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Archive for the ‘Short Story’ Category

Matthew Klam–”Issues I Dealt with in Therapy” (New Yorker July 12, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, All Songs Considered, Culture Shock, Funny (ha ha), Matthew Klam, New Yorker, Romance, Short Story, Tricky on November 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TRICKY-“Kingston Logic” (2010).

I really liked Tricky’s debut album Maxinquaye.  Although I felt he had somewhat diminishing returns after that.  Then he got into acting so I assumed his musical career was over.

Now he’s back with this album (although I see on allmusic that he has actually been releasing for quite some time, and had a “comeback” album in 2008).  This song, which you can hear on NPR, while still kind of angry, is less claustrophobic than his early stuff (which I liked, but it’s nice to see him coming out from under that).

The female vocalist that he employs on the song is fine–she raps more than sings, which is kind of a shame since Tricky usually picks women with great and interesting voices.  But since this “rap” seems more like another instrument than actual singing/lyrics, it works quite well as a sound collage.

The selling point of the song is the infectiously simple guitar line that repeats throughout.  There’s a lot of other things going on that keep the song very busy, including a spoken section by Tricky himself.  The whole song is not even 3 minutes long;  it comes in, does what it intends and then takes off.

The more I listen to the song that more I really like it and I’m going to have to check out the whole disc to see what else he does.  I miss the gorgeous vocals, but I’ll happily take more of this, too.

[READ: October, 20, 2010] “Issues I Dealt with in Therapy”

Matthew Klam is another of the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 40 authors.  I enjoyed the excerpt of this story in the main issue, but I have to say I was rather surprised at how differently the  story turned out than I expected.

The protagonist of this story and his girlfriend are invited to a wedding on a fancy exclusive island (think Nantucket, although it is never stated).  He is a pretty average guy, but the guest list includes the Al Gore family as well as Madeline Albright and many other VIPs.  The island has been pretty much taken over for this wedding and it is clearly going to be a big deal.

The bulk of the story is a flashback which answers the question, “What was I doing here?”

The narrator and Bob (the soon-to-be husband) were in college together.  They were even roommates for a year.  Their friendship was kind of silly and superficial, but they formed a bond that lasted over the years.  Even though the narrator isn’t a VIP, he was still asked to be an usher (and to give a speech) at the wedding. (more…)

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Jonathan Franzen–”The Failure” (New Yorker, July 5, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Blue Öyster Cult, Books about writers, Butthole Surfers, David Foster Wallace, fIREHOSE, Funny (ha ha), Jonathan Franzen, Language, New Yorker, Public Enemy, Punks, Short Story, Superchunk, Wire on November 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: fIREHOSE-Live Totem Pole EP (1992).

Listening to Superchunk’s “Slack Motherfucker” reminded me that I knew a live version from somewhere else.  And, with a little help from the web, I remembered it was here.

fIREHOSE is Mike Watt’s post-Minutemen band, and they are a lot of fun (and even managed to get a major label deal before breaking up.  This (apparently really hard to find) EP is a great, weird collection of covers: Blue Oyster Cult’s “The Red and the Black”; Public Enemy’s “Sophisticated Bitch” (yes you read that right); The Butthole Surfer’s “Revolution (Part 2)” (with the repeated coda of “Garry Shandling, Garry Shandling”; Superchunk’s “Slack Motherfucker” and Wire’s “Mannequin”.  There’s two Watt-written songs, “What Gets Heard” (from fROMOHIO) and “Makin’ the Freeway” (from if’n).

The covers are universally solid.  The band sounds punky and kind of sloppy and fun (not so terribly virtuosic on the solos), and they bring an amazing vitality to these songs.  The Public Enemy song is probably the biggest surprise as it sounds fantastic in this rocking band set up (although the original rocks pretty hard too, frankly).  And “Slack” is possibly even faster and punkier than the original (it sounds awesome here).  Interestingly to me, “Mannequin” sounds completely like an SST track (which if you know the label will make sense and if you don’t, it won’t) even though it’s a Wire song (and not released on SST).

I’d always known that Watt was a mean bassist, but man, he is wild on this disc.  The runs and fills he puts in all over the disc are great.  “What Gets Heard” has some great slap bass and “Freeway” is one of Watt’s weird and delightful spoken rants with fantastic bass fills.

fIREHOSE may not have always been brilliant, but they had moments of awesomeness.

[READ: October 16, 2010] “The Failure”

This story is part of the 1999 New Yorkers‘ 20 Under 40 collection (it’s the first story that was not included in that issue).  Its also the first story by Franzen that I have read.

It’s tempting, since I’m in a David Foster Wallace mood, to think that DFW was some kind of inspiration for Franzen (they were friends, after all).  The opening of the story talks a bit about cruise ships.  And Wallace’s “Shipping Out” was published in Harper’s just a couple of years before this.  Having said that, aside from the fact that the protagonist’s parents are taking a cruise (and there’s some cruise-mocking), the story doesn’t have much else in common with the piece, so we’ll get past that.

The story was excerpted in the main 20 Under 40 issue (the first few paragraphs), and I was intrigued, although the excerpt didn’t really indicate where the story would go at all.

Chip is a midwestern guy who has moved to New York City. He has lost a teaching job (for a very bad reason) and is now trying to survive as a writer.  His parents are in town briefly because they are taking a cruise out of New York.  And as he updates his mother and father on what he’s been up to, the list of minor failures (the ones he admits to and doesn’t) grows and grows.  And it’s clear from his mother’s talk that she’s more than a little disappointed in his reality. (more…)

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Jhumpa Lahiri–”The Third and Final Continent” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, David Foster Wallace, Death, Jhumpa Lahiri, Marriage (Happy), New Yorker, Outsourced, Short Story, Tracy Bonham, Travel, Universities on November 13, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TRACY BONHAM-Live on Mountain Stage, September 29, 2010 (2010).

I loved Tracy Bonham when she first came out.  Her EP and first LP were amazing explorations of controlled anger with great bursts of violin.

As with many angry songwriters from the 90s, Bonham seems to have become, shall we say, happier.  She has a new album out this year called Masts of Manhatta.

I haven’t heard the album, so I don’t know if this Mountain Stage performance represents it well or not.  I’m guessing that the Mountain Stage setting has made it somewhat more mellow than the original (steel guitars and fiddle solos?), but that may not be the case.

Regardless of the tone of the album, the songwriting tricks that Bonham has always employed are still in evidence here.  In fact, even though I’d never heard these songs before, the chord progressions (and of course, her voice) make these songs sound distinctly hers.  And lyrically she’s still clever as anything–witness most of the lyrics to “We Moved Our City to the Country”  which also features a very conventional fiddle (no, not violin) solo.

It seems like Bonham has grown as an artist and is exploring lots of different styles. And although I really love her early rocking stuff, and I was a little concerned that she had gone soft, it’s clear she’s just channeled her hardness in a different direction.  She’s also got great stage presence.

Manhatta here I come.  The show is available here.

[READ: October 12, 2010] “The Third and Final Continent”

Jhumpa Lahiri was the final writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 4o issue.

I have heard such wonderful things about Jhumpa Lahiri, and I have been intending to read her novels and short story collections for quite some time.  I’m a bit saddened that this is the first fiction by her that I’ve read.  But it was an excellent place to start.

The story is a masterful telling of what, even the main character admits, is “quite ordinary.”  And yet it is touching and moving and a wholly realized experience.  [DIGRESSION: I have been listening to old interviews with David Foster Wallace and in most of his interviews he argues that good writing should be “real” as opposed to ironic and sarcastic.  He worries that hipster irony has eroded people’s ability to tell real stories.]  Well, this is a very real story.  It is simple and honest and wholly believable–just what the doctor ordered].

The story opens with an Indian man leaving India for London in 1964.  In 1969 he gets a job offer to work in the library at M.I.T.  Before leaving though, he confirms his arranged marriage, meets his bride and officially weds.  But days later he has left for America with the intention of her following in about six weeks.  He lands in Massachusetts on the day of the moon landing.

After staying at the YMCA, and adjusting to American life, he finds an apartment at an old woman’s house.  He tells the old woman that he is married bit she is insistent  that he has no female visitors.  The old lady is strict and a little crazy (she makes him marvel about the moon landing on a nightly basis).  And yet, despite herself, it is clear that she approves of this polite man. (I was a little surprised that she would be so approving of a foreigner, but maybe she was more progressive than I give her credit).

And the bulk of the story is made up of his life in this small apartment with this ever-present landlady who he feels somewhat indebted to, even though all he really owes her is $8 a week. (more…)

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Edwidge Danticat–”The Book of the Dead” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Brad, Edwidge Danticat, New Yorker, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pearl Jam, Short Story, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA on November 12, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BRAD-Live from WXPN’s World Cafe (2010).

Brad are most known, if they are known at all, for being the side project of Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard.

I remember getting their first album and thinking it was okay.  But since then I have re-listened, and bought their other discs and found them to be an interesting side project from one of hard rock’s most enduring bands.  It’s also funny that Stone Gossard, by no means the most visible member of the band (surely Eddie Vedder wins for that and even lead guitarist Mike McCready gets more notoriety) should create a side band in which he is, again, not the main figure.  Lead singer Shawn Smith steals the show with his impressive voice.

This live set is brief (six songs in half an hour) and features four tracks from their recently released Best Firends? CD (which I haven’t heard).  The other two tracks “Buttercup” and “Screen” come from that first album.

The tracks from the new album seem like good classic rock (with “Low” being much harder than the other three and “Believe in Yourself” being a delicate piano ballad).  “Buttercup” still sounds good here as a sort of mellow jazzy number.  I’m not sure if Smith’s voice is as strong as it was, but he still sounds good.

It’s not a great show, but it’s a good collection of mellow rock songs.  You can listen to the set here.

[READ: October 11, 2010] “The Book of the Dead”

Edwidge Danticat is the next writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 40 issue.

I love the name Edwidge Danticat, although I’ve never heard of her before and (therefore obviously) never read her stuff.  Actually I take that back, I had heard of her book Krik? Krak! but didn’t recognize her as the author.

This story is about a young sculptor.  Her subject is almost exclusively her father.  He was a prisoner in Haiti and had a chance meeting, on the day he was released, with the woman who would later become his wife (and the artists’ mother).  They escaped to America and have lived happily ever since.

The first sculpture that the young artist made is one that she has fondness for but one that she never thought was very “strong” as a piece.  But one day she is told that a celebrity, a Haitian beauty who now appears on an American television show, wants to buy this sculpture as a gift to her own father.  The sculptor is so excited, that she personally travels across the country to deliver the sculpture to the celebrity.  She invites her father along since he was the inspiration. (more…)

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Junot Díaz–”Otravida, Otravez” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, All Songs Considered, Junot Díaz, Language, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Pregnancy, Set in New Jersey!, Short Story, The Decemberists on November 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE DECEMBERISTS-Live at the Newport Folk Festival [excerpts] (downloaded from NPR) (2010).

The Decemberists played at the Newport Folk Festival this year. NPR audio has an excerpt for free listen/download on their audio site.

They say that they were not going to play the entire Hazards of Love album at this show, as had been their wont on this tour.  I’m not sure what their entire set consisted of, but the three excerpts here include: “The Crane Wife Pt 3,” “Yankee Bayonet” and a very extended “Sons and Daughters.”

It surprises me how well The Decemberists work in a live setting.  I think of their music as  complex and convoluted with strange instrumentation, and yet, perhaps because of the theatricality of it all, it all sounds great in a live setting.

I can’t really imagine them releasing a proper live album, so for those of us who don’t get to concerts much, this is the next best thing (the recording quality is excellent–I only wish it was their whole set).

[READ: October 12, 2010] “Otravida, Otravez”

Junot Díaz is the next writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 4o issue.

I didn’t like this story in the beginning because I couldn’t tell for quite some time the gender of the narrator.  Normally this doesn’t make a difference, but when the narrator climbs into bed with the man in the room, I had a hard time deciding if this was a subversive act or just a straight act of romance.  [I admit that since the author was male, I assumed the narrator was male, too].

It turns out the narrator is a woman (there is a clue when he says “Yasmin,” but in the first read I was unclear if he was saying her name or just a name in general).

In fact, to me, the entire beginning was very strangely set up and it took a few paragraphs (when she describes her job) before I felt the flow really took off.  However, once it did I found this story fascinating and convoluted in a very good and clever way. (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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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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Tony Earley–”The Wide Sea” (New Yorker, June 21 & 28, 1999)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Canadian Music, New Yorker, Rush, Short Story, South, Tony Earley on November 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-“Caravan” (2010).

I was watching a great, lengthy interview with Rush on CNN.  At the end of the interview they mentioned that Rush had released two new songs (somewhat unheard of for the band to release a “single”).  I had some extra download cash from Amazon, and was even able to get the “booklet” yeeha.  The song is also available on YouTube, if you want to check it out.

When a song throws you a curve, it’s really only a curve the first time you listen to it.  And boy, “Caravan” has crazy curves in it.  In fact, musically, “Caravan” is easily my favorite Rush song in years.

It opens with some faint chords and sound effects and then kicks in with a loud riff, the likes of which Rush has specialized in lately–heavy, heavy, nasty guitars.  The bass is insane throughout with some breakneck stuff, and then at the 1:30 mark, the bass slides and the song drops out into a delicate, gorgeous guitar piece; it surprised the heck out of me.  It’s brief and effective and sets the stage for the next heavy riff.

The beautiful quiet bit returns and is then followed by another twist: a mildly funky bass solo (which hasn’t featured prominently on the last few albums) which leads into a really cool instrumental mid section, that’s almost like a self-contained song.  All of this leads to one of Alex’s insane solos.  It’s noisy and crazy and wonderful.

I’m very excited about this new album.

[READ: October 10, 2010] “The Wide Sea”

Tony Earley is the next writer in the 1999 New Yorker 20 Under 4o issue.

After several funny, clever and witty stories this rather simple story came as a bit of a welcomed respite.

This is a very straightforward story about Jim and his Uncle Al. They live in Aliceville (which, I had to look up, is in Alabama).  Jim takes many trips with Uncle Al “to see a man about a dog.”

This particular trip is Uncle Al’s chance to buy Belgian horses (Uncle Al and Uncle Zeno currently use mules on their farm).  They travel to South Carolina (which, looking on the map is quite far–over 550 miles!). (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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David Foster Wallace–readings [audiobooks & downloads 2000-2005–David Foster Wallace]

Posted in Audiobooks, Boredom, David Foster Wallace, Death, Depression, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Harper's, History, Language, Short Story, This American Life on October 31, 2010| 1 Comment »

[LISTENED TO: October 20, 2010] Readings

This (all too brief) collection of readings by David Foster Wallace includes several excerpts and a few shorter pieces.  I’ve noticed that there seem to be more and more videos (audios) of DFW reading on YouTube.  If I had time I would try to gather all of these videos (or even just try to watch them), but for now, I’ll stick with what’s at the David Foster Wallace Audio Project.

The Consider the Lobster reading is an excerpt from”The View from Mrs. Thompson’s”.  I’d never heard him read this piece before and it is a fascinating look at the events of 9/11/01 from Bloomington, Indiana.  I haven’t read the piece in a few years and it was quite affecting to hear him read it aloud.  The introduction was also interesting because he mentions that this is the quickest piece he has ever written (I wonder how many drafts he was able to do in that short period). (more…)

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