Lead Belly

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I’ve been listening to a lot of Lead Belly this morning. I recommend the same to you.

“Gallows Pole”

“Where Did You Sleep Last Night”

Anyone have a recommendation for a solid collection of his recordings that’s worth buying? I went to link something here, but was quickly overwhelmed by the number of options available.

(Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Kill My Vacation Blues

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Just a note to say that the posting will be light to nonexistent for the next two weeks. I’ve decided to take a proper vacation. I originally thought that I’d keep up with posting while traveling, but I haven’t been satisfied with the quality of my work and instead of relaxing I was spending a bunch of time wondering why my writing was even more rubbish than usual. So it has dawned on me that I  need to either drop the blogging for the duration or drop the vacation. I’d say it was a hard decision, but that’d be a particularly egregious lie.

I wanted to post a picture of the best surprise I’ve received in a long time before I sign off. A certain friend (Mike) picked this up for me last year at a concert in San Francisco where he spent the opening act standing next to Corin Tucker without realizing it. I’m not sure if it was friendship that motivated him to get the cd signed for me or if he wanted to throw me off my vow to berate him about his obliviousness for the rest of time. (If the latter, he was obviously only partially successful.) Given that we weren’t going to see each other for eight or nine months though, we both forgot about it. (If only there were services that could safely transport packages across long distances for a small fee… No, too risky. Only personal delivery will suffice!)

Mike is, of course, awesome and I’m thrilled with the gift. I thought it was a good image to sign off with. It has that summer vacation feel and the right vibe for my upcoming travels. Many thanks to Mike.

See you in a couple weeks!

V. Chapter 4 – In which Esther gets a nose job

I’ve decided to keep this post short. The fact that I’m on vacation has nothing to do with this decision.

Is anyone buying this? No? Ok, fair enough. Truth is, it has been so long since I’ve had a real vacation that I’m forcing myself to take it easy. There is a lot to dig into in this chapter, but I’m keeping it simple. Here are a couple quick points on this week’s chapter:

– I’ve turned into a softy since I first read this book. I found myself skimming Schoenmaker’s detailed description of the operation much as I would quickly excuse myself from hearing the details of gruesome injuries and other misplaced dinner conversation topics.

– I found most of my attention on Schoenmaker’s back-story. Admittedly, the fist thing I thought of was a desperate desire that Scheonmaker was a partial inspiration for the character Woodhouse on Archer. That may have influenced my reading for a little bit. After I got over the wished for connection, I started paying a bit more attention to the decay that corrupts Schoenmaker’s ostensibly pure designs for becoming a plastic surgeon. After seeing Godolphin’s die through his rejection of the inanimate materials used to rebuild his face after the war, Schoenmaker turns to medicine to counter the actions of doctors like the one that kills Godolphin. The narrator notes, “if alignment with the inanimate is the mark of a Bad Guy, Schoenmaker at least made a sympathetic beginning” (101). The emphasis on “bad guy” through the capitalization indicates that we’re not expected to read this as easy categorizations of good and evil. Schoenmaker’s turn is described specifically as a decay, which in turn is intriguing since decay and rejection were exactly what destroys Godolphin, Schoenmaker’s inspiration. That decay is itself a turn away from the natural – in the case of Schoenmaker this means destroying noses to create more appealing, if unnatural, shapes. For V. it suggests the insidious move away from the natural and towards the mechanical. As I recall, Profane’s stint at Yoyodyne will expand on this theme.

V. Chapter 3 – In which Stencil, a quick-change artist, does eight impersonations

In light of the episodic nature of this week’s chapter, I thought I’d try something a little different: Eight points for eight impersonations. Stenci’s journey into conjecture about Porpentine hinges upon perspective so let’s look at where the quick changes take us. Continue reading “V. Chapter 3 – In which Stencil, a quick-change artist, does eight impersonations” →

V. Chapter Two – The Whole Sick Crew

Chapter 2 uses the setting to move the narrative over to Rachel Owlglass in a generally subtle way. This is perhaps in part to tie the novel more closely together early on given its disparate elements and the larger jumps that are to appear as the narrative progresses. The effect is compelling, small though it may be. The element that stands out to me the most in this chapter is, surprisingly, not the clues about V. or Stencil’s history. I say surprising because I recall this was what captivated my attention the first time I read the book (or, more accurately, the time I finally read the book all the way through). Certainly the chapter heads in that direction by giving Stencil a major position in the middle of the chapter and it’s introduction to the Whole Sick Crew. The mystery is undeniable. Nevertheless, Rachel’s role as den mother to the Whole Sick Crew was what really drew my attention this time through. Continue reading “V. Chapter Two – The Whole Sick Crew” →