Are You With Me Doctor?

Katy tried, I was halfway crucified
I was on the other side of no tomorrow
You walked in and my life began again
Just when I'd spent the last piaster I could borrow

All night long, we would sing that stupid song
And every word we sang, I knew was true

Are you with me Dr. Wu
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew
Are you crazy are you high
Or just an ordinary guy
Have you done all you can do
Are you with me doctor?

Don't seem right, I've been strung out here all night
I've been waiting for the taste, you said you'd bring to me
Biscayne Bay where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day
I went searching for the song, you used to sing to me

Katy lies, You could see it in her eyes
But imagine my surprise when I saw you

Are you with me Dr. Wu
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew
She is lovely yes she's sly
And you're an ordinary guy
Has she finally got to you
Can you hear me doctor?

Are you with me doctor?
Can you hear me doctor?
Are you with me doctor?
Can you hear me doctor?

Are you with me doctor?
Can you hear me doctor?
Are you with me doctor?

Doctor Wu is one of my favorite Steely Dan songs. I’m not that fond of the Katy Lied album overall, but I can listen to Doctor Wu over and over again. It’s a treat both musically and lyrically. It’s always fun to try to decipher what Steely Dan songs are really about, and Walter Becker and Donald Fagen aren’t really interested in clarifying things. They seem to actually enjoy throwing people off the right trail, and I don’t take most of their commentary on lyrical interpretation at face value.

The internet is full of listener opinions on the meaning of the song Doctor Wu. There’s general agreement that the real Dr. Jing Nuan Wu is being referenced. He was a Chinese-born herbalist who may have helped Becker and/or Fagen cope with their drug addiction. I don’t know that Fagen was ever really a junkie, and Becker’s addiction lasted years past Katy Lied’s 1975 release. Still, they may have known him, or known of him. But I think the guy in the song is fictional.

Here’s my take, for what it’s worth. The narrator is a junkie. Katy is the narcotics addiction. Doctor Wu is the narrator’s dealer. At the start of the song, the narrator’s just used the last bits of his stash, and is desperate for more. Then his dealer arrives, and they get high together. The dealer has never been seen to really use before.

There’s a gorgeous saxophone solo by Phil Woods as a bridge between the verses. It’s actually a metaphorical drug trip. Follow the link and listen to it. It soars as the pair first feel the effects, and then dies out as the drug gradually wears off.

The narrator wakes up and Doctor Wu is gone. He’s supposed to return, but doesn’t, so the narrator has to out and search the back alleys of Miami for him. The narrator finally finds his dealer, and realizes the dealer is now a junkie too. Katy got to him. To make the connection clear, the saxophone returns as the song ends, closing this sad, yet beautiful vignette. As with other Steely Dan songs, it’s like a RaymondCarver story has been set to music.

One last bit of trivia; For anyone who wonders if Katy really lied, that’s a katydid on the album cover…

New Beginnings!

It was time to go. I had had enough of New Jersey. I accomplished many things during my five years on the East Coast. In a sense, I re-connected with my youth. I met up with old friends and family. I visited the house in which I grew up. I followed the Yankees. 

I also did important and/or fun things. These included two trips to the National Archives, during which I scanned photos for my current two-volume project. I found a good group with which to play Dungeons & Dragons. At work, I earned promotions and raises. However, none of this changed the fact that I wasn't truly happy in New Jersey. I yearned for Colorado, so in May this year I made my dream a reality and moved back to Denver. It's almost as if the last five years were a dream, and now I'm awake again.

I'm now awaiting the publication of volume 1 of Sunwheelsand Siegrunen. As I finish and edit this post, I’ve just finished going through the proof to check for errors. I've done a bit of work on volume 2, but that is on hold for a short while, until I have the last of my books and photos shipped to Colorado from New Jersey. I also need my good desktop computer.

I've used the last couple of months to listen to a bunch of new-to-me music. During my last weeks in New Jersey I ripped a lot of my CDs to my phone. I still have the S4, for which I downloaded the Poweramp app. This plays MP3 and WMA files, and shows the album artwork, even if it isn't embedded in the files (my music downloaded from Amazon and Bandcamp shows the artwork, while music ripped from my CDs required me to find a jpg of the cover and add it to the album folder). Having the artwork show while the song is playing somehow greatly enhances my enjoyment of the music.

While looking up various bands on Bandcamp, I discovered that a new Himinbjorg album came out this year. The title is Wyrd, and it is quite good. A couple of years ago I listened to October Falls for the first time in years, after realizing that Moonsorrow's Marko Tarvonen drummed on the recent albums. These quickly became favorites of mine. I finally got around to checking out another of Tarvonen's bands, Barren Earth. Their 2015 album is On Lonely Towers, and it is a great mix of Gothenberg-style melo-death with 70s prog. Barren Earth's new singer is the Faroese Jon Aldara. He's primarily known as the singer for Hemferd, a folky-doom metal band from the Faroe Islands who perform in their native language. 

SevSon1 introduced me another band from a sparsely populated Nordic island country, Iceland's Skalmold. Born Loka is nice symphonic black metal. In a vaguely-similar mode are French Canadians Valknacht. I first heard of them a year and a half ago when Kris Verwimp showed the cover he had painted for them on his Facebook page. The art blew me away, but it took until now for me to listen to Le Sacrifice d'Ymir and its predecessor, Chants de Guerre. Both are full-blooded, hearty albums full of melodic Black Metal with a hint of folk.

I've had Vredens Tid by Manegarm for years, and meant to listen to more by them. I noticed the video for Sons of War on Youtube, and was quite impressed when I listened to it. Some listeners have complained that the album Legions of the North is mostly in English, instead of the Swedish of past albums, but it doesn't bother me. Vintersorg (who is making progress with his healing) has made a successful career using both languages on his albums. 

Speaking of Vintersorg, the new Borknagar album is complete, and being mastered for release soon. Vintersorg completed his parts, ICS Vortex also did some vocals, and, in the biggest surprise, Kristoffer “Garm” Rygg also did some guest singing! He was the first Borknagar vocalist, and this joining of all three singers (with keyboardist Lars “Lazare” Nedlund also contributing, as usual) is a sort of dream come true for many fans. 

Now, speaking of ICS Vortex (aka Simen Hestnaes), his other band Arcturus finally released their new album this year. Arcturian is excellent. It’s full of crazy and chaotic arrangements over a melodic Black Metal base. It’s just the thing when other music seems too routine or predictable.

Sometime soon, I’ll write about my new SciFi discovery, the adventures of Kris Longknife and the related Jump Universe novels. As I wait for some big new smart phones to be released this autumn, I’m delighted to be able to drink Colorado beers again, and I want to post about that too. Hopefully, Sunwheels and Siegrunen is available soon. In the meantime, I’m very excited about everything I have going on. Happy reading and listening to you all!

Phabulous Phablets!

Cell phone technology has made enormous advances in recent years. It seems like only yesterday that Will Farrell was using the world's smallest flip phone on Saturday Night Live. I remember my boss in Denver around 2008 had one of those new-fangled iPhones, and was bragging about all the great things he could do. It seemed quite big, with its 3.5” screen.


Fast forward to 2011 and Samsung introduced the “enormous” Galaxy Note with a 5” screen. This is generally considered the first “phablet” (a cross between a phone and a tablet). Big-screened smart phones have been becoming more and more popular ever since.


I was largely oblivious to this trend at the time. I think it was in February of 2012 that I upgraded my phone to one with real internet capability. I got a data plan, and bought a SamsungTransform. One review I read said it was “almost a smart phone.” It was old-fashioned enough to have the face slide to the side to expose the keyboard. I could type reasonably well on that one, and it was a big improvement on my previous phone's need to hit a character multiple times to generate particular letters.


I realized I needed something still better. I started quizzing anybody who was willing, asking about their preferred smart phone. Several people, including my coworker Amy, told me they had replaced their iPhones with the Galaxy S series. The feedback on the S series was overwhelmingly positive, and I was due for an upgrade in August of 2013.


A month before that, however, I dropped my Transform, and it never worked properly again. I therefore paid an early upgrade fee and got a Galaxy S4 (along with an Otter Box case to protect it, yay for a Fort Collins business!). I still have the S4, and it's been great. But after almost two years of use, it's starting to wear out.


Since last Fall, I've been reading up on phones and again quizzing people on their likes and dislikes. In that time, the new iPhone 6+ has made large-screened phones fashionable, if they weren't already. The S4 is big, but is really just medium-sized by 2015 standards. I use it more as a “mobile device” for web browsing, email, and texting, than for making calls. I've realized I have no reason not to go for the biggest screen I can get, providing it is attached to a device with good specs. I loved the 6” screen on the LG G Flex(1), but it wasn't a top-of-the-line phone in terms of components.


I've decided that I want a 6” screen and a micro-SD slot (for increased storage) on my next phone. I was eager to see the Flex 2, but now that it is out, it is too small at 5.5”. It isn't too different from the LG G3, which is a lauded device, but, like the also-lauded 5.7” Galaxy Note 4, has a screen that is too narrow in portrait mode. The new Nexus 6 has a suitably large (and wide) 6” screen, but lacks micro-SD capability. Apparently, Google expects users to use clouds to increase storage. That's great until you find yourself in an area without coverage, and can't access the cloud!


New phones will be released throughout the year. I don't think I'm interested in the Galaxy S6, which is already getting good reviews. It is “only” 5.1” and is just a newer version of what I already have. Sony may make an “Ultra” version of their upcoming XperiaZ4, and if so, it might have a 6.44” screen like the original Xperia Z Ultra from 2013. But what's really caught my eye lately is the large phones from Huawei. The Ascend Mate 7 has a 6” screen, and the upcoming Ascend Mate 8 will probably have the same. They've also just announced the Mediapad X2, which is basically a 7” tablet with phone call capability. This seems like exactly what I want, but the early reports are that it won't work with 4G LTE networks in the USA. This would be a deal-breaker. Since the Mediapad X2 isn't officially out yet, I hope that this will change.


What do my readers think about cell phones in 2015? Are you on-board with “bigger is better?” What would you suggest I look into? Is the Mediapad X2 too big, or just right?


I'll update this site with my eventual selection. In the meantime, I'm still awaiting the typesetting for Sunwheels and Siegrunen. Helion hope to have it by the end of March. They continue to crank out books, so work is getting done, and my book will be released eventually. I'll update on that too, when the time comes. Until then, happy surfing, whether via computer, tablet, phone or phablet!

I've been reading Elfquest for over 30 years. It must have been during 1982 when I first found the Donning graphic novel editions of books 1 and 2. I was fortunate that the B. Dalton's at the Aviation Mall, in Queensbury, New York was apparently one of the first bookstores to stock these titles. My parents and I frequently visited my maternal grandparents, and these day trips often included a stop at the mall. The Elfquest books captivated me, and I soon asked for, and received them, for my 12^th birthday.


I've followed Elfquest ever since, at some times with more dedication, and at others with less. But I still treasure my many collected volumes, and now, 37 years into the publication history, Wendy and Richard Pini are in the midst of releasing The Final Quest, with a new comic book issue coming out every two months.


The latest storyline is being released through Dark Horse Comics. They are gradually re-releasing the older stories in anthologies.Volume 1, which covers the full original quest, as first collected in Books 1-4, is already available. It's the best starting point for anyone unfamiliar with Elfquest, though those with the patience to open one web page at a time might prefer to visit Elfquest.com. The Pinis have made 99% of the Elfquest stories ever published available there to read for free. Anyone who has skipped any of the stories can also use the site to catch up.


I won't go into detail on the history of Elfquest, the website can do that quite well. Instead, I'll give my contrarian view of the relative merits of the main storylines. I won't, at least for now, discuss the many offshoot stories with peripheral characters.


The original quest, as found in books 1-4 (or volume 1 in the new Dark Horse publishing program), is justifiably considered a classic. This set the template for what makes Elfquest successful. A long story, told in deliberate fashion, with each character getting moments to shine. The various characters are all some reader's favorite, and each must get their share of attention.


Books 5-8 will be reprinted as volume 2 of Dark Horse's series. Books 5 and 6 are the Siege at Blue Mountain arc, while 7 and 8 form Kings of the Broken Wheel. Most readers consider all four of these books to be wonderful, probably because they all have Wedy Pini's artwork. However, Siege at Blue Mountain was inked by Joe Staton, and I don't like how he finishes Wendy's pencils. Further, Richard Pini was minimally involved in the creation process. He was busy overseeing the launch of a line of non-Elfquest comics, and thus wasn't able to supply his usual heavy-handed editing. I think his touch is sorely missed, as this story has far too much corny dialog and situations. Finally, the story feels rushed, and only focuses on some of the characters. Things begin to improve with book 7, with Richard back fully on board and Wendy doing her own inking, but it was only in book 8 that the couple really hit their stride again. It doesn't hurt that book 8 is longer than the previous three.


Wendy and Richard Pini kept up the good work in the Hidden Years volume, which told five unrelated but very important stories. It was after this that things began to unravel, at least for many fans. Wendy mostly stopped drawing Elfquest, while focusing on getting the projected Elfquest movie into production. Other artists took over the Hidden Years storyline, which evolved into the Shards series. Brandon McKinney did most of the penciling, and I think he did a fine job, especially compared to those working on the peripheral stories. The Shards storyline was collected into books 10, 12, and 12a.


Shards is actually my favorite Elfquest story. I had to adjust to the different artwork, but I eventually realized it was quite good in its own right. What really impressed me is that the writing is the Pinis' best ever. They masterfully bring together elements from all of the previous stories in a way that feels authentic and appropriate. It makes sense that after hundreds of years of interactions, the elves would finally gain human and troll allies. The world around them changed from how it was back in book 1. The story proceeds at a leisurely pace, spread over three long books. The writing is mature, and finally each character again has moments in the spotlight. By the end, Shards even includes artwork by Wendy Pini!


I doubt many fans noticed that the main storyline continued in the story Full Circle, found in book 8b (In All But Blood). I'm fortunate to own a copy, as this book went out of print quickly. The story is okay, it starts to set the stage for the next larger story arc. The story, and the book as a whole, introduces Sonny Strait as a new collaborator for Wendy and Richard Pini. His art is the closest anyone has yet gotten to Wendy's, and his plot ideas suggest he is in tune with their vision for the series. Strait is working with them again as the colorist for the Final Quest storyline.


In between, the Pinis produced two small, self contained books that further advanced the story, though again primarily setting the stage for the Final Quest. Unnumbered, these are The Searcher and theSword, and The Discovery. Both are enjoyable and well-done, with beautiful art by Wendy and good storytelling. However, both are too short to be fully satisfying. I suppose it is best to look at them as the opening chapters to the Final Quest.


At this writing, the Final Quest just just completed its first book. A nice prolog issue and six regular comic book issues got the story started. It essentially retold the events that were first presented in the abortive Recognition story. This was itself an offshoot of the long Wild Hunt storyline, which told of Ember's splinter Wolfrider tribe during and after the Shards story. The Wild Hunt began poorly, but gradually developed into a fairly good story, with improved writing and art. The Final Quest used six issues to tell the story Recognition would have told in only two (or perhaps three). To give that dead horse another kick, Elfquest simply works better when told in a leisurely way. The Final Quest will ultimately consist of three or four books, the next issue to come out (due the lat week of January, 2015) will form the start of its second book. The paperback first book will be released this spring, for those who prefer to get their story all at once. I really enjoyed it in the separate issues, but only a little that was truly new occurred. The upcoming issues should finally present exciting new developments. I expect the high-quality art and writing to continue.


It's reassuring to know that Elfquest is still going strong after all this time. Thirty-three years on, it still captures my interest and imagination. If you've never read it, give it a try, it might capture yours too!

There's only so much time in the day to listen to music. At least, that's my excuse for why I still have music I need (or simply want) to catch up with. Enslaved's catalog comes to mind. The bits I've heard have been awesome, and I expect to enjoy getting to know their discography when the time comes.


What am I waiting for? And why do I keep ending sentences with prepositions? To answer the former, it is more than a time matter. I like the idea of always having more things to explore, especially things I think I will like. That's why, for example, there's still books by Glen Cook that I've never read.


Over the past year I've started crossing Andreas Hedlund's works off my list. He's the man who used to go by the stage name “Vintersorg,” and now usually calls himself “Mr. V.” He's a Swedish singer, musician, and songwriter who I learned back in 2000 or 2001, when I first re-immersed myself in the Metal scene. I would buy the latest issues of Unrestrained! And Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles magazine (remember magazines?), and there would always be an advertisement for the recent Napalm Records releases. Hedlund's solo project was known as Vintersorg, and his CosmicGenesis album was often in the ads.


If I remember right, my friend Odinn already had the 1999 Vintersorg release, Ödemarkensson (Son of the Wilderness), and I borrowed it from him to listen to on a road trip. I was still learning to appreciate harsh vocals, but I enjoyed many of the songs. Odinn also had a CD of one of Hedlund's other projects, the folk band Otyg, and I think I borrowed that too. Otyg's lead guitarist was Hedlund's old friend Mattias Marklund, and for Cosmic Genesis, Marklund joined Vintersorg, making the project a duo (though Hedlund still wrote the songs, with Marklund helping with the arrangements and recording).


At some point, probably in 2001, I bought Cosmic Genesis. The next year I bought the newly-released Visions From the Spiral Generator, and in 2004, The Focusing Blur. From Cosmic Genesis onward, the albums got less folky. The root Black Metal became tempered more and more with Progressive flourishes, and the lyrics became mostly English. The earlier Vintersorg releases, which include the Hedniskhjärtad (Pagan Hearted) EP and Tillfjälls (To the Mountains) album were sung entirely in Swedish.


Hedlund became friendly with Borknagar mainman Oystein Brun during the late 1990s. When singer ICS Vortex amicably left Borknagar, Brun asked Hedlund to take over the vocal duties. Hedlund joined the band in 2001, and recorded the Empiricism album. He's remained with them ever since (and Vortex has recently returned, expanding the vocal variety), and I bought the 2004 album Epic when it came out. I liked it, but I could see how Vintersorg and Borknagar were becoming too similar. I stopped paying attention to Borknagar for a while.


Brun and Hedlund understood the situation. The next Borknagar album, 2006's Origin, was all acoustic, which stripped away the prog edge of Epic. Musically, Borknagar had become, and still is, the shared vision of Brun and Lars “Lazare” Nedlund. Lazare loves quirky progressive touches in his music, while Brun wanted to create songs with a cold tone distinct from the warmth of Borknagar (“warm” by Black and extreme metal standards). Hedlund was interested in this too, so together they formed the side-project Cronian, releasing the Terra album also in 2006.

The second Cronian album, Enterprise, came out in 2008. Before that, Hedlund released two albums in 2007. Vintersorg's Solensrötter wasn't as folky as the advertising campaign made it out to be, but it did remove some of the proggier elements, and it restored the Swedish language. The other album was a new solo project, which he named Waterclime. This wasn't Metal at all, it was instead an outlet for Hedlund's love of 70s prog rock in the vein of Uriah Heep and ELP. The first Waterclime album, The Astral Factor, actually came out in 2006, with the second, Imaginative, coming out the next year. These gave Hedlund the creative space to express his interest in proggy music to the full, while reserving the Vintersorg project for folk-influenced Black Metal.


Borknagar returned in 2010, with the plugged-in Universal album. This was followed in 2012 by Urd. I heard some of the latter, and that is where I began my catching up with Hedlund's releases. I bought Urd, and liked it a lot. I listened to some Waterclime songs, and then bought both albums. Cronian released their third album, Erathems, during 2013, and I liked the samples enough to purchase that one too. I followed this up by buying Universal.


I still needed to catch up with Vintersorg. A new album, Naturbal (Nature's Bonfire) was due in early summer 2014. Two albums had come out since Solens rötter, Jordpuls (Earth Pulse) in 2011 and Orkan (Hurricane) in 2012. This past spring therefore, I bought both, and then Naturbal, when it came out. Together, these are ¾ of a cycle about the classic elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water, with only the latter remaining to be released. With some time to digest all this music, I like almost all of it, from all the varied projects. Honestly, a lot of the music has similarities, and Hedlund's vocals are a constant, but it feels as though the song elements these days are all in the right places. Borknagar is blackened, but with some warmth and quirkiness, Cronian is blackened with a bit of chill and some cinematic quality, Waterclime is proggy and almost happy at times (probably due to the lack of harsh vocals), while Vintersorg mixes folk moments with its black Metal core. About the latter, the lead guitar parts from Jordpuls on have been especially good, both in composition and in the actual playing. This is just a guess, but I suspect that Marklund has had a bigger share of the arranging of the songs for these albums than he did in the past.


I hope Hedlund will be releasing more music in the future. Sadly, he hit his head in an accident in his home during November. He wrote a single statement on November 29, asking for privacy and admitting he had a long recovery ahead. Nothing has been stated about his condition since then, but no news is hopefully good news. I know he had written the music for a new Otyg reunion album, and for a third Waterclime one. He was supposed to start recording vocals for the next Borknagar album in late 2014, but that is now on hold until he's recovered. I wish him all the best.


In the meantime, I haven't completed catching up on his music. I'm working my way back through the Borknagar and Cronian catalogs. The next albums I'll acquire will probably be Origin and Enterprise, but I'll get them all eventually. Enslaved will be added too. One last detail about how to acquire these albums. I provided Amazon links for most of them. Hedlund was selling all of the Vintersorg albums as digital downloads via Bandcamp, but his site is no longer available following his accident. That was the only way I knew to legally acquire Hedniskhjärtad, which is out of print on CD and not available elsewhere as an MP3. Erathems is still available on Bandcamp, but the other two Cronian releases have disappeared from the site.


On a different note, I hope to receive the proof of the typesetting for Sunwheels and Siegrunen in the next few weeks. I hope everyone reading this has had a great start to 2015, all the best to all of you.