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Dinaw Mengestu–“An Honest Exit” (New Yorker, July 12 & 19, 2010)

August 15, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: SARAH HARMER-“Captive” (2010).

Sarah Harmer has a new disc out.  Recently my wife Sarah has discovered her in our CD collection and has been listening to her a lot.  I’ve enjoyed her for years, and I always look forward to her new albums.

Somehow I missed that this one came out, but this track is currently #3 on the CBC Radio 3 chart.  Or you could listen to it on her page there.

This song is uptempo and catchy and could easily be a big hit. Her last album was more country/bluegrassey, but this song is pure rock (pop rock, but rock nonetheless).

The bridge of the song is a mysterious affair which adds a lot of personality to this bubbly track (with a fun chorus).  I’m glad that Sarah has more songs out and that my Sarah will soon have more music to listen to.

[READ: August 4, 2010] “An Honest Exit”

Dinaw Mengestu is another of the New Yorker‘s 20 Under 40.  This is the story of a University teacher.  His father recently passed away and he feels compelled to talk about it to his class.  So when class begins, he almost-accidentally tells them his father’s story.

Initially I was a little disappointed in the piece because, while his father’s life is horrifying and interesting, it seemed to fit squarly into my limited knowledge of what I knew about the situation: He was an engineer in Ethiopia but was reduced to nothing after attending a political rally.  He walked across the country to Sudan in hopes of escape.

When he arrived in Sudan he was starving, desperate to find any kind of work.  Finally, a man named Abrahim took pity on him and found him a job delivering hot tea to workers.  Abrahim was like a benevolent dictator to him, helping him and plotting his escape to London; however, all the while the narrator’s father was very distrustful of him, always assuming the worst (and why shouldn’t he?). Continue Reading »

Posted in 20 Under 40, Dinaw Mengestu, New Yorker, Racism, Short Story | Leave a Comment »

Stanley McChrystal–“In the Line of Duty” [excerpt] (Harper’s, September 2010, originally published 1974)

August 14, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: QUIET RIOT-“Cum on Feel the Noize” (1983).

I heard this song on  the radio the other day.  When it came out, I rushed out to buy it…it was one of the first metal albums I was going to buy.  I went to the local Pathmark (!) and the total of the album came to $6.66 (!).  How cool! How metal!

I loved this song so much.  But now 26 years later (!), it’s just kind of embarrassing (although not as embarrassing as their outfits in the video!).

By the way, who was the first band to have a clap along drum and vocals only part in a rock song anyhow?  They have a lot to answer for in the 80s metal department.

[READ: August 12, 2010] “In the Line of Duty” [excerpt]

Yes, this is General David McChrystal, who gave the unprecedented interview in Rolling Stone which got him fired.

McChrystal was managing editor of The Pointer, the literary magazine of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where this was published in 1974. I admit I would not have read this if it weren’t McChrystal (I don’t really like military fiction).

This was  a really good piece.  It concerns an officer named Gewissen (a fascinating name which means either Conscience or Certain, depending on the part of speech) in an unspecified country where there are Arabs (but not oil-rich Arabs like he’d expected). Continue Reading »

Posted in Death, Harper's, Military, Quiet Riot, Stanley McChrystal, The Pointer, Violence, War | Leave a Comment »

Fredy Perlman–[Week 10] Letters of Insurgents (1976)

August 13, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: AGAINST ME!-“I Was a Teenage Anarchist” (2010).

I heard this song on the radio today and thought it rather ideal for this book.  (Except for the part about the music industry, of course).

I was a teenage anarchist, looking for a revolution.
I had the style, I had the ambition.
I read all the authors, I knew the right slogans.
There was no war but the class war.
I was ready to set the world on fire.
I was a teenage anarchist, looking for a revolution.

I was a teenage anarchist, but the politics were too convenient.
In the depths of their humanity all I saw was bloodless ideology.
And with freedom as the doctrine, guess who was the new authority?
I was a teenage anarchist, but the politics were too convenient.

I was a teenage anarchist, but then the scene got too rigid.
It was a mob mentality, they set their rifle sights on me.
Narrow visions of autonomy, you want me to surrender my identity.
I was a teenage anarchist, the revolution was a lie.

Do you remember when you were young and you wanted to set the world on fire?

Sums up the book (at least from Sophie’s side, pretty well.  And in 3 minutes, no less.

I rather like Against Me!  Although this song is far poppier than punk.

[READ: Week of August 13, 2010] Letters of Insurgents [Ninth Letters]

The penultimate week of Insurgent Summer has everything you always wanted in a book: a teenaged girl trying to seduce her father while her mother looks on and encourages her.  And the sad thing is that that scene, and not any of the political discussions or anything else is what I will remember this book for.  This scene, as corrupt and creepy and hurtful as it was is what I will think of if anyone ever asks me if I read Letters of Insurgents.  And that, I think, is a crying shame, because there are so valid and interesting discussions about individualism in the book, but I’ll just keep seeing Yara forcing herself on Yarostan (and probably Mirna having sex with the devil). Continue Reading »

Posted in Against Me!, Anarchy, Big Books, Communists, Consumerism, Fredy Perlman, Huh?, Insurgent Summer, Marriage Trouble, Religion, Sex, Unlikable main character, Yuck! | 3 Comments »

David Foster Wallace–“A New Examiner” (Harper’s, September, 2010)

August 12, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: THE POLYPHONIC SPREE-The Beginning Stages of… (2001).

The Polyphonic Spree caused a lot of stir when they released this album.  There were like twenty of them, they all wore robes, and they sang choral chamber pop that was incredibly infectious.  Some people hated them outright.  And yet at least one of their songs was deemed worthy of being in a commercial (maybe that’s why people hated them).

It’s been almost ten years since the record came out and I have to say it still holds up really well.  In fact, given the trend of music over the decade, it almost seems like a precursor to bands like The Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene (the swelling orchestral bits, that is) and there’s the inevitable comparisons with The Flaming Lips.  Even Nick Hornby got into the act, naming one of his collections of essays for The Believer, The Polysyllabic Spree.

Unlike a lot of music that I’ve been enjoying lately, this album doesn’t have a lot of diversity within it.  That’s not to say that it’s bad, because what it does it does very well.  Symphonic pop.  Euphoric, majestic, swelling happiness.

You have to be very cynical not to be moved by some of these songs.  (Or really into death metal, anyway).

Of course, nobody needs the 36 minutes of synthesized swirls that constitute the last “song.”

[READ: August 12, 2010] “A New Examiner”

For those following the releases of excerpts from The Pale King, this is apparently the same fiction that was published in Issue #6 of The Lifted Brow (which I haven’t seen, so I don’t know if this is the same excerpt in toto). Continue Reading »

Posted in Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Canadian Music, David Foster Wallace, Harper's, The Believer, The Flaming Lips, The Polyphonic Spree, Work | Leave a Comment »

Karen Russell–“The Dredgeman’s Revelation” (New Yorker, July 26, 2010)

August 11, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: STARS-In Our Bedroom, After the War (2007).

I listened to the latest Stars release on cbcradio3 (they had been streaming it there).  I liked it but I didn’t love it.  So I went back to the predecessor to see if I still liked Stars as much as I recalled liking them.

And I do, indeed.  The vocals are split between the gorgeous, delicate Amy Millan and the earnest Torquil Campbell.

“The Night Starts Here” is a beautiful track and “Take Me to the Riot” is a stellar, catchy song with a rousing chorus.

In fact, the disc plays nicely back and forth with dancey tracks (like the discoey “My Favourite Book”) and more delicate tracks (like the delightful “Midnight Coward”.)

“The Ghost of Genova Heights” sounds not unlike Prefab Sprout (with another dioscoey sound).  While “Personal” is sad song about Personal ads (or the people in them, anyhow).  It’s the most downbeat song on the disc, and it acts as a nice breather for what’s to come.

There are a couple of simple piano songs, like “Barricade” which veers towards over the topness, but stays on the good side of it.

“Window Bird” has a great surprise twist in: after some delicate “forget, forget” whispers, a rocking bridge pushes its way in.  The disc ends with the almost closer: “Today Will Be Better I Swear,” which, with its musical diminutions would make an excellent end to the disc.  Although the closing song (the title track), makes for an excellent coda.

The Stars folk know their way around a delicate and catchy melody.  And their lyrics are strong too.  This is definitely a favorite disc of the last few years, even if, as Sarah points out, it’s not as rocking as I normally like.

I’ll probably check out The Five Ghosts, but I fear it will be hard to live up to this disc.

[READ: July 31, 2010] “The Dredgman’s Revelation”

Karen Russel is another of The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40.  And this is a story that I wouldn’t normally read.  (I don’t have much of an affinity for depression-era fiction).  So I’m glad I said I would read all of these authors, as it exposed me to something new.

This story is about Louis Thanksgiving Auschenbliss.  Louis was born in a foundling’s hospital.  The story of his birth and the origin of his name are very enjoyable.  In fact, I would have wanted to read the story more if it started with this segment, rather than the stuff about the dredgeman (although I admit that the placement works much better dramatically).

Louis was eventually adopted by the Auschenbliss family, who treated him as if he was worse than an animal.  He was forced to do chores with virtually no rest for most of his young life.  But Louis never complained, he did what he was made to do, despite the abuses.  Until he’d had enough.  And then he left.

He found work as a Dredgeman in a Florida swamp.  The Model Land Company was digging a canal, and Louis was delighted to find work, even if it was work that every other man hated.  Because of Louis’ terrible family, he felt that anything, even dredging, was better than what he had been through.  And even though the crew thought he was weird for being so happy, he felt a kind of bond with them.

And so Louis is sad when the job ends.  But he quickly finds work with another company in an even more depressing, bug infested swamp.  The people aren’t as nice, but he’s still happy.

Continue Reading »

Posted in 20 Under 40, Canadian Music, Depression, Karen Russell, New Yorker, Stars, Violence | Leave a Comment »

David Bezmozgis–“The Train of Their Departure” (New Yorker, August 9, 2010)

August 10, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-Oak Oppression: Cobo Hall, Detroit, December 17, 1978 (1978).

This is another bootleg from Up the Down Stair.  This is a 1978 show, right after the release of Hemispheres.  I have always loved this era of Rush, and the fact that they play so many looooong songs in this show is music to these ears.

We’ve got a 12 minute “Xanadu”, a 10 minute “Cygnus X-1”, followed by “Cygnus X 1 Book 2 Hemispheres” (18 minutes), a 10 minute “La Villa Strangiato” and and 18 minute complete “2112.”  That they can fit 10 more songs into this concert is pretty amazing.

The show is of good quality, although aside from the track listing there aren’t a lot of surprises here (Rush shows don’t deviate all that much from the records).  The nice surprise is in the drum solo.  It’s pretty much the same one from All the World’s a Stage, but it has some really fun effects on it at the end.

[READ: August 4, 2010] “The Train of Their Departure”

David Bezmozgis is another of the New Yorker’s 20 Under 40.  I enjoyed this story, set in Russia in 1976, because it was like two different stories combined into one saga.

Polina is a twenty-one year old married woman.  As the story opens, we learn of the cute courtship that her husband Maxim treated her to.  He followed protocol, her treated her very nicely.  He waited every step of the way, from kissing to petting to more.  He even used contraception (something most Russian men didn’t bother with).  Their courtship felt inevitable, even if Polina was never really smitten with him. Continue Reading »

Posted in 20 Under 40, Communists, David Bezmozgis, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Rush, Russia, Sex | Leave a Comment »

James Joyce–[Week 5] Ulysses (1922) [Nausicaa, Oxen of the Sun]

August 9, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: THE YOUNG DUBLINERS-Rocky Road ep (1994).

The Young Dubliners are not really a trad Irish band.  They play a sort of folk rock in the vein of The Waterboys (anthemic rock that soars and soars).

I believe I bought this on the basis of their awesome cover of “Rocky Road to Dublin” which is somewhat traditional in the beginning but which bursts into a rollicking, punky good time.

The rest of the tracks are okay.  None of them are all that memorable, but neither are they terrible.  Although I’m just reading that “Last House on the Street” was a radio hit.  They’ve toured with Collective Soul, which should tell you a lot about their sound.

They’ve released a number of albums since this ep, including one in 2009, but I pretty much still only like “Rocky Road to Dublin.”  I’ll bet they are fun live, though.

[READ: Week of August 9, 2010] Ulysses: Episodes 13-14

Only two episodes this week, but man, that second one killed me.  Pages and pages unbroken by paragraphs.  Paragraphs and paragraphs about heaven knows what.  Holy cow! Sure and begorrah!

Episode 13, however, was a treat.  It was sweet and tender and beautiful and vivacious and lascivious and sexy and dirty and and and ahhhhh. Continue Reading »

Posted in Big Books, Drinking, Dublin, Ireland, Infinite Zombies, Irish Writer, James Joyce, Language, Masturbation | Leave a Comment »

America in Color 1939-1943

August 8, 2010 by Paul Debraski

[VIEWED: August 5, 2010] America in Color 1939-1943

The Denver Post recently published 70 color photographs from the Depression.   You can see them all here.  The photographs are part of the Library of Congress’ collection of photos.  The Library of Congress’ collection houses 1,600 color and over 160,000 black and white photos from this period in American history.  It is a bit more for scholars, as you can’t just browse the pictures like in the Denver Post site, but for completeness, you really must check out the LOC prints.  They’re available here.

But back to the Denver Post.  The Post’s collection of 70s prints come from the Library of Congress’ 2006 Exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color.  These Post’s pictures are very large and very clear (they are reproduced from slides).  And they are all downloadable.

They include photos from New Mexico, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Georgia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, California, Texas, Nebraska, Ohio, Montana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Washington D.C., Illinois, Iowa, Virginia, Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan.

And, they show the amazingly diverse makeup of the country.  From a peach farmer to a railway worker.  From kids fishing, to kids playing in the snow.  From women at a fair, to women welding.  From men on horseback to men in front of bomber.  Not to mention, the creation of the Shasta Dam!  (It’s amazing — #28)

The thing that amazes me most about these pictures is that although some things have changed quite dramatically in sixty years, other things haven’t.  Kids still fish, stores still sell fruits and veggies, and people still love pictures of scenery and interesting faces.

You can obviously tell that these pictures are old.  Even the ones without people just look old, why is that?–see #2 in particular for one that looks old even though nothing in the picture is dated.  Or picture #11: the women’s faces simply look like the were photographed 60 years ago.  Or this one, which I’m including.  There’s nothing particularly dated about the picture, and yet you can tell this didn’t just happen in 2010.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Depression, Funky Web Sites, History, Military, Newspapers, Nostalgia, Photo Essays, Set at School, Technology, Work | Leave a Comment »

Téa Obreht–”The Laugh” (The Atlantic, August 2009)

August 7, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-The Fifth Order of Angels (bootleg from the Agora Ballroom,Cleveland, 26 August 1974) (1974).

When I was browsing the internet I found this cool blog called Up the Down Stair.  And this blog features some bootleg concert Mp3s.

When I was in college, there was an awesome used record store called The Electric Mine Shaft.  We would go there once a week or so and browse the collection.  He caried all kinds of bootleg shows.  So I have a  lot of Rush live vinyl bootlegs from over the years.  Really they were pretty much a waste of money as I didn’t (and really don’t) enjoy listening to poor quality recordings, so, yes, wasteful.

Anyhow, with the advent of the web and free MP3s, I don’t mind listening to a bootleg.  So, this one, from 1974 is pretty interesting.

Here’s what the notes from the site say:

Neil Peart had only joined the band about a month earlier and played his first gig less than two weeks prior to this concert on the 14th. It’s a great document of the early phase of the band’s career and is notable for featuring unreleased songs as well as versions of a couple tunes that had not yet seen the light of day on vinyl. “Best I Can” and “In the End” were most likely not recorded at this point and wouldn’t emerge for another six months when Fly By Night was released. “Fancy Dancer”, a take on Larry Williams’ “Bad Boy”, and “Garden Road” were never recorded to the best of my knowledge. I believe that the snippet of “Garden Road” that you hear in the Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage comes from this recording.

The most fascinating thing to me about it is that the guitar solos are in stereo (although this is a mono recording, so the solos disappear sometimes).  That’s fine; the weird thing is that it was actually recorded with the solos in stereo! In a live setting?  The guitars went around the room?  Cool!

So, obviously Rush around thier debut were nowhere near the prog mavens that they eventually became, but there’s something fun about these early shows when they just rocked and rocked.  (There’s even a drum solo!).  And I really like that the “Working Man” solo incorporates part of the as yet unreleased solo from “By-Tor and the Snow Dog.”

It’s available here.

[READ: July 30, 2010] “The Laugh”

Téa Obreht is one of the New Yorker‘s 20 Under 40.  They included her short story in a recent issue and I didn’t love it.  It was okay, but it wasn’t really moving.

Nevertheless, they mentioned that she had another story in The Atlantic, and I was led to believe it was her only other published story, so I decided to read it too.

And I am so glad I did!  It wasn’t a terribly exciting story (until the end!) and it wasn’t a very poweful story (until the end!) and I thought something very different would happen (and am so glad it didn’t!).  But there was a sense of danger, forboding, concern, something terrifying that worked as a low level hum through the whole story which made it very compelling.  Maybe it had something to do with the accompanying picture.  I mean, Jesus H. Christ, look at the this thing: Continue Reading »

Posted in 20 Under 40, Adventure, Atlantic, Death, Rush, Téa Obreht, Violence, Yuck! | 3 Comments »

Fredy Perlman–[Week 9] Letters of Insurgents (1976)

August 6, 2010 by Paul Debraski

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-“The Trees” (1978).

I suppose many people know this kind-of popular song from Rush.  But lyrically it seemed relevant to Insurgent Summer.

There is unrest in the forest,
There is trouble with the trees,
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their please.

The trouble with the maples,
(And they’re quite convinced they’re right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light.
But the oaks can’t help their feelings
If they like the way they’re made.
And they wonder why the maples
Can’t be happy in their shade.

There is trouble in the forest,
And the creatures all have fled,
As the maples scream “Oppression!”
And the oaks just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights.
“The oaks are just too greedy;
We will make them give us light.”
Now there’s no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.

I’ve liked this song for some twenty-five years and my interpretation of it changes every once in a while.  I’m not sure if the book influences my thoughts on the song, but it seemed relevant.

Oh, and it totally rocks, too.

[READ: Week of July 30, 2010] Letters of Insurgents [Eighth Letters]

Yarostan replies to Sophia’s letter by saying that her victory is complete, that he has been looking through opaque lenses all these years.

But the main focus of this letter is the dance at the factory that Yara and Mirna have coordinated.  They decorated the whole room (moving machinery aside) to have the experience of the life that Sabina lived.  It even included signs that said “everything is allowed” and “nothing is banned.”

The dance is basically a retelling of Mirna’s story, complete with Mother with Broom, Devil, and all the other characters that we’ve heard about in their bizarre “love games”  Although the dancing part with the spinning and circling and all the music sounds like it might have been fun, I feel like the audience must have been very confused and a little bummed that there wasn’t more dancing for all.

After the dance Jasna reveals that she asked Titus to marry her.  Twice.  And Jasna reveals that Titus has said some awful things about Luisa and Vera (and, yes, Mirna) over the years.  Yara still hates him. Continue Reading »

Posted in Anarchy, Big Books, Canadian Music, Communists, Consumerism, Drugs, Fredy Perlman, Free Speech, Insurgent Summer, Military, Morality, Politicians, Rush, Technology, Unlikable main character, Work | Leave a Comment »

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