Show Notes - Week of November 30, 2020

Greetings from 53.5° north latitude. The week was crazy busy, but I managed to find time to read, ride, listen, and sample a few new beers. So all in all, a good week. Let's dive right in.

Reading Pile:
I was able to finish three books this week. I think that will be the strategy for the rest of the month - finish up all of the books I have started. That is the only way I am going to hit 50+ books this year, plus it will be a mentally liberating feeling to have that shelf cleared off.

Book #41 for 2020 was "Talk to the Hand" by Lynn Truss, of "Eats Shoots and Leaves" fame. This second book from Truss about manners and kindness was nowhere near as memorable as her book about punctuation, which is a phrase that feels very weird to type. Talk to the Hand was okay, but did not really hold me. On a personal note, it was a book I borrowed last fall from a co-worker who has since retired and now the book is mine since we felt it would be too hard to meet up right now. Bill, thanks for the book!

Book #42 for 2020 was "Deep Work" by Cal Newport. This was my third book by Newport in 2020 and as I have reported previously, I really do not like his books. To be clear, I think his ideas are fantastic and are remarkably important, but the concepts are so much better suited to an HBR or Medium article and not a full book. Deep Work, So Good They Can't Ignore You, and Digital Minimalism are likely still worth reading even so, but be warned as you dive into them.

And finally for this section, Book #43 for 2020 was "Lion Down" by Stuart Gibbs. While writing the last paragraph, I thought it was remarkable that I read three books by one author in 2020, but topping that is the five books I read by Gibbs. Lion Down is the fifth book in the FunJungle series and is another book I read to my younger daughter. This was not my favorite of the series, but it was still enjoyable enough to read. I suspect it must get pretty hard to find interesting story ideas to write about when your protagonist lives at a zoo. I imagine we will still read the sixth and I think final book in the FunJungle series just to wrap up the series. I do recommend this series for the young readers in your life, but you might not want to read five of them in under a year. (Well, that might work for you if you are 10, but maybe not if you are 50.)

Cycling Update:
It was a good week in the saddle. Distance-wise it was just shy of 60 km, but in the snow and on the ice I feel that is equivalent to 90 km at least. For the second leg of my cross-Canada virtual tour, I passed Abbotsford and ended up 2.0 km outside of Chilliwack. I will obviously get to Chilliwack by next week, but not sure if I will get to Hope as well. Another week like this one will get me there, and the weather forecast looks like it will be another good week for riding.

Fun facts about Abbotsford, courtesy of Wikipedia: It has 141,000 people, making it the largest municipality in British Columbia outside of Metro Vancouver. Abbotsford has its own international airport, with an airport code of YXX. The airport hosts a world-class annual airshow, which was designated as Canada's National Airshow by then-Prime Minister Trudeau the First.

Here is a look at the progress chart after this week. These small segments are nice as it keeps things interesting since it is so easy to get to a new destination each week.

New Music:
There were three entries in the Music Finds playlist for this week. Technically it is named the "Music Finds - Week of 23Nov2020" playlist since I created it two weeks ago but did not listen to it until this past week.

First up was "Tunnel of Love" by Art Blakey. I liked this one better than "A Christmas Soul Night" perhaps since it was one-sixth as long. Prince Albert was a good track, but I was not really keen on the rest of the album. I have listened to a lot of Blakey lately, and I thought there were three more albums released in 2020 covering his catalogue. Of those remaining, I am really looking forward to two of them ("Is it True ...? and an album with Thelonious Monk). In addition, there were two more released in the last two weeks. So much Blakey, so little time.

Next was a jazz piano album recommended by my friend Trent. Aaron Parks "Little Big II: Dreams of a Mechanical Man" was a fantastic album with three standouts. Here and Friendo were really good, but the title track was superb. I am definitely going to seek out more albums from Parks.

Last up was my favorite for the week, a live album from Arctic Monkeys. "Live at the Royal Albert Hall" really blew me away. Their live performances are amazing and definitely made me want to see them live, if that is ever possible in the future.

All in all, a really good week for music. Looking forward to digging into a 1983 Brian Eno release, and another Art Blakey. Plus I think I will listen to the new song from Elvis Costello and Iggy Pop. What a combo that is!

New Beers:
Three new beers this week, bringing my unique check-ins up to 703.

Beer #701 was the 2017 Russian Imperial Stout from Brewsters. This was a good version of a Russian Stout, and was boozy without masking the flavor of the beer. I would really like to see a 2020 version of this beer. (3.25 / 5)

Beer #702 was my second beer from Corsendonk. I had their Pater Dubbel a few weeks ago, and I liked that one quite a bit. The Grand Hops (2020) was another high alcohol beer and it did not taste like 6.9%. It had a good taste but I did not really gets much hops taste from it. (3.25 / 5) While a bit of a disappointment after the 3.75 rating for the Pater Dubbel, this was still good and the average for the two beers from Corsendonk is 3.5, so I will definitely look for others from them.

Finally, Beer #703 was yet another high ABV and this was my favorite of the week. Part of Alberta Beer Week for 2020, SYC Brewing from here in Edmonton created a Unity Brew Wee Heavy Scotch Ale. Great color and taste, nice foam. A wee heavy that did not lose the flavor due to the ABV. Nice stuff from a local brewery. (3.5 / 5)

New Words:
Two words this week. Note that I did not say new words, since I am sure that one was a repeat. Forgetting these words makes me feel like a pox on society, and I sometimes wish I could find someone who could supply me with what I need to travel back in time to make it so I learn these words the first time.

retrograde
[ˈretrəˌɡrād]
ADJECTIVE

1. directed or moving backward.

NOUN

1. (RARE) a degenerate person.

VERB

1. (ARCHAIC) go back in position or time.

sutler
[ˈsətlər]
NOUN

1. (HISTORICAL) a person who followed an army and sold provisions to the soldiers.