Triangle (2006)by Katherine Weber

1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Triangle (2006)

by Katherine Weber

Washington Place, Greenwich Village

New York: 57/105

Manhattan: 13/34

   The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on Saturday(!) March 25th, 1911 was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city and Triangle is the second novel on 1,001 Novels: A Library of America list devoted to a fire-induced disaster (Masters of Illusion: A Novel of the Connecticut Circus Fire).  146 people died- mostly women working at the factory.   Some of them died jumping out the windows to escape the flame.  The owners of the factory escaped and were tried for manslaughter but acquitted after one of the few surviving workers gave testimony which exonerated them. 

   This novel is about the "oldest living survivor" of the fire- living in a Jewish rest home in the Village when the book takes place.  The protagonist is her grand daughter, a genetic scientist married to a musician who makes music out of scientific information.   He sounds almost exactly like the artists Matmos, though the adulation and acclaim he receives in the book is way beyond the attention Matmos has received.

   Triangle functions more as a history lesson than a succesful novel- Weber actually does put together a decent third act twist, but there isn't much in the characters or the plot besides the third act twist- just this lady and the scholar interested in her dead grandmother talking in a room about events that happened a hundred years ago.  I can see why this book is included on the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America, depiction of an important historical event and all, but it wasn't a great read and not a book I would recommend. 

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) by Stephen Crane

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Maggie: A Girls of the Streets (1893)

by Stephen Crane

The Bowery, New York

New York: 56/105

Manhattan: 12/34

     This is Stephen Crane's first mention on this blog!  He was omitted from the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die List...which... wasn't a surprise exactly, the fact that many schoolchildren for many decades read The Red Badge of Courage in Junior High presumably didn't mean much to the UK based editorship of the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die project.  Maggie is generally an early example of American Realism- if you listen to the Audiobook as I did the "Youse guys" accents will evoke mirthful memories of the Little Rascals.  Practically all the dialogue is screamed by the various characters- much of Maggie reminded me of watching a Harold Pinter play:  People with working class accents driving one another insane.

     I loved the 19th century American dialect- a decent reason to go back and look at other American books from this period in Audiobook format. I felt back for Maggie- her Mother and Brother really treat her poorly for no reason.   I wish there were more books from the 19th century in the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America.  

  After the survivor dies, 

The Adversary (2024) by Michael Crumney

 Book Review

The Adversary (2024)

by Michael Crumney

   Every year for the past decade I've spent about a week in coastal Maine.  It is an absolutely great place to vacation, because even at the very height of tourist season it feels less crowded than any Southern California city on a Monday afternoon at 3 PM.   The yearly visits have helped me realized just how much of Maine there is, and beyond that, Newfoundland and the "Atlantic Provinces," which are even more thinly populated than Maine and go on forever.  I leapt at the chance to check out this The Adversary by Michael Crumney as a library Audiobook, if only to hear the wacky Newfoundland accents- in fact, the New York Times actually published a stand-alone review for the Audiobook of this title- something they only started doing this year. 

   Set in Mockbeggar, a fictional coastal town in Newfoundland, during the early 19th century, The Adversary is mostly about the conflict between siblings, he, a profound ruffian who lords over the population by virtue of his inheritance and position as justice of the peace in the small, isolated community; and she, his older sister, who manages to marry and bury the second wealthiest trader in the community, allowing her to live her live as "the widow," dressing as a man and running her business.  It is a dark and gory business- almost shockingly so at times.  Some of the incidents left me breathless.  Crumney buffs out the cast of characters to include the brother's main supporter, the town Beedle, the brother's crew of prostitutes that he imports to the town and sundry others.  The sister has the support of the men and families of those who work for her, and the general sympathy of the townfolk, who think her brother is a royal asshole. 

   One thing that The Adversary lacks is any scenery besides the rocky Newfoundland close.  Whether by design or accident, by the end of The Adversary I was ready to leave these shores and make my way to greener pastures.

Paul Auster Died!

 Paul Auster Died!

  RIP to Paul Auster!  I thought I would compile a post with all of my reviews of his novels- I read all of them in the course of the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die list, where he was (IMO) dramatically over-represented in the first edition.  As anyone could gather from my reviews, I'm not a huge fan- I never have been, probably because I've never been one of those young, white, well-educated guys who thought he would move to NYC.  I distinctly remember being in NYC on my own (well, with friends anyway) in college and saying things like, "People who move here are idiots, you should only move to NYC AFTER you have some money or if you ALREADY have money."  Thirty years later I stand behind my college-age assessment, NYC is for suckers and it will eat you alive.

  My sense is that his status as a canonical author will basically be reduced to the New York Trilogy.  He began publishing at at time when the world wasn't particularly concerned with new or distinct voices and thus his relevance was never questioned while he was writing.  There is, however, no denying his status as the first Apostle of Hipster Brooklyn- whether that is a good or bad thing is a question best left for others, but on a recent visit earlier this year- my first where I actually stayed in Brooklyn,  I thought the Brooklyn that Auster and his ilk have wrought was a pretty fun place. 

  How many people were inspired by Auster to relocate to Brooklyn?  I think that is his ultimate legacy- as a progenitor of hipster Brooklyn.

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster remains relevant and in print- pictured above is an Art Speigelman drawn cover sequence for a recent re-print.

Published 5/2/17
The New York Trilogy (1987)
by Paul Auster

  The New York Trilogy is a collection of three "post-modern detective fiction" novellas, originally written and published separately in 1985 and 1986.  There is a limited overlap of characters, but the three novellas are not three separate stories about the same detective, a la Sherlock Holmes.  Rather they are three novellas that are thematically similar in that they blend elements of detective fiction with elements of the post-modern philosophical novel that is more often associated with French and German authors in this time period.  In any time period, ha ha.

  Although Auster was never part of my literary experience, I recognize that The New York Trilogy was and is popular, but I didn't find The New York Trilogy to be earth shattering work.  It may not even be the best book about an existentialist influenced detective to be published in 1987, because that is the same year that Douglas Adams published Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

   I'm sure these would have made a bigger impression if I'd read them closer to the original publication date, but 30 years later it just seems like one of any number of self consciously existentialist detective novels. 

Published 7/10/17
The Music of Chance (1990)
by Paul Auster

    Paul Auster is balls deep on the first edition of the 1001 Books list.  I was thinking about Auster while recently reading a book about the formation and maintenance of canons (called Canons), published around the same time as this novel.  The trend, in those days, was to oppose canons and critique the process of canon formation, often in the key of "dead, white men."  Ultimately, this critique foundered on the realities of institutional pedagogy: One has to teach something in freshman English, but it is this time period which gives us the concepts and vocabulary to accurately describe the canon forming process in the same way that I am attempting to describe it via the 1001 Books project.

  Most of the disparate essays in Canons deal with 19th century poetry, but one interesting essay on canon formation for American fiction between 1960 and 1975 makes some interesting empirical observations about what is essentially the current canon forming process.  The author's hypothesis is that the best place to start is the best seller list, and that you then overlay the best seller list with critical response- he doesn't differentiate between critical response before best seller status.

  If you want to apply this quick and dirty method to say, the current New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list, you see quick results.  Of the 15 titles on this list, nearly half are automatically disqualified because the best-selling author has no critical audience.  These are titles by: David Baldacci, Nora Roberts, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, Janet Evanovich, Dean Koontz and John Grisham.   To the extent that any of these writers are likely to sneak onto any literary canon, it will be with a single, early novel.   Almost every other author on the New York Times Hardcover Top 15 Bestseller list can be excluded with a single Google Search:  Elin Hilderbrand (writer of summer beach read novels according to her wikipedia page), Paula Hawkins (thrillers), Adriana Trigiani (YA fiction), Don Winslow (Police procedurals), Lee Child (Jack Reacher books).

  This leaves us with two possibilities:

1.  The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
2.  Beach House for Rent by Mary Alice Monroe

  Since the list is rolling, you have to imagine doing this  maybe 30-40 times over the course of a year, and then toting up points at the end, that would give you your best canonical candidates for fiction.   Looking at these two, Arundhati Roy, who ticks all the serious lit boxes AND doesn't write fiction very often, seems like the obvious choice.   If you were looking for one book to maintain literary relevance over the summer, it would be the Roy novel, and if you were going to bet on one book from this time period, it would be that one.

  Which all goes to say that the inclusion of so many Paul Auster titles on the first 1001 Books list represents another manifestation of this best seller/critical appeal overlay.  Auster sells books and he appeals to critics, this makes each of his books, even the non best-selling titles, candidates for canonical inclusion.  He, like other artists writing in the "present" benefit from the easy access to pre-canonical "best of" lists, typically organized by year.

  The Music of Chance is an interesting novel, like other of his books it blends dark action and European style philosophical musings, with a firm understanding of the role of genre in serious fiction.  His books are recognizable but slightly askew, they go down easy, but stay with you over time.

Published 10/25/17
Mr. Vertigo (1994)
by Paul Auster

  Man, Paul Auster just never stops churning out books combining existentialism, whimsy and memorable characters.  Mr. Vertigo is the first Auster joint I've seen that is set in the past- his current book 4 3 2 1 has portions that are set in the past, and this book has a narrator "looking back" from the present, but most of it takes place in the late 20's and early 30's. Walter Rawley is a motherless street urchin living in St. Louis.  He randomly meets Master Yehudi, the son of a Hungarian Rabbi, who promises Rawley that he can teach him to fly.  Yehudi and Rawley decamp to an isolated farm in Kansas, and a coming of age story ensues.

 Again, as you might expect from a Paul Auster novel, Mr. Vertigo is the least whimsical book to revolve around magic that one could possibly imagine.  Like all of his books before 4 3 2 1, Mr. Vertigo is short- under 300 pages.  It makes for a comically compressed third act, basically all of Rawley's life between the late 1930's and the present, covered in the course of 50 pages.   It practically invites the reader to skim, knowing that not much can happen in what remains of the book.

 Like other books from this portion of the 1001 Books list, Mr. Vertigo is, at best, a marginal selection. Sure, it's fun- a fun read for an afternoon sitting in an airport departure lobby, but the whole enterprise seems truncated.  I think I've made this observation before, but it often feels like Auster isn't trying particularly hard. I don't have a problem with it, but it seems like a consideration that would impact his canonical status, and the extent to which is represented within said canon.  I mean one Auster novel a decade, that makes sense to me. 

Published 1/19/18

Timbuktu (1999)
 by Paul Auster

  Timbuktu is the book Paul Auster wrote from the POV of a dog,  Mr. Bones, the faithful companion of a colorful hobo who calls himself Willy G. Christmas, despite being the child of Jewish holocaust survivors.  Like every Auster novel except 4 3 2 1, Timbuktu is read and done in a blink- under 150 pages, I believe.   Timbuktu is one of the first books I've read with a major homeless character portrayed in a complex and sympathetic way.  Christmas is no stereotypical hobo.  During the course of Timbuktu it is revealed that he was once a promising Columbia University undergraduate, a roommate, in fact, of a writer named Paul Auster.  Experimentation with drugs leads to a psychotic break and a life time of wandering, interspersed with winters spent at the home of his long-suffering mother.

   It is hard to imagine this as a canonical title- any canon- since Auster is so prolific and already well represented due to his combination of Americanness, commercial viability and critical success.   No surprise that Timbuktu was dropped from the 2008 revision of 1001 Books.

Published 4/5/18
The Book of Illusions (2002)
by Paul Auster

  This was an audiobook narrated by the author himself.  I'm surprised that doesn't happen more often. I wanted to quote this from the Wikipedia page about the book:

The Book of Illusions revisits a number of plot elements seen in Auster's first major work, The New York Trilogy.
These include:
The protagonist driving himself into isolation
Extended focus on a character's (fictional) body of work
Writers as characters
A character disappearing, only to resurface years later, having spent some of the intervening years wandering and doing odd jobs
Parallels drawn between a work of Nathaniel Hawthorne and the plot itself
Notebooks (also in Oracle Night)
A meta-referential ending that places the protagonist as the author of the book itself

     I'm sure I'd recommend this audiobook edition, read by the author himself, over the print copy.   Auster is one of the most over-represented authors in the original 1001 Books list- up there with Coetzee, like they just didn't have enough non-white men to fill up the end of the book, or they got lazy towards the end.  

Published 9/30/17
4 3 2 1 (2017)
by Paul Auster

    Is Paul Auster a great American novelist?  Sure, that is a loaded question in 2017, does such a thing even exist in 2017?  Isn't the whole idea of the great American novelist and the great American novel itself problematic in so much as it invokes the specter of white male class and privilege? Up until the publication of 4 3 2 1 in January of this year, you could argue that Auster himself agreed that there was no point in writing the great American novel- simply judging by his books, which are typically short and elliptical, consciously eschewing the kind of length and solidity that typically coincide with books judged to have a shot at fulfilling the manifest destiny of the great American novel.

    If you look at Auster's career up to this point- what have you got?  Does he have an Audience- certainly, popular and critical.  He's had best sellers, all his books get the full review treatment and he's dabbled in successful films. On the other hand, he's near 30 years into his career as a well regarded novelist and he has yet to back a first level literary prize- No Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, no National Book Award (that seems pretty amazing considering some of the books which have won in the past 30 years).   He doesn't even appear in the long odds section of the Ladbrook's 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature betting table.

   He's also got a reputation for writing literary genre fiction and a thematic obsession with the vagaries of fate and existentialism- all traits that have helped secure book sales in the English speaking world, but neither of those characteristics have endeared him to the people who hand out major literary prizes. 

  And as I was saying earlier, before the publication of 4 3 2 1 you could say that Paul Auster hasn't won a major literary award because he isn't trying to win a major award.  He just didn't give a fuck, wasn't trying, and was content with his lot as a top selling "serious" author in late 20th and early 21st century America.  After all, that's not a bad place to be for a writer of serious fiction.

   But 4 3 2 1 changes that analysis, because here he has a written a book that begs to be considered for major literary prizes, and in fact, it has made the 2017 Booker Prize short-list.  The current Ladbrook's betting chart has him second to last place at 5/1.  The inclusion of 4 3 2 1 on the shortlist was itself the biggest surprise of the 2017 shortlist announcement.   It was a surprise because 4 3 2 1 hasn't been particularly well received by critics, and at a very solid 850 pages it is not a light read. It's hard to imagine any casual readers dipping into 4 3 2 1 unless they are die hard Auster fans or they've been told that this is "the" book of the season/year, or a contender for that status.   Before the Booker Shortlist announcement, I was of the opinion that 4 3 2 1 was a ridiculously self-indulgent flop by an author who has blown his chance at long-term canonical status.

  After reading 4 3 2 1, I want to hail it as a major work- partially because I read the damn 850 pages and saying it is a great book justifies the investment of time.  I think an aspect of this book which makes it difficult to judge is the unabashedly retro bildungsroman story of a non-religious  male Jew growing up in the New York City in the mid to late 20th century.   The meta fictional device that somewhat obscures the retro feel is that Auster tells four different versions of the same life, from birth through young adulthood.  Each version is different as it relates the narrator and his personal life, but the "outside world" remains the same in each version.  For example, the student unrest at Columbia around the time of the Vietnam War, and the Vietnam War itself, and all major historical events from the time period depicted remain true to "life."

  Any cursory survey of the reviews of 4 3 2 1 make it clear that the narrator is a stand in for Auster himself.  One important plot point, the sudden death of a friend at summer camp when he was a young adolescent- occurs both in the real life of Paul Auster and in 4 3 2 1.   Auster manages to spell the overwhelming white/maleness by making his narrator gay/bisexual in some of his timelines.  But still- 4 3 2 1 bears a strong resemblance to the work of Phillip Roth and Saul Bellow.  He's moved forward a few decades in time (from Saul Bellow, at least), but the story of a hyper-literate Jewish American growing up in the New York area in the mid to late 20th century is one of the most traversed literary pathways of 20th century literature.

  4 3 2 1 is a book written to win literary prizes, so it's ultimate value is likely to be judged by it's ability to bring home said prizes.  At least a National Book Award.

The Dakota Winters (2018) by Tom Barbash

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

The Dakota Winters (2018)

by Tom Barbash

1 W 72nd St, New York, NY 10023 

New York: 55/105

Manhattan: 11/34

 I wanted to dislike this well-observed book about life in The Dakota- famous residence of John Lennon and others- set in 1979/80- right before Lennon was murdered, but I just couldn't dislike it.   Whatever the merits of basing your work of fiction on the very real John Lennon, whose murder forms the end point of the plot, The Dakota Winters is an affecting portrait of NYC in the bad 70's.    Personally, I don't hold with the good/bad dichotomy that surrounds the narrative of US city life.  In my mind, the bad is part of what you should WANT in city living.  If you don't want the BAD go live in the suburbs where that stuff doesn't exist.  If you do live in a city with some negative energy, learn to embrace it, or at least come to terms with it, and shut the fuck up about it already.

   Not that Anton Winters, the narrator sees a huge amount of the bad beyond what is filtered through the screen of his father, Buddy Winters, a Charlie Rose-esque figure who recently had a mental breakdown on the live tv and walked off his highly succesful late night network talk show.  Son Anton was in Gabon at the time, in the Peace Corp and has returned home after fighting off a bad case of malaria in Africa.  Now Anton is back, and by back I mean he is living in his parent's place at famed building The Dakota.  His neighbors include, among others, John Lennon- Barbash/Anton pay lipservice to the others- Leonard Bernstein is mentioned at least a half dozen times but never shows up, but Lennon is front of center.  I would say I was surprised that there wasn't more controversy back in 2018, but I suppose his estate must have simply signed off on the portrayal.  The Lennon character refers to bad behavior in public in the past tense, but you never see him hitting women or doing drugs beyond marijuana in this book.

  The plot is a bildungsroman with influences of Stefan Zweig, Whit Stillman and Wes Anderson- though it is probably more accurate to say that Barbash and Anderson read the same books growing up.  Basically, it is the world of a privileged, eccentric extremely nuclear (no grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins)  Upper West Side showbusiness family over this period of time.   Barbash does a great job, and especially if you are a John Lennon fan and a Wes Anderson fan- The Dakota Winters will hit a sweet spot.

  It makes for a good listen because it's basically just Anton Winter talking for the entire book or having conversations with other people- no challenging literary technique at work here, and it isn't too long- under ten hours. 

  While I was a considering this post, I also had the insight that the book review rating system that Lithub uses:  "Rave"/"Mixed"/"Pan" is really accurate- there only are those three categories since book reviewers rarely if ever assign numbers to their reviews a la music and film critics.  The vast majority of reviews- maybe 80 percent? Are in the mixed/respectful category where you might get a heavier description of the plot/characters but the less in the way or endorsement, or a cautious endorsement at the end.  Raves usually lead with the Rave and will indulge in hyperbole.  Raves also discuss the author and issues outside of the book itself far more frequently as a way to give context to the rave.   Pans are the rarest- considering the number of authors who review books it is easy to see why only the bravest/stupidest people out and out pan a new release of literary fiction- karma is a bitch.

Rainey Royal (2014) by Dylan Landis

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Rainey Royal (2014)

by Dylan Landis

Greenwich Village, New York

New York:  54/105

Manhattan: 10/34

  Rainey Royal by Dylan Landis belongs to a well established category in 1,001 Novels: A Library of Ameria, a bildungsroman written from the POV of a quirky teenage girl grappling with difficult family circumstances.  The characteristics of the protagonist. difficult family circumstances and geographic location change, but not much else.  As an example of things that don't change from book-to-book: Use of a first-person narrator with framing from an unnamed third person narrator, a narrative arc that starts just before puberty and ends after puberty, parents who "work" in a wholly unconvincing way and who say things real parents never tell their children. 

 

  Here, we are dealing with the white daughter of a single dad who is a jazz musician in Greenwich Village in the 1970's.  The most unusual aspect of this novel is that Landis uses a format of linked short stories rather than conventional straight chronological narration.  Not that I noticed, I thought she was just skipping forward in time.   Rainey and her family weren't particularly interesting, they reminded me of lots of troubled/artistic families I knew in the Bay Area growing up in the 1980's and 1990's.   Nor, for that matter, is the author's depiction of Greenwich Village in the 1970's.   There just wasn't much for me love about this book.

Event Preview: Mvtant Releases New Track from Forthcoming LP Electric Body Horror

 Event Preview:

Mvtant Releases New Track From Forthcoming LP 

Electric Body Horror

"Kanashibari"

   Mario was working with Joseph Mvtant before I was back in the picture with Dream Recordings, but I heartily approve of the man and his music- he tours as a one piece, he tours A LOT and he's got a positive attitude about posting on social media.  His streaming numbers have been the issue.  We released his compilation record back in April of 2021 and his Spotify monthly number was under 2000.   Already at this point, we knew he was touring, that he had toured, that people liked the live show etc.  So we were surprised and alarmed when, after that release, his streaming number didn't move. 

   At the time, we chalked it up to the ongoing COVID issues surrounding touring, the idea being that he couldn't really go out and play shows like he wanted to, and was capable of doing.  So, my specific reaction to that situation- this is like- 2022 or so, was to suggest that we do a tape only covers album that would allow us to put another LP worth of material onto Spotify and associate him with the acts that he covers- that being one of algorithmical principles of streaming: Like attracts like.   So I had that idea in 2022 and then the tape was released in July of 2023.  I think that was the right move because it got him above 2000 monthly listeners and then eventually to 3000 monthly listeners before we released the first single from this LP, his first, original songs LP that isn't a compilation. 

   We released the first single two weeks ago, which was a bit of a rush job from the label perspective but was a function of the artist looking at it from his own perspective (understandably)- that he wanted merch for his upcoming tour, that everything was taking too long (common complaint with artists and the vinyl production process no matter how much you may caution them about potential production issues.)  But, my conversations with Mario have been, "Well, do what you want and what he wants."  An artist who has less than 5000 monthly listeners, it's more a goal to simply credibly release the record- the vinyl record, the distribution to DSP's and some level of marketing- these days you don't really need "PR" at the lower levels of the industry because social media can get you to the same place (i.e. not very far).

  If you release a record for an Artist with 5000 monthly listeners and you end up multiplying the number ten fold, say, to 50,000, that's going to be more a function of those 5000 listeners actually LIKING the songs and LISTENING to them more than once.  Spotify is the ultimate truthteller in that regard, because if you have some amount of fans- a measurable amount, and you tour, and you put out your record in a physical format, and at the end of the year or whatever cycle you have, the number hasn't increased... that means that the people who ALREADY listen to your music don't like your songs very much.  It means they haven't been listening to your music month after month, or obsessively within the same month, and they haven't been telling their friends about you, or playing your music for your friends. 

   However, if you put out an actual record, you have an additional data point, which is whether the actual record sells or not.  There are plenty of artists out there who haven negligible Spotify streaming numbers but are capable of selling hundreds if not thousands of vinyl records.  Similarly, there are plenty of (mostly older) artists who can sell dozens, hundred and thousands of concert tickets without the commensurate streaming numbers, and vice versa to all those metrics.  The point being that you have to do all these things to be able to measure the results, and if you don't have multiple points of measurement, success on a single data point can be deceptive or false. 

  Specifically, streaming numbers are easily increased via manipulation.  Paying for the use of a "streaming farm" or a service that contracts with a streaming farm is easy enough and although I haven't looked into it, I'd bet it is pretty affordable- i.e. I'm sure you could obtain measurable results with under 500 dollars a month.  My sense is that is a route 100% embraced by artists as a means to essentially trick the different parts of the music industry: labels, booking agents, managers, or it's something that artists and managers work on together.  My sense is that the labels don't do this directly but that perhaps they don't put a stop to it if the artist is doing it on their own account. 

  Generally speaking, you can presume that monthly streaming numbers under a hundred thousand are legit, beyond that, there is reason to interrogate any artist that shows a monthly streaming figure above five million listeners a month.  At that point, it likely pays to spend the money in terms of how it increases your ability to book bigger venues etc.  It also increases the likelihood of exposure, such as when one of these sort of artists books an arena tour and it flops.  That happens all the time, particularly in hip hop.   My sense is that the practice is endemic in the world of hip hop, that it happens often in the world of non-US genres- K-Pop, Afrobeat, etc and that it is less prevalent in the world of rock, indie, folk etc, because those folks aren't familiar with the underlying scamming strategies.   Any Top 200 Billboard artist is potentially suspect.

   The thing I have learned about Mvtant over the past few years is that he does sell records- -plenty of them- no worries there.  I've learned that he tours like a literally demon- that box is very much checked.  I know that his Spotify streaming numbers are of concern to his booking agent, and his low number limits his fee when he tours, and therefore it is in everyone's interest to move that number up.  And I know that in the last week he has finally moved above 4000- 4379 as of today, but it represents upward movement after the release of a single from a forthcoming record.   From my perspective, that of the label, the data looks promising.  I'm sure there will be poachers soon enough, which is how you know you've succeeded it at my level of the business:  When the poachers show up to take your artists. 

  

Kairos (2023) by Jenny Erpenbeck

German author Jenny Erpenbeck

Book Review

Kairos (2023)

by Jenny Erpenbeck

  German author Jenny Erpenbeck is one of those non-English language authors who seemingly emerges into the Anglo literary sphere overnight, only for readers to learn that she's been doing it for years and is, in fact, a contender for the Nobel Prize.  It all came as news to me!  First, Kairos showed up on my radar when it was nominated for the Booker International Prize.  I checked out the Ebook from the library, looked at the summary, "Much younger woman and much older man have affair during the collapse of East Germany", and let the check out lapse.  Then, Kairos got nominated for the Booker International shortlist and I sighed and checked the still-available Ebook out from the library and read the book.

   I think I've said before- and recently, that the "Much younger woman, much older man" literary plot is one of my least favorite- just behind "Wealthy and well educated urban American couple gets divorced", and "well educated American man or woman has a crisis involving their values."  Who are these older men obsessed with banging women just out of their teens- or in this case- a 19 year old?  I'm convinced that is men who didn't actually have sex with 19 year olds WHEN THEY WERE THAT AGE, and then spend the rest of their lives trying to make up for it.  It's sad, really, male desire.   At least, these days, the book is more likely to be written by a woman than a man.

    Kairos does gets points for depicting the East Germany landscape of the pre-collapse era- I love me some 80's Communist country milieu, but I didn't share the love that reviewers have felt for the story.  I'm going to feel dumb about this review in ten years when Erpenbeck wins the Nobel.

The House of Mirth (1905) by Edith Wharton

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

The House of Mirth (1905) 

by Edith Wharton

New York City, New York

New York: 53/105

Manhattan: 9/34

   I'm really cruising through Manhattan on the strength of all the books I've already read- mostly for the 1,001 Novels to Read Before You Die project.  The House of Mirth is another one of those cross-over titles.  I'm not a huge fan of Edith Wharton although it is hard to ignore her status as a fore-runner of our modern, celebrity obsessed culture.  Here is the post I wrote almost ten years ago, back in 2013:

Of course Gillian Anderson has played Lily Bart in a movie version of Edith Wharton's 1905 novel, The House of Mirth

Published 11/12/13

The House of Mirth (1905)
by Edith Wharton

  I read this whole novel under the mistaken impression that the Author was Evelyn Waugh.  So.... yeah.  Evelyn Waugh is a dude, of course.  Pretty funny that. Although the modernity of milieu (upper class New Yorkers around the turn of the century) is fresh, the story is a familiar one, the decline and fall of a young woman with taste and no money, raised to marry, and who fails to marry.

  Hard to imagine that Henry James was in his proto-stream of consciousness mode at exactly the same time Wharton was turning out work that could have been published 80 years before without even changing the names of the characters.  Frankly, I preferred The House of Mirth to James' dense and near unreadable The Ambassadors.  They both document the same people, more or less, but The House of Mirth is a lark and The Ambassadors is a slog, and The Golden Bowl is damn near unreadable.  All three books were released within a couple years of one another but the difference between Wharton and James is like the difference between a horse drawn carriage and a car.   Some surface similarities, but the car has an engine, and the carriage has a horse.

  I rather liked Lily Bart, the Becky Sharp (Vanity Fair) of the book.  To read the novel through history is to become intimate with a succession of fascinating, beautiful women who are obsessed with marriage.  It's quite the cultural quirk when you stop to think of the specificity and limited life experience of the main characters of all marriage centered novels written until well into the 20th century.

 It certainly shows you who the fuck the Audience was for all these novels- the exact same women.  These women actually appear in the pages of The House of Mirth, a kind of precursor of the celebrity culture of the 20th century.  During her decent into obscurity in the last third of the text, Lily Bart runs into "fans" who read about her set in the society pages of the newspapers.   Bart's decline mirrors the later day rise and fall of "celebutantes" today and "it girls" of yesterday.  Lily Bart is maybe the first character in a Novel of this nature who comes off as a modern girl.

 Certainly her tragic death (at the hands of morphine she took in drop form to sleep) is very contemporary.  I can't remember a similar drug od ending any other marriage plot type novel.

Event Preview: Trit95 Announces Self-Titled Debut LP on Dream Recordings

                       Trit 95 Vinyl LP pre-order link

Event Preview:  Trit95 Announces Self-Titled Debut LP on Dream Recordings

   Very excited that this Vinyl record is being released on Dream Recordings.   This blog began as a "local music blog" back when those were themselves a rarity, music blogging either being non-locally oriented or located in New York.  One of the thing I learned during that period is that people who participate in a local music scene are very interested in reading about themselves but rarely interested in reading anything other than that.  Who could blame them?  When I stopped writing about local music, I lost most if not all of that audience.  One thing readers have proven NOT to be interested in over the years is blog posts about bands on my own label.  I've spent plenty of time going back and editing this blog- basically deleting the original posts and grouping them together thematically, and I know that the posts that generated the least interest over times were those that dealt with my own personal record label and those bands.  People don't come to this blog to read about those things.

   This record is a compilation of all the tracks Trit95 has self-released, mixed and mastered for the first time, and produced as a vinyl record.  It's been a great experience, and it has reinforced some observations I've made over the years about working with artists, specifically, that it is much easier to work with an artistic person if you can speak to them face to face.  That really goes for everything- trying to do things over phone, or text or email is 100% more difficult than a face to face meeting, so the fact that Tristan lives in San Diego and could actually see Mario and talk to him (Mario Orduno), was great. 

  I've loved his patient/nonchalant attitude about the process- a common experience for me over the years is that you are putting out a record by an artist with little or no prior experience in the business of music and no representation at any level.  As a result, they are often anxious- of course, because it's important to them and want to rush the process.  I often advise people who are seeking to hire me as a lawyer that the one thing I can not abide from a client is impatience, because it simply does not allow me to do my job properly.  I can't say the same thing to artists- that is what Mario is for- because I would not be good at handling those sort of relationships- but the feeling of waiting for an inexperienced artist to finish up a record and then moving IMMEDIATELY to the "when is it coming out?" stage is common and frustrating- not only for me, I'm sure but for other labels as well.

  I have high hopes for this record, even though it's a compilation of previously material. I think... the way we've handled it and Trit95's lack of prior vinyl releases is enough to make it legit.  I'm concerned that he's going to get poached from us before we get to put out our agreed upon LP of original material, but that is very much part of the business.