Happy 100th Birthday to Albert King

One hundred years ago today, in Indianola Mississippi, Albert King was born. He was one of the pioneers of electic blues, and is still considered to this day one of the greatest guitar players of all time. 

Albert King

Albert King played a Flying V guitar upside-down. That is, he played a right handed guitar lefty. Thin strings on top, thick strings on the bottom. This allowed him to use his strength to bend strings where most could not. Nicknamed "The Velvet Bulldozer" due to his smooth singing, his large size, and for driving a bulldozer in a previous job. 

An influential musician, younger guitar played looked up to Albert King. Most notably Stevie Ray Vaughan. The two collaborated in 1983 to produce the album In Session. 

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King 1983

Albert King most famous song is probably Born Under a Bad Sign but my personal favorite is most likely As The Years Go Passing By but it often changes. 

Albert King was able to produce a massive sound with his guitar, Lucy, that many have tried to replicate but none have been able to perfect. He is often missed and is constantly appreciated. 

So here's to you, Albert. Happy 100th birthday!

The Swagger of Detective Harry Bosch

Harry Bosch, the star of Michael Connelly's books, has some serious style and it is high time someone talked about it (even if that someone talking about it is to a blog that literally gets no clicks). So, here we go. 

Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch first appeared in Michael Connelly's 1992 book The Black Echo. Since then he has starred in dozens of books and now two TV shows. He is a United States Army veteran and a dectorated homocide detective working in Los Angeles. He likes jazz, owns a cool house looking over downtown LA, enjoys Fat Tire beer, and has some serious style. 

His style is simple and practical. Detective Bosch isn't the type of cop who has a shine on his suit pants from sitting all day. He sports practical clothing that are comfortable enough to get up and go whenever needed but also stylish enough to not get him into too much trouble with the brass. Bosch pounds the pavement during his investigations so he has to be comfortable and also professional. Polos, jeans, and boots are his typical wardrobe when he is working but he also wears suits and dress shirts when needed. 

Bosch at his desk with a motivational message

Suits

Bosch wears suits when he has to. Formal parties, charity events, and court. That is about it. 

Solid colors and often doesn't sport a tie. Grey, blue, or black is what you'll see Bosch wearing when wearing a suit. Combined with a white or blue button down and he is set (tie optional).

Grey suit

Bosch at a crime scene in a tan Suit

Navy suit

The viewer can tell that Bosch doesn't like to be stuck in his suit for longer than needed by the way he takes off his tie and hangs it around his neck when no longer needed. 

Suit with tie taken off

Blazers

Bosch wears blazers like many other men. His are solid dark colors usually sported with jeans and boots. 

Navy blzaer with denim shirt and jeans

Bosch in a grey blazer flanked by Crate and Barrel

Bosch in a navy blazer with Honey Chandler

Shirts

Bosch sticks to tried and true shirts. Solid colored polos, chambray button downs, and dress shirts make up the majority of his shirts. Simple is better. Bosch is not the type of guy to spend more time than needed picking out his clothes each morning. He wants to be able to go to his closet, grab what he needs and hit the road. Staples that are versatile and comfortable are a must.

Grey chambray button down

Black polo

Grey button down

Blue dress shirt and partner Jerry Edgar

Pants

Jeans, chinos, and dress pants is what you'll find Bosch wearing. Nothing fancy and nothing flashy.

Dark grey jeans and polo

Footwear

Bosch's favorite shoe are a pair of Red Wing moc toe boots. They are versatile, comfortable, and can take a beating if needed. 

Red Wing moc toes

Accessories

Bosch has a few notable accessories that he regularly wears. A white turk's head bracelet first worn in season 1 episode 10, a pair of aviator sunglasses, a silver watch, his reading glasses and his EDC.

Bracelet and watch seen here

Turk's head bracelet in action

Bosch wears a Rolex Submariner. It is Titus Welliver's personal watch

Bosch seen here wearing a pair of Randolph Engineering aviators

Bosch's reading glasses

Glasses, watch, and turk's head bracelet

Bosch's EDC

Final Thoughts

I started watching Bosch the thirs year it came out and now am eagerly awaiting season two of Bosch: Legacy. I have always appreciated Bosch's simple, practical and stylish wardrobe and have been perturbed that no one has written anything about it online besides random reddit posts asking what type of XYZ does Bosch wear. He has a simple wardrobe made of items that wont go out of style anytime soon. Soid colors that match easily with one another and simple accessories. If more people dressed like Bosch the world would be a more stylish place. Bold is not always best. 

A Review of The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo

 

Cover

Set in pre-war Japan this locked room mystery book is narrated in a way that is almost meta. It references other mystery books such as Agatha Christi and also directly speaks to the reader.

Kenzo Ichiyanagi is set to marry Katsuko Kubo in the Ichiyanagi family's large estate in rurual Japan. The night following their wedding the residents of the house wake up to screams and the picking of a Koto. They find the newlyweds dead and soaking in their own crimson-colored blood. Enter the locked room mystery that now needs to be solved.

Kosuke Kindaichi, a twenty-something-year-old private detective, is sent for and he goes about solving the mystery. Is it the three fingered man who was asking about the location of the Ichiyanagi's estae a few days before and whose prints are being found all over the crime scene or someone else? Read the book and you'll be able to see for yourself.

I wish that the fleshed out the Kosuke character a little more. Basically all we know is that he is in his twenties, dresses kind of slovently and has unkempt hair. He solved a long unsolved crime in San Francisco while studying abroad in the USA and has become a private detective upoin returning to Japan. No real character developement with him.

I also wish that the explanation was done a little better or that the method was entirerly different.

Not a bad book and I will read the next book in the series, but I am no racing to get my hands on the next book because this one didn't leave me speachless

A Review of Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Cover

This is a book that has been on my "to read" list for a while. I had seen bits and pieces of the movie and it wasn't until years later that I was made aware that the 1999 movie Fight Club was based on the eponomous 1996 book Fight Club. I knew that fighting, there was soap, there was violence, and there was Edward Norton with a boring desk job wearing a tie. That was about it.

Cracking open this book was like watching GoPro footage from a downhill mountain bike race. Fast paced and energetic. The unnamed narrator has a boring desk job, a condo filled with crap that he thought buying would make him happy and the inability to sleep. For the past two years he has been attending medical support groups in order to find a sliver of peace and to be able to get a good nights rest. Until Marla enters his life and he loses his one area of escape. He can no longer sleep.

Enter Tyler Durden. The famous character played by Brad Pitt in the movie. Tyler is the unnamed narrators friend who gets them into mayhem. Literally. Tyler and the narrator start a club valled Fight Club. Where unsatisfied men go to a bar's basement and fight one another. No feel something. To feel tired. To feel their muscles used. To feel pain. To escape their boring lives.

Tyler Durden keeps on going further and further with the antics. He sets up shop in an abandoned house on Paper Street and starts making soap, training an army of followers, and cutting of the balls of people who try to stop fight club.

Very interesting book. I see why so many young men have read and re-read this book and why people who watch the movie or read the book get inspired. Their lives are boring. Hell, my life is sometimes boring too. A white collar desk job can only bring so much to your life. Yeah it brings you money and that money can afford you to buy yourself stuff and things. But we see that with the narrator. Money doesn't buy you a life that you are satisfied with. So people read this book and they get inspired. Maybe they start their own soap company. But as we hear in the afterword by Palahnuik, they usually find someone to fight. And then they can sport their newly bruised faces and feel something.

Good prose, good story, good characters, good twist.

 

A Review of The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

 

Cover

Classic noir novel centered on three characters. Frank Chambers a drifter. Cora Papadakis an unsatisfied wife. Nick “The Greek” Papadakis the owner of a restraint/gas station that hires Frank.

What follows is a fast-paced novel about love, murder, and betrayal. Zero fat on this book at all. By page eight Frank and Cora are in love and not soon after their nefarious plans start to take shape.

Yes, it may seem to have some tropes in it when you are reading it but you have to remember that this is one of the original noirs. Cain was an original. Superb dialogue that is realistic and carries weight.

Took me two days to read and once you crack it open you won’t want to put it down.

A Review of The 12 Chairs by Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov

Cover

A wonderfully funny book that takes the reader all across the USSR from small provincial towns to the big city lights of Moscow, and the mountains of the Caucuses.

The premise is simple. Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyoninov's mother-in-law confesses to the former nobleman that she has his their family's jewels in one of their old Gambs chair's stuffing. Now Vorobyoninov teams up with the smooth operator, Ostap Bender, to find the chairs and gain their riches. The problem is that there are twelve identical chairs that have each an equal chance of containing the loot.

This book is very funny. It pokes fun at the system Ilf and Petrov are living under, purposefully has character misquote authors and get historical facts wrong, and the dialogue between characters is also hilarious.

The character's also each have their own personalities that are fun to watch change and grow. For example, Vorobyaninov wakes up and depending on his mood either says "Guten Morgen" or "Bonjour" before this adventure starts. Ostap is the son of a Turkish subject whose smooth talking usually gets him out of jams. He is very money conscious, to the point that he makes sure to tell Ippolit that he now owes him 2 Rubles for the shave and haircut he had to perform on him after the hair dyeing process failed.

While inspecting a social security building for the chairs, Ostap is disguised as a fire inspector and sets off a fire extinguisher that shoots off not foam, but rather a high-pitched whistle for the duration of the inspection until nearing the end it sends out a stream of foam. This was very well written and very funny.

Ilf and Petrov also poke fun at the USSR. They talk about how some of the furniture that was taken from Vorobyoninov's family was given to an official, talk about how the head of a town improvement department tore down a triumph arch in order to improve traffic, and even have one character mention how he has kept the record of where all the seized furniture has gone in case the USSR fails and the information is worth something.

The funniest part of the book to me was the whole Vasyuki chess debacle. Bender being so confident in his con abilities that he thinks he can play the part of a chess grand master and fool a whole chess club is hilarious. He accidentally plays certain openings, he tries to steal players pieces, and has no idea what he is doing. All the while this whole time, he has only played chess one time before in his life.

Another one of the funny moments came when Ernest Pavlovich Shchukin gets locked out of his apartments after lathering up with soap and has no towel. Picturing a grown man covered in bubbles, on his apartment's landing, yelling down for help, too scared to walk down to get a spare key is hilarious.

Also need to remember to ask if the price of oats has gone up if something is too expensive!

Richard Manuel Turns Eighty

Richard Manuel on drums

April 3rd, 1943 in Stratford, Ontario Richard George Manuel was born. He is most well known for being a member of The Band. He took his own life age 42. If he were alive today he would be 80. Happy Birthday, Richard. We miss you. We appreciate you. We love you.

Rick Danko and Richard Manuel

Richard Manuel on piano

Richard lives on in the words he sang, the songs he wrote, the music he played and through spirit. He is greatly missed by all who knew him and those of us who love his music.

All five members of The Band

I see my light come shining

From the west down to the east

Any day now, any day now

I shall be released

Richard George Manuel

1943-1986

The Burden of Living in a Large Country

It's a double edged sword. One edge gives you possibilites to move anywhere in the country. You can move to any climate you like. From the swamps of south Georgia to the endless steppe of eastern Montana. You have so many options ahead of you. The other edge is that there are so many options to consider that one (me) never launches. I am standing at the largest buffet in the universe and I cannot choose what to add to my plate. Do I want to move to Milwaukee and live on the shore of Lake Michigan? Or maybe I should move down to Tuscon and live in the Arizona desert? Who knows. Meanwhile, the Hungarian equivalent of me is born in Dunakeszi. Dunakeszi is a 25 minute drive from the busy streets of Budapest.

Maybe what I am complaining about is the fact that I am still living in my "hometown". If I was Hungarian, Slovakian, Croatian, North Macedonian, Estonian, or Slovenian if I wanted to escape my hometown and move to "the city". I would I would hop on the train or in the car and head to Budapest, Bratislava, Zagreb, Skopje, Tallin, or Ljubljana. Here in the States there are so many options that you can't just go on autopilot and move to the big city in your country. 

László Krasznahorkai, the Hungarian writer, left Hungary for the first time in 1987 at the age of 33. Hungary is smaller than the state I live in. In order for me to get to London I have to fly for 9 hours non-stop. In order for me to get to the east coast I have to fly for 4-5 hours. 

I think that another problem with living in such a large country is also the travel times involved seeing people you care about. After college friends start moving away and your social circle gets smaller and smaller. Three years post grad I have friends in the Seattle area, Spokane, Pullman, Portland, San Antonio, Northern California, and Philadelphia. Seeing them is difficult and expensive. It is easy to see the friends who live in the same area as myself, but others it is much more difficult. For example, my friend Tyler had a surprise birthday party in San Antonio that I was invited to. I couldn't attend. It was just too expensive and would have required me to take off at least two days off from work. It sucked. If I was Spanish, for example, and was invited to a birthday party in Seville and I lived in Barcelona it would be less than two hour flight for around a hundred bucks. Seattle to San Antonio was two flights and over 500 bucks. And before anyone says that "Well, actually, if you are an EU citizen you can live anywhere in the EU so you may also be travelling great distances to see friends or family." Yes this is true, however most EU citizens still live in their home country. Belgium is home to around 10 million people. Only 6.1% of those 10 million were born in other EU countries. Six point one percent. Well that isn't that much. Yeah it sucks for those 6.1% who have to travel out of their country to see their friends and family in their hometown, but if I had to guess it would be that out of the 6.1% a lot of it is made up of Dutch, French, German and Luxembourgers. Also not to hate but Belgium is about 1/7th the size of my home state and I am not from a large state. 

Maybe I am just complaining or maybe I have a legit point. Being from a large country does have its drawbacks (especially if you're from out west).