William Gibson Walks In The Tallest Cotton I Grow

I have loved William Gibson from the get go (Necromancer, 1984).  I didn't even blink with his move from cyberpunk to the present day dystopia stories. For those of you who also read him, his newest, Zero History, is his third installment centered around marketing and all that it entails and more.  The first book in the Bigend Trilogy, Pattern Recognition, I have mentioned before and will undoubtedly mention again (easily on my top reads ever list). Whew! What a read. Book two, Spook Country, will delight as well. Gibson's view of our current, recent past and our soon to be world, is enough to strike me dumb, numb and confounded. His vocabulary constantly pleases and challenges me. His knowledge of the fashion  industry and fashionista are a delight to learn. All the while spinning and spinning and spinning an outrageous and compelling story of viral marketing and what the industry and clientele will do to be players in their world. Gibson's personal fashion choice, in a word, durable. My kind of guy. The protagonists are always telling the story from a point of view you want to be watching from. The reader gets to feel quite clever while reading William Gibson.

I just finished the latest two installments of David Drake's RNC (Leary/Mundy) Series. Books 7, Into the Stormy Red Sky and book 8, What Distant Deeps. Book 8 may be my absolute favorite of the series and I'm thinking it's about time the two got them selves figured out. One can hardly imagine what kind of progeny they could conceive and unleash on the universe. Space Opera could become more than it already is. Frightening!

 William C. Dietz' second book in his Empire Duology arrived at the library.
Bones of Empire is just what I expected of it.
Fast furious space opera with a predictable outcome.
But, what fun!
I left the real world behind for a short while and was happy to do so.

I sorry to not be listening to music available at the library,
but I just can't leave Ryan Adam's early work with
his alt-country band Whiskytown alone.
The lyrics from the title cut of the CD Faithless Street
haunts me on a regular basis.
"If angels are messengers from God,
please send one down to me.
If angels are messengers from God,
I wrote a letter he should read.
Been living on faithless street all by myself..."

If you haven't noticed I am over fond of
Ryan Adams music, lyrics and phrasing.
Come to think of it, his phrasing is
right up there with Elvis Costello.
Remember this stuff is just my opinion.
If phrasing interests you, Elvis Costello is the World Champion.
Proof of the Costello pudding is to listen to
his singing on Painted From Memory,
with Burt Bacharach stroking the ivories.
All the songs are the "light" pop tunes Bacharach penned.
What come out of Elvis's mouth are deep,
brooding, emotional, content laden songs.
I had no idea Burt's music was that meaningful.
Sometimes it's all in the phrasing.
Just remember, this is an opinion,
your thoughts on the matter are much more meaningful.
Just an aside, but, Imperial Bedroom by Costello is
my favorite. The whole CD feels like listening to the
confessions of a bad boy all but unaware
of the coming change.

Regards,
Richard

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