Just Finished Reading Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher

Jim Butcher's six-volume Codex Alera fantasy series has been complete for a few years now...I began reading it a few weeks ago and have just finished the second book, Academ's Fury, from 2005.  The fantasy world is Carna, the nation is Alera, and it is under attack from without and within as an aging ruler with no heir is trying to hold on to his fragile power.  On his side are the chief protagonists Tavi, a teenage boy with tremendous fighting ability and courage and Amara, a young woman working for the First Lord as a Cursor, a job combining spy and messenger.  Humanity here is primitive with no technological development involving firearms, electricity or internal combustion.  Instead transformative and often lethal energy is focused through the abilities of furycrafting...furies are entities arising from wind, fire, stone, wood, water, and metal. People are usually gifted with being able to bond with and use one or more of them to give themselves temporary superhuman powers.  But although Amara is an accomplished watercrafter, Tavi has no such ability and must rely on his wits and fighting skills alone to survive and protect his loved ones.  Academ's Fury jumps ahead in the series a few years as Tavi...with the First Lord as his sponsor...has entered the Academy for his education.  But along with the internal intrigues among aspirants to power arises a new threat from an old enemy: the Vord...

This series is very violent and gives the reader scant opportunity to get to know the characters and their world outside of what seems to be continual combat and confrontation.  I'm determined to read it on through, but already I know it isn't going to be one of my favorites.  On the other hand, a really inspired, innovative ending might just convince me otherwise.  By the way, I thought that the author completely ripped off Star Trek: the Next Generation's enemy the Borg with his "the Vord"...

My 500 All-Time Favorite Songs: #290-281

Eight of the ten songs on today's list go back to the period from 1964 through 1975, another from 1983...and the most recent, from 2010, actually has significant roots going back to the sixties.  So this is necessarily an old list...I wonder what today's generation of young adults think about the music from decades ago.  I know when I was young, the comparable time was the swing/big band era of the 1930s and 40s and the music from that time was pretty much forgettable, as far as I was concerned.  Ironically, that's pretty much what I think about a lot of the "top 40" hits being pushed on the radio nowadays, music which the younger crowd are bonding to and think is so great...

290 LONELY DAYS...the Bee Gees
Lonely Days is one of those songs that just didn't quite fit my musical tastes when it came out in early 1971, but the march of time has only increased my liking of it...to the point now where I think it was one of the greatest products of that year in music.  It alternates between sections of mystical eeriness and simple, pounding rock n' roll, places that the brothers Gibb would have been well-advised to remain...although you might be among the many who believe that their heyday was six-seven years later during the disco era (but not me)...

289 SHAMBALA...Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night was one of if not the greatest American singles band from 1969 to 1973...this was the last of their releases that I liked a lot.  From the spring of '73...a very good year in my life...it is a happy tune with a spiritual bent.  Three Dog Night had a gospel-like vocal presentation in their music, especially when they went through a song's chorus...not that the lyrics in themselves were necessarily religious.  Their music helped me through my often turbulent teen years, a sweet-spirited group that has long deserved induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, which has snubbed them for decades mainly, I think, because they tended to record others' compositions instead of creating their own...

288 LAWYERS IN LOVE...Jackson Browne
One of the most sarcastic and funniest songs that I have ever heard, this 1983 hit by Jackson Browne dovetailed nicely with the newly-exploding popularity of music videos...its video perfectly reflected the lyrics, the closing stanza being "Last night I watched the news from Washington the Capital, the Russians escaped while we weren't watching them like Russians do, now we've got all this room, we've even got the moon, and I hear the USSR will be open soon as vacation land for lawyers in love"...

287 BRON-YR-AUR...Led Zeppelin
I originally bought the 1975 Led Zeppelin double album Physical Graffiti for their lengthy epic track Kashmir, but following it is this short, purely instrumental showcase of Jimmy Page's acoustic guitar playing abilities.  The title refers to a place in Wales that the band retreated to for songwriting and rest.  I think I'd like to visit it sometime if I ever travel there, along with Portmeirion, aka "The Village" from the sixties TV series The Prisoner.  Bron-Yr-Aur is the song you want if you're tired of Robert Plant's sometimes overbearing vocals but still appreciate this legendary band's music...

286 INNER CITY BLUES...Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye's landmark 1971 album What's Going On was a sharp turn for the late, great rhythm and blues artist toward politics and social commentary, and there was a lot to discuss with racial discord and injustice, the ecology, economic urban decay and a distant, never-ending war "going on".  Inner City Blues gives Gaye's repeated, frustrated response to all of it: "Yea, it makes me wanna holler and throw up both my hands".  As I recall, Inner City Blues was the album's third release after What's Going On and Mercy Mercy Me, a minor singles hit in the fall of '71. An enduring message, although the lyrics pinpointed its era...

285 SHE'S A WOMAN...the Beatles
The story I heard here is that late in 1964 the Beatles worked long and hard crafting their next singles release I Feel Fine, but still had to come up with the flip B-side song.  Paul McCartney quickly whipped up She's a Woman out of thin air and the band rushed through its recording...which later caused some consternation with John Lennon when they discovered that many fans preferred She's a Woman to their featured song for which they had devoted so much effort.  I happen to be one of those fans...some of the best rock n' roll is also the simplest.  I also totally dig George Harrison's guitar work here, especially during the mid-song break...

284 HOT FUN IN THE SUMMERTIME...Sly and the Family Stone
This song came out in 1969, during a time in which, for some reason, I had dropped out of regular pop music listening and had lost touch with it.  I do remember disliking Hot Fun in the Summertime back then...by 1971, though, I had reversed course and grown to appreciate it a lot as well as this group's other works.  It's one of the great anthems of summer, and I ended up buying the single.  Unlike Three Dog Night, Sly and the Family Stone deservedly did make it to the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, in 1993...it pays to write your own music, no doubt about it...

283 STYLO...Gorillaz
Gorillaz has been described as a "virtual' band, represented on their videos by animated characters and inviting a multitude of guest vocalists on their album tracks.  It is a collaboration of Damon Albarn (from the British band Blur) and animator Jamie Hewlett.  Albarn does vocals on most of Gorillaz's songs, including Stylo from their 2010 Plastic Beach album.  But the featured vocalist on this track hearkens back many decades: Bobby Womack delivers an unforgettable, impromptu performance on this "electric" song.  Womack, by the way, originally wrote and recorded It's All Over Now, which the Rolling Stones made into a big early hit in 1964...sadly he passed away five years ago...

282 TOP OF THE WORLD...Lynn Anderson
If my memory serves me correctly, I think it was the Miami FM station "A1A" that played this Lynn Anderson hit during the summer of 1973...I loved her sweet, emotion-laden singing on it and it quickly became my favorite song during that time.  Later that summer the Carpenters released their own singles version of Top of the World and I was angry that they were more successful with it than Lynn and were just capitalizing on her success...until I discovered that she had covered their original composition.  Still, I think Lynn Anderson's version is much, much better...

281 HELLO, GOODBYE...the Beatles
I've always liked this 1967 Beatles song...you have to watch the original video of the band, dressed out in ridiculous costumes with a campy psychedelic stage design, performing the song: I believe that they showed it back then on the Ed Sullivan show.  My parents had given up on the band a few months earlier after they all grew moustaches and made that insane Strawberry Fields Forever video...by this time, though, Paul and John had shaved off theirs but clearly weren't about to perform any more concerts.  I tend to associate this song, about two parties undergoing difficulty communicating with one another, with the band's earlier hit We Can Work It Out...

Next week: songs #280-271...

NFL to Decide Super Bowl Teams Today

Let's see...at this writing the National Football League conference championship games haven't yet begun...at 3 the American Conference title game between Tennessee and Kansas City starts, on the Chiefs' home field.  Then, at 6:30 Green Bay will take their hopes to San Francisco to decide the National Conference championship...and then we'll be set for the Super Bowl, to take place in Miami on February 2nd.  Before last weekend's round I had hopes for Seattle and Kansas City to make it to today, but the Seahawks just couldn't come back in the end against the Packers...now I'm cheering on Aaron Rodgers to upset the 49ers (after losing to them 37-8 earlier this season).  KC lost their earlier game to the Titans as well, but much closer: 35-32.  Tennessee is on a roll, with their offensive attack revolving around the rushing exploits of Derrick Henry and the effective field management of quarterback Ryan Tannehill.  Tannehill is an example of why it's hard to judge a player by his statistics and effectiveness with just one team: he fits the Titans' offensive scheme but didn't so much when he was with Miami.  I've heard that the Miami Dolphins missed out on an opportunity during their Nick Saban 'era' to pick up Drew Brees, but you similarly cannot automatically assume that Brees would have achieved the same level of success with them that he accomplished with New Orleans over the course of his professional career.  I wish Tannehill a successful career, but not today when he's playing against one of "my" teams.  As for the Chiefs, I'm all on board with their quarterback Patrick Mahomes but still feel little bit edgy after his team spotted Houston a 24-0 lead in last week's game: with Henry chewing up the clock on his runs, they may find themselves running out of time to catch up if they do that again this week...

So what I want today is to see Green Bay vs. Kansas City in the Super Bowl, a rematch of the first one ever played, following the 1966 season...or, as someone on the radio termed it, the State Farm Bowl (Rodgers and Mahomes are regulars on their commercials).  Still, even if today's games don't turn out the way I want, I'm looking forward to the final contest.  After all, the New England Patriots are out of the running, regardless...yeehaw!

Just Finished Reading The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

Back in 2014 I read my first Donna Tartt novel, The Goldfinch...here's a link to my review on this blog: [Goldfinch].  Set in rural Mississippi some 40-50 years ago, a twelve-year old girl, Harriet Defresnes, lives in a dysfunctional family with the absentee father supporting the family from his job in Tennessee and the mother in a chronic state of emotional collapse following the unsolved hanging death of her son Robin twelve years earlier, when his sister Harriet was just an infant.  Harriet has an older sister Allison who was nearby when Robin was killed but has wiped out all memories of that time.  Harriet, with a blunt and forward personality, is determined to discover Robin's killer and suspects another boy, Danny Ratliff...from a criminally-dysfunctional family, and sets out to sabotage his life.  In the absence of involved parents, the Defresnes sisters are instead ruled by their strong-willed grandmother and their maid Ida Rhew.  Harriet takes on as friend and detective partner little Hely Hull, whose older brother was a pal of Robin's.  There, I've laid out the framework of main characters...I'll leave it to you, the potential reader of this book, to discovers how their adventures play out...

The Little Friend is told from the perspective of various characters, mainly Harriet and her nemesis Danny.  Tartt delves deeply into their personalities and reasoning as they stumble through their days making one mistake after another.  Although Danny Ratliff has a violent streak, it isn't difficult to sympathize with his plight of being stuck within a horrible family that runs a meth business and whose brothers (and himself as well) spend a great percentage of their existence in prison.  I was disappointed in how the novel ended...it's as if the author had some things to get off her chest and, once she felt satisfied that she adequately expressed them through her characters and the story, there was nothing left to do except to end it.  There were several loose ends and clues that Tartt had laid out in her story to tantalize the reader into speculation but which were simply left to wallow...no, I was not happy with the conclusion...

I preferred The Goldfinch to The Little Friend, but the latter still has a great deal to offer the reader...most particularly a great insight into how adults tend to belittle and overlook the legitimate concerns that children try to express to them as well as how much people's personal narratives about their past can hinder their present and even eventually bring about their downfall.  More than anything, though, The Little Friend is a story that leads the reader into a certain direction but, over the course of the book, changes the emphasis to that of something essentially different.  In this sense it reminded me more of Ray Bradbury's classic Dandelion Wine, another tale of childhood personal crisis.  Five and a half years is too long a time to go between Donna Tartt novels...I think I'll look into the rest of this insightful and talented author's writings...

Quote of the Week...from Martin Luther King, Jr.

We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.    …Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday was this past Wednesday and whose life and legacy will be honored and celebrated this coming Monday, came up with many, many memorable quotes.  The above quote not only addresses the inequitable past treatment of blacks, who originally came to this land shackled in ships as slaves against their will, while whites came over as settlers to a land they saw as an avenue to freedom and prosperity.  The past should never be forgotten, not just regarding slavery, but also the subsequent decades upon decades of forced segregation, discrimination and violence perpetuated against those of the African-American community.  But as Dr. King stressed, we're all in the same boat now.  You can't just dismiss the past with a wave of the hand but should instead make sure that its sobering lessons are never forgotten, while at the same time realizing that today's "present" will in turn become tomorrow's past and that the only way to forge a just society with love as its foundation is to see the brotherhood in our neighbors as they now are and shed ourselves of hateful and hurtful notions that many of our ancestors embraced: how will future generations look back upon us?  Never forget or deny the past, and treat the present as a divinely-bestowed opportunity for reconciliation and forgiveness...

"The Conversation" Post-Debate Reveals Surveillance Society

Being at work Tuesday evening, I missed most of the Democratic Party presidential campaign debate, broadcast on CNN.  There were six candidates on stage, including senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, both competing for the support of the party's more leftist progressive wing.  From what I did hear at the end after I got home, each candidate seemed to express their positions and philosophies pretty well and were able to adequately answer the questions posed to them.  Apparently, though, earlier on there was some kind of squabble between Warren and Sanders...following the debate, with the candidates still onstage congratulating each other, the two seemed to be engaged in a hushed argument, obviously not intended for others to hear.  Initially unaware of the ongoing spat, one of the other contestants, Tom Steyer, approached them and was seen momentarily taken aback at the quarrel.  Later on CNN he was asked what they were talking about and he responded by saying that he didn't hear it...a most diplomatic position when in all likelihood he did hear their conversation.  Yesterday the news buzz wasn't about the actual content of the debate itself but that very brief disagreement between the two senators.  And yesterday morning while I was waiting for the Senate to begin its proceedings on C-Span2, I watched CNN play an audio-enhanced recording of what they said, which eerily brought to me memories of an old 1974 movie starring Gene Hackman...

In The Conversation, Gene Hackman portrays a techno-geek who is known in his trade as an expert on bugging and surveillance.  A powerful business magnate, suspecting infidelity on the part of his young wife, hires him to spy on her and bring to him evidence of what she is up to.  Much of the movie revolves around a conversation he picks up...from his electronically souped-up van...between her and her suspected lover in an urban public park.  The movie explores how he is able to filter out extraneous noise and enhance that conversation, giving the clear impression that nothing is private anymore and that anyone who can afford it can spy on anyone else...the movie's ending clearly places an exclamation point on that notion.  Tuesday night following the debate, the CNN analysts did not as yet have access to the conversation between Warren and Sanders...only after a day of technical processing on somebody's part did they receive the audio.  Now of course the two senators weren't really having a private discussion since they were front and center on the national stage, but it wasn't meant for outside ears nevertheless.  Steyer was right in refusing to discuss what they said...unfortunately, CNN has revealed the depths to which they will go to push a story, in the process also demonstrating the utter lack of privacy or discretion left in our society...

Weekly Short Stories: 1955 Science Fiction, Part 4

Today I close out my review of some of the best short science fiction from the year 1955 appearing in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories #17 (1955).  All were good, but that first one below is one of my all-time favorites.  Here are my reactions to the final three stories presented in the book...

NOBODY BOTHERS GUS by Algis Budrys
A very special short story for me personally, I reviewed it back in 2017...here's a link to that more-detailed article: [Gus]. The idea of being able to make oneself invisible has always been a fantasy of the young...achieved at least fictionally by Harry Potter with his cloak of invisibility.  But what if you were technically visible to others, but something about you caused them to quickly forget about you and anything you might have done, good or bad?  This is the burden that this story's protagonist bears: blessed with superhuman power to mentally alter the composition of matter and the course of events, nature has protected this paranormally-gifted mutant from the wrath of others by figuratively making him invisible to others.  Now he is looking for others like himself...

DELENDA EST by Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson was one of the foremost science fiction writers of the twentieth century, injecting his various views on history, politics and society into his characters and stories.  Considered a "hard" science fiction writer who tried to adhere to established parameters of science, he nevertheless followed other such authors by throwing into his fiction faster-than-light travel as well as often having time travel a possibility, the latter a crucial feature of Delenda Est.  The idea that someone could go back into the past and rewrite history has been treated a number of times in this genre ...this tale points to a pivotal event in the Second Punic War between Carthage and Rome as two time patrol officers discover that 1955 New York City...and the world around them...has completely changed.  If you like world history, this one's for you...

DREAMING IS A PRIVATE THING by Isaac Asimov
The notion that a person's dreams could be recorded and projected onto a screen for others to view was explored in my favorite episode, titled A.B. and C., of the 1968 British sci-fi/spy series The Prisoner.  They might have picked up the idea from this tale by Asimov...here specially-talented "dreamers" submit their reveries to different competing firms which sell them to viewing customers.  There is particular irony involved in how one of the business managers criticizes his chief rival's tactics as he speaks this story's title.  At least the dreamers are sharing their dreams with the public voluntarily, but the author points out that Freudian roots and symbols within their dreams may eventually invite the censors to shut down the trade....

Next week I'll  begin my look back at quality science fiction short stories from the year 1956...

Happy Birthday, Everybody

To me birthdays have traditionally been more of a celebration within my own immediate family than a general social event, which kind of sets me at odds with Facebook, which tends to overpromote them, in my opinion...but I understand that for most they tend to like it and that's okay, too.  For some reason, however, although I had indicated my own birthday to Facebook, they never do acknowledge it...that's fine, because although I'll occasionally wish somebody on it a happy birthday I don't do it regularly and...like I said, I'm more into celebrating the event among family.  After all, since we're all alive that means we all have birthdays...I like the traditional Eastern notion of everybody celebrating their birthdays together at the start of the New Year.  Still, I don't mean to snub or shun anyone by not writing on their timeline on their birthdays...I just don't spend a lot of time on Facebook, my primary use of which is to provide a link to my daily blog article...

And since my active involvement with Facebook pertains to this blog, it disturbs me that this site deliberately restricts...according to some algorithm of theirs...which of my Facebook friends see it appear on their newsfeed: apparently most do not.  I'm thinking of trying and seeing whether I can also use Twitter to increase readership...I have a couple of strategies I'm thinking of implementing there.  In any event, I'd just like to go ahead for the next 366 days and wish each and every one of you a Happy Birthday...whenever it comes...and while I'm here, go ahead and wish Gene a happy one for today, assuming that Facebook puts this link on your newsfeed, that is...

My 500 All-Time Favorite Songs: #300-291

As I unravel this list of my 500 all-time favorite songs week by week, some weeks tend to lean one way or another...today six of the ten songs featured are from the 1980s, a bountiful decade for good music.  There's also a golden oldie from the sixties, a generally ignored album track from the nineties, and two good songs of more recent vintage...

300 EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD...Tears for Fears
This British duo was big in the mid-to-late Eighties with a string of singles hits and a more cerebral take on life.  This song was to me the best one of 1985, with a great mid-song synthesizer break and anthemic lyrics: " I can't stand this indecision, married with a lack of vision, everybody wants to rule the world" pretty much lays out the state of politics in our world today...

299 JAMMIN' ME...Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
There's no way anyone could hear this 1987 single without recognizing it as a rant against a string of celebrities, political figures, and social trends...by name.  Cowriters Bob Dylan and Tom Petty claimed this wasn't so, that it was only a protest against being crowded out, or "jammed", by today's world...but Eddie Murphy, one of the celebrities mentioned, didn't see it that way and was miffed, to say the least.  I didn't get all the lyrics but I loved the sharp, rocking sound...

298 CLOSE TO ME...the Cure
When I listed my 25 all-time favorite songs back in 2007, Close to Me was on it...it's the song from that bygone list that has fallen the most over the years.  I still like it a lot, with Robert Smith sounding half-strangled singing through the dreamy lyrics, accompanied by generally upbeat, Caribbean-like music including a horn section.  The video, mostly set underwater, is a riot, one of my favorites...

297 GOODNIGHT LAURA...Spoon
Goodnight Laura is a deep track off this Austin, Texas-based alternative/indie band's 2010 Transference album.  It is a short and sweet lullaby...I can see singer/songwriter Britt Daniel cooing out this tune to a little girl...possibly his own daughter...as she goes to sleep.  On the other hand, he encourages Laura to set her worries aside...hinting that she may be older. It reminded me a lot of the Beatles' White Album closer Goodnight, sung by Ringo Starr, another great rock n' roll lullaby...

296 WATCHING THE WHEELS...John Lennon
After a late-evening dinner on Monday, December 8th, 1980, I arrived back at my apartment to watch the ending to the Miami Dolphins/New England Patriots game.  Although I was happy to see my team pull it out at the end with a field goal, I was quickly devastated by the breaking news that John Lennon had been murdered outside his New York City apartment.  The rest of the night one of the local radio stations played his songs, including this one I hadn't heard before.  The lyrics are poignant and unforgettable, like "People say I'm lazy, dreaming my life away...well, they give me all kinds of advice designed to enlighten me"...

295 EVERYTHING COUNTS...Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode is a British New Wave synthesizer band that was very popular in Europe and their home country throughout the 1980s and beyond but had fleeting success here in the USA.  In January 1984 MTV promoted their video to Everything Counts, my first exposure to their music.  I quickly grew to like it...including the melody, instrumentation and David Gahan's brooding singing. The lyrics speak of pervasive greed: "The grabbing hands grab all they can, all for themselves, after all."  The band's still together, although I doubt they'll be performing anywhere near me...

294 SOMETHING FROM NOTHING...Foo Fighters
This 2014 song that I chose as my favorite for that year develops in a similar way to Led Zeppelin's great classic Stairway to Heaven, starting out in a subdued and reflective way and then progressively going through stages that increase its tempo and intensity up to the closing crescendo.  David Grohl is the consummate rock artist who loves his craft and seems comfortable with his stardom...the mid-1990s turnaround from being the drummer in a band destroyed by suicide to that incredible Foo Fighters opening album that he basically wrote and recorded on his own is remarkable.  And he's kept them together over the years and is still tremendously popular...

293 IS THAT ALL THERE IS...Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee's first hit single came out way back in 1941... 1969's Is That All There Is, a cynical take on disillusionment arising from various life experiences, was her last major hit.  Whenever I heard it back then on the radio I had to listen to the whole song...it was that mesmerizing, a truly singular performance, both beautifully sung and spoken..."If that's all there is, my friends, then let's keep dancing, let's break out the booze and have a ball...if that's all there is".  Classy and elegant, Peggy Lee was one of the last old-time singing stars to hit it big on the singles charts...she passed away in 2002...

292 LOOKING FOR SATELLITES...David Bowie
You might think you know this late legendary British rock icon from his big hit albums and singles in the seventies and eighties as well as his evolving stage act...but if you've never heard Looking for Satellites, then you don't know Bowie.  From his relatively unknown 1997 Earthlings album, this piece greatly expands the already extraordinary musical creativity of this master of innovation...I can't think of a single song anywhere that even remotely resembles it: give it a listen and see what I mean.  I came across it in 2016 while exploring his 27 studio albums following his death in January that year...the best I can describe it is as a "self-harmonizing hard rock waltz"...

291 BETTE DAVIS EYES...Kim Carnes
Raspy-voiced Kim Carnes had this humungous hit in the middle of 1981, topping the charts for several weeks...it came out at a positive, optimistic time in my young adult life when I was beginning to get things together and looking ahead to the future, so there's a pleasant association for me whenever I hear it.  Funny, oftentimes listening a lot to the same song will tire me of it...but Bette Davis Eyes was my favorite song as I lived through that year, never grew old...

Next week: songs #290-281...

Presidential Primaries and Caucuses Nearly Upon Us

It's January 12, a little more than three weeks before the Iowa caucuses kick off the voters' actual participation in the 2020 presidential campaign after months of media spin, dubious debates, and endless opinion polling.  With the Republicans, incumbent Donald Trump will be the nominee although he has some opposition on different state ballots from opponents like Bill Weld, Joe Walsh and Rocky De La Fuente.  Most eyes will be on the Democratic contests, as no one really knows how the votes will go in the different states.  One thing is certain: once Iowa and the February 11 New Hampshire Primary take place, we'll have a couple more contests and a little breathing space until March 3's Super Tuesday when many, many states will be simultaneously holding their primaries...Florida's won't come until March 17 and by that time we may already have a runaway leader.  By the way, those three Republican candidates running against Trump will be on the ballot in Florida.  And Florida's primary is closed, meaning you only vote within the party you're registered for...a compelling reason to never register without a major party affiliation.  The primaries will go on to the first week in June...and then it will be the national conventions, the Democrats holding theirs July 13-16 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin while the Republicans have theirs August 24-27 in Charlotte, North Carolina.  I already know which candidate I will vote for in the Florida Primary, but if she drops out of the race by then...a distinct possibility...then I'll just have to rethink it a bit...

Jigsaw Puzzles: a Pleasant Diversion

For yesterday's "Quote of the Week" article I had originally picked one by Isaac Asimov that resonated with me...no wonder, since I had discussed the exact same quote a few months ago! So instead, before I finally settled on a music-themed quote, I explored what different people had to say about jigsaw puzzles, something I've enjoyed doing throughout my life.  I was "puzzled" by the quotes I could come up with: every single one of them used jigsaw puzzles in an allegorical sense, comparing them to some aspect of their lives and experiences...in no quote did anyone actually get down to describing their feelings about doing jigsaw puzzles per se.  So I'm here to fill that void...maybe only "unfamous" people such as myself can talk about liking them...

Jigsaw puzzles...at least the standard ones in which interlocking small cardboard pieces fit together to form a larger picture...are an inexpensive way to divert oneself.  You can pick out, from the wide selection of puzzles on the market, the picture you want to put together: beautiful scenes, animals, still life, themes like clocks, trading cards, signs, cartoons...anything worth looking at is worth being on a jigsaw puzzle.  You can also choose how large the puzzle is, not only with its dimensions but also how many pieces are involved.  If you have a reasonably large surface on which to spread out the puzzle without it getting disturbed, you can work on it at your leisure without any time constraints.  I like the exercise it gives my sense of perception and discrimination of shapes and shades of color as I group together pieces that are more likely to go together.  There are two ways to do these puzzles: either by referring to the picture on the box or putting it together "blind" with only a general notion of what it will look like in the end...I'm more likely to do the latter with 300-500 piece puzzles while I use the picture in those with more pieces...

One of my favorite old comedy films was from Laurel and Hardy as all sorts of hilarious things were going on throughout it...and there was a table containing a jigsaw puzzle in the background.  No matter what was going on in the story, whenever anyone happened to pass by the table they would have to stop what they were doing and work on the puzzle. Some people, when they're finished working a puzzle, glue it onto a surface and make a decoration from it.  I like to simply crumble it back up and stick it back in the box...sometimes I like to do them again at a later time.  I got a few this past Christmas...just finished a 1000-piece puzzle with clocks...that's it, finished, in the above picture.  I guess I must really like jigsaw puzzles since I wrote similar articles about them back in 2008 and 2017...

Quote of the Week...from Isaac Marion

My favorite songs change every year.                     ---Isaac Marion

Not exactly a tremendously profound quote this week with important ramifications about life and reality...but the American zombie romance writer Isaac Marion's quote (he's not a zombie, but writes zombie romances) does provide me a convenient transition to what I really wanted to discuss today: my favorite songs of 2019.  I've been following popular music pretty much from the time I was seven, usually focused on a particular genre for each era, and as such have come up with my own "Song of the Year" as I have lived through each of them, from 1964 up to now.  Sometimes those favorites decline in my estimation over the years while other songs that I either disliked at the time or may not even have been aware of have surpassed my yearly "best" in my appreciation.  2019 began with me enjoying Paul McCartney's latest album Egypt Station, while Beck came through a little later with Saw Lightning, a single from his later-released Hyperspace album that he largely collaborated on with Pharell Williams.  I listened to it and wasn't very impressed with most of the songs, though.  Also, while progressively reviewing my 500 all-time favorite songs on this blog, I once again heard the German techno band Kraftwerk's extraordinary 22-minute piece Autobahn...for the past month or so I've listened to it several times...can't get enough of it.  As for songs from the radio last year, other than Saw Lightning, I was disappointed not only with the general pop music out there, but also the alternative/indie releases as well.  So 2019's favorite songs list for me is necessarily short...here it is:

1 SAW LIGHTNING...Beck
2 CAESAR ROCK...Paul McCartney
3 AUTOBAHN...Kraftwerk (from 1974)
4 HAPPY WITH YOU...Paul McCartney
5 I DON'T KNOW...Paul McCartney

Although I didn't listen much to pop or alternative music on the radio in 2019, I did get into the habit of listening more to classical music, usually either from WUFT/Classical/102.7 in Gainesville or New York's WQXR on my Android...Mendelssohn's 4th "Italian" Symphony and Mahler's 2nd "Resurrection" Symphony are "new" favorites of mine.  Maybe that's why I got so taken with Autobahn...in some ways it belongs more to the classical genre...

About NFL Playoffs and College Championship Game

After the first round of the National Football League playoffs for the 2019 season, I'm happy to say that both New Orleans and New England...the two teams I least wanted to make it to the Super Bowl...lost in upsets to wild card Minnesota and Tennessee, respectively.  The next round this coming weekend will pit last week's winners against the bye teams: Seattle at Green Bay (Sun., 6:40), Minnesota at San Francisco (Sat., 4:35), Tennessee at Baltimore (Sat., 8:15), and Houston at Kansas City (Sun., 3:05).  "My" teams, the Seahawks and Chiefs, are still in it and...in my humble opinion...stand a decent chance of making the conference champion games to decide who goes to the Super Bowl.  However, since I think that the 49ers and Ravens are the strongest teams in the NFL this year, should Seattle and/or KC get to that round they'll have their hands full...

I thoroughly enjoyed last week's games, and not only because the teams I was rooting for all won.  Each one of them was close, going down to the end of the fourth quarter with the outcome in question...and two of them went to overtime!  As for Pete Carroll's Seahawks, I was glad to see that they re-signed their renowned running back Marshawn Lynch to put them back into "beastmode", especially on those third-or-fourth down and short plays in the red zone that they could use some time-honored help.  That's why I think the Seahawks have a pretty good chance of knocking off the Packers, although who knows what kind of adverse weather they will be facing in Green Bay...

As for next Monday's college football championship game between defending champion Clemson and LSU, I'm scheduled for work that night so I'll miss most or possibly all of it.  Should be fun to watch, though, with two outstanding quarterbacks, Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence, lighting up the sky with their passing...and both can take off running should the need arise.  I like Clemson for their upbeat coach Dabo Sweeney and will be pulling for them, although LSU will easily be their toughest opponent since Alabama in last year's championship showdown. The game is scheduled to begin at 8...

Weekly Short Stories: 1955 Science Fiction, Part 3

Here are my reactions to three more standout science fiction short stories from 1955 as they appeared in the retrospective anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories #17 (1955).  This was one of the few books in this 25-volume series I possessed early on, before I decided back in 2007 to get the entire series by purchasing different available used books off the Internet.  So I've read these particular stories quite a few times...

THE VANISHING AMERICAN...by Charles Beaumont
I'm not exactly sure what being American specifically has to do with the message in this story per se other than the nationality of the middle-aged male protagonist, whose life has become so obscure and irrelevant to himself and others with his compliance and compromises that one day he discovers that he has literally become invisible.  How does he once again become someone meriting others' attention? The story's ending reveals this...it's a different kind of science fiction tale and full of allegory about how people should live their lives...

THE GAME OF RAT AND DRAGON...by Cordwainer Smith
I reviewed this story on this blog a couple of years ago...here are links to both the story itself [story] and my earlier review [review]. It's always been one of my favorite sci-fi stories and Smith, whose real name was Paul Linebarger, developed an incredible future vision of human space exploration and settlement over the span of several stories using some very novel ideas.  Cats figure into this tale as well as telepathy...and a vast, menacing and sentient presence in the deep cosmos. Read it to see why I like it so much...

THE STAR...by Arthur C. Clarke
The Star was one of Arthur C. Clarke's more famous stories.  Returning from an exploratory space mission to the remnants of the supernova explosion that gave rise to the Phoenix nebula nearly two thousand years ago, the mission's captain and crew are depressed after their discovery on a surviving world that was distant enough from its sun to withstand the explosion.  But the astrophysicist telling the story...who also happens to be a Jesuit...knows something they don't know, something that calls into question his very faith in God.  What was the discovery and what did our narrator find out?  It's a pretty short story and available on the Internet, although I'm not sure about its copyright status and thus didn't include a link...

Next week I conclude my look back at 1955 in the world of short science fiction...

Just Finished Reading Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher

I'm a bit wary about starting a new fantasy series, especially with George R.R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire...more popularly known as Game of Thrones...delayed so much that the HBO television adaptation finished the entire series before readers could even find out what happened to Jon Snow after his multiple stabbing at the end of the fifth of purportedly seven books.  So I resolved to only read series that have already concluded...Jim Butcher finished his six-volume Codex Alera series, of which Furies of Calderon was the opening novel, in 2009.  And I've just finished reading that opening book...here are my reactions...

Furies of Calderon, like most fantasy series, is heavily derivative, with humanity in a backward technological state while imbued with special magic that empowers them to perform well in what is almost always a state of war.  Here people can "craft" the elemental spirits from wind, water, earth, fire, wood, or metal, carrying with them entities from those elements that impart special powers.  Of the novel's two main characters, Amara...a young woman working for the land of Alera's ruler Gaius Sextus as a messenger/spy...crafts wind and can fly (by the way, many names here sound like they're from the Roman Empire).  And then there is Tavi, a boy living in the outlying Calderon Valley and who suffers the rare and humiliating condition of not being able to craft any elements...but his intelligence, family loyalty and courage more than make up for his lack of magical abilities. The story, into which I will not delve in detail for the sake of any potential readers out there, involves treachery, loyalty, codes of honor, a strongly divided society by class, and much cruelty and savagery.  There is little in it to inspire the reader to daydream about what place they would like to have in such an inhospitable world...and that to me was its main drawback: in Lord of the Rings you could look with fondness at the Shire or Rivendell while Harry Potter's Hogwarts Academy carried with it many attractions. I did like the way Butcher developed his characters, though, and there are some that I would refer to as "wild card", meaning that I never could truly be certain whether they were ultimately the good or bad guys...always a welcome, intriguing addition to an ongoing story...

So now I'm reading the next book in the series, titled Academ's Fury.  So far so good, and I can at least be certain of not having to be left hanging for years while the author (like George R.R. Martin) just sits around on his butt, refusing to write the next installment while I totally forget the series' story line and characters...

My 500 All-Time Favorite Songs: #310-301

Here are the next ten songs, in ascending order, on my personal 500 all-time favorite songs list. They range a time span of forty years...unfortunately the latest one come out more than fifteen years ago!  Not that I'm pronouncing judgment against the state of today's popular music, but it just doesn't grab me the way the older stuff did...but I'm sure if I were much younger the songs of today would impact me the same way as the ones I grew up with...

310 REBELLION (LIES)...Arcade Fire
This track is from the Canadian alternative rock band's 2004 debut album Funeral, but I first heard it about six years later when I got around to listening to the entire album.  I became a fan of theirs because of Funeral and the subsequent albums Neon Bible and The Suburbs...but I've generally been disappointed with Arcade Fire's last two LPs.  Still, their best works rank among my favorite songs ever...band leader Win Butler sings with such heart...

309 A CHANGE WOULD DO YOU GOOD...Sheryl Crow
I bought Sheryl Crow's eponymous second album from 1996 largely on the merits of this terrific song with a mesmerizing beat, rhythm guitar and clever lyrics.  It contains one of my all-time favorite lines, a great suggestion for a telephone answering machine: "Hello it's me, I'm not at home.  If you'd like to reach me, leave me alone!".  Crow has a flair for lyrical twists in her songs that at times remind me of Bob Dylan or John Lennon...

308 ABACAB...Genesis
1982 had a lot of good songs...this lengthy track, also the title of its album, turned out to be my Song of the Year back then.  The letters in the title represent the first six musical notes of the song...being a music theory dummy I leave it for you to investigate whether that's so.  Genesis, in my opinion, was terrific from around 1980 through 1984...then their output began to deteriorate.  The trio of Phil Collins on drums and vocals, Mike Rutherford on guitar and Tony Banks on keyboards was a hard combination to beat when they were at their peak...Banks is spectacular on Abacab, especially the long instrumental closing part...

307 YOU BETTER RUN...the Rascals
The Rascals came out with this minor singles hit in 1966 two years before Led Zeppelin exploded onto the musical scene...yet You Better Run, to me, was the proto-hard-rock song, with Jimmy Page-like guitar riffs and soulful singing.  I wondered how Zeppelin's Robert Plant would have sung it had his band decided to cover it, only to just recently discover that he himself had actually done so...back in '66 with another group! The Rascals' songs covered a wide range of musical styles...a few years later Pat Benatar successfully covered this favorite of mine...

306 TWO HEARTS BEAT AS ONE...U2
This is the U2 song that back in 1983 first turned my attention to this Irish rock band...not so much for Bono's wailing singing style but rather for guitarist The Edge's inimitable, trademark rapid-fire playing, which stood out on this brash, passionate song of desperation and faith.  I owe my thanks to MTV for showing the video back then...I never did hear it played on the radio. Two Hearts Beat as One is from their third album, titled War...

305 RUBY TUESDAY...the Rolling Stones
Although Mick Jagger gets a lot of credit for singing this Stones hit from early 1967, it was actually a creative collaboration of the band's talented multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones and Keith Richards, the former largely responsible for the song's melody and the latter composing the lyrics.  Jones played the recorder on it...you know, that flimsy little instrument they gave lessons for in elementary school? Fame and success can provide focus and discipline for some people while destroying others...sadly for Jones he couldn't handle his own "good" fortune...

304 A SUMMER SONG...Chad and Jeremy
On 560 WQAM "Tiger Radio" back in 1964 this song was introduced as being by "Stuart and Clyde"...the surnames of Chad and Jeremy.  I invariably associate this song with sitting outside on my back porch back then as a seven-year old kid, often with my sister Anita.  Sweet memories, old times..songs like this one bring them back although, like A Summer Song, they can be beautiful in their own right...

303 TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS...Glen Campbell
The springtime of 1970, when this song was a radio hit, was anything but a "kind" time in my own life, undergoing a very dog-eat-dog, hostile social environment at school in the 8th grade, and I had always thought that this song's lyrics were for others to follow. But in all honesty, although I never picked on other kids I have to realize that I was also short in the compassion department back then...taking an engaged, active interest in others' lives and opinions is in itself a form of kindness, one that would have served me well had I employed it in those difficult times.  Campbell's message reigns universal and timeless...

302 HEY HEY WHAT CAN I DO...Led Zeppelin
Not on any of Led Zeppelin's traditional albums, this B-side song on the Immigrant Song single should have been on their third album...why they passed up on it in favor of some clearly inferior tracks is beyond me.  It's a slow bluesy rant by Robert Plant about his (fictional) wayward love, one of his best performances for the band.  I came to know of Hey Hey What Can I Do after hearing it off their 1990 box set, which was aired on Gainesville's WRUF/Rock 104...

301 CIVIL WAR...Guns n' Roses
Guns n' Roses is far from being my favorite band, but they put it all together on this 1991 piece from their Use Your Illusion II album about the horrors of war and assassination...from back in our own American Civil War on through the Kennedy shooting and Vietnam War and then to the proxy international civil wars instigated and armed by the superpowers.  Yes, there is a lot of food for thought here as well as fantastic guitar playing by Slash.   This band is one that had a lot of talent and promise, but internal squabbling broke them up in the end...too bad, I would have loved to hear more songs from them with the intensity and sophistication of Civil War...

Next week: my all-time favorite songs #300-291...

Will Tom Brady Stay with Patriots or Move On?

After falling to the last-place and rebuilding Miami Dolphins at home for their final 2019 regular season game, eliminating themselves in the process from a first-round bye in the playoffs, the New England Patriots made an early exit from the playoffs yesterday evening as they lost in their fog-shrouded home stadium in the first round 20-13 to Tennessee.  The Titans were led on the field by ex-Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who was aided by a fierce running attack headed by Derrick Henry and a solid offensive line...elements that already-legendary Patriots quarterback Tom Brady sorely lacked in his own team this year.  Brady has been known to be willing to forgo the big paycheck he deserves in favor of having those needed players on the field around him to bolster his offense...the Pats let him down this year.  Consequently, with Brady as a free agent now, talk is going around that he will either go to another team to seek a higher level of pay or to one that has that supportive offensive cast of players he demands and needs.  After all, look at Tannehill's lackluster performance in Miami when he didn't have a quality roster around him and how well he took to Tennessee, a franchise that knows how to build a team from the inside out.  I'd like to see Tom Brady go to a team outside the NFL East so I can support him...being a Dolphins fan for better or for worse, I view the Patriots, Bills, and Jets as the "enemy".   Brady is 42 and not likely to be playing for much longer...seeing that he already has nine Super Bowl appearances and six championships to his credit, I'd be surprised if he doesn't either go for a very financially lucrative short-term contract with another team or just remain with New England with assurances of them bringing in higher-caliber teammates.  I strongly doubt that he will announce his retirement after such a dubious ending to his playing career, his last pass being a pick-six interception...

Quote of the Week...from Steven Spielberg

All of us every single year, we're a different person.  I don't think we're the same person all our lives.
                                                     ---Steven Spielberg

Back in the early years of this blog, I once got into an argument with an old buddy from elementary and high school who strongly differed with my comment that I was the same person that I was when I was 2-3 years old.  He also expressed skepticism that I could remember events going back that far in my own life...making me wonder at what age do different people achieve a sense of self-awareness instead of just plodding on ahead in life as programmed, reactive biological machines: apparently for him it came much later in his own childhood...I wonder whether for some people it ever comes.  The point I was trying to make with my friend wasn't that I didn't learn new things and grow physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually...we all do that to varying degrees as we experience our lives over the years...but that my sense of singular identity, that "I" that sets me apart from everything else in the universe, was the same back in 1958 as it is now.  But I'm afraid he was unable to receive what I was trying to convey, and that's a shame...

Steven Spielberg's above quote is about the change that is continually going on with us as we live out our lives, not that core sense of identity...or at least I hope that's what he was thinking when he made it.  I personally have two competing factions within me: one part wants to settle into established routines, enough to function in the world and even provide a few relatively comfortable challenges and goals, while another part sees life as more of a smorgasbord of potential experiences that require me jumping out of my comfort zone and pursuing more daunting projects and adventures, some of which by their nature pose risks of failure, humiliation...and even danger.  I think there's a time and place for both inclinations...here is where discernment and wisdom come in.  I'm getting to the stage of my work life in which I need to look ahead to what I'll be doing in retirement...one thing I do know is that I do not want to live it overcautiously, fearing new experiences and growth.  Change is a crucial element of life and as long as I am living, change it will be...but through it all I will always be "myself"...

Just Finished Reading The Institute by Stephen King

The Institute is the latest novel written by my favorite author, Stephen King, published just this past September.  It's about the abduction of specially talented children by a ruthless, shady organization...I don't think I'm giving away the story by saying that the "Institute" is a remote facility in which they're housed...or more precisely, imprisoned.  In the meantime, a decorated ex-cop from Tampa is looking to sort out his life and future as he hitchhikes his way to a rural South Carolina town, where he is hired to be the "night-knocker"...a part-time, unarmed employee of the police force whose job entails checking out the town's various businesses and neighborhoods late at night for their security.  How these two separate story threads eventually come together...well, I guess you'll need to read the book for yourself as I want you to get its full impact.  Instead of going further into the plot and characters, I think I'll reiterate something I've discussed on this blog in the past...

I don't subscribe to the notion that some people have paranormal abilities such as telepathy (mind-reading and thought-transfer) or telekinesis (mentally moving objects).  Of course there are people out there who claim to be psychics, often making a bit of money publicly hawking their claims.  But anyone who actually possessed such abilities would be well-advised to keep them private and not allow them to become common knowledge.  Not only would it arouse suspicion and mistrust among the people around them, but a paranormal ability could well attract the attention of the kind of nefarious people that King described in his novel.  There was a similar situation in his excellent 2011 book  11/22/63, in which a time traveler to the past...technically not "gifted" with precognition...nevertheless had to be careful with his knowledge of upcoming events not to allow it to inadvertently slip out to those around him....

When I was in the first grade, my teacher Mrs. Parsons had the class play a little game.  One student would be picked to stand outside in the hallway while another in the class would be given an object, like a blackboard eraser.  Then the student in the hallway would come back in and, without a word being exchanged, survey the classroom and try to pick out the classmate hiding the object.  It seems I had a special talent for looking over the many faces and picking the right one...repeatedly...to the point where some kids began to grumble that I was somehow cheating.  But I wasn't cheating...or psychic...but rather was simply good at accurately reading faces and body language.  Still, I think the temptation among many of us is to quickly make that giant leap whenever a confounding situation arises and attribute it to the supernatural or paranormal...or with my example, start accusing.  It's as if the correct and intellectually honest response "I don't know why this is so" has become taboo...

I thought The Institute was one of Stephen King's better novels...why not read it and let me know your own reactions...

Weekly Short Stories: 1955 Science Fiction, Part 2

As we usher in the New Year of 2020, today I'll be continuing my look back 65 years at some standout science fiction short stories as they appeared in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories #17 (1955).  Here are my reactions to the next five as they appear in the book...

GRANDPA by James H. Schmitz
Ecology...the concept of symbiosis in particular...is the theme of this tale set in the future after humanity has settled several different star systems.  The planet here has just recently been staked out, and the indigenous life is peculiar...especially the boat-like creatures that the new settlers use as locomotion on this water-dominated world. Like in a Michael Crichton novel, though, the normality of the pioneers' lives is thrown into a crisis when the fauna around them rise up...an exciting story that predates our environmental movement by several years...

WHO? by Theodore Sturgeon
It is known that long-distance space flights take their toll on the astronauts, especially the protracted periods of isolation from community with others.  The protagonist, telling the story in the first person, is on a test flight to determine his suitability to command a ship. He takes off on his mission, physically separated in the ship's cabin from the single other passenger by a bulkhead...they can talk back and forth but cannot see each other.  This is a psychological story, one of Sturgeon's areas of expertise, that delves into people's motivations, jealousies, and fears.  It has a surprise ending, of course...

THE SHORT ONES by Raymond E. Banks
Within the walls of the Pentagon exists a created society of artificial, protoplasm-based miniature "people".  Its purpose is to test suitable nominees and applicants for important government posts according to their temperament...can they strike an almost impossible-to-attain balance between exerting too much or too little power over others in their line of duty?  It's Ralph Hiller's turn to be tested and he will be the "god" of this miniature society for the next six hours...these very difficult "short ones" will frustrate him but will he be able to make the right decisions?  This story is a clever examination of the role of religion without getting itself hung up on theology...

CAPTIVE MARKET by Philip K. Dick
Back in 2017 I reviewed this story in greater length...here's a link to that article: [link].  It's based on the notion that the future is full of alternative possibilities...the elderly woman here has the ability to discern them around her and decide which one will come true.  Unfortunately, her talent is wasted because of her petty and prejudiced narrowmindedness.  On one hand you have something totally brilliant with so many possible positive implications.  And on the other you have an abject squandering of it all...kind of reminds me of how some people are using the amazing Internet these days to promote their own prejudices and indulge in their own shortcomings...

ALLAMAGOOSA by Eric Frank Russell
In the interstellar space fleet of the future, a captain docked on "shore" leave at Sirius has to contend with an upcoming inspection, including a minute inventory of everything on the ship, carefully listed down to the last issued pair of suspenders.  Only one problem: the inventory list has one item, an "offog", supposedly issued four years earlier but no one on board has a clue as to what it is: the solution? Invent an "offog" and present it for inspection!  This is a funny satire of the entrenched bureaucracy, in which people use it to create a secure buffer around themselves while employing a certain "logic" of reasoning that can drastically stray from reality...

Next week: more about short science fiction from 1955...