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Archive for the ‘Volcanoes’ Category

Floor de Goede–Dancing on the Volcano (2012) translation (2022)

Posted in Floor de Goede, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Humiliation, LGBTQ, Oni Press, Photography, Romance, Travel, Volcanoes on June 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.

[READ: June 2023] Dancing on the Volcano

I feel like I haven’t really enjoyed that many books from Oni Press lately.  Although this one was pretty great–welcome back!

In 2004. Floor de Groete started a site doyouknowflo.nl where he published a daily comic.  he wrote about himself and his boyfriend Bas.  He loved doing it but he wanted to talk about more than just his daily life. So in 2012 he wrote this full graphic novel.  And now it is getting translated into English by Laura Watkinson.

The first chapter shows Floor (I love that he makes himself so very tiny) with a very large man, Sander.  They are working together to write an article about a volcano.  Floor is supposed to take pictures, but he is also greatly missing Bas.  It’s the first time they’ve been apart.  Sander, loves this trip and doesn’t care about Floor’s feelings at all.  Floor is easily aggravated and not afraid to let Sander know it.  Flo keeps thinking about how there’s only a few days left of the trip but he keeps missing out on all of the amazing things that Sander is enjoying (which makes him even more angry). (more…)

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Edward O. Wilson–Naturalist: A Graphic Adaptation [adapted by Jim Ottaviani & C.M. Butler] (2020)

Posted in Ants, Autobiographies, C.M. Butler, Death, Edward O. Wilson, End of the World, Environmentalism, Graphic Novel, Harvard University, Jim Ottaviani, mafmadmaf, New Guinea, Non-fiction, Stephen Jay Gould, SXSW, Universities, Volcanoes on July 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: mafmadmaf–“Rapture” (SXSW Online 2021).

I never intend to go to SXSW–I find the whole thing a bit much.  But I also appreciate it for the way it gives unknown bands a place to showcase themselves. NPR featured a half dozen artists online this year with this note:

This year, the South by Southwest music festival that takes over Austin, Texas every spring happened online. Couch By Couchwest, as I like to call it, was an on-screen festival, with 289 acts performing roughly 15-minute pre-recorded sets across five days in March.

This list was curated by Bob Boilen.  He also notes:

 I didn’t enjoy hearing loud, brash music while sitting on a couch the way I would in a club filled with people and volume, so I found myself engaging in more reflective music instead.

I’m going in reverse order, so mafmadmaf is next.

mafmadmaf is a Chinese modular synthesizer artist. I’m not sure I ever saw his face onscreen, but it didn’t matter: This seductive and spellbinding set was perfect in my living room. Seeing his modular synthesizer and its many patch cables set up in a beautiful garden was more entertaining than simply watching some knob-turning on its own. Artfully done.

Anyone who knows Bob knows he loves modular synths.  I really have no sense of how they work, so this is all a mystery to me.  But I agree that the setting is wonderful.  And the music is very cool.

This piece is 13 minutes long and while it is mostly washes of synth sounds, there’s some melodies (synthesized sounds of water drops and chimes).

The song morphs in interesting ways, especially after 4 and a half minutes when the musicians enters the screen and you start to see him do something to his setup.  This adds new sounds and even a pulsing almost-beat.

At around ten minutes things slow way down.

[READ: July 15, 2021] Naturalist

I saw this book in the library and grabbed it because I love Jim Ottaviani’s work.  He has written and illustrated a number of non-fiction graphic novels and they have all been terrific.  I love his drawing style–very clean lines and excellent detail.  I also love his ability to compact big ideas into small digestible chunks.

But I had never heard of Edward O. Wilson, which, after reading this, surprises me. He is not only a Pulitzer prize winning author, an innovator in the field of biology and a writer of a massive book about ants, he is also controversial (as we see later on) and a devoted environmentalist.

The book opens with a young Wilson growing up in Alabama.  From when he was little he was obsessed with ants.  There were lots of fire ants where he grew up and there are few things more fascinating than fire ants (the book is chock full of all of the scientific names for all of these ants).

When he was still young, playing around in nature, he went fishing and when he pulled a fish out of the water its spines poked him in the eye giving him a traumatic cataract–he wound up with full sight in one eye only.   But this seemed to get him to focus more minutely on smaller things–ants.

Staring in fourth grade  his father was shuffled around the country a lot so Edward made his home in many places around the south, eventually settling in Florida.

There he met a friend who was obsessed with butterflies–they were two budding entomologists. (more…)

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Georgina Beatty–“Shelter Seekers” (The Walrus, April 2020)

Posted in Argentina, Canadian Content, Coronavirus, End of the World, Environmentalism, Funny (ha ha), Futility, Gang Starr, Jeru the Damaja, Marriage Trouble, NPR/PRI/PBS, Pigs, Quarantine, Scholarship, Short Story, The Walrus, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Volcanoes on May 7, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: JERU THE DAMAJA-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #16 (April 30, 2020).

I’ve always liked Jeru the Damaja’s name; I find it very satisfying.  It’s amusing to me that with a name like that he raps about positive things.

He used the concert to share his inspiring philosophy of self-knowledge. Jeru drops lyrics about what it takes to achieve self-actualization in tough conditions for not just himself, but for the culture.

I don’t actually know any of his songs; this is a “medley of his classics.”  Jeru’s got a great, deep voice that adds a lot of strength to his lyrics.

Like Black Thought, Jeru sits in a chair, surrounded by his gear.  Unlike Black Thought, Jeru is in motion pretty consistently bobbing and waving his hand like he does care.

He starts with 50 seconds of “Can’t Stop the Prophet” after which he says “we need a superhero and we forget that the superhero resides within us.”  he encourages everyone to be creative in this time because idle hands do the devil’s work.  This is his lead into the 90 seconds of “Ain’t The Devil Happy.”

His prescient lyrics remain as relevant as ever as he addresses the deepening fissures of socioeconomic inequalities exposed by the coronavirus crisis.

He even updates the lyrics of “Scientifical Madness”

Mind Jah lick you with disease
So I inflict MC’s like Ebola Corona
Or some other man made cancer

He says he doesn’t want to be inside, but he’s grateful that he has a place to be because living outside is “So Raw.”  I really like the slow grooving beat of this song.

After the 90 seconds of “My Mind Spray” he says his mind is always working.  He’s always wondering if this and if that. But the old saying goes “If if’s were fifth, we’d all be drunk.”  In the song “If” he adds “If if was a spliff, we’d all get smoked up.”

He closes his set from his home in Berlin with a new song, “The Power,” and offers up a message we all need: “No matter who you are, the power resides in you…We can overcome anything if you put your mind to it, you just can’t get in your mind too much.” The prophet cannot be stopped.

“The Power” is a full song which was inspired by a things his mother used to say that he didn’t understand until he got older: “nothing matters except for how we treat people.”

[READ: May 6, 2020] “Shelter Seekers”

This story is written as a letter to the “scholarship liaison officer.”

The letter writer received a $4,000 Daniel White Foreign Study Scholarship via the Government of Canada.  The money was to fund three months in Argentina to study how the region is “adapting its approach to housing in the interest of sustainability.”

This letter is the final report which is “unconventional in form, long overdue and in excess of the stipulated two-page limit.”

The writer left her husband for three months to undertake this challenge.

On the flight to Patagonia ($1,297) she read the Award Holder’s Guide.  She imagined building clay houses and hanging out with her fellow researchers, drinking Fernet and Coke.  She even considered the idea of an affair with an attractive researcher.  (more…)

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Greg Jackson–“Poetry” (New Yorker, April 29, 2019)

Posted in Charles Baudelaire, Foot and Coles, Greg Jackson, LCD Soundsystem, Manchineel, New Yorker, Poetry, Poets, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Toro Y Moi, Volcanoes on April 29, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TORO Y MOI-Tiny Desk Concert #845 (April 29, 2019).

I have been hearing about Toro Y Moi for quite some time and yet I never got a sense what he (they) were like.  I also always assumed it was a duo (which apparently it is not).

Chaz Bear, who performs as Toro y Moi, is going to do what he feels. In preparation for his Tiny Desk concert, we were given two possible sound scenarios: aim to recreate the heavily electronic and lustrous aura that birthed his latest LP, Outer Peace or strip away the bells and whistles for an acoustic performance. The game-time decision was the latter and fans were treated to brand new iterations of these songs.

I had assumed that the music was dancey, so this acoustic rendition was a surprise.  Reading that blurb makes more sense.

Toro y Moi’s discography conveys that same unpredictability and showcases his affinity for a wide span of genres. While largely known as an early pioneer of chillwave, Outer Peace is anything but. It’s hard-hitting, funky and directly to the point, as is this Tiny Desk concert.

It’s true.  “Laws of the Universe” is as funky as anything (that bass!–Patrick Jeffords) with the stabs of piano (Tony Ferraro) really bring the melody home.  The drums (Andy Woodward) snap and pop and bring the song to life.  And I love the nod to LCD Soundsystem: “James Murphy is playing in My house.” (we should have all replied “my house”).

Stripping down such heavily produced songs could risk revealing weaknesses. In this case, the rhythms move just the same. Removing the Auto-Tune, synths and effects make way for some insightful songwriting that’s often hard to hear in the recorded version.

Like in “New House” which is “about wanting that gold.”  It comes across as such a simple song with simple but relatable lyrics.

I want a brand new house
Something I can not buy, something I can afford
I ain’t even make it off the jetway now
Phone’s been on blast like all day (Ring)
Why you gotta do this? Try to test me now
Right when I touchdown got anxiety (Fuck)
Follow signs out of the terminal now
JFK is a different animal now
Damn baggage claim is like a warzone now
Glad I packed light clothes, I’m on my own

He has a simple, quite vocal delivery here in this mellow song.

“Freelance” returns that funk in the bass with more nice piano punctuation of melody.  I love this verse:

No more shoes and socks, I only rock sandals
I can’t tell if I’m hip or getting old
I can’t hear you, maybe you could change your tone

For the final song they brought out a special guest (who I didn’t know).

With shaker in tow, Bear sat front and center at a stool to deliver four of my favorites from Outer Peace, including “Ordinary Pleasure,” with bongo assistance from Foots of Foot and Coles.

There is definitely a sameness to the set (are they all in the same chord?)  His quiet delivery and the spare piano are all there.  But each song has a moment that lets it stand out.

Like the funky bass and the insanely catchy chorus of “Ordinary Pleasure.”  The bass and ooohs have a very disco feel to it as you dance along to “Maximize all the pleasure, even with all this weather, nothing can make it better, maximize all the pleasure.”

I have since listened to all four songs and I found the Tiny Desk versions to be more enjoyable each time–except for “Ordinary Pleasure” because the disco is ramped up on the album and it’s impossible not to shake to it.

[READ: April 29, 2019] “Poetry”

There is so much going on in this story, that it’s amazing it keeps its coherence.

James and Celeste are on vacation near a volcano.  Possible rain suggested that Celeste would not enjoy the hike but, “so, frankly, did Celeste’s dislike of hikes.”  But the volcano was there and so they had to climb it.  Celeste could sit out out, of course, but “there was the looming question of marriage and children, after all and of the deeper compatibility of our interests.”

She had once told an acquaintance that he needed harrowing ordeals to prove he’s not on the road to death.

The hike was tough–straight up, it felt–and it did rain.  He hoped they would both hold on to the idea that suffering underwrote a deeper pleasure.  He promised it would be over soon and they would enjoy the taste of prune de Cythère.  (Even though neither one knew what it actually was). (more…)

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Norm Feuti–The King of Kazoo (2016)

Posted in #ITMFA, Alex Brettin, Children's Books, Graphic Novel, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Magic, Mild High Club, Norm Feuti, Political Humor, Science, Volcanoes on March 1, 2019| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD with MILD HIGH CLUB-Sketches of Brunswick East (2017).

It was August of 2017 and KGATLW had already released two albums–one that explored microtonal music and a another that was a heavy metal concept album that wound up destroying the universe.  Where do you go from there?

KGATLW decided to join forces with Mild High Club and the results are forty minutes of … rather delicate retro jazzy psychedelia.  The instruments on this album (in addition to the standard bass, guitar, keys and drums), include: mellotron, flute, electric piano, glass marimbas, microtonal organ, omnichord, bongos, güiro, maracas, and of course harmonica.

I didn’t know Mild High Club, which it turns out is basically one guy, Alex Brettin.  Andtheir music is according to All Music, “pleasantly woozy and laid-back, but shows a subtle attention to detail without being excessive or indulgent.”

So that explains the overall sound of the album which is certainly woozy and laid-back.  But there are so many elements of Gizz-ness that it’s obvious how much the two fed off each other.

Like the previous album, there is a song with parts, (Sketches of Brunswick East I, II, III) that recurs throughout the album.  The album opens an interesting pattern of a 1 minute song followed by a 3 minute song followed by a 1 minute song etc.  That first song is “Sketches of Brunswick East I.”  It has a great bass line (the album is chock full of interesting, compelling bass lines).  There’s an awesome flute melody that floats throughout the song as well as acoustic piano from Brettin  and light drums from Michael Cavanagh.

“Countdown” follows.  It’s a gentle, breezy number with Mackenzie’s falsetto vocals floating over the top of jazzy music.  “D-Day” introduces some of their microtonal riffs into this gentler version of the band. Brettin, Mackenzie, and multi-instrumentalist Joey Walker all play microtonal instruments on a theme that sounds like jazz, Middle Eastern folk and rock.  The microtonal riffs do add a but of a harsher edge to the songs.

“Tezeta” is the chanted refrain of the next song that is a crazily retro easy listening exploration with vibes and spoken words and a fantastic bridge that repeats throughout the song.  The spoken word goes

Come here, girl
Who are you?
I am true perspective
Followed by the chorus
Tezeta, tezeta
Tezeta, tezeta
Nostalgia, nostalgia
Tezeta, tezeta
and then :
Come here, boy
Are you God?
I am that which I am
After a middle section that’s kind of a slow jam with great bass lines and interesting guitar melodies, the song re-emerges at a faster tempo!

“Cranes, Planes and Migraines” is another one minute song with a nifty bass line and intricate.  The melody segues into the easy listening jazz y joy of “The Spider and Me” which has a great vocal zippy vocal melody and concurrent musical riff.

On “Sketches of Brunswick East II,” breaks the 1 minute/3 minute pattern.  This is a longer version of the main theme.  It opens with (I assume) a tape of an old jazzy standard which slows down until the main melody starts up. A Fender Rhodes-like electric piano plays, and you can’t tell from the credits whether it’s Mackenzie or Brettin playing because both contribute electric piano to the tune.

In fact, the credits are really fascinating for this because everyone plays on the record but some people far more than others.  See:

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard

  • Stu Mackenzie – mellotron (tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 13), vocals (track 2, 3, 6, 9, 12), bass guitar (tracks 1, 4, 7, 8, 13), flute (tracks 1 4, 7, 11, 13), wah-wah guitar (tracks 2, 6, 11, 12), electric piano (tracks 1, 7), acoustic guitar (tracks 4, 12), microtonal guitar (track 3), glass marimbas (track 5), microtonal organ (track 9), synthesizers (track 11), piano (track 11), electric guitar (track 13); recording, mixing (tracks 1, 3-13), production
  • Joey Walker – bass guitar (tracks 5, 6, 9, 10), shaker (tracks 3, 4), synthesizers (tracks 4, 5), microtonal bass guitar (track 3), glass marimbas (track 4), acoustic guitar (track 4), vocals (track 4), electric guitar (track 4), omnichord (track 11), piano (track 11), bongos (track 12), güiro (track 12); additional overdubbing
  • Michael Cavanagh – drum kit 1 (all tracks), bongos (tracks 1-5, 7-9, 11, 13), drum kit 2 (track 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9-13), floor toms (tracks 1, 3, 7, 9, 13), maracas (tracks 1, 7, 11, 13), cowbell (tracks 4, 5, 9), snare brushes (tracks 1, 8), vibraslap (tracks 1, 8), tambourine (tracks 3, 9)
  • Cook Craig – electric guitar (tracks 1, 4, 5, 8, 9), fretless bass guitar (track 8, 11), vocals (track 8), synthesizers (track 8), bass guitar (track 11); additional overdubbing
  • Lucas Skinner – electric piano (tracks 2, 4, 6, 9), mellotron (tracks 2, 6), piano (track 11); additional overdubbing
  • Ambrose Kenny-Smith – harmonica (tracks 10-12), vocals (track 6)
  • Eric Moore – drum kit 2 (track 4)

Mild High Club

  • Alex Brettin – electric piano (tracks 2, 6-8), synthesizers (tracks 2, 5, 7, 9), bass guitar (tracks 2, 8, 12), electric guitar (tracks 8, 10, 13), microtonal synthesizers (tracks 3, 5), optigan (tracks 3, 7), organ (tracks 4, 12), acoustic piano (track 1), electronic drum kit (track 7); additional overdubbing, mixing (track 2)
  • Andrew Burt – guitar (track 11)

You get the feeling that people popped in, did some things and then left.  Like usual main dude Ambrose Kenny-Smith is only on a couple of songs.  But I guess if you release five albums in a year, you can slack off a little for one of them.

The second part of the album features longer songs like “Dusk to Dawn on Lygon Street.”  Again, the bass is great and it works nicely with the gentle vocals and sweet backing vocals.   It segues into the longest song on the disc, the five-minute, “The Book,” which features more great bass lines and a psychedleic keyboard intro.  It feels very 60s mod as it opens.  The really weird singing from Stu is a fun change of pace, too.  I love that at 4 minutes in the song sorts of halts with just the staccato keyboard melody and spare drums pushing it forward  until everyone jumps in again.

“A Journey to (S)Hell” picks up the pace and volume a little bit.  It’s by far the most psychedelic freakout song on the record.  There’s tape fluctuation and manipulation and the sounds of every-increasing synth notes like something taking off.

“Rolling Stoned” (has no one thought of that title before?) returns to the gentle sound of the rest of the record with a pretty, easy-listening melody.  There’s a very 70s sounding synth solo and it’s all quite groovy.  “You Can Be Your Silhouette” is a gentle jazzy number with whispered vocals.  It really encapsulates the whole album in one track.

The disc ends with “Sketches of Brunswick East II,” which opens with tape rewinding and then a reprise of that original melody once more.  This time the pacing and rhythm is very different with a very rubber guitar sound and a wash of sort of woozy synths.  It’s a very soothing ending to a very soothing disc.

How many ideas do these guys have?

[READ: February 1, 2019] The King of Kazoo

I saw this graphic novel while I was in the kids section.  I knew it was aimed pretty young, but the drawing style appealed to me–classic cartoon animal style with round head, oval eyes, oversized ears and a reluctance to adhere to physics–just my thing.

The story opens with a young girl, Bing, reading a book when Gypsy, a blue bird, flies in.  It sings, she listens attentively and then says “Wow!  I wish I spoke bird.”  But then she uses some magic, touched the bird’s beak and is able to see everywhere that Gypsy has been.  Gyspy saw a tunnel on Mount Kazoo which no one knew was there.  Bing runs to tell King Cornelius (her father).

But the King is busy thinking Kingly thoughts and cannot be bothered.  He is mostly thinking of his legacy–what can he put his name on?  (was this written immediately after the 2016 election?)  He has some big ideas, but they are all terrible.  Although he just assumes that you have to be a king to appreciate them.

They are interrupted by Torq, the inventor.  Torq has just created the Gonkless carriage.  Bing wonders if it runs on Magic, but the King says that no, it runs on Science.  The King says that Science is magic that anyone can use.  Bing wonders what the fun in that is.

(more…)

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John Chad–Science Comics: Volcanoes: Fire & Ice (2016)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Children's Books, Electricity, End of the World, Environmentalism, Explorers, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Nature, Non-fiction, Oliver 'Tuku' Mtukudzi, Research, Science, Scientists, The Future, Tiny Desk Concert, Volcanoes on March 28, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: OLIVER ‘TUKU’ MTUKUDZI-Tiny Desk Concert #307 (September 30, 2017).

The blurb says that this guitarist is a legend, which makes me feel bad that I’ve never heard of him.

He seemed so casual — sitting on a bar stool behind the Tiny Desk, acoustic guitar in hand — but when you hear that husky voice, you’ll know why he’s a legend. Oliver Mtukudzi, or “Tuku” as his fans lovingly call him, plays spirited music, born from the soul of Zimbabwe. He’s been recording since the late 1970s, with about as many albums as his age: 60.

But Mtukudzi’s new record reveals a heavier heart than before: Sarawoga is his first recording since the loss of his son Sam. He and Sam — also a guitar player, as well as a saxophonist — had a special relationship touring together. But in March 2010, Sam Mtukudzi was killed in a car crash at the age of 21. Oliver Mtukudzi recently told NPR’s Tell Me More that “the only way to console myself is to carry on doing what we loved doing most. Sitting down [to] cry and mourn — I think it would have killed me.”

All three songs, “Todii,” “Huroi” and “Haidyoreke” are all gentle, with Tuku’s guitar playing mellow meandering melodies and his gravelly voice being soothing at the same time.  It’s interesting that for “Todii,” a more upbeat song he is clearly singing not in English, but the chorus (sung by the backing musicians) is “What Shall We Do.”  The backing musicians are there for percussion–congas, and maracas–and backing vocals.  And their vocals are done in a traditional way.

[READ: January 2, 2017] Volcanoes

This Science Comics book was very different from the previous two.  It was designed as a fictional story full of with factual information.

At first I found this really weird and off-putting, but by the end, I thought the story was pretty compelling and that the factual information was presented in an interesting and informative way.  And what I realized afterward was not that I didn’t like the fictional aspect but that I really didn’t like the illustrations.

For some reason, Chad chose to have the main characters with very distinctive and unusual features.  Aurora, the main character had a line of black hair down her forehead.  Her sister, Luna, has really really big eyes and their guardian, Pallas, has a block of gray hair.  I found all of these choices to be unsettling and unpleasing to look at (although it does allow us to tell them apart quite easily).  However the volcano and other nature images were really fantastic. (more…)

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