perpetual memory loss

Today for the first time ever on PML we are having a guest post (hold the applause). Here now is the debut from my partner in blogging, Pheebs. Although this is the first time, hopefully it won’t be the last.

—–

I recently was lucky enough to catch the tail end of a radio news broadcast interviewing author Candice Millard. She was speaking about her new book entitled, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President. (Hereafter referred to as DOR for my sanity.) My curiosity got the better of me and I added this read to my Christmas wish list — and I have to say it was one of the best presents I received this year. In DOR is a seamlessly woven tale of three men – an assassin, a president, and an inventor – whose paths cross just long enough to change the course of US history.

Even most history buffs can’t really tell you much about the 20th president of the United States, James Garfield. He is often lumped together with his “Gilded Age” contemporaries  — the “forgettable” presidents. Most ordinary Americans (myself previously included) might have an image of him sipping brandy out of a golden goblet with bff’s Johnny Rockefeller and JJ Astor. However, I learned from DOR that the exact opposite is true. The last US President to be born in a legit log cabin, Garfield came from abject poverty and a single mother household. His mom was a pretty wise lady and beyond the completely admirable feat of hacking it alone in that log cabin, she instilled Garfield with a love of learning. An overzealous reader and all around nerd (he knew Virgil’s Aeneid by heart…oh yeah, in English AND LATIN) Garfield put his way through school by working as the institution’s janitor. From the very start of her book Millard paints Garfield as a guy to respect  — a humble book lover who works his way up from that janitor to the university’s president. I was amazed by the man’s versatility as well. Garfield not only pursued a career in academics, but dabbled in law, was nominated to congress, fought as a general on the side of the Union in the Civil War (he was adamantly anti-slavery) and even spent some time working on the Erie and Ohio canal. Talk about a résumé. It’s clear that Millard admires the heck out of the guy, and one of the best things about the book is that it’s incredibly difficult not to join her as a Garfield groupie.

Yet the thing that Millard makes quite clear is that Garfield was never particularly ambitious for the limelight and certainly never cutthroat. One of Millard’s most triumphant moments is her description of how the guy (somewhat comically) accidentally became nominated as a United States president. I read this book at quite a timely moment, feeling a powerful sense of déjà vu as Millard paints the crazy riot that was the 1880 Republican National Convention. Millard reminds readers that merely 15 years had passed since the end of the Civil War and even Lincoln’s grand old party had powerful factions. (think Tea Partiers VS Mitt Romney Repubs….. but more so) Garfield’s appearance was meant to be simply a small part of the circus, as he was scheduled to introduce candidate John Sherman to the raucous and sharply divided mob that gathered in Chicago. What Sherman didn’t count on was how eloquent Garfield really was. So the man stands up to introduce Sherman, and his speech is so good that the crowd starts screaming “we want Garfield!” Garfield, shocked and horrified by this turn of events is left wondering how exactly he ends up getting nominated (and subsequently elected) to the highest office in the land. What Millard makes clear in her re-telling, is that Garfield never intended or even wanted to be President.  I found this one of the best things about Garfield. In contrast to a modern political atmosphere where ambition and a killer ego is needed for a presidential run, Garfield simply seemed to see it as his duty to serve the people who were so inspired by him.

Continue reading

For the last few months I have been debating whether to get an iPad or a Kindle Fire. The debate was between the price of an iPad and the deficiencies of the Fire (when compared to an iPad). Before I was able to decide, however, I received a Fire for winter solstice celebration (aka xmas). So I’ve had it now for about 2-3 weeks, and in that time I’ve used it extensively.

Maybe it’s because it’s new and different but I really like the carousel on the Fire. I have found Apple’s iOS to be getting bland and boring, but that has accelerated since I started using the Fire. (As a quick aside I think the Apple iOS needs a dramatic over haul stat). Maybe it’s just the way I like to categorize things or the way my brain works but I enjoy how the carousel breaks up the various different media sources (newsstand, music, video, web, apps etc) and then has a favorites and recently used section.

As a media consumer the Fire is outstanding. It has completely replaced my laptop when it comes to reading news, surfing the web, watching videos, reading books, comics, listening to music etc.  Speaking of reading books, everything that I wish my Kindle reader had the Fire does. For instance, the ability to google and wikipedia words terms etc. (Amazon’s whispersync technology also is a big plus and works great when I switch between my reader and my Fire.) But I’ve always preferred the Kindle reader to iBooks. If there is one thing that amazon does better that’s it. I find iBooks to be slow and clunky but the Kindle app is like butter. Throw in the ability to check out books from the local library with Kindle and Amazon Primes new book rent service and I’m sold. The Fire’s native browser Silk works quickly and smoothly. It’s really fast for me and works better when you turn off flash. Is it faster and better than Safari? I don’t know I haven’t busted out my stopwatch to check, nor do I really care. Both my iPhone and my Fire load up pages quickly on WiFi. The problem I have on both is the same–advertisements on non-mobile websites. Need an app like ad blocker for Silk (if someone knows of one let me know as I haven’t been able to find one). Other than that I’m liking it and as more websites on going to HTML 5 (thank you Apple) I find less and less websites where you need flash to view them.

For reading comics the Kindle has been fantastic. In conjunction with my box.net account I can download comics as I need them. Unfortunately, there’s no native .cbr reader on the Fire so you have to buy one (there’s no free comic readers either) but $3 for a reader in the long run in not a bad deal.  Videos from amazon and netflix load quickly and run smoothly, and the shape of the Fire is conducive to watching videos, but more on that later. Music on the Fire works well also. Pandora works flawlessly and Amazon (like Apple) provides 5GB of free space that allows me to upload most of my favorite music to the cloud and access it from anywhere–including work since I can access it from the web and don’t need to install any new programs on my work computer (which I like others can’t do). Also if I want 20gb of space it’s cheaper on Amazon ($20) than it is on Apple ($40). In this day and age that extra 20 per year is a lot.

Now the Fire is smaller in size than the iPad and this is good and bad. Good because it’s very comfortable to hold in my lap or one-handed whilst laying on the couch. It’s the perfect proportion for widescreen movies and TV shows and also retains the feel of a book when held upright. It feels less unwieldy or more normal than an iPad. On the negative side it’s smaller and that sucks especially when not every app includes a pinch-to-zoom feature (I’m looking at you comic reader, fix that shit stat). However, I still feel, like the iPad, that it’s a bit weird typing on it. For that reason, I only use it for writing short emails or blogs. For now, my laptop is safe.

Continue reading

And now for the worst of 2011:

Worst Novel: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slapstick or Lonesome No More! takes the cake here. I feel like Vonnegut jumped the shark on this one but I did find his introduction to be interesting–much more so than the actual book.

Worst Movie: Sucker Punch was godawful. I couldn’t even make it through this movie and ended up turning it off after about 15 minutes.

Worst Actor: Sam Worthington by a mile, which should be blatantly obvious since he wasn’t even in a major movie this year. However, I find him insufferable especially since he is always trying to hide his accent but doesn’t have the skills to pull it off. He ruins everything he’s in, even commercials for video games.

Worst Actress:  January Jones (Wtf kind of name is that anyways? Did her parents aspire for her to be a porn star?) is the absolutely the worst thing to be inflicted on entertainment in quite some time. Besides the fact she always looks like she’s smelling shit, she is also the worst actress I’ve seen in a long, long time. I often wonder how she ever became famous (sucking dick and spreading her legs probably). She delivers her lines like she’s being held hostage. Stop using her please.

Worst TV Show: Mad Men of course. I didn’t watch this show this season but I’m pretty sure I know what happened. There was some drinking on the job, lots of smoking, infidelity and general sexual harassment by the manly men. Weaved through a boring, blase story-line, where absolutely nothing happens, is a ham-fisted attempt at social commentary. I’ll never understand people’s (and the critics) love affair with this show. I think they all like to think how great they are because only they get how good Mad Men is. Mad Men isn’t even the best show on AMC let alone Cable or TV in general.

Worst TV Show (that was supposed to be good): The Walking Dead, seriously what is wrong with you. This half season there were three good episodes and the rest ranged from unnecessary to complete garbage. Added to that, this is a zombie show with a serious dearth of zombies, and way too much babbling betwixt the characters about meaningless topics i.e. god. Also Plan B is not an abortion pill for chissakes. Get with the times. One can only hope that the next half season is better otherwise TWD is entering into Mad Men territory. There’s too many good shows to be stuck watching garbage.

This list is a bit late because I have been migrating the site to a newer, cheaper server. Hopefully this new server will be able to handle the crush of 12 people accessing my blog. This list also may includes books, movies, games, etc that didn’t actually come out in 2011. That is because I’m old and it takes me awhile to get around to things so just deal with it.

Best Novel: Easily East of Eden, Steinbeck’s grand tale spanning three generations. Absolutely loved the book and can’t recommend it enough to others.

Best History (or otherwise scholarly) book: Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, this massive tome delves deeply into the politics, military, and social history of the Civil War. A great starting place for anyone who wants to learn more. McPherson’s prose never bores but keeps you engaged through 800+ pages.

Best Comic: I read a lot of comics this year and enjoyed the majority of them. The ones I have been looking forward to the most though have been X-Men schism/regenesis storyline particularly Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine and the X-Men, and Uncanny X-Force.

Best Movie: Winter’s Bone. Yep I was about 8 months late on this one but still it was one of the best movies I saw this year, much better than The King’s Speech.

Best Movie (that I expected absolutely nothing from): Hall Pass. Hah! Seriously, I got this movie on Netflix and expected one or two funny jokes but it was hilarious and had one of the funniest/grossest laugh out loud moments of any movie I’ve seen for a long time.

Best TV Show: Damn there was a lot of good TV this year: Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Board Walk Empire, Louie, Modern Family, and I could go on and on. However, I think the show that I enjoy the most, can’t wait to watch every week, and am disappointed when the season ends is Justified. It’s easily one of the best/funnest shows on TV that literally no one watches or knows about.

Best Game: I slacked on the game playing this year but the most enjoyable game I played was Batman: Arkham City. GTA style Batman fun with tons of side missions and plenty of bad guy skulls to crush. Plus Mark Hamill reprises his role as the Joker. What’s not to like.

Best Album: This may be because I have been listening to it constantly for the last couple weeks but by far (and I admittedly didn’t listen to a ton of new music this year) my favorite album of the year is The Black Keys’ El Camino. The quality of their albums doesn’t seem to diminish with time or listens and it never seems like they release a lazy album. Pick it up.

Best Gadget: This is a tough one because I have picked up quite a few gadgets this year but I’m sticking with the latest one, my Kindle Fire. I absolutely love it. Full review coming soon but so far it’s fast becoming my go to gadget.

Next up my worst of list, because the only thing better than things you like are things you hate and get to trash.

A few weeks ago I was looking for a new book to read when I happened to see the trailer for the movie Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Gary Oldman, and I was struck by a number of thoughts: Gary Oldman is badass, that movie looks good, and I want to read the book first. A couple of minutes later I had bought the book, beamed it to my kindle, and I was sitting back reading the first chapter. TTSS is an old school spy story set in England during the Cold War. The protagonist, George Smiley, gets brought back into the Circus (MI6) at the beginning of the book to search for a mole inside the agency. Almost the entirety of the rest of the novel takes place via flashbacks that occur as Smiley is researching various agency files, that were stolen, to try to uncover who the mole is. As a quick aside Smiley is a thoroughly enjoyable character. With none of the panache or derring-do of a James Bond, but instead a frumpy, crotchety Englishman with a sharp mind, phenomenal memory, and the ability to  deduce what others can’t. It may sound boring but I found him to be a delightful character for a spy novel, in part, because I think it’s more realistic than the guns blazing, philandering James Bond (although that’s fun too). A lot of the work that is done in these agencies in done by analysts sifting through information looking for clues. It also may sound like a boring book because it is all flashbacks and it is mostly a book about Smiley reading records and looking for clues as to who the mole is. However, John Le Carre (a pseudonym according to Wikipedia) used to work for MI5 and MI6 so he is able to infuse the characters and the story with realism. Although I personally have no idea what the life of a spy is like there are some books/movies that just feel fake, and Carre’s prose, terminology, and characters feel more real than other spy books. I found myself jumping back and forth throughout the book picking one person and then another for who I thought the mole was. Then I would re-read whole passages and chapters trying  and end up coming up with a new person or theory as to who the mole was. I was thoroughly engrossed in the chase. 

This book is well worth the read and I was a bit bummed out when I finished it, but I perked right back up when I found out that it’s the first book in a trilogy. I look forward to reading the next two in the series and spending some more time with George Smiley. (Also Netflix get on with making the British miniseries with Alec Guinness available via streaming.)

(photo via: screenrant)

Not it!!

This week I have been fairly obsessed with the Penn State story. I even spent some time today reading through the Grand Jury report, which is worth the read–if you can stomach it. I have been floored by the absolutely tone deaf responses from so many people.  Students rioting at Penn State to support JoePa? Pundits worrying about how this will affect the football program? What about his legacy? People rushing to protect and defend those in high places, the very people who don’t need defenders. Here’s a sampling of some tweets from members of the team via deadspin:

Sick. Just sick.

I’m honestly sick to my stomach

This is almost like a modern day crucifixion

Smh all he has done for this program and then they turn on him

Disgusting

It’s good to see these football players have their priorities…wait what? Fuck, you mean, they’re not upset that the institution they are part of covered up for one of their own when he raped a child in the showers? or forced children to give him bj’s also in said shower? Nope, amazingly they are upset because the glorious leader JoePa was fired over the phone. A man who was praised far and wide by the sporting world for him commitment to leadership and honor turned out to be a fucking coward and fraud. In all this people keep forgetting that a child of 10 years old was raped by a man 5x his age. And that’s just one of a few that we actually know about.

The fact that people can witness or know about this or even suspect that children are being taken advantage of and not do anything is tragic beyond words. Throughout the Grand Jury report you can see time after time how people see or know something bad is going on and do nothing. They pass the buck to someone else (like that soulless ginger, shit heel McQueary, or the false idol JoePa, or any of the other assholes involved in this) and think their job is done or they do nothing. It takes a special kind of spineless, gutless, fucking coward to not stick up for a child in situations like this; sweeping it all under the rug–nothing to see here folks move along.

This is what happens when people think that the rules don’t apply to them, when they have gotten comfortable with their elevated positions and think that nothing can take them down. All too often these days we see the so called elites of our society engage in behavior that is reprehensible and all too often they end up not facing any consequences. I could give a shit about Penn State or their athletics. If I had graduated from there I would be immensely embarrassed right now. A pox on JoePa and his fucking legacy. If there is any justice his, and all those who were complicit, will have their remaining years filled with as much sadness, anguish, and regret as their prior years were filled with happiness and hero worship. They will all get their day in court to explain how and why they didn’t feel the need to do anything, but I will always condemn them as spineless cowards. You can say well you don’t know how you would act in that situation if that was you. But I can tell you absolutely that I do know. There is no way in fucking hell I would not act in a situation like that. None whatsoever.

Bystanderism infects our world. Too often people stand idly by, silent, as people around them–in their schools, workplaces, and communities–are bullied, sexually harassed, degraded, abused etc. Instances like this should be a clarion call for those of us who are willing to stand for those that are voiceless. To help remind us that remaining silent is not an option. None of us by ourselves can stop a genocide or change the world. We can, however, make lives better one by one by standing up and speaking out for those who need help or support.

One last point. For those of you praying for the victims. Stop it. They don’t need your prayers, they need people who aren’t apathetic. Besides if you believe in an all-knowing, all-seeing, omnipotent, personal loving god who will allow this like this to happen, then you’re a fool. This god who is master of the universe but somehow gets his ass handed to him daily by satan is a pretty shitty god. Quit praying and start acting. Be a better person and don’t be a bystander, that’s the one thing we can all work on and endeavor to be better at.

–

(photo via firstthings.com)

Here’s example of why places like Barnes & Noble and Borders are going out of business or losing out to Amazon. I ordered two books on the same day. One book from Amazon and the other from B & N because it was a few bucks cheaper. My book from Amazon came two days later, and my book from B & N, well…

So it’s been almost a week and my package seems to be stuck in Jersey for no apparent reason other than B & N wants to make sure that I never use their services again. That isn’t a problem considering that I can get pretty much any book from Amazon, my local library, or my local used book store.I guess I learned my lesson you get what you pay for. Fuck you Barnes & Noble. You’re brick and mortar’s blow also.

And btw who uses DHL?

Joe Posnanski is one of the best sports writers around. His book Soul of Baseball recounts the time he spent following Buck O’Neil around the country. Buck wasn’t the best of the old Negro League players, but he was quite good. However, he became baseball royalty for what he did after his playing days were over. He was the first African-American coach in the MLB, a fantastic scout (who is credited with signing Hall of Famers Lou Brock and Ernie Banks among others), and he worked tirelessly to keep the history of the Negro Leagues around and relevant, which culminated in the building of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Perhaps the saddest/best part of the book is what Buck missed out on in life. Buck never got the chance to play in the MLB because Jackie came later and he never got to manage in the MLB even though he was a good manager in the Negro Leagues. Throughout the book you see that he never let this affect his life. Instead of being a bitter curmudgeon (like I probably would have been) he was forgiving, thankful, and full of hope. This book is a short read but well worth it for sports fans, or just people who like a great story about a great person. Pick up a copy and do yourself a favor and read it.

Also if you like sports you should be reading Joe Posnanski’s blog. With the amount of absolute garbage out there in the sports writing world Posnanski’s blog is like a breath of fresh air.

East of Eden is considered Steinbeck’s masterpiece, and rightly so. The story spans three generations, two families, and it meanders across the entire country finally settling in the familiar Salinas Valley. What is at heart in this story is relationships between fathers and sons, good and evil, and whether we as people have a choice in how our lives turn out or whether it is all decided before hand by fate or a deity. It’s a re-imagining of the story of Cain and Abel in Chapter 4 of Genesis. If you’re not familiar with the story it’s worth brushing up on before you begin to read this book.

Basically, Cain and Abel both give of their first fruits to god. God, however, like lamb better than vegetables (which is understandable) and favors Abel over Cain. Cain feels angry because he doesn’t understand why his gift is rejected whilst Abel’s is accepted. He eventually kills his brother and is then driven away out into the world with a mark given to him by god which will keep people from murdering him. This story, along with the creation story with Adam and Eve, has been seen as absolutely the truth for ages and has also been used to validate the slavery of Africans in the 19th Century. Africans were seen as the descedants of Cain and therefore it was ok according to the Bible to enslave them or segregate them, or discriminate against them etc. Never mind that his descendants would have died out in the flood.

Steinbeck is too good of a writer to fall into some simple trope like this however. He begins with Adam Trask’s childhood and how he is raised by his father and his relationship with his brother Charles. Then it follows as Adam marries Cathy and eventually has two sons Caleb and Aron. Throughout these three generations of Trask’s Steinbeck shows how similar the fathers and sons make similar choices and mistakes. He slowly interweaves, with the help of other characters like Samuel Hamilton (Steinbecks grandfather) and Adam’s servant Lee, the questions that are at the heart of the story. Are we doomed to failure and sin because of original sin? If so why bother try to be good? Shouldn’t a person just accept their fate and do whatever they wish?

In my interpretation of the story I believe that Steinbeck refuses to believe in original sin or any of that gobbledygook. Instead East of Eden is a reinterpretation of the Bible. He seems to be saying there’s no god out there directing my life and my choices in life are mine to make. Whether a person is good or bad is not decision of some deity but on the choices that person decides to make in life.  Unlike most Steinbeck novels (life sucks and then you die) East of Eden ends on a note of hope. Easily one of the best novels I’ve ever read in my life and worthy of all the accolades that were heaped on it. On another note, this is the first book that I’ve ever digitally checked out from my local library and it’s another reason why I love my Kindle. Checking out books from the comfort of my home is about the best thing ever.

Ever since HBO’s The Pacific came out last year I’ve wanted to read the memoirs that the show was based on. I started with E.B. Sledge’s With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa. If you know anything about the Pacific Theater or you’ve seen the show then you know that Peleliu and Okinawa, along with Iwo Jima, were some of the most brutal battles of WWII. To make things worse Peleliu was never really used during the war for any purpose during the war so it was a battle that was unnecessary.

Sledge begins the book as he is in college preparing to become a Marine officer. Early on, however, he decides that he does not want to finish college and then become an officer. So he and some others in the program quit and join up as enlisted Marines. He then goes on to describe his boot camp experiences and his training to become a mortar man. Throughout his narrative Sledge sprinkles in his personal insights as an older man looking back on the experience. These insights help foreshadow events setting up the reader for what is to come. More often than not though the insights tend to be a bit contradictory. He definitely sees war differently than he did as a fresh faced young kid. These contradictions are a good thing as it allows him to speak frankly about his experience but to also comment on his actions, other Marines actions, or the war in general from the perspective of time.

Continue reading