Stephen McClurg's Blog, page 7

New Show: ANTiSEEN, Kelsey Rae Copland, Future Hate

I’ll be handling upright bass duties for Kelsey Rae Copland at this show with old friends Future Hate and new old friends ANTiSEEN.

Marginalia #57

Over the years, I’ve been trying to make my way through folktale traditions from all across the globe. This one is both familiar and not. You get the first forms of stories like “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” an early alternate version of “Chicken Little” (I think), and several tales and adventures featuring Ashlad, a male counterpart to Cinderella. Oh, and tons and tons of trolls of various anatomies and attitudes. If you like the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson tales, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t enjoy these, too.

Not my usual kind of choice here, but I liked this movie quite a bit. A young woman takes mushrooms and summons her future 39-year-old self. The older self jokes with her, warns her, and tells her to enjoy her life and family. It’s done a lot better than that summary makes it. It hits harder if the viewer has children. They go through so many phases, and you love them all (mostly), but there’s always that slight trace of bittersweetness when some interest or fun thing they did as a kid disappears. I’m at the age where I find myself tearing up watching commercials, so this got me a few times. Overall, the message is simple but well-written. Love your family and friends. Love yourself. Love others and enjoy the times you have. Simple but so tricky in the muck and mire of living sometimes. 

I watched this with a friend, and he didn’t like it as much as I did, so your mileage may vary. Depending on your age or temperament, it might seem too sentimental, though that was not true for me.

I’ll be playing with Kelsey Rae Copland in March in Fairhope, Alabama. I’ll post details for that soon or you can check the event out here.

Musicalia #114: Contemporary Living?

A new playlist, poem, and links are available at The Drunken Odyssey.

Musicalia #113: Sepia Living

New playlist, poem, and links available at The Drunken Odyssey.

Musicalia #112: Green Berets and Ham

You can get the poem, playlist and links at The Drunken Odyssey.

Marginalia #56: In Watermelon Sugar, Saloum, Squid

It’s a postmodern, post-apocalyptic sci-fi hippie commune novel. It’s poetic, strange, and easy to read if you’re familiar with Brautigan. I’ve read most of the books now, but I want to check out the poems soon. His poem “A Boat” features a werewolf and is one I always return to.

Saloum is a French/Senegalese co-production and a kind of mash-up of Three Musketeers and Three Kings, with a dash of The Good, Bad, and the Ugly thrown in. The cast is almost 100% African actors. The soundtrack mixes African and European sounds, with some heavy nods to Morricone. The leads are a group of mercenaries trying to get out of a military-ruled area. They end up in a bizarre resort as they plan their escape. 

Saloum features African religion and folklore. It’s part action movie and part horror movie, with fantastic acting. For me, it was as exciting as some of the recent music coming out of Africa, which fuses various unexpected genres like death metal or electronics with traditional music. It had something to say about complex political and social situations, but in a way I hadn’t seen before.

The supernatural element here does feature some CGI that is either going to work or not for the viewer. I didn’t care for it, but everything else in the movie was a lot of fun. The idea for the creatures was interesting, but I’m undecided on the overall effect. 

I got up on Sunday, and the kids requested one of their old favorites: pancakes. While I worked on breakfast, I decided to check out Cowards by Squid. To say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement. While many songs have moments and guitar tones and playing that could be called post-rock (and any other subgenres I’ve probably never heard of), I was really into this record’s song structures and arrangements. Strings, horns, harpsichords, 8-bit, etc. At least one song sounded like they performed part of Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint in the middle of it.

At Horror DNA: The Gaunt Woman

John Blackburn’s tale of espionage tinged with horror has been brought back into print. My review is at Horror DNA.

At Horror DNA: American Scary

A review of one of my favorite books from last year is now over at Horror DNA.

New Music: Serenity Dagger: “Supertzar”

You can check out a Black Sabbath cover I recently did for Christopher Hendrix’s Smack Dabbath compilation featuring covers by bands from the other Birmingham. You can hear it on SoundCloud.

Musicalia #111: And the Earth–they tell me

You can get the new poem, playlist, and links at The Drunken Odyssey.