Joe's One Man Book Club:

I finished Dan Brown's Digitial Fortress. Brown is, of course, the author of the mega blockbuster The Da Vinci Code, which I have not read. I've heard that it's interesting but a little overdone as a thriller (others have been much less kind). I found a used copy of Digitial Fortress for 3 bucks, and the subject matter looked much more interesting than Da Vinci.

Basically, it's a nice quick summer beach read. It's really two stories in one: an espionage story set in Spain, the other concerning code breakers for the US government running into what appears to be an unbreakable code.

The twists are fairly predicatble, but everything does make sense in the end. The characters and dialogue are fairly flat. I will give Brown credit--there's a lot of technical jargon but it doesn't bog down the book, not like it did in, say, Airframe.

It's not high art, but it doesn't want to be, so you can't penalize it in that regard. However, there's a really interesting question of whether it's OK to invade people's home computers and e-mail in the sake of national security that unfortunately gets completely glossed over in the name of plot.

Currently reading Franklin & Winston, a history of Roosevelt and Chruchill's relationship during WWII. I was looking for something to read after the attacks on England and came across this. Very interesting so far, and a reminder that towering leaders can also be deeply flawed men.

When I was in Barnes & Noble last Friday, there was almost a stampede of people getting braclets so they could be first in line for the new Harry Potter book. I'm so behind I never read Order of the Phoenix. Maybe I'll read that next and hopefully when I'm done I'll be able to track down whatever #6 is called with relative ease.

I finally picked up Rancid's Indestructible last week. Even though Rancid's one of my favorite bands I kind of slept on this one when it came out in 2003, probably because I wasn't jazzed with 2000's self title album. The knock on Rancid is that they rip off the Clash, so with Rancid they put out their version of an early 80's LA hardcore record. It's fast, it's loud, but the songs weren't really catchy. Sure, they proved they don't have to sound like the Clash, but it also didn't play to their strengths.

Well, I listened to Indestructible and I'm kicking myself for not getting this two years ago. It's classic Rancid, punk and ska and snotty and catchy as hell. Maybe their second best album? Maybe. Ask me again in an hour.

It's a lot more introspective than previous Rancid albums (dare I say mature), probably because Tim Armstrong's wife left him while they were making the record. Sad for him, great for us since we got "Tropical London," a simply fantastic kiss-off song. Some of the songwriting gets a little goofy at times, like with a song about the homeless called "Stand Your Ground," but "Fall Back Down," "Red Hot Moon," and "Born Frustrated" is up there with some of their best stuff.

It's a little long at 19 songs and 52 minutes, but hell, every Rancid album could stand a little trimming (even ...and Out Come The Wolves, one of my top five favorite albums of all time, could have lost a few songs at the end), but really, it flows the best out of any Rancid disk. Good shit.

Wow, two weeks without an update. Unnacceptable.

Everything's just been...busy lately. Work, personal life, you name it.

No Cyber Sox update for a while, because I've moved on to my new obsession. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the PC. Even though I own a PS2 I always get GTA games on PC, since that's how I first played GTA III three years ago, (didn't have the PS2 then) so I figure, why change? Even if it does mean waiting the better part of a year after the game is released on Playstation.

Whereas GTA III and Vice City had more of a mafia feel (especially III), San Andreas
goes head on into gang life. As CJ, member of the Grove Street Soliders you engage in such pastimes as tagging your turf and gunning down rival gang members. The "N word" gets tossed around a lot and there's a gang member who looks just like Eazy E.

The set-up is pretty much the same as the last two outings, although this time you can jump over walls and swim. The last one is key. In GTA III and Vice City, if you fell into a lake, you died. This time you can at least swim to shore.

You can also cutomize CJ's hair, clothes, and body (by working out in the gym). As for hair, I gave CJ the Jules Winnfield Memorial Afro and beard. Also appropriate since Samuel L. Jackson voices the character of Officer Tenpenny.

One of the hallmarks of the GTA franchise are the numerous fake radio stations you can play. San Andreas (which takes place in 1992) may be the best of the bunch. The hard rock station has Living Colour, Alice in Chains, L7, Guns n' Roses, Faith No More, Soundgarden, and some others I'm forgetting. Plus they have stations for new rap (well, new in '92), classic rap, classic rock (!), and country (!!). Plus the PC has the advantage of allowing you to pre-load your own MP3's.

This game is hard though. I'm still only about 15 or so missions in and some of them have given me fits. "Sweet's Girl," "Robbing Uncle Sam," and even the one where you bounce the car have made me want to throw my computer out the window. Thankfully I've cleared them all without cheating. But now I've got the stupid street race, which will surely reduce me to tears by week's end.