Book Bans Are Fascist

John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life by Kenneth Womack
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Audible Audio-book :  10 hours 32 minutes

Narrator: Paul Woodson

Sometimes it takes the steam out of a book or story when you already know how it ends. With this book, I would say Ken Womack did an excellent job of making what was the last year of Lennon's life interesting and a compelling story. It could be broken down into different parts. Early on we see John starting to feel the creative juices that have been quiet for some time awaken. Partly inspired by his old partner Paul McCartney's new song "Coming Up" (Paul's career was also changing gears too.) coupled with a sailing trip. The latter half of the book is primarily John & Yoko making what would be his final album Double Fantasy(and posthumously released Milk and Honey). This is where John comes alive and is the strongest, making music again. He becomes very focused and is a musician on a mission to make his long-awaited comeback album. It's the first time I've read of an in depth look into making his final album. I recommend this to anyone who is a fan of John Lennon and The Beatles and want learn more of his final days.

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Review: Old Records Never Die: One Man's Quest for His Vinyl and His Past

View all my reviews Old Records Never Die: One Man's Quest for His Vinyl and His Past by Eric Spitznagel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found out about this book through a vinyl Facebook group and the premise sounded interesting. A vinyl enthusiast attempts to recover and rebuild the record collection he sold decades ago to pay his bills. Now hitting middle age with a new child, an understanding but worried wife, a job offer that will mean consistent income and a major move, and then to top it off a heartbreaking phone call from his mother informing him his father died. Enter one mid-life crisis.

In his journey through his mid-life crisis, his quest is to recover the 2000+ vinyl collection he sold away to pay the bills in the late 90s. Not just any copy will do. His quest is for his exact copies. The same covers with his ex-girlfriend's phone numbers written on them and scratches in just the right spot, and all.

It's a quest that takes him to a muddy reunion concert, a closed record shop turned kids karate studio, vinyl conventions, stealing a record from a college radio station, and smoking bad weed in an old record shop owner's basement. All the while reminiscing about past loves and most of all the music he loved along the way. He's missing his life as it was and worried about a new job and family that's pushing him to be more responsible.

I could identify with some of the mid-life crisis anxiety having gone through(and still on tail end of) it myself. His music tastes were mixed(Sorry Eric. when I hear an album titled "Let it Be" I think of The Beatles and not The Replacements.) but that's understandable cause everyone's music preference is different.

I did like his focus on the music and how it intertwines with life. It's as if the albums were snapshots of his life. I"d describe it as life having its own soundtrack and each of ours is unique. Also that even the imperfections like ex-girlfriend's phone number on an album, mud/blood splattered cover from a punk rock concert, or scratches & pops on the vinyl. This was a bit refreshing as I see in vinyl enthusiasts groups on Facebook who obsesses over slight scratches, grading quality, and spend a couple of thousand dollars on record cleaning gadgets. It's one thing to take care of something but when the cleaning obsession takes over I think you're losing the point of the records which is the experience of playing them. This I believe Eric gets. Life is full of imperfections.

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The Real Danger Of ChatGPT

"Writing is how we understand uniquely. Not to write is to live according to the language of others."

- Evan Puschak(Nerdwriter1)

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

 

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of the first science fiction movies I remember seeing was the original 1953 version of this story as a kid in the 70s. That was also my introduction to this story. Although I was fascinated by the story I was a bit hesitant on reading the book as it was written in the late 1800s and how readable this would this be. I was pleasantly surprised though when I started reading this one.

For a story written in the 1890s, it reads amazingly well. Also, I tended to forget this was long before modern technology. No cars, television, or radio as we know it and in this light, it still has aged very well.

The story is narrated by an unnamed Englishman who is apparently of scientific background and is at an astronomical observatory when explosions, which seem to signal the eventual invasion, are observed on Mars. This eventually coincides with objects falling around England. These objects are just carriers for the martian invaders and their war machines which they erect shortly after they arrive. The Martians are hampered by the Earth's stronger gravity and stay inside their machines. Their war machines have long spindly legs that tower above the tallest buildings and have long mechanical tentacles that shoot deadly heat rays(imagine hearing this term in the 1890s, it's long before Star Trek and Star Wars) and they emit black smoke (foreshadowing the gas attacks in WWI just a 20 years later) which are lethal upon inhaling. The military of the day puts up a valiant effort, and even knocks out a machine or two with artillery, but is woefully outmatched.

At this point, there is panic and fleeing before the mighty martian machines. The narrator along with a curate( no name given) and while foraging for food is buried in the rubble of another Martian cylinder that has crashed where they are trapped for about two weeks with an already dwindling food and water supply. The curate eventually loses his mind and is found by Martians and taken away. The Narrator narrowly escapes into a devastated London with death and a strange red weed growing everywhere. He reunites with an artilleryman he had met earlier in the conflict. The artilleryman has thought a lot about how humans can survive under the Martians in a type of resistance that does seem quite elaborate. It is eventually noticed the Martian machines aren't moving and have gone quiet. It is then realized the Martians are dead(or dying). It is said they are dying from Earthly pathogens from which they have no immunity from. In the aftermath of the invasion, he recovers enough to eventually make it back home where he reunites with his wife.

I really enjoyed this book more than I anticipated. It had an easy-to-read flow and is relatively short in length. I found it easy to get engrossed in the story and not realize that he was describing a world in 1890s England before most of the modern conveniences we take for granted. I wonder what the 1897 reader thought trying to imagine what a "heat ray" was. Science fiction indeed.

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