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)

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

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)

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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)

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)

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.

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)

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!

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.

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!

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)

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)

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...

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

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)

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

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)

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!

eMUSIC ROUND TWENTY-NINE

I finished out my current round of downloads just a couple days ago - here's what I grabbed this time out...

My Morning Jacket/Evil Urges
Julie Ocean/Long Gone And Nearly There
Centro-Matic & South San Gabriel/Dual Hawks (double album)
I Love Math/Getting To the Point Is Beside It
Tokyo Police Club/Smith
"Ant In Alaska" and "Say You"/Liz Phair (bonus tracks on the Exile In Guyville reissue)
"All I Got Is Me"/Spoon (new song on the Don't You Evah single/EP)

SUMMER PROJECT UPDATE

Project #1: Start writing a novel
Progress: None whatsoever

Project #2: Work towards recording an EP
Progress: I have written one new song in the last few weeks

Project #3: Reread all 9 volumes of Y: The Last Man in preparation for the 10th and final volume
Progress: Completed, along with reading the last volume (it was fantastic!)

Project #4: Start my wife watching Battlestar Galactica
Progress: We are currently a few episodes into the 2nd season; she is completely hooked

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #96

Let's get right to it...

1. Our Faces Split The Coast In Half/Broken Social Scene (1)
2. Bloody Nose/Earlimart (11)
3. Loretta's Scars/Pavement (6)
4. Agony of Laffitte/Spoon (7)
5. He Brings Out The Whiskey In Me/Amy Millan (15)
6. I Understand/Sloan (18)
7. When The Angels Will Put Out Their Lights/South San Gabriel (2)
8. Undertaker/M. Ward (16)
9. Personal/Stars (7)
10. Your Desert's Not A Desert At All/Pela (10)

THE BIG PURGE

Garage sale season is in full effect around Valparaiso and yesterday was the one for our neighborhood. 56 houses were participating with ads in a variety of papers complete with maps and the like. We weren't planning on participating but our neighbor had so much stuff that we opened up our garage to her and then decided we might as well get rid of some stuff. It came at a perfect time, as we were at the point of needing to figure out a new storage plan for all of our CDs and books and comics. Instead, we went through and culled.

I used to have a real problem getting rid of anything...I didn't even want to get rid of issues of the various comics magazines I had (never know when you might need to refer to it!). I've gotten better at it over the years and purging my entire collection of comics back in the early 2000s (well, all of the single issues anyway) helped me be more receptive to it. In a perfect world, I would keep everything but we just don't have the space. Nowhere close to the space. In any event, I've been able to get rid of comics and books fairly easily since then but the one area I still couldn't get past was music.

I think my reluctance to get rid of CDs comes from 1994 when I got rid of a ton of CDs during one of my biggest depressed periods. I got rid of all my Springsteen and Dylan albums as well as a bunch of other stuff that I subsequently spent a couple years reassembling. It made me a bit gunshy with the whole idea. However, we just had too many CDs around here and I went through them. If I knew I hadn't listened to an album in years, I should get rid of it. If I could look at the song titles and not conjure a single song to mind, it was time for it to be gone. Albums I kept trying to warm up to and never could? Gone. The big step of getting rid of albums by artists I liked and kept other albums from? Done. For example, the first three Weezer albums were kept and the rest were not. And yes, I could have converted all of them to mp3s but it seemed like a waste of hard drive space and time; I did convert about a dozen CDs in the end, though. Some stuff seemed more suited for that format (I also went through the digital files and deleted stuff I just didn't listen to outside of random appearance on the Sunday Shuffle).

In the end, Jill and I put out over 125 CDs and 90 books for sale. I put out about 50 trade paperbacks and maybe 80 single issues of comics. We saved ourselves a lot of room (don't worry, we still have plenty of stuff) and ended up making some decent money. Rain kept some of the business away yesterday, so we are going to try again next Saturday morning and I hope to get rid of as much of it as we can.

That purge has bled over into my pop culture intake as well. Late last week I'd checked three books out of the library, one I had requested and two I grabbed on the spur of the moment. Just too much. I've also been in the habit of putting any book that seems interested on my request list and I just can't do that. I need to go back to grabbing one book at a time, maybe two, and just letting my interest at the time lead me. So, I took all three books back realizing I may check out one or more of them again in the future. For now, though, I'm content to work my way through the pile of 6 trades and 5 SF magazines. Feels good.

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #95

I've added more music to iTunes in the last week than I've ever added in that span. I'm interested to see if any of it pops up today...

1. Laffitte Don't Fail Me Now/Spoon (8)
2. I Need All The Friends I Can Get/Camera Obscura (20)
3. Punch And Judy/Elliott Smith (15)
4. Down South/Tom Petty (6)
5. Brass Ring/The Broken West (20)
6. Sick File/Archers of Loaf (10)
7. Bitches In Tokyo/Stars (5)
8. God, Make Up Your Mind/Cold War Kids (7)
9. Distant Stations/The Mountain Goats (9)
10. Involuntary/M. Ward (11)

Guess not.

RESTLESS

I've been very restless the last week or so. Part of it is that I'm figuring a new course for myself and I'm waiting on some information. Part of it is that I'm not working much at all and that disconnects me from myself. Plus, when I am working it's not necessarily teaching my own classes. I don't know. Just feeling restless and unsettled in general and today in specific. So what did I do with myself?

I watched most of the U.S. Open playoff between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate. That's weird, because I very rarely watch golf and never for that long. I guess the intrigue with Tiger's knee and all made me interested. It was a really good match too - lots of high drama and great shots.

I also played golf on the Wii. Twice. I played all 9 holes both time and was horrible the first time, with a +13. The second time was much much better, as I was at a -3 through 6 holes. Then I got cocky on the 7th and ended up at +2 overall, which is still my personal best.

Jill and I also bowled on the Wii tonight and I beat her with a 174...somewhere in there. Not bad. Our friend got one for a Father's Day gift yesterday and he and his wife were talking about their Wii Fit scores. Jill and I had never done that, so we did. Jill's fit age was 50; mine was 38. The baseball did me in too, as I only hit one home run. I'll try it again some time.

In between all my game playing and sports watching, I managed to read 212 pages of the book I started this morning - Superpowers by David J. Schwartz. Obviously, it has kept me turning the pages and I'll be surprised if I don't finish it tomorrow (just over 160 pages to go).

I did watch some TV besides sports, diving into the DVR to try and catch up. I watched the Agatha Christie-centric episode of Doctor Who from Friday (fun stuff), about 10 minutes of the debut episode of Swingtown (which I promptly deleted along with the second episode), and then the second episode from the current season of The Venture Bros. (Dr. Henry Killinger is sheer brilliance!).

And there's my Monday.

MOVIE MADNESS

After seeing no movies in the theater the first four months of the year, I've now seen 4 in the last month-and-a-half. We also have designs to see several upcoming movies as well, so my average should soon climb to one a month. I've also watched a number of movies on DVD over the last several months as well, so here's a quick recap of all of them...

Iron Man - I had hopes for this movie but it exceeded all my expectations. The opening was a textbook example of how to hook people and the rest of it just kept up the momentum. It's such a 21st century movie and I thought Robert Downey Jr. was fantastic. Of course, my geek heart was thrilled, especially with the after-credits bit.

Indiana Jones - We showed Grant the first three movies in prepartion for the new movie and it was fun going back and watching them again. Jill and I had watched Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Temple of Doom when that DVD set first came out a couple years ago but had never gotten around to The Last Crusade until now. I had completely forgotten that movie opened with young Indiana Jones...played by River Phoenix! Anyway, I had fun with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It is certainly of a piece with the rest of the movies, even if it isn't my favorite of the bunch (which is still Raiders - that first love is deep).

Kung Fu Panda - Speaking of exceeding expectations, how about this movie? The animation was amazing. Amazing. I actually sat and watched all of the credits just for the drawings that accompanied them and therefore was the only person in the theater to see the little coda at the end. The story was a fun one and the action was awesome and I love Jack Black, what can I say? I highly recommend this movie.

The Incredible Hulk - We just saw this today and it was a solid movie. It doesn't reach the heights of Iron Man but it was entertaining. Lots of nods to the old TV show and a very solid performance from Edward Norton. At the end, you also see the Marvel movie masterplan coming together and it makes me a bit giddy. I hope they can keep up the quality.

No Country For Old Men - It's been over two months since we finally watched last year's Oscar winner. I'm a fan of the Coens and I really liked this movie. Heck, I didn't mind the ending either. I got where they were going with it and everything up to that point was great, so why quibble.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story - I was very disappointed in this one. It seemed set for greatness - a cool idea, John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow, cameos from all sorts of cool people - but it just fell flat. I didn't laugh very much at all. At least we got a lot of the gorgeous Jenna Fischer, so that redeemed it a little.

Juno - This one was pretty much all it was advertised to be - great writing, great performances, and an awesome little movie. If you haven't seen it yet, you should. Soon.

Cloverfield - I was prepared to be disappointed. I wasn't. They took a monster movie and made it into something really cool with the way they approached it. The handheld style didn't bother me at all. At all. Maybe it was worse on the big screen, I don't know. When I first saw the trailer for this movie, it looked like all sorts of awesome. And it was.

Into the Wild - I'm still not sure what I think about this movie. I liked how it was shot and how it was told via flashback and Emile Hirsch had a great charisma as Chris McCandless. I guess my biggest problem was with McCandless himself. Just so stupid and selfish and blind. Which was part of the point, I know. I'm not sorry I saw it, that's for sure.

READING RAINBOW

I haven't talked to much about my pop culture intake of late, so I thought I'd do some posts to update that. This is the first of three (I think) and it covers what I've been reading since the beginning of June.

The first and only book I've read so far this month (I did abandon a second) was The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, an anothology of new stories edited by Ellen Datlow. It was a solid collection, though the percentage of stories I liked a lot was relatively small...but nothing was horrible either. My favorite three were "Ardent Clouds" by Lucy Sussex (don't think I've read her work before); "All Washed Up While Looking for a Better World" by Carol Emshwiller (a creepy and cool story about a woman searching for adventure only to have it backfire); and "Daltharee" by Jeffrey Ford (hard to go wrong with Ford...this one is about a bottled city).

I've read both the April and May issues of F&SF, finishing the latter this morning. Solid issues of each but the standouts were "The First Editions" by James Stoddard (about people who have been turned into books); "Five Thrillers" by Robert Reed (pretty much what it implies - five stories packed into one, all featuring the same amoral character); "Reunion" by Robert Reed (yeah, him again); "Rebecca's Locket" by S.L. Gilbow (dealing with a potential change in how the dead live on); and "Immortal Snake" by Rachel Pollack (a wonderful story about stories and how they can both save and destroy).

I've also been reading a lot of comics. I just now finished Y: The Last Man - Ring of Truth, which is the 5th volume of the series. I'm glad I made the decision to reread this series before the final volume comes out this Wednesday, as it as been many years since I've read the ealier stories. I had forgotten quite a bit, though I also remembered quite a bit too. I've been caught up in the story all over again as well as marveling over the art by Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan Jr. Even though I've gotten through five trades since last Sunday, I don't think I'll be quite ready to read the last one on Wednesday. That's okay...I've waited this long, so what's a few extra days or even weeks?

Lastly, I also read Fables: The Good Prince, which is the 10th and latest volume of the ongoing series. It's a thick one too, collecting 10 issues. The story centers around Flycatcher, who has recently recovered the painful memories of the loss of his family, and his quest to get vengeance. Actually, something much more interesting happens. It's a very uplifting tale in the end and I kept turning the pages to see what was coming next. Well done, Bill Willingham. And the same to you, Mark Buckingham and his inker posse. Looking forward to the next one already.

So, have I exhausted my reading material yet? Ha! In addition to the 4 remaining volumes of Y: The Last Man, I now have 6 trades stacked up and ready to go. I have 2 issues each of F&SF and Asimov's in a drawer next to the bed. And after my trip to the library on Friday, I now have three books piled just to my right. So there's the next couple weeks or more...

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #94

It's a Father's Day edition, which means no change at all. Big shock, I know.

1. Onions/The Mountain Goats (7)
2. Tyrants/Black Mountain (4)
3. The Story Of Yo La Tengo/Yo La Tengo (9)
4. Carolina/M. Ward (7)
5. People Think They Know Me/Sloan (12)
6. The Gymnast, High Above the Ground/The Decemberists (10)
7. Georgia, Georgia/Elliott Smith (7)
8. Missing Pieces/Voxtrot (6)
9. I Don't Know Why/Ben Kweller (2)
10. 1209 Seminary/The Ponys (4)

Interesting grouping of songs - 3 were 7:16 or longer and 3 were 2:15 or shorter, with the rest falling somewhere in between.

ANOTHER WAY TO RAMBLE

That's right, I now have a Twitter account. Come follow me...

This is also my 500th post and it might be the least amount of content I've ever done. See, I'm sooo ready for Twitter.

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #93

A very late start to the Shuffle today but we only got home about a half hour ago. We stayed overnight at my parents' house because we had an open house to go to last evening and then needed to go to graduation this afternoon plus another open house. Yep, it's open house season. A nice night last night and and a nice day today. And to top it all off, our friends Tammy and Craig had their second child this morning, 10 days ahead of schedule. Congratulations to them and welcome to the world, Cole Snyder!

1. The Thanks I Get/Wilco (11)
2. Proud Mary/Creedence Clearwater Revival (4)
3. Time Fades Away/Neil Young (3)
4. Kamera (Alternate Version)/Wilco (25)
5. on the occasion of a departure (ps 39:4)/The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers (22)
6. The Conversation/The Twilight Singers (12)
7. Woman/Joseph Arthur (10)
8. Duet For Guitars #1/M. Ward (7)
9. Plaza Trinidad/Destroyer (4)
10. Faust Arp/Radiohead (15)

SUMMER PROJECTS

I spent a good part of my morning clearing the decks - paging through the Wizard I wasted money on the other day, plus the new Previews, Spin, and a couple issues of Entertainment Weekly. I just felt like I needed to make some psychic space for myself. Why? I have some summer projects in mind and as today is June 1, it seems like it's time to start.

When I looked like I would have 5 weeks off of work, I decided that it was time to finally start writing a novel. Now that I may be working more, I still want to start writing a novel. I know which idea I want to start with and I'm looking forward to the challenge. I have not as yet decided on a schedule or set word goals or anything. I think I'll just start and see how it goes.

I've also got it in my head that I want to record an EP and have it out by the end of the year at the latest. I have enough songs now but I'd like to write a couple more to give myself options. I have people who I would like to be in the first recorded version of Aquatic Detective and I'm pretty sure they will all say yes (Graham already has). I'm very excited about this possibility as well and will obviously update on any progress.

I want to reread Y: The Last Man in preparation for the final volume, which is supposed to arrive on June 18. That gives me about 2 1/2 weeks to read 9 trades. Of course, I have 2 books out from the library right now (I started in on The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy this morning) and another 7 requested. And that doesn't count the 4 issues of F&SF and the 2 issues of Asimov's that are stacked up. We'll see.

Side note: I've decided that I'm going back to reading only trades for my comics input. Jill did some cleaning this weekend and it solidified for me again that it's far easier to store trades than individual issues. I also have two trades in my file at the comics shop and buying a couple comics every week like I've been doing doesn't get me closer to getting those in my hands. So, back to trades it is.

Finally, I'm going to start my wife on Battlestar Galactica. I know she will like the show and it will be a good way for me to watch everything up to this point again. Only 2 more episodes left of Season 4 for now and who knows when will get the rest...maybe not until next year. Sigh. Oh, and if we get through BSG quickly enough, I want to start her on The Wire too.

I've set myself up for a busy summer and this doesn't include socializing and open mics and all of the other small pleasures that pop up along the way. That's fine. I'm ready for some ambition and can't wait to get going.

eMUSIC ROUND TWENTY-EIGHT

Not even 2 weeks have passed since I posted about round #27 and here I am talking about my May downloads. Wow! I was feeling kinda 90s this time around with some other stuff thrown in...

Guided By Voices/Bee Thousand
My Morning Jacket/It Still Moves
Buffalo Tom/Let Me Come Over
Pavement/Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
The Decemberists/Five Songs EP
Sloan/"All Used Up" and "Try To Make It" - 2 new songs from A Sides Win: Singles 1992-2005

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #92

Welcome to June! Looks like summer might be here to stay - I took the storm windows off yesterday, so it had better be.

1. Trouble/Voxtrot (6)
2. Introduction/Voxtrot (5)
3. Arms & Hearts/The Hold Steady (15)
4. Astro/The White Stripes (7)
5. Kicking TV/Wilco (13)
6. Honey, I Never Had You/The Raveonettes (3)
7. New Year's Day/The Broken West (18)
8. Stop Breaking Down/The White Stripes (7)
9. Summertime/Josh Rouse (9) - A perfect song to pop up today!
10. Ella's Arms/Warren Zanes (10)

EIGHT

One major reason for my lack of posts the last few weeks is that I've been reading. Now, it's not unusual that I've been reading in the least. I love to do it and most days, I'd rather do it than write about doing it. But as I logged in the book I finished a short while ago, I realized just how much I've been reading - I've read 8 books since April 20. That's 8 books in 42 days. And those 8 books have brought my total on the year to 23, well ahead of pace for my goal of 48. In fact, I could only read 1 book in June and still be on pace. Naturally, I won't do that. I have 2 books checked out from the library and another 7 on reserve. It also looks like I'll be working more than I thought I would be during the first summer session too but I'll still have time to read.

Anyway, I thought I'd tell you what I've been reading...

The View from the Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockmeier - Highly recommended!
Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser - Good short story collection
So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger - Highly recommended!
Devil's Cape by Rob Rogers - Solid super-hero fiction
The Martian General's Daughter by Theodore Judson - Solid SF and another winner from Pyr
Wit's End by Karen Joy Fowler - It was decent but I almost stopped reading
The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon - Depressing and good
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith - A thriller set in Stalinist Russia that kept me turning pages

FOLLOWING ORDERS

Warren Ellis asked everyone on his e-mail list with a blog to mention his ongoing webcomic Freak Angels, so I'm doing just that. There was a period where I was in awe of all things Ellis but I haven't kept up with his work too well over the last number of years. The ease of following this project helps and I've also found it interesting, even if I'm not quite caught up. So, go here to check it out.

ASIMOV'S APRIL/MAY 2008

Just a short while ago, I finished my reading of the first Asimov's double issue of 2008, all 240 pages of it. I've been on a real book kick of late but thought it was time to dive into some short SF goodness and this issue really brought the goods. There wasn't a bad story in the bunch, though as usual I found a few more to my liking than others...

Can I mention again just how good and how underrated Robert Reed is? I really hope we get some big fat collections of his stories down the road; he's put out a couple through Golden Gryphon but they don't begin to cover his amazing output. This time around, he gives us "The House Left Empty," set in a future that is different from ours in ways both good and bad. The story is a love letter to those days of the dream of space exploration and how we shouldn't let that dream die.

Matthew Johnson wonders what life would be like for people of earlier times (mainly Roman) who are transported to the present in "Another Country." These new members of society have usually escaped hardship but long for their lives and not the lives they've been given. Very well done.

Finally, Kristine Kathryn Rusch delves into questions of survival and history and why people do what they do in the novella, "The Room of Lost Souls." I have a feeling it will be shortlisted for awards at the end of the year.

I still have 5 SF mags stacked up to be read but I also have three books out from the library, so I doubt I'll get to another for a week of two...but I've got the taste for them again, so we'll see.

eMUSIC ROUND TWENTY-SEVEN

Once again, I'm late in letting you know what I downloaded at the end of April. I still feel like I haven't digested this music too much, though a couple of the albums I've listened to more than others. Always the way, though, isn't it?

My Morning Jacket/The Tennessee Fire - My first experience with MMJ was their latest album, Z, which I got for Christmas the year it came out (2005?). I really liked it and planned on picking up their earlier stuff...then never got around to it. Now eMusic has the entire catalog available, so I started with their first album. It's more acoustic-based and sometimes it's quite hard to understand what Jim James is saying but I've enjoyed it through a couple listens.

Frightened Rabbit/The Midnight Organ Fight - I'd never heard of this band until right before I downloaded the album and it's one of the albums of the year in my book. Literate, depressing rock with a Scottish accent. Just grab it now and thank me later.

Robert Forster/The Evangelist - Forster was one half of the songwriting team that made The Go-Betweens such a great band; the other half, Grant McLennan, passed away the other year. This solo album has some songs co-written by the two and the rest are somwhat informed by his passing. It's a lovely album and one I need to listen to a lot more than I already have.

Sloan/Navy Blues - Because I just can't stop with this band. They have a new album coming in a few weeks and I really should have a Sloan week around here to celebrate.

Luna/Romantica - I downloaded this on a whim. I own their last album, Rendevous, and while I like it well enough I've just never fallen in love with it. So why did I get this? I don't know but I'm glad I did. It's very tuneful and is filled with odd lyrics and it just works. I think I need to investigate the band further.

100

I mentioned yesterday that we wouldn't be around next weekend. We are headed to Pennsylvania on Friday to celebrate my grandfather's 100th birthday, which he celebrate on May 14. Technically, he is my step-grandfather but he married my grandmother in 1977 when I was 6 years old, so I've known him pretty much my whole life. I don't actually call him "grandpa"; instead, I call him Percy (it's his name!). I remember their wedding a little bit, mainly that the fire siren went off during the reception. I also remember asking what I should call Percy, since I was old enough to understand the situation. He told me I could call him Grandpa, Grandpa Percy, or just Percy. I was a precocious young lad (big shock, I know), so I settled on Percy. My brother and my cousin, who were both 4, followed my lead (as they often did back then). Our younger three cousins, who were all born after 1977, just knew him as Grandpa. And he was a grandpa to us - he and Grandma showed up for special occasions and holidays and we saw them at least twice a year, if not three times. He helped most of the grandkids learn how to ride a bike and famously was climbing an apple tree near our house when he was in his 70s. He is still getting along pretty well and is looking forward to seeing all of the family.

My cousin Erin recently wrote about him in the newspaper she works for and has posted some pitcures and the article on her blog, which you can find here. She is an amazing photographer, so I suggest bookmarking the site and checking back often.

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #90/91

There will be no Sunday Shuffle next weekend, as we will be in Pennsylvania to celebrate my step-grandfather's 100th birthday. That means today's edition will be a double issue...

1. Who May Be Lazy/M. Ward (7)
2. Raining In Darling (Cold Rock. Dull Grass)/The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers (12)
3. Knuckles/The Hold Steady (19)
4. Hospital Beds/Cold War Kids (10)
5. Half Dead/The Mountain Goats (7)
6. Butterfly Nets/Bishop Allen (7)
7. Beautiful Car/M. Ward (6)
8. Click, Click, Click, Click/Bishop Allen (9)
9. Shadowcat/Canasta (7)
10. Dead Man's Will/Iron and Wine/Calexico (17)
11. Kicking TV/Wilco (12)
12. Jen Is Bringin the Drugs/Margot & the Nuclear So & So's (10)
13. I Just Missed You/Mary Weiss (4)
14. What Happened.../Grandaddy (10)
15. Blue In Yr Eye/Amy Millan (8)
16. Go to Sleep/The Avett Brothers (5)
17. Vice Rag/A.A. Bondy (11)
18. Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear/Okkervil River (5)
19. God, Please Let Me Go Back/Josh Rouse (5)
20. Little People/The White Stripes (6)