Today is a good day. It’s cold in Boston, I’m going to see Gomez at Avalon tonight and Gabriel Garcia Marquez turns 80.
I can’t remember the last time I caught a show at Avalon. It may have been Les Claypool, but that could have been at Axis. I’m pretty sure I’ve been there, but there is the distinct possibility that I was — uh — unable to recall the events of the evening the next morning. It’s been known to happen. Everyone talks about what a great place Avalon is to see a show and this should be a good one.
I’m not really excited to see Ben Kweller. I checked him at Lollapalooza back in August and thought his show was OK. Nothing he did sonically blew my mind or made me stop paying attention to the half dressed dancing hippy girls long enough to think: ‘this guy is pretty good.’ In fairness, I haven’t listened any of his albums since ShaSha so maybe he’s gone new, interesting directions. But I’m always up for a show. Especially at a pretty small venue; and especially when I get to be Iris’s +1 and check out said show for free.
Gomez I am excited to see. I got turned onto these guys a couple of years ago with their debut album, Bring It On. Since then I’ve always kept an ear out for them and checked out their subsequent releases. None of them really grabbed me like How We Operate.
HWE has been making the regular rotations through the CD book in my car — which for me is the ultimate test of an album. If I throw it in the CD book, remember it’s there, can toss it in the player regularly and not get sick of it, it’s all good. Gomez has already survived the great CD Booklet Pogrom of ‘06 and is still working the Siberian ice fields in ‘07.
On a final note, one of the greatest authors of my lifetime turns 80 today. I read Love in the Time of Cholera and was instantly enamored with the luscious mindscapes painted by Marquez. His characters were so real to me. I could hear birds and insects calling out of the forests in his Latin American settings while I was reading. Fermina Daza had to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Florentino was at both times repulsive and sympathetic. The book, if you haven’t read it, is utter genius.
About a year later I picked up 100 Years of Solitude. I didn’t think it would be possible to top Love in the Time of Cholera, but he did it with his the deft touch of an old master. That novel cemented my interest and respect for magical realism as a viable form of literature. (And the short story A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.) Colonel Aureliano Buendia is my favorite character in the novel. Even though he fights a guerilla war for freedom, he still takes the time to make fish from gold and silver — they are these intricate little ornaments that provide some depth and contrast to his character. Not to mention his father, Jose Arcadio, who died tied to a tree; or the last of the line, born with a pig tail and devoured by ants.
It really is brilliant in everyway. Happy birthday.
March 7, 2007 at 1:53 am
if you liked GGM’s books you might like this one too. weird title, but it’s a good book.