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Terry Pratchett & Gray Jolliffe–The Unadulterated Cat (1989)

October 9, 2021 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: October 2021] The Unadulterated Cat

During this incredibly prolific period (Pratchett was releasing a Discworld book or two every year), he found time to write this slim, silly volume about cats.

It contains many many illustrations (like the one on the cover) by Gray Jolliffe whom I do not know.  I have had this book for decades and never bothered to read it.  Since I was knee deep in Pratchett land, I decided to give it a whirl.

Pratchett has had some fun about cats in Discworld already.  There’s Greebo, the insane and then there’s Death who genuinely loved cats.  So it’s no surprise that he would write a book about cats.  (This was about ten years after the odd “dead cat” comic book craze).

This book is not like any of that.  This is a “serious” look at “real” cats.  So I guess it has more in common with Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche (published 1982).

In eighteen short chapters, Pratchett compares a real cat to cats that you might find on television or greeting cards. Continue Reading »

Posted in Cats, Discworld, Dogs, Funny (ha ha), Gray Jolliffe, Non-fiction, Poo, Terry Pratchett | Leave a Comment »

Terry Pratchett–Witches Abroad (1991) [Discworld #12] [Witches #3]

October 8, 2021 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: October 2021] Witches Abroad

Our trio of Witches is back.  And they’re about to do something they never imagined.  They are going to “forn parts.”

A local older witch (yes, older than Granny and Nanny) Desiderata Hollow dies and she sends Magrat her wand.  Granny and Nanny are more than a little miffed that she gave it to Magrat.  I mean, really.  Not that Granny or Nanny needs a wand or wants a wand or wants anything to do with a wand, or anything.  But still.

Getting the wand means that Magrat is now the Fairy Godmother to a girl named Emberella.  But although she gave the wand, she also gave no instructions whatsoever.  So Magrat really doesn’t know what to do.  The only note that she gave to Magrat included the important information to not let Granny or Nanny get involved.  Which Granny and Nanny take to mean that they should really take over the whole proceedings.

But Magrat is determined to do this right.  She wields that wand with authority and turns anything she waves it at into a pumpkin (she can’t do anything else with it).

As fairy godmother, Magrat’s one duty is to ensure that Emberella does not marry the Duke (who has a seriously questionable past).

Everyone knows that Fairy Godmothers are supposed to get young girls to marry Princes or Dukes.  So they are working against Fairy Tales.

But before they can even deal with Emberella, they need to cross the disc to Genua where Emberella lives.  This leads to a road-movie type story where the three naive travellers go to all manner of new places.

Nanny Ogg, who fancies herself a wise traveller also seems to know a lot of forn languages (or at least she knows a lot of rude words in other languages).  The Witches have some very amusing adventures.  There’s a Running of the Bulls type event which they find themselves right in the middle of, there’s a cave that they escape from in a giant pumpkin (thanks Magrat), and there’s a village where a giant house falls on Nanny Ogg to the delight of the locals.  Nanny is fine because the house fell on her willow-enhanced hat.

It turns out that the Duke is actually a puppet.  And the woman behind the diabolical plan to have Emberella marry the Duke is Lilith Weatherwax–Granny’s sister.  Nanny knows of Lilith because they grew up together, but no one else knew she had a sister.

Lilith has been using the power of mirrors to create more and more magic.  And she is quite powerful. She has been using the power of stories to impact the Witches travels and wants to use the Cinderella story to change the fates of Emberella and by extension, all of Genua.

Granny and Nanny are a little out of their element here (not that they are weak, they are just in an unfamiliar situation) and wind up getting help from a local witch.  Well, she doesn’t call herself a witch, but as the women talk they see that they have a lot in common.  Erzulie Gogol is a voodoo witch who lives in a swamp and has a zombie servant named Baron Saturday.  Pratchett has some good fun with stereotypes of the swamp–especially Granny not understanding alligators and the like.

Granny hypnotizes Magrat into attending the ball as if she were Emberella.  Magrat quite enjoys the experience. As does Greebo who is turned into a human.  Since Greebo is all impulse, he makes for a rakish human (who, unfortunately, doesn’t understand how his hands and arms work).

Another great rakish character introduced here is the dwarf Casanunda: “World’s 2nd Greatest Lover, swordsman, liar, soldier of fortune, stepladder repairer.”  Casanunda wins over women with his remarkably romantic courtship practices.   He is quite taken with Nanny Ogg who wouldn’t know romance if she sat on it.  He is fascinated that nothing he does impacts her an he finds her irresistible.

This book is a lot of fun because Pratchett is out and about, playing with and massaging sterotypes and just generally having a good time all over the Disc. And of course, it’s always fun seeing Granny and Nanny fight with each other even when they agree with each other.

Incidentally, Magrat and Verence were hot and heavy (well, luck warm and mildly chunky) at the end of the previous book, but things seem a little cooled down between them.  Witches aren’t supposed to marry, so who knows what will happen there….

Posted in Casanunda, Death, Discworld, Emberella, Erzulie Gogol, Fairy Tales, Funny (ha ha), Granny Weatherwax, Greebo, Magic, Magrat Garlick, Nanny Ogg, Terry Pratchett, Unfinished series, Voodoo | Leave a Comment »

John Mulaney: From Scratch (Academy of Music, Philadelphia, PA October 6, 2021)

October 7, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: October 6, 2021] John Mulaney

We don’t see comedians very often.  We do like to go to some of our favorites, but we’re unlikely to go to an unknown at a club or anything.

John Mulaney, on the other hand, is hilarious and has made S. and I laugh and quote and requote some of our favorites lines of his.  Recently our son made some kind of reference to one of Mulaney’s jokes and so I thought maybe we should go see him.  After all, he was doing an outrageously long run of shows at the Academy of Music in Philly–14 shows in 12 days!

Recently, Mulaney had made headlines for doing all kinds of questionable things.  He and his wife got divorced, he wound up going to rehab and then started dating someone else with whom he is now expecting a child.  Normally that kind of stuff doesn’t really interest me, but it proved to be a huge part of this routine (especially the rehab, which he entered in December 2020 and exited I guess in February).

We entered the venue which was a “no phones” place.  This was fine, except that our tickets were on the phone.  So I had to lock my phone in a bag.  I was worried that this would be a huge time suck on the way out, but I carried the bag with me and then on the way out they  demagnetized the bag and off I went. Continue Reading »

Posted in Joe Biden, John Mulaney, Philadelphia, PA, Political Humor, Seaton Smith, The Academy of Music | Leave a Comment »

Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (Wellmont Theater, October 7, 8, 9, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

October 7, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 7, 8, 9, 2021] Joe Russo’s Almost Dead [rescheduled from September 24, 2020]

I don’t actually know Joe Russo’s Almost Dead.  The only thing I really know about them is that Marco Benevento is the pianist for the band.  Honestly that’s good enough for me.

They are playing three nights in Montclair and two of them sold out almost immediately.

It didn’t actually occur to me that the Dead in the band name is a Grateful Dead reference.  But I see that JRAD is like a Grateful Dead cover band plus more.  They are known for their intermingling of the Grateful Dead’s recognizable folk-rock and Americana sound with more contemporary Progressive Rock and Jazz Fusion influences.

So I had a lot going on that week and decided I didn’t need to see a Grateful Dead band.  Especially since I don’t especially like the Dead (althouh it’s more their recording sound (too tinny) than their songs.  But according to GratefulWeb, the run was a hit. Continue Reading »

Posted in Coronavirus, Grateful Dead, Guster, Joe Russo's Almost Dead, Marco Benevento, Montclair, NJ, Postponed, Quarantine, Ween, Wellmont Theater | Leave a Comment »

Seaton Smith (Academy of Music, Philadelphia, PA October 6, 2021) [JOHN MULANEY]

October 6, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: October 6, 2021] Seaton Smith

I don’t go to see comedians that often.  I knew in the back of my mind that there would be a warm up act, but it didn’t actually occur to me that there would be one.

The line was INSANE when we arrived.  We were fifteen minute early and didn’t get in until just about 8 o’clock, but they delayed the start, thankfully.

This show gave you a secure bag to put your phone in so that you couldn’t use it during the show (that process was quite seamless, I have to say).  But I hadn’t turned my phone off and was concerned that it might ring during the show.  But while I fretted about that, the lights dimmed and they introduced the comedian whose name I didn’t hear.

This is the second comedian I’ve seen whose opening act was introduced quickly and unclearly who then never repeated his or her name during the set.  It took more than a little work to discover he was Seaton Smith.

Smith started his set with jokes about growing up poor and black.  They were quite funny, but it seems like Mulaney’s audience is pretty white so it seemed kind of unrelatable.  And yet the jokes were really funny and the crowd was very responsive.

After a little while he started talking about politics.

He said he was all about bringing people together–so who did you vote for in the last election? Continue Reading »

Posted in Joe Biden, John Mulaney, Philadelphia, PA, Political Humor, Seaton Smith, The Academy of Music | Leave a Comment »

Terry Pratchett–Reaper Man (1991) [Discworld #11] [Death #2]

October 5, 2021 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: October 2021] Reaper Man

This book opens unlike any other, with an amorphous group of beings called The Auditors of Reality.  (Well, it opens with a bit about Morris Dancing, which is pretty funny).  The Auditors have no individual personalities (in fact, when One says I (“I hate them”) it is immediately dispatched so a more neutral Auditor can take its place.

The Auditors want to make sure that everything is following the Rules. And what isn’t following the Rules?  Well, Death isn’t following the rules.  Death is developing a personality.  And that cannot happen.  So they fire him.  Yes indeed.

He goes off on his own trying to figure things out.  He winds up getting a job as a farm hand (his reaping skills are unparalleled).  The woman he works for is quite suspicious of him (and everyone in town is quite suspicious of her). Death is caught off guard and when she asks his name he comes up with unsuspicious name of Bill Door.

The woman is Miss Fitworth.  She is an elderly woman (rumored to have a large chest with a lot of money in it).  She had a fiancé who went on a business trip and never came back.  Rumor is that he left her, but she doesn’t believe it.

This is all well and good, but without Death, dead humans don’t know what to do–no one is there to guide them to the afterlife.  So they kind of just keep piling up.  Poltergeists run amok.  And then there is aged Wizard Windle Poons.  He was really looking forward to reincarnation.  But after he died, his spirit just returned to his body.  Of course, since he is dead, he doesn’t have any concern with old age–his sight and strength are better than they have been in years.  But everyone is more than a little freaked out by him. Continue Reading »

Posted in Alfred, Binky, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, Death, Discworld, Funny (ha ha), Magic, Mort, Mustrum Ridcully, Terry Pratchett, The Dean, The Librarian, Unfinished series, Vampires, Wizards, Ysabell, Zombies | Leave a Comment »

Frank Turner (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October 3, 2021 [afternoon show])

October 4, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: October 3, 3021] Frank Turner with Matt Nasir

Frank Turner has been opening for the Counting Crows, a band that he loves which I absolutely do not.  There is no way I would have gone to see him with that other band, even though I have been wanting to see him for many years now.

And then, on September 15, Frank Turner announced that he would be playing Underground Arts on October 3.  At 2PM!

Turns out that on the Crows’ days off, Frank decided to play some solo shows (with opening acts).

This show was going to be the first of two shows he’s play that day!

I grabbed tickets immediately.  What a novel idea to have an evening free after seeing a show.

Frank used to be in a punk band and then he became a kind of punky folk singer.  He writes politically charged anthemic sing alongs.  A kind of younger Billy Bragg.  And while he songs are great, it’s his live shows that are do amazing because he gets the audience 100% involved. Continue Reading »

Posted in Counting Crows, Frank Turner, Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, Huda Sha'arawi, Philadelphia, PA, The Weakerthans, Underground Arts | Leave a Comment »

Kayleigh Goldsworthy (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October 3, 2021 [afternoon show]) [FRANK TURNER]

October 3, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: October 3, 2021] Kayleigh Goldsworthy

On September 15, Frank Turner announced that he would be playing Underground Arts on October 3.  At 2PM!

I grabbed tickets immediately.  I have been wanting to see Frank Turner for years.

I didn’t know if he’d even have an opening act, but indeed he did.  It was Philly singer-songwriter Kayleigh Goldsworthy.  he was supposed to tour with Frank back in 2020, but the tour was cancelled.  Frank called on her again, and this was her first show since the pandemic.

I thought that I hadn’t heard of Goldworthy, but it turned out that I had actually seen her perform before!  She sang (a couple of songs) with Kevin Devine when I saw him at Underground Arts. I was also supposed to see her open for Tigers Jaw on a few postponed shows.

Kayleigh commanded the afternoon crowd right off the bat. She sang slow ballads that were full of angst.  Her voice was really strong and she had the amazing confidence to have long (relatively) stretches of her song where very little happened.  And we were rapt by her.  Her voice sounded very familiar to me–like someone who I can’t place.

I don’t know any of the songs she sang, although I may be able to add songs to the setlist as I listen to her CD more.

I feel like she must have sung “Cursed to Wander” because it’s the new song, but the recorded version is pretty rocking and her set was quite mellow.

As you can see from the poster, Kayleigh only played the shows on our date, so it was a nice treat to hear her.

 

Posted in Frank Turner, Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, Kayleigh Goldsworthy, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts | Leave a Comment »

The Four-Eyed Horsemen including MC Lars & Mega Ran & MC Frontalot & Schaffer The Darklord (Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA, October 2, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

October 2, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: October 2, 2021] MC Lars & Mega Ran & MC Frontalot & Schaffer The Darklord

There were two reasons I wanted to go to this show.  First, I have never been to Kung Fu Necktie–I seem to keep missing out on shows there.  Second, this night of nerd rap sounded hilarious.

I had been listening to MC Lars a bit leading up to this show. I’ve listened to the other guys as well and gotten more or less the same kick out of them,

But when it came down to it, I had been out several Saturday nights in a row and I had been to see Primus the night before, and I was going to a show on Sunday as well, so I decided to skip this one.

I sure hope the four of them tour again (I mean, who else would have any one of them?).

MC Lars, according to Wikipedia,

plays with a laptop and occasionally a punk rock band to back him up, which he refers to as “post-punk laptop rap”. Samples from bands such as Supergrass, Piebald, Brand New, Fugazi, and Iggy Pop play a key role in MC Lars’s music. Hearts That Hate, whose song “Cry Tonight” is sampled in Lars’ “Signing Emo”, is a fictional group created by the rapper.  MC Lars has also shown an interest in using lyrics and song titles based on English and American literature. “Rapbeth” references William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, while “Mr. Raven” is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”. “Ahab” is about the novel Moby Dick and “Hey There Ophelia” on This Gigantic Robot Kills retells the story of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Mega Ran according to Wikipedia,

Raheem Jarbo (stage names Mega Ran and Random) is an American underground nerdcore rapper, chiptune DJ, and record producer. In February 2015, he changed his stage name to Mega Ran, removing Random from any releases.

Here’s a Random review

I’m always glad to watch Mega Ran perform whenever he comes to Michigan. If he comes to a town near you, he is worth the drive. It was certainly worth the two hour plus drive for me.

MC Frontalot according to Wikipedia,

Damian Hess (born December 3, 1973), better known by his stage name MC Frontalot, is an American rapper and web designer. Hess began releasing music as MC Frontalot in 1999.

Here’s a Random review

Finally MC Frontalot took the stage. He opened with one of my favorites, “Tongue Clucking Grammarian” and immediately got the audience “tutting” his bad grammar. During the set, he mixed up old and new tracks, including several crowd favorites (“It Is Pitch Dark,” “Yellow Lasers,” (the regular, non-Latin version), and “Goth Girls.”). New tracks from Solved included “Critical Hit,” which uses the double meaning of the phrase to great effect (something Frontalot does often and quite well), and “Stoop Sale,” which, while not particularly geeky, tells a good story. All in all, it was quite an entertaining evening.

Schaffer The Darklord 

Is nerdy, but is also very raunchy–unlike the other rappers.  He seems a little out of place here, but not really.

Here’s a blurb from Little Village

Schäffer the Darklord, a.k.a. STD, is a 47-year-old (in 2022) rapper who’d probably have a few words to say to his 20-something self if he had access to a time machine.  “I feel like I made an impulsive decision to adopt the stage name in 2003,” Mark Schaffer said, “and all these years later, I do have a bit of buyer’s remorse. But I’ve built too much of a catalog at this point to consider changing it.”  Over the past two decades, the Iowa born-and-raised MC has released several albums, EPs, singles and collaborations, including several with fellow Iowa City expatriate Coolzey. His songs are filled with a mix of goofy juvenilia, absurd sexual content, nerdy grammatical breakdowns and introspective lyrical detours, such as a song about sexual consent titled “Yes” from his 2015 EP Sex Rhymes.

 

Posted in Kung Fu Necktie, MC Frontalot, MC Lars, Mega Ran, Philadelphia, PA, Schaffer The Darklord | Leave a Comment »

Primus: A Tribute to Kings (The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, October 1, 2021) [rescheduled date]

October 2, 2021 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: October 1, 2021] Primus [rescheduled from June 19, 2020; and July 10, 2021]

Three years ago I saw Primus for the first time in 30 some years.  The show was featuring their then new EP The Desaturated Seven.   So, it wasn’t the ideal way to catch up with them, since they spent a lot of time playing that EP in its entirety.  The rest of the set was a mix of songs, with a bunch of songs from Pork Soda and some of their “hits.”  I was a little annoyed by the crowd at the show (when did tough guys start liking Primus?).  And in my post I wrote

Maybe in 2020 they’ll be back for a big two set career-capping tour.

Interestingly, they did come back in 2020, with a two-set show, but rather than career capping, it included a cover of the album A Farewell to Kings by Rush.  If I was there only for Primus, I’d have been annoyed at losing 40 minutes to another band.  However, A Farewell to Kings is one of my favorite albums of all time and knowing how Primus feels about Rush, I knew that this would be an amazing experience.  The show had been postponed a few times but finally, October 1 arrived and I headed to the Met in Philly.

The show was supposed to start at 7, so once again, I left from work and arrived quite early.  Early enough to get one of the night’s posters.  But boy was it ugly.  I didn’t want it on my wall, so I passed (there have been some really nice posters this tour, so I was bummed about ours).  Then I stood by the fence and waited with some remarkably loud and rather unpleasant characters.

In my head, Primus is for oddballs who like weird music.  But clearly they have struck a nerve with an unexpected crowd–people I would never hang out with intentionally.  So that sucked.  But once they got their nonsense out of their system after a few songs, people settled down and just enjoyed the music.

I asked someone at the show if the sets were different every night and he said that Primus always mixed up their setlists so it was worth seeing them a bunch of nights in a row.  Indeed, the night after ours, they played several songs that I would have really liked to hear–although our set was pretty great too. Continue Reading »

Posted in Black Mountain, Coronavirus, Danny Elfman, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Primus, Quarantine, Rush, The Met Philadelphia, Wolfmother | Leave a Comment »

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