Unreal City – Il Paese Del Tramonto – Great Italian Prog Rock!

Last night I was checking out the New Progressive Rock releases at New Prog Releases. One of the albums of interest to me was Il Paese Del Tramonto (Country of Sunset) from an Italian Progressive Rock band Unreal City.  Their music was classified as Symphonic and since I have enjoyed other symphonic prog bands, I figured I’d like these guys. I figured right I put the album on while I was multi-tasking or as I like to call it ADDing! I was watching the football game, reading and listening! It didn’t take long to for the voices of Phil Simms and Jim Nantz to take a backseat to the keyboards Emanuele Tarasconi and Francsca Zantta’s guitar! (the decision was aided by the uncompetitive nature of the game, between the Colts and Pats! Ido believe, Unreal City would have lost out to the Packers and Seahawks!). Anyway I loved the album and today it became the soundtrack for my drive out Street Road to pick up my replacement hearing aid at Costco.  Listening to the album in greater detail only brought out the great keyboard and guitar work on the album, solidifying my opinion that this is a great album!! Read More

The Monkey’s Raincoat – Robert Crais (Elvis Cole #1)

Robert Crais began the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series in 1987 with the release of The Monkey’s Raincoat. Since then Crais has written fourteen more novels featuring the two members of  Elvis’ detective agency. I have read seven of the novels, starting with 1993’s release Free Fall (Book #4) and ending with Book #11 Chasing Darkness in 2008. (I missed No 6 Sunset Express released in 1996). I also missed books 1,2 and 3! Don’t ask me why!. Read More

A New Year – A New Approach monthly planning of books to read? Oh My!

A little after the beginning of January, I was exploring various book blogs and came across a blog where the writer was introducing the books that she was going to read for the month. The books were all laid out a and very artfully photographed. Aside from the very attractive picture, I was intrigued by the idea of actually saying these are th books that I am going to read this month!! See being an ADD kind of guy, I do kinda set out to read certain book, and then, well, I get distracted by another book  and off I go and the books that I planned to read, go back to the library unread!! Read More

CARPE LIBRUM TBR PILE CHALLENGE 2015 ! I signed up!

So I haven’t made any New Year’s Resolutions yet, because like many people I don’t think they work. You make the resolutions stick to them in January and by February you’re back to being your old self. What I want to do is to take my time look at where I want to go, how I want to improve myself and then make monthly type goals ala The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. One thing I do know that I want to do is improve this blog…one way to do that I think is to make it more personal. More about me and what I’m doing as far the books I’m reading and the music I have listened to. I’ve browsed around other book blogs to see what they do and I have gotten a few ideas. I want to continue following and reading several blogs to get additional ideas. Read More

Shahab Tolouie Master of the Fusetar born Jan 15, 1975!

So last year the FreeWheelin/ Music Safari discovered that on this date in 1975, a very talented world fusion guitarist, Shahab Tolouie  was born! That’s him at the start of this post, he is pictured with a guitar of his creation  an instrumentally speaking a very cool guitar. Well technically speaking,  it is not a guitar it is a Read More

Strangled – Brian McGrory (Book #4 – Jack Flynn)

Brian McGroryStrangled from Brian McGrory is the fourth book featuring Boston Record reporter Jack Flynn. It is the first time that I’ve joined Mr. Flynn on one of his adventures, but I don’t believe it will be my last meeting with Jack! In this installment,  Jack, is caught in the middle of an investigation into a series  of brutal murders in Boston, that appear to be reminiscent of the work of the Boston Strangler.; Garish bows were left tied around the neck of the victims, while their bodies were left in ghoulish positions to greet investigators, when they entered the murder scenes.. Could it be, that Albert DeSalvo the convicted Boston Strangler wasn’t the Strangler after all, and that the real Strangler is still at large and at work? Read More

Male Book Bloggers? and a Bookshelf Scavenger Hunt!

So for part of this evening I have looked at other blogs about books and reading. What I found is that a ton of them are out there, and the majority are written by women! It also appears that they do a lot of communicating between each other (something that us guys don’t do all that well. So my questions is – Are there any male book bloggers out there??? And then if there are, say hi and let’s talk!! Whatcha’ been reading??…… Read More

Cannonball Adderley – Things Are Getting Better

Things Are Getting Better is the 11th album by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, and his second release on the Riverside label. The album was released in 1959, when I was 8, so that explains how I missed it on the first go around… Anyway, I had Things Are Getting Better on in the background this morning as I was working on this blog, so I haven’t really listen that closely to the album. But from what I heard and am listening to now, this one’s a keeper. I first chose Things Are Getting Better because of Milt Jackson‘s presence on the album, but then I saw the other players, i.e Wynton Kelly and Art Blakey and then I knew this was the first album to listen to from Cannonball…… Read More