Another Piece of Shooflypie

2009-07-04T08:46:00.002-05:00

RELAUNCH

I've changed my mind completely. Not only am I going to continue blogging, I am relaunching the blog as Shooflypie Season 3. Please join me over there and see if I can actually produce.

2009-06-30T22:44:00.002-05:00

GONE AGAIN

I am hanging up the blogging hat again and I won't be picking it up for the next 6 months minimum. It is part of a number of changes I am making to try and open myself up to creative ventures - I haven't written a new song this year and only 1 in the last year total. I've still never given myself a chance to write and I want to do it. I'm shutting down my file at the comics shop as well; I'm not giving up comics, just sticking to trades and not pre-ordering (hard to budget that way). I'm thinking about ditching Twitter for a while as well and cutting down on my feeds on my Google Reader. I need to change the way I go about things for a while and see what happens. Doesn't mean I'll never do these things again; it's what I need to do to try and activate dreams that go back to my childhood.

See you in 2010...or not.

2009-06-28T21:36:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #140

I spent most of the day at a picnic as part of a celebration of my 20th high school reunion. It was a blast but it's late, so here comes the music...

1. Major Label Debut (Fast)/Broken Social Scene (2)
2. All I Need Is Y0u/Portastatic (7)
3. The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)/The Decemberists (5)
4. Black Eyed Suzy/Justin Townes Earle (4)
5. Cocoon/The Decemberists (5)
6. Better Dead Than Lead/Ted Leo & The Pharmacists (2)
7. Andiamo/The Twilight Singers (12)
8. Priest's Knees/Destroyer (12)
9. Singer Castle Bells/Great Lake Swimmers (5)
10. Disappear/Crooked Fingers (3)

2009-06-21T20:32:00.007-05:00

DOUBLE FEATURE

I've mentioned on more than one occasion that I've gone back and forth on the issue of whether I should buy comics in single format at all. There have been periods where I've bought only trades and periods where I've bought a few monthlies as well. Those latter times usually last 6 to 8 months before I give it all up and go back to trades. Well, I'm determined to try to find a way for me to buy and read both, even buying some things in singles format that I may want to buy in collected form later. Yes, it's all very complicated or at least I make it that way. Getting to the point, I bought a couple comics two Wednesdays ago that remind me why I do like to read things is serialized format.

I bought the new series of Booster Gold when it started up in 2007. I'd always liked the character and I found the book to be highly entertaining but ended up losing touch in the last swing back to trades. The series is now in the hands of Dan Jurgens, who originally created Booster and made the first series such a favorite of mine that I talked about it in a speech my freshman year of high school (in 1986).

I picked up #21 of the current series for 2 reasons. First, the cover promised Booster tangling with Batman (whose cape is now being filled by Dick Grayson, the first Robin, due to Bruce Wayne's death). Second, the series is now carrying a second feature - Blue Beetle. DC is adding 10 page co-features to a number of its comics as a way of justifying higher prices ($3.99 per issue on selected titles). It's pricey but in this instance, the comic was worth it.

The lead feature is the first of the four-part "Day of Death" storyline. Booster is big-time hero but he has to pretend he is an ineffectual glory hound in order to keep secret his status as a time-traveler. He is working with Rip Hunter, who seems to be up to something as the issue opens. Sure, it looks like he is looking for a chink in the Black Beetle's armor but Booster isn't sure he can be fully trusted. Rip sends Booster to the Batcave, because there are some pictures there that reveal the truth about Booster (Batman was the only one aware of Booster's mission but Batman isn't exactly Batman anymore). Booster decides to trust Dick with the secret (that he tried to save Barbara Gordon from being shot; Dick is very close to Barbara) when the Black Beetle shows up and decides to change the timeline. At the end, it appears he has succeeding in killing Dick in the past. I'm interested to see where the story goes from here.

I read the first issue or three of the Blue Beetle series when it first came out but quickly lost track. I've found the character to be a lot of fun on the Batman: Brave and the Bold TV show and welcomed the chance to check in the character in the comics realm. Plus, writer Matt Sturges is someone I like (I read his novel Midwinter a few months back and have enjoyed his work on Jack of Fables, though I'm woefully behind on that series) and artist Mike Norton always turns out quality work. Well, there was plenty to like. Most especially, a giant yellow robot named Thinko! that Beetle had to battle. A fun comic.

Two good stories in one comic book? That's the way it should be. I will definitely be back for the next issue.

On the other end of the spectrum is the latest series from Vertigo, The Unwritten. This is a creator-owned series from Mike Carey and Peter Gross (such an underrated artist) and the first issue was over-sized and priced at $1. How can you resist that? I didn't and while I liked the issue well enough, the series really takes off with #2. The book is the story of Tom Taylor, the inspiration for a series of Harry Potter-like novels by his father. But it turns out he might not be Wilson Taylor's son after all. The series is steeped in fiction; Tom knows geography by way of fiction, though he hasn't read the books. There are forces skulking about, including a man who creates a cell phone through letters and then let's it dissolve back into the same. And what is the deal with Lizzie Hexam? Is she more than the protagonist of Dickens' Our Mutual Friend? I can't wait to see where this series goes and I'm not going to wait for trades either. How's that for an endorsement?

2009-06-21T07:21:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #139

Happy Father's Day to those of you who may be reading. I'm going to spend the day doing a lot of chores, watching baseball, and reading (Infinite Summer starts today). But first, we're going to see what pops up on iTunes...

1. Market Girl/Headlights (7)
2. Alphabet Pony/The Kills (4)
3. It's Me/Dinosaur Jr. (14)
4. Puncture Repair/Elbow (19)
5. Learo, You're a Hole/Archers of Loaf (10)
6. Keep A Friend/Dr. Dog (6)
7. What Do You Look Forward To?/Superchunk (14)
8. Wine, Women, and Song/Harvey Danger (35)
9. Un Dernier Verre (Pour La Route)/Beirut (3)
10. Another Radio Song/Okkervil River (7)

2009-06-15T08:42:00.004-05:00

A JUNE TRADITION

I've been reading Asimov's for many years now. I believe I started around 1993 or 1994 and at some point not too long after I dropped my subscription for a year or so before picking back up and reading it continuously ever since. The magazine has introduced me to a bunch of writers I love, including James Patrick Kelly. The June 2009 issue has a bit of a tribute to Kelly, as it marks the 25th anniversary of his first June issue story. That's right, he has had a story in the June issue every year since 1994, for a total of 26 stories. It's quite a feat.

Taking a look at the bibliography on Kelly's website, the first of the June stories that I remember reading for sure is "Breakaway, Backdown" from 1996 (guess I've been reading consistently at least that long and I don't recall reading "Think Like a Dinsosaur" from the June 1995 issue, though I've since read it). I also remember wanting to talk to people about it at the time but none of my friends (internet or otherwise) were reading Asimov's. Unfortunately, I don't recall what the story was about, only my enthusiasm for it.

Over the years, I've come to anticpate Kelly's June appearances. I know I'm going to get a story I like and I know the stories aren't necessarily going to be similar. He doesn't have a partiuclar style other than clear writing, a willingness to experiment with ideas big or small, and characters you can care about. From recent years, "Men Are Trouble" (2004) and "The Leila Torn Show" (2006) are particular standouts.

Kelly has three story collections that have been published by Golden Gryphon - Think Like a Dinosaur and Other Stories, Strange But Not a Stranger, and The Wreck of the Godpseed (which came out late last year). I'm a big fan of Golden Gryphon and have always meant to pick up the collections...but have never gotten around to it. Well, there is a 2-for-1 sale going on right now and with Father's Day coming up this weekend, I think I'm going to make a request for a present. That means I'll probably be talking about his work more on the blog as the months roll by.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention this year's story, "Going Deep." It's the story of Mariska, a 13 year-old clone of a spacer, who has an adopted father, an upcoming arranged marriage, and ambivalent thoughts about her predetermined life. She reaches a decision that she knows isn't the best but it ends up working out in the end. While it's not my favorite Kelly story, it's definitely worth reading.

2009-06-14T19:20:00.003-05:00

DICKENSIAN

I feel like the universe is telling me to read Charles Dickens and not just one book either. No, his total output. I'm not sure why this is happening either. The notion popped into my head a week or so ago and since then I've seen references to Dickens here and there in my life. It's not a project I'm going to undertake right now, especially with my reading of Infinite Jest scheduled to start in a week. Once that project is over, I'll already have been in an English class for a few weeks and will have a bunch of reading to do there, I'm sure. It remains to be seen if the idea keeps afloat in the back of my brain - if that's the case, I'll probably have to do something about it.

I did just finish my 16th book of the year, Stalking the Unicorn by Mike Resnick. Originally published in 1987, it was just reissued last year by Pyr along with a sequel, Stalking the Vampire (which I also have out from the library). John Justin Mallory is a detective in Manhattan who is drunk on New Year's Eve. He is hired by an elf to recover a unicorn, which takes him to another Manhattan where such creatures life, along with leprechauns, demons, Gnomes of the Subway, goblins, trolls, and magic doesn't exist (what you think is magic is just science you don't know). Over the course of the novel, Mallory learns about the world and makes a few big decisions about his own. It's a fun book. I've been trying to decide if I should plow straight into the next book or read something in between, just because. We'll see.

This week I also read the April/May issue of F&SF. It is the first of the new bigger-sized bi-monthly issues but the only real changes are just those two things. F&SF is always dependable and if this issue didn't have any particular standouts, it also didn't have any stories that weren't worth reading. I call that a win.

2009-06-14T07:23:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #138

It looks like we might get two nice days out of the last three today; it would be nice if summer finally showed up. It would also be nice if I could stop going around and around in my head about the blog...we'll see if I put up some posts this week. Anyway, how about some music?

1. Ashes of American Flags (engineer demo)/Wilco (2)
2. I Feel Better/Frightened Rabbit (14)
3. Song for Myla Goldberg/The Decemberists (11)
4. No Dreams/Oakley Hall (8)
5. It's Not the End of the World/Sloan (17)
6. Almost Over/Elliott Smith (8)
7. The Lines You Amend/Sloan (13)
8. Guyamas Sonora/Beirut (5)
9. Ada/The National (17)
10. Down in the Valley/The Broken West (21)

2009-06-09T09:10:00.003-05:00

FINITELY INFINITE

I have committed to a summer project - along with a couple thousand other people, I am going to be reading David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. The reading group is called Infinite Summer and the goal is to read the book over the course of the summer, June 21 to Sept. 22. The book is over 1000 pages long with a ridiculous amount of endnotes, so you need to average about 75 pages a week. That's doable.

When I was younger, it was a badge of honor to read books that were 500 pages or more; I would even reject books that were under 300 pages as not being worth my time. Obviously, I don't feel that way anymore but I still do like the challenge of a big book. Plus, I've been interested in reading Infinite Jest for years and this is a good way to finally do it.

I'm not a reader who usually reads multiple books at the same time, so this will be an interesting experiment in that regard as well. I plan on posting about what I read each week and will try to keep up with the discussion over at the website. I finally start taking an English class this fall, so this will be a good kickstart for that as well.

If anyone else is going to do it, let me know!

2009-06-07T21:09:00.002-05:00

POWERING UP

I've decided to resume semi-regular posting to the blog with this, my 600th post. Now that summer's here I have some more to to devote to it and I've found I do miss it. I am not coming back with promises as to frequency of posts or as to what the subject matter will be, though I do have some ideas as to features. I do want to get away from my posts just being a series of lists, to bring some actual content. A quick perusal of my 2009 posts shows I haven't talked about any music or books or anything of substance, so there is quite a bit I could talk about. So please stop by occasionally or add me to your feed reader; I hope to entertain.

2009-06-07T07:45:00.003-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #137

It's not been a good week - my back seized up on me Tuesday morning and I spent a good portion of time on the floor unable to move without excruciating pain. It's gotten better as the week has gone along but I missed the last few days of school and couldn't even play cornhole at a birthday party yesterday. At least we had a great time in Baltimore and Washington D.C. for my cousin's wedding last weekend. So, I'm using the Sunday Shuffle as some comfort food this morning and I'm okay with that.

1. She's A Rejecter/Of Montreal (7)
2. Take A Rake/Centro-Matic (9)
3. Quito/The Mountain Goats (17)
4. Sex On Fire/Kings of Leon (8)
5. An Apology/Canasta (12)
6. The Next Messiah/Jenny Lewis (12)
7. Jezebel/Two Hours Traffic (15)
8. Dark Leaves Form a Thread/Destroyer (7)
9. Oh, Take Me Back/M. Ward (6)
10. And Your Bird Can Sing/Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs (2)

2009-05-24T07:25:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #136

Woke up this morning and felt like doing a Sunday Shuffle. It's not indicative of anything necessarily, though I have been giving thought to coming back to blogging on a more regular basis. For now, ten random songs from my iTunes is enough...

1. My Goodbyes/South San Gabriel (6)
2. This Ain't a Scene/The Henry Clay People (9)
3. Snakes of Hawaii/Army Navy (9)
4. Furr/Blitzen Trapper (7)
5. A Side Wins/Sloan (18)
6. Stuck Between Stations/The Hold Steady (27)
7. Great Expectations/Elbow (14)
8. Silence Kid/Pavement (12)
9. Lady On The Water/Blitzen Trapper (6)
10. Look, Honey, Peaches/Portastatic (5)

2009-03-29T15:34:00.003-05:00

POWERING DOWN

I am setting the blog aside for an indeterminate amount of time. The reality is that I spend time on Twitter and Facebook and that probably won't be changing anytime soon. I do like the idea of the blog but there is a big disconnect between coming up with ideas for posts and writing the actual posts themselves. I also still have dreams to be published as a creative writer and I want to take some time to work towards that goal (though it will have to wait another 6 weeks until college is over for me). Today is my 38th birthday and I'm feeling some of that "Year of 35" spirit; I am soon going to record an EP and I feel it is time to keep pushing myself forward.

I'm not sure how long I will be away from this blog...it could be a couple months and I could never come back to it. I have no plan and that's just fine with me. Close to a quarter of my almost 600 posts over the past 3+ years here have been Sunday Shuffles and while I will miss that ritual every Sunday morning, I'll probably still do it for myself.

Thanks to all of you who have come by over the years. Please check me out on Twitter and you can look me up on Facebook if you so desire. Take care.

2009-03-29T07:43:00.003-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #135

Today's shuffle is going to be a double issue for two reasons - today is my 38th birthday and this will be the last Sunday Shuffle for an indeterminate amount of time (more on that later). So, let's celebrate with a bunch of music...

1. Too Much to Hide/Joseph Arthur (12)
2. Weary Arms/Crooked Fingers (3)
3. Capturing Moods/Rilo Kiley (3)
4. Long As I Can See the Light/Creedence Clearwater Revival (5)
5. Slow Down Chicago/Canasta (9)
6. Jaipur/The Mountain Goats (14)
7. Time Left For Love/Shout Out Louds (8)
8. Sleep Sunshine/The Whigs (15)
9. Whatever (Folk Song In C)/Elliott Smith (12)
10. Flying High Again/Sloan (17)
11. Old Time Lovin'/Al Green (3)
12. Blood Bank/Bon Iver (5)
13. Nevermind The Phonecalls/Earlimart (12)
14. Forget Myself/Elbow (11)
15. Jigsaw/Mates Of State (6)
16. Idylls Of The King/The Mountain Goats (19)
17. Claws Tracking/Spoon (4)
18. Angela/Oakley Hall (4)
19. [Untitled Track]/The Black Keys (11)
20. Souls Like the Wheels/The Avett Brothers (5)
21. Act Of The Apostle/Belle and Sebastian (12)
22. A Sunday Smile/Beirut (4)
23. Pick Me Up/Dinosaur Jr. (10)
24. Flume/Bon Iver (9)
25. Manitoba/Tapes 'n Tapes (9)

2009-03-22T07:24:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #134

I'm on my second spring break of the year, so this week will either bring a handful of blog posts or I'll just accept the fact that I'm just a Sunday shuffler...

1. Where's That Hit?/Hoodoo Gurus (3)
2. Before I Do/Sloan (12)
3. These Days Nothing But Sunshine/The Clientele (8)
4. Challengers/The New Pornographers (22)
5. Working Girls (Sunlight Shines)/Pernice Brothers (15)
6. How To Fight Loneliness/Wilco (1)
7. Little Round Mirrors/Harvey Danger (46)
8. Green River/Creedence Clearwater Revival (9)
9. Open Eyes/Apples In Stereo (13)
10. Where I'm Anymore/Grandaddy (13)

2009-03-15T08:06:00.003-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #133

The Sunday Shuffle is determined by turning the shuffle mode on and then taking the first 10 songs that I have loaded onto iTunes. I share the computer with my wife and son, so there is plenty of music I don't care for and don't claim. Here's my music...

1. Andalucia/Crooked Fingers (3)
2. Black Out/Pavement (7)
3. Souverian/Andrew Bird (5)
4. Shaped Like a Gun/Verbena (3)
5. Jet Stream/Brendan Benson (19)
6. Town Where You Belong/Earlimart (9)
7. Campershell Dreams/Grandaddy (13)
8. Giving It Up/Josh Rouse (11)
9. Charly/Higgins (5)
10. It's Natural To Be Afraid/Explosions In The Sky (12)

2009-03-08T08:08:00.003-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #132

I'm on my college spring break this week, so maybe I'll get to other posts. Maybe. This past week was one where I was in more of a reading mode than a watching mode...I really don't have time to be in both at once. I'm always in a listening mode, though, so let's get to the songs...

1. Red Dust/Iron And Wine/Calexico (11)
2. Apple/Saturday Looks Good To Me (9)
3. Jornada Del Muerto #20/South San Gabriel (5)
4. A Cunning Latch/Portastatic (4)
5. No Backbone/The Lemonheads (14)
6. Fisher of Men/M. Ward (6)
7. Marie Provost/Nick Lowe (5)
8. Elijah/The Mountain Goats (9)
9. Jimmy the Exploder/The White Stripes (10)
10. If It Works/Tokyo Police Club (12)

2009-03-02T22:26:00.002-06:00

FEBRUARY 2009 ROUNDUP

I started doing one tonight but I ended up boring myself and erased it. I may just discontinue this feature. What I'd rather do is write more meaningful posts about what I've consumed rather than the laundry lists, so this is either the first step in that direction or just more waffling. Time will tell...

2009-03-02T21:35:00.002-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #131 (MONDAY EDITION)

We've been having some internet issues over the past few days and I wasn't able to get the suffle done yesterday. It's after 9:30 on Monday night but my week just doesn't feel right unless it starts off with the shuffle, so here we go...

1. Tractor Rape Chain/Guided By Voices (6)

2. 1995/Luna (6)

3. Pink Clouds/Superchunk (9)

4. pleasure is mine/Matthew Sweet (7)

5. The Death Of Big Ed Delahanty/The Baseball Project (3)

6. Pinball Song/Slobberbone (16)

7. Grounded/Pavement (5)

8. What Do You Go Home To?/Explosions In The Sky (9)

9. Imitosis/Andrew Bird (8)

10. Summerteeth (live)/Jeff Tweedy (9)

2009-02-28T10:10:00.002-06:00

eMUSIC ROUND THIRTY-SEVEN

This month marks the start of my fourth year with eMusic and I continue to be very happy with the service. My biggest problem is trying to get my downloads to work out every month but I've managed to do it 36 times, so I guess it's not that big of a problem. Anyway, here's what I downloaded in February...

Ben Kweller/Changing Horses
The Henry Clay People/For Cheap Or For Free
M. Ward/Hold Time
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit/Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit
Le Switch/And Now...Le Switch
J. Tillman/Minor Works

2009-02-22T07:37:00.002-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #130

Lots of college work this week wiped out any chance of posting. I may get one or two up today but I've got a pretty bad cold, so my head isn't that sharp. We'll see. It doesn't take any brainpower to bring you today's ten, however, so without further rambling...

1. Half Dead/The Mountain Goats (9)
2. Nineteen Seventy Nine/Lucero (4)
3. California Stopover/The Ladybug Transistor (7)
4. Shooting Rockets (From the Desk of Night's Ape)/Destroyer (8)
5. The Next Messiah/Jenny Lewis (8)
6. Don't Buy the Realistic/Spoon (3)
7. Black Hole/The Rosebuds (8)
8. Little Brother/Elk City (10)
9. Black Rain, Black Rain/A.A. Bondy (13)
10. Suzy Lee/The White Stripes (11)

2009-02-15T15:11:00.003-06:00

ASIMOV'S JAN. 2009

I finished this issue a few weeks ago but never got around to writing about it. It got recycled back then but I think I can remember well enough to say a few things about the stories; I'd like to not miss writing about a month of either Asimov's or F&SF this year.

The issue started off with Mary Rosenblum's "Lion Walk," where a mystery arises about girls getting killed on a nature preserve in the near future. Rosenblum is not concerned only with the mystery but where society has gotten to. It's good solid SF.

"Passing Perry Crater Base, Time Uncertain" is a short piece by Larry Niven that was okay but not memorable enough that I can remember anything about it other than my general impression.

Will McIntosh's "Bridesicle," on the other hand, is completely memorable. It's set in (perhaps) the same future as a previous Asimov's story (was it "Midnight Blue?") where people who die can stick around in the consciousness of their offspring. This story goes even further, into a future where the cryogenically-frozen dead can be brought back to life (and maybe to a real body) if they become brides. It's told from the perspective of a prospective "bridesicle" who also happens to be a lesbian. Good stuff.

"Five Thousand Light Years from Birdland" by Robert R. Chase is a solid first contact story in which a member of the translation team is sacrificed by being sent to the alien world, except for the fact that he understands more than the rest. Solid SF.

E. Salih makes his debut with "Messiah Excelsa" but unfortunately doesn't do much for me with a story about time travel and Stradivarius. It wasn't the subject as much as the execution.

Nancy Kress looks at divorce through the lens of a dog who can "talk" in "Unintended Behavior," a sharp little tale that I liked.

Finally, "Uncle Bones" by Damien Broderick focuses on the conspiracy behind a treatment that allows the dead to live, albeit in a way that makes them outcasts from society (as well they would be). It's a fun story (and yes, I know that sounds incongruous but it is).

In all, it's another solid issue of Asimov's...

2009-02-15T09:05:00.002-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #129

I still have two days left of my weekend (minus a couple hours teaching at the Y tomorrow), which makes me happy. I've got things to do, of course, but it's nice not to have to try and get it all done immediately. What I will do immediately is hit you with 10 songs from my iTunes...

1. Frightening Lives/Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew (6)
2. Written Invitation/The Whigs (19)
3. Slope Song/The Essex Green (22)
4. Buffalo Boots/Luna (3)
5. Nursery, Academy/Tokyo Police Club (4)
6. Shiftee/The Broken West (20)
7. a second reply to st anselm of canterbury (ps 17:15)/The Prayers & Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers (17)
8. Submarines Of Stockholm/A.C. Newman (9)
9. Heatseeker/Two Hours Traffic (12)
10. New Year's Day/The Broken West (21)

2009-02-08T08:01:00.002-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #128

I started a couple different posts this week but I ended up deleting them. Maybe this week I'll actually write something and post it! But right now I'm going to get to the music since we're going out to breakfast in the near future...

1. You Can Always Count On Me (In The Worst Way)/Superchunk (8)
2. Queen of Cans and Jars/Guided By Voices (6)
3. Before I Do/Sloan (11)
4. This Is Something I Might Miss/I Love Math (3)
5. San Francisco/Lucero (4)
6. There's A Reason/A.A. Bondy (14)
7. Neon Bible/Arcade Fire (16)
8. Mistaken For Strangers/The National (16)
9. About This Love/Alejandro Escovedo (1)
10. Labyrinthian Pomp/Of Montreal (7)

2009-02-01T15:49:00.004-06:00

JANUARY 2009 ROUNDUP

I wasn't going to do these this year but then I realized I hadn't talked a lot about my pop culture intake lately and this is a (easy) way to do it. I also decided that this year I will count books and comics in the month I read most of them; for example, I started reading a trade yesterday but only read 2 out of the 6 issues collected, so that trade will go on February's log. Okay, blah blah...

I read 2 books in January (Prince of Stories and The Physiognomy). The latter is by Jeffrey Ford, who is one of my favorite writers. It is the first of a trilogy, which was reissued by Golden Gryphon late last year. I liked it, of course, and just a short while ago I started on the next book in the series. Anyway, I'm on a pace for 24 books read this year and it may end up being close to that...we'll see. Last January I read 4 books; my overall average books read in January for the last three years is 2.67.

I read 19 stories in January. Those stories came from the Dec. 2008 and Jan. 2009 issues of Asimov's and the Dec. 2008 issue of F&SF. I also read 19 stories last January; my overall average stories read in January for the last three years is 22.3.

I read 4 comics in January, 3 of which trades (Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes; Fables Vol. 11: War and Pieces; and Scalped Vol. 1: Indian Country). The other was the first issue of Incognito. Last January I read 7 comics, 4 of which were trades; my overall average comics read in January for the last three years is 9 (3.3 trades).

I bought 3 CDs and downloaded 6 more for a total of 9 new CDs in January (the downloads were covered in yesterday's eMusic post; the others were Bruce Springsteen's Working On A Dream; Mark Olson & Gary Louris' Ready For the Flood, and the reissue of The Replacements' All Shook Down). Last January I got 7 new CDs (5 downloads); my overall average of CDs bought in January for the last three years is 8.3 (6 downloads).

I didn't see any movies in the theater in January. I also didn't see any movies in the theater last January; my overall average of movies seen in January for the last three years is .3.

Once again, I've started keeping track of what I'm watching on DVD. I watched all 12 episodes on Flight of the Conchords Season One, all 10 episodes of Battlestar Galactica Seson 4.0, and 6 episodes of Superman: The Animated Series Vol. 3 for a total of 28 episodes. In addition, I watched one commentary (S:TAS Vol. 3), two features (BSG Vol. 4.0 and S:TAS Vol. 3), and the whole of the DVD that came with my deluxe edition of Working On A Dream. That gives me 33 separate DVD viewings in January, more than 1 a day.

I have not kept track of all the TV I've watched In January and won't do so this year. That said, I'll plan on doing a "What I'm Watching" post in the near future.

2009-02-01T08:16:00.003-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #127

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! I am rooting for the Cardinals today but I won't be upset if the Steelers win; I've got a lot of respect for them. Plus, we get Bruce and the E Street Band at halftime and an hour-long episode of The Office afterwards. I will be feasting on a #9 from Jimmy John's, chips, and a Super Bowl sundae for dessert. Yum!

1. Codes, Runes, Dunes/Portastatic (5)
2. The Stand Ins, One/Okkervil River (7)
3. Border Guards/The Rosebuds (6)
4. This Old Chase/The Ladybug Transistor (4)
5. Aging Faces/Losing Places/Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew (6)
6. Angeles/Elliott Smith (20)
7. Fishing Boat Song/M. Ward (8)
8. Outta My Head/M. Ward (12)
9. Seashell Tale/M. Ward (12)
10. Shooting Rockets (From the Desk of Night's Ape)/Destroyer (7)

Guess it's M. Ward's day - just over 2 weeks until his new album, Hold Time!

2009-01-31T15:35:00.003-06:00

eMUSIC ROUND THIRTY-SIX

Hard to believe I'm talking about the end of my third year using eMusic. Here's what I got in January...

A.C. Newman/Get Guilty
Andrew Bird/Noble Beast
Bon Iver/Blood Bank
Tokyo Police Club/Elephant Shell
Rilo Kiley/The Execution of All Things
David Byrne & Brian Eno/Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

Looking forward to year 4!

2009-01-25T07:36:00.004-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #126

I know I talked about suspending the blog last week but I get to Sunday and I have to do the shuffle. It's been a ritual for over 2 years now and I don't want to stop. As for the rest of the blog, I don't necessarily want to stop that either. I think I just have to accept that I won't post on everything I want to and just be happy posting when I have the time and inclination. Anyway, here's today's ten...

1. Natural Disaster/Andrew Bird (2)
2. Lit Up (Remix)/The National (10)
3. Winter '68/The Black Angels (11)
4. Untitled Instrumental/My Morning Jacket (9)
5. Smokin from Shootin/My Morning Jacket (6)
6. Rivers/Destroyer (6)
7. One True Vine/Wilco (12)
8. Blood Bank/Bon Iver (2)
9. Late-Century Dream/Superchunk (13)
10. On the Way Back Home/Lucero (4)

A couple songs I haven't heard in over a year-and-half; a couple songs I just downloaded the other day; that same MMJ instrumental that played last week, and Wilco. Interesting batch today, no?

2009-01-18T07:41:00.003-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #125

I had great plans to post this week and nothing came of it. I did actually write some songs yesterday, which I'm very happy about. College started back up this week too, so my life is busier once again. It's also possible I'll take a break from the blog but we'll see. For now, here are today's ten...

1. Don't Make Me a Target/Spoon (20)

2. The Penalty/Beirut (3)

3. War On War (live)/Jeff Tweedy (7)

4. Flying High Again/Sloan (16)

5. Untitled Instrumental/My Morning Jacket (8)

6. Will I Belong?/Sloan (19)

7. Andiamo/The Twilight Singers (10)

8. Nothing Left To Make Me Want To Stay/Sloan (14)

9. Que Lindo Sueno/King Khan and The Shrines (10)

10. The Good In Everyone/Sloan (12)

I guess it was Sloan's day today!

2009-01-11T22:17:00.002-06:00

FORMATTING FOLLIES

Obviously, I've had some problems formatting my recent posts on comics. I decided I would try and get some more images in my posts this year and while that part has worked well, I can't seem to get the text to do what I want it to. I won't give up and I'll see what I can figure out. If anyone has tips, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

2009-01-11T07:24:00.002-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #124

THis past week went rather quickly, as I got back to work both at the school and at the Y. This week starts the new semester at PNC, so I'll be getting busier once again. The good news? There is only a half day of school this Wednesday, so I get a bit of a break in the afternoon before I have to teach swimming. On to music...

1. Sea Legs/The Shins (8)
2. Jezebel/Two Hours Traffic (12)
3. So Convinced/Superchunk (8)
4. Black Postcards/Luna (6)
5. We Close Our Eyes/British Sea Power (4)
6. Nothing Can Hurt You Now/Glossary (5)
7. Please Tell My Brother (live)/Jeff Tweedy (11)
8. I Could Have Done This Myself/Lightspeed Champion (3)
9. Ill Placed Trust/Sloan (15)
10. The Stars/American Music Club (7)

2009-01-10T15:05:00.005-06:00

EVEN BETTER

One of my Christmas presents was Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes, a hardcover collecting the six issue storyline from Action Comics. Written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Gary Frank and (inker) Jon Sibal, it features Superman reconnecting with his childhood friends and allowed me to reconnect with mine, as this series features the original versions of the long-running (and twice-rebooted) Legion. I talked some about this issues as they came out but I think I enjoyed the story even more this second time around.

Originally, I was swept up in the plot and the pure joy of seeing Blok and Dawnstar and Polar Boy again. But Johns really nailed the essences of these characters - the hotheadedness of Wildfire balanced by the calm practicality of Dawnstar; the arrogance and compassion of Brianiac 5; the positive attitude of Polar Boy.

He also showed why Superman was the inspiration for the future. A non-powered Clark (thanks to Earth's sun having turned red) still fights the fight and is not only loyal to his friends but is still able to inspire them. Obviously, he does not appreciate the Justice League (former Legion rejects, some of whom were members of the Legion of Super-Villains) distorting his life to spread xenophobia on Earth and bring the United Planets to the brink of war. In their final confrontation, Earth-Man tells Superman he doesn't know what it's like to be an outsider, to be rejected. Superman's reply is powerful and well set up by the story.

All of these serious themes and subjects are undercut by bits of humor as well. A major source of this is the reappearance of the Legion of Substitute-Heroes, who hijack a space bus and attack the Justice League in their headquarters. I do love Stone Boy.

The art is a big draw here as well. Frank and Sibal like working on the ladies - rarely have Dawnstar and Shadow Lass looked so good. But they also give us a Superman we can believe in, as well as the entire Legion. Johns ended each issue with a great cliffhanger and the art did not let down the story - Chapter 5's ending of a powerless Superman taking the fight with Earth-Man into space is awesome.

I'm very glad I got this series in hardcover, as I suspect it's one I will return to. My rereading also comes at a good time, since there has been a long gap between issues of Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds (the third is coming at the end of the month, finally) and I was itching to see more of the Legion. It is work like this that makes me continue to love super-hero comics.

2009-01-10T14:04:00.002-06:00

HOW I'M LIKE MY DAD

We got some snow overnight and into this morning; in fact, it just stopped snowing recently and I'm writing this around 2:00 PM. It wasn't a major snow, just a couple inches, though after all the bad weather we've already had this winter it is a bit annoying. Anyway, after a couple hours of procrastination I finally went out to shovel. The snow was light and fluffy, so it wasn't a big chore. I don't just take care of our driveway and sidewalk, though, I also do my neighbor's. She has a bad knee and had a heart attack just over a year ago, so it's best that she doesn't get out there and do it herself.

I had finished our house and was working on hers when she opened up the front door. She said hi and asked why I wasn't using the snowblower. It's actually her snowblower but we took it last year when we started shoveling both houses. I wasn't using the snowblower because I haven't used it at all. I leave it for my wife to use when we both get out and take care of things, which is usually when there's a lot of snow. I figure I'm perfectly capable of shoveling by hand, even if it takes me longer to do things that way. Plus, it's exercise.

After she thanked me and went back inside, I started thinking about the exchange and realized that I was doing what my dad would do. I'm okay with that.

2009-01-09T21:20:00.003-06:00

UPCOMING

One of the best parts about a new year is the anticipation for all the new music and books and comics and TV and movies that will be coming out. 2009 is no exception.

There are 5 albums coming out in the near future that I am looking forward to...

A.C. Newman/Get Guilty (Jan. 20)
Andrew Bird/Noble Beast (Jan. 20)
Bruce Springsteen/Workin' On A Dream (Jan. 27)
M. Ward/Hold Time (Feb. 17)
Neko Case/Middle Cyclones (Mar. 3)

You can go here to watch the new video for the amazing title track from M. Ward's album.

The next couple months also bring the following books...

Chris Roberson/End of the Century
T.C. Boyle/The Women
Colson Whitehead/Sag Harbor

The new Entertainment Weekly is all about the big 2009 movies. Can we say...

Watchmen?
X-Men Origins: Wolverine?
Up?
Public Enemies?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince?
Where the Wild Things Are?

I'm not sure about all the comics coming down the pike (did Wizard even do a 2009 preview issue?) but I know some I'm anticipating...

The last three issues of Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds
The (hopefully) continuing adventures of the original Legion
Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver on Flash: Rebirth
Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5!
A collection of the second season of Casanova? (please?)

And then there's TV, where the following shows all return soon...

Scrubs (it was back this week with 2 very good episodes)
Flight of the Conchords
Battlestar Galactica
Lost
Big Love

Plus, the debut of Dollhouse.

You know what's even better? All the stuff I don't even know about and that will be new to me and blow me away. Bring it, 2009.

2009-01-08T19:41:00.004-06:00

ASIMOV'S DEC. 2008

Continuing my coverage of my ongoing attempts to get caught up on SF magazines...

The issue opens with "Way Down East" Tim Sullivan. It's a meditative story about dreams and class set in the world of lobster trapping. There is an alien as well but it's presence is really just the means with which to look at life. It's quiet and effective.

"Welcome to Valhalla" by Kathryn Lance and Jack McDevitt is a shorter high concept work about Richard Wagner and his encounter with on of the Valkryies, who shows him what will be done in the service of his music. It's a decent story.

Steven Utley steps away from his Silurian setting with "Perfect Everything," a story about misplaced love and a tragedy in space. It's solid.

The husband-and-wife team of Melanie and Steve Rasnic Tem appear with "In Concert." An elderly woman has always had the gift (curse?) of being able to hear snatches of other people's thoughts. It's not just people near her either - in this case, she gets impressions from an astronaut lost in space. This story teetered on the edge of my skipping the rest at times (it could be shorter and still work, I think) but in the end, I enjoyed where it led.

I've never been into Kerouac and his crew but Geoffrey A. Landis's "Still On the Road" is short and good for a chuckle.

The last, longest, and cover story was also my favorite of the issue - David Ira Cleary's "The Flowers of Nicosia." It follows an aging band (Downtown Dharma) as they try to unite West and East in Cyprus amidst upheaval over a biological weapon known as Amanita. The band are followers of Kurt Cobain and do covers of Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots as well as their own music. It's a character study, an issue study, and a big of an action story at times. I dug it.

That's all for this time around but I still have 5 unread SF mags, so the quest continues...

2009-01-04T21:28:00.003-06:00

SOME THOUGHTS

I spent most of my day reading Prince of Stories, a book covering the work of Neil Gaiman by Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden, and Stephen R. Bissette. It features synopses of his comics, novels, short stories, and so forth along with details of his legal battles with Todd McFarlane and interviews and so forth. It's not a perfect book. For instance, the section on his Sandman series summarizes each issue and then includes a "People, Places, and Things" section that pretty much restates the summaries. Still, I enjoyed reading about his work and I chose this book to be my first of the year for a reason, which I will get to shortly. In the end, though, the book makes me want to reread Gaiman's work and pick up the stuff I haven't read yet. Guess the book did its job.

I learned yesterday that F&SF is going to be changing its publishing schedule to every other month starting with the Apr./May issue this year (I just received the Feb. issue in the mail yesterday). The issues will be bigger (longer than the usual double issues are) but they will be losing about 10% of their annual content. It's not surprising with the way things are in publishing these days and I don't fault Gordon Van Gelder for it in the least. I am also glad that the best SF magazine will still be published.

I chose the book about Gaiman because he is one of my favorite writers and I've felt he is an example of the sort of writing career I would like to have. I thought reading about him would help to inspire me. It's no secret that I've wanted to be a writer for a long time...really, ever since I was a kid. College was when I actively made the decision and then spent a long time putting a ton of pressure on myself and becoming depressed over the whole thing. It's a dream I've put on the backburner over the last five years or more as I found something I liked doing and found some self-worth for the first time since I was a teenager.

My "Year of 35" project back in 2006-2007 was a way of reconnecting with all of those old creative dreams. It was always my plan to include writing as part of the project but I was having so much fun with the music and it was on such a smaller scale that I was content.

I start this year realizing that I do still want to write and I think I'm in a better place to do so now. I've made changes in my life that have me heading in a direction for the first time ever and I am content with that direction. Looking back, I think part of my problem with writing is that I had pinned all of my hopes on it...I couldn't conceive of myself doing anything but being a writer. So much pressure. I don't have that pressure now.

I want to see what I can do. I'd love to eventually be published in a place like F&SF, because I respect the magazine so much and greatly enjoy many of the writers published therein. I know that's getting ahead of myself. I'm going to start by trying to get something down, to finish something I start, and see where it goes from there. It's a modest proposition and I'm perfectly fine with that. I'm looking forward to the journey.

2009-01-04T08:15:00.002-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #123

Here's one feature that won't change for 2009...

1. Frozen Gtr/Thurston Moore (4)
2. Navy Sheets/The Hold Steady (14)
3. Make You Up/Portastatic (3)
4. Kicker of Elves/Guided By Voices (6)
5. Cannibals/Crooked Fingers (8)
6. Shivers Down My Spine/King Khan And The Shrines (10)
7. Buffalo Boots/Luna (2)
8. The Bear/My Morning Jacket (5)
9. Tonite It Shows/Mercury Rev (2)
10. A Voice At The End Of The Line/M. Ward (14)

2009-01-03T21:41:00.006-06:00

FIRST

The first comic I bought and read this year also happens to be the first issue of a new mini-series from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, Incognito. This is their second creator-owned book for the Icon imprint and comes while they take a break from their ongoing series Criminal, of which I have been a fan without having read all of the series yet (a fact I plan on remedying in 2009). Incognito grew out of Brubaker's thoughts on the pulp origins of super-heroes, though this series focuses on a villain.

In this first issue, we are introduced to Zach Overkill. He is a former science-villain who teamed with his twin brother under the name Overkill Brothers. His brother is now dead and Zack is in a kind of witness protection under a system set up by Professor Zeppelin. They worked for an organization called Black Death but now Zach is working as a file clerk and his powers are controlled by drugs. He is cut off from society in a number of ways and numbing himself with drugs and women. Things change and events are set in motion that can only end badly. It should be quite a ride.

I am a big fan of Sean Phillips. He draws in a gritty yet clean and accessible style that works very well for these kind of books. He knows how to tell a story through his art. He also does a killer drawing of The Shadow for the back matter, in which Jess Nevins gives us the history of The Shadow. I never realized there were differences betwee the pulp and radio versions before.

Ed Brubaker is interested in what makes criminals tick and this looks to be another great character study. I'm looking forward to seeing where this series goes.

2009-01-03T20:56:00.002-06:00

2009

2008 was a very interesting year for me. I started the year continuing with my job as an assistant in charge of swimming lessons at the YMCA and it was a job a liked, though it could be stressful at times. As the months wore on, however, I became very disenchanted (for a variety of reasons) and started to become quite unhappy. It got to the point where I could see myself taking a long slide back into depression, a state of mind I had worked very hard to shed over a long period of years. I knew I couldn't continue along that path.

What I loved most about my YMCA job was being in the water with the kids teaching them how to swim. I had fun doing it and the kids had fun with me and their parents appreciated what I did for their kids. I realized that I really had become a teacher and found a lot of satisfaction in it. So, I decided I should go back to school and work towards becoming a teacher. Within a couple months of that decision, I was not only back in college but also working as a teacher's aide at a local elementary while also continuing to teach a couple hours of swimming lessons a week. It made for a very interesting a busy four months at the end of the year but I had once again put myself back on a course that was good for me.

Now it's 2009 and I always use the start of the year to try and refine myself as I go forward. I'm not making any specific resolutions for the year (outside of delivering more actual content in the this blog and not just be content to put up a series of lists). I just want to put myself more out there in terms of my life - more willing to try new things, to create, to give more of myself, to spend more time with family and friends, to do my jobs better. I want 2009 to be a year I don't regret, a year I can look back on as a year I completely came into my own.

I realize that sounds pretty ambitious but I think it can be achievable. I want it to be a good year and I'm going to work on making it happen. Wish me luck and I hope all of you have a great year as well.

2008-12-31T22:20:00.002-06:00

2008 ROUNDUP

I know I've been promising Top 10 lists but it's not going to happen. I gave them some thought and have made out some lists in my notebook but I realized it's silly for me to do it. Why just have another post full of lists? And yes, I realize the irony of saying that in a post that's going to be a list/stats. I just need to make sure that I post actual content next year, actual thoughts about what I'm listening to and reading and so forth. Maybe that will make my lists seemed earned next year. Or not.

Anyway, I'm going to rundown my year in pop culture consumption now...

I read 48 books in 2008, meeting the goal I set at the beginning of the year. I also abandoned 7 books this year, reading of 500 pages of those books combined. It was a restless year in a lot of ways, I guess. Last year I read 44 books, so I managed to increase my total again (not so sure that will happen in 2009). I read 26 books in the first half of the year and 22 in the second. I read 10 books by Kage Baker, 3 that George R.R. Martin wrote or at least had a hand in, and 2 each by Michael Chabon, Gregory Frost, and Jeffrey Ford. There were quite a few story collections and a fair amount of non-fiction for me. I average 4 books read each month and it was a good year of reading.

I read 264 short stories in 2008. I'm sure I abandoned some stories this year but I didn't keep track of that stat this year. My high was 50 stories read in November and my low was July, when I didn't read any stories. I read 144 stories in the first half of the year and 120 in the second half. The stories came from 9 issues of Asimov's, 10 issues of F&SF, and 11 story collections. My average stories read per month was 22. Last year I read 216 stories and averaged 18 a month.

I read 83 comics in 2008, 35 of which were trades (and 10 of those were rereads). I read 62 of those in the first half of the year (24 trades) and only 21 in the second half (11 trades). It was a year when I read the entirety of Y: The Last Man and Zot! (well, close to it). I read 14 comics twice - in February and again in June (but in June it was all trades as opposed to only 1 trade and 13 singles in Feb.). I read 2 comics each in September, November, and December (and in each case, it was 2 trades). My average comics read per month was 6.92 (2.92 for trades). Last year I read 119 comics (27 trades) and average 9.92 per month (2.25 for trades).

I'd like to pause and just note the downward trend in all of my reading in the second half of the year. Not a surprise when you consider I was working 2 jobs and taking 6 credit hours from the end of August on.

I bought, downloaded, or received 89 CDs in 2008. 68 of those were downloaded and 4 of the grand total were EPs; I also downloaded 13 songs. March was the biggest month with 10 new CDs and September was the smallest with only 4 new CDs (though one was a double disc set). I got 50 CDs in the first half of the year and only 39 in the second half. My average CDs per month was 7.42. Last year I got 110 CDs and my average was 9.17.

I saw 9 movies in the theater in 2008. June was the biggest month with 3 and May was the second with 2; the rest of the time I either saw 1 or none. My average movies seen was .75. Last year I saw 14 movies in the theater and had an average of 1.17.

I guess my overall trend for 2008 was one of decreased pop culture consumption. I only increased 2 of my 5 categories over last year (books and short stories) and even those tailed off in the second half of the year. Again, it's not a surprise. I don't go into 2009 expecting things to change and I don't really have any goals for my consumption other than to enjoy what I do consume and to write about it with some depth.

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T21:33:00.002-06:00

DECEMBER 2008 ROUNDUP

Like last year, I'm going to do a roundup for Dec. and then another one for the whole year, so let's get started...

I read 3 books in December (Things the Grandchildren Should Know; Black Postcards; and The Tales of Beedle the Bard). I also abandoned 2books this month. Last December I read 4+ books.

I read 15 stories in December and those stories came from the Oct./Nov. 2008 issue of Asimov's and The Tales of Beedle the Bard (plus one from the abandoned Just After Sunset). Last Decemeber I read 29 stories.

I read 2 comics in December, both of which were trade paperbacks (and both were Zot! collections as well). Last December I read 8 comics, 2 of which were trades (or OGNs).

I downoladed or received (Christmas presents) 8 CDs in December. Last December I had 11 new CDs.

I did see one movie in the theater this December (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), which I did not do last December.

2008-12-28T21:18:00.001-06:00

eMUSIC ROUND THIRTY-FIVE

My last group of downloads from eMusic in 2008...

The Kills/Midnight Boom
Pavement/Wowee Zowee
Spoon/Telephono
Bon Iver/For Emma, Forever Ago
Lightspeed Champion/Falling Off the Lavender Bridge

2008-12-28T08:12:00.002-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #122

Last one for 2008. I plan on putting up my year-end top tens and wrap-ups over the next few days and then it's time for another year...

1. Skating/Vince Guaraldi (4)
2. Finer Feelings/Spoon (18)
3. Argonne Limit Co./Centro-Matic (20)
4. Yeah Sapphire/The Hold Steady (14)
5. Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear/Okkervil River (8)
6. Afterword/Rag/M. Ward (20)
7. Broke Me Up/Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew (7)
8. Stop Breaking Down/The White Stripes (9)
9. Live On/Sloan (7)
10. My Heartbeat's Dying/The Raveonettes (4)

2008-12-21T16:41:00.002-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #121

Christmas break is finally here at the Steiner household; my wife was supposed to be in school the next two days but they were just called off due to the bitter cold (-2 right now) and the chance of a bunch of snow on Tuesday. My brother is flying in on Tuesday and I hope his flight can come in on time and that it doesn't take hours and hours to get him picked up. Other than that, there is a bunch of reading and watching and listening in my immediate future. Oh, and a lot of eating. I do plan on doing some year-end wrap-up posts and then hope to start fresh in 2009. Of course, there is still one more Sunday Shuffle left in 2008 after today. Speaking of today, here's the music...

1. Valerie/Crooked Fingers (2)
2. Poke/Frightened Rabbit (11)
3. Letter From Belgium/The Mountain Goats (18)
4. Open The Door/British Sea Power (4)
5. Spaghetti Western/Hoodoo Gurus (3)
6. Remnants/My Morning Jacket (5)
7. Acid Tongue/Jenny Lewis (6)
8. You Are Free/Mates of State (4)
9. Sugar Never Tasted So Good/The White Stripes (13)
10. Aly, Walk With Me/The Raveonettes (6)

2008-12-14T20:59:00.002-06:00

eMUSIC ROUND THIRTY-FOUR

I am quite overdue for throwing up November's downloads from eMusic, a month where I tried artists that were completely new to me. So, without further ado...

The Gaslight Anthem/The '59 Sound
Army Navy/Army Navy
Little Joy/Little Joy
Haley Bonar/Big Star
Lucero/Rebels, Rougues & Sworn Brothers
Blue Giant/Target Heart

2008-12-14T07:41:00.002-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #120

I started and abandoned a couple posts this week, which I guess is progress of sorts. One problem now is that it's been at least 2 weeks since I read the stuff I've been meaning to post about and it gets harder to remember the thoughts I had.

In other news, I am now done with teaching at the Y for a few weeks and I only have 2 finals left to go - I'll be done by Wednesday night. I'm feeling confident about both and I have an A in both classes right now. Can't wait to be done for a few weeks there as well.

Last night was the staff Christmas party for my day job and it was a very nice time.

Now for some music...

1. The Animal World/Grandaddy (11)
2. Abigail/The Broken West (19)
3. Nature Of The Experiment/Tokyo Police Club (13)
4. Broken Window/Arcade Fire (5)
5. Wonderful/Josh Rouse (12)
6. It Covers the Hillsides/Midlake (8)
7. Poke/Frightened Rabbit (9)
8. Reptile Style/Reigning Sound (8)
9. Chanson du Bon Chose/The Mountain Goats (6)
10. Along/Haley Bonar (2)

2008-12-07T07:37:00.003-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #119

I'm trying to shake this malaise I've been feeling, though I've realized that I usually go through a shutdown around Thanksgiving every year. I look forward to it so much and then coming back is so disappointing in a sense. I really wish that I lived closer to my brother and cousins and we could spend more time together. But since the opportunity comes along so rarely, it makes Thanksgiving that much more special.

At this point, I have two weeks left of the day job; one week left of teaching swimming lessons for the session; and one week left of regular college classes with two finals the next week. I am ready for a break.

I still need to get a Christmas list together, though - I've really struggled with it this year. There are a bunch of things I could put on it but I feel so far behind on my life that getting those things would only put me further behind. Yeah, not a big problem but it's something new to me.

Anyway, I'll shut up and finally get to the music. Oh, this time of year I allow the Christmas songs that pop up to go into the mix - there were none last week and we'll see what happens today.

1. Ballad Of Big Nothing/Elliott Smith (21)
2. Great Expectations/The Gaslight Anthem (4)
3. Pretty Bird/Jenny Lewis (4)
4. I Want To Know/Okkervil River (5)
5. When The Angels Will Put Out Their Lights/South San Gabriel (4)
6. No Cars Go/Arcade Fire (14)
7. Bright Lights/Black Mountain (5)
8. Weighted Raft/Portastatic (4)
9. Who You Are/American Music Club (7)
10. Ella/M. Ward (8)

2008-11-30T22:11:00.003-06:00

NOVEMBER 2008 ROUNDUP

It's been a long day and it's getting late but I wanted to get this up tonight, since this week gets busy immediately...

I read 1.4 books in November, brining my total for the year to 45. The .4 was my finished of Sideways In Crime and the whole book was Jeffrey Ford's The Drowned Life, which was finished today. This is now my lowest number of books read this year but I'm still slightly ahead of pace for my goal of 48. Last year I read 4 books in November and had started on my 40th of the year.

I read 50 stories in November, bringing my total on the year to 249. Those stories came from the two books I just mentioned, as well as the Sept. 2008 issues of both Asimov's and F&SF plus the Oct./Nov. 2008 double issue of the latter. This might be my biggest story count ever; if not, it's got to be close. Last year I read 30 stories in November and had 187 on the year.

I read 2 comics in November (both trades - Green Lantern: Revenge of the Green Lanterns and The Walking Dead Vol. 8: Made To Suffer) for a total of 81 on the year (33 trades). Last year I also read 2 trades but was up to 111 comics on the year (25 trades).

I downloaded 7 CDs (and also 4 songs) in November for a total of 81 on the year. All but Jenny Lewis's Acid Tongue were eMusic downloads and I will cover them in a separate post. The 4 songs were by Bruce Springsteen (2), Wilco w/ Fleet Foxes, and Andrew Bird. Last year I got 9 new CDs in November and had 99 on the year.

I actually saw a movie in November (Role Models), which brings my total on the year to 8. Last November I didn't see any and was holding at 14 on the year.

One more month to go, as well as the year-end totals...

2008-11-30T20:59:00.003-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #118

We spent 12 1/2 hours on the road today, way too many of them in PA. But I want to get in the Sunday Shuffle, so here it is...

1. Unless It's Kicks/Okkervil River (12)
2. Odalisque/The Decemberists (2)
3. Trust to Lose/South San Gabriel (3)
4. Oliver James/Fleet Foxes (6)
5. Hotel/Broken Social Scene (2)
6. Microphone Song/Canasta (7)
7. La Pelicula/Portastatic (4)
8. Loretta's Scars/Pavement (8)
9. With My Eyes Closed/The Raveonettes (4)
10. Penny and Jack/The Essex Green (24)

2008-11-23T16:42:00.003-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #117

I was planning on doing a "double issue" today since I don't know when we'll get back from PA next Sunday but I'm getting a late start, so I'll just do the usual and be done. Hope to get up a post or two before we leave but we'll see...

1. Pocket Boys/Army Navy (4)
2. Bandit Queen (w/DT)/The Decemberists (7)
3. No Dreams/Oakley Hall (6)
4. Demons Are Real/Guided By Voices (4)
5. Big City/The Broken West (14)
6. A Night With The Jersey Devil/Bruce Springsteen (2)
7. I Could Be Underground/Spoon (5)
8. Advance Cassette/Spoon (7)
9. Bow to the Middle: Religion of Politics/The Rosebuds (5)
10. Stuck Between Stations (live on The Current)/The Hold Steady (10)

2008-11-16T11:09:00.002-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #116

I did tons of Algebra yesterday and have all of my chores done today, except for the laundry (and that's in progress). On my immediate agenda is the Bears/Packers game and trying to relax because it's going to be a crazy dash until Thanksgiving from here on out. Anyway, here's today's ten...

1. Fault Lines/The Mountain Goats (13)
2. Destroyer/Crooked Fingers (1)
3. Give 'Em All a Big Fat Lip/The Whigs (10)
4. Last Time in Love/Sloan (17)
5. Alone (demo)/Wilco (12)
6. Cupid's Trick/Elliott Smith (16)
7. Free Radicals Lament/Oakley Hall (4)
8. Of Evil/For Evil/South San Gabriel (3)
9. Cold Snap/Harvey Danger (12)
10. The President's Dead/Okkervil River (28)

2008-11-15T08:33:00.002-06:00

ASIMOV'S SEPT. 2008

My never-ending quest to catch up on my SF magazines continued this past week with the Sept. issue of Asimov's. It is the third issue I've read since the start of September, so at least I'm on a better pace. Anyway, here's what I thought...

The opening novelette was William Barton's "In the Age of the Quiet Sun." I have had my share of frustrations with Barton in the past and have given up on his stories in the middle more than once. This tale about a future where long life and space travel are possible, though you have to become less human to do so. It's a story of failure and redemption and the discovery on an alien and its ship on an asteroid. I liked it.

Robert R. Chase's "Soldier of the Singularity" takes a turn in the middle that I didn't see coming and that was a good thing. It's set in the office of a psychiatrist who is helping humanity try to come to grips with the horrors of the advent of the Singularity. His patient? A damaged robot who is a part of the Singularity...or is it?

There is a very intriguing idea at the heart of Mary Rosenblum's "Horse Racing" - that there is an auction where companies bid on kids based on their future potential. They will then try to manipulate the circumstances of those children to get them to evenutally pay off as investments. It's social engineering and profiteering wrapped up in one. A very good story.

Ian Creasey explores what life would be like if a destructive parent could be downloaded and part of your life forever in "Cut Loose the Bonds of Flesh and Bone." Here's a hint: it wouldn't be ideal for some people.

"Slug Hell" is another Silurian tale by Steven Utley. I really like the series, though the last couple stories haven't done much for me. This one, however, is a keeper. It's a quiet, reflective tale, a character study. It has an odd shifts in viewpoint and I'm not entirely sure why but maybe it just adds to the overall tone.

My favorite story in the issue and one of the best stories I've read this year is Will McIntosh's "Midnight Blue." It's set an an alternate world where different-colored spheres were found out in the wild. If you found the three of the same color, you could put them in a staff and absorb its power. You could get powers like Good With Machines or Better Looking or Flyer. At the time of this story, there aren't many spheres left in the wild and David dreams of finding one. He does and it not only changes his life but the world. It's a great idea, it's well done, and I would love to see more stories or a novel in that world. Get to it, Will!

Derek Zumsteg takes a look at cross-country racing in the near future in "Usurpers." It's short, prickly, and to the point.

Finally, Stephen Baxter gives us an alternate history where aliens made of ice overrun Britian in the 18th century in "The Ice War." We have a less-than-heroic main character, Jack Hobbes, and he meets Isaac Newton, Daniel Defoe, and Jonathan Swift along the way. It's not a happy story by any means but I liked it.

I think this might be the strongest issue of Asimov's in a while - I liked every story and the McIntosh was outstanding.

2008-11-12T22:09:00.002-06:00

SLOW RIDES

I never thought that I would willingly listen to Foghat's "Slow Ride" over and over again, yet I did just that this evening. Why? My son and I were playing Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The drama departement at my wife's school owns the game (she's the director of the program), so she borrowed it and brought it home so my son could see what they game's all about (it's Christmas list season, you know). Of course, I couldn't resist playing either. It's a lot of fun and I was able to make it through every song on the Easy level, with varying degrees of success. My son hasn't made it through one yet but he's getting better. I think it's easier to do if you know the songs; he hasn't listened to any rock beyond what I've subjected him to and had some problems getting the beats of the song. I suspect that he will put it on his Christmas list, though, and I won't mind that a bit.

2008-11-11T22:10:00.002-06:00

GOOD BEHAVIOR

On Sunday night, I logged onto our local library's website and requested a book. Now, that's not unusual for me - I've requested a fair number of books that way over the past year plus. But the more I thought about it Sunday night, I realized I should be good and hold off on getting any library books. Why? A few reasons.

One is that I can't let myself get too distracted as my college semester winds down. So far, I'm doing very well in my classes (another 100% on last week's Algebra test) and I need to make sure I finish off strong. Picking up a book right now wouldn't be the best idea, even though I'm only 4 books away from reaching my goal for the year.

I'm not going to stay completely away from books until the end of the semester, though. I've long targeted Thanksgiving break as a good time to get some reading done. Even though we travel 600 miles and hang out with family, there is still some time to relax and read. That coincides with last week's release of Jeffrey Ford's new story collection, The Drowned Life. I plan on ordering that in the next day or two, so I can take it to PA. I'm very much looking forward to it.

After I get past my finals, I will jump into reading as many books as I can. I'll have 2 whole weeks on not having to go to school or work at either job. Book-reading heaven!

I've also gotten myself into a groove with catching up on my SF magazines. That said, I still have 5 piled up after I finish the Sept. issue of Asimov's...and 2 of those are double issues. I also have a couple trade paperbacks I haven't read yet and I think I'm going to reread the first Zot! collection before I get to the new one (it's been a long time since I've read any Zot!). So, it's just comics and short stories for a few more weeks as they are much easier to squeeze into my busy schedule. I also won't buy any new trades until I get these read too.

So, there you go. I'm going to be on good pop culture behavior the next few weeks and beyond, but I'm not depriving myself. And best of all, there's light at the end of the tunnel.

2008-11-10T20:04:00.002-06:00

THREE YEARS

Today is the third anniversary of this blog. I had a previous blog that ran for somewhere around 18 months that I deleted when I decided to stop. I missed blogging, though, and started up what you're reading now.

This is my 555th post, which means I've averaged 185 posts per year. That's roughly one post every other day for three years. Not bad. Of course, 115 of those posts are Sunday Shuffles but that's okay. I like my Sunday Shuffle ritual.

I have no plans to stop blogging anytime soon and hope to continue to bring content that is more than just lists. So, please keep reading. Thanks!

2008-11-09T16:53:00.002-06:00

F&SF SEPT. 2008

I'm still pretty well behind on reading my SF magazines but I just read the Sept. issue of F&SF in a couple days. Of course, it helps when the stories are good enough to make you want to read.

The lead story is the title track from Paolo Bacigalupi's story collection, Pump Six and Other Stories. His work has been prominently featured in F&SF over the last few years, so it makes sense that they would reprint a new story here. Bacigalupi usually writes about grim futures and "Pump Six" is no exception. He also writes very well about those grim futures and again, "Pump Six" is no exception. This is a future when intelligence is not at a premium in society, where there are trogs who just have sex all day, where drug use is an accepted part of culture, and where all the machines that keep things running (like sewage) and getting old and breaking down. The story does end on a bit of hope, however.

After the two books columns comes "Search Continues for Elderly Man" by Laura Kasischke. I didn't care for it. I got what she was going for but I didn't feel like there was anything to hold onto in the story.

Fortunately, Carolyn Ives Gilman's novella, "Arkfall" was up next. It takes place on a planet where the (human)population lives underwater and lives either in "arks" or in an overcrowded dome. Society has evolved into one of passive-agression and is relatively stagnant. Osaji wants to break from from that stagnation but is also caring for her aged grandmother and feels trapped. She literally becomes trapped in an ark with an off-worlder and they end up exlporing a lot of the planet after a volcanic eruption. The relationships and the adventure are well done and make a nice complement to the other. I liked it.

Rand B. Lee's "Picnic on Pentecost" was an okay tale of big changes for the human race out in the stars and "'Shed That Guilt! Double Your Productivity'" by Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn was a fun little story about an unusual service for writers.

A quick count shows that Robert Reed's "Salad for Two" is the sixth story I've read by him this year. I wouldn't say it's my favorite of his but even his lesser stories are well worth reading.

Finally, Jim Aikin's "Run! Run!"was a solid capper to the issue. It's an alternate world where the United States becomes fully Christian and unicorns exist. A woman reflects on events from when she younger and she ended up saving the unicorns that lives on her farm (and were hidden from everyone else until her sister told people).

In the end, another good issue of F&SF and I continue to think it is the best SF magazine available. I have already started on the Sept. issue of Asimov's, so you can look for a rundown of that later this week.

2008-11-09T08:00:00.002-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #115

Lots to do today (including watching the Bears try and take out the undefeated Titans), so I'm just going to get to the music...

1. Reservations (demo)/Wilco (10)
2. writing snippet: Cream and Bastards Rule/Harvey Danger (8)
3. Set in Motion/Sloan (17)
4. Slow West Vultures/The Mountain Goats (13)
5. Twenty-Four/Centro-Matic (6)
6. Black Satin/The Raveonettes (5)
7. I'm Not Mad Enough/The Clientele (8)
8. Blue In Yr Eye/Amy Millan (9)
9. Shake And Pop/Nick Lowe (6)
10. Branches/Midlake (7)

2008-11-08T10:23:00.002-06:00

WATCH

This morning I finally got around to watching the reuinted Ben Folds Five (for one night only) play The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner in its entirety. It's an album I like a lot but I haven't played in a long while; artists can get lost in my collection for a while, especially with all the new stuff coming in. The band sounded really good and I am sure to put the album back into my rotation in the near future. If you're a fan of the band or just love good music, go watch it.

2008-11-07T21:43:00.002-06:00

REVENGE OF THE ROLE MODELS

I spent the last few days reading one of my recent trade paperback purchases, Green Lantern: Revenge of the Green Lanterns. It is the second collection of the current ongoing series and contains issues #7-13, which were published back in 2006 (the series has several more volumes collected in hardcover). It was written by Geoff Johns and pencilled by Carlos Pacheco (#7, 8), Ethan Van Sciver (#9), and Ivan Reis (#10-13).

The collection starts out with a two-parter guest-starring Green Arrow and features Mongul's son as the villain. Hal (GL) and Ollie (GA) get trapped by a Black Mercy plant, which puts its victims to a dream of their happiest wishes while it kills them (and was also featured in the Justice League Unlimited episode "For The Man Who Has Everything," where the villain was...Mongul). This setup allows Hal to work through some of his guilt issues with his family and some solid interaction between the two old friends. That is followed by a one issue team-up with Batman, which works through some relationship issues with Hal and Bruce. Finally, there is the big titular four-parter, in which Hal and Guy Gardner travel to Sector 3601 to look for long-lost Green Lanterns and discover Cyborg Superman and a whole slew of Manhunters. Oh, and those presumed-dead Lanterns, including one who was a main cast member of the Green Lantern Corps series in the 1980s (I was a fan). Lots of big drama here and we also get hints of something big coming down the line. Yes, I know it's the Sinestro Corps War but I won't get around to reading that for a while yet.

It is a solid read for fans of GL, though I wouldn't say it is Johns' best work. Still, I'm looking forward to the paperback release of the next collection early next year and after that I may think about getting the Sinestro Corps stuff in hardcover. We'll see.

This afternoon I decided to go to the movies. My wife and son were going to see Madagascar 2 and since I still haven't seen the first one, I took a pass. But it was the perfect time to catch Role Models. The trailer they've been showing on TV caught my eye and my interest seemed to be supported by solid reviews, so why not. I do not regret going.

To have a successful comedy where you can see the plot turns coming a mile away, you need it to be funny and you need to care about the characters. Well, Role Models passes the funny test quite easily. And it's not just the crude jokes either - there are plenty of throwaway lines and little bits that make it work. And you know what, you do care about the characters. The kid who played McLovin in Superbad is great as a kid into LARPing and Paul Rudd does what he does best, playing an asshole that you like anyway. I'm a fan of Rudd's and he had a hand in the script as well. And yes, Sean William Scott mines that kinda dumb, kinda lovable character he can do and Jane Lynch is hilarious in a role that is a close cousin to the one she played in The 40 Year-Old Virgin. This movie does have some Apatow connections, but it's very ably directed by the funny-in-his-own-right David Wain. A fun way to spend a couple hours on a Friday afternoon.

2008-11-06T14:52:00.002-06:00

POP LIES

On Sunday I had planned to go and play at an open mic about 25 miles away. My friend and former bandmate Graham was hosting and I hadn't heard him play in a long time or played out in a long time myself. However, I spent most of Saturday doing work outside, raking leaves and pushing around a self-propelled lawnmower (long story but obviously I didn't know the mower was self-propelled). Along with that activity and the time change, I was completely out of sorts on Sunday and ended up not going.

I did, however, spend a good portion of my Saturday night making a CD mix. It had been over a year since I had done one and I always give a copy to Graham. I thought it would be a nice way to say thanks for letting me ride along with him to the open mic. I had the mix all set but I wasn't satisfied and changed it singificantly. Now it doesn't fit the theme as well as the previous version did but it has a lot more songs I really wanted to include. So, here is the tracklist for "Pop Lies"...

1. The Modern Leper/Frightened Rabbit
2. Fake Empire/The National
3. Die Die Die/The Avett Brothers
4. The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory/Guided By Voices
5. Use Somebody/Kings of Leon
6. Come Crash/A.C. Newman
7. Hot Bed/The Whigs
8. You're Not As Pretty/Reigning Sound
9. I Will Possess Your Heart/Death Cab For Cutie
10. How To Fight Loneliness/Wilco
11. Pop Lie/Okkervil River
12. The Cheapest Key/Kathleen Edwards
13. Perfect Games/The Broken West
14. I'm Not A Kid Anymore/Sloan
15. Joke About Jamaica/The Hold Steady
16. Rudderless/The Lemonheads
17. Out Of Reaches/Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
18. Now/Mates Of State
19. There's A Place (In the Back of My Mind)/Julie Ocean
20. Little Tornado/Aimee Mann
21. Destroyer/King Khan and The Shrines
22. Videotape/Radiohead

2008-11-05T20:53:00.002-06:00

HISTORY

I cried last night. When Barack Obama's family left the stage and he turned to the podium, the tears came. What a moment and what a speech. Like he said, the road ahead is not going to be easy and he is not going to be perfect. However, we have a man of great intelligence and calm who will soon take over the highest office in our country and there is something to be said for that. Yesterday I could have filled in the democratic bubble on my ballot to vote for Obama and Biden but that just didn't seem satisfying enough - I wanted to fill in the circle next to his name. So I did. Turns out my wife did the same as well. We are both elated and amazed that our votes helped Indiana send its 11 electoral votes to Obama, something this state doesn't often do with a Democratic candidate (and not in my lifetime). I'm very proud to be an American and I am very hopeful for the future of our country. Can't wait until Jan. 20!

2008-11-04T14:35:00.004-06:00

ALTERNATE HISTORY MYSTERY

As I mentioned yesterday, I just finished reading Sideways In Crime after two plus weeks. Released during the summer, this Lou Anders-edited anthology features crime fiction set in alternate histories by a wide range of writers. I really enjoyed the Anders-edited Fast Forward (and yes, there is a second volume out that I've not gotten around to yet) and I'm a fan of alternate history SF so I thought I'd give this one a shot.

Before I talk about any of the stories, I need to take a moment to talk about the cover. It has a great design, with the title running along the side (sideways, get it?) and some awesome Bob Eggleton artwork. It's a book I love as an object first and foremost - it pulls you in, makes you to a peek between the covers for what wonders may await you.

In my opinion, you can't have an anthology like this and not have a story from Paul Di Filippo. Fortunately, Lou Anders is a smart man and we are treated to "Murder in Geektopia," set in an alternate reality where geeks are the norm. The story is full of savvy pop culture references and jokes and a woman our detective can't resist. It even ends with a nice twist and is one of the standouts of the book.

My other favorite story in the book was the last one, "Murder on the Crosstime Express" by Chris Roberson. Of course, I'm a sucker for stories about multitudes of realities and worlds and for Chris Roberson. The fact that story is a nifty little locked room mystery on a zeppelin that travels through underspace and ties into his novels about the Carmody-Bonaventure clan is just icing on the cake. Plus, it makes me want his new novel (End of the Century) to arrive in stories now. Great stuff.

There are many other good stories here, from the 60s style death of J. Edgar Hoover in Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "G-Men" to the future pastoral setting of S.M. Stirling's "Murder in Eddsford" to the murder surrounding the brand-new series of Sherlock Holmes stories in Jack McDevitt's "The Adventure of the Southsea Trunk." Of course, that doesn't begin to cover all of the solid work. In fact, there were only 2 stories I didn't care for, which is a great percentage when you have 15 in the book. Lou Anders does it again.

2008-11-03T22:26:00.002-06:00

MID-SEMESTER REPORT

It's a little bit past the middle of my semester at Purdue North Central and it's past time for some real content around here. In October, I only managed to post Sunday Shuffles and I haven't posted anything that wasn't a Shuffle or a roundup or a post about my eMusic downloads since Aug. 24. That's right, Aug. 24! Shameful.

Things have been going well but it's been very busy. I've been partaking of pop culture but it's been at a slower pace. I'm not following TV shows I normally would and I've not tried some new ones that I normally would have. I spent over two weeks reading Sideways in Crime (I actually finished yesterday). I don't have as much time to listen to music. I still have 3 issues each of Asimov's and F&SF piled up. And while I did read a number of trades last month, I have 3 more that I haven't read yet. I haven't been to the library in about a month, which was a big part of my life the last year. Heck, Grant and I watched Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back weeks ago and still haven't gotten around to Return of the Jedi. There are 4 Jeffrey Ford books I still haven't read yet!

I'm not complaining (well, I am but not as much as it seems). Life has been good - I continue to enjoy working at the school, my classes are going well, and I had great successes with kids in the pool last session (and I'm not working Saturdays this time around). Things around the house are crazy but going well.

I do want to start posting about what pop culture I do get around to...it won't be on a daily basis but I don't want it to be on a bi-monthly basis either. So check back in or stick me in your blog reader and I promise to talk about what my blog promises to talk about.

2008-11-02T11:09:00.002-06:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #114

I did most of my chores yesterday, so I plan on watching football and reading for most of today. I also feel like I could nap, even though we gained an hour last night. Anyway, here's today's ten...

1. Paper Kitten Nightmare/Margot & the Nuclear So & So's (9)
2. Island Garden Song/The Mountain Goats (9)
3. Change Is Hard/She & Him (4)
4. Face Down In The Right Town/Earlimart (9)
5. Red Right Ankle/The Decemberists (10)
6. A Side Wins/Sloan (15)
7. Cool James/Harvey Danger (26)
8. Mutiny, I Promise You/The New Pornographers (17)
9. Pick Up If You're There/Mercury Rev (1)
10. Rooftops/Pela (11)

2008-11-01T11:03:00.002-05:00

eMUSIC ROUND THIRTY-THREE

Here's what I grabbed from my primary source of new music in the past month...

The Rosebuds/Life Like
Higgins/Zs
Reigning Sound/Time Bomb High School
Mates of State/Re-Arrange Us
Crooked Fingers/Forfeit/Fortune
The Avett Brothers/The Second Gleam

Tune in next time to see where my 65 new downloads go...

2008-11-01T10:32:00.003-05:00

OCTOBER 2008 ROUNDUP

Suddenly, there's two months left in the year. On Thursday we were exactly 4 weeks from Thanksgiving, 8 weeks from Christmas, and 9 weeks from 2009. Crazy. Well, let's get to rounding up...

I read 1.6 books in October, bringing my total for the year to 43.6. Why is it .6? Well, I'm about 60% done with Sideways in Crime (I also read Lord Tophet). I hit last weekend hoping to get it finished by last night or at least today but I realized there was no way with my schedule. So, I switched to reading a trade and I'll dive back into the book today. I hate that my book reading has slowed down so much (this is my lowest book total this year) but there's not a whole lot that can be done. I am still ahead of pace for 48 books on the year. Last year I read 6 books in October and had read 35 on the year.

I read 19 stories in October, bringing my total on the year to 199. Those stories came from the Aug. issues of Asimov's and F&SF, as well as the afore-mentioned Sideways in Crime. Last October I read 12 stories and had read 157 on the year.

I read 4 comics in October, 3 trades (The Walking Dead Vol. 7: The Calm Before, Immortal Iron Fist Vol. 2: The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, and Ex Machina Vol. 7: Ex Cathedra) and 1 single issue (FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF 3 WORLDS #2), which brings my total for the year to 79 comics (31 trades). Last year I didn't read any comics in October and was holding steady at 109 comics read (23 trades).

I downloaded 7 CDs and 1 song in October, bringing my total to 74 discs and 9 songs. I'll cover the eMusic downloads in a separate post - the other CD was the new Mountain Goats EP, Satanic Messiah, and the song was "The Kingdom" by John Vanderslice. Last October I got or downloaded 8 CDs and had reached a total of 90 for the year.

I didn't see any movies in October and my total for the year is holding at 7. I didn't see any movies last October but my total was 14 for the year at that point.

And we're done.

2008-10-26T08:20:00.003-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #113

I didn't use my day off to blog but I did catch up on a lot of TV, finally finished Immortal Iron Fist: The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, did homework, finished my progress reports, read some more of Sideways in Crime, went to school to get clearance for next semester's courses, and downloaded some more albums from eMusic. Let's see if any of the newer stuff pops up today...

1. The Mighty Midshipman/Centro-Matic (12)
2. Be Somebody/Kings of Leon (6)
3. Time Bomb High School/Reigning Sound (4)
4. Big Boat/M. Ward (3)
5. Proud Mary/Creedence Clearwater Revival (6)
6. All Used Up/Sloan (6)
7. Cherbourg/Beirut (4)
8. My Only Offer/Mates of State (2)
9. Room With a View/Imperial Teen (6)
10. Somerville/Pernice Brothers (22)

2008-10-19T12:38:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #112

I may actually get to a blog post other than a Sunday Shuffle this week. We'll see. Meanwhile, here's the music...

1. Instrumental 1/Wilco (12)
2. Me & Keith/Verbena (3)
3. Fire Island, AK/The Long Winters (8)
4. Working Girls (Sunlight Shines)/The Pernice Brothers (14)
5. Fernando/The Baseball Project (2)
6. Come Crash/A.C. Newman (5)
7. Please Be Patient With Me/Wilco (1)
8. The Other Side/Sloan (2)
9. Chesley's Little Wrists/Pavement (6)
10. Sax Rohmer #1/The Mountain Goats (3)

2008-10-12T11:27:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #111

Happy 67th birthday to my dad, who doesn't read this blog and wouldn't like any of the music anyway. Still, I love him a lot and hope to have him around for a long long time to come.

1. Thirteen/Elliott Smith (10)
2. Sinking Ships/Sloan (9)
3. Hold On to This Coat/The Rosebuds (8)
4. Almost Ready/Dinosaur Jr. (10)
5. Fire Island, AK/The Long Winters (7)
6. pleasure is mine/Matthew Sweet (5)
7. Crimson/Apples In Stereo (11)
8. Carnival on 7th Street/The Clientele (8)
9. Catch Them All/Headlights (4)
10. Sugar Never Tasted So Good/The White Stripes (10)

2008-10-05T07:24:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #110

I'd planned on doing some more posts this week but I got distracted by the vice-presidential debate, baseball, and life in general. Maybe this week. In the meantime, here are 10 more songs from my iTunes...

1. Stay Positive/The Hold Steady (13)
2. Mess Inside/The Mountain Goats (9)
3. Stolen Earrings/Two Hours Traffic (14)
4. Grace Cathedral Hill/The Decemberists (2)
5. Funny Little Frog/Belle and Sebastian (16)
6. Do/The White Stripes (10)
7. My Love Is True/The Broken West (16)
8. The Desert/Verbena (3)
9. 1,000 Wives/The Whigs (12)
10. Tremoloa Debut/Broken Social Scene (1)

2008-09-30T21:37:00.003-05:00

SEPTEMBER 2008 ROUNDUP

We hit the end of September with the White Sox winning a one game playoff against the Twins, 1-0, to make it into the playoffs against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday. The Cubs start their playoff series against the L.A. Dodgers tomorrow. We are in uncharted territory...so let's take a moment and chart my pop culture intake, shall we?

I read 2 books in September, bringing my total for the year to 42. This is my smallest book total of the year but I am still 6 books ahead of pace in order to reach my goal of 48 on the year. I only need to read 2 books a month the rest of the way to meet that goal; I am confident that will still happen. Last September I read 4 books and had reached 29 for the year. Oh, I read The Sons of Heaven by Kage Baker and Room One by Andrew Clements.

I read 14 stories in September, brining my total for the year to 180. The stories came from the July 2008 issues of both Asimov's and F&SF, as well as the Aug. 2008 Asimov's. Last September I read 20 stories and had read 145 for the year.

I read 2 comics in September, both of them trades (Astro City: The Dark Age 1: Brothers and Other Strangers and JLA Presents: Aztek the Ultimate Man). I've read 75 comics so far this year, 28 of them trades; last year I'd read 109 comics, 23 of them trades, by this point.

I downloaded 4 CDs in September, for a total of 67 on the year. The only one not mentioned in my previous post was the new Kings Of Leon, Only By The Night. Last September I got 10 new CDs and had reached 82 for the year. My music consumption is definitely down.

I actually saw 1 movie in the theater in September (Pineapple Express), which brings my total for the year to 7. Last September I hadn't seen any movies in the theater but I'd seen 14 on the year. Guess my movie viewing is down this year too.

And there's three-quarters of the year down...

2008-09-29T22:17:00.003-05:00

eMUSIC ROUND THIRTY-TWO

This may be the smallest number of albums I've grabbed in a single month on eMusic. It's all good stuff, at least...

The Broken West/Now Or Heaven
Okkervil River/The Stand Ins
Portastatic/Some Small History

More next month...

2008-09-28T07:48:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #109

The White Sox have blown so many chances to win the division over the last week plus, yet they still have a chance. Amazing. Speaking of amazing, here's some music...

1. The Closer/The Baseball Project (4)
2. Green River/Creedence Clearwater Revival (6)
3. pleasure is mine/Matthew Sweet (4)
4. Bridges & Balloons/The Decemberists (9)
5. Lumberlung/Slobberbone (17)
6. Josephine/Portastatic (3)
7. Sweet Tooth/King Khan and The Shrines (7)
8. Biology Tricks/Centro-Matic (9)
9. Your Own Cloud/Portastatic (3)
10. Endlessly/Mercury Rev (1)

2008-09-21T18:52:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #108

Another late start this week due to chores (like fixing the roof...though I mainly held the ladder) and my wife printing tickets for her fall play. The Emmys start soon and I may watch a bit. Regardless, here are ten songs from my iTunes...

1. Cursed Mirror/Superchunk (9)
2. Song For/Earlimart (8)
3. Weightless/Nada Surf (1)
4. Rosalie/Alejandro Escovedo (1)
5. Slow Show (Daytrotter Session)/The National (6)
6. About Today/The National (13)
7. Bandit Queen/The Decemberists (8)
8. Crimson/Apples In Stereo (10)
9. Green River/Creedence Clearwater Revival (5)
10. All The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth/The New Pornographers (18)

2008-09-14T17:44:00.003-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #107

This Sunday Shuffle is coming to you live from a rain-drenched Valparaiso, IN. Your DJ has spent most of his weekend dealing with water and includes a trip to the attic to search for the source of a leak. Good times. Then again, it could have worse and the rain is now over - Hurricane Ike has left our building. I've done my algebra and I'm reading to ramdomly play 10 songs from my iTunes. Enjoy!

1. Cut Your Hair/Pavement (7)
2. Seen How Things Are Hard/Elliott Smith (8)
3. Onions/The Mountain Goats (8)
4. Down In A Hole/Jason Isbell (1)
5. It's Me/Dinosaur Jr. (10)
6. room to rock/Matthew Sweet (4)
7. I've Gotta Try/Sloan (13)
8. The Family Gardener (live)/Jeff Tweedy (8)
9. A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger/Of Montreal (12)
10. Penny and Jack/The Essex Green (23)

2008-09-07T21:51:00.003-05:00

eMUSIC ROUND THIRTY-ONE

I have things to download this week, so I'd better let you know what I grabbed in August...

Dr. Dog/Fate
Gillian Welch/Time (The Revelator)
Ra Ra Riot/The Rhumb Line
Verbena/Souls For Sale
Hoodoo Gurus/Magnum Cum Louder
The Decemberists/Castaways And Cutouts

2008-09-07T07:27:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #106

This week I layer in the third of my jobs, teaching swimming lessons once again. So I will be working at the elementary school every day from 8:30 to 3:15, going to school four nights a week, and now teaching swimming two nights a week plus Saturday mornings. The good news is I don't need to learn anything about teaching swimming since I've been doing it for so many years. The bad news is my time is going to get tighter but that's what I signed up for. It'll be fine.

Now I'll shut up and give you some songs...

1. Gang Bang Suicide/Broken Social Scene Presents: Kevin Drew (7)
2. Pre-Crimson/Apples In Stereo (9)
3. Most People Are DJs/The Hold Steady (13)
4. Faust Arp/Radiohead (19)
5. Somebody Changed/The Clientele (7)
6. Song From Debby's Stairs/M. Ward (7)
7. Fox Confessor Brings The Flood/Neko Case (5)
8. What Happened.../Grandaddy (12)
9. Baboon/The Mountain Goats (10)
10. I Wish I Was/The Twilight Singers (13)

2008-08-31T22:27:00.002-05:00

AUGUST 2008 ROUNDUP

I read 5 books in August, bringing my total for the year to 40. That puts me only 8 books away from meeting my goal for the year and a full 4 books ahead of pace. I've averaged 5 books a month for the whole year, which means I'm on pace for 60. Not going to happen, obviously, but I ought to be able to read 8 books in the next 4 months. Last August I'd only read 3 books and had read 25 on the year. Anyway, all 5 books this month were by Kage Baker and are part of her Company series - Black Projects, White Knights, The Life of the World to Come, The Children of the Company, The Machine's Child, and Gods and Pawns.

I read 22 stories in August, bringing my total on the year to 166. All 22 stories came from the two short story collections I read - Black Projects, White Knights and Gods and Pawns. Last August I read 10 stories and had read 125 on the year.

I read 4 comics in August, all of them single issues. I've only read 73 comics this year, which is well below the 107 I'd read last year (12 single issues last August). I haven't read a trade in over a month, though I do have 3 sitting on the shelves that I hope to get to in the next month or two.

I downloaded 6 CDs in August, for a total of 63 on the year. I will detail those albums in a separate post, as they were all from eMusic. Last August, I also got 6 CDs but I had 72 for the year at that point.

I didn't see any movies in the theater in August, leaving my total for the year at 6. I didn't see any movies in the theater last August either but I'd seen 14 by that point in the year.

And that about does it.

2008-08-31T07:46:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #105

Today's Sunday Shuffle kicks off the third year of this feature. I downloaded a handful of new albums this week, so I'm interested to see if anything pops up from one of those. Hope everyone is enjoying the three-day weekend!

1. Autoclave/The Mountain Goats (2)
2. PCH One/Pernice Brothers (25)
3. Get Up Get Out/The Rosebuds (8)
4. Impossible Germany (Live)/Wilco (8)
5. Backwash/Archers of Loaf (17)
6. Jealousy/Spoon (11)
7. Dancefloors/My Morning Jacket (3)
8. Don't Talk Anymore/The Whigs (14)
9. Reset Anytime/Centro-Matic (12)
10. Low Branches/Superchunk (6)

2008-08-24T21:40:00.003-05:00

PRE-COLLEGIATE PILE

As I've mentioned a few times, I am starting college again this fall. Well, "this fall" is now tomorrow and my first College Algebra class is less than 20 hours away; my first Spanish I class follows about 24 hours after College Algebra finishes. I am already working my new job in the school system and this will be the first full week of school. Luckily, I still have two more weeks before I add in another 6 1/2 hours of teaching swimming lessons at the YMCA. I'm not sure how all this will affect my pop culture intake but I thought I'd jot down some things I still need to read and/or watch, as much to remind myself as anything.

I still have the last 2 books in the Company series to read, Gods and Pawns and The Sons of Heaven. I want to read Lord Tophet and I have Sideways in Crime, an anthology of alternate history crime stories, on my shelf. Coming up in a few months, there will be 4 books from Jeffrey Ford available that I've never read, plus one from Kelly Link. Beyond that, there are tons of books I want to read.

I have 3 trade paperbacks lined up to read - JLA Presents: Aztek the Ultimate Man, Astro City: The Dark Age, and Zot! The Complete Black and White Collection. I still have 2 trades of The Walking Dead sitting in my file at the comics shop and the latest Invincible volume is on the shelves as well. Of course, new single issues keep coming out too and I've demonstrated I can't fully quit those.

The ever-present drawer of SF magazines holds 7 issues at the moment - 3 of Asimov's and 4 of F&SF (and one of those is a double issue). I also have 3 issues of EW that I haven't gone through, plus parts of another, and a new one should arrive in the mail tomorrow. Oh, there's a new issue of Spin too but I usually just flip through those.

What's on the DVD shelves that I haven't gone through? Well, Grant and I are about 2/3 of the way through Superman Animated Season 3 and then we have 2 volumes of Batman Animated and The Simpsons Season 10. I have two seasons of The Venture Bros. and The Darjeeling Limited, not to mention stuff like 30 Rock Season 1 that I've seen most of as it aired but haven't looked at on DVD.

I've got a number of TV shows on the DVR - all 7 episodes of Generation Kill and one each of The Middleman, Californication, Hard Knocks: The Dallas Cowboys, Burn Notice, and Mad Men. And of course, the new fall TV season gets underway very soon.

So, there's plenty to keep me busy in my shrinking spare time and that's not including spending time with my family, being social, and keeping up with my own music. Still, I'm very much looking forward to getting into all of it.

2008-08-24T17:17:00.003-05:00

PICKED UP THE PACE

A year ago today I finished my 24th book of the year, Spook Country by William Gibson. I was averaging 3 books read a month at that point and still had my goal of 40 books for the year in my sight. This morning I finished my 39th book of the year, The Machine's Child by Kage Baker. I'm averaging almost 5 books a month and am well ahead of pace to read my goal of 48 books on the year. What's the difference? The library.

It was a year ago that we realized we needed to make some changes in our lives in regards to money. I took the promotion at the YMCA and we made a conscious choice to watch our spending. I knew I wouldn't have enough money for books and comics and music each month; part of the solution was to start using the library. It was a big step for me, what with my OCD tendencies with books (well, and all pop culture goodies). I was able to get past those and it has paid off. I started the first library book I checked out, Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff, on Aug. 27. Since that time, I have read 59 books. Fifty-nine books! That's almost 5 books a month over a year's time. It shatters any reading goal I've had for any one year since I started back in 2001.

That streak of productivity will come to a close as I start my college courses tomorrow. If I knew I had time, I would try to get Gods and Pawns read by Wednesday so I could say I read 60 books in a year's time. Not going to happen, though, and that's okay. What also won't happen is reading 60 books in 2008, which is what I'm currently on pace for. That's okay too. My goal for this year was 48 and I can still make that if I manage my time. I will probably be reading more short fiction and comics than novels over the next few months, since I'll have to read when I can find the time. But if I can get 4 or 5 books read by Christmas break, I'll be in good shape. And regardless, I can still say I read 59 books in a year's time. That's pretty cool.

2008-08-24T15:31:00.004-05:00

COMPANY MAN #2

When I last talked books, I was planning on reading Gregory Frost's Lord Tophet, the sequel to the fantastic Shadowbridge. I decided I couldn't hold off on reading more of Kage Baker's Company series (here are my thoughts on the first 4 books) and so I've read the next 4 books in the last 19 days.

Black Projects, White Knights is the first story collection of the series and contains many of the stories I first read in Asimov's and that got me interested in Baker in the first place. We have stories about Mendoza and Joseph and Lewis among others but even more interestingly, we have a series of stories about Alec Checkerfield, who is born in the years leading up to 2355 (when the Silence descends for the operatives of the Company). The stories are interesting in their own right but once we start to realize who Alec is and his relationship with others, both mortal and immortal, who we've seen through the series...you know he is going to play a prominent role in the rest of the overall story.

The next book, The Life of the World to Come, opens with Mendoza stuck Back Way Back until a time shuttle crashlands and reveals Alec Checkerfield, who happens to look like her former lovers Nicholas Harpole and Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax. They spend the night together and learn from each other before he leaves, promising to return. Unfortunately, he won't return before she is taken by Company operatives to Options Research, a far greater punishment than Back Way Back. Meanwhile, we meet three men who work for the Company and watch them as they design a new kind of Enforcer. Eventually, Alec (along with Nicholas and Edward) meet up with those men and the story takes it up another notch.

We step away from Alec in The Children of the Company and instead learn more about Labienus, one of the Company's Executive Facilitators and not a nice immortal at all. We see his ploys to position himself in power once the Silence arrives and how he tries to undermine his rival, Aegeus. These are seen in a series of case files and several more short stories are incorporated here, including "Son Observe the Time," which relates what happened to Budu during the San Fransicso earthquake of 1906. We also see the full story of Lewis's initial encounter with an alternate branch of humanity (which played a role in the events of The Graveyard Game). Schemes and schemes...

The Machine's Child brings us back to Alec's story, along with that of Nicholas and Edward (who know coinhabit Alec's body). They manage to rescue Mendoza from Options Research and with the help of Captain Henry Morgan, a powerful AI dedicated to Alec's survival, they nurse her back to health albeit with some gaps in her memory. They struggle against the Company of the three souls struggle against each other throughout the book, with a shocking ending. Meanwhile, we also catch up with Joseph and his ongoing restoration of Budu and the stories dovetail. In addition, we see what other operatives are facing as time creeps ever closer to the Silence.

As the series grows more complex and new elements are added to the mix, I've found myself wanting to rush through the rest of the books to see how it all turns out. I only have 2 left to go - the second story collection, Gods and Pawns, and the series finale, The Sons of Heaven. I'm going to do what I can to get them read in the near future.

2008-08-24T08:33:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #104

Today's shuffle completes 2 full years of this feature on the blog, which is hard to believe. What isn't hard to believe is how much of a Sunday ritual it is for me and how much I enjoy doing it. I really do need to start doing some music posts to complement this feature since it's been a long time since I've really written about music. We'll see how it goes - I start classes tomorrow and my time will get squeezed even more. But enough about that, let's see what 10 songs will pop up today...

1. Plus Ones/Okkervil River (11)
2. My Favorite Year/Destroyer (5)
3. Personal/Stars (8)
4. Big Decision/Elliott Smith (9)
5. I'll Follow You/Oakley Hall (4)
6. Believe In Me/Sloan (2)
7. A Voice At The End Of The Line/M. Ward (13)
8. Wucan/Black Mountain (5)
9. Only Time Will Tell/Glossary (3)
10. First Timer/Elliott Smith (10)

2008-08-18T09:11:00.002-05:00

CHANGES

This week marks the start of some big changes in my life. For the first time in over 5 years, I'm not going to be in the pool at the YMCA every day. Instead, I am going to be working in an elementary school as a teacher's aide.

Earlier this summer, I decided that I needed to make a change in the direction of my life. I love being at the YMCA working with the kids, getting them to learn how to swim. It is a very rewarding experience. But I know I can't just keep doing that for 20 years, for a variety of reasons. I decided that I should look into going back to school and becoming a teacher. I'm pretty sure I'd like to do elementary education, having worked with kindergarteners for years and other elementary students this year, but I could also teach high school English. The question is whether I'd like being with kids all day as opposed to the 30 minute or 45 minute spans I've had with classes at the Y. One way I could figure that out would be to work as a teacher's aide.

Meanwhile, I looked into going back to school. If I were to go back as an elementary education major, I would have to start over from scratch...only a handful of my classes would transfer. So I am going to finish my English degree, which will still take me 16 or 17 classes to do (and a few years at 2 classes a semester, maybe 3 in the summer), and then I will do a transition to teaching program. I start classes at Purdue North Central next week - Spanish I and College Algebra. It's been over 14 years since I was last in school but it shouldn't take me long to get back up to speed.

Late last week my position at Central Elementary School came quickly. I had almost given up on that part of the plan but now it has fallen into place. I am going to be working with the 5th grade in the morning and 1st grade in the afternoon. School starts on Wednesday.

As for the Y, I'm still going to teach a few hours a week. It keeps my hand in, it's something I like doing, and I could do it for a summer job.

So, it's going to be a very busy fall. Chances are good that I won't be posting much other than Sunday Shuffles and quick blog posts but you never know... Anyway, I'm looking forward to the challenge and the newness of it all.

2008-08-17T07:35:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #103

Maybe someday I'll start posting entries other than Sunday Shuffles...

1. Expelled From Love/The Raveonettes (3)
2. Slapped Actress/The Hold Steady (11)
3. I'm Not A Kid Anymore/Sloan (2)
4. What You Do/Imperial Teen (5)
5. No Life Singed Her/Pavement (6)
6. An Apology/Canasta (9)
7. Cataracts/Andrew Bird (7)
8. 7/4 (Shoreline)/Broken Social Scene (1)
9. There's A Reason/A.A. Bondy (12)
10. Islero/Crooked Fingers (1)

2008-08-10T07:43:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #102

It's only supposed to be 75 degrees today. Cool for August but I'll take it.

1. Tonight/Nick Lowe (4)
2. Hit The Plane Down/Pavement (7)
3. Life 2: The Unhappy Ending/Stars (6)
4. The Happy End (The Drunk Room)/Mercury Rev (1)
5. Mellotron 1/Apples In Stereo (10)
6. Funny Little Frog/Belle and Sebastian (15)
7. (Antichrist Television Blues)/Arcade Fire (12)
8. Wrecking Ball/Crooked Fingers (1)
9. Complications/Julie Ocean (9)
10. No Regrets/King Khan and The Shrines (4)

2008-08-04T09:05:00.004-05:00

COMPANY MAN

Over the last few weeks, I've been working my way through Kage Baker's Company series. I first became aware of Baker in the pages of Asimov's, where she published a large number of Company stories starting with the Mar. 1997 issue. I really liked the stories and always meant to pick up the first novel in the series, In the Garden of Iden, but I never did. Then a few months ago, Chris Roberson posted about the series and I decided I would start on it before the end of the year.

What is the Company? It's a 24th century corporation called Dr. Zeus that has discovered time travel and the secret to immortality, both with a catch. The catch with time travel is that you can only go into the past and then back to your present time - no future. The catch with immortality is that in order to get it you also have to become a cyborg. So, Dr. Zeus goes into the past and creates a bunch of cyborgs that can work on preserving works of art and such for the future, which is how the company can get rich. Oh, you can't change the past but there's also a lot of unrecorded history and you can work in those grey areas. And only children can be made into cyborgs; the Company uses orphans.

In the Garden of Iden introduces us to Mendoza, a new recruit to Dr. Zeus in the 16th century. She is rescued from the Spanish Inquisition by Joseph, who works as a Facilitator for the Company. Upon her graduation from training, she ends up in England for her first assignment - she's a Botanist charged with saving rare plants from a garden. Mendoza is not a fan of mortals but she ends up in love with one and it does not end well at all. The struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism in the country looms large over the entire novel. It's a very good introduction to the world of the Company but things kick up a notch with the next book in the series.

Sky Coyote brings back Joseph and Mendoza as well as introduces new characters, notably Lewis. Joseph heads a team that is sent to California to preserve the culture of the Chumash. In order to do this, Joseph disguises himself as their trickster god, Coyote. It's a funny novel but also full of politics and economics and myth; we also start to learn more about the Company. Joseph's "father" was Budu, who worked as an Enforcer for the Company; the Enforcers have all been retired since they were hyrbids who came from Neanderthals or other earlier forms of humanity. We also get intimations that all is not as it seems with Dr. Zeus. What happens in 2355, when the Silence falls?

Mendoza in Hollywood finds Mendoza posted to Los Angeles in 1862, where Hollywood will end up. She's at a stagecoach in with five other operatives and her job is to investigate a temperate zone. One of her fellow operatives, Einar, is a huge movie buff and they occasionally screen film classics. In fact, one chapter has the group watching and reacting to D.W. Griffith's Intolerance. All of the cyborgs have interesting jobs or problems, one of them (Porforio) even has to deal with a member of his mortal family. More significantly, Mendoza and Einar manage to travel into the future and are sent back by Company operatives but before they are completely gone, Lewis tries to warn Mendoza about something. Soon after, Mendoza is reunited with her love from three centuries before, reincarnated in the form of Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax. Things do not end well.

I just finished The Graveyard Game yesterday and it is now my favorite of the books. We learn so much about the Company and have so many more questions raised. Joseph and Lewis are trying to piece together what happened to Mendoza, who has completely disappeared. Joseph also starts investigating what happened to Budu and we are introduced to players like Suleyman and Nennius and so much more. This book ends with some very interesting twists as well.

Unfortunately, my local library does not carry the entire series...only the novels. I ordered the first story collection, Black Projects, White Knights, and now have it here at home. I'll have to order the other one too in order to finish the whole series. I really want to dive into the collection but I had also requested Lord Tophet, the concluding book to Gregory Frost's Shadowbridge, which I read and loved earlier this year. It came in and is now sitting on my shelf, so I'll probably read it and then get back to the Company.

2008-08-03T08:25:00.003-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #101

Today's agenda - Sunday Shuffle, Sports Reporters, laundry, a little grocery shopping, Baseball Tonight, baseball, finishing The Graveyard Game, catching up some more on the DVR. Sounds like a decent day.

1. Cardinal Points/The Essex Green (18)
2. Big Fan of the Pigpen/Guided By Voices (4)
3. January/Headlights (3)
4. Faberge Falls For Shuggie/Of Montreal (8)
5. Valerie/Crooked Fingers (1)
6. Beautiful Machine Parts 3-4/Apples In Stereo (8)
7. Same Old Drag/Apples In Stereo (11)
8. Shrinking Violet/Bishop Allen (8)
9. Were You There?/M. Ward (5)
10. Skinny Boy/Amy Millan (13)

2008-07-31T20:19:00.002-05:00

JULY 2008 ROUNDUP

I read 8 books in July, bringing my total for the year to 34 (I also abandoned 1 book). That's a full 6 books ahead of pace for my goal of 48 on the year. Last July I read only 3 books and had a total of 22 on the year; then again, I don't remember the last time I read 8 books in any month...it's certainly not in the last 11 years. Anyway, here's what I read...

Bust by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr - my first Hard Case Crime book
Saturn's Children by Charles Stross - strong SF
Harry, Revised by Mark Sarvas - highly recommended!
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow - YA SF that's scary and good
In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker - the first Company novel
Shining City by Seth Greenland - lots of fun
Sky Coyote by Kage Baker - Company novel #2 and really good
Mendoza in Hollywood by Kage Baker - Company #3 and things are getting very interesting

Truth be told, I'll probably start the 4th Company novel tonight but with less than 3 1/2 hours in July left I can count it under August, I think.

I didn't read any stories in July, leaving my total for the year at 144. As with my high book total, my non-existent story total is an aberration but taken together, they make sense. I don't imagine this trend will continue, since shorter works will probably become predominant as I make some changes in my life.

I read 7 comics in July, 2 trades and 5 single issues. Actually, 4 of those single issues were read today. Single issues, I can't quit you! Anyway, that takes my year's total to 69, 26 of which are trades. I read more comics last July (though not much more) but I had read way more comics overall (though 3 fewer trades at that point).

I downloaded 7 CDs in July and didn't buy any actual CDs, bringing my total on the year to 57. One of those CDs I got from Amazon 49 cents (the new Paul Westerberg), one of them was regular price for an Amazon download (Fleet Foxes), and the rest were from eMusic (detailed in yesterday's post). Strangely enough, all of my music last July was downloaded too, though I had a yearly total of 66.

I saw 1 movie in the theater in July, the awesome The Dark Knight. That brings my total on the year to 6 movies; last year saw 3 movies in July and 14 on the year by that point...which was also the total for the whole year. I hope I see at least a few more movies in the theater the rest of this year.

So long, July!

2008-07-30T21:59:00.002-05:00

eMUSIC ROUND THIRTY

Yes, it's that time of the month once again, the time when my downloads are about ready to refresh and it's time to mention what I grabbed from eMusic the last few weeks. Without further ado...

Earlimart/Hymn and Her - This is the band's second release in the last year and it's another winner full of lovely pop music. It's quieter than Mentor Tormentor but that's okay with me.

The Hold Steady/Stay Positive - I decided to stick with the mp3 release and hope the 3 bonus tracks work their way onto the internet somewhere. I liked it at first listen, though not all of the songs. I've now listened to it quite a bit and have to stop myself from doing it every day.

The Baseball Project/Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails - Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck, Steve Wynn, and more deliver great indie rock songs about the greatest game. How can I refuse?

Matthew Sweet/Sunshine Lies - Another batch of highly enjoyable power pop from one of its foremost practitioners over the last 17 years.

King Khan and The Shrines/The Supreme Genius of King Khan and The Shrines - Compilation from a band I just learned about. Garage rock and soul and all sorts of throwback goodness that I haven't even scratched the surface of yet.

2008-07-30T21:44:00.003-05:00

DV DAYS

Today I finally worked my way through all of G4's coverage of this year's Comic-Con. Kinda fun to look at all the craziness without having to be in the middle of it..not that I've ever been to Comic-Con. Heck, it's been a lot of years since I've been to Wizard World Chicago but maybe I'll take Grant next summer. He might be into it.

Anyway, I still have lots of stuff on my DVR that I need to get to...and watching baseball doesn't help much in getting it watched. Not giving up watching the Sox and Cubs, though. No way.

Here's what I still need to watch...

3 episodes of Generation Kill (new mini-series from David Simon)
2 episodes of The Middleman (one of which is started)
2 episodes of Burn Notice (with a new one coming tomorrow night)
2 episodes of Secret Diary of a Call Girl (Billie Piper!)
1 episode of Mad Men (Season 2 premiere!)
1 episode of Venture Bros. (how did I ever live without this show?)
1 episode of Doctor Who (the penultimate ep of Season 4)

In other news, Grant and I have started on Superman Season 3 and have managed to watch the first 6 episodes. That's faster than we've watched anything in a while. Two really good two-parters, both full of Kirby creations, and two so-so single eps. A commentary and a featurette and then we're on to disc 2!

2008-07-27T07:37:00.005-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #100

I can't believe I've done 100 of these things already. What's scarier is that this is my 518th post, which means Sunday Shuffle makes up 19.3% of my total blog posts. I guess that shouldn't be too big of a shock, especially since I've been posting very sparsely of late. I had been toying with stopping this feature once I got to 100 or even stopping the blog for a while, but I'm going to keep going and let whatever happens happen. It's one of my Sunday rituals (along with Sports Reporters and Baseball Tonight half of the year) and I enjoy it too much to let it go. You know what, let's make today's a double too...

1. The Windows on the World/American Music Club (8)
2. Black Buttons/Portastatic (15)
3. the sun fell on you (ps 119:82)/The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers (26)
4. Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down (live)/Jeff Tweedy (3)
5. Elvis, I Don't Love You Anymore/Harvey Danger (8)
6. Psalm/M. Ward (7)
7. Pretty Girl from San Diego/The Avett Brothers (4)
8. Meat Is Murder/Shout Out Louds (6)
9. Ella's Arms/Warren Zanes (11)
10. I Fought Piranhas/The White Stripes (10)
11. All My Banks/The Whigs (11)
12. Fakey Fake/Earlimart (11)
13. Slow Show (Daytrotter session)/The National (5)
14. Metal School/Spoon (5)
15. Quito/The Mountain Goats (16)
16. London Bridges/Josh Rouse (7)
17. First Few Desparate Hours/The Mountain Goats (13)
18. Stop Breathin/Pavement (6)
19. It's Now/Imperial Teen (6)
20. Last Year's Rain Didn't Fall Quite So Hard/The Twilight Sad (5)

2008-07-20T07:46:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #99

The big performance didn't happen the other night, due to a long line in front of me for signups (and I got there 40 minutes before the door opens to sign up) as well as people who got signed up ahead of time by the host. The result was that we were 17th on the list, which would have meant an 11:00 performance time or so - way too late for my parents to stay and our son. It was frustrating. We performed it on the porch for my parents, at least, and then we all went out for some ice cream.

Enough whining, let's get to the last Sunday Shuffle in double digits...

1. Don't Talk Anymore/The Whigs (12)
2. Wonderful/Josh Rouse (10)
3. Tonite It Shows/Mercury Rev (1)
4. Happy Alone/Earlimart (11)
5. I Feel Better/Frightened Rabbit (6)
6. Rogue Revelator/Oakley Hall (6)
7. Ten Lonely Words/Julie Ocean (5)
8. Abigail/The Broken West (16)
9. Georgia, Georgia/Elliott Smith (9)
10. Good Dreams/Superchunk (7)

2008-07-17T14:42:00.002-05:00

15

Today is my 15th anniversary. To celebrate, Jill and I are going to perform together tonight at an open mic - she will tap and I will play guitar. We're using a piece of music that I'd been fooling around with but couldn't mold into a song with lyrics; we've changed it a little bit and hope it will be fun to listen to. Okay, everyone will care more about what she's doing than me anyway, but that's fine. For my other song, I'm going to play "Let's Get Married Tonight," which isn't really about us though it does capture that feeling we had when we first got together almost 17 years ago. I've asked our friend Tom to play it with me, because I love what he adds to the song both on guitar and harmony (it's also his first night playing Front Porch as a Valpo resident). Should be a fun night...

2008-07-13T18:07:00.002-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #98

I spent over 4 hours putting together class lists and such at work this afternoon. Missed much of a beautiful day too. Plus, my brain is pretty much mush. Have I complained enough yet?

1. These Paper Walls/I Love Math (3)
2. Shiny/The Decemberists (3)
3. I Got Lost/Dinosaur Jr. (7)
4. The Things You Don't See/Canasta (7)
5. Wonderful Witches/Thurston Moore (4)
6. La Ferrassie/Tokyo Police Club (14)
7. Like A Rolling Stone/Drive-By Truckers (13)
8. Light Years/Sloan (11)
9. All the Wine/The National (9)
10. Silver Plate Complaints/Centro-Matic (16)

Internet Awesomeness

2008-07-11T20:02:00.001-05:00

2008-07-06T08:31:00.003-05:00

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #97

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend...

1. Lights Out For Darker Skies/British Sea Power (4)
2. One in the Same/My Morning Jacket (2)
3. Someday Never Comes/Creedence Clearwater Revival (4)
4. the sun fell on you (ps 119:82)/The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers (25)
5. History Of Lovers/Iron and Wine/Calexico (15)
6. Old News/Dr. Dog (4)
7. Sunndal Song/Apples In Stereo (11)
8. Totally Free/Elk City (9)
9. What Happened.../Grandaddy (11)
10. Song Of Our So-Called Friends/Okkervil River (15)

2008-06-29T22:12:00.004-05:00

CD LIST

Okay, I lied. How about one more post?

I haven't written much about music at all this year, a fact I hope to change. I thought you might be interested in what I've gone out and bought, rather than just downloaded (plus, you can go back and look at my eMusic download posts for those albums). So, here are the 18 new CDs I've put on my shelves so far this year...

1. Drive-By Truckers/Brighter Than Creation's Dark
2. Vampire Weekend/Vampire Weekend
3. Nada Surf/Lucky
4. The Mountain Goats/Heretic Pride
5. Gary Louris/Vagabonds
6. The Gutter Twins/Saturnalia
7. The Raconteurs/Consolers of the Lonely
8. Kathleen Edwards/Asking For Flowers
9. Uncle Tupelo/No Depression
10. REM/Accelerate
11. The Black Keys/Attack & Release
12. Big Dipper/Supercluster: The Big Dipper Anthology
13. Old 97s/Blame It On Gravity
14. Death Cab For Cutie/Narrow Stairs
15. Sloan/Pretty Together - actually, a gift from my brother
16. Aimee Mann/ @#$%&*! Smilers
17. Sloan/Parallel Play
18. Coldplay/Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends

2008-06-29T22:07:00.002-05:00

BOOK LIST

Since I haven't done much writing about my reading the last couple months, I thought I'd inflict one more post on you tonight and just list the 26 books I've read so far this year...

1.Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon (Jan. 1 - Jan. 4)
2. Dreamsongs: Volume II by George R.R. Martin (Jan. 5 - Jan. 14)
3. Zeroville by Steve Erickson (Jan. 14 - Jan. 17)
4. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo (Jan. 18 - Jan. 23)
5. The Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick (Feb. 3 - Feb. 9)
6. Inside Straight edited by George R.R. Martin (Feb. 10 - Feb. 14)
7. Like You’d Understand, Anyway by Jim Shepard (Feb. 15 - Feb. 17)
8. Hunter’s Run by George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, and Daniel Abraham (Feb. 18 - Feb. 22)
9. Shadowbridge by Gregory Frost (Mar. 1 - Mar. 4)
10. The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes (Mar. 6 - Mar. 9)
11. Lush Life by Richard Price (Mar. 10 - Mar. 16)
12. My Revolutions by Hari Kunzru (Mar. 17 - Mar. 19)
13. Is This a Great Game, or What? By Tim Kurkjian (Mar. 24 - Mar. 26)
14. The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford (Apr. 1 - Apr. 8)
15. Maps and Legends by Michael Chabon (Apr. 12 - Apr. 16)
16. The View from the Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockmeier (Apr. 20 - Apr. 26)
17. Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser (Apr. 26 - Apr. 30)
18. So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger (May 1 - May 4)
19. Devil’s Cape by Rob Rogers (May 4 - May 8)
20. The Martian General’s Daughter by Theodore Judson (May 9 - May 12)
21. Wit’s End by Karen Joy Fowler (May 13 - May 17)
22. The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon (May 23 - May 26)
23. Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (May 26 - May 31)
24. The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow (June 1 - June 6)
25. Superpowers by David J. Schwartz (June 16 - June 17)
26. Elliott Smith by Autumn deWilde (June 27 - June 29)

2008-06-29T21:25:00.002-05:00

RETURN OF THE ROUNDUP

I've been doing a lot of reading and listening and watching and not a whole lot of writing about it lately, so I thought it might be a good idea to at least document what I've been up to. The year is already half over, which is just hard to believe. I still have plans and the second half of the year could see a lot of changes in my life, so this is a good spot to sum up the year to date.

I read 3 books in June for a total of 26 on the year (I also started and abandoned 2 other books). Last June I read 5 books but only had read 19 on the year by that point. My book goal for the year is 48, so I am definitely ahead of the pace, needing to read only 22 books in the next 6 months. If I keep up the same pace, I can finish the year with 52 (one a week). My average books read per month is 4.33.

I read 43 stories in June for a total of 144 on the year. Those stories came from The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, the June issue of Asimov's, and the April, May, and June issues of F&SF. Last June I read only 9 stories and had read 89 on the year. I don't know if I've ever read 4 of my SF mags in one month before; I do still have 3 of them still piled up, though that's the smallest the pile has been in a long time. My average stories read per month is 24.

I read 14 comics in June, all of which were trades (9 of them were rereads). On the year I have read 62 comics, 24 of which were trades. Last year I had read 85 comics by this point in the year, 19 of which were trades. Like with the stories, I don't think I've ever read 14 trades in a month and certainly not in years and years; I do still have 3 trades stacked up. My average comics read per month is 10.33 or 6.33 single issues and 4 trades. Like last year, my books and trades are pretty close in number.

I bought 3 CDs and downloaded 5 more for a total of 8 new CDs in June and 50 on the year (18 bought and 32 downloaded). I also downloaded 3 songs this month, bringing that total to 8 on the year. Last year I had 13 new CDs (buys and downloads) in June and a total of 60 on the year. I can tell that my more frugal ways have had an effect. My average CDs bought per month is 8.33.

I saw 3 movies in the theater in June (Kung Fu Panda, The Incredible Hulk, and Wall E) for a total of 5 on the year (the other two were Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). I didn't keep track of when I saw movies until July last year but I'm guessing I saw 4 movies in the theater last June and had seen 11 on the year by that point. My average movies seen in the theater per month is .83.

I stopped keeping track of DVDs and TV shows shortly after my last roundup in January, so that's the end of the numbers!