Marty Halpern's Blog, page 3

Bruce Springsteen: "The Middle"

[Ignore the Jeep advertising and just listen to The Boss's words....]

Bruce Springsteen: "The Middle"

[Ignore the Jeep advertising and just listen to The Boss's words....]

John Fogerty's "Weeping In The Promised Land"

"Weeping In The Promised Land"
A watery new well been poisoned with liesWeeping in the promised landSatan's dark angels are falling from the skyWeeping in the promised landChildren of God, he turns into stoneSick and the weak, he dancing on their bonesPharaoh shouting down the medicine manWeeping in the promised land
If I could talk Beirut, behold, he comes to speakWeeping in the promised landHistory spewing, it's power that he seeksWeeping in the promised landWith dread in their eyes, all the nurses are cryingSo much sorrow, so much damnedPharaoh keep a-preaching but he never had a planWeeping in the promised landWeeping in the promised land
And say weeping, weepingWeeping in the promised landAnd say weeping, weepingWeeping in the promised land
Pharaoh's army knocking on the doorWeeping in the promised landShoot you in your bed just like they done beforeWeeping in the promised landOut in the street, on your neck with a kneeAll the people are crying your last words"I can't breathe"And why just say there'd been no crime here todayWeeping in the promised landWeeping in the promised land
And say weeping, weepingWeeping in the promised landAnd say weeping, weepingWeeping in the promised landWell weeping, weepingWeeping in the promised landYeah, weeping, weepingWeeping in the promised land

Greg Lake - "I Believe In Father Christmas" (Original Version - 4K Restored)

Charles Stross's Dead Lies Dreaming: The New Laundry Files Novel

U.S. Tor edition
I actually completed work on this manuscript for Tor Books at the end of January -- yes, January 2020! But knowing that nine months remained before the book would be published I decided to hold off writing about said book on this blog until we got a lot closer to the publication date.

That date is approximately four weeks away: the U.S. edition from Tor will be released on October 27; the U.K. edition from Orbit Books will be released on October 29. 

And though Dead Lies Dreaming will be the tenth Laundry Files novel from Charles Stross, this book is not -- I repeat, not -- part of the current/ongoing series involving our favorite cast of characters from Q-Division: Bob Howard, Dominique "Mo" O'Brien, Alex Schwartz, Mhari Murphy, and Pinky and Brains.

This new volume is actually the first in a new trilogy involving... well,  the only character from the prior books who even tangentially appears in this new series is Fabian Everyman, aka the Mandate, aka New Management (aka the Prime Minister). In fact, Stross's working title for this new series is "Tales of the New Management."

In his "Charlie's Diary" blog post of September 27, the author writes:

"....I gave myself license to doodle therapeutically. The therapeutic doodles somehow colonized the abandoned first third of a magical realist novel I pitched in 2014, and turned into an unexpected attack novel titled Lost Boys. (It was retitled Dead Lies Dreaming because a cult comedy movie from 1987 got remade for TV in 2020—unless you're a major bestseller you do not want your book title to clash with an unrelated movie—but it's still Lost Boys in my headcanon.)

Lost Boys—that is, Dead Lies Dreaming—riffs heavily off Peter and Wendy, the original taproot of Peter Pan, a stage play and novel by J. M. Barrie that predates the more familiar, twee, animated Disney version of Peter Pan from 1953 by some decades....Peter and Wendy can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg here. And if you only know Pan from Disney, you're in for a shock."

Orbit U.K. editionIn that blog post, the author shares a lot more detail on the genesis of this new Laundry Files series than I have included here, so be sure to click on that "Diary" link above to read the full content.
For those familiar with the previous Laundry Files novels, in The Annihilation Score, regular humans began developing superpowers. In Dead Lies Dreaming, those everyday people have formed groups, or clans (i.e. the Lost Boys of the original title), and now work in unison to, shall we say, pull the wool over the eyes of authority. And in this world, where there are thieves, there will be a thief-taker.
But as in any Laundry Files novel, there is always a much bigger (very much bigger!) outcome (the world!) at stake.
Dead Lies Dreaming is now available for preorder at Amazon and Amazon UK, or your bookseller of choice.

In Memory of John Lewis (1940–2020)

"Today we celebrate our Independence Day...."

Tonight my wife and I will partake in our annual July 4 guilty pleasure: watching the 1996 movie Independence Day (ID4), while the neighborhood's illegal fireworks provide the incessant background explosions. The movie stars Bill Pullman as President Thomas J. Whitmore, Will Smith as Marine Captain Steven Hiller, and Jeff Goldblum as MIT-educated computer hacker David Levinson.
Here is the speech the president gives prior to the attack on the alien ship in ID4:

Good morning. Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world, and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind.
Mankind, that word should have new meaning for all of us today.
We can't be consumed by our petty differences any more.

We will be united in our common interest.

Perhaps it's fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom. Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution, but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exist. And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:

"We will not go quietly into the night!
We will not vanish without a fight!
We're going to live on, we're going to survive."

Today we celebrate our independence day!

—President Thomas J. Whitmore
    July 4th, 1996

Grace Potter - "Eachother" (Lyric Video)

"Streets are all empty
Shelves are all bare
The world is holding its breath like we're running out of air

It's the first in our lifetime
Might not be the last
But I remember when my grandmama told me once - she said 'This too shall pass'

I don't know where we're going
But if the going gets rough,
We've got Eachother
And for now, that's enough"

Featuring Marcus King, Jackson Browne, and Lucius....

Thank you to all our healthcare workers!

courtesy of @ilovelucius

Mural by Denise Olenak

Denise Olenak finishes a mural in San Jose, California on Tuesday, March 31, 2020, honoring health care workers fighting the Coronavirus pandemic. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
For additional photos and details of the mural-in-process: The Mercury News.