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There's a BurgerTime Joke to be Made
2008-10-03 17:55:00
Above you see an unexpected delicacy of Nashville: deep-fried pickles with horseradish sauce. I ordered them as a novelty at a BBQ place one night; surprisingly, they turned out to be fantastic.I really ate healthily on this trip -- deep fried pickles, BBQx15, bratwurst nachos, not to mention the aforementioned key lime martinis and copious amounts of beer. I'd like to say that since coming back I've been on a strict raw vegan diet, but that would be a lie.* * *In a sort of "fall cleaning" mood today, I've stripped out some dead blogs from the links over there and added some new ones. Take a peek, won't you?
More About: Joke , Made

The Blogger Who Came In From the Cold
2008-10-03 01:57:00
Oh, hey. Yeah, I'm still alive -- just distracted by work, the health stuff (about which more sometime soon, after I have a stiff drink), home stuff, and the ability to play Qix on MAME.I really am going to post Nashville pics at some point -- I guess I just have to let the calm of a vacation completely fade before I can get some photos up. Here's one, just for kicks -- the utterly bizarre/vaguely demonic-looking AT&T building in the center of downtown.It's the tallest building not only in Nashville, but all Tennessee, as you'd know if you just looked at Wikipedia like I did. It's pretty intriguing, though I still don't know if I actually like it.* * *Other stuff: oh, hey, I read books, but both are books I've read a million times before:#40 -- "Neither Here Nor There" by Bill Bryson#41 -- "The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian" by Lawrence BlockBoth are very funny and you should read them!* * *And oh look, it's hockey season, so it's time for Don Cherry to say somethin...
More About: Blogger , Cold , The Cold

Probably the Only Blogger to Eulogize Paul Newman Today
2008-09-27 20:35:00
When I was in college, our student newspaper was playing one of those games beloved of 20-year-olds looking to avoid work, discussing who would play each of us in a movie. I chose a young Paul Newman. Never mind that the only resemblance I bore to Paul Newman of any age was that we were both white guys, never mind that Paul Newman probably wouldn't be caught dead in a Youth of Today t-shirt and cut-off Dockers. He had an ageless cool that I wanted to emulate even then.There was something eternal and reassuring about him -- he looked roughly the same in "The Sting" as he did in "Nobody's Fool" -- maybe older, but just as composed and calm.There aren't many humans I'd call timeless, but he was. If Paul Newman can die, we're all screwed.
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Peter Pepper's Traveling All-Stars
2008-09-26 18:02:00
So hey, haven't been around here much lately. Sorry! Busy busy. Work, non-work, and then BurgerTime.When I was a kid, I loved video game arcades, even though I sucked horribly at pretty much every game -- forget getting to the second level of Donkey Kong, I just wanted to get past three barrels without dying. But I found them pretty magical, and if you had told age-10 me that age-35 me would be friends with someone who had several coin-op video games in his house, I would have figured that I'd be hanging out with the Prince of Monaco or something at age 35.I don't think ICJ is the Prince of Monaco (speak up if you are, though!), but every time I visit him back in Colorado, I get a bit of that amazement back. And the suckiness, too, because I'm still awful at Tempest.So ICJ was the logical person to go to when I felt the need, the craving, for an authentic BurgerTime (or Burger Time, or Burgertime) experience this past week. If you never played it, in BT, you're Peter Pepper, wh...
More About: Stars , All-Stars , Traveling

Out of Order
2008-09-20 01:14:00
Home internet service is really really sick, so I'm lucky if I can log on for five minutes. So neat stuff further delayed.Briefly, though --#39 -- "Reappraisals" by Tony JudtI foolishly put off reading this, because the Economist kinda slammed it and I feared it would tarnish the memory of "Postwar." I needn't have worried -- it's fucking fantastic (feel free to use that on the cover of the paperback edition, guys). This is a collection of Judt's essays from the past, oh, 15 years or so, and there's nary a misstep throughout. In a few cases, I don't know enough about the Marxist scholars or whoever he's discussing to be able to respond critically, but it's often enough to spur me to check out the stuff he's writing about. And when he's discussing current/recent/historical events, he's at the top of his game. The opening essay, "The World We Have Lost," is so spot-on that I want to photocopy it, send it to everyone I know, and say "This. This is where all discussion should...
More About: Books , Order

Nashville, Briefly
2008-09-17 20:02:00
An unexpectedly busy week so I still really haven't had a chance to look through the pictures. Hopefully this weekend.Nashville was a fun town (we stayed in the heavy tourist part of the city, and it was a blast -- Atlanta has nothing comparable), and it's a bit of a shame that it's taken me this long to visit -- it's only four hours away. I've been really remiss in seeing things outside of Atlanta, outside of the occasional photo-seeking half-day trip. I haven't been to Savannah in five or six years, haven't been to Charleston since I moved here, and so on.It was also hot as hell, and more humid than Atlanta. That's not such a great thing. I had figured "Nashville is farther north = Nashville has more bearable temperatures," but WRONG.Anyway, more to come.

Beaten by Bovary
2008-09-15 19:32:00
Nashville pics probably coming tomorrow -- I'm a bit lazy plus returning to work today.#38 -- "Something to Declare" by Julian BarnesThis probably suffers a bit because I wanted it to be something it isn't, and also because I don't share the author's interests. I'd expected it to be a France-oriented version of "Letters From London," and that's not the case -- it does start off with little essays on French culture, some of which are pretty fascinating (on the Tour de France, for instance), others not so much, but still well-written.The second half-plus of the book is all about Flaubert and his circle, and again well-written, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it if you're really, really (as Barnes is) into Flaubert. I'm not. One essay would have been enough for me -- there's ten, though, and I found myself losing interest pretty fast.
More About: Books

Music City Miracle
2008-09-14 02:12:00
So hey, I've been in Nashville for a few days, without any real internet access save the Holiday Inn lobby computer, which had Net Nanny installed so that I was prevented from accessing "adult content" sites like One Base On An Overthrow.The photo above can be chalked up to one of two things: I was shocked because I'd just consumed several "Key Lime Martinis," and thus realized that I'm not actually a 35-year-old man but instead a 19-year-old sorority girl, or because it's the first time I've seen the word "Predators" in the past twelve months without someone concurrently shrieking at me about Jim Balsillie.More pictures and HC Kometa Brno info available once I catch up. I'll end the suspense, though -- N-ville's a fun town!
More About: Music , Miracle , City

Fighting the Bryan Adams Joke Urge
2008-09-10 02:52:00
#37 -- "Summer of '49" by David HalberstamA few months back, I realized that I'd never ever read any of Halberstam's books, so I picked up a few. Naturally I read the baseball one before any of those dealing with serious subjects.In my teenage years, I read just about every baseball book in the Boulder Public Library, except for this one and one or two of Roger Angell's books, which looked, I dunno, too serious for me. Anyway, "Summer of '49" was a nice end-of-summer read, pretty quick and nicely paced. I burned myself out on baseball literature long ago, but this is probably a bit headier stuff -- Halberstam's a big fan, but he can't curb his intellectual instincts, which is a-ok with me. There's a good case to be made for the pennant race occurring at a crucial juncture in American history (granted, you could probably make that case for any race between, say, the 1940s and the 1970s), as radio had started giving way to TV, the color line was still newly broken, stars' fee...
More About: Joke , Adams , Fighting , Bryan Adams , Bryan

Two Things
2008-09-08 04:06:00
a) well, that sucked.b) no idea what happened to the banner -- I drunkenly changed it last night, decided much later that part of it was not in keeping with the high-class joint I run here, and apparently blew the whole thing up.
More About: Things

Opening Day!
2008-09-07 17:13:00
There's something cheering about football starting up, even if it's still summertime temperatures outside -- it's another indication that the world will soon be a bit more bearable. And even if I don't expect much from either the Buccaneers or Broncos this year, it's still a pleasure to have it back.Of course, I'll be watching most of it from work, but we all have our crosses to bear.
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The Girls Would Turn the Color of an Avocado
2008-09-05 18:22:00
Irritating things: whenever I hear the name of former Brewer/Phillie Sixto Lezcano (not that often), my brain takes it and starts an ongoing loop of the Modern Lovers' "Pablo Picasso," substituting in "Sixto Lezcano." It does this with Cesar Cedeno, too, but it doesn't last as long.I'm nearly on hour 24 of "Sixto Lezcano was never called an asshole." At least it's better than "Raising McCain."
More About: Girls , Color , Turn

Curiosities
2008-09-04 06:40:00
I recently came across an early-1970s hockey magazine from Czechoslovakia* -- which has a bunch of cool and interesting ads in it. Some remarkably similar to North American ads at the same, others very different. I'll be posting them here from time to time, until I run out or get bored.The bit along the side says, roughly, "for modern men from the national company." I'm not sure which national company; hard to tell whether this is an advertisement for "Rex" or "Kras Brno." "Kras Brno" is listed as a garment producer that went out of business in the 1990s; there's a business called "Rex" at Podnásepní 1 in Brno, if you want to drop by.It's kind of reassuring to know that even in the murkiest depths of the Cold War, both sides had goofy pants.* - the magazine is devoted to the ZKL Brno hockey club -- ZKL has evolved over the decades into our new hockey heroes, HC Kometa Brno. They came through and won the Tipsport Cup on Tuesday, scoring three times in the final period to rally fr...
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Atlanta, Last Day of August
2008-08-31 17:20:00
You go to the trouble of making a stencil with your dopey stab at irony, sneak out under cover of darkness, get your message on to a hapless utility box -- and never think to double-check your spelling? You people make me crazy. Crazy, I say.Once upon a time, this must have been a fairly bustling little corner -- the building to the right was the Ford Factory, and the trains would have rumbled by just overhead. Now the factory has been converted into decrepit lofts and struggling businesses, the train tracks are overgrown and forgotten, and this was taken from the vantage point of a run-down Kroger parking lot. The Beltline would run right by here, on the old tracks, which might actually do something for the area (or make it worse, I guess. I really need to learn something about the project).Even the police stations go out of business around here.If I ever do a coffee table book of Atlanta 's best signs, rest assured, Dugan's, you'll be featured prominently.
More About: August

Klou?ek #7
2008-08-28 17:26:00
Now here's some of that excitement that was desperately needed: a new Tomá? Klou?ek, my ... seventh. If you want to see the others, they're here (though I don't think I ever posted the Blue Jackets jersey).I could have been showing off #7 AND #8 today. A couple weeks back, I e-mailed Brushback to point out a TK Rangers that was up on eBay, since he'd once shown interest in getting a Klou?ek jersey. He cleverly suggested that instead I should go for it, as it would improve my collection. I saw his wisdom, and showing the will-power I'm known for, I got into the bidding. Probably for the best, I ended up outbid.This is Klou?ek's 2007-08 home jersey from RI OKNA Zlín, the Czech league club. He'll be spending 2008-09 with Barys Astana of Kazakhstan, so I probably won't end up tracking down his new jersey.The RI OKNA logo. They seem to be a construction company. They have a secondary logo, which is a kind of stylized house in a stylized circle in front of a stylized hockey stick,...

The Excitement is Building
2008-08-27 22:46:00
HC Kometa Brno are through to the finals of the Tipsport Cup -- goalie Alexandr Hylák stopped everything en route to a 2-0 shutout. I had hoped to find the semifinal live online, but I forgot to look.I honestly don't know if anyone in the Czech Republic even cares about this tournament -- I'm imagining everyone in the country biting their fingernails, but for all I know they don't care. I'm just trying desperately to inject some excitement into my life; the other highlights this week have been my fantasy football draft and getting a new garbage disposal installed.
More About: Building , Excitement

Scenes From A Rainy Night in Atlanta
2008-08-25 02:40:00
A couple, out for a dog-walk in the light rain. They're heading up North Highland Avenue, near my house.A bridal store recently moved into a building over there -- what was once the Harvest restaurant, which I remember as being good despite never remembering a meal there. It's still fairly new in that location, so perhaps it caught the guy by surprise.They're walking at a decent pace until they get to the bridal store, and the girl stops dead in her tracks. Stops, turns 90 degrees, gapes at the window display (rain be damned).The guy (and dog)? He does everything but break into a sprint. He started moving as fast as a man can while technically still walking.* * *A while back I was gonna write something about how rain suits Atlanta and the city's a bit prettier/friendlier during it, but I sobered up. I had something (what, I'm not sure) there, though. It loses its big city hopes during a nice rain like tonight's, and settles into something more comfortable for Atlanta -- it fee...
More About: Night , Scenes

Recidivist
2008-08-22 18:11:00
#36 -- "Ghost Story" by Peter StraubOne of my favorites when I was a kid, and something I've been meaning to re-read for some time now, ever since I read "Turn of the Screw" and finally understood some of the references/homages. I'm pleased to say that it holds up extremely well -- the "town cut off" theme is perhaps the most effective in horror fiction, and this is up there with "Salem's Lot" on top of the heap. I'm pleased to note that it wasn't just chilling -- Straub writes extremely well, and this is so much better than most of the stuff I was reading when I was 15. Back when I was actually getting paid to review books, I got called out by a local store-owner for tossing the old "transcends the genre" line around like a limp penguin. He was right, but sometimes things do transcend the genre, and this is one of them.I fear most of the stuff I liked back then wouldn't hold up today -- I've been thinking about, and then rejecting, the idea of giving Ramsey Campbell a read -...

Svejk Unrestrained
2008-08-16 22:12:00
#35 -- "The Good Soldier Svejk" by Jaroslav HasekA bit later than planned, the first novel from Tibor Fischer's list of the great Eastern European books. Svejk is something of an institution in the Czech Republic now, and many pubs have cashed in on tourist schlubs like me by proudly displaying Josef Lada's iconic representation of the little fellow. I actually read this some years ago, but the version I read previously was considerably bowdlerized and about one-third the length. This version clocks in at about 750 pages, and was intended to be much longer -- it was originally written as a serial, but Hasek died midway through, which puts a damper on anyone's writing career.Its label of "classic" is pretty well justified -- yes, it's too long and too repetitive (he was getting paid by the word, after all), but it's hilarious and sly. Svejk, if you'd rather read it here than on Wikipedia or whatever, is a Czech soldier in the Austrian army during World War I, constantly causing...

Maiden Atlanta
2008-08-15 17:52:00
We're still in the dregs of August, a/k/a "the month when everyone with half a brain gets the hell out of Atlanta ," an appellation it shares with June, July, January, February, much of May and September, and probably a week or so in April. But there's little signs that eventually, it may cool off a bit and this whole disgusting heat-fest will ease a bit. You no longer have to get up before 7 a.m. if you want to spend a little time outside; yesterday I was strolling at about 10:30, post-rainstorm, and it was actually pleasant outside. Imagine that! Pleasure!I've pretty much gone all summer without going out and taking photos, because it's been so bloody disgusting that I just sit inside and read/lie on the couch until it's either time to go to work or socially acceptable to go drink beer, depending on what day of the week it is. But taking advantage of an early awakening and the not-horrendous temperatures this morning, I went for a little stroll near my house.Iron Maiden was on...

Something I Learned Today
2008-08-08 05:16:00
Things, actually:1) Someone has created a blog devoted to good representations of the humble ampersand, and I enjoy it. If you had told me that prior to me seeing this blog, I would have looked at you strangely, but go figure. My brother passed it on. Thanks, Tim.Apparently it got hyped on kottke.org, which I'm vaguely aware is a big blog, but I've always associated it with Leo Kottke the musician. Nothing against him -- I saw him once in Boulder, and he was pretty good, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't drunk -- but I always figured a web page devoted to him would be kind of dull. Yeah, I know this one ISN'T devoted to him, but I can't shake the association.2) The Canadian Football League actually gives out a "Most Valuable Canadian" award in the Grey Cup. This has cheered me to no end. I guess (please don't correct me if I'm wrong) that they give an award to the real most valuable player, and then they give the Most Valuable Canadian award to the most valuable player who's act...
More About: Today , Learned

Atlanta's Extremes
2008-08-07 17:23:00
The Ski Bum and I were wrapping up a hike yesterday -- weekly hikes being my major method of trying to counter a primarily beer-and-wing-based diet -- when we came upon an older fellow in a parking lot. "Can I try out some jokes on you two?" he asked. In the movies, there would be ominous music at this point, but I haven't developed full-time soundtrack capability, so I said sure.He told us that he was going to be appearing at a comedy club in Boston, and that they'd just legalized gay marriage up there (untrue). He told us two gay jokes of various degrees of awfulness, and while his delivery was good, they were pretty unfunny even if that's your thing. Still, I chuckled politely.He went on to tell us that he had a deal with a major publisher for three books of jokes, at $50,000 a pop (his story kept changing at this point -- we heard no more about the comedy club) and then, somehow, went from there into explaining that gay marriage was bringing about Sodom and Gomorrah, and end ...

Quick Update
2008-08-03 16:53:00
Hope to get back to regular posting (how often have I said that?) in coming days, but lots to do this morning so just the usual crap about books:#33 -- "The Boys on the Bus" by Timothy CrouseI've wanted to read this for ages -- Crouse worked alongside Hunter S. Thompson covering the 1972 election and I've always sort of viewed this as a companion volume to "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail," which remains my all-time favorite political book. This is more a look at how the media covered the election, and it's really, really, really good. Much of it is extremely relevant today.#34 -- "Nowhere Man" by Aleksandar HemonBosnian novelist Hemon is getting touted pretty heavily these days with the release of his new book, so I figured it was time to finally read this, which has been sitting on my shelf for a few years. Not at all what I expected -- I thought it would be much darker, but this, while often grim, is also kind of sweet and poignant. We follow Josef Pronek, a Ukrainian ...
More About: Books , Update , Quick

Chop Chop
2008-08-01 17:49:00
Well, looks like someone hasn't been updating his blog at all. A lack of material is to blame, I'm afraid. I could tell you what I've done with my past week, but you'd go into a coma.A couple weeks back, I announced the adoption of HC Kometa Brno as my hockey team, since both the Avalanche and Thrashers seem headed for hockey tragedy in 2008-09. Now I'm proud to announce that the Post-Pessimist Association is taking on an AHL affiliate --THE IOWA CHOPS.The frowny-faced scolds of the hockey blog world have been up in arms about this team's mere existence in recent weeks, because the name is, I guess, improperly worshipful of the church of hockey. "Gordie Howe never played for a team called the 'Chops'!", they whine. If ever there was proof that hockey fans take shit way too seriously, this is it. Do baseball fans cry about the Albuquerque Isotopes? I don't know -- I don't really read baseball blogs other than Fire Joe Morgan. But I suspect they have better things to do with...

Gorby Versus the Zombies
2008-07-27 03:45:00
Well, it's all downhill from here -- human society has hit its cultural peak. This is the greatest thing ever, this week at least --Found via A Fistful of Euros. It's apparently a Russian musician/group known as "ANJ." And it's fantastic.
More About: Zombies , Versus

Breaking New Ground
2008-07-26 17:42:00
The Guardian recently ran a list of "Tibor Fischer's top 10 Eastern European novels" -- I'm not sure who Tibor Fischer is, but he's apparently a novelist and of Hungarian heritage, so he's got the goods in my book. In an attempt to get off the Lawrence Block habit, at least for a bit, I'm gonna try to read them all. I've already read four -- ?vejk, "Omon Ra," "The Joke" and "General of the Dead Army" -- but it's years since I read even those, so I think I can approach this with a relatively fresh take. This may be a rather nerdy and unproductive goal, but I'll take what I can get as far as self-improvement these days.
More About: Ground , Breaking

Simple Pleasures
2008-07-26 01:23:00
If I found out I were to be executed tomorrow (it could happen!), my request for my final meal would, most likely, be white pizza from the seedy little joint around the corner and a bottle of red wine. Either that or beer and wings. Maybe I'd cheat and try to get both -- white pizza with wings on the side, wine with a beer chaser.The pizza place regularly gets about 1.5 stars on yelp.com, but I love it -- it's quick, two blocks from me, and they make a good white pizza. Granted, my sole requirement for white pizza is "it has to go well with wine," and everything goes well with wine. But they satisfy that requirement. The guys running the place are stoned out of their collective gourd, which I appreciate -- like I've said, I occasionally enjoy it when people play to stereotypes. Granted, that occasionally means that they translate "extra garlic" as "give him a tub of garlic-butter dipping sauce," but I can live with that. (It's good for crust-dipping, anyway, though probably not ...
More About: Simple

Predictable
2008-07-23 02:37:00
I probably should have seen this coming: after reacquainting myself with Bernie Rhodenbarr, Noah e-mailed me to say it had inspired him to pick up one of the Burglar books ("The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams") for the first time in years, and then somehow "Ted Williams" found its way back into my hands. (I didn't read it enough in Albuquerque.) And that wasn't the end of it.#30 -- "The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams" by Lawrence Block#31 -- "The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart" by Lawrence BlockAnd you'd think that was enough, but I started "The Burglar in the Library" this morning. Everything I said before holds; these two may have been my favorite of the series, though that may be because they tackled subjects (sports cards in "Ted," old movies and Eastern Europe in "Bogart") close to my heart. The Burglar books are dangerous in two ways -- they make burglary seem like a really fun career, and worthwhile too, and they make New York seem like a city where everyone exchanges...
More About: Books

The Chess King of Atlanta
2008-07-20 20:56:00
I was out until three in the morning last night, which has become kind of a rarity for the Old Man of the Hills here, and had a couple of set-fast beliefs turned on their end. First off, I ended up at the Ballroom Lounge in the basement of the Highland Inn, a place I'd avoided since it opened -- I was certain, despite friends' protestations to the contrary, that I'd hate it, that it would be claustrophobic and awful. Instead, it's spacious, a bit quirky, and really pretty cool.Then I ended up playing a game of drunken chess (like regular chess, except you're drunk) against a friend. Chess is a game that I've always thought you take up when you're tired of life -- the golf of board games. But I was completely wrapped up in the game, found myself thinking the moves through (when I've played chess in the past, it's with all the reserve and subtlety of a suicide bomber), and had a great time (and won). Am I actually a born chess player? Or have I just quieted down so much that ...
More About: Atlanta , King

Old Friends
2008-07-18 16:23:00
#28 -- "The Burglar on the Prowl" by Lawrence BlockBack in college, I spent a couple unscheduled days, broke and broken-down, in a rough part of Albuquerque. I didn't drink at the time, and most of my possessions were in the car in the mechanic's, so I stayed in my hotel room with one book: "The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams," by Lawrence Block. Having nothing else to do, I read it three straight times, cover to cover. It didn't get old.Since then, I've always been a Bernie Rhodenbarr fan, though I haven't paid much attention in recent years. I picked this up recently for a quick read, and it's still fun. At first I found it enjoyable but not as funny as I found the books some years ago; by the end, though, I was laughing out loud pretty frequently.If you're one of the people who likes to be able to figure out a mystery while you're reading it, you're screwed. Half the crucial characters don't appear until the end. And if you've read any of the previous novels, you'll ...
More About: Friends , Books