My cousin Dorothy Kisling died today.

Farewell To Ballochmyle, by Robert Burns

The Catrine woods were yellow seen,
The flowers decay'd on Catrine lee,
Nae lav'rock sang on hillock green,
But nature sicken'd on the e'e.
Thro' faded groves Maria sang,
Hersel' in beauty's bloom the while;
And aye the wild-wood ehoes rang,
Fareweel the braes o' Ballochmyle!

Low in your wintry beds, ye flowers,
Again ye'll flourish fresh and fair;
Ye birdies dumb, in with'ring bowers,
Again ye'll charm the vocal air.
But here, alas! for me nae mair
Shall birdie charm, or floweret smile;
Fareweel the bonie banks of Ayr,
Fareweel, fareweel! sweet Ballochmyle!

Blogs For Everything

The fellow with the foresight to obtain the domain name BenedictXVI has a blog. Here's an entry listing the things he wants from the Vatican in return for the domain name. (link via Mark Evanier).

Mad Science (of Grinding Metal fame) must be kicking himself right now for not thinking of this first...

No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn

I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate my old college roommate and friend Peter Lorge. He wrote a book due to hit store shelves in November. Chinese Warfare 900-1795: Empire Without Nation is available for pre-order at Amazon (be sure to reserve your copy!). He now joins the rarefied ranks of friends with published work, including John McCannon (Red Arctic) and Eric Marin (editor of Lone Star Stories and flash fiction writer extraordiniare). Someday I hope to join that list.

Another reason to hate Windows: a recent update of the XP OS conflicted with the software that manages my wireless connection. It took me a long time and many calls to my cable provider to figure that out. Eventually, I had to uninstall my old software and figure out how to get Windows to do the job instead. What a pain in the patootie.

After my posted my top ten list the other day, I pondered over a much longer list of albums that didn't make the cut. The process of determining what made that list and what didn't was difficult but I stand by my choices. Nevertheless, there are many albums that deserve mention. So I thought I'd list a few more, in no particular order:

Kate Bush: Hounds of Love and The Sensual World

Suzanne Vega: 99.9 F and Solitude Standing

Billie Holiday: Songs for Distingue Lovers and Lady in Satin

Bill Evans: Trio '64 and Trio '65

Oscar Peterson: Night Train

Simon Rattle/Birmingham Symphony: Adam's The Chairman Dances and Adam's Short Ride in a Fast Machine

Gergiev/Kirov Symphony: Stravinsky's The Firebird

Talking Heads: Songs About Buildings and Food and Speaking in Tongues

Oingo Boingo: Only A Lad and Nothing To Fear

Getz and Gilberto: Getz/Gilberto

Lunasa: Otherworld

October Project: October Project and Falling Farther In

That ought to keep you occupied for a while!

Happy Anniversary, Humid Cedar!

This blog has tortured its reader for an entire year! May the pain never end!

To mark the occassion, I changed the blog's look. Enjoy.

Saved!

I just finished listening to Mandy Moore's cover of the classic XTC tune "Senses Working Overtime". She has a good voice and the biting, bitter lyrics are still there but it lacks edge. She can't convey the frustration that the song describes. But I give her points for the choice: top-forty it ain't.

My wife and I watched Ms. Moore in the movie Saved last night. She did a good job with a one-dimensional role. I think we (the audience) are supposed to grok to the fact that her character uses Christianity as a weapon to keep the other kids in line and justify her own sense of self-importance. We get plenty of that. On the other hand, we only get a glimpse of the vulnerable "ugly-duckling" she used to be. This idea, if developed, would have made her character more sympathetic and interesting. She would have been someone who used Christianity to literally reinvent herself, which , as I understand it, is part of the point of being "born again". But the people behind this film make the easy choice: she - and most of the other Christians - are depicted as narrow-minded bores who cling to Christianity as a safe harbor from the ambiguity and difficult choices facing people (especially teen-agers) today. The protagonist and her friends (including the understated Macauley Culkin) are all poltically correct, diverse and triumphant. I don't consider myself a christian, and I certainly remember seeing things in such stark contrasts when I was a kid (growing up in a county where many people adhered to a fundamentalist view of Christianity helped), but as an adult I know there is more to both sides than that. This movie sacrificed nuance for the easy laugh.

My Top Ten Albums

This list is not meant to be an assertion that these albums are the best ever produced. It is simply a declaration that these albums did more to shape my musical tastes than any others in my large collection (accumulated over the course of 30 years). I love music of all kinds and there are many more albums that I could list here but this is the distillation of my knowledge and love of music into a refined set that I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone.

Put simply: these albums, upon first listen and on each subsequent listen, informed and shaped my taste in music. Each one of these albums made an enormous impact on my life and continue to do so.

Here goes (in ascending order):

10. Ella Fitzgerald, The Cole Porter Songbook

9. Steely Dan, Aja

8. Dave Brubeck, Time Out

7. Elvis Costello, My Aim Is True

6. Stevie Wonder, Innervisions

5. John Williams/London Symphony Orchestra, the soundtrack to Star Wars: A New Hope

4. Paul Simon, Graceland

3. Leonard Bernstein/New York Philharmonic, Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica")

2. Miles Davis, Kind of Blue

1. Cat Stevens, Teaser and the Firecat

A Blog For Everything

Here's a blog about tacos.

Gotta Go!

Quick Reviews

A week or so ago, I decided to give manga a try. Manga is the term for a style of comic developed in Japan. Manga embraces many different genres (not just super-heroes) and are very popular among people of all ages in Japan. Manga is far more popular in Japan than comics are in the U.S. (the X-Men and Spider-Man movie franchises notwithstanding). Over the last few years, in the hopes of capturing some of that manga-magic for the American audience, several publishers have translated a myriad of titles, representing a vast cross-section of genres, from Japanese into English and put them on shelves in mainstream bookstores (like Borders) as well as specialty comic book stores. As I understand it, these are doing very well. And since I always follow the crowd (and I search for something different to read), I bopped over to my local comic store and bought a couple of titles: Iron Wok Jan and Planetes.

What did I think? I am glad you asked.

Iron Wok Jan - is the story of two teen-age chefs in training. One is a young woman who is convinced that cooking is all about heart (the emotion, not necessarily the organ). The other is a young man who maintains that cooking is all about competition. Naturally, their grandfathers were fierce rivals for affections of Tokyo's culinary elite and that rivalry is passed down to their descendants. Despite some gratuitous wok-fu, there is little physical conflict. The story focuses on these two characters and their struggles to achieve mastery of their profession and the admiration of their peers. I take that back: the story focuses on the young man and his struggles. With the more dynamic personality and the tougher obstacles (and, I suspect, some Japanese sexism), the young man is the more interesting of the pair and gets the most "screen time". Despite this, the comic is a fun and interesting read. If one is not careful, one mght actually learn a little bit about chinese cuisine and the science of food. There are some pretty dark turns by the end of the first volume but the comic is a nice change of pace from the relentless action of most comics.

Planetes - is the story of a trio of astronauts in the near future. Their job is to keep Earth's orbit clean of debris left by fellow astronauts, defunct satellites and other detritus. There aren't any rampaging robots or evil empires here. Just three people trying to make a living. There is a lot of human drama in this comic, as personal conflicts are addressed and dealt with (or not). This is hard science fiction, and the characters ahve to deal with radiation sickness and the physiological effects of living in zero gravity for long periods of time. A sub-plot involving terrorists picks up steam by the end of this volume (culminating in a fantastic action scene) but for the most part the plots deal with individual problems and foibles that happen to take place in space. Of the two manga I picked up, this one was my favorite.

And be sure to check out my friend Chris' new blog: But Is It Fun? It is devoted entirely to games and game design.

That is all for now. Next time: Uncle Patrick's top ten albums of all time!