I usually have brief reviews and cover art for each of the books that appear in the "BOOKS READ" section. I'm too lazy to write much of anything right now, but I wanted to post this today so it would appear in 2008 instead of 2009. I'll probably eventually get around to writing about each of the books (for completion's sake), but I have no idea when that'll be. Come back later if you must know my thoughts on The Railway Children, etc. Until then, here's what I have so far.
BOOKS ACQUIRED:
(* = Christmas gift)
- Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3-D!--Suzanne Lloyd
- McSweeney's #29--Dave Eggers (editor)
- Star Wars: Shipyards of Doom--Henry Gilroy
- The Pulchritudinous Review--Renee Zepeda (editor)
- Ulysses--James Joyce
- Cloud Atlas--David Mitchell
- Betty Page Confidential--Bunny Yeager*
- Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-up Legend--James L. Swanson & Karen Essex*
- The Magic Mountain--Thomas Mann*
- The Walking Dead, Book 3--Robert Kirkman*
- The Walking Dead, Book 4--Robert Kirkman*
- An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories: Volume 1--Ivan Brunetti (editor)*
- An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories: Volume 2--Ivan Brunetti (editor)*
- From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweller--E.L. Konigsburg
- The Passion--Jeanette Winterson
- The Master and Margarita--Mikhail Bulgakov
BOOKS READ:
Stories in the Worst Way--Gary Lutz
I don't know what to make of Gary Lutz. Some of his sentences--even
some of his paragraphs--are brilliant, but he never once carries that
brilliance through an entire story. Just when they start to get
interesting, the stories abruptly end with a completely random image
or comment. Not one of these stories features characters with names
doing anything meaningful or progressing through anything that even
slightly resembles a plot. Someday there will be a robot that writes
short stories. It will eventually put the human writers out of
business. It's going to take awhile for the robot to work out all the kinks,
though. I'm pretty sure its early rough drafts are going to read like the
stories of Gary Lutz...all literary trickery and no soul.
The Dain Curse/The Glass Key--Dashiell Hammett
The Dain Curse and The Glass Key were my third and fourth Dashiell Hammett novels of 2008. To be completely honest, the four books have mixed-up in my mind with The Maltese Falcon (which I read a couple years ago) to form one big, hard-boiled detective novel full of opium, jewel heists, violence, and murder. All the plotlines and characters are muddled together, and I can't remember what happened in which book. Regarding The Dain Curse, all I can remember is that it started off with the Continental Op investigating some missing diamonds. Before long, he's looking into the Scientologists or some such nonsense. Of the five novels, it's probably my favorite.
As far as The Glass Key goes, I think it's safe to say that the Coen brothers were inspired by it when they made Miller's Crossing. When I say they were "inspired by it", what I really mean is that they blatantly ripped it off. That's fine with me, though, as their movie is much better than Hammett's book.
Star Wars: Shipyards of Doom--Henry Gilroy
This little comic book came as a bonus with the special edition of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars
DVD. The sole purpose of the comic (and the movie) is to convince
today's children that in a galaxy far, far away, there once lived a
clone trooper named Rex who ran around without a helmet and shot up
droids with a pair of pistols.
The Railway Children--E. Nesbit
This is a children's book originally published in 1906. It's about three young siblings who move to the English countryside with their mother after their father mysteriously disappears. The family no longer has the money it once had, so the children have to find ways to entertain themselves that don't involve the expensive toys they had back in London. The local railway station becomes their playground. I know it sounds unsafe, but I guess children were allowed to play on and around trains back then. The kids make friends with the locals and have numerous train-related adventures. It's not all fun and games, though. In the back of their minds, they're wondering what happened to their father and if he'll ever return to them.
Chapter 11 didn't make any sense to me, but the rest of the book was first-rate. I'm not sure if today's children would be interested in this book, but I would highly recommend it to adult readers with an interest in children's literature.
McSweeney's #29--Dave Eggers (editor)
Taken as a whole, this was one of the best McSweeney's in recent memory. Highlights included "It's Nice When Someone Is Excited to Hear from You" by Brian Baise and "The Land of Our Enemies" by Nathaniel Minton. I also enjoyed "The Painting" by Roddy Doyle. The best short story in the book was "A Record of Our Debts" by Laura Hendrix. It's about a town dying of a mysterious illness that seems to have originated with a little girl. The story featured one of the best sentences I've read in a long time. Here it is:
Lon shuffles his feet as we walk. I have always admired his gait, and though to some it might make him look ill or lame, I love the look of it, the lines his toe drags in the dusty road, so that when we walk together and I look behind us I can see the proof of where we have been.
Unfortunately, some of the book didn't meet the standard set by Laura Hendrix and the other authors I've mentioned. One story was so bad that I would feel remiss in my duties as a half-assed book reviewer if I didn't point it out. I am referring to "My Crush on Hilary Duff" by Blaze Ginsberg. With the possible exception of the story David Foster Wallace published under pseudonym, "My Crush on Hilary Duff" is the biggest waste of paper in the history of McSweeney's. I'm guessing Dave Eggers lost a bet.
The Braindead Megaphone--George Saunders
I'm not usually a big non-fiction reader, but I decided to give The Braindead Megaphone a try because I love the short stories of George Saunders and the collection came highly recommended by people I respect. Although a couple of the essays fell short (specifically "A Survey of the Literature") most everything in the book was interesting and well worth reading.
I got the most reading enjoyment out of Saunders' travel writings, but the best essay in the collection was probably the one that opened the book. I am, of course, talking about "The Braindead Megaphone", the twenty page media-skewering essay that gave the book its name. I would like to officially declare that everyone who works in the field of news media should be required to read that one essay. Maybe then the talking heads and those who pull their strings would think twice about the quality of the stories and the manner in which they try to pass them off on the public. Oh, and everyone in government should also be required to read the same essay... just so they could contemplate this line:
The shortfall between the imagined and the real, multiplied by the violence of one's intent, equals the evil one will do.
Wrap your chimpanzee brain around that one, W.
The Lottery and Other Stories--Shirley Jackson
This collection was called The Lottery and Other Stories and that's really a good way to look at it...in two parts. The first part is "The Lottery", a spooky story that was supposedly shocking when it was first published in 1948. I found it to be a bit on the predictable side. Once the boys started gathering rocks (on the first page), I could see how things were going to end for the lottery's "winner". Not much there.
Fortunately, the "Other Stories" part of the collection was consistently better than "The Lottery" itself. Although Shirley Jackson's reputation was made by "The Lottery", I much preferred her non-spooky tales.
So Long, See You Tomorrow--William Maxwell
In William Maxwell's So Long, See You Tomorrow, the elderly narrator looks back on a murder that took place in his neighborhood when he was a child. Although he knows the ramifications of what happened, he doesn't really know much about about the actual murder itself. In an attempt to come to terms with the murder and the effect it had on his own life, he imagines the events that led up to it.
So Long, See You Tomorrow won the American Book Award in 1980 (not to be confused with the more prestigious National Book Award). It must've been a slow year as the book seemed to me like a slightly less enjoyable Kent Haruf novel. It's a good book, but nothing special.
Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3-D!--Suzanne Lloyd
I bought this book solely for the pictures in the chapter entitled "Jiggle All the Way". I've always had a thing for women dressed up in red velvet and white fur trim. I'm festive that way and don't feel the need to apologize.
- From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweller--E.L. Konigsburg
Here's a look at the books I've acquired but haven't gotten around to reading yet. I've got it narrowed down to a dozen. That's good for me. The annoying thing is that I don't feel like reading any of them. I'm just not in the mood for any of these books. I guess I could wait until Christmas for the fancypants edition of The Magic Mountain that I'll certainly get, but I'd like to read something between now and the holiday.
Do you feel like being my literary puppet master? Do any of these books jump out at you as being things I should or shouldn't read? If so, I would appreciate your help. I am horrible at making these decisions. I will sit in front of my shelf for hours and never decide.
- You Shall Know Our Velocity--Dave Eggers
- A Rage to Live--John O'Hara
- In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower--Marcel Proust
- Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford
- The Braindead Megaphone--George Saunders (spine and cover devoured by hungry puppies)
- The Bostonians--Henry James
- The O. Henry Prize Stories: 2003--A.S. Byatt, T.C. Boyle, Alice Munro, Denis Johnson and others
- Constance--Lawrence Durrell
- Hawksmoor--Peter Ackroyd (spine and cover devoured by hungry puppies)
- In Persuasion Nation--George Saunders
- So Long, See You Tomorrow--William Maxwell
- The Lottery and Other Stories--Shirley Jackson
The first two books I read in November were The Best American Comics 2008 and A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley. My reviews for those two books can be found here. This post covers the rest of my book-related activities for the month.
BOOKS ACQUIRED:
- The Lottery and Other Stories--Shirley Jackson
- Stories in the Worst Way--Gary Lutz
- So Long, See You Tomorrow--William Maxwell
- Parade's End--Ford Madox Ford
- The Railway Children--E. Nesbit
- The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil--George Saunders
- #$@&!: The Official Lloyd Llewellyn Collection--Daniel Clowes
- Peepshow: 1950s Pin-ups in 3-D--Bunny Yeager
BOOKS READ:
Knockemstiff--Donald Ray Pollock
Donald Ray Pollock is from the real town of Knockemstiff, Ohio. His first book is a series of 18 short stories featuring a group of interrelated characters from the town. Most of the characters have issues. There are alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes, and down-on-their-luck losers. Most of the individual stories are worth reading, but I came away from the book with a feeling of disappointment. My complaint about Knockemstiff is that it didn't feel like there was any progression to what I was reading. With the exception of the first and last stories, just about everything in this book could've been read in any order. I usually don't have an issue with that in a short story collection, but this book featured related characters and I think it would've been more powerful if the book had been designed in a way that it told a larger story.
I
don't even know what that means. Maybe I'm just jealous of Donald Ray
Pollock because I wasted a good chunk of my life trying to write a
similar book about a group of interrelated losers from Ohio. Pollock
actually finished his book and it's far better than anything I could've
ever come up with. (And I just ended the previous sentence with
"with". I think that's against the rules. And I just started a
sentence with "and". I'm pretty sure that's against the rules, too. I
actually did that one twice. Dang.)
What We Won't Do--Brock Clarke
One of the highlights of Brock Clarke's collection was a story called "She Loved to Cook but Not Like This". The last line in the story was:
And since I was lonely and scared of repeating
myself and sick at the thought of telling, revising, retelling this
story of my life, I promised to never tell it again, and this is the
last time.
Of course, Brock Clarke later went on to rewrite and expand this short story into the novel, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. I wish he'd taken his own advice and worked up a different story. The novelization isn't anywhere near as good as the story he adapted it from.
My favorite story in this collection was probably "Plowing the Secondaries". It's about two reckless brothers who drive around town plowing things with their snowplows other than snow. "Up North" was also a highlight. Like Glen David Gold's "The Tears of Squonk", this story deals with a town that decides to hang an elephant after a circus-related mishap. Gold's story is the better of the two, but Clarke's has a great last line (also the last line in the collection) that really packs a punch.
Overall, I'd say that Brock Clarke is
a much better short story writer than he is a novelist. If you feel
like reading some of his work, I'd recommend you start with this
collection.
The Baron in the Trees--Italo Calvino
Sometimes a book's title provides a better synopsis of the book than any reviewer ever could. This is one of those cases: The Baron in the Trees is about a baron who lives in the trees. As a boy, the character gets into a fight with his family over having to eat snails for dinner. He climbs up into a tree to sulk and decides to stay there. Fortunately for him, there are a lot of trees nearby and he can climb from his tree to the others. In this manner, he's able to move around the town and the countryside.
Years pass and the Baron stays up in the trees. He manages to lead a full life up there. He has a pet dog. He reads books. He makes friends and has adventures in the war. He even has relationships with some of the local ladies.
This was my third Italo Calvino book. I liked it a lot more than Invisible Cities, but not as much as If on a winter's night a traveler.
The Enchantress of Florence--Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children is one of my all-time favorite books, so I thought I would give his latest a try. I read it over the course of a week or so, and can honestly say I wasn't able to follow it very well. I enjoyed it, but I really didn't know what was going on half the time. I was at about page 150 before I finally figured out who the titular character was.
As best I can tell, The Enchantress of Florence is about an Italian who shows up at Akbar's imperial court with a strange story to tell. I'm not going to go into much more detail than that because I gave/lent the book to someone and I don't want to spoil things for her. Let's just say that the book is full of mystery, magic, four giant albinos from Switzerland, and about a hundred characters taken from the real world historical record.
This is one I'd really like to read again. My concentration was off and it deserved better from me.
The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil--George Saunders
I read this novella on a plane trip from Seattle to Cincinnati. It's a political satire about the residents of a tiny country named Inner Horner. The country is so tiny that only one of its residents can be there at a time. The rest have to wait in a containment zone in the surrounding country of Outer Horner. An Outer Hornerite named Phil gets it into his demented little brain (which keeps falling off) that the Inner Hornerites are evil and deserve to be exterminated. He usurps the presidency of Outer Horner and then uses his new-found powers to attack the helpless Inner Hornerites.
But wait...Outer
Horner is itself entirely surrounded by a country called Greater
Keller. Will the Greater Kellerites sit back and let Phil disassemble
the Inner Hornerites? Will they let Phil's unprovoked aggression
stand? Or will they ATTACK!!?!
Oh, and the "people" in the book are made out of tin cans, ball bearings, and blinking lights. You figure it out.
#$@&!: The Official Lloyd Llewellyn Collection--Daniel Clowes
This is just another Daniel Clowes collection. I'm not a big fan of
his Lloyd Llewellyn character, but I thought I'd buy this one anyway
because it was only $8 and I'd never seen it before. I think it's
out-of-print. I also really liked the cover art (different than the
one shown here). It features Lloyd and a woman who looks like she
could have been an early prototype for the Enid character from Ghost World...if
Enid had been an incredibly tall, busty gal with crooked teeth. Very
strange cover art. As far as the stories go, they were alright. My
favorite was "Crawl, Worm!" In that one, Lloyd lusts after a lady and
she rewards his attentions by biting off his fingernail and turning him into a worm. You know, the usual.
Peepshow: 1950s Pin-ups in 3-D--Bunny Yeager
This is really just a picture book, but I'm including it here
because it's fun and I did actually read the intro (really, I did). As
the title would suggest, this book is a collection of photographs of
pin-up models from the 1950s. Each picture is printed twice and when
the "reader" looks through a pair of fold-out glasses, the images
appear in 3-D. I found this strange little volume at Half Price Books
while looking for books about Bettie Page. She actually makes two
appearances in Peepshow, so I'm glad I found it. I just hope no one saw me looking in the nude photography section.
CURRENTLY READING:
- Stories in the Worst Way--Gary Lutz
The TV/VCR combo that I kept down in the basement for taping Law & Order died last week. I took the thing and dumped it on the curb for the garbage men. I was in my bed trying to sleep that night when I started to feel bad for the television. It had served me well for over a decade and certainly deserved better than to end up in the dump or in the back of a scavenger's truck. I got up, went outside, and brought it back inside with me.
I then sat down on my basement floor and disassembled the TV. I took all the electronic inner-workings out and then screwed the plastic frame back together. I put the Rancor (from Return of the Jedi) inside. I stood the Rancor Keeper next to the TV to keep an eye on things.
Now I have a shell of a television down in the basement with a monster inside.
Here are the CDs I picked up during my recent trip to Seattle. I bought fewer discs than I did on my previous trip, but I still need to work on curtailing my spending. There's supposed to be a depression on, after all.
- Badly Drawn Boy - Have You Fed the Fish? (6.00) - I don't really care about Badly Drawn Boy anymore. His 2006 album, Born in the U.K., left such a bad taste that I haven't listened to him since. Then why did I buy a second copy of Have You Fed the Fish? Well, I bought it because this was the Japanese edition with the Live @ Glastonbury bonus disc. I really wanted to hear a live version of "You Were Right". I still like that song.
- Belle & Sebastian - The BBC Sessions (12.99)
- I had most of these songs on mp3, but it's nice to have legitimate
copies of the four rarities from the May 11, 2001 session. I bought
the two disc edition so I could get the Live in Belfast, 2001 disc. They play "The Boys are Back in Town" on that one.
- the Bird & the Bee - Please Clap Your Hands (2.99) - I snagged this one out of the bargain bin at Sonic Boom. I bought it for the fantastic cover of "How Deep is Your Love". The rest of the EP is good, too.
- Bishop Allen - Bishop Allen & the Broken String (7.99)
- I played Homebody's copy of this while I was alphabetizing her enormous CD
collection. I liked it so much, that I went out and bought my own copy.
- Boss Hog - Boss Hog (5.00)
- I used to go see Boss Hog all the time, but sold all their CDs many
years ago when I finally realized that Jon Spencer wasn't nearly as
cool as he thought he was. I later felt sort of bad for dumping them.
This edition of Boss Hog caught my eye because it had a second bonus disc that I'd never seen before.
- Blitzen Trapper - Furr (9.99) - It has a stupid title and terrible cover art, but the music on this CD is almost as good as that on the band's Wild Mountain Nation.
- Buttercup - Buttercup (3.00) - I've been looking for a Buttercup CD for well over five years. That's when I first read an article that said they sound exactly like the Jayhawks. They do.
- the Byrds - Untitled/Unissued (9.00) - Sometimes I just feel like listening to a 16 minute long version of "Eight Miles High". I make no apologies.
- Isobel Campbell & Bill Wells - Ghost of Yesterday (11.99)
- This is an EP of Isobel Campbell singing seven Billie Holiday songs.
Someone probably should've told her that she doesn't have the voice to
cover Billie Holiday.
- Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Sunday at Devil Dirt (11.99)
- This domestic release has five bonus tracks that weren't on the
original import, but the original is still the better buy because the
new version has the crappiest cover art ever...especially when
compared to the cover art on the import. I want the version with Isobel Campbell wearing western wear, dammit.
- Carissa's Wierd - I Before E (5.00) - There are no Carissa's Wierd CDs in Ohio, but I'm always on the lookout for them in Seattle. Basically, if it says "Carissa's Wierd" on it, then I buy it. I had no idea what this was. It looked like a three song EP, but there's a live show tacked on at the end. I looked this disc up on the internet to find out more. Some jerk is trying to sell his copy on Amazon for $139.93.
- Carissa's Wierd - Songs About Leaving (7.99) - This one is still in-print, but I bought it anyway. I'm listening to it as I type this and it's beautiful.
- Cinerama - Live in Los Angeles (5.00) - I bought this and the two Peel Sessions discs from Kitty. All the cool kids get their music from her.
- Cinerama - John Peel Sessions: Season 2 (5.00)
- Cinerama - John Peel Sessions: Season 3 (5.00)
- Lloyd Cole - Like Lovers Do (1.00) - I bought this disc because I needed an undamaged green Rykodisc jewel case for my True Believers CD. I'd intended to pitch this disc, but it turned out to be really good, so I dragged it home with me.
- Elvis Costello - This Years Model (9.00) - Elvis Costello's discography seems to get reissued every other year. The best reissues, though, are the two disc versions that Rhino put out around 2002. They have more bonus tracks than the Rykodisc versions (both of which are better than the bonus-less 2007 Hip-O editions). I already had the Rykodisc version of This Years Model, but went ahead and bought this one as a replacement. It's hard work being this dorky.
- Counting Crows - August and Everything After (9.00)
- This is the Deluxe Edition with the bonus tracks and extra live
disc. I still listen to these guys every now and then and will punch
in the jaw anybody who makes fun of me for it. Got it?
- Liz Durrett - Outside Our Gates (3.00)
- I feel sort of bad for Liz Durrett. I have all of her CDs, but I've
never spent more than $3 on any of them. She's never earned a single
penny of royalties off me. I almost feel like I should mail her a ten
dollar bill.
- Firefox AK - Madame, Madame! (3.00)
- I originally bought this CD up in Columbus, OH, but that version
didn't come with a booklet, so I bought this one so I could have a
booklet. I wouldn't have bothered, except the booklet featured 192 tiny pictures of Andrea Kellerman on the inside. She's got cute
hair.
- the Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Wins: Live Radio Sessions (7.99)
- This is an eight song promo full of covers and radio sessions. My
favorite is the "Can't Get You Out of My Head" cover. It's originally
by that short lady who dances. I can't think of her name right now. [UPDATE: It's a Kylie Minogue cover.]
- Gin Blossoms - New Miserable Experience (14.00) - This is the Deluxe Edition. See Counting Crows, above.
- Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - The Blue Trees (8.00) - I bought these two Gorky's CDs to replace the illegal downloads I swiped a few years back.
- Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - How I Long to Feel That Summer in My Heart (3.00)
- Sebastien Grainger - Sebastien Grainger & the Mountains (6.00) - I thought I was getting a good deal with the price, but this CD isn't worth half what I paid for it. It's surprisingly boring. I expected much more from the voice of Death From Above 1979.
- John Wesley Harding - Trad Arr Jones (1.00) - I picked this one up because I needed a replacement case for my Flaming Lips disc. I might keep it, but I haven't decided yet.
- Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians - Greatest Hits (8.50)
- This is the disc I really wanted when I first started getting into
Robyn Hitchcock. Unfortunately, it's out-of-print and I never could
find it. I've got lots of Hitchcock now, but still picked this up when I
found it. It features some good rarities like the cover of Roxy
Music's "More Than This". It also features a version of "Eight Miles High".
- Robyn Hitchcock - A Star for Bram (7.00) - Homebody bought this one for me. According to her, you can't have too much Robyn Hitchcock. Her CD collection is a testament to that philosophy.
- Lambchop - OH (ohio) (11.99) - The cover art on this release is a painting of two people getting it on while a gang of hoodlums beat up a guy on the sidewalk outside their window. The painting is buy an artist named M-----l Peed.
- the Lucksmiths - First Frost (11.99)
- The Lucksmiths have the worst distribution of any band I like, so I
always pick up any new release I happen to stumble upon.
- Map of Wyoming - Trouble Is (3.00) - I have no idea who these guys are, but I remember looking for their CD about six or seven years ago and never being able to find it. Well, I found it now and bought it.
- Mercury Rev - Snowflake Midnight (2.50) - I bought a promo copy of the new Mercury Rev album. I could have spent an extra $10 to get a copy with proper black bunny cover art, but I went the cheap route. I think I made the right choice. This is not good Mercury Rev. $2 is an appropriate price.
- New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies (18.99) - I bought the fancy schmancy two disc edition of my favorite New Order record. I wish I hadn't. The remastering job is a joke and the bonus disc is full of inappropriate blips and bleeps. I got scammed on this one.
- Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Room at the Top (1.00) - This CD single features a song called "Sweet William". It's one of the rarest Tom Petty songs and apparently there's a market full of weirdo Tom Petty fans who will pay big bucks for it. $116 seems a bit excessive. I'd rather pay $1, thank you.
- the Postmarks - By-the-Numbers (8.99) - This is a covers record by a group that is mostly famous for a song called "Goodbye" and the fact that they have a female vocalist named Tim. This CD also features a cover of "Eight Miles High". Did I mention that I like that song?
- Spain - Spirituals: The Best of Spain (8.50) - I don't know why I bought this. I probably don't really need any more Tinderstick-y sounding tunes. I already have the Willard Grant Conspiracy, the National, Richard Hawley, Cousteau, etc. I like what I like, though, and Spain fits in nicely with the others.
- True Believers - Hard Road (6.00) - This was the find of the trip. I'd just been bemoaning the fact that I'd only ever heard one song by Alejandro Escovedo's old band. Well, this long out-of-print collection features everything the group ever recorded. I hurried up and bought this before Easy Street could up the price on me.
- Uncle Tupelo - The Long Cut + Five Live (2.00) - This is one of the rarest Uncle Tupelo promos. In fact, I'd never seen a copy in real life before finding this at the Easy Street in West Seattle. It's a bit scratched up, but still worth the $2.
- Various Artists - Live at KEXP, Volume Three (8.50) - I have Volume Four of this series and it's excellent, so I decided to pick up a used copy of the previous volume. I shouldn't have bothered. There are good songs by the Long Winters and the English Beat, but this one has a disproportional amount of duds. Ghostland Observatory? Lady Sovereign? I really could've gone my entire life without hearing those two.
Here's how it works: If I drag Beth to a Vic Chesnutt concert, then she gets to drag me to see My Brightest Diamond. That way we both get to see musicians we like, and we get to share our often very different musical favorites with each other. It works out pretty well.
A few days after seeing Vic Chesnutt at Chop Suey, we went over to the Triple Door to see My Brightest Diamond. It's a strange venue. It's pretty much a dinner theatre. We arrived at the venue and got seats in the center of the front row. I could reach out and touch the stage. We moved a couple seats over after I heard the guy next to us tell the waiter, "I'd murder for a decaf latte." That right there is the kind of guy I'd like to punch. I know it's better to just move away than to let him ruin my evening. "Was it something I said," he asked as we got up.
But anyway, we ordered dinner and ate right there in our seats. I had phat thai and three Heinekens (thus breaking my record for drinks at a concert). Beth and I split a cheese platter and a tasty chocolate cake-type thing. The food was overpriced, but good.
The opening act was a group called Clare & the Reasons. They were quirky and fun and everybody in the band wore all red. From where I was sitting, I could look up the cellist's skirt. I did my best to look at Clare's face instead. I am, after all, a gentleman. Clare & the Reasons had good songs, but I wasn't familiar with them going in, so I didn't enjoy their performance as much as I might have. The highlight for me was the version of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" that ended their set.
Clare & the Reasons were a pleasant surprise, but My Brightest Diamond was even better. Their set included a magic trick and a puppet show. It wasn't all gimmicks, though. They had quality songs and Shara Worden has an amazing operatic voice. Shara's backup band was basically the Reasons from the first set. They switched out their costumes for a black & white coordinated look. The cellist also took the opportunity to put on a longer skirt which permitted me to concentrate fully on the musical aspects of the show.
I knew there was a good chance that I'd get to see My Brightest Diamond when I came to Seattle, so I dropped $12 on their latest record, A Thousand Shark's Teeth . I listened to it a half dozen times before the show and I'm very glad I did. It's a cool record and seven of the twelve songs performed at the show came from it. I always enjoy myself more when I can sing along a bit...not out loud, of course. Strangely enough, it turned out that two of my favorite songs of the night were ones I'd never heard before. "Disappear" reminded me of Björk at her least annoying. I also enjoyed the Edith Piaf cover that ended the main set. It's the song that featured the puppet show I mentioned earlier. Those stupid puppets almost made me cry. Almost.
As always, here's the setlist:
Main Set: Golden Star/If I Were Queen/Apples/To Pluto's Moon/(magic)/Disappear/Dragonfly/From the Top of the World/Black & Costaud/Ice and the Storm/Inside a Boy/Je N'en Connais Pas La Fin-Hymne A L'amour (with puppets)
Encore: Gentlest Gentleman
[NOTE: Streaming video from this show can be viewed here.]
Vic Chesnutt and Elf Power recently recorded an album together called Dark Developments. It was released last month and they're currently touring behind the release. Elf Power plays an opening set and then Vic Chesnutt comes out and joins the band for the headlining set.
I recently saw the two perform at the Seattle stop of the tour at a venue called Chop Suey. Beth and I saw about half of Elf Power's set. I'd always thought they were little more than Elephant 6 D-listers, but I thoroughly enjoyed what I heard of their performance. I'm much more of a Vic Chesnutt fan, though, so I was excited when he rolled out and they got down to business.
This was my third time seeing Vic Chesnutt live. He was his usual cantankerous self. In fact, I believe the first thing he said was, "Welcome, motherfuckers." He and the band then proceeded to play eight of the nine songs from Dark Developments. They played them in their order from the record; the only one they skipped was "The Mad Passion of the Stoic".
My personal highlights were "Little Fucker", a song that Vic admitted writing about himself, and "Bilocating Dog". I'm not sure what it is about "Bilocating Dog", but I just love that song so much. The live version was spoiled a tiny bit when Vic stopped in mid-song to yell at two of the Elf Powers for not singing loud enough during the chorus. That's Vic Chesnutt for you.
Having gotten the Dark Developments portion of the show out of the way, they dug into Vic's back catalog for a few songs before closing out the night with an unrecorded song that I'm guessing is called "Granny". It ended with the following repeated line:
You are the light of my life and the beat of my heart.
It was an unexpectedly sweet way to end an evening with one of rock's great curmudgeons. He even apologized for cursing at us all night.
Main Set: Mystery/Little Fucker/And How/Teddy Bear/We Are Mean/Stop the Horse/Bilocating Dog/Phil the Fiddler/Old Hotel/Independence Day
Encore Set: Debriefing/Granny
This is the last of my book list posts. Here are my favorite novels as of right now (in the order that I thought of them):
- Don Quixote--Miguel de Cervantes
- The Time of Our Singing--Richard Powers
- War and Peace--Leo Tolstoy
- The Seas--Samantha Hunt
- Already Dead--Denis Johnson
- The Great Gatsby--F. Scott Fitzgerald
- House of Leaves--Mark Z. Danielewski
- V.--Thomas Pynchon
- The Moviegoer--Walker Percy
- The Collector--John Fowles
- Pale Fire--Vladimir Nabokov
- Midnight's Children--Salman Rushdie
- Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance--Richard Powers
- Studs Lonigan--James T. Farrell
- The People of Paper--Salvador Placencia
- The Catcher in the Rye--J.D. Salinger
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being--Milan Kundera
- Wait Until Spring, Bandini--John Fante
- Revolutionary Road--Richard Yates
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay--M-----l Chabon
And here are the other three book list posts:
Vox is not my first foray into the internet; I had a personal website in 1996 that I designed as part of a university business course. I let the site die when I graduated and soon forgot all my HTML skills. I didn't make it back on the internet for over a decade. I recently found my first website backed up on an old floppy. There was a section on it where I wrote about what were my favorite novels at the time.
- Skinny Legs and All--Tom Robbins
- The Catcher in the Rye--J.D. Salinger
- The World According to Garp--John Irving
- Trainspotting--Irvine Welsh
- The Judas Goat--Robert B. Parker
- Even Cowgirls Get the Blues--Tom Robbins
- Lolita--Vladimir Nabokov
And here's the text that went along with it. The words are straight from the keyboard of a 22 year old with a thing for bible-bashing and bold fonts. I haven't altered it in any way.
-
Skinny Legs and All
Tom Robbins' masterpiece. I think if everyone in the world read this book half of us would be offended and upset while the other half would want to have a big party. This is my favorite book ever, so I guess it's fairly obvious where I'd be. Some people have the Bible. Some have the Koran. Personally, I'll take Skinny Legs and All. -
The Catcher in the Rye
I remember reading J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye in one sitting in my grandmother's basement about 10 years ago. My grandmother had a basement full of old books and moldy furniture. Occasionally, I'd flip through the books in hope of finding a good one. When I read the first line of The Catcher in the Rye, I knew I'd found a great book. The book begins: -
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
-
The World According To Garp
John Irving's book looks at the life and times of T.S. Garp, an author/runner/husband/lover/feminist?/father/wrestling coach. T.S. Garp's life is so interesting that someone really should write a book about it. Uh, nevermind. -
Trainspotting
Irvine Welsh tells the story of Edinburgh's heroin-addicted subculture. The book is a difficult read due to the fact that there are well over 100 characters speaking in Scottish slang and the point of view keeps changing. Fortunately, the book has a little glossary, so we don't get too confused for too long. It might be a tough read, but the book is well worth the effort. The chapter titled Bad Blood itself is well worth the price of the book. Overall, Trainspotting is a brilliant novel. In the words of Rebel, Inc. --"The best book ever written by man or woman...deserves to sell more copies than the Bible." I'm not sure if I agree with the best book part, but they hit the nail right on the head as far as the Bible goes. -
The Judas Goat
I've been a big fan of Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels ever since I discovered that they actually existed. Spenser: For Hire is my favorite television show of all-time, and the books are even better than the show. When I read one of these books, I can actually see and hear Robert Urich and Avery Brooks acting out the scenes in my mind. Of the Spenser novels I've read so far, The Judas Goat is definitely the best. In the book, my favorite private investigator hunts down terrorists all over Europe, making a stop in my favorite city in the world, London. Without giving away any major plot secrets, I will tell you that Spenser gets shot in the arse. -
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
This was my first Tom Robbins novel. It was my favorite book until I read Skinny Legs and All. The book is about Sissy Hankshaw, the world's greatest hitchhiker, who just happens to have gigantic thumbs. Sissy has a bunch of crazy adventures involving FBI agents, an old wiseman, a flock of whooping cranes, peyote buttons, feminine deodorant spray, and a ranch full of...cowgirls. Unfortunately, Gus Van Sant found it necessary to take this great book and turn it into the worst movie ever made. He should be forced to watch his movie over and over again until he realizes what a horrible thing he did. Then he should have to watch it some more. -
Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov's book tells the story of Humbert Humbert, a man who falls in love with Delores Haze (Lolita). Everything would be just fine, except that Delores is still in junior high. What does Humbert do? He marries Lolita's mother and waits for a tragic accident to leave him as his young lover's sole guardian. With Mrs. Haze out of the way, it's time for a car trip across the country and lots of cheap hotels. This book was banned by just about everyone when it came out. That in itself is a good reason to pick up a copy. The fact that it's a beautifully written love story is an even better reason.
Last week I posted a list of My Least Favorite Books. Here's the second post in my book list series. It covers my favorite short story collections.
- Eleven Kinds of Loneliness--Richard Yates
- Where I'm Calling From--Raymond Carver
- After the Plague--T.C. Boyle
- Stories--T.C. Boyle
- The Stories of John Cheever--John Cheever
- The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel--Amy Hempel
- No One Belongs Here More Than You--Miranda July
- CivilWarLand in Bad Decline--George Saunders
- Jesus' Son--Denis Johnson
- Safety of Objects--A.M. Homes
- The Things They Carried--Tim O'Brien
And here are some of my individual favorite short stories:
- "The Open Boat"--Stephen Crane
- "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge"--Ambrose Bierce
- "Winter Dreams"--F. Scott Fitzgerald
- "The Swimmer"--John Cheever
- "A Small, Good Thing"--Raymond Carver
- "A Perfect Day For Bananafish"--J.D. Salinger
- "A Good Man is Hard to Find"--Flannery O'Connor
- "Harrison Bergeron"--Kurt Vonnegut
