Shop Talk



Best of the year recommendations from ShopTalk:





So, what media and technology made your lives a little more livable in 2002?



Here are a few of my faves:



Music:

When I was Cruel, Elvis Costello (My fave of the year)



Richest Man in Babylon, Thievery (even tho I'm obviously prejudice, I think this is a really great record)



Love in the Time of Science, Emiliana Torrini

(again, I could be prejudiced by the fact that I am MADLY in love with this woman -- ya know, in a way that's entirely healthy and in no way threatens my marriage to my lovely wife -- but I think this too is a wonderful record).



Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, The Flaming Lips



Books:



Junkbots, Bugbots and Bots on Wheels, Dave Hrynkiw



There are no Electrons! Electronics for Earthlings, Kenn Amdhal

(This book has been recommended for awhile, and after reading it, I know why. It's hysterical! If you have a hard time staying awake through books about electronics, but still want ta basic .edu in the subject, check out this book. If Dave Barry wrote an electronics book, it would look something like this.



Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem

(Incredible. He's the new Don DeLillo. If you haven't read his sci-fi (such as Gun, With Occasional Music), you must. This is just as impressive. This guy's a major talent.



Soldat, Siegfried Knappe

(This is the amazing wartime diaries of a German soldier. Just as Easy Company ended up being at nearly every major engagement in WWII, Knappe was too, from the Nuremberg Rallies to the invasions of France and the Soviet Union to the Battle of Berlin and Hitler's bunker. Really gives you a sense of how an intelligent, worldly, stand-up guy could get sucked into the madness of Hitler's Germany, and then, once it the military, feel duty-bound to follow orders, even as he started to see the insanity of what was going on. Moving. Scary. Enlightening.)