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Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category

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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Above the Dreamless Dead: World War I in Poetry and Comics (2014)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Anders Nilsen, Canadian Music, Carol Tyler, Charles Sorley, Constellation Records, Danica Novgorodoff, David Hitchcock, Death, Do Make Say Think, Drawn & Quarterly, Eddie Campbell, Edward Thomas, Francis Edward Ledwidge, Futility, Garth Ennis, George Pratt, Graphic Novel, Hannah Berry, Hunt Emerson, Isaac Rosenberg, Isabel Greenberg, James Lloyd, Kathryn Immonen, Kevin Huizenga, Liesbeth De Stercke, Lilli Carré, Luke Pearson, Mad Magazine, Morality, Osbert Sitwell, Pat Mills, Patrick MacGill, Peter Kuper, Phil Winsdale, Poetry, Poets, Radiohead, Robert Graves, Rudyard Kipling, Rupert Brooke, Sammy Harkham, Sarah Glidden, Siegfried Sassoon, Simon Gane, Stephen R. Bissette, Stuart Immonen, Syriana, Tamara Williamson, Thomas Hardy, Violence, War, Wilfred Owen, Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, World War I, Yuck! on February 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

aboveSOUNDTRACK: DO MAKE SAY THINK-& Yet & Yet [CST020] (2002).

DmstandyetandyetAfter the previous album, keyboardist Jason McKenzie departed the band.  I’m not entirely sure how this impacted the band, but this album is warmer and a little more delicate feeling.  It’s also their first album that was recorded all in the same place (in band member Justin Small’s house).

The disc opens with static and effects before a jazzy drumbeat comes in.   “Clasic Noodlanding” is mellow with a complex (for them) riff on the guitar and nice washes of keyboards.  It is primarily atmospheric until about two minutes in when it suddenly changes with the introduction of a great bass line.  And then this atmospheric song turns really catchy. The five and a half-minutes feel too short in this song.

“End of Music” opens with jazzy drums and keyboards.  It’s a slow piece that stretches to nearly 7 minutes.  About half way through the song, the drums come crashing in and a brighter, noisier melody takes over.  This end section is really catchy with some great chords and excellent drumming.

“White Light Of” opens with a cool slow bass line and drum pattern.  As the song grows in complexity I like the new bass rumble that is added and the way the guitar lines seem to intertwine. About half way through horns get added to the mix, quietly at first and then they slowly take over the song. About five minutes in the song comes to abrupt halt with some interesting echoed effects on the drums. It resumes again with a stranger version of the song—it feels unsettled and really interesting, with a nice riff interspersed with one that feels off somewhat.

“Chinatown” opens unlike any DMST song.  The bass sounds electronic and skittery with some interesting keyboard sounds over the top (it actually sounds a bit like later period Radiohead).  The song is slow and moody for all of its 5 and half minutes with keyboard washes and skittery guitars.  There are quotes thrown in throughout the song but I can’t tell what they are saying.  This song was features in the film Syriana.

“Reitschule” is one of two songs that are 9 minutes long. It opens with a slow meandering guitar line interspersed with another guitar playing an interesting counterpoint.  A cool bassline comes in around 2:30 which takes the song in a new direction.  Horns propel the song along until about 4 minutes when a jangly guitar takes over the song. It builds with some abrasive guitar chords until everything washes away except the bass.  And then it rebuilds as something else.  Distant horns play in the back as the guitars play overlapping lines.  It’s an epic song that demonstrates how much this band can do.

“Soul and Onward” has a pretty conventional melody line. It’s warm and friendly It also features wordless vocals by Tamara Williamson. I love the little tiny guitar lick that works as a bridge between the two sections.  This is my favorite song on this record.

“Anything for Now” is the other 9 minute song. It is slow and pastoral to start with a beautiful multi-guitar piece with gentle drums. At around 4:30 all the instrument vanish except for a single organ note. It plays for a bout a minute and it seems like the disc will end that way but then the chords build up again from the drone.  An acoustic guitar lick begins around 7 minutes in and runs through the end of the song.

Overall this album is more mellow than their previous discs, and there are some amazingly beautiful sections of music on this album.

[READ: February 8, 2016] Above the Dreamless Dead

I’m continuing with books that I wouldn’t normally read, to celebrate First Second’s #10yearsof01 challenge and to read something out of my comfort range.

This is a collection of poetry about World War I, written before during and just after the war.  Each of the poems is illustrated by a different contemporary artist.

As you can imagine, the book is pretty gloomy.  But the poetry is pretty spectacular and the illustrations were really interesting.  Obviously this book is not going to be a happy one.  But some of the artists do add a more positive spin on the poems (while some are just brutally violent as well). (more…)

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Jorge Luis Borges–The Last Interview and Other Conversations (2013)

Posted in Almafuerte, Almaz, Artful Dodger, Arturo Capdevila, Baldomero Fernández Moreno, Biography, Blindness, Book Reviews, Books about writers, Charles Silver, Daniel Bourne, David Bowie, Funny (ha ha), Gloria Lopez Lecube, Herman Melville, History, Interviews, James Joyce, Jorge Luis Borges, Kit Maude, La Isla FM Radio Argentina, Michael Jackson, Old Age, Paul-François Groussac, Pedro Bonifacto Palacios (Almafuerte), Poetry, Poets, Richard Burgin, Seu Jorge, Short Books, Stephen Cape, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Tiny Desk Concert, Walt Whitman, War, Wes Anderson on October 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

borgesSOUNDTRACK: SEU JORGE-Tiny Desk Concert #79 (September 13, 2010).

seuSeu Jorge was the melancholy singer in Wes Anderson’s movie The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. He sang the David Bowie songs and was amazingly soulful and brought a completely unexpected quality to the Bowie songs.

He plays these five songs with his band Almaz.  For reasons unclear to me only one of the songs is on the video, but the other four are available in audio format.

He sings three songs in Portuguese, and his voice is husky and passionate, so even if you don’t know what he’s singing about, you can feel the emotion.

The first song in English “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” has a cool trippy 70s vibe, with some cool keyboards.  Although I don’t love his version of “Rock with You” which I imagine was super fun to sing, but it’s so different from the Michael Jackson version that it’s hard to reconcile the tow.

  • Cirandar” (Audio Only)
  • “Saudosa Bahia” (Audio Only)
  • “Everybody Loves The Sunshine” (Audio Only)
  • “Pai Joao”
  • “Rock With You” (Audio Only)

[READ: October 19, 2015] The Last Interview and Other Conversations

I have never really read any Borges (a piece here and there sure, but I have his Collected Fictions waiting for me and just haven’t gotten to it. However, when I saw this book at work I decided to give it a read. I have very much enjoyed the other books in The Last Interview series (there are ten and I have read four) so I thought I’d like this too, and I did.

Borges is a fascinating individual. He was legally blind from a youngish age and was completely blind by the time of the last interview. He was humble (but not exactly humble—he genuinely didn’t think he was that great of an author). He was a pacifist (remaining neutral even in WWII) and basically spent his whole life immersed in books.

This book contains three interviews

“Original Mythology” by Richard Burgin (from Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges, 1968)

“Borges and I” by Daniel Bourne, Stephen Cape, Charles Silver (Artful Dodger 1980)

“The Last Interview” by Gloria Lopez Lecube (La Isla FM Radio, Argentina, 1985) [translated by Kit Maude] (more…)

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Christian McPherson–The Sun Has Forgotten Where I Live (2011)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Christian McPherson, Corporate skewering, Dave Bidini music, Luke Doucet, Martin Tielli, Poetry, Rheostatics, Veal, tagged on October 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

sunSOUNDTRACK: MARTIN TIELLI-Fall Nationals The Horseshoe Tavern Toronto (November 17, 2003).

horsehoeA few weeks ago I wrote about the Violet Archers playing on this same night.  This was night 8 of 13 in the Rheostatics Fall Nationals 2003 Tour.  This was called SoloStatics Night.  Martin played and then Tim and the Violet Archers played.  And then Luke Doucet’s band Veal played (not sure if they were first or last).  Evidently Dave was sick, so he didn’t play.

The band for Martin’s set is Monica Gunter (Violin), Greg Smith (Bass), Ford Pier (Guitar), Michael Wojewoda (Drums), Luke Doucet (Pedal Steel).

It’s a short set (only 45 minutes) and he doesn’t play any Rheos songs (which makes sense).  It opens with “Double X” which is just him on guitar and Monica the violin. He plays very aggressively. It’s great.  Being in a fun mod he mentions that tonight is the solo show for the Rheostatics and whatnot, then he says that that’s not true, the Whatnots are playing tomorrow.

This is the first live instance of “The Temperance Society Choir.”  But he forgets a verse and they all seem to put their heads together trying to remember it until he says “somebody help me with this fucking song.”  There’s some wild bass and guitar noises on this song, too.

For “Sergeant Kraulis,” there’ a big chorus with everyone singing along.  And Martin gets out his Steinberger to really wail  And I love watching him (see video below) make the crazy noises at the end of this song.  Luke Doucet joins them on “Winnipeg.”  It’s a really good, robust version of the song, with Ford Pier taking some of the vocal lines (like “get the fuck off the stage.”)  And also jumping around like a lunatic during the more rocking moments.

They rock out “That’s What You Get for Having Fun” and the cover of “Cold Blood Old Times” (which Martin says they have to play faster).

Before the final song they start asking each other if any of them has any T-Bone, they all say they got mashed potatoes but no T-Bone (which references a Neil Young song, but is still pretty weird).

The set ends with a solo acoustic guitar version of “From the Reel,” which is beautiful.

It’s a really great performance and amazingly, it was captured on video, too.

 

[READ: October 22, 2015] The Sun Has Forgotten Where I Live

In all of the Christian McPherson blurbage, it mentions his two books, Six Ways to Sunday & The Cube People.  And these are the two books of his which I have not read.  Huh.

This was McPherson’s second collection poetry.  It is very much like his first collection: musings on being a dad (which are quite tender and sweet and very true to life) and then darker thoughts about society and such.

And he gets to the crux of what I find hard to know about whether I like his poems.  The entirely of the poem “trying to” consists of this valid exchange: (more…)

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Christian McPherson–Poems That Swim From My Brain Like Rats Leaving a Sinking Ship (2008)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Christian McPherson, Corporate skewering, Dave Bidini music, Martin Tielli, Nick Buzz, Poetry, Rheostatics, Selina Martin, tagged on October 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »

poemsSOUNDTRACK: MARTIN TIELLI-Horseshoe Tavern Toronto, ON (2002).

tielliAfter the Rheostatics’ Night of the Shooting Stars album, the band took a few years before recording their final album.  During that hiatus of sorts, Martin Tielli released his second solo album Operation Infinite Joy.  But before getting that album out, he did a short tour in 2002.  This is the second date of that tour (although, as with other bootlegs, I find it funny that the date is lost).  Speaking of lost dates, there are no dates at all for Martin Tielli on Setlist.com. Shocking!

Anyhow, this show has great audio. It’s one of those recordings where you can hear the audience, but they are not louder than Martin himself.

As with many of the shows of this era, Martin opens the show on solo acoustic guitar—with some awesomely aggressive chord strokes. He just seems really into this set, with a great growling “ain’t necessary” line in “Double X” and one of the best versions of “She Said ‘We’re On Our Way Down’” that I’ve heard (better than the album).

Before Martin is joined by more musicians, someone asks him how old his jacket it. He says about 14 years old.  Then Greg Smith joins him on bass for “My Sweet Relief”

When he switches back to the quiet “World in a Wall” it’s practically like a dramatic reading the way he performs it.  He says he was living in a cruddy apartment when he wrote this song.  As an opening for “Voices from the Wilderness” he says he used to criticize Dave Bidini for writing songs about music, but he finally embraced it and wrote this awesome song.

For “Farmer in the City,” he says they’re going to try something really quiet—and the audience is rapt. It’s pretty cool.  Selina Martin plays crystal on this song (which I assume means glasses?)

When they get to the Nick Buzz song “Love Streams” it’s very quiet and you can hear someone in the audience loudly shot “Shut the fuck up.” He doesn’t acknowledge that but says that the band Nick Buzz was named after the cigarettes that he is now craving. After getting his smoke he introduces”That’s What You Get For Having Fun” by saying this is gonna be a gooood song.

He plays a quieter, more intimate version of “Shaved Head” with a lengthy outro. The track listing says “Stolen Car” is next but there is no “Stolen Car.” They play a rocking version of “Sgt Kraulis” with some fun mechanical voices over the end.

This is a great set that runs about an hour. The crowd I really into it and so is Martin.

[READ: October 19, 2015] Poems That Swim From My Brain Like Rats Leaving a Sinking Ship

I started reading Christian McPherson’s Cube Squared.  And when I looked him up I saw that my library also had a few collections of his poetry.  So I decided to check them out.

This was his first collection (after a collection of short stories).  Most of his poems are fast paced and immediate (as the title suggests).  There’s not a lot of reflection in them, they are more designed to get a point across.

And as such they work quite well. (more…)

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Laura Legge–“Prends Donc Courage” (The Walrus, July/August 2015)

Posted in Adam Zagajewski, Canadian Content, Cleoma Falcon, Huh?, Ken Babstock, Laura Legge, Pinball, Poetry, Rheostatics, Rush, Short Story, The Walrus, tagged on September 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

2015-07 SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Babylon, Ottawa, ON (July 15, 2005).

babylonContinuing their summer run, the Rheos returned to Ottawa for this show. The recording is a bit muddy and kind of low.  But the crowd is really into it, shouting out requests all through the set (which seem especially loud, given the recording).  One guy wants to hear “Queer” really badly (and he gets to).

Perhaps it’s the recording, but the usually angry sounding “Marginalized” feels a but muted here.  On the plus side, during the short drum break in “I Dig Music” MPW is able to get the “Lakeside Park” fill in perfectly.

I learned that “Night of the Shooting Stars” is an actual Italian holiday (known as The Night of San Lorenzo).

This is the first time I’ve heard them play “”Try To Praise This Mutilated World” which is based on the poem by Adam Zagajewski.  Th recording has a poem within the song (“The Expected” by Ken Babstock) read here by Andy Creeggan.

After this, the band loosens up some.  They start “Four Little Songs” and then invite two guys from the mailing list who came all the way from NYC up on stage.  Rather than making up a little song, the guys sing “Legal Age Life” (and quite well).  The song resumes with one little song and throw in a bit of The Doors’ “The End.”  And they follow that with “P.I.N.” which has a bit of “My Humps” in it!

There was another guy who was calling for “Satan is the Whistler” all night.  And when they finally played it, it was outstanding.  Then the crowd cheers for “Shaved Head” and they absolutely kill on that one too–I wish the recording quality was a little better because the show is great.

[READ: September 7, 2015] “Prends Donc Courage”

This story bugged me right from the get go.

It seemed like the author was trying to write a story about a defiantly nontraditional group.  There’s a washed up former TV star, there’s a guy with a phantom limb, a guy who is collecting pinball machines, and they are all more or less destitute.

And that can be interesting, but I felt like the story was pushing me away the more I tried to read it.

The main character is a guy named Blue.  He is the former TV star.  His friend Mitchum is amassing old pinball machines in a garage that is dilapidated (so how did he gets these expensive machines?).  The “arcade” is to be called Sick Bay (in honor of Blue’s act–although that’s not really explained).

Blue doesn’t speak, and hasn’t spoken for some time–mostly he’s afraid to find out that his voice doesn’t work anymore. (more…)

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Nina MacDonald–Wartime Nursery Rhymes: A First World War Collection (1918)

Posted in Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Jimmy Cliff, Nina MacDonald, Nursery Rhymes, Poetry, Propaganda, Tiny Desk Concert, World War I on September 3, 2015| 1 Comment »

rhymesSOUNDTRACK: JIMMY CLIFF-Tiny Desk Concert #68 (July 12, 2010).

cliffJimmy Cliff is a treasure in reggae music.  Although I recently leaned that despite his Jamaican heritage and reggae connections, he actually does more than reggae music.  As in this Tiny Desk where Cliff (wearing some amazing glasses) sings and plays acoustic guitar in a more folk-like style.

he plays three songs–two are from the 70s and one in brand new.

“Sitting in Limbo” is classic song that sounds more like a folk song than a reggae song (although the original didn’t sound all that reggae, actually).

“I Got to Move On” is a new song about the present (the present is a gift, that’s why it’s called present).  The simple structure and Cliff’s vocal tone reminds me a bit of “Over the Rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

“You Can Get It If You Really Want” is another Cliff classic, instantly recognizable, but somehow sounding more profound with Cliff’s older voice singing it.

I can’t say that I listen to a lot of Jimmy Cliff, but this was a nice sampler of his positive vibe.

[READ: August 31, 2015] Wartime Nursery Rhymes

I love getting these unexpected reprints.  This is a collection of nursery rhymes that were created in 1918.  I don’t know who Nina MacDonald was (there is a foreword, but it doesn’t give any context), but I gather that she is the author of all of these pieces.

And so MacDonald has taken familiar (and unfamiliar to me, although perhaps they were common in England before the first world war?) nursery rhymes and songs and modified them for patriotic use–presumably among children.

There are renditions of all manner of nursery rhymes: “O Dear, What Can the Matter Be?” “Simple Simon”

Or this one of “Little Miss Muffet” (more…)

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Nell Zink–Mislaid (2015)

Posted in Around the World in 80 Days, Funny (ha ha), Harper's, Jean-Paul Sartre, Joe Jackson, LGBTQ, Poetry, Poets, Poverty, Racism, Set at School, Sex on August 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

mislaidSOUNDTRACK: AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS-Euphoria (2014).

euphoriaI found out about Around the World in 80 Days when they started following me on Instagram.  I’m not sure which photo it was that interested them, or if they just follow lots of people, but I was intrigued that they are a post-rock band from Yekaterinburg, Russia.  They formed in 2009 and have a few releases out (EPs, mostly).  You can hear all of them on their soundcloud page (and other places).  This was their first full length album.

Their bio says

Around the World in 80 Days is a three-piece band formed in 2009. It’s impossible to compare their music with anything. The guys just play whatever they want and don’t care about genres, styles and cliches.

I appreciate the sentiment, but it’s not impossible to compare them.  They have elements of Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky in their swirling post-rock instrumentals.  But they definitely add elements that those bands don’t.  There’s some heavy metal riffs in “Racing the Light” and some more poppy elements in “Inside Me.”

 I typically try to listen to an album a few more times before I post about it, but I was so interested in this band that i wanted to get the word out right away.  I’ll certainly be listening more intently to their output over the next few days.

[READ: May 24, 2015] “Mislaid”

I read an excerpt from this book in Harper’s a few months ago.  And then I found the full book at work.  Huzzah!

I had said that I didn’t know how long this novel could be because the excerpt seemed so complete.  And in a sense I was right.  Except that the book went so much further than the excerpt led me to imagine.

The excerpt was about Peggy Vaillancourt.  She was born in 1948 in Virginia.  A transformative event leads her to believe she must be a lesbian (something unspoken of at the time).

She winds up going to Stillwater College, a female-only school in the middle of nowhere Virginia.  She loves poetry and wants to be a writer.  She meets the poet-in-residence Lee Fleming.  Fleming was a local boy with wealthy parents.  His father believed himself to be as “queer as a three dollar bill.”  It was his father who put him in a cottage on the family’s property across the lake from Stillwater College.  Everyone in town also assumed he was gay, and there was much talk and consternation about it, although everyone assumed he was fine while he was by himself in that cottage.

The college asked Fleming to be a teacher (he canoed to work every day).  Instead of a salary he asked them to create a literary magazine called Stillwater Review, which became a success.  Many other famous New York poets came to Stillwater to be charmed by the idyllic Stillwater (and all the young girls). (more…)

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Five Dials Number 33: Part I (26 July 2014)

Posted in Anne Hathaway, Anonymous 4, Art in Manila, Beirut, Cari Vander Yacht, Dirty Projectors, Essays, Five Dials, Glee, Gypsy, Jenni Fagan, Lasorda, Lauren Elkin, Living in Oblivion, Once, Peter Dinklage, Poetry, Rachel Genn, Seabear, Sexism, Short Story, Steve Buscemi, Susan Barbour, Tiny Desk Concert on April 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »

5dails33SOUNDTRACK: ANONYMOUS 4 and BRUCE MOLSKY-Tiny Desk Concert #428 (March 28, 2015).

anon4I first heard about Anonymous 4 way back in 1990 when they started.  I even have their debut album of lovely classical a capella.  Now, twenty-five years and twenty-one albums later they are calling it quits.

Their final album is 1865, released to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War. and containing songs from that era.

They sing three songs and, unusual as far as I’m concerned, they accompanied by Bruce Molsky, who plays banjo and violin and sings on “Hard Times.”  His voice mixes very well with their higher register–and they can hit some really high notes.

It’s unexpected to hear these singers whom I associate with classical music, singing these “traditional” songs.  But they do a wonderful job.

  • Listen to the Mocking Bird (Richard Milburn, Alice Hawthorne)
  • Hard Times Come Again No More (Stephen Foster)
  • Home, Sweet Home/Polly Put The Kettle On (Henry Bishop, John Howard Payne/Trad.)

As the site explains, the group is original members Ruth Cunningham, Marsha Genensky and Susan Hellauer, plus Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek along with singer, banjo player and fiddler Bruce Molsky, who also appears on the album.

You can watch it here.

[READ: April 4, 2015] Five Dials 33 part I

This issue celebrates the Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall and features illustrations by: Cari Vander Yacht.  They are cool colorful colored pencil drawings sprinkled throughout the issue.  Most of them are vaguely alien creatures sitting around, shopping, doing a head stand (or break dancing).  You know, as aliens do.

Rather than a letter from the editor, we get a link entitled What’s this issue all about?  It is a link to a Guardian article about #readwomen2014 asking Will #readwomen2014 change our sexist reading habits?  Of course, it is now 2015 and I missed the whole thing.  I wonder if it did. (more…)

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Five Dials Number 32: New Zealand (1 June 2014)

Posted in Alice Miller, Art, Ashleigh Young, C.K. Stead, Craig Taylor, Death Cab For Cutie, Doublehappy, Essays, Five Dials, Francis Upritchard, John Ewen, Katherine Mansfield, Look Blue Go Purple, Lynn Jenner, Micah Ferris, New Zealand, Paul Ewen, Paula Morris, Pip Adam, Poetry, Roy Colbert, Sarah Laing, Stella Duffy, The Chills, The Verlaines, Tina Makereti, Tiny Desk Concert on April 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »

5dials32SOUNDTRACK: DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE-Tiny Desk Concert #430 (April 6, 2015).

dcfcIt’s hard for me to believe that Death Cab for Cutie had not been on a Tiny Desk Concert before.  But they are here at last.  Well, three of them anyhow.  It’s simply Ben Gibbard (of course) on vocals, Nick Harmer on bass, and Zac Rae on piano (now that Chris Walla has left).  And what makes this concert so special is that all 4 songs are played on piano–there’s no guitar at all.  It gives all of these songs (familiar and new) a much starker feel.  Not better, but very different.

There are two new song from Kintsugi, “Black Sun,” and “No Room In Frame” which sound so much like Death Cab for Cutie (probably because of Gibbard’s voice), that they fit in perfectly with the other two songs. “Your Heart Is An Empty Room” from Plans and “Passenger Seat” from Transatlanticism.

It’s a little uncomfortable watching Gibbard sing close ups with his eyes closed, but he sounds right on.  He says some nice words about NPR (a station they actually listen to for news) and he gets a nice round of applause when they say they’ll do a fourth song.  And Gibbard can even hit those high notes in this quiet setting.  This is a must hear for any fan of the band.

[READ: April 2, 2015] Five Dials 32

Issue Number 32 is a thematic one–based around the Australia & New Zealand Festival of Literature & Arts.  And so many of the writers and artists are from New Zealand.  There are dozens of paintings by Francis Upritchard: colorful watercolors of monkeys, monocolor paintings of people and colorful masks.  They all look incredibly simple–like first drafts–yet are quite effective in their displays.

A Letter from the Editor:  On New Zealand Issues
Craig Taylor didn’t have a letter last issue.  This time he talks about the issue and about issues in New Zealand. He talks a bit sadly about how the New Zealand writer most often find a home in London even if the writers mostly think about national (New Zealand) issues. (more…)

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