I'm not sure what to think lately about the weather forecasters in my area...for both yesterday and today they had pointed to showers in the afternoon but nothing materialized: it's 5 pm and the skies are clear and sunny. Still, I decided to get in my weekend long training run in earlier, in spite of the extremely high humidity. When I started out it was a moderate 74 degrees but a very, very muggy 87% humidity...by the time I finished my ten mile run it was 79 with a still pretty high 73% humidity. Usually this high humidity is something I have little tolerance for with my running, but as it turned out I felt strong enough throughout that not only did I reduce my interspersed walking breaks, but I extended my planned run from 7.2 miles to 10 with no ill effects and plenty of energy left at the end. After 10:30 am when I started out, the very unpleasantly muggy air might at least partially explain why I saw no one on my residential subdivision course, either on the street or in their yards, for most of the first hour. Then, suddenly, as if they got some kind of signal, everyone seemed to come outside and I found myself repeatedly crossing the street in order to avoid other walkers and joggers And the conditions did seem to get better, including a pleasant little breeze whenever I was running northward...
Right now it's 88 degrees and only 49% humidity, conditions that I prefer when running. With today's run I was sweating profusely...I looked when I got back home as if I had just climbed out of someone's swimming pool. So I was being a bit facetious with this article's title depicted it as a "fun" run: anything but. Yet it was a confidence builder in that it demonstrated to me my growing ability to handle a wider variety of weather situations...in years gone by high humidity coupled with even only moderately warm temperatures affected me adversely with my running. Looking forward to seeing what happens next weekend...
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Miscellaneous Ramblings about the Weather, Comet and Beach
The last couple of Saturdays have seen the weather acting up in Gainesville after a week of generally clear skies...we're expecting some rain and storm later on while at this writing in the morning the sky is clouding up and it seems kind of muggy outside. So I'm going to put off my "long run" in the neighborhood until tomorrow with hopes of improved weather...
This past Thursday morning I got up at 4:30 to see Comet Swan, which was located just east of Pisces and next to Aries, reportedly just barely visible to the naked eye at 5.5 magnitude...I had a pair of binoculars to aid me. Unfortunately it was too low in the eastern sky for me to see, although the last quarter moon, along with two nearby planets, provided a visual spectacle. So, I went back inside and, seeing that sunrise would be at 6:36, set my alarm for 6 thinking that the comet would then be high enough in the sky for observation. But alas, when I went out then the sun hadn't yet risen but the sky had lightened enough anyway to blot out all the stars and planets, with the only the moon left visible. I've seen comets before, the most spectacular one being Comet West, which streaked very brightly across the predawn sky early in 1976 while being virtually ignored by the press and people at large. Usually, though, they've been very faint and sometimes I needed binoculars to see them. Oh well, Swan is too close to the sun now...better luck with the next comet...
A couple of Saturdays ago Melissa and I drove over to St. Augustine Beach in the morning...specifically Vilano Beach...to walk up and down it and return home. It wasn't overly crowded and I thought most everyone there was conscientious about distancing because of the coronavirus. But at our stop in the nearby Publix, although the workers all wore masks as well as the two of us, most customers did not and did not practice distancing. I know the false narrative and am tired of it: "it's my own body"...but in truth, what they are doing is messing with everyone else's bodies since anyone can be infected even without symptoms...
So maybe I'll go out and run tomorrow...looks like there's a tropical system offshore that might become Arthur, our first named storm of the year. But it's veering away from us in Florida and headed toward the Carolinas...
---Later in the same afternoon: it never did rain up here in northern Gainesville, but the humidity has remained high...I'll see if maybe I can't get out to run some tomorrow...
This past Thursday morning I got up at 4:30 to see Comet Swan, which was located just east of Pisces and next to Aries, reportedly just barely visible to the naked eye at 5.5 magnitude...I had a pair of binoculars to aid me. Unfortunately it was too low in the eastern sky for me to see, although the last quarter moon, along with two nearby planets, provided a visual spectacle. So, I went back inside and, seeing that sunrise would be at 6:36, set my alarm for 6 thinking that the comet would then be high enough in the sky for observation. But alas, when I went out then the sun hadn't yet risen but the sky had lightened enough anyway to blot out all the stars and planets, with the only the moon left visible. I've seen comets before, the most spectacular one being Comet West, which streaked very brightly across the predawn sky early in 1976 while being virtually ignored by the press and people at large. Usually, though, they've been very faint and sometimes I needed binoculars to see them. Oh well, Swan is too close to the sun now...better luck with the next comet...
A couple of Saturdays ago Melissa and I drove over to St. Augustine Beach in the morning...specifically Vilano Beach...to walk up and down it and return home. It wasn't overly crowded and I thought most everyone there was conscientious about distancing because of the coronavirus. But at our stop in the nearby Publix, although the workers all wore masks as well as the two of us, most customers did not and did not practice distancing. I know the false narrative and am tired of it: "it's my own body"...but in truth, what they are doing is messing with everyone else's bodies since anyone can be infected even without symptoms...
So maybe I'll go out and run tomorrow...looks like there's a tropical system offshore that might become Arthur, our first named storm of the year. But it's veering away from us in Florida and headed toward the Carolinas...
---Later in the same afternoon: it never did rain up here in northern Gainesville, but the humidity has remained high...I'll see if maybe I can't get out to run some tomorrow...
Friday, May 15, 2020
Quote of the Week...from Stephen King
Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work. ---Stephen King.
Since I reviewed Stephen King's latest book yesterday, I thought it would be natural to dig up one of his quotes and expand upon it. And if there is anyone who understands the importance of hard work it's this terrific, durable and prolific writer. I have a copy of King's book On Writing, in which he gives his knowledgeable input on what it takes to be successful in that craft. First, he admits that a raw, innate talent is essential to becoming a great writer, but most of us can become good writers if we're willing to invest the needed time and properly-directed effort. Like the late science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, King sets aside a daily time and place to write his stories and would "just do it", much like anyone punching in on a clock would set themselves in "work mode" for the duration of their shift. On top of this, Stephen King deems extensive reading as essential to being a success in writing...so now we're talking "overtime". Asimov for his part, even when he wasn't sitting in front of a typewriter, claimed to write in his head and was always on the alert for new ideas. Unfortunately, unlike the sci-fi great, when I get an idea I'd better quickly write it down lest I forget it...and even when I do, sometimes I later have forgotten the point of the idea in the first place...
Stephen King's quote about hard work applies to any endeavor requiring a kernel of talent: its successful development depends on tenaciously sweating it out and putting in the needed hours...there's no way around it...
Since I reviewed Stephen King's latest book yesterday, I thought it would be natural to dig up one of his quotes and expand upon it. And if there is anyone who understands the importance of hard work it's this terrific, durable and prolific writer. I have a copy of King's book On Writing, in which he gives his knowledgeable input on what it takes to be successful in that craft. First, he admits that a raw, innate talent is essential to becoming a great writer, but most of us can become good writers if we're willing to invest the needed time and properly-directed effort. Like the late science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, King sets aside a daily time and place to write his stories and would "just do it", much like anyone punching in on a clock would set themselves in "work mode" for the duration of their shift. On top of this, Stephen King deems extensive reading as essential to being a success in writing...so now we're talking "overtime". Asimov for his part, even when he wasn't sitting in front of a typewriter, claimed to write in his head and was always on the alert for new ideas. Unfortunately, unlike the sci-fi great, when I get an idea I'd better quickly write it down lest I forget it...and even when I do, sometimes I later have forgotten the point of the idea in the first place...
Stephen King's quote about hard work applies to any endeavor requiring a kernel of talent: its successful development depends on tenaciously sweating it out and putting in the needed hours...there's no way around it...
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Just Finished Reading If It Bleeds by Stephen King
I just finished reading Stephen King's latest book, a four-novella collection called If It Bleeds...which happens to be the title of one of its stories. I like them all, some more than others...but why not examine each one along with me and see whether you might not want to pick up a copy for yourself...
MR. HARRIGAN'S PHONE
A ruthless elderly tycoon quietly retires to Stephen King's fictional small-town Maine where a local boy earns a little money by reading to him. During special days like his birthday or Christmas, Mr. Harrigan gives him lottery tickets. One time he wins thousands of dollars and decides to give the old man, digitally and Internet-ignorant, a smartphone. After Harrigan's initial skepticism, he becomes fascinated and ultimately inseparable from the phone, claiming all sort of possibilities for it while bemoaning its adverse effects on society. This story reminded me of a couple of Twilight Zone episodes where a phone provided an eerie sort of nexus...
LIFE OF CHUCKY
The most brilliant and original of this book's stories, Life of Chucky takes place in three acts, going backward in time covering parts of a young accountant's life...and the startling effect he has on others. It's also a ghost story and delves into the philosophical idea of solipsism...look it up if you don't know what it means. Also, King gets to weigh in on his love of dancing, reminding me a bit of his masterpiece novel 11/22/63...
IF IT BLEEDS
Shape-shifting and psychic vampire monsters have evidently been on Stephen King's mind, at least a couple of his more recent novels...Doctor Sleep and The Outsider. Also he seems to enjoy continuing a series he began with Mister Mercedes as private investigator Holly Gibney, after her traumatic experience in The Outsider, suspects the existence of yet another shape-shifter who feeds on despair and suffering. Since I like Holly and the other "good guys" in this series, I enjoyed it but also felt that it seemed to be little more than a sequel to that book. Also, once it's established that an author wants to write a string of tales about a group of characters like Holly and Jerome Robinson, I get the feeling while reading them that these characters' lives are all protected no matter what dire peril they may find themselves in...
RAT
A teacher of creative writing himself has a severe writer's block when it comes to composing a novel. One day he envisions the perfect story, though, and takes off for the family's remote cabin out in the woods to write it...much to his wife's skepticism and concern. After picking up the flu from a careless, sick clerk at the local store he finds himself alternately fighting off his own illness and the major winter storm sweeping through the area. Yes, a rat has something to do with this story, especially the writer's ability to complete his book...and the unacceptable price tag that goes with it. My least favorite of the four stories...
So I enjoyed reading all four stories in If It Bleeds, but two were pretty derivative and one was simply a continuance in a previous series...leaving Life of Chucky as the standout. You might have different impressions, though, should you find yourself checking it out...
MR. HARRIGAN'S PHONE
A ruthless elderly tycoon quietly retires to Stephen King's fictional small-town Maine where a local boy earns a little money by reading to him. During special days like his birthday or Christmas, Mr. Harrigan gives him lottery tickets. One time he wins thousands of dollars and decides to give the old man, digitally and Internet-ignorant, a smartphone. After Harrigan's initial skepticism, he becomes fascinated and ultimately inseparable from the phone, claiming all sort of possibilities for it while bemoaning its adverse effects on society. This story reminded me of a couple of Twilight Zone episodes where a phone provided an eerie sort of nexus...
LIFE OF CHUCKY
The most brilliant and original of this book's stories, Life of Chucky takes place in three acts, going backward in time covering parts of a young accountant's life...and the startling effect he has on others. It's also a ghost story and delves into the philosophical idea of solipsism...look it up if you don't know what it means. Also, King gets to weigh in on his love of dancing, reminding me a bit of his masterpiece novel 11/22/63...
IF IT BLEEDS
Shape-shifting and psychic vampire monsters have evidently been on Stephen King's mind, at least a couple of his more recent novels...Doctor Sleep and The Outsider. Also he seems to enjoy continuing a series he began with Mister Mercedes as private investigator Holly Gibney, after her traumatic experience in The Outsider, suspects the existence of yet another shape-shifter who feeds on despair and suffering. Since I like Holly and the other "good guys" in this series, I enjoyed it but also felt that it seemed to be little more than a sequel to that book. Also, once it's established that an author wants to write a string of tales about a group of characters like Holly and Jerome Robinson, I get the feeling while reading them that these characters' lives are all protected no matter what dire peril they may find themselves in...
RAT
A teacher of creative writing himself has a severe writer's block when it comes to composing a novel. One day he envisions the perfect story, though, and takes off for the family's remote cabin out in the woods to write it...much to his wife's skepticism and concern. After picking up the flu from a careless, sick clerk at the local store he finds himself alternately fighting off his own illness and the major winter storm sweeping through the area. Yes, a rat has something to do with this story, especially the writer's ability to complete his book...and the unacceptable price tag that goes with it. My least favorite of the four stories...
So I enjoyed reading all four stories in If It Bleeds, but two were pretty derivative and one was simply a continuance in a previous series...leaving Life of Chucky as the standout. You might have different impressions, though, should you find yourself checking it out...
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Weekly Short Stories: 1958 Science Fiction, Part 2
I have to say that these four 1958 science fiction short stories I'm discussing today from the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 20 (1958) are all among the better ones ever written...especially that last one below which I regard as a masterpiece of the genre. Here's what I thought about each of them...
THE PRIZE OF PERIL by Robert Sheckley
The idea of placing people in dangerous situations, even possibly fatal, for the entertainment of the masses has become more commonplace in literature, television and movies...The Running Man and The Hunger Games stand out in this subgenre of science fiction. But it all may have started with this short story by Robert Sheckley in which, also in a dystopian future, contestants in a no-holds-barred game show try to buck the odds and survive a set number of hours out in the world while assassins close in for the kill. I felt this was a pretty exciting story, and sadly on target as to the direction we're heading in...the vicarious attraction of watching violence and others' suffering has become an epidemic in our culture...
OR ALL THE SEAS WITH OYSTERS by Avram Davidson
This brief tale mixes together our mass production technology, the tendency for things like paperclips and clothes hangers to either be mysteriously misplaced or suddenly seem to be in too great a quantity, and the biological concept of mimicry as a survival form of camouflage. Sounds strange? That's because it is strange, a quirky story that reminded me of Donald Wollheim's 1942 brilliant Mimic. The notion of some kind of malevolent sentience being behind everyday items suddenly missing is probably more commonplace than many would like to admit...I sometimes even joke that the "elves" must be at work when I keep coming up short of socks...
TWO DOOMS by Cyril Kornbluth
This is one of the better alternative history stories out there. An American scientist during World War II working in the Manhattan Project has just received the results of his assignment: an atomic bomb is scientifically possible. But before he decides to relay this crucial information to his superior...knowing in advance all the lives that will probably be lost because of it...he goes out and visits an old Navaho friend who introduces him to a special mushroom concoction. The resulting "trip" sends him 150 years into a future America dominated by the warlord Japanese and Nazi Germans...
THE BIG FRONT YARD by Clifford Simak
One of my all-time favorite short stories...close to novella length...I first read it as a kid going through some of my father's old paperback anthologies. A practical, honest rural handyman discovers one day that his basement ceiling has been changed to an impermeable, glass-like barrier...and his dog seems to think there's something out the woods that needs scrutiny. The upshot to all this is soon revealed when he opens his front door to another world. To me as a kid...and still to this day...the notion of traveling vast distances by simply stepping through a door greatly intrigued me. I was also totally sold on protagonist Hiram Taine's pragmatic and contented personality in the face of the commotion going on around him...
Next week I conclude my look at science fiction short stories from 1958...
THE PRIZE OF PERIL by Robert Sheckley
The idea of placing people in dangerous situations, even possibly fatal, for the entertainment of the masses has become more commonplace in literature, television and movies...The Running Man and The Hunger Games stand out in this subgenre of science fiction. But it all may have started with this short story by Robert Sheckley in which, also in a dystopian future, contestants in a no-holds-barred game show try to buck the odds and survive a set number of hours out in the world while assassins close in for the kill. I felt this was a pretty exciting story, and sadly on target as to the direction we're heading in...the vicarious attraction of watching violence and others' suffering has become an epidemic in our culture...
OR ALL THE SEAS WITH OYSTERS by Avram Davidson
This brief tale mixes together our mass production technology, the tendency for things like paperclips and clothes hangers to either be mysteriously misplaced or suddenly seem to be in too great a quantity, and the biological concept of mimicry as a survival form of camouflage. Sounds strange? That's because it is strange, a quirky story that reminded me of Donald Wollheim's 1942 brilliant Mimic. The notion of some kind of malevolent sentience being behind everyday items suddenly missing is probably more commonplace than many would like to admit...I sometimes even joke that the "elves" must be at work when I keep coming up short of socks...
TWO DOOMS by Cyril Kornbluth
This is one of the better alternative history stories out there. An American scientist during World War II working in the Manhattan Project has just received the results of his assignment: an atomic bomb is scientifically possible. But before he decides to relay this crucial information to his superior...knowing in advance all the lives that will probably be lost because of it...he goes out and visits an old Navaho friend who introduces him to a special mushroom concoction. The resulting "trip" sends him 150 years into a future America dominated by the warlord Japanese and Nazi Germans...
THE BIG FRONT YARD by Clifford Simak
One of my all-time favorite short stories...close to novella length...I first read it as a kid going through some of my father's old paperback anthologies. A practical, honest rural handyman discovers one day that his basement ceiling has been changed to an impermeable, glass-like barrier...and his dog seems to think there's something out the woods that needs scrutiny. The upshot to all this is soon revealed when he opens his front door to another world. To me as a kid...and still to this day...the notion of traveling vast distances by simply stepping through a door greatly intrigued me. I was also totally sold on protagonist Hiram Taine's pragmatic and contented personality in the face of the commotion going on around him...
Next week I conclude my look at science fiction short stories from 1958...
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Follow-Up on Friday's Barry Farber Article
This past Friday I quoted Barry Farber, New York City's great WOR Radio conservative talk show host...he just passed away and I wanted to honor him. However, he shares his name with a younger man who has built a career on motivational self-help programs and I fear that it may have been one of his quotes that I used. Never mind, it's still a good quote, regardless who said it: risk is indeed often an essential element involved in making progress. I've also been thinking more about the elder Farber's fascination about learning foreign languages and his imploring to take advantage of every opportunity to practice them. Since I live in a predominantly English-speaking country, I don't have the benefit of immersion to quickly attain fluency...and maybe I don't need to become fluent in another language, anyway. The other day Melissa and I were delivering Mother's Day gifts for our church to different members at their homes...we found ourselves conversing with a family from Iran and I could have taken advantage of this opportunity to speak greetings to them in Persian...I do know this one sentence pretty well...but I didn't. Then, later, we stopped over for a dinner takeout from a downtown Cambodian restaurant...once again I know the same greeting in that language and could have spoken it to the owner but refrained. I'm not studying Persian or Cambodian (Khmer) right now, but since I know people from those backgrounds and I like to study foreign languages, it seems appropriate to take a little time aside and learn a few phrases and practice conversing with them. Now I am (off and on) studying Chinese and Spanish and do have opportunities with talk with native speakers...but of course when I do I'm going to pronounce things wrong, use the wrong words and make grammatical mistakes left and right. But you can't make progress learning new skills without exposing yourself to the risk of screwing up, right? Back nearly forty years ago I used to work at a Chinese restaurant in town and had several Vietnamese immigrants as coworkers...they welcomed me learning and practicing their language with them, but it's been a while since I've ever spoken it with anyone. Well, I'm not getting any younger and recent events have shown that there's no telling what will happen in the future, so why not enrich my life by reaching out and practice foreign languages with others...
Monday, May 11, 2020
My 500 All-Time Favorite Songs: #130-121
Here's another segment of my all-time 500 favorite songs list that spans several decades...most of the songs are pretty well known but a couple are hidden treasures on their respective albums. I naturally think they're all fantastic and urge you to give them a listen. And now, the next ten...
130 PRODIGAL SON...the Rolling Stones
Although the album Beggars Banquet, on which this track appeared, came out in 1968, I didn't hear it until the mid-nineties when I examined the Stones' collected works. Prodigal Son was originally composed by blues artist Reverend Richard Wilkins some forty-odd years earlier. It would be a great song to play on Christian radio stations, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen since the singer is, after all, Mick Jagger. I loved Jagger's subdued, blues-soaked style here...my estimation of this song has only increased over the years...
129 SPACE ODDITY...David Bowie
To me, for most of David Bowie's career Space Oddity was his great, defining song with its cosmic overtones and sense of alienation and isolation...then I realized that I liked another of his early works more. Although Space Oddity was first released in 1969 and I heard it while straining my ears one night to hear it played on a weak AM station that was fading in and out, for some reason it was rereleased as a single in early 1973 and my local station WQAM/560 played it in their regular rotation. It's very loosely based, in my opinion, on the celebrated 1967 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey as astronaut David Bowman finds himself on his own special trip out in the cosmos, cut off from humanity...
128 LAZY EYE...Silversun Pickups
I liked this 2006 indie hit back then when it was played on my local Gainesville alternative rock station, but years later...in 2018...for some reason I really picked up on it and would make it my favorite song of that year. Lead singer Brian Aubert sounds like he's trying to imitate the Smashing Pumpkins' front man Billy Corgan, and that can get to be a little irritating. But he delivers a great performance here...and the guitar play is outstanding on a number of levels. It's really quite a brilliant song...
127 SUICIDE BLONDE....INXS
This song by the Australian band came out in 1990 and was a moderate hit...to me this lead song from their X album was superior to any of the hits they had produced from their previous breakthrough album Kick. This is a great, hard-rocking piece with a piercing riff and singer Michael Hutchence, one of the great voices of his age, more than able to keep up with the torrid guitar pace. I was also pretty impressed with the video...
126 IMITATION OF LIFE...R.E.M.
From their 2001 surprisingly good Reveal album, Imitation of Life was its initial singles release. It has a somber, yet whimsical mood to it as the band by this time has clearly moved away from guitar-based alternative rock to a more studio-arranged sound. Michael Stipe's lyrics are typical of his nonsensical stream-of-consciousness style: "Charades pop skill, water hyacinth, named by a poet imitation of life" yet he sings it as if it were the most important message he could relate. The verse section's melody is compelling...the chorus, which dominates the song's second half, has a children's sing-song aspect to it that bothered me a little at first, but I came to like it as well...
125 I WILL FOLLOW...U2
This song kicked off the Irish rock band's 1980 debut album Boy and is U2 at its best...sometimes that's the way it is: an act starts out with an artistic rawness to it that over the years gets compromised bit by little bit. Lead guitarist The Edge dominates I Will Follow with his relentless trademark riff from the very beginning and Bono has maybe his best singing performance in a song full of spiritual overtones. It didn't become known in America until 1983 when their hit song New Year's Day introduced this iconic band to the country...
124 GOING TO CALIFORNIA...Led Zeppelin
Possibly the greatest album side of all time...Led Zeppelin "IV" Side Two, when there actually used to be album sides...Going to California is Robert Plant's plaintive ballad about looking for a love that he can't find...and then realizes probably never ever existed. Jimmy Page offers my favorite acoustic guitar accompaniment to a Led Zeppelin song, although Friends from their previous album was pretty awesome as well. Every song on this album side is on my "top 500" list, two already covered and two more to go...
123 THE TWO OF US...the Beatles
The leadoff track on the Beatles' final studio album Let It Be, which was ironically described on its jacket as "a new phase Beatles album", The Two of Us was one of my favorites during my angst-ridden existence as a thirteen-year-old eighth-grader early in 1970. A further irony is that this song features Paul and John in one of their greatest performing collaborations while in reality "the two of them" were bitterly feuding with each other over the band's management and musical direction. I wish they'd come up with a few more like this folksy tune reminiscent of their earlier Rubber Soul period...
122 NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN...the Moody Blues
This closing track from the revamped Moody Blues' 1967 Days of Future Passed album was unknown to me until album rock radio began playing it in conjunction with the release of their 1972 Seventh Sojourn album...it's a fitting close to an album guiding the listener through the various parts of the day. The "night" here is gloomy and somber as the singer expresses his inner troubles...the concluding spoken poem, composed and read by drummer Graham Nash, is often cut from radio play but is the best part of the song, in my opinion: "Breathe deep the gathering gloom, watch lights fade from every room. Bedsitter people look back and lament another day's useless energy spent". It was a favorite of mine during a period of deep introspection I was going through at the time...
121 JACKSONVILLE...Sufjan Stevens
On his tremendous 2005 Illinois album, Stevens included this slow-moving ode to the Underground Railroad of the mid-1800s that aided blacks from the South escaping slavery to their eventual freedom in Canada...Jacksonville, Illinois was a "way station" in this secret network. I loved the entire album, but Jacksonville stands out with Stevens' understated singing, banjo picking and strong presence of strings in the background orchestration. It irks me that a great song like this one doesn't even rate a separate Wikipedia article...I'd like to read how the artist put everything together to come out with such a singular product. Although it was released in '05 I didn't first hear it until four years later when I discovered Sufjan Stevens while listening to an online alternative music channel...
Next week: #120-111...
130 PRODIGAL SON...the Rolling Stones
Although the album Beggars Banquet, on which this track appeared, came out in 1968, I didn't hear it until the mid-nineties when I examined the Stones' collected works. Prodigal Son was originally composed by blues artist Reverend Richard Wilkins some forty-odd years earlier. It would be a great song to play on Christian radio stations, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen since the singer is, after all, Mick Jagger. I loved Jagger's subdued, blues-soaked style here...my estimation of this song has only increased over the years...
129 SPACE ODDITY...David Bowie
To me, for most of David Bowie's career Space Oddity was his great, defining song with its cosmic overtones and sense of alienation and isolation...then I realized that I liked another of his early works more. Although Space Oddity was first released in 1969 and I heard it while straining my ears one night to hear it played on a weak AM station that was fading in and out, for some reason it was rereleased as a single in early 1973 and my local station WQAM/560 played it in their regular rotation. It's very loosely based, in my opinion, on the celebrated 1967 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey as astronaut David Bowman finds himself on his own special trip out in the cosmos, cut off from humanity...
128 LAZY EYE...Silversun Pickups
I liked this 2006 indie hit back then when it was played on my local Gainesville alternative rock station, but years later...in 2018...for some reason I really picked up on it and would make it my favorite song of that year. Lead singer Brian Aubert sounds like he's trying to imitate the Smashing Pumpkins' front man Billy Corgan, and that can get to be a little irritating. But he delivers a great performance here...and the guitar play is outstanding on a number of levels. It's really quite a brilliant song...
127 SUICIDE BLONDE....INXS
This song by the Australian band came out in 1990 and was a moderate hit...to me this lead song from their X album was superior to any of the hits they had produced from their previous breakthrough album Kick. This is a great, hard-rocking piece with a piercing riff and singer Michael Hutchence, one of the great voices of his age, more than able to keep up with the torrid guitar pace. I was also pretty impressed with the video...
126 IMITATION OF LIFE...R.E.M.
From their 2001 surprisingly good Reveal album, Imitation of Life was its initial singles release. It has a somber, yet whimsical mood to it as the band by this time has clearly moved away from guitar-based alternative rock to a more studio-arranged sound. Michael Stipe's lyrics are typical of his nonsensical stream-of-consciousness style: "Charades pop skill, water hyacinth, named by a poet imitation of life" yet he sings it as if it were the most important message he could relate. The verse section's melody is compelling...the chorus, which dominates the song's second half, has a children's sing-song aspect to it that bothered me a little at first, but I came to like it as well...
125 I WILL FOLLOW...U2
This song kicked off the Irish rock band's 1980 debut album Boy and is U2 at its best...sometimes that's the way it is: an act starts out with an artistic rawness to it that over the years gets compromised bit by little bit. Lead guitarist The Edge dominates I Will Follow with his relentless trademark riff from the very beginning and Bono has maybe his best singing performance in a song full of spiritual overtones. It didn't become known in America until 1983 when their hit song New Year's Day introduced this iconic band to the country...
124 GOING TO CALIFORNIA...Led Zeppelin
Possibly the greatest album side of all time...Led Zeppelin "IV" Side Two, when there actually used to be album sides...Going to California is Robert Plant's plaintive ballad about looking for a love that he can't find...and then realizes probably never ever existed. Jimmy Page offers my favorite acoustic guitar accompaniment to a Led Zeppelin song, although Friends from their previous album was pretty awesome as well. Every song on this album side is on my "top 500" list, two already covered and two more to go...
123 THE TWO OF US...the Beatles
The leadoff track on the Beatles' final studio album Let It Be, which was ironically described on its jacket as "a new phase Beatles album", The Two of Us was one of my favorites during my angst-ridden existence as a thirteen-year-old eighth-grader early in 1970. A further irony is that this song features Paul and John in one of their greatest performing collaborations while in reality "the two of them" were bitterly feuding with each other over the band's management and musical direction. I wish they'd come up with a few more like this folksy tune reminiscent of their earlier Rubber Soul period...
122 NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN...the Moody Blues
This closing track from the revamped Moody Blues' 1967 Days of Future Passed album was unknown to me until album rock radio began playing it in conjunction with the release of their 1972 Seventh Sojourn album...it's a fitting close to an album guiding the listener through the various parts of the day. The "night" here is gloomy and somber as the singer expresses his inner troubles...the concluding spoken poem, composed and read by drummer Graham Nash, is often cut from radio play but is the best part of the song, in my opinion: "Breathe deep the gathering gloom, watch lights fade from every room. Bedsitter people look back and lament another day's useless energy spent". It was a favorite of mine during a period of deep introspection I was going through at the time...
121 JACKSONVILLE...Sufjan Stevens
On his tremendous 2005 Illinois album, Stevens included this slow-moving ode to the Underground Railroad of the mid-1800s that aided blacks from the South escaping slavery to their eventual freedom in Canada...Jacksonville, Illinois was a "way station" in this secret network. I loved the entire album, but Jacksonville stands out with Stevens' understated singing, banjo picking and strong presence of strings in the background orchestration. It irks me that a great song like this one doesn't even rate a separate Wikipedia article...I'd like to read how the artist put everything together to come out with such a singular product. Although it was released in '05 I didn't first hear it until four years later when I discovered Sufjan Stevens while listening to an online alternative music channel...
Next week: #120-111...
Sunday, May 10, 2020
A Rainy Day Happy Mother's Day Wish
Today has been pretty rainy here in Gainesville...it seems to have abated at least for a while at this mid-afternoon writing. Maybe next week will be a better time for one of my long neighborhood runs. I'd like to take this moment to wish for all a Happy Mother's Day and that you all are safe. Until tomorrow...
Saturday, May 9, 2020
Ahmaud Arbery, a Young Black Man in America Just Going Out on a Jog
I like to jog, something that you already know if you've read this blog...or just skimmed over the article titles. When I run, I use as my primary routes my own subdivision, along with the neighboring one, running past scores of houses...although when on extraordinarily long runs I've been known to extend them further out into other neighborhoods. I prefer the residential streets because the traffic is much lighter than along a main thoroughfare...and quite frankly I'm not a big fan of running on sidewalks. But while I am very familiar with my own neighborhood, I am still wary of ever going on nighttime runs, and for one reason alone: I'm not one hundred percent sure that there isn't among the residents one or more gun-owning crazy, paranoid persons who might be liable to shoot me, seeing me as a running person in the darkness fleeing a crime. Maybe that sounds paranoid coming from an aging, frumpy-looking white dude as myself, but if you're a black man in this country...especially the South, that's a principal of personal survival. But apparently now, it doesn't have to be in the night...in February Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year old black man, was simply jogging down a road in plain daylight in a suburb of Brunswick, Georgia, when he was pursued, stopped, struggled with...and then repeatedly shot to death by a white father and son, Gregory and Travis McMichael, who had noticed him while driving their pickup truck around. The father was a retired county police officer, and this fact seemed to affect the case as the prosecutor felt the need to recuse herself...ultimately no charges were filed and the McMichaels' version, that they were looking into a number of burglaries in the area (apparently untrue), became essentially the police report. But a few days ago a lawyer who knew the McMichaels released a video made of the incident...and the case exploded onto the national stage. Now the McMichaels are being charged with murder...a case that has "Trayvon Martin" and race-tinged vigilante violence stamped all over it. I'm sure as this case develops we'll learn more from it, but it grieves me to no end about the fact that in my country someone can't freely engage themselves in a public setting without being profiled, harassed, and becoming subjected to the violent whims of others, while the justice system seems to work against them at every turn. And it's not just blacks suffering this treatment: look just recently at the public harassment of people from eastern Asian backgrounds as they become scapegoated for the coronavirus pandemic by ignorant, bigoted jerks...
Friday, May 8, 2020
Quote of the Week...from Barry Farber
There is no reward in life without risk. ---Barry Farber
Barry Farber...not the motivational expert but rather the older radio talk show host...died Wednesday at the age of 90...reminding me of the passing of Don Shula at the same age just days before. In the early-to-mid 1970s I used to listen to his shows, which originated on New York City's WOR and were replayed later on Miami Beach's WKAT/1360 "The Talk of Miami", along with Jean Shepherd's monologue program from WOR. Farber was an independent-thinking conservative who was well-versed in international affairs and history and staunchly anti-communist. Since his youth he had a strong interest in foreign languages, teaching himself several to varying degrees of proficiency...reminds me a little of myself in that regard. Barry stood out with his distinctly North Carolinian southern accent and, unlike the talk show hosts of today, about whom he complained of using the forum to extend their own egos, preferred to place himself in the background and allow his guests to express themselves openly. He didn't stack up his show only with people in alignment with his own political views, either...Farber loved rigorous on-the-air debate. As for the above quote, I happen to agree with it but since Farber's heyday in the business was before the digital age, I'm afraid much of what he had to say has gone by the wayside, so to speak...otherwise I might have a greater selection of quotes to choose from. As for learning foreign languages, I know it takes a great amount of humility to try to communicate with others when you already know you're probably going to sound pretty silly as you make one mistake after another...that's a sort of risk as well, to your own ego. But Barry Farber knew that the reward was worth it, and he always came across to me as a class act, respectful of others but at the same time confident enough to assert himself when needed. And he loved studying history and languages, just like me...
Barry Farber...not the motivational expert but rather the older radio talk show host...died Wednesday at the age of 90...reminding me of the passing of Don Shula at the same age just days before. In the early-to-mid 1970s I used to listen to his shows, which originated on New York City's WOR and were replayed later on Miami Beach's WKAT/1360 "The Talk of Miami", along with Jean Shepherd's monologue program from WOR. Farber was an independent-thinking conservative who was well-versed in international affairs and history and staunchly anti-communist. Since his youth he had a strong interest in foreign languages, teaching himself several to varying degrees of proficiency...reminds me a little of myself in that regard. Barry stood out with his distinctly North Carolinian southern accent and, unlike the talk show hosts of today, about whom he complained of using the forum to extend their own egos, preferred to place himself in the background and allow his guests to express themselves openly. He didn't stack up his show only with people in alignment with his own political views, either...Farber loved rigorous on-the-air debate. As for the above quote, I happen to agree with it but since Farber's heyday in the business was before the digital age, I'm afraid much of what he had to say has gone by the wayside, so to speak...otherwise I might have a greater selection of quotes to choose from. As for learning foreign languages, I know it takes a great amount of humility to try to communicate with others when you already know you're probably going to sound pretty silly as you make one mistake after another...that's a sort of risk as well, to your own ego. But Barry Farber knew that the reward was worth it, and he always came across to me as a class act, respectful of others but at the same time confident enough to assert himself when needed. And he loved studying history and languages, just like me...
Thursday, May 7, 2020
More (Ugh) Commentary About COVID-19
A few weeks ago I mentioned what New York's governor Cuomo flatly stated himself: the social distancing and shutdowns were for one aim: to ensure the availability of ventilators...along with the necessary hospitalization beds and staffing...when the virus outbreak spikes. We were "flattening the curve" to give the health care professionals the capacity to treat anyone with serious complications from COVID-19. But now it is no longer spiking at its former exponential rate and NY is lending its own ventilators to other states. Dr. Fauci, also a few weeks ago, had predicted that most Americans would eventually be exposed to the coronavirus and reflected what Cuomo had said about the need to ensure enough ventilators during the ongoing spike...hence the restrictive measures. The coronavirus is already all around us...like the Matrix in that movie series where everything breaks down to microscopic zeros and ones, it is unseen to the unaided eye. It hides within as many as half of those afflicted with it without any symptoms but is still extremely contagious for anyone unfortunate to come in contact with its carriers...or breathe the air they just exhaled. Reopening the society will in all likelihood ramp up the infection rate...it's not going away anytime soon, maybe never. But hopefully...and the news media has stopped reporting on it as if it is no longer a priority...they are still working hard on producing more life-sustaining-and saving ventilators should their need sadly sharply rise again. I've stated before that reopening the economy will be a divisive subject, and it seems as if the two political parties...along with their followers among the populace...are regrettably dividing down their respective reds and blues on which strategies to take. I'm still trying to follow the various distancing, mask-wearing and hygiene protocols and will continue along this line into the indefinite future: I don't have a personal "deadline" for ending this like some others apparently do...
Another observation about the pandemic: if you watch TV or go on one of the updated tally Internet sites, they emphasize total infections in different places along with the deaths. Although the online charts usually mention the totals of those who are listed as "recovered" in some places, it looks as if other places aren't reporting this statistic that I think is crucial. And CNN totally ignores recovered figures, making me wonder what the follow-up protocol is with all those who have tested positive...do they just let them go home and self-quarantine and then forget them unless they show up at the hospital with serious symptoms, or do they perform tests on them later on to see whether they recovered? The death totals will always increase...when the dead start returning to life on Earth let me know. And the total infected will likewise always increase...that is, unless you subtract from them the number of recovered cases. And aren't the net totals of those currently afflicted what people want to know?
Does intensity of initial exposure affect the degree of severity of illness? While acknowledging that every virus is different, armies in the past used to infect their own soldiers with small amounts of smallpox in order for them to achieve immunity from a possible future full attack...most became slightly ill for a few days and recovered, although a few did die. Does getting repeatedly blasted with COVID-19 in large concentrations...as opposed to picking it up once in a setting where the virus isn't in numerous amounts...make the progression of the disease in the body more harmful? And as far as immunity after you've had it is concerned...or the notion that a future vaccine is even possible...scientists are unwilling to be affirmative in either regard. But people shouldn't automatically take this negatively since if something hasn't been shown scientifically to be true, then scientists will, by the nature of their craft, refuse to categorically confirm it. One ominous sign, though, is that this particular strain seems to have already mutated into two different forms...
And finally, as I have stated before, I believe that the raw figures of confirmed coronavirus cases are misleading and should be replaced by updated results of randomized statistical testing covering different states and regions...the latter would in all likelihood demonstrate both a much larger prevalence of COVID-19 among the general population while at the same time point out hot spots where the illness seems to have a much higher presence...
Another observation about the pandemic: if you watch TV or go on one of the updated tally Internet sites, they emphasize total infections in different places along with the deaths. Although the online charts usually mention the totals of those who are listed as "recovered" in some places, it looks as if other places aren't reporting this statistic that I think is crucial. And CNN totally ignores recovered figures, making me wonder what the follow-up protocol is with all those who have tested positive...do they just let them go home and self-quarantine and then forget them unless they show up at the hospital with serious symptoms, or do they perform tests on them later on to see whether they recovered? The death totals will always increase...when the dead start returning to life on Earth let me know. And the total infected will likewise always increase...that is, unless you subtract from them the number of recovered cases. And aren't the net totals of those currently afflicted what people want to know?
Does intensity of initial exposure affect the degree of severity of illness? While acknowledging that every virus is different, armies in the past used to infect their own soldiers with small amounts of smallpox in order for them to achieve immunity from a possible future full attack...most became slightly ill for a few days and recovered, although a few did die. Does getting repeatedly blasted with COVID-19 in large concentrations...as opposed to picking it up once in a setting where the virus isn't in numerous amounts...make the progression of the disease in the body more harmful? And as far as immunity after you've had it is concerned...or the notion that a future vaccine is even possible...scientists are unwilling to be affirmative in either regard. But people shouldn't automatically take this negatively since if something hasn't been shown scientifically to be true, then scientists will, by the nature of their craft, refuse to categorically confirm it. One ominous sign, though, is that this particular strain seems to have already mutated into two different forms...
And finally, as I have stated before, I believe that the raw figures of confirmed coronavirus cases are misleading and should be replaced by updated results of randomized statistical testing covering different states and regions...the latter would in all likelihood demonstrate both a much larger prevalence of COVID-19 among the general population while at the same time point out hot spots where the illness seems to have a much higher presence...
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Weekly Short Stories: 1958 Science Fiction, Part 1
Today I begin looking at the 1958 science fiction short stories appearing in the "year's best" anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 20 (1958). I have to admit up front that none of the book's first four stories that I'm discussing today remotely qualify as favorites of mine...then again, they weren't bad, either, and most contained a strong element of humor that gave them some added appeal. Here they are...
THE LAST OF THE DELIVERERS by Poul Anderson
Like Clifford Simak's novel City from a few years earlier, this story delves into the notion that society will progressively become more ruralized and decentralized with the big cities eventually abandoned in favor of a more small-town and traditional lifestyle. Anderson doesn't take it as far as Simak, who foresaw people isolating themselves from each other on large estates, served by robots. No, this is more like a Ray Bradbury small town as Jim, an elderly citizen who bemoans the retreat from large-scale capitalism, bitterly argues with Miller, another old-timer equally convinced that communism was the way for society's advancement. Meanwhile, the townspeople confound and anger both men with their contentment and what seems like a lack of motivation. Here is a clever argument for our future...that is, until you read the last paragraph...
THE FEELING OF POWER by Isaac Asimov
Off in the distant future an extensive space war using advanced computers...designed and built by other computers... is being carried out to a stalemate. A low-level engineer discovers a breakthrough around the computers when he demonstrates how to multiply numbers on paper...a long forgotten art. You know, it might seem preposterous to see people completely floored by somebody's ability to mentally multiply 9 times 7 and come up with 63...at least it would back in 1958 when this story was first published. Nowadays, though...with our so-called "smart" phones and advanced computing it seems that Asimov was able to look ahead to society's dumbing-down as digital technology increasingly supplanted people's formerly required thinking and education. A little scary, although this story was very funny...
POOR LITTLE WARRIOR! by Brian Aldiss
A loser from the future signs up with a company that offers hunting expeditions into the distant past...you know this story is going to end badly when the inept and insecure "hunter" decides to take on a brontosaurus. Then again, I thought the protagonist was such a jerk that maybe the ending wasn't so bad...it would be good as a Twilight Zone episode, albeit with some editing to make it a little less gruesome on broadcast TV. Another time-travel yarn...or should I say "yawn" as I'm tired of reading about this common sci-fi theme...
THE IRON CHANCELLOR by Robert Silverberg
Robot servants are featured in many futuristic twentieth century sci-fi stories...the idea of responsive, interactive and mobile labor-saving devices had a great appeal back then as the idea of the "good life" to many meant just sitting back and letting somebody (or something) else do all the work for them...with many this hasn't changed even today ("Alexa, turn on the lights"). In this story a man buys for his family's household the latest model of food-preparation robots, one that calculates the different family members' optimum weights and prepares their diets accordingly...very soon all of them, overweight to begin with, regret the change and want back Jemima, their old robot cook. Unfortunately, the new addition to the family has different ideas...
Next week I'll continue looking at old science fiction short stories from 1958...
THE LAST OF THE DELIVERERS by Poul Anderson
Like Clifford Simak's novel City from a few years earlier, this story delves into the notion that society will progressively become more ruralized and decentralized with the big cities eventually abandoned in favor of a more small-town and traditional lifestyle. Anderson doesn't take it as far as Simak, who foresaw people isolating themselves from each other on large estates, served by robots. No, this is more like a Ray Bradbury small town as Jim, an elderly citizen who bemoans the retreat from large-scale capitalism, bitterly argues with Miller, another old-timer equally convinced that communism was the way for society's advancement. Meanwhile, the townspeople confound and anger both men with their contentment and what seems like a lack of motivation. Here is a clever argument for our future...that is, until you read the last paragraph...
THE FEELING OF POWER by Isaac Asimov
Off in the distant future an extensive space war using advanced computers...designed and built by other computers... is being carried out to a stalemate. A low-level engineer discovers a breakthrough around the computers when he demonstrates how to multiply numbers on paper...a long forgotten art. You know, it might seem preposterous to see people completely floored by somebody's ability to mentally multiply 9 times 7 and come up with 63...at least it would back in 1958 when this story was first published. Nowadays, though...with our so-called "smart" phones and advanced computing it seems that Asimov was able to look ahead to society's dumbing-down as digital technology increasingly supplanted people's formerly required thinking and education. A little scary, although this story was very funny...
POOR LITTLE WARRIOR! by Brian Aldiss
A loser from the future signs up with a company that offers hunting expeditions into the distant past...you know this story is going to end badly when the inept and insecure "hunter" decides to take on a brontosaurus. Then again, I thought the protagonist was such a jerk that maybe the ending wasn't so bad...it would be good as a Twilight Zone episode, albeit with some editing to make it a little less gruesome on broadcast TV. Another time-travel yarn...or should I say "yawn" as I'm tired of reading about this common sci-fi theme...
THE IRON CHANCELLOR by Robert Silverberg
Robot servants are featured in many futuristic twentieth century sci-fi stories...the idea of responsive, interactive and mobile labor-saving devices had a great appeal back then as the idea of the "good life" to many meant just sitting back and letting somebody (or something) else do all the work for them...with many this hasn't changed even today ("Alexa, turn on the lights"). In this story a man buys for his family's household the latest model of food-preparation robots, one that calculates the different family members' optimum weights and prepares their diets accordingly...very soon all of them, overweight to begin with, regret the change and want back Jemima, their old robot cook. Unfortunately, the new addition to the family has different ideas...
Next week I'll continue looking at old science fiction short stories from 1958...
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
NFL Coaching Great Don Shula, 1930-2020
Don Shula, the Hall of Fame coach of the National Football League's Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins, died yesterday at the age of 90. During the late 1960s my mother was a big Colts fan...I think mainly because she was an even bigger Johnny Unitas fan...and I found myself from 1967 through 1969 rooting for Baltimore along with her. But my number one team, starting with the 1968 season when they were in their third year of existence as an expansion American Football League franchise, was the Miami Dolphins...the fact that I suffered along with them during a couple of their early losing seasons only intensified my pleasure when Baltimore's head coach Don Shula jumped ship to join the Dolphins in 1970. Shula always tailored his coaching emphasis to his players' strengths...with the Colts it was the wide open passing attack of Unitas, while with Miami he used their excellent offensive line to develop a ball control running attack with stars like Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Mercury Morris while Bob Griese did an excellent job as a game managing quarterback, mixing up short passes and occasional bombs. It was interesting that under Shula during the 1968 regular season, Unitas was injured early on and backup QB Earl Morrall brought the team to an unprecedented (for them) 13-1 regular season and into their first Super Bowl, against the New York Jets. Living at the time near Miami where the Super Bowl was being held, although the stadium was completely sold out the NFL still imposed a television blackout on the area, preventing me from watching the game. Since I was rooting for the Colts, it was probably just as well as the Jets, always Miami's divisional rival, pulled off one of the biggest upsets in football history. As for Morrall, Shula later brought him over to Miami as Griese's backup, and like in '68, in early 1972 the starter got injured and Morrall stepped in, this time leading the team to its glorious undefeated regular season. Griese returned to the helm against the Steelers in the playoffs and the team won its first of two straight Super Bowls...
Because Don Shula always presented a competitive team...in his 33 years as an NFL head coach his teams experienced only two losing seasons (winning a respectable six games in each of them)...this noble refusal to ever tank in order to get a high draft pick always placed the Dolphins at a disadvantage. But although they wouldn't win another Super Bowl under Shula after their two wins in the early 70s, I was always very proud of this team as they usually put on very entertaining performances with many of the great games in NFL history involving them...sometimes they won these classics and sometimes not. My favorite memory was seeing them knock off the dominant, thoroughly arrogant Chicago Bears 38-24 in 1985, preventing them from going undefeated...to me that was almost as good as winning the Super Bowl! Unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), in the early 1980s the Dolphins had a tenacious defense and questionable offense while after Dan Marino took over at quarterback the offense took off while the defense slid. Oh, if only they had the defense that got them into the Super Bowl during the '82 season AND the offense that carried them there two years later! All this took place under the leadership of a great coach, Don Shula...I'll miss him as will many of my fellow South Floridians from that era, whether we still live down there or not...
Because Don Shula always presented a competitive team...in his 33 years as an NFL head coach his teams experienced only two losing seasons (winning a respectable six games in each of them)...this noble refusal to ever tank in order to get a high draft pick always placed the Dolphins at a disadvantage. But although they wouldn't win another Super Bowl under Shula after their two wins in the early 70s, I was always very proud of this team as they usually put on very entertaining performances with many of the great games in NFL history involving them...sometimes they won these classics and sometimes not. My favorite memory was seeing them knock off the dominant, thoroughly arrogant Chicago Bears 38-24 in 1985, preventing them from going undefeated...to me that was almost as good as winning the Super Bowl! Unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), in the early 1980s the Dolphins had a tenacious defense and questionable offense while after Dan Marino took over at quarterback the offense took off while the defense slid. Oh, if only they had the defense that got them into the Super Bowl during the '82 season AND the offense that carried them there two years later! All this took place under the leadership of a great coach, Don Shula...I'll miss him as will many of my fellow South Floridians from that era, whether we still live down there or not...
Monday, May 4, 2020
My 500 All-Time Favorite Songs: #140-131
It's Monday again and time for ten more songs from my list of 500 all-time personal favorites. Like last week's, these span several decades...which only makes sense because, well, I'm several decades old! You probably know some of the songs, but for the ones you don't why not give them a try...and watch the video of the one I recommended. Here they are...
140 FACE POLLUTION...Soundgarden
This track from Soundgarden...my all-time favorite grunge band...is from their 1991 album Badmotorfinger, but I didn't hear it until 1995 when I picked up on their sensational Superunknown, one of the all-time greatest albums ever, and decided to look into some of their earlier works. Face Pollution, featuring the band's talented bluesy, intense singer Chris Cornell, is a hard-driving rock piece, my favorite off the album...I really got into it in the year 1999, deeming it one of my favorites of that year as I lived through it. Sadly, Cornell is no longer with us, what a loss...
139 WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO?...the Supremes
This song was the Supremes' debut singles hit in 1964...later their success and durability on the pop charts would earn them multiple appearances on the Ed Sullivan show. There were a lot of successful female singing groups back then, but the Supremes reigned "supreme" over them all with the extraordinary lead singing of Diana Ross and the choral accompaniment of Mary Wilson and Flo Ballard. This was my all-time second favorite Supremes song...my favorite, much higher on this list, has an ironic twist to it...but I'll save that until later...
138 LET ME IN...R.E.M.
Drowned in a wall of guitar sound, this 1994 track from R.E.M.'s Monster album was perhaps the saddest song ever produced by this band already well-known for its sad songs. That's not surprising, since it is an agonized tribute to Nirvana's late front man Kurt Cobain who had killed himself just months before, and whom R.E.M. lyricist and singer Michael Stipe had personally befriended...listen to the words yourself and see if they don't tear you apart: "He gathered up his loved ones around him to say good-bye, nice try"...Let Me In was my favorite song of 1994 as I lived through it, but be warned: it is a severe tearjerker...
137 DON'T STAND SO CLOSE TO ME...the Police
This was the song, from this British/American rock/reggae band's 1981 third album Zenyatta Mondatta, that turned my attention in their direction...I eventually bought the album and have been an ardent fan since. The lyrics speak of temptation and scandal as singer Sting dons his former professional role as a high school teacher, here susceptible to one of his student's charms...hence the title. Of course, in these pandemic times it also serves as an anthem for social distancing, doesn't it? But I came to love it for the brilliant musical arrangement and melody...and that unmistakable blend of reggae into rock that only the Police could pull off as well as they did...
136 YOU...George Harrison
When this single heralding the release of Harrison's 1976 album Extra Texture came out back then, I was happy to see the former Beatle was making a comeback with some really good music...I loved this simple love song with its positive vibes and awesome saxophone. It turned out, though, that although the album's other material was fine as far as I was concerned, You was actually a rejected outtake from 1971 when George was riding high in popularity following the release of his celebrated All Things Must Pass "triple" album. Extra Texture wasn't much of a success after the initial hype wore off, but You was from an earlier era of musical creativity in Harrison's life when there seemed to be nothing holding him back...
135 HERE TO STAY...Korn
Warning: this is a brutal, in-your-face, angry song with a lot of dissonance and heavy metal intonations. The singer bemoans just about everything currently going on around him...a sign of the stressful times back in 2002 when it came out post-9/11 as terror plots were being seen everywhere...remember the Beltway sniper?...and the drums of war were beating increasingly louder. Somehow, though, within this song's harshness there is an expression of exquisite artistry...Korn brought it all together and I deemed it then as my "song of the year". My favorite part is toward the end when singer Jonathan Davis chants "Bring it down!" to a heavy metal crescendo...
134 BOTH SIDES NOW...Judy Collins
This Joni Mitchell song was beautifully covered by Judy Collins in 1968, giving her the biggest hit of her career...I was okay with it back then but as the years went by I was able to see it from "both sides" and realized the perfect combination of deep, philosophical lyrics dealing with maturity and insight and a wonderful melody sung with such compelling emotion. A real masterpiece of the times: "But now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads, they say I've changed"...this line literally happened to me personally when a old friend turned on me way back even before this song came out...the saddest part is that he died so prematurely more than two decades ago...
133 HALF A WORLD AWAY...R.E.M.
The second R.E.M. song on today's segment, Half a World Away is a deep track appearing on the Athens, Georgia-based band's breakthrough 1990 Out of Time album. Like the album's more famous singles release Losing My Religion, it features guitarist Peter Buck switching to the mandolin to accompany Michael Stipe's wistful wailing about...well, being half a world away and having to go it alone. The story I picked up from the Web is that Buck was actually just learning to play the mandolin for use on this album and that the riff for this song just popped into his head...pretty cool, huh?
132 REPTILIA...the Strokes
I'd already become a Strokes fan in 2004 after hearing their hit 12:51 being played a lot on my local alternative rock radio station, but then Reptilia...from the same album Room on Fire...came out with the band's three guitars dominating this song along with Julian Casablancas' expressive singing. Although Reptilia stands well on its own, you have to watch their official video of it, one of the greatest performance videos ever made and one that portrays the band...along with their guitar and drum playing...up close as no one has done before or since: I could watch videos like this endlessly...
131 I GOT A NAME...Jim Croce
By the summer of 1973, Jim Croce to me had come across as a folksy working-class kind of pop star with his brawl-themed singles hits You Don't Mess Around with Jim and Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. But just as I Got a Name was being released in September 1973, Croce tragically perished in a Louisiana plane crash. This much more serious and thoughtful song immortalized his name in the minds of many...including myself...and in subsequent months the breadth of his creativity, both with his lyrics and his music, would make a lasting impression on me. Maybe it seems pretty self-evident, but I'll say it anyway: I Got a Name is a positive song about asserting your own sense of identity and taking responsibility for your own life...
Next week: #130-121...
140 FACE POLLUTION...Soundgarden
This track from Soundgarden...my all-time favorite grunge band...is from their 1991 album Badmotorfinger, but I didn't hear it until 1995 when I picked up on their sensational Superunknown, one of the all-time greatest albums ever, and decided to look into some of their earlier works. Face Pollution, featuring the band's talented bluesy, intense singer Chris Cornell, is a hard-driving rock piece, my favorite off the album...I really got into it in the year 1999, deeming it one of my favorites of that year as I lived through it. Sadly, Cornell is no longer with us, what a loss...
139 WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO?...the Supremes
This song was the Supremes' debut singles hit in 1964...later their success and durability on the pop charts would earn them multiple appearances on the Ed Sullivan show. There were a lot of successful female singing groups back then, but the Supremes reigned "supreme" over them all with the extraordinary lead singing of Diana Ross and the choral accompaniment of Mary Wilson and Flo Ballard. This was my all-time second favorite Supremes song...my favorite, much higher on this list, has an ironic twist to it...but I'll save that until later...
138 LET ME IN...R.E.M.
Drowned in a wall of guitar sound, this 1994 track from R.E.M.'s Monster album was perhaps the saddest song ever produced by this band already well-known for its sad songs. That's not surprising, since it is an agonized tribute to Nirvana's late front man Kurt Cobain who had killed himself just months before, and whom R.E.M. lyricist and singer Michael Stipe had personally befriended...listen to the words yourself and see if they don't tear you apart: "He gathered up his loved ones around him to say good-bye, nice try"...Let Me In was my favorite song of 1994 as I lived through it, but be warned: it is a severe tearjerker...
137 DON'T STAND SO CLOSE TO ME...the Police
This was the song, from this British/American rock/reggae band's 1981 third album Zenyatta Mondatta, that turned my attention in their direction...I eventually bought the album and have been an ardent fan since. The lyrics speak of temptation and scandal as singer Sting dons his former professional role as a high school teacher, here susceptible to one of his student's charms...hence the title. Of course, in these pandemic times it also serves as an anthem for social distancing, doesn't it? But I came to love it for the brilliant musical arrangement and melody...and that unmistakable blend of reggae into rock that only the Police could pull off as well as they did...
136 YOU...George Harrison
When this single heralding the release of Harrison's 1976 album Extra Texture came out back then, I was happy to see the former Beatle was making a comeback with some really good music...I loved this simple love song with its positive vibes and awesome saxophone. It turned out, though, that although the album's other material was fine as far as I was concerned, You was actually a rejected outtake from 1971 when George was riding high in popularity following the release of his celebrated All Things Must Pass "triple" album. Extra Texture wasn't much of a success after the initial hype wore off, but You was from an earlier era of musical creativity in Harrison's life when there seemed to be nothing holding him back...
135 HERE TO STAY...Korn
Warning: this is a brutal, in-your-face, angry song with a lot of dissonance and heavy metal intonations. The singer bemoans just about everything currently going on around him...a sign of the stressful times back in 2002 when it came out post-9/11 as terror plots were being seen everywhere...remember the Beltway sniper?...and the drums of war were beating increasingly louder. Somehow, though, within this song's harshness there is an expression of exquisite artistry...Korn brought it all together and I deemed it then as my "song of the year". My favorite part is toward the end when singer Jonathan Davis chants "Bring it down!" to a heavy metal crescendo...
134 BOTH SIDES NOW...Judy Collins
This Joni Mitchell song was beautifully covered by Judy Collins in 1968, giving her the biggest hit of her career...I was okay with it back then but as the years went by I was able to see it from "both sides" and realized the perfect combination of deep, philosophical lyrics dealing with maturity and insight and a wonderful melody sung with such compelling emotion. A real masterpiece of the times: "But now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads, they say I've changed"...this line literally happened to me personally when a old friend turned on me way back even before this song came out...the saddest part is that he died so prematurely more than two decades ago...
133 HALF A WORLD AWAY...R.E.M.
The second R.E.M. song on today's segment, Half a World Away is a deep track appearing on the Athens, Georgia-based band's breakthrough 1990 Out of Time album. Like the album's more famous singles release Losing My Religion, it features guitarist Peter Buck switching to the mandolin to accompany Michael Stipe's wistful wailing about...well, being half a world away and having to go it alone. The story I picked up from the Web is that Buck was actually just learning to play the mandolin for use on this album and that the riff for this song just popped into his head...pretty cool, huh?
132 REPTILIA...the Strokes
I'd already become a Strokes fan in 2004 after hearing their hit 12:51 being played a lot on my local alternative rock radio station, but then Reptilia...from the same album Room on Fire...came out with the band's three guitars dominating this song along with Julian Casablancas' expressive singing. Although Reptilia stands well on its own, you have to watch their official video of it, one of the greatest performance videos ever made and one that portrays the band...along with their guitar and drum playing...up close as no one has done before or since: I could watch videos like this endlessly...
131 I GOT A NAME...Jim Croce
By the summer of 1973, Jim Croce to me had come across as a folksy working-class kind of pop star with his brawl-themed singles hits You Don't Mess Around with Jim and Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. But just as I Got a Name was being released in September 1973, Croce tragically perished in a Louisiana plane crash. This much more serious and thoughtful song immortalized his name in the minds of many...including myself...and in subsequent months the breadth of his creativity, both with his lyrics and his music, would make a lasting impression on me. Maybe it seems pretty self-evident, but I'll say it anyway: I Got a Name is a positive song about asserting your own sense of identity and taking responsibility for your own life...
Next week: #130-121...
Sunday, May 3, 2020
13.5 Mile Run Today Under Relentlessly Sunny Sky
This afternoon I went on my long weekend run with the aim of duplicating my success of April 11th when I covered 13.3 miles. I managed 13.5 miles under a relentlessly sunny sky although the temperature was moderate between 79 and 83 degrees while the humidity hovered around 51%. This week I was careful to eat plenty of carbs the day before, pre-hydrate and not run as fast a pace as I did last week. At the end of the run I was still pretty tired, though...but my recovery afterwards seems to be going fine. I tweaked my running course to add a section of NW 37th Street off NW 53rd Avenue...I used to run down it on my long distance training runs back in 2010-11. But after finishing this run today, I feel I need to reconsider my goal of progressively longer distances...especially knowing that with the progression of spring into summer here in northern Florida the temperatures will inevitably climb into the 90s. So, happy that I was able to cover two half-marathons in each of April and May, I think that at least for the foreseeable future I'll cut the distance on these weekend long runs to something more manageable, like 7-10 miles. As far as the people I encountered along the way, they were few and far between, in curious contrast to last Sunday's run when everyone seemed out and about...the weather conditions seemed about the same, go figure. I much prefer overcast skies on my running outings and not having a cloud in the sky...something many others probably love...made me want to go inside and draw my curtains closed. Well, I'm now inside with the curtains drawn and the air-conditioning going full blast...and the coffee pot has just finished brewing. Now to enjoy the rest of my day off...
Saturday, May 2, 2020
Just Finished Reading Missing Person by Sarah Lotz
I follow Stephen King on Twitter...there are pros and cons to this as the great popular fiction author of our time tends to get a bit sidetracked railing against Trump. I'm more interested in his take on the world of literature, and sometimes he recommends books he has just read. Sarah Lotz's 2019 thriller novel Missing Person is one of these that he has recently extolled, so I managed to check it out online from my library and just finished reading it. Here are my reactions...
A killer in their midst...this is revealed up front as an online group of amateurs investigating unidentified dead across the country focus on a murder victim in Minnesota, while in a separate story Sean, a young gay man in Ireland, searches for his uncle, which his relatives had shunned and claimed had dies years before but in fact had emigrated to America. Where is Uncle Ted...and the online sleuths have their own mystery, about the Boy in the Dress: who is he? Connecting both stories is the murderer, who has infiltrated the group in order to keep up with their progress. It's suspenseful and revealing as the investigators have their own personal lives and stories...as well as Sean and the killer: Lotz alternately presents their different perspectives on the developing story their lives begin to converge toward an inevitable climax at the end. And that ending isn't what I expected, usually a plus. I agree with Stephen King that this was a good story...very impressive character development as well as a sense of empathy on the author's part as to their personalities and motivations. Go see if you agree with me. By the way, King has just come out with a book of novellas titled If It Bleeds and I checked it out as well, in the process of reading story #1, titled Mr. Harrigan's Phone...
A killer in their midst...this is revealed up front as an online group of amateurs investigating unidentified dead across the country focus on a murder victim in Minnesota, while in a separate story Sean, a young gay man in Ireland, searches for his uncle, which his relatives had shunned and claimed had dies years before but in fact had emigrated to America. Where is Uncle Ted...and the online sleuths have their own mystery, about the Boy in the Dress: who is he? Connecting both stories is the murderer, who has infiltrated the group in order to keep up with their progress. It's suspenseful and revealing as the investigators have their own personal lives and stories...as well as Sean and the killer: Lotz alternately presents their different perspectives on the developing story their lives begin to converge toward an inevitable climax at the end. And that ending isn't what I expected, usually a plus. I agree with Stephen King that this was a good story...very impressive character development as well as a sense of empathy on the author's part as to their personalities and motivations. Go see if you agree with me. By the way, King has just come out with a book of novellas titled If It Bleeds and I checked it out as well, in the process of reading story #1, titled Mr. Harrigan's Phone...
Friday, May 1, 2020
Quote of the Week...from Noreena Hertz
All of us show bias when it comes to what information we take in. We typically focus on anything that agrees with the outcome we want. ...Noreena Hertz
Noreena Hertz is an English economist, whose main claim as far as I'm concerned is that she delivered the above totally spot-on quote. There are different types of bias, and maybe someday I'll go into some of them. The bias I'm focusing on today is the kind displayed in media...particularly on cable news channels like CNN, FoxNews, NewsMax and MSNBC as their programming and hosts tend to take one side or another in the bipolar constant political battles ruling our lives during these divisive times. If you're on one side you probably don't see the bias that agrees with your worldview but quickly pick up on bias against it...Noreena Hertz clearly understands that principle. I don't claim to have a complete grasp about bias on these channels, but I came up with some examples...don't think I'm picking on one outlet over the others: I see bias on all of them. I'm not talking here about the "opinion" shows but rather the segments purporting to be news journalism. Here are some indicators of bias in news on these channels as I see it...
1) Selection of topics to favor one's own side and cast the other side in an unfavorable light. Conversely, they don't want to bring up issues that make the leaders they support possibly look bad. So what you often see is different channels factually discussing...all on their "news" shows...completely different issues: look for the agenda behind their topic decisions.
2) Twisting context of reported statements, either to promote or criticize. As a prime example of this, I look at our president, a man who speaks his ongoing thoughts out impulsively and comes up with a lot of statements that can be taken different ways. It's a balancing act dealing with people like this: you want to avoid both expanding his meaning into something he never intended and going through convolutions of logic trying to excuse his sloppiness. But you get both biases depending on the channel.
3) Most guests prop up host's assumptions and views. Although I've seen notable exceptions, the tendency is for a host to stack up a bunch of different guests, often in multiple split-screens, most of whom either echo or expand upon the "favored" position being discussed. Sometimes they'll get someone to sit in giving the "other" side's take, but they're still usually in the minority of guests present.
3) Softball questions to own side, "gotcha" questions to other side. A subset of "gotcha" questioning is using the problematic device of hindsight...almost always used selectively against one side...to put a leader on the spot in an interview. It's sometimes hard to know what will happen the next day, the world being essentially chaotic as it is, and many breaking news stories and issues before us are unprecedented. We all live and act in real time, not the past...I'm more concerned about what leaders are doing now, given the information they now have...than what they did or did not do in the past when they did not have that information. It's not biased to explain past events and the roles our leaders played in them, good or bad, but conducting interviews with the main aim of making the one being questioned squirm is inherently biased.
4) Biased body language. The tendency for program hosts to "look" through the screen at the viewer with expressions intended to imply that "we" are all of the same political orientation. Head nodding, throat clearing, expression of feigned shock...these are all evidence of bias.
5) Allowing guests supporting their own side to ramble on conjecturally without any reality check while continually interrupting those opposing it. It's really interesting to watch when a host has a "supporting" guest, followed by one they oppose...and then watch the host's demeanor and conduct toward them drastically change.
6) Emphasizing personalities of leaders rather than their policies. It's easy to exalt your own guy as the epitome of a leader with a sterling character, intelligence and virtue while those on the other side are villains, people to personally ridicule or vilify. But if you're doing this because of what side they're on, then you are being biased. A prime example of this is pointing out when a politician slurs his or her own words as a sign of mental impairment or intoxication but ignoring the same coming from someone on the "favored" side.
7) Mixing openly-opinionated shows on the channel's schedule lineup with standard news shows. A viewer may tune in to a particular channel to watch the news, which if they're not alert may smoothly segue into a sharply opinionated show: if not careful they might treat the second as a regular news show, too.
8) Hosts refusing to admit up front their own personal biases and claiming to be completely fair and neutral. I wonder sometimes whether they actually believe their own words in this regard after watching their biased conduct.
In listing the above I could have given specific examples from different channels...but I'm afraid that how you read them ultimately comes down to your own personal biases. More likely than not, a FoxNews viewer will see my examples expressed on CNN or MSNBC while one of those channels' adherents probably defines FoxNews as bias defined. I wish people could stick with their own political orientations while being discerning and honest about the way news is presented and discussed on TV and how they receive it as viewers. But alas, I sadly think economist Hertz had it right with her quote...
Noreena Hertz is an English economist, whose main claim as far as I'm concerned is that she delivered the above totally spot-on quote. There are different types of bias, and maybe someday I'll go into some of them. The bias I'm focusing on today is the kind displayed in media...particularly on cable news channels like CNN, FoxNews, NewsMax and MSNBC as their programming and hosts tend to take one side or another in the bipolar constant political battles ruling our lives during these divisive times. If you're on one side you probably don't see the bias that agrees with your worldview but quickly pick up on bias against it...Noreena Hertz clearly understands that principle. I don't claim to have a complete grasp about bias on these channels, but I came up with some examples...don't think I'm picking on one outlet over the others: I see bias on all of them. I'm not talking here about the "opinion" shows but rather the segments purporting to be news journalism. Here are some indicators of bias in news on these channels as I see it...
1) Selection of topics to favor one's own side and cast the other side in an unfavorable light. Conversely, they don't want to bring up issues that make the leaders they support possibly look bad. So what you often see is different channels factually discussing...all on their "news" shows...completely different issues: look for the agenda behind their topic decisions.
2) Twisting context of reported statements, either to promote or criticize. As a prime example of this, I look at our president, a man who speaks his ongoing thoughts out impulsively and comes up with a lot of statements that can be taken different ways. It's a balancing act dealing with people like this: you want to avoid both expanding his meaning into something he never intended and going through convolutions of logic trying to excuse his sloppiness. But you get both biases depending on the channel.
3) Most guests prop up host's assumptions and views. Although I've seen notable exceptions, the tendency is for a host to stack up a bunch of different guests, often in multiple split-screens, most of whom either echo or expand upon the "favored" position being discussed. Sometimes they'll get someone to sit in giving the "other" side's take, but they're still usually in the minority of guests present.
3) Softball questions to own side, "gotcha" questions to other side. A subset of "gotcha" questioning is using the problematic device of hindsight...almost always used selectively against one side...to put a leader on the spot in an interview. It's sometimes hard to know what will happen the next day, the world being essentially chaotic as it is, and many breaking news stories and issues before us are unprecedented. We all live and act in real time, not the past...I'm more concerned about what leaders are doing now, given the information they now have...than what they did or did not do in the past when they did not have that information. It's not biased to explain past events and the roles our leaders played in them, good or bad, but conducting interviews with the main aim of making the one being questioned squirm is inherently biased.
4) Biased body language. The tendency for program hosts to "look" through the screen at the viewer with expressions intended to imply that "we" are all of the same political orientation. Head nodding, throat clearing, expression of feigned shock...these are all evidence of bias.
5) Allowing guests supporting their own side to ramble on conjecturally without any reality check while continually interrupting those opposing it. It's really interesting to watch when a host has a "supporting" guest, followed by one they oppose...and then watch the host's demeanor and conduct toward them drastically change.
6) Emphasizing personalities of leaders rather than their policies. It's easy to exalt your own guy as the epitome of a leader with a sterling character, intelligence and virtue while those on the other side are villains, people to personally ridicule or vilify. But if you're doing this because of what side they're on, then you are being biased. A prime example of this is pointing out when a politician slurs his or her own words as a sign of mental impairment or intoxication but ignoring the same coming from someone on the "favored" side.
7) Mixing openly-opinionated shows on the channel's schedule lineup with standard news shows. A viewer may tune in to a particular channel to watch the news, which if they're not alert may smoothly segue into a sharply opinionated show: if not careful they might treat the second as a regular news show, too.
8) Hosts refusing to admit up front their own personal biases and claiming to be completely fair and neutral. I wonder sometimes whether they actually believe their own words in this regard after watching their biased conduct.
In listing the above I could have given specific examples from different channels...but I'm afraid that how you read them ultimately comes down to your own personal biases. More likely than not, a FoxNews viewer will see my examples expressed on CNN or MSNBC while one of those channels' adherents probably defines FoxNews as bias defined. I wish people could stick with their own political orientations while being discerning and honest about the way news is presented and discussed on TV and how they receive it as viewers. But alas, I sadly think economist Hertz had it right with her quote...
Thursday, April 30, 2020
My April 2020 Running Report
April was a good month for me and my running. I ran for a total of 195 miles, missing no days in the process, and my longest single runs were 13.3 miles on April 11th and 11.1 on the 27th. Although the ongoing pandemic did not directly impact my running...as long as social distancing is maintained, individual outdoor activity is encouraged here in northern Florida...I believe that with the races I had intended to be running in and training for being canceled during these spring months, my emphasis in running has changed to building up my endurance for covering longer distances. So during the weekends when I'm off from work I try, weather permitting, to cover a ten-mile-plus distance...with walking breaks interspersed and drinking lots of Gatorade before, during and after the run. I also enjoy listening while running to my shuffle of MP3 songs...
I'm looking forward to once again being able to run in races, especially the longer distance ones. Hopefully they'll be able to hold some before the year ends...
I'm looking forward to once again being able to run in races, especially the longer distance ones. Hopefully they'll be able to hold some before the year ends...
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Weekly Short Stories: 1957 Science Fiction, Part 3
Today I finish my look at the year 1957 in science fiction short stories with the final five appearing in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 19 (1957). Of these, three have within them the theme of time travel, something that I've grown to find tedious reading about since the writer pretty much has a free hand to define it as he or she likes and it's way too easy to come up with "intriguing" paradoxes. Anyway, here are my reactions to these stories...
THE TUNESMITH by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
This, the longest story of today's selection, is a gloomy...but ultimately redemptive...look at our future and increasing corruption and the dumbing down of our popular culture. The music industry is monopolized by a collusive alliance between a dictatorial corporation, Visiscope, and the various musicians' trade unions and their restrictive rules for their members. A talented musician/composer who loves classical music, struggling against the powers-that-be, modestly supports himself and his wife by composing mindless commercial jingles, which have come to comprise popular music...but finds that the system is working against him as he tries to express himself creatively. I found this story, on one hand, to accurately foretell the decline in our musical culture, but on the other it really tore into organized labor, an institution that needs more support nowadays as collective bargaining seems under constant attack...
A LOINT OF PAW by Isaac Asimov
This mercifully brief story is an example of a spoonerism, that is a transposing of the initial consonant sounds in two words...you met what I gean, right? In this case a crook with a time machine forwards himself in time to just beyond the statute of limitations for his crime...the court then decides whether the legally-applicable passage of time defined by the statute refers to personally-experienced time, which was negligible, or "outside world" time...in which case the lawbreaker gets away free. The judge delivers the final line, a spoonerism that made me wonder why this story was selected for the anthology...unless maybe because its author was one of the editors...
GAME PRESERVE by Rog Phillips
This is a story where point of view changes the entire paradigm of what is going on. Among a society of forgetful, slow-witted giants living outside among the crumbling remains of a former advanced civilization lives a small boy called Elf...he is part of their society but believes that they don't understand him or why he remembers things they don't and has a general curiosity about his surroundings. Then the story pans over to a different vantage point and the scene suddenly turns into a dystopian horror story set many, generations into the future...it's all kind of heartbreaking...
SOLDIER by Harlan Ellison
A future soldier whose entire life was designed for fighting is in the midst of yet another World War...I think it's number seven...and the battleground is loaded with every type of horror imaginable (or beyond imagination). Suddenly a random confluence of energy strikes him and he finds himself zapped back into the present time (c. 1957) in the New York subway. Knowing only war, he reacts as only a soldier such as himself would be expected...the surprise is not only what happens next but also how the authorities decide to use him for the greatest good. To me this was the best of today's stories and Harlan Ellison was an extraordinary writer...more from him as the years move on...
THE LAST MAN LEFT IN THE BAR by Cyril Kornbluth
This story frustrated me to no end...a time traveler somehow picked up a far-off future religion's Seal in a time vortex and is now being pursued back into the present (again around 1957, naturally) where he finds himself sitting at a bar trying to figure out what to do. His pursuer Galardo finds him there and tells him he needs to return what he stole in order to avoid the Century of Flames...our hero is stubborn, though. What happens at the end makes no sense whatsoever...if it's any consolation to me, Isaac Asimov himself couldn't figure out what it meant either...so why did he and the anthology's other editor, Martin Greenberg, select it to be one of the year's best stories?
Next week I'll begin looking at science fiction short stories from 1958...
THE TUNESMITH by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
This, the longest story of today's selection, is a gloomy...but ultimately redemptive...look at our future and increasing corruption and the dumbing down of our popular culture. The music industry is monopolized by a collusive alliance between a dictatorial corporation, Visiscope, and the various musicians' trade unions and their restrictive rules for their members. A talented musician/composer who loves classical music, struggling against the powers-that-be, modestly supports himself and his wife by composing mindless commercial jingles, which have come to comprise popular music...but finds that the system is working against him as he tries to express himself creatively. I found this story, on one hand, to accurately foretell the decline in our musical culture, but on the other it really tore into organized labor, an institution that needs more support nowadays as collective bargaining seems under constant attack...
A LOINT OF PAW by Isaac Asimov
This mercifully brief story is an example of a spoonerism, that is a transposing of the initial consonant sounds in two words...you met what I gean, right? In this case a crook with a time machine forwards himself in time to just beyond the statute of limitations for his crime...the court then decides whether the legally-applicable passage of time defined by the statute refers to personally-experienced time, which was negligible, or "outside world" time...in which case the lawbreaker gets away free. The judge delivers the final line, a spoonerism that made me wonder why this story was selected for the anthology...unless maybe because its author was one of the editors...
GAME PRESERVE by Rog Phillips
This is a story where point of view changes the entire paradigm of what is going on. Among a society of forgetful, slow-witted giants living outside among the crumbling remains of a former advanced civilization lives a small boy called Elf...he is part of their society but believes that they don't understand him or why he remembers things they don't and has a general curiosity about his surroundings. Then the story pans over to a different vantage point and the scene suddenly turns into a dystopian horror story set many, generations into the future...it's all kind of heartbreaking...
SOLDIER by Harlan Ellison
A future soldier whose entire life was designed for fighting is in the midst of yet another World War...I think it's number seven...and the battleground is loaded with every type of horror imaginable (or beyond imagination). Suddenly a random confluence of energy strikes him and he finds himself zapped back into the present time (c. 1957) in the New York subway. Knowing only war, he reacts as only a soldier such as himself would be expected...the surprise is not only what happens next but also how the authorities decide to use him for the greatest good. To me this was the best of today's stories and Harlan Ellison was an extraordinary writer...more from him as the years move on...
THE LAST MAN LEFT IN THE BAR by Cyril Kornbluth
This story frustrated me to no end...a time traveler somehow picked up a far-off future religion's Seal in a time vortex and is now being pursued back into the present (again around 1957, naturally) where he finds himself sitting at a bar trying to figure out what to do. His pursuer Galardo finds him there and tells him he needs to return what he stole in order to avoid the Century of Flames...our hero is stubborn, though. What happens at the end makes no sense whatsoever...if it's any consolation to me, Isaac Asimov himself couldn't figure out what it meant either...so why did he and the anthology's other editor, Martin Greenberg, select it to be one of the year's best stories?
Next week I'll begin looking at science fiction short stories from 1958...
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Pandemic: Testing, Beaches, Masks
Since this blog is an ongoing commentary on the times I live in...and since these times are currently dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic and our response to it...here's another article about the damnable pestilence...
--I'm hearing a lot in the news media about the need for lots and lots of testing for coronavirus in order to reopen the economy and get through different phases of the recovery, but with this I also hear much complaining about the lack of availability of these tests. Contact tracing for those testing positive puts not only the one testing positive into quarantine but also those in their recent past with whom they had contact, as everyone else gradually reenters more "normal" social and economic activity. Unfortunately, for this scenario to work it requires enough tests to blanket virtually the entire population...we're way over 300 million in the USA...while there is another kind of testing, with scientifically-designed, statistical random sampling. New York's governor Andrew Cuomo the other day revealed the results in his state with 7,500 people randomly tested: the results revealed statewide an average infection rate among the general population of 14% (much higher than the tallied raw numbers), with the tests able to also reveal the places within New York state where the numbers were higher or lower. The way I see it...and I say this admitting that I'm no epidemiologist...the sickness is already everywhere around us and the contact tracing strategy using massive amounts of testing (that will be unavailable for some time anyway) sounds like an exercise in futility. But randomized testing using much smaller sample sizes than the general population is feasible and can serve to reveal resurges in the pandemic in different areas once the restrictions are lifted...
--One thing I'm seeing a lot on TV is how it looks as if nobody on the reopened beaches at various places in our country...especially in California and Florida...is following social distancing rules. But although with some people this may be sadly true, I think that a lot of this perception is due to zoom shots that make beachgoers who are actually following the distancing guidelines seem to be a lot closer together. Also, people tend to frequent beaches by taking with them their own households, members of which are not expected to be following social distancing with one another...so they're seen close together out in public and the media freaks out over it. Hah...I'm writing this and CNN just did what I'm complaining about. On St. Augustine Beach at least, they have a rule that if you're on the beach you need to be in motion, walking or swimming or running or surfing or cycling...not just sitting there on a blanket, and the hours are restricted to the morning time. Other beaches seem to have different rules, though...
--Black men have been harassed for wearing masks in public...a physician in Miami wearing one was actually handcuffed by police in front of his home as he was loading his truck to help neighbors. I just don't know what to say about this, here in time in the year 2020...shameful. I have always despised wearing a mask, although the ones my wife made for me are excellent: but it is difficult enough to get yourself "used to" wearing one...especially around others...without having to deal with the bigoted presumptions of some of your fellow "human beings" as you try to survive this pandemic ordeal like everyone else. Some say the pandemic is bringing us together...but in some ways it is bringing out our deep divisions...
--I'm hearing a lot in the news media about the need for lots and lots of testing for coronavirus in order to reopen the economy and get through different phases of the recovery, but with this I also hear much complaining about the lack of availability of these tests. Contact tracing for those testing positive puts not only the one testing positive into quarantine but also those in their recent past with whom they had contact, as everyone else gradually reenters more "normal" social and economic activity. Unfortunately, for this scenario to work it requires enough tests to blanket virtually the entire population...we're way over 300 million in the USA...while there is another kind of testing, with scientifically-designed, statistical random sampling. New York's governor Andrew Cuomo the other day revealed the results in his state with 7,500 people randomly tested: the results revealed statewide an average infection rate among the general population of 14% (much higher than the tallied raw numbers), with the tests able to also reveal the places within New York state where the numbers were higher or lower. The way I see it...and I say this admitting that I'm no epidemiologist...the sickness is already everywhere around us and the contact tracing strategy using massive amounts of testing (that will be unavailable for some time anyway) sounds like an exercise in futility. But randomized testing using much smaller sample sizes than the general population is feasible and can serve to reveal resurges in the pandemic in different areas once the restrictions are lifted...
--One thing I'm seeing a lot on TV is how it looks as if nobody on the reopened beaches at various places in our country...especially in California and Florida...is following social distancing rules. But although with some people this may be sadly true, I think that a lot of this perception is due to zoom shots that make beachgoers who are actually following the distancing guidelines seem to be a lot closer together. Also, people tend to frequent beaches by taking with them their own households, members of which are not expected to be following social distancing with one another...so they're seen close together out in public and the media freaks out over it. Hah...I'm writing this and CNN just did what I'm complaining about. On St. Augustine Beach at least, they have a rule that if you're on the beach you need to be in motion, walking or swimming or running or surfing or cycling...not just sitting there on a blanket, and the hours are restricted to the morning time. Other beaches seem to have different rules, though...
--Black men have been harassed for wearing masks in public...a physician in Miami wearing one was actually handcuffed by police in front of his home as he was loading his truck to help neighbors. I just don't know what to say about this, here in time in the year 2020...shameful. I have always despised wearing a mask, although the ones my wife made for me are excellent: but it is difficult enough to get yourself "used to" wearing one...especially around others...without having to deal with the bigoted presumptions of some of your fellow "human beings" as you try to survive this pandemic ordeal like everyone else. Some say the pandemic is bringing us together...but in some ways it is bringing out our deep divisions...
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