Distractions / Have time? Check these out
DISC
Cool is as cool does
Trey Anastasio, erstwhile guitarist/ vocalist with Phish, penned an ambitious piece in three movements a few years back, then brought it to friend and fellow musician Don Hart for some finishing touches and ornate orchestrations. The piece, “Time Turns Elastic,” was performed by Anastasio and the Northwest Sinfonia in November 2008, and the resulting disc from that performance is available now, through Rubber Jungle Records and TreyAnastasio.com. The marriage of electric guitars and orchestras can be a deeply dysfunctional one, but this composition works beautifully.
“Time Turns Elastic” ended up in a rock arrangement on the recent Phish album “Joy,” but anyone interested in modern orchestral music and/or Phish should hear this version.
CALENDAR
Cute is as cute does
This we know about January: It will be cold and you’ll have those no-more-cookies, no-more-lights post-holiday blues.
What you need is a dose of ‘awww!’
Plan for that now by buying one of the many extremely cute calendars now for sale. You have cats, you have beagles, you have babies dressed like flowers and plunked into flowerpots. But you’d find it hard to do better than “Pocket Pigs of Pennywell Farm” and “365 Days of Impossibly Cute Photos.”
The first showcases freakish stuffed-animal-look-alike pint-sized piglets in adorable poses. From Franklin kicking up his tiny pink heels in a miniature canvas lounge chair to Tetley peeking over the edge of a polka-dotted china cup, it’s charm overload. With photos by Richard Austin of the delicate porkers from Devon, England, this Workman Publishing calendar goes for $11.99.
The “365 Days” calendar (Workman, $12.99) goes far beyond pigs—gathering puppies, cute kittens, fat cats, bunnies in sweaters, doe-eyed fawn and even kissing budgies into its photo-a-day format. Put together by Meg Frost, creator of the Web site CuteOverload.com, the photos are also captioned, such as “Rule of Cuteness #28: Your head looks down, but your eyes look up.” Or, our favorite, from the photo here: “Rule of Cuteness #10: If you haven’t grown into your feet yet, it’s cute.”
BOOK
Harrowing is as harrowing does
Chilean writer Roberto Bolano knew he was dying when he wrote the epic-length “2666,” and he barely had finished it before passing, at the age of 50, in 2003. Though he was far from a household name outside of Chile, Spain and Mexico, where he spent most of his working life, the posthumous publication of this ambitious novel made him a worldwide sensation. It’s a beautiful book that’s as harrowing as it is humorous, and if its nearly 900 pages seem at first daunting by dint of sheer bulk, Bolano crafted a genuine page-turner here. A masterful final statement from a great writer. (Available now in Picador paperback edition.)
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments