Neal Stephenson's new book gets it right!

Other readers of Neal Stephenson, enigmatic cyberpunk-turned-historical writer have probably suffered the same frustration as I: trying to adjust as a favorite writer of action-packed wired science fiction began to turn out book after book of dense historical fiction.

His Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World) consisted of three doorstopper sized tomes that weighed in at over 1,000 pages each, and tried the stamina of even the most persistent reader. Anyone who longed for the razor sharp drama of Snow Crash or The Diamond Age was sorely dissapointed, although the Baroque Cycle's characters did manage to breathe life into otherwise dry history.

His newest novel, Anathem, while still approaching the thousand page mark, is anything but dull. Once I started this one, I spent every spare moment for the next week (I don't have a lot of spare moments) eagerly devouring the enigmatic work. I can honestly say I have never encountered anything quite like it. The aura and feel of history is there, combined with the strange flavor of an alternate world. Set on the planet of Arbre, the book deals with a young man named Erasmus, who is an avout. This means that he is a member of a math, which in his world is a mirror equivalent of a monastary. On Arbre, however, those who are cloistered are the scholars. these scholars' discipline is not the study of religion, but pure theory. They are forbidden from using praxis, or technology, and instead spend their time formulating theorics and forgoing the theories' applications.

Difficult as it might be, I could explain enough of the story that you would understand what this book is about, but I will not. If you want a spoiler, go to Wickipedia. I prefer to let you know that the voyage to discovery of the truths in this book is a truly interesting and mysterious journey, and I urge you to find room in your bookbag or backpack and spend a week or so engrossed in this fine and indefinable tale!

bt.etree.org Great Concert Torrent Site!

The first thing I want to let you know about in this blog is etree http://bt.etree.org/index.php?page=0. This is the kindest music site ever, people!! Fans, tapers and bands can upload concert recordings to the site and then others like you and me can download the shows as torrents. There's a list of hundreds of bands that the site offers, including massive amounts of Grateful Dead. Most of the Dead shows are the soundboard recordings the band made, mastered by pros like Charlie Miller and others. some are audience recordings, and a lot of people prefer the sound of those, since it gives one more of a sens that one is right there at the show. Another alternative is the matrix recordings. To make a matrix, the sound technician takes the original soundboard recording and overlays an audience recording of the same show on top of it. That's the best of both worlds, you get the accurate sound as it was recorded at the soundboard, and the ambient sounds of the audience and the hall form the taper's version. These are especially nice when it comes to the classic old Dead venues like Winterland and the Fillmores (East and West) because it sounds like you are really there, sitting or dancing in the 10th row!

The torrents produce a folder full of song files in a lossless format, either FLAC or SHN, which have the ultimate sound quality but take a lot of drive space. You'll need a torrent server software such as Azeureus or BitTorrent to download the files, then you can convert them to WAV for burning to disc with Foobar (for FLAC files) and MKW Audio Compression Tool (for SHN files). Foobar is also a player, so you can play the FLAC shows on your computer with that. It is possible to convert the WAV files to MP3 using something like ABC Converter, but because this site is for file sharing, it is asked that you do not share MP3 files of these recordings to avoid polluting the quality of the shows. With Azeureus, once a torrent is downloaded the software automatically starts uploading the files to others, and it is asked that you keep the uploads open as long as possible to help out others who want the kind music too! You'll love the variety of great music there, such as Bela Fleck, Widespread Panic, Phish, Dave Matthews, Gov't Mule, Jerry Garcia Band, Bob Wier's Ratdog, and much, much more. Enjoy!

Welcome to Groove Reviews! This is my first post on my first blog, so bear with me folks!

This blog is about things I think are worth sharing with the rest of the world. I don't pretend to know what is good, but I know what I like! Maybe you'll like it too, who knows. I have wide interests and am always looking to expand them further. Comments, criticisms, suggestions are always welcome. Look for a new post with my first set of reviews tomorrow!

Peace Out!