Photo of the Week - January 5, 2024

It's been an unseasonably mild winter so far in our section of the Great White North. We did have a white Christmas, barely, but it melted not long after Boxing Day. Now it's gotten colder and there's a bitter wind but still no snow. An hour's drive north of us, they have 50 cm. of fresh snow. 

The first picture of the year is of part of our backyard flower garden taken with my Pixel 8 Pro. The perennials will be back in the spring. 

Flowers in the snow

 

Saturday Sounds - Richard Thompson Band - Tarrytown, NY - October 16, 2024

For the first Saturday Sounds post of 2025, we have the Richard Thompson Band recorded live on their fall North American tour. This show is from Tarrytown, NY on October 16, 2024, just a week before they played in Toronto. I didn't go to that show because I had tickets to see the Drive-by Truckers on the same night. (Even if I hadn't, I probably wouldn't have gone because The Concert Hall has no floor seating). 

Thompson offers up a mix of classics and songs from his new album, all ably supported by his regular touring band. I was surprised to see him offer up "The Bells of Rhymney", originally made popular by The Byrds, as one of his encores. (And I think it's the only time I've seem him play a 12-string in concert). Video and audio quality are quite good for a fan recording. Enjoy. 

Setlist:

0:00 Turnstile Casanova
5:34 Take Care the Road You Choose
13:17 Hard on Me
24:55 John the Gun
31:17 Withered and Died
35:40 Turning of the Tide
39:17 Al Bowlly's in Heaven
45:40 The Day That I Give In
50:22 1952 Vincent Black Lightning
56:20 What's Left to Lose
1:01:50 Guns Are the Tongues
1:09:33 Singapore Sadie
1:14:04 The Old Pack Mule
1:18:40 Tear Stained Letter

Encore:

1:26:06 Down Where The Drunkards Roll
1:30:35 The Bells of Rhymney
1:34:48 Jealous Words

You can download an MP3 version of the show from sugarmegs.org. 

What I Read In 2024

I managed to read 18 books in 2024, which is a few more than in 2023, though I didn't make my goal of two books a month. I tried to read more but the chaotic news cycle kept stealing my attention and ongoing deterioration in my vision has slowed down my reading speed. 

These are the books I read in 2024:

• Quantum of Nightmares by Charles Stross. The second book in his New Management trilogy, which is a sequel to his Laundry Files series.
  
• Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015 by Rich Horton
• Season of Skulls by Charles Stross. Third book in the New Management trilogy.
• Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016 by Rich Horton. I do need to catch up on my short fiction reading. I am trying to read one anthology from each year. 
• The Fallow Orbits by Karl Schroeder. YA SF self published on his Unapocalyptic blog.
• The Road To Dune by Brian Herbert. Stories and essays about the genesis of Dune.
• Hopeland by Ian McDonald. My favourite book of the year. Mentioned on this post.
• It's Real Life by Paul Levinson. Reviewed on this post. 
• The Bezzle by Cory Doctorow. A thriller about forensic accounting. 
• Red Team Blues by Cory Doctorow. Sequel to The Bezzle.
• Babel by R. F. Kuang. Book at the centre of a controversy about the 2023 Hugo awards. I didn't finish it. 
• Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds. Another book in his Revelation Space series. Reviewed on this post.
• Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen: The scariest book I've read in a long time.
• Starter Villain by John Scalzi. I liked this enough that a couple of friends got a copy for Christmas. Reviewed on this post.
• The Wages of Sin by Harry Turtledove. Reviewed on this post.
• Tropic of Kansas bu Christopher Brown. Grim but very readable.
• To Turn the Tide by S. M. Stirling. First book in a time travel trilogy. I liked it.
• Rule of Capture by Christopher Brown. A dystopian legal thriller by the author of The Secret Life of Empty Lots.

As usual, most of the books I read were science fiction. I get my non-fiction from magazines (via the library's Libby app), online subscriptions to newspapers (currently The New York Times, Washington Post, Globe and Mail, and Toronto Star), and email newsletters. All my reading is on devices. I've mostly abandoned my Kindle Paperwhite because it doesn't have enough contrast and I have trouble with the white background. Dark mode is my friend.

Movie and TV Reviews - December 2024

Movies and TV shows that Nancy and I watched in December. I do these posts mainly so I can keep track of what we've been watching, so the reviews are cursory. 

Movies

• Red One: I am NOT a big fan of Christmas movies but I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It's not your standard Christmas fare, despite being about Santa Claus being kidnapped. Very well done fantasy elements, lots of action, and not too much gooey sentimentality. (Amazon Prime)
• Die Hard: Another Christmas movie. I'm not sure how it became a Christmas staple, but we're still enjoying it. (Disney+)
• Beatles '64: Excellent documentary about the Beatles' first US tour. Lots of previously unreleased footage including some concert excerpts. The show in Washington was particularly good. (Disney+)
• Dune 1984 Alternative Edition Redux Edited by Spicediver. This is a "fan" edit of David Lynch's movie with material added from outtakes and other sources. It makes the plot somewhat more comprehensible. There are some scenes in this movie that are very good (a few may even be better than those in Villeneuve's movie), but there's a lot that is bad or over-the-top weird. (YouTube)

TV Shows

• The Madame Blanc Mysteries (seaons 2-3):  The second and third seasons weren't as interesting as the first. (Acorn TV)
• Hope Street (season 4): More shenanigans in an Irish port town. Like the last season, the emphasis was on relationships and not crimes. (BritBox)
• Silent Witness (season 27): Probably the best of the forensic procedural shows. We may go back and start watching the (many!) earlier seasons. (BritBox)
• The Nature of Things: A User's Guide to the Voice. This entertaining episode will teach you a lot about your voice that you probably didn't know. (CBC Gem)
• Blue Lights (season 1): This one follows probationer constables in Belfast who go through an improbably event-filled season. I hope season 2 shows up soon. (BritBox)
• The Chelsea Detective (season 3): More crimes to solve in upscale Chelsea. Another of our favourites. (Acorn TV)
• Beyond Paradise (season 3): So far, just the Christmas special is up. This one had an interesting mystery. (BritBox)
• Death in Paradise (seaon 14): The annual Christmas special with a new DI trying to find out who is killing Santa Clauses. (BritBox)
• Shetland (season 9: (BritBox) One of the better British cop shows. This season has a new lead detective but the same bleak setting and grim plots. (BritBox)-
• Dune: Prophecy. We liked this a lot. It diverges from the Dune canon established in Herbert's original novels but it's entertaining and visually spectacular. (Crave/HBO)
• Doctor Who: Joy to the World. The annual Christmas special. Not the most memorable but entertaining enough. (Disney+)
• Eleventh Hour: A short-lived (1 season, 4 episodes) series from 2006 that I think was attempting to be a British X-Files. Mainly watchable for Patrick Stewart's performance as a scientist investigating strange events for the British government. Episode 3, revolving around climate change is quite good and somewhat prescient. (BritBox)