Just Finished Reading The Stars Did Wander Darkling by Colin Meloy

Colin Meloy is the front man and chief songwriter for the Portland, Oregon based indie musical band The Decembrists...I remember hearing their songs played back around 2003-07 on my local alternative rock radio station WHHZ "The Buzz"/100.5.  That included The Engine Driver, which featured Colin's lyrics that he was a writer of fictions. I didn't take that literally, but he really is a fiction writer, having produced a children's series titled The Wildwood Chronicles.  He's just come out with a standalone children's novel, The Stars Did Wander Darkling, which I just finished reading. The title is a line from the Byron poem Darkness.  The setting is coastal Oregon in a small town with a dark history of the mass disappearance of its population a century earlier.  Thirteen-year-old Archie Coomes enjoys his life, including his close circle of friends with whom he goes camping, among other things.  His father heads a construction company excavating for a new hotel near the historic (but now rumored haunted) Langdon House but has stopped the project because the ground below is full of holes...like Swiss cheese...and presents a danger.  But not only is talk going on that they discovered something sinister down there, but people in town are beginning to change.  Archie suspects a conspiracy afoot, and soon finds himself on a dire race against time to discover the truth and fight off three sinister, strange men who seem to be involved.  For me, this novel was more appropriate for adult readers...in fact, its premise reminded me of the very dark Stephen King novel Desperation, as well as the equally dark movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  I liked how Colin Meloy wrote it, making the language simple with short sentences...I bet Hemingway would have dug that.  He made the characters very life-like and compelling, although some of the mystery and resolution at the end seemed a bit cloudy to me.  I recommend it nonetheless and am considering reading Colin's earlier series.  But for now, I'm about to start reading Stephen King's latest novel, Fairy Tale...

My #13 All-Time Favorite Album: Close to the Edge by Yes

My #13 all-time favorite album, CLOSE TO THE EDGE, by the progressive rock band YES, took a long time to reach my full conscious attention.  I was fifteen in late 1971 when I heard my first Yes song on the radio: I've Seen All Good People.  At first, I thought the singer was a woman, but soon learned that it was Jon Anderson, who had a naturally high, feminine-sounding voice.  No matter, that song, a melodious first half and guitar-rocking on the back end, become for me my "song of the year".  In 1972, this progressive rock band, heavy on the keyboards, came out with the hit single Roundabout off their Fragile album.  Later that year they released their follow-up to Fragile, a critically acclaimed LP titled Close to the Edge.  It continues Anderson's singing and includes some wicked guitar and keyboard jams, along with a prolonged descent through what I've lovingly called the "rabbit hole" of musical and lyrical chaos.  Side One's opening track is the album's title: Close to the Edge...it turns out to be the only track, eighteen minutes in length. Opening with natural sounds including birds, it suddenly transforms into a wild, dissonant guitar jam before leading into Anderson's verses.  The song goes from one stage to another...a little past its midpoint begin my two favorite parts: the dreamy, slow "I Get Up I Get Down", followed by perhaps the jazziest, most versatile rock keyboard instrumental segment ever recorded, before the closing verses and final return to nature.  Whew, the amazing thing is that although my friend Barry from high school introduced it to me back in '73, I never got around to hearing the entire song until some twenty years later: Close to the Edge is my "song of the year" for 1993 and to this day ranks up there among my all-time favorite songs.  Side Two of the album contains just two tracks: And You and I and Siberian Khatru.  The former is a slow-moving, contemplative ballad about ten minutes in length while the latter is a faster-paced rocker.  The lyrics on this album, I believe, are deliberately vague in order to allow the listener to fashion his or her own interpretations, but Anderson said he was inspired for the song Close to the Edge by Hermann Hesse's book Siddartha.  Yes has had many member changes over the decades, but during those productive and inspired early 1970s, it was Anderson on lead vocals, Chris Squire on bass guitar, Steve Howe on guitar, Rick Wakeman on the keyboard and Bill Bruford on drums.  In their next two album releases the band would continue with ultra-long tracks...including Close to the Edge this would make six whopping album-side-length songs!  But trust me: Close to the Edge is the best one, and the two songs on the album's flip side...especially And You and I...are pretty doggone good as well.  Today Yes still exists, with Howe the only member on it from when they recorded Close to the Edge.  Anderson, Bruford and Wakeman are still around while Squire died seven years ago...

Next week: my #12 all-time favorite album...

Just Finished Rereading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a largely autobiographical philosophical novel written by Robert Pirsig, who passed away five years ago at age 88.  Originally published in 1974, the narrative covers a motorcycle journey taken by Pirsig and his son Chris, along with another couple on the early stages, through the northwestern US.  The author weaves together a diversity of topics: his own life history as a creative writing professor in Montana, debates about the legacy of ancient Greek philosophy, most notably that of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, two conflicting modern attitudes toward technology as epitomized by the schism in approaching motorcycle maintenance, and his rocky relationship with his son, complicated by the mental breakdown he had earlier suffered along with the consequential memory loss caused by now-discredited electroshock therapy.   Pirsig discusses what he sees as two conflicting worldviews people today (and in the past) maintain about how they approach life: the Classical, which involves seeing things for their components and underlying form (expressed commonly in science and technology) and the Romantic, which involves seeing things for their whole essence (the arts).  I first read this book back in the late summer of 1990 and tend to associate it with working at the old downtown Gainesville post office where I read most of it during my breaks...I recall the Gulf War was heating up at the same time.  At this second reading, I tried culling all of the sometimes-challenging detail into something I could remember better, coming away with two key words Pirsig talked about: quality and gumption.  According to him, quality, very difficult to describe in technical terms, somehow became separated from truth in ancient Greek philosophy and needs restoration.  And he discussed gumption as something akin to motivation and confidence, a trait necessary for an effective life as well as, of course, for properly maintaining a motorcycle.  It's a great book, although the "zen" in it seemed elusive for me.   I see a third reading somehow down the line...maybe I won't wait 32 years next time...

Quote of the Week...from M in the Movie Dr. No

Miss Moneypenny, forget the usual repartee.  007's in a hurry.                  ---M, Dr. No

For a long-standing movie series' first installment, the James Bond spy series got a lot of things right from the get-go with Dr. No, from 1962.  Then again, you can see some unworthy, dated stereotypes as well.  But I've always enjoyed the brief interplay from movie to movie between Bond and Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary in the supersecret British spy agency M16.  M, in the early movies played excellently by Bernard Lee, is Agent 007's immediate superior and has a very quick, acerbic wit...he's probably the only character in the series to which Bond displays a respectful subservience.  In an early scene from Dr. No, Bond, played here by Sean Connery, goes to M's office for his assignment and naturally encounters Moneypenny (played by Lois Maxwell), where they engage in their typical light, flirtatious banter.  Then Bond goes in to see his boss.  As he is leaving, M presses his speaker and delivers the above quote to Moneypenny...and 007 promptly leaves, giving her the empty box from his new gun.  I recognized the brilliance and humor of inserting this exchange in the movie, but I see a deeper significance.  I can't begin to count the times of annoyance when I would be watching the news on TV or listening to a radio talk show or podcast and the people on it would waste time just gibbering around with one another on no topic in particular.  This naturally doesn't occur when there's just one person present.  I'm guessing that part of this is to make the audience identify with them as regular folks, and part is to fill in some dead airtime between the actual features that they're really there for.  But sometimes they just go on and on as if they are in on some private joke apart from the audience and even snicker and giggle...that really sets me off: it's one of several reasons I refuse to watch the Greg Gutfeld show.  As for podcasting, I have written regularly about one series I enjoy listening to: Rob Dial's Mindset Mentor, in which he gives some ideas about living better in a conversational but disciplined manner.  I thought that since I like running, I might find a podcast that addresses that activity and found one featuring a couple who seem to feel that doing the old "Sonny and Cher" verge-of-argument routine is a great way to present a show.  After trying them out more than once, I came to the conclusion that although they did get around to eventually addressing the subject for which they had the podcast, it was too frustrating plowing through all that "repartee", as M termed it.  If I'm watching or listening to anything, I can tell you flat-out that this kind of prolonged banter is a big turnoff.  However, real life is different, and I think that light, inconsequential conversation is the stuff that greatly helps to hold us together in families, workplaces, stores, schools, and anywhere else people find themselves to keep from going to war with one another.  A little of that in movies, TV shows, radio, and podcasts...like Bond and Moneypenny in their flicks...adds some welcome flavor to the experience, but as with spices added to a recipe, too much can ruin everything...

Follow-Up about Rob Dial's Podcast on Hobbies

The other day I wrote about podcaster Rob Dial's tips about hobbies.  He suggested that we each have different types of them, one hobby that brings in money, one that enhances physical fitness, one that provides a creative outlet, one that improves memory and intelligence...and one that challenges the mindset.  The only of these that I had an issue with was the first one...and apparently, I'm not the only one.  Yet if I go to an art exhibit or craft show in town, inevitably I will see price tags next to the items on display.  Do I begrudge the creators of these objects their putting a price on their artistic expression, which by and large the greater part of them do as a hobby, a labor of love so to speak?   No, actually I think more of it as an expression of confidence and a statement of quality about their work.  I absolutely recognize the excellence of my favorite athletes, musicians and actors...yet I doubt that their acceptance of millions of dollars for their achievements has tainted their chosen field for them: they still love what they do.  But if I do charge money for some hobby I already love doing, doesn't that also imply that I am committed to the benefited party that my product meets a higher standard than if I were just dithering around?  It's this imposition on my sense of freedom as well as a possible sense of insecurity that I am not up to the task or am undeserving of what I might charge that, at least to me, presents the main challenges I have to this notion of Dial's.  Now one objection I heard about it was that if you're retired you don't feel the need to try to make more money...enough is enough: I totally get that viewpoint and think maybe charity or philanthropy might be viable alternatives.  But Dial, who is 35 with a work history in sales, wasn't just speaking to retirees.  Nor was he suggesting that people's lives are so pathetic that they need to wheedle others out of their cash in a petty manner.  As I said before, the emphasis is on quality and confidence, and receiving a little dough in some area...just one, not everything...can enhance life.  Plus, it's not a bad thing to feel a little challenged and confronted about something like this: it makes me work to examine my own life and that is a good thing...

Weekly Short Stories: 1986 Science Fiction, Part 6

I'm continuing to plod through the year 1986 in sci-fi short stories as I go through the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fourth Annual Collection. As is the case with a number of Gardner's selections, not all the four stories I'm discussing today truly belong to the genre of science fiction, in my opinion.  Yet the middle two do fit quite well within the horror genre and are stories that Stephen King might be proud of.  Speaking of King, he has a new novel out now titled Fairy Tale...I'm getting ready to start reading it.  But for now, here are my reactions to those four stories from the anthology...

THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE SUBLIME by Bruce Sterling

In a future society when machines have made everything pretty much automatic, the once lucrative fields of engineering and science have taken a back seat to the arts in economic power and social prestige. A well-to-do poet tries to win over the daughter of a technology firm magnate by sabotaging his rival's manually controlled flyer.  The impression I got from this story is that the author didn't think too highly of the arts and that society would become too soft if technology made everything too easy...

TATTOOS by Jack Dunn

A man with a heart condition, his wife and teenage son pay a visit in upstate New York to a country fair where he discovers an old friend who used to be a talented artist running the tattoo parlor.  But Nathan looks emaciated and has scars all over him.  His customers also seem to include, besides the regulars, people with special problems.  The idea of healing others' afflictions by taking them onto oneself isn't just an old Star Trek episode...it goes to the heart of the Christian gospel.  Yet Nathan is no Christ...

NIGHT MOVES by Tim Powers

Wow.  Being a night owl for much of my life and spending so much conscious time in those "graveyard" early, early morning hours, this story totally captures the essence of that time of day when most of us are in bed dreaming.  But what if those dreams...by means of a strange roaming essence...are transformed into reality and make their presence known on a city street?  Told from the viewpoint of a few different witnesses of such an occurrence around a city traffic circle, this story may cause the reader to reflect on who (or what) is really out there during those godforsaken wee hours...

THE PRISONER OF CHILLON by James Patrick Kelly

Part of this post-apocalyptic story is about history, part is about geography, and most of it concerns the struggle of a journalist to get her story out in one piece (both the story and herself) after covering a daring orbital theft of sensitive AI (artificial intelligence) data and following the surviving thief to the surface in Switzerland where they meet the man who is buying the info, living in the famous Chillon castle near Montreux.  I thought while reading it that many science fiction writers underestimated the progress that would be made in digital technology and AI in particular.  The story focuses on the characters of the thief, the journalist and the castle-dweller, who being almost completely physically incapacitated has surrounded himself with "smart" robots...

Next week: more about 1986 stories from the Gardner Dozois anthology... 

Thinking of 9/11/01

It's been a couple of days since September 11, now 21 years separated from the horrible events that transpired that morning in New York, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and those four doomed passenger jets.  I watched the History Channel Sunday night...they had a couple of good documentaries of ordinary citizens recording the events as they happened.  At the time I was working overtime on the flat sorting machine at the Gainesville post office and remember going on my final break where they had the TV on.  They were showing a gaping, smoking hole in one of the World Trade Center towers...this was a little before nine Eastern Time.  When I got back to the machine I told Timothy, my coworker, who rushed to the breakroom to see for himself. He returned with the news that the second tower had likewise been hit...we knew then that it was terrorism. Subsequent events that I would have assumed to be engrained in the American consciousness unfolded, among them the call to war.  Sometimes it's hard to calmly discuss options in the immediate aftermath of such a gut-wrenching disaster like this...I remember Washington senator Patty Murray being roundly attacked by the Republicans for daring to suggest that we seek to find out what actually motivated the terrorists. But it all gave certain elements of that party a justification to push their already-held agenda of invading Iraq, throwing out dictator Saddam Hussein and effecting "regime change" even though he was not involved in the plot.  I suppose that, depending on your political orientation and cherished narratives, our reactions to 9/11 were either well thought out, stumbling, or even devious...I'm guessing that elements of all three were involved.  As for now in 2022, I think we're in a "breather" period before more atrocities ensue, sad to say.  I wonder how we'll react to the next "9/11" if and when it occurs...

Podcaster Suggests Five Kinds of Hobbies

When I saw the title of a recent podcast of Rob Dial for his Mindset Mentor program, I was under the impression that he was going to reveal five different specific hobbies I should consider pursuing to enhance my personal development.  If he had really done that, I probably would be writing this article laying out my objections to this hobby or that.  Instead, he described five different kinds of hobbies: oh, yeah, I can dig that.  Here are his suggested hobby categories:

1--Hobbies that provide an income.

2--Hobbies that enhance physical fitness.

3--Hobbies that provide a creative outlet.

4--Hobbies that increase knowledge and intelligence.

5--Hobbies that improve one's mindset.

I believe that I am already engaged in hobbies that fulfill to varying degrees #2 through #5, but I'm wondering whether I can (or want to) tweak a couple of them to meet #1 as well.  Of course, since I'm approaching retirement, the free time on the other side of that transformation should open up opportunities for all five areas.  Also, there is some overlap between them.  But for an old geezer like I'm becoming, examining hobbies like this sounds like a pretty spiffy idea.  What are your hobbies, and do they fit in the above divisions that Dial delineated?  I know there are some that don't for me, such as watching TV and listening to good music, although there could be an argument made that if done thoughtfully, they could contribute to numbers 4 and 5. And of course they provide a good amount of material for my writing, a creative outlet (see yesterday's article)...

My #14 All-Time Favorite Album: Magical Mystery Tour by the Beatles

MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR, by THE BEATLES, is my all-time #14 album.  Although it came out in late 1967, when I was eleven, I didn't hear many of the songs on it until years later.  This is a strange album in its conception, with one side consisting mainly of popular singles hits and B-sides from that year and the other a string of tracks featured on their ill-fated British television special, patterned after the title track. It is that "singles" side that makes it one of my all-time favorites, for songs like Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, All You Need is Love and Hello/Goodbye are true classics.  Here's a listing of the album's tracks according to my liking:

1 Strawberry Fields Forever--I first heard it on Feb. 12, 1967 on the Ed Sullivan Show (along with Penny Lane)...pretty gutsy video that caused a lot of headshaking among viewers back then.  For a long time, I thought Ringo sang the lead on this song, but no, it was producer George Martin combining John's singing on two different takes by changing the speeds...

2 All You Need is Love--I first heard this one recorded live on the British Our World TV special on June 25, 1967.  It's a song I've loved from the beginning...

3 Hello/Goodbye--There were times I considered this one my favorite Beatles song...sometimes the simple lyrics are the best...

4 I am the Walrus--This is a special kind of song I term "rabbit role music" where the lyrics are exceedingly cryptic and the musical accompaniment breaks down into a kind of chaos: done well it's unforgettable, as it is here with John chiefly responsible...

5 Penny Lane--A nostalgic "Paul" piece about a street in his hometown of Liverpool...producer Martin added a wicked piccolo trumpet line to the recording at McCartney's suggestion...

6 Baby You're a Rich Man--a "John" contribution, heavy on psychedelia: "How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?" The music belongs to an era we'll never see again...

7 Fool on the Hill--Paul's answer to Lennon's earlier song Nowhere Man: same general message about marching to your own drumbeat...

8 Your Mother Should Know--This is another of what I've grown to call Paul's "cutesy" repertoire of songs...another, Goodbye, he gave to friend Mary Hopkin; that may have been the best of them...

9 Blue Jay Way--Not to be outdone by Paul with Penny Lane, George Harrison wrote this one about a street he visited that year in Los Angeles.  Mysterious and gloomy...works for me!

10 Magical Mystery Tour--for some reason this song rubbed me the wrong way...maybe it just sounded too much like the band was trying to sell me on something they weren't too sure about themselves or maybe just trying to recreate the Sgt. Pepper hoopla...

11 Flying--Songwriting credits go to all four Beatles on this song, a rarity.  It's mostly a harmless, slow instrumental with some la-la-la's thrown in for good measure.  Good filler track, though...

Next week: #13...

Beach Instead of Football Planned Today

As Melissa and I head out of town to Daytona Beach on this stormy weekend, many other folks are pouring into Gainesville to partake of the festivities of the University of Florida Fightin' Gators football team as they try to beat Kentucky this evening.  Everyone's excited because they won their first game last Saturday...if only by the skin of their teeth.  But confidence morphing into cockiness abounds...sooner or later they're gonna lose and that will be tough for some to withstand.  I've been to three UF home games since 1977...all of them due to others inviting me or handing over their tickets due to other commitments.  The only time I "enjoyed" the experience was the time during Muschamp's last year as coach when it was homecoming and Missouri humiliated Florida...that was all right with me: I was sitting with Melissa in the front row in the end zone cushioned chairs instead of those bleachers.  With bleachers, you come to an early conclusion that you have a simple choice: either stay seated and only see the backs of the people standing up in front of you or stand up yourself and block the people behind you...no thanks!  No, we'll be out on the oceanfront, most probably ignoring the Gators and other sporting events.  Hope the truckers aren't out there...they really screwed up our Labor Day weekend visit there a couple of years ago...

Quote of the Week...from Queen Elizabeth II

Football's a difficult business and aren't they prima donnas.  But it's a wonderful game.

                                                                    ---Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II of England passed away at her family's Scotland home yesterday at the age of 96, having one of the longest realms in the history of nobility at seventy years.  It was interesting reading and hearing of the outpouring of emotional tributes coming from some sources you might not automatically think of, like for example the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger.  But most reasonable and mature people understand that she was born into ceremony and royal duty and had precious little actual political power...her life was one largely preprogrammed for her.  She still made the most of it with a lot of class and some refreshing candid humor, as the above quote about her country's (and most of the world's) chief sport of soccer.  I think the same about other sports, too...with the U.S. Open going on now, tennis comes to mind as player after prima donna player pitches fits on the court, breaking their rackets, bawling their eyes out and screaming epithets at the judges and spectators.  TV analyst John McEnroe has provided more humor by publicly castigating their excesses, although he himself was one of the worst offenders when he played...

I had the television on yesterday morning when the Weather Channel mentioned the Queen's deteriorating health and I switched to the three main cable news channels.  CNN and MSNBC had concentrated coverage of the gathering of her family and different aspects of her life and career, but FoxNews was completely ignoring this momentous story, instead focusing on key political races that "their" party, the Republicans, needed to win in November.  Apparently, boss Rupert Murdoch had given the order to snub her, but why? Well, maybe a clue is in another quote of hers, from nine years ago: "I don't like to badmouth people.  but I'm the head of a monarchy that began in the ninth century, and I'm apparently more modern than Chris Christie.  Look, I know he has to appeal to the crazy right-wingers in his party, but the fact is, he's not as forward-thinking as an eighty-seven-year-old lady who wears a crown on her head.  It's pathetic." Melissa later told me that Fox did finally start to cover Queen Elizabeth II's death, but their decisions yesterday morning were telling: "fair and balanced" my ass...

So now it's King Charles III in charge of things...I remember my mother telling me about him in the late 1960s and it's been a long wait, for sure.  I've never been one to care about the news within the English royal family or any others...dang it, didn't we shed all that when we declared independence in 1776?  Still, I always liked Elizabeth and, like many others, will miss her presence and often incisive and straight-forward humor...

Horrible Weather Continues, Here and There

Just when it looked like my poor lawn would finally dry up and stop resembling a rice paddy, the sky opened up today and its right back to where it was, a big, green saturated sponge.  And it looks like there's plenty more rain to come...good grief.  I'm looking forward to dryer times...if that ever happens.  But after watching the Weather Channel lately, it looks as if the rest of the country has its own weather issues.  I sometimes entertain a daydream of just getting on a plane and going to one of the many places further up north that hold half-marathons this time of year, because it's supposedly colder there, you see.  One of the places, Scottsbluff in western Nebraska, is holding one in a couple of weeks.  But according to TWC, temperatures have recently climbed to 99 degrees there.  And these heat waves have been horrible this summer, subjecting normally more temperate places like Oregon, Montana, Minnesota and New Hampshire at different times to horrendous conditions.  Maybe I'll just stick to an air-conditioned lifestyle for a while...

Weekly Short Stories: 1986 Science Fiction, Part 5

Here are my reactions to three more science fiction short stories as they appeared in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fourth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois and featuring his selections from 1986.  That year I was completing a lengthy stint as a cook in a local Chinese restaurant...the following year I would start work at the post office and am still there: I don't change jobs very often.  Well, here are those stories I was talking about...

THE PURE PRODUCT by John Kessel

Imagine a future world where not only all diseases are eradicated, but the injured body heals and seals itself, guaranteeing people invulnerability as well as immortality.  Now imagine further a psychopath from this era who has gone back in time and is currently looking for kicks among us...that's the setting for this tale where the narrator is about as cold and brutal as one could get...

GRAVE ANGELS by Richard Kearns

This story reminds me of Ray Bradbury's nostalgic novel Dandelion Wine in that it depicts the deaths of different people in a boy's life.  This time it's from the vantage point of the town's two racially segregated cemeteries, where an angelic elderly black man digs in advance the graves for those about to die...

TANGENTS by Greg Bear

If you're wondering about the 3-dimensional shadows that 4-dimensional "objects" cast, this story's for you.  It's also about how our society can make misfits out of its most brilliant members and cruelly dispose of them, as an elderly English man patterned after Alan Turing (see the movie The Imitation Game) and a precocious young Korean orphan boy join forces to explore what lies beyond our ordinary reality.  Pretty cool ending...

Next week: more from '86...

Happy Anniversary to My Dear Melissa

I'd like to take this opportunity to tell my beautiful wife Melissa how much I love and appreciate her, and that I wish her a wonderful 36-year anniversary.  I love you!

Podcaster Stresses Living in the Future Instead of the Past

Personal development coach Rob Dial has a successful podcast titled Mindset Mentor.  Four days a week he spends about 20 minutes on various topics relating to success, motivation and self-improvement.  On a recent show he discussed how too many people allow their pasts to dictate their present outlook and behavior, consequently holding them back from success.  Instead, he proposes that we project ourselves into the future...Dial suggests about 10 years ahead...and visualize the kind of person we want to become. Consequently, we would be tackling the kinds of life situations we are experiencing in the present based on that future vision of ourselves. In other words, get the brain to go into the future instead of the past when determining our actions.  This sounds a little counterintuitive to me, especially since the same podcaster has in past episodes stressed living in the present moment, with the past and future only representing abstractions instead of reality.  But it's a good habit to have a sense of direction in life and taking some time and effort to know what person I want to become.  James Clear's book Atomic Habits lays a similar foundation when he stresses "becoming" over "goals" as a guide for eliminating bad habits and growing into new ones.  For me, at age 65 I have a long span of memories that I can let negatively influence what I undertake now, and, yes, projecting myself into the future and letting that vision guide me sounds reasonable.  On the other hand, and Rob Dial acknowledges this to an extent, I didn't get to where I am today by dismissing my past experiences wholesale: memory is an important survival mechanism.  So, as with so many other things, this comes down to discernment and a sense of balance... 

Surprising Tennis and College Football Results This Labor Day Weekend

I was surprised yesterday and today to watch the men's number one and number two seeds at the U.S. Open tournament go down in flames in their respective Round of 16 matches.  Sunday top-seeded Daniil Medvedev, last year's tournament champion, lost to Nick Kyrgios and today second-seeded Rafael Nadal was taken apart by Frances Tiafoe.  Although I was rooting for Kyrgios, I suspected that the finale would naturally be between Medvedev and Nadal...is this finally the signal for the changing of the guard in men's pro tennis?  With the women, top seeded Iga Swiatek is still hanging in there, but #2 seed Aryna Sabalenka is, at this writing, one set down to Danielle Collins...I'm watching on ESPN2 to see what happens.  I was also surprised yesterday to see both Florida and Florida State win their season openers, the former at home against seventh-ranked Utah and the latter at Baton Rouge against Louisiana State.  Both contests ended up as nailbiters, the Gators intercepting a Ute TD pass attempt with 17 seconds left to win 29-26 and the 'Noles prevailing on a blocked extra-point attempt at the end of regulation, giving them a 24-23 win.  Both teams...as well as my third traditional Florida college football team favorite, Miami, should provide plenty of entertainment for this 2022 season.  I was a little taken aback at the big boast that Florida's attendance crowd was a packed record at over 90,000, this happening while new Covid vaccines are being rolled out amid the newer strains' resistance to older versions...and folks are still getting sick, are going to the hospital and are dying from this pestilence.  Oh well, I guess people just want to pretend it's all over now...

****

Correction...Sabalenka is seeded #6 and did come from behind to advance tonight.  #2 was Anett Kontaveitt, who lost in the second round to Serena Williams...

My #15 All-Time Favorite Album: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles

My #15 all-time favorite album, SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND by The Beatles, is probably one you're familiar with.  It's funny: in my family when I was a kid in the 1960s my parents were big Beatles fans ever since that February 1964 Ed Sullivan Show appearance.  They bought nearly every studio album the band released from 1964 through 1966 and played them endlessly.  But after Revolver the Beatles forswore live concerts, embraced psychedelic drugs and grew moustaches.  The final straw for my mom and dad was the insane Ed Sullivan video for Strawberry Fields Forever...the Fab Four had gone over the edge.  Henceforth it was up to my sister or me to buy any new albums...and at the time we were both lacking in funds, to put it lightly.  Anyway, here in 2022 when you can liberally find music from YouTube and the public library, plus often buy online at great discounts, this lack of access decades ago must seem relatively primitive.  But when I did finally hear the entire album, I discovered that I pretty much liked every track on it...some naturally more than others.  Producer George Martin worked magic devising an enchanted instrumental background for each song. Here's how I rank them according to my liking (but as I said I like them all) ...

1 Sgt Pepper Reprise/A Day in the Life--The title track's brief preceding reprise was always played with this classic closing song on album rock radio.  John's dreamy lyrics are interrupted by Paul waking up and then going into his own dream.  The ending crescendo and crashing piano are classic...

2 With a Little Help from my Friends--introduced as "Billy Shears", Ringo Starr does a Q & A with the rest of the band regarding his practical take on life...

3 She's Leaving Home--a rather melodramatic track, kind of reminded me of Paul's Eleanor Rigby from the previous year...

4 Getting Better--politically incorrect in today's Woke culture, I dug Paul's generally upbeat lyrics contrasted with John's "It can't get much worse"...

4 Good Morning Good Morning--John would later disparage this track of his, but I liked the line "I've got nothing to say but it's okay".  And the barking dogs were pretty cool...

5 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band--back in '67 when the album first came out, I was confused. Did the Beatles change their name or what?  I think they were just trying to reinvent their image: it worked!

6 Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds--John always maintained the title didn't refer to the drug L.S.D., which the band had begun to take then...come on, dude! 

7 Fixing a Hole--Paul's fixing a hole to stop his mind from wandering where it will go, and it really doesn't matter if he's wrong or right...

8 Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!--according to John, the lyrics are straight off a circus show poster he saw...

9 Within You Without You--George's Indian/sitar-themed contribution is beautiful and psychedelic in its own way...he should have gotten more respect and album space for his creativity...

10 Lovely Rita--Paul sings the verses and the other Beatles, along with some visiting musicians, provide the chorus on this piece about a meter maid. The song gets a little unhinged at the end: naturally it works...

11 When I'm Sixty-Four--a "cutesy" song by Paul, like Your Mother Should Know, Honey Pie and Maxwell's Silver Hammer: it's kind of dated since he's now 80...

Next week: #14...

Rocket Launch, Football, and Tennis on TV Today

NASA's planned launch of its Artemis I mission to the Moon and back earlier this week was scrubbed for technical issues and rescheduled for today, with 2:17 pm being the start of a two-hour launch window.  We'll just have to see whether other technical problems arise as well as keep an eye on the weather during this pretty stormy season for central Florida.  I'll be watching to see what happens...NASA television has a live feed, and you can see it on YouTube, they say.  I'm wondering whether the Weather Channel will cover it...they tend to clog up their weekend schedule lineup with prepackaged, annoying shows.  The mission, which will send the Orion spacecraft on a six-week voyage to circle the Moon with mannequins inside before returning, is the first such attempt since Apollo 17 sent three astronauts there in December 1972.  As I wrote before, the plan is to mimic the Artemis I flight in 2024 but using live astronauts, and then land humans on the Moon's surface in 2025 for the first time in more than 52 years...it's about time!

On a completely different note, being a long-term Gainesville resident, today I'm treated to the start of the hometown University of Florida football season with a traditional home game this evening, this one a more difficult assignment with the Top Ten Utah Utes coming into town to play the Gators.  Florida has a new head coach in Billy Napier and I'll probably be watching some if not most of the game in my living room on TV.  While on break at work around 5:30 yesterday afternoon I noticed two fighter jets flying around low and fast...I wonder whether they will be part of a pregame show.  The U.S. Open tennis tournament will be ongoing as well...maybe there will be an interesting match on ESPN...

***************************

Later, around 12:30 pm: They've already scrubbed today's rocket launch...next window on Monday.  Let's see whether they can at least get the football game in...

Quote of the Week...from Abraham Maslow

If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.       --Abraham Maslow.

Abraham Maslow was a twentieth century American psychologist who devised the "Pyramid of Needs" model to account for human motivation.  I used a different quote of his earlier this year...click HERE to read that article.  There are varying degrees to read his above quote, but all interpretations lead to the same general principle: how one tackles problems depends inextricably on that person's own mental and physical makeup.  Kids toward their parents, students toward their teachers, employees toward their bosses...all eventually learn to discern their superiors' innate traits and abilities and tailor their behavior toward them in order to secure a reasonable environment.  Well, that's probably how it's supposed to go although what I think happens is that the subordinate in question mixes up leader #1 with leader #2 and gets frustrated with a completely different reaction to their input.  Poor Mary Richards: an earlier supervisor liked her spunk, but Lou Grant hates it!  In my own long, checkered history from toddlerhood on to the present moment, I've dealt with authority figures of different kinds.  And it's tough when one of them sees everything about me as a nail to be hammered back into place...I've come to recognize them early on, though, and tend to quickly get myself out of their line of attention as much as possible.  Fortunately for me, it's been a few years since I've had to deal with anyone of this sort head on...I've been blessed with some pretty wonderful people around me.  Yet in other locales, I've heard from others about their own disheartening experiences with authority figures. So, if you're the one in charge, the last thing you want to be seen as is someone who is springing around trying to catch others misbehaving or only resting for a moment in order to "hammer" them back in place. You'll end up creating an alternative, hidden world among whoever your subordinates happen to be, with them doing everything they can manage behind your back, instead of them feeling secure in presenting their selves, along with their mistakes, candidly before you.  Not a good way to go about things...it reminds me of that great old sixties spy/science fiction TV series The Prisoner and one episode in particular: Hammer into Anvil....

My August 2022 Running and Walking Report

In August I ran 405 miles, running on every day of the month with 16 miles being my longest single run and my highest one-day mileage being 30.2...I've tended to do multiple runs over the course of a day with speed deemphasized. I didn't measure my walking distance but estimate that the monthly total amounted to about 100 miles.  I have been training with the goal of being able to run any distance race coming up that is half-marathon length or less...I'd like that capability to be a year-round sort of thing...not that anything near Gainesville is happening in the near future other than the weekly, free 5K Saturday (early) morning races at Depot Park I've been regularly shirking.  Running during most of the day is easy for me...getting up early in the morning for it isn't.  But maybe it's time for me to shift into a habit pattern of not staying up too late at night and shifting the waking hours to early morning...after all, that's what South Park says old people do.  I do remember that brief time in Leesburg, Florida many years ago when I was a breakfast cook at Jerry's and the place would instantly fill up at 6 am with all those retired folks...might as well get a head start on this early rising even though Jerry's has sadly gone by the wayside...