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Archive for the ‘Short Story’ Category

Deb Olin Unferth–“Wait Till You See Me Dance” (Harper’s July 2009)

Posted in Canadian Music, Deb Olin Unferth, Funny (strange), Harper's, Moxy Fruvous, Set at School, Short Story, Supernatural on July 2, 2009| 2 Comments »

harperSOUNDTRACK: MOXY FRÜVOUS-the C album (2000).

cMoxy Früvous broke up (or went on indefinite hiatus) almost ten years ago.  But they released this final compilation, basically for fans only.  I’m not sure if it’s even available anywhere anymore.

And, hey, what happened to the Früvous website???

C is not quite as fun as b.  Although it is definitely a fun, silly collection.  Highlights include “Pisco Bandito” (the bandit fish!) and “The Goal Judge” (without him there would be no hockey game).

Some other fun tracks include “Video Disco Bargainville” a wild disco-fueled version of “Bargainville.”  “The Norbals” is another faux TV show theme.  And “Beware the Killer Tents” is an inside joke, but a good one.  It’s about a folk festival and name checks a number of artists who appeared with MF.

This seems like a good end of career recap for fans who missed the humor that the band was so good at.

[READ: June 25, 2009] “Wait Till You See Me Dance”

DIGRESSION: I had a dream last night and Deb Olin Unferth was in it.  It was one of those dreams where I was standing next to a woman on line for something or other and after twenty minutes or so dream-time I realized it was her.  I have no idea if she looks even remotely like the woman in the dream.  Great story huh?

Deb Olin Unferth must have grown up in a world that is very different from mine.  In the few things I’ve read by her, her characters seem to act in ways or experience things that are simply not what I’ve known people to experience.

In this story, the narrator is able to look at people and see how long they have left to live.  So, this is going to b a weird sci-fi story?  No.  Not at all.  For even though that characteristic is very important to the story, it has very little to do with the plot.  In fact, I was a little put-off at how the story started like that.  It didn’t seem like it would be very interesting.  And yet as soon as the rest of the story kicked it I was hooked.  And that aspect of the narrator turned out to be very cool.

So, the narrator is an adjunct who works at a college.  She teaches the 99 class (ie, they’re not yet eligible for 101 classes, and if they fail, they will not be admitted into the school).  She is accosted by one of the assistant admins who invites her to go to an Indian dance (the admin is not Indian).  No, not that kind of Indian, Native American Indian (the admin is not that kind of Indian either).

But the narrator doesn’t really like the admin.  The admin has convinced everyone to call her Mary because she is like the woman from that film, you know with George and the angel who shows him the future. [Yes, I know what the film is].  The narrator doesn’t like this, because in addition to it not being her name, she also realizes that Mary is really quite insignificant in the movie.

But the dance isn’t the main focus either.  For Mary finally has a vested interest in whether one of her students passes the 99 class.  She has no say in whether they pass or fail as the final tests are graded by someone else.  In this particular semester an Iraqi violin piano prodigy is admitted to her school two weeks into the semester. She finds his music so haunting that she will do whatever she can to make sure he passes the class.  (he has no hope of passing the class).

And that means buttering up the admin, and maybe even going to this weird dance.

The things that happen in the story are bizarre and unexpected. And yet despite all of that, it offers some real truths and insights about humanity.

How does she do that?

For ease of searching I include: Moxy Fruvous.

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McSweeney’s #5 [Timothy McSweeney’s Small Trembling Thing That You Hold in Your Hand and Pet Slowly with Your Dirty Fingers/Timothy McSweeney’s Small Box Half-Full of Shiny Gems and Itching/Timothy McSweeney is Staring Like That, Why Does He Keep Staring?/Timothy McSweeney’s Fervent Hope That Things Build from Here and Stay Good for You and Those You Love/Sometimes Not Believing How Great This All Is/Ted Koppel’s Very Very Special Thing] (2000)

Posted in 6500, Alastair Reed, Ann Cummins, Ben Greenman, Ben Marcus, Bible, Bob Mould, Books about writers, Camera Obscura, Chad Willenborg, Colleen Werthmann, Consuetudinary, Consumerism, Courtney Eldridge, Daniel O'Mara, David Foster Wallace, Denis Johnson, Donald Barthelme, Dreams, Dystopia, Elizabeth Klemm, Essays, Flash Fiction, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Grant Hart, Hüsker Dü, J. Robert Lennon, Jason Ockert, Joshua Bearman, Joshuah Bearman, Lawrence Weschler, Lydia Davis, Marcus Aurelius, Marie Curie, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Meta, Minnesota, Neurotics, Newsweek, Outer Space, Paul Collins, Paul Maliszewski, Rodney Rothman, Sarah Vowell, Sex, Short Story, Steven Barthelme, Susan Minot, Ted Koppel, The Day the Earth Stood Still, This American Life, Uganda, Unlikable main character, Unreliable narrator, Violence, Wikipedia, Work on July 1, 2009| 3 Comments »

back coverSOUNDTRACK: HÜSKER DÜ-Metal Circus EP (1983).

HuskerDuMetalCircusAfter the insane hardcore mess of Land Speed Record, this EP is a bit of a change.  It’s still pretty hardcore, but now you can tell that the noisiness of the guitar is deliberate.  Bob Mould is playing around with multiple layers of feedback and distortion to create a wall of noise that sometimes hides, sometime accentuates the overall sound.

What strikes me as odd in retrospect is that I think of Bob Mould as one of alternative rock’s poppier songwriters.  And yet when you listen to this disc the two poppiest (which is a relative term to be sure) tracks are by Grant Hart.

The first two tracks are fast and furious.  But what separates them from 4 x 4 hardcore is, mostly Greg Norton’s bass.  He’s all over the place.  There’s also some diversity within the songs themselves (a little guitar squeal in “Deadly Skies”).

“It’s Not Funny Anymore” (Hart’s song) is surprisingly upbeat (with guitar harmonics) and is not quite as noisy (although it’s still pretty noisy, and is not going on the radio anytime soon).

The next two track are more of Mould’s screamy hardcore.

The longest song (4 and a half minutes) is also by Hart. “Diane” is a creepy song about abduction and murder (yet with something of a  singalong chorus).  I actually know the Therapy? version better because I had listened to that disc a lot when it came out.  But the Hüsker’s version is even creepier.  Wikipedia says it is about a real incident (which makes it less creepy than if Hart has made it up, I suppose).

It ends with Mould’s least hardcore song, although the guitar solo is pretty insane.

And then it’s over.  7 songs in twenty minutes.  That’s nearly half as many as on Land Speed Record.  You can see the songs changing already.  Just wait till the next disc!

[READ: June 29, 2009] McSweeney’s #5

McSweeney’s #5 plays with cover ideas again.  On this one, frontthe cover idea is actual different covers and slipcovers.  The book is hardcover, with three different cover designs.  It also has 4 different slipcover designs. The colophon explains that if one wanted one could have requested for free) each of the cover designs because they did not intend to make people buy multiple issues.  Click on the covers to see them enlarged on flickr (all images are copyright McSweeney’s).

This is the Koppel front cover.

I will quote from the McSweeney’s site their description of the covers:

As many of you know, the new issue of our print version is out, and by now is in most stores. This issue is a hardcover book, and features four different dust jackets. One dust jacket has on it a man who seems to be suffering from terrible skin lesions. The second cover looks very much like the cover of Issue No. 1, with the addition of a medical drawing of a severed arm. The third cover is blank, with all of its images hiding on the back. Hiding from the bad people. The last cover is just red. Or, if you will, simply red.

In addition, under each dust jacket is a different cover. One features pictures of Ted Koppel. One features new work by Susan Minot. And a third features a variation on the second cover, described above, though this version is legible only with aid of mirror. This inner cover also is featured under the red dust jacket.

I was quite surprised when I took the slipcover off mine, (more…)

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Lisa Moore–“Water Eveywhere, 1982” (The Walrus, June 2009)

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, History, Lisa Moore, Marriage (Happy), Moxy Fruvous, Short Story, Sloan, The Walrus, Weezer, Wikipedia on June 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »

walrus juneSOUNDTRACK: MOXY FRÜVOUS-Thornhill (1999).

thornhillThe final “proper” Moxy Früvous disc is something of a return to the days of Wood (see, the cover art isn’t silly at all, and it’s a photo not a drawing). It’s not as dire and claustrophobic as Wood but it also doesn’t really have too many silly moments.

Unlike Wood,this disc feels very full, very robust.  My initial response was minor disappointment that it didn’t have many silly moments (except, perhaps “Splatter Splatter”).  And yet, after many listens I’ve concluded that it’s is one of their richest, most complex discs, and it’s very rewarding.

The opening song “Half as Much” is very full and sounds not unlike Canada’s own Sloan.  In fact, the whole disc sounds a bit more like Sloan than any other previous comparisons.  “You Can’t Be too Careful” has great full harmonies (and actually sounds a bit like Weezer (!)).  “I Will Hold On” is another great acoustic power song where they harmonize wonderfully.

“Earthquakes” is a silly rollicking song, (at least as rollicking as this disc can do).  “When She Talks” is almost too delicate for its own good, but the melody is really strong.

Then you get to the crazy song “Splatter Splatter.”  This song rocks. And it’s quite funny, with the noir guitar lines and the horror movie conceit. I want to hear it again and again and again.

“Independence Day” spins out a wonderful chorus after a somewhat uninspiring start.  And the ending track “My Poor Generation” is a great, winning song.  It’s a bit somber, but again, the full chorus redeems it.

Their albums tend to suffer from late-album mellowness.  And even if their songs are strong, the song placement tends to make you ignore those latter tracks.  But the albums are still really good.

Moxy Früvous are often described as a silly band, but their overall output belies that designation.  Rather, they were just a great band.

[READ: June 25, 2009] “Water Everywhere, 1982”

This story was a tough one for me.  It references a real event in Canadian history that I never heard of: the sinking of the Ocean Ranger, in 1982 (this Wikipedia article will fill you in on the history of the ship).

Helens’ husband was aboard the Ocean Ranger.  The story deals with her (in)ability to cope with the news. Not much “happens” in the story but it pays very great attention to grief and how a whole community is affected by tragedy.

The story is available here.

For easier searching I’m also adding this spelling: Moxy Fruvous.

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Rivka Galchen–“Real Estate” (The Walrus, July/August 2009) [Summer Fiction Issue, Genre: Haunting]

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Funny (ha ha), Gordon Lightfoot, Moxy Fruvous, Political Humor, Rivka Galchen, Short Story, Supernatural, The Walrus on June 29, 2009| Leave a Comment »

walrusjuly SOUNDTRACK: MOXY FRÜVOUS–The “b” album (1996).

bAfter the somberness of Wood, Moxy Früvous no doubt had to get some nonsense out of their system.  And this collection of “b” sides is full of nonsense.  It is funny and silly and smart and sassy and I think it winds up being many people’s favorite discs, despite being only about 20 minutes long.

It’s a bit silly and possibly dated (allmusic chides the Rush Limbaugh song (“The Greatest Man in America”) for being dated, although scarily here we are 12 years later and he’s back.  And the song is still spot on.

So we have ten songs, and they’re all great.  “I Love My Boss” is an a capella ditty about well, loving your boss.  I mentioned “Johnny Saucep’n” as the reason I got into MF in the first place. Man what a great song, a near-acapella beauty with an unreasonable list of foodstuffs (try this as fast as you can:

Basil endive parmesan shrimp live
Lobster hamster worchester muenster
Caviar radiccio snow pea scampi
Roquefort meat squirt blue beef red alert
Pork hocs side flank cantaloupe/sheep shanks Provolone flatbread goat’s head soup
Gruyere cheese angelhair please
And a vichyssoise and a cabbage and a crawfish claw.

How anyone can keep it straight, sing it fast and make it sound so good is beyond me. “Ash Hash” is a humorous look at smoking a bit too much hash. “Gord’s Gold” was the one song I didn’t like on this disc, until I got the Gordon Lightfoot album and realized that this is a kind of twisted tribute to GL.

“Big Fish ” is a fantastic song (and more or less the only “real” song on the disc, although the childlike voices singing the chorus are a bit silly); a pointed song about growing up conservative. “Jenny Washington” is a silly song about outrageous talk shows. “The Kids Song” has a lot of fun with rhymes and the idea that kids can help with our problems (since they are the future):

Is there something you like? (squirt-gunning my dog!)
Is there something you hate? (when my turtle ate my gerbil)
Is it fun to take a bath (no…sometimes…yes)
Should Quebec separate?

This is Moxy’s silliest side. Not for all, but certainly for me.

[READ: June 24, 2009] “Real Estate”

The third story in The Walrus’ Summer Fiction Issue is listed as the haunting genre (as opposed to a horror story) and that makes a lot of sense.  The story is not scary; it is about a woman who lives with ghosts.

She moves into an apartment that is owned by a relative but is going to be sold.  It is largely empty and she is staying there to keep an eye on it and show it when it needs showing.

She soon realizes that there is someone else in the building.  She hears him walking around but never sees him.  She also has the bizarre sensation of thinking she has food in the fridge but when she looks it is invariably something else.  This seems to happen most often with string cheese. (more…)

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Lee Henderson–“The Nerve” (The Walrus, July/August 2009) [Summer Fiction Issue, Genre: Romance]

Posted in Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Lee Henderson, Moxy Fruvous, Political Humor, Religion, Romance, Short Story, The Beatles on June 28, 2009| Leave a Comment »

walrusjuly SOUNDTRACK: MOXY FRÜVOUS-Wood (1995).

wood

Moxy Früvous is a band that can totally be judged by their covers.  Their first album had a cartoon animal dog thingy, and the disc was whimsical and fun.  Wood, their second disc shows the quartet in an autumnal scene covered in sweaters.  And the content is autumnal and snug.  There’s very little whimsy on the disc. It’s as if they fully matured in two short years.

I would say that this is my least favorite of the MF discs.  However, it also contains my all-time favorite MF song: “Fly” so I can’t dismiss it entirely.

In fact, the first 5 or so songs are all really enjoyable.  I find myself singing “horseshoes have got to be tossed” (from “Horsehoes”) all the time for some reason.  And then we get “Fly.”  It starts out simply enough with an acoustic guitar, but as it builds and the harmonies come in, “we’ll take a last flight you and I….Hold on tight” it’s amazing every time.

“Present Tense Tureen” is similar to the Bargainville style of wit, although it is banjo infused folk rather than pop.  And “Poor Mary Lane” has a Beatlesque stomp going on.

From there the album sort of drifts into pretty, fairly undistinguished folk songs. “Nuits in Rêve” is a 6 minute folk ballad in French.  It’s very pretty, although I don’t know what it’s about.  Finally, the last song “Sad Today” wakes the disc up somewhat, as it feels likes something of a drunken shanty.  There’s also a bonus track called “Organ Grinder” (I suppose) that is the funnest, craziest thing on the disc and feels like pure insanity compared to the rest.  It’s a big shit-stompin’ song.

So as I say, the disc is quite different from the first.  It even feels a little claustrophobic in the production which is something I don’t really notice.  I’m not sure why the band left out their fun songs, maybe so they wouldn’t be pegged a novelty act, but they are sorely missed.

(It’s also likely why they release b shortly afterward).

[READ: June 24, 2009] “The Nerve”

This is the second short story in The Walrus‘  Short Story issue.  This one is labeled as Romance genre, and yet it also transcends the genre and is more  about a man falling in love than any of the other romance tropes. (more…)

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Gene Luen Yang & Derek Kirk Kim–The Eternal Smile (2009)

Posted in Derek Kirk Kim, Fantasy, First Second :01, Gene Luen Yang, Graphic Novel, Minnesota, Scrooge McDuck, Short Books, Short Story, Snappy Cola, The Replacements, Violence, YA Books on June 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

eternalSOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Don’t Tell a Soul (1989).

soulWith this disc, the ‘Mats finally scored a hit.  “I’ll Be You” actually made the Billboard charts!  And why not, it’s a delightfully catchy, far more mature version of the ‘Mats now-adult-alternative music.

In my head, this is where the ‘Mats sold out entirely.  But, I listened to the disc the other day and I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed it.  I was probably still really into Pleased to Meet Me when I first got Don’t Tell, so the trip from point A to B isn’t quite as drastic. I guess maybe grown up me enjoys it more than college-aged me did.

The allmusic review is very harsh about the disc, especially the production.  I can’t say I noticed anything about that.  I was just listening for the songs.  And, in addition to being their longest disc to date, it only features 2 songs shorter than 3 minutes!

What you see is Paul Westerberg maturing as a songwriter, for better or worse.  And, as far as his craft goes, it’s certainly better.  As for indie rock, well, not so much.

The songs still maintain the rocking style of older Replacements, but they have more proper structure  (verses and choruses, repeat).  They also play with the loud/soft dynamic that would really come to the fore with Nirvana…although The ‘mats version was more of a rocking/acoustic juxtaposition. Almost all of the tracks on this disc feature an acoustic guitar somewhere in the mix. In fact, I thought that the disc was a lot less rocking than it actually is.

There’s a couple of clunkers on the disc, “We’ll Inherit the Earth” seems a bit off somehow.  But for the most part, the songs sound like a grown up version of the teenage ‘Mats from just five years ago.

By comparison to general pop music, “I’ll Be You” still maintains some indie cred. And, it’s really hard to resist the catchiness of it (from the break to the slightly off-kilter guitar solo that ends the song).  “Achin’ to Be” is another coulda been a hit, although perhaps more on a folk/country side of things.  And “Talent Show” and “Back to Back” are sort of gentle rockers that speed up at a few points. Only “Anywhere’s Better Than Here” has the really distorted rock sound of yore.

Even though I did enjoy listening to the disc, it suffers from a lack of fun.  As I said, it’s a pretty shocking maturation over the span of eight (or even five) years.

[READ: June 12, 2009] The Eternal Smile

Sarah received a copy of this book, and as soon as I realized it was by the guy who did American Born Chinese, an amazing, amazing graphic novel, I was excited to read it.

This is a collection of three short stories: “Duncan’s Kingdom,” “Gran’pa Greenbax and the Eternal Smile,” and “Urgent Request”  I’m not sure if Kim and Yang collaborated or if one did one story and not the others.  But regardless, the art is fantastic in each.  I love the effortless style shifts in “Duncan” from the simple lines in the fantasy sequence, to the very very dark style in the nightmares.  “Gran’pa Greenbax” is so cartooney, so “childlike” in its style, that the violent avarice in the middle comes as quite a shock.  And “Urgent Request” is simply beautiful from start to finish.  It’s a great looking collection. (more…)

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Jonathan Lethem–“Ana’s Apartment” (New Yorker, May 25, 2009)

Posted in Consumerism, Demons, Drinking, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Jonathan Lethem, Kiss, Minnesota, New Yorker, Short Story, The Replacements, Tom Waits on June 13, 2009| 1 Comment »

CV1_TNY_05_25_09.inddSOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Let It Be (1984).

letitbeThis is the final album the Replacements made before they moved to the majors.  This disc represents the culmination of their pre-major label sound and is one of my favorite “college albums” of the era.

The disc retains a lot of their sloppy/punk sound of the time, but the songwriting moves forward a little further.  Westerberg wrote some timeless anthems for this disc (“I Will Dare,” “Unsatisfied”).   But, they also sprinkle the disc with silly tracks…not filler exactly…more like balance.  This keeps the disc from being too ponderous.

“I Will Dare” opens the disc. It is bouncy and poppy with an irresistible chorus.   But the bulk of the album is faster and more rocking.  Unlike on their their first two discs, however, the songs run a little bit longer, and they don’t attempt the hardcore feel quite as much.

In fact, there are a few songs that are quite clearly ballads.  “Androgynous” is a piano ballad (!) that could have easily been written by Tom Waits.  “Unsatisfied” is another ballad, although this one has more instrumentation.  Nevertheless, the feeling of yearning is palpable in Westerberg’s voice.  Finally, “Answering Machine” is another flanged-guitar filled song about romance in the age of modern technology (circa 1984).

These relatively light (musically, not emotionally) songs are balanced out quite nicely by the pair of punk/nonsense songs: “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out” and “Gary’s Got a Boner.”  They add some (more) levity to the disc.  As well as some rocking guitars.

But perhaps the most surprising song is the cover of Kiss’ “Black Diamond.”  It is surprisingly faithful to the original, (at a time when Kiss was not even ironically cool) and it rocks just as hard.

This album showcases the diverse aspects of The Replacements perfectly.  While some people say their next album Tim is their masterpiece, I am more inclined to go with Let It Be.  And, for some reason, I really like the cover.

[READ: June 10, 2009] Ana’s Apartment

This short story sees the return of Perkus Tooth, who I first encountered in Lethem’s story in The Book of Other People.  In this story, Perkus has had it.   He is tired of his life and of his lifestyle.  He wakes from a party at an obscene hour and walks home in 2 feet of snow.  He learns that his building is shut down; he can’t get his stuff, he can’t even change his clothes.

He wanders around, freezing, until he remembers that his friend Biller told him of a place that Perkus could crash.  When Perkus arrives, Biller tells him he can crash in Ana’s apartment.  Ana’s not there, but she won’t mind a roommate. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #31

Posted in Anachronisms, Barzum, Biji, Bill Cotter, Books about writers, Charlie Chaplin, Consuetudinary, Corporate skewering, David Thomson, Death, Digression, Douglas Coupland, Duan Chengshi, Dystopia, End of the World, Ernest Hemingway, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), George Barr McCutcheon, Graustarkian Romance, History, James Hannaham, Jessica Anthony, John Brandon, John Cusack, Joy Williams, Legendary Saga, Mary Miller, McSweeney's, Meta, Miguel de Unamuno, Minnesota, Nicolas Chorier, Nivola, Oddities, Orson Welles, Pantoum, Plato, Poetry, Religion, Say Anything, Senryū, Sex, Shelley Jackson, Short Story, Sight & Sound, Smarty Pants, Socratic Dialogue, Supernatural, Susan Sontag, The Replacements, Threats, Violence, Virginia Woolf, Virginity (Loss of), War, Whore Dialogue, Will Sheff on June 12, 2009| 2 Comments »

31SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Hootenanny (1983).

hootThis is the second full length from The Replacements.  For a band that just released two punk albums (one’s an EP), naming your new one Hootenanny is pretty ballsy.  As is the fact that the first track sounds like, well, a hootenanny (even if it is making fun of hootenannies.)

However, the rest of the album doesn’t sound like hootenannies at all.  In fact, the rest of the album is all over the place.  I don’t want to read into album covers too much, but the design has all 16 titles in separate boxes in different colors.  It suggests a little bit of stylistic diversity inside.

Just see for yourself:  “Run It” is a one minute blast of some of the punkiest stuff they’ve done. (It’s about running a red light).  Meanwhile, “Color Me Impressed” marks the second great alt-rock anthem (after “Go”) that Westerberg has put on record.  “Willpower” is a sort of spooky ambient meandering piece that, at over 4 minutes is their longest piece yet.  “Take Me to The Hospital” is a punky/sloppy guitar song.  “Mr Whirly” is sort of an update of the Beatles’ “Oh Darlin.'”  “Within Your Reach” is technically the longest Replacements song to date.  It starts with a cool flangy guitar sound that swirls around a fairly mellow vocal track (this song was featured in the end of Say Anything.  John Cusack cranks the song up past the red line).  “Buck Hill” is an (almost) instrumental.  “Lovelines” is a spoken word reading of personals ads over a bluesy backing track.  “You Lose” is the first song that sounds like another one…a sort of hardcore song.  “Hayday” is a fast rocker like their first album.  And it ends with “Treatment Bound” a sloppy acoustic number that sounds like it was recorded in a tin can.

As you can see, this album is all over the place, and almost every song sounds like they may not make it through to the end.  Yet, despite all of the genres represented, the band sounds cohesive.  The disc just sounds like a band playing all the kinds of music that they like, and the fact that there are a couple of really lasting songs on the disc makes it sound like more than just a bar band.

I feel as though not too many people even know of this disc (it was the last one I bought by them, as I couldn’t find it for the longest time).  But in reading reviews, I see that people seem to really love this disc.  I enjoyed it, and, like other ‘Mats discs, it’s certainly fun, but I don’t listen to it all that often.

[READ: June 9, 2009] McSweeney’s #31

The latest issue of McSweeney’s has a totally new concept (for this journal, anyhow):  They resurrect old, defunct writing styles and ask contemporary writers to try their hands at them. I had heard of only two of these defunct styles, so it was interesting to see how many forms of writing there were that had, more or less, disappeared.

Physically, the issue looks like a high school yearbook.  It’s that same shape, with the gilded cover and the name of the (school) on the spine.

Attached to the inside back cover is McSweeney’s Summertime Sampler. As far as I know this is the first time they have included a sampler of multiple upcoming works.  There are three books sampled in the booklet: Bill Cotter’s Fever Chart; Jessica Anthony’s The Convalescent & James Hannaham’s God Says No. I enjoyed all three of the pieces.  Fever Chart has stayed with me the most so far.  I can still feel how cold that apartment was.  The Convalescent begin a little slow, but I was hooked by the end of the excerpt. And God Says No has me very uncomfortable; I’m looking forward to finishing that one.

As for #31 itself:

The Fugitive Genres Recaptured (or Old Forms Unearthed) include: pantoums, biji, whore dialogues, Graustarkian romances, nivolas, senryū, Socratic dialogues, consuetudinaries, and legendary sagas.  Each genre has an excerpt of an original writing in that style.  Following the sample is the modern take on it.  And, in the margins are notes in red giving context for what the author is doing.  I assume these notes are written by the author of the piece, but it doesn’t say.

I’m going to give a brief synopsis of the genre, but I’m not going to critique either the old piece or whether the new piece fits into the genre exactly (suffice it to say that they all do their job very well). (more…)

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My Great Depression: Ten dispatches from the near future (Harper’s, June 2009)

Posted in Anachronisms, Barack Obama, Ben Katchor, Ben Marcus, Colson Whitehead, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, David Rees, Dilbert, Dystopia, Garfield, Get Your War On, Harper's, Hüsker Dü, Jamaica Kinkaid, Kevin Baker, Minnesota, Ruben Bolling, Sherman Alexie, Short Story, Simon Critchley, Technology, The Family Circus, The Replacements, Thomas De Zengotita, Tom McCarthy, Tom the Dancing Bug on June 7, 2009| Leave a Comment »

hapersSOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash (1981).

sorrymaSince I’ve been talking about The Replacements so much, it made me want to go back and listen to their stuff.  The Replacements are the quintessential band that “grew up” or “matured” and for better or worse sounds utterly different from their first album to their last (a span of only nine years!).  In fact, I don’t imagine that there are too many people who would enjoy all seven of their discs.  One suspects that if the band themselves were given a copy of their All Shook Down disc in 1981, they would have smashed it.

So this was their first release. It has 18 songs in about 30 minutes.  That’s pure hardcore, right?  Well, not exactly.  Even though the songs are short and fast and quite sloppy, there’s something about Paul Westerberg’s voice and delivery that makes these songs seem not quite hardcore.  He enunciates!  And you can understand him most of the time. And, maybe this is a better indicator: there’s parts to these songs, it’s not just breakneck pacing.  They also have song titles that belied how good their song writing would become.  Like: “Shiftless When Idle.”

In fact, “Johnny’s Gonna Die” isn’t fast at all.  It shows what the kind of songs that they would eventually write: literate and moving indie rock.

There must have been something in the water in 1981 in Minnesota.  Hüsker Dü, the other amazing punk outfit out of Minnesota (referenced in the ‘Mats song “Something  to Du”) also put out a blistering live hardcore record in 1981 called Land Speed Record (17 songs in 26 minutes, listed as 2 tracks on CDs because they don’t pause in between songs).  Like the ‘Mats, Hüsker Dü wouldn’t recognize their later incarnations in 1981 either.  And why are The Replacements abbreviated as The ‘Mats?  I don’t know.

But this ‘Mats record is the kind of sneaky record that can get you to enjoy punk even if you don’t think you like it.  There’s something so fun about Sorry Ma, that you don’t really notice that it’s all done so fast.

[READ: May 22, 2009] “My Great Depression”

This essay collection is tough to catalog.  Do I include all of the authors in the title of the post, do I pick selected ones, or just go with none.  Yes, go with none.

Harper’s asked ten authors/artists to send stories from the near future, after the economic collapse of the country. All of the pieces are three columns or less, and some are more enjoyable than others. (more…)

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Sherwood Anderson–“The Egg” [from The Triumph of the Egg] (1920)

Posted in Canadian Music, Constantines, Marriage Trouble, Oddities, Sherwood Anderson, Short Story on June 6, 2009| Leave a Comment »

eggSOUNDTRACK: CONSTANTINES-Kensington Heights (2008).

kensingtonThe Constantines hail from Guelph, Ontario.  And I’m mostly pointing that out because I wanted to write the word Guelph.  While I know there are funny sounding or fun to say towns in America, I’m quite fond of many of the Canadian ones: Guelph, Moose Jaw, Regina.

Anyhow, the Constantines play a kind of classic rock with a punk edge that puts them just outside of the mainstream. Their first three albums are fast and loud and quite sparse.  And the first track off this album, “Hard Feelings” sounds a lot like those first three discs.  But the Constantines have expanded their sound somewhat on this album.  They’ve added keyboards, and where they used to have stark guitars and bass, they have filled in the sound more.  They basically sound a bit more mainstream in places.  In fact, their mellower pieces seem almost commercially viable.  And the second half of the disc has a number of mellower tracks.

These mellow tracks remind me a lot of the Replacements’ mid-period songs.  Not their ballads, but not their heavier speedy songs either.  Their singer, Bryan Webb, sounds a lot like Paul Westerberg in fact (although not the later balladeer Westerberg).

I don’t know if this was an intentional attempt at commercial success, or if the band is just maturing somewhat.  The record is still better than a lot of hard rock stuff out there–somehow Canadian indie bands keep it real even when they’re close to hitting it big–but if you want to experience full Constantines, go for their earlier discs.

[READ: June 2, 2009] “The Egg”

I read Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio (or most of it, anyhow) a few years ago for a creative writing class.  Anderson’s stories are “small” in that nothing overly dramatic happens; there is no sensationalism.  They cover ordinary people in small town America.  This is not to say that they are dull, because his writing is wonderful and he immediately sucks you int the characters’ lives.  But you’re more liked to be moved, rather than blown away by his stories.

I only read this story because in McSweeney’s #4 Rick Moody does a “cover” of it and I wanted to see how close Moody’s story was to the original.  Interestingly enough, the stories are almost identical. Moody turns the eggs from chicken into ostrich, but the major plot points remain the same.  It’s as if Moody was making a movie version of it: every thing’s bigger, better, louder, funnier. (more…)

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