Syntax of Things

Everything and Still Some

Thanks for all of the horse racing advice.  I'm going to spend the morning prepping, studying racing forms, looking at pictures of horses with funny names, and picking out the perfect hat to wear to Del Mar.  Instead of the regular goodness you've come to expect <cough>, I'm giving you a quick rundown and update of all the categories I've used here at Syntax of Things:

Baseball:  The Braves have regained their rightful place atop the division standings.  Ok, so they're tied for first, but it's been a long two months of waiting for the inevitable.

Books & Writers:  I will be picking up the McCarthy novel at some point before going out to the track.

General:  According to this report: "The central Appalachian states lead the nation in toothlessness. More than 32 percent of Tennessee residents surveyed last year had lost six or more teeth because of decay or gum disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control. That number was 38 percent in Kentucky and 43 percent in West Virginia, which holds the distinction of the most toothless state. Kentucky ranked No. 1 in toothlessness in 2003."

Hell in a Handbasket:  The Patriot Act is well on its way to renewal.  Doesn't that help you sleep better at night?

Images: 

Fisherman on Martha's Vineyard, Mass. display a massive 1,100-pound tiger shark Sunday, July 17, 2005. Unfortunately, the fisherman failed to capture first place in the monster shark derby because their boat was six minutes too late in returning to Oak Bluffs harbor with its catch. (AP Photo/Chris Lewis, ohmycod.com)

Impressions Before Reshelving:  I need to do a better job with the category.  To be honest, I forgot that I'd created it.

Load of Links:  See any post this week.

Music:  Bradley's Almanac has mp3s of Dinosaur Jr.'s recent homecoming show.  I've always been a fan of their cover of the Cure's "Just Like Heaven."

Ramblings:  No time for rambling today.  Got horses to study up on.

San Diego:  Well, let's see.  Our mayor resigned shortly after being named one of the three worst mayors in the country.  Within moments of the interim mayor's ascendancy to power, he was convicted, along with another city councilman, of taking bribes from some strip club owners who hoped they would help repeal San Diego's "no touch" law. There was actually a third councilman convicted, but he died last year of liver failure brought on by some heavy drinking (allegedly).  Well, the two convicted councilman have now resigned, meaning that I am without representation until at the earliest November.  Meanwhile, we are to elect a new mayor this Tuesday and I don't think anyone gives a damn. 

Smoking:  Operation Quit-by-Christmas is still in the planning stages.  Considering hypnotism.

Sports:  "It is 'Faith Night' at the ballpark. The Class A Hagerstown Suns are among the minor league teams, mostly in the South, that will bring in Christian entertainers, have players give their testimonies, conduct faith trivia quizzes for prizes and have giveaways that could include biblical bobble-head dolls." (emphasis mine)

Television & Movies:  SoT recommends: Me And You And Everyone We Know

The Books I've Read:  I hope to have a sidebar up soon showing the list of books I've completed this year. Right now, I'm on book 32 of 2005, a little off of last year's pace but not bad considering the lack of time I've had this year.

The IJ Report:  Done, done, and done.

The Kerouac Project:  On hold.  Blame the recent slate of new books that have kept me away from Kerouac.  I still want to do this but for now Jack will have to wait.

Tour of California League:  Geoff and I will be hitting the road in August to check out the new park in Stockton and the non-Cal League stadium in Fresno.

Weather:  This is usually my least favorite time of year to live in San Diego.  Long months of no rain in the forecast.  Incredibly enough, we have a significant chance of some thunderstorms over the next few days thanks to a nice monsoonal flow and the remnants of the latest Atlantic hurricane.  This does mean that the humidity has gone up significantly, and along with a heat wave it makes for some uncomfortable sleeping in an apartment that has only one window a/c unit. 

Would You Like Fries with That:  This is the one project/category that I want to finish before the end of the year.  That's my goal, but I'm not making any promises.

The Wilco Book

Looking at the spine of The Wilco Book I'm reminded of one of those car manuals you can find at any auto parts store, the ones that break down every nut and bolt of a particular model of car so the do-it-yourself mechanic can figure out how to replace a starter in a 1983 Chevette.  There's nothing particularly aesthetic about these books unless for some reason you enjoy looking at drawings of dissected cars, but to people like me who couldn't begin to replace an alternator in a Hyundai without one, their usefulness is immense.

If one is to take apart a band that has been a favorite for a decade, a band that has been a companion of sorts through everything from a dissolving marriage to a cross-country move to a new marriage, a manual similar to one of those described above would be a good place to start.   Unlike the car manual, The Wilco Book, once opened, teems with vivid photos ranging from the typical band shots to pictures of the equipment to the esoteric minutiae of the band's inspiration captured visually.  Instead of a numbered legend with dry descriptions of Wilco's many parts, the book has essays scattered throughout.  Each of the band members writes on subjects ranging from their instruments to life on the road to the making of the new album.  But there are diagrams: one of the events that could occur in the time it takes a hummingbird to flap its wings seventy times;  one of the wavelength range of electromagnetic energy; one of a schematic of a Fender amplifier.  In some places the photos and essays work together; in other places, the photos (and diagrams) stand alone.

This isn't a book that you will sit down and read beginning to end.  This isn't  a chronological telling of Wilco's history.  You won't find biographies of the band members or a list of every concert by date or playlist.  One day you might read all of the various writings; the next you might browse through the photos.  There is no plot.  After all, this is a manual.

Standing out like a broken driveshaft is an essay by Rick Moody.  Moody wants to talk about Wilco's evolution from the simplicity of AM to the complexity of A ghost is born.  He wants us to appreciate these changes while at the same time seeing some common elements running throughout: a thread of possibility or as he puts it, "Just as evolution itself is about the dynamism of possibility and change."  But this book isn't about tying together things as much as it is about taking things apart in order to understand them.  Everyone who has owned more than one Wilco album hears these changes and understands that the band has grown and morphed and yet at the heart they are the same band that sang "Casino Queen."  Moody's essay should be read as an insert to this manual, not part of it.

In the end, I felt a little like the guy who takes apart his Buick and scatters all of the parts on pieces of newspaper in his garage.  I can identify the various parts and I know their functions, but without the whole, the parts are useless.  Now that I've finished taking it apart, I need something to help me put it back together again.  The Wilco Book won't tell you how, but if you turn to the back cover, a CD awaits--a collection of unreleased material, outtakes and demos.  Once you listen to this CD, you'll realize that it's the music that makes Wilco whole.  Without the music, there would be no need for a manual.  While these are not songs you would give to someone as an introduction to the band, they are perfect for this book.  The stripped down arrangements, the odd versions, the snapshots of what now have become working versions do indeed make this more than a soundtrack to The Wilco Book; they make this CD the necessary companion.

I Bet She Doesn't Have a Blog

Just when I think I'm doing a pretty fair job attacking my reading list and satisfying my 2004 resolution, along comes Sue Gatton, some insomniac with a newly decorated living room to spoil my mood:

The Lake Oswego day-care operator once again demolished the field in my annual reading contest, reading 482 books and 157,672 pages....

...She apparently had a sleepless September: In that month alone, Gatton read 33,885 pages, more than the year's total for all but 25 of the contest's entrants.

Ok, so let me do a little math. Ms. Gatton averaged reading 1.32 books per day. The books she read averaged just over 327 pages, so she was able to read an astounding 432 pages per day.

Nowhere in the article does it mention what she read. I want to know how many picture books or poetry collections. Has she once picked up a David Foster Wallace novel (you know the one I'm talking about)?

No, I'm not jealous. I just have that little defeated feeling one gets upon realizing that a lot is never enough.

How Soon Is Never?

An era's fashion never dies; it's only abandoned. Witness the last decade which saw the return of the '60s (Woodstock revival, hippies everywhere) and the '70s (bell-bottoms and disco). Nowhere can this be seen with more regularity than on VH1. This network has, for the most part, abandoned its video format so that it can highlight all of the goings on of whatever era is in fashion now. For the last year or so, they've been airing, revising, and re-airing a series entitled "I Love the 80s." More recently, they've taken to reuniting bands, most of them famous in the '80s (Flock of Seagulls, Freddie Goes to Hollywood, Berlin), on a show called--oddly enough--"Bands Reunited." Before this show hit the airwaves with its veiled hopes of a second hit for Kajagoogoo, Marc Spitz, senior writer at Spin, published his first novel, How Soon Is Never?. In this novel, the narrator, Joe Green, a fictionalized version of the author (think Mean Joe the football player to MarK Spitz the gold-medal winning swimmer) comes of age during the early 80s on Long Island, where he goes from a fairly typical boy who listens to Phil Collins to a young man who has been transformed into first a punk rocker then a New Waver. Mostly, he grows up to be a fan of the Smiths and through the turmoil of a typical teenager's life, in which the pursuit is wholly to "get laid," Morrissey and his bandmates provide the soundtrack.

As an adult, Green has transformed his adolescent love of music into a career as a music journalist. It is in this role that the two main forces that drive his life--unrequieted love and the Smiths--merge into a fierce pursuit. First, he falls in love with a co-worker who happens to have a boyfriend but who is also a bit too eager to share her company--just not her love--with Joe. This woman shares many of the same passions as Joe, most importantly though, she loves the Smiths. In an effort to win her over, he decides to attempt to reunite the band for one show. To do so, he recruits her, then sets out on an international and cross-country search for all of the band members. While the reunion is the force that drives Joe, it is always with a hope that he can achieve his one true goal: love.

Eventually, Joe realizes that neither is attainable. Though he is Morrissey short of a complete reunion, he knows that he'll never be able to reclaim the Smiths that meant so much to him when he was 15. Furthermore, he knows that he is doing it for all the wrong reasons.

The Books I've Read (2004)

Inspired by Largehearted Boy's 52 Books in 52 Weeks goal, I've decided to see just how many books I can read this year. I'm usually a pretty heavy reader, but because of my New Year's resolution to avoid TV except for the occasional documentary, news, and selected sporting event, I now have even more time to be productive, and reading is an essential part of this productivity. Never one to rush into a challenge, I decided to use January as a trial run. With little effort (and that's how I like it) I've been able to put a serious dent in my reading list. In fact, it's time to visit the bookstore.

In order to keep up with what I've read, I've created a sub-page that lists all of the books I've finished, posted under the date that I finished it. If I review the book or comment on it, I'll place a link on that page to the comment on the main page.

Besides just being a list for me to keep up with my reads, I hope it can be used as a recommendation page. If you see a book that I haven't reviewed and you're interested in knowing what I think about it, just let me know. Furthermore, if there are any books that you would recommend, I'm more than open to suggestions.