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Vultan's Theme (attack of the hawk men) - QUEEN

(The) Odyssey - Symphony X

I certainly grew up wanting to be the next Alice Lifison.

Underground - Ben Folds Five

News of the World - Queen

To be fair it is their only album worth ranking 🤣

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, by Adam Higginbotham. A stunning history of the cost cutting, power playing, incompetence, and hubris involved in the Challenger disaster. A gripping, vile tale.

2010

Messing up is the beginning of all wisdom. The idea of a prayer is connected with focusing on the task before me. I also don't want to take for granted that my brain and my hands are working. I'm hoping to see a bigger picture and not only serving my ego with my playing even though I am not a very advanced musician. I asked AI for tips on how to make my practice routine more effective. It said, among many things, that visualization would be a good add to a daily practice. I have started to do a few minute's visualization of playing with a big fat sound with an effortless touch and great time. I want to aim high in the visualization - why ask for any less - so that my system would start to work to that direction. I also often go through a quick scanning based on Alexander technique that I'm familiar with. It helps me to avoid some harmful habits and refocus my playing.

I've quit already after a couple of hours with these big loppers! It was taking ages and I didn't seem to be making much progress. And yet the problem of disposal was already apparent with a big pile of branches all around me. This hedge is pretty unremarkable about 6 foot 6 consisting of about 15 trees, but it's super-dense even though it's dead and most of the thick stems are double stems. It's like attacking a jagged block of permeable wood. It's been there since 1978 so it's had a decent amount of time to solidify. i'll have to get the experts in.

I rarely abandon a book after starting it, and I’ve never done it with a classic. However, I seriously considered it with Gone With the Wind, which could be the worst classic book I’ve ever read. The author is at times purple, and often both sloppy and repetitive. Instead of showing us through the actions and reactions of the characters, she repeatedly tells us with conclusory writing. We often don’t know what people do to inspire the reactions of other people, but we get told several times what the reactions of others are to those unexplained actions, often in excessively wordy and lengthy passages. There is only one likable main character in the book, and the two leads are both eminently hatable. Not only that, Scarlett sees almost no character development in a 1600 page novel. I’m not even sure how that is possible. She is repeatedly told in no uncertain terms why what she is doing will have certain results, and she repeatedly refuses to understand or change, and those results always happen. It is as frustrating as it is unbelievable. Rhett is presented more favorably, but he is revealed to be almost as stubborn as Scarlett, and only slightly less immoral. Additionally, the author writes the book to present the KKK, lynchings, and slavery in a positive light. I appreciate getting different perspectives, but it’s tough to swallow that. It’s not that she was writing the characters or the time, it was that she was deliberately presenting these things positively. In speaking with my mother about the book, it is clear that the movie is quite different on several major points. However, I don’t think I want to invest the time into the movie, nor do I want the movie to blunt the horrid reality of the book’s inadequacies. Anyway, now to Clockwork Lives, which will require a refresher on Clockwork Angels (the book, not the album).

Thanks, I like music podcasts!

Tarot Woman - Rainbow

Minstrel in the Gallery - Jethro Tull

Blue Oyster Cult

2020 - The Father

Armored Saint

Hendrix vote here!

Zwan

2019 - Long Shot

Let's Dance - David Bowie

Something So Strong - Crowded House

Red Barchetta - RUSH