Soldier Songs begins and ends with gong-like sounds, which could be large mortar explosions. There are quotes from soldiers about the life-or-death circumstances of war as killing; and making oneself available to die upon orders; and the (usually forbidden) permission to kill. An experimental classical sound supports the ordinary conversation of the soldiers’ testimonies: piano, drone, and pulsing rhythm accompany the voices.
Month: May 2013
Bob Rich’s Ascending Spiral
The author of Ascending Spiral talks about his latest novel,about genre bending, the books themes, its characters, sustainability, about being a Renaissance man, on optimism and pessimism, and lots more.
A review of The United States Chess Championship, 1845-2011 Third Edition by Andy Soltis
Soltis provides a crisp and lively narrative which ripples outward from the book’s strict subject matter on occasion to consider, for example, the career and fate of Paul Morphy. There is a generous selection of games, full tournament crosstables and some interesting statistics (e.g. Fine has one of the highest winning percentages in the championship with 78%, despite never having won it; for comparison: Fischer has the highest with 83.3%).
Wojo’s Weapons, Volume 3 Winning with White by Jonathan Hilton and Dean Ippolito
All these openings are covered in the book, which is another solid contribution by Dean Ippolito and Jonathan Hilton. As before, they combine detailed analysis of Wojtkiewicz’s chosen lines with instructive discussions of the underlying strategic ideas.
A review of Tune Your Chess Tactics Antenna by Emmanuel Neiman
The strengths of the book include the freshly minted examples of classical tactical themes (virtually all games date from 2011 and 2012) and the systematic approach overall, as regards both the tactics and Neiman’s account of the thinking process (combinational vision, calculation, evaluation).