Categories
music

Greatest Hits – The Guess Who

I bought this my freshmen year in college at a time when I was branching out from 80’s hair metal and getting into classic rock. I abused it. I put it on a cassette and listened to the heck out of it in my car. I didn’t know the names of any of the guys in the group, but I had heard These Eyes, No Time, and American Woman and figured it was all good stuff. Yeah, it’s still pretty much all good stuff.

Amazon sent another email with a list of 100 albums for $5 and this was on it. They saw me coming.

My knowledge of The Guess Who’s catalog is limited. I only know the songs on this greatest hits album. Here is a link to their Wikipedia site if you want to dig into their history. DO NOT click on their official website because it re-sizes your browser. I hate it when designers do that. Not cool.

The amount of Canadian bands I’ve been consuming this year is odd. I don’t get it. I’ve purchased about eight albums this year and three have been Canadian (RAA and Arcade Fire). I don’t think that’s a trend that can continue.

There are a ton of great songs on this album. This greatest hits has a good mix of folksy rock, hard rock, ballads, and rock’n’roll. I apologize to all of the purists for only owning the greatest hits album. When is it okay just to own a greatest hits album? I don’t have a problem with it. Heck, I strongly suggest grabbing Somewhere Back in Time and From Fear to Eternity if you want a great slice of Iron Maiden. I’m not going to go Maiden-elitist on you.

Categories
screen

Bridesmaids

It’s been 6 months since Gail and I have been to a movie house so we decided to catch a movie on this summer holiday weekend. We grabbed the 8pm Bridesmaids at Webster Place on a whim when a friend told us she was going, also on a whim. Lest you get the mistaken feeling that my life is full of whimsy, know that Gail and have been plotting to see a movie on the big screen for weeks but haven’t pulled the trigger.

We fire up Flixster some Fridays and ask the question, “Anything good playing?” Hmmm, not good enough to haul our tails to the complex. Premeditated movie going has been effectively replaced by premeditated watching of TV shows in iOS or watching of sports.

But when we got the call, we didn’t hesitate to scurry around and find keys, wallet, and sweatshirt for the quick trip to see Bridesmaids. The time was right to reacquaint ourselves with the movieplex. Glad we did it. It was really funny.

Kristen Wiig, whom I was completely unfamiliar with, wrote it (or co-wrote) and starred in it. It kind of makes me want to watch Saturday Night Live again, but I won’t. I’m not sure what inspired her to put in the Chicago/Milwaukee connection, but it worked well for me, as did the raunch-level. I laughed uncontrollably on a few occasions. Besides Wiig, the sidebar characters were really good. This woman named Melissa McCarthy killed it and Terry Crews (you’ll recognize him) had a great cameo.

See it. Okay to wait for rental though.

Categories
books

Athabasca

This is turning out to be the year of the re-reads, mostly because of that fateful trip to The Brown Elephant a few months ago. This is another book I recall finishing years ago and saying, “meh.” Actually, I didn’t say that exact word because it hadn’t been invented yet. But I’m sure you get the picture. You probably also think I’m cool because of my occasional exploration of The Urban Dictionary. Thanks.

I spent my youth wanting to like Alistair MacLean novels. Many of his books were made into movies my brother and I loved, like Bear Island and Force 10 from Navarone, so I figured the books would be just as great. But as a youngster, I struggled through Athabasca, Goodbye California, and Seawitch before eventually giving up. After awhile, I settled into Robert Ludlum as my favorite thriller writer and compared every book to Ludlum’s, jarring, macho, fast-paced stories.

Upon the second reading, I’m mildly surprised at how much I liked Athabasca. It started out rather slow but picked up markedly in the second half, and the last few chapters flew at a breakneck pace. The characters were not very deep, but the good people were likable and the bad guys were cruel.

It’s as much a mystery/crime novel as a thriller I think. It nicely builds in aspects of both for a fine reading experience. It has a classic investigation by a group of outsiders and builds up to a big unveiling of the guilty parties. But it also has some tight action scenes, including a near death experience and a tower assault.

I like the idea of Alistair MacLean. His writing spans a long period of time and there seems to be a lot of variability in his subject matter. I think I’ll grab one of his war novels next, like Where Eagles Dare or Guns of Navarone.

Categories
books

Little Heathens

A long time ago (a few years), I used to listen to the NYT Book Review podcast. That’s where I first heard about this book, they mentioned it and gave it some critical acclaim. In fact, it was getting critical acclaim from a lot of book types. It’s one woman’s story of growing up on an Iowa farm. It’s a very simple topic, but I need me a little simple, so I grabbed the used paperback during my most recent buying binge at the Brown Elephant (Oak Park).

I think about my book reading life sometimes. It’s not so simple anymore.

I spend a lot of time figuring out what books I’m going to read. I take notes and highlight stuff while I read. And finally, I write up one of these takes. It’s a detailed three step process of discovery, execution, and review. What am I doing?

The old reading process, the one I followed in my childhood, was much simpler, but still three steps.

  • Pick up book
  • Read book
  • Put book down

Right or wrong, that ain’t how it works anymore. And I’m not sure if I’m better off or not. That’s one feeling I got from reading this book. Are we better off in this modern age?

Mildred Armstrong Kalish tells stories about her early childhood during the Great Depression. She didn’t have running water, had to hang her clothes out to dry, and couldn’t afford to buy books, but she had a wonderful time full of unconditional love, character building moments, humorous escapades, and learning experiences. Here’s how she sums it up in her own words:

Retrospection can be illuminating, it can be numbing, it can be sobering; it can be fruitful, it can gladden my heart, and it can drown me in despair. But looking back on my early days on our farm in Iowa, I find that I take enormous satisfaction in my memories of the past, and my reflections on how that time, so rich, so satisfying, so fulfilling, yet so undeniably challenging, affected me (pg 269).

She recaps many moments, some highly personal, and at times completely baring her soul. It’s all very innocent and honest. I admit, I got emotional a few times. Here’s one of my favorites:

I think it is a universal trait to wallow in memories of the the tastes, fragrances, and textures of foods from one’s childhood. Proust probably wasn’t the first to celebrate this phenomenon on paper, but he is certainly the one who became famous for launching an entire novel with a description of a well-remembered fragrance – that of the madeleine. The smell of bacon is what brings back a flood of memories to me, and the closest I come to Proust’s experience is the joy that comes over me when I conjure up the taste of a sandwich made of homemade bread spread with smoked bacon drippings, toped with the thinnest slices of crisp red radishes freshly harvested from the garden, and sprinkled over with coarse salt. Bacon fat was as important in our kitchen as chicken fat is in a Jewish kitchen. In those days we saved all of the grease left over after frying bacon to use for frying bread, eggs, and potatoes, and often to flavor vegetables. Of course, that was long before we had any knowledge of cholesterol (page 120-1).

That Proust reference relates to his book In Search of Lost Time, which you can read about here in the Wikipedia article.

She also talks about her bond with nature. She really appreciates the feel of a day, a special sunset, and the ferocity of mother nature. For me, a hot, humid early morning at the golf course brings back a flood of memories of early morning forays as a kid. Just the smell and feel of the air are comforting. Kalish has similar experiences. She recounts rainstorms at the farm:

Mama taught us to love rainstorms so much that even the weather was an entertainment. When the thunderheads began to build up in the west, she would gather the four of us to admire the way they boiled and climbed higher and higher; we watched mesmerized as the black clouds advanced swiftly, turning darker and more threatening as they got closer, while thunder and lightning flashed from the topmost clouds to the very ground. Transfixed, we would watch the great wall of rain advance slowly across the oat field, eagerly awaiting the brief moment when raindrops the size of plums pelted us. And then came the deluge, engulfing us in a gigantic drapery of rain. We all reveled in such an event. Some years later when I read Mark Twain’s description of a Midwest thunderstorm, I had what E.B. White called a “spirit laid against spirit” reaction. I knew exactly what Twain was writing about. … (pg 221)

Kalish describes a reading nirvana, a certain “knowing exactly” what the author was writing about. You’ll certainly get that feeling a couple of times during this book even if you’re only remotely in touch with your childhood. It does grab you and make you think about how the world has changed, or if it has really changed at all. And if it has changed, is it better? Or does it really matter?

There are no easy answers to these questions. I’ve lived in a large urban area for 21 years but I’m writing this as I spend a few days in my mid-sized hometown, far removed from the big city. I know the world has changed, but I have trouble discerning if the change in the world around me is a function of the time or the setting. The American experience varies so widely by region and we are so mobile as a country, that I doubt the naked eye or a gut feeling can discern an overall change in the most basic sentiments of 300 million people.

Are kids lazier and meaner? Is greed more prevalent? Have we lost core values like thrift and hard work? Is our national attention span getting shorter because of the internet?

I don’t know. I’m not smart enough to sort through that before I die. And it’s really not the point of this book to answer those questions. Kalish is just giving us the facts of her youth and explaining to how they shaped her life. I think she feels it’s worth reflecting on the same for ourselves. I’ve been doing some reflecting a lot lately and I agree with Kalish, it can be “sobering and fruitful.”

She makes no proclamations about the state of the world and doesn’t preach to the reader. This book is simple, but my mind conjured up some complicated questions as I read it. Well done by Kalish, she seems like a cool woman.

Categories
books

Maximum Bob

I said the other day while watching Killshot that I was inspired to read some Elmore Leonard, so here we are. Actually, it could be the other way around, or not. It doesn’t matter which inspired which, they were both good.

I’m starting to get a feel for the Elmore Leonard formula after only a few short instances. One thing that he often seems to have is a strong yet vulnerable heroine. In this book, Kathy Diaz Baker is a tough parole officer with two really rough parolees, both of whom were sent away by a crooked judge nicknamed Maximum Bob. It turns into a twisted circle because the judge wants to sleep with non-receptive Kathy, and one of Kathy’s parolees wants to kill the judge. All sorts of shenanigans ensue.

During the shenanigans, Kathy falls for a local detective and it evolves into a tasteful little affair (this is the vulnerable part of Kathy). Kathy character reminds me a little of Jennifer Lopez’s character in Out of Sight, another great Elmore Leonard book and movie. Man I loved that movie. I’m going to watch that again soon.

It all takes place in Palm Beach county Florida. In certain ways, even besides the South Florida angle, it’s a little like a Carl Hiaasen novel, but a little darker and not as much hilarity. I like both.

** PLOT KILLERS FOLLOW **

The relationship that Kathy has with the cop comes to an abrupt halt when one of her parolees kills him. It was an emotional part of the book and the way Leonard drew out the drama by interspersing two scenes during the killing was masterful. I was engrossed, mad, sad, you name it.

Superb story. I’ll be reading more Leonard in the coming years, and maybe grabbing a few of the movies on Netflix.

Categories
books

Scorecasting

I’m a sports junkie – always have been. It’s a problem, I know. I’m a different kind of junkie though compared to my childhood. As a kid, I loved stats and analysis, but never made much sense of them. Sure, I could give up-to-date recitations of baseball’s hitting leaders and name the high school attended by most of the top college hoopsters, but I couldn’t explain how that affected any game results. Nor did I care to, the game just wasn’t of great import.

Now, sports are all about the game for me. It’s about consuming that live sporting experience in some form, be it TV, web, radio, or attending it live. I don’t record things for later viewing, I don’t watch much pre or post-game analysis, I’m not well-versed in player stats, and I rarely read the recap the next day in the paper. The problem is, I can’t do much ’splaining, which is why I grabbed this book.

I consume these live sporting events often in massive quantities, and sometimes to the detriment of loved ones, my job, and my health. My interest is twofold, I love the rush of excitement I get as the drama unfolds, and I embrace the intellectual experience of trying to figure out why things happen on the field of play. This book is very helpful in the latter.

The authors, Jon Wertheim and Tobias Moskowitz, are friends and sports junkies. One is a University of Chicago finance professor (Moskowitz) and the other a writer for Sports Illustrated (Wertheim). Here, in their words, is a telling statement of why they wrote this book:

Even though sports are treated as a diversion and ignored by highbrow types, they are imbued with tremendous power to explain human behavior more generally.

I can picture these guys wandering through the hallowed halls of academia or media (ie…highbrow types) wishing they could find someone to talk sports with. Well, they’ve found an outlet and I’m gobbling it up. In fact, I’ve heard mention of a sequel and I’m ready for it (they mentioned this in the credits if I recall correctly, their blog does not have anything on it).

To really understand what’s happening on the field of play, there are some key concepts they explore, and the book goes through them in detail. Here are the five main ones.

Key Concept 1: Omission Bias

… It conforms to a sort of default mode of human behavior. People view acts of omission—the absence of an act—as far less intrusive or harmful than acts of commission—the committing of an act—even if the outcomes are the same or worse. Psychologists call this omission bias, and it expresses itself in a broad range of contexts.

This explains why the refs “let them play” at the end of big games or why umpires blow more calls on a two-strike count.

Key Concept 2: Loss Aversion

There’s not just an aversion to risk and confrontation; coaches often make the wrong choice. In other words, they’re just like … the rest of us. Time and again, we let the fear of loss overpower rational decision-making and often make ourselves worse off just to avoid a potential loss.

This explains why golfers will miss more putts for birdie than they will for par or why football coaches will punt on fourth down even though it would make more sense to go for it.

Key Concept 3: Quantity Bias

We see this all the time in many facets of life and business. People count quantities (easy) rather than measure importance (hard) and as a result sometimes make faulty decisions.

This explains why people erroneously assume Dwight Howard is a better shot blocker than Tim Duncan simply because Howard blocked a whole lot more shots than Duncan or why a .299 hitter in baseball is usually a much better bargain than a .300 hitter.

Key Concept 4: Influence Conformity

Despite fans’ claims to the contrary, referees are, finally, human. Psychology finds that social influence is a powerful force that can affect human behavior and decisions without the subjects even being aware of it. Psychologists call this influence conformity because it causes the subject’s opinion to conform to a group’s opinion.

This is the big one. It is almost wholly responsible for the home field advantage. The writers beat the tar out of home field advantage. They tested the theory that home teams do better because they are more rested, and debunked it. They tested the theory that familiar surroundings help the home team win more often, and debunked it.

The home team advantage happens mostly because the home team gets favorable calls by the refs. Period. The refs, without knowing it, are influenced by the home crowd and because they are human, fall prey to influence conformity. Fascinating stuff.

In the end, I have new appreciation for judgment calls by umpires/referees. There was a period recently where I shunned the major sports and focused almost exclusively on golf and running because those two competitive endeavors are devoid of judgment calls. But judgment calls are part of the game and part of life. Bad calls are just as real as great plays and great chokes. It’s an unfair and biased world that we live in and sports prove this every day.

Key Concept 5: Pattern Attribution Tendency

Why do we attribute so much importance to “sports momentum” when it’s mostly fiction? Psychology offers an explanation. People tend to ascribe patterns to events. We don’t like mystery.

They explain in detail why momentum is bull. So many of those “nine out of last ten” stats or “five game winning streaks” are completely irrelevant to the outcome of the next at-bat, the next free throw, or the next game. Those stats are lazy fall-backs for uninformed sportscasters who should dig a little deeper to explain what’s going on.

Oh, there’s a lot more folks. About half the chapters are lengthy and filled with lots of data. The other half are shorter, which helps break up the intensity a little bit. Smart, very smart. It finishes strong with a detailed study of why the Cubs usually suck. It’s a chapter worth waiting for, especially if you’re a Sox fan. They dig deeply into the correlation between the annual change in attendance and the annual change in number of wins, comparing the Cubs to the Sox and the Yankees. It slaps you in the face.

I’ve only scratched the surface, this is an enlightening book. And I’ve heard Moskovitz and Wertheim have a lot more material for the sequel. I can’t wait.

Categories
books

A Game of Thrones

Historically, around one out of every twenty books I read are sci-fi/fantasy/horror books. Last year was kind of an anomaly because I read three (out if thirty). I read Dune, followed it up with some teen lit, and finished with a less than stellar vampire novel. I want more books like Dune. It’s such a great book, but then to finish the year with that disappointing horror/vampire thing left me empty.

I was ready to give up on the genre, actually. Then this Game of Thrones thing comes along. I mentioned a few weeks ago how I stumbled on the TV version. After seeing that, my first thought was, “I gotta read the book.” Eventually, I’ll watch the show, but that could be years down the road.

It’s a long, meandering epic set in a mystical, medieval-style world with kings and queens and wars and politics. It’s 800 pages long and this is only book one of five in the series. It’s kind of like Lord of the Rings meets Pillars of the Earth meets 48 Laws of Power. Yeah, that may be an apt description.

It’s about people, probably a dozen of them. Each chapter is titled with a person’s name and it bounces from one to the other in about equal proportions. They are all related in some way to protecting or pursuing the king of the land, who sits on an iron throne made from swords. The land is called Westeros and it’s a place where summers last decades and winters just as long. The novel is set at a time when the summer is ending and people are readying for a long, long, long winter.

Westeros is a piece of land bordered by a cross-able body of water on the east and a massive, 700 foot wall on the north. Besides internal strife among the seven families who run Westeros, there is a looming threat east of the water and north of the wall. East, across the water, there are fearsome warriors and deposed inheritors of the crown. North of the wall are mysterious, supernatural beasts. The people of Westeros acknowledge these threats, but they hate each other so much that they concentrate more on fighting each other rather than protecting themselves from outside threats.

I mention supernatural beasts, but this book is mostly devoid of much magic, mysticism, and fantasy. It, oddly enough, only speaks of these beasts in dreams and stories. It’s mostly humans fighting with words, wit, and swords. However, based on the ending, it’s clear that the next book will leave this familiar, medieval setting and incorporate supernatural creatures.

I’m not sure how I feel about that. I’ll have to sort through that before I buy the next book. I can’t go all-in with imaginary characters and the magic. Dune was really well done in terms of incorporating imaginary things. Can anyone suggest something comparable? Dune, for me, didn’t get bad until after the guy turned into a worm (that was maybe book four). I don’t know, it was just so out there that it didn’t work for me. But, in general, I haven’t completely bought into the fantasy genre.

Regardless, I thought it was well done. I’ll let it rest a few months before I decide if I press on.

Categories
screen

Killshot

This is a movie based on an Elmore Leonard novel of the same name. It’s a 2008 movie that Gail came across so she DVR’d it, thinking we would like it. Man, she nailed it. Great movie. It’s a solid, gritty crime story. How often do I use that gritty crime term? I did a search and I’ve used it three times before this when talking about fiction. I guess I’m a cliche-ridden fool.

This movie didn’t do much at the box office and from what I can gather, it was only shown in a few test markets then released straight to DVD. That, according to IMDB. Kind of surprising when you consider how prolific and popular Elmore Leonard is. Take a look at all of the stuff he’s been attached to. It’s pretty amazing.

I’ve never read any Elmore Leonard, although he’s always been in the back of my mind as a writer I’d potentially like. In fact, it just so happened that I purchased an Elmore Leonard novel a few weeks ago (Maximum Bob) from a used book store. I’m reading it after this.

Like many of Leonard’s stories, this movie takes place in Michigan. It’s about an estranged husband and wife (Thomas Jane and Diane Lane) who witness a crime by an accomplished killer (Mickey Rourke) and a bumbling crook (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). The husband and wife eventually get on the witness protection program when the FBI get involved, but the killer and crook are dogged in their pursuit. There’s other stuff going, but his is the gist of it.

Despite the all-star cast and the high-powered writer, I’m not surprised that this got killed at the box office. Most people probably don’t have much tolerance for crime novel type of pacing and fluffy character exploration, but that’s what you got here. Which is probably why Sue Grafton novels will never be made into movies. Damn.

But I think Mickey Rourke did a great job as the killer and the Joseph Gordon-Levitt character had a lot of funny moments, like the time he made a Wade Boggs reference related to eating chicken. It was a great example of the warped humor this movie contains. I wonder if Leonard had that reference in the book. I can’t wait to read Maximum Bob now. Gonna start it soon.

Categories
books

The Green Ripper

This was the second reread of 2011 and I have a feeling that I’ll do a few more. I made a visit to the Brown Elephant in Oak Park and walked out with this paperback along with ones by Alistair Maclean (Athabasca) and Len Deighton (SS-GB). These are books that I only marginally enjoyed as a kid, but my tastes have changed considerably since then and I’m expecting to get a little more enjoyment out of them this time around now that I’m all growed up.

I’m off to a great start because the The Green Ripper was a heckuva lot better than I remember.

* PLOT KILLERS FOLLOW *

The most distinct memory I have of this book was this feeling: There’s a gun and dead body on the front cover, but the only action is a gunfight that takes place in the second-to-last chapter.

That encapsulates what a little idiot I was. What was I expecting? Did I just want a 300 page shootout? What I got was a short but intense shootout at the end that took place over about a chapter (of a total of 15 chapters). I vividly recall McGee referring to the day of carnage and revenge as his “John Wayne day.” As a kid, I loved John Wayne movies so that made the book worthwhile back then.

This time, I didn’t struggle through the buildup like I did as a kid. I relished MacDonald’s McGee, who is a classic, hardcore, private investigator living on a houseboat called The Busted Flush in South Florida. McGee’s cohort is his buddy and resident genius Meyer, who hangs around to talk sense into McGee and occasionally provide some comic relief. This is the kind of classic crime novel that I love and I’ll be reading all of the Travis McGee novels. However, I don’t know if I’ll be reading them order. I’ve read a few and I don’t seem to recall it being that important to read them in order. I’ll have to do a little research on that.

Finally, as I do with many of the crime novels, I like to pick out a thought or a rant by the main character that embodies their take on the world. Here are McGee’s thoughts on a middle-aged guy (Herm) whom McGee thought died from over exherting himself:

… In the meanwhile, poor Herm had succumbed to the age of the jock. The mystique of pushing yourself past your limits. The age of shin splints, sprung knees, and new hernias. An office-softened body in its middle years needs a long, long time to come around. Until a man can walk seven miles in two hours without blowing like a porpoise, without sweating gallons, without bumping his heart past 120, it is asinine to start jogging. Except for a few dreadful lapses which have not really gone on too long, I have stayed in shape all my life. Being in shape means knowing your body, how it feels, how it responds to this and to that, and when to stop. You develop a sixth sense about when to stop. It is not mysticism. It is brute labor, boring and demanding. Violent exercise is for children and knowledgeable jocks. Not for insurance adjustors and sales managers. They do not need to be in the shape they want to be, and could not sustain it if they could get there. Walking briskly no less than six hours a week will do it for them. The McGee System for earnest office people. I can push myself considerably further because I sense when I’m getting too close to the place where something is going to pop, rip, or split.

Ah, the soliloquy of the crime noire hero. It’s a thing of beauty. I’m glad to welcome back Travis McGee after about 30 years. I’m looking forward to more.

Categories
screen

Ironman 2

Did Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) call the senator (Garry Shandling) an ass-clown? I think he did. What is this movie rated? PG-13. I think Jon Favreau is spending too much time reading the Urban Dictionary. Maybe Tony Stark would say such a thing. I don’t know. He seems pretty arrogant but his heart is in the right place I guess.

You have to understand: superheroes have flaws. You gotta take the good with the bad.

This is a cute movie. The opening fight scene is worthy and there is plenty of humor. The special effects are cool. It makes you think, man, we’ve come a long way since Minority Report (referencing the scene where they use their hands with air-touch-holograph method to sort through information and the like).

The cast of characters is strong. Samuel L. Jackson as head of this do-good group of superheroes is somewhat fitting. I don’t know much about these superhero comics, but the back story is highly appreciated by many fans. I posed this question to someone in the know the other day, “Who is this character played by Samuel L. Jackson?” Boy did I get an earful.

I guess his name is Nick Fury. How was I supposed to know that? Did they say his name during the movie at all? I think not. And Scarlett Johansson’s character has like three names. I’m a geek about certain things, but Marvel Comics is not one of them.

Did I mention that AC/DC and Garry Shandling are featured prominently? You really can’t go wrong with that.