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Arthur Conan Doyle–“A Case of Identity” [The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes] (1891)

February 5, 2024 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: February 4, 2024] “A Case of Identity”

Many years ago I was on a bit of a Sherlock Holmes kick.  I read the first two novels and then couldn’t get a copy of this collection, so I guess I forgot about the detective.  Since i have recently listened to a couple of Sherlock Holmesian books I decided to track down the next book to read.

And I was quite surprised to realize that while Arthur Conan Doyle did write a lot of Sherlock stories, most of them were short stories, not novels (See the list below).

So since these were short stories I decided to give a crack at them.

This second story in the book is remarkably… inconsequential?  Holmes has a habit of saying that big mysteries often disguise simple crimes–if it’s a huge deal, then the plotting must be simple.  He also likes that life is far ore bizarre than fiction (amusing in a short story).  But even by those standards, this is a pretty small story.  It also feels not very hard to figure out–I have also realized that much of Holmes’ success comes from not letting on some things that he has figured out (thereby not letting the readers in on it either).

So Mary Sutherland has come to see Holmes about a personal matter.  There is some excellent moments of Holmes reading the woman from outside and telling what her concern is just by the way she is standing.  I also realized that so many of the story really do depend on British mannerisms and behaviors–things that wouldn’t come across as well today.  Like cuffs being mended and ink stains on fingers.

At any rate, Holmes figures she has a story of woe about a romance.  And so she does. Continue Reading »

Posted in Adventure, Arthur Conan Doyle, Marriage Trouble, Mystery, Sexism, Sherlock Holmes, Short Story, Yuck! | Leave a Comment »

Arthur Conan Doyle–“A Scandal in Bohemia” [The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes] (1891)

February 4, 2024 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: February 4, 2024] “A Scandal in Bohemia”

Many years ago I was on a bit of a Sherlock Holmes kick.  I read the first two novels and then couldn’t get a copy of this collection, so I guess I forgot about the detective.  Since i have recently listened to a couple of Sherlock Holmesisn books I decided to track down the next book to read.

And I was quite surprised to realize that while Arthur Conan Doyle did write a lot of Sherlock stories, most of them were short stories, not novels (See the list below).

So since these were short stories I decided to give a crack at them.

This first one “A Scandal in Bohemia” is quite well-known as it introduces HER–the woman–Irene Adler.  In this first story Adler befuddles the genius who is Sherlock Holmes.

The story is remarkably tame–even Watson says so as he writes of the case.

The King of Bohemia is meant to be married.  But Irene Adler has a photo of the two of them together that she is using to blackmail him.  She threatens to have the photo get out to the public ass soon as he announces his marriage.

The King is a mildly comical character because he is quite smitten with Miss Adler (who is from New Jersey!).  But she is not of his class so he cannot pursue anything with her.

He has tried several different ways of getting the photo back (legal and decided illegal), but has had no luck. Continue Reading »

Posted in Adventure, Arthur Conan Doyle, Drugs, Mystery, Sexism, Sherlock Holmes, Short Story | Leave a Comment »

John Scalzi–Starter Villain (2023)

February 3, 2024 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: February 3, 2024] Starter Villain

My wife and I have relatively different tastes in books, but we have a large section of overlap.  And since she is a much faster reader than I, she brings home all kinds of books that I think I’d like to check out.

And this was, obviously one of them.  I mean, blah blah, books by their covers, but come on, of course I’m going to at least look at this one.

She confirmed that it was good and I jumped in.

I must say right off the bat it’s not what I thought it was going to be.  The cats are not the villains, despite how obvious that seems. Rather, the cats are helpers to the villain.  But we’ll get to that.

Charlie is down on his luck.  He’s a substitute teacher.  He’s recently divorced–this hurts even more because his Uncle Jake sent him a pair of berry spoons as a wedding present with a note that said 18 months, which was exactly as long as his wedding lasted.  And the house he’s living in was his only inheritance.  But he has three half siblings who are all owed a part of the house.  But it’s the only place he has to go.  And he’s got this stray cat that he recently brought home…

His last hope for a semblance of success is to buy a local Irish pub that is for sale.  But it costs a few hundred thousand dollars more than he has–and the bank isn’t fooled by his lies.

When he gets back from the bank, there is a woman waiting on his porch.   She tells him that his Uncle Jake (the one with the spoons) has died and left him a substantial sum.  He just has to go to the funeral and say a few words on his behalf.

Charlie hasn’t seen his Uncle since he was like five years old and has no idea what to say about the man.  The man owned parking garages.  How could he have a substantial sum?  But whatever, he has not much else going on.

The funeral home is hilarious because all of the bouquets has curses and threats on them–beautiful flower arrangements with sashes that say things like “See You In Hell.”  And when the funeral actually starts one of the men takes out a knife to make sure that Jake is dead. Continue Reading »

Posted in Adventure, Cats, Death, Funny (ha ha), Huh?, Morality, Murder, Supernatural, Technology, Villains, Violence | Leave a Comment »

Joseph Keckler (ArtYard, Frenchtown, NJ, February 2, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

February 2, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 2, 2024] Joseph Keckler

I saw Joseph Keckler open for Sleater-Kinney five years ago.  It was a great and memorable performance:

The short version is that he has an utterly amazing voice.  It is deep and rich and operatic and I can honestly say I have never been in the presence of someone who could sing like that before.

But he doesn’t sing opera.  Well, he does, sort of.

He came out on stage and didn’t introduce himself.  He asked us how we were doing and then said that he wasn’t doing great.  Then he turned on a laptop and played a musical motif and he began to sing in beautiful Italian.  The video screen behind him projected the translation of the words.  And they were hilarious.

It was a song about going to a party and eating shroom-laced chocolate.  Then walking home and wanting to kill himself until he remembered he had to brush his teeth.  It is called, naturally enough “Shroom Trip Opera.”

I saw that he was touring and then I was shocked that he was playing in Frenchtown (not all that far from me).  I was thrilled to discover there was a performance space closer than Philly.  So he introduced me to this location as well. Continue Reading »

Posted in ArtYard, Drugs, Frenchtown NJ, Funny (ha ha), Joseph Keckler | Leave a Comment »

Ben Hatke–Reynard’s Tale: A Story of Love and Mischief (2023)

February 2, 2024 by Paul Debraski

 SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: January 20, 2024] Reynard’s Tale

I’ve really enjoyed all of Ben Hatke’s books.  He tends to write children’s books.  And, given the size of this book, I thought it would be a children’s story as well.

But it isn’t.  It’s not fully adult or anything, but the word “bastard” does appear and it is clear from the (superb) drawings that sex has been had–nothing explicit, and maybe a child wouldn’t get it, but…

The book is roughly 80 pages with an illustration on every other page.  I love the way that Hatke draws Reynard, the fox, as pretty much all nose and hat–very expressive without actually seeing a face.

Reynard is the classic Trickster.  As the story opens, he is sitting in the woods thinking of his love.  His reveries are broken by Collar the Crow (who is a priest) who comes with a summons from the King and a blessing. Continue Reading »

Posted in Adventure, Ben Hatke, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, First Second :01, Foxes, Short Books, Trickster Tale | Leave a Comment »

Frost Children [Speed Run] with support from Frost Children [Hearth Room] / Mother Cell (PhilaMOCA, Philadelphia, PA, February 1, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

February 1, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 1, 2024] Frost Children / Mother Cell

When this show was announced I grabbed a ticket pretty quickly.  I had seen Frost Children open for Yves Tumor and their set was wild and super fun.  I knew I’d want to see  them again.

I also loved that they billed the show as Frost Children with special guest Frost Children.  They were going to play their two new albums (which sound very different) as if they were two bands.

But when I listened to the new albums, they were far more sedate than when I’d seen them live.  And, actually, I wondered if their show, which felt so big to me could translate well onto the PhilaMOCA stage.

Then I saw that they had another opening band, Mother Cell.  They are described as a rhythmic noise pop band, but when I listened to the two most recent songs I found them far more mellow and poppy than noisy.

Since the show was sold out and I’d been to four shows in the last few days, I decided to give this one a miss.  I’m actually planning on going to fewer shows of young, noisy bands like this.  So we’ll see if that comes to pass too.

Posted in Frost Children, Mother Cell, Philadelphia, PA, PhilaMOCA | Leave a Comment »

Lucius (Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, January 29, 2024)

February 1, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[DID NOT ATTEND: January 29, 2024] Lucius

I’ve had a ton of opportunities to see Lucius in the last two years.  My count is 5 (plus two at festivals I wasn’t going to).  For one reason or another (sometimes inertia) I just didn’t go.

Then they announced this ten year anniversary of their debut album and I thought that that would be really fun to see.  I really liked about half of the album a lot.  The rest was good.  And I figured in a live setting all of the songs would be great.

The strange thing is I had no idea that Lucius has released only three albums (and various other remixes and stuff).  So when they played in NJ last year, had I gone, I would have seen half of this album anyway!  In fact, had I gone to that show, I would have heard them play one of their newer songs that I love, “Next to Normal.”  Serves me right.

But there was something neat about going to this little mini-tour and being one of the select cities that got to see it.

It took them a while t o come out.  In fact, they turned the lights out at 8:45 and we sat in the dark until like 9:10, which is just weird.  But whatever.  The guys came out first and then Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig came out in matching outfits–berets and bold colored jackets00primary colors splitting the coats in half with brighter colors on the pockets.  They looked great.

There was a (tall) family in front of me and they were pretty good when they started singing “Wildewoman.”  There was a woman behind me who was singing very loudly.  She had a good voice, but honestly we are here to hear these two women with incredible voices.   Fortunately she was mostly in tune and easy to ignore. Continue Reading »

Posted in Brooklyn Bowl, Jeff Taylor, Lucius, Philadelphia, PA | Leave a Comment »

Jeff Taylor (Brooklyn Bowl, Philadelphia, PA, January 29, 2024) [LUCIUS]

January 31, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: January 29, 2024] Jeff Taylor

Jeff Taylor is an old friend of Lucius.  He is from new Jersey but lives in Pittsburgh.

He opened his set by humming a kind of dissonant sound as he strummed his guitar.  It went on for far longer than it should have and became kind of funny, but not actually funny.

Then he finally sang a line “We lost my dad,” and seemed to start the whole song over.   Whether he messed up or just wanted that line to hang there is unclear.

Jeff played an electric guitar and sang and I just couldn’t get into it.

By the end of his set I feel like he warmed me up a bit and I enjoyed the last few songs more.  But most of his songs were about breaking up with someone and they just weren’t that interesting.

I mean “Flashes” goes

Just push me away
Let me be free of you
You weren’t my kinda girl

So, yeah. Continue Reading »

Posted in Brooklyn Bowl, Jeff Taylor, Lucius, Philadelphia, PA | Leave a Comment »

Pinkshift (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, January 26, 2024) [RESCHEDULED SHOW]

January 30, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: January 26, 2024] Pinkshift [rescheduled from October 13, 2023, because of flooding]

This was my fourth time seeing Pinkshift in just over two years.  It’s impressive how much bigger and more confident they’ve gotten in this time.

I hadn’t intended  to go to this show when it was scheduled for October because I had other plans.  But this show getting flooded out (and subsequently shutting down the great House of Independents) did allow me to

I hadn’t realized that Pinkshift released an EP back in August.  It’s called Suraksha (Hindi for “security” or “safety” or “protection.”).  Singer Ashrita Kumar says, “I grew up listening to in Bollywood and Indian classical music would round out the songs perfectly. Going into the studio, the only thing on my mind was my family, and making these songs was unique because in my head I was making it for them.”

So that’s cool.  The EP has some traditional Indian sounds on it and live (and this was about the coolest thing), they had someone playing sitar (I think it was a sitar).  Ashrita Kumar introduced her, but I didn’t catch her name or the band she plays in.

The sitar was mostly used as an interstitial between these three new songs–she would have been drowned out during the main body of the songs if she was playing.  But it was so cool to see her up there with this great punk band.

They followed it up with a new song, called “Blood.”  Pinkshift has never shied from speaking their minds.  This time they look beyond personal issues to take on something bigger: “There’s blood in the water, there’s blood in the trees.”  A wish that Western colonization of all lands would end.  She dedicated the song to the people of Palestine. It was heavy and intense.

As always drummer Myron Houngbedji was amazing.  His intensity and skills are formidable.  They had a new bassist on this tour (but he was not introduced and their press photos still only show three people).

Guitarist Paul Vallejo is still an amazing force–he can shred with the best but he has an overall fantastic sound.

Then they moved into songs that I knew (I wondered why I didn’t recognize the other songs, had I forgotten their music?).

I had seen them play “Burn the Witch” last year and it was possibly more intense this time.

I don’t mean to comment on people’s appearance, but I kind of miss Ashrita’s longer hair because it looked amazing when she whipped it around.  I mean, she’s still an amazing front woman, doing incredibly intense things on stage, but it was fun watcher her hair follow her along.

I first heard “Nothing” when they didn’t have a name for it, so that’s fun.

I really know their first EP the best, so when they played “On Thin Ice” I was pretty psyched.  It was also around here that I realized that I’d only ever seen them as an opening band when they were playing 7 songs a night.  But there was to be a lot more.

They played another new song, another which was just as intense as the others.  Then Let Me Drown from the full length.

And from here  to the end it was mostly the Saccharine EP.  “Mars” gets more intense each time I see it.

But one of the real highlights came when they played “Eat Your Friends” a new song that they recorded with Jhariah for this tour.  Of course, he came out to sing with them and by the middle of the song Jhariah and Ashrita were in the middle of the pit that consumed most of the middle of the floor.

I can’t ever get enough of “i’m gonna tell my therapist on you” because the song is just as good as the title.

There are 12 songs on their full length LP, and I’ve seen them play 7.  I wonder if they had been playing that whole album before the new EP came out.  Their whole set isn;t that long so, they could have probably played a few more.  But it’s hard to keep that much intensity up.

Plus, Ashrita (and the band) were energized against Israel and were getting the crowd riled up to action.  It was pretty inspiring and I hope even a quarter of the audience was moved to action.

“Love Me Forever” slows things down, but doesn’t lessen the intensity as Ashrita shows off just how amazing her voice is (I mean, damn, this woman can sing!  And her range just gets better with every release).

After a brief encore they came back and blew through two more songs from Saccharine, the 90 second “Toro” and the longer “Rainwalk.”

By this time the crowd was in a frenzy.  It was a great show.  And a great bill overall.  I’m curious if Pinkshift will follow in Mannequin Pussy’s trajectory and if they’ll be headlining Union Transfer after their next album comes out.

 

January 2024 [headlining] January 2023
Lullaby ¥ I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying ♥
Home ¥ nothing (in my head) ♥
To Me ¥ GET OUT ♥
Blood [new] the kids aren’t alright ♥
Burn The Witch ♥ Burn The Witch ♥
nothing (in my head) ♥ i’m gonna tell my therapist on you $
On Thin Ice $ Love Me Forever ♥
new song (“fuck what you say”)
Let Me Drown ♥
Mars $
Eat Your Friends [new] (with Jhariah)
i’m gonna tell my therapist on you $
the kids aren’t alright ♥
Love Me Forever ♥
encore
Toro $
Rainwalk $

 

May 2022 Oct 2021
Toro $ Toro $
Mars $ Mars $
GET OUT ♥ GET OUT ♥
On Thin Ice $ On Thin Ice $
I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying ♥ cherry (we’re all gonna die) ♥
nothing (in my head) ♥ nothing (in my head) ♥ [at the time was known as “Crapple”
i’m gonna tell my therapist on you $ i’m gonna tell my therapist on you $
Rainwalk $ Rainwalk $
$ Saccharine EP (2021)
♥ Love Me Forever (2022)
¥ Suraksha EP (2023)

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Fox Teeth, Jhariah, Pinkshift | Leave a Comment »

Jhariah (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, January 26, 2024) [PINKSHIFT]

January 29, 2024 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: January 26, 2024] Jhariah

I hadn’t heard of Jhariah before this tour was announced.  But when I listened to their song “Pressure Bomb!!!” I was hooked.  I love the whole vibe of their music–kind of musical theater (with all that implies) but with an intense punky undercurrent.

And that theatricality was present throughout Jhariah’s set which was, frankly, too short!

Jhariah came out and immediately had technical difficulties with his guitar so he said he’d do the show without playing guitar.  There was a second guitarist so that was fine.  And it may have freed him up to be even more theatrical as he danced and jumped all over the stage. Continue Reading »

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Fox Teeth, Jhariah, Pinkshift | Leave a Comment »

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