Djuna A. Davidson

Hollywood Is Like High School With Money

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0000

In the new novel Hollywood is Like High School with Money, Zoey Dean explores high-stakes backstabbing amidst the glamorous realm of movie making. This book is reflective of the author’s typical genre: juvenile novels set in ritzy realms where teenagers act like jaded adults beyond what is typical among American youth. The author previously penned The A-List: Hollywood Royalty series and has been a New York Times bestseller for just this sort of novel. Book clubs beware: Dean’s latest take on Beverly Hills might find its way to your reading list.

The protagonist in this particular story is a naïve young Ohioan transplant to the Hills named Taylor Henning who lands her first Hollywood job as second assistant to corporate powerhouse Iris Whittaker at Metronome movie studio. Taylor quickly learns that good girl Midwest manners don’t keep her in the game amidst the school of sharks that is corporate entertainment America. Like many other beach-reads, this book plays out the scenario of innocent girl meets snarky sabotaging antagonist, yet somehow heroine manages to come out on top. As in the popular film Mean Girls, the protagonist takes a turn trying on the wicked glove before managing to triumph.

Sometimes superfluous with adjectives, Dean nonetheless manages to draw readers into Taylor's plight among the piranhas of Hollywood. Taylor's number one nemesis is one venomous blonde named Kylie Arthur, first assistant to Ms. Whitaker. Kylie is devious in the most typical manner of the beautifully vapid and will stop at nothing to move up in the company. The only character more wily than Kylie is Iris’ young daughter, Quinn, with her brazenly typical “don’t give a fuck” teen attitude and practiced indifference to everything outside her adolescent circle of cool.

Dean throws a cog into the works when Taylor reaches out to Quinn for advice on how to survive amongst the Beverly Hills veterans, and the teenage girl begrudgingly obliges. As Taylor follows Quinn’s texted directives such as “fake it until you make it,” she undergoes a transformation from Cleveland sweetie into vindictive power player. In some places, it is almost unbelievable that Taylor would so rapidly confuse her true nature with the cutthroat habits of the industry (via the eyes of a teen), but sometimes innocence really can breed extreme behavior and so, as a reader, you just roll with believing.

While overall Dean does a good job of bringing the reader into Taylor’s Hollywood world, it can sometimes feel like a case of “grab the thesaurus” to sort through the descriptions. While I have nothing against narratives written to entertain youth, please do realize that reading this novel will not enrich your literary breadth: it will amuse you in some places, frustrate you in others, and ultimately leave you with a feeling of blank.

Blank is okay though, because reading a book like this clears your mental slate allowing you to walk lazily down an imaginary path that doesn’t require cerebral strain. With an open mind for the genre of juvenile lit, anyone can enjoy passing time with Zoey Dean’s characters. Unless, of course, you get annoyed by silly girls making bad choices, losing the guy because of those choices, and then winding up a winning princess in the end. I’ll admit that I knew all along this novel wouldn’t break new ground for me, but nonetheless I enjoyed the read. Hollywood Is like High School with Money is a pleasant investment of one’s time and will mos’def pass an afternoon.

Written by: Djuna A. Davidson, December 21st 2009

Red River

admin — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:00:00 +0000

By Sonya Cotton

San Francisco artist Sonya Cotton’s latest release, Red River, is a fantastic album for a quiet day. I imagine one of those long, tired days when you just don’t want to get out of bed—Sunday maybe, the rain drumming upon the window, your tea wafting gentile tendrils of lavender chamomile, and you want something to wrap you in comfort. Beginning softly with “Wild Wind” and winding through one’s headspace to the delicately sparse “Cold and Dreamless,” a relaxed tenderness carries you throughout the entire album as you find yourself feeling at home in Cotton’s songs.

Cotton’s voice is delicate yet she unleashes an amazing power in her unassuming vocals that will surprise listeners. A highlight of this release is the sweet ballad “Red River” with its declaration of survival and faith. She sings, “though the clouds are coming in, this body is stirring, our vessel is waiting, don’t be afraid, there is glory ahead,“ and you cannot help but feel safe. The entire song is a reassurance that allows one to lay weight to the hands of fate instead of trying to grasp control. Like the river Cotton sings of, one moves freely in subtle contemplation while listening to this song.

While not all the songs have lyrics that would be appropriate, you might choose certain selections from this album to create a lullaby album for your favorite little munchkin. “Cold and Dreamless” and “Song for Tony” are both sweet rhythms that could be played gently to lull the tender young-uns to sleep and dreams. The tender guitar plucking in “Song for Tony” is a nice accompaniment to the loving lyrics that seem to speak of a deep affection. This album is a portrait of gorgeous moments captured and cherished by Cotton—moments honored by the pedestal of her haunting voice and an obvious dedication to her craft.

Written by: Djuna A. Davidson, December 20th 2009

Anna In-Between

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0000

By Elizabeth Nunez

Akashic Books

In her newest novel, Anna In-Between, Elizabeth Nunez explores the complexity of relationships between parents and grown children as well as the delicate nature of a marriage and the complexity of place. This moving novel charts the many obstacles that arise when an adult child becomes the caretaker for a parent. Anna is a Caribbean-American in her forties visiting her folks on the island of her childhood when she learns that her mother, Beatrice Sinclair, has cancer—and not just the beginning of cancer, but a fully developed and bleeding tumor that has been ignored by both John, her father, and her mother for quite some time.

Anna cannot comprehend such an avoidance of this life-threatening illness and spends much of the novel in upheaval over the decidedly cautious ways her parents seem to relate. She does not understand their patterns, and she struggles to find a correlation between her own feelings about relationships and the marriage her parents share. In some ways, what her parents see as quiet respect for each other is viewed by Anna merely as caution and fear. She now lives in America where marriage can be temporal and she sees her parents’ restraint as weakness rather than strength.

A sadness and fury falls over Anna as she comes to realize that Beatrice hides from her sleeping husband in a darkened bathroom to say nightly prayers over the rosary. This is her mother’s manner of attending to the illness. Anna’s anger is deepened by John’s admittance that he knew of the tumor, but stayed quiet out of respect for his wife’s privacy. Nunez writes through the view of the father, “Privacy matters so much he will guard his wife’s secret even from herself.”

In a way, Anna’s parents do not have to accept the terrifying potential of the illness if they do not discuss its presence. They may carry on with their quiet and pleasant life in chosen ignorance. Avoidance seems to be a theme in the novel, as Anna’s mother will not go to America for treatment because Blacks are mistreated in the country. While Anna struggles to defend America, she finds herself reviewing the many ways racism runs deep in her new country, and is torn apart by memories of the racism that defined her childhood on a Caribbean island under British rule.

Anna In-Between outlines the many ways Anna cannot comprehend her parents, and sometimes cannot understand herself. She lives torn between the island of her homeland, its tropical mannerisms that revive precious memories, and the life she has built as an American. With starkly poignant language, Nunez paints a picture of Anna’s confusion about her place between these two worlds and how to understand her bond with both lives.

Anna In-Between carries a heavy weight, but is written with a light hand. Nunez knows just how to paint a picture with both depth and breadth while remaining accessible in her use of language. The novel tells a poignant tale that will bring out feelings of intensity for the reader, and these strong emotions are well worth the time invested.

Written by: Djuna A. Davidson, December 11th 2009

Decision and Destiny

admin — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 08:59:00 +0000

By DeVa Gantt

First Avon Publishing

Decision and Destiny is the second novel in a three part series about the Duvoisin family of Charmantes Island. In this breathy period piece, we pick up the tale of the troubled Duvoisin family and their faithful governess, Chairmaine, after the death of matriarch Colette.

The patriarch of the family, Frederic, is a recluse who seldom interacts with his three youngest children, Pierre, Yvette, and Jeanette, and spends nearly all of his time in a private study. His new wife, Agatha, is an ogre of a woman who seems to hate the children and is the sister of his first wife, Elizabeth. Then there are Frederic’s two older children, sons bore before the lady Colette was even a factor in the drama. Paul is the prodigal yet illegitimate son who heads the family farming and shipping business while John is the estranged heir who shows up unexpectedly to re-ignite the hidden mystery of the family in Decision and Destiny. At the core of this tale we find the lovely Chairmaine with her complete dedication to the children and her blossoming attraction to both elder sons of Frederic.

Yes, the Duvoisin family is this complicated, and we learn even more so as the intricate tale unfolds. Familial complexities are central to the storyline as exampled in the seething fury that exists in the dynamic between father and son, Frederic and John, as well as the fierce competition between brothers John and Paul. There is a definite triangle of frustration in the interactions between the three men as John attempts to find his place within the family without really having to hold a role, and Frederic largely withholds himself from everyone. John guards his independence from his father’s fortune with passion while Paul, ever the workhorse for the family business, remains second in line despite his dedication.

For his part, Frederic’s anger with John is largely rooted in the death of John’s mother, Elizabeth, on the birth-bed some twenty-nine years prior. While knowing that his seething blame towards John is unfair, Frederic cannot help himself from continuously directing responsibility to the poor boy. It is made clear throughout this novel that Frederic withheld much affection from John as a result of his own heartache at the death of his first beloved wife. As the story unfolds, we learn that there is an even stickier layer to the current furies between father and son.

This novel is the collaborative effort of sisters Debra and Valerie Gantt—DeVa Gantt their writer’s pseudonym. These two women planted the seed of the Duvoisin family nearly three decades ago when they began to write this story in the late ‘70s. However, as it is wont to do, life intercepted their time and the novel was put down for twenty years. In 2002, the sisters decided to pick the story back up and the trilogy’s first novel, A Silent Ocean Away, was finally finished.

Reading the first installment could undoubtedly invest a reader in the family, but Decision and Destiny is able to stand on its own as a complete tale of love, despair, and unfolding mystery. While no groundbreaking literary feat, this novel is an entertaining read that is a good investment of ones’ time for the hammock on a hot summer day or the sofa on a cozy winter’s night.

Written by: Djuna A. Davidson, July 5th 2009

Summer of Hate

admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:06:00 +0000

By Crocodiles

Fat Possum Records

Crocodiles spew out a mix of rough punk, echo-tinged shoegaze, and a little bit of gritty rock on their debut full-length album, Summer Of Hate. Sometimes the lyrics come out in droning, almost emo chants, and sometimes they reflect a punkish sort of feel invoking angsty ballads of sunny summer days.

Band members Charles Rowell and Brandon Welchez are obviously proponents of the lo-fi music sound and seem to have been influenced by early psychedelic rock with the dreamy atmosphere that many of their songs create. The opening instrumental, "Screaming Chrome," exemplifies this perfectly with its forty-eight second reverberating organ bubble and it drops one well as an intro to the second song.

Just because the title and lyrics of the second track, “I Want To Kill,” are familiar whines that bring back memories of teenage years, I almost hate to say that it is my favorite song within the thirty-four minutes of music that equate this album. However, with a mix of rollicking and mildly ‘90s punk anthem style sound, it makes you feel like you should be out drinking malt forties while laying graffiti.

However, if you don’t embrace the lo-fi sound, Summer Of Hate is not for you because the entire album sounds like it was intentionally recorded in one severely echo-filled room rather than in a studio. Obviously, Rowell and Welchez meant to create this sound, and it appears that they had fun doing so.

“Young Drugs,” the final song on the album, is the low point and sounds like two different songs lying atop each other in an incongruous rather than melodious manner. I was listening to it with a friend, and she described it as sounding like you’re listening to a pop rock song—but then someone’s cell phone rings and the overlapping sounds are confusing. The effect is not fantastic, and the song loses effectiveness by sounding like battling rather than collaborating melodies.

Overall, Summer Of Hate is decent music that seems to get its point across, but it’s just not quite fresh enough. The songs hold together, but you keep thinking that somewhere, you’ve heard these tunes before.

Written by: Djuna A. Davidson, July 2nd 2009

Snacktopus Stationary

admin — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:56:00 +0000

Nut and Bee

These adorable notecards are printed on heavy weight, pale-colored paper and embossed with the playful image of a blue octopus clutching a tasty snack. Wrapped among his left tentacles is a weiner-snack that his mouth opens towards. The paper has a good density that lends to nice ink absorption and softly rounded corners further bespeak the whimsical intent of these correspondence-inducing notepapers. The company manifesto on the back sleeve declares, “We specialize in the sweet and humorous, cute and whimsical. Animals, snacks, nature and naps abound!” Nut and Bee lays claim that their products are hand-assembled, and this is evident through the care put into the production of this delightful stationary.

Written by: Djuna A. Davidson, September 5th 2007

From the Decker House

admin — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 13:05:00 +0000

By The Rosewood Thieves

V2 Records

From the Decker House is a brief, pop-ish, countryside-style, storytelling album reminiscent of Bob Dylan ramblings, although not nearly as timeless. The band met in Idlewild, CA in 2004, but now records from the opposite end of the country in New York. This album takes its name from the apparently decrepit Decker House estate in the mountains behind Deposit, NY that the band adopted as a home base for the concoction of this album.

“Los Angeles,” the first song on the album, is a strutting intro that almost reminds one of a Beatles-style love tune with kicky, adoration-spewing lyrics about moving westward to catch sunshine. There is a sense of sharpness in the instrumentals that nearly overwhelms the softness of Erick Jordan’s raspy vocal curls. His achy whines transmit a feeling of searching that echoes redundantly throughout the nineteen-minute album and bounces against the organ that Mackenzie Vernacchio expertly chops into the leading guitar.

The Rosewood Thieves found a nice place in the mountain country of Deposit to collaborate on this album, and it sounds like good friends on a quiet vacation making music. Despite, through the endeavor to describe it accurately, having listened to the album sufficient times to get the lyrics caught in my mind, there is not quite enough lasting power to make From the Decker House a favorite in my own collection.

Written by: Djuna A. Davidson, March 18th 2007

Milk White Sheets

admin — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 12:36:00 +0000

By Isobel Campbell

V2 Records

Milk White Sheets is good music for long mornings sitting in bed watching snow fall. First listening to this album in the evening after a day of work, I had a difficult time relating to the quiet hum that this album resonates. Even with the volume turned high, the unfamiliar lyrics were difficult to decipher while strains of cello, glockenspiel, dulcimer and guitar strings sounded haunting in the dark of the night. However, the next morning began with Milk White Sheets and the dreamy sounds of Isobel’s crystalline voice merged with the diverse span of instruments to surround the day with a quiet microcosm of comfort.

When mixed under the deft hand of Campbell, the resultant soundings on this album are melodious and gentle; they remind me of a cross between nursery rhymes, Gaelic or Celtic traditionals, and pirate shanties sung at bedtime. Primarily, the album contains original compositions with approximately six traditional songs re-arranged by Campbell and two songs written by friends. There is a charming 48-second hidden track called “Bird in the Wood” where listeners are given a chiming bell echo that seems to sing the delicacy of life in its simplicity.

This is considered Campbell’s second solo release although it was, in fact, recorded prior to her collaboration album with Mark Lanegan, Ballad of the Broken Seas. Folks who enjoyed the sweeping emotion of that recording will likely find pleasure in the gorgeous melodies of this extraordinary new release, Milk White Sheets. There is surely a place for Isobel Campbell in the heads of listeners who enjoy the likes of Nick Cave, Cat Power or Devendra Banhart. And anyone who is looking for some introspective morning musings would be pleased to start their day with this beautifully haunting folk album.

Written by: Djuna A. Davidson, March 7th 2007