Album Capsules--Waxahatchee

Waxahatchee

Cerulean Salt

83/100

Second album by singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield chock full of catchy, punk-inspired yet lo-fi songs that sound upbeat but have dark, miserable lyrics.  If you're a fan of Sleater Kinney or Liz Phair, then this album should be right up your alley.  Listening to it, you get the feeling that her next album is going to be amazing.  Below is "Dixie Cups and Jars."

Album Capsules--Sally Shapiro

Sally Shapiro

Somewhere Else

64/100

Apparently the lead singer, pictured on the album cover, has not only kept herself anonymous to the world, but she only sings when the other band member is not around.  Neither is Sally Shapiro her real name.  That story, it turns out, is more interesting than the music, which is euro dance led by a girly, twee voice that reminds me of the lead singer on the old indie band Ivy (Apartment Life)--although that chick was French, this one is Swedish--or one of the female singers on Belle and Sebastian.  A major plus is the track named "This City's Local Italo Disco DJ Has a Crush on Me," a song more interesting for the name than the music.

New Quincy Post, and Searching for Sugar Man

After a long, busy week, during which I had to postpone my regular Thursday Quincy post, I was finally able to put up a longer-than-usual Chapter 26, concluding the episode of Quincy's kidnapping by Gambers Anonymous.  I hope you enjoy it.  The next few weeks should be much easier for me to maintain my regular blogging schedule.

Aside from that, I've got a bunch of music that I've been downloading lately yet have not had an opportunity to listen to.  Some new releases that I will be checking out over the next week include:

The Men, New Moon
Mogwai, Les Revenants Soundtrack\
Waxahatchee, Cerulean Salt
Chelsea Light Moving, Chelsea Light Moving (new album by the dude behind Sonic Youth)
David Bowie, The Next Day
Youth Lagoon, Wondrous Bughouse
Sally Shapiro, Somewhere Else

So in terms of music, it looks to be a good week.  One of life's big pluses is stacks of new music.

I've also been lucky to check out a couple of good movies lately, especially Silver Linings Playbook, for which I think that Bradley Cooper should've won the Oscar for Best Actor over Daniel Day Lewis . . . but I know I'm in a tiny minority with that opinion.

Winning the Oscar for Best Documentary this year was Searching for Sugar Man, a movie that starts off slowly but has a marvelous conclusion.  In a nutshell, the story is about a Dylanesque musician from Detroit who recorded a couple of albums in the early seventies, yet never garnered any kind of following in the States, which led to him being dropped from his label.  And then?  He disappeared from the music scene.

If you haven't heard about the film, I won't say anything more than that, because I don't want to give anything away.  But his story leads to amazing places.

It's really worth checking out.

Album Capsules--Autre Ne Veut and Ryhe

Work this week was a crusher, as weeks involving grading tend to be.  When that happens, I end up with little time for anything fun, including blogging.  Still, I was able to pick up a bunch of new music--including the new David Bowie album (!!)--and so I plan to catch up with several albums today and tomorrow, as well as to add Chapter 26 of the Quincy cartoon.  Early in the week, I was able to add of a couple of Quincy chapters, so I'm still ahead of my schedule of two episodes per week.

Anyhoo, in this post, we've got two albums that sound like they could've been made in the eighties.

Autre Ne Veut

Anxiety

77/100

The singer on this album is a white man, not a black woman.  The guy has a tremendous voice, which might lead to an accusation of oversinging.  He's hitting good notes, but often they're the same notes from song to song.  Still, he reminds me a bit of Prince without the wild sexuality.  His best song is "Counting," where a chaotic sax beautifully counterbalances an otherwise formulaic pop song with an anthemic chorus.

Rhye

Woman

82/100

If Sade entered a contest in search of the best Sade imitator, she would place second to Rhye.  Take the test and see.  Play this album for a friend.  Then ask them, "Who is this?"  They'll say, "Sade."  The only two differences between them seem to be that Sade has had bigger hits and that her music is colder than Rhye's, which contains a warm intimacy that rewards multiple replays.  The best songs are the first two tracks, "Open" and "The Fall."  In fact, Rhye and Autre Ve Neut seem like companion albums, the former about the yearning side of romantic love, the latter its disappointment.

New Albums, Etc.

Busy!

I've been picking up more new music lately, but I haven't have a chance to pay attention to any of them, because this is quiz week, which means 223 students writing 7 short essay answers each, which boils down to me sitting at a table grading 1,561 separate answers.  I blame myself for giving them essay questions in the first place, but I'd do it again: It's far better than watching them openly cheat on a multiple choice quiz.

Their strategy is as simple as it is effective.  They actually seem to try for the first half hour.  Then when they realize that they can't answer 70 percent of the questions, they strategize.  Someone will raise his hand.  When I walk over and he starts asking his question, the entire room buzzes with conversation.  Sure, I can scream, "Shut up!" but it only silences them for a second or two.  Then another student raises his hand and the buzzing resumes.  

At least with essay questions, their buzzing has a hopeless quality to it.  I'll trade their (forced) honesty for an extra six hours of grading any day.  At least, that's my attitude for now.  Maybe I'll get lazy and surrender.  Surrender in this country typically takes the form of a true-false quiz.

Matt Prosk had a post recently that caught my eye, full of music recommendations.  I recognize and like a couple of the bands he mentioned.  The others, I'm glad to say, I've never listened to before.  I'll have to set aside some time on this upcoming weekend to check the "unknowns" out.

I also enjoyed Mudwig's recent efforts to hit on a Russian chick.

Some music I got recently that look promising:

Rhye, Woman

Youth Lagoon, Wondrous Bughouse 

Chelsea Light Moving, Chelsea Light Moving

Autre Ne Veut, Anxiety

Hope you're week started well!  

Live Poker in UAE

Some guys got together at a friend's house for a game, and I got invited.  First poker in over a year, I think.

There were five of us.  Buyin was about $50 each, but the same guy got stacked twice in the first four hands, so pretty soon we were all doubling our buyin and the average stack stood at $200.  So nothing major.

I'm pretty sure I was raising preflop the most, and I just kept whiffing the flop, and my cbets were getting played back at, so I just tried to stay patient.

My only really notable hand was when I was dealt JJ at UTG+1.

UTG made it about $3.  ($0.50/$1 blinds).  I reraised with JJ to $12.  He called and we were heads up.  This was the same guy, by the way, who got stacked twice in the first ten minutes.

Flop came J 6 3 rainbow, and he led out for $13.

Okie dokie then.  I just called, without much deliberation.

Turn was an ace.  He led out $20.  I raised it to $55.

He thought out loud for a long time.  He kept saying, "You reraised preflop with pocket threes or pocket sixes?"  He couldn't figure out my hand.  I kept wondering why he was excluding pocket jacks.  Or pocket aces.

Anyway, he called my raise, and then he shoved a queen river, and I called.

He showed ace jack.  Ah, so that's why he was excluding pocket jacks and aces.  Cool.

Aside from that hand, I was pretty much card dead.  But I drank four beers and won a hundred bucks, so it was fun.

Quincy, Music

I had time for three Quincy episodes this week.  Readers may notice that Quincy is taking a bit of a darker turn, which may be more enjoyable for me than for you, but I have a plan for the guy.  I've got to build up some parts of the story before I can start on the lengthy final act.  And with the story to contain fifty mini-chapters, I've got lots of room to work with.  Hopefully, it works out.

Sad to say, the darker the story gets, the more I enjoy it.  I still haven't flushed out of my system the black-humor novels that I read far too many of in college days.  Nathanael West's Miss Lonelyhearts, Robert Coover's Universal Baseball Association, J. Henry Waugh Prop., Joseph Heller's Catch 22, Donald Barthelme's The Dead Father, John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces--so much morbid hilariousness to be found there.  It's inevitable, I think, that I'd end up trying to imitate, in my own half-assed, inept way, that sense of humor.  In any case,  I greatly appreciate all of the comments I've gotten so far.

Music this year has been fairly tremendous.  No "great" albums, but still there have been several very good ones.  Below are all of the new albums I've checked out so far.  Work is getting busier, as it tends to do once I get past the first couple of weeks.  Quizzes, the grading of quizzes, club meetings, and department meetings tend to suck away my free time.  Still, I'm optimistic that I can maintain my expected schedule of adding at least two new Quincy chapters per week and checking out at least ten new albums per month.  If I can keep up that schedule with Quincy, the finale should be appearing sometime near the end of May or the beginning of June--right before I leave UAE and head back to the States for good (maybe).

2013 Albums so far (the newest releases--last two weeks or so--are in bold):

Foxygen--We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic (88/100)

My Bloody Valentine--MBV (87/100)

Yo La Tengo--Fade (85/100)

Atoms for Peace--Amok (84/100)

Matmos--The Marriage of True Minds (83/100)

Wooden Wand--Blood Oaths of the New Blues (83/100)

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds--Push the Sky Away (82/100)

Autechre--Exai (82/100)

Nosaj Thing--Home (81/100)

Grouper--The Man Who Died in His Boat (81/100)

Parquet Courts--Light Up Gold (80/100)

Jim James--Regions of Light and Sound of God (80/100)

Iceage--You're Nothing (79/100)

Indians--Somewhere Else (79/100)

Mountains--Centralia (78/100)

Local Natives--Hummingbird (78/100)

Ex Cops--True Hallucinations (77/100)

Toro Y Moi--Anything in Return (77/100)

Broadcast--Berberian Sound Studio (74/100)

Night Beds--Country Sleep (74/100)

A$AP Rocky--Long.Live.A$AP (72/100)

Foals--Holy Fire (71/100)

California X--California X (70/100)

Four Tet--0181 (70/100)

Pantha du Prince & The Bell Laboratory--Elements of Light (67/100)

Widowspeak--Almanac (67/100)

Jacco Gardner--Cabinet of Curiosities (66/100)

Frightened Rabbit--Pedestrian Verse (66/100)

Brokeback--Brokeback and the Black Rock (57/100)

Everything Everything--Arc (46/100)

Jamie Lindell--Jamie Lindell (16/100)