky flair.  The rest of her group consists of an electric guitar, a keyboard and a box drum (I love those).

Rae’s voice is delightful and her backing band gives the songs a 70s soft rock feel.  It’s an interesting mix of sounds.

“Paris Nights / New York Mornings” is a catchy song based around her guitar.  It’s an upbeat song with some cool dramatic slow downs.  It sounds incredibly 1970s.

She says that “Hey, I Won’t Break Your Heart” is about falling in love with a person again, a second time.  And how you have to rebuild trust. It’s a slow ballad, although it builds into a kind of R&B song.  The interesting thing about Rae is that she always has a smile on her face.  She seems so happy during every song even when she sings, “I won’t break your heart like you broke mine.”

“The Skies Will Break” is about a point in your life when you think things are hopeless.  But you should just know that things will change.  It has a 70s keyboard vibe.  I really like the chord progressions of the chorus.  The fact that it’s her acoustic guitar that plays the loud chords of the chorus is pretty cool.

It has been about six years since Rae made an album, and it’s nice to have her back (even if I didn’t know she was gone).

[READ: March 8, 2016] “The Noble Truths of Suffering”

The story is about an American abroad.  He says he was speaking Bosnian and was in the American Ambassador’s house.  The house was ugly, built by a Bosnian tycoon.  But he decided that he needed more space, so he rented it out.

There’s a funny moment were the narrator sees the cultural attaché whose name is Jonah.  He says he mistakenly called him Johnny once and has been playing up that joke “Johnnyboy!” ever since.

This seems like a political story until we realize that the narrator is there to meet Dick Macalister, the author and Pulitzer Prize winner.  The narrator had received an invitation a few weeks ago.

I enjoyed that the invitation had reached his at his parents house in Sarajevo where he was briefly staying (he lives in Chicago). He couldn’t figure out how they knew where he was, but he had lots of wild speculative ideas.  He wasn’t going to go–he was trying to clear his head of Americans, until he read a little more about Macalister.  He had heard of him but hadn’t read him.  So he read some pullout quotes by the man and decided he was okay. (more…)

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Janet Frame–“Gorse is Not People” (New Yorker, September 1, 2008)

Posted in Delusions, Huh?, Janet Frame, New Yorker, Short Story, The Simpsons, Tiny Desk Concert, William Bell on January 11, 2017| Leave a Comment »

sept1 SOUNDTRACK: WILLIAM BELL-Tiny Desk Concert #563 (September 7, 2016).

william-bellI’d never heard of William Bell before this show, although I see that he is apparently a classic soul singer with hits from Stax records back in 1960s.

Bell has a new album out this year and the title song “This is Where I Live” is a kind of autobiographical story of his life.  He sings of growing up and hearing Sam Cooke and then writing songs of his own that have taken him around the world.

I love the idea of “The Three of Me”: “Last night I had a dream and there were three of me.  There was the man I was, the man I am, and the man I want to be.”

The first two songs sound great–classic soul with horns and lots of bass and backing vocalists.

Bell’s voice sounds great as well.  He sounds like a veteran soulmaker.  And although he sounds timeless, I’d never guess he was 77 years old. And yet, he co-wrote “Born Under a Bad Sign,” which I thought was older than 70 years.

Either way, he plays it here.  I think his is the version I know least well (he mentions that even Homer Simpson has done a cover of it).  Bell’s version is, of course, great.

And here I have to mention his backing band  There are about 12 people all wearing bright yellow shirts.   And just about every person with an instrument gets to do a solo during “Bad Sign” which is why the song clocks in at about 10 minutes.

It starts with a great bluesy guitar solo, and then in turn we get to hear bars from saxophone, bass, organ, piano, bass sax, soprano sax and trombone.  The backing band is called The Total Package Band.  And they sound perfect for Bell’s music.

[READ: March 1, 2016] “Gorse is Not People”

Here’s another case of the same author being published just a few months after their previous story (June).

This story had a date at the end of the story–1954.  I had to look up some details about Janet Frame.  Turns out that she is an author from New Zealand and she began writing in the 1950s.

I don’t know if that’s what makes her stories seem so alien to me or what.  I found her previous story to be pretty inaccessible.  And this one is also pretty out there.  It also seemed very un-PC–which makes sense if it was written 60 years ago.  But the previous story was all about someone in a psychiatric home.  And this one is also about someone who is in a special place “in the yard where they put people who were strange in shape and ways” (more…)

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