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I read a little less this year than usual. I found when my dad passed this summer, I became quickly wrapped up in the funeral and all of the things you have to take care of and then it took awhile to build up my concentration again. I only read 140 books this year, which is far lower than my usual amount of over 200. One year, I read 365 books! So, I slacked off this year. I found myself lingering along different pages and chapters more so than ever. Here are some of my favorite books that I read. They didn’t all come out this year but time is an illusion anyway.
I'd love to hear about all of your favorite reads from this year or other years!
Photo above is a multiple exposure from Iceland..a reading/study room with a landscape photo in honor of my favorite read of the year.
1. Rooms for Vanishing by Stuart Nadler
A real wonder of a book about different possibilities, split timelines, divergent futures confronting the personal horrors of WWII in one of the most creative and thought provoking ways I’ve ever seen. I read several chapters again and again and felt like this was one of the most philosophical and creative books Ive ever read!
2. The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei
Extremely ahead of its time and published originally 30 years ago and translated into English fairly recently. This is a glimpse of a future world which many facets have proved to be fairly accurate predictions but it is also about queer identity and is written sort of like a gay Taiwanese young William Gibson might write it. Wholly original!
3. Is a River Alive? by Robert McFarlane
Yes, a river is very much alive! This is a wondrous work of nonfiction that really explores some diverse and hard to reach areas of nature and its effect on both the nearby inhabitants and the visitors like this author. I loved its sense of environmental advocacy and questioning why we would allot personhood to corporations but not bodies of water, for instance. You really feel like you go on a psychological journey with the author and learn so much between the rivers he explores and the people he meets.
Thanks to my friend Bob for this recommendation!
4. Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
There was a period of my life where I just didn’t quite get Erdrich for some reason…it just didn’t click…but now, I am reading at least a couple of books a year by her. This is really a striking book about desperate women who have lost all body autonomy. Her books are always well written and engaging but this one felt more fast paced and thrilling than the others in style and topic.
5. House of Day, House of Night: by Olga Tokarczuk
I really love how Tokarczuk writes about dreams and mushrooms in this one especially. There is quite a bit about religion as well as physical gender identity within that religious space and a really interesting sense of the people who live in Poland in a border town with Germany and remnants of WWII even. She just has a really poetic way of writing.
6. The Measure by Nikki Erlick
I read this on recommendation from my sister in law in one sitting on the plane to Los Angeles. It is one of the most engaging book I have ever read and a speculative fiction masterpiece exploring the psychology behind lifespan and how society might change if everyone over 21 was sent a single string of a certain length that told them how much longer they would live….but not how they would die. Fascinating storyline and very well executed…I kept wondering how I would handle this situation myself. Another book that made me cry this year…I guess I am a bit of a mess! Apparently, this was an “instant” NYT Bestseller back in 2022 but I hadn’t heard of it until my sister in law mentioned it…I guess I just don’t pay attention to popular culture.
7. Archipelago of the Sun by Yoko Tawada
This is the third book of the trilogy of friends where Tawada explores language and identity within the context of our current world and its insistence on borders and a national identity that not all have and definitely not all share the same level of privilege. These friends are so diverse and interesting and also one of the characters and their transitioning identity is also explored so it is rather complex but also very thought provoking and meditative the way she writes…you just want to linger on certain sentences again and again.
8. Tell Me Everything by Erika Krouse
I read three books by Erika Krouse and loved all three-this one is nonfiction and is about all of the horrific ways a football team takes advantage of, persecutes, and threatens women and how deep the cover up goes. Krouse is helping the investigator while also going through the horrors of her past and personal identity. I was honestly not expecting to find this book as engaging as I did but Krouse is an exceptional author whose short stories Save Me, Stranger have stuck with me for many months and who also writes vivid characters in fiction books (see Contenders). Highly recommended!!
9. The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and his Mother) by Rabih Alameddine
If you ever have the chance to see Rabih Alameddine speak, DO IT! I saw him a few years back after Trump was office the first time around and he spoke about how art including writing is in and of itself an act of resistance. This book is both tragic and funny. There’s an image of our protagonist hero escaping a bunker during a civil war in Lebanon that actually had me laughing so hard I’m surprised I could stop. But, this is also a portrait study of a city and how it changed when the fighting began and equally an exploration of a mother and her gay son as they navigate through their relationship across decades. This is technically fiction but reads at times like an autobiography and, after all, it is a true true story.
10. The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
This book scared the crap out of me and if it had been published when she first had started working on it, it would have been even more terrifying. The premise reads like a Black Mirror story where there are corporations who own and monitor your dreams and might even insert products into them. You can also be suspect based on your dreams but people give up their dreams in desperate situations just to fall asleep….very riveting and terrifying!
11. Poets Square Cats by Courtney Gustafson
I’ve been following this author’s cat rescue in Tucson, Arizona for a few years now but only had part of the story before I read this book. This is the autobiographical back story of the author and cat rescuer herself and the ways in which becoming a full time cat rescuer changed her and perhaps made her more human or at least helped her focus her values and what being alive truly means to her. She is doing very good work and it is important to support this work. This book also gives the back story behind so many important characters, many of whom don’t seem quite so feral when you see their true feline selves in her way. A book to be treasured!
12. Sunbirth by An Yu
I loved her speculative novel Ghost Music and this new one is even more bizarre and has an apocalyptic angle about the sun slowly disappearing and people in this town being enveloped by and exploding with light. None of the characters know what it is like in other cities and towns and some try to escape but, after all, the sun is something we all share so you wonder how it could be different when it is the same major problem occurring. I loved these astounding characters and the sense of imagination here.
13. ACLU The Fight of the Century: Edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman
Never has there been a more important time to stand up for human rights and also understand the history of human rights. I loved some of the authors responding to historical cases that are organized chronologically. Yea Gyasi Viet Thanh Nguyen, Elizabeth Strout, Salman Rushdie, Aleksander Hemon, Brit Bennett, Li Yiyun, Rabih Alameddine, Louise Erdrich, and Anthony Doerr amongst main more give us glimpses into their own personal history and how these cases may have impacted them. Some of these chapters are also critical of the ACLU’s stance too in some aspects in a healthy way as in the case of campaign funding, for example. Regardless, it’s an organization under great threat in America whose continued existence is vital.
14. Bad Bad Girl by Gish Jen
This is partly a memoir of the author but also an exploration of her mother’s past and her ancestry from back in Shanghai. It explores the horrors of the history they lived through while her mother escaped to America but it’s also an engaging imaginary conversation Gish Jen has with her mother who suffered sexism in her own life and treats her daughter as if she should also be quiet and easy and not have so many opinions. But Gish Jen is a phenomenal author of so many great fictional stories exploring culture and identity and she will always be a Good Bad Girl that we should be grateful for. Thank goodness for the women who don’t succumb to societal and family pressures put on us.
15. My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me by Caleb Carr
An extraordinary nonfiction work that really had me on the edge of my seat several times and crying at others. This is a story of a human who Is battling a personal history with physical abuse and has gone through several surgeries that have been only minimally successful. He is an acclaimed author (I haven’t read any of his other books) and lives alone when he decides to adopt a cat later on in life. I just love how he explores his relationship with his cat and the cat’s personality and sense of adventure. This is actually a story about two wandering souls who find each other and meet in the middle and I do believe that they have found each other again in the ether of the afterlife.
16. Generosity by Richard Powers
I read four different books by Powers this year. If you haven’t read his work, it’s quite masterful! He is one of those authors that has great ideas and can truly craft a complex storyline and bring it all back home in an impressive way. This one is interesting because it focuses on an immigrant who by all accounts should be miserable…she has very little and her parents have been murdered and her brother imprisoned. At one point, she is even sexually molested. Still, throughout all of this, our protagonist, Thassadit Amzwar. remains happy and joyful in a way that others just can’t quite seem to manage or understand. As one might imagine, people try to diagnose her as if something is wrong with her and study her DNA…things go so haywire because other humans literally just can’t imagine how this human could be this happy when the rest of us are so depressed.
17. Bewilderment by Richard Powers
This book really got to me in so many ways…it’s so much about the relationship between a father and a son who is neurodivergent and tests him in so many ways but it is also about biofeedback, flexible thinking, and consciousness after death. It is filled with wonder and sorrow both and really explores the complexity of human consciousness.
18. Beyond Anxiety by Martha Beck
I read quite a few nonfiction books this year related to flexible thinkers, nature, human consciousness existing after death, and octopuses but this one really resonated with me in the sense that it helped me immediately to manage my anxiety and is highly recommended to any artists. There are people in this world who consume art and those who create art and those who do both. I am probably in the latter category because I create art but also really love being part of an international community like Flickr and don’t really enjoy participating in other social media type of sites that seem to focus more on making oneself look cool or rich or just a made up version of a human.
This nonfiction is about how creativity can cancel out the heightened anxiety that threatens to overwhelm us every day. If you start to feel the heightened sensation taking over like you can’t even breathe except to scream, maybe this book is for you. Also, just sitting down and doing art for hours is indeed a luxury and makes it hard to go back to the “real world” of capitalism, etc. but sometimes this is exactly what self care is needed
19. A Love Story From the End of the World by Juhea Kim
I loved the wild weirdness and environmental focus of these short stories set all across the world in this time of climate chaos and political upheaval. Kim is an author and activist with a truly creative spirit!
20. After by Bruce Greyson M.D.
After what happened this summer with my dad passing, I read a ton of nonfiction regarding human consciousness continuing and this one really goes through quite a variety of Near Death Experiences and how it also ends up changing people. It’s a really fascinating look into human consciousness and how it continues from a medical expert. I am fascinated by these human stories and really enjoy the perspective of someone from a background in Science. I do believe that, when the body dies, the consciousness and soul of the spirit does continue and that most of us have already lived multiple lives at this point.
Honorable Mentions:
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
Annihilation by Michel Houellebecq
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home by Stephen Starring Grant
**All photos are copyrighted**
waiting for Shadow Shows Diane... series
______________
I was bored of watching TV, sat out on the porch nightly
Taking pictures on the phone of people passing by
Then I saw the kind of show I could never tell my man
Waiting for Shadow Shows Diane
Waiting for Shadow Shows Diane
I look into windows, see the people
Well I want to be someone sane
Sometimes somebody else
I want to be someone sane
Sometimes somebody else
I am looking through and playing window roulette for days
Though I saw them seeing me across the way
I know it's crazy to keep this from my man
Waiting for Shadow Shows Diane
Waiting for Shadow Shows Diane
I look into windows, see the people
Well I want to be someone sane
Sometimes somebody else
I want to be someone sane
Sometimes somebody else
(Shadow Show Diane, Marissa Nadler, 2016)
Anton Martin metro station in Lavapies quartier, Madrid, Spain.
"I was coming apart those days
I don't give a damn about the way
Colors on the trees change from red to green
It's a dead city Emily
Oh I was ablaze, still I had to stay
With that bad Emily
Oh I saw the light today
Opened up the door
Any other man would've run run away
Em was stuck inside the moor
Any other man would've run run away
Emily is something more
I was coming apart those days
I don't give a damn about the way
Birds fly in the breeze, things you say to me
It's a dead city Emily
I cannot recall loving this at all
It's a dead city in between
Oh I saw the light today
Opened up the door
Any other man would've run run away
Em was stuck inside the war
Oh it looks so bright today
Opened up the door
Any other man would've run run away
Emily is something more
Any other man would've run run away
From the house and to the shore
Dead city Emily"
Marissa Nadler: youtu.be/f1pLkpQPjaE
Explore position: 115 on Sunday, December 4, 2022
This quote is taken from the book Rooms for Vanishing by Stuart Nadler, which I found to be one of the best books I’ve ever read (which is saying a lot considering I read well over 200 books a year).
I thought about this quote a lot after I read it in the same time frame as I was visiting The Grand Canyon. Though the novel doesn’t involve even landscapes at all it seemed to fit the experience of looking into the gaping mouth I visited. Most of these days, I truly wish the world would just swallow me whole already, I have to admit. I’d be just a little gulp with no indigestion for the stomach of the world. It would be a win/win situation.
More about Rooms for Vanishing here:
www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/stuart-nadler2/rooms-f...
**All photos are copyrighted**
Mayflower was a girl
Who came from my room
With a box of faded feathers
and her Leather Made Shoes...
--Leather Made Shoes by Marissa Nadler
Die Stadt Elsterwerda an der Schwarzen Elster entstand wohl im 12./13. Jahrhundert in Verbindung mit einer Burg, die zur Sicherung einer Wegekreuzung angelegt worden war.
Das Fachwerkhaus mit Laubengang an der Ecke Hauptstraße/Rathausstraße entstand 1720/25 als typisches Ackerbürgerhaus. Heute befindet sich in dem Gebäude eine Galerie des 1879 in Elsterwerda geborenen Malers Hans Nadler.
Delivering a message of support as well as a message of intent, it was a small group making themselves heard, but the people walking by got the message being sent and so did the office of Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D) New York and Chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee
A region of Europe where three countries - Belgium, Germany and Netherlands - meet. When dear friend (Dr. Nadler) took me there, heavy rains locked out the watch tower but blessing in disguise was this scene as we made our way back to Juelich, Germany.
"When they take me down the corridor
I remember the old chorus line
When we were young, you used to tint your lips
And cheeks red with wine
(...)
Please don't remember me for my crimes"
-Marissa Nadler - For My Crimes
Canon AE-1 Program
Canon Zoom Lens FD 75-200mm 1:4.5
Lomo F² 400@400
Developed as slide in E41 (Pushed +1)
Scanned with Plustek 8100
A little bit of history...
The Hell Gate Bridge was completed in 1917 by the Pennsylvania Railroad (It was actually part of a Pennsylvania subsidiary called the "New York Connecting Railroad.") The Hell Gate was the last link in a massive project (built in the first two decades of the twentieth century) that includes the Pennsy's Hudson River tunnels, Penn Station itself, the East River Tunnels and the Hell Gate connection of that main line to points north and east, including New Haven and Boston. Remarkably, this line crosses the East River twice in the space of just a few miles -- one in a tunnel near 34th Street, then again on the Hell Gate Bridge. It was the last -- and surely one of the largest ever -- private railroad projects in this country. The construction of these rail facilities today would cost tens of billions of dollars.
To put this in perspective: the Hell Gate Bridge was the last link in a rail line that allows long-distance passenger trains to travel from Washington to Boston via New York ... in what is now called the "Northeast Corridor." This is the passenger rail line that connects the most densely populated region in North America, and the line that carries a huge percentage of this nation's long-distance rail passenger traffic.
As previously noted, the Hell Gate Bridge was completed in 1917. The United States entered World War I in that year, and nationalized the railroads as part of the war effort. The railroads remained nationalized for another five years. After de-nationalization (and with the rise of the motor vehicle), the railroads were greatly weakened. The Hell Gate could not have been built by the Pennsy just a few years later. As I say, this was the last major private railroad project in the nation's history.
The original plan for the New York Connecting Railroad was even more ambitious. It was to have included a rail freight tunnel from Jersey City to Bay Ridge in Brooklyn. That tunnel would have reduced highly inefficient freight railroad car floating operations across the Hudson River, and would have enabled freight trains from points west and south to run directly into New York City. The line would have used existing trackage through Brooklyn and Queens (that still exists) to connect to the Hell Gate Line in Queens, which, in turn, would have enabled freight trains to run from New Jersey to New England.
The Pennsy's failure to build that tunnel was a major loss for New York City. With the demise of almost all railroad car floating operations across the Hudson, virtually all freight into New York City (from points south and west) must arrive by truck. Today, the only way a freight train from the west can reach New York City and New England is to travel 125 miles up the west shore of the Hudson River to Albany, cross the Hudson, and then travel 125 miles down the east shore of the Hudson River. The enormous amount of truck traffic on the George Washington Bridge (and the resulting pollution and congestion) is a direct result of the failure to build the Cross-Harbor rail freight tunnel.
Congressman Jerry Nadler spent over 20 years in a quixotic quest to obtain Federal funds to build the Cross Harbor rail freight tunnel. Of course, the project would cost billions.... and it almost surely will never happen. And so: the largest city in the United States does not -- and probably never will -- contain a direct freight railroad link to most of the rest of the country.
One final piece of speculation: The five-mile long Hell Gate Bridge need not have been four tracks. (Today, one of the four tracks is abandoned ... one track is used for infrequent freight trains, and the remaining two tracks are used only for Amtrak long-distance trains between New York and Boston.) Had the Pennsy instead decided to have built the Hell Gate as a three-track or two-track bridge, the money saved would have been more than enough to have built the Cross-Harbor Tunnel in the period preceding World War I.
In a few years passenger rail traffic will be dramatically increased on the Hell Gate Bridge. Metro North is planning to introduce direct commuter rail service on the New Haven Line to Penn Station via the Hell Gate Bridge. The project will include four new Metro North stations in the Bronx along the Hell Gate Line. This is a welcome development not only for New Haven Line passengers ... but also for fans (like myself) of the Hell Gate Bridge. Because the Hell Gate Bridge has no present commuter rail service, it is virtually unknown to people who live in the New York area. The introduction of commuter rail service will bring increased attention and visibility to this magnificent structure.
Apropos of this: The Hell Gate is a twin of the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia. The latter bridge is often regarded as the national symbol of Australia. Yet, at present, the Hell Gate -- located in the middle of the most important city in the United States -- is virtually unknown in its own country. Perhaps this will change with the introduction of Metro North commuter rail service.
Schnee, Eis, Weiß wie Schnee
für www.365fotos.org
Immer noch kein Schnee in Südhessen. Heute Nacht scheint es aber kurz mal geschneit zu haben, die Windschutzscheibe war schneebedeckt. Deshalb, eine kleine Photoshopspielerei in Monochrom mit viel Weiß.
***It's always weird for me to see these kinds of best lists...this is really just one girl's opinion about the albums she liked. I may be missing more great albums that are on import only or I haven't had access to. Please feel free to share your best albums as well so that I can discover more music! :) ***
*photo by Cinchel
1. Fanfarlo (Sweden,London): Reservoir
I hoped like mad these guys would come to Chicago after hearing their fantastic album. The group is so dynamic with each member playing such an instrumental role on stage and on the album. The songs are both complex and catchy live and on their recording. In other words, they aren’t ruined by too much added to them. It works the way a band of their size should work, emphasizing all the right kinds of melodies and memorable chords. This album clicked with me immediately but I can see it also being a grower for some. It’s warm and sing songy in a way that makes it very accessible. At the same time, the more you listen to each song, the greater you sense their heartfelt appeal and long to hear them for repeat listens. The album is also solid in a way where each moment seems quite magical and never dull even when it’s not the catchiest part of the song, it still feels essential in a way. Truly an accomplished work here!
Myspace: www.myspace.com/fanfarlo
Live photos and a review from their Schubas Tavern Chicago show here: www.soundcheckmagazine.com/reviews/concert-reviews/1832-r...
Portrait shots of Fanfarlo here: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/sets/72157623045722600/
2. The Veils (NZ,London): Sun Gangs
Finn Andrews has the ability to be so emotionally labile it’s awe striking in it’s incredibility. Take the edginess of “The Letter” and “Three Sisters” here and contrast it with the sad lullaby of “Larkspur” for instance. Always engaging in both his stage presence and his albums, Andrews has a passionate way of writing songs in a way that makes you feel he was born to create them, as if he has lyrics instead of oxygen filling up his bloodstream. The Veils are the kind of band that, once you discover them, can truly change your life.
Myspace page: www.myspace.com/theveils
Photos and a review of their Empty Bottle show in Chicago: www.popmatters.com/pm/post/109329-the-veils-23-july-2009-...
Photos of The Veils when they opened for Liam Finn at Lakeshore Theater: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/sets/72157607737076026/
Portrait shot of Finn Andrews: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/3751570369/
3. Rural Alberta Advantage or RAA (Canada): Hometowns
I feel like this album may not technically qualify as a 2009 release. It was definitely released in 2008 originally in Canada and was re-released this year on Saddle Creek records. In any case, I’m a little embarrassed to say I hadn’t heard this album until 2009. I had heard of the band early in the spring and have not been disappointed in seeing them live twice this year. The songs really feel like intriguing personal stories from lead singer Nils Edenloff. There’s a very Neutral Milk Hotel essence to Edenloff’s voice and a few times songs hit on a twinge of the catchy urgency that characterizes The Arcade Fire’s songs. Mainly, however, there’s a real sense of rich human story and sincerity here that wholly completes the album.
Myspace: www.myspace.com/theraa
Favorite photo of RAA at Pritzker Pavillion: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/3856085832/
Review and photos of RAA at Schubas Tavern in Chicago: soundcheckmagazine.com/featured-content/1774-reviewphotos...
4. Pains of Being Pure at Heart (American) (self-titled)
It’s ok, friends, we don’t have to invent a new genre of music every other minute. Sometimes, it’s just so ultimately reassuring to have the genres we have brought to their best. I found out about Pains of Being Pure at Heart in the early spring just when the harshness of winter was ending. It’s the time when you start to remember what it’s like when everything seems new again and long for it desperately. If life is sort of like one epic mood swing mirrored by the seasons with late fall the ultimate devastation and spring bringing a sense of balance and everything right within the world, this album fits perfectly within that context. In mid February, they were playing Schubas and by July they had secured a prime spot at Pitchfork Music Festival.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart album is intelligently romantic, full of a lighter and sometimes ethereal shoegaze that seems to brim with bliss and shimmer as the best dream pop does. Missing is any sort of caustic sense to it. It’s what My Bloody Valentine may have created if they were young again and extremely wistful. You know the perfect way a bar of chocolate dissolves on your tongue during a warm afternoon? That’s the way listening to the Pains of Being Pure at Heart makes you feel. It helps you feel good in all the right places.
Myspace page: www.myspace.com/thepainsofbeingpureatheart
Live photos and a review of their show at Logan Square Auditorium: www.popmatters.com/pm/post/111312-the-pains-of-being-pure...
Portrait shots of the band: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/sets/72157613715361287/
5. Sharon Van Etten: (American) Because I was in Love
There’s something about folk singer Sharon Van Etten that is incredibly impossible to put one’s finger on. The lyrics aren’t complex or even all that abstract but it’s the perfect music to listen to in the middle of the night and feel so very deeply. Sharon Van Etten is one of the nicest people and though her sense of being feels quite subtle and understated, she still manages to impact you as you go through your daily motions. Somehow, her songs feel unforgettable. There are no catchy choruses but you’ll long to sing along. There are no rock rifts but you’ll remember the chord progressions intimately. Much like Sibylle Baier’s Colour Green album, there are no frills needed. This is just a woman who overall knows how to make it work when she puts together her songs and the effect is very genuine and touching, which is frankly a relief in this postmodern world we live in.
Myspace page: www.myspace.com/sharonvanetten
Portrait shot: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/3912145659/
Live review with photos: gapersblock.com/transmission/2009/10/18/sharon_van_ettent...
6. Dead Man’s Bones: self titled (Canada, Los Angeles)
Stop groaning! Yes, yes, it’s another actor in a band and Ryan Gosling has been in both dismal maintream flicks as well as arty films that made me weep so loud in the theater I embarrassed myself and everyone around me cough Lars and the Real Girl cough. Anyhow, I greeted these songs with extreme skepticism as I rarely like bands that actors are in. Even Juliette Lewis, whose performances on stage are always striking and powerful, is not someone who has the studio material to match the greatness one sees live. However, this album is a real win. It captures all the best aspects of fall and Halloween in a way no other album I own can do. It’s spooky, catchy, and has songs elevated by the use of the Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children’s Choir. (Gosling used Children’s Choirs in different cities when he performed live, which made the performances equally amazing.) This is honestly a real treasure that, at the very least, you’ll yearn for every time Autumn comes rolling around
Myspace page: www.myspace.com/deadmansbones
Photos and a Review of their Schubas in Chicago show: www.soundcheckmagazine.com/reviews/concert-reviews/1808-r...
7. I Was a King (Norway):s/t
So fuzzy and friendly…a little like Teenage Fanclub in their best moments. It’s incredibly catchy and likeable and fills you with a lighthearted sense that everything is going to be alright. It’s sugary but not too sweet. It’s pop but with enough guitar effects to recall some of the highlights of 90s alternative songs. In any case, it’s accessible music that one can’t help but feel incredibly nostalgic about even upon first listen. The lovely female/male vocals from Strømstads and Anne Lise Frøkedal definitely work together to make this record a real win, though they were definitely more pronounced/audible when I saw them live!
Myspace page: www.myspace.com/iwasaking
Portrait Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/3574325766/
Live review of Empty Bottle show with photos: www.popmatters.com/pm/post/94232-i-was-a-king-26-may-2009...
8.Viva Voce (American): Rose City
I wouldn’t call it psychedelic if it wasn’t great. Viva Voce are one of those bands who should have become much more famous by now. Anita and Kevin Robinson certainly aren’t suffering from lack of talent and they’ve proven themselves to be very hard workers, touring and releasing five solid albums in the last 11 years. They know how to bring the gentle and the fierce but always take enough time developing each so that they hit you with their fullest capacity. This album has it’s mood swings but most of the time is the sense of lushness between slower and more savory songs like “Flora” and the songs more filled with obvious psychedelic rock such as “Die a Little.”
Myspace: www.myspace.com/vivavoce
Photos of Viva Voce at Do Division Festival in Chicago: www.flickr.com/photos/kirstiecat/sets/72157618985524901/
9. Marissa Nadler (American): Little Hells
There’s always something so beautiful about Nadler and so intrinsically intimate and special…she seems removed from everything modern when she sings about death and intimacy. She’s not doing anything incredibly different or out of the ordinary when she sings these songs but she fills them with such melancholy longing that you won’t be able to resist them very easily. Nadler demonstrates the capacity for great feeling in the sense of experiencing all kinds of moments that befall us in life. It’s folk music but it’s also something with immense human value to it. Nadler is full of shy and wonder. It’s a great honor to try to understand the world through her eyes, despite the pains it must take her to share it with us.
Myspace: www.myspace.com/songsoftheend
Review and photos of Marissa Nadler at Schubas Tavern in Chicago: www.soundcheckmagazine.com/reviews/concert-reviews/1839-r...
10. Kurt Vile (American): Childish Prodigy
I’ve been intrigued by this record for some time now. Some of the lyrics come back to haunt me when I least expect them. I can almost picture a lonely guy in the middle of the desert, playing to sand with all his heart, which is strange as he’s from Philly. I can also picture listening to this during an epic sort of road trip when you leave everything behind and nothing else matters. It has elements of both psychedelic rock as well as folk music and all the songs just work really well as part of the overall album.
Myspace: www.myspace.com/kurtvileofphilly
Honorable mention: Here are some albums I really enjoyed that didn’t quite make the cut.
Howlies: Trippin’ With the Hollies
Raveonettes: In and Out of Control
St Vincent: Actor
Vivian Girls: Everything Goes Wrong
Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Edited to add:
Sonic Youth: The Eternal (also a great record)
Le Loup: Family
1894 a new, 19-lignes pocket watch movement is developed. The banker Henri Riekel suggests the brothers to call it "Omega", after the last letter of the Greek alphabet, to represent the final stage of possible perfection ("Alpha to Omega"). (Source: watch-wiki).
Public Clock Photography - Arjan Richter
By architects Michael Nadler and Shulamit Nadler, 1968-1971. Be'er Sheva, Israel.
Photo: Stefano Perego.
Amazing Stories / Magazin-Reihe
- Bob Shaw / Other Days, Other Eyes [Slow Glass]
- James Tiptree, Jr. / The Man Who Walked Home
- Gordon Eklund / Soft Change
- Roger Ebert / In Dying Venice
- Jack C. Haldeman / Watchdøg
- Maggie Nadler / Latest Feature
- Grant Carrington / There's No One Left to Paint the Sky
- David Book / The Science in Science Fiction:
The Scientist in Science Fiction
cover: Mike Hinge
Editor: Ted White
Ultimate Publishing Company / USA 1972
Reprint: Comic-Club NK 2010
ex libris MTP