6!

Still doing a lot of reading while my bike accident injuries heal. I was able to go up and down stairs normally after ~2 weeks. Most of the bruising was gone after 3 weeks. Still have the knot on my right thigh. It's painful, but it's steadily getting smaller. I am still icing and heating. The stitch in my left back is still interfering with my sleeping. Nonetheless, I seem to be (slowly) healing.

1st off, I read the 1st 3 novels of the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers, recommended by my son.

1. "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet", 2015, 498 pages, 135k words. Humanity has fled a trashed Earth. They have finally been allowed to join the Galactic Commons, but they are very low status. The galactic civilization uses a lot of tech from prior civilization(s) that they don't really understand and can't reproduce.
   Meanwhile, a young woman fleeing family disgrace joins the motley crew of a wormhole-opening spaceship. They have a couple of adventures.
   These books aren't real big on plot - not a lot of stuff happens. They are big on accepting others regardless of whatever (Chambers is a married lesbian). So there is a human-humanoid alien romance, a human-reptilian alien romance, and a human-AI romance.
2. "A Closed and Common Orbit", 2016, 406 pages, 110k words. I figured this book would be further adventures of the motley crew of The Wayfarer, but it totally isn't. Instead it follows a minor character in the 1st book (a techie) as she attempts to help an AI make its way in an (illegal) humanoid body, and find and rescue the AI that helped her escape from childhood captivity.
3. "Record of a Spaceborn Few", 2018, 391 pages, 106k words. In another sharp turn, this story focuses the culture of the human diaspora fleet, 1000s of ships that are still home to a large part of the remnants of the human race. 1 of the characters is the sister of the captain of The Wayfarer. Again, relatively little plot - there are some people doing illegal scavenging.

These books are well written, good characters, but not a lot going on. Still, I have purchased the 4th 1.

Next up, the 4th and final book of the Terra Ignota series by Ada Palmer: "Perhaps the Stars", 2021, 602 pages, ?k words. Kobo did not have the page or word counts, so the page count came from Amazon. This thing seemed longer that 600 pages. I described it as "dense" to one of my friends when I was half-way through. And dense it indeed is, it is really a slog at times. I guess all the Greek, Latin, German, and French help set a tone, but ...
It is a satisfactory conclusion for a very complex series. War comes to our almost utopia. For at least the 1st 1/2 of the book, I was increasingly annoyed - they were fighting the wrong war! But they did finally get that straightened out, and I enjoyed the conclusion.

After finishing that weighty tome, I wanted something smaller and lighter. So I started with a novella by Adrian Tchaikovsky, "Elder Race", 2021, 148 pages, 40k words. A world settled many generations before by humans has lost its advanced technology and settled into a matriarchal feudal society. Weirdness leads a rebel youngest princess to contact the last human from a later anthropological team which came to study the planet - i.e., a wizard. A nice, quick, fun read.

That was enjoyable enough that I went on and read the sequel to Tchaikovsky's novella "The Expert Systems's Brother": "The Expert System's Champion", 2021, 148 pages, 40k words. Wow, same size as the prior book, that is craftmanship! I think I disliked 1 of the main premises of the 1st book, I liked it better in this 2nd one. Interesting conjectures about interesting alien races. Another nice, quick, fun read.

Meanwhile, Neal Stephenson's climate crisis novel, "Termination Shock" came in - 890 pages!!!. I think I'll go for some fantasy or maybe even a mystery before I wade into that.

3rd Batch of 2021 Music In

Moving right along ...

• Becca Mancari, "Juniata", 2021, 4 tracks, Bandcamp. 3 of the tracks are acoustic versions of songs off of her prior album. Nice alternative chick pop. 4 stars. Here's the only new track, "Annie".

• Julie London, "Lonely Girl", 1956, 13 tracks. Her 2nd album, with Al Viola on guitar as the sole accompanist. They were really pushing her sultry, breathy, pin-up girl image on this album, I really didn't care for the style much. 3 stars.
• Rita Payés & Elisabeth Roma, "Imagina", 2019, 12 tracks. Payés is a trombonist and vocalist (and also a guitar player I think). I support her on Patreon. I believe Roma is her mother, who is a great guitarist. I believe I had to order this as a CD from her website, and I had to sign for it as it was delivered direct from Spain. Very tasty stuff, so pleasant to listen to. 4 stars. Here's "A Rita"

• Sarah Vaughan, "After Hours", 1961, 11 tracks. Her 1st album accompanied by just guitar (Mundell Lowe) and upright bass, the year before she did "Sarah + 2" with Barney Kessel on guitar. I don't like this one near as much as "Sarah + 2" - I think it is just the song selection. She has such an amazing voice tho, so still 4 stars. Here's "In a Sentimental Mood" (written by Duke Ellington).

• Louis Armstrong, "Sachmo Plays Fats", 1955, 20 tracks. There are 11 unique tracks, 9 are alternate versions. I'm so glad I found this album! 1st, he has an intro to "Honeysuckle Rose", which I was excited to find. 2nd, I really liked "i'm crazy 'bout my baby (and my baby's crazy 'bout me)", which is a fun, catchy tune that I have worked up. Also on the album, "i've got a feeling i'm falling", which I had already worked up. Interesting, his wikipedia article says that Louis' 1929 recording of "Ain't Misbehavin'" "became his biggest selling record to date". That was the 1st Fats track I learned to play, from an arrangement by my teacher Rick Howard.
  The female vocalist on several tracks seems to be Velma Middleton, who sang with Louis from 1942-1961. In 1961, while touring in Sierra Leone, she suffered a massive stroke and died a month later, age 43.
  4 stars, and 2 samples: "Honeysuckle Rose" and "I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby (And My Baby's Crazy 'Bout Me)".

• Children of Zeus, "Balance", 2021, 13 tracks, Bandcamp. A very talented duo out of Manchester, UK. I had their earlier work as Electronica/Dance, this one I put as R&B - slower, more soulful grooves. No, I think I'm going to make all their stuff Hip Hop. Some nice tunes as well as the rap. 4 stars. Here's "No Love Song".

• Blood Cultures, "LUNO", 2021, 8 tracks, Bandcamp. Out of Brooklyn. This sounds like 2 or 3 different bands - different styles, different vocalists. Some good tracks, but I think 3 stars until they settle down and find what their sound is.
• Madeline Kenney, "Summer Quarter, 2021, 4 tracks, Bandcamp. This is the 4th album of hers I have. Nice, catchy chill indie rock. Interesting guitar work. 4 stars. Here's the title track.

2nd Batch of 2021 Music In

I'm a machine, I tell ya, a music-processing machine.

• Stéphane Grappelli & Yo-Yo Ma, "Anything Goes", 1989, 10 tracks. Mostly Cole Porter songs. iTunes brought this in as a Yo-Yo Ma classical album. On the original album cover, Stéphane clearly had top billing as is appropriate. I was surprised I didn't like this as much as the "Skol" album Stéphane did with Oscar Peterson. Wow, looking at his Wikipedia page, he was a collaborating fool from the 1970s into the 1990s. Still I'll go for 4 stars. Here's the track I think best mixes the violin & cello: "So In Love".

• Olivier St. Louis, "Matters of the Heartless", 2021, 7 tracks, Bandcamp. From the First Word Records sampler. Great R&B, from Berlin, Germany. 4 stars. Here's "Jump The Line", which was on the sampler.

• katie dey, "urdata", 2021, 12 tracks, Bandcamp. I read the album title as "ur" as in archetypal or primordial, then I saw I had her album "mydata". So I'm guessing "ur" is "your". Cute. Conceptually, I like this album. But, it is a little too conceptual for me, much moreso than her earlier albums. Lots of beeps & boops & weird filters. Well done, but, again, a bit too conceptual for me. 3 stars.
• TYPHOON, "Sympathetic Magic", 2021, 12 tracks, Bandcamp. Kind of whiny emo solo guitar and vocals - with occasionally some richer orchestration. Some of the tunes are OK, but it's way too much of the same. 3 stars.
• Willie Nelson, "That's Life", 2021, 11 tracks. His 3rd album of standards? It's funny, now when I get a standards album like this, I compare with my set lists. This album has 5 songs that are in my book: "just in time", "i've got you under my skin", "you make me feel so young", "i won't dance", and "lonesome road". Still, overall, I did not find these performances very compelling. 3 stars.
• Herb Ellis and Joe Pass, "Two For The Road", 1974, 13 tracks. Like I mentioned last time re Joe Pass "Virtuoso", this is a really lot of notes often played very fast - it definitely takes some getting used to. This is borderline, but they do play well together, so I'll go for 4 stars. Here's "I've Found a New Baby".

• Superorder, "What We Became", 2021, 7 tracks, Bandcamp. Chill, trancy dance grooves from this keyboards/percussion duo. The percussionist is my most excellent nephew Max Heinz of Portland, ME. 3 stars.
• Lake Street Dive, "Obviously", 2021, 11 tracks, Bandcamp???. Their 7th album, more than I would have thought. But, they've been together since 2004. Great poppy, catchy tunes. A couple are a little trite, but overall a fabulous effort. 4 stars. Here's the 1st track, "Hypotheticals".

• Nubiyan Twist, "Freedom Fables", 2021, 9 tracks. 7 different guest lead vocalists, FTW! 10 piece power R&B band out of London, really, really strong. Gawd, in my experience, there is nothing more powerful in a rock/blues/r&b band than the wall of sound of a 4 piece horn section. Great world beats. 4 stars, Here's "Wipe Away Tears", featuring Nick Richards.