Neat Stuff

Wulp, I finished the new Jonathan Franzen novel, and it's a doozy. Another long one, another dysfunctional family, more multiple points of view, and more hilarity and heartbreak. Maybe less intense hilarity than in The Corrections, but the characters are every bit as rich, if not a little more realistic. Plus, it has the funniest description of human poop since Chaucer.

So now I'm on to Anne of Green Gables. As expected, it's charming. Less expected was how funny it is. And just plain well written. There's this recurring phenomenon in my reading life where I finally get around to reading a book that's such a classic I feel like I already know all about it and expect the experience to be dry and tedious, only to be slapped in the face by the strength of the writing that of course is what made the book a classic in the first place. It feels good to finally put aside all the pigtailed dolls and Japanese tourists and even sweet little Megan Follows, and just hear the story in its original, fresh voice.

There've been some other nice cultural discoveries recently, too. The other day some CDs I ordered from Aquarius Records came in the mail, the most interesting of which by far was not even a CD. Rather, it's a CD jewel case entitled 1-Bit Symphony, and holding some really primitive electronics which end in an eighth-inch stereo jack. When you plug headphones into it and turn it on, you get to hear a piece of music that's about 40 minutes long, in five movements. Actually, the last movement is technically infinite in length, as its final chord continues indefinitely, until you turn off the machine.

The whole thing is programmed by someone named Tristan Perich in 1-bit technology, which seems to mean there's pretty much no variation in timbre or volume possible. Imagine really complex music being played using the sounds of telephone buttons or like the alarm sound on a dot-matrix printer or something. In fact, you don't have to imagine, because I've taken the liberty of recording the first track for you. It's more exciting through headphones coming out of the jewel case, but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway.



And finally, everyone needs to check out a couple of films I caught during the Atlantic Film Festival last week. Another Day is Mike Leigh's newest, and it's just as great as all his movies have been since Naked in 1993. It's lighter than some of those, but there's still plenty of troubled characters and conflict. Lesley Manville is particularly adorable and tragic.

The other one is called The Myth of the American Sleepover. I don't really know anything about it, but it was a very sweet, naturalistic portrayal of teenage life and love, something like Dazed and Confused without the overwrought philosophical dialogue. Sounds simple enough, and it is, but it managed to sneak its way into the hearts of everyone in the theatre, with seemingly no trickery whatsoever. I was there with Alison and Johanna, and we all came out feeling positive and loving everyone and wanting to stay up all night.

Which is what I seem to be doing now. Better hit the hay. Next time, Alison has some photos of the rocks and waves at Prospect to show you. G'night.