THE ANOMALY by Hervé Le Tellier

Nice to read a novel that lives up to the hype. I give it 4.5 stars out of 5.

* * * SEMI-SPOILERS BELOW * * *

I liked how it didn't explain why the plane duplicated. Sure, there were theories but Le Tellier didn't pull back the curtain. A little mystery is good. No need to explain every little thing.

I enjoyed how the book is more about the characters than the sci-fi concept. The characters were quite life-like. I especially related to the 50- or 60-year-old architect whose heart gets broken by a woman half his age. On dating apps I find myself gravitating towards women in their 30s.

Last night I was reading The Anomaly reviews on The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian. I think it was in the last one that pointed out that in the first chapter we're introduced to a hit hitman who leads a double life. When reading the book I didn't realize that foreshadowing. In hindsight, it's fucking genius!

Another thing I liked was the chapter on Stephen Colbert. I thought Le Tellier did a good job of mimicking the late-night chat host.

Oh, and it was nice touch how the event happened in China too but they kept it under wraps with only France knowing (not the U.S.), and the portrayal of Trump was good — while I'm not fan of the man with small hands, I liked how Le Tellier portrayed him as not a total buffoon.

Achieving success at age fifty is a little like finally being served the mustard when you're on to dessert. . . .

p. 91

Tired people are argumentative. Exhausted people a lot less so.

p. 189

The devil comes in into a lawyer's office and says, "Hello, I'm the devil. I have a deal for you." "I'm listening," says the lawyer. "I'm going to make you the richest lawyer in the world. In exchange, will you give me your soul, your parents' souls, your children's souls, and the souls of your five best friends?" The lawyer looks at him in amazement and says, "Okay. What's the catch?"

p.206

GLOAMING by Melanie Finn

I give this "literary thriller" 2.5 stars out of 5. I was loving Finn's prose for about the first 100 pages, then got bored with it. About the first 200 pages (out of 300) focused on Pilgrim Jones, whose international lawyer leaves her because he gets some woman pregnant, and Pilgrim kills three kids with her car in Switzerland when swerving to avoid hitting a dog. Pilgrim then flees to Africa. The rest of the chapters are from points of views (POV's) of different characters. I thought at least 50 pages of Pilgrim's POV could have been edited out, maybe even 100 pages. Bright spots of the novel include the well-fleshed-out character of Gloria, who runs an AIDS orphanage; and a line about mercenary Martin Martins: violence is tied up in his identity — that truism will stay with me for a long time.

David Bowie's STATION TO STATION

At Christmas dinner, I was talking to my cousin Matt and he said Station to Station is his favorite Bowie album. Thought I would finally check it out, plus I could get high-quality versions of "Golden Years" and "TVC15" (the versions on my computer are from an old Fame and Fashion cassette, from the '80s). Should've stuck with my gut. Besides the two aforementioned songs, I kept the title track and "Stay"; the former I completely fade out at 3:20 so it's an instrumental, and the latter I only kept because I had it on a singles playlist — cool guitar riff.

I heard Bowie's drug use was at its peak during the making of this album that he had no memory of making it. Maybe that's why it's so weak. Weird how it's held in such high regard. . . .

Dropkick Murphys: THE WARRIOR CODE

John Williams and Howard Shore are my favorite film composers. I noticed the latter did the score for The Departed, and the Dropkick Murphys had a song in that Martin Scorsese flick. "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" is really catchy. I was hesitant to pick up the album it's on, The Warrior Code, because I only like the first 2 tracks on their debut album, Do or Die ("Cadence to Arms" and "Do or Die"), and I only kept 4 of the 12 songs on Signed and Sealed in Blood ("The Boys Are Back", "Prisoner's Song", "The Season's Upon Us", and "Don't Tear Us Apart").

It's good to be wrong!

The Warrior Code is amazing. Out of 14 songs I'm keeping 11 (dissing the two traditional Irish songs and "Tessie", the last one is so tacky). But those other 11 songs are addictive. More punk than the hokey Celtic chords the Murphy's are famous for. Too bad my iPod won't let me play "Wicked Sensitive Crew" or "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" because "This song is not currently available in your country or region." Kinda cool in a way — forces me to listen to one of the more than dozen audiobooks on my Audible account. I can still blare the 29 minutes of Celtic punk rock when working out!

FOR ALL MANKIND, season 2

I was looking forward to the second season of this show for two reasons:

1. The first season was so great.
2. The second season is set in the 80s, which I grew up in as a teenager.

Unfortunately, this season really jumped the shark. It was more drama than sci-fi. A slog to get through. Most of the action occurred in the last two episodes.

I didn't like a lot of the character development, such as Aleida Rosales being a neurotic mess, Gordo trying to win back Tracie, Molly's eye issues, and Karen hooking up with a college-age kid she used to babysit.

I dunno, I would've liked it better if they had more new characters instead of mostly the same cast from season one.

But the last two episodes were so good, I may just have to check out season three, even though I swore to write off the show halfway through the second season.

Alright, now to finally finish watching the second season of Ted Lasso. I've been stuck on episode five for about six weeks now. What is it with Apple TV shows having stellar first seasons, then dropping in quality in the second seasons?

POWERS AND THRONES by Dan Jones

I give Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages four stars out of five.

It is a cliché much repeated by historians that the medieval world was made up of three groups of people: those who prayed, those who fought, and those who worked.

-- Chapter 10, MERCHANTS, p. 354

Cruelty and inhumanity were the handmaidens of imperial expansion.

-- Chapter 15, NAVIGATORS, Christopher Columbus, p. 535

The Expanse

Stayed up late last night to watch the last episode of The Expanse. Pretty meh, I say. I loved the first two seasons (even bought them on DVD), but it seemed to get weaker with each season, though there were bright spots, like Marco Inaros, his son, and Drummer. I dunno, it just seemed rushed how they ended the series. The sixth season was only six episodes, and the pacing seemed to quicken in the last two episodes. I didn't like how all of the heroes lived, and they had this one subplot where a kid is brought back from the dead but they left it totally open-ended . . . what was the point, then? Oh, and the annoying James Holden, the knight in Caucasian armor, doesn't kill Marcos in episode 4 or 5, but he has no problem doing the deed in the last episode? And would've been nice if Thomas Jane had a cameo in the last episode. Really disappointing. Now I kinda regret signing up for Amazon Prime just to watch it. Oh, well, back to another sci-fi letdown: the second season of For All Mankind.

Quip #12

Pet peeve #45: People who use the word agnostic outside of a religious context, as in: "When it comes to Russiagate, I'm agnostic."

Quip #11

A country of contrarians.

Dimestore Haloes: SINGLES GOING UNSTEADY (1996​-​2001)

Back in the '90s, when I was doing music reviews, the magazine I freelanced for sent me Dimestore Haloes' Thrill City Crime Control, which caught my eye because it came out on Joey Vindictive's — of The Vindictives fame — label, VML Records. And if memory serves, he produced it as well. Thrill City was on the glam side but pretty good. I kept 5 of the 12 songs and still listen to it every once in a while, with "Stiletto Baby" still pumping me up. (Sadly, on Bandcamp the excellent cover of "Your Cheating' Heart" is missing. I guess they're afraid of litigation from Hank Williams, Sr.'s estate.)

Anyway, I picked up Singles Going Unsteady (1996​-​2001) last month. Sounds like it's a 10-song comp put together for Bandcamp. The first 7 tracks are really good; the last 3 tracks really drop in production quality, so I'm not keeping them; the first of the triad, "Hate My Generation", sounds so much better on Thrill City Crime Control, I'm not sure why the Haloes' Chaz Matthews put the 7" version on this comp . . . maybe happy memories from the recording process?

The first 7 tracks from Singles Going Unsteady clocks in at 18 minutes. Will make good listening in the car when I'm running to the store.

Duran Duran's RIO

Stop me before I buy again!

Over the holiday weekend I was cleaning up my playlists (taking screenshots of them before deleting them from my iTunes library) and I noticed on my Rain playlist, Duran Duran's "Hold Back the Rain" was missing. I never cared for the 6:30 version on my vinyl and I noticed the original UK pressing had a runtime of under 4:00 minutes; plus, I was never too cracked up with the extended version of "Hungry Like the Wolf". So I downloaded the 2001 remaster (I was hemming and hawing between that and the 2009 remaster), which is based off the original UK pressing. What's also cool about it is that "Lonely in Your Nightmare" is shorter too. Though I think I prefer "My Own Way" on my old vinyl — that one clocks in at 4:31, while the MP3 I downloaded yesterday is 4:51. Sounds like side two of the album is the same on both editions.

Interview with the Vampire

Because Anne Rice died recently, I thought I would rent this flick. I read the novel back in the '90s but never saw the movie. I'm still not into the story. Just don't get it. I'm confused why it's so popular. However, Kirsten Dunst was awesome! Tom Cruise was OK, but Brad Pitt couldn't act, though he was good in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. To be fair, the story is campy, it's hard for anyone to pull it off. Makes me admire Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show even more now Oh well, at least it took my mind off the (probably COVID) headache on a Saturday night.

Quip #10

Welcome to the year of Catch-22!