Category: Something Wonderful

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Something Wonderful

What If You Could Travel in the TARDIS…?

If you’re familiar with the long-running British sci-fi series Dr. Who, you know that the Doctor’s TARDIS can take you to any time and place. Maybe you have dreamed of being the Doctor or having the Doctor show up and invite you on an adventure.

Have you ever thought of books as your TARDIS?

I know my suggestion is somewhat of a letdown. You want to have actual adventures with other people in distant times and far-flung corners of the galaxy, but I’m telling you to substitute that desire with books.

Of course, even rabid readers like me know there is a difference between reading about something and experiencing it. But if you can’t hop in a TARDIS, books are some of the best substitutes around.

Want an example? Read Carlsbad, Caves, and a Camera by Robert Nymeyer. Nymeyer was an amateur speleologist who, after working for famous cave photographer Ray V. Davis, explored and took photos of several wild caves in the Carlsbad, New Mexico, area, primarily during the 1930s. In his book, Nymeyer takes you on adventures that you will never otherwise have, even if you are a caver.

And if you’re not a caver, Nymeyer will enchant you into wishing you were one:

Faintly, far ahead, I caught the gleam of white stalagmites. And it was at that moment that something sneaked up from behind and bit me, something unseen and insidious, but potent, nonetheless. The bite was painless, and I wouldn’t realize its import until hours, or days, or maybe even weeks, later. It was the cave bug. And it injected me with a cave-hunting virus that I was never to shake off. Through the rest of my years the lure of these dark, mysterious realms beneath the earth would remain with me, the thrill of anticipation of what might lie ahead around the next bend of the corridor, the utter quiet and peace and solitude, the unearthly beauties they held. To me there is more to crawling into caves than “just because they’re there”; to me it is the promise of what they hold that lures me, the mystery of what might be found, the glistening wetness in the cool, quiet chambers, the fantastic charm of their decorations in millions of forms and types, the ever-present element of danger that might be encountered anywhere in the darkness. To me, there is no greater adventure.

Nymeyer definitely had adventures, getting lost in one cave, going deep into another and discovering he didn’t have the strength to climb back up, getting hit by falling rocks in yet another. Sometimes the effort wasn’t worth it, because a promising-looking cave would end up being small and with no formations of interest. But he and his friends went caving again and again, because there were moments that made all the danger and disappointment worth it.

A great shape loomed up before us, but even when our lights dimly outlined it we still could not believe what we saw. Something that huge simply could not have been built up by dripping water. We felt that we had certainly found the world’s largest stalagmite. …

Fluted section upon fluted section its massive brown shape reared up into the darkness. Twenty or more feet in diameter at the base, it swelled progressively for another twenty feet, then tapered gradually to a rounded point just connected with the ceiling. With the aid of a rangefinder on one of our cameras, we measured the distance from the base to a spot on the ceiling … Eighty feet! No wonder we could hardly believe our eyes! … Draped around its base were great folds of onyx, deep enough for a man to step completely within. A light behind a fold revealed beautiful transparent shades of rich browns and deep reds.

Through his book, Nymeyer documented many caves in his area that no one else had recorded. Sometimes vandalism meant that no one will ever again see what Nymeyer was lucky enough to capture on film. In fact, the end of one chapter on a particularly beautiful cave nearly brought me to tears. After graduating from college, Nymeyer talked with a friend about the possibility of a trip to the cave. His friend discouraged him and then broke the bad news.

“I kinda hate to tell you this. You know that guy that polishes and sells cave formations?”

“The one who offered me twenty-five dollars to take him…?”

“Yeah.” Tommie’s voice mirrored his disgust. “Well, someone sold out to him for five dollars and took him to the cave. And, Sam [Robert’s nickname], he wrecked it. There’s hardly a formation hanging or standing. He just stripped it clean. Anything that could be sledge hammered down is gone. …”

We will never see the wonders that Nymeyer and his friends beheld at that cave, except through Nymeyer’s eyes.

You can visit many of the caves Nymeyer mentions in the book. First and foremost, Carlsbad Caverns is well worth a visit if you are able to make it to that corner of New Mexico. Also, the park offers guided tours of “New” Cave, now called Slaughter Canyon Cave, as well as back country permits that will allow experienced cavers to explore some of the other wild caves on park property. Other caves are accessible if you can find an area guide.

But whether or not you can travel to New Mexico to visit a cave, only Nymeyer’s book can take you to the wild caves around Carlsbad, New Mexico, in the 1930s. Hop in his TARDIS and prepare for an adventure like no other.

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Something Wonderful

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) Is Completely Silly

Love Shakespeare? Not afraid of a little (okay, a lot) of irreverence? If you haven’t seen the extremely silly Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, it’s time.

Written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield, the show has its origins in comedic Renaissance festival performances inspired Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet.

By the late 1980s, the team had put together a 90-minute performance with references to all of Shakespeare’s plays. The company released a DVD of the show, performed by Long, Reed Martin, and Austin Tichenor, in 2001.

This delightfully ridiculous take on Shakespeare (think the Marx Brothers meet Monty Python) is not for everyone. In my favorite one-star review of the DVD, the reviewer complains, “…this is completely sophomoric humor. I believe the appeal to double entendre and sexual innuendo with such frequency is a lack of creativity.” The appeal to sexual innuendo shows a lack of creativity? Dear reviewer, have you watched Shakespeare?

Perhaps the reviewer was trying to be humorous.

In order to cram all of Shakespeare’s plays into 90 minutes, the writers smashed several plays together and reduced others to single scenes or bare mentions. The histories become a football game, and the comedies are combined into one semi-coherent mess. But it’s a fun mess.

I almost didn’t recommend this performance simply because it may be difficult to find a version to view. It is not currently available for (legal) streaming. The DVD seems to be out of print, but you can still find reasonably priced copies online, and you can rent it through Netflix. It may also be available at your local library.

There’s one other way to see it: live. The Reduced Shakespeare Company has a few 2020 tour performances listed for this particular show, including a late January show in New York as well as shows in California and Virginia. You may also be able to find a performance by another theater company. When I searched for “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged 2020,” I found upcoming performances by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (Maryland), by the M&M Performing Arts Company (New York), and at the Center for the Arts at Kayenta (Utah).

If you love silliness and Shakespeare, seek this show out!

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This 19th Century Children’s Opera Is Still Tasty

In 1893, Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel premiered. It’s been one of the most popular children’s operas ever since, frequently performed in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

The story is, of course, based on the fairy tale of the same name. Part of the opera’s popularity simply comes from the fact that it is a retelling of well-loved story, but there’s more to it than that.

The music

This is Humperdinck at his best (to be honest, it’s pretty much the only music by him that gets performed). The opera is musically enjoyable from start to finish. If you recognize only one song from Hansel and Gretel, it’s probably this:

The characters

Humperdinck’s characters are more well-rounded than those in the original fairy tale. Hansel and Gretel are siblings who love each other but spend a lot of time fighting.

The stepmother is, in this version, just a stressed-out mother who loves her children but, out of patience with them, sends them off to pick strawberries in the woods, where they get lost. I find this much more believable than the wicked stepmother stereotype!

The best character of all is the witch, who is sometimes played by a man and sometimes by a woman, but at her witchy best always has at least some playfulness mixed into her wickedness. (If you want to compare these two witches but don’t want to watch all of Janet Lee’s video, start watching hers around 14:00 and go to about 14:50.)

The interpretations

Classics are reinterpreted all the time — in books, in movies, on stage. While not every interpretation is successful, new approaches to these classics can keep them fresh and restore their magic to jaded audiences. For instance, in “classic” productions of the opera, Hansel and Gretel settle down to sleep in the woods and dream of fourteen angels guarding them during their sleep. In this version by the Metropolitan Opera, the hungry children have a food-related dream.

Yes, but really… opera?

Opera audiences are aging. Are children’s operas even relevant anymore?

Just listen to these young opera-goers review Hansel and Gretel. 

Now seek out a performance. American performances are often (though not always) in English and last roughly an hour and a half, depending on the production. If you can’t catch a live performance in 2020, you can find legally uploaded productions online, such as this Colorado State University performance.

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Ethiopian Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi? Yes!

I watch a lot of sci-fi. Not surprisingly, most of the movies and TV shows I consume are either American or British productions. So when I hear about movies from other parts of the world, I make sure to add them to my “to watch” list. Recently I’ve viewed The Wandering Earth, a 2019 Chinese film, and Crumbs, an Ethiopian movie released in 2015. The Wandering Earth left me cold, but I enjoyed every minute of Crumbs‘ quirky, low-budget weirdness.

Written and directed by Spanish filmmaker Miguel Llansó, Crumbs takes place sometime after a war that has decimated Earth’s population. In the introduction Llansó tells us, “The news of the sporadic birth of a child, probably conceived out of neglect, was received with condescending smiles the same as in those who mock ignorant people who with pride show off their out of style garments.”

In this world, Candy and Birdy* live together in a bowling alley that is overshadowed by an enormous dead spaceship. They collect and revere pop culture artifacts, even worshiping at an altar with a photo of Michael Jordan.  Early in the film Birdy gives Candy a plastic toy sword, still strapped to its cardboard packaging. “This sword was manufactured by Carrefour,” she tells him, “the last total artist. It will protect you during your trip.”

When one of the bowling machines starts working again on its own, Birdy wonders if they are receiving some sort of message from the spaceship. Candy checks the bowling machine and decides to consult with a witch. The rest of the story involves Candy’s journey and Birdy’s experiences in the bowling alley. The trailer makes it look like horror, but the film isn’t particularly scary.

As far as science fiction goes, Crumbs is definitely bizarre. It has far less in common with action-packed movies like Gravity than it does with 2001. If you’re looking for an adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat, look elsewhere. This is a quiet, oddly beautiful fairy tale, complete with a Santa Claus who pops up in an unexpected place.

The film is in Amharic with occasional errors in the subtitles (for instance, “desert” becomes “dessert”). But those small glitches don’t detract from this quirky story. If you’re ready for a different sci-fi experience, you can find Crumbs on streaming services such as Amazon and YouTube.

*If you look at the film’s credits, Birdy is referred to as Sayat. Perhaps Birdy is the English equivalent of that name?

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Know This Name and Impress Jazz Lovers: Terri Lyne Carrington

Terri Lyne Carrington by Sonicportraits at English Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)]

Just as it can be difficult for people to name five or more women artists, it’s far from easy to name female jazz musicians who are not vocalists.

Here’s one name you need to know: Terri Lyne Carrington, one of the best jazz drummers alive today.

Born in 1965, Carrington was a child prodigy. She established a solid reputation by her mid-20s, playing as the drummer for the Arsenio Hall Show. I first heard her name around this time. I was listening to a show on female jazz instrumentalists and remember hearing Carrington mentioned alongside women such as Mary Lou Williams and Dorothy Donegan. Over the years she performed with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, and other big names in the jazz world.

Carrington was not yet 25 when she released her first album, Real Life Story, which was nominated for a Grammy in the category Best Jazz Fusion Performance. But it is only in the past decade that she has really made her mark in recorded music. In 2011 her album The Mosaic Project, performed entirely by women, won Best Jazz Vocal Album. In 2013 she became the first woman to win Best Jazz Instrumental Album with Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue, her reinterpretation of a 1963 album by Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach. She also won Best Jazz Vocal Album for an album she produced, Beautiful Life by Dianne Reeves.

While much of the material on these albums was written by others, she has included her own songs as well. In November she released a new double-album, Waiting Game, which includes several original songs. Waiting Game also builds on the theme of social justice, which has been present to a lesser extent in her other albums. She writes boldly, unafraid to take a provocative stand. But, as Downbeat points out with a quotation from her press release, Carrington is writing to make a difference. “At some point you have to figure out your purpose in life,” she writes. “There are a lot of drummers deemed ‘great.’ For me, that’s not as important as the legacy you leave behind.”

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Read Blue Highways and Fall in Love With People Again

When I was a senior in high school, I came up with an oddly specific career goal. I wanted to travel dusty back roads in New Mexico, searching for people with interesting stories. I’d interview those people and turn their stories into museum exhibits.

I have yet to do exactly that, although I came close enough to satisfy me when I profiled alumni for various magazines at the University of St. Thomas.

Part of the inspiration behind my dream was the book Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon. The book was one of many I plucked off my parents’ bookshelves during my adolescence. It soon became one of my favorite works of nonfiction. While part of what moved me was the author’s description of places, his encounters with strangers meant the most to me.

Ever wanted to run away from it all?

As he notes in his 1999 Afterward, Least Heat-Moon had thought about traveling across the United States without using a federal highway a few years before his trip. The dream was delayed by obligations, but in 1978 a series of circumstances — he was separated from his wife and had lost his job — gave him the final push to pursue his project.

Although Least Heat-Moon was traveling both to pursue a dream and reboot his life, his story speaks to anyone with the urge to explore new places. Even if we can’t leave everything behind for a few months, we can at least ride along with the author.

Least Heat-Moon takes us to the hidden corners of the U.S.

By traveling the “blue highways” — the rambling routes that many drivers abandoned after federal freeways were created to move people quickly from place to place — he largely avoided the big cities, visiting small towns instead. Sometimes he stopped at a town because it was along his route. Other times he went out of his way to visit a town simply because he liked the name.

Dime Box, Texas, is not the funniest town name in America. Traditionally, that honor belongs to Intercourse, Pennsylvania. I prefer Scratch Ankle, Alabama, Gnawbone, Indiana, or even Humptulips, Washington. Nevertheless, Dime Box, as a name, caught my ear, so that’s where I headed the next morning out of College Station.

Much of Blue Highways is about place. Least Heat-Moon writes beautifully about the towns and landscapes he travels through. Some of it he loves, some of it he hates, but it all makes for good reading.

Wartburg, on the edge of the dark Cumberlands, dripped in a cold mist blowing down off the knobs. Cafes closed, I had no choice but to go back into the wet mountain gloom. Under massive walls of black shale hanging above the road like threats, the highway turned ugly past Frozen Head State Park; at each trash dumpster pullout, soggy sofas or chairs lay encircled by dismal, acrid smoke from smoldering junk. Golden Styrofoam from Big Mac containers blew about as if Zeus had just raped Danae. Shoot the Hamburglar on sight.

But it’s the people who really make the book

While the author says more about what he sees and thinks than who he talks to, his conversations with people from across the U.S. are the true heart of the book. I don’t think that’s just true for me as a reader. When Least Heat-Moon includes photos, they are always photos of people he talked to, not photos of landscapes he traveled through. That hints that the people were the heart of the journey in his eyes, too.

Least Heat-Moon is a realist; not everyone he talks to is a likable person, and he doesn’t pretend they are. Nevertheless, many of the people are so enjoyable to “hear” through his words that they will make you want to sit down and start up with a conversation with a complete strange. I say this as an introvert who usually needs a writing project to get me to talk to strangers, as much as I enjoy listening to them.

The people Least Heat-Moon converses with give him advice. (He meets a metallurgical engineer who tells him, “I notice that you use work and job interchangeably. Oughten to do that. A job’s what you force yourself to pay attention to for money. With work, you don’t have to force yourself.”) They teach him things, telling him about hang-gliding or, most memorably, taking him out on a fishing trawler. They tell him stories. (In Hachita, New Mexico, one man talks about being near Alamogordo when an atomic bomb was tested.)

For me, the best parts of the book are the times when Least Heat-Moon connects with people who are very different from himself — something many of us hope for in a time when we feel hopelessly divided. One of my favorite encounters is between the author and Arthur O. Bakke, a hitchhiking Seventh-Day Adventist who dedicated his life to telling other people about Jesus following a frightening car accident. His earnestness scares many people off, including, at first, the author, though he offers Bakke a ride and eventually engages him in conversation about his calling. On their second day together, Bakke and Least Heat-Moon have an exchange consisting largely of quotations from the Bible on Bakke’s side and from Walt Whitman on the author’s side. Neither changes his point of view, but the discussion is friendly. Least Heat-Moon writes:

He [Bakke] lived clean: mind, body, way of life. Hegel believed that freedom is knowledge of one’s necessity, and Arthur O. Bakke … was a free man hindered only by his love and conviction. And that was just as he wanted it. I don’t know whether he had been chosen to beat the highways and hedges, but clearly he had chosen to. Despite doctrinal differences, he reminded me of a Trappist monk or a Hopi shaman. I liked Arthur. I liked him very much.

Least Heat-Moon’s journey may have occurred more than 40 years ago, but it’s exactly the sort of thing we need to be reading now.

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Love Books? You Really Need to Read Ex Libris.

When I finally got around to reading Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman, I was surprised to see that she was also the author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, which I read several years ago. The Spirit Catches You is a nonfiction book about the culture clash between a Hmong family in California and the American medical system. It was hard for me to imagine that the author of that book had also written a book of essays on “a lifelong love affair with books and language” (from the copy on the front flap of Ex Libris’ dust jacket).

Why I’m so surprised that the same person could write about very different subjects in very different styles is beyond me. My own interests are all over the map. At any rate, while I found The Spirit Catches You well-written and informative, I thought Ex Libris was downright delightful. The fact that Anne could write a good book on cultural conflict and medicine and a great book on bibliophilia just increases my admiration for her.

If you’re a bibliophile who has not yet read Ex Libris, here’s why you need to get your hands on a copy (if you don’t already have one sitting in a stack of unread books) and immerse yourself in Anne’s delightful essays.

Ex Libris Is Funny

While I wouldn’t go so far as to call Ex Libris “comedy,” it’s very funny. At least, it is if you’re a word nerd. Anyone who has had the urge to correct public signage will love the essay “r/ Inse∧t a Carrot e/.”

My brother revealed that in a 364-page computer-software manual he had consulted the previous month, he had found several hundred errors in spelling, grammar, and syntax. His favorite was the oft-repeated command to “insert a carrot.” He had written the company, offering to trade a complete list of corrections for an upgraded version of the software, but had not received a reply.

The author did her brother one better: After finding 15 misprints in an edition of Nabakov’s Speak Memory, she wrote to the author to let him know. You’ll have to read the essay for yourself to find out what happened.

In “The Catalogical Imperative,” Anne writes about the joys of reading catalog copy. Again, if you are a person who gravitates toward print — any print, just give me something to read! — you will understand.

Who could read the Garrett Wade tool catalogue without thinking, ‘This is a poem’? Not I. In fact, here it is. The following syllabically impeccable haiku consists entirely of items you can order by calling (800) 221-2942:

Joiner’s mash, jack plane.

Splitting froe? Bastard cut rasp!

Craftsman dozuki.

I hope you noted the Japanese touch in the final line, which refers, of course, to Item No. 49117.01, a saw whose blade ‘has a very smooth action with a very narrow kerf.’ (I am currently composing a villanelle inspired by the word kerf.)

This is nerdy humor at its best.

You Will Feel Like Anne Could Be Your Friend

You know those books that make you think, “I wish I could meet the author, because I’m sure we could be friends?” This is one of those books. Anyone whose idea of the perfect birthday present is walking out of a store with 19 pounds of used books is someone I could talk to for hours.

Read Ex Libris, and you will find yourself saying again and again, “Yes, yes! Me, too!” In the same “Catalogical Imperative” essay I mentioned above, Anne writes about the J. Peterman catalog:

My analysis of J. Peterman’s appeal is that it is a Harlequin romance for the kind of people who vacation in Krk. For example (to quote from the blurb for an ankle-length crêpe-de-Chine floral dress with leg-o’-mutton sleeves):

‘He spends the morning repairing the deer fence. The next job is to start a compost pile. It’s getting warm. As he takes off his flannel shirt, he observes that you are no longer reclining in the bay window reading Proust.’

This paragraph makes a number of assumptions, all exceedingly pleasant:

  1. I own a country house.
  2. I own a deer fence.
  3. I own a compost pile.
  4. I have enough time to read Proust.
  5. While reading Proust, I wear ankle-length dresses with leg-o’-mutton sleeves.

But I didn’t order the dress. My problem—and it has made Anne F., though a devoted reader of catalogues, a faithless patron—is that I never want the item, I want the associated fantasy.

Amen, Anne.

Most Importantly, Ex Libris Is a Celebration of Books and Words

In Ex Libris, Anne explores everything from how libraries are organized to the joys of “reading books in the places they describe,” which she calls You-Are-There reading. She writes about the perfect pen, about changing language to make men and women equal, and about reading aloud. If your idea of a horror story is being confined to a place with no reading material, Ex Libris was written for you. You will not be disappointed.

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Halloween Viewing: Want Spooky But Not Too Scary?

The Lost Boys is more gory than scary -- a good Halloween movie pick for people who aren't into scary movies.

We all have different tolerance levels for scary movies. Some people can watch anything; others are very sensitive. I’m somewhere in between. I made it through The Shining and had no trouble sleeping that night, but I deeply regret watching The Blair Witch Project.

If Halloween puts you in the mood for movies that are slightly spooky  — but not too scary —  I have two suggestions for you, both from the 1980s. While I can make no promises, the first film is probably fine for all but young children. The second, a vampire flick, is a little more gruesome but still relatively mild for a “scary” movie.

Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)

Young Sherlock Holmes doesn’t have anything to do with traditional Halloween topics, but it’s a great choice for anyone searching for a “scary” movie that older children can watch. Written by Chris Columbus, directed by Barry Levinson, and produced by a team that includes Steven Spielberg and Henry Winkler, this underrated film imagines Sherlock Holmes’ start as a detective. The mystery begins with a series of deaths caused by hallucinations.

Most of the hallucinations and resulting deaths are just disturbing enough to lend a spooky air to the film. But the story behind these deaths give it an even more chilling edge. As Holmes digs deeper into the mystery, he discovers the Rame Tep cult, which drugs young women and then sacrifices them by covering them with molten wax.

Young Sherlock Holmes is a spooky, but not scary, movie suitable for Halloween.

Fans of the BBC series Sherlock may be interested in certain parallels between the cult scenes in “The Abominable Bride” and those in Young Sherlock Holmes. And if you think post-credits scenes began with Marvel superhero movies, you’re in for a pleasant surprise: this movie should be watched all the way through to the end. (No, this isn’t the first movie to feature a post-credits scene.)

If you and your fellow viewers can watch the ceremonial opening of the ark at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, you should have no problem with Young Sherlock Holmes. One word of warning: in Raiders of the Lost Ark, deaths are mostly confined to the “bad guys.” I make no such promises for Young Sherlock Holmes.

The Lost Boys (1987)

Now we’re going to take the scare factor up a notch — but not too far. The Lost Boys is a vampire film that is more gory than frightening, though I definitely wouldn’t show it to young children (it’s rated R for a reason). The gore starts during a meal with some unappetizing hallucinations but gets far worse during a series of confrontations with vampires at the end.

Unlike many full-on horror films, The Lost Boys is sprinkled with levity, primarily delivered through the Frog Brothers, who are dedicated to ending the plague of vampires in their town. If you’re a fan of the two Coreys, this is the first movie to feature them together. Corey Feldman plays one of the Frog Brothers, while Corey Haim is a new kid in town.

The vampires in this movie are not sexy, Anne Rice-style vampires, nor are they sparkly, good vampires like Edward and his family in the Twilight series; only the half-vampires have any appeal. This would seem like a good recipe for a scary movie, but — perhaps because of the comic elements — the film lacks true horror. There’s tension. There are gross, bloody scenes, with most of the blood coming from the vampires themselves, not their victims. But this film is unlikely to keep you up at night. If it doesn’t bother you to watch Shawn of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, you should have no problem with The Lost Boys.

Bonus: If you are familiar with “I Still Believe” by The Call, you’ll probably find the cover of that song at the beginning of the film pretty hysterical — or at least a bit disconcerting.

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In the World of Music, Jazz Dominates Autumn

Being a quirky person with broad musical taste, I create themed playlists that could give many people whiplash. While I’ve never shared any of my odd, multi-genre playlists on the blog before, I thought I’d give it a try with this selection of autumn-focused music. It’s dominated by jazz — not merely because I love jazz, but because there are a number of wonderful jazz numbers about autumn. Sample these songs and pick your favorites for your own playlist. You may decide that you, unlike me, want to focus on only one genre of music.

Many of the jazz pieces in this list have been performed by a number of different artists; I have listed my favorite artist with each of those pieces. Likewise, there are many recordings you can choose from for the classical pieces, but although there are differences between recordings, I have no strong feelings about any particular version, so I leave that up to you.

If you have any favorite songs I’ve missed, please share them in the comments!

The Accursed Huntsman — César Franck

We start with something classical. This piece tells the story of a hunter who decides to ignore the Sabbath and hunt on Sunday. He ends up becoming the Devil’s quarry. What could be more autumnal than a spooky hunting story?

Autumn — Ed Calle

Once upon a time I had a coworker who was in charge of the music for our office, and she loved smooth jazz. Hours of forced listening to a smooth jazz station made me somewhat allergic to the subgenre, but there are still individual pieces I like. This is one of them. “Autumn” is a song for early to mid-fall, when you can still feel some summer in the air and the leaves are turning; it doesn’t really fit gray November days.

Autumn in New York — Ella Fitzgerald

You absolutely cannot have a list of autumn songs without including this one, and Ella Fitzgerald sings it beautifully.

Autumn Leaves — Nat King Cole

This is another “can’t omit it” classic. I love Nat King Cole’s silky smooth voice, so I had to pick this version.

Autumn Nocturne – Lou Donaldson

This is a lesser-known jazz piece, covered beautifully and in-depth in this blog post by Steve Wallace. The first version I heard was Claude Thornhill’s — apparently the earliest recorded version — but it sounds “dated” to me (I can just see couples dancing on a ballroom floor to the sounds of Thornhill’s orchestra). I prefer Lou Donaldson’s take.

Autumn Serenade — John Coletrane and Johnny Hartman

While I meant everything I said about loving to listen to Nat King Cole, I can’t imagine preferring his voice to Johnny Hartman’s on this one. Somehow, Johnny makes it sound as if he is singing about something he really experienced. And you can’t go wrong with John Coltrane on the sax.

Autumn Song — Van Morrison

It may not be pure jazz, but Van Morrison’s “Autumn Song” certainly has a jazzy feel. Google “Autumn Song Van Morrison,” and you’ll find more than one person proclaiming how perfectly the song captures autumn.

Don’t Wait Too Long — Blossom Dearie

Here autumn is merely a metaphor, but this song about a romance between two people of different ages is beautiful.

Folk Songs of the Four Seasons: Autumn — Ralph Vaughan Williams

I’m a sucker for Ralph Vaughan Williams, including his arrangement of seasonal folk songs for a women’s choir. There are actually three folk songs in the autumn section; “John Barleycorn” is the first one. You can find the other two, “The Unquiet Grave” and “An Acre of Land,” on YouTube.

The Four Seasons: Autumn — Antonio Vivaldi

This choice isn’t much of a surprise. Ask someone to name some classical music related to autumn, and they will almost certainly mention “Autumn” from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

Graceful Ghost Rag — William Bolcom

This has even less to do with autumn than “Don’t Wait to Long,” but since I first heard it on Halloween, I always think of autumn when I hear it. This is the best-known of three “ghost rags” that Bolcom wrote.

Harvest Moon — John Pizzarelli

What a beautiful autumn love song! With apologies to Neil Young, I prefer this cover to the original version. It’s also one of my favorite songs on this list.

Harvest Home: Autumn (Thanksgiving Hymn) — Jay Ungar and Molly Mason

Jay Ungar is the famous composer of “Ashokan Farewell” (the song Ken Burns used on his series, The Civil War). Molly Mason is his partner in music and marriage. This piece comes from Harvest Home, their five-part suite about the seasons in rural America.

If I Could Make September Stay — Michael Franks

I love summer and hate winter, so while I enjoy autumn, it also makes me a little sad. This song about hanging onto those last summery days resonates perfectly with me.

October — U2

Although this short song ends on a note of hope (“…kingdoms rise/and kingdoms fall/but you go on and on”), it sounds as sad as a cloudy autumn day after most of the trees have shed their leaves.

The Seasons: Autumn — Alexander Glazunov

This energetic piece makes me think of the riot of fall colors and fall festivals during peak autumn.

The Seasons: October — Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky

This is one of twelve piano solos Tchaikovsky wrote for each month of the year. To me, it is the most autumnal of the bunch. Actually, the mood is somewhat similar to U2’s “October.”

September — Earth, Wind & Fire

The only thing autumnal about this song is the fact that the singer is hearkening back to a particular September night, but it’s a great song, and I could not possibly leave it off the list. My kid and I consider it a must-listen on September 21.

September Song — Dave Brubeck

This is Brubeck’s straightforward take on a Kurt Weill tune. In the words of lyricist Maxwell Anderson: “Oh the days dwindle down to a precious few/September, November/And these few precious days I’ll spend with you…”

Summer Is Gone — Carmen McRae

Summer may be gone, but Carmen McRae looks on the bright side. “Winter is near/the fire soon will glow. … The crocus buds are bedded down with snow – just a disguise ’til spring.”

Thanksgiving Theme — Vince Guaraldi

You’ll recognize this from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Anyone up for a feast of toast, pretzels, popcorn, jelly beans, and ice cream? I’ll let you have all my jelly beans.

‘Tis Autumn — Jackie Paris

My favorite version of this song is by Jackie Paris (in fact, there is a documentary about him titled ‘Tis Autumn). Unfortunately, I can’t find a legally uploaded version to link to right now, so here’s a lovely version by Lily Bee.

Categories
Something Wonderful

The Subversive Anime You Need to See

For some time, whenever I’ve considered writing about Puella Magi Madoka Magica, I’ve stopped myself, because I assume that few people in my audience watch anime. Part of what makes this series so great is how it subverts the magical girl genre in anime. But how many of my readers know anything at all about magical girls?

Then I realized that most of what I know about magical girl anime comes from the anime geeks around me. It’s not a genre I typically enjoy, so when I watched Puella Magi based on the recommendations of others, I was watching it with mostly secondhand knowledge of magical girl anime. And yet I still loved it and understood what makes it so good.

So, because it is such a good series, I’m going to give readers a very short introduction to the magical girl genre, and then I’ll tell you why you need to watch Puella Magi Madoka Magica, even if you don’t normally watch anime.

What’s a Magical Girl?

Magical girl anime has been around since the 1960s, when a Japanese cartoon called Sally the Witch first aired. (Some magical girl manga came out before that, as early as the 1950s.) It first took off in the U.S. with the series Sailor Moon.

Not all magical girls are exactly like this, but Sailor Moon exemplifies a very popular type in this genre: a regular schoolgirl who is called to save the world. Before doing battle, she transforms into a magical version of herself. She sometimes works on her own, but she often is part of a larger team, such as the girls in Ojamajo Doremi.

Magical girls also are often accompanied by an animal or animal-like mentor, such as the winged creature in Cardcaptor Sakura. In anime such as Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, this “Mentor Mascot” informs the main character of her magical calling and then advises her as she learns how to be a magical girl.

 

Essentially, magical girls are cute, powerful girls who battle evil. I wasn’t at all surprised to find an essay titled, “I Want to Be a Magical Girl.” I’m sure many a little girl wishes she had powers like the characters in these shows.

And Then Came Puella Magi Madoka Magica

If you noticed the image at the top of this post, Puella Magi Madoka Magica appears to be just another magical girl anime.

It’s not. Puella Magi turns the genre on its head. While the magical girls are cute and powerful, and there’s an animal-like mentor, this series is dark. More importantly, it raises questions about what it means to be a magical girl.

In the world of this series, magical girls battle witches, whose presence can be discovered through concentrations of human misery, such as a rash of suicides in one area. Each magical girl possesses a soul gem, a container in which her soul is kept after she becomes magical. Over time, these gems become corrupted and must be cleansed through grief seeds collected from the witches that the girls battle. The very act of fighting evil corrupts a magical girl’s soul.

There are enough twists that I don’t want to give away too much about the plot of this series, but as it continues, it questions the whole notion of the heroic magical girl. Is becoming a magical girl, even for a very good reason, worth the cost? Is this really a role to aspire to?

Most magical girl anime is too sweet for my taste, but the depth and artistry of this series held my attention.

And speaking of artistry…

Don’t Just Watch This Because It’s Subversive

The animation for Puella Magi is stunning. When the girls are in the “real world,” the animation is typical of what you might expect of anime (and very well done). But when the girls move into the labyrinths where the witches hide, the style changes, and it’s really something!

The music is good, too.

The original series is only twelve episodes, each approximately 25 minutes long, so this isn’t a major commitment. If you get really into it, there’s also a trilogy of films (which I haven’t seen) and a lot of manga. You can find the original series on Netflix, Hulu, and Crunchyroll.