Book 4 – The Big Con or maybe Book 3 of 2012

So I finished book 4 for 2012 The Big Con: Crackpot Economics and the Fleecing of America by one of the senior editors of the New Republic Jonathan Chait. Oh wait that’s Book 4 what about Book 3 I forgot to write about it! What was it oh yeah, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything  by Joshua Foer. Guess I learned a lot, huh! Anyway that book was really good and did have some great ideas for remembering things. Joshua Foer became intrigued by the National Memory Championship and interviewed some of the participants trying to find out what made these people so adept at remembering. What he found out is that they are just like everyone else but they know the tricks of how to remember. From there Foer enters the world of the memory experts and trains to compete. The book follows his journey as he uncovers the secrets that date back to early Greek and Roman times, discuss folks with great memories like S, and some that can’t remember at all and through his journey he discover that a big part of being human is remembering! It amazes me that the world record for memorizing a deck of cards is around 37 seconds! But the tricks of the trade are interesting and some of them are useful for remembering things other than PI to a gazillion digits! Read More

Running, Book 2 and 3 and Girls with Guitars!

So let’s do some catching up! Yesterday was a nice day and I was able to live work early since I went in early so I get my runnings shoes on and took off for only the third time this year. It was a good run and I guess it’s better if you thinkk you better slow down rather than need to slow down! Since it was still dark at the end of the run and I couldn’t find it I ran within the iPod so you don’t have to read through my playlist. Anyway I ran 3.2 miles and while the time was not great 9:46 mile pace it was the fastest so far this year!! Read More

2011 – A Musicial Year in Review – Part 1

Over the last few nights I’ve been trying to figure out the best albums of the year in all of the genres that I listen to and have been unsuccessful. I’ve reviewed the artists that are on the iPod and listened to many that I listened to throughout the year. Then I think about what to write draw a blank and write nothing!!  So here goes. What kind of a year in music was it this year, well I guess pretty damn good! I got to see two of my all-time favorites live! Seeing Jesse Winchester here in Philly and the great Tom Russell in Vienna. Virginia! My wife and I also saw Flogging Molly twice at the Electric Factory in Philly always a great show. It’s a year that saw new albums from old favorites like Tom Russell.  His album Mesabi is certainly high on my list of favorites for the year and Hot Tuna, who released there first album in what twenty years Steady as She Goes and the album is high on several best of the year lists. John Prine took me back to his early years with The Singing Postman Delivers and Carrie Newcomer provided and album Everything is Everywhere which is a collaboration between Carrie and he Khan family  Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan, all masters of the Indian musical instrument, the sarod. The result is a distinctive and beautiful album that blends Carrie’s lovely singing and songwriting with the ethereal and distinctive Indian sounds of the Khan’s sarod playing. Read More

Goats and Ray Wylie – Perfect Together?

So when I went to Global Animal today to get the Sarah Palin Christmas Card Story I saw this Goats Jump And Jingle All The Way

Which got me thinking about Ray Wylie Hubbard and the story he tells in Live at Cibolo Creek about Poetry, Texas and goats. I went to Youtube to see if there was any footage of Ray telling the story, there wasn’t, but I did find this one about “When She Sang Amazing Grace”. The songs one of my favorites! Read More

New Blues from Savoy Brown – Voodoo Moon

So the soundtrack of the return home from North Brunswick the other night featured the Voodoo Moon the new album from Savoy Brown. Now I have not through the years been a Savoy Brown fan, about the only thing of theirs that’s in my collection is a track or two on a compilation album of British Blues from the early 70s. The band never made a big splash on the US Pop scene like Eric Clapton, Ten Years After or John Mayall, but through the years led by guitarist Kim Simmonds the band has consistently been releasing albums and touring. Through the years many artist have passed through the band and went on to some join some pretty big name bands. From the bands Wikipedia page: Read More

New Music – Old Friend – John Batdorf – One Last Wish

So early this morning I was checking emusic for any new albums and sure enough John Batdorf’s latest album One Last Wish was finally there!  I only got to listen one time but overall it sounds really, really good. I know I love the first song “Don’t Give Up On Dreams” You can check out all the good stuff about the album here and other stuff about John at his main webpage Read More

Second Generation Bluesmen – Jimmy D Lane and Bernard Allison

So the other night I was all set to write about two blues albums that I’ve been enjoying over the last week. Both albums are by second generation bluesmen. The first was the 2004 release from Jimmy D Lane It’s Time and Bernard Allison’s Live at the Jazzhaus. The reason that I didn’t write about these albums is the James Rollins took me away with his new Sigma Force novel The Devil Colony! Then last night I started this post late because it’s the traditional time at the Karn house for home repair and I was working on tearing down part of a plaster wall and putting up drywall!  I turned on the Allison album and listened to a little of it on the way to and back from The Home Depot. (Can’t go to Lowe’s after they pulled their ads from All-American Muslim)! Read More