We went and saw Keith Little and Jim Nunally at the First Street Cafe last night. As always, it was a great show, even though Keith was under the weather with a cold. Keith and Jim are two of the premier bluegrass musicians in California, probably in the entire US, and it's always a pleasure to see them play in a small, informal setting like this. I've taken lessons from both Keith and Jim at the California Bluegrass Association's summer music camp and they are both excellent teachers as well as unbelievably nice people. Keith plays mainly banjo and guitar. I've also seen him play mandolin, fiddle and bass on stage but he is most well known for his singing. He usually teaches the male vocal lesson class at the music camp. Jim is one of the top flatpicking guitar players out there but usually teaches rhythm guitar. If you want to master bluegrass rhythm, you should definitely try to get in his class.
They both play with a number of bands so there are lots of chances to see them play, particularly if you live in Northern California.

Just finished - Cellby Stephen King. When I was a kid, Stephen King put me off of reading horror for many years. I read parts of Night Shiftat a young age and had nightmares for years. It wasn't till after high school when I had some good friends who were big Stephen King fans that I went back and tried him again. Since then I've read most of what he's written, particularly his early works. At some point it is clear success went to his head and he started to ignore the advice of editors. He started producing bloated novels that didn't appeal to me. I'm not sure if it was getting off drugs or his near death experience (nicely documented in the excellent On Writing) that changed things but his books have slimmed down again. His stories started to get a little better but I don't think he has ever re-captured the full feel of his best works and Cell is a good example.
At first glance, many might compare it to The Standsince they are both post-apocalyptic in a way. But that would be a mistake. The Stand really is a post-apocalyptic tale of what happens after most of the population dies from super-flu while Cell is really just a variant on the classic zombie story. King still does a good job of creating characters and scenes through pop references and slangy dialogue but this isn't one of his best efforts. It would make a good page-turner for an airplane ride but not much else.