Eclipse no. 1
Good evening,
How was your day? Rainy I assume. Quite thunderous in some parts.
Welcome to our first issue. Three sections today. A music review, an audiobook review and a featurette of our friends over at Triple Yeah! Productions. Enjoy the food.
Louzy Review written by sean gallagher
Louzy is a punk rock power trio hailing from the outskirts of Boston. Their latest EP, Peanut Gallery has been on a heavy rotation for me since its release at the end of June. The whole EP sounds like it would smell like body odor, musty basement, a beer soaked carpet, and all the other offerings of a Saturday night spent pressed up against your friends in a sweaty house show. I mean that in a loving way. It’s fast and gritty but also has its slower and more melodic moments. Both of which are equal sing-along and/or pig pile fuel. If I had to make some musical comparisons, I’d say it sounds very Violent Soho-esque mixed with some Dillinger Four. Peanut Gallery comes off like a love letter to cheap beer, weed, and your prick of a landlord. The letters written on the back of an eviction notice on a coffee table and covered in beer stains and weed shavings… also, it’s written in, like, fancy cursive or something.
https://open.spotify.com/album/5PmRRUYQh0aBdXUT1ZZzj5?si=bUHfJfZrST2Uy7-BtOUSrQ
https://www.facebook.com/Louzy-144710786280567/
Sadie Review written by Jack Croughwell
Art bleeds. It blends and seeps until the colors and shapes have reformed into something new, comprised of the inspirations, fancies, and lingering thoughts of their creators. And a deliciously bloody work of art can be found in Courtney Summers’s 2018 novel, Sadie.
I try not to learn much about books before I read them. I love the surprise. The thrill. And, I love the two-sentence commentary the librarian has for me when they hand me the text. Oh, I love that one. Or, This one’s really good. Or, You know, we have a book club that meets for adults who read YA. But, this time I was recommended the audio version of the book in addition to her rousing endorsement. I listened to it. Me, Why’s that? Her, Because it’s like a podcast.
The way I pitch it to fellow fans of YA (to anyone really; I find the text transcends into the literary as well as offers elements of mystery and adventure) is imagine your regular dual-narrator text. Maybe, it’s a love story with both of the lovers’ perspectives. One of the characters we follow is the titular Sadie, a teenage girl on the hunt for her father after the murder of her younger sister. These portions of the novel are much more traditional: the layout of the story is constantly moving forward and it is written in prose. The other half is all podcast. Host West McCray is working on his first big story tracking down a missing teenage girl, Sadie, after her disappearance following the murder of her younger sister, Mattie. Such narrative structure allows us the addictive reading experience of Sadie’s belligerent quest as well as the gripping installments of McCray’s podcast, The Girls in which he efforts to piece together Sadie’s motives and movements across the country.
A la Serial and Shittown and with the same gripping tonality of 99% Invisible, we get to sit back and read the thrilling saga and horrifying tragedy hidden in the backstory of Sadie’s life. But, again, that’s only half the story. West McCray, host of The Girls, additionally experiences his own coming-of-age. A father himself, West McCray’s obsessive nature over the fate of Sadie drives him forward. The dead ends he hits sends him into bursts of self-doubt and an increasing, pervasive sense of worry. Part of what makes the novel so mesmerizing is the characters’ commitments to their goals and their reasons behind them. We can see West McCray struggle to continue with the story, and we agonize because after having read Sadie’s chapter we know where he should pursue next. The reader receives more of the story than either of the main characters. Sadie, a speedboat charging through tempestuous waters, and West McCray, the calming ripples of her wake. A boat cannot concern itself with the whiteheads it leaves behind, and the waves can do nothing but settle. Only we, as outside parties, can fully experience the whole picture. Watching it, or rather listening to it come together in a crescendo of multi-media storytelling.
Sadie by Courtney Summers is the best Young Adult novel I have read in a long while. Its blend of novelization and podcasting create an artful testament to our time. It was not until the modern love for the audio medium that is the serialized podcast had risen to such monumental heights that we can finally experience its intersections with preexisting artforms. Though many passages and revelations of Sadie are not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach, this novel is worth your time.
Triple Yeah Productions!
Any disciple of Adult Swim will appreciate the disorienting effect Triple Yeah! video productions have. With chaotic editing, a reverence for discomfort and a daring edge, we can’t wait for Triple Yeah! to put out more content to view.
Visit them at: www.tripleyeah.com
Good evening,
We hope you enjoyed out first of many posts on The Weekly Eclipse. Submit to be part of this odd spectacle. Stay tuned for more. Bon voyage.
