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Archive for the ‘Military’ Category

Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith–Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009)

Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, Art Brut, Dystopia, Funny (ha ha), Jane Austen, Marriage (Happy), Military, Neutral Milk Hotel, Portishead, Quirk Books, R.E.M., Seth Grahame-Smith, Supernatural, The Decemberists, U2, Violence, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me, WRSU 88.7 FM--New Brunswick, NJ, WVPH 90.3 The Core--Piscataway, NJ, Zombies on May 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »

pride-zombiesSOUNDTRACK: The Core: WVPH, 90.3 FM.

coreThe Core is also from Rutgers University.  How do they have two radio stations?  Interestingly, the station is shared with Piscataway High School.  For several hours a day Piscataway High School takes over the airwaves.  Although I admit that I have not listened to any of the PHS stuff because the first block is at 6 in the morning, and the other block is from 1- 3PM.

The college folks, however, play a pretty excellent selection of alternative music.  They’re not quite as indie and out there as WRSU, but they’re not commercial either.  To me, they’re more of the kind of college station I’m used to from my days as music director at the University of Scranton.

In the few days that I listened, I heard a lot of familiar alternative artists, with a nice focus on new bands.  What I especially liked about the station was that they didn’t play too much in the way of commercial alternative (your U2s and R.E.Ms who were once alternative but are now mainstream).  Rather, they played bands like Art Brut, The Decemberists, Portishead and Neutral Milk Hotel: bands that many people have at least heard of, but that you won’t find anywhere else on the dial.

This is the station that I would turn to most if my CD player busted permanently.

The only thing I didn’t like about it, but which also reminded me of my days as a DJ, was that college DJs tend to talk A LOT.  We all think that we are imparting precious wisdom to the masses.  And often, that is true.  Although in this one case, the DJ said that the name of the band was Art Brut Vs Satan, which is in fact just the album name.  (See, I’m still a pretentious music snob!).   However, when I’m having dinner and reading a book, I don’t need a seven minute update about that last concert that you went to.

[READ: May 19, 2009] Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

When I first heard about this book (as a punchline on Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me at my brother-in-law Tim’s house), I couldn’t believe it was real.  I was so intrigued by the concept, and then so impressed by the reviews, that I couldn’t wait to read it.

And this book does not disappoint.

For those out of the loop: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is, as the title suggests, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with good old zombie action thrown in.  Elizabeth and Darcy… What?

Yes.  Zombies.

Seth Grahame-Smith has taken Pride and Prejudice, changed a few details and then added an entire…well, subplot is not right…more like an underlying condition to the story.  It turns it from a story of love and marriage into a story of love and marriage amidst zombie brain-lust. (more…)

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Periodical: Esquire

Posted in Authors, Barry Sonnenfeld, Books about music, Books about writers, Chuck Klosterman, Dudes, Esquire, Film & TV, Food, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Military, Music, Politicians, Religion, Sex, Short Story, Technology, Video Games, Violence on April 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

esquireI don’t recall why I started getting Esquire. I think it was because I got some kind of discount magazine subscription card. And since Sarah gets lots of women’s magazines, I thought I’d try a men’s one.

I’ve been quite delighted with it since I subscribed. And one thing that I like about it is that I don’t feel compelled to read everything in it. I enjoy the letters, although my favorite part of the letters page is the “Context-free highlight from a letter we won’t be running” which always contains a random sentence or two from a letter. This sentence is always weird and it’s awesome to imagine what the rest of the letter contained. An example: “Our prime minister is pretty harmless, but he licks his lips a lot when he speaks.”

As the Man at His Best section starts, I enjoy “The Vocabulary” which defines the words they will introducing in the section. And of course this section has The Rules, a randomly selected number assigned to a rule that should be followed. Example: “Rule No. 815: Of the clocks in the house, the coffeemaker is the least likley to be accurate.”

This section also contains the usual line-up of media reviews: books, music, film and TV. These are all short and sometimes I agree and sometimes I don’t, and that’s fine. Usually the books and movies they like are too “butch” for my taste, and that’s a general note about the magazine that I’ll get to shortly.  But the music section tends to introduce me to stuff I don’t already know.

There’s also stuff about food and drink, and I always want to try the food advice, because it’s mostly about foods I try to make, but I never save the pages so I always forget the clever suggestions. (more…)

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Jory John (editor)–Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country: Kids’ Letters to President Obama (2009)

Posted in Art, Barack Obama, Buggles, Children's Books, Consumerism, Donuts, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gravy, Jory John, McSweeney's, Military, MTV, Political Humor, The Art of Noise, War, Yes on March 11, 2009| 1 Comment »

thanksSOUNDTRACK: YES-90125 (1983).

90125We had a snow day Monday, and since we were all home, I thought it would be fun to bust out some old records.  As soon as the opening chords of “Owner of a Lonely Heart” crashed out, Sarah gave me a “What made you think of playing this?” look and then said “What made you think of playing this?”

And there is no answer.  I saw it and figured it would be fun to hear. And it was.

Now, as an olde Yes fan, I should probably not like this album.  My favorite Yes album is Relayer, so really I have no business liking this.  First, it has no really long songs, second, it’s totally poppy, and third, it tries so hard to create hit singles.  And yet, I loved it then, and I still enjoyed now.   What’s interesting about it is that even though it was rather state of the art at the time, it doesn’t sound dated now.  Probably because, for instance, the orchestral hit in “Owner” has been sampled so much, it still sounds contemporary.

And so side one (for so it was at the time) has three songs that were hit singles: “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” “It Can Happen,” and “Changes” (which is probably the most “Yes” sounding of the bunch).  Even “Hold On” while not a single, gets recognition for being on the popular side one of the disc.

Side two features another great hit song, “Leave It” (with vocal sampling galore).  Although I think by the end, the disc loses some steam, and “Hearts” is a bit of a drag.

I knew that Trevor Horn was involved with this disc.  But since there have been multiple members in Yes, including two Trevors (!), I’d never really kept it all straight.  So, Trevor Horn was responsible for The Buggles (“Video Killed the Radio Star”) as well as The Art of Noise.  Their song “Close (to the Edit)” was a great video staple on MTV back in the 80s.  It features three gentlemen in suits and a very disturbing little girl smashing the hell out of musical instruments.  This song, which came out the same year as 90125 samples “Owner of a Lonely Heart” so the circle is complete.

Trevor Horn clearly had a big impact on the band and on 80s music in general, which is probably why the disc sounds so good all these years later.

[READ: February 27, 2009] Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country

I couldn’t recall the exact title of this book, so when I typed on Amazon.com “letters obama” I was surprised (although I shouldn’t have been) to see TWO books that fit this description already.  I suppose it makes sense that such compilations are being made (in fact, it seems that Obama could reignite the economy through merchandising of himself alone).  The second book isn’t due out till April, so I guess McSweeney’s have expediency on their side. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Echo #10 (2009)

Posted in Christmas on Mars, Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Military, Mystery, Technology, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, Threats on March 3, 2009| Leave a Comment »

echo102SOUNDTRACK–THE FLAMING LIPS-THE W.A.N.D. (2006).

wandThe first single from the Lips last album contains three tracks: the title track, “You Got to Hold On” and “Time Travel…Yes!”

W.A.N.D is quite a departure from the previous few records, as it begins with a brash guitar line, one of the harshest sounding songs they’ve recoded in several years.  Yet despite that, the lyrics are as positive an uplifting as ever.  It sounds like some kind of masterful protest song from the 1970s.  “You Got to Hold On” exhibits some of the sounds of the last two records, although it’s not nearly as lush.  It seems like it might have been a transitional song between Yoshimi and Mystics.  And the final track is a meditation on time travel, narrated by Steve from Blues Clues (he sure does get around…he appeared in Christmas on Mars too).

It was an excellent appetite whetter for the new album.

[READ: February 27, 2009] Echo #10

In Issue #10 we finally learn (although Julie herself doesn’t) just what exactly is all over Julie Martin.  We also get wonderfully complex behavior from Ivy–is she sympathetic to Julie, or is she just moving in for the kill.

An intriguing series just got really exciting.

(Wow, there’s not much to say about one issue of a comic book).

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Ara 13–Drawers & Booths (2007)

Posted in Adventure, Ara 13, Christmas on Mars, Clifford Chase, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Joseph Heller, Meta, Military, Religion, Smarty Pants, Supernatural, The Flaming Lips, Threats, Unreliable narrator, War on February 6, 2009| 1 Comment »

drawersSOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-Zaireeka (1997).

zaireekaOkay, get ready.  Zaireeka comes as a 4 CD set.  With a twist.  Each CD is meant to be played simultaneously.  So, you get yourself 4 boomboxes hit play at the same time and enjoy!

Each CD has some aspects of each song.  So, on one disc you may get some vocals, maybe another has some guitars and sound effects.  It all varies per disc.  In fact, on one disc, track 6 is given a warning, perhaps my favorite warning ever on a CD: “This recording also contains frequencies not normally heard on commercial recordings and on rare occasion has caused the listener to become disoriented.”

And if you do a search for Zaireeka you will read the gamut of opinions about the disc and its ridiculousness or its social coolness.  So I won’t go into that.  I will say that one fine day many years ago I tried the experiment.  I got 4 radios and synched up all the songs and it worked and it was a lot of fun.  I also listened to the set in many different ways:  Discs 1-4 individually.  Discs 1& 2, discs 1&3, discs 1& 4, discs 2& 3, discs 2&4, discs 3&4 and then discs 1,2 & 3, discs 1, 2 & 4, discs 1, 3 & 4,  and discs 2, 3 & 4.  Phew.  (I had a lot more free time on my hands back then).  And since then, I haven’t really listened to the discs at all.  Because, well, how often do you get a chance to listen to 4 discs at once?

So, online I found a stereo mixdown version of the disc.  I know purists argue that that is simply not the way to listen to the disc, and they have a point….  Many of the effects are certainly lost, and since part of the point of the experiment is that the tracks are going to wobble and go out of synch, the mixdown does ruin the effect.  However, if you actually want to hear the songs as songs, not as experiments, the stereo mixdown mix is the way to go (at least until they release the disc in a 5.0 DVD version (which evidently they might…maybe?  in 2000, or maybe 2007, or who knows.))

But what about the songs?  It’s hard to say that the songs are typical Flaming Lips songs, because that’s not really very meaningful.  (Lips songs being off the wall at the best of times).  However, the songs are designed to allow the different discs to go out of synch somewhat, creating echoes or even stranger sounds.  As such, they are rather meandering pieces, somewhat lengthy, without a lot of heavy beats (that said, there are sections with very loud chaotic drums, they just don’t have other parts to synch up to).  But this experiment allows the songwriting to shine through in th emost minute details.  And it pays off on their next album in big time.

A track by track rundown goes:

“Okay I’ll Admit That I Really Don’t Understand” opens with a big drum splash and a fantastic bassline. Intermittent piano chords let you know that this song  isn’t going to be typical.  Fun effects and a swelling chorus add to the ambience.  It’s a short song, but it sets the tone for the rest of the disc.

“Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)” starts off in a chaotic jumble, but once it settles down it has yet has another fantastic bassline  to start.  The middle choral part is really beautiful, although that scream section is pretty jarring/creepy.

As the title, “Thirty-Five Thousand Feet of Despair” suggests, it’s a sad song about a depressed pilot.  The effects include a plane taking off.  The song is propelled by a heartbeat-like drum, and the echoing voices suit the experiment very well.  There’s a “sane” vocal track and an “insane” vocal track.

“A Machine in India” is 10 minutes long.  It’s got a long meandering middle section, but the slow keyboard melody remains constant.  It’s also the first real occurrence of Wayne’s apparent obsession with vaginas (see Christmas on Mars).  It begins sweetly as a nice acoustic song but it explores many sonic areas (according to theliner notes, Wayne and his wife were discussing her menstrual cycle, and that was the jumping off point of this song).

“The Train Runs over the Camel but Is Derailed by the Gnat” begins with a fascinating cacophony of drums and ends in a very sweet “na na na” chorus.  In between you get yet another splendid trippy pop song.

“How Will We Know? (Futuristic Crashendos)” contains a shockingly high pitched sound (as warned) and yet the main body of the song is another of Wayne’s folky and very catchy melodies.

“March of the Rotten Vegetables” is probably my favorite track on the disc, despite the fact that it’s an instrumental.  It starts with some really interesting squeaky sounds and a cool guitar riff.  It morphs into yet another bombastic drum “solo” over a nice piano melody.  The liner notes indicates there are bats involved, but I’m not quite sure I hear it.

“The Big Ol’ Bug Is the New Baby Now” is a spoken word piece in which Wayne relates a story about how his dogs treat a stuffed toy like a baby, until they get a “Big Ol’ Bug” which becomes, as you may guess, the new baby.  Each disc has different ambient effects.  As the song ends, a swelling chorus sings the title until the loudly barking dogs bring an end to the song and the experiment as a whole.

As I mentioned, the stereo mixdown version is one way to enjoy the music.  But I must say that even listening one disc at at time can be fun (although really, that comes down to much more of an experimental music experience than anything else).  The social aspect of the performance certainly appeals, but I’m pretty antisocial and can’t imagine that I’d ever do it.

If you like the Lips at all but have been afraid of this CD because of how ridiculous it is, it’s probably worth the outlay of funds to buy the set or download a track or two.  It’s a fun disc that rewards patience, and, really, the songs are all very good.  You could also look for the stereo mixdown, but really, you’d only be getting half the story.

[READ: February 3, 3009] Drawers & Booths

Full disclosure: Ara 13 asked if I’d like to read his book and write about it. I looked up the book on Amazon, and it sounded cool, so I agreed.

Drawers & Booths is a work of metafiction.  A simple definition of metafiction, in case you don’t know, is: “a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction;  metafiction does not let the reader forget that he or she is reading a fictional work” (for the full Wikipedia explanation click here.)

SPOILER ALERT:  Generally I try not to give anything away when I review a book.  Some things are unavoidable of course, but any major plot twists or surprises I try to leave for the reader to discover by him or herself.  However, because this book is metafictional, and there are twists, surprises, and massive plot alterations throughout the book, the only way I can review it at all is to give some of these things away.  I don’t think I ruin anything for anyone, but tread lightly if you want nothing revealed. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #29 (2008)

Posted in Adventure, Fishbone, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Joyce Carol Oates, King's X, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Meta, Military, Outer Space, Roddy Doyle, Sex, Short Story, Smarty Pants, Threats, Unlikable main character, Violence, War, Yannick Murphy on January 11, 2009| Leave a Comment »

mc29SOUNDTRACK: FISHBONE-Give a Monkey a Brain and He’ll Swear He’s the Center of the Universe (1993).

monkeyI had actually forgotten about this album, because it was so overshadowed by Truth and Soul and Reality….. When I put it on I wasn’t expecting much (Fishbone had something of a precipitous decline around this time).  So, I was amazingly delighted with how much I remembered this album and how much I enjoyed it (which shows to me that I must have listened to it a lot back in college).

This album is much much heavier than anything they’ve done up to this point (I can’t speak for the releases that came after it).  It does have some variety of songs, but not nearly as much as their previous releases.  The other notable thing is that there’s no short songs on it.  There’s none of the one minute songs that they’ve put throughout their discs.

“Swim” was the single from the album and it is heavy and moshy.  The video, I seem to recall, was a lot of people crowd surfing.  “Black Flowers” slows things down a bit, but unlike previous ballads, this one is still pretty loud.  It’s got a great catchy melody, but it’s still  quite dark. “Servitude” reminds me of some of King’s X’s s darker moments, with their riffs and dark harmonies.  (This just shows how Fishbone is much more metal on this release).  Their first “lighter” song is the return to ska with “Unyielding Condition.”  It’s a nice let up from the heaviness, and is still catchy. “Lemon Meringue” is the other lighter moment, with a nice bass riff included.

Funk returns with “Properties of Propaganda” and the repeated chants of “Fuk This Shit on Up.”  “The Warmth of Your Breath” is hardcore insanity, the type of song that would have been about 2 minutes on another disc sort of overstays its welcome, although the often repeated line “may your dog’s colon be familiar with the warmth of your breath” while barely audible can’t help but raise a smile.  And even though “Drunk Skitzo” features Branford Marsalis, it’s still too long for such silliness.

So, it’s really the first half of the disc that I liked a lot…I guess some discs run too long.

I never got a Fishbone CD after this one.   The reviews were pretty lousy by then.  But of course, the reviews of this one were lousy too, so maybe I’m, selling their later output short.

[READ: January 3, 2009] McSweeney’s # 29

My cover for this book happens to be red.  Huh.

This issue comes as a hardcover book.  There are planets on the cover, including a die cut hole that shows the moon of the next page.

On the bottom of every page of the book are matchbox labels.  Most of them are Eastern European in origin.  They were collected by Jane McDevitt, a web designer in the UK.  Some of the images are available on her Flickr site: www.flickr.com/photos/maraid.  They are a pretty cool collection of images.  And, they brighten up all the work . (more…)

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12 musical things I (we) like about Christmas

Posted in Barenaked Ladies, Brian Wilson, Canadian Music, Christmas Album, Comedy Album, Consumerism, David Bowie, Dreams, Funny (ha ha), Holidays, It's a Wonderful Life, Magic, Marriage (Happy), Military, Paul Debraski, Radio, Religion, South Park, Supernatural, War on December 22, 2008| 3 Comments »

After getting the dislikes out of my system, it’s time to bring in the positivity.  Now that I have a lot of different Christmas discs to choose from, I don’t get inundated with the same songs over and over.  This has really allowed me to appreciate the old songs for what they are.

So, here’s 12 things I like about the holiday tune season (in no particular order)

1. “O Holy Night”
oholyI feel like I never really knew this song until I heard Cartman getting cattle-prodded for not knowing the words.   I listened to that version all the time (but I can’t tell if I like that version or the one on Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics better [“Fall on your knees, and hear the angels… something” “VOICES!”]), and what it did was give me a real appreciation for what a cool song this is.  The chord changes are very satisfying without being really obvious.  And, it’s not an easy song to sing.  But I have liked every tooversion I’ve heard: from Cartman to Avril Lavigne (whose first two verses on Maybe This Christmas, Too are the most vibrato-free singing I have ever heard.  I’m quite certain she’s flat all the way through, and yet her voice is so unaffected it’s totally disconcerting.  Tell me what you think…it’s available here).

Sarah: This truly is a beautiful song and I love all its versions as well, from Cartman to Tracy Chapman. I’m not a religious person but I always feel a little holy when I sing this. (more…)

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Ben Schott–Schott’s Miscellany 2008: An Almanac (2007)

Posted in Airlines, Ben Schott, Books about music, Canadian Content, Collecting, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Dip-in Books, Ian Hollingshead, King's X, Military, Radio, Religion, Sex, Sports, Technology, Threats, Universities, Violence, War, Wikipedia on October 20, 2008| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KING’S X-Manic Moonlight (2001).

This disc is not terribly popular among the King’s X fans.  A big complaint is that they dared to use drum loops.  It’s kind of a funny complaint because aside from adding a bit of texture (and for some reason, having each song start out with the drum machine), it’s not like they’ve suddenly gone all techno.  In fact, overall the album has a feeling of insular claustrophobia.  It feels like the songs are just densely packed with little room to breathe.

To me, the loops aren’t that odd for a band that’s big into experimentation (although you’ll note they were not used again).  What’s unusual is the addition of funk elements in “Believe,” and some really funky elements in “Vegetable”  There’s also some noisy/crunchy guitar workouts in “Yeah.” This song is also kind of odd as the verses are practically inaudible, but the choruses (which consist of the word “Yeah”) are just so great! Perhaps the most unusual track on the disc is “Skeptical Wind” which comes across as a rhymed/spoken-word piece that references Mia Farrow among other things.

But the title track sounds most like the King’s X we know and love.  In addition, “False Alarm” and “Jenna” are pretty close to the earlier Ty ballads (even though Ty doesn’t sing them).  They contain the harmonies we’re used to, but really they are sort of smothered in all of the surrounding noise.

The album is still full of great songs…the guys never lost their songwriting chops.  It’s just the way the songs are presented that makes them sound so different. It’s an interesting experiment, for which I give them credit, but it really doesn’t showcase the best aspects of the band.

[READ: Throughout 2008] Schott’s Miscellany 2008

In the best case of “but I thought you liked him” ever, Sarah bought me this book for Christmas, certain that I had read and enjoyed other books by him.  Interestingly, I had never heard of him or his books.  But I was very intrigued by the concept of it.

As you might imagine, I enjoy trivia and I like facts.  And for a person like me, this collection is fantastic.  As the subtitle says, it is an almanac; however, unlike the standard almanacs (Information Please, etc.) which are just lists of information.  Ben Schott (could he be the only one who works on this book?) gathers all of the interesting things that happened from September 2006 through August 2007 into interesting, subjective groups, with interesting, subjective names, and then writes about them. (more…)

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Deb Olin Unferth–Vacation (2008)

Posted in Adventure, Cancer as plot device, Deb Olin Unferth, Funny (strange), Harry Potter, James Joyce, King's X, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Military, Slacker, The Walrus on October 16, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KING’S X-Please Come Home Mr Bulbous (2000).

I’ve always loved the silly side of King’s X, especially when it comes to titles.  And here we have yet another bizarro album title.  And King’s X’s 8th disc actually lives up to the title.  Well, sort of.  But it is one of the band’s most unusual records musically.  They experiment with many different sounds and textures.  There’s a lot of really spare sections, where Doug’s bass is not the heavy, smooth sound we’ve become used to, but rather, single notes (or sometimes two notes at once) played staccato.  There’s also a lot of different styles within one song–King’s X have always experimented with sounds, but it was usually one style per song.  This one mixes things up tremendously.

“Fishbowl Man” has the rather unique distinction of being a chunky heavy guitar riff with vocals by Doug, a pretty, softish chorus sung by Ty and, even weirder, a spoken word center.  “Julia” follows with several different parts: a rather mellow opening, with a harmony-filled chorus, a suddenly heavy heavy post-chorus, and a little psychedelia thrown in for good measure.  “She’s Gone Away”‘s catchy chorus sounds an awful lot like one of King’s X catchy Ty ballads, but musically it’s quite different. There’s some two-notes-at-once bass playing, and–despite the soaring harmonies of the chorus–the guitar work is much heavier and darker for a Ty-sung song.  The solo also has an unusual part in which the bass and drums are very sparse while Ty noodles away.

“Marsh Mellow Field” sounds like a typical King’s X song, but there’s new stuff added: Doug singing a call and response chorus to himself, Ty and Doug splitting vocals in the verse, but it all comes back to a catchy chorus.  “When You’re Scared” has a really weird (for King’s X) recording sound that sounds like they’re in a huge, empty field.  But it works really well with the gentle harmonious chorus.

Consistently the highlight for most listeners is “Charlie Sheen.”  It is upbeat and pretty and what the hell it has to do with Charlie Sheen no one knows.  There’s great vocal interplay on this, and it ranks pretty high on the Ty ballad list.  And, somewhat unusually for this disc, there’s nothing unusual about it.

“Smudge” contains some of the darkest lyrics I can think of for King’s X.  Doug even sings of breaking a rosary.  Evidently the backlash from the Christian community was pretty strong.  “Bitter Sweet” has a loping bass that plays nicely over this tender, short ballad.  And the disc ends with 11 minutes of the sweet “Move Me (Parts 1 and 2)”.  Despite the oddities at the beginning of the album, the bulk of the disc is pretty conventional King’s X.  And they’ve still got it.

One other unusual thing: between some tracks on the CD there are tongue twisters in Dutch and Japanese. (I lifted this from Wikipedia, by the way)

* At the end of track 1: Acht-en-Tachtig-Prachtige-Grachten
This is Dutch for “88 (achtentachtig) beautiful (prachtige) canals (grachten).”
* At the end of track 3: Tonari no kyaku wa yoku kaki kuu kyaku da
This is a Japanese tongue twister (hayakuchi kotoba) meaning “The adjacent (tonari) customer (kyaku) eats (kuu) persimmons (kaki) often (yoku).”
* At the end of track 4: Zes-en-Zestig-Sinaas-Appel-Schillen
This is again Dutch and means “66 (zesenzestig) orange (sinaasappel) peels (schillen).”
* At the end of track 5: Hottentotten-Tenten-Tentoonstellingen
Dutch tongue twister meaning “(an) exhibition of tents made by the Hottentots.”
* At the end of track 6: Chikushō, nante hidee sandoicchi da
Japanese meaning “Damn (chikushō)! How awful (hidee) this sandwich (sandoicchi) is!”
* At the end of track 10: Acht-en-Tachtig-Prachtige-Grachten
See first tongue twister.

[READ: October 1, 2008] Vacation

I received this book in the mail as part of my McSweeney’s Book Club.  I tend to put new books at the bottom of my pile, but I decided to break it up and read this one right away.  It sounded really interesting, I liked Unferth’s flash fiction, and it was fairly short itself (216 pages).  I would say that aside from Harry Potter, this may be my fastest turnaround on a book coming out and me reading it.

But enough about me.  This book is about Myers and his wife, Gray and his daughter, Claire and the Untrainer, and Spoke and Sexy Woman in Bikini.

The set up of the book caught my attention right away.  It begins with Claire’s story.  She sees a man on her train.  He looks familiar, but his head is oddly misshapen.  She finds it very unsettling.  The man walks off the train and out of her life.  And then we follow the man.  It reminded me of Slacker, where people’s lives intersect briefly and we follow the next person. (more…)

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Kurt Vonnegut–The Sirens of Titan (1959)

Posted in Adventure, Corporate skewering, End of the World, Funny (ha ha), King's X, Kurt Vonnegut, Marriage Trouble, Military, Political Humor, Sci-fi, Technology, Time Travel, War on September 27, 2008| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: KING’S X-Tape Head (1998).

Tape Head follows the relatively gentle and harmonious Ear Candy with a serious blast of groov-y heavy metal.  The album is solidly consistent and very smooth.  Despite the heaviness of many of the tracks, it doesn’t have a lot of the angular/unusual chords of their earlier records.  It also doesn’t juxtapose them with magnificent harmonies.  Rather, we get a lot of group vocals making for a very full sound.

Again, there’s not really a bad song in the bunch, and after a couple listens, you’ll get the melodies stuck in your head.  “Groove Machine” starts off the record with a heavy riff.  It’s one of the darkest songs on the disc.  “Over and Over” is one of the most bass heavy ballads that Kings X have done.  It’s not a heavy song, per se, but typically, like “Goldilox” or “Mississippi Moon,” the ballad is mostly acoustic guitars.  This one however uses the bass as the prime mover of the song. It’s still a ballad though, and quite a pretty one.

“Ono” is probably the quintessential song to describe Tape Head, though.  Not that it’s the best song, but it’s like the album in a nutshell:  Riff heavy verses, beautiful choruses (heavy but smooth, not aggressive sounding) and then a wild guitar solo.  “Ocean” is a great addition to the Ty-sung canon that has been building since Faith Hope Love.  “Little Bit of Soul” is one of their catchiest, smoothest numbers of this period; it’s followed by “Hate You” which is not as heavy as you might expect.  “Mr Evil” is the most early- King’s X-sounding of the bunch, where the guitar lines take precedence and the harmonies all come back.

It’s a great, solid disc and a nice companion to Ear Candy.

[READ: September 25, 2008]: The Sirens of Titan

Continuing my series of Kurt Vonnegut books, I progress to The Sirens of Titan.  And, while I applaud Vantage Books for the line of all of the Vonnegut titles having that big V on the cover, check out those early releases!  So cool.

Anyhow, I had never even heard of this book, so I held very low expectations for it. I was astonished at not only how funny it was but just how much I enjoyed it.

Much of this book seems to be, if not a launching point, at least a basis for many of Vonnegut’s most famous pieces.  Tralfamadore, made famous in Slaughterhouse Five, is introduced here.  As is Vonnegut’s love of time travel and even space travel.  (more…)

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