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Archive for the ‘Lavender Diamond’ Category

Mike Maihack–Cleopatra in Space: Book One: Target Pratice (2014)

Posted in Becky Stark, C., Children's Books, Egyptology, Graphic Novel, John C. Reilly, Lavender Diamond, Mike Maihack, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Soul Coughing, Tiny Desk Concert, Tom Brousseau, Unfinished series on April 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »

cleoSOUNDTRACK: JOHN REILLY & FRIENDS-Tiny Desk Concert #418 (February 3, 2015).

johnI started this show without observing who it was (it was just next on my queue) and I listened without watching first.  At first I thought, hmm, interesting old timey songs.  And then the guy spoke and I thought, wow, he sounds a lot like actor John C. Reilly, I wonder if he’s from the same place.  And then I clicked over and saw that it was John C. Reilly, in full beard and hat playing old timey, spiritual songs.

A lot of actors have vanity music projects, but there’s nothing vain about this. It’s all old music (they use an old timey microphone) and they’re clearly not looking to top any charts.  Rather, Reilly plays acoustic guitar and sings—he has a great, solid voice. And his backing group is full of great musicians who all have careers doing other things: Tom Brousseau on guitar and harmony vocals, Becky Stark from Lavender Diamond on harmony vocals, Andru Bemis on banjo and fiddle, as well as Soul Coughing’s Sebastian Steinberg.

I didn’t recognize any of the four songs they played–which is probably the point.  He explains that Tom is their archaeologist and he uncovered a number of these songs.

The second song references Jesus and after the song Reilly talks tells everyone that he’s a lapsed Catholic but it seemed a shame to ignore all these beautiful songs because of religion.  So when they say Jesus you can think Buddha or… Satan or… the ocean. Becky Stark comes across a bit more, um, something, with her comment “we are advocates for deathless bliss.” (Reilly deflates the silence by saying “deathless bliss” is their other band).

It’s a charming group of songs and would not sound out of place with some tracks from O Brother, Where Art Thou.

[READ: January 8, 2015] Cleopatra in Space Book One

I brought it home for C. but it looked really fun so I read it too.  I enjoyed this book so much that I can’t wait for the next part.

I love Maihack’s artistic style, it’s simple and very clean, and his drawings of the people and aliens are cool and expressive

The basic setup here is that Cleopatra, yes, that Cleopatra, is about to have her 15th birthday.  This means she is about ready to rule the country.  But in the meantime she is stuck going to school and taking Algebra, ugh.  She gets her friend Gozi out of class (by hitting him with a pebble and making him yell).  So they sneak out.  I loved the joke when he asks where she got the slingshot since her father confiscated them all–“It’s not like they’re hard to make, Gozi.”

While they are shooting rocks at things, they uncover a giant tomb door.  When it opens, they see all kinds of cool artifacts.  One of them is a panel of some sort.  And when Cleo (she prefers Cleo) reads it, she is sucked into a portal to a new planet generations into the future.  The great great great great grandson of her cat is there (and he can talk–in fact all the cats can talk).  And they inform her that she is the prophecy sent to defeat the Xerx.  The Xerx are a race of brutes who are ruled by Xaius Octavian, a power-hungry dictator.

He evidently sent out some kind of EMP to destroy all of the electronic records in the world but also managed to keep copies for himself.  So he has all the knowledge in t universe.  And it was written that Cleopatra would come and save them from this terrible scourge. (more…)

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Alice Munro–“Train” (Harper’s, April 2012)

Posted in Alice Munro, Canadian Content, Cancer as plot device, Destroyer, Harper's, Lavender Diamond, Mennonites, Religion, Short Story, The Decemberists, Trains on April 10, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: LAVENDER DIAMOND-“New Ways of Living” from Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers (2009).

This song plays around with the Destroyer original a little bit more than some of the other covers have.  Lavender Diamond’s lead vocalist is a woman, Becky Stark, so her voice is different from Dan Bejar’s.  Of course, Bejar’s voice is kind of high-pitched so it’s not that different.  The original also has a female backing vocal on all of the Lie-Dee-Dies, which Lavender Diamond supplies by herself.

The Destroyer version is softer, a bit more delicate (especially the ending section which is washes of strings and gentle keyboards).  Lavender Diamond’s version is primarily piano, and that starkness somehow makes the song more intense.  So yes,  I find myself enjoying the Lavender Diamond version a wee bit more.  I hadn’t heard much by Lavender Diamond before (I knew that Becky Stark was on the Decemeberists’ Hazards of Love album).  But I think it’s time to investigate her stuff a little bit more.

[READ: April 5, 2012] “Train”

I had put off reading this story for a little while because it was pretty long (12 pages in Harper’s which is quite long for a Harper’s story).  Not only was it justifiably long, it was thoroughly enjoyable.

The story was set up in an unexpected way (especially for Munro whose stories tend to be pretty straightforward).  It opens with a man jumping off a train (I also tend to think of Munro as writing about women, so a male protagonist is also something of a surprise).

So Jackson hops off of a train.  It was going slow, but it hurt more than he expected.  After he gets his bearings, he realizes that he is closer to civilization than he realized–indeed, there’s a woman out milking a cow.  The woman turns out to be Belle (the cow is Margaret Rose).

After years of reading different kinds of stories, there were so many different ways this meeting could have gone (most of them badly).  But Munro tends to not write about physical violence, so this meeting goes pretty well–it’s not even all that awkward because Belle is a sweet, almost naive, woman.

Belle lives by herself, although that is a recently development.  Her mother passed away a few months ago after decades of needing a lot of physical help.  Her father has been dead for many years–he was hit by a train.  He used to take care of Belle’s mother, but once he died, the responsibility was all hers.

She was also more or less supported by the Mennonites who live up the road.  The introduction of them is wonderful, as it is how Jackson sees them: “Over the hill came a box on wheels, being pulled by two quiet small horses….  And in the box sat half a dozen or so little men.   All dressed in black with proper black hats on their heads.”

Of course, these little men are the Mennonite children who look after her.  Jackson pities Belle, although she neither seeks it nor really deserves it.  She seems quite content with her situation.  He decides to stick around and fix up her house for her (which is in bad need of repair).  He imagines that he can work for her for a few months and then maybe help the Mennonites a bit and then continue on his way. (more…)

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Kurt Vonnegut–Cat’s Cradle (1963)

Posted in Books about writers, Concept Albums, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Death, End of the World, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gods, Kurt Vonnegut, Lavender Diamond, My Brightest Diamond, My Morning Jacket, Natural Disasters, Political Humor, Religion, Robyn Hitchcock, Sci-fi, Smarty Pants, Technology, The Decemberists on June 2, 2009| 1 Comment »

catsSOUNDTRACK: THE DECEMBERISTS-The Hazards of Love (2009).

hazardsI first played this disc a few times without really listening to it, just to get a feel for it.  And I was surprised by how heavy it sounded.  The harshest moments of the disc really stood out to me, and I was quite surprised, as I think of the Decemberists as more folky than this.

But when I finally sat down and listened, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the disc overall.  I have yet to understand the complete storyline (the lyrics are printed in a near impossible to read size and color, so I’ve had to rely on what I could pick out.)

The disc is a concept album.  It tells the story of  Margaret who falls for a shape shifting creature of the forest and, I think, their offspring as well.  There’s a jealous forest queen involved, and, of course, the Rake–although I’m not exactly sure how he fits in–but more on him in a moment.

In addition to some “celebrity” guest vocalists (Robyn Hitchcock and Jim James of My Morning Jacket sing backing vocals), for the first time on a Decemberists disc, Colin Meloy doesn’t sing all of the lead vocals.  The two women characters’ parts are sung by two singers I don’t know: Becky Stark (of the band Lavender Diamond) and Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond).  And when the queen (Shara Worden) sings, she’s pretty angry. She creates one of the harshest sounds I can think of by the Decemberists.

Interestingly, that song, “The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid” also contains one of the most beautiful passages that the Decemberists have done.  “The Wanting Comes in Waves” part of the song has an uplifting chorus, a wonderful melody and a beautiful sing-along.  Meanwhile, the “Repaid” part has some harsh, angular guitars and when the Queen repeats “repaid!” for the third time, the hair will stand up on your arms.  (Of course, the song then repeats the beautiful part once again…phew…and it is reprised at the end of the disc, because how could you NOT include that passage again?).

This record also features the catchiest song about infanticide that I know of.  “The Rake’s Song” rocks, and yet as you’re singing along to the simple but catchy chorus of “Alright, Alright, Alright,” you realize that the Rake has just killed all of his three children so that he can have a life as a free bachelor again.  (Revenge does come at the end).

And that revenge comes in one of the 4 versions of the title song.  What starts as a simple folky ditty (in Part 1) “singing, oh ho, the hazards of love,” morphs (in Part 2)  into a rocking track, then (in Part 3) a track with a children’s choir (my least favorite track on the disc–it works with the story, but I don’t care for the kids voices, really) and (finally) a haunting epilogue.

This is The Decemberists’ most striking album to date.  It is a bold attempt to alienate just about everyone, and yet I believe they have pulled off something just shy of a masterpiece.  The harshness of some of the songs still makes me a little uneasy (at least when listening with the kiddies), but the rewards are ample, and they really do fit perfectly with the plot.

I never expected the Decemberists to venture into prog rock territory but since they embraced it fully, they really pulled it off.  I do still need to get in and read the lyrics though, just to get all the details straight.  (They are legibly printed here).

[READ: June 1, 2009] Cat’s Cradle

This is the first “well-known” Vonnegut book I’ve read (not counting Slaughterhouse Five, which I’m going to re-read soon for the first time in fifteen or so years).  I’d heard of this book but never knew what it was about.  And, boy, trying to summarize is pretty tough.

Why?

Because Vonnegut invents an entire new religion and a fictional island on which to practice it.  And his characterization of the whole thing is so complete, that it is utterly believable.  And that’s only half the book.

So, let’s try this: John, the narrator decides to write a personal biography of Felix Hoenikker, the Father of the atomic bomb. Okay, so we know we are on somewhat fictional ground, and yet it is sort of based in reality.  Fine. (more…)

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