Comments on: Ours for Yours: Favorites of 2008 http://destination-out.com/?p=225 Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:25:19 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Bill http://destination-out.com/?p=225&cpage=1#comment-92821 Bill Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:34:46 +0000 http://destination-out.com/?p=225#comment-92821 "Region 2 for Seconds"- Alfred Harth/Peter Kowald Taste Tribes-(for4ears) Quartet (Moscow) 20008-AB Tetterapadequ-"And the Missing "R"" Trio Viriditas-"Live Vision Festival VI" Bill “Region 2 for Seconds”-
Alfred Harth/Peter Kowald

Taste Tribes-(for4ears)

Quartet (Moscow) 20008-AB

Tetterapadequ-”And the Missing “R”"

Trio Viriditas-”Live Vision Festival VI”

Bill

]]> By: derek http://destination-out.com/?p=225&cpage=1#comment-92796 derek Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:45:36 +0000 http://destination-out.com/?p=225#comment-92796 Feliz Ano Nuevo! Late to celebration, but I’d just like to riff on Jay’s singling of the bumper ’08 Afrobeat crop & add to it Syllart’s ongoing African Pearls series. Fabulous value & annotative detail packed on 2cd sets. Seven to date (3 dropping in '08), my fave probably being the Electric Mali collection. Here’s a Sterns url to the whole run thus far w/ copious audio samples: http://www.sternsmusic.com/discography/6893 Hope everyone’s ’09 is sublime! Feliz Ano Nuevo! Late to celebration, but I’d just like to riff on Jay’s singling of the bumper ’08 Afrobeat crop & add to it Syllart’s ongoing African Pearls series. Fabulous value & annotative detail packed on 2cd sets. Seven to date (3 dropping in ’08), my fave probably being the Electric Mali collection. Here’s a Sterns url to the whole run thus far w/ copious audio samples: http://www.sternsmusic.com/discography/6893

Hope everyone’s ’09 is sublime!

]]> By: 1minutefilmreview http://destination-out.com/?p=225&cpage=1#comment-92791 1minutefilmreview Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:50:36 +0000 http://destination-out.com/?p=225#comment-92791 Cool write-up! Cool write-up!

]]> By: Ryshpan http://destination-out.com/?p=225&cpage=1#comment-92786 Ryshpan Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:28:13 +0000 http://destination-out.com/?p=225#comment-92786 Chilly, Rudresh actually had a hat trick this year: <i>The Beautiful Enabler</i> with Mark Dresser and Gerry Hemingway, under the name Mauger. A great record. I spent so much time on old music and my music, that there's lots from 2008 I haven't heard yet, from Rudresh & Mary Halvorson to Q-Tip. I'm reserving judgment till I've heard at least those three. I must mention Aaron Parks' <i>Invisible Cinema</i> and Brian Blade's <i>Season of Changes</i>, two records that immediately captivated me this year. And the Braxton box, too. Chilly, Rudresh actually had a hat trick this year: The Beautiful Enabler with Mark Dresser and Gerry Hemingway, under the name Mauger. A great record.

I spent so much time on old music and my music, that there’s lots from 2008 I haven’t heard yet, from Rudresh & Mary Halvorson to Q-Tip. I’m reserving judgment till I’ve heard at least those three. I must mention Aaron Parks’ Invisible Cinema and Brian Blade’s Season of Changes, two records that immediately captivated me this year. And the Braxton box, too.

]]> By: j. herzog http://destination-out.com/?p=225&cpage=1#comment-92785 j. herzog Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:27:27 +0000 http://destination-out.com/?p=225#comment-92785 Here's my favorite books of the year (a bit of a cheat, since like Drew I'm still wending my way through "Nixonland"). Girl on the Fridge. Etgar Keret (Farrar Straus Giroux). Israeli writer Keret writes concise stories that are very weird and very short (most less than four pages). Though his stories deal with heavy subject matter, often inspired by his stint in the Israeli army, Keret has a light, even comic touch. His seemingly off hand surrealism sometimes suggests a more jazzy, less depressive Kafka. Odd stories that will detonate in your brain long after you've read them. The Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America. David Hajdu (Farrar Straus Giroux). Hajdu chronicles an early skirmish in the culture wars, the official attack on the supposed corrupting influence of comic books on American kids in the ’50s, showing how the perceived threat of comics was a precursor to the moralistic hysteria that would attend the youth culture ascent of rock ’n' roll a year or two later. Hajdu sketches out a vivid portrait of a hardscrabble industry filled with cranks, hacks and exploitation, but also one that produced occasional vernacular geniuses like Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman. Knockemstiff. Donald Ray Pollock (Doubleday). A profane, in-your-face collection of stories that marks the debut of a singular writer. Knockemstiff is a group of linked stories all taking place over several decades in a small southern Ohio town populated by misfits, drug fiends, petty criminals and screw-ups. For all the hyperbolically grotesque humor and violence in the stories, Pollock never forgets the basic humanity of his damaged characters. Nixonland. Rick Perlstein (Scribner). Perlstein investigates the late ’60s political crackup in America through the psyche of an iconic and central figure, and charts the resentment and anger that made Nixon's resurrection possible in 1968. Even though Perlstein's a liberal, he takes the conservative resurgence and reaction seriously enough not to condescend to it, and relates how clueless liberals were blindsided by wishful thinking and hobbled by their own tone-deaf rhetoric. A fascinating political history that illuminates the origins of the red/blue divide we still live with. 2666. Roberto Bolaño (Farrar Straus Giroux). Bolaño's last book, published posthumously, ultimately transcends literary games and genres and creates a sprawling fictional world that revolves around very disparate elements: the obsession with a reclusive German novelist, an Afro-American reporter on assignment in Mexico, and the mystery of numerous unsolved killings of women in Santa Teresa (Bolaño's fictionalized Juarez). What starts as a lightly comic academic romantic farce gains depth, darkness and tragedy as the book unfolds. The best novel I read this year. Some others: The Turnaround. George Pelecanos (Little Brown and Company). The Education of Hopey Glass. Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics). The Drop Edge of Yonder. Rudolph Wurlitzer (Two Dollar Radio). Maps and Legends. Michael Chabon (McSweeney's). Little Brother. Cory Doctorow (Tor Books). Here’s my favorite books of the year (a bit of a cheat, since like Drew I’m still wending my way through “Nixonland”).

Girl on the Fridge. Etgar Keret (Farrar Straus Giroux). Israeli writer Keret writes concise stories that are very weird and very short (most less than four pages). Though his stories deal with heavy subject matter, often inspired by his stint in the Israeli army, Keret has a light, even comic touch. His seemingly off hand surrealism sometimes suggests a more jazzy, less depressive Kafka. Odd stories that will detonate in your brain long after you’ve read them.

The Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America. David Hajdu (Farrar Straus Giroux). Hajdu chronicles an early skirmish in the culture wars, the official attack on the supposed corrupting influence of comic books on American kids in the ’50s, showing how the perceived threat of comics was a precursor to the moralistic hysteria that would attend the youth culture ascent of rock ’n’ roll a year or two later. Hajdu sketches out a vivid portrait of a hardscrabble industry filled with cranks, hacks and exploitation, but also one that produced occasional vernacular geniuses like Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman.

Knockemstiff. Donald Ray Pollock (Doubleday). A profane, in-your-face collection of stories that marks the debut of a singular writer. Knockemstiff is a group of linked stories all taking place over several decades in a small southern Ohio town populated by misfits, drug fiends, petty criminals and screw-ups. For all the hyperbolically grotesque humor and violence in the stories, Pollock never forgets the basic humanity of his damaged characters.

Nixonland. Rick Perlstein (Scribner). Perlstein investigates the late ’60s political crackup in America through the psyche of an iconic and central figure, and charts the resentment and anger that made Nixon’s resurrection possible in 1968. Even though Perlstein’s a liberal, he takes the conservative resurgence and reaction seriously enough not to condescend to it, and relates how clueless liberals were blindsided by wishful thinking and hobbled by their own tone-deaf rhetoric. A fascinating political history that illuminates the origins of the red/blue divide we still live with.

2666. Roberto Bolaño (Farrar Straus Giroux). Bolaño’s last book, published posthumously, ultimately transcends literary games and genres and creates a sprawling fictional world that revolves around very disparate elements: the obsession with a reclusive German novelist, an Afro-American reporter on assignment in Mexico, and the mystery of numerous unsolved killings of women in Santa Teresa (Bolaño’s fictionalized Juarez). What starts as a lightly comic academic romantic farce gains depth, darkness and tragedy as the book unfolds. The best novel I read this year.

Some others:

The Turnaround. George Pelecanos (Little Brown and Company).

The Education of Hopey Glass. Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics).

The Drop Edge of Yonder. Rudolph Wurlitzer (Two Dollar Radio).

Maps and Legends. Michael Chabon (McSweeney’s).

Little Brother. Cory Doctorow (Tor Books).

]]> By: Ben http://destination-out.com/?p=225&cpage=1#comment-92784 Ben Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:39:06 +0000 http://destination-out.com/?p=225#comment-92784 LeDrew, "Against the day" was just awesome, even if it's a big novel, I'm pretty sure that I'll read it again, in a few years. We have the chance to have an outstanding translator named Claro in France, his work on Pynchon prose is just staggering. Yes we read a translation, but it is a renowned one! I heard about the new novel out in august, that's a really good news, we used to wait a lot of time between two novels of him, and here is a new one! Just great! (But I'll wait to read it in french...). Brian R., I share your view, I was so sad when I heard about it in september. Do you know that DFW is unjustly neglected in France? We just have a short-story collection and an essays collection from his entire oeuvre in French (two books published by a small independant publishing house) we don't even have "Infinite Jest" translated ! That was a genius author :( LeDrew, “Against the day” was just awesome, even if it’s a big novel, I’m pretty sure that I’ll read it again, in a few years. We have the chance to have an outstanding translator named Claro in France, his work on Pynchon prose is just staggering. Yes we read a translation, but it is a renowned one!
I heard about the new novel out in august, that’s a really good news, we used to wait a lot of time between two novels of him, and here is a new one! Just great! (But I’ll wait to read it in french…).

Brian R., I share your view, I was so sad when I heard about it in september. Do you know that DFW is unjustly neglected in France? We just have a short-story collection and an essays collection from his entire oeuvre in French (two books published by a small independant publishing house) we don’t even have “Infinite Jest” translated ! That was a genius author :(

]]> By: Brian Roessler http://destination-out.com/?p=225&cpage=1#comment-92783 Brian Roessler Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:14:09 +0000 http://destination-out.com/?p=225#comment-92783 For me, for better or worse, 2008 will always be the Year of DFW's Suicide. "the most ... life-affirming writer of his generation." For me, for better or worse, 2008 will always be the Year of DFW’s Suicide. “the most … life-affirming writer of his generation.”

]]> By: Dan http://destination-out.com/?p=225&cpage=1#comment-92782 Dan Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:41:24 +0000 http://destination-out.com/?p=225#comment-92782 I have a 2008 wrap up coming soon on soundslope with an eye towards '09 as well - being published soon if all goes according to plan, which it rarely does these days. Happy new year to you both ! I have a 2008 wrap up coming soon on soundslope with an eye towards ’09 as well – being published soon if all goes according to plan, which it rarely does these days.

Happy new year to you both !

]]> By: ledrew http://destination-out.com/?p=225&cpage=1#comment-92781 ledrew Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:24:03 +0000 http://destination-out.com/?p=225#comment-92781 Darren, thanks for the great suggestion, though you've almost lost me at "massive" -- I'm currently lost in the wilds of Bolano's Savage Dectectives, and I'm not sure I'm gonna make it out... Will seek out Coover's work, though. Have always meant to get to him. Ben, what did you think of Against the Day? I didn't even bother (see re massive, above). New Pynchon coming in 09 (in English, anyway): http://booksellers.dk.com/static/pdf/penguinpress-summer09.pdf -- slow loading PDF, but see pages 28-29. Darren, thanks for the great suggestion, though you’ve almost lost me at “massive” — I’m currently lost in the wilds of Bolano’s Savage Dectectives, and I’m not sure I’m gonna make it out… Will seek out Coover’s work, though. Have always meant to get to him.

Ben, what did you think of Against the Day? I didn’t even bother (see re massive, above). New Pynchon coming in 09 (in English, anyway): http://booksellers.dk.com/static/pdf/penguinpress-summer09.pdf — slow loading PDF, but see pages 28-29.

]]> By: Darren http://destination-out.com/?p=225&cpage=1#comment-92780 Darren Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:14:59 +0000 http://destination-out.com/?p=225#comment-92780 Prof. LeDrew, please don't end your Nixon phase without having read Robert Coover's brilliant, massive, otherworldly novel, <em>The Public Burning</em>. Here's a teaser: much of the novel is narrated by Nixon, who, soon after he seduces Ethel Rosenberg, is sodomized by Uncle Sam. <em>The Public Burning</em> is like those last few pages of the Doctorow novel, when Daniel finds himself confronting history in the postmodern fairy world of Disney Land, except it's funnier, smarter, and even more ambitious. It gets my vote for the Great American Pomo Novel. Prof. LeDrew, please don’t end your Nixon phase without having read Robert Coover’s brilliant, massive, otherworldly novel, The Public Burning. Here’s a teaser: much of the novel is narrated by Nixon, who, soon after he seduces Ethel Rosenberg, is sodomized by Uncle Sam. The Public Burning is like those last few pages of the Doctorow novel, when Daniel finds himself confronting history in the postmodern fairy world of Disney Land, except it’s funnier, smarter, and even more ambitious. It gets my vote for the Great American Pomo Novel.

]]> By: Ben http://destination-out.com/?p=225&cpage=1#comment-92779 Ben Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:14:10 +0000 http://destination-out.com/?p=225#comment-92779 2008 was a year with a Thomas Pynchon novel release (I mean translated in French, here in France, I'd like to read it in English but I simply can't...) : "Against The Day" / "Contre-jour". I thought of many other things but that was the first one. 2008 was a year with a Thomas Pynchon novel release (I mean translated in French, here in France, I’d like to read it in English but I simply can’t…) : “Against The Day” / “Contre-jour”. I thought of many other things but that was the first one.

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