Rock 'n' Roll

When I was out biking yesterday, I listened to Love And Rocket's "Rock and Roll Babylon", so I thought I would create a Rock 'n' Roll playlist. Turned out pretty well, I say:

ABBA: "Rock 'n' Roll Band
AC/DC: "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)"
Beatles: "Rock & Roll Music"
Blanks77: "Girl Can't Rock and Roll"
David Bowie: "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide"
Byrds: " So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star"
Dead Milkmen: "Rock 'n' Roll Queen"
ELO: "Rock & Roll Is King"
Go-Betweens: "Rock and Roll Friend"
Government Issue: "Rock & Roll Bullshit"
Bill Haley & His Comets: "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock"
Hoodoo Gurus: "Rock 'n' Roll pt. 2"
Huey Lewis & The News: "The Heart of Rock & Roll"
J Church: "Rock-N-Roll Museum"
Joan Jett: "I Love Rock 'N Roll"
King Missile: "Rock 'N Roll Will Never Die"
Love And Rockets: "Rock and Roll Babylon"
Mekons: "Memphis, Egypt"
Wally Pleasant: "Rock Song"
Power Station: "She Can Rock It"
Queen: "We Will Rock You"
Ramones: "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?"
Replacements: "Rock 'N' Roll Ghost"
Supersuckers: "Rock-N-Roll Records (Ain't Selling This Year)"
30footFALL: "Still Rock 'n Roll to Me"
Wyonna Riders: "The Great Rock'n'roll Swindle"

LATER by Stephen King

Wow, what a ride! I give it 4.5 outta 5 stars (I give five 5 stars about as often as there's a harvest moon). The one line I disagreed with was that literary agents don't have friends; I dunno, they're salespeople, and in my experience, those in sales make friends easily. Another reason for 4.5 stars is that it felt like the story took place in the late 20th century, even though King stated it was around 2010.

Regardless, great novel! I started Saturday afternoon and finished Monday night. That's quick for me. Doubt I'll reread it like Joyland, but Later will probably make a home in my subconsciousness for a long time.

book recommendations

I reserved three novels at my library yesterday when reading the New York Times Book Review. That's good. Sometimes I go weeks without any books that sound worth picking up. I put holds on:

-- My Friend Natalia by Laura Lindstedt

-- Red Widow by Alma Katsu

-- American Delirium by Betina González

Hopefully at least one of them I won't be able to put down.

ENTER THE AARDVARK: Jessica Anthony

Finished this yesterday afternoon. Quick read at just north of 150 pages. Really funny! Gave it 4 out of 5 stars at LibraryThing. Reminded me of the TV show Veep. And, of course, I especially enjoyed it because it took aim at Republicans.

Cure: 1983

Most days during my day job, I'll put my iTunes on shuffle, but I got into this weird habit lately of listening to full albums on Fridays. Yesterday, I was jamming out to New Order's Power Corruption and Lies and Low-Life and Yaz's Upstairs at Eric's, so I created a playlist of The Cure's three singles in 1983, though I think "Let's Go to Bed" came out in 1982. Check it out: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0BRX35lV1J3zJWjKKiMxwd?si=e6c78dda3dff4853

The Church: "Ripple"

Since I created a Church playlist recently, I thought I would pick up the single for "Ripple" because it's about a minute and a half shorter than the album version. I ordered it last weekend and it came in the mail yesterday (Thursday). Besides the Edited Remix, it only has one other track, the Album Version. Made me smirk how it came in a regular jewel case; thought it would have arrived in a cardboard sleeve. Ah, the 90s. . . .

THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS: Micaiah Johnson

Well, glad that's over with. Did not enjoy this sci-fi novel. I gave it 2 out of 5 stars over at LibraryThing. Whole time reading it, I was thinking of either ways I would have written it differently, or of better sci-fi worlds like The Expanse and Blade Runner. The latter is dystopian like The Space Between Worlds, but it captured my imagination more. Plus, in Johnson's novel, I found the protagonist to be such an asshole that I didn't care what happened to her, and the love story was unbelievable. The middle third of the novel had some interesting plotting  — before that, I was gonna give it 1.5 stars.

With that book out of the way, I got one more library hold to read, then I can dig into Stephen King's Later. Can't wait!

Jury Duty

I lucked out. Didn't have to report for jury duty today. I was a little worried about it because I haven't gotten the vaccine yet, and I would have had to wear masks all day on public transit and in the court room. I dodged the COVID variant one more day. . . .

Quip #6

Regarding dogs: Big bites come in pipsqueak packages.

Fully / Lady Luck

Recently I had Lady Luck's "Disbelief" stuck in my head (it was from a 1990s comp), so I thought I would pick up the split album it's on, A New Beginning.

The first six songs were by another NYC-area band, Fully. I'm keeping on my iPod "Egg Creams" with its unique guitar work and the pretentiously titled "Magnam Opus", though the latter I cut down from 8:15 to 3:40, and I put it on my Instrumental playlist, which I listen to when reading.

Regarding Lady Luck, I'm keeping "Disbelief"  — obviously — and "Higher Vision", though I may remove the latter. I dunno feels like it's missing a little something; plus, it's probably promoting pot, which I'm not a fan of.

Three and half tracks out of twelve ain't a good track record, but I don't regret purchasing it. Gotta spend those Biden bucks on something!

Quip #5

Welcome mat
Locked doors

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

I read this novel in one day. I gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars. Characters were interesting, ending was a little weak, and his prose was pretty good. I dunno, felt more like a novelization of a screenplay than an actual book. Plus, the joke wore thin with all the illustrations of satirizing IKEA. Maybe I'm old school and like my horror to be dark and straightforward.

FOSSIL MEN: Kermit Pattison

I got Kermit Pattison's Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind from my local library after reading about in The New York Times. It's really good. I gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 on my LibraryThing account. Some of the science was over my head, I thought about 100 pages could have been cut, and the ending was a little weak, but I'll give the book as a gift to friends and family who are into science. Fascinating that millions of years ago, only 2% of our ancestors had cavities (apparently the advent of cereal agriculture is what did our teeth in, and sugary drinks in the past 150 years or so didn't help).

Amazing how much academic backstabbing there is in the world of paleoanthropology. The star of this book, Tim White, is a real jerk-hole. His animosity to laypersons, in my opinion, has hurt his discoveries. Before reading this book, I never heard of our Ardi ancestor, however, I was aware of Lucy, probably because the finders of that fossil are good at public relations.

Finish Things

Nice to see I'm not the only one who tries to finish every book they pick up. From the most recent New York Times' Book Review:

"I tend to finish things, holding out hope. Sometimes what seems like a slog can bring you to a place you wouldn’t expect, like stumbling on a clearing. Mostly that doesn’t happen, but when it does, you have to imagine that it went that way for the writer too, hacking their way toward something they were glimpsing through the trees."

— Jo Ann Beard

Church singles

Sometimes I really wished I had moved to Australia in my twenties. Steve Kilbey performed The Church's singles from their golden period (1980-1992). I got inspired and created a playlist, though I dropped "Already Yesterday" and "Destination", and added "Different Man":

She Never Said
The Unguarded Moment
Too Fast for You
Tear It All Away
Almost With You
When You Were Mine
Different Man
It’s No Reason
Electric Lash
Constant in Opal
Tantalized
Columbus
Under the Milky Way
Reptile
Metropolis
You’re Still Beautiful
Ripple
Feel

THE SCAPEGOAT by Sara Davis

I picked up this novel last night at Barnes & Noble after reading a review in The Washington Post. Got so much in my TBR pile, I probably won't get around to it for a while.

Moto G Power

Wanted to document this. My Samsung smartphone, which I bought in June '19, was starting to die (had a little, white dot near the top of the screen), so I wanted to buy a new phone before it crashed, since I have to use it for work, working from home. I picked up Motorola's Moto G Power (XT2041DL). My first smartphone over 10 years ago was a Motorola. Thought I would come full circle and go back to it. I bought it mainly because the battery is supposed to last for days. We'll see. . . .

The Stars My Destination

Since I read some of The Expanse books and have watched every episode of the TV show, I reserved The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester from my local library because I heard it's an influence on the series. The novel looks like this:

I was disappointed because it's the size of college textbook, the cover is lame, and the forward is by Neil Gaiman, who I'm not a fan of, though his Doctor Who episode, "The Doctor's Wife", is awesome (I wouldn't be surprised if showrunner Steven Moffat did a lot of rewriting on it). So I bought a third printing of the novel from around 1960:

What a cover! Can't believe is was only $7.40. Looking forward to it. You can't judge a book by its cover, but it doesn't hurt. . . .

PARANOID SING-ALONG by Yanti Arifin

Back in the 90s, there was a decent comp, Ear of the Dragon: 19 Asian-American Bands, and one of the standout tracks was "Losing My Cool" by Yanti Arifin. I finally got around to picking up her only album, Paranoid Sing-Along. I ordered it on Thursday and it arrived yesterday (Sat.) from Maryland. Pretty cool, especially since I ordered birthday items for my sister on Feb. 14th, the Mütter Museum shipped it on the 17th, but it still hasn't arrived.

Anyway, I listened to Paranoid Sing-Along this morning while cooking Dr. Praeger’s veggie sausages. The album's pretty good. I'll probably keep less than half of the 13 tracks on my iPod. The ballads didn't really grab me, but the rockers are keepers. It sounds like music created in the mid-90s. That's a compliment!

WandaVision

Finished watching it last night. Wow, what a ride! After episode eight, I was skeptical they were going to be able to wrap everything up in one final chapter, but, boy, was I wrong.

UTOPIA AVENUE: David Mitchell

Finished reading it last night. I give it 2.5 out of 5 stars. Probably would have liked it more if I was a fan of late '60s rock and/or roll. Interesting characters, though too many cameos from real rock stars to make it believable. However, I did like the appearance of some characters from his other novels, like Cloud Atlas and Bone Clocks. The Guardian's review nailed it.

LATER: Stephen King

I picked up his latest last night. Really looking forward to it. His last novel for the Hard Case Crime, Joyland, is one of the finest things he's ever written, IMO.

Black Bear

I rented this film from Amazon over the weekend and watched it last night (Sun.) — couldn't pass the rental price of $1. Only heard of Black Bear because occasional guest Matthew Weiss talked it up on the Majority Report podcast, since he edited it. I didn't enjoy it. The acting was awesome, especially Sarah Gadon (though I may be bias cuz she's Canadian and in a few David Cronenberg films). I didn't think the script was that hot. Very arthouse with indirect storytelling. I gave it 2 out of 5 stars on Amazon.