Dandyfunk

Art School

I've been taking watercolor classes at Montclair Art Museum .
So far I've been mostly "experimenting" and don't have any interesting paintings to show, but my palette looks nice.

The Day the Music Died

My annual posting for today . . .

Today is February 3, the anniversary of the day Buddy Holly died in a plane crash. Also known as The Day the Music Died.

I got into Buddy Holly around the time I got out of college and got into stuff like playing guitar, Rockabilly, and music in general. And I found out that I had been a fan longer than I thought. Let me explain . . .

Back in grade school, among my collection of records, and in fact among the very first that I ever owned, were Parallel Lines by Blondie and Get the Knack, by The Knack. Now these records, which were 12" disks
of vinyl, processed from the now long extinct hides of vinylsauruses, came with cool stuff like liner notes, lyrics and  song writing credits, all of which could be read without the aid of a magnifying glass, unlike the tiny foldouts that come with CD's today. One thing I noticed while perusing this wealth of information and really cool pictures while spinning the records was that two of my favorite songs from these albums, "Heartbeat" from GTK and "I'm a Gonna Love You Too" from PL, weren't written by anyone in the band. These were cover songs, but never having heard the originals, I didn't know any better.

 

Flash forward -- it was quite a surprise to learn that some of my favorite songs were Buddy Holly songs! I had been a fan for years and never knew. Right now I'm listening to "Mailman bring me no Blues," from the  the 5 album boxed set The Complete Buddy Holly (yes, 5 vinyl records, not available in CD and all in glorious mono). Later I'll get out my guitar and play along.

How to read more books

Life hack has a short article on how to read more books this year.
I'd try the audio book suggestion, if my library had a better selection.

Read it here.

Another article on how to cultivate a lifetime reading habit, found here.

Epiphany Shocker!

The baby Jesus totally ignores the Three Wise Men in favor of a bunch of runaways from Santaland bearing miniature Christmas trees and candy canes.

Do you know the Klingon Proverb?

http://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot/2008/01/06/

Something new from GRR Martin

No, not the long awaited Feast for Crows, but a different sample chapter on his website. This one from Jon Snow's point of view.

Read it here.

Why it's still Christmas

Because I haven't finished painting this year's ornaments.

Most years I only do one or two (sometimes none) but this year I managed to paint eight. Too bad the tree is coming down soon.

Books Read, 2007

Managed to read 47 books this year.
See the list below the cut.

Happy New Year!

Hope '07 was a good one, and '08 better still!

Build your own Antholgy

There's a great new SF anthology out there. It's got exactly the stories you want in it. You are guaranteed to love every story.  How is that possible? A mind link with the editor? Nope -- you choose the stories yourself, and the book is printed up for you.

More details here.

Right now, the number of stories you can choose from is limited, but in a perfect world, where all stories are available, I think I would pick the following lineup:

Nightwings, Robert Silverberg
Breathmoss, Ian MacLeod
On the Orion Line, Stephen Baxter
Fondly Fahrenheit, Alfred Bester
Flowers for Algernon, D Keyes
Scanners Live in Vain, Cordwainer Smith
Think Like a Dinosaur, JP Kelly
Shannach -- the Last, Leigh Brackett
View from Endless Scarp, Marta Randal
Ghost Stalk, Glen Cook
Lean Times in Lankmar, F Leiber
Hardfought,  Greg Bear
Sergeant Chip, Bradley Denton
Swarm, Bruce Sterling
Liar! Isaac Asimov
Lobsters, Charlie Stross
Sandkings, GRR Marin
Death of Captain Future, Allen Steele