Acquisitions

On Tuesday, japanologist mailed me to tell me that there was a new CD by Alice Coltrane, whose "Ptah the El Daoud" is an all-time favourite, and actually introduced the harp into jazz music.

I didn't know she was still alive, even! Turns out she didn't have a new record in 26 years. Now there is one: "Translinear Light". Still her typical jazz with mystical and New Age elements, but wow does it make your mind buck and kick when that serious Indian chant suddenly gets syncopated and starts swinging. Here is one example, yousendited, so it is only good for one Roundworld week, starting, erm, now:

Satya Sai Isha

Second acquisition: "The Celebrated Discworld Almanak"

Not a Discworld Diary this time around, although it contains two calendars, one of which contains Octedays, the other no day names, but 36 days to the month. And there is the month of Ick, 16 days between December and Offle, which will be so hard to integrate into the discworld_rpg

I don't know who except us RPG muns will ever need that book(let); it contains lots of cute and weird new canon facts wonderful for integrating into RPage, but no story! Instead, lots of astrology and even the occasional bits of astronomy. Of course, what with Great A'Tuin swimming through space, stars come and go, so research astrologers are forever mapping out new constellation and then take surveys on what people born under those new signs are like. And if your sign is left behind, you can apply for a new one. tahira_saki, I fear you will have to get that book just to make Skazz spout the correct kind of jargony nonsense.

So, and third- and lastly, as I had just been mentioning Prince Felix Yusupov to supiluliumas, I'll do a mini-Ji and post an excerpt from the second part of Felix' autobiography, which was only ever published in French; I translate it, of course, because otherwise the only person on my flist truly enjoying the quotation would be Ji.

I chose a random little passage where he hardly talks about himself, but which is so wonderfully typical: gossippy, bizzare, full of weird humour, but with a sudden depth, and understanding for all the strange little oddities of humanity. Also, there is the strange poignancy of the "eccentric" cross-dressing woman in this little story - whom he accepts as one of the endless varieties that make life interesting, but who is treated with contempt by others, which in turn to him appears weird and bizarre.

( an excerpt from Felix: The Impossible Valérie )