mardi 6 avril 2004

Under wraps On the hard sci-fi front, scarcely mentioned of late, I'm now glad to have postponed writing a review of Alastair Reynold's 'Chasm City' until I've completed 'Revelation Ark' (I'm about halfway through it now -- slow digestion). Had I done otherwise, I could well have written that I found 'Chasm City' a bit of a letdown in the wake of 'Revelation Space' (Jan 13 entry), which was such a magnificent debut that my "disappointment" was purely relative. However, as I get into the third book, it casts a new light on the second. Authors sometimes work in most mysterious ways, Reynolds proving to be a prime example of a creative talent whose work is best taken as a whole... During those relaxing days I enjoyed "off" -- marred only by the fatigue brought on with the return of elements of the Condition (but nothing like as bad as it was last year, and I'll have more Factory-free days to recuperate next week) -- some of the heap of "meaning tos" I finally got done included an overhaul of the Mac and a little behind-the-scenes work on this website. I spent several fruitful hours at places I consider well worth promoting on my home page -- MacMusic, the Safari shelf and, particularly, Erik Benson's 'All Consuming,' the book site that's turning out to have several useful "extras" built in I didn't notice on first deciding it was an excellent idea and signing up to it -- just a day or so too late to be able to help test the new "recommendations engine". I'd never even been quite far down that welcome page to notice a couple of RSS newsfeeds which are proving useful now that 'NetNewsWire' has become as indispensable on a daily basis as any of the "conventional" browsers I use. Erik's place also leads inquisitive minds to odd tales. Like an explanation of some mosaics I'd spotted without realising that my home city is discreetly being "space invaded". Thanks to Kevan, who provides illustrations at 'As Above - Internet Bindweed.' At least somebody knows what's going on... 11:14:12 PM  link   your views? [] Gito Baloi: a tribute Well, goddamit! "Reading in" on African news before going into work, I'm particularly saddened by the killing in Jo'burg of Gito Baloi (BBC), one of South Africa's finest musicians. "He spent his earliest years exploring sounds with the aid of discarded paraffin tins, reeds and anything he could lay his hands on. His first public performances, playing on a borrowed bass guitar, helped to support his family in a war-torn Mozambique." And went on win fame, as that biography at 'Sheer Sound' recounts, across the border in South Africa in the late 1980s, his work first reaching my ears a decade later. His superb solo album, 'Herbs and Roots,' was one of the then just released musical marvels I brought back with me after my working stint in Johannesburg. He can't be as well known as he deserves to be, since when I put the CD on my iPod last year, I believe it was among those where I was the first to ship the album details up to the Gracenote CDDB (online music data base). Baloi was just 39 when he was murdered on Sunday. It's a big loss. Gito Baloi leaves a musical legacy which I strongly recommend to adventurous ears. Update: listening again to Baloi's music on my way to and from the Factory for a day which included reports of several other tributes to one of the kindest and nicest people on South Africa's musical scene, it left me in a bitter-sweet mood. Bitter over the pointless stupidity of such brutal violence for a wallet. Sweetened by being reminded that if there's one thing Baloi's gifts achieved supremely well, it was to make other people happy. And that's a legacy no petty criminal can steal. 10:41:30 AM  link   your views? []

nick b. 2007 do share, don't steal, please credit under artistic licence terms; contributing friends (pix, other work) retain their rights.