So, just an update on what I’ve gotten lately and what I am listening to and reading when time allows…

First, a pretty exciting 2 days with news of a new SAXON album yesterday – and a great new song (“Hell, Fire, and Damnation”, w/ new guitarist Brian Tatler, of Diamond Head), and then the same news and new single from another favorite British band – MAGNUM! So, i’ll be looking forward to both of these coming out in the new year! Oh, and really looking forward to the new Trapeze ‘Lost Tapes’ album (love the singles).

I’ve also got a few books lately, and I gotta confess – I am a slow reader! I tend to have good intentions of sitting down and finishing a book, but really I get a book I am excited about, read a few chapters then first few days (and I don’t start at the beginning!), then I get distracted by something else (maybe a new album?) and then put it down for who-knows how long. Kinda like a project around the house, I guess. Anyway, lately I’ve picked up the Geddy Lee book (read some of that), a novel by my friend Mike Shannon (w/ rock references) – started a bit of that. And today I got Robert Lawson’s book on The Guess Who – read a bit of that before I started writing this! Oh, and I picked up a couple of Alice Cooper comics recently (yet to open), and well, I have a bit of Richie Henman ‘s (April Wine) book to finish (sadly, I started this like 6 months ago and still haven’t got to the end, not for lack of caring, I just am not a regular reader in general). And there’s a few more books I am interested in, but I gotta get through a few that I have….

I’ve also got lots of new stuff (to review, etc..)… But lately been going through more of my Canadian rock albums, lately listening to the first few Harlequin albums (why isn’t the first one on CD yet?), picked up some Guess Who CDs a few weeks back, and have a few gaps in my GW album collection I need to fill, but last few days have been diggin’ the albums ‘Rockin‘ and ‘Artificial Paradise‘ (from ’73) . Also got a couple of Stampeders albums I haven’t checked out fully (Against The Grain and From The Fire). I’ve also got to check out a few albums that I downloaded by Canadian metal band Gatekeeper (from BC); their latest is called From Western Shores (check it out!).

Anyway, I’ve also slowly been picking away at cleaning up my music room (it’s been a disaster for some time with albums, CDs, and miscellaneous things not put back or that I haven’t found room for). I have things that need to ‘go’, and ultimately I’d like to have it clean and spacious enough that I can simply put in a small sitting set and enjoy it (a dream still).

K