She who invented words, and yet does not speak; she who brings dreams and visions, yet does not sleep; she who swallows the storm, yet knows nothing of rain or wind. I speak for her; I am her own. ― Catherynne M. Valente‘s The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden
It’s nasty enough out that I passed on my morning ramble around the Estate, as once again there’s a stiff wind along with a freezing drizzle — not quite what I would want to walk or ski in. So I settled in for a quiet day of reading and answering correspondence (my fellow librarians and book lovers still like letters), as Ingrid, our new Steward, took my apprentices for the day for them to learn what an Estate Steward does.
First, breakfast. I always drink tea as I never developed a taste for coffee no matter how good it was. So it was lapsong soochong, a loose leaf first blush smoked black tea from Ceylon. With a splash of cream of course. And a rare surprise too — apple fritters served with thick cut twice smoked bacon, using apple wood only, and yet more apples in the form of cinnamon and nutmeg infused apple sauce. There was even mulled cider for those wanting even more apples in their breakfast fare! Thus fortified, I turned to writing the What’s New for this week…
In a trip through the archives, I started down the Yellow Brick Road and somehow ended up in the land of gargoyles and medieval architecture! Along the way I found a lot of interesting books, as you’ll see. So let’s start where I began, with the books of L. Frank Baum.
Cat did an omni review of two volumes, The Annotated Wizard of Oz, and The Annotated Alice, the two great works of English language fantasy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Of the Oz book, annotated by Michael Patrick Hearn, he says, ‘Hearn is the foremost authority on everything of importance about this novel, having spent his entire adult life studying the novel and its impact on culture. Everything you need to know about this book is here: the contemporary references, (e.g., was Baum commenting on the silver vs. gold standard); the critical interpretations; an insightful look at the author; and even an in-depth look at W. W. Denslow, the man who illustrated the first edition. There’s also a definitive bibliography of Baum’s copious published and unpublished work.’
Chuck took on the daunting task of reviewing all 13 of Baum’s sequels to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in a superb omnibus review that you should definitely read. ‘Baum also produced 13 sequels, as well as several other books taking place in Oz’s universe). I have, over the last several years, read all 14 of Baum’s Oz books to my son as bedtime stories and enjoyed every one of them. Indeed, I dare say the original, The Wizard of Oz is middle-of-the pack when it comes to my favorites.’
Faith succinctly reviewed Evan I. Schwartz’s Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story: ‘Finding Oz is a biography of L. Frank Baum, author of the Oz books. Rather than being one of those ghastly concoctions that look at their subjects’ public lives in total isolation from the private influences on them, Finding Oz painstakingly catalogues Baum’s private and public worlds from infancy on up.’
Lahri was ambivalent about The Kansas Centennial Edition of Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but not the iconic story itself. ‘For those whose only trip to the wonderful land of Oz has been by the annual Thanksgiving weekend TV showing of the 1939 Warner Studios/MGM movie, you owe it to yourself (and your kids) to read the original book that started it all. The characters are considerably more alive, and Baum’s thinly veiled metaphors about the decline of American farms and the industrialization of the country at the turn of the 20th century are as powerful reading for adults as the story’s fantasy elements are for kids.’
As I said, somehow my path then took a meander through medieval architecture and specifically gargoyles, and the occasional green man. Why don’t you come along?
Despite not being much of a reader of short fiction, Cat enjoyed Nancy Kilpatrick and Thomas Roche’s anthology In The Shadow of the Gargoyle. ‘It’s important to stress that the definition of gargoyle gets really stretched in this anthology, beyond “decorative rain-spouts guarding old churches” to include things out of nightmares, angels, things that might be hoaxes, sheela-na-gigs, and much more.’
Cat realized he should have included a couple of other gargoyle books when he reviewed the above anthology, so he did an omni review of them: Stephen King and f-stop Fitzgerald’s Nightmares in the Sky, and Janetta Rebold Benton’s Holy Terrors: Gargoyles on Medieval Buildings. Of the former, he says, ‘King’s essay very neatly complements the photographs of Fitzgerald. This is a visually magnificent book, excellent to use as a reference for understanding what a gargoyle is. … This is a book any lover of gargoyles should have in their library.’ And of the latter: ‘Janetta Rebold Benton is a professor in Art History, so her viewpoint is that of a scholar — quite knowledgeable and just the right level of passion. Her area’s Medieval Art, so gargoyles, which are quintessentially medieval in nature, are right up her mew!’
Speaking of things medieval, Cat also reviewed another anthology, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling’s The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest. ‘Amazingly, everything is better than good, and most are simply fantastic. There’s hours and hours of great reading here.’
He went on to review a delightful chapbook, Anthony Hayward’s The Green Men of Birmingham, many of which were from the 19th century. ‘Victorians were fascinated by the Gothic architecture of their ancestors, and that naturally included the green men that are found in many a Gothic church. Architects used many of the same symbols and decorations as the medieval trades did, so the foliate heads were a natural for their artist endeavors!’
Finally, Laurie gives us a review of Ronald C. Finucane’s Miracles and Pilgrims: Popular Beliefs in Medieval England, which, she says, ‘…examines the connection between faith-healing and medicine. Because the medieval period had less scientific knowledge than our own, the pilgrimage was as standard a form of medication as aspirin is in our own day and age.’
As cold temps are the rule of the day, Denise takes a look at Trader Joe’s Organic Hot Cocoa Mix. She found it a lovely way to start the day, and perhaps even enjoy the evening; “…if you’ve a mind, a splash of Kahlua and/or Bailey’s wouldn’t be amiss.” Now go see what she thinks cocoa lovers should give this one a try.
Gary liked just about everything about James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, which tells the tale of the first few years of Bob Dylan’s musical career. ‘Timothée Chalamet totally nails Dylan and does an incredible job singing the songs — as does Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez. Ed Norton is a joy as Seeger, at once sagacious and sweetly naive. Boyd Holbrook kicks ass as Johnny Cash, and the screenplay rightly spotlights the role Cash played in Dylan’s career as one of his most ardent and vocal fans and boosters.’
Gary’s been thinking a lot about Johnny Cash since he saw A Complete Unknown. From the archives, here’s his review of a DVD called The Best of The Johnny Cash TV Show, 1969-1971. ‘In addition to Cash himself singing some of his biggest hits (“I Walk The Line,” “Hey Porter,” “Daddy Sang Bass,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” and “A Boy Named Sue”), here are some of the biggest names in country, folk and rock – not just from then, but from the entire era.’
Warren Ellis is a very prolific writer and he’s done quite a number of graphic novels down the decades. So let’s take a look at some that we’ve reviewed.
Cat has a look at Global Frequency, a comic series that starts to seem frighteningly real: ‘Global Frequency is a organisation devoted to combating those incidents that are too extreme, too weird, or just too dangerous for the usual first responders to handle. Funded by the mysterious Amanda Zero, it consists of exactly one thousand and one agents, all of whom are specialists in something, say, for example, bioweapons or taking out snipers.’
Desolation Jones has, says Richard, ‘The long shadow of John Constantine lingers over the figure of Desolation Jones. But whereas Constantine is a spiky-haired Brit occult operative who abuses his odd network of friends while intimidating people into giving him answers by sheer force of personality, Jones is a spiky-haired Brit ex-spook who abuses his odd network of friends while intimidating people into giving him answers by sheer force of personality.’
And it just so happens that Robert got his hands on another of his comics, Ignition City: ‘I promised myself, when I read Warren Ellis’ Planetary, that I was going to become more familiar with his work. Well, up popped the first volume of the collected Ignition City, and it’s just as good.’ Is that serendipity, or what?
Robert has a comics series that — well, let him explain: ‘Planetary is a comics series that ran from 1999 through 2009, with gaps. Created by writer Warren Ellis and artist John Cassaday, it’s what I can only call an archaeological thriller. Planetary is an organization that investigates “incidents” that don’t seem to have ready explanations. There is a field team composed of three members. The story opens as Jakita Wagner is recruiting Elijah Snow to become the new Third Man. The other member of the team is the Drummer — as he says, “First name ‘The,’ second name ‘Drummer.’’’
In new music, Gary reviews Opening, the third full-length release from the New York ambient music trio numün. He finds the ensemble and its collaborators ‘ …continuing to expand its sonic palette with woodwinds, violin, and vocals, while remaining true to the original concept of finding the place where eastern and western sounds can mingle in lightly psychedelic, acoustic and electronic ambience.’
He also reviews the debut album from The Baltic Sisters, which he says is ” …a mesmerizing collection of polyphonic folk songs from the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. The Baltic Sisters are Marion Selgall (Estonia), Laurita Peleniūtė (Lithuania), and Vineta Romāne and Liene Skrebinska (Latvia). The album, whose title is The Gateway or The Portal in the three languages, blends the folk songs of the three countries, sometimes individually and sometimes interwoven as seamlessly as their vocals twine around each other.
Some Norwegian alternative music, Stein Urheim’s Speilstillevariasjoner, caught Gary’s fancy. ‘Field recordings and spacey, often playful electronics mingle with the traditional sound of Norwegian fiddle and Urheim’s decidedly untraditional picking and plucking of the guitars and other stringed instruments in unusual open tunings. Lest I scare you off, fans of John Fahey will find many familiar sounds and motifs in Speilstillevariasjoner with those open tunings, the creative picking patterns, and incorporation of slides on several tracks …’
From the archives, Chuck reviews a couple of obscure albums centered on the English North Sea port of Whitby, Charles O’Connor’s Angel on the Mantlepiece: The Resolution Suite, and Ray Randall’s Polly Swallow. ‘Of these two recordings, the instrumental Angel on the Mantlepiece is the better.’
David, who edited The Rylander, a newsletter and blog dedicated to the music of Ry Cooder, for many years, turned in an omnibus review of Ry’s solo albums from 1972 to 1987, plus some compilations and best-of collections. It’s definitely worth a read!
David also reviewed John Stewart’s Havana, which he noted was something like the singer’s 40th solo album. ‘John Stewart, songsmith to such diverse artists as the Monkees and Pat Boone; ex-folkie; guitar stylist; and his own man. Havana is a fine addition to his catalogue, and a great place to start for the newcomer.’
‘It began its life in 1958 as a hit London musical comedy that lampooned the new musical fad known as rock ‘n’ roll,’ says Liz of Expresso Bongo, in her review of the original stage cast album. ‘Let’s see … musical fusion, ethnic diversity, black comedy, casual sex, cocaine and a rampaging “cougar” … is it any wonder that Expresso Bongo went way over the heads of its 1958 audience?’
Tim was enthusiastic about Barn Owls Live, an album of contradance music. ‘Energetic and creative, The Barn Owl Band makes me wish for a caller, a wooden floor, and a line of dancers. Lacking those, I don’t mind just sitting and listening to this live recording.’
Our What Not is on the matter of Complaint Choirs. So you might well be asking ‘What is a complaint choir?’ No, it’s not the musicians in the Neverending Session expressing their annoyance at having to wait too long for a fresh pint of Winter Ale, so go thisaway for the charming tale of them. Yes, charming.
Hedningarna is our music this time with ‘Veli’ recorded at the Old Town School of Folk Music a quarter of a century ago. This is the more Faster Harder Louder end of the new Nordic sort of trad music with noticeable percussion. You also get to hear their lovely vocals as well!
What’s New of 16th of March: A variety of mysteries; some new Scottish music by an old band, new jazz, and splendid archival reviews; ballads in graphic novel form; and chocolate in Paris
It’s almost Spring today and we’re getting one of those rare days where the temperature is over twenty Celsius, there’s full sun and not a hint of a cooling breeze, so Ingrid, our Steward, has declared there shall be an outside feast under the stars followed by a contradance in the evening with fires going to keep everyone warm in the slate-covered Courtyard with Chasing Fireflies being the band and Gus the caller.
My staff has set up the outdoor taps — there’s a cask of Spring Peeper Ale, another cask of the Shut Up and Dance IPA and yet another of a three-year aged cider Bjorn, our Brewmaster, calls Cheddar Cider as its got a nice sharp bite like an aged cheddar. Join us if you can as it’ll be a lovely evening!
First is a Tenth Doctor Who story, ‘The Unicorn & The Wasp’ which Cat reviews: ‘One of my favourite episodes of the newer episodes of this series was a country house mystery featuring a number of murders and, to add an aspect of metanarrative to the story, writer Agatha Christie at the beginning of her career. It would riff off her disappearance for ten days which occurred just after she found her husband in bed with another woman. Her disappearance is a mystery that has never been satisfactorily answered to this day.’
An English country house murder mystery also gets reviewed by David: ‘As traditional as the genres he chose might have been, in Altman’s hand they were turned upside-down, and sideways. Warren Beatty and Julie Christie became anti-hero and opium addict in Altman’s “western” McCabe & Mrs. Miller, set to the music of Leonard Cohen! A laconic Elliott Gould became Raymond Chandler’s private dick Phillip Marlowe in an updated LA for Altman’s “detective” classic The Long Goodbye. Robert Altman has been the most American of directors, and now, in Gosford Park, he takes on the English country house murder mystery. Altman’s Agatha Christie film? What could this mean?’
Lory waxes about an unusual mystery in Farthing: ‘Jo Walton has a knack for genre fiction with a twist. In the World Fantasy Award-winning Tooth and Claw, she gave us a Victorian family saga — complete with siblings squabbling over an inheritance, the woes of the unwed daughters of the house, and the very important question of What Hat to Wear — with a cast of dragons, literally red in tooth and claw. Now in Farthing, her material is the mid-century British country house murder mystery. The story is told in alternate chapters through the eyes of Lucy Kahn, a reluctant visitor to the family estate of Farthing, and over the shoulder of Inspector Carmichael, who has been sent from Scotland Yard to investigate the death of one of the other guests.
Evidence of political backbiting, personal blackmailing, and marital mismatches piles up as usual in such scenarios, but the most startling piece of all (and the most overlooked by the central characters) is that this Britain of 1949 has been at peace with Hitler for eight years, letting him take the Continent in exchange for leaving Britain a nominal independence.’
Michael looks at James Stoddard’s The High House and The False House: “Welcome to the House that God built. Evenmere, the High House, that unending ever-changing building which crosses and contains worlds. It is, and represents, all Creation, an enigma, a parable, a mystery. Within its halls and rooms, passages and basements, attics and terraces, are the undreamt worlds, the lands of dream, places like Ooz and Innman Tor and Arkalen. The House bridges upon our own world, but is far more than a house. It just Is.”
Lory notes, ‘In the early years of the twentieth century, A. A. Milne was a well-known writer of plays as well as humorous essays and poems. The Red House Mystery, published shortly before he became world-famous as the creator of Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh, is his only detective novel. In his tongue-in-cheek introduction, written after the Pooh craze had struck, he explains that “it is obvious now that a new detective story, written in the face of this steady terrestial demand for children’s books, would be in the worst of taste.” For mystery enthusiasts, this is a pity — for Milne’s take on the genre was as breezily accomplished as any of his other pursuits.’
Robert finishes off a look at ‘Moonheart may very well be the first novel by Charles de Lint that I ever read. I can’t really say for sure — it’s been awhile. It certainly is one that I reread periodically, a fixture on my “reread often” list. It contains, in an early form, all the magic that keeps us coming back to de Lint. (And be reminded that Charles de Lint may very well be the creator of what we call “urban fantasy” — he was certainly one of the first to combine contemporary life and the stuff of myth.) It’s a novel that is centered on a Place, a location that is a portal between worlds.’
Debbie has a review of the four issue self-published The Book of Ballads and Sagas: ‘How do you add a new dimension to (and perhaps the enthusiasm of a new generation for) the wonderful world of folk ballads and sagas? One solution is to use an art form that is not usually associated with such things. In this case, I speak of the comic book, or as it is more usually known these days, the graphic novel.’
The Denmark-based jazz label Steeplechase recently signed with a publicist who provides GMR with a lot of jazz and world music. Said publicist provided a big tranche of late 2024 releases, from which I selected four albums of modern straight ahead music to review: Kirk Knuffke’s Super Blonde, Steve Johns’s Mythology, David Janeway’s Forward Motion, and Alex Norris’s Table For Three.
Word came this week that Cuban American pianist and composer Aruán Ortiz is one of two “composers of extraordinary gifts” awarded with the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. By coincidence, I had just pulled from the archives my review of his 2012 release Orbiting, and you can read it here. ‘Ortiz, a native of Santiago, the second-largest city in Cuba, is equally inspired by the diverse sounds found there and the explorations of American and European 20th century classical composers like Arnold Schoenberg and Aaron Copland, plus the late 20th century funk of James Brown, Sly Stone and the like. Mix it all together in a big, hot pot and you get this Orbiting jazz fusion.’
From the Archives, here’s a random grab bag of fine music reviews.
David liked a CD re-release of the first solo album from Texas Americana legend Doug Sahm, simply titled Doug Sahm And Band, with contributors that included Bob Dylan, Dr. John, David Bromberg and more. ‘Throughout the album the songs echo the kind of material he had done with the Sir Douglas Quintet (think “Mendocino”) and they foreshadow the work he would do with the Texas Tornados ’til his untimely passing. There’s blues, and Tex-Mex, a touch of folk and some ragged harmony singing to top it all off.’
I reviewed Laurie Lewis’s One Evening In May. ‘This live disc recorded in May 2013 at the famous Freight and Salvage venue in her hometown of Berkeley, Calif., is a good reminder why Lewis is so special as an entertainer. A big part of that is her band members, the superb Tom Rozum on mandolins and guitar and vocals, Nina Gerber on guitars, and Lewis herself on banjo, fiddle and guitar.’
Judith found the music on De Amsterdam Klezmer Band’s Limonchiki pretty zippy! ‘Looking for a spicy klezmer band? From Holland, De Amsterdam Klezmer Band might be the band for you. Assigned to Knitting Factory’s alternative sub-label, their music is at times so spiced up with Eastern European ingredients that it’s almost not klez.’
She also reviewed a couple of world music releases, Kristi Stassinopoulou’s Echotropia, and Ziroq’s Ziroq. ‘Both these discs are fun, but not quite the same. The production that makes Echotropia so effective weakens some of its ties with reality; the album is not so much centered on Stassinopoulou’s voice as it is on the atmosphere it helps create. On the other hand, though Ziroq seems thinner and lighter, the “American” music can be a little irritating.’
Mike went outdoors in January to review the Swedish folk band JP Nyströms’ Stockholm 1313 Km. ‘The tunes are great out of the gate, and I actually became nostalgic upon hearing the fourth and fifth selections, “Pojkarna pa landsvagen” and “Hambomazurka efter Blomqvistarn,” respectively. They recall ethnic music from the roadhouses of the American Midwest of the 1920s and ’30s, the kind of stuff that until relatively recently could be found only on 78 rpm records.’
No’am was pleased to be able to review Dave Evans’s The Words In Between, a beloved record from the Sixties, when it was reissued. ‘This is basic, almost unadorned contemporary folk — excellent guitar picking, slightly odd tunes with meaningful lyrics sung by a voice which is well-worn and can carry a tune, but would never find itself at the top of the hit parade. Think of the classic sixties British folk guitarists such as Bert Jansch or Davey Graham, and you have an idea of what this album sounds like. Probably because of the paucity of instrumentation, the songs don’t sound dated at all, even though hardly anybody plays in this style any more.’
Naomi was moved by the women’s vocal group Libana’s two albums A Circle Is Cast and Night Passage. ‘With Libana’s first release A Circle is Cast we are treated to music from France to Russia, from Renaissance England to pre-colonization America. It is a fascinating journey on many levels, that instilled a sense of wonder and awe in me.’
Stephen was pleased with Dick Gaughan’s Outlaws & Dreamers. ‘This is the 11th solo album from Dick Gaughan and to my mind it’s his best in years. I should perhaps qualify that statement by pointing out that there’s absolutely no such thing as a poor Dick Gaughan album. I’m just one of many who think that he sounds best “in the raw,” just voice and acoustic guitar, which in the main, is exactly what’s on offer here.’
Scott began his review of the American band Romashka’s debut self-titled album with a little background on the group. ‘In a little over a year, Romashka have built a reputation as one of the most exciting and energetic bands in New York City’s world music scene. Before converging on Brooklyn, the band’s eight members cut their musical teeth in different locations, including a number of Ivy League institutions. Lithuanian-born singer Inna Barmash co-founded the Princeton-based outfit the Klez Dispensers, wind player Jeff Perlman spent four years with the Yale Klezmer Band, and guitarist Joey Weisenberg served as musical director of the Columbia Klezmer Band.’
Lets finish off with ‘1952 Vincent Black Lightning’, a Richard Thompson penned song as covered by the all female Red Molly band. It was assumed when this song was released by them as there’s a red haired Molly in the song that they’d named the band after this song but instead it’s because there’s a red headed Molly in the band. We’ve reviewed several of their recordings including Love and Other Tragedies.