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Archive for the ‘Marriage Trouble’ Category

Kate Walbert–“M&M World” (New Yorker, May 30, 2011)

Posted in Consumerism, Kate Walbert, Marriage Trouble, Mogwai, New Yorker, Short Story, Super Furry Animals on June 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MOGWAI-Rock Action (2001).

After all of Mogwai’s releases over the years (and all the various compilations and imports and whatnot, it’s hard to believe that Rock Action was only their third proper full length release.

I just recently learned that the song “Dial: Revenge” has vocals by Gruff Rhys from the Super Furry Animals (the lyrics are in Welsh, apparently so that it would sound like gibberish to most of the English-speaking audience (SFA released a wonderful album sung entirely in Welsh, called Mwng).   This song is a very delicate  piece which reminds me in some ways of later Mercury Rev (Rock Action was produced by Dave Fridmann who produces Mercury Rev).  It’s got a soaring “chorus” and strings.

“Sine Wave” opens the disc with some heavily distorted noises that seem to be fighting with some echoed guitar notes.  The song feels different from other Mogwai songs but it doesn’t really sound different–it’s clearly Mogwai.  “Take Me Somewhere Nice” is perhaps the most conventional song Mogwai have done.  It has a verse/chorus structure and even has whispered vocals–that follow a melody.  The biggest surprise has to be the strings that overlay the top–they’re a bit disconcerting at first, but it quickly shows how well the band can pull this off.  It’s followed by something of a continuation of that song with the 59 second “O I Sleep,” a simple piano track with Stuart’s whispered vocals over the top.

“You Don’t Know Jesus” falls into more typical Mogwai territory.  It’s a 9-minute epic which somehow build and builds even though it feels like it’s all crescendo–until the last few moments trail off into quiet notes.

The one minute “Robot Chant” is more noise, but it leads into the surprisingly upbeat “2 Rights Make 1 Wrong.”  This is a faster track, which builds for over 9 minutes.  The middle part slows down so you can really hear the synthesized voice over the proceeding.  You can eventually hear the banjo as well.

The disc ends with the pretty ballad, “Secret Pint.”  It’s a simple piano based song (with lyrics). The recording is very clear (you can hear all of the dynamics of that opening cymbal).  While it could never be a hit, it easy certainly their most accessible track.

Rock Action is a different kind of Mogwai album: slower, more deliberate, with conventional music structures but which is in no way a commercial record.  It’s also less dramatic than albums (or EPs) past.  If you want soaring epic Mogwai, this is not your album (even the 2 nine-minute songs aren’t as dramatic as previous songs), but it’s a welcome addition to Mogwai’s repertoire.

[READ: May 27, 2011] “M&M World”

I didn’t know that there really is a M&M’s World in Times Square, but apparently there is.  And it sounds like a nightmare!

Anyhow, the story begins with Ginny agreeing to finally take her kids to M&M’s World.  Her girls are Olivia and Maggie and they have been dying to go to M&M’s World forever.  The kids march down the street, looking in all the shop windows until they finally reach the destination.

Walbert describes the store in all of its bustling glory–and given her details I’ve no doubt it’s exactly as she describes: busy, crowded, noisy, overstimulating. (more…)

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Jim Garrard–“Big Ticket” (The Walrus, July/August 2007)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Fantasy, Jim Garrard, Marriage Trouble, Neil Young, Play (Drama), The Walrus on June 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NEIL YOUNG AND CRAZY HORSE-Rust Never Sleeps (DVD) (1979).

Back in 1979, Neil Young had a huge hit on his hands with “Hey Hey My My” and the album Rust Never Sleeps.  This is a film of that concert (in the Cow Palace, San Francisco).

The set sounds great and the selection of songs is top notch.  On a technical note, some of the darks don’t hold up well and get terribly pixellated, but what do you expect from (what I assume is a) cheapie film from the 70s.

The weird thing about the film (and the concert as well) is the “extras” that he built into the show.  I’m curious what the audiences thought back then, because now, it’s kind of funny, but also more than a little weird.  Throughout the set he has his roadies (who he calls “road eyes”) “setting up” the stage.  The roadies are wearing robes and look an awful lot like the Jawas from Star Wars (which had just come out, so I assume they are meant to look like them).  The stage is a backdrop of oversized amplifiers and the road eyes are scrambling around carrying an oversized microphone and harmonica and other silly things.  The road eyes are having a great time dropping the mic (they even hit Neil in the head with it accidentally).   Another road eye comes out with an oversized tuning fork while the band is tuning.

There’s also some guys in lab coats and another professorial-looking guy who makes an announcement that everyone should put on their rust-o-vision glasses to see the band rust on stage (no idea what happened/how this worked/if there were even glasses, but during the song, they shine a rust colored light on the band).

These moments in the movie are weird.  They certainly break up the flow of the show.  But at the same time, at most concerts, the roadies setting up the show is dull or put behind a curtain so you don’t have to see it.  I think it was cool of Neil to give the audience something to watch during the transition stages (even of they do go on for a while). During all of the roadeye moments, he plays snippets of audio from Woodstock–we hear Hendrix’ “Star Spangled Banner”–and The Beatles (!) (Did they have to pay rights for things like that in 1979?).  We also hear a lot of the announcements from Woodstock (brown acid, no rain! no rain!–strangely, it appears that he has set up the stage to actually rain on the audience.  It’s not filmed very closely so it’s a little unclear, but it does appear that water is actually coming from the ceiling.

As for the arc of the movie (because it is a movie after all), the fist part of the show stars with Neil solo–he wakes up in a sleeping bag and wanders around in overalls singing and playing.   I gather there are wireless microphones attached to his harmonica (!)–I didn’t know they had wireless mics back in 1979).  After he plays a few songs, the roadeyes set up and Crazy Horse comes out (including what to me is an iconic outfit–Frank “Poncho” Sampedro in his Canadiens jersey (#19, Larry Robinson)).

The band bashes through a number of great songs and they all sound great (there’s a few flubbed notes so you know it’s all live but the harmonies are spot on).  It’s odd to me that the band leaves briefly and Neil does one or two more solo songs (none on piano though) before the band comes back again.

The major weird thing about the set is Neil’s almost total lack of interaction with the crowd.  At the end of the show he even seems a bit angry (although he does have a naturally scowly expression), so he doesn’t engage much with anyone.  This seems especially weird given the lightheartedness of the stage show (they lower an organ from the rafters and it has wings on it).  But then again, not everyone has to be nice, right?

The DVD is comprised mostly of songs that appear on the Young’s Live Rust album (confusingly, not the Rust Never Sleeps album) although the album has recordings from different shows.

It’s a strange artifact, definitely an item of the late 70s.  It doesn’t hold up especially well, but you can always fast forward over the slow bits.

[READ: April 11, 2011] “Big Ticket”

The Walrus has published two Two Act plays over its existence.  This is the second one.  Act one appeared in the magazine but you have to go online to see the end.  Unlike with the previous play, both Acts One and Two are online.

Act One of the play is terribly exciting. It starts out in a weird way with a woman looking to pay a man to abduct and terrify her husband.  The man (a garage mechanic) shows her the “cage” that he’s going to lock her husband in.  And then things start to get all Penthouse-y.  The woman (Annie) starts asking the mechanic (Dave) if he’s ever done anything, you know, naughty, in the cage (she’s obviously an unhappy wife).  Dave does the metaphorical look around the room and then climbs in the cage with her. (more…)

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Michael Healy–“Shock Jock” (The Walrus, December/January 2007)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Ani DiFranco, Ben Folds, Canadian Content, Free Speech, Humiliation, Jane Siberry, Marriage Trouble, Michael Healy, Patti Smith, Play (Drama), Radio, Richard Thompson, Sessions at West 54th, Suzanne Vega, The Walrus, Threats, Yo-Yo Ma on June 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: The Best of Sessions at West 54th, Volume 1 (DVD) (1997).

Back in the 1990s, PBS ran one of their TV series devoted to contemporary music, Sessions at West 54th.  It was primarily, but not exclusively adult alternative music, with a mixture of jazz and country thrown in as well.  I never watched the show when it was on, but I was intrigued by this DVD because it has a number of artists that I liked quite a bit then. I haven’t watched it in ages, and when I watched it recently I was interested to see that I liked some other artists better than the ones I bought the disc for in the first place.

There was a recent radio show on All Songs Considered called Splitsville: Breaking Up with Your Favorite Band.   This is something that I think about from time to time–bands that I loved and no longer do.  Or bands that I loved and then stopped and maybe now love again.  This show dealt with that very issue.  Most amusingly, Robin Hilton, one of the cohosts had this wonderful quote that applies to me (and this DVD) almost directly.

It’s Not You, It’s Me (Bands We Grew Apart From): “I (dug) out my old CD books and dusted them off. And this recurring theme that came back at me, just haunting, I realized it was the whole Lilith Fair crowd. It was so painful. I had Shawn Colvin, Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, Indigo Girls, Paula Cole, Beth Orton. I just listened to that music non-stop. And now, maybe I’m not the sensitive, new-age guy that I used to be.” — Robin Hilton

So, what happened, Robin? The same thing happened to me.  I still love the concept of Lilith, but I really just don’t care about the music anymore.  And much of this DVD caters to the Lilith crowd. But it doesn’t start that way.  It opens with

WYNTON MARSALIS-“Back to Basics” A fantastic jazz number.  Wynton plays some wonderful stuff (I particularly like the “laughing” horns).  It’s a really rousing opener.

SUZANNE VEGA-“Caramel”  Vega is not a Lilith Fair person to me because I learned of her long before then.  This is not my favorite song of hers. 

RICHARD THOMPSON-“I Feel So Good” It’s funny to me that when I bought this I didn’t know who Richard Thompson was.  It’s always great to hear him rock out like this.

SHAWN COLVIN-“Diamond in the Rough” I like Shawn Colvin, although not as much as most of the other Lilith Fairers.  This is one of her songs that I don’t know very well

ANI DIFRANCO-“32 Flavors” I loved Ani and her self publishing empire.  And her songs were good too.  I saw her in concert once or twice and she totally rocked the house.  Then sometime in the early 2000s she went in a new direction and I completely lost touch with her and pretty much stopped listening to her.  It was nice to hear this song again, although it’s a bit slower than the way I know it.

NIL LARA-“How Was I To Know”  I didn’t know who he was then, I’m still not sure who he is or if he’s still around.  This is a pretty serviceable folk rock song

RICKIE LEE JONES-“Road Kill” I did not care for this song at all.

DANIEL LANOIS-“Orange Kay” this was a wild guitar solo and effects song.  It was really quite different from anything else here.

EMMYLOU HARRIS-“Wrecking Ball” This song had cool harmonies although I’m not a fan of Emmylou in general.

BEN FOLDS FIVE-“Smoke” I love Ben Folds, and this song is wonderful (seeing him play the “strings” of the piano is very cool.  And my god he’s so YOUNG!

KEB’ MO-“Just Like You”  I like Keb’ Mo’ quite a bit and this is a good song by him.

SINÉAD O’CONNOR-“The Last Day of Our Acquaintance”  Sinéad was another of those ladies who I loved before Lilith.  I fact The Lion and The Cobra was one of my favorite albums.  Then she got super political (and put out more amazing music) and then she got really weird.  And I stopped listening.  She’s an odd duck in this show as well (this was in her speaking only in falsetto phase, which is pretty odd.  And she has a little grunted /spoken bit in the middle of the song which is pretty odd too).  But for all of that, man is this song awesome. I haven’t listened to it in a long time, and holy cow I forgot how impactful it is. And live, with the electric guitars and the backing vocalists, it is really amazing.  A definite highlight of the disc.

YO-YO MA “Libertango”  Yo-Yo Ma is pretty awesome.  I wouldn’t listen to a lot of his stuff (I like classical, but in small doses) but man, he rocks the cello.  This is a great piece.

PATTI SMITH “People Have the Power” Patti Smith is a legend.  An icon.  Her early music is amazing.  So why do I hate this song so much?  The sentiment is wonderful, but gah, what a dreadful song.

JANE SIBERRY-“Love is Everything” I really like Jane Siberry.  She’s a strange lady with a quirky but wonderful voice.  This is a beautiful song, but a little slow (I find it works well amidst her other songs, but it’s a bit stodgy on its own).

It’s a fun collection of mellow songs (what I think of as the old PBS/NPR audience, since now they have shows that are much louder).  And it’ always fun to see artists perform in an intimate venue.

[READ: April 12, 2011] “Shock Jock”

This is the first play that The Walrus has published.  It is not so much in Acts as it is in Ten Scenes.  Scenes 1-3 are printed in the magazine, while Scenes 4-10 are only available online.  (Sadly 1-3 are not included online).

This is the story of a political shock jock, a Canadian version of Rush Limbaugh (these were the days before Glenn Beck).  The opening scene shows him railing against everything and nothing.  He proves to be very popular with his fans but when they call him up to tell him that, he abuses them too (but they don’t seem to mind–or to notice).  It seems like a pretty straightforward parody of a radio blowhard.

But the next scene shows him at home, where he is not so much meek as completely incapable of making a decision.  His wife seems like something of a harpy, but it’s clear that she has put up with this ineffectual man for nine years and has just had it with his inability to even communicate.  These two scenes play off each other as somewhat obvious counterpoint and yet, they are strangely compelling enough to keep you reading.  And it’s worthwhile to do so. (more…)

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Donald Antrim–“He Knew” (New Yorker, May 9, 2011)

Posted in Decadence, Donald Antrim, Drinking, Drugs, Marriage Trouble, My Morning Jacket, Neurotics, New Yorker, Pink Floyd, Short Story on June 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MY MORNING JACKET-It Still Moves (2003).

I discovered My Morning Jacket through their awesome live album Okonokos.  Most of that album comprised songs from their previous disc, Z.  But there were a number of tracks from this record as well.  So I was thrilled to put this in for the first time and recognize a number of these epic tracks (4 songs are over 6 minutes).

It Still Moves is a soaring, gorgeous record of folk rock plus.  Some of their tracks are rooted in Americana, but they have wonderful touches of psychedelia and soaring sounds (choruses, guitars, voices).  It’s a great combination that never settles into one style of sound, and as much as it stays out of the reach of commercialism, it embraces catchiness.

And for an album that seems like it might resist the average listener, there’ some amazing stuff here.  The opening three songs are absolute stunners–catchy and interesting.  “Magheeta” is a slowish opener; “Dancefloors'” has a great riff and ends with a cool boogie of horns and pianos; and “Golden” is a shuffle song with terrific harmonies.

“Masterplan” is the first really slow song, but it has a dramatic buildup that is wonderful.  It’s followed by the first of the soaring guitar songs on the disc.  “One Big Holiday” opens with a cool tight guitar riff which turns into a soaring guitar riff of joy.  The second one is “Run Thru” which is one of my favorite songs of the past few years.  It opens with a slow soaring guitar riff that is totally catchy.  By midway it turns into a dancey discoey song for a few measures and then returns with the great riff.  It’s excellent.

“I Will Sing You Songs” is a 9 minute slow boiler of a track.  It’s very slow, almost lazily paced, but it’s never dull (credit Jim James’  amazing voice for keeping the whole proceeding interesting).  “Rollin’ Back” opens a bit like “Waiting for the Worms” from Pink Floyd the Wall (soaring oooh ooohs), but quickly settles into a slow roots song.

The end of the disc is a bit slow and meandering (the last song especially is practically a sleepytime ballad) but it works for the overall feel of the disc.  The whole enterprise is a bit long–it’s hard to listen all at one setting.  But nevertheless, it’s a great record with some amazing songs ion it.

[READ: May 9, 2011] “He Knew”

I rather enjoyed the last story by Antrim that I read, but I didn’t care for this one at all.  And that was pretty much because I didn’t care about the characters at all.

The story is about an out of work actor, Stephen (who is on antidepressants) and his very tall wife Alice (who is on Valium).  They’re sort of pathetic and it’s not even entirely clear if the like each other (or is that the anxiety speaking?).  She accuses him of wanting to sleep with every woman he talks to, and he looks longingly at most other women he sees. (more…)

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2011 Fiction Issues (The Walrus, July/August 2011 & New Yorker, June 13 & 20, 2011)

Posted in Aleksandar Hemon, Alexi Zentner, Alexisonfire, All Songs Considered, Canadian Content, City and Colour, Damian Rogers, Death, Edward P. Jones, Fishing, Five Dials, Food, George Saunders, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jennifer Egan, Jhumpa Lahiri, Junot Díaz, Kathleen Winter, Lauren Groff, Marriage Trouble, Michael Lista, New Yorker, Nostalgia, Poetry, Salvatore Scibona, Summer, Téa Obreht, The Walrus, Vladimir Nabokov on June 19, 2011| 3 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: CITY AND COLOUR Live at the Sasquatch Festival, May 29, 2011 (2011).

City and Colour have a new album coming out soon.  So it’s kind of surprising that this seven-song show is three songs from their previous album, two from their first album, a cover, and only one new track (“Fragile Bird”).

This is the first time I’ve heard City and Colour live with a band (most of the recordings I have by them are just Dallas Green solo).  It’s nice to hear how powerfully they work together (giving some of those songs an extra push).

Despite the brevity of the set (and the amusing banter about airport etiquette) you get a pretty good sense of what the “pretty-voiced guy” from Alexisonfire can do on his own.   I found the cover, Low’s “Murderer,” to be a really perfect choice–one that suits the band and their slightly-off harmonies, rather well.

I’m looking forward to their new release–“Fragile Bird” is another beautiful song.  But in the meantime, this is a good place to hear what they’ve been up to.

[READ: early June 2011] 2011 Fiction Issues

Five Dials seems to always generate coincidences with what I read. Right after reading the “”Summer’ Fiction” issue from Five Dials, I received the Fiction Issue from the New Yorker.  A few days later, I received the Summer Reading Issue from The Walrus.

I’m doing a separate post here because, although I am going to post about the specific fictions, I wanted to mention the poetry that comes in The Walrus’ issue.  I have no plan to write separate posts about poetry (I can barely write a full sentence about most poetry) so I’ll mention them in this post.

The main reason I’m drawing attention to these poems at all is because of the set-up of The Walrus’ Summer Fiction issue.  As the intro states: “We asked five celebrated writers to devise five guidelines for composing a short story or poem. They all traded lists–and played by the rules.”  I am so very intrigued at this idea of artificial rules imposed by an outsider.  So much so that I feel that it would be somewhat easier to write a story having these strictures put on you.  Although I imagine it would be harder to write a poem.

The two poets are Michael Lista and Damian Rogers.  I wasn’t blown away by either poem, but then I don’t love a lot of poetry.  So I’m going to mention the rules they had to follow. (more…)

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Five Dials Number 9: The Fiction Issue (2009)

Posted in Advice, Alain de Botton, Alice Hoffman, Anna Kelly, B.S. Johnson, Bao Ninh, Books about writers, Chloe Aridjis, Craig Taylor, Daniel Kehlmann, David Shields, David Vann, Death, Essays, Fears, Five Dials, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Harper's, Helen Oyeyemi, James Kelman, Language, Letters, Marriage Trouble, Philip Langeskov, Philip Roth, Poetry, Rainer Maria Rilke, Shane Jones, Short Story, Simon Prosser, Summer, Teenage Fanclub, Translation, William S. Burroughs on June 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TEENAGE FANCLUB-Shadows (2010).

Back in the 90s, Teenage Fanclub released a few noisy, feedbacky records that were quintessential 90s alt rock.

Since then they have mellowed considerably, and this album is one of their most mellow to date. Usually for me this kind of mellowing is a sign that I’m done with a band; however, Teenage Fanclub’s songwriting gets better with every disc.  And these folky tracks are all fantastic.

What’s neat about the arrangement of the album is that each of the three members of the band writes four songs.  They are collated so that you cycle through each singer before repeating. You get maximum diversity–and it’s easy to tell which songwriter is your favorite.

The opening two songs, “Sometimes I Don’t Need to Believe in Anything” and “Baby Lee” are two wonderful upbeat pop confections.  They sound very different and yet both are infused with wonderful pop chops.

It seems that Blake is my favorite songwriter on this disc. He did “Baby Lee”, “Dark Clouds” (a pretty piano based number) and by far the prettiest song on the disc “When I Still Have Thee.”  It’s an amazingly catchy folk song that sounds timeless (and even has the great couplet: “The Rolling Stones wrote a song for me/It’s a minor song in a major key.”

That’s not to dismiss the other songwriters at all.  In fact, hearing their different takes on pop music is really pretty amazing.  It’s a shame that it takes them so long to put albums out (about 5 years these days).

[READ: June 10, 2011] Five Dials Number 9

Five Dials Number 8, The Paris Issue, was pretty big (45 pages), but it had a lot of pictures.  Five Dials Number 9 is also pretty big (41 pages) and it’s (almost) all text.  For this is the Fiction Issue, and there are a lot of short stories in here.

CRAIG TAYLOR-A Letter from the Editor: On ‘Summer Reading’ and Fiction Issues.
Since most of what I talk about in the introduction to these posts is covered in Taylor’s Letter from the Editor, I figured I’d switch formats and start talking about his letter right away.  In this letter, Taylor talks about the serious pitfalls of  ‘Summer Reading’: We pledge to read mammoth books over the summer, but really we never finish War and Peace over the summer, do we? (except those of us who finished Infinite Summer, am I right?).  And so, this Fiction Issue was released in December (finally, a date is given to a Five Dials!).  Taylor briefly talks about all of the authors who contributed (including a pat on the back to Five Dials for securing the rights to a Philip Roth contribution in its first year of publication).  He also talks about the essay from David Shields that is decidedly anti-fiction.   And the final note is that Taylor’s own father has a piece in this issue (nepotism is alive and well!) (more…)

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Etgar Keret–“What Animal Are You?” (Harper’s, June 2011)

Posted in Dungen, Etgar Keret, Funny (ha ha), Harper's, Marriage Trouble, Miriam Shlesinger, Short Story, Technology on June 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK–DUNGEN -Skit I Allt (2010).

I’ve enjoyed every Dungen release that I’ve bought and this one is no exception.  Although I will admit that the other ones grabbed me a bit more (there are some amazing songs on earlier discs).  This one is a bit more sedate in general; perhaps this is Dungen’s ballad album.

It opens with “Vara Snabb,” an instrumental with lots of flute (!).  While  “Mid Edna Vän” is a gentle ballad (Gustav Ejstes’ voice is very nice: soft and delicate”).  “Brallor” is a duet with Anna Järvinen–her voice is haunting and beautiful.

“Soda” is another delicate ballad.  It opens with some loud drumming but quickly settles into a very gently sung song.  “Hogdalstoopen” opens with a quiet piano and slowly morphs into a noisy instrumental with an expansive, wailing guitar solo–the kind of which attracted me to Dungen in the first place.  It devolves into some chaotic noise, which is fun and works as a cathartic moment on this mstly quiet disc.

“Skit I Allt” is a pretty standard rock song (very 70s sounding).  And “Blandband” is a catchy piano number with a tone that reminds me of Peanuts, but which concludes with another trippy flute solo.  The last two songs return to the mellow quality of the earlier tracks and “Marken låg stilla” ends the disc with a super catchy chorus.

As I said, compared to their earlier discs which highlighted Ejstes’ firework-like guitar playing, this one shows the bands’ softer side.  It works as a nice companion piece (and still shows off the band’s instrumental chops).

Here’s your quick Swedish translation guide: Dungen (“the grove”), “Vara snabb” (“Being quick”) “Min enda vän” (“My only friend”) “Brallor” (“Pants”) “Skit i allt” (“Fuck it all”) “Barnen undrar” (“The children are wondering”) “Blandband” (“Mixtape”) Nästa sommar” (“Next summer”) “Marken låg stilla” (“The ground lay still”)

[READ: May 23, 2011] “What Animal Are You?”

Etgar Keret was recently in McSweeney’s 37 (I really liked his story).  This short piece is from his forthcoming book, and if they are all unusual like this I would be very excited to read it.

This story seems so much like non-fiction, that I can’t really decide what, if anything, has really happened to him already.  As the story opens, the narrator explains that he is writing for German Public Television.  Literally.  A reporter from GPT is in the room with him right now.  They are filming him for a show and need him to be “writing.”

He tries to fake it, but she says that it will look bad on TV.  So she insists that he write something for real, perhaps about her being there and how it makes him feel to be under pressure like this.  And so he begins writing.  Then his son comes home and gives him a big hug (he’s used to performing for cameras) but his wife (when she arrives) seems far more unnatural on camera–and will probably be cut.

The title comes from a phrase that his son (who is 4) says.  He sits on the stairs and asks everyone who walks by, “What kind of animal are you?”  The narrator reflects on how people respond to him: his wife, some random people who the boy encounters and, ultimately, the reporter.

The whole piece feels like several different snippets, and yet Keret ties them all together very nicely.  And it’s funny too.

It was translated by Miriam Schlesinger.

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Demetri Martin–This is a Book by Demetri Martin (2011)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Death, Demetri Martin, Funny (ha ha), Ghosts, Humiliation, Marriage Trouble, Meta, New Brunswick, NJ, New Yorker, Saturday Night Live, Sex, Short Books, State Theatre, Technology, Weekend Edition on June 10, 2011| 1 Comment »

ATTENDED: WEIRD AL YANKOVIC-Live at the State Theater, New Brunswick, NJ May 19, 2011 (2011).

I’ve seen “Weird Al” live three times now and I have never been disappointed by the show.  The first year my friend Matt and I waited out by the bus and got the bands’ (minus Al’s) autograph.  The second time we waited even longer and Al had an autograph (and picture taking) session in the theater after the show (how cool is that?).

This year, Sarah and I didn’t wait around afterwards (kids at home) but the show was still great.  Al made a joke after the first song thanking his opening act, Technical Difficulties. (There were indeed 45 minutes of technical difficulties before the show, but Al’s joke made us quickly forget it–and, kudos to the State Theater: I ordered my tickets online from their site and the day after the concert, the theater owner sent an email apologizing for the delay. Classy!).

Sarah had never seen him perform before, so she was pleasantly surprised by the set selection.  I was also surprised by the set selection because he pulled out a few older, more obscure tracks (“Frank’s 2000″ TV” (!), “You Don’t Love Me Any More”–complete with Al smashing a guitar!).  But he also dazzled with some new tracks from his forthcoming album.

The set opened with the polka medley (“Polka Face”).  This is the first polka medley that I didn’t know any (well almost any) of the sped up songs, but it’s always a treat to watch them play it live.  The one complaint with the show was that the sound in the theater wasn’t very good (which is surprising given that it’s an old theater) so it was hard to make out a lot of the words, especially to the new songs–and what’s Al without the lyrics?).  But his new song “I Perform This Way” (parody of Lady Gaga’s “I Was Born This Way”) was fantastic (Al was dressed up like a cartoon peacock).

Yes, costume changes.  One of the most entertaining things about Al’s shows is the costume changes.  For all of his big video hits, he comes out dressed like the video (the band does as well, although it’s a bit more subtle).  So, we get the Amish garb in “Amish Paradise,” the Michael Jackson red jacket for “Eat It”–(another surprise) and, my personal favorite, the fat suit from “Fat.”  One of the funniest costume changes was for a song that will sadly not be released on the album (but you can hear and download it here), “You’re Pitiful,” in which he wore multiple T-shirts (about 5) which all expressed some kind of funny comment (anyone know who was the face on one of the shirts?) and finally ended in a Spongebob Squarepants shirts and tutu.

So how does he do all of these costume changes? In between songs, when the band runs offstage, they play wonderful video clips.  Some of the clips are from his TV shows, some are faux documentaries, and the best are interviews that Al splices together (you can see a whole bunch here) which are hilarious and surprisingly mean-spirited.  I wish he would release them (and any other AlTv segments) on DVD, but I imagine that no one would ever give permission for that–check out the Kevin Federline one, for instance.  But they’re all pretty great.

The crowd was also totally into it (including the guy behind us with an Al wig (and a Harvey the Wonder Hamster).  And the age range was fantastic–from kids to grandparents.  My only hope is that my kids are old enough to come to a concert next time he comes around.

Oh and a brief word about his band.  He’s had the same four guys with him for years and years and years.  Rubén Valtierra is the newest member of the band and he’s been with them since 1991.  Jim West (guitar), Steve Jay (Bass) and Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz (drums) have been with Al since 1980.  They are tight as a drum, can play incredibly diverse styles at the drop of a hat (check out “CNR” which sounds exactly like The White Stripes) and they all seem to have a lot of fun on stage (see them jump in the air on “Fat” or the crazy vocal-only solo at the end of “Yoda”

–which I think is longer than ever and totally mind-blowing).

[READ: May 21, 2011] This is a Book

I recently read Martin’s “This is Me” in the New Yorker. “This is Me” is, along with about 100 other things in This is a Book.  I also heard Demetri Martin on NPR a few Sundays ago and he read a few short things from This is a Book.  And they were quite funny.

Indeed, the funny things in this book are really very very funny.  It seems to work that the shorter the item, the bigger the laugh.  Conversely there are a number of longer, extended jokes which just go on and on, like a Saturday Night Live sketch that just won’t end.  Those quickly lose their humorous value.  Fortunately  there aren’t too many of those in here.

What makes me smile a lot about the book are the jokes he plays with book conventions.  So the title page says “This is a book by Demetri Martin called This is a Book by Demetri Martin.”  Or the previous page:

Also by Demetri Martin

*

*Nothing yet.  This is his first book.

The book opens with “How to Read this Book.”

If you’re reading this sentence then you’ve pretty much got it.  Good job.  Just keep going the way you are.

I’m not going to spoil the rest of the book (or talk about each piece).  But I will mention some real highlights: (more…)

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Sam Lipsyte–“Deniers” (New Yorker, May 2, 2011)

Posted in Drinking, Drugs, Holocaust, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Racism, Religion, Sam Lipsyte, Short Story, The Flaming Lips on June 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FLAMING LIPS-“Two Blobs Fucking” (2011).

As I understand it, the Flaming Lips will be releasing an EP a month for the next twelve months–all in an unusual manner.  The first track, “Two Blobs Fucking” comes as a 12-part free video download.  Like with their album Zaireeka (which had 4 discs that you were supposed to play simultaneously to get the full effect), this song  comes as 12 separate audio tracks.  According to the online instructions, you’re supposed to get 12 friends with iPhones to each download a section and to play them at exactly the same time.  I don’t have an iPhone (or 12 friends that I could get in the same place at the same time to listen to a song), so I did the next best thing: I used YouTube Downloader, converted the tracks to WAV and then mixed them with Audacity.

I have received many CDs over the years that have mixing technology where you can play certain tracks and not others, but it’s very rare that I play around with them.  This whole process was easy enough that I made 20 different mixes of the song.

The “full” version is a fascinating amalgam of noises with a very cool riff that opens the track.  About midway through, the whole song is taken over by noise–a distorted squealing noise–for a few seconds.  And then the song continues as it was with gentle washes of sound.

The twelve tracks include the main riff, the riff as done by “voices” (doh doh doh), there’s a few noise (guitar) tracks and some noise (animal sound) tracks.  There’s a drum and percussion track as well as the vocal track.

The lyrics are a brief story about Wayne finding a dumpster from a factory which makes and discards manikin body parts.

It’s a weird track.  It’s not their best by any means, and the lyrics are hard to hear for the most part (unless you isolate them, of course).  But having now listened to it so many different ways, I’ve rally grown fond of it.  The riff itself is as I said, simple, but very cool.

It’s a neat experiment and nice that it was free (unlike their second release–a USB drive that is buried inside a candy skull which costs $150).

[READ: May 23, 2011] “Deniers”

This is, as far as I can tell, the first short fiction piece that Lipsyte has had published (please correct if I’m wrong), aside from that really short piece in The Revolution Will be Accessorized.  I enjoyed The Ask quite a lot, and I was excited to read more from him.

This piece, as the title implies, plays around with types of denial.  But it is self-denial that they experience.  The main character is Mandy, an adult whose father, Jacob,  is still alive but who has recently been put into a nursing home.  The opening of the story is more about Jacob.  More specifically, it’s about how Jacob relates (or doesn’t) to Mandy.  Jacob is a holocaust survivor, but he has barely said one word about it (or, really, anything) to Mandy.

Through a series of flashbacks, we see Mandy’s childhood with this distant father.  We also see what happened between Jacob and his wife–a fascinating story of duplicity on almost everyone’s part (and which is wonderfully encapsulated by the picture that accompanies the story (a Shell station lit up at night with the light from the letter “S” unlit). (more…)

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Grace O’Connell–“Noisemakers” (The Walrus, June 2011)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, Funky Web Sites, Grace O'Connell, Marriage Trouble, Short Story, Sloan, The Walrus on June 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: CBC Radio 3’s Sloan 20 Anniversary Podcast (2011).

2011 sees the 20th anniversary of Halifax’s Sloan.  I’ve liked Sloan since their first single, “Underwhelmed” broke through American radio (more like MTV’s 120 Minutes, I suppose) eighteen years ago.  The band’s profile faded in the US since then, but they have been producing steadily great albums over all of these years.

CDC Radio 3 has created a twenty year best of Sloan Podcast.  (And the band has all of their songs streaming online as well).

The Podcast has brief shoutouts from a bunch of fans (famous and non-) and a favorite selection from each of their nine albums (“Underwhelmed” is not included).  There were even a couple of tracks that I wasn’t familiar with (some seriously buried tracks from those early records).

Perhaps the funniest moment for me comes when the DJ admits that he didn’t know “Delivering Maybes” from Between the Bridges.  I was listening to that album just yesterday, and that’s one of my favorite tracks on the disc.  But really, they have so many great songs, it’s hard to choose.

Twenty years.  Good on ya, Sloan.  Looking forward to the new record The Double Cross.

[READ: June 2, 2011] “Noisemakers”

This story has a suprise appearance by a foley artist.  I love foley artists and am totally fascinated by them and would secretly love to be one.  So, even though the foley artist is almost drowned, I liked this story quite a bit.

It opens with Peter and his wife, Sarah, riding a boat in a lake. There’s some tension between them, but everything changes when she has to quickly turn the boat to avoid hitting something in the water.  It turns out to be a body.

The body happens to be of Lucy (the foley artist) who was Peter’s ex girlfriend.  Sarah hates Lucy (there is some background given about them and how Lucy seems to have been involved with Peter since he got married–but I feel like the given details are too vague to justify his current wife’s hatred of Lucy).  Sarah believes that Lucy being here is some kind of connection to Peter, but realilstically, they are quite far from their cabin, and she is floating in a lake…. (more…)

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