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Aug. 21st, 2023 08:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matt_zimmerAlso a review for the nonfiction book Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle The Historic 2004 Season.
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Welcome back, Al Gore. You were missed.
I saw the ending coming a mile away, but it was the right ending, so no harm, no foul.
I love that Fry and Leela have moved in together. I want to see their wedding next.
Is is weird that Prime benefits are free shipping and TV shows for some reason. It's a streaming service I subscribe to I would never subscribe to without the shipping benefits.
Tress MacNeille has a VERY annoying voice, and I've always found her various performances on different shows tough to take. But she gave the operating system a touch of nuance, and her Mom had a little bit of extra grit too (even if she was less profane than usual). It's been awhile since we've seen Mom shift back and forth between the two personalities and MacNeille did both equally well.
I thought that was a VERY strong week. ****.
Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle The Historic 2004 Season by Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King
May I confess something? While this IS a great book, it's probably one of the rare Stephen King books I like a little less every time I read it. Why? Because it makes me question and worry deeply about King's sanity and mental health. Stewart O'Nan is also a rabid Sox fan but he doesn't seem to take the wins and losses as personally as King does. I think the fact that the losses actually legit depress King is quite alarming. I am not a sports fan, and if I WERE a Sox fan (and since I do live in Massachusetts, I would be, and routinely disappointed) I would hope that my entire life did not revolve around this. King said something powerful that I don't think he grasped. His happiness over how the Sox do is entirely outside of his control. Man, Uncle Stevie, take some control back there. Reading about all these amazing and exciting games makes me think a LOT of this sport is down to random luck. And if that is so, there really ISN'T anything King can do about it.
I also am aware that since this historic win, the Sox have only won the Series once more a couple of years later. Does this mean King has spent all of the rest of those years in a crippling depression?
You can say, "Matt, he's using a narrative flourish, and not serious." But when he compares it to his drug addiction I will reply, "Are you sure about that?"
The last chapter is a thing of beauty, especially King's grandson asking, "Is this a dream, or are we living real life?" Because regardless of whether or not I think King is too obsessed with this sport and team, I DO remember how it was in 2004, and even though I didn't watch the Series, I absorbed and understood the joy and disbelief of the people who did. You didn't have to watch baseball or go to the games to have the Sox's losing streak a searing part of your consciousness growing up in Massachusetts. I don't care about baseball, and yet that year it felt like a weight had been lifted not just from me, but from all of us. Of course Bush won reelection a few weeks later so the high didn't last for me, but it was real and affected everyone who lives here.
I'll talk a bit about some of the baseball stories in the book I took special notice of.
I don't follow sports, but being a Masshole means I DO know The Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy. King views him with barely concealed contempt and let me tell you, Shaughnessy, like all Boston sportswriters and pundits always struck me as smug, insufferable, and high on his own farts. I'll tell you what I approve of: King taking special notice of how so damned unfair the sports reporters of The Town are and the fact that they are abrasive snots for the sake of being abrasive snots. If the smarmy Shaughnessy didn't spend his childhood shoved in his own locker, he should have been. His "Curse Of The Bambino" is so damaging not just because it's stupid and attaches a supernatural excuse to something completely Earthbound and rational, but because it's something that traumatized a LOT of people in Massachusetts dumb enough to believe it, Stephen King included. King's gullibility regarding superstitions is annoying in and of itself too. But when he notes that after the Sox win the Pennant that Shaughnessy says, "Not so fast. They need to win the Series to break the Curse," King mentioned he had no good answer for when he was asked what his Curse of the Bambino theory would mean if the Sox DID win the Series. King mentions the Curse was part of Shaughnessy's brand. While it existed he sold books over it. I question the wisdom of the Boston Globe hiring a sportswriter in which the hometeam winning was not in his personal financial best interest. It's not just that Shaughnessy was unfair to the team. It's that he was clearly rooting against them for cynical and selfish financial reasons.
Both O'Nan and King seem crushed and heartbroken when Nomar Garciaparra is traded in the middle of the season. Again, I don't follow the Sox, so I have no idea about his performance in previous seasons. THIS season? He struck me as useless. He was out for the first half of the season. When he came back his playing was shaky. He was shortly thereafter traded for two defense players. And then the Sox went on to win the Pennant and then the Series with them. You see where me not believing Nomar leaving the Sox was the end of the world comes from, right? Of course my reread of this book also comes through 19 years of hindsight, but I wish King and O'Nan put two and two together that that turned out to be a great trade.
I am concerned about Stephen King's mental health. It is not good to obsess about something that is not within your own control like baseball. I would love to believe King is describing the depression he is for comic effect, but his writing about it strikes me as 100% sincere. Basing your mood and happiness on a sports team's wins and losses, especially one that doesn't win that often, is the recipe for a sad and horrible life. Get help, Uncle Stevie. I am very worried about you. ****.
Futurama "Related To Items You've Viewed"
Welcome back, Al Gore. You were missed.
I saw the ending coming a mile away, but it was the right ending, so no harm, no foul.
I love that Fry and Leela have moved in together. I want to see their wedding next.
Is is weird that Prime benefits are free shipping and TV shows for some reason. It's a streaming service I subscribe to I would never subscribe to without the shipping benefits.
Tress MacNeille has a VERY annoying voice, and I've always found her various performances on different shows tough to take. But she gave the operating system a touch of nuance, and her Mom had a little bit of extra grit too (even if she was less profane than usual). It's been awhile since we've seen Mom shift back and forth between the two personalities and MacNeille did both equally well.
I thought that was a VERY strong week. ****.
Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle The Historic 2004 Season by Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King
May I confess something? While this IS a great book, it's probably one of the rare Stephen King books I like a little less every time I read it. Why? Because it makes me question and worry deeply about King's sanity and mental health. Stewart O'Nan is also a rabid Sox fan but he doesn't seem to take the wins and losses as personally as King does. I think the fact that the losses actually legit depress King is quite alarming. I am not a sports fan, and if I WERE a Sox fan (and since I do live in Massachusetts, I would be, and routinely disappointed) I would hope that my entire life did not revolve around this. King said something powerful that I don't think he grasped. His happiness over how the Sox do is entirely outside of his control. Man, Uncle Stevie, take some control back there. Reading about all these amazing and exciting games makes me think a LOT of this sport is down to random luck. And if that is so, there really ISN'T anything King can do about it.
I also am aware that since this historic win, the Sox have only won the Series once more a couple of years later. Does this mean King has spent all of the rest of those years in a crippling depression?
You can say, "Matt, he's using a narrative flourish, and not serious." But when he compares it to his drug addiction I will reply, "Are you sure about that?"
The last chapter is a thing of beauty, especially King's grandson asking, "Is this a dream, or are we living real life?" Because regardless of whether or not I think King is too obsessed with this sport and team, I DO remember how it was in 2004, and even though I didn't watch the Series, I absorbed and understood the joy and disbelief of the people who did. You didn't have to watch baseball or go to the games to have the Sox's losing streak a searing part of your consciousness growing up in Massachusetts. I don't care about baseball, and yet that year it felt like a weight had been lifted not just from me, but from all of us. Of course Bush won reelection a few weeks later so the high didn't last for me, but it was real and affected everyone who lives here.
I'll talk a bit about some of the baseball stories in the book I took special notice of.
I don't follow sports, but being a Masshole means I DO know The Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy. King views him with barely concealed contempt and let me tell you, Shaughnessy, like all Boston sportswriters and pundits always struck me as smug, insufferable, and high on his own farts. I'll tell you what I approve of: King taking special notice of how so damned unfair the sports reporters of The Town are and the fact that they are abrasive snots for the sake of being abrasive snots. If the smarmy Shaughnessy didn't spend his childhood shoved in his own locker, he should have been. His "Curse Of The Bambino" is so damaging not just because it's stupid and attaches a supernatural excuse to something completely Earthbound and rational, but because it's something that traumatized a LOT of people in Massachusetts dumb enough to believe it, Stephen King included. King's gullibility regarding superstitions is annoying in and of itself too. But when he notes that after the Sox win the Pennant that Shaughnessy says, "Not so fast. They need to win the Series to break the Curse," King mentioned he had no good answer for when he was asked what his Curse of the Bambino theory would mean if the Sox DID win the Series. King mentions the Curse was part of Shaughnessy's brand. While it existed he sold books over it. I question the wisdom of the Boston Globe hiring a sportswriter in which the hometeam winning was not in his personal financial best interest. It's not just that Shaughnessy was unfair to the team. It's that he was clearly rooting against them for cynical and selfish financial reasons.
Both O'Nan and King seem crushed and heartbroken when Nomar Garciaparra is traded in the middle of the season. Again, I don't follow the Sox, so I have no idea about his performance in previous seasons. THIS season? He struck me as useless. He was out for the first half of the season. When he came back his playing was shaky. He was shortly thereafter traded for two defense players. And then the Sox went on to win the Pennant and then the Series with them. You see where me not believing Nomar leaving the Sox was the end of the world comes from, right? Of course my reread of this book also comes through 19 years of hindsight, but I wish King and O'Nan put two and two together that that turned out to be a great trade.
I am concerned about Stephen King's mental health. It is not good to obsess about something that is not within your own control like baseball. I would love to believe King is describing the depression he is for comic effect, but his writing about it strikes me as 100% sincere. Basing your mood and happiness on a sports team's wins and losses, especially one that doesn't win that often, is the recipe for a sad and horrible life. Get help, Uncle Stevie. I am very worried about you. ****.
