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Archive for the ‘NPR/PRI/PBS’ Category

Adam Reid–The Adventures of Barry & Joe: Obama & Biden’s Bromantic Battle for the Soul of America (2019)

Posted in Abraham Lincoln, Adam Reed, Adam Reid, Archer, Barack Obama, Caddyshack, Donald Rumsfeld, donald tRUMP, Ernest Hemingway, Funny (ha ha), George Washington, Graphic Novel, Joe Biden, John Lennon, Johnny Cash, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Play (Drama), Political Humor, Politicians, Quantum, Quantum Leap, Ronald Reagan, Rosanne Cash, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Samuel L. Jackson, Simon & Garfunkel, Simon and Garfunkel, T-Bone Burnett, The Blues Brothers, The Odd Couple, The Tiny Chef Show, Time Travel, Tiny Desk Concert on October 4, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ROSANNE CASH-Tiny Desk Concert #894 (September 23, 2019)

I don’t know all that much about Rosanne Cash (I couldn’t recall how she was related to Johnny).  I also assumed that she would be a country artist.  Yet this set is anything but country.  But I guess the key to that is that her voice isn’t country at all, it’s just good.

This blurb also blows my mind a bit about how quickly (or not) they post concerts.  This show was posted in September but was recorded in January–she had to wait quite a while to see it.

Rosanne Cash and her band arrived at NPR to play the Tiny Desk on a freezing cold, bright sunny day in January — one of those brittle, crystal clear winter days when the snow reflects the sun and there’s nowhere to hide from the light. Her intense performance had that same balance of heat and ice.

Cash plays four songs

most taken from her 2018 album She Remembers Everything, have a lot of emotional heat, but they’re shaped and sculpted by the wry wisdom of age and experience. More than at any time in her career, her spirit and approach to performance these days reflects the influence of her father, the legendary country singer Johnny Cash.

“She Remembers Everything” opens with John Leventhal on with Rosanne on acoustic guitar.  Like most of these songs, it feels slow and powerful–kind of bluesy with a dramatic chord progression.  Mid song, Leventhal switches to guitar and plays a great little solo.

When the song is over she praises everyone: “So attentive.  Like a listening room at the NPR offices.”

Up next is “The Only Thing Worth Fighting” which she co-wrote with T Bone Burnett and Lyra Lynn  This song is not so much country as western-sounding.  There’s more nice guitar work from Leventhal.

Zev Katz on bass and Dan Rieser on drums don’t do anything to single them out except for keeping the songs moving properly.  The bass does do some nice lines, but mostly, these are simple songs which need little accompaniment.

For “Everyone But Me” she takes off the guitar.  This is a lovely piano ballad after which she says, “I don’t know if the young people can relate to this song but it means more as you get older.”

The last song is from her album The River and the Thread.  She says the album won a Grammy and the last time she won a Grammy, Ronald Reagan was president.  From this she plays the cool bluesy “A Feather’s Not A Bird.”

This isn’t the kind of music I enjoyed, but I liked this Tiny Desk Concert a lot more than I thought I would based on what I thought I knew about Rosanne Cash.

[READ: August 26, 2019] The Adventures of Barry & Joe

After the election that has sent the country spiraling into a level of hell, Adam Reid wanted to do something to make decent-thinking people laugh.

When I saw first saw this, I assumed that Adam Reid was Adam Reed, the creator of Archer and other delightfully dark cartoons.  It took a while for me to realize that he isAdam Reid who is responsible for The Tiny Chef Show.

Aside from that, I don’t really have any familiarity with him.  So that’s kind of interesting, I suppose. (more…)

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Chynna Clugston-Major–Scooter Girl (2004)

Posted in Ari Lennox, Chynna Clugston, Chynna Clugston-Major, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, NPR/PRI/PBS, Oni Press, Regrets, Relationships, Sex, Sexism, Tiny Desk Concert on October 3, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ARI LENNOX-Tiny Desk Concert # 895 (September 25, 2019).

I had never heard of Ari Lennox.  And I assume I will never hear of her again after this show.

I gather she is popular and respected, but as soon as I heard the sounds that came out as the first song opened, I knew I’d never be listening to her again and when she sang in her sweet R&B voice “Why not tell me all the mother fucking things” several times, I knew she’d never get played on the radio.

So who is Ari Lennox?  The blurb is surprisingly unhelpful.

Earlier this Spring, Lennox staked her claim not only on J. Cole’s Dreamville imprint as the sole female artist but also in the upper echelon of R&B with her debut album, Shea Butter Baby.

I don’t know who J.Cole is either, but I guess I’m supposed to.

Turns out that cursing is in no way atypical for her.

Her nuanced but explicit — and sometimes lyrically graphic — approach to seemingly surface-level emotions and situations immediately struck a chord with fans.

The lyrics are particularly disarming because the music is mostly smooth twinkly keys from Chris Worthy with simple drums and percussion from CJ Trusclair and Stanley Banks Jr.

In between songs, she seems very sweet complimenting the women in the audience and just being genuinely pleasant.  Then she made me laugh with this comment

I know you’re here and a little young but this next song is called “Pussy Pop.” [pause] Jesus.

I don’t know if the first song “Speak to Me” gets airplay, but there’s no way “Pop” does with these lyrics

Pop this pussy
For you tonight
Will you promise? Baby
Won’t you make a promise?
That you’ll make me your wife

If you really love me
I’ll fuck you good
Fuck you good, fuck you good

She gets some vocal help from Dave James, although I’m not sure who he is either.

“New Apartment” is up next.  She introduces it saying, “I need you to bust it up for me, seriously everyone 50 and up I need you up front bustin it.”  Musically it’s a bit more interesting with a cool bass line from Jerome Lawrence.  The middle of the song features a very funny call-and response as she tries to get the NPR crowd to sing along:

Everybody say “Get the fuck out” which they do.  Then she goes on “Get the fuck out my apartment.  Fuck that shit that you’re talkin’.  What the fuck is you talkin’ about?”  The audience does sing along but they are subdued, as usual.  She jokes, “Don’t be shy.  Are you all religious?  Whats going on?”  At the end of the song she says, “You all are so sweet and holy.  Thank you so much for stepping outside of your comfort zones and cursing with me.”

“Shea Butter Baby” is my favorite song.  It’s got a rocking Prince vibe with a great guitar solo from Taylor Gamble.  She says, “I made it for my sexy brown queens because we’re sexy and fun.”  Midway through the song she steps back and says, “Now welcome J. Cole, y’all.”  The room goes silent apparently in huge anticipation until they realize she is joking and everyone laughs loudly.  I guess J.Cole is a big deal.

But whatever, it’s a funny moment and she certainly won me over.  So I wish her well as long as I don’t have to hear her music again.

[READ: July 2, 2019] Scooter Girl

I loved Chynna’s Blue Monday series.  I started getting the individual issues of Scooter Girl when it started, but I feel like I may have never gotten them all.  I did however get this collected book.  The interesting thing is that I thought I’d like to read it again, but when I started treading it I realized that I must have never read it at all.    I certainly didn’t recognize very much of it if I did.  In fairness, this was 14 years ago, but I doubt that this story would have vacated my head entirely.

So I love everything about Chynna’s “deal.”  I love her drawing style–her nods to manga in a westernized story.  I love her taste in music (she’s the reason why I started including “soundtracks” in my post in the first place., because all of her scenes have them.  (Although this soundtrack in no way accompanies this story).  I also love reading about the whole mod scene (and that she make it seem so much bigger than I assume it actually is).  I also love that her women are kick-ass.

And that’s why I was so disappointed in the ending of this story.

I was particularly disappointing because in Nabiel Kana’s introduction he says:

Ultimately, though, it’s he unexpected that makes Scooter Girl such a special story.  You think you’ve got it all worked it.  You think you know what you’re in for.  You’re wrong.

But I wasn’t surprised or wrong.

Everything about his story says these two people hate each other and they are obviously going to fall in love by the end.  And (spoiler alert) that’s what happens.  And that’s why I was so bummed.  Not because people shouldn’t fall in love, but because Ashton Archer is such a shit, such a horrifying man, that there’s no way Chynna should have allowed her amazing protagonist to fall for him.  Certainly in the #metoo world, this story would never fly.

The story begins with the King’s Classic.  This is a huge scooter rally in San Francisco: top mods and die-hard scooterists, whose main purpose was impressing everyone around them…themselves above all, of course.  Cut to some classic Chynna scenes of mods–beautiful boys and girls dancing, making out, and sitting on scooters.  Her art is always wonderful.

Then we meet Ashton.  Ashton is the greatest thing in town.  He hooks up with who he wants when he wants.  He has sex with women and tosses them aside.  But he is so groovy and wonderful that no one elver seems to catch on.  They just want him to spin records for them.   He tells us that the men in his family (the Archers) have always been this magnetic.  His grandfather had an affair with Clara Bow, Constance Talmadge and Louise Brooks.   The family is smart, charismatic, attractive, and rich.

Then a girl on a silver special rode up, her name was Margaret Sheldon.  She looked at Ashton and he was suddenly a clumsy idiot.  He actually crashes his bike in front of her.  Obviously he is upset by this but he gets a lot of sympathy in school the next day.  Until he sees that she has started school there too. As soon as he tries to talk to her he falls down the stairs.

We don’t really know what she thinks about this guy who continually falls on his ass or his face in front of her until we see her overhearing one of his mates ask him if he ever goes out with the same girl twice “only if she gives amazing head.”  They also say that the new girl has got a nice mouth on her.  Clearly she is pissed.  She immediately goes to the girls room and rats out what she just heard.  And the slaps come fast and furious.

As he becomes persona non grata at school, he decides to flee and heads off to San Diego (as you do in high school).

Four years pass and he’s got his mojo back.  He’s spinning in San Diego and is doing great.  Until he sees her on the dance floor.  Did she follow him?  Is it coincidence?  Well, all of his flubs come back–this time jeopardizing his spinning career.

He decides that he’s going to get closer to her to find out ways to torment her.  He befriends her brother.  Her brother is a cool guy, not too happy about hanging out with Ashton.  But they soon find that they have some things in common and actually become friends.  Bu the whole time, Ashton is messing with her stuff–hiding her keys, popping her tires, causing irritations.  But every time he tries to do anything around her he gets messed up big time.  His mojo has vanished.

He goes to visit his grandpa in the nursing home.  His grandpa tells a lengthy story about an Arhcer who lived 400 years ago during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.  The Archer man was a stud of course, but when the women got wise to him, they put a curse on him.  That curse lives to this day when a woman from that family comes around.  His grandpa says the only solution is to kill her.

And so, strengthening his resolve, he deices he will kill her.   Of course all the attempts go horribly wrong.  So he decides to hire someone to do it for him.  This guy is a local drug dealer with a reputation (the reason he has such a bad reputation is quite hilarious).

Of course this doesn’t work and even more bad things happen to Ashton.

After all of this what on earth could he possibly do to make her fall for him at all?  It’s probably not worth the revelation.  Which is a shame because the individual scenes and the strength of Meg up until then is pretty fantastic.

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Philip Gelatt & Rick Lacy—Labor Days: Volume 2: Just Another Damn Day (2009)

Posted in Amanda Shires, End of the World, Graphic Novel, Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit, Josh Ritter, NPR/PRI/PBS, Oni Press, Philip Gelatt, Rick Lacy, Sex, Sexism, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on October 2, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JOSH RITTER with AMANDA SHIRES and JASON ISBELL-Tiny Desk Concert #896 (September 27, 2019).

I enjoyed Josh Ritter’s previous Tiny Desk Concert.  I liked his voice and found his lyrics to be quite thoughtful.

For this Tiny Desk he is accompanied by “musical soulmates,” Amanda Shires on fiddle and Jason Isbell on acoustic guitar who both play on Josh’s 2019 album Fever Breaks.

The three songs he plays in this concert are even more thoughtful, they are also pointed, powerful and painful.  The songs are not enjoyable, exactly.  They are accomplishing something other than joy.

As the blurb says

Honestly, it was a draining concert with challenges to who we are and who, as a country and a people, we wish to be.

The music is quiet and subdued and are there to lift up the lyrics, which are clearly the most important part of these songs.

“All Some Kind of Dream” is

filled with frustrations regarding the treatment of refugees, immigration, politics and our hearts…. He sings, “There was a time when we were them / Just as now they all are we / Was there an hour when we took them in? / Or was it all some kind of dream?”

Every word his sings is one that should change the way Americans view what is going on, and yet some will never be convinced by lyrics like

I saw the children in the holding pens
I saw the families ripped apart
And though I try I cannot begin
To know what it did inside their hearts
There was a time when we held them close
And weren’t so cruel, low, and mean
And we did good unto the least of those
Or was it all some kind of dream?

Ritter took a moment to encourage everyone to fight back

When the song ended, Josh stared into the NPR crowd. “I feel like the big thing that we all have to fight against is this notion that we’re not all human beings,” he said. “And they’re trying to break us in every number of ways, all different little groups, and that we have no power, but we have power!”

The next song “The Torch Committee,” is slightly more cryptic in construction but hardly cryptic in intent

Wait, suppose that we untie
Your hands to sign upon this line
To pledge that you have always been
A patriot and citizen
Please ignore the legalese
Lawyers are my right now see
Why we’re so happy that you came
Appendix three and list of names

It features a nice solo from Isbell and a raw violin solo from Shires.

They ended the set with a new song,”The Gospel of Mary.”

This is a long song ().  Like the other two it is something of a story song which “imagines Joseph, Mary and their child as refugees.”  The verses are interspersed with solos from Isbell and Shires.

As the applause faded Josh hugged his bandmates, thanked the crowd, smiled and said, “America, we love you, but you’ve gotta change!”

Ritter is an amazing songwriter and I hope that these songs hit the ears of those who need to hear them.

[READ: August 9, 2019] Labor Days Volume 2

Book 2 picks up a little over a month after Book 1.

Bags and Vanessa are still on a quest for the Face of History (which suspiciously keeps leading them to bars).  But they know that the Face of History is a leader of a vast conspiracy.  And of course Rick Stryker is hanging about being rather useless and hilarious as always.

Vanessa is annoyed with Bags for dawdling and wasting their time.  Bags is annoyed at Vanessa because she keeps hurting people in extraordinarily violent ways.  She seems to have no compunction about doing the violence she does.

A chance discovery sets them aboard a ship.  The captain makes Bags do grunt work and makes Vanessa something of a captain’s aide (much to Bags’ dismay). (more…)

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Philip Gelatt & Rick Lacy—Labor Days: A Revolution in Print (2008)

Posted in Drinking, End of the World, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, History, Jonas Brothers, NPR/PRI/PBS, Oni Press, Philip Gelatt, Rick Lacy, Sex, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on October 1, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JONAS BROTHERS-Tiny Desk Concert #897 (September 30, 2019).

I actually don’t know anything about the Jonas Brothers.  I think for a while I thought that the Jonas Brothers were some kind of offshoot of another pop band–someone named Jonas, maybe?  So I don’t know them and I had no idea they were still popular.

But the blurb says

The Jonas Brothers announced their reunion in February after a six-year hiatus and soon dropped a new single, “Sucker,” which debuted at number one of the Billboard Hot 100.  During their time apart, Kevin [vocals, guitar] focused on family, Nick [vocals, keys, guitar] went solo and Joe [vocals, in the pink hoodie] formed the band DNCE.

and also that

The line of NPR staffers waiting to see the Jonas Brothers’ Tiny Desk concert began forming four hours before the scheduled performance.

But I still didn’t know any of their songs or even what they sounded like.

However, they seem like really nice fellas and that goes a long way with me.

So the first song they played, “Sucker” seemed really poppy.  In fact, their vocal style screams pop music (which is code for “I don’t like it”).  And yet their instrumentation was primarily acoustic here.  Is that a part of being at the Tiny Desk or is this what the song sounds like?  I thought that the song had a pretty jazzy feel and the blurb concurs calling the version a “jazzy rework” so i guess they don’t normally sound like this.

The second song “I Believe” is really poppy and I didn’t really like it.

But between songs they were pretty funny.  Nick says he likes the “Nick pin” he sees and the audience member says she’s had it since 7th grade…she’s 23 now.

Earlier they had mentioned that this tour they were surrounded by toys (because of Kevin’s kids).

As the trio approached the desk, they were immediately drawn to the knickknacks and toy instruments scattered throughout the area. They ended up working them into their performance, adding a little childlike flair to “Only Human” from their latest album, Happiness Begins.

Nick says they made a video for the song in which they “took it back to the ’80s, which is long before I was born.”

I admit that this song is incredibly catchy and I love the way they use the toys to good (and humorous) effect through the song.  Although I hate the “eye eye eye eye” part, I’ll bet it’s a lot of fun live.

Joe asks where his Leos are at and they announce that it is his birthday today.  They say that last year on his birthday he said that next year, he wanted to play the Tiny Desk and now, amazingly, wink wink, this year it happened on his birthday.

so our video producer (and proud Joe-Bro fan), Morgan Noelle Smith brought a cake, and the large crowd serenaded him with “Happy Birthday.”

Jonas Brothers are not alone for this show.  They are accompanied by Jack Lawless on drums, Tarron Crayton on bass, Tom Crouch on guitar and Michael Wooten on keys.  Wootens’ piano parts are excellent and the full band accentuates these songs quite nicely.

[READ: August 8, 2019] Labor Days

I have clearly had this graphic novel in my house for over ten years.  I has assumed I’d read some of the early issues of it but it was all new to me.  And boy did I enjoy it.

The book is set in London where a goofy, somewhat likable guy named Bags is talking to his girlfriend.  She is inexplicably hot.

Fate interferes with Bags though in the form of a video tape.  Bags had put up a flyer “Bagswell household chores for hire” and this person is taking advantage of the services.  He offers 20 quid to look after the tape. But this tape will prove to be the start of something huge and terrifying for Bags.  One that will take him across Europe with tons of guns pointed at him.

Bags heads to his local where Warren the bartender tells him it’s one of those days.  He swears he used to push the handles to make the beer come put but today he has to pull them.  Bags has gotten a letter from his girlfriend.  The bartender gives him six shots and says to read it aloud.  “Bagswell—I hate you .  Have done so for a long time. –Kelly.” (more…)

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Tobias Wolff–“Class Picture” (New Yorker, January 6, 2003)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Cigarettes, Excerpt, John F. Kennedy, New Yorker, NPR/PRI/PBS, Patient Sounds, Poetry, Poets, Richard Nixon, Robert Frost, Set at School, The Angelus, Tobias Wolff, Viking's Choice on September 6, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE ANGELUS-“The Young Birds” (2019).

Every once in a while I like to check in with Viking’s Choice on NPR’s All Songs Considered.  Lars Gottrich specializes in all of the obscure music that you won’t hear on radio.  For this month, he did a special focus on Patient Sounds. a small label based out of Illinois.

[UPDATE: At the end of 2019, Patient Sounds closed shop. I’m not sure if any of these songs are available outside of Bandcamp].

Lars had this to say about the label

Matthew Sage, who runs the label, knows that dynamic drone, jittery footwork, oddball drone-folk, hypnagogic guitar music and cosmic Americana can exist in the same space.

The second song of the week is by The Angelus.  Lars describes the song:

Redemption often comes at the hands of something bigger than yourself, but as The Angelus’ soul-rattling doom-gaze reminds us, the love of young children will make you humble.

This song starts with crashing heavy chords–cymbals and loud guitars.  But then it settles down to a groovy death riff.  The surprise to me was when the singer began singing.  He has a soft melodic voice which totally changes this from a heavy dark song into a kind of melodic slow heavy song.  The chorus is surprisingly heavy and even ends on a kind of positive mood.

[READ: September 1, 2019] “Class Picture”

This story surprised me because it started

Robert Frost made his visit in November of 1960, just a week after the general election.  It tells you something about our school that the prospect of his arrival cooked up more interest than the contest between Nixon and Kennedy.

If Nixon had been at their school, they would have glued his shoes to the floor.

This is quite a lengthy story and there are a lot of components.  Wolff fleshes out this school very well.  So well, in fact, that I could see this being developed into a novel [It is actually an excerpt from a novel]. Although for the purposes of this story, the plot is dealt with fully.

It also makes me wonder if such a school could actually exist.  Certainly not in 2020, but even in 1960?  Because this school exhibited pride in being a literary institution. Glamorous writers visited three times a year and the English masters carried themselves as if they were intimates of Hemingway.  The teachers of other subjects (math, science) seemed to float around the fringe of the English masters’ circle.

The tradition at the school was that one boy would be chosen to meet the famous author who was coming next.  This year it is Robert Frost.  Each boy would submit an entry (in the case of Frost it would be poetry).  The author himself would select the winner.  And these meetings were a big deal to everyone on campus.

The narrator is very excited but he knows that his poems are subpar–he writes fiction.  He was on the school’s literary magazine board so he was familiar with the other great writers in his class.  There were three.

George Kellogg was a proficient writer of poetry, although the narrator found the boring.

Bill White was the narrator’s roommate.  He’d written most of a novel already and his poems were impressive.

Jeff Purcell was the third.  He was also on the literary magazine and was quick to dismiss others.  Could that translate to his own writing?

The one detour from the poetry angle is about smoking.  The school forbade smoking but a lot of boys did anyway.  The narrator said he loved smoking.  He smoked in storage closets and freezers, steam tunnels and bathrooms.  He even went out for cross-country so he could smoke while running in the woods.

If you were caught smoking you were expelled.  It happened every once in awhile.  A person was sent home just before the Frost Poem deadline.  This made the narrator quit smoking on campus.

The narrator wrote a poem for the occasion but he didn’t think it was good enough.  So he decided to submit an older one on the off chance that Frost liked it.

I won’t spoil the winner, but Frost did come to the school and he read some of his poems aloud.  During the Q&A that followed a master asked a question.  Interestingly he misstated the title of the poem.  He called it “Stopping in Woods” which Frost corrected instantly to “Stopping by Woods on a  Snowy Evening”  The master continued the question asking about iambic lines  Frost says “Good for you, they must be teaching you boys something here.”

The boys all laughed and Frost seemed pleased–had he made a mistake about the master or had he known all along?  The boys were surprised to learn later that Frost was quite funny.

The end of the story shows the winner of the contest questioning the value of his poem.  He felt that Frost mis-read it and that perhaps he won for the wrong reasons.  Should he blow off Robert Frost?  Is he crazy?

I really enjoyed this piece and found myself thoroughly engaged.  If this is part of a novel, I would be very curious to read it.  Turns out it is an excerpt from the novel Old School.

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Sam Humphries, Jen Bartel–Blackbird Book 1: The Great Beast (2019)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Deathprod, Graphic Novel, Huh?, Humiliation, Image Comics, Jen Bartel, Magic, NPR/PRI/PBS, Parenting, Patient Sounds, Sam Humphries, Supernatural, Unfinished series, Viking's Choice on September 5, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: DEATHPROD-“Disappearance / Reappearance” (2019).

Every once in a while I like to check in with Viking’s Choice on NPR’s All Songs Considered.  Lars Gottrich specializes in all of the obscure music that you won;t hear on radio.  For this month, he did a special focus on Patient Sounds. a small label based out of Illinois.

[UPDATE: At the end of 2019, Patient Sounds closed shop. I’m not sure if any of these songs are available outside of Bandcamp].

Lars had this to say about the label

Matthew Sage, who runs the label, knows that dynamic drone, jittery footwork, oddball drone-folk, hypnagogic guitar music and cosmic Americana can exist in the same space.

The first song is by Deathprod.  Lars says:

Deathprod’s first album in 15 years, Occulting Disk, smothers dank, dark drones around the void of your soul, like a frozen hug from a cyborg teddy bear.

This song is 8 minutes long.  It consists almost entirely of a single loud distorted note/chord played on a synth until it fades into distorted crackles.  The note changes, but it is a pretty ominous soundtrack, like the slowest monster approaching you.

[READ: September 2, 2019] Blackbird

This book starts out with a very realistic concern but quickly become supernatural.

Nina was 13 years old and had a vision of an earthquake coming.  Her sister just called her a crazy baby (something the whole family called her). But moments later, the Verdugo Earthquake happened.  She and her family fled, and were almost crushed by a collapsing bridge.

But then a beautiful celestial monster came down and fixed the bridge and saved them.  The creature cast a forgetting spell over everyone, but somehow Nina remembered it all.

Despite the magical creature’s help, Nina’s life went to hell from there.  Her mother and father began fighting.  He began drinking and she died in a car accident while trying to get away from him.  Nina had been a great student but high school became unbearable.  She became “the girl who talked about magic and wizards and paragons.”

Now as an adult, she has a dead end job at a bar, is living with her sister and is sneaking painkillers.

There’s a guy, Clint, who seems to be stalking her at the bar.  I mean, he’s cute, but he’s always there. (more…)

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Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang–Paper Girls 1 (2016)

Posted in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Arkanoid, Brian K. Vaughan, Christa McAuliffe, Cigarettes, Cleveland Preserver, Cliff Chiang, Death, Drinking, Feminism, Halloween, Newspapers, Nicole Bus, NPR/PRI/PBS, Religion, Sci-fi, The Far Side, Thieves, Threats, Time Travel, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series on September 4, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: NICOLE BUS-Tiny Desk Concert #882 (August 21, 2019).

Nicole Bus is from Amsterdam.  Everything about her makes it seem like she has been around for a while.  Her style of music, her raspy voice (which makes her sound older than she is) and her choice of instrumentation (the horns and flute melodies sound old school).  But she is an emerging artist:

Nicole Bus’ sound is nostalgic. It’s reminiscent of vintage R&B, yet still feels current, and can transcend age and demographics.

Her style is R&B, but her singing style is far more reggae influenced.  It’s really fascinating.  The first song, “You,” opens with spooky piano from Eugene “Man Man” Roberts and slow horns from Chris Stevens (trumpet) and Aaron Goode (trombone). I love the addition of the flutes from Korey Riker.  More and more I can’t get over how good flutes sound in rock.  Her delivery is quite reggae until she lets out with her powerful raspy voice.  The song is really catchy.

Nicole followed by premiering a new song about women’s empowerment, “Love It.”  Drummer Mark Thomas starts with drums and then switches to hand drums.  Anthony DeCarlo adds acoustic guitar while Jasmine Patton sing high note backing vocals.  I love in the middle of the song when Eugene “Man Man” Roberts play a very 70s-sounding fill on the keyboards.  Riker adds more great flutes.

She ends the set

with “Mr. Big Shot,” an up-tempo banger mixing high-energy rhythms with ragga-influenced vocals.

Nicole plays acoustic guitar and there’s a cool, catchy four note bass riff from Ray Bernard that propels the song along.  Lamarcus Eldridge joins Patton for some great backing vocals.  This melody has been stuck in my head for days now.

I’d never heard of Nicole Bus, but I really enjoyed her set and her energy.

[READ: September 1, 2019] Paper Girls

This book turned out to be so much more interesting than I imagined.

The title was strangely puzzling and the cover had a kind of 1980s look to it.

It didn’t occur to me that “paper girls” meant newspaper delivery girls.

It’s coincidental that this book starts out with the main character, Erin, getting up at 4:40 to deliver papers since that’s almost exactly the same way as Middlewest in which Abel gets up at 4:30 to deliver papers.

Anyhow this story is quite different form that one because it has a cool feminist attitude, although it is also supernatural.

It begins with Erin asleep and dreaming of Christa McAuliffe in heaven.  Then she wakes up at 4:40 and gets ready to deliver the Cleveland Preserver.  It’s also November 1 (1988) as evidenced by The Far Side calendar (nice touch). The calendar has “hell morning” written on it.

Why?  Because at 4:40 on the morning after Halloween there are still hooligans roaming the streets.  One dressed as Freddy Krueger harasses Erin immediately.  But while he is giving Erin a hard time, three girls pull up on bikes and harass right back.  One girl uses some very inappropriate language which Erin (who goes to Catholic school) chastises her for.  The girl, Mac, waits for a thank you. (more…)

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Joel Hodgson, Harold Buchholz–Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Comic

Posted in Dave Chappelle, Death, Erykah Badu, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Harold Buchholz, Horror, Igbo Masquerade, Jack Pollock, Joel Hodgson, Joel Hodgson, Mary Robinson, Matt McGinnis, Meta, Mike Manley, Mimi Simon, MST3K, Mysteries, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Netflix, NPR/PRI/PBS, Racism, Sci-fi, Seth Robinson, Sexism, Sharyl Volpe, Tiny Desk Concert, Tobe Nwigwe, Todd Nauck, Totino's Pizza Rolls on September 3, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TOBE NWIGWE-Tiny Desk Concert #881 (August 19, 2019).

Tobe Nwigwe is the leader, but he shares the spotlight with his backing vocalists all of whom take lead vocal spots at some point.

The thing I like best about this set is that they are all wearing T shirts that say “My First Tiny Desk.”

There’s a wide array of sounds on this Tiny Desk too, from delicate R&B to some abrasive rapping.  I like the abrasive rapping a lot more–he has terrific delivery in that part.

Tobe’s performance was a five-song medley sandwiched effortlessly into a 15-minute block. Launching with “Houston Tribute,” he used clever and evocative wordplay to rap about coming of age in the South. Accented almost hypnotically by a trio of harmonies provided by background vocalists Luke Whitney, David Michael Wyatt and Madeline Edwards, Tobe’s mindful words are like a life hack for those seeking guidance.

The song has a gentle melody with delicate keys from Nic Humes.  The song is a rap, but a soft one.  He speaks quickly but the rhymes are positive and amusing.

My flow a monastery for them extra poor people
That don’t get commentary and get honored rarely
For the guava jelly they produce even though they get thrown fecal
Matter on a platter made by they oppressor
I shatter all the chatter that seem to make us lesser

After about two minutes Lucius Hoskins kicks in some guitar licks.  Then Devin Caldwell throws in some cool deep bass sounds making the song sound very full.

Tobe’s wife, Fat, known for her striking beauty and lead role in the magnificently directed music videos that have paved the way to Tobe’s rapid growth on Instagram. And through it all, young Baby Fat sat silently in her mom’s arms, absorbing the spiritual energy of her dad’s music.

After the song he says, “That’s how you do it June 24” (So it took two months for this to air).  Then he says “Lets teach ’em why the caged bird sings.  “Caged Bird” opens with Aldarian Mayes playing some simple drum thumping before Tobe starts rapping.

LaNell “NELL” Grant gets a lead rap mid song then after another chorus, Luke Whitney takes a high falsetto verse followed by an even higher falsetto from David Michael Wyatt.

Up next is “Against the Grain.”  Madeline Edwards takes the first lead vocal, but Ii love this song for the great raw sound of the bass and guitar and Tobe’s growling rapping delivery.

Aight, I feel like the masses on melatonin when it come to melanin
I grew up melancholy ’cause I ain’t realize that the hemoglobin in my skin
Was connected to a lineage that never ever had to penny pinch

That sound is unlike anything else in the set, although it does segue into “Shine” with more lead vocals from Madeleine.

Throughout the set he offered pleas for listeners to look past inherent hardships and evil and to keep their eyes on the prize, while he reflected on his own decision to go against his Nigerian roots and parental expectations to pursue his dreams of being a rapper.

He is very funny and says, “I’m Nigerian I know a lot of y’all though I was regular black”  For Nigerian parents, if their children haven’t done one of three things they’ve wasted their lives: become a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer.  So you can imagine when I told my mom that I wanted to be a rapper. She said (in maternal Nigerian accent) Tobe, why are you such a parasite to my life?  Tobe, why do you love poverty so much? Tobe, why re you trying to kill me?

Legends like Dave Chapelle and Erykah Badu were telling me I was dope which is what  “I’m Dope” is about.  David Michael Wyatt sings an impressive falsetto and the song actually does mention that Chapelle and Badu said he was dope.

The credits also cite Igbo Masquerade: art.  I’m not sure what that’s a reference to.

[READ: September 1, 2019] Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Comic

I couldn’t imagine how this comic book would work with the premise of Mystery Science Theater 3000’s movie riffing.  But Joel Hodgson had an idea and it works wonderfully.

The Mads up on the dark side of the moon are still tormenting a guy up on the Satellite of Love.

This book is Netflix-era, so the Mads are now represented by Kinga, Synthia, TV’s Son of TV’s Frank (Max) and the Boneheads.  And joining Crow, Tom Servo and Gypsy on the SOL are Jonah and two small robot creatures that I didn’t recognize (I haven’t watches the Netflix episodes).

I absolutely hate the way Todd Nauck draws the host segments. I can’t stand the mouth designs on anyone, especially Kinga.  They all look like the Joker (is that because this is from Dark Knight comics?) and are horrifying.

But once you get past the art design of the host segments, the premise is pretty great.  Synthia has designed a machine The Bubbulat-r which allows a person to enter a comic book.  They test it out on Max and his favorite book Funny Animals.  Max jumps in as a rabbit can talk to the other characters.

The book explains that there’s a little bubble at the bottom of the word balloon to indicate a line that has been added and is not a line from the actual book.

But when Max comes back he tells us that the cute little bunny is in fact four feet tall with powerful sinewy limbs and reeks of a bizarre musk.

But the key point is that that Kinga has invented a way to do movie riffing from inside the comic.  So Kinga sends them comics and our heroes are inserted into different books. (more…)

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Christopher Sebela, Ro Stein, Ted Brandt, Triona Farrell, Cardinal Rae–Crowded: Volume 1: Soft Apocalypse (2019)

Posted in Adventure, Cardinal Rae, Christopher Sebela, Crowdsourcing, Death, Fire, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Guns, half•alive, Image Comics, Murder, NPR/PRI/PBS, Ro Stein, Social Media, Ted Brandt, Tiny Desk Concert, Triona Farrell, Unfinished series, Unlikable main character, Violence on September 1, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: half•alive-Tiny Desk Concert #879 (August 12, 2019).

This is one of the more fun Tiny Desk Concerts I’ve seen.  I didn’t think I knew half•alive but I recognized one of the songs from the radio.  They had just released their debut album, so I guess they are a New Artist.

Formed in Long Beach, Calif. in 2016, half•alive is a band with a clear vision and gift for design, not just in the earworms they write, but in their entire presentation, with often-matching outfits and carefully selected color schemes.

The band, fronted by singer and guitarist Josh Taylor, didn’t try to squeeze in any costume changes, but they do play three songs from their debut album.

 It wasn’t at all surprising to see and hear the care they took to make their Tiny Desk debut a memorable one.

On “RUNAWAY” Taylor sings in a kind of slacker deadpan chattering style (but catchy).  It’s quite a surprise when he sings a rather impressive falsetto in the chorus.   J Tyler Johnson plays a groovy Wurlitzer.  This is the only song with strings (Emiko Bankson: violin; Callie Galvez: cello)

I was really surprised to find that I’d heard “still feel.” before as I didn’t know this band’s name (and never knew what the song was called).  Joshua Taylor plays guitar on this song a wicked wah wah riff.  Johnson switches to bass and plays a cool funky riff throughout.  In fact this song has a massive disco feel and the falsetto vocals in the chorus really sell it

For this song, the strings have been replaced by Jordan Johnson and Aidan Carberry credited with choreography.  For this song one of them reads a book while the other is playing with a Rubik’s cube.

Well before arriving for this performance, the three guys in half•alive asked for the exact dimensions of the space behind Bob Boilen’s desk. Known for their live shows, with elaborate, synchronized dancing and costume changes, the group naturally wondered how they’d pull everything off in such a cozy space.

Their solution? Have the dancers sit for the performance. The choreography, now restricted to the width of two chairs, was incredible. You’ll see how it all works on the final song

The final song is “ice cold.” a new track from the band’s just-released debut full-length, Now, Not Yet.  For this song, drummer Brett Kramer switches Septavox while Johnson is back on Wurlitzer.  Taylor switches to acoustic guitar, but honestly who can even tell what’s happening musically because Jordan Johnson and Aidan Carberry have created an elaborate choreography.  Whenever they are on camera its impossible not to look at them.

I’m not sure if the song is any good, but I’ll be they’re a lot of fun to see live.

[READ: August 31, 2019] Crowded

I’m not sure what attracted me to this book.  The cover was certainly interesting and the visual style was cool.

But I’m so glad I read it because it is a funny (and violent) story that is all an elaborate take on crowd sourcing and social media.

The first chapter opens with a dialogue on the Dfender app. Charlie Ellison has hired Vita to Dfend her.  It turns out that someone has posted a bounty on her head on the Reapr app.

Charlie explains that she started the morning by cleaning her house for a couple who were Padhopping it for the weekend.  Then she drives for both Muver and Drift.  Then she loaned out her car for the day on Wheelsy and rented out a dress on Kloset.  Then she took a job on Dogstroll and on Citysitter *(the children seem unlooked after).  She ended her day by taking a job from Palrent to sit with an old man who feeds pigeons.

She hooked up with a guy at the bar before bed and snuck out in the morning.  That’s when the first person tried to kill her.

It was an old lady with a gun.  Charlie threw her coffee in the woman’s face, took the woman’s little dog and ran away because that’s when the second person tried to kill her.

Vita shows her the Reapr app and that the reward for killing her is over a million dollars. (more…)

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J. Robert Lennon–“The Loop” (New Yorker, August 26, 2019)

Posted in Calexico, Huh?, Iron & Wine, J. Robert Lennon, New Yorker, NPR/PRI/PBS, Sam Beam, Short Story, Surreal, Teenagers, Tiny Desk Concert on August 26, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: CALEXICO AND IRON & WINE-Tiny Desk Concert #873 (August 1, 2019).

I saw Calexico live in 2018.  They were fantastic–even better than I hoped they’d be.  Then they put out the song with Iron & Wine “Father Mountain” is one of my favorite songs of the year.  I don’t know what it is about this song–the melody, the vocals, whatever.  I love it.  And the version here is even better.  Sam Beam and Joey Burns’ vocals are perfect together.

I have a bunch of Calexico records and they’re all terrific, so it’s surprising to realize:

Joey Burns and John Convertino (drums) had just about seen it all. Their band, Calexico, has been around for nearly a quarter-century, and in that time together they’ve churned out a long string of albums and collaborated with countless musicians on countless projects. But they’d never set foot behind the Tiny Desk until the day we recorded this performance.

By contrast, their pal Sam Beam — best known as the man behind Iron & Wine, with whom Calexico had just released a new album called Years to Burn — was already a Tiny Desk veteran. Beam recorded a solo set as Iron & Wine in 2011, then returned with singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop six years later, and he took great pains to gently tease the Calexico guys for taking so long. (“It’s fun to be back,” he noted between songs, adding, “Isn’t it, Joey?”)

Up next is “Midnight Sun.” Joey Burns sings lead (he wrote this) and there’s great slide guitar from pianist Robert Burger.  Jacob Valenzuela provides a lovely muted trumpet solo and bassist Sebastian Steinberg switches to a guitar for this song.

As Sam introduces everyone, he says, “I’m Sam.  Three timer (cough cough).  I think I’ve officially made it so they can’t invite me back.”

Calexico and Iron & Wine first made a record together back in 2005, when they released In the Reins, and took 14 years to release a follow-up.

“He Lays in the Reins” is a quieter number.  Valenzuela sings a verse in Spanish, which is a nice addition, as is his unmuted trumpet solo.

This is great.

[READ: August 29, 2019] “The Loop”

Boy I loved this story until the end.  The end which is sort of the point (or at least the title) of the story.

Bev was divorced and her only child was off at college.  She had just lost her job as an adjunct teacher.  She sold her house and bought a two-bedroom apartment.  She didn’t need money right away so she volunteered for Movin’ on Up.  The organization takes castoffs from the well to do and delivers them to those in need.

She drove the van and two teenagers (typically string men) would help to move the furniture.  The details of this situation are really interesting, particularly the attitudes of the people who receive the gifts.

On this Saturday, the teenage’ boy didn’t show up so she only had one volunteer, a girl named Emily.  Since the pickups weren’t too large, Bev figured they could handle it. (more…)

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