Ummagumma

The finest army and cavalry in all of Europe.  Frederick the Great's Prussian infantry wing and cavalry wing are ready to attack at the start of the Battle of Rossbach.  This shows you how the interface looks for John Tiller's wargame, The Seven Years War . Frederick the Great has fascinated me for decades.  I have several biographies about his life and pertaining to his legendary generalship during the Seven Years' War .  This was really world’s first global war.  The naval powers of England, France, Spain, and a few other nations fought for interests in India and North America as well as across continental Europe.  Prussia, the nation ruled by King Frederick, had no navy to speak of so it was confined to the European mainland.  Some of the most famous battles in military history were fought by Frederick during this war. I have played John Tiller computer wargames as a hobby also for decades.  I reviewed one of his games on this blog back in 2009.  But that doesn’t

Proof of purchase.  I bought my present copy of Gravity's Rainbow back in 1997.  It still has the receipt in it.  Over the course of this blog, I've been cycling through some works of literature I have in my library that I wanted to touch once again.   I've revisited Moby Dick , War and Peace , The Magus , Ulysses , and Dahlgren , among others.  The first mention of my intention to reread Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow was back in 2012. Recently, I got around to tackling that complex novel.  I read it, puzzlingly, a couple of times back in my 20's but it really was low on my to-do list since then, although I fully intended to pick it up again someday. That day came in late-summer and, while reading other things as well, I finished the novel about two weeks ago.  Though I still own many paperbacks dating from my youth, my original copy of Gravity's Rainbow didn't survive for some reason.  I now own a classic Penguin edition of the novel, wh

The big story for the 2018 Atlanta Braves was that they won the NL East and advanced to the postseason " ahead of schedule ."  Loaded with young unproven players, no one seriously predicted the Braves would win the division, or even contend for that matter, until 2019 or 2020.  So this season has been more than satisfying from that perspective. But it still sucks that we went out with a whimper in 2018, being eliminated by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS, just as we were back in 2013 .  It is an all too familiar refrain for lifelong Braves fans such as myself. I have watched the Braves' elimination in the first-round many times in my life.  It happened in 1969 , 1982 , 1993  (all before the present two-round play-offs), 2000 , 2002 , 2003 , 2004 , 2005 , 2010 , 2012 (wild-card), and 2013 .  In fact, the last time the Braves won a postseason series was in 1999 .  So, we have yet to advance in the play-offs in this century.  Frustrating.   The beginning of the

Proof of purchase.  I bought my Eat A Peach CD when it first became available in the 1980's.  It is an analog to digital recording, not a digital remaster. Out of relative obscurity, The Allman Brothers Band got a taste of major rock success when their At Fillmore East album went gold (eventually platinum) in 1971.  After years struggling to find their voice and develop their following things seemed to be coming together at last.  At Fillmore East was their breakthrough album, possibly the greatest live album ever recorded , featuring a lengthy blistering version of " Whipping Post " and a superb performance of the jazzy " In Memory of Elizabeth Reed ."  The band had truly arrived at a level of stardom.  As always with such unexpected success, they were wondering what to do next. But things were not so good within the band itself.  Four of its members were addicted to heroin and entered rehabilitation.  Then on October 29, 1971, Duane Allman tragicall