Towing Jehovah, by James Morrow. Sci fi with a religious focus (but you don’t have to BE religious to understand the references/jokes/etc.).
Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn. A murder mystery and psychological thriller-type novel, but very much literature rather than “just genre fiction” as some would pejoratively say (probably including me).
Even if not for all the fabulous reviews it (The Zero) is getting, for the fact that he posted this hilarious quote on the Powell’s guest author blog:
To me, golf is like karaoke: the only thing more pathetic than being bad at it is being good at it.
That paragraph also started with this hilarity: I once broke my collarbone in a golf tournament. Technically, I suppose, the injury was more of a gin-drinking accident than a golf accident, but it still says a lot about my relationship to the game that it’s my fondest golf memory.
Thought maybe seeing BNL for the fourth time would be repetitious. No such thing! It was brilliant, lots of fun, they seem to get better every time around. Ed was really rocking out on the guitar tonight and the sound was great despite being in a huge arena with half of it blocked off/empty. They sang some of my old faves (Brian Wilson, Call & Answer, The Old Apartment) as well as lots of new stuff, some of which I liked so much better live than on the album mixes. Great concert.
Mike Doughty, on the other hand, as their opener seemed very lost. Don’t know if it was the space or the night or the crowd or what, but he made very odd song choices, did some weird band jamming, and had the most awkward stage banter I’ve ever heard from him. Third time seeing him; previously in smaller venues and as the headliner, he has been awesome. This time not so much. I kept turning to Rachel and saying “How bizarre. What’s with him tonight?”
Side notes to self:
a) there is no heat in the Allstate Arena. do not go there in the winter.
b) hellooooooo what are you doing buying tickets to Allstate when you have no car? it’s basically going to see a concert at O’Hare except the train stop isn’t RIGHT AT IT and the whole bus/train/bus commute is neither fast nor fun particularly on the way home.
Beautiful. Really heartbreakingly mindblowingly beautiful. Quiet, and loud, and whispers, and shouts, and loves, and hates, and fears, and dreams. Beautiful.
Lyric of the Day: Waking up without you is like drinking from an empty cup…
Very much in the Damien Rice/James Blunt/etc. arena. But all slow, all sad, all depressing.
The album gets to be a bit of a drag if you listen to it all in one go. In the same way that other albums (say, Kaiser Chiefs) can be a little too “one note” on the upside, this album is a little too much on the downside. Whereas say Damien Rice or James Blunt do have some songs that are at least at different tempos, if not in slightly better moods.
That said, I loveloveloveLOVE the first two songs: “Hoquiam” and “Denton, TX”. I have listened to the two of them back to back approximately 57 times in the past two days. Sad, so sad. But so pretty!
Sometimes things don’t live up to the hype. But sometimes they do, and in this case, even better than.
Everyone’s talking about Queen and glam-rock, but there are so many other influences obvious here as well. 90s anthem rock (Boston/REO), with a dose of punk thrown in, and several songs that bring Smashing Pumpkins to mind. It’s loud and sassy and upbeat and fun. And the hidden track has a real Morrissey/Smiths feel to it.
Balme, you will love this. And Michelle, I think you would as well.
Revenge. Twisted competition. And in the end, through two different revelations, you are brought face to face with the almost unbelievable level of horror humans can stoop to when caught in the throes of such. Crazy ending to wrap your mind around.
Chilling.
(Christian Bale was really great, despite his weirdly all the exact same size, all the way across the top teeth.)
“Nice Day” Persphone’s Bees …SOUNDS LIKE… “Riding on the Metro” Berlin.
Not throughout but in a few places you hear the same vocal progression.
To say it was breathtaking would be an understatement. She was beautiful and erudite and every bit as relevant as when she sang protest songs in the ’60s.
She did an a capella version of Finlandia that was just heart-rending. She sang old, old folk songs, and newer ones; even ones so new that she didn’t know the lyrics by heart yet. She sang songs by Merle Haggard, and Steve Earle (“Christmas in Washington” which I’ve never heard before and now MUST find a copy of), and of course by Bob Dylan. She even did a Dylan song (It’s all over name, Baby Blue”) where she sang a few verses in an imitation of Bob Dylan’s voice! So funny! She sang a song she wrote for her son, thinking about them together on a trip to Hawaii, called “Coconuts” that has since taken on all sorts of other meanings and has some truly hilarious double-entendres.
She had two young male musicians playing with her who both appeared extremely talented, and both blended into the background as the perfect complements, stepping up for solos / harmonies / etc. when needed. She said “It took me until I’m in my 60s to finally assemble a band that’s low maintenance!”
She had played Grinnell College the night before and said she wound up giving a history lesson as no one in the audience had even been born when she started out (her career started 48 years ago). She introduced one song by saying “Last night, I said “I played this song at Woodstock” and the crowd went wild. Some of the people in TONIGHT’s audience were actually around back then….”
It was an amazing concert. I can only hope I am as full of vim and vigor when I turn 65.
(Yes, some of this is a repeat of a post on the main blog. But that post won’t stick around for long, and this one will.)