Workin' the slide

Hi,

So my nephew just had a birthday and he's also taking up the trombone at school this year. For people with more experience on these matters can you recommend a CD/artist who uses trombone in a prominent way -- besides marching band. Trombone is kind of an odd instrument and it'd be nice if there was someone using it in an exciting way for him to listen to and go "oh hey, practicing the scales today is good for this tomorrow" kinda deal.

I am also accepting recommendations for books and/or graphic novels for 11 year-olds. I'm leaning towards the first trade paperback collection of Invincible, but I'm open to all suggestions.

later
Tom

Workin' the slide

Hi,

So my nephew just had a birthday and he's also taking up the trombone at school this year. For people with more experience on these matters can you recommend a CD/artist who uses trombone in a prominent way -- besides marching band. Trombone is kind of an odd instrument and it'd be nice if there was someone using it in an exciting way for him to listen to and go "oh hey, practicing the scales today is good for this tomorrow" kinda deal.

I am also accepting recommendations for books and/or graphic novels for 11 year-olds. I'm leaning towards the first trade paperback collection of Invincible, but I'm open to all suggestions.

later
Tom

Merchants of Reviews

Hey,

Over the weekend I read through The Merchant of Souls by John Barnes. This is the third book in Mr. Barnes "Thousand Cultures" series. The basic premise is that after a few centuries of isolation, the human-inhabited worlds are being reconnected by teleporters. Managing the collision of wildly divergent cultures is the job of the Office of Special Projects (the OSP). Giraut Leones is one of their top agents, but after a mission goes horribly wrong, he takes some time off.

But it's a short vacation. Giraut is pulled back to the OSP to travel to Earth where he and the OSP will agitate to prevent the abuse of the psypyx. The psypyx is a device that stores the recording of a person's mind. Normally, the psypyx is worn by a friend or relative to allow the mind inside to re-orient to corporeal existence while a clone body is being grown. Once the body reaches about four years of age, the psypyx is downloaded to the body and life goes on.

On Earth, there's a growing movement that wants to make copies of the psypyxes and then edit them for use in virtual entertainments. The teeming billions of Earth, plugged into their boxes are starved for novel entertainment and hope to live out their exciting lives. The OSP (and most of the outer planets) consider psypyxes to be people in their own right and are appalled at the idea.

So it's off to Earth for Giraut who also accepts the psypyx of his friend Rimbaut who perished in a duel a few years ago and has only know been able to be revived thanks in part, to the same technology that makes the psypyx open to entertainment purposes. Giraut and Rembaut will testify before the committee reviewing the matter. There's a lot of interesting writing around two minds sharing a body.

The book is quite good like the rest of the series, but there's a fair amount of flashback material that illuminates Giraut's youth and his relationship to Rimbaut. It's not impossible to read this book without reading the earlier books in the series, but it does lose something when you aren't as invested in knowing about the characters the way you would if you'd gone through the first two. Still, that's really the only thorn in the side of this book. Actually, there's one other thorn but it's tied up in the resolution to the murder mystery that breaks out in the middle of the book so I won't talk about it here.

Overall, the series continues to be good and at some point I'll probably polish off the most recent installment in the series.

later
Tom

Merchants of Reviews

Hey,

Over the weekend I read through The Merchant of Souls by John Barnes. This is the third book in Mr. Barnes "Thousand Cultures" series. The basic premise is that after a few centuries of isolation, the human-inhabited worlds are being reconnected by teleporters. Managing the collision of wildly divergent cultures is the job of the Office of Special Projects (the OSP). Giraut Leones is one of their top agents, but after a mission goes horribly wrong, he takes some time off.

But it's a short vacation. Giraut is pulled back to the OSP to travel to Earth where he and the OSP will agitate to prevent the abuse of the psypyx. The psypyx is a device that stores the recording of a person's mind. Normally, the psypyx is worn by a friend or relative to allow the mind inside to re-orient to corporeal existence while a clone body is being grown. Once the body reaches about four years of age, the psypyx is downloaded to the body and life goes on.

On Earth, there's a growing movement that wants to make copies of the psypyxes and then edit them for use in virtual entertainments. The teeming billions of Earth, plugged into their boxes are starved for novel entertainment and hope to live out their exciting lives. The OSP (and most of the outer planets) consider psypyxes to be people in their own right and are appalled at the idea.

So it's off to Earth for Giraut who also accepts the psypyx of his friend Rimbaut who perished in a duel a few years ago and has only know been able to be revived thanks in part, to the same technology that makes the psypyx open to entertainment purposes. Giraut and Rembaut will testify before the committee reviewing the matter. There's a lot of interesting writing around two minds sharing a body.

The book is quite good like the rest of the series, but there's a fair amount of flashback material that illuminates Giraut's youth and his relationship to Rimbaut. It's not impossible to read this book without reading the earlier books in the series, but it does lose something when you aren't as invested in knowing about the characters the way you would if you'd gone through the first two. Still, that's really the only thorn in the side of this book. Actually, there's one other thorn but it's tied up in the resolution to the murder mystery that breaks out in the middle of the book so I won't talk about it here.

Overall, the series continues to be good and at some point I'll probably polish off the most recent installment in the series.

later
Tom

Kitties! (pt. 2)

Hi,

( finally figuring out how to use my camera phone. Hence...kitties! )

later
Tom

Kitties! (pt. 2)

Hi,

( finally figuring out how to use my camera phone. Hence...kitties! )

later
Tom