Book Excerpt for the Day

    A cloud cut across the sun, extinguishing the brightness of the day, and a shadow rolled from the Sacred Seal to the back of the sanctuary where Maralt stood with Carryn.

    “That can’t be good,” he said.  On this pristine day there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

    (from Chosen,  by Jolea M. Harrison)

    7*/10.  The full review is here.
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Science Wednesday

    Chemists!  You never really know what's going through their mind.

Gand-alf

   Well, what did you expect?

Vangelis - Ignacio (from "Entends-tu les chiens aboyer?")

    This is the latest LP I've digitalized.  It's a French release, which is très kewl.  "Entends-tu les chiens aboyer?" translates into "Do you hear the dogs barking", and apparently is a movie.  I've never heard of it, but they got Vangelis to do the music for it, so it's gotta be good. 
 

     The album was in rather poor shape.  No skips, but lots of scratches, big and small.  The de-popper program cleaned it up quite well.  This is a 1977 release, and I've got three or four more Vangelis albums sitting around, waiting to be cobverted.

    I get the impression this is not a well-known album.  However, there is a 15-minute YouTube video that someone made of this, with some simply bitchin' surreal images to go with it.  Search "Vangelis Ignacio" and it will come right up.  I'll probably be posting it as Friday Night Chill Music on FB this weekend.  If you know me there, come give it a listen/watch.

Stardust (Movie)

    My second movie watched in 2013.  The first was Batman - The Dark Knight Rises.

    We'll give Stardust 9*/10.  Great special effects; a cute romance for Liz to get into; and of course, the genius of Neil Gaiman behind it all.  Michelle Pfeiffer does a good job, and the two young'uns are okay, including Claire Danes, who is a fine Gynneth Paltrow lookalike.  But Robert DeNiro frankly steals the show.

    I read the book back in October 2011, and gave it 9½*/10.  No surprise there, Gaiman is a frickin' fantastic author.  The movie is almost - but not quite - as good.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    He dumped the spaghetti jar in the sink and rushed through into the drawing room.  There, Jane was sitting crouched on the edge of a settee, moaning slightly.  With one movement Vanderdecker lifted her up in the air, kissed her noisily on the lips and said, “Guess what?”

    “Ouch,” Jane replied.

    “You’re going to go bright green and luminous, hum slightly, and grow an extra arm,” he said cheerfully.  “What do you think of that?” 

    (from Flying Dutch by Tom Holt)

    8½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Claus Encounters of the Third Kind

Dreams

    True dat.  I could tell you about falling (down Mt. Everest, out of an airplane, etc.); waking up nekkid or in my underwear (in church, in school, at work); or trying to get somewhere when all the roads have inexplicably changed (which somehow doesn't bother me at all in the dream).

    But you've already had all these dreams yourself.

Happy (belated) 4-20 Day!

    It completely slipped my mind, maybe cuz it fell on the weekend.  Then again, if you did celebrate 4-20 properly, you're probably just getting around to posting about it anyway.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “I see by your clothes that you’re a country doumana,” the babbler said.  “No doubt you stare up at the sky and watch the clouds, judge how the wind is blowing, see what colors circle the moon, and guess your weather that way.  Then you consult the vision-stage and let a weather-prophet tell you how close to right you’ve come.  But if you’ve got the knowledge, you just open your mouth and taste.  Rain is like sour fruit, makes my mouth pucker.  Heat taste like dirt.”  She patted my leg with her filthy hand.  “There now, isn’t that a good gift I’ve given?”

    She’d given me nothing, but I said, “Yes.  Thank you.”

    (from Khe,  by Alexes Razevich)

    7½*/10.  The full review is here.
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Young Uns Never Listen

Highway to Hey Look

    Coincidentally, someone at the office where I work has a sticker on the back window with this same AD/HD logo.  But without the punchline.

Too Late

Quote for the Day

    Probably true, although I'm a little leery of mixing a wine and writing.  But who am I to argue with Papa?

E-Card Wednesday

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Will you still find me desirable when I’m bloated like a puffer fish?” Tilda asked, smiling at Zeb in the mirror.

    “Of course, for my love for you knows no bounds,” Zeb said solemnly.  “How about you?  Once I am old and bald, back bent, knees shot…”

    “Your knees are already shot.”

    “…gray hair in my ears, arches fallen…”

    Tilda rolled down her blouse and turned to Zeb with a swirl in her long dress.

    “Oh gods, no.  I’m bolting the moment the ear-hair shows up.”

    (from The Channel War,  by M. Edward McNally)

    9*/10.  The full review is here.
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Boston Marathon 2013

    Two thoughts.  We are all Bostonians tonight.  And F*CK TERRORISM.

The Unforgettable Glenn Miller (Boxed Set)

    This is my latest music conversion project - a 6-LP boxed set of Glenn Miller songs.  This is 1940's (and earlier) Big Band music.  I'm not a big fan of this genre, but it did bring back old memories of the Junior High School "dance band" that I was in, way back in the early 60's.  We played some of the tracks in this collection.

    The Unforgettable Glenn Miller collection was put out by Readers Digest in 1968.  I won't list all 70 tracks here; overall I enjoyed the ones that didn't have any singing more.

    The LP's themselves were in pristine condition.  I'm not sure if that is due to the erstwhile owner being an audiophile, or if he simply never played them.  I decided not to run the de-scratching program on the discs, opting instead for manual removal.

    The first three LP's were essentially mint condition.  LP's 4 and 5 were apparently the ones the guy listened to most often; they had a few scratches.  LP 6 was in near-mint condition.

    There were no skips - forward or nackward - and none of the LP's were warped to any appreciable degree.  Each LP sleeve had a track-by-track discourse which was very enlightening; and Readers Rigest included a short brochure called "The Miller Magic", recounting Miller's life.

    Glenn Miller disappeared on December 15, 1944 on a flight from England to Paris, where he was to make arrangements for his band to play for the troops.  You can read about the verious theories concerning his death here.

    I don't generally post YouTube links on this blog, but here is one of what is probably my favorite track from this set.  Bugle Call Rag. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV4iViKWRe8

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “You don’t eat meat,” observed Marx Marvelous.  (This was a week after the reading of Purcell’s letters and the ambivalent young scientist could at last talk of something else.)

    “No, I do not,” said Amanda.

    “John Paul eats meat.”

    “That he does.  He considers it man’s evolutionary duty to devour other species.  My husband will never kill anything he is not prepared to eat.”

    “That’s a pretty good practice,” admitted Marx Marvelous.  “If everyone cultivated that habit there would be fewer murders and no war.”

    “Or a boom in cannibals,” said Amanda.

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    (from Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins)

  7*/10.  The complete review is here.
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Crash Test Daddy

RIP - Kurt Vonnegut

    d. 11 April 2007.  Simply the greatest American writer of the 20th century.  Really.  Don't believe me?  Who else, then?

Play Dead

    My kind of mutt.

Your taxes are (almost) due

    Less than a week remains before you owe a communication of some sort to the IRS.  As noted earlier, I got mine done Monday a week ago, and I'm getting refunds from both the Feds and the State.

    That's true every year because of how I structure my withholdings.  I don't begrudge the government the interest they earn off hanging on to my excess deuctions for a year.

    I was pleasantly surprised that the amount of the refunds hadn't changed noticeably this year.  We'll see if I can say the same for the 2013 returns.

Pink Freud

    Something quick, as I'm in the process of digitalizing a boxed set of 6-LP's, and getting an earful of the "Big Band" sound..

Star Wars Sunday

    Anything that has both Legos and Star Wars in it has got to be kewl.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    The night of fishing had been uneventful; a few small bass earlier in the evening, half a dozen northern pike – none bigger than a pickle – and then, nothing.  The zip of his baitcaster unspooling and the plop of the bait hitting the water were the only sounds he’d heard for the last hour.

    Until the helicopter exploded.


    (from Afraid – A Novel of Terror,  by J.A. Konrath, aka Jack Kilborn)

    8*/10.  The full review is here.
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Friday Night Art Appreciation

    We haven't been posting enough art-related stuff lately.

Math Wednesday

Time to read

    The taxes are done and will be put in the mail tomorrow.  But I'm worn out from staying up past my bedtime last night.  Seeing who's going home on DWTS frankly doesn't interest me.  (*)  So it's time to get a couple hours of quality reading in.

(*) : Nevertheless, I predict Wynona's getting the boot tonight.

Tax Night

    Something quick, as I'm off to get my taxes done tonight.  RIP, Jerry Garcia.  One can only dream of what the world would be like if, somewhere along the line, we had elected you POTUS.

Happy Easter !!

    Here's hoping your Easter is a joyous occasion, no matter what your personal beliefs about it are.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “There’s little damage aside from a moderate sprain,” said Merikare, who held a royal commission.  “A day’s rest will cure it, and—“ his voice grew a little louder, as though he expected an argument, “—if Your Highness can bring himself to leave that statue alone, it’ll mend all the better.”

    Khay twitched his pleated linen overskirt back over the bandage.  “I’ve heard you, Merikare,” he said.  “What you said and what you’ve left unsaid.  ‘If Your Highness can manage to refrain from climbing over that fallen statue like one of your own brats until it’s healed’—that’s what you meant.”

    The physician’s mouth betrayed a quiver, but he replied gravely enough, “I’d never be so impertinent, Highness.”

    (from Pharaoh’s Son,  by Diana Wilder)

    7½*/10.  The full review is here.
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Just Wrong

    No, this is not photoshopped.  It appeared on my Cox.net e-mail screen a couple weeks ago.

    And I thought, "hmmm".  Between the company name, the guy's expression, and the shape and placement of the box reading, "It's all for me"; some graphic artist was either incredibly stupid, or incredibly bold.

It's the weekend!

    And a 3-day weekend to boot.  We're starting it off right by going to see Jeff Mangum (he of Neutral Milk Hotel) tonight.  A recap to follow in a day or two, but I think I'm gonna enjoy it.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Heather rolled her eyes.  “So is that who you are pining for now?”  She jutted one hand on her hip while pointing a finger at her mistress.  “Douchebagga, he’s a dragon.  You’re a witch.  The two of you aren’t meant to be together.”

    “He’s my soul-mate.  I can feel it.”  Douchebagga dreamily sighed while batting her eyes, making her extremely hideous and grotesque face look one-tenth-of-a-degree less ugly.

    (from Attack of the Fairytale Zombies!,  by P.J. Jones)

    7*/10.  The full review is here.

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Turning Blogger Red

    And FaceBook too, which I am on.  And Twitter which I do not do.

   Really, peeps.  Why is Gay Rights even an issue? 

Manatees

Fleetwood Mac - Mystery To Me

    Mystery To Me was Fleetwood Mac's eighth studio album, and second release in 1973; the first one being Penguin.  I scarfed up a couple early FMac albums ("early" is defined as "prior to Buckingham and Nicks showing up") at the used-records store last month.  This is the first one I've converted.

- Tracks - (favorites in pink)

01. Emerald Eyes
02. Believe Me
03. Just Crazy Love
04. Hypnotized
05. Forever
06. Keep On Going

07. The City
08. Miles Away
09. Somebody
10. The Way I Feel
11. For Your Love
12. Why

    This is kind of a "tweener" album for Fleetwood Mac.  Most of the early Peter Green-spawned blues influence is gone, and only Hypnotized and For Your Love stand out, as the group gears their sound towards a more radio-friendly style.  Christine McVie and Bob Welch did most of the songwriting, and Welch shares guitar duties with Bob Weston, the latter with whom I'm unfamiliar.

    I picked Mystery To Me up for $5, and the vinyl was in so-so shape.  Side One was pretty clean, except for a few major scratches.  Side Two was in worse shape.  Whoever owned this (*) apparently played the second side a lot more than the first.  The conversion suffered for the many scratches from side two.  It seems to my ears like the highs and lows are gone, and I had to ramp up the volume on all track by about 50% after the conversion.

    All in all, this is a solid effort, and you get just under 48 minutes of music, which is pretty good for an LP.  Wikipedia says it produced no hit singles and sold only "moderately" well.  Seems uderstandable.  Long-time Mac fans will enjoy this album, but if you only started listening to them after Lindsey and Stevie showed up, you can probably skip this one.

(*) :  S. Kirk, who put his/her name on the back cover.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    I couldn’t take it anymore.  “Hey, people.  Chat time is over.  The girl’s about to pass out on her feet.  Thomas is dying.  So both of you shut your mouth and help them.”

    Raith whipped his head around to stare daggers at me.  His voice was cold enough to merit the use of a Kelvin scale.  “I do not respond well to demands.”

    I ground my teeth and said, “Both of you shut your mouth and help them.  Please.”

    And they say I can’t be diplomatic.

 

 

    (from Blood Rites by Jim Butcher)

    8½*/10.  The complete review is here.
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Theological Friday ...

    ... and Demotivational Friday too!  Two for the price of one.