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Jul. 7th, 2014 09:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tvordljIt's Monday morning again and in one week I will be in Montreal to see Queen (+Adam Lambert). Because he's not an official full time member of the band, he gets to have his name added on in all the publicity. My coworker who is a dedicated Adam fan suspects things are in the works for him to join full time at some point but I also hear he is going to work on a new album of his own later this year. That being said, there's no reason he couldn't join full time and still put out his own solo stuff.
I wonder, if he joins full time, that they'll record new stuff? It seems like there's a lot more excitement surrounding the band these days than when they had Paul Rogers singing with them. I think that was never meant to be a long term thing though they did release an album of new music. It was pretty good, better than him performing their classic stuff. In my opinion. I've got nothing against PR as a vocalist, he's got a good voice, I just never though it meshed with Queen particularly well. Adam Lambert really does seem to fit in well. His style is also flambuoyant but in his own way. Because Queen has been so associated with the likes of Freddie Mercury, you need someone that has a similar flair, I think and in AL it seems they have found it.
We're just in and out, basically, flying in on Sunday and back home on Tuesday after the concert. We'll get to do a little bit of stuff in Montreal on the Monday, maybe visit the BioDome and walk around Old Montreal for a bit as well. It really is a cool city.
And catching up on 2014 books...
47 - American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Definitely different. It's about a man who gets out of prison just as his wife is killed in a car crash with another man. He ends up connecting with a man who is the embodiment of a God and meets other people who are similar, represending Gods from various cultures. The old Gods are dying out and new ones are taking over the world and the old ones are trying to fight to retain their place in the world.
18 - Son of a Certain Woman - Wayne Johnston
Tells the story of a boy born with a birthmark over much of his body, as well as abnormally large hands and feet. He lives in St. John's, Newfoundland in the late 1950s, the illegitimate son of a woman considered "easy". The boy and his mother both struggle against the disapproval of the Catholic society in which he and his mother live, determined to live the way they want to against all attempts at making an honest woman and God Fearing Catholic of them both. The boy also has an attraction for his mother which gives this a bit of a twist and his mother has a lodger, a teacher at the local school, that helps her with expenses. He loves her but though she shares his bed occasionally, she loves another but that's a secret! This , too, is different but also a good portrayal of life in St. John's at that time.
49 - Written in My Own Hear's Blood - Diana Gabaldon
The eighth in her books about Jamie and Claire Fraser. Another excellent book!
50 - Phantom - Jo Nesbo
The latest in the Harry Hole book and possibly the last though I've heard there is another one out next year so it couldn't really end the way it seems to. Not quite as good as the earlier Harry Hole books. He returns after a few years away to try to save his erswhile would-be drug addicted stepson Oleg from being convicted as a murderer.
51 - The Age of Desire - Jennie Fields
A fictionalized account of the affair that author Edith Wharton had with a journalist in Paris in the early 1900s. Not bad. Not great. A bit dull, really.
The Book of Negroes - Lawrence Hill
52 - Finally a book that has been hyped is as good as it's purported to be. I really enjoyed this. Tells the story of a woman abducted into slavery in Africa in the mid 18th century, taken to America. She survived the crossing, was eventually sold to a Jew who later took her to New York. She was there through the Revolutionary war and was involved in helping to record all the free Negroes who were being evacuated as Loyalists to various parts of Canada and other British colonies at the time. There really was a "Book of Negroes" and parts of it can be viewed at several ARchives including the one here in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We follow her to Shelburne, Nova Scotia over the course of 10 years as she tries to survive. From there, she travels back to Africa to a new free settlement in Sierra Leone and from there, eventually to England with the abolitionists where she writes her story.
I wonder, if he joins full time, that they'll record new stuff? It seems like there's a lot more excitement surrounding the band these days than when they had Paul Rogers singing with them. I think that was never meant to be a long term thing though they did release an album of new music. It was pretty good, better than him performing their classic stuff. In my opinion. I've got nothing against PR as a vocalist, he's got a good voice, I just never though it meshed with Queen particularly well. Adam Lambert really does seem to fit in well. His style is also flambuoyant but in his own way. Because Queen has been so associated with the likes of Freddie Mercury, you need someone that has a similar flair, I think and in AL it seems they have found it.
We're just in and out, basically, flying in on Sunday and back home on Tuesday after the concert. We'll get to do a little bit of stuff in Montreal on the Monday, maybe visit the BioDome and walk around Old Montreal for a bit as well. It really is a cool city.
And catching up on 2014 books...
47 - American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Definitely different. It's about a man who gets out of prison just as his wife is killed in a car crash with another man. He ends up connecting with a man who is the embodiment of a God and meets other people who are similar, represending Gods from various cultures. The old Gods are dying out and new ones are taking over the world and the old ones are trying to fight to retain their place in the world.
18 - Son of a Certain Woman - Wayne Johnston
Tells the story of a boy born with a birthmark over much of his body, as well as abnormally large hands and feet. He lives in St. John's, Newfoundland in the late 1950s, the illegitimate son of a woman considered "easy". The boy and his mother both struggle against the disapproval of the Catholic society in which he and his mother live, determined to live the way they want to against all attempts at making an honest woman and God Fearing Catholic of them both. The boy also has an attraction for his mother which gives this a bit of a twist and his mother has a lodger, a teacher at the local school, that helps her with expenses. He loves her but though she shares his bed occasionally, she loves another but that's a secret! This , too, is different but also a good portrayal of life in St. John's at that time.
49 - Written in My Own Hear's Blood - Diana Gabaldon
The eighth in her books about Jamie and Claire Fraser. Another excellent book!
50 - Phantom - Jo Nesbo
The latest in the Harry Hole book and possibly the last though I've heard there is another one out next year so it couldn't really end the way it seems to. Not quite as good as the earlier Harry Hole books. He returns after a few years away to try to save his erswhile would-be drug addicted stepson Oleg from being convicted as a murderer.
51 - The Age of Desire - Jennie Fields
A fictionalized account of the affair that author Edith Wharton had with a journalist in Paris in the early 1900s. Not bad. Not great. A bit dull, really.
The Book of Negroes - Lawrence Hill
52 - Finally a book that has been hyped is as good as it's purported to be. I really enjoyed this. Tells the story of a woman abducted into slavery in Africa in the mid 18th century, taken to America. She survived the crossing, was eventually sold to a Jew who later took her to New York. She was there through the Revolutionary war and was involved in helping to record all the free Negroes who were being evacuated as Loyalists to various parts of Canada and other British colonies at the time. There really was a "Book of Negroes" and parts of it can be viewed at several ARchives including the one here in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We follow her to Shelburne, Nova Scotia over the course of 10 years as she tries to survive. From there, she travels back to Africa to a new free settlement in Sierra Leone and from there, eventually to England with the abolitionists where she writes her story.
