Native American Heritage Month 2013

I'm late, as usual, and there are some things about that which I will cover over the next two days. Today I just want to go over the books.

Spider Woman's Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native American Women, edited by Paula Gunn Allen

There were sections that were really beautiful and others that were less so, which is not too surprising for an anthology. What the editor was trying to do was balance related themes among traditional and contemporary stories, so that was interesting to see. I started to think differently about Coyote, and that was strengthened by the next book.

She's Tricky Like Coyote: Annie Miner Peterson, an Oregon Coast Indian Woman by Lionel Youst

Peterson worked with a college professor on preserving two languages and the folklore, so while the book is mainly her biography, it also include one long story she dictated that was about the line of Tricksters, of which Coyote was only one. Reading these two books so close together was very helpful.

Los Versos del Capitan by Pablo Neruda

I have previously tried to include something from Latin America, and having recently decided to include poetry, this seemed like a natural fit. Reading it didn't feel right, though. I'm not sure if that's because it was not "Indian" enough, or if I should have been reading the poems in English instead of Spanish so that I could be more analytical.  (My Spanish is decent, but it has its limits.) I don't regret reading it, but I ended up needing something else.

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick

This book is highly recommended. It switches back and forth among the different participants, but is easily followed, with good background information and a feeling of humanity, which is too often in short supply.

The Business of Fancydancing by Sherman Alexie

Since I still needed poetry, and I had recently read an article on this, it seemed like the way to go. It is not solely poetry, because some of it has more of a prose form, though even those pieces often are kind of non-linear and function rather like poetry.

Scalped, Vol 1: Indian Country by Jason Aaron

I kind of hated this. It's not that it's not well done, but there is so much ugliness that it feels like an assault. Lots of language, lots of violence, and deeply flawed characters.

The Killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers

This covers a lot of the same ground as Philbrick's book, but is not nearly as fluid. There is a lot of repetition that drags the storytelling down. It did give me great sympathy for Crazy Horse, and as my reading of it overlapped with Alexie's work, which frequently refers to a Crazy Horse spirit, the reading did work together.

I'm not sure what I will read this November (I really think I can start on time this year). However, I do have three books that I want to do for pre-reading.

1493 by Charles Mann was on the list for this year, and then I realized that I was kind of overdoing it, especially when I had other things to work on. I need to get through some stuff, and then I will read it before November.

Also, while I was reading She's Tricky Like Coyote, it referred to Annie's husband working in the lumber camps, and though he was white, apparently a lot of the tribe members would take seasonal jobs there. I then remembered seeing the play One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest during my first reading month, and being surprised at how much it was about Chief Bromden, because from just hearing about it, it seems to be all McMurphy and Nurse Ratched. So, I will need to read that book and Sometimes A Great Notion. I went to University of Oregon, I know a few Pranksters children; I'm way overdue for reading some Kesey. Those will be background, not part of the reading, but it could be helpful background.

Band Review: Alice Sweet Alice

Alice Sweet Alice is an alt-rock quartet from Kansas City, Missouri.

Like the majority of bands that I review, Alice Sweet Alice came to my attention when they followed me on Twitter. They did it during a time period when I was trying to figure out if the follows were related to my music reviews, or just as a potential fan, so I sent a few messages asking various bands why they started following me. Alice Sweet Alice followed me because they saw I followed Scarling., and so thought I might like them too.

(There are no indications that anyone is following me for the reviews.)

I do find that some of the older work does remind me of Scarling and noise pop, with overlays and non-traditional sounds. Their last two albums sound cleaner to me. However, when I was listening to 2011's Mandala it put me more in mind of Chantal Claret, specifically Claret's "You Can't Save Her". Claret and Scarling.'s Jessicka Addams are friends, so there is a fun connection there, but what I was really thinking of was that "You Can't Save Her" was used in an episode of "Lost Girl", and I can imagine some Alice Sweet Alice tracks being used similarly. I can imagine them conveying a mood subtly but effectively.

For their most recent album, 2013's Ribbons & Stone, there is a nice balance, with softer songs like "For the Moment" and more aggressive songs like "Must Be Evil".

There are times when there are echoes of other bands (most recently, they reminded me of Concrete Blonde), but overall they really have their own sound.

Music can be purchased through iTunes and Google Play, but you can also download a free sampler through the web site.

http://www.alicesweetalice.com/

https://www.facebook.com/alicesweetalice

https://soundcloud.com/alicesweetalice

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCunD2aqJRWPqcLwV9P43gxQ

https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/alice-sweet-alice/id265825441

https://twitter.com/alicesweetalice

Band Review: Honeygirl

I became aware of Honeygirl through following Jesse Valenzuela and Scott Hessel of the Gin Blossoms. This makes sense, as Honeygirl contains Scott Johnson, also of the Gin Blossoms, paired up with singer Kira Brown. One of my favorite things about this is when they refer to Johnson as "Honeyboy". Anyway, I wanted to give the band a look.

It has been a little bit difficult in that right now Honeygirl appears to be more a gig band, so there is not a lot of recorded music available. What there is often cuts off abruptly. The only really good recording of "Writings on the Wall", but you can still hear enough to know that it is not the only good song.

There is some nice variety. "Writings on the Wall" sounds very country, but I liked it. "Beg. Me." turns a lot funkier. "I Got You" would probably still be considered country, but it seems like it could have crossover appeal.

So it's not a lot to go on, but I still wanted to write about them because I do think they would put on a good show, and someone who reads this may get a chance to go see them. Honeygirl is based in Phoenix, and most gigs seem to be in that area.

If they do record more, I will check it out.

http://honeygirlmusic.com/

http://www.reverbnation.com/honeygirlmusic

https://www.youtube.com/user/HoneygirlMusicPhx

https://www.facebook.com/HoneygirlMusic

https://twitter.com/Honeygirl_Music

Women Rock, Revisited

Back in early 2012, when everything was becoming new, I worked my way through Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitar Songs Of All Time. It was interesting, but in addition to my own quibbles, the Stereogum list had pages and pages of comments that I decided to go through as well. I finally got to where I could write about those in August of 2013, and it led to several blog posts, and one Spotify playlist, Guitar Sampler.

Also, in October 2013, I started posting a daily song, which has gone through themes of Misfits songs and Halloween videos, the Guitar Sampler and Best Bridges playlists, and songs from bands I have reviewed.

As I was doing this, I was thinking that I should revisit two of the posts from after the guitar comments. Guitar Sampler is 29 songs long, so pretty lengthy, but it still left out a lot. I discovered a lot while I was going through it. I finished reviewed bands on February 28th, and started revisiting Women Rock on March 1st. Apparently March was Woman's History Month, so it made sense. Also, it ended up being pretty cool.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/greatest-guitar-songs-women-rock.html

 

When I wrote the original post, I was looking specifically at songs that might reasonably be included on a list of the 100 Greatest Guitar songs, and where women were playing the guitar, which was pretty restrictive.

Basically I started looking at everyone whom I had mentioned and their songs, except for "Crazy On You" by Heart, because that ended up in the Guitar Sampler playlist. That meant that it just came down to whether the song rocked, regardless of whether or not there was virtuoso guitar work on it. A lot of these songs really rocked.

It didn't feel right if it was not a female voice, which means there is still no Pixies for Kim Deal or Talking Heads for Tina Weymouth. Truth be told, I don't really like the Pixies, and I like Talking Heads okay, but I am not really into them, so I am not heartbroken over it. I also considered putting in something by the Dandy Warhols for Zia McCabe, but stuck with female voices.

That actually eliminated quite a few bands. For example, I thought of using something by X, but I felt like I was hearing John Doe more than Exene Cervenka, so I shied away from it. The one partial exception I made is that I did include Device for Holly Knight, where you hear a lot of Paul Engemann, but Holly's voice is there, and also, she has contributed so much as a songwriter.

I did early on include a song by the Runaways, and it was the song of the day, but I ended up deleting it from the playlist because I don't really like the Runaways. That freed me up to include more bands that I would not listen to on a regular basis, because many of them are still important. I really don't like Courtney Love, but she has played a role, and I thought "Celebrity Skin" was an okay song.

There were other people I left out completely. Sometimes I just hated the songs too much, but sometimes there were genre questions. Maybe some songs were more pop, or soul. I still tried to mainly stick with rock, and that can be questioned. Chaka Khan might not be rock, but I saw it was her birthday, and that pushed it over the edge.

There were basically two big things that I learned. One is that there was always more. I didn't know how many I would find, but then I kept remembering different names. I looked up Siouxsie and the Banshees, and I didn't find anything I wanted, but that led me to Girlschool and the Slits. I looked up Dusty Springfield and Ronnie Specter because of vocals they did on other songs, and they didn't fit into this, but they could fit into somewhere else. (And tragically, Joan Jett is not on the playlist because Spotify does not have what I want.)

I decided I wanted to have a different artist for every day in March, and I did. Now I am doing some repeats, because there were some artists where I had a really hard time picking between multiple songs. I could add a lot more. There is a lot there. And that was the second point: you have to look.

I was reading recently about someone watching The Big Sleep and noticing that a cabbie and two bookstore employees were played by women, which seemed unusual. More research showed that the Los Angeles Police Department in the 1940's was very integrated. Some of that was the war, and some of that was immigration, but if now we picture what that police department would look like, we imagine all white men.

I have been able to find some statistics on this. Last year in movies, the percentage of speaking parts that went to women was 28%, down from a third the year before. In group scenes, if it is 17% women, people remember it as 50/50.

When I was writing Canceling Colbert, it occurred to me that I bet he didn't have many people of color on staff, but I didn't know. Yesterday I clicked on an article that confirmed it. It is very white. And it was not done intentionally, but it happened. It is easier for it to happen that way, for a multitude of reasons, but it weakens you. That show would be better written if they made an effort to broaden their base. And people might call that political correctness, but it's restoring a balance where we forget that there were black cowboys and Asian cops and so much other diversity that our minds shut out. There are lots of women who rock, but that is just one story of many built around a common theme.

I will get at some point make a playlist for the "You Get A Gold Star" post. It may include songs from the post on "Guitar Stuff that Makes Me Happy". There will be more from bands I've reviewed since Northcote -- all sorts of good stuff is on the way, and there is always more you can do with it. I love that.

For this list, I did think about including Baby Metal, but I'm afraid it's kind of exploitative. However, here are some girls who could easily end up on a future list:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YXpfcZy2Sk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59gqqoQuyqQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWJ5Razdsjo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijrWW7aGOmk

Nurture them!

The list:

3/1 "One Shot of Poison" by Lita Ford

3/2 "I Love Rock & Roll" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

3/3 "California Paradise" by the Runaways

3/4 "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar

3/5 "We Got The Beat" by The Go-Go's

3/6 "Hanging On a Heart Attack" by Device

3/7 "Goodbye To You" by Scandal

3/8 "Back On The Chain Gang" by the Pretenders

3/9 "Alone" by Heart

3/10 "Joey" by Concrete Blonde

3/11 "Edge of a Broken Heart" by Vixen

3/12 "I Drove All Night" by Cyndi Lauper

3/13 "I Don't Wanna Fight" by Tina Turner

3/14 "Like Flames" by Berlin

3/15 "Walking On Broken Glass" by Annie Lennox

3/16 "Just Like Jesse James" by Cher

3/17 "Mandinka" by Sinead O'Connor

3/18 "Who Knew" by Pink

3/19 "Call Me" by Blondie

3/20 "Demolition Boys" by Girlschool

3/21 "Come To My Window" by Melissa Etheridge

3/22 "Take It Off" by The Donnas

3/23 "Respect" by Aretha Franklin

3/24 "I'm Every Woman" by Chaka Khan

3/25 "Pilate" by Fire Party

3/26 "Celebrity Skin" by Hole

3/27 "Rock N Roll" by Avril Lavigne

3/28 "Because the Night" by Patti Smith

3/29 "Rebel Girl" and Bikini Kill

3/30 "Pleasure Principle" by Janet Jackson

3/31 "Ballroom Blitz" by Tia Carrere

4/1 "Playin' With Fire" by Lita Ford

4/2 "Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Allies

"Ally" is a fairly loaded word. The context in which I am using it is for someone who supports a marginalized group but is not a member of it. Where it gets loaded is that there are a lot of ways of doing it badly. I started thinking of doing this post because of an exchange I saw not too long ago, and it feels like a good fit for yesterday's post.

The original exchange was on Twitter, with someone trying to get acknowledgment from an activist and it ended with a disbelief that it was not possible to help. While the points leading up to that were aggravating, I did sympathize at the end with the feeling of frustration. To want to help, and feel like you can't, is rough. It's also unnecessary, but there are some obstacles to be gotten over first, and I hope this can be helpful for that.

If I may reference Suey Park once more, she had a tweet about this last month, with seven tips:

"1) decenter 2) not about feelings 3) don't tone police 4) don't get defensive 5) don't demand education 6) self educate 7) change behavior"

https://twitter.com/suey_park/status/440566744042590208

That may be enough for a lot of people, but I've got examples and stories to go with it.

The first thing is that you need to chuck your ego out that door. It is not about you. That covers the "decenter", but it affects feelings and defensiveness too, and often the defensiveness centers on tone.

The exchange I mentioned at the beginning, if I recall correctly, did two things that happen a lot. One is an attempt to self-justify, and get acknowledgment that you are good. Many people will get angry when they don't get that, but this moved to another common issue, with asking for education. Tell me how it is, tell me what I can do.

Those may sound reasonable, but it's overlooking a lot. First of all, of the activists that I follow, they have full-time jobs, or they are in school, and they have families, and all of the normal responsibilities of life. There is also the activism that they do, which takes mental and emotional energy, and often things will suddenly get really frantic without a lot of warning. In addition, it's really common for them to get abused.

The threats and trolling means more to wade through, and add to that the mental and emotional stress of being told over and over again how ugly and stupid you are, and that you should be raped, and they will do it, or that your children would be better off dead with you for a parent, and they know where your kids go to school.

Those things happen, and worse things happen, said with worse language. That takes a toll. In light of that, obviously it is wrong to also task the activists with protecting your fragile self-esteem, and reassuring you that they know you are not like those other white people. Obviously they should not be responsible for taking your education in hand, especially when there is so much information out there. They often have web sites and Tumblr and blog accounts, or you can just watch their threads and see what is being said, and learn a lot that way.

I read something in an advice column, where I think a child of a cancer patient needed support, but felt guilty sharing her pain with her parent. The answer was that support needs go outward. For a very simplistic example, the patient can get support from the immediate family, immediate family gets support from extended family, who can get support from friends, and that way you are diffusing the pain rather than concentrating it.

If you get rid of your ego, then you're not going to be constantly offended, or need to abuse someone whose statements make you uncomfortable, or display a messiah complex. And, honestly, if you want your ego gratified in the fight for social justice, you are bound to be disappointed. First of all, as we have already covered, it draws a lot of abuse.

Also, it goes slowly. The Civil Rights Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Lily Ledbetter Act happen, but also Citizens United happened, and George Zimmerman's acquittal, and the Affluenza defense, plus the Dupont heir getting probation. All of those are contribute to "angry" being a possible, legitimate tone, but they are also reasons I need to have a rich, full life for myself.

I do learn a lot from various feminists of color, but I do that by following what they are already doing, not making them stop for me. I don't ask them to reassure me that I am a good person, but I need to know that for myself. So, if I have things bugging me from my past, or things I don't want to think about weighing me down, it's my job to deal with those, and it ends up being a good thing, for me and for everyone else.

You have to put on your own oxygen mask before you start helping the people next to you. That's just how it works. That may mean stepping back. I don't have a smart phone, which has a downside, but the upside is that I have times when I am truly disconnected. Whether I am reading in the living room or in the kitchen making dinner or out taking a walk, or sleeping, those are all good times. If something important happened while I was gone, I can probably catch up.

And then you find ways you can help. You can offer support and encouragement when you see someone is having a hard day. You can contribute financially to Marissa Alexander or Shenesha Taylor. You can keep track of how your local judges pass sentence, and vote accordingly, or if they are appointed, make your views known to the one who appoints them. When someone makes jokes that are not jokes, you can say you don't get it, and let them explain why that is funny.

We can talk about feminism and anti-racism and they are real, but there are strong class and economic factors that are closely related and that affect on multiple levels. So you can tutor or help start a community garden or fight pollution, and it can matter.

My special thing is keeping an eye out for depressed teenagers on Twitter. It is not glamorous, and it can be stressful. Yesterday, two were talking about attempting suicide within a few minutes of each other, and one is now in the hospital. But sometimes things sink in, and sometimes they listen, and it fits me. With my personality and schedule and abilities and who I am, this is where I need to be. That may change at some point, but for now it works.

(Also, my blog occasionally helps people who feel something but don't know how to say it.)

So, in summary, I am saying get over yourself, and then take care of yourself, and then find out how being yourself allows you to best help others, which may sound somewhat messy and contradictory, but that is life, and it can be very beautiful.

Canceling Colbert

#CancelColbert is a hash tag that has been making the rounds, stirring strong reactions. There have been some good articles that still miss certain aspects, so I want to go over how it looked from my end.

It started with a tweet from a PR account for The Colbert Report.

"I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever."

I saw it from @suey_park, who started the #CancelColbert hash tag.

I had mixed feelings. I was appalled by the tweet, but I was pretty sure it was not meant to be harmful, and canceling seemed extreme. I also understood that with the alliteration factor and with the severity, that worked better as a hash tag than anything more nuanced. And, Park and the others were not actually organizing to cancel, either, but I take things literally, so that was an issue for me. I didn't re-tweet, but I did immediately write one reply to the original account, and one question to Stephen Colbert's personal account, questioning if he knew about the tweet.

The show's account put up the sketch that the quote came from, but that actually made it worse.

http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/b6cwb3/sport-report---professional-soccer-toddler--golf-innovations---washington-redskins-charm-offensive?xrs=synd_twitter_032814_cn_43

The tragedy is that it starts out really well. The lines about the name not being offensive if you only use it once in the organization's name, and the picture with the coats, and the part about the backhoe, all work. "Smoke'm the peace pipe" is questionable, but still, there were good points made.

It went wrong when Colbert brought up the old character. And I do mean old, because the clip was from 2005. I suspect it got some pushback as offensive, and it feels like there was still some resentment over that that increased their motivation to trot it back out -- "See, we really are funny, and way less offensive than Dan Snyder." I could be wrong, but that doesn't change that it didn't work.

That all happened Thursday. Friday Park did a segment on HuffPost Live with Josh Zepps, and it was clear early on that Zepps had no intention of actually listening to Park. Based on his initial line of questioning, he had done no research. He was patronizing, spoke over her, and called her opinion stupid. Eventually she refused to engage on that level and the conversation ended.

Park has gotten a lot of hate directly, but also I have seen many criticisms focusing on the hash tag, and they miss key points.

One complaint is that it wasn't from Colbert's own account. Many pointed out his eventual reaction as surprise because he did not seem to be familiar with the PR account, so don't blame him. Okay, Colbert did not tweet that tweet, but he said the lines on the show. He's involved.

There have also been defenses that the problem is that the tweet was just the punch line, without the setup, and that's why it fell flat. No. Watching the setup, it still falls flat, even with the context. Granted, if the tweet had not happened, the bit might not have attracted any attention on its own, but the offensive material was part of the show.

A less common issue, but one that Zepps tried, is implying that going against Colbert when he is making fun of Snyder is like supporting Snyder in adhering to the Redskins name, with the wider corollary being that you can't have dissent within the ranks. (This is one reason I say Zepps did not do any research. He should have known about #NotYourMascot.)

It is not beneficial to divide the world into good guys and bad guys and then set up strict lines of team loyalty. People are flawed. Well-meaning people goof. People who make a lot of bad decisions still come through sometimes.

Granted, if you take a look at Fox News and the GOP, many of them appear cartoonishly ignorant and heartless, but it seems possible that part of how they got that way is following the party line too closely, and not being able to call someone on "their side" out when it was needed. No, that is not a reason to be silent.

And now for the biggest complaint of all, that people just don't get humor, they don't get the joke, and most of all that they don't understand satire; now that's patronizing!

Sadly, I think most of us have experience with someone who is being a jerk, but adds "LOL", or "Just kidding", thus putting the burden on the offended party because they don't get the joke. The joker may have latent or barely disguised hostility, or they may want so much to be funny that it impairs their judgment, but humor as a defense is not automatically valid.

"Ching-chong" is something that still gets used. Children are teased with this. I have heard people laugh at it. So, it is a charged phrase, and the viewers are being invited to laugh at it. I don't think anyone involved with The Colbert Report intended ill, but they messed up. They messed up by forgetting that humor needs to be directed against power to work. Making fun of Dan Snyder, who has millions of dollars and is an ass, works. Making fun of the way racists think that Asians talk sounds like it should work, but it came out sounding too much like making fun of the was Asians talk.

It reminds me of last year when The Onion got in trouble for a "joke" that they made about Quvenzhané Wallis. I got exactly where they were going with it. They had a more effective piece that came from a different angle, about Anne Hathaway reciprocating one women's baseless hatred of her. Going on that theme of cattiness and unfair resentment, it probably seemed that making an adorable 9-year old the target would highlight what was wrong with it, except they called a little girl the C-word, and it did not go over well.

It is really easy to misfire on satire. Doing satire well requires a lot of intelligence, and it requires double-checking to make sure your targets are correct. The Colbert Show failed on both points. It's perfectly reasonable to call them on it.

People tweeting #CancelColbert understand satire. That is not the problem. However, people defending the show as not racist by using hate speech or telling people to shut up as a way to fight censorship (and that happened a lot, and is still happening), may not really grasp irony.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/179084/whos-afraid-suey-park

Band Review: The Nightwatchman

The Nightwatchman is a solo project of Tom Morello, who has done a lot with music but is also the author of Orchid, which is how I got here.

This is not solely a review of music related to Orchid. There were two songs that came via the comic book. One was "Iscariot". With obvious Biblical overtones in the title, it is sometimes lovely and sometimes moody, building its own story as a complement to the comic book.

The other song, "It Begins Tonight", is also featured on the album World Wide Rebel Songs. I have been listening to the album, and I have never heard anything like it. I guess the most appropriate categorization would be folk rock. It has the political feeling of folk, but it is so much more vibrant and interesting. The vocals go a little flat at times, but it is minor, and all of the instruments - drums, guitars, harmonica - are excellent.

There is a great diversity of sound among the tracks. "Facing Mount Kenya" has sort of a '60 Beat feel, where "Stray Bullets" reminds me of a sea shanty, and "Speak And Make Lighting" has a bit of a revival feel with its joyous call and response.

In my review of Orchid I was disappointed to not emotionally connect with it; the emotional connection is here. Some of that may be due to the songs being more upbeat, and more beautiful. It's not that the dark materials aren't there, but something better has been built upon them.

This is one of the most invigorating albums I have heard. Definitely worth checking out.

http://www.nightwatchmanmusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TomMorello

https://www.youtube.com/user/tommorellomusic

https://twitter.com/tmorello

Music Review: Cartoons and comics

I don't think that's the best title, but I was not sure what to call this.

One thing with yesterday's reviews is that they both have associated music. Orchid has two songs you can get, but it is also possible to do a regular review of Tom Morello: the Nightwatchman, and that will happen tomorrow.

Emily and the Strangers has one song and video, which would not be a lot to review, but it got me thinking.

The first thing that I remembered is that the Luann comic strip had put out some songs. It is not uncommon for characters in comic strips and comic books to be musicians. Sometimes it is just teen characters practicing in a garage, like Jeremy's friends in Zits or Chip's friends in Hi and Lois. Sometimes there are storylines revolving around the band, as in Safe Havens.

Luann actually putting out songs seemed new, so I tried hunting them down and found a few:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMJd6JYStVaNy7YJSpKubOw

I didn't love them. It's probably appropriate, because the idea behind them is that a high school girl is using poems that she wrote growing up for lyrics, and they are being accompanied on the keyboard by another high school age student. Given that, they are probably pretty realistic, but I don't want to keep going back to them.

One thing to consider is that the skills used for drawing a comic strip are different than those used in making songs and videos, but there is more correlation if you are making a show. Because of that, it is not unreasonable that a cartoon band might have more resources to produce some better songs. So, the Archies had a radio hit, and maybe "Jem" or "Josie and the Pussycats" had some memorable songs, but really, I'm thinking of "Daria".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm_5cRsavyI

Actually, it would not have been too realistic for Mystic Spiral to be that great a band either, but I still always enjoyed their appearances. In my mind I remembered "Freaking Friends" as being livelier, but they had a lot of songs. I think "Betrayal" had a lot of potential.

Some of those cartoons had their origins in comic books, which brings us back to Emily and the Strangers, and their song "Calling All Guitars".

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgVNe5sFz1X-0WdE7lH8dg

http://emilyandthestrangers.com/

I love it. In addition to sounding as if it's something that the band as depicted really would play, it's also good listening.

The video really captures the feeling of the book. I do feel a little bad that they seem to leave Willow and Winston out of the roll call. There is some reuse of footage, which I suspect is a budgetary thing, but even with that they did a great job. The plan is to eventually produce a full album, and I can get behind that.

There was one point in the video, where the cat flying through the air unzips to Emily, that reminded me of something else I had seen recently:

http://mindlessselfindulgence.com/news/mindless-self-indulgence-fight-evil-anime-characters-exclusive-video/

I have been thinking a lot about how rock and comic books can go together, but there may also be some room in the realm of Saturday Morning cartoon shows. Though, if we are marketing to children, there could be some lyric issues. Those are things that can be worked out.

Comics Review: Emily and the Strangers and Orchid

These two may not seem like an obvious match. The connection is that they were both acquired via a Dark Horse Rock & Roll Comics weekend sale.

There were other books included in the sale. I already had Killjoys and Umbrella Academy, of course, but it made sense to keep Killjoys with yesterday's post. I wrote a little about Umbrella Academy when I was just getting started, but I may revisit it later. There is supposed to be a new chapter in development.

Technically I ended up getting hard copies of Emily and the Strangers from the Kickstarter, so I probably should not have bought the digital copies, but they were on sale and sometimes it is convenient to be able to bring them up on computer.

The other book that was on sale was House of Gold & Bones (by Corey Taylor of Slipknot), which I decided against. Other reasonable inclusions for Rock & Roll comics, if we included other publishers, would include IDW's Killology, which has Marky Ramone as a character, and Lobo from DC, written by Scott Ian of Anthrax. There is a lot of room for collaboration between rock and comics, and I like that.

Let's get to the comics I bought and read through the sale!

Emily and the Strangers, written by Mariah Huehner and Rob Reger, art by Emily Ivie.

Emily's quest to win her idol's guitar requires a band, which leads to creative difficulties for the habitually solitary Emily.

Emily's a bit of a pill. That was frustrating for me in terms of enjoying the character, as she can be arrogant and rude and an ingrate. That wasn't so much a flaw as the point, though, as she has to learn to work with the others, and perhaps even enjoy it.

The solutions for the problems end up being pretty easy most of the time, with occasional delays due to stubbornness, but there was never a lot of dramatic tension. Where I ended up being totally engaged is with the art.

The first page of the first issue has an intricate background, an Escher tribute in the foreground, and visual interest everywhere. I could look at the pages all day long. It is totally logical that while Emily might start as a brand mascot, that she would become more, because there is something alluring about her.

Also, I love the way cats are constantly overrunning everything. The artwork for the cats is good, but they are used well for humor and frustration.

Orchid, story by Tom Morello, art by Scott Hepburn, colors by Dan Jackson, and letters by Nate Piekos of Blambot.

Rising sea levels resulted in a brutally deadly world with many oppressed. A mask that can destroy or empower the wearer is pursued by a tyrant and used by a prostitute.

My problems with Orchid started with the opening. During the setup there is a line, "When the seas rose, genetic codes were smashed" leading to pictures of animals mutating in uniformly terrifying ways. (I believe After Earth went in a similar direction.) Anyway, I remember thinking that it wouldn't go down that way, and so I didn't get lost in the world as much as I could have.

This may have been for the best, because it was an exceedingly ugly world. I don't mean that based on the artwork or the writing, because it was pretty well done. The symmetry between Opal's experience and then Orchid's made sense, and the turnaround at the end, was well-written. Orchid's putting on the mask the first time made sense.

There were things that did not feel real to me, and that took me out of the story. Some of it was minor, like the relationship between Anzio and Simon felt tacked on at the end (to be fair, a romance between Orchid with Simon would have felt much more forced). It felt like something would have to happen with Yehzu, so that worked but was underdeveloped. Though, as part of that arc, you knew Tomo's death was assured when he killed Radius, and the page where Barrabas saw it was drawn exactly right.

Mainly though, I feel like the philosophy behind it was missing. If being able to wear the mask requires being a saint, I can see how Opal's desire for a better world, and to protect Orchid, qualifies her, but it feels wrong that Orchid's desire solely for revenge should. The bridge people working together is the kind of change that should turn things around, but again, if everyone is planning to die in the pursuit of vengeance, how did they get their better world? That requires them to be the kind of people, and have a vision, that they are rejecting. Ultimately, it never felt real.

One thing that I did like is a recurring theme that reading is transformative. I do believe in that.

Comics Review: Grimm, Killjoys, and BPRD Vampire Revisited

I read something recently about how new series get reviewed, but there generally isn't follow up. The more I thought about that the more surprising it was, because often with comic books there is so much exposition in the first issue that you really don't know how it will come out.

That's why I decided to revisit these three series that I wrote about in June. Of course, two of them were limited runs, but those two are finished now, which is one good reason for returning. Also, reading my original post, I can see that a lot of my optimism was based on trust in the creators, which is interesting, and we can look at how that trust works out. If you are not reading a one-off, there will be expectations.

Most of this will be about the things I didn't expect, and maybe could not have expected, and whether or not that ends up being a good thing.

BPRD Vampire (Dark Horse Comics): Story by Mike Mignola, Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, with art by Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, colors by Dave Stewart, and letters by Clem Robins.

When I last wrote about the series, I had just finished reading issue 3 of 5, and it was a turning point where the was this jolt of realizing that I did not know where it was going at all. You might think that would cause a reset where whatever happened would not throw me, but I was still totally thrown by the conclusion.

It's not that it didn't make sense. Actually, re-reading everything last night, the ending of the first issue kind of predicts it all. Anders wants to kill the vampires, and he will do that beyond his wildest hopes, but there's still no way you could have seen the bear coming.

BPRD Vampire is chilling, and it is a complete story in five issues, yet it is also part of a much larger story, connecting to other issues of BPRD, and to mythology and history, so with roots sinking deep and tentacles reaching out.

Grimm (Dynamite Comics): Plot by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt, script by Marc Gaffen and Kyle McVey, art by José Malaga, colors by Thiago Dal Bello, and letters by Marshall Dillon.

This is the series that is actually continuing, and yet I am not continuing with it, which is disappointing. There were two things that I thought were handled well from the first issue. One is that they got through the world-building exposition with a nice balance of information without being too repetitious. Also, I thought the introduction of Maya would be good as it would allow the comic to do its own thing without having too much conflict with the show.

I think there was sort of a shift where someone picking up the series now without being familiar with the show might face some confusion, but that is not the problem. It's more that the comic is just too typical. Once the initial storyline of the coins wrapped up, things lost steam, with some fairly perfunctory monster of the week cases.

I gave up after issue 8, which ironically was the best, focusing completely on an episode from Aunt Marie's past. There is a really rich world here. The books in the trailer give a long history of Grimms and Wesen, so there is a lot that could be explored without being hampered by worries about contradicting the show.

That being said, the books still struggle with typical comic book problems. Here's a female; she better dress sexy. Even Kelly ends up in ball gowns, with the cliched skeevy villain making her try them on. It feels very stereotypical, which prevents it from living up to the show, which I still adore.

All of which may just be one way of saying that I still think it should have gone through Dark Horse.

The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Dark Horse Comics): Script by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon, Art by Becky Cloonan, Colors by Dan Jackson, and Letters by Nate Piekos of Blambot. 

The biggest overthrow of expectations here happened with the conclusion, which came surprisingly easily. Everything was set for an epic showdown with a lot of deaths, and that is not how it happened at all.

It feels like it should feel too easy, but it doesn't, and I have puzzled over that. Korse and Val have, from different side, killed many people. Korse has seen some loss and suffering, so that he can drive off into an unknown future is one thing. With Val, it could be even less satisfying; he can just say he's sorry and walk away?

But you do a see a weigh one him, first in a close-up of his face, and then farther away as he is surrounded by many, from both sides, just as newly free, all of whom have done horrible things with varying degrees of knowledge, and who aren't going to be done thinking about it or adjusting to it that quickly. What would we all do if we were suddenly free? So I think one reason it ended up being satisfying is that it felt realistic. It could go down like that.

The other thing, though, is the girls' arc. She learned to understand herself and the world around her, and actively chose what she was going to do about it, and it was a higher choice than a lot of easier ones.

And it ended on a sweet surprise that you wouldn't have dared hoped for, but that still makes me tear up.

Comics Review: I'm a German Shepherd and Island of Memory

This could be subtitled "my birthday comics". They were both books that I requested for Christmas, and were not received. I had written earlier about how difficult it was to locate a copy of I'm a German Shepherd. Island of Memory was readily available through Floating World Comics, but for people who were only used to looking at Powells and Amazon there was still some difficulty. Fortunately my older sister really outdid herself in terms of hunting down leads, and so the one book was a little late, but I now have both in my hot little hands.

I will be reviewing comics all week, but these two go together. It is not just because of how they were both obtained, but these are also both single artist works, with writing and illustration and color all being done by the same person. Bak worked with Floating World, while Martins self-published, but I think both have to be considered as labors of love.

Island of Memory by T Edward Bak

We begin with a quote, from Seneca - "There is nothing dead in nature" - and we see four pages of sea life: otters, birds, crabs and sea weed. The colors are muted, but there is a lush feeling to the images. Then there is a colored band with similar figures down the center of a stark black and white page. The otters are still there, but a ship enters, and soon we have humans.

The narrative goes back and forth between Alaska and Russia. Sometimes there is color, though never overpowering. There is often an awkwardness to the human figures, especially in Russia. The most beautiful work seems to go to the Russian animals, but it is interesting watching the artistic style change. Sometimes we know we are in a memory or a dream, and sometimes there is something else entirely. I think the last few pages function more as a vision.

There is a sense of foreboding that things can't go well. There are very harsh elements for the expedition. There are always storms coursing through the work, and foxes breaking up dreams and digging up graves, yet the Russian society is clearly full of threats too, and the formality with which the are approached is kind of more chilling than the snow.

It is very clear that this is just one volume of a longer work. Even if that were not specified on the last page, there are just many things that we don't know. It is not merely not knowing what is going to happen from this point in the story, but there are things in the past that are only hinted at. That may be a little overdone - it might work to let some things be more clear - but that depends on how it will all take shape.

It's interesting in that we all know names like Stellar and Bering, but we don't really know much about them. This is a chance to learn more, and to see some compelling artwork. I do love the otters, but I really want to see the sea cows.

http://www.antizerogravity.com/

I'm a German Shepherd by Murilo Martins

Dogs are an easy sell with me, and the bold, vividly-drawn German shepherd on the cover appealed to me right away. There is so much personality in that fairly simple drawing, and you can easily imagine him saying the titular line.

I have to admit, it was not what I expected. The cover looks like you are going to have a cute and humorous story, and there is a much darker vein than I had possibly expected. Actually, the ending was really a shock, and since our recently adopted greyhound looks and barks rather like a German shepherd in some ways, that kind of made it more alarming.

That doesn't mean the book doesn't have merit. I have thought about it a lot more seriously than I would have otherwise, and wondered how much it was influenced by the political situation, and what could have gone differently.

Still, I think it is strongest on the art. There is a surface simplicity but it is really effective and elegant, and just naturally draws the eye.

http://murilomartins.tumblr.com/

Band Review: Sheabou

Sheabou (pronounced Shay-boo) is a four person band out of London.

Their biography mentions using a songwriting progress that focuses on democracy, starting with vocals and adding instruments on at a time, rather than the more traditional format of having the singer as the primary songwriter.

This probably influences the very mellow feel to their sound. I would describe it as a sincere, coffee-house vibe. At the same time, the process may water down the songs, as it is hard to point to something that stands out. They are pleasant background, but not generally attention grabbing, one exception being the intro on "Just Go".

They appear to be a relatively young band, so there is room for growth.

https://www.facebook.com/Sheabou

http://www.reverbnation.com/sheabou?page_view_source=facebook_app

https://soundcloud.com/sheabou

https://twitter.com/Sheabou

Band Review: Kid Fella

With Kid Fella, I am back to my occasional dilemma of usually not liking rap, but feeling guilty if I don't review someone who followed me, and also, sometimes I do like it, and it feels wrong to automatically discount it. So, that's my disclaimer that if you like the genre you may respond to the music completely differently.

I would say that Kid Fella has better than usual hooks, finding a little more variety in the different types of sounds to bring in, and more variety of tempo and rhythm. I appreciated that.

I was still irritated and frustrated by the language, including use of the N-word. Not unusual, but it was repetitive and annoying in that way. I think "Infamous" was the worst for that, which makes sense. Also the misogyny.

One page indicated that tracks were available through Amazon, iTunes, and Google Play, but I saw a link to CD Baby elsewhere, and that is included below.

http://richfaam.com/from-the-ground-up/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaH-_vfkJEkTrqq9pEGP0JA

https://twitter.com/RFKidFella

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/KidFella