Frank Zappa’s Cosmic Debris slinks out of my battered old tape deck. ‘Now what kind of a guru are you anyway’… followed by a typical bull-in-a-china-shop Zappa solo. Sometimes I don’t really know if his solos are really brilliant or just, in his own words, disgustingly stinky.
The love of my life (and liver of my soul), can’t understand Zappa at all. She also cannot understand why on earth I listen to Zappa, and insists on leaving the room as soon as I fire some up.
Strange, the only two people that I have links with (that I know of, at least) on blogger have some connections to ‘cosmic debris’. JP & Kunda.
Spent the weekend cleaning house after paint job. Found all kinds of old music. Some of the stuff I used to trip on during those formative years. Boney M – Night Flight to Venus. Ah. Get past Rasputin, and you’re rewarded with some downright greasy Motown funk. Also found old beaten-up copy of Thriller. Black Jacko reclining on cover with white zoot suit, Van Halen pyrotechnics still making Beat It ROCK. I like old Jacko. New Jacko spends too much time trying to like himself. One of these old tapes even had me singing (in pre-pubertal tenor) some swashbuckling wild-west gun saga by Marty Robbins (anyone remember Big Iron?), accompanied by inexpert guitar.
Reading Heinlein’s The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. TAANSTAAFL- There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch - is definitely something to add your vocabularity (denizens of Christ College circa 1996-98 will get that particular slip). Albeit a trifle heavy at times, with his choice of using Loonie brevity concerning grammar, (which I enjoyed, actually) this is another great Heinlein. Like Stranger, it’s packed full of politics, revolution, great characters – and it’s a damn good yarn too. The sentient computer Mike is also quite a trip – comparisons with Clarke’s HAL -from the 2001 series - are no doubt expected. Where Heinlein excels, is, of course, his sociological and political commentary; and a lot of his books use the sci-fi yarn as little more than a well-greased skateboard for his broader vision.
May not be a Heinlein to start with: try Have Space Suit – Will Travel, Tunnel In The Sky, Citizen of the Galaxy, etc.
Have acquired a whole selection of Terry Pratchetts. Hee Hee.
The love of my life (and liver of my soul), can’t understand Zappa at all. She also cannot understand why on earth I listen to Zappa, and insists on leaving the room as soon as I fire some up.
Strange, the only two people that I have links with (that I know of, at least) on blogger have some connections to ‘cosmic debris’. JP & Kunda.
Spent the weekend cleaning house after paint job. Found all kinds of old music. Some of the stuff I used to trip on during those formative years. Boney M – Night Flight to Venus. Ah. Get past Rasputin, and you’re rewarded with some downright greasy Motown funk. Also found old beaten-up copy of Thriller. Black Jacko reclining on cover with white zoot suit, Van Halen pyrotechnics still making Beat It ROCK. I like old Jacko. New Jacko spends too much time trying to like himself. One of these old tapes even had me singing (in pre-pubertal tenor) some swashbuckling wild-west gun saga by Marty Robbins (anyone remember Big Iron?), accompanied by inexpert guitar.
Reading Heinlein’s The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. TAANSTAAFL- There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch - is definitely something to add your vocabularity (denizens of Christ College circa 1996-98 will get that particular slip). Albeit a trifle heavy at times, with his choice of using Loonie brevity concerning grammar, (which I enjoyed, actually) this is another great Heinlein. Like Stranger, it’s packed full of politics, revolution, great characters – and it’s a damn good yarn too. The sentient computer Mike is also quite a trip – comparisons with Clarke’s HAL -from the 2001 series - are no doubt expected. Where Heinlein excels, is, of course, his sociological and political commentary; and a lot of his books use the sci-fi yarn as little more than a well-greased skateboard for his broader vision.
May not be a Heinlein to start with: try Have Space Suit – Will Travel, Tunnel In The Sky, Citizen of the Galaxy, etc.
Have acquired a whole selection of Terry Pratchetts. Hee Hee.
posted by Bruce Lee Mani @ 11:06 AM
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