1776 TO 1976. AMERICA CELEBRATES OUR BICENTENNIAL.

America's Bicentennial was celebrated across the country with fireworks, parades, and a host of events that could only have made our Founding Fathers smile in appreciation.

In Jackson County, Mrs. Gerald V. Harkness won a design contest with her "Cabins to Capsules" logo. Jackson County has direct ties to two astronauts in James McDivitt and Al Worden. Both men were featured prominently in the Michigan Space Museum when it was located on the grounds of Jackson College. "Cabins to Capsules" was a natural theme for the county. 

At the time, Jackson area high schools provided students to participate in an all-county honors choir and all-county honors band. For this special year, the directors were Kenneth Todd [choir] and Kennistan Bauman [band]. The directors assembled a program of patriotic music for the 4th of July program to be held at the Cascades water feature that is located in the Sparks Foundation Park. 

The community supported the special musical program by helping with recording the two groups. The Jackson Rotary Club sponsored the choir and band. Aeroquip (now a part of Eaton) sponsored the production of a record of the groups by Mark Records [now Mark Custom Recording Service, Inc.]. 

The program and album featured a series of patriotic tunes honoring America's history. 

Side A - The Jackson County Bicentennial Honors Band directed by Kennistan Bauman

1. National Emblem by E.E. Bagley (1902)
2. American Variations by Jerry Bilik (1970)
3. March Grandioso by Roland F. Seitz (1909)
4. Suite of Old American Dances by Robert Russell Bennett (1949)
5. Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa (1896)
6. America the Beautiful by Samuel Ward (1910)

THE BICENTENNIAL BAND Jim Baschall, Bette Benedette, Julie Biernat, John Brittain, Gerald Cain, Patty Clark, Larry Crouch, Robert Cummings, Craig Durst, Douglas Eicher, Mark Elenio, Ken Finton, Irene Fisher, Kyle Grinnell, Marcia Haven, Patty Heady, Janice Herl, Lorrie Huffman, Jolene Jaquays, Peggy Jekel, Marcia Jenkins, Ken Knight, Todd Krutsch, Larry Kujawa, Karen Lindow, Doug Maitland, Gina Mattone, Dan Mitchell, Barry Myers, Kathleen Mynahan, Mark Nelson, Sheryl Nidelcheff, Joy Paulson, Linda Pilatowicz, Laurie Pultz, Eric Raby, Cindy Ragonesi, Doug Rainey, Jane Ratcliff, Kathy Roelofs, Joe Rumler, Chris Sayles, Barb Schmidt, Brian Spitler, Jan Stump, Jennifer Swihart, Katrina Swihart, Natalie Taylor, Julie Weatherwax, Lee Weatherwax, Kathy Westfall, Debbie Wilcox, Carolyn Ybarra 

Side B - The Jackson County Bicentennnial Honors Choir directed by Kenneth Todd

1. The Eyes of All Waite Upon Thee by Jean Berger (1960)
2. Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair arr. by Stuart Churchill (Traditional)
3. The Music Man by Meredith Willson (1957)
4. And Thou America by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1903)
5. Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe (1861) arr. by Peter Wilhousky (1959)
6. God Bless America by Irving Berlin (1918) arr. by Roy Ringwald

THE BICENTENNIAL CHOIR

Martha Armstrong, Angie Barron, James Baschal, Steve Brown, Donna Burkholder, Elisa Canvin, 

Scott Davis, Dave Dixon, Mike Dixon, Linda Eicher, David Erber, Julee Erber, Dina Flint, Andy Fugate, Lori Grow, Jenny Heiler, Marta Hendricks, Julie Hill, Doreen Hodge, Jolynn Holton, Andy Howe, Dianne Janes, Jared Knaup, Bob Luson, Cheley Martin, Bev McClain, Kathy McGee, Lorri McGuire, Lynn Miller, Vicki Miller, Kathy Mills, Nancy Minder, Theresa Minder, Daniel Mitchell, Jeff Mossolle, Mary Nelson, Regina Pace, Sheri Pahl, Lora Painter, Jeff Rahn, Cindy Redman, Lynndy Robercs, Roger Roelofs, Amy Sayles, Karen Sharrer, Chris Simmons, Allan Smith, Kathy Smith, Chip Smith, Deborah Smith, Shelly Southwell, Dawn Spink, Nate Spitlier, Dawn Strobel, Jeff Swanson, John Swartzel, Sally Tallman, Ken Todd, Susan Tyshko, Carol VanValin, Theresa Vargo, Linda Vaughn, Kathy Whitaker, Steve Whitaker

A complete presentation of the album is available via YouTube. 

July 4, 1976 was an appropriately hot summer day. The sun set behind the Cascades. The lights beneath Jackson's famous water feature began to glow as a light breeze blew the heat of the day away. And the musical talents of Jackson's finest musicians honored our nation's Bicentennial. 

Review: Mushroom Blues

Mushroom Blues by Adrian M. Gibson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review. I'm categorizing it as a plain "DNF" rather than a full on Dorothy Parker DNF.

This book came in second in SPFBOX. I read the winner. It was much better than this.

The premise of the book is that humans have conquered a world populated by mushroom people. They are just like humans except they have various fungi growing out of their skins including a huge mushroom on top of their heads. Everything is made of something fungal. They eat fungal foods. They build with fungal bricks and cables. They communicate partially via fungal spores. And the author reminds the reader of this fungal basis for life every other paragraph.

The book begins early on with heavy doses of racism, colonialism, and sexism. The subtext bleeds over the text pretty quickly. The native mushroom people exude a sort of language and culture that reads as "Asian" which as odd choice for people that would otherwise have no contact with an Earth Asian culture.

Within the book's narrative, there isn't any explicit reason for the humans to have conquered this planet. The impression given is that humans just love to conquer other places. There aren't any specific resources of interest nor any motivation due to expanding populations. The Terran presence on this planet is an excuse for humans to beat up on a native population...for fun?

The plot centers on a detective story. Our "hero" has a serious case of fungal-phobia and is assigned to solve the mystery of disappearing and murdered fungal children.

One feature of the story is that humans and mushroom people can make babies. How a species could evolve based on a fungal-centric biology that would be genetically compatible with humans is never explained. Do mushroom people have all the same sexual organs as human? If so, why when fungi reproduce via spores.

I made it 37% through the book before giving up. I might have lasted longer if I preferred detective stories. Belief is supposed to be suspended, not terminally broken.



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Review: Drones Above Hell Below

Drones Above Hell Below by Eric Kay
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review. I was invited to beta-read this book. While that is a fair estimate of my experience, this could easily be a 4+ star book with a bit of editing/clean-up.

The book is the story of our hero Killian who is part of a prospecting/exploring team on an alien planet. Most of the team either dies or is captured (it's unclear). Killian rescues one of his teammates and escapes back to their homebase planet via a jump drive.

Ordinarily, the jump drive creates a near instantaneous transition. But something went wrong and the jump drops them ~50 years in the future. The future is controlled by an AI that uses a social credit system to control/shape human behavior.

The humans have been back mining the planet for most of 50 years.

If you think this sounds a little like the set up for the movie "Aliens", you are right. It's still a solid premise.

The AI doesn't know what to do with Killian. It starts him off with a child's social credit score and makes him an offer if he will go back with a team to the planet. The AI has lost contact with the settlement and it has decided to send a military team to investigate.

This book has all of the prerequisites for an entertaining story. Exploration of a new world. Military action. Even a bit of a Star Trek/Kirk "putting it to" an alien logic system. IYKYK

But...the beta version has many little errors. Spelling. Changes in gender for no reason. Continuity errors (our hero was released from his handcuffs, but then was back in them).

And my pet peeve was the overuse of modern idioms. I don't believe most new/modern idioms will survive centuries from now. IMO, using modern idioms only works if the book is either humorous or just being a bit tongue-in-cheek. Modern idioms generally don't work well in serious sci-fi. Generally, less is more. One or two are excusable.

Hopefully, the author will clean up some of the more obvious issues before the formal release date. The book was generally very entertaining and engaging. I was stealing time from other priorities because I wanted to know what came next.

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Review: The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review.

The elevator pitch for this book was good enough to get me to buy it. 5% into the book and I had zero connection to any of the characters or the setting.

Somehow, this mystery book ended up being mentioned in fantasy/sci-fi circles. For mystery fans, this might be a great book. For others...like me...not so much.

By a non-trivial margin.

The ghost of Dorothy Parker rose and the book took majestic flight.

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Review: Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review which is a fair estimate of my engagement with the work.

I can't recall why I bought this book other than I was reading comments about Cormac McCarthy and this book was mentioned as something worth reading.

It didn't work for me.

It is set in the mid-1800s with the conflict between the US and Mexico. There are no heroes - including the first nations people. The characters seem to move from one desert location to another where they either end up killing a bunch of locals, or being stuck in the hoosegow for a while before being released to go kill a bunch of other locals in another desert location.

The book works hard to be "literary" to the point of boredom with extended descriptions of desert, mountains, and villages that end up being repetitious given that the region does not possess a wealth of diverse biological zones. The author also eschews the use of quotation marks to delineate when a character speaks. The lack of quotation marks isn't a deal killer, but it did make the book a more challenging read.

I made it 25% through the book before Dorothy Parker's putative ghost arrived. Go read something better.

This review made me laugh. He finished the book and nails the writing style in his review 100%.  If the writing style of the review doesn't work for you, then the book won't work for you either.

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Jimmy Webb - American Songwriter With Many Connections To Genre Fiction

 

Jimmy Webb is a songwriter, composer, and singer with a long and storied history within the music business. The son of a US Marine veteran of the WWII island hopping campaign against Imperial Japan and Baptist preacher, Jimmy began his career working by crafting songs for various Motown artists. 

His work was performed by a wide range of artists including Vikki Carr, The 5th Dimension, and The Supremes. He developed a close relationship with singer Glen Campbell whose performances of "Galveston", "By The Time I Get To Phoenix", and "Wichita Lineman" became standards in the American songbook. 

Glen Campbell also popularized the Jimmy Webb song "Highwayman" which includes an interstellar reference:

I fly a starship 
Across the Universe divide
And when I reach the other side
I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can

Jimmy's relationship with genre figures includes the late Richard Harris who was the first incarnation of Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies. It was Richard Harris' recording of "MacArthur Park" that first popularized that song. Harris was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1968 for the best pop male vocal performance of "MacArthur Park". [Also nominated were Glen Campbell for another Jimmy Webb song "Wichita Lineman" and the ultimate winner in the category José Feliciano who covered The Doors' "Light My Fire".] 

Harris' version of MacArthur Park went to number 2 on the Hot 100 chart. Webb's only number one hit in his career was when Donna Summer's version went to the top of the chart. 

Jimmy Webb proceeded to write and produce two full albums of music performed by Richard Harris. The first album released in 1968 was the Grammy nominated A Tramp Shining album. The second album "The Yard Went On Forever" was released later the same year. 

As evidenced by the starship reference in "Highwayman", Jimmy has had a long relationship with genre fiction. 

A long-time fan of Robert A. Heinlein, Webb proceeded to write "The Moon Is A Hard Mistress". Robert Heinlein offered no opposition to using that name for the song. 

The song is more of a love song than a paean to science fiction with the moon representing a woman who is hard to hold in love.

"The moon's a harsh mistress
And the sky is made of stone
The moon's a harsh mistress
She's hard to call your own"

The song was first performed by Joe Cocker and has been subsequently recorded 30 times by artists including Glen Campbell (natch!), Pat Metheny, Linda Ronstadt, Joan Baez, and Maureen McGovern. 

Jimmy Webb talked about his relationship with genre fiction and Robert A. Heinlein specifically in a 2009 interview for Penny Black Music by Lisa Torem.

Penny Black Music: Another beautiful ballad ‘The Moon is a Harsh Mistress’ (1977, 'El Mirage’, Rhino Handmade) was inspired by science- fiction literature. Does literature often inspire you?

Jimmy Webb: Well, it always has. In that particular case, you know, Robert Heinlein, was a kind of early mentor of mine. I started reading his books when I was eight years old. He really wrote juvenile novels – ‘Starship Trooper.’ But, he had a lot of political content and sociological content. I guess I was really getting more of my education out of science-fiction than out of public school. I was reading Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov and learning a great deal about the patois of the language itself and how these words were being used to create emotions. I was learning this from writers without even knowing it.

And since science-fiction is my cup of tea and I don’t think I turned out to be wrong – I think it’s dominated the film industry over the past few years and it turned out to be a legitimate form of expression.

When I first started reading sci-fi they were debating whether it as a legitimate art-form. I’m not going to get into that…

This isn’t really art – these are just stories that people make up. People like Arthur C. Clarke invented the communications satellite and Jules Verne – as a visionary – what they were was futurists. And so what I was doing was looking with a glazed look on my face and my father would say, “Where are you now, Jimmy?”

But, I guess I always knew that. ‘The Moon is a Harsh Mistress’ was one of the best titles I’ve ever heard in my life. I really am guilty of appropriating something from another writer. In this case I had contact with Robert A. Heinlein’s attornies. I said, “I want to write a song with the title, ‘The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.’ Can you ask Mr. Heinlein if it’s okay with him?” They called me back and he said he had no objection to it.

I Didn't Just Lose You

 
Found on the Book of Faces under The Pooh Lover.

Maybe I'm saving this because my friend Gary just lost his wife.  The one he spent a lifetime waiting for.  The one he will spend a lifetime missing.

Maybe I'm saving this because I fear experiencing his fate.  Losing my beloved bride wouldn't just be losing a partner.  It would mean losing in integral piece of what make me who I am.

Maybe I'm saving this for day when memory truly fades and I'm looking around for someone familiar in a sea of faces all claim to be friends or family and in whose faces I experience only vague recollection.

Maybe I'm saving this for you, my unknown reader, so you will know that it is OK to miss someone with all your heart.  Your world has changed.  And it will change again.  And so will you.  And while there will be someone missing in your life, you will still be here.  You too will be missed in turn.  So stay with us.  Be the place that feels "like home" for someone else for as long as you can.  And then a minute more.