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Archive for the ‘Tiny Desk Concert’ Category

Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Brooke Allen–Lumberjanes: Vol. 2: Friendship to the Max (2015)

Posted in Adventure, Boom! Box, Daredevils, David Bowie, Diane Coffee, Feminism, Foxygen, Funny (ha ha), Grace Ellis, Graphic Novel, John Allison, Jon Bon Jovi, Jurassic Park, Kel McDonald, Lissa Treiman, Mick Jagger, Noelle Stevenson, Summer Camp, Threats, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series, XPN Fest on December 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »

lumberhjanes2 SOUNDTRACK: DIANE COFFEE-Tiny Desk Concert #483 (November 2, 2015).

dianeI first heard of Diane Coffee from NPR.  The band’s song “Spring Breathes” is bizarre and wonderful–simultaneously difficult and catchy.  I was especially excited to see them play at XPNFest, but sadly we arrived just as they finished up and I missed my opportunity to see singer Shaun Fleming all glammed up (in a sailor suit).

This Tiny Desk Concert is a bit more mellow (and acoustic), but it is hardly Tiny as there is a string trio, a drummer and a guitarist.  As well as a bassist and keyboardist in addition to Shaun Fleming with acoustic guitar and vocals (and blue eye shadow).  Fleming was the drummer in Foxygen and does a lot of voice over work.

“Spring Breathes” is not as dramatic as on the record (which has some cool electronic drops and changes of tempo). But it sounds great with the strings (I love the pizzicato parts).  This version also has a very glam-era David Bowie feel.  Fleming’s voice is great–powerful and full, completely unaffected and spot on (the part where he sings the descending riff near the end of the song is fabulous).  And the harmonies are all perfect, very 1970s.  The song retains its several parts (I love when the song shifts to a quick funky bass section) and the band handles it perfectly.

“Not That Easy” is a mellow song with Fleming singing primarily in a gentle falsetto.  It’s a fairly simple song but the joint guitar solos are really beautiful.

For something a little more upbeat, they play “Mayflower.”  Fleming doesn’t play guitar on this one, but he dances around (rather like Mick Jagger).  He is wonderfully flamboyant both in motion and in singing (he’s got a cool raspy 1970s singing style for this song). And again the harmonies are great.

He is quite out of breath after this song, which is funny. They are going to play one from their first album, a song called “Green.”   His voice sounds particularly familiar on this one–I’m thinking like when Jon Bon Jovi really belts out his lyrics–and it’s just perfect for the song.

Fleming has a charming persona.  I really enjoyed this acoustic version and I’m glad to hear that he can convert the studio magic into a live setting.

[READ: March 22, 2016] Lumberjanes 2

I love the premise behind Lumberjanes.  The Lumberjanes are a kind of Girl Scout/Wilderness Adventure group.  They have been around for a long time and the Janes must follow the manual to achieve their various badges.  I love the way the book is set up around an “actual” field manual from 1984 (tenth edition) which has been:

Prepared for the Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for [written in] HARDCORE LADY-TYPES.

I was really excited to read this second volume since I loved the first one so much.  But I was a little disappointed by this one.

I feel like we could have used a short reminder of who all the girls were–there were a couple who I couldn’t tell apart [I know if you’re reading the issues as they come out that’s not a problem, but how much work can it be for collected volumes?].

What I didn’t like was the way the story went in a totally unexpected direction.

It started promising enough with the girls’ counselor being shocked and afraid after the recent supernatural events. She wants them to just stay around the cabins and make friendship bracelets to get the Friendship to the Craft badge. (more…)

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Caroline Adderson–“Obscure Objects” [The Short Story Advent Calendar #13] (2016)

Posted in Books about writers, Canadian Content, Caroline Adderson, Exitmusic, Huh?, Marriage Trouble, Sex, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tiny Desk Concert, Unreliable narrator on December 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

2016-12-05-21-06-09SOUNDTRACK: EXITMUSIC-Tiny Desk Concert #228 (July 2, 2012).

I’d published these posts without Soundtracks while I was reading the calendars.  But I decided to add Tiny Desk Concerts to them when I realized that I’d love to post about all of the remaining 100 or shows and this was a good way to knock out 25 of them.

exitmusicI didn’t know Exitmusic before this show.  The band is a 4 piece and they make a really big sound .  In fact, when I was only listening to the show I forgot that they were at a Tiny Desk.  Their sound is not loud, but it’s enveloping.  They have two keyboards a guitar and an electronic drum.  The guitar is gauzy, playing high chords.  But it’s the keyboards, and washes of sound that really create the whole show.  Lead vocals are provided by Aleksa Palladino and her voice is stark and wavery, slightly scary and scared at the same time.

The blurb says that they tend to play big spaces, but

Palladino and Devon Church, the married couple behind Exitmusic, began playing music together several years ago in their New York home, layering textures and shimmering voices, each awash in echoes and cinematic anguish. To work within the challenges of our space, the two — along with new band members Dru Prentiss and Nicholas Shelestak — returned to their living room to practice a set in a pared-down configuration which still captured its essence.

I love at the end of “White Noise” as the keyboards aren’t changing what they are playing but the guitar changes chords—a repetitive downward progression that works perfectly with what everyone else is playing.

The second song, “The Modern Age” sounds like it could be a track from The xx, but her voice is so different that it totally changes the feel of the song.  Aleksa also switches guitar on this track, layering in fast chords.  And the chorus is wonderfully raw sounding.  The melody she sings is just great and the song builds accordingly.

It’s funny to see her smile so broadly after each song where she sings so dramatically and sounds heartbroken.

“The Cold” is a slow song (she’s on guitar again), short and moody while the final song “Storms” is much bigger.  On this track she is playing fast chords on a very quitter guitar while the other guitar plats slow, building chords over the top.   She make a funny comment at the end of the song: “I know I was all over the place timewise.” But it still sounded great.  They really won me over with this set.

[READ: December 13, 2016] “Obscure Objects”

Near the end of November, I found out about The Short Story Advent Calendar.  Which is what exactly?  Well…

The Short Story Advent Calendar returns, not a moment too soon, to spice up your holidays with another collection of 24 stories that readers open one by one on the mornings leading up to Christmas.  This year’s stories once again come from some of your favourite writers across the continent—plus a couple of new crushes you haven’t met yet. Most of the stories have never appeared in a book before. Some have never been published, period.

I already had plans for what to post about in December, but since this arrived I’ve decided to post about every story on each day.

This story was really cool, although I had to read it twice to make sure I knew exactly what was going on.

Told in first person, this is the story of a woman who has just come back to Canada after some time abroad.  She is a writer (published in literary magazines) and has a teacher’s certificate, but she needed a job quickly so she took one a:

a private ESL college that recruited students from all over Asia.

Or, it was a private tutoring agency that catered to children of wealthy immigrants and ADD-afflicted offspring on the Canadian born-rich.

I haven’t decided yet.

That’s the first clue that something is unusual about this story.  (more…)

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Mark Millar & John Romita, Jr.–Kick-Ass 2 (2012)

Posted in Deqn Sue, Gangsters, Graphic Novel, John Romita Jr., Kick-Ass, Mark Millar, Superheroes, Technology, Threats, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest, Violence, Yuck! on December 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

kickass2 SOUNDTRACK: DEQN SUE-Tiny Desk #476 (October 5, 2015).

deqnDeqn Sue and her producer Kelvin Wooten play three songs at this Tiny Desk Concert.  And although she is the name and voice of the set, I’m more impressed by him.  He is sitting in front of a keyboard, holding a bass guitar.  He plays the bass, loops it and then plays it live again.  While the bass is looping he;s playing keyboards and all the while there’s percussion and other sounds that he’s programmed.

NPR had played “Bloody Monster” a while back.  It’s a wonderful kiss off song about a person that she thought was a friend until she called her “nigger” (which is addressed in the second verse).  The chorus is surprisingly poppy:  “Shimmy shimmy cocoa pop, you’re a crazy bitch.  I don’t even like that word, but for you I think it fits.”  It’s fun and bouncy.

The second song is “Flame.”  She says it’s the only song she’s written about love–most of her songs are more socially aware.  It’s got a cool bass line, although I don’t like her voice on this song.  She seems to sing better when it’s louder and faster.

“Magenta” is the first song they wrote together.  She explains that magenta is about the color you feel when you’re not specifically one: you’re not pissed, so you’re not red, you’re not sad so you’re not blue and you’re not scared so you’re not yellow.  You’re a mixture–magenta.  Each verse starts with her singing “I am a color” in a deep distorted voice.  It’s pretty cool.  The song is interesting and has some cool ideas in it.

Overall though I’m not all that impressed by her.  I feel like she’s close to being amazing, but hasn’t quite gotten there yet.

[READ: February 1, 2016] Kick-Ass 2

This book picks up right where the last one left off.

Hit Girl is still training Kick Ass (and beating the crap out of him), but she might have to give up.  Her mom is really fragile right now and if something happened to her, it would kill her mom.

And then we see that Red Mist has returned and set up a superhero brawl in Manhattan streets.  But that’s coming in the near future. The rest backtracks a bit.

Dave has joined a superhero gang–like a real-life X-Men called Justice Forever.  He is friends with a guy named Doctor Gravity (who claims that he has made a pole that can increase gravity (actually it’s a baseball bat wrapped in tinfoil). (more…)

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Aimee Bender–“Oneness Plus One” [The Short Story Advent Calendar #12] (2016)

Posted in Aimee Bender, Canadian Content, Dirt, Funny (strange), Futility, Laura Marling, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tiny Desk Concert on December 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

2016-12-05-21-06-09SOUNDTRACK: LAURA MARLING-Tiny Desk Concert #230 (July 12, 2012).

I’d published these posts without Soundtracks while I was reading the calendars.  But I decided to add Tiny Desk Concerts to them when I realized that I’d love to post about all of the remaining 100 or shows and this was a good way to knock out 25 of them.

marlingSince I first heard this Tiny Desk Concert, I have become a huge fan of Laura Marling.  Her album Once I Was an Eagle is dynamite.  Her voice is unique and beautiful.  She sounds so mature and sophisticated in her singing style.  It is astonishing to learn that she was only 22 when she recorded this (and she looks it).

Her guitar playing is wonderful—nothing fancy but the sounds she gets out of the acoustic are magnificent.  And they work perfectly with her voice.  Her guitar is as warm as her voice is distant.  It’s a great combination and I could listen to her sing all day.

She plays two songs from her then current album A Creature I Don’t Know.  “Don’t Ask Me Why” and “Sophia” highlight some of those great moment when she sings along to the chords she strums.  And I love when she switches from delicate falsetto to almost spoken deep-voiced dismissals.   She’s so compelling.

“Once” is a song she hadn’t officially recorded yet. So consider this performance a premiere of sorts.  It did come out on Eagle.

She’s very quiet between songs–hard to tell if she’s nervous or just incredibly composed.  The blurb tells us that she “once held a series of unplugged and unrecorded concerts in a near-empty room, each consisting of a single song performed for two strangers at a time.”  (Seriously, click on that link and read about her amazing concert experience).

[READ: December 12, 2016] “Oneness Plus One”

Near the end of November, I found out about The Short Story Advent Calendar.  Which is what exactly?  Well…

The Short Story Advent Calendar returns, not a moment too soon, to spice up your holidays with another collection of 24 stories that readers open one by one on the mornings leading up to Christmas.  This year’s stories once again come from some of your favourite writers across the continent—plus a couple of new crushes you haven’t met yet. Most of the stories have never appeared in a book before. Some have never been published, period.

I already had plans for what to post about in December, but since this arrived I’ve decided to post about every story on each day.

I’ve enjoyed Aimee bender’s stories in the past, although I don’t usually love them. She tends to look at things in a rather different way.

In this case, this story is all about a speck of dirt.  It had lived on the apartment floor for quite some time and had managed to avoid the broom.  It had not been attached to any of its kin and just wanted to be left alone.  So every day it huddled under the book case and tried not to be seen. (more…)

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Mark Millar & John Romita, Jr.–Kick-Ass 2: Prelude: Hit-Girl (2013)

Posted in Beauty Pill, Death, Gangsters, Graphic Novel, John Romita Jr., Kick-Ass, Mark Millar, Superheroes, Technology, Threats, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence, Yuck! on December 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

preludeSOUNDTRACK: BEAUTY PILL-Tiny Desk Concert #481 (October 23, 2015).

beauty-pill Beauty Pill is an unusual band.  They seem fairly conventional–guitars, baas and drums.  But they also feature a strange light up computer device (which is called a Monome) that is a sort of looping sampler trigger.  The samples are weird and unexpected and the music plays off of that–at times lurching and bouncing, at times playing smooth and conventional.

I love the crazy funky vibes as the first song “Afrikaner Barista” begins.  There’s interesting samples and a cool riff.  The song feels “assembled.”  And I was really excited to see where it would go.  But I really didn’t like the singer/speaker’s voice in his delivery of the verses.  It’s a little too unemphatic–it’s neither loud nor weird not even excessively deadpan.  It’s just kind of bland.  The chorus is cool though, and his delivery works because there are harmony vocals to accompany him.

I also like his sort of distorted guitar solo.  Mostly though, it’s fascinating watching Jean Cook play her Monome, watching her push buttons that light up and produce diverse sounds.  The drums are also great–complex and dynamic.

In all of the songs, there’ a lot of repeating of lyrics–almost like a mantra.  This song repeats, “I want to be the one you like.”  I’m not even clear if the words mean anything.  Even the title “Afrikaner Barista” is fun to say but I don’t know if its meaningful.

“Drapetomania!” is introduced as a dark song although the singer, Chad Clark, thinks it resembles the Fat Albert theme song.  He says it’s about the suburbs.  When the song begins, it has a kind a of creepy circus quality to it and it opens with the dramatic line, “I want more life, fucker!”  There’s some fun lyrics in this song like “Morning Ralph, Morning Sam” (referencing the Bugs Bunny cartoons).  Or “The neighbor’s wifi’s called “magic negro” now / I am gonna burn his house down, if I may.”  And this great line: “deep in the heart of wildest Caucasia.”

The middle has a breakdown that’s lot of fun as the samples continue to play with all sorts of things, including, I believe, Clark’s voice.

The final song is called “Exit Without Saving” which he says is “either a Microsoft Word document or a situation where you feel trapped,”  I like the riff of this one and the samples too. There’s more great lyrics like “a five ton mastodon frozen in mid-snarl in a ten ton cube of ice, says I don’t know how I got in here but if I get out it ain’t gonna happen twice.”  There’s a repeated refrain of “you recognize that this is noise, right?”

It’s not always clear what he’s on about, but it’s fun to listen to them.

There’s so much about this band that I like but I feel like there’s just something missing–either in the voice or maybe that the samples and sounds need to be a little more prominent?  I’m curious to see what these guys do next though.

[READ: February 14, 2016] Kick-Ass 2: Prelude

This book is a sequel to Kick-Ass and a prequel to Kick-Ass 2.  It focuses on Hit Girl, but not her childhood (which we saw in Kick Ass).  Rather, it follows her in the days following the events of the first book.

We see that Hit Girl, Mindy McCready, is at home with her mom and her stepfather.  Her mom has calmed down (she has been quite hysterical lately) and her stepdad, Marcus, is a policeman trying to keep things orderly.  He knows about Mindy’s secret identity (he knows all about what kind of upbringing she had as well) and he wants her to stop the superheroing.  But overall, he is pretty cool.

We see Mindy at School (Kick Ass if there too, of course).  No matter how tough Mindy is when she has her costume on, she is still a little girl and she is crushed by the mean girls in school.  And so Mindy makes a deal–she’ll teach Kick Ass to actually fight and be a real superhero (as much as she is) if he’ll teach her to be normal. (more…)

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Lou Mathews–“Crazy Life” [The Short Story Advent Calendar #11] (2016)

Posted in Brandi Carlile, Canadian Content, Courtroom, Death, Gangsters, Indigo Girls, Lou Mathews, Murder, Prison, Regrets, Sex, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on December 11, 2016| Leave a Comment »

2016-12-05-21-06-09SOUNDTRACK: BRANDI CARLILE-Tiny Desk Concert #229 (July 9, 2012).

I’d published these posts without Soundtracks while I was reading the calendars.  But I decided to add Tiny Desk Concerts to them when I realized that I’d love to post about all of the remaining 100 or shows and this was a good way to knock out 25 of them.

brandiBrandi Carlile has been making a lot of noise on WXPN this last year.  She has a few song that I really like.  But I didn’t realize that her background was in country music—it’s slightly apparent on her more recent music.  But in this Tiny Desk, her whole country style really comes out.  Well, I guess she’s more alternative country—it’s strange that she has a country twang in her voice since she is from Washington.

“Raise Hell” is a romping stomping ass kicking song.  The riffing and power of the song is undeniable.  And it’s lyrically fun.  She actually sounds a bit like one of the Indigo Girls (I can never remember which one is which) on this song, with a notable but not pronounced accent.

Her backing band is great—two guitars a cello and a violin.  And they sing some great “ooohs” always right on pitch and sometimes quite high.

She asks if they should do a guitar version of “That Wasn’t Me.”  This is straightforward folk song with some more great “oooh” backing vocals.  But when the strings kick in about half way through, it really elevates the song.  Bob jokes about how often they’ve played the song in that way and she says, “That arrangement is about 5 minutes old.”

For the final song she wants to feature the strings.  “Promise to Keep” is a pretty , slow song with great strings and backing vocals.   Her voice is strong and powerful throughout all the songs and she hist some really high falsettos in this one.

I am glad she is moving more towards folk, although some of that stomping country would be fun to see live.

[READ: December 11, 2016] “Crazy Life”

Near the end of November, I found out about The Short Story Advent Calendar.  Which is what exactly?  Well…

The Short Story Advent Calendar returns, not a moment too soon, to spice up your holidays with another collection of 24 stories that readers open one by one on the mornings leading up to Christmas.  This year’s stories once again come from some of your favourite writers across the continent—plus a couple of new crushes you haven’t met yet. Most of the stories have never appeared in a book before. Some have never been published, period.

I already had plans for what to post about in December, but since this arrived I’ve decided to post about every story on each day.

Most of the stories so far have been somewhat hopeful, but this one really removes all hope from the characters’ lives.

The story is told in first person by Dulcie.  Dulcie is dating Chuey, a gang member who has been picked up by the cops in the past.  She gives him grief but then realizes that this time it is far more serious.

She went downtown and there were all the town’s reporters there.  There was talk of capturing an important gang member.  I love that Dulcie walks through one reporter’s take because she doesn’t care about the media.

Dulcie knows she has to lie about who she is–they’d never let a girlfriend in to see a perpetrator.  So she pretends to be Chuiey’s wife.

After some hurdles, she gets to see him and he reveals that they think he was the shooter, but he swears he was just the driver.

(more…)

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Manuel Gonzales–“Two Minutes, Five Minutes, Ten” [The Short Story Advent Calendar #10] (2016)

Posted in Canadian Content, Kelly Hogan, Manuel Gonzales, Neko Case, Robyn Hitchcock, Short Story, Stephin Merritt, The Decemberists, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Threats, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on December 10, 2016| Leave a Comment »

2016-12-05-21-06-09SOUNDTRACK: KELLY HOGAN-Tiny Desk Concert #222 (June 4, 2012).

I’d published these posts without Soundtracks while I was reading the calendars.  But I decided to add Tiny Desk Concerts to them when I realized that I’d love to post about all of the remaining 100 or shows and this was a good way to knock out 25 of them.

kelly-hoganI know Kelly Hogan as an amazing back up singer.  She sang with The Decemberists when I saw them live (and she was truly amazing).  She also often sings with Neko Case.

I was pretty excited to hear her Tiny Desk because her voice is really beautiful.

Around this time 2012 she had released an album of songs written by all kinds of people.

“Haunted” is a catchy, bouncy number and her three musicians play along effortlessly.  She encourages everyone to sing along to the “na na na na na” part.

When the song ends she thanks every one “very much for coming to the lunchroom talent show.”

“Plant White Roses” was written by Stephen Merritt and it “is really sad” (and since it was written by Merritt you know it’s really sad). The song is pretty, but it was during this song that the Concert transformed into more of a country show.  Hogan even puts an accent on her voice to make it sound more country.  It’s pretty fascinating to witness.

The third part of the song really perks things up.

“I Like to Keep Myself in Pain” was written by Robyn Hitchcock.  She says it came from one of the many conversations they have had over the years.  This song has an even more country feel, especially towards the end.

So all in wall while Hogan’s voice is pretty fantastic and she herself is very charming, I guess I prefer her as an amazing backing vocalist (and sometimes co-lead vocalist) singing music I really like rather than the more country leanings of her own music.

[READ: December 10, 2016] “Two Minutes, Five Minutes, Ten”

Near the end of November, I found out about The Short Story Advent Calendar.  Which is what exactly?  Well…

The Short Story Advent Calendar returns, not a moment too soon, to spice up your holidays with another collection of 24 stories that readers open one by one on the mornings leading up to Christmas.  This year’s stories once again come from some of your favourite writers across the continent—plus a couple of new crushes you haven’t met yet. Most of the stories have never appeared in a book before. Some have never been published, period.

I already had plans for what to post about in December, but since this arrived I’ve decided to post about every story on each day.

Sometimes, putting a story out of sequence is a gimmick.  But if it’s written well, the gimmick really brings the story to life.

This story is out of sequence, but beyond that, it is also full of possibility.

It opens with a statement about the future: “In two minutes, give or take, she will be running as fast as she can.” (more…)

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Katie Coyle–“Dream Girl” [The Short Story Advent Calendar #9] (2016)

Posted in Arborea, Bruce Springsteen, Canadian Content, College, Dreams, Drinking, Funny (strange), Humiliation, Jealousy, Katie Coyle, Nightmares, Romance, Set in New Jersey!, Sex, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tiny Desk Concert on December 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

2016-12-05-21-06-09SOUNDTRACK: ARBOREA-Tiny Desk Concert #218 (May 17, 2012).

I’d published these posts without Soundtracks while I was reading the calendars.  But I decided to add Tiny Desk Concerts to them when I realized that I’d love to post about all of the remaining 100 or shows and this was a good way to knock out 25 of them.

arboreaArborea is a totally captivating band.

The band consists of Shanti and Buck Curran.  They play three songs and each one is really different, but all with in a spooky, mellow Appalachian feel.

“Song for Obol” features Buck playing an electric guitar with an e-bow and a slide—creating single-note sirens that roar and fade.  The sounds are magical.  But they’re not the most interesting part of this song.  Because Shanti is playing the Ban-Jammer–“a sweet little hybrid that’s part banjo, part mountain dulcimer.” Shanti also sings and her voice is high and delicate—sometimes almost a whisper.  The Ban-Jammer is such an interesting and compelling sound and those washes of electric guitar so enticing that I didn’t want this song to end—even if I never really paid attention to what she was singing about.

For the second song Bob Boilen himself goes behind his desk to play harmonium with them.  Shanti plays acoustic guitar and tells us that the harmonium is

Inspired by the tales in Maine about fishing boats that were lost to the ocean—this song is about a woman who loses her lover to the sea—the harmonium is the ocean and the wind.

The harmonium isn’t very loud, but it keeps constant background while Buck pays the electric guitar (with slide, but no e-bow) and Shanti picks out the acoustic guitar melody.

The final song “A Little Time” is played on an acoustic tenor guitar.  Both Shanti and Buck sing for this track.  At first I wasn’t crazy about his voice accompanying hers, but he really gets the same tone very nice;y.  And her oh-hoos are beautifully haunting.

I’d really like to hear more from these guys.  And it is pretty fun to actually see Bob behind his Tiny Desk.

[READ: December 6, 2016] “Dream Girl”

Near the end of November, I found out about The Short Story Advent Calendar.  Which is what exactly?  Well…

The Short Story Advent Calendar returns, not a moment too soon, to spice up your holidays with another collection of 24 stories that readers open one by one on the mornings leading up to Christmas.  This year’s stories once again come from some of your favourite writers across the continent—plus a couple of new crushes you haven’t met yet. Most of the stories have never appeared in a book before. Some have never been published, period.

I already had plans for what to post about in December, but since this arrived (a few days late for advent, but that was my fault for ordering so late) I’ve decided to post about every story on each day.

I wasn’t aware of Katie Coyle before reading this story.  Perhaps the only reason I might have known about her is because she is a YA author from New Jersey.

But I’d like to know more about her because this story was wonderful.  The point of view of the story was fantastic and the whole concept was weird and cool.

The narrator is never revealed, but I love this beginning:

This all started when Winston’s girlfriend Sheila dumped him at his high-school graduation party.  Or maybe it started when Sheila began to notice that Winston didn’t understand her.  Certainly it never would’ve happened had she not turned to Winston in their Modern Conflicts class nine months earlier and said, “It’s Winston, right?”

Such intrigue! (more…)

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Charles M. Schulz–The Complete Peanuts: 1997-1998: The Definitive Collection of Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip masterpiece: Dailies & Sundays (2015)

Posted in Adventure, Advice, Angst, Baseball, Basketball, Bible, Birds, Charles Schulz, Comic Strips, Dilbert, Dogs, Easter, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Etiquette, Fantagraphics, Fantasy, Fears, Feminism, Football, Funny (ha ha), Golf, Halloween, Hockey, Joe Shlabotnik, Letters, Los Hacheros, Paul Feig, Peanuts, Regrets, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Summer Camp, Surreal, Technology, Tennis, The Future, The Peanuts Movie, Tiger Woods, Tiny Desk Concert, War, World War I, World War II on December 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

1997SOUNDTRACK:LOS HACHEROS-Tiny Desk Concert #546 (July 5, 2016).

hacherosLos Hacheros play “Afro-Caribbean music that provides the source material for modern salsa and all of its permutations.”

This music swings and bounces and with such simple instrumentation: an upright bass and a guitar.  With the main melodies constructed by the trombone and vocal (the trombonist doubles on violin).  But the rest of the band is there for percussion–cowbells, shakers and the conga.

The band plays three songs all sung in Spanish.  It’s fun to watch them get into the groove and begin to sway in unison to the music.

“Baila Con Los Hacheros” features a violin solo that is pretty intense “Papote’s Guajira” features an acoustic guitar solo that is complex and fun to watch. It also has a lengthy flute solo (the violinist also plays the flute!). “Bambulaye” features NPR’s own Felix Contreras on congas–he gets a solo–apparently he has been playing in bands for years.  What a nice surprise.

[READ: November 3, 2016] The Complete Peanuts 1997-1998

This is the second to last book of collected strips from Schulz.  Rerun features quite prominently and Linus has faded somewhat.  Snoopy is no longer playing characters (except for the soldier..always soldiers) and Charlie is still pining for things he won’t get.

1997 opens with Charlie showing Linus his autographed Joe Shlabotnik baseball.  But Linus thinks it’s a forgery.  Cue a week of strips about an autograph forger (who tries to hire Charlie as his accomplice).  I love that Schulz went on strange little tangents like this, but I always feel like he doesn’t follow through with these funny ideas. The whole premise of this just ends never to be heard from again.

And then in a surprise to me, Snoopy starts acting like a Revolutionary War patriot standing guard at Valley Forge.  He seems to have given up on WWI and gone back in time to a far less dramatic role–he mostly just stands around in the cold.  Strips about that occur from time to tome with him talking to General Washington.  The last one is in December 1998 where he realizes he is only guarding snow. (more…)

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Charles Demers–“Treading” [The Short Story Advent Calendar #8] (2016)

Posted in Canadian Content, Charles Demers, Exercise, Jolie Holland, Olympics, Short Story, subTerrain, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tiny Desk Concert on December 8, 2016| Leave a Comment »

2016-12-05-21-06-09SOUNDTRACK: JOLIE HOLLAND-Tiny Desk Concert #210 (April 23, 2012).

I’d published these posts without Soundtracks while I was reading the calendars.  But I decided to add Tiny Desk Concerts to them when I realized that I’d love to post about all of the remaining 100 or shows and this was a good way to knock out 25 of them.

jolieJolie Holland was the singer of The Be Good Tanyas, a band I know of but am not familiar with.  Since that band disbanded, she has released six solo albums.   She sings a kind of dusky folk music.  Her voice isn’t gravelly, but it is somewhat gritty—with a kind of nonchalant slurring of words that is strangely enticing.

She plays three songs here.  “Tender Mirror” is a smooth song that is amusingly ended right on cue by Bob Boilen’s telephone ringing (which he says hasn’t rung in years).

“The Devil’s Sake” is a but more raucous with louder guitar strumming.  Although I’m far more impressed by her whistling, which sounds pretty spectacular all throughout the middle of the song.

She says that the guitar she is playing is her hardest guitar to play.  Bob asks if it’s an old friend.  She says it’s an old neighbor.  She got it at a garage sale and when she takes it in to be worked on, the people at the guitar store laugh at it.

The final song, “First Sign of Spring” is a piano song but she’s going to play it on the guitar (and you’d never know it was a piano song).

Bob loves Jolie Holland.  I found her enjoyable, but I don’t think I’d pursue anything else by her.

[READ: December 8, 2016] “Treading”

Near the end of November, I found out about The Short Story Advent Calendar.  Which is what exactly?  Well…

The Short Story Advent Calendar returns, not a moment too soon, to spice up your holidays with another collection of 24 stories that readers open one by one on the mornings leading up to Christmas.  This year’s stories once again come from some of your favourite writers across the continent—plus a couple of new crushes you haven’t met yet. Most of the stories have never appeared in a book before. Some have never been published, period.

I already had plans for what to post about in December, but since this arrived (a few days late for advent, but that was my fault for ordering so late) I’ve decided to post about every story on each day.

I really enjoyed this story because even though it was kind of funny, it was sad underneath.  It was a short slice of life scene with all of the “story” implied.  It has a simple construct–a one-sided conversation–and it really shows one man’s insecurity.

The story concerns Georgie, an overweight man in his early 30s.  He answers the door and his unanswered dialogue begins.

He welcomes the person into his house, saying he doesn’t have to remove his shoes.  But he takes that back immediately saying that there are new hardwood floors. (more…)

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