The Swamp

Thought we should update with the passing of seasons..



Currently reading about James Barclay Harvest, huge in Germany, not so much elsewhere, but sort of Moody Blues lite.

Overall an interesting read, but the author gets really into the music writing reeds to easily. "Bruford excerpted the cymbal crashes at 2:55 from a modernist composer that he knew from public school at the age of 12" type shit. I do like the closer looks at seminal albums of the artists, but I find myself skipping passages.

Previously:


and

Is there a good hockey book anyone could recommend?

Giff wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 11:36 am Is there a good hockey book anyone could recommend?

I enjoyed the Down Goes Brown (Sean McIndoe) History of the NHL. Definitely good for a casual fan of the game and even as someone who's watched since the early 80s I learned a lot.

Giff wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 11:36 am Is there a good hockey book anyone could recommend?

If you haven't read it, Ken Dryden's book is fantastic (and I'm not even much of a hockey guy).

Thanks, fellas.

i would get that based on the cover alone - Schoney and Big Bird!
(thanks brian, i will have to look for this one myself)

i'll also echo recommending The Game - it's always noted as "The Greatest Hockey Book" ever written which sounds annoying but it's worthy.

brian wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 11:38 am

Giff wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 11:36 am Is there a good hockey book anyone could recommend?

I enjoyed the Down Goes Brown (Sean McIndoe) History of the NHL. Definitely good for a casual fan of the game and even as someone who's watched since the early 80s I learned a lot.

as a young teen in the mid80s i didn't think i could hate a team as much as those Mets teams (this even before the 86 Series when as a Red Sox fan i maturely nearly broke many things that postseason) - of course nostalgia makes me miss that kind of emotion for a sports team, even hatred :).

This is a guilty-fun read and a good 2020 escape - as much dirt as I had hoped for to be sure.



also in retrospect makes me really shake my head about Gooden, those first two years were terrifying in terms of how good he was.

The Dryden book is a classic.

(He was my Member of Parliament for 8 years or so...)

If you want a good hockey novel - "King Leary" is a funny fictitious version of the life of Maple Leafs legend King Clancy.

MaxWebster wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 12:22 pm as a young teen in the mid80s i didn't think i could hate a team as much as those Mets teams (this even before the 86 Series when as a Red Sox fan i maturely nearly broke many things that postseason) - of course nostalgia makes me miss that kind of emotion for a sports team, even hatred :).

This is a guilty-fun read and a good 2020 escape - as much dirt as I had hoped for to be sure.



also in retrospect makes me really shake my head about Gooden, those first two years were terrifying in terms of how good he was.

I was a huge Mets fan as a kid, 10 years old in 1986, and the last American sports championship for any of my teams. So depressing. This was a really fin book, but not particularly well written and like Max said, not much new dirt or anything all that interesting. I loved it for the nostalgia of reading about that cast of characters, and reliving my greatest year of sports fandom.

If you are wondering what Doc Gooden is up to, he was in my town throwing out the first pitch at the "Last Dance" Baseball tournament. My town threw a tournament for local HS teams since the seniors all missed their final season. My friend posted a pic of son meeting Doc. Said he was super friendly. Just sad what a wasted talent he was, should have been one of the greatest ever.

yeah it is fun for nostalgia which is exactly why i got it - i am getting some dirt but i want more dammit ha. and agreed - there's a bit too much snark and/or cleverness for the sake of it in the writing. Having said that, i don't care - i totally needed a throwback bedtime read.

one of my best friends was a Mets fan then and we had a fun summer battling/arguing about who was better :)

yeah not many guys i didn't "hate" on the team at the time and/but Doc was an exception, he was kinda scary in that way back then ... you didn't get many games on tv and could only check the boxscores (SportingNews!) every day so the legend just grew. 9IP, 2H, 11K - pretty standard for him.

McIndoe is great.

I guess this post is mainly for Rush and for Max. I'm picking it up at the library tomorrow.

(Our Covid protocol is that you order it online from the library, then schedule a date/time to pick it up.)

nice. i read this back in late January for obvious reasons (dammit sometimes that comes back and really hits me). Enjoyed it - Neil seemed such a complex person; i do love reading a good travel book (especially if it involves places i've been) which this truly is.

(what's up sc!!)

sancarlos wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 2:17 pm I guess this post is mainly for Rush and for Max. I'm picking it up at the library tomorrow.

(Our Covid protocol is that you order it online from the library, then schedule a date/time to pick it up.)

Hey, Max. Where in the U.S. are you living nowadays? Buffalo? Boston? ...

back in Buffalo NY - seemed the easiest/safest landing spot when we had to move back to the states. plus i could swim for freedom if i had to... ;)

so that '86 Mets book .... as mentioned, it sure was a blast to read for the nostalgia (and crazy how much i could remember where i was for so much of that 86 postseason) but the writing did get steadily more annoying as it went on. I don't need a one-liner for every anecdote/story; in a lot of places it ended up being like a documentary-cum-standup show.


Now am torturing myself by revisiting this for the first time in ~20 years

I'm almost through the UK Prog book and reading Anthem: Rush in the 70s.

Anthem is a little too Alex had pierogi on the 4th of April before he met Geddy for the first time, but entertaining none the less. The UK book got me listening to stuff I have but haven't dug into much so that's appreciated, and I love the Kahn (well Steve Hillage) album Space Shanty, but I had no idea it came out when Steve was 17.

Read this getting ready for the school year, and it is one of the better books I've read in a long time. It's an old fashioned middle school kid story, but it does an incredible job addressing subtle (and not so subtle) racism in wealthier schools. Also, LeBron James's company bought the rights to this, so it may become a movie some day. Another great graphic novel I read is George Takei's, They Called Us Enemy.

And I just found out I'm now in charge of K1 students instead of the older ones, so that summer prep reading just turned out to a fun hobby and worthless for my job (at least for this year)

Just finished Firing Point (new Jack Ryan Jr. Not written by Tom Clancy).

Now onto
The badass librarians of timbuktu

I'm reading the new Rick Perlstein book "Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980".



(I've read his previous ones...Before The Storm, Nixonland, and Invisible Bridge).

Its amazing how many of the same shitheads that show up in the book are still around today. Like Roger Stone and Paul Manafort.

DaveInSeattle wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 4:02 pm I'm reading the new Rick Perlstein book "Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980".



(I've read his previous ones...Before The Storm, Nixonland, and Invisible Bridge).

Its amazing how many of the same shitheads that show up in the book are still around today. Like Roger Stone and Paul Manafort.

Didn;t know he had a new one.

I'll be getting that one asap.

I should finish Nixonland. I listened to the first half of it during the 2016 campaign, and the similarities to Trump and Nixon's campaigns were astounding. I was actually writing down some of them because I was blown away. I tool a break because it was too damned depressing, and the depressing aspect of Trump's presidency worsened, so I never went back. Plus, it's well over 20 disks, so it's a lot.

crazy - i had the exact same thing happen with me; i "loved" the first half of the book but it got too close to current reality and i got really depressed and stopped. i know if i weren't such a sensitive twat i'd love to finish it and read this one :P

The Sybian wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 4:52 pm I should finish Nixonland. I listened to the first half of it during the 2016 campaign, and the similarities to Trump and Nixon's campaigns were astounding. I was actually writing down some of them because I was blown away. I tool a break because it was too damned depressing, and the depressing aspect of Trump's presidency worsened, so I never went back. Plus, it's well over 20 disks, so it's a lot.

My reading lately has been all over the map.

Sometimes you just need something silly.