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Archive for the ‘Oddities’ Category

McSweeney’s #13 (2006)

Posted in Adrian Tomine, Africa, Alex Robinson, Alison Bechdel, All Songs Considered, Anarchy, Ander Nilson, Archer Prewitt, Art Spiegelman, Ben Katchor, Books about music, Books about writers, Boredom, Bud Fischer, Bust, Canadian Content, Charles Burns, Charles Schulz, Chester Brown, Chip Kidd, Chris Ware, Collecting, Comic Strips, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Culture Shock, Daniel Clowes, David Collier, David Heatley, David Lasky, Death, Debbie Dreschler, Depression, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, Essays, Esther Pearl Watson, Excerpt, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gary Panter, Ghosts, Gilbert Hernandez, Gilbert Shelton, Glen David Gold, Graphic Novel, History, HOB, Huh?, Ira Glass, Ivan Brunetti, Jaime Hernandez, Jeffrey Brown, Jesse Reklaw, Joe Matt, Joe Sacco, Joel Priddy, John McLenan, John Porcellino, John Updike, John Woodring, Jonathan Bennett, Julie Doucet, Justin Hall, Kaz, Kim Deitch, Kurt Wolfgang, LGBTQ, Lilli Carré, Lloyd Dangle, Louis Reil, Lynda Barry, Malachi B. Cohen, Mark Beyer, Mark Newgarden, Marriage Trouble, Masturbation, McSweeney's, Memoirs, Michael Chabon, Military, Milt Gross, Oddities, Olivia Schanzer, Parts & Labor, Philip Guston, R. Crumb, Rebecca Dart, Richard McGuire, Richard Sala, Rodolphe Töpffer, Ron Rege, S. Kierkegaard, Seth Tobocman, Sex, Short Story, Sonic Youth, Supernatural, Surreal, Tim Samuelson, Tom Hart, Violence, Virginity (Loss of), War, William Faulkner, World Cafe Live on January 29, 2013| 1 Comment »

13SOUNDTRACK: PARTS & LABOR-Stay Afraid (2006).

partslaborParts & Labor have changed t heir style over the years going from noisemakers who have a melody to being melodious noisemakers.  This album is one of their earlier releases when noise dominated.  Right from the opening you know the album is going to be a challenge.  The first song has pounding drums (electronics that sound like bagpipes) and heavy distorted shouty vocals.  By the end of the songs there is squealing feedback, punk speed drums and screaming distorted vocals (complete with space sound effects).  It’s an aggressive opening for sure.  Song two opens with a long low rumbling and then “Drastic Measures” proves to be another fast-paced song.

“A Pleasant Stay” is 5 minutes long (most of the rest of the album’s songs are about 3 minutes).  It continues in this fast framework, although it has a bit more open moments of just drums or just vocals.  The way the band plays with feedback in the last minute or so of the song  very cool.

“New Buildings” has a hardcore beat with a guitar part that sounds sped up.  “Death” is a thumping song (the drums are very loud on this disc), while “Timeline” is two minutes of squealing guitars.  “Stay Afraid” has a false start (although who knows why–how do these guys know if the feedback sounds are what  they wanted anyhow?).  The song ends with 30 seconds of sheer noise).  The album ends with the 5 minute “Changing of the Guard” a song not unlike the rest of the album–noisy with loud drumming and more noise.

The album is certainly challenging, it’s abrasive and off putting, but there;s surprising pleasures and melodies amidst the chaos.   Indeed, after a listen or two you start to really look forward to the hooks.  If you like this sort of thing, this album s a joy.  It’s also quite brief, so it never overstays its welcome.

[READ: April 15, 2011] McSweeney’s #13

I have been looking forward to reading this issue for quite some time.  Indeed, as soon as I received it I wanted to put aside time for it.  It only took eight years.  For this is the fabled comics issue.  Or as the cover puts it: Included with this paper: a free 264 page hardcover.  Because the cover is a fold-out poster–a gorgeous broadside done by Chris Ware called “God.”  And as with all Chris Ware stories, this is about life, the universe and everything.  On the flip side of the (seriously, really beautiful with gold foil and everything) Ware comic are the contributors’ list and a large drawing that is credited to LHOOQ which is the name of Marcel Duchamp’s art piece in which he put a mustache on the Mona Lisa.  It’s a kind of composite of the history of famous faces in art all done in a series of concentric squares.  It’s quite cool.

So, yes, this issue is all about comics.  There are a couple of essays, a couple of biographical sketches by Ware of artists that I assume many people don’t know and there’s a few unpublished pieces by famous mainstream artists.  But the bulk of the book is comprised of underground (and some who are not so underground anymore) artists showing of their goods.  It’s amazing how divergent the styles are for subject matter that is (for the most part) pretty similar: woe is me!  Angst fills these pages.  Whether it is the biographical angst of famous artists by Brunetti or the angst of not getting the girl (most of the others) or the angst of life (the remaining ones), there’s not a lot of joy here. Although there is a lot of humor.  A couple of these comics made it into the Best American Comics 2006.

There’s no letters this issue, which makes sense as the whole thing is Chris Ware’s baby.  But there are two special tiny books that fit nearly into the fold that the oversized cover makes.  There’s also two introductions.  One by Ira Glass (and yes I’d rather hear him say it but what can you do).  And the other by Ware.  Ware has advocated for underground comics forever and it’s cool that he has a forum for his ideas here.  I’m not sure I’ve ever read prose from him before. (more…)

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Thomas Pierce–“Shirley Temple Three” (New Yorker, December 24 & 31, 2012)

Posted in Ben Folds, Fraggle Rock, New Yorker, Oddities, Short Story, Thomas Pierce on January 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_12_24_12Viva.inddSOUNDTRACK: BEN FOLDS FIVE-“Do It Anyway” (2012).

doitThis single comes from the first Ben Folds Five album in over a decade.  I have been listening to the album recently and I can’t get over how much I love this single (which has long come and gone and made nary a dent on any chart).  When I first watched this video a few months ago, I was so busy watching it (with the gang from Fraggle Rock and other guests) that I didn’t really digest the song.  But man, it’s got everything, and I’m sad that it didn’t barnstorm the charts.

It’s one of Ben’s loud songs–where he bangs on the piano (a lot) and it’s got that awesome distorted bass that is so Ben Folds Five (the solo at around 4 minutes is great!–I mean, it’s no John Entwistle but it’s still great).  And to hear Ben get really excited singing “Okaaaaaaay” by the third time around is infectious.

I don’t really understand why Fraggle Rock are in the video.  It’s cute though (and Ben and the guests do a  quick cover of the Fraggle Rock theme at the end).  I imagine that having Fraggle Rock in your video might just limit its appeal to a young hip crowd, as well.  But whatever, the song is fantastic.

[READ: January 20, 2013] “Shirley Temple Three”

I tried to imagine what this title would mean–what could this possibly be about?  My logical conclusion was that it had something to do with an indie rock band.  Well, the accompanying drawing is off a small elephant-like creature.  And, indeed, the story is about a miniature mammoth named Shirley Temple III.

Here’s the thing though.  The story is ultimately about a relationship between a mother and her son.  The son is a distant, jerky guy who doesn’t show up to a family wedding and who makes his living on an Atlanta-based reality show.  The mother is a forgiving and loving woman who is God-fearing and hoping for the best for her boy–despite the choices he makes.

And yet, there’s the whole mammoth thing.  The reality show that the son is the host of is a show that brings extinct animals back to life.  There’s no science given to it but they usually resurrect two of the creatures (for TV) and destroy one of them…keeping the other in their extinction zoo.  Totally weird premise, right?  But again the story is more about the family than science fiction or even reality TV.

The plot transpires that the technician who created the mammoth couldn’t euthanize the second one, so the son brought it to his mother’s house (several states away) to avoid suspicion since what they are doing is against the law.  She asks her to watch it for him until the heat is off.  It’s a dwarf mammoth (no idea if such a thing existed) so it’s not going to get big.  Then he goes away for a couple of months.  She keeps it in the pen that used to house their dog Shirley Temple.

(more…)

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Rivka Galchen–“The Lost Order” (New Yorker, January 7, 2013)

Posted in Boredom, Holly Herndon, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Oddities, Rivka Galchen, Sexism, Short Story on January 3, 2013| Leave a Comment »

2013_01_07_p139SOUNDTRACK: HOLLY HERNDON-“Breathe” (2012).

herndonI love when Viking (Lars Gottrich) publishes his year’s best lists on NPR.  Between his Metal and his Outer Sound categories, there’s always something weird and cool to listen to that I would not have heard elsewhere.  This year he may have outdone himself with one of the weirdest “songs” I’ve heard.  In one sense there’s nothing weird about it–it’s very natural–but the fact that Holly recorded it, manipulated it, tinkered with it and released it on an album is fascinating.

It begins with Herndon (presumably) inhaling (a gasping, disturbing inhale) and then silence.  A long silence.  Which I believe is Herndon holding her breath.  Then she exhales.  And the process begins again.  The ins-and exs-are manipulated a little bit, making them sound mechanical and somehow even more desperate.  Nearing the end, the breath has been manipulated beyond all recognition as a human sound.  And then it comes back, sounding more male than female.  It’s staggering.

This should absolutely be used for some kind of soundtrack for something.  It’s utterly unique and utterly fascinating.  And, best of all, there’s a youtube clip for it–no video, just the album cover, which means you can just focus on the sound.

 

[READ: May 26, 2012] “The Lost Order”

I was delighted to see that Galchen had a new short story in the New Yorker.

The story concerns a woman who has lost a lot recently.  She is standing in the kitchen not making spaghetti (an arresting opening if ever there was one).  She is concerned that she needs to lose weight, so she is trying not to eat.  She has also recently lost her job–she tendered her resignation (she likes that word, tender).  Her husband has recently lost his wedding ring (it doesn’t “mean” anything–they don’t care for symbols).  And she has just taken a phone call from a belligerent man who orders Chinese food from her.  She listens to the entire order and even frets about making it. But of course, she doesn’t.

I loved the idea of the her taking the man’s order and promising 30 minutes.  This actually happened to me once.  I mis-dialed and the person on the other end took my order, but when I went to the (Chinese) restaurant to pick it up they had no idea what I was talking about.  I did not, as this caller does, call back 50 minutes later and call the person a cunt.  I just waited for my food with a new order.  Because of my personal association with that part I would have liked more of that angle of the story, but it proves just to be one part of a disarming collection of happenings for the narrator.   (more…)

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Skip Horack–“The Cryptozoologist” (Narrative Magazine, Spring 2012)

Posted in Animals, Cryptids, David Bowie, Death, Demons, Funny (strange), Ghosts, Hoax, Kiss, Military, Monkeys, Narrative, Oddities, Short Story, Skip Horack, Van Halen, War on August 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KISS-Hot in the Shade (1989).

Before this album came out, Paul Stanley did a little club tour.  My friends Matt and Nick and I got to see him in Wilkes Barre, PA. It was a pretty great show, and intimate in a way that Kiss shows can never be.  So we were pretty psyched for this new album.  And yes, this album holds special memories or me because we used to listen to it a lot after the show.

The biggest problem with this album is bloat.  I don’t have any kind of evidence to back this up, but this was the first Kiss album that took advantage of the compact disc’s length.  And so it’s easily twenty minutes longer than most Kiss albums (and the later albums had some filler on the already).  Plus it’s  almost longer than Kiss’ first two albums combined.     That’s just too much.

Even Kiss’ weaker albums usually start with a good song.  Not so much Hot in the Shade.  “Rise to It” is pretty generic even by mid 80s Kiss standards.  They try to make it fun with the Ri–e i-e-i part, but it doesn’t quite make it.  “Betrayed” is a bit more of a rocker and is quite a good song.  Lyrically it’s not so great (it’s funny to think of Gene Simmons trying o be down with the common man), but it rocks pretty hard.  My friend Matt and I liked “Hide Your Heart” quite a bit when it came out.  The chorus: Ah ah ah ah, hey hey hey do do do do do do do do do” is pretty bad though.  “Prisoner of Love” musically sounds like Kiss of old, until the verses come in.  “Read My Body” is really catchy until you realize it sounds just like “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”  That’s embarrassing.  Although the metaphor is well done, at least.  “Slap in the Face” might as well be “Let’s Put the X in Sex” from Thrashes Smashes and Hits.

Then comes the cheesiest ballad in Kiss’ history—actually written by Michael Bolton, yes Michael Bolton.  And man do I love it.  Paul is in full voice, he sounds great, the harmonies are spot on.  It is the cheesiest metal ballad ever, but I never get tired of it.  It even has an acoustic guitar solo—pre-made for Unplugged!  “Silver Spoon” is a good rocker, with a fun chorus.  Although the gospel singers at the end are a bit overkill—it seems silly to have invited them in for 90 seconds of singing.  “Cadillac Dreams” is just a bit too close to a Beatles song for my liking.  “King of Hearts” is a decent song, and “The Street Giveth and the Street Taketh Away” (were Kiss really hard up for money?  what’s up with these lyrics?).  We had an in-joke on my dorm floor, so I can never take this song seriously (that may also be because they steal the “Hey man” right out of David Bowie’s mouth).  Love Me to Hate You” is pretty generic although catchy.  “Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell” is also a decent song.

“Little Caesar” is the first (and only, really) song that Eric Carr sang lead vocals on.  As a singer he’s a really good drummer.  The song is pretty generic too and is unfortunately given the same name as a bad pizza company.  “Boomerang” has a good fast pace (once again, not unlike a Van Halen song).

[READ: August 11, 2012] “The Cryptozoologist”

This is yet another short story broken down into lots of little sections.  What’s neat about the way that this one is done is that because the narrator is a cryptozoologist, each section is headed by a cryptid (animals whose existence has not been proven).  But in addition to discussing these animals, the sections also describe a history of the narrator’s life.  His life in this field started when his grandfather told him about a snake which latched onto the end of its own tail and rolled away from its pursuers (section title: Hoop Snakes).  His grandfather never lied, so it had to be true.

It proceeds through The Mušhuššu (a serpent dragon spoken of in ancient Babylon), through the Jenny Hanivers (jeunes d’Anvers), into The Wolf of Ansbach (believed to be an old Bürgermeister who was transformed into a werewolf), and on to The Batutut, a monkey man in Laos.  Most of these sections describe the origins of the cryptids (and his lack of success at spotting them), but The Batutut section is also about himself and how he was in the war when this particular cryptid entered his life.

Then we move on to The Altamaha-Ha in Southeastern Georgia, while Giglioli’s Whale, which had two dorsal fins dates to 1867.  The Mongolian Death Worm, said to live in the sands of the Gobi desert is a cryptid that he actually experienced in the American desert.  he didn’t see it, but he could feel its presence.  The Madagascar Tree is a killing tree–it looks like a pineapple and eats sacrifices.  This story was told by two adventurers who saw the tree eat a woman.  The best part of is that there is no proof that the two men who are credited with telling the story actually existed themselves. (more…)

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Colson Whitehead–“A Psychotronic Childhood: The B-movies did it” (New Yorker, June 4 & 11, 2012)

Posted in Alien, Colson Whitehead, Death, Demon Seed, Demons, Dystopia, End of the World, Essays, Fangoria, Fears, Food of the Gods, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Marriage (Happy), Mother's Day, MST3K, My Bloody Valentine, New Yorker, Oddities, Prom Night, Regimen, Rosemary's Baby, Sci-fi, Sex, Sexism, Silent Night Evil Night, Skraeckoedlan, Slumber Party Massacre, Terror Train, The Birthday Party, The Devil's Run, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?, The Shining, The Virgin Prunes, Vampires, Violence, Yuck!, Zombies on June 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: INVISIBLE GUY BLOG (2012).

Jonas from Invisible Guy contacted me about a project he’s working on.  I’m not quite the right fit for it, but I had to check out his site to see what he was all about.  As his About page explains; “This blog is generally a platform for unknown bands to get promoted and interviewed.”  That’s pretty awesome in itself.  But as I browsed the site, I saw that in his post Invisible Guy recommends: 80s Post-Punk – 1982 (Part II) he includes not only The Birthday Party but also The Virgin Prunes.  Much respect there (especially for someone who wasn’t alive when those records came out!).

But the bulk of his site is full of really obscure bands (lots of bands that I’ve never heard of).  He interviews band members (sometimes in Swedish!) and has quite an impressive list of publications that he’s worked for.

So head on over to Invsible Guy for a wonderful collection of punk and hardcore music as well as some iconic (and really obscure) new wave and post-punk tunes.  He’s also got some great stuff on death metal too.  Not bad for a site that’s only a few months old.  Invisible Guy has a lot of samples and videos as well as a bunch of streaming music from unreleased or just-released albums (like this demo from the Swedish band Regimen called Välkommen hem).

And here’s a video for the Swedish stoner metal band Skraeckoedlan.  The song is “Apple Trees” and no you can’t understsnad the words because they are in Swedish.  I love that.

It’s a great site.

[READ: June 15, 2012] “A Psychotronic Childhood”

The more I read Colson Whitehead, the more I like him, not just as a writer, but as a “person” (the person he presents to us anyhow.  Although I met him briefly at a convention and he was super friendly and very nice).  This essay shows that he and I occupied some of the same headspace when we were kids (we were born in the same year)—watching sci-fi and horror movies on Channel 7 & 11 after school and on the weekends.  Of course, I didn’t really get into horror movies until much later them him (his first time was when his parents took him to  a horror film in the theater at the age of 5).  FIVE!

These early horror movies really shaped his outlook.  He lists about 70 movies in this article, of which I have seen at least half (although more from MST3K than actually sitting through them unaccompanied) and his summaries about them (four or five parenthetical words) are apt and often hilarious:

  • Food of the Gods (giant chickens rain pecking doom on a small island)
  • Alien (an outbreak of tummy trouble among space miners)
  • Demon Seed (rom-com about a horny computer that wants to impregnate Julie Christie)
  • The Devil’s Run (A negligible and mind-numbing film, notable only for the utter ineptitude of its attempt to cash in on the brief occult-movie fad that followed Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist.

The Devil’s Run is the first movie he saw, back in 1975, in the theater.  He says that there was something good in it, that it really captured the element of terror when your loved one turns on you.  And he tapped into this for his novel Zone One.

Then he reflects back on 1981, when his family bought a VCR and he and his brother would head to Crazy Eddie (remember Crazy Eddie?) to rent 5 movies for the weekend (I didn’t even know they rented movies!).  The movies were inevitably 4 horror movies and one mainstream film.  And the family would gather by the TV and watch together.  How wholesome!  Except when you read what they were watching (I can’t IMAGINE my family watching these together when I was a kid–even now, Sarah hates horror films).   This is getting into the era of Friday the 13ths and Halloweens as well as classics like Terror Train, Prom Night, Slumber Party Massacre, Silent Night, Evil Night, Mother’s Day and My Bloody Valentine (“not even the holidays, hallmark or otherwise were safe”). (more…)

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Rivka Galchen–“The Region of Unlikeness” (New Yorker, March 24, 2008)

Posted in Brewer & Shipley, Colin Meloy, Emily Bronte, Oddities, Rivka Galchen, Short Story, Supernatural, Tarkio, The Decemberists, The Future, Time Travel on June 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TARKIO-Sea Songs for Landlocked Sailors (1999).

Tarkio was Colin Meloy’s band before he formed the Decemberists.  My first reaction to the name Tarkio was that it sounded like Tarkus, the album by Emerson lake and Palmer.  And, since I heard about it during The Decemberists’ The Crane Wife album, which is proggy, I assumed Tarkio would be a prog rock band.  Little did I know that the real name of Tarkio comes from a train stop in Montana and that the real (at least to me) forerunner for this album is Tarkio by folkies Brewer & Shipley which featured the song “One Toke Over the Line.”

All of Tarkio’s music was collected in 1995 on the album Omnibus.  Omnibus contains their album I Guess I was Hoping for Something More, this EP, and various other unreleased tracks.

This EP actually came out after Tarkio’s debut album (when I decided to write this first I assumed it came first).  It seems especially surprising to me because the opening song sounds very different from anything on the LP.  Not worse, just like a direction they chose not to go in.  His voice is kind of processed and sounds, yes, funny.  Although I have to admit I rather like it—it’s much more alt sounding than the rest of the disc, which has a more folkie charm.  This disc was self released.  And I cannot believe that there are no images of it online anywhere.  Decemberists fans are crazy intense and no one has a copy of this CD?  Weird.

So as I said, the first song, “Devil’s Elbow” is full of vibrato and sounds like an alt rock song circa the mid 90s.  The solo sounds like it could be done by Robert Smith.  “Weight of the World” sounds more alt-folkie, big guitars and whatnot.  And the chorus sounds very much like a Decemberists song.  And check out these lyrics: “we hear the homeless philharmonic singing all the Charlies Angels to their heavenly convergence in the sky.” Pure Colin.

If you had any doubt that this was Colin Meloy’s band (which you wouldn’t, but if you did), this song title will tell you all you need: “My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist.”  Lyrically it is pure Meloy, although musically it’s more spare.  Decemberists fans will recognize this song from Castaways and Cutouts (that version is over a minute longer).  The Tarkio version has louder guitars as the song progresses, although the Decemberists’ version has more interesting instrumentation.  “Mountains of Mourne,” is a sad ballad played mostly on banjo.  “Never Will Marry” is a slow dirgelike song–very traditionally folk-sounding.

I really don’t know much about why Tarkio broke up.  This EP shows a band experimenting with their more ballad-y side.  Probably not destined to be a big seller, it works as a nice companion to their debut.

[READ: May 26, 2012] “The Region of Unlikeness”

This was the last short story I found by Galchen and I was really excited to read it.  It starts off a little oddly—it’s one of those stories where there are two characters spoken about and they are inseparable and it’s not always clear which is which.  Especially when the opening is as peculiar as this, “Ilan used to call Jacob ‘my cousin from Outer Swabia’”  Originally the narrator thinks it a joke, but she later decides it’s a sort of a clue.  She met the two of them by chance.  They were talking loudly and boisterously about Wuthering Heights in a coffee shop.  And that intrigued her to no end.  So she chimed in, and the three of them ended up talking for a while.  The crazy thing about them was that Jacob had a daughter. He seemed so carefree and like he had no responsibilities.   She never met the daughter, he barely mentioned his family, and yet she was always there in the back of his mind.

And she fell hard for Ilan—he seemed antiquated and resourceful like “fancy coffee and bright-colored smutty flyers.”  Of course all of her friends found the two of them arrogant and pathetic, but the narrator could not be drawn away from them.  Although really she was drawn to Ilan, who was generous with praise, while Jacob was kind of sulky and dark and was “jealous of Ilan’s easy pleasures.”  The narrator felt Jacob was pedantic.  All of this makes it surprising that the bulk of the story is about the narrator and Jacob.

And then she stopped seeing them.  Literally, they were nowhere to be found. (more…)

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P.W. Wilson–“Sea-Seprents and Scientists” (The North American Review, Vol. 237, No 3, March, 1934)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Canadian Music, Essays, Laura Barrett, Loch Ness Monster, Oddities, P.W. Wilson, Religion, Research, Scientists, The North American Review on March 28, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: LAURA BARRETT-“Deception Island Optimist Club” from Viva Piñata! (2008).

This is a musically simple song–it appears to be played entirely on, I gather, a thumb piano or kalimba.

The melody is complicated, however.  And Barrett’s voice is beautifully naked.  I especially like the way her voice doesn’t follow the musical melody exactly–she plays around with sounds and ideas a little bit.

I also just found out this neat little piece of information: Her first public performance was a cover of “Smells Like Nirvana” at a “Weird Al” Yankovic

kalimba

tribute concert.  Okay, who even knew there were “Weird Al” tribute concerts?

I’m very much intrigued by this woman, and you can hear a whole bunch of her stuff at her CBC Radio 3 site.

Oh, and that Weird Al song?  You can hear it (there’s no video) right here:

[READ: March 20, 2012] “Sea-Serpents and Scientists”

This was the second archived article that my company sent around for enjoyment.

I like any article about sea serpents, especially The Loch-Ness Monster.  But I was really surprised at the attitude taken in this article.  It actually seemed like it might be a joke, although upon further consideration, I believe it is entirely serious.

As the introductory line says, “The emergence of a fabulous monster in Loch Ness is greeted with debatable reserve by men of science.”

The first paragraph taught me something i did not know: The Loch Ness Monster’s name is Bobby!  And while Wilson says he is not going to “offer a belated biography of Bobby, the sea serpent of Scotland, as he swims like a submarine in Loch Ness,” he is sure going to take scientists to task for not investigating him.

Wilson does not argue that Bobby exists, indeed he claims not to be an expert, “All my life I have abstained strictly from the alcoholic inducements which on these occasions are said to contribute to what around Loch Ness, is called ‘perfect visibility.'”  Although I gather he does believe in him.

Rather, his point is that scientists have dropped the ball by not even looking into “by far the most interesting event in the modern annals of natural history.” (more…)

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T. Coraghessan Boyle–“Los Gigantes” (New Yorker, February 6, 2012)

Posted in Boredom, Decadence, Los Campesinos!, Marriage (Happy), New Yorker, Oddities, Sex, Short Story, T.C. Boyle on February 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: LOS CAMPESINOS!-Romance is Boring (2009).

Even though I had heard good things about Los Campesinos! before I got this album, this was the first one I bought.  I see that it gets less high marks than previous discs but I think it is fantastic.  It is frantic and catchy, it is intense and mellow, it is loud and soft and most of the time that’s in the same song.  And, as you’ll see below, lyrically I think it’s fantastic.

The disc begins slowly.  Then the vocals come in and you can tell that Gareth Campesinos!’ voice is somewhat abrasive, but well enunciated. When at the 2 minute mark the song more or less stops and turns into little twinkling bells you’re not prepared for the next bit–the guitars are noisy and the drums are loud and the lyrics are even stranger (sung in a slightly off-key style): “I’m leaving my body to science, not medical but physics.”  By the end, the song has mellowed almost completely and we have an almost a capella ending, “Would this interest you at all?”  But before you have a chance to answer that, the next song, “There are Listed Building” ratchets forth in both speakers with loud and quiet sections, group vocals and the lead singer’s more shouting style.

“Romance is Boring” has some super catchy shouted vocals as well as the first real exposure to the co-vocalist Aleksandra Campesinos!’ beautiful gentle female voice. “We’ve Got Your Back” is primarily sung by the female vocalist until the male voice come back with “and so fucking on and so fucking forth” and my favorite shouted chorus: “What would you do?  I do not know.”  “(PLAN A)” is a screaming punk blast of discord.  Until, of course, the much more palatable group sung chorus kicks in.

One of the best songs they do is “Straight in at 101” a wonderful song about breakups that is catchy and funny. It opens with, “I think we need more post-coital and less post rock.”  And then after some great alt rock, the song comes to an end with an a capella section that is quietly sung:

I phone my friends and family to gather round the television;
The talking heads count down the most heart-wrenching break ups of all time
Imagine the great sense of waste, the indignity, the embarrassment
When not a single one of that whole century was… mine

“I Warned You: Do Not Make an Enemy of Me”  has frenetic guitar and the wonderful line, “if this changed your life, did you have one before?”  And the wonderfully titled “A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show-Me State” opens with this lyrical stanza:

She’d a bruise so black they watched it fade through the full spectrum of colours.
They kept it like a pet; a private joke they told no others.
And how the tissue repaired, and how it turned to yellow
And she found it disgusting, ’cause it didn’t match her clothing.
He said “that’s not yellow, it’s golden”.

Also lyrically interesting is “The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future,” because how can you make this couplet work in a rhythmic way.  But he does! “At fourteen her mother died in a routine operation from allergic reaction to a general anesthetic.”

There are fast songs and slow songs and pretty sections and harsh sections.  I think they meld it all together wonderfully.

[READ: February 6, 2012] “Los Gigantes”

I think I begin every T. Coraghessan Boyle story with some trepidation.  I liked Boyle because of The Road to Wellville, but I find that most of his other stories are very Southwestern, a region I really don’t know very well.  And yet for all my trepidation, I find I do enjoy his stories.

This one has a very simple premise.  All of the largest men in the area have been offered jobs by the President (I’m not sure where this is set but I assume, if it’s not entirely fictional, that it’s meant to be in Central America).  Although the men have some freedom during the day, at night they are locked into cages.  But their job is a simple one–eat, sleep and have sex with very large women.  That’s all.  It’s kind of boring, but  they are provided entertainments.  And it could certainly be worse (wait until you see what conditions the women love in!).

Discontentment begins to settle in as they realize that they are little more than stud animals (the President is breeding them for their size for a secret army in several generations).  And so one night two of los gigantes escape (it’s fairly easy, they are very strong men).  But they basically get as far as town where the pleasures of the  town’s bar keep them from returning home.  They are caught and punished, but the punishment is not that bad because the President really wants their offspring.

The men issue demands–a nicer living situation mostly–which are met, and they are contented once more. (more…)

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Shaun Tan–Tales from Outer Suburbia (2012)

Posted in Culture Shock, Death, Dogs, End of the World, Graphic Novel, Marriage Trouble, Oddities, Pets, Shaun Tan, Short Story, Supernatural, Surreal, Toys, TV on the Radio, YA Books on February 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TV ON THE RADIO-Nine Types of Light (2011).

I loved most of TV on the Radio’s releases.  On this one they scaled back some of their sound and they really highlight their assets, namely the vocals of Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone.  This album feels like something of a continuation of the style from Dear Science.

Indeed, some of the songs are downright simple. “Second Song” is completely straightforward; I really enjoy the falsetto vocals on it.  “Keep Your Heart” is so straightforward it has almost no music in the verses.  It’s very much back to basics. “Killer Crane” is also very simple, with a gorgeous melody.

But don’t count uberdude Dave Sitek out of the game, he throws in some very interesting sounds and textures on a number of tracks.  “No Future Shock”  introduces all kinds of wonderful sounds and repeated lyrics which work as a mantra.  One of my favorite songs is the weird and wonderful “New Cannonball Blues” great synth sounds, cool harmonies  (that falsetto is on fire here!) and a nice staccato chorus.  “Repetition” has some cool repetitions (it’s in the title after all) that really becomes a mantra, with some great musical accompaniment.  And the drums sound amazing.  And “Caffeinated Consciousness” has some more cool sounds: orchestral hits and the like followed by a very mellow bridge.

And then there’s “Will Do” a perfect blend of the two styles–rich melodies, cool effects and great vocals (which is why it was the single).

The simple songs are a good introduction to the kind of stuff TV on the Radio is capable of, but it’s clear they have a love for the unexpected and that’s why I enjoy them so much.

[READ: February 5, 2012] Tales from Outer Suburbia

Shaun Tan is an Australian author/artist who drew the amazing wordless The Arrival (it is stunning!).

This book is a collection of fifteen (very) short stories that come chock full of drawings.  Some drawings add to the story, some drawings tell the story and some drawings tell a kind of parallel story.  As with The Arrival, his artwork is weird and wonderful.

The library filed this book under YA Graphic Novels.  I’m not sure it’s either of those (The Arrival was filed under kids picture books).  While there are pictures, it is certainly not a conventional graphic novel.  And while the themes and idea aren’t risqué or anything, I feel like the ideas are more adult than teen oriented.  Of course, having said that, most of the protagonists are young, so maybe teens do enjoy stories about existential confusion! (more…)

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Frederic Miller–“The Tragedie of Frosty the Snowman” (Mississippi Review, Summer 2001)

Posted in Bad Brains, Cocteau Twins, Essays, Frederic Miller, Frosty the Snowman, Funny (ha ha), Holidays, Mississippi Review, Oddities, Scholarship on December 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: COCTEAU TWINS-“Frosty the Snowman” (1993).

Cocteau Twins released Snow, a “holiday” EP in 1993.  Their version of “Winter Wonderland” is quite sublime.  This version of “Frosty the Snowman” on the other hand is a bit…off.

I don’t know if the tempo is too fast (I think that may be it), or if the lyrics are too silly (even if the Twins weren’t filled with gravitas, most of the time you couldn’t hear what they were saying anyhow) or if they just can’t get their brand of lush to envelope the song, but it just doesn’t quite work for me.

[READ: December 13, 2011] “The Tragedie of Frosty the Snowman”

My work director sent this article around as an amusing academic piece for the holidays.  It’s a short article (one and a half pages) but it does a good job of analysing the real tragedy that is Frosty the Snowman: “Frosty’s tragedy is not simply that he must melt, thaw, resolve into etc.–this is merely the common fate of all men, persons, who are made out of snow.”

The tragedy of Frosty is personal, for he has an inner greatness.  When he encounters the magic hat he claims to be coming “back again someday.”   But can he every really understand that?  [We watched this special just the other day, and it must be said that Frosty, who seems to be quite naive and unaware (what’s a traffic light?) is also quite savvy about a lot of things that he should not know–winter flowers, frozen boxcars]. (more…)

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