Friday, December 30, 2022

ZB's Top Songs of the Year 2022 - Part One: From a Wolf to a Strawberry

"Views of a Pleasant Collection" - Wenham, MA (January 26th)

This was a wild year for music. Lots of new discoveries and many hours spent relistening to the classics from childhood. There was love and loss, reflection and hope, and everything in between in the last twelve months. And I think my top songs of the year are a solid representation of the rollercoaster. I'll pick one song for each month to talk about, but will include many bonus tracks as well. Links to all songs will be included of course. Here is part one, which covers the first half of the year. Part two will come out tomorrow.

God Bless and hope you enjoy,

- ZB James

January
"Keep Me in Your Heart" by Warren Zevon - The Wind (2003)

My father passed away on January 6th this year, and this was the song we played at his funeral. This album was always a favorite of his when I was a kid, and I think it helped him reflect on his own father's passing back then. It certainly has helped me cope. Funny how that happens. Music can be like a religion or belief system that gets passed down through generations. Truly amazing.

Zevon's final album was also eerily similar to my dad's final chapter. Both had terminal illnesses. Both stayed relatively isolated in the end. Both had words they wanted to share before they were taken from this world (my Dad wrote many books, and a few dealt with his terminal illness). The lyric "Engine driver's headed north up to Pleasant Stream" feels like it was sent from the cosmos. We grew up on Pleasant Street and my Dad named his publishing company after the stream in the woods near our house. You can't make this shit up lol.

RIP Dad and RIP Warren. A couple of all-time legends.

"Winter Contemplations" - Wenham, MA (January 29th)

January Honorables

February

"Kokomo, IN" by Japanese Breakfast - Jubilee (2021)

This song really hits at a nostalgic heartstring as Michelle paints a picture of a love and a childhood lost. "Passing time just popping wheelies" sparks wonderful imagery of the neighborhood block. "God I wish I could go back there, left alone in my room" transports any listener to their bedroom when they were ten years old.

I was also in the process of cleaning out my own childhood house back in February. We were getting ready to sell in the wake of my Dad's passing. And so to hear this song while I was literally staring all my memories in the face was unforgettable.

The song is called "Kokomo, IN" but the actual town doesn't matter. It's a placeholder for any hometown anywhere in the world.

"An Island's Light" - Sanibel, FL (February 25th)

February Honorables

March

"Tehachapi" by Margo Cilker - Pohorylle (2021)

I am a big fan of female Americana singers, and my discovery of Margo Cilker's debut album Pohorylle was a mondo moment for me this year. It's a homerun through and through. And I think "Tehachapi" is the best and most accessible song on the record. "Wasn't much of a warning, he disappeared one morning. Put his mattress up on the back of a pickup truck" is one hell of an opening verse. She delivers it very well.

I also love the New Orleans style jam in the middle, filled with horns and honky tonk piano. And her shoutout to Little Feat? Sold.

Just a very fun and enjoyable tune, and always cool to fall for an artist right at the debut. I'm excited to see where Margo's career takes her next.

"Reds" - Hamilton, MA (March 4th)

March Honorables

April

"He'll Make It Right" by Willie Neal Johnson & The Gospel Keynotes - The Best of Willie Neal Johnson & The Gospel Keynotes (1995)

Me and a few friends went on a river trip Easter weekend this April, so we decided to put together a religiously-themed playlist for the occasion. Most songs were ridiculous, others deeply meaningful, and only one took the whole weekend by storm. Insert "He'll Make It Right" by Willie Neal Johnson & The Gospel Keynotes. A ten minute gospel funk jam of epic proportions.

I'm not a devout Christian by any means, but God damn I'll have what these guys are having lol. They're all just feeling it, singing and playing their hearts out. We camped out on an island on the banks of the river, and I'll never forget laughing the day away as this song blared over the speakers. You go a little crazy when your a day-in on a camping trip, and this song certainly elevated our insanity.

There were no leaves on the trees yet, a crazy rain storm on the second night, and a group of maniacal campers who invaded our campsite. But it didn't matter in the end. He made it alright.

"Passion of the Pine" - Topsfield, MA (April 16th)

April Honorables

May

"Coma" by Big Thief - Capacity (2017)

I went on a trip to Baton Rouge in May and rented a car to go site-seeing across the Deep South. I discovered Big Thief in the middle of the jaunt, and it was the biggest musical discovery of the year for me. No question about it.

I love this band, they are beautiful and haunting and insanely talented. And no song has needled into the depths of my mind more than "Coma". I am mesmerized by it, and have been obsessed by Adrianne Lenker's phrase "iris of the body" and what it means. So much so that I even used it as a line in a poem that I wrote for my friends' wedding. For me I see it as a way to describe the light that is inside all of us. Our souls. The iris controls the amount of light that reaches out retina, and so the iris of the body would be the part of our being that controls the amount of light that reaches our hearts.

Clearly I have my own interpretation, but I enjoy not knowing what Lenker actually means and am happy to hear other people's perceptions. It's a solemn song about abuse, trauma, and the hope of healing. But despite the heart-wrenching tone, it's one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. She is a poetic and songwriting mastermind.

"Tha Block Is Hot" - Baton Rouge, LA (May 18th)

May Honorables

June

"Time Escaping" by Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (2022)

Big Thief stayed on repeat for many weeks after I discovered them, so naturally they get top song for back-to-back months. "Time Escaping" blew me away when I first heard it, and it still gives me chills. It's the band announcing a new chapter with an explosion of sound. A huge moment within their history.

"Electric waves, a rush of energy. Silent river, pouring backward eternally. Through the phase and touch of entropy. Old age in the beginner" is the opening verse, which sets the existential mood. Lenker proceeds with a mind-bending delivery of verses until she ends, exclaiming "Everything, everything, everything for free. As it all eventually... turns to dust and petal. Molten rock and meadow. Time escaping...time escaping".

I love everything about it. The lyrics and message, the overwhelming sonicscape, the perplexing instrumentation. A true tour-de-force.

"Yodelay" - Dover, VT (June 11th)

June Honorables

Thanks for reading, hope you discovered something or caught some sort of inspiration. That's what it's all about. Tune in tomorrow for the epic conclusion of ZB's Top Songs of the Year 2022 - Part Two: From a Buck to a Cold.

Preesh that ass,

- ZB James

Sunday, December 25, 2022

Why Not a Star?

The Angel Appearing to the Shepard's (1634) by Rembrandt

Why Not a Star

They told me that when Jesus was born a star appeared in the heavens above the place where the young child lay.

When I was very young I had no trouble believing wondrous things; I believed in the star.

It was a wonderful miracle, part of a long ago story, foretelling an uncommon life.

They told me a super nova appeared in the heavens in its dying burst of fire.

When I was older and believed in science and reason I believed the story of the star explained.

But I found that I was unwilling to give up the star, fitting symbol for the birth of one whose uncommon life has been long remembered.

The star explained became the star understood, for Jesus, for Buddha, for Zarathustra.

Why not a star? Some bright star shines somewhere in the heavens each time a child is born.

Who knows what it may foretell?

Who knows what uncommon life may yet again unfold, if we but give it a chance?

- Margaret Gooding (1922–2003)

Monday, December 19, 2022

Oh Baseball Where Art Thou?

Baseball has been dead to me for a while.

I couldn't get through an entire 9 inning game even if you paid me lol. And it's a crying shame, because for the greater part of my childhood it was my favorite sport. And the 2004 World Series will forever be one of my favorite memories. Sitting on the couch, watching with my Dad - the only two up in the house when they won. Then we went to his father's grave the next day and put The Boston Globe next to his gravestone. Unforgettable stuff.

I think one of the big reasons it's dead and dying is the lack of star power. They just don't have the personalities like they used to. Back in the day Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds...these were larger than life figures that permeated American culture. Nowadays I'd be willing to bet most average Americans couldn't name a handful of the best players in the game. Hell I'd even have a hard time.

And I think ultimately this lack of cultural impact is due to the type of entertainment that it is. Think about where the pulse of America is these days - on apps where the videos are 30 seconds long, or on streaming services where you can watch on your own time. Baseball is the exact opposite. It literally takes 4 hours to play a game, and it's scheduled viewing that comes at you almost every single night.

I guess going to the ballpark will always be a unique and timeless experience. But in the same way that other types of entertainment have faded away in America (vaudeville, VHS, newspapers) baseball seems to be on that same trajectory. I doubt it will ever "die" in the same way video stores did. But it will continue to fall farther and farther off of people's minds. You can still buy a newspaper, still catch a vaudeville show if you really look. And you'll always be able to go watch a ballgame. But as an in-house living-room centerpiece, it's old news. It's the fireplace of sports at this point lol.

I'm trying to think of how I could "watch" the Red Sox in 2023... I guess the most feasible way would be to consume the YouTube highlight reels in the morning? It's a weird thing to consider, because all my instincts tell me that isn't actually "watching" the team. Traditionalists will tell you that that's no better than box score watching. But to hell with tradition, especially when it comes to baseball. Tradition will be the death of the sport. They need a 20 second pitch clock yesterday.

Maybe I'll give the YouTube highlight reels a run. We'll see.

- ZB James

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Please Call Me By My True Names

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow—

even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving

to be a bud on a Spring branch,

to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,

learning to sing in my new nest,

to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,

to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,

to fear and to hope.

The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death

of all that is alive.

I am a mayfly metamorphosing

on the surface of the river.

And I am the bird

that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am a frog swimming happily

in the clear water of a pond.

And I am the grass-snake

that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,

my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.

And I am the arms merchant,

selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,

refugee on a small boat,

who throws herself into the ocean

after being raped by a sea pirate.

And I am also the pirate,

my heart not yet capable

of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,

with plenty of power in my hands.

And I am the man who has to pay

his “debt of blood” to my people

dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm

it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.

My pain is like a river of tears,

so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,

so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,

so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,

so I can wake up

and the door of my heart

could be left open,

the door of compassion.

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

ZB's Movie Review #2: Don't Look Up

Don't Look Up (2021)

Adam McKay really has become an auteur in the last decade. His transformation has turned into a Woody Allen-like swing from straight-up comedy into deeper, more emotionally complex narratives. Pretty remarkable. And of course it’s sad to know that this artistic turn has played a role in McKay and Will Ferrell parting ways. But if that separation was needed for McKay to truly fly in this new dramedy space, then I’m all for it. Sorry Will. Artists either evolve or die, and Ferrell’s lack of growth is a big reason why his acting career has been floundering ever since The Other Guys.

McKay’s newest film Don’t Look Up is instantly among his best in my opinion. It’s sharp, funny, and there’s enough closeness to reality within the satire where the same moments that make you laugh could just as easily make you cry. You see one outlandish character or watch a particular scene, and say to yourself “Jesus, that’s not that far off”. That’s the genius of true satire - being able to point out cruel ironies while retaining the hilarity.

Acting-wise Leo is great, as is Jennifer Lawrence. No surprise there. And of course Jonah Hill is an absolute homerun. He’s so good at playing that annoying, snobby asshole character. He’s too talented to be forever typecast in that role, but it’s definitely a tried and true arena for him. He was my favorite in the whole film. I also thought Meryl was brilliant, as was Sir Mark Rylance as the tech giant for Bash. His voice was perfectly delivered - the high-pitch, almost child-like nature of his cadence masks the sinister intentions he has all along. Which I thought was a genius way of encapsulating the modern day tech oligarch. We get sucked into their personality and mesmerized by the good they do, which can make it next to impossible to see the horrors they commit and cause. Well done, Sir.

As for the story, I thought it was a bit chaotic and all over the place. Which sort of fits McKay 2.0’s whole shtick. He loves the fast-paced jumping around style, and the fact that it’s so clearly a satire gives the whole piece more license to be outrageous and over-the-top. I liked how there were a couple homages to legendary satires of old. Ron Perlman’s character Colonel Drask seemed like a nod to Major Kong from Dr. Strangelove. And DiCaprio’s character Randall Mindy’s manic speech on live TV evoked the “Mad as Hell'' speech from Network, but purposefully stripped of its climax and abruptly cut short. I thought both weren’t too obvious and were nice touches.

The overarching symbolism that’s used is without a doubt clever and thoughtful. It kind of annoyed me how in all the press coverage I read about the movie, they just totally gave away the meaning of the allegory. Before I knew anything else about it, I already knew that the comet was a symbol for the climate crisis. Kind of a bummer in my opinion. Let the viewer get there on their own. Spelling out how someone should perceive the film takes a very meaningful part away from the artistic experience. At least that’s how I feel. I get that this is a political statement that McKay and David Sirota want to make, which is why they’re being so on-the-nose about it. And that’s certainly commendable when considering the urgency surrounding climate change. But I can’t deny that the wind was taken out of my sails a bit when the whole message was spelled out for me. Luckily the final product is strong enough where it’s still an incredible watch despite the giveaway.

Without a doubt my favorite part of the film was the end, when all the main protagonists get together at the Mindy household for one last supper. I thought that was beautiful, and to me that whole scene encapsulated the underlying point to the film. Which is that at the end of the day, what really matters is being with people that you love. When shit hits the fan - whether it be a mass extinction event like the movie, or a minuscule traumatic event - it’s important to surround yourself with family and friends. Say what you want to say (Yule proposing to Kate). Don’t be afraid to forgive (June taking Randall back). And be open to other people’s healing/coping processes (the Mindy’s letting Yule lead a prayer). They touch on all of that in one final dinner, which was lovely despite the horror that engulfs them in the end.

I certainly recommend this film, I thought it was a genius social commentary that felt like the grandchild to Dr. Strangelove. Which is to say that I believe this movie will go down as one of the best satires of the era.

- ZB James

Friday, February 18, 2022

Chris Arnade Walking America: Springfield, Chicopee, and Holyoke

"It is a wonderful city, and yes I know it has plenty of problems...But that isn’t what I want to focus on, because I walk to see beyond those problems. Because the residents of Holyoke, like in any “run down town”, continue living and doing their best despite them. Seeing that, and being reminded of that, is why I walk."

- Chris Arnade

I forget how I discovered Chris Arnade, but he is a splendid follow on Twitter and his Substack Intellectual Int-ing is an interesting read.

He walks all over the world, talks with locals, takes pictures, and eats McDonalds lol. Then after his journey he writes a little piece about his travels. It's a cool travel blog style that feels super old school. As if he's back in the early 2000s when blogging first became an online sensation. It's that down-to-earth aesthetic that gives it a unique authenticity. Something you won't find on any television travel show.

The specific piece I'm linking to today is the one where he walks Springfield, Chicopee, and Holyoke out in Western Massachusetts. I've been to Springfield and Holyoke recently and thought his candid descriptions of both places were right on the money. I appreciated his more intimate perspective because I was driving during my travels, and like he says walking definitely forces you to see cities "beyond the bleh".

Anyways, I thought it was a great read and wanted to share. He's worth checking out no doubt about it. Great photographer, great writer, and a wholehearted perspective all in one.

- ZB James

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

ZB's Movie Review #1: The Tragedy of Macbeth

At the start of the pandemic I lost my movie-watching mojo. Sure movies were still coming out, but the fact that theaters were closed crushed my cinematic spirit. It’s taken me close to two years, but finally the mojo is back. Yeah baby, yeah!

So here comes the newest Lush and Todd series: Todd's Movie Review (with my specific review line titled ZB's Movie Review). Not exactly sure what this will be or where this will go, but the basic concept is the same as Album Review. It can be whatever you want: a pure film analysis, an essay, an op-ed, a quick couple of sentences, incoherent ramblings. Literally whatever comes to your mind after watching a film.

For my first installment, I figured there'd be no better place to start than The Bard himself. It's Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)

This was a super unique and enjoyable film. I’m admittedly not sharp when it comes to fully comprehending Shakespearean English, but there’s enough language to grasp where I can generally understand what’s going on. And I read the play in high school, so there’s a distant memory of the story as well. It was almost like watching a brilliant foreign film or a surrealist film. There’s confusion and disconnect, but as a viewer you recognize the greatness unfolding before you.

And that’s not a hard thing to see considering Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand are at the top of the call sheet and a Coen brother is in the director's chair. The emotion worn on both leads’ faces throughout is incredible. Their monologue and soliloquy pacing is masterful, even if I don’t fully get it line by line. There’s just something beautiful about Olde English done well. Something really poetic. And every now and then a few lines cut through and hit profoundly.

As for Joel Coen, him and his team have done an amazing job at creating an unforgettable and harrowing atmosphere. The production designers most certainly deserve their Academy Award nomination, as does the cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel. Each scene is shot on a stage and the whole movie is in black-and-white, which gives the film a Studio Era feel that fits like a glove. It’s clearly an homage to that time and I think the choice to go simple as opposed to something grand and budgetarily bloated was the right choice. Especially considering this is a by-the-book Shakespeare adaptation and not some twisted, bastardized, Hollywood profit-maximization production. Hell, that fact alone is probably why I enjoyed this so much. It’s like going back in time, before the blockbuster machine took hold of the system, when classic tales were first being retold for the screen.

There were a few other surprises that took hold of me. One was the performance by Kathryn Hunter, who played the witches and the old man. I’d never heard of her, but holy hell was she frighteningly good. She’s clearly a stage actor, and this movie's closeness to traditional theatre made it perfect for her. I was also blown away by the use of shadows and light. Like I said before, there was something very surreal about the whole piece. As if it were a dream, or a nightmare. It didn’t feel like it was of this world. And I think the use of darkness and light and shapes brought it to another dimension. It evoked the surrealist classics of old. Also the use of water and blood as a symbol of the ticking clock was another mesmerizing factor within the film. As soon as Macbeth commits his horrid crime, the dripping blood signifies that his time is limited. He will soon descend into madness and tyranny.

I also couldn’t help but think of the madness our own leaders display in today's world. With all the insanity surrounding the tensions between Russia and the United States over Ukraine, it was impossible for me not to relate those war games to the ones that Macbeth played. This story, and this movie by extension, does a world-class job at showing just how dangerous power can be. It highlights how a thirst for power can corrupt the mind into something unrecognizable. And the fact that 400 years later these same themes and motifs can be so easily applied to current political affairs is pretty depressing. Progress certainly has been made, but man remains unquenched.

In the end, while I’m not a Shakespeare dork by any means, this was an awesome telling of a legendary tale. I think any true movie buff will appreciate the artsy, subversive aesthetic and find it to be a worthwhile watch.

- ZB James