January 3, 2022 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: December 20, 2021] Weird Accordion to Al [Vanity Edtion]
This book came to my work and I said, Hey I have this! And then I said, but my cover is orange. What gives?
And then I saw that Rabin, inspired by Al’s Ill-Advised Vanity tour expanded this book. Or actually, since there is very little information about these books, perhaps he wrote them at the same time and released a shorter and longer version. But why would he do that?
The first 366 pages are the same but, (and here’s the thing that messed with my head) they are not exactly the same. Now, I didn’t read the same text in both books and compare them (that would be really insane). But I did flip through the book comparing paragraph and chapter breaks. The text appears to be the same in both books. BUT, the paragraphs are not! For reasons that I don’t understand, in book 1 some pages end with paragraph F, but in book 2, with the same exact text, the page now ends with paragraph E. Like the spacing of a period threw off all of the justification (Users of Word will know what I’m talking about).
So I’m assuming that both books are the same.
And then the new stuff was added to Book 2 (or taken out of Book 1, whatever).
Starting on page 368 we move on to Other Stuff. Continue Reading »
Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Batman, Comedy Bang Bang!, Film & TV, Food, Funny (ha ha), Nathan Rabin, Nostalgia, Pee Wee's Playhouse, Reggie Watts, Seinfeld, Smarty Pants, The Compleat Al, The Weird Al Show, UHF | Leave a Comment »
January 2, 2022 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: December 20, 2021] Weird Accordion to Al
After writing the “Weird Al” biography, with “Weird Al” himself, Nathan Rabin dug even deeper into his “Weird Al” fandom to write a detailed account of, as the subtitle says, “Every ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Album Analyzed in Obsessive Detail.”
“Weird Al” wrote the (short) introduction and then Nathan drops the needle on “Weird Al” Yankovic, Al’s 1983 debut album.
Nathan goes into varying degrees of detail on each of the songs. Nathan was a rabid “Weird Al” fan from when he was a little kid. And when he talks about how much he loves Al, you can see his deep abiding appreciation for everything Al has done.
Some songs get a paragraph, nut most get a page or so. He usually talks about how much he likes (or loves) the song (and occasionally dislikes). There’s nostalgia in the older songs and jokes and observations about contemporary things as well (Rabin’s politics poke through once in a while. Good thing he’s a smart guy.
Because he did the Al biography with Al, he presumably got a lot of insight into the man and his work. So although sometimes his insights seem like maybe he’s reading too much into a goofy parody, perhaps he’s on to things. Maybe Al’s depth is deeper than rhyming Sharona with Bologna. Which is not in any way to diminish Al’s intelligence. He’s obviously very smart, especially as his later songs indicate.
Rabin’s tone throughout the book is smart and snarky. He talks about the songs and the video (if there is one). He talks about the production quality (or lack thereof) on the first album. He references Dr. Demento (because the Dr is essential to Al’s career). He also references Don DeLillo’s White Noise and says things like “Al is in deconstructionist mode.” Continue Reading »
Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Beastie Boys, Crosby Stills & Nash, CSN, Don DeLillo, Dr. Demento, Felipe Sobriero, Film & TV, Food, Frank Zappa, Funny (ha ha), George Harrison, Happy Birthday, James Brown, Jeopardy!, Johnny Dangerously, Jurassic Park, Language, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Nathan Rabin, Nostalgia, Pac Man, Pixies, Ramones, Smarty Pants, Sting, The B-52's, The Beatles, The Police, Tonio K., UHF, Video Games, Wendy Carlos | Leave a Comment »
January 1, 2022 by Paul Debraski
This is kind of a downer post to start the year, but I’m going on the idea that the year can only get better.
2021 promised to be the year that concerts came back.
And they did, in a pretty big way. However, there were random shows that were cancelled or postponed. I’m not going to list every show that was postponed in 2021 (that list is way too long), but here’s a few shows that were supposed to happen once concerts came back but which for one reason or another didn’t.
Sometimes it was even because I had a better show to go to (or had tickets to the other one first).
Reschedulers seemed to enjoy placing all of the rescheduled shows in the same week for me. I wasn’t necessarily going to try to see all of these, but they caught my attention.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Cancelled, Concert, Coronavirus, Postponed | Leave a Comment »
December 31, 2021 by Paul Debraski
2021 promised to be the year that concerts came back.
And they did, in a pretty big way. However, there were random shows that were cancelled or postponed. And then, the year ended with a huge number of shows being cancelled, which had already leaked into 2022.
The terrible irony is that some shows that pushed back their dates from the Spring of 2021 to the Spring of 2022 might get pushed back again because of the omicron variant. I swear if that My Chemical Romance show gets pushed back again, the kids who want to see it will be out of school already.
As for me, I saw a lot of shows in the middle of the year and then kind of burnt out and blew off a bunch of shows. Now with shows getting cancelled again, I’m wondering how much I regret not going to the ones I skipped.
The only real regret I have is missing the Stars/Kevin Devine show at World Cafe Live. I’ve wanted to see Stars for a long time and they don’t tour all that often. This show happened to be on a day that we were hosting a small get together and while I probably could have made it to the show afterwards, it would have been really tight. So I just have to hope that Stars comes back around in 2022 (or 2023). Continue Reading »
Posted in Concert | Leave a Comment »
December 30, 2021 by Paul Debraski
[POSTPONED: December 29, 30, 31 2021 and January 1, 2022] Phish [moved to April 20, 21, 22 and 23, 2022]
So I got totally shut out for the New Year’s Eve lottery. The four of us would not go to see Phish. I knew that no one else in the family wanted to see them on the other nights, so I snagged a ticket for January 29 and 30 for myself.
Although after an exhausting run of shows at the end of November, I was rather burnt out and had every intention of selling these tickets. I felt like it would be good to stay home for a couple weeks.
I wasn’t going to try to make any money off of them (I’m a strictly cash or trade kind of guy). but I never got around to setting up the trade.
As it got closer I did consider that I might be willing to go to maybe one of the shows. But as Omicron got worse, I decided that nope, I’m skipping it.
So it was good that they rescheduled, because I still get to go. Although the shows are the week of S’s birthday, and that’s a pretty busy week, So we’ll see.
Posted in Coronavirus, New York City, Phish, Postponed, Quarantine | Leave a Comment »
December 29, 2021 by Paul Debraski
[POSTPONED: December 29, 30, 31 2021 and January 1, 2022] Phish [moved to April 20, 21, 22 and 23, 2022]
This year, since shows were back, I hoped that Phish would do another New Year’s run. And this year, my plan was simple: get four tickets for New Year’s Eve so my family could live out a bucket list of mine.
S. thought it would be fun. My kids don’t care about Phish at all and were indifferent to the idea. But I told them that regardless of their opinion of Phish, it would be a lot of fun, because Phish always does a great New Year’s Eve show. Plus, how fun would it be to be in New York City after midnight on New Year’s Day?
Well, I tried and I got totally shut out for the New Year’s Eve lottery. I got totally shut out on Ticketmaster a few days later as well. And that was fine, but I did still want to see them on this run.
So I snagged a ticket for January 29 and 30. Continue Reading »
Posted in Coronavirus, New York City, Phish, Postponed, Quarantine | Leave a Comment »
December 28, 2021 by Paul Debraski
[LISTENED TO: November 2021] Girl in a Band
I didn’t really have that much interest in this book when it came out. I love Sonic Youth, but I didn’t really think I cared all that much about their origin stories. Then I saw that there was an audio book read by Kim and that sounded pretty cool.
I realized that I had no idea anything about Kim Gordon’s life and it was fascinating to learn just how much of a bohemian artist she was before she joined the band.
The memoir starts with the final Sonic Youth show. Kim and Thurston’s divorce was already going to happen. They simply wanted to finish out their final shows. So Kim played while watching her disappointment of a husband absorb all the adulation.
But Kim’s book isn’t a salacious tell-all. It’s the story of her life and how she wound up where she did. In fact, there’s very little about Sonic Youth (a lot more about the earliest records and then bits and pieces about the later records). And, while she’s obviously pissed at Thurston for what he did, she’s restrained in her need to thrash the guy.
Perhaps the biggest take away from the book is that after thirty years of being in a rock band, she doesn’t consider herself a musician or a Rock Star (maybe a small letter rock star). That eye opening statement is a kind of lead in to the fact that she has been an artist for most of her life–just not necessarily in music.
She moved to New York from California in 1980. It’s crazy thinking that Kim was a California girl.
It’s even crazier thinking about her older brother Keller who was manipulative and mean and ultimate institutionalized. Kim idolized him and he abused her terribly (more than an older brother might normally do). All of this made Kim into the shy and sensitive woman who you would never think was responsible for some of the most iconoclastic and then iconic music of the 20th century. Continue Reading »
Posted in Artists, Audiobooks, Autobiographies, Beck, Bill Nace, Body/Head, Ciccone Youth, Coachmen, Fluxus, Introjection, Kim Gordon, Lydia Lunch, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, Real Life, Sonic Youth, Thurston Moore, Yuck | Leave a Comment »
December 27, 2021 by Paul Debraski
[DID NOT ATTEND: April 10, 2020] Dr. Dog: The Last Tour / The Districts / Natalie Prass
I never really got into Dr. Dog but I’ve liked a bunch of their songs over the years. But I’d always heard they were great live, so I’ve had them on my “gotta see” list.
Back in June, Dr. Dog announced their last tour.
“It is a disturbing thing to read, I’m sure, and trust me, an equally unsettling thing to write, but it’s all good,” they wrote. “It’s important to us that you understand that this is not a break up or anything like that. We don’t know what Dr. Dog will do, we just know it won’t include going on tour, except the tour we’re announcing now, which is going to rule.”
This seemed like the perfect (and only) opportunity to see them. I tried to get tickets to the TLA show, but it sold out in a minute. Then I managed to score a ticket to the Fillmore show. I also found out that The Districts were opening, which was pretty cool. Continue Reading »
Posted in Coronavirus, Dr. Dog, Natalie Prass, Philadelphia, PA, The Districts, The Fillmore Philadelphia | Leave a Comment »
December 26, 2021 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.
[READ: December 26, 2021] Skiing Tales of Terror
My daughter T., got this book for me for Christmas. She bought it at a flea market. She told me that she thought I’d like it because it looked like the kind of cartoon books that I like (she is referring to the original editions of The Far Side that came in the short but wide comic style).
A fair guess.
Except that the content is entirely about skiing. Which is something I have done maybe three times in my life. And which I’m terrified of.
So, content-wise it’s not really my wheelhouse.
And yet, this book turned out to be pretty fascinating. It is a mix of jokes about skiers and genuinely helpful skiing tips. Indeed, if I had read this book before the first time I Went skiing I would have probably enjoyed the experience a lot more. Continue Reading »
Posted in Christmas, Comic Strips, Funny (ha ha), Skiing, Snowboarding | Leave a Comment »
December 25, 2021 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: December 25, 2021] “How Wang-Fo Was Saved”
This year, S. ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar. This is my seventh time reading the Calendar. The 2021 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individually bound short stories.
As always, each story is a surprise, so you won’t know what you’re getting until you crack the seal every morning starting December 1. Once you’ve read that day’s story, check this link where editor Alberto Manguel is providing daily commentary on each of the stories he selected for this year’s calendar.
So here’s yet another story translated by Manguel.
The last few stories in this collection just left me feeling unhappy. I didn’t really enjoy them, and found them mostly tedious. A lot of them felt like stories that took an idea and kept building on it with more an more examples. Rather than advancing the story, it just reiterated the story.
Yourcenar evidently wrote many
Oriental Tales, stories set in the Near and Far East, a few based on traditional legends and folktales. According to Yourcenar, the story of the painter Wang-Fo and his disciple is her own invention, though inspired by a Chinese Taoist classic. Scholars, however, have pointed out that Yourcenar seems to have taken her inspiration from a collection of Japanese tales collected and retold by the nineteenth-century Greek-Irish scholar Lafcadio Hearn.
So, yes, another old story, which is what this reads like.
First we meet Wang-Fo’s disciple, who gave up his life to follow the amazing painter Wang-Fo. He was very wealthy and slowly gave up everything so that Wang-Fo could continue to do his work. Everything he painted felt better than life–more vivid, more real. Continue Reading »
Posted in Alberto Manguel, Artists, Belgium, Canadian Content, Christmas, Death, Hingston & Olsen, Marguerite Yourcenar, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Violence | Leave a Comment »
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SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
I Just Read About That... 