The Grinder Diary, Oct. 1-15

Listening to...

• Aqua by Angra. Another masterful album from the most talented band ever in the power metal genre. They actually transcend the genre these days, putting so much and varied material in their music that they have developed a style pretty much unique to them.
• Miss Potter - original soundtrack. Nigel Westlake's score creates a wonderful aural image of Beatrix Potter's era in England. Excellent music for excellent but curiously overlooked film.
• John Adams, again. Christian Zeal and Activity is a strange and mesmerizing work! Wonder about the story behind the piece... El Dorado I need to return to, the circumstances for concentrated listening were far from optimal.
• Eternal Idol and Headless Cross by Black Sabbath. Very good heavy rock (this is not metal, really) from Tony Iommi's short-lived "Project Sabbath". Stylistically close to the Dio-era stuff, with singer Tony Martin faithfully reproducing Dio's phrasings and mannerisms. There are some pretty Rainbow-ish passages as well, especially on Idol. Good songs, good playing, bad timing; these albums are now well worth a critical reappraisal.
• Selina Martin's all three albums. The very talented young Toronto songwriter is only in the early stages of her career, so stay tuned. I'm certain there's going to be a lot of good music coming her way in years to come.
• Nathan Barr's scores to True Blood - what a find! This probably works well even if you never watch the show. The low-key, organic, intimate and yet forceful soundscape of chamber, early and ethnic/folk influences is simply stunning. An instant favorite.

Watching...

• The Big Bang Theory - I love it! This is the 2nd run of the show in Finland; I completely missed out first time, so thank you whoever decided to give it another go.
• The original Planet of the Apes movies - this is our family's weekend watching now that we have worked through the entire 007 catalogue. Our older kid enjoys the philosophizing and ethical dilemmas present in the films, but how did the folks 40 year ago handle the snail's pace of these movies... *yawn*.

Reading...

• Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris. Ambitious, clever and somewhat overreaching in its overall cleverness. But I respect her a lot for not standing still after her initial successes. This one is not a between-the-eyes, bull's eye novel, but there's lots to admire.
• The Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson. The Swedes have already adopted the late Larsson's social/political thrillers as their national treasure, and I confess being as hooked. Larsson, a journalist, was not artistically very skilled as a novelist, but the directness and rawness, combined with the minute details of Sweden's everyday life, is impressive. And his over-the-top (anti)heroine, Lisbeth Salander, is an unforgettable creation.