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Zadie Smith–“The Embassy of Cambodia” (New Yorker, February 11 & 18, 2013)

Posted in Africa, Boredom, Garbage, New Yorker, Racism, Short Story, Swimming, Zadie Smith on February 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_02_11_13Greiner.inddSOUNDTRACK: GARBAGE-Beautiful Garbage (2001).

beautifulI loved Version 2.0 but never really absorbed just how poppy it was.  So Beautiful Garbage took me by surprise.  It seem like more of a natural progression if you listen in sequence but it’s impossible to imagine that the buzzing guitars of “Queer” would morph into something like “Can’t Cry These Tears” in just two albums.  “Tears” is practically girl groupy, it is so poppy and Spektorish.  Yes, there are some buzzy guitars, but wow.  What’s more surprising though  is the amount of manipulation that is done to Manson’;s voice.  Garbage was always about deconstruction and technology–they always mixed genres, but “Til the Day I Die” uses some pretty generic voice scratching  as if trying for a pop hit.  Or more specifically a dance hit.

The single from the album, “Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go)” doesn’t even sound like Garage–Manson’s voice is so treacly it has to be processed (and indeed it was sped up for the song).  “Shut Your Mouth” also seemed to head straight for the dancefloor and the rather anemic introductory sounds of “Androgyny” were a surprise.  What’s weird is that even the aggressive guitar riff is really so wimpy compared to the earlier albums.   Which is not to say that the song is bad–the riff, wimpy though it may be is still a good one and the chorus is catchy as anything.  It’s just a different audience.

“Cup of Coffee” removes all of the dancey/techno and is a simple ballad.  And it sounds like the Garbage of old.  It’ a very pretty, sad song.  “Drive You Home” is also a beautiful natural-sounding ballad.

But “Breaking Up the Girl” is the closest to the Garbage sound of old(ish) it could easily have come from 2.0.  “Nobody Loves You” has a much more interesting guitar based sound as it opens–implying something grand.  But after the opening, the song slows down into a more dark feel.  “Uncountable” returns to the dance floor (and even has some”uh uh”s).

So, overall this is a weird and unsatisfying album.  It sounds like they gave up on the rock side of things because their poppy songs were such a hit. But at the same time it sounds like their hearts just aren’t in it.  Even Manson’s lyrics are kind of lame.  Which is not to say the album is a disaster, it’s just…different.

[READ: February 6, 2013] “The Embassy of Cambodia”

In Zadie Smith’s previous piece in the New Yorker (which was an excerpt from her novel), she broke her story into a series of small sections.  It was unexpected from her.  And now she  has done it again.  The story has as a basic plot point a game of badminton.  Accordingly, all of the chapters are listed as a badminton score (a one-sided rout actually): 0-1, 0-7, 0-21.

The sections are mostly brief and kind of bounce back and forth between the main character of the piece, Fatou, and the citizens of Willesden (represented by a a single person–who took it upon herself to represent them, even if they didn’t want her to).  This unnamed narrator gives background information about Willesden and the eyes of the community who watch Fatou go about her business.  The narrator also talks about the titular embassy and how it’s not that unusual to see a building like it on their street, even if they never really see anyone Cambodian going into it,

The only thing that people can really see from the outside of the embassy is the shuttlecock which can be glimpsed over the top of the wall that surrounds the embassy   Clearly there is some kind of field there, although no one has ever seen it.  They just see the birdie arc over (and then get slammed back).

And Fatou enjoys watching it and imagining the people inside.  For Fatou is a housekeeper and sort of child watcher for a family that lives down  the street (the Derawals).  Fatou is African and her prospects are bleak.  She is not paid to work for them–she gets free room and board in exchange for her services.  In fact she does not even know where her passport is (Mr Derawal took it and she hasn’t seen it since).  At one point, after reading an article about a slave girl, she even wonders if she might be a slave.  (She decides she is not). (more…)

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Zoey Leigh Peterson-“How Long and What a Marvel” (The Walrus, March 2013)

Posted in Death, Garbage, Native Americans, Salt-N-Pepa, Short Story, Sports, The Walrus, Zoey Leigh Peterson on February 6, 2013| Leave a Comment »

2013-03SOUNDTRACK: GARBAGE-Version 2.0 (1998).

2.0Garbage toured and promoted their debut for a long time.  And then they went back in the studio for the follow up.  After the success of the first one, the producers evidently tinkered and retinkered and reretinkered with Version 2.0 for ages.  I seem to recall Shirley Manson complaining that she had done her parts ages ago and was just waiting for the boys to stop playing with it.

And when they did, it was beautiful.  Look at the shiny packaging   The album cover was very graphic. All of the singles were very graphic and literally icon-ic. It was an amazing visual assault of a campaign.  And the album was like the debut only bigger slicker brasher more.  And I loved it.

In retrospect it is still good.  Quite good in fact.  But when pinpointing why the Garbage of today sounds so different, you can see it in 2.0.  The band definitely sounds more poppy, more dancey.   And Manson’s voice sounds more confident.  Less hidden behind gothy trappings.  She’s way out in front and indeed became the central focus of the band (despite the big names of the producers).  I was so enamored of Garbage and 2.0 that I never realized quite how poppy 2.0 was compared to the first.  The gothy dark side was replaced by a poppier sheen.  True, the lyrics were dark, but not quite as angsty (and they were a lot more about sex this time around).

Even though the music sounds similar there is a world of difference in the vocal styles of “Queer” and “I Think I’m Paranoid” which has her doing all kinds of vocal tricks   And “When I Grow Up” is practically all pop (with bright bah bah bah bahs).  “Medication” has an incredibly sweet section–Shirley’s gentle falsetto singing the “co-dependent” section is the great example of the dichotomy of Garbage.

“Special” is a slinky sexy song that quotes the Pretenders (something that was very cool at the time but which I feel has become something of a crutch for Manson/Garbage–quoting too literally from their sources rather than mashing them up).   “Hammering in My Head” has a cool keyboard riff and more of Shirley’s whisper/singing.  “Push It” references the Salt-n-Pepa song which is a little weird, but there’s great noisy guitars and slinky bass that makes the song it own.”The Trick is To Keep Breathing “is a the surprise song where the whispered quieter verses turn into a really pretty and prettily sung chorus.

 “Sleep Together” plays on that aggressiveness sexuality that Manson is so go at.  “Wicked Ways” ends with some really cool sequences (I don’t like the beginning that much for some reason).  And the disc ends with “You Look so Fine” a sweet track with a nicely multi-tracked vocal.  Although the album and song just kind of drift away at the end.

2.0 is an apt title, more of the same but bigger and sleeker.  But it seems to also point them in the direction of more technology that would come next.

[READ: February 5, 2013] “How Long and What a Marvel”

This is a very short story (about a page) and it is a very simple one.  But there’s a surprising amount of depth included.

The simple plot is that the narrator’s grandfather died and caused a seven hour delay of game.  What’s fascinating is that the game is never specified and I’m not exactly sure what game it might actually be.

The men from Three Mile came to their valley to play the first game of the season.  After a big meal, it was customary to start the game by having one of the old men come out, take his bat and challenge the slinger.  Many of the old men hadn’t survived the winter, but the narrator’s grandfather had and he went up to bat.  He was slow and dragging as he got up there.  (This sounds like baseball right?  Except the thrower is called a slinger and the innings are called frames.  Is it cricket?). (more…)

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Kevin Canty–“Mayfly” (New Yorker, January 28, 2013)

Posted in Fishing, Kevin Canty, New Yorker, Short Story, Travel, Unlikable main character, Vampire Weekend on January 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_01_28_13Colombo.indd

SOUNDTRACK: VAMPIRE WEEKEND-“Arms” (Live) (2013).

TVampire-Weekend-608x287his track is a bootleg-quality live recording of a new Vampire Weekend song which may or may not be on the new album.  The sound quality is lousy, but you can hear all of the elements of the song.

It sounds like Vampire Weekend, but a bit slower than I’m used to.  I love Vampire Weekend more than I should, and while I’m open to them changing, I’ll be bummed if they turn into a different band (as their version of  “Unbelievers” on Jimmy Kimmel suggested).

Every VW album deserves a ballad, but I hope it’s not all slow songs–VW gives you pep!

You can hear it here.

[READ: January 23, 2013] “Mayfly”

This story opens with a beautiful and sad image–thousands of butterflies flying across a street on their annual migration to Mexico.  And hundreds of them getting hit by cars–smashing into windshields and grilles.

James, the driver of the car is not happy about it, but hi co-pilot (in the car and soon in life) Molly is distraught.  She demands he pull over.  Which he does, only to see that tractor trailers and other cars are not pulling over and are similarly smashing into the butterflies.  Finally James says there’s nothing they can do, so they continue on through the carnage.

They arrive at their destination–James’ old friend Sam and his wife Jenny’s house.  Sam and Jenny have three kids, including a new baby.  And they weren’t expecting James until the next day, but they welcome James and Molly warmly.  They have dinner and drinks and a nice time catching up.  James has a business trip to Denver the next morning, but he’ll be back that night.  They agree that Molly can accompany him since she wanted to visit a friend in Denver.  James and Jenny stay home. (more…)

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D.T. Max–Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace (2012)

Posted in Biography, Book Reviews, Books about writers, Boredom, Broken Social Scene, Colin McEnroe, D.T. Max, David Foster Wallace, Death, Decadence, Dictionary, Don DeLillo, Drinking, Drugs, Essays, Jens Lekman, Keith Richards, Macy Gray, Marriage (Happy), Mary Margaret O'Hara, Michael Gira, Nick Cave, Norman Mailer, Ra Ra Riot, Richard Thompson, Rivka Galchen, Salman Rushdie, Scholarship, Sex, Shane MacGowan, Smarty Pants, Tennis, The New York Times, Tom Waits, Unlikable main character on January 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

dtmaxSOUNDTRACK: TOM WAITS & KEITH RICHARDS-“Shenandoah” (2013).

roguesgallery-f8be47f3887d51de57ea842a129f0a722e53ef74-s1This tune comes from the album Son Of Rogues Gallery.  The album is, of all things, a sequel to the album Rogues Gallery.  The full title is Son Of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys.  The first album was a kind of novelty–I can’t even say novelty hit as I don;t know if it was.  But it must have had some success because here’s a second one (and there’s no Pirates of the Caribbean movie to tie it to).

The album has 36 songs (!) by a delightful collection of artists, including: Shane MacGowan, Nick Cave, Macy Gray, Broken Social Scene, Richard Thompson, Michael Gira and Mary Margaret O’Hara (among many others).  I enjoyed the first one, but I think the line up on this one is even better.

“Shenandoah” is not a song that I particulalry like.  Because it is traditional, I have a few people doing versions of it, but I don’t gravitate twoards it–it’s a little slow and meandering (like the river I guess) for me. And this version is not much different.  What it does have going for it is Waits’ crazed warbling along with even crazier backing viclas from Keith Richards (there;s no guitar on the track).

[READ: January 7, 2012] Every Love Story is a Ghost Story

I had mixed feelings about reading this biography.  I’m a huge fan of David Foster Wallace, but I often find it simply disappointing to read about people you like.  And yet, DFW was such an interesting mind, that it seemed worthwhile to find out more about him. Plus, I’ve read everything by the guy, and a lot of things about him…realistically it’s not like I wasn’t going to read this.  I think I was afraid of being seriously bummed out.  So Sarah got me this for Christmas and I really really enjoyed reading it.

Now I didn’t know a ton about DFW going into this book–I knew basics and I had read a ton of interviews, but he never talked a lot about himself, it was predominantly about his work.  So if I say that Max is correct and did his research, I say it from the point of someone full of ignorance and because it seems comprehensive.  I’m not claiming that he was right just that he was convincing.  And Max is very convincing.  And he really did his research.

It’s also convenient that DFW wrote a lot of letters–Max has a ton of letters to quote from.  And DFW wrote to all kinds of people–friends, fellow authors  girlfriends, colleagues….  Aside from old friends, his two main correspondents were Don DeLillo, whom he thought of as a kind of mentor, and Jonathan Franzen, whom he considered one of his best friends and rivals.  I guess we can also be thankful that these recipients held on to the letters. (more…)

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Rivka Galchen–“Consider the Writer” (The New York Times, October 5, 2012)

Posted in Biography, Book Reviews, Books about writers, Boredom, D.T. Max, David Foster Wallace, Death, Decadence, Dictionary, Drinking, Drugs, Essays, Haruki Murakami, Jennifer Egan, Jens Lekman, Marriage (Happy), Ra Ra Riot, Rivka Galchen, Scholarship, Sex, Smarty Pants, Tennis, The New York Times, Unlikable main character on January 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RA RA RIOT-“Is It Too Much” (2013).

raraI loved the first Ra Ra Riot album The Rhumb Line.  This song expands on some of the ideas from that album, but I fear that it goes in the one direction I would have preferred they not go.  The album had strings, nice harmonies and a great singer all melded into an interesting rock structure.

This song retains all of the elements that were interesting, but it removes it from the rock structure, making it  sound much more lightweight.  It’s pushing too far into easy-listening.  And do I hear autotune on the vocals?  The instrumental middle section is the most interesting part of the song.  But Ra Ra Riot seems to have removed the riot part of their sound.  If this is the direction of the album, I’m afraid I won’t be following.

[READ: January 8, 2013] “Consider the Writer”

I just finished the D.T. Max biography of David Foster Wallace.  I was curious what kind of reception it received.  And lo, here’s a review by Rivka Galchen (something I would have read anyhow since I enjoy her so much).

Galchen opens with two main points–the biography is gripping (and it is, I’ll be saying more about that tomorrow, too).  She writes: “In writing a chronologically narrated, thoroughly researched, objective-as-­imaginable biography, Max has created a page turner.”

The second idea is that you keep thinking “that you just don’t find Wallace all that nice”  (which I also thought).  But then she wonders if it is fair to be worried about that.  We should not judge others after all.  Especially since, as she points out, “We don’t always find ourselves asking whether a writer is nice. I’ve never heard anyone wonder this at length about, say, Haruki Murakami or Jennifer Egan.”  So why is that a concern about Wallace?  Because niceness is what Wallace wrote about, tried to encourage.  And perhaps “One understandably slips from reading something concerned with how to be a good person to expecting the writer to have been more naturally kind himself.”  But that is not necessarily the case–people strive for things that they cannot achieve.   I like her example “the co-founder of A.A., Bill W., is a guru of sobriety precisely because sobriety was so difficult for him.”   And her conclusion: “Wallace’s fiction is, in its attentiveness and labor and genuine love and play, very nice. But what is achieved on the page, if it is achieved, may not hold stable in real life.”

And Galchen talks a bit abut DFW himself (the book is a biography after all).  How he wore the bandana because he sweated so much–how self conscious he was about that and by extension nearly everything he did.  This mitigates his not-niceness somewhat.  It also ties in to his alcoholism  drug use and depression.  And his competitiveness, which is obvious in the biography.  She enjoys the pleasure of Wallace’s correspondences, “especially with his close friend and combatant Jonathan Franzen, but also with just about every white male writer he might ever have viewed as a rival or mentor. Aggressive self-abasement, grandstanding, veiled abuse, genuine thoughtfulness, thin-skinned pandering — it’s all there.”  I rather wished that the authors’ own reactions were included (of course it’s not biographies of them, and they are still alive), just to see if they sparred back with Wallace or if they were put off by yet indulgent of his needs. (more…)

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Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer–“Seal” (The Walrus, January/February 2013)

Posted in 19th Century, Anachronisms, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Fishing, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, Short Story, The Walrus on January 8, 2013| Leave a Comment »

2013-01SOUNDTRACK: NEIL YOUNG WITH CRAZY HORSE-Americana (2012).

amercancaThe reuniting of Crazy Horse after a time is always cause for excitement.  In this case, they released this strange album, which seems like it should be an EP but is almost an hour long.  It’s basically the band jamming on traditional Americana songs (for the most part).  And it is totally a jam–you can hear them talking about what they just played after a number of tracks.  Critics have complained that Young hasn’t really been writing any thing new in the last few years, and this would bear that out to a certain extent.  But here’s the thing–the music is really good (for the most part), but the lyrics–the traditional lyrics–are sometimes really off-putting, almost feeling like a joke.

The one real standout is Clementine  which the band totally disassembles and make into a sloppy rocker that bears almost no resemblance to the original.  Young even plays around with lyrics, making it a much different story–with a dark, twisted ending.  There’s something a little fun about “Oh Susannah” ( I like the b-a-n-j-o part) although it sounds a little half baked.  “Travel On” also feels less successful.  I think the problem with these songs is that the fast pace doesn’t allow for the band to stretch out much–Crazy Horse works best with slow big open (sloppy) chords rather than these martial type beats.

“Tom Dula” (which is “Tom Dooley”) is almost 9 minutes  long.  This song feel like a murder ballad-a slow meandering song that rather works.  The same is true for “Gallows Pole” which has the same feel.  For me the least successful is “Get a Job,” a song I dislike at the best of times, but this is just a goofy cover.

“Jesus’ Chariot” successfully straddles the line of changing the original (“She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain”) with a cool minor key workout and noisy solo.  The singing is so different from the original that it doesn’t really sound like the traditional song.  They give “This Land is Your Land” a kind of country feel.  It works pretty well.  As does “Wayfarin’ Stranger” which is a very low key affair.  The album ends strangely with “God Save the Queen” which he slides into “My Country Tis of Thee.”

So this album is kind of a mess.  It probably would have made a great EP.  But it also works as a fun document of what the guys were up to before they released their “proper” album Psychedelic Pill a little later in the year.  It’s not essential by any means, but it’s an interesting item.  Interestingly, the liner notes explain the lyrical changes are actually the original lyrics–lyrics that have been lost or removed over the years.  I rather like that.

[READ: January 5, 2013] “Seal”

Kuitenbrouwer also had a story in the January/February Walrus last year.  Hmm.  But Kuitenbrouwer writes about such diverse subjects that, aside from a certain harshness in her characters, it wouldn’t be obvious that it was the same author.

I love that in this story the narrator distances himself from the story before even beginning it: “I never had another story but this one, and even it is not mine.”

And what we get is the story of a fishmonger.  He and his wife live above the fish store.  The narrator, a young boy named Ivan, lives above them on the third floor.  He is strangely obsessive about the fishmonger and his wife. He plays fishmonger every day with his parents.  And he pays a girl to go in and ask the man a question (do you like fish?).  The answer is yes and that he eats it for every meal.

The fishmonger, Kieran, is also the fisherman, walking out the back of his shop and into the sea to fish–he even gets special orders right from the sea if he doesn’t have any in the shop.  Kieran is a loud but jolly man. He knows that Ivan paid the girl to ask the question and he teases him about it.  He tells Ivan it’s cheaper to just ask him directly. (more…)

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Nathaniel Rich–“Opportunity Knocks: Is the Arena Football League ready for prime time?” (Harper’s, January 2013)

Posted in Arena Football, Drowning Pool, Football, Grantland, Harper's, Nathaniel Rich on January 6, 2013| 2 Comments »

2013SOUNDTRACK: a parrot-“Let the Bodies Hit the Floor” (2010).

parrotI remember when this song came out and that it was a pretty big hit in metal circles.  I had pretty much forgotten about it (and Drowning Pool, whose name I had to look up) when this parrot version started circulating.

My friend had a parrot who could mimic her (and my) voice so uncannily that I actually thought she was in a room when she wasn’t.  The fact that this parrot can mimic the cookie monster style vocal of this song just makes it all the funnier.  I also enjoy when the parrot gets squeaky on a few of the notes.  Even though this video is two years old, it was one of my favorites of 2012.

There appears to be an “original” video of this, but it’s only 40 seconds long.  The one I have below is almost 80 seconds, so there’s twice as much fun.

[READ: January 3, 2012] “Opportunity Knocks”

The only reason I’m writing about this article is because I once went to an Arena Football game.  It was the year I graduated high school.  I now cant even find any history of the team existing–I’m sure they were based in New Jersey, but the only team I can find from that time in the area was a New York team which played in Madison Square Garden–and I can’t imagine we drove to MSG for a football game.

Anyhow, this article discusses the future of the AFL–Arena Football League.  The league was founded in 1986 and has expanded and contracted over the years with teams forming for a year and then moving elsewhere the next.  The league began was 4 teams and has had as many as 18.  It’s a crazy scenario with the league’s popularity rising and falling not in proportion to the number of teams, but to some seemingly arbitrary force.

The article’s main question concerns the AFL’s recent contract which will have the league airing games on CBS during prime time.  So, is this league–which shut down completely and filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2009 ready to be on network TV?  (After the bankruptcy, the worked out some kind of deal and reformed in 2010.)

Rich suggests that it may indeed be time.  As I mentioned the other day in the Grantland review, the NFL has been cracking down on violence (to whatever degree) over the last few years.  And so, as the NFL gets more delicate, it’s time for the AFL to step in.  The AFL has no such delicacies in place.  Indeed, it is almost designed for violence and injuries.  Why shouldn’t it succeed? (more…)

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Grantland Quarterly, Number 4 (2012)

Posted in Alex Pappademas, Amos Barshad, Anachronisms, Andy Greenwald, Aziz Ansari, Baseball, Basketball, Beastie Boys, Biking, Bill Barnwell, Bill Simmons, Books about music, Books about writers, Boxing, Brian Phillips, Bryan Curtis, Carles, Charles P. Pierce, Charlie Pierce, Chris Connelly, Chris Ryan, Chuck Klosterman, Contests, Creed, Cycling, Daniel Kellison, Dave McKenna, David Hill, David Jacoby, David Shoemaker, Drugs, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Essays, Football, Girls, Grantland, Harris Wittels, Hockey, Hua Hsu, James Brown, Jamie Allen, Jason Oberg, Jay Caspian Kang, Jay-Z, Jeff Chang, Jonathan Abrams, Katie Baker, Ken Dryden, Louisa Thomas, Mad Men, Mark Lisanti, Mark Titus, McSweeney's, Molly Lambert, Nickelback, Olympics, Peter Orner, Prince, Public Image Ltd, Racism, Rafe Bartholomew, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Religion, Rembert Browne, Sexism, Shane Ryan, Short Story, Sixto Rodriguez, Smarty Pants, Soccer, Table Tennis, Tara Ariano, Tennis, Tess Lynch, The Sopranos, Van Halen, Violence, Wesley Morris, Wright Thompson, WXPN 88.5 FM--Philadelphia, PA, Zombies on December 27, 2012| 1 Comment »

grantladn4SOUNDTRACK: PUBLIC IMAGE LTD-“Poptones” and “Careering” on American Bandstand (1980).

abThe Dick Clark article below alerted me to this bizarre gem–PiL “playing” on American Bandstand.   The article talks about John Lydon ignoring the lip synch, climbing into the audience and generally disregarding the show’s script. The video suggests something sightly less sinister (although maybe for 1980 it was outrageous–do you really cross Dick Clark?).

Dick Clark himself announces the band nicely, and then the crazy off-kilter bass and simple guitar of “Poptones” kick in.   Lydon runs into the bleachers with the kids (most of whom are dressed in New Wave finery not unlike Lydon).  They shriek with glee when he comes nearby (do any of them know who he is?  I have no idea).  When Lydon’s spoken rambling come in a little later you can’t help but wonder what the hell they are doing on AB.

Then, Lydon starts grabbing people from the audience and pushing them towards the stage–something I believe was unheard of on AB.  The fans dance around to the impossible-to-dance-to “Poptones.”  The song ends and Dick asks John if he wants the kids out there for song two.  Yes, song Two!  He does and John faux lip synchs through “Careering,” avoiding cameras at all costs and dancing with the kids–one of the most egalitarian performances I can think of from Lydon.

And listen for Dick asking Jah Wobble his name (reply THE Jah Wobble) and him saying, nice to meet you Wobble.  What a surreal moment–wonder what Dick thought of it.

Enjoy it here:

 

[READ: December 28, 2012] Grantland 4

Grantland continues to impress me with these books (and no, I have not yet visited the website).  My subscription ran out with this issue and I have resubscribed–although I take major issue with the $20 shipping and handling fee.  I even wrote to them to complain and they wrote back saying that the books are heavy.  Which is true, but not $5/bk heavy.  The good news is that they sent me a $10 off coupon so the shipping is only half as painful now.

This issue’s endpages were “hypothetical baseball wheel-guides created by JASON OBERG–they were pretty cool and a fun idea.  They look very retro, but use contemporary batters, pitchers and catchers.  I’d like to see them for real.

Each issue makes me like sports a little bit more, but not enough to actually watch  them.

(more…)

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Peter Orner–“Denny Coughlin” (Grantland Quarterly, Number 4, 2012)

Posted in Bad Religion, Boston, MA, Grantland, Hockey, McSweeney's, Peter Orner, Prison, Short Story, Sports, Violence on December 26, 2012| 2 Comments »

grantladn4SOUNDTRACK: BAD RELIGION-“Fuck You” (2012).

badrelIt’s hard to believe that Bad Religion has been around for thirty years and has never written a song called “Fuck You” before.  Typically they write songs with more profound lyrics.  So I guess this is kind of lazy.  But it’s still fun.

Bad Religion write (mostly) blistering punk songs in under three minutes   They have of course written longer songs, but mostly they do these quick tracks.  Despite the blister, Bad Religion also love harmonies and backing vocals–and for a punk band, they are quite melodious.

After all these years, the band still sounds good.  It’s true that it’s kind of hard to tell when certain songs were recorded as a lot of their music sounds similar.  However, on this track I think the middle slower part sounds like it might be a newer, fuller sound.  But still, when you get to the chorus, it’s hard not to recognize that old time Bad Religion.

[READ: December 26, 2012] “Denny Coughlin”

I have come not to expect too much from the fiction in Grantland.  It’s usually a fine story but not much more.  And that’s okay–I don’t think sports stories can be all that original–you either win or lose, right?

This story did things a little differently   It’s about prisoners playing hockey.  I didn’t even catch on that they were prisoners right away–I liked that the story doesn’t spoon feed the details, it just got right to the action.  Anyhow, in a prison in Walpole, MA, the prisoners from Southie would face the guys from Charlestown twice a week in the yard.

There were only two rules.  1) No injuries–if you get hurt, tend to yourself.  The guards are sick of people in the infirmary.  And 2) the ball is in play wherever it goes, even under the bench that the guards sit on.  The guards know to get up if the ball goes there. (more…)

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McSweeney’s #41 (2012)

Posted in Aimee Bender, All Songs Considered, Boredom, Cassandra C. Jones, Chris Flynn, Death, Deb Olin Unferth, Drinking, Drugs, Eileen Van Neerven-Currie, Essays, Excerpt, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gracia Lam, Henry Bean, History, J. Malcolm Garcia, Jess Walter, Jesus Christ Superstar, John Brandon, Jowhor Ile, Kelsey Dake, Letters, Marriage Trouble, Matt Rota, Max Shoening, McSweeney's, Memoirs, Native Americans, Racism, Robots, Ryan Boudinot, Sex, Short Story, Sibylla Brodzinsky, Steven Millhauser, Swans, Tara June Winch, Thomas McGuane, Tony Birch, Track, Violence, Viveca Mellegard, War on December 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »

41

SOUNDTRACK: SWANS-Live at All Tomorrow’s Parties, October 2, 2011 (2011).

swansatpBefore Swans released this year’s amazing The Seer, they toured supporting their previous album (with a number of songs from The Seer included). This set has two songs from The Seer, “The Apostate” and “The Seer, Pt 1” together they comprise 50 minutes of the nearly two hour show.  The set also includes “No Words No Thoughts” (24 minutes) and “Jim” (a teeny 6 minutes) from 2010’s My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky.  The final track is an eleven minute version of “I Crawled” which goes all the way back to 1984’s Young God EP.

I would never have thought of Swans as a jam band, and yet here they are, with 5 songs in 2 hours.  Although unlike jam bands, they aren’t showing off their musical chops or noodling solos, they are created expressive and moody soundscapes–not as scary as in days of old, but very intense nonetheless.

The set sounds great, although I imagine this would be more enjoyable to watch than to listen to (there a great swaths of music where there’ s not a lot happening).  I wonder what Gira is doing during these stretches.  My friend Phil (or Phillipe Puleo as Gira calls him here) plays drums on the album and on this tour, and I have to say he must be exhausted–man he hits the drums hard.

I listened to this show before I heard The Seer, but it didn’t prepare me for what the album would contain.  Now having heard that album, I appreciate this live show even more–they really master these long songs.  I am going to have to try to see them the next time they swing by.  I admit I used to be afraid at the thought of seeing them because their early music was so intense, but this seems to be a different Swans now, one that an old man like myself could even handle.

The set is no longer available on NPR.

[READ: December 10, 2012] McSweeney’s #41

The cover of this issue has a series of overlapping photographs of lightning.  I didn’t really look at it that closely at first and thought it was an interesting collage.  Indeed, Sarah said it looked like a science textbook of some kind.  But when I read the colophon, I learned that Cassandra C. Jones finds photographs of lightning and (without manipulating them digitally) places them together so that the lightning bolts create shapes.  And indeed, that is what is going on.  And it’s amazing!

The cover’s pictures create a greyhound running (front and back covers show different stages of the run).  There’s also circles and a rabbit running.  It’s incredibly creative and very cool.  You can see some of her work at her site.

The feature of this issue is that there are four stories from Australian Aboriginal Writers, a group that I can honestly say I have never read anything from before.  There’s also beautiful art work accompanying most of the longer stories, three gritty non-fiction pieces and some letters, most of which aren’t very silly at all.

LETTERS (more…)

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