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My rating: ★★★★✩
Very good, light read for the plane. An excellent apocalyptic setting, that held together well throughout the book.
In Plague Year, a "nanotech" virus got loose and reduces all warm-blooded creatures to mush. The catch? There is a governor that says it can't survive if at the standard air pressure at 10,000 feet. So everyone made a run for the mountains and small pockets of humanity survive, barely, with the occasional foray below the magic line, at a terrible physical cost. Cam and Sawyer lead one faction in California.
A capital of sorts is established in Leadville, Colorado, "the highest incorporated city", while the space station is still in orbit and Ruth is a leading nanotech engineer who pines to get back to Earth to help out. Finally, she finagles a landing and finds out all too much. She and Cam end up leading a party to recover important information from the creation lab.
This was a fun read and the premise held together remarkably well. The main characters were well drawn, if slightly wooden, as was much of the dialog. And some of the frictions that happened didn't always make sense, but the story went along so smoothly you hardly cared. If you like your apocalyptic novels to be hard sci-fi, then this is your book. See his Plague War for the sequel.
Sweet "netlabel" music from Pandoras.Box, via Clinical Archives. I found Arrows & Bows on this most excellent collection of "Creative Commons Music" - Rebel Music Volume One. Well, he says it is Arrows & Bows, but Jamendo, which has this player, says it is the song after that called "Next To Mine". Not sure who to believe, although it is singing about "I am the arrow and you are just the bow", so I'll believe Fernando! I'm downloading the songs now, but it is going very slowly.
- I'm Not In Love - 10cc (The Very Best of 10cc 1997)
- Sex Changes - The Dresden Dolls (Yes, Virginia 2006)
- Sunday - Bess Rogers (Decisions Based On Information 2007)
- Stop And Think It Over - Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles (Diamonds in the Dark 2007)
- Joanni - Kate Bush (Ariel - A Sea Of Honey 2005)
- A&E - Goldfrapp (Seventh Tree 2008)
- Kings And Queens - Loudon Wainwright III (A Live One 1979)
- 1952 Vincent Black Lightning - Richard Thompson (Rumor And Sigh 1991)
- Sweet Bird Of Truth - The The (Infected 1986)
- Every Passing Day - Goanna (Oceania 1985)
A mostly modern set this time around, with a few new wave classics thrown in for good measure. The 10cc song is a favorite from my high school years. The album (yes, children, I originally bought it on vinyl) it comes from (The Original Soundtrack) was a real favorite of mine at the time, although I can't say as I'm too thrilled with the other songs from the disc on this greatest hits CD. Oh well, tastes change. The Dresden Dolls are (were???) one of my favorite groups, local or otherwise, and Amanda Palmer is one of the cleverest musicians around. And Yes, Virginia is their strongest effort. Bess Rogers is a another wonderfully clever artist originally unveiled to me by W♥M, and this is a nicely syncopated song. I went Sarah Borges crazy when their second CD, The Stars Are Out, came out and I picked up Diamonds too. A local group who I have yet to see, sadly. I'm sure she puts on a whale of a show. I've been a huge Kate Bush fan since the early 80s, when I worked with a real Kate fanatic who went so far as to celebrate "Kate-mas", her birthday (July 30th). It was so great to have some new Kate stuff, after a very long wait (12 years!). Ariel is a fantastic double CD. Hmm, looks like it is also a female artist random 10, as we follow it up with my favorite cut from Goldfrapp's 2008 release. Ah, but then back to the wryly ironic in Loudon Wainwright. I've see him in concert a few times and he never disappoints (and never plays Dead Skunk). I was disappointed to find that Black Lightning wasn't on the 3 CD Richard Thompson retrospective, Watching The Dark. It's still a great collection, but Black Lightning should have been on it. It's a great story from a great storyteller. Speaking of storytellers, we move onto The The's Matt Johnson, who can certainly tell an intense story, as he does here. And finally, another song from my Oceania CD, bought in Australia. This is one of my favorite songs of all time, even.
Also picked up a couple of new CDs this week. First up is a local group called Passion Pit. I heard a good song on WZBC coming home from hockey and figured out it was either Passion Pit or Magic Magic. Then I saw Passion Pit's latest CD for only US$6 at Newbury Comics, so I thought it was worth a gamble. Unfortunately, it wasn't the right one. It turned out the great song I heard was from Magic Magic,and was their Over Your Heart song, which is really good. Passion Pit is okay, with this song being the highlight of the CD:
But even better is the Tyondai Braxton CD, Central Market. I've already introduced you to Opening bell here, but another excellent song is the centerpiece, an over 10 minute opus of modern orchestral pop:
Things I Loathe
- Seeing my girls sick. They are pretty tough kids - not complainers at all. So when they are sick, they are sick. And there's just not much to do about it, which is the worst feeling as a parent.
- Darkness at 5pm (and it'll get worse before it gets better)
Things I Love
- The look of Borderlands. Played about an hour last night and it seemed quite fun.
- Backstopping a shutout. Hey, it's only pickup hockey, but it is my first shutout, and against a team with our best player on it. Pretty cool.
- Discovering unique new music. Check out this song from Tyondai Braxton's Central Market:
- Settling in on the couch with R10.4 for an afternoon of football. We're addicted to NFL RedZone HD - "football porn" as one of my friends called it. Just all the good parts, with none of the commercials - heaven!
- Alexandra's Melody du Jour on WZBC Friday mornings, 7-9am.
- Svatba - The Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir (Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares 1990)
- Roam - The B-52s (Time Capsule 1998)
- Railroad - Kasey Chambers (Carnival 2006)
- Boot Hill - Stevie Ray Vaughn (The Sky Is Crying 1991)
- Apple+Option+Fire - Hot Lava (2009 Bar/None Records Sampler 2009)
- You Can't Steal A Gift - El Perro Del Mar (From the Valley to the Stars 2008)
- You Like Me Too Much - The Beatles (Help! 1965)
- Sweet Water Pools - Screaming Blue Messiahs (Bikini Red 1987)
- Brand New Cadillac - The Clash (London Calling 1979)
- Masters of War - Bob Dylan (The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan 1963)
We're covering a lot of ground here, so we'll need to get started! First up are some mesmerizing female voices, in a CD that could be said to have ushered in the era of "international" sounds. Time Capsule is a solid greatest hits collection. The Australian country/rock/folk singer, Kasey Chambers, had one of my favorite CDs of 2008, collaborating with her husband, Shane Nicholson on Rattlin' Bones, so I picked up her previous CD, a more rockin' one. One nice thing about random play - you're reminded of CDs you haven't really listened to, and Carnival is one of them. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't really introduced to Stevie Ray Vaughn until it was too late, but The Sky Is Crying, a posthumous collection of tracks, is simply breathtaking. I'm a big fan of the Amazon MP3 (free!) sampler "albums", and the 2009 Bar/None Records one is a favorite. Unfortunately, it does't look like it is still available. Thanks to W♥M, I fell in love with El Perro Del Mar's super low key music and this is a very nice track. Help! is one of my favorite Beatles album and while you may not recognize the song title, I'm pretty sure you'll recognize the song. The short-lived and much lamented Screaming Blue Messiahs have shown up here before and this is another great song from a great CD. And speaking of great CDs, London Calling is certainly one of my "Desert Island" CDs - just an amazing collection of sounds, music, styles and beats. And finally, we'll go back even more, back to one of Bob Dylan's first CDs. Rougher and folkier, with some serious anger issues, and loaded with classics.
I have picked up a few new CDs, and they have each been wonderful in their own ways. The Black Heart Procession's Six is a wonderfully atmospheric effort, full of dark goth rock, witches, blood, rats and drugs. I really enjoyed their earlier song Not Just Words from The Spell and so when I saw this new effort on sale at Newbury Comics, in the fancy hardcover version, I just had to pick it up. It wasn't a mistake!
Even better is the amazing In And Out Of Control by The Raveonettes, a duo from Copenhagen. I just love this CD and the girls do too. Lots of poppy, jangly songs, whose very dark lyrics contrast sharply with the upbeat peppy rhythms, a dichotomy I just adore! With song titles like Gone Forever, Last Dance, Boys Who Raped (Should All Be Destroyed), and Suicide, you'd expect the dirges, a la Black Heart Procession, but instead you get noise-pop, driven by Sharin Foo's marvelously girlish voice. Last Dance dragged me in, but really every song here is solid.
A racy Anya Marina video, with her cover of Whatever You Like. For you Weeds fans out there, recognize any of the customers to this sex toy store?
- Some People - Goldfrapp (Seventh Tree 2008)
Here Comes The Sun - The Beatles (Abbey Road 1969)
Jesse The Goat - Joker's Daughter (The Last Laugh 2009)
Sweet Perfume - Les Sampou (Sweet Perfume 1999)
Moon & Stars - Jeff & Mycha Danna (A Celtic Romance: The Legend of Lladain and Curithur 1998)
Generator ^ Second Floor - Freelance Whales (Weathervanes 2009)
Another nice mix, going clear from the 60s to an as yet unreleased CD. We start off with a great followup CD from Goldfrapp, as I loved their Supernature CD. The Beatles is an old CD, not from the new pressings. The Mono box set is high on my wishlist. Joker's Daughter is a combo effort of a Greek folksinger and producer extraordinaire Danger Mouse. Some really unique sounds. Then we follow up with one of my favorite musical genres, swing; this collection is an excellent one. Les Sampou is a local folk / pop singer who does some really nice stuff. Of course, Bruce. Mycha Danna did the brilliant soundtrack for The Sweet Hereater, a DVD I bought before I even had a DVD player, I liked it so much. Some really nice Celtic music here too. The Freelance Whales are a group I first heard here on Stereogum and I loved their stuff. Their debut CD is supposedly coming out at CD Baby soon - can't wait! And yes, the randomizer put a whale song right after it, honestly! This is from Lou Reed's classic set of cynical songs. And finally, a good one from one of my top CDs of the 80s.
- Katy Blake - Adrienne (Katy Blake 2005)
- Scissor Sisters - Filthy/Gorgeous (Scissor Sisters 2004)
- Goanna - Some Kinda Magic (Oceania)
- Private Lightning - America/Burning Love (Live at the Paradise 1980)
- Voice of the Beehive - I Say Nothing (Let It Bee 1988)
- Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon (Single Version) (Fleetwood Mac 1975)
- The Rolling Creekdrippers - In My Hour Of Darkness (Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons 1999)
- Pink Floyd - Waiting For The Worms (The Wall (Disc 2) 1979)
- J.J. Cale - Downtown L.A. (Anyway The Wind Blows: The Anthology [Disc 2] 1997)
- The The - This Is The Day (Soul Mining 1983)
Some interesting notes about the sources of a few of these songs. Rhapsody is why I got both Adrienne and the JJ Cale anthology. The former came about as I searched for a song for Adrienne, as we had an obvious song fo Rhiannon. Katy Blake is a folk artist and this is a pretty nice song about her daughter. Tommy James also has an "Adrienne" song. And I kept hearing great stuff on Rhapsody from JJ Cale and is low-key, lo-fi anthology is really solid.
The Goanna CD I bought in a Sydney record store and even AMG's Goanna page doesn't list it. There's a couple great songs on it though.
Private Lightning is a great local group from the early 80s and lots of recordings have been made available finally, including their one release.
Pretty funny that Rhiannon showed up in the Random 10, at the same time as Adrienne! And Soul Mining remains a favorite CD to this day.
A Quiet Flame: A Bernie Gunther Mystery by Philip Kerr
My rating: ★★★✩✩
Perhaps the weakest Bernie Gunther mystery to date. The flashback style felt especially forced, for some reason. A few good lines, but once again, the web that ensnares Bernie just seems far too convoluted. Maybe I'm just not subtle enough, but the long range goal seems so unlikely in hindsight that it bugs me.
In this one, Bernie has just got off the boat in Argentina, where he was bound at the end of the previous book. He meets the Perons, both Evita and Juan, gets involved in counter spying on other Germans and, most especially, other ex-SS agents. He also gets tangled up with more Jewish refugees, including romantically. There are a few close calls, and the main disappearance mystery is solved in the end.
Speaking of the main mystery's solution, I hated it. It was both vastly unlikely as well as far too neat. Usually there are many strands in a Bernie Gunther book, and while there were several here too, they got all tied up in a manner that made me think Kerr just got tired of writing.
There was also far too much anti-Nazi speechifying. Yes, we all know how horrific it was, and must have been. And we know Bernie wasn't a Nazi, but man, he got strident about it. Maybe Kerr was trying to draw some modern parallels, but I prefer my private eyes to be more cynical and less strident.
The ending seems to have left open the possibility of more, but much like Lee Child's Reacher series, it all seems worn out by now. I hope Mr. Kerr stretches out again.
My dad died on Sept. 19 after complications following his open heart surgery. Still a young, vital man at 73, he was a good friend, a wonderful father, and a superb role model. Last week was an awful week, but made survivable through the incomparable support of family, friends, neighbors and yes, even Internet buddies. Getting back on an even keel is going to be hard. Here's what I said, or at least tried to say, at his memorial service. Be sure to insert plenty of, shall we say, dramatic pauses.
Well, who would've thunk it – a boy from the mean streets of Hartford grows up to be an avid woodsman, hunter, fisherman and, yes, even farmer.
Growing up on the farm meant a never ending supply of stories. To this day, I can entertain city slickers at a dinner party for hours with stories of raising pigs, chickens, lambs, even bulls and, most entertainingly, turkeys. He wasn't afraid of anything and just figured it would work out in the end. And, of course, it usually did.
Dad loved his sports but within reason, unlike some of us who seem to have nothing in our wardrobes but team insignia gear. He took me to my first baseball game at Shea Stadium, sometime in the late 60s. And when, in 1986, I waited 4 days in line for the privilege of purchasing a single pair of tickets in the nosebleed section of the Fenway bleachers for World Series Game 4, there was never any doubt as to who was coming with me. I'm fairly certain there was a baseball game being played, but to this day I'm not sure how we ever got home. Must have been a very friendly cabbie. When I first heard the word that the Dodgers would be playing the Red Sox in Fenway, I immediately began planning how to get us a pair of Monster seats. At least we'd know one of his teams would win.
Dad loved to fish and a particularly vivid memory of the farm is of him and I donning long sleeve shirts, long pants, hats, spraying ourselves with both Deep Woods Off and even RAID, then heading out into the back 60 to fish our little trout brook. He always looked back fondly on the days of surfcasting while living on Cape Cod, although he never taught me the trick to actually catching a fish from the ocean. The day of “pickle” fishing with my daughters and their Papa on Pushaw Lake last summer will forever be a treasured memory of mine and, I think, the girls too.
But it was hunting where we bonded the most. From the earliest memories as a kid of long drives to Maine, trying to find a spot under a bed to sleep to avoid getting stepped on, marathon games of 31, early cold mornings and walking behind my Dad, waiting for the cherished moment when he would finally let me carry his gun. And of course, making him leave the woods early because my feet would get cold, a harbinger of times when it would be reversed, as he hated to wear the “gunga boots” that would keep his feet warm.
Later, I would get my own gun, do my own walking, and finally bring down my own deer, and it made it even sweeter that we used his tag for it. There were many cold mornings, warm lunches and tall tales spun. It will be very strange and sad this fall, as I've never been hunting without him before.
He really showed his balance as a father. While Dad had many great qualities as a father, including honesty, consistency and interest, if there is one trait of his I would want to have as a father myself, it was his uncanny ability to balance advice with support. If you wanted advice, he'd be happy to give it and you could be sure it would be honest and useful. You would then be free to make you own decisions and suffer your own consequences. And whether you followed his advice or not, he was always there to help. If you succeeded, he would be in the front row of the cheering section. If you failed, he would be among the first to help you up, dust you off and get you moving again. I had plenty of failures, usually directly attributable to not following his advice. Whenever I think about it, the wonderful quote from the ever accurate Mark Twain comes to mind:
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years. - Mark Twain
Pabs, you are going to be missed but I have you pictured in my mind's eye sitting back in a place where the sun is blazing and the martinis are ice cold. In other words, Paradise.
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