Author Archives: Duff

Pitchfork: Day One

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A Hawk and a Hacksaw: Unusual instrumentation. Sometimes enjoyable, but sometimes too much “orchestra jam band.”

Caribou: Not for me.

Fleet Foxes: Yay!! My favorite performance of the weekend. They are lush and layered and lovely and I really really loved it, despite the sound completely dropping out for a song in the middle there. (But you’ve got to expect that with outdoor festivals.) Their harmonization is just wonderful.

Dizzee Rascal: So much fun!! I’ve heard it argued otherwise, but in my opinion rap is generally a more reliable performance at these outdoor fests because it just plain doesn’t matter how crappy the “music” in the background sounds / distorted, dropping in and out, what have you. With actual bands, that’s a problem. But as long as the rapper is loud and lively, he can still sound awesome despite those kinds of outdoor fest problems.

The Hold Steady: Pretty sizzling set…the bromance* crowd was really into it. But I’ve never listened to their follow-up albums the way I did to their first, and I’ve seen them a ton of times (this was the 4th or 5th, but I’ll go with 4th). So while it seemed high energy and the crowd was excited, I felt more laidback about the whole thing.

Jarvis Cocker: Somehow the sound was completely screwed up and I could barely hear the dude at all. So we left.

*Seems this word is in the air these days. First Joss Whedon going on about his bromance feelings toward Tahmoh at ComicCon. Then this post over at NPR Monitor Mix. EVERY Hold Steady show I’ve been to has been a total bromance and you’ll see many of her commenters suggested it as well.

Poetry: Unmentionables, by Beth Ann Fennelly

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Funny, wry and matter of fact. Cow tipping, Berthe Morisot, Kudzu (vine) creep, and John Berryman: her subjects are flung far and wide but always treated with the same intense gaze.
You can feel the Mississippi humidity seeping off the pages. These poems are fresh, verdant and fecund.

Similar to Billy Collins, she writes simply, but deeply.

Sci Fi/Fantasy: Peeps, by Scott Westerfeld

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Very, very different than the other YA vampire fiction out there these days.

Male protagonist, certainly interested in romance/sex but not consumed by it the way Bella (Twilight) is. A more realistic/scientific look at the phenomenon, if you will, despite the fictionalness of it all. Lots of cool Manhattan stuff: underground, bureaucratical, conspiratorial.

Certainly pulls you right along. Enjoyable easy reading. I mean, other than the bug stuff. If you are bug, insect and gross-phobic the way I am…well, let’s just say it was hard for me to even let my fingers touch the pages of the Parasite chapters as a) soooooo nasty and b) some of my worst nightmares CONFIRMED!!!

But on a separate note, as I said with the other: It kinda cracks me up how every “new” installment to vampire lore needs to put their own tweak on the legends. This rewrites a different part of the legend, but I still fail to understand the reason to need to make those tweaks to what are centuries old “beliefs” (if you can call them that). Your writing should stand out as something special, even without that tweaking; if you feel you have to tweak aspects of the overall Vampire legends in order to stand out, maybe you’re concentrating on the wrong thing. I’m not saying that’s Westerfeld’s problem (I think this book is certainly well written, which I can’t say about the other series, which is much more superficial and really only works on an emotional level), but why the need to change the mirror bit of the mythos? Yeah, in YA speak, I don’t “get” that urge.

Fiction: Absurdistan, by Gary Shteyngart

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Mindblowingly fucking hilarous. Truly comedic. Completely non-PC, an equal opportunity satirist taking on everyone/thing. Smart and sarcastic, yet willing to show a softer side on occasion. Brilliant.

In the tradition of “Confederacy of Dunces”, but I enjoyed this more. Takes it a few steps further, less bitter, more fun. And in addition to the narrator and (anti-)hero Misha Vainberg, the author himself plays a bit part in this book (from afar), the emigre writer “Jerry Shteynfarb” author of “Russian Arriviste’s Hand Job” [Shteyngart wrote “The Russian Debutante’s Handbook”]. Poking fun at yourself equally as to others = always fertile ground for hilarity.

This is in no way one of the funniest quotes in the book, but it’s emblematic of the general tone: “We give these American schmendricks a map of the world and say, ‘Point to the general area where you think Congo is located.’ Nineteen percent point to the continent of Africa. Another twenty-three percent point to either India or South America. We count those as correct answers, because Africa, India and South America all start out wide and then taper off at the bottom. So, for our purposes, forty-two percent of respondents sort of know where Congo is.”

So the book. Yeah. It’s really crude, and often gross, and TOTALLY AWESOME.

Fiction: Trespass, by Valerie Martin

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Family tension, even in other people’s families, can really set me on edge. This book had me anxious from page 1, just waiting for Bad Stuff to Happen as the tension and anxiety of each character grows and grows. Definitely had me on the edge of the seat.

Really neat characterization and very finely detailed: the mom’s art (so cool), the dad’s writing. The intricacies of the familial relationships were so well plotted: you love someone, but you see their weakness; you hate when they act a certain way, but you know how to handle them when that’s the case; etc.

When the moment of crisis comes, it was not at all what I expected, and that includes the follow-up events.

But I have to wonder what the blurb writer was thinking. Because the last sentence on the front flap blurb? Yeah, that’s NOT what I got out of this at all.

Best of June

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Just in time to write up Best of July… I mean, once I get the individual reviews of that stuff up. So slackerass I am this summer.

The best movie I saw in June was Wanted, which I just loved. But I also thought The Fall was visually stunning.

The best book I read in June was a tie between Lush Life by Richard Price (gritty, real and modern day) and Life Class by Pat Barker (artistic and historical). I also really enjoyed Dark Roots by Cate Kennedy, dark short stories, and I just cannot get enough of Patricia Briggs sci fi/fantasy stuff this year.

The best gig I went to in June was definitely Sea Wolf. Soooooo wonderful live.

My favorite tunes in June….were mostly things I bought in April. When I look back through my posts, I was listening to a lot of: Joe Purdy, Joseph Arthur, Fleet Foxes, Meg Hutchinson, Mason Jennings, the aforementioned Sea Wolf and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.

Random personal highlights: Amy’s whirlyball birthday party (whirlyball! so much fun!); Weis [college roommate] here for a weekend; out to dinner with Cinnamon.

Lowlights? I’m sure there were some (primarily secondary browsing location and stress related presumably) but thankfully all I can tell you right now by looking at my calendar is that I was too lazy to go to the Printer’s Row Bookfair this year (either day!) and that’s pathetic.

À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for July.

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Bought:

  • Peeps, by Scott Westerberg
  • Uglies, by Scott Westerberg
  • Finding Battlestar Galactica, by Lynnette Porter, David Lavery, and HIllary Robson
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy, ed. by James B. South
  • Undead TV: Essays on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ed. by Elana Levine and Lisa Parks
  • Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy: Knowledge Here Begins Out There, ed. by Jason T. Eberl
  • Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang

Read:

  • Trespass, by Valerie Martin
  • Absurdistan, by Gary Shteyngart
  • Finding Battlestar Galactica, ed. by Lynette Porter, David Lavery, and Hillary Robson
  • Peeps, by Scott Westerfeld

I spent a significant part of the month reading two other books (The New Grant Book of the American Short Story, ed. by Richard Ford; and Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy, ed by Jason Eberl), but since I haven’t finished them, they’ll have to wait for August’s list…

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Eating: Not much. But drinking buttfuckingloads of caffeine (bad bad (and as a result) red-faced girl!). Caffeine + Rosacea = not so attractive.

Making: A blurb book from a select few of my Japan photos. Woot.

Reading: Still reading Dad’s and my challenge book for the month, “The New Granta Book of the American Short Story” edited by Richard Ford, when I’m at home. And reading “Finding Battlestar Galactica: the Ultimate Unauthorized Fan’s Guide” ed. by Lynette Porter, David Lavery & Hillary Robson on the El. [same as last week except FYI neither me nor Dad is going to finish this month’s challenge during this month. Whoops!] whoops, wrong BStarG book, actually reading Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy: Knowledge Here Begins Out There, ed. by Jason T. Eberl. Although it is true, neither Dad nor I is going to finish our challenge book this month (we’ll move on to our August book and hope we have time later in the month to go back and finish the July one).

Watching: Generation Kill. Love. Still carrying around the first disc of Band of Brothers for no reason since I’ve pretty much decided I won’t start it until Generation Kill is over so I don’t get confused about which war I’m in. Have been to The Dark Knight twice so far. Swoon.

Listening to: Earlimart “Hymn & Her”. a) it is an awesome album and b) they are awesome live, super nice and sweet. Also a lot of random singles.