Book rec

A few years ago, my sister and metalkatt got me into reading this series of books by Piers Anthony called the "Incarnations of Immortality." There's War, God, Satan, Nature, etc. in the 7-book series. I wondered if anyone else had read these?

Anthony leans a bit sexist in the later books, which I overlooked for the sake of the stories themselves. I think his first book is probably the best of the lot, On A Pale Horse, which - as you might guess from the title - is about Death. It starts off with a normal guy, Zane, having a bad day which goes from bad to worse when an attacker comes into his home. Only after he kills the invader in self-defense is Zane informed that he has murdered Death and, in doing so, must take his place as the Grim Reaper. He gets a cloak, his own mansion in the clouds, and a steed that changes into whatever he needs to traverse any surface to make his collections around the world, be it car, boat, or animal. While he gets some guidance from the other Incarnations, he learns the job on the fly, begins a relationship with a mortal woman, and even tricks Satan into not destroying the human race.

Good book. Highly recommended.

musical time-waster

This is the meme going around about how you go to the Wikipedia home page and click on "Random Article" on the upper left. The first you get is your band name; the second click is your latest album name. The following 15 clicks are your track listings. (This is a hell of a lot more fun than trying to write about the Peruvian trade agreement and agriculture.)

We are Laval.

Our latest album is "Carlazzo." We are industrial mid-European technopunk with not much of our own singing.

Side A (for those of us who remember LPs)

1. Ted Kendall
2. Brown Twinspot (feat. gryphons_lair and finding_neo on vocals)
3. Aston Villa F.C.
4. Nackasändaren
5. Calaceite
6. Cannanore Cantonment (feat. Kompressor on vocals)
7. Ondrašová (feat. Enya)

Side B

1. Danish Red Cattle
2. Ponmudi
3. Mikhail Kalinin
4. La Palma Giant Lizard
5. Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
6. Ribas do Rio Pardo (feat. Robbie Williams)
7. Kings of Jorvik (feat. 50 Cent)
8. Mansfield Township School District (feat. the Vienna Boys Choir)

Liner notes: "La Palma Giant Lizard" is our first single from this one, a catchy dance number with lots of tympani. The video features Orlando Bloom (NOT the Geico gekko, as the Internet rumors first claimed), because our roadie knows Beck's manager, and it's a long complicated story - nevertheless, he did it for minimal pay and was a real trouper when we put him in the green paint and loincloth. Salut, Orlando!