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Too lazy to walk across the yard and take a better pic. Corn again, about a week old. Few more weeks I won't be able to see the trains going by about a mile south. Maybe I'll get the yard cleaned up, still a few holes and ruts there. Last really bad mowing should be out of the way, unless we get a couple weeks rain with no breaks I should be able to stay on top of it. Close to 90% on the new trees except for the pines. Something went wrong just got a few. Get cleanup finished I'll have a forty foot front porch to hang out and have a late night smoke and libation. My best girl was in hearing range when one of the folks mentioned they had a porch swing they never got around to using and offered to hang it out there. Didn't think I'd want to but it might be good. Kitty cat will want to jump up and keep me company. Four of her six kittens are monochrome, maybe put some pics up. Figure the black one will go real quick much as I'd like to keep it. Okey-dokey.
May or may not have noted I'm going through the Elric books. I picked up Sailor on the Seas of Fate and as usual couldn't put it down even though I had already read it at least once. So I'm gonna get them in order and read them again. I'm pretty sure I've got the DAW set from the late '70s. Michel Whelan cover art is instantly recognizable. Nah, not really, I get him and Boris and a couple others mixed up and have to look for the signature. Not Frazetta though, or not very often. The DAW covers were great, not so sure about the later stuff. I never did buy any of the comics and don't know at this point if I'll have the time. The DC multiverse does look interesting but dunno how available (or pricey) it would be. Elric is my fave even though I liked the Cornelius Chronicles (had a thing for Jerry's sister) and a couple of the other incarnations like Dorian Hawkmoon. The Mars stories were kinda terrible and I bought them just to have since there were only three. I believe Moorcock may have fessed up that they weren't that great. Elric is popular among the metal music types, probably because they are about the most cerebral of musicians these days. Blue Oyster Cult certainly is and Moorcock collaborated on a couple of tracks. Got some great live recordings of Veteran of the Psychic wars. He did some stuff with Hawkwind as well. Elric is one of the best of Moorcock's characters and his world is one of the most interesting. Moorcock had pretty much a blank page unlike Howard who was using ancient Earth. Burroughs had a lot of flexibility as almost nothing was known about Mars a century ago but was still dealing with a somewhat limited universe compared to the pure fantasy of Elric.
Rearranging the library for the last time. The Pistolero mags back in the 1980s were as entertaining as they were informative. They didn't run adversiting for gunmakers and told like it was. When they tested guns they went out and bought them instead of testing something sent by the manufacturer so as to get a real world example. They were law enforcement and survivalist oriented and so they wrote about practical guns that would be useful in a wide range of scenarios by different people. They would observe things like how suitable a gun would be for women (smaller hands and not as big and strong generally as men) and young people. They were brutally honest - one of the guns being tested was a single-shot shotgun. Like any gun magazine is gonna write about a SSSG but for a survival tool they can be useful. I've got at least a half dozen in 12, 20 and .410. One of them sez, why you need a shotgun? Well, some people have trouble hitting something with a rifle but they can do it with a shotgun." Like anyone writing in a slick magazine will admit some people that don't practice every day might not be as expert as they are. They were published four times a year I believe, maybe quarterly issues of Pistolero and Handgun Tests. They're fun to look at now and then, probably whoever gets my stuff here in a little bit can sell'em on Ebay. People actually pay pretty good money for some of this stuff.
Some screen grabs from a Within Temptation performance from 2012 at the Antwerps Sportpaleis. This is the best live performance I have - they're all good but I really like the setlist on this one, and doing it with the orchestra and choir is spectacular. I know this has come a long way since Deep Purple and ELP did it and the technology helps a lot, as does experience. Sharon den Adel is one of the best singers in any genre and there are a lot of them. I get a bit of a Grace Slick vibe seeing her live. She's very charismatic and speaks excellent unaccented English which is a bonus. Only complaint is it was too short but an hour and a half is about average. I don't know how many Europeans speak that way - I ran into a lot in train stations and airports where it's probably necessary. I believe the girls in ABBA were more identifiably by their speech. Of course they could sing in Spanish and maybe some other languages. Translating song lyrics into other languages can be tricky. Anyway, I've been neglecting musical relaxation lately so last night I put in on and blessed the new Rockville speakers with it. Three fingers of Old Charter and five of Coke into a highball glass and fill it the rest of the way with ice and relax for a while. Was jawing about liquor with a fellow at the likker store about whiskies. I think Charter tastes the way it did forty years ago but dunno if it's made the same way. Apparently it's no longer aged for eight years but I don't know long it is aged. Label says eight seasons, so two years? Anyway it seems the same. I took about a break of about fifteen year or so from drinking and smoking so there's that. Okey-dokey, long day, catchalater.
They're OK, the last days of May.... the link has a bit about the story behind the song. Saw Buck play that a few times back in the day, caught them a couple of time when they had the laser show, good stuff. You can still find vids on Youtube, 1978 or so, but they don't really capture the feeling of being there. Like a lot of the great old bands they're still touring with Buck and Eric. Sadly Alan passed away a few years ago. Speaking of 1978, was the Buick Regal that year (the two-door version) one of the best-looking cars ever made? Hint, the correct answer is yes. Thought about buying one, the turbo model of course but was going to keep the Trans-Am and that was too many cars. Years later thought about buying a used one and fixing it up but never had the time. Okey-dokey. Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) rarely grows where you want it to. As many seeds as it produces there aren't that many plants. Apparently they hang around for a while and come up later sometimes. Last year I planted some in pots, see how that goes. Friend said she might put a couple on either side of a door, a good six to eight foot plant would look cool. Of course the first year it just looks like a big flat fuzzy cabbage (some call it cowboy toilet paper) then the next year you get the big seed spike. Then it dies. Political comments? Nah, not gonna do it, wouldn't be prudent. See ya next month. Text in images  |
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