John Lennon: It can't get much worse [Covid 2022]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was covid times during the second month of 2022. Here I thought I'd jot down some notes on what life's been like during this stage of the pandemic, two years running, with no end in sight. 

Okay, so for starters, if you haven't kept up to date on my writings about what retail grocery has been like, be sure to go back and read this most recent most on the subject, here. Thumbs up if you have a thing for the common working class man like myself. 

There's a deep sense of animosity at this point in the pandemic. Americans are more divisive than ever. Customers want to fight me at the checkout line for almost anything nowadays. My most trusted friends, family, and associates are all in the dull drums, saying that they're owed much more in this world. That their jobs, their social circles, their vast quality of "stuff," isn't good enough, and that things are quote, "shitty,". Well, to play up to the satire, "was their whole lives anything else but that?" 

But let's be kind. But no, seriously, none of the people I associate with have really been heavily impacted upon by the pandemic. Rather, almost all of them has flourished and seem to be in perfect health. Oh, fancy that! 

But there seems to be this endless dread going on everywhere around me. It's possible that these people simply aren't happy, they simply lack the capacity for happiness, or the satirist in me will sometimes go on to believe that it could simply be a ruse or charade, one meant to simply fit in and be conformist. Hey, everybody's miserable, I should pretend to be miserable like them to see if they like me more! Misery loves company! I'm a miserables! I like to believe I haven't lost my sense of humor out of these some 700 posts. 

Things are getting better all the time. My life is awash with high culture: music, books, nature, good health, good demeanor, and general happiness and well being. Now, I'm not a guy who's particularly rich in anything in particular, except possibly a capacity for happiness. So what's wrong with all these other people? Well you know what Sartre says about that. "Hell is other people."

Covid America has taken on a sly fake sardonic smile. Every customer at the checkout line has become a hooligan. Even some of my friends, coworkers, and associates have become hooligans. In a world where everybody says everything "sucks," or its "shitty," how can you stay cool and level headed when the world outside your house is super negative and shitty themselves? I think they're probably out to lunch [Frank Zappa]. 

In other news I've been reading Orlando Innamorato. A classic romance knight errantry story from Italy during the 16th century. I happened to read Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, which is the sequel to Orlando Innamorato. I liked it so much I decided to back and read the first installment, written by Matteo Maria Boiardo. And tonight a customer from work is donating to me a Fender Stratocaster guitar. Oh, happy day! 

But now I've come to the end of this story. A new tale awaits in the next coming days. Watch this space, eight days a week! 

The Decameron

What can I say about Boccaccio's Decameron? Well, for starters, its the best dirtiest book in the western canon. A group of noble young women and three men decide to travel and tell tales for ten nights, amongst the ten of them, telling ten tales, thus equaling 100 tales. There's some significance to the number ten as relating to the Greeks, which is where the Decameron name comes from.  It provides a document of life at the time. Written in the vernacular of the Florentine language, it is considered a masterpiece of classical early Italian prose.

Not every story here is a ten out of ten. In fact, every night perhaps three out of the ten tales that they tell aren't that great. But those other seven in fact have everything you would want in a story, book, or novel; adventure, picaresque, nobles, kings, queens, lords, peasants, farmers, thieves, murderers, a threesome even.

There's sex, lots and lots of sex. But the sex isn't described in a saucy or offensive way, rather it's more interesting albeit still provocative such as "the resurrection of the flesh," "they made the nightingale sing many times," phrases such as that. 

One of my favorite stories was the one where a young girl goes through a series of unfortunate events and finds herself getting fucked by nine different men over a short period of time. At the end of her misery she marries a King, who believes she is a virgin, and she fakes how good the sex is making it seem as if she really is a virgin. It was comical yet still realistic, showcasing something within the human condition. 

What is so fascinating about this book is that the stories are mostly about everyday people; nobles, lords, and peasants, there are lots of common ordinary peasants in the Decameron, and it seems that Bocaccio has a lot to say about them, the way the live, their wants and desires, which always somehow come back to lots and lots of sex. 

Most of the stories have an ABCD format. Something begins, then three things happen, and then the story is over. Some of the stories are only a page or two long, others are more complex. Although the stories are pretty simple, there's always something unexpected here and there to bring the stories to a climax. Usually in the form of actions and/or dialogue. 

Women take on a very important role here although they end up being the butt of a lot of the jokes. However, there are many stories where the wife commits adultery, right under the husband's nose and gets away with it, the wife being the better for it in the end even in terms of the morality of some of these stories. Consequently, you could see why in terms of morality, this book was condemned by the church and religious peoples. 

Boccaccio uses actions and dialogue to move the stories along. One of the finer details to note is that the language the people use is the common tongue and language of the people of the times, making the Decameron something noteworthy as a historical literary work in addition to being the best dirtiest book in the western canon. 

Again, some of the stories don't really go anywhere or are just for giggles, and that's okay. This book is a must read for readers of the western canon, medieval literature, and Italian literature. I was so inspired by Italy with Boccaccio that I've started reading Purgatorio of Dante's Divine Comedy. Before now, I've only read the Inferno. 

A must read for the western canon crowd or those interested in historical literature from the 13th century. 

Pirate Utopia

Pirate Utopia is an alternate history satire written by Bruce Sterling. It was published in 2016 but somehow I completely missed it as I was sidetracked by that shit show of an Presidential election. As my readers would know, I've written quite a few reviews of books written by Bruce Sterling. I would go so far as to say that Sterling and William Gibson are my favorite science fiction writers. They created the cyberpunk genre, helped develop steampunk, and were the cream of the crop of science fiction writers during the entire 1980s. 

However, here Sterling chose not to write science fiction, but rather an alternate history satire, something he calls dieselpunk which turns out is a lot like steampunk and cyberpunk. Sterling considers this as a subgenre of science fiction. It's related to science fiction but its also rooted in history and makes use somewhat of real facts. He's using history, elements of science fiction and satire to create something that would appeal to more popular culture. In this case, catering to the European general public more so than the American science fiction crowd.

Sterling quotes this line from the manifesto of Despero and Giacomo in 1915:
We will find abstract equivalents for all the forms and elements of the universe, and then we will combine them with the caprice of our imagination. This just about sums up the motives of the characters in this novel.


The book is about a group of pirates around 1920, WWI era. They've taken control of this village called Fiume, now present-day Rijeka. They believe in the Futurist Manifesto. They steal everything they can including a communist controlled armored vechicle in the beginning of the novel. Their enemies are the communists, the rich, and the fascists, whom they are not entirely unsympathetic towards. They engage in Freemasonry, free love, equal pay and rights for women, they love jazz music, ceremonial rituals, etc. Kids today would say they are "extra". As you can see this gets pulpy very fast. 

Our main cast is comprised of the Ace of Hearts, a military leader of the secret police and the Pirate Engineer [lots of nicknames in this book] Secondari, a guy with a chip on his shoulder who lost an ear in the war but because he's an amazing weapons engineer he's given complete control to take over the means of production concerning weapons. There's even a Prophet, a warrior poet who runs a harem and the principle leader behind their ideology but deep down hates himself and his life. 

Secondari becomes "Minister of Vengeance Weapons" [what a great title!] He revitalizes a weapons factory and starts developing torpedoes and even a death ray [very cyberpunk and reminiscent of Nazi technology conspiracies]. Soon other governments become interested and Spymaster Colonel House from President Wilson's government sends Houdini and his assistant H.P. Lovecraft under the guise of a magic show to work out a secret deal. Along the way, Hitler gets killed by jumping into a bullet to save his friend and Mussolini gets shot to death in the dick by some girls that wandered into his office. That's where the book ends. 

This is all very fun and funny material but where's the meat and potatoes to it? The thing is that this book has a lot of exposition but everything else is mostly left up to the imagination of the reader. The characters themselves are only interesting to a point. Secondari is a mediocre villain. He lives only to serve his ideology, for the cause of the Pirate Futurist Utopia. But when Frau Pfeiffer [an industrial factory owner] throws herself at him he denies her. He only loves her daughter, because Frau Pfeiffer was the one woman that nursed him back him to health when he was at his worst. Even his own family didn't to do that for him. So he loved Frau Pfeiffer's daughter and made sure that she would never be harmed. However, this actually made him a worse person as a result. He vowed to kill anyone who ever harmed her. At all costs.

The Prophet seemed like a cool cat. I mean he runs a harem and he's a warrior poet. Sounds like a real hippie awesome free love guy. But when Secondari sees him for the first time he realizes that this man, the Prophet is broken, lifeless. Because Secondari doesn't hear very well [one of his ears was blown off in the war] he has this intimate ability to see into a person's soul. He looked at the Prophet and somehow knew right away that he was completely wasted, drained of life. So I guess having a ton of girls to fuck all the time can be a drag sometimes. It's an interesting observation.

On a side note, there's the Art Witch, one of the Prophet's women. I actually liked her a lot because she reminds me of the typical bohemian girl, of any race, although of course here she's Italian. She's into the occult, does spiritual seances, wears weird kinky outfits with probably no underwear, she's a fixture of the art scene, and of course she's rich because that way she has the time to do all this goofy stuff. She's one to remember. Actually, if you hang around the music and art scenes for a while you'll find girls like this. I've run into plenty in the music crowds I've chilled with at parties and such. It can get weird but its always fun.

The characters themselves are quite eloquent. But they aren't the focus of the story. A lot of it is actually exposition. The first thirty pages are exposition but the fact that the novel is so short [only 170 pages] it makes the beginning very slow. After a while, the writing seems to get into a flow that is very easy to continuously read and enjoy. That's the magic of this book. The writing style is very breezy, satirical, and entertaining. I wasn't reading so much as to find out the plot but more so out of the sheer fun and joy of just turning the pages and being amused by it all. 

There are some funny moments. Before the book officially starts there's a real H.P. Lovecraft quote that I love. "I fear my enthusiasm flags when real work is demanded of me." Well, that's just terrific. Not only is it true but the fact that Lovecraft said it makes it hilarious because he's known more for his horror than anything else. 

There's a lot of funny moments. Adolf Hitler dies by jumping into a bullet to save his friend. He's actually a great guy it turns out. Mussolini is in charge of a newspaper and gets killed by some girls who wandered into his office with a gun. How did they kill him? They shot him in the dick. The fact that our main villain here gets Hitler and Mussolini out of the way without realizing it makes it a true cosmic comedy. 

Then there's the Prophet who runs a harem but is completely devoid of life. It's sort of funny. Maybe too much sex could be bad for you? Houdini's magic trick at the end was definitely quite comical as well. For his last trick, he ends up sticking needles into his face and then eating them after he pulls them out. Sounds horrifying but at the same time realistically I'd probably be laughing my ass off if I saw someone do that. This is, after all, a satire not unlike something the gentlemen of the old days would write. Think Voltaire and Dante, but 80's cyberpunk version. 

At the back of the book, there's a great appendix and interview with Sterling. Why did he write this book? Because he felt that he had to tell the young people in Europe about what really happened back then because they don't know much about those times. In particular he wanted to remind people about how fascism got imported from Europe [Italy and Germany] to Britain and America where its still alive and well today. When he said that I thought to myself, "yeah, I get it." It's a joke, a complete joke but you have to understand history and its long-lasting impact on society to get it. It was a great Aha! moment. 

At the same time, I would also say that Sterling is at the end of his ropes regarding science fiction. He mentioned in the interview that he had a different writing persona, a European one, with a European name [Bruno of all names], even writing in a different voice. When I read that part I thought to myself, "oh god, don't do it." So yes that was very cringing for one of my favorite writers who helped duo-create the cyberpunk genre with William Gibson but hey what can you do? There was once a time where Gibson and Sterling were the best science fiction writers [the 80's] but now I see that the genre has moved away from them. They realized that and they have tried to become mainstream. Gibson has been writing graphic novels as of late [Arcangel] and now Sterling is writing stuff like Pirate Utopia. It's fun but it will never be the grand, serious, science fiction space operas that they wrote in the beginning of their careers. It's a shame because I believe if they went back to writing that sort of stuff the science fiction community would take notice. However, once you write something as great as The Difference Engine or Schismatrix Plus there's too much pressure on you keep putting out masterpieces for the rest of your life. I'll settle for Pirate Utopia because I'm a true fan and reader of Sterling but for other people, they might say,"this doesn't cut it."  For one thing, the plot isn't revaled until the very end and it ends on a cliffhanger. A lot of people would hate that. But I'm such a Sterling initiate I say let him get away with it. Not a super important novel but relevant in today's political and historical climate. The most fun I've had reading a book in a long time. Because it's short and easy reading I would recommend it. A taste of pop culture from the cyberpunk legend himself. 

On a side note, it should also be mentioned that there's terrific artwork in this book in between chapters. The cover was initially what spurred me on to pick it up and when I saw it was Sterling I checked it out from the library right then and there. The cover is great because it uses communist visual imagery to promote this Futurist ideology. The conceit is that they used communist propaganda visuals even though the characters in this book hate communists with a passion. It got me thinking more about futurist art and art movements in general like cubism. [I know nothing about art but I wish to learn more now]

Check out my other Bruce Sterling novel reviews
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/12/holy-fire.html
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2019/01/zeitgeist.html
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2019/01/schismatrix-plus.
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-difference-engine.html  
https://ofigueroamusic.blogspot.com/search?q=artificial+kid 

Berio's Sequenzas

Berio's Sequenzas is a music book edited by Janet Halfyard but written by many different musicians. Luciano Berio was an Italian composer from of the modernist school [Cage, Boulez, Stockhausen] and he wrote these pieces titled Sequenza for different instruments. These are a series of works for different instruments that are written for the virtouoso in mind. The book has three parts: 1) Performance Issues, 2) The Compositional Process, and 3) Analytical Approaches. All the parts correspond with each other if you read it that way. 

This sort of book is very important because modernism has in a sense, died and left the building. Replaced by postmodernism, which is nothing in comparison. Now its not unheard of jazz musicians to play rap music for a living. Or for classical musicians' serious 'gigs' to be nothing but pop music gigs. However, back in the 1950s modernism was king. Once you take a look back at the past you realize how important all of this music really was: historically, culturally, musically, and emotionally. 

The section that had the most profound effect on me was the sections regarding Berio's compositional process. "For Berio and the compositional process there was always a question of what does time do?, What is duration and sound? When we experience it, what is the "now" for music." [Amazon review by composer Frank Abbinanti]

There's charts on pitch structure, dynamics, and timbral analysis, as well as performative insights. Written by the musicians who performed the pieces. There's also a lot of information regarding Berio's compositional process as well as his ideas regarding performance aesthetic. All of this had a profound effect on me while reading and upon completion. 

In a way me being a rock and roll jazz guitar player makes me a stranger in a strange land when it comes to this sort of hardcore classical [avant garde, modern] musical analysis. I've been working on Sequenza for Guitar since October but I still have a lot of work before I can actually play the piece in front of anybody. Although I don't think I completely understood everything in the book, I do think I gained a lot of insight regarding music, mainly regarding performance aesthetic, composition, and how to analyze compositions. For that, its a very valuable tool. I think I'll go back to it in due time, and try to see if I can understand parts that I didn't get or misunderstood. 

Listening to all the Sequenzas by themselves is refreshing. Music really was quite something back then. This book is set for retail price of 50 dollars on Amazon. Luckily, my music mentor, and composer Frank Abbinanti gave me a copy back in October. I didn't read it until now. I'm late to the party but I'm glad I finally read it. In some aspects, I can't look at music the same, something has changed. 

And what's changed? Perhaps everything. 

Dante's Inferno

Dante's Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th century epic poem Divine Comedy, its followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. Inferno tells the story of Dante going through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. Hell is depicted as nine circles located within the Earth. Its a famous novel despite being written 700 years ago. People know what Dante's Inferno is, even if they've never read it.


This is a challenging piece of fiction, mainly because its about hell, anguish, weeping, and gnashing of teeth. Not only that but because the original work was written in Italian, its can be tough to get a great English translation. But I think my copy from the library was pretty good. If you don't see the book as horrifying and/or an evil grip on your literary senses, you can see the book the way I do, as a fantastical tale, albeit a much darker one.


The writing itself is written in cantos, in which is a form called terza rima, where every three lines rhyme. Getting that literary rhythmic sensibility has been a challenge for every translator that puts it from Italian into English. But once you start reading the book every day and don't stop, you get a sense of the physicality and repetition of the poetry, its rhythmic sensibility.


The lines are quite difficult to get used to at first. I was sort of easing myself into these epics. I started out reading a little bit of the Illiad and then I started reading Milton's Paradise Lost, and then I went ahead and finished Inferno after that, after I had a taste of epic poetry. Its not for everybody. But at the same time its not just for college lit majors either. I think of myself as someone who is intellectually stimulated by these sorts of archaic, classical works. They enrich my literary palette. I have to look up words online, learn ancient slogans, and really move up to speed, learning much along the way. I would say its all worth it.


Inferno is emotionally gripping but that's the reason why I couldn't put it down. It was exciting, human drama. It literally doesn't get more terrifying than Satan at the bottom of a frozen lake, with three heads, of which are Judas Iscariot, Brutius, and Cassiaus, accusers who got Jesus Christ crucified. It was kind of exciting that Achilles' teacher, the centaur Chiron was in hell, leading a brigade of centaurs that shoot arrows at sinners, a sort of mythology religious hybridization.


Most of the people Dante meets in hell are political celebs of that era, people everyone of that time period would have heard of and known about. There's devils torturing humans, and at the bottom of hell there's a frozen lake where people are chewing on each other for eternity, zombies anyone?


Certainly Alighieri is a religious man, a schooled religious man. His ideas on church and government are heard here in sections. Dante makes a note of it that religion is for spiritual purpose and that the state/monarchy's role was primarily secular order, and that the two complemented each other.


The work shows that Hell is a horrible place for sinners, full of real fire and brimstone. As this is only the first part of a trilogy, I'll be reading Purgatorio and Paradiso when I find the time.


Read this if you like classics and poetry