On The Road With Al and Ivy: Blog

The Delta Snake Review - The Anthology Vol 1 Free on Kindle today until Friday!

The Quitturz: Book 1 - Nym's Cool Night by Al Handa is now live on Amazon Kindle Unlimited. KU members can read it for free. https://a.co/d/j4LSuCW Book 1 is about the Quitturz's early days in 1977, and their later career in 1987. The Quitturz will be priced at .99 till the end of October, and there will be a free promotion  from October 6th through the 8th.  The ebook will be free to all during those three days. Info: The Quitturz series strips away the 50 or so years of golden memories and mythology about the music and its "movement." It describes a San Francisco culture and ambiance that no longer exists.  The language is late 70s punk; tough, with a sense of humor that may strike some as smart-ass and cynical. In 1977, many of the older musicians didn't understand punk rock. A few encouraged the movement, but many openly disliked or ridiculed the music. Most of the early punks were from a younger generation who didn't want to play old fart music and were h...

On The Road With Al & Ivy - July 6 Topic: Book 1: Becoming A Face is now live on Kindle Unlimited and free promotion  Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FGWKK19K Free Promotion Monday 7/7 to Tuesday 7/8 On The Road With Al & Ivy: Book One: Becoming A Face is now live on KU and will be free this coming Monday and Tuesday. The price will be .99 for three weeks until the regular price is set. Kindle Unlimited readers can download the eBook or read it online for free. Book Overview On The Road With Al & Ivy is a planned trilogy of novels that are loosely based on the author's life in the San Francisco Bay homeless scene in 2016. His travels took him and Ivy to Northern California, Marin County, San Francisco, East Bay, Silicon Valley, Gilroy, Monterrey Peninsula, and Fresno. The On The Road With Al & Ivy novels are about a group of people in 2016, with all of their virtues and flaws, dealing with a catastrophic situation with resilience and making both good and bad choic...

 Now live on Kindle Unlimited  Link: https://www .amazon.com/dp/B0FGWKK19K On The Road With Al and Ivy New book trailer: "On The Road With Al and Ivy—Book 1: Becoming A Face" will be released in about two weeks. As I said earlier in my blog on X, I was working on this book and "The Quitturz," and this one was the first to be completed.

 On The Road With Al & Ivy Podcast - Episode 7 is now live! Topic: The biography of Joan of Arc by Anatole France YouTube: https://youtu.be/AMz-BiabX0I?si=-XUuoPCXQ5wIKpbp Also on Spotify, Apple, iHeart, Pocket Casts Joan of Arc is a polarizing figure even in modern times. One of France's greatest satirists wrote a two-volume biography about her. His conclusions will surprise those expecting a debunking of the legend surrounding this remarkable woman. Music: Intro: Mescalene Manny by Handa-McGraw International Episode: Sunday's Moon by Handa-McGraw International Outro and featured: In The Summertime by Mark McGraw #podcast #classicliterature #books #joanofarc #anatolefrance Now live on Kindle Unlimited  Link: https://www .amazon.com/dp/B0FGWKK19K

Podcast update June 20: I've upgraded the graphics for the Podcast with a new main cover image, plus a graphic for each episode. I wasn't entirely happy with using the image that's going to be used for the ebook cover. The new main graphic is surrealistic and the image depicts the opening prologue of the upcoming ebook, which wasn't included in the Kindle Vella version. The ebook has 50% more content that I held back. The new images are live on Spotify and the other sites should update within 24 hours.  - Al Handa  Episode 5 of On The Road With Al & Ivy Podcast:   YouTube https://youtu.be/UzbidX1ji-Q?si=sWMjIsorIT8N1YxN   Also on Spotify, Apple, Amazon Music, i Heart Radio, and Pocket Casts - Review of Jack London's "The Star Rover." Was it early Science Fiction or a Metaphysical work about reincarnation, mental illness and sanity.  Podcast update June 20: I've upgraded the graphics for the Podcast with a new  main Podcast update June 20: ...

Episode 4 of the On The Road With Al & Ivy Podcast is now live! YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=muDkgVRj0og&si=3vU-XGkN0Pn4rqqy Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alhanda/episodes/On-The-Road-With-Al--Ivy-Episode-4-e2kksd2 Also on Apple, Amazon Music, i Heart Radio, and Pocket Casts Topics: The book "Gone To Texas (aka Josie Wales) by Forest Carter, a Homeless Woman's hard choice, outlaw protocols, value of friendship and knowing what's important. Music: Handa-McGraw International: Joyous Noise At The Burnside Church/Sunday's Moon/Maximum Delta Dirge/Interstellar Blowout Mark McGraw: Water Into Wine Time #podcast #josiewales #homeless #books #reviews #music #westerns Now live on Kindle Unlimited  Link: https://www .amazon.com/dp/B0FGWKK19K

Podcast Episode 3 now live on Spotify and Apple.  https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/alhanda/episodes/On-The-Road-With-Al--Ivy-Episode-3-e2k5k0q Topics: The Godfather by Mario Puzo, Three Musketeers by Dumas, and the Robin Hood myth. Some thoughts on Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck, On The Road by Kerouac Scroll Version, and The Road by Jack London. Music: My Dog Dreams And Becomes A Mermaid Techno Mix, Sunday's Moon and Nigel Raga by Handa-McGraw International. Taylor's Blues by Mark McGraw

On The Road With Al & Ivy Podcast: Episode 2 Live on Spotify.  Will be live on Apple and YouTube Music with a day or two. https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/deltasnake/episodes/On-The-Road-With-Al--Ivy-Episode-2-e2jsa5l  Topics:   - The homeless literature of Jack London and George Orwell with commentary.   - The Kind Elderly Lady (aka Somebody's Grandmother) Excerpt from On The Road With Al & Ivy: The Anthology Vol. 2 - 2016-2018 Music:   Sunday's Moon by Handa-McGraw International   Mississippi John On The Mainline and Taj'n 'Round by Mark McGraw Intro and outro music: My Dog Dreams and Becomes A Mermaid (techno version) by Handa-McGraw International   #podcast #literature #homeless #blog #jacklondon #georgeorwell

Update on Podcast: Changing back to the original blog format There's one more change to the podcast format, which is in many of the descriptions of the show, the old title of the blog is going to be used again. It will read "On The Road With Al & Ivy: A Literary Homeless Chronicle." The reason is that it will allow me to incorporate material from my ebook and past blog entries that relate to homelessness. In other words, the podcast is simply going back to the old blog format that started in 2016 which covered literary and cultural issues occasionally from a homeless point of view. I may sound naive or clueless when I say that the main reason I had moved to a more literary format was that I actually thought the homeless issue was going to either go away or be reduced by the influx of help and money that was occurring even back in 2016.  There have been huge sums of money spent and the creation of many local and government services, yet the problem has been getting wor...

The first full episode of the On The Road With Al & Ivy  is now live on  Spotify  (and in my subscriber section on X). Podcast Episode 2: 1. Hermann Hesse, Marcel Proust and A.I. 2. Riffing on Rites of Passage For Men and Women (Humor) Music by Handa-McGraw International  https://open.spotify.com/episode/67K2sHKymlrGM6de9oRqBH?si=EXoa6is-Rm6RoXR0_br2kw #podcast #literature #essay #commentary #hesse #proust #humor #satire

FEBRUARY 2024 COMPILATION ISSUE Note: All material by Al Handa unless otherwise noted. Contents copyright 2024 by Al Handa. All rights reserved. IN THIS ISSUE: The Quitturz Preview: Parts 1-3 A.I. And Art: Part 4 - Some Thoughts About Scraping Boogie Underground Preparedness Primer: Part 1 How To Find The Perfect Headphones: Parts 2-3 The Quitturz Preview: Parts 1-3 The eBook version of "The Quitturz" will be published in December and it won't be a straight compilation of the current Vella episodes. The most obvious change is the title. The Vella serial is called "The Quitters," which is a good title, but music groups and other organizations already use it. I figured it was best to change the spelling, and the new title better reflects the 70s Punk sensibility. There are two significant changes: the chapters have been resequenced, and a parallel story has been inserted. The Quitters is my best-selling Vella book and works well as serial fiction. Most of that ge...

SEPT. 2023 ISSUE: How Will A.I. Change Art? Part 1-3 Preview: Second Edition of "Knee Deep In Glory" Preview: On The Road With Al & Ivy: The Journal Entries (2016-2018) Note: This series is published as The Space Age Oracle on X Part 1: How Will A.I. Change Art? The legal battles raging between Hollywood and upper-level writers and artists are a different battle than what you and I are probably concerned with. Whether or not they get compensation isn't going to benefit most of the artistic community selling stuff on Etsy or eBay, indie music, etc. For example, do you want a new front room? Don't hire a designer; have the A.I. program give you hundreds of ideas within the budget and where to get the items (or even order for you). Are you a young filmmaker who needs a soundtrack? Just feed the program your script (written by A.I.) and have it create the perfect music. Now the Talking Heads of Tech will thump their chests and proclaim that the software will have pro...

The Space Age Oracle: Cancel Culture And Witch Trials Part 2  (Note: Essay could contain triggers for some) There's been a controversy on TikTok and other media about a woman who made a video about being assaulted with a brick by a man because she refused to give her phone number, adding that a group of men stood by and watched without intervening. That's a story where details are still coming out, with many different views, so I won't try to summarize those. Those interested should research it, see the wide range of opinions, and decide for yourself.  However, I refer to it later in this essay because it's a good example of the difference between the legal system and social justice, which always contains the seeds of cancel culture. The Internet didn't create cancel culture; it's always been around. All it's done is expand peer, village, or community control to a broader audience of like-minded people. The social sphere is rarely controlled by law because ...

  New Vella Series: Literature's Greatest Hits I'm giving this a low key start, with two free episodes loaded. One is a combination of essays about Hermann Hesse and Marcel Proust, featuring a comparison of a tech outlook and human inspiration. The second is the full version of an examination of Tom Wolfe's opening chapter for Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and writers can learn from it. Future episodes will examine English translations of Native American literature and stories, where free form novels really came from, and other topics. These are free so please check these essays out. - Al Handa https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/episode/B0CGMG4HRY # LiteraturePosts # Proust # tomwolfe # hermannhesse #steppenwolf # electrickoolaidacidtest

- How Will A.I. Really Change Art? Part One - At The Movies: Cromwell (1970) And The Nature Of Violent Revolutions -  How To Find The Perfect Headphones - Part 1 -  The National instrument of Madagascar  How Will A.I. Really Change Art? Part One Note: This was hoping to be another Vella nonfiction book but I decided to run a few of the pieces here then continue it in the Subscriber section. The legal battles raging between Hollywood and upper-level writers and artists are a different battle than what you and I are probably concerned with.  Whether or not they get compensation isn't going to benefit most of the artistic community selling stuff on Etsy or eBay, indie music, etc. For example, do you want a new front room? Don't hire a designer; have the A.I. program give you hundreds of ideas within the budget and where to get the items (or even order for you). Are you a young filmmaker who needs a soundtrack? Just feed the program your script (written by A.I.) and have...