Icy Stockholm Octavo a Great Read in any Weather

The Stockholm Octavo. Karen Engelmann. 2012: Ecco. ISBN: 9780061995347.

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It may be summertime, but Karen Engelmann’s wintry The Stockholm Octavo makes for a delicious page-turning beach read.

The year is 1789 and if that date sounds familiar, it’s year one of the French Revolution. King Louis XVI has just been deposed, an event that has all of Europe talking–even in faraway Stockholm, where Engelmann’s tale is set. It’s quite the topic of conversation in Sofia Sparrow’s gambling parlor if, for no other reason, Sweden is also riven between monarchists and erstwhile republicans. Mrs. Sparrow is a staunch defender of tradition and monarchy; she’s also an odd bird–a mysterious woman of faded elegance whose establishment falls into the tolerated-but-not-quite-legal category. She also reads Tarot cards and counts Sweden’s King Gustav III among her confidants.

As even the most casual student of history knows, the French Revolution was not confined to France. Before the dust settled, all of Europe was at war. In some places, aristocrats were strengthened; in others, they tumbled from power and grace. Most nobles understood that, in one way or another, their fates lay in the restoration of Louis to power. Plots were hatched in every palace in Europe, including Stockholm.

But this isn’t a novel about politics per se; it’s really a power struggle between Sparrow and a pretentious woman nicknamed The Uzanne, who wants Gustav off the throne and his brother (her lover) in power and not because she finds him a dynamic bedmate. The Uzanne is the fashionable woman we presume Sparrow once was; she’s rich, attractive, and the very soul of womanly arts. In those days, this involved how to use fans to one’s social advantage. The Uzanne not only knows how to encode messages in how she holds her fan; she also possesses Sweden’s largest and most valuable collection of them, including a favorite she loses to Sparrow at the card table. Every fashionable young woman in Stockholm wants to learn the art of the fan from the Uzanne, but are they her pupils or are they accomplices in something more sinister?

The monkey in the middle is Emil Larsson, a carefree playboy and ambitious low-level government bureaucrat (sekretaire) whom Sparrow takes under her tutelage. She lays out an octavo, an eight-card Tarot configuration, which is allegedly Emil’s key to fortune and happiness. All he has to do is figure out who plays the various roles foreseen in the cards (Companion, Trickster, Teacher, etc.). Larsson soon learns that his octavo and Sparrow’s are intertwined and that his personal path is strewn with danger and intrigue involving, among others, false loves, a female apothecary, and a family of fan makers. What is in play? Black magic, or something earthly but more evil?

The Stockholm Octavo is, at base, a complex mystery. It is exceedingly well written, pays meticulous attention to detail, and unveils a cast of unforgettable characters (both major and minor). You’ll want to learn more about late 18^th century Sweden, and I’ll guarantee you’ll never again think of Tarot cards or fans the same way.--Rob Weir

Oana Cataline Chitu: Romania's New Edith Piaf

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OANA CĂTĂLINA CHIŢU

Divine

CD-Arts 3913

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Maria Tănase (1913-63) was sometimes called the “Edith Piaf of Romania.” Like Piaf, she was a diva in the best sense, a singer that mined her nations various influences–gypsy, jazz, cabaret, tango, folk melodies…. Although the soulless apparatchiks labeled her decadent and tried to silence her, Romanians flocked to her funeral in 1963 and mourned her passing. All of this is to say that mortals don’t meddle with her repertoire. Enter the heavenly voice of Oana Cătălina Chiţu, Romanian-born and now a resident of Berlin. Chiţu wends her way through a dozen Tănase favorites by both evoking her idol and by hitting the refresh button. She masters silly songs such as “Train, Little Train,” wrenches emotion from soulful lamentations such as “Oh World, Oh World,” is giddy with café-style love in “If I Hadn’t Met You,” and fans the flames of torchy selections such as “I’ve Put Sweet Basil in My Hair.” Then there are the songs on which Chiţu puts her own stamp. “Pe Vale” has a honky tonk feel that’s more Patsy Cline than Maria Tănase,  “You Have No Idea” is a sexy tango reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich, and “He Who Loves and Runs Away” establishes an experimental and discordant base from which to launch Chiţu’s cover of Tănase’s done-her-wrong song. 

This is a brilliant album for which much of the credit should go to the amazing musicians assembled. Special shout outs go to violinist Slavici Anton, saxophonist Vladimir Karparov, and accordionist Dejean Jovanovic. But above all, there is Chiţu. She is the equal to any jazz diva on the planet and has considerably more spunk than most of them. This is a tribute album, but it’s also primal, exuberant, and original. --Rob Weir

Here's a YouTube sample of Chitu's singing. 

Sexism and Religion: A (Conceptual) Illusion with No Future?

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Alas, this bumper sticker is all too apt.

In 1927, Sigmund Freud penned his classic take-down of religion, The Future on an Illusion. Freud was an avowed atheist and he saw all faith as a form of infantilization, with God playing the role of a collective father in a society that refused to grow up. Much as a single child must symbolically slay his parents to develop his independent identity, so too must society cast off suspicion, dogma, and myth to take charge of its destiny. (To be fair, Freud did see some usefulness in religion, though he thought all faith was bunk.)

I lack Freud’s certainty over such matters, but he may be correct in ways he never anticipated insofar as organized religion goes. Several recent incidents–all related to the enduring sexism of religion–suggest that the women of the world may unite and abandon churches, mosques, and synagogues. If this happens, the center will not hold. The historical record has been very clear: although men have, for centuries, dominated the ranks of theology and leadership, women have made up congregations in much higher numbers than men. It has been their lay work that has sustained religious institutions, both ideologically in the sense of proselytizing family members, and financially in the sense of raising money to support religious infrastructure. Take women out of the equation and you will see a generation of priests, mullahs, and rabbis preaching to empty buildings.

If you want to see an institution that’s woefully mired in the past, take a trip to the Vatican. It’s impressive and contains priceless art, but it has all the future promise of a mausoleum, which is what it essentially is. (The new pope, Francis I, refuses to live in an opulent apartment and has opted for voluntary simplicity in his quarters. Good for him, but is it enough?) Can’t afford a trip to Rome? Take a look in your own town at the former monuments to male vanity being desacralized and put on the market for lack of congregations. The same thing is happening with many Protestant churches. Why? One reason might be that the male leadership of these places spends more time with rightwing politics and anti-abortion movements than with pastoral care.

The recent assaults on women’s right to choose in states such as Indiana and Texas are testament to the refusal of men to respect women’s minds, bodies, equality, or rights. And excuse me if I think that the Catholic Church, which is yet to take full responsibility for decades of child molestation, simply lacks the moral authority to lecture anyone on the sanctity of life. Many male Protestant leaders are even worse; they think communion wafers ought to have G.O.P. elephants embossed on them. All of them wonder why so many women have been leaving the church. And they are–at the rate of about 50,000 per year in England and even higher numbers in the United States. Women also vote for the Democrats in much higher numbers in America. Think that might be because a lot of them figure that supporting organized religion or the Republican Party is akin to having unprotected sex with partners they despise?

Judaism has also struggled with sexism, as recent assaults on women attempting to pray at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall attests. I’ll give Judaism credit for studying the problem to a far greater degree than Christians, but Orthodox Judaism is still pretty bleak for women. A new generation of female rabbis, mostly among Reform and (often inaptly named) Conservative Jews has taken up the task of putting a more female-friendly reading on the Torah, but this remains a work in progress and, one must face it, the Old Testament is a deeply patriarchal work. Female Jews could hardly be heartened by a recent lecture from a Manhattan rabbi telling them to have more babies. Is this a problem? According to data collected by a Harris poll, just 16% of American Jews attend synagogue and nearly half doubt the existence of God. Ouch!

It needs to be said, though, that Christian and Jewish sexists are practically devotees of Betty Friedan in comparison to the sexist cesspool that is modern Islam. Here’s a statement that speaks volumes: the most articulate voice in the Muslim world in support of human rights is a sixteen-year-old girl. That would be Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban for the perceived blasphemy of going to school. She has become an advocate for women’s education and for tolerance, the latter commodity in short supply among the male Islamists who dominate the headlines. Are they a minority? One would hope so, but where the male Muslim voices to counter those of the Taliban and its ilk? Why do we see young men carrying Kalashnikovs instead of exposing terror networks? Why do Muslim men take out their anger on Muslim women? What important male Muslim leaders speak on behalf of women in places such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Palestine, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Iraq? Moreover–as this blog pointed out months ago–the Syrian opposition to Assad is now busy killing each other–in the name of Al Qaeda versions of Islam. Call it a vision of a veiled Syria.

Was Freud right about the need for society to put aside childish beliefs? I don’t know about that–it still seems to me that personal faith can produce true beauty, astonishing acts of selflessness, and powerful moral voices. But the loudest voices simply cannot be ones of hatred or sexism if the faiths they represent are to remain relevant. Mao Zedong famously observed, “Women hold up half the sky.” It wouldn’t be the world’s greatest tragedy if they put down that burden and let the planets tumble down upon the heads of arrogant male religious leaders.

Architecture Should Not Be a Monument to Ego

UMass FAC and library--two awful buildings in one photo!  Note FAC interior below--just as comfortable as it appears. And, yes, those are balcony seats in the back--like watching an event in Iowa from Indiana.

Years ago I was sitting at a faculty meeting in which plans for a new student center were unveiled. They were impressive–sculptural angles, exposed wooden beams, and a soaring glass atrium entrance. When the ooohs and ahhs ended I raised my hand and noted that the atrium had a southern exposure. “So what?” I was asked. “So are we building a student center or a greenhouse?” I asked. “I’m sure the architects have thought of this,” was the answer. “Don’t presume this,” I replied, “Western Massachusetts is littered with campus buildings that are architectural mistakes. And while we’re on the subject, the current blueprint is an impressive design, but the interior space is rather impractical.” Let us just say that the building was rethought and its atrium now has a northern exposure.

This week Amherst College halted construction of its new science center when it was revealed that the site was more difficult than architects had anticipated. (It was being built on a hillside, with parts of the building tunneled underground.) Moreover, faculty members complained that mundane things–such as labs–were either absent or had been given all the design consideration of a broom closet. I applaud President Biddy Martin’s courage in saying “Enough! This is a mistake!” and putting the kibosh on the project. (To be fair to her, the project was conceived by her predecessor, a known egoist.) Too bad the mistake cost Amherst a whopping $19 million. That’s a pretty dramatic “My bad!”   

On the other side of Amherst–at the University of Massachusetts–sit two monumental architectural follies, and I do mean “monumental.” There is, first of all, the 26-storey university library, as ill-conceived an idea as ever imagined. The whole point of a library is that one can browse in it. Try that on 26 floors. Try finding a book in a run that might begin on floor 17 and continue on floor 14. Spalling bricks have also plagued the building, a potentially fatal problem if one was struck by a chunk falling at 32 feet per second. This necessitated the construction of a concrete canopy around the structure as well as limiting access to one side. There have also been problems with weight distribution, which meant that books had to be limited to every other floor and the library’s final four floors are below ground level, which means there have been major moisture problems (which is why the archives are on the 24^th floor).

As bad as the library is–and it’s horrible–it’s a Taj Mahal in comparison to the Fine Arts Center (FAC). A poll of Massachusetts residents recently declared Boston’s City Hall–allegedly cutting edge architecture designed by wicked famous architects when it opened in 1968–as the ugliest building in the Commonwealth. That’s because more people live in Boston; I’m sure if they ventured west they’d agree that the UMass FAC is way uglier. Legend holds that the  FAC is supposed to look like a piano from the air–as if musical instruments were built from un-faced concrete slabs. That story may be apocryphal, so let’s dismiss it. I’ve always said the FAC was proof Albert Speer got out of Germany after World War II. It is a (mostly) windowless monstrosity of gloom and soullessness. The FAC has a wonderful arts series each year, but I have to really want to see an event before I subject myself to Spartan conditions that would have made East Berlin residents tear down the Wall decades earlier.

Architects must not be allowed to use their reputations as a way of duping the public. I am aware that the public is generally conservative and that such great structures as the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building were once ridiculed as eyesores. (My own bias is that I simply hate glass-and-steel functionalist architecture.) I’m not against innovation or design, but no building–especially one underwritten by taxes or tuition payers–should ever be approved by administrators, CEOs, or management alone. Such decision-makers are too susceptible to clever sales pitches and often don’t understand how a building must function. Designs should have to pass muster of, first of all, independent engineers to determine if the site and design are even doable. It’s also a good idea to make sure that users and workers approve the plans as well–they are the ones who understand how the building needs to function, not some guy fiddling with a CAD program. Finally, somebody with moxie needs to have the guts to say from the outset, “No–this isn’t good enough” if it’s not. Who wants to spend $19 million on a mistake, or be condemned to decades of cheerlessness because of some architect’s lousy idea?

Annalivia Goes Down Easy (Too Easy at Times)

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 ANNALIVIA

The Same Way Down

www.annaliviamusic.com

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“Snag,” the midway point of Annalivia’s new nine-track Kickstarter-funded CD, is an original tune from Flynn Cohen that sounds like variations of the famed Irish tune “The Little Beggarman” as done by an Appalachian string band. It encapsulates the ways in which this Boston-based quartet blends Celtic, bluegrass, and Americana influences. Appropriately, the album opens with “False Sir John,” a jaunty arrangement for two fiddles and Liz Simmons’ sweet voice that’s a southern Appalachian variant of older English ballad. The albums also closes with a traditional, “Turtle Dove,” which is evocative of Alison Krauss’s cover of the gospel song “Down to the River to Pray.” The Same Way Down often leaves you wondering if you’re in Asheville or County Antrim. Fiddlers Emerald Rae and Mariel Vandersteel have a definite flair for old-timey sounds, but mandolin/guitar wizard Flynn likes to dislocate us. The “New Mown Meadow,” for instance, sounds like something from Jay Ungar’s set list; that is, except for Cohen’s nouveau Celtic bridge to the breakdown finish. Think you got him pegged? The very next track finds Cohen singing “Bright Sunny South” and, title aside, it too is ambiguous–the mood is south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but his lead is where a hint of twang meets northern reediness.

This is a goes-down-easy album, which is both its strength and, perhaps, a small drawback. Liz Simmons handles most of the songs and hers is a voice of great beauty and delicacy. If “Restless for a While” reminds you of Crooked Still, the effect is magnified by Aoife O’Donovan’s harmonies. Simmons... Krauss… O’Donovan… Three glorious sopranos, but each is quiet, fragile, and high. I’d like to see the band add Cohen’s voice into the mix more dramatically to add contrast, especially to give grit to the harmonies and bite to the darker songs. Even roses need thorns.   --Rob Weir

Elsten Torres: Triumphant Waiting for Clouds

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ELSTEN TORRES

Waiting for Clouds

Self Produced

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Elsten Torres was a mainstay in the 1990s Latin rock scene, but he’s moved over to the acoustic side of the ledger. He also has a few Grammy nominations under his belt and a listen to Waiting for Clouds will quickly reveal why–he has a serious set of pipes that ranges wide. The Cuban-born, New York City-based Torres cites everyone from Billy Joel, Paul Simon, and U2 to both Elvises (Presley and Costello) as influences. You’ll hear hints of that. Torres, for instance, channels a chilled out Bono on “A Perfect World,” but among his gifts is the ability to evoke styles without being derivative. Waiting for Clouds is a confessional and personal album that’s mostly about love gained, lost, or misplaced. Theme albums can become redundant, but Torres dodges that problem by blending and bending genres. “Sitting on Your Throne,” for example, evokes the Lesley Gore hit “I Will Follow Him,” but adds a reggae backbeat; “It’s About Time” is a masala of blues and Stax-style soul; “Bleeding HeartsClub” is akin to a quirky string band; and “Keeping Me waiting,” where hand jive meets rockabilly, moves both physically and emotionally. The project has ten tracks and Torres pays attention to how they stack. “Half-Hearted” is a darker song in content and tone, which he follows with “Through Her Window,” which is shimmery and hopeful. This thoughtfulness also shows up in the decision to place the title track last, as it’s an experiment that listeners will either love or loathe. It opens quiet and mysterious, and Torres slowly unpacks his voice and emotions for an effect that’s at once dramatic, dreamy, and off-kilter. I liked it and you can mark me a new Elsten Torres fan.

Rob Weir

Days of the Generals Dawning in the Middle East

New masters of the Middle East? 

I have seen the future of the Middle East and it looks a lot more like pre-1990s Latin America than the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Out with the mullahs and welcome to Days of the Generals. Although only fools and the U.S. State Department associate the terms “junta” and “human rights,” the silver lining for the Middle East is that military government is preferable to theocracy.

Readers of this blog know that many months ago I predicted what occurred on July 3: the military ouster of Egypt’s Mohammed Morsi. They also know that I have been ultra critical of what is still incongruously referred to as the “Arab Spring” uprisings of 2010-11, and of Westerners cheering those events. (They also know that I view support-from-afar as an unpalatable mix of closeted anti-Semitism and magical thinking.) It’s time to fess up to the truth that Arab Spring was little more than an attempt to wrestle power from the Old Masters and put it into the hands of the New Theocrats. Neither group should be confused with men of the people or forces of peace, though the Old Masters at least had the common sense to know that anti-Israel ranting was best contained to political speeches, not actual policy. Like former Egyptian President Sadat or Jordan’s Hashemite rulers, they made loud critical remarks, and then more quietly signed side deals with Israel. For all of his bluster, it’s what Bashar al-Assad has done in Syria; the Saudis are the undisputed masters of it. The generals like this sort of thing–it justifies their budgets without sending them off to inglorious defeat on the battlefield.

Never has the time been more ripe for such policies. The dream image held by most erstwhile theocrats is a combination of Gamel Nasser and the Ayatollah Khoemeni–war against Israel abroad and secularism at home. That ship has sailed and it came home with an empty hold. Both Nasser and Khoemeni were, in their own ways, a product of the Cold War; they played off the West against the Soviet Union to stave off full-scale interventionism. They also fared badly when their ravings prompted them to send their generals off to war–Egypt was clobbered by Israel in 1948 and 1967 (and didn’t do very well in 1973, either), whereas Iran came within a whisker of defeat at the hands of infidel Saddam Hussein in the 1980s (and probably would have lost if that damned idiot Ronald Reagan hadn’t authorized shipments of weapons to Iran.) Arab Spring has been little more than an attempt to turn back the clock militarily and socially.

It won’t work. The days of veils, beards, misogyny, and hatred of Jews must end if Arab (and Turkic) states are to have a future. The Cold War is over and globalism had ushered in a new reality. One can certainly debate the (im)morality of global capitalism, but the hard truth is that the world is now a big market and if one shopping mall is unsavory, one simply goes to a different one. Egypt discovered this in a big way. What does Egypt offer the world? Not bloody much! The Suez Canal is a relic of days when goods didn’t move in airplanes and oil tankers could squeeze through it. (It will ultimately become an antique in the coming post-petroleum age.) Is the world pining for dates and palm oil? In truth, Egypt’s most saleable commodity is tourism and travelers simply stopped heading for a land controlled by men shouting “Death to infidels!” Believe the generals when they say they don’t want to rule Egypt. They’ve no plan to replenish the country’s depleted coffers, but you’ll soon see them guarding the tourist routes and in villages ferreting out Islamists. Amnesty International and Western liberals will rent their collective garments and the tours will fill.

I’m not defending violations of human rights, but haven’t we learned by now that pursuit of profit is (at best) amoral? And haven’t we also learned that religious fundamentalists of all stripes are, by nature, even more prone to acts of barbarism than global traders or generals? (Only ethnicity-based uprisings are bloodier.) Places that can’t keep their religious fanatics in check–Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, Palestine, the U.S. South–are finding themselves shut out of the global market. Such back-to-the-future behavior is ultimately self-defeating.

Ask Iran. Although Islamist “Guardians” still hold the upper hand there, the writing is on the wall in a nation in which the bulk of the population was born after the 1979 evolution and have grown weary of zealotry. Like young people everywhere, modern Iranians are more interested in electronic gadgets, pop stars, and good times than turbans, beards, and veils. Although new President Hassan Rohani is a cautious man who gets along with the Guardians, his very election shocked the religious establishment and was a repudiation of the provocative madness of Ahmadinejad.

Iran is probably years away from major political turmoil, but keep your eyes on Turkey, which may well be the next Egypt. Protests are gathering against the Erdoğan government, which represents the interests of conservative religion. His policies are viewed (correctly) as antithetical to the staunch secularism embedded in the Turkish constitution since the founding of the modern Turkey by Kemal Atatürk in 1923. Turks desperately long to join the European Union and it’s simply not going to happen until Turkey gets its finances in order and its Islamists out of power. Kemalists are waiting in the wings and they have historically leaned on the military.

The bottom line is this: Change is coming to the Middle East, but it’s more likely to wear a medal festooned uniform than a robe and a beard.