I just read this article on the first half of the Philadelphia Eagles game and was really disappointed at the lack of thoroughness in coverage by the Associated Press. They told me about the crowd's reaction to many of the plays in which Vick participated. They detailed EVERY SINGLE PLAY that Vick participated in in the first half and the formation from which they were run. They informed me that he handed his helmet to an equipment person and that he received a visor from the same person. Very important stuff. But where was the information on the consistency of his bowel movements? Or the tire pressure on his SUV? Did he not speak to anyone during this time? What was said? Did he congratulate DeSean Jackson on his touchdown, the one that merited a single sentence in this update of the first half? If so, how did he congratulate him?
And what about the inconsistencies in the details they did give. The AP tells me that the handoff to McCoy went for five yards but does not tell me how many yards Maclin got when Vick handed off to him. THIS IS A HUGE OMISSION!!!
Seriously, why does this matter? First, it's football and it has nothing to do with the USFL which has been gone for almost a quarter century. Second, is this an article on Vick or an update of the Eagles game? If the former, what did you really tell me that I can't get from the boxscore or play-by-play? He handed his helmet to the equipment guy. Huge news. Many, many NFL players will do the same thing today, none of whom will receive press for doing so because it is unimportant.
As for Favre, Great Caesar's Ghost!, has anyone's indecision ever received so much attention for so little reason? It has been enough to make me root for Aaron Rodgers. Google "Favre Packers" and look at the nonsense. Favre has a career 12-10 record in the playoffs, has thrown over an interception a game for his career, won his only championship twelve years ago. Why does he merit so much coverage? Ugh.
Rant over.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
What was the world like when the Pirates last had a winning season?
Cardboard Junkie, in response to a comment I made on an entry on his blog, mentioned how old he feels since he recalls the grand day he experienced as a Braves fan when Francisco Cabrera singled home Sid Bream to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates and send the Braves on to the World Series.
Since that moment (October 14, 1992), the Pirates have not only not reached the playoffs again, they have not had a winning season.
In honor of the seventeen consecutive losing seasons the Pittsburgh Pirates have had....
The last time the Pittsburgh Pirates had a winning season:
1. Each league had two divisions.
2. There were no such things as wild-card playoff spots in baseball.
3. The Rockies, Marlins, Diamondbacks and Rays did not exist (but all four have since reached the World Series).
4. The Montreal Expos were in the Pirates division.
5. The top pop song for the year was Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You.
6. Derek Jeter had just graduated from high school.
7. Microsoft released Windows 3.1.
8. People were still making fun of Dan Quayle’s inability to spell “potato”.
9. Billy Ray Cyrus won the Country Music Association award for best single – Achy Breaky Heart. His daughter Miley was born six weeks after Francisco Cabrera ended the Pirates 1992 season.
10. Arthur Ashe was still alive.
11. Johnny Carson was still hosting The Tonight Show.
12. Actress Demi Moore, having given birth to her second child with husband Bruce Willis a year before, co-starred in the movie A Few Good Men with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. Ashton Kutcher was 14.
13. Nolan Ryan, George Brett and Robin Yount were still playing.
14. Pluto was still a planet.
15. ZZ Top released their greatest hits on cassette and vinyl.
16. It had only been 84 years since the Chicago Cubs had last won a World Championship.
17. Seven of the twelve National League teams played on artificial turf. Only two NL teams, the Cubs and Dodgers, still play in the same stadium they did then.
Since that moment (October 14, 1992), the Pirates have not only not reached the playoffs again, they have not had a winning season.
In honor of the seventeen consecutive losing seasons the Pittsburgh Pirates have had....
The last time the Pittsburgh Pirates had a winning season:
1. Each league had two divisions.
2. There were no such things as wild-card playoff spots in baseball.
3. The Rockies, Marlins, Diamondbacks and Rays did not exist (but all four have since reached the World Series).
4. The Montreal Expos were in the Pirates division.
5. The top pop song for the year was Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You.
6. Derek Jeter had just graduated from high school.
7. Microsoft released Windows 3.1.
8. People were still making fun of Dan Quayle’s inability to spell “potato”.
9. Billy Ray Cyrus won the Country Music Association award for best single – Achy Breaky Heart. His daughter Miley was born six weeks after Francisco Cabrera ended the Pirates 1992 season.
10. Arthur Ashe was still alive.
11. Johnny Carson was still hosting The Tonight Show.
12. Actress Demi Moore, having given birth to her second child with husband Bruce Willis a year before, co-starred in the movie A Few Good Men with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. Ashton Kutcher was 14.
13. Nolan Ryan, George Brett and Robin Yount were still playing.
14. Pluto was still a planet.
15. ZZ Top released their greatest hits on cassette and vinyl.
16. It had only been 84 years since the Chicago Cubs had last won a World Championship.
17. Seven of the twelve National League teams played on artificial turf. Only two NL teams, the Cubs and Dodgers, still play in the same stadium they did then.
Someday this pain will be useful to you
In the media mix from a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I love Peter Cameron's City of Your Final Destination. It struck me that for as much as I enjoyed that book, I never sought out other books by Cameron. I decided to remedy that and signed out Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You, a young adult book and the only book by Cameron my library has.
It was really good. It is about an 18 year old kid who just doesn't fit in. He has been accepted to Brown but doesn't want to go to college. He would much rather buy an old house in the Midwest and just work odd jobs to eke out a living and just staying clear of people, especially his peers who he dreads having to spend time with in college. His best friend is his grandmother. Just a kid having a tough time.
That about sums up the story. There's not a whole lot of plot. It's mostly an elaborate character sketch. The ending is nice. The writing is superb. The characters are interesting. Just a good book.
Interestingly, a couple days after I returned it, I was sorting the books requested by our patrons from other libraries in the system. Someone had requested City of Your Final Destination and another Cameron book. Someone came in to pick them up and I expressed how much I liked City. Turns out the patron was picking them up for her daughter who had read Someday and loved it and wanted to read his other books. Funny how that works.
Having read another Cameron book, I'll likely try and get another in before the year is out.
It was really good. It is about an 18 year old kid who just doesn't fit in. He has been accepted to Brown but doesn't want to go to college. He would much rather buy an old house in the Midwest and just work odd jobs to eke out a living and just staying clear of people, especially his peers who he dreads having to spend time with in college. His best friend is his grandmother. Just a kid having a tough time.
That about sums up the story. There's not a whole lot of plot. It's mostly an elaborate character sketch. The ending is nice. The writing is superb. The characters are interesting. Just a good book.
Interestingly, a couple days after I returned it, I was sorting the books requested by our patrons from other libraries in the system. Someone had requested City of Your Final Destination and another Cameron book. Someone came in to pick them up and I expressed how much I liked City. Turns out the patron was picking them up for her daughter who had read Someday and loved it and wanted to read his other books. Funny how that works.
Having read another Cameron book, I'll likely try and get another in before the year is out.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
A couple of rereads
Continuing with my attempts to get caught up with my book reviews, I'm going to knock out two in one review. I reread a couple of books. I was needing some motivation so hit up two of my favorite motivational/self-help texts. The Zanders' Art of Possibility I reviewed earlier this year. Being open to possibility is something I tend to be but I lose sight of it when I get stressed out. When doors seem to be closing or a path I've chosen seems to be moving in the wrong direction, it becomes easy to be doubtful. The first precept of this book is that it is all invented. All our perceptions are created by ourselves in reaction to something. It's the whole half-full/half-empty argument.
Ben Zander loves to tell the tale of two shoe salesmen who go to some remote African village to ply their trade. The first wires back "Situation hopeless, they don't wear shoes". The second, in his missive to the main office writes "Glorious opportunity, they don't have shoes". Same situation, different outlook.
I've needed the change in outlook. It looked like I would have to suspend school. My calf got really messed up. Boowahs started school which caused a whole readjustment. The whole money, job, diet, loneliness struggles with which I seem to deal with regularly. I really needed to recapture my ability to view possibility and the reread helped a lot.
The other reread was Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. This book is about writing but some of it has applicability outside of writing. Actually, it is even more so about writing fiction. I enjoy it because it breaks the process of writing down into all these different parts. I've actually been plugging away at my own book and again, not viewing it as some gigantic project that is going to take forever but instead looking at it as a fun, manageable thing that I can do in steps has been helpful.
The title comes from a story about Lamott's brother. Growing up he had a school paper due on different birds. He put it off until the last minute and the night before it was due broke down into tears, wondering how on earth he would ever get it done. His father replied "Bird by bird". Breaking things down into steps can be really helpful.
Ben Zander loves to tell the tale of two shoe salesmen who go to some remote African village to ply their trade. The first wires back "Situation hopeless, they don't wear shoes". The second, in his missive to the main office writes "Glorious opportunity, they don't have shoes". Same situation, different outlook.
I've needed the change in outlook. It looked like I would have to suspend school. My calf got really messed up. Boowahs started school which caused a whole readjustment. The whole money, job, diet, loneliness struggles with which I seem to deal with regularly. I really needed to recapture my ability to view possibility and the reread helped a lot.
The other reread was Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. This book is about writing but some of it has applicability outside of writing. Actually, it is even more so about writing fiction. I enjoy it because it breaks the process of writing down into all these different parts. I've actually been plugging away at my own book and again, not viewing it as some gigantic project that is going to take forever but instead looking at it as a fun, manageable thing that I can do in steps has been helpful.
The title comes from a story about Lamott's brother. Growing up he had a school paper due on different birds. He put it off until the last minute and the night before it was due broke down into tears, wondering how on earth he would ever get it done. His father replied "Bird by bird". Breaking things down into steps can be really helpful.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Provenance
Oh, I love reading about art crimes and I really enjoyed this one. Provenance, by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo is a tale of how in the art world the quality of paintings matters less than the accompanying paperwork.
The story is about a man who goes by the name John Drewe (as well as a few other names). Drewe is a great storyteller. Posing as a nuclear physicist with a rich benefactor, Drewe and his forger assistant, John Myatt, ingratiate themselves with the British art world through donations and well-documented paintings by artists such as Nicholson, Giacometti and Stephenson.
The catch, of course, is that Myatt painted all the paintings. Drewe, after making a substantial donation to the Institute of Contemporary Arts, is given access to their archives. Drewe uses that access to steal documentation, duplicate and alter it, and then replace it with his own creations. So suddenly a picture that had never existed before Myatt painted it now appears as if it has been around since the original artist created it, has been sold at auction, exhibited at galleries, etc.
Myatt is a talented forger and now makes a living selling "legitimate fakes" but some of his paintings that Drewe sold to dealers were a little iffy in terms of reflecting the style of the original artist. Worse, Myatt, who struggled with finances as an unemployed single father of two (my heart goes out to him), couldn't afford oil paints and used house paint diluted with lubricating jelly as his paint of choice.
Drewe's documents of provenance, charm, and wiles (he targeted the low to mid range price ranges of paintings to avoid too much suspicion) enabled him to pass off Myatt's works as legitimate.
In the end, though, the vast number of paintings Drewe unleashes on the art world (at least 200) catches up with him and Scotland Yard builds a case against him with the aid of some folk in the art world.
This book was surprisingly exciting with excellent, entertaining writing. As always, I had some issues, some of which could have been helped, others which could not. Most notably is the lack of depth in describing Drewe's personality. This is Drewe's fault. A man who lies so much that he believes the lies himself makes it difficult to get a grasp on him. Drewe, even after being incarcerated, maintained that he was innocent of any wrong doing and that he was set up by the government. In addition, most everything he claimed about himself was untrue and as a result, Drewe is not much more than a human shell, lacking anything that can truly be called himself.
My other complaints involve a lack of clarity in the amount of time passing. The story unfolds over a decade yet the writing makes it seem like the story is encompassed in a much shorter time. Also, for a story about art forgeries involving artists that aren't familiar to the layperson, there were no illustrations. I had to hop on the internet to get an idea of what the works of some these artists looked like.
Ultimately, it's a great tale, well-researched and very entertaining. It also has a great bibliography with many titles on art forgeries of which I was not aware. Definitely a recommended title.
The story is about a man who goes by the name John Drewe (as well as a few other names). Drewe is a great storyteller. Posing as a nuclear physicist with a rich benefactor, Drewe and his forger assistant, John Myatt, ingratiate themselves with the British art world through donations and well-documented paintings by artists such as Nicholson, Giacometti and Stephenson.
The catch, of course, is that Myatt painted all the paintings. Drewe, after making a substantial donation to the Institute of Contemporary Arts, is given access to their archives. Drewe uses that access to steal documentation, duplicate and alter it, and then replace it with his own creations. So suddenly a picture that had never existed before Myatt painted it now appears as if it has been around since the original artist created it, has been sold at auction, exhibited at galleries, etc.
Myatt is a talented forger and now makes a living selling "legitimate fakes" but some of his paintings that Drewe sold to dealers were a little iffy in terms of reflecting the style of the original artist. Worse, Myatt, who struggled with finances as an unemployed single father of two (my heart goes out to him), couldn't afford oil paints and used house paint diluted with lubricating jelly as his paint of choice.
Drewe's documents of provenance, charm, and wiles (he targeted the low to mid range price ranges of paintings to avoid too much suspicion) enabled him to pass off Myatt's works as legitimate.
In the end, though, the vast number of paintings Drewe unleashes on the art world (at least 200) catches up with him and Scotland Yard builds a case against him with the aid of some folk in the art world.
This book was surprisingly exciting with excellent, entertaining writing. As always, I had some issues, some of which could have been helped, others which could not. Most notably is the lack of depth in describing Drewe's personality. This is Drewe's fault. A man who lies so much that he believes the lies himself makes it difficult to get a grasp on him. Drewe, even after being incarcerated, maintained that he was innocent of any wrong doing and that he was set up by the government. In addition, most everything he claimed about himself was untrue and as a result, Drewe is not much more than a human shell, lacking anything that can truly be called himself.
My other complaints involve a lack of clarity in the amount of time passing. The story unfolds over a decade yet the writing makes it seem like the story is encompassed in a much shorter time. Also, for a story about art forgeries involving artists that aren't familiar to the layperson, there were no illustrations. I had to hop on the internet to get an idea of what the works of some these artists looked like.
Ultimately, it's a great tale, well-researched and very entertaining. It also has a great bibliography with many titles on art forgeries of which I was not aware. Definitely a recommended title.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
My favorite synthpop
I like synthpop. I forget from time to time. Years ago I spent a lot of time on a website called Electrogarden. It shut down for a while and then came back. I really should revisit.
Thought I'd share some of my favorites with you. This is not meant to be complete in any way, shape or form.
Erasure - probably the first group I liked that could be called synthpop. Everyone was familiar with them from their album The Innocents but I think their albums after that tended to go more synthpop.
Red Flag - My first college girlfriend got me hooked on these guys and I have more of their CD's than those of any other artist (I think eighteen). Red Flag was comprised of the Reynolds brothers. When Enigma Records dropped them, they formed their own label, Plan B records and started issuing their own albums in a very prolific manner. Because they controlled the label, their albums vary in quality as they pretty much released whatever they felt like working on. For example, the album Codebreaker T133 is entirely of songs done at 133 beats per minute. I like it. A lot of folk didn't. Mark Reynolds took his own life which is easily the most distressing celebrity death of my lifetime. Chris has released new music but he calls what he does now "dark industrial" and I don't care for it as much.
Leiahdorus - this is my most favoritest synthpop group and Wake is my favoritest song. They have a new album coming out soon and I am very, VERY excited.
Wave in Head - this "group" is German Michael Pohl. I love his albums as he does some of the songs in German.
Obscenity Trial - I've only recently come across these folks but I like them. The lead singer has a Dave Gahan sound about him. I also like the A-Ha style video for Daydream.
Enjoy.
Thought I'd share some of my favorites with you. This is not meant to be complete in any way, shape or form.
Erasure - probably the first group I liked that could be called synthpop. Everyone was familiar with them from their album The Innocents but I think their albums after that tended to go more synthpop.
Red Flag - My first college girlfriend got me hooked on these guys and I have more of their CD's than those of any other artist (I think eighteen). Red Flag was comprised of the Reynolds brothers. When Enigma Records dropped them, they formed their own label, Plan B records and started issuing their own albums in a very prolific manner. Because they controlled the label, their albums vary in quality as they pretty much released whatever they felt like working on. For example, the album Codebreaker T133 is entirely of songs done at 133 beats per minute. I like it. A lot of folk didn't. Mark Reynolds took his own life which is easily the most distressing celebrity death of my lifetime. Chris has released new music but he calls what he does now "dark industrial" and I don't care for it as much.
Leiahdorus - this is my most favoritest synthpop group and Wake is my favoritest song. They have a new album coming out soon and I am very, VERY excited.
Wave in Head - this "group" is German Michael Pohl. I love his albums as he does some of the songs in German.
Obscenity Trial - I've only recently come across these folks but I like them. The lead singer has a Dave Gahan sound about him. I also like the A-Ha style video for Daydream.
Enjoy.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Folks I hope are rotting in hell
I tend to be a benevolent guy. I recognize people are flawed. We all do bad and/or stupid things. There's no such thing as absolutes. As a result, it is hard for me to drum up too much animosity for people. After reading Nicholson Baker's Double Fold, I think I found the third person I hope is rotting in hell.
The first person who should be enjoying eternal damnation is Henry Ford. Mass-production of the automobile was just an awful, awful thing to do. I firmly believe that most of the bad things in the world today can be traced back to this event. I'm not going to get into the details, mostly for fear that I'll come across as insane. I'm also not one for proselytizing (unless it is to get people to listen DeVotchKa).
The second inductee into the Hell Hall of Fame is Floyd Dominy. He certainly doesn't have the name recognition that Ford does which says something about how wrong he was in terms of his self-importance.
Mr. Messiah did a lot for ruining the environment throughout the Western United States. He recklessly sought to have dam projects built relying on the flawed message that dams would provide water for more people. I first became exposed to Dominy when a professor in an urban affairs class I was taking showed the documentary Cadillac Desert. If you have any interest in the environment, this movie (and presumably the book it is based on) is something you should watch (read). The more I learn about Dominy, the more I believe that the man was full of himself and was more interested in the power he wielded than any concern over providing water for others. He certainly had no concern over the effects of his projects on ecosystems.
The newest selection for damnation roasting for doing horrible, horrible things is similar to Dominy and my learning about him was similar as well. For one of my classes, I had to read a chapter of Double Fold. It was so good, I signed out the book and read the whole thing. This book is about the misguided plan to "preserve" newspaper through microfilming. Verner Clapp was the chief assistant librarian at the Library of Congress when he began touting microfilm as a way to preserve newspaper that was supposedly becoming brittle due to the acids in the print.
The concept is noble. Preserving the historical record contained in newspapers is a very good idea. Unfortunately Clapp pushed for the disposal of newspapers after they were microfilmed. One, these papers were supposedly disintegrating (which was and is false). Two, microfilm is much more convenient to store and eliminating newspapers would give libraries more space for other materials. Lastly, Clapp was so jazzed about microfilm that once he left the LOC to become head of the Council of Library Resources he pushed the microfilming of old books. Do you know the quickest way to microfilm a book? Cut the spine off, get rid of the covers and copy the unattached pages. Once a book has been torn apart like that, few people want it. Plus, now its on microfilm, so who cares, right?
I've been using microfilm for almost half of my life. As a baseball historian whose primary interest is baseball before 1920, I don't have too many options for newspaper access. As a veteran user I can tell you the quality of microfilm copies aren't always real high. The copies may be too light, they may be incomplete, the film may have been stored improperly and has broken down, the film may have been torn. Lots of things could go wrong when the film was made and quality control apparently was not too much of an issue. With so many original materials being discarded after microfilming, there's no way to make better copies.
Sadly, lessons weren't learned as we're seeing similar things as we move to digitization. I interned at a college library this summer where they digitized all student transcripts. Fortunately, someone had the sense to give the originals to the archives department in the library. It turns out the digitization process was done poorly and many transcripts are unreadable. How would you feel if you needed your official transcript for a job or graduate school and you're given an unreadable pdf?
Double Fold is an extremely biased account of the microfilm issue and has been debated among librarians for the last decade. Baker is very passionate about keeping original newspapers and started a non-profit to acquire old newspapers and preserve them. He eventually donated all the newspapers and they are now kept at Duke University.
I hope that people realize that there is no such thing as an ideal media for preservation. Just like those who thought microfilm was a panacea, there have been supporters of Beta, VHS, laser discs, floppy discs, etc. New isn't always the answer and keeping the original historic record isn't always a bad thing.
The first person who should be enjoying eternal damnation is Henry Ford. Mass-production of the automobile was just an awful, awful thing to do. I firmly believe that most of the bad things in the world today can be traced back to this event. I'm not going to get into the details, mostly for fear that I'll come across as insane. I'm also not one for proselytizing (unless it is to get people to listen DeVotchKa).
The second inductee into the Hell Hall of Fame is Floyd Dominy. He certainly doesn't have the name recognition that Ford does which says something about how wrong he was in terms of his self-importance.
"I have no apologies. I was a crusader for the development of water. I was the Messiah. I was the evangelist who went out and argued persuasively for the harness of water for the benefit of people."
Mr. Messiah did a lot for ruining the environment throughout the Western United States. He recklessly sought to have dam projects built relying on the flawed message that dams would provide water for more people. I first became exposed to Dominy when a professor in an urban affairs class I was taking showed the documentary Cadillac Desert. If you have any interest in the environment, this movie (and presumably the book it is based on) is something you should watch (read). The more I learn about Dominy, the more I believe that the man was full of himself and was more interested in the power he wielded than any concern over providing water for others. He certainly had no concern over the effects of his projects on ecosystems.
The newest selection for damnation roasting for doing horrible, horrible things is similar to Dominy and my learning about him was similar as well. For one of my classes, I had to read a chapter of Double Fold. It was so good, I signed out the book and read the whole thing. This book is about the misguided plan to "preserve" newspaper through microfilming. Verner Clapp was the chief assistant librarian at the Library of Congress when he began touting microfilm as a way to preserve newspaper that was supposedly becoming brittle due to the acids in the print.
The concept is noble. Preserving the historical record contained in newspapers is a very good idea. Unfortunately Clapp pushed for the disposal of newspapers after they were microfilmed. One, these papers were supposedly disintegrating (which was and is false). Two, microfilm is much more convenient to store and eliminating newspapers would give libraries more space for other materials. Lastly, Clapp was so jazzed about microfilm that once he left the LOC to become head of the Council of Library Resources he pushed the microfilming of old books. Do you know the quickest way to microfilm a book? Cut the spine off, get rid of the covers and copy the unattached pages. Once a book has been torn apart like that, few people want it. Plus, now its on microfilm, so who cares, right?
I've been using microfilm for almost half of my life. As a baseball historian whose primary interest is baseball before 1920, I don't have too many options for newspaper access. As a veteran user I can tell you the quality of microfilm copies aren't always real high. The copies may be too light, they may be incomplete, the film may have been stored improperly and has broken down, the film may have been torn. Lots of things could go wrong when the film was made and quality control apparently was not too much of an issue. With so many original materials being discarded after microfilming, there's no way to make better copies.
Sadly, lessons weren't learned as we're seeing similar things as we move to digitization. I interned at a college library this summer where they digitized all student transcripts. Fortunately, someone had the sense to give the originals to the archives department in the library. It turns out the digitization process was done poorly and many transcripts are unreadable. How would you feel if you needed your official transcript for a job or graduate school and you're given an unreadable pdf?
Double Fold is an extremely biased account of the microfilm issue and has been debated among librarians for the last decade. Baker is very passionate about keeping original newspapers and started a non-profit to acquire old newspapers and preserve them. He eventually donated all the newspapers and they are now kept at Duke University.
I hope that people realize that there is no such thing as an ideal media for preservation. Just like those who thought microfilm was a panacea, there have been supporters of Beta, VHS, laser discs, floppy discs, etc. New isn't always the answer and keeping the original historic record isn't always a bad thing.
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