Haven't been here in a while. Still on the planet, though.

A few books I've finished recently: Aliette De Bordad - On a Red Station Drifting Robert Stone - Dog Soldiers Raymond Queneau - Exercises in Style John Gardner - Grendel Neil Gaiman - The Sandman, vol 1 Dog Soldiers was my introduction to Stone. If you like this, read "A Flag For Sunrise,"...

I especially like the interplay at the end where Sheppard repeats that bit of melody, and everybody gets some. Speaking as a dumbass rock'n'roll bass player, Dave Carpenter is terrific in all respects.

Possibly because I used to hear his version of "Peace" at least three times a week when it was the theme of Eric Jackson's show on WGBH in Boston: Tommy Flanagan. Followed closely by Mulgrew Miller--If I've listened to the original Wingspan session once, I've listened many hundreds of time...

Alas, prizes and mention on the NYT "notable books" list are no longer any guarantee of quality: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/Theluminariescover.jpg Man-Booker Prize winner. Piece of shit. Absolutely unreadable. http://www.womansday.com/cm/womansday/images/kc/3-BeautifulRu...

http://www.fiftiesweb.com/tv/defenders.htm.

I recall an episode with Robert Duvall as a psycho killer.

The Counselor, by Cormac McCarthy. Wow. You can't read one of these books and feel normal out on the streets. Es muy peligroso en las calles. This is written as a screenplay but it is McCarthy, same black vein as all McCarthy. Terrific stuff. The most terrifying thing about the story is there are w...

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6138/5918164885_3e7d89eab9_z.jpg Read this many decades ago. Better now that ever. "The poor man has two fine ways of dying in this world, either through the complete indifference of his fellow men in time of peace or by the homicidal fury of these same fellow men...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jfzUxsP8M3I/UbHKf4RMzzI/AAAAAAAARWg/Cp0mUKQuytQ/s640/front.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_EYM3g5y5xNY/TOEbZI20bDI/AAAAAAAABJA/nhUSvLYmfWc/s1600/miller_mulg_work%257E%257E%257E%257E%257E_101b.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MNS2ClLfNro/UbWb7tbL5HI/AAAAAAAARdA/UMhvEgaHmTA/s640/...

Any fantasies I ever had about shipping out on a freighter have been thoroughly debunked.

Bunch of bullshit.

http://archaeology.about.com/od/indusrivercivilizations/a/aryans.htm

Hey Birthday Girl!

(How about them Sox?)

http://cdn3.gossipcenter.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/story_header/photos/ganolfini-final-role-072613sp.jpg An actual romantic comedy about actual adults. Meaning, the laughs don't come cheap, mostly, and some of it is not funny at all. Gandolfini is...perfect. Ms. Louis-Dreyfus doesn't act, ...

What I meant was that I'm not sure Obama goes to sleep at night pining for his longed-for goal, eviscerating Social Security. I'm not saying he won't do it, but maybe he won't do it if he doesn't feel he needs to do it in order (for example) to stop the Republicans from doing what they're now doing...

You suspect he will also "eviscerate" Social Security, for example the cuts he already offered in the ill-fated "Grand Bargain." I'm not so sure, since the budget the Dems have agreed to has spending at Republican-approved levels already. I'm not sure what you're saying ...

Just finished this. It's hard not to come away from it thinking that Lincoln really was our greatest President, because he was the most human.

Take a look at these:

http://www.beforethey.com/tribe/kazakh

When I stop gawking at them, I wonder how the hell some of those mountaintop shots were taken.

Hillman Minx! I learned to drive with a 1962 Triumph Herald. It looked a lot like this: http://www.triumph-herald.co.uk/photographs/herald3.jpg I quit driving a stick about 20 years ago, because I wanted to be able to drive and drink coffee at the same time. Now I'm lazy, and besides, my 2001 Accord...

Here is what's going on: Obama clings to the hope that he can get his "Great Betrayal" deal to cut Social Security benefits done. If he does it under the cover of "The Republicans made me do it to prevent a default" he's home free. But the Tea Party crowd is never, ever ...

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/10/obamacare-clusterfuck-first-hints-of-real-back-end-problems-on-the-federal-exchange-begin-to-appear.html

Don't miss the comments.

You guys need to chill for a moment. Read this: http://publicnoises.blogspot.com/2009/05/david-foster-wallace-kenyon.html sample: But most days, if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid...

Found this under a stack of other stuff. Damned tragedy that they couldn't keep this band together.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V81FKTdMPy8/TV_gdgizjuI/AAAAAAAAA5M/9kXvbFdf2Hk/s320/Matterhorn-Vietnam-War-Karl-Marlantes-unabridged-Blackstone-Audio-books.jpg You pick it up, open it, and pretty soon you're in the jungle up near the DMZ, five days without food or water. If ever I needed a justification...

http://www.csmonitor.com/var/archive/storage/images/media/images/41911-list.jpg/9986246-1-eng-US/41911-list.jpg_full_600.jpg Several of my friends urged me to read this. When I got to the part where the 44 year old creep from LA gets a blowjob from a teenaged girl while standing just offstage at a ...