Musing

Honestly I expected more of 2020.  I thought that a year when everyone is expected to stay home would see a whole host of projects released for consumption by all of those bored, quarantined consumers, whether it was a music album or a book or anything else.  I heard a variety of reasons tossed around as to why it didn't happen that way, although they didn't all hold water. So in large part, it meant I continued working hard on the TBR pile of books in SF/F and assessing the music collection where it stands.  I was able to purge quite a few of the 62 books I was able to finish this year, but the CDs are about as trimmed as they can get.  The reading focus moves to general fiction and the philosophy/theology bookcase this year.  Though those collections are smaller, there are books that have been there since college that I've meant to read but just haven't bothered with yet.  The rule here is the same - every book I don't need to take across the country to ...

Half Moon Run's Dark Eyes Editor's Note: This is the 4th in a quasi-weekly series of reviews marking my favorite ten albums of 2013. The 10th edition is wrapped into the larger year-end post I call "The Ho Media Awards", which will be published just after the new year. Stay tuned! Instead of a random music blog or a truck commercial, I have a coworker to thank for turning me on to Half Moon Run. I did hear the first single, "Call Me in the Afternoon," the same way I hear most singles that first get my attention - standing at the urinal. After enough trips, I decided to look them up when I got back to my cubical. I mentioned out loud that I was looking up this song and as luck would have it, another guy had just bought the album and vouched for the whole thing. Turns out he was right. It's hard to say why it's special. Maybe it's just that it's really pleasantly chill. "Chill" doesn't always work for an album that...