I’ve been lax about updating this blog lately. Terribly busy on many fronts, as I’m sure many people are. I finished my fifteen-week stint with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Citizen’s Police Academy in early December, which has provided me with plenty of interesting insight to use in future writing projects.
My wife and I participated in the Blue Elves program run by the MCSO and the CPA alumni. The organizers reach out to guidance counselors at local area schools to identify underprivileged youth who might not get much for Christmas. They then seek the parents’ approval to add them to the program and then they are queried about what they might like to receive. Last year the Blue Elves provided gifts to some 700 kids. This year, they doubled the number. Our part in the project was helping to wrap gifts. A defunct furniture warehouse was provided for this project. We showed up at 6 pm one Thursday evening to find dozens of other elves wrapping everything you can image. I opted for rectangular objects, whereas my wife took on some of the more challenging items, like footballs and soccer balls! We wrapped for nearly three hours. All for a terrific cause.
As the year draws to an end, it’s time for everyone’s favorite: best-of lists! In subsequent posts I’ll tackle books, films and TV series, and my year in writing. Today I’ll tackle new music I listened to during 2018. My wife and I saw two terrific concerts: Jeff Lynne’s ELO and The Alan Parsons Live Project.
I don’t buy a ton of new music. I seem to be stuck in the 70s and 80s for the most part. These are my favorite “new” albums I acquired in 2018:
- Kaleidoscope Heart – Sara Bareilles
- Brave Enough: Live – Sara Bareilles
- Hymn – Sarah Brightman
- Egypt Station – Paul McCartney
- Let Me Fly – Mike + The Mechanics
- Platinum 1, 2, 3 – Deep Purple
- Mascara & Monsters – Alice Cooper
- S&M – Metallica
- Codex VI – Shpongle
- Out of Silence – Neil Finn
I was familiar with Sara Bareilles from her “King of Everything” hit single, but after I heard her live performance of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” I decided to pick up a couple of her albums. She has a terrific voice and writes savvy songs.
Before going to KillerCon this fall, I decided I should broaden my exposure to heavy metal music. I delved into Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, Metallica and listened to nothing but as I drove to Austin and back. I added Alice Cooper to the mix, only to discover that he’s more of a pop singer than metal. Very good, though. My wife went to see him in concert this year with a friend, but I didn’t get to go.
In 2019, I’m hoping that Dissonant Harmonies, the music-inspired project that Brian Keene and I have been working on for a decade, sees the light of day. I’ll have more to say about music in the introduction to that volume.
