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Archive for the ‘Belle and Sebastian’ Category

Allegra Goodman–“A Challenge You Have Overcome” (New Yorker, January 25, 2021)

Posted in Allegra Goodman, Belle and Sebastian, College, New Yorker, Parenting, Publishers, Short Story, Stuart David, Stuart Murdoch, Tindersticks on February 6, 2021| Leave a Comment »

 SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-“City Sickness” (1993).

In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.

Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape.  So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.

In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock.  Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that.  In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate.

I don’t recall when I first heard the Tindersticks, but I was immediately a fan.  The camber pop was lovely, the strings gorgeous and Stuart Staples’ voice was deep and robust.  Yes, his lyrics are dark or at least sad (or they always seem like they are even when they aren’t), but his voice makes you want to listen to everything he has to say.

This song has a simple melody and a gentle sweeping chorus complete with strings and glockenspiel all underpinned with an almost pop melody.  The big surprise comes during the instrumental break which features a… guitar, violin(?) mixed really low in the background, playing a kind of noise/screeching sound that you almost don’t notice until it stops.

Tindersticks would go on to write many more great albums over the years and are still going.

[READ: February 3, 2021] “A Challenge You Have Overcome”

This is about a couple, Steve and Andrea, who were from a long line of long marriages (on Steve’s side).  They had been married 25 years, which Steve’s mother Jeanne must have been pleased by given Andrea’s family’s history.

Things weren’t perfect:

You might sleep in separate bedrooms and wash dishes in a fury.  You might find a moldy peach in the refrigerator and leave it on the counter for three days as evidence of some private trial–but you would never leave.

Steve and Andrea had endured all kinds of struggles and difficulties, including Andrea losing her job and Steev hating his own job.  Steve works in academic publishing and his small press is slowly going digital–something eh was definitely not interested in.  Andrea had recently begun counselling high school students about getting into college.

Surely Jeanne would approve.   Jeanne had lost patience with everyone toward the end of her life and was not afraid of direct honesty.  Jeanne had brought Andrea to tears many times–she had no filter. (more…)

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Sam Lipsyte–“Waiting for To-Go” (New Yorker, January 25, 2021)

Posted in Belle and Sebastian, Food, Funny (ha ha), Huh?, New Yorker, Sam Lipsyte, Samuel Beckett, Stuart David, Stuart Murdoch, The Go-Betweens on February 5, 2021| Leave a Comment »

 SOUNDTRACK: THE GO-BETWEENS-“Streets of Your Town” (1988).

In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.

Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape.  So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.

In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock.  Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that.  In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate.

The Go-Betweens were the brainchild of wonderful songwriters Robert Forster and Grant McLennan.  They wrote beautiful poppy, catchy songs, often with dark lyrics.

“Streets of Your Town” starts out with a boppy beat and a catchy guitar riff.  It opens with the chorus–“round and round, up and down, through the streets of your town.”  Then the tone shifts.

The verse is still musically perky but then you get this lyric

,And don’t the sun look good today?
But the rain is on its way
Watch the butcher shine his knives
And this town is full of battered wives

Right back into the bouncy chorus. This was a pretty big single for them and yet those lyrics.  A perfect study for a budding sonmgrwiter.

[READ: February 3, 2021] “Waiting for To-Go”

This is a short Shouts and Murmurs piece from Sam Lipsyte.  I have really enjoyed his stories but realized I haven’t seen anything from him in a while.  This, like many Shouts and Murmurs, seems pretty funny but in reflection, is only mildly amusing.

The title is part of the joke in this piece.

Two people named E and V (see Beckett) are sitting in a room gazing at their phones

In the first scene one of them says he heard a podcast about the Neolithic or something.  The other asks if that was the Stone Age, but he says no, they had copper, like copper axes.

The second person says copper sounds nice, but he is referring to the copper pan that he just bought,

In scene two, later tin the night, one of them, looking at his phone, says “My God. That’s amazing.”

What is it?
No.
What?
Nothing.
Oh.

(more…)

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Ngozi Ukazu–Check Please [Book 2: Hockey] (2020)

Posted in Belle and Sebastian, Drinking, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Hockey, LGBTQ, Ngozi Ukazu, Pies, Set at School, Stereolab, Stuart David, Stuart Murdoch, Universities on February 3, 2021| Leave a Comment »

 SOUNDTRACK: STEREOLAB-“High Expectation” (1991).

In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.

Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape.  So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.

In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock.  Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that.  In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate.

Stereolab have been around forever (I saw them live two years ago) and their music has gone through several transformations over the years.

This song comes from their second release, an EP called Super-Electric, and was then released on the Switched On collection.  It’s a pretty quiet song, with a kind of soporific feel–muted guitars, no drums, and a kind of gauzy sheen over all the music.

One of the best things about Stereolab is that their lyrics are usually absolutely different from what you think they might be about given the music and Lætitia Sadier’s delivery.  She sings softly and, because French is her native language, her emphases are not always where one might expect, so she can sing a line like: “There is no sense in being interested/In a child, a group, or in a society” (in the song Spark Plug”) and it sounds like a pretty pop song with lovely backing vocals.

In “High Expectation,” she sings gently over this chill-out song:

Do you really want to love someone who does not love you
Do you really want to stab your enemy in the back.  Stab him in front.

and then the understated but still catchy chorus:

I don’t, I don’t, I don’t, I’m sorry.

Stereolab were unique right from the get go.

[READ: June 1, 2020] Check Please Book 2

Check Please is a two-part graphic novel.  Book 1 followed college freshman Eric “Bitty” Bittle through his freshman and sophomore years.  In book two Bitty is now a junior (and senior) Samwell College and is taking on more responsibilities.

The book is written as a vlog from Bitty.  As the opening blurb tells us

I’m a junior on the Samwell men’s hockey team and not only do I have new teammates and responsibilities I’ve got a new beau–remember Jack?  Dating a professional hockey player wasn’t anything I expected to do in college.  My parents don’t know, my teammates have no clue, and Jack and I aren’t sure that we want to keep it a secret.

Jack Zimmerman is now playing pro hockey for the Falcons.  He has a hockey nickname–Zimmboni–and the respect of his team.  Despite the high profile games dn Bitty’s schooling, they do manage to see each other (Zoom meetings before they were what everyone was doing). (more…)

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Leonard Michaels–“Nachman from Los Angeles” (New Yorker, November 12, 2001)

Posted in Belle and Sebastian, Cheating, David Westlake, Henri Bergson, Leonard Michaels, New Yorker, Philosophy, Short Story, Stuart David, Stuart Murdoch, The Servants, Universities on February 2, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE SERVANTS-“Afterglow” (1990).

In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.

Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape.  So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.

In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock.  Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that.  In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate.

The Servants are a band I’ve never heard of.  They released one album in 1990, Disinterest.  Band member Luke Haines said, “It is art rock … ten years too late and fifteen years too early.”  They recorded a second album, Small Time, but it wasn’t released until twenty-one years later–following the inclusion of Disinterest in Mojo magazine’s 2011 list of the greatest British indie records of all time.

Evidently, Stuart Murdoch liked singer-songwriter David Westlake’s music so much, he wanted to start  band with him (before Belle & Sebastian).

I listened to this song on Spotify and was really surprised by the recording:

Of all the songs on here, I think this one surprised me the most.  The recording is incredibly muffled.  It all sounds like it was recorded on a cassette player.

It opens with a thumping guitar note and a buzzy bass line meandering around a subsequent guitar line.  There are drums but they are only hitting on the beat with an occasional cymbal that sounds like it’s down the hall.  Westlake’s vocals are so muffled I can’t actually tell what he’s saying, but there does appear to be an occasional harmony vocal.

Interestingly, the music is pretty catchy once it gets going, you just can’t hear any detail as to what’s going on.

Then I realized that this recording is actually an early demo that came with a reissued album.  That’s why it sounds so terrible.

Hearing the version on YouTube (which I assume is the real thing–there’s virtually no information about this song online!), Murdoch’s appreciation makes a lot more sense.

The song moves along nicely with a pretty guitar and steady bass.  Westlake’s voice is low and understated.  I like the way the chorus reveals itself, almost as the end of the first verse instead of a separate part of the song

Stay with me
please don’t go, afterglow.

The song is jangly with a few nice guitar flourishes and a rather unexpected guitar solo.

It’s also two minutes shorter than the demo (and honestly sounds like a totally different song–I feel like something is wrong somewhere).

[READ: January 30, 2021] “Nachman from Los Angeles”

Nachman is, indeed, from Los Angeles.  His friend Norbert has just introduced him to Prince Ali from Persia.  Ali has a proposition for him.  At Norbert’s suggestion, Ali would like Nachman to write Ali’s metaphysics paper for him.

Ali took the class thinking that metaphysics had something to do with mysticism.  By the time he realized it didn’t, it was too late to drop it.  He needs this class to graduate and he has no head for this sort of thing.  Norbert said that Nachman was a great writer. Norbert did not say that Nachman was a mathematician who has never read Henri Bergson.

When Ali said that he would pay him $1,000, he took Nachman’s stunned silence as an agreement.

Nachman is mad at Norbert–who doesn’t even go to school with them.  Norbert got a tattoo which upset his father so much that he cut Norbert off, so Norbert can’t afford school.  But Norbert sees this transaction as a business opportunity–$1,000 a paper, imagine that.

Nachman settled in to read Bergson.  Ali seemed concerned that Nachman was reading instead of writing.  The paper was not due for three weeks, and Nachman obviously needs to learn about what Bergson had to say. (more…)

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Sophie Escabasse–Witches of Brooklyn (2020)

Posted in André François, Belle and Sebastian, Children's Books, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Magic, Sophie Escabasse, Stuart David, Stuart Murdoch, Supernatural, Superstitions, Wire, Witches on February 1, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: WIRE-“Outdoor Miner” (1978).

In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.

Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape.  So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.

In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock.  Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that.  In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate.

Wire is another band that is quite unlike most of the other bands on the mixtape.  Over the years, Wire became a softer, somewhat more poppy band.  But on their first couple of albums, they were pretty abrasive.

True, their music was unconventional–which Murdoch clearly likes, but unlike the other bands, this album, Chairs Missing starts with some really sharp guitars and heavy bass and drums.  Although some of the later songs do have softer choruses.

Interestingly most of the songs on this record are quite short–almost half are under three minutes.  Murdoch seems to like short songs, so “Outdoor Miner” being less than two minutes makes sense.  It is also very different from most of the rest of the album.  The bass is smooth, the guitars jangle and Colin Newman’s voice is really gentle.  There’s also some gorgeous harmonies.

The chorus is really catchy and bouncy and the end of the song (keeping in mind the whole song is less than two minutes) features the chorus with another vocal line singing a counterpoint melody. It packs a lot of goodness in a small package.

[READ: January 31, 2021] Witches of Brooklyn

T. bought this book and knew I’d like it.  She was very right.

I liked everything about his book.  I especially liked the artwork.  As I was admiring the book, I kept thinking that her artwork was different in some way.  Then I read her biography and learned that Sophie Escabasse is French (she now lives in Brooklyn) and her favorite artist is Belgian cartoonist André François.  I didn’t know his work (his books have recently been translated into english as Gomer Goof and Marsupilami).  Escabasse’s work isn’t really like his at all, but they both share the European sensibility that I find different from American artists.

The main character Effie, is fairly straightforward looking, but her aunts are both wonderfully odd looking.  Her Aunt Selimene looks almost like an inverted bowling pin with a long thin chin; Aunt Carolta is very wide and round with wideset eyes.  But what sets her apart is that she wears the tiniest glasses on the bridge of her nose.  When I first looked at her head on, I thought they were nostrils. But they are not and they are hilarious.

The book starts off unusually with the doorbell saying Driiiiing.  I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a doorbell ring start with a D before.

The doorbell rings and two old ladies clamber down the stairs to see who it is (grumbling humorously all the way). It is a man from Adoption services; he is with a little girl.  He is wearing sunglasses even though it is 2 or 3 in the morning.  He asks for Selimene Huchbolt-Walloo.  She is sister to Emily?  Yes.  Then, in an astonishingly fast paced reveal, the man says that Selimene is now Effie’s legal guardian. (He doesn’t say that Emily died, it’s just implied, I guess).  Selimene has a raging temper and yells at the poor man while Aunt Carolta, brings Effie inside and is very nice to her. (more…)

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Haruki Murakami–“A Poor-Aunt Story” (New Yorker, December 3, 2001)

Posted in Belle and Sebastian, Haruki Murakami, Huh?, Humiliation, Jay Rubin, New Yorker, Short Story, Stuart David, Stuart Murdoch, The Church, The Railway Children, Translation on January 31, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE RAILWAY CHILDREN-“Brighter” (1987).

In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.

Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape.  So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.

In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock.  Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that.  In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate.

A looping almost marimba-like sound opens before a jangly guitar and steady bass.  Here’s another song where the main instrument is the bass with guitar flourishes added on top.  This band reminds me of The Church (who had put outa couple of albums by now).

Singer Gary Newby has a nice crooning voice and the chorus is quite catchy.  The instrumental break allows the guitar to shine a bit with a meandering solo.  But the biggest surprise comes about 4 minutes in when there’s a drum solo of sorts–played on something like a metallic bongo.  After all of the short songs, this one pushes five minutes and is something of a surprise.

There’s some other good stuff on Reunion Wilderness, like “Gentle Sound” which I thought was a bit catchier.

[READ: January 30, 2021] “A Poor-Aunt Story”

In this story Murakami discusses a poor-aunt. I don’t know of this is a universal idea as I’ve never heard it before, although I do get where he’s coming from.

He says it was a beautiful day and he was out enjoying it when he suddenly had the idea of a poor aunt.  There wasn’t even a poor aunt around, the idea just came to him and it stuck.  He needed to write a story about a poor aunt.

He told his friend he wanted to write a poor aunt story.  She asked if he had a poor aunt.  He said no.  She said she did have a poor aunt bit didn’t want to write about her.

He admits that chances are “you don’t have a poor aunt relative, but you have seen one.”

Every wedding reception has a poor aunt.

No one bothers to introduce her.  No one talks to her.  No one asks her to give a speech.  She just sits at the table like an empty milk bottle.

When people look at the photo album they ask about her and the groom says she’s no one, just a poor aunt of mine.

He woke up the next day and a found that a poor aunt–a little one–was stuck to his back.

Nothing alerted him to her presence, he just felt it. She wasn’t heavy and didnt breathe across his shoulder. People had to look hard to see she was there.  But people did see her–she gives me the creeps, a friend said.  He said it felt like his mother was watching them.

The narrator was unable to see the poor aunt but other people cuid and they all saw her as something else–usually something unfortunate–a friend’s dog who had died.  Soon enough friends stopped calling him–they found it depressing.  But the media swooped in on him. He even made it on the show “Look What Else Is Out There.”  He tried to explain what had happened but the show tried to sensationalize him–looking for a horror story or a joke.

One of his friends said she wished it had been an umbrella stand on his back–that would be more pleasant to look at and more practical.  He could even have painted it different colors.

The poor aunt left him in autumn. He was on a train ride and watched as a mother tried to deal with her squabbling children.  The boy was teasing his sister–stealing her hat.  She was getting very upset and complaining to her mother.  The mother was trying to read and was getting angry at the daughter for bothering her. Finally the girl reached across the seat and slapped the boy’s face and took her hat, feeling very pleased with herself.

The mother was furious and made the girl sit in a different aisle–next to the narrator.  The child protested but the mother said “You’re not part of this family anymore.”  He wanted to say something to the girl, to cheer her up.  Like that she had done a good job, but he knew it would only confuse and frighten her so he said nothing.

Sometime during that interaction, the poor aunt left him.  He wasn’t aware of it, she was just gone.

This was one of Murakami’s first experiments with the short story form.  It was translated by Jay Rubin.

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V.S. Naipaul–“Bohemia” (New Yorker, October 22, 2001)

Posted in Belle and Sebastian, Franz Kafka, Josef K, Joy Division, London England, New Yorker, Newspapers, Sex, Short Story, Stuart David, Stuart Murdoch, Universities, V.S. Naipaul on January 30, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JOSEF K-“Sorry for Laughing” (1985).

In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.

Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape.  So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.

In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock.  Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that.  In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate.

Josef K were a Scottish band named after the main character in Franz Kafka’s The Trial.  I had never heard of them, but they are apparently hugely influential (despite releasing only one record).

Josef K are quite unlike anyone else on the mix tape thus far.  They are far darker (in a Joy Division sort of way).  I mean look what they based their name on.  And there are drums. But they are also very un-rock–playing sharp angular guitars and lead bass lines.

“Sorry for Laughing” opens with a  snapping drum and a rumbling, almost out of control bass line.  The guitars are quieter, playing sharp chords. It’s catchy in a dark sort of way.  The weirdest part comes at the end of the bridge when the bass seems to play a tiny riff that doesn’t quite work–it’s almost an anti-hook and it happens twice.

The middle of the song has a kind of bass solo while the vocals make a chk chk sound. This must have been an incredibly unique song at the time.  And you can definitely hear how a lot of bands were influenced by them.

[READ: January 20, 2021] “Bohemia”

This story, set in the 1950s, is about Willie, a young Indian man traveling to London for the first time.

He is going to London for school–an un-famous school it turns out–modeled after Oxford and Cambridge.

Willie didn’t know much about London–Buckingham Palace and Speaker’s Corner were the extent of it.  He was disappointed by both when he saw them.  He felt the Maharaja’s palace was far superior, and the people in Speakers Corner were mostly irritating.

His father had given him the names of people to get in touch with.  Willie didn’t want to do that–he wanted to succeed on his own.  But he found things very tough going.  So he looked up one of the men–a newspaper reporter.  The man was very proud of his work and very proud of his paper  But Willie knew nothing of the paper or even enough of London to know what the paper wrote about.  It was not an auspicious meeting. (more…)

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Hanif Kureishi–“Touched” (New Yorker, September 17, 2001)

Posted in Arthur Miller, Belle and Sebastian, Blindness, Cocteau Twins, Cricket, Hanif Kureishi, Huh?, Humiliation, New Yorker, Sex, Short Story, Stuart David, Stuart Murdoch on January 29, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: COCTEAU TWINS-“Oomingmak” (1986).

In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.

Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape.  So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.

In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock.  Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that.  In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate.

Of all the bands on the list, Cocteau Twins were the one I know (and like) best.  I’ve been a fan since 1987, so just after this album came out.  I never remember which songs are which by them, because they have titles like “Oomingmak.”

Cocteau Twins are a magical band and at the time (and perhaps even now) no one sounded like them.  Their music is so ethereal, it practically floats away both because of the shimmering echoing guitars of Robin Guthrie and Elizabeth Frasier’s high pitched vocals–often with non-intelligible words. [I honestly never knew she was actually singing words, but I see she was].

This song is the shortest song on Victorialand.  It has a fast repeating guitar line and Fraser singing softly.  Toward the end, she sings harmonies with herself in her slightly more harsh sounding vocal style.  It’s a lovely song, as all of their are.

[READ: January 20, 2021] “Touched”

Reading this right after reading the Arthur Miller story was really strange.  Because here was another thirteen year-old boy possibly having sex with an adult woman.

The story opens on Ali, the thirteen year-old.  His Bombay family has visited him in England and are now returning to India.  Ali was very sad to see them go,

Ali was most upset because his cousin Zahida was leaving. She was a year older than him.  She had pressed her lips to his and then they ran up into the attic together and then

he continued caressinuntil, making his way through intricate whirls of material, he reached her flesh and slid his hand into the top of the crack.

He was suddenly concerned about being discovered they quickly separated.

Wow. (more…)

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Arthur Miller–“Bulldog” (New Yorker, August 13, 2001)

Posted in Arthur Miller, Belle and Sebastian, Dogs, Huh?, New Yorker, Sex, Short Story, Stuart David, Stuart Murdoch, The Weather Prophets on January 28, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE WEATHER PROPHETS-“Almost Prayed” (1987).

In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.

Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape.  So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.

In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock.  Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that.  In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate

I’ve been listening to all of these songs on Spotify.  So far, most of the songs have been deep cuts, but this one was The Weather Prophets’ number one song.

I’d never heard of them.  They put out two albums on the Creation label (in fact, Creation head honcho Alan McGee played bass in the band for a short time), and so it’s probably no surprise that they sound a but like The Stone Roses.  This is, so far, the bounciest and most immediately catchy song on the mixtape.

The guitars jangle, although not as much as in some of the other songs.  Like in most of the other songs, the singer kind of sing-speaks, although less than the others.  The biggest difference with this is that it really moves along a clip–much faster than the other songs.  A good pick me up in a mix tape.

[READ: January 20, 2021] “Bulldog”

I know that fiction is not true.  I know that.  But realistic fiction tends to be based on something.  So if this is based on something, then either Arthur Miller lived a very different life than I could imagine or things were very different in the 1920s.  I also had no idea that Arthur Miller was still alive in 2001 (he died in 2005).

This is a fairly simple story: a thirteen year-old boy sees an ad for puppies for sale.  They are brindle bulldogs for sale for $3 each.  The boy has some money (although $3 is a large chunk of it).  He bought an apple tree and a pear tree last year (30 cents each), so he is accustomed to spending money.  But his family has never had a dog–his brother even makes fun of him for wanting one.  What are you going to feed it, soup?

He travels across the city to the apartment in Brooklyn.  The woman opens the door in a robe and seems annoyed.  When he says he’s there for the dog, she loosens up and invites him in.  She asks his age and when he says 13 she seems tickled by that.

The look at the puppies.  He had looked up what the puppies should look like in the World Book, but there were no pictures of brindle bulldogs.  He thought these puppies were just brown and didn’t look like a bulldog at all.

While he was holding the puppy, she sat next to him and her robe opened.  She was naked.  She kissed him and soon they were on the carpet together. (more…)

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Allie Brosh–Solutions and other Problems (2020)

Posted in Allie Brosh, Babies, Babysitters, Belle and Sebastian, Biography, Cats, Depression, Dogs, Drugs, Everything But the Girl, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Horses, Language, Poo, Stuart David, Stuart Murdoch, Tracy Thorn on January 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL-“Ballad of the Times” (1985).

In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.

Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape.  So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.

In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock.  Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that.  In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate.

Of course I know of Everything But the Girl, they really took off a few years after this album came out.  Indeed, their sound changed quite a lot since this first album.

But I never really listened to them.  Of course, I knew their song “Missing” (“like the deserts miss the rain”) which was pretty ubiquitous in mid 1990s.  But in the mid 1980s, the band’s sound was very different–characterized by jangly guitars and a more upbeat feel.

Love Not Money was the band’ second album.  The first song on the album “When All’s Well” has a very distinctive feel like The Smiths–with the picked echoing guitars and louder grooving bass.  But “Ballad of the Time” is a bit more downbeat (as a ballad should be).  There’s some big overdubbed guitars on top of the pretty picked melody.  It’s catchy in a very “of its time” way.

Interestingly, this album apparently sounds unlike anything else in their collection, which makes me think Stuart wouldn’t have pit a later song on the mix.

[READ: December 29, 2020] Solutions and Other Problems

Seven years ago I read and loved Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh’s first book.  So I was pretty excited that Allie Brosh had a new book out. Apparently she has gone through some stuff in the last seven years which I won’t go into.

Instead, I want to talk about how freaking funny this book is.

I hadn’t considered or realized that her art style had changed much since the last book.  Although comparing the covers, I see that her drawings do seem more sophisticated–which somehow makes her characters look even crazier.  I love that that yellow oval on her head is her hair.  And the massive eyes.  And that crazy smile.  It’s bonkers and hilarious.

This book starts out with a bang–a very funny story about a young Allie getting stuck in a bucket. But the best part is that she was in the bucket because she felt the need to get her whole body into the bucket.  She looked at the bucket and looked at her body and decided that one needed to be in the other.  The look on her face (and then later on her parents’ faces when they find her in the bucket) makes me laugh just thinking about it.

“Richard” is all about a person who lives next door.  Young Allie couldn’t quite grasp the idea that someone lived not in their house.  She never even thought about the next door house until Richard walked out of it one day.  So she snuck in through the cat door and started investigating the neighbor,  She would also steal trinkets on each trip.  And occasionally leave a “gift” (like a creepy drawing).  When her parents found some things, they asked her about it and she said she was “hanging out” with Richard.  This obviously made her parents…uneasy.  Poor Richard.  She went too far when she stole Richard’s cat. (more…)

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