Atlanta and Houston are each one win away from a World Series matchup, I saw Jason Isbell at the Ryman last night, and I review Nick Offerman's new book.
Ok both those books sound like they are right up my alley.
I used to read all the time then fell out of the habit because it didn't seem "productive" (barf) and was too easy to skip unless it was required for a class or work, but I've been starting to schedule time in the evenings to read before I'm too tired so I have hopes those won't just sit on a shelf collecting dust.
Can we still make fun of the Nats "fans" who do their best imitation of Lt. Dangle mixing drinks in his trailer with the most unoriginal cheer this side of Ric Flair?
Children of Children followed by Decoration Day would be my favorite concert moment ever... Damn. So glad you had a great time. One day I'll get to the Ryman.
Also, at Fenway last night we had a similar conversation about Valdez pitching 8 innings. It was legitimately shocking to see a pitcher go that deep.
I’d heard about the Offerman book but forgot about it. Your review here will make me pull the trigger on getting it. I did read Rebanks’ first book and would highly recommend it. I started following him on Twitter because I liked peaceful pictures of sheep and dogs, but the book is a thoughtful well written memoir. His recent book, called English Pastoral in the UK but Pastoral Song in the US, goes into more detail about the things you mention here. I haven’t read that one yet but if it’s anything like his first book it will be worth a read.
Fandom is so strange. I often wish I wasn't a fan of the team I'm a fan of (Twins). But hey, when I started playing baseball, there weren't any Dutch players in MLB, and even though he was only born here and moved to the USA when he was 4 years old, Blyleven is Dutch damnit!
But now my Twins fandom is really just a way to stay connected with my real sports love, an excuse to look at scores and follow the stories.
My current active sport though, hoo boy, do tennisfans have some crazy, crazy adherence to players. Maybe being a fan of an individual instead of a team brings out the extra special kind of crazy in fans?
Those books sound like something I will like. One will go nicely next to The End of Everything, a very readable populair science book about the possible ways the universe (the whole thing, not just our planet) may end.
That new Graeber book sounds a bit like his book "Debt: The First 5000 Years" through a slightly different prism. Highly recommend it if you haven't read it. I went back through my notes from reading it and pulled out this passage that sounds like echoes what this new book is about:
"Cash transactions between strangers were different [...] Here, transactions really do become simply a figuring-out of how many of X will go for how many of Y, of calculating proportions, estimating quality, and trying to get the best deal for oneself. The result, during the Axial Age, was a new way of thinking about human motivation, a radical simplification of motives that made it possible to begin speaking of concepts like "profit" and "advantage"— and imagining that this is what people are really pursuing, in every aspect of existence, as if the violence of war or the impersonality of the marketplace has simply allowed them to drop the pretense that they ever cared about anything else. It was this, in turn, that allowed human life to seem like it could be reduced to a matter of means-to-end calculation, and hence something that could be examined using the same means that one used to study the attraction and repulsion of celestial bodies. If the underlying assumption very much resembles those of contemporary economists, it's no coincidence—but with the difference that, in an age when money, markets, states, and military affairs were all intrinsically connected, money was needed to pay armies to capture slaves to mine gold to produce money; when "cutthroat competition" often did involve the literal cutting of throats, it never occurred to anyone to imagine that selfish ends could be pursued by peaceful means. Certainly, this picture of humanity does begin to appear, with startling consistency, across Eurasia, wherever we also see coinage and philosophy appear."
My wife is always amazed at how stoic I can be during emotional movies while she’s wiping tears away. Like I’m dead inside. What she doesn’t know is that I cannot make it through goddamn If We Were Vampires without practically sobbing.
I have long encountered "fandom purity" in the various science fiction fan communities. Only there it has the effect of scaring off anyone younger who might be part of the communities. It's kind of sad.
And I can speak from the experience of someone who was into superhero comics when they were the single most uncool thing and not the source of the Entertainment Industrial Complex's biggest cash cow. So there are times I find myself saying "I was into this stuff way before you, and you also don't really know a thing about these characters." And other times that I lament that there are millions of people who love superheroes and have never read a comic book. And what's more, they still think comics aren't cool. I can't win!
The Dawn of Everything sounds excellent. Pretty much anything with more information about Gobekli Tepe goes straight into my veins. Thanks for the callout!
That's the kind of stuff that fascinates me, anyway -- "What if most of us share the same language family because a Proto-Indo-European named Grok invented wagons right before the last glacial maximum ended?"
That and whatever the hell was going on in Ancient Elam. Nobody seems to know (in the west at least).
Drunk is a fun one too - I am not done yet, but in short "Societies may have formed once everyone realized you need to coordinate efforts to make that much beer."
That is one helluva set list. I'm deeply envious. I saw half a Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit show in Portland, Maine once, before I knew who he really was. I'd gone to see Josh Ritter, the opener. My wife was not into Jason (apologies), so we left early. I have since become a huge Isbell fan, and if I'd known him better at the time I probably would have had her go wait for me while I watched the rest of the show. That might not have gone over well...
I'd like to imagine one of my fellow regular commenters is the screen name of Nick Offerman, and we're all conversing with regularly. So if you're not Nick Offerman, don't tell me you aren't and ruin the illusion.
Even if you are Nick Offerman, don't tell us. It's better that were having back and forth discussions untainted by the fact we know you're a celebrity.
(All that said, I'm thinking it's Nato Coles with a convincing fake backstory)
Am I the only dork old enough to remember when Jeff Jarrett promised to rename the Ryman Auditorium as the “Double J Auditorium”? Guess we’re all still waiting.
Just checked the library website and they have one copy of Offerman's book, and it's not checked out. It will be in my hands in a couple of days when they transfer it to the library closest to me for pickup.
I have to say one good thing that came from the pandemic is it got me in the habit of checking the library first, before buying a book.
I was in the Ryman 3 or 4 years ago. I was in Nashville for a work conference and flew in a couple of days early to visit the town before the conference. I stayed in a Vanderbilt student's spare bedroom for $25 a night. Gotta love Air BnB. I was just in the Ryman in the afternoon, there was no show or anything going on. There was a highschool choral group in there too, maybe 20 kids, that decided to check off sing in the Ryman from their bucket list. They way those 20 odd kids voices filled the room was magical. I can only imagine was Isbell and the 400 sounded like. The acoustics in that place are unbelievable.
The NLCS is not over yet, but I would like to remind everyone that I said the NL East winner could have a "puncher's chance" in the postseason; I actually thought they'd have more trouble escaping Milwaukee but (as Nato has noted) the Brew Crew forgot that you have to both pitch AND hit in the postseason. Regardless of the outcome, I am going revel in being right.
After 8 innings of solid pitching and with a relatively low pitch count, I was a wee bit surprised Dusty didn’t let Valdez come back out for the 9th. Regardless, it was refreshing and nice to have a game where the pitcher did what you historically think of as starting pitcher duty AND to see the first 5 innings feel like what I love, a pitching duel. I know the casual fans love the offensive action, but I love everything about the strategy and beauty of two pitchers and two catchers who are just on. It was also nice to see the Astros retake the lead in the series (talk about complicated fandoms!).
I knew Nick Offerman was a big baseball fan, but only through the show “Making It” which, if you haven’t seen it, is the most awesome and purely delightful thing on TV. It was my salve when I felt the world was falling apart in recent years. Interestingly, it’s also the only way I know Offerman because -GASP- I didn’t watch Parks and Rec. His book sounds like a good read. I’m a weird person who likes to read about hiking and camping, but doesn’t actually do it. I imagine I was outdoorsy in a previous life, but now I sometimes have drinks on the patio and that’s really the extent of my communing with nature. But man, do I love the scenery it provides.
*Almost* no one is counting their chickens before they hatch.
https://twitter.com/UnfortunateMLB/status/1451028584672505857
Ok both those books sound like they are right up my alley.
I used to read all the time then fell out of the habit because it didn't seem "productive" (barf) and was too easy to skip unless it was required for a class or work, but I've been starting to schedule time in the evenings to read before I'm too tired so I have hopes those won't just sit on a shelf collecting dust.
Can we still make fun of the Nats "fans" who do their best imitation of Lt. Dangle mixing drinks in his trailer with the most unoriginal cheer this side of Ric Flair?
Children of Children followed by Decoration Day would be my favorite concert moment ever... Damn. So glad you had a great time. One day I'll get to the Ryman.
Also, at Fenway last night we had a similar conversation about Valdez pitching 8 innings. It was legitimately shocking to see a pitcher go that deep.
I’d heard about the Offerman book but forgot about it. Your review here will make me pull the trigger on getting it. I did read Rebanks’ first book and would highly recommend it. I started following him on Twitter because I liked peaceful pictures of sheep and dogs, but the book is a thoughtful well written memoir. His recent book, called English Pastoral in the UK but Pastoral Song in the US, goes into more detail about the things you mention here. I haven’t read that one yet but if it’s anything like his first book it will be worth a read.
Fandom is so strange. I often wish I wasn't a fan of the team I'm a fan of (Twins). But hey, when I started playing baseball, there weren't any Dutch players in MLB, and even though he was only born here and moved to the USA when he was 4 years old, Blyleven is Dutch damnit!
But now my Twins fandom is really just a way to stay connected with my real sports love, an excuse to look at scores and follow the stories.
My current active sport though, hoo boy, do tennisfans have some crazy, crazy adherence to players. Maybe being a fan of an individual instead of a team brings out the extra special kind of crazy in fans?
Those books sound like something I will like. One will go nicely next to The End of Everything, a very readable populair science book about the possible ways the universe (the whole thing, not just our planet) may end.
That new Graeber book sounds a bit like his book "Debt: The First 5000 Years" through a slightly different prism. Highly recommend it if you haven't read it. I went back through my notes from reading it and pulled out this passage that sounds like echoes what this new book is about:
"Cash transactions between strangers were different [...] Here, transactions really do become simply a figuring-out of how many of X will go for how many of Y, of calculating proportions, estimating quality, and trying to get the best deal for oneself. The result, during the Axial Age, was a new way of thinking about human motivation, a radical simplification of motives that made it possible to begin speaking of concepts like "profit" and "advantage"— and imagining that this is what people are really pursuing, in every aspect of existence, as if the violence of war or the impersonality of the marketplace has simply allowed them to drop the pretense that they ever cared about anything else. It was this, in turn, that allowed human life to seem like it could be reduced to a matter of means-to-end calculation, and hence something that could be examined using the same means that one used to study the attraction and repulsion of celestial bodies. If the underlying assumption very much resembles those of contemporary economists, it's no coincidence—but with the difference that, in an age when money, markets, states, and military affairs were all intrinsically connected, money was needed to pay armies to capture slaves to mine gold to produce money; when "cutthroat competition" often did involve the literal cutting of throats, it never occurred to anyone to imagine that selfish ends could be pursued by peaceful means. Certainly, this picture of humanity does begin to appear, with startling consistency, across Eurasia, wherever we also see coinage and philosophy appear."
My wife is always amazed at how stoic I can be during emotional movies while she’s wiping tears away. Like I’m dead inside. What she doesn’t know is that I cannot make it through goddamn If We Were Vampires without practically sobbing.
I have long encountered "fandom purity" in the various science fiction fan communities. Only there it has the effect of scaring off anyone younger who might be part of the communities. It's kind of sad.
And I can speak from the experience of someone who was into superhero comics when they were the single most uncool thing and not the source of the Entertainment Industrial Complex's biggest cash cow. So there are times I find myself saying "I was into this stuff way before you, and you also don't really know a thing about these characters." And other times that I lament that there are millions of people who love superheroes and have never read a comic book. And what's more, they still think comics aren't cool. I can't win!
The Dawn of Everything sounds excellent. Pretty much anything with more information about Gobekli Tepe goes straight into my veins. Thanks for the callout!
That's the kind of stuff that fascinates me, anyway -- "What if most of us share the same language family because a Proto-Indo-European named Grok invented wagons right before the last glacial maximum ended?"
That and whatever the hell was going on in Ancient Elam. Nobody seems to know (in the west at least).
Drunk is a fun one too - I am not done yet, but in short "Societies may have formed once everyone realized you need to coordinate efforts to make that much beer."
That is one helluva set list. I'm deeply envious. I saw half a Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit show in Portland, Maine once, before I knew who he really was. I'd gone to see Josh Ritter, the opener. My wife was not into Jason (apologies), so we left early. I have since become a huge Isbell fan, and if I'd known him better at the time I probably would have had her go wait for me while I watched the rest of the show. That might not have gone over well...
I'd like to imagine one of my fellow regular commenters is the screen name of Nick Offerman, and we're all conversing with regularly. So if you're not Nick Offerman, don't tell me you aren't and ruin the illusion.
Even if you are Nick Offerman, don't tell us. It's better that were having back and forth discussions untainted by the fact we know you're a celebrity.
(All that said, I'm thinking it's Nato Coles with a convincing fake backstory)
Am I the only dork old enough to remember when Jeff Jarrett promised to rename the Ryman Auditorium as the “Double J Auditorium”? Guess we’re all still waiting.
Just checked the library website and they have one copy of Offerman's book, and it's not checked out. It will be in my hands in a couple of days when they transfer it to the library closest to me for pickup.
I have to say one good thing that came from the pandemic is it got me in the habit of checking the library first, before buying a book.
I was in the Ryman 3 or 4 years ago. I was in Nashville for a work conference and flew in a couple of days early to visit the town before the conference. I stayed in a Vanderbilt student's spare bedroom for $25 a night. Gotta love Air BnB. I was just in the Ryman in the afternoon, there was no show or anything going on. There was a highschool choral group in there too, maybe 20 kids, that decided to check off sing in the Ryman from their bucket list. They way those 20 odd kids voices filled the room was magical. I can only imagine was Isbell and the 400 sounded like. The acoustics in that place are unbelievable.
The NLCS is not over yet, but I would like to remind everyone that I said the NL East winner could have a "puncher's chance" in the postseason; I actually thought they'd have more trouble escaping Milwaukee but (as Nato has noted) the Brew Crew forgot that you have to both pitch AND hit in the postseason. Regardless of the outcome, I am going revel in being right.
After 8 innings of solid pitching and with a relatively low pitch count, I was a wee bit surprised Dusty didn’t let Valdez come back out for the 9th. Regardless, it was refreshing and nice to have a game where the pitcher did what you historically think of as starting pitcher duty AND to see the first 5 innings feel like what I love, a pitching duel. I know the casual fans love the offensive action, but I love everything about the strategy and beauty of two pitchers and two catchers who are just on. It was also nice to see the Astros retake the lead in the series (talk about complicated fandoms!).
I knew Nick Offerman was a big baseball fan, but only through the show “Making It” which, if you haven’t seen it, is the most awesome and purely delightful thing on TV. It was my salve when I felt the world was falling apart in recent years. Interestingly, it’s also the only way I know Offerman because -GASP- I didn’t watch Parks and Rec. His book sounds like a good read. I’m a weird person who likes to read about hiking and camping, but doesn’t actually do it. I imagine I was outdoorsy in a previous life, but now I sometimes have drinks on the patio and that’s really the extent of my communing with nature. But man, do I love the scenery it provides.