Tom Kielty

THE KIELTY CONSIDERATION -May 20, 2022

Welcome back, friends.  Our world remains an endless source of astonishment, entertainment, and head-shaking surprise.  Here are some examples I have found recently.  Remember to follow the links for surprises, and have a nice weekend!  

-After glowing reviews from friends and critics galore, I finally got around to watching, “The Wire,” which I thought was good. Really good… but not great in the way that “Mad Men,” and “Breaking Bad,” and at the top of our current golden age of television nowhere near the thin air height of “The Sopranos” are great. Yet, many speak of “The Wire” as deserving of such lauded company. Throughout this series, there were plot lines that left me simply asking, “Why?” I dare anyone to say they welcomed the arrival or mourned the departure of annoying delinquent dockworker, “Ziggy.” The discovery of a dead body by the Farragut Mafia gang of corner boys and associates was the housing project version of “Stand By Me,” and mayor-elect “Tommy Carcetti’s” wife leaving early on a victorious Election Night passes the credibility test only if someone can point out a spouse ever splitting early after a political win. An Opening Day sequence shot at Baltimore’s Camden Yards seemed a cloying attempt at local color but I did applaud musicians Steve Earle, the late Clarence Clemons, and Method Man in particular for acquitting themselves well. Very good, but not great. Ultimately if I were left on a desert island with streaming accessibility I’d round out the aforementioned holy trinity with “Ozark” and go to the roots of self-produced pay-TV series for HBO’s groundbreaking, “The Larry Sanders Show.”

-Speaking of music.

I used to write primarily about music and while I don’t get paid to listen (currently) I do still very much listen. The “Kielty Konsideration” has a sister site, “Forgotten Friends,” that explores each Monday great records that may not get the spins they once did, but I do still very much like new stuff. So, if I hear something I like I’ll let you know, all positivity, Though I do have a fond memory of once trashing Jason Mraz so hard in the Boston Globe (“The show would have worked better as a live-action, ‘After School Special,’ entitled, ‘The pretty boy who couldn’t write good lyrics or play guitar very well’”) that earned me a call from his manager asking if Mr. Mraz could speak with me. But that’s all behind us, dear readers, nothing but love here (fingers crossed). Here are a few that caught my ears recently:

I came to The Smile and their debut, “A Light For Attracting Attention,” completely uninformed and upon first listen thought I may as well have been listening to the Radiohead record that they never released. Turns out that in a sense, I was! During the Covid pandemic Radiohead singer, Them Yorke, and guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, enlisted longtime production collaborator, Nigel Godrich, and rounded out the group with eclectic veteran drummer, Tom Skinner. The result is a collection that reinforces the unpredictable yet distinctive Radiohead personality, not only through Yorke’s singular voice, but also the synth accented melodic moodiness. Some of these songs apparently have long histories with Yorke. “Skrting On The Surface” was debuted with another Yorke side gig, Atoms For Peace, in 2009 and performed twice on the 2012 Radiohead tour, “Open The Floodgates” was soundchecked in 2009 and performed by Yorke solo in 2010, and Yorke first spoke of The Smile during a benefit at London’s Royal Albert Hall preceding this debut of “Free In The Knowledge.” Longtime fans will be happy to hear that the symptoms of “The Bends” remain on the rocking, “You’ll Never Work In Television Again,” and there’s even a not so subtle dig at Citizen Trump (I refuse to use “President” in front of that name) on “The Hairdryer.”

Band of Horses may be a band that, much like Nada Surf, were initially written off as one-hit wonders only to continue to deliver fantastic collections of songs in a world dominated by singles. After recording an album with acclaimed producer, Dave Fridmann and Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle, the band decided to scrap it and go back to the proverbial drawing board, which wound up being a friend’s no-frills garage studio in Charleston, S.C. “Things Are Great,” continues in their now well-established (six albums worth) tradition of frontman Ben Bridwell's words settling up perfectly with the sturdy and rootsy songs. “Lights” is a perfect example of what they do best musically and the lyric, “Too many cops in the yard, cars on the lawn,” in this recounting of a summer party will ring the memory bell for many. Two thumbs up to this entire record were there not a joint positioned between the thumb and pointer finger of one hand.

I am seemingly the last person to discover the innovative intricacies of Japanese Breakfast’s “Jubilee” though with their name on the billing for seemingly every American festival of note this summer the word, “relative” should disappear as a precursor to “unknown” in short time. Deservedly so, “Jubilee,” is a fantastically atmospheric album that has been described as a companion piece to singer, Michelle Zauner,’s memoir. A study of her Korean heritage in the face of her mother’s death, “Crying in H Mart” went to number 2 on the New York Times bestseller list and a sense of melancholy informs “Jubilee,” as well. The record is fantastic, make no mistake, but I do question how the more delicate thoughts of Zauner and partner Craig Hendrix (who began producing Zauner’s Japanese Breakfast solo efforts as an aside from her band, Little Big League) will translate to 25-45,000 fans in sun-baked festival midday sets. They have expanded to a four-piece and perhaps the beats-driven, “Be Sweet,” and jaunty pop and millennial feminism message of, “Savage Good Boy,” might be just enough to keep a crowd’s attention. They deserve it.

-Think your town parties hard? Think again. When “Mayhem” is in the event title, attendees have been forewarned and when some 2,500 people arrived, most forearmed with their share of party favors at Florida’s Lake George the predicted mayhem ensued. Not to be confused with the Adirondack chair set at the upstate New York waterbody of the same name (though 20 souls did perish there in 2005 when the Ethan Allen, a 40-foot glass-enclosed tourist boat carrying 47 passengers capsized) the Sunshine State Lake George is approximately forty miles west of Daytona and “Mayhem at Lake George" is a recent tradition designated for the first Saturday in May. Local authorities captured this footage as well as rounding up twelve all-stars and delivering one to a local hospital. Not looking to miss out on the fun, an estimated crowd showed up in Chicago for the "North Ave Beach Takeover” after social media posts encouraged a BYOB ethos and promised beer pong tables, drinking contests, a twerking contest, beach boxing matches, and an event cameraman in attendance. “Bring out da booty shorts cos we ousside,” encouraged one flyer. “Yall better get a car wash cos da bad bitches comin out.” Police eventually chased those shiny rides into the residential Old Town section of the city. As their fellow Illini, Garth Alger and Wayne Campbell, might say, "Party On! Excellent!"

-The first season of HBO’s “Winning Time, The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” a 10-episode series chronicling the 1980 NBA Champion, Los Angeles Lakers. The Magic Johnson-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (both denounced the series) Lakers are shown in all their “Showtime” era glory and while some historical inaccuracies are surely included, I found it it a both fun and entertaining in an “I remember when,” kind of nostalgic way. Upping the nostalgia factor was the fact that actor, Rory Cochran, “Slater” from the cult classic, “Dazed and Confused” plays UNLC coach, Jerry Tarkanian (the kind of fact you can count on former Black Crowes drummer, Steve Gorman, alerting you to) and he nostalgia jumps higher. The project was helmed by director, Adam McKay who earned recent acclaim with, “Don’t Look Up,” after such box-office smashes as, “Anchorman” and “Talladega Nights,” who never advertised the project as a documentary but more a labor of love (his long time friendship/partnership with Will Ferrell reportedly irreparably damaged when McKay refused to cast Ferrell as larger-than-life Lakers owner, Dr. Jerry Buss, opting for Ferrell's close friend, John C. Reilly). Laker Spencer Haywood, a larger-than-life story in his own rite, has said that the cocaine addiction that resulted in him being released by the team during the NBA Finals was portrayed accurately while Hall of Famer, Jerry West, has threatened legal action for defamation for his depiction. A second season for the series was just announced and in the meantime, West’s autobiography, “West by West,” is next in my reading queue.

-Growing up in a fairly traditional middle-class Irish American family my meals were firmly meat-and-potatoes which, while prepared deliciously by my dear departed mother, Ellen, were admittedly pedestrian. As an example I will offer this remembrance: we never had tacos until they showed up on the public school cafeteria rotation (we were solid brown baggers, often with a note in Ellen’s perfect penmanship that I still smile recalling) and we asked for them at home. My palate has increased incredibly as an adult through friendships with more culinarily advanced friends and restauranteurs which brings me to a food love. Kimchi! I just love this traditional Korean side dish of salted and fermented vegetables like napa cabbage and Korean radish (personal favorite: beneath and on top of turkey, ham, and swiss cheese on a soft roll). Now, I discovered that here in the Ocean State they’re making some of the best in the country. Chi Kitchen is based in Pawtucket, RI, and was founded and run by a married couple who live in Providence.  This stuff is the jam! Minnie Luong, a native of the Mekong Delta of Vietnam grew up in Massachusetts and Rhode Island with a food-obsessed family. While living and working in Los Angeles she met her husband and co-founder, Tim Greenwald, who is originally from Pittsburgh where he grew up making pickles as a bonding experience with his grandfather (if pickles from a Pittsburgh family recipe alone doesn’t have you salivating then turn off your computer, get up and walk away, we’re never going to work out). They recently grabbed up the coveted gold for Fermented Sesame Slaw at the 50th anniversary of the sofi Awards, which celebrate specialty food makers throughout the country. The competition is sponsored by the Specialty Food Association, based in New York, and is judged by a jury of specialty food experts. Healthy, local and delicious. No brainer.

-And finally, Joseph Anthony McKinnon must have fast-forwarded his VCR when Chevy Chase’s, “Clark Griswold,” reminded that, “The Hindu’s speak of karma,” during “National Lampoon’s Vacation.” How else but karma does one explain the demise of McKinnon, 60, of Trenton, SC who succumbed to a deadly heart attack… while burying the body of the live-in girlfriend he had just murdered. Local police responded to a report of an unconscious man in a yard, and it didn’t take long to confirm that McKinnon was dead. But as police were notifying his next of kin on Saturday something else caught their eye: a freshly dug and shallow grave. They then discovered Patricia Ruth Dent, 65, who had been strangled, wrapped in trash bags and covered by a tarp in a partially filled pit. Some believe all murderers are punished, either by society or conscience, in this case, the frail human form pushed to the front of the line.