Babel-17 - Science Fiction Classic

Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney, 1966. A classic science fiction book that has been on my to read list for decades. I finally got to it this May. I enjoyed it but not as much as I thought I would. Actually I was a little disappointed throughout the earlier parts of the book but it did get better towards the end.

Samuel Delaney is an award winning science fiction author. I have only read one other of his novels and that was Dhalgren which came out in 1975 and I read it in 1977.

I saw something about him recently which made me read this book now. He has been very active in the LGBQT community. He has had a very eventful life. I was surprised he was still around at 83. I also discovered he taught at UB in 1975 as a visiting professor. He also taught in the English department at Temple University from 2001 to 2015.

Romeo & Juliet's Take Out

Food from Romeo & Juliet's is always wonderful regardless of whether we eat it there in their restaurant or drive over there for some take out to eat at home. It's always good and we love supporting their business.

We love the pizzas and we love the sandwiches.

Come Rain or Shine - Jazz Night FV

Come Rain or Shine. Another mix of classic jazz in my Final Version series. More great tunes from the late 50's and the early 60's.

Jimmy Smith in the pic.

Come Rain or Shine - Jazz Night FV

1. Come Rain or Shine - Jimmy Smith, 1963
2. Blues To Elvin - John Coltrane, 1960
3. Stairway To The Stars - Dexter Gordon, 1963
4. I Told You So - Johnny Hodges, 1960
5. Free As A Bird - Freddie Hubbard, 1962
6. Five Will Get You Ten - Jackie McLean, 1961
7. Blue Gene - Gene Ammons, 1958
8. Nocturne - Johnny Griffin, 1961
9. Out Of The Night - Joe Henderson, 1963
10. Beautiful Love - Bill Evans, 1961
11. All of You - Modern Jazz Quartet. 1956
12. Dig Dis - Hank Mobley, 1960
13. Bemsha Swing - Thelonious Monk, 1956
14. Stella by Starlight - Jim Hall, 1957

Blue In Green - Jazz Night FV

Blue In Green. Another mix of classic jazz in my Final Version series. From the 50's and 60's.

Bill Evans in the pic.

Blue In Green - Jazz Night FV

1. Blue In Green – Bill Evans, 1960
2. Well You Needn’t – Miles Davis, 1958
3. I’ll Wait and Pray – John Coltrane, 1960
4. You Go To My Head – Clifford Brown, 1956
5. These Foolish Things – Lester Young & Oscar Peterson, 1952
6. Polkadots and Moonbeams – Bud Powell, 1953
7. Sweet Lorraine – Art Tatum, 1955
8. I’ll Never Be The Same – Benny Goodman, 1952
9. St. Louis Blues – Red Garland, 1956
10. Groovin’ High – Cannonball Adderley, 1958
11. Boy, What A Night – Lee Morgan, 1963
12. Impressions – Wes Montgomery, 1965
13. I’ll Remember April – Richard Groove Holmes, 1968
14. Misty – Stan Getz, 1965
15. Besame Mucho – Grant Green & Willie Bobo, 1962
16. My Romance – Gene Ammons, 1960
17. Nother Fu’ther – Sonny Stitt & Brother Jack McDuff, 1962

Taking Down The Show

Today Becky took down her art show from the Book Arts Gallery and it was a terribly rainy day to do it. It's been raining a lot all week and will again tomorrow. I was not able to help her move the art work because of my hernia problem but I went along with her for moral support since I was feeling somewhat better and to help in any way that I could. I spent most of the time holding the door open for her to carry the artwork out to the car illegally parked on Washington Street. I did have the good idea of getting a box of large bags to put the artwork in to protect the pieces from the rain. Mike from the gallery took the artwork off the walls and placed them in the protective bags. The process worked very well.

We arrived at the gallery at about 11 am and we were home getting some lunch at noon. The taking down the show and loading the artwork into the car was done very efficiently by Becky and Mike. Becky then carried the artwork from the car in our driveway and into the house. She'll take it upstairs over the course of the next couple of days and a few pieces will go to the storage room on Hertel Ave. Overall a very good day getting done what needed to be done.

She had sold several pieces of art and they had been already picked up by the buyers.

Chick Corea - Kitchen Listening

Played some Chick Corea today for my Kitchen Listening. Three albums of his from the 1970's. Saw him in concert a couple of times back then. We played his albums at our house on Seymour Street a lot during the mid to late 70's. He was a standard part of our listening pleasure at the time. I also played a lot of his ECM records back then but they are part of another set. I have 13 Chick Corea albums in my collection.

• Return To Forever, 1972
• Light As A Feather, 1973
• My Spanish Heart, 1976

This set is an almost three hours that are part of a group of six sets of Chick Corea music in my Artists Sets playlists series. I'm looking forward to playing a lot more of Chick Corea from my collection.

Then Dinner at Coles

Becky and I decided to go out for dinner this evening. We both wanted it... and I needed it. It was a long day at the hospital getting tested and it's been a long few weeks dealing with the pain of my hernia along with the other back and leg issues. So we thought going down to Coles was a good idea.

And it was. We left our house around 5:30 and got down there at happy hour. They opened at 5 pm. We were sitting and starting enjoying ourselves around 6. There was sports on the TV, 80's music on the sound system and people were coming in for dinner like us. We sat in one of our usual booths in the bar area and ordered a couple of beers. Becky had an NA and I got a Firestone Walker Union Jack on tap. One of my favorites which I hadn't had in a while. A little while later I would have a Bells Oberon draft which is another old favorite.

For dinner I had their Clancy roast beef sandwich with cheese, pepper and onions. Beck had their chicken finger Buffalo Wrap. We both had fries too. We enjoyed our dinner very much and then went home to watch another NBA playoff game before going to bed. It was a long day.

Afternoon at the Hospital

Today Becky and I went down to Buffalo General Hospital for me to undertake the scheduled Pre-Surgery Admittance Testing. My appointment was for 1:15 pm and we went down there early. We arrived at the parking ramp a little after 12 noon. We had to figure out where to park and ended up at a different ramp on the 4th level. It was actually a better location than the first one we pulled into which turned out to be employees only. So from the ramp we walked down the street to the hospital lobby to register.

When we were there last week we saw that there was a very long line at the registration desk when we left the hospital around noon which is why we wanted to get there early. Well, we walked in today at about 12:15 and there was no line at all. We walked right up to the desk and did our paperwork including that picture ID for the visit. From there we went down the long hall to building C and the PAT center. Becky sat down in the waiting room and I went in to register. We were almost an hour early but the nurses took me in right away and immediately began the process of the pre surgery testing. First they took some bloodwork, meds info, medical history and blood pressure. Then an EKG test. I also needed a chest X-Ray but first I had to meet with someone from anesthesiology department because of my history with malignant hyperthermia reaction to anesthesia gas.

It took a little over an hour for someone from anesthesiology came to talk with me but it was worth the wait. Obviously he was very busy, in scrubs and with a mask around his neck. He was very knowledgeable and asked the right questions. We went over the family history of the malignant hyperthermia and the brain aneurysms. During the hour long wait the nurses at the PAT center called the anesthesiology dept several times reminding them that there was a patient here (me) that needed to be interviewed. The nurses I dealt with were all very professional and very nice people who cared very much about their patients.

During the long wait the nurses went I got Becky who was sitting in the waiting room to come and sit with me in the PAT center where we were able to talk while waiting. She was also there for the interview with the anesthesiologist and contributed to the informational conversation.

After I talked with the anesthesiologist one of the nurses took me and Becky down the long hall to an elevator with the instructions to take it one floor down to the lower level and the the X-Ray center which would be right there at the elevator. We went down and I registered at the desk. About 10 or 15 minutes I had my chest x-ray which only took a few minutes to complete. Then we were done for the day.

The entire visit took about 2 hours but that included an hour wait for the anesthesiologist. Otherwise we would have been done by 1 pm. So around 2 we walked down the street to the parking garage, took the elevator up to the 4th level and found our car right away. The parking cost us $7. About ten minutes later we were home.

Coming down here and parking in the garage was a good dry run practice for my surgery day which is two weeks away. We will get down to the hospital around 7 am. The surgery is scheduled for 9 but there is some preliminary prep to be done. I'm looking forward to getting that all done and over with.

Coltrane Live in Seattle - Vinyl Spins

Vinyl Spins. Live in Seattle - John Coltrane & Pharoah Sanders. Recorded, 1965, released, 1971. I got this in 74-75 and it opened my ears to his intense wild atonal non-melodic innovatively beautiful chaos pushed along live with Sanders. Wow!

Burger & Corn on the Cob

It's a summer meal. A good hamburger along with corn on the cob. Some nice salad too. Becky sure knows how to make a nice and quick meal. Very tasty too. Especially after a busy day and a stressful time because of my hernia surgery coming up.

New Laptop

This week I finally decided to get a new laptop. I had spent some time looking at what was available from various online sources. 

I decided on an HP Laptop 255 G10 Notebook with 32GB Ram, 1 TB drive, a large 15.6" display and Windows 11. I had talked with Dave about getting his recommendations on this particular laptop and he was good with it as long as I went through the HP Store on Amazon. When I did that I actually got a little better deal on an updated version of that laptop. I paid $244 for the laptop and it was $289 after taxes. There was no shipping charge and I it was delivered the day after I ordered it.

I started setting up the new computer the day it arrived and almost immediately I had second thoughts about it and considered sending it back. The reason was I because I was having trouble with the sound capabilities. I spent several hours trying to get the sound to work properly. The problem was that I could not hear anything through my headphones. The only sound came through the laptop speakers and nowhere else. The headphone jack just did not work and to me that was a very good reason to return a defective product.

I could not find a setting in the system files to select the headphones as a source of sound. There was a dropdown menu for the speaker but nothing for headphones. I went online to the HP support site and checked on the sound drivers for my exact model of laptop. I downloaded and installed the updated drivers. It didn't do anything.

After awhile I contacted Dave and asked his opinion as he was the college computer support person for a long time. He had me install the UltraViewer software that allowed him to log into my computer remotely and check the settings. He poked around for awhile and eventually after trying several things he went to the HP site and looked at the sound drivers. I showed him the one I downloaded and used that was very specific for my laptop model. He went for a more generic HP driver that came up when he requested drivers for HP G10 but not my specific model. He downloaded and installed that one... and then the headphone sound worked!

Apparently the problem was in the recent HP installation and use of a single dual jack for sound input and output and the need for a very specific sound driver that was actually a little more generic. I played around with it for the rest of the day and happily reported to Dave that it was all working OK now.

I had needed a new laptop because the Dell laptop that I've been using for the past five years or so was falling apart. The connection between the screen and the keyboard broke apart and the connections began having problems. The response of the keyboard activity on the screen was faulty and getting worse all the time. I finally put the Dell away in a case and got out an old HP from my Canisius days. That laptop was probably about ten years old but was still working. It was slower and did not have a lot of memory but I started using it as my music computer at the kitchen table to replace the Dell. Over a few months time I realized that this was not going to work for me as an every day computer for my various activities. That's when I started looking at other options.

I then decided to get the new computer and then use the old HP laptop to replace the other very old Lenovo laptop I had setup at the stereo for my music. Of course that meant I needed to rework the iTunes playlists of my mixes no matter which computer I used in either situation. It was going to be a lot of work.

The God of the Woods

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, 2024.

Read this book in six days. Finished it today May 18th. 

Alone Together - Jazz Night FV

Alone Together. A jazz night mix in my Final Version series. Lots of my favorite things, all blues, etc. Classic jazz. 

Grant Green in the photo.

Alone Together - Jazz Night FV

1. Alone Together – Grant Green, 1961
2. My Favorite Things – John Coltrane, 1961
3. Autumn Leaves – Cannonball Adderley, 1958
4. Take Five – Dave Brubeck Quartet, 1959
5. All Blues – Miles Davis, 1959
6. Sugar – Stanley Turrentine, 1970
7. Red Clay – Freddie Hubbard, 1970
8. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat – Charles Mingus, 1959
9. On Green Dolphin Street – Ahmad Jamal, 1955
10. Afternoon In Paris – Sonny Rollins, 1964
11. On A Clear Day You Can See Forever – Shirley Scott & Stanley Turrentine, 1966

Bob Dylan Early 70's - Kitchen Listening

I listen to a lot of Dylan. Especially during my Kitchen Listening and Backyard Listening sessions. 

For this listening session I put together four albums sequenced through 1970 to 1973. I haven't listened to these albums all the way through in years. I really loved Self Portrait then New Morning. A nice 3 hours of music. I saw him in concert with The Band in '74

Last month Becky and I watched the movie Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid. It was a little strange seeing Bob Dylan act. I hadn't seen that film since some time in the 1970's. It was released in 1973. I'm looking forward to seeing the new Bob Dylan bio film A Complete Unknown.

The albums I listened to were from the early 1970s. Here is the sequence.

• Self Portrait, 1970
• New Morning, 1970
• Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, 1973
• Dylan, 1973

The Grift - Trump Dystopia Book

The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump by Clay Cane, 2024.

Another book in the Trump Dystopia series and an interesting history of Black Republicanism filled with opportunist and apologist for racism. I've always been very shocked that any black person could be a conservative republican but this book certainly put it all into perspective and historical context right up to today. It all comes out in the grift and greed. Black people providing cover for explicit racism and bigotry as puppets in the trump era such as Tim Scott, Ben Carson, Herman Cain, Clarence Thomas and so many others.

This is a very powerful fascinating book and the author doesn't hold back. It is a new perspective on politics, society and the Black community. It took me a longer time than usual to read this book. I started it in February and just finished it. I did need to download the e-book a couple of times from the library.

Like a Summer Day

A beautiful warm sunny day that went up to 82 degrees. Not bad for May. Nice sunset too.

Chicken & Home Fries Again

We just can't go wrong for dinner when Becky makes her delicious home fries with a nice piece of chicken. A nice salad too. It's one of our regular dinners and for a very good reason... it's great!

Groove Street - Jazz Night FV

More classic jazz in my Jazz Night mixes that are part of my Final Version series. Groove street is the good groove.

Larry Young in the pic.

Groove Street - Jazz Night FV

1. Groove Street – Larry Young, 1962
2. Too Blue – Stanley Turrentine, 1973
3. Sweet and Lovely – Bill Evans, 1961
4. I’m In The Mood For Love – Dizzy Gillespie, 1949
5. Hip Strut – Jackie McLean, 1959
6. Dearly Beloved – Sonny Rollins, 1958
7. Red’s Good Groove – Red Garland, 1962
8. Besame Mucho – Wes Montgomery, 1963
9. Bad John – Lou Donaldson, 1963
10. All The Things You Are – Lennie Tristano, 1956
11. Shades of Jazz – Keith Jarrett, 1996
12. Milestones – Jimmy Smith, 1973
13. I Can’t Stand It – Hank Crawford, 1968
14. Born To Be Blue – Gene Ammons, 1961

Black Rock - Vinyl Spins

Vinyl Spins. Black Rock - James Blood Ulmer, 1982. Another favorite. The 4th album of his in a row I got on release.

It was also nice to see him perform in a small club.

James Blood Ulmer albums in my collection:

• Tales of Captain Black, 1979
• Are You Glad To Be In America, 1980
• Free Lancing, 1981
• Black Rock, 1982
• Odyssey, 1983
• Part Time, 1984
• Memphis Blood: The Sun Sessions, 2001
• No Escape From The Blues: The Electric Lady Sessions, 2003
• Guitar Music with Rodolphe Burger, 2003
• Rock In Blues, 2011

New Pope - Leo XIV

Yesterday there was a new Pope elected in Rome and for the first time in history there is an American Pope. Now that was quite the shock.

Pope Francis passed away the day after Easter. He had been very sick for some time and his death was not unexpected. They had the funeral last week and then the conclave to elect a new pope this week. It was a surprise that it only lasted a couple of days. I think they said there were only 5 or 6 votes. Becky and I watched the movie Conclave last week so we had an idea how this election conclave worked.

I had the conclave on CNN and saw when the white smoke came out of the chimney. It would be another hour before the new pope made an appearance and the world found out who it was... Cardinal Robert Prevost. 

All evening there was an amazing amount of news coverage of the election of the new pope and so much more so because he is an American. As the day went by we learned much more about him from his many friends and relatives throughout the US. 

The Popes of my lifetime...

• Pius XII 1939-1958, 19 years, 221 days
• John XXIII 1958-1963, 4 years, 218 days
• Paul VI 1963-1978, 15 years, 46 days
• John Paul I 1978, 33 days
• John Paul II 1978-2005, 26 years, 168 days
• Benedict XVI 2005-2013, 7 years, 315 days
• Francis 2013-2025, 12 years, 39 days
• Leo XIV 2025-

Lawn Service

With all the problems I've been having recently with the hernia and abdominal pain we decided to hire a lawn service to cut our grass. We had been discussing this option over the past few years and were planning to do it at some time. The time appears to be now.

Becky did some online research with the Better Business Bureau and came up with a first choice of Percy's Lawn Care in Buffalo. They had wonderful comments on the website. She contacted them and arranged for someone to come by to give us an estimate. The son of the business owner contacted us and arranged to come by to give an estimate. He came by, looked at our lawns, and gave us a feel of $47 a cutting. He also said they would come by once a week throughout the summer and we would pay monthly. He was very nice and knowledgeable. It turns out they also provided the lawn service for Peggy down the street. We had planned to ask her about the service she had. This company mostly cut lawns in the Elmwood, Parkside and North Buffalo neighborhoods.

We gave him the OK for our business and he said he would come by Thursday or Friday of this week for the first lawn cutting. He would come by with another member of his team. We had spent some time talking about the lawn weed which was always very thick in May and made it difficult to cut the grass. The weed always dies back by the end of May and then the lawn becomes normal. Becky had also marked the edges of the garden which was somewhat overgrown because of the weeds. We had not been able to do much with the garden so far this year because of the weather and also with my hernia problem.

They came by today and did a good job cutting both the front and back lawns. I feel better about getting this all done and not having to worry about it. 

The Girl Who Lived Twice - Novel

The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz, 2019

Another Lisbeth Salander novel in the Stieg Larsson's Millennium Series. This would be the 6th book that I've read.

I read this book very quickly... in five days. I think I read all of the books in this series very fast. They are hard to put down.

A Dub Album - Vinyl Spins

Vinyl Spins. Garvey's Ghost - Burning Spear. A Dub Album.

I first heard Burning Spear's Garvey's Ghost at a dinner party shortly after it was released in 1976. We were sitting around talking about reggae after the meal and the host put this record on. This was my first exposure to dub reggae and was blown away. I went out and got the album right away and stared exploring more dub when I soon learned that it was mild compared was released in 1976 and was the first dub album I'd heard.

Night Train - Jazz Night FV

I'm starting off the reworking of my Jazz Night series of mixes with this one... Night Train. They are each about an hour and a half long and are part of my Final Version series of mixes made from mostly classic jazz albums in my collection. 

Jimmy Smith in the photo.

Night Train - Jazz Night FV

1. Night Train - Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery, 1966
2. The Madison Time (Pt. 2) - Ray Bryant, 1962
3. 8/4 Beat - Bobby Hutcherson, 1966
4. Mr. Blues - Hank Crawford, 1967
5. Chili Peppers - Duke Pearson, 1968
6. Gonzo - James Booker, 1960
7. Hanky Panky - Dexter Gordon, 1965
8. Sound and Sense - Roy Ayers, 1963
9. Oleo - Miles Davis, 1956
10. Something's Coming - Oscar Peterson Trio, 1962
11. Sunday - Ben Webster, 1959
12. Leap Frog - Dizzy Gillespie, 1952
13. Cool Eyes - Horace Silver, 1956
14. Bahia - John Coltrane, 1965
15. On Green Dolphin Street - Grant Green, 1962
16. This I Dig of You - Hank Mobley, 1960
17. In And Out - Wes Montgomery, 1965
18. Summer Dream - King Curtis, 1965

Conclave - The Movie

Conclave... the film. Released in 2024 and based on the Robert Harris 2016 novel. Becky and I decided to watch it streaming on one of the channels we get when the real conclave in Rome was getting ready to start following the death of the pope and the upcoming election of the new pope. So we watched this highly entertaining movie about popery and the scandals and secrets of the many papal candidates.

It was great to watch this knowing that the real conclave was getting ready to start in a few days. It was a great prep for the real thing.

Great cast too.

Scanning the Burbs

Today I was scheduled for a couple of CATscans of my abdominal area and one of which was using a contrast dye. That meant I needed a blood test in ensure my kidneys could deal with the dye. Earlier this week I had the blood test done as a walk-in patient at the blood work lab at Dr. Charles' office. Then we scheduled the scan at Great Lakes Imaging Center on Harlem Road for today. I was fortunate to get an appointment so soon as when I tried the Williamsville center they said it would be late May before I could get a scan there.

When I checked into the Harlem Road office this morning at 10:00 am I was informed that the blood test that was submitted was the wrong one and did not measure kidney function. I needed the proper test before getting scanned. The office person tried calling Dr. Charles' office to see if perhaps then sent the wrong blood test and there was the proper one available but she couldn't get through to them. She found another solution for me. Although her office didn't have the equipment to do the blood test and evaluate the results the Williamsville office did. She called them and arranged for me to get the blood test and the scan right away there. I just needed to get there quickly. 

I explained the situation to Becky and she was game for getting me over there. It was better than going home to start the process all over again. So we left that office and drove up Harlem to Sheridan, then to Millersport and on to Maple Rd to Maplemere to the other Great Lakes Imaging Center. It took us about 20 minutes. I went to the reception area and there were ready for me. I probably waited about ten minutes and then I was taken in and given the blood test and then got the scans. All done.

Then we were on our way home in time for lunch.