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Showing posts from September, 2012

Lost Book Gem: "The Pickwick Papers" - Charles Dickens (1836)

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"I gotta take me on a permanent vacation." --> Aerosmith <-- Take a two week trip and you feel like you've done something.   Samuel Pickwick and his wealthy cronies decide to skedaddle outta the city for a two year romp exploring the English countryside. Now that's what you call a vacaysh ! Charles Dickens ' first novel finds him weaving a humorous tale of misunderstandings and happenstances that follow likable Pickwick and his goodnik buddies wherever they travel.  In the process, Dickens brings to the forefront many social issues that would be more famously explored in his later novels. At over 800 pgs, "The Pickwick Papers" (1836) is not for the faint of heart.   Dickens occasionally stretches sentences like he's pulling apart a Slinky.  And the slangular dialect of the period can take a bit of warming up to. But once you catch on to the rhythm of the word-flow... (and you will) ...it's a pretty dang entertaining r

Lost Gem: "Circle Of Steel" - Gordon Lightfoot (1974)

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" Sights and sounds of the people goin' 'round Everybody's in step with the season." --> Gordon Lightfoot <-- When it comes to Gordon Lightfoot albums...I mostly cherry-pick the branches rather than take the whole tree. But what I've grabbed from this Canadian troubadour's catalog are absolutely killer and not to be missed. Lightfoot has always reminded me of Jimmy Buffet...(without the tray of empty margarita glasses piling up around his table, of course.) That's not meant to be a bad thing...just that Gordie generally keeps it a wee-bit more serious. His folk rock presence was most heavily felt in the 70's ...thanks to his first and only #1 album in the States... "Sundown" (1974) . Songs like "Carefree Highway" and the title track are daily radio staples and have remained timeless. Lost Gem:--> "Circle Of Steel" ......is a haunting portrait of a Xmas season for families of the welfare variety.