Nina Simone's Gum by Warren Ellis and Don't Suck, Don't Die Giving Up Vic Chesnutt by Kristin Hersh

Here are two unrelated books which I have recently read, but because I am very lazy I am just tossing them together into one blog post.  I am somewhat behind in updating this blog so I am going for quantity over quality now.

For the unlearned, Warren Ellis is a Ballarat born musician who fronts trio The Dirty Three (currently in hiatus) and more famously in recent decades as Nick Cave's main musical collaborator in the Bad Seeds.  The book gets its title from the time Ellis lifted a ball of chewing gum from Nina Simone's Steinway after she performed a concert in 1999.  The book, part bio, part homage to found things, charts the history of the gum which Ellis kept in his possession for 20 years.

We follow the gum's history in Warren's possession and how it comes to become an object of reverence to all who come into its orbit.  It is reproduced as jewellery and sculpture and exhibited in an art gallery in Denmark.  The gum seemingly takes on mystical qualities.  Along the journey the book delves back into Warren's musical beginnings as a child, his love of Greek musician Mia Fora Thymamai and Beethoven, his collection of lead tyre weights from cars and his work with Nick Cave.

The book is full of wonderful photographs by Bleddyn Butcher of Nina Simone from the 1999 concert and the restoration process of the gum.  We even get screenshots of messages exchanged with Nick Cave discussing exhibiting the gum.  It is a thoroughly enjoyable read this book.  Warren is no Camus, but he holds the reader's attention and drew me into this story.

Not such an easy read, but ultimately satisfying is Kristin Hersh's tribute to Vic Chesnutt who died on Christmas day 2009 after a suspected suicide.  He was 45 years old.  

Vic Chesnutt was rendered a quadriplegic after a car accident in his late teens and endured chronic pain for the duration of his life as a result.  Despite this difficult start to adulthood he started composing and singing his own songs in the early eighties before being noticed by Michael Stipe of R.E.M. in Athens Georgia.  Stipe went on to produce Chesnutt's first two albums.  Many critically acclaimed albums followed right up until his death.

Kristine Hersh is an accomplished musician, being one part of the Throwing Muses and a solo artist.  Her and Chesnutt toured together extensively for a good part of the 1990's with their respective partners.  Hersh's book is written directly as one friend to another in an attempt to understand everything that happened.  Hersh's use of language is vivid, creative and sometimes difficult, perhaps reflecting their friendship.  

Kritin Hersh's book is a sad letter to an old friend.  Vic Chesnutt was a brilliant and sometimes troubled soul, but the author's love for her subject shines through in this book.

Until next time, peace and love.

A new Knausgaard book.

Just arrived today. There's a few in the queue before it, but I am eager to start this one.

Until next time, peace and love.

Taylor Swift, Sally Rooney and me

Taylor Swift, Sally Rooney and me.  What do these three people have in common?  Well, pretty much nothing, and particularly in relation to me, absolutely zero.  So where is this shaggy dog story taking us you say? (or maybe not).

Recently I joined a conversation, well advanced, between two lovely millennial women family members who were discussing the merits of Taylor Swift's music.  I think there was general agreement that she was mostly lightweight meh, but that she had released a few catchy singles over the years.  You know the type of song, the DJ drops one into the dancefloor at the local meat market pub/nightclub at around midnight and sets the joint alight.  DJ self affirms "I am a legend, look at my power over the masses!" when we really know the five preceding hours of tequila and vodka shots and Taylor Swift's ear worm were responsible.

I remarked that I don't think I had heard a Taylor Swift song so could not express a view.  I am aware she is a huge pop artist, but not being a consumer of huge pop artists I wouldn't know a song if it belted me over the head.  My millennials expressed incredulity at this statement and replied along the lines of "surely you must know <insert song title here> blah, blah, blah".  "What about in the supermarket, you can't escape her music, it's everywhere!".  I explained my strategy in supermarkets was to move extremely quickly and block out all extraneous stimuli so as to minimise the effect of the mind cancer inducing environment on me.  Perhaps I had a heard a song, but not consciously.  I had heard of the Kanye West controversies though, I couldn't escape those!

Which takes me to Sally Rooney, the world's most famous millennial author.  She has three novels under her belt at the tender age of 30.  Her second novel, Normal People, was a big hit and is apparently a very successful show on one of the streaming services.  Now, not being much of a consumer of the streaming services due to having an aversion to watching 1400 episodes of vikings warring with aliens, I cannot attest to Normal People's popularity.  But I am assured by the millennials that it's popular.

So when a couple of months back stories started popping up in the Guardian and other zeitgeist publications about a new Sally Rooney novel I completely ignored them.  In fact I had assumed Sally Rooney was an English football WAG (wife and girlfriend to you) and I thought to myself why all the fuss over a book by some B grade celebrity who seems to be famous only for conducting a sting on one of her frenemies who was leaking stories about her to the tabloid press?  Okay, so I knew something about this story, but it turns out the WAG in question is one Rebekah Rooney.  My millennial credentials, and let's face it, any credibility as a reader of modern literature, are zero.  I am just too old and out of touch it seems.

So when I received a breathless email from my on-line book club that the new Sally Rooney novel was being shipped out express post to me on it's day of release, I thought I better look into this novelist a little more closely.  By that I mean, a 30 second scan of her Wikipedia page.  Research done, I awaited the arrival of "Beautiful World, Where Are You?"

The title of the book is a direct translation of a phrase from a poem by Friedrich Stiller "The Gods of Greece" (no, I've never heard of it either).  It was later set to music by Franz Schubert in 1819 (no, not heard it).  So we're off to a great start; I don't know a thing about this writer or her influences.  Can we come back from this place of profound ignorance?  Yes, so it seems.

The book involves four characters: Alice a millennial novelist who is famous (hmmm), her best friend from university days, Eileen who works as a literary editor (just someone who puts commas into manuscripts), Felix who meets Alice on a Tinder date (of course) and who hasn't heard of Alice, and Simon who is friend from Eileen's childhood with whom she had a fling with years before, and now again.  These four people are deeply unhappy in different ways about the state of the world and their place in it.

Alice, despite her wealth and fame, is miserable about her life and has run away to a small sea side town in Ireland to recover from what seems to be a breakdown of sorts.  She meets Felix and a tentative relationship starts, but he seems a deeply cynical person and a bit self-destructive.  For much of the book I did not trust Felix's motives toward Alice.  He was broke, she had money and he was often callous toward her.  Eileen is a brilliant writer it seems, but aside from having one essay published, is ambivalent about writing.  She drifts along.  Simon is five years older than Eileen and is a political adviser for a progressive political party.  He is committed to the causes, but thinks there is little hope that much will change.  He is also the one character who has retained a religious faith.  Being set in Ireland this is Catholicism.

Now a comment about style.  Often scenes in the book are told in a very remote and clinical way, almost like they were generated by machine.  For example, the opening chapter starts:

"A woman sat in a hotel bar, watching the door.  Her appearance was neat and tidy, white blouse, fair hair tucked behind her ears.  She glanced at the screen of her phone, on which was displayed a messaging interface, and then looked back at the door again."

I get the sense these scenes are told in such a way as to indicate the cynical alienation of the characters from the world.  Maybe not, but it had that effect on me.

Another device Sally Rooney uses are transcripts of emails between Eileen and Alice.  In these emails they muse on the state of the world as it inexorably hurtles toward climate catastrophe under the weight of unchecked capitalism, relationships, should they bring children into the world, that sort of thing.  These emails are really mini essays if you like which allow Rooney to try and explain and understand the world as she sees it.  I found these quite satisfying to read, although I have read a criticism which thought they were a little undergraduate in their style.  Who cares, I found them thought provoking, and anyway I'm no smarter than the average undergraduate.

I enjoyed this book and it gave me some insight to another generation and from a woman's perspective.  I think it's important to read such books.  I am looking forward to hearing what my millennial women family members make of it.

Until next time, peace and love.

Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead

 

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead is a historically fictional novel that you wish were true.  This is a rolling, rollicking and wonderful story about pioneering aviatrix, feminist and iconoclast Marian Graves.  We follow Marian's life from her tumultuous beginnings culminating (almost) in her ambitious flight around the great circle of the globe (pole to pole) in 1951.

Marian is a character you wish were real in every sense.  Wanting to become financially independent when 14, she cuts her hair, dresses as a boy, buys a car, teaches herself to drive and becomes a moonshine runner in 1920s USA.  One day some some barnstormers visit her town, she scores a flight and from that moment she determines to be a pilot, even though "girls" are not supposed to do that sort of thing.  She flies alcohol from over the Canadian border, landing on glaciers and out-flying every man that dare takes her on.

A disastrous and brief marriage in her later teens ensures Marian will never again answer to anyone, but she still finds passion in her life. During WWII Marian joins a squad of women pilots who transport Spitfires and all manner of planes across airfields in Britain.  Marian tests the full capabilities of every plane she flies fearlessly.

After the war a rich benefactor agrees to fund her great circle flight and Marian tackles her hardest challenge.  Drama ensues.

This book was a complete joy to read, not inconsequential in length at nearly 600 pages, but the hours just rolled by without me noticing.  My favourite reading experience is to be just lost in a book for hours on end Great Circle provided just that.

The book has been shortlisted for the 2021 Man Booker prize.  I have no idea if it's a worthy winner, but for me, this book was a complete delight.  Recommended for humans.

Until next time, peace and love.

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

 

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller is a family drama which mainly focuses on Elle a 50 something mother of three and academic, married to a handsome Englishman, Peter, a financial journalist.  There's too much ground to cover here, but the novel traverses two timelines simultaneously: Elle's life from birth and a 24 hour period where the family and friends gather at the family holiday shacks on Cape Cod - named the paper palace after the cheap wall material from which they are constructed.

Elle and her sister Anna's upbringing and early adulthood are chaotic.  Her parent's are often distracted by their own lives to worry too much about their children.  There is a succession of step parents and divorces and a lifelong childhood friend Jonas.  Elle and Jonas meet at Cape Cod in their tweens and a bond develops between the two which waxes and wanes, but endures over the decades.  A major trauma occurs in their teenage years which means the two share a dark secret for life.

The book begins the morning after a drunken night at the paper palace and an infidelity happens - you can guess who.  From there we explore the previous 50 years leading to that point and the next 24 hours.

Heller's writing rolls along very nicely and I found nearly all the characters well drawn.  There are unexpected turns in the story which kept me on the hook.  I read this book quickly so that's a sign I enjoyed it.

No book is perfect of course and there were some gaps in time and one or two thin characters which could have benefited from more development.  At nearly 400 pages perhaps the editors called time - I imagine there's some commercial pressure in the publishing industry to keep novels to a manageable length.

All in all I found this a entertaining read and highly recommended.

Until next time, peace and love.

New release - Geoffrey O'Connor - For As Long As I Can Remember

 

Busy time at the Lounge with lots going on.  So I've not had much time for updating this blog. But, I have picked up a new album by Melbourne's Geoffrey O'Connor called As Long As I Can Remember.  Here's a vid of the title track:

It's an album of duets with female artists, including one-time Darwin pop songstress Jess Ribero and being rather fond of the 80's, this album takes me back to some of the soft synthy disco pop from that era (but in a nice way).  Here's another track featuring the delightful Laura Jean with lots of Spandau Ballet-esque finger clicking:

I am am enjoying this album a great deal.  It's a polished production with lots of pop hooks and gorgeous vocal duets.  It definitely feels a like a summer record to me which is what we need given most of the country is in lockdown.

You can buy this album through Geoffrey O'Connor's Bandcamp page or via Chapter Music.

Until next time, peace and love.

We Were Not Men - Campbell Mattinson

Here's an Australian novel by Campbell Mattinson, We Were Not Men, that took 30 years to write.  It tells the story of twins Eden and Jon Hardacre who are orphaned at around nine years of age and grow up under the care of their grandmother, Bobbie.

After the death of their parents in a car crash and recovery from their own injuries the boys throw themselves into swimming and become champions for their ages.  The Rio Olympics beckon.  This book seems to be inspired by a true story and maybe it is as Mattinson is a journalist and the story's genesis was an article he wrote in the 1990s.

Campbell Mattinson is a vivid writer and there are some wonderful passages in this story describing the boys relationship.  I particularly found the descriptions of swimming to be most effective.  I enjoyed the arc of the story and overall it was a satisfying read.  

The dialogue did not work for me so much.  The character of Bobbie seems to express not much more than aphorisms throughout the story and this tended to be the case with the other characters.  I can only think this was a deliberate decision on the part of the author and the editors, but I wanted more from the characters in their dialogue.

With the Olympics on currently and the Australian women swimmers going so well the timing of my reading of this book was fortuitous.

Recommended for anyone really.  Until next time, peace and love.

Jupiter's Travels - Ted Simon

Here's an unusual book which was lent to me by a friend, Peter.  I say unusual in that it's not one I would normally think to read.  Always go with a recommendation it seems.

It tells the tale of Ted Simon's travels on a 500cc Triumph motorcycle starting in 1973 through to 1977.  Written on his return to the UK it is very much a time capsule story.  It coincides with the dismantling of the European colonies in Africa, Asia and the Americas, the OPEC oil crisis and the height of the Cold War.  

Ted journeys through African countries in civil war, Rhodesia(!) and apartheid South Africa.  Brazil is still under the control of the generals and Chile is a mass of bloodshed.  Cambodia and Vietnam have to be avoided due to war, but Afghanistan is quiet and peaceful.  It certainly brings home just how much the world and geopolitics have changed.

Ted Simon writes in an an engaging style and like all good travel books it's about the people Ted meets along the journey that makes the story interesting.  He bares all on the page including the odd sexual encounter and bouts of what would probably diagnosed these days as depression .  At all times he is empathetic with those he meets, even when he is held captive as a spy in Brazil for weeks on end.  I found him to be a broad minded and progressive thinker for a man of his times.

I looked Ted Simon up on the web.  He appears to be still alive at the age of 90 and living in the UK somewhere.  He started out as a chemical engineer and then switched to journalism in the early 70's before becoming an organic farmer in California for a long time.  He wrote a few other books and reprised his world journey in the early 2000's at the age of 70.  That might be an interesting book to read for the contrast, although the world is much different from then now.

Highly recommended for those who like books.  Until next time, peace and love.

New music for you

 

Welcome back to the Lounge. I have been enjoying some new releases here and I thought you might like to hear them too.  First up is the tremendously talented Aldous Harding with her new single; Old Peel.  It comes with a typically quirky video in which you don't get to see much of Aldous until the final scene.  This song is a total earworm so be careful.

If you like that then you might enjoy this brief live performance by Aldous and her band for KEXP from a year or so back.  There is a short interview in the middle too - she's a strange cat for sure.

Courtney Barnett continues to evolve as a songwriter and here's her new single; Rae Street.  Clearly she has been listening a lot to her mate Kurt Vile.

The new Goon Sax vinyl landed at the Lounge today so we'll give them a run too.  They've gone big time with producer John Parish (he did Aldous too).  It's a change of direction and here's their new single Desire.

That's it from the Lounge for now.  Until next time, peace and love.

Different Every Time - Robert Wyatt

A bit of a break from the Lounge for various reasons.  This post is well overdue as I finished this book quite a while back now.  It's the official biography of Robert Wyatt, a classic English eccentric character.  A man not of these times.

Robert formed and played drums in Soft Machine, a jazz tinged, proggy art rock group in the mid 60's, most associated with the Canterbury scene.  Soft Machine toured the States twice with Hendrix and gigged at the UFO Club in London with The Pink Floyd as they were known back then.  Greatness seemed inevitable, but it was not to be.  After being kicked out of his own band in the early 70's he briefly formed Matching Mole and then, after a life changing accident which left him a paraplegic, he settled into a brilliant solo career.

Robert's upbringing was anything but conventional, his mother was a journalist who raised him as a single parent for a time before she married Robert's stepfather who had defied the English class system by attending Oxford and Cambridge, despite his working class background.  Robert wasn't terribly interested in school and his summers were often spent in Portugal or on the Greek islands staying with a family friends, one of whom was poet Robert Graves.

Robert struggled with being a band leader and became rather carried away with the rock and roll lifestyle, which included drinking bouts with that icon of moderation, Keith Moon.  In 1973, while very drunk at a party he fell from an apartment balcony.  The accident was a catalyst for Robert to reset his life and music and while in hospital he composed his 'first proper' solo record, Rocky Bottom, produced by Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, as they were known by then.  An album which usually features in greatest album of all time lists.  Here's one of my favourite tracks from that record, the simply brilliant 'Little Red Riding Hood Hits the Road'.

For the next 40 years or so he recorded with the likes of Eno, Phil Manzanera, David Gilmour and later Bjork.  Commercial success mostly stayed at a distance until 1980 when the Elvis Costello penned Shipbuilding single became a hit.  After that he faded back out of sight to record the occasional and always acclaimed album.  Always broke and fighting off depression and alcoholism he performed live only once after his accident; being crippled with anxiety when facing an audience.

After finally kicking the grog and getting treatment for depression he released some of his finest work in the early 2000's before retiring from music altogether after his final album Comicopera was released in 2007.

The Robert Wyatt story is actually a story of two people, Robert and his partner of 50 years Alfreda Benge who gave up a promising film career to be with and care for Robert.  Alfie as she is known, managed the business side, painted the album art and eventually took over lyric writing duties.  A true partnership.

Here's another great song.  It's a cover of the Chic (yes them) song 'At Last I am Free'.  Warning, it's not disco.

The book is a thoroughly enjoyable read with Robert and Alfie helpful subjects, as are his numerous collaborators over the years.  As books go it's a conventional sort of read, but it's hard to tell the story of someone's life in anything other than a linear progression from birth.  What shines through in this book is Robert' singular and unconventional artistic spirit.  He is now considered something of a national treasure in England these days and seems to be enjoying his retirement.

Have a listen To Robert Wyatt if you haven't already.  Until next time, peace and love.