Farewell Summer, by Ray Bradbury – Terrible book. I flat out hated it. To be clear, I like Bradbury, and I loved the book Dandelion Wine, which this is supposed to be a sequel to. This is more like a collection of notes and rambling surreal ideas jammed together in a effort to force a book out of them. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t make any sense. Oh and I calculated that it was only about the equizalent of 50 normal book pages (based on my reading speed) stretched very loosely on the pages so that it was printed across 150+ pages. Really aggravating all around.
Category Archives: Reviews
Krampus: The Yule Lord (novel) Review
Krampus: The Yule Lord, by Brom – 5 stars – Highly Recommended!
“Santa Claus, my dear old friend, you are a thief, a traitor, a slanderer, a murder, a liar, but worst of all you are a mockery of everything for which I stood. You have sung your last ho, ho, ho, for I am coming to take your head. I am coming to take back what is mine, to take back Yuletide…” — Krampus
This is a fantasy story in a modern setting. A young man, down on his lucky and verging on suicidal, crosses paths with an ancient pagan god, getting sucked into the battle between Krampus and the man who betrayed him: Santa Claus. We get the very human story of Jessie in parallel with the history and ongoing tale of Krampus, his belsnickels, and their goal to return yuletide to it’s old glory.
Orphan Black (TV)
Orphan Black – Season 2 – Great show. Very complex story. The lead actress, Tatiana Maslany does a superb job as all the various clones. Each one is very distinct. In the second season we meet new clones, learn more about the Proletheans and the Dyad Institute, and end it with a whole new list of questions. As any good show with a central theme of mysteries, conspiracies, and murder should.
Lord of Light
Lord of Light, by Roger Zelazny (1967) – Reading a classic Sci-Fi novel is a pleasure and a challenge. A pleasure for obvious reasons. The challenge can be reading from the right perspective. This one doesn’t spoon feed you any information. It starts off near the end and goes back in time. You have to let it all wash over you for awhile until it starts coming together. It tells you the story of this alien world where Earthlings colonized. They have reincarnation technology, and the world is ruled by Hindu gods who are very real. The population lives fairly technology-free. Must be at least a few centuries back in it’s structure. Fascinating stuff.
It’s a good book. I really enjoyed it. It’s different than anything modern I’ve read because it’s too short. You have lots of questions at the end and you know there isn’t anymore. If it was written now it would be a series of tomes spanning the centuries on this world, mining all the possible details of it’s history and politics, and not just one small book of only 261 pages. It’s more like an exploration of an idea. No need to overthink the whole mess. Get in there, tell a good story and then move on. I find it refreshing really.
Puscifer at the Paramount, Seattle
Awesome show. Maynard puts together the best shows I’ve ever seen.
Set List:
1. Maynard Monologue
while setting up camper/stage
2. Green Valley (CoMP)
3. Tiny Monsters (CoMP)
4. Vagina Mine (VifV)
5. Dozo (VifV)
6. Toma (CoMP)
7. The Rapture (CoMP)
(Fear is the Mind Killa mix)
8. The Weaver (CoMP)
9. Rev 22:20 (VifV)
Carina Round on Lead Vocals (slow version as well)
10. Polar Bear (Cif)
11. Indigo Children (VifV)
2011 Mix
12. Oceans (CoMP)
13. Monsoons (CoMP)
14. Horizons (CoMP)
15. Conditions of My Parole (CoMP)
16. Man Overboard (CoMP)
17. Telling Ghosts (CoMP)
18. The Undertaker (VifV)
19. Tumbleweed (CoMP)
No Encore, show was about 90 minutes.
Albums:
(VifV) – “V” is for Vagina (2007)
(Cif) – “C” Is for (Please Insert Sophomoric Genitalia Reference Here) – EP (2009)
(CoMP) – Conditions of My Parole (2011)
Note: Several songs were remixes or variations on the originals. Especially all of the songs from “V” or “C”.