Playlist 16 -- Putting Out the Emotional Trash

The Playlist hits sweet 16 this week. It's ready to drive. And it includes two albums that sound great blasting out of a car stereo.

Real Emotional Trash. Stephen Maklmus and the Jicks.
This is a masterpiece of extended guitar jams and Janet Weiss' relentless drumming. Leadoff track Dragonfly Pie serves as a great intro to what the former Pavement leader's latest is all about. It starts off with a heavy Hendrix-like riff, takes off into another direction then finally coalesces into noise/guitar solo. Malkmus continues to upgrade his lo-fi indie cred for rock god status. No, it's not a very accessible album, but it gets under your skin after several listens, particularly as you try to decipher his oddball lyrics. And don't listen to the reviews. There are some catchy, I'd even say hummable, tunes on Trash. Gardenia and We Can't Help You have moments where you think it's possible you could hear them on the radio. But it's the long, extended pieces that make this such a memorable album.

Reactor. Neil Young and Crazy Horse.
This is probably one of the least-discussed albums in Neil Young's canon, but one that regardless draws fiery opinions on both sides. Put me in with those who love Reactor, originally released in 1981. Sure it doesn't have the depth of Neil's classics, but it rocks hard. And it's fun because Neil is having fun. The chorus of Ho-Ho-Ho-Ho-Ho-Ho in Opera Star. The lone, repeated lyrics of T-Bone (Got mashed potatoes/Ain't Got No T-Bone). And his swipe at new wave music (Every wave is new until it breaks) in Rapid Transit, where he playfully rolls his rrrrs. And Crazy Horse is at its loud peak here. Some say Neil threw this album out to fulfill a record deal. I don't care. It's a great rock and roll record.


On Chesil Beach. Ian McEwan.
After reading the epic Kavalier and Clay, it was difficult adjusting to this much shorter story (almost a novella) set mostly in one night. However, much like Kavalier and Clay, there is an "escapism" theme. Both characters of Chesil Beach are where they are because they've escaped their mothers -- Edward's was brain-damaged and Florence's was just plain cold. And now they're both looking for a way to escape this difficult situation they're in. It's their wedding night and they're both virgins. Florence is as frigid as her mother and dreads the idea of physical contact. Edward worries about his performance and about rushing Florence. McEwan is a wonderful writer who is equally adept at describing walks, nature and sex in equally interesting detail.

Curb Your Enthusiasm. Season One.
Thank you Netflix. I don't know how I've gone this long without ever watching Larry David's show. If you haven't seen it, check it out. It's Seinfeld to another level -- with an R rating.

Some songs I've been listening to this past week ...
-- Listen to Her Heart, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Jangly guitar heaven.
-- Now, Now. St. Vincent. Marry Me.
-- This as a Brick (Part II), Jethrol Tull. Thick as a Brick. The second side of the album. It's all over the place and that's a big part of its charm.

Playlist 15 -- Escaping the March doldrums

So what's worse -- being called a monster or being called Kenneth Starr? And what's the difference between the two? They both like hiding under beds. Well, stop the bickering. Read a book, listen to some music, crack open a beer or do whatever else is your playlist.

Here's my Playlist for this past week.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Michael Chabon.
I've joked about how long it has taken me to get through this book. That's more of a reflection of my reading time lately, than a judgment on Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning 2001 book. The word used to describe Kavalier and Clay in just about every review I've seen is "epic." And I can't think of a more appropriate description. It is epic in scope (covering several decades and spanning New York, Czechoslavakia and Antartica), in its themes (escapism) and its topics (history of comic books, magic, war). Refugee Joe Kavalier and his New York-born cousin Sammy Klayman live out their dreams in The Empire City, creating comic books, but they can't seem escape their own pain. The book is meticulously researched and wonderfully written. And each of the more than 600 pages is truly rewarding.

Soundtracks to Juno and Good Will Hunting.
Who would have thunk that a song by the odd, low-fi, animal costume-wearing Moldy Peaches would be on everyone's lips? Kimbya Dawson's songs, whether as herself, the Moldy Peaches or Antsy Pants, capture the offbeat, eccentricity of Juno so well, which is why I think they've caught on with the public so smitten with that movie. The same can be said for the mood set by the Good Will Hunting soundtrack. GWH was a great movie itself, but I'll always hold it dear for introducing me to Elliot Smith's music. Both soundtracks are stellar because of the other songs tossed in -- The Kinks, Buddy Holly, Sonic Youth, Mott the Hoople in Juno and Gerry Rafferty, Waterboys , Dandy Warhols in Good Will Hunting.

New Seasons. The Sadies.
This Canadian band's music feels like cruising down a darkened highway. Even when they play fast, and they can, there doesn't feel a rush to get anywhere. The Sadies come from the Byrdsian wing of the alt-country movement, but their music nods to garage and surf rock. At times their psychadelic bent is reminiscent of Jefferson Airplane. This late 2007 release is full of excellent songwriting, great guitar work and wonderful harmonies (when they're not going instrumental).

Native Lager.
From the packaging to the taste, this is a no-frills beer. It's light and smooth like my favorite beer Yuengling, with even less aftertaste. A great, refreshing beer for those warm Florida weekend days. As usual, the Beeradvocate and I didn't see eye-to-eye on this one.

Other music I've enjoyed this past week ...
-- Falling Slowly, Glen Hasard and Marketa Irglova, The Swell Season. My favorite part of the Oscars was when Jon Stewart let Marketa Irglova come back onstage after she was so rudely cut off.
-- Centre for the Holy Wars, The New Pornographers. Mass Romantic.
-- Centerfield, John Fogerty, Centerfield.

And I'll leave you this week with a little Demetri Martin

I've Got Letham and McEwen in my Final 4

I am such a slow reader. More than a month, and I'm still making my way through The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Nothing against Michael Chabon's book. It's wonderful. In fact, it's a pretty amazing work. I'll describe it more in detail -- hopefully in this week's Playlist. But it's a thick book and finding extended time to get fully into it hasn't been easy.

One scan over the blogosphere, though, and I feel like such a shmok.

People are reading like crazy. There's 52 Books, 52 Weeks where the Largehearted Boy reads one book a week. And even more impressive is the blogger The Crazy Reader -- who is attempting to read 200 books in 2008. Yep, that's right -- 200 in one year.

And if that isn't impressive enough, she's doing this reading while caring for a toddler.

And a new baby.

And she's running a small business.

Oh, and she's blogging daily about her effort.

Which author is Duke?
As if I need anymore reasons to pick up the pace ... it's tournament time! Not March Madness, but the Third Annual Tournament of Books, put together by the Web site The Morning News and sponsored by Powell's.

Here's how The Morning News described the tournament:

... by the next morning we had the rough outlines of something called The Tournament of Books, in which we would seed the year’s most celebrated works of fiction in a March Madness-type bracket and pit those novels against each other in a “Battle Royale of Literary Excellence.” In honor of our favorite character in contemporary literature, David Sedaris’s brother, aka “The Rooster,” we decided to present the winning author with a live chicken.

Here are the contestants for this year's tourney.

Run by Ann Patchett
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
Petropolis by Anya Ulinich
Ovenman by Jeff Parker
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
You Don’t Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem
New England White by Stephen L. Carter
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida
Shining at the Bottom of the Sea by Stephen Marche
What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England by Brock Clarke

My prediction? Are you crazy? I've only read one book on the list so far -- Brock Clark's hilarious novel. (See Playlist 12). But I recently took On Chesil Beach out of the library and hope to tackle that next.

Last year's finale pitted Cormac McCarthy's The Road against Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart. Find out who won here.

And finally ...
You're going to read more. And you're going to try to read all the books in the tournament. That's a lot of books. How do you store them all? It's worth clicking through the 16 photos in this LA Times feature about home libraries. I'm going with a more virtual book shelf. It's called Shelfari (on right hand side of the blog), where I'll be lining up the books I'm either reading or getting ready to read. If you send me a suggestion to read, I'll add it to the shelf.

Playlist 14 -- Where there's a Wilco, there's a way

Major league baseball teams have actually started playing for real down here. My beloved Phillies have already seen their biggest free agent acquisition go under the knife. But at least Ryan Howard, $10 million richer, is already hitting tape measure home runs. And the Eagles have gotten their biggest off-season in years (I say that every year) off to a bang with a huge free agent signing. Me, I've been busy, too. As a result, I continue to find myself inching my way through Michael Chabon's Kavalier and Clay. Yes, I've been reading the book for a month now.

This week, the Playlist hits the two touchdown mark.

A.M. Wilco.
With each succeeding album, Wilco has further cemented its reputation as one of the more daring, yet consistently good, rock bands around. With all the attention paid to the last three albums, it's easy to forget their debut A.M. -- a rootsy, alt-country (if that's what you want to call it) gem. But remember, this is an album that was dismissed by many when released (including, in a small part, by leader Jeff Tweedy). Around the same time, Tweedy's former Uncle Tupelo bandmate Jay Farrar and his then-new band Son Volt released their debut -- the instant classic Trace. A.M. is no Trace, but is a solid album and one worth revisiting often, as I did this week. Tweedy's songwriting is more direct, yet still powerful. There are no spiders filling out tax returns. But there is some great Stonesian riffs, banjo and wonderful pedal steel touches. How can you not love an album that brings you both Casino Queen and Passenger Side?

If you're reading this Saturday afternoon, please be sure to check out Wilco tonight on Saturday Night Live -- with host Ellen Page of Juno.



While still on Wilco ....
-- From the set list, it sounded like an incredible show in Philly last week. Why the not-so-stellar review?
-- I have to get the t-shirt below.
-- Recently, the band played a five-night stand in its hometown of Chicago and proceeded to play all the songs it ever put on record.
-- And finally, some sad news. No Depression, whose letter section was named after the A.M. song Box Full of Letters, will cease publication with its May-June issue.
-- And Wilco even makes it into the end of this review of the last Barak-Hillary debate.

Jesus of Cool. Nick Lowe.
The last time I heard many of these songs, I heard them on a cassette tape. And the name of the album wasn't Jesus of Cool (America couldn't handle such a title), but Pure Pop for Now People, which in a way was aptly titled. This reissue really is new wave/pop music at its best -- clever writing and great hooks. Nick Lowe is truly an underappreciated artist. Whether you haven't heard it in years or never heard it, head on over to eMusic and download it.

The Believer Magazine, February 2008.
Last month's issue included the usual array of unique articles -- troubled symbolism of Black History Month, an article about a Russian poet (see this week's Wikipedia link), great book reviews, Nick Hornby's Stuff I've Been Reading and a wonderful article about about fatherhood called The Chaos Machine. But the highlight is the center page spread of bizarre will requests. We all know about Leonna Helmsley leaving her money to her dog. But what about John Orr who deigned that money go each year to the shortest, tallest, youngest and oldest brides married each year in St. Cyrus, Scotland or Robert Louis Stevenson, who left his birthday to a friend born on Christmas.

Some other songs I've been digging this month ...
-- 27 Jennifers, Mike Doughty. Golden Delicious.
-- Plastic Flowers on the Highway, Drive-by Truckers. Southern Rock Opera.
-- Put the Message in the Box, World Party. Goodbye Jumbo

Mark Roberts, Klingons and muted mauve

This week, we meet Mark Roberts. Mark is a photographer, musician, and a teacher of Web design and multimedia at Youngstown State. And unlike the famed British streaker who shares his name, our Mark runs with his clothes on.

And he runs much better.

Mark chronicles all his activities -- writing, video, music, running -- in various sections of his Web site. But it is his blog Errata that brings us here today.

I'm interviewing Mark as part of the Great Interview Experiment, put in action by Neil Kramer, purveyor of the funny blog Citizen of the Month. Neil's premise is that everyone is someone. And even those bloggers who only get a couple comments (and most of them from their wife) have a story and deserve some attention. So each blogger that signs up to be interviewed, then interviews the next person on the list. If you blog and haven't gotten involved, head over and sign up.

Mark's blog deals mostly with photography,where's he tackled everything from his disappointment with the new book Along These Rivers, which contains a couple of his photos, and Pantone's shocking selection of "blue iris" as the color of the year. He's got a dry sense of humor that comes across well in print.

I've truly enjoyed this opportunity to interview and write about him, especially since it has since led to a challenge from our Mark Roberts to the one on the other side of the pond.

"If I were as flabby and out of shape as him, I'd be embarrassed to be seen with my clothes on," Mark said. "I hereby challenge the other Mark Roberts to a 10K. He can run naked if he wants. I'll kick his butt!"

Q: How would you describe your photography work?
A: I look for shapes, textures and light, both in nature and in architecture. I prefer nature photography, but obviously can't get out into the wilderness as often as I would like. I also feel strongly that a photograph should speak for itself. When I go to photo exhibits, I deliberately don't read any accompanying test or captions with the photos. You'd be amazed how many award-winning photographs just don't hold up without external material to support them.

Q: Who is your favorite photographer?
A: Galen Rowell. For his photographs, themselves, for his adventurousness and athleticism and his environmentalist outlook.

Q: What is the biggest controversy in photography right now?
A: Hmm. That probably depends on which photographic circles you travel in. For those who grew up with film, it's probably anxiety over the trustworthiness of photographs now that it's so easy to modify them with software tools like Photoshop.

My view is that this is a ridiculous thing to worry about. Before photography was invented, humans looked at man-made images, knowing they could be total fabrications, born only of the artist's imagination. Then came photography and the notion that mechanically generated image could be an objective representation of "truth." Now comes digital imagery and we're back to the first condition. Big deal. The era of the objective, trustworthy image lasted less than 200 years, an eyeblink in the history of the human race. We survived quite well before this notion came into being and we'll survive just fine now that it's gone again.

Q: All right, so it's your choice and your choice alone. What should be the color of the year?
A: Muted Mauve. I once helped a friend build a recording studio in Rochester, NY. We painted the control room a color called Muted Mauve. I suggested it must be 20 dB quieter than standard Mauve.

Q: Tell me how you cam to be involved in Along These Rivers? And what's your concern about how the book is being marketed?
A: I stopped in the Silver Eye Gallery here in Pittsburgh one day last summer and noticed a flyer they had there. They were asking for black and white photos book to be published for Pittsburgh's 250th birthday. It looked like a credible project, so I submitted two photos and had both accepted.

As it turned out, the publishers were a group of local poets who seem to have viewed it as a little club project for themselves that they were able to get someone else to pay for. They haven't done any promotion of the book and as far as I can tell, they don't intend to. They got someone else to pay for printing a book of their poems and that's all they really wanted. The photographers were treated as mere window dressing service to pad the page count and add some visuals.

Q: Is there a good art scene in Pittsburgh?
A: It's a bit weird and fragmented and quite parochial. Difficult to break into, as my experience with the Along These Rivers proved. I've only lived here for 5 years so I don't have the connections available to someone who grew up here.

Q: When did you start your blog? And why?
A: Which blog? My first blog was about running and was called Junque Miles. It was done just as part of my runner's Web site. I have a photoblog called PESO (Picture Every So Often) which I started to show off photographs that don't fit into any of the themes of any of the galleries on my Web site.

I started Errata partly as a way to quickly throw spontaneous ideas online and partly as a way of learning to work with PHP and MySQL (I teach multimedia and Web Design at Youngstown State University). You see, blogging software is just a semi-automated way of generating Web pages for people who don't know how to write HTML. If you know how to code Web sites, you don't really need blogging software, although it certainly speeds up the manual process of writing pages, generating the RSS feed and keeping track of an archive! I do all that stuff manually for my PSEO photoblog, and I can tell you it's a lot of work just to create one new entry with nothing more than a single photograph in it!

On the other hand, take the Klingon Sudoku entry (see photo to left) in my Errata blog: From when I thought of the idea to it's being finished and online was an interval of no more than 15 minutes. The vast majority of my writing goes on my Web site in normal pages, but the blog rules when it comes to spontaneous inspiration!

Q: How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it?
A: A combination of Peter Gabriel and the Moody Blues, sung by Richard Butler (the Psychadelic Furs).

Q: How do you approach songwriting, and how does that differ from your approach to photography?
A: Photography is quite the opposite of songwriting and it's quite the opposite of most art forms in this regard: With songwriting (or painting or writing), you start with a blank slate and add whatever you want to it, limited only by your imagination. With photography you start with the world and decide what to leave out. You have to isolate parts of it -- "crop" out extraneous elements -- until you are left
with just a small part of it in your viewfinder.

Q: Who is your favorite musical artist?
A: It's the Beatles. A common answer but a true one. Every time I think I like someone else better I go back to the Beatles and discover new nuances, ideas and things I hadn't noticed before.

Q: This is the Distractions blog, so before I let you go, I need to ask you for your Playlist.
A: Books -- Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks, Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron, I Am America (and So Can You) by Stephen Colbert, Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman by Richard Feynman. Music -- All kinds of stuff by Jonathan Coulton. Drink -- Black Mocha Stout from the Highland Brewing Company of Ashville, N.C.

Q: And watching?
A: Nothing. Haven't been to a movie in a couple of months and we don't have a television.

Thanks Mark. Best of luck in all your endeavors.

Playlist 13 -- Call it Friend-o

For almost 20 years now, my wife and I have dutifully watched the Oscars together, as we will do tomorrow night. Used to be that we had seen most, or at least many, of the films nominated. But over the last few years -- with two kids in the house -- that hasn't been the case. But this year we have two horses in the race -- Juno and No Country for Old Men.

No Country for Old Men.
The Coen Brothers latest effort lived up to my high expectations. I was thrilled with how faithful they stayed to Cormac McCarthy's novel. The movie, like the wonderful book, is a slow-paced violent study on good and evil, and how life and growing older can be so damn tiring. The desolate backgrounds, shot by cinematographer Roger Deakins, are almost another character. It's similar to Deakins' work in Fargo. And great performances by the whole cast, particularly Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem.

Weeds, the Second Season.
There are two ways to describe this show.
Depraved.
And fun as hell.
For those unfamiliar with the Showtime series, Nancy (Mary Louise-Parker) is a widowed suburban mom, taking care of her two sons and her brother-in-law. She turns to selling pot to make a living. The show is often dark. Sometimes shocking -- very shocking. And there aren't many likable characters in the town of Agrestic. However, you find yourself rooting for Nancy as she navigates her way through the complex life she's built for herself, all the while trying to grow her business.


Under the Banner of Heaven. By Jon Krakauer.
In his 2003 book, Krakeur weaves together the history of the Mormon Church with the story of the Lafferty murders -- when two brothers stabbed and killed their sister-in-law and baby niece because they were told to in a divine revelation. It's a fascinating story and Krakauer tells it extremely well, particularly as he details the growth of the Latter Day Saints from Joseph Smith's visions to the established and growing mainstream religion it is today. But the book focuses more on the fundamentalist sects that grew out of the Mormon Church after it, somewhat reluctantly, according to Krakauer, denounced polygamy. Some may see Krakauer's account as a challenge to the Mormon faith. I, however, see it more as a rebuke of fundamentalism in general.

Escape from Dragon House and Venus on Earth. Dengue Fever.
As far as band stories go, this one is pretty good. Musician goes to Cambodia with a friend. Friend is bitten by a mosquito and contacts Dengue fever. Musician discovers Cambodian psychadelic rock. Musician comes back to America starts band that plays similar music and finds a lead singer from Cambodia. And she sings in Khmer. The result is a mix of myriad sounds - swirling organ, garage rock guitar, spy movie grooves -- that is captivating. And it doesn't matter that you (unless you speak Khmer) can't understand 90 percent of the lyrics. Venus on Earth, released just last month, does have the English-language Tiger Phone Card. It's the best place to start if you're interested in exploring this unique band.

Other tunes I've been digging this past week ...
-- We're Gonna Groove, Led Zeppelin, Coda. Often blasted as Zep's weakest album, this collection of leftover material has some real gems, including this song.
-- The Hardest Part, Ryan Adams, Jacksonville City Nights. One of many standouts from Adams' supposedly country album.
-- Bodysnatchers, Radiohead, In Rainbows.
-- Right Hand on My Heart, Whigs, Mission Control.
-- Little Boxes, Malvina Reynolds. The Weeds theme song is played by a different artist on each show. Check out the show's official site, or simply click here, to find all the great music on the show.

Playlist 12 -- Bumblers, Books, Bees and Buzzes

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day and that you're enjoying a long holiday weekend. My Playlist this past week included a humorous novel, music (both old and new, some Philly-related), and a fruit beer. As usual, feel free to chime in. Let me know what you're watching, reading, listening to, or even drinking ...

An Arsonists Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke.
Do you ever feel like a bumbler like I do? Well, have no fear. There is no bigger bumbler than Sam Pulsifer, the main character in Clarke's fourth book. At age 18, Pulsifer "accidentally burned down the Emily Dickinson House in Amherst, Massachusetts, and in the process killed two people." He later leaves prison, goes to college, gets married and moves to the burbs, not far from the site of accidentally arson. Sam's simple life -- home in Camelot, job as a packaging scientist -- gets turned upside down as his past comes back to haunt him. In his bumbling ways, he never told his wife and kids about the fire. And, for some reason, he told them his parents were dead. (They're not). The unraveling of Sam's life coincides with a new string of fires being set to other famous writers' homes. The book pokes fun at literature, academia, white collar criminals, and more. Go get this book and read it if you want a laugh-out-loud funny page-turner.

We Brave Bee Stings and All. Thao.
Thao is playing in a crowded field now. Quirky, folksy acoustic guitar/piano-driven female songwriters, thanks to Feist, are the rage now, particularly those with the low-key, smokey voices. But Thao Nguyen stands out because of her clever songwriting and smart arrangements. And the tunes are just so darn catchy, even when the subject matter is grim.

My Buzz Comes Back. Slo-Mo.
Amore. The Hooters.
Back in the early 80s, Philly's "it" band the Hooters sold more than 100,000 copies of Amore. Major label attention and national radio play followed, but the band never quite matched this independent release. The band had some success, mostly as songwriters for others -- Joan Osbourne (yep, Eric Bazilian wrote What If God Was One of Us -- not Dr. Evil) and Cyndi Lauper. They're back with a new CD, but I was focused this past week on their first album, grooving to Hanging on a Heartbeat, All You Zombies, Fighting on the Same Side, etc. Almost 25 years later, Amore still rocks with its infectious ska and new wave grooves.

A lesser-known Philly gem is steel guitarist extraordinaire Mike Brenner. He's been a hired hand, playing with ton of bands -- those with Philly ties (Marah) and those without (Magnolia Electric Co.). The premise of Slo-Mo is to match Brenner's steel guitar with rapper Mic Wrecka rhymes. Believe it or not, it works. Not all of it, mind you. Some comes off as novely, but surprisingly, much of the CD clicks. Even those who dismiss hip hop as a music form (I'm one of them) will find joy in songs like Shackamaxon, 3Way, Why Rent?, Levitation, Cuidado and, of course, My Buzz Comes Back.

Apricot Wheat Beer.
Yes, I was skeptical. The apricot smell is strong, but the fruity taste is slight and not overpowering. The beer is one of many made by the Sea Dog Brewing Company in Maine. Overall, it's a nice mellow taste. Not sure it'll get in the rotation, but was a pleasant alternative. The Beeradvocate, however, does not agree with me, giving this beer a mediocre C score.

Some songs I've been digging this past week ...
-- Colours, Loudon Wainwright III. From Hell to Obscurity (Blackmail compilation). Loudon Wainwright singing about the various shades of dog poop while Richard Thompson wails on guitar. How do you beat that?
-- Bamboozled by Love. Frank Zappa. You Can't Do That on Stage, Vol. 3. The version on Tinsletown Rebellion is much better, but this live cut features Frank soloing over Yes' Owner of a Lonely Heart riff.
-- On and On and On. Wilco. Sky Blue Sky. This is now my favorite song from the most compelling CD of last year.

And leaving you on a light note. No date for Valentine's Day? Well, at least you didn't get one of these cards.