Belgians and Buffaloes

Well, after decades of painstaking research, the mystery of why Belgians are called Buffaloes may have been solved.
It seems that back around the turn of the century (from the 19th to the 20th), Buffalo Bill Cody took his Wild West Show to Belgium (among other European countries), where the people of Ghent took to him in a big way.
The football team there - K.A.A. Gent - took as its nickname the Buffaloes, and their logo is an Indian chief in profile.
It seems that many of the Belgians moving to the Detroit area came from that part of Flanders, and brought their team affiliation with them.
A mystery neatly solved.

Don't miss this book

No, this time I'm not plugging one of my own.
I'm recommending A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller, Jr.

This is one of the most important works of Science Fiction I've ever read.  It's all there: Good, Evil, Art, Faith, Technology, Science, Politics, Life, Death, Redemption.
Don't miss this book; it's simply too good not to be read.

Spanning centuries during which we pass from post-nuclear holocaust Dark Ages through another Renaissance, another "Enlightenment", and eventually to the brink of another nuclear war, this novel examines human history from the viewpoint of a small religious community - and from the general viewpoint of the Church.
As stated above, don't miss this book; it's simply too good not to be read.

This cat can play

If you haven't read A Rune With A View yet (and for what are you waiting?), you probably don't know that Jerry Lombard is quite a fan of Eric Johnson. Well, so am I; so am I.

If you enjoy stunning guitar work, this is your guy - check him out via Pandora, or maybe just drop a few bucks at Amazon and get his CDs or MP3 downloads. You won't regret it.

Roast Doesn't Disappoint

Wow.
Michael Symon's Roast in Detroit has done it again.

We took Christian - home on leave from the Army in Alaska - for dinner last night, and his experience was the same as ours had been the first time we went there: it was simply the best food any of us had ever had at a restaurant.

Ambience, Service, Food, they've got it all. Oh - the Book Cadillac is a beautiful building too.

Highly recommended to all.

Another Way to Hear Your Music

There's a very cool utility I found today that takes MIDI files and tuns them into mp3 or wav or wma files automatically - and they actually sound good.

www.midi2wav.com is the place, and midi2wav is the program that does the magic.

It's not terribly expensive, and it works well and easily.

Check it out if you have any use for this kind of application. Highly recommended.

Cheers.

Music You Need to Hear

As Tracy Dahl said on This Is My Music, we typically regret that we got our Christmas music out too late, not too early, and that we put it away too early, not too late.

That made me realise that there are probably folks who've never heard this, most fabulous version of the Carol of the Bells, by The Bird And The Bee, and as there's something I can do to fix that sad state of affairs, I'm doing it.

Here's a link to the Amazon $0.99 offer on the mp3 of the song.
Even if you don't buy it, go preview the track - it's stupendous. Their Twelve Days of Christmas is equally fine, but I didn't find it there for sale for some reason.

Merry Christmas!

Shameless Self-Promotion - UPDATED! AGAIN!!!

It seems a near certainty that you all have been waiting (and it is to be hoped that none were waiting with breath held) to hear when - at last! - my next novel would be published.

I am pleased to inform all and sundry that the wait is over.
A Rune With a View is now available from the CreateSpace store, and will be available at Amazon in short order as well.
(OK, here is the link, now that it has happened, but you should be able to search there and find it easily - it is Amazon, after all.)

Clearly nearly everyone on nearly everyone else's Christmas list should be jumping for joy, or shivering in antici ... pation.

Grab a copy - it's good for you!

Amazon is now also ready for your shopping pleasure!

For those out there awaiting the Kindle version, I have good news: it is available and simply waiting for your order to be delivered directly to your reading device. Please, feel free to purchase and enjoy - and why not share that experience with all your Kindling friends? They'll no doubt thank you for it.

Cheers,
Charlie