I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: ISRAEL NASH-“Rain Plans” (2014).

I heard this song on a download of 10 Songs NPR Can’t Stop Playing.  The opening chords sounded so Neil Young and Crazy Horse that I was immediately hooked.  Then when Nash starts singing, it sounded even more like a kind of CSN&Y pastiche.  After the first verse, the powerful descending chords are a great introduction to the falsettoed chorus.  (No idea what he’s saying).

Nash is lumped in with the alternative country field, but I don’t hear any of that on this song.  It comes across as pure classic (maybe folk) rock.  The solo which starts at around 2:45 has elements of Pink Floyd in it.  It is a brief introduction to the much lengthier solo that takes the song out.  But what I especially like about it is that the in between section doesn’t have more vocals, just a bunch of whoo hoos before the bombastic solo (the backing music is bombastic as well) just keeps going.

It’s not a pretentious showing off solo, it’s just a lengthy jam that keeps jamming.  Until around six minutes when the band starts rocking faster and the solo grows more intense (the song is 7:19).

I’m really interested in what the rest of this album sounds like.

[READ: July 27, 2014] Breakaway

I was so hooked on Book One that I had to jump right into book two (which is considerably shorter than book one).

This book was a little frustrating (intentionally so I believe) because Amy is trying her best to distance herself from her family and friends.  She is so afraid of anyone else getting hurt (and anxious because Dan wants to leave the family) that she keeps trying to send them away, believing that they will be safer away from her.   And yet, as they have learned in each and every mission–they work best as a team.  So while Amy starts pushing the others away they not only get more frustrated, they keep making mistakes.  And by the end, Amy’s solitude nearly gets her killed and has her alienated from her closest ally, Dan.

Of course she is under a lot of pressure, especially since the media scrutiny of them has gotten so much more intense–Pierce has amped up his attacks against Amy and Dan and has brought her family members into the spotlight (basically saying they are all her thugs).  The Pierce foundation has even gotten to Evan’s family and Evan’s parents publicly denounce their dead son’s former girlfriend as a snake, someone who draws people in and doesn’t care what happens to them.  Basically, everyone hates the Cahills.

Including Jake and Atticus’ father.  For when they call on him for a favor, he is furious that his sons are still hanging around with the Cahills.  Until he sees that the book they are carrying has information about something near and dear to their father’s heart: the lost city of Atlantis.

And indeed, that is where this book ultimately leads them.  And yes we all know that it is fake, but there is compelling evidence that it may have actually existed (although not in the way of legend of course) .

The kids are looking for their next ingredient in the antidote to the serum.  It happens to be an extinct plant.  But the boys’ father was able to find some seeds of this extinct plant.  He sent some back to Tunis (where most of the story takes place before their departure to Atlantis) and sent some to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.  It is this seed vault that Amy finds herself in alone, as the book comes to an end.

On the other fronts (the ones that I am actually a little more interested in at this time), Pony has finally made contact with April May (she realized that he is as a good a hacker as she is) and Nellie is on to something big in the warehouse in Delaware.

There are only two more books in this series.  Number four came out last week.  So I’m pacing myself.  But, in all honestly, the cliffhanger at the end of this book was somewhat less exciting than the one at the end of book 1, so waiting a few weeks won’t be the end of the world.