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.]