Author: ekkarn

Inspector of the Dead – David Morrell

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Inspector of the Dead – David Morrell and 1855 London Perfect Together!

 

David Morrell - Author of the Inspector of the Dead

David Morrell has been a top mystery and thriller author since his debut novel First Blood released in 1971, introduced the world to John Rambo!

I have enjoyed Morrell’s books since 1984’s release The Brotherhood of the Rose. All total Morrell has written twenty-eight novels, and his work has been translated into twenty-six languages

While I have enjoyed Morrell’s books through the years, I never thought that any of them were as good as The Brotherhood of the Rose or the novels that followed The Fraternity of the Stone and The League of Night and Fog, that is until 2013 and the release of Murder As A Fine Art.

Murder As a Fine Art was a wonderful historical murder mystery set in 1850s London featuring Thomas De Quincey, known as The Opium-Eater and author of an essay titled “On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts”   and his daughter Emily.

In March of 2015 the second book in the series Inspector of the Dead was released and this week it became the 24th book I’ve read in 2015 and one of my favorites of the year!

The Story

The beginning of Inspector of the Dead finds De Quincey and his daughter still in London following the events of Murder as a Fine Art. While attending church on a Sunday morning they are present when the body of Lady Cosgrove is discovered with her throat slashed! In her hand is a note with the name Young London on it.

Soon after her husband and her family’s servants are found murdered in their home with a note that held the name Edward Oxford.Both names were associated with past attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria!

Soon other members of the aristocracy are murdered in very public places cards with names of past men who have tried to kill the queen! As De Quincey and Scotland Yard detectives gather clues to help solve the crimes it appears that the ultimate target of the killer may be the Queen!!

Bottom Line:

Inspector of the Dead is definitely a 4 to 5 star book for me. The pages just flew by and I literally couldn’t put the book down. Morrell has done a terrific job of creating incredible characters in De Quincey and his daughter Emily, as well as the rest of the cast.

In addition Morrell’s writing vividly creates a London in a turbulent time. The Crimean War was not going well. and the government has collapsed leaving the country without a Prime Minister! In my mind Morrell has also made a brutal murderer a sympathetic character and while you can not forgive the killer for what they did, you can understand how they were driven to it! So Check It Out!

About David Morrell

sdaVID mORRELL

Links

Author’s Website
Facebook
x
Goodreads
Amazon

David Morrell is the critically author of First Blood, the novel in which Rambo was created. He holds a Ph. D. in American literature from Penn State and was a professor in the English department at the University of Iowa. His numerous New York Times bestsellers include the classic spy novel, The Brotherhood of the Rose(the basis for the only television mini-series to be broadcast after a Super Bowl). An Edgar and Anthony finalist, a Nero and Macavity winner, Morrell is a recipient of three Bram Stoker awards from the Horror Writers Association and the prestigious Thriller Master award from the International Thriller Writers organization. His writing book, The Successful Novelist: A Lifetime of Lessons about Writing and Publishing, discusses what he has learned in his more than four decades as an author. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexic

 

David Morrell: The Brotherhood of the Rose and more

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David Morrell

David Morrell – The Mortalist, Frank Balenger, and   Thomas De Quincey series

So back in the 1980s (Ok think about that Edward the 1980s were 35 years ago! Ouch! When you were 14 in 1965 would you have thought about anything that happened in 1930 as anything but ancient history? Nope!) I read a lot of thrillers from the likes of Robert Ludlum, Clive Cussler, Bill Granger (November Man), Richard Hoyt and others. And right up there with the best of them were books from David Morrell. Morrell’s 1972 debut novel was First Blood was adapted into Sylvester Stallone’s movie Rambo.

My three favorite books from David Morrell were The Brotherhood of the Rose, The Fraternity of the Stone and The League of Night and Fog. The sad thing is that aside from the fact that I remember that I really liked the books, I remember little bit about them. I rarely read books a second time but thinking about how much I liked the books starts me thinking may I should read at least The Brotherhood of the Rose again! I do remember that The Brotherhood of the Rose was made into TV a mini-series that I thought starred Richard Chamberlain. In looking it up on IMDb I see that it started Peter Strauss, Robert Mitchum and Connie Sellecca. Richard Chamberlain starred as Jason Bourne in a TV Mini-series based on Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Identity. I never watched either of the series!

About The Brotherhood of the Rose from Goodreads:

They were orphans, Chris and Saul–raised in a Philadelphia school for boys, bonded by friendship, and devoted to a mysterious man called Eliot. He visited them and brought them candy. He treated them like sons. He trained them to be assassins. Now he is trying desperately to have them killed.

Spanning the globe and full of heart-stopping action, The Brotherhood of the Rose is an astonishing novel of fierce loyalty and violent betrayal, of murders planned and coolly executed, of revenge bitterly, urgently desired. More

Through the years I’ve read several more books by David Morrell and I enjoyed them all but none have even been as good as the three books from above. That is until 2013’s Murder as a Fine Art set in 1850s London Morrell wrote a terrific book using The Opium Eater Thomas De Quincey and his daughter Emily as the lead characters! Read More Here.  The conclusion of that book left me and many other readers clamoring for more! In March Morrell released The Inspector of the Dead making me and others very happy campers!  In this installment De Quincey and Emily are still in London and end up in the midst of a killing spree targeting the aristocrats of London. Cards left by the murderers reference members of Young England that have attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria. Could the queen be the ultimate target?  I just picked up the book on Friday, couldn’t put it down and have already finished it!! The review of the book will be forthcoming. In the meantime here is a list of the other books that I have read from the pen of David Morrell……Check him out!!

David Morrell Books I’ve Read
Title My Rating Average Rating* Original Publication Year Date Read
Inspector of the Dead 4 05/10/15
Murder as a Fine Art 5 3.84 2013 2013/07/23
The Shimmer 4 3.31 2009 2009/08/08
Scavenger 4 3.56 2007 2007/07/01
Creepers 4 3.59 2005 2005/09/01
Assumed Identity 3 3.77 1993 1994/05/12
The Covenant of the Flame 4 3.92 1991 1991/05/18
The Fifth Profession 4 3.94 1969 1990/06/02
The League of Night and Fog 4 4.06 1987 1987/01/01
The Fraternity Of The Stone 4 4.14 1985 1986
The Brotherhood Of The Rose 4 4.13 1983 1985

* Goodreads – rating is out of 5

Reading Challenge Update and Reads May 2015

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May Reading Challenge Update

April 2015 was a great reading month for me as I finished seven books!! Woo! Hoo! May has not gotten off to a bad start either I have already finished two books. What Then Must We Do? by Gar Alperovitz and Dance of Death from the dynamic duo of Preston & Child

What Then Must We Do? is treatise on what we need to do in the future to try to fix our broken economic system. It delves into what we can do to democratize the ownership of wealth in our nation to strengthen our communities and our nation!! It is book 4 on a goal of 11 in my nonfiction reading challenge and book number 20 for 2015! Review

Dance of Death from the writing team of Preston & Child is the sixth book in the Pendergrast series and the second to feature Pendergrast’s evil brother Diogenes. After finishing the book I shook my head and thought why has it been on m TBR pile for so long!! The book s number 12 on a goal of 23 in my 2015 Clock & Dagger Reading Challenge and number 8 of 25 in my TBR Pile Challenge!! Review

Proposed May Reading Challenge Books

So that’s where I am currently. The following are the books that I plan to read in May of 2015. The operative word is plan. Four out of the five books are in excess of 400 pages, so I can see the possibility of a couple slipping into my June reads!! Which is what happened already to Larry Niven and Gregory Benford‘s Bowl of Heaven. It’s not that I don’t like it, but the action moves along fairly slowly and other books like Endangered from C.J. Box and Dance of Death hooked me and I couldn’t put them down!! So along with Bowl of Heaven I plan to read….

BrimstoneBrimstone

Book 5 of the Pendergrast Series and Book 1 of Diogenes

2015 Cloak & Dagger and TBR Pile Challenges

I should have read this one before Dance of Death – My bad!!

2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge Book How to Read the Solar System

How to Read the Solar System

Chris North and Paul Abel

Hosts of the Sky at Night

“This fascinating read supported by the latest research will engage and enchant. Recommended for anyone with an interest in astronomy and fans of the show Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson.” (Library Journal)

2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge -The Smoke at Dawn

The Smoke at Dawn

Jeff Shaara

2015 Historical Fiction Challenge

“Civil War history fiends will be riveted.”—Parade

Let’s Hope!

Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge - The Devils Punchbowl

The Devil’s Punchbowl

Greg Isles

2015 Cloak & Dagger and TBR :Pile Challenges

“A knockout thriller that’s just the right degree of chilly to combat the dog days of summer… Iles’ knack for perfectly integrating character and plot could serve as a master’s class for other authors.” — The Dallas Morning News

I read and loved the first two Penn Cage Novels and with two more beyond this one, I think it’s time to catch up on the series.

Now those are the five planned reads, but that can always change when my ADD brain starts to wander. In fact it may already change because the new David Morrell book Inspector of the Dead, which I requested from my library,just came in! Oh My!!

 

Reading Challenge From TBR Pile Buy/Library Total Goal %complete
2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge 0 4 4 11 36%
2015 Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge 5 7 12 23 52%
2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 1 1 2 5 40%
2015 Science Fiction/Fantasy Challenge 2 1 3 12 25%
Totals 8 13 21 51 41%
2015 TBR Pile Challlenge 8 25 32%
Currently Reading Challenge From Page Total %complete
Bowl of Heaven – Benford and Niven Science Fiction Library 182 412 44%
Brimstone _Preston & Child Cloak & Dagger TBR Pile 96 497 19%
How to Read the Solar System-Nortth&Abel Nonfiction Library 86 304 28%
The Smoke at Dawn – Jeff Shaara Historical Fiction Library 5 495 1%
The Devil’s Punchbowl- Greg Iles Cloak & Dagger TBR Pile 38 577 7%

Dance of Death – Preston & Child

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Dance of Death – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Book 6 of Pendergast Series Books 2 of Diogenes

 

So I am not sick that often so when I am I really hate it!! The last two days have been spent nursing a bad cold. Yesterday I flt like I had been run over by a Mack Truck, Today I was better and the damage was done  by a pesky little Mini-Cooper which I believe just keeps circling the block and running me over just about the time that I think that I have this thing knocked!!

The only good thing about yesterday was that I finished Book 21 of 2015 Dance of Death by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Dance of Death is Book # 6 of t  the Aloysius Pendergast series and the second book to feature his twisted  sibling Diogenes. Dance of Death, along with The Book of Death and Cemetery Dance. I thought were the books in the trilogy that features Diogenes Pendergrast. Aloysus’ evil sibling.. Not!! In actuality, while Dance of Death is Book 6 and The Book of Death is Book 7, Cemetery Dance is Book 9!!

About Dance of Death

It didn’t take long  while I was reading Dance of Death to realize that it was the second book in the sub-series, but by the time I did figure it out, I was engrossed enough in the book that I just kept reading!! Actually Book 5 of the Pendergast series and Book 1 of the Diogenes series, Brimstone is also on my TBR pile. Needless to say it is one of the books that I plan to read in May. In fact I am already on page 74!! Dance of Death is only the third book in the Pendergast series that began with Relic which is the first Preston & Child book that I have read. I read it back in 1997 ,when it was only two years old!!  The last one I read was Still Life with Crows (Book 4). Both books were great!

Other Books I’ve read By Preston and Child

But while I have not kept up with the Pendergast series, through the years, I have read other works by these authors. One of the books is Book 1 of the Gideon Crew series Gideon’s Sword, which they co-authored. The other three books that I read were all from Douglas Preston two novels Mount Dragon and The Codex and one nonfiction work The Monster Florence which chronicles Preston’s real life adventures with a serial killer in Italy, which even resulted in his arrest!! (Note to self- there are no Lincoln Child books on your Goodreads bookshelf, get cracking!)

The inside flap of Dance of Death describes the book perfectly

Two Brothers,
One a top FBI agent,
the other a brilliant,
twisted criminal

An  undying hatred
between them,

Now, a perfect crime.

And the
ultimate challenge:
stop me if you can….

Bottom line:

Dance of Death is certainly a four star plus book (out of five)  for me. Aloysius Pendergast is certainly one of the most original and well-drawn characters in the mystery genre! Why I have let these books sit on my TBR pile for so long is beyond me!! I think I say that every time I read one of these books! Let’s see there are 14 books in the series. I have read 3 of the books that leaves 11 unread. At the rate of one book a month, I should be almost a year catching up on the series!, at which time, I’m sure there will be a new book or two!

Links for Further Explorations of Preston & Child

The Official Website of Preston & Child
Facebook
Amazon: Preston & Child<
Amazon: Lincoln Child
Goodreads: Douglas Preston 

Running with the Empirical Ghost of Lis er Stille

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The Run….

So while Elizabeth conquered the Broad Street 10 miler yesterday, I conquered the RG Riverside half a ten miler on Saturday, running five miles for the first time this year!! I had set out to run a 4.2 mile course I call the Harper Loop. I have not run that course yet this year mainly because it has a long ascent up Pancoast Avenue and then another shorter ascent up Fairview to Harper. Followed by a descent and short ascent along Harper followed by a longer descent down Cranberry Lane.  I did well keeping a slower and steady pace knowing that the hills would be a challenge. The first three miles were 10:44, 11:06, and 10:54 beat you can guess where the hills were!! I slowed down on mile four because I hadn’t really run a four miler with hills and I was tired. But when I stabilized my breathing thanks to the rhythms of Lis er Stille, I didn’t feel too bad, so I thought “let’s see if I can go five”, knowing that Lizzie was doing ten on Sunday! At least I could do a half of that!!

Boy did the mileage on the GPS on the iPhone increase slowly over that last mile!! I ended up going a lot farther than I thought I would need to go to make that last mile! My last two miles were in 11:47 and 11:39. At least the last mile was slightly faster!! My final time was 56:34. Lizzie’s split at the five-mile mark was 54:38 so I would have only been a minute and change behind her!!

When I told my wife that she said “You don’t have to beat her, you’re 63 and she is 24!” True I thought but hell I’ve been running for most of those years and she’s been running for two!, besides I’d like to be better than her at something!! Anyway, both my 5 mile run and Lizzie’s run have motivated me…. hopefully I can stay motivated!!

The Soundtrack: Empirical Ghost – Lis er Stille from Denmark

The soundtrack for the run was Empirical Ghost from Lis er Stille. Lis er Stille is a Danish prog rock band. They are cataloged in the Post Rock/Math rock sub-genre.

Lis Er Stille is a band from Denmark founded in 2004 as an art project between the painter Vindril and singer Martin Byrialsen. The idea of this project was for Martin to make Vindril’s paintings into music, but as time passed the music grew and a band was build from it….

…When looking at Lis Er Stille from the surface most of their compositions resemble that of post-rock bands as well as some alternative rock bands like Muse, Coldplay and others, but there’s also a prog rock undertone in them. Some people recall past prog rockers when hearing Lis Er Stille while most will likely see links with the modern prog and related bands. Highly recommended for fans of post-rock and the modern alternative / prog bands. Full Biography at ProgArchives.

lis er stille - press photo - by kasper hemme

lis er stille – press photo – by kasper hemme

The musician line-up for the album is….

Martin Byrialsen / Vocals + Keyboards
Asbjørn Helboe / Bass
Tue Schmidt Rasmussen / Guitars
Jon Gotlev / Drums

The music is distinctive and good and I kinda like the vocals. The one bad thing about the album is that is short for a progressive rock album clocking in at 52 minutes for the ten tracks. So the album is great for a four mile run but comes up short (in length only) for a slow five-mile run!! Now what may be a challenge is to complete the run before the end of the album!! To do that I would need to run the course at a 10:24 pace! A challenge for later in the year!!

Links for Further Explorations of Lis er Stille

Official Website: Bandcamp
Facebook
ProgArchives

Here’s a video for the track “Gold Future” from Empirical Ghost by Lis er Stille

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrY7w-MjFvc

 

 

 

Elizabeth Conquers the Broad Street Run!

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Lizzie Came, She Ran, She Conquered – 2015 Broad Street Run

 

So the Broad Street Run went pretty well today! We parked in the Wells Fargo parking lot and took the Broad line up to the starting line around the Olney Station. While I rode the high-speed line from Lindenwold into the city back in the 70s, this was my first trip on the Broad St subway, and I believe Elizabeth said itself her first trip on any subway.

Broad Street Run - Yellow CorralLizzie was in the yellow corral, which was the next to last group to start. Since I have never been in a race with this many runners, I was unfamiliar with the starting procedures. The start of each corral was spaced maybe five minutes apart. I always thought that the group moved as one, but your time didn’t start until you crossed the starting line. Instead it’s like having seven smaller races! Unfortunately I missed seeing Lizzie at the start!

Lizzie - Pre- Broad Street Run

Lizzie – Pre-Run

Anyway the race started a few minutes after 8 AM.(See Featured Image) Mayor Nutter was there hi-fiving runners from the first few corrals!  I think Lizzie said her corral didn’t start until 8:50, which is near the time when the winner was crossing the finish line!  The winner Haile Mengesha finished in 47:53!

After everyone had started, I walked down to the Logan Station and took the subway back to the Wells Fargo Center . Then I followed the crowd down to the finish line at the Navy Yard.

Through the magic of technology I was able to see Lizzie’s time at both the three and five-mile marks. She finished three miles in 32:17 and crossed the five-mile mark in 54:38. At that pace I figured she would be ok at the finish! Once I got to the Navy Yard , I didn’t get another update on her time. That time should have been at the seven mile mark. It would have given me an idea about where she was and when she would finish. Instead I went to near the finish to watch for her, and like I did at the start, I missed her! After standing and watching finishers from the last corral, I checked my phone in case she had messaged me and then headed to the Dunkin Donuts truck,which is where we said we would meet. No Lizzie, so I messaged her asking if she had finished! She responded yes and she said she explained where she was. She had actually been finished for about 30 minutes!

So we gathered our stuff and began the trek, along with a throng of people back up Broad St. to our respective cars!

Overall Lizzie finished in a time of 1hr 53 mins. She was in 27533rd place., 14037 for her gender and 1818 for her division. pretty good for someone who has been running for only a couple of years and until today had not run more than six miles!  Someone who walked during the mile run for gym! Way to go Lizzie. It must have been those thoughts of chasing Oliver,who had your phone that kept you going!

 

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I am proud of you and hope we can run together next year’s Broad St. Run!

Links for the Broad Street Run

ABC6 News:THOUSANDS TAKE PART IN BROAD STREET RUN
Broad Street Run Photos
Newsworks: Broad Street Run Photos
Philly.com Broad Street Run

Andrea Brachfeld – Flutist, Composer, Educator

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Andrea Brachfeld – Flute – Born May 3rd

On this day May 3rd in the year ??? (Hum, we don’t really need to know that) flutist Andrea Brachfeld was born! From All About Jazz….

Flutist Andrea Brachfeld, is a graduate of The High School of Music and Art and Manhattan School of Music. Over these past 20 years she has recorded more than a dozen CD’s with many artists including, Africando, Noel Pointer, and Timbalaye. Her breakthrough performance as the flutist for the popular Latin band Charanga ’76, catapulted her into Salsa history and fame as the first female flutist to play this music in the United States. While in high school she received the “Louis Armstrong Award for Outstanding Student” from Jazz Interactions. Study with Hubert Laws, Jimmy Heath, and Mike Longo helped her develop her own style. Downbeat magazine referred to Andrea as “one of the finest jazz flutists around.” She has twice been the recipient of the Latin New York Music Award as a flutist. Read More

Andrea started her career in the 1970s while she was still a teenager and then from 1982 to 1999 she took a little what is that a 17 year break and then returned to her career with her album Remembered Dreams. She has released four more albums. The latest is her 2012 release Lady of the Island which is her first straight-ahead jazz album. I gave that album and Remembered Dreams a listen today and really enjoyed both. While both of them were good I liked Lady of the Island a little better. The piano and the trumpet playing on that album were great here’s a list of the personnel on the album. Both of the pianist and trumpet players were great and I’ll have to go back and listen to each track to decide which ones were the ones I liked best.

Bob Quaranta: piano (4, 9), Fender Rhodes (8)
Andy Eulau: bass (1, 2, 4-9)
Kim Plainfield: drums (1, 2, 4-9)
Todd Bashore: alto saxophone (2, 6)
Chembo Corniel: congas (2, 6, 8, 9), percussion (8)
Wycliffe Gordon: trombone (1, 2, 6)
Yasek Manzano: trumpet (2, 6, 9), flugelhorn (8)
Bill O’Connell: piano (1-3, 5-8)
Wallace Roney: trumpet (2, 5)

Now since Saturday is a brain-dead day and I have to leave for work in a few minutes I am not going to add links but you know where you can check out her music. So do yourself a favor and do it!!

Links for Further Explorations of the Music of Andrea Brachfeld

Website
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube

Here’s Andrea Brachfeld and her band performing Herbie Hancock’s “Eye of the Hurricane” Happy Birthday Andrea!!

Saturday Potpouri:Broad Street Run and more….

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Broad Street Run, Books, children and grandchildren,  NFL draft, does it get better?

So today has been a busy and very nice day.It started with a trip into Philly to pick up my daughter Elizabeth’!s race packet for tomorrow’s Broad Street run. She will be running down Broad Street tomorrow along with around 39000 other people! She has to be at the start at 7:40 for the 8:00 start. Since there is no parking for 40000 people at the street we have to park at the Sport’s complex and take Septa to the start and then I will have to travel back by Septa to the finish at the Navy yard! I don’t know if I will go all the way at once or go half way and wait to see her and then go to the finish. The question is will I be able to see her among the crowd of runners! Anyway it should be interesting. Wish us luck!  Oliver sent his advice to Aunt Lizzie via his talented mommy!!

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On the way back, we stopped at the Cinnaminson branch of the Burlington County Library. Their spring book sale was today! Controlling my impulse to take them up on their offer of a bag full of small paperback books for $3.00, I only bought two small paperbacks for .50 cents each,along with one $3.00 hardback and 2 $1.00 trade size paperbacks. The grand total six bucks for five books. Here’s what I bought…..

Sandstorm – James Rollins – this is the first Sigma Force  book and I believe it’s the only one I haven’t read!

Phobos – Steve Alten This one looked interesting and I have never read anything by the author. I found out though that the book is the third book in the series, so I want to go back and read books 1 and 2 first.j

In the Lake of the Woods – Tim O’Brien – another bestseller from O’Brien once again with a Vietnam war tie in.

The Lost City of Z – David Grann – I think I started this s book once and then got distracted! Maybe I can stay with it this time!

Fool – Christopher Moore – I started this one, too hoping to stay with it took!

After coming home my wife and daughter went to babysit Zoe and I joined them for a bit before her dad came home early and she went down for a nap! Damn she’s cute!

When Zoe went down for a nap we came home, and I watched the NFL draft. I think that at least twice when the Eagles were making their picks they went to a commercial with no scroll at the bottom. The Eagles ended up with two cornerbacks and a 6’9″ defensive end! Can you say kick.blocker!

Finally I went for a run – 5 miles half of what Elizabeth will be doing tomorrow! I will write more about that in a while! Maybe, but I do seem to be winding down and it’s getting late…. and I will be getting up early to go to Philly… maybe it’s night all after a pretty good day!

 

Randy Raine-Reusch: World Multi-Instrumentalist

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Randy Raine-Reusch – Plays an Amazing Array of World Instruments        

Born : May 2, 1952

 As I looked down the list of jazz musicians who are celebrating their birthdays today (May 2nd), I saw the name Randy Raine-Reusch a multi-instrumentalist. Since I am always interested in multi-instrumentalists I clicked on his name to find out more about him and I saw several pictures of Randy playing some very strange-looking instruments.One of them that interested me was this one… hum?? What instrument is that?  As I explored more I discovered that…..

Randy Raine-Reusch was born on May 2, 1952 in Halifax, Nova Scotia and eventually made his way to the Pacific Coast to Vancouver where he began to explore various traditional music from around the world, starting with the Appalachian dulcimer. He has gone on to  become a composer, concert-artist and improviser specializing in New and Experimental Music for world instruments. An innovator interested in extending the boundaries of music, he has created distinct new performance styles on a number of world instruments from his collection of 700!!

After the dulcimer Raine-Reusch moved on to a bamboo mouth organ used in Thai music called a khaen.(Ok so if you’ve read this blog before you know I’m dying to post more about this instrument, but I’ll give you the link and if you’re interested you can Read More!) In the 90s Randy moved on to the on the zheng (a Chinese long zither with more than 20 strings) whenever performing in improvised settings. The instrument that Raine-Reusch is playing in the picture is the Zheng or Guzheng.From his biography at AllMusic…..

….Over the years, he began learning to play an increasing number of instruments because he wanted to use them in compositions, yet couldn’t find anyone to play them. Raine-Reusch had the opportunity to privately study with teachers of the respective traditional instruments, sometimes in the appropriate country. As a result, Raine-Reusch has had the honor of studying and even performing with musicians named “grand masters” and “national treasures” by their homelands, including an ichigenkin (Japanese one-string zither) duet performance with the Hereditary Grand Master of Seikyodo Ichigenkin in Tokyo.Full Biography

Summarizing from his website…..

Raine-Reusch has spent over thirty years exploring the relationship of music to psychology, philosophy, and spiritual or religious practices. He studied at the Creative Music Studio in the 70’s with artists such as Fred Rzewski, Jack Dejohnette and Karl Berger, before going overseas to study with master musicians in Australia, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma and the Philippines, as well as with “National Treasures” in Korea and Japan. As a result his music now contains clear influences from a variety of indigenous cultures and is heavily influenced by Taoism and Zen.Read More

Reading all of this lead me quickly to Spotify, where I listened to several tracks from his albums Distant Wind and his 2012 release Kamura and after enjoying then, I concluded that this musician is one whose music I really need to check out, and I think you should, too!!

Links for Further Explorations of the Music of Randy-Raine Reusch….

Website
AllMusic
All About Jazz
Wikipedia

Here’s a short sampling of some of those 700 instruments that the birthday boy – Mr. Raine-Reusch can play!! Happy Birthday, Mr Raine-Reusch you appear to be a very special musician!!

Endangered by C. J. Box Joe Pickett Series # 15

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Endangered - C.J. Box Joe Pickett

 

Stealing an idea for a friend of Goodreads, I am going to start this review with the first paragraph of Endangered the latest Joe Pickett novel from C.J. Box….

When Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett received the call every parent dreads, he was standing knee-high in thick sagebrush, counting the carcasses of sage grouse. He was up to twenty-one

That simple paragraph sets the stage for the whole book and tells the new reader a lot about Joe Pickett. For those who don’t know Joe it lets you know that he lives in Wyoming and he is a game warden, but it also tells you that he is a caring parent Throughout the fifteen plus books in the series, Joe’s wife Mary Beth and children Sheridan, Lucy and April have been there, along with Joe’s mother-in-law Missy.now Templeton and Joe’s right-hand man and the families protector Nate Romanowski..If you do know Joe you know that the presence of those dead sage grouse will not make Joe happy and he won’t quit until h discovers who killed them. Oh and also that their slaughter may be associated with the book’s title Endangered.

The call Joe received told him that a young girl was found badly beaten in a roadside ditch and she looked like his adopted daughter April. April had runaway a while back with a young rodeo star Dallas Cates. Joe never liked Dallas who was a member of a family that Joe has had numerous run ins with as game warden. Dallas of course is the prime suspect and Joe is out to make sure he pays for his crime!!

Meanwhile Joe’s friend Nate Romanowski, an ex-special forces soldier is set to be released from prison and used as bait to flush out the missing Wolfgang Templeton whose murder for hire business Nate had worked for (see Stone Cold) Soon after Nate is released he is ambushed and shot!!

Soon Joe has a lot of problems – will April survive and did Dallas beat her? To solve that puzzle Joe has to go up against the Cates family and that is no easy task. Led by Mama Brenda the family is about as dysfunctional as you can get. Dallas brother Bull lost his livelihood thanks to you know who – yes Joe Pickett.and brother Timber is in prison!!

Joe also has to worry about Nate. Could what happen to Nate and April be related??? And don’t forget those sage grouse. The species were ready to be placed on the endangered species list so a lot of people have a reason to eliminate members of the dwindling species, but who did it??

Joe won’t quit until he finds out and this time finding out just may cost Joe his life!!

Bottom Line: Endangered is a winner!! Several books ago I set aside Cold Wind. I just couldn’t get into it and I thought that I would quit this series. But since then C J Box has come back roaring with four great books and Endangered may be the best of the four! Bookpage says….

“C.J. Box moves from strength to strength with each new installment. I would say that he is at the top of his form, but the top just keeps moving ever upward”

How true. Endangered was a real page-turner for me. The plot kept me in suspense to the last pages, and of course the characters that Pickett has created along the way are a vivid and real as it gets. You know, it’s hard some time to remember that Joe and his family are not real!! Since I have to wait a bit for the next Joe Picket book I think I’ll check out The Highway a stand alone that features Cody Hoyt from previous Joe Pickett books!!.’

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