Music In, 2022, Batch 3

This is the music I acquired in July, August, & September.

• Kaidi Tatham, "Don't Rush The Process", 2022, 12 tracks, Bandcamp. This is the third album of his I have, the Afro-Jazz is consistently relaxing yet energizing?!?!? 4 stars. Here's "We Chillin' Out (feat. The Easy Access Orchestra)".

• The Mountain Goats, "Bleed Out", 2022, 12 tracks, Bandcamp. I was somewhat flummoxed - the more I listened to the album, the more bloody-minded it seemed. Songs like "Make You Suffer", (we may run out of bullets, we're never gonna run out of) "Hostages", "Need More Bandages", and the title track, it all seemed somewhat thematic. So, I looked it up, and per the review on Apple Music, John Darnielle spent COVID lockdown in 2020 bingeing action/adventure thrillers, from whence this album sprang. OK, makes sense. 4 stars. Here's "Need More Bandages".

• Tom Waits, "Mule Variations", 1999, 16 tracks. Wow, his vocal style is all over the place, but there are many great songs on this album: "Pony", "Picture In A Frame", "Georgia Lee", "Take It With Me", "Come On Up To The House". The paranoid recital "What's He Building?" is oddly compelling, and the Captain Beefheart influence is evident. 4 stars. Here's "Hold On".

• John Legend, "LEGEND", 2022, 24 tracks. 11 collaborators. Very listenable. Funny, I looked up the album on Wikipedia, and noticed, as Rick Beato said, man, there were a lot of writers & producers. I created a spreadsheet, results are: writers, 2-11, average 5.6; producers, 1-5, average 3.1. I guess it's like all the (executive) producers in movie credits. Apparently big media is a massively multiplayer game. One wonders, though, how much invidual genius still manages to sneak through? 4 stars. Here's the catchy "All She Wanna Do", which is apparently a hit - it came up on the muzak when I was selling a high chair back to "Once Upon A Child" - I got $20, FTW!

• Lake Street Dive, "Fun Machine: The Sequel", 2022, 6 tracks, Bandcamp. Not quite as much fun as "Fun Machine" - which came out in 2014, wow, 8 years ago - but, it seems like this just came up, the 2nd album of fav covers is not going to be as good as the 1st album - duh. Several songs had weird beats & arrangments?!?!? Still, 4 stars. The big winner is "Nick of Time", by Bonnie Raitt. I put this song in my book, playing it I realized that the thing that makes this song is the backup vocals. I love this video! Rachel has stolen sooo many of my dance moves ...

• St. Vincent, "Daddy's Home", 2021, 14 tracks. The album celebrates the release from prison of her father, who did 9 years for financial crimes. The vampiness at times is a bit much. A lot of 70's sounding Fender Rhodes electric piano, sitar, ??? OK, per the Wikipedia Article on the album:

  Daddy's Home was inspired by Clark's father's release from prison at the end of 2019, as well as the musical palette of New York City in the first half of the 1970s. The record musically incorporates 1970s inspired rock and psychedelic music.

  Not my favorite of her work. 4 stars. Here's "The Melting of the Sun", featuring a psychedelic video.

  [Note, my Vincent blue Sterling By Music Man St. Vincent Signature guitar is still my current go-to electric guitar.]

• The Beths, "Expert In A Dying Field", 2022, 12 tracks, Bandcamp. The 3rd album of New Zealand energetic indie rock. Very listenable. 4 stars. Here's the title track.

That leaves the unrated smart playlist of October, November, & January acquisitions at a current count of 125 - and 49 of that is the abortion rights benefit compilation. I may actually go through my emails from Bandcamp & try out some new stuff, woo-hoo!

Fuzzy Gear

This post is to collect the links to the pix folder and equipment spreadsheets for the gear of my former musical duo partner Steve Konopka, aka Fuzzy. To access, click the header or cut & paste the URL into the browser of your choice.

Folder with pictures:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ezwhrp9wmi1jbf0/AACnYutJDf4irtsfm_PwyDR7a?dl=0

Guitars:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1B5j1B6Y_i-meoDKAt4ohOBsIJRCfC-6j8JsO2IAMGQ8

Amps:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16YydHIQNJWnZv12NV5YkBwLgmM6JPhjWNgLCZQZ08a4

Pedals:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ljvlLkj3gJFaNfRdTyitRj1CS_VJxaq_q3gft2S_1aM

Mics:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H9-R2yJR-XMO88xckDudgB60fXkeEu3kTdDcFMrfY9U

I Didn't Need More Of That

1st up, "The Flood Circle: A Twenty Palaces Novel", by Harry Connolly, 2022, ? pages, ? k words. The 2nd of the 2 books kickstartered for this series - the 1st was blogged here. Shit starts to go south, and we reminded that you cannot forget strategy no matter how good your tactics are.

Connolly says there will be 1 final book in this series.

Next, BookBub offered me "Sleepside", by Greg Bear, subtitled "The Collected Fantasies", 2014, 293 pages, 79k words, 9 stories. I think I had only read 1 of these before, so this was definitely FTW! 1 or 2 of the earliest stories were kind of odd, but still interesting reads. The last story was longish and set in the world of Eon/Eternity by Bear - definitely not fantasy, but I was very happy to read it, I loved that series.

Then, in an odd piece of synchronicity, the day after I finished this collection, the news of Greg Bear's death circulated on the net. He was 71, 2.5 months younger than me. So, I beat him - sadly, this is apparently how one thinks when you get to an advanced age like mine. He was probably my fav hard SF author for many years.

Next up, "Wayward", by Chuck Wendig, 2022, 1048 pages, 285k words. The sequel to "Wanderers", blogged here, this one is apparently even a longer tome. Phase 2 of the post-pandemic-apocalypse of "Wanderers". More on the AI who was heavily involved in the 1st book, more on our friendly christian fascist militias.

Finally, "The World We Make", by N. K. Jemisin, 2022, 364 pages, 99k words. Book 2 of The Great Cities. The sequel to "The City We Became", blogged here. This is as enjoyable as the 1st book. It seemed a little short maybe, and in the Acknowledgments the author discusses how COVID and Agent Orange made this book hard to write, and truncated what was originally billed as a trilogy to 2 books. Not far into the book at all, here's our human bad guys: more christian fascist white supremacists. I really didn't need more of that. This is supposed to be escapist stuff, right? 2 in a row featuring very real and very scary actual threats to the US was a bit of a bummer. Still, this was a great read, and wrapped up well. I particularly liked the author's characterizations of some of the older cities that New York meets.

On to the magazine stack, and I think I will do a Music In post as well. Progress! Or rather, Process! LOL, I have been on the fence for years about using the phrase "In Progress" vs. "In Process". And here they both are. Hmmm ...

A Spectre, Haunting

"A Spectre, Haunting" is a 2022 revisiting of The Communist Manifesto by China Miéville, a noted British slipstream/fantasy/horror author whose work I enjoy, 332 pages, 90k words.

It has an introduction, 6 chapters, an afterword, and 5 appendices: the original 1848 manifesto, and the prefaces to the 1872, 1882, 1883, and 1888 editions.

When I was studying Economics, I had thought I would need to read some Marx at some point, probably "Das Kapital". I was leary of it because, who knows what lists that is going to get you put on? But when I saw this book, I thought, "OK".

I read the Appendices 1st, to get a feel for the source material before consuming the exegesis. The manifesto itself is only 12k words. A manifesto is

"A public declaration of principles, policies, or intentions, especially of a political nature."

So not a scholarly paper, and the declarations can be as inflammatory as is desired.

One thing that is surprising is that the manifesto starts off by praising and thanking the bourgeoisie aka capitalism aka neoliberalism for a great job overthrowing feudalism. But, Marx & Engels don't let them rest on their laurels, but rather propose that they should make way for the proletariat, the workers - who Marx & Engels feel are the true producers of value - to take over and run things. The way this is accomplished it by "abolition of private property".

This seems like an eminently bad idea to me. But Miéville clarifies what this actually means:

“private property,” importantly, here understood as the private exploitative control of the economy, rather than, as per a common misrepresentation, as the fact of any personal possessions.

[snark]
Ha ha, the philosophy that actually does disallow any personal possessions is ... Christianity. Acts 2:44-45

All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they shared with anyone who was in need.

Acts 4:32

The multitude of believers was one in heart and soul. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they owned.

And the penalty for keeping personal private property was death - see Acts 5:1-11, the story of Ananias and Sapphira.

So, sadly, I will have to stop accusing Christians of being Communists - with regard to property and ownership, Christians were much worse.
[/snark]

Another thing that I was not particularly aware of in the manifesto is its condemnation of the nuclear family. Women are exploited by the system, children would be better off raised by professionals. Damn commies!

Miéville comments on this:

There follow (2.39–2.51) several paragraphs about the “infamous” communist suggestion of the abolition of the family. The Manifesto stresses that this sentimental bourgeois concern for the family is predicated on work that splits real families apart, through, for example, drudgery and child labor. Advocating social education, rather than privatized and familial education, is not to propose indoctrination, but countering the doctrines of the ruling class. To the moralist concern about a communist “community of women”—some version or other of “free love,” a breakdown of the monogamous and privatized model of marriage—the authors (unlike some communist thinkers) don’t outline or defend any such model (in keeping with their career-long preference for critiquing what exists, rather than pre-empting post-capitalist norms). They do, however, insist that such fear bespeaks a bourgeois conception of women as property. With gusto, they point out the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie, for whom sanctimonious familial piety co-exists with systematic bed-hopping, infidelity, coercion, exploitation, and abuse. This hypocrisy they see as baked into the system.

LOL, say it ain't so, moral turpitude amongst the well-to-do!

I really wondered, why the urgency to replace the bourgeoisie with the proletariat? One thing the Manifesto does is take potshots at various other socialist groups of the time - pretty standard stuff. It was interesting, tho, that in the introduction to the later editions it was noted that most if not all of the other groups criticized were no longer going concerns - they had been relegated to the dustbin of history. Those potshots though address the source of the urgency:

In their criticisms of the utopian socialists for faint hearts when it comes to anything other than “peaceful means” (3.52), the authors imply that the necessary rupture demands an elasticity of appropriate means. This caution against guiltily limiting “permissible” political methods might seem to be radically anti-ethical. In point of fact, whatever one thinks of the argument and its limits, it isn’t an abjuring of ethics but one predicated on ethical urgency, the absolute necessity of revolution as speedily as possible.

I think they greatly underestimate how we humans can become inured to almost anything. If hungry children aren't treated as an emergency that must be immediately addressed, what will be?

One topic that is discussed very insightfully in Chapters 5 & 6 is how much capitalism for the last 200 years or more has been successful in distracting the proletariat from issues of class with issues of race. Originally in England, it was the English vs the Irish. In the US, it was the white worker vs the black worker (but also, at times, the nativists vs the Irish, the Italian, the German, etc., and currently the Hispanic immigrants). I did not know that a big driver of BREXIT was resentment of Polish workers in England enabled by EU membership.

In a capitalism wherein the oppression of a group is inextricable from categories of race, defined in opposition to an implied “norm” that has come to be understood as “whiteness,” such a shift is one of racialization. To quote the title of a famous and seminal book on this topic by Noel Ignatiev, one celebrated example of this is “how the Irish became white.”
Not that promotion to “whiteness” might not be withdrawn, or diluted. There’s certainly a danger, in the words of one radical scholar, that as with much theoretical terminology, “[t]he promiscuity of the concept of whiteness” can make it slippery and hard to engage with. But the fact that it can be unhelpfully evasive doesn’t mean that it isn’t an important axis at play in popular consciousness—and the unconscious—and politics. It’s not, for example, a binary category, nor one that precludes internal differentiation. The aftermath of the Brexit vote saw a substantial spike in hate crimes against Eastern Europeans (and others), particularly Poles, in the UK, including the murder of the factory worker Arkadiusz Jóźwik when he was heard speaking Polish. To be sure, given years of Polish “whiteness,” various nuances have been suggested to describe this phenomenon at the edges of whiteness, so to speak, such as “xeno-racism.” But whether xeno- or not, this is a form of racism: indeed, “[r]acialisation does not require putative phenotypical or biological difference,” and “the nominal absence of somatic difference does not get in the way of xenophobic racism; it turns out racialised difference can be invented in situ.” Race, after all, is a function of racism, not the other way around. [My bold]

I don't think that last line can be emphasized too much. Scientifically, there is no such thing as race. The species homo sapiens sapiens (us) has 100s of genetic characteristics which can take on few or many values - 5,000 different skin tones, for example. But it is a single species in which all members can breed and produce productive offspring. So any time anyone talks about race, the correct response is "There is no such thing as race - there's only racism."

I also found this quote re W. E. B. Du Bois to be very powerful:

The great W. E. B. Du Bois, in his towering 1935 work Black Reconstruction, expanded brilliantly and seminally on the affective rewards of racism for the racist. Arguing against any optimistic faith in an ineluctable tendency towards working-class unity—such as the Manifesto can be read as evincing at times, and which remains tenacious—Du Bois sternly diagnosed racism as a key and powerful countervailing pressure.

The theory of laboring class unity rests upon the assumption that laborers, despite internal jealousies, will unite because of their opposition to exploitation by the capitalists. According to this, even after a part of the poor white laboring class became identified with the planters [in the US South after the Civil War] and eventually displaced them, their interests would be diametrically opposed to those of the mass of white labor, and of course to those of the black laborers. This would throw white and black labor into one class, and precipitate a united fight for higher wage and better working conditions.

Most persons do not realize how far this failed to work in the South, and it failed to work because the theory of race was supplemented by a carefully planned and slowly evolved method, which drove such a wedge between the white and black workers that there probably are not today in the world two groups of workers with practically identical interests who hate and fear each other so deeply and persistently and who are kept so far apart that neither sees anything of common interest. It must be remembered that the white group of laborers, while they received a low wage, were compensated in part by a sort of public and psychological wage. They were given public deference and titles of courtesy because they were white. They were admitted freely [to various restricted amenities and milieu] with all classes of white people …

...

For Du Bois, then, racism wasn’t merely an encouragement to spite against a scapegoated other, nor only “compensation” to a poor white that there was someone “lower” (which begs the bleak question of why that would be compensation at all). It was, crucially, a project of generating cross-class solidarity among whites to the overwhelming benefit of the (white) ruling class, and for the downgrading of class itself as a perceived social schism, and its replacement with “the color line.” Such dynamics, in some cases somewhat more decorously dressed up, are hardly unfamiliar today.

Chapter 6, "The Communist Manifesto Today" has a lot of good stuff. I definitely had this thought several times during the pandemic, during which the government assistance programs cut childhood poverty in the US in half:

Such questioning [of Margaret Thatcher's TINA - there is no alternative (to capitalism) - assertion] has also occurred from the other pole of politics, with the profound crisis into which the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed it, forcing capitalism’s partisans to hurriedly offer the kind of massive, systemic support they scoffed at as impossible scant weeks earlier.

This reminds me of the main takeaway of Naomi Klein's "This Changes Everything": that above and beyond wanting to drag out fossil fuel profits as long as possible, capitalism engages in climate change denial because to combat climate change will require concerted, world-wide big government, on a scale never before seen - which the current libertarian rulers of the world want no part of. Aside from a few more tax cuts, they like the way the game is currently rigged just fine. It's interesting that people seemed to be OK with increased government action to combat the pandemic, but that many still resist action against the slower-moving climate crisis.

At some point Miéville discusses how The Manifesto greatly underestimated how wily and adaptable capitalism would turn out to be. After 1848, the labor movement started getting things like limited workdays and workweeks, paid vacation, paid sick leave, higher wages, profit sharing, etc. And, as I learned in "Capital in the 21st Century" by Thomas Piketty, in Germany there is now "Rhenish Capitalism", "an economic model in which firms are owned not only by shareholders but also by certain other interested parties known as “stakeholders,” starting with representatives of the firms’ workers (who sit on the boards of directors of German firms not merely in a consultative capacity but as active participants in deliberations, even though they may not be shareholders), as well as representatives of regional governments, consumers’ associations, environmental groups, and so on." So maybe we really don't need a full revolution?

This is a good summary of The Manifesto's goals:

To have fidelity at all to the project of this Manifesto, no matter how critically, is to be convinced of certain claims of which capitalism and its ideologues demand we remain unsure: that inequality and oppression aren’t states of nature; that our social reality is controlled by the few; that it’s so controlled in opposition to the needs and rights of the many; that we have the capability, at the very least, to make it worth attempting to change the world.

The last 1/2 of Chapter 6 is a section titled "ON HATE". Its content is, well, somewhat hateful. I really don't like hateful. Here is some justification for hate:

It would admittedly be a prim and pious socialism which failed at least to empathize with individualized hate, or simply denounced it wholesale as an ethical failure. This is particularly so in our modern epoch, when sadism and trolling have become central to political method, especially among the ruling class. It would take an unreasonable amount of saintliness for no one on the left to feel any hate for, say, hedge fund founder, pharmaceuticals CEO, and convicted fraudster Martin Shkreli, for example, not only because of his ostentatious profiteering from human misery, but given his repeated, performative, stringent efforts precisely to be hated. And, of course, there’s the race-baiting, disability-mocking, sexual-assault-celebrating Trump Agent Orange.

Here's the final 2 paragraphs.

We must hate harder than did the Manifesto, for the sake of humanity. Such class hate is constitutive with and inextricable from solidarity, the drive for human liberty, for the full development of the human, the ethic of emancipation implicit throughout the Manifesto and beyond. We should hate this world, with and through and beyond and even more than does the Manifesto. We should hate this hateful and hating and hatemongering system of cruelty, that exhausts and withers and kills us, that stunts our care, makes it so embattled and constrained and local in its scale and effects, where we have the capacity to be greater.

Hate is not and cannot be the only or main drive to renewal. That would be deeply dangerous. We should neither celebrate nor trust our hate. But nor should we deny it. It’s not our enemy, and we cannot do without it. “At the risk of seeming ridiculous,” said Che Guevara, “let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.” It’s for the sake of love that, reading it today, we must hate more and better than even The Communist Manifesto knew how.

I'm sorry, but to me hate is the tool of the enemies of progress, and 1 that we should avoid if at all possible. Even the ever-so-hateful Agent Orange is to me a horribly damaged human being who should be pitied - and of course barred from public office. But why upset my mental and physical well-being by allowing myself to hate?

So overall, the proletariat has made a lot of progress since 1848. And we all have cool toys now - supercomputers with access to the knowledge of the world in our pockets. But, as Piketty pointed out, the 15% of capital that the middle class clawed away from the 1% in the 30 years after WW II has now been returned to the 1%. The middle class is disappearing. The 50% of US citizens who cannot deal with a $500 emergency continues to grow - what is it now, 60%, 70%?

But "the abolition of private property" still seems problematic to me. It can be done - the USSR did it - but generally that is considered to not have worked out well. It doesn't seem like the right solution to creating a post-scarcity utopia. I would feel that with the vast advances in computing since the USSR that maybe a planned economy could actually be made to work - except for the fact that it would be based on the weakest "science" I know of, Economics.

Rhenish capitalism seems to have a lot going for it. But anytime I think about this stuff, I seem to go back to Kate Raworth's "Doughnut Economics":

when is each of the four realms of provisioning — household, commons, market and state — best suited to delivering humanity’s diverse wants and needs?

I wonder how much my unhappiness with The Manifesto is due to the general US anti-communist propaganda I have been exposed to throughout my life. We tend to forget that most European countries have active Communist parties. I had thought that Miéville was probably formally a commnunist, but per his Wikipedia page, apparently he is not. He is described as "active in hard-left politics".

Regardless of how much I agreed with this book, I did learn a lot from it. It was a quick, easy, and informative read, and I recommend it.

I Missed 1

I had 1 more book I should have included in the last post but which I missed: "3001: The Final Odyssey" by Arthur C. Clarke, 1997, 209 pages, 56k words. I'm not sure how I missed this over the years. It is billed as Volume 4 of the "Space Odyssey" series. A quick, easy read. Instead of Dave Bowman, our protagonist is Frank Poole, who somehow survived until 3001, when he is discovered suspended in his craft. It seems like the 2nd or so "really old guy comes back to civilization" I've read lately. He does unbelievably well integrating into the future society. Then it's on to chatting w Dave & HAL & discovering the meaning & purpose of the monoliths. An easy & fun read.

Argle Blargle

1st up, "The High Sierra", subtitled "A Love Story", by Kim Stanley Robinson, 2020, 625 pages, 170k words. KSR, the dean of climate fiction, has been hiking in the California Sierra mountains for almost 50 years. It is indeed a love story. It covers a lot of different topics: geology, locales, types of trails, history, people, equipment. I have labeled this as travel? KSR is lucky to have formed such an connection with such a beautiful place. I certainly have nothing comparable in my life. I bought this in hardcover, others might like it as a vacation book.

Next, "Attack Surfact", by Cory Doctorow, 2020, 531 pages, 144k words. I also bought this in hardcover, so as to spread the memes. That is why I just got around to reading it.

Doctorow is the bard of the revolution. This story is a continuation of the story arc of 2008's "Little Brother", blogged here, and 2013's "Homeland", blogged here - no wait, I haven't read "Homeland" yet! This is what comes of buying hardcovers! Oh boy, I got that going for me, I needed something good to get rid of the bad taste in my brain left by the last 2 books (below).

In "Attack Surface", we go from teenagers vs the evil Department of Homeland Security to 20-somethings vs evil private security government contractors. Great insight into the tech & tactics of the burgeoning surveillance state.

3rd, "The Iron Gate: A Twenty Palaces Novel", by Harry Connolly, 2022, ? pages, ? k words. I liked this series years ago, then its publisher discontinued it. Connolly did a kickstarter for this book & 1 more in the series. It was a nice, diverting read. The mystical Twenty Palaces society continues to protect earth from extra-dimensional horrors with a taste for human minds.

4th, "Victories Greater Than Death", by Charlie Jane Anders, 2021, 373 pages, 101k words. This is billed as YA, which I generally do well with. This seems to be targetted to younger YA readers, tweens maybe - agonizing on "should I kiss them", etc. If you have seen the movies "Jupiter Ascending" and/or "The Last Starfighter" you have most of the plot. But these aliens are so much more considerate and advanced than the aliens in those other stories - they always introduce themselves both by their name and their gender pronouns. I won't be continuing this series, it's just too juvenile. I think I got spoiled by the YA novels of Paolo Bacigalupi. Cory Doctorow, & others.

Last, "A Half-Built Garden", by Ruthanna Emrys, 2022, 345 pages, ? k words. An interesting premise - 50 or years in the future, aliens show up just in time to help us emigrate from Earth to their Dyson sphere, before Earth becomes unlivable. Earthlings in 2080 feel they have the climate crisis under control such they can save the Earth & not abandon it. Conflict.

Ok, starting to get weird. Local government on earth is ... watershed watch networks?!?!? My wife has collected water samples from local creeks for Kentucky River Watershed Watch for many years. I act as her 2nd pair of hands and puller-out-of-the-creek. I have attended KRWW meetings. It really, really seems like an unlikely group to be running things - and to have succeeded in banishing the corporations & capitalism to New Zealand and other island sanctuaries. I'm guessing the author is active in their local watershed watch.

Plus, above & beyond the expected gender pronouns, the corporations use gender pronouns based on role-playing roles - 6 of those. The author in the acknowledgements calls out their gender pronoun wrangler - maybe something you didn't used to need to write a book. By the end of the book you are guessing that words are gender pronouns with no idea what they are supposed to represent. There should have been a table.

Most annoying of all, the protagonist (& the author?) is a kosher-keeping practicioner of Judaism. So the aliens offer her food in greeting & she can't eat it because she doesn't know if it is kosher. The book should have come with a large-type warning label:

WARNING: CONTAINS BRONZE AGE RELIGIOUS BULLSHIT!!!

The protagonist (& the author?) is a nursing mother, so we get lots of detail on breast pain & letting down, etc. My wife nursed our 4 kids, it is a wonderful thing, but I don't think all the breast-feeding detail added to the narrative of the novel.

The watershed watch society is based on social media reputation-based governance, with algorithms for everything. I have been off social media for years, it is toxic, & I think as stultifying as the society in this book seems to be.

Then at the end, the big reveal: the wife of the progagonist (& the author?) used to be a male.

The book seems like the author constructing a narrative where all her interests & life choices are what will save the earth, defeat capitalism, & provide a safe & just place for all. To me, that seems, what, narcissistic? Solipsistic? Self-centered?

Meanwhile, the pacing is totally odd - "hi, we're aliens, can we come in?". There was a trip to visit the aliens during a hurricane that was suspenseful, other than that the drama is fairly minimal.

I almost quit reading this book several x, but I wanted to see if it got any better. Not particularly. Interesting that I can write so much about a book with no Spoiler Alert. I'm giving you a precis so you don't have to read it.

On to "Homeland", yay!

Music In, 2022, Batch 2

I don't seem to be getting to listen to this music enough. Spending most music time on Music Out aka Jaz Dumoz. That is a better use of my time, I think.

I'd been getting a bit more music than usual lately, then bought, a 1-day-only sale, 49 tracks, 3h15m, in support of abortion rights, by a complete all-star cast - Bandcamp of course. I like getting these compilations, sometimes they point me at good new artists.

OK, time to get cranking, back to the start of spring.

• Ella Fitzgerald (& Duke Ellington & his Orchestra), "Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Songbook", 1957, 3 discs, 51 tracks. Quite a sprawling effort. In addition to Ella singing songs, there is also a spoken/orchestral "Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald" with many takes (which I rated 2 stars to get rid of). I don't like this album as much as some of Ella's others, which I think just reflects that perhaps I don't like Sir Duke's songs as much as those of some others. Still, 3 songs in the Jaz Dumoz songbook:
  1. "I'm beginning to see the light"
  2. "Don't get around much anymore"
  3. "Squeeze me (but don't tease me)" (In progress)
  Ella is in good voice, plus great guitar - Herb Ellis & Barney Kessel - plus great jazz violin, so 4 stars for the album. Here's "In a sentimental mood".

• Barrie, "Barbara", 2022, 11 tracks, Bandcamp. Really easy to listen to, laid back chick emo pop. 4 stars. Here's the 1st track, "Jersey".

• Destroyer, "LABYRINTHITIS", 2022, 10 tracks. Destroyer is the side project of Dan Bejar, also of New Pornographers. This is the 4th album of his I have & I thought at 1st that his eclectic singing style had gotten to be too much for me, but I did warm to it after a while. 4 stars. Here's "Eat the Wine, Drink the Bread":

• Elmore James, "Shake Your Money Maker: The Best of the Fire Sessions", 1961, 16 tracks. One of my harp player friends told me I needed to learn 1 of the songs on it - "Look On Yonder Wall" I think. As usual, it's just another 12 bar blues song. But this whole album - Elmore James is supposed to be 1 of the great fathers of slide guitar, but listening to this album, it sounded to me like he has maybe 3 licks, tops. Very disappointing. 2 stars.

• Nick Teale, "Love Was", 2021, 6 tracks. Nick is a very nice & talented young man from Louisville whom I met at the Twisted Cork open mic. This is a very very good 1st effort, but still, it feels like a 1st effort. Interesting songs, but the engineering needs some work, & occasionally the songs have 1 of those chords where you go, "that's not quite the right chord". I'm looking forward to more of his stuff. 3 stars.

• Kate Bollinger, "Look at at in the Light", 2022, 6 tracks, Bandcamp. More laid back, quirky, dreamy, chick emo pop. I seem to be a total sucker for this stuff. 4 stars. Here's the very poppy "Who Am I But Someone":

• David C. Johnson, "Songs About You And Me", 2003, 8 tracks. David Carlton Johnson is an incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist (vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards, drums) who for maybe 2011-2021 was bass player & vocalist for the SW Florida blues/rock band Mudbone - here is my review of their great album "Live at Dogtooth".

  David also was a member of the Aaron Neville Quintet & toured with them - here he is on vocals, keys, & bass on Aaron & Linda Ronstadt's big hit "Don't Know Much". But, Aaron retired last year (age 80) which apparently was a blow to David's income. So he has moved his family to near Orlando, where apparently the gigging is better. I will miss David. Here is his website. I'm guessing I bought this album there. 4 stars, here's the existentially titled "Where Did Lisa Go?".

• Willie "The Lion" Smith, "Willie "The Lion" Smith and His Cubs", 1944, 17 tracks. Willie "The Lion" I really don't think measures up to his contemporary Fats Waller. Ah, but they weren't contemporaries - Willie was born in 1893, 11 years before Fats. That would explain why his song selection seems more ragtime than swing. I find that for Jaz Dumoz, I don't like the older, more ragtime stuff, particularly before 1920. Very limited videos on YouTube of Willie, so I am going to go 3 stars for this album.

• Andrew Bird, "Inside Problems", 2022, 11 tracks, Bandcamp. Wow, the 13th album I have from Bird. He is such a good songwriter, and I love his sparse, eclectic arrangements. 4 stars. Here's the 1st track, "Underlands":

• Harry Styles, "Fine Line", 2019, 12 tracks. I read a glowing review of his latest album, somehow I wound up buying the 1 before that. I like the album. A good amount of variation in the arrangments, and good tunes. Also, some of the songs, his voice sounds so much like Gene Clark of the early Byrds - & I always loved Gene Clark, and a few years ago determined that all my fav Byrd songs were the ones he wrote.

  Back to Harry, 4 stars. Here's the great video of his catchy, anthemic song, "Treat People With Kindness":

• Kaidi Tatham, "Galaxy", 2022, 4 tracks, Bandcamp. Some nice vocals to complement his Afro-Jazz beats. 4 stars. Here's vocalist Lola Vialet on the "upbeat mix" of the title track:

• Cribaby, "crii EP", 2022, 6 tracks, Bandcamp. More laid-back vocals and arrangements. Not quite as funky as her last outing. 4 stars. Here's "hurt (feat. Somni)":

• Blossom Dearie, "My Gentleman Friend", 1959, 10 tracks. My friend Lexington music legend Tom Cool recommended this artist to me, in particular the song "You Fascinate Me So" shown below. What an interesting artist, & I am totally surprised I had never heard of her growing up. Per her Wikipedia page, she played in France 1952-1957.

  The 1st time through, her kewpie-doll voice was a little offputting, but, that was just how she sang. Plus she was an accomplished & influential pianist. I'm still surprised I'd never heard of her before. Here's the track Tom recommended:

OK, that brings me to the end of June, perfect for Batch 2! And, no, I am not OCD!

Still? Really?

After chiding myself in my last post for downwarding spiraling into reading old Frank Herbert novels, I of course next read ... another old Frank Herbert novel: "Destination: Void", 1966, revised 1978, 275 pages, 74k words, $1.99 at Kobo.

This is the novel that served as the seed for the "The Pandora Sequence" blogged about last time. It was really not good. The philosophical rummaging in search of a definition of consciousness is way lame. Of course this was written years before Dennett & "Consciousness Explained" (1992), etc. But still, lame. The computer terminology is beyond dated. Plus we have 1 of the crew of scientists experimenting on herself with tailored cannabinoids to find the nature of mind - I bet we loved that during my college years. And, of course, the way heavy-handed ending. Well, hopefully that cures me of old foo for a while.

So next up my fav relatively newly discovered modern sci-fi author. "Cage of Souls", by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2019, 720 pages, 196k words, $1.99 at Kobo. This is set in the far distant future when the sun is starting to expand, so almost more like fantasy. A Devil's Island story. 2 interesting flashback threads. Well paced, well written, yay modern stuff!

For my middle daughter, I next read "Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland", by Lisa Schneidau, 2018, 180 pages, 49k words. An enjoyable set of short folk tales, with some interesting twists to some of the better known stories. So off to my daughter it went.

Finally, "The Time Ships", by Stephen Baxter, 2014, 608 pages, 165k words, $0.99 at Kobo (all these bargains!). Written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the original H. G. Wells "The Time Machine", by a very reliable British hard sci-fi author. It does not disappoint, cosmic in scope but still very respectful of the original.

Next up ... Music In.

Note, most of Music Out has transitioned to the Jaz Dumoz blog. With today's Song of the Day - stardust - I posted the following:

Today is the 2nd birthday of Song of the Day. 1st video posted September 27, 2020.

Today is Song of the Day #158!

Downward Spiral?

OOOO0000oooo....

Wow, pretty good textual image, neh?

1st up, "January Fifteenth", by Rachel Swirsky, 2022, 147 pages, 40k words. I really liked some of Swirsky's early stories. I was excited for this collection of stories based in a near-future world where everyone receives UBI (Universal Basic Income). In her world, it happens annually every January 15th, which seems stupid to me. My Social Security comes every month, I pay Medicare every month, my annuities pay every month, I cannot imagine why a UBI program would pay annually. So I guess it is just a (stupid) literary device.

We follow 4 different UBI recipients, including a slave teenage wife in a polygamous (Mormon) society. Ugh, ugh, & ugh. Way too much domestic detail. I was glad when it was over. So something you should read, but maybe not particularly enjoyably.

So, after that, I regressed. I reread the "Tbe Pandora Sequence", by Frank Herbert & Bill Ransom, a trilogy, total 1340 pages, 388k words. A reissue of 3 novels:

• "The Jesus Incident", 1979, 445 pages, 129k words.
• "The Lazarus Effect", 1983, 493 pages, 144k words.
• "The Ascension Factor", 1988, 430 pages, 124k words.

These stories are the sequel to "Destination: Void", 1966. The AI of a voidship becomes sentient, & then omniscient, omni*, etc. (oops), and declares, "Decide how you shall WorShip me." Big oops.

The 1st novel was especially memorable. A hell world, horrible predators populate the surface, what was Ship thinking?

The 2nd novel, more Ransom than Herbert. The 3rd novel, all Ransom, a poet, as Herbert had died.

"Jesus Incident" is the best of the lot, mostly because Ship is still around & messing with people. The 2nd reads like a 2nd novel, i.e., transitional. The 3rd novel seemed to be mostly just plot waiting to be inevitably resolved. Yawn. Still, not bad for a reread.

I then tried something very random. My oldest daughter Erica in Brooklyn passed on a recommendation to me (yay!): "Reclaimed", by Madeleine Roux, 2021. I read the 1st chapter, and was like, "Noop". Not good writing. I tried to analyze why I concluded that. I think, in that 1st chapter, the banality was overwhelming: 2ndary character wants to kick traumatized protatagonist out of her apartment because she & her boyfriend want to have a baby. And, while she is discussing this w the protagonist, she of course spills her Starbucks on her cashmere sweater. Because, she hasn't wasted nearly enough of my time already ...

This surely must be a generational thing of some sort ...

So, alarmingly, I regressed yet again, and read another old Frank Herbert: (should I wish they would quit offering these to me to buy for $1.99 or $0.99???) "The GodMakers", 1972, pieced together from stories going back to 1958! 200 pages, 58k words. Some Dune tuneup material here, on the nature & meaning & utility of Religion. Dated but interesting.

What to read next? Totally not sure. Certainly something newer ... We'll see, I guess.

Cormorant Menace?

I just sent the following email to the most excellent IslandWalk Lakes Committee.

When I posted my 2021-2022 IslandWalk Birds report, I noted a lot more double-crested cormorants than what I remembered as being usual.

A month or so ago, I read an article about how 10s of 1000s of cormorants were wreaking havoc on the salmon population in the pacific northwest. I couldn't find that article again, but if you google DuckDuckGo "cormorant problems", there are dozens of articles.

Then a couple of weeks ago, my wife & I vacationed in Ottawa, Canada. On the way there we spent a night in Clayton, NY, and took a 5 hour boat tour of the Thousand Islands - the area where the St. Lawrence River leaves Lake Ontario.

We learned an island is defined as: 1) above a minimum size; 2) always above water; 3) has at least 1 tree. We were shown 1 ~30-40' island that had no tree, but instead dozens of cormorants. The cormorants had started roosting there, and their acidic droppings had killed all the trees on the island.

I wanted to get at least 1 more data point, so I compiled my 2020-2021 IslandWalk bird data:

http://portraitofthedumbass.blogspot.com/2022/08/islandwalk-birds-2020-2021-season.html

Between the 2 sets of data, there was indeed a large increase in cormorant #s. 2020-2021, I counted at least 1 cormorant 100% of the time, the average was 3.2 birds, with a max of 10. 2021-2022, it was 95% of the time, but the average was 7.9, with a max of 25. That is around a 2.5x increase.

Hopefully I will be counting again this year, and hopefully this trend will not continue. And, of course, 2 data points is not nearly enough from which to extract a trend line.

But I wanted to bring it to your attention as something that needs to be watched. Does our lake management company also monitor the wildlife? If so, maybe pass this on to them? Maybe this is something that could be nipped in the bud before it becomes a problem?

It's too bad, I have enjoyed watching the cormorants fish on Lake #1, and I like how an aid to identifying them is how they always, whether swimming, standing on the bank, or roosting in a tree, keep their head at the same 20 degree angle.

And, of course, cormorants are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty.

Best regards,
Chris Heinz

IslandWalk Birds, 2020-2021 Season

My overall birdwatching strategy for IslandWalk is posted here.

My 1st ever "IW state of the birds" post was for the 2021-2022 season. I am cloning this post from that post. That post contains discussions of things I found interesting about a lot of the species.

I was of 2 minds about posting the data from 2020-2021. There were only 9 X & X2 datasets, and the final X dataset, on March 4, 2021, was cut short when the arch of my right foot totally gave out at the 4.5 mile point in the 5.41 mile walk. I went straight home (cut down Freeport rather than walking the SW corner) and finished at 5.0. But, there is a bird issue, and I wanted this data for comparison purposes, so I went on and entered it.

[Note, I have quit going barefoot on our tile floors, and have put arch supports in all my shoes & my new comfy slippers, and my feet are doing much better. :-) Hopefully I will be up to walking the 5.41 & 5.47 mile X & X2 routes by December.]

I will do a follow-up post on the bird issue I mentioned. (Hint: cormorants).

I manually entered this data in this spreadsheet

I will be reporting for all observed species the following 4 datapoints:

1. % of days seen;
2. total birds counted;
3. average;
4. max.

Note, the 2021-2022 post, I reported "# of days seen" vs "% of days seen". I will go back to that post and revise it to show the % instead of the #, for easier year to year comparison.

Doing this post ~18 months after the fact, I don't remember any fun anecdotes to share.

Here's the link to the IslandWalk hotspot at eBird.org.

Each bird name listed below is linked to its IslandWalk activity page in eBird.org. So click on the name, you will get a picture & all the data eBird has on that bird in IslandWalk.

Swimmers

I guess all are dabbling "ducks"? "Dabbling" === "stick your bill down in the water & swish it around & eat what you get from that" - as opposed to diving ducks.

• mottled duck: % days 100; tot 293; avg 33; max 51.
• muscovy duck: % days 100; tot 186; avg 21; max 41.
• common gallinule: % days 56; tot 9; avg 1.8; max 3.

Divers

• pie-billed grebe: % days 100; tot 53; avg 5.9; max 13.
• hooded merganser: % days 56; tot 20; avg 4.0; max 10.
• lesser scaup: % days 56; tot 20; avg 4.0; max 6.
• ring-necked duck: % days 56; tot 21; avg 4.2; max 6.
• double-crested cormorant: % days 100; tot 29; avg 3.2; max 10.
• anhinga: % days 100; tot 54; avg 6.0; max 10.
• brown pelican: % days 56; tot 9; avg 1.8; max 5.
• belted kingfisher: % days 0.

Waders

• great egret: % days 100; tot 42; avg 4.7; max 6.
• great blue heron: % days 44; tot 4; avg 1.0; max 1.
• snowy egret: % days 89; tot 14; avg 1.8; max 3.
• cattle egret: % days 11; tot 1; avg 1.0; max 1.
• tricolored heron: % days 100; tot 36; avg 4.0; max 7.
• little blue heron: % days 33; tot 3; avg 1.0; max 1.
• green heron: % days 0.
• wood stork: % days 44; tot 4; avg 1.0; max 1.
• white ibis: % days 100; tot 166; avg 18.4; max 41.
• glossy ibis: % days 78; tot 51; avg 7.3; max 14.
• limpkin: % days 0.

Beach Birds

• killdeer: % days 11; tot 1; avg 1.0; max 1.
• black skimmer: % days 0.

Raptors

• osprey: % days 67; tot 8; avg 1.3; max 2.
• bald eagle: % days 0.
• cooper's hawk: % days 0.
• red-shouldered hawk: % days 0.
• broad-winged hawk: % days 0.
• swallow-tailed kite: % days 0.
• loggerhead shrike: % days 22; tot 5; avg 2.5; max 4.
• black vulture: % days 11; tot 2; avg 2.0; max 2.
• turkey vulture: % days 78; tot 14; avg 2.0; max 4.

Corvids

• fish crow: % days 67; tot 132; avg 22.0; max 55.
• blue jay: % days 67; tot 40; avg 6.7; max 20.

Perching Birds (Passerines)

• mourning dove: % days 100; tot 32; avg 3.6; max 8.
• eurasian collared dove: % days 22; tot 3; avg 1.5; max 2.
• common ground dove: % days 0.
• common grackle: % days 100; tot 77; avg 8.6; max 61.
• boat-tailed grackle: % days 11; tot 1; avg 1.0; max 1.
• red-winged blackbird: % days 0.
• european starling: % days 0.
• northern mockingbird: % days 89; tot 65; avg 8.1; max 42.
• brown thrasher: % days 0.
• northern cardinal: % days 0.
• red-bellied woodpecker: % days 78, tot 44, avg 6.3, max 15.
• pileated woodpecker: % days 0.
• downy woodpecker: % days 0.
• northern flicker: % days 0.
• palm warbler: % days 100; tot 85; avg 9.4; max 20.
• black-and-white warbler: % days 0.
• yellow-throated warbler: % days 0.
• prairie warbler: % days 0.
• blue-gray gnatcatcher: % days 22; tot 3; avg 1.5; max 2.

Multiverse Fatigue

1st up, a duology from Stephen Baxter, whose series I have enjoyed over the years:

1. "World Engines: Destroyer", 2019, 523 pages, 142k words;
2. "World Engines: Creator", 2020, 500 pages, 136k words.

Set a few hundred years in a future, on a post-climate crisis world where humanity has decided that space exploration is a bad idea. Then, an artifact of a level 2 or 3 galactic civilization turns up, and it's pretty exciting from then on.

********************** SPOILER ALERT **********************

But then, stuff starts happening in multiple, parallel planes of the multiverse. In 1, Armstrong had a heart attack & died on the moon. In another, the British Empire didn't go away. Etc, etc, etc.

I think I 1st remember the multiverse being introduced in the Michael Moorcock Eternal Hero stories of the 1970's? It never caught on much.

But now that Marvel has gone that way, I suspect we'll be seeing more & more of it. My wife & I watched "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once". My wife actively didn't like it, I was like meh.

The thought that I have been entertaining is that, once you invoke the multiverse, science fiction becomes much more like fantasy - anything goes, internal consistency not required. I'm not sure this is a good thing.

Both books are well-written page turners, and worth reading.

********************** END SPOILER ALERT **********************

Next up, "Up Against It", Laura J. Mixon, 2011, 504 pages, 137k words. The main progagonist is an 18YO, so I guess this is a YA novel. A well-plotted tale of plucky youngsters helping to save their asteroid home. Lots of plot, good adult characters as well as our teenaged heros. I liked this enough that I purchased the 1st novel of a trilogy by Mixon.

Next up, "The John Varley Reader", subtitled "Thirty Years of Short Fiction", 2004, 899 pages, 244k words, 18 stories. I think this was a $1.99 special via BookBub. Varley has been 1 of my fav authors going back to his earliest stuff in the 1970s. These are some great stories, I had read most of them already. In addition to the stories, after having been reticent about discussing his work for years, Varley introduces each story with autobiographical info about when the story was written. A very pleasant read.

I was recommending Varlay to a young person who had just begun transitioning to being female. Not sure if that is good advice or not. Varley was writing about gender change from the beginning, late 1970s, but surely modern people know a lot more about it now.

Following those great words of wisdom from that emminent post-modern philosopher Bruce Ehrler - "wait a while" - I put off writing this long enough that I read a 5th book: "Wanderers", by Chuck Wendig, 2019, 975 pages, 265k words. Wow, was that book that long? It was definitely a page turner, I finished it at 1:30 am this morning. Published in 2019, a disease jumps from bats to ravage the human race? Seriously? If I had realized that was the plot, I might have skipped it. But, it was a very good read. Plus very spot on re white supremacist militias, christian nationalism, most of our modern political quarrels.

I will pick a couple of bones though.

********************** SPOILER ALERT **********************

Last line of the Interlude at the end of Part One:

And by then, it would be far too late for him — and for everyone else.

Middle of Chapter 15:

They had no idea how true that was.

Isn't this way heavy-handed foreshadowing? Or is this not foreshadowing, but some other blunt instrument? It reminds me of those true crime shows on cable, where they dole out the info in dribbles amidst dire insinuations of things to come. Pretty tacky.

********************** END SPOILER ALERT **********************

I have pre-ordered the sequel, which is due out in November.

Perfect timing, I'll switch over and clear the magazine stack. Momentarily tempted to ditch it, as I was tempted to blow off blogging these books. I may have a bit of process fatigue. But, I think that the older I get, the more important it is to keep my exocortex updated. So, brace up! Books blogged, #SongOfTheDay recorded, Music In processing proceeding, on to the magazine stack!

Phew!

5 books to blog, I'll do them in reverse order, starting with the "Phew!".

The "Phew!" was my completion of "The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice", by Catherynne Valente, 2007, 512 pages, 148k words. This is Book 2 of The Orphan's Tales. I blogged Book 1 here; I found its tales within tales (nesting 4 deep) confusing, but in the end I think I liked it OK. This 2nd book, not so much. I just wound up being really confused and wanting it to be over. When I was done, I was like "what happened to that character? Or that one?". I almost gave up a few x. I persisted, but at the end, definitely "Phew!"

The 1st book had a bit of an Arabian Nights feel to it, this 1, hardly at all. ?!?!?

I think the author should provide a tree diagram of the chapters/stories & the characters therein! ;-P

---

Before that I read another cheap ($1.99) 2-novel reissue of some classic sci-fi, this time Roger Zelazny. "Isle of the Dead, Eye of Cat", 402 pages, 109k words.

"Eye of Cat" was originally published in 1982. It follows the Zelazny formula of "Lord of Light" (Indian religion/mythology) and "Creatures of Light and Darkness" (Egyptian religion/mythology) of borrowing memes from religion/mythology. This time it is Navajo religion/mythology, seemingly studied very lovingly and in depth. The protagonist winds up being a really old guy, the last living human who still has a true Native American mindset. It is a good adventure.

"Isle of the Dead" was originally published in 1969. Another really old guy, who is also the galaxy's 67th richest person. He is also the only human trained in world-building by the alien race whose speciality this is. We again have borrowed religious/mythological memes, this time from the religion/mythology of the world-building alien race.

LOL, in the 2nd book, our ultra-rich, really old guy goes on a tirade against the service industry due to their wanting to be tipped. I guess Roger had just come into some book $$$ & was starting to think like a conservative ... Social commentary in SF in general ages very poorly more often than not.

---

Before those, a totally pleasant surprise! A 5 star rating! Recommended by Cory Doctorow, in his incredibly informative blog "Pluralistic".

"An Absolutely Remarkable Thing", by Hank Green, 2018, 376 pages, 102k words. Book 1 of "The Carls". A totally charming tale of 1st contact. Totally up on social media, online fame, etc. Great characters, great plotting. If you haven't read it, please do so now! ;->

Of course I forged straight ahead into the 2nd book, "A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor", 2020, 542 pages, 142k words. A pleasant read, but not as charming as the 1st book. Plus the plot got a lot more "duh duh DUH!!!", more ominous & stressful. I guess there was some stress in the 1st book, but it was overwhelmed by the joy & optimism of discovery.

Music In, 2022, Batch 1

Not too too many albums to get caught up on. I'll do maybe the 1st 1/2 for now.

• The New Pornographers, "In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights", 2019, 11 tracks. This is the 7th NP album I have. It is yet another collection of catchy pop songs. NP is very reliable, 4 stars. Here's the 1st track, "You'll Need A Backseat Driver". Note the album title in the 4th line of the lyrics.

• Neil Young & Crazy Horse, "Barn", 2021, 10 tracks. A nice effort, these guys are definitely keeping on keeping on. 4 stars. Here's "Canerican", which definitely seemed to get stuck in my head - totally vintage Young?

• My Morning Jacket, eponymous, 2021, 11 tracks. Louisville's finest delivers again. What a great guitar band! 4 stars. Here's a great guitar song, "In Color".

• Cleo Sol, "Mother", 2021, 12 tracks, bandcamp. Very nice, chill piano & vocals. I guess R&B rather than Alternative Rock. Out of London, her 2nd album. Born Cleopatra Zvezdana Nikolic, mother Serbian-Spanish, father Jamaican, both musicians.
  The melting pot that is London is producing some great musician mixes. Makes me think of Lianne La Havas, Greek dad, Jamaican mom - or visa versa?
  4 stars. Here's the 1st track, "Don't Let Me Fall".

• Bright Moments, "Fracture", 2022, 9 tracks. Bright Moments is 1 of the bands of Lexington and Dunbar HS fav son Kelly Pratt. This is a good effort. 4 stars. Here's the 1st track, "Lonely Child".

• katie dey, "forever music", 2022, 10 tracks, bandcamp. dey certainly is prolific lately. I have 1 album/year of hers since 2019 for a total of 4 albums. Her vocals are definitely ... quirky?!?!? A good listen nonetheless. 4 stars. Here's the title track:

• Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, "Georgia Blue", 2021, 13 tracks, bandcamp. A Georgia-themed album, with guest artists??? Ahh, explained on the album notes on bandcamp: a labor of love, conceived after the 2020 elections, dedicated to turning Georgia blue (democratic). Proceeds to:
  • Black Voters Matter - blackvotersmatterfund.org
  • Georgia Stand-Up - www.georgiastandup.org
  • Fair Fight - fairfight.com
  So, totally a worthy cause. But, I didn't need a cover of "Midnight Train to Georgia" in my collection at this point. 3 stars.

• Various artists, "French Disco Boogie Sounds Vol.3 (1977-1987 - selected by Charles Maurice)", 2018, 13 tracks, bandcamp. I really enjoyed Vol.4 - every time a song from it came on and I was up, I would start dancing. More dancing please! 4 stars. LOL, here's something different: a 41 second prerelease teaser for the album.
  Note, if you are offended by the suggestive album cover, I apologize.

• Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong", "Ella and Louis Again", 1957, 19 tracks. 4 stars. Apparently a double album. I didn't like it as much as their 1st duo album, which makes sense. The 1st album had the best songs, these are their 2nd-best songs. I am all about the songs. Already in the Jaz Dumoz songbook are:
  • let's do it (let's fall in love) [red flagged]
  • i won't dance
  • love is here to stay
  Added to the list to be worked up:
  • autumn in new york
  • gee, baby, ain't i good to you?
  • i've got my love to keep me warm
  • i get a kick out of you
  Here's the 2nd of those:

• Willie "The Lion" Smith & His Cubs, 1958, 24 tracks. Nice, per Wikipedia his full name was William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholf Smith.
  Hmmm, this album does not show up in the Wikipedia discography. The earliest album they have listed is 1957, somehow I thought this album was 1958. The tracks are all from 1935-1937. I've written about how my college friend Delbert Lionel Hilgartner III turned me on to Fats Waller > 50 yrs ago. He also was a fan of Willie "The Lion", so it seems odd that I'm just now getting around to checking him out.
  4 stars. Here's the album cover:
  

  Here's "Echos of Spring". Not a lot of choices on YouTube.

• Delta Sleep, "Spring Island", 2021, 12 tracks, bandcamp. Brits, out of Canterbury, Kent. Great guitar rock. 4 stars. Listen to this song. 2 guitar parts playing seperately, together, in harmony, not in harmony. Really well done. "The Detail".

11 down, n to go ...

Long Short Long

I saw there was a new novel out by Gregory Benford about a institute on the far-side of the moon that studies SETI messages, some of which are downloads of powerful AIs. I loved Benford's earlier stuff - I read "Great Sky River" (1987) several times. So I thought I'd check his latest out: "Shadows of Eternity", 2021, 472 pages, 128k words.

But this was done with a bit of trepidation. Benford was born in Jan, 1941, making him 81 now. Older sci-fi authors seem to become a bit sex-obsessed - "Dirty Old Man Syndrome". Plus Benford was born & raised in & around Mobile, AL. Plus the book had a cover blurb by Jack McDevitt - another old white southerner - whose novels I used to enjoy but whom I wrote off after his latest novel - holy crap, that was over 5 years ago??? Really??? [Re old white southerner: Hello pot? Kettle here ...]

But all in all, not too bad. Some interesting concepts re galactic civilizations. The protagonist is a genius woman researcher at the SETI Library, and the early action is driven by her discoveries. She has several sexual relationships over the course of the novel, but not too much drooling going on. I would say my biggest bone to pick with the novel was that plot-wise it kind of changes course and wanders for the last 1/2-1/3 of the book. Still, not a bad read.

I was then in a mood for short stories, not sure why. So I read:

• "The Wandering Earth", by Cixin Liu, 2021, 468 pages, 127k words. [Very close in size to the prior novel???]. This was engaging book of 10 stories. Liu totally goes for it - no concept too big! Awesome upon awesome! They are making his 3 Body Problem books into a movie or series.
• "Drive", by James S.A. Corey, 2022, 31 pages, 8k words. "An Expanse Short Story". I kept thinking I had read this before, but when I was pulling the link from Kobo, I saw a review talking about that this had been an episode in the TV series. So that was where I'd heard this story before. Quick & easy read, nothing special.
• "Looking for Jake", by China Miéville, 2005, 314 pages, 85k words, 14 stories. Most of these I would characterize as horror or slipstream. Miéville has some really creative ideas and writes really well.
• "Icelandic Folk Tales", by Hjörleifur Helgi Stefánsson, 2020, 189 pages, 51k words, 25 stories. Illustrated by Tord Sandström Fahlström. LOL, these stories seem to me to be real folk tales - like the kind told by everybody's grandpa who loves to pull legs, or by one's crazy uncle who is somehow believable. A lot of references to places in Iceland, and tourist attractions to visit, e.g., the church wall with a fallen section that can't be rebuilt because it was cursed by a troll. It might make an interesting travel guide?!?!? Note, I created a new "Folk Tales" collection in my Kobo eBook app and added these there as well as to Fantasy.

While mentally preparing to write this post, I went on and started reading "Eyes of the Void", by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2022, 586 pages, 159k words. Book 2 of "The Final Architecture" trilogy. Book 1 was "Shards of Earth", blogged here. Tchaikovsky is really cranking out enjoyable, high-quality space opera. My current fav I think.

All caught up. I think this weekend it will be Music In.

Do You or Someone You Know Suffer From MAH?

[Why did I not publish this in May 2020 when I wrote it? Was I actually going to try to get the MAH Foundation started? No recollection. I'll go on & publish now, worry about whom to send it to later.

Last Update 2020-05-05]

MAH, or Malignant Amygdala Hyperplasia

Landmark study in 2011:

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(11)00289-2

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3092984/

Another study in late 2017

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0248-5

Psychological study:

2012

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2011.0268#aff-1

my comment: could also reference hyperthyroidism.

So, perhaps we look at this result as telling us that Conservatism is a side effect of MAH - Malignant Amygdala Hyperplasia? Perhaps it is treatable by drugs, similar to the one I take for BPH? Or perhaps research by someplace like 23andMe could identify a genetic component? Maybe we could finally start building the bright, shiny future we all deserve if we can finally get rid of Conservatism and its friends, Patriarchy and Feudalism.

I'm going to contact a few of my very rich friends and propose the creation of the MAH Foundation, to promote research into this disorder and into finding a cure for it. Perhaps the scourge of MAH can be wiped out in our lifetimes!

So tempting to call it MAD - Malignant Amygdala Disorder - but I believe MAH is the more correct terminology.

Actually, I think that Malignant => Cancerous. So maybe it's Benign Amygdala Hyperplasia, or BAH. But IMO, it is a cancer on our society. My more technical medical allies will have to make that call. How hard will it be to get this into ICD-10?

Articles discussing:

2010:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1342239/Brain-study-reveals-right-wing-conservatives-larger-primitive-amygdala.html

https://www.salon.com/2010/12/29/conservative_brains/

2011:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-beast/201104/conservatives-big-fear-brain-study-finds

https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/your-brain-on-politics-the-cognitive-neuroscience-of-liberals-and-conservatives

2016:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201612/fear-and-anxiety-drive-conservatives-political-attitudes

https://www.salon.com/2016/06/06/study_liberals_and_conservatives_have_different_brain_structures_partner/

2017

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/4/9/1651771/-Neurology-Conservative-Amygdala-Fake-News-Liberal-Anterior-Cingulate-Cortex-Rational-Analysis

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2017/11/22/at-yale-we-conducted-an-experiment-to-turn-conservatives-into-liberals-the-results-say-a-lot-about-our-political-divisions/

2018

https://qz.com/1238929/your-political-views-are-influenced-by-the-size-of-your-brains-amygdala/

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/7/1747135/-What-makes-a-conservative-may-be-Fear-Itself

IslandWalk Birds, 2021-2022 Season

[Updated 2022-08-31]

Changed from "days seen" to "% days seen", for easier year-to-year comparisons.

Added "% days seen" column to the spreadsheet.

---

As threatened promised, here is my 1st attempt at an Annual IslandWalk State of the Birds Report.

My wife & I purchased our IW residence on Charlton Way, 110 yards up the west bank of Lake #1, in the spring of 2009. We spent only 2-3 weeks/year in IW until around 2016(?), when I decided to start wintering down here. I absolutely love it in IslandWalk, BTW!!!

Due to COVID, I was mostly in IW from Dec 2019 to mid-Sep 2020.

This past season, I got to IW in early December, 2021, and went back north May 2, 2022. I was also in Kentucky March 14-21. We did not take our February caribbean vacation due to COVID.

The data set is 22 lists, 11 walking the X route, 11 walking the X2 route (shown here). These routes are 5.2 to 5.7 miles - truncated now in the NW corner, due to construction.

I manually entered these in this spreadsheet - it took around 20 minutes, & meanwhile gave me a good review of the data. I will be reporting, if relevant, i.e., a reasonable amt of data, the following 4 datapoints:

1. % days seen - % of days I saw (or heard) the bird walking the X or X2 route;
2. total birds counted;
3. average;
4. max.

For birds seldom seen, I will list 1st sighting, latest sighting, & total sightings, or some such.

I will anecdotally compare this year's #s to my recollection of prior years. I think I was collecting X & X2 in the 2020-2021 season. I'll think about doing that after I see how this 1st report works out.

Here's the link to the IslandWalk hotspot at eBird.org.

Additionally, each bird name listed below is linked to its IslandWalk activity page in eBird.org. So click on the name, you will get a picture & all the data eBird has on that bird in IslandWalk.

Swimmers

I guess all are dabbling "ducks"? "Dabbling" === "stick your bill down in the water & swish it around & eat what you get from that".

• mottled duck: % days 100; tot 813; avg 37; max 66. 4 clutches of ducklings, 4, 7, 7, 10 maybe. 1 clutch was originally 10; 2 days later 7; 5 days later 3 ducklings. What is eating these? Turtles?
  2 sightings of a male mallard, also seen a couple of yrs ago. mallard & mottled ducks interbreed.
• muscovy duck: % days 95; total 310; avg 15; max 34. I saw ~2 clutches of ducklings in March/April. 15 ducklings total?
  Muscovy #s are 40% of mottled #s. For years, very similar #s, so I'm thinking muscovy duck #s down by ~2/3.
• common gallinule: % days 86; tot 72; avg 4; max 11. 1 single duckling + 1 clutch of 6. 1st counted by me in IW 4/2020. They seem to be becoming more common. Smaller than a chicken, bright orange bill duck-shaped but < 1" wide, black w white tailfeathers. They don't like people, if you walk towards them they will rapidly retreat and issue a comical, nasal "hoot, hoot, hoot" call. Note, prior to 2011, these were called moorhens. Moorhens are now a separate species, not found in Florida.

Divers

• pie-billed grebe: % days 77; tot 59; avg 3.5; max 10. These were here when I got here, and were gone by mid-April. Such a cute little diving bird. Count'em quick! They don't have webbed feet, they have long toes ribbed w keratin, each of which looks like the michelin rubber man! You never see these because they almost never get out of the water. I got to see Grebe Feet 1x, when I spooked 1 as I was going over the Island Pond bridge, & it dove & swam away underwater.
  Mating season was apparently early March. Their beak colors were much brighter - they stood out more.
• hooded merganser: % days 27; tot 22; avg 3.7; max 9. They were here when I got here, gone by mid January. I got to see some nice courtship displays, females dancing as well as the males.
• lesser scaup: % days 18; tot 52; avg 13; max 16. These were here from mid February through early March. Easy to spot for their herringbone silver backs.
• ring-necked duck: % days 0. My recollection is that these normally show up in a mixed flock with the scaup. 0 this season. Last counted in IW by me 2021-03-04: 6.
• double-crested cormorant: % days 95; tot 166; avg 8; max 25. ?!?!? from maybe a 2-3 average from previous memory, a cormonant surge?!?!? On the 25 day count, 1 group of 11, 2 groups of 6. Note, this season, I saw a few times a cormorant spread its wings while sitting on the lake bank, similar to its anhinga cousin.
• anhinga: % days 95; tot 104; avg 5; max 12. I would guess 2-3x the 2-3 avg of previous years.
• brown pelican: % days 59; tot 34; avg 1.8; max 4. Normally they dive from 15-20' up straight down. I had 1 who dove from 5-6' up at a 30 deg angle, & still had good success. Someone suggested that it could be that it changed its method due to the lakes being so shallow now.
• belted kingfisher: % days 50; tot 14; avg 1.3; max 2. 1 evening on Lake #1 there was a group of 3 flying towards the NW. 1 day I saw 1 make 6 consecutive strikes in a row. They seem to dive at a 30 deg angle from 5-6' up. I did not see or hear (they have a distinctive chitter) a kingfisher after March 6. Pete Laviola counted 1 April 2.

Waders

• great egret: % days 100; tot 106; avg 5; max 9. I'm guessing numbers ~2x any previous years. Note there is some observation bias since you can spot a great egret ~200 yards up the lake. Orange/yellow beak (brighter => male), black legs, black feet.
• great blue heron: % days 59; tot 20; avg 1.5; max 2.
• snowy egret: % days 86; tot 68; avg 3.6; max 9. With the tricolored heron, in most years the most reliable wader. Surprisingly sparse mid-March - mid-April. Black beak, black legs, yellow feet. This year saw up to 3 adolescents - grey & black splotches in their feathers, lavender feet. The adolescent white ibis also have the grey & black splotches.
• cattle egret: % days 0. I counted 1 in IW on 2020-12-24. Biking 6-7 yrs ago on Oil Well Rd past Ave Maria, I saw lots of these, hanging out w cattle (go figure). Orange beak, orange legs, orange feet, orange highlights in the plumiage. Having seen so many immature snowy egrets this year, it's possible that that is what this was.
• tricolored heron: % days 95; tot 86; avg 4.1; max 9.
• little blue heron: % days 82; tot 32; avg 1.8; max 4. After years of being mostly absent - 0-2 sightings/year - suddenly showing up almost all the time. Nice!
• green heron: % days 0. 1 sighting, of 3-4 total, 1st counted in IW 2/2017 by Eric Thom. The other herons & egrets strike like a hammer, with their neck extended. The green heron coils its neck, & strikes out from its head held against its body - more like the jaw from Aliens.
• wood stork: % days 9; tot 2; avg 1; max 1. I think there has been at least 1 wood stork in IW the complete time of my residence. 2 yrs ago, 1 was feeding on the other side of Lake #1, & I got the binoculars on it for visiting friends. OMG, fearsome, stomp, stab, shake around, repeat. That downward-curving bill is 9" long, 5" x 3" at the base, a fearsome weapon.
• white ibis: % days 100; tot 227; avg 10.3; max 27. They work the streets as well as the lakes. My daughter Alexis the MLA sez she attended a presentation in which evidence was presented showing that the street ibis are diverging from the lake ibis.
• glossy ibis: % days 55; tot 40; avg 3.3; max 23. My 1st count of the dataset, 23 glossy ibis?!?!? Maybe migrating. After that, back to the fraction of white ibis counts.
• limpkin: % days 0. I've seen 1 of these in IW maybe a total of 4-5x. I saw 1 this season 2022-04-04 (walking Carlyles) near the Martinique walking path.
  Hah! Linking the eBird page in, I've had 17 total counts: 3 in 2016 starting June 6, 1 in 2018, 12 in 2020. This is why I have an exocortex.

Beach Birds

• killdeer: % days 5; tot 1; avg 1.0; max 1 - Jan 28. Total sightings over the years, 4-5. I also see these in Lexington. Most recently counted in IW by Pete Laviola 2022-04-02.
• black skimmer: % days 0. 1 counted by Pete Laviola 2021-12-26.

Over my entire time in IW, I've seen a total of 3-4 gull-like birds. I don't know gull-like birds at all.

Raptors

• osprey: % days 59; tot 14; avg 1; max 2. When I 1st got down, there was a huge osprey hanging around Lake #1 for several days. See the following on bald eagles.
• bald eagle: % days 14; tot 3; avg 1; max 1. 2x, 1x over Lake #19 & 1x over Lake #1, a bald eagle attacked & drove off an osprey. Territorial, I guess.
• cooper's hawk: % days 9; tot 2; avg 1; max 1. Surprised to see this. Don't remember it.
• red-shouldered hawk: % days 0. The prevalent local hawk. All-time I've counted maybe a total of 2-3. Last counted in IW 4/2020 by barry mantell.
• broad-winged hawk: % days 0. 1 counted 2021-11-22 by George Eschenbach.
• swallow-tailed kite: % days 0. I saw my 1st ever in IW March 10, in the air over the north end of Lake #1. No, just checked, I saw my 1st ever in IW 2017-06-01 - I would have been here then putting the hurricane shutters up. I also counted 1 in 2020. I used to see a lot of them biking out Oil Well Rd before and after Ave Maria.
• loggerhead shrike: % days 86; tot 67; avg 3.5; max 12. The smallest raptor. Shrike #s seem to keep trending up. In 2020 we had a shrike pair nesting in the live oak behind our cage produce a young shrike. We had a pair again this year, and I think they had 2 young'uns.
  I love this bird. They are not afraid of humans, you can walk up to within 2-3' of them. I always tell them "hello! hello!". Training shrikes to talk, FTW! LOL!
• black vulture: % days 32; tot 60; avg 8.6; max 20. Absolutely 1 of my least fav birds. Vulture v0.5. Smaller & much weaker flier than turkey vultures, much more flapping. Can't smell death from 5 miles away like turkey vultures. Will kill small animals including pets if not much roadkill lately.
• turkey vulture: % days 68; tot 32; avg 2.1; max 8. In general, it is kind of pointless to count these. Depending on the amount of dead stuff, like when we had a fish kill a few years ago, for that I counted 150 vultures, & estimated actual # present more like 250. They cleaned up 100s of dead fish in 3-4 days - as our most excellent Lakes Committee forecast.
  These guys are such stong fliers, it is a pleasure to watch them ride the thermals.

Corvids

• fish crow: % days 91; tot 380; avg 19.0; max 58. These are hard to count. They move around a lot, and once the "caw" goes out, 40-50 can converge in minutes at most.
  I have seen american crows at Shark Valley Everglades National Park, but never in IW. The bird books say that the more nasal "caw" of the fish crow is the only differing characteristic.
• blue jay: % days 100; tot 206; avg 9.4; max 23. Pretty normal.

Perching Birds (Passerines)

• mourning dove: % days 100; tot 138; avg 6.3; max 16. Ubiquitous across the US.
• eurasian collared dove: % days 82; tot 38; avg 2.1; max 4. Considered an invasive species, these larger doves have a 3 note call as opposed to the 5 note call of the mourning dove. They also have a fan-shaped tail rather than a pointed tail as the mourning dove has. Their #s don't appear to be increasing; they are outnumbered 3-4 to 1 by the mourning doves.
• common ground dove: % days 0. 1st counted by Eric Thom 2017-02-20. I saw 1 on the SW shore of Lake #17 last season; most recently counted by Pete Laviola 2021-05-30.
• common grackle: % days 100; tot 690; avg 31.4; max 94. IW's most ubiquitous perching bird.
• boat-tailed grackle: % days 64; tot 32; avg 2.3; max 8. These seem to be getting more common. They are more reliably distinguished from their common cousin by their call rather than their larger size. They call "shoop, shoop, shoop, shoop, (shoop)" or sing long, sweet notes - never any of the scratchy squacks of the common grackle. Their females are more brown than black. I had tentatively concluded that they like to forage at the lakes' edge much more than the common grackle, but I'm not sure about that.
• red-winged blackbird: % days 5; tot 2; avg 2.0; max 2. On my last walk of the season, April 30, I saw 2 of these towards the S end of Lake #2, my 1st time ever in IW. Also heard their distinctive call. Birdbook says they are everywhere in the US. Pete Laviola 1st counted 1 on 2021-06-05.
• european starling: % days 9; tot 12; avg 6.0; max 10. I have seen large numbers of starlings around northern Collier County - they love the utility lines at the corner of Vanderbilt Beach Rd & US 41 - but don't see them often in IW. They sometimes are in a mixed flock with the fish crows and/or grackles.
• northern mockingbird: % days 100; tot 398; avg 18.1; max 46. The 2nd most ubiquitous passerine in IW. Throughout mating season, which I would say starts late February, these guys are singing their hearts out. I would frequently count 2-3/block.
• brown thrasher: % days 18; tot 6; avg 1.5; max 2. Cousins of the mockingbird, they sing multiple songs like the mockingbird, but usually repeat each song 2-3x. They also seem to stay closer to the ground than mockingbirds. I used to see these only in the SW corner of IW, I saw a pair this year in the NE corner near Tobago.
• northern cardinal: % days 41; tot 10; avg 1.1; max 2. In the past, I had only seen these in the NE corner. This season also saw them on the south and west sides.
• red-bellied woodpecker: % days 100, tot 142, avg 6.5, max 11. IW's ubiquitous woodpecker. Very easy to recognize its calls.
• pileated woodpecker: % days 5, tot 1, avg 1.0, max 1. I also saw a couple on the wing this season, and other birders have counted them as well. I see some every year. The biggest woodpecker.
• downy woodpecker: % days 0. I counted 6x, 7 birds, in 2020. Most recent count by George Eschenbach 2021-01-11. The smallest woodpecker.
• northern flicker: % days 0. I counted these 10x or so summer of 2020, 0 this season. Last counted by Pete Laviola 2022-03-19.
• palm warbler: % 82 days; tot 159; avg 8.8; max 21. If it waves its tail up and down frequently, it's a palm warbler. They are gone by early April.
• black-and-white warbler: % days 0. In January of 2021, we were walking up to the pool and near the Charlton-Freeport bridge my youngest daughter spotted this bird. I thought at 1st a downy woodpecker, but no, markings different, more zebra-like. I had my iPad with me and came up with the tentative ID from searching using the iBirdPro app. On the way home, at the spot we sighted it, I played its song from the app, and it answered! I love living in the future!
  I did not see 1 this season, George Eschenbach counted 1 Jan 6.
• yellow-throated warbler: % days 0. I have never seen 1, George Eschenbach counted 2 Jan 6.
• prairie warbler: % days 0. I have never seen 1, George Eschenbach counted 1 Jan 6.
• blue-gray gnatcatcher: % days 0. I believe I have counted these in IW in past years - checked, 5 counts, 7 birds Jan 2020 - Jan 2021. George Eschenbach counted 1 Jan 7.
  I 1st saw these at Lakes Park in Ft. Myers. I played their song in the iBirdPro app and we had 10 or so come to check it out.
• chuck-will's-widow: % days 5; tot 1; avg 1.0; max 1. April 6 I was sitting in the lanai at around 9pm. I heard a melodic 5 note bird song being repeated. I fired up the Merlin bird ID app and it immediately ID'ed it, FTW! What fun!
  It is the largest nightjar in North America, a cousin of the whip-poor-will. It is really odd looking, a turret head with no neck - I doubt I will ever get to see 1, as it is nocturnal.

Thanks to the other birders who also entered data for IW. I hope they don't mind my using their names, which are visible on the ebird.org site.

Until next year, I guess! I would anticipate cloning this report, removing all the commentary, and adding new commentary (probably a whole lot less, as this was catching up to forever ago) as appropriate.