Strauss's Score and,.... Seven Years Ago?!?

A few Fathers Days ago, Eleanor got me a collection of interviews by Eleanor (no relation) Wachtel, which included a number of CBC programmes with noted intellectuals from Susan Sontag to Jane Goodall to Umberto Eco. It just wasn't the page-turner I needed at the time, and it languished enough for her to reclaim herself for her own dull-day reading at the store.

Today, though, with my just-finished icky family novel returned to the dropbox and the local library branch closed for the weekend, I went to the slush pile in front of the thermostat and grabbed Original Minds in hopes of one or two of its interviews carrying me through cardio.

Did they.

I began with her talk with Oliver Sacks- he of Awakenings, but more recently of the very compelling Musicophilia which I've commended to at least some of you. Success there led me on to another of her chats, this one with Arthur C. Clarke back in the late 80s, which reminded me that I haven't read 2001 since, like, forever, and certainly not since the coming and going of its specified time frame.

This latter defect is now being remedied, thanks to the Amherst Public Library.

Despite all its anachronistic qualities, which he acknowledged in the Wachtel interview, it remains a compelling look at the ape descendants who run this planet and the potentials and problems that lie ahead of us.

Finish it tonight in time to post a complete review? I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave.