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Archive for the ‘Summer’ Category

2011 Fiction Issues (The Walrus, July/August 2011 & New Yorker, June 13 & 20, 2011)

Posted in Aleksandar Hemon, Alexi Zentner, Alexisonfire, All Songs Considered, Canadian Content, City and Colour, Damian Rogers, Death, Edward P. Jones, Fishing, Five Dials, Food, George Saunders, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jennifer Egan, Jhumpa Lahiri, Junot Díaz, Kathleen Winter, Lauren Groff, Marriage Trouble, Michael Lista, New Yorker, Nostalgia, Poetry, Salvatore Scibona, Summer, Téa Obreht, The Walrus, Vladimir Nabokov on June 19, 2011| 3 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: CITY AND COLOUR Live at the Sasquatch Festival, May 29, 2011 (2011).

City and Colour have a new album coming out soon.  So it’s kind of surprising that this seven-song show is three songs from their previous album, two from their first album, a cover, and only one new track (“Fragile Bird”).

This is the first time I’ve heard City and Colour live with a band (most of the recordings I have by them are just Dallas Green solo).  It’s nice to hear how powerfully they work together (giving some of those songs an extra push).

Despite the brevity of the set (and the amusing banter about airport etiquette) you get a pretty good sense of what the “pretty-voiced guy” from Alexisonfire can do on his own.   I found the cover, Low’s “Murderer,” to be a really perfect choice–one that suits the band and their slightly-off harmonies, rather well.

I’m looking forward to their new release–“Fragile Bird” is another beautiful song.  But in the meantime, this is a good place to hear what they’ve been up to.

[READ: early June 2011] 2011 Fiction Issues

Five Dials seems to always generate coincidences with what I read. Right after reading the “”Summer’ Fiction” issue from Five Dials, I received the Fiction Issue from the New Yorker.  A few days later, I received the Summer Reading Issue from The Walrus.

I’m doing a separate post here because, although I am going to post about the specific fictions, I wanted to mention the poetry that comes in The Walrus’ issue.  I have no plan to write separate posts about poetry (I can barely write a full sentence about most poetry) so I’ll mention them in this post.

The main reason I’m drawing attention to these poems at all is because of the set-up of The Walrus’ Summer Fiction issue.  As the intro states: “We asked five celebrated writers to devise five guidelines for composing a short story or poem. They all traded lists–and played by the rules.”  I am so very intrigued at this idea of artificial rules imposed by an outsider.  So much so that I feel that it would be somewhat easier to write a story having these strictures put on you.  Although I imagine it would be harder to write a poem.

The two poets are Michael Lista and Damian Rogers.  I wasn’t blown away by either poem, but then I don’t love a lot of poetry.  So I’m going to mention the rules they had to follow. (more…)

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Five Dials Number 9: The Fiction Issue (2009)

Posted in Advice, Alain de Botton, Alice Hoffman, Anna Kelly, B.S. Johnson, Bao Ninh, Books about writers, Chloe Aridjis, Craig Taylor, Daniel Kehlmann, David Shields, David Vann, Death, Essays, Fears, Five Dials, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Harper's, Helen Oyeyemi, James Kelman, Language, Letters, Marriage Trouble, Philip Langeskov, Philip Roth, Poetry, Rainer Maria Rilke, Shane Jones, Short Story, Simon Prosser, Summer, Teenage Fanclub, Translation, William S. Burroughs on June 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TEENAGE FANCLUB-Shadows (2010).

Back in the 90s, Teenage Fanclub released a few noisy, feedbacky records that were quintessential 90s alt rock.

Since then they have mellowed considerably, and this album is one of their most mellow to date. Usually for me this kind of mellowing is a sign that I’m done with a band; however, Teenage Fanclub’s songwriting gets better with every disc.  And these folky tracks are all fantastic.

What’s neat about the arrangement of the album is that each of the three members of the band writes four songs.  They are collated so that you cycle through each singer before repeating. You get maximum diversity–and it’s easy to tell which songwriter is your favorite.

The opening two songs, “Sometimes I Don’t Need to Believe in Anything” and “Baby Lee” are two wonderful upbeat pop confections.  They sound very different and yet both are infused with wonderful pop chops.

It seems that Blake is my favorite songwriter on this disc. He did “Baby Lee”, “Dark Clouds” (a pretty piano based number) and by far the prettiest song on the disc “When I Still Have Thee.”  It’s an amazingly catchy folk song that sounds timeless (and even has the great couplet: “The Rolling Stones wrote a song for me/It’s a minor song in a major key.”

That’s not to dismiss the other songwriters at all.  In fact, hearing their different takes on pop music is really pretty amazing.  It’s a shame that it takes them so long to put albums out (about 5 years these days).

[READ: June 10, 2011] Five Dials Number 9

Five Dials Number 8, The Paris Issue, was pretty big (45 pages), but it had a lot of pictures.  Five Dials Number 9 is also pretty big (41 pages) and it’s (almost) all text.  For this is the Fiction Issue, and there are a lot of short stories in here.

CRAIG TAYLOR-A Letter from the Editor: On ‘Summer Reading’ and Fiction Issues.
Since most of what I talk about in the introduction to these posts is covered in Taylor’s Letter from the Editor, I figured I’d switch formats and start talking about his letter right away.  In this letter, Taylor talks about the serious pitfalls of  ‘Summer Reading’: We pledge to read mammoth books over the summer, but really we never finish War and Peace over the summer, do we? (except those of us who finished Infinite Summer, am I right?).  And so, this Fiction Issue was released in December (finally, a date is given to a Five Dials!).  Taylor briefly talks about all of the authors who contributed (including a pat on the back to Five Dials for securing the rights to a Philip Roth contribution in its first year of publication).  He also talks about the essay from David Shields that is decidedly anti-fiction.   And the final note is that Taylor’s own father has a piece in this issue (nepotism is alive and well!) (more…)

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Marni Jackson–“Bob Dylan Goes Tubing” (The Walrus, July/August 2007)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Bob Dylan, Broken Bells, Canadian Content, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Marni Jackson, Short Story, Summer, The Walrus on May 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BROKEN BELLS Live at SXSW, March 17, 2010 (2010).

The only disappointing thing about this download from NPR’s All Songs Considered is that it consists of only three songs now.  I guess the band (or more likely the label) didn’t want the whole show streaming or downloadable, so they let us have three songs (the original show was ten).

But three is better than nothing.  The excerpt includes “The High Road,” “The Ghost Inside” and “October.”

The band sounds great in this setting.  I’m unclear just who all is playing live, but the page says that the live band is a six piece (with Danger Mouse jumping from drums to keyboards and back again).  They reproduce the songs very well, but at the same time they’re not just mimicking the album.

It’s a nice teaser to want to see them live.

[READ: April 4, 2011] “Bob Dylan Goes Tubing”

Today is Bob Dylan’s 70th birthday.  It’s not often that I get a story that coincides with a day quite so nicely.  Happy birthday, Bob.

This begins as a delightfully weird little story and develops into a strangely profound story about family and celebrity.

A family is renting a vacation home by Lake Sturgeon for the summer.  The mother notices a man on a raft who is floating towards them.  And she says that from a distance the guy looks like Bob Dylan, only older.  (He is older, her husband ponts out).

When the man gets closer, he reveals himself to indeed be Bob Dylan.  Well, he doesn’t reveal himself to be Dylan, he just is Dylan. And he accepts their hospitality and doesn’t make a fuss.  He thinks that he’s on a different lake (Lake Kashagawigamog), but he seems content where he is.

And that’s when their son Ryan, introduces him to the fun of tubing.

There is a lot of humor to the story (it was a National Magazine Award Nominee in the humor category), but it’s not a very funny story.  Obviously the premise of Bob Dylan tubing s quite funny, but as the story continues its proves itself to be not so funny.

For Dylan won’t leave. He stays in their house, and the family is basically paying for his food and cigarettes.  (Okay, that is quite funny).  He’s a good companion for the family (especially Ryan, whom he is teaching to play guitar), but he has never once offered to pay for anything.  (No even a cheque when he leaves?)

As the story and the summer draw to a close, some of Dylan’s loneliness is revealed.  And the story ends on a poignant yet positive note.

It’s really quite a nice story.  I wonder what won the Award that year.

It’s available here.

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Steven Millhauser–“Getting Closer” (New Yorker, January 3, 2011)

Posted in Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, My Bloody Valentine, New Yorker, Short Story, Steven Millhauser, Summer on January 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA-“Stained Glass Body” (2010).

This album, Love is a Stream, came in at #8 on Viking’s Top Ten albums.  Viking references My Bloody Valentine in his description of this song, and it is an excellent frame of reference.

This song sounds like My Bloody Valentine if you removed the songs.  Take away the drums and the vocals and just leave the swirling, mesmerizing washes of sound, and you get this really cool and captivating song.

As you might expect, this is background music, and yet it is background music that draws you into it.  It has texture and depth and you can feel yourself getting enveloped in the music.

Often it seems like music like this is simple, almost inconsequential, yet there’s something about the way Cantu-Ledesma manipulates these simple washes of sound that make them something more than just notes on a keyboard. Cranking this up very loud in a snug room on a cold sunny day would be pretty awesome.

[READ: January 2, 2011] “Getting Closer”

This is a simple story about a boy trying to make a grand statement.  In fact, there’s very little to the story plotwise except for a boy psyching himself up to begin the summer.

Jimmy is nine, going on ten.  It’s summer time and his family has gone to Indian Cove for a summer vacation.  He has made a deal with himself that summer, or perhaps something more nebulous like “fun” would not begin until a certain point was reached.  He is excited at knowing that “this is it” and willfully wants to put that off as long as possible.

He inches closer and closer, metaphorically and literally, willing himself not to reach that moment when the day, the excitement, the summer, begins. (more…)

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Jonathan Franzen–“Hissing of Summer Lawns” (New Yorker, October 11, 2010)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Essays, Funny (ha ha), Jonathan Franzen, New Yorker, Summer, The Fun Years on January 20, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE FUN YEARS-“Breech on the Bowstring” (2010).

This album (with the awesome title), God Was Like, No came in at number 5 on Viking’s Top Ten.  It is a kind of ambient music, except that the notes are a fast staccato instead of long-held notes.  According to the radio show, the band consists of just guitar effects and turntables (another duo!).  In the beginning of the song, it’s impossible to tell which is which with these noises.

The music is quite pretty if slightly unsettling.  Over the 7 minutes of the track, you can feel it building and building, getting louder and louder, without really changing the dynamic all that much (except you can hear more and more details in the music).  Although by the 6 minute mark, the noise tends to overpower the nicer earlier music and the wall of sound become more and more ominous.

It takes a couple of listens, but it gets better and better with each one.

[READ: December 30, 2010] “Hissing of Summer Lawns”

Just when I think I’m done with Franzen, he drags me back in.

This one page anecdote in the Something Borrowed category is actually the shortest of all of them.  It continues with my favorite aspect of Franzen’s writing: his young adulthood.

In this case, he talks about his struggling years, when he would borrow people’s houses.  He house sat for a professor who was on vacation and wanted someone to make sure their son didn’t party while they were away.  The son, who showed up after a couple of days, put Franzen in his place with a blistering stare.

But the main part of the story comes when he agrees to house sit for friends.  His only real duty was to mow their lawn which he immediately neglects to do.  Soon the lawn is out of control.  And worse, when he finally goes to cut the jungle, the lawn had been infected by earth-burrowing hornets. (more…)

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Lisa Moore–“Mask” (The Walrus, July/August 2010)

Posted in Arcade Fire, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Lisa Moore, Neil Young, New Yorker, Summer, The Walrus, Zeus on June 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ZEUS-“Kindergarten” (2010).

Continuing my march through CBC Radio 3: The radio announcer dude said that this album might make the long list for the Polaris Prize.

Zeus is a Toronto based band that has worked as a backup band for one of the guys from Broken Social Scene.  This is an acoustic guitar/quietly distorted electric guitar track that’s poppy and fairly commercial.

I wasn’t all that inspired by it, until near the end where these wild backing vocals come in (and it gets something of an Arcade Fire vibe).  The second song on Zeus’ page, “Marching Through Your Head” is much more promising.  A catchy bouncy pop track with enough weirdness to keep it interesting.

They do a cover of Genesis’ “That’s All” which is described as “raucous.”  And if you click on the link you’d be hard pressed to disagree with that assessment.

[READ: June 14, 2010] “Mask”

Hot on the heels of the New Yorker Summer Fiction Issue, I received this issue of The Walrus with their own Summer Fiction section called “Canadian Studies.”  This issue features nine authors.  They were all asked to write “the most Canadian story they could think of.”  Now, I’ll start out by saying I’m not Canadian, and I don’t want to suggest that I know what the most Canadian story should be like. At the same time, I read The Walrus, I watch a lot of Canadian TV, so I have a slight grasp of the culture.  So while I know a Canadian story isn’t going to be about igloos and elk, I’m certain that some more subtle stories will be lost on me.

Lisa Moore’s story is first in the collection.  It is quite short.   And I didn’t think it was especially Canadian, although perhaps, given one of my Vancouver friends’ proclivities, it is. (more…)

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John Barth–“Lost in the Funhouse” (1967)

Posted in David Foster Wallace, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), John Barth, Meta, Postmoderism, Short Story, Summer, The Beatles on May 20, 2010| 4 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: THE BEATLES-Beatles for Sale (1964).

After the riotous fun of A Hard Day’s Night, I expected that this disc would not only continue the fun, but also be full of songs that I’d heard all the time on the radio.

But wow, this disc is kind of a downer.  “I’m a Loser.”  Really? It’s catchy as all get out but what happened to these guys in this last year?  “Baby’s in Black.”  Wow, these guys are serious now.  The opener, “No Reply” is all about getting rejected.  And “I’ll Follow the Sun” is about leaving and losing a friend.

But there are some good times as well. The cover of “Rock n Roll Music” is a little too stiff for such a rollicking song (kind of like how “Roll Over Beethoven was a little too stiff previously).  But “Eight Days a Week” is a rocking good time.  Fun for all and the first sign that the fun Beatles haven’t grown up completely.

The second half of the disc I barely recognized at all.  One or two songs were kind of familiar, but I wasn’t singing along with abandon.

Yet despite my unfamiliarity, the disc shows remarkable progression in songwriting, in structure (and even recording techniques–again, the liner notes were really informative about the technology they used).  I doubt many people consider this their favorite Beatles disc, but I think it’s a fine transition into what’s to come.

It’s also quite surprising to see how much their hair has grown in a year.

[READ: May 16, 2010] “Lost in the Funhouse”

I read this short story because it is something of the foundation of David Foster Wallace’s story “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way.”  This story is part of Barth’s larger collection also called Lost in the Funhouse.  And, based on this story, I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the collection.  But this story works in an of itself and, since it forms the backbone of the other story I’m going to mention it by itself.

This story is written in a thoroughly postmodern way.  As the story opens, with the enigmatic line, “For whom is the funhouse fun?,” we are introduced to Ambrose.  Ambrose has come with his family to the shore for “the holiday, the occasion of their visit is Independence Day, the most important secular holiday of the United States of America.”

Shortly after this italicized part, the story interrupts itself with this:

Italics are also employed, in fiction stories especially, for “outside,” intrusive, or artificial voices, such as radio announcements, the texts of telegrams and newspaper articles, et cetera. They should be used sparingly.

And so it goes with the rest of the story.  The author (one assumes) interrupts the flow of the narrative, letting the reader know that there is far more at foot here than just the story of Ambrose at the beach.

The story eventually gets back to the matter at hand: Ambrose, his brother Peter and Peter’s girlfriend Magda are driving with Ambrose’ parents to Ocean City.  This trip is made three times a year but this is the first time that Magda has come with them.  They play car games (spot the towers), and generally act like a family on a long car trip.

At this point the author interrupts again to note that:

So far there’s been no real dialogue, very little sensory detail, and nothing in the way of a theme. And a long time has gone by already without anything happening; it makes a person wonder.

Oh, and all along it is quite apparent that Ambrose is, as the title suggests, lost in the funhouse at the beach.

When they finally arrive at the beach, there has been an oil spill and no one wants to swim, so they stay on the boardwalk (not under the boardwalk).  Then the family decides to go for a swim in the pool.  At which point the author jumps in again and stops the meandering:

There’s no point in going farther; this isn’t getting anybody anywhere; they haven’t even come to the funhouse yet. Ambrose is off the track, in some new or old part of the place that’s not supposed to be used; he strayed into it by some one-in-a-million chance….

When the funhouse is finally mentioned as an activity, there is general hilarity and nudging and winking about what happens in funhouses (which Ambrose is too young to understand).  At this point, it’s worth noting that Ambrose has a pretty big crush on Magda.  He has spent many an afternoon with her while the three of them were playing (although she clearly thinks nothing of it).  When he suggests that he and Magda go in the funhouse together, everyone wonders what he’s thinking, but no one says anything (again, he’s too young).

Ultimately, the three kids make it to the funhouse, the entrance of which blows girls’ skirts up (and then Ambrose realizes the point of the funhouse!).  And he realizes that the funhouse is not meant for him.  And then he gets lost.

From there the story turns into fantasy, imagination and future possibilities.

It’s a fascinating piece of work.  I certainly wouldn’t want all of my stories to be constructed in this way, but I really appreciate this point of view and the, in my opinion, funny intrusions that break the fourth wall.

For reasons I’m not entirely clear about, the whole story is available here as a Word doc.

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Stephen Fry in America: Fifty States and the Man Who Set Out to See Them All (2009)

Posted in Cars, Culture Shock, Essays, Fishing, Food, Fugazi, Funny (ha ha), Gangsters, Ghosts, Gods, Greed, History, Humiliation, Late Late Show, LGBTQ, Magic, Minnesota, Nature, Nostalgia, Oddities, Political Humor, Prison, Religion, Set in New Jersey!, South, Stephen Fry, Stephen Fry in America, Summer, Travel, Word usage, Yuck! on April 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FUGAZI-13 Songs (1990).

I was so blown away by that first Fugazi disc that I immediately ran out and got this collection of their first two EPs.

The strange thing to me is that even though I enjoy the disc, nothing on it really stands out as all that memorable.  I feel like Repeater was such a strong release that these earlier tracks pale somewhat.

I’ve listened to this disc a number of times over the last few days and nothing really stands up and grabs me like Repeater still does.

I wound up buying two more Fugazi discs after this, but I’m pretty sure the reason I stopped buying their music was from this same feeling: the songs were all good, rocking, indie music, but there was nothing terribly memorable about them.

[READ: April 15, 2010] Stephen Fry in America

I first heard about this book when Stephen Fry appeared on The Late Late Show.  This book was very casually plugged as Fry’s attempt to visit every State in the U.S.  It turns out that this book is the companion piece to a six part BBC TV series of the same title (which I have not seen).  Although the TV series makes the existence of this document much more understandable.  Because although everyone wants to travel to every state in the union, the only way it would ever be accomplished in the fashion is for a TV show (even a book wouldn’t get quite this treatment if there were no TV show).

Stephen Fry was almost born in America (in New Jersey, in fact, where he believes he would have been Steve, rather than Stephen).  And he has always felt a connection to the States.  So, Stephen Fry, (in my head the quintessential Brit) brings a film crew and his classic British Big Black Taxi to see all of the States.  He begins in Maine and travels in an interesting manner, zig-zagging across the country.   He tends to visit the places/events/sites that each state is known for.  And, like any good TV show, he participates in the activities (he lobsters, he rides horses, his deals blackjack) and makes a tit of himself. (more…)

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Matthew Loux–Salt Water Taffy 3: The Seaside Adventures of Jack and Benny: The Truth About Dr. True (2009)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Adventure, Barenaked Ladies, Boredom, Canadian Music, Children's Books, Death, Funny (ha ha), Geddy Lee, Ghosts, Gord Downie, Gordon Lightfoot, Graphic Novel, Lyle Lovett, Martin Tielli, Matthew Loux, Mystery, Ongoing, Rheostatics, Rush, Short Books, Summer, Supernatural, Trilogy on March 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BARENAKED LADIES-Snacktime (2008).

The Barenaked Ladies have always been like naughty kids.  So, it seems almost too obvious for them to make a kids’ album.  But almost as if they want to continue being naughty, this kids album is quite smart, not just a collection of cute kids songs.

There’s a wild mix of very specifically kiddie-aimed tracks and other amusing pop cultural commentary (or jokes from kiddies past).  For instance, the opening track “789” plays on the wonderful joke of why was 6 afraid of 7.

There’s also a lot of the more delicate sounding BNL songs that came to dominate their later albums: “Pollywog in a Bog” is a cute upbeat little ditty, “Here Come the Geese” is a pretty typical Kevin Hearn track (even his adult songs sound like children’s songs).

But I think the highlight comes from when Ed Robertson and Steven Page join forces.  Robertson is the king of the goofy guys and Steven Page’s songs are always wonderful, but typically less silly.  So “I Don’t Like” is a serious look at things we don’t like (salmon, heights), while the fantastic “Crazy ABCs” is a funny and clever look at words that start with silent letters: “D is for djinn E is for Euphrates F is for Fohn etc.”

I also enjoy Roberston’s solo songs like “There’s a Word for That.”  Robertson is clearly a fan of wordplay, and this song highlights that: “There’s a word for that…little dented skin between my upper lip and nose.”

My favorite song of the disc is “The Canadian Snacktime Trilogy.”  All kinds of famous (and non famous) people tell us what their favorite snacks are.  The contributors are listed here, and they include: Geddy Lee, barbecue potato chips; Lyle Lovett, watermelon; Martin Tielli, olives; Gordon Downie, peanut butter & crackers; “Weird Al” Yankovic, honey roasted peanuts and Gordon Lightfoot, pasta.  What fun!

It’s an overall enjoyable album for kids, full of mostly hyper songs and sounds quite a lot like a typical BNL effort.

[READ:February 27, 2010] Salt Water Taffy: The Truth About Dr. True

I have yet to mention the website for this series.  So, now I’m mentioning it, and I’m also mentioning Matt Loux’s page too.  It’s a great resource for all of the books and has many sample images and pages.

I adore this children’s graphic novel series.  Each story adds amazing depth to this seemingly quaint seaside town.  Eleven year-old Jack and 8-year-old Benny are on vacation at a boring seaside town.  But mysterious things are always coming up when the kids go snooping.

In this case Benny uncovers an ancient (empty) bottle of Dr. True’s magic elixir.  (I love that Jack sneers at Benny for digging in a garbage pile, when he would have really loved to be digging in it, too).  Dr True is the ancestor of True’s Taffy shop.

While this history of the island is unfolding, we also hear the history of another famous island resident: Captain Holister.  The captain is Chowder Bay’s real hero, with a statue of him erected in the town square and everything.  The boys’ favorite new friend, fisherman Angus is directly related to him.  (more…)

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Matthew Loux–Salt Water Taffy 2: The Seaside Adventures of Jack and Benny: A Climb Up Mt. Barnabas (2008)

Posted in Adventure, Bruce Cockburn, Canadian Music, Carole King, Children's Books, Eliza Gilkyson, Gord Downie, Graphic Novel, Greg Brown, Guy Davis, John Gorka, Lucy Kaplansky, Lynn Miles, Matthew Loux, Nature, Neil Young, Ongoing, Oni Press, Steve Earle, Summer, Supernatural, The Wailin' Jennys, Tom Waits on February 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK—DOWN AT THE SEA HOTEL (2007).

This has rapidly become one of my favorite CDs for our kids.  It’s a collection of lullabies written by some great artists with performances by: Guy Davis, Lucy Kaplansky, John Gorka, Eliza Gilkyson, The Wailin’ Jennys and Lynn Miles.  They play either solo or in groups to create a wonderful collection of tracks which maintains an overall cohesive sound.

It’s nice to have a collection that, although it contains many different singers, retains a similar style, a style that feels like a group of folk singers playing together just to get you to relax.

The songwriters include: Greg Brown, Tom Waits, Bruce Cockburn, Gord Downie, Neil Young, Carole King, Steve Earle and more.  It’s a magical collection of songs. Perfect for any bedtime routine.  The only problem with it is that my daughter usually falls asleep before we get to the end, so I don’t know the last five or six tracks all that well (but I know the first batch from start to finish).

I also recently learned that you can get a very cool edition of this CD in a book format. It is an illustrated edition of the title song and it comes complete with the full CD attached in the back. The book is quite beautiful (and I wish I had gotten that version instead of just the CD).

[READ: January 26, 2010] Salt Water Taffy 2

This fantastic kids graphic novel series just gets better and better.  I enjoyed this story so much that I decided to read it to my 4 year old son.  I removed a few paragraphs and edited for length but he really enjoyed the story…leading him down a garden path to comic book enjoyment.

This book continues the story of 8 year old Jack and 11 year old Benny on their family summer vacation in the seemingly dull seaside town of Chowder Bay.   The first volume laid out enough backstory for you to know that the town is boring as all get out for the kids, with no TV even!  But the locals have plenty of adventure for the kids to get up to.

As this book opens, the family is on a nature hike.  The boys are collecting feathers to compete with Fisherman Angus’ fantastic collection of a feather from every (species of) bird on the island.  But they are easily distracted from this quest when their dad reveals that Angus isn’t the only one on the island with good stories.  For indeed, he himself once climbed to the top of Mt Barnabus (the tallest mountain around) where he fought Barnabus, the giant eagle, for the hat that he is wearing at this very moment.

The boys are awed by this and now hold thie rdad in slightly higher esteem.

Later, when the kids are playing (and one of them is wearing that very same hat), Barnabus the giant eagle swoops down and take the hat right of his head.  He proceeds to fly up to his cave on th etop of the mountain.

The rest of the book covers the boys’ decision to climb that mountain by themselves and rescue that hat.  They encounter many many dangers on the way (I edited down the wolf section a wee bit)but what they find at the top of th emounatin is by turns frightening and hilarious.  (I especially enjoyed the cameo of the little lobsters from Book1).

The resolution to the story is great, the drawings are great, and the entire sprit of the book if one of advneture and fun.  It’s a real treat to read, and I’m delighted that there;s a 3rd book already available.

The first story laid out all of the details of where and who they are.  However,

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