SOUNDTRACK: SHE & HIM-A Very She & Him Christmas (2011).
I love the packaging of this disc (the envelope with the Christmas letter/liner notes is charming).
I really enjoyed Zooey Deschanel’s singing in Elf, I thought it was really pretty and surprisingly unaffected. So it’s not too surprising that she stared making records herself. And M Ward seems like a perfect accompaniment to her slow, rather old school style of singing.
I have a hard time getting into the She & Him records though. They’re just, yes, too slow for me. The tempo is perfect for her voice, which is naturally very pure and clean. And she even has a good crooning style, I just need the songs to be a little peppier. Or like on “Run Run Reindeer,” I find her version is kind of abrupt, perhaps she doesn’t really hold her notes for very long which I find disconcerting.
I like the first two songs, “The Christmas Waltz,” and “Christmas Day” because they are songs I didn’t know already, so I had no expectations. “Christmas Wish” is really nice with Ward taking lead vocals. As for Zooey’s leads, I like “Sleigh Ride” quite a lot. And their version of “Silver Bells” on ukulele is just beautiful.
This collection of songs is quite nice, if not a little too mellow. It sets a mood and follows through all the way, which is good. I really do wish I liked it more.
[READ: December 5, 2014] The Last Girlfriend on Earth
I love Simon Rich, but sometimes I lose touch with just how many books he releases. So when he was on Seth Meyers the other night I learned that he had a new book out, which was great. But then I also learned that I missed his last two books! Jeez. One is a novel and this one is a collection of short stories.
I have said before that I love Rich’s really short pieces–he is so good with a set up and punchline. Most of these stories are longer, and they are pretty much all very funny indeed.
The book is set up in three parts: Boy Meets Girl, Boy Gets Girl and Boy Loses Girl. And indeed, the stories in each section do match up to that general setup (it’s quite clever) although they are not connected to each other. Several of these stories appeared in the New Yorker and it was fun to read them again and to see them in this new context.
Incidentally, they are making a TV show based on this book, airing in the new year on FXX, called Man Seeking Woman–I hope it’s good. Continue Reading »
It seems that every year stores release their own Christmas mixes. I feel like Old Navy was one of the first stores to do so (especially in their weird retro style). What is surprising is just how much I enjoy this compilation. It has a great mix of traditional and unusual. There’s some cool remixes, there’s some unexpected “space-age” tracks and it’s just boppy and light and fun. Until the end where they go for an unusual (although it somehow makes sense for Old navy) but unenjoyable song to end it with.
PEGGY LEE-“Winter Wonderland” A great, slightly space age version of this song.
ANDY WILLIAMS-“Sleigh Ride” I do love an Andy Williams Christmas song—earnest and clean and lots of fun.
HOLLY COLE-“Christmas Is” I don’t know this song that well. It’s a fun, different Christmas song, done on a jaunty piano.
ELLA FITZGERALD-“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” I love Ella, and I love the horn blasts as the song opens and closes.
PATTI PAGE-“Boogie Woogie Santa Claus” I don’t love this version, which is surprising as I love this era, but I think I don’t like her voice that much.
CAPITAL STUDIO ORCHESTRA-“Cha Cha All the Way” one of my favorite swinging weird holiday songs.
THE PENGUINS-“Jingle Jangle” has a fun “native” beat to it. It’ sa n odd song and I don’t love the singer’s voice, but the music is fun.
RAMSEY LEWIS-“The Twelve Days of Christmas” a piano instrumental that sounds nothing like the song…fun though and appropriately Christmassey somehow.
DIANA ROSS AND THE SUPREMES-“The Land of Make Believe” I didn’t even realize this was Diana Ross—the production is so low key. And the shuffle beat and strings seems very much unlike the Supremes to me. It fits in well with these songs.
DUKE ELLINGTON-“Jingle Bells (Robbie Hardkiss Remix)” I love this remix a lot, it’s one of my favorite Christmas songs.
JACK JONES-“Mistletoe and Holly” another retro-seeming, very clean-sounding song. It’s kind of mockable but fun at the same time—like the best Christmas stuff.
MARVIN GAYE AND TAMMI TERRELL-“Two Can Have a Party” I really don’t like this song in general and it doesn’t feel holiday enough for this disc. But it’s a harmless end to an otherwise fun collection of Christmas songs.
[READ: December 1, 2014] One More Thing
I really enjoyed Novak’s short piece “The Man Who Invented the Calendar” in the New Yorker (which is included in here). So I was pretty excited to read this collection of his “stories.”
There’s over 60 stories in this book. Many of them are really short (some are just a few lines). And typically the shorter the pieces the funnier they tend to be (the super short ones are pretty much a perfect set up for a punchline). But interestingly, there are several really long pieces (some over 10 pages) and these are more thoughtful and, while kinda funny, not meant to be laugh out loud funny. It’s an interesting mix. It’s especially interesting because at the end of the book, he has a piece called “Discussion Questions” in which he asks:
Did you flip through the book and read the shortest stories first? The author does that, too.
If you do that, you will laugh a lot at the beginning and then have precious few laughs at the end, so don’t do that! Continue Reading »
I love big band music. It’s what I grew up listening to. So this seemed like an ideal collection for the holidays. I mean all of the big names in big band are here. It’s a little less raucous than I would have imagined, but for a low key kind of swinging party, it works very well
GLENN MILLER-“Jingle Bells” starts off the collection right, with big horns and fast beats. I don’t love the main singer (I do like the way he twists some of the lyrics), but I do enjoy the really really un-hip backing vocalists.
RALPH FLANAGAN-“Winter Wonderland” is the kind of swing I like–big horns, more horns, all louder than the last. I also tend to like my big band as instrumental, so this one is aces for me.
TOMMY DORSEY-“Santa Claus is Coming to Town” opens with a verse that I’d never heard before. It sounds like it is coming from a tiny transistor radio, but is fun nonetheless.
FREDDY MARTIN-“Sleigh Ride” sounds like a very traditional version of this with pizzicato violins and smooth orchestration. When the vocals come in, it sounds like it may have been used in every Christmas TV special during the 1940s and 1950s (the “horse” whinny at the end especially). Perhaps a little too smooth for my liking.
VAUGHN MONROE-“Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” features Monroe’s deep bass voice. They tinker with the standard melody somewhat–singing on an occasional minor note, which is interesting. But it’s still a nice romantic version of the song.
CLAUDE THORNHILL-“Snowfall” is a slow piano instrumental. It definitely does not swing.
SAMMY KAYE-“White Christmas” is, as I’ve said, really a sad song underneath, but this one actually sounds like it could have the backing vocalists wailing in tears as Kaye sings along. Again, there will be no swinging here. Never have the words “merry and bright” sounded so sad.
LARRY CLINTON-“Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” is a big swingin’ horn fueled romp (it has nothing to do with the The Nutcracker). It always makes me laugh when the first minute or so of a big band song are rollicking and wild, and then when the vocalist comes in, the horns drops out and the song becomes really quiet (that happens here).
FATS WALLER-“Winter Weather” is not really a swinging song, but Waller’s voice sounds great and raspy in this piano and guitar based song.
BENNY GOODMAN-“Santa Claus Came in the Spring” is a song I’m unfamiliar with. It’s got a good swinging feel, although lyrically it’s a bit suspect (if not sweet).
FATS WALLER-“Swingin’ Them Jingle Bells” is a swing version of Jingle Bells, with a lot of rollicking piano. It’s good fun until the really weird vocals come in. I guess it was something of a novelty (Waller seems to be having a lot of fun at any rate).
SPIKE JONES-“All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth” is one of the oldie songs that I really don’t like. I love Spike Jones, and I appreciate that it was a novelty hit (my father used to say this line every year). But at 3 minutes of that weird squeaky voice, it feels way too long–and the fact that the middle just goes on and on is so weird.
GUY LOMBARDO-“Auld Lang Syne” is a pretty orchestral version of the song–probably the one you’ve heard every year. A nice end to the party.
[READ: December 3, 2014] The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents Macbeth
I grabbed this at the library, not entirely sure what it was. Could it really be a version of Macbeth? Set in a zoo? Well, yes it is. It’s a version of Macbeth for kids as performed by animals in the zoo.
The plot is the same, but it is utterly simplified and made not only kid-friendly, but also funny. Yes, Macbeth as comedy!
So the lion is Macbeth, a heroic figure if ever there was. And the owl is the king. Everything is great until th elion is hungry for…power! Various other animals play different parts (some of them very humorously–like the blind mole as the guard). And many other animals are in the audience (of course) and they get to comment on the performance too. I particularly enjoyed the two tiny creatures (no idea what they are), one of whom loves the violence and the other one hates it. Continue Reading »
I know I bought this for Sarah for Christmas a few years ago (I like that it looks like a present). Sarah and I have both been fans of the Indigo Girls (and we’ve both seen them, but at different events). This seemed like an obvious fun record for the holidays. But we both felt a little let down by it.
I’m not exactly sure what’s not quite right, but after listening again, I think the record is just too much of a downer for Christmas. I mean even the Indigo Girls’ more serious songs counterbalance with lively singing, but much of this album feels very dirge-like to me.
The main unexpected thing for me is that the record is largely bluegrass-inflected–not something I expect from the Indigo Girls–or Christmas music.
But that’s just how it opens–banjos and fiddle and whooping on “I Feel the Christmas Spirit” a song I didn’t know before. It’s fun, just unexpected. “It Really is (a Wonderful Life)” reminds of Barenaked Ladies for some reason (not their voices obviously). It’s folky and is another a song I didn’t know. I like it–it’s fun having new Christmas songs.
“O Holy Night” has a very weird quality to it. I usually love this song, but I don’t really care for the way they did this one–it feels flat or something. Or maybe it’s the violins and folk trappings? Actually, the middle part (with their great harmonies) sounds really good–I guess it’s just the opening I don’t like.
“Your Holiday Song” sounds more like a”real” Indigo Girls song–great harmonies, cool chord progressions. (This one was written by Emily Saliers, so that makes sense). It’s the first song I really like on the disc.
It’s the middle of the disc that really loses any steam it had. “I’ll be Home for Christmas” is certainly a sad kind of song, but their version is practically suicidal. Oh it’s such a downer with that slow violin solo. Who would want to listen to this version of this song?
“Mistletoe” is an Amy Ray original. Coming right after the downer of “I’ll be Home” this one is also slow and a downer. I find that Ray’s voice also sounds really different on this song–I would never have guessed this was her.
“Peace Child” is the third downer in a row, and you just want to give up on your festive mood after this one.
But it picks up with a rollicking bluegrass “The Wonder Song” (written by Amy Ray). It’s the most fun song on the disc and while it doesn’t scream Christmas, it is a holiday song.
Obviously no one is making “In the Bleak Midwinter” into an upbeat poppy song. Their version is quite pretty, and their harmonies are wonderful.
Perhaps the strangest song is their cover of Woody Guthrie’s “Happy Joyous Hanukkah.” It feels very Guthrie, which means it should be done in a folk style (which it is). The surprise is the full bluegrass rendition of a Hanukkah song (how many Hanukkah songs have whooping in them? It’s fun, though.
“Angels We Have Heard on High” sounds great with their harmonies. Although the mandolin solo kind of brings the song down to earth in a weird way.
The disc ends as it middled, with a slow, mournful song,”There’s Still My Joy.” While I know that not everyone is happy at Christmastime, this record goes a bit too far into the darkness for my liking.
[READ: December 2, 2014] Tib and Tum Tum
Here is another translated comic. It is done with great flair by Carol Klio Burrel who also did Nola’s World. This story is aimed more at kids though (but is not existential at all–see yesterday’;s post about translated stories). The biggest surprise for me with this is that it is actually a series of one page strips rather than a long graphic novel (I think). Well, there is a long story arc, but every page seems to have a “punchline” as if the story was sequential rather than continuous.
It’s a very simple premise. The book is set in caveman days. Tib is a small boy with a giant birthmark on his face. The other kids make fun of him for this. His mother is overprotective (the joke about him always being safe is very funny) and his father is an oblivious storyteller (whoppers of tales, I must say). In that first strip, Tib runs into Tum Tum, a baby dinosaur. He is adorable (and a little scary too, of course). And Tib decides that this red guy is pretty cool. Tum Tum spends most of his time chasing (an eating) butterflies.
When Tib tells the elders about the dinosaur they tell him of course that dinosaurs are extinct. (I love that the story is set in caveman times but that they talk in a more or less contemporary way (no grunting) and are knowledgeable (there’s a sewing joke which is very funny). When he tries to show Tum Tum to them, the dinosaur hides so no one can see him. Eventually his mom thinks he has an imaginary friend. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: KRISTIN CHENOWETH-A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas (2008).
Last year I thought about doing a Christmas CD every day in December as my soundtrack. But I forgot until a week or so in. But this year I remembered. Yuletide joy!
Since Sarah and I have a lot of Christmas CDs from over the years, I decided to just pick some at random this year. And we start with this one which I got for Sarah I thought last year, but if it’s from 2008, perhaps I got it earlier?
I knew Chenoweth from her great role on Pushing Daisies. I didn’t know she was a singer then. She has since done some amazing runs in various roles and her voice is great. This disc features a mix of traditional songs, a few more religious songs and a number of unexpected “mashups.” It works pretty well, although it tends to cross the line into cheese a bit too much for me.
“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” has her in great voice. Although I hate the cheesey sax solo.
“Christmas Island” is a new favorite song for me. Her version is fun (although the original Hawaiian version is much more fun).
“The Christmas Waltz” is a song I don’t know. It is probably best song on the disc.
“Do You See What I See” also suits her voice very well. It’s the first song to mash in another song (“Angels We Have Heard on High“) which is quite pretty
“Sleigh Ride/Marshmallow World” I like her part, I’m not sure about the blend. I don’t know who John Pizzarelli is, but he sings it too clean. The original of “Marshmallow World” is sung in an almost drunken fashion which makes the weird lyrics better. Nevertheless, the two of them have a good vocal chemistry. And there’s some goofy fun at the end.
“Sing” (you know, sing, sing a song). It’s a really weird inclusion here. But she sounds great.
“Silver Bells” also sounds great.
“Come On Ring Those Bells” is another song I don’t know. This version is way too pop country for my liking.
“What Child is This” is also perfect for her voice.
“Home on Christmas Day” is another song I don’t know (who knew there were so many unfamiliar Christmas songs?), and it works well “Born on Christmas Day” is a rather dull more religious song, which seems somehow out of place.
“Sleep Well Little Children/What a Wonderful World” is another mash up. It works pretty well and I kind of get why she chose it to end the album, but it’s another weird non-Christmas related song.
So overall this is a decent Christmas album. There’s some lovely traditional songs, some odd choices, and a few clunkers. But her voice is really fantastic throughout.
[READ: November 29, 2014] Aama
I’m surprised and delighted with how many unusual, translated graphic novels are being published in the States these days. There’s always something about the art that screams “not American.” So when I get books like this (especially if the author’s last name is Peeters), I immediately look for the translator to confirm my suspicions. This book was translated by Edward Gauvin.
While translated childrens book often seem slightly weird to my family (fun, but always slightly askew), the graphic novels don’t usually seem as weird to me. (Maybe the childrens authors just expect more existential thought from their kids).
Having said all of that, I found that I really couldn’t get into this story. There were some great elements to it, in both storytelling and character creation, but, and maybe more will be explained in future books, but the main plot was a little too vague to me.
But I loved the way it was constructed. We open on a man face down. As he comes to, he realizes that he has no idea who he is. While he tries to get himself together, a weird looking ape comes up and calls him Verloc. The ape has no hair on his legs (so they look human). The ape is named Churchill and he is a custom built robot. As Verloc tries to come to grips with what’s happening, Churchill gives him his “memoirs” to read. The book is “real paper” which Verloc appreciates. And they started just a week ago.
Hose was Rick Rubin’s first band and this single was the first release on Def Jam records. Rubin is on guitar. I would never have known of this release if it weren’t for the Hip Hop family Tree.
This three song single is a noisy slab of art punk.
The first side “Mobo” is a fairly conventional punk song. There’s a loud fuzzy bass riff. The drums are surprisingly tame (although I understand it may have been recorded on a boombox or something). The guitars are mostly noise. And the vocals are pretty clean (if bizarre). It seems to be a part of (and maybe even precursor to) the sludge punk movement of the early 80s.
The B-side included 2 songs. “Girls” which is 20 seconds of pure hardcore (the only word is girls). As the song feedbacks out, they begin to do a crazy slow nonsensical cover of “We’re Going to the Zoo” (for over 3 minutes!).
Hose also released an album (called Hose) which I can’t even find online anywhere. Guess Rubin’s not so proud of this.
[READ: November 24, 2014] Hip Hop/Comic Connection Pt. 2
This supplement to Hip Hop Family Tree was created by Rod Spike (think anagram). It shows the early connections for him between comic books and hip hop.
The book talks about the way that these two loves of his life merged in the 1990s.
We begin with Spike Lee in his early days (making the video for “White Lines, for instance). Then we meet cartoonist and illustrator Rob Liefeld, doing work for Marvel.
Spike had made some big time commercials at this point and was ready to make one for Levis. Liefeld submitted his name to be cast in the upcoming Levis commercial. Lee picked him and they made the commercial together (the comic version of Liefeld in this book is done in the style of Liefeld’s work, so he is crazy and creepy whereas in real life he’s a pretty normal looking kid). Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: G.L.O.B.E. & WHIZ KID-“Play that Beat Mr DJ” (Double Dee & Steinski Payoff Mix) (1985).
The original of this song (1983) was simply the drums and simple keyboard riff. The “Payoff Mix” done by Double Dee & Steinski added the incredibly dense layer of samples that really make this song interesting (actually the samples are more interesting than the rap).
The samples included:
Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five
Play It Sam…Play “As Time Goes By” (Avalon/As Time Goes By) by Humphrey Bogart (dialogue spoken from the movie Casablanca)
That’s the joint – Funky Four Plus One
Take the Country to N.Y. City by Hamilton Bohannon
Don’t Make Me Wait (Acapella) by Peech Boys
Stop! In The Name Of Love by Diana Ross and the Supremes
Rockit by Herbie Hancock
Situation 12″ by Yazoo
Starski Live at the Disco Fever by Lovebug Starski
World’s Famous, Hobo Scratch, D’Ya Like Scratchin’ and Buffalo Gals by Malcolm McLaren
Apache by Incredible Bongo Band
Tutti Frutti by Little Richard
Last Night A DJ Saved My Life by Indeep
I’ll Tumble 4 Ya by Culture Club
Speech by Fiorello La Guardia from Reading the Comics – July,1945
Double Dee & Steinski went on to make some other great mashups (and these sound amazing since they were done circa 1985). I particularly like Lesson 3.
Here’s the one that made them famous:
[READ: November 23, 2014] Hip Hop Family Tree 2
This volume picks up right where the previous one left off in 1981.
First we meet Doug E. Fresh who, devoid of records, starts the trend of beatboxing. We also see The Sugarhill Gang doing a rap over the song “Apache” (while dressed like Native Americans).
The book bounces back to California (Oakland this time) where we meet Too Short, a great high school rapper who is interested in making money from his skills. We also see a young Ice-T doing his gangland thing
Then it jumps back to Rick Rubin whose love of punk and metal (these goings on are happening at the same time as Black Flag is trying out a young Henry Rollins, and Bad Brains are in high gear–and often times the crowds mix amiably) fuses with his love of rap. he really wants to be able to capture the rawness of the live sounds of both types of music onto a record (enter the Beastie Boys). And, strangely enough (although perhaps it should be expected), Malcolm McDowell enters the picture. We also see Fab Five Freddy making “Change the Beat” which includes a since-very-heavily sampled “Freshhhhh” Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: “The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel” (1981).
This track was one of the first records to mix songs from other artists (yes, we call it sampling now). It was a chance for Grandmaster Flash to show off his mad mixing skills. He used three turntables, samples from the movie Flash Gordon (nice) and this songs:
Chic – “Good Times” ; Blondie – “Rapture” ; Queen – “Another One Bites the Dust” ; Sugarhill Gang – “8th Wonder” ; The Furious Five – “Birthday Party” ; Spoonie Gee – “Monster Jam” ; Michael Viner’s Incredible Bongo Band – “Apache” ; Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five – “Freedom” ; Sugarhill Gang – “Rapper’s Delight” ; The Hellers – “Life Story”
It’s really impressive and it sounds seamless.
[READ: November 23, 2014] Hip Hop Family Tree 1
This book came across my desk at work and I was really excited to read it. I thought I didn’t know all that much about the origins of hip hop. And while I was largely right, I was also pleased that I knew so many of the big names.
So this is a graphic novel done by Ed Piskor. Piskor’s style is familiar (it looks like old school indie comics, even though he was born in 1982). Now, I already said I don’t know all that much about hip hop history, so I can’t vouch for the veracity of this family tree (and I certainly suspect that Piskor likes some people and dislikes others), but I assume that this is a pretty accurate story about how hip hop came to be.
It all starts in the 1970s with DJ Kool Herc in the South Bronx. He spins discs at parties and is hugely successful. He starts looping records to extend the drum breaks. His popularity inspires Grandmaster Flash who tries new techniques and Afrika Bambaataa who plays the most obscure records he can find (Kraftwerk, for instance). Bambaataa was once a gang leader but he channeled his music into a more peaceful gang–Zulu Nation. This group leads to some other early hip hop groups: The Treacherous Three, The Cold Crush Brothers, Funky Four Plus One (the first of the groups to feature a woman) and The Fantastic Five, Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: Songs for Stuffing: A Thanksgiving Mix (2011).
There are not too many Thanksgiving songs. But our friends at NPR created this Thanksgiving mix back in 2011. It seems to lie dormant for much of the year but they bring it back at a seasonally appropriate time.
I have to admit I have not actually listened to it (at least not yet). But it includes this rather broad selection of artists (designed to please or alienate everyone on Thanksgiving).
A Band of Bees • Amadou & Mariam • The Andrews Sisters • Louis Armstrong • The B-52’s • The Beatles • Ludwig von Beethoven • William Billings • Willie Bobo • Bow Wow Wow • Greg Brown • Cab Calloway • Cyrus Chestnut • Guy Clark • Nat King Cole • Joe Craven • Joseph Curiale • Guy Davis • Champion Jack Dupree • Bob Dylan • The Flaming Lips • Dave Frishberg • William DeVaughn • Rick Gallagher • Dizzy Gillespie • Johnny Griffin • Patty Griffin • Golden Smog • Benny Goodman • Arlo Guthrie • Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass feat. Ozomatli • Herbie Hancock • Bill Heid • David Holt • The JB’s • Jay & The Techniques • Louis Jordan • Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan • Paul Lingle • Lyle Lovett • Eric “Two Scoops” Moore • New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble • Harry Nilsson • Tim O’Brien • Lee “Scratch” Perry • Michelle Shocked • Dmitri Shostakovich • Southern Culture on the Skids • Spearhead • Still on the Hill • Rufus Thomas • Traffic • Bobby Troup • Jay Ungar & Molly Mason • Warrant • Ethel Waters • The Wiyos • “Weird Al” Yankovic
Just in time for Thanksgiving, McSweeney’s has sent us A Load of Hooey.
Bob Odenkirk has been cropping up a lot lately (not as much as erstwhile partner and financially secure comedian, David Cross, mind you), and that’s a good thing. There’s something about Odenkirk’s persona (crotchety, uptight, white guy) that is usually really funny. He often elevates crappy sitcoms just by yelling at one of the characters.
This book is a collection of short pieces (most are 1-3 pages), including “unabridged quotations” and poems. They cover a variety of subjects, but pretty much all upend expectations. And, as one might expect from Odenkirk, there’s a lot of religious and political jokes as well.
The “unabridged quotations” allow Odenkirk to append something that removes the pomp from some famous quotations. The poems are usually funny, twisted barbs at some subject or another.
SOUNDTRACK: DAVID BOWIE-“The Laughing Gnome” (1967).
I have always liked David Bowie. Never loved him, but always liked his radio hits (and a bit more). Suffice it to say that I have never heard of “The Laughing Gnome” before reading about it in this book.
What a strange little song. I can’t tell if it came out before or after his debut solo record (he has the same haircut), but I gather it was released as a novelty record.
It’s a delightful little song. Very sixties mod with a healthy nod of dance-hall. The very different thing of course is that in the song, the main singer (Bowie) meets and sings with a sped-up-voiced Cockney “gnome.”
So the song is clearly a novelty song (what else would you call it?). Except that the production is really great and the music is really good too. Despite the gnome, the song isn’t really a “funny” song (well, there are jokes and puns, I guess). It’s certainly weird and certainly silly, but it holds up pretty well to repeated listens (even if the chorus is “ha ha ha hee hee hee I’m a laughing gnome and you can’t catch me”).
Bowie doesn’t really acknowledge the song anymore, although he did joke that he was considering performing it in a new ‘Velvet Underground-influenced’ style. Before that happens, hear the original
[READ: November 22, 2014] 1982
So yes, I know that Ghomeshi is in the midst of a scandal in which he is pretty undeniably a sexually abusive scumbag. I’ll say nothing more about that since things are still under investigation {formal charges were brought today]. But it doesn’t look good for Jian.
This is rather upsetting. For the women involved, obviously, but also for those of us who liked Jian and thought he was one of the good guys. Which I did. I loved Moxy Fruvous. I loved his solo album. I had a brief email exchange with him before he joined the CBC, and his show, Q was one of the best interview shows out there. He always seemed so nice and on the right side of so many issues. Ugh.
But anyhow, this is about the book, not him (although the book is about him as well). I only heard about the book when I was looking for news about his scandal (I had no idea he had written a book). The book is called 1982 because it is all about his life in the year 1982, a formative year in his childhood. Continue Reading »
SOUNDTRACK: SHE & HIM-A Very She & Him Christmas (2011).
I love the packaging of this disc (the envelope with the Christmas letter/liner notes is charming).
I Just Read About That... 