Rain pours, Harriet Wheeler gently soothes the soul and the need for a jumper gradually creeps up on you. A good day, methinks. It’s strange to be mulling over the previous ten years of music, continuing to listen to a fair old pile of new stuff and already listening to some of the wondrous stuff that awaits in 2010. The Just Played Albums of the Decade feature will begin shortly and I have every hope that it’ll be at least quite good. The list is close to finished but, simultaneously, subject to a great deal of change. The end of year list is also coming together alongside the larger venture, but its progress is repeatedly stalled by the number of ‘late greats’ entering the fray.

In the last few weeks I’ve had my first listens to recent albums by Norah Jones, Hidden Cameras, Cate Le Bon, Cerys Matthews, Molina and Johnson, Mumford & Sons, Emmy The Great and Julian Casablancas. In addition, Noah And The Whale’s album got its first detailed listen and turned out to be really rather good while Monsters Of Folk, The xx, Cheryl Cole and Kings Of Convenience were explored in more detail. There have been so many fantastic records this year that it’s hard to know where to start.

Still, I’ll have a go. If the Cerys Matthews album was credited to Duffy instead, it’d be a chart-shagging behemoth of a record. As it is, it’ll sell a few thousand and turn up for £3 in Fopp within six months. Wearing its influences on its sleeve, ‘Don’t Look Down’ is a soulful set of beautifully constructed pop songs. It’s hard to believe that the same person was responsible for ‘The Balled Of Tom Jones’, in conjunction with Space.

The Norah Jones album is being touted as the ‘Norah Jones album for people who don’t like Norah Jones albums’. That’s clearly spurious bollocks, because if you like this then you do and, oh well, nevermind, eh? Still, it’s very, very good and more than a little noisier than her previous offerings. I always quite liked her somewhat sneered at laid back jazzy early albums but this is definitely her strongest offering to date. Far more bluesy and benefiting from the presence of some of those responsible for Tom Waits’ ‘Mule Variations’. Not Tom Waits though, I should add. It’s already available via the little green blob, so click the image below and enjoy.

The cryptically named Molina and Johnson are a double act comprising of Jason Molina and Will Johnson. Molina will likely be familiar to you as the man behind the always enchanting Magnolia Electric Co and, having already provided one of the better album of the year with that band’s ‘Josephine’, has now managed to turn in a second belter before the year is out. Far more sparse than the aforementioned, ‘Josephine’, this is a bleakly beautiful collection of melancholic music boosted by deft and subtle playing. Wait till it’s dark, grab a cup of something warm and sit by the window looking at the stars and hit play.

My new found love of Cate Le Bon came about as a result of a happy coincidence. Having heard her named mentioned in a few places and seen her profiled in a couple of magazines I knew of her, without knowing what she actually sounded like. I found myself thumbing through the singles in Spillers the other week and happened upon her self-released 7”, ‘No One Can Drag Me Down’, from a couple of years back. It sat in the bag for a few days until I finally dusted it down and gave it a go. Four play of each side later I was hooked. I can’t actually remember the last single that I gave instant repeated play to and this one truly deserves it. Click here and you can download both sides of that single for absolutely nothing. I will be absolutely amazed if you’re not glad to have done so. That might well lead you to her recently released debut album which doesn’t sound quite as Coral-y as that particular single but is one of the most charmingly simple collection of folky songs I’ve heard all year. It is, inevitably, available on Spotify.

David McAlmont has set about adding lyrics to a number of pieces by genius composer (and Divine Comedy inspiration) Michael Nyman. It probably shouldn’t work but, providing you’re a fan on McAlmont’s voice in the first place, it’s remarkably successful. I’m only the first couple of listens in at this stage but I’m strangely hooked. In the same way that Neil Hannon adding vocals to Yann Tiersen’s ‘Les Jours Tristes’ should have been a bit of a balls up but really, truly wasn’t, McAlmont’s mellifluous vocals are a perfect fit for the dramatic endeavours of Nyman and I suspect this one has the capacity to become a firm favourite before too long. Let Spotify be your guide:

(and should you wish to test my theory, here’s ‘Les Jours Tristes’ without Neil and then with – both are rather nice, eh?)

I was never hugely fond of the early sound of Idlewild. They always struck me a bit too much energy and noise and not quite enough in the tunes department. I reviewed their 2005 album, ‘Warnings/Promises’, and remember quite liking it and wondering if things had changed. A recent purchase of their best of for £3 confirmed that I’d perhaps been a little hard on the increasingly early-REM aping Scots. Their latest album, ‘Post Electric Blues’, has lifted them higher in my affections and with good reason: it’s a bloody good collection of songs. At times poppier than they’ve been in the past, this album is probably far too late to put their star back in the ascendancy but I suspect its quality will surprise you if you have them chalked up as indie also-rans who never quite delivered. It may have taken them a while, but they’ve very much turned up with the goods. (Plus, there’s a lovely vinyl pressing on the Newport based Diverse Vinyl label)

For those who follow my Twitter postings, Ellie Goulding should not be an unfamiliar name. She is responsible for one of the THE pop songs of 2009, ‘Under The Sheets’. With unashamedly enormous beats all over the place and a quirky vocal it pummels along for almost four minutes, doing everything great pop music should: slowly building to euphoria, staying just the right side of annoyingly repetitive, going a little bit dreamy around the two and a half minute mark before gradually returning to the enormous sound of the chorus. Oh yes, my music loving brethren, this is what it’s all about. You might, of course, think it’s bobbins. But I suspect that would make you wrong. (The b-side, ‘Fighter Plane’ is also rather good)

On the subject of top notch pop, if you’ve not heard Jamie from The xx’s version of Florence’s cover of ‘You’ve Got The Love’ then you should probably do something about that. Don’t be put off by the arse-shreddingly mediocre Florence reading, this remix is wonderful, entirely in keeping with The xx’s own fabulous debut album. 

I shall conclude by briefly gloating about some of the wonderful new music I’ve been listening to over the last couple of weeks. The first month of 2010 will deliver both a new Tindersticks album and Supergrass’ Gaz and Danny doing a covers album as The Hot Rats. I spoke to the latter band for a ‘New for 2010’ piece and they are, quite rightly, rather proud of the twelve reinterpretations they’ve opted for. Their take on ‘Love Is The Drug’, ‘Love Cats’ and, most notably, ‘Fight For Your Right’ have been keeping me thoroughly entertained for a little while now and any Supergrass fans can sit back in anticipation of a genuinely wonderful collection of songs. Some versions are more conventional than others but all are delivered with gusto and style. Not all covers albums have to be ‘Swing When You’re Winning’, ‘Allow Us To Be Frank’ or ‘Studio 150’. This one is much more of a ‘Pin Ups’.

As for the new Tindersticks album, ‘Falling Down A Mountain’, it only arrived yesterday and I’m still a little bit too giddy to be particularly objective about it but suffice to say it’s another quality addition to a back catalogue that barely puts a foot wrong. It’s a little rougher round the edges than 2008’s ‘The Hungry Saw’ and it’s musically less restrained than that, nevertheless really rather beautiful, previous record. There are occasional hints of the more claustrophobic production sound of ‘Curtains’ and ‘The Second Tindersticks album’ on a couple of tracks, while closer ‘Piano Music’ is an epic instrumental piece which certainly evokes times gone by.

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-The Hungry Saw (2008).

It was the releases of this Tindersticks disc (their first in 5 years) on the venerable Constellation Records (in North America) that inspired my trip through their back catalog. I was completely surprised to see them released on Constellation, as the band doesn’t exactly fit with the label’s stereotypical style (although, realistically with the last dozen or so releases, Constellation has really expanded the kind of music they release).

And this is a fantastic Tindersticks release!  There’s not a bad song on the disc. And, even though nothing is as immediately gripping as say “Can We Start Again,” the disc contains some of the band’s strongest songs.  “The Hungry Saw” is simply amazing, both lyrically and in its catchy (yet creepy) chorus.  But the highlight is probably “Boobar, Come Back to Me,” a song that begins slowly and builds gloriously, including a call and response segment that makes this song really swagger.

“Mother Dear” features a strangely comical musical episode.  In an otherwise very mellow piano based track, right in the middle of the song, come slashing, somewhat atonal guitar chords.  It’s as if a more rocking song is trying to overtake the mellow track.  (The coup is rebuffed, though).

The biggest thing to note about the disc is that longtime co-songwriter Dickon has left the band.  And so, some of the co-writing duties have been taken up by David Boulter.  While it is obviously sad that Dickon has left, Staples seems revitalized on this disc, and Boulter’s additions (especially his quirky instrumentals) bring a new point of view to the proceedings.  Also of note is something of a return to the orchestral style (albeit a much more understated version).  However, different songs emphasize different aspects: horns on one, strings on another, but always underscored by the ubiquitous Hammond organ.

It’s not a radical departure or anything like that.  It’s more of a continuation after a well earned vacation.  And it’s certainly their strongest release since their first four.

[READ & WATCHED: October 2009] Souvenir of Canada, Souvenir of Canada 2 & Souvenir of Canada (the movie)

I got the first Souvenir of Canada when it came out.  (I was on a big Coupland kick and may have even bought it in Montreal).  I didn’t get #2 when it came out, probably because I didn’t really invest a lot of effort into the first one.  But after recently reading City of Glass, I wanted to get a little more involved in Coupland’s visual art.  So, I picked up #2 and, while investigating this second book, I discovered that he had made a film of the books, too.

Coupland explains in the introduction that this book is his personal vision of what Canada is like. It is designed for Canadians as something of a nostalgia trip, but it is also something of an introduction to unseen Canada for non-Canadians.  And so, what you don’t get is pictures of mounties and Tim Hortons and other things that fit the stereotypical Canadian bill. Rather, you get things that are significant to Coupland (and maybe the average Canadian born on the West Coast in the 60s).

He begins with Baffin Island and moves more or less alphabetically through significant things in his Canadian existence: chimo (the short lived Canadian greeting), wonderfully aggressive anti smoking ads on packs of smokes, the Group of Seven, Inuksuit rock statues (like on the cover of this Rush album), the maple leaf (the flag’s only been around since 1967), ookpik, Poutine, stubbies, Trans-Canada highway, through to Zed.

Coupland give s brief paragraph or two (or more in some cases) about the item/idea/concept and how it related to his life.  It certainly provides an insight into a culture that is often hidden in plain sight (especially to Americans).

I especially enjoyed learning about Capitaine Crounche.

Pictures feature heavily in the book.  There are a lot of stock photos of various Canadian items.  And there are a lot of photos that Coupland has used by permission to enhance his descriptions.

Coupland has also created several “still lifes” which he finds to be quintessentially Canadian.  They feature elements from his childhood mashed together into a disconcerting yet oddly familiar scene. So there are beer bottles and electronic hockey games and Canada geese and all manner of things.  Although I have to say that I don’t find them very appealing as art.

The second book picks up where the previous one left off two years earlier.

The first book is more text heavy than the second.  This volume has a lot more photos (not original ones, more stock footage pictures, which I rather like).  It begins with some abstract ideas about Being Canadian, but moves steadily into the CMHC Houses (which will come into play for Canada House), the brilliant Robertson screwdriver, his mom’s kitchen (a favorite of mine), Terry Fox, Tranna (Toronto), Treeplanters , Y?? (airport designations…Toronto’s is YYZ, hey, like the Rush song!), through to Zut!

The Robertson Screwdriver looks like this. And it doesn't strip like a Phillips head.

This volume feels even more personal. He discusses the prevalence of Canada Geese (and that his family raised some when he was little).  There’s his mother’s kitchen and of course, Canada House.  Canada House was a project that DC undertook.  He found a CMHC house that was destined for destruction.  He was able to decorate it with his art to make it quintessential Canadian.  It is fascinating to see, and seems like it would have been quite cool to visit (for the two weeks it was in operation). The fact that he adds personal information about the experiment (people who visited and where they were from) is great.

As I said the pictures in the books are a lot of fun.  I loved the Eatson’s catalog from the 70s, and, of course, the shots from Canada House are wonderful.  DC also wrote a book about Terry Fox a couple of years after this, so the pages about him are quite moving.

This is a wonderful continuation of the series, and I think I wound up enjoying this volume more.

As far as I can tell the Souvenir of Canada DVD was recently reissued with this new cover (on the left).  I prefer the original cover (on the right) [or is that the U.S DVD release?].  I didn’t read about any real difference between the two editions, so I assume it is just repackaged.

The DVD is something of a video version of the books, but there are many differences. The documentary doesn’t go through either book with a lot of detail.  It does mention a half or dozen or so entries, and there may even be some quotes from the books.  For the most part, it contains a few highlights from the books, but it goes off on its own tangents quite a bit.  The film also features music from the New Pornographers, so that’s nice too.

The first notable thing to me was Coupland’s voice.  I have never heard him speak before and it was absolutely nothing like what I expected (especially how slow his pace is).

The main focus of the DVD tends to fall on the aforementioned Canada House.  Even though the pictures of Canada House in the book are very cool, I felt like the book didn’t show enough of this cool exhibition.  The centerpiece of the film shows Coupland picking, tearing apart, cleaning up and assembling Canada House.  We get to see a lot of the things that he talks about it the book, but we get a more 360 degree Canada House experience.  It’s very interesting.

Like the books, the film is one man’s opinion of what Canada is.  What I like about it is that it is a very uncommerical (and I think very Vancouver-centric) opinion.  It also reflects back onto Coupland’s childhood (in the lat 60s/early 70s), and I learned more about him in a few moments than in all of the book jacket blurbs I’ve read.  It comes across as so much nostalgia.  But it clear that Coupland loves his home land.  And it’s that kind of passion that makes any art compelling.

As I said, I found a lot of his still lifes to be to random at best (he says you have to be Canadian to really appreciate them, but I think even aesthetically they’re a little blah).  But the standalone sculptures are all pretty cool.  He made some lamps out of fisherman’s floats (which are HUGE!).  But the most interesting items are the quilts.  He didn’t make them, but he designed them and they are all very cool. I especially liked the $1,000 quilt which is made of 1,000 loonie coins.

It was also interesting to learn that the Canada House exhibit was exported to London (the final line of the movie is hilarious).

So, which is the best of the three?  Obviously I think the film is the most fully formed and three-dimensional.  (The Canada House thing is very neat). But the books are also a lot of fun too.  Even if you’re not especially interested in Canada, if you enjoy seeing pop culture before it gets assimilated into corporate culture, this is a fun look at what Canada used to be like.  And, of course, Coupland’s writing is always engaging.

Tindersticks – “Black Smoke”

The UK group, Tindersticks, will release their 8th LP, “Falling Down A Mountain,” on February 16, 2010 in North America. The album will be out January 25, 2010 on 4AD in the rest of the world. (Gah, it’s almost 2010 people!) Download a free track from the album, “Black Smoke”.  I dig it.

anonymous with creaks and fear spidery in her throat, a voice insinuates itself down wires too distant for comfort. i keep secrets, swollen and slug-like, echoing with other peoples panic, breathy and wet; sweat strangled confessions with masturbatory aloneness. the four a.m. fear a damp shower curtain of catholic guilt and self-help abandonment. no-one is in love. everyone has more tumours than fingers. clinging to kittens and bottles and god.

• tindersticks: 4.48 psychosis

Tindersticks, ett band som jag tycker blev ganska ointressanta efter 1997 års skiva Curtains kommer med nytt album den 25 januari. Lägger upp en låt från nya skivan Falling down a Mountain. Tyvärr blev iallafall inte jag särskilt sugen på den här.

Tindersticks – Black Smoke

Lyssna här

Läs mer om skivan och ladda ned låten på 4AD sidan.

It’s not a big surprise that I might happen to be a big fan of Tindersticks, though I have been known to be responsible for this place.

Anyway, after a rather tough week personally (and it’s not even over yet), Tindersticks announced their 8th studio album, which is absolutely great news. I’m going to be writing much more about Tindersticks in the future, so I’ll cut it short here. I highly suggest you check these guys out.

“Falling Down A Mountain” comes out on 4AD on January 25 everywhere but North America, and is out on Constellation on February 16 in North America.

Tindersticks – Black Smoke

Tindersticks - Falling Down A Mountain

Images and MP3 from cstrecords.com.

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Donkeys 92-97 (1998).

Donkeys is a collection of singles, rarities and unreleased recordings.  It came out just before Simple Pleasure, and has tracks from the era of the first four discs.

With the reissue of those first four discs (and all the bonus tracks therein) and the Greatest Hits collection, it’s not really necessary to get this for these rare tracks.  (I admit that I haven’t actually checked to see if all of the tracks here are now available elsewhere…there seems to be a number of different mixes and versions of songs, so I’ll let someone else do the legwork).

However, if you’re disinclined to get the reissued discs for whatever reason, this is a great collection of songs that are worth having for any Tindersticks fan.  And, interestingly, it works quite well as an introduction for the newbie: it features several of the most accessible songs from the first few discs.  But, for fans, the highlights include their great cover of “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.”  Also “Plus de Liaisons” a French version of  “No More Affairs.”  It also has the fabulous duet with Isabella Rossilini (“A Marriage Made in Heaven”) and another version of “For Those”  (I’m not entirely sure how many versions of that song exist, but there’s got to be about 3 or 4.

This disc is probably easy to track down cheaply since all the tracks are available elsewhere now (although my copy came from my friend Lar and has the Euro symbol on the Used sticker to prove it). Or, maybe it’s now totally rare and out of print and is hugely expensive.  Either way, it’s still a great collection of tracks.

[READ: November 5, 2009] “Too Much Happiness”

It’s a little lame to lump these two pieces together, but the Charles Foran article isn’t something I would review on its own.  Nevertheless, it is a very interesting look at Alice Munro’s hometown, and the Self-Guided Tour of Points of Interest in the Town of Wingham Relating to Alice Munro sounds like a fun thing to do if you’re in Ontario.  (Even if Munro herself is never actually there).

But onto Munro’s story.

I’ve only read a few stories by Alice Munro (they’ve all been reviewed here).  And yet, I’ve come to think of her as writing a certain type of story.  And this one does not conform to any of my notions of a Munro story.

First, it’s rather long. Second, it’s not set in Canada.  And third, it’s a historical piece about a real person.  There’s an author’s note at the end of the story which informs us that she learned about Sophia Kovalesky when she was looking up something else in the Encyclopedia Britannica (which I find charming in and of itself).  So, all of this seems to be something of a departure for her (at least from what I’ve read).

I admit right off the bat that I have a hard time with Russian stories (so, not too much Dostoevsky for me).  I have difficulty keeping the names and locations straight (despite my nationality).  And given that this is a historical piece (set in and around 1891) and there’s a lot of historical Russian information, I struggled with portions of this story.

Although I think what caused the biggest difficulty was that the story is designed as a reflective journey.  Sophia reflects back on different times of her life: her sister and questionable husband; her own first marriage (a political marriage designed to allow her to escape from her life); and her mentor and friend, Weierstras.

Sophia is a mathematician at a time when women were not mathematicians.  As the story opens she is awarded the Bordin Prize and has become something of a celebrity in math circles.  But she is still not offered a job.  She is also spending a lot of her time with Maksim Kovalevsky.

Despite having the same last name, they are not related (Sophia’s first marriage was to a distant cousin of Maksim’s).   Maksim is an academic but because he is a Liberal, he cannot teach in Russia.  (This is some of the historical Russian politics that I don’t know, so a lot of this infighting was lost on me).  Their friendship blossoms into more than friendship until she wins the Prize.  Suddenly, her star shines more brightly than his and he pulls away from her.

After several months apart, Sophia tries to rekindle their relationship, and it works.  He pledges to marry her (although she is not entire sure of his sincerity or even his motives).  And since they are both in their forties with little else in the way of romantic prospects, well, why not.

The remainder of the story shows Sophia taking a trip to give a lecture.  The trip entails trains, ferries and more trains.  It also involves trudging through snow and carrying her own bags (because of a currency mix up).

On the trip, Sophia reflects back on her life, and the many events that led her to this stage.  But she is also clearly becoming feverish from the travel.  So, as the story moves along, the dream sequences get a bit more hazy, and it’s not always clear when the action is happening.  Because the main story is also in the past tense, there are times when I had to really work on which storyline she was presently in.

After reflecting on the story, the timeline did make sense; it all seems to fall into place nicely, but during the story I was a bit confused.

And confusion is something I don’t expect from a Munro story.

Knowing that this is a piece of historical fiction changes things for me somewhat, even if I’d never head of Sophia Kovalevsky before.  Hers was a fascinating life, and I appreciate Munro for introducing her to me.  I feel like this might have worked better as an even longer story, as a lot of details seemed condensed.  But, Munro acknowledges that she didn’t intend to write Sophia’s history, just a portion of it.  And at that, she succeeds.

She also notes a great book about Sophia’s life (where she began her research): Little Sparrow: A Portrait of Sophia Kovalesky by Don H. Kennedy.

[READ: July 19, 2009] “Alice in Borderland”

This article provides some insight into Munro’s life, and the kind of people and places that she grew up with (many of whom appear (somewhat disguised) in her stories).  And, since most of her stories seem to be situated in Jubilee (a fictionalized version of the town of Wingham) in Huron County, Ontario, it’s a fascinating insight into her work.

Munro (born in 1931) grew up outside of Wingham, but after going to college, she moved to the West Coast and did not return to Ontario until the 1970s.

Foran’s article focuses on The Self-Guided Tour of Points of Interest in the Town of Wingham Relating to Alice Munro, a brochure available at the North Huron Museuem.  It includes a stop at the Alice Munro Literary Garden (where Munro herself has only visited once).  But mostly it reveals the locations and scenery where her stories are set.

While walking around the town, Foran talks with many residents (to see if he can recognize anyone from the stories).  Munro’s stories offended sensibilities when they were first published (she revealed Secrets); however, it seems like now people are rather fond of her and the modicum of celebrity she has given the region.

Foran also has a (somewhat rare for the publicity-shy Munro) lunch interview with her.  And this little insight into her personality makes the article completely rewarding for any Munro fan.

It’s available here.

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Waiting for the Moon (2003).

This Tindersticks disc shows a bit of a departure for them.  Two of the first three songs are not sung by Stuart Staples (which is nice for diversity, but it is shocking to hear the first sung words on a Tindersticks disc be in the relatively high register of Dickon).  Not to mention, the song opens with lines about killing someone (!), which is a bit more drastic than most of their lovelorn lyrics.

The fourth song “4.48 Psychosis” is the most guitar heavy/rocking song in the band’s catalog, I think.  And the rest of the disc falls into a fairly traditional Tindersticks camp.

I’ve read a lot of reviews of this disc that describe it as a grower.  It’s entirely possible that I haven’t allowed this disc to grow on me enough, but I’m not as enamored of this one as I am with the rest.  The problem for me is that the first batch of discs are so magical that it just feels like this one is simply not as exciting.  Of course, any Tindersticks record is a good one, this one just isn’t quite as good as the rest.

Mayhaps I need to go back and try it a few more times?

[READ: October 31, 2009] Etidorhpa

I found out about this story when a patron requested it.  I’d never heard of it, and when I looked for it, it was very hard to find in our library system.  But when I Googled it, it was available as a Google Book.  They had scanned the entire thing and (since it was old and out of copyright) it was available free online!  Awesome.

I printed out the whole thing (double sided) and figured I would read it fairly quickly.  [Oh, and just to ruin my cool story about Google books, I see now that it is available in paperback for about $10 from Amazon.  Doh!]

Of course, I’m not just going to read something because it’s available as a Google Book.  The patron said that it was like Jule’s Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth.  I had just read “Symmes Hole” in McSweeney’s #4, so Hollow Earthers were already floating around my mind.  It all seemed to work out quite well.

By the time I started reading it, I had forgotten about the Hollow Earth ideas.  Which is fine, since the first 100 pages or so are given up solely to the ideas of occult sciences.  But, let me back up a bit first.

First there is a Preface.  Lloyd claims to have found this manuscript which was hidden by Llewellyn Drury.  Before he gets to the manuscript, though, he gives a little background about himself.   He also relates a lengthy story about the value of libraries and shared knowledge.  He concludes with speculation about Drury, and the revelation that although he is unwilling to specify how he came into possession of the manuscript, he has had it for seven years (as of 1894) and is finally convinced that it’s time to get it published.

My edition also contains a Preface about Daniel Vaughn. Vaughn is mentioned as a character in the story (but he was a real person as well).  In the story, Drury sought Vaughn’s assistance with some scientific matters.  So there’s a brief biography about the man.

AND THEN, there is a section called “A Valuable and Unique Library” which is another preface about the value of libraries.  I’m not even clear about who wrote it, if it’s supposed to be a plug for this book itself or if it’s just an ad for something.

Finally, the story proper begins.  But not without a preface by Drury himself, giving his own life story (his full name is Johannes Llewellyn Llongollyn Drury) but he decided to remove those two ugly names.

As the book begins, we see Drury sitting in his study.  It is November in the Ohio Valley and he is rather despondent about the weather.  He selects a book at random.  It is Cicero and he reads, “Never less alone than when alone,” and it sets him off into a (frankly over-reactive) rage.  He is alone right now, he says.  How could he be any more alone that he is?  He wagers everything he owns, including his soul, that he is alone.

When a voice says that he has lost his wager, Drury kind of freaks out.  And there in front of him is a very old man with long hair and a long beard.  The man demands Drury’s soul since he clearly lost the wager.  When Drury refuses, the man pulls out a knife and lays it on the table.  When things settle down, the stranger tells Drury that he will be back to relate a story that Drury will scarcely believe.  When he departs, the man forgets his knife.  When Drury reaches for it, it is ice cold.  But it soon disappears.

Drury asks some scientists what this could mean, and they basically say that he has dreamed the whole thing.  But the man left a hair in his room which Drury shows as evidence.  The scientists dismiss it.

Drury returns home, crushed.  But the visitor does not return.  Drury has more or less forgotten about it until the anniversary of the visit approaches.  And then, exactly one year later, the visitor reappears exactly as he did the first night.  He reminds Drury of his first visit, whips out his knife once more and then settles down to business. The man says that because of the philosophical frame of mind that Drury showed, he is a suitable candidate to hear the man’s tale.  The man asks Drury to listen to the manuscript, to ask as many questions as he can think of and then, when all is said and done, to pledge to hide the manuscript for 30 years.  After the thirty years are up, Drury must publish  the book or find someone who can (and this is how Lloyd found the manuscript).

The man, who informs Drury that his name is “I-am-the-Man-Who-Did-It,” reads the manuscript.

As the story begins, we get a lengthy bit about alchemy.  Up till now the story had been pretty fast paced and interesting (even the early descriptions of Ohio winters were well paced).  But I-am-the-Man is setting out to prove his case, so we get the first of many very meticulously argued sections.  He reads “The Alchemistic Letter” a five and a half page history of scientists who believe in alchemy & the secret society that alchemists join.  It’s a tad dry.

After the dry letter, the story begins in earnest.  I-am-the-Man tells his tale of joining this alchemical society and learning all there is to know about it.  However, he reneges on his pledge to keep everything a secret and is captured and punished accordingly.  This intriguing and intense section goes on for some 100 pages.  Long enough that I forgot the book was about a Hollow Earth at all.  There’s kidnapping, dead bodies, blindfolds, secretive transportation, everything!

Finally, after untold days in a jail, I-am-the-Man is released in front of a cave in Kentucky.  He is greeted by a man with no eyes and a cold and clammy skin.  He is a Hollow Earth dweller.  Obviously, I-am-the-Man freaks out about this.  But he is forcibly persuaded to join this fellow.  And from this point on, they descend further and further into the earth.

I-am-the Man sees giant mushrooms (which smell of pineapple among other things), he has grand delusions, he gets completely drunk on Hollow Earth alcohol, he sees massive lakes underground, as well as the REAL reason volcanoes explode (something to do with water displacing air–there’s obviously no molten core of the earth).  And all of this story is in aid of seeking the enchanted one: Etidorhpa.

So, for an 1895 book, how does it hold up?  Quite well, actually. The prose was sharp and well-written.  The plot was rather intriguing, and the descriptions of the fantasies below ground were very cool.

One of the fundamental aspects of the story is that people who live on the surface are, for lack of a better word, unenlightened. They believe only what their senses are aware of.  They cannot possibly understand what the truly enlightened people who live under the earth know: that all life is better underground.  There’s no harsh sun or elemental problems to contend with, just wondrous peace, harmony and awesomeness.  (Although, interestingly, we never see anyone other than the guide).   That’s one of the reasons why the manuscript can’t be published now.  Surface dwellers could never deal with the truths that are contained within.  And maybe in thirty years, they’d start to “get it.”

However, a few things stand out as being a little annoying.  The first is the intense lecturing that goes on.  In nearly every chapter, the Hollow Earth guide and I-am-the-Man have philosophical/scientific arguments about what is happening.  The arguments are usually interesting for a bit, but they tend to go on and on.  And, frequently there are sections where the jargon gets a bit dense.

Another problem is The-Man himself who seems to alternate between incredulous shock about what he sees, delight about its magnificence and bitter anger about what is happening to him.  These reactions are all quite reasonable, but they don’t feel realistic in the story.  The problem is that The-Man gets mad and lashes out, saying that nothing can be true, even though every step along the way the dweller guy easily proves all of his assertions.

Perhaps people thought differently back then (or maybe a 21st century reader feels more blase about these fantastic ideas than a 19th century reader would be), but I’m surprised at how after being through so much (taken around and the under the world), he still thinks that the man is trying to kill him (even though, come on, that’s an incredibly lengthy trip full of amazing delights and crazy scenery just to kill someone).  I do understand that his belligerent tone allows for the Hollow Earther to prove him wrong, (something Lloyd was obviously quite insistent upon) but it still seems rather silly.

It’s also funny how aggressively Drury fights The-Man whenever he interrupts the tale.  There’s just so much hostility between these men (which I guess is the sign of a thinker?). At one point The-Man drags Drury through the cold night to a ferry boat where they sail across a lake just to make a point.  The hostility throughout the book is rather disconcerting.

But this all makes sense.  The whole story is written as a sort of proof of the Hollow Earth Theory.  So, all of his assertions must be backed up by science.  And he is trying to anticipate every criticism and contrary attitude that can be thrown at him.  Thus, the lengthy philosophical explanations, the in-depth science stuff, the actual physical demonstrations (The-Man brings out some flasks to demonstrate water seepage) are all there to show of the validity of this story.

The one thing that I found to be a disadvantage about reading it now, is that while I am obviously well aware that we do not have a hollow earth, I don’t know enough about the science that they talk about to know exactly what they’re talking about.  So, when they talk about water flowing a certain way because of the density of the brine, well, I don’t know anything about that.  Or if gravity actually lessens as you get closer to the center of the earth.  Or any of the other odd but insistent proofs that The-Man offers.

But that’s all fine and good, because, excepting these proofs, the science fiction aspects of the story are really cool.  Especially when he drinks the hallucinatory liquor (the fantasy sequences are wonderfully over the top).  It does really make the idea of a Hollow Earth sound very compelling.  And there were times when I forgot that it was all hogwash, and thought how cool it would be to float around in gravity-free underground space.

But alas, we know it is all nonsense.

The story ends somewhat frustratingly without telling us about the sacred land of Etidorpha.  (There’s some implication that the readers will learn all about things in the land of Etidorpha when they are smart enough to grasp the wisdom of the underground dwellers). But it is a very satisfying story, nonetheless.

After the story there is a summary of the Death of Prof. Daniel Vaughn.  The story goes that people were so moved by him when they read the book that they submitted testimony about him and his life to Lloyd for inclusion in future copies.   In particular, this section talks about what happened to him later in life (that his generosity basically made him destitute).

The final section contains reviews of the book (all glowing of course).  And the reviews are quite true.  One thing I haven’t mentioned, which the reviewers bring up, is the illustrations.  J. Augustus Knapp fills the book with remarkably cool engravings.  They are detailed and very evocative.  The reviews suggest that they are in color, but the scanner does not translate them that way, which is definitely a shame.  If I can find a copy of the book I’d like to see them in their full glory.

So, for a book I’d never heard of, I can give it some seriously high marks.  It’s not for everyone, but if you like cool science fiction, this is a pretty great story.  I’m surprised that it seems to be so hard to find in print.

For more about Etidorhpa, check out this site.

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-can our love… (2001).

After Simple Pleasure, Tindersticks continued in this looser, less chamber-pop vein.  This disc features more organ fueled songs.  And– in something of a departure–they made many of the songs quite long (two are over seven minutes, one is almost nine!).  You could almost say these are jams, but that would give the wrong impression.

The band still sounds like Tindersticks (there’s no mistaking that voice), but they feel looser, less intense.  Yet they’re still passionate.  In fact, “People Keep Coming Round” and “Can Our Love” are two of their best tracks.  “People” has this really long keyboard section that my wife said sounded like the Doors, and she’s quite right about that.  But it’s more than just a Doors-keyboard solo.  It’s a catchy yet haunting single.

It’s easy to be feel disappointed about the latter Tindertsicks discs because they don’t rival the crazed intensity of their earlier ones.  And yet, Tindersticks is now a different band, playing a different kind of music.  It’s still beautiful, still affecting, it’s just different.

“No Man of the World,” the second to last song is a slow, meandering, deceptively simple song.  It features spoken lyrics and gently sung backing vocals.  And on first listen it’s nothing special, but the more you listen, the more elements you notice: strings, horns, sadness.  It’s really quite moving.

The disc ends with “Chiletime” another deceptively simple song that begins with an organ drone and simple strings.  Staples whispers his way through the first few bars.  But then the track builds to a full band with gorgeous vocals.  Then it slows down as if coming to and end, but it builds once more, this time to a beautiful finish.  It’s a perfect ending to this disc.

[READ: November 3, 2009] “The Girt Pike”

De Bernières wrote Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (which I’ve neither read nor seen the film).  In fact, this is the first story by him that I’ve read, and I’m fascinated by his style.  I don’t know if his other works are like this but I’m rather intrigued by this one.

This is a fairly simply story of a boy going fishing.  (I don’t fish myself, and I don’t really care all that much about fishing, but I’ve gotten a great deal of pleasure out of fishing stories (Paul Quarrington’s Fishing with My Old Guy was a surprise treat)).

The story opens with an endearing style that I would consider almost fairy-tale-like.  (The second sentence does indeed open with “Once upon a time”).  But the words are not of fairy-tales, rather, they reflect a somewhat nostalgic past: when boys fished in ponds with sticks and then threw the sticks to their dogs who splashed in the ponds.  Such an idyllic set up is altered somewhat once the “action” starts with the sentence: “On the morning that concerns us, however….”

And here we learn the story of Robert.  Robert was bequeathed his grandfather’s beauty of a fishing pole (coveted by all the boys in town).  And he is using it to reel in some fish at a local pond when a woman approaches and asks what he’s fishing for.

Mrs Rendall is impressed by his skill and knowledge (which he is playing up for her benefit as she is quite striking).  And then she asks that he do the impossible:  Will Robert come to her house to catch and remove the giant pike which lurks in her pond and eats her adorable ducklings when they hatch.  Robert is thrilled at the idea of catching the fabled Girt Pike (as the boys call it, although he doesn’t know why it’s called that).  But he plays it cool and asks for a meal while he’s there: peanut butter (crunchy) sandwiches and tea.  Mrs Rendall agrees to his terms.

The remainder of the story shows Robert prepping for this challenge (the pike is about 3 feet long, but the biggest fish he has caught has been about 8 inches).  We see Robert experimenting with creating a new pole and spending his cash on all the trimmings he’ll need.  There’s wonderful insight into Robert’s character, as well as the attitudes of the few locals that he runs into.

This is an excerpt from a longer story.  I don’t know if sections were cut or if paragraphs that have been trimmed down.  But I was really impressed with the pacing of the story.  There wasn’t a lot of dawdling and dragging things out for suspense.  It was a fast-paced story full of excitement and a bit of intrigue.  I especially appreciated that the ending (which looks into Robert’s future) was introduced without a lot of fuss.

This is the first story I’ve read from Prospect.  If it’s any indication of the quality of writing, then Prospect turns out to be a good source of fiction.  (I’ll be reviewing Prospect magazine tomorrow.)

For ease of searching, I include: De Bernieres

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Live at the Botanique, 9th-12 May 2001 (2001).

This is called an “official bootleg.”  It must be very rare as I can’t even find a picture of it online.  My friend Lar must have gotten it for me, as I have never seen the band live and it was (apparently) only available at their shows.  Or maybe I got it online during the tour?  Whatever the case, it’s a great live selection of their later songs.

It’s a cool collection of songs from shows over the course of three days.  It’s also interesting that the track listing is five songs from one gig, then three from the final gig and two from the middle one.  The band sounds great (the live setting always suits them). On this disc, Paula Frazer sings the duet of “Buried Bones” and there are some nice backing vocals from Gina Foster and Viki St. James on the last two tracks.

It’s a rather mellow set list, but the crowd certainly enjoys it.  And, as this is something of a greatest hits (of the more recent tracks), I could listen to it all day.

There appears to have been only one other “Official Bootleg”: Coliseu Dos Recreios De Lisboa – October 30th 2001.  But I’ve never seen it.

[READ: October 25, 2009] “Three Fragments from a Longer Thing,” “Good People,” “The Compliance Branch,” “Wiggle Room” and “Irrelevant Bob”

These are the last pieces of uncollected David Foster Wallace fiction that I had left to read.  I saved this for last because, well, they are supposedly parts of the soon to be released The Pale King.  Some of these pieces are definitely from The Pale King (it states so in the magazine  openings).  A couple are possible contenders for The Pale King, but we won’t know until the book comes out (sometime in 2010, I’m led to believe).  I had read some of these pieces before but it is much more satisfying to read them together.

The strange thing for me about these pieces is that when I read the New Yorker titles initially, there was no indication that the pieces were excerpts.  They treated them as short stories (even giving them titles).  So, when you read them, they feel like something is missing (namely 900 more pages).  And in many respects, I think that’s bad for the author.  Sure its good to get the work out there, but when a story feels unfinished, it leaves a bad taste in the readers’ mouth.

All the bold text comes from The Howling Fantods.  He gives summaries of where the fragments come from.  And since he’s a much bigger DFW fan than I am, I’m going to assume that when he says something is from TPK, he knows what he’s talking about.

“Three Fragments from a Longer Thing”. Lannan Readings & Conversations; Dec. 6, 2000. [NOTES: In December of 2000, DFW read three pieces he referred to as 'fragments' and which he said were from a longer thing (possibly "The Pale King" but this remains unconfirmed). Listen to the reading here or read it, lovingly transcribed by yours truly, here.]

DFW read these pieces aloud in 2000.  [The audio, by the way is fantastic.  It really brings to life the technical and medical sections of the story.]  The Longer Thing is never specified, but it’s possible that it is The Pale King.  These fragments have no direct connection to the later fragments below, but with any DFW novel, you never know how people are going to connect in a book!

FIRST & THIRD FRAGMENT

The first and third fragments are about the same unnamed boy.  This boy, when he was six, decided that he wanted to press his lips to every single inch of his body.  It wasn’t a sexual thing, it was more of an ownership thing.  And so, he sets out to press his lips everywhere.  When he ends up dislocating something, the chiropractor shows him proper stretching techniques and ways to ensure spinal health (without actually asking what the boy was doing).

These chiropractic sections are filled with very technical medical passages.  But DFW has gotten his pacing down so well that after every couple of highly professional lines, he throws in a hilarious non sequitir.  (“No lollipops were anywhere in view.”)

The third fragment continues this boy’s quest.  He’s now older and is showing severe physical deformities from his stretching exercises.  He also acknowledges that some portions of his body will be extremely tough (like the back of his head), but he is determined.

I can’t imagine how this would fit into a larger novel.  The boy has virtually no connection to the outside world.  But I do hope it is, because I’d love to find out more about him and his family.  He spends hours at a time trying these crazy contortions.  Surely they must thing something is amiss.

What a strange conceit.

SECOND FRAGMENT

The second fragment concerns a different boy.  This boy is named Leonard Stesek and he is the most generous, thoughtful, giving boy ever.  And everyone hates him because of it.  And then they feel bad that they hate him, which makes them hate him even more.

This story was so funny for Leonard’s outrageously over the top safety procedures (calling his father every hour on the hour, except when the phone gets disconnected and then calling the phone company to get it fixed) and outrageous generosity (rather than accepting an ice cream from his dad, he requests the money go to UNICEF).

I loved this fragment.  It was funny and twisted.  As with the previous one, I absolutely cannot imagine what more he could do with this.  What would Leonard be like as a grown up??  And, I can’t imagine how it would fit in with a novel.

I mention these fragments not fitting because the excerpts below which are from the novel concern an accountant and his work and home life.  And he is clearly not one of these above boys.  But, given the disparate characters and character arcs in IJ, it’s not outside of the realm of plausibility.  I hope something more comes of these, but I’m satisfied with the fragments.

“Good People”. The New Yorker; Feb 5, 2007. [NOTES: Excerpt from "The Pale King." Read it here.]

This piece doesn’t say in the New Yorker that it is from The Pale King, but it is the same character as the later story that does, so…

This is a very affecting story about a young couple facing a very important decision.  I won’t say what the decision is, but it is quite obvious once the story gets going.  The story  concerns the awkwardly named Lane Dean. (It’s not easy to say).  He and his girlfriend sit by the river.  He is trying to get up the courage to talk to her, yet he remains in his head through most of the story.

There’s very little else to it, but it is powerful and very detailed.  As with many of these fragments, it is weird to read something that is clearly not complete.  This piece does work as a fragment, and you can definitely become invested in these characters. But it would be even better within a longer story.

“The Compliance Branch”. Harper’s Magazine, Feb. 2008. [NOTES: This excerpt from "The Pale King" was originally presented at a reading for le conversazioni on Feb. 7, 2006 as "Untitled Excerpt from Something Longer That Isn't Even Close to Halfway Finished Yet." This version was printed and distributed in a booklet, available here. The Harper's version is available here.]

Harper’s also does not state that this is from The Pale King, but given the work location of the unnamed character, it works quite well as part of the novel.

This is a twisted little story about the narrator’s Group Manager and his son.  From time to time the Group Manager brings his baby into the office with him.  He has a nursery type set up in his office. But that’s not important, because the focus is on the baby.  The baby is described as “fierce, intimidating, aggressive” as he hangs there in his papoose.

In DFW’s inimitable style, he describes the workings and contraptions of the baby gear as if he had never seen any of the apparti before (“a modern, ingenious mobile supporting device”).  After pages of being freaked out about this baby, the day arrives when he is asked to “babysit” the boy.  (The reasons why are part of the story and are a little too detailed to give here).  From there it just gets more surreal.

This hilarious passage will hopefully have a delightful payoff in the novel.  I enjoyed it immensely.

“Wiggle Room”. The New Yorker; March 9, 2009. [NOTES: Excerpt from "The Pale King." Read it here.]

I reviewed this piece back in March.

But having read the other fragments (especially “Good People”) at the same time as this one, made this one that much more powerful.  Lane Dean, having accepted his decision from the earlier story is now in a soul sucking job.  One where he watches the clock incessantly and thinks of the definition of the word “boring.”

He is an IRS auditor who must double check completed files.  And he hates it.

As the story comes to a close, he is visited by what may be a ghost or a spirit of the office.  He sits on Dean’s desk and talks to him about the word “boring” and then leaves.

The amazing part of the story is the intensely detailed opening pieces about boredom.  You can palpably feel the boredom that Dean is dealing with, and yet the writing itself is not boring.  That is no mean feat. I feel like the novel would explain more about this ghost figure (although with DFW, possibly not), but regardless, it will obviously feature more of Lane Dean and his life and challenges.

“Irrelevant Bob”. The New Yorker, WEB ONLY; March 9, 2009 [NOTES: A newyorker.com-exclusive fragment of probably an excerpt from "The Pale King" (this remains unconfirmed) presented as two scanned pages of annotated manuscript. Read it here.]

It’s barely worth mentioning this in a review. It is two pages long and ends in the middle of a sentence.  It is notable for the fact that it is manuscript in process, with corrections and editing comments.  So, for the DFW fan, that’s interesting.  The two pages concern an unnamed narrator (in first person) who is talking about his memory, or lack of it.  Not that he can’t remember things, but that everything he remembers is mundane and 1970s pop culture-y (the clothes they wore, the TV shows they watched (Saturday Night Live features prominently). And that’s about it.  It’s an interesting character set up, but it’s impossible to say anything more about it.

Included in the slide show are two art pieces from Wallace’s wife, Karen Green.  They’re pretty interesting and I have to wonder if they will be included with The Pale King (probably not).

Comments:

As I mentioned, many times, The New Yorker will publish pieces with a title, and it seems like a short story.  But fragments are not short stories almost by definition.  I can remember reading “Wiggle Room” and enjoying it but feeling dissatisfied with the end (and not in a DFW-the-story-ended-without-finishing way).  Knowing they are part  of a longer thing, and reading them together like this has done nothing but whet my appetite for The Pale King. Despite my initial concerns about releasing the novel without DFW’s final input, now I really can’t wait for the book to come out.

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Simple Pleasure (1999).

Tindersticks changed a bit with this disc.  And it’s evident from the moment the opening track kicks in: “Can We Start Again” is the most upbeat (musically) song they’ve ever done.  (Even if lyrically it’s not exactly puppies and rainbows).  And it is a truly magnificent song.  The next track, “If You’re Looking for a Way Out” has Staples singing so emotionally, his voice almost seems to break.”

As the disc proceeds, new aspects of the Tindersticks come into view.  The biggest change is an influx of soul stylings.  Staples actually croons from time to time; but the two biggest soul aspects are the groovy keyboards (not unheard of on previous discs, but very prominent here) and some gorgeous female backing vocals.  Indeed, “From the Inside” is propulsive instrumental with very 60s-sounding organ.

“If She’s Torn” sounds like a beautiful long-lost soul song, especially with the delicate keyboard notes that sprinkle down as the songs ends.  The final two tracks “I Know That Loving” and “CF GF” prominently feature the backing vocalists and they end the disc on a glorious note.

This disc is considerably shorter than their previous ones.  It seems like rather than making an epic mood piece, they settled down to make a more simple soul, almost pop record (although surely not pop by conventional standards).

This was the first Tindersticks disc I bought and it remains one of my favorites.

[READ: October 29, 2009] “While the Women Are Sleeping”

I have not read any Marias before.  And I was delighted by the multifaceted nature of this story.

It begins rather lightly with a man and his wife people-watching on a beach.  He needs glasses but, as this is the beach, he doesn’t wear them (no facial tan lines!).  So, he squints at people until, through some fascinating physics, he looks through his wife’s straw hat and is able to see much better.  (The image of a man with a straw hat held to his face is quite amusing).

After relaxing and spying for a few days, a new couple appears on the beach.  She is stunningly beautiful and is pretty much always naked on the lounger (this is Europe after all).  Her boyfriend is a considerably older, overweight, balding man.  He spends his entire time on the beach filming her, every inch of her, while she rests/sleeps/checks for blemishes.

The narrator and his wife are bemused by this, as it continues for many days, with the young woman never looking at him or posing for him or even talking to him.

Finally one night, the narrator can’t sleep and he sees the man outside by the pool,all alone.  He trudges down and begins talking to the man.  We learn a number of dark secrets that the man possesses and the touching and yet very creepy reason why he films his girlfriend all the time.

The story turned a corner about half way through and grew very, very dark.  It began slow and languorous and then became tension filled; it was extremely enjoyable.  The other thing I noticed about it was that the langauge made it seem like it wasn’t written recently.  It was only the videocamera that provided a time frame.  I don’t know if it is because he is a European writer, or because it was translated (translators seem to give a timeless aspect to works), but the writing made it seem like it could have been written any time since the late 20th century.  Which was pretty cool.

You can read it here.

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Trouble Every Day [soundtrack] (2001).

This is the second soundtrack that Tindersticks made for director Clair Denis.  This disc is rather unlike Nenette Et Boni, in that this soundtrack is much more stark.  There are several moments on the disc where there is nothing but silence for several seconds.   “Core on Stairs” features a bass note or two and then even more silence, then one more note and more silence.  On “Room 231,” there are times when the only sound is a gently shaken maraca.  It’s rather eerie (and I’d like to believe it suits the film well).  But predominantly this is a string laden affair, highlighting the sadness of the movie.

The title track, however, contains the full band, including Stuart Staples’ singing.  And it’s a moody, evocative song.  Strings are plucked as Staples croons about trouble.  Actually the title song is broken up into the Opening and Closing Credits.  But they rather thoughtfully include the whole song at the end of the disc as well.

This is not an essential Tindersticks disc (you can get the title song elsewhere).  But if you like your music moody, this is a good one.  It may be a bit too sparse for casual listening, but it certain conjures up some interesting ideas.

[READ: October 27, 2009 ] DFW’s comments in The Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus

According to the Howling Fantods I have read all of the uncollected DFW pieces (except for the ones from the Pale King), and so this is my final piece (hooray!). It’s not really anything major.  As you can read from the Fantods’ summary below, this excerpt contains DFW’s comments inside this 1100 page Thesaurus.  Several authors contributed comments to the Thesaurus and all of their comments appear after the entry for the word.  They rest in boxes and are capped off by their initials.  The PDF that you can click on below is 85 pages long.  But if you search for DFW there are only 24 entries.  I copied and pasted them into a Word document that came out to 8 pages long.  So, it’s not unmanageable to read just DFW’s entries.

I’m not sure that this is the entirely of his contribution to the book.  (I assume it is, as I wouldn’t imagine The Fantods would skimp on us, but I’m also not going to find the book to confirm either.

“The Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus”. Compiled by Christine A. Lindberg. Oxford University Press; October, 2004. [NOTES: This is an actual (1100-page plus) thesaurus for writers. Scattered throughout are 'Word Notes' wherein various authors, DFW among them, discuss usage and that forever quest for the perfect word. Read selections featuring DFW here.]

Basically what you get here is DFW’s knowledge about word usage.  Anyone who has read his work knows he’s practically memorized the OED.  And with his familial love of grammar, he is  stickler for using words correctly.  Which makes him kind of a prig, except that he’s not a prig; he’s very funny.  And the examples he cites are great!

It will make you feel foolish of course if you do any of the things that he says make you look ignorant at best, but such is the price of learning.  If you have any interest in language and words, DFW’s comments are really very useful.  I don’t mean to short change the other contributors (I don’t even know how many other contributors there are or who any of them may be) as they are not listed anywhere in this excerpt.  I didn’t read any of their contributions (it is a thesaurus after all, so I’m not, just, you know, going to read it all).  But DFW’s entries at least, are certainly enjoyable.

If you plan to be a writer I would think the book itself is pretty indispensable.

DFW comments on 24 words in the book: all of, pulchritude, beg, bland, noma, critique, dialogue, dysphesia, effette, impossibly, feckless, fervent, focus, hairy, if, individual, loan, myriad, privilege, that, toward, unique, utilize, mucous.

Some of his entries are quite long, but a few are brief and funny.  Like pulchritude: A paradoxical noun because it means beauty but is itself one of the ugliest words in the language….”  His entry on if makes a good explanation for the distinction between if and whether.  His entry for loan begins: “If you use loan as a verb in anything other than ultra-informal speech, you’re marking yourself as ignorant or careless.”  He points out the distinction (that I never knew) that toward is the U.S. version and towards is the U.K. version, and you should always, always use toward, unless you are writing in the U.K.  And, my favorite, in the commentary on that, he writes, “you can occupy a bright child for most of a very quiet morning by challenging her to use “that” five times in a row in a single coherent sentence… ‘He said that that that that that writer used should really have been a which.’”  It took me a few reads before I could figure out how to say it properly (it’s about the distinction of using “which” instead of “that,” by the way.

And that’s what you get.  Smarty pants assistance for helping you become a better writer.  The geek in me thinks it would be kind of fun to read the whole book (or at least the boxed comments).  That I’d learn an awful lot.  Maybe if they made it a page-a-day calendar!

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERTSICKS-”curtains” (1997).

“Rented Rooms” from Curtains is another one of my favorite songs. It is dark yet sensual at the same time: “We had to go find somewhere else more… you know.”  The disc itself works similarly to their first two discs.  It’s not as long, and is a little less dynamic.  But it is still unmistakably Tindertsicks.

The album has a lot more strings on it (not that it didn’t have strings before, but they feature more prominently here).  And they add a new dimension of tension and intensity to the proceedings. “Don’t Look Don’t ” has sections that sound like a scary action movie. “Desperate Man” returns to that gorgeous flamenco-tinged music that they played with on the first disc.

And “Fast One” has crazy demented strings as the song chugs along quite fast.  “Bearsuit” is a whimsical (!) look at sex.

“Buried Bones” is a gorgeous duet.  (Female singers complement Staples’ voice so well).  While “(Tonight) Are You Trying to Fall in Love Again” is another great uptempo string-filled song.  The disc ends with a trio of great tracks.  The beautiful “I Was Your Man” the sinister (I’ve never heard a band make a piano sound so sinister) “Bathtime” and the closer, “Walking”

The reissue comes with a bonus disc of alternate versions of songs from the disc (and some that didn’t make it). Yet another version of “For Those…”  It also has two versions of “Rented Rooms” (the orchestral version is quite fascinating). “Paco’s Theme” is a great instrumental. “Shadow” has that flamenco thing in spades as well.  Probably the best addition is “A Marriage Made in Heaven” a beautiful duet with Isabella Rossellini.

Curtains is something of a transitional record for Tinderstciks, and it’s not quite as awesome as the first two, but it is full of top notch songs.

[READ: October 29, 2009] “Unmasked”

I’ve enjoyed Chris Ware’s work  for years.  His cartoons are meticulous, fascinatingly detailed, often with crazily-sized boxes and sometimes hard-to-follow linear styles.  They are almost universally sad.  And I can’t get enough of them.

This one is the first I can remember in a long time that focuses on adult-adult relationships.  That’s not precisely true, as many of his stories deal with familial themes and the problems of growing up.  But, and perhaps that’s because this was a shorter piece (I’m more familiar with his longer multi-character-filled stories, the main characters are a woman and her mother.  (Her daughter is with them, and her husband is working).

It’s a fascinating look at familial dynamics as well as infidelity (real and imagined). And it ends on a note of possibly mistaken positivity.

It’ a very impressive piece.  It goes without saying that the artwork is fantastic…It must take him months to do even a relatively short story like this.

You can read it here.

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Bloomsbury Theatre 12.3.95 (1995).

This is a rare and out of print live CD from an early Tindersticks show.  My friend Lar found it used for me in Ireland (thank you!).  But it turns out he found it for me about a week before it was reissued as a bonus disc with the Second Tindersticks CD.

It’s a great concert, with Tindersticks in fine form.  After the amazing creative success of the second disc, the band sounds energetic and Stuart Staples’ voice is fantastic. Live Tindersticks don’t sound drastically different from the record, but there is a very cool “close and intimate” vibe to  this show that makes the songs sing a little more.

Normally, I’d encourage anyone to try and find this disc, but since it has been reissued with the second disc, it’s worth getting that package instead.

[READ: October 25, 2009] “Order and Flux in Northampton”

This is the final uncollected DFW short story that I hadn’t read yet (not including the excerpts from The Pale King).   And it’s a very good one!  The story is chock full of DFW’s awesome character descriptions and hilarious word play.  He also has a bit of fun with James Joyce, which is always a treat.

This story concerns three characters who live in Northampton, MA.  Barry Dingle is a severely cross-eyed hippie who owns The Whole Thing, one of two local health food stores.   He harbors unparalleled love for Myrnaloy Trask. Myrnaloy works at Collective Copy, the copy shop next to The Whole Thing.  Barry has never talked to her, but he fell madly for her when he saw her reflected in a bus window.  But Myrnaloy is only interested in Don Megala, a professional student (he’s on his seventh unfinished PhD).

Barry’s backstory is that his mother dominated every aspect of his life, and seemed to predict his shortcomings.  For example, he didn’t like the taste of milk so he never drank it.  His mother said this would make him weak-boned.  And he is.  She was especially insistent that he never, ever, ever cross his eyes, because she believed they would stay that way.  Dingle’s mother was always right.  So, when, at fifteen years old, in a fit of pique with his mother, he crossed his eyes dramatically at her, they did, in fact, stay that way.  He was from that point forward severely cross-eyed and needed special glasses to correct the problem.  (But even the correction wasn’t all that beneficial).

Barry’s love is personified in this story as well.   His love is a little homunculus living inside him.  And after two years of pining for Myrnaloy, it finally forces him to do something about it (by intensifying the pain in his ingrown toenails).

Barry knows Myrnaloy and Megala’s routine, and he “happens” upon them at various establishments (although he never talks to them or acknowledges them, he just, well, spies).  In one instance he overhears her tell Megala that she is still a virgin and she is quite afraid of sex.  Megala sympathizes and says that he, too, is afraid of sex, but, you know, it is one our most primal instincts, right.  Barry’s love screams out (to Barry) that Megala is full of it.

Megala’s life as a professional student is quite humorous.  His latest PhD thesis is about James Joyce and is titled “The Ineluctable Modality of the Ineluctably Modal.”  But being a professional student means that he is always surrounded by the female students at Smith College (and the description of Megala with one of them is hilariously vulgar.

Barry finally gets up the nerve to talk to Myrnaloy (by pretending that his store’s copier is broken).  And a connection is made.  Barry’s foolproof plan is to follow up this meeting with another “chance encounter.” Barry ’s mother once predicted that love would give him nothing but trouble.  Does it transpire that she is, indeed, always right?

This story was very straightforward and lots and lots of fun.  I was hooked from the start. I especially enjoyed the use of the word “reproduced” in terms of Barry checking out Myrnaloy while she is making copies.   But, it wouldn’t be DFW if he didn’t twist things a little bit. The final few pages change from a straight ahead narrative to this set up:

The interval 11:50 to 11:57 am EDT, 15 June, 1983, finds a tiny percentage of the planet’s persons involved in a tiny percentage in a tiny percentage of the planet’s various ineluctably modal situations.

And the remaining paragraphs all begin with a time and show a small detail about what is happening to various people.  Most of these people have not appeared directly in the story (Dingle’s sister, Dingle’s college professor and, inexplicably, Aristotle Onassis), but also Dingle and Myrnaloy.

The story ends before the excitement can be fully consummated. But unlike IJ or some of his other stories, the ending point comes a little bit later. So, you don’t actually see the finale, but you know of its inevitability. It would have been interesting to see it play out, although the story is totally satisfying even without it.

Oh, and like IJ, the story has footnotes!  Both are used as citations backing up facts (one is about the history of Northampton–DFW’s summary of the city is hilarious!  And the other is about germs.)  I am fairly certain both are fake, which is a shame, as the Northampton one sounds like it would be an amusing read.

And, also like in IJ, there is a comment about Quebec Separatism!

It is a fantastic story and, again, I’m surprised it has not been anthologized yet.

You can read it here.

SOUNDTRACK:  TINDERSTICKS-What is a Man (2000).

This is a soundtrack to a TV mini-series called The Sins (which I know nothing about).  The song (for there is only one) is a cover of a Four Tops song (which I do not know).  The “B-side” is an instrumental version of said song.

And, sadly, that’s all that comes on this disc.  It’s a good song, yes, but at a combined total of about 5 minutes, it’s rather skimpy as a disc (Hey that’s what singles used to be back in the day).  Normally I don’t encourage the downloading of tracks (I’m more of a physical medium kind of guy), but I think if you’re looking for this for this particular song, you’re much better off just downloading it.  I don’t think it’s available on any other discs.

[READ: October 24, 2009] “The Balloon”

[UPDATE: November 25, 2009]

I just received a copy of Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts and have learned that the version of “The Balloon” that I read and which I linked to below is NOT the entire story.

Aside from a couple of inexplicable word changes (!) the version online leaves out the final four paragraphs.  And, with Barthelme’s prose being so dense, that’s quite a lot of information.

This changes my reading of the story quite a lot as there is now a DIFFERENT ENDING!  So I have to more or less disown this review.  But I will leave it up for posterity.  I’ll include a new review when I finish the short story collection.

[original review commences here]

David Foster Wallace in a Salon.com interview, said that this was “which is the first story I ever read that made me want to be a writer.”  I have recently read a few Barthelme pieces (that were in Harper’s) and I found them to be weird, kind of interesting, but nothing inspirational.

But, heck, why not see what got DFW going?

So this story was, in fact, very cool. It was written before the pieces that were in Harper’s, and, as with most artists who end up in a weird and out-there place, he started off in a reasonably normal place.  In other words, this story is actually something of a story with a beginning and sort of an end.  There’s no plot, per se, but the story does lead somewhere.

In the story, a man inflates a huge irregularly shaped balloon in Manhattan.  It takes up several city blocks and, in places, it rests against the skyscrapers.

And that’s it.

Well, not exactly.  The story is about people’s reactions to this enormous thing that takes up the entire sky but about which there is no explanation.  The narrator states that people might have felt better about it if it had an ad or a “message” on the side, but no, his balloon is just soothing earth tone colors.

The story doesn’t end, exactly.  It just sort of stops.  But the discussion of people and their attitudes and reactions is certainly interesting and says as much about the author as it does about the narrator.  Most critics agree that the story is something of a metaphor for his own art, and that is pretty obvious to see.

It’s quite clear that this story did have a big impact on DFW’s writing.  It hasn’t inspired me to start writing fiction, but I’m glad I read it.

I enjoyed this style of postmodern work better than his later less structured stories.  I may even consider reading the rest of the collection.

I found this INCOMPLETE VERSION OF THE STORY online here.  I assume it is the correct full story, despite the typos and that it is dated as 1981.

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Nénette et Boni [soundtrack] (1996).

After releasing two albums of atmospheric brilliance, Tindersticks were called upon to score the music for the film Nénette et Boni.

And this disc answers the question of whether it is Stuart Staples’ voice that is the driving force behind the band.  And the answer is, indeed not.  This disc is almost entirely instrumental (except for “Tiny Tears” which is a different version from the second disc and is here titled “Petites gouttes d’eau”).  The band brings the same atmospheric/noir quality to this disc that they bring to the ir previous works, but you get to hear it in all of its glory (since you’re not trying to figure out what Stuart is talking about).

I haven’t seen the film, so I can’t say how well it works for the film.  But I feel like I know the film quite well from the tone and music (and what I think may be sounds from the film) that are present.  If you like the band musically, you absolutely cannot go wrong here.  There’s not a bad track on the disc.  Even the half dozen or so tracks that are only about a minute (this is a soundtrack after all) are quite evocative.

I read a brief description of the film online, and I’m not entirely sure I want to see it.  But I sure do enjoy listening to the music.

The reissued disc comes with a bonus disc called Marks Moods.  Marks Moods was a promo disc sent out to film producers to showcase just what the band could do (again, without Stuart’s vocals).  So this is another moody instrumental disc.  The difference is that there are many songs from other discs that are done (or re-done, I can’t be entirely sure) as instrumentals.  The four tracks with vocals are “Sleepy Song,” “Don’t Look Down,” and “Buried Bones” which is actually a duet.  And then there’s “For Those…” one of my favorite songs which seems to crop up all over the place but never on an actual album.

This appears to have been something of a find back in the day.  I’m not sure if it was really worth hunting down, but it is a nice bonus to this disc.

[READ: October 18, 2009] “/Solomon Silverfish/”

The last few uncollected DFW stories that I read were a little less than satisfying.  So I wasn’t looking forward to this one very much.  But man, was it good.  It seems to be a hearty precursor to Infinite Jest (without the endnotes).  It even has a character named Wardine!

The story is typographically a little odd.  The title and “section” headings are in backslashes.  (I have no idea if that signifies anything other than a typographical choice of DFW or the magazine).  The section headings are the names of the character whose point of view the section is.  So, when the story opens we see /Solomon/.

But aside from that, the most unusual thing in the story is that it is written in the voice of a very Jewish individual.  For Solomon Silverfish speaks in an almost stereotypical Jewish vernacular.  Solomon is married to Sophie Shoenweiss, a Jewish woman who is dying of breast cancer.  As the story opens, Solomon is fielding a phone call (at 2 in the morning) from Sophie’s brother Ira.  Ira has just been caught with his third DUI and he’s begging his brother-in-law, a fine public defendant, to bail him out (again).

Solomon has delightful mannerisms, like karate chopping his arms when angry.  And so as he is explaining to his poor wife what her irresponsible brother has done, he chops the air in dramatic fashion.  (This chopping continues throughout the story to humorous effect).

It turns out that this DUI call is an elaborate ruse to get him out of the house.  But from there I will give no further details, because they all get juicier and more interesting as they go along.  I will say, however, that the love that DFW paints between these two people, married for over 30 years, is incredibly moving.  And the flashbacks of their marriage are really beautiful.  (I was really moved by the scene of Solomon standing over his wife, chopping at the air and shouting “Remit” at his wife’s cancer.)  The tenderness and examples of unselfishness are really something.  There’s no irony to be had here.

But things wouldn’t be written by DFW if they didn’t get a little peculiar.  And so, midway through the story, we learn that Solomon is a very generous man, feeling empathy for the downtrodden.  And one of these downtrodden is /Too Pretty/ a pimp and a pusher.  Solomon has helped him out of many a tight spot.  So, when Solomon asks Too Pretty for a favor, he is all too happy to help out his man S.S.

When the main story line of Sol and Sophie is basically at an end (although an ending ever so DFW-like that doesn’t really give you the ending), we get an additional four pages from the point of view of /Too Pretty/, in the vernacular of a pimp and drug pusher (which also shows foreshadowing to sections of IJ).

Too Pretty has nothing but respect for Solomon.  He details the aforementioned favor, for which he is only too happy to help.  And as he relates his own life of drugs and women, he seems to marvel at the fact that Solomon loves his withered, skinny wife, who has caves where her breasts used to be.

There also seems to be some kind of explanation of the misunderstanding that got Solomon into trouble in the first place.  However, this memory, is related with the strict understanding that Too Pretty had taken some very strong heroin.  And he appears to hallucinate the very scene that Solomon’s accusers accuse him of (or is it possibly real?)

And here I got a little lost.  I couldn’t decide if  Too Pretty was the source for the accusations (which seems totally unlikely) or if Too Pretty was mistaken for Solomon (which I guess could happen, the way it is described, even though they look nothing alike).

This confusing epilogue does not detract from the story.  It adds an element of mystery (and yes, throws a haze over some details), but Too Pretty’s section is still remarkable.

I am quite surprised that this story has never been anthologized.  It is a strong piece of fiction with a lot of foreshadowing to his later works.  It also proves that DFW has a great ear for vernacular.  There’s always the possible accusation that his work is offensive since he is neither Jewish nor black, but I don’t think it is.  His characters ring true.  And given the underlying theme of the story absolutely justifies it.

I’d been writing lately that DFW’s true calling was non-fiction.  But after reading this story, I take it back.  When he was on his game, DFW was amazing.

[Read it here.]

Oh, and by the way, the story is also available in the new Sonora Review Issue 55/56.  It also includes a 100 page tribute to DFW (who used to work for the magazine).

For ease of searching, I include: Nenette et Boni

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS: Tindersticks [the black and white one] (1995).

This second album (often called II, but according to the band, is called Tindertsticks) continues the coolness of the first disc.  But this disc seems to have a few more “singles” (or what could have been singles) on it.  “A Night In” has a great slow building, string filled chorus that reaches tremendous heights.  Staples’ voice sounds even better, too.  A bit fuller, a bit less hesitant.

It also features the gorgeous, vibe-fueled, spoken word tale called “My Sister.”  And then there’s the fantastic, monumental “Tiny Tears.”  (It was featured in a Sopranos episode (Season One, Episode 12: “Isabella”) perfectly, and I was delighted to hear it. (I’m not the only one who thinks it was perfect, see here]).  It begins as a quiet piece with the fantastic opening lyrics:

You’ve been lying in bed for a week now
Wondering how long it’ll take
You haven’t spoke, or looked at her in all that time
It’s the easiest line you could break
She’s been going round her business as usual
Always with that melancholy smile
But you were too busy looking into yourself
To see those tiny tears in her eyes.

And of course, it builds into a string filled melancholy ballad.  Beautiful.  Another great track, “Talk to Me” gets so intense as the song progresses (dissonant strings and horns cranked to ten), that it’s almost scary.  This is followed by the contrite and very mellow “No More Affairs.”  Oh, and then comes the stunning duet “Travelling Light” which is sheer beauty.

I also really enjoy the two instrumentals “Vertrauen II” and “Vertrauen III” for their creepy atmospherics and theremin use.

It’s another stellar collection from Tindertsicks.  And another triumph of atmospheric music.  And, frankly, it’s just as well that they gave this disc the same name as the first as they are practically a continuous cycle of awesomeness.

This disc was reissued with the previously hard to find “Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre 12.3.95.”

[READ: October 19, 2009] “Prosperous Friends”

This story of a disaffected married couple didn’t really appeal to me at first.  The characters (especially the wife) seemed very caustic but there hadn’t been enough setup or explanation for the causticity.  When they visit his old (girl?)friend, the four people have an uncomfortable meal together.  I also had a but of trouble keeping the two men straight: Ted and Ben are a little too similar as names.

And the third problem I had was that the author doesn’t identify speaking out loud (no quotes or dashes or anything).  And so it was not always apparent if the person was talking or if he or she was thinking and then talking.  And I understand that authors do things like that for a reason, but it just confused matters for me.

As the story drew to a close and Isabel and Ned were together, these stylistic choices were less bothersome.  And, when the couple united under a difficult situation, it was something of a payoff for all they had been through.  But overall I felt like the story was asking of me more than I was wiling to give.

Monochrome n.1: Fall Season

(clicca qui per il download)

Una selezione di brani che comprende canzoni improntate su di un’unica tonalità, quella autunnale.

1. September – David Sylvian (from the album “Secret of the Beehive”, 1987)

Pochi accordi di piano che sembrano tradurre quasi il movimento delle prime foglie che cadono dagli alberi, come fosse un preludio all’autunno. E la calda voce di Sylvian che recita dei versi dai chiari tratti impressionistici, in quella che è una vera e propria poesia musicata

2. Autumn Leaves – Nat King Cole (from the movie “Autumn Leaves, 1956)

Scritta nel 1947 da Joseph Kosma e Jacques Prevert con il titolo “Le feuilles mortes”, la canzone divenne ben presto uno standard. Nat King Cole nel 1956 incise quella che è probabilmente la versione più celebre per il film “Autumn Leaves“, accompagnando con la sua voce i titoli di coda.

3. Snow Don’t Fall – Townes Van Zandt (from the album “The Late Great Townes Van Zandt”, 1972)

Snow don’t fall on summers time/ Wind don’t blow below the sea/ My loves lies ‘neath frozen skies/ And waits in sweet repose for me.

4. Famous Blue Raincoat – Leonard Cohen (from the album “Songs of Love and Hate”, 1971)

It’s four in the morning, the end of December/ I’m writing you now just to see if you’re better.

5. November – Tom Waits (from the album “The Black Rider”, 1993)

No shadow/No stars/No moon/No care/November/It only believes/In a pile of dead leaves/And a moon/That’s the color of bone.

6. October – U2 (from the album “October”, 1981)

Dall’album meno conosciuto della band iralndese, una di quelle canzoni che riesce ad essere con poche note il ritratto di uno stato d’animo. Quello che ci coglie alla vista delle prime foglie gialle sulla strada.

7. Raindrops – Tindersticks (from the album “Tindersticks”, 1993)

Tratta da uno dei più belli e meno ricordati album degli anni ‘90, Raindrops è un vero e proprio mantra purificatore.

8. Aint’ Gonna Rain Anymore – Nick Cave (from the album “Let Love In”, 1994)

Quando l’autunno coincide con la fine di un’amore.

9. Plus d’Hiver – Yann Tiersen feat. Jane Birkin (from the album “Les Retrouvailles, 2005)

Yann Tiersen restitusce alla pioggia una tenue malinconia pianistica accompagnata dalla calda voce di Jane Birkin.

]]> http://ijustreadaboutthat.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/mcsweeney%e2%80%99s-32/ Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:13:50 +0000 Paul http://ijustreadaboutthat.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/mcsweeney%e2%80%99s-32/

SOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Tindersticks [the red one] (1993).

Tindersticks are a fascinating band.  The first distinctive thing about them is Stuart Staples’ voice: a deep rich bass that he uses almost like a whisper.  The second thing you notice is the music.  It’s an orchestral/chamber pop collection of dark rockers with fantastic moodiness to it.  And then you notice the lyrics: dark songs of lost (and decayed) love.

Yet despite the description of chamber pop, the nad is really much darker than chamber pop suggests.  The band has a very noir sound: organs that penetrate through walls of sound, tinkling pianos suring hushed moments.  The horns and strings add dark atmospherics (strings zing like a Hitchcock movie).  And the minor key chords are rich and loud.

You also get a song like “Whisky and Water” which genuinely rocks hard (loud guitars are featured).  Or a simple acoustic guitar driven song like “Blood.”  Throughout the disk you get these fantastic melodies that play off of Staples’ voice and the twisted lyrics.  “City Sickness” and “Patchwork” are just two of the tracks that are very catchy.

And then there’s the fantastic “Jism” with its awesome noir organ.  Or “Raindrops” with its accents of vibes and the beautiful piano trilling at the end (and the detailed and emotional lyrics: What we got here is a lazy love / It mooches around the house / Can’t wait to go out / What it needs, it just grabs / It never asks / We sit and watch the divide widen / We sit and listen to our hearts crumble”).  “Her” follows up with a wonderfully flamenco-infused spaghetti western number.

And lets not forget “Drunk Tank” a propulsive song that is as sinister as it is catchy.  Oh heck, I could just keep raving.  But there’s 22 songs!   Four songs are about a minute each, and the disc is about 75 minutes (not bad for a debut!).  And the disc never loses momentum or its sense of purpose.

What really distinguishes this disk is the mood of the music.  Like the best soundtracks, you can feel the emotions and imagery with the music alone, but when you add Staples’ evocative lyrics and powerful voice, it’s a deadly potent combination.

The disc was reissued a few years ago with a bonus disc of demo tracks.  The demos are surprisingly rich (they’re not at-home recordings or done without accompaniment) so they don’t differ that dramatically from the originals.  But they have a slightly less polished feel, which doesn’t hurt the band at all. There’s also a demo of the fantastic “For Those…” which doesn’t appear on the original disc.

I have to thank my friend Lar for getting me into this band. (Thanks Lar).

[READ: October 19, 2009] McSweeney’s #32

The concept for this issue is this: McSweeney’s asked several authors to “travel somewhere in the world–Budapest, Cape Town, Houston, any sleepy or sleepless outpost they could find–and send back a story set in that spot fifteen years from now, in the year 2024.”

And so, all of the stories are vaguely sci-fi-ish in that they are future related, but they are all grounded very heavily in reality, in particular, the reality of individuals trying to live in this future world.

ANTHONY DOERR-”Memory Wall”
This is the longest story in the collection.  And I thought to myself, I don’t think I care all that much about an old white woman in South Africa.  But I have to say, I was utterly engaged by this story.  It was fantastic.  The premise is that in the future, you are able to retrieve and then store your memories on little cards.  You can then re-watch them at any time.  Obviously a black market in other people’s memories quickly develops.

The story features an old woman who is slowly losing her memory.  She uses these memory card treatments to try to retain any sense of her life with her now-deceased husband.  Her husband happened upon a fantastic discovery just before he died.  She doesn’t care about this, she just wants to remember their life.  But when word of his discovery leaks out (the discovery was pretty monumental, and rumors about it spread quickly), an opportunist tries to piece together this discovery by watching her old memories.

What is so cool about this story is that with memories floating in different people’s heads, the story is able to follow different characters around the story.  The old woman , the young opportunist, even the older black man who was her servant (and the man’s son) all have their lives in the spotlight.  And as we get each of their perspectives, the story grows in depth.

The ending scene features generosity from an unexpected source which is unabashedly touching.  This was a truly wonderful story.

WELLS TOWER-”Raw Water”
This story is set in the American desert.  And it offers a water solution that seems like a good idea and a plausible solution.  Pipe water from the  Pacific ocean into a newly created lake in the desert.  This provides a body of water to build towns around; when some of the water evaporates, the clouds will rain the evaporated water onto the dry land.  It’s a great idea.

Except when it doesn’t work.  As it doesn’t here.

Rodney and Cora are traveling across country from Boston to this desert so that Cora can photograph the lake.  The lake is now bright red (because of the plankton and other organisms that thrive in this water body).  The new landscape has a complicated effect on Rodney and Cora, where this vast expanse gets Rodney a little stir crazy.

I enjoyed this story a lot (Wells Tower is becoming a favorite short story writer of mine).  The ending section of the story got a little creepy, and so the story wound up gong in a direction I did not expect, but it was not altogether implausible.  I admit that I missed Cora in the last few pages, which I think is a bit of a flaw, and yet overall the story was very satisfying.

CHRIS BACHELDER-”Eighth Wonder”
This story is set in, I think, Houston (lots of references to Sam Houston, so I assume that’s the locale).  It is set in (what I assume is) the Astrodome.  At any rate, it is set in a dome.  The city has flooded and people are taking refuge there.  People are trying their best to make do with what they have.  But one man, who has been reading the fliers about the dome, decides to make things better.  This is a story of the human spirit and it was quite moving.  Despite the obvious sadness (and parallels to Hurricane Katrina), it was still uplifting.

CHRIS ADRIAN-”The Black Square”
A black square has appeared on Nantucket Island.  If anything enters the square, it never comes back.  And so, people are choosing it as a way to end their current life.  (No one knows for certain what happens when they go into the Square, so they aren’t necessarily committing suicide).  Henry (and his former lover’s dog, Hobart) travel to Nantucket (where he grew up).  Henry is planning to enter the square (there’s a back up plan for Hobart, yes).

But what happens when he meets an interesting, warm and sweet man there?  Can he really get over his former lover?  This was another really strong story.  It begins with you, the reader, not liking Henry, (he has ceased caring about niceties and is awfully rude to a number of people) but as the story progresses, he grows stronger, more complicated and very sympathetic.  A great piece.

J. ERIN SWEENEY-”Oblast”
This story conflates two interesting ideas into one story.  The first is that humanity is being contaminated by a seal virus.  This has naturally led to a wholesale slaughter of seals everywhere (especially of those in captivity).  To protect the seals, organizations have been transporting them out of aquaria and into the open sea where at least they stand a chance (however slim) of survival.

The other story concerns two boys.  Their father has recently become the brutal dictator of a newly formed country, Karabakh.  And the boys have fled to the States.  The boys’ immigration status is in question, but if they are sent back to their homeland, they will surely be killed.  The boys, like the seals, must be sent to a neutral location, where they may or may not survive.  Each boy is different, so the conflict between them only complicates their situation.  And putting them both in a confined space (with seals who may have a virus) has really exacerbated the troubles.

I didn’t know if I’d like this one when it started (there’s a lot of naval/sea talk, which is not my thing), but it proved to be a really great story.

SHEILA HETI-”There is No Time in Waterloo”
This piece is set in Waterloo.  (Although which Waterloo, I don’t know).  As of 2024, Blackberry has created The Mother of all Blackberrys which can essentially predict not your future, but your destiny.  And so everyone consults their Mothers all the time to see what they should do.  There were some interesting things going on here (especially when one of the girls breaks her Mothers and is effectively ostracized) but I couldn’t get emotionally involved in the story.

HEIDI JULAVITS-”Material Proof of the Failure of Everything”
This story is set in Hungary after the collapse of their economy.  Because Hungary had been loaned money from German banks, it transpires that a German banker effectively owns the country.  In a shady deal, he “sold” the country to a rather questionable individual, known as the Visla.  The Visla has decreed that Hungary made the wrong choice in 1989 and so he has insisted that the entire country, buildings and all, be returned to the state they were in, in 1989. This is the Deszecesszionist movement.

The protagonist of the story, Gyula is a spy for Bela (who works for the Visla).  And essentially Gyula’s job consists of listening to people in a particular hotel (whether they are guilty or not) because they have to eavesdrop on someone.  But what happens when Bela is no longer around?  How will Gyula find work?

I loved the tortured and hilarious prose that Juvalits used in this story (especially as it opens).  The turns of phrase were just slightly off, and they made the story very memorable.  It also made you have to slow down a bit to fully read the words.  Very enjoyable (and very twisted as the story reaches it end).

JIM SHEPARD-”The Netherlands Lives with Water”
Yes, this story is about flooding in the Netherlands.  The narrator  is a geologist (or some future variant of a geologist) who knows that the Netherlands is doomed.  His wife, Cato, is a media liaison whose job is to paint a happy face on the eventual doomedness of the Netherlands.  This is definitely the least hopeful story of the bunch.

It begins as rather clinical and somewhat technical, but by the end the emotions come through.  But what makes the story really compelling is the interpersonal dynamics of the main characters.  He is, basically, emotionally stunted when it comes to talking to his wife.  And watching them fight about this, yet stay close because of all of the chaos, keeps the story centered amidst the storm.

SALVADOR PLASCENCIA-”The Enduring Nature of the Bromidic”
This story covers a lot of ground, although it doesn’t appear to be set in the future.  The story focuses on Gonzalo who is studying geology but whose grant keeps getting denied because the government believes he is making too much money.  His wife Cheli is also an academic, and she is writing a paper about the enduring nature of the bromidic, and since her area of focus is television, she sums up her thesis: everyone loves reruns.

There is also a lot of discussion about the reintegration of English into California (which I guess shows that it is set in the future).

But the story really centers around this family’s attempts to thrive against the difficulties of paperwork and the social security administration.  There was even a little bit of fun with bureaucracy as the story ended.  I found the story a little difficult to follow in the beginning (I wasn’t always clear who was who, especially since names are changed on purpose) but it was definitely enjoyable by the end.

But the thing I enjoyed most about this story was saying the authors name: PlahSENceeahhh.

SESSHU FOSTER-”Sky City”
This story had such a great concept: the chaotic winds and storms in future L.A. have pulled people and cars and all manner of things into what they are calling a sky city.  Many people don’t think it exists (but how else to explain cars falling from the sky?)

Two people are going to try and fly to it.  In a homemade zeppelin.  And the set-up of the story is that their entire conversation is being broadcast over pirate radio station.

The only problem I had with the story is that the two characters in the zeppelin really aren’t very interesting.  One (the guy who makes the zeppelins) is an anarchist, the other (the woman who is learning to fly it and who has the radio transmitter) is a communist who sells communist newspapers on the street corner.  Both characters are strident and unflinching in their devotion to opposing society.  But the state of society is such that there doesn’t seem to be much left to overthrow.  Much of the beginning of the story is spent with the two characters arguing back and forth about ideology and his ex-girlfriend.

I just wanted to hear more about Sky City.

There was a lot of cool stuff about the zeppelin (and about how abandoned malls allowed him to build it in secret).  There was also some cool descriptions of flying silently over a sleeping city.  Ultimately, the payoff was rewarding, although, really, I would have liked to have seen more.

–

So overall this was another enjoyable issue.  The artificial constraint on the stories led to some interesting concepts that probably wouldn’t have come out otherwise.  But despite the constraint, the authors chose to focus on the lives of the people, rather than just future events.  And so, the stories are intriguing as well as engaging.  And you can’t ask for much more than that.

“We exist for ourselves, perhaps, and at times we even have a glimmer of who we are, but in the end we can never be sure, and as our lives go on, we become more and more opaque to ourselves, more and more aware of our own incoherence. No one can cross the boundary into another – for the simple reason that no one can gain access to himself.”

Πολ Όστερ, The New York Trilogy: The Locked Room

Διάβαζα εδώ για την εμπειρία ενός σεμιναρίου δημιουργικής γραφής – αφορά κυρίως την πρώτη έκθεση ενός κειμένου σ’ άλλα αφτιά και μάτια. Απηχεί αρκετές σκέψεις που κάνω διαβάζοντας ή ακούγοντας τα σχόλια για το βιβλίο μου (μια και αρκετοί φίλοι και γνωστοί είχαν μέχρι στιγμής την καλοσύνη να μου πουν μια γνώμη). Είναι παράξενο: συχνά έχεις την εντύπωση ότι το βιβλίο σου ο αναγνώστης το μεταμορφώνει, το προσαρμόζει στον εαυτό του. Μ’ αυτή την έννοια είναι κάπως δύσκολο να πεις αν τελικά πρόκειται για δικό σου ή δικό του βιβλίο: το σωστότερο θα ήταν να μιλήσεις για συνδημιουργία, όσο κι αν αυτό είναι από ναρκισσιστική σκοπιά κάπως άβολο.

Mερικοί δεν γνωρίζουν τη μουσική στην οποία αναφέρομαι και ψάχνουν να βρουν τα τραγούδια (κάτι που βρίσκω όμορφο, κι είναι ένας λόγος που επέμενα να υπάρχουν οι συγκεκριμένες αναφορές στο βιβλίο, όπως είναι κι ένας λόγος που τις παραθέτω κι εδώ, στο μπλογκ). Άλλοι προσπαθούν ν’ αναγνωρίσουν στοιχεία που θεωρούν δικά μου: και επειδή, όπως διευκρινίζει και ο Πολ Όστερ στο απόσπασμα από το Locked Room που ανοίγει το βιβλίο (το απόσπασμα που βρίσκεται στην αρχή του ποστ) κανένας δεν μπορεί να γνωρίσει απόλυτα τους άλλους, όπως δεν μπορεί να γνωρίσει απόλυτα και τον ίδιο του τον εαυτό, καθένας, με βάση και την σχέση που έχει μαζί μου, βρίσκει (ή ακόμα και φαντάζεται, κάτι που είναι μερικές φορές τρομακτικό) διαφορετικά κομμάτια μου μέσα στο REWIND. Συχνά -κι αυτό είναι ίσως το γοητευτικότερο- κάποιοι αναγνωρίζουν δικά τους στοιχεία στο βιβλίο (μερικοί είναι σίγουροι ότι είναι βαλμένα επίτηδες, σαν κλείσιμο του ματιού: νομίζω στην πιο δύσκολη θέση βρέθηκε μια παλιά μου συγκάτοικος, που πίστεψε ότι η συγκάτοικος του Πέτρου ήταν εκείνη – κάτι που από το δικό μου μυαλό δεν είχε περάσει καν).

Επιπλέον, κάθε αναγνώστης ξεχωρίζει διαφορετικά πράγματα. Στοιχεία που θεωρούσα επίφοβα, σελίδες που το γράψιμό τους το νόμιζα αδέξιο, για κάποιους είναι δυνατά σημεία του βιβλίου, και αρκετές απορίες που ακούω δεν τις είχα προβλέψει – ενώ απορίες που περίμενα δεν έχουν εκφραστεί ή τουλάχιστον δεν τις έχουν τόσοι, όσοι θα περίμενα (για παράδειγμα, το κόκκινο κουτί). Υπάρχει κι ένας μικρός διχασμός, που δεν μου έχει εξηγηθεί ακόμα αρκετά, για το τέλος:  άλλοι θεωρούν ότι οι τελευταίες σελίδες, Το ασημί ψαράκι, θα μπορούσαν να λείπουν, και άλλοι πιστεύουν ότι το βιβλίο δεν κλείνει εκεί και θα έπρεπε να υπάρχει κάτι ακόμα (φυσικά, διαφωνώ μ’ αυτό το τελευταίο -εμφανές, αφού σταμάτησα το βιβλίο εκεί που το σταμάτησα- αλλά δεν μου πέφτει λόγος πια).

Οι φωτογραφίες είναι από το τελικό χειρόγραφο του βιβλίου (βλέπε το σχετικό ποστ). Στην πάνω φωτογραφία, ένα ακόμα από τα σκίτσα. Ο στίχος How did you make me go this far? είναι από το Until the Morning Comes των Tindersticks (Waiting for the Moon, 2003). Στην κάτω φωτογραφία, οι τίτλοι από το τέλος του χειρόγραφου.

Τα περισσότερα τραγούδια δεν επέλεξα να τα βάλω στο βιβλίο – μπήκαν από μόνα τους και χωρίς να χτυπήσουν την πόρτα. Με πιο θεαματικό το μπουκάρισμα του Jism των Tindersticks (Tindersticks, 1993 – που τυχαίνει να είναι ένας από τους πιο αγαπημένους μου δίσκους στην ιστορία των αγαπημένων δίσκων): ο στίχος You hide these things so well, there’s no finding έχει καρφωθεί στο μυαλό μου εδώ και χρόνια και καθώς έγραφα επανερχόταν διαρκώς. Τελικά… επιβλήθηκε σαν τίτλος στη σελίδα 173.

Μια λάιβ εκτέλεση του τραγουδιού, έντεκα χρόνια πριν:

Οι στίχοι:

If she’d have known
She’d have shown me in
I need to taste her pain
For encouragement

If she’d have known
She’d have shown me in
I need to taste her pain
For accomplishment

See, I can only take it out on you
There’s no one else I can trust
See, I can only take it out on you
There’s no one else but us around

You hide these things so well
There’s no finding

And the pink runs into the blue
There are no edges
How do I know where you are tonight?
Need these paper cuts
Need those gravel grinds
Need those pinches to wake me
Give up the drugs
Take the power I offer
Oh the deeper I go
The further I fall
The more I know
The tighter your grip around me
So easily broken
Running down your skin

And the pink runs into the blue
If there’s ever anyone else, I’ll understand
- And kill them
And I’ll overflow your every inlet
You will not cough and spit
You’ll welcome me in

And I tell you with my tongue between your toes
If there’s ever anyone else
Don’t let them do this
And I’ll laugh and revel
As you scratch and crawl
If there’s ever anyone else
Just show them the ugly mess

You hide these things so well
There’s no finding
You hide these things so well
There’s no finding, no finding