Laura Lippman's serial in the New York Times Magazine's "Funny Pages" section, "The Girl in the Green Raincoat," wrapped up last week. In it, the Baltimore author placed her PI, Tess Monaghan, in a very "Rear Window" sort of predicament, confining her to bed with a high-risk pregnancy thanks to preeclampsia. Tess spends her days killing time, including stints where she simply looks out the window at the park across the way. There, she spies the girl in the green raincoat and her greyhound. One day, the dog is there, but the girl is not, and Tess has a mystery on her idle hands.

Over the course of 15 2,500-word chapters, Lippman spins out an intriguing tale. She does fun things with the challenge of a protagonist who cannot move, bringing people into Tess's orbit -- best friend Whitney Talbot, boyfriend Crow and associate Mrs. Blossom -- who help drive the story forward with their actions. It's a fun read that offers a vicarious thrill, for Tess is in some ways a proxy for mystery readers who must rely on the actions of others to bring things to a resolution.

Tess's predicament took on resonance in the final two chapters as the fate of the girl in the green raincoat is revealed at the same time Tess begins to feel a sharp pain that leads to a hospital visit. Then, that which since the story's opening pages had felt like a device to keep Tess immobile came back to a place of primacy in the narrative: preeclampsia.

In the story's final chapter, Lippman uses Tess's situation to address a whole host of issues, including working motherhood, babies born out of wedlock, the advanced age at which many women are having children and, most important to me, the challenged faced by women with high-risk pregnancy. I won't spoil the story for those who haven't yet had the pleasure, but let me just say this: Lippman got it right. I have personal experience (or rather, spousal experience) with preeclampsia. Tess ends up in a neonatal intensive care unit and shares the sights and sounds. "Some families triumphed and took their children home," she writes. "New families arrived to take their place. And some families — well, some families Tess just didn’t want to think about."

Four years ago, mine was one of those families, losing our son -- born at 24 weeks because my wife had preeclampsia -- after a valiant 12-week struggle in the NICU. We diligently reported Will's story on a blog, thus raising the profile of preeclampsia among our friends and others who came across the site, for a few months. My wife and I often would wonder why we didn't hear more about the condition. Surely some starlet somewhere who's every move is reported in the tabloids has faced this, right? But save for efforts by the likes of the March of Dimes and the Preeclampsia Foundation, it's one that goes largely unnoticed.

So, I thank Lippman for giving it a higher profile, if only for a short while. She has done more here, entertaining readers for 15 weeks with another fine story of Tess and her meandering path through her life and career, but she also has done something special by using that bully pulpit to create awareness.

Labels: crime fiction, newspapers

When something grows on me over time, I usually wish I could go back and remember exactly what it was that turned me off so much the first time through. Or, conversely, try to recapture what I liked so much about something that wore thin on repeat listens. With that in mind, I decided to record my thoughts, song by song, about Bruce Springsteen's new Working on a Dream. The disc has drawn scathing reviews (most people cite Greg Kot's takedown as being among the most vicious) and a few tongue baths (Yes, that means you, Rolling Stone).

Before the music hits, a word about the cover: It's awful. This isn't an original sentiment, but it bears repeating. A high school kid with rudimentary Photoshop skills could do better.

On to the music.

1. Outlaw Pete - Wow. Has there been a more underwhelming lead-off track on a Springsteen album than this? (In case you're wondering, the answer is no.) This plodding, eight-minute ballad goes nowhere musically and the narrative seems trite. Allmusic.com calls this a revival of the E Street Band's "wild, woolly sound," adding that it's "Working on a Dream at its best, playing like nothing less than The E Street Shuffle as reflected and refracted through Arcade Fire's naked hero worship." Um, no. This is a mannered, studio-bound creation with none of the fire the classic E Street Band would have brought to the material.

2. My Lucky Day - OK, this is more like it. Or, at least more like what Springsteen was cranking out around Lucky Town, fittingly enough, which was his closest approximation of the fiery pop of The River tracks left in the vaults until the Tracks boxed set. Crunching guitars, pounding piano and an earnest vocal. It's not great -- this would have been the sixth or seventh best track on Magic -- but it's a nice blast of energy after the languorous "Pete" and would have made a better opener. Of course, it would be better if Springsteen was singing it like a guy whose gal was the bright spot in a crappy life as opposed to one for whom a significant other is just another amenity. Still, this'll be a burner live.

3. Working on a Dream - Boilerplate Boss. If someone asked a lesser artist to come up with a Springsteen song, this might be the result. It's melodically uninteresting and the lyrics feel like they were composed by an online random verse generator. Does the Boss have a secret Bruce-o-matic program to tap when he's feeling uninspired? Want proof that Bruce is just as bored with this as you are? He couldn't even be bothered to write an ending. Nice fadeout.

4. Queen of the Supermarket - This track has drawn the most heat from critics, and with good reason. Weird Al doesn't need to parody Springsteen; with this he does it to himself. "A dream awaits in aisle number two." Groan. Springsteen told interviewer Mark Hagen that "they opened up this big, beautiful supermarket near where we lived. Patti and I would go down, and I remember walking through the aisles - I hadn't been in one in a while - and I thought his place is spectacular. This place is... it's a fantasy land! And then I started to get into it. I started looking around and hmmm - the subtext in here is so heavy!" But there's no subtext in Springsteen's song. At the height of his powers, Springsteen would have spun this inspiration into a tale completely removed from the source material. Here, he doesn't even bother to look up: "With my shopping cart I move through the heart of a sea of fools so blissfully unaware."

5. What Love Can Do - Springsteen would have been all over MTV with this in the early 1990s, with its bouncy beat, hard-strummed acoustic guitar and obvious hook. It's a slight song, but catchy enough (and short enough) to overcome its shortcomings. This and "My Lucky Day" are the only tracks where Springsteen seems to have any empathy for his protagonist.

6. This Life - Ah, the Beach Boys homage. This feels like a pale retread of Magic's majestic "Girls in their Summer Clothes." Is that a saxophone? Hello, Clarence! Where've you been keeping yourself?

7. Good Eye - Brendan O'Brien's production has been criticized by those who find fault with this album, and I can see the validity of that argument here. This fairly pedestrian rocker feels like something run through the "swamp rock" function in ProTools, and it's never good when the production draws so much attention to itself. This is another song that will probably sound pretty great live, stripped of its studio gadgetry. Lyrically, it's a blues, so it doesn't say much. Bruce probably means to be profound when he sings "I had my good eye to the dark and my blind eye to the sun," but to me that just seems like common sense.

8. Tomorrow Never Knows - The Beatles created a swirl of psychedelia under this title, but Springsteen offers the quietest, prettiest track of the set here. Some muted pedal steel (Nils Lofgren, I assume) offers some nice color. This is the first track, at 2:13, that had me reaching for the rewind button.

9. Life Itself - There's something interesting going on here, I think, but it eludes me on this first listen. Springsteen's vocal sounds like a demo take, the singer more worried about making sure all the words fit than conveying any passion or nuance. Again, the E Street Band seems elsewhere; this could be any group of studio musicians. A bit of bombast would help here. Alas, another fadeout.

10. Kingdom of Days - Another track that feels like a Magic leftover, a lesser "Girls in Their Summer Clothes." The strings soften an already laid-back arrangement, while also giving the track some much-needed emotional heft. Like much of the rest of this, Bruce seems torn here. Is he trying to make grand statements (like, "this is our Kingdom of Days") or capture the minutiae of everyday life (like suddenly realizing that a supermarket is a shrine to consumerism)?

11. Surprise, Surprise - Springsteen goes all Brill Building here, crafting a straight up pop song that, in its complete lack of rough edges, sounds unlike anything else he has done. The string section must have knocked out "Kingdom of Days" quick enough to be willing to stick around for this, adding some syrup to Bruce's sweet concoction. If this was a '60s nugget covered by the 1980s Boss, it would be fantastic. Here, it's simply pleasant enough.

12. The Last Carnival - Even the harshest critics of this album have praised this tribute to late E Streeter Danny Federici, and rightly so. It feels more like the Springsteen of Devils and Dust, and its the first vocal sung as if he means it. The mixture of pain and celebration is palpable, and that's sorely missing on the tracks that precede this. The production has a lighter touch as well, allowing the song to breathe.

13. The Wrestler - This song from the soundtrack to the film of the same name is listed as a bonus track. It does have a feel different from the rest of the album (save for "The Last Carnival"), more cinematic, of course, than the other dozen tunes. In the past, Springsteen would take these last two tracks and write an entire album around them. Here, he offers them as a coda of sorts to an album whose reach exceeds its grasp, redeeming the set to a degree. I haven't seen the film, so I don't know how well it contributes there, but "The Wrestler" -- along with "The Last Carnival" -- shows that Springsteen has the ability to do more than he does on the other 11 tracks that make up his Dream.

In sum, I really wanted to like this album. I wanted the naysayers to be wrong. But Kot's charge of "underwhelming" is on the money. I haven't spent much time with Human Touch, the album to which this is compared, because it has too much baggage (and "57 Channels") and I'd rather listen to good Springsteen if I have the time. This could grow on me -- and if so, this document will be an interesting benchmark -- but I fear it'll be the first Springsteen album I own to be filed to gather dust. And that's a shame.

Labels: Bruce Springsteen, music

Great yet puzzling news regarding I.R.S. Records today: The label, thanks to the corporate efforts of Capitol/EMI, is releasing a big chuck of its back catalog to digital stores starting Feb. 10. Then through March 17, each week will bring a new batch of albums and tracks.

That last part is the puzzling part. Rather than just release whole albums, the label is taking a piecemeal approach by culling some key tracks from its albums. That might make sense if it was picking the random standout from a lesser-known album, but it seems to be doing nearly the opposite, issuing entire albums from the likes of Drywall (?) and Alarm guitarist Mike Sharp while pulling only eight tracks from Let's Active's catalog.

Why not just make everything available, or at least the full albums from which you pull tracks? There must be a business or legal reason behind the decision.

The heavy hitters on the I.R.S. roster already are available digitally, with albums by R.E.M. and the Go Gos in circulation. Perhaps a good response to this latest batch will spur those behind the effort to go the rest of the way and put everything out there.

Labels: commerce, music

Many things passed through my mind just now when I read a New York Times alert that John Updike had died of lung cancer at age 76. I thought of the books of his that I've read, those I haven't yet and those I'll undoubtedly get the chance to once his papers are sorted. I thought of how glad I am that I got to see him read and lecture. I recalled discussing with friends recently an essay by David Foster Wallace lambasting Updike's work. Ultimately, what I came away with is that Updike was one of the last giants of American letters, and that regardless of what one thinks of his work, he will be sorely missed.

I came to Updike late, picking up Rabbit, Run as a way to prepare for seeing the author lecture at the 150th anniversary of Coe College in Cedar Rapids while I was a newspaper reporter in town. I liked it, and made a perhaps foolish vow to read each Rabbit book as I passed the commensurate time in my life (I'm overdue to dive into Rabbit Redux, I believe). It's still the only of his novels I've read, though I've since read a considerable amount of his criticism (both in the New Yorker and in collections) and his poetry. I reviewed Americana, his last collection of new poems, in 2001, and have since gone back to read much of his verse as well. I'm amazed at his facility with language, the way he crafted sentences and chose words. That might seem a strange thing to say about a writer, but few possessed his talents.

He certainly divided the literary world. There are folks like Nicholson Baker, who spun a full length book, U and I, from his appreciation of Updike's work, and others like Wallace, who's "Certainly the End of Something or Other, One Would Sort of Have to Think," a review of Updike's Toward the End of Time republished in his Consider the Lobster collection, picks apart the author's work: "Toward the End of Time is also, of the let's say two dozen Updike books I've read, far and away the worst, a novel so clunky and self-indulgent that it's hard to believe the author let it be published in this kind of shape."

At that 2001 appearance in Cedar Rapids, a member of the audience asked Updike if he wrote as a child. He said he fell in love with books early on, and his impulse was to do something creative with pencil and paper.

"The world has been kind and allowed me to continue to play as children do," he said.

His work, hardly child's play, fills 50-plus volumes and leaves us a lot to digest. His critics may be at least partly right when they say he spent much of his life writing about thinly veiled versions of himself, but few have done so as eloquently -- or compulsively -- and the world of books is richer for his place in it.

Labels: books

Lots of news from Joe Pernice this week, including word that he has completed his forthcoming novel and has two albums in the works.

The novel, It Feels So Good When I Stop, is due in September from Riverhead. Pernice writes in his occasional newsletter that "It’s not a book for kids, which is a general way of saying it’s not for anyone offended by raw language and sex. I sent an email to my family telling them that my book should not be read by anyone under twenty-one, anyone over fifty-five and Judy (my sister)." No word on a plot, but given the author, I'm guessing there is some melancholic heartbreak to be found in its pages. It will be Pernice's third book, following his self-published poetry collection Two Blind Pigeons and the 33 1/3 book about the Smiths' Meat is Murder.

Pernice reports there are "quite a few incidental musical references throughout," which led him to what sounds like a covers album/soundtrack of sorts. Tracks include James and Bobby Purify’s "I’m Your Puppet," the Chills "Rolling Moon," Tom T. Hall's "That’s How I Got to Memphis and Sebadoh's "Soul and Fire." His label, Ashmont Records, will release the disc around the time of the novel's publication.

The true follow up to 2006's Live a Little from the Pernice Brothers also is in the works. Pernice has been recording tracks for the disc for quite some time with Ric Menck, James Walbourne and his brother, Bob Pernice. It is due sometime in 2009 under the name Murphy Bed. (Here is Pernice's amusing story about the title: "I was planning on calling it Light, Sweet, Crude (in my mind, all three words are adjectives), but some other band beat me to the punch. It’s just as well, I suppose. I’ve decided to call the album Murphy Bed. (If that name is taken, I’m shelving the album for all time.)").

He explains the gap between albums with an excuse: He decided to put everything on hold until the book was done because "Riverhead/Penguin was paying me real money. If you think Ashmont Records Inc. would do in kind, you need to get your wiring checked out. And anyway—the international financial crisis and a handful of bloody conflicts aside—the world has done just fine in my absence from releasing albums."

Labels: books, music, Pernice

London Boulevard, one ofKen Bruen's early non-series crime novels, is moving toward the silver screen. Variety reported Friday that Colin Farrell and and Keira Knightley have signed on to star in the film. It will be the directing debut for William Monaghan, who wrote the screenplay for Martin Scorsese's "The Departed," for which he won an Oscar.

The book tells the story of Mitchell, an ex-con who tries to go straight and stay clear of some nefarious friends by taking a job in the mansion of Lillian Palmer, a fading movie actress. One assumes that Farrell signed on as Mitchell and Knightley as Palmer, though some rewriting by Monaghan was in order. No matter how talented, it's hard to see the 23-year-old Knightley pulling off "fading movie actress." Instead, she's billed as a "reclusive young actress."

It's among the first of Bruen's novels to make it this far on the path toward the screen, though it won't be the last. The author took a moment to answer a few quick questions about the news:

Are you involved with "London Boulevard" at all, or did you simply sell the rights and move on?

I get to talk to Bill Monaghan and that's pretty fine with me.

Any thoughts about it moving to the movie screen, or about Keira Knightley and Colin Farrell?.

It begins shooting in London in May and I think the cast are terrific.

What is the status of any other movie projects in the pipeline?

The Guards due soon and Blitz with Jude Law.

Those last two are parts of his Jack Taylor and Sgt. Brant series, respectively.

According to the Internet Movie Database, "London Boulevard" is scheduled for a 2010 release in the UK. Few other details are available.

Labels: crime fiction, Ken Bruen, movies

After a return (of sorts) to the kind of quality we all know he is capable of, Neil Young seems to have gone off the rails again. Not that Prairie Wind and Chrome Dreams II were great albums by any stretch, but if reports from those more privy to news than I are to be believe, his forthcoming album will be a stinker. Fork in the Road is reported to be a concept album about eco-friendly cars. Young clearly cares about this issue, having started LincVolt, a company that seeks to create a "clean automobile propulsion technology"

The first hint of the album's quality is the fairly awful title song, a video for which is streaming on Young's site (it features Young with earbuds plugged into an Apple (oh, Neil) lipsynching while standing in what looks like his back yard). It's the kind of chugging two-chord blues that Young and Crazy Horse can stumble through as soon as you plug 'em in, with lyrics about driving big rigs, blogging and the bailout. It's clear Young was inspired, threw something together immediately and plans to put it out. These efforts can be either raw and inspired (Living With War) or hamfisted and embarrassing ("Let's Roll"). This would seem to fall into the latter category. As the forthcoming Archives vol. 1 box set that was pushed back yet again because of this project (though those with $323.99 can preorder now) proves, Young a) has a lot of things in boxes that never see the light of day, and b) he's not his own best editor.

So, the saving grace is that there is a lot of great music from Young both in the vaults and (one hopes) in the offing, so it will be easy to politely nudge aside this codger's indulgence while we wait.

Labels: music, Neil Young

The new U2 single, "Get on Your Boots" is... strange. It's a Beatlesque (late-period Beatles, to clarify) romp that has the feel, to quote Bono's odd little lyric, of "rockets at the fun fair... candy floss ice cream..." a confection of sorts. Contrary to the title, which seems to promise a call to arms as we move into a new era (a view likely aided by the band's performance yesterday at the "We Are One" pre-inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial), the song is the kind of light fun the band seems to have settled into since it's return around the turn of the millennium.

It's not a bad song, necessarily, just not what was expected. Perhaps Bono and Co. got what they wanted with Obama's victory, and are content to celebrate for a while. Or, considering this is just one song of 11 on No Line on the Horizon, perhaps its the lightest song on a batch that jumps back to the band's more experimental Achtung, Baby/Zooropa period. Of course given the tongue-in-cheek presentation here, it could also signal a return to (cringe) the Pop aesthetic.

Only time (and downloads of the sure-to-be-leaked album) will tell. The disc is due in stores March 3.

Labels: music, U2

I'm about a month late in posting this, but it has been a busy holiday season/year/week/etc.

So, better late than never, here is my list of the top 20 CDs of 2008. It might seem that one need be a white guy over the age of 40 to make this list, but that's ridiculous. That guy in Bon Iver isn't even 30 yet (let alone those kids in Vampire Weekend) and Alejandro Escovedo isn't white. So there.

1. Bob Dylan – Tell-Tale Signs (Columbia)

Best-of lists typically have separate categories for re-issues and compilations, but what about compilations of songs that haven’t been previously released? In the case of a collection as strong as Tell-Tale Signs, you say rules be damned and stick it at the top of your best CDs of the year list. As good as Dylan’s last three albums have been – and they have been awfully good – this is better. Mainly composed of songs that either weren’t included on those albums or versions that were left in the vault in favor of others, it is a surprisingly cohesive batch of tunes. If anything, it shows that Dylan isn’t his own best editor; several of the songs here are in versions far superior to the originally released takes. And even when that isn’t the case, such as “Mississippi” from Love and Theft, Dylan and his band still perform such radically different arrangements that, save for a similar melody and lyrics, it’s like a different song.

2. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)

It was hard coming up with a No. 2 pick for this year’s list, because there were few stellar standouts and a lot of great albums that seemed on par with each other. That said, Fleet Foxes rises to the top simply because its album transcends a lot of things to remain a fresh, vital listen. On first listen, Fleet Foxes sounded like the work of a My Morning Jacket cover band performing Shins songs as interpreted by Band of Horses. The soaring choruses, the reverb, the acoustic instruments… it all seemed as if it had been done before. But listening again (and again, and again), it became clear that there was much more here than pastiche or homage. The songs are solid, the massed choruses heavenly and the whole thing bears the hallmark of a great album: As soon as it’s done, you want to hear it again.

3. Randy Newman – Harps and Angels

I have joked that inclusion on this list requires two things: being white and being at least 40 years old. That’s not quite true, but inclusions like Randy Newman certainly give that impression. I came to Newman late – just this year, in fact. I’d always been somewhat familiar with his work, but he was an old guy writing songs that were too clever by half. What did I care? A solo live show followed by some quality time spent with his catalog convinced me I cared a lot. No, this isn’t an undisputed classic like 12 Songs or Sail Away, but it’s full of Newman’s witty, clever and catchy songs, and that merits a spot on any best-of list.

4. Nick Cave – Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!

This was a year of surprises. Artists I had given up on or ignored suddenly issued albums that were so good they forced me to listen. Nick Cave is the first, best example. I have friends who are huge fans, but I’ve never done more than dabble. Perhaps it was a matter of working out a few things with his Grinderman side project last year, but Cave roars out of the gate here with an album that, unlike past efforts, kept me hooked from top to bottom. Cave’s leering swagger of a voice is at full power here, and his band locks into a groove that doesn’t let up until the final track plays.

5. Matthew Ryan – Vs. the Silver State (00:02:59)

Matthew Ryan is the kind of artist for whom terms like “criminally ignored” are coined. Ryan came onto the scene in the late 1990s as a sort of proto-Springsteen, an angry young man with energy to burn and the voice of a man twice his age. Over time his profile lowered and his sound shifted dynamics. Volume was replaced by intensity, and his songs took on an emotional depth. Still, it was frustrating to know he had a great rock album in him that wasn’t being let out. Vs. the Silver State unleashes the beast, and finds him marrying the lyrical and emotional heft of his later work to the aural firepower of his debut. The result is a fantastic album that should have put him back on people’s radar.

6. David Byrne and Brian Eno – Everything that Happens Will Happen Today (Todo Mundo)

Another surprise. When former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and that band’s producer (and top-notch solo artist) Brian Eno first collaborated, it was on an avant garde world music-inspired collection. Here, they instead create something closer to Eno’s more recent solo work, with icy synths and jittery melodies over which Byrne sings his own lyrics. He humanizes Eno’s music in a way its creator never could, while Eno’s intricately crafted songs eschew the cutesiness that sometimes mars Byrne’s solo work. It’s an inspired pairing.

7. Stephen Malkmus – Real Emotional Trash (Matador)

With his latest album, the former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus seems to have fully embraced his role as a guitar hero. Six of the 10 songs here top five minutes, with the title track clocking in at 10 minutes. But there is no noodling here; these are tightly arranged songs. Some credit goes to new drummer Janet Weiss, the pulse behind the late lamented Sleater-Kinney. Fans with blindered tastes who prefer early Pavement would be hard-pressed to detect Malkmus’ presence here beyond his ever-laconic vocals. But for those who kept up all along, it feels like exactly where he has been headed since Pavement’s final album. As such, it’s no stretch to call it his best solo work, the one that best aligns intent and execution.

8. Okkervil River - The Stand Ins (Jagjaguwar)

This disc was originally conceived as the second part of a two-disc release with last year’s The Stage Names. Despite that, it stands on its own. Things fell into place for this Austin, Texas, band with its 2005 album, Black Sheep Boy, and its winning streak continues here. Leader Will Sheff writes ramshackle tunes that feel perpetually ready to fall apart, but he keeps them together through the sheer force of his considerable personality. With elements of rock, folk, indie and turn of the (last) century balladeering, the band concocts music that is fun yet filling.

9. Alejandro Escovedo – Real Animal (Back Porch)

It is said that the unexamined life isn’t worth living. Alejandro Escovedo clearly takes that to heart. Over the course of a long career in music, the artist time and again has looked back on his own life and mined it for some of the most poignant, gut-wrenching music being made. On Real Animal, he looks at the music itself, offering a concept album of sorts about his own career. From stints with early punks the Nuns to the cowpunk of Rank and File and the stolen promise of the True Believers, a band he led with his brother, Javier, he touches on all of his near-misses at fame. Produced by kindred spirit Chuck Prophet, the disc crackles with energy and shows that no matter how inspiring those past moments were, Escovedo is more than able to equal them today.

10. Baseball Project – Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails (Yep Roc)

Here’s the wildcard, a disc that shouldn’t work near as well as it does. A member of R.E.M. (Peter Buck) plays second fiddle to a couple of journeymen musicians known only to a hardcore few fans, performing songs written exclusively about the game of baseball? Well, thanks to the fanboy eye for detail employed by songwriters Steve Wynn and Scott McCaughey, it works. The lyrics read like an oddball history of the sweet science, but non-fans who enjoy a good rock ’n’ roll rave up will find must as much to like. This is gritty, catchy and fun, and, pardon the pun, that adds up to a home run any day.

11. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar)

12. Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Lie Down In The Light (Drag City)

13. The Hold Steady – Stay Positive (Vagrant)

14. Sun Kil Moon – April (Caldo Verde)

15. The Broken West – Now or Heaven (Merge)

16. Damien Jurado – Caught in the Trees (Sub Pop)

17. R.E.M. – Accelerate (Warner Bros.)

18. TV on the Radio – Dear Science (Touch and Go)

19. Vampire Weekend – s/t (XL)

20. Coldplay - Viva La Vida (Capitol)

Labels: criticism, music

The 2009 class of inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced Wednesday, and other than offering the chance to put together that snazzy graphic it doesn't do much for me.

Maybe it's a symptom of living in the era in which these artists made their mark, but the whole thing has gotten rather ho hum. Do baseball fans feel anything when a great player is recognized after a career of exploits? Maybe the five-year gap between retirement and induction is a good idea. It's hard to appreciate the breakthrough that Metallica made 25 years ago when the band continues to churn out marginal music today.

Regardless, it's nice to see RUN-D.M.C. get its due. This truly groundbreaking act is deserving of the award, and I can already envision some sort of unholy matchup between Metallica and the hip hop act at the induction ceremony. Can one rap to "One"?

As for he rest, I'll admit I'm no judge of their merits. I've never understood Jeff Beck's appeal, though his lack of commercial success when compared to Eric Clapton et al might be more of a badge of honor than a slight. He's clearly talented, so bring him on. Bobby Womack? Can't honestly say I've ever knowingly heard one of his songs? Little Anthony? Again, in my ignorance I can't say they are better or worse than contemporaries, though I admire the fact that they're going strong, with original members intact, 50 years later.

Regardless of their merit, these acts obviously seemed like a lock back in September when they were announced. I was four for five in predictions, missing only on Womack, whose spot I predicted for the long-snubbed Stooges. With Ron Asheton now gone, I assume that will be rectified next year.

Other inductees include Wanda Jackson in the Early Influence category and Bill Black, DJ Fontana and Spooner Oldham in the Sidemen category, very worthy picks all.

Labels: music, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Two short-fiction heavyweights and an upstart who wrote one of the best books I read last year are the three finalists for the fifth annual Story Prize.

The annual award for short fiction has announced that Jhumpa Lahiri, Tobias Wolff and Joe Meno are the finalists for the 2008 award. They were selected from among 73 collections published by 56 different publishers or imprints.

Lahiri is nominated for Unaccustomed Earth, he second short story collection and her third book. Wolff's Our Story Begins is a new and selected collection that gathered 16 stories from previous collections and 10 new stories. Meno's Demons in the Spring is this innovative young writer's latest.

While I haven't read either Lahiri's or Wolff's books, I can highly recommend their work. Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies was masterful, and Wolff's three story collections that lend some of their pieces to Our Story Begins are uniformly excellent. Meno's book, my first -- but not last -- experience with his work, was fantastic. I must admit that I was turned off of his work without reading a word thanks to his early promotion and seemingly ridiculous titles like Hairstyles of the Damned. My loss. Demons in the Spring is the work of an assured writer, each of its 20 stories each creating a world that feels perfectly lived in completely different from the others. For added appeal, each is illustrated by a different comic or graphic artist, adding a pleasing dimension to the work.

Prize founder Julie Lindsey and director Larry Dark selected the finalists, and three judges will select the winner: Daniel Menaker,former executive editor-in-chief of Random House, fiction editor at The New Yorker, and an author; Rick Simonson of Seattle’s Elliott Bay Books who founded and directs the store’s reading series; and Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief and Animal Crackers and the editor of literary magazine One Story.

The winner will be announced at a March 4 event in New York. The winner will be presented with $20,000 and an engraved silver bowl; the two runners-up will each receive $5,000.

Past Story Prize winners are The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat (2005), The Hill Road by Patrick O’Keeffe (2006), The Stories of Mary Gordon by Mary Gordon (2007), and Like You’d Understand, Anyway by Jim Shepard (2008).

Labels: books, criticism

That image there is just wishful thinking, but I have a 1 in 597 shot of seeing something like it on bookshelves one day. I filed a proposal during the latest open call for 33 1/3 submissions from Continuum Books in December, punching up and significantly expanding my plan for a book about The Police's Synchronicity.

I felt good about the proposal last time out, but feel exponentially better about this one. Again, if chosen I plan to explore the animosity in the band as it reached its end, but I've come to realize that this is not only a tired angle, but one that misses the mark. Seeing the band on its reunion tour and hearing subsequent live recordings, I'm struck by how simpatico these three musicians are and how what each brings to the table meshes with that offered by the others to create something unreplicated in pop.

I'm glad my proposal improved, for the competition is even more fierce. Last time, there were 449 proposals for 380 different albums.This time? The just-published longlist includes 597 proposals for 490 albums! I'm happy to report mine is the only Police submission, so there's no competition there, but based on the fact that I'd love to read books about many of these proposed albums, I know decisions facing series editor David Barker are tough. As usual, the proposals range from the head-scratching (Dag Nasty?) to the obvious (Liz Phair, Radiohead, etc.). One surprise: seven proposals for Slint's Spiderland.

Barker says 20 to 25 books are likely to be contracted from this batch, so the odds are about as tough as getting into the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop down the road from me here.

Labels: 33 1/3, books, music

For the first time since 1982 when the National Endowment for the Arts began surveying Americans about their reading habits, the number of adults who said they read at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the previous year has risen.

Two stats jump out as positives beyond that: the biggest increases were among those 18 to 24, and here were 16.6 million more adult readers of literature in 2008.

Signaling the change, the NEA’s report – which in the past has been called “Reading at Risk” and “To Read or Not To Read” – is called “Reading on the Rise.”

It’s a startling reversal, given the slide the survey has documented since its inception. Still things are not as rosy as this might lead one to expect. When the survey debuted in 1982, it reported that 56. 9 percent of adults were readers. Even with a significant rise since 2002, that number now stands at 50.2.

Surprisingly, fiction accounts for the new growth in adult literary readers, according to the report. Unsurprisingly, reading of poetry and drama continues to decline. And in a sign that points to the future, “nearly 15 percent of all U.S. adults read literature online in 2008.”

Interestingly, at a time when we often talk of two Americas from a political perspective with shades of red and blue, the NEA reports its own “two Americas,” with half of the country identified as readers and the other half not. It would be interesting to see an overlay map to determine how closely these two versions of the two Americas align.

Labels: books

A real wish-you-were-there event took place in New Zealand this week as Neil Finn held his second "Seven Worlds Collide" shows. The Crowded House leader first gathered a few famous friends in 2001 for a concert, dubbed "Seven Worlds Collide" after a lyric in his song, "Distant Sun." That show found the likes of Johnny Marr, Radiohead's Phil Selway and Ed O'Brien, Lisa Germano and Eddie Vedder joining Finn for a few songs from his catalog and their own. The result was a great live DVD and CD.

Since, Finn has resurrected Crowded House and seemingly left his solo career behind for a bit. But with this second "Seven Worlds Collide" show, he steps back out on his own, with a lot of help. The Radiohead boys are back, as is Marr. Added to the mix are 4/5 of Wilco, Bic Runga, KT Tunstall and Finn's son, Liam Finn, a budding star in his own right.

The group performed three shows and then plan to go into Finn's Roundhead Studios in Auckland to cut an album that's due yet this year. According to reviews, the shows have been predictibly great. YouTube has a few videos, such as Jeff Tweedy singing Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" and Radiohead drummer Selway singing a song of his own. Can't wait for the CD/DVD, the proceeds of which will support Oxfam.

Labels: Neil Finn music

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the great Blue Note Records. The label was started by Alfred Lion, a German immigrant who recorded his first session just two weeks after the Dec. 23, 1938, Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall featuring pianists Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis. The two cut 18 tracks, issued as The First Day.

According to the history of the label find on its web site, the first brochure for the label included a statement of purpose:"Blue Note Records are designed simply to serve the uncompromising expressions of hot jazz or swing, in general. Any particular style of playing which represents an authentic way of musical feeling is genuine expression. By virtue of its significance in place, time and circumstance, it possesses its own tradition, artistic standards and audience that keeps it alive. Hot jazz, therefore, is expression and communication, a musical and social manifestation, and Blue Note records are concerned with identifying its impulse, not its sensational and commercial adornments.”

The best the label has had to offer in the 70 years since has lived up to that creed. Plenty of questionable sides have been issued with the Blue Note logo on back, but the label's hits far outnumber any missteps, and its classic period in the '50s and '60s is peerless in recorded music.

The label is perhaps best known among non- or casual jazz fans for its distinctive album covers. But to those who love jazz, the name in synonymous with great hard bop. Pick up a Blue Note disc from Lee Morgan or Art Blakey or Hank Mobley or Horace Silver or Lou Donaldson or... well, you get the idea. Do so, and you'll find a great batch of deep grooves and soulful playing.

The label will celebrate with a tour by the Blue Note 7, a group of younger stars who will perform classic Blue Note sides. The group includes pianist and musical director Bill Charlap, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, alto saxophonist Steve Wilson, tenor saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, guitarist Peter Bernstein, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash. The tour runs now through April 19. A disc from the group, Mosaic: A Celebration of Blue Note Records, is due Jan. 13.

In addition, author Ashley Kahn, who has penned interesting books about Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme and Impulse Records, is writing a book about Blue Note: Somethin’ Else: The Story of Blue Note Records and the Birth of Modern Jazz. The book is due in the fall. Blue note will issue a two-CD companion compilation at that time.

All in all, it's a good excuse to listen to some great jazz. Happy anniversary.

Labels: jazz, music

As I looked forward to 2009 and the prospect of spending more time with this blog, one of the things I have done is put together a Monday Interview list. I have a few feelers out here and there, and at the top of the list sat Donald Westlake. Westlake, under the name Richard Stark, wrote one of the best crime fiction series in existence, the Parker novels. The University of Chicago Press this fall began an ambitious reissue program that will bring three of the Parker novels back into print each year. The series began with The Hunter, The Man with the Getaway Face and The Outfit. The editions are clean, crisp and good as ever. Having devoured all three in a weekend, I was eager to correspond with Westlake about that early work and his continued success.

Alas, I'll never have the chance. Westlake died on New Year's Eve. Luckily, there will be plenty more Westlake/Stark. The U of C Press already has announced the next three in the Parker series: Mourner, The Score and The Jugger, while his obituary reports that his last book, Get Real, is due in April. Meanwhile, Hard Case Crime will reissue his first novel, 1960's The Mercenaries, in February as The Cutie.

If there is one bright spot in all of this, it's that Westlake is receiving a lot of attention right now. Perhaps all of the Barnes & Noble giftcards that changed hands this holiday season will be put to good use. And anyone seeking more information about Westlake can surely find it in the links being posted with pieces just like this one all across the web today. They include praise from novelist John Banville a 2006 interview with Ed Gorman (in which he discusses The Cutie) and a recent interview with the folks at the U of C Press.

Labels: books, crime fiction