I used to read these every year while otherwise staring out the window waiting for baseball season to start. Then I got fairly cynical about them as tI used to read these every year while otherwise staring out the window waiting for baseball season to start. Then I got fairly cynical about them as the editorial direction drifted a little too snarky for my taste and I couldn't stop chuckling at the shamelessly disconnected snake-oil marketing that betrayed their core tenets. Well it's been a few years and the share of my sports attention consumed purely by baseball draws ever closer to 100%. The beast must be fed.
I'm pleased to say the 2024 edition felt more like the authentic vision and I enjoyed the h*ck out of it. It's like the band's major record deal petered out and now they're back to their indie origins, doing what they wanted to do all along, only now they're seasoned pros. Filled with the absolute cream of the baseball literati: Sam Miller (Pebble Hunting has the distinction of being the only email newsletter I get that I *actually read*), David Roth, Patrick Dubuque, Russel Carleton, Grant Brisbee, Michael Baumann, Ben Clemens, Lauren Theisen, Jon Tayler, Matt Sussman, Ginny Searle, wowie-zowie, and those are just the names I recognize. The other hundred contributors I didn't know are probably also super geniuses. It's an amazing and wonderful open secret that this kind of writing exists, and it's about baseball....more
Reading about Lou Reed is a lot like reading biographies of other notoriously unreliable narrators (Houdini, Kurt Cobain): the narrative is slippery aReading about Lou Reed is a lot like reading biographies of other notoriously unreliable narrators (Houdini, Kurt Cobain): the narrative is slippery and open to negotiation. Will Hermes has his interpretations about Lou Reed that didn't always make sense to me, but that doesn't mean he didn't write a heck of a good bio. Like, I’m not a lyrics guy but Hermes totally is, so we understand songs on entirely different levels. Goes to show that good music works on multiple levels.
What isn’t subject to interpretation is that Lou Reed was intelligent and funny and a top-tier musical savant, but was also cranky, selfish, and difficult. That doesn’t mean he didn’t have his caring and thoughtful moments…at least once in a while.
Hermes documents the full run, from birth to death, leaning heavily on the Reed Archives at the NYPL. I don’t think I could ask for a more thorough treatment, although I think he also had moments of such adoration for Lou that he glossed over some truly crummy behavior towards bandmates, friends, spouses/partners. But he’s also sympathetic about Lou’s struggles with his mental health and sexuality. As a teenager he was treated with electroconvulsive therapy, which almost certainly did more harm than good. Hermes theorizes that some of Reed’s antics could be traced back to those experiences, that if he could control situations and disarm people around him through chaos and boundary-pushing, he didn’t have to be scared about his own sanity or potential further treatment.
There’s a lot packed into 440 pages. Various things that stuck with me:
* I loved these early stories about Lou working for Pickwick records, which churned out bargain-bin fodder. He’d be told to make a bunch of surf songs (or whatever the kids were into that week) and they’d bang ‘em out. So there are a few of these oldies around with Lou crooning on some doo-wop and other miscellany. Somehow they still sort sound Velvet Underground-ish.
* While early Velvet Underground generated dozens of approachable, melodic songs, they also had noise experiments like “Sister Ray,” 17 minutes of improvised musical nonsense overlaying a story about what Reed calls “total debauchery and decay.” Hermes describes early band shows that are so painfully loud and disharmonic they could only be considered an aural assault on the audience. (Man, I would’ve *hated* them.) There’s no real defending this as music or art, the whole idea is to satisfy an audience craving punishing sensory overload. But it arose out of the whole Warhol factory scene, which was of course wild x 1000, pushing the boundaries of how many and what kinds of drugs people could take, the sale of which basically funded the whole operation.
* As soon as their third album Lou was trying earnestly to make (and sell) holistically good records but they weren’t catching on. I can’t get over this story of how Lou left the band after recording Loaded, and moved back home. As the record came out he was temping as a typist at his dad’s business! And at least in the short term he probably made more money doing that. (Though through ongoing connections he did gather himself enough to make his first solo record. Then early VU supporter David Bowie was willing to produce his second album, and Lou really never had to worry about underexposure ever again.)
* I had a similar thought about Lou and the VU that I did when I read the Nirvana book (and maybe every rock book), about how weird it is that music journalists want these teens and twenty-somethings to provide sage commentary on their cultural impact. These kids do not know the answers to these questions or how to deal with the pressure being a performer creates. Lou wrote about this once (by the way, he was also a published essayist and poet): “At the age when identity is a problem some people join rock and roll bands and perform for other people who share the same difficulties. The age difference between performer and beholder in rock is not large. But, unfortunately, those in the fourth tier assume those on stage know something they don’t. Which is not true…The singer has a soul but feels he isn’t loved off stage. Or, perhaps worse, feels he shines only on stage and off is wilted, a shell as common as the garden gardenia. But we are all as common as snowflakes, aren’t we?”
* Lou was a devout drug user from his teens onward, but it dominated his life once he was involved with the Factory scene. If you can think of a drug, Lou Reed took it prodigiously. We’re all lucky he made it out of the ‘70s, truly. It caused enough physical and monetary problems that he was aware it was out of control. He came to see wild drug-fueled rock ’n’ roll Lou Reed as a separate entity that he was expected to maintain. (He even got into a drunken fight with David Bowie once, and that was probably the point where I disliked Lou the most.) He wasn’t really able to move past it until he decided he didn’t need “that guy” anymore.
* I liked learning about his later life and solo records, and to experience him growing into a much more stable middle age and early senior-hood (he died at 71). He still had his ugly moments, like sabotaging a VU reunion over his own ego. Other times he’d license his songs to causes he liked for free. (Pigeonhole Lou and fail.) I’m listening through his solo catalog now—he steadily produced into this century. I’ve been digging Hudson River Wind Meditations, which was just re-issued this month....more
Always look forward to a new Jim Ottaviani science comic. That is: painstakingly researched, expertly told, beautifully illustrated* graphic novels abAlways look forward to a new Jim Ottaviani science comic. That is: painstakingly researched, expertly told, beautifully illustrated* graphic novels about some of the greatest contributors to human knowledge. Here, only a dauntingly ambitious go at explaining Einstein’s numerous world-altering theoretical physics breakthroughs.
Einstein didn’t live the adventurous life of Feynman, and didn’t overcome the physical obstacles that Hawking did. He was just a guy who spent a lot of time in his own head, like many of us, only what came out were fundamental new understandings of the universe, like none of us.
Learning about Einstein and relativity in physics classes one million years ago, what I still remember are his various thought experiments. These make for much more interesting storytelling than equations—not that ordinary mortals like me can really parse or debate even these illustrative examples—but Jim O. leverages them to excellent effect. He also uses a fascinating metaphor in music, as Einstein, the real and theoretical violin player, imagines various “instruments” to explain the universe, and when they play well, he knows his theories are right.
There are a lot of metaphors, and a lot of narrators. But that’s how the reader is going to relate to someone like Albert Einstein. I mean, you’re not going to thoroughly understand general relativity after reading this. (As the myth goes, only three people in the world understood it at the time, and it’s probably only a couple orders of magnitude more than that today.) But as with other Jim O. bios, you’ll understand the person and why they mattered.
*Gimme a framed poster of Jerel Dye’s re-creation of Hooker telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory, goodness....more
This made for a fine long car ride audiobook, but on the whole was just OK. I think you have to be a Star Wars fan (gimme Trek), and in particular, a This made for a fine long car ride audiobook, but on the whole was just OK. I think you have to be a Star Wars fan (gimme Trek), and in particular, a fan of Carrie Fisher to appreciate this one. I haven't read her others either so I'm not sure if that's where I'd get the more interesting stories about about the very crazy life experience of being in what seemed like a small-budget '70s SF movie that ended up a cultural phenomenon, but there wasn't much of that here. Mostly it's gossip about her relationship with Harrison Ford and her love/bewilderment towards her fans. It's a lot of trying hard to be funny but not often getting there (reading IN A LOUD VOICE doesn't help, sorry).
I do appreciate her as a person and someone who is open and honest about her very unusual life. Although this one didn't do much for me, I'm still interested in her others. Her situation is a paradox and I want to be empathetic. It must be the weirdest thing to be millions of nerds' first crush. But she also does seem to want the treats of fame but not the tricks. She wants it to be clear she wasn't really drawn to fame after being born to it, but going after roles in movies wasn't exactly a way to avoid it. So she ends up in Star Wars of all things, and is forever burned into the imaginations of a generation wearing a metal bikini. Then she has to live the rest of her life, growing into regular middle age, while still being answerable about everything Leia. She does the Comic-con circuit, but she hates the Comic-con circuit. She loves the fans, but she makes fun of them. Though the lightly fictionalized amalgams she spins up definitely deserve a little ribbing. Good grief people, celebrities are not your friends because your dogs have the same name....more
You know what you're getting with Richard Ayoade: something very silly that you can read in about two hours. Here he writes as Gordy LaSure (with footYou know what you're getting with Richard Ayoade: something very silly that you can read in about two hours. Here he writes as Gordy LaSure (with footnotes from regular Ayoade), an unapologetically boorish slimeball who sincerely believes the action films of the 80s are the apex of cinematic art. This is his opus, an encyclopedia of crucial action movie concepts such as
HERO, THE BADASSERY DRIVING CARS THROUGH WALLS/WIRE FENCES/SHOP WINDOWS STANDING UP TO SLOWLY REVEAL SOMEONE'S TRUE HEIGHT
LaSure believes such things as:
Fact is, at the start of any flick that's worth a damn, the hero is AN UNOPENED CONTAINER OF ASS-KICKING. The job of a movie's first ten minutes is to locate the ring pull.
Those all-caps are not only for LaSure's emphasis, but also referencing another section of the book on unopened containers of ass-kicking. (Which LaSure may or may not have gotten around to writing.)
I appreciate these kinds of movies for what they are and this is a great book-length gag about them, hilariously executed....more
Unlike many of my peers I'm not a regular NPR listener so I lose track of David Sedaris for years at a time. It's always a treat to come back to him. Unlike many of my peers I'm not a regular NPR listener so I lose track of David Sedaris for years at a time. It's always a treat to come back to him. I'd still say Me Talk Pretty One Day is his best, but if you've read any at all you know what you're getting: funny, self-deprecating, sorta whiny but he owns it. As a personal bonus for me, he may be the most famous (living, former) Raleighite (unless it's his sister), which I have been myself for 18 years. So it's always interesting to hear about the Before Time w/r/t Raleigh, which went from a weird southern town to a regular city around the turn of the century.
He's a great reader so this made for an excellent road trip listen. Good medium to get back to more of his stuff, too....more
As an anthropology dilettante, I can't give this a thoroughly knowledgeable review. I don't know what I don't know. I do know I could read another sevAs an anthropology dilettante, I can't give this a thoroughly knowledgeable review. I don't know what I don't know. I do know I could read another several hundred pages of rebuttals and critiques of it, so I understand it's not a work without controversy.
But one major thing is certainly true: the Rosseau-ian theory that people used to be simple hunter-gatherers until they discovered agriculture--which led to property, which led to law, which led to bureaucracy and states--is woefully simplistic. There's no one way societies are or were, no single arrow of time in how they evolved. This book is a fascinating catalog of world cultures and history. Interpretations are offered and interesting, but biased, and in subsequent reading I became aware that there is disagreement that is simply omitted (the best way to make something seem true!).
It's also true that Rosseau-ian theories arose from imperialistic Eurocentric writing that just assumed native cultures around the world were less organized, less developed. We understand that now is racist or just ignorant. Native culture was simply different. At times, in some places, it was downright utopian. But it wasn't always peaceful communes living off the land either, there's just as much history of warfare and brutality in indigenous America or rural Africa as anywhere else.
Anyway I learned a lot, I have a lot to learn. This book is highly readable though, despite its depth and breadth. It's long but I thought entirely worth the time.
A few random notes:
* We should have one of these systems where the politicians' jobs are hard and no one wants them, instead of our current, much stupider system in the U.S. The authors have examples of American Indian chiefs who don't really have a lot of power. They have to convince people to do things to institute policies. If they can't do it, they are seen as ineffective and someone else has to do it. They weren't leaders, they were organizers.
* I liked that archaeologists have found these caches of trade goods around the Americas including quartz-crystal arrowheads, obsidian, conch shells, shark teeth, alligator teeth, barracuda jaws, meteoric iron. People have always liked cool stuff!...more
I remember more details about my Dad turning 40 in 1990 than when I did six years ago. Boomers made a huge deal out of it. Mom brought us by his work I remember more details about my Dad turning 40 in 1990 than when I did six years ago. Boomers made a huge deal out of it. Mom brought us by his work and there were black balloons and lots of gag gifts. One of those was Dave Barry's book on the subject (on tape!). I don't know if my Dad ever even listened to it, but I, as a 13-year-old boy who loved Dave Barry and did not care that the subject matter was decades beyond me, did, many times.
This year my wife hit 40, so I snagged a copy of this for her as also a sort of gag gift, which I didn't know if she was actually going to care to read (though she did). But like my Dad's copy, I wanted to read it, even if I was now a few years overdue. (I also picked up Dave Barry Turns 50 to read in a few more years...)
Absolutely worth the two-hour reading time for many very silly jokes and a lot of Boomer and Barry nostalgia. Other than one memorable and serious chapter about Dave's widowed mother and relating to one's aging parents (in short: you can't entirely--you've never been the age they are now), it largely makes no attempt to impart real life lessons about entering one's fifth decade. I think Dave would be proud. It's really by a Boomer, for Boomers, specifically Boomers on the receiving end of black balloons (and generally men), to enjoy some chuckles and come to grips with their tendency to believe everything is and always will be for them by default. As Dave says as early as page 3, "I think the entire Baby Boom generation is having trouble letting go of the idea that it represents The Nation's Youth and has an inalienable right to be wild and carefree." I guess not enough people read this book because we're another thirty years on and I'm not sure that attitude ever entirely went away. I imagine Dave would still make fun of them for it....more
Richard Ayoade found himself in a pickle. Progress on his next book imminently due his publisher, he was in a stew over whether a handful of essays onRichard Ayoade found himself in a pickle. Progress on his next book imminently due his publisher, he was in a stew over whether a handful of essays on, e.g., his childhood obsession with dismal British chain diners, or the implications of one's hair height, would be enough to meet a bare minimum of professional obligation. Perhaps hoping for ideas to steal, or just procrastinating, he flipped on the telly and, somewhere deep in the mire of basic cable, latched on to a film that just happened to be spinning up, the 2003 Gwenyth Paltrow vehicle View from the Top.
Ayoade, enthralled by its stunning mediocrity, hits the "Back 30 Seconds" button 170 times, being unaware of the function of most other buttons on his DVR remote, to begin the film anew. He grabs his laptop. In a fit of fanatical inspiration, Ayoade re-reacts to the film in real time, naturally and independently finding a groove in the well-worn parlance of film studies (Kristen's review captures this magic) despite having absolutely no expertise on the subject.
As the credits peter out after the second viewing, he stops typing, closes the laptop, turns off the telly, realizes it's half ten and time for a snack and bed. But he retires with the knowledge that he has just produced the rough draft of his opus. (Well, it was short on the word count but he could pad it out with those random asides he'd already written.)
* * *
This is what I imagine, anyway. With a very solid cast, excellent pacing, and agreeably short runtime, View from the Top should be (and for all I know, is) a cable staple. It is nice to look at, and captures a strangely interesting vision of a way that the flight service industry *could* be. But by and large it is a thoroughly average and unremarkable movie. The humor is about on par with an episode of Gomer Pyle USMC, the soundtrack is mostly covers, and the love story is less about complex chemistry and more like the just-doing-enough essence of Febreze.
It would take the genius of Richard Ayoade to mine it for a detailed film study....more
We went to a small local show a couple weeks ago because my wife’s guitar instructor was in the band. The lead singer was a totally natural performer We went to a small local show a couple weeks ago because my wife’s guitar instructor was in the band. The lead singer was a totally natural performer who seemed completely at home being the center of attention. She was young, the band was young, the crowd was young. (Except for what seemed like parents of various band members. And my wife and I. I felt super old.) But they’re a local group playing for the love.
But it turns out not everyone who likes playing music is by extension someone who likes performing music, or further, to make a living grinding away doing so. I play bass. But pretty much exclusively while wearing headphones, for myself, in my house. Excepting a bit for family or friends, it is not at all performing. Even if I become a really good bassist (doubtful; I suspect I will be terminally intermediate) I wouldn’t want anything to do with band life or constant performing.
Jen Trynin was also, as it turns out, not a comfortable performer beyond small local shows in familiar places. I think that is evidenced by her not really wanting to write an autobiography. It’s more about the very odd sequence of things that happened to her, than about her. The first half or so of the book is the story of a record label bidding war, all convinced Trynin was the next mid-90s alt-rock zeitgeist, and it’s nuts. The labels spent fortunes lavishing her with attention and promises, flying her around first class to stay in swanky hotels for meetings with label bigwigs. They tried every sales trick, pretending they deeply cared about her, pretending they didn’t care at all, promising she’d stay indie, promising she’d be major. They were hilariously transparent and always corporate and icky.
She eventually picks one and kicks off the big promotional tour. This is where the swanky spending stops and the work starts. Now it’s life in a van, at the seediest motels, playing show after show in the same dark grungy caverns. She’s on Conan, on a million radio shows. It seems like everyone involved with the music industry is crazy or creepy or both. It honestly sounds like a version of hell and it turns out to be very much not her thing. She kinda loses her mind constantly performing, answering the same dumb questions, keeping terrible hours with too little sleep, too much drinking, barely eating (feeling pressure to stay thin she admits to some level of anorexia). Adding insult to injury, the record does just OK, which is enough for the label to lose interest and stop calling her. She records another but gets no support (though is very well-received critically), and she opts out.
I wondered if that energetic local band would have loved the touring and been willing to do what Jen wouldn't. But Jen was already 30, and had a job and an apartment and a boyfriend and a cat. She doesn’t really even listen to music! Numerous times in the book someone mentions some other band and she has no idea who they are. Maybe if she’d have had more love for it. But it’s probably more luck, more statistical and banal. Music labels throw a lot of darts hoping to find one that hits. Not all of them do. However, she is a really good writer, and it's fun to hear her story.
n.b. This book reminds me of Slow Getting Up as a similar example of someone on the fringes of fame....more
I've wondered what life must be like for someone like Robby Krieger. The Doors broke out when he was 21 (twenty-one!). Four years later, Jim Morrison I've wondered what life must be like for someone like Robby Krieger. The Doors broke out when he was 21 (twenty-one!). Four years later, Jim Morrison died and it was essentially over. (I'm also always amazed how short these peak windows were for these bands and how productive they are while they're happening.) Now he's in his seventies, and while most anyone would love to have even his post-Doors life, having plenty of money and getting to just play music and do whatever he wants, nothing will leave the lasting cultural memory that those few years did. But it all happened when he was barely old enough to even appreciate it. Then he had to spend the rest of his life being asked about those days, with usually little or no interest in what he went on to do. And more so, people just ask about Jim Morrison.
Well, he had his struggles with the whole thing, and is honest about having escalating drug issues for decades in response to it. As he says, "Once you've been a part of something like the Doors, one way or another, you'll forever be chasing that first high."
Fortunately he seems to have settled into a well-adjusted and happy old age. I never appreciated Robby Krieger enough either as part of The Doors or as probably the least crazy guy in the band. He's self-effacing and a good storyteller. The book isn't linear, he jumps around to talk about the various albums, the other guys in the band, his personal life and later years. The statute of limitations is well in the past for most of these stories so he's brutally honest, setting out to clear up long-held misperceptions about the band and various legends....more
Great storytelling and incredible honesty. A fantastic example of what a graphic novel can do. Manages to be both homage and examination of her closetGreat storytelling and incredible honesty. A fantastic example of what a graphic novel can do. Manages to be both homage and examination of her closeted father, a funeral home director and voracious reader who seemingly wanted his whole life to be a beautiful literary allusion. But who also hid his sexuality from his family and himself. Bechdel finds her own way to understand him, her downtrodden mother, their odd family life, and ultimately herself through books and literature. Mostly she figures out how much she has in common with him, but sadly not until he's gone.
It's not all tragedy, there are some really funny bits. There have to be, growing up in such a strange environment. "Fun Home" being a shortening of "funeral home."...more
Worth the time to read and certainly helpful in my day-to-day on a university communications team. I'd say it was less ideas that were new to me and mWorth the time to read and certainly helpful in my day-to-day on a university communications team. I'd say it was less ideas that were new to me and more a good set of reminders that audiences don't generally respond to facts, they respond to emotion....more
Joe Posnanski's most salient observation is just how ubiquitous Houdini still is. On my neighborhood listserv a few days ago someone said their cat "pJoe Posnanski's most salient observation is just how ubiquitous Houdini still is. On my neighborhood listserv a few days ago someone said their cat "pulled a Houdini" and escaped the house. He's a noun, a verb, he was once maybe the most famous person in the world. He died 97 years ago. This book isn't really a point-by-point bio so much as an exploration of what captivated people about him in such a way that everyone, even kids, still know about him.
And it's just fantastic storytelling that parallels the Houdini M.O. with twists and surprises. There's story after story about something Houdini did that ends with some version of "only this never actually happened." But Joe had me believing it all the way. There's one about how while he was touring Russia, during a private show for Czar Nicholas II he arranged to have the bells of the Kremlin rung--bells at the top of decrepit towers that hadn't been reachable or rung in years. But all he did was wave his arm and they rang!
It turns out his wife was standing hidden nearby and shot them with a pellet gun whenever he gave the signal.
Well actually... this was totally made up (by Orson Welles!). He was in Russia but never would have been performing for the notably antisemitic Nicholas II.
And further, there aren't even any bells in the Kremlin.
But the myth persisted through numerous books and movies. A lot of myths did. It's hard to write a book about Houdini because he lied about literally everything. Most of what one reads is hearsay and legend. He's unknowable in a fascinating way....more
Michael Schur manages to be entertaining and hilarious while still writing a very good Ethics 101 text. This is something of a companion to The Good PMichael Schur manages to be entertaining and hilarious while still writing a very good Ethics 101 text. This is something of a companion to The Good Place and a lot of the themes resurface. Even one read is helpful, but there's enough info here that it'll be worth a re-read sooner rather than later. And much more fun than Kant....more
I thing I say a lot is some variation of: "Sports are the best thing and stupidest thing."
Sports have always been my go-to time waster. I have favoritI thing I say a lot is some variation of: "Sports are the best thing and stupidest thing."
Sports have always been my go-to time waster. I have favorite teams, make time for games, buy merch. I used to read the sports section and subscribed to magazines, now I read websites and subscribe to podcasts. I've had fantasy teams since the league commissioner had to tally stats by hand from the newspaper. I only missed one Super Bowl since I was seven, and I don't care about the commercials.
In many ways this has all been a good thing. Everyone needs some trivial thing to absorb excess mental energy. Sports are generally a good icebreaker and relationship builder. They offer a lot of digestible life lessons, are fun, and have cool uniforms.
As long as I don't think about them too much. Because there are those unavoidable stupid aspects. (Beyond the general absurdity of being interested in watching people perform some athletic feat I've seen a thousand times already and developing an opinion about it.) Most team owners are billionaires doing everything they can to squeeze more dollars out of fan loyalty above all other causes. Blackmail a city to waste taxpayer money on a stadium that benefits pretty much only them? Check. Agree to rich TV contracts that ironically make it *harder* for fans to watch the games? Yay! More money. Burn millions paying crummy humans to play on the team, knowing enough fans will forgive any character issues as soon as they're wearing the right jersey? Done and done.
There are just so many more examples. This book came to my attention at a time when I was ready for its message. Craig Calcaterra calls it the "sports-industrial complex." Basically it's no different from almost any big business. The more money there is to be made, the more ethical concerns you can put aside, because, what are you, petty consumer, gonna do about it? When it comes to my iPhone existing through exploitation, well, there's really nothing I *can* do about it in 2022. I have to try to bank some good karma in other areas of life and hope things are a net good.
But sports are optional. Why put up with them? Part of it is resignation--not too many things are actually purely good, so why hold sports to such standards? Part of it is that loyalty, that emotional connection we idiot sports fans develop for our teams. (When we'd be much better off redirecting that energy literally almost anywhere else.) It's hard to shake that. Sports have been there for me at times I really needed them. But it's also something of an addiction, and at other times, they are a net negative. We need a support group or a self-help book, which is kinda what this is.
I don't know that his arguments are terribly compelling but it's a super breezy read (I knocked it out in a couple hours) and just good to hear the affirmation that, yes, you can opt in however you like, or opt out entirely. You don't have to stay loyal to a bad organization or league that doesn't care about fans, community, trying to win in any kind of honorable way, or even trying to win at all. And ultimately, you don't have to obey the longtime rules of sports fandom. Sports fandom has changed....more
I sometimes wonder about life in the Middle Ages. There were thousand-plus-year-old Asian civilizations and quite well-established European, African, I sometimes wonder about life in the Middle Ages. There were thousand-plus-year-old Asian civilizations and quite well-established European, African, Oceanic, and American ones. What was life like? Did they know about each other? Science was very immature--people could generally not starve and were beginning to be able to navigate around the world. But they also believed in things like the Ultimate Drain, which the Chinese thought kept the ocean level and must naturally exist because all these rivers are running into it all the time, so where does it all go?
This book generally hit the spot. Pretty amazing to learn about all these civilizations and everything they were capable of a thousand years ago. It does suffer a bit from a lack of narrative, while it’s well-researched and globally scoped (of course some places have better and more accessible historical records), sometimes it reads like Hansen is just notebook dumping all the interesting bits and pieces without really telling a story....more
Cosmology generally lacks any kind of tether to normal human experience since it's largely theoretical and takes place on unfathomable size and time sCosmology generally lacks any kind of tether to normal human experience since it's largely theoretical and takes place on unfathomable size and time scales. So it's really hard to describe without a hell of a lot of math (or, frankly, even *with* a hell of a lot of math, and my dusty 20-year-old astronomy degree would've been no match for it). I liked how Katie Mack handled it. She writes with just the right level of detail and depth and humor to keep this far out science comprehensible and readable. Recommended read to catch up on all the ways the universe might eventually destroy itself. Don't worry--you won't be around when it happens.
I really liked the epilogue, where she gets into the philosophy of studying the end of the universe. It was strange to me how much time she spent fretting over the one way everything could maybe end like, now, while simultaneously making it clear that it most likely won't happen for tens of billions of years minimum, and maybe more like 10^100 years. (And anyway, from a local perspective, Earth will long since have been torched to cinders by the expanding sun when it does.) For someone so comfortable with extreme odds, she can't quite get over the idea that things can and will end. Her interviewees were more philosophical and I tended to agree more with them. It's more comforting to me that we're the anomalous blip and we don't matter, than somehow, that we do. (Because boy are we screwing it up if so.) Rather, there's just nothing like cosmology for bleeding-edge physics, and there's still so much we don't understand!...more
A case study of yet another professional field with little racial diversity, and sorely lacking for it. A lot of fields have this problem, but...
FieldA case study of yet another professional field with little racial diversity, and sorely lacking for it. A lot of fields have this problem, but...
Fields with good racial diversity < Fields actively working towards it <<<<< Fields saying they want improvement but aren't really doing anything different
("Fields that don't care" somewhere adjacent.) And all of them are fighting a very long, bleak racist history in the States. To become diverse, you have to get over the hump of not being diverse. Representation matters, and the historic lack of it in many fields (including, in this case, environmental policy and protection) has led to it seeming like it was mostly for white people. The relatively few diverse voices are also expected to take on an unfair extra burden of being the ones that always have to talk about race, always have to be on all the committees, don't get the luxury of just showing up and doing their normal job. In this field, there's also the public aspect - just getting out and enjoying some nature and fresh air, going to parks, going for hikes, that as a white guy, doesn't present anything negative for me except maybe crowds or bug bites or getting too hot. For Black Americans, forests and nature can conjure up collective memory of this country's violent past (ugh, and present).
Carolyn Finney does some exemplary research here to document the issue in this field, and it's easily extensible to other fields trying to improve. I'd say for a published book that aims to change minds the writing style is too academic, structured like a thesis with a lot of repetition, and density and thoroughness at the expense of clarity (e.g., a several-sentence definition from the dictionary to explain the concept of "fear"--I confess I could only think of Smokin' Joe Frazier's rousing presentation at the Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence).
Also, as with any book about social issues, I return to some of my thoughts I wrote post-"How to Be an Antiracist." This, similarly, should be measured against whether it is just a blood-boiler. Does it: (1) thoroughly document how screwed up something is, (2) that will never be read or taken seriously by anyone who is part of the problem, (3) with few-to-no proposed solutions? It's definitely (1), probably (2), and could use more (3) but does present a few very good stories that are truly inspiring. I hope these ideas are not just fodder for well-meaning academic discussions.
n.b. Read this as part of a racial equity reading group at work. We also listened to this Code Switch podcast, which summarizes the ideas here really well....more
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