Moving Fast, But Not Fast Enough

I was going to just forge ahead on another book but then remembered I hadn't blogged my last 5 reads. Unread collection in Kobo reader continues to grow - still 62 left after taking these out. A good problem to have, I guess.

1. "Auberon", by James S.A. Corey, 2019, 78 pages. An Expanse Novella. A nice little story set in the Galactic Empire pivot segment of The Expanse. Can the new incorruptible Fascist government stay that way?
   I watched the 1st 4 episodes of "The Expanse" on Prime Video last night, FTW! I feel very comfortable with these characters.

2. "The Menace From Farside", by Ian McDonald, 2019, 119 pages. A novella set on the moon of McDonald's Luna series. The title refers to a female rival of the moody, female teenage narrator. I guess I'm too far away from moody teenagers, I really didn't care for that much. Some action & plot, etc.

3. "Time Was", by Ian McDonald, 2019, 97 pages. I decided to give McDonald another chance. Another novella, this one was a evocative and charming tale of accidental time travelers and the bibliophile who is tracking them.

4. "Factoring Humanity", by Robert J. Sawyer, 1998, 343 pages. I remembered reading a Sawyer ("Calculating God" I think) from the Lexington Public Library years ago and liking it fairly well. I think this one was a BookBub bargain - I might not have bought it if I had realized how old it was. What was I'm sure germane social commentary at the time is now horribly dated. This is a 1st contact story, with some AI thrown in. The main character, a scientist, behaves in a completely unscientific way that I found unsettling.
   I looked up Sawyer on Wikipedia, he has the letters CM and OOnt after his name. CM is the Order of Canada and OOnt is the Order of Ontario. He's Canadian, and apparently they still do this goofy monarchist crap. The Order of Canada is the 2nd highest honor, 1st is the Order of Merit which can only be awarded by Canada's monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
   Is that some stupid shit or what? Maybe if Britain had gotten rid of the monarchy decades ago they wouldn't have all these old farts wanting Brexit. Very sad.

5. "Ancestral Night", by Elizabeth Bear, 2019, 599 pages. The Culture lives! Bear give props to Iain Banks' Culture series. Galactic civilization, ancient aliens, smart-ass AI shipminds, ships with long, snarky names, humans with direct control of their brain chemistry.
   The novel is very, very talky, and felt to be at least its 599 pages. The main character's mind has been extensively reconstructed, and she uncovers several versions of why. She is way beyond neurotic.
   The foil to Bear's The Culture analog The Synarche is libertarian pirates. Some timely political discussions, the pirates general being painted as freedom-loving psychopaths. "Libertaranism - the I got mine, fuck you party" is 1 of my taglines.
   Bear also quotes directly another of my taglines: "There is enough to go around", directed to the main pirate figure.
   I suspect there will be more of this series, titled "White Space", and I look forward to them.

I also went to clear the magazine stack for December after these books. Sky & Telescope is transitioning from the Zinio app to ... something else. Couldn't find the December issue, just February - they publish fairly far ahead so people can plan their observing schedules. After a very unhelpful reply from their customer service, I decided I'm going to quit reading it, and not renew my subscription, which expires in April. I get plenty of astronomy news and pix from several blogs whose RSS feeds I follow. Wow, end of an era, I have been getting S&T for 30 or 40 years. Does this qualify as an old dog learning a new trick? Or unlearning an old trick?

Music In - and Almost Timely!

August, September, October, and the 1st 1/2 of November.

• Of Monsters And Men, "FEVER DREAMS", 2019, 11 tracks. Well-engineered alternative rock, no standout tunes. 3 stars.
• Buddy Guy, "Skin Deep", 2008, 12 tracks. Someone requested that I work up the title track, "Skin Deep". It was a good tune & I enjoyed working it up. Of course, it is the standout track on the album. 4 stars for "Skin Deep" with Derek Trucks on slide guitar, 3 stars for the rest, despite Clapton playing on 1 song & Robert Randolph on 2.

• Dave Alvin, "The Best Of The HighTone Years", 2008, 18 tracks. This was pulled up for purchase on my friend Steve Konopka's computer at the time of his death. His wife went on and bought it, she said this guy was 1 of Steve's favorite guitarists. The material is all over the place - folk, country, rock, southern rock - apparently he considered himself Americana. I don't have an Americana genre so I made him Southern Rock. 3 stars.
• The Teskey Brothers, "Half Mile Harvest", 2018, 10 tracks. A recommendation from an old friend & coworker who is in the process of becoming an Australian. You listen to this & go, OK, black dudes in the US playing some decent R&B. Then find out, 4 white Australian dudes playing some decent R&B. 4 stars. Here's "I Get Up".

• Pernice Brothers, "Spread The Feeling", 2019, 13 tracks. Bandcamp I think. Very nice, reminds me of, maybe, Matt Duncan, or the Jayhawks? These guys have been around since 1996, but this is their 1st album since 2010. 4 stars. They have broken my system, there are no videos for this album on YouTube yet. I was going to include "The Devil and The Jinn".
• Ra Ra Riot, "Superbloom", 2019, 12 tracks. There very latest. OK tunes but I realized one of the things I really liked about their 1st album, "The Rhumb Line", which included a 5-star song, was the strings. I think they had female violin & cello players. No more strings anymore, just synthesizers. I'm guessing intra-band romances got terminated. Too bad. 3 stars.
• The Grateful Dead, "From The Mars Hotel", 1974, 8 tracks. Saw a reference to this and wondered why I didn't have it. No great tracks; "US Blues" probably the strongest. 3 stars.
• Winds, "Venus And Mars (Deluxe / Remaster), 1975, 28 tracks. Someone was telling me I needed to listen to "Magneto And Titanium Man", which was on this album. At $12.49 for 28 tracks, this wound up being quite the music value. In addition to the original album, there are several singles that were never on an album: "Junior's Farm", "Sally G", others? There are also 10 or so outtakes, jams, not of much interest unless you are a total Wings/McCartney fan. 18x 4-star, 8x 3-star, 2x 2-star (for old versions, standard handling). Here's "Sally G." recorded in Nashville. Pedal steel FTW!

• Jorja Smith, "Lost & Found", 2018, 12 tracks. Bandcamp. English R&B singer/songwriter. Very nice stuff, only 22 YO. 4 stars. Here's the 1st & title track, "Lost & Found". It takes a while to get going, but it is worth the wait.

• Delta Sleep, "Younger Years", 2019, 6 tracks. Bandcamp. Decent tunes, a little too loud for me. 3 stars.
• Jakub Zytecki, "Nothing Lasts, Nothing's Lost", 2019, 11 tracks. Bandcamp. Polish prog rock, what's not to like? Very interesting guitar work, creative stuff. 4 stars. Here's "Sunflower".

• Le Big Zero, "Ollie Oxen Free", 2019, 9 tracks. These are friends of my daughter Erica in Brooklyn. She sent me the t-shirt, I figured I'd better get the album. A good effort, but a little too punkish for me. 3 stars.
• Juana Molina, "Forfun", 2019, 4 tracks. Bandcamp. Argentinian punk, what's not to like? Normally hard for punk to get 4 stars in this blog, but, I liked the energy of these. Molina has been around for decades. Here's the 1st track, "Paraguaya Punk".

• Charly Bliss, "Supermoon", 2019, 5 tracks. Bandcamp. Power-pop from Brooklyn, FTW! Alternative with decent guitar & female singer. Here's "Slingshot".

• Redeyes, "Unfinished Theory EP", 2019, 6 tracks. Bandcamp. Way mellow electronica/dance. Very enjoyable listening. 4 stars. Here's the intro "The Unfinished Theory". I like the name & concept.

• Bahamas, "Bahamas is Afie", 2014, 12 tracks. I really enjoyed his latest, "Earthtones", blogged here. So I'm working backwards through his stuff - this is album 3/4. I just really like his voice & guitar. Thanks to musical friend Josh Brown of J. Renders Southern Table & Bar for the recommendation. 4 stars. Here's "Waves".

• Muddy Waters, "I'm Ready", 1978, 12 tracks. His prior 1977 album, "Hard Again", blogged here, was fantastic. I've worked up 3 songs from it, 2 at the request of my Canadian harpist friend Owen Evans. "Hard Again" was produced by Johnny Winter. There is not a bad song on that album. "I'm Ready" a year later, I'm guessing wasn't produced by Winter. Overall, pretty blah. 3 stars.
• Vampire Weekend, "Father Of The Bride", 2019, 18 tracks. Apparently they lost a member. 18 tracks is a lot, generally pretty high quality & sounding like Vampire Weekend. 4 stars. Here's "Harmony Hall"

• Blind Faith, eponymous, 1969, 6 tracks. The supergroup of Clapton & Baker from Cream w Winwood on keys and Rick Gresch on bass from Traffic. Only 6 tracks. 3 stars for "Do What You Like", which is just too long. 4 stars for the rest. Here's "Can't Find My Way Home", which I recently played in the latest incarnation of Acme Dance Band: Brent Carter on guitar & vocals, Haywood Ferguson on harp, Steve Parrish on drums, & me on bass & vocals. I played "Sea of Joy" Back In The Day. Not so good, oops!>p>

So, 19 more albums, reviews current through mid-November. Next Music In will prolly be late March. If anybody not a bot reads these Music In posts, you will have noticed that I need more good new music. So, plz comment with any new music recommendations. [I know, crickets.]

A Binge

After figuring out last time that I had read book 5 of the "Gods and Monsters" series, I decided to binge the other 4.

The underlying plot of all the books is that Jehovah aka Yahweh staged a coup and drove all the other pantheons out of, what, metaphysical space and into meat space, which understandably created a power struggle here on earth. There also new gods a la Gaimann's "American Gods", and fictional gods (aren't they all?) a la Cthulhu. Meanwhile, all the father gods seem to have disappeared - and nobody has seen Jebus. Hmmm, I'm glad not to have to read about Jebus, but, maybe a little bit chickenshit on the part of the authors?

All these books are written with the snark dial set to 11.

The whole series is:

1. "Unclean Spirits", by Chuck Wendig, 2013, 417 pages. We meet Cason Cole, who is a grandson of Lucifer and a son of the stag god of nature. Most of the characters in this one are Greek gods.

   This ebook also contains a 2nd novella "Drag Hunt", by Pat Kelleher, which features the great trickster god Coyote, who appears again later on in the series.

2. "Mythbreaker", by Stephen Blackmoore, 2014, 295 pages. The protagonist is Louie "Fitz" Fitzsimmons, who is the only sane prophet alive. Prophets can channel gods and write their stories. Several pantheons are vying to obtain his services.

3. "Snake Eyes", by Hillary Monahan, 2016, 307 pages. The protagonist here is Tanis Barlas, a snakish woman who is a daughter of Lamia. The snake people are pursued by their ancient enemies the Gorgons.

4. "Food of the Gods", by Cassandra Khaw, 2017, 307 pages. Note, I also purchased "Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef", 2015, 99 pages, which wound up being part 1 of 2 in this book. And I notice that part 2 is available as a separate ebook, "Rupert Wong and the Ends of the Earth", 2017, 204 pages. I find this kind of double publication confusing and annoying, and it led me to purchase the same content twice - a ripoff to my reckoning. Ghouls, Chinese gods, Greek gods, new gods, and Lovecraftian gods are now in play.

5. "The Last Supper Before Ragnarok", by Cassandra Khaw, 2019, 222 pages, blogged here. This makes more sense and is more enjoyable after having read the others and getting the backstories on all the main characters.

All in all, lots of fun with mythology, old and new, which I always find enjoyable.

Time for some science fiction, I think.

A Bit More Variety

5 book reports this time.

1. "The Corn King and the Spring Queen", by Naomi Mitchison, 1931, 985 pages. I blogged Mitchison's "Travel Light" here. This one seems to be regarded as the best of her 90 or so books. Set in the Black Sea area, Sparta, and Alexandria around 150 BC. Fairly historical, except for a main character who is a practicing witch. Very good account of fertility magic; Stoic and Epicurean Greek philosophers; an attempt to reinstill traditional values in Sparta; intrigue in the court of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, in Alexandria.

   I was surprised, for 1931, at its matter-of-fact retelling of Greek homosexuality, particularly between older men and (pre)pubescent boys - Wikipedia does say that the book was somewhat scandalous for its time.

   The book has lots of interesting characters and ideas and plenty of plot. By the end I was definitely ready for it to be over. Then there was a very random Appendix set 100 years later which seemed to me to be almost completely pointless???

2. "Crucible of Time", by Jeffrey A. Carver, 2019, 481 pages. The 6th of this series, I thought it was supposed to be the last 1, but, no ... still 1 more in the pipe. This installment pretty much follows in the footsteps of #5. Our expanded team of intrepid galactic trouble-shooters gets mostly reunited. I'll be glad to put the last one behind me.

3. "seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees: expanded edition", by Lawrence Weschler, 2009, 336 pages. Subtitled "Over Thirty Years Of Conversations With Robert Irwin". This was a belated birthday gift from my oldest daughter Erica, the Brooklyn graphics designer.

   Robert Irwin is (still alive, age 91) an LA based artist, active since 1960. He is a fascinating genius of a man. He grew up in the LA area, into cars, girls, dance contests, and gambling in his teen years in the 1940s; he went to various art institutes; he supported himself in a lot of his adult life betting on the horses.

   He did some abstract impressionistic paintings to start, but quickly got a LOT more conceptual. A painting should have no images; it should be only what was in the artist's mind when he created it. With his Line paintings in 1962, he spent 2 years creating 10 12"^2 paintings in a solid color, usually orange, with 2 1/8" horizontal lines somewhere. He said things like "moving 1 line up a tiny fraction of an inch completely changed the result".

   Next up were his Dots paintings - 2 of which were vandalized by some very serious art critics in Sao Paulo. Then came his Discs, which were paintings without frames.

   Trying to abstract his way out of the figure/background dichotomy of paintings, he became an installation artist. He later designed gardens, buildings, all kind of stuff.

   I really liked 1 story he recounted. A NYC art critic was in LA for a show & got into a discussion with Irwin of Folk Art. To the NYC guy this meant pottery etc. Irwin found an ad for a hot-rod being sold. He took the critic to meet the late-teens guy who was working on a new hot-rod. All the aesthetic decisions the guy was making, expose bolts or not, how many coats of paint - to Irwin this was modern folk art. The NYC critic was having no part of it - as opposed to LA, NYC has 0 car culture. When he couldn't convince the critic, Irwin stopped his car somewhere in Southern California and told him to get out. Nice!

   Erica also got me, by the same author, "true to life: Twenty-five Years of Conversations with David Hockney". I have found that art must be done in small doses, particularly when Erica is involved. Good art is like getting punched real hard in the head - I need to definitely control the dosage. So this 2nd book will be put off for a good while - hopefully I will remember to come back to it.

4. "The Last Supper Before Ragnarok", by Cassandra Khaw, 2019, 222 pages. Apparently this is Gods and Monsters #5 - I've read only 2 others by Khaw, here's the latest. Hmmm, this shows as "Persona Non Grata" series - no mention of "Gods and Monsters" - apparently we have some quantum series indeterminacy, hopefully the competing wave functions will collapse out soon. Researching, the GaM novels 2 & 3 are by other authors, just bought #1 & #4 by Khaw. Persona Non Grata seems to indeed be a different series, with the demon-possessed cheap detective protagonist.

   I somehow thought this was novel length, but it is another novella. Very good use of competing mythologies, an interesting cast of somewhat supernatural characters. A fun read. Khaw is from Malaysia, and incorporates much Malaysian (and Chinese) mythology and cuisine.

5. "Ninth Step Station", by Malka Older & others, 2019, 414 pages. From Serial Box: 10 episodes, feeling very much like TV series episodes, an intro (pre-credits teaser), followed by 4-5 Acts. I have pretty much sworn off of TV police procedurals as of 2-3 years ago. But, these have some good new SF elements - eye implants with IR vision, other implants/bionics, drones everywhere - so I gladly un-foreswore procedurals for at least this series.

   Following serious earthquakes & a lame North Korean attack, followed by a Japanese response, the Chinese have invaded Japan & hold the western 1/2 of Tokyo. The other half is what's left of the Japanese government propped up by US peacekeeping forces.

   Our main character is a Tokyo police inspector (lesbian or bisexual of course), her partner is a Japanese-American peacekeeper forwarded in the spirit of cooperation. It does the good thing of having each episode have a case to be solved, while meanwhile a larger story arc re China vs Japan + US develops. It is well done, but I was a little burnt out by the end. But, the ending sets up Series #2 for lots of drama, as the China vs Japan + US narrative heats up.

Time to go back to the magazine stack. I just switched my last print magazine, Technology Review, over to electronic only, yay! But, I am embarrassed to admit, somehow with my magazines all being electronic I seem to be losing track of where I am on the stack much more easily. Hard to beat a stack of physical magazines being read and then moved to a different physical stack across the room for tracking.

Weather Is Broken

I've been going back & forth about writing this post, I've decided in the best Dumbass traditions to let 'er rip!

I have looked at weather maps every day for over 40 years. I think I could be a decent weather forecaster - but, I have never read a single book on the topic, oops - that might be a start.

My browser fires up with 6 tabs open to weather sites:

1. NWS radar
2. Current US Weather Map
3. Wind map
4. Global Jetstream Forecast
5. Lexington KY 10 Day Forecast
6. National Hurricane Center

I have been telling people for a couple of years now: forget everything you thought you knew about weather. Weather is changing. Weather has changed. It's a whole new world out there.

Case in point. On (?) Sep 23, Lexington had its 1st rain in 24 days: a totally weak-ass cold front finally came south, and generated < 0.1" of rain. The same occurred 4 days later.

So, after record rainfall in September 2018, record lack of rainfall in September 2019. After those 2 pitiful rainfalls, we went right back to the 3rd or 4th 5-6 day stretch of highs in the mid-90s.

The drought finally broke on October 6: finally, in late evening, a serious, drenching downpour, FTW!!!

Here's a pic of the NWS radar at 5:30 PM, September 27. Those dim blue areas are what the radar normally looks like at night. They basically mean there is no weather - you're just getting low-level scattering off of hills, etc.

What did the weather map look like? No weather - just 2 highs dominating the entire southeastern US.

The wind map confirms: no wind in the SE US.

Here it is 2 days later, after one of those weak-ass cold fronts came through: huge highs over the entire eastern US. No weather. Drought.

So glad we finally got a decent rain. But no rain in the forecast until Saturday, so I will have to go back to every-other-day watering of my vegetable & my wife's flower gardens.

Weather is broken.

Steven Mets Konopka, 1950-2019

Plus, A Brief History Of The Old Farts Blues Jam (OFBJ)

Steve Konopka, aka Fuzzy to musicians, was born May 14, 1950 and died August 28, 2019.

I met Steve playing at the OFBJ (Old Farts Blues Jam) maybe 10-12 years ago.

• I first played at the OFBJ in January, 2006 at the American Legion off S. Broadway. I met Lindsay Olive, David Harrod, Donnie Crisp. Bob Hopps, Steve Moore (RIP).
• Spring 2006 the OFBJ moved to High Life Lounge, formerly Lynagh's Concert Hall, later Cosmic Charlie's, on Woodland. I met Patty Butcher and others there.
• After a couple of months it moved 3 doors to Lynagh's, where it stayed for 18 months.
• Then it moved (in, what, Fall 2007?) to O'Neil's for 4.5 years. During that time, the house band was the Here For The Party Band: David Harrod on harp & vocals, Lindsay Olive on guitar, Erik Shields on drums, Bob Hopps on keys & vocals, and Michael Anderson or Matt Noell on bass & vocals.

Here's the oldest picture I can find of Steve at a jam: O'Neil's January, 2012. Steve Parrish on drums, Steven Poe on guitar, me on guitar & vocals, Fuzzy on Harp, Keith Hubbard on keys, and that looks like Jimmy Olive on bass?

[Note, I loaded all these pictures in X-large size so you could make out the faces. Most of them got cropped on the right. So please click on a photo and look at them in camera roll mode to see the whole pic.]

Here's another pic from March, 2012. Lindsay Olive on guitar, me on guitar & vocals, Erik Shields on drums, Fuzzy, Michael Anderson aka Cheesehead on bass, and the OFBJ long-time keyboard player, Bob Hopps. Bob is also an excellent blues guitar player, harpist, and vocalist.

• After O'Neil's, the OFBJ moved downtown to Cheapside for a few months.
• It was at Paulie's Toasted Barrel downtown on Main St. for a year or so around 2013.
• Then it moved to Patchen Pub for maybe a year?

Here's a pic from Patchen Pub, October 1014. Brent Carter (playing Johnny Cash) on my Flying V, Mighty Joe Linville on sax. Gordon Parks on bass, probably SkyJack Miller on drums, Fuzzy, most excellent young guitarist Jeff Adams, and Jerry Woodyard playing the flattop.

• The jam then morphed into Sherman House Presents the Lexington Blues Jam booked by Matt Noell. It was at Shamrocks on Patchen outside Sunday evenings for 2 years.

Here's a pic of Steve (& me) at Shamrocks July 2015. Great shirt!

Spring & Summer of 2013 I ran the Tuesday Night Rock & Roll Party at Henry Clay Public House downtown on Upper. Here's Steve playing with Lexington blues legend Teedee Young - & his son, who is now part of his band. Logan Lay is on bass.

---

After Fall 2016, there was no blues jam in Lexington for 10 months. I was missing my playing time, so I approached Steve about doing a duo, me on guitar & vocals, him on harp. He had played a few duo gigs before with Richard Mattingly. I chose Steve because of the 10 or so harp players I had played with, Steve was by far the most versatile. He could find a harp part on almost anything. No offense, but most harp players want to play nothing but blues.

A Digitech Vocalist Live 3 sang harmony with me on 1/3 of the songs (and did autotune on all the songs). I also used a Boss RC-30 Looper on a few songs.

We named ourselves, very imaginatively, Steve & Chris. My older brother is named Steve, so I had heard "Steve & Chris" for all my young life.

We pretty quickly got 50 songs - enough for a 4 hour gig. That grew to 90. So we moved 45 to a Duo Other book. But Steve and I were both horrible about holding the list down. The final count was 122, ha ha!

We rehearsed in the music area of my basement. We tried songs out live at Coralee's Open Mic, which was at Willie's Locally Known on Southland, then Cosmic Charlie's on National, and then The Burl. Coralee was always very encouraging and supportive. After Coralee moved to Nashville, we switched to the Red Barn Radio Open Mic, now Listen Locally Open Mic, at Twisted Cork off of Clay's Mill, Sunday, 5:30-9:00. We played there lots of weeks - 25 set lists in my app - until Steve started to weaken in Summer 2019.

We also played at LexJam, the 2nd Saturday of the month, 1-5, currently at Ranada's on Old Vine. Steve played at LexJam for ~15 years. Steve loved LexJam and LexJam loved Steve. Rennie Neubecker who runs LexJam seemed to be hit particularly hard by the loss of Steve. Steve & I last played at LexJam July 13, 2019.

Here's the poster Rennie made for the memorial they had for Steve.

We played our first gig at J. Render's Southern Table & Grill May 2017, thanks to the GM there, my musical friend Josh Brown. They were having a special fixed price dinner paired with local Alltech beers, with master brewer Ken Lee - "The Beer of Bourbon Country". We got the dinner and beers for our pay, yay! We passed the audition, and played J. Renders several more times. Here's a pic from that 1st night.

We decided that Steve would wear a baseball cap rather than going with 2 straw hats. LOL! Here we are playing indoors there in November.

We also played Grillfish and Patchen Pub, and here's a pic from Big Blue Martini.

The next year, 2018, we played J. Render's, Shamrocks, Squires, and The Cellar. They liked us everywhere we played, but the same thing happened at Patchen Pub & The Cellar: their in-house music critic, a 30-something dude probably in a band, noticed that we were old! Need younger blood!

Here is the link to the Steve & Chris YouTube channel. 7 videos, 2 of originals from the basement, 2 from Big Blue Martini, 1 from J. Renders, 2 from Grillfish.

---

Meanwhile, Matt Noell got Sherman House Presents (formerly known as the OFBJ) started again Spring 2017.

• It was at Life Brewpub off of Richmond Rd. for a couple of months maybe. I remember my daughter Erica who lives in Brooklyn came out and got to talk with Steve.
• It then moved to Lynagh's and stayed until December 2018. The original house band was Roger Barber on drums, Matt Noell on bass, David Ponder & Brent Carter on guitar. I took over for Ponder in Spring 2018.
• In Summer 2017, Dane Sadler started the Blues & Groove Jam at Squires, Sunday 7:30-10:30. So we had 2 jams/week for a while, yay! That jam is still going strong. Boogie G. (George Burdette) and J.J. Davis alternate weeks on bass. Both are monster players on bass & vocals, & J.J. also is an unbelievable lead guitarist - Hendrix + Van Halen licks. I've filled in for Dane a few times.

Here's 2 pix of Steve at Squire's playing with Teedee again on June 23, 2019. Teedee is playing my St. Vincent Signature. Dane on guitar, Mighty Joe Linville on sax, and Erik Shields on drums.

The last time Steve played out was at Squires on July 28, 2019, 1 month to the day before he died. I think this pic is from the month before. Erik Shields on drums.

Here's a couple more pix from those last few months. I love this selfie that Haywood Ferguson took. You can clearly see Steve projecting harpiness into Jerry Mayfield, who's projecting it on to Haywood.

Haywood greatly respected Steve's playing and had been learning from Steve for the last year or so. Steve told me several times, he couldn't believe how he would show or tell Haywood something for the harp, and next time Haywood would be doing it. Haywood did Steve & Chris songs with me at LexJam, Twisted Cork, and Steve's memorial. Thanks Haywood!

Here's 1 from April. A good pic of Steve IMO.

---

My wife & I had both picked up nasty colds on Tuesday, so when Julie called on Wednesday August 28, 10:30 am to tell me Steve had died at 6 am, I could not offer to come over. I went by the following Monday, & Julie asked me to put together music for Steve's memorial - it is what he would have wanted. "How big a band?" "The bigger the better", Julie sez.

I told her 20-25 musicians, we got 19 signed up. Plus, King William Allen was there but did not want to sign up and play. We had 2 electric guitar + 1 acoustic electric amps, 5 mics on stage. We didn't get the 4 piece horn section we were shooting for (the fuzzyhorns), but the 2 horns we got, Mighty Joe Linville on tenor sax and Kevin Sparks on trumpet, acquitted themselves famously.

The memorial was Saturday, September 21, 3-5. We started setting up at 2 but still started 15 minutes late. We went a little over. It was at Clark Legacy Center, 601 E. Brannon Rd, Nicholasville. Past all the Brannon Crossing development, on the left.

Here's a pic without the horns. Len Wujcik on harp, Vanessa Davis on my electric classical + vocals, Ron Northrip on my bass, David Ponder on my Strat + vocals, Brent Carter on his Les Paul. David & Brent totally helped out playing guitar for the last hour. They love to play together, having played in Thirstin Howl with Sherri McGee & Matt Noell. Ron did me a double solid, taking over for me on bass (our planned bass player was a no-show) so I could work the list, and finishing out the afternoon without getting to play any guitar. Thanks David, Brent, & Ron!

Steve & I knew Vanessa from the Twisted Cork open mic. She has a fabulous voice, has written many most excellent original songs, and is a great guitarist. She is a star at the Twisted Cork open mic. It was really nice of her to come out and get that side of Steve's recent music represented.

Here's the full effect, with the fuzzyhorns on the left. That's Randy Ethridge aka Woody on drums. He was from Richmond, moved to FL 4-5 years ago. He was back up for the funeral, that same day, of his 25 YO daughter claimed by the opioid epidemic. A completely tragic loss. He came out to get some musical healing, I think he did.

Here's everyone who signed up. The original list got soaked & smeared by the 1/2 pint of Maker's Mark in my gig bag that decided to sacrifice itself to the gods, so I had to recopy it.

From the time Julie appointed me music director I was sweating bullets that it would go well. But it did go well, Julie, the kids, and her family all enjoyed it. We finished with all the musicians, including 4 harp players trading off riffs, on stage, doing "I Shall Be Released". Brent Carter told me he had to put his sunglasses on during the song, because he was tearing up. I saw Julie singing along, and many others.

Another thing at the end that was completely heart-warming was David Harrod giving out 3 harps to young ones there. Haywood was trying to get them all playing in the finale.

---

Here's what I posted to Steve's Tribute Wall.

I met Steve 10 years ago playing out at blues jams. He and I started playing in a duo around 3 years ago. My concept of our collaboration was: I would play guitar and sing and keep the songs going so Steve could play beautiful blues harp over them. He could find a beautiful harp part for pretty much anything. Everybody at the jams loved Steve; he was very encouraging to the less experienced players and was happy to act as a mentor - although he was surprised when they actually used the things he taught them. He did not have a mean bone in his body. I still several times a day think "I need to ask Steve about that" or "Steve needs to hear this song". I hope he stays with me for a long time - he will be a good influence. My deepest condolences to his family.

I had not thought of this beforehand, it just came out as I was writing it. But I've thought of it several times since then, and discussed it with people. When someone dies, as we all do, we still have them in our minds. I still think several times a day, "I need to ask Steve that" or "I bet Steve likes this song, I can't wait to hear what he does on harp with it." After people like this die, I think we sometimes try to let our recognition of these occurrences time out, because they make us sad when we realize the person is gone.

But, I think I will try to keep Steve alive in my head. He was one of the nicest people I ever met. He didn't have a mean bone in his body. I think he was always a good influence on me, so I will try and keep that influence around.

But NO Ancient Alien Astronauts! Steve loved that show, I finally watched an episode and, no way!

I have a Steve-shaped hole in my life. I can't imagine how big that hole is for Julie & the kids, Jesse & Rose. But I think his presence in our minds will be a positive influence for as long as any of us can remember.

---

Penultimately, here's 1 final pic of Steve: from the album cover of "Come Round Baby" by The Stella-Vees, 2007, 16 tracks. Steve was joined by Steve Parrish on drums, Jason Lockwood on guitar & vocals. Lindsay Olive told me he played bass on the album, I have no idea who the bass player in the picture is.

I burned 6 copies of the album and took them to the memorial. 5 were taken, yay! Anytime a track from this album comes up on shuffle play out of 20,000 songs in my iTunes, I immediately recognize Steve's harp.

---

And finally here is the song about Steve that Dr. Kevin Holm-Hudson wrote in 1 day. Dr. Kevin is a regular & star at Twisted Cork, and a prolific songwriter (and a UK music professor and a member of The Twiggenburys). He woke up in the morning with 2 lines about Steve and wrote 5 verses that day. It was very moving, both at Twisted Cork and LexJam.

Music In Is Broken

Well, processing the current Music In has been problematic.

Amazon used to send me weekly music recommendations. That is now monthly, oops! That & word-of-mouth were my main sources of new music.

Trying to get more coming in, I started getting a bandcamp weekly newsletter. This normally has 5 new albums or EPs featured.

I got several of these - alternative rock, indie, with nice melodies and good female lead singers - stuff I am a sucker for.

They are all good, but, the problem is, after 5-10 listens, I can't particularly tell most of them apart. So in this emptying of the pending music in tunes, lots & lots of 3 stars, and very few 4 stars.

Is this a function of my aging brain struggling to assimilate too much new content? Or maybe the music on bandcamp is just a touch below being catchy, to where it would stick better?

Inquiring minds want to know. Here we go.

• Van Morrison, "Moondance Expanded - Sessions, Alternates & Outtakes (All Previously Unissued)", 1969, 11 tracks, and "A Night in San Francisco (Live)", 1994, 14 tracks. These were both recommended by my friend and blues harpist Steve Konopka (fuzzy). I enjoyed them more than I expected. The "San Francisco" 1 features other band members singing lead. 1 thing I definitely got out of these is both have versions of "Moondance" with the vocals done in 3-part harmony. That song gets performed fairly often, I'm kind of tired of it, but next time it gets called I may try and sing some harmony with it. 3 stars.
• The Jayhawks, "Mockingbird Time", 2011, 12 tracks. Starting to work backward through their catalog. Not a bad album, but no standout songs. Somewhat disappointing, should I keep going back? 3 stars.
• Ra Ra Riot, "Beta Love", 2013, 11 tracks. This is the 4th of their albums I have, probably my least favorite. Nothing particularly catchy. They just put a 5th album out in August, I think I will check it out. 3 stars.
• Hop Along, "Bark Your Head Off Dog", 2018, 9 tracks. Bandcamp. A Philly indie band that's been around since 2004. Good tunes, good female singer, no standouts. 3 stars.
• Maria Taylor, "In the Next Life", 2016, 10 tracks. Bandcamp. Taylor has been around for 20 years. Good tunes, a variety of instrumental backing, no standouts. 3 stars.
• Petal, "Magic Gone", 2018, 10 tracks. Bandcamp. More rockish than the rest. Chanteuse & guitarist Kiley Lotz plus studio musicians. Nice tunes, no standouts. 3 stars.
• Barrie, "Happy To Be Here", 2019, 10 tracks. Bandcamp. More indie rock, a little better engineered and more dancable. Debut album of what appears to be 5-piece indie band from the Northwest with an alto lead & harmony singers. Finally, 4 stars! Here's "Dark Tropical".

• Britt, "Kill the Man", 2019, 6 tracks. Bandcamp. A bit more ethereal and conceptual than some of the others. Soprano lead singer. 3 stars.
• Great Lake Swimmers, "New Wild Everywhere", 2012, 13 tracks. I have enjoyed their tunes when they come up on shuffle play, so I decided to get more. No standouts on this album, 3 stars.
• David Bowie, "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)", 1980, 10 tracks. The song "Ashes to Ashes" came up somewhere and I discovered it was not in my collection. So I bought this album to get it - and of course, it is the only good song on the album. So 4 stars for "Ashes to Ashes", 3 stars for the rest.

• Tal Wilkenfeld, "Love Remains", 2019, 10 tracks. I of course greatly enjoyed Wilkenfeld's work as the 15 YO Australian immigrant playing bass for Jeff Beck. When I found she had an album singing & playing guitar, I had to check it out. Somewhat interesting blues/rock, but nothing really standout. 3 stars.
• Mavis Staples, "We Get By", 2019, 11 tracks. Mavis keeps on keepin' on. This album was written and produced by Ben Harper, and it is excellent. I gave it to Steve to pick the tracks he liked best for us to perform. He picked "Brothers and Sisters", and "Change". 4 stars.

• The National, "I am Easy to Find", 2019, 16 tracks. I think their 1st in a while. I like the baritone lead singer, who is joined by an alto on several songs. 3 stars.
• Children of Zeus, "Excess Baggage", 2019, 7 tracks. Bandcamp. Some nice electronica/dance for something different. 4 stars. Here's "Vibrations (Short Edit)"

• Christelle Bofale, "Swim Team", 2019, 5 tracks. Bandcamp. Austin TX based singer-songwriter. Nice arrangements. No standouts, 3 stars.
• Rick Howard, "Lil' Noir", 2019, 10 tracks. Rick is the most excellent guitarist of the most excellent SW Florida band Mudbone, live album blogged here. He is the nephew of Moe Howard of the 3 Stooges (?!?!?), and I take guitar lessons from him, so far working mostly on 1930's standards. Plus, neat new chords! I love that I have been playing guitar for over 50 years and still learn new chords. This album is 10 original jazz tunes, played with a 4 or 5 piece combo. Mudbone blues harp player Jerry Fierro plays on a couple of the tracks and acquits himself well. A very professional effort, 3 stars.
• Santana, "Africa Speaks", 2019, 11 tracks. Some world music from Carlos, assisted by various African artists. Some great grooves and rhythms. 3 stars.
• The Appleseed Cast, "The Fleeting Light of Impermance", 2019, 8 tracks. Bandcamp. A bit more abstract than some of the others. Out of Lawrence KS, apparently these guys have been around for 20 years. 3 stars.
• Market, eponymous, 2019, 4 tracks. Bandcamp. Australians, yay! Just over the catchiness threshold, 4 stars. Here's "Circles"

• Black Pumas, eponymous, 2019, 10 tracks. Bandcamp. Yay, some good modern R&B! Why isn't there more of this? This is 2 guys out of Austin. 4 stars. Here's "Black Moon Rising".

• Kate Bollinger, "I Don't Wanna Lose", 2019, 5 tracks. Bandcamp. This indie rock somehow managed to hit my sweet spot. Interesting instrumentals & alto vocals. 4 stars. Here's the oxymoronically titled "Untitled".

• Morley & Friends, "Borderless Lullabies", 2019, 21 tracks. I'm not sure where this came from. It is a collection of lullabies, by many different artists, in different languages and different styles. I burned a copy for my grandsons, maybe they'll like it to go to sleep by. 3 stars.
• The Soft Cavalry, eponymous, 2019, 12 tracks. Bandcamp. The debut album of a husband/wife duo. Very well done. Somewhat reminiscent of early Coldplay. 4 stars. Here's the 1st track, "Dive".

Phew, 24 albums! But things have gotten a bit sparse again, the Unrated smart playlist has only 64 songs in it. Guess I need some new acquisitions.

Reality - Who Needs It?

Continuing with all sci-fi and fantasy, all the time.

1st up, "The Reefs of Time", Jeffrey A. Carver, 2019, 539 pages, #5 of "The Chaos Chronicle". After a hiatus of 11 years, Carver returns to this series. The 1st 4 books are blogged here. This book is billed as Part 1 of 2 in the "Out of Time sequence", with the 2nd part coming in October. We merge a couple of plot threads, plus the universe of Carver's 2 Starstream novels. The team gets split into 3 groups, 2 rejoin, the big reunion presumably coming in book #6. They continue fighting the hostile AIs bent on wiping out organic life so it will quit wasting resources. This is 1 of those transition books that mostly just sets the table for the grand finale.

Next, "The Expert System's Brother" by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2018, 139 pages. I liked the title. An interesting little novella, a tale of bioengineering humans so they can survive a foreign ecosystem. One of the plot elements I found somewhat unbelievable.

Next a fantasy, "Travel Light", by Naomi Mitchison, 1952, 136 pages. I think this was recommended by Tina Eisenberg (@swissmiss) or Maria Popova (@brainpicker). I figured that any fairy tale with Odin All-Father as a character deserved a look. I bought a paperback copy for my 8 YO granddaughter figured I'd read it before sending it on to her. I read about 1/3 of it and then went on and bought the eBook as well - it was what my old eyes wanted. Mitchinson definitely knows how to write a fairy tale - the prose has that numinous quality that makes you feel like an old, old story is being recounted to you. I was a little disappointed when christians were part of the plot as well as norse pagans, but they weren't portrayed very sympathetically. The heroine's adventures make for an interesting story. I have purchased the eBook of what appears to be Mitchinson's most popular work, "The Corn King and the Spring Queen".

Back to sci-fi and another short read, "Phoresis", by old favorite Greg Egan, 2018, 143 pages. Egan again builds an interesting world - and this time without particularly altering the laws of physics! The story moves along well. In what appears to be a definite trend, the characters are all women. The male role in this book is pretty creepy: women all have 1-3 horny little 6" guys in their womb, who fight to get to emerge and impregnate other females?!?!?

Last Tuesday my wife and I both came down with colds, apparently from 2 different sources. So time for rest and fluids. My sophomore year of college I remember getting sick and then spending 4 days in bed rereading "The Lord of the Rings" cover to cover. At the end of that, I couldn't walk through the woods without expecting to see elves, ents, orcs.

So in a similar vein, I decided to reread the Philip Jose Farmer "World of Tiers" series as I recuperated. I had picked up "World of Tiers Volume 1" - "The Maker of Universes" (1965), "The Gates of Creation" (1966), and "A Private Cosmos" (1968) - 820 pages, I think from BookBub for $1.99. I went on and bought "Volume 2" - "Behind the Walls of Terra" (1970), "The Lavalite World" (1977), "Red Orc's Rage" (1991), and "More Than Fire" (1993), 1200 pages.

The 1st 5 I had read before and were as I remembered - rollicking adventures on unusual worlds. Farmer wrote forewords, in a few of which he complains that title changes and edits were made with his being consulted - oops. There were some funny moments in the 1970 novel - Farmer reacted to the counterculture of the time about as you would expect a 52 YO white male to react.

1 thing that surprised me: I really liked the concept of "temporal fugue", I thought introduced by Roger Zelazny in "Creatures of Light and Darkness" (1969). Basically time-travelers getting ready to go mano-a-mano send multiple (1000s) of copies of themselves back through time to the time & place of the big battle. Then it's 1000s vs 1000s. I thought Zelazny had invented this, but there are time-traveling creatures who basically do this in the 2nd Tiers book, which came out in 1966. So Farmer was 3 years ahead of Zelazny.

The 6th book "Red Orc's Rage" is kind of weird. Apparently some psychiatrist came up with a therapy based on having the patient read the 5 World of Tiers books and then becoming 1 of the characters?!?!? Apparently this is a form of projective psychotherapy. The 6th book is about a teenager undergoing this therapy - but it fills in a lot of Red Orc's back story that gets used in the 7th book.

By the time I got to the 7th book, I was definitely ready for it to be over. Also somewhat annoyingly, the main character of the 1st 2 novels, the lord Jadawin / Robert Wolff, and his girlfriend Chryseis (of The Iliad) are left in limbo - missing for the last several books, still missing at the end.

On to the magazine stack. Then probably more of the same. I don't know if I'll be ready for reality until Agent Orange leaves office.

Progressive {$everything}

This past Friday we drove from Lexington KY to Durham NC via the West Virginia Turnpike. What had been 3x$3 tolls was now 3x$4 tolls. This disappointed me, as tolls are a regressive tax - one that affects poor people much more than rich people. In the US, since 1913 the progressive income tax has been 1 of the only things countering the natural tendency of capitalism to produce runaway inequality.

A natural next step is a progressive wealth tax. aka capital or Piketty tax. That is why proposals like the Green New Deal include such a tax.

Further afield, I have recently been thinking about promoting (voluntary) progressive tipping. My wife & I got to visit France 6 years ago and both liked the "no tipping" of servers in France. Pay the people a living wage, what a concept!

Meanwhile, back in the United States of Capitalism, even though trickle-down economics is, per Krugman, a "zombie" economic theory - one that is known to be wrong, but that refuses to die - it still has influenced a lot of the US economic system for many decades. So I try to actually practice it via aggressive tipping: 100-33%, $5 minimum tip. All 3 of my daughters worked as servers (my son was a very good dishwasher), and for every 1 who over-tips, I guarantee there are 5 who under-tip.

A progressive tipping policy might look like:

• if you're in the 0-50th %tile financially, you tip 15%;
• 50-60, 20%
• 60-70, 25%
• 70-80, 30%
• 80-90, 40%
• 90-99, 50-100%
• .01%'ers, 500%
• .001%'ers, 1000%

I think this should be a no-brainer for the better-off. But, unless you are in the 0.001%, you probably don't think of yourself as "better-off". Maybe this would be another form of tumbrel insurance for rich folk besides UBI?

Note, someone told me that "tips" stands for "to insure proper service". Whatever. If service isn't great, I don't know what that server is having to deal with, so I support them regardless.

Then I got to thinking, tips are a "cost of goods" - a price. Why not have progressive pricing on everything, on a scale similar to the tipping? The rich are willing to pay big bucks for exclusive/rare/top-shelf products - how about they pay big bucks for everything, and subsidize purchases by the less well off?

Or, maybe even better and easier, expand the really inventive concept put forward by Karl Schroeder in "Stealing Worlds". There Schroeder posits that the emerging dominant cryptocurrency automatically distributes coins from wallets with too much to wallets with too little. This idea reflects one of my mantras: that money is software. How about a cryptocurrency that implements progressive pricing? A progressive cryptocurrency.

What is the range over which this adjustment should run? Why, the range that keeps the world in Kate Raworth's Doughnut, of course! I would guess that the upper limit on income/wealth would be greater than, say, the 9:1 ratio which limits the wages of executives based on the lowest paid workers' wages implemented by the Spanish Mondragon Coop. I suspect we can stay in the doughnut and still have filthy rich people - but maybe not the 182,000:1 wage ratio of Jeff Bezos to a $15/hour worker.

The concept, brought forth by Schroeder, is that, rather than trying to address inequality with band-aids after the fact, we should build more equality directly into the infrastructure. And while we're at it, this gives us a throttle which we can use to get us and keep us in the doughnut.

Hopefully food for thought. What else could you build into a cryptocurrency?

That Didn't Take Long

So after establishing a reading heuristic, no books with "empire" in the title, I nonetheless decided to read "Empress of Forever", by Max Gladstone, 2019, 655 pages. I liked his Craft Sequence, and this book had great reviews.

Bad behavior rewarded! There was 0 feudalism, just an insanely powerful Empress of the Galaxy, who got her job by taking control of The Cloud on earth - which expanded to be The Galactic Cloud - at a very early stage ?!?!?

Very engaging writing, a memorable fellowship established to fight the Empress, including a character who is gray goo. A very good read. Note, the fast majority of characters are female, & I think all the romantic relationships in the book are female-female. A lot of this lately in sci-fi. Male geeks aren't offended, & females are empowered, FTW!

Next up, non-fiction?!?!? "Rising Tide", by John M. Barry, 1998, 653 pages, subtitled "The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America". It was recommended to me several years ago by Michael Boggs of Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville. It is: a history of flood control theories from 1870 to 1930; the story of the 1927 Mississippi flood which put 1000s of miles^2 underwater; and the tragic tale of LeRoy Percy, friend of Teddy Roosevelt, boss man of Greenville MI, in the heart of Mississippi delta.

Very informative. I sometimes find it hard to read historical stuff when the real people being followed are total assholes. The main lesson from the book: aristocratic/oligarchic noblesse oblige will fall by the wayside when greed/capitalism dictate. Percy was very progressive in his treatment of blacks - but because economically, he needed their cheap labor. He kicked the klan out in the 1920s as his father had kicked them out after the civil war.

But when it was time for the blacks to be taken off the levy and to safety in the worst of the flooding, Percy undermined his son's decision to evacuate the blacks along with the whites because he was afraid the labor would not return. His son, the county disaster manager, reacted badly to his father's betrayal and his relationship with the now imprisoned blacks became increasingly bad, and a national scandal. Oof!

#3, "This Is How You Lose the Time War", by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, 2019, 136 pages. I enjoyed the other Max Gladstone a lot. This one not so much. I like the title, and it has an interesting plot: (female) time warriors/fixers, 1 from the Red civilization - computers, VR, the cybernetic singularity - and 1 from Blue - bioscience, genetic engineering, Avatar (the movie) type sensibilities - battle each other across the ages, trying to change various events to favor their side. They start corresponding, fall in love, etc. Romeo & Juliet I guess. Somehow it just didn't work for me. It was short though.

Plant Trees!

Writing a letter to the editor:

The climate crisis - climate change, global warming, ocean acidification - is the greatest challenge human civilization has ever faced. It is very daunting to address as an individual, particularly when our government is currently doing the completely wrong thing: continuing to subsidize fossil fuels.

Years ago I read that the #1 thing an individual could do to help fight the climate crisis was to buy a more efficient car. We bought our 1st Prius in 2005; my current 2016 Prius gets ~55 mpg driving around Lexington.

Just recently, tho, there was another idea. A July 4 Scientific American article discussed a study which concluded that planting trees everywhere possible could offset "two thirds of all the CO2 humans have generated since the industrial revolution".

Wow! Plant trees! Surely all of us love trees! Plus, planting trees near your house will eventually shade your house and cut down your summer air conditioning bills.

We should all get behind efforts like our own Reforest the Bluegrass and Branching Out programs.

Lexington housing developers are currently doing a great job of infill development; please look at adding as many trees as possible to your developments.

On July 31, I read that Ethiopia set a new record by planting 350 million trees in 1 day. How about we establish a competition, who can plant the most trees?

On bad days, I figure it's too late - greed/capitalism will trump the survival of the human race.

But, maybe not! Pitch in, plant some trees!

Chris Heinz
Lexington

Stealing Worlds

"Stealing Worlds" is the latest by Karl Schroeder, 2019, 311 pages. This is 1 of those books where I'm going "I have been waiting so long for this book." A very near future, with ideas on tech to use to escape from ever-rapacious capitalism, 80-90% of which are or could be in place nowish.

Schroeder has touched on some of these topics in his earlier works (see here for example), but this seemed to pull everything together. The infodump by one of the characters that makes up most of Chapter 14 represents that synthesis.

The only tech he uses that we are still reaching for is AI. But the AIs he described are not particularly ineffable, and may be within reach of big-data based systems.

I liked his concept of distributed autonomous corporations (DACs) - a corporation with no human employees, run completely by an AI. The owner gets all the profits - the very essence of capitalism? I also really liked his concept of a cryptocurrency that automatically redistributes from wallets that are too full to wallets that are empty - gotta love that outside-the-box thinking. And he again talks about thalience.

I really think we should get Schroeder, Cory Doctorow, & Kim Stanley Robinson together to design the future for us - the Green New Deal writ large. Can we get to a post-capitalist, post-scarcity utopia before the out-of-control paperclip-optimizing AI aka capitalism finishes turning the entire world into paperclips capital?

4 + 2

I think BookBub offered me "The Chaos Chronicles Books 1-3", by Jeffrey A. Carver, for $2.99 or some such. I remembered Carver as being a hard, galactic sci-fi kind of guy a la Gregory Benford or Greg Bear, so I went for it. The 3 novels it contains are "Neptune Crossing", 1994, 582 pages; "Strange Attractors", 1995, 352 pages; and "The Infinite Sea", 1996, 379 pages. These were fun, comic-bookish stories. An alien artifact on Triton implants an earthing with high-tech translator stones. He saves the earth, and then moves on to other galactic adventures with other translator stone holders. It kind of reminded me of Green Lanterns (DC comic). There is lots of action. The 2nd book does a good job of keeping us wondering, will the earthling hook up with the female 4-breasted humanoid empath stone holder? I did like that the main power of the translator stones was to ... translate, enabling communication with several other alien species.

I enjoyed these enough that I bought the 4th novel of the series, "Sunborn", 2011, 478 pages. Another cosmic story. Ha ha, in this one, at one point, our earthling tells 1 of the 2 smart ass robots that are part of the company, "Lead on, kemosabe." I'm immediately going, wow, is that a temporal tell, or what? And sure enough, Carver was born in 1949, so he's 2 years older than me. Ha ha, I wonder what is the youngest person who would get the reference? I queried my son born in 1976. He knew it had to do with the Lone Ranger & Tonto, but not sure exactly what. I queried my youngest daughter born in 1983. She replied with the image below, so I guess she got the reference. But I bet a 20-something would have no clue.

A 5th novel in the series is due out later this year.

I had 2 Karl Schroeder novels on my iPad, plus a Neal Stephenson. Decisions, decisions. I went with the older of the Schroeder novels, "The Million", 2018, 192 pages. I'm guessing this was actually a novella. It is set in the same universe as his "Lockstep". This is a really interesting concept - that in the absence of FTL travel, the way you could have an interstellar civilization is by slowing time way down by having entire worlds hibernate most of the time - except for The Million, who are the real-time caretakers. The novella is an interesting exploration of the ramifications of the concept, with action, plucky characters, etc. As the characters are mostly young adults, I'm guessing this is a YA story.

Then, on to the Stephenson: "Fall; or, Dodge in Hell: A Novel", 2019, 892 pages. Well, it was great to see Stephenson give props to "'D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths" and "D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths". These are family favorites - I have already bought all my grandchildren copies.

But, I was a little sad that the 1st person uploaded posthumously into quantum computers builds a world strongly along the lines of genesis. It was interesting as time passes and many of the books real-world characters get uploaded and now take part in the drama in Bitworld - culiminating in a Tolkienesque quest. But I kind of agree with the story's antagonist, El (Elohim), that they maybe could have done a lot better than creating a very medieval flavored world.

There wasn't as much snappy dialog and turns of phrase as is usual for Stephenson. So, an enjoyable, sprawling read, but maybe Stephenson is showing his age slightly.

The ABCs of Agent Orange

Posted on Twitter. Posted on Twitter. Posted on Twitter ...

The ABCs of Agent Orange @realDonaldTrump.

Hmmm, all these can be prefixed with "Orange". Is there the perfect OrangeBlah that should be in the list?
We have a winner! #OrangeShitGibbonInChief !

1. 2YearOldInChief
2. 5YearOldInChief
3. 8YearOldInChief
4. AbuserInChief
5. AdderallSnorter ...
6. Adulterer ..
7. Asshole .
8. AustralopithicusWankus
9. Authoritarian
10. Baby
11. BadActor
12. BankFraud
13. Bankrupt
14. BenedictArnold
15. BenedictDonald
16. BiggestLiarEver
17. Bigot
18. Birther
19. Blowhard
20. BoneSpursBoy
21. Braggart
22. Brokeahontas
23. BrokeAss
24. Buffoon
25. Bullshitter
26. Bully
27. Bungler
28. BunkerBaby
29. BunkerBastard
30. BunkerBitch
31. BunkerBoy
32. BunkerKing
33. Capitulator
34. CharityShamster
35. Charlatan
36. Cheater
37. Cheetolini
38. Chicken
39. ChildRapeAccusee
40. Clown
41. ComboverCaligula
42. CompleteFuckingAsshole
43. Conman
44. ComspiracyTheorist
45. Convict
46. CoronaVirus
47. CouchPotato
48. Covidiot
49. Coward
50. Criminal
51. CroMAGA
52. Crook
53. Crybaby
54. DaddysBoy
55. Deadbeat
56. DealBreaker
57. Debtor
58. Deludee
59. Demagogue
60. Dement
61. Denier
62. Deplorable
63. DickTatorTot
64. DiscreditorOfUSIntelCommunity
65. DishonorerOfGoldStarFamilies
66. DisrespectorOfMinorities
67. DisrespectorOfPrisonersOfWar
68. DisrespectorOfVeterans
69. DisrespectorOfWomen
70. Distractor
71. Divider
72. DraftDodger
73. DrugAddict
74. DoctorKiller
75. Dotard
76. Dumbass
77. Dumbfuck
78. Dumbster
79. DumpsterFire
80. Dunce
81. Egomaniac
82. ElectionFraud
83. EmolumensClausetViolator
84. EMTKiller
85. Envier
86. Exaggerator
87. Extortionist
88. Failure
89. Fake
90. FakeChristian
91. FakeNewsAsshole
92. Fascist
93. Felon
94. Fool
95. FraidyCat
96. Fraud
97. Fraudster
98. FredsFailure
99. FriendKiller
100. FuckfaceVonClownstick
101. Fuckopotamus
102. FuckUp
103. FutureInmate
104. Gaslighter
105. Genocidist
106. Girther
107. GobShite
108. Grabber
109. GrandmaKiller
110. Grifter
111. Groper
112. GuineaPig
113. Hater
114. HousingDiscriminator
115. Huckster
116. HydroxyMoron
117. Idiot
118. Ignoramus
119. Imbecile
120. ImmunoCompromisedPersonKiller
121. Impeachee
122. Imposter
123. ImpotusInChief
124. Incompetent
125. Infant
126. Infanticide
127. InfectedImpeachedImpostor
128. Inmate
129. Instigator
130. Interruptor
131. Jackass
132. JazzMusicianKiller
133. Jerk
134. JobKiller
135. JobOutsourcer
136. Junkie
137. Kakistocract
138. Killer
139. Kleptocrat
140. Laughingstock
141. LawCircumventer
142. Liar
143. Loser
144. Madman
145. MalignantNarcissist
146. ManFail
147. MangoMussolini
148. MangoWanker
149. MassMurderer
150. MeatPlantWorkerKiller
151. Meltdown
152. Menace
153. MentorKiller
154. Misogynist
155. MockerOfThePhysicallyImpaired
156. MoneyLaunderer
157. Moron
158. MotherFucker
159. Murderer
160. NameCaller
161. Narcissist
162. Narcisissy
163. NastyInterruptor
164. Nazi
165. Nightmare
166. Nihilist
167. NurseKiller
168. NYPDKiller
169. Oaf
170. OathBreaker
171. OpenRacist
172. Opportunist
173. OrangeHairMoussealini
174. OrangeShitGibbon
175. PathologicalLiar
176. Pedophile
177. Phony
178. Pimp
179. PlagueRat
180. POSOTUS
181. POTUSApprentice
182. PrimaDonna
183. Projector
184. ProudBoy
185. Psychopath
186. Pukehead
187. PumpkinFuhrer
188. Puppet
189. PussyGrabber
190. Putinite
191. PutinsPuppet
192. Quisling
193. RaceHustler
194. Racist
195. Rapist
196. RICOViolationsSuspect
197. RussianAsset
198. RussianColluder
199. Saboteur
200. Sadist
     
201. Scammer
     
202. Scapegoater
203. ScumBag
204. SelfPitier
205. Sexist
206. SexPredator
207. SexualPervert
208. Shamster
209. ShitGibbon
210. ShitStain
211. Shill
212. SickieInChief
213. SirFatTubbyTurd
214. Sleazeball
215. SnakeOilSalesman
216. Snowflake
217. Sociopath
218. SpoiledBrat
219. SpoiledChild
220. Stooge
221. Strokeahontas
222. Superspreader
223. SurrenderMonkey
224. Swindler
225. Syphiliphigus
226. TaxEvader
227. Thief
228. ThugMaster
229. TittyBoy
230. Toddler
231. Torturer
232. Traitor
233. TransitWorkerKiller
234. TreasonWeasel
235. TurdKing
236. TwatWaffle
237. Tyrant
238. UnionBuster
239. UnstableMoron
240. UsefulIdiot
241. UselessIdiot
242. Vacillator
243. VendorStiffer
244. Vulgarian
245. Waffler
246. WannabeAutocrat
247. WannabeMafioso
248. Weakling
249. Whiner
250. WhirlingAmoralChaosVortex
251. WhiteSupremacist
252. WhiteSupresident
253. WhoreMonger
254. Wimp
255. Xenophobe
256. YamTits
257. Yeller
258. Zigzagger

[Updated 2020-11-12 11:35 pm HT @LawyerRogelio]
[Updated 2020-11-02 9:56 pm]
[Updated 2020-10-25 8;05 pm HT @perrenod]
[Updated 2020-10-18 11:35 pm HT @svdate]
[Updated 2020-10-18 2:47 pm 4x HT @DearAuntCrabby]
[Updated 2020-10-16 7:43 pm HT @donelson52]
[Updated 2020-10-14 10:35 pm HT @andrewmhickey]
[Updated 2020-10-07 12:40 pm HT @chipfranklin & @oreminsteluspl1]
[Updated 2020-10-07 10:00 am Thx to @nytimes]
[Updated 2020-10-06 11:59 pm Thx to @KLGLASS2]
[Updated 2020-10-06 10:24 am Thx to @paul_lander]
[Updated 2020-10-05 7:55 pm Thx to @Acosta]
[Updated 2020-10-05 1:27 pm Thx to @markos]
[Updated 2020-10-05 10:45 am Thx to @Chick2020Sassy]
[Updated 2020-10-04 11:23 pm Thx to @Skatha]
[Updated 2020-10-03 1:04 pm]
[Updated 2020-10-01 9:04 pm Thx to @ReallyAmerican1]
[Updated 2020-10-01 10:38 am Thx to @rmasher2]
[Updated 2020-09-29 6:57 pm Thx to @perlmutations]
[Updated 2020-09-29 6:44 pm]
[Updated 2020-09-28 9:12 pm]
[Updated 2020-09-28 9:03 pm Thx to @i_am4tunate]
[Updated 2020-09-27 8:48 pm]
[Updated 2020-09-24 9:34 pm Thx to @b_b_bacinator]
[Updated 2020-09-25 9:02 pm]
[Updated 2020-09-25 8:25 pm]
[Updated 2020-09-24 9:34 pm Thx to @nypapajoe]
[Updated 2020-09-20 8:34 pm Thx to @dad_darius]
[Updated 2020-09-09 8:42 am HT @nytimes]
[Updated 2020-09-01 9:29 pm Thx to @rapgrant9700]
[Updated 2020-08-30 8:29 pm]
[Updated 2020-08-25 10:14 pm]
[Updated 2020-08-22 9:32 pm]
[Updated 2020-08-13 9:54 pm Thx to me & my Agent Orange nightmares]
[Updated 2020-08-11 9:40 pm Thx to @TranslateRealDT]
[Updated 2020-08-09 8:15 pm]
[Updated 2020-08-08 10:21 am Thx to @rmasher2]
[Updated 2020-08-05 10:25 pm]
[Updated 2020-08-02 1:35 pm HT @cnn]
[Updated 2020-07-31 9:44 pm Thx to @ProjectLincoln]
[Updated 2020-07-31 9:15 pm Thx to @funder]
[Updated 2020-07-31 9:51 am Thx to @paulkrugman]
[Updated 2020-07-30 8:55 pm Thx to @markos]
[Updated 2020-07-25 9:49 pm]
[Updated 2020-07-23 9:16 pm]
[Updated 2020-07-22 9:04 pm]
[Updated 2020-07-21 9:56 pm]
[Updated 2020-07-16 1:16 pm]
[Updated 2020-07-11 8:03 am Thx to @mmpadellan]
[Updated 2020-07-09 8:37 pm]
[Updated 2020-07-08 12:03 pm Thx to @CraigRozniecki & @Fishgot2swim]
[Updated 2020-07-07 7:22 am]
[Updated 2020-07-05 8:19 pm Thx to @JMPeck69]
[Updated 2020-06-30 11:03 am]
[Updated 2020-06-25 10:42 pm 2x Thx to @donelson52]
[Updated 2020-06-25 10:35 pm]
[Updated 2020-06-24 10:59 pm Thx to @kls_62 & @ZenBuddhette]
[Updated 2020-06-24 6:28 pm]
[Updated 2020-06-21 10:05 am Thx again to @Boricua_En_Maui]
[Updated 2020-06-20 10:59 pm Thx to @Boricua_En_Maui]
[Updated 2020-06-12 10:42 pm Thx to @EllenMcNutt]
[Updated 2020-06-11 2:21 pm Thx to @DavidCornDC]
[Updated 2020-06-08 9:27 pm Thx to @JohnRMoffitt]
[Updated 2020-06-08 1:18 pm]
[Updated 2020-06-08 12:51 pm]
[Updated 2020-06-06 8:47 pm]
[Updated 2020-06-06 8:27 pm]
[Updated 2020-06-05 10:28 pm Thx to @oreminsteluspl1]
[Updated 2020-06-05 1:04 pm]
[Updated 2020-06-05 9:07 am]
[Updated 2020-06-04 8:49 pm]
[Updated 2020-06-04 11:52 am Thx to @liewbob]
[Updated 2020-06-04 10:33 am Thx to @badwebsites]
[Updated 2020-05-31 9:39 pm Thx to @Perrenod]
[Updated 2020-05-31 9:39 pm Thx to @BettyBowers]
[Updated 2020-05-29 9:02 pm Thx to @DearAuntCrabby]
[Updated 2020-05-27 8:22 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-24 1:16 pm Thx to @joncoopertweets]
[Updated 2020-05-24 10:47 am Thx to @Fishgot2Swim]
[Updated 2020-05-22 8:33 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-22 8:20 pm Thx to @HowardA_Esq via @Fishgot2Swim]
[Updated 2020-05-22 1:24 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-20 2:21 pm Thanks @ivyjofreeman]
[Updated 2020-05-19 8:49 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-19 8:29 pm Thanks @Fishgot2Swim & @JohnFugelsang]
[Updated 2020-05-19 10:38 am Thanks @Fishgot2Swim]
[Updated 2020-05-18 9:06 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-18 8:16 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-18 7:43 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-18 7:39 pm Thanks @scalzi]
[Updated 2020-05-17 8:24 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-17 12:12 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-15 1:07 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-13 9:53 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-12 11:01 am]
[Updated 2020-05-12 8:44 am]
[Updated 2020-05-11 9:31 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-11 9:25 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-11 11:20 am]
[Updated 2020-05-10 8:12 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-10 9:46 am]
[Updated 2020-05-07 9:45 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-07 2:52 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-07 12:46 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-06 8:47 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-06 9:30 am]
[Updated 2020-05-05 8:26 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-05 8:03 am]
{Updated 2020-05-04 9:07 pm]
[Updated 2020-05-03 8:23 pm Thx @@JBonniego for WhiteSupresident]
[Updated 2020-04-28 9:49 pm]
[Updated 2020-04-24 1:33 pm Thx @rmasher2 for covidiot]
[Updated 2020-04-24 10:33 am]
[Updated 2020-04-23 10:44 am]
[Updated 2020-04-22 10:55 am]
[Updated 2019-11-18 9:55 pm Thanks @JohnRMoffit! Done!]
[Updated 2019-11-06 1:54 pm]
[Updated 2019-10-09 1:33 pm]
[Updated 2019-09-27 6:14 pm]
[Updated 2019-09-14 7:30 pm]
[Updated 2019-07-02 1:18 pm]
[Updated 2019-06-10 11:42 pm]
[Updated 2019-06-10 10:07 pm]
[Updated 2019-06-10 11:35 am]
[Updated 2019-06-10 1:07 am]

Oof

I haven't done Music In since late November - 7 months. The winter was a bit sparse, so I have been looking to new - and old - sources for new music.

• Darwin Deez, "Songs for Imaginative People", 2013, 10 tracks. I think I originally found Darwin Deez on the iPad app Aweditorium. 1 thing I have started doing to get more new music is, when someone comes up on shuffle play and I like it, I revisit that artist for later works - as this album is. His guitar has a really unique tone. One live video he's playing a Squire Strat, so it must be in the amp. 4 stars. Here's "Free (The Editorial Me)" - nice video, reminiscent of "Memento" or "Groundhog Day" with a much shorter loop.

• Grizzly Bear, "Horn of Plenty", 2004, 14 tracks. This does it for Grizzly Bear - this is their 1st album. Ha ha, this is definitely a band that improved with age. This album is fairly unfocused, no memorable songs. 3 stars. But, "Horn of Plenty" === Cornucopia, 1 of my fav words. So here's a pic.

  

• Danny Gatton and Buddy Emmons, "Redneck Jazz Explosion, Vol. II", 1978, 8 tracks. This is not quite as strong as Vol. I, but still, hard to find fault with the god of pedal steel guitar playing with a great guitarist. 4 stars. Here's "When Sunny Gets Blue".

• Jorge Elbrecht: "Happiness EP", 2018, 6 tracks; "Here Lies", 2018, 14 tracks; "Coral Cross - 002", 2019, 10 tracks. This was a recommendation from my most excellent nephew, drummer Max Heinz, of Portland ME. I liked these more early than I did later. "Coral Cross - 002" particularly was much more noise than I like in my music - 2 stars. 3 stars for the other 2.
• Wilco, "A.M.", 1995, 13 tracks. I continue my exploration of Wilco. This is there 1st album. I didn't think there was a particularly catchy song, a prereq for 4 stars - then this next came up. 4 stars, after months at 3!

• Sour Cream Band, "Sour Cream", 2018, 10 tracks. 1 of the best albums I have heard performed by people <= 17 YO. Guitar is Harlan Cecil, son of Sherri McGee, "Chick Drummer with Balls". They did a 45 minute performance on WRFL Live and I heard 0 bad notes - impressive. I have loaned Harlan my 3 pickup Flying V as encouragement. Ha ha, his main guitar is a cherry SG, as was mine Back In The Day. A great guitar, I'm happy if he sticks with it. I recommend this album, but for my collection, it is 3 stars.
• Mumford & Sons, "Delta", 2018, 14 tracks. As with Fleet Foxes, I think that "power folk" bands really have a problem finding a sweet spot and staying in it. This album was way rockish. 3 stars.
• My Brightest Diamond, "A Million and One", 2018, 10 tracks. Maybe from Amazon weekly email? The vehicle of indie rocker Shara Nova out of NYC. Very high quality tunes. 4 stars. Here's "A Million Pearls".

• Elvis Costello, "Look Now", 2018, 12 tracks. Elvis is one of those old dudes (64 YO, YOB 1954, age of my brother Mark) who keep cranking out great albums. Kudos! 4 stars. Here's "Burnt Sugar Is So Bitter", with poppy grooves that would make Todd Rundgren proud.

That does it for 2018. On to 2019.

• Beirut, "Gallipoli", 2019, 12 tracks. This seems to be the most prolific of Lexington native Kelly Pratt's several bands. I think of the music as Balkan Pop. 4 stars. Here's "Corfu".

• Broken Social Scene, "Let's Try The After (Vol. 1)", 2019, 5 tracks. The latest from the Toronto super-group. These are all strong tunes, 4 stars. Here's "1972".

• Deerhunter, "Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?", 2019, 10 tracks. I get these guys confused with Deerhoof. This album has some decent tunes. 3 stars.
• Mudbone, "Live At Dogtooth", 2018, 7 tracks. Mudbone is the house band for the Dogtooth Sports & Music Bar (formerly Vodka Bar formerly Weekend Willie's) Tuesday Night Blues Jam, 7:30-10:30. They usually play 60-90 minutes, then start asking people up. I've played at this jam every Tuesday I'm in Naples FL since maybe 2011-2012? Mudbone is a fabulous band: Bill E. Peterson on drums, playing a kick, snare, high hat and ride cymbal; Jerry Fiero on harp & vocals; Ricky Howard on guitar & vocals; Ray Nesbit on guitar & vocals, & David Carlton Johnson on bass & vocals. David also is excellent on keys & guitar & tours with Aaron Neville on bass, keys, & vocals. 4 stars. Here's an old recording of "Be Thankful For What You Got". Mario Infanti, who moved back to CT a couple of years ago & was replaced by Ray Nesbit, is on guitar & vocals. Mario played with Chuck Mangione.

  Note, I realized a couple of years ago I could steal material I like from people in Naples & perform it in Lexington and visa versa. I've been doing this arrangement at jams in Lexington with a full band & in the duo with Steve; people really respond to it, FTW!

• Panda Bear, "Buoys", 2019, 9 tracks, I get this guy mixed up with Gold Panda. This guy is part of Animal Collective. This is some decent alternative rock. 3 stars.
• Boston, eponymous, 1976, 8 tracks; "Don't Look Back", 1978, 8 tracks; "Third Stage", 1986, 10 tracks; and "Walk On", 1994, 10 tracks. As I described in "Back In The Day", in spring of 1970 I played in a band with Tom Scholz, who later founded Boston, wrote & arranged most of the material, and still records and tours as Boston. 4 stars for the 1st 3, 3 stars for the 4th album. Here's one of their many iconic songs, "More Than A Feeling". Tom is the guy with the sleeveless top playing the gold Les Paul.

• Andrew Bird, ""My Finest Work Yet", 2019, 10 tracks. Bird is always reliable for providing very listenable music, but no standout catchy tunes in this effort. 3 stars.
• Fake Laugh, "Honesty / Surrounded", 2019, 2 tracks. This came from the weekly newsletter email I have started receiving from Bandcamp. Both songs are excellent, shamelessly upbeat & poppy, 4 stars. Here's "Surrounded".

• Chelsea Wilson, "Chasing Gold", 2019, 10 tracks. Modern Australian disco, what's not to like? This also came from the Bandcamp newsletter. 4 stars. Here's the title track.

That takes us through April Fool's Day. Current unrated smart playlist is 174 songs, oops. Probably need to process Music In again at the end of July.