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Archive for the ‘Marriage (Happy)’ Category

Kimberly Louagie–“The Bonds He Did Not Break: Harry Houdini and Wisconsin” (The Wisconsin Magazine of History, Spring 2002)

Posted in Arthur Conan Doyle, Essays, Foster the People, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harry Houdini, Magic, Marriage (Happy), The Wisconsin Magazine of History on July 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I couldn’t find the right cover–this is the right year, wrong issue.

SOUNDTRACK: FOSTER THE PEOPLE-“Houdini” (2011).

My friend Anna was way ahead of the curve on these guys.  She liked them before “Pimped Up Kicks” went huge.  So I listened to the album and liked it but never would have guessed it would have been such a hit!

This song reminds me of a bunch of other bands, and I actually have no idea what the song is about (his vocals are really hard to understand).  But it’s catchy and has a great melody.

And it has a great video.   Whereas I used to look for cool new videos, I really don’t watch videos anymore, unless someone tells me about one.  I felt like bands didn’t make great concept videos anymore.  Well, this one is very cool, indeed.  I just can’t decide if the hidden people are actually how they did it or if it was a lot more high-tech than that.

[READ: July 5, 2012] “The Bonds He Did Not Break”

Everyone knows Houdini, but I didn’t know much about him.  This JSTOR article gives a really good profile of the man.

Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary.  After immigrating to the U.S. with his family, his name was changed to Erich Weiss (and for some reason, his birthday was changed from March 24 to April 6) and they settled in Wisconsin.  Wisconsin seems to have been home to many circuses, or at least the circuses always made a point of stopping there, so young Erich was always around fantastic people.  He even joined a circus as a contortionists (and called himself The Prince of the Air) when he was young.

At the age of 12 he left home look for work in the circus.  After a few months, when he heard that his family had moved to New York, he rejoined them there.  He started doing magic as “Eric the Great” and then, with Jacob Hyman, began performing as the Brothers Houdini–named after French magician Jean Eugene Robert-Houdini.  By 1891 the Brothers Houdini were a success.  They even performed the 1893 Worlds’ Fair.  The Brothers parted ways when Erich met Bess, his soon-to-be wife (he was 20 she was 18).  Erich was now calling himself Harry. (more…)

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Thurston Moore and Patti Smith–“Patti Smith” (BOMB, No 54, Winter 1996)

Posted in Bob Dylan, Books about music, Huh?, Marriage (Happy), Patti Smith, Poetry, Poets, Religion, Robert Mapplethorpe, Thurston Moore, William S. Burroughs on July 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THURSTON MOORE-“Patti Smith Math Scratch” (1995).

I couldn’t find any archives of Patti and Thurston playing together, so the next best thing is this song named after her.

For a band as dissonant as Sonic Youth and a guy who plays as chaotically as Thurston Moore, it’s amazing how he/they are able to recreate their studio noise live.  There are dozens of versions of this song available on YouTube and while they don’t sound identical, they all sound reasonably close to each other.  And they sound reasonably close to the original studio version.

This is a pretty straightforward song: a simple riff repeated.  It doesn’t have too many crazy guitar pyrotechnics although the solo is pretty awesome.  Especially live.  No idea what the lyrics are about–much like with Patti Smith.

[READ: July 3, 2012] “Patti Smith”

This article just solidified the coolness of my job.  I’ve always enjoyed the JSTOR articles that get passed around here.  Mostly they’re esoteric studies of unexpected topics.  But this one, from BOMB magazine–who even knew JSTOR saved BOMB magazine?–has just boosted JSTOR’s coolness cred by a magnum.

This is an interview with Patti Smith conducted by Thurston Moore.  Already that’s pretty awesome.  What’s even more awesome is that the interview is done in the car while they are driving back from a show in Massachusetts–it’s just Thurston and Patti talking (although obviously edited).

The opening of the article is an introduction by Thurston, which is interesting in and of itself.  He talks about how he got to know Patti’s music (he grabbed her ankle at a concert when he was a teenager) and then how he got to know her .  I didn’t know she was from South Jersey or that she was Robert Mapplethorpe’s lover.  I also never really put together that she married someone with the same last name as her.

First off, it’s very cool to be reading an interview from fifteen years ago in which both musicians are still alive and producing great work. (more…)

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Colson Whitehead–“A Psychotronic Childhood: The B-movies did it” (New Yorker, June 4 & 11, 2012)

Posted in Alien, Colson Whitehead, Death, Demon Seed, Demons, Dystopia, End of the World, Essays, Fangoria, Fears, Food of the Gods, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Marriage (Happy), Mother's Day, MST3K, My Bloody Valentine, New Yorker, Oddities, Prom Night, Regimen, Rosemary's Baby, Sci-fi, Sex, Sexism, Silent Night Evil Night, Skraeckoedlan, Slumber Party Massacre, Terror Train, The Birthday Party, The Devil's Run, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?, The Shining, The Virgin Prunes, Vampires, Violence, Yuck!, Zombies on June 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: INVISIBLE GUY BLOG (2012).

Jonas from Invisible Guy contacted me about a project he’s working on.  I’m not quite the right fit for it, but I had to check out his site to see what he was all about.  As his About page explains; “This blog is generally a platform for unknown bands to get promoted and interviewed.”  That’s pretty awesome in itself.  But as I browsed the site, I saw that in his post Invisible Guy recommends: 80s Post-Punk – 1982 (Part II) he includes not only The Birthday Party but also The Virgin Prunes.  Much respect there (especially for someone who wasn’t alive when those records came out!).

But the bulk of his site is full of really obscure bands (lots of bands that I’ve never heard of).  He interviews band members (sometimes in Swedish!) and has quite an impressive list of publications that he’s worked for.

So head on over to Invsible Guy for a wonderful collection of punk and hardcore music as well as some iconic (and really obscure) new wave and post-punk tunes.  He’s also got some great stuff on death metal too.  Not bad for a site that’s only a few months old.  Invisible Guy has a lot of samples and videos as well as a bunch of streaming music from unreleased or just-released albums (like this demo from the Swedish band Regimen called Välkommen hem).

And here’s a video for the Swedish stoner metal band Skraeckoedlan.  The song is “Apple Trees” and no you can’t understsnad the words because they are in Swedish.  I love that.

It’s a great site.

[READ: June 15, 2012] “A Psychotronic Childhood”

The more I read Colson Whitehead, the more I like him, not just as a writer, but as a “person” (the person he presents to us anyhow.  Although I met him briefly at a convention and he was super friendly and very nice).  This essay shows that he and I occupied some of the same headspace when we were kids (we were born in the same year)—watching sci-fi and horror movies on Channel 7 & 11 after school and on the weekends.  Of course, I didn’t really get into horror movies until much later them him (his first time was when his parents took him to  a horror film in the theater at the age of 5).  FIVE!

These early horror movies really shaped his outlook.  He lists about 70 movies in this article, of which I have seen at least half (although more from MST3K than actually sitting through them unaccompanied) and his summaries about them (four or five parenthetical words) are apt and often hilarious:

  • Food of the Gods (giant chickens rain pecking doom on a small island)
  • Alien (an outbreak of tummy trouble among space miners)
  • Demon Seed (rom-com about a horny computer that wants to impregnate Julie Christie)
  • The Devil’s Run (A negligible and mind-numbing film, notable only for the utter ineptitude of its attempt to cash in on the brief occult-movie fad that followed Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist.

The Devil’s Run is the first movie he saw, back in 1975, in the theater.  He says that there was something good in it, that it really captured the element of terror when your loved one turns on you.  And he tapped into this for his novel Zone One.

Then he reflects back on 1981, when his family bought a VCR and he and his brother would head to Crazy Eddie (remember Crazy Eddie?) to rent 5 movies for the weekend (I didn’t even know they rented movies!).  The movies were inevitably 4 horror movies and one mainstream film.  And the family would gather by the TV and watch together.  How wholesome!  Except when you read what they were watching (I can’t IMAGINE my family watching these together when I was a kid–even now, Sarah hates horror films).   This is getting into the era of Friday the 13ths and Halloweens as well as classics like Terror Train, Prom Night, Slumber Party Massacre, Silent Night, Evil Night, Mother’s Day and My Bloody Valentine (“not even the holidays, hallmark or otherwise were safe”). (more…)

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Kanata Konami–Chi’s Sweet Home: Volumes 1-5 (2009-2010)

Posted in Cats, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Kanata Konami, Manga, Marriage (Happy), Satomi Kōrogi, Short Books, Translation on June 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SATOMI KŌROGI-“Home is the best!” Ouchi ga ichiban (おうちがいちばん) (2008).

Sweet, over the top and not as catchy as one might expect, this is the theme from the animated Chi’s Sweet Home.  You can watch all 104 (!) episodes (they’re 3 minutes each) at Crunchyroll.  They’re in Japanese, subtitled in English, which is only a shame if your four-year old can’t read.

The show is basically the episodes from the books.  And the animation looks just like the books.

The theme song is sung in Japanese, which isn’t the problem–it’s just not as adorable as Chi is.

[READ: June 18, 2012] Chi’s Sweet Home

I saw Chi’s Sweet Home at the library and grabbed books 1 and 2.  I didn’t realize that there were 8 books!

Clark loved books 1 and 2 very much (it was quite his obsession for about three days–that’s pretty good for a seven-year old).  I wanted to read it too, and I am totally hooked.

Each book is comprised of twenty episodes, each is 8 pages long.  And they follow the adventures of Chi, a small kitten.  Kanata Konami is renowned for her cat manga, and it’s obvious why.  Chi is incredibly expressive–I love the way her feet go crazy when she is excited and the big smile she gets when something pleases her.  Of course, her angry face is also precious.

But unlike so many other animal stories, the adventures of Chi are simply the realistic adventures of a little kitten as she explores her new home and her environment.  The whole five that I’ve read so far seems to cover about a month, so Chi never grows up (although the family goes through quite a lot in that short time). (more…)

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Kurt Vonnegut–Jailbird (1979)

Posted in Anarchy, Bible, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Death, Decadence, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Gangsters, Greed, History, Kurt Vonnegut, LGBTQ, Marriage (Happy), Mogwai, Nazis, Political Humor, Racism, Sesame Street, Thomas Pynchon, Threats, Universities on June 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI-Special Moves (2010).

This is Mogwai’s first live album and it really captures the band in all of its intense glory.  This is a good year for a Mogwai live recording because they play some of their newer song which are a bit more melodic (and sometime have words) but they also revisit their older songs–which still sound intense.  It’s a great overview of their career so far and it’s a great testament to how different their music sounds over the course of so many years–even though they still sound like Mogwai

We get two songs from Their (then) latest The Hawk is Howling –“I’m Jim Morrison I’m Dead” and “I Love You I’m Going to Blow up Your School.” Two songs from Mr Beast “Friend of the Night” and the stunning set closer “Glasgow Mega Snake.” Two from Happy Music “Hunted by a Freak” and “I Know You Are But What am I.” Two from Rock Action “You Dont Know Jesus” and “2 Rights Make 1 Wrong.”  From Come On Die Young we get “Cody” and from their debut, two classics: “Like Herod” (which is amazing live) and “Mogwai Fear Satan” (also amazing)–each one over 10 minutes long and full of the emotional release that we’ve come to expect from Mogwai.

This is a great place to start if you want to hear what Mogwai is all about.

[READ: June 4, 2012] Jailbird

First off I want to say how neat it is that I took this book out of the library and that it’s from 1979.  Thirty-three years old!  Books are cool.

Anyhow, I have a stack of dozens of books I want to read, and yet somehow Vonnegut said, no, read me now.  In addition to Vonnegut books being relatively short, they are also very quick to read.  I read this in a couple of days, which is very satisfying.

My old boss at the library told me that she thought Vonnegut more or less stopped writing good books after Breakfast of Champions.  I disagree, but that has certainly colored the way I look at his later books before I read them–which one had she read that turned her off?  I kind of suspect it was this one.

In some ways this is a minor novel.  It’s fairly brief (240 pages, although there’s  30 page Prologue which I gather is from Vonnegut himself (you never know, he has so many layers going on)).  He explains some of the details that are in the book and several other interesting preface-type things.  I enjoyed the bit about the fan who wrote to Vonnegut and (Vonnegut claims) summed up all of his works in just seven words: “Love may fail, but courtesy will prevail.”  And that is the basic plot of this book. (more…)

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Maile Meloy–“The Proxy Marriage” (New Yorker, May 21, 2012)

Posted in Bows, Huh?, Long Fin Kille, Maile Meloy, Marriage (Happy), Military, Missoula, MT, Mogwai, New Yorker, Short Story, The Guardian on May 31, 2012| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI-Earth Divison EP (2012).

Oh wait, this isn’t the Mogwai EP.  What CD did I put in?

Holy crap, it IS the Mogwai CD.  And it opens with a beautiful piano and violin ballad called “Get to France.”  While it’s true that Mogwai has always been about melody (under the noise), I never expected this.  It sounds like a gorgeous soundtrack to a sad film.  It’s followed by “Hound of Winter” a gentle ballad of acoustic guitars and strings.  I know that Mogwai has a softer side, it’s just surprising to hear it all at once like this!

“Drunk and Crazy” is more like it.  It opens with a wall of guitar noise which…vanishes after about two minutes into a gentle, dark string section (strings are by Luke Sutherland of Bows and Long Fin Kille).  And while the distortion never entirely goes away (it’s evident in the piano), it is certainly pushed to the background until about 90 seconds later when it begins to overtake the track again.  It’s nowhere near as dynamic as their best stuff, but it really showcases what Mogwai can do in just over 5 minutes.

The EP ends with “Does This Always Happen?”  While it reintroduces electric guitars, it’s still a mellow song–a pretty electric guitar riff repeated while piano stabs and chords flesh out the tune and strings make it a fuller song.

None of  these songs will become “classics” (although Does This Always happen?” sounds the most like  a Mogwai song).  But it’s always great to hear them expand what they can do.   And these EPs give them a chance to show off some new styles.

To learn more about these tracks, read Stuart’s explanation of them at The Guardian.

[READ: May 25, 2012] “The Proxy Marriage”

I love Maile Meloy and I was crazy excited when I saw that she had a story in this issue.

Meloy writes stories that seem simple—they avoid a lot of the trappings of contemporary stories, indeed, they often feel like they are set in the past, even if, like in this one, they are very current.  Part of that is setting.  She tends to write about people and family interactions, which don’t require a time frame.  She also tends to set her stories in unlikely places—Montana, for instance, where not too many stories are set.  Of course, this one is set in Montana for a good reason.  It is the only state that allows double proxy marriage.  Which is what?  In a proxy marriage, if your beloved can’t make it, you can have a stand-in for him or her do the speaking and signing.  In a double proxy marriage, neither person is present but they agree to let proxies serve for them.  Why on earth would you do this?  Well, this is common in military cases, where one member is serving overseas and the other doesn’t live in Montana—this allows the non-military person to get all of the military benefits that a spouse is entitled to.  Since Montana allows this, and since this story is set soon after the 9/11/01 attacks, it all jibes.

But this story is really about unrequited love.  And I have to say, now that I’m an adult, that unrequited love sucks.  I mean, true it sucks when you’re in it too, but I hate stories that romanticize the idea that you should hold fast to the belief that this person who doesn’t  think about you that way will somehow come around. It happens a lot in stories (and always swells the heart) but when have you ever heard of it happening in real life?  Most of the time the person isn’t worth it , but realistically, once you have left school (it always happens in school) that person has found someone new and that’s the end of it.

This story’s unrequited lover is William, a shy awkward boy who plays the piano.  The girl he pines for is Bridey Taylor, with golden curls and dreams of being an actress.  William never asked her out.  Bridey was popular and other boys asked her out—and William suffered through every one.   But they were friendly—she sang while he played piano, and he helped her with school work.   Then the 9/11 attacks happened.  And this is where the story gets interesting.  Because although neither of  the main characters are not directly involved in the attacks, when the requests start coming in for proxy marriage, Bridey’s father, who was willing to perform them, asked William and Bridey to be the proxies. (more…)

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Karl Taro Greenfeld–“Fun Won” (Harper’s, June 2012)

Posted in Bob Mould, Decadence, Drinking, Drugs, Harper's, Hüsker Dü, Hellbender, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, Models, Nostalgia, Short Story on May 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: HELLBENDER-Con Limón (1997).

Con Limón was Hellbender’s final CD.  It shows a lot more depth and variation than one would have expected from the debut.  “Fake I.D.” opens really really quietly for two verses so that you have to turn it up loud.  And then the song kicks in and explodes your speakers.  There are more such dynamics on this song, including the verse ending on a high guitar note and pause that adds a bit of quiet punch to the otherwise fast song.  “You Gutted Me with a Switchblade Shaped Like a Telephone” opens with some quietly spoken words (which I have not as yet been able to understand), but the verses and chorus have quite an emo feel.   “Long Distance Phone Bill Runner” has a catchy chugging riff with some screamy vocals.  “Untrusted You” introduces acoustic guitar (and a cool off-key note).  The vocals sound like Bob Mould.  Indeed the whole thing has a kind of Hüsker Dü feel to it.  “I-95 is Tattooed on My Brain” also opens slowly, with dark, quiet lyrics and a cool riff once the guitar kicks in.  The guys clearly have a way with song titles.

“Song About Some Girls” is perhaps one of the cheesiest songs I’ve heard in a long time (although as one reviewer points out, it does anticipate radio friendly emo by about a decade).  Coming from Hellbender it is super-cheese.  I’m surprised they allowed it to be released (and I’m surprised it wasn’t a huge hit).  Check out the lyrics (and this coming from a band with two lyricists who are currently published authors): “This is a song that I wrote about some girls/That I met at the beach back when I had the Jeep.”  Really.  And the chorus is a series of staggered “Right” “Right” “Right” “Right.”  It is so insanely catchy–I hate myself for liking it so much.  (The lyrics to their other songs are much better).

“Graveyarded” returns to the more angry type of song, dark with interesting riffs.  It’s a fitting ending to the last release by this under appreciated (they don’t even have an entry in allmusic?) band.  Oh wait, there’s a bonus song on the disc.  After a few seconds of silence, there’s a strange bass-heavy riff (and kind of dancey drums).  The lyrics are all spoken (I won’t say rapped).  It sounds nothing like them, but I’ll bet they had fun making it.

[READ: May 21, 2012] “Fun Won”

Sometimes a title confounds you until you see it in the context of the story.  I couldn’t even figure out how to say the title (which isn’t hard, but looks so peculiar) until I read it from one of the characters.  I also had no way of anticipating what this story might be about.

Imagine my surprise that it was about the 90s, and about a woman who worked for Conde Nast, when money and drugs were plentiful and the fun never stopped.

It’s funny how context is everything.  If I had read this story in the 90s, I would have hated everyone in it for their glamorous life, their quarter pound of weed, their expense accounted fancy dinner and even the fact that they work for a fashion magazine (Gaultier and Naomi Campbell are name-checked).  And yet now that the bubble has burst and the fun has stopped and I never got to be a part of it (not that I would have…but still), I read this story almost wistfully.

This story is set up in a tricky way.   Meaning that it starts out by talking about marriage but then shifts gears.  The marriage discussion is all about how her friends married such squares in the 90s (while now women marry interesting men who have job but are defined by their hobbies).  And it is a nostalgia piece for the 90s (“when you could still dream of being a writer, when writing for magazines and then writing books and all of that added up to a good life.”) [Sigh].

For background we learn that the narrator, her brother and their father were big dopers (their mother abstained–from the dope and the family).  Her brother Ed is visiting from California with a quarter pound of awesome pop (this was before everyone had access to awesome pot).  The bulk of the story concerns this visit.  Ed and the narrator get high, then they share the pot with Marni (who is famous, although whose actual title is unstated–she’s the one who calls Gaultier).  They end up all going for dinner at a fancy restaurant (with shaved truffles).

They also meet the narrator’s boyfriend who is a real estate mogul–he sells building for tons of money (and yes, is likely the reason the bubble burst).  And then they go to a record studio to hear a famous singer make her album and watch it get mixed. (more…)

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Rick Riordan, Peter Lerangis, Gordon Korman & Jude Watson–Vespers Rising [The 39 Clues, Book Eleven]

Posted in Adventure, Canadian Music, Death, Fears, Gordon Korman, Greed, History, Jude Watson, Mamma Yamma, Marriage (Happy), Peter Lerangis, Rick Riordan, Sesame Street, Short Books, Short Story, Skiing, Tegan and Sara, Threats, Violence, War on April 18, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TEGAN AND SARA-“Alligator” on CDC Kids’ Mamma Yamma (2010).

Tegan and Sara take a slightly different approach than the other artists on Mamma Yamma.  Rather than creating a new song, they took their hit “Alligator” and made new words for it (much like many artists have done on Sesame Street).

The melody is exactly the same (which is good, as it’s a really catchy song). But rather than being about a failed relationship, it’s about alligators.

Old lyrics: Run around on me, I’d sooner die without

New lyrics: Run around a tree, skip and jump about

It’s a cute version and the band sounds very good.

I really enjoy these introductions to interesting musicians on kids shows.  I wonder if kids actually like seeing grown up musicians like this.

You can watch it here:

[READ: April 20, 2012] Vespers Rising

I finished The 39 Clues series last year. Or so I thought!  After completing books 1-10, I found out that they were planning a whole new series.  And they began with this transitional book, which they called #11 and which was co-written by four of the prominent authors.

Vespers Rising is actually four short stories that trace the history of the Cahill family and their feud with the Vesper family.  The Vespers were not a part of the first series at all.  In the first series, the 39 Clues were a kind of Amazing Race for Cahill family members.  (I’ll get to some details about the family in a moment).  It was a kind of private race for the prize–which was a life-enhancing serum.  But this book introduces a new villain to the story and explains that the villain has been there all along, just lurking.

Rick Riordan wrote the first story in this book takes us back to the beginning.  In 1507, off the coast of Ireland, Gideon Cahill invented this serum.  He was and alchemist, seeking an antidote for the Black Death which was ravaging Europe.  He was working for Lord Damien Vesper, a man bent on power.  Vesper wasn’t interested in helping people with the Black Death–he had no real value for life–however, he was interested in the results that Gideon might discover. (more…)

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Roberto Bolaño–“I Can’t Read” (Harper’s, April 2012)

Posted in Canadian Music, Chris Andrews, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Harper's, Marriage (Happy), Roberto Bolaño, Short Story, Translation, You Say Party! We Say Die! on March 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: YOU SAY PARTY! WE SAY DIE!-“Monster (RAC Remix)” and “Like I Give a Care (Octopus Project Remix)” from Viva Piñata! (2008).

Viva Piñata is a free CD compilation that I received I think when I ordered a Tokyo Police Cub CD.  It celebrates “5 years of ass-whippin’ at Paper Bag Records.”  It came out in 2008, so presumably, Paper Bag Records has now been whippin’ ass for 9 years.

You Say Party! We Day Die! (that’s a name that seems to be trying too hard) is from British Columbia, Canada and they seem to be a noisy keyboard band.  “Monster” is a keyboard-heavy poppy song.  Of course, since this is a remix I have no idea what the original sounds like.  The lead singer has a cool deep voice (a more poppy Kim Gordon, perhaps?).  But this song is dominated by the propulsive synths.

“Like I Give a Care” has a remix that is even more intense, overeffected, noisy and chaotic with a great propulsive bass.  It also seems like most of the song has been stripped, leaving just a chorus repeated.  As a remix it works fine.

I’ve often complained about remixes–if I like a song, why would I want to hear a remix of it?  This is the opposite.  I’ve never heard the song before and the remix is kind of fun. I’m intrigued to hear what they actually sound like.

[READ: March 22, 2012] “I Can’t Read”

Another month, another excerpt from a new posthumous Bolaño release.  This latest book is called The Secret of Evil which Harper’s says will be out this month (we’ll see about that).  The Secret of Evil is evidently a collection of unfinished pieces that Bolaño was working on when he died.

This particular story certainly seems finished, so who knows what the rest of the book will be like.

I am particularly fond of this kind of story from Bolaño–it reads like nonfiction (and maybe it is).  It seems to be a true account from his life (written in first person and about his family)–it’s a personal, relaxed style in which he muses about things and events.  It is also set during his first trip back to Chile since leaving in 1974 (a subject he mines quite well).

This one starts with the line: “This is a story about four people.”  The first two people he talks about are his son Lautaro and a new friend that his son made named Pascual.  Lautaro was eight and Pascual was four, but since Lautaro was desperate for someone to play with, he overlooked the age difference and made a holiday friend. (more…)

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Thomas McGuane–“A Prairie Girl” (New Yorker, February 27, 2012)

Posted in Calla, LGBTQ, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Pregnancy, Prostitution, Scenic, Short Story, Thomas McGuane on March 6, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: CALLA-Calla (1999).

I got this album when a patron donated it to the library.  I had never heard of this band, but the other CDs he donated were really cool so I grabbed this one, too.  This is an almost entirely instrumental album (vocals are whispered when present) that feels like a soundtrack to a futuristic Western.  “Tarantula” opens with some creepy, ghostly sounds and then what sounds like spurs walking across the landscape.  When the guitar comes in it sounds like an old Western.  In many ways this album reminds me of a great band called Scenic, although this one makes more use of electronics, which gives it a more eerie feeling.

“Custom Car Crash” has a very Western feel.  Over creepy scraping sounds, a clean guitar plays very simple guitar lines and chords.  When the keyboard lilts over the noise, it’s quite eerie.  This song has vocals; deep, almost whispered vocals, and I can’t really make them out,  There’s also a live bonus version at the end which really captures the studio version, but which I think is better.  “June” has a slow droney sound: more atmospheric than anything else–it seems maybe ten years ahead of its time).  The 8 minute “Only Drowning Men:” introduces more guitars and a lit of tension.   From the noise a delicate guitar pattern emerges for the last minute of the song.

“Elsewhere” is full of buzzy guitars; there’s a live version at the end of the disc as well.  “Truth About Robots” is my favorite track, a real melody over the noise.  Despite its length (just over 2:30), it tells a full story.

“Trinidad” comes a surprise because it opens with bass (you don’t hear much bass on this album).  But “Keyes” is so quiet as to be almost not there.  “Awake and Under” on the other hand has a great guitar and bass sequence with spoken lyrics (reminiscent of many indie bands of the 90s) but which is very effective here.  There’s a live version as a bonus track and it is a highlight.

This is more interesting music for creating atmosphere, but not something I’d listen to a lot.  I was surprised to find out how many albums they had out.

[READ: March 2, 2012] “A Prairie Girl”

I’ve enjoyed Thomas McGuane stories before, but I wasn’t sure if I’d like this one as it opens with a brothel.  Since I’m thinking about the implications of sex in Gravity’s Rainbow, the last thing I needed was a hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold story.  But this isn’t that.  And it has a brothel with a very funny name: The Butt Hut .  The Butt Hut closes down when the madam dies.  Most of the women moved away (either with local men (to the dismay of many) or on their own).  But one girl who stayed was Mary Elizabeth Foley.

Mary Elizabeth attended church weekly, but most of the people gave her a wide berth—literally an empty pew.  It was finally decided that someone should speak to her since she wasn’t going away.  And so Mrs Gladstone Chandler, wife of the town’s bank owner and all around respected individual, sat near her during the mass.  Afterward, she asked Mary Elizabeth: “Where are you from?”  Mary Elizabeth answered “What business is it of yours?”  And she soon had her pew back. (more…)

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