Pottermania!

For all of you adults who don't want to be seen with the new HP book (which, for those of you who just woke up from a 100 year slumber and/or have been living under a magical bridge in an alternate universe, came out this weekend): Harry Potter book covers. Bloody Brilliant!

www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/pottercovers.html

Women v. Rhetoric

see Journo, link on the right.

What's Yiddish for "Chabon: Part Deux"?

THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION by Michael Chabon

First Sentence: "Nine months Landsman's been flopping at the Hotel Zamenhof without any of his fellow residents managing to get themselves murdered."

Year: 2007

Genre: Jewish Awesomeness.

No really. Genre: No, really!

I'm not Jewish. But that doesn't mean that after reading Chabon's new novel (which, for all you naysayers over at Gawker.com, doesn't suck), I didn't immediately want to go out and get me some bagels and pickles and corned beef and... Filipino donuts.

Amazon.com's incredibly useless yet highly entertaining "SIPs," or Statistically Improbable Phrases, feature shows us that The Yiddish Policemen's Union contains the following: "penguin sweater," "floatplane dock," "orange parka," and "noodle pudding." What it fails to tell us is that Union also contains a number of even odder combinations: Jewish-Tlingit good cop/bad cop routines, homosexual heroine-addicted Messiahs, and -- wait for it -- highly interesting and relevant references to obscure chess moves.

I'm not kidding. And I didn't even mention the biggest SIT (Statistically Improbable Thing) of all: the whole thing takes place after the fictional fall of Israel in 1948 and sixty years after the Jews have colonized an Alaskan outpost and created a Yiddish-speaking haven for those displaced by WWII. Hebrew is a dying language; Jerusalem belongs to the Muslims; and the Alaskan natives want their land back (and no, not for a casino).

Starring in all of this is Landsman, a broken man if ever there was one, easily prone to tears and, as the media likes to quote, in the middle of a "hard-boiled" detective case of Biblical proportions. Oh, and his hot, red-haired ex-wife is his new boss, and his best friend and partner is having an identity crisis (and he just knocked up his wife for the third time).

The characterization is flawless, the prose is effortlessly tight; classic Chabon. But no freakin' wonder he went through a few rewrites.

This book is the rare hardcover that's worth the cover price. The design is way cool: Jewish symbolism, Native American iconography, lots of fun colors and big, BIG text. It's rockin' and I read it in under 48 hours. I'm a lazy college student; I never do that anymore, unless it's the night before a midterm. So buy it.

Edited to add that a quick browse around the Interweb reveals "Part Two" to be "Heikel Zwei" in Yiddish. I have NO CLUE about Yiddish syntax or grammar, so it could easily be "Zwei Heikel" or some sort of variation, or it could be something completely different.

But the internet makes me feel smart, anyway.

Poetic License? Sappho Does Not Approve

from SmartBitches:

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?aid=274&site_area=1

Made me think of this 1994 movie, except, y'know, without the lesbians. Or the pink guns. Or the ugly men in suits frothing all over themselves during sweeps week.

Independence Day Playlist

The Fourth of July has come and gone, and I hardly noticed. I worked all day; time and tide wait for no waitress. And it seems the country hardly noticed, either, what with the pomp and circumstance and the complete lack of educated, informed conversation about the patriotic issues plaguing our nation (if that sounds like bitter liberal whining, don't worry; I said it with a yawn and a shrug).

But the knowledge that it was our country's birthday did creep into my brain, or at least it must have, because since the 4th I've been listening to music that echoes the issues of war and domestic strife that the USA seems to attract like moths to a porch light.

And so, here's my Independence Day Playlist:

1. Alison Krauss and Sting - You Will Be My Ain True Love
Krauss's lovely, twangy bluegrass voice gives me chills; the song is of the Civil War, written by Sting for the film Cold Mountain, based on the award-winning book by Charles Frazier.

And as you walk through death's dark veil,
The cannon's thunder can't prevail,
And those who hunt thee down will fail,
And you will be my ain true love,
And you will be my ain true love.

2. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Complicated Situation
You can say that again.

3. Bob Marley and The Wailers - War/No More Trouble
From the live album, Babylon By Bus. Wikipedia says this song is "derived from a speech made by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I."

4. Dave Matthews Band - Cry Freedom
It's a little-known fact that Dave Matthews is South African; this song is a beautiful anti-apartheid tune, one of Dave Matthews's best.

5. Eric Clapton - Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Clapton does a great cover.

6. Maurice Durufle - Pie Jesu
From his Requiem.

7. Jack Johnson - Good People
"Where'd all the good people go? .... We got heaps and heaps of what we sow." Johnson's poppy little ditty is really a biting attack on our TV-driven, consumerist culture. Still toe-tapping, though.

8. OK Go! - A Good Idea at the Time
A response to The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," this songs places the blame for all our ills squarely back on our shoulders. Fun, too.

9. The Police - De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Sometimes I feel like sticking my fingers in my ears and shouting, "La La La -- I can't hear you!" At other times, I think our politico talking heads are just singing, "De do do do."

10. The Decemberists - Sons & Daughters
Although nearly every song by The Decemberists is a direct response to some kind of Americana, this song is particularly moving. I heard it live in Boston a few months ago, right before the elections; the band had the audience sing along. I've never been one for hippie sing-alongs, but after singing "Hear all the bombs fade away" in unison, in Boston, after being urged to vote... well, this nerdy history major and bleeding heart liberal started to cry. I still do, a little, when I hear it.

Hopefully the sentiments found in these tunes last long after the month of July; after the Iraq War; and at least until our children no longer need inspiring tunes to help them through the latest, tragic US foible.