Category Archives: Library

The San Antonio Saloon, 1868

Posted on January 3, 2011 | Comments Off on The San Antonio Saloon, 1868

san_antonio_saloon_small“The San Antonio Saloon in this 1868 photograph occupies the first stone building in the city [Austin], built at Pecan Street and Congress Avenue by Ziller in the late 1840s.” —-from the new book Sixth Street by Austin M.D. Allen Childs

Via Sixth Street Allen Childs.

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Posted in Library, Texana

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A Pigeon and a Boy: A Novel

Posted on January 2, 2011 | Comments Off on A Pigeon and a Boy: A Novel

This touching 2006 novel by popular Israeli writer Meir Shalev is a tender love story of two generations. The preceding one set before and during the 1948 War of Independence, when Western support was assured, and its successor, modern tale amid the widespread anti-Zionism spurred by Islamist and older hatreds.

The precedent determined the successor, the latter being impossible without the former, and that’s all I’m going to say about the plot. Except that it surprised me and I always like to be surprised by a story. The English translation of the Hebrew is easy and simple until, as in all good literature, you encounter some startlingly memorable phrase or idea. The story is happy and sad, funny and melancholy. Like life, only more coherent.

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Posted in Israel, Library

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OMG I missed the Singularity?

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Posted on December 27, 2010 in Blogosphere, Library, Science/Engineering, Scribbles

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Beggars In Spain

Posted on December 23, 2010 | Comments Off on Beggars In Spain

This first of a Nancy Kress sci-fi classic trilogy could as readily be titled Beggars In Dallas, even though it was only a metaphor in the first place. Some of the rest of the book, despite its focus on genetic enhancements, has a sort of outdated feel to it, as well. Well, it was written several decades ago.

But the philosophical argument the story and characters illustrate, between Ayn Rand individualism and the Russian immigrant author’s despised forced altruism is as fresh as the deficit-reducing Tea Party versus Obamacare.

In the end, Kress’s main protagonist decides a compromise between producers and beggars works best and that seems wise. It’s also rather obvious, but in the author’s deft hands, getting there is well worth the journey.

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Posted in Library, Obamalot, Scribbles, Space

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The Original BBW, Rubens Venus: Rule 5

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Posted on December 22, 2010 in Library, Rule 5, Scribbles

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Doctor Jazz vs Cactus Jack

Posted on December 13, 2010 | Comments Off on Doctor Jazz vs Cactus Jack

220px-Jelly_Roll_Blues_1915The Jelly Roll Blues arguably was the first published jazz composition. Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (better known as Jelly Roll Morton) claimed to have written it in 1905 after inventing the musical form three years earlier.

I especially like Morton’s 1920s version of Louis Armstrong idol Joe “King” Oliver’s Doctor Jazz. The first time I heard it, though, I thought Morton was saying “Cactus Jack,” referring to legendary Texas pol John Nance Garner. Not likely.

Civil War note: Morton got his start playing piano in a brothel in New Orleans, then wandered the country, made records, etc. Wound up in D.C. in the historic  Shaw neighborhood which grew out of freed slave camps and was named for Union Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. He commanded the 54th Massachusetts, one of the first Union black regiments, which was celebrated in the movie Glory. Jelly Roll Morton, whose music still is available, died in 1941.

You could hardly do better than to own a copy of Doctor Jazz. Even though it has nothing to do with Cactus Jack.

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Posted in Library, Scribbles, Texana

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To the End of the Land

Posted on December 8, 2010 | Comments Off on To the End of the Land

This lengthy novel by Israeli writer David Grossman has a slow start and a frustratingly ambiguous ending but the rest of it readily captured my attention and imagination.

Perhaps it helps if you have a boy child of your own since much of the story is about the raising of two boys and their inevitable entry into a conscript army.

And the fear this creates in their parents, especially in a country as beset by enemies as Israel. That the author lost his own son in combat while writing the story makes it all the more poignant. After some thought, I even bought the ambiguity, given that it reflects the real situation and there are plenty of hints to help you guess what will happen—at least to the parents.

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Posted in Israel, Library, Mr. Boy, The War

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