The Explorers' Club
№ CCLXXXV - The life & legend of Robert Roy MacGregor (1671-1734), Jacobite & outlaw, popularly remembered as "Rob Roy."







Kith & Kin | Project MERCATOR
I've been invited to Xanadu to meet my wee niece, Lucy, this weekend. The Loose Ties & a couple other ska bands are playing at the reborn Flint Local 432 on Saturday. Lucy trumps rock & roll every day of the week & twice on Sunday, but this is the devil's own timing. Curses! Drat & double drat! On the other hand, hooray, Lucy! At last!

Remember, Lucy, Uncle Mike is your favorite.

The Queue
There is a wearisome repetitiveness about the stories in The Man who would be King and Other Stories. Even the better specimens touch upon marital infidelity, tangentially if not as the crux of the plot. Was this the central amusement of Anglo-Indian society or was the young Kipling, only in his early twenties at the writing of these stories, not yet confident enough to tackle other, more varied themes? Either way, it's tiresome. I don't know if the best course is to plow ahead & just get this over with, or to take a break & recharge my enthusiasm with another, better book. I was afeared this volume would not live up to the boundless promise of Kim, but never did I imagine that the obstacles would be as they are.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day: SKApril
Less Than Jake, "Does the Lion City Still Roar?" from GNV FLA (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: I wanted to end this second R.B.D.S.O.T.D. celebration of "SKApril" on a high note, & is there a higher note on which to finish a month dedicated to ska than Less Than Jake? Some as high, perhaps—The Mighty Mighty Bosstones & the Reel Big Fish spring to mind—, but none higher. "Does the Lion City Still Roar?" has it all: horns, relentless pace, cynicism, a social conscience. That L.T.J. have been as good as they are, for as long as they have, as prolific as they are, boggles the mind. We are all the richer for that boggling.

"The city seems like it's trapped
Between its future and its past,
Life or death of a city not coming back.
The city feels like a cage,
Feels like a powder keg,
And now its gonna explode!"

The ska can't be contained within the thirty days of April, but there will be non-ska R.B.D.S.O.T.D. in the days ahead. I hope you enjoyed SKApril '12; I'm already looking forward to SKApril '13, SKApril '14, & beyond. "Ska! Ska! Ska!"