Buddha Beatnik

    I have hit a new level of obscurity for a music CD. The band's name is/was "Buddha Beatnik", and in 2000 they put out an album titled "Liberty School or...". Amazon doesn't carry it, indeed, just Googling the name gets zero hits. YouTube also lacks any hits.

    Googling one of the band members' names - "Borfus Wallaby", gets a single hit to a Myspace site. Borfus apparently hangs out in the Portland, Oregon area.

    My local used-record store offered the CD for $5.99 for a couple years, then dropped the price to $1.00, then further dropped it to $0.50, before some guy (me) took a chance on it.

    I listened to the first 13 tracks  today (there are 19 in all) as I did my Fitbit walk.  The musicianship, songwriting, and vocals are surprisingly good for an album about which there is zero information out there.  

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “There were a couple cryptic inscriptions in the temple.  Gnothi seauton, which translates-“

    “Know thyself,” Gray answered.

    Painter nodded.  He had to remind himself that Gray was well versed in ancient philosophies.  When Painter had first recruited him out of Leavenworth prison, Gray had been studying both advanced chemistry and Taoism.  It was this very uniqueness of his mind that had intrigued Painter from the start.  But such distinctiveness came with a price.  Gray did not always play well with others.

    (from The Last Oracle, by James Rollins)

     10*/10.  The full review is here.

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Portmanteau Sunday

Saturday Existentialism

    I read the book when I was 18 and hated it.  I reread when I was 50 and loved it.  Go figure. 

Francophone Friday

    Zut alors!!

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Even after a squirt of oil, the lock wouldn’t budge.

    “Wrong key?  Or maybe we don’t have one.  Now what?”

    “We saw it off.”

    “Got a saw?”

    My dad huffed out a laugh.  “First time I’ve been without my own tools in fifty years.  Makes me feel kinda naked.”

    “Thanks for that mental image, Dad.  Got any other ideas?”

     (from A Dead Red Alibi by R.P. Dahlke)

    7½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Math Wednesday

Tuesday Writing Tip

Anti-Jokes

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Under the top-secret MK-ULTRA project, Dr. Hollister and many others across America administered LSD and other psychedelic drugs to paid volunteers who were observed and tested under hospital conditions.

    One of these volunteers was a young creative writing student at Stanford University named Ken Kesey (born 1935), who would soon find fame, fortune and literary acclaim as the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.  Reasoning that lying on a hospital bed while being prodded and questioned by an endless stream of not all that quick-witted doctors and constantly having blood samples taken was perhaps not the most conducive environment for psychedelic experimentation, Kesey liberated (as we used to say) some Acid and other drugs when no one was looking.  Thereafter there followed years of Kesey’s more relaxed cosmic experimentation within his own home, in the company of his friends, and, more famously, on an old clapped-out 1939 International Harvester school bus.

    (from Boom! – A Baby Boomer Memoir 1947-2022 by Ted Polhemus)

  7*/10.  The complete review is here.

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How Writing Works

    This is why I have no desire to be a writer.

Carvel Soft Ice Cream

    This brings back ancient childhood memories.  Once every couple of weeks or so, my parents would pack us kids into the family station wagon, and we'd go to the local Carvel Soft Ice Cream Store (similar to this one) located in Shoemakersville, Pennsylvania,  I was in sugar heaven.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    The next day, she could hardly settle to anything.  In the morning she fussed with her little garden, pruning this, repotting that, but her mind wasn’t on it.  Then it started to rain, so she went inside and made some coffee and did what she had never done in her life: tried the newspaper crossword.

    “What a stupid exercise,” said her daemon after five minutes.  “Words belong in contexts, not pegged out like biological specimens.”

    (from The Book of Dust, Book 1: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman)

     5½*/10.  The full review is here.

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Freakonomics

    Freakonomics 101:  Commonality versus Cause-&-Effect.

Exercise

    According to my Fitbit, 20 minutes of mowing the lawn qualifies as exercise.  But three hours of dusting and vacuuming does not.

Sunday Sermon - Chess Edition

Girl Scout Cookies Saturday

    Homemade cookies vs. Girl Scout cookies.  Easy choice.

Remarkable

    Friday Punnery.  I had to read this twice to "get it".

Book Excerpt for the Day

    As a small boy, Norman had always enjoyed putting his chemistry set to ill use and blowing things up.  But, as an adult he came to the conclusion that the problem with blowing things up was that it always left such chaos behind.  Not that Norman was an altogether tidy man, but explosions do tend to leave behind quite an unwholesome jumble.

    So, when now called upon to show his scientific stuff, as it were, Norman determined that he would create a clean bomb that would tidy up after itself.

    And thus, with this goal in mind, and his thoughts that Alfred Nobel had invented dynamite and that Norman still was very keen to win a Nobel Prize, Normanite was born.

    Normanite was unique in that it was an implosive, it sucked rather than blew.

 

    (from The Chronicles of Banarnia, by Robert Rankin)

    8*/10.  The full review is here.

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Chivalry Tuesday

Pioneers versus Cavemen

    I agree.

Reading Stats - 2019

Reading stats for 2019:
Books read: 72
Words read: 25,262 (per Goodreads)
Shortest book: 75 pages (Carl Sandburg)
Longest book: 1,252 pages (Brandon Sanderson)
Non-Fiction: 9
Female Authors: 15
Poetry: 1
(Auto)Biographies: 2
New Authors: 34
Highbrow Lit: 3 (Proust, Hawthorne, Barzun)

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Imagine that you are a government official charged with procuring the funds to fight one of two proven killers: terrorist attacks and heart disease.  Which cause do you think the members of Congress will open up the coffers for?  The likelihood of any given person being killed in a terrorist attack is far smaller than the likelihood that the same person will clog up his arteries with fatty food and die of heart disease.  But a terrorist attack happens now; death by heart disease is some distant, quiet catastrophe.  Terrorist attacks lie beyond our control; French fries do not.

    (from Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner)

    8½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Francophone Friday

The Chemistry of Justice

History Quote

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Elizabeth was ready to argue, but a sharp pain in her side stopped her.

    “Are you hurt?” Simon said.

    She shook her head, but Simon wasn’t convinced.  “Come on,” he said as he guided her to the bank of elevators, stopping only briefly at the front desk to get his key and bark some orders.  “Uncanny,” he muttered.

    “What?”

    “You and trouble.”

    “It’s a gift.”

    (from When The Walls Fell by Monique Martin)

     5*/10.  The full review is here.

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Monday Math Day

Sunday Sermon

    Buddha speaks only Truth.

Attention

    This would be our Lulu.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “In any case,” Quick Ben said with a smile, “I don’t rival gods.”

    “A wise decision.”

    “But, sometimes, I beat them at their own game.”

    Beauchelain studied the wizard, then slowly leaned back.  “I find myself appreciating your company, Quick Ben.  I am not easily entertained, but you have indeed proved a worthy diversion this night, and for that I thank you.”

    “You’re quite welcome.”

    “My companion, Korbal Broach, alas, would like to kill you.”

    “Can’t please everyone.”

    (from Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson)

    8½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Mathematics Thursday

    Today's Math Lesson:  Relative Numbers.

Books I've Really Read

    I've read the three in the lower row, on the left side.  And the other two in the lower row are both on my TBR shelf.

Art Appreciation Tuesday

    Bosch is Boss!

Dreams

    Every stinking time.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    This is not a cheerful book, but history has a way of intruding upon the present, and perhaps those who read it will have a clearer understanding of what the American Indian is, by knowing what he was.  They may be surprised to hear words of gentle reasonableness coming from the mouths of Indians stereotyped in the American myth as ruthless savages. (…) The Indians knew that life was equated with the earth and its resources, that America was a paradise, and they could not comprehend why the intruders from the East were determined to destroy all that was Indian as well as America itself.

    And if the readers of this book should ever chance to see the poverty, the hopelessness, and the squalor of a modern Indian reservation, they may find it possible to truly understand the reasons why.

(Dee Brown, in the introduction to this book)

    (from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown)

  9½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Francophone Saturday

42

   42!!  The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything else!!

Thursday Poetry

My 2020 Resolution

    My New Year's Resolution for 2020 is to quit posting silly pun memes.  That was an epic fail.