Posted in 30 Rock, Beverly Hills 90210, Chuck, Corner Gas, Fringe, How I Met Your Mother, Life on Mars, Mercer Report, New Adventures of Old Christine, Project Runway, Pushing Daisies, Robot Chicken, Robson Arms, Rush, The Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist, The Office, The Simpsons, Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!, TV 2008 on March 7, 2010| 2 Comments »
I’m continuing to move all of the old TV Posts from my TV Tab to individual posts. So here’s some thoughts from the 2008 TV season. There were some updates midway through on this one, but I’ll add some updated thoughts as necessary.
With the Fall 2008 Lineup mostly underway, I’m listing the shows that we are giving a chance this year. There are some new ones, but mostly its a continuation of last year: (more…)
Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Adventure, Barenaked Ladies, Boredom, Canadian Music, Children's Books, Death, Funny (ha ha), Geddy Lee, Ghosts, Gord Downie, Gordon Lightfoot, Graphic Novel, Lyle Lovett, Martin Tielli, Matthew Loux, Mystery, Ongoing, Rheostatics, Rush, Short Books, Summer, Supernatural, Trilogy on March 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: BARENAKED LADIES-Snacktime (2008).
The Barenaked Ladies have always been like naughty kids. So, it seems almost too obvious for them to make a kids’ album. But almost as if they want to continue being naughty, this kids album is quite smart, not just a collection of cute kids songs.
There’s a wild mix of very specifically kiddie-aimed tracks and other amusing pop cultural commentary (or jokes from kiddies past). For instance, the opening track “789” plays on the wonderful joke of why was 6 afraid of 7.
There’s also a lot of the more delicate sounding BNL songs that came to dominate their later albums: “Pollywog in a Bog” is a cute upbeat little ditty, “Here Come the Geese” is a pretty typical Kevin Hearn track (even his adult songs sound like children’s songs).
But I think the highlight comes from when Ed Robertson and Steven Page join forces. Robertson is the king of the goofy guys and Steven Page’s songs are always wonderful, but typically less silly. So “I Don’t Like” is a serious look at things we don’t like (salmon, heights), while the fantastic “Crazy ABCs” is a funny and clever look at words that start with silent letters: “D is for djinn E is for Euphrates F is for Fohn etc.”
I also enjoy Roberston’s solo songs like “There’s a Word for That.” Robertson is clearly a fan of wordplay, and this song highlights that: “There’s a word for that…little dented skin between my upper lip and nose.”
My favorite song of the disc is “The Canadian Snacktime Trilogy.” All kinds of famous (and non famous) people tell us what their favorite snacks are. The contributors are listed here, and they include: Geddy Lee, barbecue potato chips; Lyle Lovett, watermelon; Martin Tielli, olives; Gordon Downie, peanut butter & crackers; “Weird Al” Yankovic, honey roasted peanuts and Gordon Lightfoot, pasta. What fun!
It’s an overall enjoyable album for kids, full of mostly hyper songs and sounds quite a lot like a typical BNL effort.
[READ:February 27, 2010] Salt Water Taffy: The Truth About Dr. True
I have yet to mention the website for this series. So, now I’m mentioning it, and I’m also mentioning Matt Loux’s page too. It’s a great resource for all of the books and has many sample images and pages.
I adore this children’s graphic novel series. Each story adds amazing depth to this seemingly quaint seaside town. Eleven year-old Jack and 8-year-old Benny are on vacation at a boring seaside town. But mysterious things are always coming up when the kids go snooping.
In this case Benny uncovers an ancient (empty) bottle of Dr. True’s magic elixir. (I love that Jack sneers at Benny for digging in a garbage pile, when he would have really loved to be digging in it, too). Dr True is the ancestor of True’s Taffy shop.
While this history of the island is unfolding, we also hear the history of another famous island resident: Captain Holister. The captain is Chowder Bay’s real hero, with a statue of him erected in the town square and everything. The boys’ favorite new friend, fisherman Angus is directly related to him. (more…)
Posted in 3 Inches of Blood, Alexisonfire, Boredom, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, City and Colour, Death, Ghosts, Metric, Neil Young, Oni Press, Renee Lott, Romance, Rush, Supernatural, The Tragically Hip, Word usage on January 31, 2010| 1 Comment »
SOUNDTRACK:CBC Radio 3
I listened to CBC Radio 3 briefly when I had Sirius Radio, but I just learned that I could listen streaming online. In addition to playing (as they say) Independent Canadian Music, they also have a really multifunctional website where you can input any band’s name, read about them and listen to bands’ tracks. And of course, you can also listen to their live streaming station as it happens (you can even play recently played and even upcoming songs).
Since it’s a CBC station there are no commercials. And since they are from the CBC they focus exclusively on Canadian bands. I’m not sure how literally to take the Independent part; however, they don’t include Neil Young, Rush or The Tragically Hip. But you can get City And Colour (and even AlexisonFire) and even Vancouver’s own 3 Inches of Blood!.
So let’s say you want to hear some tracks from Metric, a band you’ve heard good things about. Type in their name, get to their page, and play away. As far as I can tell, the band uploads songs and videos for you to stream. And, unlike other streaming sites, you can listen to the same tracks multiple times.
If you like your music Canadian and independent, this is the place to be. Check it out!
[READ: January 29, 2010] Festering Romance
Recently I complained that the Oni graphic novel Wet Moon had the worst title I have ever heard. And then I found out that “wet moon” is actually an astronomical phenomenon, and I retracted that complaint. Regardless, this graphic novel now replaces that one as the single worst title in the history of books. Festering Romance? Surely not.
Merriam Webster gives us this: 1. To generate pus 2. Putrefy, rot 3. To cause increasing poisoning, irritation, bitterness.
So, okay, the 3rd definition might work, but you have to overlook those first two really radically inappropriate definitions first. (And if you’re afraid to read a book with that title, rest assured, there is no festering pus of any kind in the book).
This terrible title does a huge disservice to what is a really, really great comic, and apparently the first self penned releases by Renee Lott. The artwork is fantastic (more on that in a moment) and the plot was really moving. I enjoyed it enough to have already passed it along to someone else. (more…)
Posted in Books about music, Books about writers, Boredom, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Collecting, Constellation Records, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Douglas Coupland, Drinking, Drugs, Essays, Fishing, Foreign Books, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), History, Hockey, Hockey Night in Canada, Memoirs, Nanaimo Bar, Nature, Nostalgia, Oddities, Photo Essays, Poutine, Rush, Souvenir of Canada, The New Pornographers, Tindersticks, War on November 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-The Hungry Saw [CST055] (2008).
It was the releases of this Tindersticks disc (their first in 5 years) on the venerable Constellation Records (in North America) that inspired my trip through their back catalog. I was completely surprised to see them released on Constellation, as the band doesn’t exactly fit with the label’s stereotypical style (although, realistically with the last dozen or so releases, Constellation has really expanded the kind of music they release).
And this is a fantastic Tindersticks release! There’s not a bad song on the disc. And, even though nothing is as immediately gripping as say “Can We Start Again,” the disc contains some of the band’s strongest songs. “The Hungry Saw” is simply amazing, both lyrically and in its catchy (yet creepy) chorus. But the highlight is probably “Boobar, Come Back to Me,” a song that begins slowly and builds gloriously, including a call and response segment that makes this song really swagger.
“Mother Dear” features a strangely comical musical episode. In an otherwise very mellow piano based track, right in the middle of the song, come slashing, somewhat atonal guitar chords. It’s as if a more rocking song is trying to overtake the mellow track. (The coup is rebuffed, though).
The biggest thing to note about the disc is that longtime co-songwriter Dickon has left the band. And so, some of the co-writing duties have been taken up by David Boulter. While it is obviously sad that Dickon has left, Staples seems revitalized on this disc, and Boulter’s additions (especially his quirky instrumentals) bring a new point of view to the proceedings. Also of note is something of a return to the orchestral style (albeit a much more understated version). However, different songs emphasize different aspects: horns on one, strings on another, but always underscored by the ubiquitous Hammond organ.
It’s not a radical departure or anything like that. It’s more of a continuation after a well earned vacation. And it’s certainly their strongest release since their first four.
[READ & WATCHED: October 2009] Souvenir of Canada, Souvenir of Canada 2 & Souvenir of Canada (the movie)
I got the first Souvenir of Canada when it came out. (I was on a big Coupland kick and may have even bought it in Montreal). I didn’t get #2 when it came out, probably because I didn’t really invest a lot of effort into the first one. But after recently reading City of Glass, I wanted to get a little more involved in Coupland’s visual art. So, I picked up #2 and, while investigating this second book, I discovered that he had made a film of the books, too.
Coupland explains in the introduction that this book is his personal vision of what Canada is like. It is designed for Canadians as something of a nostalgia trip, but it is also something of an introduction to unseen Canada for non-Canadians. And so, what you don’t get is pictures of mounties and Tim Hortons and other things that fit the stereotypical Canadian bill. Rather, you get things that are significant to Coupland (and maybe the average Canadian born on the West Coast in the 60s). (more…)
Posted in Adventure, Canadian Music, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Jim Massey, John Layman, Military, Outer Space, Robbi Rodriguez, Rush, Sci-fi, Scott Chantler, Sex, Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, Tom Peyer, Violence, Wikipedia on July 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-Retrospective 3 (2009).
This disc filled a hole that the public had been really clamoring for: a collection of the most popular songs by Rush from the 1990s until today. [cue crickets chirping]. Okay so this period isn’t exactly the best selling Rush era, and many people probably didn’t even know that they were still around (they weren’t for a while, but then they came back with an amazing vengeance).
Back in the 1980s I was a huge Rush fan. They were hands down my favorite band. I don’t like them any less than I used to, I just like a lot of other bands more now. And yet this era of Rush’s music has some of my favorite of their songs, and they’re pretty much all here.
Disc One is a selection of tracks and Disc Two is a DVD of all of their videos. Perhaps the most interesting thing to me is that if you compare the videos track list to the audio tracklist, they don’t jibe as much as you might think. This leads me to believe that the band doesn’t think that their original singles were the best songs from the discs (and I agree, I think the track listing of the CD is much stronger than that of the videos).
Presto is one of my favorite discs of this era, as are their two most recent releases Vapor Trails and Snakes and Arrows. Test for Echo, on the other hand is one of my least favorite discs of theirs. The last time I listened to it I thought it was pretty terrible (and yet I am very surprised to see how well liked it is by Rush fans in general). Nevertheless, all of these discs are well represented here.
And speaking of their videos, I have to say that Rush has some of the w(and every one was directed by someone different it seems) they’re just terrible. They always seem to have a “plot” of some sort, yet it is elliptical and lacking in specifics. It frequently involves a teenaged boy, often shirtless, in some kind of peril. The only parts I like are the band scenes, because it’s fun to see a) Alex’s hair b) Geddy’s hair and c) Neil’s scowl.
One of the major selling points of this disc is that the two tracks from Vapor Trails are remixed. Anyone who knows Rush knows that their releases are definitive. You don’t get remixes or even B-sides out of this band. So for them to release a different version of these songs is pretty amazing. I wonder what’s up with that. Research suggests that the band was never happy with the quality of Vapor Trails, and there are rumblings that they’d like to remix the whole disc. I hope they do, as these sound great.
But the real selling point is the bonus video: a live interview/recording from The Colbert Report. As I mention below, I simply don’t watch the Report as often as I ought, so I had no idea the band was even on. I wish that Colbert had let them speak a little bit more, even if the fawning and funny questions are really great and show what a sense of humor the band has (as does the “cheering fans” that Alex has on his board). And “Tom Sawyer” (which, I get as it’s their hugest song, but really they had to play a song that’s 27 years old?) sounds great. And they clearly have fun with it.
If you’re on the fence about getting this disc, those two items should convince you to pick it up.
[READ: June 30, 2009] Tek Jansen
I enjoy the Colbert Report. Quite a lot. And yet, I don’t watch it very often. I find the idea of committing to a daily show (like The Daily Show) is just impractical. And so, even though Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are queued up on my TiVo, I rarely have the time to watch them.
And so, it was news to me that Colbert had the character of Tek Jansen on his show. I heard about this series via Oni (who publishes it, and all good comics). I also just learned, (thanks Wikipedia) that there are animated shorts of this character which I must track down. In fact, heck, for the hilarious background of the origin of this comic, just read this. (more…)
Posted in 120 Minutes, Diane Williams, Eddie Trunk, Flash Fiction, Harper's, Matt Pinfield, Rush, That Metal Show, TiVo, Yngwie Malmsteen on March 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: THAT METAL SHOW (VH1 Classics) (2008-2009).
TiVo taped 120 Minutes on VH1 Classics as a suggested title (thanks TiVo), and while we were watching it, there was an ad for That Metal Show. So, I made sure to record that as well.
The premise of the show is that three metalheads (Eddie Trunk, whose name sounded familiar–and it turns out he’s been a DJ for years in the New York area–and two comedians I’d never heard of: Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson) host a half hour talk show about heavy metal. There were 7 shows last season and the new season has just started.
They had a brief marathon so I was able to watch a few of the last season’s episodes and the new one. And my opinion is mixed.
I enjoyed the interview with Geddy and Alex from Rush, and I even enjoyed the Twisted Sister episode. And yet, like with everything on VH1 there’s more fluff than substance there. Eddie Trunk is a good host, and although he is also from New Jersey, he’s no Matt Pinfield when it comes to interviewing. And the comedians are kind of funny in a meathead sort of way. Because yes, even though there are ladies in the audience, the show is a guys show.
The set up is fairly straightforward–discussion of metal “news” which is often way out of date, the guests interview, “Stump the Trunk” in which 3-4 studio audience members (almost all decked in black leather) ask Eddie Trunk a question. If he gets it right, nothing. If he gets it wrong, they get a prize. The last episode I watched I got two of the three questions right and was surprised that he missed one of the ones I knew). Then there’s the Throwdown, in which a topic is discussed for two minutes: two that I remember were “Old vs New Metallica” and “Tawny Kitaen vs The chick from the Warrant’s Cherry Pie video” (See, it’s a guy show).
And so really what you get is a bunch of affable meatheads talking about music (just like high school–how serendipitous that Yngwie Malmsteen was a guest…bummed that I missed that one!)
I quickly tired of the comedians, and if the interviewees aren’t very interesting, the show is pretty much a wash. I do enjoy the prize section (although their segment on “picking the hot chick to hold the Trunk of Junk or whatever it’s called was just foolish). But TiVo will keep recording it and I’ll keeping skimming through.
It’s no Henry Rollins Show, let me tell you.
[READ: March 11, 2009] “Seven Stories”
This was indeed a collection of seven very short stories. Most are a couple of paragraphs long. I would consider this flash fiction except, well, I don’t think they really work as flash fiction. In my experience, flash fiction is a complete cohesive story in a few paragraphs. These were actually fairly convoluted and never really led anywhere.
In fact I would have not finished this work, except the whole thing was only two pages long. The stories seem to tie together (there are a couple of stories where the names are the same), but I’m unclear how. Characters are mentioned as if we know them, but they are never explained further. I’m actually surprised it was published at all.
Posted in Big Books, Books about writers, Boredom, Corporate skewering, D.T. Max, David Foster Wallace, Demons, Love, New Yorker, Rush, Short Story, Smarty Pants, Suicide, Work on March 6, 2009| 1 Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: LOVE-Da Capo (1967).
A few years ago, my friend John gave me Love’s Forever Changes. I’ve enjoyed that disc very much and decided to get some other Love music. I chose Da Capo (their second album, and the one just prior to Forever Changes) for two reasons. One: Rush did a cover of “Seven and Seven Is” on their Flashback CD and two: there’s an 18 minute song on it, and I love me an eighteen minute song.
The first side is a bunch of shorter songs; each one is quite charming. In fact, “Orange Skies” is so sweet, complete with flute solo, that you can pretty much hear Arthur Lee smiling all the way through it. The song is borderline cheesy, and yet I can’t help but find myself walking around singing “orange skies, carnivals and cotton candy and you….and I love you too.”
“Stephanie Knows Too” is kind of angular with a weird jazzy interlude. And “Que Vida” is just a poppy little number that is fun and interesting. It fits well with “The Castle,” another stop/start song that has a beautiful guitar melody at the opening. The side ends with a classic psychedelic track “She Comes in Colors.”
The only oddball of the side is, paradoxically, the single “Seven and Seven Is.” It’s a fast rocking number with the fascinating chorus of “Oop ip ip Oop ip ip, yeah!” Perhaps the only line that’s stranger is “If I don’t start crying it’s because I have got no eyes.” And this was the single? Clearly Arthur Lee liked his psychedelia.
Then we move to the 18 minute gem. Well, in fact, “Revelation” (the first song ever to take up an entire side of an album) is something of a disappointment to me. It is basically a jam that sounds like it was done in one take, although since Arthur Lee was a taskmaster I doubt very much that it was one take.
It’s starts promisingly enough with a rapid harpsichord intro, but it moves into a fairly mundane jam session. There’s a great line from a Paul F. Tompkins skit, in which he says that jazz is just music of solos: “everybody gets one, it’s not like regular music where only the best dude gets one, in jazz everybody gets one.”
And that’s the case with this song. The solos go: guitar, harmonica, vocals (Arthur Lee improvising some pretty lame segments (Mostly about how he feels good), and let me tell you, he’s no Jim Morrison when it comes to this sort of thing), another guitar solo, a clarinet solo (!), then a bass solo and finally a drum solo, rounded all out with a harpsichord outro that mimics the beginning. The problem is that none of the solos (excepting the guitar) is particularly noteworthy, and it’s not recorded especially well. It’s all rather flat. In particular the sing along part, where Lee is screaming and whatnot, it’s just not convincing, especially since the band doesn’t seem all that excited about the proceedings. I got tired of it at after about 5 minutes (although the opening of the clarinet solo which sounds an awful ot like a flock of geese is pretty cool). It’s a shame really, because I wanted to like this track a lot. Nevertheless, it hasn’t put me off of Love.
[READ: March 3, 2009] “Wiggle Room”
This week’s New Yorker featured not only a story by David Foster Wallace but also a sort of biography/obituary of him. D.T. Max, a name straight out of Wallace’s imagination, writes a moving and depressing epilogue to the story of DFW. (It’s available here) The main thrust of the article is that DFW had a hard time writing fiction after Infinite Jest, but that he had been working on a new book (which, although unfinished, is due to be published sometime this year). (more…)
Posted in Canadian Music, Chuck, Mary Gaitskill, Missile Command, New Yorker, Pregnancy, Rush, Short Story on November 12, 2008| 4 Comments »
SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-Moving Pictures (1980).
The other night on the show Chuck, Rush was described as “the music of the universe” (which enabled our hero to defeat Missile Command and get secret codes–thereby saving the lives of millions. I have taken this as a sign that geeks have totally taken over the world. They played “Tom Sawyer” 3 times during the show. It was pretty awesome. And my 13 year-old self would have been so excited, it might have been too much for me.
Since about 8th grade, I’ve been a huge Rush fan. And, yes, I do play bass guitar, thank you for asking. I’m still a fan, although not nearly as rabid as I was back in the day. Nevertheless, it’s pretty exciting to see these guys making inroads into pop culture, and it has only taken some thirty-four years after their first record.
Having said that, everyone knows Side A of this record (“Tom Sawyer”, “Red Barchetta”, “YYZ” and “Limelight”). So, I’m not even going to mention it. Rather, I’ll focus on Side B (how quaint am I with this terminology?). I think the overexposure of Side A led me to really investigate Side B. And, for my money, Side B is the more enjoyable side.
“The Camera Eye” starts it out with a wondrous eleven-minute epic. It has different sections, it has repeating motifs, and it’s probably the most overlooked song in their catalog (their other epic tracks were usually A sides which meant more notice). It doesn’t have a lot of the drama of Rush’ other ten-minute-plus songs, rather, it’s a meditative look at life in the city. And yet, all of the parts are essential, with a few minutes of little bits and pieces throughout the track. And then suddenly you’re eight or so minutes in and totally hooked. I’ve always has a soft spot for this song.
“Witch Hunt” has such a fantastic drum opening. My friend Joe was the drummer with whom I jammed to Rush back in the day. Now, no kidding, Neil Peart is an amazing drummer, but sometimes you have to really listen to a song through the ears of a drummer to hear how amazing he is. The opening drum motif is so complex, it’s amazing that one man could play it. And then he throws in a cowbell to boot! It also has some fantastic lyrics that I find myself singing a lot lately when I think of rabid right-wingers: “Confident their ways are best. The righteous rise with burning eyes, of hatred and ill-will….” “Those who know what’s best for us, must rise and save us from ourselves….””Ignorance & prejudice and fear walk hand in hand….”
As “Witch Hunt” has a crazy opening drum motif, “Vital Signs” has a great guitar intro. The guitar chords aren’t terribly complex, but Alex Lifeson plays the chords in a different pattern during alternate lines. Boy is that fun to play. This also features one of the great early keyboard workouts for Geddy Lee. The keyboard riff in “Tom Sawyer” is pretty memorable, but in “Vital Signs” it’s intense. The two main sections of the song don’t seem like they should fit together, but they segue nicely with drum fills and a smooth and fun bass solo.
It was in listening to the the Snakes and Arrows live CD recently that I was reminded how much I love “Witch Hunt” and what a great song it is. My only regret is that I never got to see that one live.
[READ: October 31, 2008] “Don’t Cry”
I was introduced to Mary Gaitskill’s writing about a decade ago. I really liked her short stories. It’s been a while since I’ve read her work, and I basically forgot what her main themes were. So it surprised me to find that this story was set in Ethiopia. (more…)
Posted in Against Me!, Books about writers, Corporate skewering, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Gilmore Girls, Marisha Pessl, Mystery, NPR/PRI/PBS, Rush, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Social Distortion, Tegan and Sara, Unreliable narrator on July 21, 2008| 1 Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: AGAINST ME!-New Wave (2007).
I’m not sure why I never listened to these guys before. I’m not crazy about the band’s name: it makes sense, but it’s awkward to work with. And I think I lumped them in with the whole emo scene, which I was pretty well done with. Anyhow, I read a review of New Wave recently and decided they might be worth checking out.
New Wave is an astonishingly refreshing and heartfelt album. It’s fairly short, as the songs are fairly short, and they pack a lot of punch. In fact, I’ve been singing this great, catchy chorus all morning: “Protest Songs in a response to Military Aggression. Protest songs to try and stop the soldier’s gun.”
The songs are great: really diverse for what is essentially a punk album. And the topics are protestations that I haven’t heard in a while (at least not in such a catchy style): Lack of originality in the mainstream. (“New Wave” & “Up the Cuts”), Drug Addiction (“Thrash Unreal,” the latest single that I’ve heard). “Stop” is a change of pace mid-album, with a catchy chorus and an almost dance feel. “Piss and Vinegar” is a plea for honesty. And possibly the strangest item on the disc: the song “The Ocean.” One doesn’t expect a punk band’s verse to start like this: ” If I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman. My mother once told me she would have named me Laura” and it continues on in that vein. What a shockingly honest (presumably) lyric in a song.
The only thing I don’t like about the album is…the singer’s voice. I just can’t get past it, and I’m not sure what it is I don’t like about it. He sings on key, his voice is strong and impassioned. There’s just something about it I don’t like. Of course, I also don’t like the singer from Social Distortion either. I guess I’m more of a high, whiny voice than a gruff aggro voice. Despite this, whenever the band does harmonies, they sound great! All of the choruses have nice harmonies somewhere in them, and they really make the songs. Plus, there’s a song called “Borne on the FM, Waves of the Heart” which is a duet with Tegan from Tegan and Sara, and it’s really fantastic. They are a perfect match for each other. Normally, not liking the singer would make you not like a band. (How many people can’t get into Rush because of Geddy Lee’s voice?). And yet, I still think the album is great. I’m certainly going to check out some past records as well. I’m especially intrigued by this album title: Reinventing Axl Rose.
[READ: June 25, 2008] Special Topics in Calamity Physics.
I heard about this book when I was scanning the NPR stations and there was a story about authors/publishers making great websites to accompany books. Two of the ones they mentioned sounded pretty interesting, so I jotted them down and checked them out. This was the first one, Special Topics in Calamity Physics. The site was pretty neat, but I didn’t spend much time there, as I was at work. I checked that we had the book and took it out that day. (more…)
Posted in Books about writers, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Funny (ha ha), Lewis Black, Memoirs, Political Humor, Rush, Short Books, Smarty Pants, Sparks, The Daily Show, War, WMDs on June 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK: Sparks-Sparks (1972).
I first got into Sparks when I was working at Tower Records in Paramus, NJ. My coworker Tommy used to play Sparks’ then current album Plagiarism 
(an album of covers of their own songs!) and it was so weird and intriguing, that I bought it for myself. Since then I have been collecting their back catalog, which isn’t easy as many haven’t been released here.
So what do they sound like? Well, the singer Russel Mael has an astonishing falsetto. Making Rush’s Geddy Lee seem quite butch. Mael leads the band to crazy vocal extremes, making even a normal sounding song seem quite bizarre (This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us, for instance). Russel’s brother Ron (known for his Chaplin/Hitler mustache is quite an accomplished pianist, and his sense of songwriting is, while unusual, certainly great. They were quite popular in the UK and Europe, so most people assume they are a Euro band but they hail from UCLA and thereabouts.
So, this album is their debut (when they were called Halfnelson). It was produced by Todd Rundgren (!) and is a bit more rock than their later new wave/disco hits. (And judging from the album cover photos, you can see that at the very least they’re trying to look like rock and rollers (all long hair and open shirts–even if Ron looks like Zappa). And so, this album pretty well lays the ground work for the Sparks of the future: weird, operatic and unexpected.
There are two songs that still make it onto “Greatest Hits” compilations: “(No More) Mr. Mice Guys” (in no way related to the Alice Cooper song, and “Wonder Girl.” Each one displays the signature style of future Sparks classics, but it still has a weird 1970s rock feel to it. It’s a pretty wacky beginning, but really it only hints at the fun to come.
[READ: Winter 2006] Nothing’s Sacred.
Like with Kate Clinton’s book, I found Lewis Black’s book while I was weeding the essay section of our library. I had no idea that Black had written a book, and since I love his rants on The Daily Show, I figured I’d give it a read.
My first surprise was that this was a memoir, not a collection of jokes. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 