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| Thursday, June 21, 2007 |
| Baseball Brain Dump |
Since the hangover I am currently suffering through is inhibiting my ability to write a coherent blog post I instead present you with a baseball brain dump.
* So I'm currently reading Big Papi: My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits by David Ortiz (with Tony Massarotti) and there are a few things to note. A) I have NEVER gotten as many looks on the subway as I have when I've read this book on the way to and from work. They range from amusement, confusion, disgust, and mutual affection. It's kind of fun to watch. B) Massarotti alternates between writing in his own voice and "ghost writing" in Papi's. Massarotti's chapters are fantastic. And I like hearing Papi's stories, but ... I think they went a little far in capturing Ortiz's "voice". Because the word "bro" can appear upwards of 8 times on a page. It's completely over the top and is incredibly distracting. There is a reason people don't write the way they speak.
* Last night's game was just a whole lot of fun to watch. While a girlfriend and I were at the bar watching, we started talking about those seasons. You know those seasons where it just feels right. This is one of those seasons for us. I knew I had hit a turning point as a fan when I got word of the Schilling DL stint and I thought "Ok, that sucks but no big deal". I had (and have) complete faith in the rest of our rotation to hold it together. This happens five years ago and even with a ten game lead in the AL East and I'm packing it in for the season expecting the worst. I like this way better.
* By now my love for all things Tim Wakefield has been well documented. But I also happen to have an affinity for the pitch he throws most often as well. And because of that I have been intermittently following the career of Sox prospect Charlie Zink. Zink's had an up and down career over the past couple years, but this week he threw a complete game for the Portland Sea Dogs with a 6H, 1R, 2BB, 4K line. He started out with Sarasota in 2002, is 27, and has bounced around every level of the Sox farm system, but he seems to have started getting some consistency. With my little brother heading back to the Portland area for school this August, I may try to get up there to catch a game either late in the season or early next spring. I'd love to see this kid pitch (ha, I just called him a kid - the guy's my age!).Labels: baseball, books, Boston, Red Sox, sports |
posted by FINY @ Thursday, June 21, 2007   |
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| Tuesday, April 17, 2007 |
| Words Are My Weakness |
It was a good thing I brought my most recent Time magazine with me. Typically, my subscriptions to Time and Sports Illustrated serve as reading material for my breakfast in the morning, occasionally my commute. I'll get an article in here and there. I hardly ever have the time to sit down and read through an entire issue in one sitting. But Saturday was a bit different.
Two hours, two subways, and a bus ride later, I found myself in the far reaches of the Bronx, having read through the entire issue I had brought with me, and walking towards a Barnes and Noble just blocks from Co-Op City.
I was on my way to meet Dave Copeland, an online friend who, one of his recent posts reminded me, I've "known" for a little over two years. Having just released his first book, Blood and Volume, Dave was doing a reading and after having heard about the project for so long on his blog, I was excited both to finally meet him, and to get my hands on a copy of the book.
Neither disappointed. Dave's just as friendly in person as I expected him to be, and the book? Let's just say that it's a good thing I had finished my magazine on the way to the event because there was no chance I was reading it on the way home. The two hours flew by as I was completely drawn into the world of the Israeli mafia members that populate the pages of Blood and Volume.
Now normally, I'd feel a little bad about overly praising the work of someone I consider a friend. It ends up sounding just so incredibly biased. Mainly because it is. But when you think about it, this one makes sense. I mean, I got to know Dave online through his blog, so really - it was his writing that drew me in the first place. What can I say, I'm a sucker for someone who can string a sentence together.
Of course there were a few awkward moments in the afternoon. Dave not being able to remember my real name when going to sign the book for me (though in truth, I've had that problem with others in the past - if Dave blogged under a pseudonym the way I do I am sure my first inclination would have been to call him by it). And I would have loved to have been able to hang out a bit longer, but with Dave surrounded by actual friends, I ended up feeling like the would-be online stalker girl or something. And nobody wants to be that girl.
So off I went, having picked up a great book, a new "real" friend (as Dave's inscription in the book so aptly put it), and an interesting start to what turned out to be a very packed Saturday.
But more on that later ...Labels: blogging, books, misc., NYC |
| posted by FINY @ Tuesday, April 17, 2007 |
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| Monday, April 16, 2007 |
| Update to Come |
| So yet another week has passed with no update from me. What can I say, it's been busy. But there IS an update to come. The problem I am coming across now is that there are just SO many posts I've got rolling around in my head. One about the Kaiser Chiefs concert I went to last week. One about my Saturday in which I crammed an entire week's worth of cultural events into one day. Yet another about finally meeting Dave Copeland and how I have basically devoured his book, Blood and Volume. In my head at least, the posts are all written. Getting them into the template? Yeah, that's something completely different. But I'm working on it, I swear. Labels: books |
| posted by FINY @ Monday, April 16, 2007 |
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| Monday, November 13, 2006 |
| This Might Be An Unpopular Viewpoint |
 I've recently been reading the book, Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy, and it's made me think quite a bit about how we, as individuals, and as a culture, define ourselves.
Throughout the text, Levy questions the women of the world who wear revealing clothing, read Playboy, are interested in sports, or have visited strip clubs. Her stance, although this is simplifying it quite a bit, is that though the feminist movement gave women the freedom to work and play as they choose, most women today are still, albeit subconsciously, defining themselves in terms of the way men see them. Women who wear provocative clothing are using their sexual attractiveness as a way to gain power. Women who drink beer, watch sports, don't object to strip clubs, etc. are supposedly trying to make themselves more like men in order to gain acceptance.
Again, I am oversimplifying, but what I ended up walking away from the book thinking was "Why is it that Levy seems to think that everything I do, every thought I have, every action I take, has to be taken in the context of my gender?" When I wake up in the morning, I don't immediately think "Gee, it's great to be a woman!" I mean, sure, it IS great, but it's not an ever present thought. I'm a lot of things. I'm a woman, I'm a sister, I'm a daughter. I'm white. I'm a New Yorker, but I'm also a Bostonian. And a Rhode Islander. I'm a Red Sox lover. I'm a reader, a writer, an editor. I'm a friend, a girlfriend. I'm a whole mess of contradictions and similarities. And none of the things I could list myself as being are either mutually exclusive, nor dependent on one another.
I'm me. That's it. That's the only way I want myself defined. I applaud the feminist movement and thank them for giving me the opportunity to make my own choices in life. I have it better now because of them. I guess I am just hoping, and probably unrealistically, that we've progressed to the point that I don't need to define myself as anything other than me. But after reading FCP, I'm wondering exactly how unpopular that idea really is ...Labels: books, misc. |
| posted by FINY @ Monday, November 13, 2006 |
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| Tuesday, January 03, 2006 |
| Christmas Continued! |
So I got a lot of great things for Christmas. A Tim Wakefield Jersey, a digital camera, a first edition of my favorite book. All in all, a pretty good haul. But you know what I love about Christmas? It doesn't stop for like a month! For example, today in the mail I received the following thanks to a B&N gift certificate from one of my bosses:
1. The Polysyllabic Spree - Nick Hornby
"FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Books are, let's face it, better than everything else," writes Nick Hornby in his "Stuff I've Been Reading" column in The Believer. "If we played cultural Fantasy Boxing League, and made books go 15 rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time. Go on, try it. The Magic Flute v. Middlemarch? Middlemarch in six. The Last Supper v. Crime and Punishment? Fyodor on point And every now and again you'd get a shock, because that happens in sport, so Back to the Future III might land a lucky punch on Rabbit, Run; but I'm still backing literature 29 times out of 30." This book collects Hornby's popular columns in a single, artfully illustrated volume with selected passages from the novels, biographies, collections of poetry, and comics under discussion. "
I absolutely adore Hornby and this book is so right up my alley subject wise.
2. Radio On - Sarah Vowell
"FROM THE PUBLISHER
What does our country sound like? There are approximately 502 million radios in America alone. Radios in cars, in kitchens, in malls, playing in elevators and beauty shops. Sarah Vowell listened to the radio for one year and wrote down her impressions."
The only one of Vowell's books that I've yet to read. Really looking forward to this one.
3. The Art of War - Sun-tzu
"FROM THE PUBLISHER
Lionel Giles' classic translation of the oldest military treatise in the world.
Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.
This volume contains the introduction and fascinating commentaries of Lionel Giles, who provided the first definitive English translation of Sun Tzu's masterpiece. His copious notes and bibliography have been updated to make them more accessible to English speaking readers, and enhancing the insights to be drawn from this timeless classic. "
Not your typical gift certificate purchase, but it's one of those books I always meant to read ...
4. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs - Chuck Klosterman
"FROM THE PUBLISHER
Countless writers and artists have spoken for a generation, but no one has done it quite like Chuck Klosterman. With an exhaustive knowledge of popular culture and an almost effortless ability to spin brilliant prose out of unlikely subject matter, Klosterman attacks the entire spectrum of postmodern America: reality TV, Internet porn, Pamela Anderson, literary Jesus freaks, and the real difference between apples and oranges (of which there is none). And don't even get him started on his love life and the whole Harry-Met-Sally situation.
Whether deconstructing Saved by the Bell episodes or the artistic legacy of Billy Joel, the symbolic importance of The Empire Strikes Back or the Celtics/Lakers rivalry, Chuck will make you think, he'll make you laugh, and he'll drive you insane -- usually all at once. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is ostensibly about art, entertainment, infotainment, sports, politics, and kittens, but -- really -- it's about us. All of us. As Klosterman realizes late at night, in the moment before he falls asleep, "In and of itself, nothing really matters. What matters is that nothing is ever 'in and of itself.'" Read to believe. "
This is the one I am the most excited about. I've been meaning to pick this up for AGES.
Now the question is ... which one do I read first?!Labels: books |
| posted by FINY @ Tuesday, January 03, 2006 |
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| Thursday, April 21, 2005 |
| Assassination Vacation |
I received a wonderful surprise in the mail yesterday ... Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation. This is the book i heard her read from a few months ago, the one I discussed here. And I've got to tell you, it's every bit as wonderful a read as it was a reading.
I am so overjoyed at this book, which unlike her others is not a collection of essays, but a non-fiction novel, that I just have to share a turn of phrase she used that just lit me up (and how sad is it that a turn of phrase can light me up?).
After talking about the Lincoln assassination and how Dr. Taft had described holding Lincoln's head up off the pillow in the hours before he died so as to make him more comfortable, Vowell writes this:
Oh the agony of hours and hours of holding up the weight of Lincoln's head. The next day, surely Taft's arms were sore, so sore I'd imagine that every time he had to lift something, reach for the salt shaker, say, he would throb with the muscle memory of Lincoln's heavy head.
"The muscle memory of Lincoln's heavy head" I love it, I just love it.Labels: books |
| posted by FINY @ Thursday, April 21, 2005 |
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