1. I didn't get into Metallica until after bassist Cliff Burton had passed away, but those first three lps he played on have always been my favorites. His short life (only 26 when killed in a tour bus crash) has largely remained a mystery over the years, a mystery that Joel McIver explores in his biography, "To Live is to Die."
As it turns out, Burton had a pretty low key life -- he comes off as a nice, everyday dude who lived mainly to play the bass. That was to Metallica's benefit, but does make for a bit of a dull read. The problem is that McIver, despite good access to the other band members and Burton's family and friends, never gets inside his subject. This is also true of Burton's playing, which is given some attention, but apart from some jargon-riddled passages about the bass rig and some touches on music theory, doesn't get to the heart of the matter.
2. Brandon Sanderson, the heir to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (his first volume -- of three that will finally end the series -- will be out this fall), has his own complex, fully realized worlds to explore as well. His latest, "Warbreaker," takes us to a suitably Medieval land where magic works. In this case, it's based on a person's "breath" and is also tied to colors. It's both quite derivative and very stupid -- really, it's almost a deal breaker in the first 50 pages -- but Sanderson's skills as a storyteller take over from there. The story includes a pair of princesses trying to save their own kingdom (and stay alive), mysterious, highly skilled mercenaries, a bored God becoming obsessed with who he was before his ascension and plenty of betrayals to keep the action moving. I found that if I substituted "soul" for "breath" and just ignored the whole color thing, even the magic made some kind of sense.
3. Things I learned half-watching a preseason football game on NBC: Jay Leno has some new show coming out; NBC really wants you to watch "Community" this fall; apparently, accidents only happen in slow motion on "Trauma." Oh, I was also reminded why I hate the broadcast networks (I hate the cable networks too, but I don't have that service anymore so I really can't comment).
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