My New Atkins Diet

I have a ritual that I run good songs through to see if they can be great songs. I play it three times in a row. If I want to hear it a fourth time, I take the CD out of the player, and I wait for at least three hours. If after a fourth play I am more excited than I was about the song than I was after its first play, it’s a great song. If I play it two more times in that day, and I still like it, it becomes an obsession.

Enter Nicole Atkins.

I got the latest TM Century disc at work, and listened for new prospects for the VBC. When I heard “The Way It Is”, I immediately stopped what I was doing. For the first time since “Blitzed” by the Raveonettes I found a song that was worthy of my music endurance test. It has since moved to the type of obsessive listening that I haven’t had since “Diablo Rojo” came out last summer.

The best way to describe Nicole Atkins is to think of Justine Bateman if she was cast to play Stevie Nicks in a Fleetwood Mac movie and Chrissy Hynde did the vocals.

On first listen, I thought that her new CD Neptune City (a reference to her home town, Neptune, NJ) was a few good songs with a respectable secondary line-up. This was after listening to the CD in the order that it was downloaded (thank you iTunes). But, after listening to it in the proper order, the album as a whole makes sense.

Behold, the New ianshane.com

The new site (ianshane.com)is now up. So, here’s how the new layout works. The site is devoted to the book, and other writings. The Show’s new design (still under construction) is much like the old design (one that I like, but is impractical for its updated purpose). It will still be up, although the VBC is still off the air. This blog will be the home of the personal updates, as well as my soap box that deals with books, writing, music, Indiana sports, and other topics.

Confused? You won’t be after this episode of “Soap”.

I like the new site, which has the same look as the blog. The new system makes it easier for me to keep up with postings, and to maintain the original purpose of website (which was conceived almost 4 years ago), to be a showcase for the book, and other writings.

Enjoy.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I can’t believe that I did it!

I wrote for about five hours on Monday (about 1200 words). It’s something from the second novel. I wanted to print it last night for my Writers Guild meeting, but I couldn’t find it on my computer—it was nowhere. I guess that I just didn’t save it.

It’s not just that I have to do the work again, but it was something that I thought was really good. I hope that I can remember how it went, or else I’m going to get very frustrated with it.

The moral of the story: ALWAYS SAVE EVERYTHING…even if you don’t plan on using it later.

The Rum Diary

I’ll be completely honest; I was never really a fan of Hunter S. Thompson until his death several years ago. I saw the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas when it came out. Although Terry Gilliam’s animations were…well, interesting…I didn’t really find the value of Thompson’s writing from the film.

The day he died, a student of mine challenged me to read the book, rather than judge his work from the movie. When I did, I had a new respect for Dr. Gonzo. When you don’t have the distractions of the movie to take away from the story, and the writing, you can see for yourself that wording is utter genius.

With that in mind, I finally got a chance to read The Rum Diary. The story takes place in San Juan in the late 1950s, just after Castro takes over Cuba. The tale of a hard drinking journalist (sound like anyone that we know?), Paul Kemp, deals with temptation, betrayal and working for an organization that is about to fold at any moment. It’s one of Thompson’s early works, but his signature detail and writing style takes its form.

I’m almost a little surprised that there hasn’t been a screen version of this tale. It’s a fairly easy read, and quick to get through. I would highly recommend the read, especially during the summer time.