Seasons In Hell: a review.

October 14th, 2009

Written a long time ago (back when the book was first released in hardcover). Reposted because I’m still rather fond of the book, and of the review.

Title: Seasons in Hell: With Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and “The Worst Baseball Team in History”-The 1973-1975 Texas Rangers
Author: Mike Shropshire
Publisher: Donald I. Fine/Penguin
ISBN: 1-55611-495-8
Price: $23.95

I hate baseball.
Actually, that’s not completely fair. I loathe baseball with the same level of intensity that I loathe whole tomatoes, Sarah and James Brady and their merry little gun-banning bund, and the various infestations of Star Trek. I look forward to the day (may it come soon) when I can piss on the metaphorical grave of the soon-to-be-ex Houston Astros: indeed, I look forward to the day when organized baseball in this country finally collapses under the accumulated weight of its own sheer stupidity.
In short, I am not a baseball fan.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Books, Loser | 4 Comments »

Art, damn it, art! watch. (#2 in a series)

October 14th, 2009

Our great and good friend Mike points us to this artnet article about Damien Hirst’s “No Love Lost: Blue Paintings” exhibition.

As everyone must know by now, he has made these paintings himself, at an easel with paints and brushes, a fact that is remarkable for being remarkable.

Mr. Hirst is, as many of you know, the artist responsible for “The golden calf”  (“calf, 18 carat gold, glass, gold-plated steel, silicone and formaldehyde solution with Carrara marble plinth”) and “The kingdom” (“tiger shark, glass, steel, silicone and formaldehyde solution with steel plinth”).

Posted in Art, Clippings | Comments Closed

Jose Cruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuz…

October 14th, 2009

…has been fired by the Astros.

  1. I am not a baseball fan. If I can find it, I’ll post my review of Seasons in Hell (which I love) but the short version is that I hate baseball with a passion.
  2. Given 1 above, I don’t live and die by the fate of the Astros.
  3. Given 1 and 2 above, I believe the Astros have major problems that won’t be resolved by firing Cruz.

Posted in Firings | Comments Closed

The unkindest hedcut.

October 14th, 2009

Every now and then, the topic of those weird dot illustrations that the WSJ uses comes up in my circle of friends. They actually do have a name: hedcuts. We’ve speculated from time to time whether the WSJ has a Photoshop filter to do this, or if they’re done by hand.

Interestingly, one of the WSJ staffers who actually does the hedcuts has a blog with examples of some of her work. Even more interestingly, she’s writing about a Spanish artist who she believes is ripping off her work.

Posted in Clippings | Comments Closed

Random notes: October 13, 2009.

October 13th, 2009

Things I did not expect to hear last night:

“Damn, Dwight, you clean up well.”

(Thank you, Katie.)

The NYT on the wing crisis; the price of chicken wings has increased to the point where boneless skinless chicken breast is actually cheaper. Thus the popularity of “boneless wings”. (Edited to add: yes, this is on FARK, but those who know me know of my fondness for wings, and understand why I couldn’t pass this up.)

Speaking of the NYT, does this story about the West Memphis Three seem somewhat incomplete? Literally, it feels like there’s an entire second page missing.

It seems even more so when compared to this story about Carly Simon and her lawsuit against Starbucks, which is frankly loaded with too much information. (I don’t need to know about her ringtones or her photo album, thankyouverymuch.)

Posted in Clippings, Food, Law, Music | Comments Closed

I’m a loveable loser babe, so why don’t you sue me?

October 12th, 2009

This is truly weird. The Chicago Cubs have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

To answer the next question:

The Baltimore Orioles were sold in a bankruptcy auction in 1993 after owner Eli Jacobs filed for Chapter 11. The same happened to the Seattle Pilots after the 1969 season. The new owners moved the team to Milwaukee and changed the name to the Brewers.

Posted in Loser | Comments Closed

Your loser update: week 5.

October 12th, 2009

I have a feeling we’ve seen the end of the Jim Zorn era in Washington. When you lose to Detroit and Carolina, that’s a bad sign. Likewise, I’m thinking we’ve seen the end of the Wade Phillips and Tony Romo era in Dallas; the Cowboys struggled to beat the hapless Chiefs, and lost the opener in the PleasureDome. Jerry Jones isn’t going to put up with that when he has to sell tickets to the billion dollar monstrosity.

In other news, Cleveland is off the loser list after a titanic offensive battle against Buffalo, leaving us with only four NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

Tennessee

Kansas City

Tampa

St. Louis

Posted in Loser, NFL | Comments Closed

Quick note.

October 8th, 2009

Unrelated to art, but I wanted to throw up this Statesman link.

Many of the people who read this blog (including the owner) know Josh from the old Austin BBS days, and wish him the best of luck.

Edited to add: I forgot that I also wanted to link to this LAT piece about Tim Powers and On Stranger Tides, which will apparently be the basis for the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie (if there is one). Powers came to a couple of Armadillocons, and has always been nothing but kind to the Nova Express gang; if anyone deserves huge Hollywood money, he’s on the short list.

Posted in Clippings | 1 Comment »

Art, damn it, art! watch (#1 in a series)

October 8th, 2009

I was doing these back in the pre-blog email days, and a couple of people have griped that I haven’t done one in a while. Well, that’s because until now there hasn’t been much art news to report. Now, though, I have a chance to see how many buttons I can push with one blog entry.

First up, the LAT reports on a Frank Lloyd Wright drawing which is currently featured in a local exhibition. The drawing? A “cottage studio” designed for…Ayn Rand.  (A pretty nifty design, I think.)

By way of Balko, we learn of a couple on a quest: to photograph every Sizzler in America.  And they’re planning to publish a book of the photos, too.

(The comments at Balko’s site are amusing, too, especially #24: “No. This is not art. End of discussion.”  Since art is  “any human activity that doesn’t grow out of either of our species two basic instincts: survival and reproduction“, (or then again, maybe it isn’t) the commenter is clearly wrong.)

(Hi, Mike!)

Posted in Art, Clippings | 1 Comment »

Random notes: October 5, 2009.

October 5th, 2009

I stumbled across this article at ESPN totally by accident, and it brings back fond memories. Not as much of UT football, but of the Houston Oilers of the late 70’s.  (“Can you hear the blocking, the rambling and the roar? As he glides along the sidelines, by the hashmarks in the score…” Yes, I remember the lyrics somewhat differently.) But even if you were not an Oiler or UT fan, you have to admit Earl Campbell put a heck of a hit on Michael Downs.

This has been well covered elsewhere, but I’m sad to see Gourmet is closing. They’ve had a long tradition of highly literary food writing; check out the Endless Feasts collection for some examples (and how did Robert P. Tristram Coffin ever get forgotten, anyway?). And I thought they continued to do strong work under the editorship of Ruth “Pelt Me With Apples” Reichl; heck, she even published David Foster Wallace’s “Consider The Lobster” essay.

The problem is, I don’t think there’s a market any more for literary food writing. Cooks Illustrated is a better cooking magazine (though that tweedy little bow-tied jackass gets on my nerves), but sometimes I want a deeper consideration of food, along the lines of Wallace (even though I disagee with much of that essay) or Laura Shapiro.

And as other people pointed out; they killed Gourmet, and kept Your Prom?

(Edited to add: the TLB-TJ comments in the NYT.)

Posted in Books, Food, NFL | Comments Closed

Your loser update: week 4.

October 4th, 2009

We came very close to a situation without precedent this weekend. Had Cleveland and Cincinnati played to a tie, Cleveland still would have had a chance to go without a win this season. Because of the rules of the loser update, Cleveland would have had to come off this list in accordance with the prophecy (since they would not technically be able to go 0-16). Sadly, this situation was averted. (I have family in the area around Cleveland, so their 0-4 start brings me no joy.) Miami brings me joy as well; yes, they won and are now off the list, but they beat Buffalo.

That being said, NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

Cleveland

Tennessee

Kansas City

Carolina (bye week)

Tampa

St. Louis

So let it be written. So let it be done.

Edited to add: Our great and good friend Lawrence points out this tidbit by way of Sports Illustrated:  Washington went up against the (0-0) Giants in their first game, the (0-1) Rams in their second, the (0-2) Lions in their third,  (0-3) Tampa Bay in their fourth, and will be facing (0-3) Carolina next week, followed by (currently 0-4) Kansas City.

Lawrence also points out that if you just try to cut and paste from the SI site, you get some not so amusing results, so I’ve paraphrased above.

Posted in Loser, NFL | Comments Closed

Your loser update: week 3.

September 29th, 2009

Before we begin this week’s loser update, let us pause for a moment of silence in honor of the Detroit Lions. So, so close to touching the pinnacle of failure, only to have those aspirations snatched away from them.

With that out of the way, NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

Miami

Cleveland

Tennessee

Kansas City

<This space intentionally left blank, in memory of the Lions.>

Carolina

Tampa

St. Louis

Posted in Loser, NFL | Comments Closed

Loser update update.

September 27th, 2009

The week 3 loser update won’t be available until Tuesday (0-2 Carolina plays Dallas Monday night) but how in the heck do you lose to the hapless Detroit Lions?

And what of Texas Tech? Losing to UT wasn’t so bad (tough game against a tough team), but being defeated in the last seconds by the University of Houston? Is there a Texas Monthly cover curse? Two losses this early in the season do not bode well.

Posted in Loser, NFL | Comments Closed

Random notes for September 26, 2009.

September 26th, 2009

Terrorism isn’t funny. But I do wonder how much of a sense of humor the FBI Counter Terrorism Task Force has.

Sitting in a car a safe distance from the skyscraper, Smadi, 19, allegedly dialed the cell phone number he thought would trigger the explosion. It was instead a law enforcement number. He was then arrested on terrorism charges, officials say.

“Hello, you’ve reached the Sprint PCS voice mail of The Federal Bureau of Investigation. Please place both hands above your head and refrain from any sudden movements.”

By way of Jimbo, David Brancaccio in the Santa Fe Reporter:

The bigger TV you have, the dumber you are. Smart people have TVs, often—but not very big ones.

Oh, yeah, Mister Smarty Smart Guy? What if I have a 56″ TV, but I only use it to watch my collection of classic films on DVD and Blu-Ray from the Criterion Collection? Who’s the dummy now, eh?

(For the record, especially since I’m expecting an influx of folks from Glen’s site; my TV is a 36″ tube TV that my great and good friend Andrew gave me for free. I haven’t even connected the converter box to it yet. I don’t, and won’t, have cable; if I had cable, I’d spend all my time watching it, especially the Things That Go Fast And Explode Channel. And that would interfere with other more worthwhile activities, like school, hacking, drinking seasonal microbrews, and arguing about Proust. I don’t watch Fox News, or any TV news except under very rare circumstances. Most of my TV watching these days is with an Elgato EyeTV Hybrid on the MacBook, or DVDs. I do confess to being a sucker for Cops, watching America’s Most Wanted, and anything on PBS that catches my attention; mostly Nova, and the occassional Frontline, Secrets of the Dead, or American Experience. And I keep football games on as background noise during the season while I work on other projects.)

Posted in Clippings, Media | Comments Closed

Ho. Le. Crap.

September 25th, 2009

I’ve known about the MIT OpenCourseware stuff for a while now, and even had that site bookmarked, to go along with my ambitious plans to work through 6.001 on my own.

What I didn’t know until tonight was that you can actually download a whole freaking wheelbarrow full of OpenCourseWare stuff for free through iTunes U. Unfortunately, 6.001 isn’t on that list, but 6.00 and 6.046J are. (And 6.00 is taught using Python! Yes! Two, two, two mints in one!) I find it difficult to articulate why I’m so blown away by this; but yet, I am.

Mike, you might find this interesting, too (though technically it isn’t courseware).

Posted in CompScI, Geek | 3 Comments »

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