Soko, Springtime, and "The Seven Who Were Hanged"

Soko just released her first official album and it is great!  Spring has come to my region of Spain and I was able to get a few pictures to share.  And finally, I have a little book review.

Music
I Thought I Was An Alien by Soko                                           3 Gallons of Chick-fil-A lemonade
This is a very good album.  I was pleased she developed the potential that I saw in her earlier work from her EP Not Sokute, which I mentioned in an old post.  This album is much darker and more personal though.  There is a lot of heartbreak in her lyrics, but I think the most interesting aspect is that hearing about her feelings and situations doesn't actually make the listener sad.  If anything, it gave me a better understanding of the artist herself, and put me in a very reflective mood.  Nostalgia is sometimes necessary.
You can get all the typical information such as lyrics, tour dates, and video clips at her website: http://www.s-o-k-o.com/

Pictures
Hooray for happier weather for sunnier times!
The days are getting longer, trees are blooming, and the damp draft that was ever-present is lifting.  This inspired my tourist's walk through the pueblo.

I count myself lucky to be here to see these incredibly blue skies on my warm wanderings.

Reading
The Seven Who Were Hanged by Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev.        100 oatmeal cream pies
A fascinating series of psychological portraits. 
Background: A group of revolutionaries in monarchial Russia plan an attack on a prominent bureaucrat.  The attempt is foiled, and the plotters are sentenced to death.  Two other criminals are also to die at the same time for unrelated charges.  
As the story unfolds, the reader is taken from cell to cell, brain to brain, to watch how the different personalities of the characters contend with the knowledge that they are to die soon.  One envisions martyrdom, one is terrified into stupor, one considers what it will be like to become nothingness.
I keep reflecting upon what a great movie it could make if a director were to ever take on the project.  It's incredibly Russian in its dark sentiments and motifs, and it maintains that same characteristically Russian novel appeal.  The reader becomes subsumed into details and very moving images and concepts, while the writer pours what he knows of himself and his society into the piece.  And as an added bonus, it's not the length of the typical Russian story.  I was through the bite-sized work in less than an afternoon.  You can read or download it here at Project Gutenberg.