Book Reviews: "The Unknowns" and "David and Goliath"

Sooooo… This could hypothetically be a good year for reading.  I have just finished two more books that I was reading...simultaneously!  Unbelievable  I did not know I could read anymore but denying myself the newspapers and news might have been healthy.  So two books… “David and Goliath” by Malcolm Gladwell… arguably non fiction and “The Unknowns” by Gabriel Roth.  I had read another of Gladwell's books but never one of his big insight books like “The Outliers”.  I had never read the Roth guy before.  I think it might be his first book.

“David and Goliath” was really good.  It starts with the the recounting of the Biblical story of…. David and Goliath.  It is all based on the premise that we look at a lot of things wrong.  In regard to David and Goliath we are talking about the view that David, over unbelievable odds pulled off this miracle slaying of Goliath.  Gladwell informs us that the story could not have ended any other way.  A talented guy with a sling can land it on a face 200 yards away and Goliath (and King Saul) were all expecting a hand to hand battle.  So David did not wine because of God or destiny.  He one because he was thinking of a different battle, he prepared for that battle and he destroyed his opponent… who according to Gladwell, never had a chance.

Gladwell then goes on to give a bunch more examples of this type of thinking from classroom size, to money and parenting, successful dyslexics and underdog teams.   The premise is that adversity  can be an advantage.  I like books like this because they make me think but… from my limited perspective he draws well researched examples and uses them to illustrate whatever point he is trying to make.  This is one of the reasons that demagogues like Glenn Beck LOVE Gladwell because he, like they, uses these examples to support their false narratives.  I don’t know whether Gladwell is right but it gets pedantic and uninteresting as he pulls aberrant examples of things which in his mind disprove the norm.  Not a bad read but… miss it.

The second book however is excellent fiction read. Gabriel Roth has written what I think is his debut called “The Unknowns”.  It is the story of a nerd and it is a pretty good one. It opens with the nerd who has killed it with a start up going to a party and in attempting to meet the love of his life ends up going home and doing ecstasy with the girl he did not mean to be with.  I have no experience with that particular drug but from his description of how it felt when he was done, it seems like something for an old man to avoid.

The book flashes back to how he got molded into a dot.com millionaire with his high school nerd friend and all the social awkwardness and family problems that damaged him but eventually he finds (stalks) the aformentioned girl of his dreams.  She is indeed the girl of his dreams but like everyone has some damaged baggage.  He handles the difficulties related with the trust issues involved in every relationship… not so well.  

It is well written and a good read and of the two books if I was looking to get outside my life (and I always am) I would recommend the Roth book.  Read, have fun.  Be a human being. It could still happen. Even for you.

Diner Review Best CD's of 2013

Sooo… I did not listen to enough good music this year.  I listened to my favorites but did not find a lot for my friends and...what kind of friend is that?  I blame myself for watching TV and rotting my sensibilities.  I also blame the Obama administration and… and global warming.  Fortunately I stopped watching, listening to and reading the news and avoided practicing law for December and it allowed me to catch up on the important things in life...new music and gluten free cooking.  I did not put numbers by them but generally put them in order with the CD OF THE YEAR upfront.  Enjoy… or don't.

Jason Isbell: Southeastern:  Jason Isbell started his musical career or more appropriately “came of age” in the seminal, sometimes brilliant Drive By Truckers as one of the three lead guitarist/songwriters that made the band so interesting.  If you are of an age and miss the sublime raggedness of the Allman Brother… go by the Drive By Truckers  “Southern Rock Anthem”.  Unfortunately for Isbell the band and his… youthful exuberance” almost killed him.  Happily it did not. This new CD Southeastern is nothing but brilliant all the way through.  Isbell if he never does anything else gave us a perfect CD of loss and finding yourself in middle age and coming to peace with… at least a significant number of demons.  

“Cover Me Up”, “Stockholm”, “Elephant”, “Flying Over Water” and “Different Days” are songwriting tutorials and his voice carries a nice Ryan Adams accessibility that I really was not expecting.

This Is the CD/Album of the year for me… although it did not make Pitchfork's top 50 Album list.  WTF?  Why do they hate America?

Okkervil River:  Silver Gymnasium.  Sheff and his band are long time favorites of mine and I never miss their releases but I consider this CD a return to form.  Sheff is in the blessed position of doing whatever he wants and his side trips to work with Roky Erickson  and the somewhat slight CD that followed were a not so fun of a side trip.  The new CD has been covered adnauseum and it is Will Sheff’s ode to growing up in a small New England town and I have already reviewed it but it is pretty brilliant.  “On The Balcony”, “Pink Slips”, “It Was My Season”, and “Down The Deep River” are just tuneful pop romps.  Buy the whole CD.  It holds up as a narrative of growing up and the references to 80’s pop culture are intuitive and delightful.Live a little.  More important it did not make Pitchfork's top 50 albums either. It gets better each time I listen… still.
Neko Case:  “The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You”... trying to battle Fiona Apple for the long, imponderable CD title (“The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do”) but if we get by this contrivance we discover one of the best CD’s of the year and certainly her best work to date.  She has progressed from a Vancouver Punk to a faux country standards singer, and then by hooking up sequentially with The Sadies and then becoming the best vocal chops for The New Pornographers has...defied genres and it manifests itself in this great, broad piece of work.  Kelly Hogan, AC Newman and M. Ward help along the way.  My favorite song…”City Swans”.  This is also one that should not be missed.

Waxahatchee:  Cerulean Salt:  This is a totally different “Southern Thing” from Kacey Musgraves or Brandy Clarkson.  This is dark introspective stuff and more evocative of William Faulkner than “Hee Haw”.  This is excellent, I had never heard of her and Pitchfork put it on their best of list which caused me to listen.  It has no hits.  It is solid throughout.  I think she is in her early 20s and there's a lot of angst. Buy this one to be ahead of the curve.  Think of Chan Marshall and her band Cat Power accept that she has something to say and when you listen to her you don't want to shoot yourself in the head.  This is another CD that everytime I listen I grab something else.  “Hollow Bedroom”, “Dixie Cups and Jars” and “Your Damaged” are play listing in the Mazda mobile listening room.  Seriously, this is a band and an artist almost no one has heard and you should.  Impress your friends, or at least stump them.

Natalie Maines: “Mother”  I seem to be on a twangy female binge but that is only because they are producing so much great music. Natalie is of course daughter of Lloyd Maines the renowned pedal steel player and session man.  She of course was also the lead voice and songwriting chops of “The Dixie Chicks” but their demise for me was...unlamented.  This album is brilliant beginning with the title track which she got from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”.  On “The Wall” I ignored this song.  Here it is...epic.  She brings in a host of talented admirers to play with her on this CD including Gary Louris of the Jayhawks, Jeff Buckley, Ben Harper and even Eddie Vedder on “Without You”.  The whole CD is flawless and a statement but “Mother”, “Without You”, “Silver Bell” and her cover of the Jayhawks “I’d Run Away” with Louris are worth the price of the download.

Parquet Courts:"Light Up The Gold".  OK… this is the funnest CD of the year.  This is the full length CD review of Brooklyn Punkers.  I dont know what these guys were doing before but you can take everything I love from early Built To Spill and here it here as these guys thrash around beautifully.  This is car music or club music but it great music and for those of you that know me and love me, there is no twang involved.  Buy this one.  Play it loud.  Smile.

Kurt Vile:  "Wakin On A Pretty Daze".  OK… this is another one that just grabbed me at the end of the year.  This guy is really an excellent find.  Think of Lou Reed/R.E.M. with a sense of humor. It made number 1 in the UK on the indie charts.  According to Vile (which is a great name) “It’s just about my life, without thinking too much about it. I feel comfortable with the lyrics.”  Cannot pick a good song.  The whole thing rocks.

*

The Lorde CD/EP.  16 or 17 from New Zealand.  Total pop chops. He 5 song EP does not have a bad tune on it but “Tennis Court” and the ubiquitous “Royals” are brilliant.  Normally I hate this type of music finding it contrived and over produced but what she has done here, is brilliant.  Whether it was her, or her handlers… brilliant.  Look, even a pretentious, twangy bastard like myself can appreciate something brilliant even in a genre I don’t wander into.  This is not Katy Perry or Miley Cyrus.  This is talent, sans “twerk”.

Kacey Musgraves: Same Trailer Different Park:  This is her 4th studio album and i was at best unfamiliar with her.  Normally I would dismiss her as “Big hat” country and “Eagles Esque” this album will not be dismissed.  Her songs are almost Springsteen like in their ability to describe the desolation, the hopelessness and… the beauty of rural American life.  If you have not listened to the hit, “Merry Go Round”, do download it now. “If you ain’t got two kids by 21 you're probably going to die alone.”  Wow.  Who says that out loud, even as an indictment.

Inside Llewyn Davis:  If you can wait until the Showtime Movie “One Night Only, A Town Hall Tribute To The Music Of Llewyn Davis” comes out as a CD do it.  Nonesuch records will be releasing:

http://www.nonesuch.com/journal/nonesuch-releases-live-recording-one-night-only-town-hall-concert-inside-llewyn-davis-2013-12-12

T-Bone Burnett who produced this gem gathered a bunch of other musicians and it is brilliant set and I cannot wait.  Until then you feed on this a little.  It is really good.  “Hang Me Oh Hang Me” is such a great classic and it is performed more than adequately here and the Timberlake dominated “Please Mr. Kennedy” is a gem.  Don’t be confused though, this is no “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” but you do have to marvel at the consistency of Burnette in the genre and the performances he gets out of musicians.Brandy Clarkson: 12 Stories.  This CD is just what it says.  Clarkson is ALL Nashville and has been writing hits for Miranda Lambert and others over the last few years but this is a tour de force and is exactly what advertises.  Twelve Stories from the perspective of 12 different women, none of them particularly happy.  There is nothing about drinking, cars and “America” in this country songwriting tour de force.  This is more like Lucinda Williams than Miranda Lambert.

Pistol Annies: “Annie Up”  This is just a lighthearted romp but it is really well done.  This is the girls answer to all those stupid country boy CD’s.  “Being Pretty Ain’t Pretty” and “Unhappily Married” are great country tunes and these ladies can wail in harmony in a manner I find...tuneful.  I am embarrassed to list this CD here but what the hell, I liked it.This is a throw away but what the hell?

My Movstraviganza

Sooo…. between vacation, snow, a trip to Arkansas and a trip to Michigan I don’t really work anymore.  For my clients this is not necessarily a bad thing as I am not messing up their matters but leaving them to my staff.  Coupled with the disjointed work schedule it is my wife’s “busy season” which as near as i can tell goes from November until May.  Bottom line is that I have been left with a large amount of time on my hands.

I like to see movies.  My wife likes to see movies.  But there are a lot of movies which we cannot see together because she does not like anything:

1. Two stressful;

2. Too violent;

3. Too filthy;

4. Too stupid…

You get the idea.  So I like to see movies and they release a lot of movies during the holidays.  Apparently not a lot of good ones.  Over the period I have seen:

Nebraska (with my wife);

The Hobbit Movie (with my adult “sort of” sons);

The Hunger Games Movie (by myself);

Wolf of Wall Street (by myself); and

Inside Llewyn Davis (by myself).

Not a million  movies but a lot of movies.  A lot of people find seeing a movie by yourself to be a weird thing… a creepy thing… a...a…. Mike Becker thing.  But I like it.  I don’t have to worry about whether the other person is having a good time and I can walk out if I want to.  In spite of my stomach difficulties I ate buttered popcorn and drank water.  I only walked out on one.  So here is the short and the short of it:

Nebraska:  Good but not great.  Heartfelt.  Bruce Dern should not win an academy award.  Will Forte surprisingly good.  It was kind of draggy but had nice message sort of… but was overall just relentlessly sad…

The Hobbit:  The Hobbit.  It had great special effects, was better than the first of the three movies and reinforced that they should not have made one book into three movies.

Hunger Games: “Catching Fire” was well done, true to the book and frankly made “Nebraska” look more like a dystopian future.  The movie is saved by Jennifer Lawrence who you can look at forever and who can really act.  If you have the heart for it, rent “Winters Bone”.  It is a better use of your time but I read these books.  I cannot wait to see the third one where if it is like the book I will be cheering shamelessly for Katniss Everdeen to die.

Inside Llewyn Davis:  I saw it for the music and because it was the Coen brothers.  It is a really well done, stupid move.  The main character is just a self involved, dick.  He shits on everyone and everything pursuing a career that is really not a career.  It is well done in that it seems to catch the spirit of the Village and the folk scene, before Dylan came, was brilliant and killed it.  Justin Timberlake who I hate, shows again just how talented he is.  If you saw the trailer, you saw every funny line.  If you're not a fan of the music or the Coen’s miss it and if you love the music, catch the Showtime special with T-Bone Burnett gathering musicians to do music of the similar period.  It is awesome.  

Wolf of Wall Street:  I walked out.  3 hours long.  How many times can you watch someone snort coke off of a strippers breasts?  How many times can a they say fuck in a movie?  506 times according to Rolling Stone:

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/the-wolf-of-wall-street-drops-506-f-bombs-setting-a-new-record-20140103

The movie, reflecting on it had some brilliant scenes but Scorsese was just relentless in remaking “Goodfellas” complete with diCaprio narrating just like Ray Liotta.  It was exhausting and sad and not interesting enough to last three hours.  It was lovingly filmed but I just felt stupid sitting there and it is really hard for me to feel stupid.

Sooo… all of these movies are missable but… all  have some merits.  I think “American Hustle” is next.  Maybe things will get better.

News Boycott: Update

Soooo… when watching the new season of Downton Abbey with my wife and daughter I find myself reflecting on my 14 days in the wasteland without news.  I have not been entirely successful but thus far feel self pleased with my effort.

We drove home from Michigan, 10 hours in the car on New Years day and that is normally a ride where I listen to NPR most of the ride and certainly do it on the hour so I could hear the hourly news.  Over and over again, listening for the minute changes and updates regarding Syria (still in a civil war), Obamacare (still an unfolding disaster), Congress (dysfunctional), the economy (recovering but slowly and with less viable jobs) and of course Obama (struggling).  Instead I listened to Outlaw Country on Sirius.  Heard a couple of new artists. The drive went well.

Woke up January 2nd for my normal ritual of reading The Post-Dispatch during breakfast at home.  I don't get much out of it normally and surprisingly I didn't miss it much.  I am considering allowing myself the right and privilege of perusing the sports page.  But not yet… it… it is too soon.  Instead I read the New Yorker from last week and it was fabulous.  It always is but this was a great issue with a profile of Pope Francis and a story about a sustainable, off the grid DIY farmer/engineer in Northwest Missouri. Long articles… with substance.  Weird.

The ride to work normally meant more NPR, flipping out when bored to listen to asinine rantings of Jamie Allman.  This guy makes stupid into an art.  It is so classic as he is one of the announcers who only became a stupid Nazi because people like it so much.  There is not a single irrational thing he is not capable of saying at this point  and although I never learned anything by listening to him, it reminded me of the huge base of stupidity that Fox’s local affiliate is built on.  Instead I listened to Mike and Mike on ESPN, another good choice but I had to hear about the Minnesota kicker saying he got fired because of his stance on same sex marriage so… I turned on KDHX and heard some more new music.

I didn't have to go to court in the morning and flick between NPR and the lord and master of demagoguery...Glenn Beck but, no court trip.  I normally read the Wall Street Journal but today brought the New Yorker to finish up those articles while I ate at my desk.  Once again, the New Yorker is probably cheating but it is not really “news” because it comes a week late and really only covers whatever it wants.  If it is cheating I can live with it.

Instead of surfing news sites at work I worked in screw off time on my best music of 2013 list list which led to me listening to a lot of recently released music on Spotify and downloading quite a bit to the iTunes library.

This led to a drive home listening to Neko Case’s new CD as well as the CD from Camera Obscura and frankly, all of that is really so much better than listening to NPR.

The weekend came and I found it really easy to avoid all media.  Had breakfast with a friend Saturday.  Worked and listened to music and then went home and read and napped. Went out to dinner and then Sunday morning came.  It was snowpocalypse with the beginning of one foot, sub zero drubbing of the St. Louis area.  I wanted to read the Sunday Post in front of a fire so badly that I could taste it.  Doing it while eating a hot breakfast would have been even better but I had another New Yorker and I had a book to finish.  I avoided watching the weather terrorists though I was powerfully drawn to it.  I also avoided my Sunday morning ritual of “Meet The Press”.  

Snowpocalypse Monday did lead me to turn on channel 5 to check the roads but all i heard was road conditions.  I SWEAR!  I no longer know who is President.  For all I know the healthcare roll out is going smoothly and they have already authorized raising the debt ceiling.  My current thoughts are that I am going to allow myself the Sunday Paper and perhaps even the weekend Wall Street Journal but it is too early to say for sure.  It is not that news is bad.  Just like booze isn't “bad” (well i guess it is poison) but like booze, news is bad if you over consume and I think we are all over consuming too much “crap” news that is not really news at all but alarmist entertainment.  Blah, blah, blah.

***

That was week one.  Week two had some lapses.  I took a trip to Arkansas.  I read the Arkansas Democrat last Saturday.  It did nothing but reaffirm that I am not missing anything.  I did avoid NPR pretty successfully but I have found that I am really coming to hate sports talk radio.  KDHX has really been the nice surprise.  They still have too many blues type shows and blue grass type shows but overall it is a mix of music that exposes me to new music and entertains and keeps me updated regarding the latest shows.  

I am not sure the exercise is serving it’s purpose which was to allow more reading of other stuff.  I have been using breakfast to read some books of the Old Testament.  In my new Bible study we are starting Nehemiah and I found I had not retained much of it from high school in Mr. Grundman’s class.  Also, the next week’s New Yorker was not quite as compelling.  Still, it is interesting filling the reading time with something other than the pap that newspapers have become.  I am not at this point Zen like in my relaxation but… I will give it another few weeks and gut it out till the end of the month and report.  Peace.

Book Review of Nicholson Baker's "The Traveling Sprinkler"

Soooo…. Nicholson Baker.  A national treasure?  Maybe not.  A really, REALLY solid contemporary author...absolutely.  This guys body of work is as good as it gets for a guy still kicking around.  “Vox” and “The Fermatta” knocked me out 20 years ago and he has published good work since those.  He is a maturing guy who after those books had the elbow room to write what he wants.  The books range from Presidential assassination fantasies to diatribes questioning the politically correct narratives of World War II.  All of it cogently written in a particular voice.  That voice also lent itself to storytelling in “The Everlasting Story of Nori”.  If you want an overview of a diverse writers life, check his Wiki page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholson_Baker

“The Traveling Sprinker” brings us back poet/anthologist Paul Chowder (from his prior book “The Anthologist” who is struggling to write poems but instead forays into popular songwriting, dance music, electronica and beats.  It is a classic middle aged man’s take on his own mid-life crisis as he deals with:

Not knowing what to do with his life

Failed relationships that are not quite dead yet

Health issues

Cigars

Drinking

Childlessness…

and the like.  He uses the title subject as a nice metaphor for...everything. It is one of those things I refer to as a "tractor" sprinkler but it follows the course of the hose that feeds it as it goes on whatever path is set for it and waters and... lets just say there are a lot of metaphorical opportunities there.

But it is an endearing book and an easy read as he learns about modern music and listens to it and creates his own amidst what appears to be the abundant debris of his life.

He cannot keep his liberal politics out of it but throws off shattering statistics regarding deaths related to drone warfare while remembering his passion for the bassoon as he smokes cigars and tries to write, primarily in his car.  The portrait is one of a talented guy who is occasionally brilliant as he wanders, literally through his life and… other than the brilliant part, I could certainly relate.  

The lead character is also a Quaker and I know nothing about Quakers so found that interesting.  The idea of going to a “meeting” and sitting in silence and contemplation for an hour or so seems… very healthy.  I tend to only go to “meetings” where people are fighting about money or opening by saying, “Hi, my name is Mike and I am an…”.  I guess this is what I like about Baker as an author.  He takes me outside my realm of experience and really outside my normal way of thinking about things and there is something liberating about that in a book, but here is a comfortableness and reality to his characters that ring true.

Wives should read this to have a better handle on what a mess their husbands are.  Younger men should read it so they can see what they will become (and that is assuming everything works out) and middle aged men should read it so you can go, “that seems about right”.  

It is a nice read from a nice author.

Some Singles From NPR From 2013

Soooo...I am listening to NPR’s Critics 50 picks for 2013 and picking them for you.  I am troubled this year that I seem to be listening to more well produced music, often with loops and...God forbid, automated drums.  WTF is wrong with me?  I have been recently wrestling with the paradigm shift that has already taken place in the industry which is away from the CD or Album or the idea that you need to pay for 10-13 songs when all you really want is the hit or the one song that grabs you.  I still like listening to whatever my favorites are doing but have fallen into the habit of just “owning” (buying on iTunes) the one song I really want or maybe two or three rather than the whole CD.  So I am going to look at music in a copule of different ways when looking back on 2013 and NPR’s list seemed like a good way to start but we are talking tunes or singles here rather than the CD they are connected with.  NPR had some interesting stuff I had not heard of and others that I did and here are my thoughts on whaty I gleaned from the list:

1. Bambino: “Amidinine”  This is motorcycle music for you.  I know it is out of season.  They are African Tauregs or some bullshit.  Who cares, this is really good and hooky and has balls. There is something about thisthat I know nothing about and I like.  I think they are from the Taureg tribe from Africa.  I am of the Becker tribe of Webster.  We can march but we do not rock like this.

2. Brandy Clark:  "Pray to Jesus”  70’s Country adapted for modern country poverty… and maybe hope…I don’t know.  “We Pray To Jesus and we play the lotto.”  That sounds like me. This entire CD was well reviewed and I think I probably grab the whole thing but this is “classis country” and I go to tell you, I love it.

3. BUIKA  "LA NOCHE MAS LARGA”  Latin Jazz for a late night…kind of like going to church.  That is all I have to say about that.

4. Haim “The Wire”  Though the intro seems to be “Heartache Tonight” this is interesting in the way Lorde is interesting.  There is something fresh sounding about it.  None essential but a Friday afternoon smile.  I kind of hate myself for even putting this in a list.  I hate myself for a lot of different reasons but let’s add Haim to the list.  I am told the whole CD is good.  I am not sure I can live with myself if I find out.

5. Jason Isbell:  “Elephant”.  If I have not already sold you this album it is my album of the year.  This song is a heart breaking homage to bar culture, cancer and how people die… as best they can.  See upcoming for my list.  Which is… limited but is my traditional CD list. “Different Days”, “Flying Over Water”...lots of depth here.

6. Kasey Musgraves:  “Merry Go Round”.  Really simply well written and performed classic country.  Americana at it’s best.  “Same trailer, different park”, “we get bored so we get married, just like dust we settle in this town”.  That is good shit. I don’t know whether she wrote this song but it is a study in songwriting.  If you like Brandy Clark you should LOVE Kasey Musgraves.

7. Laura Marling “Master Hunter”  NPR calls it "English Cosmic Folk”… Really?  It is driving and literary, she has a sneering little voice and it worth a listen.  It does not sound like most anything else out there.

8. Pedro Martinez Group:  “La Habana”…. there is a critical buzz… all Spanish…brilliant hand drumming… late night…why not?  For simple minded people like me think “quiet, talented Ricky Ricardo”.

9. San Fermin  “Renaissance”  I bought this CD at Euclid Records because of the CD art…it took NPR to make me listen.  Embarrassing.  This is mournful and the song is too “big” but it is pretty.  More listening will ensue.  I report, you decide.

10. Valerie June “Pushing Against A Stone”  Spare like a “Cat Power” song.  But better, with a twang and frankly more interesting.  I will need to check out the whole CD now.  I hate that.

11. Vampire Weekend:  “Step”  The CD is the best thing they have done since their debut.  Once again I have ignored but they are relentlessly pleasant and interesting.  Not enough for me to wax poetically about but seriously, who could really object to having this shit playing softly in the background while talking?  Nobody that you would want to talk to.

12. Waxahatchee:  Hollow Bedroom  All I could think of is Suzanne Vega singing “My Name Is Luka” but then the guitar came in and it got….compelling.

13. The Lorde CD:  I am sure for most of America it is overplayed but I never hear it unless I play it so the song “Royals” and “Tennis Court” are as finely crafted pop as you going to here.  

It has been a pretty good year. So that is NPR and if you don’t pay attention to their web site for music you need to re-evaluate your life.  They keep track of the new stuff as well as classic artists.  Their “Tiny Desk Concerts” are a trove of brilliance that one day might be compared to what the Smithsonian did for the Delta Blues.