I was supposed to see The Districts play at Union Transfer on March 12. COVID-19 had just found its way into New Jersey and Pennsylvania and I was being very cautious so I decided to skip the show. It was a safe decision, but one that I now regret as it would have been a pretty great final show of the year. Shows pretty much completely stopped after that.
I was able to watch The Districts play at (virtual) Philly Music Fest which was fun (but not the real thing).
So I was pretty excited to hear that they were announced as the opening act for Modest Mouse. They would be the first live band I’d seen and the symmetry made me pleased.
They sounded great, but I was a little bummed that their set was only 6 songs in 30 minutes. I didn’t keep track of the songs, assuming someone out there would have updated the setlist page, so I only know four of the six songs played. And the shows around it have slightly different setlists, so I guess I’ll never know.
They opened with “If Before I Wake” and introduced their new drummer (who was really good). I feel like the crowd was a little subdued for these Philly favorites. Continue Reading »
Graham Norton is a fairly peripheral entertainer in our lives I’ve always enjoyed him when I’ve watched him, but I don’t watch him very often. He’s a good (and funny) talk show host, but who knew that he also wrote novels? And not comic ones.
This story is a mystery set in the remote Irish village of Duneen. They have one policeman (guard), Sergeant P.J. Collins who is overweight and alone. Collins is central to the story, as are Brid Riordan and Evelyn Ross.
Brid Riordan is a wife and mother and she is unhappy. She’s been drinking a lot and her husband has been getting on her case about it–even taking the kids away to his mother’s a few times.
Evelyn Ross is the youngest of the three Ross sisters–a wealthy trio of (orphaned and single) women living in a large estate called Ard Carraig. Abigail and Florence are her older sisters and they dote on Evelyn because a) she found their father when he hung himself and b) she was more of less left at the altar.
Nothing much happens in Duneen. The biggest news is the development that’s going up. And what they find when they start to dig the foundation–human bones. Continue Reading »
I have enjoyed everything I’ve read by Colleen AF Venable. This is her first middle grade graphic novel. And it is fantastic.
So much fun and so much going on!
The artwork is by Stephanie Yue who also drew her Guinea P.I. books and it is a perfect match.
In this story Katie is a little bummed because her friends are going off to summer camp and she can’t afford to go. She puts up a sign in her apartment offering her services, but she finds that she’s really not very good at anything (she can’t lift heavy groceries, she kills plants). Finally, she asks if she can work for the bodega owner downstairs. He loves Katie, but she is too young. He offers her a consolation lunch of “baby kale, blue cheese, craisins… those are basically candy.” But all she wants is a PBnJ.
It’s all pretty normal.
Except that in this world there are superheroes and super villains. The most famous superhero right now is The Eastern Screech, a guy whop dresses like an owl. Continue Reading »
Clooney Coyle is an Irish actor on the Irish language soap opera Brú na hAbhainn.
He is vain but amusing. He is invited to his best friend Isla’s house for a party. Isla is a school teacher and she is inviting the staff over for a Halloween party. Unfortunately an insufferable volunteer named Vonnie insisted that she be invited. Isla has complained to Clooney about Vonnie many times and he is tickled to meet someone so obnoxiously self-assured and assertive,
Vonnie arrives and she is a horror show. It’s a shame, though, that O’Donoghue had to make her fat and ugly in addition to loud and obnoxious. But she walks into the party, insults the host, insults the guests, takes wine that isn’t hers (she didn’t bring anything to the party) and is a general nightmare. But Clooney is intrigued by her and decides to treat her nicely.
When he was younger, he was picked on for being gay in rural Ireland so he understands the need to shine when others put out your spark. And soon enough he pledges that they are friends for life.
Vonnie has the best line ever: “As an adult, I am an artist.” She says this all the time and everyone looks at her the same way…. wtf does that mean. She means that all children are artists, but she is an adult who is an artist. She also has a gallery which Clooney promises to go to. Her art is terrible and she charges him admission. When she insists that he sit for a portrait, and them charges him a sitting fee he still manages to say that they are friends for life.
And that’s what sets her off.
Vonnie becomes insanely jealous. And that’s when the book goes from the outrageous to the ridiculous and all believability is lost. Continue Reading »
I saw this book at work–I didn’t think I’d be seeing as many interesting books at work with my new position, but here was one that I wanted to read!
The title was interesting and the concept was eye catching right from the start.
The story seems fairly simple. There is a grandmother–Helen Auerbach–and three grandchildren. The grandchildren are estranged from their mother, who is peripherally in contact, and their father, who thy have not seen in decades. They are also kind of estranged from each other because of some bad choices each of them has made. Incidentally all of the children are Millers, not Auerbachs from their estranged father.
The book opens in Vienna 1918 with a historical moment that weighs heavily on the rest of the story. I didn’t really like the writing style of that section–it was not what i was expecting and I hoped the rest of the story wouldn’t be written in that way (and it wasn’t, thankfully). But I enjoyed the way that moment ultimately tied into the story. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: AURORA-Verftet Online Music Festival 2020 (April 20, 2020).
In April 2020, Norway’s Verftet Music Festival streamed an online concert:
Get ready for Verftet Online Music Festival, Bergen’s largest virtual concert festival, where we can enjoy great music together. We want to turn despair and frustration into innovation and positivity, and invite everyone to a digital festival experience out of the ordinary – right home in your own living room.
Aurora played a 45 minute home concert for Verftet which you can see online.
The show starts with her at the piano (an unusual sight), playing the lovely ballad “Animal Soul.” Then the drums start and Aurora and her band play a fantastic cover of the Massive Attack/Liz Frasier song “Teardrop.” It sounds pretty cool on piano and even though Liz Frasier’s voice is unique in the world Aurora sounds terrific.
“Warrior” sounds very different from the recorded version, because it’s still rather quiet (although louder than the other songs). Silja Sol has taken over piano and sings absolutely gorgeous harmonies. Hearing the song stripped down shows what a powerful song it i
“All Is Soft Inside” opens with quiet echoing guitars and features more great backing vocals from Silja. Although when Aurora sings a capella for a few beats it shows how great her voice is. This song is really terrific.
Then she says something very Aurora: “I’m itching on my bum but I don’t want to do it on camera, can you just film Magnus while I scratch my butt.”
Followed by some sage advice for pandemic times: “Its okay to be worthless, no not worthless, unproductive… we don’t have to do more than just exist sometimes.”
“Through The Eyes Of A Child” is a beautiful with just her and Silja on the piano. The a capella verse with the deep and high harmonies sounds wonderful. The song builds with the rest of the musicians adding in the guitar and drums.
“The River” grows bigger but is still restrained. As is “Queendom,” her huge dance hit. But even in this stripped down very it is still catchy and super fun.
“The Seed” is a wonderfully dark and powerful song. For this quiet version, Silja plays quiet echoing guitar and the song builds into an intense climax (which is still quite restrained compared to the original). But we can’t overlook the deep vocals from Magnus on the drums.
The set ends with a beautiful cover of The Beatles’ “Across The Universe” a song that will “take us away, a dreamy song… a perfect world… a beautiful hippie paradise.” It’s a lovely gentle cover with amazing harmonies from Silja.
[READ: July 20, 2021] “After the Movie”
This is a very dark story. It’s about Ed, a writer and filmmaker whose recent books have flopped.
He and his wife had just come back from the movies and his mood was foul. He went to bed without saying good night to the kids. Instead of falling asleep, he found himself sitting up and crying,
He genuinely considered killing himself. He had no money coming in, they had borrowed against the house. They had nothing left. He was nothing,
Muldoon had called him this afternoon from Amsterdam.
Ed sat in bed and remembered back to when he was trying to perk up his friend Muldoon who was then having a similar slump. Ed encouraged him to hang in there. And look at Muldoon now. Continue Reading »
[POSTPONED: July 30, 2021] Built to Spill [rescheduled from July 31, 2020; moved to May 13, 2022]
I’m not entirely sure if this show was even scheduled. It seemed to show up on their website and then was taken down.
Whatever the case, they are officially on the calendar for 2022, and I’m really looking forward to seeing this new line up.
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I’ve seen Built to Spill a bunch of times. The last time I promised myself I wouldn’t get too close to the stage, but I did. The problem with being so close is the way Doug Martsch has his guitar set up. His amp is right next to him and it is so loud. From where I was you could barely hear anything else. Of course I’m there to watch Doug play, so it’s not too bad. But I promised myself I would stand back to fully appreciate his band.
On this newly announced tour, his whole band was going to be different. In fact, I have seen at least three different lineups for the band over the years. This tour was going to feature drummer Teresa Esguerra of Prism Bitch (who opened for Built To Spill last time) and bassist Melanie Radford of Marshall Poole. I knew it would be a very different show.
Unfortunately, I had tickets to Kraftwerk on July 30 and tickets for The national on July 31 (not to mention we were supposed to leave for the Newport Folk Festival on the night of the 31st as well). So I sure hope he keeps this line up when he;s ready to play again. And I will stand back and take it all in.
[DID NOT ATTEND: July 29, 2021] Bright Eyes / Lucy Dacus [rescheduled from June 16, 2020; couldn’t attend, vacation]
This is one of the first shows that actually went on as (re)scheduled.
It also happened to be the week that we took a vacation. Oh well,
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I’ve never been much of a fan of Conor Oberst. Although after seeing him in Better Oblivion Community Center, I gained a new respect for him and found I actually liked him.
I don’t know a lot about Bright Eyes (except that the songs sound strangely like The Replacements to me). I wasn’t planning on going to this show (even though Steelstacks is a cool venue).
However, I kept getting notifications that Lucy Dacus was playing at Steelstacks. I have seen Lucy a couple of times and would be more than happy to see her again. When I got the notification, I assumed it meant she would be playing inside in one of the smaller venues (which would be outstanding). I didn’t realize it was because she was opening for Bright Eyes.
This show was in fact postponed until next July–over a year away. I have no idea what my calendar will be like then, but I think maybe by next July, I could be ready for Conor and Lucy again.
[READ: Summer 2021] Laura Dean Keeps Breaking up with Me
Someone in the house brought this home from the libary and I knew I’d be reading it too. I really like Mariko Tamaki and would read anything she wrote.
This story is about teen romance. It’s set in Berkeley and has one of the biggest LGBTQ+ casts I’ve seen in a long time. Since it’s set in Berkeley it’s not an issue, it’s common and cool. It was great to read that. I also like that she included a few segments about the earlier LGBTQ+ pioneers who made it safe for the younger generation to feel so safe.
The book opens with Freddy (Frederica) Riley writing to an advice columnist Anna Vice. We see Freddy at a dance with her friends, including her best friend Doodle I love when characters have names like that). Freddy is waiting for the titular Laura Dean to come to the dance.
Laura Dean is a tall, blonde, popular girl. Their meeting story is adorable and Laura Dean is immediately charming. Continue Reading »
I saw this book at work and loved the title. I actually assumed it was a novel. I’d never heard of Patrick Freyne and had no idea who he was. In fact, by the time I’d read the first few essays I still had no idea who he was. And that didn’t really matter all that much.
I suppose if you know him as a features journalist for The Irish Times, you would have some preconceived notions of what to expect. But I tend to like “memoirs” by unknown-to-me people better than those by celebrities. This is even addressed in the Preface. His best friend says
“If I was going to read a book about someone’s life, it would be someone like Julius Caesar or Napoleon or some famous general”
…
“You know there’s a whole genre of work that’s basically memoir writing,” I say. “People who aren’t particularly famous witting about their lives.”
“Really? Are you sure?”
That made me a little nervous abut going in but I figured if he put that in, it would probably all be pretty funny. Continue Reading »
I’m not entirely sure if this show was even scheduled. It seemed to show up on their website and then was taken down.
I Just Read About That... 