There is a modern advantage to reading that continues to pour forth as we consume more "information"-based media. Gone are the days when one would have to make a trip to the library to look up why the venerable George R.R.Martin spells his moniker of respect "Ser." Now, one can merely flip over to a search engine and with more magic than Merlin could summon, obtain a battery of answers and rabbit holes to dive into for more.
With this advantage, the once-supplemental realm of audiobooks (remember George Costanza needing the book on "Risk Management"?) is its own branch of entertainment. Actors engage in a wide variety of voices, accents, and effects to make listening to these tales spring to life. In response to this trend, many books are increasing the amount of conversation they choose to cover. George R.R. Martin is fortunately gifted in both the art of description and re-creating realistic, of-its-time dialogue.
Before he became a media sensation, Martin was a humble child in Bayonne, NJ. The son (let's call him scion to fit into his created worlds) of a wealthy construction family. Martin was born after they lost it all during the horrors of the Great Depression. The family moved to a housing project on the docks of Bayonne where everyday walking to school, young George had to walk past the upscale house they once owned. Martin needed to escape this impoverished place, so he wrote stories. He sold his "monster stories" for pennies, until a young mother cautioned the family that he was giving her child bad dreams. His first castle? The one in the tank with his pet turtles - also living in his writing.
The fact is Martin was not only a dreamer, but dreaming big. He moved from writing stories to writing stories to create an empire fairly quickly. His time as a TV writer opened a lot of doors, but production budgets were quietly closing them. Having to consistently remove plot points, characters, and hearty battles from his screenplays hampered the freedom and escape that he cherished in writing. In addition, writing on his own placed no demands on whether his creation be a comedy, tragedy, adventure or all of the above. So drawing inspiration from epic prose of J.R.R. Tolkien, Martin dove back into writing Fantasy.
Somewhere between 1996's "A Game of Thrones" and 1998's sequel "A Clash of Kings," Martin thought well-enough to separately conjure a prequel with "The Hedge Knight" taking place about 100 years before the pair that kick off "A Song of Ice and Fire." "The Hedge Knight" is rooted in traditional Fantasy as its titular hero Dunk and his bald liege Egg traverse a world most of us only dream about.
When his knight-errant Ser Arlan of Pennytree passes away, his squire Duncan wishes to follow his path to honor his legacy. Scooping up his armor and horses, Dunk sets out for Ashford where he can hopefully enter "the list" and joust with other knights. Along the way, Dunk picks up an orphan/stowaway in eight-year old Egg who is valuable as his liege and possesses a wealth of information about the other knights at the tourney.
As in all great drama, there are a number of conflicts along the way determined to stop our hero on his quest, including his lack of social graces. However, in Martin's inimitable style as he learns, we learn. Where Dunk may not be sharp, he makes up for it through being genuine. Like the battling knights in T.H. White's "The Once and Future King," chivalry is the unspoken set of rules that seems to cover them all, and expose those knights who are keen to use their standing for more power than glory.
Seen from Dunk's naive eyes, the world of a tourney is thrilling. Outposts of a variety of different colors are there to feast on as their silk, linen, and rough fabric blow in the winds of change surrounding them. Like the young knights of old Literature, Dunk is above all devoted and weirdly fearless. Martin may write his societal interweavings as blustery, stuttering mistakes where he hopes "they don't see my ears turn red." In fact, Dunk is often more resourceful and never sees an obstacle as the end of this adventure. Even when he is forced to sell his horse Sweetfoot to buy the armaments necessary to compete, he tells her that he will back and is willing to pay more once he wins.
The conditional success is nothing new to Literature in general. However, Fantasy seems more akin to court destiny as opposed to creativity and hard work. Surely as you are reading, Martin knows that you are making the connections. Billing it as "A Dunk and Egg story," you know the weirdly bald kid is bound to become Egg. However, Martin is so taken with the level of talent at this major event in Ashford (Dunk describes it as if its trappings are like creating a second Ashford right next to it,) you must get caught up in the drama.
Like Rebecca Yarros and many others today, there are large chunks of prose developed for the bouncing and carroming art of conversation. Even though his internal monologues continue to tell us, if he does not win here - he will be worse than penniless, even lower in the penury of his childhood in Flea Bottom. Martin smartly makes Dunk's first "jousting" so to speak against the more experienced knights and host of the tourney. In prose, six or more knights competing for air in this crowded talk is a lot. Anne McCaffrey used a variety of different levels of expression and emphasis words to set the party descending on Ruatha Hold apart from each other. Listening to the audiobook version of Martin, one is allowed to absorb more of the backstory of these characters. Martin is certainly not wanting to make this gathering of forces into one front or even point out their strengths and weaknesses before they battle upon the green. In short, through the written word and the spoken word, Fantasy has become the most reliable hatch for escape.
Ser Steffon looked at him scornfully, "The hedge knight has matters." He glanced about and found another likely opponent loitering nearby. "Ser Grance, well met. Come try me...it seems that Sir Duncan needs to return to the hedges."
Dunk is humiliated by this less-than chivalrous display. However, in his mind, he quickly formulates that fighting before the tourney would be unwise for another reason - showing your strengths and weaknesses. Dunk's size and strength can be seen by any knight. However, by making him seem naive and green, the young knight is not to be worried about and the element of surprise is more in his favor than anyone else in that tent. With fighting in our minds as much as the knights, Martin sets out to put everything into the glorious action of the first day of the tourney.
Then a horn sounded, and stillness turned to tumult in half a heartbeat. Ten pairs of gilded spurs drove into the flanks of ten great warhorses, a thousand voices began to scream and shout..In an instant, the riders were beyond each other, wheeling about for another pass...When the commons realized that all ten of their lances had broken, a great roar of approval went up. It was a splendid omen for the success of the tourney, and a testament to the skill of the competitors.
NEW MUSIC THIS WEEK
JOYCE MANOR - I Used To Go To This Bar [YELLOW LP/CD](Epitaph/AMPED)
Punk/Pop is one of those reliable subgenres of Rock that rides waves of common folk popularity, but always manages to stay in the slipstream of it all. Torrance, CA's Joyce Manor are among the most reliable and traditional Punk/Pop bands out there toiling away on large package tours and waiting for that ladder to success to drop from the sky. For their seventh album, they wisely establish their own template of mostly fast songs that aim their hooks squarely out of the gate. Their first Alternative chart single weirdly is a Country-ish punky Pop chimer called "All My Friends Are So Depressed." With their harmonies and smart writing, they can chug away without crunchiness. So, they save that riff attack for the Rancid-inspired bark of "I Know Where Mark Chen Lives" which bears their best anthemic chorus yet. As they wield these melodic ideas throughout the album, a theme emerges - when you follow your inspirations (Beach Boys, Jane's Addiction, Libertines, Smiths) you may wind up on their continuum with your own music.
T-BONES will premiere the new Joyce Manor album with an in-store listening party replete with giveaways and more on Thursday, January 29th at 6pm.
ALICE IN CHAINS - Alice in Chains [YELLOW 2LP](Legacy)
The difficult third album. Grunge (which let's remember they never were) and Seattle's tight grip on the music industry (which never included them) were waning. On the other hand, "Dirt" and "Jar of Flies" made Alice in Chains into radio, retail, and even critical sensations. Behind the scenes, there were massive wounds to mend. Somewhere along the way, "Alice in Chains" needed to return the band to heaviness and find a way to keep Layne Staley somewhat clean. The 12-hour workdays would take their toll. Nonetheless, members soldiered on with many songs rising from their lengthy jam sessions. Far more sludgy ("Brush Away") and hazy ("Shame in You,") "Alice in Chains" harnessed the darkness. In and out of the studio at all hours, Layne Staley recorded numerous vocal parts for the songs. So producer Toby Wright stitched them together giving him a weird inner harmony dominance when needed. The gloom of the album even brought out some Sabbath-like tendencies ("Head Creeps") and general experimentation ("Frogs.") With "Alice in Chains" sounding like a Metal album (and the label secretly wanting to encourage the band to dismiss Staley,) they would need a hit to push this one over the top. Cantrell and Mike Inez delivered the heartbroken dirge "Heaven Beside You" which vaulted into the Top 5 on both Rock and Alternative radio. With no touring, their only real performance was on MTV's "Unplugged." However, by mid-1996, Alice looked like it was ready to return to the road. Chosen by KISS to replace Stone Temple Pilots as their opener, Alice made it four shows in until Staley overdosed in Kansas City. Just like this album's punchy "Over Now," the band went on hiatus.
WOODY SHAW - Love Dance [LP](Time Traveler/Virgin)
JOE CHAMBERS - Double Exposure [LP](Time Traveler/Virgin)
From Zev Feldman's archive of missing Jazz, Time Traveler rolls out a pair of lost Seventies albums. Julliard-trained Woody Shaw left Blue Note in the Seventies to make several adventurous, Afro-centric but still traditional albums. 1975's "Love Dance" brings out a big band and rolls through modal work (pianist Joe Bonner's title track) that would get close to Avant-Garde but not crossover into Free Jazz.
Shaw covered "Obsequious" on "Love Dance" the underappreciated and amazing organist Larry Young. Young joins drummer Joe Chambers for a 1978 mostly piano and synth album. Chambers handles most of the keyboard duties with mystical/almost Soul meditations. When Young helps out on synth on "Mind Rain" you get one of Hip-Hop's most famous samples on Nas's "N.Y. State Of Mind." For its big conclusion, Chambers takes a seat behind the drum set so that he and Young can simply go off. "Double Exposure" would be Larry Young's final recording before passing away from pneumonia four months later.
