The Post-Pessimist AssociationThe Post-Pessimist AssociationHockey, literature, beer, and life in Atlanta Articles
Sleep Deprivation
2008-02-26 22:15:00 I've been sleeping extraordinarily poorly this past week, and even when I do sleep, it's not overly restful. So that sucks.I'm hoping that tonight breaks the pattern, but either way, here's the funniest thing I've seen this week: Garfield Minus Garfield. More About: Sleep
Call Me When You Find America
2008-02-25 17:26:00 #5 -- "America na" by Don DeLilloSome time back, I read an interview with Richard Powers in which he described throwing everything he knew into his first novel -- because he wasn't sure he'd ever write a second.You can see that at work in "Americana," dating back to 1971, and one of the only DeLillo novels that I hadn't read (up to now). It's overflowing with ideas -- too many of them, in fact -- a mishmash of thoughts and themes that's sometimes fantastic and sometimes aggravating. It's a stab at a great American novel that ultimately falls short, but gets pretty entertaining and interesting at times along the way.Briefly: the novel centers around David Bell, rising star in the television industry. The first half is an often sly satire of and stab at the corporate world and the aforementioned TV biz -- the second half follows Bell as he goes out on the road with a few friends, ostensibly to gather material for a new series but ultimately going completely off the rails. The par... More About: Books , Find , Call
WAYLT?
2008-02-22 03:59:00 (title stolen from Fredoluv)It's that time again, one where I put out the call to whoever's reading -- what are you listening to (that I might like)? I think the vastness of the web actually makes it a bit difficult for me to find new (as in new) music that I might like -- it was a lot easier in the days when I just relied on the Maximum Rock 'n' Roll or No Answers review columns. (not as good, perhaps, but easier.) Of all the CDs I bought in 2007 (there were a fair amount), only three (Jesu, Son Volt, Modest Mouse) were actually put out in 2007, and of those three, only one (Jesu) was really new to me. Bearing in mind that I won't start reading Pitchfork until I suffer a few more severe head injuries, where do I find good new stuff?And, more importantly (sort of got off track here), what should I check out? Things I've been listening to lately, to give you a little idea: Miles Davis "Dark Magus", Jesu (still), Son Volt, traditional Greek and Bulgarian music, Soundtrack of Our...
Shout It From the Rooftops
2008-02-16 21:26:00 Czechvar is on tap at Manuel's Tavern, Atlanta, Georgia.Czechvar is on tap at Manuel's Tavern, Atlanta, Georgia!CZECHVAR is on tap at Manuel's Tavern, ATLANTA, Georgia!!CZECHVAR is on tap at MANUEL'S TAVERN, ATLANTA, GEORGIA!!!!!!?!CZECHVAR IS ON TAP AT MANUEL'S TAVERN, ATLANTA, GEORGIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!CZECHVAR IS ON TAP AT MANUEL'S TAVERN, ATLANTA, GEORGIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!CZECHVAR IS ON TAP AT MANUEL'S TAVERN, ATLANTA, GEORGIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!CZECHVAR IS ON TAP AT MANUEL'S TAVERN, ATLANTA, GEORGIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Ahem.A brief timeline for the uninitiated:2001 -- Greg has Budvar for the first time in Prague2002, probably -- Atlanta becomes one of the four North American test markets for "Czechvar," the name Budvar takes so that Budweiser doesn't get upsetSometime soon after -- Czechvar apparently does ok, because it becomes available across the continentSometime soon after THAT -- cultural backwaters like "Vancouver" are able to laugh, as a legal dispute renders Cze... More About: Shout
Sometimes There's Benefits
2008-02-16 00:32:00 It's not all fun and games here in Atlanta, but every once in a while living here pays off -- for instance, when I'm able to go for an evening stroll in t-shirt and shorts on February 15th. (Just two or three days after it was snowing a little, no less.) Don't worry, LP and Nanuk, in July you'll be relatively comfortable while I'll be wishing I'd never been born.In the absence of anything else, the rest of the photos from last weekend:This seemed to be an apartment building, or mixed apartments and offices -- this little alcove caught my eye because it seemed much less Atlanta than London, as if it should have been named "McGill Mews" or similar.The same building, from the side -- tragic truth revealed, the cool front is all that remains of the old building, and the rest is nondescript add-on from sometime in the late 20th century.In an effort to spruce up the viaducts above the Downtown Connector, Atlanta's put in some folk art installations. Some of 'em are pretty cool.Ah,... More About: Benefits
Ralph and Ivan
2008-02-14 17:20:00 Winter's making a last stand these couple of days, one last offensive before packing it in. Later today it's supposed to warm up a bit, tomorrow it'll be back up in the 60s, but right now it's goddamn cold. So I'm staying inside as much as possible, and finally posting these pictures.Last weekend it wasn't cold, and feeling a bit guilty after eating the Spicy Rat Toes, I went for a lengthy stroll.Ralph McGill Boulevard goes through a good portion of downtown Atlanta, but in my years here I doubt I've driven down it more than a dozen times -- so this was rather uncharted territory. The bridge above (which I've photographed before, at a much different time of year) has a plaque underneath it indicating that the street's name was once Forrest Avenue. Forrest was named for Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate Army figure, and, um, the first Grand Wizard of the KKK (though according to Wikipedia, he was a relatively moderate Klansman. Hooray?). Ralph McGill was a newspaper edit... More About: Ivan
Drank Like a River
2008-02-13 18:11:00 I went on a long walk a few days back, and took a gajillion photos... but I'm lazy and slow in getting them up. Soon.In the meantime:#4 -- "Whiskey River " by Loren D. EstlemanI first read this during my hard-boiled heyday, when I was 19 or so, and was pretty disappointed -- later I read all the rest of his Detroit history books, liked them considerably more, but never gave this a second chance.Now, finally. I'm not sure why I wasn't thrilled with this way back when. Maybe not enough mystery? It's set in Prohibition-era Detroit, telling the story of competing bootlegging gangs through the eyes of a journalist who's a bit too close to all the unsavory goings-on. It was the first of a trilogy on crime through Detroit's 20th-century history, mixing real-life tales with fiction -- last I knew, the trilogy had expanded, Hitchhiker's-style, to about six books. I'll probably go back and reread them in the coming months, since I remember liking all the rest more than this one, and th... More About: Books
Front Lines
2008-02-10 21:45:00 A month and a half into 2008, and I've only read three books now. Well off my normal pace. Is it a lack of attention span? Other distractions? Who knows?#3 -- "Armageddon: the Battle for Germany, 1944-1945" by Max HastingsFitting that I finished reading this book this morning, because after last night I felt like Germany, 1944-1945. Well, not quite that bad. But I was definitely unwell.But you're not here to read about that -- you're saying "really, Greg, tell us about the books you read. That's always fascinating." Anyway. I got this by accident several years ago -- as a member of the History Book Club (yes, nerrrrd) I mistakenly hit the "send my selection immediately!" button rather than the "don't send selection" button. It could happen to anybody. It didn't really look like my thing -- I'm not terribly into military history -- but out of shame and obligation, I kept it on my shelf for a couple years, finally dragging it off this past week to give it a cursory chance befor... More About: Front , Lines
This is the Enemy
2008-02-10 06:05:00 I went out drinking tonight. That may not come as a surprise to anyone, but on Saturday nights, it's been rare of late. Most of my friends work Saturdays, and I've got a girlfriend, and I don't really like most people a whole lot, so there's not much point. Best to just drink at home, cheaper and quieter.But tonight, Fidel had the night off (first time in several years he's been off and in town on a Saturday), so drinking was a priority. We went to Atkins Park. Also not remarkable, as I go there about six times a week (as it's about 20 feet from my home).And there I saw him: the guy with a golf tee behind his ear.I don't think I've ever seen anything that made me hate anyone so instantaneously -- it was as if all the popped collars, ill-fitting khakis, and stupid baseball caps that I'd ever seen took form in this one guy. A Google search on golf tee behind the ear indicates that this is a common practice when you're out golfing, which I guess is acceptable. It doesn't ind... More About: Enemy , The Enemy
Pushing Up Daisies
2008-02-09 20:49:00 A few years ago, I entered a photo contest sponsored by Atlanta's old and picturesque Oakland Cemetery. Among my entries was a shot juxtaposing a couple graves with a sign across the street -- "Six Feet Under," a well-known local restaurant. I was pretty certain that I was the only one in possession of such creative chops, and that my shot would establish me as an ironic genius (not to mention netting me the prize). You can imagine my disappointment when I showed up to the exhibition to find that I was one of about 300 people with the same idea. (Another 300 people used various photographic tricks to make it appear that lace-clad ghosts were visiting the graves. I suppose there's only so much you can do with a graveyard.)Six Feet Under is just a little outside my normal stumbling distance, so I never actually made it down there for another couple years. My loss. It's one of the few places in Atlanta with a good rooftop, the food is good in that everything-fried way, and it's gen...
Down By the Railyard
2008-02-04 18:55:00 This is a bit confusing: I know I've been out taking photos of the old Pullman Yards before, but I don't seem to have ever posted the pictures. So this morning, trying to keep post-Super Bowl lethargy from gluing my still-sick ass to the couch, I went over to the nether lands between Atlanta and Decatur to get my old building fix.The Pullman Yards have existed in a limbo for some years now. The buildings date back to the early 20th century -- the Atlanta Preservation Center has a bit on them. A bunch of plans have been put forth -- no one's decided anything, though. As it is, the yards are being used for some uncertain purpose (yes, I could probably look it up) while the buildings molder.All the below pictures were shot through a fence -- if I'd felt snoopy I could have got some much better stuff, but sick + didn't get enough sleep last night = lack of ambition.Kind of stealing my own thunder here -- Phreakmonkey has been to Pullman a few times, and actually went in -- and got ...
The Day After
2008-02-01 18:20:00 How the PPA celebrates: the Tomas Kloucek cake. Thanks to the Ski Bum for what's definitely the coolest birthday cake I've ever seen.Owing to my illness-related physical degeneration (worse than I thought -- judging by the candles, people think I'm 53 rather than 35), I was kind of restrained last night. A pleasant, low-key entrance to my final 36th year.Odd dream from the other night: I was in Panama, and struck up a conversation with novelist/Boing Boing guy Cory Doctorow (I've never read anything by him, but I've been meaning to pick up "Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town"). He said he was living on top of a mountain (just checked, and Panama does indeed have mountains), and his job was to receive transmissions (from Asia) of cricket scores, translate the scores, and then beam them back to Asia. He had to do this at night, but that was ok (he said), because he was only allowed to see his family during the day.Go figure.
35
2008-01-31 16:18:00 With a hearty GNNOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRK I welcomed my 35th birthday this morning, deep (again) in some horrendous terminal illness. I saw "Atonement" the other night and I think I'm about as charming as the scene of the wounded from Dunkirk, where everyone's expelling ugly-looking fluids from every orifice. Since, of course, nothing's going to stop me from drinking tonight, I would presume that 35 years and one day will be the extent of my time on this planet.Haven't done much with vacation, which is no bad thing. Part of it's been because the last few days have been sorta illness-dominated, partly because I'm just relaxing, partly because it's been pretty cold and it's hard to get yourself up to go and take pictures of old buildings when it's 35 degrees and windy.I did see a few movies -- "Scarface" and "Atonement," sort of opposite ends of the spectrum. "Scarface" is kind of ridiculously fun (I've started to watch it before, but, uh, I was always really drunk), quotable ...
Your Excuse
2008-01-27 15:27:00 From BLDGBLOG -- all of a sudden I have all sorts of new excuses for lack of writing:A British novelist has been awarded legal damages in excess of £100,000 because she writes thrillers, not literary masterpieces. What's at fault? She's been inhaling fumes from a nearby shoe factory.I figure I've got all sorts of lawsuit options now -- for instance, I obviously draw inspirations from old run-down buildings, but Atlanta turns them all into condos (which then sit empty, and will be old run-down buildings again in a few decades). Or maybe I'll file a suit because I live next to a bar -- is there anything more damaging to productivity than that?* * *I'm on vacation again, the annual birthday and Super Bowl and relaxation week off. Thus far, I've accomplished little (see above for possible reasons!), not even taking photos of old buildings -- I went down to Atlanta's West End to take some photos yesterday, and ha ha, my camera's batteries were dead when I got there. Another time.... More About: Excuse
Short Story Roundup
2008-01-23 20:59:00 This is needle in a haystack territory, but I'm trying to remember the titles/authors of two short stories that I read as a kid -- I seem to recall that they were in an elementary school or junior high classroom anthology, though both seem a bit morbid for school.* two guys are in a car, fleeing a bank robbery (and possibly on drugs). They enter a tunnel, and find themselves deep in gridlock -- and the tunnel never ends, and it turns out they were actually in a car accident, and are now in Hell or something to that effect.* a woman is approached by a stranger, who gives her a box with a button on it. He tells her "if you press that button, someone you don't know will die, and we will give you a shitload of money." She takes the box, thinks about how horrible it is, thinks about how great the money would be, and finally, after a few days, presses the button. She waits, and gets a phone call: "hey, someone pushed your husband in front of a train." The stranger shows up with a big ba... More About: Story , Roundup , Short , Short Story
Back on the Map
2008-01-22 00:19:00 I love maps, always have. I tore through atlases as a kid, loved globes -- even now, I spend way too much of my money buying another map of Central/Eastern Europe in order to plan the route of a hypothetical trip. I seek out old maps of Atlanta to see what's changed. Stick a map or an atlas in front of me and I'm transfixed.When I was a kid, my Mom passed on her old college atlas, which had a few (to me) oddities -- she went to college in the early '60s, around the time of the major African push for independence, so the borders and names of those nations were very much in flux. I found that fascinating.Less easy to explain: the book had a couple of maps of fictional locations -- maps of Treasure Island (I think - may have been Robinson Crusoe's island) and Atlantis. They were played pretty straight, so being kind of literal, I took them as gospel. And so when a teacher referred to Atlantis as not real, I took umbrage, and brought in the atlas as proof. Don't remember if this te... More About: Back
Greetings From DeathStorm 2008
2008-01-19 21:38:00 Ok, not really, but the city's shutting down -- I just spent a few hours hunkering down at Manuel's, and the TV is entirely devoted to a listing of what's expected (snow 'til 9pm) and what's closing down (everything, including the meeting of some high school's 1961 alumni group). The BARRY MANILOW concert was canceled, so you know it's serious. In Colorado, this would be a pretty average winter day, so it's kind of amusing -- but since no one here is accustomed to snow, and can't drive on the clearest day of the year, it's a bit more serious. Thankfully everything I need (read: bars) is within walking distance.Sadly, the Barry Manilow concert has been postponed.Notes from a bar, vol. 1: they were flipping through the TV channels (up-to-the-minute weather reports got tiring) and the description of one show read, in total, "A man is sucked into a jet engine on an aircraft carrier." I didn't catch the show name, but that constitutes must-see TV. More About: 2008
Winter Wonderland
2008-01-19 18:10:00 This may seem a little silly and self-indulgent, since about 90 percent of regular readers live in places where snow is more an annoyance than a novelty, but hey -- it's not often that it snows twice in a week here, and if self-indulgence was a problem for me, this blog wouldn't have lasted a week.The snow's really coming down harder now, and it looks like we're gonna get a good accumulation. And I don't have to work. Wheeeee! More About: Winter
Snow Day
2008-01-16 22:23:00 It's purportedly snowing outside -- unfortunately, I'm stuck inside windowless work, missing it. While I'm all for the recent nice weather, I get a bit homesick for a good snowy day. It's been a few years now since we had a good Georgia winter storm. Every few years, we'll get socked, and it's kind of fun -- it's a change, at least, and much better when it happens once every few years rather than twice a winter.The last major one I can think of was January of 2005, when we got nailed by a major ice storm. Solid ice on my (then-brand-new) car, streets and sidewalks impossible to navigate. When the sleet started coming down, I escaped next door to Atkins Park for a bit, to get a last fortification before I was house-bound.I ended up next to a hunched, put-upon fellow, who soon started telling the bar at large that he had been sent out to buy firewood. By his "bitch of a wife," he soon elaborated. The grumbling about the wife soon escalated into a full-blown crazy man drunken ra... More About: Snow , Snow Day
Soak Up the Sun
2008-01-12 21:45:00 I'm kind of a pessimistic sort and can usually find the bad in anything, but I'll admit, when it's 60 degrees and sunny in mid-January (rare, even for Atlanta), I'm able to put aside my fears about climate change for a bit and revel in the ability to go sit in the sun, drink Pilsner Urquell, and write for a bit. Unfortunately, #3 on that little list turned into "staring helplessly at an empty page," which hampered my enjoyment of #s 1 and 2, so I read, instead.#2 -- "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry PratchettI read this when it first came out, back when I was young and skinny, and didn't really think about in the intervening years until last year, when I thought "hey, I bet a first American hardcover of Gaiman's first book goes for lots on eBay." Wrong, as it turns out, so I left it alone. Then Tapeleg mentioned it in the comments of another post, and I made a mental note to (rather than sell it) read it again sometime.After reading "In Europe," and sort of afraid to start... More About: Books
Books 2008
2008-01-10 21:43:00 #1 -- "In Europe" by Geert MakAs I mentioned, I meant to start off the year with Pynchon's "Mason & Dixon," but... I received this for Christmas, quickly became engrossed, and since it's of a monolithic size (800+ pages) itself, Pynchon will have to wait a while.I first read about "In Europe" in the Economist sometime last year, and the feature made it sound pretty appealing -- then saw a review or two that wasn't so positive. I'm pleased to report that it's really fantastic.The idea is this: in 1999, Dutch journalist Mak traveled all throughout Europe, reliving the century -- beginning with the cities that were most influential in 1900, ending with the cities that marked the 1990s. It sounds ripe for abuse, but I'm happy to say it's not contrived at all. Mak is perceptive and sympathetic without being nostalgic. It's an effective history, told through anecdotes, oral histories, and Mak's end-of-the-century travels. It's long, but pretty engrossing, and belongs on the shel... More About: Books , 2008
PPA 2.0
2008-01-09 14:59:00 Ok, I think I've managed to not botch anything: a new layout (hardly radical, just changed the "Son of Moto" template to "Mr. Moto" - I was a bit sick of the green), switched to the updated version of Blogger (about eight months late), and added a header photo (first suggested by Brushback many moons ago). Posts and comments seem to be ok. Full speed ahead!Over the holidays, my more technologically-oriented brother sold me on Google Reader. I've fooled around with feed readers before, but finally, this one seems to actually be changing the way I use the internet a bit. The PPA blogroll was basically supposed to be my own bookmarks, reminding me to check things out -- that didn't work out. At least thus far, Google Reader is better for that -- blogs that I've previously tried to stick with (Boing Boing) but dropped because of the flood of posts now seem more manageable. It seems to be a good tool for those more-frequently-updated blogs (BB, Wonkette, Juan Cole etc). I'm pretty t...
Don't Be Alarmed
2008-01-09 04:10:00 There'll be some changes popping up here and there over the next couple days, as I try out some new looks. Hopefully, I'll do this without deleting everything or shutting comments off.
We Hardly Knew Ye
2008-01-07 06:04:00 I haven't written as much about football this season as last year, for a few reasons -- I've been working every Sunday (and thus, have been sober every Sunday), I've had a lot of things take precedence over sports the last few months, and the Buccaneers were winning, which is somehow less fun to write about.More fun to watch, though, which makes the rather sudden playoff flameout kind of hard to take. Seems like I didn't even have time to get really excited about the playoffs before they were bounced. Today's first quarter was fantastic -- the rest, a slow, dull descent into despair.I'm freed up to calmly enjoy the rest of the football postseason now, much in the way that a lobotomy patient doesn't fret about much. I don't really have much feeling for any of the other teams -- I'd even get a kick out of seeing the Patriots, suddenly America's most hated, run the table. It's all the same to me now. * * *In other sports news, a question for Vakfan... has hero to millions To...
Five Books to Read in 2008
2008-01-05 18:44:00 ICJ's message board has seen some recent threads on New Year's resolutions and video games to play in 2008 , so altering the idea a bit for my own purposes, here's five books (already on my bookshelf) I intend to read this year (and if I fail, it'll be pretty shameful):Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon. The only Pynchon I haven't read, and multiple assaults on its pages have been turned away by the tough-to-penetrate 18th-century dialect. I actually intended to start reading it the morning of January 1st, but got engrossed in Geert Mak's lengthy and excellent "In Europe" while in Colorado and the launch has thus been delayed.White Teeth by Zadie Smith. I started it last year, found it to be as fantastic as everyone says, then put it aside. Why? I know not.The Dream of the Decade by Afshin Rattansi. I am bad, bad, bad about reading books by friends of mine (witness the copy of "A House White With Sorrow" by Jennifer Heath on my shelf -- I'll read that too), an unadmirable quality... More About: Books , Read
I Have Stigmata!
2008-01-03 16:13:00 Either that, or the combination of really, really cold temperatures and really, really dry skin is causing my hands to crack and bleed spontaneously. I prefer the stigmata theory. More About: Stigmata
MARTA is SMARTA
2008-01-02 01:31:00 Hey, two posts in one day!One of the things that Atlanta does for me: no matter where I go after this, I'll be a little bit content, because no matter what, the public transportation will be better wherever I go.I see your smirk. "What about Baghdad, smart guy? What about Kabul?"Well, I doubt I'll go to either, but I still bet it'll be better, ok? I did my once-a-year MARTA ride back from the airport the other day, and it was predictably stupid and hellish, but it did provide one benefit: glimpses of some oddball things from the elevated railroad track vantage.The above graffiti -- "Last days has begun!!!", if it's too hard to read -- caught my eye. This morning, blowing my nose was losing its appeal, so I went out to try to track that down and some other stuff I'd noticed.This building is kind of interesting just for the detail -- look at the work on the entry-way. Some web searching indicates it was most recently an auto repair shop, but that's kind of fancy stuff for a car ... More About: Marta
2008
2008-01-01 15:21:00 Thanks to the ill-timed illness, I spent New Year's Eve at home, reading about Europe and dancing with Mr. Robitussin. My second straight lameish New Year's (last year was spent drinking for 12 hours and then passing out at about 12:02, as I recall), but hey, if 2008 is a good year, then I'll barely even think about being a dull old man on December 31st, right? RIGHT? Plus, I still have five days off, so I should be able to have some fun, provided I stop coughing up lung parts.* * *Quick best of 2007:Best book read -- "Against the Day" by Thomas Pynchon. Yeah, it's got a lot of bits that would have been edited out of other authors' novels, but damn did I have a blast reading it.Best album -- uh, I think I bought two albums that actually were released in 2007 (Jesu's "Conqueror" and the new Modest Mouse). Of those two, the Jesu wins, but I'm obviously getting pretty lousy about buying new music.* * *Like I said -- new year, new Klou?ek jerseys.I'm at that stage (this is numbe...
Robert Capa
More articles from this author:2007-12-31 14:34:00 Among the swell presents I got back here in Colorado was Phaidon's "Robe rt Capa : the Definitive Collection." Capa's always been something of a hero of mine, not only for his photographs (which are fantastic -- speaking as someone who tends to shy away from humans in pictures, his mastery of human emotion is impressive) but because, by all accounts, he lived a pretty full life. His "Slightly Out of Focus" (still in print, I think) is both impressive and fun, showing that in addition to his photographic talents he was no slouch as a writer, and that he had a hell of an appetite for the fun parts of life. Reading about him always gets me a little pumped up and this'll be one to have by the bed late at night.* * *Because God loves a good joke, I've come down with a nasty cough over the past few days, so I've spent much less time than I would have liked outside in the Colorado snow, and much more inside looking up "NASCAR's Worst Moments of 2007" on SI.com. Still, good to be back h... More About: Robert Capa 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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