The backyard and driveway are covered with maple tree seeds. The tree in my backyard made more seeds than usual and they are all over the place. It was fun to look outside on windy days over the past few weeks and watch the little helicopters twirling all around.

Recently read: Cities of the Red Night (William Burroughs). The first two-thirds or so of the book seemed to have a mostly narrative structure, which made for an easier read than the two books of the Nova Trilogy that I read a few months back. But then something switched and I mostly lost the plot. It wasn’t quite as jumpy as the cut-up sections in the Nova Trilogy, but …

A few things that I’ve been spending time on:

Currently playing: Black Mesa Blue Shift

Working my way through the new release from the Black Mesa: Blue Shift team. HECU Collective just released Chapter 5 “Focal Point” and I’m enjoying replaying the first four chapters and seeing Chapter 5 for the first time. The screenshot above is from Chapter 5.

 

Recently read

The Illuminatus! Trilogy (Shea and Wilson). I took about two months to finish this. There is a lot going on in the book and I kept getting bogged down and found myself going back and rereading sections.

The Soft Machine: The Restored Text (William Burroughs, edited by Oliver Harris). I enjoyed this a lot more when I started reading it out loud and imagining Burrough’s voice. Definitely not a traditional storyline.

The KLF: Chaos, Magic, and the Band Who Burned a Million Pounds (John Higgs, 2012/2024). This was the book that got me to finally read The Illuminatus! Trilogy. I had read that the KLF were intertwined in some ways with the Trilogy (for example, the classic “Kick out the JAMs” line is taken from the book, as is “The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu”, albeit with a typo…) so I decided to read the Trilogy before reading the KLF book. I am very glad that I did. I’m also glad that I have some knowledge of Robert Anton Wilson’s work, and Alan Moore’s work, as they both feature prominently in the KLF book.

 

Recently watched: Gladiator (2000) and Sicario (2015).

The stack of unread books grows higher and higher after this week’s trip to The Book Beat. It’s a great bookstore a little north of Detroit and they always have lots of things that catch my eye.

I’ve read most of McCarthy’s novels but this is only my second Burroughs.

Currently reading: The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. This has been on my “should read” list since the 90s (over two decades…) and I’ve finally bought a used copy and have gotten started. I’m about a quarter of the way through and am enjoying it a lot so far.