GIG Dirty Projectors Wednesday, September 16, 2009 metrolife 13 Staying In Book Reviews Book Of The Week Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann Bloomsbury, 22 FRINGE REVIEW Wondermart When a blogger-approved group of New York experimentalists fetch up on our shores, the results are often distinctly drab and underwhelming. Happily, Brooklyns Dirty Projectors truly are as far-out as the buzz would have you believe. On their latest album, Bitte Orca (loosely translated from German as please, Killer Whale), Dave Longstreth, the quartets creative force, chucks in random bits of jazz, 1960s girl pop, lo-fi and shoe- gaze, like a mad chef trying to cram as many ingredients into a blender before the blades snap in two. On their last visit to Dublin, Dirty Projectors shared the bill with jazz odd-balls Polar Bear and its arguable that they are as at home in the jazz world as in the indie-pop one. Whatever genre they belong to, its always heartening to encounter a band willing to take a blow-torch to the alternative rock road map while not coming over all po-faced in the process. Spinning sonic gold from the most unpromising of base- metal ingredients, the Projectors are proof that, if youve got a knack for easy-on-the-ear melodies, you can be as eye-rollingly unconventional all you like. Eamon de Paor Tonight, Whelans, 25 Wexford Street D2, 8pm, 15 (returns only). Tel: (01) 478 0766. www.myspace.com/ dirtyprojectors Renegade: The Making Of Barack Obama by Richard Wolffe Virgin Books, 22 Newsweek correspondent Richard Wolffe was approached by Barack Obama to make a book out of his coverage of the Illinois senators presidential bid. Obamas cooperation meant Wolffe had lots of access to the man himself, as well as those around him, but Renegade never feels as revelatory as youd have hoped. A consummate political operator, Obama seems to take Wolffe into his confidence when, in fact, his comments are bland. Wolffe seems a little too starstruck to notice and never entirely succeeds in making a case for Obama being a political renegade (his Secret Service moniker). This blow-by- blow chronicle of the campaign trail can be wearyingly detailed beware if you dont know your caucus from your primary and Wolffes attachment to Camp Obama means this is a necessarily skewed version. But in among the basketball analogies (Obama had to shoot hoops for luck every election day), there are some interesting insights into how the crises along the way were handled, and how unflappable Obama can be. Siobhn Murphy Wanting by Richard Flanagan Atlantic, 18 This beautifully written novel tells the story of Sir John Franklin, the governor of a 19th century penal colony in Tasmania, who adopts an aboriginal girl, Mathinna. But while his wife, Lady Jane, views it as a social experiment to civilise the girl, Sir John begins to develop an appreciation for the wild child who runs barefoot in the forest. Richard Flanagan juxtaposes two sides of the Victorian mindset, whereby passions and desire are considered unchristian, but subjugating foreigners is just and moral. Unfortunately, he undermines his point with characters that are too satirical. Lady Jane is almost comically stuffy, aloof and repressed. Flanagans treatment of Mathinna is only slightly less condescending than Lady Janes; she strays very close to the noble savage stereotype at times. The novel jumps back and forth in time, covering Sir Johns scandalous death years later, and Charles Dickenss interest in it, but ultimately these are a couple of juxtapositions too far, and the novel is too short to develop most of its strands satisfyingly. Jonathan Eyers Jacobs Beach: The Mob, The Garden & The Golden Age Of Boxing by Kevin Mitchell Yellow Jersey, 24 This scrappy book will leave you none the wiser about the golden age of boxing; in fact, its even hard to work out when Kevin Mitchell thinks that was. Jacobs Beach was a stretch of pavement near New York boxing mecca Madison Square Garden, and its epicentre was the ticket agency operated by promoter Mike Jacobs. From the mid-1930s until 1946, Jacobs controlled boxing at the Garden. But he gets short page time in a book that bears his name: instead, we move on to when the Mob front the International Boxing Club. This coterie of chancers, Mitchell contends, nearly killed the fight game in the 1950s with their blatant fixing. Soon after, were into Don King territory and transcripts of interviews with old men with faulty memories. Its hard to ascertain what Mitchells argument is amid this blizzard of stories, gossip, conjecture and fictionalised conversations that might be because hes straining the facts to fit his premise. SM Thirty-five years on, Philippe Petits tightrope walk between the Twin Towers has belatedly recaptured our collective imagination. Following 2008s breathtaking Man On Wire documentary, Dublin-born Colum McCann uses a fictionalised version of Petits stunt as a thread to bind his tales of 1970s New Yorks seedy underbelly. Were not so much introduced to the characters as plunged headlong into their lives at pivotal moments. Theres the Irish priest Corrigan questioning his faith amidst the Bronx prostitutes, Park Lane mother Claire grieving her son lost in Vietnam, and Lara, a privileged artist struggling with the guilt of a coke- fuelled accident. All the while, the highwire walker looms large on the skyline, a powerful metaphor for the various characters faiths in the uncontrollable and how one false move can irrevocably change the lives of everyone around you. Damaged and proud in equal measures, theres an appealing immediacy to McCanns cast that mirrors the city itself each have grievances but remain focused on the here and now. The authors expert command of pacing brings each distinctive voice to life too, as Corrigans passionate monologues contrast with Claires clipped, nervous speech. Any book that deals with love, life and justice in the shadows of the World Trade Center will inevitably attract talk of 9/11 but this is too nuanced and universal to be pigeonholed. Instead, McCann has spun a mad, bad and seductive world of his own, riding lifes subtle fluctuations like a master tightrope walker. Steve Pill Shopping as it shouldnt be: Wondermart Pretend to shop. Pretend mild bemusement, as if youve forgotten what you were looking for, directs the melodious voice on the MP3 player, as I wheel my trolley around a Dublin supermarket. This is Wondermart, the latest interactive, audio outing from the UK-based performance company Rotozaza. Stressed and pushed for time having not only queued for change for 1 coins but also having helped an elderly lady with an unruly trolley, I eventually dismantled my own wobbly wheels and embarked on a bizarre journey through the aisles as dictated by my invisible host. Put three items that most represent you into the trolley. Flustered at pretending to shop, take directions, absorb facts and not look shifty, I went into panic-buying mode: Yorkshire puddings, green tea and a Britney Spears CD rescued from the bargain bin. Im later asked to stalk a complete stranger, draw a peephole in the condensation on a fridge-freezer door (and look through it I did neither) and hypothetically shoplift a pack of steak and kidney pies. Its rare to find a genuinely compelling interactive audio tour, and this is not one of them. A cringe-worthy and under- developed exercise marrying common knowledge marketing facts with pick up some milk/scratch your head/put milk down again instructions, I searched the aisles for the wonder bit. But unfortunately this marts shelves were bare. Lucy White Until Sat, pick up MP3 player at Filmbase, Curved Street D2, noon until 5pm, 6. Tel: 1850 374 643. www.fringefest.com index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html