I knew I wanted to start a blog that featured my favorite literary quotes, but I thought that quotes alone would be a bit too precious or boring. And I have always been a connoisseur of crappy TV. So I figured what better way to indulge my guilty pleasures than by pairing them with more high-minded fare?
How fast and often should authors write? Discussing "slow down": At The Millions.
My labor day was rudely interrupted by some lawncare service cutting grass. After I take care of this end of summer vacation business, we'll be back Wednesday. More after the jump...
These stories and this list got us thinking about what southern literature is and is supposed to be. Southern literature at its best contains all of the region's contradictions and irrationalities, full of rascals, rebels and wily reverends. The type of stuff we like to read. Here's our top 5 Southern novels.
5. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Though set in 1930s Georgia, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is less about the Deep South and more about how normal people face up to life's many sorrows and disappointments. McCullers wrote the book at the age of 23, but her complex view of her varied characters and their sufferings demonstrates that she was wise beyond her years.--Andrew
4. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
Every Southerner immediately and forever knows the malaise.
3. Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
O'Connor slowly lures you in, then knocks you over the head.--my wife, Ashley
2. All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
Willie Stark = Huey Long = Bill Clinton. We are their pawns.
1. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Only Ignatius Reilly has the courage to put his eccentricities and laziness into action. The rest of us just harbor resentment against his boldness.
The Bronzed Chorus continue to pick up steam nationally as well as locally. From Greensboro, NC, they've got that soft sneaky instrumental thing down--think Mogwai--with only a duo set. Their recent release is I'm The Spring from Hello Sir and they're knocking on everyone's door for the next few weeks from the Deep South on. So let The Bronzed Chorus in.
Also around for the Georgia dates will be labelmates and Athens-GA band A.Armada--which has a similar sound to The Bronzed Chorus with a few more fuzzed out chords and dreaminess on the fringes.
Southeast tour dates after the jump...
The Bronzed Chorus Southeast dates:
Sep 4 2009 9:00P The Drunken Unicorn w/ A.Armada, Antartic, Sorry No Ferrari Atlanta, Georgia
I'm fascinated with the merger of the punk and the indie, and the very few instances that it happens. In this case, take uber-happy uber-smart pop-punk specialist The Format and mix with the ultimate indie ideal, Anathallo and what pops out is fun. As in the band. But fun, too. (First, how is this band name not already taken? Seems like it should have been.)
Fun. is the exuberant experience of combining Andrew Dost's (formerly of Anathallo) organic percussive sensibilities with Nate Ruess' (formerly of The Format) incredible knack for snappy pop music and sarcastic insights. The opener "Be Calm" is incredible and I think it combines these really well. A mellow accordion intro gives way to violin lines amid Ruess' escalating falsetto in a Queen-esque turn towards the absurd as birds seemingly chirp in the background before delving into this cool slapdash stomp and stammer of the second verse and bridge before escalating into a trumpet-backed stately march. I never saw The Format, but I remember the craziness of Anathallo's early days where five members would be running from instrument to instrument and I can only imagine that was all at the orchestration of Dost. He has the heart for the grandiose, and Ruess has the mind for piercing wit.
As in the second song, "Benson Hedges," he asks 'Holy ghosts, when do you come out to play/ 'cause if the Lord is going to find me/He better start looking today" and then "what did you do today?/I should have spent the day cutting out my eyelids." This song took awhile to get me, but its merger of a crazy rolling piano and continually frantic guitar giving way into a punchy chorus reminded me of REO Speedwagon meeting Jerry Lee Lewis. It's no "Great Balls of Fire," no that song would be too simple for these ambitious geniuses, instead the snippets and tidbits of sound and instrument are stacked high and then higher. "Benson Hedges" I think has become my favorite, based on its ambition alone.
To keep merging bands, really this may be Max Bemis of Say Anything fronting The Arcade Fire. Unfortunately, the crutch for the band is the three-chord punk rock guitar, to somehow shake that off and enhance the flourishes would move fun. into a different realm of the "serious" indie rock, which would probably be...no fun.
"All The Pretty Girls" is fun's own "Sweet Talking Woman." It yanks a page straight from ELO with its pop chorus and wide strokes of pop-prog. And is Fun trying to secretly make us all fans of Billy Joel? It sure seems that way, and surprisingly, I'm not offended. In fact, I rather enjoy it especially with "At Least I'm Not as Sad (As I Used To Be)."
Aim and Ignite falters when it strays when it doesn't add enough bold and outrageousness to their work and instead drifts into children's ditties. Okay, maybe only one with "Walking The Dog" and "The Gambler" lacks an underhanded punch like the rest of the songs deliver. But pop this witty and smartly crafted--they really show the comedic flipside to what Sufjan and Andrew Bird are doing--hopefully enough catch on to realize that there are more similarities than differences between fun. and those acts. Because these guys deserve any and all attention that they get.
