December 8, 2021 by Paul Debraski
[DID NOT ATTEND: December 8 & 9, 2021] Stars / Shamir [was Lloyd Cole]
Back in the early 2000s Stars was one of my favorite bands. They write clever, thoughtful pop with gorgeous harmonies from Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan.
Stars doesn’t come around all that often and I really wanted to see this tour. When I heard that Lloyd Cole was opening, my mind was blown. I didn’t Lloyd Cole was till making music–that’s pretty cool.
These shows were at Le Poisson Rouge which I learned last time I Went there, is a super duper pain in the ass for me to get to. And these shows were midweek. I just don’t know how I would have managed it. So when they announced that they were going to play World Cafe in Philly, well that made everything all better.
It also transpired that Lloyd Cole had to cancel at the last minute. He was replaced by Shamir, another artist I would love to see live. But it just hasn’t happened yet.
So Stars, please don’t be gone for too long, I’d love to see you. (Especially since your set was 24 songs!)
Posted in Le Poisson Rouge, Lloyd Cole, New York City, Shamir, Stars | Leave a Comment »
December 8, 2021 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: December 8, 2021] “The Night of the Comet”
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.
Somehow it feels cheating that Manguel is the translator of this story (although it does suggest that he really likes the story).
Not much happens on the night of the comet. There is talk about the comet before its arrival (a man plunged to his death to avoid its arrival).
Everyone talked about it. Some people said they’d seen it (like a scarf made of light).
The newspapers predicted fabulous things–it would pass so close to earth! It would be the size of a small melon. It would cover seventy percent of the visible sky. Continue Reading »
Posted in Alberto Manguel, Canadian Content, Christmas, Comets, Hingston & Olsen, Liliana Heker, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar | Leave a Comment »
December 7, 2021 by Paul Debraski
[DID NOT ATTEND: December 7 & 8, 2021] 100 gecs / Tony Velour
My son played us “Stupid Horse” a while ago and I thought it was crazy–funny, catchy, irritating–a perfectly weird pop song. When they announced a tour, I asked him if he wanted to go and he laughed and said no.
I looked up a concert review to see what their show was like and people said they played their entire catalog, which was like 30 minutes. And that was it.
Crazy.
I wasn’t going to go either, but the idea of the show makes me smile. (Turns out they played for 50 minutes at this show).
Tony Velour is a rapper I’ve never heard of. Apparently he has partnered with the gecs for something or other.
Posted in 100 gecs, Philadelphia, PA, Tony Velour, Union Transfer | Leave a Comment »
December 7, 2021 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: December 7, 2021] “The Complete Gentleman”
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.
Manguel has this to say about Amos Tutuola:
He was educated in an English school but never quite abandoned his native Yoruba. Instead, he began to write stories and novels drawn from the collective imagination of his people in an English that is certainly not that of English schoolbooks, but is enriched by strange turns of phrase and an idiosyncratic grammar and spelling that the reader can follow easily.
That’s pretty interesting.
As is this story which is, indeed, pretty unusual.
Each small section has a heading which outlines the action. First we meet the “complete” gentleman. He was perfect in every way. So much so that a woman decided to follow him. Continue Reading »
Posted in Alberto Manguel, Amos Tutuola, Canadian Content, Christmas, Hingston & Olsen, Huh?, Magic, Nigeria, Short Story, Supernatural, Superstitions, The Short Story Advent Calendar | Leave a Comment »
December 6, 2021 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: December 6, 2021] “The Fire Balloons”
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.
I haven’t read very much by Ray Bradbury. In the past it was because I kind of dismissed him as a genre writer. But I have read a few things in the last few years that I liked and thought I should give him more of my time.
This story is from The Martian Chronicles, which I have not read. I actually don’t really know much about the Chronicles at all.
This story is set in 2033. Two priests are headed to Mars as missionaries. Father Peregrine and Father Stone spoke about the Martians and the kind of sins they would find among them. Mars was so different, no doubt sin was like a virtue. Continue Reading »
Posted in Alberto Manguel, Canadian Content, Christmas, Hingston & Olsen, Mars, Ray Bradbury, Religion, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar | Leave a Comment »
December 5, 2021 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: December 5, 2021] “Ulysses and the Cyclops”
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.
Obviously Homer is a classic–the classic–poet. But it seemed an odd choice to pick Homer (from B.C. days) when surely there was a more recent Greek writer who deserved some attention.
I’ve read The Odyssey at least three times. However, I’ve never read it in verse form. And I found this form to be very challenging. I was certainly glad I knew the story already. Continue Reading »
Posted in Alberto Manguel, Alexander Pope, Canadian Content, Christmas, Cyclops, Death, Greece, Hingston & Olsen, Homer, Sheep, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Violence | Leave a Comment »
December 4, 2021 by Paul Debraski
[DID NOT ATTEND: December 4 & 5, 2021] Loudon Wainwright III / Deni Bonet
Loudon Wainwright III has been playing pretty and also pretty funny music for decades. I discovered him about fifteen years ago and quickly became a fan of his work.
His newer material deals more with old age than his earlier stuff but it’s still enjoyable. I’m sure he would play songs from throughout his career.
I’ve been aware of Loudon Wainwright playing the Sellersville Theatre for a long time (like two years). I’ve wanted to see him for a while now, but Sellersville Theatre is a real hassle to get to. When I saw that he was also playing in Red Bank, I thought that I might go to that show instead. And that something came up and I never got there either.
I’m under the impression that he tours a lot (when he’s not acting) so I’m sure I’ll be able to see him again. I hope so (maybe a little closer to me).
Deni Bonet is a pop/rock singer/songwriter and classically trained violinist who has recorded and performed with R.E.M., Sarah McLachlan, Cyndi Lauper, Scissor Sisters, and Warren Zevon among many others.
I’m not sure if she played in Red Bank as well, since there was no opening band listed. But I’ll assume so.
Posted in Count Basie Theatre, Deni Bonet, Loudon Wainwright III, Red Bank, NJ, Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA | Leave a Comment »
December 4, 2021 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: December 4, 2021] “The State of Grace”
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.
This story was funny but also had a moral.
Set in 1939, we meet the best Christian in all of Rue Gabrielle and indeed all Montmartre. Monsieur Duperrier was “a man of such piety, uprightness and charity that God, without awaiting his death… crowned his head with never left it by day or by night.”
He was grateful, of course, but his modesty did not allow him to show it off in public. However, his wife did have to look at it and she was filled with resentment and exasperation. She was afraid of what others would think of him if they saw him like that, so she encouraged him to sin a little but to lose the halo. Continue Reading »
Posted in Alberto Manguel, Canadian Content, Christmas, France, Funny (ha ha), Hingston & Olsen, Marcel Aymé, Norman Denny, Prostitution, Religion, Seven deadly sins, Sex, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar | Leave a Comment »
December 3, 2021 by Paul Debraski
[DID NOT ATTEND: December 3, 2021] Cave In / Cleric
Back in 1998 I really like the Cave In album Until Your Heart Stops. Then I pretty much forgot about them.
They came back on my radar when one of the band members died in a car accident a few years ago. He sang lead (but was not the only lead vocalist) and I assumed that was the end of the band.
But they did not break up. Indeed, they have a new album coming out next year.
I wasn’t planning on going to this show without looking into what they’ve done this century, and I never got around to that, so I didn’t go.
I didn’t know who Cleric was. Their Wikipedia write up is interesting, but this could go in a direction I don’t like
Cleric is an American avant-garde metal band based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The band is known for their experimental approach to grindcore, doom and avant-garde metal
Posted in Cave In, Cleric, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts | Leave a Comment »
December 3, 2021 by Paul Debraski
SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: December 3, 2021] “A Lovely and Terrible Thing”
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.
You know this story is going to be unusual because the main character works for Ripley’s Believe It or Not (I didn’t know they had that in Australia).
He is off to investigate a claim when his car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. After a few hours of fruitless struggle, a local man approaches. They decide that the place the driver is going is too far to walk so the local (named Angola) offers to let him spend the night at his place. Continue Reading »
Posted in Alberto Manguel, Australia, Canadian Content, Chris Womersley, Christmas, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Hingston & Olsen, Short Story, Supernatural, Surreal, The Short Story Advent Calendar | Leave a Comment »
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Back in the early 2000s Stars was one of my favorite bands. They write clever, thoughtful pop with gorgeous harmonies from Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan.
I Just Read About That... 