Ok, OCD nerd alert. Back to Overcast for my podcast listening. I ping pong between Overcast & Apple Podcast. Apple has nice bling & search but it’s overkill, extra taps to get places & constantly trying to get me to pay for early access podcasts. Overcast has less extras but more clean.
Oh my god, I hate the door-to-door sales folks saying everything they can think of that’s wrong with your house (real or imagined) and offering a free estimate since they’re “working” in the neighborhood!
Running with phone strapped on
In the last two days, I’ve seen people running with their phones strapped to their arms. This was huge back in the late aughts and early teens, but as phones got larger, it seemed to go away.
But today, with phones HUGE, the trend appears to be back. The phones took up a whole woman’s and a whole man’s upper arm! That’s got to put a twist into the muscle dynamics and whatnot.
At the rate things are going, I’m thinking people will need backpacks to carry their phones on their runs!
🤣
Getting things done with Apple Reminders
My little trick for getting things done is using Apple’s Reminder’s app. I use folders to organize items into projects, desires, etc. Then, every morning, I go through the day’s to dos and set the priority for it. I have Reminders sort items by priority, so that I can have the most important things at the top.
At the end of the day, things I can’t finish I swipe right and move it to tomorrow (or swipe left and modify the details if it needs a different date or whatnot).
The Spectrum in Philly
I loved going to the Spectrum when I was growing up. I saw many Flyers games and once saw the Harlem Globetrotters. It was cool to see all the original stadiums down there as you got close. The Vet, JFK and the Spectrum were all next to each other.
My most favorite experiences were with the concerts they held. First, you had to get up early and camp out on the 3rd floor of one of our local department stores. I think it was John Wanamaker's. The Ticketron was often down a long corridor away from the shopping areas, back where staff offices and returns were located. Once you got to the window, you hoped that they still had good seats available. But, even if they didn't and you got a nosebleed seat, you still had two things going for you. The Spectrum had a great layout so even though you were high up, you almost always had a good view and sound quality. And second, you could get a contact high without having to worry about getting busted.
I saw my first concert there, Pat Benatar, with my best friend. I still have the ticket (see below). Can you imagine, $6 for a concert! I saw Yes's 90125 tour twice, at the beginning of their tour with my friends and again on their way back with a date. Van Halen/Hagar was a pretty good show who I also saw at Silver Stadium in Rochester.
Listen, Listen, by Kate Wilhelm
This new book, "Listen, Listen" was better than The Clone, but not her best work. Still, a good book by Wilhelm is worth more than a great book by a lesser craftswoman. It contains three novellas, one novellete, and a speech she gave on writing science fiction. The first novella, "The Winter Beach" (1981), is the Kate Wilhelm I know and love. A hint of science fiction but an abundance of psychology, philosophy and simply beautiful writing. "Julian" (1978) is a shorter novellete that's a great story for the most part, even with its weird ending. Still, wonderful craft at work. The novella from 1981, "With Thimbles, with Forks, and Hope", didn't do anything for me. I didn't enjoy it and ended up skimming it. I think the next novella, "Moongate" from 1978, was even worse. The concluding essay "The Uncertain Edge of Reality" from a talk she gave at a convention in 1980, was good. Nothing spectacular like Joanna Russ's essay collection "To Write Like a Woman: Essays in Feminism and Science Fiction" from 1995, but still an interesting read.
The Muses
I found this on Pinterest and was blown away by it. Very cool. As a writer, Calliope has always been my favorite.
The Old Engine (Emergency!)
I watched this episode (season 3, episode 2) while I was at the gym this morning. It's one of my favorite of the entire series. Several interesting story lines, some neat shots of new (and, of course, old fire equipment), and one of my huge crushes from the 70s, Laurette Spang. She was in a lots of mid 70s TV before she was cast in her most memorable role, Cassiopeia on the original Battlestar Galactica. She had a great 1970s look and often stole a scene. In this episode, her deadpan delivery of her lines was funny and offset the situation with her roommate's overdose on acid.
I loved the old fire engine and how it was tied into the history of the area, including a big earthquake in 1933. The passion that Roy and John had for the old truck was cool, and you even saw Captain Hank Stanley showing how important it would be to restore it.
All around, a fun episode to (re)watch.
Nosebleed Weekend by The Coathangers
I ran across this album via a song I heard, Make It Right, that Apple Music threw at me in a continuous mix of songs. I loved that one song and checked out the group and this release from 2016. It's a great indie album: a little punk, a little pop, a little melodic, a little lo-fi, and all around great writing and performing.
The band seems to shift responsibilities for singing and even instruments around. The drummer has an amazing voice, especially on the acoustic track below.
Of the tracks, my fav pieces are Perfume, Dumb Baby, Excuse Me?, Make It Right, Watch Your Back, I Don't Think So, and Down Down. I guess that's over ½ the album and the other songs are good too.
There's a cool live acoustic version of Make It Right that I might like even more than the album version. It's currently on YouTube.
The Thing (2011)
I usually hate reboots, prequels, and rehashes, but I think this Thing movie really captures the mood of John Carpenter’s version, paying it homage but still carving out a new niche for its telling.
Fierce Femmes and Notorius Liars by Kai Cheng Thom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Beautiful writing and an experimental method that really worked and didn't feel forced or workshopped. A great quote towards the end is:
"That's the difference between love and hunger," she says. "Hunger is a story you get stuck in. Love's the story that takes you somewhere new."
Watching Emergency!
I recently purchased the entire series of the 1970s TV series Emergency! I loved that show, watching it in reruns as I grew up. I just finished the season 2 opener and was just blown away with Dixie McCall (played by Julie London). She just nailed the scenes with the arrogant personal physician and his antagonistic and hateful comments about the paramedics and their program.
A Safe Girl to Love by Casey Plett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Visceral, beautiful, featherweight, heart-wrenching, perfect writing. And the afterword was a perfect essay, further cementing her credentials as a gifted writer in fiction or nonfiction formats.
The Singularity, by Dino Buzzati (transl. Anne Milano Appel)
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
An afternoon of reading, an investment of pure joy. The topic is still fresh 64 years later. But, more importantly, the writing, the storytelling, and the translator’s fluidity are what make this worth the effort. It’s a very short novel (127 pages in my edition) and not all the characters aren’t fully developed, but there is enough to entice you, to hear things “on the wind” or in the background. There is enough structure to hold you and the story together through to the end.
This reminds me a little of Sándor Márai’s Embers novel, in how it makes you feel on the inside. There is just a mood that pervades, the envelops you while you read it. I heartily recommend this translatiopn by Anne Milano Appel of Dino Buzzati’s The Singularity.
Columbo Villians
I found this online (on pinterest, I think) and it's just too awesome. If you are a Columbo fan, you will love this, especially since repeat guest star villains show up for each of their episodes!
The Cold Embrace: Weird Stories by Women (S.T. Joshi, ed.)
4 of 5 stars
An enjoyable collection of short stories from the 19th and early 20th century (1830-1922). I bought the book originally to get a copy of “The Yellow Wall Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This story did NOT disappoint: an excellent tale that still resonates today with respect to women’s physical and mental health and how men often downplay women’s own understandings of their bodies and minds. The collection is worth it for this story alone.
There are some other great pieces. Marjorie Bowen’s “Scoured Silk” is a creepy and excellent read. I found Elizabeth Gaskell’s “Curious If True” to be an enjoyable piece of cotton candy, eminently enjoyable while consuming but it left little afterward. This is not a complaint, it was the perfect piece of horror consumed and enjoyed like a ferris wheel ride. Amelia B. Edward’s “An Engineer’s story” was fantastic. The Hall Bedroom by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman was great, just a perfect campfire “ghost” story. You can’t ask for much more.
The “Cold Embrace” was probably quite scintillating in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s time, but it doesn’t stand up as much in the 21st century. I do absolutely love this author, especially her novel Lady Audley’s Secret, a piece worth seeking out. It was the second time I read “Transformation” by Mary Shelley. I gave it 2-3 stars on its own and I felt the same way this time. Not bad but not great.
The other pieces left me saying “ok” or “meh”. That’s just my opinion. But, the pieces mentioned above are well worth savoring and I think some would be enjoyable to revisit on a cold, dark evening in front of a fire…
Suburban skid row
Thoughts on a Memory from childhood. I collected bottle caps in grade school, walking home directly from my school or the bus stop. We’re talking a couple of blocks for either method, even though smoe of those blocks were pretty long! How did I amass so many beer bottle caps?!? Was my neighborhood just a suburban skid row?
Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story, by David Hitt, Owen Garriott, and Joe Kerwin
4 of 5 stars
A good and enjoyable read on one of my favorite topics. I’ve been enamored with this space station since grade school, I even wrote a poem about Skylab (and Apollo & the Shuttle) back then. There were lots of great interviews, insights and history in this pretty thorough work.
Echoing some other commenters, I do think it could have used more editing. There were several examples of repetition throughout different chapters. At first, I doubted myself for the “deja vu” sense, but then I started keeping track and noticed the duplications. Part of this might be due to having multiple authors working on the project.