2024 WEEK IN REVIEW - WEEK 3

 I HAVE BASICALLY SPENT THIS ENTIRE WEEK WORKING AND FREEZING SO THOUGHT I MIGHT NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO SHOW OFF BUT THANKFULLY I TOOK PICTURES AND SCREENSHOTS OF THE STUFF I DID DO SO THE WEEK IN REVIEW STREAK IS NOW UP TO THREE. TWO MORE THAN I EXPECTED, HONESTLY. THE HIBERNATION INSTINCT IS STRONG THOUGH, I'M STILL TRYING TO PROCRASTINATE WRITING THIS. I'VE WASHED TWO LOADS OF DISHES AND COOKED DINNER SO FAR TO AVOID TYPING BUT A TOO-LATE-IN-THE-DAY CUP OF COFFEE HAS ME HITTING THE KEYBOARD NOW. THAT AND SOMETHING EVEN MORE URGENT I'M PROCRASTINATING FROM DOING. LET'S START WITH A PILE OF CRAP

COLLECTING STUFF I DID THIS WEEK

I GOT A LITTLE BIT OF ORGANIZING DONE BUT THE MAIN ACCOMPLISHMENT WAS DRAGGING A BUNCH OF UPPER DECK STUFF TO MY DESK TO SORT. MY FINALIZED COLLECTING GOALS ARE STILL A DREAM BUT IT ISS SLOWLY COMING INTO FOCUS DAY BY DAY. I MIGHT HAVE IT ALL WRITTEN DOWN BY DECEMBER, WHICH MIGHT BE THE PROPER WAY TO DO SUCH THINGS. ABOVE ARE SOME SETS I MADE SOME WANTLISTS FOR BECAUSE I'D LIKE TO ADD SOME TO MY COLLECTION AND MAYBE EVEN COMPLETE THE SET ONE OF THESE DECADES! HERE'S A LIST OF 'EM:

1995, 1997 SP

1996-1999 SPX

1997 UD3

1999 UD POWERDECK

1999-2000 IONIX

2002 A PIECE OF HISTORY

1995 SP I WAS ALREADY WORKING ON BUT I FORGOT HOW INCREDIBLY SHINY THE 1997 SET WAS AND I HAD MANAGED TO ACCUMULATE A BUNCH OF IT, INCLUDING THE SHORT PRINTED HIDECKI IRABU ROOKIE. JUST LOOKA T THAT BIG SEXY CARD, ETCHED FOIL AND A HOLOFIL BORDER, YOWZA. SPX SPEAKS FOR ITSELF BUT I FINALLY GOT ALL THE ONES I HAVE IN ONE PLACE. I'VE ALWAYS PREFERRED 1998 UD3 TO THE 1997 VERSION BUT I HAD A REALIZATION: 1998 UD3 HAS A FRACTURED BASE SET WITH CARDS IN VARIOUS LEVELS OF SCARCITY THAT'S ALMOST 300 CARDS IN SIZE. 1997 UD3 IS 60 CARDS WITH NO FUSS. I HAVE A CHANCE IN HELL OF COMPLETING THAT SET! IONIX IS A CHROME-LIKE SET WITH SOME FUN DESIGNS, POWERDECK IS POWERDECK, AND 2002 PIECE OF HISTORY IS A COOL LEGENDSISH SET THAT IS SLIGHTLY SPOILED WITH SOME UNNECESSARY SHORTPRINTS BUT I LIKE IT. NONE OF THESE CARDS ARE TERRIBLY COMMON BUT IF I FIND SOME IN MY TRAVELS I CAN MAKE SURE I'M NOT SPENDING MY MONEY ON DOUBLES NOW

I ALSO GOT MY UPPER DECK INSERT CARDS SOMEWHAT ORGANIZED. THEY'VE BEEN A MESS FOR A WHILE AS SOME CARDS WERE IN AN INSERT BOX, AND OTHERS WERE WITH THE SET, AND OTHERS WERE HIDING IN RANDOM PLACES. I'VE AVOIDED DOING THIS FOR SO LONG BECAUSE AFTER 1993, WITH FEW EXCEPTIONS I DO NOT HAVE ANY IDEA WHICH INSERT IS FROM WHICH YEAR AND SINCE A LOT OF THE MID 90S-EARLY 00S SETS HAVE A COPYRIGHT DATE OF THE PREVIOUS YEAR FOR SERIES ONE IT'S A REAL PAIN. THIS ARRAY OF PILES WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SORTED BY YEAR BUT HOO BOY DID I BUNGLE IT ON MOST OF THE STACKS. A LOT OF THOSE AREN'T EVEN FROM FLAGSHIP SETS. ASIDE FROM MOSTLY GETTING THINGS WHERE THEY BELONG I ALSO GOT ALL MY UPPER DECK E-CARD CODE CARDS IN ONE PLACE. THESE WERE CONTEST CARDS WHERE YOU COULD ENTER A CODE INTO A WEBSITE AND WIN ACTUAL CARDS, A DECADE BEFORE TOPPS DID IT. THERE'S THIRTY-THREE CARDS TOTAL BETWEEN TWO FLAGSHIP SETS AND AN ODDBALL CALLED EVOLUTION AND I KINDA WANT TO CHASE THEM ALL SINCE I HAVE A GOOD HEAD START ALREADY

WHILE SORTING THE IONIX, I FOUND THIS GEM:

THIS CARD IS A REAL MESS BUT THAT'S ON PURPOSE. UPPER DECK WAS ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF INTERNET 1337 5P33K WITH THIS SHOCKWAVE SET. THE WHOLE BRAND WAS VERY COMPUTERY WITH SOME WILD DESIGNS AND PIXELY COMPUTER GRAPHIC ART. THERE'S A SLIGHT PROBLEM WITH THIS ONE AS THERE'S A HOLOFOIL TEXTURED OVERLAY ON TOP OF THE CARD THAT OUTLINED THE PLAYER PICTURE BUT THIS ONE GOT A LITTLE JACKED UP. YOU CAN SEE THE BOTTOM LEFT CORNER OF THE HOLOFOIL THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AT THE CORNER OF THE CARD IN BETWEEN DELGADO'S SHOES. HERE'S A LITTLE BETTER LOOK AT THE TEXTURE

YOU CAN NOT OLY SEE THE TEXTURE ON THE CARD IS RIGHT ON TOP OF CARLOS, BUT THE PLAYER OUTLINE APPEARS TO BE FOR A HORIZONTAL DESIGN. THE HORIZONTAL INSERT IN 2000 IONIX IS CALLED ATOMIC AND IF WE LOOK AT THE BACK...

HERE'S A NICE RIDICULOUSLY MISCUT BACK OF TONY GWYNN'S ATOMIC INSERT. I THINK THAT IS ALSO THE OUTLINE OF TONY ON THE FRONT, HERE'S A PIC SWIPED FROM EBAY, DECIDE FOR YOURSELF. IT LOOKS LIKE A CARLOS DELAGO SHOCKWAVE CARD GOT INTO A TELEPORTER WITH A TONY GWYNN ATOMIC CARD AND GOT BRUNDLEFLYED. CARDS LIKE THIS REALLY GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF JUST HOW INTRICATE THE PRODUCTION OF THESE WILD LOOKING CARDS REALLY IS

MOVIES

ONLY WATCHED ONE MOVIE THIS WEEK FOR REASONS I'LL EXPLAIN SOON

#7 COMIC BOOK CONFIDENTIAL
I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS FOR A WHILE AND A COPY POPPED UP ON YOUTUBE. THIS IS A DOCUMENTARY THAT DISCUSSES THE HISTORY OF COMICS FROM THE '30S TO THE '80S THROUGH INTERVIEWS WITH THE ORIGINAL CREATORS. FROM WILLIAM GAINES AND STAN LEE TO FRANK MILLER AND CHARLES BURNS. THE DOCUMENTARY SKEWS TOWARD THE INDEPENDENT AND UNDERGROUND COMICS BUT IF YOU'RE LOOKING TO HEAR FROM A LOT OF THE ALL TIME GREATS OF THE MEDIUM THIS IS A FANTASTIC WATCH

THE REASON WHY MOVIES GOT PUT TO THE BACK BURNER THIS WEEK IS BECAUSE THE AGDQ SPEED RUNNING MARATHON WAS LAST WEEK AND I ENDED UP WATCHIGN A LOT OF THAT INSTEAD. I FLAKED AND FORGOT IT WAS STARTING LAST SUNDAY OR I WOULD HAVE POSTED IT IN LAST WEEK'S ROUNDUP. A TON OF GAMES ARE SPEEDRUN FOR CHARITY TWICE A YEAR AND I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING SOME OF MAY FAVORITE GAMES RUN WAY TOO FAST. IF YOU'RE NOT FAMILIAR WITH SPEEDRUNNING, HERE'S A VIDEO OF THIS YEARS LEGEND OF ZELDA RUN WHICH WAS COMPLETED IN A LITTLE OVER A HALF HOUR

THEIR TWITCH CHANNEL HOSTS SPEEDRUNS ALL YEAR LONG IF YOU IND YOU ENJOY THIS SORT OF THING. I MISSED HALF THE MARATHON SO I'VE GOT A LOT OF RUNS TO CATCH UP ON

BOOKS

YESTERDAY WAS THE LOCAL COMMUNITY CENTER'S ANNUAL BOOK SWAP AND I GOT A BUNCH OF GOODIES. TWENTY ONE BOOKS FOR ME TO THINK ABOUT READING ONCE I HAVE TIME! (SPOILER: I WILL NEVER HAVE TIME) I'VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR YEARS NOW WITH MY DAUGHTER AND WE MANAGED TO GET SOME STUFF WE WANTED AND GET THIRTY UNWANTED BOOKS OUT OF THE HOUSE AT THE SAME TIME. THIS IS A GOOD CROSS SECTION OF WHAT I GOT, WITH A LOCAL BASEBALL BOOK, A HORROR COMEDY AND MYSTERY NOVEL. I ALSO MADE A FEW RECORD SWAPS. I HAD A LOT OF FUN WRITING UP THE SWAP POSTS LAST YEAR AND I'LL START SHOWING THE NEW TRADES OFF IN A WEEK OR TWO

PODCASTY STUFF

I MEANT TO SHOW OFF THE POSCASTS I LIKE BUT I KEEP WRITING ABOUT OLD TIME RADIO INSTEAD. THIS BOX SET OF SYDNEY GREENSTREET'S VERSION OF NERO WOLFE JUMPED UP AT ME BECAUSE I WAS HOPING TO FIND SOME OF THE ACTUAL BOOKS AT THE SWAP. I WAS VERY LUCKY TO GET THIS AS IT CAUGHT MY EYE RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SHOW AND A FEW MINUTES LATER THE AUDIO BOOK SECTION WAS PICKED CLEAN.NERO WOLFE IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE DETECTIVES AND I ENJOY THE BOOKS AND THE A&E TV SERIES. SYDNEY GREENSTREET IS A REAL CHARACTER TOO, I LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING HIS INTERPRETATION OF THE FAT DETECTIVE. A TON OF THESE OLD RADIO PLAYS ARE ON ARCHIVE DOT ORG AND YOU CAN LISTEN TO GREENSTREET'S VERSION, MAVOR MOORE'S VERSION, WHATEVER THIS VERSION IS (MAYBE IT'S GREENSTREET'S? THE DESCRIPTION ISN'T CLEAR) AND WHEN YOU LISTEN TO THEM ALL YOU CAN LISTEN TO A PODCAST WITH COMMENTARY ON THE EPISODES. HA HA! I WAS ABLE TO BRING IT BACK TO PODCASTS AFTER ALL! THE GREAT DETECTIVES OF OLD TIME RADIO WITH ADAM GRAHAM IS A PODCAST I LEARNED ABOUT 15 MINUTES AGO AND IT LOOKS LIKE I HAVE - OH DEAR - THAT'S A LOT OF EPISODES TO CATCH UP ON. MAYBE I'LL JUST START WITH NERO FIRST

OK YOU READ THROUGH ALL THAT, TIME FOR YOUR REWARD

THE BEST CARD I BOUGHT THIS WEEK

THE ONLY CARDS I BOUGHT THIS WEEK WERE ON BASEBALLCARDSTORE DOT CA. I GAVE COMC A REST AND IT WAS TOO COLD TO GO OUTSIDE. I MANAGED TO KEEP IT UNDER FORTY CARDS THIS WEEK TOO ALTHOUGH IT WAS HARD TO PICK A FAVORITE FOR THE POST. I GOT A VERY NICE WILLIAM ANDREWS 1983 TOPPS STICKER, THE JOHN SMOLTZ SPORTS ILLUSTRATED (R.I.P.) CARD WHERE HIS DAD'S PLAYING THE ACCORDIAN AND A CHRIS CHELIOS POST CEREAL CARD THAT I DIDN'T KNOW EXISTED. THESE ARE ALL GREAT CANDIDATES BUT YOU KNOW HOW I CAN'T RESIST THE SHINY

I HAVE TO GO WITH THE 2021 TOPPS CHROME PRISMIC POWER CARD OF FREDDIE FREEMAN. I'VE SEEN THESE BEFORE AND THEY ARE VERY PRETTY BUT I NEVER PICKED ONE UP. I'LL TAKE A GOOD LOOKING FREDDIE INSERT CARD (IN A BRAVES UNI) ANY DAY

HERE'S THE TOTALS FOR THE WEEK:

WANTLIST CARDS - 7
BRAVES/HAWKS/ETC. - 6 
SHIIINY - 5
INSERTS - 11
STARS/PLAYER COLLECTION - 5
CHRONICLES - 2
NON SPORT - 1
CHUCK MCELROY - 1

OH NO! I FINISHED THE POST! NOW I HAVE TO DO THAT THING I WAS PROCRASTINATING ABOUT. UNTIL NEXT WEEK, KEEP HAVING FUN OUT THERE

Too Many Hobbies

Fuji's homework assignment for this week is to show off your other non-sport related hobbies. Asking me this to do this is kinda like asking Shawn Kemp to show off all his children. Over the past 40 years I've managed to get interested in a whole lot of things. A lot were sports related, especially gaming so I'll skip the video and board games and magazines and fantasy sports and et cetera and keep it to just the stuff that impacted my life that had nothing to do with sports. I literally have 15 minutes to write this up after scanning and photoing all this stuff today so I'm just gonna jump to it and pray that the formatting doesn't break again. 

I pretty much learned to read from Peanuts Fawcett Paperbacks. I've accumulated a bookshelf full in my travels. This one here is one I had when I was a wee lad. It was chewed by my asshole dog who is probably responsible for my current racism toward canines. I also went through a period where I would circle my favorite letter in my books. This book was brought to you by the letter 'R'.

At some point I got my hands on my uncle's old Mad Magazines from the early '70s and started reading them too. I must admit that my political views were heavily influenced by Mad Magazine. Sadly, most of those magazines were lost in a Great Purge of my bedroom, but I still have this one that I picked up in the '80s. This is one of my all time favorite MAD covers. 

I was INSANE over Star Wars when I was about 8 or 9. I forced my parents to let me watch BattleStar Galactica because it kinda looked like Star Wars. My favorite cartoon for a while was G-Force because 7-Zark-7 looked a bit like R2D2. Again, many figures were lost, but I still have Han and a bounty hunter to go along with my new(er) Han and a bounty hunter. 

In 1983 I went berzerk over baseball cards. To try to steer me into something more sensible, my mother gave me her old coin collection. It worked for a few years, but by '86 I was lost to cardboard again. I still  really love old coins though. My cat was actually named after this coin here. 

Stamps. For a brief and crazy period I became obsessed with stamps. I am generally ashamed of and regret this wild behavior today. There is one quirky habit I still have today thanks to stamps. When I get a letter with an actual stamp on it, I instinctively rip off the stamp and save it. You know, because it's so valuable. Here's a stamp of a guava that looks vaguely filthy.

Here is a book cover that is genuinely filthy. This book cover is pretty par for the course for the '70s though. I love love loved to read as a kid and picked up all sorts of crazy sci-fi and horror stuff. I picked this one out to show off on this post not for the cover but because this is genuinely a really good dystopian type sci-fi novel that no one has probably ever heard of. It's about the future (natch) where people get their brains put in jars and then they work out all their problems while existing only as a brain and then they reach Enlightenment and their brain gets put into an actual person and they live out their days in a peaceful utopia but the everyone feels sorry for the first person who was ever jarbrained because he is still a fucking mess after all these years so they let him have a body anyway and HIJINKS ENSUE! Lotta great old crappy books out there if you look!

I also love space, especially the space shuttle. I snagged this shuttle mission token on one of my many trips to the Kennedy Center or the Space Museum in Huntsville. The combo of coins + space was too much to resist.

Comics! I love comics. Not the spandex superhero type though. I liked the House of Mystery type horror comics and space comics and funny comics when I was a kid. When I hit High School I picked up a ton of cheap independent comics at the local comic shop. Most were oddball stuff but I managed to pick up quite a lot of Fantagraphics comics cheap including Love and Rockets, Peter Bagge's Hate and this #1 Lloyd Llewellyn by Daniel Clowes. This may very well be the greatest comic book cover of all time. There is probably a 50-50 shot I break down and do a comics Tumbler in the next calendar year. 

Can't forget the music! Ever since I got an Eddy Grant and a Men At Work cassette tape at K-Mart in 1982 I've been in love with music. I have boxes of cassettes, piles of CDs, folders full of MP3s and a couple of crates of LPs. Here is the most ridiculous and offensive album I own: a Bootleg of the Beatles in Hamburg entitled The Beatles vs the Third Reich. According to the back the audience responses to the Beatles' songs include "Seig Heil" "Your Papers, Please" and my favorite, "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Penis". 

In the '90s, Magic: the Gathering hit and I eventually got caught up in all the CCG stuff thanks to Decipher's Star Wars game. This was probably the first CCG guide I ever got, mainly just for the free Star Wars cards. I now have a pile of them I have no idea what to do with. 

Fast forward to present day and now I like ponies. Lord knows what the hell my basement is going to look like if I live another 40 years....

no posting, reading

I am so far behind in everything I could possibly be behind in that I just don't give a crap anymore so instead of working or writing or cleaning or sorting or organizing or washing or trimming or drawing I'm reading. And it's a good one too.

Sometimes you just need a beer and a good book.

Update: just read the Niagra Falls chapter and I don't really care to read about America anymore. Gonna sort some cards and watch the Braves instead.

Foul Ball

Lookie what I found at the dollar store...

I read the introduction (28 pages!) and that pre-chapter by itself is more interesting than a lot of other books I've read. If anyone wants a copy and can't find it at your local Dollar Tree let me know and I'll see if I can pick you up a copy. Or just go to Jim's website and get your own personalized copy.

Found it!

Took three months, but I finally got the thing in my graphite-stained hands...

Looks like I'm gonna be doing some reading this weekend. Found it at Bookmiser up in Roswell when I stopped by just to pick up this book:

I went to this bookstore in December looking for Fear and Loathing, couldn't find it, but found this book instead. I had just read Still Life With Woodpecker and was interested in it so I flipped open to a random page. It happened to be this page:

Literally the first word I saw was....

I have a problem. A SERIOUS PROBLEM. The only reason I didn't buy it right then and there is because I had no cash, couldn't find a second book and didn't want to use a credit card for a two dollar purchase. But the forsaken ponies haunted me and I had to stop by again today when I had the chance. And waddya know, there was Mr. Thompson waiting for me. Good thing too, I've been pathetic about reading lately. I got one chapter into that Moe Berg Book before it was time to return it to the library. To be fair, it was a good chapter.

(am I ever going to post another baseball card on this dang blog??!?!)

Reading Queue

Well, I said you could force me to read the Great Gatsby and you done it. 21 votes out of 45 (and I voted twice) led the pack by a wide margin. So, I'm reading the thing. I'm up to chapter 5 and so far it's like being at a party where I don't know anyone and the people I meet I don't particularly like and that's ok because most of the guests there are looking down on me and avoiding me at all costs so I'm just downing as much free booze as possible and hanging out in the library checking out all the other books I could be reading. Oh, and every once in a while I see a cockroach on the buffet table or a dead mouse behind the bar. I'm contemplating just ripping out page 73/74 for the squicky racial references. Oh, and there's a few Gatsby cartoons in Hark, A Vagrant! which I've also been reading so I kinda spoiled the ending a bit. Oh, but it's good though. Images... Images everywhere. Doc Ecklebergs' eyeballs will be staring me in the back of the head until I finish the damn thing so once I get this posted I'll get back to reading. Here's the rest of the reading queue.

This one didn't technically end up in the top three, but I'm reading it on Christmas anyway. While watching A Christmas Story. And if anyone bothers me I'm pounding them like Scott Farkus.

Ah, here we go... the perfect counter to Gatsby. F. Scott may have had Zelda, but Bruce had Ossie Davis as Jack Kennedy. I think we all know who wins there!I have no idea what to expect from this one. I flipped through the pages and there's pictures and graphs and stuff in there. I hope I didn't make a terrible mistake by thinking this is a novel and not an actual self-help book explaining how to make love the Bruce Campbell way because there's a picture of Bruce and Jack Nicholson in there and I don't really want to know how to make love like that.

NOT looking forward to this one. Especially in my current morbidly depressed state of mind. (Did I mention I inexplicably and irrationally hate Christmas this year for some reason?) The peeps have spoken though, and I can't very well be a comics hipster without reading this even once no matter how often I hang out on /co/.

Finish up with a baseball book. I drew the dude, I may as well read him. If I knock these suckers out before January I might jump into The Illuminatus! Trilogy. I have a week off next week and got today off because I got a sore throat last night which made me nauseous when I brushed my teeth and I puked this morning right as my carpool got here so I'm sick and embarrassed. That information probably wasn't really necessary. The point is I will have some down time and a horrible case of drawer's block and I'm almost done with my Arrested Development DVDs so I'll have a lot of time to read. What's that you say? Why don't I just blog about cards? What a ridiculous question.

Choose my book - December

Time to let you all decide what I should read next. Basically I not only have too many cards, but too many books as well and am paralyzed by making such a momentous decision. I was able to whittle the choice down to 12 books: 10 new ones, one holdover from last month and one new suggestion. Every single one of them I have in my possession except for the reader suggestion, so there will be no epic chase like there is for Fear and Loathing because I'm too stubborn to to just buy the damn thing online. I'm still working on Still Life with Woodpecker because I was lazy and didn't read on Saturday and I didn't read any yesterday because I was convinced by an interested party that there were much better things to do in bed than read Tom Robbins.

I am so glad I sprung for the wireless video game controllers now.

The poll is up in the corner, vote for as many or as few as you like. Or don't vote at all, see if I care. Here's a rundown on the choices for this month.

Small Beer - Ludwig Bemelmans

I had never heard of Ludwig in my life when I encountered this book at a Goodwill book sale and snapped it up.  It looked kinda funny and had lots of cartoony illustrations inside. Plus there was a tuba on the cover. Turns out it's a book by the guy who wrote the Madeline series. It's apparently a collection of short stories.  There is virtually nothing about this book online other than a review in Time that you need a subscription to read so I'm going into this one cold. I'm guessing this one will get virtually no votes but might end up being one I pick up anyway after reading a couple of the top picks.

Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way - Bruce Campbell

Bruce Campbell is a bad mickey-fickey. He was Elvis fighting a mummy in one film! Plus my wife bought me this book. Maybe she's trying to tell me something. Oh, also my catechism sponsor was named Bruce Campbell. Not the same one, but a cool guy nonetheless.

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

This is my mother's favorite book. I've never bothered to read it. Now you can force me to read it.

Cakes & Ale - W. Somerset Maugham

This one's on the list mainly because I liked the cover of the edition I have. I think it makes fun of Thomas Hardy which is always a good thing. That depressing gawdawful man was the bane of my high school and college career. Seriously, I was forced to read Tess of the ScoobyDoos four times. Four times! It kept getting stupider and stupider every single time! To this day I root for Alec out of spite. Oh yeah, this book. It's a satire. And it's short. I could probably knock this out in a lunch hour or two.

A Canticle for Liebowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr.

Gotta have some sci-fi on the list. Science! And Nukes! And pastrami, kraut and bagels!

The Cyberiad - Stanislaw Lem

Another collection of short stories, this time sci-fi. Stanislaw is the dude who wrote Solaris, for all you vintage foreign sci-fi film fans and/or George Clooney fans. Yes, you can be both... I tried reading this in high school and was utterly bewildered. Time to try again, maybe?

In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash - Jean Shepherd

I misspelled poor Jean's name in the poll. Too late to fix it. More short stories, more humor, more satire. Between this list and last month's list you probably have a good handle on the types of books I like. You may not recognize this book or the author but EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU has seen a film based on it and will likely watch it in this calendar month. You might watch it ALL DAY LONG. Ever heard of A Christmas Story? Yep, based on stories from this book. The narrator in that film is Jean himself. You can also see him telling Ralphie to get the hell to the back of the line to see Santa.

Maus - Art Spiegelman

I've had this for a long time and haven't been able to bring myself to read it yet. Art Spiegelman is a brilliant underground comic artist. He's also depressing as fuck. The subject matter in this book is really depressing. It doesn't help that I have family members who lived (and some who didn't) through that mess. Gotta have some serious in the middle of all this comedy. In a list of top graphic novels of all time, this is right up there.

Men At Work - George Will

After I drew this, it occurred to me that I might actually have George's book lying around. Indeed I did! Gotta have at least one baseball book in the list.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe

Hunter was last month's journalist, Tom is this month's. This book is actually my dad's favorite, I think, and I had his copy for a long time when I was a kid. Ken Kesey, The Merry Pranksters, the Grateful Dead and a bus. Hippies... Hippies EVERYWHERE. Maybe I need to read this one and Gatsby back to back. Or at the same time. Alternate pages, perhaps.


We Could've Finished Last Without You - Bob Hope

Here's the holdover from last month. Gotta have one two baseball books on the list. A memoir of the Atlanta Braves by their promotions director back when they were the worst team in baseball.


The Big Short - Michael Lewis

Here's the reader suggestion for this month. The Moneyball guy exposes some of the absolute horseshit going on in Wall Street that has brought about the current bullshitty state of our economy. Not one financial ratfucker has spent one nanosecond in the clink for trainwrecking the world, but there's plenty of resources available to prevent people from exercising their right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances. This might not be the best book for me to read as my blood pressure has already jumped pretty drastically just from typing this.

The Illuminatus! Trilogy - Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea

And after that fnord, this is probably a good book to end the list upon. I'm a closet Discordian anyway so why the hell not?

Book readin' update

Last month I put up a poll asking you all to pick out a book for me to read. You picked out Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I still do not have that book in my possession. A copy does not exist in any of the libraries in my county.  I have not found it at Goodwill or any of the used book stores I frequent. I have not picked it up at Barnes & Noble, despite me having not one, but two gift cards for that establishment. I have not bought it online, new or used. I have not even downloaded it, legally or otherwise. I am a complete failure at taking book recommendations. And I'm putting up another poll tomorrow expecting you to do it all over again!

Before I get into the books I actually read last month, I'm going to request that if you have any new recommendations on what I should pick up next go ahead and comment in this post so I can put it on the poll. I'm reading one recommendation from last month right now so I do listen a little bit.

I didn't actually have the top voted book in last month's list so I read the #2 pick in your voting second. First I read Drinking at the Movies by Julia Wertz. You can check out Julia's stuff at  Museum of Mistakes. I am not a book critic and I do not want to be a book critic ever, so I'm just going to give some quick thoughts on these books. I read Fart Party for a long time before Julia retired it and I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed her original strip. The book (or Graphic Novel if you prefer) is an autobiographical account of her move from San Francisco to New York. It's funny, very personal and a neat little peek into the life of a comic artist. If you like autobiographical comics like Harvey Pekar's stuff, this is much in the same vein. It was a great read and as a salaried IT geek stuck in suburbia it was fun to get to vicariously live as a struggling artist in Brooklyn for a couple hundred pages.

Up next is Last Words by George Carlin. I've loved stand up comedy since I first discovered Bill Cosby tapes back in 5th grade. My mom had two comedy albums in her collection that I remember. One was Steve Martin's Let's Get Small. I listened to that a couple of times and just didn't get it. I wore the FUCK out of her copy of Class Clown though. I played the hell out of the LP, I taped the LP to cassette and as soon as I got a CD player I had that sucka on disc. Everyone remembers the "Seven Words" bit from that album, but I really dug all the Catholic School stuff. Hell, that album is at least part of the reason why I'm Catholic right now. That whirring spinning sound you hear is from George's grave. Sorry George, but it's true. I used to be an Irish Catholic along with St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast has a lasting effect on me. Ut - there goes Frank.

This was an autobiography, so obviously it goes through George's life from childhood up to his most recent dreams of where to take his career. The first and last chapters were hard. The first because I wasn't quite expecting the family history to be that much of a downer, and the last because I knew how the story ended.  The rest was fascinating. I hadn't seen or heard much of his stuff before AM/FM so learning of his early career doing corny stuff on talk shows and variety shows in an attempt to become an actor was a shock. Hey, it's interesting when your heroes fail miserably! Gives you hope for yourself! Equally fascinating was his account of how his later style formed and developed on the HBO specials. That stuff is what moved him up from run of the mill Hall-of-Famer to Legend status. Plus there's plenty of drug use and road shenanigans to keep everyone entertained along with the inside baseball comedy stuff. The story of how he got arrested along with Lenny Bruce is well worth the read. This one's definitely going up on the shelf next to Lenny's book.

Next I went off on my own and picked up Vonnegut's Bluebeard. I've read over half of Kurt's books and have had this one for over a decade but never got around to reading it. You know that theory that when you're finally ready for something, it will come to you? Superstitious stuff and nonsense. Also completely true. This happens to me all the time with music. I tried to like Rush so hard in high school to fit in with the cool band geeks, but just didn't get it. In the '90s when I needed me some Rush? I got it. Radiohead. Yeah, I loved Creep in college and grooved on Karma Police when Rush was in my car's CD holder, but didn't go nuts over them. Then a few years ago right before my life was just about to start spiraling into disaster and I needed a soundtrack like Radiohead to get me through it, I stumbled across Rodeohead, decided to listen to all the songs and got hopelessly addicted. If I didn't have Radiohead in 2008, I don't even wanna know where I'd be right now. The Grateful Dead - well, I still don't get the Grateful Dead. Lord knows I've tried. This book was like that.

If I had read it in the early Aughts when I bought the thing I would have enjoyed it, put it down and forgotten most of it. Much like God Bless You Mr. Rosewater. Other than Goddamnit, babies, you've got to be kind! I couldn't tell you anything that happened in that book. By waiting almost a decade to read it, this book - and I'm not quite ready to commit to this mind you, but I'm close - may very well have overtaken Cat's Cradle as my favorite Vonnegut book. To put it in more familiar terms, Chipper Jones - and I'm not quite ready to commit to this mind you, but I'm close - may very well have overtaken Phil Niekro as my favorite Braves player of all time. Yes, I liked it that much. I'm going to give it a month or two to settle in my mind and then I'm reading it again after the 1st of the year. Now, Cat's Cradle, I love the dystopia. I love the religion. I love the armageddon. I looooooove the ending. But it's a little hard to relate to someone who gets to watch the world die firsthand. Reading the story of someone gifted with intelligence and artistic talents who fails utterly and miserably at what he loves but still skates along comfortably somehow despite this? HOLY SHIT do I relate with that. Gotta read it again and see if I still feel that way but damn, this one is a keeper.

I'm skipping a bunch of books that got more votes but I finally got brave enough to pick up Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. I got this book way back in college. I probably rescued it from the discard pile at the bookstore I worked at. I never read it, probably because I was too skeered. Intimidated by the Pynchon. Then about 5 or 6 years ago I found Gravity's Rainbow in hardback for a buck. Now I'm intimidated to death of that instead so it was time to read this one. Not gonna lie, I still have about 20 pages to go. Gonna finish this one up tonight. What I've read so far, I really like. It is not an easy book, and if I had read this one first I would have probably gotten scared off and run back to the loving arms of the internet. It's damn good though and will probably merit at least one more reading later on just so I can try to piece together all the madness. It certainly hits you hard though, The end of chapter two made me cry out of nowhere. I especially like the secret group so conservative that they call the Birchers a bunch of liberals. I want to join that group. Are there any openings? I finally found the next book today:

Update: just finished. Oh my God.

Got this one at the Book Nook in Marietta. I've been going to various incarnations of the Book Nook for damn near 30 years now and I was embarrassed when I realized I hadn't checked there for Fear and Loathing.Didn't find that, but I did find Still Life With Woodpecker. Brand new copy, spine not even cracked, $2.40. Score! Plus it's got the cool cover which is why I chose this book in the first place. I actually found Jitterbug Perfume at another bookstore first, but I didn't have any cash on me and I didn't feel like whipping out the credit card for a $2 beat up paperback. I may go back and get it eventually. I read twenty pages sitting in the carpool like this afternoon. All you folks who told me to go read some Tom Robbins, thanks. So far this is hella good.  One last pickup on the day:

I didn't find Fear and Loathing, but Book Nook did have this. It ain't the classic, but it's about the 1992 Presidential election and I actually got to experience that one. Unless I find F&LiLV before I finish Still Life With Woodpecker, this one is next in the reading queue. Of course the very first Amazon review warns me not to read this one first, of course. It's in my hands, so it's gonna be first. Maybe I'm just not ready to read Fear and Loathing. Well, other than the 500 quotes from the book I already know by heart, that is.

Book Poll

Ze results:

Microserfs - Douglas Coupland	3 (8%)
Last Words - George Carlin	10 (28%)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick	3 (8%)
Operation Manual For Spaceship Earth - R. Buckminster Fuller	4 (11%)
Joystick Nation - JC Herz	1 (2%)
We Could've Finished Last Without You - Bob Hope	7 (20%)
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley	5 (14%)
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon	6 (17%)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson	13 (37%)
Bluebeard - Kurt Vonnegut	8 (22%)
Still Life With Woodpecker - Tom Robbins	5 (14%)
Pastoralia - George Saunders	1 (2%)
The Devil In The White City - Erik Larson	6 (17%)
Empire of the Summer Moon - SC Gwynne	2 (5%)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas came out on top both in the poll and in comments pleading with me to read that book. So that's the next one I'm gonna read. As soon as I can find it. The local library system doesn't have a single copy (They have a dozen of the DVDs though) I haven't been able to find it at any used book stores and I want to exhaust all my options before just buying the thing from Barnes & Noble. So in the meantime I'm reading George Carlin's Last Words. And yes, it's exactly what I expected and it's going right up on the wall next to my Biography of Lenny Bruce and Frank Zappa. If I finish George before I find Hunter Bluebeard is next in the queue. Once I get my hands on Fear & Loathing another poll will go up.

Thanks for feeding my brain!

Choose my book - Take Two

Ok, I screwed up the poll. It was supposed to allow you to vote for more than one, but in my hast (I even misspelled haste in my haste!) to post it, I forgot to click the little check box. So here's what I'm going to do: I'm making a new poll - correctly this time - and adding the reader suggestions from before. I'm also going to add the totals of the first poll to the new poll so if you voted once, you get to double your vote. Here's the totals so far:

Generation X - Douglas Coupland 1 (7%)
Last Words - George Carlin 2 (15%)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick 0 (0%)
Operation Manual For Spaceship Earth - R. Buckminster Fuller 2 (15%)
Joystick Nation - JC Herz 0 (0%)
We Could've Finished Last Without You - Bob Hope 2 (15%)
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 4 (30%)
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon 1 (7%)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson 0 (0%)
Bluebeard - Kurt Vonnegut 1 (7%)

The poll definitely had to be fixed as the very first comment extolled the virtues of Fear and Loathing, yet the book hasn't a single vote. The Crying Of Lot 49 was mentioned a lot too, and there's only one vote for it. Ok, fixey time. I'm cutting and pasting the books from the last post and adding a few new ones that were suggestions.

Also Also: I freaking FORGOT to link Julia Wertz' website. It's appropriately called Museum of Mistakes.

Ok here's the books - with one change...


Microserfs - Douglas Coupland. 

I also forgot I had this book too, and I'd much rather read this one than Generation X. Big Ups to Thorzul for reminding me that this was written. (how pathetic is it that I can't even remember what books I have?)

George Carlin - Last Words

George is one of my Heroes with a Capital Aich, and I picked up this book in the bargain bin early this year. Autobiographies of Frank Zappa and Lenny Bruce are two of my favorite books, so George could end up joining them on the Good shelf.

Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I've read a bunch of Dick already (heh) but I haven't gotten around to this one yet. The one drawback: I've got this version, which I think is the first paperback edition. I'm kinda scared to read it.

R. Buckminster Fuller - Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth

I saved this from the discard pile at the bookstore I worked at in College and never got around to reading it. Science! Plus Buckminster Fuller is an awesome name.

Joystick Nation - JC Herz

What can I say? I grew up with Old School video games. I like them.

We Could've Finished Last Without You - Bob Hope

Gotta have one Baseball book on the list. A memoir of the Atlanta Braves by their promotions director back when they were the worst team in baseball.

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Kinda embarrassed I haven't read this all the way through yet. I've tried a couple of times and put it down for some reason or another. I have a theory that you don't come across a work of art or writing or music until you're ready for it and if you try to force it, it won't work. Maybe I'm ready now?

The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon

Another book that's been following me around since college. Me likey crazy conspiracy. I also need to read the Illuminatus! Trilogy one of these days...

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson

I've read a bunch of his essays and watched the films, but I've never read one of his books. This is the only book on the list I don't actually have in my possession, so if you have a better suggestion for one of his books to read let me know.

Bluebeard - Kurt Vonnegut

One of the few books of Kurt's I haven't read. Kurt is my favorite author so it will get read eventually.

READER SUGGESTIONS:

Still Life With Woodpecker - Tom Robbins

I did a Google search for Tom Robbins and in related searches were "Kurt Vonnegut" and "Christopher Moore". Sold! This one has the cover that I most recognize, so I'm taking that as a sign that it's the one I should read.

Pastoralia - George Saunders

I practically live in CivilWarLand as it is, so I went with the book about Capitalism run amok for the list. Oh, wait! I live in that too!

The Devil In The White City - Erik Larson

I have an unhealthy fascination with serial killers, so this true? (oh God let this be a novel) tale of murder during the Worlds Fair intrigues me.

Empire of the Summer Moon - SC Gwynne

I'm actually part Cherokee so Native American History is a subject I'm familiar with. Gotta mix in a few non-fictions in here!

All righty, please vote for ALL the books you think I should read, and feel free to add some more suggestions if you wish! I'm already a third of the way through Drinking at the Movies so there's a good chance I'll be picking up your choice by this weekend. Vote early and often!

(And I swear there will be a baseball card post tomorrow - sorry about the goof up)