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Archive for the ‘Marriage Trouble’ Category

Tobias Wolff–“All Ahead of Them” (New Yorker, July 8 & 15, 2013)

Posted in Against Me!, Culture Shock, Humiliation, LGBTQ, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Sex, Short Story, Tobias Wolff, Transgender on July 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_07_08_13Hunter.inddSOUNDTRACK: AGAINST ME!-True Trans EP (2013).

trueThis EP (free for a limited time) contains two acoustic songs from punks Against Me!  (The gentleness of the acoustic songs is belied by this stark cover).  I have an older Against Me! album which I like and which is quite punky.  But since that album the lead singer Tom Gabel has gone through gender reassignment surgery (and his fans mostly stayed with her, which is pretty awesome).  Their newest full length Transgender Dysphoria Blues is due out in the future and this is a little acoustic taste of what’s to come.  Both songs appear to be about his transition.

The first one, with the interesting title of “FuckMyLife666”, is an upbeat song (musically), while lyrically it is a song to someone—possibly himself?  It’s about avoiding regrets and embracing a new life.

The second song is a big darker (musically) although it does have a big bright chorus with the final line of: “Does God bless your transsexual heart?”  It’s very very catchy and I find myself singing that rather awkward line to myself during the day.

I’m not sure exactly what the future has in store for Against Me!, but it seems like Laura Jane Grace is planning on keeping the music coming.

[READ: July 15, 2013] “All Ahead of Them”

This story opens with a misunderstanding—at least that’s what we hear Bud saying into the phone.  He quickly looks for an excuse to get off the phone and then starts playing with the cigarettes that he found in the hotel drawer.  (He promised he’d quit smoking after the wedding which was just six days ago).  We also quickly learn that the misunderstanding has to do with his new wife and that it proves that she is a liar.

Of course, his wife, Arden, has a history of changing the truth (as many of us do).  Even her name, which he thought was so artistic-sounding, is fake.  Well, it is real now, but she was originally call Nedra (after her father’s mother) and she reversed the letters.  This of, course hurt her father, who loved his dear mother, and who refused to call her Arden—even during his wedding toast.  She hadn’t even told Bud that she had changed her name until moments before he met Arden’s father—and only as a preparation that her father wouldn’t call her Arden.

The original Nedra’s story is pretty interesting in and of itself.  She was a beautiful and talented singer, although her day job was as a music teacher in a Buffalo high school.  She was arrested for selling marijuana (during the brutal Rockefeller laws of the 1970s) to other teachers.  She was given 25 years in jail.  After three of those 25 years, she hanged herself.  Arden’s father was very young when this happened and he never really got over it (as can be expected). (more…)

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Jill Sexsmith–“Somewhere, a Long Happy Life Probably Awaits You” (The Walrus, July/August 2013)

Posted in Canadian Content, Death, Humiliation, Jill Sexsmith, Live from Mountain Stage, Marriage Trouble, Neurotics, Pokey LaFarge, Short Story, The Walrus, Trees on July 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

walrusjulySOUNDTRACK: POKEY LAFARGE-Live on Mountain Stage (2012).

pokey2I really only know Pokey LaFarge from NPR (they’ve embraced them, but I haven’t heard them anywhere else).  Pokey and his band plays a mix of early string-band music, ragtime, country blues and Western swing, in a completely un-ironic way (they dress the part as well).  Like Squirrel Nut Zippers, but even more so.

Interestingly, I know the first song “La La Blues” from a previous performance (on a Tiny Desk Concert) and I actually liked that version better than this one.  This entire performance feels a little too loose.  Which is weird because the music is designed to be loose, but in the previous performances there was a little more structure which made the songs jump out a little more (or maybe the recording just isn’t loud enough).

There’s 5 songs in total: 4 originals include “Central Time,” “Drinkin’ Whiskey Tonight,” and “Won’tcha Please Don’t Do It.”  And a Jimmie Rogers song called “Peach Pickin’ Time in Georgia.”  This final song feels more authentically of the time than LaFarge’s originals but only barely, just barely (perhaps its the “gal pickin’ time” line).  And yet “Won’tch Please Don’t Do It” sounds just right too.

The best joke in the set is when Pokey says they have 78 RPM records for sale (they really do).  But that they don’t have any that night because they are sold out!

LaFarge is an engaging live performer (even if the crowd seems subdued here).  And while I don’t see myself buying any of his records, I would like to see him live–it seems like a fun show.  Check it out here.

[READ: July 15, 2013] “Somewhere, a Long Happy Life Probably Awaits You”

The prefatory paragraph that precedes up this story seems so light-hearted: “Manfred met Elizabeth when she interviewed for a position at his fortune cookie company.  She was a greeting card writer looking to branch out.”  That is an actual quote from the story, but in the story, it is a flashback after the main action of the story has begun.

When the story begins, Elizabeth is trying to protect a tree in her front yard.  It has gotten Dutch Elm disease and is to be cut down this summer.  She would like to know when, but she is only told between may and September.  While she is not going to go crazy protecting this tree, she would like some actual notification, so she can be there to say goodbye.

Going crazy, it turns out is an important thing to note, though.  Because Elizabeth from time to time goes on “safaris.”  These safaris can last an indeterminate amount of time, and in some cases may even require Manfred to track her down.  Like when she was protesting the war in front of a building (where no one else was) or, as in one case, when she was frolicking in a sprinkler in her underwear. (more…)

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Shelagh Delaney–A Taste of Honey (1959)

Posted in Absolutely Fabulous, Babies, Charles Dickens, LGBTQ, Marriage Trouble, Morrissey, Parenting, Play (Drama), Pregnancy, Prostitution, Racism, Shelagh Delaney on July 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

honeySOUNDTRACK: HORRIBLE HISTORIES-“Charles Dickens” (2013).

dickensHorrible Histories is a British children’s show.  They tell you histories of people and things in fun ways. Like this.  (It sounds awesome).

This biography of Charles Dickens (which lyrically is amusing as well as informative) is done in the style of The Smiths.  The music is very clearly The Smiths and of course the singer hits all of the Morrisseyisms that he can.  In addition to some actual Smiths lines (Dickens take a bow, heaven knows I’m miserable now), the song more or less mashes up “Heaven Know I’m Miserable Now” and “This Charming Man.”

It’s very funny and catchy as well.  Check out the joy:

[READ: June 30, 2013] A Taste of Honey

I discovered this play because it was mentioned in a documentary about The Smiths,  It was one of Morrissey’s favorite movies; he quoted a line from it in “Reel Around the Fountain” (I dreamt about you last night and fell out of bed twice”) and the song “This Night Has Opened My Eyes” is basically a summary of the play (with lines from it).

It’s a fairly modern story for 1959 England (Delaney was 18 when she wrote it), but it seems like rather a downer to be a favorite film/play.

It is the story of Jo, a young girl who is stuck in the dreaded life of living poor in Manchester (The river the color of lead).  She has no father around and her mother, Helen, (described as as a semi-whore (!), is quite unpleasant). Indeed, the opening scene of the play is the two of them bickering in a hole in the wall flat that feels dirty just by reading it.

Eventually a man comes along who promises to take Helen away from all of this.  He may be her pimp (specifics are not really given in the story and I wondered if they would be more obvious if it was 1959 (or in the movie).  But it’s clear that he has money and seems to be willing to bring Helen home.  At the same time, he is terribly mean to Jo–treating her worse than her mother does.  By the end of the scene, he takes Helen away, leaving Jo on her own. (more…)

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Nick Hornby–Songbook (2002)

Posted in Aimee Mann, Ani DiFranco, Badly Drawn Boy, Ben Folds Five, Bruce Springsteen, Concert, Decadence, Essays, Marcel Dzama, Mark Mulcahy, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Memoirs, Nelly Furtado, Nick Hornby, Paul Westerberg, Rod Stewart, Rufus Wainwright, Sex, Short Books, Soulwax, Suicide, Teenage Fanclub, The Bible on July 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

songbookSOUNDTRACK: songs from Songbook (2002).

songbook2Songbook came with an 11 song CD.  I’m curious, given the way he speaks so lovingly of the songs in the book how come more bands/labels didn’t want to be included on it.  The proceeds went to charity and it would just be more exposure for the artists.  There were a lot of songs I didn’t know and would love to have heard (or would love to hear while I was reading).  And frankly I see no downside to throwing a track on a compilation which is a collection of someone’s favorite songs.  Of course, things were very different in the music world in 2002.  Now, someone will just make a playlist on their iPod of theses songs, and post them to Spotify.

PAUL WESTERBERG-“Born for Me.” I’m much more of a fan of Westerberg with the Replacements, as he got a little too polished as a solo guy.  But this song has a fun, shambolic quality to it (it doesn’t even sound like Westerberg singing).  It wouldn’t be a favorite song of mine, but it is a nice one.

TEENAGE FANCLUB “Your Love is the Place Where I Come From” and “Ain’t That Enough.”  I really like Teenage Fanclub a lot.  They are one of my favorite jangly pop bands.  So these two songs rank pretty high for me.  Although I admit to liking their slightly more rocking songs a bit more, “Your Love” is a very pretty ballad and “Ain’t That Enough” is just gorgeous.

THE BIBLE- “Glorybound” Hornby says he knew these guys.  It’s an okay song, a little too slick for me and very of its time.

AIMEE MANN-“I’ve Had It”  I like Aimee Mann very much.  I can’t say that I paid a ton of attention to the lyrics of this song (I didn’t know it was about touring) but I’ve always liked it—the understated yet beautiful melody and chorus are very nice.

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT-“One Man Guy” I like Rufus a lot.  I don’t own any of his music, but I really like everything I hear from him.  His delivery is so louche, it makes me smile every time.  This song is actually one his father wrote and sang many years ago (very differently).

ROD STEWART-“Mama You Been on My Mind” Hornby’s essay on Rod Stewart is hilarious.  And his defense of early Stewart is wholly believable.  I, of course, know Rod from his later, laughable stuff, so I never considered his early work  But this track is pretty good.

BADLY DRAWN BOY-“A Minor Incident” Sarah and I love Badly Drawn Boy, and this soundtrack in particular.  Hornby’s discussion of how he Damon got to do the soundtrack is very interesting.

BEN FOLDS FIVE-“Smoke” I’ve liked Ben for years now (going to see him in two weeks).  This song has always been a favorite both for the lyrics, which are great and because that weird harp-type sound is him playing the strings of his grand piano with a pick.

MARK MULCAHY-“Hey Self Defeater” I don’t know Mulcahy at all.  This song has a beautiful wavery guitar and gentle vocals (it’s funny to read about Hornby rocking out when most of this disc is quite mellow).

ANI DIFRANCO-“You Had Time” I was a huge Ani DiFranco fan back in the day, but this song is unknown to me, or should I say unfamiliar to me.  It’s on one of her very early albums.  Perhaps it’s more that I must have ignored the piano opening, which Hornby pays close attention to and really explains it in a useful way, showing how it is more about a beautiful melody being born from chaos.  And now I respect the song a lot more.

[READ: 2002 and July 1, 2013] Songbook

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve written this very book in my head….  A list of favorite songs and why they are so important to me?  How cool is that.  I have no idea how come Hornby got to write it (I know, High Fidelity), but still, what a nice cozy assignment.  And to have this book illustrated by Marcel Dzama is even cooler.

This book came out in 2002 after About a Boy (and in the year that About a Boy was being turned into a film).  Hornby had recently hooked up with the McSweeney’s gang and began writing for The Believer in 2003.

I had no idea that the book was released in the UK under a different name (31 Songs) or that they also released an accompanying CD (A Selection of Music from 31 Songs) with 18 songs on it (see my comment above about CDs).  Although we got fewer songs on the disc in the US, at least ours came with the book. (more…)

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Rebecca Makkai–“Other Types of Poison” (Harper’s, July 2013)

Posted in Biography, Birds, Books about writers, Death, Eddie Vedder, Essays, Harper's, Marriage Trouble, Memoirs, Pearl Jam, War on July 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

julySOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-“Mind Your Manners” (2013).

mannersAfter Eddie Vedder released an album of ukulele songs, it seemed like perhaps he was putting aside his heavier ways.  Well, nothing could be further from the truth.

This new song (album out in October) plays up their faster side, with short fast chords (think “Spin the Black Circle”).  It starts out heavy, and when the verse proper starts the band really kicks in.  The chords are heavy, but the bridge is fairly light and breezy.

The end features some chanted vocals (seldom used by Pearl Jam but effective here).  But to me the real standout moment comes from Mike McCready’s solo.  It is noisy and weird–he seems to be experimenting with all kinds of sounds in these 20 seconds or so.  It’s unexpected from him and very interesting.

I do not like how the song ends, which seems almost abrupt by accident.  Perhaps the released version gets cut off a few seconds early.  Nevertheless, I’m pretty excited about the new album (and tour).

[READ: July 11, 2013] “Other Types of Poison”

This is credited as memoir.  It is three short “stories.”  All of which I enjoyed immensely–but especially the first.

The first is called The Ink.  In this tale, Makkai’s  ancestors were hiding out in a little lake house when soldiers came to the door.  I loved that no one can remember the details of whether the soldiers were German or Russian or if that even mattered.  The important part is that the soldiers hung around and made themselves at home.  (The old lady was too old and scary to try anything with and the boy was too young).

Then they ran out of booze and one of the soldiers, noticing an inkwell, said he would drink that.  The inkwell was a gift to the boy, because the old woman was a writer.  And although the cost was dear, the soldier drank the whole thing.  Then he stumbled out of the house, face completely blackened.  From then on, the old woman claimed that had she killed a soldier with ink.

I love Makkai’s ending: She says she doesn’t of the details are correct, but “If this were your family legacy—this ridiculous assertion of the might and violence o ink , this blatant and beautiful falsehood—could you change it? Would you dare?” (more…)

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Jhumpa Lahiri–“Brotherly Love” (New Yorker, June 10 & 17, 2013)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Arranged Marriage, Death, Drug Church, Excerpt, Jhumpa Lahiri, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Pregnancy, Racism, Short Story, Soundgarden, Travel, War on July 9, 2013| 1 Comment »

CV1_TNY_06_10_13Schossow.inddSOUNDTRACK: DRUG CHURCH-“Deconstructing Snapcase” (2013).

drugchurchYesterday I commented about another Drug Church song by saying I liked this one better.  What’s interesting is that this one is thirty seconds longer but seems shorter.

The song opens with big loud aggressive guitars (kind of early Soundgarden), but the vocals, which are screamed, are brighter that their other song, providing a  nice contrast.  But the thing that made me like this song more than “YouTube” is the fast bright guitar bridge, in which the guitars ring out in contrast to the heavy opening chords–it gives the song a lot of dynamics.

There’s a guitar solo, which surprised me for some reason, but it breaks up the song and reintroduces some of the earlier riffs.  It’s a good heavy song.

[READ: June 18, 2013] “Brotherly Love”

Lahiri has the last and longest story in this New Yorker issue that’s chock full of stories.  This one is some fifteen pages and is part of a novel.

I was gripped instantly by the story.  But I am glad that it is part of a novel as I feel there were parts of the beginning that seemed extraneous without more story to follow.  Or should I say, if it was just a short story, it could have been shorter.  The story is about two brothers, Subhash and Udayan.  Subhash is older by fifteen months but Udayan is the far more daring one.  Subhash is cautious and does everything his parents say, while Udayan flouts the rules at every opportunity.

The first transgression we see is when they climb the wall into the country club, where locals are pretty much excluded.  They were told they could get golf balls, so they hopped the fence and took what they could.  They also marveled at the manicured lawns and the beauty around them.  They returned regularly until they were caught–but luckily for them they were not turned in. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #38 (2011)

Posted in Adam Levin, Adventure, Alia Malek, All Songs Considered, Ariel Dorfman, Bisi Adjapon, Books about writers, Boredom, Canadian Content, Chanan Tigay, Culture Shock, Dan Guterman, Dave Eggers, David Henne, Death, Essays, Francois Mauriac, Jack Teagle, Jason Polan, Jen Statsky, Joey Latimer, John Moe, Jon Wurster, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Morality, Nathan Englander, Nathaniel Rich, Paul Curtis, Peter Meehan, Peter Orner, Rachel B. Glaser, Religion, Roddy Doyle, Rory Douglas, San Fermin, Short Story, Sloan Schang, Steven Millhauser, The Mountain Goats, Violence, War on July 5, 2013| 1 Comment »

38SOUNDTRACK: SAN FERMIN-“Crueler Kind” (2013).
sanfermin-91f624c3b893c51669028614cc4bbf4973704a7c-s1

This was the final song that NPR played in their summer new music collection.  It was a band that Bob didn’t know, but he liked the song and then saw them live and put the song here.

It opens very simply, quietly with beautiful harmonies over a simple synth.  After about 45 seconds, the drums and horns (!) kick in and the backing harmony vocals take on more of a choral sound (AHHHH!) that punctuates rather than accompanies the vocals.

The main riff stems from that horn—a bass saxophone?  And yet during the verses, everything resorts to that pretty, mellow sound.

It’s a very interesting mix of musics, and it reminds me of some of the more experimental bands of the 1990s.  I’ll bet they would be fun to see live.  And I’d like to hear more from this album.

[READ: June 20, 2013] McSweeney’s #38

And with this book, I have now read all of the McSweeney’s issues (except that Mammoth Treasury which I will get to, probably by the end of the year).  This one was a great collection of fiction and non-fiction, it also had an inserted comic.  The book itself was paperback, with a nice, textured cover and a cool design for the numbers. In looking for a picture I learned that it came in two colors (the yellow that I received and a black cover with white lines).

It continues with the later issues’ less frivolous style (in that there’s nothing weird about the book) and throughout, the quality of the work is great.  I really enjoyed this book.  It opens with letters and contains color pictures, too.

Letters (more…)

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She Loves Me (Hamilton Murray Theater, Murray Dodge Hall, Princeton, NJ, June 20, 2013)

Posted in Acting, Dance, In the Good Old Summertime, Jerry Bock, Joe Masteroff, Marriage Trouble, Miklos Laszlo, Play (Drama), Romance, Sheldon Harnick, The Shop Around the Corner, Theater on July 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 20, 2013] She Loves Me

SheLovesMeI won free tickets to this show in Murray Dodge Hall, and olde theater in the heart of the Princeton University campus.  Sarah and I were delighted to discover that the theater held only 190 people and that our seats were in the fifth row!

This is student theater, but, as I said to Sarah, these are seriously good acting students (better than most of the students that I went to school with, anyhow).

She Loves Me is a musical based on the drama Parfumerie by Hungarian playwright Miklos Laszlo.  Before being adapted in 1963 as She Loves Me, (Music by Jerry Bock, Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, Book by Joe Masteroff) it was previously adapted as the 1940 film The Shop Around the Corner and the 1949 musical In the Good Old Summertime.   It was also revisited in 1998 as You’ve Got Mail.

If you’ve seen any of these adaptations, yo know the story.  And if you haven’t, it is this: two shop workers who dislike each other are secretly each others’ pen pals.  In this version, they each write to a lonely hearts column, and plan to meet for the first time very soon.  It’s a simple enough story.  But what sold me in this version was the music—which was simple and catchy and very very funny. (more…)

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Michel Houellbecq–H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (1991) [translated 2005]

Posted in All Songs Considered, Biography, Culture Shock, Death, Demons, Dorna Khazeni, Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy, Fears, H.P. Lovecraft, Horror, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Metallica, Michel Houellebecq, Morality, No Age, Oddities, Racism on June 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

hpl;oveSOUNDTRACK: NO AGE-“No Ground” (2013).

An ObjectI’ve been hearing a lot about No Age lately, but I don’t really know much about them.  I keep thinking they are a different, older band (although I can’t think of which one for some reason).  Anyhow, this new song from their new album is a simple, propulsive rocker.  It starts out with some echoing guitar notes until the fast, fast bass comes in.

It’s followed by some quickly strummed guitars and low sung, almost chanted vocals.

The song feels like it builds speed throughout, although I don’t think it actually does.  I didn’t realize that there were only two guys in the band—and that explains their limited musical sound.  But unlike a number of other two person bands that I’ve really enjoyed as of late, this song feels a little flat.  There is some appeal to it, but overall I want a little bit more.

[READ: June 16, 2013] H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life

I have been “into” H.P. Lovecraft for about thirty years.  Interestingly, I had never read anything by him in that time.  I got into him via Dungeons and Dragons which had a whole selection of monsters from the Cthulhu mythos.  And then Metallica did a song called “The Call of Cthulhu” and even though I bought several of his paperback collections and proudly displayed them, I never read them.  When McSweeney’s imprint Believer Books published this little title by the practically Lovecraftianly named Michel Houellebecq, I was excited to read it, too (because at this time I had assumed that I had actually read some Lovecraft).  But like my Lovecraft books, it languished on the shelf.

Until now.

I decided that it was time to finish off some of those McSweeney’s books that have been sitting on my shelf for years.  And this was on the top of my list. (more…)

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Ruth Prawer Jhabvala–“The Judge’s Will” (New Yorker, March 25, 2013)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Jealousy, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Short Story, The Beatles, The Smith Westerns on June 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_03_25_13Juan.inddSOUNDTRACK: THE SMITH WESTERNS-“3AM Spiritual” (2013).

smith-westerns_cvr-208198ccccc71e78a954f8e32cfa71f6abe43e63-s1This album is currently streaming on NPR.  It is a sweet acoustic pop album with elements of retro electric guitar sounds.  It has lots of elements that I recognize (name any folkie power pop band and you can hear them in here).  But the biggest element here is The Beatles–later period Beatles–especially on the instrumental break of this song.

It opens with jangly guitars and a falsetto vocal (with lots of ah ha has at the end of the verses).  There’s a soft keyboard and some wooooah yeashs.   So far so good.

At the two-minute mark the song gets much bigger–the “whoa yeahs” get louder and there’s a guitar break which lasts for a few measures and which seems like the song will be ending (it is a power pop song after all).  But the chord changes and the song stops and the pizzicato piano comes in.  And it’s followed by that fuzzed out classic rock guitar solo sound.   All of which is brief enough to keep the listener guessing while the song swings back into some Whoa Yeahs until it ends.

It’s a simple pop song, but it has enough going on to not be completely obvious.

[READ: April 21, 2013] “The Judge’s Will”

I read this awhile back and never posted on it.  So here it is.

This is the story of a judge and the women in his life.  He has survived a second heart attack but knows he is not long for the world.  The judge is married, but he has been keeping a woman on the side for twenty-five years.  And she is concerned for her future–he has always taken care of her but she has no legal rights.  He has ensured that she will be okay in his will, but he is afraid that his wife and son will cause trouble when the time came.

His wife Binny did not react at all when he told her of his multi-decade infidelity–she acted like it was idle gossip.  But she did share the news with her son Yasi.  They knew the judge wouldn’t leave everything to the other woman.  The judge is rather surprised by this reaction and indeed, it proves to be false.

When the judge went back to the hospital, he called on Yasi and asked him to bring things to the other woman.  Which he did–although he says he left as soon as he could.  When the judge returns home, he asks Yasi to bring the other woman, Phul, to their house. Binny was upset, but accepted the news. (more…)

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