Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Variety!

As threatened, I did go for something different and read a mystery - in fact 2 of them.

1st, "The Case of the Crumpled Knave" by Anthony Boucher, 1939, 244 pages, 66k words. The Fergus O'Breen Mysteries #1. Fergus O'Breen is a likable enough young cheap detective.

I think this was on sale for $0.99 or $1.99. Anthony Boucher was also a science fiction author, and was the editor of the 1959 2 volume "A Treasury of Great Science Fiction" which was maybe the 2nd or 3rd sci fi book I read Back In The Day - from the Jeffersonville Public Library.

It's not a bad mystery, and an easy read. It's set in LA, with Hollywood connections. It was a pleasant diversion. It was weird how it was pre-WWII.

Next up, "A Spindle Splintered" by Alix E. Harrow, 2021, 109 pages, 29k words. That length would make this a novelette? This looks to be the 1st book of the Fractured Fables series.

A very fun read: Sleeping Beauty in the Spidey-verse. Proud to see a neighbor - Harrow lives ~40 miles from Lexington in Berea, I think - writing such great stuff.

OK, maybe time for some easy science fiction: "The Galaxy, and the Ground Within" by Becky Chambers, 2021, 324 pages, 88k pages. Wayfarer #4. So, aliens from 5 races are stuck together in an inn by a communications system failure. Different species learn about each other. It is tied to the other books in that 1 of the aliens is the lover of the captain of the Wayfarer. There is a little bit of excitement - a medical emergency, and the doctor who comes is human, yay us! Still, I guess these are character/personality stories in this series. This novel has the least action yet.

Penultimately, our 2nd mystery, "The Case of the Solid Key" by Anthony Boucher, 1941, 298 pages, 81k words. The Fergus O'Breen Mysteries #2. Another diverting tale, with some mistaken identity stuff and more Hollywood tie-in. There is a locked room murder, and, despite going back and rereading Chapter 18 (of 20), I still didn't quite get the point of the solid key.

Finally, "Leviathan Falls", by James S.A. Corey, 2021, 589 pages, 160k words. The 9th and final novel of The Expanse. A well done conclusion, some good symmetry with the beginning.

I was also current on the TV version of The Expanse. It's very well done. But in the last season, the actor playing Alex, the pilot of the Rocincante, got hit with several accusations of sexual harassment. So he was fired, but not before an episode in which Alex dies of a stroke during a hard burn.

I understand that the actor had to go, but Alex and the other 3 core Rocincante crew members - Jim, Naomi, and Amos - are pretty much a family throughout the whole series. So I was relieved that Alex is still alive and figures with a normal prominence in this novel. After all, the actor was the problem, not the character.

The TV Expanse I think got through the 1st 3-4 novels. They could come back and pick with the next big plot pivot and get the rest someday if they choose to.

The magazine stack is cleared, not sure what I want to read next. A good problem.

Sunday, December 19, 2021

4th (and Final) Batch of 2021 Music In

Finally. I thought this would put the iTunes library on my PC over 22,000, came up a little short: 21,988 tracks.
  • Juana Molina, "Segundo (21st Anniversary)", 2000 (reissued in 2021), 15 tracks, Bandcamp. Her 2nd album (duh). This is really interesting stuff - almost the coveted "Unclassifiable" genre - and easy to listen to. Her more recent stuff was billed as Argentinian punk. This is more indie rock, although it does get a little experimental at times. 4 stars. Here's "¿Quién?".

  • Half Moon Run, "Inwards & Onwards", 2021, 6 tracks, Bandcamp. The 5th album I have by this Montreal band. They continue to remind me of The Jayhawks. Consistently strong tunes. 4 stars.
    1 song definitely had some issues. "Fxgiving" seems like an angry breakup song, with the catchy line "I don't celebrate fxgiving" - a clever way of saying "I don't give a f#k" - as the song's main hook.
    Here's "Nosebleeds".

  • The Mountain Goats, "Dark in Here", 2021, 12 tracks, Bandcamp. This is basically 1 guy, John Darnielle, from California, supported by various collaborators over the years. He definitely has a distinctive voice and sound and is an excellent songwriter. Some somewhat experimental stuff on this album as well. 4 stars. Here's "When a Powerful Animal Comes". I like the simplicity, and the sax & bass doubling each other.

  • Big Red Machine, "How Long Do You Think It's Going To Last?", 2021, 15 tracks, Bandcamp. I was thinking out of Cincinatti, but, no, Eau Claire, WI. A ton of guest artists, including Taylor Swift and Fleet Foxes??? A very good album, very nice tunes, quite a pleasant surprise. 4 stars. Here's the last track, "Brycie".

  • Kaidi Tatham, "An Insight To All Minds", 2021, 15 tracks, Bandcamp. From Belfast UK. Jazz? Fusion? Hah, iTunes has Afro-Jazz, I'll go for that. Very good stuff. 4 stars. Here's the title track.

  • Cleo Brown, "Here Comes Cleo" and "1935-1951", both 27 tracks. 18 in common, so I cut "1935-1951" down to 9 tracks. I was looking for the Fats Waller song "You've Got Me Under Your Thumb" and saw a version by her. It had an intro! Her Wikipedia article describes her as "The Female Fats Waller". In 1935 she replaced Fats as pianist for the WABC orchestra in NYC! A very distinctive singing style. I already blogged about this at the bottom of this post. An enthusiastic 4 stars.
    Here's 3 by Cleo: 1st, "You've Got Me Under Your Thumb", which led me to her.

    2nd, here's the catchy "When Hollywood Goes Black and Tan".

    3rd, here's "My Gal Mezzanine". Cab Calloway also did this song.

    I liked most of these songs a lot! This was a great find.

  • Count Basie & Sarah Vaughan, eponymous, 1961, 14 tracks. Note, the metadata says that Count Basie doesn't actually play on this album. The album is Sarah Vaughan and the Count Basie Orchestra. Kind of like hers from the last post, songs not that great, and I'm not that big a fan of big bands, which this is getting to be. Also, she was experimenting with different scat singing styles and I thought some if it didn't work well. Still, such a voice, 4 stars. Here's "Until I Met You".

A couple of last minute additions:
  • Adele, "30", 2021, 12 tracks. Amazing how everyone loves Adele. She is in the crossword puzzles, clue: Largest selling musical artist of the 21th century. Ha ha, yesterday as well, clue: Only person to ever appear on the cover of UK and US Vogue.
    Like all her other fans, I have a personal connection to her - I heard "Chasing Pavement" on a TV music video the 1st time I was in London, UK, on business (2008?), and so was an early adopter. 1 reason I think she is so popular is that her songs are easy and great fun to belt out - think Glee and karaoke.
    4 stars. Here's "Love is a Game".

  • Sting, "Soul Cages", 1991, 9 tracks. Rick Beato has recently done 2 shows about String: 1st, "Why Sting is Uncopyable", 16 minutes; 2nd, "The Sting Interview", 59 minutes. The interview is also with Dominic Miller, who has been Sting's guitarist for 31 years. He mentioned his fav album with Sting was "Soul Cages", the 1st he did. I did not have it, so I acquired it. A nice album, 4 stars. Here's "All This Time", which I remember from when it came out in 1991.

Yay, relatively caught up, all but 3 albums purchased in the last couple of weeks, which I will consider the start of 2022.

Now to go back through the Bandcamp recommendation emails dating back to July.