Weird Nonfiction? Why Not?

You all know I love Weird Fiction, so I couldn’t help but click on this article title from the LARB. I honestly can’t tell whether or not this is a put on. And that maybe tells me this piece is actually doing the genre’s work.

More often than not, weird nonfiction is intended as either comedy or horror—sometimes both. Its natural home is the internet, where disinformation and pissant humor are architectural principles. The element of unreality in all of the titles listed above is not just a fib or a joke but also an outright structural provocation, daring the audience to follow it into an abyss. Like weird fiction, weird nonfiction is built around some unknowable terror, replacing the tentacled horrors of H. P. Lovecraft with the many-tentacled horrors of being online and alive in the 21st century. It also suggests, in the process, that there is something unfathomable at the heart of reality itself, and that it is the duty of journalism to circumnavigate this terror if never speak it aloud. I humbly submit that weird nonfiction seems particularly well suited to reporting on climate change, but have not seen it done with the vigor that subject deserves.

—“Weird Nonfiction” by Clayton Purdom

Benny Golson, 1929-2024

Benny Golson, a preeminent tenor saxophonist who was also the composer of such elegant jazz standards as “I Remember Clifford,” “Along Came Betty” and “Whisper Not,” died Sept. 21 at his home in Manhattan. He was 95.

Benny Golson, jazz saxophonist and composer of surpassing grace, dies at 95

The Art Farmer/Benny Golson Jazztet was my first real reference point for the performance and, really, the culture of jazz music outside of anyone named Davis, Coltrane, or Monk.

The first track I ever heard from their 1960 MEET THE JAZZTET album was “Killer Joe.” Golson’s narration at the beginning of the tune is just as important to me as Art Farmer’s trumpet solo.

Don’t we all know a Killer Joe as described by Benny Golson?

Ruby

I don’t own this yet, but as I liken listening to Dave Guy’s RUBY to hearing Herb Alpert playing with the Stax records house band instead of the TJB, it’ll be in my downloads when I get home.

Unless you are the type to read album credits you may never have heard his name, but you have heard him play. In fact, you have likely seen him play. Whether in person at a show or on national television he has lent his talents to a who’s who list of world famous artists both in the recording studio and on stage.

I do read album credits, I had heard his name, I have seen him play live (with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, the Menahan Street Band), on TV with The Roots, and he’s definitely popped up in my playlists randomly–like, for instance, on my favorite cover of “Valerie” by the Zoutons–and other places.

You know, why wait? I’ma buy this now.

Lost in the Translation

Today I learned that Richard Matheson didn’t like an episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE that he wrote, “The Invaders.”

“I never liked it,” Matheson said. “I don’t like it today. For one thing, I think it’s incredibly slow-moving. My script had twice as much incident as they used in the final version; it moved like a shot. The teaser alone, of the woman cutting vegetables and then hearing the noise, it seems like it takes her forever to get up to the roof.”

Sounds like his nits were more to do with how his script was translated to screen, which is not an uncommon sentiment among screenwriters, playwrights, etc. The criticisms aren’t invalid, though. Still, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. My treasure, anyway. One that I once memorialized in my dayjob office.

How “The Invaders” taught me at a young age how point of view could be leveraged (even before I had the language to really describe it) is priceless.

If It Worked for Journey…

…why couldn’t we retroactively apply it to Led Zeppelin?

Filipino children performing Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love with uncanny precision? Step right this way

Missioned Souls are a family band whose videos have gathered more than eight million views on YouTube, and their latest, a cover of Led Zeppelin’s classic Whole Lotta Love, finds Stacey (12 years old, rhythm guitar/vocals), Neisha (14, lead guitar), Naces (15, bass) and diminutive drummer Ice (10) capturing the sound and spirit of the original with youthful zest and no small amount of precision.

Look out, Bob, Arnel‘s cousins are coming for your job!

Invisible Sounds

The album Invisible Sounds: For Kenny Wheeler by Ingrid Jensen & Steve Treseler has been in my rotation lately.

I got turned on to Jensen’s trumpet playing in the early 2000s, around the same time I got turned on to Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah (or as he was known at the time, Christian Scott). Up until that point, I think it’s fair to say that just about any trumpet player in any genre I listened to on a consistent basis had been playing before Jensen or Adjuah were born. At least these days, I can say I listen to as much Maurice Brown or jaimie branch (Rest in Power) as I do Miles and Chet.

Invisible Sounds is a tribute album but I’m woefully ignorant of Kenny Wheeler’s music (or Steve Treseler’s for that matter). Jensen and her Freddie Hubbard-like playing is the draw for me here, though. So I’ll educate myself later, after I’ve worn the album out.

Personal Baggage, Reclaimed

Filson has blown my mind with how much they exceeded my expectations! It took the better part of a month, but last Wednesday I got my Filson briefcase back from the their HQ where it was patched up for free, just like their guarantee says.

This was all I was expecting: a patch-up along the bottom back edge where it started to show some wear. It was all I asked for in my repair form.

But they didn’t stop there. They went and patched up and reinforced bits I didn’t even realize needed fixing!

This was NOT the lining that came with my bag originally. I love how you can still see a chalk mark they left behind. I’m never taking that off!

And they clearly replaced some leather bits. Notice how the leather cross-pieces securing the handle in the first picture, despite having some small scratches, is so obviously not the same age as the leather cross-pieces in the second pic.

“Might as well have the best,” and this is why!