http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Sat, 17 Jul 2004 21:11:37 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/07/17/211137.php Chad OrzelThe band Fountains of Wayne played a free show Wednesday night at the Empire State Plaza ("Rockefeller's Folly") in Albany. The show nominally started at 6:00, but there were two opening acts (one that I missed, and one band with a female singer who wanted very badly to be Gwen Stefani, who covered Lita Ford's "Kiss Me Deadly." Which seemed like an odd choice, but worked for them), so the main show didn't start until 8:30. Additionally, it's been miserably rainy here this week, so the show was moved infdoors, to a room with less-than-ideal acoustics, so things didn't start off especially well.Once they finally got going, though, it was a good show. Sort of an odd crowd, though-- much more families-with-small-children than the college-age kids I would've expected. Of course, it is the summer, so colleges aren't in session, and free outdoor concerts are probably too dorky to attend. The majority of them seemed not to really know anything but the singles off the current album, and stood perfectly still through the first half-dozen songs from the previous records. They did perk up a bit for the office worker anthem "Hey Julie," and a few people were bouncing up and down for "Stacy's Mom," but overall, it was about as calm as I've ever seen for a headline act.There wasn't much of a stage show to wow those who didn't already know the songs. For one thing, it's not like they're an incredibly photogenic band-- it's four really skinny and slightly awkward-looking guys. They pretty much came out on stage, stood in front of the mikes, and played the songs straight up, with very little chatter (aside from a few saracastic comments about the big sponsor signs strung up over the stage), and not much modification. It didn't really help that the lighting guy couldn't seem to figure out that lead singer Chris Collingwood doesn't play the guitar solos, and kept the spotlight on him even as actual lead guitarist Jody Porter pulled guitar faces off to the side. Collingwood took to turning his back during the solos, which is about as much motion as we got from him, aside from the occasional semi-ironic guitar flourish.Then again, if you know the songs, there really isn't much need for a stage show. Their specialty as a band is the carefully crafted three-to-four minute pop song, with a heavy emphasis on the clever lyrics. The songs don't really allow a lot of room for extended guitar freakouts, or anything of the sort (though the guitar breaks on songs from the first album (recorded largely as a duo) were expanded a fair bit). The songs are mostly character sketches, though, so they don't need a lot of instrumental embellishment.Given the make-up of the audience, I was a little surprised at how many of the songs were taken off the older albums (not that this was a Bad Thing-- Utopia Parkway is an excellent record). They opened with "I've Got a Flair" off their first album, followed by "It Must Be Summer," which is a pretty good combination, but confused about half the audience. The first new track they played was "Hackensack," which hasn't been released as a single (as far as I know), but seemed to have some people singing along. Or maybe that was just the crappy acoustics-- tough to say for sure. They didn't skip any of the important tracks off the latest album (I would've liked to hear "Little Red Light" more than "Bought for a Song," but they hit all the key tracks), but they filled the set out with a few odd choices from earlier records ("Go, Hippie" being the oddest. That's probably my least favorite track from Utopia Parkway).I was a little disappointed that they didn't really do any cover songs-- given the sort of band they are, that's really the area where you would expect something different in a live show. They did work a bunch of stuff into the middle of "Radiation Vibe," though-- a sort of first-verse medly of the Steve Miller Band's "Jet Airlier," Foreigner's "Double Vision," and the Cars' "Let's Go," along with instrumental nods to the Eagles and Boston (and I may have missed one). Of course, they didn't sing any of the choruses, so as Collingwood noted, there were "a lot of confused young people" in the audience.As I said, a good show. Not a blow-you-away, revelatory-experience sort of evening, but a solid performance. And with any luck, it'll get some of the kids who came to hear "Stacy's Mom" to pick up Utopia Parkway, which remains one of the most unjustly overlooked pop records this side of 1965.Full disclosure note: the two main guys in Fountains of Wayne (Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger) both went to Williams. They graduated in '86 (I believe), so they were a bit before my time, but the alumni connection does sort of require me to have a strong opinion about them.... Music17555@blogcritics.org Sat, 17 Jul 2004 21:11:37 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/07/02/205945.php Chad OrzelVia a mailing list that I'm on, ESPN has a list of "The 25 Best Sports Movies" of the last 25 years. This is part of their 25th anniversary celebration, which features them making 25-element lists of all sorts of stupid things. I'm waiting for "The 25 Best Players to Wear #25," and "The 25 Best '25 Best' Lists" (at which point the entire network will vanish into a giant singularity of self-reference, and we'll start over with a channel that actually shows sports. But I digress...)A couple of comments about their actual list. First of all, I was a little surprised at how many of these I haven't seen. I mean, I like sports, and I like movies, so logically, you would think I'd've seen a lot of sports movies. But no-- I've seen seven of the top ten on the expert's pick list (Chariots of Fire, Seabiscuit, and Remember the Titans are the ones I haven't seen), but only 12 of the top 25 (and I'm not sure I've actually watched enough of 61* and The Color of Money to count...). The other striking thing is that I really don't have much interest in seeing the most of the other 13-- Bend It Like Beckham (suggested alternate title: "Twenty Feet Over the Cross-Bar." Sorry, English football fans...) is about the only one I have any interest in seeing.Another interesting thing about the movies on the list is that several of them really aren't sports movies, in the sense of movies that are fundamentally about the sport featured in them, as opposed to movies about something else that happen to involve sports. Jerry Maguire is probably the best example-- it's not a sports movie, it's a romantic comedy with a few football scenes. Similarly, The Hurricane and Finding Forrester aren't really sports movies (from what I know of them), while I have my doubts about The Color of Money and Searching for Bobby Fischer, as pool and chess aren't Real Sports. (Yes, I know, ESPN televises billiards all the damn time. But if that's the standard, why isn't The Big Lebowski on the list? They show bowling on ESPN, too...)My standards in this area are probably just higher than most people's, though. I'm not sure I'd class Caddyshack as a sports movie, in the purest sense (it's really a proto-American Pie with golf scenes).That said, I don't really have many complaints about the list. Raging Bull is probably a better movie than Hoosiers, but basketball is a better sport, and Hoosiers is more fundamentally about basketball (Raging Bull is a great movie about a boxer, but not really a movie about boxing), so it gets the nod. I'm only a little biased, here. After that, the movies that I've seen in the top ten are all better than the movies that I've seen in the bottom fifteen, so it's fairly reasonable.Notable omissions: He Got Game, Hoop Dreams (though including a documentary might be cheating). (I was going to mention Slap Shot, but it misses the 25-year window).Acting note: This list confirms that Kevin Costner is really at his best when playing a sort of Everyman sports guy. I think he leads all actors, starring in three of the top fifteen. Tom Cruise is next, with two of the top eighteen.Natural Law Note: A collection of writing about rugby that I once read offered the theory that the quality of literature about a particular sport is directly proportional to how much time is spent standing around doing nothing. You might take the ESPN list as evidence to support this theory, as there are only two basketball movies and two football movies on the list, compared to eight baseball movies. (Then again, there are only two about golf, so maybe the theory needs work...) (Originally posted to Uncertain Principles.) Video17062@blogcritics.org Fri, 2 Jul 2004 20:59:45 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/06/29/200954.php Chad OrzelBack in the mid-90's, when I was in grad school in Maryland, the Washington Post had a habit of sending reviewers to the wrong movies. What I mean is that when summer rolled around, and the incredibly dumb blockbusters hit the screen, they would invariably end up being reviewed by somebody who was really into art-house flicks. And at the same time, obscure indie films about gay cowboys eating pudding would be reviewed by somebody who really wanted to see a special-effects extravaganza. This tended to produce a lot of unjustly negative reviews, but probably made the movie reviews more entertaining to read than they would've been otherwise.Anyway, in that spirit, I present the following review of Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below. While those who know me well struggle to regain their composure, let me explain to the rest of you: Contrary to the first guess of a commenter, I'm one of the whitest guys on the planet. I'm not much of a rap fan (though I do firmly believe in the Two Good Songs theory)-- as noted with regard to this very album, I don't even like dance music. So the idea that I would buy a rap (double) album, let alone attempt to review it is probably almost as amusing as the image of me in a Mini Cooper...I ended up buying this for three reasons. First, it got very good reviews in all the music magazines, so it's at least critically respected rap. Second, thanks to my recent hoops exploits, I had a gift certificate from Best Buy that I could blow on a couple of CD's. Third, and most important, it passed the critical Three Good Songs threshold the day I saw the video for "Roses" while channel-surfing (the songs in question were "Roses," "Hey Ya" and "The Way You Move," for those keeping score at home).So, what did I think? Well, it's a weird couple of records (technically, it's a double album, but they're different enough that I'll treat them separately). The first disc, Speakerboxxx is pretty much a straight rap record (at least insofar as I can identify such), while the second, The Love Below, is trying very hard to be a Marvin Gaye album from another dimension. There's really not a lot of connection between the two, aside from a few backing vocal appearances by Andre 3000 on the Speakerboxxx songs, and the very odd Big Boi rap interlude in "Roses."The Speakerboxxx disc starts off pretty rough, at least for me. "Ghettomusick" manages to combine pretty much everything I dislike about rap songs-- backing music that sounds like it was generated by hacking a Super Mario game from 1990, several extended samples that seem to have dropped in from a completely different song, Big Boi's inordinate fondness for spelling out words. The next couple of songs are better, but not by much, and on first listen, I was beginning to fear I'd wasted my fake money.It improves dramatically right around "The Way You Move," though, and sustains some reasonable momentum through the next few songs. "The Rooster" has a great hook, and "Bust" is pretty good. "War" is a bit of a misfire-- a little too complicated for its own good-- but "Church" has a sort of doofy charm (a comment which would no doubt get my ass kicked in person, but it's meant well), and it carries on reasonably well from there. The music never really loses that Nintendo quality, but Big Boi's delivery is actually kind of interesting to listen to, and the best parts of the lyrics are pretty clever. There's one guest appearance (Cee-Lo on "Reset") that's a little too Dr. Evil to take seriously, but everything after "The Way You Move" is pretty solid. Not entirely my thing, but there are a few songs I like enough to consider putting on a mix tape, and I can understand how people could really get into it.Then there's The Love Below. If you took copies of Let's Get It On and Midnight Love, and collided them at high speed with Prince's Greatest Hits and the previous disc, you might expect this to emerge from the rubble. On some levels, it's a major improvement over Speakerboxxx, at least by my standards, in that it features music that sounds like it was made by actual instruments. In places, though, it's some of the weirdest shit I've ever bought.The inclusion of weird little interlude tracks isn't unique by any means-- there are half a dozen on the Speakerboxxx disc, and I dimly recall something similar from Train's Ice Cube tapes back in the early 90's-- but this record takes the form to new heights, if that's the word. You've got weird prayers, fan mail, and internal monologues, mixed up with a bizarre little Vaudeville routine. It's really sort of puzzling. "God" is sort of amusing, and "Where Are My Panties" isn't too awful, but I have no idea what "Good Day, Good Sir" is doing here, or anywhere else. And "My Favorite Things?" What?On the brighter side, though, the tracks that are actual songs feature some great stuff. "Hey Ya" is still catchy, and "Roses" is a great tune (people named "Caroline" just can't really catch a musical break, though, can they?). "Happy Valentine's Day" and "Behold a Lady" are strange, but play the same basic role as the "God Is Love" and "Save the Children" tracks off What's Going On-- out of context, they'd be impossibly dorky, but taking the album as a whole, they're weirdly brilliant. "Spread" is a great song for those who think Prince is a bit too subtle when it comes to sexual innuendo, and there's a long run of short songs near the end that are all pretty good. I could do without "She Lives in My Lap" and "Vibrate," but pretty much everything that isn't a bizarre interlude is actually a good song. But what a weird collection of stuff those interludes are. Listening to these discs, it's a little hard to see how these two guys even find stuff to talk about, let alone manage to record albums together.Anyway, the two discs together turned out to be about what I expected. I expected to hate more of the Speakerboxxx songs and like more of the tracks on The Love Below, but on the whole, it's pretty good. This isn't going to get me to run right out and build up a huge rap collection, but there's some good stuff here. I wish I knew what was up with the bizarre interludes, though.(Originally posted to Uncertain Principles.) Music16938@blogcritics.org Tue, 29 Jun 2004 20:09:54 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/06/08/075323.php Chad OrzelI'm giving a final exam today, which means I really ought to be grading papers so that I can just plug the final grades in and be done quickly. I don't quite feel like doing that, though, so I'll write blog posts instead.In the exam week spirit, though, here's another guess-the-song list of lyrics. Because, well, I'm not feeling especially inspired. This is a very recent tape, so these are mostly recent songs. They're also harder to identify than the last couple, in part because the songs are more obscure (thank you KEXP), and in part because some of them are mumbled so badly that I can't quite figure out what the singer is saying. Finding even speculative lyrics to #19 was tough, even with Google, so good luck with that one.Anyway, here's the list. Show all work for partial credit. 1) "You don't know, just how I lie awake, and dream a while about your smile, and the way you make your ass shake." 2) "Got it just don't get it 'till there's nothing at all." 3) "I asked her if she wanted to dance, she said that all she wanted was a good man." 4) "I ain't a jock and I ain't a freak, and I ain't no computer geek." 5) "I think I had a black wallet in my back pocket with a bus ticket and a picture of my baby inside." 6) "I'll cater, with all the birds that I can kill." 7) "I hide in a cave, where I can grab hold of love when I want it." 8) "Bittersweet baby, where'd you get that gun?" 9) "I don't know what it is they're trying to do to me, make me into some sick joke." 10) "Whatever happened, I apologize. Dry your tears and baby, walk outside." 11) "It's the hardest way to give, it's the hardest way to take, it's the hardest way to live for Christ's sake." 12) "I know things happen for a reason, and that's quite all right with me." 13) "You probably told yourself you're better off without me. When I'm out of sight, I'm out of mind." Side Two: 14) "You sound just like Dolly, singin' on the radio." 15) "Wish you were here, wish I was too. I drink myself to sleeplessness, I always do." 16) "I'm old enough to sin, but too young to vote." 17) "I'm laying out the table for to welcome you back home. I'm calling all the angels for to lighten up your load." 18) "High upon a parapet a Scottish piper stands alone." 19) "Here she comes breakin' through my window, in the early morning hours." 20) "I got sixteen hours to burn, and I'm gonna stay up all night." 21) "Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow." 22) "She's gotta be strong to fight them, so she's taking lots of vitamins." 23) "Beauty's just another word I'm never certain how to spell." 24) "They said everything was sacred, nothing was profane, and money was just something you throw off the back of trains." (Originally posted on Uncertain Principles.) Music16343@blogcritics.org Tue, 8 Jun 2004 07:53:23 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/05/15/081340.php Chad OrzelIn the end, all but three songs from my mix tape post were explicitly identified in comments on one site or another, though two or three were identified only indirectly ("That song by barenaked ladies..."), and one only by extensive Google searching. Not too shabby.Here are the answers. You might be saying "Isn't this just a cheap way to squeeze another blog post out of this same tape?" You might be right.Side One: 1) "Some are mathematicians, some are carpenters' wives." Bob Dylan, "Tangled Up in Blue." A rich source of lines for this sort of thing, but an easy one to get.2) "I remember Christmas in the blistering cold, in a church on the Upper West Side." Ryan Adams, "New York, New York." I first heard this song on September 14, 2001, while driving down the Turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston for Mike Steeves's wedding. That tends to make it stick in the mind.3) "See the oil fields at first light." U2, "Beautiful Day." U2 at their soaringly vague best.4) "With fingernails that shine like justice, and a voice that is dark like tinted glass." Cake, "Short Skirt/ Long Jacket." I think we all want a girl like that.5) "Your grandsons, they won't understand." The Strokes, "Last Nite." I have a hard time with this band, and, really, any band that are too jaded to have fun being rock stars.6) "She left me roses by the stairs, surprises let me know she cares." Blink-182, "All the Small Things." These guys put at least one song on each album that's nothing but dick jokes, just to keep their fans from noticing that they're actually very talented as pop songwriters.7) "We asked for Mojo Nixon, they said 'He don't work here.'" The Dead Milkmen, "Punk Rock Girl." If you don't have Mojo Nixon, then your store could use some fixin'.8) "There will be no flowers flowing in the light that passes through me." Guided by Voices, "Glad Girls." In the alternate universe where I know how to play guitar, and am in a band, we do a mean cover of this.9) "It's just the way that you talk, like it ain't no thing." Smash Mouth, "Then the Morning Comes." If these guys haven't been on the soundtrack of an "Austin Powers" movie, it's a travesty.10) "Let's bulldoze our way to a brand new peace accord." The Halo Benders, "Your Asterisk." The guy from Built to Spill in a band with another guy who has a really deep voice. The only online lyrics I was able to find for this have this line as "... brand new piece of pork," which is just not right.11) "I wish the ape a lot of success, I'm sorry my apartment's a mess." Warren Zevon, "Gorilla, You're a Desperado." Most of all, I'm sorry if I made you blue, but I'm betting the gorilla will, too.12) "Most of all, my God, how does she make her eyes do that?" Blues Traveler, "Girl Inside My Head." Nobody got this one, though it was released as a single. I like it because it features remarkably little harmonica noodling.13) "I never know the perfect time to hit the bedroom light." John Wesley Harding, "I'm Wrong About Everything." Off The Confessions of St. Ace, whose liner notes are a hoot.14) "And I may seem all right and smile when you leave, but my smiles are just a front." Macy Gray, "I Try." Somebody guessed Smokey Robinson for this one, and it does remind me of his stuff. Which is why I like it. Side Two: 15) "I need something strong to distract my mind. I'm gonna look at you 'til my eyes go blind." Bob Dylan, "Mississippi." The Sheryl Crow version is just too chirpy to be taken seriously, but when Bob croaks out the lyrics, you believe he's painted himself into a pretty tight corner.16) "Patchouli oil, and motor oil, and you knew all the words." John Hiatt, "My Old Friend." Kate doesn't like this transition, but I think it's one of the best on the tape. And, hey, he mentions a Dylan song in the first verse.17) "The way that you sleep is the image I'll keep always on the edge of my mind." The Old 97's, "Bird in a Cage." Somebody got that this was an Old 97's tune, but didn't name it. One of the highlights off Satellite Rides.18) "Sam Cooke didn't know what I know." The Wallflowers, "Sleepwalker." There's a point where Jakob Dylan sings "I'm in your movie, and everyone looks sad," and you say, "Yep. Bob's kid, all right."19) "Lost his mind from the TV, now he's playing God." Pete Yorn, "Murray." An album track off Musicforthemorningafter, so I'm not really surprised that nobody got it.20) "We're loyal, like brothers, just us versus all the others." The Get Up Kids, "Red Letter Day." Nobody got this one, though I'm pretty sure at least one regular reader has this album. A great song to sing along to while driving.21) "And if I ever get another chance, I'd still ask her to dance." Blink-182, "The Rock Show." Pure. Pop. Gold.22) "Left my baby and it feels so bad, I guess my race is run." The Clash, "I Fought the Law." Yeah, it's a Bobby Fuller song, but this is the version everybody knows.23) "I was riding hard to meet her, when a shot rang out behind." Warren Zevon, "Jeannie Needs a Shooter." Just for you, Mike Kozlowski.24) "I could hide out under there." Barenaked Ladies, "Pinch Me." A triple bill with these guys, Fountains of Wayne, and They Might Be Giants would be a veritable Lollapalooza of geek rock.25) "Why do tomorrow, what you could never do?" Fountains of Wayne, "Troubled Times." A nice little song off Utopia Parkway.26) "Someone's blasting me with hate and bass, sending dirty vibes my way." Ben Folds, "Rockin' the Suburbs." This made the tape only because of his dead-on Zack de la Rocha impression.27) "Flags, rags, ferry boats, scimitars and scarves, every precious dream and vision underneath the stars." The Waterboys, "The Whole of the Moon." I was pretty much out of ideas, at this point, and I'd been listening to this album a lot, so what the hell? Music15697@blogcritics.org Sat, 15 May 2004 08:13:40 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/05/10/203225.php Chad OrzelHeat of Fusion and Other Stories by John M. Ford. Speaking of brilliant but somewhat inscrutable authors (as I was just a moment ago, namely Gene Wolfe), here's a new collection of John M. Ford's stuff. There's a little overlap with the NESFA collection From the End of the Twentieth Century, which everybody ought to buy right now (read "Scrabble With God" in the store if you aren't convinced), but most of these stories and poems are collected here for the first time.This is a very difficult book to write up here, because the contents are so weird and varied. There are excellent short stories written in a fairly straightforward manner ("The Persecutor's Tale," "Preflash," "Shelter From the Storm," "Tales From the Original Gothic"), more structurally challenging pieces ("Chromatic Aberration," "Heat of Fusion," and the brilliant "Erase/ Record/ Play: A Drama for Print"), slightly bent takes on Classical themes ("Dateline: Colonnus," and "The Lost Dialogue," but sadly not "Troy: The Movie") and Shakespeare ("Third Thoughts," "Letter From Elsinore"), and poems on everything from the Matter of Britain ("Winter Solstice, Camelot Station") to fannish in-jokes ("SF Cliches: A Sonnet Cycle," "Shared World") to September 11 ("110 Stories"). Plus other, weirder things.There's an astonishing variety of stuff here, and nearly all of it is excellent. I highly recommend this book, and pretty much anything else of his that you can lay hands on. The only thing the collection lacks is some sort of introduction or conclusion talking about the stories and poems, but maybe it's best to let them speak for themselves.(Originally posted to The Library of Babel.) Books15567@blogcritics.org Mon, 10 May 2004 20:32:25 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/05/10/202730.php Chad OrzelThe Knight by Gene Wolfe. I picked this up during a bookstore run one weekend, along with a bunch of space opera books. I ended up reading this first, rather than space opera, for the silliest of reasons: we had recently gone to a Richard Thompson concert, which got me to buy his greatest hits package, and Richard Thompson isn't really a good soundtrack for space battles.This is Wolfe's take on "crossover fantasy," a story in which a person from our world somehow crosses over into a fantasy world, and becomes a Person of Great Importance. The Knight of the title is Sir Able of the High Heart, who begins the tale as a young American boy. While out hiking in the woods, he comes across an odd tree, cuts a branch from it, and ends up in Mythgarthr, the middle of seven worlds (above Niflheim, Muspel, and Aelfrice, below Skai, Kleos, and Elysion). In fairly short order, he acquires a new name, a brother, and a new adult body. Soon to follow are a variety of magical weapons and companions, along with a Quest or two.It didn't occur to me until I sat down to booklog this, and discovered that it fell right after The Last Light of the Sun that you might view this as Wolfe's version of the Fionavar Tapestry. It's a crossover fantasy set in a world that's a weird mix of various mythologies (mostly Norse, but bits of other stuff). Of course, Wolfe being Wolfe, there are some differences: rather than a party of college students (the traditional crossover group), he starts with a single young boy; the narrative structure is a little odd (the book is written in the form of a letter to Able's brother back in our world, and frequently alludes to future events), and the narrator may not be entirely reliable; and everything is fraught with symbolism, even when I can't quite figure out what it means. There's also a quirky humor in a lot of the book, demonstrated nicely in this exchange between Able and his dog Gylf: "I want you to tell me what you are." "Dog." Gylf sat too. "No ordinary dog can do what you do. No ordinary dog can talk, for that matter." "Good dog." (There are also weird echoes of Chabon's Summerland, another "young boy caught up in syncretic fantasy world" story.)This is actually the first part of a larger work, "The Wizard Knight," with the second volume, The Wizard to be published sometime next year. As such, I almost have to reserve judgment on this book, until I've read the second volume, and gotten somebody really smart to explain to me what the hell just happened. That said, this is a very good book. It's not a hard slog like some of Wolfe's other books, and while it's not immediately clear what everything means, Able's adventures are enjoyable to read about in a straightforward manner, whatever new spin may be put on them when the work is complete and the symbolism more clear. It's a unique take on the crossover story, but then you'd expect nothing less from Wolfe.(Originally posted to The Library of Babel.) Books15565@blogcritics.org Mon, 10 May 2004 20:27:30 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/05/10/202042.php Chad OrzelThe Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay. The latest pseudo-historical fantasy from the author of Tigana, A Song For Arbonne, The Lions of Al-Rassan, and the Sarantine Mosaic (Kate has nice reviews of these: Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors).Unfortunately, I have to agree with the first sentence of Mike's review: this isn't one of his best. My overall impression is a little more positive than Mike's, in the end-- he complains about "how densely [Kay] peppers this tale with Great Men," but really, the super-genius warrior-poet-kings are what I read Kay for, so that didn't bug me. The preachy bits, however, were an irritation, and I'm not wild about the device of occasionally breaking off from the main tale to tell the entire life story of a bit player. Kay has an interview in a recent issue of Locus in which he talks about his decision to do the life-story thing, and it sounds really nice, but like many such ideas, it's kind of annoying in practice.The book itself is a thinly fictionalized story of the British Isles, involving a collision between three cultures (Angles, Celts, and Vikings, basically) on the far edge of the world of the Sarantium books. The Christian-analogue religion (Jaddism) has reached the area, but not quite taken over, and older gods and wild magics still linger around the edges of human settlements. Three Cyngaels (Celts) of the royal line planning a raid on an isolated farm end up being converted to honored guests by a chance encounter, and are staying the night when a bloody Erling (Viking) raid on the farm sets in motion a chain of events that bring the Erlings, Cyngael, and Anglcyn (guess) into violent collision, and set a new course for the island's future. There's some great stuff here-- revenge, epic journeys, a grand sweep of history, more explicit magic than Kay has had in the last several books. The characters edge toward excessively superlative, but they're engagingly drawn all the same, and aside from a few unfortunate stylistic choices, the writing is excellent as always. The story and writing definitely drew me in, and I read this very quickly.It's a very good book, but just doesn't rank with Kay's best.(Originally posted to The Library of Babel.) Books15564@blogcritics.org Mon, 10 May 2004 20:20:42 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/05/10/201613.php Chad OrzelThis is a mix tape I made a couple of years ago, now, around the time Kate and I got married. The title refers to a mandatory discussion of Catholic doctrine that we had to go to in order to get married in a church. I made the tape, and then left it in the tape deck of my parents' minivan, which we had borrowed for one or another of the post-wedding moves. My dad really liked the tape, so I let him keep it, and until now, I haven't gotten around to making a copy.Because I'm bored, and because most of these songs are reasonably comprehensible, I'll do this LiveJournal style, and post lyrics rather than song titles. I don't expect this will have much success, given that some of the songs are a little obscure, but I'm easily amused, and this is all about me.(Of course, this is kind of a problem, as I can't very well add Amazon links to the post without giving some of the songs away... What to do, what to do? Well, I'll post it sans links, and add them later, if anybody guesses any of the songs...)Side One: 1) "Some are mathematicians, some are carpenters' wives." 2) "I remember Christmas in the blistering cold, in a church on the Upper West Side." 3) "See the oil fields at first light." 4) "With fingerlnails that shine like justice, and a voice that is dark like tinted glass." 5) "Your grandsons, they won't understand." 6) "She left me roses by the stairs, surprises let me know she cares." 7) "We asked for Mojo Nixon, they said 'He don't work here.'" 8) "There will be no flowers flowing in the light that passes through me." 9) "It's just the way that you talk, like it ain't no thing." 10) "Let's bulldoze our way to a brand new peace accord." 11) "I wish the ape a lot of success, I'm sorry my apartment's a mess." 12) "Most of all, my God, how does she make her eyes do that?" 13) "I never know the perfect time to hit the bedroom light." 14) "And I may seem all right and smile when you leave, but my smiles are just a front." Side Two: 15) "I need something strong to distract my mind. I'm gonna look at you 'til my eyes go blind." 16) "Patchouli oil, and motor oil, and you knew all the words." 17) "The way that you sleep is the image I'll keep always on the edge of my mind." 18) "Sam Cooke didn't know what I know." 19) "Lost his mind from the TV, now he's playing God." 20) "We're loyal, like brothers, just us versus all the others." 21) "And if I ever get another chance, I'd still ask her to dance." 22) "Left my baby and it feels so bad, I guess my race is run." 23) "I was riding hard to meet her, when a shot rang out behind." 24) "I could hide out under there." 25) "Why do tomorrow, what you could never do?" 26) "Someone's blasting me with hate and bass, sending dirty vibes my way." 27) "Flags, rags, ferry boats, scimitars and scarves, every precious dream and vision underneath the stars." (Most of these are from memory, with a few things checked by Googling. I can't claim 100% accuracy for any of them.)(A version of this was originally posted to Uncertain Principles.) Music15563@blogcritics.org Mon, 10 May 2004 20:16:13 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/04/15/222908.php Chad Orzel(This is a couple of weeks old, as I've been very busy, but I may as well post it here all the same...)I missed the tail end of yesterday's big basketball story (UAB's upset of Kentucky) because Kate and I went to see singer, songwriter, and all-around cheery guy Richard Thompson in concert last night. This was a spur-of-the-moment decision, as Kate stumbled across a mention of the show (at the Egg) a couple of days ago, and I said "Sure, let's go."As appropriate for an impulse buy, the show ended up being surprising on several levels.Even before Thompson took the stage, it was an interesting scene. As we milled around in the lobby area between the opening act and the main show, I was struck by how oddly familiar the crowd looked. It was a weird mix of people who looked like they belonged in SF fandom, and people who looked like they belonged in academia. (Plus one guy in black jeans, a black shirt, and a beret, because it's a law of nature that there's always at least one dink who comes to a concert dressed just like the main act...) I'm not sure why this surprised me, given that Thompson isn't really noted for his popularity among the teenage skateboarder set, but of all the concerts I've been to, it's the one where I felt least out of place, being a slightly fannish academic. This, of course, made me profoundly uneasy.The show itself was also fairly novel, in that I only knew about one song in four. A lot of the others sounded sort of familiar, as he has a knack for writing that sort of song, but there would aways come a point where I realized "Nope. Don't actually know this song." (Annoyingly, several of them fail to turn up on the lyrics search page. I'm not sure if that means they were covers, or if it's just not as good a search engine as it could be...) This was only the second time I've ever had that happen (the first being the Pietasters at Toad's Place in New Haven, when I was in town looking for an apartment). I don't go to all that many concerts, and when I do go to see a band, it's usually because I've got nearly every album they've ever recorded, and know the words to most of the songs. In this case, I own three albums and a best-of collection out of Thompson's thirty-odd years of recording, so it was a different experience. (I do own (and am presently listening to) his most recent album, so I recognized those songs, and some of the older stuff was familiar, but there's a huge gap in the middle part of his career...)The stage show consisted of, well, Richard Thompson. With a guitar, a microphone, and an effects pedal or two. And that was pretty much it. As with the John Hiatt show we went to last year, it was really striking how much sound he managed to generate with just one guitar. It was also a wonderful demonstration of what a great guitarist the guy is. You can tell that he's good on the albums, but it wasn't obvious just how good until I heard him playing by himself. I have a better idea now why really talented musicians admire him so much (beyond his obvious gift for lyrics).(Listening to him perform really drives home how much of an influence he has on the whole "Bordertown" crowd, and Emma Bull in particular. When he played "1952 Vincent Black Lightning", Kate leaned over to me and said "Now I need to re-read Finder again...)He didn't do much in the way of re-arranging songs, save for singing a few songs that originally had Linda Thompson on vocals. That certainly puts a slightly different spin on "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight", but it wasn't a radical re-working of the song by any stretch. Some of the new material, "Outside of the Inside" in particular, was slightly less intense in person, probably because of the change in instrumentation, but that's about it.I was also impressed by the range of stuff he did. He's not noted for being a really upbeat guy, but he did a couple of songs that weren't depressing at all. One was a slightly silly song about Alexander Graham Bell, the other was an incredibly silly song about Janet Jackson, urging her to consider a second career as a wet nurse. His stage patter was also great-- he joked with the people who were yelling out requests (one request, which he heard as "Three Legged Horse" became a running joke), and had a great sense of humor in his song introductions.Of course, the silly songs made for some major mood swings, as he followed happy, bouncy songs with crashingly depressing ones. It was a little like listening to a stack of his CD's with an exceptionally perverse shuffle play feature. He spanned pretty much the whole range, though, from the Janet Jackson ditty to "The End of the Rainbow", and everything in between. He closed the show on a great note, too, with "Beeswing," which was really quite lovely. That song alone would be enough to get me to buy more of his records.All in all, a very good show. He played for about two hours, with a couple of short encores, and the crowd ate it up. It's a nice place to see this sort of show, too: the theater only holds about 1000 people, and while the seats we had provided a fairly oblique view of the stage, it's not like there were fabulous visuals that we were missing, and we were close to the stage.(Originally posted to Uncertain Principles.) Music14784@blogcritics.org Thu, 15 Apr 2004 22:29:08 EDT