August 23, 2023 by Paul Debraski
[LISTENED TO: August 2023] Protect the Prince
It had been a while since I listened t o Book One of this series. I feel like a book holds up well if you can get caught right up with the action without needing any kind of refresher. And so it was with this.
The book picks up about six months after the events of Book 1. Evie is now Queen Everleigh. And she is slowly coping with her new role.
The first section of the book is called The First Assassination Attempt.
Everleigh has announced her first royal meeting of the royal families and assorted other important people. The royal families suck and are always conniving for something. And before she can even begin speaking to them, one of the men steps up and tries to undermine her authority. Among other things he suggests that his son should accompany her on her upcoming trip abroad (which would more or less solidify them as a dating and soon to be married couple).
Everleigh is thrown off at first but soon regains her composure long enough to walk among the royals and reminding them of all of the ways they have insulted her to her face in the past.
But before she can savor even this minor victory, an assassin arrives with poison. But Everleigh can smell poison and does not take the bait. Soon enough they are fighting and when the assassin (who was sent by her nemesis Maven) realizes that there is no way out for her, she takes her own life rather than be captured. Continue Reading »
Posted in Assassination, Audiobooks, Death, Fantasy, Jennifer Estep, Lauren Fortgang, Magic, Revenge, Romance, Sex, Supernatural, Trilogy, Unfinished series, Violence | Leave a Comment »
August 22, 2023 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.
[READ: August 21, 2023] Remnants of Filth
First. Unpack the name.
The author of this book is Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (or Roubaobuchirou). In Chinese that is 肉包不吃肉 which literally translates into Meatbun Doesn’t Eat Meat. This last phrase is what she is commonly known as in the United States.
In Chinese the book was called Yuwu (余污) which translates into Pollution. And the English title is Remnants of Filth.
Second. What is this?
This book is danmei. According to The Guardian:
Danmei is romantic fiction about men or male beings – ghosts, foxes, even a mushroom – falling in love, written almost exclusively by and for straight women and is the most popular genre of fiction in China.
Meatbun Doesn’t Eat Meat is a very popular danmei writer and her first book series The Husky and His White Cat Shizun is a bestseller.
This series is about two soldiers. Mo Xi and Gu Mang. Continue Reading »
Posted in China, Danmei, Drinking, 肉包不吃肉, Humiliation, LGBTQ, Magic, Magical Realism, Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat, Military, Romance, Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou, Rui, Sex, Translation, Violence, Yu | Leave a Comment »
August 21, 2023 by Paul Debraski
[ATTENDED: August 19, 2023] Parliament-Funkadelic featuring George Clinton
I’ve had Parliament’s Greatest Hits since like 1990. I have a couple Funkadelic albums. I am in no way a huge fan, but I’ve always liked them and I’ve always thought that George Clinton was a pretty great guy. I realize 100% that the P-Funk heyday was literally decades ago. And of course I knew that any P-Funk concert in 2023 was going to be an imitation of what the band(s) got up to back in the day.
But since George was going to be there and his name was on the marquee, I assumed that this show would be a 21st century update to the classic P-Funk show. And with the technology (and costumery) available, it seemed like this could be an outrageous spectacle.
And it was not.
Well, it was a spectacle. There were some forty people on stage over the course of the night. Not even all of them were musicians. There were people ringing in the stage (one woman had her purse with her) who I’m guessing were VIPs or who won a contest or something. When the band first came out there were four horn players, two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, a keyboardist, a disembodied voice (eventually I located him), four backing vocalists and George himself.
These musicians came and went throughout the show, sometimes being replaced by others. And who even knew what was going on in the back where people were unseeable. Continue Reading »
Posted in Blue Eye Extinction, Fishbone, Funkadelic, George Clinton, Montclair, NJ, Parliament, Wellmont Theater | Leave a Comment »
August 20, 2023 by Paul Debraski
[ATTENDED: August 19, 2023] Fishbone
I first heard of Fishbone from John Cusack wearing a Fishbone shirt in Say Anything (1989).
And it wasn’t just a random T-shirt
[Cusack didn’t like the boom-box scene]. In a last-ditch effort to convince his star to try the scene the way it was written, Crowe told Cusack that the song blaring from the stereo would be by the band Fishbone. At the time, the actor was a big fan of the ska group, and their music’s inclusion helped persuade him to give it a try. The shot worked, but the scene was still a long way from reaching its legendary form.
(While sources all agree that a Fishbone song was played from the boombox on-set, which song was used seems up for debate. AFI claims it was “Question of Life, Mental Floss says it was “Turn the Other Way” and Uproxx believes it to have been ”Bonin’ in the Boneyard.” For the sake of argument, we’ll trust Crowe, who said that “Party at Ground Zero” was the song used.)
Anyhow, I liked the logo and decided to check out the band (or at least that’s how I remember it). I loved their first EP with it’s funky dancey, naughty songs. And Truth and Soul followed to great success. Then it was their terrific The Reality of My Surroundings which sold me for good on Fishbone. They even had a pretty big hit with the very heavy “Swim” from the following album. So I’d been following Fishbone for about five years and hen kind of lost touch with them.
But those albums received a ton of play in those years and I never forgot how much I loved them.
So when I saw that they were still together (or reunited or whatever) I was surprised and delighted. There’s been a ton of lineup shuffling over the years, but as of this concert, four of the six original members are now back (or still) in the band. Continue Reading »
Posted in Blue Eye Extinction, Fishbone, Funkadelic, George Clinton, Montclair, NJ, Parliament, Wellmont Theater | Leave a Comment »
August 20, 2023 by Paul Debraski
[DID NOT ATTEND: August 20, 2023] Pixies / Modest Mouse / Cat Power
I saw Pixies for the first time in 28 years at The Stone Pony Summer Stage and it was glorious. I’ve since seen them two more times and I don’t feel the need to ever see them again. Even though each show has been very good, and there is some mixing up of songs, I feel like I’ve seen everything they’re going to show me.
I would see Modest Mouse every time they came around. The shows are totally different and each one feels like a new version of the band.
I have never really liked Cat Power (blasphemy!). She just doesn’t do anything for me.
With this line up, the nays overrode the yeas.
Recently I looked to see how much the tickets were, just in case I wanted to go and I found out it was sold out. So good for all of them.
Posted in Asbury Park, NJ, Cat Power, Modest Mouse, Pixies, The Stone Pony, The Stone Pony Summer Stage | Leave a Comment »
August 19, 2023 by Paul Debraski
[ATTENDED: August 19, 2023] Blu Eye Extinction
I had been looking forward to this show quite a lot. I’ve loved Fishbone for years and I assumed that PFunk would be a lot of fun.
At the last minute I found out that there was going to be a third band, Blu Eye Extinction opening as well. I was pretty tired going in so this wasn’t welcome news.
I walked in as they were playing and I rather liked their sound–a rock/funk/rap experience. Off t the side of the stage was a woman playing keys and singing backing vocals. But he singing style was… different. Kind of operatic and not exactly related to the melody. It was a puzzle for sure. So I looked them up and found this
Blu Eye Extinction is a NYC-based funk fusion band. The brainchild of Isotopia Records’ Constance Hauman who brings an unlikely combination of opera, jazz and funk to her keyboards and vocals, is only possible with the funk foundation and masterful grooves of the electric bass of James Jones. His unique style also encompasses his vocals, supporting Henry Ott’s rock guitars… If that isn’t enough, you add front man and emcee TJ Robinson on trombone, percussion and rap vocals, supported by JS Williams‘s rich trumpet w/ R&B vocals, and last but so not the least, Joshua Keitt’s metal-rock funk drums, it is no wonder that audience’s minds have been blown on the 50 UK and US shows since their debut at New Orleans Jazzfest April 29, 2022.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Blue Eye Extinction, Fishbone, Funkadelic, George Clinton, Montclair, NJ, Parliament, Wellmont Theater | Leave a Comment »
August 18, 2023 by Paul Debraski
[DID NOT ATTEND: August 18, 2023] The War on Drugs / Shakey Graves / Lucius / Steve Gunn
My wife and I saw The War on Drugs as our first show after the pandemic. And it was wonderful. We were seated in a terrible seats at The Met, but the show was chill and mellow and we sat far away and the music swept over us.
I wasn’t sure if we’d want to go to this show, though because Stone Pony Summer Stage is a questionable proposition. It’s a lovely venue but depending on the crowd, it can be terrible. Plus, I know that standing around for four bands can be exhausting. Especially since I wanted to see Lucius, but not necessarily Shakey Graves.
Steve Gunn is a musician who I thought I didn’t know, but I have seen a Tiny Desk of his. He plays a kind of slow acoustic guitar with an eastern-style drone. It’s slow and addictive but I don’t think I’d want to stand to hear it.
Lucius is a band that I’d like to see live but somehow keep missing, as they play every stage that I’m not going to.
Shakey Graves and Lucius were both at the Guster festival this past weekend. Which is kind of crazy. I had said that I didn’t want to see Shakey Graves, but when I re-read my thoughts about his Newport Folk performance from a few years ago, I remembered that I thought he’d be fun to see live–he’s great at getting the crowd psyched up.
But, honestly, we were happy to stay home on a Friday night.
Posted in Asbury Park, NJ, Lucius, Shakey Graves, Steve Gunn, The Head and the Heart, The Revivalists, The Stone Pony, The Stone Pony Summer Stage, The War on Drugs | Leave a Comment »
August 18, 2023 by Paul Debraski
[ATTENDED: August 18, 2023] Margaret Glaspy
I had been wanting to see Margaret Glaspy for a pretty long time. She last played Philadelphia in 2016, about two months before I heard her album. (Well, actually, she played Philly when opening for Ruston Kelly, ew). She was supposed to headline a tour back in 2020, but that show was postponed, so it’s not her fault that it took six years for me to see her.
It also takes her a pretty long time to put out new music. Her new album is only her third in seven years. She had been working on these songs for a while because she played a bunch of them when opening for Spoon last year.
She announced a new tour and is playing Underground Arts the same night I have a ticket for Explosions in the Sky. I’m still torn–they’re very different shows. But then WXPN announced she’d be doing a Free at Noon and I grabbed a ticket. I’ve often thought it’s not worth doing one of these–I mean it’s about three hours of my ay for a 30 minute show. But this one was especially fun because her album came out today and she signed them.
And the band sounded great!
I love how loud and brash her guitar sounds. I tend to think of her as a kind of soft-spoken singer, but her guitars really rock. Her new single “Act Natural” is so damned catchy with a great riff and a fun chorus. Like last time she opened with “I Didn’t Think So” and “Act Natural.” They are a great one-two punch of riffs and melody. Continue Reading »
Posted in Free at Noon, Margaret Glaspy, Philadelphia, PA, World Cafe Live | Leave a Comment »
August 17, 2023 by Paul Debraski
[ATTENDED: August 17, 2023] Otherworld Philadelphia
I had gotten an ad on Instagram for something called Otherworld. There was very little information about what it was, but it seemed like an immersive interactive art exhibit. My kids have both been to Meow Wolf in Denver and I imagined it would be something like that: Rooms where you looked at things and touched things and just marveled at everything around you.
Even some of the proper reviews of the place were deliberately vague. This was pretty much everything from ABC 6 News online:
“Otherworld” features more than 55 rooms and large-scale installations. Guests of all ages can roam at their own pace through the 40,000-square-foot location. More than 100 artists are working on the project.
So I purchased early bird tickets at a reduced rate and took the day off work and we headed into Philly (there’s AMPLE parking!!!)
We walked in and my first thought was (having just been to a Flaming Lips concert) that this building must be what the inside of Wayne Coyne’s head is like.
It was fantastic. Continue Reading »
Posted in Otherworld, Philadelphia, PA | Leave a Comment »
August 16, 2023 by Paul Debraski
[DID NOT ATTEND: August 16, 2023] Sigur Rós
Few bands are as amazing live as Sigur Rós. I never thought I would deliberately not get tickets to a Sigur Rósshow.
When they announced a limited tour of Sigur Rós with Wordless Music Orchestra (a 41 piece orchestra), I wanted to go immediately. I saw the closest show was New York, which is a pain in the butt. But it would be worth it. Then I saw how expensive the tickets were and I couldn’t bring myself to buy them. I realize that they are paying a 41 piece orchestra, but I just couldn’t do it.
It will either be the most transcendent thing in the universe or it may be too much–Sigur Rós is able to do some amazing things as a three piece after all.
Perhaps they’ll release a video of it.
Posted in Beacon Theatre, New York City, Sigur Rós | Leave a Comment »
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