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Archive for the ‘Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts’ Category

Simon Rich–“Everyday Parenting Tips” (New Yorker, May 25, 2020)

Posted in Coronavirus, Francesco Turrisi, Funny (ha ha), Monsters, New Yorker, NPR/PRI/PBS, Quarantine, Rhiannon Giddens, Simon Rich, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert on May 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHIANNON GIDDENS AND FRANCESCO TURRISI-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #27 (May 28, 2020).

Rhiannon Giddens has a really amazing voice.  It is powerful and full and easily commands your attention.  She’s a practitioner of traditional music and loves to share the history and the culture.  She also writes her own songs.  However, introducing the second song Rhiannon Giddens explains “We’re not doing my original songs, ’cause with these kinds of emotions, the old songs say it best.”

They start with “Black as Crow” a lovely traditional song starting with Giddens’ mournful violin and then Turris’ plaintive banjo.  It’s amazing how rich and deep her violin sounds  Which makes me think it is a viola.

Rhiannon talks a bunch about how the pandemic has effected them.

They canceled their tour of Japan and returned home to Ireland; Rhiannon lives in Limerick while Francesco lives a few hours away in Dublin where they recorded this Tiny Desk (home) concert.

She says it’s hard for them as musicians because to do anything they have to be videographers and engineers and everything.  There’s a reason why people do that as the thing that they do and we appreciate them even more.

For the “Spiritual” mentioned above, Rhiannon plays the banjo and Francesco plays a bodhrán.  It starts with Rhiannon singing a capella, then she starts playing with great banjo picking (even some groovy slide work).

Food and art are the basis of what we are as human beings. And those are hit hard.  She started a website ArtLivesOn.com.

They end the set with two songs, “Carolina Gals” segues into “Last Chance.”  Rhiannon plays a violin (fiddle) while Francesco gets an amazing variety of sounds from the tiny hand drum he plays.  It’s like a tambourine with a skin on and there’s wonderful diversity of sounds.  The lyrics of “Carolina Gals” are familiar but different: “Carolina girl’s won’t you come out tonight.”  But my favorite part of the set comes at the end when Rhiannon just takes off on the fiddle playing the super fast instrumental “Last Chance.”

[READ: May 25, 2020] “Everyday Parenting Tips”

I love Simon Rich, he makes me laugh out loud pretty regularly.  Although this piece fell flat to me.  The premise is okay but there’s not enough to do with it, so it kind of runs out of steam pretty quickly.

This comic essay is all about how to help your children who are afraid of monsters.

It starts off easily enough with the calming assurance that it is normal for children to be afraid of monster.  It shows a sign of a healthy imagination.  By five they should be convinced that monsters aren’t real.

The problem however is that some monsters are real.  Ever since the Great Monster Uprising, when the monsters arrived from the Dark Place, monsters are an unavoidable part of out lives. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Five Years #8 (2020)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Bombs, Coronavirus, Death, Eef Barzelay, End of the World, Environmentalism, Graphic Novel, Military, NPR/PRI/PBS, Quarantine, Russia, Scott Avett, Skiing, Strangers in Paradise, Sylvan Esso, Terry Moore, The Avett Brothers, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series, Violence on May 23, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: CLEM SNIDE AND SCOT AVETT-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #26 (May 23, 2020).

I’ve never given a thought to Clem Snide.  Well, my thought is that he was a country guy that I didn’t want to listen to  Turns out, Clem is not a guy but a band founded by Eef Barzelay, who had a solo Tiny Desk back in 2010.

I do know Scott Avett from The Avett Brothers (although I never really know which brother is which).

Barzelay and Avett not only maintained social distancing throughout their set, but also rigorously enforced it with the aid of a visible tape measure.

This is my favorite Tiny Desk Home concert so far since it is done in a barn–and the sound is great!

Recording a Tiny Desk concert at home naturally subtracts a lot of familiar elements…. But when Clem Snide (the three-decade-old project of singer-songwriter Eef Barzelay) and special guest Scott Avett (the Avett Brothers co-founder who produced and performs on Clem Snide’s latest album, Forever Just Beyond) performed together in Avett’s barn, they added a few new features you’ve never gotten to hear at the Tiny Desk — most notably a noisy flock of birds and the unmistakable cries of a nearby rooster.

We’ve had a few disruptive animals at the Tiny Desk over the years, from the occasional dog to Bob Boilen himself, but this had to be our first rooster.

Their voices blended warmly as they tackled three spiritually searching songs from the (great) new record, Forever Just Beyond.

For the “The Stuff of Us” they both play guitar.  Eef’s is a full size while Scott’s is a smaller one (I can’t tell how many strings).  Avett sings the rather impressive high notes.

After encouraging everyone to brew their own fermented ginger beer for the immune system.

He introduces “Jews for Jesus Blues” by saying “A doubtless faith is a dead faith.”  The song from Clem Snide’s 2005 album End of Love, is a bouncy folk number.  Avett plays banjo.  The lyrics are interesting: “Now that I’m found, I wish I was lost” and “now that I’m saved, I wish I was dead.”  When the song’s over, Eef says, “not too offensive.”

Before “Some Ghost” the roosters start crowing.  Clem jokes, tell them chicken to shut the hell up.  Avett plays a full sized guitar and even sings some lead vocals.  Their harmonies are wonderful, too.  As the song ends, the rooster crows: “chicken go it right that time.”

Clem picks up a different,smaller, guitar for “Roger Ebert,” a song based on Ebert’s actual dying words: “This is all an elaborate hoax.”  Avett provides only percussion and vocals on this lovely song.

[READ: May 22, 2020] Five Years #8

Terry Moore seems like a very nice guy.  He draws people in love so wonderfully.  He draws adorable children and he specializes in a mischievous grin.

It’s easy to forget that he can be incredibly violent.  Well, I don’t know about him personally, but his art sure can be.

This issue has two violent deaths in it.  One is bloody, the other is not.

The one that is not is Stephanie.  The woman who wrapped Katchoo up in the mystery.  In several pages of wordless panels, Stephanie breaks into a secure building. She walks through a series of rooms activating secret panels.

She gets what she came for and heads out.  But when she steps outside, an unkindness of ravens swarms on her.

She drops her satchel and one of the ravens picks it up and flies off. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Five Years #7 (2020)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Bombs, Buddy & Kent Jamz, Coronavirus, Death, End of the World, Environmentalism, Graphic Novel, Military, NPR/PRI/PBS, Quarantine, Russia, Strangers in Paradise, Terry Moore, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series, Violence on May 22, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BUDDY & KENT JAMZ-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #25 (May 22, 2020)

It’s fascinating to learn that there’s an artist (or two) who are apparently well-known enough to not need an introduction that you have not heard of.

Or that you have not only heard of one of them, but even posted about his Tiny Desk Concert just five months ago and since then you have completely forgotten about him.

Such is the case with Buddy, who had a Tiny Desk in January, although I don’t think that Kent was there.  All I remember about that Tiny Desk (after looking it up) is that Buddy wanted to smoke a joint in the office.  And maybe that’s all I needed to take away.

Buddy and Kent Jamz aren’t just the life of the party, they’re the last two to leave. … So in the vein of Method Man and Redman, Cheech and Chong, and other mischievous pairings, they bring us the after-afterparty. For their Tiny Desk home session, or Jank session as they put it, they mirror the cover of their new project, Janktape Vol. 1: seated on a couch, red cups and bottles scattered, with the 1990s cult classic cartoon Bebe’s Kids projecting on the wall behind them. From their quarantine quarters in Los Angeles, they trade melodic bars and hooks from Janktape, with a little help from socially distanced Brody Brown on bass and keys.

I was surprised to see that this set was only 11 minutes long. The songs flow together pretty seamlessly.  Their rapping and singing is chill  and they are clearly enjoying themselves.  I enjoyed some of the lyrics

“She Think” has this fun intro

She saw me on TV and she think she falling in love
she smoke up all my weed and she think she falling in love

Kent says this is by Axel Foley who I know is an Eddie Murphy character, so is that the name of a rapper or are they just messing?

“For The Ladies” has a cool retro dance sound.  I wonder if the songs are more than just a loop when properly played without just Brody Brown (appropriately masked) playing everything.  Obviously this song is for the ladies.  This verse made me smile

one time for the groupies
two times for the hoochies
hop in the Jacuzzi
this is gonna be a doozy

Pretty much the entire lyric of “Inconsistent” is “she says I’m inconsistent.”  But “Terrified” has a bouncy melody.  I guess like an after party, this is nice to hear but easily forgotten.

[READ: May 20, 2020] Five Years #7

There’s not much left in this story, so how can Terry Moore spend an entire issue where nothing (really) happens?

Because this issue is wonderful.

There’s some great art, an amazing flashback and a fascinating action sequence.

Katchoo flies to Russia and in the voice over she says she’s never been there before (which is surprising) and doesn’t know the language.

Tambi got her a room so she doesn’t have to worry about that.  It’s no Marriott, thats’ for sure. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Five Years #6 (2019)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Bombs, Coronavirus, Death, End of the World, Environmentalism, Graphic Novel, Military, NPR/PRI/PBS, Quarantine, Russia, Skiing, Strangers in Paradise, Sylvan Esso, Terry Moore, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series, Violence on May 21, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SYLVAN ESSO-Tiny Desk (home) Concert #24 (May 21, 2020).

Is it possible to make dance music while sitting on a couch?  Is it possible also to dance to that music while sitting on a couch?

These pressing questions are answered in this Tiny Desk Home Concert

Sylvan Esso, the Durham, N.C., couple of Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn gives us three songs from their home couch using modular synths, a rhythm machine and Amelia’s heartfelt vocals.

Sanborn sits in front of box with all kind of wires patched into it. It’s an unholy mess and he manages to make the melody by pushing the buttons between those wires.

Meath sits in front of another box and supplies most of the beats. It’s neat watching her sing verses and then push a button as the drums enter or leave “Die Young,” a fun dancey song.  She answers one of the above questions in the middle of this song which has a “dance break” as Meath waves her arms and gently bounces on the couch.

“Rewind” is a slower song.  Sanborn walks off camera while Meath starts the simple drum rhythm.  I assume he’s playing a synth, although midway he picks up a guitar (how frustrating that he’s off camera–c’mon Esso!).

In keeping with Tiny Desk tradition, bands I actually like–like this one–do a set that is less than 15 minutes, while artists I’ve never heard of or don’t especially like ramble on for over 20.

So they have only one more song.  But before playing it, they plug their new release

This home concert stands in sharp contrast to Sylvan Esso’s remarkable new film, WITH, which features a host of their dear friends reshaping and reimagining their brilliant catalog of songs during the duo’s 2019 tour. Add that to your list of things to do while sitting on your couch, hopefully with someone you like.

After some technical troubles (the sound is totally wrong), they start “Radio” a very familiar dance song.  There’s more couch dancing and even some dancing from Sanborn as his finger move all over that cluttered machine.

[READ: May 20, 2020] Five Years #6

This issue makes everything seem like things are going according to plan, there’s even a lot of levity.

We see Rachel in Russia. The morgue attendant, Yana, has brought her home.  They speak Russian, although Rachel’s Russian “sounds ancient, like something she only heard at university once or twice.”  Yana wonders why she is not dead.

Rachel doesn’t die.

Then some short scenes: (more…)

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Terry Moore–Five Years #5 (2019)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Bombs, Coronavirus, Death, End of the World, Environmentalism, Graphic Novel, Military, NPR/PRI/PBS, Quarantine, Russia, Strangers in Paradise, Terry Moore, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series on May 20, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RAUL MIDÓN-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #23 (May 16, 2020).

Raul Midón performed a Tiny Desk Concert back in 2018.  He was solo then (the blurb says he usually has a band with him) and he’s solo here now.  So there’s not a lot of difference between the two.

Except that in this home concert he plays five new songs.

It kicks off with two tracks from The Mirror, an album released just as we entered our quarantine period in mid-March: “I Love The Afternoon” and “I Really Want To See You Again,” a song that poetically captures the joy of friendship.

For both of these songs, Midón plays a very percussive guitar.  Whether it’s actually slapping the guitar like a drum to open the first song or the way he practically has the strings slap back against the guitar as he plays his complicated melody, there’s all kinds of rhythm going on.

He also has a light, fast, handpicking style.  And in “I Love the Afternoon” he adds a trumpet solo just with his mouth.

Midón’s jazz-influenced vocal phrasing throughout comes to the fore with just his acoustic guitar as accompaniment, illustrating once again why he’s normally one of the bright spots on our musical landscape and even more so at this moment.

Introducing “A Certain Café” he says Boris Karloff played bass.  Then he stops himself and laughs, Boris Kozlov–that’s from too much old-time radio.  It’s a slower, pretty song with a much gentler playing style.

He says that “Disguise” has fluegelhorn on the record but he’ll replace it here with his vocal fluegel, which is pretty cool.

“You’re The One” ends the set with a beautiful guitar introduction.  I was disappointed to hear that he raps the verses because the chorus is really catchy.

[READ: May 20, 2020] Five Years #5

This issue has two components.

In the first, Zoe is taken to see “Rachel’s” body. She fantasizes about killing Vlad in two spectacularly violent ways.  Zoe obviously realizes the body is not Rachel and the morgue attendant signals her in someway–although I can’t decipher it.

As they leave, Vlad offers Zoe a job since she has so much talent and potential.

Then we see Tambi parachute out of the sky with someone (is that Kathchoo?  It’s hard to tell). (more…)

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Jonathan Lethem–“The Afterlife” (New Yorker, May 18, 2020)

Posted in Alex Isley, Coronavirus, Death, Huh?, Jonathan Lethem, New Yorker, NPR/PRI/PBS, Quarantine, Short Story, The Isley Brothers, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert on May 19, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ALEX ISLEY-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #21 (May 15, 2020).

Alex Isley’s father is one half of the Isley Brothers, purveyors of some of the baddest-ass riffs in rock and soul.

So how strange is it that Alex’s song have literally no low end.  Her voice is very high, her keys are soft and gentle chords and her rhythm is finger snaps.  These songs are gossamer and will easily blow away.

From her Los Angeles home, Isley takes us on a tour of her discography, starting with “About Him” from 2013’s Dreams in Analog.

The blurb describes “About Him,” as opening with an “angelic riff,” but I found it more demonic than angelic.  The song is like five minutes long and nothing happens.  The melody just swirls around and she repeats a few lines a lot–yes, this song is about you.

“Into Orbit” is much the same although this song is about her grandfather I think–it’s really hard to focus on what she;s saying because it’s all so ethereal.

Before the third song she gives a shout out to 9th Wonder, apparently a storied hip-hop producer who produced her brand new song, “Rain Clouds,”  This song actually has a drum beat on it and it’s short. There’s also a nice backing vocal track.  This feels like an actual song.

She closed with her latest single, “Gone.”  Even with a slightly interesting synth bass line, the rest of the song is so in the ether that it just seems to drift away.

And the whole show was forgotten just like that.

[READ: May 18, 2020] “The Afterlife”

There was a lot going on in this story but I really have no idea what it was.  The fact that it was divided into short numbered passages really didn’t help in any way.

R. is on a shuttle bus to the afterlife.  The building is unfeasibly large with side rooms.  The place was crowded and he wondered if he’d see anyone he knew.

Then he hears people, his, people muttering nonsensical sentences.  Until finally he sees someone writing something down.  He hopes the man is a poet.  But when R. talks to the man and asks if anything here adds up, the man says

“It doesn’t add up to anything at all. Not unless you saw the sequel.”
“The sequel?”
“Avengers: Endgame.”

What?  Are you kidding me? (more…)

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Terry Moore–Five Years #4 (2019)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Ashley McBryde, Bombs, Coronavirus, Death, End of the World, Environmentalism, Graphic Novel, Military, NPR/PRI/PBS, Quarantine, Russia, Strangers in Paradise, Terry Moore, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series, Violence on May 17, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ASHLEY McBRYDE-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #21 (May 14, 2020).

Ashley McBryde is the latest country singer who I enjoyed very much until she started singing.

Ashley is charming and funny.  She tells us that she and her band mates self-quarantined and then washed their hands in front of each other for 20 seconds.  And she is so happy they did because she had taken it for granted hearing other people sing with her.

She even drew her own little Tiny Desk sign (she googled it) because she was supposed to be behind the Desk but was denied.

We were scheduled to host a Tiny Desk performance by Arkansas-born country singer Ashley McBryde on March 31. Obviously, we had to postpone McBryde’s visit.

McBryde sang four songs (which I assume is one more than she would have gotten at an actual Tiny Desk).  All four songs are country songs.  Which means they are catchy and have (mostly) interesting lyrics, but that Arkansas twang is just too much for me.

The first song,

“Hang In There Girl” which opens both the album and this set — is a perfect song for this moment, not that there’s ever a wrong time to hear someone sing, “Trust me when I say, you’re doing fine.”

Matt Helmkamp plays a solo, so I guess it is nice to have three guitars.  Chris Harris sings nice backing vocals.

Before the next song she says that they are playing live and she even made a setlist.  But that she misspelled “One Night Standards” as “Standars”  NPR called it “one of our Best Songs Of 2019.”

For “Velvet Red” Harris switches to mandolin and has to tune all eight strings–“it was in tune when he bought it” and they play the bluegrass- (and wine-) inspired love story featuring “basically all of the rule-breaking.”

McBryde is sporting a “Wash Hands Please” T-shirt, and encourages everyone to follow CDC guidelines before ending the set with “Sparrow.”

She’s very funny and I’d enjoy watching her banter between songs.  If she is going to have a proper Tiny Desk soon, what songs will she play if she played all of these already?

[READ: May 16, 2020] Five Years #4

This book’s voice over is by Kachoo.  In addition to getting everyone up to speed about the Phi bomb, she has been sitting on the beach for hours.

Francine doesn’t like it.  She knows what a visit from Tambi means (I haven’t seen Francine this angry in a while–I didn’t like it).

Francine is distracted so the girls get to take advantage of it: “can we have ice cream [for breakfast]?” “Mm Hmm.”  The scenes with the girls are the only levity in this dark issue. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Five Years #1 (2019)

Posted in Abstract Studio, Art, Bombs, Braxton Cook, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Coronavirus, End of the World, Environmentalism, Graphic Novel, NPR/PRI/PBS, Phony Ppl, Quarantine, Sex, Strangers in Paradise, Terry Moore, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Tom Misch, Unfinished series, Violence on May 14, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BRAXTON COOK-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #20 (May 8, 2020).

I thought I didn’t know who Braxton Cook was, but I have actually seen him as support in three different Tiny Desk Concerts: Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah in 2015, Tom Misch in 2018 and Phony Ppl in 2019.

Braxton Cook is a Juilliard-trained, genre-jumping artist whose music feels both contemporary and timeless. This time around, Cook takes the center seat, so to speak, from the comfort and safety of his sunny New Jersey home.

He plays four songs and all kinds of instruments in this concert.

Cook says he usually performs his original work with a full band, but obviously that isn’t an option in the time of social distancing. So instead, the ambidextrous talent uses loops to support his vocals, saxophone and guitar throughout the laidback set.

“Shooting Star” is set to a backing saxophone loop as Braxton plays guitar and sings.  It’s a smooth jazz song and he plays a sweet solo over the end while the loops slowly fade.

For “We Major” he starts a saxophone loop, lays down some keys and then plays a sax solo over the top.  It’s a pretty instrumental and the saxes intertwine nicely.  I love that he manages to get the whole song to stop abruptly on time.

For his Tiny Desk (home) concert, Cook jumped around his discography, performing tracks from his 2017 album, Somewhere in Between, all the way up to his latest project, 2020’s Fire Sign.

“Never Thought” is for his wife.  He’s got a looped guitar and a live guitar.  He sings a smooth R&B love song and then lays down a sax solo at the end.

Closing out this cozy session, Cook dedicates the stirring “Hymn (for Trayvon Martin)” to everyone affected by the current pandemic.

I feel like I have heard “Hymn (for Trayvon Martin)” somewhere before. It’s anj instrumental in essentially two parts.  It begins as a fast and pretty saxophone piece.  After a bit, he stands up and begins a lengthy looping section.  It’s slow and mournful and really lovely–the sax is the perfect instrument for it.    melody.  He loops a slow part and then plays a beautiful slow solo over the top.

[READ: May 14, 2020] Five Years #1

I loved Strangers in Paradise.  I started Rachel Rising, but now realize I never finished it.  I saw that Terry was creating Five Years, but I had no idea it tied in to the rest of the stories in any way.  Apparently it brings all of his different stories together.  So, I’m glad I discovered this just as he finished Issue 10.

I clearly need to start, if not the whole series, then at least the other two series to fill in some missing pieces, because this story went from vengeance and personal vendettas to global annihilation.

This issue opens with Katchoo, Francine and their two girls on a beach.  The voice over talks about nuclear bombs including the fascinating detail that there were so many nuclear explosions in the ’50s that two new isotopes are now in the atmosphere that didn’t exist before Hiroshima.  Oil paint made since the war contains these isotopes, It has become a foolproof way of testing for forgery in the art world.

That is fascinating. (more…)

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Jonathan Franzen–“Why Birds Matter” (National Geographic, January 2018)

Posted in Birds, Caracara, Coronavirus, Crows, End of the World, Environmentalism, Essays, Gloria Steinem, Jonathan Franzen, Lyrebird, MILCK, National Geographic, Nell Zink, New Zealand fantail, NPR/PRI/PBS, Peregrine Falcons, Quarantine, Red Knot, Roadrunners, Thick-billed Murres, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert on May 10, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: MILCK-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #19 (May 7, 2020).

I only know of MILCK from NPR. They talked about her “movement-defining anthem ‘Quiet'” which she played in 2017 at the Women’s March.  It was powerful and very moving.

Aside from that song, though, I hadn’t heard anything else from her.

And now, here she is at home singing “her most recent singles, ‘Gold’ and ‘If I Ruled The World.’  She also plays an unreleased song, “Double Sided” which she says is her most personal yet.

Many artists are sincere, but MILCK might be the most sincere performer I’ve ever seen.  That sincerity comes across as she speaks between songs, but also in her lyrics.  I love this couplet from “Gold.”

Don’t mistake my confidence for arrogance / don’t mistake my self-respect for disrespect.

Then she moves on to the brand new song

For this deeply moving Tiny Desk (home) set, recorded at her home in Los Angeles, MILCK performs those two recent singles, along with an unreleased track called “Double Sided,” a gorgeous tearjerker about the necessity of loving one another regardless of our faults and weaknesses. MILCK’s songs of empowerment, unity and understanding have never resonated more.

“Double Sided” is a powerful song and she is definitely moved by the end.

For the final song, “If I Ruled The World” she introduces it by quoting Gloria Steinem.

Gloria Steinem said that dreaming is a form of planning and this song is dreaming and imagining what our world could look like.

The song a capella for the first verses.  This is significant because so far every song of hers that I’ve heard has been about the lyrics.  But it’s here that you fully realize what a great voice she has.

Having said that, the lyrics are pretty great, too.  As I said, they are very sincere.  But it’s wonderful that there are serious ideas coupled with more lighthearted ones

Jenny wouldn’t hate her figure when she’s small, or when she’s bigger
She’d be kissin’ on the mirror, and the WiFi would be quicker
Everybody would recycle, fewer cars, and more bicycles
No more fighting for survival, you would hear this song on vinyl

You’d see a doctor if you’re sick, Mary, don’t you worry ’bout it
‘Cause there’d be no crazy bill, no more thousand dollar pills

All the sexist, racist, bandits would be sent off for rehabbin’
And instead of feeding fear, we’d be feeding half the planet, damn it

If I ruled, it would be less about me, more about you

As the blurb says,

I can always count on MILCK for a good cry. … the Los Angeles-based singer digs into and bares the ugliest sides of human nature, but leaves you feeling nothing but gratitude and awe at just how beautiful life really is.

If you’re not moved by these songs, you’re not really listening.

[READ: May 8, 2020] “Why Birds Matter”

At one point I subscribed to the print edition of National Geographic.  There are so many magazines that I like but which I never have enough time to give attention to.  National Geographic was one of them.  Each issue is packed with amazing pictures and fascinating stories that go along with them.  And every once in a while I would see a dozen or so yellow spines staring at me, accusingly.

I remember when this issue came in and there was a cover story from Jonathan Franzen, which I was excited to read.  I didn’t have the time to read it when it came in.  Later, when I remembered that I wanted to read this cover story I honestly couldn’t remember what magazine it came from.  I was sure it as Harper’s, but searches proved otherwise.

Finally I did a search on his articles and this came up and that was it!

I found an online copy of the magazine through my library (it has since been published in a book) and finally got around to reading it.  So imagine my surprise when it was actually quite short.  There’s an accompanying (amazing) photo essay that makes the entire “article” some twenty pages.  But his text is barely five picture-heavy pages.

Nevertheless, he makes so many point better than I could and better than I could even try to summarize that I’m quoting extensively because I think it’s that important.

(more…)

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Kaie Kellough–“Witness” (The Walrus, March 2020)

Posted in Canadian Content, Coronavirus, Donald Ramotar, Goats, Guayana, Huh?, Kaie Kellough, Lianne La Havas, NPR/PRI/PBS, Quarantine, Short Story, The Walrus, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on May 9, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: LIANNE LA HAVAS-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #18 (May 5, 2020).

This Tiny Desk is wonderful because you can clearly see the interesting chords that Lianne La Havas is playing.

She looks quite comfortable in her cozy space. I love the effect of the close camera placement; her essence penetrates the fourth wall like she’s singing just for me. Lianne performed the tender “Paper Thin” and “Bittersweet,” two recent singles that will be included on her self-titled new album set to drop in July. The intimacy of the performance matches the lyrics of the new songs, personal vignettes about her life and growth over the last five years.

After “Paper Thin” she says “I just felt like playing it first.”

Also included in the set is “Midnight,” a wistful gem from her 2015 album, Blood.

There’s some really wonderful guitar work here too.  She plays a complicated picking melody complete with occasional harmonics.  At one point her vocals take of and get much louder.  So loud that she kind of overloads her mic.

“Bittersweet”  continues with the quite guitar and powerful voice.  I’m curious what these songs will be like when they are fully produced.

[READ: May 3, 2020] “Witness”

This story is set in Berbice, Guayana.

Quammie had gone there to visit cousin Calib and tells the narrator his story.

Noting much happened, he didn’t buy any souvenirs.  Although that night there was to be a rally for President Ramotar.

It was rare that the Guyanese election made international ripples.  Oil had been discovered in the ocean, so Guyana and Venezuela were fighting over whose water the deposits were submerged in.

The polls were predicting a narrow loss for Ramotar who had decreed a state media blackout on all ads and coverage for his rival.

Quammie said they got out before the rally started, but on their way out of the city, they had to pull over for the President’s motorcade.

You saw Ramotar?

No, just his car. (more…)

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