Archive for August, 2006
I was quite impressed with Morgan’s debut Altered Carbon – once I got around to reading it – and it didn’t take me long to pick up the follow-up, Broken Angels. And I must say that this second novel about the cynical anti-hero Takeshi Kovacs is about as good as the first. I tried to restrain myself, but I ended up finishing it in three nights anyway. Broken Angels is only loosely connected to Altered Carbon and could be read separately, but I don’t think anyone interested in the genre should miss out on the first.
In Broken Angels we find Kovacs employed in an elite mercenary force fighting in a bloody corporate out on a colony planet. While recovering after a failed strike he is approached by Jan Schneider, a pilot looking for someone to handle the tactical arrangements for an archaeological expedition. Kovacs decides to go along, and after busting the archaeologue Tanya Wardani out of prison camp and getting some corporate backing he assembles a colorful group of soldiers and sets out to explore what could be the most significant Martian artifact uncovered so far.
The Martian connection was mentioned briefly in Altered Carbon – and while you would think that Martians would be quite passé as a sci-fi subject in this century, Morgan still manages to create an interesting “vanished civilization”-scenario. I think it adds some balance to the novel, because no matter how fascinating the complex psyche and ultra-violent rampage of Kovacs might be, it would probably become rather dull quickly without that substance and purpose.
With a strong and complex protagonist, a very well conceived setting and a good yarn, it all adds up to an excellent, “unputdownable” sci-fi thriller. With the two great novels I’ve read so far, Morgan has earned himself a place in my “got to read everything ASAP”-list.
Tags: Altered Carbon, Books, Broken Angels, review, Richard Morgan, sci-fi
August 26, 2006 at 4:46 am · Filed under Books, Entertainment & Culture
Weird Al is back, kicking off his upcoming album with “Don’t Download this Song“, a Band Aid-style anthem about not downloading songs. “Don’t take away money from artists like me, how else could I afford another solid gold Humvee”.
Tags: links, Music, weird al
August 23, 2006 at 12:03 pm · Filed under Asides
Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin is an independent scientist in New Crobuzon – a multi-million headed metropolis powered by steam and ruled by corruption – engaged in more or less eccentric research. His lover Lin is an artist of the insectoid kephri race, a taboo relationship kept secret. The both get extraordinary commissions – Lin is hired to capture the hideous likeness of a crime kingpin who has found a taste for her work. Isaac gets a visit from a Garuda, a race of “bird-men”, who has traveled far looking for someone able to restore his ability to fly. Isaac approaches the task with great enthusiasm, and acquires a multitude of flying things for his studies. Among those is a large, sluggish-seeming grub that turns out to be anything but once it emerges from it’s cocoon…
Summarizing the setting of Perdido Street Station is not an easy task. In a perfect world the term fantasy would be sufficient, but since fantasy has come to mean “a story about a youngster from a backwater community who gets involved in something that takes him on a journey where he meets races he only knows from stories (at least one each of “beautiful and wise†and “savage and hideousâ€) and ultimately saves the whole fairytale/medieval-inspired world from Evilâ€, I guess it will need a bit more explanation. The setting of New Crobuzon is fascinating. Imagine London from two centuries ago, grown to the size it is today. Then take the technology of the same time, with a bit of thaumaturgy added to put it somewhere beyond regular steampunk, and use the related sciences for a few lengthy discourses. Then top it off with with a good deal of the dystopian corruption, crime and perversions more commonly found in cyberpunk sci-fi, and you’ll have at least a rough estimate of what it looks like.
But there is more to Perdido Street Station than just the rich and imaginative setting. It is a love song to the great melting-pot cities, a foray into the dynamics of cultures co-existing as well as the powers that try to exploit them, a tribute to the free spirit, a story of love and loss, and – when the shit hits the fan – a damned intense horror-thriller.
It is one of the most refreshing works of fantastic fiction I’ve read in a long time, and for a verdict I’ll simply say that I agree with any superlative-filled review excerpts and award nominations you’ll see if you decide to check out Perdido Street Station yourself. Personally I have decided to catch up with China Miéville’s work by getting the follow up, The Scar,at once, and the rest will probably follow soon as well.
Wikipedia entry (China Miéville) | amazon.com | amazon.co.uk
Tags: Books, China Miéville, fantasy, Perdido Street Station, review
August 21, 2006 at 1:15 am · Filed under Books, Entertainment & Culture
In the latest post at the Dreamhost Blog there is some vociemail from a guy who believes they are the source of all his spam. And man, is he pissed off. He is going to kick their little asses. Legally.
Tags: angry guy, dreamhost, links, spam, voicemail
August 18, 2006 at 4:05 am · Filed under Asides
So, there’s another terror craze, and with that another wave of security shenanigans. And it all fits so well together, even if we play with the thought that there was no actual risk of an attack. Just think of the whole deal with disallowing fluids and electronics in carry-on luggage…
Let’s say you’re the kind of person who finds it practical to buy a couple bottles of water at the convenience store before going to the airport… well, maybe you should make your flight an opportunity to get wasted. With all the competition from those nasty carried-on beverages gone, all terminal and in-flight drink outlets can jack up the prices of water and soft drinks to a level just under that of liquor. Maybe even higher, if it is found that the urge to just slake the thirst actually is more common than that of getting hammered.
Next, you have to hand over your precious gadgets to be exposed to whatever goes on between the check-in and the conveyor belt at your destination. It’s not all bad, though, just consider how much more efficiently the insides of your new MacBook Pro can be searched if you’re not around to interrupt with things like “there’s a quick-release to open that…”
So, what to do without the tech you’re so dependent on? Well, if you need to make a phone call, just ride the moving walkway of nostalgia to the pay phones. But just so you don’t have to go all the way back to the time when contacts were stored in books of forest-unfriendly paper (which you couldn’t bring anyway – never know what kind of dangerous chemicals can be mixed into ink), just use the new AirSync account. This service allows you to enter your phone book into an online account, and your contacts will be only a credit card swipe away from the phone.
And if you want to get some work done on that trans-continental flight there’s the AirSync Business plan, which gives you the use of a secure laptop to access your pre-uploaded documents – after they have been screened to make sure all text runs from left to right and don’t contain any blueprints of Boeing 777s, of course. And since each airline will have it’s own service, it might be as good for customer loyalty as frequent flier points.
Rely on your iPod to avoid being exposed to the bland, suitable-for-the-majority in-flight entertainment? I’m sure that some airline can convince Apple of the mutual rewards of allowing users to access their iTunes from the plane. Just pay ten dollars and enter your iTunes-info when you book, and then there’s nothing more than the cost of a pair of detonator-free headphones keeping you from your music. Just make sure you’re not wearing them when the flight attendant announces that the refueling is done but there still will be a slight delay for file transfers.
Doesn’t it all fit so well together? The price of jet-fuel is rising, and cut-throat competition keeps the seat prices down – and then suddenly there is this new, ingenious terror-threat that opens so many nooks and crannies to stuff full of hidden costs.
Or maybe there’s still some fun left in the good old conspiracy-theory game…
For a slightly more serious end-note I guess I have to mention that I’m far from a frequent flier, but if I were I’m pretty sure I would take a gamble with the risk of being blown out of the sky once, rather than have to contend with all the new security measures they keep coming up with each and every time.
Tags: conspiracy theory, flights, ramblings, security, terrorism
August 15, 2006 at 8:03 pm · Filed under Random ramblings & reflections
Got around to installing the latest IE beta. Not a bad browser, once that damned anti-aliasing is turned off. Still, it’s only catching up with Firefox, and not the leaps and bounds ahead such an update should be. I’ll stay with FF.
Tags: beta, IE, microsoft, software
August 13, 2006 at 11:07 am · Filed under Asides
I thought I’d make a little roundup with few mini-reviews of some favorite albums from various regions of my (what I’ve been told) broad music taste. While they come in groups of three, they are not any top lists or anything, just a few albums I thought about at the same time. The mentions got longer than I expected, and at first I thought about splitting it up in a series of posts, but then I thought the mix could be interesting for anyone who drops in searching for something and gets suggestions for something completely different as well. Anyhow, lets start in the the more intense end of the selection, with…
Three hard albums
Vader – Litany
The name Vader might not automatically lead the thoughts to premium grade death metal, but that is exactly what this Polish band has been delivering for two decades – and Litany is a great example. The band’s style is hard but still quite technical – not in the show-off sense, though, it’s just that their performance is so tight. It’s like the whole soundscape has been welded together. Litany weighs in at a modest 26 minutes, but it’s 26 minutes of death metal greatness. If you ask me to name the greatest death metal track ever, it would be “Wings” from this album.
Official site | amazon.com | amazon.co.uk
The Crown – Deathrace King
Another favorite from 2000 is by Swedish The Crown (originally Corwn of Thorns, disbanded in 2004). Not sure if this generally is considered one of their best, but I think Deathrace King takes you on a damned entertaining ride through the areas of thrashy death metal. The sound is a bit more fast-paced than simply crushingly hard, much thanks to Janne Saarenpää’s intense drumming, and while they hail from the region they stay well clear of the typical melodic Swedish West Coast sound. Favorites on the track list are the two final tracks, “Total Satan” and “Killing Star (Superbia Luxuria XXX)”.
Official site | amazon.com | amazon.co.uk
Ministry – Rio Grande Blood
While it is a step away from the two titles listed above, Rio Grande Blood is probably the most metal-influenced album ever produced by Ministry – most likely thanks to Prong guitarist Tommy Victor’s intense riffing. The album is also a continuation of the massive kick in the nuts of the Bush administration, and most everything generally right-winged American, that the previous album was. Tracks I particularly enjoy are the intense outbursts of the title track and the following “Señor Peligro”, “Palestina” and the menacing, doom metal-tanged “Khyber Pass”.
Official site | amazon.com | amazon.co.uk
Three mellow albums
So, after the three albums above I thought I’d leap right over to the other end of the musical spectrum, and it struck me that the next three albums have several things in common: they are all more or less acoustic, and by female artists from Nordic countries. Despite an Italian-sounding name we start in Iceland:
Emiliana Torrini – Fisherman’s Woman
Her international debut Love in the Time of Science (1999) had a relaxed electronic sound, perhaps best mentioned along with Portishead and Björk, but with the following album being released some five years later changes can be expected – and Fisherman’s Woman brings a subdued sound focused on acoustic guitar and that sweet voice, with light background arrangements. It is simple and beautiful – great “soundtrack to thoughts” album, but also full of tracks that have me clicking in the playlist every few minutes so I can listen to them again and again.
Official site | amazon.com | amazon.co.uk
Sophie Zelmani – Sing and Dance
Next is a Swedish singer/songwriter that I started listening to quite recently, and I could have chosen any album for this mention, so I went with what was playing at the moment. She’s another one of those artists that, if they have to be labeled, are best described as acoustic singer/songwriter music. Maybe a bit towards acoustic rock, but still undefinable I think I have developed a bit of an addiction to that kind of music in recent years.
Official site| amazon.com | amazon.co.uk
Ane Brun – A Temporary Dive
While the two women mentioned above have very sweet voices, Ane Brun takes has the one that has enthralled me the most. I saw the video for “My Lover Will Go” late one night, and it didn’t take me many minutes before I decided to go online and order the CD. And it, or one of her other albums, has been on my playlist ever since. The songs are creative and original, but still have a familiar feel the first time you hear them, and the moods range from playful to melancholic, and it is simply beautiful.
Official site| amazon.com | amazon.co.uk
Three psychedelic albums
If the three albums above contain music that is great to think too, the next three are more of the kind that that gets the mind going, in one way of the other. The musical styles vary a bit, but they all share the traits of having plenty psychedelic and surrealistic elements.
My Dying Bride – 34,788%… Complete
34,788%… Complete is problaby My Dying Bride’s most under-estimated album, but I suppose that is what you get if you as a doom metal band lose the violins, turn down the distortion on the guitars and dump a load of electronics on your sound. Personally I enjoyed the the mix of guitars-based passages, psychedelic moments and ambient, dreamy interludes about as much the previous and following albums. “The Whore, the Cook and the Motherâ€, the twelve minute opening track, is one that can make me feel completely different when I close my eyes and listen intently to it.
Official site| amazon.com | amazon.co.uk
The Tear Garden – To Be an Angel Blind, The Crippled Soul Divide
Featuring Edward Ka-Spel of The Legendary Pink Dots and cEvin Key of Skinny Puppy, this project has all it takes to produce great, weird stuff, and it ends up in the form of psychedelic synthpop (according to the wikipedia entry, and I guess that’s a description as good as any, personally I’ve thought of it as “gothic popâ€). The sound is rather subdued, often with rather minimalistic and spacious arrangements. And while it probably is pretentious and “emo†to think so, I think To Be an Angel Blind, The Crippled Soul Divide is a great title for an album (and one that speaks for the contents as well).
Official site| amazon.com | amazon.co.uk
The Mars Volta – De-loused in the Comatorium
Along with Ministry probably the most well-known band in this post, but I think The Mars Volta still are worth mentioning. De-loused in the Comatorium is a concept album, describing events experienced during main character Cerpin Taxt’s week-long coma (which he fell into after attempting suicide by morphine overdose). It’s the band’s debut album, and it is probably the best starting point for new listeners as their intricate progressive/experimental rock gets looser, more jam-session styled on the following album (a trend which, I’ve heard, continues on the upcoming release Amputechture)
Official site| amazon.com | amazon.co.uk
I guess that’s it for now. Turned out to be a rather massive post, but it was a fun way of going through a bunch of CDs. Maybe I’ll do another one with books, movies or more music some time in the future.
Tags: Ane Brun, cd, Emiliana Torrini, Ministry, Music, My Dying Bride, review, Sophie Zelmani, The Crown, The Mars Volta, The Tear Garden, Vader
August 8, 2006 at 3:12 am · Filed under Entertainment & Culture, Music
Tuscan Whole Milk. At Amazon. Attacked by reviews.
Tags: links, milk
August 4, 2006 at 11:12 pm · Filed under Asides
Caught a bit of this Italian band’s show. The café venue might have been a bit too small for their sound, but their experimental rock was far from unpleasant.
Tags: links, Music, rock
August 2, 2006 at 11:32 pm · Filed under Asides
Panda Software is running a public beta/promotion program for the upcoming version of their antivirus products, and once again offering a prize draw for everyone who submits any incidents.
I tested the 2006 version, but decided to try a few other solutions before buying, but I am pretty sure I will switch to Panda after this test. I just ran the first full system scan, and it chewed through four volumes containing about 220GB/450 000 files in 30 minutes, without any notable impact on system performance. Using earlier version I have been able to work in Photoshop and play games during scans, and that is not the case with many other AV solutions. Easy to use as well, without being bloated like Norton and similar. Worth checking out.
Tags: antivirus, beta, Panda, security, software
August 2, 2006 at 2:08 pm · Filed under Computing & techiness
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