![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Music crosses all boundaries...no matter what they are, those of us that know it have no problems crossing them.. -- Willie Nelsen.
Finished watching the two hour episode 7 of Ken Burn's eight episode documentary Country Music, which goes into depth on the personal trajectories of various legends, and how they influenced country music.
As an aside, and relevant to this post, believe it or not, in my guided meditation, the monk who leads it stated "It helps to remember that everything we do, say, or write affects others and the world around us. This may be scary but it is also empowering, and we must all be mindful of what we say, think and do and how it can change the world."
All you need to do to see how people affect one another is watch this documentary.
Here's another snippet...Willie Nelsen and Merle Haggard were working on an album together but stuck on a song and what to name it. Then Willie listened to an Emmylou Harris record and found the song...and rushed to wake up Merle, and insisted they record it at 4 Am in the morning. The song, Poncho and Lefty, became the title track. And then the documentary follows the journey of the song -- from former folk singer Emmylou Harris who found it through Gram Parsons (former leader of The Byrds) who taught her how to love country music, and in turn got the song from song-writer Townes Van Sandt who preferred art to business, and just wrote for art's sake.
Here's Willie Nelsen and Merle Haggard singing in on their best selling album Pancho & Lefty
And here's...
Nelsen & Dylan singing Pancho & Lefty
Then it flips over to Dolly Parton and shows how she crossed boundaries, by jumping from country and pop and rock and became undefinable...but still country.
I don't mind the dumb blond jokes, because I know I'm not dumb and I'm not blond, either.. - Dolly Parton.
Her boundary breaking song?
Here You Come Again
Also...they show her singing Jolene...in 1975.
I didn't really appreciate Dolly Parton that much until I watched this -- it really goes in depth and shows how she influenced and inspired others, including Hank Williams JR's daughter, and Roseanne Cash.
Hank Williams Jr is interesting, he had a tragic fall on a hiking trail in Idaho, where he broke every bone in his face, his nose was torn clean off and brain matter was exposed by a deep gash. It took three surgeons eight hours to put his face back together and seven separate surgeries. His godparents, Johnny Cash and June Carter rushed to his side. As a child, Hank, lived in his father's shadow, and his mother tried to make into a copy of his father musically speaking -- until he finally had enough and broke ties to set out on his own. (She started grooming him to do it at the age of 8 for her own selfish purposes -- she wanted a space in the spotlight and wanted to keep the father alive. Hank's father died when he was three.) Hank Williams in an interview stated that he'd finally realized that his father didn't need him to promote him. But he struggled to establish himself independently. Was booed off stages, and fell into a depression and tried to commit suicide, almost falling into his father's footsteps. Finally, he pulled himself out and discovered "Southern Rock" and with it his own voice.
Here's Hank Williams Jr. Singing Family Tradition from the series.
Then we leap frog over to George Jones and Tammy Wynette -- whose lives are train wrecks. The series really does a good job of depicting how painful it is to be musician and an artist. These people's lives aren't ones I'd envy. They sweated blood for their art, and it took it's toll. Part of it is the endless touring, the business itself, and the demands of the art on one's own personal life.
Jones sings a heart-wrenching song entitled... He Stopped Loving Her Today -- apparently when Jones was originally recording it he confused it with a Kris Kristofferson melody and they had to get him to get it right. The song is about a man who is pinging for a woman all his life...and he stops loving her on his deathbed.
2. Reading Meme
* I read and finished Powers of X #5 of 6 by Jonathan Hickman and RB Silva, and was, per usual impressed with Hickman's re-imagining of the X-men. If you are a huge fan of Emma Frost, Xavier, and Magneto, particularly Magneto, you will enjoy these comics. There's a lot of world-building here, but it's done in a fascinating and compelling manner. Also the art per usual is amazing.
In this issue -- which is heavy on the speculative sci-fi and world-building dynamics, Xavier approaches first Forge to create a Cerebero that can copy a mutant's mind and personality and store it. Then he and Magneto approach Emma Frost to assist them in distributing their drugs that can cure all human ailments, and in building a new government. They offer her two seats on their 12 Person Council, with the caveat that she bring the Black King, Sebastian Shaw (who she'd just gotten rid of) back in -- so that he can handle the Black Ops portion of the deal and smuggle the drugs into the countries that they don't have good relations with, and smuggle out the mutants. She agrees with the caveat that they give her a fifty-year contract and three seats on the council. (Making one wonder who she's putting in the third seat.)
Then Xavier invites everyone to join him. But the Prince of the Sea, Namor, turns him down -- because as he puts it, you still don't get it, that I'm above you all. Come back when you do. Always arrogant Namor. But it's an interesting theme of power and arrogance which applies to Xavier. Or hubris. A thematic thread that goes throughout the comics -- the hubris or arrogance of Magneto, Xavier and Moira, not to mention the selfishness is perhaps their greatest flaw. Xavier sees the mutants as superior to the humans, and humans fear and despise them based on the fact that they are superior. Over the years he tried to live among them -- but he does so by wielding power. It's interesting that in all of Moira's ten lives, the only one that was full and kind, and not filled with violence is the one in which she isn't attempting to wield power or change the world, but merely living a simple life as a teacher and a mother. When we skip ahead a thousand years, Hickman's theme becomes even clearer -- the human/mutant hubris to ascend or be superior results in Xavier or someone much like him and his followers to reach out to an galatic protector with more power, they hit upon a predator. The Phalanx, who while agreeing to give their consciousness and history eternal life, does so at great cost -- it needs a great deal of energy to do this, so it will get that energy by consuming all life on the planet, so the planet will no longer exist. The price of power, technological superiority, and legacy -- is the destruction of all life. Timely, don't you think?
Xavier makes various decisions, which Emma wisely notes only knowing one of them are lacking in subtlety and reckless. He makes five copies of every mutant mind on the planet. And creates a system in which those copies will constantly be updated by either himself or another high powered telepath. They will be stored. And then, upon the original's demise, implanted in a new body that has this particular mutant's DNA. Yeah, nothing can possibly go wrong there, right?
And he has replaced his own mind with legacy copies of it or backups, twice now.
The other is bringing all these power hungry mutants into one island with everyone else. So we go from the X-men hunting down the villains and turning them into human authorities, to offering all mutants regardless of their past deeds or views a home, governed by mutants solely. And where mutants determine who gets punished. Humans not allowed.
There's a lot here to unpack. But it's definitely different and interesting, and plays with my mind long after I read it. The books are well written, and compelling, also the information which sounds dry on its face provided in a compelling and gripping manner.
3. Finished "For The Duke's Eyes Only by Lenora Bell" which was badly executed some interesting ideas. I rather liked the strong-willed female archeologist and the spy Duke. I felt like it was a Regency fanfic of James Bond meets India Jones, except lots of inappropriate sexual hijinks and not a lot of realistic action. The heroine in this book is no wimpering virgin. She's had sex before and has no problems getting creative. But alas, there's way too much telling and not enough showing, and I could never really care all that much. Plus the dialogue was eye-rollingly cliche and silly in places.
Almost didn't finish it -- and skimmed over half of it.
Moved on to How to Date a Dragon -- the book about the paranormal anthropologist who was supposed to study perverted sex-crazed dolphins (which I can't imagine going all that well) but instead ends up being sent to a magical bayou in Louisiana, where we have a shape-shifting bear as Mayor and the local sheriff is a shape-shifting Dragon. There's a lot of mysteries in this one. Such as what is the sheriff and the mayor hiding, and why did the League send a wet-behind the ears rookie anthropologist on an important and highly sought after assignment, with barely a howdy-do. Word has it she was sent because her boss was gutted by a unicorn in the UK. Her boss was supposed to go, and prepared to go, but took a last minute side-trip to interview a rare unicorn. The unicorn gutted him, because he got overly friendly with the unicorn, and the unicorn didn't appreciate it.
It's better written than I thought. The dialogue actually is funny in places. And while it's not written in dialect, I can hear the Southern accents, and each voice feels distinctive (not easy to do), plus the characters are likable. And I'm intrigued by the mystery. (I'm surprised by this folks. I'd have expected it to be poorly written and executed like the last book -- which had a publisher and a bit more marketing umph behind it.)
It does have typos, but not as many as the last book. Also it is par for the course with Kindle books -- unless you have a lot of money and some great line and copy editors in your employ. (If you think the writers are able to catch all these typos on their own? Hee..No.)
Finished watching the two hour episode 7 of Ken Burn's eight episode documentary Country Music, which goes into depth on the personal trajectories of various legends, and how they influenced country music.
As an aside, and relevant to this post, believe it or not, in my guided meditation, the monk who leads it stated "It helps to remember that everything we do, say, or write affects others and the world around us. This may be scary but it is also empowering, and we must all be mindful of what we say, think and do and how it can change the world."
All you need to do to see how people affect one another is watch this documentary.
Here's another snippet...Willie Nelsen and Merle Haggard were working on an album together but stuck on a song and what to name it. Then Willie listened to an Emmylou Harris record and found the song...and rushed to wake up Merle, and insisted they record it at 4 Am in the morning. The song, Poncho and Lefty, became the title track. And then the documentary follows the journey of the song -- from former folk singer Emmylou Harris who found it through Gram Parsons (former leader of The Byrds) who taught her how to love country music, and in turn got the song from song-writer Townes Van Sandt who preferred art to business, and just wrote for art's sake.
Here's Willie Nelsen and Merle Haggard singing in on their best selling album Pancho & Lefty
And here's...
Nelsen & Dylan singing Pancho & Lefty
Then it flips over to Dolly Parton and shows how she crossed boundaries, by jumping from country and pop and rock and became undefinable...but still country.
I don't mind the dumb blond jokes, because I know I'm not dumb and I'm not blond, either.. - Dolly Parton.
Her boundary breaking song?
Here You Come Again
Also...they show her singing Jolene...in 1975.
I didn't really appreciate Dolly Parton that much until I watched this -- it really goes in depth and shows how she influenced and inspired others, including Hank Williams JR's daughter, and Roseanne Cash.
Hank Williams Jr is interesting, he had a tragic fall on a hiking trail in Idaho, where he broke every bone in his face, his nose was torn clean off and brain matter was exposed by a deep gash. It took three surgeons eight hours to put his face back together and seven separate surgeries. His godparents, Johnny Cash and June Carter rushed to his side. As a child, Hank, lived in his father's shadow, and his mother tried to make into a copy of his father musically speaking -- until he finally had enough and broke ties to set out on his own. (She started grooming him to do it at the age of 8 for her own selfish purposes -- she wanted a space in the spotlight and wanted to keep the father alive. Hank's father died when he was three.) Hank Williams in an interview stated that he'd finally realized that his father didn't need him to promote him. But he struggled to establish himself independently. Was booed off stages, and fell into a depression and tried to commit suicide, almost falling into his father's footsteps. Finally, he pulled himself out and discovered "Southern Rock" and with it his own voice.
Here's Hank Williams Jr. Singing Family Tradition from the series.
Then we leap frog over to George Jones and Tammy Wynette -- whose lives are train wrecks. The series really does a good job of depicting how painful it is to be musician and an artist. These people's lives aren't ones I'd envy. They sweated blood for their art, and it took it's toll. Part of it is the endless touring, the business itself, and the demands of the art on one's own personal life.
Jones sings a heart-wrenching song entitled... He Stopped Loving Her Today -- apparently when Jones was originally recording it he confused it with a Kris Kristofferson melody and they had to get him to get it right. The song is about a man who is pinging for a woman all his life...and he stops loving her on his deathbed.
2. Reading Meme
* I read and finished Powers of X #5 of 6 by Jonathan Hickman and RB Silva, and was, per usual impressed with Hickman's re-imagining of the X-men. If you are a huge fan of Emma Frost, Xavier, and Magneto, particularly Magneto, you will enjoy these comics. There's a lot of world-building here, but it's done in a fascinating and compelling manner. Also the art per usual is amazing.
In this issue -- which is heavy on the speculative sci-fi and world-building dynamics, Xavier approaches first Forge to create a Cerebero that can copy a mutant's mind and personality and store it. Then he and Magneto approach Emma Frost to assist them in distributing their drugs that can cure all human ailments, and in building a new government. They offer her two seats on their 12 Person Council, with the caveat that she bring the Black King, Sebastian Shaw (who she'd just gotten rid of) back in -- so that he can handle the Black Ops portion of the deal and smuggle the drugs into the countries that they don't have good relations with, and smuggle out the mutants. She agrees with the caveat that they give her a fifty-year contract and three seats on the council. (Making one wonder who she's putting in the third seat.)
Then Xavier invites everyone to join him. But the Prince of the Sea, Namor, turns him down -- because as he puts it, you still don't get it, that I'm above you all. Come back when you do. Always arrogant Namor. But it's an interesting theme of power and arrogance which applies to Xavier. Or hubris. A thematic thread that goes throughout the comics -- the hubris or arrogance of Magneto, Xavier and Moira, not to mention the selfishness is perhaps their greatest flaw. Xavier sees the mutants as superior to the humans, and humans fear and despise them based on the fact that they are superior. Over the years he tried to live among them -- but he does so by wielding power. It's interesting that in all of Moira's ten lives, the only one that was full and kind, and not filled with violence is the one in which she isn't attempting to wield power or change the world, but merely living a simple life as a teacher and a mother. When we skip ahead a thousand years, Hickman's theme becomes even clearer -- the human/mutant hubris to ascend or be superior results in Xavier or someone much like him and his followers to reach out to an galatic protector with more power, they hit upon a predator. The Phalanx, who while agreeing to give their consciousness and history eternal life, does so at great cost -- it needs a great deal of energy to do this, so it will get that energy by consuming all life on the planet, so the planet will no longer exist. The price of power, technological superiority, and legacy -- is the destruction of all life. Timely, don't you think?
Xavier makes various decisions, which Emma wisely notes only knowing one of them are lacking in subtlety and reckless. He makes five copies of every mutant mind on the planet. And creates a system in which those copies will constantly be updated by either himself or another high powered telepath. They will be stored. And then, upon the original's demise, implanted in a new body that has this particular mutant's DNA. Yeah, nothing can possibly go wrong there, right?
And he has replaced his own mind with legacy copies of it or backups, twice now.
The other is bringing all these power hungry mutants into one island with everyone else. So we go from the X-men hunting down the villains and turning them into human authorities, to offering all mutants regardless of their past deeds or views a home, governed by mutants solely. And where mutants determine who gets punished. Humans not allowed.
There's a lot here to unpack. But it's definitely different and interesting, and plays with my mind long after I read it. The books are well written, and compelling, also the information which sounds dry on its face provided in a compelling and gripping manner.
3. Finished "For The Duke's Eyes Only by Lenora Bell" which was badly executed some interesting ideas. I rather liked the strong-willed female archeologist and the spy Duke. I felt like it was a Regency fanfic of James Bond meets India Jones, except lots of inappropriate sexual hijinks and not a lot of realistic action. The heroine in this book is no wimpering virgin. She's had sex before and has no problems getting creative. But alas, there's way too much telling and not enough showing, and I could never really care all that much. Plus the dialogue was eye-rollingly cliche and silly in places.
Almost didn't finish it -- and skimmed over half of it.
Moved on to How to Date a Dragon -- the book about the paranormal anthropologist who was supposed to study perverted sex-crazed dolphins (which I can't imagine going all that well) but instead ends up being sent to a magical bayou in Louisiana, where we have a shape-shifting bear as Mayor and the local sheriff is a shape-shifting Dragon. There's a lot of mysteries in this one. Such as what is the sheriff and the mayor hiding, and why did the League send a wet-behind the ears rookie anthropologist on an important and highly sought after assignment, with barely a howdy-do. Word has it she was sent because her boss was gutted by a unicorn in the UK. Her boss was supposed to go, and prepared to go, but took a last minute side-trip to interview a rare unicorn. The unicorn gutted him, because he got overly friendly with the unicorn, and the unicorn didn't appreciate it.
It's better written than I thought. The dialogue actually is funny in places. And while it's not written in dialect, I can hear the Southern accents, and each voice feels distinctive (not easy to do), plus the characters are likable. And I'm intrigued by the mystery. (I'm surprised by this folks. I'd have expected it to be poorly written and executed like the last book -- which had a publisher and a bit more marketing umph behind it.)
It does have typos, but not as many as the last book. Also it is par for the course with Kindle books -- unless you have a lot of money and some great line and copy editors in your employ. (If you think the writers are able to catch all these typos on their own? Hee..No.)
no subject
Date: 2019-09-26 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-27 06:49 pm (UTC)Well one, to be fair, wasn't a supernatural romance, but a historical. ;-) (Which I guess is worse?)
no subject
Date: 2019-09-27 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-27 11:21 pm (UTC)It's wacky, but urban fantasy is a wacky genre.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-27 11:26 pm (UTC)So I was confusing two books. I'm not surprised. My brain has not been sharp the last couple of days.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-28 12:24 am (UTC)Yep, it's why I enjoy urban fantasy. I like wacky.