Archive for category Uncategorized
show preview: Alex Dezen at Middle East Upstairs, March 9.
Posted by Amy Steele in Music, Uncategorized on March 2, 2017
The Damnwells have disbanded after 16 years together. Alex Dezen is on tour in support of his second solo album, II. The newest album features upbeat, grooving melodies with a retro vibe. Of the new album, Dezen said: “In many ways, the job of an artist is to re-examine what came before. That informs what we do next, My intention when I made this record was not to make an ’80s record. But as soon as I got the guitar in my hands and started messing around with chords and getting further along into the production and the writing, it just went that way — and it felt very natural to me.”
In 2010, Dezen earned a master’s degree from the University of Iowa after completing two years at the institution’s Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He writes material for other artists and has worked with Dave Grohl, The Dixie Chicks, Justin Bieber and Kelly Clarkson. In 2015, he collaborated with the American dance company Pilobolus Dance Theater, composing the music for the dance piece “Wednesday Morning, 11:45 (2015).”
$10, Thursday, March 9, 7 p.m., Downstairs, Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub, 472-480 Massachusetts Avenue, Central Square, Cambridge, mideastoffers.com.
book review: Mister Monkey
Posted by Amy Steele in Uncategorized on November 15, 2016
Mister Monkey by Francine Prose. Harper| October 2016| 285 pages | $26.99| ISBN: 978-0-06-239783-6
RATING: ****/5*
“They are in this together, everyone is happy to be here and disappointed to be here, glad to have a part in a play, glad to work for scale, but truthfully not all that overjoyed to be working in an off-off-off-off-Broadway production of Mister Monkey, the umpteen-hundreth revival of the cheesy but mysteriously durable musical based on the classic children’s novel.”
In writing this novel about a failing theatrical production, author Francine Prose [Lovers at the Chameleon Club: Paris, 1932, My New American Life, Blue Angel] addresses the rippling effect of the play on a bevy of players. The faltering stage production of a classic and popular children’s novel brings together a disparate group of actors, crew and audience members. Prose imagines how this rather basic play correlates to the mid-aged actress questioning her career, the child actor playing the titular monkey, the children’s book author and young child in the audience, that child’s teacher and others. Each chapter builds on the past one. The play’s based on a novel about a wealthy New York family who adopts an orphaned monkey. The father’s girlfriend thinks the beloved monkey stole her wallet. The case ends up in court. Absurdity ensues.
Each chapter addresses the play from a different character’s viewpoint adding more layers to the story behind the play. Margot wonders how she ended up working so hard and not advancing her career in the way she’d imagined. She’s playing Mister Monkey’s lawyer in a tiny theater. This isn’t the career she’d envisioned for herself at Yale. She reminds herself: “Art is art, theater is magic, no matter how humble the venue. Together they have transformed a house full of strangers into a group of people all rooting for Mister Monkey!” The home-schooled twelve-year-old actor in the monkey suit became engulfed in everything simian when he landed the role. He also harbors a massive crush on Margot. Costume designer Lakshmi believes “Mister Monkey is a nasty piece of imperialist propaganda justifying human trafficking, which you would know if you were smart enough to substitute a person for a monkey.” Eleanor works as a nurse full-time and acts on the side. The grandfather and his grandson, Edward, attended a matinee of the play. Prior to the play the grandfather started reading the book to his grandson. “The grandfather didn’t like the book either. It seemed obvious and preachy, full of improving lessons about race and class, honesty, justice, and some kind of . . . spirituality, for want of a better word.” Edward takes the playbill to school and a spirited argument about evolution erupts among the kindergartners.
How does this affect Edward’s teacher Sonya? She’s in trouble because her young pupils discussed Darwinism. Sonya meets a guy for dinner at a fancy restaurant where she ends up next to the book’s author. The date deteriorates quickly. Suffering from PTSD after Vietnam, Ray ending up writing Mister Monkey based on an experience during the war. He’s now wealthy. Whenever Ray receives theatrical royalties he takes whomever he’s dating or married to at the time to dinner at a restaurant called Enzo’s and he gives his favorite waiter Mario tickets to the production. Mario’s fiancée left him—“She was the one who pretended to be someone else, someone who wanted a life of simple contentment with Mario. By then Mario had moved back to his parent’s house for what he’d thought would be a few weeks.” Mario adores the theater and will attend any play and restaurant patrons gift him tickets often.
Prose based the novel on her own experience attending a children’s musical with her granddaughter at a small theater in Manhattan. Prose found the production lacking and tragic and at one quiet moment her granddaughter exclaimed: “Grandma, are you interested in this?” And so Prose wrote this novel to address that question. Fascinating connections allow Prose to explore shattered dreams, unfulfilled goals, success, failure, raising a child in Manhattan, career, love and friendship through wonderful characterizations, vivid prose and a sharp tone. It’s easy to become engulfed in this brilliant, darkly amusing and astutely observational novel.
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Harper Collins.
–review by Amy Steele
book review: Future Sex
Posted by Amy Steele in Books, Uncategorized on October 17, 2016
Future Sex by Emily Witt. Farrar, Straus and Giroux| October 2016| 210 pages | $25.00| 9780865478794
RATING: *****/5*
“I had not chosen to be single but love is rare and it is frequently unreciprocated. Without love I saw no reason to form a permanent attachment to any particular place. Love determined how humans arrayed themselves in space.”
Technology changes everything. It changes how we meet people and it changes how we interact with others. There’s more sexual fluidity and experimental sex than in the past because of both changing ideologies as well as the ability to remain anonymous online if one chooses to indulge in one’s fantasies. Whatever you fancy you’re likely to find it. However, society still expects people to couple up to have families. Author Emily Witt writes: “If every expression of free sexuality by a woman would be second-guessed, it left men as the sole rational agents of sexual narrative. The woman was rarely granted the heroic role of seducer. If a woman pursued a strictly sexual experience, she was seen as succumbing to the wishes of the sovereign subject.” We live in a rampant rape culture. Women also get slut-shamed for wanting and pursuing sex. Can someone subsist outside of a monogamous relationship? Does everyone need to be part of a couple? This book strongly suggests that it’s not essential although how far outside the cultural norms must one go to be happy? Witt explains: “I supposed that since then I had been nonmonogamous in the sense of sometimes having sex with several different people within a specific period of time. As I said this both the idea of counting people and the idea of grouping them within a time frame seemed arbitrary. This was just my life: I lived it and sometimes had sex with people. Sometimes I wanted to commit to people, or they to me, but in the past two years no such interests had fallen into alignment.” Future Sex reads as a fascinating sociological study on sexuality that delves into orgasmic mediation, internet porn, webcams, Burning Man and polyamory. Witt combines personal experience with research and reporting in a darkly amusing, honest and real manner. Witt investigates sites I’d barely heard of: Chaturbate; Porn Hub; Kink.com; Fetlife. She attends an orgasmic mediation workshop [looked up on YouTube and there are tutorials] and travels to Burning Man. She interviews tons of people such as polyamorous Google employees, the founder of OKCupid, a 19-year-old webcammer as well as a woman who creates female-centered porn. Witt doesn’t make a spectacle of what may be absurd. Instead she writes analytically, astutely with brevity and a sharp edge.
–review by Amy Steele
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Emily Witt will be at Harvard Book Store on Monday, October 17, 2016
new music: Alexandra Savior; Radar Eyes
Posted by Amy Steele in Uncategorized on September 8, 2016
Alexandra Savior, “M.T.M.E.”
M.T.M.E. –the abbreviation for music to my ears is the new song from talented 21-year-old Alexandra Savior. The song entrances with intensely sultry vocals and a musical arrangement which effectively fuses Eastern and Western sounds. The L.A.-based Savior wrote the song with Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys/Last Shadow Puppets).
Radar Eyes, “Midnight Drive”
80s post-punk/goth influences feature prominently on this song. Yearning vocals and stylized, psychedelic guitar make the song pop. It’s a definite throwback for fans of The Church, Bauhaus, Echo & The Bunnymen. Past meets future on this energetic single. Radar Eyes is: singer/ guitarist Anthony Cozzi; guitarist Russell Calderwood, drummer Nithin Kalvakota, and bassist Lucas Sikorski. The band’s new album Radiant Remains [Under Road Records] is available now.
show preview: Trashcan Sinatras at Middle East Club Cambridge on Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Posted by Amy Steele in Music, Uncategorized on April 22, 2016
Scottish indie-pop band Trashcan Sinatras formed in 1986 and released its debut album Cake in 1990. This album featured the catchy, charming hits: “Obscurity Knocks” and “Only Tongue Can Tell. The second album, I’ve Seen Everything, released in 1993 included the pretty single “Hayfever,.” Trashcan Sinatras create pretty, gentle, melodic songs. Ones that I used to play over and over. The band will release its sixth album Wild Pendulum in May. You can support the new album via Pledge Music.
Trashcan Sinatras line-up: Frank Reader (vocals); John Douglas (guitar); Paul Livingston (lead guitar); Stephen Douglas (drums); Stevie Mulhearn (keyboards); Frank DiVanna (bass-tour); and Grant Wilson (bass-CD).
discography:
Cake (1990)
I’ve Seen Everything (1993)
A Happy Pocket (1996)
Weightlifting (2004)
In the Music (2009)
Trashcan Sinatras play The Middle East Club in Cambridge, Mass. on Tuesday, May 17, 2016.
new music: Boudoir Noir; Esquela; Slow Coyote
Posted by Amy Steele in Music, Uncategorized on April 1, 2016
Boudoir Noir, “Endless Dawn”
–dark cabaret-style which combines electronica, a bit of hip-hop/ world music beats, lush compositions and varied instrumentation. become engulfed in the haunting aspect of this single. nearly anything dark as long as it’s not metal, I’ll probably be into it. based in Flint, Michigan, Boudoir Noir is: Maria Fournier- vocals, guitar, production Beni Schlatter- drums, production Graham Rockwood- bass. Fournier’s impressive range complements the intriguing arrangements. Boudoir Noir’s Endless Dawn EP– which I’ve listened to many times over– comes out June 3. These are talented musicians. All three members of Boudoir Noir have formally studied music formally–Maria Fournier at Berklee College of Music, Graham Rockwood at Eastern Michigan and Beni Schlatter at U of Michigan– Flint. Boudoir Noir is a band to watch for 2016.
Esquela, “Gold Digger”
— rootsy, funky with twangy, rousing rhythms and grooving melodies. There’s a jovial vibe that must translate to a fun show. I’d definitely see Esquela live with beer in hand. From the band’s third album third release Canis Majoris. Esquela is: John “Chico” Finn [bass/vocals]; Becca Frame [vocals]; Brian Shafer: [guitar]; Todd Russell [drums/vocals]; Matt Woodin [guitar].
Slow Coyote, “American Cream”
–subdued, stripped down folk/acoustic with a longing and aching I find appealing. Portsmouth, NH’s Slow Coyote –aka Lucas Perry– notes that he’s played over 100 shows. He also performs spoken word poetry at his gigs. This single is off his new album, End of the Highway.
new music: nav/attack; tindersticks
Posted by Amy Steele in Music, Uncategorized on January 8, 2016
nav/attack, “More Wins”
named by L.A. Weekly as one of 10 Los Angeles artists to watch in 2016, art-pop, synth band nav/attack have its self-titled debut album out now. The music mixes piano, trumpet, drums and bass with drum machines, computer speech, vocoders and vintage samplers. Los Angeles-based artist, producer and engineer Andrew Lynch stated that the name nav/attack moniker is derived from “an ’80s “War Games-esque” software that uses a computer to locate a specific target and relay information back to its human counterpart. To avoid misunderstandings with a computer, you must learn its language.” Andrew Lynch studied film and video at Academy of Art in San Francisco. He has recorded music for Christopher Guest‘s film For Your Consideration and Drew Barrymore‘s directorial debut Whip It.
tindersticks, “were we once lovers?”
another short-film out accompanies this gorgeous and hypnotic song from British band tindersticks. I’ve liked this band for some time. Its sound is romantic, wistful and evocative. The video, directed by Pierre Vinour, is a strange and intense car trip. Rather fitting for the song. The new album The Waiting Room [City Slang] is out January 22nd. The album features short films for each song. Directors include Christoph Girardet, Claire Denis, Rosie Pedlow and Joe King (who directed the “Hey Lucinda” video), Gregorio Graziosi, and Gabriel Sanna (who directed the “We Are Dreamers!” video).
Of the video, Stuart Staples stated: In the early 90s Pierre Vinour made an iconic short film called ‘Paris – Marchseille’ – a time lapse view of the journey through a car window condensed into three minutes ending by driving off the edge of France into the sea. When I saw this film I felt an immediate connection with ‘Were We Once Lovers?’ – the speed of the journey, but I also felt that the song was speeding through the drivers mind. I was pleased that Pierre felt that connection also and he set to work building on this idea. Still, I was still not prepared for the effect the final film had on me. The clenching intensity I felt when making the song was literally doubled. I love it but I can’t wait to be released from it, it holds me in this strange limbo.”
TV News: Amanda de Cadenet speaks with Secretary Clinton on The Conversation
Posted by Amy Steele in TV, Uncategorized, Women/ feminism on January 7, 2016
First, I’m not sure if The Conversation is returning as a series to Lifetime. This sounds like a one-off special. Following Amanda de Cadenet on Twitter, I think it airs online. Second, I have zero idea who any of the YouTube “personalities,” “experts” or “influencers” are or how one becomes one. Is this now something that millennials and the next generation aspire to be? But kudos to young women for speaking out. I’m a GenXer. I just don’t understand that kind of celebrity.
On Wednesday, January 13 at 10pm ET/PT on Lifetime will air an exclusive one-hour presentation of The Conversation with Amanda de Cadenet featuring Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. de Cadenet and Clinton discuss her childhood, life as a grandmother and what drives her to run for President of the United States. The two discuss issues facing women and girls, the importance of friendship, the definition of success and the best advice Clinton’s ever received.
For the second part of the special, de Cadenet invites social media influencers – comedian and YouTube personality GloZell Green, fashion expert and stylist Chriselle Lim and creator of the “Be Shameless” movement, Maya Washington to discuss a variety of topics important to women.
The Conversation airs Wednesday, January 15 at 10pm ET/PT on Lifetime.
book review: Sweet Forgiveness
Posted by Amy Steele in Uncategorized on June 14, 2015
Sweet Forgiveness By Lori Nelson Spielman.
Plume| June 2, 2015| 355 pages |$16.00| ISBN: 978-0-14-751676-3
Rating: ****/5*
An engrossing read that’ll keep you busy at the beach, during a quiet weekend in the woods or in a café drinking ice coffee. Whatever your summer plans, take this fast-paced, creative novel with you. It’s not predictable and contains wonderful, strong characters. It centers on New Orleans local news reporter Hannah Farr and the Forgiveness Stone craze, started by someone who bullied her in school. Hannah received the stones from the Forgiveness Stone creator Fiona Knowles but she’s yet to return a stone to Fiona or send a stone on to someone else.
When her job hits a low spot and she’s interviewing at a station in Denver, she decides that the forgiveness stones might make a good story and allow her to reconcile with her mother who she’s not seen in decades. For years, Hannah’s been involved with New Orleans Mayor who seems to have no desire to be with Hannah full-time. When Hannah decides to head home to see her mother as research for the story it sets many components in motion. Will she be able to come to terms with a dark secret in her past and move on to a happy and productive life?
“The first Monday in July, I load my suitcase in my trunk, struck again by the almost nonexistent footprint I leave these days. I still talk with Dorothy and Jade every day, but I have no job, no boyfriend, or husband or child to kiss good-bye or worry about. It’s both liberating and horrifying, knowing how easily I can disappear. I put the key in the ignition and buckle my seat belt, hoping to drive the ache from my heart.”
Hannah proves resilient and empathetic as she goes through much trauma in re-visiting her past. Her mom is happy to see her. Her mayor boyfriend fears ruining his own reputation and chances for election. He’s not interested in Hannah’s personal despair and makes that quite clear. Finally Hannah understands that he’s been using her as a showpiece, a date to bring around to charity events and political fundraisers. Perhaps he never truly loved her as she loved him. As Hannah faces fall-out from this relationship and her collapsing career at the news station when a segment about the Forgiveness Stones ends up going terribly amiss, she must pick herself up and reinvent herself in another capacity. It’s a quick read and you’ll instantly become invested in Hannah’s challenges and triumphs.
–review by Amy Steele
FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from Penguin Random House.
purchase at Amazon: Sweet Forgiveness: A Novel