My #23 All-Time Favorite Album: Quadrophenia by The Who

The first time I ever heard a Who song on the radio, it was 1965 and the song was I Can't Explain: I was certain that it was the Beatles and couldn't believe it when they said it was someone else.  Then I kept waiting for more songs by the British band The Who...and waited. It seems like this band, other than an occasional singles hit, for some reason didn't catch on in this country until they released their rock opera album Tommy in 1970...and then they became a "supergroup".  Songwriter/guitarist Pete Townshend then in 1972 decided to do a second rock opera, this one about a disillusioned and frustrated young man named Jimmy in his epic work Quadrophenia, a double album that, like Tommy, was made into a feature length film a few years later.  Although I was familiar with songs like 5:15, Dr. Jimmy and Love Reign O'er Me, I didn't hear the entire two-disc album until I purchased it in 1997.  By then, though, I was acquainted with the four-man band: Townshend, singer Roger Daltrey, bassist John Entwistle, and (crazy) drummer Keith Moon.  As I listened to Quadrophenia a number of times, certain sections became more interesting and meaningful than others...I ended up greatly preferred the second CD.  Don't get me wrong: every track on the entire piece is good, including the first disc which features Daltrey belting out The Real Me and a curious concluding song, I've Had Enough, which seems to musically portend a later Who hit, Squeeze Box.  I also liked the early instrumental tracks like I Am the Sea and Quadrophenia.  The others you can have: Cut My Hair, The Punk and the Godfather, I'm One, Dirty Jobs, Helpless Dancer, and Is It in My Head? are all pretty decent, but to me forgettable.  But that second disc is what made Quadrophenia one of my favorites.  It starts with 5:15, which I've known since the album came out. "Inside outside, leave me alone, inside outside, nowhere is home" are just some of the lines that reveal protagonist Jimmy's growing disaffection with the world and his life as he struggles for acceptance by his gang and society.  From there Roger Daltrey, in the persona of Jimmy, continues with Sea and Sand and Drowned until we reach the greatest part of the entire album: the final four tracks.  In Bell Boy, Keith Moon sings the part of a former idol of Jimmy's who later became an ordinary bell boy at a hotel.  Then, the epic song Dr. Jimmy refers to Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde tale as Jimmy sings of his own split nature...and the very dark side to his often-raging personality.  Then it's on to The Rock, another instrumental track that ties in the many musical themes in the album.  Finally, against a stormy background, Daltrey screams out the classic Love Reign O'er Me.  I see the character Jimmy in this story as a kind of Everyman who is in a constant struggle between being true to himself, fitting in with his immediate circles, and surviving in a dog-eat-dog world that seems to present a different set of "rules" at each stage of life.  More than all this, I enjoyed the passion and musical skill these artists brought to this recording.  Nevertheless, Quadrophenia isn't my highest-rated album by The Who...stay tuned...

Current Music I'm Listening (and Planning) To

The other day I purchased Regina Spektor's new CD, titled Home, before and after...it's the seventh studio release from this highly talented and creative piano virtuoso, my favorite musical artist of this century.  I waited a whopping seven years from her previous album but was amply rewarded with this one.  Every track is good, and some are so emotionally engaging that I admit to a little crying while listening to them.  As is the custom in my life since 1964, I rank the music I hear for each year as I walk through it. So far in 2022 I haven't hinted about my favorites from this year because, well, I hadn't heard any. Not until now: as of this moment all ten tracks on Regina's new album represent my Top Ten, with Spacetime Fairytale, Loveology, Coin and Raindrops topping the list in that order.  Although I admit to scorning the sorry state of radio nowadays and their lamentable music, there are some acts I like that have either released new albums or are about to.  These include Metric (Formentera), Arcade Fire (We), Kasabian (The Alchemist's Euphoria), Spoon (Lucifer on the Sofa) and The Smile (A light for attracting attention), the last group a collaboration of Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood.  From these I'm certain to find some more songs to dilute, if only a little, Regina Spektor's dominance over my 2022 personal favorites list.  I'm currently doing a weekly all-time personal favorite album feature on this blog, presenting a new one in countdown form (I'm at #23) each Sunday.  It's too late to include Home, before and after on it, but it definitely could end up as a top favorite, too...

Quote of the Week...from Beck

I think you have to keep a childlike quality to play music or make a record.          ---Beck

Beck Hansen, or simply "Beck" as he is better known for decades, has been one of my favorite recording artists. Based originally in the Los Angeles area, he combined technical acoustic wizardry in the studio with offhand and sometimes off-base lyrics in many of his earlier songs like Loser, Deadweight and Novacane.  He has long said that anything goes with his music, and it reflects his fearless experimentation, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.  His above quote struck me not for its specific application to his craft, but rather because it has universal relevance in everything we do. There is a substantial difference between immature childish petulance and the wide-eyed innocent wonder children have about life and the world around them...it's the second of these qualities I extoll. I also think that a large part of both what Jesus preached and today's mindfulness movement direct us to return to that early mind state of our lives and become more rooted in the present and in what is immediately around us instead of obsessing on past regrets or future worries and struggling through the morass of abstraction and overthinking.  The greatest music has those childlike elements of simplicity and repetition, whether it's a Beethoven symphony or a funny Beck track...the greatest of anything goes the same way, in my opinion... 

Some Musings on a Hot July Day

On yet another predictably miserably hot and muggy July day here in northern Florida I am in the morning at home, typing this on my desktop.  Melissa showed me a blank daily journal book she had just bought for herself...it features sections to fill in, among them things to be grateful for each day...great idea.  I thought that, although I did start this blog of mine back in 2007, more than fifteen years ago, it would have been cool to have continuously been engaging in personal journaling...with the extremely personal stuff wisely filtered out...going back decades earlier and into my childhood years.  I do remember back in 1973 starting a journal of sorts, summarizing with each passing month the more significant happenings back then in my life...but I didn't stick with it and, of course, we didn't have digital blogs or Facebook 49 years ago.  As a matter of fact, I recall at that time that my high school math department possessed a piano-sized very rudimentary computer in a set-off room where only the nerdiest of nerdy math addict students would hang out.  One kid I remember, Billy, who was practically blind without his ultrathick glasses, would actually stay there after school by hiding up in the ceiling until the building was closed and then come back down at night to play with the computer, which resembled nothing we have in our day.  Now you see, this is something you might think I would have written back in that time if blogging and the Internet had existed then, but you would have been wrong: I would have discussed the computer while leaving out Billy's role with it, for his sake.  Sometimes I think it would be fun to engage in what I call a "life memory project" and reconstruct my past out of my memories of it...but it would naturally be distorted in favor of the so-called lessons I now believe I have learned and have incorporated into my personal narrative...

Weekly Short Stories: 1985 Science Fiction, Part 3

Today, as I continue reviewing science fiction short stories from the year 1985, I switch to Gardner Dozois' excellent anthology series, this volume titled The Year's Best Science Fiction, Third Annual Collection, first published in 1986.  As with 1984 and 1985 there is little overlapping between his selection of stories and those of Donald A. Wollheim. For 1985 there are only two stories, which I have already reviewed, appearing in both books: Fermi and Frost by Frederik Pohl and Sailing to Byzantium by Robert Silverberg. Here are my reactions to the first (other) stories from the Dozois anthology...

THE JAGUAR HUNTER by Lucius Shepard

Set in a poor, rural tropical American country, a farmer with a carelessly extravagant wife finds himself unable to pay her bills, so in an arrangement with his creditor he promises to hunt and kill the wild jaguar that has been killing people in the area.  He knows what he's doing; he's successfully hunted jaguars before.  But this one's quite different and opens him up to a different reality, as well as to his creditor's ulterior motives.  Not so much a science fiction story as it is fantasy, but the anthology's editor has a penchant for blurring the boundaries between the two genres...

DOGFIGHT by William Gibson

In a near-future world where virtual games are played on tabletop, a man seeks to dethrone the champion game-player of a local community.  In doing so, he progressively becomes pettier and more underhanded as he deceives a young woman into providing him extra software advantages, ultimately betraying her.  And the champ he is challenging has his own compelling story, but no: it must be victory at all costs...

GREEN DAYS IN BRUNEI by Bruce Sterling

The small nation of Brunei is situated on the island of Borneo, which it shares with the much larger country of Indonesia.  Very wealthy for its oil reserves and production, this story is set after the wells run dry and Brunei officially reverts to a pretechnological economy.  But the government has hired an expert from the West to help them build a fleet of boats using robots.  He has to overcome the social and political obstacles hurled his way while at the same time courting the royal princess.  I guess the robots in this story make it science fiction, right?

SNOW by John Crowley

A brilliant little tale of how the passage of time eventually takes the essence out of all attempts to record people and events, as a young widow is bequeathed a tiny drone that follows here around everywhere for eight thousand hours, recording everything going on in her life for that span.  After her death, it is stored in a mausoleum for viewing by specially selected loved ones, including the protagonist.  A bittersweet and incisive look at how memories are bleached over time...

THE FRINGE by Orson Scott Card

In a post-apocalyptic near future, in Utah (where the author originates) attempts are being made to reinstitute agriculture and social and economic recovery in the years following the disaster.  But rules are rigid, and freedoms are limited, as simple survival is on the line. An agricultural scientist crippled by palsy takes on the task of teaching the rebellious and spoiled children in the area while at the same time considering turning in their parents, who are stealing food and provisions to sell to the black market for their own enrichment.  A good tale about ethical dilemmas and when one should take a stand and when they just might let things go...

THE LAKE WAS FULL OF ARTIFICIAL THINGS by Karen Joy Fowler

Miranda is using special vivid dream memory therapy to reimagine her old boyfriend Daniel, with whom she broke up just before he was sent as a draftee to fight (and die) in Southeast Asia.  It's a poignant look at self-inflicted guilt, what could have been and people's tendency to put words into the mouths of others that are reflections of their own desires and regrets...

Next week I continue looking at stories from 1985 that appeared in the Gardner Dozois series...

Podcaster Suggests Ways to Be More Disciplined

On one of his Mindset Mentor podcasts last week, personal development coach Rob Dial brought up the topic of discipline...specifically self-discipline...and discussed some methods he has used over the years to help himself stick to the tasks he knows he needs to accomplish.  He starts off by describing discipline as taking action even when you don't feel like it...to that I respond, "No kidding!" Then Dial goes down a list of seven points to follow: (1) focus on the opportunity, not the obligation...even though you're obliged to do the task, visualize more the positive effects doing it will produce down the line. (2) Do the small things well. In other words, master the fundamentals.  (3) Design your environment to make the right action easier, eliminating distractions and temptations around you.  (4) Make your body move...Dial suggests an easy five-minute movement routine of your own design.  (5) Count down and go. Dial acknowledges that another self-improvement figure, Mel Robbins, promoted this notion with her book The Five-Minute Rule, but that he had been practicing it longer, basically rehearsing difficult activities at least as far as their beginnings and then counting down 3-2-1 and plunging into them.  (6) Explore how to make taking the necessary action easier on yourself.  And finally, (7) get an accountability partner.  Suggestions #1-6 all sound painfully obvious when I write them down here, but #7 isn't quite so clear-cut.  An accountability partner is someone chosen to, well, hold oneself accountable in certain specified areas of his or her life.  I've never felt the need for one, thank you, and moreover, think some folks use the idea in a manipulative, hurtful way. If you decide to have an accountability partner, that person should not be involved in the immediate social/professional circle you are in, in order to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest...I saw this crucial principle badly violated last year with two good people losing their jobs as a result, largely due to badmouthing behind their backs.  Plus, as Rob Dial pointed out in his given example, the accountability topic should be limited to specific issues. The relationship should not degenerate to where the two sides...or maybe just one...cries on the other's shoulders about the difficulties he or she may be experiencing with certain people over whom that partner has authority: that is deceitful and unethical behavior on the part of both participants. So, I say yes to nearly all of Rob Dial's presentation about discipline, but regarding accountability partners I have some really deep trust issues...

About Independence Day and Running

I'd like to wish all my readers a happy Independence Day...America's, that is...and may God continue to bless our great country and its people.  If you are a regular news junkie, regardless of your preferred sources, you're bound to get the impression that half of the United States is the mortal enemy of the other half, and that we are on the verge of terrible civil conflict, if not war itself.  I sincerely hope that isn't the case, but as Forrest Gump's mom often said, "Stupid is as stupid does" and it's been my experience over the years that there is no shortage of stupidity around me...maybe I need to go find a cave to hide in.  But before that happens, I notice that, apart from all the mass shootings going on, it still seems rather peaceful...if I can with a straight face describe the actions of my fellow motorists "peaceful".  But that's another topic for another time...today I am relaxing at home on my day off and avoiding running in a local three-mile race that is held annually on this holiday.  I don't know, it just seems that my motivation for involvement in running on any social level has dissipated and left it as a purely personal, individual activity.  The thought of shelling out more than thirty bucks to drive down to Westside Park and get bunched in with all these people, very few of whom I have any sense of connection or community toward, and then running in the middle of a stampede while trying to avoid getting knocked off my feet for some reason no longer appeals to me.  I'm still holding out hope of some longer distance races starting in October, but for now my maximum level of social involvement in the sport has me going to my local gym a couple of times a week to run on one of their treadmills...this I began doing last Friday and intend to make a regular activity.  And if some strange, unexpected urge compels me to run with others before autumn, there is always the weekly, free 5K race held every Saturday morning at Gainesville's pretty Depot Park... 

My #24 All-Time Favorite Album: Ghost in the Machine by The Police

GHOST IN THE MACHINE, my #24 all-time favorite album, represents the fourth of five albums by the reggae-inspired rock band THE POLICE and came out late in 1981, receiving much radio play the following year.  Every Little Thing She Does is Magic was a Top Forty pop singles hit and the opening track, Spirits in the Material World, was very popular on album rock radio.  Until the 1990s my exposure to The Police's catalog of music was limited to their radio songs and videos.  Then I bought all five albums and became deeply impressed with their music.  Ghost in the Machine hints at the generally serious themes of mysticism and dystopia, with some romance and a little optimism included.  Sting (Gordon Sumner) is the band's main creative force as well as its bassist and lead singer.  Andy Summer plays lead guitar and Stewart Copeland is on drums: since he's American the band is technically only two thirds British.  Here are my rankings of the album's eleven tracks, along with some brief commentary...

1 Invisible Sun--I first heard this pretty scary song watching its video on MTV.  Sting's portrayal of a world run down into anarchy and violence is chilling and, ominously, I fear, prescient: I can see it all happening.  One of my very top favorite songs for decades...

2 Darkness--I gradually caught on to this closing track of the album...the strong instrumental accompaniment reminds me of the trademark "wall of sound" that legendary (and, regrettably, homicidal) record producer Phil Spector used with the Beatles and George Harrison. Drummer Stewart Copeland wrote it: awesome!

3 Spirits in the Material World--When I first heard this song on the radio early in '82, it freaked me out.  I realized that the Police had taken a very serious lyrical turn in their music.  The beat to this song is nothing less than bizarre...it's the perfect opening track...

4 Secret Journey--Captures my imagination when I want to just get away from it all and have an adventure. It was a late singles release from the album...

5 Hungry for You (J'aurais Toujours Faim de Toi)--the words here are almost all in French.  It's a relentless, driving love song that reminded me a bit of their great long-titled track When the World Is Running Down You Make the Best of What's Still Around from their previous album...

6 Too Much Information--Speaking of prescience, this song bemoans the omnipresence of information, true and fake.  It could have been written today and folks would say, "Yeah, and tell me something I don't already know"...

7 Omegaman--Maybe Andy Summers' most significant composition, he speaks of seeking a more perfect life as his tired surroundings fade away...

8 Every Little Thing She Does is Magic--On its merits this song should rank on this list much higher, but as with other albums I've been reviewing there are some tracks that are played so much on the radio that I get sick of them.  It's a great love song, though...

9 Demolition Man--Sting's the Demolition Man and he is determined to wreck everything he comes in contact with...it's all rather funny.  I liked it, but like with some other Police songs, it drags on way too long...

10 One World (Not Three)--A catchy, pleasant little upbeat song with an annoyingly condescending message: yeah, I know we're all on the same planet and should be more united and caring for each other, duh...

11 Rehumanize Yourself--Another Stewart Copeland song (along with Sting), it describes various people doing things he disapproves of and that they all should "rehumanize themselves": like #10 it's kind of preachy for my tastes...

Check out Ghost in the Machine on YouTube when you get a chance. Next week I reveal and discuss my #23 all-time favorite album...

Just Finished Rereading The Dark Tower by Stephen King

For the second time I've been reading through Stephen King's seven-volume fantasy series The Dark Tower, published over a period from 1982 to 2004.  I just finished the final book, also titled The Dark Tower, and am not exactly sure about how to write about it...much as is the case with any longstanding series.  Since the characters in previous books are usually in a state of dire danger, then even bringing up one of their names is liable to unduly tip off any interested reader, so I by necessity will be sparce in my description of this concluding book.  The series premise has Roland Deschain, a hardened noble gunslinger from Mid-World (an alternate reality from ours), on a quest with his diverse "ka-tet" (fellowship) to find the Dark Tower, which holds all of reality together in light through beams, and which is in danger of being taken over by the evil and probably insane Crimson King.  Since the book is titled "Dark Tower" and Roland is the main character, I don't think it will be giving much away to say that he reaches his destination.  But beyond that, I think I'll just let you, the prospective reader of this series, find everything else out for yourself.  I will mention, though, that it is a symptom of these long, drawn-out series to have, in my opinion, too many characters and subplots...this one is no exception.  But I don't recall reading one in which the author had the nerve to place himself within the story.  Stephen King's 1999 accident in which he was seriously injured by a van that veered off a rural Maine road while he was out walking, in our real world as well as the story's, prompted him to speed up writing this series, putting out the final three volumes within a span of two years.  That in itself is quite an accomplishment.  Yet I had a problem with the easy way that characters could even defy death by slipping into different realities, and the very ending of the series has never satisfied me either...although someone with ties to Eastern religions and philosophies might identify with it.  Reading the Dark Tower series is a big undertaking, but overall, I think the reader who ventures out with Roland on his adventures will be rewarded.  By the way, there is a later book in the series, titled The Wind Through the Keyhole, that came out in 2012 and features a flashback story from Roland's youth...it doesn't figure in the flow of the original series, though...

Quote of the Week...from Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead.  Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow.  Just walk beside me and be my friend.                                                 ---Albert Camus

Albert Camus was a twentieth century French philosopher; his quotes are prolific.  The above is one presented on my Music Choice television Soundscapes channel.  It speaks to the hierarchical instinct some people seem to have.  Some have set themselves up in a personal narrative that has them the supreme authority on any subject and are more knowledgeable about the ways of the world than others, expecting as habit to be accorded the final word on whatever is being discussed.  Others have submerged their own identity and individuality to follow massively flawed figures in personality cults or have made the calculation at some point in their existence that meekly toadying up to bullies and adopting their often cruel and bigoted treatment of others is the way to go.  I know that in different social settings throughout my life I have encountered both types.  Nobody knows everything and neither do I.  I quickly discern when someone not only is incapable of saying "I don't know" but also pretends that my opinion is, by default, irrelevant and beneath their consideration.  And I also get a very creepy feeling when an individual goes to great lengths of outward obeisance and fawning toward me...what is their real game?  No, how about simple friendship and mutual respect, each of us recognizing that in some areas I'm superior and in others you are...hey, maybe we can even learn from one another!

My June 2022 Running and Walking Report

In June I kept to the same pattern with my running and walking as with April and May, running up and down the air-conditioned hallways and rooms of my house to avoid the sweltering heat outside and getting most of my walking mileage while at my physically demanding workplace...seems to be working on both fronts.  I participated in no running races in June...the only locally available one is the Depot Parkrun 5K held every Saturday morning.  The good thing about it is that it's free. The drawbacks are that I have to drive across town and that it takes place at 7:30...I get off from work late the previous evening.  I have a gym membership that I rarely use...it involves driving across town, too, and I have trouble finding the right time to go there.  Still, with the current system I'm using I seem to be keeping in shape.  I've noticed that on Facebook there are informal running groups around town: one in Tioga west of Gainesville, one that goes into the Felasco Hammock park north of me, and one that uses the Hawthorne Trail.  But all three take place when I'm at work, so that won't work.  Besides, truth be told, I'm a bit solitary with my running.  When longer races begin to return in the fall, I may sign up for them.  But for now, I'm planning to continue running indoors the way I have been doing...

Weekly Short Stories: 1985 Science Fiction, Part 2

Today I continue looking at 1985 science fiction short stories as they appeared in Donald A. Wollheim's anthology The 1986 Annual World's Best SF, displaying his choices from the previous year.  Ronald Reagan was beginning his second term in office, Bob Graham was still governor of Florida, and the Miami Dolphins under coach Don Shula and emerging superstar quarterback Dan Marino came within a conference title game of their second straight Super Bowl...but they did defeat the eventual champion Chicago Bears near the close of the regular season, spoiling their undefeated run.  And Kansas City beat St. Louis in an exciting seven-game cross-state Missouri World Series, a controversial missed umpiring call at the close of Game Six crucially shifting the series in favor of the underdog Royals.  But back to those stories...

WEBRIDER by Jayge Carr

In a future when interstellar travel, even at super-high speeds, is a matter of decades and even centuries, there is one instantaneous way of travel: webriding, which seems to me straight out of Star Trek's transporting beams.  But webriders are a rare sort, with less than 1% of those trying it able to keep their atoms from being dissipated throughout the universe.  One successful rider has her story here...and romance as well.  Good ending...

WITH VIRGIL ODDUM AT THE EAST POLE by Harlan Ellison

On a distant planet where the protagonist is serving a brief sentence of isolation out in the wild country, another man comes crawling out of the icy region to the east.  Virgin Oddum is his name, but he seems very angry and won't talk to our hero, who cares for him.  Recovered, Oddum heads back east, along with items he's pilfered from the camp. He returns a number of times and goes back...what goes on here?  An unexpected answer...

THE CURSE OF KINGS by Connie Ellis

Written and published during the decade of the very popular Indiana Jones movie series featured greedy and glory-seeking archaeologists in cutthroat competition for ancient relics, this tale takes them to another planet, with humans vying with the dominant...but not native..."sandle people" there for the prizes and the bounty promised by their sale. But the human archaeological team has been infected by a horrible disfiguring and debilitating virus...or was it poison by the sandal people there?  In the middle of this all are the indigenous humanoids, a meek and submissive people who have taken the role of servitude.  A reporter with his own agenda of out-scooping others on a hot story spins the narrative here...lots of intrigue but little depth, in my humble opinion...

FERMI AND FROST by Frederik Pohl

I'm a fan of Pohl's writing and this story of a worldwide nuclear holocaust doesn't disappoint, brutally laying out in detail the slim scenarios for avoid planetary mass extinction under such conditions.  A boy, separated from his parents during the panicked evacuation preceding the landing of incoming missiles, is taken in by a scientist and spirited away to Iceland, where even that place's relative isolation won't protect it from the conflagration.  Very sobering...and we're still in grave danger from this nightmare achieving reality...

POTS by C.J. Cheeryh

Another "archeological" science fiction tale set millions of years into the future when presumably (but never overtly stated) Earth, depleted of life after a world-wide catastrophe, has a scientific team investigating it. They are humans of with transferable memories and generations of clones going back eons, supplemented by artificial intelligence and functioning within a highly regiment society.  One of the scientists has concluded, deemed "heresy" by the established authorities, that a nuclear war caused the mass extinction there.  And now the fight is on for the scientific team's own survival.  I thought the story's premise was interesting but never did understand why the scientists' conclusions were considered a threat to those in power...

Next week I will continue looking at science fiction from 1985 but moving on to the anthology edited by Gardner Dozois...

Wimbledon Tournament Begins with, You Guessed It, Controversy

The 2022 Wimbledon tennis tournament began yesterday with the first round of play. It's one of four Grand Slam tournaments in professional tennis...Rafael Nadal won the men's singles in the Australian and French Opens earlier this year while Ashleigh Barty (now retired) won the women's Australian Open and Iga Swiatek the French.  Although Nadal is still in the running for a Grand Slams sweep, he has chronic foot pain and Novak Djokovic is in the Wimbledon tournament, having dominated it in recent years.  Djokovic was banned from the Australian Open earlier this year because he refused to get a Covid-19 vaccine.  Now the controversy at Wimbledon lies with players from Russia and Belarus, mainly Daniil Medvedev and Aryna Sabalenka, banned from participation due to those countries' brutal invasion of Ukraine.  As for me, I'd just like to see the best players out there playing each other in their best physical form without regard to their national origins...not gonna happen, though.  Yesterday I enjoyed watching Djokovic play and defeat Kwon Swon-woo in the first round.  Roger Federer is still out recovering from his knee injury, but Serena Williams is in it with a match today...hooray!  ESPN and ABC are covering Wimbledon...which should be a marked improvement in television coverage after NBC relegated most of the French Open action last month to its premium Peacock channel: what a rip-off that was!  I don't plan to spend my time 24/7 watching tennis, but I do tend to have my mornings open and that's when a lot of the live play is going on. Should be fun...

Podcaster Recycles Old Suggestions to Beating Laziness

In one of his Mindset Mentor podcasts, life coach Rob Dial lays out five suggestions to help us listeners to overcome the mental inertia in our daily lives that leads to laziness and drifting.  He starts by emphasizing the need for us to visualize exactly what it is we're trying to accomplish...something that too many folks don't do as they go through their lives on autopilot. Let's try to see ahead, say a month, year, or ten years and envision the kind of progress and situation we want to have in our lives in different areas.  Dial's second point is to make and adhere to a schedule...preferably written down...that allocates time and place to engaging in those productive activities.  Third, intention needs to be brought out in every scheduled activity, that is the mind needs to be laser-focused in concentrating on whatever we're doing instead of us just going through the motions.  Fourth is a suggestion that Dial often comes back to in his podcasts: we need to act regardless of our emotions or sense of worthiness or competency...the feelings should follow the action, not determine it.  And finally, establish regular routines for effecting those actions...this ties in with the scheduling. Rob Dial has a quote...presumably from himself since I can't find its source on the Internet: "Let action and routine drive your life, not emotion".  I know, living like this doesn't make good reality TV, but do we really want to be like those impulsive and melodramatic "stars"?  One thing I've grown to appreciate about Mr. Dial is that he keeps returning to the same themes, slightly rearranging his presentation but stressing just a few important, fundamental principles.  I don't always agree with him, but as a fellow traveler through life I appreciate his efforts and input...

My #25 All-Time Favorite Album: The Stranger by Billy Joel

My #25 all-time favorite album is THE STRANGER by Billy Joel, the great piano troubadour from Long Island.  Released in 1977 in the middle of the horrid disco era, it was a bright spot in a desert of popular music back then.  Just the Way You Are was Joel's big Grammy-winning hit song...not exactly my favorite track from the album, and as it turned out, not his, either.  Still, all the songs on The Stranger were pretty damned good...here's my listing of tracks by my preference:

1 Scenes from an Italian Restaurant: an album rock radio staple in 1978, it's a whimsical look back at high school with Joel's trademark piano virtuosity and a killer saxophone...

2 The Stranger: the title track features beautiful whistling and a message similar to The Doors' People are Strange from ten years earlier...

3 Movin' Out: the opening track lays out Joel's disgust with the rat race and its disciples, and he's splitting the scene (on his motorcycle).  This song goes well with My Life from his following album 52nd Street...

4 Only the Good Die Young: some didn't like this tune because of its irreverence toward organized Christianity, particularly the Catholic Church. But that's exactly why I like it, plus the beat's awfully catchy and it's funny, gosh darn it...

5 She's Always a Woman to Me: what I liked about this one is the way Joel's lyrics paint the picture of a complete human being from anecdotal descriptions about her.  As I mentioned in an earlier article each of us is a complex tapestry of both good and bad...

6 Get It Right the First Time: I enjoy this song, but ultimately disagree with its message.  After all, it's the fear of NOT getting it right the first time and risking making an ass of yourself that prevents many of us from trying anything new...

7 Just the Way You Are: I probably would have liked this song more had it not been overplayed on the radio. The perfect lounge act song. Years later it stands up well...

8 Vienna: a slower piano ballad as Joel exhorts someone to slow down and realize "Vienna waits for you" and "Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come true"...lots of cool lyrics here...

9 Everybody Has a Dream: not a bad song per se, it just seems to drag a bit...maybe Joel should have kept it short.  I really liked its ending, when the whistling title theme closes out the album...

The Stranger is one of those special albums that is thoroughly listenable...no need to skip any tracks. For me it marked a passage of time as I entered into early adulthood and began to haltingly establish myself away from home for the first time...

Next week I discuss Album #24...

Get Off Your Asses and Vote in Every Election

I've been carefully avoiding immersing myself in the news over the past few days, but still I've been informed enough to know that the United States Supreme Court has finally overturned the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion...with restrictions...for some 49 years after making another ruling pertaining to carrying concealed guns.  There are several protest march demonstrations either ongoing or in the works...sigh, I recall a couple of years ago a liberal U.S. senator praising the marches back then as "democracy in action".  No, Ms. Senator, that is NOT democracy in action.  Democracy in action is for the people to get off their collective asses and VOTE IN EACH AND EVERY ELECTION.  Conservatives/Republicans tend to understand this and view voting as more of a civic duty than a right. Unfortunately, enough Democrats (resulting in loss after election loss) seem to think they only need to vote for president every four years (if they're excited by the candidate, that is) and that's supposed to fix everything.  No, we have an elected national Congress with the Senate and House of Representatives, as well as state legislatures and governorships that need to be addressed...on top of local elected offices.  You need to VOTE IN EVERY AVAILABLE RACE and prioritized your voting decisions by where the candidates stand on the issues most crucial to you.  I say this because that's not been happening...which goes a long way toward explaining why we have such a Supreme Court today that has just ruled the way it has...

Quote of the Week...from Stephen King

Let's face it.  No kid in high school feels as though they fit in.                  ---Stephen King

I remember conservative "no-spin" spinner Bill O'Reilly once making a similar comment to Stephen King's above quote when he said that kids were naturally awkward.  I think both of them speak mostly truth here, but I need to make an important distinction between what someone was feeling during that period in their life and his or her actual outward demeaner.  When I was going through junior and senior high school (I just missed out on the "middle school" experience), I was continually baffled by the confident, sometimes even arrogant composure of my fellow classmates.  Surely as humans we shared the same biological processes: weren't their changing bodies also wreaking the same havoc with their minds as mine was?  In retrospect, I'm sure they were going through a lot of the same stuff I was, but they had learned to cover it all up...a mask I think many have never gotten around to taking off.  As for me, I don't think I ever got over adolescence...when I was a little kid, I thought I already had everything figured out by the time I was nine.  And then the big change came and screwed everything up. Like most of us, I have both good and bad memories of that period in my life, but unlike the movies I can't go back in a time machine and change it all...nor should I: like that great old Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Tapestry, it's all crucial in making me what I am now, for better or for worse.  And if there is a specific regret about something I may have done wrong back in those bygone years, then I can still see whether I can apply what I learned to my life in the "now", where all of reality exists anyway...

Special Events and Drama vs. Daily Routines

A Zen master once wrote that the practice of his philosophy was not based on mountaintop special experiences but rather in practicing and consistently adhering to daily routines.  I'm not Zen...although I did enjoy Robert Pirsig's book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance...but different creeds contain their own truths, and this individual expressed a major one.  One group of people that I studiously avoid is the special event addict...someone who thinks of everyday existence as "boring" and is continually conjuring up ways to spice things up.  That includes drama queen behavior, overt flirting that draws in other people, malicious gossip, demeaning the value of mundane assignments in the workplace ("it's easy so therefore it's worthless"), overreacting to the often-manipulated news they hear...and especially thinking that special events such as parties and social gatherings define their joy and social belonging.  Never do I see some people behaving more seriously than when they are getting the food together at a workplace party...some of these on the floor seem to spend much of their energies spewing out unnaturally loud, forced laughter across the building at something or someone, most likely the target of their ridicule.  But with these special events, they're sacred and serious: don't mess with the food!  I also think a lot of folks are deeply into this career networking trap where they have been coached to believe that their social acquaintances (including, sadly, me) are little more than nodes in their networks to achieve greater prosperity and prestige.  Get-togethers with them aren't fun at all...no, it's more like going to the dentist for a really painful procedure.  I'm realistic to know that we all need breaks from routine every now and then, myself included: nothing like a wonderful weekend on the beach with my sweet wife!  But in order for that to happen, there has to be routine in the first place...I vote for the routine, and you can get your fix with parties and high drama...

Weekly Short Stories: 1985 Science Fiction, Part 1

Today I begin looking at science fiction short stories from the year 1985, as featured in the anthology The 1986 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and featuring his picks from the previous year.  In 1985 I was still living in the southwest part of Gainesville, living frugally as a cook working in a nearby Chinese restaurant and studying foreign languages as a hobby.  I would experience a hurricane scare in August (Elena) and in December observe Halley's Comet (with binoculars, standing in the field that would later be the site of Wal-Mart and now Cheesecake Factory/Whole Foods) and then meet my beautiful future wife Melissa...who had been living in my own apartment complex across from me for months.  But enough of my autobiography...here are my reviews of the first stories in Wollheim's book...

EARTHGATE by J. Brian Clarke

This is one of those classic "old school" sci-fi tales that came out from the 1940s through 60s, with a sense of human progress and optimism for the future.  It is discovered that on a distant world called Sounder exists platforms...portals if you will...for instantaneous entry into other distant worlds, placed there who knows how long before by an advanced civilization. but Earth...and the only other known intelligent life, the Phuili...are not accorded their own Gates.  But two Gates on Sounder don't seem to go anywhere, and a specialist is dispatched there to investigate whether one goes to Earth.  I liked the story's premise as well as the background intrigue of someone trying to sabotage everything...

ON THE DREAM CHANNEL PANEL by Ian Watson

Thirteen random people in a small radius of a community have discovered that their dreams are being interrupted by bizarre commercials of completely exotic but mouthwatering foods.  A high school teacher decides to get everyone together to investigate and solve this mystery.  The results are hilarious, and the teacher's fate leads to an even more hilarious ending to this imaginative tale...

THE GODS OF MARS by Gardner Dozois, Jack Dann and Michael Swanwick

When I read a relatively brief tale this tight and focused...and then see that three authors collaborated on it, I wonder exactly where each of them made their contributions.  Regardless of the authorship, though, this story was thoroughly brilliant in speculating about the strange observations of Martian canals from telescopic examinations by nineteenth centuries astronomers Percival Lowell and Giovanni Schiaparelli...and why they all seemed to disappear in subsequent observations by others.  What an ending, it freaked me out...

THE JAGUAR HUNTER by Lucius Shepard

Reading more like a Twilight Zone or Night Gallery episode than standard science fiction, a native of a poor Caribbean Island has agreed to hunt down a ferocious jaguar that has killed a few people there...and it has to do with plans to develop the area as a tourist magnet.  What is this jaguar really, and is there something a bit supernatural about it all?  This story, as with the two others I've read from Shepard, is really detailed about describing what life is like in this part of the world...from the viewpoints of the people actually living there...

SAILING TO BYZANTIUM by Robert Silverberg

Back in my May 4th article about 1984 science fiction short stories I discussed the Ian Watson tale We Remember Babylon, which appeared in Donald A. Wollheim's year's best anthology. The same editor the following year picked this suspiciously similarly based novella by Robert Silverberg.  Suspicious because both stories are based on the idea of a future society recreating ancient locales for study and/or entertainment.  In Silverberg's version it's way, way off into the future as humans have settled on other worlds while depopulating Earth to the point where the few remaining are served by myriad robots that do the construction and maintenance of five special "old" cultures worldwide.  A man from our present time finds himself suddenly in the midst of these future people as he tries to find his bearings while falling in love with a woman who, unlike the others of this era, seems to be slowly aging. Of Watson and Silverberg's stories the latter is clearly the better, as there are some intriguing ideas brought out in the conclusion that lean toward speculation about the true nature of personal identity, immortality and what it entails to possess essence...

Next week I continue my look at 1985 science fiction with more stories from Wollheim's anthology...

Changing Voting Registration over Crucial Issue

Yesterday I wrote here about how it's pointless to get all riled up about things I have no control over.  Politics is largely a part of this, although in a limited way I do have at least a say in things...I can write about my opinions and go vote.  And with that voting I decided to do something that to many may seem completely counterintuitive.  You see, I've come to believe over the past two years that the most crucial, immediate issue facing us right now is the danger of our country slipping into authoritarian fascist rule...previous president Donald Trump bears a great deal of responsibility for this.  I consequently had decided to avoid voting for any Republican as long as this was a viable danger...but I've been reconsidering this stance.  Although public opinion polls seem to indicate that a majority of Republican voters have gone over to the fascist side, there are many of them who are still willing to accept the results of elections when their side loses.  To this end I think it would be a waste to be registered as a Democrat and thus be barred from voting in the many Republican primary elections that will be pitting Trumpist fascists against traditionally conservative supporters of democracy.  To that extent I intend to change my party affiliation to Republican...this isn't new with me since I did it back in 1994 and remained "in" that party for eight years.  We need a viable two-party system in America where each side respects election results and rejects those who would set up dictatorships based on cult personality worship. Of course, my one vote is just a single drop in the bucket...but it is something over which I have a degree of control, though miniscule.  Not that I'm telling you or anyone else what to do...I'm no campaigner: you have to figure things out for yourself...