Month: July 2021 (Page 1 of 2)

I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll (Except When I Hate It) – Brian Boone
Between both switching to the smaller, satellite Indy library near our house from the larger Carmel library and Covid, I don’t just go wonder the library stacks very often, surprising myself with books that speak to me as I pass them. That is how I found this book, though. I was looking for another music book, it was missing, but spied this and knocked it out in a few sittings.

It is a collection of irreverent music lists and trivia nuggets. No heavy lifting, I knew some of the stuff, but also learned some new things along the way.

The Good Assassin – Paul Vidich
I have a couple lists of good espionage books that I’ve been working through. Paul Vidich’s work was recommended on one as some good, old school, Cold War noir. This, which takes place in Cuba just before Castro takes over, certainly fit that bill. In fact it was almost too noir-ish, sucking the life out of the book and making it rather bland. None of the characters were terribly interesting and the fascinating moment in history seemed wasted.

The Premonition – Michael Lewis
This is the book I read in one night, starting it sometime after lunch and finishing it a little after midnight. Which is kind of funny because I was reluctant to read it at first. It just seemed too soon to read a book about the Covid pandemic, since the light at the end of the tunnel might be wiped out by a new tunnel millions of idiots are building to protect their personal freedoms.

But, dammit, Michael Lewis found a way to write an insanely engaging accounting of how we got into the mess we are in.

As always, he focuses on personalities to explain larger problems. Also as always, he picks fascinating people for his focus. A hard-charging health commissioner in California. A cutting-edge genetic researcher at UCSF. And a pair of men who have been working on the problem of how to handle a pandemic for nearly 20 years who pull everyone together. It was these folks, and others like them scattered at various levels of government and industry, who helped to kickstart an otherwise inept and disinterested response by far too many power players in the US.

One interesting takeaway from the book, and why things are so fucked up in this country, is that there is no such thing as public health policy in the US. Each state and municipality is kind of on their own, consulting with others but often making decisions in a vacuum without any coordination from above. Thus, when a massive event like Covid hits, there is no structure for quickly making national policy. Throw in an incompetent president who was far more worried about protecting his own image than being a leader, and it’s no wonder we are in such a mess.

Another huge takeaway was that the CDC kind of sucks. Lewis shows the CDC to be a massive, overly cautious organization that would rather force others to make decisions than be held accountable for making difficult choices themselves. They attempt to thwart decision makers who have better information than the people in Atlanta if those locals go against the CDC playbook. And they collect massive amounts of incredibly important health and medical data, but hoard it for their own research purposes rather than share it so others can attempt to make rapid decisions in moments of crisis.

It isn’t until the book’s closing chapter when Lewis finally explains why the CDC might be so gun-shy. They botched the rollout of a swine flu vaccine in 1976 for a pandemic that never fully developed and both undercut its reputation and opened the door for the White House to control who ran it after decades of independence.

The personalities Lewis writes about are truly heroic, and the structural impediments they face are truly infuriating. He pulls that all together in a work of non-fiction that is as compulsive of a read as any fiction I’ve read in years.

Not much has been going on the past few days. M turned 17 over the weekend. I read a terrific book in a single day. We went out on a boat with some friends. Ted Lasso returned. The Big 12 may be kaput.

Oh, and the Olympics started.

Thus it is time to bring back a time-honored recurring feature here on the blog: the Olympics Notebook!

Before we get to my observations and thoughts, a confession: I did not begin these games with my traditional strong interest. I’ve been loving the Olympics since 1980, and always get excited for them, especially the summer games. But with everything that’s going on in the world at the moment, I’m not convinced that having these games is the best idea. It feels like a super spreader event waiting to happen, a moment when the Delta and maybe the next variant will be shared over two weeks then taken back to all corners of the globe. No matter what athletic triumphs occur, might we look back in a year or two and think, “Yeah, that was a total disaster,”?

Hosting also seems like a lot to ask of the Japanese public, who will have to deal with whatever viral soup is left in their country when the athletes depart.

And the events, which are so often emotional and boisterous, come across as sterile without the stands filled with crowds of fans. Especially when a Japanese team or athlete does well and can only celebrate with their coaches/teammates. Those moments need stands filled with Japanese partisans roaring down their joyous approval.

Because of that, I totally skipped the opening ceremonies. That was the night I was reading a very good book which seemed like a better use of my time.

Fortunately I found my Olympic Spirit and have been watching a lot of coverage in the hours when we’ve been home and haven’t had guests over.

The Shocker

There was a clear A1 story for us US viewers…until Tuesday morning when the Simone Biles stuff hit. I’m never into gymnastics and doubted I would have watched much even if Biles had not dropped out. So no real change there, other than me trying to avoid what instantly became a political/value argument between people who likely have very little interest in gymnastics. Because it’s America in 2021 and that’s what we do: rush to diametrically opposed positions on any subject that comes up for debate.

Since I don’t follow gymnastics I wasn’t aware of the signs of strain she had been showing recently. I didn’t know when asked, just before the pandemic began, where she saw herself in 2021 she responded, “Retired.” I didn’t know about the physical injuries she had competed with. I didn’t remember she had taken an active role in the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal. I just assumed because I heard she won another national/world title every year or so that she was invincible and would roll to a bevy of golds in Tokyo. Even trying to dodge gymnastics coverage Tuesday, I still caught her vault runs that looked nothing like what the greatest gymnast ever should be doing. Something was clearly very wrong. I hope she’s ok.

The Other Shocker

OK, before that the clear story of the games for Americans was Lydia Jacoby’s upset win in the 100 breaststroke Monday night. Rowdy Gaines and Dan Hicks barely gave her any attention at the beginning of the race, instead focusing on defending Olympic champion Lilly King and the woman who had edged King out in the semifinal heat, South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker. Which made sense since the race was all about those two for the first 75 meters or so, until Jacoby eased by them and held on to win Gold.

It was a fabulous moment, made apparent by the utter shock from Gaines. He is never at a loss for words and was momentarily speechless. Jacoby’s reaction matched, as there was a flicker of disbelief when she saw the results before it registered.

That alone would have made it a great moment, one worth repeating. Then came the shot of students watching at Jacoby’s high school in Seward, Alaska. Kids jumping up and down in nervous excitement as she neared the finish, then losing their minds when she touched the wall. This was a genuine, in-the-moment reaction that felt even better because so few events are authentic anymore. I don’t think any of us who witnessed it live will ever forget.

Hoops

Jeez, the US men kind of suck. We couldn’t get a 3×3 team qualified, and now our regular team, filled with NBA superstars, gives up a 14–0 run late and loses to France in their opening game. It’s almost like you can’t just throw a bunch of dudes together for a couple weeks and expect to win anymore. Thank goodness Iran was next on the schedule so we could pummel them appropriately and give the impression that all is well.

The world has definitely caught up with us, and when those other national teams stick together over time, there is no margin for error for Team USA. I say we need a clear alpha and build around him, instead of putting a Super Team out there and hoping talent carries the day.

It is a huge bummer we don’t have a men’s 3×3 team, because that sport is awesome! Fast-paced, you have to be able to play both ways, and you can never relax because a made layup can turn into a 2-pointer for your opponent if you don’t immediately pick up someone on D. Love the dueling end points of both score and clock. I’ve mostly watched the women’s side, and it seems to be a better game. The men’s game seems dominated by brutes who beat each other up physically where the women’s game, while certainly physical, is more free-flowing.

Good on the US women for taking the gold medal contest Wednesday morning (US time).

Also dope for Latvia to win the men’s gold medal on a 2-pointer.

Random Notes

Hey, Phil Dalhausser is still around!

Isn’t it crazy how even though it’s the first Olympics without Michael Phelps in 25 years, he’s still everywhere? Doing coverage for NBC. Central and part of at least two ad campaigns. Tough luck for people who were sick of the greatest Olympian of all time.

I always laugh when local NBC stations suddenly take great interest in the weather in the host Olympic city. Our affiliate often leads off the weather segments with the current conditions and forecast for Tokyo before they get to our weather. It helps that it’s been hot and boring here for a couple weeks.

They couldn’t find a softball diamond to play softball on? Surely somewhere in Tokyo there’s a decent one. The Japanese won the gold medal, for crying out loud! Looked both odd and disrespectful to play it on a baseball field where you had to slide on turf if there was a close play at second.

How the fuck is Great Britain beating the US and Australia in men’s swimming? In freestyle, no less. Madness.

Katie Ledecky seems like a pretty great person. She looked genuinely happy for Ariarne Titmus after losing to her in the 400 free. She seemed as excited for teammate Erica Sullivan winning the silver as she was for her own gold in the 1500.

Titmus. T-I-T-M-U-S. Titmus, honest to God. If you know, you know.[1]

Not a fan of bringing in Steve Kornacki to crunch Olympics numbers. It’s just not as weighty as figuring out how much of the vote is still out in suburban Philadelphia.

This week’s round up of some cool shit I’ve read and think you might also enjoy.

‘You’ve never seen The Beatles like this before’: Peter Jackson on his epic Get Back docuseries

This feature/interview sure makes the upcoming Peter Jackson Beatles series sound phenomenal. I found this line interesting:

For any self-respecting Beatles nut, this must surely count as one of the final mop-top Holy Grails…

I suppose Paul and Ringo could still write exhaustive tell-alls of the 1960s. (Or perhaps they’ve already written them and are just waiting for the proper moment to release them.) But that statement is both correct and sobering: this could be the final piece of original work from the Beatles we ever receive. Which is amazing since they broke up 51 years ago.

Life never lived up to what Anthony Bourdain wanted it to be
Drew Magary on the new Anthony Bourdain movie? Yes, please.

The Great American Reboot
This is a couple weeks old. It is already beginning to feel outdated. After a month or two of admittedly cautious loosening of Covid protection measures, it’s beginning to feel – at least to those of us who take this pandemic seriously – like we may have jumped the gun. Or rather than we’ve been let down by a huge chunk of our country who are idiots.

T.M. Shine visited Las Vegas on Memorial Day. I thought this observation was especially brilliant.

One thing I think we have all realized as the debates have raged over the pandemic — mask or no mask, to be vaccinated or not — is that we value our opinions more than both our lives and the lives of others.

A-fucking-men.

How America Fractured Into Four Parts
Finally, there may be no better documenter of modern America’s politics than George Packer. In this long essay, an excerpt from his latest book, he suggests that we have been split into four different perspectives. There are flaws in his arguments, but I think he’s pretty close to the truth.

In Free America, the winners are the makers, and the losers are the takers who want to drag the rest down in perpetual dependency on a smothering government. In Smart America, the winners are the credentialed meritocrats, and the losers are the poorly educated who want to resist inevitable progress. In Real America, the winners are the hardworking folk of the white Christian heartland, and the losers are treacherous elites and contaminating others who want to destroy the country. In Just America, the winners are the marginalized groups, and the losers are the dominant groups that want to go on dominating.

Another jam-packed playlist to please your ears and your hearts this week.

“Living Proof” – The War on Drugs
Here it is, the first new TWOD song in four years! It does not hit with the same impact that the early songs from A Deeper Understanding hit with in the spring/summer of 2017. But as a side one, track one, this is a beautiful teaser for what’s to come. Music writer Steven Hyden said his advance copy of I Don’t Live Here Anymore is already his most-listened to album of the year and that is is “laden with bangers.” Excellent! I’m counting down the days until it the full album arrives on October 29.

“Dark Kept Secret” – EXUM
I don’t keep up with modern R&B the way I did back in the New Jack Swing era of the late ’80s, early ’90s. But every so often a song bubbles through all the other stuff I listen to and grabs my attention. Here is one. Such a cool sound to this track, not really true R&B but neither is it indie or straight pop. Yet it can appeal to folks who live in any of those spaces. And I had no idea this was former NFL player Antone Exum Jr. He’s an interesting cat.

“Jupiter” – Beachheads
This is just about a perfect summer song. Half of this band is also in a Norweigan metal band. Wouldn’t have ever guessed that!

“Chaeri” – Magdalena Bay
A strong Robyn vibe to this track.

“Seize the Day” – Paul McCartney, Phoebe Bridgers
A few months back Paul McCartney released McCartney III Imagined, in which various artists from his 2020 album McCartney III are reworked by other artists. So of course Phoebe Bridgers just knocked this track out of the park. I just listened to his version. It’s not bad. It might even be pretty good. But Phoebe’s is amazing.

“Knife Fight” – Painted Shield
Painted Shield is kind of a super group. Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard put the group together. On vocals is solo artist Mason Jennings, who sounds a hell of a lot like Spoon’s Britt Daniel on this track. Brittany Davis handles keyboard duties. And on drums is Matt Chamberlain, most famous for being the second of Pearl Jam’s many drummers. This track is funky and fun.

“Cassette” – Swiss Portrait
Another terrific summer song. Obviously I’m influenced by the title, but this makes me think of making mix tapes for some super cute girl in 1988. Or more likely a mix CD in the ’90s since this has a dream pop thing going for it.

“Summertime” – The Sundays
Not everything from the ’90s holds up well. But this sure as shit does.

Chart Week: July 12, 1986
Song: “If She Knew What She Wants” – The Bangles
Chart Position: #29, 10th week on the chart. This was the song’s peak; it fell out of the Top 40 the next week.

I recall being in love with a lot of unattainable women in the summer of 1986. There was Heather Thomas, whose poster I had on my wall. There was Tamlyn Tomita, who played Ralph Maccio’s Okinawan love interest in The Karate Kid Part II. I’m sure there were plenty of girls at my high school I longed to get attention from but was frightened to speak to. And there was Susanna Hoffs.

Man, did I love Susanna! She had a girl-next-door quality to her beauty that made her seem like someone who was too pretty for normal dorks like me to have any hope of dating, but not so hot that she wouldn’t talk to you, laugh at your jokes, etc.

I know I wasn’t alone. And judging by comments from friends, there are a lot of us who are still fans, as she has aged very, very well.

Like most dudes my age I fell in love with Hoffs in the spring of ’86 when The Bangles hit #2 with the Prince-written “Manic Monday.” Later in the year they would release what ended up being the biggest single of 1987, “Walk Like an Egyptian,” another song the band did not write. In fact, of the band’s five biggest songs – all Top Five hits – they only wrote two, and both of those included input from songwriters outside the group. A handful of their other famous songs were also covers, which is a little odd given how the band was fully capable of writing a great tune. I guess they knew how to pick a good cover.[1]

“If She Knew What She Wants” was not one of their biggest hits. It struggled to gain traction on the charts and could only claw its way up to #29 and then fall clean out of the Top 40 a week later. Which is a shame because it’s a totally gorgeous song. Those “Ooooo-ooooo-ooooo-ooooo’s” Susanna throws in at the beginning and end of the track are both angelic and killer. I didn’t understand why people didn’t love it back in 1986, and I still don’t understand why it wasn’t a bigger hit.

It was – surprise surprise – also a cover. In this case it belonged to Jules Shear, a musician with a long, deep track record of writing songs for others. ’Til Tuesday, Marshall Crenshaw, 10,000 Maniacs, and Olivia Newton-John are just the most immediately recognizable artists to record his music.

Shear also wrote “All Through the Night,” which Cyndi Lauper turned into a #5 hit during her huge run in 1984. When she toured her monster She’s So Unusual album, Lauper selected The Bangles as her opening act. While on that tour The Bangles came to know Shear’s music and eventually struck up a friendship with him. When he performed his single “Steady” on American Bandstand in 1985, he recruited The Bangles to be his “background band,” miming the track along with him for Dick Clark and his audience. When asked to record a song for The Goonies soundtrack, The Bangles brought in Shear as a co-writer. As a token of thanks, or just a sign of their admiration for his art, they also selected this track to include on their Different Light album.

They didn’t veer much from Shear’s arrangement. They do flip a few words to adjust the gender perspective. It is their shift toward their favored sound of 60’s-influenced jangle pop with gorgeous harmonies that makes their version really shine, and elevates it above Shear’s version.

For some bonus Susanna Hoffs material, here is her performing two of her biggest Bangles tracks with a string quartet on CNN for the Fourth of July.

The Alice Network – Kate Quinn
A friend gave me this book awhile back, but I left it in my bookshelf for months before finally cracking it open. When I did, S told me she had read it on one of our vacations and loved it. We don’t read a lot of the same books, so I was both excited and nervous about taking it on. What if I hated it?

That wasn’t a problem; this was a terrific novel.

It tells the story of two remarkable women whose lives come together. The first is Eve Gardiner, a British woman recruited to serve a spy in France during World War I. She earns a job waiting at a restaurant that serves German soldiers, becomes the lover of the owner, and passes on incredibly important intelligence through The Alice Network of female spies. She is eventually found out, though, and pays a horrible price.

The second woman is Charlie St. Clair, a young American traveling to Switzerland with her mother in 1948 to get an abortion. When they land in England, she flees her mother and tracks down Gardiner, who she believes can help her find her French cousin who disappeared during World War II.

Quinn flips back-and-forth between 1915 and 1948, and we slowly learn about Gardiner’s time spying and her trip through France with St. Clair and her Scottish driver. Both women are unique for their times: outspoken, take-no-shit, boundary-destroying chicks who fight for what they want. I loved them both and see why S liked them, and the book, so much.

God Spare the Girls – Kelsey McKinney
Once again, a first-time novelist has blown me away.

McKinney’s debut novel is focused on Caroline Nolan, a recent high school grad in North Texas who is the daughter of an evangelical pastor who is famous for his teen abstinence program. And Caroline goes and loses her virginity in the opening pages of the book. The horror!

That’s not the biggest family crisis, though. Turns out her dad has been cheating on her mom, who just found out about it. Which, as you might imagine, causes a bit of a scandal, although one the church leadership seems eager to get through quickly.

However Caroline and her older sister, who is about to get married, can’t get over it as easily. They spend several weeks in isolation on a ranch property their deceased grandmother left them. There, they get into deep discussions on what their faith means in light of their father’s failures. Whether they can forgive him. What Caroline having sex means. They hash out issues they’ve had for years. It’s a wonderful exploration of sisterhood and all the baggage that comes along with that. They become closer than they’ve ever been, and then one well-intentioned but poorly thought out act by Caroline ruins that.

McKinney fills the book with characters that would be easy to turn into caricatures. But she avoids those traps by focusing on Caroline and her sister, and making them rich, complex women who make unexpected decisions because of unexpected reasons.

The Spy and the Traitor – Ben Macintyre
Next another remarkable story, this one true. This is an accounting of the life go Oleg Gordievsky, one of the highest ranking KGB agents who ever spied for the West. Disillusioned with the closed nature of the Soviet Union, he was first recruited by the British while working in Denmark in the 1970s. Eventually he transferred to London and was on the verge of being named the Soviet equivalent of Chief of Station before he was outed by CIA agent Aldrich Ames, who was selling information to the Soviets.

This discovery set off a pretty amazing escape by Gordievsky from Moscow to the Finnish border before British agents slipped him out to freedom. Following his defection in the 1985, he gave the West unprecedented insight into how the KGB functions.

A pretty cool insight into what makes people share information about their home country with their enemy.

Americana: Dispatches from the New Frontier – Hampton Sides
This was marketed as a travelogue, so I thought it would tell the tale of Sides, who wrote the excellent Hellhound on His Trail that I read earlier this year, traveling through the US and discovering something interesting about us as Americans.

Which it kind of was. I guess I didn’t read the description close enough, though, and didn’t realize this wasn’t based on a single trip, but rather a collection of his magazine writing from a roughly 25-year period. Because of that, I worked through it slowly, in small chunks, since spring break.

He profiles all kinds of interesting people, places, and events. Getting through the first 350 pages or so is worth it when you get to his post–9/11 pieces. One is an absolutely brutal look at several people who were in the World Trade Center buildings on the day of the attacks. I had to stop reading and take a walk around the house in a few spots to give myself a mental breather. Another is about a Marine lieutenant who was the first American killed in action during the invasion of Iraq, and it is equally brutal. But both pieces are also wonderfully researched and written.

Another relaxing and laid-back weekend.

Friday we wrapped up the rainiest week of a rainy summer by, yep, having more rain. By the time the storms stopped Saturday morning we were at six inches of rain through the first 15 days of the month. Which seems like a lot. The good news is I haven’t had to water the yard once so far this summer.

Friday evening S and I went to a party one of her old high school chums hosted. This wasn’t just any party, though. It was a rescheduled White Elephant party they have every Christmas. And since S’s high school buddy has a lot of Clark Griswold in him, he filled his home with Christmas decorations, cranked up the Christmas tunes, and greeted everyone with a hearty “Merry Christmas!” at the door. I threw out all my normal qualms with holiday music being played outside the season and was fully onboard. The pandemic has changed everything, folks. It was a fine evening.

As I’ve said before, the NBA playoffs and Finals are often too late for me to see the best parts of the game. I did catch the last four minutes of Saturday’s game five, which we an absolute thrill ride. Again, I have no rooting interest and can’t force myself one way or the other. So it was terrific fun to watch Phoenix slice a ten point deficit down to one, have the ball with under 30 seconds left, and have the crowd going bonkers. And it was equally fun to watch Jrue Holliday strip Devon Booker then throw a ridiculous alley oop to Giannis for the clinching bucket.

Sunday was a nearly perfect day. The sun was out, it was warm but not hot, and the humidity had finally broken for a bit. We spent nearly all day in the pool with a couple nephews. Any time it got just a little toasty, a slight breeze would kick in to refresh you. In fact, I’m sitting out on the porch putting this together around 8:00 Sunday evening and it’s damn-near perfect: 81 and breezy with low humidity. You can actually sit outside without sweating into your chair. We don’t even have the ceiling fan on. Oh, and the normal, annual cicadas have been emerging over the past week so we have a nice soundtrack to this lovely evening.

I watched quite a bit of The Open Championship Thursday through Sunday. Pool time kept me away from the tail end of the final round, although I did have NBC on our outdoor TV. Unfortunately it doesn’t face the pool so I couldn’t sit in the pool AND watch golf. Travesty. We should tear our porch down and start over to fix this error.

Anyway, another disappointing Sunday for Louis Oosthuizen. I wanted him to win just because of all the other close calls, but he looked shook pretty much all through his Sunday round. I think even laid-back Louis is going to rue his missed opportunities in the summer of 2021 when he looks back on them.

Jordan Spieth also kicked his chances away with some uneven play early Sunday and some terrible play at the end of his round Saturday. But he still made a little run and if a couple more putts had found the hole Sunday he could have been right there. He didn’t win a major this year, but it was great to have him back contending again.

Winner Collin Morikawa cemented his place as an absolute ace and perhaps the best player of both the under 25 and under 30 crowds. Which is saying something because both of those groups are filled with remarkably talented players.

On the weeks he putts well – as he did this week and a year ago when he won the PGA – he’s damn tough to beat. That’s the biggest flaw in his game, as his putting can be very erratic. Tighten that up and get it more consistent to go along with a fine long game and probably the best iron play in the game, and we just might have the generational star we’ve been looking for since Tiger fell apart.

Although as talented as the sub–30 group of golfers is, I have a hard time seeing Morikawa or anyone else running away and winning five, six, seven majors over the next decade. There are just too many insanely talented young guys in the game right now for one guy to dominate. Plus, “old’ guys like Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, etc aren’t just going to let these young guys win everything. Well, Rory might…

I’m going to resurrect an old feature of the blog: sharing some of my favorite things I’ve read over the past week on Fridays. This will be an occasion feature, so don’t count on entry every week. And some weeks it might be loaded with cool stuff and others, like this week, only have one or two items in it.

Don’t Piss Off Bradley, the Parts Seller Keeping Atari Machines Alive
For most folks my age, this will tickle a special part of your memory banks. One man is the gatekeeper to helping fans of classic Atari consoles and computers keep their machines running. But he’s a little like the Soup Nazi.

Jason Sudeikis Is Having One Hell of a Year
IT’S ALMOST TED LASSO WEEK!!!! I’m going to read this profile of Jason Sudeikis at least three more times before season two debuts next week.