Graphic Novel & Mysteries

Read Watchmen for bookclub. It was ok. My first, and probably last, graphic novel. The illustrations were pretty cool and allowed (obviously) for more show and less tell. As a newbie with graphic novels, though, I found them almost distracting. The characters were uniformly unlikable. I can imagine how, within the genre of the graphic novel, this might be considered great - but I was dissapointed, and didn't enjoy the read. oh well.

Followed up Watchmen with my first Ruth Rendell, The Face of Trespass (but don't get it at Amazon, go to any used book store - you're bound to find millions of hers). It was totally solid. The writing was fine, the story was intriguing, one of those mysteries where the crime doesn't happen until the end. Very suspenseful. I just started another of hers (No More Dying Then), and it's all sun and roses so far. I love mysteries! Especially those by female Brits! Dorothy Sayers is one of my favorites...any recommendations? I've already read most of Agatha Christie, PD James, Elizabeth George, Conan Doyle, Dick Francis, Carl Hiassen. There must be more I'm not thinking of - tried spots of Jonathan Dickinson Carr, John le Carre, Georges Simenon, Raymond Chandler. One of my favorite mysteries of all time, although I don't even really put it in the mystery bucket when I think of it, is The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. It was a recent discovery, and combines several exceedingly appealing (to me) elements: mystery, the exotic, the British back in the day, straightforward writing, plot, character development, and length. So so good.

Parts and Labor new album

Parts and Labor have a great new album out, Receivers, and I'm already hooked. Like 99.9% of all bands, they continue to mellow with age.* Of course, "mellow" is a relative term. When you start out where Parts and Labor did, it means there's still, thankfully, plenty here to scare the shit out of whichever overhyped and overbearded midwestern or Canadian neo-folkie you're currently digging.

You can stream the whole album from their website, and if you like it, pick up a cd/lp from Brah Records, or Jagjaguwar (home to some of the aforementioned bearded folkies).

On a related note, our friends (and P&L labelmates) Pterodactyl have a new album in the works as well. I'll be mentioning this again when it comes out in the spring, but in the meantime you can hear a sample on their website.

*a thesis I hope to expand on in a future post. in the meantime, I challenge anyone to show me a counter-example.

"H. M., an Unforgettable Amnesiac, Dies at 82 - Obituary - NYTimes.com"

Virtually anyone who has ever taken a course or read basic texts on neuroscience will have heard about H.M. and his profound amnesia. The historical timing of his tragic case, which this obit evokes so well, ensured that he would enter a small pantheon of case studies (Phineas Gage being his closest rival) whose symptoms provided essential insights in the progress of modern neuroscience.

On a side note, it’s hard to think of a field other than medicine in which non-practitioners can unwittingly become celebrated for the progress they enable. It’s not like Gallileo ever dropped stuff out the window in Pisa by accident.