After really getting a kick out of Toumani Diabate's Kora work in "In The Heart of the Moon," I got another one of his.

New Ancient Strings by Toumani Diabate & Ballake SissokoThis is a pure Kora duet album, recorded in one take in one night at the Palais de Congres in Mali. Somewhere between a harp and a lute, the flurry of beauty is astounding ( Read more... )

This was a quick read, but well worth it:

The Futorological Congress by Stanislaw LemThe book's hero Ijon Tichy, attends a futorological congress set in a future Costa Rica on the verge of complete breakdown. The congress seeks to investigate and provide solutions for the world's rapidly advancing population, and the effects thereof. As the city ( Read more... )

This entry brought to you by my stinging hands (from the Djembe lesson I had this afternoon). Some new CDs and a book.

Shame by Salman RushdieHalfway through reading this book I read an article about it that indicated that the book was in large a rough recreation of a particular saga in Pakistani politics (regarding the Bhuttos and their ( Read more... )

First off, I'd like to give a big PR blurb to http://www.cheap-cds.com who I tend to use for almost all of my CD purchases. Their plus points are: a) they tend to have almost everything, I've only had a handful of things that I had to go back to Amazon for; b) they have a super-minimalist ( Read more... )

After seeing what poodah_reads has done with her reading journal, I thought I would create this journal to post about interesting books and CDs that I read or listen to.
The initial cut:

The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman RushdieA sprawling novel, to match the sprawl of the geography it is set in (India, at the time of the nationalism movement). The writing ( Read more... )