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ladyherenya · 7 years ago

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Books read in September

This is the most books I’ve read in a month since I was at university. Listening to audiobooks definitely makes a difference to how many books I read. As does being on holidays. And not Tumblr-ing. That may be the biggest factor...

I’ve asterisked my favourites.

(My longer reviews and ratings are on LibraryThing.)

A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle (narrated by Jennifer Ehle): Set a year after A Wrinkle in Time. Meg is worried about her youngest brother, Charles Wallace, who has just started school. I enjoyed the first half of this as much as I enjoyed the first book, and was disappointed with the second half. The challenges Meg faced were just too similar to those in the first half, the ultimate outcome felt predictable, and the setting was a bit confusing. And the narrator didn’t have such distinct voices for the characters - if I missed something, it was harder to work out who was speaking and what was going on.

* Far From the Madding Crowd (1874) by Thomas Hardy (narrated by Nicholas Guy Smith): Last year I saw the 2015 film adaptation. It’s very picturesqueness and tells an interesting story - a young single woman managing her own property - but it felt rushed. The book made more sense, and gave certain developments the context they need. Even though I knew where the story was heading, the way it was told kept me interested. I particularly enjoyed Hardy’s descriptions, the amusing way with words some characters have, and the colourful portrayal of life for this farming community. This novel offers thoughtful, and at times surprising, commentary on courtship, male expectations of women, healthy relationship dynamics, and the consequences of mistakes… along with a shippable romance. The audiobook is excellent.

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor: Lazlo Strange is an orphan obsessed with the mystery of the vanished city of Weep. Sari lives in an unusual household with unusual abilities, hiding in a citadel. Their stories unfold and then collide, a collision all the more complex and fraught because we can see there are no easy answers. This is slow but gorgeously written - I particularly liked the descriptions of the library - and I became invested in the characters. However, with a couple of bleak and cliff-hangery twists, all my enthusiasm was squashed. I can’t tell if I like the direction the story is now heading in.

A Single Stone by Meg McKinlay: Teenaged Jena lives in an isolated post-apocalyptic community that is dependent on girls who are small enough to squeeze through tunnels in the mountains and harvest the mineral that is their source of light and heat. An unexpected discovery leads Jena to question what she’s been taught. This is tightly focused, with puzzle pieces slowly but steadily revealed. I liked that it explains enough - but not too much, leaving some loose ends. It would have made a bigger impression when I was fourteen, or if Jena had had to deal with more emotional fallout from others’ reactions to her discoveries.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (1938) by Winifred Watson: An unsuccessful middle-aged governess who is looking for another job meets a night-club singer. This is a funny and joyful story, and I appreciated the supportive female friendships. But as the story went on, I found myself a bit disappointed by Miss Pettigrew’s naivety and her willingness to discard her moral code to embrace the glamorous world she finds herself in… there’s something very superficial about it all. There’s also a far larger dose of 1930s prejudice than I’d anticipated. But the film adaptation - I watched it again - is lovely, and addresses all my criticisms with the novel.

* The Book That Made Me: a collection of 32 personal stories edited by Judith Ridge: These stories are entertaining, memorable and interesting. I loved the diversity - of experiences and of approaches to the topic. Most of these authors are from Australia and New Zealand, but they grew up in different countries, in different eras, in families with different attitudes towards stories. They had differing levels of access to libraries and to books featuring people like them. I thought I’d read a bit here and there - but I practically read this in one go. It’s delightful. One of the best books I’ve read this year.

Cheerfulness Breaks In (1940) by Angela Thirkell: This is less successful and delightful than Thirkell’s others. She turns her attention to outsiders to the English village - evacuees and refugees - and her humour is undermined by her reliance on stereotypes and perhaps by a lack of sympathy. This book also acts like a sequel, more interested in catching up with old characters than spending time with new ones, at the expense of offering a satisfactory coherent standalone narrative - but since I knew those familiar characters from previous books, I was happy to spend more time with them. Especially the lively, independent Lydia Keith. I’m glad I read this.

Hunted by Meagan Spooner (narrated by Saskia Maarleveld and Will Damron): A retelling of Beauty and the Beast that does so many things right, particularly telling its own story, something new and different, even as it keeps to the general shape of a tale as old as time. One of my favourite things in these sorts of stories is when knowing folk- and fairy-tales is useful. (I like meta commentary and genre-savvy heroines). I also liked Yeva’s relationship with her sisters and her dog. And the way the story explores the pitfalls of wanting more than what you have, wanting something which may be unattainable, was unexpected.

The Baker’s Daughter (1938) by D.E. Stevenson: Sue, the daughter of a baker, impulsively accepts a position as housekeeper for a painter and his wife living in an old flour mill - and risks scandal by remaining after Mrs Darnay leaves her husband. This is a gentle, meandering sort of story, with picturesque Scottish scenery and fortuitous turns of events. A bit too fortuitous, really, but there’s something rather comforting about it all, so I was happy to suspend disbelief. If I read nothing but books like this, I think I would find them lacking, but it’s nice to read one every so often.

The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir by Jennifer Ryan: This epistolary novel set in an English village during WWII about a ladies’ choir sounded exactly like my cup of tea, but it isn’t - it’s less charming, and much more sad and scandalous and unsympathetic, than I was expecting. Rather than revolving around the choir, this is really about the Winthrops at Chilbury Manor, particularly teenaged Venetia and Kitty. My favourite character was Mrs Tilling, a choir member to whom the girls turn for help, but I warmed to both girls eventually. So, not quite my cup of tea, but probably someone else’s? I don’t regret reading it.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han: Lara Jean has a hatbox of letters she’s written, never meaning to send. But when the letters reach the boys they are addressed to, she finds herself in an unexpected situation, with a pretend-boyfriend. Some stories have a story sense of place, this has a strong sense of aesthetic. Cute vintage, pinterest, baking-in-your-pyjamas aesthetic. I liked Lara Jean’s confidence in her own tastes, and how central her relationships with her father and sisters are to her life. However, the whole concept of something private being revealed in some way, made me feel kind of anxious...

P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han: This sequel to To All the Boys... is about the differences between having a pretend-boyfriend and a real boyfriend, and looking back on middle-school relationships. It’s nostalgic and reflective in a way I enjoyed. It also involves something private not just becoming public but going viral - much more serious than a crush receiving a letter that they were never meant to read. I was rather relieved when the end of the book left Lara Jean in a good place.

Penric and the Shaman: a novella in the World of the Five Gods by Lois McMaster Bujold (narrated by Grover Gardner): I like the stories about Penric and Desdemona; they're well-written and often amusing. This one is set a few years after the first book. Penric is assigned to a temple Locator, Oswyn, who is tracking a shaman accused of murder. (The story switches between these three male characters’ points of view. This POV switch caused a tiny moment of confusion whenever I resumed the story until I worked out whose POV I was in the middle of.) I liked how this connected to The Hallowed Hunt. I also enjoyed the eventual banter.

Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis: Regency fantasy. Cassandra Harwood is the first - and only - woman to study magic at the Great Library but her magical career has ended with humiliating failure. At the insistence of her sister-in-law, Cassandra attends a house-party, and is promptly confronted with her ex-fiancé, her new limitations and a mystery about who is interfering with the weather. A funny novella with supportive family banter, a delightful romance and interesting dilemma. It is short and a little predictable, but that’s part of the appeal. I read this twice in row.

The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You by Lily Anderson: A modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing set at a high school for geniuses. While Beatrice Watson’s best friends plot to acquire boyfriends, Trixie’s goal for her senior year is to overtake her nemesis, Ben West, in the class rankings. This is fun and geeky, full of references to the sci-fi and comics Trixie and her friends are big fans of. Familiarity with the plot of Much Ado means one can predict how Trixie and Ben’s relationship will change, but not how the scandal surrounding Trixie’s best friend will eventually unfold. I was impressed with how this was adapted.

#Herenya reviews books #Angela Thirkell #Stephanie Burgis #Lily Anderson #To All the Boys I've Loved Before #Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day #D.E. Stevenson #Madeleine L'Engle #Lois McMaster Bujold #the World of the Five Gods #Meagan Spooner #Far from the Madding Crowd #Laini Taylor

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newstfionline · 7 years ago

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After Irma, a once-lush gem in the U.S. Virgin Islands reduced to battered wasteland

By Anthony Faiola, Washington Post, September 12, 2017

CRUZ BAY, U.S. Virgin Islands--The Asolare restaurant is gone, practically blown off its cliff, along with its world-famous carrot ginger soup. The facade of Margarita Phil’s is a junkyard of yellow and vermilion planks. Multimillion-dollar homes and aluminum huts alike lie in ruins.

On the island of St. John, that was only Irma’s beginning. Once a lush gem in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a chain steeped in the lore of pirates and killer storms, this 20-square-mile island is now perhaps the site of Irma’s worst devastation on American soil.

Six days after the storm--some say several days too late--the island finally has an active-theater disaster zone. Military helicopters buzz overhead and a Navy aircraft carrier is anchored off the coast, as the National Guard patrols the streets.

The Coast Guard is ferrying the last of St. John’s dazed tourists to large cruise ships destined for Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico. More than a few locals, cut off from the world with no power, no landlines and no cellular service--other than the single bar you might get above Ronnie’s Pizza--are leaving, too, some of them in tears.

The streets of Cruz Bay, the largest town of this island of roughly 5,000, were a bizarre tableau of broken businesses and boats on sidewalks. Beyond belief, the Dog House bar had not only a generator but satellite TV, and folks streamed in and out, some stepping over debris holding beers.

A drive up formerly picturesque mountain roads reveals a landscape of such astonishing devastation that it looks as if it were bombed. Entire houses have disappeared. Others are tilting on their sides. Horizons of waxy-green bay leaf trees on jade-colored hills have turned to barren wastelands, as if the world’s largest weed whacker had hedged the entire island.

“Hurricanes? We’ve been through hurricanes--lots of them. But nothing, nothing, like this,” said Jerry O’Connell, a Chevy Chase, Md., native turned St. John developer.

And that’s just damage from the weather.

In the days following the storm, lawlessness broke out--here and on other Caribbean islands. Thieves hit a string of businesses. Houses were burgled, entire ATM machines stolen.

In the information vacuum after the storm, rumors flew like Irma’s raindrops. Prisoners had broken free on nearby Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands, seized guns and formed armed gangs.

Left largely unprotected and with no way to call the police, some locals began sleeping in shifts. One local blogger, Jenn Manes, called for help on her island blog--help that finally arrived in force Monday. Others jumped on her for sullying the island’s name, because tough times can bring communities together, but they can also divide.

“I know some people were not happy with my telling the truth--that I was scared, that people here were scared,” said Manes as she lined up Tuesday to catch a Coast Guard boat off the island. “It doesn’t mean I won’t be back. We’re going to rebuild.”

On late Wednesday morning when Irma hit, the Virgin Islands, a haven for cruise ships and those in search of a good piña colada, were supposed to get lucky. A former Danish colony purchased by the United States in 1917, the small island cluster had had more than its fair share of cyclones. Their names read like a litany of salty villains: Marylyn, Irene, Hugo.

Irma was supposed to veer to the north, or so thought Joe Decourcy, a Canadian businessman who moved to St. John in 2001. Instead, the storm slammed the island at full intensity, its Category 5 winds of 150 mph racking it from coast to coast. Irma also hit neighboring St. Thomas, devastating the local hospital and homes and businesses across the island. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, only St. Croix was largely spared.

Decourcy, owner of Joe’s Rum Hut, holed up that night in the formidable villa of a friend. Even the multimillion-dollar home could not hold Irma back. They sheltered on the first floor after second-floor windows were sucked out, causing massive flooding.

“The pressure was insane. It felt like our heads were going to explode,” he said.

When the slow-moving storm cleared, Decourcy emerged with other shell-shocked locals to post-apocalyptic scenes of shattered homes, of cars, boats and sides of homes in the street. “We walked around like ‘The Walking Dead,’” he said.

A sailboat named Windsong had landed in the street in front of Joe’s Rum Hut. Islanders quickly banded together, he said, sharing food, supplies. But by Friday, the “vibe,” he said, “started to change.”

The island was virtually cut off. No cell reception. No power. No WiFi. It also meant there was no way to call the island’s police, and some began to realize it.

Friday morning, Decourcy arrived to start cleaning up in earnest, only to discover the chains to the bar had been cut by bolt cutters. Inside, the registers were smashed open, the safes ajar. He had banked the bar’s cash before the storm. But who knew what else was missing--he did not have the stomach to do an inventory.

At least four other businesses in a mall he runs also were hit. A gas station was robbed, as was Scoops, the island’s ice cream parlor. The burned-out husk of an ATM and safe, which thieves apparently tried to open with a blowtorch, sit in the town’s police station.

Many residents were outraged it took so long for the National Guard to arrive.

“No structure, no police presence, no National Guard,” Decourcy said. “It got really tense, to the point where business owners were asking, ‘How do I get firearms? How do I get off the island? Are they coming for us?’ I mean, this is supposed to be U.S. territory. And yet people were just running around breaking into residences and stores.”

Devida Damron, 38, a 10-year island resident who works at the local veterinary clinic, was leaving St. John on Tuesday with her boyfriend and her dog, French Fry. She said she saw a man with a machete in the street Friday yelling, “It’s looting time.”

At the same time, a cluster of do-gooders, mostly launching from the Puerto Rican coast, were starting to ferry the old and infirm off St. John. Nils Erickson, a 42-year-old Gaithersburg, Md., native and part time St. John resident, rushed down Friday after he began hearing pleas from islanders on a Facebook page.

“People were begging for help,” he said.

With the aid of a local boat company, a GoFundMe account and credit cards to finance the rest, Erickson began running supply mission and evacuations. Since Friday--three days before large-scale official efforts--they managed to get 600 people off the island.

So many boats came to aid that the locals began to call it the “Puerto Rican Navy.”

“It was our own Dunkirk,” said Sgt. Richard Dominguez of the Virgin Islands Police Department. “They took their own boats before official means were available. They didn’t wait.”

Kenneth Mapp (I), governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, insisted in a telephone interview that there had been no pillaging at all on St. John, despite evidence to the contrary.

The citizens here are pulling together. The Dog House is offering free food. Meaghan Enright, 34, a marketing manager on the island who suddenly finds herself jobless, has found a new reason for being the de facto relief organizer.

“St. John has a singular ability to pull together in a crisis,” she said.

#Hurricane Irma #US Virgin Islands #St. John USVI

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nofomoartworld · 8 years ago

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Hyperallergic: A Curated Section Brings Body Politics to Volta NY

The entrance to Volta NY 2017 at Pier 90 (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)

Volta bills itself as a “rigorously curated, boutique event — along the lines of a sequence of intense studio visits versus a traditional trade show environment.” An art fair can dream, but Volta is, for better or worse, like all the others of its ilk, just that: an art fair. Ninety-six solo booths (though some are actually duo) do not curation make.

Last year, though, Volta NY added a curated section — a special eight-artist display organized by fellow artist Derrick Adams — to up the critical caliber of the show. This year, it continues the tradition with another eight-artist section curated by writer Wendy Vogel. Curiously, both the 2016 and 2017 displays focus on the body. Adams sought to “explore the idea of the body as a site of reckoning, transformation and departure,” while Vogel has chosen artists “who foreground the precariousness of the body and identity in a time of political turmoil.” In retrospect, the progression seems almost natural, as much of the country, especially artists, has moved from a period of possibility mixed with anxiety to a time of terror. Political precariousness reminds just how vulnerable our non–white, straight, cis, male bodies are.

View of Wendy Vogel’s Your Body Is a Battleground at Volta NY 2017, with artwork by Carmen Winant on the front walls

I didn’t see last year’s curated section, but it should be noted that labeling the current one — which is titled Your Body Is a Battleground, after Barbara Kruger’s 1989 work — an “exhibition,” as the fair materials do, at times feels like a stretch. The display is comprised, essentially, of eight single-wall “booths” arranged in a rectangle, a formation that works well for the works shown inside the shape but awkwardly cuts off the ones on the outside. They feel mostly like independent solo presentations, though Vogel’s success is evident in the the meaningful connections that emerge between them.

Kent Monkman, “Baptism by Fire” (2017), installed with custom wallpaper at Peters Projects’ booth

The showstopper — of both the section and the entire fair — is Kent Monkman, presented here by Peters Projects. The queer artist of Cree and Irish descent continues to address the very serious subject of historical erasure and representation without barely a hint of self-seriousness. In Monkman’s hands, humor is a real weapon, a means of pointing out the absurdity of the white, colonial, European tradition, and by extension its dangerousness. When he paints an elaborate pastoral scene of homoerotic Native American men riding on horseback near white people who are pouring alcohol onto a flame atop a man’s head (“Baptism by Fire,” 2017), he puts you in a specific position — of having no idea what’s going on. It makes you wonder if everything you’ve ever seen in a history painting is just the invention of someone else’s imagination. A similar phenomenon is at work in his new series, Fate is a Cruel Mistress (2017), which casts Monkman’s alter-ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, as the protagonist in a number of famous Biblical scenes involving women: Judith cutting off Holofernes’s head and others. Decked in headdresses and heels, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle reminds us that we only understand stories as extensions of who tells them.

Kent Monkman, “Salome” (2017), with Peters Projects

This is a major theme of a body of work made by Carmen Winant for the fair and presented by Fortnight Institute. In one of the new series of collages, all titled “Anita Told the Truth,” Winant gathers images of Anita Hill testifying before the Senate in 1991 about being sexually harassed by Clarence Thomas, who had formerly been her boss and went on to be confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. The pieces feature images of Hill and other black women in grid formations alongside images of white men and bodies, all of them covered with severe applications of what looks like graphite or black paint. The coatings represent a kind of literalization of the way Hill was smeared, while the juxtaposition of black and white bodies — and in one piece, a border of raised, broken hands — prompts a questioning of which bodies and stories we instinctively trust.

Works by Camen Winant with Fortnight Institute

Installation view, Your Body Is a Battleground at Volta NY, with work by Nona Faustine on left, Deborah Roberts against back wall, and Sable Elyse Smith on right

Nona Faustine, here represented by Baxter Street at the Camera Club of New York — where she recently had a solo exhibition of much of the the same work that’s on view at Volta — uses her photographs to directly challenge such assumptions. In Faustine’s strongest work, she places her own black, female body, often fully or partially naked, at historical sites of US slavery. (Her pictures of national monuments with black bars across them are less compelling.) Sometimes she poses directly facing the camera, but even when not, the challenge she’s mounting is explicit: Reckon with your history, America, rather than attempting to bury it or wash it away. Recognize my body and the history it carries.

Works by Nona Faustine with Baxter Street at the Camera Club of New York

Whereas Faustine insists on inserting herself — and by extension, her people — into the national narrative, Sable Elyse Smith grapples in a more nuanced way with presence and absence. Smith’s presentation, brought by the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), is the most coherent of the group, featuring a series of works centered on one topic: prison, and more specifically, her father’s imprisonment. Smith approaches the subject in different ways: aerial photos that evidence the scale of prison complexes, reproduced and deconstructed family photos taken inside prisons, a text piece and video about the anxiety-inducing experience of visiting prison. As a conceptual group, the works gracefully balance personal narrative with systemic reality. Smith uses her body as a kind of surrogate for her father’s; its presence points to the conspicuous absence of his, and of the over two million others hidden away behind bars in this country.

Works by Sable Elyse Smith with MoCADA

Zachary Fabri also works across media, and also uses his own body to explore and understand his place in the systems around him. Co-presented here by the Rockelmann & gallery and Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art — where Fabri had a show earlier this year that included some of this work — his display feels the most like a fair booth, with a sampling of works that doesn’t quite come together. The two strongest pieces, however, drive home his abiding interest in the black male body: “Aureola (Black Presidents)” (2012), a grid of images of black men playing presidents in works of fiction, and “The Big Payback” (2009), an alternately funny and discomfiting video showing two black men dancing to James Brown on a Harlem street. These works, as well as others not at Volta, show how keenly attuned Fabri is to representations of black masculinity and the way they circumscribe him in society.

Works by Zachary Fabri with Rockelmann & and Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art

Across the way, Joiri Minaya, presented by Casa Quien, does something similar with ideas of Dominican femininity. After conducting a Google Image search for “Dominican women,” Minaya printed out the results at life-size, but broke them into body parts — an arm and leg here, head of hair there, a stomach — which dangle from the ceiling like a pixellated puzzle. The backs of the pieces sport tropical-print fabrics, much like the ones in which Minaya has entirely cocooned herself for a nearby set of funny, faux-sexy beach and jungle photos. There’s indignation here, but also, as with Monkman’s work, a sense of playfulness. Minaya subverts stereotypes of sexiness by refusing to indulge our desire for the perfect body.

Detail of Joiri Minaya’s “#dominicanwomengooglesearch” (2016) at Casa Quien

Works by Joiri Minaya at Casa Quien

The last two artists in the show — Deborah Roberts, presented by Art Palace, and Melissa Vandenberg, brought by Maus Contemporary | beta pictoris gallery — are the weakest. They deal with related themes of womanhood, racism, and patriotism — Roberts in collages made from magazine pages, Vandenberg mostly in burn drawings — but in more simplistic ways than their peers. The show does a great job of taking a resolutely intersectional approach to a phrase that emerged from white feminism; in that vein, Vogel might instead have brought in another one or two LGBTQ artists, who, even before Trump instructed states not to comply with Title IX, were facing a vice president who has worked to oppose their rights. A nearby booth that’s part of the main fair speaks to this possibility: Samuel Freeman Gallery is showing a project by Danny Jauregui that elegantly traces the history of the coded gay address books that Bob Damron began compiling in the 1960s. Alluding to absent bodies through the use of human hair, it’s of a piece with Your Body Is a Battleground.

Still, Vogel has done an impressive job putting together a timely and thought-provoking show. It’s especially valuable for reminding us that the real world doesn’t magically disappear when we step inside the artificial environment of an art fair.

Works by Deborah Roberts with Art Palace

Works by Melissa Vandenberg with Maus Contemporary | beta pictoris gallery

Danny Jauregui in Samuel Freeman Gallery’s booth

Installation view, Your Body Is a Battleground at Volta NY

Volta NY 2017 continues at Pier 90 (W 50th Street at Twelfth Avenue, Manhattan) through March 5.

The post A Curated Section Brings Body Politics to Volta NY appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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themusicenthusiast · 8 years ago

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Sunday, January 8th, 2017 – Madisons Crank Out a Smorgasbord of Classics and Offer a Taste of New Music During Set at Dan’s Silver Leaf

All photos by Jordan Buford Photography After a little more than six months, Madisons was returning to Dan’s Silver Leaf in Denton, the Austin-based Americana outfit making a weekend out of their trip to North Texas, which had begun with a Dallas gig the night prior. Perhaps it had something to do with the colder weather the region had been experiencing over the last few days, though there were a lot more people packed into Dan’s on this Sunday evening than the last time around. Along with seeing a great show (at no cost!) it was also as if people just wanted to get out, go somewhere where they’d see some familiar faces and mingle. Many of the tables were in use, plenty more people milling around the venue or hanging out on the patio; the patrons being treated to a brief set by Denton’s own Kim Nall, who doled out some brand new songs. Some were so new she had just finished them within the last couple of days. While plugging the CD release show she’d be doing there with her band in exactly one week, she laughed at the fact that she didn’t intend for this show to be a depressing one, despite how the melancholy mood and often more heartbreaking lyrics portrayed it. “…But Madisons will be really fun!” she noted at one point, insisting it would be worth sticking around. She may have been uncertain of the nature of her new music, though the audience sure wasn’t, loving the handful of songs she played, all sounding quite raw, while the solo acoustic setting made them all the more striking. By 5:48, the eight-piece ensemble that is Madisons was on stage and ready to run through what would be a 65-minute long set, their Denton friends and fans having been chosen as guinea pigs to hear some of the new songs they have planned for their upcoming fourth album.

“…Calm down. What do you think this is, a wrestling match?!” singer and acoustic guitarist Dominic Solis quipped, the room being near silent at that moment. He quickly shared an anecdote of a friend from back in his youth, his friend hosting a party that eventually attracted the cops due to all the cars parked out front. Solis said the guy was adamant he and his parents were the only people there as everyone else had hid, something the police didn’t buy, especially after they heard, “Shut the fuck up! They’re gonna hear us!” Laughter abounded, from both the crowd and his band mates; the sounds of the violin, trumpet, guitars, banjo, and bass gradually swelling as they kicked things off with the more folk-y “You'll Never Know”. Their set was a pretty even spread from everything they’ve released thus far along with what’s to come, no one album receiving much more attention than the others. It felt as if Cass Brostad had taken on an even broader role with the group since the last time they were in town, supplying plenty of powerful backing vocals during that number, sans accordion at that moment, she just danced about the stage.

After easing everyone in to it, they struck with something a little more forceful, the candid and autobiographical sounding “So Long West Texas” creating more of a charged atmosphere as they cut loose; Solis breaking away from the mic when he could, trekking across the stage and attacking his ax. They had most everyone’s attention by that point, and Solis spoke of how important Denton was to them, mentioning a tour they had embarked on near the start of their career, with a show at Dan’s Silver Leaf being the biggest of the run. The problem was it was double-booked, though he expressed his gratitude to Hares On the Mountain for letting them play the eight songs they knew at the time. “…This was one of those eight. We’ve had some time to polish it up since then,” he said while grinning as they journeyed back to their debut record, Desgraciados. “I sent him a letter from Rotan, Texas with a picture of me sighin’ drawn on the outside. It said ‘being with you is being married to a fire burnin’ through the best years of my life…” Brostad began, her commanding voice giving the duet a new flare from the five-year-old recording; Solis taking over on the second verse of the song about a couple who fell out of touch. “…And the worst thing I done was tell you I’s in love when what I meant to say was I’s scared to be alone…”

The heartbreakers continued as Solis commented the next song was about being in love with someone who was too good for you. “Parasites” captures that perfectly, painting the picture of a bottom-of-the-barrel mortal pining after a near goddess, hoping there might be some way they could wind up together. The harmonies sounded great, particularly at the start as violinist Heidi Garcia and Brostad chimed in. Moments after finishing it, much of the band broke in to an energetic clap, drummer Mike Rothschild, electric guitarist Patrick Davis, banjo player Nick Kukowski and most everyone else participating, some of the onlookers even joining in; the fans recognizing it as “Growin Up”. It was another oldie of theirs that had been given a bolder sound, the prominent backing vocals pushing it to new heights. “We're playing all originals…” Solis informed everyone afterwards, quickly shouting out a friend (and future brother-in-law) who had penned “Parasites”. That brought them to a string of new songs, Madisons opting to knock them all out at once rather than spread them out; Solis mentioning they’d be going into the studio in a few weeks, the first of the new ones being dedicated to “all the narcs”. “Kiss our ass!” he shouted and laughed before they broke out a rollicking number that stood as one of their most dynamic cuts of the night and saw them holding nothing back.

“Man, getting in shape was not my new year’s resolution,” he laughed afterwards, taking a quick breather. “Second Chance” was as all-out, though was every bit as great, boasting some lyrics that are pure Madisons. “…I got a liver of steel and a heart of a gold…” That brought them to a couple of songs that put Brostad at the helm, the first of them being the most stunning as she turned into a powerhouse vocalist, overflowing with emotion by the end of it. The next one was every bit as riveting in its own right; a messy start quickly being corrected as they chuckled about it being a new song. Solis commented on how pretty much everyone in the group was a great songwriter in their own right and how they would be utilizing all of that creative input and creativity for their next release, after which he got the reins back for a slightly more tranquil new tune.

What remained was all familiar to their fans, the one-of-a-kind “Me On Fire” (a love song focused on the rapture possibly separating a couple) seeing Rothschild slickly knock out the beats with perfect precision as they brought it to a magnificent finish. Equally as tight was “Losing Pictures”, the opening acoustic riff yielding a rush of excitement from many of the spectators, the song in general sounding phenomenal. They stayed on You Can Take Your Sorry Ass Back To West Texas! with the somber “In My Pocket Forever”, while “El Paso” continued the poignant manner of storytelling. Silence followed the applause and cheering, Solis breaking it with, “Shut the fuck up. They’re gonna hear us!” Laughter ensued.

Things started to wind down with the ruckus “Bar Stool”, the best part of it being the echo-like effect added on the final verse, Kukowski, Garcia, and Brostad collectively repeating, “Then I let myself down,” once Solis had sang it, doing so with, “I wouldn't be the first,” as well. “A Long, Slow Death in San Marcos, Texas” was almost glossed over, though, luckily, they remembered it was part of their repertoire and turned it into the penultimate song of their set. “Hey, we forgot about a song that we know…” Solis remarked after a quick band meeting, the gentler song having Garcia often plucking the strings of her violin. With a final expression of love for everyone, Solis saying how grateful they were to Denton, Dan’s, and everyone in the area that has supported them over the last few years, they launched into their final number the bluegrass influenced “Meet Me By the Riverside”.

It made for a joyous and fun end to the show, its upbeat style being infectious and leaving everyone feeling quite chipper, the onlookers not ready for it to be over just yet. Some hadn’t even set their instruments down when cries for an encore filled the room, the musicians huddling around to discuss what they might have left to do. “Chris 'n' Sally” wound up being the icing on the cake, building upon their standard closer. Complete with solos from the violin, electric guitar, and banjo, it sounded excellent. Thomas Damron was even able to shine as he slapped his upright bass, the funny part of it being that everyone else knelt down for it, even Rothschild, whose head was just barely visible from his drum kit. With that, everyone seemed appeased, roaring fanfare being Madisons sendoff. It was an excellent show that hit all the sweet spots in regards to what people wanted and hoped to hear. It was more than just a fun show to watch, though. Their musicianship was impeccable, and truly something to marvel at. It’s really something when you consider their lineup has changed slightly since they were in Denton last summer, and their shows have been fairly sparse, making the rehearsal room the main place they’ve had to work on that cohesion. That time and effort showed. They were a well-oiled machine, the execution being smooth and flawless, each of them being in tune to what the others were doing. You could tell it simply by watching. The older material was where it was most evident, performing those songs seeming more like second nature to the band as they packed as much vim into them as possible, though even the new songs came across as if they had been played a slew of times. It was surprising, just how polished those cuts came across, further proving what great chemistry the members of Madisons have with one another. I think those who had seen them before wound up falling a little more in love with the band, while some others were surely converted in to fans. Madisons may not be the only ones doing it, though are a great example of how an edgy blend of Americana and folk still exists, and combined with the engrossing manner of storytelling, they’re a force to be reckoned with. Keep an eye on their sites for news of future shows, and check out BANDCAMP to get their music.

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nothingbutfangirlsmut · 5 years ago

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Fandom & Character List

*Fics that are currently in progress (Updated 8/18/21)

Lap Dance Series

Oh Captain

I mostly write smut but I’m completely open to other requests. It is nice to switch things up now and then. Just make a request and I will do my best to honor it.

*Movies/Shows/Characters I will write

Marvel

Spiderman/Peter Parker

Iron Man/Tony Stark

Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff

Captain America/Steve Rogers

Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes

Falcon/Sam Wilson

Hulk/Bruce Banner

Thor

Loki

Hawkeye/Clint Barton

Dr. Stephen Strange

Star-Lord/Peter Quill

Attack on Titan

Eren Yeager

Mikasa Ackerman

Captain Levi

Reiner Braun

Erwin Smith

Bertholdt Hoover

Jean Kirstein

Criminal Minds

Spencer Reid

Derek Morgan

Aaron Hotchner

Supernatural

Dean Winchester

Sam Winchester

Castiel

Lucifer (any vessel)

Chuck Shurley

Jack

Maze Runner Trilogy

Newt

Minho

Gally

Alby

Frypan

Thomas

Brenda

JK’s Wizarding World

Harry Potter

Ron Weasley

Hermione Granger

Fred Weasley

George Weasley

Draco Malfoy

Neville Longbottom

Young Remus Lupin

Young Sirius Black

Star Wars

Kylo Ren/Ben Solo

Fin

Po Damron

The Flash

Flash/Barry Allen

Vibe/Cisco Ramon

Harrison Wells (any version)

Kid Flash/Wally West

Julian Dorn

Legends of Tomorrow

Heatwave/Mick Rory

Atom/Ray Palmer

Nathan Heywood

Captain Cold/Leonard Snart

Rip Hunter

Black(white) Canary/Sarah Lance

Firestorm/Jax

My requests are open! My tags are also open! If you want a character, show, or movie that isn’t on the list above just ask for them! If I don’t know them I’ll look them up and do my best! The list above is of the characters I know and are already a fan of. Can’t wait to hear from you lovelies!

—

#nothingbutfangirlsmut #requestsopen #request #fandom #list #marvel #aot #attack on titan #criminal minds #supernatural #maze runner #wizarding world #harry potter #star wars #the flash #legends of tomorrow

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nofomoartworld · 8 years ago

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Art F City: VOLTA: Skip The Booths, Head To “Your Body Is A Battleground”

Zachary Fabri, Aureola (Black Presidents), 2012 (photo by author)

VOLTA NY Pier 90 711 12th Avenue New York, NY On view until March 5, 2017

Ten years ago, it seemed most fairs were moving away from the anything-you-can-hang in a booth model to solo show booths. The pinnacle of that movement can be seen as VOLTA, which trumpeted a model in which all booths were solo shows.

Ten years later, how is that holding up? If UNTITLED and SPRING/BREAK are any indication, a preference for curation is on the rise. That’s seen even at shows that boast solo booth models such as VOLTA NY, which is for its second year, hosting a curated section.

As it happens, that section is one of the few reasons I can offer to visit the fair. We could take that as evidence of several things. That the solo booth model has failed. That curation is a better way to organize a fair. That the strategy of hiring an independent curator to assemble a show in which galleries pay fees to have their work included (and take the profit) is a smart way of mitigating these weaknesses. Probably, all of this has some truth.

Installation view of Jonathan Ferrara Gallery’s booth (photo by author)

Whatever the case, the big story for VOLTA this year isn’t, as its PR suggests, that it’s celebrating ten years of solo-focused programming, but rather that Your Body Is A Battleground, a central exhibition curated by Wendy Vogel, stole the show. Titled after Barbara Kruger’s iconic feminist work, Vogel gathered a group of eight artists that expand on the media-soaked, identity politics-based artists of the 1980s. Drawing on pop culture, Internet search terms and historical imagery, the selected artists’ biting commentary revealed the ways our culture still deals with legacies of colonialism, white supremacy and misogyny.

View of Y Gallery/Galería Isabel Aninat booth (photo by author)

Unfortunately, though, viewers have to wade through seemingly endless rows of disappointing solo booths—this year’s fair includes 96 exhibitors to be exact—to reach Vogel’s show. Some of these booths featured hoaky takes on historical masters, monumental kitschy renderings of decorative plates and creepy wooden pigeons with cameras for heads. None of which would look out of place at a flea market. Beyond these bizarre inclusions, there was also booth upon booth of unremarkable paintings–tired abstractions, messy figural works and geometric bores. While solo booths can provide the opportunity to place an artist’s work in its proper context, here one work would have been more than enough.

Two works by Pacifico Silano at Rubber Factory (photo by author)

This isn’t to say all the solo booths were misses. In particular, Pacifico Silano at Rubber Factory and Danny Jauregui at Samuel Freeman succeeded at addressing loss, absence and memory in the gay community. They achieved this through appropriation of midcentury gay history such as, respectively, gay porno mags from the 1970s and Bob Damron’s 1965 address book, a covert listing of gay-friendly businesses. Both artists used these images as a starting point to trace the ephemeral legacy of same-sex desire, as well as lost generations of gay men who died in the following decades at the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

View of Danny Jauregui at Samuel Freeman (photo by author)

But, apart from these two standouts in a field of close to 100 exhibitors, Your Body Is A Battleground emerged as the main reason to trek all the way to Pier 90. In fact, I experienced a moment of physical relief just stepping inside the show’s purple-carpeted space away from the mediocre booths on the periphery. It was a breath of fresh air.

Much of this had to do with the comparative strength and social relevancy of the chosen work. On one wall, Carmen Winant collaged imagery related to the notorious Anita Hill case against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, reflecting on the troubled depiction of a black woman standing up against a representative of the law. On another wall, Kent Monkman displays monumental pieces inserting the bodies of Native Americans into traditional European historical paintings. Nona Faustine’s series of arresting self-portraits, displayed on another nearby wall, places her nude black female body into locations historically connected to slavery. Standing ghostlike, Faustine becomes the embodiment of the traumatic legacy of subjugation that continues to haunt our current sociopolitical state. Even though all these works take aim at different issues, overall, they came together to form a powerful rebuke of a dominant white masculine culture.

Painting by Kent Monkman (photo by author)

Many of the works employed popular media to discuss the fraught representation of the other. Take, for example, Joiri Minaya’s #dominicanwomengooglesearch, which resembles a strange mobile for a child. Each hanging object is a digital photograph of body parts, hair, tropical plants and festival patterns. The artist culled all these images from a Google image search for “Dominican women.” While fractured and somewhat abstracted, the hanging objects in #dominicanwomengooglesearch reveal the hypersexualized stereotypes and objectifying assumptions about Dominican womanhood.

Joiri Minaya’s #dominicanwomengooglesearch, 2016-17 (photo by author)

Zachary Fabri similarly employs mass cultural imagery to investigate different representations of blackness in America. Due to the sheer timeliness of his Aureola (Black Presidents), though, his work became the standout in an already engaging show. Fabri’s Aureola (Black Presidents) consists of a grid of images of black presidents from popular movies and television shows, ranging from 24 to Chapelle’s Show. The artist rephotographs these characters, maintaining the glare of his camera’s flash. Rather than being disruptive, this flash adds an ethereal quality to the image.

The series gains meaning once viewers recognize the face of President Obama in the top left corner. While most of depicted films and shows dated pre-Obama, Obama’s appearance marks the moment in which the scripted fantasy of a black president became reality. Importantly, Fabri’s series is from 2012, the year of Obama’s reelection. However, looking at the work today, it seems like the dream of a minority president has returned to the arena of fiction yet again. It’s as depressing as it is poignant.

from Art F City http://ift.tt/2mmWZNE via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Art F City

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