Monthly Archive for October, 2009

Watching Baseball: Discovering The Game Within The Game by Jerry Remy (52 Books,31 Down, 21 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on October 29, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

Jerry Remy’s Watching Baseball was a summer long project for me. I am a baseball fanatic and it probably shows in my reading output for the year thus far. I recorded and watched every game played by the local team, the Texas Rangers, as well as the nationally broadcast games of the team I grew up following, the Boston Red Sox. All in all, I estimate I watched about 190 games this past baseball season….so much so that I am a little burnt out and am a bit ambivalent about the World Series. I’ve been watching baseball now since I was a kid, played it in high school (.613 average one year…ok it was against small towns but still…) but still don’t have a full grasp of all the little strategies. Remy’s book has helped fill in a lot of the gaps, especially when it comes to the National League, which I almost never watch. I would highly recommend this book to both baseball newbies and seasoned veterans. Both will gain some knowledge. Pick up the most recent edition though…I’ve been reading an earlier edition and many of the players that Remy discusses aren’t even in the game anymore. Here’s to listening to Alex Rodriguez’s muppet voice in the World Series postgame shows.

Preacher

Published
by
Matthew
on October 26, 2009
in Books and Comics
. 0 Comments

I pretty much checked out of the comic book scene in the early 90’s. This owes as much to Rob Leifeld’s inexplicable success during that decade and the absurd glut of mutant “X” titles as it does to my adolescent discovery of “real” literature.

This is too bad for me, because I missed out on some great stuff back then. I’ve started to play catch up thanks to collected trade paperbacks, most recently Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s brilliant Preacher series.

To briefly summarize the plot, a celestial accident occurs in Heaven, which wipes out small town Texas preacher Jesse Custer’s entire parish and grants him some serious powers thanks to an immature, yet supremely powerful, being called Genesis which inhabits him and grants him the Word, i.e. a power that allows him to make anyone do anything he says whenever he feels like it.

With his newfound power, his gal Tulip, and an Irish vampire named Cassidy, Jesse decides to track down God, who has checked out of the day-to-day oversight of His creation, get face to face with him, and hold him accountable for all the evils of the world.

What ensues is terrific drama, action, violence, gore, hilarity, and a cast of characters that includes God, the Devil, inbred hillbillies, the ultimate badass Saint of Killers, a pathetic Kurt Cobain wannabe who goes by the name “Arseface”, and John fucking Wayne.

I can’t recommend this book enough.

Incidentally, while reading it I thought to myself “what an amazing cable series this would make”. Sure enough, it was in development for HBO a few years ago, but was ultimately scrapped. Too bad, because the Arseface makeup tests are tremendous:

Fleshmarket Alley by Ian Rankin (52 Books, 30 Down, 22 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on October 23, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

Fleshmarket Alley, also known as Fleshmarket Close in the U.K. edition, is the fifteenth in Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series. It’s another fine addition to the Rebus canon, but, like the previous volume, is over 550 pages and suffers a bit from bloat. There are no less than four storylines, intricately entwined. Much of the book has to do with Scotland and it’s treatment of immigrants. Rebus’ protege, Siobhan Clarke, continues to have a prominent presence as Rebus nears retirement. His nemesis, Morris Cafferty is also taking up more of a presence, leading one to think that, with two books left, the final showdown is going to be a big one.

A Good Hanging by Ian Rankin (52 Books, 29 Down, 23 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on October 14, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

A Good Hanging is not strictly part of Ian Rankin’s Rebus series. Rather it is a collection of short stories involving Rebus that take place in the universe of the first several Rebus novels. In the introduction, Rankin claims he was a short story writer first. Thankfully for us, he is now primarily a novelist. This collection is absolutely inessential for Rebus fans. Most seem like ideas for novels that didn’t quite work out. The only story of any interest is “Sunday,” in which we see Rebus at home the morning after he has killed someone in self defense. I read this to delay the swiftly approaching end of Rebus, but the experience was less than satisfying.

A Question Of Blood by Ian Rankin (52 Books, 28 Down, 24 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on October 14, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments

A Question of Blood is the fourteenth in Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series. Rankin’s plots often mirror issues in society and this novel is no exception, dealing with a school shooting. Overall, it’s not a bad effort, but not as well paced as his other recent books. Each successive Rebus novel has been longer than the previous, and this one weighs in at nearly 550 pages. It’s an enjoyable read but probably could have used a bit of editing. Over the past few books Siobhan Clarke has taken a more prominent role, almost to the point of being Rebus’ equal, and that is true here as well. It wouldn’t be a Rankin novel if there weren’t three or four plotlines going at a time and Clarke is prominent in them all. Recommended, with the minor reservation over it’s length.

Resurrection Men By Ian Rankin (52 Books, 27 Down, 25 To Go)

Published
by
Chris
on October 14, 2009
in 52 Books 52 Weeks
. 0 Comments


Resurrection Men is the thirteenth in Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series. I’m a few books ahead of the posts, and am just starting the final volume. So, taking the final novel out of it, I’d have to argue that this is the strongest and most polished of all the Rebus books, and deservedly won the Edgar award for the year it was released. Rebus, after throwing a cup of tea at a superior, is sent back to the Scottish Police College for retraining. As part of his retraining, Rebus and several other detectives that are also being retrained, are asked to look into a cold case. As it turns out, everyone involved (Rebus included) has a prior connection to the case. Rankin deftly handles several plot threads in this masterful performance.

When ratings fail you….

Published
by
Chris
on October 11, 2009
in Television
. 0 Comments

I watched the first couple episodes of Heroes when it came out…people were talking about it at work…the fact that I watched only a couple of episodes should tell you what I thought about it. I hear the ratings have been failing, so what better time than to advertise an episode with the lesbian kiss.

Cities XL Footage

Published
by
Chris
on October 1, 2009
in Video Games
. 0 Comments

It’s too bad my couple-of-years-old computer can’t handle the specs of this game. Looks impressive and addictive.