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A review by lpm100
Diper Överlöde by Jeff Kinney
5.0
A Parent's Book Review
Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Diper Överlöde
5+/5 stars
"Jeff Kinney is a talent in his own right and a true force of nature as author."
*******
I'm in the habit of reading books before I give them to my kids to make sure that they are "clean."
This book is that, and it is one of those books that functions at so many levels. (Reminiscent of how it is when you're watching Looney Tunes cartoons as a child, and you laugh at the slapstick humor. But then if you rewatch them as an adult with the benefit of a couple more decades of life experience, they are funny...... But in a different way.)
And to be an author who can write one book that is on parallel tracks for different audiences is a rare talent. (Jeff Kinney is thought to be worth $120 million as of this book review. And the Looney tunes have been running for the past three quarters of a century.)
Kinney manages to say more than Ayn Rand in 1/50th of the words.
***
Ostensibly, this is a book about an adolescent's experience working as a stage hand for an aspiring rock band; but for people who have read books about the music industry / listen to lots of music (like the present Parent Reviewer), it actually does have a depth of material:
1. It's commentary on the music industry as it exists today and as it might be seen through the eyes of people who were once in the industry and aged out of it. ("Where Are They Now?")
2. It is commentary about the type of problems that tear a band apart.
Or about the things that make it such that that they never get off the ground to begin with. (And it is true that the overwhelming majority of people who try to go into music do not succeed or make any significant amount of money.)
3. Some people are rock stars for a period of time during which they are on top of the world, and 25 years pass and they are penniless, bitter and forgotten. The victim of bad decisions and contracts that are made by Wily Lawyers to dupe Idiot Musicians
4. At one point in time, people wrote their own songs and played their own instruments and found their way to success one gig at a time. (Aerosmith. The Doors. The Grateful Dead.)
But the music industry changed in such a way that music labels would craft an idea and hire a professional songwriter and getting bodies to sing on the stage (none of who play their own instruments) is an afterthought.
98 degrees/Nsync/ The Backstreet Boys were all the commercial product of a single Wily Jewish Businessman.
5. Some musicians are businessmen (think about people like Ray Charles, who did not die broke) and others sell millions upon millions of albums and still end up in/close to bankruptcy court. (Michael Jackson ended his life with debts of nearly half a billion .)
6. Becoming a successful artist also requires that people write about things that others want to hear. A lot of bands spend several years trying to find out what they want to sound like and what their message is. (Ray Charles spent many years as a Discount Nat "King" Cole. Luther Vandross sang jingles for years until he figured how to define himself as a recognizable artist.)
7. A lot of bands are derivative of others, and where do you draw the line between staying within a genre and copyright violation? (Yes, the word "copyright" really did show up in this book.)
Verdict: Strongly recommended, both for children and adults.
It's a very funny read, both for children and adults.
PS: I can tell that this author is around my age, because he even riffs on the long forgotten Garbage Pail Kids. (p.185-6, reimagined as the "Revolting Runts")
Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Diper Överlöde
5+/5 stars
"Jeff Kinney is a talent in his own right and a true force of nature as author."
*******
I'm in the habit of reading books before I give them to my kids to make sure that they are "clean."
This book is that, and it is one of those books that functions at so many levels. (Reminiscent of how it is when you're watching Looney Tunes cartoons as a child, and you laugh at the slapstick humor. But then if you rewatch them as an adult with the benefit of a couple more decades of life experience, they are funny...... But in a different way.)
And to be an author who can write one book that is on parallel tracks for different audiences is a rare talent. (Jeff Kinney is thought to be worth $120 million as of this book review. And the Looney tunes have been running for the past three quarters of a century.)
Kinney manages to say more than Ayn Rand in 1/50th of the words.
***
Ostensibly, this is a book about an adolescent's experience working as a stage hand for an aspiring rock band; but for people who have read books about the music industry / listen to lots of music (like the present Parent Reviewer), it actually does have a depth of material:
1. It's commentary on the music industry as it exists today and as it might be seen through the eyes of people who were once in the industry and aged out of it. ("Where Are They Now?")
2. It is commentary about the type of problems that tear a band apart.
Or about the things that make it such that that they never get off the ground to begin with. (And it is true that the overwhelming majority of people who try to go into music do not succeed or make any significant amount of money.)
3. Some people are rock stars for a period of time during which they are on top of the world, and 25 years pass and they are penniless, bitter and forgotten. The victim of bad decisions and contracts that are made by Wily Lawyers to dupe Idiot Musicians
4. At one point in time, people wrote their own songs and played their own instruments and found their way to success one gig at a time. (Aerosmith. The Doors. The Grateful Dead.)
But the music industry changed in such a way that music labels would craft an idea and hire a professional songwriter and getting bodies to sing on the stage (none of who play their own instruments) is an afterthought.
98 degrees/Nsync/ The Backstreet Boys were all the commercial product of a single Wily Jewish Businessman.
5. Some musicians are businessmen (think about people like Ray Charles, who did not die broke) and others sell millions upon millions of albums and still end up in/close to bankruptcy court. (Michael Jackson ended his life with debts of nearly half a billion .)
6. Becoming a successful artist also requires that people write about things that others want to hear. A lot of bands spend several years trying to find out what they want to sound like and what their message is. (Ray Charles spent many years as a Discount Nat "King" Cole. Luther Vandross sang jingles for years until he figured how to define himself as a recognizable artist.)
7. A lot of bands are derivative of others, and where do you draw the line between staying within a genre and copyright violation? (Yes, the word "copyright" really did show up in this book.)
Verdict: Strongly recommended, both for children and adults.
It's a very funny read, both for children and adults.
PS: I can tell that this author is around my age, because he even riffs on the long forgotten Garbage Pail Kids. (p.185-6, reimagined as the "Revolting Runts")