Vibrato - Paul Gilbert

This album blows me away!!

Paul Gilbert is one of my favorite technical guitar players.  He plays with clean technique, and has beautiful phrasing and an almost classic sensibility.  Though he got his start as a Shrapnel Records-styled shredder in the 80s (super fast, flashy, Yngwie-influenced, metal), his love of 70s pop music influences his current musical direction.

Vibrato is a great album that reflects his diversity as both a guitarist and songwriter, yet each song is distinctively Paul Gilbert.  It's overall very progressive and jazzy - like a cross between Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, the more progressive side of the Allman Brothers, Return the Forever, etc.

An oddball album that maybe isn't his most popular, it's not only one of my favorite Paul Gilbert albums, but one of my favorite non-metal albums of the 2000s.

I don't like to throw out superlatives at the risk of sounding like I'm praising everything, but I can comfortably say that this album is genius!!

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

I don't read a lot of fiction.  Of the 89 books I've read over the past year and a half, only 18 were fiction - the majority of the remainder being non-fiction and a few poetry books.

I've read Ishiguro's "Remains of the Day", "Nocturnes", and "Never Let Me Go".  Of the three, "Never Let Me Go" is the best of Ishiguro that I've read so far, and ranks up there among the best of my limited read fiction among all authors.  I think it might be tied with Orwell's "1984" for my favorite novel of all time.

Though his writing style is sometimes pandering in the cliffhanger chapter endings, it was still quite enjoyable and touching.  I don't want to give anything away, so let's just say that it revolves around three central characters and their experiences as they grow together.

It was deep, contemplative, and sad.  I guess that's what I like in a book, as that was also the theme of 1984.

Overtures of Blasphemy - Deicide

I'm SUPER excited for this album to be released on September 14th!!  The music sounds a lot like my favorite Deicide album "The Stench of Redemption".  They've had some misses in the years since that album, but this one sounds like that album from the production and songwriting standpoint.  Plus the over-the-top satanic lyrics are hilarious!

We Bare Bears

My daughter turned me on to this cartoon recently.  It's a great cartoon - funny, sometimes touching, a little crazy, and just slightly weird.

It's my new favorite cartoon!

Aristotle for Everybody - Mortimer J. Adler

Ugh.  I'm not sure what I didn't like about this audiobook.

Perhaps it was that the reader sounded like a pretentious asshole.  I'm also wondering if the content was truly representative of Aristotle's philosophy - as this book just seemed to define some really common things like contradiction, ideas versus actuality, etc.  In that sense it was almost a waste of time.

I also found some concepts strange and not what I believe, which blows my mind because I can't imagine that I am more insightful than the father of modern philosophy.  I'll have to explore other books about the teaching of Aristotle to have a firm conclusion about that.

Aristotle in 90 Minutes - Paul Strathern

I listened to this after I enjoyed Socrates in 90 Minutes.  It was a good biography but didn't touch much on his actual philosophy.

A Higher Loyalty - James Comey

This was a really well written book by Comey, the former Deputy Attorney General and later FBI director.

He seems earnest, but there is still some part of me that thinks that he is justifying the actions he took as FBI leader which some claim cost Hillary Clinton the presidential election.

In this book, he talks about growing up on the east coast, and his stints as Deputy AG under the Bush administration where he had to deal with the legality of torture, FBI director under Obama where he had to deal with Martha Stewart's insider trading and Clinton's e-mail "scandal", and then as FBI director under Trump, arguably the most interesting part of the book.

I still loved reading it despite my hesitation that it might be one huge justification of the whole Clinton thing - in general I think it is pretty truthful but perhaps slanted on that one subject.

Team of Rivals - Doris Kearns Goodwin

This was a really great audiobook that described Lincoln's time in the White House and the problems and successes he had during the Civil War, particularly with his cabinet, who are the team of rivals.

A friend recommended this book, telling me that she was reading it while waiting for a flight at LAX, when Warren Christopher, former secretary of state, sat next to her and said it is his favorite book.

The book was inspirational because Lincoln maintained a sense of calm and composure despite all of the backstabbing and problems he was faced with.  That's one of the many ways in which he was a great leader.  It was also inspiring in that he was a bit awkward, but that didn't affect his leadership.

I discovered later that the audiobook was an abridged version of the book, and the book is a LOT longer.  I intend to read the book but I'm sure it will take a long time.

Vogg

Vogg is an amazing guitar player.  He plays great lead guitar, and writes some super cool and complex riffs.

I had initially written off Decapitated as a generic death metal band, but as their albums went on, they really came into a unique style.  Their album "Blood Mantra" from 2014 has now become one of my favorite albums of all time.

I've been learning one of the riffs from "Instinct" from "Blood Mantra" and it is so killer.

He doesn't seem to get much critical acclaim, but I think he is one of the top metal guitar players out today.