Caitlin Rose, “Piledriver Waltz” [Alex Turner/Arctic Monkeys cover]
From a Domino Records Record Store Day 2012 7”
I fell in love with Caitlin Rose this week. The Stand-In is such a charming record, and is, at this point, one of my favorite albums of the year. I’m normally not really into country-informed pop music (I like Taylor Swift, but she’s pretty much pure-pop at this point), so this was a very nice surprise.
Eventually
I will post with greater frequency, on a more diverse range of topics. As of now, if I’m not reading and writing and studying for school, I’m reading authors with whom I’m already familiar and know that I love — it helps provide an effective respite from school. Not too adventurous, I know, but I need it.
He heard her in the entryway. Mol, Molly, oh boy. When they were first married they used to fight. Say the most insane things. Afterward, sometimes there would be tears. Tears in bed? And then they would – Molly pressing her hot wet face against his hot wet face. They were sorry, they were saying with their bodies, they were accepting each other back, and that feeling, that feeling of being accepted back again and again, of someone’s affection for you expanding to encompass whatever new flawed thing had just manifested in you, that was the deepest, dearest thing he’d ever –
- George Saunders, “Tenth of December.”
Angel Olsen, “Sweet Dreams”
From the Sleepwalker 7”
I need more Angel Olsen songs, especially if they sounds like this.
Autre Ne Veut, “Play By Play.”
From Anxiety [Software, 2013]
Well, this caught me off guard. It sounds absolutely massive, and it’s just a visceral thrill to listen to.
Official trailer for Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo.
This is a really lovely trailer, and it looks to be as whimsical and surreal as (if not more than) the director’s other work. My only qualm is the use of that annoying folk pop song at the end. Other Gondry works have employed pop songwriting to great effect (Beck, the White Stripes, etc.). I’m just hoping the song doesn’t end up in the film.
Bid on an OG Brooks Brotherz “Fun Shirt” and wear it ironically or in earnest (although I guess since this is deemed a “go to hell” shirt, it’s sort of ironic anyway)? Anyway, Click here to bid on it.
Escape from Spiderhead
My initial compulsion would be to group this among my favorite Saunders stories, but some temporal distance, reflection, and re-reading will solidify this. “Spiderhead” is certainly impressive from a technical perspective. Here’s the narrator, Jeff, describes the effects of an experimental drug while the drug begins coursing through his veins:
He added some Verbaluce™ to the drip, and soon I was feeling the same things but saying them better. The garden still looked nice. It was like the bushes were so tight-seeming and the sun made everything stand out? It was like any moment you expected some Victorians to wander in with their cups of tea. It was as if the garden had become a sort of embodiment of the domestic dreams forever intrinsic to human consciousness. It was as if I could suddenly discern, in this contemporary vignette, the ancient corollary through which Plato and some of his contemporaries might have strolled; to wit, I was sensing the eternal in the ephemeral.
Similar explosions of verbal acuity occur as Jeff participates in (and bears witness to) other experiments throughout the story. The effect is striking every time, whether it’s employed to comedic or devastating effect.
Of course, clever compositional devices are only amusing for a short time unless they’re deployed in a compelling framework, which is thankfully the case with “Spiderhead.” The profound empathy with which Saunders writes is what initially earned him my admiration, and this trait is on display in this story (and the others in Tenth of December). The author gradually unveils details about Jeff’s troubled past while detailing his (unbelievably traumatic) present experience, and the denouement is nearly as affecting as that of “Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz.” I can’t recommend this story enough.
You can pick up Tenth of December Here.
