How Henry Gets His Beauty Rest...

A future bookworm like his dad, right? Well, I can dream.

Henry has had a really bad cold for the last few days. He’ll start screaming in the middle of the night because he can’t breath through his nose and one of us will have to go in there and snake out his nose. How do you snake a baby’s nose? We have this plastic thing called a bulb syringe, you stick the thing in his nostrils and you suck the mucus out. It’s gross work because the only way you know it’s worked is that a big string of snot practically flies out of the kid’s nose. Anyway, the funny thing is that half the time when Henry starts screaming at night, I’ll go in his room, turn the light on, pick up the kid put him on the changing table grab the snake and realize the kid still has his eyes closed, he’s figured out how to scream in his sleep! Imagine finding a way to get what you want, keep your parents up half the night, and still get your beauty rest.

But in a weird way I feel like I should be thanking Henry. He’s started this thing where he walks up at 5 am in the morning screaming and won’t go back to sleep unless you rock him to sleep or bring him into our bedroom and cuddle up with him. As some of you may know I’m a night owl, so sometimes I don’t get to sleep till 2 am. The reason I can get by with such little sleep is that I sleep very deeply. I mean the fire alarm can go off and I just think it’s my alarm clock and roll over. I somehow get like a full night’s sleep in half the time by entering some sort of near comatose state. But the one problem with this sleep schedule is that I almost never remember any of my dreams. Carol loves to tell me all about the dreams she had in stunningly complete detail, but I remember nothing. However, almost every time Henry wakes me up early, when I go back to sleep it’s a much lighter sleep and I remember all my dreams. So thanks for that Henry, I’m starting to develop a coffee addiction from being constantly sleep deprived, but it’s neat to remember how I defeated the dragon with the silver sword of truth and found out one of my bosses was secretly attending sewing conventions. (That’s just what I was dreaming).

But, I really feel closer to Henry because I’ve had to take care of him. When he was a few months younger and he had a little cold, I put him in his bouncy seat and it kept from rolling onto his stomach and even kept his head elevated, but he’s too big for that seat now, so the only way I could keep him on his back and his head elevated was to sleep on the floor of his room with my arm around him until his breathing cleared up enough to put him back in his crib. I kept thinking I’d fall asleep and I’d wake up to Carol snapping a picture of the two of us because it was probably the cutest thing ever.

But geez, this post has been all about how he’s had a cold, it sounds like he’s sickly or something. He’s had some trouble breathing through his nose at night and in the day he’s had a cough and his nose has been running, but other then that he’s been his bright and cheery-self most of the time. He uses that toy car that’s big enough for him to sit in to help him walk across the room. He stands behind it and uses the car like it’s a walker. He is also pulling up on walls, baby gates, couches, computer desks, floor lamps, and anything else he can find. But he still doesn’t have the balance to stand on his own.

It’s funny he stays home two days a week with Carol and I take care of him on Saturdays (Sundays we tag team it) and the other three days he’s at daycare. And they always say at daycare that he’s a perfect angel and he’s no trouble and Carol and I just look at each other and say he’s great, but he isn’t perfect. At home he spends half the day going for the heater, or the cat box, or the computer, or the lamp. And we tell him “Henry, No!” and he smiles at you and goes for the thing again and then you have to pick him up and put him somewhere else and he screams. But I figured it out. The daycare rooms are like super baby proofed. It’s like he can crawl around there, mess with anything in his reach, and he’s not breaking any rules. That’s one of the reasons why he enjoys it there so much. It’s like when you’re a first time parent people are always telling you that kids need structure and they do, but they are also happy when they can do their thing and crawl around the room and touch everything and not have to remember that they aren’t supposed to touch about half the things in the room.

When Henry is older and he asks where he came from I plan on saying I picked him out at the supermarket. And look I even have the photo evidence. And in an outfit that sharp, what shopper could resist?

John Lennon's Jukebox

Maybe Lennon is thinking, "I have a much cooler jukebox at home."

Okay, the way the story goes is that in 1965 John Lennon bought a Swiss KB Discomatic portable jukebox. What’s that you ask? It’s the 1965 equivalent of an MP3 player or an i-pod. It was a suitcase-sized thing and you could fill it with 40 of your own 45s. So John bought one, I’m sure at the time only the very rich could afford a Swiss KB Discomatic, and he filled the thing with 40 of his favorite 45s and took it with him on tour. One of the 45s Daydream/ Night Owl Blues by the Lovin’ Spoonful didn’t come out until 1966 so we know he didn’t put at least that 45 in the jukebox until then.

In 1989, the jukebox was sold for 2,500 pounds ($4,907) at a Christie’s auction. John Midwinter, a Bristol-based music promoter had the jukebox for years. Did he buy it from Lennon? Did he steal it? I don’t know.

The important thing is that the jukebox is a significant piece of pop culture history. The Beatles are the most important rock and roll band ever and this jukebox is a window into the mind of Lennon. What kind of music was he listening to in 1965? How did it influence his writing? How did it influence the Beatles' sound?

These are the questions I hoped to examine by studying the content of the jukebox.

So, what was in the thing anyway? Well, this is not an easy question, which is why it’s been months since I first heard about the jukebox and it’s taken me that long to research the songs. Now, I didn’t work on this every day, just occasionally, but it’s definitely taken some doing. It’s definitely been more work then any other blog post I’ve ever done.

Why has it been so much work? Isn’t there a website that lists all the songs that were in the jukebox? You’d think there would be, but if there is I haven’t been able to find it. Which is why I’m including a list here: The Almost Complete List of 45s in John Lennon’s Jukebox.

You see there is a list on Wikipedia, as well as a list on this PBS website, but both of these lists are just the track listings from a 2004 double CD named “John Lennon’s Jukebox.” Disc 1 had 20 songs and Disc 2 had 21 songs, totaling 41 songs. However, as I said in the beginning of the article the Swiss KB Discomatic held 40 45s and since 45s have an A and B side (hey, even a youngster like me knows that much) that would mean that there were 80 songs in Lennon’s jukebox meaning the 2 CDs only gave us half the story.

So, before I could listen to the songs and draw my conclusions, I had to figure out what those other 39 songs were. The obvious thing to do was to say, all right since Fontella Bass’s “Rescue Me” was on the CD that means that whatever the B-side was, was also in the jukebox. You also have to consider that probably Lennon bought the UK release of the 45, not the US version, so you have to make sure you find the correct edition.

Another source of information I used was a 2004 review of the Jukebox CD I found on Amazon. A guy named Laurence Upton seemed to have really done his research. He’s made 409 Amazon reviews over the years and he seems to know what he’s talking about. His review filled me in about some of the 45s that the CD skipped entirely. I tried to email him and ask him what his sources were, but he never emailed me back. The 45s he named are bolded on the list, so you can take them with a grain of salt until someone else corroborates them.

My single defeat is that even after all my research I am still short two, 45s, who knows what those 45s were. Perhaps we’ll never know and perhaps it’s better that way because those 45s can be whatever you want them to be.

So that’s the mountain of backstory, let get to the music.

One of the obvious things is that out of 40 45s only one (or three at the most, if you count the 2 mystery 45s) features a female artist. Where’s the Supremes? Where’s the Marvelletes? We know the Beatles listened to and appreciated girl groups, they even covered Please, Mr. Postman, and other girl groups songs. But for whatever reason the John Lennon jukebox is nearly all man.

My theory on this is that Lennon saw this jukebox not only as entertainment, but also as a tutor. He took this on tour with him and I think that he listened to it in part to remind him how to sing and how to rock. I think that Lennon to a certain degree looked up to some of the artists featured on the jukebox like Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Larry Williams and others. And I think he believed that there was always something more to learn by re-listening to the songs.

And of course Lennon and the Beatles didn’t only listen to the songs. A lot of the songs on the jukebox are songs that the Beatles covered or would later cover. Slipin’ and Slidin’ (Buddy Holly and Little Richard’s version are both on the jukebox) John Lennon recorded on his 1975 album Rock 'n' Roll. Paul sang an amazing versions of Richard’s Ooh! My Soul that’s on the Live at the BBC album. Larry William’s Bad Boy was on Beatles VI. The Isley Brother’s Twist and Shout was on Please Please Me and was often played at their concerts as was Little Richard’s Long Tall Sally (The Beatles released their version on an EP of the same name). Barrett Strong’s, Money (That's What I Want) was on Meet the Beatles. The Beatles sang Gene Vincent’s Be-Bop-A-Lula in their Hamburg days and Lennon and McCartney both covered the song in their solo days. In fact, someone combined Lennon and McCartney singing them solo into one track and it’s pretty good. And there are probably other examples of Lennon jukebox songs that they covered that I’m forgetting about.

By 1965, the Beatles were no longer directly emulating the rockabilly and Motown artists that came before them and/or were their contemporaries. The Beatles had developed their own sound. But there is something to be said for appreciating things like the energy of a song, the attitude, the structure, and the writing style. For instance, Glass Onion from the White Album may have been inspired by the Larry William’s song Short Fat Fannie the lyrics in Fannie featured the song titles of lots of different Rockabilly songs and Glass Onion features references to many different Beatles songs. 

Which brings me to the topic of humor in the songs on this jukebox. Lennon often liked to put some humor in his songs, I would describe a lot of his songs as playful. On the jukebox, in addition to Short Fat Fannie, Williams’ Bad Boy is also humorous. But the two most playful songs are First I Look at the Purse by the Contours, which is about a guy looking for a rich women to date and Chuck Berry’s No Particular Place to Go about a missed opportunity for a liaison due to a “safety belt that wouldn’t budge.”  

One thing that's not included on the jukebox is anything by the Beatles. Was Lennon the kind of guy that didn’t like to play his own stuff, or is this more proof that it wasn’t about entertainment it was about learning?

With only 80 total options it was surprising to me that Lennon put multiple versions of the same song on his jukebox. I guess he was the kind of person that can appreciate subtle nuances. I’m the type of person that can’t, I’d be like, “Didn’t I just hear that song?”

The original version of Some Other Guy done by Richard Barrett may have been of Lennon’s jukebox. The Big Three’s version definitely was. The Big Three were a fellow band from the Liverpool’s Merseybeat scene. The Beatles used to sing Some Other Guy in their Cavern Club days. In fact, it’s the song they’re singing in the one existing film of the Beatles performing in that club that exists. It was shot on Wednesday Aug. 22, 1962. And it’s the first film features their new drummer, Ringo Starr. There is no doubt in my mind that songs like Some Other Guy had very significant meaning to Lennon. This song reminded him of where the Beatles came from and reminded him of when they were just a couple of boys playing at a local club.

At the time a lot of the music in the jukebox was recent, but a lot of it was older music too. So there was some stuff that Lennon had been listening to since the Beatles were up and coming and this music had great significance to him and some of the stuff was just new stuff that he liked or maybe it was music that was new to him. If I only had room for 40 45s I’d only put stuff I really liked, but Lennon was taking this on tour with him, it is possible that he figured he wouldn’t get around to listening to something or would lose it unless he put it in his handy dandy jukebox.

Roughly half of the 45s are by black artists. The Beatles grew up on American Rhythm and Blues and as I’ve already stated they admired and emulated many of these artists. I think if Lennon was here he’d say something like race didn’t enter into it, if white guys would make better records I’d listen to them…Okay, we all know he’d say something much wittier and cooler.

There were at least three and possibly four 45s in the Jukebox from Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. That’s more then any other artist. Gary US Bond, The Loving Spoonful, Buddy Holly, Larry Williams, and Little Richard all have only two 45s each in the jukebox. That tells me that Lennon was a fan of Robinson. I think Lennon was moved by the emotions captured in Robinson’s songs, which seem so real. Lennon was the type of writer that put his heart on his sleeve in his lyrics and I think Robinson is one of the artists that helped teach him how to do that, how to make his songs have genuine emotion rather than the anonymous generality of some of the Beatle’s early hits like She Loves You or I Want to Hold your Hand. Lennon is said to have been emulating the style of Robinson in the song Ask Me Why. 

One of the running themes of the lyrics of the songs on the jukebox are songs that, for the time, talk about sex and relationships frankly. It’s no surprise that this should be of interest to the guy that would go on to write Happiness is a Warm Gun. Let’s look at some of the lyrics: Wilson Pickett’s In the Midnight Hour, “You’re the only girl I know that really loves me so in the midnight hour.” She Said, Yeah by Larry Williams, “She said yeah I want to make love to you too.” Pickett’s b-side, I’m Not Tired, “Give me a chance to prove my love to you, alright? I’ve been loving you for a long, long, long, long time and I’m not tired. Honey, you know I’m not tired.”

Several of the songs on the jukebox are about infidelity. Even though he later regretted it, Lennon wrote Run for Your Life about a guy who would murder his wife if she cheated on him. He would also later write Norwegian Wood that was about him being unfaithful to his first wife Cynthia. Gonna Send You Back to Georgia (A City Slicker) by Timmy Shaw tells with a woman’s infidelity “I’m gonna send you back to Georgia. Girl, that’s where you belong, since you got in the big city, you done started doing me wrong” Paul Revere & the Raiders’ Steppin' Out, is another song on the jukebox that deals with female infidelity as is Tommy Tucker's I Don't Want 'Cha (Watcha Gonna Do), “Soon as I walked out the door you started having a ball.”

But it’s not all doom and gloom for relationships on the jukebox Timmy Shaw’s I’m a Lonely Guy feature these positively sweet lyrics, “It’s a cruel little world without the one that you love…No one can live alone and by satisfied.”

One of the instrumental themes of the music on the jukebox is that the harmonica is featured in many of the songs. Lennon played the harmonica on Love Me Do, Please, Please Me, and From Me To You so he was obviously interested in other songs that featured the harmonica. Hey! Baby by Bruce Channel, features a prominent riff from well-known harmonica player Delbert McClinton who toured with the Beatles in 1962 and claims he gave Lennon some harmonica tips.  Lennon also probably dug the harmonica parts in Bob Dylan's From A Buick 6.

It’s the sad truth that some of these artists that were on Lennon’s jukebox and who inspired the Beatles will fade into obscurity. Here is one such artist, James Ray and here’s my attempt to remember him.

Born in Washington D.C., Ray stood just 5' tall and first recorded as Little Jimmy Ray, releasing Make Her Mine on the Galliant label in 1959. It was unsuccessful and by 1961 he was destitute and living on a rooftop, though still performing in clubs. Songwriter Rudy Clark befriended him, and persuaded Gerry Granahan of Caprice Records to sign him. Using the name James Ray, his first recording was of Clark's song, If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody, arranged by Hutch Davie. The record was a hit on both the pop and R&B charts. The single was issued in the UK in 1962 as well, and the song was performed by the Beatles before being discovered by Freddie and the Dreamers, who took it into the UK top 5 the year after.

In the United States, Ray's single was followed by an eponymous album that contained the follow-up single Itty Bitty Pieces, which reached #41 on the Billboard pop chart, as well as Got My Mind Set on You,also written by Clark. An edited version was released later in the year as a single on the Dynamic Sound label.

Ray died from a drug overdose soon after his chart success, possibly as early as 1962, though other sources suggest he died later in the decade.

In 1988, George Harrison did a cover of Got My Mind Set On You and had a #1 hit.

This bio is from James Ray's Wikipedia entry  

The Almost Complete List of 45s in John Lennon’s Jukebox (1965)

1) The Animals, Bring It on Home to Me/For Miss Caulker, 1965, UK

2) Len Barry, 1-2-3/Bullseye, 1965 UK

3) Fontella Bass, Rescue Me/The Soul Of The Man, 1965 UK 

4) Chuck Berry, No Particular Place to Go/Liverpool Drive, 1964 UK

5) The Big Three, Some Other Guy/Let True Love Begin, 1963 UK

6) Gary U.S. Bonds, New Orleans/Quarter to Three, 1964 UK

7) Bruce Channel, Hey! Baby/Dream Girl, 1962 UK

8) The Contours, First I Look at the Purse/Searching For A Girl, 1965 UK

9) Donovan, Turquoise/Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness), 1965 UK

10) Bob Dylan, Positively 4th Street/From A Buick 6, 1965 UK

11) Buddy Holly, Brown-Eyed Handsome Man/Wishing, 1963 UK  

12) Buddy Holly, What To Do/Slippin’ And Slidin’, 1965 UK

13) The Isley Brothers, Twist and Shout/Spanish Twist (instrumental of Twist and Shout), 1962, UK

14) The Lovin' Spoonful, Daydream/ Night Owl Blues, 1966 UK 

15) The Lovin' Spoonful, Do You Believe in Magic/On The Road Again, 1965 UK

16) Derek Martin, Daddy Rollin' Stone/Don’t Put Me Down Like This, 1964 UK 

17) Jimmy McCracklin, The Walk/I'm To Blame, 1958 UK

18) Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Shop Around/Who's Lovin' You, 1960 US

19) Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Ain't It Baby/The Only One I Love, 1961 US

20) Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, What's So Good About Goodbye/I've Been Good to You, 1961 US

21) Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Tracks of My Tears/A Fork in the Road, 1965 UK

22) Bobby Parker, Watch Your Step/Steal Your Heart, 1961 UK

23) Paul Revere & the Raiders, Steppin' Out/Blue Fox, 1965 UK

24) Wilson Pickett, In the Midnight Hour/I’m Not Tired, 1965 UK

25) James Ray with the Hutch Davie Orchestra, If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody/It’s Been a 

Drag, 1962 UK

26) Otis Redding, My Girl/Down In The Valley, 1965 UK

27) Little Richard, Long Tall Sally/Slippin' and Slidin', 1956 US

28) Little Richard, Ooh! My Soul/True, Fine Mama, 1958 UK

29) Timmy Shaw with the Sternphones, Gonna Send You Back to Georgia (A City Slicker)/I’m a Lonely Guy, 1964 UK

30) Edwin Starr, Agent Double-O Soul/Agent Double-O Soul (instrumental), 1965 US

31) Barrett Strong, Money (That's What I Want)/Oh I Apologize, 1960 UK

32) Tommy Tucker, Hi-Heel Sneakers/I Don't Want 'Cha (Watcha Gonna Do), 1964 UK

33) Gene Vincent, Be-Bop-A-Lula/Woman Love, 1956 UK

34) Larry Williams, Short Fat Fannie/High School Dance, 1957 UK

35) Larry Williams, She Said, Yeah/Bad Boy, 1959 UK

36) Booker T and the MG, Boot-leg /Outrage, 1965 US

37) Arthur Alexander, You Better Move On/A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues, 1962 UK

38) Richie Barrett, Some Other Guy/Tricky Dicky, 1962 UK

39) ?

40) ?

4 bolded 45s come from an as yet uncorroborated source.

US singles were used when UK equivalents didn't exist according to my research.

Short Story of the Week (November 2012)

 Each week at the Classic Science Fiction Message Board we read a short science fiction piece (short story, novelette or novella). These stories are always available for FREE online so that anyone can participate in the discussion. The stories are chosen by a different member every month, so that we get to read a variety of stories. November's stories are being picked by Carl Anderson

I’ve lived in Blue Springs, Missouri, a town of around 40,000 that is part of the Greater Kansas City area, for the past 14 years (almost to the day). In that time I have said goodbye to my twenties, experienced highs and lows in my thirties, and have in many ways come into my own in my forties.

The 14 years I have spent here have been some of the most wonderful of my life. In a purely story-related sense this past decade plus has seen a rebirth of a passion for science fiction that had waned somewhat during my twenties. I think the advent of the internet as it exists today, particularly in the realm of book blogging, has done much to add fuel to that fire. Through the internet I discovered a passion for writing about books and sharing written conversations with others. I found a karass of my own. At the same time I found friends here in Missouri who also share my passions and our love for reading and talking about the stories we like has caused us to grow as readers in ways I am convinced would not have happened if reading had remained an entirely solitary venture.

I don’t just read. I have a great love of sports, most particularly the NFL, and over this past year I have developed a personal love for running that I never would have dreamed I would have at age 43. I was a big fan of arcade games and home console games as a child as the advent of those games occurred in my youth. Just before moving to the Kansas City area I got into computer gaming and later returned to console gaming and I spend a good amount of time each year having adventures in worlds created by talented computer programmers and game designers. I’m currently locked in to Dishonored.

I enjoy watching mystery/detective series with my wife. I’m blessed with a spouse who shares my weird sense of humor, my extreme sentimental side, and who also has her own passions unique from mine that make her fun to be around. Twenty-three years in and she remains my very best friend and the one I cannot wait to spend my evenings and weekends with.

 I recently completed a long time dream to convert our back sunroom/office into a reading/library nook. After a few more touches I’ll be posting the transformation and finished results on my site. It is small and doesn’t hold many books but it is such an amazing oasis.

I have the privilege of picking the short stories for the month of November. It is always a gamble picking short stories as you never know if they will work, if they will generate conversations, if people will love them, hate them, or be indifferent to them. All one can do is jump in with eyes wide open. As my nomination for the Modern category was chosen for November, A Fleet of Worlds, I thought I would stay in the modern realm with my stories this month, choosing more recent works from authors you may or may not have heard of but who appear to be making a name for themselves with their work today. I hope you enjoy. 
______________________________

Week #1: The Art of War by Nancy Kress.

 This is from the October 2012 issue of Lightspeed Magazine and can be read online for free here. There is also an audio version available on that same link. I picked this story because of the author. I first discovered Nancy Kress’ short fiction thanks to the Eclipse anthologies edited by Jonathan Strahan. Earlier this year I received an advanced reader copy of her novella, After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, which I thoroughly enjoyed and quickly passed on to my wife (not a big reader of SF but she liked it) and to a SF reading friend who also enjoyed it.

Nancy Kress is a multiple award-winning author and although this is not the best story that I’ve read by her I do think you can see seeds of her talent within. The Art of War takes place largely on the military base of one of humanity’s enemies and looks at warfare both artistically and mathematically. The story starts a little slow but I feel that it builds nicely and while its message(s) is not new it remains universal: those who ignore history, or in this case art history, are doomed to repeat it.

Week #2: Searching for Slave Leia by Sandra McDonald

For my second week of short story hosting duties I am sticking with my theme of featuring current stories/authors with the just released story "Searching for Slave Leia" by author Sandra McDonald. Admittedly the story barely qualifies as science fiction but as it not only coincides nicely with the latest Disney/Star Wars news and touches on the idea of science fiction television I thought it might be fun.

McDonald's character takes leaps through time between her present and her past on a mission that only becomes clear the more time she spends in that past. 80's pop culture and a nod or two at more recent science fiction television makes "Searching for Slave Leia" a light, fun tale. McDonald keeps the story
flowing quickly by keeping the jumps between time periods succinct and relevant to the story she is trying to tell.

Week #3: The Beancounter's Cat by Damien Broderick

This week's short story first appeared in Jonathan Strahan's anthology Eclipse Four and later was chosen for 2012 edition of Gardner Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Damien Broderick's tale has flavors of Jack Vance's Dying Earth series and those old Star Trek episodes with odd superior beings advanced beyond that of mere mortals. Perhaps a pinch of Cordwainer Smith's absurdity too.

Broderick has a way to go to stand in that class, but this was a wild story that kept me on my toes until its slightly too abrupt end. I thought it would be a fun one to share.

Week #4  The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species by Ken Liu

I discovered Japanese author Ken Liu from the recently released collection, The Future is Japanese, where his story "Mono No Aware" opens the anthology on a high note. It is a story that reminds me of Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations". That story was on my mind as I sat to pick out this week's selection and I found this story of his online from an issue of Lightspeed Magazine released in August of this year.

The story appeals to me on two levels. One it appeals because it is an imaginative selection of fragments describing various alien species. They are almost like short stories within a short story as we get a vignette of their make up. Two, and most importantly, it is a creative exercise about books and writing and the importance of these to the culture of various species. As a reader I was enchanted by the various ideas about creating books and the storing and passing on of history.

Week #5 Diving After the Moon by Rachel Swirsky

My turn at the short story helm has been an interesting one, at least for me personally. I went into it with a desire to showcase some newer writers and found myself beating my head against the wall in frustration repeatedly because some of the very best stories by these authors, stories I am convinced that you would LOVE, are only available in print at this time, not online.

Still, I pressed on with the great experiment having made the mental commitment to myself. None of this month's stories have been a roaring success and yet I have enjoyed exploring each of them for various reasons.

My final story offering is a blend of science fiction and folk tale by author Rachel Swirksy. She has won one Nebula award, in 2010, and had a few other stories nominated for Nebula and World Fantasy Awards. I tend to like stories based on mythology and folklore and I thought this experiment of setting an old world story in a future that involved travel to the moon was one worth exploring. As with all stories of this kind, I tend to feel that there are deeper meanings that I am not well-read enough to pull out. However, I was touched by the mother-son dynamic while at the same time impressed with the beauty of the storytelling.