Staff Picks

Plastic Ono Band by John Lennon [Music CD]

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The Plastic Ono Band LP is commonly referred to as the “Primal Scream” album as John and Yoko were going through Arthur Janov’s Primal Scream therapy during the album’s creation in 1970. While Lennon’s lyrics had been hinting at the pain of his childhood since “Help” and “I’m a loser”, on Plastic Ono Band he becomes overtly confessional and addresses directly the disillusionment and isolation of fame and the overwhelming pain of his youth. The cryptic and surreal wordplay that characterized many of John’s contributions to the Beatles albums of the late 60’s is abandoned here and the results are split equally between straightforward quiet love songs (“Hold on”, “Love” and “Look at Me” which more closely resemble his fingerpicked contributions from 1968 such as “Julia” and “Dear Prudence”), filthy distorted rockers (“I Found out” and “Well, Well, Well” which share the heavy tube distortion sounds of “Revolution” and “Cold Turkey”) and epic declarations of loss and rebirth (“Mother” and “God”, both of which feature ‘simple’ piano/bass/drums arrangements). Released in October 1970, in the wake of Altamont, Manson and Kent State, “Plastic Ono Band” addresses the disillusionment of the end of the sixties, the break-up and dispelling of the Beatles myth and the tragedies of John’s childhood. Opening with the intense primal therapy of “Mother” (in which John finally overtly addresses his feelings of abandonment as a child and his mother’s sudden death just as they were reconciling) and closing with the myth-busting “God”, the album is easily Lennon’s most cohesive solo work. Lennon famously hated the sound of his own voice unadorned, and was constantly imploring producers to swathe it in reverb or other effects, and his most famous Beatles contributions were often dense, sonically experimental psychedelic studio creations. On Plastic Ono Band, stripped of daft wordplay and overproduction (Phil Spector, who produced half the sessions, is most notable here for his uncharacteristic restraint), with exceptional accompaniment by Ringo Starr, Billy Preston and Klaus Voorman, Lennon produces his most complete raw and honest solo work.

Anthem for Doomed Youth by Carola Dunn [Book]

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The 19th Daisy Dalrymple mystery was my introduction to this cozy murder series. Daisy is an aristocratic young mother whose husband is a Detective Chief Inspector at Scotland Yard. Set in 1920s London, the mystery revolves around some veterans of the ‘Great War’ whose bodies were found secretly buried in Epping Forest. The heroine possesses curiosity, common sense, intuition and a sly sense of humor. The period setting is engaging and the unraveling of the plot complicated enough to keep turning the pages. With the lead character’s appeal and just the right amount of Anglophilia, this was fun enough for me to borrow another one.

Electric Ladyland by The Jimi Hendrix Experience [Music CD]

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You find yourself alone, lying in a field of flowers. You’ve just been awoken by the distant pounding of what sounds like a tympani. Looking ahead, your feet seem miles away and a group of bunnies are gnawing on your blue jeans. Jimi once rapped, “Ho hum. I’m as good as bunnies- and you know how good bunnies are.” Just shake ‘em off, brother or sister; they’re just hungry after a long, hot summer night. The drum fades and nature, and in fact everything you hear as well, is moving backward. Fear not, you’re in Electric Ladyland, friend. Have you ever been?

Take out that note from your back pocket. No matter the urge to call the telephone number written on there, trust me, you don’t want to see Little Miss Strange again. Rip it to shreds.

Spend the next fifteen minutes drying yourself off from the still raining, still dreaming sky with the Experience in concert, floating somewhere in the the astral plane. “Voodoo Chile” is the jam. Look left and see a Marshall stack and a white Fender Strat resting comfortably. It’s been tuned and awaiting on you, man. Put the strap on over your shoulder (and make sure you’re going lefty), pick the open A-string (that’s the second heaviest on the axe), let it ring and move on over toward the amplifier. Things will start buzzing and feeding back some brilliant musical colors and waveforms. Mitch and Noel should be launching off that any minute now.

A singular door will appear in the middle of the field somewhere behind you. Open it and look out into outer-space with those Gypsy eyes. Grab the burning midnight lamp, step out and be mindful of the crosstown traffic. Mr. Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” is your soundtrack… and your guide, baby.

Keep the sounds of Electric Ladyland steady and you’ll find your way.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury [Book]

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A science-fiction classic, The Martian Chronicles tells a story of the colonization of Mars through a series of short stories and vignettes. Bradbury imagines Mars as the home of an ancient and beautiful civilization, doomed to fall when it encounters the shortsighted and destructive people of Earth. Despite the gloomy prospects for all involved, Bradbury’s stories are full of humor, and make for a quick and very enjoyable read.

Interestingly, these stories have been the subject of several radio dramas and audio productions; I first encountered them listening to Relic Radio’s science-fiction podcast, where they are still available to download, and here at the library you can find radio theater versions on audio tape (Old Time Radio: Science Fiction).

Black Books [DVD]

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Irish comedian Dylan Moran stars in the BBC television series Black Books. The show was written and created by Moran and the folks who brought us Father Ted.

Bernard Black, a cranky and boozy book shop owner, wants absolutely nothing to do with his customers and does very little to aid his decaying store. He’s joined by his friend and neighboring shop employee, Fran and Manny, his hapless, but loveable (possibly unpaid) employee. We join these three on many madcap adventures and exercises in generally poor customer service. While a fair amount the gags fall under the customer/employee dynamic or displays of tremendous laziness, we also get a fair amount of surreal humor.

The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman [Book]

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The sometimes actor, television presenter/personality, unlicensed internet judge and humorist, John Hodgman, has a brilliant collection of nonsense in the universe called The Areas of My Expertise. Fear not, his writings do not simply float in the nebulous; it’s all compiled in a BOOK!

In it we find delightful and ridiculous made up facts and anecdotes concerning hobos (he provides 700 hobo names), werewolves and various bizarre historical factoids. It’s also filled with entertaining lists (“Nine Presidents Who Had Hooks For Hands”) and dubious advice (see the amusing section on effective attack ads or “How To Win a Fight” ). This book is excess at its best.

ps- If you enjoy this volume, there’s more.

The Triplets of Belleville [DVD]

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Sylvain Chomet’s feature-length animated film is like nothing you’ve ever seen. It’s weird, funny, sad, serious, lighthearted, suspenseful, perverse, sweet, surreal, retro, postmodern, and fantastic (in both senses of the word). There is virtually no dialogue, but there is music, adventure and character aplenty. The animation is hand-drawn and loaded with sophisticated detail. There are homages to Fred Astaire, Josephine Baker, Jacques Tati, the Andrews Sisters, and Django Reinhardt. The plot is quite satisfying, yet the style is the overwhelming story here. Despite the near-total absence of language, it could only be French. I have seen it three times so far and haven’t begun to get tired of it.

Bossypants by Tina Fey [Book]

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SNL and 30 Rock star, writer and producer Tina Fey is as smart and irreverent as she is funny. This memoir gives an inside look at the improv comedy incubator Second City, developing material for Saturday Night Live, and how Fey and her contemporaries broke through the glass ceiling of comedy.*
Here in a quick engaging read is an honest tongue-in-cheek and witty look at success, motherhood, TV, sexism, and lots of famous people you may have been wondering about. A few classic scripts are included, notably the Sarah Palin/Hillary Clinton sketch that Fey and Amy Poehler did in the 2008 campaign season.

* “Women just aren’t funny.”–every male producer/director from the beginning of time.

The story of Vernon and Irene Castle [DVD]

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Based upon the true story of the celebrated husband and wife dancing team who popularized ballroom dance, this film is the most realistic, the most tragic, and the most touching of the Astaire-Rogers films. The film takes place in the years between 1911 and 1918, and the costumes and music are largely appropriate to that era. Most of the dance sequences emulate the Castle’s distinctive style—Astaire tap dances in only one number and Rogers not at all—and the musical numbers are fewer and more tightly integrated into the plot than in other Astaire films. Of course, the film still delivers what you expect from an Astaire-Rogers collaboration: Astaire is charming, the music is great, the dancing better, and the two stars may have better on-screen chemistry in this film than in any other.

Guilt by Association by Marcia Clark [Book]

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I was not expecting to like this book. I thought that this was a person taking advantage of name recognition to put out a book. Whether or not that is the case, I found myself genuinely engaged by the characters in this legal thriller. Los Angeles D.A. Rachel Knight is stunned at the death of her colleague, Jake Pahlmeyer, who is found shot to death in a sleazy motel along with a 17-year-old boy, raising ugly suspicions that Rachel doesn’t want to acknowledge. Rachel is warned off investigating further, but risks her career to clear her friend’s name. Quick-paced with plot turns and authenticity — the author does know her stuff, prosecutorily. Recommended and looking forward to the next in the series.

The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn [Book]

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Flinn is an American journalist and computer executive in London and gets let go from a high power high stress job and decides to go to cooking school at the Cordon Bleu in Paris. When enrolling in cooking school, she set out to write a book about her experiences so this chronicles her year of self-discovery and finding love. It is full of humor, recipes and her adventures in a new country and language.

The Purple Rose of Cairo [DVD]

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“You make love without fading out?” – Tom Baxter

The Purple Rose of Cairo is possibly my favorite Woody Allen film of all time… or perhaps tied with a couple other of his classics. In it we have some of his sharpest comedic screenwriting and a few concepts that will keep philosophy 101 students in discussion for decades to come.

It stars Mia Farrow as Cecilia, a woman struggling to support herself and her abusive, gambling and out of work husband (played by Danny Aiello) during the great depression. Her only escape from this drudgery is regular visits to the local cinema. When the lights dim, she gets whisked away in stories of adventure, romance and carefree living.

She particularly is enamored with the film the Purple Rose of Cairo (the film within our film!). Cecilia makes repeated trips to catch the Purple Rose and watches the story of bubbly society folk on an Egyptian expedition. After several viewings, she starts to notice slight inconsistencies with one of the character’s performance. Tom Baxter, played by Jeff Daniels, seems to be losing his timing and is possibly looking off into the audience. Eventually, he breaks character and talks to Cecilia from the screen. She nervously replies and Baxter walks out of the film and materializes in the theater.

The two dash off in a heap of commotion and the ex-film character appears to be the ideal romantic partner despite naïveté in real world dealings. His knowledge base consists of what was written for his character. For example, when dining, the couple are embarrassed to discover that Baxter’s cash supply is simply prop money.

Eventually, a surreal love triangle… or better yet, love square forms. When Gil Shepherd (also played by Jeff Daniels), the actor who portrayed Baxter, discovers that his character has left the film, he heads to New Jersey to convince his creation to re-enter The Purple Rose of Cairo. Whilst attempting to salvage his reputation and make everything go back to normal, Shepherd then falls for our leading lady. Does Cecilia leave her husband? Does she run off with the brave and compassionate, but fictional Tom Baxter? Or does she chose Gil Shepherd, the dashing and vain movie star?