Book Excerpt for the Day

    It was thought that peace might reign in the Nemeni house now that it clearly had a strong and resilient heir, with Domin now the oldest.  That illusion shattered two years later when Lanova, the brother that was two years younger than Domin accidentally tripped and fell into Domin’s sword eighteen times.

    (from The Fall Of House Nemeni,  by M.D. Kenning)

 

    4*/10.  The full review is here.

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Wednesday Wordplay!

Free Bread!

    This is yesterday's Arlo & Janis comic.  Which is timely, since last Saturday the neighbor lady showed up on our doorstep with two loaves of bread in her hands, wanting to know if we wanted them.

     A couple things.  She's done this several times now.  And this is "store" bread, not homemade.  It is also "past-its-expiration-date" bread she gets from a local bakery.  She and the owner know each other through church.  We won't identify the denomination, but they have magic panties.

    It should also be said that we and our neighbors are not particularly chummy.  Indeed, "frosty" would be a more appropriate description.  So this act of sharing bread stems not from friendship.

    So what is it?  I've eaten some and haven't come down with the runs or food-poisoning.  Is it penance she's doing for thinking bad thoughts about us?  Or, like the Arlo-&-Janis strip, does she for some reason think we're down to our last dollar?

Age Of Revolution - Time-Life Series

    I picked this 4-LP boxed set up for $3.00 at the local Half-Price Bookstore.  This is an out-of-print 1966 Time-Life release; part of their Story of Great Music series.

    As noted in the lower-left corner, the music consists of works by Beethoven, Rossini, Schubert, and one Karl Maria von Weber, who, frankly, I had never heard of.  In addition to the music, there's a 60-page booklet giving the biographies of the four composers, and a 36-page "Listener's Guide", which you can memorize and impress your peers.

    That being said, Beethoven is clearly the dominant composer here - 5 album sides are devoted to his music.  Rossini gets one side ("The Barber of Seville"); Schubert 1½ sides; and poor Weber gets just about ½ side.

    If you're expecting "war" music (I was), you'll be disappointed.  The tie-in apparently is that all the music was written around the time of Napoleon, and that all the composers did some 'revolutionary' things to classical music.  In addition the three non-Beethovens apparently had contact with Ludwig himself, albeit sometimes in a very minor way.

-TRACKS -

01.) Leonore Overture No. 3 (Beethoven)
02.) Overture to "Der Freischutz" (Weber)
03.) Symphony No. 5 (Schubert)
04.) Songs from "Die Schone Mullerin" (Schubert)
05.) Piano Concerto No. 4 (Beethoven)
06.) Piano Sonata No. 27 (Beethoven)
07.) Selections from "The Barber of Seville" (Rossini)
08.) String Quartet No. 16 (Beethoven)
09.) Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)

    The tracks are given in order, but some take up more than one side.  All of the selections are enjoyable, but none of them will make you gasp in awe.  Beethoven clearly outshines the others, but Weber was a pleasant surprise, and you'll laugh when Rossini's Barber of Seville starts up with the "Figaro" chorus.

    The discs themselves were in variable conditions.  Side 1-3 were almost pristine, but 4 and 5 had lots of scratches.  As usual, the de-popper scratch-removal program struggled with the scratches that were in the "low-volume" portions.  I had to amp up the volume of the "cleaned" music by about 30%.

    Time-Life numbered the discs so you could stack them on your 60's turntable and listen to sides 1-4, and then just flip them all over and listen to sides 5-8.  That's nice, but modern turntables (is that an oxymoron?) aren't stackable, and honestly, four straight hours of classical music is a bit much.

    At $3.00, this boxed set was a good deal, but I'll probably delete Tracks 04 and 07, which are from operas.  I prefer my Light Classical music without any singing.

Bukowski For Kids

    Really now.  How come someone hasn't already written this?  Even as a spoof.

Saturday Pun Day

    Great one.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Suppose I threw you down the strata, back into time, Joan’s mother had said to her.  After just a hundred thousand years you’d lose that nice high forehead of yours.  Your upright-walker legs would be gone after three or four million years.  You’d grow your tail back after twenty-five million years.  After thirty-five million, you’d lose the last of your ape features, like your teeth; after that you’d be a monkey, child.  And then you’d keep on shrinking.  Forty million years deep you’d look something like a lemur.  And eventually-

    Eventually, she would be a little ratty thing, hiding from dinosaurs.

    (from Evolution by Stephen Baxter)

    9½*/10.  The complete review is here.
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What I look for in a friend

       What more could you ask for?

Teachers in another Universe

    Really now.  Which universe makes more sense?

Outlaws - Outlaws

    I have grown to like Southern Rock.  Primarily because its bands almost have two lead guitars, which inherently means some bitchin' guitar solos.

    That being said, I don't know how I've missed out on Outlaws for so long.  Fortunately, a friend posted one of their songs on FaceBook a couple weeks ago, and that spurred me to go get a bunch of their albums to convert.

    Outlaws is their 1975 eponymous debut album, and it frickin' rocks.  The vinyl was in good shape and cleaned up nicely.

- Tracks  (favorites in pink) -

01.) There Goes Another Love Song
02.) Song For You
03.) Song In The Breeze
04.) It Follows From Your Heart
05.) Cry No More

06.) Waterhole
07.) Stay With Me
08.) Keep Prayin'
09.) Knoxville Girl
10.) Green Grass & High Tides

    There Goes Another Love Song got all the airplay, and worthily so.  But Green Grass & High Tides is really the high point of the album.  Waterhole is just the band showing off on their musical talents, which is jaw-dropping.

    The whole album is strong.  The vocals are great, the guitar-work is tight, and the songwriting is superb.  This is what Crosby, Stills & Nash should've sounded like.  For some reason, their used LP's are cheap, and I think four others are on the floor, waiting to be converted.  So you can expect to hear me drool some more over these guys.

Culture Sunday

    Beer.  It brings out the artiste in everyone.

Quote For The Day

"What are your fees?" inquired Guyal cautiously.

 "I respond to three questions," stated the augur. "For twenty terces I phrase the answer in clear and actionable language; for ten I use the language of cant, which occasionally admits of ambiguity; for five, I speak a parable which you must interpret as you will; and for one terce, I babble in an unknown tongue."

 (from 'The Dying Earth', by Jack Vance)

RIP - Jack Vance

    One of the deans of Science Fiction, Jack Vance (b. 08/28/16 - d. 05/26/13) enjoyed a career that lasted more than a half-century.  His most celebrated work was one of his earliest - a four-volume fantasy series called The Dying Earth.

    He passed away last Sunday.  Somehow I missed it until now.  Too much partying, I guess.  Methinks it's time to hit the bookstores and buy/read a couple of his novels.

Why I read Sci-Fi

    Because I can handle it.

Creative Writing Exercise

    My offering is "salubrious".  As nasty-sounding of a word as I've ever heard.

Best. Movie. Evah.

    Well, I will also allow Monty Python and the Holy Grail equal footing as BME.  Every other flick is an also-ran.

Happy Memorial Day

    That pretty much says it all. 

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “There’s nothing sensitive about this case.”

    “The word from above is, they want this one kept under wraps.  And I agree.  We don’t want the media getting hold of it.  The way your report reads we’re dealing with an accident or murder victim who’s stepped through time, or who has a Dorian Gray type painting stacked away somewhere.”

    (from Disappear,  by Iain Edward Henn)

    9*/10.  The full review is here.
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Friday Flashback

    Well, it wasn't really my childhood.  But it was a great game.

Tax Rate vs. Buying Power

    True dat.

Cats of the World

   I can vouch for the French, Spanish, American (English), Chinese (Mandarin), and German.  I presume the other seven are also valid.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Time passed.  Junior grew to adulthood.  He specialized in magic when he attended the same college Cedric had, and showed similar brilliance.  He progressed beyond the level of his professors.  For his Ph.D. project he developed the spell that enabled the deer to shoot back: any missile discharged, whether from bow, gun, or hand, swung around to score on the hunter.  Suddenly hunting lost its appeal, not only in the local wetlands, but in all wetlands and most of the remaining wilderness of the world.

    (from With A Tangled Skein by Piers Anthony)

    4½*/10.  The complete review is here.
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RIP - Ray Manzarek

    Well, damn.  Ray Manzarek of The Doors passed away today, at age 74, and of bile-duct cancer, whatever-the-f*ck that is.

    If Jim Morrison was the Charismatic Spirit of The Doors, Manzarek was the Stabilizing Glue, off-setting Morrison's sometimes erratic behavior.  And he was one freaking phenomenal keyboardist.

    FWIW, my answer to the music question "The Beatles or The Stones" has always been, "The Doors".  I've taken some guff about that over the years, but my answer has never changed.  So Rest In Peace, Ray.  This has been a tough year for rock legends.

It's abominable

    Yes, I'm left-handed.  And truth be told, I never had a schoolteacher try to convert me to being a rightie.  But they did try that on my brother, who's 9 years older than me.  So I didn't miss out on the discrimination by much.

Teletubbies of the Corn

    I will have nightmares over this.

Science Friday

    Man, it's been a while since we did a Chemistry-themed post.

On this day in 1966...

Book Excerpt for the Day

    (H)e was her Chosen.  She would protect him with her life, and if her death would ensure the mission was a success she would gladly make the sacrifice.  Yes, she needed to ignore his appearance, his air of disaffected incompetence.  He was her Chosen, she was his Selected, and together they would succeed!

    The flush sounded for the fifth time, and the door to the bathroom edged open a crack, Bill’s foot pushing through the narrow opening.

    “Err, hello?” came the muffled call of the Britak Tain.  “Could someone help me, I’ve got my arm wedged down the side of the toilet.”

    (from The Truth About Sharks and Pigeons, by Matt Phillips)

    6½*/10.  The full review is here.

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Demotivational Tuesday

    Or Awww Tuesday.  Either way works.

Too many books?

    Yeah, the stacks on my TBR shelf are getting higher and higher.  Yeah, I have 200+ books on my Kindle, of which I've read about 40.  Nevertheless...

     There is no such thing as too many books.

Richie Havens - Richie Havens On Stage

    Richie Havens On Stage is a 1972 2-LP release and according to Wikipedia, one of only two "Live" albums from Richie Havens.  It's been sitting in my To-Be-Digitalized pile for a while, and in light of Mr. Havens' passing away earlier this year, I decided to convert it.

Side 01

01. From The Prison
02. Younger Men Get Older
03. Old Friends
04. God Bless The Child

Side 02

01. The Dolphins
02. Nobody Knows
03. My Sweet Lord
04. No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed

Side 03

01. Tupelo Honey
02. Just Like A Woman
03. Teach Your Children
04. Minstrel From Gault

Side 04

01. High Flyin' Bird
02. San Francisco Bay Blues
03. Where Have All The Flowers Gone
04. Rocky Raccoon

   These are mostly covers; the track numbers of the three songs penned by Havens are marked in blue.  As usual, my faves are in pink.  It took me a while to place The Dolphins; It's A Beautiful Day also covered it.

    The LP's were in fair shape, but cleaned up nicely.  As with any live album, I removed a couple minutes' worth of clapping.  The music for this album comes from three different concerts.  There are a couple very nice segues from one song to the next.  Kewl, except it makes it tough to find exactly where to clip the tracks.  A few times I just left them together. 

    One curiosity - the cover image shown above is actually the back cover.  The front image is just a head shot of Richie from one of the concerts, with no text at all.  Richie Havens On Stage seems to be a bit of a rarity - Amazon doesn't offer it as a CD or as MP3 files.  iTunes doesn't list it either.

    I suppose this means that his albums haven't been selling much lately.  That's a shame, since Richie Havens was a Rock-&-Roll fixture in the late 60's and early 70's.  He was an activist without being a radical; a champion of the poor and oppressed; and a black guy who wasn't afraid to cover music by white folks.  I wouldn't call him a guitar genius, but he could make strumming sound every bit as good as a guitar solo.

    RIP, Richie Havens.  You will be missed, but not forgotten.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    The West will not be dictating how China lives, moralizing on what is right and wrong, deciding our future.”

    “You sound confident.”

    “Their missionaries and educators tried to modernize and Christianize us.  The Japanese wanted to conquer us.  The Americans attempted to democratize us.  The Soviets tried to insinuate control.  They all failed.  Even worse, we experimented with ourselves and failed, too.  We are a great civilization.”  He paused.  “We shall once more be what we were.”

    (from The Emperor’s Tomb by Steve Berry)

  9*/10.  The complete review is here.
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what are the odds?

    Haven't seen the movie yet.  But the book was 10*/10.

The truth about books

More Vinyl

   Went to one of the local Half-Price Bookstores this afternoon after work  And scored the following albums :

Outlaws - Outlaws

Outlaws - Ghost Riders

Molly Hatchet - Flirtin' With Disaster

JJ Cale - Okie

JJ Cale - Five

Styx - Equinox

   We'll be digitalizing them all over the next few months.  Oh yeah, I got a couple books too.  Manifold Origin and The Time Ships, both by Stephen Baxter, a Sci-Fi author I've been meaning to get into for quite some time now.

Chopsticks in China

    Funny cartoon.  But the truth is, if you are going to spend any amount of time in China, you'd better learn how to use chopsticks.

    Most restaurants, excluding those at the fancy hotels, have no idea what knives, forks, and spoons are.  And even if you somehow communicate to them what they are, they don't have any.  And even if they do have any, they're dusty, dirty, and were sitting on a back shelf for months in less-than-hygenic condtions.

   I know.  I spent in week in China once.  And deeply regretted not being chopsticks-fluent.  OTOH, I think I lost 5-10 pounds during that week.

Happy Birthday, Davey Johnstone!

    Happy 62nd Birthday to Davey Johnstone.  He's been the lead guitarist for Elton John for most of the last 40+ years.  But he's also played with Alice Cooper, Meat Loaf, (Long) John Baldry, etc.  He can play rock, folk, bluegrass - guitar, mandolin, fiddle.  You name it, he can do it.

    In 1973, he put out a solo album - Smiling Face.  It's a superb LP, which inexplicably didn't sell worth a crap.  It's so rare that you can't find any YouTube videos of its tracks, and the CD version at Amazon is only available as an import, and costs (new) $101.01.  Sheesh.

    We saw Elton and Leon Russell a couple years ago during their Union tour, and Johnstone was there, rocking away.  So Happy Birthday, Davey!  I for one love your music.

   BTW, the title track was written for his (at that point in time) toddler son, who also made it onto the album cover.  Kewlness.

Bedroom Remodeling

    We've been busy the past couple days remodeling the bedroom.  Bought some pool furniture, added a couple kitschy garden statues, backlit the monolith, etc.  All in all, it came out rather well, methinks.

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.