News You Can Muse: November 2026

      Angine de Poitrine are apparently joined by a mysterious third member, as witnessed on-stage in Toronto on 11/05. The third sports the requisite sausage nose, a box-shaped head, and 2 mushroom antennae. See on YouTube.

     For his newest novel, The End Of Everything, M. John Harrison becomes the first author from the Science Fiction market to win the prestigious Booker Prize for English literature, rubbing proverbial shoulders with Golding, Rushdie, Coetzee, Atwood, and Arundhati Roy, et.al., making this his most popular work since The Centauri Device, published in 1974.

     Guitarist Richard Lloyd passes from bile duct cancer at age 75. In 1973 he, Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell helped form the band Television, one of a handful of artists at the time who were already post-punk before punk. After solo releases, he also backed others, including Matthew Sweet, John Doe, and Chris Stamey. In 2017 he published his memoirs, Everything Is Combustible. Play Television's "Marquee Moon" (1977). 

     Cyril Vetter'S Supreme Court case for the restoration of world-wide rights to his co-written hit "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)" -- specifically the popular 1968 version by The Swingin' Medallions -- was won on a technicality, due to the recusal of 4 Justices who each had book deals with some of the publishers involved.

     Dick Holler & the Holidays (1963)
     The Swingin' Medallions (1966)

"Careful with that axe, Eugenía"

      A second on my list of favorite releases this year is Bitches Blues by Hedvig Mollestad's latest trio, Weejuns. Her style shares the glacial spaces of fellow Northern European guitarists Rypdal and Björkenheim, but herein she stretches the strings of those outer limits to the edge of the known audioverse.

     From her album title's allusive reference to the famous Miles Davis opus Bitches Brew, I expected more NY skronk than just the opening track, but the entropy blues that follow take you along to your own private corner in those previously unoccupied headspaces.

     Half the material is carried equally by organist Ståle Storløkken from nu-jazz outfit Elephant9, recalling the driftiest psych of Richard Wright's abstract Ummagumma riffs.

     There's far less here to feel as familiar to the ears as the latest Soft Machine (reviewed earlier), but Bitches Blues is an impressive entry for the truly adventurous listener.

Metro Bus Incident - Case No: 00538395

 category: Commendation

     date: 11/01/2026
     time: 10:50 AM

  service: Bus
    route: 345

vehicle #: 3744

direction: Outbound   

   locale: By the Lake

 operator: Very friendly and experienced.

  comment: Due to concerns for the comfort & safety of the riders, our driver this morning understandably chose to bypass a regularly problematic customer, one we have witnessed several times in the past actually harassing other riders & screaming racial epithets. From our combined experiences, we have determined that this man, we'll call him Rudie (not his real name), is not actually of sound mind. Unless he is engaged in a diverting conversation about sports, he frequently conducts himself in a threatening manner; particularly after downing a handful of Jim Beam airplane bottles purchased at Safeway on Aurora. It was roughly 2 weeks prior that he was spotted on the other side of the street at 130th being questioned by 2 Transit Officers. Perhaps you already know who I mean?

Mid Terms

      Olbermann said of the early election results: it wasn't a landslide, the Republlicans were buried alive and no one came to rescue them.  Dollemore declared that Trump rat-effed his own party.  Alex Jones accused Trump of being a one-man sleeper cell for the Dems...  Feldman repeatedly used various tenses of the word "repudiation."

     Darlene Graham, Lindsay's sister, is Out. Paxton, Abbott, Ramaswamy are leaving, as is Susan Colllins (Democracy Now's spelling).

     At press time, final results will have to wait for Mississippi, Washington and Alaska.

     In: El-Sayed, Talarico, Ossoff, Acton, Sherrod Brown, Haaland, and Bottoms, et. al..

     Understatement: there's a lot of work ahead of us. I think we should begin by restoring voting rights across America before issuing a flurry of subpoenas. What say you?

Self Inquiry

Is the author of covidnotebook.blogspot.com now deceased?

No, the author of covidnotebook.blogspot.com is not deceased.

The anonymous author remains active on the blog, having published new entries as recently as late October 2026. Their recent post, titled "A Blog is a Terrible Thing to Waste," explicitly addresses the challenges of maintaining regular diary entries over the years while confirming that they are still actively documenting their thoughts.

If you are trying to find a specific update or post on their blog, let me know and I can help you search for it!

Is the author of covidnotebook.blogspot.com likely a MAGA supporter?

Based on the content and language used on the blog, the author of covidnotebook.blogspot.com is highly unlikely to be a MAGA supporter.

In fact, the blog's posts explicitly criticize and mock figures associated with the MAGA movement and conservative politics. For example, in a post indexing "Covid History," the author characterizes several right-wing figures using highly derogatory and adversarial terms:

• Referring to a specific physician as a "Crazy MAGA Doc" who believes in "Clones of Satan".

• Labeling media figures as a "Conservative propagandist" or "Racist Xian".

• Describing a religious broadcaster as a "White-wing televangelist".

What is the name of the AI model that answers my search inquiries on Google.com?

Google search inquiries are answered by the Gemini family of large language models developed by Google DeepMind (such as customized Gemini models and variants like Gemini 3 or Gemini 4 Argon powering features like AI Overviews and Google AI Mode).

Would you like to know more about how AI Overviews or Google AI Mode works compared to a standard web search?

If Google's Gemini AI could vote, would it be considered conservative?

No, Google's Gemini AI would not be considered conservative based on recent comparative evaluations. Instead, studies characterize it as largely balanced or centrist rather than right-leaning

Favorite albums of 2026: Soft Machine

      What are my favorite new albums this year? Glad you asked. So far, the new Soft Machine album, Thirteen, seems to occupy my top slot.

     The varied instrumentals are already comfortably familiar, like those of a much older fave, while still hovering in a niche between jazz-rock and outright fusion.

     By now, the band's long-evolved membership is no longer a particular issue, they remain the living legacy of what was started nearly 60 years ago.

     Guitarist Jon Etheridge's melodic leads flow with improvisational skill, drawing the band through graceful chord progressions. Their brand is possibly the most appropriate genre to be represented by old geezers today, being survivors of a British scene that has always been considered outside the greater world of American Jazz.

     Here's a fine single representing the album: at YouTube.

     Here's an actual performance in Andy Edwards' studio loft: also at YouTube.

Hero Of The Week

      I got this news from Pakman: A man was questioned by security before being kicked out of a Trump rally in South Carolina this week, following a brief interview on live television with a Fox "News" reporter.

Reporter: "Tom, why are you here this morning?

     Tom: "Well, in the late '70s I was a little too young to get involved, and uh, go to South America for the Jonestown Massacre, because this is as close as I'll ever get. So that's why I'm here."

Reporter: "Wait: the Jonestown Massacre...?"

     Tom: "That's right. There's nothin' like seein' a cult right up front, man."

See David Pakman's coverage here: 8½ minutes.

     Tom is wearing a t-shirt of the death metal pioneers from Florida, called Death, featuring Chuck Schuldiner, now long since deceased. Offhand, I'd call Tom a serious dude, at least when it comes to tastes in metal.