bobfarley.com

Evis and the Blues Cowboys

2011-02-25T04:39:00.000-08:00

A traveler weary, a long day's journey through the gnarly woods of County Athens in the eastern lands of Ohio hears a loud and joyful noise, bluesy, but with heart, gutsy and ruthless. He follows the sound, over the streams, the fallen trees, through the dales and past the ravines, until he hears the whinny and hoofclop of horses.

Encountering a wooden fence, he stops, this traveler of meager means, defiant heart, selfless quest. A horse appears in the quarter-moon darkness, then another and another.

"What's this?" the traveler says. "What kind of welcoming committee?"

"What is your name, vagabond?" one of the horses asks, a palomino with glowing gold mane and tail.

"Surprised and taken aback, you can call me, for surely I have not been asked a question by one of your breed in all my days."

The horse tilted her head and stared, waiting.

"I am called Evis. What is your name?"

"Moonlight. You need a place to spend the night, Evis?"

"I do."

"Follow the sound of the music, beyond the glen and through the Gateway to the Blues. The people there will care for you."

Evis looks in the direction of the music, stands himself straighter in his worn, cowhide boots. "Thank you for your..." he starts to say, but the horse Moonlight and her companions are gone. Had they even been there? Maybe he only lost consciousness for a moment from the need for food. He brought hard beef and wafers with him, but those had long ago met their fate in his innards.

Dream or not, the directions he's been given are true. A vast glen leads to another fenced field with a large gateway that opens into another large area, this one covered but open on two sides. A large fire burns in one corner, a few people sitting quietly by the leaping flames, only nodding at his passing, as if they know him, know his quest, his needs, his destination.

By now, the music insists on being heard. Pipes, fiddles, lyres, lutes, bangles, and many drums follow the beat of the blood through his body. With each step to the doorway, his tiredness lessens, his mood increases, his cares lighten.

WELCOME TO THE LADY BUCK SALOON a sign reads. Below it, THE BLUES COWBOYS FROM 8 TILL ??.

Evis opens the door and walks in. The music envelops him as he takes in the crowd, young and old, couples and groups, barstools, chairs, tables, and dance floor. In front of many of the revelers sit trays of food bearing aromas of grilled delights, tankards of ales to wash it down. A large dog sniffs at a smaller one, which even though it could fit in the larger one's mouth, shows no fear and runs around the room snatching crumbs and gaining pets and oohs and aahs.

The band ended its song and after a few moments of chatter began a new one, his favorite. He orders a brisket, a beer, and found a spot at the bar. This is going to be a great night, he knows.

I do hereby resolve...

2011-01-01T16:21:00.000-08:00

Seems like a good year for resolutions. Most of mine have to do with music, but also, I resolve to stop eating bowls of brown sugar as a snack, even though if you crush it, it stays together really good, like a candy.

And furthermore: Don't do songs I haven't done in a month or more, unless I've done them for a couple of decades.

Not to mention: Have a set list, but go with the flow (in my head).

But especially: If something doesn't sound right behind the speakers, it probably doesn't sound right in front of them. Work it out. For sure.

And while I'm at it: Take a short break in the middle of the set to fix my hair, especially if I sweated the first part.

New ad, new direction

2010-12-27T06:44:00.000-08:00

Two things: Got a new ad for the New Year's Eve show at Expressions Coffee House this Friday. Little bit retro, little bit fun, different from last one made a month ago. I think it succeeds.

Thing two: I'm pointing my domain name to this blog starting...any time now. Decided it's too easy to update pages on here, as opposed to writing the HTML myself, though that will probably stay with me like bicycle riding. There comes a time when one has to opt for ease over total control, and for me, this time is now.

On to the future.

Wondering about something

2010-11-30T06:31:00.000-08:00

It appears one can send Blogger posts to Facebook to be set into the status line-up. Does anyone know if WordPress posts can be handled the same way, or if it's done through a Facebook app? Since it doesn't automatically show up in WordPress the way it does in Blogger, I'm thinking it's another case of "wouldn't it be nice to find a combination of WordPress and Blogger" syndrome. Will look later, but if the knowledge pool out there knows of something and would like to share in 25 words or fewer, cool.

Better than dirt

2010-11-17T08:01:00.000-08:00

Children International
and
Child Fund
International
Give them a look and make the decision to help out.

Today I have a bit of a cold working its way through my body. I'm drinking a lot of water to help combat it, and eating many oranges and apples. And taking some medications, medications that make can make one drowsy and unfit for heavy machinery, or in this one's case, light machinery.

While cutting some chicken into nuggets last night, I knicked the tip of the middle finger on my left hand, an important finger for guitar playing.

Later, while opening a can of pumpkin puree to mix with some vanilla yogurt to make pumpkin pudding (yay!), I knicked my thumb on the jagged edge of the can lid. Thumb is vital for clamping the rest of the fingers onto the guitar neck.

Bleeding stanched and bandaids in place, I got my chicken chopped, boiled some linguine, ate them drizzled with a light olive oil dressing, couple of helpings of pumpkin pudding afterward, and then something happened.

Running a big cup of water to drink down, I remembered something a children's pastor shared with his class awhile back about kids in some village in an undeveloped country eating dirt to get the feeling of having something in their stomachs. With the knife accidents, I had experienced a few hiccups in my journey to get food and water on the table, but I ate and drank at last. All my cuts were bandaged and cared for. I'm not sure when I last had a tetanus shot. They always ask that when you get cut by metal. But I know I've had tetanus shots and I will watch this little sucker for infection.

But kids in countries around the world--even our own great nation--don't have clean water, decent food, proper clothing.

I have two kids I help out through children's organizations. Costs me money I don't much miss, even in these hard times of being underemployed. I think about saving that money some days, because, let's face it, bills are bills and they don't get paid on my good looks. (Turns out my mom was right on that, too.) But I can't stand the thought of those kids getting the news that their sponsor has dropped them, so I continue.

If you are led to help children by this little missive--and that is my goal--drop by one of the two places I give: Children International and Child Fund International. Give them a look and make the decision to help out. No child--no person--should be hungry and without basic amenities in the 21st century. But they are.

Halloween Here Show

2010-10-30T04:34:00.000-07:00

What will I sing this afternoon for the Halloween Here show? Usually I have a way better idea of what's going on, but today, not so much. However, here's where it stands so far:

1. Mr. Soul
This Neil Young cover has over 1,000 hits on my YouTube channel. I don't know why. It's not too bad. I think I remember most of the lyrics.

2. Can You Feel It
I never heard of this song till a MySpace friend sent it to me a year or so ago. Infectious, but in a good way. The song, too.

3. Swim to Molokai
My own ditty, one that didn't get recorded on the first show. I've rewritten it slightly and it's a whole lot more positive-sounding now. I think the Molokains will like it way more.

4. Burning Hell
Another one I did last show, but this time going to do it in regular tuning, capoed on third fret right out of Molokai. It's a cover of a Tom Jones cover of a John Lee Hooker song. Ersatz gospelish.

5. The Way You Look Tonight
Subject to change from here on out, but since it's Halloween, people will be looking strange tonight. At least I think Halloween stuff is tonight. Not really sure. I got my candy, just in case.

6. The Ballad of Dwight Frye
An Alice Cooper classic, perfect for Halloween.

7. Brain Damage
A Pink Floyd classic, perfect for after an Alice Cooper song.

8. Mr. Spaceman
A Byrds classic, perfect for lightening up the proceedings after the above two.

9. Simple Man
I worked out a cool version of this Lynyrd Skynyrd chestnut, another song with a reverential bent.

10. Ukulele Man
My signature song these days, this time on the ukulele.

Afterwards, I am thinking of going through the big book of cover songs and having some practice for the next show, perhaps.

Hope to see you there. Where? My USTREAM.TV show!

Bob Farley Here Event

2010-09-27T05:03:00.000-07:00

Here's the recorded portion of my first Ustream.tv event this past Saturday night. Sorry about the ads and whatnot. The price we pay for freedom?

There were enough people left over after the event that I made them listen to me sing and play at my desk for another 70 minutes or so. I could talk and they could type into the chat window and it was really, really cool.

Next show is planned for Halloween. Stay tuned. Thanks!

Set List 9/25/10 Ustream

2010-09-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's starting out a little crazy, going happy, moving through cowboy love songs, space songs, threatening spirituals, sad love, and happy love. Here's what we have so far:

Jenny, Jenny (867-5309) -- I'm doing this in a kind of Sting meets Jack White meets Chris Isaak style. That's what it reminds me of, anyway. Scary, spooky. Maybe a little Alice Cooper thrown in, too.

Maya -- A song I wrote this year, inspired by a young lady I sponsor through Children's International since 2005.

Swim to Molokai -- Desiring to have a song that combined cowboys, Hawaii, mountains, and campfires, I wrote this song this past summer. The title is based on something I said to a friend who offered me his cabin on Molokai any time I wanted it. To which I replied, "What I'm going to do? Swim to Molokai?" And years later, that magical statement is the title of a sometimes spooky Hawaiian cowboy love song. Going to try it on electric guitar with a strong effect. I think it might work.

Fly Me to the Moon -- An early space love song.

The Girl from Ipanema -- A song I've loved since I was a child.

Burning Hell/That's the Way -- Tom Jones has put out a blockbuster of a spiritual album, imo, and Burning Hell seems to be a breakout cut. It's a John Lee Hooker song, a kind of answer to the Robert Johnson classic Crossroads. Johnson is said to have sold his soul to the devil in order to be a successful guitarist, or some such legend. That's the Way is a Zeppelin tune from their III set, and it fits into the Hooker song both lyrically and musically. (I've been melding songs together in my sets lately, and this is a continuation of that habit.)

Good Night, Bye -- An original love song, a saddy.

Ukulele Man -- This is what the folks in the praise and worship band I play in once a month know me as, because of my YouTube video of the same name. A happy love song, Hawaiian-style.

I stream, ustream, we all ustream.tv

2010-09-23T04:16:00.000-07:00

Looks like the seven o'clock hour won out in polling for the first Bob Farley Here online streaming show, with two coming in second. Maybe I'll have a sound check at two.

Looking forward to getting this first little show behind me. Looks like Ustream has a lot of possibilities I will have to take time some time to learn. That will be fun.

Planning to have a page up somewhere with the set list for Saturday, a few bits of information about the songs on it. Going to do several originals along with a few strange versions of classics and unknowns.

I had wanted to have an audience, open the doors to my apartment and let people stream into it, as well as let the signal stream on the net, but then other stuff happened and I didn't have time to work that. I admit that doing it without a live group of people feels a little like the old SNL Wayne's World gambit, but I'll try to get over it and just do the set and if it works out, I'll keep it.

Keeping up with the Bloggers

2010-09-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

I needed to change up my blog design, not because anything was wrong with the old one, but because there's something new to try and I couldn't stop myself from trying it this fine day. It's not too bad. I don't know how easy it will be to load for you. Seems like there's a lot of information in the template, making it a heavy page to wrap your browser around. But that's life in the fast lane. Or whatever lane this is.

Getting ready for this Saturday's show at Winan's in the Dayton Mall beside The Rusty Bucket. It's the last gig I've got booked for now, and that is not a happy thought, so I need to get on my agent and get some jobs.

Oh, wait. I don't have an agent. I'm my own agent. Well, where's my cowboy hat and MP3 player, then? It's time to rustle up a few jobs.

Later, amigos.

Watching my Googly ads

2010-08-26T08:40:00.000-07:00

Wonder how my Googly ads are doing? They lurk around and see what I'm writing about, then set up some ads that other companies pay to run. They're based on what I write, loosely speaking, so they may or may not be related to reality. That's fine with me. Reality is not always the greatest thing in the world. Really.

The thing about the Googly ads is that they change little things sometimes and then you have to go in and change little things in your account, otherwise any clicks that people add to the count thanks to your page are not counted as income. So, yes, every little click is another penny falling into somebody's penny pouch. I want them to fall into my penny pouch, of course. That is the dream. To write stuff and make it pay.

It's been a busy and fulfilling summer. My little boy is growing and we spent a lot of time together camping, playing, riding roller coasters, playing, riding roller coasters, playing, taking him to various summer enrichment courses (which was like playing to him, or more precisely: like school, only fun). I hope to be able to do the same sorts of things with him next year and every year. But that costs money, so I will be watching my Googly ads and making sure they're updated so every click makes me one penny richer.

The continuing rethinking of the Developing Persona

2010-07-31T19:37:00.000-07:00

Musically Speaking
A week of vacation and being away from the computer, the guitars, the music, the stuff of life gave me time to think about the whole Developing Persona idea I had months ago. I recall at the time an idea of putting together a set or sets of songs that would work in different venues. I think the idea has merit, because after all this time of adding as much of what I have known and liked and wanted to know, I'm back to the Developing Persona idea. It's time to put it together, or at least build a strong base of togetherness for it.

What do people want to hear when they hear I'm playing acoustic guitar somewhere? What do they expect? What makes my presentation any different from the next acoustic guitar player/singer?

I have a short list of original songs, gleaned from a couple of decades of developing a persona. They are a diverse collection, and it will take some thinking to put some kind of connection to them, but they are what they are. And they bring to me to where I am now.

Who's Nathan Brewster?
There are a few hundred people who know the answer to that question. And many of those want to know what happened to the hero of THRIPZ. It's been a while, but I do believe the time has come to answer a question or two.

The plan involves publishing the story myself through Amazon's Kindle. It'll cost about $3 to buy the digital version of the story, and if sales go well enough there, I'll look at publishing a paperback version.

The working title for the new book is The Kahuna Killer. Pretty gory, huh?

It's all a part of the Developing Persona, which includes the writing part and the music part, which has its own little part of writing.

And speaking of the writing part...

Updating the Website
Putting the DP into the public eye will take reworking the BobFarley.com website a bit, just to let people know that a change has come. It's been a while in settling in, but the past week of vacation has helped the amorphous details to set a bit. Vacation is a good thing.

Greatness

2010-07-13T05:08:00.000-07:00

Busy start to the week. Good weekend to report. Winan's Chocolate and Coffee is a fine venue to play, at least on a nice day, since it's a patio gig. I'd hate to plan it and be rained out. I thrive on order, but in a disorderly fashion. I like when others are orderly.

Glanced at my previous post about the greatness of tennis players waning. I should mention I'd be happy with a tiny percentage of the success any of those stellar figures have achieved. But from a comparative point of view, I take my pokes at armchair analyzing.

Off to take care of some business. Have a great week.

Sigs, Rigs, Gigs, and Digs

2010-07-05T04:45:00.000-07:00

Signatures Coffee: Enjoyed another evening at Signatures Coffee, the third leg on my "world tour" of their establishment. Went back to my usual PA setup and the sound was a little more controllable for me. Forgot to bring my monitor amp, so I used that as an excuse for some off-key warbling here and there, but it was mostly for comedic effect. Will be there again Aug. 28, so mark your calendars. I'm working on simplifying the sound reinforcement parts, so I may be able to complexify life with some online streaming, at last. Maybe.

New Song and Venue: Sunday morning after the show, I got up and wrote a new Hawaii-based song. The words popped out at me over the course of half an hour. Not long. It's either really good or really stinky. I tend to like it. To me, it's droll. More droll than my usual drolliness. It's called "Swim to Molokai," and I'll be debuting it at Winans Chocolates and Coffees this Saturday, July 10. Even if you don't want to come hear me, you need to come and taste their chocolates and coffees. If you're coming from Signatures (they're all friends), just make your way to the Dayton Mall. Winans is tucked in beside The Rusty Bucket, which you can see from the main drag. There's a series of connected patios there, so it should make for some good outdoor fun.

Tennis Anyone?: It was something like ten years ago that Roger Federer beat my tennis hero, Pete Sampras. I don't remember the tournament. Might have been Wimbledon. It was a heartbreaking loss for me, as a vicarious player, munching chips on the couch and wondering why I'd gained ten pounds during the previous decade.

Sampras often played through a lot of pain, especially in his later years, and that made for great drama. Till Federer, he always pulled through, I thought. And now Federer has made it to the other side of the circle of time. But instead of another great player like himself beating him, a low-ranked player did it. And not in the final, but in the fourth round.

Not only that, but Venus Williams has been knocked out of the tournament early, too. She beat Martina Hingis back in the day...must be 12 years or so. Hingis was smart, but tiny compared to Venus, who, like Federer, Williams was ousted by a non-contender. That is if you can call anybody who plays tennis at Wimbledon a non-contender. I think I'd be happy just "non-contending." Venus hasn't been great since she started dealing in clothing lines. Well, great in comparison to herself. She could still take me to the cleaners on the tennis court any day, playing left-handed on roller blades and blind-folded.

Long-time sports reigns like Roger's and Venus's are like long-running television shows to me. Their end marks a point in my life that will always be remembered the next time a similar reign ends.

Places Not To Live
Yahoo Real Estate just printed eight places that immigrants are moving to rather than the usual big cities like New York City or Los Angeles. Of course, now that these nice little cities have been outed as the best places to live, they will soon be the worst places to live. It's the price places pay for being studied. They are: Benton and Washington Counties, Arkansas; Portland and Salem, Oregon; Fairfax County, Virginia; Shelbyville, Tennessee; Cape Coral, Florida; Boise, Idaho; Gwinnett County, Georgia; Raleigh-Durham-Cary, North Carolina.

I counted 11 places there, and four of them were counties. Whatever. I think I'll choose Cape Coral, Florida. Or Portland, Oregon. Ha. One will probably be submerged from climate change, the other sloughed off into the Pacific from earthquake damage. Of course, the middle of the continent is subject to megavolcano ash covering, so does it really matter?

Sounds Good To Me

2010-06-27T10:24:00.000-07:00

Free time
Had a pretty good time playing music for about an hour at a local nursing home. They had a luau-type dinner for residents and their families. Fantastic decorations made it feel as Hawaiian as the actual luaus they have at Polynesian Culture Center way out on Oahu. No pig in the ground, but some pretty good food on the buffet table. Supposed to be getting a picture from the activity coordinator soon, which I'll post here.

Reverb time
Besides having a good time playing, I learned something new about my PA setup: it didn't sound right, but I didn't know why. So when I got home, as soon as I could, I set it up and started breaking down what was happening where. I'm using my guitar effects pedal to modify vocals and acoustics, and getting a lot of feedback. I turned down all the reverbs and still had reverb. "Where is that coming from?" I wondered. It was off on the amps and I thought it was off on the effects pedal, but it was still reverbing.

If the answer isn't in the logical, then it must be somewhere else. I turned the reverb knob on the pedal all the way to the left, where it looked like to me it should be high. But guess what? Yep. It was all the way off.

Getting loopy
That didn't stop the problem entirely, though. When I use the effects loop to play over, feedback often occurs. That led me to finally read the owner manual again. It portrayed an alternate way to hook up and control the effects loop. And it worked. At least I think it worked. By the time I figured it out, it was almost midnight and I didn't want to risk being a bad neighbor.

Good neighbors
This is a good time to say thanks for my neighbors. I don't even know them. They're never home when I want to tell them face-to-face that I apologize ahead of time for making noise. But so far, so good. No calls to the management about the jerk downstairs or next door playing his guitar too loud.

Giggy with it
Got a new place to gig starting next week. Another coffee shop: Winan's Coffee and Chocolates. July 10 from 7:30 to 9. Looking forward to seeing YOU there. :-)

Hot times, (almost) summer in the city

2010-06-20T07:18:00.000-07:00

Music music music: Actually, just two "musics." Played Friday night my inaugural gig with the Rocket Dogs at a very friendly venue in Greenville, Ohio, the American Legion. Chuck, Shane, and Matt were already well-known performers there, so the welcome was raucous and genuine. I had some issues with cords and mics not wanting to cooperate, but we hurdled those problems like the true Rocket Dogs we are.

Speaking of which, I got our first group picture Friday night before we played. I call it "Reflecting," because it's our reflection in the back of a Toyota SUV that was parked at the Legion. Went for the dark and mysterious, to go with the distortion of the glass. It's good to put a silhouette to a name.

Saturday, the 19th, I played with the full Blues Cowboy line-up, featuring the ever-amazing and award-winning Linda Dactyl on the keyboards. Plus we had a special guest or two come up and play, including Donna Mogavero and Jeff Weaver from the phenomenal bluegrass band Rarely Herd. Check out the music from these amazing people. I am just so not worthy.

You never know what might happen at a Blues Cowboy show. Nestled in the Lake Hope vicinity of Vinton County, Ohio, it's a little secluded and that last mile of gravelly road can go by very slow, but when you're out there in the night, looking up at stars you feel like you can touch, that's how the world used to be and should be again.

Somebody pass the incense holder over, eh?

Food Watch: Been catching some comments about my diet lately because I've steered away from a lot of meat the past few months. It's not that I'm turning vegetarian or anything: I still will eat a cow if that's all there is to eat. But such repast doesn't attract me these days. Big leafy salads, with colorful peppers and onions, cucumbers and apples, maybe some oranges and grapes, now and then some chicken bits, a light dressing...I'm salivating thinking about it, which I know is strange, a little.

I've got my go-to soups, too: a full-bodied vegetable (carrots, celery, cabbage, onions, bell peppers, navy beans, green beans, peas, egg noodles) and a customized Tuscan veggie (zucchini, mushroom, stewed and diced tomatoes). Dessert usually has something to do with fat-free vanilla yogurt. The Dannon or [insert forgotten brand of yogurt here] are best in my opinion. I also have eggs and/or toast for breakfast, sometimes a pancake, and sometimes when I'm real decadent, a chocolate cake, but I make it all from scratch, so there's effort involved. I shed 30 pounds real fast on this food selection, so it works for me. And now I like it. I think I've mentioned before that peanut butter and celery feels like dessert under this new version of my taste buds.

Summer in the City: It's not quite summer, but my son is out of school and into some week-long enrichment courses at the local college, which he says is like school, only fun. That is keeping me on my toes, along with the softball and trying to get around to going to the Y to take advantage of the $30 a month I spend there on myself. Doesn't help if I never go. So I am going, starting tomorrow, and every day for a few minutes of swimming, if nothing else. Got it? Got it. Good.

Tour of Signatures to Continue!

2010-06-08T07:31:00.000-07:00

Music Watch: Got my next date at Signatures Coffee. It's August 28. I can't wait. I love the Signatures Tour. (Okay, so there's only one Signatures. I'm touring it.) From the past two gigs there, I've figured out a super set of songs for the two hours. I'm sure my neighbors hope I find somewhere to play them besides my apartment between now and the next Signatures. Just gotta get out there and ask. Unless you're a coffee house manager or owner or booking agent, in which case, give me a call, ya. Listen to some snippets on my Bob Farley Guitar MySpace page.

And for a treat of a ukulele flavor, check out my new Ukulele Man video, complete with layered background vocals.

Food Watch: For some time, I've been conscious of what I eat. There came a point where I decided that microwaving everything might not be the way to go. So I had to learn how to cook. My goal was to come up with a selection of easy enough recipes that were good and good for me and those I fed them to. At first, I tried to keep them to a small list of ingredients, but I have found out an interesting thing about multi-item recipes: if you have to leave one or more things out, no problem. Or, if you just like part of it (or can only remember part of it) like the cocoa-chili powder chicken rub I stole from Rachael Ray's chimichonga or something recipe, it becomes yours.

Most recently, I discovered I could make my own macaroni and cheese. It's deceptively simple: boil and the elbow macaroni (or whatever joint you have of macaroni), add a bit of butter (I use unsalted butter), sprinkle on some sharp cheddar that might usually go on pizza perhaps, and that's it. Except of course I add cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, a little salt, more pepper, and if necessary, you can stir in a couple drops of milk. Next step is to buy my own cheese, as that's the only item that has ingredients I can't easily pronounce.

Pitcher Watch: My son has started his second season of softball. Maybe his last. We find he can throw a baseball with a lot of heat for a kid, so next year might look at that sport. He's playing up a grade in this softball league. Couple of kids are. They won their first game last night, and my boy got to pitch an inning. I know you're thinking; kids this young pitching? You're right. It can get very frustrating for all involved since most of the kids don't have the control necessary to pitch without walking just about everybody. Not sure what the league was thinking when they put in that rule for this age. Becomes a game of walking around the bases when you have two teams that can't scrape up a pitcher. We'll see how it goes. I guess they're just lucky to be able to play at this age. In my day, we spent the first two years of school carving our bats from the trees we chopped down with our George Washington cherry pruner axes.

Hot Nights and Honkers

2010-05-31T06:11:00.000-07:00

Hot Night At Signatures: The 29th at Signatures Coffee and Fine Gifts Emporium and Game House (I added some to the title) went very well considering it is Memorial Day weekend and lots of people had other things to do, believe it or not. My local core of close friends came through for me, though, along with many a regular from the downtown Fairborn arts section, and we managed to heat the place up really fast.

I came away with a new revelation on my own "little city," as I call my solo gig setup, and am as sure as a human can be about such things that I've got the PA, effects, and general vision of the environment in place, as well as a lasting appreciation for the benefits of making a solid set list. Never leave it to your brain to do anything when you can write it down or Google it.

Next up is a jam with the Blues Cowboys (Lite) at the Peach Melba Mini Peach Tree Gathering on June 12. See the map, right, and check out Uncle Buck's Dance Barn and Riding Stables for more.

Lost Watch: The question was asked how I could understand the end of Lost without having watched much more than the first season and a half. I was under the impression that it had stopped making sense, so my lack of knowing how pieces fit in the whole didn't dilute (much) my enjoyment of the corner of the puzzle I happened to be watching at any certain time through the intervening years.

I may take some time to rewatch the end, if only to see if I missed any good commercials in the last 45 minutes or so. For sure, it's a writer's treasure chest, being able to develop so many characters through the course of over 100 hours. Case studies could be made of each of them.

European Watch: For years I've read and heard how wonderful is the European way of work, vacation, school, and general life, health, and entertainment. Here in the U.S., many like to knock their country of residence because we're not like Europe in those respects. We have no siestas, no universal healthcare, no early retirement, no what they call in a recent Yahoo article universal welfare system. So we must be deficient, right?

Not so much, as it turns out. Thanks in part to terrorist wars in the Middle East, the housing bubble, and banking shenanigans, the economy in the Old Country is approaching the shambles many predicted decades ago that it would. But they blamed the baby-boomer generation back then. They didn't foresee all the other wonderful horrors that have visited us in the last decade.

So we'll see how wonderful the Continent is after they pay for all those luscious vacations and early retirements with pay. I hope they make it, but judging by the riots that pop up after the merest hints of austerity measures, it's going to be a rough road.

Goose Watch: One last thing for today: How scary the Canadian goose population is getting. With dozens of new goslings running around all fuzzy and pooping all over the place...it's like the population has quadrupled in the last month. And there were already too many of them, especially when you get some that can't judge speed of land vehicles and wind up costing innocent drivers $40 for a new mirror, not to mention the feeling of guilt for having killed one of them. I don't remember Canadian geese in my childhood. Seeing a goose or a duck back then was a treat, just as seeing a jet plane far overhead leaving a contrail against a paint-by-number sky. Nowadays, not so special. They just scare me when I'm trying to walk around the lake at the YMCA, and thanks to one plowing into my car, they've given me a baby neurosis concerning the flight paths of birds toward my moving car. Especially big honkers.

Jamming at Signatures Saturday

2010-05-25T06:26:00.000-07:00

Hey hey hey. It's four days till I'll be Here Again at Signatures Coffee in glorious downtown Fairborn. (The first time I was there, I was simply "Here.") Got me a poster made, got me some new songs to sing, also some old ones that if you were there the last time, you heard, but this time you can sing along. Am I right? Sure, you know, uh-huh!

Check out the gig box to the right for a map you can click on to get directions and times. I'll just tell you here and now, the place is at 313 W. Main Street in Fairborn, and I'll be there this Saturday, May 29, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. If enough people aren 't tired of me by then, I'll keep on playing.

Need you there drinking coffee and having a good time so they'll let me come back again. Thanks in advance for making those plans to drop by and java up before you head out on the rest of the town!

Bands, Yogurt, Lost, Passages

2010-05-24T02:47:00.000-07:00

Band Watch: The gig at Uncle Buck's was a bit sparsely attended, but not surprisingly so. It's a long haul out into the Zaleski woods, but for those who made it, the band did a very decent job of entertaining. Looking forward to the next jam June 12, which is right now going to be a power trio version of the Cowboys, and June 19 after that, with the full band line-up.

Lost Watch: I'm watching the series finale of Lost this morning. Had to record it because I fell asleep yesterday evening after only getting four hours of sleep the morning before. (It's a long drive to Uncle Buck's.) Not sure I'll understand it all, but as I watched the first episode and most of the first season, I felt moved to catch the end. I like ends of shows.

Food Watch: I like yogurt, but Sam's Club doesn't have giant buckets of the fat-free vanilla variety, so I checked out Kroger's version, and let me tell you: Stay Away From Kroger Fat-Free Vanilla Yogurt! Unless you like funky chemical taste, you'll not like it, unlike the fat-free strawberry or peach, which I can eat all night. I'll continue to spend another 50 cents or so and get the Dannon Non-fat Vanilla Yogurt.

On another food-related topic, I set my container garden outside last night, a week past the frost date for Ohio. Passages.

Blues Cowboys In Concert This Saturday

2010-05-16T05:17:00.000-07:00

It's the middle of May, almost the middle of the year, and time for the Saturday Night BBQ at Uncle Buck's Riding Stable and Dance Barn, featuring the Blues Cowboys. Looking forward to that being an annual bash for at least the next 30 years.

Rocket Dogs have a gig set up next month, and more to follow, surely. Blues Cowboys have six gigs set up, one this month, two next, and one each the next three months. Could be more things happening there, but since the main venue is the Dance Barn, which has two open sides, they will be small things inside the Lady Buck Saloon.

Got one solo gig scheduled for myself back at Signatures Coffee the last Saturday of this month. I have a list of venues in the area that I have not contacted, and I am going to remedy that oversight. I have the feeling that getting more solo and duo gigs is merely a matter of asking.

Currently I keep a schedule of events on my BobFarleyGuitar MySpace page, along with sound files.

Remember: you become what you think you are, so think the best for yourself and for those around you.

Soon....

Giggin'

2010-03-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

Got the call from Al at Signature's Coffee. I'm on the docket for April 17. So everybody, come listen, get a coffee and biscotti, have fun. I'll be there from 7 till 9, maybe 9:30 if lots of people are still there drinking mochas. Can't wait.

The Developing Persona

2010-03-15T04:32:00.000-07:00

Good news. I'm in a band. A former quartet in need of a lead guitar replacement accepted my membership in the group a couple of weeks ago, and we're working through their last set list.

At the same time, I'm pursuing a solo gig with local coffee shops, such as Signature's Coffee here in Fairborn. The business has a cool arts, literature, music vibe going, along with good coffees. I've made my pitch to gain a Saturday two-hour spot, and am in the process of electrifying my Yamaha FG-160 to accomplish same.

Went to the local Guitar Center to check out new guitars, but a couple of scriptures floated to me in this week's message at Dayton Vineyard gave me pause to think. They dealt with planning carefully what you spend for, otherwise you'll never have enough money; and: be satisfied with what you have. So it will take quite a while before actual money is laid down for new guitar.

Looking forward to developing my guitar/singer persona. I think it will be fun.

Kicking out the jams

2010-02-21T04:22:00.000-08:00

Tell everybody the news: I am trying to get myself back into a band. One that will play 2-3 times a month through spring, summer, and fall, and holidays in the winter. Unless I move to Hawaii or someplace south where the temps don't fall below 60 in the winter.

Luckily, these days, as with everything else in life, the Internet provides as much interaction as a person can want for whatever he seeks. Bands are no different, and everything is like hitchhiking: sooner or later you get a ride or you walk to where you're going. Which in the realm of music means I'll find a band or one will find me, or I'll get a little PA, a couple hundred songs I can sing with aplomb--hehehe--and find somebody who can be entertained by a techie musician.

As I look around my websites, I see that I do need to change my online face to reflect my new focus. Writing and editing (and let's not forget photography) can all go together in this dream. Bands need flyers and promo pieces written, and flyers and promo pieces need pictures, and I can do those things, too. So if I find a band that plays a couple times a month, I can work in that one, and maybe find a band that needs some writing and photos taken and work the off weeks with that one, and maybe they'll let me set in a set or open a set.

And if none of that ever happens, maybe I'll turn back to writing and write a number one hit bestseller about a guy who does all of that.

Happy February, friends.

Biggest Loser

2010-01-25T10:37:00.000-08:00

I began this year knowing that I needed to focus better on certain areas of life, the only question being which areas those might be. Part of the plan included removing those things that served little purpose.

Purpose is mercurial. A thing may serve a purpose for a while, outlive its usefulness, and become of no use. After a time, it could become useful again.

This blog--and all blogs--has become one of those usefulness-outlived things for me. Back in the day, I started blogging as a way to keep the family members involved in my life away from them. Then I started informing the world. Then it became a means of networking for my writing career. All those things I now do in other ways that don't involve the blog.

My other main blog, in which I wrote about life as a stay-at-home dad, has suffered the same transition: it's no longer relevant enough in my life to warrant the time involved to keep it current.

So, as I look to my Facebook pages to blather on about this and that, I won't completely leave these sites to the dust. I'll come in once in a while, every month, at first, then every season, then every year, then one day, when I'm gone from this earthly mantle, my heirs will look at this and go, "Aha, so that's what Great-grandpa did with his time."

The Hat Trick

2009-12-18T07:05:00.000-08:00

It's been a good year, folks. I suppose. Still kicking, still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Though it's looking like I may never reach the age of responsible maturity.

A few things I'm happy about:

I've gotten back into music. Bought an electric guitar and amp and sound augmentation pedal and went to an impromptu get-together with some old friends, played a private party with a new friend, and am practicing to play in my church's Christmas Eve services. Next year, I hope to be employed more weekends than not in some kind of musical venue.

I still write and edit, mostly for an online financial magazine, but sometimes for something called DemandStudios, which is a little harder, but $15 is $15, even if it takes a couple of hours to make.

My urge to volunteer at my son's school took fruit in something called Masterworks Art Program, where a parent, in my case me, goes into class with a bunch of examples of a certain artist's work and tells the class about the artist and leads them in producing an example of that work. I even get to do some of the art myself, just to show the kids that a human can do the stuff.

Music, writing, art--that's the creative hat trick.

I think next year, I'd like to continue the music and add a marathon and the loss of 30 pounds of fatty tissue from my body. See you here this time next year to see how that went.

Heavy metal chess

2009-11-28T18:02:00.000-08:00

Everyone has wanted to build a chess set out of hardware pieces at one point or another. Okay, not everybody, but anyone who knows that Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man. And a rocking selection of nuts and bolts.

Besides the desire to move chess pieces around a board again, I also acquired knowledge of bolts I'd not known about before. Namely the slotted hex nut, or as it's also known, the castle hex nut. It looks like a crenelated castle wall.

Also learned about the flanged hex nut, along with the flanged hex bolt.

Plus, I learned that half-inch hardware can get expensive, so I went with five-sixteenths instead. And some metric thing I'm not sure what it meant for the rooks. Those were $2 each, which really blew my budget out of the water. (Thanks, Discover Card Rewards.)

Some tips for would-be builders: Ace Hardware has bags and pens so you can write down what you're getting, how many, and how much for each. Don't wait till you've got a pile of hardware before going back to find how much they cost and what they were called. Unless you have an extra 15, 20 minutes.

Keep an eye on your growing pile of hardware while you're looking for other hardware. Somebody might decide it needs put back in the drawers.

Be ready to substitute. Sometimes your list of materials might include something not available at your store. That means being flexible with design options. For instance, the design I was using had something called a long-sleeved hex bolt for the queen and king. No such thing in my Ace, so I went with a group of hex nuts. That gave me a new idea for the final version of those pieces and the bishops.

You've probably seen programs from time to time about sculptors who work in junk, using nuts and bolts to build stuff, some neater than other. Working in the area of nuts and bolts isn't nearly as junky.

I wonder if a cool chess set could be built out of PVC plumbing supplies. You know it could. And probably already has been.

The television trilemma

2009-09-24T06:30:00.000-07:00

Ah, the new season of TV brings us fresh new shows and seasons of old shows and it's a grand time to be a couch potato, but problems can occur.

For instance, what if you want to catch three shows on at the same time and you only have one digital video recorder? In the old days before broadband Internet connections, that would have meant buying another DVR or waiting till the summer reruns to see that third show, but no longer.

Now, thanks to most networks putting their programs online, those of us who want to watch Fringe, CSI, and Supernatural can catch any of the three online.

Thank you, Internet. Thank you, CWTV.com. Now I can get three hours of TV watching condensed from one one-hour time segment. Okay, well, gotta get my work done so I can block out some time to catch up on my future TV watching.

EDIT: Bad math aside, my Thursday fall 2009 television Thursday went this way:

I'm not watching Survivor this year; it's just gone too far to the mean-spirited side. So while recording Bones, I watched the premier of Flash Forward and found it formulaic in the beginning, ignorable in the middle, but kind of catchy toward the end, especially when the guy from Lord of the Rings and Lost showed up. Plus the hook at the end of the show really grabbed me.

At 9, while recording Fringe, I'm watching CSI, if only because it has a history of coming out the gate strong. For 10, there's only The Mentalist and his quest for Red John.

Vacation memories

2009-09-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

It's such a beautiful day today, it reminded me of one of my days on vacation this past July when Jordan and I went to Cedar Point on Lake Erie and rode the Ferris wheel. We were way high on the ride, stopped for a while going on the side of it, the wind blowing, golden sun shining, not a care in the world for those wonderful hours. That must be one of the better reasons for vacations: remembering them through the rest of the year.

I am a ukulele man

2009-08-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

If you take a look to the left at my list of videos (yes, those are actual videos that I made myself of myself), you'll see a new one above the recently added electric guitar example. That new is a song I finished writing this morning, so that will count toward my word count this week. Probably 200 altogether!

It's a ukulele song called "Ukulele Man." It follows a kind of romantic storyline: boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy keeps girl. A nice love story, with no complications.

Find myself a (country) rock and roll band....

2009-08-28T17:32:00.000-07:00

My writing group moved to RallyStorm.com and I moved with them, despite not feeling much like writing lately. While my wordly muse has been tending to its bruised ego, my musical muse has been working overtime, resulting in some recent purchases from craigslist (and I didn't get mugged!) and one from a music store.

To hear the result of the purchases, check out the newest video popping up in my Video list, or see it on my YouTube channel.

Found an online listing for bands at Bandmix.com and gotten a couple of shoutbacks, but nothing to write home about yet. I figure after spending another week practicing and another week getting used to my new schedule now that Jordan's back in school, I'll be ready to hit the phones steady trying to scare up a band to let me play with them.

Interesting chicken

2009-08-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

I made an interesting batch of chicken yesterday. Used whole wheat flour, sea salt, thyme, chili powder, tarragon, and sage. I think the combination of the tarragon and chili powder made it interesting. Food, however, should be delicious more than interesting. But it's edible.

New sounds for a new day

2009-08-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

It's a great day, America!

My Boss ME-70 guitar sound processor came today and it is rockin'. I plugged it in at 3 p.m., when it arrived, and didn't stop playing till 4:30, and only then because I had other things to do.

And guess what? I still have things to do, so instead of doing them, I have been messing with the layout of this blog. I think I'm satisfied with this look for a while. Four columns. Nifty.

Okay, time for real work. I wonder how many people actually get to do the work they love. Or how many people can love any work. I guess love is relative. Different kinds and all that.

Let's see how this plays out.

Did I say time for work?

My TV is Free and It's HD

2009-07-04T05:34:00.000-07:00

AT&T (NYSE: T) is trying its best to get me to spend an extra $60 minimum a month to buy their television and home phone service, but it's just not making sense yet. And here's why.

I used to buy the cheapest cable package from Time Warner (NYSE: TW), but one day it went out and the local customer service said it would be a week before anyone could come out and fix it. I hooked up an antenna, put it on my highest shelf, and lo and behold, I watched television. All six major networks: NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, FOX, and CW. Quick call to the cable company and I was free at least.

Later, I had to replace my DVD player, and I did so with a DVD recorder. Much to my surprise, I found I could receive the local digital channels through that recorder. Now I had five channels of PBS and two flavors of all the rest. So I went from six channels to 15, and all but two of those in HD clarity, even on my analog TV.

So I looked even better off compared to any deal involving cables, satellite dishes, or fiber optics. After all, I have enough to do without the need to decide which one of 101 channels I want to watch today. Unless they want to give it to me for a lot less forever. Because right now, my TV is free and it's HD.

Star Trek IV: still the one

2009-05-24T06:28:00.000-07:00

I got to see the new Star Trek movie a couple of weeks ago, and it was okay. Way too much CGI-wowness and far too little story, imo, but at least it made money so they'll continue to spew them out and might even get better at it at some point.

I begin to exhibit traits of the purist, though, feeling that without the originals in the mix somehow, that it's not real Star Trek. In the original, Spock would never have kissed Uhuru. What that had to do with building the story is beyond me. Just another case of selling a minimal story with maximal sex. Got no story? Throw in some love-making. That's what the great masses of world want. Can't get enough in their lives, so shove it at them in their books, TVs, and movies.

Can't even recall what the heck the story was in the new Star Trek without thinking very hard. That wasn't the way in the older movies, even the ones I didn't like so much. Nor in the series--at least till Enterprise. TNG, Deep Space 9, and even the marginally interesting (to me) Voyager all had storylines that they followed from beginning to end. Not in the way of a Babylon 5 epic, but very close.

My favorite Star Trek is still IV, subtitled the Journey Home, or something like that. And here are the reasons I like it:

>>The story is not dependent on superwowie special effects, but the effects used stand up to today's standards.

>>Even though the time is 1984, the movie doesn't date itself because the crew has gone back in time. This also saved them lots of money in creating sets of the past. The "past" represented in the movie was the present of 1984.

>>It stars a young Catherine Hicks, the mom on Seventh Heaven. She is hot.

>>The one thing I don't like on it: Lots of mild cursing, one not so mild. Nothing you don't hear on family hour television, but nothing you want to hear your four-year-old copying.

>>Anomaly: Hicks's character is a kind of tree-hugger, earth lover, but she drives a 1960s looking pickup that has to spit out more toxic material than any decent Honda of the era.

>>Odd:
The communicators of the 23rd century are bigger than cell phones of
the late 1990s. Plus, they make the same sound as Nextel's (now
Sprint's) push-to-talk devices.

A writing note: You have four or five distinct stories in this one movie. The 23rd century tale of mass destruction leads into the time travel to the 20th century, where three groups of two actors lead the viewer on three unique adventures that all come together in the end.

As a viewer, I'm helped to like the characters by having known them in the previous three movies and three years of television episodes. That's why I'm a little bit taken aback by changes to that original background in the new movie.

But as I've said ever since Voyager: Any Star Trek is better than no Star Trek.

Cell phone junkie

2009-05-13T16:07:00.000-07:00

My new cell phone (Samsung Eternity) is no iPhone, but it is leaps and bounds beyond my former phone life.

For instance, the browser goes to real web pages, and these days many sites have pages set up especially for phones. One such is http://mobile.biblegateway.com . There, I can look up sections of the Bible in multiple translations so I can follow along with translation-challenged preacher to find his versions of scripture. (This is another reason I miss my old pastor out in Colorado. He stuck with one translation 90% of the time.)

And also, this phone can play my youtube videos. I know! I even made a tinyurl in honor of the occasion. http://www.tinyurl.com/guitarbob

It's so nice living in the future.

Taking up space

2009-05-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

China In-Focus: Zhang Named CFO Of China XD Plastics
May 1, 2009 (FinancialWire) -- China XD Plastics Co. Ltd. (OTCBB: CXDC) has appointed Taylor Zhang as its chief financial officer. Zhang, who recently served as CFO of Advanced Battery Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABAT), succeeds Jie Han, who has served as interim CFO of China XD since the company went public in December 2008.
Prior to his tenure at Advanced Battery Technologies, Zhang served as EVP of finance at China Natural Gas. Before that, he served as financial analyst for New York Private Equity, where he covered Chinese growth companies in energy sector. Early in his career, Zhang was financial manager at Datong Thermal Power Ltd. in China.
In his new role, Zhang will oversee China XD's capital markets efforts and all accounting management and reporting functions.
Harbin, China-based China XD Plastics develops, manufactures, and distributes modified plastics, primarily for automotive applications. The company's plastics are used in the exterior and interior trim and in the functional components of more than 30 automobile brands manufactured in China including Audi, Red Flag, Volkswagen and Mazda.
FinancialWire(tm) is a fully independent, proprietary news wire service. FinancialWire(tm) is not a press release service, and receives no compensation for its news, opinions or distributions. Further disclosure is at the FinancialWire(tm) web site (http://www.financialwire.net/disclosures.php). Contact FinancialWire(tm) directly via inquiries@financialwire.net.
Free annual reports for companies mentioned in the news are available through the Free Annual Reports Service (http://investrend.ar.wilink.com/?level=279).

Pancake Serenade

2009-03-03T06:20:00.000-08:00

I am a lover of the pancake arts. They inspire me to many things. We have no IHOPs in the Dayton area, and this is a travesty of pancake justice. Thankfully, we have many memories of IHOPs in Colorado. One of the earliest memories my seven-year-old son has is of him and me going to IHOP for specialty pancakes.

"That was in Colorado, right?" he asked me. "I remember we used to go there a lot, didn't we?"

Jordan was aged three through five during this time, so it's cool that the memory stuck with him.

Being without a member of franchise nearby, I've had to perfect my own pancake art, and can report success. Whenever my son stays with me, we have pancakes the next morning.

One of the best memories I have of my own dad is the making of pancakes on Sunday mornings. Not every Sunday, but there was a period of time when it was semi-regular. I'm very glad to pass down that positive memory to my son.

Cooking tip #412

2009-01-03T05:13:00.000-08:00

If you're interested in how paprika smells, make sure before you sniff the lid that you didn't grab the red pepper instead.

On the positive side, if you ever find yourself unable to sneeze, sniff a little bit of red pepper, then step back.

Keep reading! (Especially spice labels.)

Robert<><>

THRIPZ at Around About Books

2008-12-20T12:13:00.000-08:00

Around About Books in Troy, Ohio, still has a couple copies of THRIPZ, so if you're in the area and would like to have your copy autographed by the author (c'est moi), let the fine people in there know, and they'll set the wheels in motion to accomplish that.

Can't make it to Troy? Then make it to THRIPZ.com and in the right-hand column you'll find the links to get an autographed copy from me or a non-autographed copy from the folks at Amazon.com.

However you do it...

Keep Reading!

Long Toes = ??

2008-11-24T06:48:00.000-08:00

Couple of posts ago, I did a tongue-in-cheek post about my toes being long and a bit prehensile looking. Okay, that's the backstory.

Today, I'm looking at the Google ad below, right, and it's talking about Yoga Toes = Straight Toes. I thought that was slightly funny.

Quadridextrous

2008-11-21T05:00:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd made up a word: quadridextrous. But it seems it's used in reference to gaited horses. However, there are only 143 references to it on Google, which is much better than the last word I thought I originated: extranormal.

The idea for the quadridextrous came from a picture of long toes. Not mine. That came later. Those toes were much like mine, though mine display a second toe that is longer than the big toe. (I believe that is a sign of higher mental functioning.)

Having toes that can operate and cooperate with each other gives one the ability to be more than ambidextrous, which is the ability to use either hand to do things like write, bat a baseball, throw a baseball, etc. If the two feet can come into play, certain tasks can be quadridextrously approached.

If you, like me, have experienced deteriorating close-up vision, to the point that your arms are no longer long enough to read without the aid of lenses, and you have long toes, put'em to use.

Back in my younger days, I used to sit behind a set of drums and play the bass drum and the high-hat cymbal with my feet while playing the guitar with my hands. Sometimes I would sing, too. Not quite a one-man band, but almost.

There is a downside to the long toe, at least for me. I tend to run into things with it. Hard things. Things that cause very bad sprains, strains, and breaks. Sometimes they get caught in the carpet and I walk on them, especially the ones next to the little toes. I'm always turning them purple.

Quadridextrous. Time for a pedicure. If only the big toes were opposable.

Keep reading.

Robert<><>

Vacation

2008-08-24T05:19:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from a fantastic four-day adventure with my son. We visited Sandusky, Ohio, home of Cedar Point Amusement Park, home of the Millennium Force roller coaster. I haven't counted the number of coasters we rode, but we're definitely Ride Warriors after visiting the park four times in three of the days we were there.

A boat ride to Kelley's Island, where Jordan got to surreptitiously drive a golf cart around the island's four square miles. We visited glacial grooves (yup, rocks) and more importantly a beach where despite not having swimming attire on Jordan found his way far into the bay.

From a writing standpoint, not much happened other than the gathering of feelings and smells, sights and sounds. Coming home the first night felt a little like being in the hotel room again; waking up the first morning afterward is a little empty with no park plans, no new sites to visit--at least not yet.

Once again I used the eyes of the child to revisit places I'd been before, places that already held memories for me. From a young man's eyes, it was all a lot brighter.

Genetically modified organisms being watched

2008-08-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

Every other day or so, I've been sending out press releases for THRIPZ to some free press release services. I wasn't expecting too much from them, and my expectations are mostly on the mark. However, I have received at least three offers from literary advertising agencies promising to produce enormous sales for a few hundred dollars. Not exactly what I was looking for. But today, I found where the news had been picked up by something called GMObelus.

GMO stands for "genetically modified organism." An obelus is a dagger-shaped typographical symbol used like and in place of an asterisk. So the GMObelus people monitor and call attention to GMOs. Pretty cool they're monitoring THRIPZ, and with good reason. Anything born pregnant, hungry, mean, and resistant to every pesticide known to science needs to be monitored.

Whatever the reason, thanks, GMObelus. Not only did they run parts of the press release, they linked to the YouTube trailer. So for sure, I can't take that one down.

Have you had your THRIPZ today?

Nice day

2008-03-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

Looking like I might get to use this blogpost address after all. Thinking very seriously of keeping the LR Farley moniker for my novel writing stuff. Depends on some things that happen or don't happen.

Cheap tension buzz

2008-02-16T09:49:00.000-08:00

It's Saturday and among other things that means it's time to back up my important files.

Backing up files is just about as much fun as balancing the checkbook, but not nearly as bad as filing taxes. It shouldn't be that way, because the consequences of not backing up, not balancing, and certainly filing taxes are much worse than the time it takes to do all three.

In the past six months, I've had to save files from one computer to another twice. The second time, I thought I had lost about three years of pictures that I hadn't actually backed up the first time. That would have been sad.

So here's my plan these days. Every Saturday, as I said, I back up all my My Documents folders and files onto a 500 gigabyte external hard drive. It's surprisingly fast and the good feeling that comes afterwards is sweet. Through the week, the files that I change--stories, books, work files that evolve from one to the next--I back up onto a one gigabyte stick. Both the stick and the hard drive plug into my laptop with a USB connection, and the operation a drag-and-drop maneuver.

I'm thinking about using an online storage place as a third back-up option.

And, I've just spent some three or four hours balancing the checkbook from the past six months. Several things had happened or not happened that should or should not have happened, and getting to the bottom of the double entries and non-entries was not quite a nightmare, but not the sort of suspense thriller that a writer likes to spend his evenings and the next morning doing.

But as a friend recently diagnosed, that's the way it goes when you're a procrastinator-thrill seeker looking for a cheap tension buzz.

Hello, AD 2008

2008-01-01T15:17:00.000-08:00

An old friend used to say that whatever she did on the first of the new year would lay the groundwork for the rest of the year. If that is true, then I will be editing a book the rest of the year. I think I'll try to finish it today, what with the whole implication of the rest of the year looming over the outcome.

I haven't done a resolution post for some time. JA Konrath has that niche covered, if you are a writer who needs resolutions. The ones I made a few months ago remain: Keep trying to write a short story a month and have it sent off somewhere for publishing consideration. Now and then, I'll look for an agent, but that is going to be on a burner behind the editing of the new book, based on comments from a couple of kind agents who declined to represent me and that book in its present condition.

One thing I've definitely learned is that there is no reason to be in a hurry, especially where writing books is concerned. In fact, the longer the thing can gel in a drawer, the better the rewriting will be when it finally happens.

Good-bye, AD 2007

2007-12-31T18:16:00.000-08:00

In our linear existence, in my Eastern Standard Time Zone on planet Earth, there are fewer than three hours left in what we lovingly call 2007. I hope you've had a decent one and that 2008 beats the baloney out of it.

For all my writer friends, thanks for your support. May you (and I) keep writing, keep getting better, and find the niches we need to fit into.

Most important, keep having fun while you're at it, because if it isn't, you might as well be getting a root canal.

Herman

2007-12-22T18:44:00.000-08:00

Another long short is posted now, a few hundred words that were published in Chick Flicks sometime in 2005, as I recall. Chick Flicks is a zine for dark literary writing, and my cat story, Herman, inspired by true events, was right up their alley.

Last shows are the best

2007-12-21T17:22:00.000-08:00

Sure, maybe I watch too much TV, so it seemed like the writers' strike and subsequent dearth of new episodes of my favorites would have kept me from pressing the on button. But no. I started watching stuff I hadn't seen the first time around.

The other night, when I would have normally watched Criminal Minds, I was forced to watch a show I'd never seen before called Journeyman. Ironically, that night was its final episode, forever. This a show about a guy who goes back in the past and then comes back. And, ironically again, the episode was pretty good. Last shows usually are. It's better when shows like this end short; otherwise, these days they turn into cliched nighttime soap opera. This show would have become another remake of last century's Quantum Leap, except the guy leaps back to his present, but it's sometimes changed.

Good news for major network watching crime-solver fanatics: Monk is coming to Sundays after its run on Friday's USA Network. Bad news for my science fiction, USA Network watchers: Dead Zone is going bye-bye; however, that's not so bad since it had swerved into the nighttime soap opera genre. Not that I don't like nighttime soap operas, but when they insinuate themselves into stories too much, it's like the writers are leaving themselves an out in case a star doesn't sign her contract for the next season.

Too bad if they didn't get a chance to write a last show for Dead Zone. Journeyman's was really good. Provided a lot of answers. And I hadn't even heard the questions.

Daddy, Hug

2007-12-15T07:39:00.000-08:00

At last, I've kept a part of a website promise I made during my last redesign: I've put up a new short story. Well, it's not new. It's old, but it's new to the website, and it's still as eerie and twisted as it was when it was conceived in the dark, mirrored shadows of our former home.

It's called Daddy, Hug and that's the link and you can come back here and make comments about it, if you want.

I feel good having finally gotten one of my longer stories shared. The OCD part of me wants to put up another half dozen previously published gems. Unfortunately, it also wants to do a dozen other things. So it and I are going to go into argument mode and figure out what to do next.

NOTE: Regular visitors might notice the graphic at the top is not the way it should be, and the logos at the end of posts are misshapen and misplaced. These kinds of things are the results of giving up a lot of autonomy online to Blogger. Just about every time they try to fix something, something else goes haywire. Happens to every online entity, though, at some time or another. If you visit one of the inner links, you'll see the way the graphic up top should look.

Strange, strong ways

2007-12-07T21:25:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time and now and then again I do still find time to play guitar. I was inspired in the early days to play music, but since I quit the bar band scene in the mid-90s, I rarely get all that excited. Just trying to keep enough callouses to be able to jam for half an hour or so.

But tonight I heard of an album by Robert Plant and Allison Kraus called Raising Sand and it has inspired me to actually sit and write out lyrics--with a pen and paper!--so I could ~~sing~~ exercise my vocal cords to the songs, even if I have to transpose them, which naturally I have to do because if I could sing in their keys, I'd be able to hire someone to do my blogging.

In my previous entry, I wrote about writers giving their books away online and television networks offering their programs online. I almost forgot the musicians offering their work online. Plant and Kraus have done so at robertplantalisonkrauss.com. The whole album is there. Can only play it online, as far as I know, just as TV shows can only be played and not saved, at least in my limited computer knowledge. But still, how great it is.

So anyway, listening to their haunting harmonies in front of the stripped down accompaniment takes me back to old-time feelings in a strange, strong way. And that brings the whole thing back to how the Internet has changed the paradigm for marketing one's creativity.

Getting the Backup Habit

2007-10-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

Overall Biorhythm Level: 29%, Going Down

My recent instance of computer problems has reignited in me the desire to back up my work better, something I just about never do. Doing backups should be a necessary part of daily work, like writing an invoice for a client, or putting together a timecard. But I generally don't do it. I think I will try to change that.

Part of learning to back up my files is nothing more than habit, something that takes 21 days to ingrain, according to something I read somewhere. Of course, there is the much more ingrained habit of not backing up that I need to replace, and I suppose that's what takes the three weeks.

Why is it easier to lose good habits (like exercising) than it is to gain good habits?

I use Firefox for browsing the net, and it has a few good add-ons, one of which is something called Foxmarks, which allows you to synchronize bookmarks across several computers. I just found it, so it's only on my backup computer right now. There is a harder way to share bookmarks, by finding the browser's bookmarks file somewhere in the system, copying it, and installing it in the other computer. I could tell you where to find that, but the page with the instructions is bookmarked on my other computer.

Call me Erasmus

2007-09-23T05:31:00.000-07:00

Here in Writing World, it's all about finding time to write what needs written, which for this week has been the venerable agent query.

An online writer acquaintance, Jamie Ford, blogged recently about his agent, Kristen Nelson, who writes an informative blog at PubRants, in which she shared a couple of agent queries that snared her. One of the queries was Jamie's, hence the mention of him.

I was struck by how both queries were a little different from what you usually read queries are supposed to be, which is normal, because as we all know, by the time somebody writes about how something's supposed to be, the only way to garner attention in the future is by doing it how it's not supposed to be.

Jamie, btw, writes literary fiction, which I don't normally search out, but after reading about his Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, I will do my best to win a free copy when it's published.

Linked from Kristen's blog was the blog of uber-agent Jennifer Jackson, who included links of authors she represents. I took a look at a few, including Chris F. Colm's, and was inspired to redo my pages at BobFarley.com. I think everything's still there, plus a little more. Let me know if something's off.

The one of you who follows closely my writing career will notice a decided schizophrenia as it relates to my writer name. It's at times L.R. Farley, Robert Farley, Bob Farley, or Lewis Robert Farley. The truth is, I don't know which is best, and again, my follower knows why. Sometimes I think I'll just call myself Erasmus Kirk. That's not true. I only thought of that brilliant name just now, and it is a brilliant name, isn't it? Erasmus Kirk dot com. Hm.

Before June goes out

2007-06-30T02:25:00.000-07:00

It's 5:30 in the morning and I'm awake after sleeping a long time last night. The past month of moving and packing and unpacking and removing have resulted in a few lost hours of sleep, which I'm now in the process of retrieving. Something else that needs retrieving is my writing habit. I've not done a lot in months now, and it's amazing how fast the months swoop along.

Yesterday I thought that what I need is a time of writing, where I sit in front of the computer and make myself write, much like this blog entry. I'm one of those who goes through the day and in places where I have no possibility of writing down or remembering what I'm thinking, I think about things that need written. Wonderful imaginary conversations between characters take place while I'm walking through the aisles at the grocery, waiting for the dogs to poop, or editing business stories for work.

Then I began to wonder, if those ideas and thoughts come to me almost regularly at those times, why can I not train them to come when I want them to? I know I'm discovering the wheel here, something that's been around a long time. But simple truths often don't mean as much when they're shoved at you as when they're "found" out on your own.

The next goal will be to set aside those times that can at least semi-regularly set aside for writing so it becomes second nature to do so. Or maybe in my case I can simply set myself in front of the computer at any time and pull up my latest project and try to write about it.

(Excuse me while I diagnose myself for a bit.)

The problem with not having a set time is that I feel like I should be doing something else, usually working. Therefore if I don't have the set time to do the writing version of "paying myself first," I never feel like I'm "in" the right time for it. As long as there is work to do, I would feel like I should be doing it. And there's always work to do, and thank God for that, but there's other work to do, too, and that is the work of taking care of projects that I've completed that now need sent out into the world to become one with the world.

You know what I mean? You see where I'm coming from? You catch my drift? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The Fairborn Farleys Arrive

2007-06-02T04:25:00.000-07:00

The final 56 miles to Fairborn and the Wexford on the Green apartments were smooth and quick. We had a good breakfast at the Richmond (Indiana) Holiday Inn, which was not one I'd recommend, unfortunately, unless you wanted to spend enough time there to take advantage of the exercise room and pool. The room we were in was small, appointed more like the unrecommended Best Western in Hays, Kansas, than like the recommended (but expensive) BW in Foristell, Missouri. But it served its purpose, if a little expensively.

While there I was able to set up our electric and gas here in Fairborn, and once we got here, I got my first UPS delivery, which was my DSL wireless modem. Wonder of wonders, it worked and I got set up lickety-split last night. Not fast enough for Jordan, though, since he wanted to play the games at addictinggames. com.

The apartment is nice enough. I'm thinking of how I want to appoint it. Simply, for sure, with few pieces, but the pieces that I need to be able to get my work and writing done. Something motivational, whatever that might be. I'm thinking more chairs than couch in the living room, and I'm not sure what kind of bed. Here, people have stuff stuck on their porches. I'm not sure if I want to stick my bike out there or not, but apparently if that's what I want to do, I can do it. The roadways in this part of town are almost too narrow for car traffic, let alone adding a bike to them. So I'll have to study that situation.

Jordan and I (and the dogs) took a ride to the house Deb is wanting to buy. It's nice, not quite like it appeared on the Internet, Jordan said, but a well-appointed home. We didn't see the inside of it, of course, but Deb is flying out this week to take care of a lot of the fine points of that situation. The drive there was a little more hectic than the ride back. We followed two different routes, as prescribed by the GPS navigation system in the Nissan Titan. If I had that system all the time, I'd probably forget how to read a map, just as surely as I forgot how to find square roots after the calculator become ubiquitous.

Jordie and I slept on the floor last night, so getting a bed of some sort might be a good thing in the next couple of days. The dogs stayed on the linoleum in the kitchen. They've been really good the past few days. The worst thing that happened was a bad case of gas during yesterday's excursion to see the house and get a sandwich. Fluffy is beginning to gather a little sense about how to heel on the leash without running circles around me and Missy, thus tying us all into an unhandy bundle.

For now, I must read the lease agreement to find out what to do with garbage.

Day Three: Richmond, Indiana

2007-06-01T04:16:00.000-07:00

What's a cross-country trip without a 90-minute traffic jam? Um, good? Would have been, but we got the former yesterday. After a smooth 320-some mile jaunt from Missouri through Illinois and into Indiana, we hit a snag 23 miles from our destination. To be fair, it was much better than it must have been for the souls who were in the wreck that caused the traffic to stop. Never did find out about that.

Traffic was re-routed over to Route 40 and we went through a little town that was having actual Memorial Day yard sale festivities. It gave the GPS navigation system quite a workout.

Otherwise, let's talk about motels. The Best Western in Foristell, Missouri, was the best we've been in our three days. It was roomy, had a good desk and chair for working, and the TV wasn't boxed in a big wooden nightmare so you couldn't see from the sides. The BW in Richmond didn't take pets, so we booked the Holiday Inn. When we got to it, Jordan gave it a thumbs down, and so did I. No proper working desk, TV in an enclosure, and smaller beds. Though the Foristell BW turned out to be more expensive than I thought (note to self: always ask the price, don't assume they're all the same), it was less than the HI and much nicer. While the HI has a better pool and a workout room, as well as (expensive) room service, who has time for that? Except for the room service. And even it was not the best, as they forgot to bring the boy's milk.

But anyway, we're in the eastern time zone again. It's been ten years since I've been here for any length of time. This means I'll have to stay up later to get my work done. I just hope the wifey's work starts out later as well so I won't have to wake up so early to watch the boy.

Trying to feel the increased oxygen. We've been in the high country for some five years. So far, all I really notice is the humidity. Not the good kind we felt in Hawaii, either. That air had a nearly constant breeze, and if not, then the ocean was never farther than 30 or 40 miles away. Also noticing the new pollens and allergens floating around outside. And the green. Much greener than in Colorado. This year, Colorado's had more rain than in the previous years we were there, so the yards are greening up and everything's greener than it was. But it's not the deep, variegated green of the Midwest. Here, the green is underneath everything, like it was always there, like the undercoat of a shaggy dog.

I remember when we came back from Hawaii and drove cross country, one of the first things we noticed was the number of semis. And maybe it's because I didn't do that much driving in Colorado, but the more east we get, it seems like the more semis populate the road. This is good, I suppose, meaning that much commerce is being enacted here. The country needs commerce. And I need a shower. Don't want to stink up the new place. Only 56 miles to go.

Day Two: Rain and Foristell, Missouri

2007-05-31T04:31:00.000-07:00

It doesn't look all that comfortable, especially when Jordan wants to play "Squash the Doggies" with the seat, but Missy and Fluffy enjoyed the ride in this manner for most of Wednesday. Probably the patter of rain on the rooftop helped them retain their slumber quotient.

In my dreams this would be the journal of a book signing event going from town to town sponsored by my ever-loving and supportive book publisher. But I haven't one of those, and this isn't a book signing, so "wake up, self."

I'm amazed a little at how easy it is to get online. At the Hays, Kansas Best Western, I had four wi-fi signals to choose from. The motel's was the strongest and fastest, thankfully. Here in Missouri, I have three, with the motel's being strongest and the nearby truckstop's a close second. It's just a couple hundred yards away. I figure the extra ones must be internet thieves trying to get me to sign on and give up some personal information. Ha. Little do they know they only have to read my blogs for that. Not what they wanted, though, no doubt.

Have been able to work both nights of the trip, at least enough to put files in order for our upload lady. Oh joy, to be able to work. Actually, with the working world the way it is today, I'm glad to be able to do it.

The dogs have been pretty good for the trip. They slept most of the day yesterday while I drove. I'd made their "bed" a little more comfortable. Both dogs have been able to do onesies, but only Fluffy has made twosies both days. Missy always gets a little constipated when she has to move.

The only real difficulty in traveling with two dogs and a child is during trips into restaurants or rest stop restrooms. Leaving animals alone in vehicles, windows down or not, is not a good idea, but there's not a lot of choice sometimes. It's not a comfortable feeling not being able to see the truck, not only an expensive item in itself, but also loaded with a few irreplaceable goods, while I wait in line for food or for Jordan to wash his hands after using the potty.

So far, however, our journey has been very blessed and we thank God for that and for the road ahead. Tonight, we've got a Holiday Inn set up in Richmond, Indiana, since the BW in that town is one that doesn't allow pets. Of all the nerve. If the schedule holds today, we should be in our new apartment early Friday morning.

The light of morning

2007-05-30T05:02:00.000-07:00

It rained heavily last night, causing Missy some consternation. I didn't noticie it so much until I woke sometime in the night and looked outside to make sure thieves weren't making off with the truck tires. The rain probably kept them from doing that.

Missy walked out from the far corner of the room, behind a bed. I'd wondered for a moment if she'd disappeared in the night when she didn't rouse herself on my waking and walking. Both dogs did a number one, and I found their leashes in their dog food bag. Still using the quickly fashioned blue cords still, though. Kind of like them.

Sleeping was okay. Jordan slept in the bed with me, as did Fluffy. Jordan must have been doing karate battle with something during the night, waking me a couple of times with kicks and punches, first to his pillow and then to me. He's sleeping pretty good, though, still. I woke up at my usual 4 a.m., wondering if I should try to fall back to sleep or get up and start the day. I chose the latter.

The weak coffee they provide here is not too bad if you double up the packets of coffee. I like the single cup brewer. Will have to look into one when we get to our "destination," as Jordan calls it.

We're In Kansas In Toto

2007-05-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

It's an hour later than I feel like it is, but I was able to get my work done from a Best Western in Hays (can't recommend it) with decent Internet. The area is creepy scary, though, and I don't know if I'll be able to sleep as well as I'd like. Too many thuggish looking people watching our Nissan Titan roll in and park. Too much cracked street material. Too many bottles and cans on the sidewalk. The picture on the webpage definitely makes it look like a nicer place than it is. The virtual tours were a giveaway, too, as they showed none of the surrounding area. The other two BW's I've logged into have much nicer surroundings in their virtual tours. The trials of riding with dogs, kids, and a hermit crab.

More Last Times

2007-05-28T16:42:00.000-07:00

Driving around town this week, going to church, eating dinner, I am realizing it's the last time I'll be doing those things in Colorado Springs for the known future. People I see but don't know, people I see and know, people I don't see and do or don't know--all of them will not be seeing me again, unless they know to look here, my web site, or western Ohio. The high country clouds, afternoon monsoons, spring and fall tornado alerts--all will be traded in for whatever they're having in Ohio these days. Probably heat and humidity.

My plans are to record the trip, as I usually do these things. This will be the first time I do it in real time from the road, that is if everything goes right. My five-year-old son will be doing the photography from the road, while our two dogs will be doing other things to the road.

That's the plan, at least. Stay tuned.

Farley of Fairborn

2007-05-26T00:54:00.000-07:00

It's the end of May, which means the end of a lot of school years in the U.S, time for a break for our nations's school children in preparation for another year of fighting to maintain their sparks for life while simultaneously getting the grades that mean they can conform to society's needs for a good worker.

Lucky for my son, he's only five, so his spark far outshines his conformity; yet his ability to slide between child and future adult grows daily. Nothing demonstrates that more than his desire to go off on his own--as long as someone he knows is with him. Slightly more than a year ago, he would still have cried out for Mommy or Daddy if he were left with someone else. Now, he's learned to trust that one or both of us will be back for him, if that's what we say.

And then my writer's mind stepped in. What if...what if someone were taking care of a child and both parents of that child disappeared? And what if no relatives of the child could be found?

Eh, probably been done before. Sounds familiar somehow. Back to reality.

A big move is in the works for us now. Jordan's mom has a new job opportunity in our home state of Ohio, so we shall become Buckeyes once again, Jordan for the first time. We've been blessed with the sale of our house in Colorado, at a reasonable profit despite a housing market that is less than kind to existing house sales. Movers are packing, loading, and shipping our belongings, and Jordan, the dogs, and I will set out in a pickup on the 1,250-mile journey as soon as the closing is held May 29. Debbie will follow by plane, then twice by car, and in a month, we should be set up in a new land called Fairborn, Ohio.

I'm looking forward to finding my routine there, our routine, seeing where there is time to get back to writing stories, bugging agents and publishers to give me money to write more stories, that sort of thing. Oh yes, might also have to work in some work, some conformity. Society needs good workers, you know. :-)

Run, Daddy, Run

2007-04-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

Things to do, things to see.

Flindes boom da sirmac

2007-02-15T13:42:00.000-08:00

Three thoughts, maybe four struck me this afternoon while the boy sleeps off his cold, the ocean waves pound through the stereo speakers, reruns of ST-TNG play on the TV, and I ponder the reasons for my inability to re-enter the world of the published author with my 81,000-word novel called The Kahuna Killings.

No. 1--This is the hardest to accept, but I have to put it first: The writing isn't compelling enough. I think I know one or two ways to fix that problem.

No. 2--The book wraps too many genres into it. To find only one in which to pigeonhole it, while possible, doesn't explain the book. It's as hard as trying to distill the essence of the story's panorama into one page. But, again, not impossible. The book is an adventure story. It is also suspenseful. It contains a mystery or two. Are dreams of past occurrences paranormal? If so, then we have a touch of that.

No. 3--I could tell the same story in another way, leaving out the paranormal, spiritual, and what some would call the science fiction aspects of the story. It changes it, but it's the same. I liken it to the difference playing a song on electric or acoustic instruments makes. You get many different nuances out of both methods, and the song will be same...only different. Some will like it quieter, some will want it noisier. Solving a mystery without the main character going through some paranormal dream sequence is still solving the mystery.

No. 4--Could be there is no grand purpose behind this novel other than to provide a few hours of escapism and entertainment. Maybe there's a little bit of how people grapple with the idea of monotheism, but that's not the main purpose of the book at all. It's just simple, scary adventure.

Someday I may try to write a meaningful tome that will change lives, maybe decipher the stock market or show you how to lose weight and still eat all the junk food your body can handle. But let me figure out something easy first, eh?

Odd about Odd

2007-01-31T06:14:00.000-08:00

While I chomp on my reading bit waiting for my Analog subscription to start, I've been remembering some things I could have said about Forever Odd, the Dean Koontz book I finished recently.

One of the things that bothered me about it was the bad guy wasn't fully explained. The whole book was from the first-person POV of Odd Thomas, so we didn't really get to see how the bad guy died, because he ran off, as any intelligent person would when the deed happened. A few paragraphs at the end of the novel explained some of the details that had come out in the text, but it wasn't as breathlessly satisfying as I would have liked. But it was okay.

I'm finished with The Kahuna Killings for the time being. Looking for agents or a publisher. Nothing frustrating or demeaning in that. Everyone should get used to being told "not interested" several times a week. Most people in the world won't be, but all I need is one to represent and a few hundred thousand to read.

A couple of new books are simmering in my head. New characters, new places. One's a science fiction/fantasy that I started over a year ago in a fit of creativity. The other is one that's been brewing for almost as long, but just recently I started putting down notes on the plot and backstory for the good guys and bad guys.

Forever Odd works for me

2007-01-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been months and months. The card from the scifi magazine said I should get something by Christmas. Maybe it's something to do with the three snowstorms. But something is making them late.

In the meantime, I've finished off Dean Koontz's Forever Odd, and it was worth the read. Very little in it that threw me off, other than a couple of times I wanted the story to get on with the plot, or vice versa, but that's Dean's style.

Basically, the whole book was about activities that took place within a day and a night. Short chapters kept the 350-some pages of action moving swiftly, with the endings generally pulling me into the next one.

Reading the book, along with my son's and wife's Christmas vacation helped me to read through The Kahuna Killings and rewrite some sections, as well as to get the queries and synopsis pages redone and tightened up, so if for no other reason, I'd have to give this second in the Odd Thomas series a big opposable thumb up.

Second Genesis a guaranteed read?

2006-09-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

Classification: Review
Second Genesis by Dr. Jeffrey Anderson is a part of Jove Books' "Guaranteed Great Read" program, whereby if a reader is not 100 percent satisfied, he gets his money back.

It didn't take long for me to fall below 100 percent, but it's not worth the time and trouble to get back my $5.

The book didn't fall below 50 percent satisfaction for me. And to be fair, it's a fine little mass market paperback, so it must have been a good read for quite a few people to get to that point.

The good doctor included lots of medicalese, so much so that some of it was removed and put on a web page. I didn't check to see if the page was still there. The medical part involved changing the brains of chimpanzees, evolving them in some manner so they became as smart or smarter than humans. Of course, there were some problems with the tweaking that increased the animals' aggressiveness. And of course, they got away into the forests of the Amazon.

Getting to the main story took a long time. At times I thought I was there, but then a new character would be added and I'd be wondering where I was again.

One of the problems with this book was the lack of a really strong main character. The subordinate characters were so strong, they overshadowed the main protagonist.

Why did I buy this book? It had good blurbs, though after reading, I don't agree with them about how chilling, timely, or provocative the book was. The first page held my interest, and the more science-oriented science fiction/thriller is a favorite reading genre for me.

The book is cheap, and therefore, if you're into this kind of genre, I could recommend it easily enough. Kind of like having no Star Trek to watch except Voyager. (Sorry, Voyager fans.)

The Guaranteed Read deal goes out of date (at least on the copy I have) on October 1, 2006. I'll have mine in my next yard sale for 50 cents, if you happen to be around.

Pirate branding

2006-07-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

Classification: Review
In the writing world, as in many others, a topic of discussion often centers around something called “branding.” Writers like Koontz, King, and Crichton have built a brand that readers have come to expect. Like people who buy certain brands of cars, fans of certain writers know the kind of knobs and buttons, appointments and quality they’ll get. The same is true of actors. Some movies I will go see simply because of the stars in them. Robin Williams, Jack Nicholson, Sandra Bullock, and Johnny Depp.

It was largely due to Depp’s influence that I helped his latest movie, Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest, hit a one-day, opening-day high. I first watched Depp’s strange on-screen charisma in 21 Jump Street, figuring he would go the way of many young actors and burn out brightly. But since then, he’s made a ton of films, some of which I haven’t seen, but some I’ve seen multiple times.

But making films doesn’t brand a person, per se. What else makes me enjoy watching Depp? Rock and roll. Yep, Depp has struck a similar chord in the musical tastes he portrays in movies, but not how you might think. In one of his stranger movies, Dead Man, he mentions a character called Benmont Tench, whom he calls a notorious gunman, etc. Benmont Tench is a wonderfully odd name, and it is also the name of the keyboard player for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. In Pirates, Depp has said he modeled the character Jack Sparrow after Stones icon Keith Richards, with a little Pepe Le Peu added for seasoning.

But that’s not the entire reason I’m a believer in the Depp brand. Depp is a recent father, with two children under the age of six, and he’s said time and again that life for him meant nothing until those children were born. To that, I resonate like a gong at a padded drumstick convention.

And so it was that I decided to watch the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie Friday. All 499 seats in the cinemaplex I went to were full. I was glad that I didn’t have to sit all the way in front. Lucked out a bit and got a decent seat on the aisle. But to the movie….

This is definitely a movie for the collection, one I’ll watch many times over, like my own personal HBO. I liked the first one, and this one continued the fun and strangeness in fine style. Special effects, acrobatics, Johnny Depp’s slightly effeminate swagger and “savvy,” Keira Knightley’s push-up bra—all combined to make the two and a half hours sail past. I’m not sure if it had a story as much as a bunch of neat effects and scenes. Something about Davy Jones’ locker was involved. The writers seem to have done something as in the Brothers Grimm movie with Matt Damon, another well-branded actor, where they explain old fairy tales and rhymes with clever storylines.

If I had a complaint, it would be the cliffhanger ending. That and the guy who stumbled down from the upper seats, stopped at the corner of the aisle where I was sitting, and barfed three times before continuing out the exit. The movie received a smattering of applause, nothing like happened at the initial viewing of Cars, the ripoff of the Michael J. Fox movie Doc Hollywood. I think the applause would have been heavier if the movie hadn’t just stopped. I’m no pundit, but that might cost the producers an extra $100 million.

You won't get burned on The Sunborn

2006-07-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

Classification: Review
Gregory Benford’s The Sunborn was a good read, but the pace was like floating in space with the engines off. In this sound-byte age, Benford’s style is stuck in an earlier, more cerebral mode, forcing the reader to take for granted that something is truly exciting and the only reason that everything has slowed down to glacial speeds is because that’s how life really is out there in space. Kind of a mix of the movie Dune’s horrible slow pace and Alien minus the exciting parts.

Not that there aren’t exciting spots in this book. But most of them are covered up in scientific lingo and disguised as boring long passages of interior monologue. Each shocking occurrence or discovery is followed by lots and lots of painful reverie and rethinking. However, if you are astute enough to catch the excitement happening—such as when life is discovered on Pluto or when strange robots attack the shuttle craft or any number of surprising revelations at the end of the book—you’ll find yourself wrapped up in some really challenging science versus creation arguments.

Benford is a writer of the older guard, a scientist first and foremost, so it’s understandable that he writes in the style he writes: it’s been a successful vehicle for him and his readers expect nothing less.

So I stayed with it, enjoying it for what it was, a throwback to the stories I read in my youth, before I was cut and dried by society. Sadly, the ending didn’t resonate with me like I’d hoped, and some of the ends weren't pieced together clearly enough for my sound-byte mind. With so much wonder to figure out and figured out, the anticlimactic handling seemed very ho-hum. Definitely worth a read, though, if you’re a hard science science fiction lover.

Gateways worth a read

2006-07-04T18:27:00.000-07:00

Classification: Review
F. Paul Wilson snuck up on me. I wondered how he could write a book with a killer beginning that died into 60 pages of background and scenery description and get it published. When I looked at the front pages and saw the two dozen or so books he has penned, I understood a bit: he’s built up a following who expect him to write like he does.

To his credit, Gateways finally picked up its pace and grabbed me, got me into its story, and I held out hope that it would remain so. Unfortunately, it began to fall upon its past stories and hint to the necessity of future ones in a way that put me off. Okay, I know it’s a part of a series of works based on a group of characters, but time and again, my nosed was rubbed in the fact.

A solid teaser graph on the back of the book, along with a blurb from Dean Koontz, sold me on this story of a hired gun known as Repairman Jack. I enjoy a touch of the paranormal and RJ is definitely involved in more than his share. As often happens when the unbelievable is explained, it’s no longer quite so fantastic, maybe even a little silly. That’s the effect the uncovering of the strange nexus points that allow the “Otherness” to intrude on our dimension had on me. It was okay, but only okay.

Wilson has a knack for description, which is probably one of the reasons he goes overboard (imo) in the beginning. In its place and sandwiched between more interesting parts, the descriptions bring the scenery to life. That’s why I was disappointed a bit in the ending, which took place inside a hurricane. Wilson certainly put a lot into it, but to me it fell flatter than it might have. Suddenly everything was explained. It was the end. Storm over. Get started on the next book.

I’ll probably read another F. Paul Wilson book when I get the chance. I’d like to get some of the questions answered left over from Gateways.