Unorthodox Jukebox by Bruno Mars

I will gladly say it, you can put me in the Bruno Mars fan club. This young man has got an incredible voice, and perhaps an even greater talent. Channeling Sam Cooke, Prince and Micheal Jackson and that my friends is not just hyperbole this fellow might have the strongest, most versatile voice in music today.

As good, as catchy, as the first album was there is no doubt in my mind that this album is better than his first one. The first single Locked Out of Heaven has been all over the radio but even that is more of a generic hit, more a result of Mars ability to make a catchy hit in his sleep than a reflection of his talent.

On Moonshine Mars sounds like he has come off a Micheal album from the eighties with a chorus that is silky smooth, even makes me think a little of Dan Hartman. The first song on the album is Young Girls a song that Mars sang a couple of months ago on Saturday Night Live. This will soon be soaring to the top of your charts without a doubt.

Four other songs on the album deserve exceptional notice and in sets of two they are as different as any you will find. When I was Your Man finds the singer lamenting the loss of a woman that he should have bought flowers and held her hand. He was however too young and too dumb and now she is Dancing with another man. Heartbreak through the voice of Bruno Mars is pop friendly but that should mitigate this exceptional talent. If one is still not convinced the last two minutes and thirteen seconds on the album should seal the deal. If I Knew could have been sung by any of the forefathers of black music from the sixties, for me Sam Cooke comes to mind but you can take your pick. It is a perfect song.

To talk about the other two songs of note one needs to turn the page and put the kids to bed because that is when bad Bruno comes out. With his nod to Prince and perhaps even Marvin Gaye and Rick James the song Gorillas has Mars dropping his Mf's with the best of them advising his girl " you and me baby will be making love like gorilla's." After expressing no worries about the cops being called about their loud carnal activities, his girl calling him Daddy, and calling him, for you Prince, a sexy mother,,,,,r, we know that Bruno knows where all his sweet songs end up. It is a contrast but it is well crafted and Prince is surely smiling somewhere.

Following that song with a spoken into about squirrels and MF's again we here Treasure which starts like Delirious era Prince but before you get settled you get comfortable with another naughty song you realize this is just another slice of eighties pop sounding more like Kool and the Gang or El Debarge than anything else.

In short, and, with Bruno's height, that is indeed a pun, one does not know who Bruno Mars really is. Perhaps the Pandora skit on SNL earlier this year spoke volumes, perhaps the song title of Jukebox is meaningful. Whatever it is Mars has numerous influences and with his talent his albums are like a tour of popular black music of the last few decades. He has a voice like sugar and is incredibly talented.

This is a very good album.

Pulphead, Essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan

This book has been receiving a great deal of press over the last few weeks. With write ups in magazines including The New Yorker a case has been made that this collection proves the vitality of the modern day essayist is very strong.

I cannot disagree. I love essays. I love the New Yorker. What makes the New Yorker so strong to me is that you can have articles where you learn about banannas and apples which my children enjoying reiviewing with me, to indepth political writing, commentary by some of the best in the business and some of the best writers in the world such as Roger Angel, Ian Frazier and Malcolm Gladwell just to name a few.

John J Sullivan does not write for The New Yorker. He writes or has written for GQ, The Oxford American and others. He writes...magnigicently.

This collection of essays might be the strongest thing I will read all year.

A review of the essays is as follows.

Upon This Rock finds Sullivan visiting a Christian Rock festival. While he disdains the term Christian Rock and finds the performers of it often a shill to crass marketing strategies Sullivan finds that as much as he would like to be cynical about those attending the festival he cannot be. He finds little to criticize and much to compliment, albeit in a manner that makes one think of how fond we are of people who believe in something and gain from it, something that we ourselves cannot make the leap to belive.

Feet in Smoke tells he personal story of his older brother Werth is electrocuted from a mike stand when singing in his rock band. He miracuously lives, Sullivan documents the month he spent at his brothers side while his brain was rewiring itself. It is funny and yet not mean funny as he talks of a nurse stating wouldn't it be great if his brother stayed in the innocent disoriented state he was in and he was humbled to admit he felt that too.

An Essay for Mr Andrew Lytle tells of his time at Swannee College when he was the live in companion of the great Southern writer Andrew Lytle.

At a Shelter tells of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Getting Down to What's Really Real explores what happens to some of your favorite stars of MTV's the Real World when their time on the air is over.

Two essays about famous figures, one about Micheal Jackson shortly after his death, one about the ever on the comeback trail Axl Rose. They both are funny and personally told with the Rose story being a true keeper.

American Grotesque takes a meanandering look at the health care battle and how it affects deep into the spine of the American culture of haves and have nots.

Two stories are of a naturalist bent. Sullivan writes about An Eccentric Naturalist named Constantine Rafinesque who was busy in America in the first half of the nineteenth century. Eccentric and Crazy yes. Genius would be another word. In Unnamed Caves Sullivan explores the caves of the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee, their history and their discoveries in the last one hundred years and what it all means.

In Unknown Bards the writer explores the not exactly booming business, but very dedicated group of folks who troll looking for soul, rhythem and blues..i.e black music from the first half of the twentieth century. Most of these performers you have never heard or heard of but it is said and Sullivan agrees that listening to some of this music will be a life changing experience.

Sullivan writes a story about meeting Bunny Wailer, the last of the Bob Marley wailers and along the way explores Jamaica and the Rasta movement.

Perhaps the weakest story is Violence of the Lambs. This is a story about the changing behaviors of animal species, the effects of global warming and as we learn near the end much of the story is farcical though Sullivan maintains many of the animal attack incidents written are real.

Lastly Sullivan tells of the experience of living in Peyton's house. Peyton being a character on the television show One Tree Hill. His house, before being purchased by him, had been used for external and internal scenes on the show and to help meet the mortgage he decides to continue the practice. He takes us through that experience, the benefits and his eventual dissatisfaction with it.

Reading this book is like reading a great issue of your favorite literary magazine with an issue dedicted to articles by your favorite colulmnist, essayist or whatever you choose to call him.

Sullivan's writing is fantastic. This is a must read.

Bruno Mars, Doo-Wops & Hooligans

I have little exposure these days to top 40 music. My middle son is big into the rap music that permeates everywhere these days and my daughter has already gone through her Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus stage and now considers Taylor Swift as good as it gets.

I, as we listen to the 20 songs the hit radio station they listen to in the car, have heard some of the Bruno Mars songs. He seemed to me to be able to carry a tune. I saw him on Saturday Night Live this past fall and while not paying much attention he seemed like he could have some talent. Recently I read an article in Rolling Stone about him and it tells that he has been involved in show business for his whole life, even being a childhood Elvis impersonator.

So a friend of mine let me borrow this album and having listened to it today a couple times through I have to say that Bruno makes me feel like there may be hope for current music. This kid can really sing.

The single " Grenade " is so catchy that I have been annoying the kids singing the chorus all day. " Just the Way You Are" is nearly as infectious. Marry You and Talking to the Moon could soon be finding their way to a radio near you as well. Interestingly and of note to me are a couple of tracks, Runaway Baby and The Lazy Song which in addition to be as catchy are backed with a reggae beat. In most of the songs, certainly on Talking to the Moon one can hear a similarity to Micheal Jackson. His voice is strong and sweet. I do not know if he writes his own music, I do not know if he will progress or fade away but for right now Bruno Mars is at the top of his game.