"What's your favorite bird?"

Moth mandala at the LSU Natural History Museum

Saturday & Sunday:
The Abyssinians, Satta Massagna
Illachime Quartet, Illachime Quartet
Atlas Sound, Logos
The Court & Spark, Witch Season
Wilco, Sky Blue Sky

Today:
Bonnie Jo Campbell, Women & Other Animals
Five Dials #15
White Rainbow, Prism of the Eternal Now
The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (all four days, actually)
The Who, Quadrophenia
Guru Guru, Wah Wah 
Atlas Sound, Bedroom Databank Vol. 1



White Rainbow, "Middle"

"On Bear-Spotting" by Anne Cloutier in Five Dials #15 is a great little story. 

But in the end, they fell immediately in love with the house we’d rented in the Charlevoix mountains. There were video games (Wii, PlayStation, PSP), piles of high-definition DVDs (Harry Potter, Petit-pied, Les princesses au bal and Avatar) and an enormous spa in which they splashed for hours as if they were in a swimming pool, bare naked because I’d forgotten the swimsuits. My mother brought Oreos, Gatorade, Doritos and Froot Loops for breakfast, and they hadn’t eaten anything except dry packaged food since yesterday evening.

and later...

I tried to meet her eyes. I didn’t know if that was the thing to do or not.
Please. Don’t devour me.

Bonnie Jo Campbell is killing me. I'm at the point in the collection where patterns emerge: men around are drunks, men not around are sensitive and dimly heroic, mothers are distant, women and girls are lost where they stand and learn to live lost. The brightest stars in this downtrodden constellation are "The Fishing Dog" and "The Perfect Lawn" sandwiched conveniently together right there in the middle. From the former

Gwen felt drunk but blinked her eyes open. "What's your favorite bird?" she asked.
"My favorite bird? Let's see. How about the great blue heron?"
"There's herons on Willow Island." Gwen was dizzy from standing. "A campment of herons, living way up in the trees." She put one hand against the doorframe to steady herself. "Hundreds of them. One came so close it brushed me with a wing."
"I don't suppose you know the story about Leda and the swan?"
Gwen wondered if she'd get used to Michael.

Sgt. Pepper's is in the heaviest of rotations around our house. Last night the wee Beatlemaniac and I were walking the dog and talking about the Beatles and she said, "I know why Paul and Ringo are the only ones left. It's because they are best friends, and best friends die hard..." and then she clutched my arm and started crying.



It is possible I've never listened to Quadrophenia in toto. I came to the Who late in life. I am into Atlas Sound, though first time around I thought there wasn't anything there. I'm not yet convinced there is. The Beatlemaniac came up to hang at work today and was excited to spy at the campus Natural History Museum...


Beetles!