The Magnificent Ambersons is a novel of true grit!
And, yes, in the very first chapter, there is indeed mention that the Amberson mansion had running water “upstairs and down” (one riff … MST3K or Rifftrax … cited that nice line from the movie and it is indeed in the book).
Be forewarned that there is some possibly objectionable language related to people of overseas heritage, but, the novel was published in 1918 and evokes the Silver Age/Belle Époque era from a bit more than a generation earlier, so, cum grano salis.
When I tried to start it in the early Summer, I couldn’t hold interest. This time, I began to focus and must say, it would have made for a much more engrossing history of African-Americans in this country than what most of my History and Social Studies book taught (those books all seemed to say: “After Martin Luther King Jr died, everything worked itself out, and everyone was happy!”).
I was surprised to learn the author is from my hometown, let alone she was inspired by a teacher I also had in high school. Nice to see someone who got out of Iowa and went so far.
Free book anyone? I thought I was buying the one for the 70s, buuuut, I screwed up and now have two of this one. Any Alice fans who want it, just post dibs, and then PM me an address and it’s yours, gratis.
As with the one from the 80s, I like the inside stories from folks who played on these things. But he (Sutton) pisses me off when he talks about banishing favorite numbers. I know it’s just his opinion, but he often misses the forest for the trees. Pretties for You, for example, isn’t one of those LPs where you cherry pick favorites… it’s not about this specific track or that one, it’s all 13, it isn’t those 2 minutes or that 5, but the entire 38. Those wee snippets of song may seem minor and throwaway, but they’re not, they add to the personality of the whole.
Also, the absolutes (he writes, “Nobody names ‘School’s Out’ as their favorite album…” Uh, excuse me, guess my name is “Nobody”, then. (it would have been better to say it ‘rarely’ tops the rankings). On the other hand, there are some cool insights on the album (Dennis’ reasoning for playing the Bass G on a higher octave on the chorus of the title song, for example)
So sometimes it annoys me, but it just as often enlightens me… you take the good with the bad.
Carmen Galvez’s “Bio-Ontologies: A Knowledge Representation Resource in Bioinformatics.” (Proceedings of INTED2009 Conference. 9-11 March 2009, Valencia, Spain.)
It’s pretty dry, but after so long hearing all the gnashing and wailing about LLMs, it feels good to get back on terra firma with a reasonable document.
The audiobook is apparently being recorded in January, so if you need rasping degeneracy and R.O.T.O.R. references in your earholes, you have not long to wait!
I got the Library of America collection of John Williams novels (Butcher’s Crossing, Stoner, and Augustus). I’m about halfway through Butcher’s Crossing right now.
With respect to the great Wolf Marshall, the actual hook of “Money For Nothing” is a little more complicated than his transcription indicates. But it is a down-and-dirty “get 'er done” thing that most people can probably play.
