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Archive for the ‘Sex’ Category

David Foster Wallace–Consider the Lobster (2005) [audiobook 2017–David Foster Wallace]

Posted in Book Reviews, Consumerism, David Foster Wallace, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Gourmet, Language, Lobster, Pornography, Premiere, Sex, Tennis, This American Life on November 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: November 18, 2010] Consider the Lobster

This was the final audio book that DFW read.  As with Brief Interviews, this is a collection of selected, unedited essays [actually it says “Text slightly edited for audio, with changes approved by the author.”  I don’t know these essays verbatim, but it seems like the changes simply acknowledge that this an audio essay and not a written one].

The only problem with the entire package is how few essays were selected.

I don’t know if it’s because this collection was recorded later and DFW felt more comfortable reading or because DFW had more fun reading these essays or that these essays lend themselves to more animated reading, but this collection is absolutely stellar.

The audio book includes

  • Consider the Lobster
  • The View from Mrs. Thompson’s
  • Big Red Son
  • How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart

and, sadly, that’s it.

Not included are (more…)

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Ethan Canin–”Vins Fins” (New Yorker August 2, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Ethan Canin, Food, Huh?, New Yorker, Sex, Short Story, The Extra Lens, The Mountain Goats on November 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE EXTRA LENS-“Only Existing Footage” (2010).

I listened to this song on NPR’s All Songs Considered without knowing who the band was. And while I listened to this song I kept thinking it sounded like someone, but who?  Who?

And it took me reading about them on allmusic to realize that this is a side project between The Mountain Goats and Nothing Painted Blue (who I don’t know).   My friend Andrew gave me a bunch of Mountain Goats albums which I have enjoyed but which I haven’t written about yet.  However, I can’t say how much this sounds like a Goat’s album (as I’m not an expert yet).

Nevertheless, like a Goats’ songs, it is simple (with one simple guitar accompanied by another simple guitar) and incredibly catchy.  At 3 minutes it makes for a perfect delicate pop song.  The chorus builds wonderfully (even if, really it’s not that much fuller than the verses).

Charming seems like a condescending word, and yet this song feels charming  (even if lyrically it’s rather dark:  “oblivion’s been calling since it found out where I live.”)

[READ: October 20, 2010] “Vins Fins”

Ethan Canin is the penultimate writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 40 collection, but his was the last story I read.  I was really intrigued by the excerpt that was in the main issue, but I feel like the full length story disappointed somewhat.

At eleven pages, this was one of the longest stories in the collection and it felt to me like it was simply too long.  There were a lot of things, not details, or even dead end plots, just aspects of the story that seemed extraneous.

I am fond of fiction set in the 1970s.  In some ways it seems an easy decade for mockery, and yet really any decade, if limited to a bunch of stereotypes, is ripe for easy mockery.  But there’s something about the 70s that lends itself to fun story concepts.  And this promised something similar.

Under the shadow of Watergate, on the Western edge of Cape Cod, a young man grows up.  The narrator’s father feels that Nixon will get through Watergate unharmed.  His father is a chef and restaurateur who, despite his skills, seems to make most of his money by flipping restaurants (to use a recent term…it’s not used in the story).  His specialty is French food, which is convenient since his wife is French, as in actually from France.  We learn a bit about how they met and a lot about her (and I think perhaps this is where there is too much story as she turns out to be a fairly minor character in what I think of as the main plot).
(more…)

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Nathan Englander–”Peep Show” (New Yorker, July 26, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Cocteau Twins, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, Masturbation, Nathan Englander, New Yorker, Sex, Sharon Van Etten, Throwing Muses, Woody Allen on November 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SHARON VAN ETTEN-“Don’t Do It” (2010).

This song is available from NPR’s All Songs Considered.  I’d never heard of Sharon Van Etten before, so I didn’t know what to expect.  And this was a great way to learn about someone new (to me) and to find a song that I fell in love with.

This is a dreamy kind of track, sort of like later period Cocteau Twins, but less ethereal.  And I have to say on first listen I was really blown away because what starts as a simple song really blossoms into a full blow epic.

The song isn’t staggeringly original, by which I mean I can hear many precedents in the song (Throwing Muses, perhaps, but again, not as extreme).  And yet, she takes this template and really makes it shine in her own way.  This song is layered and textured with more depth of sound coming on each verse.  And it feels like by around the third minute or so, you’re totally caught up in the song.

On further listens, that effect is still there.  It’s very subtle, but really effective.  And I keep getting sucked right in.  I’ll definitely check out her full length, Epic.

[READ: October 20, 2010] “Peep Show”

This was the final story of the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 40 collection that I read (there’s one more after this, but I read them out of order).  The excerpt in the main issue was intriguing but very short and the whole story blew my mind with its unexpected surrealism.

Allen Fein, a man with his shit together, trips over a curb on his way to Port Authority.  It throws off his stride and his whole day.   When he straightens up, he looks up to see a barker offering peep shows for 25 cents.  Fein had been to a peeps how once before as a teen, and he sort of thinks that his day is a mess anyhow, so why not.

When he goes in, things are not as the were when he was a kid.  In fact, the glass that usually keeps peeper from peepee is removed, and the first word that the woman says when the door goes up is “Touch.”  And Allen finds himself in a weird position, especially when he touches the woman and his erection won’t subside. (more…)

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Jeffrey Eugenides–”Extreme Solitude” (New Yorker, June 7, 2010)

Posted in Books about writers, David Foster Wallace, Funny (ha ha), Jacques Derrida, Jeffrey Eugenides, New Yorker, Postmoderism, Punks, Scholarship, Sex, Short Story on November 10, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BIG BLACK-Kerosene [live] (1990).

It never occurs to me to go looking for live versions of songs online, even though there are clearly  thousands of songs I would like. So, I wait for them to come to me.  My friend Andrew posted a video of this song.  And it’s the first time I’ve seen Big Black live.

I’ve liked Big Black for a while (I got into them after they broke up). It’s not pleasant music by anyone’s standards, but there’s something visceral and unsettling about the lyrics and about Steve Albini’s guitar sound that I really enjoy.

I’ve seen pictures of Albini before, but I’ve never seen him in action, and I have to say, I can’t believe a guy as skinny and frankly, nerdy, as him is making sounds like this (although I can see someone like him being this angry).  Watching him in this video is pretty great.  He’s got huge glasses, his t-shirt is tucked into his pants–no that’s not right, it’s tucked into his guitar strap…how is he holding his guitar up??– and then he plays this guitar that sounds like, what…glass, needles, pins, shards of something, certainly.

And just when you think that the song is only noise, this fantastic bassline kicks in.  The riff is outstanding: it’s heavy and propulsive and balances the sharpness of the guitar perfectly.  In this version, about midway through the song he seems to be walking out into the crowd, and they sort of hold him up or push him back on stage, while he’s playing.  And at the end, of course, he destroys the guitar.

Lyrically, it’s as disturbing as anything Albini has written, but man is it cathartic.   And this live version is even more stark and brutal than the studio version.

[READ: June 2010 & October 12, 2010] “Extreme Solitude”

After reading “The Oracular Vulva,” I decided to re-read this, his recently published story.  When this story came out in June, I heard that to some readers the main character reminded them of David Foster Wallace, and they speculated about whether or not this story was inspired by or a tribute to him.  Unfortunately, I read that analysis before I read the story and it automatically influenced my reading (which if you haven’t read it I have now done to you, sorry).

I’m not in any way convinced that it is about him, although there are many similarities–size, athleticism, chewing tobacco, intelligence, semiotics.  But since I know nothing about DFW personally and I don’t know if Eugenides does either, I won’t pursue that line any further.  I will say that I didn’t find that train of thought terribly distracting while reading, though.

Anyhow, this story is about a senior in college named Madeline.  Madeline was a good student and a good girl.  She had dated some, but never had any crazy affairs (and was a bit uncomfortable when her roommate proudly wore (or displayed) her diaphragm–the joke about wearing it to an event is particularly funny).

By her senior year, after breaking of a long relationship with Barry, Madeleine was prepared to settle into her major: English.  She was excited to read and to read a lot (it was her passion as well as her major).  She also decided to sign up for a Semiotics class, which is where she met Leonard.

The description of the semiotics class is wonderful, from the pretentious students to the insanity of the class assignments–from Lyotard to Derrida and everyone in between, authors that I loved in college but since leaving academia I find so convoluted as to be kind of silly. I adored the sentence: “(Could “the access to pluridimensionality and to a delinearized temporality” really be a subject [of a sentence]?)” (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–Brief Interviews with Hideous Men [audio books] (1999, 2003, 2009)

Posted in Audiobooks, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, David Foster Wallace, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), History, Holocaust, Humiliation, John Krasinski, Language, Masturbation, Meta, Sex, Suicide, Unlikable main character on November 7, 2010| 8 Comments »

[LISTENED TO: End of October 2010] Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

There are three options for listening to Brief Interviews.

The first version is the original audio cassette which is read entirely by DFW (1999).  It’s out of print but you can download the audio for free at the David Foster Wallace Audio Project. The second version is the newly released audio book that coincides with John Krasinski’s film (2009).  This CD features some of the readings by DFW although most of the actual interviews are read by the actors from the film (see below for all details).  The third option is a collection of staged readings which were created by The Howling Fantods Brief Interviews Project.  They are available at the site and at the David Foster Wallace Audio Project.  [UPDATE Nov. 8: For the sake of accuracy, I wanted to state that George Carr is responsible for all of the work down for these recordings.  The Howling Fantods site simply hosted the results].

None of these recordings include all of the stories from the book.  Although the stories that they do include are unedited (this is officially listed as “unedited selections from the book”).  The stories that are not included in any of these recordings are:  creepy organ music

  • “The Depressed Person”  [this would have been a tour de force to read]
  • “The Devil Is a Busy Man”
  • “Think”
  • “Signifying Nothing”
  • “Datum Centurio” [I can’t imagine trying to read this out loud]
  • “Octet”
  • “Adult World (I)”
  • “Adult World (II)” [I would have liked to hear how these were handled]
  • “The Devil Is a Busy Man”
  • “Church Not Made with Hands”
  • “Yet Another Example of the Porousness of Certain Borders (XI)”
  • “Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko” [this is my least favorite bit of DFW work and I would have really liked to have heard it read aloud to see if I could get anything more out of it].
  • “On His Deathbed, Holding Your Hand, the Acclaimed New Young Off-Broadway Playwright’s Father Begs a Boon” (more…)

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Jeffrey Eugenides–”The Oracular Vulva” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Canadian Music, Culture Shock, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Jeffrey Eugenides, LGBTQ, Nature, New Yorker, Research, Rush, Scholarship, Sex, Short Story on November 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-“BU2B” (2010).

I’m a little freaked out that Rush has a song that is just initials (it’s so text message-y).  And, listening to the lyrics tells me that the 2 is for “to.”  That is no way for 50-some year-old men to behave!

Of course, neither is the pounding heavy song that is “Bu2B.”  Like “Caravan,” the song opens with a dark and dirty riff.  The song is not as complex as “Caravan” although it also features a quieter section.  After the verse, the quiet bridge comes as a more natural progression (and it, too has some strong bass stuff going on).

What’s fascinating about the song is that despite its heaviness, it is layered with some really delicate keyboards that plink along the top of the sections.  It showcases both sides of Rush in one track.  And lyrically it’s quite dark as well.

These two early release songs have me really excited for the new album, Clockwork Angels, due out in 2011.

[READ: October 11, 2010] “The Oracular Vulva”

Jeffrey Eugenides was the next writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 4o issue.

I really enjoyed Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides, and I regard him highly as a writer (even though I haven’t read very much else by him).  About midway through reading this story I realized it must be an excerpt from Middlesex (which I haven’t read, but hope to one of these days).   The bad thing about realizing this is that it impacted my reading of the end, making it kind of hard to assess the story as a story (which, I realize it isn’t, so maybe it’s moot anyhow).

This excerpt focuses on Dr. Peter Luce (the famous sexologist).  The title of the story certainly implies a degree of sexology, right?  I was surprised however, that the story opens with the doctor in a jungle, studying the Dawat tribe.  Luce, a very comfortable middle class sexologist is miserable out in the jungle, with crazy animal sounds, oppressive heat and, worst of all, little children trying to pull down his pants.

The doctor is studying this tribe because they have very specific gender roles–so specific, that the men and women are not permitted to interact with each other at all, except for once a month for three minutes, for procreation.  So, for sexual outlet, the men engage in oral sex with each other (semen being a very important thing for the young men to consume).  Yet no matter how progressive Dr Luce is, he simply can’t deal with the thought of this young boy, who is trying to do his culture’s most honorable thing.  (more…)

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Donald Antrim–”An Actor Prepares” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Donald Antrim, Drugs, New Yorker, Play (Drama), Set at School, Sex, Superchunk, William Shakespeare on November 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SUPERCHUNK-Late Century Dream (2001).

A Superchunk song that opens with keyboards, “Late-Century Dream” is one of the most mellow singles that they’ve recorded (even more mellow than some of the acoustic songs they’ve done).

It’s followed by “The Length of Las Ramblas” an even more mellow track.  This one is also full of keyboards (sort of tinny, high pitched keyboards) and acoustic guitars.

Rocking guitars return on “Becoming a Speck” which reminds me of “1,000 Pounds.”  It’s a fast-paced, punchy song with a guitar solo that sounds like it might collapse on itself any minute.

“Florida’s on Fire” is an acoustic rendition of the song from Here’s to Shutting Up. Initially, when Superchunk was a punky bratty band, these acoustic numbers were kind of a novelty.  Now they showcase the extent of musicianship that the band possesses, and this one is no exception.

It’s a good EP, and the last one that I bought prior to their return this year.  They have a couple other ones that I’m going to try to track down.  But in the meantime, it’s all Majesty Shredding.

[READ: October 10, 2010] “An Actor Prepares”

Donald Antrim is the next writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 40 issue.

This story is a funny look at college theater.  The subject is not terribly new, and yet there are so many wonderful details and the theater teacher is so over the top that this story was completely enjoyable.

The narrator is Reginald Barry, Dean of Student Life and Wm. T. Barry Professor of Speech and Drama at Barry College (ha!) and this semester his students will be performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream.   I had to look up some of the quotes in the story to make sure they were actually from the play (I didn’t know the line “Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me” was in Shakespeare), but they are, and Antrim takes lines like this and runs with them.

Barry has wonderful plans for this production which he envisions outside on the grounds of the campus, with a culminating orgy occurring just as the fireflies come out. (more…)

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Chang-rae Lee-”The Volunteers” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Chang-Rae Lee, David Bowie, Death, History, Military, New Yorker, Pornography, Sex, Short Story, Superchunk, Violence, War on November 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: SUPERCHUNK-1,000 Pounds (2000).

This EP has four tracks: an acoustic version of the title song and, for the first time that I’m aware of, a cover track.

“1,000 pounds” is another great Superchunk single.  It’s boppy and catchy and there’s more and more instrumentation thrown into the mix–acoustic guitars, more strings, a crazy sounding guitar solo with effects I don’t recognize.  It’s also another song where the title is sort of thrown into the chorus without making it sound like the focus of the chorus–another fun Superchunk trick.

The acoustic version subverts the original somewhat with a strange swing vibe.  And speaking of vibes, there are actual vibes in the song.  It almost sounds like a different song entirely.

The second song, “White Noise” is a no longer novel twist to a Superchunk song (they’ve been throwing in so many twist to their sound that it’s impossible to pin them down to anything).  There’s a cool guitar and bass line that sound, somehow, unlike anything else they’ve done.  The soloing is also pervasive, running throughout the verses.  It’s a very cool song.

The big surprise comes in their cover of David Bowie’s “Scary Monsters.”  Their version is noisy and feedback-filled with crazy guitar solos throughout some of the choruses.  It’s full of reckless abandon and is one of their craziest track in some time.  And really it sounds almost nothing like the original.

It’s a great EP and worth tracking down.

[READ: October 10, 2010] “The Volunteers”

Chang-rae Lee is the next writer in the New Yorker’s 1999 20 Under 40 collection.

This story is set during World War II.  However, unlike most WWII stories that I have read, this one is told from the point of view of Japanese soldiers (specifically, it is narrated by a Korean-born, Japanese-raised medic).

The narrator, Lieutenant Kurohata, is friendly with an inferior soldier, Corporal Endo.  He and Endo are from the same town so they have a friendship which, when they are alone, supersedes their ranking differences (although Kurohata is a little uncomfortable about that).  Endo, like many soldiers, is somewhat obsessed with a series of photos of naked women.  He is constantly trading for new ones and then showing them (surreptitiously) to Kurohata.  Kurohata is not terribly impressed with the behavior–he seems more mature in general–although he also implies that he is not very sexual–and he finds the whole proceedings somewhat beneath him. (more…)

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Rick Moody–Garden State (1992)

Posted in Books about music, Boredom, Cigarettes, Depression, Drinking, Drugs, Peter, Bjorn & John, Rick Moody, Set in New Jersey!, Sex, Short Books, Suicide, Swedish Music, Unlikable main character, Violence, Wikipedia on October 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PETER, BJORN & JOHN-Living Thing (2009).

After the raging (relative) success of Writer’s Block, with their crazily catchy whistling song, “Young Folks”, PB&J could have gone in any direction.

And I was quite surprised when the opening song of this follow up (actually, there’s an instrumental disc in between) opened with single note and drum sounds and virtually a capella vocals.  But unlike a typical a capella song, the thudding notes were kind of dissonant and unpleasant.  And there wasn’t much more to the song than that.

Even the second song starts out starkly.  A single piano note plays a simple riff.  The verse kicks in with some simple electronic drums (and again minimal accompaniment).  And this sparseness is the main musical theme on the disc.

And I have to say it took almost a half a dozen listen before I really enjoyed what they were doing.  They are eschewing the pop structure that won them popularity and they’re shifting their melodies to the vocal lines rather than the instruments (I guess).  It’s a risky proposition, but it pays off.

Take “Nothing to Worry About.”   It opens with what sounds like a distorted children’s choir singing the chorus at full volume.  But then it settles down into, again, a simple drum and vocals song with just a hint of instrumentation.  (Did they get all their music out on the instrumental?  I don’t know I’ve not heard it).  Even the title track is sparse guitar noises and clicked drums.  But, man, is it catchy (it reminds me in a weird way of Paul Simon).

And then, continuing my contention that the best and catchiest songs always have curses in them, “Lay It Down” with the chorus, “Hey, shut the fuck up boy, you’re starting to piss me off” will stick in your head for days.

The end of the disc (the last three songs) are considerably mellower.  They’re less catchy, but they use the starkness very well.

Initially I really didn’t like this album.  It had none of the immediacy of the previous disc.  But I found myself really enjoying it.  I wouldn’t want all of their albums to sound like this, but it was an enjoyable twist on a good formula.

[READ: October 7, 2010] Garden State

I mentioned the other day that I just found out about this book when looking up information about Rick Moody.  I was so excited to read a book set in Haledon (two towns from where I grew up) that I checked it out and begin it immediately (it’s only 200 pages, so that helped too).  But I have to say I was really disappointed with the book (even if it did win the Editor’s Book Award).

My first gripe is about the supposed setting in New Jersey.  I have no problem with fictionalizing an area.  Writers do it all the time.  But Moody fictionalizes the area in two ways to suit his thesis, and as a lover of New Jersey and a former resident of the region, I found the lack of reality to be very upsetting.

The first minor, and I have to say really weird thing is that despite the real towns included (Haledon, Paterson, Paramus) he makes up towns nearby–Fleece, Tyre– and he makes up a river–The Dern River.  He also plays around with the names of the highways that run through the state, constantly referring to the non-existent Garden State Thruway.  Now, again, there’s no problem with making things up, but nobody in the story ever goes to Fleece or Tyre, the Dern River doesn’t come into play aside from being a river that people refer to (it’s not a renamed Passaic river, because that’s included in the story, too).  So, why make up random town names?  Why say that you drive from Haledon to the edge of Paterson near Boonton, when that is not geographically correct (or relevant to the story)?  It just seems like he didn’t have access to a map. (more…)

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New Yorker 20 Under 40, 1999

Posted in 20 Under 40, A.M. Homes, Allegra Goodman, Antonya Nelson, Chang-Rae Lee, Chris Ware, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Donald Antrim, Edwidge Danticat, Ethan Canin, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), George Saunders, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jonathan Franzen, Junot Díaz, Matthew Klam, Michael Chabon, Nathan Englander, New Yorker, Rick Moody, Sex, Sherman Alexie, Tony Earley, William T. Vollmann on October 19, 2010| 3 Comments »

While I was looking around for Jonathan Franzen pieces in the New Yorker, I stumbled upon the first 20 Under 40 collection from 1999.  Since I had received so much enjoyment from the 2010 version, I decided to read all of the 1999 stories as well.  It was interesting to see how many of the authors I knew (and knew well), how many I had heard of but hadn’t read, and how many were completely off my radar.

I initially thought that they had published all 20 authors in this one issue, but there are five stories (including Franzen’s) that were just excerpted rather than published in full.  And I will track down and read those five in their entirety.  But otherwise, that’s a lot of fiction in one magazine (a few of the stories were quite short).  And it features a cover by Chris Ware!

So here’s the list from 1999.

**George Saunders-“I Can Speak™”
**David Foster Wallace-“Asset”
*Sherman Alexie-“The Toughest Indian in the World”
*Rick Moody-“Hawaiian Night”
*A.M. Homes-“Raft in Water, Floating”
Allegra Goodman-“The Local Production of Cinderella”
*William T. Vollmann-“The Saviors”
Antonya Nelson-“Party of One”
Chang-rae Lee-“The Volunteers”
*Michael Chabon-“The Hofzinser Club” [excerpt]
Ethan Canin-“Vins Fins” [excerpt]
*Donald Antrim-“An Actor Prepares”
Tony Earley-“The Wide Sea”
*Jeffrey Eugenides-“The Oracular Vulva”
*Junot Diaz-“Otra Vida, Otra Vez”
*Jonathan Franzen-“The Failure” [excerpt]
***Edwidge Danticat-“The Book of the Dead”
*Jhumpa Lahiri-“The Third and Final Continent”
*Nathan Englander-“Peep Show” [excerpt]
Matthew Klam-“Issues I Dealt with in Therapy” [excerpt] (more…)

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