Idiotprogrammer

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Among the true heroes of the Ukraine conflict are the staff of Kyiv Independent, whose reporting has been world-class. Here’s some first person accounts about the first day of the war. Great read.

It’s hard to imagine having to raise a baby during wartime. Tragedy has already visited too many people over this past year. I can only hope that our leaders will find the best way to bring this war to a just end and start the process of healing and recovery.

“Political apathy is the life blood of tyrants.” (random comment found on Youtube)

FUN BOOKS ABOUT US PRESIDENTS: Paul F. Boller collects short biographical sketches about US presidents and puts them into highly readable volumes. He’s collected PRESIDENTIAL DIVERSIONS, PRESIDENTIAL WIVES, PRESIDENTIAL ANECDOTES, PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS and PRESIDENTIAL INAUGERATIONS. These books will entertain history buffs, students and even nonreaders looking for recreational reading. You can buy used copies for very cheap online or at your local used book store.

STREAMING VIDEO SEARCH: For the last decade I’ve been a big fan of instawatcher search engine, a nice way of staying informed about new releases on Netflix. Very recently, they significantly upgraded the site to let you search by one or more streaming services. It’s a good way to learn about non-American (and especially Indian) movies which are highly rated. Click the link for results from a query of highly rated movies on Netflix or Prime).

MY FINAL BREAK WITH DONALD TRUMP: The only thing DJT and I have had in common has been our mutual love for (some might say addiction to) DIET COKE. But its price has steadily increased to the point where I have been exploring alternatives — including store-brand sodas. I am happy to report discovering PEPSI ZERO SUGAR — which tastes pretty fantastic! I never really liked Diet Peps, but ZERO SUGAR is a brand new product I bought by accident because it’s on sale. Apparently 2 Superbowl commercials for it are waiting in the wings. . Ok, it’s a diet drink — no lectures please! But it’s good to finally have a different alternative!

I’ve been a big fan of Hal Hartley’s films (and also the incredible actors in them: Adrienne Shelley, Martin Donovan, Aubrey Plaza, Parker Posey, etc). Now — finally! you can rent/stream older and newer HH titles on Vimeo (which has an app on Roku). My fave are: 1)Trust and 2)Surviving Desire, but the Grim Trilogy is also a lot of fun — the third Film NED RIFLE is loosely connected to the other two and stars Aubrey Plaza and Parker Posey.

ISLAMAPHOBIA IN CONGRESS. I am ashamed that my GOP congressman Troy Nehls (like 217 other Republicans) voted to remove Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs committee. I have followed Omar’s actions and public statements closely over the years; her rhetoric is almost always measured, insightful and dignified. The symbolism of this action is unmistakable. Maybe instead of pandering to our country’s racist elements, our leaders can do a better job of cultivating a diversity of voices.

2023 SITCOM RECOMMENDATIONS: NIGHT COURT reboot is terrible! Supernatural sitcom GHOSTS is a funny guilty pleasure. YOUNG SHELDON is still unbelievably good. THAT NINETIES SHOW (Netflix) is nearly as good as the original THAT SEVENTIES SHOW, but with the same parents (now grandparents) and a new slate of teens. UPSHAWS (Netflix) is great family dramedy. Poker Face (Peacock) is somewhat interesting murder mysteries, but honestly, it’s no better than a Columbo episode. Enjoy!

RUSSIA PROPAGANDA 1. Roman, an Emigre Russian dissident Youtuber mocks Putin’s patriotic celebration of the 1 year anniversary of the Ukrainian war. This 20 minute takedown is both horrifying and hilarious. Here’s a 16 minute video about how Russia punishes Russian musicians.

KING OF THE HILL REVIVAL. Sometimes a decade is enough to revive the creative juices. With animation, the characters can literally never age.

REBUTTING RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA: In a speech to the US Security Council, historian Timothy Snyder delivers a compelling and in-depth rebuttal to Russia’s propaganda about “Russophobia.” QUOTE: The term “russophobia” is being used in this setting to advance the claim that the imperial power is the victim, even as the imperial power, Russia, is carrying out a war of atrocity. This is historically typical behavior. The imperial power dehumanizes the actual victim, and claims to be the victim. When the victim (in this case Ukraine) opposes being attacked, being murdered, being colonized, the empire says that wanting to be left in peace is unreasonable, an illness. This is a “phobia.”

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Articles and Interviews

Here’s a brutal Pitchfork review of the latest Maneskin album. I actually have come to like this group ever since they won Eurovision.

LIZZO RECEIVES THE NARDWUAR TREATMENT: Houston singer Lizzo already seems to know about the reputation of this Vancouver interviewer, but Narduwar still manages to flummox and amaze Lizzo with his encyclopedic knowledge of the Houston music scene.

RIP BURT BACHARACH: What do you get when you fall in love?

A guy with a pin to burst your bubble

That’s what you get for all your trouble

****

What do you get when you kiss a guy?

You get enough germs to catch pneumonia

After you do, he’ll never phone ya..

(I just love those lyrics — which probably are more of Hal David’s handiwork than Bacharach’s. Still Bacharach provides the magic.)

Twenty-five years ago, they spoke out and they broke out /
Of recession and oppression and together they toked /
And they folked out with guitars around a bonfire /
Just singin’ and clappin’, man, what the hell happened?

Smashwords’ Walking on the Sun was released 25 years ago — here’s a live performance from 25 years ago!

Emusic Purchases

1. List begins here

Bandcamp Purchases

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Youtubey Things

Nice video by NFKRZ about dissident Russian musicians. NFKRZ is a fast-talking and delightful Russian dissident emigre who knows his Russian stuff.

CANNOT BE UNSEEN: This horrifying clip was referenced in a 90s pop music podcast. QUOTE: ““You didn’t need much sense of rhythm to do the Macarena. You didn’t need to remember too many steps. You simply had to be aware of the location of your chest, head, and butt, and you needed to be able to put your hands on those parts in sequence. Few dance crazes are quite so undemanding.” (I was out of the country when this was on TV — thank God!)

QUOTE: “A Miami radio DJ named Jammin Johnny Caride, he’s DJing live at a club in Miami. He’s there with his program director at the influential radio station Power 96, and he’s trying to convince his boss that they should play “Macarena” on the radio even though the current remix version is all in Spanish, because every time he puts the song on in the club everyone starts line-dancing immediately. So Johnny says, “And I play the song again and the same thing happens. It was like the bubonic plague. The dance floor clears out, people fall in line, like an army, and they start to do that little dance. The ones who didn’t know it, they learn it on the spot. And the boss looks at me and says, ‘What the hell was that?’”

Beverly Kenny sings a light-hearted song about the alphabet. This jazz singer who died at 28 made several brilliant albums, and I fall in love with her songs over and over. Writes David McGee:

Musically, she got it all right: her enunciation is precise yet soulful, as if she had absorbed every elegant phrase Billy Eckstine—or indeed, the young Ella—had sung. All the pauses are in the right place; her understanding of the songwriters’ intent, if her own choices are any indication, is virtually infallible as she finds new ways into familiar texts from the Great American Songbook; the supple texture of her voice enhances the lyrical narrative she serves; and her uncanny ability to enlarge the emotions of a song without losing control of them reveals an advanced sensitivity to the complexities of this thing called love.

Freegal and Library CDs

Wow, so many new stuff on Freegal and from the Library. I even purchased some used CDs.

Reviews (Rateyourmusic/Personal Reviews, etc)

See also my rateyourmusic profile and my review spreadsheet.in Google Docs.

Podcasty Things

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Abbreviations: KU means Kindle Unlimited,  and APUB means it was published under an Amazon imprint.NYP means “Name Your Price” (that’s an option on Smashwords and other booksellers). If you’d like to submit an ebook to me for review or mention in this column, see my instructions here. MAILING LIST: I just started a mailing list for my publishing company. Will mail out every 2 months and will include excerpts from my Robert’s Roundup columns and other random stuff. MASTADON: https://booktoot.club/@nagletx

This column includes recent 99 cents from the Farrar Strauss Giroux book sale on Amazon (US). (These prices are still good as of March 7!). Update: It now appears that FSG is implementing rolling sales — every week they add a new batch to their sales. Also, on Smashwords some of my Personville Press titles are free or discounted: see this, this and this.

Dilemma. I have now figured out a pretty easy way to add links to Amazon ebooks on my blog. Wow, I never realized it could so easy. But I have decided not to. As convenient as it would be to do this, I don’t particularly want to show any favoritism towards Amazon.com. (A while back they banned me from participating in their affiliate program, which is part of the reason). I always take the trouble to link to relevant web pages of authors, and really they can tell you the optimal place to buy their digital content. (Hint: It’s not always going to be Amazon). Also, I am mindful that Amazon can refer to Amazon.com or Amazon.ca or Amazon.co.uk, etc. My links to the US store don’t particularly help people outside the U.S.

Occasionally I will link directly to Amazon when I think it’s hard to locate something or when I want to save a search query, as I did below.

Between 2019 and Fall 2022, I was a big fan of Smashwords/Draft2Digital, and so saw the value of linking to their website. Since then I’ve had a falling out with them. I’m not going to remove the links I already provided, but I’m not going to be linking to that store, no thank you.

I’m busy in the middle of several important things, so haven’t had time for anything bloggy — but I have a very interesting blogpost coming soon I promise! I’m aware that these columns look incomplete and half-assed, but I actually go back into older columns and clean them up and add things as appropriate so they look reasonably polished. I like to start with an empty template just for convenience.

I have to put up an author WordPress site in the next month or so — something I haven’t done in a while. If I can manage — I think I can — I’ll work on doing a facelift of this website’s look — it screams 2011! — Hopefully I can do it by April.

Publisher Shortcuts:

Here’s the search URL for Farrar Strauss and Girous on Amazon.com, which is discounting several of its ebooks to 99 cents. You can access the list here. I count about 50-100 titles if you subtract the story samplers and 10 page stories, etc. It’s owned by MacMillian so I went ahead and did searches of the other prestige publishers.

If you do a search of different FSG imprints, other 99 cent sales pop up: Picador, North Point Press, FSG Original, Hill and Wang, Celadon Books, Henry Holt.

Below under the “Blink and its Gone” section you will find the 99 cent ebooks I bought.

Indie Author Spotlight

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Under the Radar

The Lockhart Women: A Novel by Mary Camarillo. (Author website and zoom interview) . This indie novel won a California fiction contest and several other indie fiction contests. Here’s an essay praising Flannery O’Connor‘s A good man is hard to find. A juicy FO quote:

Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay. I’m always irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality and it’s very shocking to the system.

Flannery O’connor

The Corner Garden by Lesley Krueger

Oil and Dust (The Elemental Artist Book 1) by Jami Fairleigh. (Author website). She described it as a “cozy post-apocalyptic fantasy” Here’s her favorite reads of 2022 (mostly fantasy). (Zoom interview on Youtube).

Fact Check and More Probing Tales by James Hanna. I love this guy’s fiction. I should definitely feature him in the Indie Author Spotlight (haven’t done it in a while).

REIMAGINING BEN by Panayotis Cacoyannis. Cacoyannis’s latest ebook which are dark satires.

Gigantic: Stories From the End of the World by Benjamin Harnett. Strangely, I bought this by mistake and decided to keep it anyway.

Existential Smut 1: Youthful Indiscretions by Hapax Legomenon (Author Website). Artsy erotic short story anthology. 99 cents on Amazon stores until the end of the month.

Blink and It’s Gone

I bought so lovely stuff from the FSG firesale that I have to create categories.

Art of the Publisher by Robert Calasso. A nice reflection on the art/business of publishing by a noted Italian writer and publisher.

Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation by Ken Liu. Also, Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation by Ken Liu.

Waste Tide by Chen Quifan. Chinese sci fi. “An accomplished eco-techno-thriller with heart and soul as well as brain.”

The Human Touch: Our Part in the Creation of a Universe by Michael Frayn. Ambitious philosophic ramblings by this noted playwright.

Helpless: A Novel by Barbara Gowdy. Canadian author I’ve always wanted to read.

Dominant Animal: Stories by Kathryn Scanlan. (Author Home Page and a Review +Interview)

Field Guide by Gwendolyn Gross (Author page)

Biology/Social Sciences

This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism by Ashton Applewhite.

If Dogs could talk: Exploring the Canine Mind by Vilmos Csányi, Richard E. Quandt

The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World by Carl Safina. MacArthur grant winner who has written about animals of all kinds.

Heart: A History by Sandeep Jauhar. How scientists figured out what the heart was all about.

Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything by David Bellos

History/Biography

Utopia Drive: A Road Trip Through America’s Most Radical Idea by Eric Reece. Nature writing by a Kentucky author. He investigates many political experiments taking place in the south.

Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery by Wendy Lesser. I will read anything by Wendy Lesser. She’s a great writer and scholar.

Dismantling the Empire: America’s Last Best Hope by Chalmers Johnson. 2010 book by CIA manager who makes the case that the US needs to downgrade its overseas adventurism because it drags down our standing.

Worldmaking: Art and Science of American Diplomacy by David Milne. Great ruminations about how diplomacy and alliance building works. See this Youtube lecture.

City of Angels: or the Overcoat of Dr. Freud by Christa Wolf. Award winning German novel — and last before her death — about a citizen of East Germany dealing with the past.

Redemption: Last Battle of the Civil War by Nicholas Lemann.

Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America by Eliza Griswold.

Oneida: From Free Love Utopia to the Well-Set Table by Ellen Wayland-Smith

Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche by James Miller. Intellectual history tracing the relationship between the ideas of philosophers and how they lived their lives.

Banvard’s Folly: Thirteen Tales of Renowned Obscurity, Famous Anonymity, and Rotten Luck by Paul Collins Fun historical tales.

Essays/Nonfiction

On Balance by Adam Phillips. Reflections on poetry and life by a British writer.

How to Become a Scandal : Adventures in Bad Behavior by Laura Kipnis.

Access All Areas: Selected Writings 1990-2011 by Sara Wheeler. Collection of travel and nature essays by a UK writer.

Dictionary of the Undoing by John Freeman. Young US writer who publishes short rants about various topics.

My 1980s and Other Essays by Wayne Koestenbaum. Stream-of-consciousness critical responses to literature and art from the 1980s by a comp lit professor.

The Fame Lunches: On Wounded Icons, Money, Sex, the Brontës, and the Importance of Handbags by Daphne Merkin. Merkin writes urbane, satirical sketches for the New Yorker and that sort of thing.

Acid West: Essays by Joshua Wheeler. “Beautiful, bawdy, and roguishly charming essays.” He’s from Texas/Louisiana.

Hogs Wild: Selected Reporting Pieces by Ian Frazier. Chronicler of contemporary America. Decade of reporting about unconventional subjects.

Desert Harvest: New and Selected Essays by Bruce Berger. Lyrical essays about the American desert and life on the desert.

When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays by Marilynne Robinson. Robinson reflecting on childhood reading, as I’ve also been doing.

Styles of Radical Will by Susan Sontag. Milestone collection of essays about aesthetics by Sontag. (Very memorable and influential). Also, At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches (some lectures, plus essays she never finished).

Senior Moments: Looking Back, Looking Ahead by Williard Spiegelman. Texas-based editor of Southwest Review reflecting on life and literary topics.

Essays of Leonard Michaels. Critical and personal essays.

Approaching Eye Level by Vivian Gornick. Gornick always writes great and perceptive essays. One of the best.

A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women: Essays on Art, Sex, and the Mind by Siri Hustvedt. 1.99 . Bought the hardcover last year, but I so wanted to buy it in ebook! Now I have two copies. (FYI, other essay collections by her are also on sale for 99 cents).

Writing Home by Alan Bennett. Collection of personal essays by this British playwright.

Busted in New York and Other Essays by Darryl Pinckney. Literary critic who writes a lot about African-American culture and literature.

At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays by Anne Fadiman.

Several nonfiction works by essayist John McPhee: Draft No 4: On the Writing Process, Giving Good Weight, Table of Contents. Also Second John McPhee Reader, which is slighter longer.

Just Enough Liebling: Classic Work by the Legendary New Yorker Writer by A.J. Liebling. Prolific writer for the New Yorker in the 1930s and 1940s.

Poetry and Writings by Poets

Two essay collections by Polish poet Adam Zagajewski: Defense of Ardor and Slight Exaggeration.

Breathturn into Timestead: The Collected Later Poetry: A Bilingual Edition (German Edition) by Paul Celan.

End of the Poem: Oxford Lectures by Paul Muldoon. (Author website, YouTube vid ) Oxford lectures on poetry by a distinguished Irish poet

Selected Verse (Bilingual) by Frederico Lorca. Also Poet in New York

Music for the Dead and Resurrected: Poems by Valzhyna Mort (Belorussian poet). I actually think I was in a group zoom call with this woman once.

Selected Poems 1988-2013 by Seamus Heaney. Great Irish poet.

The Poetry of Petrarch. Tr. by David Young. Floored that this is on sale.

Music/Arts/Theatre

Turn the Beat Around: Secret History of Disco by Peter Shapiro

Bob Marley: The Untold Story by Chris Salewicz

Love for Sale: Pop Music in America by David Hajdu.

Devil’s Horn: Story of the Saxophone, from Noisy Novelty to King of Cool by Michael Segel.

The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy and the American Voice by Greil Marcus

The Biographical Dictionary of Popular Music: From Adele to Ziggy, the Real A to Z of Rock and Pop by Dylan Jones . Collection of newspaper articles written about various bands.

Reinventing Bach by Paul Elie.

Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life by John Adams. Legendary classical composer.

Somebody Scream!: Rap Music’s Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power by Marcus Reeves. Rap Music overview.

Short Stories

Likes by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum. “For readers of Joy Williams, George Saunders, Lauren Groff, and Deborah Eisenberg, Likes helps us see into our unacknowledged desires and, in quick, artful, nearly invisible cuts, exposes the roots of our abiding terrors and delights.

An Elegy for Easterly: Stories by Petina Gappah. Zimbabwean fiction writer praised by J.M. Coetzee (my former writing teacher).

Instructions for a Funeral (Stories) by David Means. Noted story collection by an author who has won many awards. Amazon comment: “Means is a secret poet. He wrote his thesis on Whitman. He’s like Denis Johnson in that way: he has the soul of a poet and he’s not afraid to use it. Perhaps one day we’ll see his poems but for now, the short stories are more than enough, dammit.”

Nimrod FlipOut: Stories by Etgar Keret. Young experimental Israeli writer who published some things on This American Life a while back.

We Love Anderson Cooper: Short Stories by R.L. Maizes. First story collection with lots of animals appearing in them.

Venus Drive: Stories by Sam Lipsyte. Funny bawdy stories published in 2002.

Chemistry and other Stories by Ron Rash. Accomplished Southern writer. I basically want to read everything by this guy.

Sam Place, Same Time (Stories) by Tim Gautreaux. Lousiana author. Here’s a long interview and a staged reading of one of his stories.

How It was for Me: Stories by Andrew Sean Greer. Early story collection by the author of the universally beloved and Pulitzer-winning Less.

Library Purchases/Printed books

FUN BOOKS ABOUT US PRESIDENTS: Paul F. Boller collects short biographical sketches about US presidents and puts them into highly readable volumes. He’s collected PRESIDENTIAL DIVERSIONS, PRESIDENTIAL WIVES, PRESIDENTIAL ANECDOTES, PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS and PRESIDENTIAL INAUGERATIONS. These books will entertain history buffs, students and even nonreaders looking for recreational reading. You can buy used copies for very cheap online or at your local used book store.

Quite a Year for Plums by Georgia author Bailey White. (Youtube reading and a 12 minute sitdown interview). Here’s an audio of one of her NPR stories.

Hour before Daylight by President Jimmy Carter. I haven’t been a fan of Jimmy Carter’s writing style, but it seems to work for a childhood memoir.

Creative Commons/Freebies

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Literary Articles and Essays

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Rant

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Capsule Book Reviews

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Multimedia/Podcasts, Etc

Here’s Electric Cereal, a nice literary channel on Youtube with lots of interviews.

To my amazement I watched a movie version of Childhood’s End by Arthur Clarke. (I watched it with commercials on tubi – yuck!) I was simply curious about how the story might transfer to screen, and it did quite well overall. The love interests were a little overlong, but I realize you had to do something to humanize the book for the screen.

Personville Press Deals

I run Personville Press, a small literary book press where all the ebooks cost less than $4. Prices normally appear highest on Amazon, Apple, Kobo and BN, somewhat lower on Google Play Books and lower on the two DRM-free stores which are Smashwords and Payhip. Personville Press is committed to selling DRM-free ebooks and audio files directly from the Personville Press payhip store or from Smashwords. The prices listed here are the non-discounted price on Amazon. Check the links to see if they are discounted at the moment (it happens often).

• Existential Smut 1: Youthful Indiscretions by Hapax Legomenon. These artsy erotica stories are published on one of Personville Press’s imprints (Ripe Mango Take Two Press). You can buy it on Payhip | Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Google
• My Heart For Hostage by Robert S. Hillyer. This tender love story between a young American lieutenant and a French girl in Paris after the first World War was published by poet (and Pulitzer Prize winner) Robert Hillyer in 1942. Out of print for several decades, this novel will be re-released for the first time as a low-cost ebook. A New York Times critic called it a “superbly written book, written perhaps as only a poet with and expert in the discipline of verse could write it.” Includes a critical essay by Robert Nagle. Free download from the publisher’s site, but also available at a nominal price from ebook stores: Payhip | Smashwords | Google Play | BN | Apple | Kobo | Amazon | Amazon UK. You can also read the whole thing online!
• Second Death of E.A. Poe and other Stories by Jack Matthews. $2.99. Did Edgar Allen Poe fake his death? That’s what a Baltimore doctor needs to figure out in the title tale for this 11th story collection.  Payhip| Smashwords |  Google Play |BN | Apple | Kobo | Amazon US | Amazon UK |
• Minor Sketches and Reveries by Alberto Balengo. ($2) Introspective tales involving animals, allegories and the melodrama of everyday life. Payhip | Amazon | Smashwords |Google | BN | Apple | Kobo.
• Interview with the Sphinx. By Jack Matthews.  ($1.50). Hyperintellectual Tom Stoppard-like play which reads like a novel about a strange interview  with the ancient Sphinx character. Freud and Florence Nightingale show up too.   I loved this play and even produced an audio version of it which you can buy for $2 on payhip (mp3/m4a) but the script  reads well too. The audio book is available from most audiobook streaming services like |Audible $6 | Apple $3 | Google Play $3 |
• A Worker’s Writebook by Jack Matthews . $2.25 Matthews distributed a photocopied version of this writing guide to his Ohio U. creative writing students over the decades.
• Soldier Boys: Tales of the Civil War by Jack Matthews. $1.50 Philosophical Stories Taking place during the US Civil War. 
• Abruptions: 3 Minute Stories to Awaken the Mind by Jack Matthews. Flash Fiction. $2.25 
• Hanger Stout, Awake (50th Anniversary Edition). by Jack Matthews. Coming of age novel. $3.00 
• Three Times Time Story Sampler by Jack Matthews (Always Free!) US Amazon customers can sometimes get it for free, but to make things easier, you can down these files directly without having to register: Epub, Mobi.

See my other social media dumps

Wow, I totally forgot to start a column for Social Media last month so I’m playing catch up.

I never expected the ad-supported version of Spotify to be great, but I’m finding that the ratio of song to ad is about 1 to 1. I only use it occasionally (usually when I can’t stream something elsewhere), but it’s hard to justify listening to using Spotify even on the premium level — considering the paltry payouts they make to musicians.

For my nieces and nephews when I give them gifts which are books, I usually write little messages inside — usually silly messages on one of the pages. But I always include one message which says something like “IF YOU SEE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE FEB 20, 2023, I WILL GIVE YOU $30! (or something comparable). Sometimes I put it on the last page or in the paragraph in one of the middle pages. Alas, none of them have ever called to claim their cash reward until yesterday — my niece Elizabeth who actually read the book — told me that she saw the message. I will be $30 poorer, but I am glad that a young person is actually reading….

QUOTE: Today, the number of political prisoners in Russia is more than the total number in all of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the period of perestroika in the 1980s. ” (Jan Rachinsky of MEMORIAL group from Russia, which shared the Nobel Peace prize with similar groups from Ukraine and Belarus).

Here’s more: QUOTE: “In my homeland, the entirety of Belarus is in a prison. Journalists, political scientists, trade union leaders are in jail, there are many of my acquaintances and friends among them… The courts work like a conveyor belt, convicts are transported to penal colonies, and new waves of political prisoners take their place…” (Co-winner Ales Bialiatski, now in prison in Belarus whose prize was accepted by his wife )

KIRSTIE ALLEY MISSES HER TV FAMILY. She was great in mixing haughtiness with insecurity. Here’s another very risque sketch — even for SNL.

I always tell people that my Harris Country branch library (Maud Marks library) is super-awesome. Yesterday when I was there to check out/return stuff, the librarian called out to me, “Mr. Nagle. It’s too bad you were not here yesterday. You could have seen the reindeer.” Yes, they actually had REINDEER outside for the children to see (she showed me video and pics). In the past, they had talks with a former astronaut, a retired police detective (to talk about murder mysteries), various art shows, India day and author readings. Also free ethnic food for random reasons. Those things are great too, but heck …. REINDEER!?

KIEV TO LVIV (and POLAND). Apparently for reasons of safety, NYT reporters were sent away from Kiev to remain in Lviv and at the Polish border. Monday’s podcast episode was an unbelievable and harrowing account of the journey to Poland through Lviv (which should only take a few hours, but because of traffic jams and checkpoints ended up taking days). Having no place to sleep, they eventually found room sleeping on the floor of a kindergarten class. It’s hard to imagine the extent of how the lives of ordinary Ukrainians are being disrupted.

I PREDICT: Elvis by Baz Luhrmann will win this year’s Oscar for Best Picture.

FUN TRAVEL SHOW FROM 1990-2000s: I was telling a friend about a great & zany travel show called Globetrekker (which appeared on PBS and other channels). I love everything about this show — and although most episodes are not online, some are on YT. Ian Wright started the show and was the main travel guide — but the show had a variety of young hosts — all with their distinct styles. I’ve seen about 90% of the 220 episodes; here’s a sample

This useful article describes how to coordinate your big-ticket purchases with the new green tax credits. Here’s a nice PBS Newshour story about heat pumps.

COOL THING FOR HOUSTONIANS: If you have a Harris County library card, you can use the freegal app to stream unlimited amounts of music from your phone. Frreegal doesn’t have the depth of the music catalog of Spotify or Apple or Amazon, but it still has a ton of music by major labels — plus it’s commercial free! (Previously you could stream it for 5 hours per week).

NOT GOING TO WIN. A few weeks ago I predicted that ELVIS was going to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Don’t know if that will happen, but I can state authoritatively that “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” will NOT win. A mind-bending kinetic, martial arts film with Matrixy/videogame elements and cartoon violence is not the type of movie which has has won their hearts in the past (cf. The Matrix 1999, Terminator 1984, 13 Monkeys (1995)), Movies with strong fantasy elements or dream sequences have sometimes succeeded at the Oscars, (Shape of Water, American Beauty), but overall the Academy has rewarded movies firmly grounded in conventional stories. These kind of mind-bending movies will eventually have their day, but the videogame generation is still growing up.; give it at least a decade.

(Commenting on the Best Film Editing nomination, one naysayer said, “They took a bunch of mish-mash, disjointed scenes and made it into a movie of mish-mash, disjointed story telling.”)

I’m starting a series of ruminations on music I’ve enjoyed over the years. I’ll relisten to the albums and spend the month reflecting on what I think or feel about it. I’m not aiming for in-depth criticism or to uncover obscure bands. Instead I’ll pick a random artist and just make twittery remarks about it — not trying to be coherent really. (Read more Auditory Ruminations)

Background Info

Wiki/Bio:

Articles: 2021 Interview with Hope Sandoval after David Roback’s Death.

Multimedia: Rock and Roll True Stories )

Rare footage: Youtube Channel of MS Rarities: 2018 Sydney show audio , MS Forum and Bootlegs (!!!)

Related Acts: Opal, Hope Sandoval

General Remarks

It really strikes me how all the songs seem to have the same vibe even though all are unique and fascinating. In contrast, I know several singers who have a Mazzy Star vibe, but for only one or two songs and then they do something more rock or dance-like.

Among My Swans (the album I overlooked until today)

I’ve loving it as a time capsule of the original sound. All the elements are there, yet different and shiny as hell.

Seasons of Your Day

Through the Devil Softly

She Hangs Brightly

So Tonight I might See

Reminds me of: Haelos, Eliott Smith, Breanna Barbara, Tessie Spoljaric-Woodgate (Lead singer of Intimate Stranger and solo album is called Light). Mireia Vilar

See also: Dec 2022 and Feb-March 2023 (View all)

I put my emusic account on hold for financial reasons. So I won’t be buying many albums for the next few months. Fortunately I have been checking a lot of cool CDs from my local libraries.

Actually though I really just want to sit around and listen to all the things I’ve found over the last year. I don’t consider myself a particularly astute music critic but I can get excited about things nobody else notices. I resolve to write more music reviews. One side benefit of writing music reviews is that it forces me to focus on what I’m listening — to concentrate on the album itself.

Another thing. My listening habits are haphazard. I do my most serious listening on my PC with Foobar2000 program. It’s nice, but frankly my digital music collection is so vast that I end up overlooking many artists and albums. I need to devise a good way to plan my listening — even if it’s simply to play a random album on this list sometime.

I don’t really listen to a commercial streaming service like Spotify, but I’ve been uploading my favorite albums to ibroadcast, which is an online music locker/streaming service . I’m still on the free plan, but will eventually roll over to the premium plan I like it so much. I have to create my own playlists, but that is not too terrible a problem. Actually though it’s somewhat hard to order classical albums correctly in my playlists.

Also, I plan to revisit some musical favorites — and maybe do casual posts about them. This month will be Mazzy Star

Articles and Interviews

Here’s a wonderful annotated list of Eurovision participants by country. Of course, many Eurovision winners either were distinguished musicians or later did many interesting things. Eurovision — like any contest — is just a good way to keep track of musicians since most of them pass through there at one time or another.

Emusic Purchases

1. List begins here

Bandcamp Purchases

This may not be considered a “purchase”, but about 6 months ago I bought lots of Name Your Price albums on Bandcamp. Then I did something unusual. I bought a “DIGITAL DISCOGRAPHY” to the Business Casual label which allowed me to download/stream all the catalog’s albums. That turned out to number in the hundreds. Wow, that took a long while — plus I’m not sure that everything on the catalog is worth listening. Will report back.

1. Begin

Youtubey Things

start

Freegal and Library CDs

Mostly I’m downloading tracks by former Eurovision winners, using names found in the subreddit article mentioned above.

1. Bert Jansch. Scottish folk singer.
2. Anggun
3. Edurne
4. Gromee
5. Loic Nottet
6. Laura Tesoro
7. Samira Said
8. Kuunkuiskaajat

Reviews (Rateyourmusic/Personal Reviews, etc)

See also my rateyourmusic profile and my review spreadsheet.in Google Docs.

Podcasty Things

I’ve been listening to the always excellent 60 Songs that Explain the 90s podcast. It’s great hearing a dissection of seemingly unremarkable pop hits and back stories behind the production, the genre and the musicians. I’ve been enjoying the episodes about Offspring, Britney Spears, Spice Girls.

View Previous Roundup and Next Roundup (View All)

Abbreviations: KU means Kindle Unlimited,  and APUB means it was published under an Amazon imprint.NYP means “Name Your Price” (that’s an option on Smashwords and other booksellers). If you’d like to submit an ebook to me for review or mention in this column, see my instructions here.

MAILING LIST: I just started a mailing list for my publishing company. Will mail out every 2 months and will include excerpts from my Robert’s Roundup columns and other random stuff. MASTADON: https://booktoot.club/@nagletx

Wow, spent 7 hours yesterday reorganizing my storage unit which stores 90% of my 3000 books. I’ve already culled what can be culled; I just needed to reorganize and realphabetize and rearrange everything for maximum accessibility. Alas, I still haven’t found the Octavio Paz title I have been searching for, but hopefully on Realphabetizing Day 2, this rare treasure will reappear…

REARRANGING BOOKS 2: It never can be said often enough, but it’s hard to grasp just how many wonderful books are out there. Even if you limit yourself to living writers and printed books, you are still dealing with a ton. Alas, I don’t have time to read for fun anymore; all my reading is WORK WORK WORK; Being aware of books and writers is supposed to be my business, yet despite a lifetime of effort, I am still struck by how much remains and the finitude of reading time left for me.

For a bibliophile there is NO GREATER AGONY than realizing that the book you bought earlier at a library book sale turns out to be something you had already bought a decade earlier. (it was a hardback version of Wallace Stegner‘s Collected Stories). I normally double-check any potential purchase against my librarything inventory, but in this case, that possibility never even occurred to me.

Indie Author Spotlight

the

Under the Radar

the

Blink and It’s Gone

the

Library Purchases/Printed books

I’ve always enjoyed the aesthetics of Octavio Paz, but now am reading some wonderful essays. The first two volumes are for sale for $2 as ebooks.

• On Poets and Others. Wonderful thoughtful criticism of aesthetic topics. Must-read is Paz’s essay on meeting Sartre; it’s sympathetic yet properly critical.
• Conjunctions and Disjunctions. Poetic analysis of dichotomies between sacred and profane, the prurient and divine.
• Double Flame: Love and Eroticism. (print-only). A long historical analysis of art, sex and literature starting with classical literature.

Also, I found a 600 page ebook poetry collection of Paz for $2 a year ago. Great deal).

All Souls by Javier Marias (Caught my eye with the blurb by my former teacher J.M. Coetzee).

Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography by Deborah Levy.

Creative Commons/Freebies

Here’s a nice essay by Carlo Rotella about E.R. Eddison’s novel WORM OUROBOROS. (Gutenberg link) I wrote this response:

Thanks for calling attention to an author and novel I’d never heard of. And sure, good storytelling is more than CGI effects. But plain informal language does have a place onscreen and even on the page. For one thing, movies and TV shows are produced for a world audience where lingo and elevated language may not translate well. Second, informal language can render a story more accessible to readers. I always remember with fondness T.H. White’s Sword in the Stone, which mixed high language with vernacular. The main thing that bothers me about these movies is the long set pieces (usually battle scenes or chase scenes). Well-staged dialogue can be suspenseful and exciting too. Too often contemporary movies and TV shows try to create character complexity through cliched backstories (usually a crime or a death) or flashbacks. I wish movies could linger more on dialogue and arguments and confessions and repartee.

Literary Articles and Essays

POEM: BESTIARY FOR THE FINGERS OF MY RIGHT HAND (BY CHARLES SIMIC)

1.

Thumb, loose tooth of a horse.

Rooster to his hens.

Horn of a devil. Fat worm

They have attached to my flesh

At the time of my birth.

It takes four to hold him down,

Bend him in half, until the bone

Begins to whimper.

Cut him off. He can take care

Of himself. Take root in the earth,

Or go hunting with wolves.

2.

The second points the way.

True way. The path crosses the earth,

The moon and some stars.

Watch, he points further.

He points to himself.

3.

The middle one has backache.

Stiff, still unaccustomed to this life:

An old man at birth. It’s about something

That he had and lost,

That he looks for within my hand,

The way a dog looks

For fleas

With a sharp tooth.

4.

The fourth is mystery.

Sometimes as my hand

Rests on the table

He jumps by himself

As though someone called his name.

After each bone, finger,

I come to him, troubled.

5.

Something stirs in the fifth

Something perpetually at the point

Of birth. Weak and submissive,

His touch is gentle.

It weighs a tear.

It takes the mote out of the eye.

(WOW, this is crazy. Later that same day I seriously sprained my ring finger on my right -hand),

Rant

the

Capsule Book Reviews

the

Book Roar Review

the

Multimedia/Podcasts, Etc

Huge fan of BOOK PUBLIC podcast. Listened to a great episode of Peter Orner talking about reading and poetry. He was raving about an epic poem by Bernadette Mayer about a single actual day called “Midwinter Day.” I love hearing about overlooked works like this one.

Personville Press Deals

I run Personville Press, a small literary book press where all the ebooks cost less than $4. Prices normally appear highest on Amazon, Apple, Kobo and BN, somewhat lower on Google Play Books and lower on the two DRM-free stores which are Smashwords and Payhip. Personville Press is committed to selling DRM-free ebooks and audio files directly from the Personville Press payhip store or from Smashwords. The prices listed here are the non-discounted price on Amazon. Check the links to see if they are discounted at the moment (it happens often).

• Existential Smut 1: Youthful Indiscretions by Hapax Legomenon. These artsy erotica stories are published on one of Personville Press’s imprints (Ripe Mango Take Two Press). You can buy it on Payhip | Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Google
• My Heart For Hostage by Robert S. Hillyer. This tender love story between a young American lieutenant and a French girl in Paris after the first World War was published by poet (and Pulitzer Prize winner) Robert Hillyer in 1942. Out of print for several decades, this novel will be re-released for the first time as a low-cost ebook. A New York Times critic called it a “superbly written book, written perhaps as only a poet with and expert in the discipline of verse could write it.” Includes a critical essay by Robert Nagle. Free download from the publisher’s site, but also available at a nominal price from ebook stores: Payhip | Smashwords | Google Play | BN | Apple | Kobo | Amazon | Amazon UK. You can also read the whole thing online!
• Second Death of E.A. Poe and other Stories by Jack Matthews. $2.99. Did Edgar Allen Poe fake his death? That’s what a Baltimore doctor needs to figure out in the title tale for this 11th story collection.  Payhip| Smashwords |  Google Play |BN | Apple | Kobo | Amazon US | Amazon UK |
• Minor Sketches and Reveries by Alberto Balengo. ($2) Introspective tales involving animals, allegories and the melodrama of everyday life. Payhip | Amazon | Smashwords |Google | BN | Apple | Kobo.
• Interview with the Sphinx. By Jack Matthews.  ($1.50). Hyperintellectual Tom Stoppard-like play which reads like a novel about a strange interview  with the ancient Sphinx character. Freud and Florence Nightingale show up too.   I loved this play and even produced an audio version of it which you can buy for $2 on payhip (mp3/m4a) but the script  reads well too. The audio book is available from most audiobook streaming services like |Audible $6 | Apple $3 | Google Play $3 |
• A Worker’s Writebook by Jack Matthews . $2.25 Matthews distributed a photocopied version of this writing guide to his Ohio U. creative writing students over the decades.
• Soldier Boys: Tales of the Civil War by Jack Matthews. $1.50 Philosophical Stories Taking place during the US Civil War. 
• Abruptions: 3 Minute Stories to Awaken the Mind by Jack Matthews. Flash Fiction. $2.25 
• Hanger Stout, Awake (50th Anniversary Edition). by Jack Matthews. Coming of age novel. $3.00 
• Three Times Time Story Sampler by Jack Matthews (Always Free!) US Amazon customers can sometimes get it for free, but to make things easier, you can down these files directly without having to register: Epub, Mobi.

View Previous Roundup and Next Roundup (View All)

Abbreviations: KU means Kindle Unlimited,  and APUB means it was published under an Amazon imprint.NYP means “Name Your Price” (that’s an option on Smashwords and other booksellers). If you’d like to submit an ebook to me for review or mention in this column, see my instructions here.

MAILING LIST: I just started a mailing list for my publishing company. Will mail out every 2 months and will include excerpts from my Robert’s Roundup columns and other random stuff. MASTADON: https://booktoot.club/@nagletx

I’m curtailing my ebook purchases during December, but this month will instead include lots of library books and Project Gutenberg titles and what not.

Hey, some big changes are a-coming. I’m flirting with the idea of changing the design of this blog. Although I really like the sidebar with all the ebooks and links, I’ve fallen out of love with Smashwords. Besides, my Google Analytics tells me that a lot of visitors are on mobile phones instead of laptops.

Over Christmas I met two people from Tennessee — and realized that I didn’t know any authors associated with that state. How about: James Agee, Peter Taylor. Here are two listicles about the subject. The distinguished university University of the South (which hosts the famous Sewannee Review) is in Sewannee TN. Apparently Alice Walker‘s Color Purple and Barbara Kingsolver‘s Flight Behavior and John Grisham’s novels take place in Tennessee, so there you go. Flight Behavior has been recommended in several different places, so I’ll probably be reading that soon.

Indie Author Spotlight

the

Under the Radar

My Hilarious Sex Life by Andy Halmay. Mostly true tales of a songwriter about sex and other stuff.

Luminous Sandwich by Michael Vaughn (novella). Also, Climies. Vaughn is a very prolific author (25+ books) and tends to have several items for free on Amazon at any given time. I haven’t read anything by him yet, so maybe I should do so sooner rather than later. his Youtube channel is very active and on Jan 1 he released a 27 minute roundup of all his reads of 2022 (basically he read a lot of quick-read popular novels, sci fi, horror and gave two sentence reactions to them). His tastes differ from my own, but I enjoyed hearing his talk about authors I typically overlook.

Blink and It’s Gone

Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 by Stephen Kotkin. 1.99. 2nd in a series. This biographer is very interesting; check out his interviews or podcasts or lectures (such as here or here)

Library Purchases/Printed books

the

Creative Commons/Freebies

the

Literary Articles and Essays

the

Rant

the

Capsule Book Reviews

the

Book Roar Review

the

Multimedia/Podcasts, Etc

LIT YOUTUBE : Here’s a great & fun reading & performance piece by @brianbilston (whose Twitter poems I have been following for a long while). Language is always clever & beautiful; I’m so grateful when authors do readings on Youtube;; I don’t care so much about appearances than the sound of an author’s voice + rhythm + manner of speech..

Personville Press Deals

I run Personville Press, a small literary book press where all the ebooks cost less than $4. Prices normally appear highest on Amazon, Apple, Kobo and BN, somewhat lower on Google Play Books and lower on the two DRM-free stores which are Smashwords and Payhip. Personville Press is committed to selling DRM-free ebooks and audio files directly from the Personville Press payhip store or from Smashwords. The prices listed here are the non-discounted price on Amazon. Check the links to see if they are discounted at the moment (it happens often).

• My Heart For Hostage by Robert S. Hillyer. This tender love story between a young American lieutenant and a French girl in Paris after the first World War was published by poet (and Pulitzer Prize winner) Robert Hillyer in 1942. Out of print for several decades, this novel will be re-released for the first time as a low-cost ebook. A New York Times critic called it a “superbly written book, written perhaps as only a poet with and expert in the discipline of verse could write it.” Includes a critical essay by Robert Nagle. Free download from the publisher’s site, but also available at a nominal price from ebook stores: Payhip | Smashwords | Google Play | BN | Apple | Kobo | Amazon | Amazon UK. You can also read the whole thing online!
• Second Death of E.A. Poe and other Stories by Jack Matthews. $2.99. Did Edgar Allen Poe fake his death? That’s what a Baltimore doctor needs to figure out in the title tale for this 11th story collection.  Payhip| Smashwords |  Google Play |BN | Apple | Kobo | Amazon US | Amazon UK |
• Minor Sketches and Reveries by Alberto Balengo. ($2) Introspective tales involving animals, allegories and the melodrama of everyday life. Payhip | Amazon | Smashwords |Google | BN | Apple | Kobo.
• Interview with the Sphinx. By Jack Matthews.  ($1.50). Hyperintellectual Tom Stoppard-like play which reads like a novel about a strange interview  with the ancient Sphinx character. Freud and Florence Nightingale show up too.   I loved this play and even produced an audio version of it which you can buy for $2 on payhip (mp3/m4a) but the script  reads well too. The audio book is available from most audiobook streaming services like |Audible $6 | Apple $3 | Google Play $3 |
• A Worker’s Writebook by Jack Matthews . $2.25 Matthews distributed a photocopied version of this writing guide to his Ohio U. creative writing students over the decades.
• Soldier Boys: Tales of the Civil War by Jack Matthews. $1.50 Philosophical Stories Taking place during the US Civil War. 
• Abruptions: 3 Minute Stories to Awaken the Mind by Jack Matthews. Flash Fiction. $2.25 
• Hanger Stout, Awake (50th Anniversary Edition). by Jack Matthews. Coming of age novel. $3.00 
• Three Times Time Story Sampler by Jack Matthews (Always Free!) US Amazon customers can sometimes get it for free, but to make things easier, you can down these files directly without having to register: Epub, Mobi.

See also: Oct-Nov 2022 and Jan 2023(View all)

intro

Articles and Interviews

I’ve been really getting into Rob Harville’s podcast 60 Songs that Explain the 90s. I know the 90s pretty well — and I just listened to 2 of my favorite subjects — Selena and the Cranberries.

Emusic Purchases

1. beritanya by Dansaya (IND). 4.49, 43 minutes.
2. Untitled by Ana Roxanne. 2.49, 27 minutes. experimental US singer.
3. Harorat by Yagona (UZB), 4.99, 55 minutes, 15 tracks. Dynamite Uzbek popstar.
4. Sibeba by Hijas del Sol. 59 minutes, 4.99, 15 tracks.
5. Shouka by Mariem Hassan. 69 minutes, 4.99, 16 tracks. W. Sahara singer.
6. E’tirof Et by Ozoda (UZB). 3.99, 40 minutes, 9 tracks,
7. To’plam 2 by Otash Xijron (UZB). 4.99, 130 minutes.
8. To’plam by Manzura (UZB). 4.99 , 150 minutes.
9. Hang from a Star by Sorry Kisses, 3.49, 8 tracks, 32 minutes.
10. Memento by Jes. (US) 107 minutes, 14 tracks, 3.99. EDM headed by longtime female vocalist.
11. Wilkes by Sam Wilkes. 2.49 for 31 minutes, experimental jazz artist featured in a recent New Yorker profile.

Bandcamp Purchases

1. Other albums by 19 Wiosen. Cesarstwo Zwierz​ą​t, Pi​ę​kno, Po​ż​egnanie ze światem.
2. music at a distance 110 by smv.

Youtubey Things

RIP Hamish Kilgrour (drummer of iconic NZ jangle-rock group THE CLEAN). ANTHOLOGY was one of my all-time fave music albums. Here’s a track that is positively sublime:

Freegal and Library CDs

1. Naughty by Nature, a 90s rap band.

Reviews (Rateyourmusic/Personal Reviews, etc)

See also my rateyourmusic profile and my review spreadsheet.in Google Docs.

Podcasty Things

start

(Sorry, I’ve been putting this off for a while)

Ok, I’ve added a mastadon account: @nagletx@booktoot.club

I realize that I’ve been substituting real posts for Linkdumps. Maybe I should vary things a bit and post separately occasionally. Something to think about.

WEIRD: AL YANKOVIC STORY (on Roku Channel) is a delightfully & predictably strange biopic parody that purports to show the early career of Weird Al and the (totally fictitious) fall from greatness. I’m sure Weird Al’s story is interesting enough to merit a documentary or even a biopic, but the because Yankovic is squeaky clean in real life and cowrote the story himself, the fictional story consists of every single cliche of musical biopics. Probably by the end it is too much, more funny in concept than execution, but I enjoyed the cameos and especially the actress who played Madonna (who was lots of fun). Also revisiting the early songs was always going to be delightful. Not a great film, but lots of silly lines and funny moments (and cameos).

ODE TO BELVEDERE: Here’s a fun car interview (11 minutes) with two of my favorite people: Jay Leno and musician Weird Al. .

WHY HIDALGO’S OPPONENTS ARE BEATING HER: Right-wing multi-millionaires and billionaires opposed to the County’s efforts to prevent flooding and pollution, some contributing as much as $350,000 to $400,000 each, began showering Judge Hidalgo’s opponent with millions of dollars of contributions to pay for deceitful attack ads against Judge Hidalgo. They knew that she could not match the millions flowing in, because Judge Hidalgo pledged in 2018 not to accept any contributions from the County’s vendors. In other words, she lived up to her campaign promise to do what all campaigns should do, but none other do, end “Pay-for-Play” politics. “

Great geo-strategic thinking videos by William Spaniel.

James Fallows on alternatives to Twitter.

PRACTICAL JOKE: This is the first time I’d ever heard of this British practical joke. Because we are educated adults, we know that spaghetti REALLY comes from the intestines of cows….

FAKE CHEVRON COMMERCIAL: Talladega Nights & Don’t Look Up Director Adam McKay makes a petroleum commercial to make a point. You should be skeptical whenever a company relies on stock footage to advertise its product.

Speaking of Andy McKay, an astrophysicist named Michael Siegel evaluates the scientific accuracy of the film Don’t Look Up. (Great channel btw!). He wrote an article about the Rule of Cool — how we accept scientific incongruities in entertainment if it seems “cool.”

MOVIE PLANS: Great to hear that my favorite TV sitcom Community will have a movie — but possibly without Danny Glover and Yvette Nicole Brown. I’ll admit it — I’m a sucker for TV reunion shows — I even liked — no LOVED! — the reunion shows for Brady Bunch and Gilligan’s Island (even if I didn’t particularly care for the actual shows). For those keeping score at home, my fave episodes are (from Season 2) Cooperative Calligraphy, “Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design”; also “Wedding Videography” (season 6)

BACKSTORY TO ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT (WITH GAGS). I’m a huge fan of AD (even the much maligned Season 5). This 22 minute documentary covers all the bases, and includes a lot of random gags… Speaking of which, This Podcast is Making Me Thirsty (a podcast about Seinfeld).

RISH SITCOM ENDS WITH A BANG: After waiting 3 years for the final season of Derry Girls to make it to Netflix, I am happy to report that Season 3 of this 90s Northern Ireland sitcom was every bit as terrific as I remembered it. Lots of outrageous Catholic humor (Nuns driving Deloreans!), crazy characters and more jokes per minute than almost any other show I’d watched. Also, a great fun soundtrack that will make anyone nostalgic for the 1990s (And not just the Corrs or the Cranberries!)

Everything in Ukraine and Russia is making me angry, depressed & frustrated. It’s a tragedy occurring in slow-motion. Here’s perceptive commentary by Russia expert Fiona Hill. Highlights: She believes that Musk is being used by Putin to water down Western resolve. By dealing with billionaires and oligarchs, Putin is “short-circuiting the diplomatic process. He wants to lay out his terms and see how many people are going to pick them up. All of this is an effort to get Americans to take themselves out of the war and hand over Ukraine and Ukrainian territory to Russia.”

Steve Martin’s business card.

Nathan Robinson on why the worst reporting tends to be free and the best/most accurate reporting is behind a paywall. A meaningful question to ask is how much should it cost to subscribe to a good daily or a good magazine? Wash Post costs 40-50$ with discounts; NYTimes costs $100. Houston Chronicle costs $1 for 6 months, then $28/month after that.

Some of the specialized magazines and sites can get expensive: Intercept, Slate, American Prospect, New Yorker, New Republic, Atlantic, NYROB, Mother Jones, the Nation and Guardian. I love all these sources, but I really can’t afford all of them — maybe 1-2 per year. I hate to have my news source depend so much on income.

For me — who follows the publishing industry and often has to do a lot of research into book reviews, I enjoy having the ability to dig into the archives to find old book reviews. My current media subscriptions: NYT, Washington Post, New Republic, NYROB, Prevention. I’ll probably drop one or two of them next year and maybe add Atlantic, which is becoming indispensable. I also am thinking of adding Slate and Mother Jones. I love the people there.

As someone whose income fluctuates a lot, here are my favorite free news sources: CNN lite, the PBS AP feed, Texas Tribune and Propublica. Also, I find that subscribing to substacks can be a way to get columns for free (although NYT has put a kibosh on newsletter subscriptions for nonpayers).

For international news, I actually follow Radio Free Liberty/Radio Free Europe RFE/RFL which is US taxpayer-funded, but hires a lot of local journalists and translates. Also, the Atlantic Council has lots of great special interest newsletters, especially about Ukraine and Europe.

I’m going to make some predictions for Election Day (without having any special insight here).

• horrifyingly, Republicans will do a clean sweep of Texas. That includes Harris County Judge for that crazy conservative blowhard. I hold out hope that KP George will win as Fort Bend County judge, but not optimistic. I expect that southern Texas will tilt even more conservative than before.
• Senate-wise, I think that Warnock, Fetterman and Ryan will prevail. I’m hoping that Mark Kelley will win in AZ, but who knows? Might depend on if Kari Lake wins the governor’s race.
• Where will the surprises be? Maybe it’s that the indictments will start landing this week. Who knows..
• I expect that Dems will have 2 more Senators, but they will lose 5 House seats. (Hey, there’s a reason why Congress is turning Republicans — gerrymandering!

Update: Well, GOP won 7 in the House, but the Dems gained 1 (and maybe 2) seats, so I wasn’t too far off-base.

I ADMIT IT: I really enjoy checking the tracking information of packages for the latest updates. I currently have a package coming from Fresno California, which has been traveling through Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso, Coppell (TX?!), Dallas and most recently Northern Houston. This package seems to have visited more parts of USA than I ever will! (Hopefully when it arrives it will bring souvenirs and amusing travel anecdotes).

I preordered my iPad in 2010 and would be receiving it on the first day. I remember checking the tracking info — and was blown away that it was in China, then Hong Kong, then Alaska. It arrived only about 2 or 3 days after the tracking information started. I remember thinking, the world became a lot smaller after that point.

TRIVIA QUESTION: Which US President lived in Europe for 6 months during a single 12 month period while serving as president? (HINT: He stayed mostly in France). BONUS QUESTION: This president was accompanied by another official who stayed there almost as long — and who later became US president himself. Do you know who this person was?

Amazingly according to Wikipedia although Hoover — who accompanied Wilson traveled a lot too and later did a lot of traveling overseas immediately after his own election — never took an international trip during his own presidency — presumably to stay focused on the Great Depression.

See also:   Previous and Next (View all)

I haven’t been maintaining this column for a while but I’ve been learning a lot of new things.

I’ve been enjoying the CSS videos of Kevin Powell. Which units to use (I’ve never heard of ch), mastering css layouts, combinators, etc. Basically I’ve been using a small subset of CSS supported in epubs, and it was refreshing (I guess) to do some css for some static pages I was creating here and here. I have been growing more and more alarmed at the rapid increase in surfing from mobile devices (and I’m not talking about tablets!). So designing for responsiveness has taken higher priority (except for this blog, whose facelift I keep putting off). Some revelations

• Designers have been talking about browser widths, talking about 60-70 ch, which shocked me a bit. (I ended up using 75). Also, designers have talked about font-size in the 1.8 rem range which also kind of shocked me. (I assumed wrongly that it was more along the lines of 1.0 rem). I actually used media queries for smaller displays, which worked fine overall, except for this one page where the long URLs seemed to force the font-size to revert to their lowest value.
• For the generated HTML output from Docbook, I had to tweak the navigation controls using better CSS. (I didn’t want to try anything fancy on XSLT unless absolutely necessary). For example on this page, I changed one of the top titles to color: white to hide it and div.navfooter tr:nth-child(2) td:nth-child(2) to target the 2nd row of navigation.
• Docbook has some built in parameters for XSLT which I know how to use. I was able to tweak the META tags in the headers to include Google Analytics tracking scripts.
• Speaking of which, I was appalled at how often Amazon URLs and Google tracking scripts get flagged as invalid HTML (Amazon because they use lots of ampersands in URLs, Google because they don’t give values to some of their attributes).

I learned a little bit about web caching. When updating and testing my websites, I had the damnest time flushing my cache. I tried all sorts of browser steps, then moved onto different devices, and then different ISPs — and I still couldn’t view the latest CSS! After a quick email to my hosting service, I learned that you can purge cache directly from Cloudflare — which I did. Suddenly everything worked like magic.

The Personville Press home page includes information about the latest ebooks published by this Houston-based ebook press.

It’s still a work in progress, but this web page lets you download Robert Hillyer’s 1942 novel My Heart for Hostage. I actually put the novel entirely on the web.

Aha, I put up a URL for the Personville Press mailing list.

I’ll say more about both web pages later.

November 7, 2022. Happy to report that this bug has been fixed in 8.69.0.100

Nearly 2 months ago I noticed a bug on the Android Kindle app which both perplexed and angered me. I still have a hard time believing that this bug wasn’t spotted by the Kindle Software Q&A team (It’s called a “regression bug” which is a fancy way of saying that the feature worked perfectly and then suddenly failed to work). I have a hard time believing that it still has not been repaired.

Here is a longer description of the bug (which I also posted on the KDP Formatting forum, submitted feedback via the Kindle app, reported on the Google Play store and submitted through an Amazon ticket.

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See also: Aug-Sept 2022 and Dec 2022 (View all)

I recently came across this group named the Traveling Wilburys — and was stunned to see that this super group had Dylan, Petty, Harrison, Lynne, Orbison — and I’d never heard of them!

During the Beatles’ GET BACK documentary, George Harrison that they should have permanently split up and then get back together every decade or so and release a collaboration album. I guess the Beatles became super too quickly and then found they couldn’t walk away…

I was always into strange music. the stereotype is that when people get older their tastes are more traditional and timid, but I’m more into weird shit than I ever was. That said, I find some current pop music to be unlistenable — PostMalone, etc. But I am lot more tolerant about dance pop but experimentation for its own sake doesn’t excite me as much. Internet makes it so easy to learn about new music and musical styles. But it’s exciting to learn about how much I missed first time around….

1988-1989 (and actually a good part of the 1980s) was a black hole for me, musically speaking. I was listening to only classical, and then a bit of jazz, but by 1995 I was totally into pop music, Selena.

During college I listened to whatever my roommates were listening to but I was pretty much ignorant about anything remotely country until 1996 when a friend Sherry Stokes sent me a mix tape of country hits when I was living in Albania. From that point on, I became a fan even of country music — and then in 2000s I sort of became a pop music omnivore. I often joke that living in Albania gave me a first class education in American pop and country music.

Articles and Interviews

stuff

Emusic Purchases

1. 23 am by Robert Miles. (4.99, 60 minutes). Iconic dream trance music from the late 1990s. I first heard Robert Miles in a Ukrainian dance club!
2. Di Dalam Jiwa by David Bayu (IND). 3.49 for 35 minutes.
3. Present Tense by Yumi Zouma (NZ) 6.49 for 35 minutes.
4. Ile De Reve by Private Agenda. (UK). 3.99 for 41 minutes.
5. Down by the Bayou by JeConte, 9 tracks, 39 minutes.
6. Sezónne lásky by Miroslav Zbirka (SLO). 44 minutes, 12 tracks, 6.49, I think Zbirka’s 80s album Zlomky poznania was one of the best albums I’d heard all year. This one is not quite as good, but still enjoyable. He’s like a Slovak Journey or Styx, peppy, upbeat, catchy.
7. Atelier duse by Marika Gombitova (SLO). 44 minutes, 11 tracks, 6.49
8. Archer by Suzanne Choffel. (USA) 7 tracks, 26 minutes. Austin singer.
9. Brazilian budget albums: Clareou by Dinho Zamorano, Sem Moldura by Ive Greice,
10. Albums by Norwegian singer/composer Kate Havnevik (NO: Melankton, Lightship,
11. Hello Kitten — Kitten and the Hip. 5.49, 48 minutes. Great British pop duo with retro jazzy sensibility. The singer Scarlett Quinn is great.
12. Zawsze jest za krótko by 3moonboys. 6.49, Polish avante-garde jazz-rock fusion group which puts together these amazing rhythmic pieces almost seem orchestral,
13. Dyliżans Siedmiu by Tatvamasi, 41 minutes, 2.49
14. Na Osi Czasu by Anita Lipnicka. 6.49, 72 minutes. Live concert from 2017 by this Polish folk singer. Hints of Joan Baez, etc. Probably not as good as her studio recordings, but the only title on emusic.
15. Philadelphia 1980 by Frank Zappa. 6.99 for 4 hours.
16. Live 1981 by Devo. 70 minutes for 6.49 Audio quality isn’t great, but the energy is. Also, didn’t realize I had so little music by Devo other than a Greatest Hits.
17. Pillars by Soderqvist. 12 tracks, 5.49, 50 minutes.
18. Penny Days by Lazylazy. 8 tracks, 99 cents.

Bandcamp Purchases

1. Now by 19 Wiosen. NYP. I loved this rock band by this electro-punk album by this Polish group. Surprisingly chill for a punk band that’s around for 2 decades. BTW, other albums are more raw, not as well put together. This one is terrific.

Youtubey Things

Aha, I ‘m noticing that my musical posts start to have giant gaping holes when a Youtube vid becomes unavailable. So I need to identify the song for the vid.

I ain’t no miracle worker by The Brogues. (1966). Incredible California garage rock band — great lyrics too.

Here’s Shagg’s Own Thing, a totally bizarre song by the men of the Shaggs (the brother and the father?!

Here’s a great interview with Devo on David Letterman in 1982. I realize that they are just being silly/strange for its own sake, but the two band leaders are both eloquent and hilarious. (This clip includes no music btw). Enjoy!

Freegal and Library CDs

1. 7 Seconds (compilation); also Africa Rekk, Youssou N’Dour
2. Various 80s hits by Debbie Gibson
3. Sixteen Stone by Bush
4. Love in the Time of Science by Emiliana Torrini. Torrini sang that incredible song, Gollum’s Song from the Lord of the Rings saga
5. Songs by Nina Bogdanov, who sang popular jazz and pop hits in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. There’s an incredible number she performed in the 60s with Rossner Jazz Orchestra (one of my all time favorite youtube finds). Нина Бродская – Хали-Гали

Reviews (Rateyourmusic/Personal Reviews, etc)

See also my rateyourmusic profile and my review spreadsheet.in Google Docs.

Podcasty Things

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See also: Sept 2022 and Dec 2022 (View all)

Abbreviations: KU means Kindle Unlimited,  and APUB means it was published under an Amazon imprint.NYP means “Name Your Price” (that’s an option on Smashwords and other booksellers). If you’d like to submit an ebook to me for review or mention in this column, see my instructions here. Finally, I just started a mailing list for my publishing company. Will mail out every 2 months and will include excerpts from my Robert’s Roundup columns and other random stuff.

I’m happy to say I finally made my Personville Press home page semi-decent. In the last few years I’ve been too busy to spruce it up as much as it should.

I’m very proud to finish the ebook My Heart For Hostage by Robert Hillyer (Special Critical Edition). Worked a long time on this one. It’s a free download, and you can also read it entirely online here.

Indie Author Spotlight

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Under the Radar

Writing As the Sky Rains Death by John Twelve Hawks

Octogenarian Blues: If It Ain’t One Thing, It’s Another by Robert R Randall

The Neighborhood by Thom Young

Natural Orders: Email Marketing Automation Strategy for Small Online Business by Matt Treacey. I’m in the middle of setting up a mailing list.

Blink and It’s Gone

Erin’s Diary: An Official Derry Girls Book by Lisa McGee. (both ebook and printed book for Xmas!) The ebook was decent, but you really want to get the printed book.

Library Purchases/Printed books

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Creative Commons/Freebies

“WAR STOPS LITERATURE.” (William Dean Howells). In this 1917 ebook Joyce Kilmer wrote a brilliant series of author profiles before serving (& dying) in WW1. Amy Lowell, EA Robinson, Ellen Glasgow, Booth Tarkington, etc. Super-awesome! I misplaced the ebook on my Kindle app and want to reiterate how great this ebook is! (Joyce Kilmer unfortunately died early in life — killed in WW1 and is mainly known for a single poem

On Self-Translation: Meditations on Language (SUNY Press Open Access) by Ilan Stavans

Literary Articles and Essays

Great interview with Hilary Mantel.

10 Rules for Writing Fiction from various authors. Here’s a sequel. God, these are good.

Rant

Two things really irritate me.

First, Public Storage storage facility which is a quasi-monopoly has raised its rates to ridiculous amounts. Went from $50 in 2018, to $60 in 2019 to 75$ in 2020 to 90$ in 2021 to $120 in December 2022. I use it to store books, papers, and random furniture. Nothing would please me more not to have to pay for this storage!

Second, it’s not a complaint, but on my Kindle reader, I’ve been putting everything into collections on my Kindle readers. That’s really the best and only way to do it. The problem is that you have to remember to put everything into at least one collection, or you’ll fall behind, and then you’ll have a pile of unsorted ebooks you have completely forgotten about. At the moment I have 2992 Uncollected Ebooks (which is an improvement after I assigned about 100-150 ebooks to collections yesterday. It is so tedious — and yet so necessary to do this.

Third, I mentioned this bug which disables hyperlinks in the Kindle app for Android. Hey, it’s fixed!

Capsule Book Reviews

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Book Roar Review

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Multimedia/Podcasts, Etc

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Personville Press Deals

I run Personville Press, a small literary book press where all the ebooks cost less than $4. Prices normally appear highest on Amazon, Apple, Kobo and BN, somewhat lower on Google Play Books and lower on the two DRM-free stores which are Smashwords and Payhip. Personville Press is committed to selling DRM-free ebooks and audio files directly from the Personville Press payhip store or from Smashwords. The prices listed here are the non-discounted price on Amazon. Check the links to see if they are discounted at the moment (it happens often).

• My Heart For Hostage by Robert S. Hillyer. This tender love story between a young American lieutenant and a French girl in Paris after the first World War was published by poet (and Pulitzer Prize winner) Robert Hillyer in 1942. Out of print for several decades, this novel will be re-released for the first time as a low-cost ebook. A New York Times critic called it a “superbly written book, written perhaps as only a poet with and expert in the discipline of verse could write it.” Includes a critical essay by Robert Nagle. Free download from the publisher’s site, but also available at a nominal price from ebook stores: Payhip | Smashwords | Google Play | BN | Apple | Kobo | Amazon | Amazon UK. You can also read the whole thing online!
• Second Death of E.A. Poe and other Stories by Jack Matthews. $2.99. Did Edgar Allen Poe fake his death? That’s what a Baltimore doctor needs to figure out in the title tale for this 11th story collection.  Payhip| Smashwords |  Google Play |BN | Apple | Kobo | Amazon US | Amazon UK |
• Minor Sketches and Reveries by Alberto Balengo. ($2) Introspective tales involving animals, allegories and the melodrama of everyday life. Payhip | Amazon | Smashwords |Google | BN | Apple | Kobo.
• Interview with the Sphinx. By Jack Matthews.  ($1.50). Hyperintellectual Tom Stoppard-like play which reads like a novel about a strange interview  with the ancient Sphinx character. Freud and Florence Nightingale show up too.   I loved this play and even produced an audio version of it which you can buy for $2 on payhip (mp3/m4a) but the script  reads well too. The audio book is available from most audiobook streaming services like |Audible $6 | Apple $3 | Google Play $3 |
• A Worker’s Writebook by Jack Matthews . $2.25 Matthews distributed a photocopied version of this writing guide to his Ohio U. creative writing students over the decades.
• Soldier Boys: Tales of the Civil War by Jack Matthews. $1.50 Philosophical Stories Taking place during the US Civil War. 
• Abruptions: 3 Minute Stories to Awaken the Mind by Jack Matthews. Flash Fiction. $2.25 
• Hanger Stout, Awake (50th Anniversary Edition). by Jack Matthews. Coming of age novel. $3.00 
• Three Times Time Story Sampler by Jack Matthews (Always Free!) US Amazon customers can sometimes get it for free, but to make things easier, you can down these files directly without having to register: Epub, Mobi.