The Explorers' Club
№ CCLXXVIII - The intrepid, obscene life & times of Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890).







This Week in Motorsport
Beyond Thunderdome
The first round of Australia's V8 Supercars series was broadcast this past weekend, having been run the previous weekend. I videotaped the race, but have not yet had a chance to watch the broadcast. The important takeaway is that motorsport is back! Yippee! The inaugural Formula One grand prix of 2012 will be held this coming weekend, coincidentally also in Australia.

In the words of Darkseid (from Justice League Unlimited, voiced by the incomparable Michael Ironside), "Let the universe howl in despair, for I have returned!"

Rally Monkey
The 2012 World Rally Championship has been running since January, & this weekend saw the season's third rally, Rally México, but despite re-branding the channel Discovery H.D. as the car-themed Velocity, the Discovery media empire does not appear to be carrying coverage of the W.R.C. as it did in '11. I've been unable to find any American television coverage of the W.R.C. I am a child of the television age, & 'tis hard to be a fan of a sport that I never see; has been raised with nothing but newspaper accounts, I'm sure they would suffice, but I wasn't, so they don't. Curses!

The Queue
The esteem in which I hold Steve Martin is even greater after reading Born Standing Up than it was after reading his first two novels, Shopgirl & The Pleasure of My Company, & Pure Drivel, a collection of his essays. I must endeavour to read his third novel, An Object of Beauty, sooner rather than later. Born Standing Up has also stimulated a jones for more non-fiction, with the result that A War Like No Other has leapfrogged The Man who would be King and Other Stories. I must further endeavour to watch the motion picture The Jerk again sooner rather than later.

Recently
H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines
Len Deighton, City of Gold
Steve Martin, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life

Currently
Eric Powell, The Goon: Wicked Inclinations (Vol. 5), Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker (Vol. 6), A Place of Heartache and Grief (Vol. 7)

Presently
Victor Davis Hanson, A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War
Eric Powell, The Goon: Those That is Damned (Vol. 8), Calamity of Conscience (Vol. 9), & Death's Greedy Comeuppance (Vol. 10)
Rudyard Kipling, The Man who would be King and Other Stories
Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Gods of Mars

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Erykah Badu & The Blues Brothers, "Funky Nassau" from Blues Brothers 2000: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (M I K E)