Another 5-Star Review: Blinders Keepers

People are still reading Blinders Keepers!

Just got another 5-star review posted all over the book-o-sphere. Here it is on Amazon, showing up four days ago:

“Noah is on the run after becoming the innocent suspect in a terrorist bus bombing in a dystopian, extremely near, future US, in which society is on the verge of political, economic (and astronomical) implosion. Noah is an everyman and you see the world through his trusting and rather loving eyes as he races across the country through communes, bee farms, burning man, the hacker-saboteur political underground, and eventually winds up face to face with the highest reaches of deep state power, which turn out to be all too intimate and familial. It’s all very serious, and occasionally quite dark. Except it’s funny as hell. Rachel is an immensely witty and readable writer, whose verbal flights are always aimed at evocation (I’ve never read as vivid a description of burning man) and laughter. It’s a comic political picaresque, equal emphasis on comedy and politics, without a single dull page.  Why haven’t you heard of it? Because it’s too good and too much fun, that’s why.” – brecht (reviewer)

Mind you, I wrote this book almost seven years ago. Specific incidents aside, as whacky and outrageously funny as it apparently is, I think it’s astonishing how well it captures the absurdity and circus-like environment of our current politics.

If you want a good laugh to dispel some of the anxiety and pessimism which saturates the media and political landscape, take it for a spin.

I think you’ll like it a lot!

Kindle ebook from Amazon (US) . . . amzn.to/1IiodLp
Kindle ebook from Amazon (Canada) . . . amzn.to/1RQxrRW
Kindle ebook from Amazon (Great Britain) . . . amzn.to/2IjFWmm
Nook Book from Barnes & Noble . . . bit.ly/1mPC6a5
iBook from the Apple Store . . . apple.co/1JmzENg
Ebook from Scribd . . . bit.ly/37xgdos
Ebook from Kobo . . . bit.ly/2qStRw4
Ebook from Kobo Indigo (Canada) . . . bit.ly/1OET2qg
Every popular ebook format at Smashwords . . . bit.ly/1kb5Axk
Paperback from Amazon (US) . . . amzn.to/1Ohf9T7
Paperback direct from the printer . . . bit.ly/1krvHQM

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Another 5-Star Review: Blinders Keepers | John Rachel

Life In Japan: Excellence

Whether you like, love or hate classical music, please watch at least one of the videos below. I have things to say about them which I think will astonish you. So fasten your seat belts, sit back, and let the music flow through you like cannabis oil aroma therapy.

Okay. Ready? Here’s the scoop …

These are junior high school students, at a school in Fukushima. Yes, that Fukushima, where the massive earthquake in 2011 caused the nuclear reactors to melt down. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

Instead, let me get to what I want you good folks to wrap your heads around. First …

Being junior high school students, everyone except the conductor is 13-15 years old. Not seasoned adults. Not college graduates. Young adolescents! What talent, eh?

It gets better: This is not a special school for music or any other area of study. It’s not some private school for rich kids — yes, we have exclusive, private schools here in Japan just like practically every other developed country. This particular school is no such uppity institution. No folks . . . THIS IS A PUBLIC SCHOOL!

And here is, what in my mind is the most jaw-dropping aspect of this tale: Participating in this choral orchestra is not part of the official school curriculum. This is not a music class. The students are not getting any credit for this. Everything, the individual mastering of the instruments, the hours of practice, the orchestra and vocal rehearsals, the concert performance, is purely voluntary. It’s an AFTER-SCHOOL CLUB!

I recall my school had a French Club, Photography Club, a Glee Club, an Astronomy Club. It’s just like that. Only these junior high kids, as members of this club, are performing — at a sophisticated level — Mozart and Bach.

What do you think? Honestly? Aren’t you a bit impressed?

I have to admit: I’m awestruck! Almost at a loss for words . . . but not quite.

Here are my final thoughts: The world is going through some very strange and difficult times. Technology, political turmoil, economic crises, environmental crises, leadership crises. We can’t keep up with it all. Unfortunately, young people get totally blindsided by all of this. They’re dropped into a world not of their making, facing catastrophes that were in the works before they were in the womb. Supposedly, societies do what they can to bring the young up to speed and equip them to take the reins when their time comes.

U.S. schools are a more relaxed
educational environment.

Here are my final thoughts: The world is going through some very strange and difficult times. Technology, political turmoil, economic crises, environmental crises, leadership crises. We can’t keep up with it all. Unfortunately, young people get totally blindsided by all of this. They’re dropped into a world not of their making, facing catastrophes that were in the works before they were in the womb.

Supposedly, societies do what they can to bring the young up to speed and equip them to take the reins when their time comes. In the U.S., as with every highly-developed Western nation, it is the public education system which provides the basic skills and knowledge needed to function in the world.

Now, I’m hardly in a position to judge the current state of public schools in the U.S., which by far the majority of young people there attend for 12+ years at minimum. True, I went to public school for 6 years but that was around 200 years ago, give or take a few decades. Moreover, as you probably know, I haven’t lived in the U.S. for sixteen years. Meaning, I can’t overcome either the generational gap or the geographical gap. So I’ll let you folks be my eyes and ears on this.

Here’s a straightforward question for you American readers: How are things going there?

Is anything resembling what you see in the above videos occurring there?

I know I have trouble imagining it. But that’s just me.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Excellence | John Rachel

Life In Japan: Festival of the Portable Shrines 2022

It seems like here in Japan we're always having some holiday or festival. There sure is a lot going on to keep the smiles fresh and the video cameras rolling.

I've written before -- in fact feature it in LIVE FROM JAPAN! -- about the festival we just had this past weekend. This year, it was slightly scaled down from what has been held in the past, presumably because of Covid-19. We don't really have much of a crisis over the dread bioweapon but Japan plays on the side of cautious.

We spent most of our time on what's nicknamed "Merchant Street", a narrow and extremely charming roadway which looks the way it did a century ago, especially since the city last summer buried all of the electrical and communication cabling underground. Wheeled portable shrines (as opposed to ones carried by twenty to thirty inebriated celebrants) paraded up and down the street. In the carriage on top, children played flutes, chimes and various rhythm instruments. Since the vehicles have no steering mechanism -- true to a design that must go back a few centuries -- they have to be elevated and rotated by hand to change direction.

Rather than try to describe this unorthodox procedure, it'll be much easier to just show you.

After rolling up and down Merchant Street, the seven or eight wheeled shrines then headed toward the center of town, where they similarly paraded the greater length of our main street. People were in town from all over, both for the festival and to buy soybeans, an item Tambasasayama is famous across Japan for.

One final aside. Because the main street in town still has electrical wires criss-crossing its entire length, there is a tall crown which must be removed from the portable shrines. They are called 'hoko' and are displayed in storefronts along the way. They look like the one pictured here.

So that's it for now . . . until next year!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Festival of the Portable Shrines 2022 | John Rachel

The Ultimate Punctuation Mark

Language and grammar are dynamic; ever-evolving; adapting to new usage, current trends and fads. There’s no reason to pass judgment on this, as many academics and publishers of dictionaries might presume to do. You can’t set language and punctuation in stone any more than you can declare that the sun will shine every Monday or outlaw oxidation.

Do you remember the interrobang?

While it didn’t really catch on, it did address a gap in our ability to have a final punctuation mark reflect the entire mood and intent of the language that preceded it. It’s a combination of a question mark and an exclamation point, allowing a statement to both act as a query and express awe, amazement, excitement, marvel, wonder, approval, acclaim, shock, and so on.

What in the world is going on with the Catholic Church and organ trafficking?!

Now, I should have been able to put an interrobang at the end of that exclamatory question, but as I said, it didn’t really catch on. At least, I can’t find it on the keyboard of my laptop.

The point is, as useful as something might potentially be for language and grammar, it’s actually impossible to dictate use and guarantee general acceptance.

So now I’m about to attempt the impossible.

Yes, I’ve come up with a new punctuation mark!

And without intending to blow my horn, bring undeserved attention to my genius, or capitalize on your gullibility as a reader of my articles, I’d like to say unequivocally that this innovative punctuation mark, aside from any other merits it might have, completely and thoroughly sums up the current mood — fear? despair? cynicism? resignation? — of a huge segment of the people living on the planet, the ones who have some idea what a horrible mess we as a species are now in.

Here it is . . .

Does it look familiar? It should.

An important question: Will it be useful?

A more important question: How long will it be around?

Maybe a better question to ask: If my new punctuation mark really does work, really captures the zeitgeist of our troubled times, how long will we be around to use it?

(Sure wish I had that damn interrobang on my computer. I could have used it at the end of that last question.)

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

The Ultimate Punctuation Mark | John Rachel