Yeah, that was pretty unexpected. He seemed to know a lot about it!
Yeah, that was pretty unexpected. He seemed to know a lot about it!
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
A Passion for Leadership by Robert Gates
I am not a regular reader of that type of book.
It was handed out at an IT conference I attended.
There was a 5 hour plane flight home, so that was my 'entertainment'.
It was a good read. He talks about his time at CIA, Texas A&M, and Sec of Defense along with some other stuff.
He seems like a pretty straightforward guy, in spite of the spooky nature of his business history,
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
Just finished book 2 of Game Of Thrones, onto book 3.
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
Haruki Murakami - Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Quote Originally Posted by interbellum View Post
It's on these 41 pages somewhere, but now it's my turn to say I've begun reading The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick in a new Dutch translation.
Thanks for getting back on this. Well, I must admit I'm not a hard-core SF-reader, but I was intrigued when I read a review recently and because I never read anything by him before I bought it.
Personally, PKD is one of my top 5 SF writers. I started quite accidentally by picking up The Divine Invasion back in 86 (certainly not the easiest place to start!) and now have most of his works.
As for my reading, I am still trying to catch up on my graphic novels.
Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit
The Cosmic Landscape by Leonard Suskind - A bit of a long read, but it is probably the most intelligent discussion on why many Physicists are still uncomfortable with the concept of intelligent design. I think he spells out both "sides" very well, so far it has been well reasoned and above all - respectful.
I got nothin' :
...avoiding any implication that I have ever entertained a cognizant thought.
live samples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwbCFGbAtFc
https://youtu.be/AEE5OZXJioE
https://soundcloud.com/yodelgoat/yod...om-a-live-show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUe3YhCjy6g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VOCJokzL_s
I believe it is the only book I have read by him as well (unless I am forgetting something way back in the day). I was intrigued when the television series came out (which I have not seen), and decided to take a chance on the book. It was not really what I expected, and did not really fulfill my expectations, but as I said before, opinions really seem to vary on this one.
A friend has recommended Murakami over the years and has even given me a book of his (forgot which one) to get me started. Just can't get into it.
One Japanese author I do like a lot is Yukio Mishima. He wrote The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Much better book than the Kris Kristofferson movie would indicate. The little kid is just plain evil. His other novels and short stories are quite good, though be slow going at points.
Lou
Looking forward to my day in court.
I started a few books that failed to reel me in within the first few chapters. The one I ended up sticking with is "Burn What Will Burn," a backwoods murder mystery by C.B. McKenzie. Good, so far.
We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
It won't be visible through the air
And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
Sequel to the shining. Very good! Going to make for a good movie. (potentially)
A Comfort Zone is not a Life Sentence
Yesterday I finished this 700+ pages book. What an adventure!
Here's a good interview with Rolling Stone, which is kind of funny, because one of the leading characters is a writer for this magazine:
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/...l-son-20160106
rs-222655-R1252_FOB_MarlonJames_A.jpg
My Wonderful World of Slapstick by Buster Keaton. Interesting autobiography of the Great Stone Face. Funny thing is, he points out, that in many of his early two-reelers with Roscoe Arbuckle, he did laugh and yell. Only later when he started making his own movies did he adopt the deadpan face. Audiences would boo if he broke out into a smile. I haven't yet got to the part where talkies come in; I'm looking forward to seeing how he handled the transition. The first third or so of the book is about his vaudeville years. The act he did with his father, since he was three, appartently was pretty violent with him getting tossed and manhandled all over the stage. This, he says, prepared him for all the pratfalls and sightgags of his movies. He did all his own stunts, like the one in which the wall of a building collapses toward him and he's saved by an open window that passes around him as the wall falls. He did stuff like that in one take; it was too expensive to rehearse and then do several takes.
Lou
Looking forward to my day in court.
Funny, just a few days ago someone posted a nice mini-docu on the Eddie Jobson-forum about Buster (including much copied the collapsing building-scene):
Now 4/5 through Joe Abercrombie's "Before They Are Hanged", the second volume of his acclaimed "First Law" trilogy. Great stuff. I had taken a short break from High fantasy to read Jack Vance' s "Planet of Adventure" compendium, which was a great read (love me my Vance, whose "Lyonesse" trilogy got me into the past two years' devotion to High Fantasy). Really enjoying the "First Law" trilogy.
Finished "Burn What Will Burn" and lit into the other book by the same author, CB McKenzie, called "Bad Country." This one has conversation written with no quotation marks. Takes some getting used to. Good story so far.
We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
It won't be visible through the air
And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973
"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. This will be a television show in the near future.
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
I've finally got Lyonesse on my iPad (along with a couple hundred other books - no really, it's a couple hundred books. I have a problem). I'm looking forward to getting into it. The "First Law" trilogy is so great, such a thrill in the way that it turns those old fantasy tropes on their heads and then CRUSHES THEM!
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
just finished Joe Hill's "The Fireman"......it was mediocre,unlike the previous book "NOS4A2", which was awesome......even though hes Stephen King's son and has a similar writing style, he has his own voice and writes from a Gen X/ Millennial perspective, which is cool
Just finished Carly Simon's "Boys in the Trees" autiobio -- incredibly boring. Hopefully my next one, a Barbara Mandrell autobio, will be more interesting.
Just finished reading Close Your Eyes, the latest work of Michael Robotham, which got an inviation on the cover by Stephen King: "His best one so far. Impossible to put away."
Loved his work from the start and this one is "killing", with even a kind of "Sophie's Choice"-moment for Joe O'Loughlin....
Started reading in the new Jonathan Coe, Number 11.
" It is a contemporary, satirical novel set in Britain during the years 2003-2015. Some characters reappear from What a Carve Up! as the novel examines the continued influence of the Winshaw family and their heirs on the political and cultural life of the nation."
So...
I just finished Jonathan Hickman's Avengers/Infinity/Secret Wars mega epic for marvel and was well satisfied.
Caveat, I had previously read his FF as well as some Image trades.
Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit
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