Book Festival
This Saturday we headed downtown for the National Book Festival. We hoped to see such famous authors as Salman Rushdie, Neil Gaiman, Tiki Barber, and more. As it turned out, we very nearly walked into a couple of them.
We drove downtown and arrived well before we wanted to arrive, but had to circle for 30 minutes to find a parking spot. It turned out that, thanks to Bike DC, it would have been a great day to ride our bike downtown, or take Metro. Closed streets and construction everywhere, ugh.
After we finally got to the festival, we were dismayed at the huge line. Turns out that Laura Bush was still there signing books, and the line was to get through security. Thanks to that brilliantly idiotic move, we missed out on seeing Jan Brett, who wrote The Mitten and other fun kids' books. Instead we walked around for a little bit before making our way, after they took down the security line, back to the children's tent. On the way there a golf cart pulled up next to us, and I nearly walked smack into Neil Gaiman (author of my favorite Sandman comic books and American Gods, among others) who was speaking at the Teen tent. We got to the children's tent and saw the newest member of the New York Knicks, Chris Duhon, who was there as part of some NBA literacy program (not as an author).
I left Lisa and the kids to wait for David Shannon (author of "No, David" and others) and Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin (authors of "Click, Clack, Moo" and others) and went to check out the signing area. I was hoping that since we had missed Jan Brett's talk, we'd at least be able to get the book signed. Turned out there was no chance in hell of that happening. I got in line ten minutes before she started signing, and the line was already 400 people long. She signed for an hour and a half and there were still 300 people in line for when she would start signing again an hour and a half after that. No way. Instead, I ran back and grabbed our David Shannon books and got in line for his signing an hour away from starting. I was only about 20 people back for him. He started signing just as Lisa and the kids arrived, and I sent Lisa over to the Cronin/Lewin line. Ellie ended up bonding with David Shannon as fellow lefties. Lisa reported that she had nearly run over Salman Rushdie with the stroller!
At this point, it was well past lunchtime, so I left Lisa in line to get the Cronin/Lewis signatures and took the kids for lunch, but not before snagging a picture of Tiki Barber. Lisa got the signatures just as we finished up lunch, and we decided to head home.
We may not have gotten every signed book we wanted, but overall it was a fun time, and we managed to avoid the rain too. Next year though, we're leaning toward just going up to Baltimore for their book festival. They may not get the celebrity authors, but it's much less crowded and more laid back than the craziness of this one.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
My review
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Halfway through this book, I had to go onto the internet and make sure that yes, it did in fact win the Pulitzer Prize. It just shocked me that a book about a couple of kids making it big through writing comic books would win the Pulitzer. But of course there are deeper issues here: the kids are Jewish (one has escaped from Prague and the Nazis) and the novel is set in 1940's and 50's New York. There's plenty of substance for the comic book geeks, as well as for the plain ole book geeks. Best of all, in spite of its 600+ page bulk, the story never really drags, though some of their "adventures" are less amazing than others. I was thoroughly entertained throughout, so it earns the highest praise from me.
Next up is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
Bell’s Octoberfest
Not quite a deep orange color to this one, very little head or lacing present either.
Familiar toasty malt aroma.
A good balance between the malt and the hops, I think. The malt is less sweet, more bready than anything. Good hop bite but it leaves a bit more of an aftertaste than I'd expect from the style.
Even so, it's pretty good, regardless of how well it fits a style.
Overall Rating: 3.6
Banned Books Week 2008
I don't think I'm going to be able to have a "Banned Books Week" special review this year, I've got 4 books out from the library right now and two other books from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer group to read. But just so you can celebrate it yourself, check out this year's top ten list.
1. “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
2. The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
3. “Olive’s Ocean,” by Kevin Henkes
4. “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman
5. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain
6. “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker
7. "TTYL,” by Lauren Myracle
8. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou
9. “It’s Perfectly Normal,” by Robie Harris
10. "The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
If I had to recommend just one on that list, it would have to be "The Perks of Being A Wallflower.” It pisses me off to no end that such a wonderful book might be off-limits to people who want to read it.
Knocking Stuff Out
No case of the Mondays for me, I'm getting stuff done. After shopping for new car insurance and saving a whole lot of money, our homeowners insurance came up for renewal recently, so I figured I would check that out as well. Turns out we're going to save a lot of money there too. Like $385 for the year. Very nice.
A couple of days ago, I managed to do something stupid and get a trojan on our home computer. Stupid me, ended up being able to use Windows Restore to get back to before the problem and eradicated it with a long-overdue full virus scan (disclosure: the virus scan picked up the trojan before it infected the PC, but I stupidly ignored the warning and let it go). Alas, the computer started scaring me even after this problem by freezing up a couple of times, leading me to check out some backup possibilities. I looked into a few of the online backup services like Mozy and Carbonite, and also Amazon S3. All seemed reasonable, and I really liked Amazon's offering. Then I decided to check out my web host's latest offer, and found that they've upped their storage to 375GB! That's more than enough to protect my precious pictures and music. After a couple of emails back and forth, my plan is now upgraded, and I'm going to start backing up tonight hopefully.
I heard through the grapevine that the latest FIOS promotion is a free DVR for a year, which includes their Home Media DVR, which plays shows it recorded on any TV in your house. That's kinda what I have now with DirecTV, and part of the reason I haven't switched. Breaking it down, our current cost with DirecTV, FIOS internet and VOIP runs us $137.18/month. Depending on how the taxes for FIOS break down, doing their triple play would cost about $130/month, and would include HD service, should we ever break down and get an HDTV. If nothing else, I think a call to DirecTV retention is in order, simply because their current offer to new customers is a lot less than I'm paying now! Update: A quick email to DirecTV got me $10 off per month for the next year. Not too shabby. Update 2: 5 minute phone call to Verizon upped my speed to 10/2, got me $5 off for the next year. 7 minutes of work for $15/month, or $180 for the year.
One last thing: this morning I started week 6 of the 100 pushup challenge again. I'm getting close now though. I managed to do 80 pushups on Saturday before collapsing in a heap. Pretty damn good after starting out doing only 25 when I started at the end of June.
Goodbye to the Stadium
There were no tears last Monday, when I went to Yankee Stadium for the last time with my two kids and my wife. But last night, sitting with my son as Andy Pettitte threw the first pitch of the last game at the "House That Ruth Built," I definitely got choked up. It happened a few more times: the Bleacher Creature roll call, Bob Sheppard announcing Derek Jeter, Whitey and Yogi in the booth, Michael Kay (and not Phil Rizzuto, RIP) coming on to do an inning of play-by-play, hearing "Enter Sandman" as Mariano came in and locked down one more win. But most of all, hearing "Start spreading the news..." Over and over and over again. They just kept playing that song, and I didn't want it to end. Next year, a new era in Yankee baseball will begin, but we'll always remember our times at the corner of River Avenue and 161st St.
Talk Like a Pirate Day
In honor of the yearly "Talk Like a Pirate Day," I present my favorite pirate video.
Netherland
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
My review
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm struggling to figure out what to say about Netherland. On the one hand, I really enjoyed reading the words. Joseph O'Neill is able to turn a phrase to make even cricket beautiful and interesting to any American philistine. On the other hand, I felt something slightly lacking from the story part of the novel. Ultimately though, the main story (which sometimes felt like a side story to the more exciting saga of Chuck Ramkisoon) of Hans' relationship with his estranged wife resonated with me. Truth be told, 9/11 affected, and indeed damaged, many people beyond just those who personally knew someone who died on that day. The relationship explored in this novel is a microcosm of all the emotions felt by those people, and I don't that has been explored nearly enough, in literature or any of the arts. Kudos to O'Neill for braving those subtle, yet turbulent, waters.
Next up is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.
Silver Lining
We're going to our last game at Yankee Stadium tonight.
Alas, the Yankees are all but mathematically eliminated. They're starting Alfredo Aceves (who?) tonight. But, on the bright side, we're lucky that it looks like we won't get hit by any rain. And we might just get to see Derek Jeter pass Lou Gehrig for the most hits at Yankee Stadium, just before it closes. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll hit a homer to us in the left field bleachers to pass him!
Ellie said last night that only kids cry, grownups don't cry. I have the feeling she may be proved wrong tonight.
Flying Dog Garde Dog
A stunningly average beer, not exactly what I expected from this one. I guess I got spoiled from the Oro de Calabazo, the last one of this style I tried.
Fairly pale yellow color, almost golden. Not a lot on the nose: a bit of malt, a tinge of hops.
It's on the light side of taste as well. There is some malt to be appreciated, lingering on the palette, and just a bite of hop bite, but not much else to speak of here.
Overall rating: 3.05
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