Jibble's WeBlog
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes. - Walt Whitman
I've started reading (audiobooking, really) my Non-Fiction in 6-8 book chunks of the same topic (breaking them up with some general 1-offs). I started this off with The American Revolution, and this is my 4th book in the series. My previous three books have been:
I chose this because I wanted to contrast this with the two Ferling books (Whirlwind is a general history, and Miracle a military history). This order, though, I think does Middlekauff's book a bit of an injustice. Middlekauff covers more time period, starting at an earlier point and ending his book after the adoption of the constitution, where Both of Ferling's books bring in the ends a little bit. This gives me more general knowledge of the constitutional convention and the workings of Monroe, Jefferson, and John Adams post-war, but sacrifices some of the wartime relationships that affected the war: Namely Washington's relationships with Benedict Arnold, Charles Lee, Horatio Gates, Congress and others. The chapter on Thomas Jefferson, near the end of the book, was particularly fascinating and may sway me to choose John Meechum's "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power" as my next Revolutionary Era book. Middlekauff does bring is a little more battlefield tactics, especially to the early battles of the war. He's got a more straightforward linear approach to the conflict than Ferling, where Ferling looked a lot more at how personalities, personal relationships, and people's reactions led to and affected the war. More after the jump
0 Comments
The Tick (Season1 p1-Amazon) revolves around Arthur, a neurotic young man who spends his free time trying to prove that the cities previous Supervillain (The Terror) is still alive. The Tick shows up out of nowhere and becomes Arthur's protector as Arthur's investigation starts to put him in harms way. The Tick is everything Arthur isn't: Self-assured, strong, confident, and stupid (and he knows it). The emotional arc of the show is Arthur's struggles on how he fits into a world of Superheroes, Anti-Heroe and Supervillains when he's just a regular guy. The emotional struggle Arthur goes through mimics the one I had watching this: Is this trying to be a lighthearted parody of Superhero genre, or is it trying to take a serious satirical look at the deficiencies of the genre?
There's no reason it can't do both, as many successful comedies do both (Think Blazing Saddles & Westerns, or Galaxy Quest & Star Trek). But the Tick can have trouble incorporating carefree gags lightly poking at the cliches & tropes of the genre with the real critiques of what those cliches reflect about us. See more after the jump There are magical moments in life, times when the body feels secondary, and consciousness exists on a plane that's somewhere between reality and myth, a natural high of being in a dream land or Puff's mythological Hannah-Le. It's a near out of body experience. There's also everyday pleasures that produce lucid, vivacious feelings of near euphoria. One of my favorites: Driving west across the plains of the South Dakota, near the Badlands, and watching a sunflower field wake up with the sunrise.
Two of the biggest triggers, for me, are: Music & location. Concerts at Red Rocks are my favorite, because they combine two of the conditions most likely to allow me to get Lost in the Dream, to borrow a term from The War on Drugs. Some concerts create it (Rodrigo y Gabriella in 2010, The Decemberists in 2014 or 15, Portugal. the Man in 2017) some are big misses (Grouplove in 17). Last night Muse brought the magic. More after the jump - Summer always feels like a special time for music. Here's my go-to playlist for Summer of 2017, in no order:
The Gold - Manchester Orchestra - I'm not always a huge Manchester Orchestra fan, but this song really struck a cord with me. I tend to be a sucker for "haunting" sad songs (Aside: Last Kiss by J Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers nails "haunting") and this one is tinged with regret & sadness. Shine - Mondo Cozmo The Way you Used to Do - Queens of the Stone Age - Nobody these days does Rock & Roll these days quite like QotDA and "The Way you Used to Do" is one of their best. I was extremely excited by their new album, and haven't been disappointed. Lights Out - Royal Blood - If you want to be on board with a band on the ground floor, check out Royal Blood, who are quickly becoming a must listen for Rock & Roll. Holding On - The War on Drugs Backatown - Trombone Shorty - I am not a Jazz aficionado or anything, but enjoy the occasional song. Trombone Shorty is my favorite Jazz musician, and this is a good song. I was disappointed to miss him at Red Rocks in August Name for You - The Shins - I'm not sure why there wasn't more buzz for this Shins song, but this song, and the album, was pretty good. Modern Act - Cloud Nothings Near to the Wild Heart of Life - Japandroids - What a great song. I know people are hit or miss on Japandroids, but they're a hit on me. One criticism of them I've seen is that all their songs sound the same, but only they make that sound. Feel it Still - Portugal the Man - Probably the "Song of the Summer". It was entirely overplayed on SiriusXM stations I frequent (Alt Nation & The Spectrum) but it's a very good song. They visited Red Rocks this summer and their show was kick ass. Special bonus points for an amazing cover of Oasis' "Don't Look Back in Anger" following the Manchester Terrorist attacks. Glass House - Kaleo Drunk Drivers/Kill the Whales - Car Seat Headrests - This album showed up on a lot of the indy "Best of 2016" lists, and i bought that album on the strength of this song. The album was mediocre, but this song is terrific. Rain in Soho - The Mountain Goats - Another song I like a lot from an album I wasn't very impressed with. I don't particularly like his singing voice (It sounds a lot like the lead singer form The Weakerthans) Radio Kids - Strand of Oaks - Third song in a row I love off a mediocre album, IMO. Pretty Pimpin - Kurt Vile Baby I'm Broken - The Record Company - The band with, imo, the best album of 2016 put out this single in 2017. It didn't get the play it deserved on SiriusXM, but it's fantastic. A fantastic band. Rating: 5.5/6 *'s
Review contains no real spoilers, but maybe some light ones. NOTE: I'm not a reviewer. I am an amateur TV watcher and moviegoer, and do not have the skill to paint the picture here of the plot without giving too much details. I'm going to error on caution here and give less rather than more. I'm just here to talk about what I like, and don't like. Note 2: This write-up will be very sparse on plot. I don't want to give away anything, because I like this series a lot and want you to watch it. If you're interested in reading more on the plot: The Independent (UK) has great write-ups better than anything i can write Uhtred of Bebbanburg returns for a second season killing Danes, Saxons and anyone who crosses him in Season 2 of The Last Kingdom (based on Books 3 & 4 of Bernard Cornwell's The Saxon Series Historical Fiction Novels.) The setting is 880s AD England where Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, is trying to methodically expel Viking Pagans from England and create a united, Christian England. Uhtred was born a Christian Saxon, but raised a Dane and becomes both a thorn in Alfred's Side and one of his greatest allies. Uhtred's goals align with Alfred's, but only because he's trying to gain revenge on the people who killed both his Saxon and Danish families. Season Two starts with Uhtred ready to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and it's the 880s AD England, so bubblegum is over 1,000 years away from being invented yet. We ended Season 1 with Uhtred free of his oath to Alfred the Great, and ready to head to Northumbria to take vengeance on all the people who killed both his Danish and Saxon childhood families. (Yeah, watch Season 1 for that to make a little more sense). more after the jump A Blog. How 2006 of me. I love Twitter, but sometimes I need a place to give more nuance, more context, or just more words to my thoughts. Tweet storms suck if they don't have a PUNchline. So, a webblog will do.
It's going to be a bit of thought Gumbo, but I foresee me focusing on:
I don't know where this blog is going, or what it will entail. I don't know what I will put here, but lately I've wanted a place more open than Twitter to put some thoughts. The main impetus was that I read Ken Liu's Wall of Storms and had so many thoughts and no where to put them. I also want a forum to rank every Counting Crows Song. And also political thoughts on twitter are insufferable and I was too much there, hopefully here is a better forum for it. So, we'll see where this goes. |
Jibbles - Denver-ish, COI used to write about the Avalanche. Now about whatever. All opinions are ill-informed Archives
November 2020
Categories |