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Saturday, August 30, 2003 ( 8/30/2003 08:37:00 PM ) Bill S. MISTER SKETCHUM TURNS SIXTY – Happy sixtieth birthday to Robert Crumb, born on this day in 1943 – and if you're like me, didn't you think: Wasn't Crumb sixty, like, ten years ago? The guy's been a curmudgeonly geezer for ages (not that there’s anything wrong with that), which is emphasized by the anachronistic garb the he publicly affects. The other night, my wife Becky came to bed after happening upon a snippet of the documentary Crumb on cable television. It was a sequence showing him working on one of his twisted sex fantasies, and the first thing she accusingly asked after describing the sequence to me was, "How can you like this crap?" I knew better than to try and answer at that point: some of Crumb's work can provoke a visceral response, particularly for its mistreatment of cartoon women. I waited 'til the following morning to attempt an answer and what I basically said was: I'm of two minds about Crumb’s id-ian excursions. They clearly opened American comic art in good ways, though I also suspect his obsessive reiteration of this material has often been at the expense of sharper material. I thought it was amusing in the late sixties (cf. Big Ass Comics), but found it repetitive by the time of the "Devil Girl" strip shown in Crumb. But, I added, there's more to Crumb than dark sexual fantasies – even if at times he's appeared to focus on 'em to the exclusion of all else – and that's what I tend to favor: the sixties/early seventies stuff is characterized by vibrant satire and psychedelic surrealism; I'm also enamored of his period art and more serious explorations (his examinations of early blues lives in Arcade, for instance), not to mention his autobiographical works both alone and in collaboration with wife Aline Kominsky. And subject matter aside, the guy draws comics that I love to look at. His drawing style's so profoundly and beautifully handmade that no one else can quite duplicate it. And even his darkest stuff is crafted masterfully. I've spent a lot of time staring at Crumb linework; I suspect I'll continue doing so in the years to come. . . # | Friday, August 29, 2003 ( 8/29/2003 01:12:00 PM ) Bill S.  "CONFLICTING FEELINGS TANGLING UP MY MIND" – Partway into slow country waltz "Will We Ever?," the opening track to Marshall Crenshaw's first real studio album in four years, I started worrying that MC had made his Nick Lowe move, de-emphasizing his once impeccable rockin' pop crispness in pursuit of a more muted sound. ("It's Dig My Mood II," the shotgun critic inside me groused. "We've lost another pop guy to the drive to prove how mature they've become!") Wasn't 'til we got to the third track of What's in the Bag? (Razor & Tie) that my worries began to lessen: MC doin' a serious folk-rock remake of Prince's "Take Me with U"? That's the stuff I was waiting for!At his best, Marshall Crenshaw does rootsy pop-rock like nobody's bizness. Blessed with a plainly tuneful voice and a knack for playing conversational Willie Nelson-like diction against the demands of rhythm, Crenshaw is an artist with a strong fan and critical following – and diddly in the way of Big Pop Recognition. (His most successful composition in terms of radio play has probably been his Gin Blossoms collaboration, "Til I Hear It from You.") Bag's not likely to change this situation, though it's a perfectly respectable addition to the Crenshaw Canon: lots of wistful songs of regret and romantic ambivalence, plenty of efficiently moody guitarwork, two anachronistic guitar instrumentals. May take some time to fully kick in (unlike his eponymous debut – or 1996's Miracle of Science), but once it does, the disc stands on its own. For me, the Convincer is a trio of songs that begins with "A Thousand Days Ago," an airy ballad that depicts our hero riding a train and considering the sights as he leaves an old life (nice suggestive use of steel guitar on this 'un), and continues with what has to be the disc's best track, "Long and Complicated." The story of a man who's unable to say goodbye to a needy femme with sad dark eyes ("Sometimes I wanna be her protector/Next day I wanna reject her"), the song catches Crenshaw doin' what he's born to do: framing love's conflicts in a deceptively simple sounding rock 'n' roll song. When he moves into a remake of Bootsy Collins'(!) ballad "I'd Rather Be with You," my shotgun critic is silenced for good. "This isn't Crenshaw's Dig My Mood," I realized, "But it's not Pure Pop for Now People either. Maybe it's his Impossible Bird." Bag's not the disc I'd give to someone who wanted to be introduced to Crenshaw (for that, maybe Rhino's exemplary best-of This Is Easy or its deluxe reissue of Marshall Crenshaw), but for those of us already accustomed to the man's direct and no-nonsense artistry, his return to the studio still yields lots of modest pleasure. If you nodded knowingly at all the Nick Lowe refs needlessly sprinkled into this piece, then you've probably already got a copy of Crenshaw's release, right? So what's in the bag? Just another collection of great to middlin', mid to slow tempo pop tunes. That'll do for now. # | Thursday, August 28, 2003 ( 8/28/2003 11:25:00 AM ) Bill S. WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, TYRONE SLOTHROP? – Reading an interview with Neil Gaiman in a piece from The Toronto Star, I came across the following strange contrast. The article quotes a Slate piece calling Gaiman a cult author like Thomas Pynchon and notes in response: The comparison is apt, if only because Pynchon, the author of such epic historical tomes as Mason Dixon, is precisely what Gaiman, willingly, is not.I’m going to give Gaiman the benefit of the doubt and assume that he doesn’t know how entertainment reporter Murray White was going to use his quote. But if White thinks that Mason Dixon represents the full range of Pynchon’s writing, he’s benightedly mistaken. Early Pynchon novels like V or Gravity’s Rainbow may’ve been epic, but they were hardly “historical tomes.” Both books are packed with moments of low humor, unclassifiable stories and even goofiness. Works like The Crying of Lot 49 and Vineland are contemporary fantastic fiction (the latter even includes a Japanese monster rampage.) Reads to me as if writer White pulled up a Pynchon bibliography, checked the most recent book on the list, noted that it appeared to be a historical novel and left it that. Anyone who’s read the gross-out contest in Gravity’s Rainbow, though, knows that Pynchon is definitely not a straight-tie, tight-assed fictioner. . . # | Wednesday, August 27, 2003 ( 8/27/2003 07:33:00 PM ) Bill S. “AVERAGE EVERYDAY SANE/PSYCHO” – Been on the road a lot this week, so I haven’t been blogposting as much I’d like. Hence this mid-week catch-up:
Bill, my copy of Spilt Milk has that exact same pause. I think it's there for dramatic effect, or perhaps to allow a deep breath before plunging back into that noisy, chaotic track.# | ( 8/27/2003 04:08:00 AM ) Bill S. THE FIFTEEN-MINUTE COMIC – "If you can’t trust witty fight repartee, what can you trust?" A joke built on decades' worth of superhero commonplaces – and if it made you snicker (like it did me), you've probably spent too much time around costumed supertypes. So once more into a new batch of mainstream comics. Captain Marvel (Marvel) #13: The further Peter David ventures into out-and-out comedy, the better I like him. This stand-alone entry features the second-generation CM taking on a group of intergalactic double-talkers who’ve rescued a planet from its tyrannical overlords only to themselves stay on for thirty years ("Their infrastructure is a shambles!" the ruling Magister states. "If we don’t help them rebuilt their government, they'll descend into chaos!" Any comparisons that the reader might make to contemporary military/political adventures are no doubt wholly unintentional.) Our cosmically aware hero shows up to give the Magister a lesson on what it's like to be on the receiving end of this patronizing imperialism, but, of course, the lesson is missed. Somebody else can argue with this tale's imbedded satire. Me, I'm giving this ish a thumb's up for the panels where CM and buddy Rick Jones redecorate the Magiser's palace ("Too gay? Not gay enough?") and give the people a new planetary anthem: Manfred Mann's "Do Wah Diddy Diddy." Still have mixed feelings about Ryan Michael’s soft-edged pencil art, though.More in a week or so. # | Tuesday, August 26, 2003 ( 8/26/2003 07:02:00 PM ) Bill S. SO LONG TO THE FAIR – Like all the other "Fair and Balanced" blogs that are taking down their "F&B" self-proclamations, I want to cheer the fact that Fox has dropped its stupid lawsuit against Al Franken. It was a heavy responsibility having to be as Fair and Balanced as Fox News. . . # | Monday, August 25, 2003 ( 8/25/2003 02:40:00 PM ) Bill S. MO’ MANGA - In addition to two lengthy and instructive comments from Shawn Fumo beneath my original manga posting, the Brown-Eyed Handsome Man, Darren Madigan, emailed a response to the piece over the weekend. Here goes: I disagree with your recent post about the continuing viability of hard copy comics. Mostly, they simply don't seem to be economically viable any more, mostly because of the sticker shock that adult parents get when their kids comes up to them and begs for a copy of SPIDER-MAN, and they instinctively reach into their pocket for a couple of quarters, and...BAM! IT'S TWO DOLLARS AND TWENTY FIVE CENTS!!I was unaware that the Ultimates books were originally conceived as multi-story magazines. Too bad Marvel backed away from this plan because it could’ve meant holding onto stores that have given up on comic pamphlets. Used to be you could find comic books in the magazine section of most supermarkets, for instance, but they’ve nearly vanished from that outlet. Except for Mad and Shonen Jump, of course. Meanwhile, Sean Collins has since replied to my response to his manga piece. Sean adds a new wrinkle to his own scenario: namely, that not all comic creators are equally gifted when it comes to extended storylines (and, indeed, I’d note that if they were weaned on the Stan Lee serial mode of storytelling, they may not have the tools to write genuine prolonged structured story arcs) suited to the manga pb form. I’ll agree and append the obvious point that many good stories don’t need to be protracted either. Not every writer’s as gifted as Brian Michael Bendis when it comes to teasing out character nuance. # | ( 8/25/2003 06:38:00 AM ) Bill S. ODDS AND SODS – Some bits of blog bizness: walking the pups in the park this weekend, I realized that I'd not been writing any Dog Park Tapes pieces this season. The reason for this is easily explained. I haven't been using my Walkman much this year. For whatever reason (a summer that hasn't seen that many 90 degree-plus days in Central Illinois, perhaps) the number of joggers on the Hedge Apple Trail has significantly increased this year, so I've needed to be more attuned to their presence - otherwise Ziggy Stardust might frighten the bejeezus out of 'em in his zeal to "herd" their ass. The Dog Park Tapes were primarily just a pretext for talking about favorite old releases, anyway, and I'm sure it's become apparent that I don't need an excuse to do that these days. Also stopped mentioning my monthly wins and losses at the Unitarian men's poker game, since that topic pretty much interested only me. For the record, though, I've continued to attend and periodically host this august get-together and the last two months I was winner of the manly sums of $14.24 and $4.10. (We'll skip over the month before that.) Hey, if William Bennett can get his jollies with Lady Luck than so can we. . . Over the last few weeks, I've been adding titles here and there to the blogroll. A good number of these seem to be at least semi-comics related, a fact I attribute to the presence of weekday comics blog ¡Journalista!, which has been doing a great job spotlighting discourse in the comics blogosphere. Kudos – kudos, I say - to Dirk Deppey. # | Sunday, August 24, 2003 ( 8/24/2003 01:03:00 PM ) Bill S.  "PLEASE HEAR MY PLEA" – So imagine you're a label (Rykodisc, say) and you have the work of a prolific but still late musician (oh, let's go with: Frank Zappa) as a part of your catalog. You've issued all that artist's material – in many cases, twice – and though his estate has a wealth of studio and concert tapes, the artist's widow for whatever reasons (quality, personal cussedness) is holding onto 'em. S'been something like eight years since the release of "new" Zappa product – two or three lifetimes in the pop world – so how you gonna keep folks interested in the stuff you've still got?Zappa Picks: you get some current, cultish pop guy to put together their own "mix tape" of favored Zappa cuts – then you package it in hope of snagging some of that pop guy's fans. First up: collections by Jon Fishman of Phish and Larry LaLonde of Primus. They're two logical choices (you can imagine the average Primus fan actually getting off on the material chosen by the band's guitarist), though I wish the selection had been a bit more adventurous. Wouldn't you like to know what, oh, Willy Nelson's favorite Zappa tracks are? Or, moving outside of music, how about someone like Al Gore? On Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention you can hear him telling Frank he's a fan, after all. I'll leave it to Phish or Primus fans as to whether their respective Zappa Picks collections add to listeners' understanding of the bands: only disc of either group I own is Pork Soda, and I haven't played it ages. It's clear both musicians came to Zappa and his musicians at around the same time: the early Mothers of Invention era material is scantly repped (the amusical freak-out "It Can't Happen Here" pops up on Fishman's disc), while seventies era stuff like Overnite Sensation, Roxy and Elsewhere or Joe's Garage are all over the place. Two cuts show up on both collections: the live Flo & Eddie version of "Dog Breath" and the classically silly classical number "Sofa No. 2." I can see the second cut, but the first choice puzzles me: to these ears, the original MOI version from Uncle Meat is the more solid and inventive performance.  Each collection has its share of "dirty" Zappa numbers, of course. I'm one of those who believes that Zappa's over-reliance on smut-themed material was a lyrical dead-end. It may've increased his popularity, but it weakened his eyes for the bigger-themed satirical targets. When the best you can do by the end of your career is bitch-slap sexually hypocritical evangelists, you've definitely reduced your satiric range.So for those of you attracted to Zappa the satirist, the pickin's are spare on both discs (unless you consider the E-Z teevee put-down of "I Am the Slime" to be tuff stuff). The focus is more on surrealist lyrics and extended instrumental riffery. Hearing some of this material outside its original setting can admittedly be instructive. I found myself appreciating "Wild Love," for instance, away from Sheik Yerbouti, an album I've long considered one of Zappa's worst. (Following it with "G-Spot Tornado" was an inspired choice.) Pulling "Five Five FIVE" from the guitar instrumental set, Shut Up And Play Yer Guitar makes that track stand out more, though my bias is more toward more fully composed instrumental tracks like Hot Rats' "Little Umbrellas" or Roxy and Elsewhere's "Echidna's Arf (Of You)" (both on LaLonde's collection) where you get to hear more than just FZ showing off. Of the two sets, LaLonde's seems the more fully thought-out, if only because he's more willing to break up cuts that (as often was the case with Zappa) originally appeared in extended song cycles. As representations of the man's middle period as a novelty cult-rocker (none of Zappa's orchestral experiments are included), both discs are fairly solid: old hat to Zappa freaks, perhaps, but hopefully challenging enough to inspire some fresh interest in that big ol' catalog of tunes. And, hey, Rykodisc, if you wanna do some further plundering of the Zappa oeuvre, why not work in issuing a copy of the Bizarre Era collection Mothermania? (It's been reissued in an import edition.) A collection of Mothers of Invention tracks with some of the stuff that was originally cut out by Verve reinserted, the disc'd probably go over well with those Zappa completists who've already bought two different masters of We're Only in It for the Money. And you wouldn't have to pay some punk college-rock musician to "produce" it. . . # | |
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