Happy Birthday: Adam Fredric Duritz (born August 1, 1964) is an American singer, best known as the frontman for the rock band Counting Crows, for which he serves as a founding member and main composer. Since its founding in 1991, Counting Crows has sold over 20 million records, released seven studio albums that have been certified gold or platinum, and been nominated for two Grammy Awards and an Academy Award.

Duritz has recorded solo material of his own and has collaborated with other musical acts. He has also founded two record labels, E Pluribus Unum and Tyrannosaurus Records. His work scoring music for film earned an award from BMI for co-writing the song "Accidentally in Love" for the movie Shrek 2.

Duritz and producer/guitarist David Bryson formed Counting Crows in San Francisco in 1991. When Gary Gersh of Geffen Records heard the band's demo tape, he was "blown away". A bidding war between nine different record labels broke out in February 1992. In April, the band—which, by that time, included other members—"signed a deal with Gersh and Geffen believed to be so lucrative that industry wags dubbed them Accounting Crows".

The band's first album, August and Everything After, charted within the top five of the Billboard 200, and the single "Mr. Jones" (1993) was a number-one hit in Canada. After the band performed as the music guest on Saturday Night Live, "Mr. Jones" jumped 40 spots in the charts. The album has been certified 7× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Six of the band's albums have charted on the Billboard 200 and four have been certified gold or platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Counting Crows was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1994. The band also received a 2004 Academy Award nomination for the song "Accidentally in Love", which was included in the film Shrek 2.

[My Uni friend introduced me to Counting Crows - and Rush... and U2.... and for several years they became my favourite band and I bought (or downloaded) everything they produced. I was lucky enough to see them perform live both at Glastonbury in 2000 - the reason we went - and at Cardiff Arena some years later. LOVE it and still love them.]

Welcome to August, We Made It! I hope that people out there IRL are keeping cool, hydrated and burn free - plus of course are enjoying this summer of Pop Culture here @ SaLT. We're in the final month so hold on to your hats! 

England and Wales on Track for Driest July in 190 Years

Provisional Met Office data shows England and Wales are on course for their driest July since records began in 1836, with rainfall at just 8% of long‑term averages and drought declared across more than half of England and all of Wales.

Rainfall and Records

England: 5.6 mm of rain so far in July 2026 — 8% of the monthly average, less than half the previous record of 13.4 mm set in 1911.

Wales: 7.9 mm — also 8% of average, almost a third of the 1911 record of 22.6 mm.

UK overall: Third‑driest July on record, driest since 1868.

Southern England: Just 1.5 mm (2% of average)

Just Finished Reading: The Last Vampire by Patricia Rosemoor and Marc Paoletti (FP: 2008) [345pp] 

Decades after uncovering 'something' in a cave which killed her father and brother, anthropologist Leah Maguire (and expert in the mystic rituals of the past) is hired as a civilian contract expert to a secret military unit known as Team Ultra. At the centre of the team's lab is a 500-year-old mummified body with an unusual DNA structure. Spliced into other creatures it gave them extraordinary abilities and Team Ultra is the final result of those tests. Gifted with superior speed, increased healing and other more outlandish abilities they are the cutting edge of Special Force black ops. But they are not alone in their interest in the mummified corpse. A local voodoo priestess has discovered its whereabouts and knows exactly what it is – a vampire, the last of its kind. Determined to use its power for her own ends she uses her magical abilities to revive it and enable its escape. Team Ultra has a new mission – find and recapture the vampire before it can bring its kind back! 

In my defence I bought this quite some time ago (probably around the time it was published) and had fixated on the word 'vampire' in the title. The only reason I finished it was that I had already DNF'd two books this year which is my limit. Fortunately, this did have one redeeming quality – it was a FAST read. As to the rest... 

The 'story', and I use the word advisably and in its very broadest sense, was at best questionable from the very beginning. I'm going to give 'SPOILERS' here for which I make zero apology. The 'vampire' was self-made (a new one on me) using alchemy to make himself semi-immortal (he's trying to go all the way but that takes something else which is an element in one of the subplots) so that he can fight and hopefully destroy the Catholic church who essentially allowed his mother to die on their watch 500 years previous to the novels present timeline. Because he's an alchemical vampire none of the standard kill methods work (except sunlight – so naturally they try to take him down at night because of 'reasons') and, weirdly, GOLD – supposedly because it's an 'ethereal' element. So, "liquid gold" bullets... I kid you not! 

I soon discovered that the characters in the book – ALL OF THEM – could readily be divided into two types: those who were passively stupid and those who were actively stupid. If that wasn't enough this travesty of a novel contained multiple instances of one of the things that I particularly hate in fiction – when a character has a vital piece of information and either deliberately withholds it for purely plot reasons (generally in order to get others into difficulty for an action sequence) or is told not to divulge that information to the very people who could solve a problem in order that the unresolved issue can move the plot 'forward' another inch. I COULD go on, but you no doubt get the drift. This was, without much in the way of competition by far the worst book of the year and quite possibly for several years before that. The inevitable love interest between the two main characters read like something written by a teenage girl who has yet to kiss a boy never mind sleep with him. Even if the book was AIMED at a teenage audience (which it might very well have been) they would still be laughing over the way the characters GUSHED over each other. [shudder] So, without a single redeeming feature I would have to classify this as terrible and advise anyone who comes across it to AVOID picking it up. If it's sitting on your shelf presently unread, I'd suggest giving it to charity or possibly lighting fires with it.  

Just Finished Reading: The Last of the Ebb – The Battle of the Aisne, 1918 by Sidney Rogerson (FP: 1937) [169pp]

After being savaged in both of the German offensives on the Western Front in 1918, the author and his division is finally taken out of the line to rest and await replacements. They are, to a man, exhausted and in dire need of some time to recover. Thankfully they have been assigned a quiet sector in the French line. So quite indeed that some of the trenches have become filled with rubbish and the rest are in a poor state of repair. What is worse, seen through the authors keen eyed experience of such things, is that their artillery support unit hasn't moved in months. If the enemy DID launch an attack those guns would be the first thing to go... Within days though everyone started feeling 'antsy'. For one thing the random odd artillery shells from enemy guns had stopped. No patrolling enemy aircraft could be seen in the skies, and no enemy troops were seen in No Man's Land attempting to repair their wire. It wasn't just quiet; it was FAR too quiet. Even the Front's location was worrying. Not only did it cover the most direct route to Paris (THE objective for the German forces since 1914) but the river Aisne was BEHIND them. If any kind of attack developed, they would be forced to cross that river (or be destroyed) whilst under fire – not the kind of operation anyone would wish to undertake. 

Days later the rumours started to spread. Circumstantial evidence seemed to point to an attack coming their way. Whispers of troop build-ups, secondary explosions from random Allied artillery shots and a few prisoners warned that something was brewing. Then, in the very early hours of the morning all HELL was let loose on them. As everyone expected their artillery 'support' was annihilated in the first barrage and within minutes the first enemy stormtroopers appeared in their lines. Shortly a general withdrawal was ordered. Three days later they were still pulling back... 

But if the author and his division were more exhausted than they thought possible so, it appeared, were the enemy. After days of constant attacks, the pauses between assaults started to lengthen. The British even had time to catch a few hours' sleep before falling back again but this time they were falling back into more prepared positions and into the waiting embrace of reinforcements – something the Germans could only dream about. By the 3rd or 4th day the Germans had achieved all of their ambitious objectives and they started digging in, awaiting the inevitable counterattack. Impressed by their progress the German senior staff decided to press on – without artillery support, without reinforcements, without much resupply – against dug in troops at least partially rested who, with growing numbers and growing confidence believed that the enemy had shot his bolt and had nothing further in his arsenal. They were right. It was indeed the last of the ebb. From here on the enemy would only move one way – East and home. 

I've read a bit about the German advances on the Western Front in 1918 post-Russian Revolution. Although the Allies were expected such an eventuality they, and indeed the world, were still shocked at its effectiveness. But and it is a BIG but, the attacks ultimately failed and (quite possibly) might never have had a real possibility of success. Although the nature of the attacks bordered on genius at times still the German forces did not have the deep resources they needed to overcome the combined might of France and Britain (plus the increasing strength of American forces) in 1918. It was a great (and desperate) throw of the dice. It MIGHT have worked and, in the best-case scenario, separated the Allies in the West but I don't really think that Britain would have sued for a separate peace at that point and I doubt very much if the French would have ever done so. 

What was most interesting about this short book is seeing those events from the ground rather than 40,000 feet and with a century+ of hindsight. What was even more interesting was the final section where a German account was given of the same event – and not just from any officer but from the officer who PLANNED the whole thing. His assessment of the attack and of his British opponents was well worth a read and complimented the author's story brilliantly. If you have any interest in the fighting on the Western Front – and especially late in the war – this is definitely worth a read. More to come (soon-ish) on these events and the inevitable follow-up. Recommended.