kate. books. links.

This is the view from the Ferris Wheel at Coney Island. I was out there with my niece Kate. She came to NYC to look after me for a few days.

Here she is eating a famous fry at Nathan's famous:
Needless to say I was quite complimented whenever anyone asked if she was my daughter. We had a pretty fun time. We went to a dance performance by Pilobus. We went to the Broadway Musical Wicked. We did some back-to-school shopping. We took the Staten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and saw polar bears at the Central Park Zoo. We saw Despicable Me in 3D, which I liked a good deal. She had to get back to Raleigh to take a babysitting course, but I'm pretty sure she knew everything she needed to after taking care of me for four days.

In other news, you know I've been flying around and running around a lot, like I do.

I was in Ellington, Connecticut last weekend with 15 fine women from Brooklyn's Women's Team Frisbee. We had a rough go of it, but had fun nonetheless.

All the flying for work and play has me madder than ever about the freezing temperature on airplanes. I'm planning to get a thermometer and keep it with me at all times. Take that airlines, I'm taking readings. And recording them. So there! (I'm too busy to start that project up right now, but consider yourself warned.)

One upside of all the time on planes and at the gate is a bit more time to read.

I finished David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster essay collection. It was fun reading that on the plane to Ali's wedding and getting dirty looks. I had always though of DWF as too condescendo and cute with all the footnotes of footnotes, and I'd pretty much dismissed him as a dry pedant. I had based that on one essay, "Host" which I had read years ago. That essay is particularly heavily footnoted, and in an artsy, postmodern way that really does not work in print format, but should be a linked webpage. I'm really glad I gave him another chance. While some of the essays in the collection are pretty dense and would at best only interest those already intimate with the subject on which he is training his microscope, others are hysterical, touching or both from the first sentence. "Big Red Son" in particular was fascinating. My take away from finishing the collection was that each essay pretty much holds it's tone and form, so if you hate the first 3 pages, skip it, it's going to be more of that. Skip to the next essay right away because it might make you laugh and cry at the same time.

On books that elicit both tears and laughter, I urgently implore you to get your hands on a copy of Jonathan Tropper's This is Where I Leave You as fast as you can. I cannot recommend this strongly enough. I got this book from a tip from a friend at work in Knoxville. She was right. I laughed out loud on the plane and people looked at me funny (like reading Sedaris). This might be my Corrections for this year, a book I give everyone for Christmas. It has a dysfunctional family in common with Corrections, but one not quite so dark.

I also quickly finished Paul Harding's Novella tinkers. This was trying a bit too hard to be Faulkner and missing for me. The Pulitzer Prize winner segs seamlessly between three generations of Crosby men and their musings and hallucinations, with lengthy nature description passages and detailed clock repair passages woven in between. The novella was like a pretty quilt, but I like my fiction with a bit more plot and purpose.


Odds & Ends:

Jesse just reminded me to stay up on Zach Galifianakis.

No one needs to remind me to stay up on Kenny Powers. He's keeping the pen.

Dorks sent this along, which reminds me of my flying adventures. I wish there was a cartoon of him trapped in a block of ice.

Periodically the NY times runs a story, the gist of which is, "people play ultimate." I think we all recall in May of 2009, when they broke the story "ultimate is a sport and girls can play it."

Someone just anonymously posted this picture of me to my other blog as a reminder. I'm playing that game where the last one to touch their nose is it. I was not it!

The Gastronauts were in the New York Times again too. Breaking News!

14 years later and they got a hit on me in the Bone Marrow donor registry. Thanks Charlotte! Stay tuned for how that progresses.

As the saying goes, "Don’t let it hant you in the dills."

I have been playing some iPhone fake scrabble and it is making me much stupider. Some “words” that I have successfully played this round include “Hant” “Dills” and “Berg”. Look out.

Whirlwind summer persists with much travel and much airport time. A few quick notes.

Thanks to everyone who came out to Frank's and Habana for my birthday. I’m told I had a lot of fun.

WTF!!??!?! had tryouts, and went to the Boston Invite, where we had fun and lost all our games.
Thanks to Jesse for helping me understand the what the deal is with all that twilight nonsense.

I don’t really care about Labron free agency, he had to go somewhere. I’m not so sure he’s made a dream team, but I guess we’ll see. TG is pretty mad at him for some reason and did this: http://www.lebrontwitter.com/.
I spent July 4 at the lake in Virginia. Lots of fireworks and lots of fun.

Ali & Dave’s wedding in Maine was beautiful and fantastic. Maine’s rocky coast was just as picturesque as the cliché. The Wedding was in Kennebunkport and I ran past the Bush family compound several times. We ate delicious lobster and had lots of fun. (Maine mosquitoes are lobster sized and much more vicious.)
Here's me and Emily before the ceremony:

And me just after the ceremony, doing what frisbee people do at weddings. What nerds! Really, everyone was playing, it's just me in this shot though...

Oh yeah, and here's me getting busted getting Betsy's help with afore mentioned iPhone scrabble. PBR!
I just finished reading the Stu Ungar biography. The guy was clearly a genius, maybe the best Gin player of all time and a storied poker champion, but also a total degenerate that could lost everything he made just as quickly. I love that he never had a straight job in his life, so when he won a legit tournament, first had to go to get a social security card to collect the winnings.

Before that I read the really long and really funny Blue Latitudes. I never really thought I cared about Captain Cook, but I guess anything that Tony Horwitz writes is funny and moves well. He retraces Cook's 3 voyages, seeing the impact that was had on the places Cook "discovers". Part anthropology, part extended drunken road trip, neither part sounds good I know, but I think I just found Horwitz' voice resonated.

WTF, or at least 8 of us, are off to Ottawa this weekend. Should be grueling and fun.

After that I’ll go to Reston and Knoxville for work before I head to the beach for a few days to see the extended fam.

Note to humans loitering inside Chelsea Market, on NYC sidewalks or in the Subway – Try this: Ask yourself, “Am I in the way?” If answer = yes, then GET OUT OF THE WAY. If answer = no
then continue on with your ‘life’.

Memorializing the end of May

My new women's team is really taking off. Brooklyn's Women's Team Frisbee had tryouts this weekend and announced a roster of 18. There will be 9 more players added through June. We will be a pretty young team. It should be a lot of fun and also a lot of work I cannot really believe I signed myself up for.

Beacon High School Girls Ultimate is pretty much wrapped up for the year. I survived the trip to Vermont. I drove 14 hours in 3 days in a giant SUV packed with screaming girls. It was pretty much hell. We all slept on the floor together in our host house. There is no predator as vicious as a high school girl. The girls actually did pretty well, finishing 7th in the tourney and 8th in spirit. 7th out of 10 might not sound so great, but they beat their cross town rivals from Stuyvesant for the first time in years. They all seemed to have a tolerably good time, though you'd never know it from their permanent scowls.

I recently finished Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and of course it was incredible. That's all I can really say. I love the chapters by each character, the changing point of view. I especially love the chapters from Vardaman the 7 year old son. Faulkner had a lot of courage. I could never write something that leaves so much out at the beginning, that requires the reader to work so hard. I would be afraid of readers giving up or missing my point. (Of course it goes without saying that I could never write anything like Faulkner could write, but I'm specifically pointing to this one aspect of his writing, which is this deliberate and bold choice to slowly dribble the details through a murky filter, heightening the suspense.) Five Stars.


Other news:
Well, I gave blood again. My hemoglobin is still low, but I found a guy with a broken meter!
I am pretty amped about the NBA finals: Celtics/Lakers. Go Rondo!
I am looking forward to the world cup as well. Should be alright.
Went out to the Frying Pan for Tim Barbie Dahl's birthday, which was a great time.

Let's Hear it for the Girls!

We're #7! We're #7!

On April 24 & 25 I traveled to Springfield, PA with the Beacon High School Girls Ultimate team to compete in the O'Hara Invite Girls Ultimate Tournament. You'll recall I'm coaching the team this season with O-Town.

I was very nervous. Being responsible for 16 high school girls for an entire weekend petrifies me. My goals were straight forward: I wanted to return 100% of the girls to their parents by EOD Sunday with none suffering from exposure, dehydration, sunstroke, starvation or major injury. I hoped to avoid felonies and unintended pregnancies for all 16, and was really aiming to have none of them run off to Atlantic City or join the circus.

By these metrics the weekend was a rousing success. At this very moment I believe the are all alive and in relative good health. VICTORY.

By some other standards, the results for the weekend were a bit more mixed. We lost all 4 games on Saturday, at a combined margin of 8-49. We were destroyed. Our girls are just not in the kind of shape the other teams are in and we cannot match the skill level in throwing and catching. This game of ultimate is pretty much no fun at all if you cannot catch.

It was a hard day for the team. Most of them got up around 4 am to get their rides to Philly. They lost 4 games in a row badly. They were in no mood to listen to my tips on swinging the disc off the line, or preventing ACL injuries. When hotel rooms were assigned there were tears, actual tears. You would have thought I was arranging marriages, not assigning 4 teammates rooms for one night in a Howard Johnson.

That evening I had this telling exchange with one of the girls on the team:

Team Member: Boys are so weird.
Me (nodding, grateful to have identified any common ground): They sure are. It gets a little better after college, but not much.
Team Member: Like, take for instance our Boy's ultimate team. They get so mad when the other team scores or they make a mistake.
Me (still nodding, quizzically now): mmm-hmmm.
Team Member: What are they so mad about? Don't they know it's just a game? It doesn't matter.

As you know, I'm not often silenced, but this had me speechless. I nodded dumbly and felt around the table for another breadstick.

Sunday was better. We played two games in the losers bracket and won them both. They were the first wins of the season, and the first back to back wins for the club. We earned a 7th place in the tournament (out of 10) which beat seed and made the long congested Sunday drive back to the city more tolerable for everyone.

Yesterday, the team scrimmaged downtown rivals, Stuyvesant HS in Prospect Park. The team was down 7-1 at half and got the game back to a much more respectable 8-5 final, so we'll count that as progress.

I'm driving them to St. Johnsbury Vermont in a couple of weeks. I just may find religion.


In other news:

Book Reviews:
I have been reading, but a little slack about telling you what I was reading.

A while back, I read the recently released short story collection Look at the Birdie from my beloved Vonnegut. The book's full title is actually, "Look at the Birdie: Unpublished Short Fiction" which pretty much makes no sense at all and I'm sure Kurt would have edited, but I know what they meant. I was a little leery. I love Vonnegut like no other author, but he's published more posthumously than Tupac, and I was concerned that the stuff getting churned out after his death was stuff that he wouldn't have published while he was alive for a reason. Maybe there was some reason, but it isn't that this is poor quality work. It's vintage Vonnegut. I was delighted to find a little bit more of something that I thought had been all used up forever. My favorite short story in the collection is Ed Luby's Key Club, which really should be a movie, likely starring Bruce Willis.

I finally read Letham's Motherless Brooklyn, which I guess Ed Norton is turning into a movie now. I've loved Letham for years. Girl in Landscape and Gun, with Occasional Music were favorites of mine in back in college. I loved Fortress of Solitude. For some reason I just skipped Motherless Brooklyn. Maybe it was that it seemed MB was when Letham really blew up and I wasn't ready to share just yet. At any rate, it's great. Not as good as Fortress, but compelling and quick paced and worth your time as a read. With a protagonist with Tourette's I found myself observing everyone for tics. Maybe we're all on the Tourette's spectrum somewhere and it's amazing how common these little involuntary urges appear in folks when you watch for them. There are all kinds of clicking, tapping and jerking on the plane when it's time to touch down.

Speaking of the plane, for the second time, some jerk sitting in the seat next to me has woken me up, to tell me I was nodding off. "No Kidding, sir! Thanks for the update. Keep me posted as this story develops." This is baffling. We're adults traveling. Having been randomly assigned the seat next to me does not make you my buddy for the field trip. This guy, a fat guy in his 50s or early 60s, had the nerve to wake me up, tell me I was nodding off and then offer that, if I wanted to, I could lean on his shoulder. Grrrr!!! My birthday is coming up, so whoever is getting me that large engraved, "Leave me alone!" sign to wear around my neck, maybe we could accelerate that.

I hate cops. I always have. They are just a violent gang that is funded by my taxes. Other violent gangs at least fund themselves. Here's a VERY DISTURBING video I can't recommend where the cop gang shoots some dogs on a drug raid over possession of marijuana. The shoot a corgi. A corgi!

Links: Thanks to Kalb for this democratic way to determine the most awesomest thing ever.

Fitness-wise, I did another SNERTZ about a week ago and my times continue to improve, though it is leveling off a little. This time I was about two minutes faster overall than the last time. I finished the whole workout in 49:35 (first set = 12:10, second set = 25:40, third set = 37:20). I'm planning another one on Sunday with Erica, so I'll let you know how that goes.

I ran a 10 hard minutes today in the park. That went pretty well.

I've been watching a lot of the NBA playoffs. I'm pretty much in anyone but the Lakers mode. Right now I feel like the Magic are my best hope.

Best to my cousin Madison who is recovering from a major surgery. Hang in there, my dear.

Tacos Fooled, Scheme Hatched

Happy April. As much previewed, last weekend I went to WAFC's Fools Fest with my girls from Flash Taco. It was pretty much a perfect time.

Here's the gang:

Yes, I am wearing a taco costume. I wore it for every game. I threw the first goal of the tournament, and I caught a score in every game. We were a fun group.

I've spent my fair share of Fool's Fests huddled in a car during byes, cursing the rain, but this year the weather was just perfect, sunny and warm all three days. It was great to play with everyone. Maximum fun was had.

There are about 700 pictures of the weekend. Here's a few of my favorites:

• Me, running my mouth about something, as usual
  
• Me on the hammer mark
• Me on the line, ensuring my spot
• Romer with a typically athletic catch
• Dorks killing it like she did all weekend; Seriously, all day
  
• Tucker puts it
• SUSSMAN is so fing cute, even when she scrambles, See!
• Maybe the only thing in the world cuter than SUSSMAN! (Kim & Zoe)
  

I had so much fun at Fool's that I didn't vomit fire later that day when I learned that the Eagles had traded away near certainty of making the playoffs and one of the top 5 QBs in the entire NFL, inside the division, for the 37th best draft entrant in 2010 (read NOBODY). What am I supposed to do with this? Seriously, Donovan, who I love, is going to get shredded by that nonexistent offensive line in Washington. And how is that supposed to make me feel? I hate the Redskins, so I should be glad when their QB gets sacked, but I won't be glad about Donovan. And what about the Eagles? Should I be glad when they go 4 and 12, because they made this terrible decision? What about the Eagles/Giants games? I may need to move rather than bear Jesse's gloating about this. What if this means a bigger role for Vick? Getting sicker. I have been an Eagles fan since I was 7 years old. I have a poster of Randall Cunningham in my bathroom. I am so sick about this, I feel so betrayed that I may have to forsake the Eagles entirely. I am thinking about being a full-time Jets fan. This should provide about the same level of gut wrenching pain I've come to expect from the NFL.

Speaking of nausea, I did another SNERTZ on Thursday. You'll recall that last time I puked twice. This time there was a considerable improvement. I finished the whole workout in 51:35 (first set = 13:30, second set = 28:00, third set = 40:00). That's about 8 minutes better, which is a huge improvement, but really only shaves off the puking time. Saturday I'm playing women's pickup. Sunday I'm planning some horrible sprinting before a game of pick-up.

Spring is for real here in NYC and I am loving it. Looking forward, this weekend I'm coaching Beacon on Sunday morning. The girls have an overnight trip to Springfield, PA coming up April 24-25. You know I'm not religious, but if you pray you might consider praying for me about this. 16 high school girls with me in a hotel. I am terrified that I will lose one of them, or one of them will try to run away and join the circus or get married or something.

Next week I'm working in Reston, VA. This week I worked in Knoxville and Reston and took two 6 am flights. Killer.

I am still reading for the 20 minutes each flight before I'm allowed to get out my laptop. I recently finished A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. I liked a lot of the prose and descriptions, but in the end the plot proved a bit to metaphysical for me. It was as if Murakami wanted to write certain passages, but couldn't be too bothered to put together a narrative that those passages fit inside.

Oh yeah, This just in: I went ahead and hatched the scheme to form my own women's team: WTF. After talking smack about it all off-season it was time to put up and get serious, and how do you show you mean business, by starting a blog of course. Here's my blog for Women's Team Frisbee.

Thanks to Benji for sending along this pretty awesome clip:

Snail Herding and other Professions

For your days at work when “herding cats” just doesn’t cut it.

Often I tell you I don’t have much to report. This is not one of those times.

Since I last updated, I spent an uneventful (for once) Christmas at my sister’s house in Raleigh, NC. The girls got touch iPods for Christmas and seemed to like them pretty well. I got some sweet running gear (thanks Mom and Dad) and my sister and I had an aneurysm in a shoe store and I bought 7 pairs of shoes in 10 minutes. Thanks Lynn, that was fun.

For New Year’s I played some serious Pictionary with Erica and Tatiana. Who knew “earthquake” was such an abstract concept? Much fun was had.

More critically, I was in good shape (for once) for the New Year’s Day Hat. Thanks to the Sultan of Tim for organizing again this year. I showed up at 12:15, about 90 minutes early for a noon start time. Ultimate players know what I mean. Thanks to Rebecca for getting me a coffee and Pat Stoltz for giving back my megaphone and for bringing the handle of Makers. It’s my megaphone. For the first time ever, I had captaining duties (calling subs, telling lies, placing bounties) and it did not really backfire. We (representing Brownsville) won the whole party with major contributions from Scott Arnold, Dave Cheiken, Talesin Thomas and a wide cast of Saturday players. I caught some goals and had a blast. The prize money was split equally.

I went to see Of Montreal at the Highline Ballroom. The show was a good time. Susan Sarandon was nuts but I didn’t take any pictures.

I also need to get off my chest that I’ve had a concept shared with me that I just have to share with you. I can’t take credit for it, but I can’t hide it under my bushel either. We all endorse Flipping the Script, but I’d never heard of using the concept as a noun until a recent and life changing story. Let’s just say that the use of “Script-flipper” as a noun is now so mandatory it hurts. I feel like there are limitless applications, but the most obvious is a game-changing rookie. Think Joe Smash’s first year with PONY. He’s a Script-flipper no doubt. Joe Smash! Skyla Sisco is a Script-flipper. Likely so is John Wall. Genius. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!

Book Reviews: Over Christmas I finally finished the Mildred Burke Story The thing is (Spoiler alert!) it’s just not that good a story. Aghast! A young, woman in the 50s was manipulated by a man? They all were?!?!?! The book creeps at a snail’s pace through all manner of wresting minutiae (E.g., Then A was in a fixed match with B, then B was in a fixed match with C, then D was in a fixed match with A, then E was in a fixed match with B, B grew up in Louisiana, Louisiana was acquired…). The book is supposedly working towards the greatest female wrestling match of all time, but the payoff match is a snoozer and a disputed draw, depending on which media reports you believe. This, ladies and gentleman, is not Super Bowl 34 coming down to the last play (One Yard Short). This is a series of yawns and disagreements in a fake sport. If anything, it’s a story about the lack of talent representation. Mildred Burke’s life would have been very different in the era of Drew Rosenhaus. I would give this book a pass.

Last weekend, I hosted a UPA coaching clinic led by BVH. It was a bit of work, but a pretty good deal. I got to sit near Linwood, so that’s payment enough. I should be a more ethical coach now, post clinic, or rather I should have less excuse not to be. I'm certified now, so treat me with all the respect that affords me (none).

And where are we now? We are in a coffee shop on 13th street. Two hypnotizing things have just occurred: First, the DB in line in front of me in a European suit and a San Diego accent just ordered a small skinny latte with ‘half an equal’. He’s working on some Michael Bolton hair. Go ahead and splurge Mr. DB. Go ahead and have a full equal packet in your latte. He has looked back at me at just the moment to bust me at laughing at him. He knows I think he is ridiculous. He is unphased.

Only moments and a few feet away I'm settled in at my table for a long session of returning e-mails. The following conversation is observed two tables away:
Business schoolie 1: “So Rap, the music, what does that stand for?”
Business schoolie 2: “what? “
Business schoolie 1: “Rap. What does Rap stand for?”
Business schoolie 2: “uhhhh… well most Rap is about self promotion, and crime… (??!?!?)
Business schoolie 1: “No. RAP. R-A-P. What does that stand for?”
Business schoolie 2: long pause. “ uhhhhhhh. Well, I’m not sure that is an acronym. I think it just means 'talk'.”
Business schoolie 1: “Rant About Parties? Rage Against Parents? Read Aggressive…..”

All that aside, what I really wanted to tell you about in this post was my myriad of fake friends in Knoxville, and my deep appreciation for them:

I love you, fake friend at the Avis/Alamo counter in Knoxville TYS with the Redwings watch. I love how you don’t ask me about the car seat or the GPS anymore, even though I know you are supposed to read the entire script. Just for you, I am going to look up the Red Wings. (9th place in the West? 3rd in the central? Tom Holmstrom looks allright…)

I love my fake friend at the Kroger checkout. Yes, that is a fruit salad and some snow peas again. Now you know that I do not have a Kroger card, and you don’t ask me about it any more. You also please have a wonderful day. Is your hair like that accidentally or intentionally?

I love the hotel room service delivery guy. Yes, ESPN again. Yes, college basketball. Yes, I would like it on the desk again just like every other night. Yes, pasta again. What do you know? I love how you pick up railing on your wife just where you left off the night/week before. (I’m sure you never annoy her at all.) Thanks so much.

I love the Avis rental return guy. Yes! I am back again! Me! Again on Wednesday! Yes, the car was fine thanks. Yes, I would like to leave it on the card. Thanks for the receipt. Thanks, I will do my darndest to have a safe flight, to the extent it is in my control (none).

These are the people that comprise my life; that actually make it much better. Days with them are much better than days without them. It’s a nuanced social contract for the transitory. Don’t give me much, but give it to me every time. Fake friends!

Decemberists

Hi there.

Just a few quick notes. First, it's almost time for me to draft this year's holiday letter. To make sure you're caught up you might want to review last year's edition.

Last weekend I went to Chattanooga to see Paige and Marc. I had a blast. I had the chance to meet Sawyer for the first time and I spent a lot of time playing with Olivia. She is a shark at memory and I am working on Paige and Marc to let me take her to Vegas. We went to the Chattanooga Aquarium which has a great Jelly Fish exhibit. We also went to an ugly sweater Christmas party. That was a blast, though I was unprepared. Sunday we had some great brunch and I got on the road. It was great to see them and I am amazed how big the kids are.

A note on driving in Tennessee. NO ONE uses turn signals here for changing lanes or turning. Ever. It is very strange. I read it as a last holdout of Confederate separatism. "I don't have to tell anybody my business about if I am going to change lanes or turn. That is between me and the lane."

I'm scheduled to donate platelets again tomorrow. I'm working in NYC next week, which is great. I'm off to my sister's in Raleigh to wait for Santa with Kate and Lindy.

The Eagles beat the giants again. David and Goliath. I very much enjoyed the game but our defense could use a boost. We can clinch a playoff spot this weekend at home against the Niners.

Allen is a Sixer. Back where it all began. I'm getting tickets to a Sixer's game at the garden in March. I just hope he is well enough to play.

I recently finished reading City Behind a Fence about the work at Oak Ridge to create the nuclear material for the bombs dropped on Japan in WWII. I never really considered the herculean effort that went into creating those. I had pictured a few scientists squirreling away. There were 80,000 people that worked in Oak Ridge in construction, in the reactors and in all the other normal facets of a town (school teachers, security, retail) all for the single focus of creating this weapon. It's an amazing story of taking the land and creating a huge operative town-base in no time. I was so impressed with the speed and direction of the effort. I just don't believe that if we needed to send 80,000 people to work in the creation of solar farms in Arizona and Utah to save us from Global Warming and oil dependence, that we could ever get it done, let alone in 4 years.

Fall on Me

Ok. So it’s been a while. What can I tell you?

I was shocked recently when I was told that my blog was hopelessly out of date. I had no idea there were still any readers. Keri, this one’s for you.

The past 6 weeks or so has been a blur of regional jets. I’m mostly between NYC and Knoxville, TN but it’s hard to do that directly, so I’ve had my fair share of time in Charlotte, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Cleveland and once even Detriot. I’m trying to limit myself to one Cinnabon per flight. I’m working on an endorsement deal there, so I’ll keep you posted as my fame expands and eventually precludes my interaction with the common folk. Just remember you knew me when…

Speaking of Cinnabon, I’m mildly addicted to this web site This is Why You’re Fat . I’m thinking of submitting a recipe where I make a layer cake out of Cinnabons, heavy cream, and butter. I’m not sure but I think the purpose of the website is to remind the rest of the world why they still hate us now that Obama is President. Can you imagine seeing these photos in Malawi? It is a purposeful, willful abandonment of those people we all practice.

It’s only been about 5 months since my trip to Zion national park in Utah. Take a look at the photos of the trip through the narrows and also a 2 day hike in the back country. I am pretty much recovered from the mountain exposure.

Book Review: I just read Alex Stewart: Portrait of a Pioneer . It is pretty much just a loving devotion about an old mountain man who could do a lot of things none of us still can, like make butter churns and buckets and build his own house and deal with snake bites. It’s pretty amazing how much better at stuff it seems everyone was back then. I need to check three different DIY websites before I try to hang a picture on the wall. Pretty much everyone living on this mountain in Tennessee could build a house, build everything in the house (furniture, kitchen items), hunt, gather forest edibles and raise crops. None of them really went to school, but when was the last time you used trigonometry or debated the tension between liberty and nationalism. I think if you teleported the members of subway car I was in this morning (Q to 57th street) back to 1920s Tennessee everyone in there would be dead within the week. Conversely, if you brought those mountain people to the present they would probably hunt us, skin us, and use our ‘tallow’ to make candles and waterproof their shoes, and that would be a considerable improvement in our contribution to the human race.

Ultimate: Regionals occurred in Devens, MA. Zojirushi lost all our games and finished 16th, clearing my schedule to be a spectator all day Sunday. I had a pretty good time. This means ultimate is over, except for the fun winter tournaments (like PadaMosh this weekend) Turkey Bowl and all the others that basically take us to the start of the spring season.

In the ‘off season’ I’m coaching the Beacon High School girls team. The girls are amazingly dedicated, meeting to practice from 6:30-7:30 am each day and also after school. The girls have great spirit and a long way to go. I coached them at their first Beacon Tourney for the season: KitKat outside of Philiadelphia. We had and lost 3 games, but the third was the closest, so I think we learned something. Hopefully they will all be much more motivated about doing sprints to get in shape and working on throwing and catching. Our game is a hard one if you can’t throw and catch.

Did I already show you this link? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erRqDpMDFFo&feature=related This is what real ultimate looks like. The girls don’t look like this, yet, but I’m working on it.

I got a flu shot. Later, I got the flu. Maybe it was H1N1. I don’t know. I seem to have survived. It was pretty bad. I cured it by taking a bunch of flights. I’m like Johnny Appleseed for H1N1. H1N1 Mary?

I’m all worked up about two articles I read recently that refer to being short: This one and this one. I’m thinking about applying for disability due to my short stature status. People of short stature are 1/5 less likely to graduate from college! At 5’3” I qualify. I don’t know how I did it. We’re also just as likely as the morbidly obese to die early. I never really realized how much I have to overcome. Go me. Every day I stand up is a victory.

I had a few people over to the apartment for brunch and a Bloody Mary competition. It was a lot of fun. I vanquished all challengers in a Bloody Mary Off. My secret: the more horseradish, the better. I recommend a 1:1:1 ratio of tomato to vodka to horseradish.

The Eagles game last weekend was great. I watched with Jesse as the Eagles ran up points on the Giants. Take that Eli face! (I am really glad baseball is finally over.)

I went to a reading last night for this book, Mildred Burke : Queen of the Ring. Amazing story of a woman wrestling in the 1940s. This wrestling wasn’t even fake yet. Look forward to this review. (She was of short stature too, so the story is all the more amazing.)

I went for a good run today in Prospect Park. (+7). It was really nice out. All the leaves are still changing and the park is gorgeous.

Up and coming: This weekend I’m off to Padamosh. Next week I’ll go see Art Brut. I have an appointment coming up to donate platelets. I’m helping to plan a UPA coaching clinic in NYC. I’m off to Louisville for Thanksgiving to see all my Aunts Uncles and Cousins. It'll be great.

Little to Report

Fall is coming. I went to the US open 3 times and saw both Klijsters and Del Potro but not in the finals. I went to a Jets preseason game; it seems Sanchez may be the real deal (but I look fwd to this post being thrown back in my face after he starts acting like a rookie QB). New job is going pretty well. Zojirushi sectionals was rained out last weekend, but is on again now for this weekend. Despair was great and very suspenseful and as soon as it ended I started it over again because the beginning is packed with all these clues that doesn't really make sense until you read then end. This is a good review, so I won't bother. I am glad football season has finally started and that is about all I have to report.

Iron Like a Lion

Zion National Park in Utah was great. Beautiful. I totally recommend a visit. Jesse and I were there (and Vegas) June 12-21. I have been meaning to write this up for a while. A lot is going on. (The careful reader will note the foreshadowing)

Zion was not too crowded. We saw a pair of introduced condors, which was a highlight for me. By-and-large the two day hikes we did were pleasant and not too strenuous.

However, we did one two day trip called ‘The Narrows’ which requires 14 miles hiking down the middle of the Virgin River. When we did it the water temperature was 59 degrees which is colder than it sounds after the 4th hour submerged up to your waste. The river has a bit of a current and the riverbed is covered with slippery rocks about the size of thanksgiving turkeys, so every step is a turned ankle waiting to happen. I fell a couple of times and got wet down to my bones. My recollection of the trip is of being cold and wet and grouchy, but Jesse tells me it was beautiful and reminds me that we were passed by a troupe of boy scouts, so how bad could it have been. (I’ll post pictures soon that support his version of the story.)

I live in Fort Greene, Brooklyn now. The move was a bit of a pain, as they always are, but I survived. The new hood is great. I’m about a mile from Prospect Park and I run, bike and play disc in the park pretty regularly. Getting to practice is quick and easy for once. I live above a stop on the C, which I can feel gently rock my bed as trains pull in and out of the station if I listen carefully enough. The neighborhood has lots of bars and restaurants and I am very happy to finally be in Brooklyn where most of my friends live.

I went to see the Staten Island Yankees with Patricia for the 4th of July. That was pretty awesome. We rode the Staten Island ferry to the game and watched the fireworks from the ferry on the way back.

My fellow founding gastronaut Benji Pauker was on my favorite show, the Jon Stewart show. Check him out: (He’s the smart American at the end.)
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=231547&title=jason-jones-behind-the-veil


I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close . It was pretty good and reminded a bit of the The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The book has some quirky affectations with pictures and edited pages and even a section in numeric code, but if you look past all that the story moves along at a good clip.

I went to see Wilco on July 13 at Coney Island. I love the new album. However, something about a title album at this stage seems odd. Even a title track. It’s like he’s painted himself into the painting. The show was the largest I’d ever seen and the band played for over two hours with lots of stuff from YHF, Summerteeth and of course the new album.

The Mets are KILLING me. I am done with them. The Wimbledon Gentleman’s championship was amazing. I’m going to the US Open in a few weeks. NFL training camps are underway: Go Eagles!

If you love something, set it free...

There’s nothing I love more than my apartment, 29, and that’s why I’m moving out. I spend 4 days a week in a Westin any way, so it make sense to save a little money on rent and since I spend all my time in Brooklyn (practice in Prospect Park, the animal shelter, watching Jesse’s cable) I spend the 3 days I am in NYC getting back and forth to Brooklyn, so this will save me some time as well. I will miss 29, that is for sure, but I tend to think that change is good, and this will be change. I’ll keep you posted.

Deirdre is at the vet. She was not put together properly after I got back from Melbourne and I didn’t use her all winter and when I took her down the chain just fell off, so she’s down the street at the bike hospital. Send flowers or grease.

It is 87 degrees today in NYC. So much for spring.

Last Friday, Jesse and I went to see the new Mets’ ballpark Citifield. The Mets won (over the lowly nationals) and the new ballpark is nice. My favorite part is the Jackie Robinson rotunda. This is the field from the left field stands where we sat:

Saturday I did this SNERTZ workout with Keri and Ali. It is almost impossible.

Then I went to the animal shelter. Uneventful.

I am so excited!!! Kimberly informed me that the first season of The State will be out on DVD on July 14. Sign up to be notified when it goes on sale. My excitement caused me to look up some old favorites, like the Schwam family.

Sunday, Keri took me on a tour of Brooklyn’s best Pizza places, with Drew and Adam in tow:
(I missed the first stop.) I went to:

• Franny's (295 Flatbush Ave) - *****
• Di Fara Pizza (1424 Ave J) - *****
• L&B Spumoni Gardens (2785 26th St) - ***
  

I am still full, but it was fun.

This pic is from Di Fara’s where we waited 90 minutes for a pie at 3:30 PM in the afternoon:

This weekend is the first of the Bent tryouts. There are 60 or so women interested so this should be pretty great. I haven’t been this psyched since the training camp for Australian National Team try-outs. I love try-outs because you are bound to learn something new.

Speaking of Australian Disc, congrats to my sisters and teammates from Sporting Team Box Athletico United for making the finals at nationals an nearly getting over on those boring school marms from Wildcard. There’s no shame in second place and I know you will get them next year. It was a great tourney for Victorian ultimate with Honey making semis (yeah, Mama!) and my favorite boys from the Heads of State finishing third, due in some part to hot D from Mikey Stout.

How amazing is this Bulls/Celtic series? This could be the best series until the finals. Every game is a game winning last second shot or overtime. Great Basketball.

I owe you a book review. I finished Roth’s Exit Ghost. It's a painfully detailed look into the implications of aging, of losing your faculties and losing control of yourself and of your legacy, which might have been just an illusion anyway, but a comforting one nonetheless. The book is a quick read and I enjoyed Roth's take on the post 9-11 hysteria in NYC. I struggled with the crux of the main character's struggle. Aging is just such a sick joke, getting more broken and more useless every day, forever. I honestly don't know why anyone over 27 gets out of bed. I'm just trying to stay distracted by sports and entertainment. I hate being 32, but this book was a reminder that it will be getting worse, a lot worse. It's very well written and I enjoyed the characters Roth introduced, but it's hard to recommend unless you are pretty comfortable with your place in this world.

I’m presently reading Faulkner’s Light in August and I love it. I love the descriptions. I am deeply involved in the story and the characters. It is great.

Looking out a ways, I’m going to see my Brother-in-law’s new boat on Oak Island for Memorial day, and then hiking in Zion for a few days in June, and then back to Oak Island in July to see all the cousins.

Suffering

Hey. I've been planning to read An End to Suffering by Pankaj Mishra for years. It came to me recommended highly and I moved a borrowed hard cover copy to Australia and back. When the loner insisted I return it (unread) after 3 years, I protested, but relented and ordered my own copy from BN.com. Motivated by the long flight to Minneapolis and the guilt of a task long procrastinated, I finally started in on this book.


I hate to go all Jean Teasdale on you, but finishing this book was an End to Suffering in it's own right. I know this will be perceived by some as close-minded and evidence of my lacking cognitive skills, or an open mind but it would be difficult to fake liking this book.

To be fair, as a disclaimer, I read this book in a series 20 minutes stints over a number of weeks from the time I board a plane until the time when electronic devices are allowed, and it has been pointed out to me that this may not be the most peaceful manner in which to contemplate the role of the Buddha in the modern world.

The first 150 or so pages are Mishra switching haphazardly between the history of Western Academic pursuit of Buddhism and his own wanderings as a young man infused with a heaping portion of self-importance. (Look, I don't miss the irony (hypocrisy?) of the last sentence being blogged about in my once upon a time semi-travel blog that is essentially now only an open-journal, but I readily acknowledge that this blog is only interesting, if at all, to people who personally know me, and I have no intention of having the blog bound and published by Picador.)

There is a tolerable stretch in the middle where Mishra summarizes the teachings of the Buddha. I find the part about life being filled with suffering pretty compelling. The bit about reducing the suffering by extinguishing desire seems about as probable to me as my working on my game enough that they draft me into the NBA, but I guess it's an admirable goal. There is an interesting summary of the core tenants of the Buddha's teachings and how he is reported to have arrived at these realizations.

Then around page 214 Misrha drifts back into travelogue, mentioning every detail of his trips around India and around the world to London and the US, intertwined with the journeys of the Buddha. This 'I travel, the Buddha travels' structure seems pompous and arrogant. Furthermore, Mishra's need for completion is his own enemy (or mine?). Buddha reportedly lived to around 80 (in a time when most died around 30) so he wandered around India a lot, receiving free alms meals from people, gathering converts and teaching lessons. 80 years worth of wandering around and it doesn't seem much was left out, and I'm left struggling to choose the most significant happenings.

Then there's all the Nietzsche. Mishar seems to think that throughout time, the most effective critic of the teachings of the Buddha was Nietzsche, so that if these criticisms can be countered all will be embraced. I've never bought in to Nietzsche well enough to need the dragon slain, so these sections tire me.

The book then makes its ties into 9-11 a bit awkwardly, seemingly to include the element of current political significance an editor might ask an author to wedge into a book to help with sales. The book ends up weakly. I read and reread the last 4 pages trying to take some significance out of them. Perhaps it is that all we truly have is our own state of mind in the present, and that this, anyone can have regardless of social status or political power, but I remain unconvinced that the mental proficiency required for this can actually be achieved by many.

So, maybe I just couldn't receive the message, or the level of argument was too academic, but in general I found each new page of Mishra's writing to be a painful chore and I would not recommend this to anyone with less than a serious interest in the topic. Fin.

In other news. Lots of work. Taxes. Running intervals. Bad hamstrings.

I went to see Wendy and Lucy which was beautiful and sad.

Breath

So, on the plane back from Minneapolis I read Breath, by Tim Winton. You can read the first 26 pages here. It is one of the best books I have read recently. Bikash lent it to me and that was a good sign, cos he's pretty clued in. It was fun reading Australian dialogue because I had forgotten all the crazy made up words they use, and I was pretty psyched I could understand most of it.

It's a short novel. And mostly a teen drama. Winton is a master at building up the suspense. The only thing I'll say is that he likely builds the suspense up a bit too much, as I expected a lot more than what did actually happen, but hey, you can't always get what you want.

Cross training intervals, push ups, burpies, 7 min abs and ACL prevention at East River on Sunday mornings with Keri. Fun.

Ok, I have to get back to the land of Microsoft Office.

2 More Book Reviews

I read Naked Pictures of Famous People. There are few people in this entire planet I love more than Jon Stewart, but this book is not good or funny. I guess maybe he deserves to cash in and make a little coin, or maybe he is funny on his show because the writers around him are funny, but I struggled to find anything in this book even smile worthy, let alone funny. Do not read.

My sister recommended (and gave me) Ha Jin's Waiting. Well, I read it. I am still not sure if I 'liked' it. I guess it is not really a book you are supposed to enjoy. I read it all pretty quickly and the novel held my attention. I was curious what would happen to the characters. The book is a sad story that keeps getting sadder with almost no bright spots. I guess what I took away from the story was that life in Communist China was hard, people are basically mean to each other and even if you do finally get what you think you want it will probably not make you any happier. I would recommend this book to someone who was too happy and looking for something to depress them a little.

In other news, I ran some more interval workouts (my hamstring is still my enemy). The Hoyas seems to suck all the sudden. Work seems more terrible than usual, but I guess I always say that.

War McCormick & Schmick's 9:30 snack happy hour at the Westin, which is by far the best thing going in my life these days.

Meatwad: Samurai Lincoln

Hey. Saturday night I went to see La Boheme at the Lincoln Center. It was set in Paris, but those poor artists were singing in Italian. I was most impressed with the Chandeliers. Thanks to Keri for getting the tickets.

I finished the Elegance of the Hedgehog. I didn't love it. But I got through it. I'm going to try to read a book a month for 2009, which might not seem like much, but is more than usual for me so I think it counts as a stretch goal. Currently I'm reading Waiting bu Ha Jin, which Lynn sent me in the mail and is quite good so far, though a bit sad.

Roosting With the Dead

Update for you on Shit Mountain. It seems that either the NYC pigeon housing market is just as tight as the human one, or pigeons are not all that fussed about ritual burial. This isn’t the greatest picture, but if you look closely you can see the pigeon that has been ‘napping’ on the right side, unmoved for over 11 days now, and a new SM resident on the upper left.
In an unrelated story, I made it back to NYC after 5 days in Raleigh. I am glad to be home. I saw my parents, sister, brother-in-law and two nieces. This year I gave the girls a Wii and many rounds of Wii bowling and Hanna Montana World Tour were subsequently played. I am happy to report that low-tech is still alive and well. Santa brought the girls each a Slinky and I think those coils were the hit of Christmas. Certainly no toy garnered more attention. I gave my parents and sister & brother-in-law a Flip video camera so look for them all up on You Tube any minute.

Everyone else got a Kiva gift certificate. Kiva is a micro-loan organization that allows members to lend directly to small opportunities in the developing world. The entrepreneur then pays back the loan and you can relend to another opportunity. I think this supports growth and is more likely to make a long term difference than traditional aid, which often begets the need for more aid. Check it out.

I’m presently reading the Elegance of the Hedgehog. So far I would give it just an *okay* rating. It’s a bit of a slow starter with tons of allusions to Japanese films I haven’t seen and Russian novels I haven’t read. In short, it seems to be a bit culturally snobby and I’m more of a Philistine, so maybe I’m just not the target audience. I’ll finish it out just the same and let you know if it picks up.

I’m 23 days into 31 days with no alcohol. It has been pretty easy, though I did really want a glass of red wine when I went to Frankie’s recently with Keri and being around my family was a bit of a struggle. Still, so far I would say that 31 days without alcohol has been much easier than the times recently I’ve tried to go a month with no meat (one success, one failure), but New Year’s Eve tomorrow may present a special challenge. Maybe I’ll take my flask (Blomus) full of water to seem like I’m participating.

Given that not drinking for a month was pretty easy so far, and looking for more of a test, I think I’ll try this 100 push up challenge that Jesse told me about. I'm just getting started and so far I’ve only taken the first test (30) but you if you really have an unnatural level of interest in the details of my life you can track my progress here . Sorry about that, but it’s only through public scrutiny that I’ll motivate myself to complete this. Lynn & Robbie have a friend named Andre that is performing a similar challenge, but with Chin-ups. I think he is a mad man. I am envious of his drive and I will not be picking any fights with him.

I have declared off season cross training offically underway. I've been running again and getting back into 7 minute abs. Some of Ambush is meeting on Saturday for a run, pushups, abs, throwing session and it will be good to shaek off some cobwebs.

Any and all theories on why I’ve had a splitting headache for the past week or so are welcome. I thought it was a gas leak in 29, but my head also hurt the whole time I was in Raleigh and I think they have an electric stove so there must be some other reason. I am trying to cut out caffeine to see if that helps. (No Makers Mark, No Coffee, No Meat? What else is there...? I hardly recognize myself.)

Last night my headache was super bad (railroad spike in the forehead bad) after the viewing of Slumdog Millionaire, which, conversely, was super good. GO SEE IT. It’s an impossible love story and a comment on urban slums. It reminded me a bit of The Usual Suspects and the child actors are incredible.

Speaking of 29 (scroll up, I was. Transitions are hard), no one told Stefan Slywotzky about the economic downturn. He’s raising my rent 8%. I love 29 but in this market rents should be stable or perhaps giving back some of the gains of recent years, (like everyone else) so perhaps it is finally time to move. We’ll see. The thought of packing and getting a truck makes my stomach turn.

It seems my Eagles were just waiting for me to disown them again, to prove to me that they deserved my love. It worked. I am so excited to be in the playoffs. I can’t really explain how we lost to Dallas in week 2 and scored only 3 points against the hapless Redskins in week 16 and then somehow laid 44 points on a Cowboys team that had everything to play for in week 17, but I don’t really care. This weekend takes the Eagles to the dome in Minnesota and I will be yelling at my TV all game.

Here’s another one of those stories that I think helps to answer the question, “Why do the terrorist hate us?”

Today’s Fun fact: 12 – The number of shirts I own with 55 on the back.

This is a bit dated, but here's a pic I took in the Fiji airport and meant to show you back in July but I lost track of it.

Keep that in mind. Happy New Year.