Oh Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy!

by Elizabeth Bowen

I must admit, I would never have read this book if it was not for my mother's encouragement. I am very happy we are reading these books mom.

Elizabeth Bowen’s The Death of the Heart, tell the story of the life of an orphaned girl (Portia) who is reluctantly allowed to stay with her step-brother (Thomas) and wife (Anna) in their luxurious home in London. When Portia finds out that Anna is reading her diary, she runs to her love interest Eddie, a flirtatious bachelor, who rejects her. Portia then runs to an acquaintance Major Brutt, an out of work war hero, who also rejects her. We are left at the end of the novel with the maid, Matchett, coming to fetch Portia to bring her home.

Bowen examines the crumbling class system in pre World War II England. Through out the novel the reader is shown how the distinction between the classes is changing yet the underlying prejudices still exist.

It was a fine read, but not a book that I would recommend to a friend.

Clinging to order
An oak leaf brushes my cheek
Releasing a smile

Charlie says: I was first made aware of this band last school year when Seth pulled up the video on his iPhone of “Trampled by Turtles”. I liked what I heard, but forgot about them until my music friend Tina shared “Palomino” with me last week. I thank you Seth and Tina.


What a great name for a band, “Trampled by Turtles”. It implies that the band plays so slow that even turtles would trample them. Just as “Tiny” is a perfect name for the seven foot giant living down the street, “Trampled by Turtles” is a perfect name for a band that rips fire-breathin' smokin’ hot aggressive songs like these.

Wait So Long itself if worth the price of admission. This Duluth Minnesota band brings it’s A game here. Not only is Wait So Long amazing, but Victory, It’s A War, and Help You leave little doubt the ironic choice of the band’s name.

Be warned, this is Bluegrass I am promoting here. Songs like Gasoline, Bloodshot Eyes, and Again are not for the uninitiated. Bluegrass can be slow and somewhat bluesy yet “Trampled by Turtles” even gets this right. Guitarist, singer and song writer Dave Simonett also writes excellent stuff. I hate to keep mentioning the song Wait So Long, but it is just that good. It is about a guy wanting to be more than friends with a girl.

On the Tina/Charlie promote it, lend it, deny it scale, with blisters on my fingers, I give it a promote it.

Tina says:  I my first introduction to TBT was on my birthday. I was fortunate enough to score some tickets to their show, as a New Years Event. TBT rolls in as your "typical bluegrass band". They have the look down, jeans, overalls and the fat guy who plays the fiddle. Their look says, we're a bluegrass band, but their sounds says we're a blue grass band who can bring it! Not only are they able to nail the fast banjo picking, flame thrown' arm pumping songs on their studio tracks, they can do it live.

Palomino (a gold colored horse) is a gold album. Wait So Long is fantastic, along with Victory and It's A War. All of these songs bring it. They are fast, they have a lot bluegrass picking twang, and I like em'.

TBT is an excellent band, and they have produced an excellent album. It's nice to see a group of local boys put on a nice live show, but also spread the joy and happiness that only bluegrass can bring.

On the Tina/Charlie promote it/lend it/deny it scale.....I will not Wait So Long to Promote it.

For the last year, I have been finding comfort listening to a Buddhist podcast. It has helped me by allowing me to think about the meaning of things and reflect on my life and how I live it. With this comfort, there has also come some conflict, particularly with the question about god.

I do not know where god fits into Buddhism but I do not think there is a place for an all powerful creator. My perspective of Buddhism is that the ultimate is liberation not god. This seems to me to be in direct conflict with what I learned in the Episcopal Church that: You shall have no other gods before me. What the Episcopal Church seems to be saying to me is that god is the ultimate and I need to look only to god for liberation.

What draws me to Buddhist thought is the idea of looking within. I want to believe that Christ is within all of us, we just need to keep searching.

Charlie says: 
You are not going to like this review Tina.

I liked MGMT's first album.  "Time to Pretend", "Kids", and "Electric Feel" where fun, energetic, trippy songs unfortunately I found nothing similar on Congratulations. Hell, there was not even an attempt to try to do something similar.

If you are looking for some glimmer of hope, some song that shows a bit of promise, turn and run.  Not even the title track "Congratulations" comes through, it is, well, boring.

I tried to find something to like.  I listened to this album at least six times but it did not get any better.  I even when back and listened to Oracular Spectacular again to find out what I liked about MGMT.  I noticed something.  There are some shitty songs on that album as well, "4th Dimensional Transition", "Pieces Of What", "Of Moons, Birds & Monsters", "The Handshake", and "Future Reflections" all stink. 

This is not a good band.  They had there moment in the sun and are now just bringing me down.  On the Tina/Charlie promote it, lend it, deny it scale, I give this a very very uncongratulatory deny it.