SOUNDTRACK: ULVER-Teachings In Silence (2002).
This EP is a collection of Ulver’s two previous limited edition EPs: Silence Teaches You How to Sing and Silencing the Singing. It was originally released as a limited edition of 1000 copies, but has since been given wide release. The two EPs that it replaced were officially retired (after print runs of 2000 and 3000 respectively).
“Silence Teaches You How to Sing” seems like perhaps Ulver has pulled a fast one. The song starts with static…waves of static. And you think, what, 24 minutes of THIS? But after about four minutes, some quiet guitars layer through the static. By 5 minutes a melody emerges, rather Twin Peaks theme-like. Static resumes and then another wave of music bursts through and then, around 11 minutes, distant voices can be heard. As the track nears the end you can hear a distant choir. And by the end you’re listening so intently that you hear all kinds of things.
That was the only track on the first EP. The second EP had three shorter tracks. They are in a similar style to Silence, although there is more music. “Darling Didn’t We Kill You” has a somber guitar melody and distant choral voices or a buzzing drone.
“Speak Dead Speaker” is more static (it’s easy to see why these two EPs were bundled together). There’s more Twin Peaks style washes over the static. I keep picturing the Pacific Northwest. The last two minutes are a surprise cello version of the themes from the first 7 minutes. It’s lovely and sorrowful.
The final track is a beautiful melody that repeats itself more and more quietly (with a wonderful loud funeral bell keeping time). It repeats its cycle three times before ending.
Ulver continues to confound listeners. Neither one of these EPs is really essential, but they are both interesting and really create a mood.
[READ: November 3, 2011] “Nilda”
This is the final uncollected story (according to Wikipedia anyhow) by Junot Díaz that I was able to access online. There are two more stories “Invierno” (Glimmer Train 1998) and “Flaca” (Story, Autumn 1999) that I can’t seem to access online. The rest of the listed short stories appear in Drown.
This story is about longing and making the wrong choices. Having read a bunch of Junot Díaz stories lately, this feels very much like a story he would write (I probably should have read Drown before I read these stories, but when I get to it, I’ll be able to confirm my suspicions).
In this story, Yunior, who is evidently the constant narrator in his earlier works (and in Oscar Wao) knows Nilda from school. She was a friend of his–a kind of teasable friend–until puberty hit and her chest was to die for. Unfortunately for Yunior, they were already friends, and she was off with other boys.
Indeed, Nilda was trouble more or less from the start–“brown trash,” he calls her. Her mother was an alcoholic and Nilda was defiant. She even spent time in a group home. But she was nice and easy to talk to. Dammit, why did she have to start dating Yunior’s brother Rafa? (more…)
I Just Read About That... 