![]() It then shifts perspective to where we see Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak having a friendly off-screen rivalry (Trebek wears a badge that says “Pat Sajak Looks like Badger”). We then see Faye Goddard, Julie and her brother, abandoned at the side of the road by their mother, waiting for her to return. It begins in the 1970s where we see a woman getting her hair stroked by a stranger in a movie theater. The story is constructed in a pretty wild DFW way. ![]() She has been on the show for three years now, and all of the money she wins is sent directly to her autistic brother. She is so winning, and so popular that they break the rules just for her and allow her to continue after the heretofore proscribed five days (this of course predates Ken Jennings by many years…the official policy was changed in 2003). So “Animals” concerns Julie Smith, who is the longest-winning contestant on Jeopardy!, ever. But for me it was disconcerting to have the pop culture not incidental or as a set dressing, but absolutely central to the stories. In David Lipsky’s book, Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, DFW states matter-of-factly that he has an obsession with TV and pop culture, so this shouldn’t be surprising. In fact, if I may back up, the whole collection is really rife with pop culture, especially television references. The first story is “Little Expressionless Animals” (or, the Jeopardy! story). ![]() So I wonder if I didn’t read them at all. I didn’t even recognize the ones that I had apparently read.Īnd the stories are pretty memorable. I had checked off a few stories in the table of contents (most of the shorter ones) but that stub brought back more memories than the stories did. It was in Brighton, was more or less on my way to work, had a predominance of Irish products and had delicious subs that were almost cheaper than buying the stuff yourself. I was delighted to find as a bookmark an old stub from a sub shop that I used to go to all the time when I worked in Cambridge, Ma. I clearly bought this copy soon after finishing Infinite Jest. This is DFW’s first collection of short stories. The biggest problem of course is that most of them are not available in the States (at least for a reasonable price). ![]() And I don’t know if the BBC is hard pressed for money or what, but they seem to be releasing them by the handful lately. If you like a British band, chances are they recorded some sessions. There are so many BBC recordings out there (this is an incomplete list). It was many years before I understood why there were two “official” releases of the same songs. I always thought that the Hatful of Hollow versions of songs were better than the originals. So, they know the song backwards at this point, and they usually record a version that’s faithful to the original but a little more playful. What makes these releases so great is that by the time the bands do these recordings for the BBC, the original album has been out a while and the band has toured a bit. For the most part they don’t vary greatly from the originals (that’s not always the case, mind you, but most of the time it’s true.) The recordings are “live,” even though they’re not in front of an audience. In the last few years, I’ve gotten discs from the Cocteau Twins, Tindersticks, The Beautiful South, Belle and Sebastian and Therapy? One of the first ones I’d every gotten was The Smiths’ Hatful of Hollow. And after several sessions, they tend to get released as BBC Live or BBC Sessions discs. Many many bands that I like have recorded tracks for the BBC.
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