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Archive for the ‘Tiny Desk Contest’ Category

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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James Sturm, Andrew Arnold and Alexis Frederick-Frost–Adventures in Cartooning (2009)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Alexis Frederick-Frost, Andrew Arnold, Art, Dragons, Drawing, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Horses, How to, James Sturm, Series, Sketches, The Wild Reeds, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest on November 2, 2016| Leave a Comment »

adventSOUNDTRACK: THE WILD REEDS-Tiny Desk Concert #489 (November 20, 2015).

wildreedsThe Wild Reeds are a five piece band who prominently feature a trio of women with beautiful voices. They had submitted a video for the 2014 Tiny Desk Contest, and they are pretty excited to be at the Tint Desk just a short time later.

The trio change instruments so it’s not easy to say who does what.  And since all three of them have gorgeous voices, you can’t even single one out!  When they sing together it’s even more impressive.

“Where I’m Going” is the great lead-off track (from their 2014 album).  Kinsey Lee sings lead and plays acoustic guitar (and harmonica).  Sharon Silva plays electric guitar and Mackenzie How plays harmonium (and harmonica).  Kinsey has a powerful kind of rocking voice while the other two offer great harmonies.  There’s some moments where all three are singing super loud and it’s really impressive.

The next two songs are new.

Sharon sings lead on “Everything Looks Better In Hindsight” and continues to play a really rocking electric guitar (she really crushes those chords). Kinsey switches to banjo, but also plays harmonium.  Mackenzie also plays electric guitar and this song rocks pretty hard.  Sharon’s voice is a bit smoother until the chorus where she wails.  And the harmonies are again outstanding.  I think it is Mackenzie’s harmonies that really elevate the song.

There are a bassist and drummer (unnamed) who add low end to the first two song (but not the final one).  The trio is the focus, but the rhythm section’s contributions are really good.

Mackenzie sings lead on  “The World We Built”  This is the most mellow of the three songs. She plays electric guitar (the only music in the song) and the other two sing harmonies.

Although their music can veer in the country direction, their voices are so good you can easily look past it.

[READ: July 5, 2016] Adventures in Cartooning

The full title of this release is The Center for Cartoon Studies Presents Adventures in Cartooning: How To Turn You Doodles into Comics.  This is an instructional cartooning book which also tells a fun story.

And I loved it.  I have recently discovered James Sturms’ books, and I love his simple but powerful style.

As it opens “Once upon a time, a princess tried to make a comic.”  The girl says she can’t draw well enough to make a comic But the Magic Cartooning Elf comes to help her.  He says that if she can draw simple stuff, then there is nothing stopping her. (more…)

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Bob Boilen–Your Song Changed My Life: From Jimmy Page to St. Vincent, Smokey Robinson to Hozier, Thirty-Five Beloved Artists on Their Journey and the Music That Inspired It (2016)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Angel Olsen, Asaf Avidan, Ásgeir, Bob Boilen, Bon Iver, Books about music, Carrie Brownstein, Cat Power, Cat Stevens, Chris Thile, Colin Meloy, Conor Oberst, Courtney Barnett, Dave Grohl, David Byrne, Fantastic Negrito, Glenn Gould, Hüsker Dü, Hozier, Ian MacKaye, Interviews, Jackson Browne, James Blake, Jónsi, Jeff Tweedy, Jimmy Page, Josh Ritter, Justin Vernon, Kate Tempest, Leon Bridges, Lucinda Williams, Michael Stipe, Nickel Creek, NPR/PRI/PBS, Philip Glass, Pokey LaFarge, R.E.M., Rilo Kiley, Sara Watkins, Scritti Politti, Sharon Van Etten, Smokey Robinson, St. Vincent, The Beatles, The Staves, The Velvet Underground, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest, Tiny Desk Unit, Trey Anastasio, West Side Story, Wilco on July 20, 2016| Leave a Comment »

boilenSOUNDTRACK: ANGEL OLSEN-Tiny Desk Concert #333 (January 27, 2014).

angelBob Boilen has liked Angel Olsen for some time, so when she did her Tiny Desk and most of us had never heard of her, he was already a fan.

Olsen plays a long set but with four songs.

She sits very still, strumming with her thumb and singing kind of low–not unlike Sharon van Etten.  The first song, “Unfucktheworld” is only two ans a half minutes.  The second song, “Iota,” is a little longer.  She sings in an affected almost falsetto style, although the guitar remains very spare.

Between these songs, she is coy about the title of the new record although she is quick to say the first word of the title “burn.”  Later she admits that the final song contains the title of the album, if we wanted to spend time figuring it out.

I marvelled at how high the chords were that she played on “Enemy,”  She seems to eschew any bass for this song.  This one is five and a half minutes long and is just as slow as the others.

Before the final song they talk about whether this is the most awkward show she has done.  She says everyone is very alert–and indeed you can hear utter silence between songs.  But then they talk about the storm outside (and potential tornado) and how this show may never air if the storm is really bad.

“White Fire” is an 8 minute story song.  She does use the whole guitar for this one, which has many many verses.   Since I don’t really know Olsen’s stuff that well, I don’t know if this was a good example of her show or a fun treat to hear her in such an intimate way.

[READ: May 10, 2016] Your Song Changed My Life

This site is all about music and books, but you may be surprised to know that I don’t really like books about music all that much.  I have read a number of them—biographies, autobiography or whatever, and I don’t love them wholesale. Some are fine, but in general musicians aren’t really as interesting as they may seem.

What I do like however, is hearing a decent interview with musicians to find out some details about them–something that will flesh out my interest in them or perhaps make me interested in someone I previously wasn’t.  Not a whole book, maybe just an article, I guess.

I also really like Bob Boilen. I think he’s a great advocate of music and new bands.  I have been listening to his shows on NPR for years and obvious I have been talking about hundreds of the Tiny Desk Concerts that he originated.  I also really like his taste in music.  So I was pretty psyched when Sarah got me this book for my birthday.

I read it really quickly–just devoured the whole thing.  And it was really enjoyable. (more…)

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Steven Millhauser-“Late” (Harper’s, October 2015)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Enormodome, Food, Harper's, Short Story, Steven Millhauser, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest, Waiting on March 30, 2016| Leave a Comment »

octSOUNDTRACK: ENORMODOME-“The Way We Burn” (Tiny Desk Contest Fan Favorite 2016).

enormo Last week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked.  Last year, Enormodome made it to the top ten runner ups, but sadly, they did not this year.

However they did make a fan favorite vote and I like the song, so there.  Last year their concept was awesome—they played in the office of the mayor of Flagstaff (where they are based).  This year, they took their desk outside and set it on fire.

Enormodome is just two guys, a guitarist and drummer and they get a big rocking sound out of their tiny set up.  They’ve got a fuzzy guitar and lots of high hats to keep the song from ever sounding spare.  And both guys sing–often in harmony–so the songs stay interesting.

The song is a kind of heavy classic rock—a big catchy riff, and a wonderful chorus.

Beyond the flaming desk, the video is fun to watch–there’s circus performers everywhere and lots and lot so fire!   Which makes sense given the title of the song.

Check it out:

[READ: February 21, 2016] “Late”

I really enjoyed this story.  I thought I’d read a lot more by Millhauser, but I see that I’ve only ever read a few short pieces by him.  Well, after this I’ll have to read more.

Because Valeria is always later, the narrator tells her to arrive at a restaurant an hour earlier than he wants to eat.  He figures, if she’s 35 minutes late for a 6 o’clock dinner, she will actually be 25 minutes early for a 7PM dinner, which is when he wants to eat anyhow.

However, he doesn’t want her to arrive on time and wonder where he is, so he arrives at the restaurant a little before 6 to secure a window table with a view of the front door.

He orders a coffee and tells the waiter that he is awaiting somebody. (more…)

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Elizabeth Harrower–“The Cornucopia” (Harper’s, October 2015)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Cactus Tractor, Charity, Elizabeth Harrower, Fishing, Foreign Books, Funny (ha ha), Harper's, Marriage (Happy), Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest on March 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »

octSOUNDTRACK: CACTUS TRACTOR-“Jelly Donut” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).

cactus Last week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked.  I want to draw attention to a couple of them.

Cactus Tractor also have a lot of fun with the desk part of the tiny desk.  There’s a small purple desk and from behind it comes the lead singer and guitarist.  He is dressed crazily–this song and band are definitely a little goofy.  He pulls out a cactus and a tractor and then starts whistling.  It doesn’t seem like he’s whistling the song but he is. He starts playing along to the song a kind of old jazzy sound.  And it reminds me of “Mister Sandman” at times.

There’s some fairly complicated lyrics, “like reading Chinese, like choosing wine based on the cheese.”

And then a ukulele player comes out from behind the desk.  She is followed by a fisherman (it has to do with the lyrics). Then an accordionist sneaks out and she’s followed by an acoustic guitarist and an upright bassist.  The drummer comes out (they wheel his drums over)  And then finally a saxophonist and 2 trumpeters.

The song is funny and bouncy and catchy with several parts.

Eventually, the song switches to German (Berliner-jelly donut) and they sing many verses in Deutsch.  There’s no explanation for the fisherman by the end of the song (expect that he holds the jelly donut).  But that’s irrelevant because then some acrobats appear at the side of the stage and the camera pulls back as jugglers, stilt walkers and the like fill the screen.  It’s pretty extraordinary and it was done in one take (I expect the music was prerecorded, although I’d love to be wrong).

The song has novelty written all over it (they do lots of visual jokes about the lyrics) and yet it is really catchy and…unexpectedly, it is nearly six minutes long!

[READ: February 20, 2016] “The Cornucopia”

This is a short story that is set in Australia (the author is Australian, so that makes sense).

It is about a woman, Julia Holt, who is never impressed.  No matter what exciting things her friends tell her, she never shows appropriate excitement.  She is happy for her friends’ successes, but nothing seems to make her excited.

Perhaps it is because she is powerful and rich and has everything she needs.  Indeed, she even has her friends do a lot of her work for her–she is quite busy, after all.  But her friends (carefully cultivated by Julia, it must be said) do benefit from her friendship.  And honestly she was a little afraid of their successes because she didn’t want to lose any of them.

She and her husband are wealthy.  They are one of Australia’s millionaire couples.  Ralph, despite this wealth was never arrogant or showoffy.  He also had no time for games or hobbies.  He just did financial work all the time  And Ralph will always acknowledge that Julia is the more powerful one of the two oft hem.

So far so good as stories go.  But there has to be a crisis of some kind, right? (more…)

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Salvatore Scibona–“Tremendous Machine” (Harper’s, September 2015)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Harper's, Piano lessons, Salvatore Scibona, Sex, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest on March 28, 2016| Leave a Comment »

septSOUNDTRACK: HAZARD TO YA BOOTY-“Movers and Shakers” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).

hazardLast week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked.  I want to draw attention to a couple of them.

Hazard to Your Booty, in addition to having a great name, have the most fun with the Tiny Desk setup.  They begin with two members, singer Dr Music and bassist Professor Funk chatting as if it were a talk show.  They have a fun intro and once the song starts, the scene behind them lights up and the full band appears-two sax, a trombone, a funky guitarist and a drummer.

Professor Funk plays an awesome bass and it’s clear why he is up front—he really holds the song together.  He’s got a great, clear sound (with some amazing low notes) and the whole band plays a cool riff at the end of each section—fast and complicated.

I love how committed they are to the Tiny Desk with Dr Music even using note cards and drinking from a coffee mug.

And what about the song?  It rocks, it’s funky, it’s a lot of fun.  And I’ve listened to it a bunch of time, risking my booty each time.

[READ: January 4, 2013] “Tremendous Machine”

Scibona continues to surprise me as a writer.  His last story was set in Iceland and this one is set in Poland.  And just to make things different, the main character is a Danish model name Fjóla Neergaard.

We learn a bit about Fjóla.  Her modelling career has more or less abated, although she continues to starve herself.  And she has more or less fled to Poland to get away from it all.  Why Poland?  Because her wealthy parents bought a plot of land there (the house was something of liability) once they saw how cheaply land could be gotten in the once communist country.

The house is basically a box, but Fjóla decides to buy a couch so she has something to lounge on in front of the fire.  She drove into town to a warehouse that might sell her a couch.

Her Polish is poor and after talking with a man for several minutes she winds up buying a piano instead.  She can’t play the piano–she knows nothing about the instrument in fact.  The warehouse man sells her a piano and then gives her the name of an instructor–Mrs Kloc. (more…)

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Otessa Moshfegh–“Measure for Measure” (Harper’s, August 2015)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Excerpt, Harper's, Otessa Moshfegh, Paul Simon, Prison, Scott Mulvahill, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest on March 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »

augSOUNDTRACK: SCOTT MULVAHILL-“Begin Againers” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).

beginLast week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked.  I want to draw attention to a couple of them.

Mulvahill is a double bassist, and his double bass sounds outstanding.  He slides notes, he plays chords, and he keeps up a really fun, jazzy riff.

He also slaps the strings which provides some percussive sounds.  One of the nice features of this song is that he keeps playing a low open note so the song never sounds empty.   And that’s all there is to the song–just his voice and his bass (and a proper verse/chorus structure of course).

The song s(and his voice) reminds me of a kind of stripped down Paul Simon song. It’s not really my thing, though and I wouldn’t choose to listen to it a lot, but I love his bass sound and I think the song itself is really good.

[READ: February 16, 2016] “Measure for Measure”

This is an excerpt from Moshfegh’s novel Eileen.

This excerpt (and presumably the whole book) is about a woman who I assume is anorexic  She doesn’t eat and seems to relish in her boniness.

I took such poor care of myself. I knew I should drink water, eat healthful foods, but I didn’t like to drink water or eat healthful foods. I found fruits and vegetables detestable, like eating a bar of soap or a candle.

She is reflecting back on her younger days when at 24 she was considered a spinster and had indeed had only one kiss from a boy when she was 16.  It was a prom date that had gone rather awry–she wound up biting him on the neck (and can’t recall is she drew blood).

She concludes the memory by saying “He’s probably dead..Most people I know are dead.” (more…)

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Ben Lerner–“Untitled (Triptych)” [Forum: How to Be a Parent] (Harper’s, August 2015)

Posted in A. Balkan, All Songs Considered, Art, Ben Lerner, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush, Emma Donoghue, Harper's, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Michelle Tea, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pamela Druckerman, Parenting, Poetry, Rivka Galchen, Sarah Manguso, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest, Tutlie on March 25, 2016| Leave a Comment »

augSOUNDTRACK: TUTLIE-“The Bison” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).

tutl;ieLast week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked.  I want to draw attention to a couple of them.

I started out liking this song so much.  It opens with a singer singing beautiful notes.  And as the camera passes we see a harp (!) then keyboards, drums, bass, trumpet and glockenspiel.

There are many different parts to the song and lots of interesting harmonies.  And its starts beautifully.  I was surprised by the shift in tone (and the trippy end of the chorus).  And their harmonies are truly wonderful.

I also liked that they were all filmed under a staircase.

But the song was a little too drifting and slow for me.  It reminds me a lot of a slower song that might appear on a 70s prog rock album.   The song that I would tolerate while I waited for the faster heavier song to come along.  Of course, after many listens I would grow to appreciate it.  And I’m sure I would grow to appreciate this song too.

[READ: February 10, 2016] “Untitled (Triptych)”

The August 2015 Harper’s had a “forum” called How to Be a Parent.  Sometimes these forums are dialogues between unlikely participants and sometimes, like in this case, each author contributes an essay on the topic.  There are ten contributors to this Forum: A. Balkan, Emma Donoghue, Pamela Druckerman, Rivka Galchen, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Ben Lerner, Sarah Manguso, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush and Michelle Tea.  Since I have read pieces from most of these authors I’ll write about each person’s contribution.

I am pretty sure I have read stuff by Ben Lerner but I didn’t expect a poem from him.  Especially such a long one.  And what can a poem teach us about parenting?

I was daunted by this piece, and the poem even helps address why.  It talks about how “poems are great places to make information disappear, dissolve.”

And it also covers pretty much everything that has to do with art. (more…)

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Claire Messud–“In Praise of Boredom” [Forum: How to Be a Parent] (Harper’s, August 2015)

Posted in A. Balkan, All Songs Considered, Ben Lerner, Boredom, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush, Emma Donoghue, Essays, Harper's, Karl Taro Greenfeld, La Misa Negra, Martin Heidegger, Michelle Tea, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pamela Druckerman, Parenting, Rivka Galchen, Samuel Beckett, Sarah Manguso, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest on March 24, 2016| Leave a Comment »

augSOUNDTRACK: LA MISA NEGRA-“Sancocho” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).

misanegraLast week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners-up that they especially liked.  I want to draw attention to a couple of them.

La Misa Negra is a cumbia-loving band from Oakland, Calif.  There are eight members in the band.  There’s a drummer with a small kit but lots of frenetic drumming, and a bongo player who is also frenetic.  The percussion is pretty major in this band.

There’s also a sax, trumpet, clarinet, guitar and upright bass.  The guitar player does super fast ska chords, while the horns plays some insanely fast riffs.  The singer is full of yips and trills.  It’s a non-stop fun rollicking ride.

I have no idea what they’re singing about (it’s all in Spanish) and I just don’t care, (“Sancocho” is named after a hearty stew popular in several Latin American countries).

Their tiny desk is a school seat with the writing top attached to the side.  By the end it can’t contain the singer who has to get up and dance around too.

What a fun song.

[READ: February 10, 2016] “In Praise of Boredom”

The August 2015 Harper’s had a “forum” called How to Be a Parent.  Sometimes these forums are dialogues between unlikely participants and sometimes, like in this case, each author contributes an essay on the topic.  There are ten contributors to this Forum: A. Balkan, Emma Donoghue, Pamela Druckerman, Rivka Galchen, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Ben Lerner, Sarah Manguso, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush and Michelle Tea.  Since I have read pieces from most of these authors I’ll write about each person’s contribution.

I don’t know Claire Messud, but I totally related to this essay,

She is about my age and explains that the world she grew up in no longer exists.  She says her parents, while wanting for nothing, were always frugal–they saved Ziploc bags and repaired things rather than threw them away.

They didn’t aspire to material wealth or popular culture, but rather they traveled a lot and had the children read.  But Claire says that as a child she would rather have her own record player and clothes from the Gap.

So when her mom went to work she grew absorbed in pop culture TV and she felt like she became less serious than her parents.

I agreed with this:

The comparative ease of our upbringing first inspired guilt, then defiance. If, as our parents said, we should be eternally grateful for our comfort, then couldn’t we be grateful without feeling bad about it? Why should we accept that the hard path was always superior? Why shouldn’t we enjoy life’s pleasures? Why believe that reading Beckett or, God forbid, Heidegger, was an innately more worthy activity than watching music videos? Says who?

She knows that reading Beckett is a stimulating hour, but she can spend that hour just as happily watching Scandal. (more…)

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Karl Taro Greenfeld–“Fever” [Forum: How to Be a Parent] (Harper’s, August 2015)

Posted in A. Balkan, All Songs Considered, Basketball, Ben Lerner, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush, Emma Donoghue, Essays, Gwen Austin, Harper's, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Michelle Tea, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pamela Druckerman, Parenting, Rivka Galchen, Sarah Manguso, Sharon Van Etten, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest on March 23, 2016| Leave a Comment »

augSOUNDTRACK: GWEN AUSTIN-“Child” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).

maxresdefaultLast week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked.  I want to draw attention to a couple of them.

The production values of this video belie the quality and intensity of the song they play.

The video is set in a dark room with the only light coming from an open window.  The vocal is a bit staticy and at times too loud for the mic.  But that doesn’t overshadow the fact that this is a beautiful, sad song.  And that Gwen Austin has a powerful, somewhat haunting voice in the vein of Sharon Van Etten.

The music is simple Gwen on acoustic guitar and an accompaniment of a very echoey electric guitar Russell Marshall, but she sings with intense aching in her voice.  The song comes from Austin’s feminist folk opera about the nativity story, which I’d sure like to hear more about.

[READ: February 10, 2016] “Fever”

The August 2015 Harper’s had a “forum” called How to Be a Parent.  Sometimes these forums are dialogues between unlikely participants and sometimes, like in this case, each author contributes an essay on the topic.  There are ten contributors to this Forum: A. Balkan, Emma Donoghue, Pamela Druckerman, Rivka Galchen, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Ben Lerner, Sarah Manguso, Claire Messud, Ellen Rosenbush and Michelle Tea.  Since I have read pieces from most of these authors I’ll write about each person’s contribution.

I believe that everything I know from Taro Greenfeld I know from Harper’s magazines.

The title of this one had me preparing for something very different.  I imagined an article about illnesses and not a basketball team.  His daughter played for a team called Fever and he was called upon to be a coach because no one else would (that sounds familiar).

Unlike my own soccer league with many different teams, this basketball league had but two teams, and Fever played Sky every week for 12 weeks.  Karl was a first time coach and didn’t know much about how to be a coach.  The other coach was pretty good (he had a clipboard) and somehow managed to get all of the tall, talented players compared to Karl’s less experienced ones.

Since the played the same team every week, they lost 12 games in a row.  Which is pretty disheartening.  Especially when the games were pretty much blowouts.  He even lost a few players to disenchantment. (more…)

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