Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘NPR/PRI/PBS’ Category

Nursery Rhyme Comics (2011)

Posted in Aaron Renier, Alexis Frederick-Fost, Andrew Arnold, Ben Hatke, Bob Flynn, Craig Thompson, Cyril Pedrosa, Dave Roman, David Macaulay, Drew Weing, Eleanor Davis, Eric Orchard, First Second :01, Frank Fairfield, Gahan Wilson, Gene Luen Yang, George O'Connor, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, James Sturm, Jen Wang, Jordan Crane, JP Coovert, Jules Feiffer, Kate Beaton, Lark Pien, Laura Park, Lilli Carré, Lucy Knisley, Marc Rosenthal, Mark Martin, Mark Siegel, Matthew Forsythe, Mike Mignola, Mo Oh, Nick Abadzis, Nick Bruel, Raina Telgemeier, Rebecca Dart, Richard Sala, Richard Thompson, Roz Chast, Sara Varon, Scott Campbell, Stan Sakai, Stephanie Yue, Tao Nyeu, Theo Ellsworth, Tiny Desk Concert, Tony Millionaire, Vanessa Davis, Vera Brosgol on June 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »

nurserySOUNDTRACK: FRANK FAIRFIELD-Tiny Desk Concert #445 (May 29, 2015).

frankFrank Fairfield and friends Tom Marion (who plays mandolin on the third song) and Zac Sokolow (on guitar) play old-timey music (marches, polkas and mountain tunes).  Fairfield plays banjo and plucked cello (and apparently fiddle, although not here).

The first song “Tres Piedras” is an upbeat instrumental.  The second song “I Ain’t A Goin’ To Weep No More” was written by Harry von Tilser whose brother wrote “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”

The final song “Campanile De Venecia/Sharpshooters March” has an overwhelming Italian feel (that mandolin, I gather).  I like that Fairfield yells “take it, Tom” so that Marion will play a lengthy mandolin solo on the for the final song.  There’s also a “traditional” Italian melody in the song that I know more from cartoons than elsewhere.

The songs feel like they leaped out of a 78 record (even Fairfield’s voice seems suitably “old” on “Weep” (although it appears that they were up playing late last night so he may not quite be up to par).

This was a fun Tiny Desk by an artist I’d never encounter anywhere else.

[READ: January 21, 2015] Nursery Rhyme Comics

This is a collection of Nursery Rhymes as drawn primarily by First Second artists.

The 50 nursery rhymes includes here are the traditional rhymes which remain unchanged.  So this was an opportunity for these artists to draw interesting visuals to accompany the traditional stories.  Some artists stayed traditional, while others went in a totally new direction.

It was fun to see that while I knew most of the nursery rhymes, there were quite a few that I didn’t know.

I always wanted to get a  collection of nursery rhymes for my kids when they were younger, and I feel like I never got one that would have been as satisfying as this one. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Maxwell Eaton III–The Flying Beaver Brothers and The Hot-Air Baboons (2014)

Posted in Children's Books, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear, Maxwell Eaton III, Short Books, Tiny Desk Concert on June 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »

babboobSOUNDTRACK: MADISEN WARD AND THE MAMA BEAR-Tiny Desk Concert #444 (May 26, 2015).

wardI love that Mama Bear is actually Madisen Ward’s mother, Ruth.  They play some really wonderful roots music.

Madisen has a powerful soulful voice and Mama Bear’s harmonies are excellent–ranging from deep to high pitched.

And their joint harmonies on second song, “Sorrows and Woes” (especially the final note) are really amazing.

Mama Bear also adds some great licks to some of the songs (Madisen plays leads on “Silent Movies” while mama Bear plays the main riff on “Daisy Jane.”

Between songs, Madisen has some funny banter.  I laughed when he said that he was now going to retire since he has played the Tiny Desk.  And Mama Bear talks about how excited she is that their new record is on yellow vinyl.

The songs are delightful folk songs (with “Daisy Jane” being the boppiest of the lot with some delightful “ooh hoos” at the end).  I’d never heard of them before, but I wish them a lot of success.

[READ: February 11, 2014] The Flying Beaver Brothers and The Hot-Air Baboons

I saw this book in the library and was delighted to have another Flying Beaver Brothers book to read (I also just saw online that there is a sixth book too!).

Poor Beaver Island is under attack yet again (my kids were surprised to see that there were so many beavers on the island with them, and I admit I didn’t realize there were quite so many either).

The threat this time is a group of baboons who are melting the snow off of the skiing mountain (beaver island really has it all!).  When Ace and Bub finally get caught up to speed with what’s happening, the baboons (Pete, Kyle and Ringo) hilariously get mad about having to repeat the whole story that they told everyone earlier.  There is a helpful chart with Proboscis and Baboon listed as types of monkeys and buffoon as not a type of monkey. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Doug TenNapel–Tommysaurus Rex (2013)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Death, Dinosaurs, Dogs, Doug TenNapel, Fantasy, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Jason Vieaux, Pallbearer, Short Books, Supernatural, Tiny Desk Concert, Yolanda Kondonassis on June 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

rexSOUNDTRACK: JASON VIEAUX AND YOLANDA KONDONASSIS-Tiny Desk Concert #443 (May 22, 2015).

yolandaTypically, the Tiny Desk doesn’t have performers back after they have played once.  But occasional exceptions are made, like when performers who played solo come back as a duo.  Like this.

Jason Vieuax was one of the first 20 people to play the Tiny Desk and Yolanda Kondonassis played back in 2010.  And here they are touring as a duo, which really helps to accentuate both of their skills.  And their music is beautiful together.

Vieuax is an amazing classical guitarist.  And Kondonassis plays an amazing harp that is more about singular notes than trills and “heavenly” sounds.  And in these songs, they work together doing harmony runs and fills–both instruments are lead instruments.

Apparently there aren’t very many pieces written for the combination of harp and guitar.  Kondonassis explains the origins of the Hovhaness piece (which gives some lovely context).

Vieaux explains the origins of the two movements of the Piejo suite.

The first piece is sweet, while the second one is a little more aggressive (but still lovely).  And the third one features some cool riffs and chords (especially on guitar) and percussion done on the instruments.

The three songs they play are

  • Gary Schocker: “Elysian” (from Hypnotized)
  • Alan Hovhaness: Fuga: Allegro – Andante grazioso, Canon: Allegro (from Sonata for Harp and Guitar, “Spirit of Trees”)
  • Máximo Diego Pujol: Vals, Candombe (from Suite mágica)

The pieces are familiar and yet quite different.  And 456+it is much fun to watch their fingers fly around their instruments.

[READ: January 24, 2015] Tommysaurus Rex

I brought this book home for Clark to read.  I wasnt going to read it myself but then I saw that I had read a book by TenNapel before and liked it.

But I did not care for this one.  Perhaps it was because it was marketed in my library as a kids book but I thought it was just too violent or something–the story turned me off.

Perhaps it was just that the story opens with the main character’s dog getting hit by a car and dying.  I mean, who needs that?  And the cover looks so fun, too. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Gene Luen Yang–Prime Baby (2010)

Posted in Aliens, Comic Strips, First Second :01, Gene Luen Yang, Graphic Novel, Math, NASA, The New York Times Magazine, Tiny Desk Concert, Young Fathers on June 24, 2015| Leave a Comment »

primeSOUNDTRACK: YOUNG FATHERS-Tiny Desk Concert #442 (May 19, 2015).

youngfatherYoung Fathers may have the shortest Tiny Desk Concert ever.  It’s only 4 minutes long.  I know that these are edited down from the full show, but wow.

Young Fathers evidently sing a kind of hip-hop, but in these two songs they don’t really rap very much and are more soulful.  The members met in Edinburgh but are from distant exotic locales like Ghana and, um, Maryland.

Something must have happened with their technology.  As the blurb says, “Full-on drums and electronics weren’t going to happen on this day.”  So they chose a simpler path.

They sing two songs virtually a capella.  I don’t know any of the members’ names, but there’s one singer for “Am I Not Your Boy” (the guy in the photo above).  He has a soulful voice (more or less R&B) and there’s a simple keyboard backdrop.

On “Only Child” there are three vocalists, each taking a turn with a verse.  It is surprising that the man who sounds Jamaican (the first singer) is white.  The final vocalist raps, and then all three harmonize very nicely over the final chorus.

Bob Boilen raved about them when he saw them live.  I’m not all that impressed, as they sound like any other R&B band to me, but a four-minute sampler isn’t all that much to go on.

[READ: February 12, 2015] Prime Baby

I’ve enjoyed just about everything that Gene Luen Yang has done.  But I had no idea that a) he wrote a serialized comic strip and b) that it appeared from 2008-2009 in the New York Times Magazine!

It’s interesting to see these strips presented in one strip per page format.  But far more interesting is the very strange direction that this story goes in.

It begins with the main character, a boy named Thaddeus K. Fong.  He is a reasonably selfish young man with a penchant for saying things to get him in trouble.  (He calls himself a martyr for truth).  And then his parents have a baby.  And his whole life is upended.

The baby girl only says the word, “ga.”  His parents say that everyone develops in their own time, but he is not convinced.  And one day, when he learns about prime numbers in math class, he realizes that his sister only says “ga” in increments of prime numbers.    That is kind of interesting, but even more interesting is when his math teacher says that NASA has theorized that if aliens were to make contact with us it would be through prime numbers. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Lat–Kampung Boy (1979)

Posted in Camané, Comic Strips, First Second :01, Lat, Parenting, Religion, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, YA Books on June 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »

kampung SOUNDTRACK: CAMANÉ-Tiny Desk Concert #441 (May 15, 2015).

camaneCamané is a Portuguese Fado singer. The NPR blurb says that fado, “which means “fate” in Portuguese, emerged from the gritty barrios and docks of Lisbon in the early 19th century and has evolved in fascinating ways. Think of it as the Portuguese blues.”

The songs are sung in Portuguese and I don’t know a word of what’s he’s saying, but as the blurb continues: “[The songs] flow with an ineffable mix of longing, loss and melancholy, framed in resignation. It’s a kind of glad-to-be-unhappy feeling the Portuguese and Brazilians call saudade.”

The most interesting part of this to me was what I thought was a bouzouki but which I see is actually a Portuguese guitar–12 steel strings, played in very fast runs.  While Camané’s voice is clearly the focus (and it is amazing), José Manuel Neto’s Portuguese Guitar is pretty darn awesome.  And the accompaniment by Carlos Manuel Proença on guitar is lovely too.

[READ: January 7, 2015] Kampung Boy

This book was written (and drawn) in 1979.  First Second books had it translated and published in 2006.

This is the story of a boy growing up Muslim in rural Malaysia in the 1950s.  Evidently it was serialized in Malaysia back in 1979 (it does feel kind of episodic, but it holds together very well).

It is a charming story of a simple life in the village that is slowly being changed by progress.

It starts with Kampung Boy’s birth and the simple way he was born (midwifed by his grandmother for which she was paid $15) and how he slowly grew from a baby into a naked toddler running around the village.  His aunt worked at the local rubber factory (his parents owned the rubber plantation) where they removed latex rubber from the rubber trees. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Tom Watson–Stick Dog Chases a Pizza (2014)

Posted in Bellows, C., Children's Books, Dogs, Food, Funny (ha ha), Pizza, Short Books, Tiny Desk Concert, Tom Watson on June 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

pizzaSOUNDTRACK: BELLOWS-Tiny Desk Concert #440 (May 11, 2015).

bellows I knew Bellows from NPR playing one of their songs.  They are a new band with one album out.  Their Tiny Desk Concert is really short (under 10 minutes) but they do play 3 songs.

I’m curious if they are stripped down for this or if they typically sound this soft and simple.

The opening song “Sacred Heart” is propelled by a very simple synth riff and bass notes (the lefty bassist plays a right handed bass upside down, which is interesting to see).  Perhaps the most compelling thing about Bellows is the harmony voices (and the drummer’s hair).

Lead singer Oliver Kalb has a voice that I wouldn’t call powerful, but it is rather distinctive (and perhaps a bit unusual).  The songs work best when the unnamed keyboardist (female) and bassist (male, deep voice) all sing together, like in “Hello Morning.”

The final song, “White Sheet” is the one I knew from NPR.  It sounds just as good here.  It is easily the best of the three songs, probably because the keyboardist does more than sing harmony.  (And the ah ah ah ah section, combined with the deep breathing section is very catchy too).

I think it may be the simplicity of the melodies that makes the songs so effective–they do stay with you.  And they definitely leave me wanting to hear more.

[READ: January 5, 2015] Stick Dog Chases a Pizza

I didn’t know there was a third Stick Dog book out.  It is pretty samey compared to the first two (but since I haven’t looked at a Stick Dog book in a while, it was okay).   In the first book, the dogs were after a hamburger.  In the second it was a hot dog. In this book they are after a pizza.

The book opens with the dogs all laughing at Karen (the dachshund) trying to catch her tail.  When that is over (Stick Dog doesn’t like that they are teasing her even if it is funny), he suggests that they go the park and play Frisbee.  There is plenty of funniness as the dogs ignore him but pretend they were paying attention.  And then they all come back with what they think is a Frisbee (the results range from bottle caps to flat tires (the poor bike rider) to cardboard discs.

But the cardboard disc has red stuff and white stuff on it and it tastes delicious. I have to say I am surprise that they never tasted pizza before (all dogs root through garbage and grab pizza boxes at some pint right?). (more…)

Read Full Post »

Charles M. Schulz–Peanuts Every Sunday 1956-1960 (2014)

Posted in Bill Watterson, Charles Schulz, Comic Strips, Eskmo, Fantagraphics, Funny (ha ha), Peanuts, Tiny Desk Concert, Vijay Iyer Trio on June 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

peanuts1956SOUNDTRACK: ESKMO-Tiny Desk Concert #439 (May 8, 2015).

 eskmoEskmo is a guy from Iceland (Brendan Angelides).  He plays electronic music.

His music is pretty and rather mellow.  What makes this Tiny Desk so enjoyable is the objects he uses to makes sounds with.

He loops a lot of noises (something that I love) as they build to really add textures to the song.  But the things he uses for sounds are awesome.  In the first song (“Blue and Gray” about 4 minutes), he crinkles a water bottle to make a percussion sound.

Before the second song “Can’t Taste” (which is about 8 minutes), he asks the audience to bring up random objects for him to play with.  So he gets a set of keys that he uses as a chime sound.  He opens a can of seltzer for percussion.  He plays a metal water bottle.  And then he also takes things from the shelves behind him, like the shelves themselves and even a Paul McCartney bobble head.

The music itself is almost an afterthought, as the melody is pretty but he doesn’t really do a lot to lot–he just has a ton of fun playing with the items around (he gets a big smile with the bobble head).

This is a show that works much better visually than audibly, so watch it here.

[READ: April 10, 2015] Peanuts Every Sunday 1956-1960

Fantagraphics has been releasing volumes of Peanuts daily comic strips.  They are looking to do 50 years of strips in 25 books! (they are up to 1990).  And now they have begun releasing the Sunday color strips in their own volumes.

This book picks up where the last one left off.  And of course, Snoopy is still the star.  There’s some very funny jokes with snoopy–like the one where he tries to fly—there’s something wonderful about Snoopy being insecure (and clumsy).

Linus can’t let go of his blanket (July 1956).  And in an early baseball one, the blanket actually causes him trouble (instead of later ones where it is a benefit).

Pigpen gets a strip devoted to himself in July 1956  and then there’s a very funny one about sand in his shoe in 1958.

Lucy yells to make the kites fall out of the tree.  And the first full acknowledgment of her pulling football away comes in December of 1956.

I also enjoy how violent the cartoons were.  Like this exchange between Linus and Lucy:

Linus: Give it to me or I’ll slug ya.
Lucy:  Mom, Linus says he’s gonna slug me.
Mom: Linus that’s no way to talk.
Linus: Well, that’s the way they talk on TV if they can talk that what, why can’t I?
Mom: That’s just one of those things I can’t explain.
Lucy: Listen dope. If you slug me I’ll slug you right back.
Linus: Never mind Mom, it’s just been explained to me in language that I understand.

There’s some really great one liners coming in now too.  Lucy: I feel torn between the desire to create and the desire to destroy.

There almost isn’t as much Charlie Brown in this book.  Although he is certainly there.  In June 1957 he realizes that he won’t ever be president.

And the gang all starts to look pretty much as we know them at this point (except Snoopy still).

There’s lots of funny strips (visual mostly) of Snoopy chasing Linus to try to get his blanket (a joke that recurred for years).

And there’s a very meta joke of Lucy wearing one of CB’s shirts

Sally Brown, CB’s sister is born around August 1959 and CB gains a pencil pal.  The following week Aug 16 1959 is a great sibling rivalry with Lucy and Linus.  And there’s a wonderful strip where Sally and Snoopy gang up on Linus Oct 25 1959.

The Snoopy jokes are very funny with him (still) walking on all fours and wishing to be a bird or pretending to be a mountain lion.

The 1960 new years strip in which Lucy gives Linus the resolutions he should work on is hilarious.

Later Linus gets so mad at Lucy that “she hath caused me to rend my garment” is one of the funnier punch lines I’ve seen.

The great pumpkin makes its first mention on October 23 1960.

The Snoopy/Linus rivalry is really wonderful throughout with Snoopy trying to steal Linus’ blanket and then later getting into boxing matches—this is the classic Peanuts.  Some of these jokes have now been around for ages (the boxing glove on the nose). And Snoopy is starting to look a lot more like his familiar self (although not exactly the same yet).

It’s a great collection, once again.  And it looks amazing.

 

 

Read Full Post »

Charles M. Schulz–Peanuts Every Sunday 1952-1955 (2013)

Posted in Bill Watterson, Charles Schulz, Comic Strips, Fantagraphics, Funny (ha ha), Peanuts, Tiny Desk Concert, Vijay Iyer Trio on June 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »

peanutsVIJAY IYER TRIO-Tiny Desk Concert #438 (May 4, 2015).

vijay I was unfamiliar with Vijay Iyer, but I really enjoyed this Tiny Desk Concert.  Iyer is a jazz improv artist and composer (although all of these pieces have titles and come from previous albums).  The first four (of five) pieces are fast and eccentric, with interesting rhythms both in the drums (by Marcus Gilmore) and the piano.  There’s an  upright bass too (Stephan Crump) but I feel like he’s not very audible during the early medley.

I really enjoy the kinds of beats (from clicks to snares to cymbals) that Gilmore does.  And even if you can’t really hear the bass, it’s really fun to see how into it Crump is, keeping time to something or other.

While the four songs have fairly distinct starting points (and are labelled in the video), they flow pretty seamlessly, which is cool.  “Time, Place, Action” slows down just enough that “Questions of Agency” (a more staccato piece) is able to start fresh.  And then the opening of “Hood” is quite distinct.

The four songs are

  • “Diptych”
  • “Time, Place, Action — Excerpt 1 (Libra)”
  • “Questions Of Agency”
  • “Hood”

At around 13:31 “Hood” begins, and I love the staccato playing style and practically morse code drums.  It’s a dynamite piece (and you can really hear the bass too).  I’m amazed at how different what his left and right hand are doing.  And then the shift at 19 minutes, back to that earlier sound is very dramatic.  The final minute is tense and dissonant, really building to something big.

The band pauses for applause after nearly 21 straight minutes and then they play the final piece “Time, Place, Action — Excerpt 2 (For Amiri Baraka)” which mellows things out considerably, although is still kind of dissonant.

I don’t listen to a lot of jazz, but this really hit the spot (maybe because his new album is called “Break Stuff”).  And if you like this, there’s a 90 minute video of his trio playing on NPR.

[READ: April 10, 2015] Peanuts Every Sunday 1952-1955

Fantagraphics has been releasing volumes of Peanuts daily comic strips.  They are looking to do 50 years of strips in 25 books! (they are up to 1990).  And now they have begun releasing the Sunday color strips in their own volumes.

The reproductions are absolutely top notch.  I’m quite certain they look better here than they ever could have in the papers (the coloring alone looks phenomenal).

Schulz started doing Sunday strips for Peanuts (he hated the name Peanuts by the way, which was assigned him by the syndicate who agreed to publish him) in 1952.  And he continued up through his death in 2000.  Between black and white and Sunday color strips, he hand wrote, colored and lettered 17,897 comic strips.  That is amazing.

And the strip really evolved over the years (for better and worse).  These original cartoons are fascinating to see–especially now that the images from Peanuts are so ubiquitous that I doubt I could go an entire week without seeing an image of Snoopy somewhere.  So it’s amazing to see Snoopy look so different (and so much more like a real dog) in these early strips. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Always Be Yourself. Unless You Can Be a Unicorn, Then Always Be a Unicorn : A Snapshot of the Weird and Wonderful World of the Tumblr Generation (2014)

Posted in Douglas Coupland, Els Dragt, Lionel Loueke, NASA, Perille Kok-Jensen, Short Books, Tiny Desk Concert, Tumblr on June 7, 2015| Leave a Comment »

unicornSOUNDTRACK: LIONEL LOUEKE-Tiny Desk Concert #56 (April 26, 2010).

louekeI had never heard of Lionel Loueke.   He is a West African jazz player with a wonderfully unique way of playing.  He uses low tuning, nylon strings electric guitars (the particular guitar he uses here is beautiful), and paper in his strings (to create a cool buzzing sound).

He also sings (but that’s not the right word), he makes sounds with his mouth–sometimes singing what he is playing, sometimes just making sounds.  He seems like he is having the best time up there.

According to the blurb, Loueke usually plays with a trio (with the bassist and drummer contributing to songs and shaping the direction of the band).  For this Tiny Desk only Loueke and drummer Ferenc Nemeth play.  Nemeth plays bells, bundle sticks and a little rig set up around a hand drum and a jangly tambourine–it’s a very cool percussive sound that perfectly matches Loueke’s guitar style.

They begin with of “Vi Ma Yon.”  It’s a five-minute traditional song that appears on Loueke’s album Mwaliko.  This is such a fun and interesting song, with Loueke’s voice floating above the interesting guitar styling he lays down (with that paper buzzing away).

The second song, “Merci,” feels more traditional–with what sounds like actual words done in a melody.  Although his guitar playing isn’t as interesting (the paper is gone), his skill is readily apparent as he flies around the neck.

This is yet another interesting Tiny Desk with a performer I’d never heard of who really impressed me.

[READ: May 29, 2015] Always Be Yourself.

The second bad book of the weekend is this one.  I have to admit I love the title of this book.  I don’t know exactly where it comes from (some Tumblr feed no doubt) but I think it’s very funny.  And that’s what attracted me to it.  But the book itself is really rather lame.

It’s always weird when a book tries to capture an online sensation.  Especially one that is completely of a time and basically ephemera.  So here we get this book about Tumblr.  Notice there is no “author” for the book.  Although on the inside we see that the text is by Perille Kok-Jensen and Els Dragt.

My guess is that it is striving to be like a Douglas Coupland book (the font is very similar) with pictures and pithy slogans designed to describe all that is Tumblr.  The blurb says this book is designed to look at today’s Tumblr generation who are “bold, dreamy and unfazed by the grim context in which they’re coming of age.”  And that it is written “to all the unicorns out there: perhaps you could buy the book for your parents so that they will understand that you are in fact not a freak but part of a greater movement.”

Okay, fine, but how is Tumblr (Tumblr? really?) a great movement?  And are people actually defining themselves by using Tumblr?  Because I can tell you that all kinds of stodgy places use Tumblr, too.

Anyhow, it starts with a pithy comment:  “The nineties called, they want their individualism back.”  Which seems like a direct contradiction to page 61: “Blending in is the new standing out.”  Whatever.

And then it quotes Farrell’s “Happy.”  In fact it quotes lots of song lyrics and other famous quotes (with no attribution, actually). (more…)

Read Full Post »

Bruce Kluger & David Slavin–Dog on the Roof: On the Road with Mitt & The Mutt (2012)

Posted in Augustin Barrios, David Russell, Dogs, Francois Couperin, Isaac Albeniz, Political Humor, Short Books, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfunny on June 6, 2015| Leave a Comment »

roofSOUNDTRACK: DAVID RUSSELL-Tiny Desk Concert #55 (April 19, 2010).

russellDavid Russell is a classical guitar player (or “god,” as they call him).  Although I am unfamiliar with his work, apparently he is huge.

And deservedly so. When he started playing the first song I assumed he was looping the low notes while he soloed the high notes.  But no, he is playing the low notes slowly with his thumb while he speeds along the nearly pizzicato notes with the rest of his fingers.  And that’s just his right hand.

His left hand doesn’t move fast–he’s not shredding–but man, the elaborate chords, the expanse of his hand covering so much of the neck at once–are really stunning to watch. The chords are complex and the way he can play solo notes and low notes at the same time is amazing.

The Couperin piece absolutely blew my mind–there are two melodies going at once.  And the Albeniz piece is simply lovely.

It’s also fun to listen to his Scottish accent when he describes what he loves about the guitar he is playing (and his unexpectedly baudy joke about why he doesn’t name it).

The set list includes:

  • Augustin Barrios: “Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios”
  • Francois Couperin: “Les Silvains”
  • Isaac Albeniz: “Granada”

You can watch it here.  It’s amazing.

[READ: May 27, 2015] Dog on the Roof

I usually try to only read books that I’ll enjoy,  but every once in a while you get a stinker.  So this weekend is devoted to two recent stinkers.

I saw this book on a pile at work.  And I thought why on earth did we get this completely out of date book in 2015?  I see now that it was donated to the library. My goodness, thank you random person.

So perhaps you remember that in the 2012 campaign, Mitt Romney put his dog on the roof of his car or something. It was a minor scandal (or a major scandal if you love dogs).  And it was a jokey talking point for a little while.

Well, as happens in political cycles, some people decided to make a jokey book about it.  Kluger and Slavin are satirists who work for All Things Considered.  And, as the blurb on the back of the book says (not too overstate what was a minor incident) “It is the inside look at the Man Who Would Be President and the wild ride that’s sweeping and bewildering the nation.” (more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »