Jeff VanderMeer and The Mumpsimus

Matthew Cheney of The Mumpsimus has done an interview with Jeff VanderMeer for SF Site. Definitely worth checking out.

NPR : Too hip for its own good

According to NPR's Ombudsman their music reviews are too hip. I'll wait for you to stop laughing.
Alright. The ombudsman claims that the reviews are incomprehensible and he uses these quotes to illustrate his point:

A review of the band Wilco on All Things Considered on June 21:

These extended explorations and others, like the five minutes of abrasive dental-drill feedback drone near the end of the disc, give Wilco's music an entirely new dimension. The guitar isn't here to make things pretty. Tweedy uses savage, wild lunges to punctuate the verses and sometimes to inject a little danger into otherwise lovely songs.

Yeah, "dental-drill feedback," that must be really hard to understand. Maybe it should have been edited to "shrill, piercing noise."

A review of the band The Magnetic Fields from All Things Considered on June 9:

The songs themselves are the draw. They're disciplined little gems of composition, poison-pen letters set in the first person and caustic, coffee-shop observations propelled by not particularly heroic desires. The best of them tell about being deluded in love or not being able to let go of an old flame. And even under Merritt's dour storm clouds, they gleam.

I'm completely mystified on this one. What is hard to understand here? Maybe "coffee-shop observations propelled by not particularly heroic desires" is a little silly, but it sure isn't hard to understand.

A review of an album by Morrissey on All Things Considered on June 4:

Morrissey has always seemed to be a walking paradox, both playful and morose, ambiguously asexual, political but hopelessly self-involved, which is why You Are the Quarry is still a classic Morrissey album. Songs like "All the Lazy Dykes" and "The World Is Full of Crashing Bores" serve up such themes in spades. But his usual inclination towards detachment ends there. And the new Morrissey, the older Morrissey, the wiser Morrissey, the Morrissey of this moment is unafraid to show a more personal side, venting his soul with songs like "Irish Blood, English Heart" about his withering sense of nationalism and, of course, the starkly brave and confessional accusation of Christianity entitled "I Have Forgiven Jesus."

Again what am I missing here? I'm not saying I agree with any of these reviews, but what is so hard to understand? After reading "the starkly brave and confessional accusation of Christianity" I know exactly what the song, called "I Have Forgiven Jesus" for godsakes, is about and know I don't care. Isn't that what the review should tell me?
All right, maybe some of this language is in rock-crit-ese, but none of it was inscrutable.
So what does our NPR ombudsman give as the alternative?

Ulaby's interview with Timbaland was about how he found inspiration in the Tolkien novels, The Lord of the Rings. It seemed an unusual combination, but Ulaby made Timbaland more comprehensible and his music more accessible.

This was good cultural journalism: It introduced me to an artist I didn't know. It told me why he is important and why he is an artist. I may not run out to buy his CD, but at least I can make an informed choice.

Well good. But he's not comparing same to same here. He's comparing record reviews to an interview with an artist. An interview can go more in depth on what an artist hopes to achieve and why he uses the sounds he does. A review takes what's in front of the reviewer and describes why he or she thinks it's good or bad. It's not an introduction, it's advice.
Sounds like he's upset that rock music isn't reviewed the way classical music is. In classicial music, you can say "this E note coming in during this cluster of notes brings a feeling of" blah blah blah. Nobody in rock cares about E notes or C notes or notes at all. How would a classical person describe five minutes of dental-drill feedback? He wouldn't. It may hit a certain note, but that would miss the point.
It's funny, because I always thought NPR reviews overexplained rock music. Maybe NPR should just leave out the rock reviews and go back to classical. A younger crowd isn't listening to NPR for their record reviews anyway.

UPDATE: I am always so pleased when smart people agree with me. Terry Teachout and Greg Sandow have written blog entries that take issue with the ombudsman's critique as well. Sandow also makes a good point about the whole situation:

That said, there's still a problem. How are music reviewers supposed to talk, when even things they say in simple language seem -- at least to some people -- to come from another planet? If they stop to explain the most basic concepts ("Wilco's latest album may seem to be full of horrible noise, but there's a reason for that"), they'll sound ridiculous to the many people who do know the music. ("The Beethoven symphony that the Philharmonic played last night is very long, but that's how classical pieces are.") One thing this shows is that music, in spite of all the sentimental talk about it, is anything but a universal language. Instead, it seems to divide us -- to mark subcultural boundaries -- far more than it unites us.

Fictionalized animation history

Terry Teachout notes how Who Framed Roger Rabbit made him look back at animated films and consider why they might be important. That entry got me thinking about Kim Deitch's "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams," which is a graphic novel about the early days of animation and how some of the animators were crushed in the process. It's very good and I think Teachout (and just about everyone else) would enjoy it. I learned about the book after Jeffrey Ford did an interview with Deitch at Fantastic Metropolis.

More books on music

There's a whole new set of those 33 1/3 books coming out, including Elvis Costello's Armed Forces by Franklin Bruno, the Replacements' Let It Be by Colin Meloy, and The Beatles' Let It Be by Steve Matteo, as well as a bunch more.
I had mixed reviews for the first two I read, but it's an interesting enough idea that I may pick up some of the new ones if I see them at the bookstore.

Jeffrey Ford in Locus

Jeffrey Ford will be the lead interview in the next issue of Locus. LocusOnline sometimes does interview excerpts, so keep a watch out. (It's a great site anyway; they keep up with the latest genre fiction news.) I'll be rushing out to my bookstore next week to find the magazine on the shelves. Meanwhile, The Mumpsimus has put together a few hot links to Ford interviews while you're waiting for the issue. (Also a previous entry of my own includes many Ford things to tide you over. And I'm still looking for anyone who might be interested in a free hardcover copy of The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque.)

Excellent new blog: Tingle Alley

Tingle Alley is a new blog by a Maud Newton guest blogger. It's terrific. It's already made it to my everyday check list. Today she has outdone herself. She responds forcefully to a New York Times Book Review essay. The second entry is a look at the questions an apprentice writer must face.

I write this to help me remember it. Because for the past year I’ve suffered more doubt and insecurity than ever before about my writing. Enough unhappiness that it’s seemed worthwhile to ask myself, “Why not just stop?” Why have what amounts to basically a glorified hobby (no one pays me to write fiction) that makes you so miserable? And guilty. And hunch-backed. Why not just be happy with the good husband and the satisfactory job in plumbing supplies, and with friends and family and trying to be a good person in the world? Why not just read the books other people write? Why not choose to be content?
It occurs to me that there are two kinds of misery you can encounter as a writer: The misery of apprenticeship — basically, the frustrations and humiliations involved in learning how to do your craft well — and the misery of why bother with it at all.

Check out Tingle Alley, there's lots of good stuff there.

Godzilla tramples New York

In August, the Film Forum in New York will host two weeks of Godzilla films (scroll down). The festival includes Gojira, Destroy All Monsters, Mothra, Godzilla Mothra Mechagodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. and many more. I have to find a way to get to these.

Sweeney Todd coming to a theater near you

Apparently Sam Mendes, the director of American Beauty and Road to Perdition, will be directing a movie version of the musical Sweeney Todd that is scheduled for release in 2005. I didn't think much of American Beauty, but it was well directed. I love the Stephen Sondheim musical, I only hope Mendes does a good job.

The Sound of Shatner

Ben Folds is working on a major new William Shatner release that will include the likes of Henry Rollins, Aimee Mann, Joe Jackson and a song written by Nick Hornby.

"It is a great record and it is really worth going out and doing some shows in major cities," Folds told Billboard.com. "(Shatner) is not a musician at all -- he's not rapping or singing -- but he is still part of the music. I've never heard a record quite like it."

A true classic in the making. I can't wait to see the tour. (Thanks to Charles for the heads up.)

Annoying ad

I noticed when I went to IMDB, the most annoying ad in the world came up. Every time I found a new movie, these two giant metal arms would appear on the screen and shake my browser for 10 seconds or so. It would be followed by an ad for I, Robot (I refuse to link to it, both because of the ad and because it looks like it will be a travesty.) Why do advertisers do this? Don't they know it just annoys the hell out of us? There should be some reforms in Internet advertising. It's not getting them anywhere.

Original Godzilla soundtrack

La-La Land Records will be releasing a 50th anniversary version of the Godzilla (Gojira 1954) soundtrack. This company seems to be pretty good. They've got soundtracks of Hollywood movies like the Punisher and the Butterfly Effect and TV shows like the new Battlestar Galactica and Saint Sinner. According to Henshin! Online:

The CD will contain Akira Ifukube's orchestral soundtrack, sound effects, and a 16-page booklet featuring liner notes and production stills. The CD cover will feature exclusive artwork for this 50th Anniversary release. The CD will have a retail price of $15.98. Source: Toho Kingdom

Cult members found guilty

That crazy cult leader and murderer and his accomplices were found guilty. Sentencing will be on June 24.

Fictional character blogging

Gabe Chouinard is experimenting (again.) He's nearly completed a novel called "Dead Cities" and is planning to write a sequel starring a secondary character from the first. But he needs to work on the character. So he's created The Journal of Aristin Swift, in which his character will blog about his life.
Chouinard says:

I thought this might be an interesting opportunity to accomplish both a bridge work between the two novels and to explore the 'making of a character' in an interesting and innovative way. We've all read 'excerpts' from 'journals' in fantasy novels. So let's take it a step further, shall we?

DarkEcho blog has a new address

Here.

A Scanner Darkly report

Everyone else is linking to it, so why can't I. The Philip K. Dick Trust (members of Dick's family) visits the set of "A Scanner Darkly." I'm excited about this film because it appears to be a faithful adaptation of a Dick work (one I haven't read, by the way.) I'm depressed because it has Keanu Reeves in it. I'm hoping for the best though. It's illustrated in the same way "Waking Life" was done. It will be interesting to see that technique used for an actual plot. Hopefully it will make up for Reeves acting abilities.

Going to the prom

Slate is doing this odd story about proms. David Amsden, a writer in his mid-20s, is taking a 17-year-old girl to her prom -- in the name of reporting, of course. He uses the event to talk about our culture's obsession with young girls. It's actually very good and not nearly as prurient as it sounds. The second installment is here. I'm waiting for today's. Apparently some people have made enough complaints about the piece for Amsden to respond:

Nothing remotely taboo occurred during my night at the prom, which anyone can learn by reading the piece. It's strange, then, that the majority of you should be so thirsty for it to be a legitimate "confession of a pervert" type story, which, surely, everyone knows Slate would never publish. What's going on here?

I went to 3 proms when I was in high school (mine, my girlfriend's and a friend who needed a date). None of them were all that great. They're expensive and just seem to be an excuse to party afterward. I wonder if they're any better now that there are these big afterprom events where the school sets up an all night alcohol-free party? I doubt it.

Godzilla cartoon release

Three episodes from Godzilla: The Series is coming out on DVD in August. The cartoon series was based on the 1998 movie, but far exceeds it (which really wasn't that hard). The trilogy being released, called "Monster Wars," was pretty good as I remember. They basically rounded up all the monsters from the series and created an all out battle. Like "Destroy All Monsters," but without all the big names.

Cult, murders, nude models and more

Professor Hex has latched onto a wild story this time (well, he always does, but this one's particularly good.)I hesitate to describe it. There are too many details and they're all fascinating. The story includes brutal murders, a violent cult, a Playboy model, a good witch raising money for Armageddon, Elvin Bishop's family, rohypnol and a plot to take over the Mormons.

The culmination of [cult leader] Helzer's plan was to have been an operation codenamed "Brazil", in which he would send South American orphans to Salt Lake City to kill the 15 elders who run the Mormon church.
According to Godman's testimony, Helzer imagined he could blame the murders on the "government behind government" and take over the leadership of the world's 12 million Mormons himself.

Here's the latest on the case. It's horrifying, but you can't turn away.

JJA interviews Richard K. Morgan

The Slush God does an interview with Richard K. Morgan, author of Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Market Forces. I read Altered Carbon and thought it was a great combination of noir detective stories and science fiction concepts. I have Broken Angels on the shelf, but wasn't really in the mood for another noir novel. Now I find out that's not exactly what it is:

In Broken Angels, the sequel to Altered Carbon, you radically change gears, from a brutal future-noir crime thriller to a brutal militaristic, alien archaeology tale. Likewise, Kovacs changes careers from detective to soldier of fortune/archaeologist. What has been the reaction to it thus far?
Morgan: By and large, the reaction's been good. I think there was always going to be an element who expected me to churn out a series of future detective stories until my toes curled up, and those guys I was always going to disappoint. But most readers seem to have gone with the change without a problem. Some like Altered Carbon more, some seem to think Broken Angels is better. And one guy in a bookshop told me they were both great but in entirely different ways, which of course is the result I was looking for!

So now maybe I'll read Broken Angels earlier than I expected.

Yahoo Mail is new and Web attacks are frustrating

So Yahoo! has updated its mail service. This is, of course, an attempt to fight off Google's new mail service.

Marcel Nienhuis, a senior analyst for the Radicati Group, a market research firm that focuses on online communications, said those worries are now probably moot. Yahoo's free service is probably enough for most people, while the premium service will appeal to hardcore Internet users, he said.
"This will negate the storage benefit of Google," Nienhuis said. "The Yahoo service is better than the Google service. Users are familiar with it, and many of them have their contacts there."
He also added that Yahoo's spam filter is better than Google's.

Well, that's all fine and dandy, but it seems now Yahoo mail doesn't work. Every time I try to do something, my computer can't find the page. It's really frustrating. And at a bad time, since I just started a Google mail account too. I like that Yahoo is updating their service, but can they please make sure it works right before unveiling it? I'm sure in a day or two these won't be problems.
UPDATE: Well, as Cybele pointed out in the comments, the slow down doesn't appear to be Yahoo's fault. There was an attack on major Web sites (including Yahoo) today. So I'll chalk it up to that. The mail seems to be working fine now.