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Archive for the ‘Short Story’ Category

Helen DeWitt–“Climbers” (Harper’s, November 2014)

Posted in Books about writers, Chris Bathgate, Cigarettes, Harper's, Helen DeWitt, Randall Munroe, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert on April 25, 2016| Leave a Comment »

nov2014SOUNDTRACK: CHRIS BATHGATE-Tiny Desk Concert #167 (October 14, 2011).

bathgateI’d never heard of Chris Bathgate before this Tiny Desk Concert.  Bathgate is a singer and guitarist.  For this show he has a band of five—another guitarist, bassist, violinist and drummer.

The first song, “Everything (Overture),” opens with a lovely slow echoing guitar sound.  And then Bathgate and the violinist sing a lovely, slow duet—their voices play off each other very nicely and the lovely repetitive guitar riff is perfect background.  The song picks up a bit for the chorus (which is mostly them singing do do dos) and the rousing chorus is a nice contrast to the quieter verses.  I really like at the end when the second guitarist switches to the floor tom and adds to the intensity of the song.

He says that “No Silver” is “about living in Michigan and being broke.”  The song is faster and a little heavier.  There more good harmonies and a nice play between the loud acoustic guitar and the fiddle (this song is much more bluegrassy sounding).  When the music drops off and its only drums and fiddle—the song booms.

He introduces “Salt Year” with “Think about the first person you ever had a crush on. so maybe not first crushes but…first lustses”

The slide guitarist messes up on the opening of the song and asks if they can do trainwrecks—his mother will never forgive him.  Bathgate says they should leave it in. So they begin again, with that mournful slide guitar and Bathgate’s delicate vocals.

He tells a lengthy story about the final song “Levee.”  He was in Maine (he had lobster ice cream for the first time–don’t try it, it’s terrible) and he was on an all night drive with a crying friend.  She was inconsolable until the turned a corner and saw a gigantic harvest moon the filled the windshield.  What’s odd about the story telling is that he seems to be telling the violinist rather than the audience.  But that doesn’t matter because this song is fantastic.  It begins with some more great harmony vocals (the violinist has a really great, slightly unusual voice.  I loved that after each line, the violinist and the second guitarist play the floor tom with a great pounding rhythm.  And the bass/guitar riff between verses is great too.

As the show ends, they reveal that they band brought pie for everyone!

[READ: February 5, 2016] “Climbers”

This story is about writers and the publishing world.  But it comes from a wholly unusual angle that I liked a lot

The story begins with Gil raving about the world of Peter Dijkstra.  Peter Dijkstra is a Dutch author who spent some time in an asylum.  He wrote five novels in Dutch and recently had a novella and some short stories translated into English.

Gil works in publishing and says he would do anything–anything–to get Dijkstra published in the States. (more…)

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Vince Passaro–“A Shrinking World, An Opening Sky” (Harper’s, May 2016)

Posted in Dementia, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Grouplove, Harper's, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Vince Passaro on April 24, 2016| Leave a Comment »

may2016SOUNDTRACK: GROUPLOVE-Tiny Desk Concert #166 (October 11, 2011).

grouploveWith a name like Grouplove, I expected a certain sound–I imagined a dancey, funky, R-rated kinda of band.

  But when I listened to this set, I realized that I knew the first song, “Tongue-Tied” and I loved it–it’s incredibly catchy and poppy and with a title that belies the common refrain “take me to your best friend’s house….” I love the two vocalist and that lead singer Zucconi’s voice strains bit still sounds good.  There’s a middle section that reminds me a bit of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros’ “Home” with the two lead singers having a call and response section.  I only wish she was a little louder (he’s very loud).  But the rest of the song sounds nothing like that and is definitely is his own thing.  Special attention should be paid to the bassist who throws in some great lines.  I also like that the xylophone is used for percussion in this song.

speaking of the bassist, his cowboy hat bumps into something on the wall and the drummer mocks: “I’m from England I’m going to come back and get revenge.”  Bob asks for more about ths development, but the drummer continues, “He’s just bitter about the War of Independence.”  The bassist mutters, “It still hurts.”

When they released this song/album they’d only been together for a year and a half.  Hannah Hooper and songwriter, singer and guitarist Christian Zucconi met the other members of Grouplove — Sean Gadd, Ryan Rabin (son of Trevor Rabin) and Andrew Wessen on the island of Crete at an artists’ retreat.

Turns out I also knew “Itchin’ on a Photograph” (most notable for the way he sings (with a aching falsetto) “itchin on a photograaaaaph.”  Some more great bass lines here too.  Zucconi’s voice has got to hurt at the end of this song

Their final song is “Colours.”  Hooper’s harmony vocals are great on this song, and I really like the echoing electric guitar.

It’s hard for me to believe that “Tongue-Tied” is five years old, as  feel like I’ve been hearing it on the radio still.  The band has only put out once album since this one but they’ve been writing songs for all kinds of movies and TV shows.   I’d like to hear if they kept up their success of writing super catchy pop songs.

[READ: April 22, 2016] “A Shrinking World, An Opening Sky”

This story is a look a dementia (see, I said the two stories in this month’s issue were dark).  What I found most interesting about the way it was written was that it was from a close third person.  It got inside the demented man’s head but it wasn’t a first person account, so the confusion was presented objectively–a delicate balance, for sure.

It begins from the old man’s wife’s perspective.  She feels that her husband has lived long enough (she won’t say this to her family members, of course).  A while back he’d had some bad days.  There were some good days sprinkled in, but it has been steadily bad ever since.

This story is not set on his last day, but the narrator recounts his last few days which have been much the same. (more…)

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Thomas Bernhard–“In the Tower” (Harper’s, May 2016)

Posted in Excerpt, Fountains of Wayne, Harper's, Michel de Montaigne, Oscar Wilde, Short Story, Thomas Bernhard, Tiny Desk Concert, Unreliable narrator on April 23, 2016| Leave a Comment »

may2016SOUNDTRACK: FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE-Tiny Desk Concert #164 (October 6, 2011).

fowI have never really gotten into Fountains of Wayne even though a) they write incredibly Cathy indie pop, the kind of music I rather like and b) their name comes from a store that I have driven by many times in my life.  I think I didn’t like their first single when it came out or something, so I just dismissed them and never looked back.

Which is a shame because this set is full of delightful, slightly dark pop gems.

Fountains of Wayne put out a couple records in the 1990s and then went away and put out a couple more in the 2000s.  There are two excellent songwriters in the band singer guitarist Chris Collingwood and bassist Adam Schlesinger.  Schlesinger has been writing pop hits for (a lot of) movies and other lucrative gigs.   Clearly he has a knack for pop goodness.  And Fountains of Wayne is on the good side of pop.

“The Summer Place” opens with bouncy chords (the two guitarists play acoustic guitars).  But despite the poppyness, the lyrics are a little dark: “She’s been afraid of the Cuisinart since 1977 / now when she opens up her house she won’t set foot in the kitchen.”  I love the harmony vocals and how the second acoustic guitar sounds vaguely like a violin on the single notes.  “Valley Winter Song” is an older song.  It still has that sound–catchy guitars, nice harmonies and a notable bass line.

“A Dip in the Ocean” (like the first song, it comes from their then new album) features a prominent bass line and wonderful oohs and ahhs.  The lyrics are clever and funny.  Based on these two songs, I’d say that the 2011 album is pretty excellent.

When they ask if they can do one more, Stephen Thompson says that “that clock is one song fast,” and they launch into one of their older songs, the lovely ballad, “Troubled Times.”  The video of the song gets cut off just before the end, but if you listen to the audio you can hear the last few chords.

My friend Steve yelled at me for not liking this band, and I can see that he was right.

[READ: April 21, 2016] “In the Tower”

I had been trying to get caught up on all of the Harper’s stories that I’ve read.  These next two get me caught up to the present, with a couple really old ones left. And man, these two stories are pretty dark.

This is an excerpt from a short story (it must be a long short story).  The narrator, now forty-two years old, explains that he has found a refuge from his family–his tormentors–in the tower of their house.  The tower is a long-unused library which he was familiar enough with to know that the left side was philosophical books and the right side was belletristic books.  He was told over and over to not go into the library.  But it was his refuge.

He grabbed a book, it was by Montaigne.  He didn’t know what he was grabbing as he didn’t light a lamp for fear of mosquitos.

Much of this excerpt is filled with a kind of perverse Oscar Wilde litany:

“In every one of my statements there was nothing but this mockery and scorn in which they will one day perish, but I think that one day I will perish in their mockery and scorn.”

“Our unhappiness isn’t something we are talked into, unlike our happiness, which we talk ourselves into daily”

After several paragraphs denouncing his parents as conflating everything he has ever said he says he has always been in good hands with Montaigne.

“My family was too late in seeing that they had bred their destroyer an annihilator….How often they said that they would have preferred a dog to me, because a dog would have guarded them and cost less than me.”

As the excerpt ends and he is hiding with his Montaigne, he hears his family looking for him saying they hope nothing has happened to him.

It’s hard to know what is really going on, as this narrator sounds totally paranoid, but I didn’t love the excerpt enough to want to find out more.

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Dorthe Nors—“Hygge” (Harper’s, April 2016)

Posted in Belle and Sebastian, Buddy Holly, Dorthe Nors, Harper's, Huh?, Jeremy Messersmith, Misha Hoekstra, Short Story, Star Wars, Steve Earle, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Unreliable narrator on April 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »

april16  SOUNDTRACK: JEREMY MESSERSMITH-Tiny Desk Concert #158 (September 19, 2011).

jeremyI had never heard of Jeremy Messersmith before this show (the blurb even comments how it’s a shame more people haven’t heard of him since he is so sweetly poppy).

He looks a bit like Buddy Holly although my first though when he started playing was that he sounded not unlike Belle & Sebastian.  But there is more to his music than a simple reduction like that.

Messermith plays five songs (FIVE!).  For the first three he has a four piece behind him–big jangly electric guitar, a cello and a drummer accompanying his really nice picking style.

In “Toussaint Grey, First in Life and Death,” the electric guitar is mostly picking as well.  It’s a gentle song and you can really hear his voice well.

In “Knots” the tempo picks up with bigger drums and louder electric guitar.  I also love the picked cello as a bass guitar (this is the song that reminded me so much of B&S).  But by the end it is wholly his own (the falsetto note at the end is great).  This song is super catchy.  I love the break in the song when the drums kick in again.

For “Violet” the cellist switches to keyboards and the guitar plays some big jangly chords.  The chorus is great once again–super catchy and poppy.  Even better, there’s some great background Bah bahs and then other oohs of harmony.  But it’s the switch to an even higher note at the end of the bah bahs that totally had me hooked.

For the final two songs it’s just him and the cello.  His picking style on “A Girl, A Boy, and a Graveyard” is wonderful.  His voice sounds like someone although I can’t quite place it, but I love it.   The song is sweet and delicate.

Before the final song “Tatooine,” (which is about Star Wars obviously) he says that Steve Earle was in not too long saying that now songwriters write songs for nerds, and so this one is for the nerds.  The first line is “twin suns of Tatooine taught me everything I know.”  Pretty nerdy alright.  It’s just him and the keyboard on this, and the song is perfect this way.

I’m really looking forward to hearing some studio version of these songs.  This Tiny Desk was quite a find.

[READ: March 12, 2016] “Hygge”

I have read several stories by Dorthe Nors and I’ve found most of them a bit odd.  And so was this one, which was translated from the Danish by Misha Hoekstra.  I’m not even sure what the title means.

I’m unclear about a lot of things in this story.  How old is the narrator?  He is at an old folks’ home with a woman named Lilly. She has made the place nice for him (cleaned the dead leaves off the windowsill and put the budgie under its cover so it can go to sleep).

They’d had a fight earlier–she’d said that thing about his face–but she was trying  be nice now.  And she wanted everything to be cuddly.  Her hand was “inside the waist of my trousers.” (more…)

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Joseph O’Neill–“The Trusted Traveler” (Harper’s, February 2016)

Posted in Bonnie Raitt, Harper's, Joseph O'Neill, Radiohead, Short Story, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Tiny Desk Concert on April 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »

feb20156SOUNDTRACK: TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND-Tiny Desk Concert #516 (March 25, 2016).

ttbandAs I write this, there is no band I am more tired of than Tedeschi Trucks Band.  It seems like they are everywhere.  Coming home from somewhere the other night, there was a whole hour of a radio show devoted to them.  Gah.

When I first heard about them I was interested.  Their story was fairly compelling–husband and wife join forces to make some music.  And then I heard the song they played and I though, huh, Bonnie Raitt and a blues bar band.  That’s fine.

I’ve grown sick of th eone song they’ve been playing a lot, but I enjoyed this Tiny Desk.

Their music is certainly fun–a lot more so in this live setting than on record.  And it’s very cool in “Just as Strange” to watch Derek Trucks play solos while using that slide on his finger.

“Don’t Know What It Is” fares better–the horns add a nice touch and the song gets treated more like a jam than a song.  I love watching Tedeschi play the bitchin wah wah solo.  There’s a lot of toe tapping in this song.  And after the hand clapping section, the song really takes off–the sax solo is tremendous.

The song segues into the one I’ve been hearing on the radio a lot–the one I assumed was Bonnie Raitt.  The problem for me with this song is that the verses are the exact same melody as Radiohead’s “High and Dry” and I keep waiting for the song to turn into that–which it doesn’t.  I don’t love the chorus so much but I really like the horn riffs at the end of the song and the guitar solo is wicked (I don’t think the end is as good on the studio version).

So after watching this I have grown to like them better.  Their musicianship is pretty stellar.

[READ: January 21, 2016] “The Trusted Traveler”

This was a fascinating story in that I loved some parts of it, didn’t like other parts of it and was amazed at how the main crisis developed and then was basically abandoned.

As the story begins we learn that the narrator and his wife Chris have received an annual visit–right after tax season–from Jack Bail, a CPA who is a former student of the narrator.  The narrator loathes this annual visit.  And I loved the reason why: “For some reason, almost anything that has to do with Jack Bail is beyond my grasp, I can’t even remember having taught anybody named Jack Bail.”

He feels worse for his wife Chris, because Chris actually remembers things about Jack and his life. (more…)

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Jeremy M. Davies–“My Diagnosis” (Harper’s, February 2016)

Posted in Crosby Stills Nash and Young, CSN&Y, Graham Nash, Harper's, Illness, Jeremy M. Davies, Parenting, Short Story, The Hollies, Tiny Desk Concert on April 6, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Sfeb20156OUNDTRACK: GRAHAM NASH-Tiny Desk Concert #515 (March 14, 2016).

nashI only realized after reading this blurb that he was in The Hollies.  I’ve really only known him from CSN&Y.  And that makes sense now why “Bus Stop” (a song I’ve known forever but never knew the name of) sounds so familiar.

Nash plays guitar (and harmonica) and sings and he’s accompanied by Shane Fontayne on guitar and harmony vocals.  The duo sound great.  Nash’s voice is clear and sounds amazing (because he’s 74 but even if he weren’t).  Obviously I missed the mega harmonies of CSN&Y, but as a solo performer he really shines.

The first song he plays is “Bus Stop” and it sounds wonderful.  I miss some of the inflections that are in the original–but this is clearly a solo rendition (and it has been 50 years after all).

The other two songs are from his new album.  “Myself at Last” he says was the first song the recorded and that it was done in one take (and that musicians love that).  It’s a lovely song with a very Graham Nash feel (imagine that).  I love the chord progression in the bridge and the slight delay in vocals for the chorus.

For the final song, “This Path Tonight,” he asks us to imagine “an incredible rock and roll band playing with us.”  Even though the song isn’t fast, it has a real sense of urgency in it.  The chord progression is intense, and I imagine that with a band this song would be even more exciting.

[READ: January 20, 2016] “My Diagnosis”

This is the kind of story that reads more like an exercise that was later developed into a full story.

The opening of the story is that the narrator’s mother has made the narrator’s diagnosis public.

And the rest of the story is the narrator’s way of obfuscating what that diagnosis is–possibly from herself but definitely from her mother’s friends. (more…)

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Michelle Huneven–“Too Good to Be True” (Harper’s, December 2015)

Posted in Drinking, Fears, Harper's, Michelle Huneven, Parenting, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Y La Bamba on April 4, 2016| Leave a Comment »

dec2015SOUNDTRACK: Y LA BAMBA-Tiny Desk Concert #143 (July 21, 2011).

ylabambaWith a name like Y La Bamba, I expected, a band, possibly from Mexico, singing in Spanish.  So imagine my surprise that the band is from Oregon and sings (almost) entirely in English.

The band’s musical make up is really interesting–accordion, percussion, guitar and lot of singers.  Lead singer Luz Elena Mendoza’s (who is Mexican..I was sort of right) voice is cool and unusual, passionate and anguished and perhaps a little intimidating.

For the first song “Crocodile Eyes,” Mendoza’s voice is right up front as she sings and plays guitars.  And her voice is a little surprising.  But it’s even more surprising when the (rather loud) drums come rumbling in after the first few seconds (it’s especially disconcerting because you can’t see the drummer).

But perhaps the most impressive thing about Y La Bamba is the backing singers.  Two bearded men sing wonderful “whoah ho hos” to accompany her as she sings.

For “Fasting In San Francisco” the guitar switches to one of the (unbearded) men.  And instead of percussion there is a wonderfully clear xylophone that adds a beautiful counterpoint to the plucked guitar.  On this song the backing vocals sound amazing.  I especially loved the middle section “I’m a fragile dandelion” where that line is repeated in many different ways (including spoken) and then all the singers break in to a series of fugue-like “doh” notes at different pitches–it is mesmerizing,.

“Hughson Boys” opens with fast acoustic guitar picking.  And the vocals are a duet with the guitarist and Luz Elena.  This song is not quite as anguished, but the harmonies are once again wonderful–and his falsetto vocals at the end are a great touch.

There’s a story about Luz Elena Mendoza on NPR (from a few months earlier) where they have some of their studio songs available to stream).

This was such an unexpected treat–totally not what I anticipated and a band I definitely want to hear more from.

[READ: January 11, 2016] “Too Good to Be True”

I didn’t know Huneven before reading this story.  And I was a little dismayed that the story was going to be about A.A.

However, it was about A.A. in a very unexpected way.

The protagonist is a woman named Harriet. Harriet had bottomed out not too long ago and lost the job that she really liked.  She was recently hired by a woman name Lois.  Harriet and Lois met at an Al-anon meeting and now Harriet is their housekeeper.  Well, Lois and her family are very wealthy and they have a maid and a babysitter.  So, technically, Harriet is more if a personal chef–making far more money than she ever would as a chef somewhere else.

As the story opens Harriet has agreed to take Gayle to A.A.  Gayle is Lois’ daughter.  Gayle is the middle child between a successful older sister in college and an adorable younger brother (he was a happy accident).  Gayle was an A student until she left one day at age 15 and didn’t come back for several months.

As they are driving to the meeting, Gayle tells Harriet the details of all the things she did (and people she did) to score drugs on the streets.  Gayle was dragged home once but left again twelve hours later.  She had been in forced rehab but it never took.  And now, this time, Gayle is getting clean on her own accord.  She saw a vision of her future as a successful international business woman and she intends to see that through.

So, in addition to A.A., she is studying Mandarin and being an exemplary daughter.

But then one night, as has happens so many times before, Gayle doesn’t return.  Gayle’s dad assumes that something bad happened to her–an assailant or the like.  But Lois assumes she hopped in the back of car and is getting high again.

Harriet has been told so many details of Gayle’s past.  She knows that yes Gayle wants to get clean but also, yes, she spoke so fondly of the highs she had. She doesn’t know what to think.  The police, aware of Gayle’s past, assume she has left as well.

Every phone call brings a charge of fear.  And while Lois says that she would rather Gayle were dead than missing–it would be so much better to know-of course, she also obviously hopes she isn’t.

This is an unhappy story and no real ending is going to shine a bright happy light on it.  But the route that Huneven went was unexpected.

I don’t really like stories like this in general, but it was well told and very engaging and the details (like the phrases that Gayle learned in mandarin) were great.

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Clarice Lispector—“One Day Less” (Harper’s, July 2015)

Posted in David Wax Museum, Harper's, Katrina Dodson, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Unreliable narrator, Waiting on March 31, 2016| Leave a Comment »

july2015 SOUNDTRACK: DAVID WAX MUSEUM-Tiny Desk Concert #103 (January 9, 2011).

waxI know of David Wax Museum from NPR’s coverage of The Newport Folk Festival back in 2010 (audio from their show is no longer online, sadly).  They played a wonderful set of interesting, somewhat Mexican sounding music.

David Wax plays a tiny Mexican jarocha guitar and Sue Slezak plays percussion on a donkey jawbone–which sounds great and is quite unusual to see.  The band is rounded out with Sam D’Agostino on saxophone and percussion and Mike Roberts on guitar and upright bass.

“Yes, Maria, Yes” opens the set with a lot of fun (how does that little guitar sound so buoyant?)  Wax and Slezak sing wonderfully together, and that jawbone introduces such an unusual sound.  About 1:20 into the song, the bass comes in and adds a whole new low end.  But then there’s a crash as the bridge from the bass collapsed!  Thus ends the bass in the song, although it’s not really missed.

For “Let Me Rest,” a far more mellow song, Wax switches to a full-sized guitar, Roberts switches to electric guitar (and they bemoan the loss of his bass) and Slezak plays fiddle.

Wax says that they have been in Washington DC playing house concerts every night, perhaps they have graduated to office concerts.

“Unfruitful” is one of my favorite of theirs.  The opening is interesting with the band kind of warming up (and Wax bouncing all out of frame).  It’s a raucous fun song with the fun chorus of “Tunnels in the sand.”  With Slezak wailing on the fiddle and Wax singing his heart out, it’s a great conclusion

I really enjoy David Wax Museum and I’ll get to see them at a Festival this summer.

[READ: January 6, 2015] “One Day Less”

I have been aware of Clarice Lispector for years, although I have never read her work (I recently got a free copy of her gigantic collected stories, so I hope to read that some day).

This story was the last one she wrote (it was found on her desk after her death–creepy)

It is an unusual story in which a woman, Margarida Flores, wonders how to fill the time in her day.

As the story opens, she wonders if death will come, if her endless days will ever end.  Perhaps death is a bluff?

She had a long day ahead with no plans.  She doesn’t even have the will to read or watch TV.  Then the story is filled with a section where the text reads: (more…)

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Steven Millhauser-“Late” (Harper’s, October 2015)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Enormodome, Food, Harper's, Short Story, Steven Millhauser, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest, Waiting on March 30, 2016| Leave a Comment »

octSOUNDTRACK: ENORMODOME-“The Way We Burn” (Tiny Desk Contest Fan Favorite 2016).

enormo Last week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked.  Last year, Enormodome made it to the top ten runner ups, but sadly, they did not this year.

However they did make a fan favorite vote and I like the song, so there.  Last year their concept was awesome—they played in the office of the mayor of Flagstaff (where they are based).  This year, they took their desk outside and set it on fire.

Enormodome is just two guys, a guitarist and drummer and they get a big rocking sound out of their tiny set up.  They’ve got a fuzzy guitar and lots of high hats to keep the song from ever sounding spare.  And both guys sing–often in harmony–so the songs stay interesting.

The song is a kind of heavy classic rock—a big catchy riff, and a wonderful chorus.

Beyond the flaming desk, the video is fun to watch–there’s circus performers everywhere and lots and lot so fire!   Which makes sense given the title of the song.

Check it out:

[READ: February 21, 2016] “Late”

I really enjoyed this story.  I thought I’d read a lot more by Millhauser, but I see that I’ve only ever read a few short pieces by him.  Well, after this I’ll have to read more.

Because Valeria is always later, the narrator tells her to arrive at a restaurant an hour earlier than he wants to eat.  He figures, if she’s 35 minutes late for a 6 o’clock dinner, she will actually be 25 minutes early for a 7PM dinner, which is when he wants to eat anyhow.

However, he doesn’t want her to arrive on time and wonder where he is, so he arrives at the restaurant a little before 6 to secure a window table with a view of the front door.

He orders a coffee and tells the waiter that he is awaiting somebody. (more…)

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Elizabeth Harrower–“The Cornucopia” (Harper’s, October 2015)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Cactus Tractor, Charity, Elizabeth Harrower, Fishing, Foreign Books, Funny (ha ha), Harper's, Marriage (Happy), Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest on March 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »

octSOUNDTRACK: CACTUS TRACTOR-“Jelly Donut” (Tiny Desk Contest Runner-Up 2016).

cactus Last week, a Tiny Desk Contest winner was announced. This week, All Songs Considered posted ten runners up that they especially liked.  I want to draw attention to a couple of them.

Cactus Tractor also have a lot of fun with the desk part of the tiny desk.  There’s a small purple desk and from behind it comes the lead singer and guitarist.  He is dressed crazily–this song and band are definitely a little goofy.  He pulls out a cactus and a tractor and then starts whistling.  It doesn’t seem like he’s whistling the song but he is. He starts playing along to the song a kind of old jazzy sound.  And it reminds me of “Mister Sandman” at times.

There’s some fairly complicated lyrics, “like reading Chinese, like choosing wine based on the cheese.”

And then a ukulele player comes out from behind the desk.  She is followed by a fisherman (it has to do with the lyrics). Then an accordionist sneaks out and she’s followed by an acoustic guitarist and an upright bassist.  The drummer comes out (they wheel his drums over)  And then finally a saxophonist and 2 trumpeters.

The song is funny and bouncy and catchy with several parts.

Eventually, the song switches to German (Berliner-jelly donut) and they sing many verses in Deutsch.  There’s no explanation for the fisherman by the end of the song (expect that he holds the jelly donut).  But that’s irrelevant because then some acrobats appear at the side of the stage and the camera pulls back as jugglers, stilt walkers and the like fill the screen.  It’s pretty extraordinary and it was done in one take (I expect the music was prerecorded, although I’d love to be wrong).

The song has novelty written all over it (they do lots of visual jokes about the lyrics) and yet it is really catchy and…unexpectedly, it is nearly six minutes long!

[READ: February 20, 2016] “The Cornucopia”

This is a short story that is set in Australia (the author is Australian, so that makes sense).

It is about a woman, Julia Holt, who is never impressed.  No matter what exciting things her friends tell her, she never shows appropriate excitement.  She is happy for her friends’ successes, but nothing seems to make her excited.

Perhaps it is because she is powerful and rich and has everything she needs.  Indeed, she even has her friends do a lot of her work for her–she is quite busy, after all.  But her friends (carefully cultivated by Julia, it must be said) do benefit from her friendship.  And honestly she was a little afraid of their successes because she didn’t want to lose any of them.

She and her husband are wealthy.  They are one of Australia’s millionaire couples.  Ralph, despite this wealth was never arrogant or showoffy.  He also had no time for games or hobbies.  He just did financial work all the time  And Ralph will always acknowledge that Julia is the more powerful one of the two oft hem.

So far so good as stories go.  But there has to be a crisis of some kind, right? (more…)

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