Amazon Vine Review: Takeover

Wow! I just finished reading Takeover during lunch today, and it was a great mystery novel. My review is now up for your enjoyment. Follow the link for details on this great debut novel from Lisa Black.

Until next time...
PH

Amazon Vine Review: A Larum

The music reviews just keep coming... When Christy first heard Johnny Flynn's A Larum, she said it sounded like music from O' Brother, Where Art Thou? For some of the songs on this CD, I would have to agree, but it's much more than that. To find out more, check out my review now up on Amazon.

Until next time...
PH

Amazon Vine Review: This Is The Life

My review of Amy MacDonald's debut CD This Is The Life is hot off the press. This was not the typical kind of music that I listen to, but I found it enjoyable nonetheless. I should be getting something up from Johnny Flynn's A Larum in the next few days.

Until next time...
PH

More New Music

I discovered a new artist a while back called The New Frontiers. They are a Dallas based band that just put out their debut CD, Mending about three months ago. I found them to be a cross between Coldplay and Better Than Ezra. For more details, check out my review available on Amazon.

Until next time...
PH

July on the Vine

Amazon released the regular Vine newsletter on Thursday, and I choose a couple of CDs to review for new artists both from the other side of the Atlantic. The first is probably the best of the ones they offered. Scottish singer/songwriter Amy Macdonald's debut is titled This Is The Life. The other one is also a debut CD from Britain's Johnny Flynn called A Larum. Both of these probably best fit in the folk genre. I should receive these early next week so look for my reviews to be up in a week or so.

Until next time...
PH

Fun Music Web Site

I got a tip recently about a music web site called Pandora - radio from the Music Genome Project. It is free to create an account, and the site will allow you to create stations based on artists that you like. Once you create a station for say, Jackie Greene, it will play a song from the artist you entered. Then it chooses similar artists and plays a song from from each one allowing you to rate the song with thumbs up or thumbs down. The more songs you rate the more it can tailor what it chooses to your tastes. I found a new artist, Kris Delmhorst, on my Sarah Harmer station. Both are singer/songwriter types. Delmhorst has a few mp3s on her site that you can download from each of her albums. Enjoy!

Until next time...
PH

Bonus Vine Selection

If you've been keeping track, June wasn't the best month of selections that I've from Vine. However, they gave us a nice surprise yesterday. Publisher Harper Collins teamed up with Amazon to give us one selection from 17 of their upcoming books. The book selection in general had not been that great since around the first of the year, but they had some interesting things to choose from. I strongly considered The Black Tower, but ultimately decided to go with first time author Lisa Black's debut novel Takeover. I hope it lives up to its description, but being from a major publisher I think it will.

Until next time...
PH

Honda Civic: Early Returns

After a week of driving the new Civic, it was time to refuel this morning. Being the first tank of gas for the car, I had fairly low expectations (for a Civic anyway) of somewhere around 30 mpg. Much to my surprise it clocked in like a champ at 35 mpg right off the bat. This is really good considering that the first week included being stuck in a construction induced traffic jam. At any rate, it is living up to expectations so far.

Until next time...
PH

Amazon Vine Review: The Grand

The leftovers for June turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment. I've already let you know about Martin Misunderstood. The poker themed movie, The Grand, didn't turn out to be strikingly better. Click here for the details.

On a positive note, Amazon is going to be giving us a special selection of books tomorrow from Harper Collins. I'm hoping to find something of interest there.

Until next time...
PH

Amazon Vine Review: Martin Misunderstood

I have completed my listening of the audio book, Martin Misunderstood, and my review is up for your edification. While I like the idea of audio books, I cannot recommend this one. Follow the link to find out why.

Here's hoping that The Grand turns out to have been a better choice.

Until next time...
PH

Ooo That Smell...

Pardon the Lynyrd Skynyrd reference, but it fits well in the context of a new car. As I mentioned in a previous post, the time had come to find something a little more gas friendly than the Altima. The Honda Civic was winner of the bake-off that we did last month, and we went in last Saturday to pull the trigger on purchasing. The experience at Huggins Honda was so good that we went back there in search of a 4-door EX model in Royal Blue Pearl. While they didn't have one in stock, they did have one coming in between July 3 and July 6 so of course we said, "We'll take it."

Now in these times of $4 gas, the Civic has become a quite popular car. It's in such high demand that they can't keep them on the lot. That doesn't bode well for negotiating the price, and without a lot of discussion we settled on full sticker price. While this isn't what anyone would hope for, it's a simple matter of supply and demand. At the end of the day, 35+ mpg made it worth it. After I get past the break-in period, I'll give an update on how it does with hypermiling compared to the Altima.

I have to say that the Huggins experience was unlike any other car buying experience I've had. The salesman never gave us the hard sell, and he actually never contacted us after our first visit. Between the three visits, we spent about 3 hours total at the dealership from initial test drive to driving off the lot yesterday.

I could probably go at great length about the features of the car, but most of it is available on the Honda web site. If anyone has specific questions, please leave them in a comment.

Until next time...
PH

Amazon Review: Parador

Much like Jackie Greene, Wisely was an artist that I learned about through Vine. You seen my review for his self titled CD on Vine earlier this year, but I recently picked up his previous CD, Parador. I have posted the lone review for it on Amazon. As I mentioned in a previous post, I think a lot of him because he seems like a regular guy who happens to be a musician living. Perhaps I biased, but I think he's a good artist. He and Jackie Greene are different enough that it is difficult to place one higher than the other. What I can say is that you can usually find at least one CD from one of these two in my car at all times. I'd love to hear your thoughts on these guys if they pass muster with you.

Until next time...
PH