Sunday Music: Abbey Road, The Beatles

Album Title: Abbey Road, The Beatles

Why I Bought It: Completism. I have most of the Beatles' albums - all but four of the ones produced before they broke up.

What I Like (Fun): "Octopus's Garden". Just silly.

What I Like (Joyous): "Here Comes the Sun". George Harrison at his optimistic best.

What I Like (Sweet): "Something". Another Harrison. Hmm....

What I'm Ambivalent About (Bloody): "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". A song about a serial killer. Only the sheer over-the-top quality redeems it. (I wouldn't sweat it, if it were not for the existence of "Run for Your Life" and "Norwegian Wood" in the Beatles' oeuvre.)

Overall: Some decent stuff, but this isn't my favorite Beatles album. (I'm going to have to keep an eye out: is it really that I give thumbs up to George and Ringo and thumbs down to John?)

Back in Harness

The break is drawing to a close. It's been a pretty good one, all things considered. The pad thai improved over time, as such things do, though it still doesn't match my memories of the previous batch. I may make more this week or next, using a different recipe. I also devoured a carton of Breyer's French Vanilla. (Not all at once: several root beer floats and a comparable number of bowls, over about four days.) I still don't understand why vanilla is the ugly stepchild of ice cream flavors; I much prefer it to chocolate.

I also pulled off a couple of Civ IV victories. If I have a beef with the game, it's that the scoring system is biased in favor of military victories. The bonus for early victory is very pronounced; it's not that hard to achieve Domination in the 19th century (with the right leader), but Diplomatic, Cultural, and above all Space Race victories seem out of reach until the mid-20th (for Cultural) or even later (for the other two).

I finished reading The Moon Pool, which was actually pretty good, taking into account its 1919 provenance. Not a lot of nuance, but the revelation of the origin of the Shining One was interesting (and evoked thoughts of the Mad Mind in Clarke's The City and the Stars, as well as other, more distant, comparable stories). The first-person narrator was a little much to stomach: he's a determinedly rationalist botanist, who just happens to be familiar with legends from, literally, all over the world, as well as the latest theories in physics and geophysics. ("Latest" meaning "long since discarded", of course.) I'm currently working through Harrowing the Dragon, an anthology of short stories by Patricia McKillip. I'm actually leaning towards thinking she's better at short form than at novels; the lapidary compression of her best novels is even more pronounced in short works.

Heigh-ho. Back to work tomorrow!