The Post-Pessimist Association

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Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Call for Entries
2007-10-15 20:42:00
Or perhaps suggestions -- whichever's more accurate. One Atlanta-based, one open to all.* Atlantans -- where do you find the finest nachos in our city? Manuel's changed their recipe this past weekend to incorporate fake cheese, to my sorrow and disappointment. I'm looking for grease, here. El Myr probably holds the top rank in my heart, to give you an idea.* Everyone -- anyone have good recipes for pork green chili? I've got a yearning for it, but I don't, myself, have a good recipe.Thanks and good night.
More About: Call , Trie

The Campus Leaves Have Begun To Turn
2007-10-13 14:27:00
And then, suddenly, it was autumn in Atlanta. It was 43 degrees when I woke up this morning, a temperature so far removed from anything even a week ago that I assumed it was a mistake. Last Sunday I was uncomfortably warm walking around -- now stepping outside wearing shorts is a shock to the system. It feels pretty fantastic. After the oppressive summer, the air feels alive and brisk.I walked out of work a few nights ago, and the weather had broken in the intervening hours -- suddenly there was that chill in the air, and all of those remembered smells that I associate with fall. And it struck me: I don't know what those smells are. They're just ... fall. A hint of something burning, a hint of some spice, but what produces them? Decaying leaves? A vast pumpkin patch that I don't know about? A city-wide incense burning?Perhaps, given the state of the city's teams, it's just the scent of failure.
More About: Campus , Turn , Leaves , Aves

J.P. Donleavy
2007-10-10 05:14:00
I've been reading J.P. Donleavy's "The Ginger Man" lately, after it spent the requisite decade on my shelf. More on it later. Rather taken by the book so far, I did a little Donleavy-googling the other night, and found a bit that I rather liked:(from a Paris Review interview)INTERVIEWER: Do you have an ideal reader? DONLEAVY: I suppose very isolated, lonely folk. I remember one letter from a girl in a Midwestern town who read one of my books and thought she had discovered it ? that no one had ever read it or knew about it. Then one day in her local library she found cards for one or two of my other books. They were full of names ? the books were borrowed all the time. She resented this a bit and then walked around the town forever after, looking in everybody's face and wondering if they were the ones who were reading my books. That is someone I write for.
More About: Books

When You Break Both Your Legs, Don't Come Running To Me
2007-10-08 17:16:00
One side-effect of working at a place that is in business 365 days a year: when I found my bank closed today, my first thought was that Bank of America must have collapsed, and I just didn't hear about it.Posts have been rather rare and uninspired lately, haven't they? I'm going to try to change that. There's been a sort of "duty" about posting in recent weeks -- "I read a book, I must write a blurb about it; I haven't posted in three days, I better come up with something." There's gonna be a conscious effort to put a bit more into the writing (today, perhaps, excepted). The book blurbs are a particular frustration; it's hard to think of any (save "The Sheltering Sky") that I've put much thought into, and that's not what I want to be doing. Occasionally it's appropriate -- I really didn't have much to say about "Our Gang" -- but usually it's just "let's get this done." It's the old blowback from working in TV -- my instincts tell me "say what you have to as quickly as ...
More About: Running , Break , Legs , Brea

Election Day
2007-10-06 17:59:00
#42 -- "Our Gang" by Philip RothHere's an example of a novel that I'm reading a couple decades late (and actually, "Portnoy's Complaint" probably falls into the same category). In its time, "Our Gang" was pretty obviously groundbreaking satire, but now, after a couple decades of the Onion, it loses some punch. It's hilarious (a send-up of Richard Nixon) and had a bunch of spots that made me laugh out loud, but seems kind of light. As far as Roth's comic novels go, I'd recommend "The Great American Novel" over this.
More About: Books , Election

Hockey Hockey Hockey
2007-10-04 03:48:00
Hey! It's opening night for the Avalanche! And what better way to celebrate than by listening to ME for an inordinate amount of time? Alanah was kind/open-minded/foolish enough to interview me (and Tapeleg, who actually knew what he was talking about) about the Avalanche, on the Crazy Canucks podcast.Hear me sound like a Muppet (at first - later on, after a few glasses of wine, I sound like a drunk Muppet), insult the Canucks, and talk about hockey. It was actually a blast -- thanks Alanah!
More About: Hockey

Quick, Cancel Your Syracuse Crunch Jersey Orders
2007-10-03 22:20:00
The Crunch have released their regular season roster -- one name is conspicuously missing.Sometimes I wonder if there's justice in this world.Update 10/4: Syracuse.com says he's likely to play in Germany.
More About: Quick , Jersey , Orders , Ancel

A Thousand Eyes Are Gazing Down
2007-10-02 21:09:00
I've gone on so many times about the sky back in Colorado, that I forget if I've ever written about it here. I didn't understand the phrase "big sky" until I went away and came back -- then, finally, I understood just how breathtaking the heavens are out there. When I return now, my first thought upon getting out of the airport is that the world's grown bigger and I've grown smaller.It's beautiful and stunning, but not entirely friendly. You could get lost in that sky -- it doesn't care a whit about you. It makes feature appearances in my dreams sometimes; it's always impressive, but the dreams are never entirely comfortable.#41 -- "The Sheltering Sky" by Paul BowlesThis is exhibit A in "I'm occasionally wrong." I tried to read this several times, was always put off by it within the first 30 pages or so, and finally ended up giving it away. Months later, it came up in conversation and I was encouraged to give it another try... so I bought another copy. (you'd be amazed how...
More About: Eyes , Thousand

Takes A Crane to Pick Me Up
2007-09-30 22:59:00
I have vague ideas of getting myself back on a semi-normal schedule sometime soon, and writing on a more frequent basis (and on subjects more diverse than "boy, I'm busy" and "I read a book" and "Tomas Kloucek - how about that guy?"). But I'm not quite there yet. In the meantime, I've seen several movies semi-recently. Perhaps you'd be interested in what I thought about them?* "The Asphalt Jungle" -- watched this during my first period of noir fascination, back in college, but it didn't make much of an impact on me. This time around, it did. Sympathetic characters and broodingly shot; I'd always questioned "Asphalt Jungle's" inclusion in the noir pantheon, but don't any more.* "Out of the Past" -- This one, though, I'm skeptical about. Maybe I just watched it too close to AJ. Good performances, but the plot's kind of nonsensical, and as cool as Robert Mitchum is, his character just seems way too apathetic to actually be motivated as he is. * "Hero" -- Asian sword flicks ar...
More About: Pick , Cran

A Sign of Hope
2007-09-27 16:44:00
Well geez, somehow I missed this: Tomá? Klou?ek in the Syracuse Crunch camp on a tryout deal. It might be a tough battle, since (at current count) there's 14 defensemen on the Crunch roster, and more undoubtedly coming from Columbus -- but at least we have a Klou?ek sighting.And, if he does stick with Syracuse this year, I don't have to buy a new jersey. I've got enough Crunch jerseys.
More About: Hope , Sign

Rosie the Riveter
2007-09-21 04:57:00
It's been a while since my friends have stared at me in horror -- it's been a while since I've given Nanuk something to laugh about. And it's almost hockey season.Time for another jersey!Vladimír R??i?ka (and you won't see all those diacritics again) is one of the all-time greats of Czech hockey. Over in the NHL, "Rosie " was largely considered a disappointment (despite a 75-point season with the Bruins), but over in Europe, he was pretty great. He continued to be a pretty productive player late into his 30s with Slavia Praha.I've got two of his jerseys. They're both from exhibition/charity games. And they're both pretty ugly.HC Litvínov is known for Jiri Bubla and Jiri Slegr, and for really nice jerseys -- check this one -- so naturally the only one in my collection is this ... eye-catcher. If I were to go night-biking, I'd wear this.This was worn for some sort of charity all-star game (note the stars!). I really, really dig the diacritic marks on the name. Maybe stripping ...

I Sleep Beside the Railroad Tracks - No More Rent or Income Tax
2007-09-18 16:57:00
Apparently I don't complain enough about having to work/not being elsewhere, because LP passed on a link to this blog, which includes a pretty entertaining account of a jaunt to Prague. It had me -- less than a month after returning from vacation, less than a year after being in the city itself -- ready to chuck it all and head back. In a matter of minutes, I'd (out of curiosity only!) found a $624 Atlanta-Prague round-trip fare over New Year's, which (reluctantly) I'll have to pass on.But yeah, now, despite the nicest weather we've had in months, I'm thinking about where to go next. Singapore? (uncle lives there) Ukraine? Ethiopia? Or just give in to my nature and go to the Czech Rep again?While we're on the subject, and with hockey season getting under way, I've been horrendously remiss in not mentioning frequent commenter Vak Fan's blog -- Southern Bohemian Ho(c)ke(y)j. It's all about Czech hockey, about which I normally have a hell of a time finding English-language in...
More About: Income , Tracks , Sleep , Rent , Railroad

In Your Old El Camino, Singing in the Rain
2007-09-17 21:54:00
Had a hard time getting to sleep last night, so polished off another book:#40 -- "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" by John BerendtExhibit B in "Greg comes very late to the best-sellers." I'll get to "The Da Vinci Code" one of these days. I actually wanted to read this back when it came out, made the mistake of seeing the rather lackluster movie first, and was put off until the Ski Bum lent it to me, years later.I'd figured the book was primarily about the murder that forms the centerpiece of the film, but in the first half, it's much more just a portrait of the Old South, an Old Savannah that was disappearing in the '70s and '80s. The descriptions of the town, and society, are fantastic. It's been years since I've been to Savannah -- after reading the book, I want to head back just to see Bonaventure Cemetery.The people, though... I realize that Berendt changed some identities and (I presume) some of the dialogue to better suit his narrative, but every single characte...
More About: Books , Rain , Camino , Singing

I'll See You Back in Reno, Outside the Grand Casino
2007-09-16 15:26:00
Every year, about this time, we'll get a torrential rainstorm, beautiful in its fury, and then the next day find that the summer heat's broken and we're into one of those periods where Atlanta is really beautiful. Giving it all a bit of a dark side, the storms are the remnants of hurricanes -- one this past Friday was, I guess, the tail end of Hurricane Humberto, which was a lot less pleasant for some states to the west.So like I said, since getting back from London, I've been in the throes of one of my periodic soccer fascinations. These are generally fleeting, partly because I get confused about when I should be paying attention and what's the top prize to get (I know they have lots of cups), partly because I will never understand the offside rule. I get hockey's offside rule just fine, but not soccer. Why? I don't know.One of the ways this current fascination is manifesting itself is through the Football Manager computer game, the older brother to the Eastside Hockey Manag...
More About: Casino , Back , Grand , Reno , The Grand

I Don't Know Where I Am But I Know My Destination
2007-09-11 17:29:00
Is there anything less interesting than a(n occasional) blogger's whining about how busy he is? Probably not. Sorry. Life is, as it frequently becomes, a series of half-finished projects, looming responsibilities, insanity at work, and so on -- eventually throwing me into inertia (can you be thrown into inertia? Probably not) that leaves me doing nothing and feeling guilty about everything. Seriously -- it's at the point where my unwatched Netflix movies are causing me as much guilt as a neglected child.I ultimately decided against a wholesale posting of my UK photos -- since I didn't do a ton of hardcore sightseeing, most of them are pictures of friends (and my friends are savvy enough to launch a preemptive strike against me posting them on the blog), architectural oddities, or old/odd signs (which will probably show up as headers at some point).One brief mention that must be made -- it's a remarkably civilized city where you can find Budvar/Czechvar in nearly every bar.* * *I...
More About: Destination

Don't forget:::You are Baby Africa.
2007-09-06 22:41:00
If you haven't yet, go to the comments a few back (here) and scroll down a bit. Then read the musings of some insane genius that dropped by (he also visited Sidearm Delivery). Allow a few hours, he (I'm assuming it's a he -- safely, I think) is verbose.When I worked back at the newspaper in Boulder, we had a lot of crazy people drop by -- the combination of, well, it being Boulder, and us having a storefront office right downtown. One repeat customer was the Reverend Friendly, an old dude with long hair and long white beard who came in smelling very minty once -- without prodding, he said "I just drank a bottle of fuckin' mouthwash!" There were also the people who would drop off their missives tying the city government in to the Illuminati, the Kennedys, Satanists, or whoever.One day, I was sitting at my desk, hard at work, when one of the crazies came in. He was wearing camouflage pants, black t-shirt, and a Mao cap -- a bit off-kilter, but in Boulder, hardly alarming. His wild...
More About: Baby , Africa , Forge

Something Must Break
2007-09-04 22:25:00
I've been listening to Joy Division's "Still" a lot in the car lately (it's not a cry for help!), featuring the song "Some thing Must Brea k " -- a song that, given my long reluctance to accept JD, I still associate more with Jawbox. Which may cost me some points in the long run.Anyway, I know misheard lyrics are about the lowest form of humor, but until I bothered to look it up, I thought the line "If we were immortal" was "If we were in law school."Which I found kind of a curious thing to put in a song.* * *While in London, I (as I have before) found myself pretty captivated by the soccer coverage. I don't follow the sport, and aside from a few names (Rooney, Beckham ... um, Pele?) I don't really know any of the players, but it just all seems so dramatic and fascinating. Backstabbing, feuding players, attempts to lure guys from rival teams, and so on.It struck me while I was there that as the world's most popular sport (I think), there's probably all sorts of great soccer lite...

Not So Quiet
2007-09-03 15:45:00
More on London soon, with a few more photos, but first:#38 -- "The Stalin Front" by Gert LedigShort and pretty intense war novel, written in 1950s Germany and rescued from obscurity by the NY Review. War fiction isn't really my thing, but this isn't chest-beating stuff, rather grimy, unromantic and futile fighting on the German-Soviet front. It's narrowly focused, picking up small pieces of the battle at different times, so it's (intentionally) hard to get the big picture of the fighting. Interesting and well-done, with subtle and effective black humor. Not a lot of fun, though.
More About: Books , Quiet

We Ain't Got No Swing
2007-08-31 12:22:00
Just a few snippets from the trip to London...* After the first few days of rain, the weather became incredible -- 75 and sunny, with air that felt fresh and clean (particularly in comparison to Atlanta). One minor moment on the trip, but one that will be treasured like the Patrick Leigh Fermor read of a previous visit -- waking up, getting coffee and a copy of the Guardian, and sitting under a tree in Kensington Gardens to read and relax. For someone who doesn't let himself relax much, that was a nice interlude.* Between visits, I forget just how much I love the London pub culture. I don't see anything comparable in the States -- sitting outside some little place, drinking beer and talking, as a variety of interesting and/or weird people drop by and join in, later replaced by someone else interesting/odd. As much as I like some of the bars near my place, they're home to decrepit drunks during the day and frat guys at night -- there's precious few witty intelligent types like, u...
More About: Swing

Back in the Sauna
2007-08-30 13:06:00
Got back to Atlanta yesterday, and I was pouring sweat at 6 a.m. today. Fantastic.Obviously, the social whirl was busy in London, so the updates were scarce. I'll write more and post more photos today or tomorrow.In the meantime, a quick roundup of the books I read on the trip:#35 -- "The Fourth Bear" by Jasper Fforde#36 -- "Words of Mercury" by Patrick Leigh Fermor#37 -- "Chronicle of Stone" by Ismail KadareThe Fforde book isn't normally my style, but I was looking for something quick for the plane ride over, and it caught my eye. Glad it did. It's a mystery set in a part of England where nursery rhyme characters collide with real life, and it's funny as hell. Lots of sly humor and clever references -- I laughed out loud quite a bit. I'll pick up some of his other books, which similarly seemed aimed at constant readers.Everyone's probably sick of hearing about Fermor ... sorry! I don't think this anthology is available in the U.S., so of course I had to get it. It's selecti...
More About: Books , Back , Sauna

A Rainy Night in Soho
2007-08-24 13:39:00
This is what you get when you bitch too much about the heat in Atlanta: three straight days of rain and 60-degree temperatures in London. I can't remember the last time (if ever) that I've had to wear a jacket in August.At least, though, it's something different to complain about, and today the rain has stopped and the temperatures are warmer; I even saw the sun briefly this morning.I've spent a lot of time on Charing Cross Road, home to a whole bunch of great bookstores (and legendary for the now-long gone store at 84 CC). One of them, Henry Pordes Books, is the scene of a pleasant book memory -- in the basement, two years ago, I found Patrick Leigh Fermor's "A Time of Gifts," at the time unavailable (and impossible to find used) in the U.S.Having heard of it, I got it, and then went and sat in a park near the British Museum (a sunny day, then) and immediately became enraptured. Sitting under a tree, alternately reading and daydreaming, suddenly anything seemed possible.I also...
More About: Night , Soho

Bon Voyage
2007-08-20 18:48:00
I leave for London tonight. It's still disgustingly hot in Atlanta, we broke the "Target: Force" video game at Manuel's last night, Sidearm Delivery has shut down, Tomas Kloucek is still unemployed -- with all these negative signs and portents, it's time to leave Atlanta for a bit.Not sure what blogging will be like while I'm over there -- it could be really light as social pursuits distract me, could be really heavy as I wait for friends to get out of work. We'll see.In the meantime, I drove up to Cartersville, Georgia the other day. I'd been through Cartersville a few times previously, but always wrote it off as a collection of strip malls and mega-grocery stores. Tipped off that it's actually kind of an interesting place if you get off the main highways, this time I explored a bit, and whaddaya know -- lots of cool old buildings and a nice, pleasant downtown area. There's a lesson here.This is the first-ever outdoor Coca-Cola sign. I think it's safe to say it's been rep...
More About: Voyage , Bon Voyage

Skag Heaven
2007-08-17 06:59:00
Been a little quiet around here lately, but now I'm on vacation. And good and drunk -- assists to white wine and an "Arrested Development" DVD.Started writing something, haven't finished. In the meantime -- bad squirrels (read down a bit). Link via Our Man in Tirana.Two and a half weeks off of work, one and a half of those in London, so it's all downhill from here.
More About: Heaven

The Atlanta Falcons: Causing More Problems
2007-08-13 16:07:00
Keeping on a theme -- if you would, gentle reader, speak aloud the team name up there in the title. Done? Ok, thanks.For my entire life, I pronounced the word "fahl-cons." Last year, in a bar, I said that -- and it was greeted with peals of laughter and calls for me to say it again. Apparently, everyone else says it "faal-cons." (for a better approximation, go here and press the pronunciation links: Merriam-Webster says both are ok, though faal-cons seems preferred.)Since then, it's been a mild obsession of mine, conducting unofficial surveys of how people say it and where they're from. My parents, who presumably taught me how to speak, say it "faal." In fact, the only people I've found that agree with me are as follows: the Elk (raised in Minnesota), Fidel (raised in London), and my little brother (raised in Colorado).I've also been told that "fahl" might be acceptable if you're being some hoity-toity snob and discussing things like "Falcon Crest," but it's not acceptable for...
More About: Atlanta , Atlanta Falcons , Problems , The A , Cons

Dangerous Inattention to Reality
2007-08-12 23:42:00
I've been a football fan for, oh, let's say 30 years or so. I've lived in Atlanta for nearly eight years. And just this past week, I finally realized: the falcon that's (with some variation) adorned the Atlanta Falcons' helmets since they entered the league in the 1960s -- is actually a stylized "F" (for falcon, one hopes).Next week: Greg learns what the "NY" on the Yankees' caps means.
More About: Reality , Attention , Tent , Ality , Dangerous

Hot August Nights
2007-08-12 00:22:00
You may be sick of hearing over and over how hot it is down here, but it's an accurate representation of life: every conversation now begins that way, with a discussion of the heat and liberal use of obscenities, before we begin drinking ourselves insensate. It's too hot to do anything, still. I actually got up early and drove out to Gwinnett County, hoping to shoot some photos, but I'm not into subdivisions or strip malls and came back with nothing. (above pic is from Boulder, which is undoubtedly cooler than Atlanta right now.)I'm going a bit stir crazy -- I'm trying not to spend money, and (have I mentioned?) it's really too hot to be outside between morning and night. Most public enclosed places either expect you to spend money, or are boring (I'm not gonna go hang around the county government offices), so I'm trying to find new things to do in my (small) condo. And running out, really. The more time I spend here, the worse my attention span becomes, so reading, watching...
More About: August , Nights

I'll Take Indie Cred Wherever I Can Find It
2007-08-08 17:59:00
Just in the interest of getting the previous post bumped down, an anecdote...I got my hair cut yesterday, even with a hangover that you could (in the words of Bill Bryson) sell to silence science. Yeah, I'll take that Purple Heart. Next to me, a woman was getting her hair worked on by a male stylist, who seemed to be working the seduction angle (and he was good at it -- by the time the woman left, she was all but throwing her underwear at the guy).At one point, she asked him where he got his hair cut, and the guy replied (paraphrased -- I wasn't taking notes) "I go to Shanghai once a year -- there's this guy there who's the only person I trust."Now, he didn't seem to be joking, though it was obvious bullshit. That's a new level of hipster oneupmanship. Is the barber in Shanghai the hair stylist's version of obscure Finnish noise bands?
More About: Find , Indie , Where

So
2007-08-07 07:41:00
Hey there, Post-Pessimist Association readers (all six of you). I'm drunk.Not really an unexpected occurrence around here, but tonight, I honestly expected to be in bed and responsible by midnight. That did not happen. What did happen, about the time I saw some guy do a karaoke version of Golden Earring's "Twilight Zone" as I drank my third vodka tonic (cutting back on beer!), is that I found myself thinking of the weird associations I have with nations.Yeah, nations. Not nations I think about for most of my life (Czech Rep., Albania). Not nations too big to ignore.But ... those other nations. The countries that are there, but don't intrude on my daily life.For instance: when I think of the Netherlands, I think of wooden shoes, hookers, Janwillem van de Wetering, Grolsch, and Golden Earring. (not necessarily in that order.)When I think of Belgium, I think of chocolates and beer.When I think of Denmark, I think of my friend Susanne, and Gammel Dansk (this amazing drink that tastes...

People Keep Calling Me Five Alive
2007-08-06 15:17:00
Brushback tagged me for the favorite five songs thing that's going around -- probably in the hopes that I'd just list off five No For An Answer songs. Unfortunately "You Laugh" has six songs and I can't decide which to leave out, so I'll look elsewhere.This is just about an impossible task -- I've decided on some really half-formed criteria, basically that it has to be a song that I'm pretty confident has staying power (i.e. I'll probably still be listening to it in a decade), and it has to be one of the limited subset of musical creations that I'll punch up two or three times in a row on a jukebox or car stereo or whatnot. Anyway, in no particular order:Wilco "Dreamer in My Dreams" -- I was slow to get into Wilco, partly because I came into them through Uncle Tupelo and always preferred Farrar to Tweedy (still do -- though I'd take Wilco over Son Volt. Go figure.), partly because the first album I heard was "Being There" and it was kind of a sprawling mess, something that ...
More About: People , Calling , Alive , Five

Dreaming of a Deep Freeze
2007-08-05 22:00:00
October is only two months away (really!), the month when Atlanta becomes a temperate paradise and I renew my annual tradition of deluding myself into thinking it's always 68 degrees here. Right now, though, I'm deep in my annual tradition of bitching about the weather at every opportunity (a tradition that leads to much-derided post titles like this). It was too unpleasant to sit on a shaded patio yesterday (though a revelation: Hand in Hand's chili wings are great, perhaps the first time I've ever said anything good about the food at one of the Derek Lawford Pubs). It was too hot to sleep last night, even with the air conditioner going at a strain-the-power-grid level. It sucks.I'm occupying myself with cold thoughts -- Russian literature, imagining the Ice Hotel, photos of Iceland, hockey fight videos. And I'm reminding myself that this will end, eventually.And of course, I'm going to London (two weeks from tomorrow, and if you think I won't be mentioning it daily here un...
More About: Deep , Dreaming , Freeze , Deep Freeze , Ming