#mournful music
Daniel Handler recently wrote a short story for the Berkeley Rep Theater’s “Place/Settings: Berkeley” project. The latter “is a 10-part podcast series in which local writers share a story centered in a specific location in Berkeley, inspired by their own personal histories.” The Daily Californian reports that
[Daniel Handler] drew from his own experiences growing up in San Francisco to write his episode, “Black Mass Sonata.” In the episode, a listless teenager wandering through Berkeley winds up at The Musical Offering Cafe on Bancroft Way. While listening to Alexander Scriabin’s evocative“Black Mass Sonata,” he finds comfort in the shared human experience of feeling lost.
“It’s a true story from my life,” Handler shared in an interview with The Daily Californian. Speaking to his personal connection to Berkeley, he shared, “As someone who grew up in San Francisco, Berkeley seemed very glamorous to me when I was young. It was full of young people doing exciting things, and when I was in high school, the idea of many people in their twenties doing something more glamorous and exciting than what I was doing was certainly very appealing.”
In the rest of the article, Handler briefly talks about how music has impacted his writing, and how the project came out of current restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
> The podcast series can be had for $10 with a new story being released weekly (the debut was on Jan 12, 2021); Acquire a ticket and/or read more about it here.
Nina Simone - Sinnerman
Read Lemony Snicket’s latest book, Poison for Breakfast, for an insightful breakdown of this song. The book (unfortunately) doesn’t come with this recording, so here it is for your reference.
(Andclick here for a playlist of the jazz music referenced in Snicket’s All The Wrong Questions.)
Stephin Merritt performing “Smile! No One Cares How You Feel” in promotion of The Gothic Archies’ The Tragic Treasury. Good Day Atlanta, indeed.
