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Archive for the ‘NPR/PRI/PBS’ Category

Jeff Kinney–Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth [#5] (2010)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, All Songs Considered, Children's Books, Fears, Jeff Kinney, Queen, Set at School, Short Books, The White Stripes, Tiny Desk Concert on December 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC-Tiny Desk Concert #65 (June 22, 2010).

I can remember when Weird Al’s first album came out.  I heard about it on the radio (but hadn’t actually heard the song…I think they just talked about it being very funny) and went to my local Pathmark (which sold LPs) and asked the clueless clerk where the album with “Another One Rides the Bus” is.  Of course, he brought me to Queen.  I think I learned how to be sarcastic that day.  That was back in 1983.  Here it is 27 years later and Al is still popular enough to be invited to do an acoustic show on NPR (well, actually, the number of links about Al indicate that he may just be a perennial guest).

The Tiny Desk series is a 15 minute (or so) concert that’s all acoustic and appears to be in front of an audience of about ten (how lucky!).

This set is a fascinating look at three of Al’s songs.  The first song is “You Don’t Love Me Anymore.”  This was the ballad whose video was a parody of Extreme’s “More Than Words” video.  It is perfectly appropriate in this setting and still gets a number of laughs even though it’s from 1992.  I was astonished to hear the next song, “Good Old Days” (from 1988!).  It’s not one of my favorite songs by him, but it works well in this context.  I just can’t believe they dusted it off for the set.

The final song is a new one (he says it’s from “The Leaked Project,” ha ha) called “CNR” which is about Charles Nelson Riley.  What’s especially amusing about this performance is that the original is a style parody of The White Stripes.  Now, an acoustic version of a White Stripes song completely undermines the parodic nature of the song.  And yet it still shows the songcraft (it is an original tune after all) but also that his vocal skills are still top-notch.

These three songs aren’t his best songs, but this is a fun (albeit brief) tour through some of his more esoteric tracks.  You can listen (and download) and watch the video of it!! here.  There’s also a leaked copy of an Al song that never made it to an album.  “You’re Pitiful,” a parody of James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” can be streamed here.

[READ: November 25, 2010] The Ugly Truth

As I’ve said before, I love the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.  It never fails to make me laugh.  I’m kind of impressed at how many knock-offs it has spawned.  And all for simple line drawings and really funny pre-teen observations.

I was a little down on the previous book because it was about the summer, and I think the really funny bits are school related.  This book returns to school, and within the first few pages it had me laughing really hard again.

The “Ugly Truth” of the title is alluded to on the cover (Greg holding an egg); it’s that time for the girls and boys to have their own separate talks.  And there’s very little that is funnier than kids and “the talk.”  Unless of course, you’re having a kids overnight lock down at the school. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–Consider the Lobster (2005) [audiobook 2017–David Foster Wallace]

Posted in Book Reviews, Consumerism, David Foster Wallace, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Gourmet, Language, Lobster, Pornography, Premiere, Sex, Tennis, This American Life on November 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: November 18, 2010] Consider the Lobster

This was the final audio book that DFW read.  As with Brief Interviews, this is a collection of selected, unedited essays [actually it says “Text slightly edited for audio, with changes approved by the author.”  I don’t know these essays verbatim, but it seems like the changes simply acknowledge that this an audio essay and not a written one].

The only problem with the entire package is how few essays were selected.

I don’t know if it’s because this collection was recorded later and DFW felt more comfortable reading or because DFW had more fun reading these essays or that these essays lend themselves to more animated reading, but this collection is absolutely stellar.

The audio book includes

  • Consider the Lobster
  • The View from Mrs. Thompson’s
  • Big Red Son
  • How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart

and, sadly, that’s it.

Not included are (more…)

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Michael Chabon–”The Hofzinser Club” (New Yorker, July 19, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Adventure, All Songs Considered, Illusion, Magic, Michael Chabon, New Yorker, Short Story, Sufjan Stevens on November 18, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS-“Too Much” (2010).

NPR hosts a free online version of this song from Sufjan’s new album The Age of ADZ. I’ve been a fan of Sufjan’s orchestral pop for quite some time now. Although I’m less thrilled by his overly electronic experiments.  This song is an electronic meisterbrew, over-filled with all kinds of swells and electronica.

It still has Sufjan’s wonderful voice underneath it, and it retains many elements of Sufjan’s style, but it doesn’t make me all that excited to hear the rest of the album.   Of course, in the past, Sufjan has made many esoteric long-form electronic noodles (this one is over 6 minutes) as sort of supplements to the real deal.

So maybe this is an experiment?  We shall see.

[READ: October 22, 2010] “The Hofzinser Club”

Michael Chabon is another of the 1999 New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 authors.  I enjoyed Kavalier & Klay, but I read it long enough ago that I didn’t recognize this as an excerpt from it (clearly I will have to read it again).

This excerpt is from Josef Kavalier’s early attempts at magic.  We see Josef’s patience and unabashed desire to become a great magician (he has even written a musical based on Houdini).  He begins studying under Bernard Kornblum, who is a respected magician and a member of the prestigious Hofzinser Club.  This Club is (mixed metaphor alert), the brass ring that Josef imagines and hopes will accept him some day.

Josef’s younger brother Thomas is even more excited at the prospect of Josef’s fame, and he tries to think of amazing stunts that will shorten Josef’s wait until he is honored by the Club.  He suggests jumping from a plane while tied to a chair.  Young Josef of course wonders how he would even get a plane.  But spurred on by his brother’s excitement, Josef hatches a plan that’s within his reach. (more…)

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Matthew Klam–”Issues I Dealt with in Therapy” (New Yorker July 12, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, All Songs Considered, Culture Shock, Funny (ha ha), Matthew Klam, New Yorker, Romance, Short Story, Tricky on November 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TRICKY-“Kingston Logic” (2010).

I really liked Tricky’s debut album Maxinquaye.  Although I felt he had somewhat diminishing returns after that.  Then he got into acting so I assumed his musical career was over.

Now he’s back with this album (although I see on allmusic that he has actually been releasing for quite some time, and had a “comeback” album in 2008).  This song, which you can hear on NPR, while still kind of angry, is less claustrophobic than his early stuff (which I liked, but it’s nice to see him coming out from under that).

The female vocalist that he employs on the song is fine–she raps more than sings, which is kind of a shame since Tricky usually picks women with great and interesting voices.  But since this “rap” seems more like another instrument than actual singing/lyrics, it works quite well as a sound collage.

The selling point of the song is the infectiously simple guitar line that repeats throughout.  There’s a lot of other things going on that keep the song very busy, including a spoken section by Tricky himself.  The whole song is not even 3 minutes long;  it comes in, does what it intends and then takes off.

The more I listen to the song that more I really like it and I’m going to have to check out the whole disc to see what else he does.  I miss the gorgeous vocals, but I’ll happily take more of this, too.

[READ: October, 20, 2010] “Issues I Dealt with in Therapy”

Matthew Klam is another of the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 40 authors.  I enjoyed the excerpt of this story in the main issue, but I have to say I was rather surprised at how differently the  story turned out than I expected.

The protagonist of this story and his girlfriend are invited to a wedding on a fancy exclusive island (think Nantucket, although it is never stated).  He is a pretty average guy, but the guest list includes the Al Gore family as well as Madeline Albright and many other VIPs.  The island has been pretty much taken over for this wedding and it is clearly going to be a big deal.

The bulk of the story is a flashback which answers the question, “What was I doing here?”

The narrator and Bob (the soon-to-be husband) were in college together.  They were even roommates for a year.  Their friendship was kind of silly and superficial, but they formed a bond that lasted over the years.  Even though the narrator isn’t a VIP, he was still asked to be an usher (and to give a speech) at the wedding. (more…)

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Edwidge Danticat–”The Book of the Dead” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Brad, Edwidge Danticat, New Yorker, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pearl Jam, Short Story, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on November 12, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BRAD-Live from WXPN’s World Cafe (2010).

Brad are most known, if they are known at all, for being the side project of Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard.

I remember getting their first album and thinking it was okay.  But since then I have re-listened, and bought their other discs and found them to be an interesting side project from one of hard rock’s most enduring bands.  It’s also funny that Stone Gossard, by no means the most visible member of the band (surely Eddie Vedder wins for that and even lead guitarist Mike McCready gets more notoriety) should create a side band in which he is, again, not the main figure.  Lead singer Shawn Smith steals the show with his impressive voice.

This live set is brief (six songs in half an hour) and features four tracks from their recently released Best Firends? CD (which I haven’t heard).  The other two tracks “Buttercup” and “Screen” come from that first album.

The tracks from the new album seem like good classic rock (with “Low” being much harder than the other three and “Believe in Yourself” being a delicate piano ballad).  “Buttercup” still sounds good here as a sort of mellow jazzy number.  I’m not sure if Smith’s voice is as strong as it was, but he still sounds good.

It’s not a great show, but it’s a good collection of mellow rock songs.  You can listen to the set here.

[READ: October 11, 2010] “The Book of the Dead”

Edwidge Danticat is the next writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 40 issue.

I love the name Edwidge Danticat, although I’ve never heard of her before and (therefore obviously) never read her stuff.  Actually I take that back, I had heard of her book Krik? Krak! but didn’t recognize her as the author.

This story is about a young sculptor.  Her subject is almost exclusively her father.  He was a prisoner in Haiti and had a chance meeting, on the day he was released, with the woman who would later become his wife (and the artists’ mother).  They escaped to America and have lived happily ever since.

The first sculpture that the young artist made is one that she has fondness for but one that she never thought was very “strong” as a piece.  But one day she is told that a celebrity, a Haitian beauty who now appears on an American television show, wants to buy this sculpture as a gift to her own father.  The sculptor is so excited, that she personally travels across the country to deliver the sculpture to the celebrity.  She invites her father along since he was the inspiration. (more…)

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Junot Díaz–”Otravida, Otravez” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, All Songs Considered, Junot Díaz, Language, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Pregnancy, Set in New Jersey!, Short Story, The Decemberists on November 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE DECEMBERISTS-Live at the Newport Folk Festival [excerpts] (downloaded from NPR) (2010).

The Decemberists played at the Newport Folk Festival this year. NPR audio has an excerpt for free listen/download on their audio site.

They say that they were not going to play the entire Hazards of Love album at this show, as had been their wont on this tour.  I’m not sure what their entire set consisted of, but the three excerpts here include: “The Crane Wife Pt 3,” “Yankee Bayonet” and a very extended “Sons and Daughters.”

It surprises me how well The Decemberists work in a live setting.  I think of their music as  complex and convoluted with strange instrumentation, and yet, perhaps because of the theatricality of it all, it all sounds great in a live setting.

I can’t really imagine them releasing a proper live album, so for those of us who don’t get to concerts much, this is the next best thing (the recording quality is excellent–I only wish it was their whole set).

[READ: October 12, 2010] “Otravida, Otravez”

Junot Díaz is the next writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 4o issue.

I didn’t like this story in the beginning because I couldn’t tell for quite some time the gender of the narrator.  Normally this doesn’t make a difference, but when the narrator climbs into bed with the man in the room, I had a hard time deciding if this was a subversive act or just a straight act of romance.  [I admit that since the author was male, I assumed the narrator was male, too].

It turns out the narrator is a woman (there is a clue when he says “Yasmin,” but in the first read I was unclear if he was saying her name or just a name in general).

In fact, to me, the entire beginning was very strangely set up and it took a few paragraphs (when she describes her job) before I felt the flow really took off.  However, once it did I found this story fascinating and convoluted in a very good and clever way. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–readings [audiobooks & downloads 2000-2005–David Foster Wallace]

Posted in Audiobooks, Boredom, David Foster Wallace, Death, Depression, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Harper's, History, Language, Short Story, This American Life on October 31, 2010| 1 Comment »

[LISTENED TO: October 20, 2010] Readings

This (all too brief) collection of readings by David Foster Wallace includes several excerpts and a few shorter pieces.  I’ve noticed that there seem to be more and more videos (audios) of DFW reading on YouTube.  If I had time I would try to gather all of these videos (or even just try to watch them), but for now, I’ll stick with what’s at the David Foster Wallace Audio Project.

The Consider the Lobster reading is an excerpt from”The View from Mrs. Thompson’s”.  I’d never heard him read this piece before and it is a fascinating look at the events of 9/11/01 from Bloomington, Indiana.  I haven’t read the piece in a few years and it was quite affecting to hear him read it aloud.  The introduction was also interesting because he mentions that this is the quickest piece he has ever written (I wonder how many drafts he was able to do in that short period). (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–eulogies [audio] (2008)

Posted in Big Books, Boredom, David Foster Wallace, Death, Depression, Five Dials, Fun Boy Three, George Saunders, Jonathan Franzen, Language, Madness, Marriage (Happy), NPR/PRI/PBS, Pearl Jam, Smarty Pants, Suicide, Tennis, The Flaming Lips, Zadie Smith on October 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: October 19, 2010] David Foster Wallace Eulogies

There are some really nice eulogies done for when DFW died.  The official (written) memorial service eulogies (from Jonathan Franzen, Zadie Smith, George Saunders and others) are available here (from an outstanding online journal called Five Dials).  They’re all beautiful (I was amused that the second longest one comes from DFW’s editor!).

The audio eulogies are available at The David Foster Wallace Audio Project.  They include two very long full length ceremonies and several news (NPR mostly) reports.  And there’s a lengthy interview with David’s sister, Amy, which is by far the most moving one.

The first of the lengthy pieces is the ceremony from Amherst.  It consists of colleagues, friends and students all telling stories about DFW.  And their collective memories join together to create a great portrait of the man; things that you’d never know about him (except you kind of would) from reading his work.  The thing that really struck me from this memorial was just how many friends he had.  This seems like an insult but it isn’t meant to be; rather, the impression I had was that he was quite a solitary man, holing up with his dogs and his pens.  But the stories and love from his friends during his college years especially are really quite nice to hear, and showcase a side of him that he left out of his work (except, of course, really he didn’t). (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–interviews [audio] (1996-2005)

Posted in Audiobooks, Big Books, Bookworm, Consumerism, David Foster Wallace, David Lynch, Depression, Dictionary, Essays, Infinity, Language, Math, NPR/PRI/PBS, Radio, Suicide, Tennis, Word usage on October 22, 2010| 3 Comments »

[LISTENED TO: Week of October 10, 2010] David Foster Wallace interviews

There will soon be a group read of Consider David Foster Wallace, a book of essays about, yes, David Foster Wallace.  In a sort of preparation for the group read, I decided to immerse myself in the available audio files online.

The David Foster Wallace Audio Project hosts quite a vast collection of audio files, including interviews, readings and eulogies.  Even the Howling Fantods points to it.

I started with the interviews.  They cover the period from Infinite Jest to Consider the Lobster.  For the most part, the interviews took place on various NPR stations.  There are not a lot of details given about the items on the site (which is the only flaw that I can see with the site), but you can more or less tell from the titles given what book is the cause for the interview.

I know that DFW was not a fan of interviews, yet I can’t help but be surprised at how few interviews actually seem to be extant (or at least preserved online).  You can see a list of all of the interviews on the site.  I’m listing and giving very brief notations for some of the longer interviews, but I just don’t have the time/inclination to go into great detail. (more…)

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie–”Birdsong” (New Yorker, September 20, 2010)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Romance, Short Story, Superchunk, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me on October 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SUPERCHUNK-The Question is How Fast (1992).

With a new CD out, and–even more impressive–an appearance on NPR’s Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me, I thought it would be fun to revisit Superchunk’s output (starting with their EPs).

This is the earliest Superchunk EP that I own.  The title track is a bracing four minute blast of speedy alt-rock.  It has a poppy structure but the guitar is distorted enough to keep the song interesting over repeated listens.  Of course, it’s the catchy chorus that sells the song.  And it sets the tone for future Superchunk tracks: high pitched vocals sung loud and with unimpeachable pop sensibility.

The second track is “Forged It” a more punk-sounding track that, when the chord changes come in, makes it sound like it’s moving even faster.  A blistering guitar solo muscles its way into the song, too.  The final track is “100,000 Fireflies” a cover of The Magnetic Fields song (and one that they play quite often, it seems).  It’s given suitable bratty treatment from the band.

[READ: October 2, 2010] “Birdsong”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the second to last 20 Under 40 author from the New Yorker. This story has the delightful exoticism of being set in Lagos.

And yet, the basic premise is quite simple: a wealthy married man falls for a woman and they begin an affair.  It’s a fairly typical story of illicit love and jealous.  However, some details are rather different: he allows her to move into his “work” house (he bought it to turn it into condos, but he liked it so much he kept it as an office).  And she lives with him in this way for around 18 months.

Her office mate, a judgmental woman who she would never be friendly with if they didn’t work together is very disapproving of this affair, and always calls him, “your man” knowing fully well that he is actually someone else’s man.

And that, in addition to the love he clearly shows to his wife eats away at her.  So, in many ways, this is a fairly conventional story. (more…)

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