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Archive for the ‘Postmoderism’ Category

The McSweeney’s Joke Book of Book Jokes (2008)

Posted in Belle and Sebastian, Ben Greenman, Books about writers, Christopher Monks, Colin McEnroe, Craig Berman, Dave Johnston, Ellie Kemper, Franz Kafka, Frightened Rabbit, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Harper Lee, Harry Potter, Homer, Irish Writer, James Joyce, Jane Austen, John Hodgman, Magic, Matthew Kennedy, McSweeney's, Meta, Postmoderism, Set at School, Short Story, Smarty Pants, Supernatural, Teddy Wayne, Tim Carvell, Time Travel on July 23, 2009| 2 Comments »

jokeSOUNDTRACK: FRIGHTENED RABBIT-Midnight Organ Fight (2008).

rabbitMy friend Jarrett introduced me to this band.  He rather casually called it his favorite album of the year, so I figured it was worth checking out.

Frightened Rabbit are a group from Scotland, and they play a sort of disaffected folk.  Although that’s not a wholly accurate description because they do kick in the drums and louder guitars.  So, yeah, they don’t sound anything like Belle and Sebastian.  This is complemented by the lyrics which are somewhat bitter or aching.

And speaking of lyrics, the first song that I wanted to sing along with most was “Keep Yourself Warm” and then I realized that the chorus is “It takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm.”  There’s also a very pointed use of the mother of all C words, in another song, too.  And I’ve had that song in my head for about three days now.  But I absolutely cannot sing the song at work or at home, or, well, anywhere except in the car when I ‘m by myself.

This all leads me to wonder, Do bands save their best songs to fill with curses or am I just 8 years old and I listen to the song with curses the most?

The one thing that has troubled me about the record is that at times the singer can sound like the guy from the Counting Crows.  And the Counting Crows are probably the band I hate the most in the universe.  But I just focus on the Scottish burr which lessens the Durwitz effect, and then I can enjoy the disc again.

[READ: Summer 2008] The McSweeney’s Joke Book of Book Jokes

This is a collection of humorous vignettes that are, if not about books exactly, certainly literary in nature.  If you like your humor to be bookish, then this is a great, funny collection.  It starts with the cover itself, as it is printed backwards and upside down w(the cover above is actually on the back).

Many of these pieces are very short (some are a page, even some more are just a few sentences.)  Plus, there are so many pieces that I’m not willing to write all that much, just a one-line summary (that I will try to make funny without giving away the punchline).

I thought about indicating in some way which ones I liked best or some kind of rating system, but that just seems extensive and cruel.

Most of these pieces came from McSweeny’s online, and I’m sure many of the pieces are still available there, but I’m not going to do all the work for you.  And it’s funny how many jokes there are about: James Joyce, Kafka, Homer and children’s books!

Oh, and authors: I started to include all of your names in my Categories, and then it just got too overwhelming.  But if you want to be added, just drop me a note!

Click here for the egress: (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 4] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Big Books, Boston, MA, Canadian Content, Colin Meloy, Consumerism, David Foster Wallace, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Infinite Summer, Ivan Goncharov, Postmoderism, Set at School, Sonic Youth, Sports, Suicide, Technology, Threats on July 18, 2009| 4 Comments »

ij autographedSOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Daydream Nation (1988).

daydreamNormally I like to review a band’s albums chronologically.  But because in this post [which I just stumbled upon] on Infinite Summer, Colin Meloy mentions that he bought a copy of Daydream Nation at the same time as Infinite Jest, and since I was talking about Sonic Youth anyway, well, it seemed like an easy fit.

So Daydream Nation is generally rated as Sonic Youth’s best album, with most people calling it a masterpiece.  I actually came to Daydream Nation pretty late in my SY appreciation.  I had gotten EVOL but really got into them with Goo. And as I worked my way around their catalog, Daydream Nation was always the big double album that I put off getting.  All of this is to say that I’ve never loved Daydream Nation as much as every one else.

But I’ve been listening to it a lot recently, and my opinion is definitely changing about it.  The thing that always got me about Daydream Nation was that the first two songs are fantastic, in fact, “Teen Age Riot” has always been one of my favorite songs.  And even “The Sprawl,” Kim’s cool, nasty song is great.  But somewhere in the middle of the noisy instrumental section of that song, I always sort of faded out, and couldn’t really get into it.

What I have since learned is that if you actually focus on the disc, you know, not just as an interesting listen but as something to really get into, it’s quite intense.  Like “Providence,” a song that I never really listened to before is a very interesting piece.  (I also didn’t know that that Mike Watt was the voice on the answering machine).  And “‘Cross the Breeze” is a noisy ramshackle song that when you really listen is pretty darn amazing.

One of the things that I didn’t really like about the disc was that the songs themselves were very pretty, and the noisy instrumental sections of the songs always felt sort of tacked on, like they need to keep the songs from being commercially viable. It was never like an organic fit.

Indeed, the main sections of many of the songs are commercial and catchy.  The general image of Sonic Youth is of guys with screwdrivers wrenched into their broken guitars, strangling every last note out of them.   And yet, the opening guitar riff of “Teen Age Riot” is beautiful. And, of Course, “Eric’s Trip” is supremely catchy.  Once again, the guitar riff for “Total Trash” could easily be a pop song were it not 7 minutes long.  And the opening of “Candle” is quite pretty as well.  “Kissability” is another song that could be a pop single, if it were ever so slightly less twisted (of course it wouldn’t be as good, but that’s not the point).

But with each subsequent listen, I’m appreciating more and more of it.   I still feel that Goo has a more organic use of noise, with the crazy feedback sections seeming to stem from the songs quite naturally.  Nevertheless, since Daydream Nation came first, it certainly gets  kudos for originating the style.

[READ: Week of July 13] Infinite Jest (to page 283)

That’s not my copy of IJ autographed, it comes from this flickr stream.  I do have an autographed copy of A Supposedly Fun Thing… which has a similar smiley face.

I feel the need to apologize to Infinite Summer readers in that somehow I missed the page with the Spoiler Line Pages listed.  Okay, this is ingenuous, I didn’t read all of the website, and so I just never saw that listing.  I was more or less going on a 75 +/- page count, so I may not have been right on time with the Spoiler Line.  Now that I actually printed a copy, I’ll be keeping to a more proper schedule.  So, apologies if I messed up anyone’s read!

Also, I feel I have erred egregiously in my first three posts by referring to the Endnotes as Footnotes, which they clearly are not.  And I will be going back and amending that in the previous posts.  I also get  a swift rap on the knuckles for such a grade-school error.

I recently saw on InfiniteTasks, this hilarious link to a DFW/NASCAR article on the Onion, and while it is of course, very funny, I found this Onion link to be far more Infinite Summer appropriate:

Girlfriend Stops Reading David Foster Wallace Breakup Letter at Page 20

The whole piece is very funny, and there’s an “excerpted photo” which I’m attaching at the bottom of this post.

But on to the book.

This week’s reading was much more focused in terms of who we’re talking about: lengthy sections regarding select groups, rather than a few pages of random or unknown characters. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 3] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Allstonians, Big Books, Books about writers, Boredom, Boston, MA, Canadian Content, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Drinking, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Infinite Summer, James Joyce, Morrissey, Pearl Jam, Postmoderism, Prison, R.E.M., Racism, Religion, Russell Brand, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Suicide, The Smiths, WYYY 109 FM: The Largest Whole Prime on the FM Band on July 10, 2009| 2 Comments »

jesySOUNDTRACK: MORRISSEY-Years of Refusal (2009).

years ofI’ve been a fan of The Smiths for years.  And I think that Morrissey’s debut, Viva Hate, is on par with much of the Smiths’ catalogue.  Over the years his output has been mixed, but with Years of Refusal he comes fighting back with a really solid disc.  The disc is so good that if one had no idea of who he was, one could easily get into it with no preconceived notions of Morrissey, The Smiths or any of that glorious past.

From the start, the disc rocks out. That’s right, Morrissey totally rocks, with a real attitude.  “Something is Squeezing My Skull,” in addition to being quite funny, has one of Moz’s most loudly sung choruses in like, forever.  The martial beat of “Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed” showcases Moz’s “political” songwriting without ever losing its catchiness.  “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris” is a pretty classic Morrissey song, complete with a simple picking guitar riff.

“All You Need Is Me” has some great squeaky guitars and recalls Morrissey’s own “I Don’t Mind If You Forget Me”), while “When Last I Spoke to Carol” has a Mexican feel, which is different for him.  And “That’s How People Grow Up,” the single, has one of those classic Morrissey lines in which he subverts expectations with a left-field word choice: “So yes there are things worse in life than never being someone’s sweetie.”

The end of the album is full of longer songs which tends to skew the rollicking feel of the disc. (In the first 8 songs only 3 are over 3 minutes while the last 4 songs are each over 4 minutes).  Nevertheless, “It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore” is a wonderfully caustic song and the album closer, “I’m OK By Myself” is just fantastic, and I find myself singing “I don’t need you, or your morality” because they way he sings it gets stuck in my head for days.

There’s also a bonus disc which includes an interview with Russel Brand which is very funny indeed.

Welcome back Morrissey.  Well done, sir.

[READ: Week of July 6, 2009]  Infinite Jest (to page 227).

While looking for this cover of Infinite Jest (the one that I most associate with the book even though I never owned a copy with this cover), I noticed that Powell’s Books is selling a first edition hardcover copy of IJ for $450. The copy that I am currently reading is also a first edition hardcover.  If anyone wants to send me like $400 for it, just let me know!

On my Week Two post, I had a comment that criticized me for giving out spoilers.  While I disagree, I will preface this and future posts by saying that I will certainly be discussing what has happened in the week’s read (including footnotes endnotes and future footnotes endnotes if they are referred to in current footnotes endnotes), I will not intentionally reveal any spoilers.

On to Week 3 of Infinite Summer.  And at this point I not only feel good about the book, I feel somewhat refreshed. This whole week’s worth of reading has been fairly easy and often very funny.  We’re past the initial shock that you’re running a marathon, and are into that 3rd or 4th mile where you just start to feel good and enjoy the scenery.  I also hate to admit this, but I really want to peek ahead into the next week’s reading.  But no, I am going to pace myself!

I also have a question for faithful readers who are actually trying to map the location of the book.  I lived in Brighton, MA, very close to Boston College as well as in a location nearer to Allston, MA.  I have a vague sense of exactly where Enfield is supposed to be located, but if anyone has used the details in the book to map out where Enfield would be, do pass it along (someone has probably created a Google Map for it, but I haven’t actually checked).

This week’s reading had a lot of lengthy sections that focused on one person/issue for multiple pages which is either great or terrible depending on how you like this book broken up.  And TA DA!  The Chronology is spelled out very clearly! (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 2] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Big Books, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Dave Eggers, David Foster Wallace, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gangsters, Hawaii Five-0, Hüsker Dü, Hill Street Blues, Infinite Summer, Meta, Postmoderism, Set at School, Suicide, Technology, The Who on July 2, 2009| 7 Comments »

jestSOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Zen Arcade (1984).

zen arcadeWhen I was younger and more amused by things like this, it amused me that Hüsker Dü’s first three records were a live album an EP and a double album.  They just couldn’t put out a regular old LP?

It also amused me that they put out a song on this disc that was almost as long as their EP and was even almost as long as their Live record.  Such was the difference of Zen Arcade.

In reading about it lately I have learned that it is sort of a concept album (Someone even called it the Quadrophenia of 80s punk).  I gather I simply never paid enough attention to the lyrics to realize that (although it does explain “Hare Krshna”).  There’s also a lot of talk about how influential this disc was.  That may also be true, although I can’t say for sure.

Perhaps the most notable thing is how the disc is not just straight punk. Up to this point the Hüskers had released fast, straight ahead punk.  Distorted guitar and often screaming vocals.  And indeed, Zen Arcade starts off that way “Something I Learned Today” is a classic Hüsker Dü pop punk song.  It’s got a cool opening bassline and super distorted guitars, and yet its got a sing along chorus.  And “Never Talking to You Again” continues Grant Hart’s streak of great catchy punk.  This one includes acoustic guitar, though, just to break things up a bit.  It’s with Track 5 “Dreams Reoccurring” that you know things are going to be very different this time around.  This 2 minute song is full of reversed guitars sounds and all kinds of weird tape mixing.  It’s quite trippy and unlike anything else that the band had done.

As we near the middle of the disc, “Whats Going on Inside My Head” and “Masochism World” are absolute punk vocal shredders (so you know they’re not really going soft).  As the disc ends, “Turn on the News” plays around with recorded Newscasts, not a new concept, but new for them.  And then, of course, the final track, “Reoccurring Dreams,” a reprise of “Dreams Reoccurring” that goes on for 13 minutes of squalling feedback and demented solos (with a cool, if disconcerting, guitar motif).

One of my favorite facts about the disc is that it was all recorded in one take (except for, as the liner notes point out, 2 tracks that started too fast) and there were no overdubs.  It was mastered just as quickly so that the whole thing to about 85 hours to make.  It’s amazing that anything done that quickly can be that good.  But such is the case of this disc.  There’s a clunker or two in the mix, but how could there not be with all that energy bouncing around?

[READ: Week of June 29, 2009] Infinite Jest (to page 151)

After Reading the Infinite Summer site, I see that I got at least one thing wrong.  Mario is in fact not Hal’s younger brother, but is Hal’s older, but not oldest, brother.

I ordered 2 copies of IJ for our library since we did not have any (!).  I’ve been sneaking peeks in the second copy which has the above cover.  And an intro by Dave Eggers, which I enjoyed.

Also, when I dropped my old copy, a whole bunch of small squares of paper fell out: notes that I took the first time through.  I started to look at them but it revealed too much so I stopped.  I’m going to try and read this as purely as possible.

So, surprisingly (or perhaps un-) new characters are coming fast and furious in week two, (up to page 151). (more…)

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Georgi Gospodinov–Natural Novel (2005)

Posted in Books about music, Dystopia, Foreign Books, Funny (strange), Georgi Gospodinov, Marriage Trouble, Meta, Minnesota, Natural Novel, Postmoderism, Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino, Reservoir Dogs, Short Books, The Replacements, Toilets, Unreliable narrator on June 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

gospodinovSOUNDTRACK–THE REPLACEMENTS–All Shook Down (1990).

shookAnd here we come to the end of the recorded history of the Replacements.  7 albums (and an EP).  4 and a half hours of recorded music.  And a steady maturation from drunken punks to elder statesmen.  Or really statesman (Paul Westerberg at the ripe old age of 31!).   All of the reviews state that this was originally designed as a Westerberg solo album, and that the band barely played together on it at all. And it shows.

To me, this album just isn’t very good.  It’s not that the songs are bad…I ‘ll always admit that Westerberg is a great songwriter.  I’m just not inspired by them.  The single, “Merry Go Round” is the most (there’s that word again) mature sounding rock tracks that Westerberg has written.  And “Nobody” is a decent acoustic type rocker (although the drums are kind of boring).  “Bent All Out of Shape” shows promise but never lives up to it.

“Sadly Beautiful” is another of Westerberg’s solid ballads.  But it doesn’t stand out because the rest of the album isn’t that radically different.  “Someone Take the Wheel” and “When It Began” are decent rockers, but the rest of the album is just sort of…there (except for the awful duet with Johnette Napolitano (whom I used to like but who i just find annoying all these years later).

Westerberg went on to do about a half dozen solo albums but I haven’t heard any of them.

There’s nothing wrong with a songwriter maturing, especially if you get to mature along with him or her.  It’s just such a surprise to see it happen so quickly.

[READ: June 15, 2009] Natural Novel

My coworker and I were experimenting with our library’s catalog.  We started searching for books in specific languages.  We noticed that Bulgarian was one of the languages, and were surprised that our branch had anything in Bulgarian.  It turned out that there was one book that was originally written in Bulgarian but which had been translated to English.  It was this book. It sounded bizarre and fascinating.  And it was only 136 pages.  How could I pass it up?  And what would it be about?

Well, that’s hard to answer.

The premise of a “natural novel” is that it is meant to be a man’s attempt to deal with the dissolution of his marriage.  He starts to talk about the divorce several times, but he can’t really come to terms with it, and so, rather, he gets involved with other things. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #4 [Timothy McSweeney’s Trying, Trying, Trying, Trying, Trying] (Late Winter, 2000)

Posted in 19th Century, Amy Fusselman, Ben Miller, Christopher P. Riley-Zaleniev, Colin Meloy, Corporate skewering, Dee Dee Myers, Denis Johnson, Digression, Dreams, Edgar Allan Poe, Essays, Fables, Flash Fiction, Franz Kafka, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), George Saunders, Haruki Murakami, J. Robert Lennon, Johannes Vermeer, Jonathan Lethem, Joshua Bearman, Joshuah Bearman, Jules Verne, Katherine Anne Porter, Lawrence Weschler, LGBTQ, Lydia Davis, Marcy Dermansky, Margaret Keane, McSweeney's, Meta, Orson Welles, Paul Collins, Paul Debraski, Paul Maliszewski, Pink Floyd, Postmoderism, Rachel Cohen, Rick Moody, Sarah Vowell, Sean Wilsey, Sheila Heti, Sherwood Anderson, Short Story, The Decemberists, The Smiths, Vladimir Nabokov, Walter Keane, Wikipedia, Willa Cather, Wislawa Szymborska on May 29, 2009| 5 Comments »

scan0014SOUNDTRACK: COLIN MELOY-Colin Meloy Sings Live! (2008).

colinColin Meloy is the lead singer and songwriter for the Decemberists.  This is a recording of Meloy’s solo acoustic tour from 2006.  The recording is from several venues on the tour, although it is mixed as if it were one concert.

Meloy is a great frontman, and this translates perfectly into the solo atmosphere.  He is completely at ease, telling stories, bantering with the crowd, and generally having a very good time.

The set list includes some popular Decemberists songs as well as a track from Meloy’s first band Tarkio (whom I have never heard, but figure I’ll get their CD someday).  Meloy also adds a couple of covers, as well as snippets of songs added to his own (Pink Floyd’s “Fearless” gets a couple of bars, as well as a verse from The Smiths’ “Ask.”)

This disc is not going to win anyone over to the Decemberists, as Meloy’s distinctive voice is a love it or hate it deal.  However, if you’re on the fence about them, hearing these songs solo can only convince you of what great songs they are.  The Decemberists add a lot of arrangements to their songs.  You get a lot of interesting and unusual instruments.  Which I like a great deal.  But to hear that these songs sound great with just an acoustic guitar is testament to Meloy’s songwriting.

The intimacy of the venues also really lets these songs shine.

[READ: May 29, 2009] McSweeney’s #4

This is the first time that McSweeney’s showed that it might be something a little different. #4 came, not as paperback book, but as a box full of 14 small, stapled booklets. Each book (save two, and more on those later) contains a complete story or non-fiction piece.

There is something strangely liberating about reading the stories in this format. It gives me a sense of accomplishment to finish a book and put it down, so having 14 makes it seem like I’ve accomplished a lot.
This was also the first issue that I’m certain I didn’t read when it originally came out, for whatever reason. So, it’s all new to me.

DIGRESSION: When I was looking up publications for my Wikipedia page about McSweeney’s publications, I kept encountering records for these individual booklets.  This was rather confusing as I couldn’t find any other records or ISBNs for these booklets.  Rest assured they are all collected here. (more…)

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