Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Popular Mechanics’ Category

Joshua Ferris–“Solo: Learning to Fly Part 4” [of 4] (Popular Mechanics, June 2015)

Posted in Airlines, Completed Series, Essays, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Joshua Ferris, Popular Mechanics, River Whyless, Set in New Jersey!, Tiny Desk Concert on January 26, 2016| Leave a Comment »

sept2015SOUNDTRACK: RIVER WHYLESS-Tiny Desk Concert #502 (January 19, 2016).

whylessRiver Whyless is an interesting band, at least during this Tiny Desk Concert.  They have several singers, different instruments and a whole bunch of interesting percussion on hand–including a typewriter!

The band has one EP out, from which the first song “Life Crisis” comes.  The female singer (none of the players’ names are given) says that this was their tiny desk submission.

On this song the male singer (actually everyone sings) plays typewriter and presents his typed document at the end of the show–although the audience never gets to see it–I imagine it’s gibberish, but it would be amazing if it wasn’t).  The female singer plays a violin solo in the middle of the song (which was unexpected since she doesn’t have it as the song opens).

Under the typewriter is a pump for a harmonium which has an accidental vibrato on it.  Shes says that one day it started doing that and they love it and hope it never fixes itself.

The other two songs are new–not on their EP from last year.  “Sailing Away” starts with violin and harmonium.  There’s also a guitarist who sings leads and a percussionist (who has all manner of gadgets and drums and mallets around him).  The harmonium player/typist also plays a melody on the toy piano.  All of these items may seem like novelties or goofs, but their songs are quite lovely and these little accents just add to the overall feel.

“Baby Brother” opens with a buzzy acoustic guitar and a whole landscape of percussion.  And this time the harmonium player switches to guitar while he sings lead (everyone sings lovely harmonies by the way).

I love everything about this band…except their songs.  All three songs are quite nice, and while I’m listening to them I certainly enjoy them, but they are really not that memorable.  There’s no hooks in them.  Despite the fact that all of their accouterments are not really gimmicks, those are the things I will remember most about River Whyless.

[READ: January 18, 2016] “Learning to Fly Part 4”

This is the final part of the 4 part essay.  A series like this is bound to be anticlimactic because presumably if his solo didn’t go well, he’d be dead.  And if he didn’t do the solo, there likely wouldn’t be a part 4 (unless he talked about chickening out instead).

But Ferris takes an interesting tact for this end section.

He opens the essay by explaining that he was commissioned by Popular Mechanics to write this essay.  This makes sense but is something  hadn’t thought about–they asked him to do it.

He says that he was full of anxiety the entire time–which we knew he would be.  He was terrified to fly–a wobbly commercial airplane takeoff would totally freak him out.  Plus, being a writer, he had an overactive imagination. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Joshua Ferris–“The Landing: Learning to Fly Part 3” [of 4] (Popular Mechanics, July/August 2015)

Posted in Airlines, Benny Sings, Elton John, Essays, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Joshua Ferris, Popular Mechanics, Set in New Jersey!, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series on January 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

popjlu SOUNDTRACK: BENNY SINGS-Tiny Desk Concert #501 (January 15, 2016).

bennyBenny Sings is a Dutch singer songwriter.  I had never heard of him, and no wonder, this was apparently his first performance in the United States.  And “this is also where he performed with background vocalist Jennah Bell for the first time.”

The blurb says that he layers R&B, jazz and pop over hip-hop foundations.  Although the first of two songs, “Love” is just him on the piano.  For the second song “Beach House,” he busts out the drum machine.  But it still comes across as an orchestra pop song (maybe like slower Elton John).

It’s all fine, but nothing special.

According to my records, this was the 500th Tiny Desk Concert.  And if you count all of the concerts on their Tiny Desk Page, it tallies up to 500 today.  But I know that they are planning something big for #500.  So I don’t quite know what to think.

[READ: January 14, 2016] “Learning to Fly Part 3”

Part three of this story (see, I said it wouldn’t be too long before I continued with it) is all about the landing.  Ferris explains that the landing has always been the hardest part for him.  He managed turns and banks and rises and everything else, but frankly, had his teacher not been there he would have died dozens of times with bad landings.

He says that as you slowly (or quickly) sink towards the ground, your instinct is to pull up away from it, which is exactly what you shouldn’t do.

This particular part of the essay doesn’t have a lot of flying details in it, because most of it is taken up with his fears about his poor landings.  Although the way Ferris tells of the time he easily should have died from not slowing down is pretty harrowing and exciting–how is his instructor so calm?

He sums up landing though you need patience when things are most hurried, composure when things are most fraught.  You need focus when your attention is most scattered.  You need a light touch on the controls when the urge to yank hard and pull them off the panel is at it strongest.

Then he describes all of the things that his instructor appears to be doing at once to land the plane:

He was descending, turning the yoke, applying back pressures, lowering the flaps, adjusting the trim, peddling the rudder, adding power, nosing down–all more or less simultaneously.

Ferris swears that he will quit.  He cannot land the damned plane.  His wife will be pleased that he has quit ans she is terrified of him crashing.  But he knows that he will likely not quit–because it’s a challenge and any tough challenge is one you want to quit hundreds of times but which you never do,

But for his final lesson, he was going to go up once more and then quit.  “And that was the day I had my first perfect landing.”

Great cliffhanger

The final part comes next.

Read Full Post »

Joshua Ferris–“The Stall: Learning to Fly Part 2” [of 4] (Popular Mechanics, June 2015)

Posted in Airlines, Essays, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Joshua Ferris, Natalie Merchant, Popular Mechanics, Set in New Jersey!, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series on January 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

popmechSOUNDTRACK: NATALIE MERCHANT-Tiny Desk Concert #500 (January 12, 2016).

nat merch Natalie Merchant was supposed to appear on a Tiny Desk show in 2014, but she was ill on that day (she even tells the story of going to the hospital).  She had to cancel the entire tour.  Turns out we saw her on that tour a couple of days before she got sick!

When Sarah and I saw her we both remarked on how great her voice still sounded.  And it sounds great here too.  The same instantly recognizable voice from her albums with all of the power and inflection that she’s always had.

Although I still don’t understand where her speaking voice accent comes from (she’s from upstate New York after all).

“Motherland” (a 2001 song) she dedicates to the staff of NPR.  Her accompaniment is an acoustic guitar, upright bass and accordion and it works very well for this slow, rather sad song.

“Texas” is another pretty, slow song from her 2014 album which she was supposed to pay at the Tiny Desk show.  She says he most regretted missing the Tiny Desk show when she had to cancel her tour.  She had no idea the desk was not so tiny and that it could fit 1000 people standing around watching.

Then she plugs her new album, Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings.  It is a reworking of her songs from Tigerlily (and there was a documentary that accompanied it (which they were filming when we saw her).  She plays “Cowboy Romance” from that album.  I don’t know the original (or I don’t recognize the song) but it sounds fine in this stripped down format.

Even though her songs are rather serious, she’s quite silly with the band and crew.  She emphasis “CONfiguRAtion of muSICians” before introducing “Cowboy Romance.”

Everyone assumes she will play only three songs (the standard), but she has a special treat planned.  She says that she heard a story on NPR about how office workplaces would benefit from singing together.  And they are all trapped with her.  So she says they are going to sing a Protestant hymn that she recently found in a songbook in the library.

She says that she and the guitarist are Catholic, the accordionist is Jewish (from Israel) and the bassist has no religion.  he says he’s from the West Coast (she jokes that he’s from a cult in Oregon).  Then when she asks the guitarist what key it’s in and he says, “What song? ” to which everyone laughs because she never mentioned the title.

It’s a lovely old song which she teaches to the whole room.  After the first verse, she says she approves of the group sing-along and says it should be a weekly thing.  I love the way they split the screen to show the whole staff singing along. It’s quite lovely and the staff’s accompaniment is really pretty.

This is a delightful show and a very intimate performance by Natalie Merchant.

[READ: January 12, 2016] “Learning to Fly Part 2”

I really enjoyed Part 1 of this essay, but as often happens to me with broken up pieces, I forgot about the next part until long after.  So here it is over six months since I read Part 1 finally getting around to Part 2 (but at least I have Parts 3 and 4 with me so I’ll be finishing them up soon). (more…)

Read Full Post »

Joshua Ferris–“Learning to Fly” Part 1 of 4 (Popular Mechanics, May 2015)

Posted in Airlines, Essays, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Joshua Ferris, Popular Mechanics, Set in New Jersey!, The Mountain Goats, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series on May 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Popular-MechanicsSOUNDTRACK: THE MOUNTAIN GOATS-Tiny Desk Concert #41 (January 3, 2010).

mgI have talked about Tiny Desk Concerts off an on (more than 100, if I’m counting right), but I never really made a concerted effort to do them all.  So now I’ve decided to make the effort.  My plan is to post two old concerts a week and also mention new ones when they pop up.  Since there are nearly 450 concerts, this will take ages and ages.  But I’ve been really enjoying the bands I like and it’s been fun listening to the bands I didn’t know.  And two a week seems reasonable enough.

I know the Mountain Goats, although I don’t know them all that well–I keep meaning to listen to them more.  So this is a good place to start.  It’s just John Darnielle and his guitar.

These four songs are simple enough and yet they have s much passion and inventiveness.  Darnielle is known primarily for his lyrics, but he throws a good melody over his songs too.

He plays two (then) new songs, the quiet “Hebrews 11:40” and the loud “Pslams 40:2.”  His voice is instantly recognizable in either song–it more or less just sounds like him singing louder, and yet there’s something slightly different in his rollicking singing voice–a bigger intensity, perhaps.

He also plays two old songs.  The slow “Color in Your Cheeks” and the rollicking “Going to Georgia” (which he starts and then interrupts and then starts again).

While his lyrics are serious, his between song banter is charming and funny (“I am permanently a young man, no matter how old I get”).  I just saw that the Mountain Goats were on Seth Meyers’s show, I’ll have to check that out too.

Watch the Tiny Desk Concert here.

[READ: April 21, 2015] “Learning to Fly Part 1”

I was going to let my Popular Mechanics subscription lapse.  I enjoy it a bit, but don’t really read it all that much.  But this issue has some good articles and the start of this four part essay by an author I really like.  Who knew that authors wrote for such unlikely places?

I suspect that Popular Mechanics readers probably aren’t used to long form essays, because this first part, called “Takeoff” is only four pages long–this is not a Harper’s essay we’re looking at, here.  But the writing is still really good.

Ferris talks about the two things that contributed to his decision to take flying lessons.  The first was the death of his father and the second was his absolute fear of flying. (more…)

Read Full Post »