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Archive for the ‘Sex’ Category

Douglas Coupland–Worst. Person. Ever. (2014)

Posted in Acting, Adventure, Airlines, Canadian Content, Consumerism, Dave Bidini music, Douglas Coupland, Drinking, Drugs, End of the World, Environmentalism, Jian Ghomeshi, Marriage Trouble, Martin Tielli, McSweeney's, Nostalgia, Rheostatics, Sex, Sexism, Tim Vesely, Violence on January 31, 2014| Leave a Comment »

wpeSOUNDTRACK: An open letter to the Rheostatics (2014).

rheosTo Dave, Martin, Tim and assorted drummers:

I’ve been a fan of the Rheostatics for a long time.  I recall traveling to Toronto from New Jersey back in the 90s and tracking down Introducing Happiness at Sam the Record Man.  And then later driving around the Niagara Falls region listening to the strange and wonderful album. I’ve enjoyed all of the subsequent albums.

You were a unique band with a unique sound.  I was sad when you split up, even if that meant that now there were three solo projects to enjoy.  Of course, there’s been a lot of bands that have broken up, it’s just part of being a fan.  But the thing about the Rheostatics breakup is that you three (or four or five or six) have remained friendly.  You’ve done a few reunion shows since the breakup, which I think that’s super cool.  It’s especially cool because RheostaticsLive tends to post them after a while so that those of us who don’t make the shows can hear them.

I’ve never seen you guys live, and I imagine I never will.  And I’m okay with that.  What I’m mostly bummed about is that there will be no more new music from you.  You put out approximately ten albums (there’s a few miscellaneous things that are hard to qualify).  Those records include soundtracks and live albums and all manner of things, so there’s really seven proper albums (the others are great, don’t get me wrong).  Anyhow, my gut feeling is that there needs to be some new Rheostatics music.  I know you’ve all been doing solo stuff (and I have it), but sometimes the sum is greater, etc.

Clearly I’m getting at that it’s time for a new album from the Rheostatics.  Before you scoff, I’m not talking reuniting for a grand tour, or even any tour, I’m not even talking a live show.  Heck, I’m not even talking about you guys hanging out for more than a couple weeks.  Just an album of new songs.  A decade ago it would have been unthinkable that you would get together for the expense of an album without major label support.  But now, the cost is so much lower and with your fan base expanding, I assume it would be easy to recoup the expenses.

So what do you say?  Since it seems like everyone is still friendly and creative, maybe you can throw some ideas around in the email, see if there’s anything magical happening.  Obviously, if there’s nothing there or you just can’t work together, then don’t continue.  No one wants to hear a crappy Rheostatics album.  But if there’s even a chance that you guys can throw some ideas together and pull out another “Horses,” or “Northern Wish” or “CCYPA,” or holy cow, “King of the Past,” or, hell, anything you’ve done, then it’s absolutely worth it.

I don’t imagine any of you will read this, but maybe if you google yourselves, Tim Vesely, Dave Bidini, Martin Tielli, you’ll see this and think that, yes, dammit, seven records of Rheostatics music is not enough.

Thanks for the music, Paul Debraski.

[READ: January 26, 2014] Worst. Person. Ever.

I told myself that I wanted to read this book before anyone requested it.  And I did.  In fact, I wanted to finish it before the weekend was up, which I did as well.  It’s nice to meet a minor goal.

The last few Coupland books that I read (see last week) were very dark.  Since those books, he has broadened his palette somewhat, including writing a  children’s book and some more non-fiction.  And then we get this.  A vulgar, very funny sendup of modern culture.  The introduction to the book says that it was based on a short story that he wrote for McSweeney’s #31 called “Survivior.”  That story was written in the style known a biji which they described as

Biji is sort of a notebook, which contains legends, anecdotes, scientific notes and local wisdom.  Accounts of everyday life mix with travel narratives as well as lists.  It is meant to represent a picture of the culture at the time of writing.

I thought that this style was well suited to Coupland, because he includes all of that stuff anyway.  And so he has taken that story and fleshed it out into this full novel.

The worst person ever is named Raymond Gunt.  He thinks he’s Jason Bourne, but he’s really just a metaphorical extra in a Bourne movie (one who probably gets killed).  Gunt is a cameraman working in England.  He is divorced.  His wife is a raging harpy (at least from his point of view, which is all we see).  Since their divorce, she has become wildly successful in television production.  He calls in on her at work and she tells him about a job working as a B cameraman on a show called Survival.  He knows that the job must suck or she wouldn’t give it to him, but he needs to work.  Of course, he is most upset at the thought of having to work with Americans (Americans are majorly abused in this story).  Although by its very nature a B cameraman position is not as good as an A cameraman, Ray needs the work, so he agrees to fly to some godforsaken tropical island to watch beautiful people starve and try to have sex with each other.

On his way out of the building he sees a homeless guy.  And since Ray is the worst person ever, he kicks him. But the homeless guy is no pushover and he chases after Ray.  He catches Ray in an alley and pummels him, ultimately pushing his face into some garbage. The man is Neal and although he acts crazy, he’s actually quite sharp (why he is homeless is not addressed).  After forcing Ray to sing the female verses of “Don’t You Want Me,” Neal gives him this sage advice:

“Stop being a cunt to the world and the world will stop being a cunt to you.”

Advice which Ray simply cannot follow.

When ray learns that he needs a personal assistant, um, slave, he immediately thinks of Neal.  So he tracks him down, cleans him up and gives him a job.  And off they jet to make some TV.

In the course of the book, a series of crazy things–the kind of things only Coupland thinks of–sidetrack them from Ray’s goal.  (His real goal is to get laid, naturally).  First, it turns out that Neal, despite being homeless, is a total babe magnet.  And throughout the story, as he gets cleaner and fresher, he becomes irresistible  This, of course, ruins Ray’s plans of bedding hot women.  And as Neal gets cleaner, he becomes less and less Rays assistant and more and more Ray’s equal.

They jet to L.A., (he was supposed to be in first class, but was bumped and is super angry).  He also gets in trouble with the airport bartender, Lacey, who comes back to haunt him in ways one could never predict.  He gets first class seats on the way to Hawaii and he abuses the privilege.  Then, because of unforeseen circumstances, they have to stay in Honolulu (with lots of Spam jokes).  And because of those unforseen circumstances, they need to recast the show, which means Ray’s wife has to jet down and be around them.  And Ray’s wife, Fiona, is delighted to make Ray’s life miserable.  Eventually, they head to their intended island and prepare to set up for the show.

In the meantime, the U.S. has decided to destroy the Great Pacific Garbage Patch–in a very imaginative way.  And ray is on hand to witness the destruction.  This plan causes all manner of trouble with shipping and airplane traffic.  Which has the effect of isolating everyone on the Survivor island–causing a literal survival situation.

Raymond Gunt may not be the worst person ever, but he is pretty darn close. He tries to sleep with anyone.  He tries to screw over everyone else (but never seems to get anywhere).  And he genuinely likes to torment others.  And all the while he repeats his mantra, “I consider myself a reasonable enough citizen.”  Despite Gunt’s personality, he (or at least the story) is funny enough that you want to keep reading (and maybe even to succeed in some of his designs).  And that made this story a major page turner.  And it was very funny as well.

Coupland really gets the feel for writing a British story.  It doesn’t read like any of his other books and while it’s not full of crazy accents or overt Britishisms, his main character is defiantly not American. As I said, all Americans are fat, sweaty, stupid and prudish in Ray’s mind.

This is also the worst person that Coupland has ever written. He is such an abominable person with an incredibly filthy mouth.  The above quote is just one of just many curses in the book.  In fact there’s a whole subplot about how prudish Americans are about people saying “fuck” despite their cavalier acceptance of violence and other things (we say friggin, when everyone knows we mean fucking).

I have to assume Coupland had a ton of fun writing this.  And it really comes through.  I’m also going to guess that a lot of people’ won’t like this book because Gunt is so reprehensible.  But if you can get past that, the story is funny, and makes some pointedly humorous observations about a lot of contemporary life.  Like “Survival [sic] is a popular reality TV show… You’re either into this show or you’re not.  It’s binary.”  or “‘Come on Eileen’ was a single in 1982…What’s weird about this song is that it was so huge at the time and now you listen to it and wonder, what the hell was everyone thinking?  Well, that’s pop culture for you.”  It even has what seem like Wikipedia entries of things throughout in the book (and a YouTube link which is bizarre to see in print).

I really enjoyed this, and I’m thrilled that Coupland has unleashed his inner black humorist.

Watch him talk about the book with Jian Ghomeshi, a great interviewer

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Jeffrey Eugenides—“Find the Bad Guy” (New Yorker, November 18, 2013)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Drinking, Jeffrey Eugenides, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Sex, Short Story, Swedish Music, The Tallest Man on Earth, Tiny Desk Concert, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on January 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_11_18_13Tomine.inddSOUNDTRACK: TALLEST MAN ON EARTH-Tiny Desk Concert #26 (September 14, 2009).

tmoeI was not aware of The Tallest Man on Earth before hearing him on All Songs Considered.  And then WXPN started playing one of his songs, so he became somewhat familiar to me.  I have since listened to some of his concerts and this Tiny Desk Concert and I really like him a lot.

So the Tallest Man on Earth is Kristian Matsson, a Swedish folksinger with a great guitar picking style and a deep powerful gritty voice.  He plays three songs in this set.  “I Won’t Be Found” has wonderful fast guitar picking that contrasts wonderfully with his simple singing melody.  It’s a great song.  As is “The Gardener” which sounds very different.  This one is largely strummed–a bouncy, jaunty strum. It seems to contain the origin of his unusual stage name (or perhaps it just a fun allusion to it).

“Pistol Dreams” has more great finger picking (and reminds me a little of Richard Thompson).  It’s a sweet song, and his gruff voice once again provides excellent contrast.

I hope to hear more from The Tallest Man on Earth.  Check it out.

[READ: January 30, 2014] “Find the Bad Guy”

This story was surprisingly dark (I don’t think of Eugenides as quite so dark).  It starts out with the narrator talking about the house that he and his wife have owned for 12 years.  And yet they still haven’t gotten the smell of the previous owners completely out of it.  (There’s a nice payoff to this idea later in the story).

But that’s not the point.  The point is that he has recently been kicked out of his house—given a restraining order, in fact.  But since he knows the plans of his house he knows that he can stand right where he is—just inside the front fence—and know that he’s not too close.

The story has trappings of being current—he plays Words with Friends with his daughter (her name is mrsbieber), which I found to be just slightly out of touch.  But that’s irrelevant.

The narrator is Charlie Daniels (not that one—he goes by Charlie D to avoid confusion, especially since he works in music).  He met his wife at a radio station.  She worked at a country station, although she didn’t like country music.  Johanna was from Germany (her name was Lübeck, but everyone pronounced it Lubbock).  But the thing about her was that she was very tall (not that tall in Germany, she said).  And Charlie D was suave, so he asked her clever things like how the weather was up there and if she ever played basketball.  She didn’t fall for this, of course, but then one day she asked if they could get married so she could get a green card.  He said sure. (more…)

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Chinelo Okparanta—“Benji” (New Yorker, November 11, 2013)

Posted in Chinelo Okparanta, Dark Meat, Humiliation, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Sex, Short Story, The Swell Season, Tiny Desk Concert, Travel, Virginity (Loss of) on January 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_11_11_13Blitt.inddSOUNDTRACK: DARK MEAT-Tiny Desk Concert #25 (August 31, 2009).

darkmeatFor those keeping track, I wrote about Tiny Desk Concert #24 (The Swell Season) quite some time ago.

Dark Meat is a ramshackle band which I had not heard of before this Tiny Desk Concert.  The blurb says that they have had as many as 20 people in their band and often play loud rambunctious music.    In this Tiny Desk Concert, there are only 8 of them (they have reduced for this tour), but they’re still a huge band for a Tiny Desk.

This concert is an acoustic jam –mandolin, guitars, trombone and piccolo—and is apparently quite different from their usual show.  As such, I can’t really imagine what they typically sound like, because they sound like a pretty solid folk band.

Initially I wasn’t all that impressed, but after a couple listens I found myself getting into their sloppy fun folk rock.  I enjoyed their first song, “The Faint Smell of Moss” a little more than the others because of the great backing vocals, and the possibly slightly off sounding trombone.  The second song, “Dead Man” is long, but it has a fun middle second in which the singer invites the office to sing along (and howl like dogs).  “When the Shelter Came’ is a rambling track which I think actually suffers from the trombone at the end.

I don’t know anything else about the band, but I imagine them playing folk festivals.  I’ll be they’re fun to see live, although I can admit that i didn’t find their songs all that memorable.

 [READ: January 22, 2014] “Benji”

“Benji” is the story of wealth and idleness.  As the story opens, we learn that Benji, now 40 years old, is the last remaining male in the family.  His mother, Mrs Anyaogu  is telling her guest that Benji must choose someone to marry because anyone who remains unmarried, even a man, is suspect at that age.

Then we meet the guest who Benji’s mother is speaking to—a woman named Alare.  Alare also got married pretty late—in her thirties–to a man who was about 40.  Her husband was not wealthy—he was a gardener.  And this was something of a sore subject in their marriage,  Of course, he must have also felt the embarrassment of his employment, but that was his lot in life.

Alare and Mrs Anyaogu became friends when Alare’s congregation had disintegrated because of a scandal with the pastor and she joined Mrs Anyaogu’s Deep Life church.

Alare was aware of the wealth that the Anyaogus possessed, but she hadn’t witnessed it until today.  While the house was beautiful, she felt that the furnishing were tacky—not entirely, but enough.  Nevertheless, the lunch was nice and the food was delicious.  The groundskeeper, Godwin, kept the garden beautiful and Benji complimented the man on his loyalty and hard work. (more…)

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Douglas Coupland–Hey Nostradamus! (2003)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Death, Douglas Coupland, Drinking, Drugs, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Julie Doiron, Nostalgia, Parenting, Religion, Sex, Short Books, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence, Yuck! on January 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »

heynosSOUNDTRACK: JULIE DOIRON-Tiny Desk Concert #20 (July 6, 2009).

julieI don’t know Julie Doiron exactly–her name sounds familiar, and I know the band Eric’s Trip (she was the bassist), but I don’t really recognize her.

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed her Tiny Desk Concert.  Unlike most of the musicians, she busts out an electric guitar, and although it’s quiet, there’s some good buzzy distortion on it, especially in the first song “Heavy Snow.”  And it sounds good with her voice, which is powerful, even if she does seem nervous.

On “Ce Charmant Coeur” she sings in French and then messes up when she admits she’s thinking of other things and is distracted by the intimacy of the setting.  Bob and company calm her by saying that she is sweating less than Tom Jones did (and there’s very funny joke about her breasts popping out (they don’t)).

She plays “Tailor.” It seems like she tried earlier and stopped half way through and is now trying again (the Concert itself starts midway through, so I assume that’s what was cut off).  It’s a pretty, mellow song (very different sounding from “Heavy Snow”).

For the last song she plays “Consolation Prize” which she says is unlike any she’d written before.  There’s a chaotic section in the middle which they agree we can just imagine because shes not going to play it in this setting.  The blurb with the show says that she normally rocks out pretty hard–something that I’d like to see.

In looking up Doiron’s past she was on Kill Rock Stars and Sub Pop, so I must have seen her name a lot back in the day.  I now see she has recorded with all kinds of bands that I like, and I’m curious to hear her more rocking edge (especially since she is so polite and sweet and nervous here).

Check it out here.

[READ: January 11, 2014] Hey Nostradamus!

After finishing the exciting All Families are Psychotic I moved on to his novel with my least favorite title and with a horrendous cover.  You’d think that I would remember these books but I had no memory of this one either, and I’m fairly certain I read it within the last ten years.

Coupland must have been in a very dark place with this book as well.

There are four sections, each from a different person’s point of view.  This technique of having a person tell his or her story is something Coupland does very well in all of his works–he loves to tell stories about telling stories.

But the darkness about the book is that it is set in a school just as three student gunman come in and shoot up the cafeteria, killing dozens of students, including the first narrator, Cheryl.  This was written with the Columbine shootings in mind, although it has nothing specifically to do with Columbine.

In Part 1, Cheryl has already been killed as she is relating this story to us.  She tells us about herself and her decision to join Youth Alive! a religious group in school.  She and her friends in the group are very moral and are quite clique-y (and they are not widely liked).

The latest thing in Cheryl’s life which has her preoccupied and which has her Youth Alive! group very upset is that she has been spending a lot of unchaperoned time with Jason.  Everyone knew they were dating, but it seems to have gone further now.  And Cheryl explains to us (but not them) that she and Jason have started having sex.  But not until after they rushed off to Vegas and were quickie-married (which no one knows, not even their parents). (more…)

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Thomas McGuane–“Weight Watchers” (New Yorker, November 4, 2013″)

Posted in Chulo, Food, Gripe, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Parenting, Sex, Short Story, Thomas McGuane, Yuck! on January 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_11_04_13Brunetti.inddSOUNDTRACK: GRIPE-“Man vs Cop” CHULO-“Hombre vs Tombo” Split Single (2012).

chuloI downloaded the Gripe album yesterday and then saw this split single.  It has two songs which total 59 seconds.

Gripe has like a typical grindcore sound–pummeling and tinny.  All 32 seconds of “Man vs Cop” contain a pummeling riff, screamed vocals and even a ride cymbal at some point.

I was more intrigued by Chulo because I was surprised at how different a band could sound within the same limited soundscape of grindcore.  The big difference for me was the real presence of a bass guitar.  As “Hombre vs Tombo” opens, there’s a few seconds of pummeling sound (although their snare drum sounds more like a bongo) and then the sound drops out and there’s a cool heavy bass sound (for two notes).  Then the pummeling resumes, although again, much more bass heavy.  The other big difference is that they sing in Spanish.  I’m curious to know if that slightly different sound is a Latin American sound for grindcore or if it is just their own.

If you have a minute you can listen (or download for free) the single here.

[READ: January 7, 2014] “Weight Watchers”

This story began in a very weird way.  In it, an adult’s father has been kicked out of his house because his wife is mad that he now weighs more than 250 pounds.  Something that she has done on multiple occasions.  I find this reason/excuse so incomprehensible that it really impacted the rest of my reading this story.  This “problem” did put things in motion but was more or less ignored through the story and it seems that there were other more pressing issues that they needed to worry about.

When we meet the father, he has come to stay with his son. He believed that anything “done for pleasure was escapism.”  So we learn he has no tolerance for pleasure, except “when it came to seducing his secretaries and most of my mother’s friends.” Then we learn that his mother got pregnant as soon as she could when his father got back from the war because she figured that would get him to settle down.  his father basically resented him for his whole life.  So I guess the whole family is screwed up.

Especially when we find out that the son has witnessed all manner of “disturbances,” meaning his parents’ infidelities, in their house.  One of them was a very weird scene of food and eroticism.  Ew. (more…)

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Joshua Ferris–“The Breeze” (New Yorker, September 30, 2013)

Posted in 16 Horsepower, Babies, Beer, Bob Dylan, Boredom, Drinking, Joshua Ferris, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Sex, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Woven Hand on January 7, 2014| 2 Comments »

CV1_TNY_09_30_13Blitt.inddSOUNDTRACK:WOVEN HAND-Tiny Desk Concert #11 (January 9, 2009).

wovenWoven Hand is yet another band that I hadn’t heard of until this Tiny Desk concert (and I thought I knew a lot of bands).  They are a band, but for this Tiny Desk Concert David Eugene Edwards plays solo.  He has a cool baritone voice that has a nice ponderous quality.  This suits his chosen instrument–a mandolin-banjo hybrid made in 1887 by the Pullman Train Company (!)–perfectly.  Turns out that Edwards was the voice behind 16 Horsepower, so that explains some of the sound he’s going for.

The opener “Whistling Girl” and the closer “Kingdom of Ice” (which is practically a mini-epic) are beautiful slices of Americana made slightly more esoteric by the instrumentation and his voice.  I like them a lot.  The middle song he plays is a Bob Dylan song “As I Went Out One Morning.”  I know that I’m not a big Dylan fan, but I just can’t get over how many songs he has written that people cover.  I’d never heard this one, which with this instrumentation takes on a kind of fairy tale quality (which I assume the original doesn’t).

This makes me want to bust out my 16 Horsepower CD and to check out more from Woven Hand.  I enjoyed his solo performance so much I can’t imagine what a full band version would sound like.

[READ: January 7, 2014] “The Breeze”

I have really enjoyed Joshua Ferris’ work, so I was excited to read this.  But I was ultimately disappointed by this story.

The construction is interesting, so of.  It looks at multiple possible outcomes of a situation.  But I felt like even that was done a little too vaguely to be really effective.

It also features one of my most hated scenarios in real life and one which I guess I have no patience for in fiction.  It concerns a person who is bored, existentially bored.  So when she wants to do something, she proceeds to ask her partner what he wants to do.  Thus, Sarah asks her husband to come home from work early.  She is sitting on the balcony of their apartment enjoying a perfect spring breeze.  When he gets home, she is excited to have a wonderful excursion with him.  So she asks him “What do you want to do?”  And naturally he hasn’t thought of this at all, so he has no opinion.  But this makes her mad.  She asks if he doesn’t want to do anything.  He says he does. And then she asks him what.  I don’t know if this is a gender-specific scenario, but I have been in it many times in many different relationships and I know my parents went through it as well—my mother always complained about my father’s lack of wanting to do things and he would always say all she had to do was say what she wanted to do and he would do it.  So, I guess Ferris has tapped into something, but I hated reading about it. (more…)

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Nathan Rabin–You Don’t Know Me But You Don’t Like Me: Phish, Insane Clown Posse, and My Misadventures with Two of Music’s Most Maligned Tribes (2013)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Anarchy, Books about music, Brian Posehn, Culture Shock, Death, Decadence, Drugs, Fantasy, Fears, Hannibal Buress, Ice Cube, Insane Clown Posse, Nathan Rabin, Phish, Sex, Vanilla Ice, Violence, Workaholics, Wrestling, Yuck! on January 3, 2014| 1 Comment »

youdont SOUNDTRACK: INSANE CLOWN POSSE-“Bang! Pow! Boom!” (2009).

icopSince I have posted about Phish already, it seemed like time to listen to an ICP song.  I admit that when their first album came out, they seemed goofy enough to check out their album.  I love a cartoony band that is going to “ruin America.”  But I had heard that their music was just too awful to enjoy ironically, so I never bothered with them (if I had been a few years younger, I probably would have embraced them wholly).  In the book below, Rabin says that their newer stuff is not only a ton better than their early stuff (which he admits is raw and pretty terrible) he says that it is quite poppy.

So I listened to a few of the songs that he mentions (and there are some funny lines), but I decided to focus on this one which Rabin describes as “a groovy throwback number that finds ecstasy in a bleak moral reckoning…finding the joy in the macabre and the celebration in the gothic.  Also, it’s catchy as fuck.”

That’s a highfalutin way of saying that they sing about blowing shit up.  Lyrically the song seems to be about ICP talking to their fans (in the harshest terms possible, which I guess is affection: “Cuz you’re the evilest pedophiles, rapists and abusers/All together we’ve got fifty thousand of you losers”).  It’s an insider tract and if you don’t like it or get it, well, you’re not supposed to.

But aside from the lyrics about rapists and all the cursing, this song could easily be a big hit.  It is, yes, catchy as fuck.

But I won’t be listening to more from them.

[READ: January 2, 2013] You Don’t Know Me But You Don’t Like Me

Every year my brother-in-law gets me cool and unusual books, most of which I’ve never heard of.  This year, he got me this book which I’d never heard of.  I was confused by the title (which is confusing).  The author’s name sounded familiar, but I wasn’t sure—until I saw the A.V. Club connection.  So, at first I thought this was going to be about going to interesting shows or basically having something to do with the A.V. Club.  But, as the subtitle says, this book is exclusively about Rabin’s travels following Phish for a summer and also going to some ICP Gatherings of the Juggalos.

The theme of the book is how most people have never heard the music of either band, but they have formed opinions not only of the bands, but their followers.  Rabin points out plenty of exceptions to the stereotypes, but you won’t be leaving this book thinking much more of the preexisting stereotypes than you already do.  Sure, some Phish heads are doctors, and some Juggalos are employable, but the majority are (despite his best efforts) what you think they are.  But one of the main messages that he seems to promote in the book is that each of these groups have created tribes around them.  And those who aren’t part of the tribe may scoff, but they secretly wish they could be having as much fun as the members of the tribes.  And that may in fact be true.

I’ve enjoyed Phish’s music for years, although I’ve never seen them live.  And as for ICP, I didn’t even realize they were still around—although that Workaholics episode should have clued me in.  Naturally these two bands could not be more polar opposite in terms of music and fanbase (although Rabin did encounter some crossover). So he sets out to show how he can enjoy both groups. (more…)

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Dave Eggers–A Hologram for the King (2012)

Posted in Dave Eggers, Drinking, Futility, Humiliation, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Morality, Racism, Religion, Sex, Sigur Rós, Technology on December 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

holoSOUNDTRACK: SIGUR RÓS-() (2003).
rosAfter a staggeringly successful tour, Sigur Rós took some time off. They returned about four years after their successful album with ().  I like to think they were trying to make it easier for English speakers to not have to pronounce their Icelandic words, but perhaps they were just being more difficult.  For they have made an album title that is hard to search for and hard to say.  To make it worse, there are no song titles on the record either.  (Although the band did have I guess unofficial titles for them):

  • 1.”-” (“Vaka”) 6:38
  • 2.”-” (“Fyrsta”) 7:33
  • 3.”-” (“Samskeyti”) 6:33
  • 4.”-” (“Njósnavélin”) 6:57
  • 5. “-” (“Álafoss”) 9:57
  • 6. “-” (“E-Bow”) 8:48
  • 7. “-” (“Dauðalagið”) 12:52
  • 8. “-” (“Popplagið”) 11:43

While looking for these song tracks, I learned that a lot of people think this album is mopey and depressing.  And I couldn’t disagree more.  I find the songs to be wonderful builders of drama.  Track 1 opens with lovely piano and vocals.  It’s a pretty melody that is punctuated with odd, squeaky voices.   Track 2 is slower, with a nice guitar melody instead of pianos. Track 3 opens with organs and more lovely pianos.  The pianos are slow which I usually don’t like, but there’s something about the simplicity and solitariness of their pianos that I find really captivating.  I love that it is repetitive and building, edging towards a dramatic conclusion.  Track 4 has low drumming that propels the echoing song.

Each of these 4 songs is around 7 minutes long.  And while they are not vastly different from Ágætis byrjun, they show the band experimenting within the form.  Also, Ágætis byrjun contained several different styles mixed between their epics, whereas this album is all epic.

After the 4th song there is 30 seconds of silence.  Which signifies something of a change for the second half of the album.

Track 5 is the slowest, saddest music on the album.  But it builds slowly, growing out of that sadness with a cathartic explosion at the end.  Track 6 opens with very loud drums (the percussion is spectacular on this album) and drones.  It builds and builds with more catharsis at the end.  Track 7 is the 12 minute epic that opens with organs and washes of guitars.  The opening is slow but you get the sense that it is building towards something–there is tension in the music, especially when it shifts to a minor key around 3:30.  It takes over 4 minutes to get to the chorus.  And then the song repeats and builds again.  The end is an unholy racket until Jonsi is left singing by himself.  It’s incredibly satisfying.  The final track is 11 minutes long and opens with an upbeat guitar sound.  It’s a good song and then the drums kick in around 6:20 and the song gets even better.

So yes, this is a long album full of long songs.  And none of it is in English.  Not exactly a pop seller, and yet there is something magical about the music on it.

[READ: October 10, 2013] A Hologram for the King

I had been putting off reading this book because I didn’t really like or get the title.  Sarah laughed at me when I said this, because the title is very explicit, but I honestly didn’t know what it was supposed to mean.  My mind reeled with the metaphorical possibilities.  So imagine my surprise when the title is indeed very literal.

The book is about a man named Alan Clay who is an IT sales person.  He will be doing a presentation–which will include an interactive hologram–to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah.  So, a hologram for the king.  Simple.

And indeed, the story is quite simple.  I had read an excerpt from it in McSweeney’s 38 and enjoyed it quite a bit–not realizing that it was from this book, of course.  The excerpt has been changed since then but most of the elements have been incorporated.  About the excerpt I said:

a man named Alan is on a flight to Saudi Arabia for business.  We learn through the course of the chapter that he has very little money left, that he is divorced and that his daughter is now fighting with her mother (his ex-wife).  He composes letters in his head to her trying to figure out the best way to placate the scenario.  But he also knows how important this deal is, both for him and for his daughter who needs money for school.  So he tries to put everything out of his mind so he can sleep.  There’s a lot of wonderful details in this chapter.

None of those details have changed, except we don’t really see as much of the flight.

Alan has landed in Saudi Arabia after not sleeping for 60 hours.  He misses the shuttle bust to KAEC (pronounce cake) the King Abdullah Economic Center.  So he calls for a taxi.  Instead, he gets a young man name Yousef who drives him the 60 or so miles to KAEC.  Along the way, Alan and Yousef talk a lot and they hit it off. Yousef has been to America (he studied for a year there) so he understands Americans.  He also has no hope for the future of the KAEC.  Alan likes Yousef and is dismayed by his attitude about KAEC, but finds him to be enjoyable company (Yousef enjoys jokes and, as a salesman, Alan is full of them). (more…)

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Edwidge Danticat discusses Junot Díaz’s “How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie” (New Yorker fiction podcast (#2) “The Dating Game” June 2007)

Posted in Edwidge Danticat, Interviews, Junot Díaz, New Yorker, Podcast, Racism, Sex, Sexism, Short Story, Unreliable narrator on November 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: November 20, 2013] “The Dating Game” podcast

outkoudIn the second New Yorker fiction podcast, Edwidge Danticat doesn’t read Díaz’s story but rather she discusses it and her connection to Díaz after listening to the audio from the New Yorker Out Loud 2 CD (the story is read by Junot Díaz with Gail Thomas doing the female voices).

I have yet to read Díaz’s Drown (for no real reason, I just haven’t), which is where this story appears.  And I enjoyed that this story is written in the same style as his later stories about Junior (sure, I suppose he will need to move beyond Junior as a character but it seems like he has plenty of stories to tell).  And I found this story unsettling and very enjoyable.

The story is a funny/obnoxious (I mean, re-read the title) story about, as the title suggests, how to date a girl–there are different specifics depending on her race (white girls will put out, but local girls you need to take to the fancy restaurant).  And be sure to take the government cheese out of the fridge so she doesn’t see it–but be damn sure to put it back before your mom gets home.

The reading is wonderful and having Thomas do the female voices really adds a nice touch.  I would say more about the story, but Danticat says a lot of what I was thinking about it.  (more…)

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Richard Ford–“Reunion” (New Yorker, May 15, 2000)

Posted in Dr. Dog, Grateful Dead, John Cheever, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Reunion, Richard Ford, Sex, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert on November 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

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SOUNDTRACK: DR. DOG-Tiny Desk Concert #7 (October 20, 2008).

drdog

I have been hearing a lot about Dr. Dog lately (they are from Philly and the radio station we listen to is from Philly, so that makes sense).  But I had assumed they were a new band.  So imagine my surprise to see that they were the 7th Tiny Desk Concert and the first full band to play the Tiny Desk.  (Their first album came out in 2005!).

It’s fun to watch a five piece band squeeze into the Tiny Desk (the drummer is playing a small pink suitcase) and the fifth member of the band is playing some various percussions (I wonder if he does more in the band).  It’s also funny when one of the guitars breaks a string and the singer says “son of a bitch.”

Dr. Dog proves to be quite interesting.  Their first song is “The Beach.”  It’s a rocking awesome track–the guitar is great and bassist Toby Leaman’s move is raspy and powerful.  I really like this song a lot.  The second song is quite different, it’s a bouncy boppy song that sounds a bit like a more rocking Grateful Dead (that bass).  This song has a different singer–Scott McMicken, who plays lead guitar on “The Beach,” but acoustic guitar here.  (The other guitarist, Frank McElroy  played acoustic on The Beach and electric on this one).

After a lengthy discussion they play the third song (in a different version from the record) “How Dare.”  This song opens with their great harmonies (a wonderful feature of the band).  It also has a jam band quality (Toby’s back on vocals but less raspy and powerful, and more bluesy)/on this track.

The band seemed to think they were only to play two songs, and frankly it’s a shame they only play 3. At 12 minutes it one of the shorter Tiny Desk concerts.  But I am a convert to Dr. Dog, and I need to hear more from them.

[READ: November 10, 2013] “Reunion”

After listening to Richard Ford in yesterday’s podcast, I decided I wanted to read his take on the Cheever story “Reunion.”  And while I can definitely see that it was inspired by a kernel of an idea in Cheever’s story, I probably never would have put the two together had I not known.

Ford’s story opens the same way as Cheever’s with someone waiting in Grand Central Station.  It turns out that the person is Mack Bolger.  Bolger is waiting intently for someone.  We quickly learn that the narrator who spies Bolger had had an affair with Bolger’s wife, Beth about a  year and a half prior to this meeting.  It ended abruptly when Mack confronted them in their hotel room (in St. Louis).  Mack (who is a large man) boxed the narrator’s ears a bit and sent him running from the room in varying stages of dress (and without a precious scarf which his mother had given him).

He had not seen Mack again, although he did see Beth on one final instance–a sort of final closure.  They met in a bar and tied up loose ends, and that was that.

So when the narrator sees Mack he gets this sudden urge to speak to him:

just as you might speak to anyone you casually knew and had unexpectedly but not unhappily encountered. And not to impart anything, or to set in motion any particular action (to clarify history, for instance, or make amends), but just to speak and create an event where before there was none.  (more…)

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