Weekly Stuff - Chain-Gang All-Stars, Cu-Bop Vinyl - Aug 19 2024
Weekly Stuff is a series from me to you in which I keep you updated on the best stuff I've read (and sometimes seen/heard/watched) this week. It won't always be made or from this week. I'm sure you can deal with that.
My week has been a busy one! So busy that I'm writing this on Monday, oops.
Last week, I'd just got my old/new record player set up. This week, I've already started building the collection further. I love finding a second-hand record for a few quid and just chancing it, before realising it's an absolute banger.
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On that note, I popped into Hidden Sounds on Ridley Road, Dalston. It's a gorgeous little place, with a lovely little cafe and a host of delightful, eclectic sounds. I found a delightful gem in Cu-Bop, a Latin-inspired album by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers featuring Sabu Martinez on the conga drum. I love hearing alternative takes on classic sounds. Cu-Bop takes tunes like Dizzy Gillespie's Woodyn' You, changing them up with Sabu's drumming whilst keeping hold of Blakey's hard bop vibe.
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I've been reading Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah lately, and finished it today. I remember loving the author's previous work, a 2018 collection of speculative fiction short stories named Friday Black, and Chain-Gang All-Stars is the perfect successor to this work. It actually began as a short story for Friday Black's collection, but Adjei-Brenyah wanted to explore the main character further.
The premise is immediately gripping. Set in the US, incarcerated people are 'given' the option to leave prison through gladiatorial entertainment, becoming freed by surviving the brutal deathmatch circuit for three years. The book explores a whole load of points of view, from the superstars in the arena to the world's most irritating fans of the combat, a fascinating journey in which Adjei-Brenyah unravels how unjust systems are perpetuated, even by well-meaning parties.
Chain-Gang All-Stars also contains footnotes regarding actual US criminal justice, clearly depicting the injustice, racism, and harm within the system as it exists today.
I'll be thinking about it for a while - particularly the main characters' love story. Their love for each other is what grounds them, giving them a reason to survive. To live for each other.
To live for each other, though, they're forced to kill everyone in their way. Other fighters with their own stories - stories we hear, pain that's been fought through, loved ones left behind, hope we know is going to be crushed.
They're nuanced, understanding people. But the reader can't really 'root for' the protagonists in the traditional sense, as the system they're forced to live within requires any joy and love to be coated with a thick layer of blood.
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Have a nice rest of your week. Read a book and listen to some music, it's good for you.
