Resolution Update, Part 1

So far 2006 has been a good one for my New Year's Resolution: I have indeed written at least 500 words every day. In fact, I wrote 24,935 words in January, an average of 804 words per day. My pace slowed somewhat from the first two weeks of the year (my best day was January 4: 2078 words), but at the rate of 804 words per day I would reach my year's goal of 182,500 words on August 15th.

Now playing: Mahler, Symphony No. 7, London Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas. A great recording of the enigmatic Seventh Symphony. Not as dynamic as Horenstein (New Philharmonia) or as lush as Levine (Chicago, out of print), but sonically brilliant and flawlessly executed. Ian Bousfield's tenor horn solo to open the first movement is the best recorded version of the solo, hands down. My biggest complaint about the Horenstein is that the trumpet player cacks the high note in the trumpet call at the beginning of the last movement.
Now reading: The Pale Horseman.

A lot of Bull

Just finished reading Bull, by Maggie Mahar. If you're at all interested in investing and whether or not you can expect your money to grow like all of those slick mutual-fund marketing brochures claim, you should read this book. Its review of the boom and bust period of 1982 to 2000 is impressive in its depth, readability and variety of opinion.

Two counterpoints about Mahar's conclusions:
1. Throughout the book, Mahar insists that investors who practiced the widely celebrated "buy-and-hold" strategy have their heads handed to them by the vagaries of the stock market. She is absolutely correct in asserting that investors who bought into the market at its zenith (be it 1973 or 1999) because of the media and popular frenzies surrounding the stock market were shorn of a great deal of their money. But she ignores the fact that investors who faithfully dollar-cost averaged (investing a fixed amount of money at regular intervals) throughout either of the bear market periods wound up being big winners in the ensuing market rebounds. It's hard to buy on the way down, but it works. That's why so many value investors rang up enormous gains when the stock market rebounded in 2003.
2. At the end of the edition that I read, Mahar gives a list of alternative investments that should provide ample capital preservation in the instance of another market malaise. All are reasonable suggestions, but if part of her thesis is that the investors who survive market downturns are those who invest where others don't, wouldn't investors' widespread acceptance of such a list negate its worth?

A rousing 'thhpbt' on the NBA

I am a Cincinnati Reds addict. That's right, an addict. I read the Reds coverage in three newspapers (Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati Post, Dayton Daily News) every day--and check out the Reds' website at least twice a week.

I am also a big UofL fan, and follow their goings on in the Louisville Courier-Journal and at uoflsports.com. I have affection for the Cincinnati Bengals, the Dallas Stars and the Toronto Maple Leafs. (Yes, thats "Leafs" not "Leaves." They're Canadian: what can you do?)

I know fans of the Steelers, Cowboys, 49ers, Redskins and Bears. I know college sports nuts for such a varied assemblage of teams that it defies counting. I have known fans of the Reds, Cardinals, Red Sox, Mariners, Rangers, Braves, Cubs and Nationals (but not the Expos). I have known fans of the St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins.

But I have never met someone with a fanatical attraction to an NBA team. Certainly I have known people who watched with some regularity the big-market, big-tradition teams: Chicago, New York, Boston, Los Angeles. But never have I met anyone who went to an NBA game with more than a passive interest in the long-term performance of a team, who scoured the Internet for daily minutae about a far-off favorite, who said "no, I'm staying home tonight to watch the Hawks and the Nets on TNT."

Which is all anecdotal evidence for universal apathy for the NBA. Empirical evidence comes in the games themselves. What a boring display. Why should we as fans have any enthusiasm for this sport when the players obviously have so little? (Unless they feel slighted by a fan in the stands. Then it's all blood-boiling drive and intensity to get up there and beat the holy hell out Joe Sixpack.)

Give me a "boring" or "slow" baseball game or a college basketball game with "inferior" athletes any day.

Now reading: Lots of things--The Pale Horseman; Bull, Maggie Mahar; Reliable Roses, Philip Harkness; Jesus CEO, Laurie Beth Jones.

Setting the tone

Bernard Cornwell's Arthur novels (The Winter King, Enemy of God and Excalibur) and his novels of Alfred the Great (The Last Kingdom and The Pale Horseman so far) are consistently praised for their vitality, contrarian points of view and their bittersweet, autumnal tones. I would not dispute any such characterization. Cornwell's characters are carefully, believably and sympathetically rendered. His imagination and reinvention of history is simultaneously black, arch and realistic. But I've never really understood how he did the last part, the sort of gentle melancholy that informs these books (which is a very different sort of tone than in his Sharpe books).

In the Arthur books, Cornwell simply framed the story. An old monk tells a young queen of his youth and his time with Arthur, punctuating the telling with bitter details of betrayals, should-have-knowns and might-have-beens. Cornwell's method in the Alfred books is more subtle. He tells of Alfred through Uhtred, a warrior and friend to Briton and Saxon, and instead of framing the main narrative as a recounted story or flashback, Uhtred interjects as the novel progresses. This could become quite cumbersome, but Cornwell is gentle. His allusions to events the reader does not yet know about (highlight with things like "...that was my second mistake") drive the reader ahead, coming often at times when we want to be reveling in Uhtred's victories. Cornwell doesn't give the reader time to share Uhtred's happiness, but that only serves to further define Uhtred's character and the story's sense of loss.

I can't recommend these highly enough. Start with The Winter King.

Conan the Critic

Check out Michael Dirda's take on Robert E. Howard in The Washington Post Book World. Dirda calls the tales of Conan a "guilty pleasure" but points out a deeper meaning and commentary about the human condition than a young man's fantasies about laying about with enormous weapons and bedding dangerous women.

Of note

Three interesting things from USA Today's analysis of their 2005 bestsellers' list.

1. Dan Brown has two books in the top ten, the most recent of which was published in 2003. And he's sure to go up again this year with the movie version of The Da Vinci Code. I guess I am going to have to bite the bullet and read the damn thing. I tried two years ago and gagged on the first chapter. What is it about this book that is so consistently compelling?

2. Rachael Ray has three of the five bestselling cookbooks. I noticed the other day that she also has a magazine now, in addition to her three shows on Food Network. This just proves that nothing is so good that it can't be overexposed. Except for...

3. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, which I continue to covet, makes the list as the fifth-bestselling "humor" book of the year. While I think this is an absurd category, I am surprised at how well the book has sold, considering its steep price.

Now playing: Sibelius, Symphony No. 7, Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy
Now reading: The Pale Horseman

Surrender

The Fairfax library is demanding the return of A Princess of Roumania, but I am not done. I can't seem to get any momentum going on this book. I think it is one of those books that requires sustained consumption, rather than the scattershot attention I have had to give it. I'll try again later. Onward now to Starship Troopers and Bernard Cornwell's latest, The Pale Horseman.

More suggested reading

Another good piece from the Post, this time about the surprisingly cutthroat world of remaindered-book selling. I always get Daedelus' catalogs, but I never realized they were based just across the river from my home in the Old Dominion. If anything, this article is a reminder of the myriad competitive and market forces out there that pressure sales of books. The lesson, though, is that these forces are beyond the control of any one person, business or author.

Now playing: Verdi, Overture to La Forza del Destino, United States Navy Band
Now reading: yes, Paul Park, still.

Read this and unrelated question

An intriguing article in today's Washington Post about plagiarism-for-hire in the burgeoning (and completely out-of-control) college-admissions industry. (Yes, it is an industry, sad as that may seem.) A question, though: was the writer really that naive as to think that these "sample" essays wouldn't be misused?


And an unrelated question:

What has three starting second basemen, two starting catchers, five starting outfielders and no starting pitchers?

That's right! The Reds. New owner Bob Castellini briefs the universe about his plans on Friday. Hopefully it involves trading an outfielder or two for a player of whom I've heard before.

Now playing: Copland, Appalachian Spring, New York Philharmonic, Bernstein

Ramming speed

BRAG WARNING: Two weeks into the new year and I am off to a fine start on my one resolution: to write at least 500 words every day. So far I have written 14,915 words (which does not, of course, include anything I have written for work, which would be at least another 5,000). That works out to about 1,065 words per day. I do not anticipate being able to sustain that pace, given the known unknown of the future. I am encouraged, however, that this pace would put me at my original goal for the year of 182,500 on June 20.


Now reading: A Princess of Roumania (I'm trying to finish tonight and tomorrow); Creating Short Fiction; Landscape With Roses, Jeff Cox
Now playing: von Suppe, Light Cavalry Overture, United States Navy Band

Gifts from Fred

Reading Creating Short Fiction, I was stunned to realize how many creative "gifts" I have received recently from the unknowable depth of the subconscious, or Fred, as Damon Knight calls it/him. I have therefore committed to cultivating a better relationship with Fred. Every night when I finish writing, I will ask Fred for answers to at least two questions about something I have written but can't yet puzzle out. I also will nurture Fred with a steady diet of leafy green non-fiction, high-protein speculative fiction, wholesome and filling non-genre fiction (don't get near enough of that around here) and the delightful sweetmeats of short fiction.

I tell you this so that Fred will know I told you and reward me with something REALLY good.

Now playing: Guy Woolfenden, French Impressions, North Texas Wind Symphony, Eugene Corporon
Also reading: A Princess of Roumania; The Wood Boy/The Burning Man graphic novel

For the addicts out there in need of a Star Wars fix

ComicCritique.com has my review of the Star Wars: Purge one-shot.

Now playing: Rodrigo, Concierto de Aranjuez, John Williams with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Louis Fremaux. Now reading: A Princess of Roumania, Paul Park; Creating Short Fiction, Damon Knight

Getting kids to write

I saw this and thought of Reed. I try to carry a notepad of some kind with me wherever I go (one never knows when or where creative lightning may strike). I often have a legal pad to hand, but when I don't I try to take a small memo pad with me. Yesterday I opened one such small pad, only to find that most of the pages were already covered in toddler scribble. Fortunately, the scribble was in blue, and I had a red pen. Somehow I don't think we'll have any trouble getting Reed to write.


Now playing: Mahler, Symphony No. 1, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt. I hate this recording. Tennstedt goes for breadth in his pacing and tempos and it comes off as labored and pedantic.

Now reading: Tiger Eye; The Market Masters, Kirk Kazanjian. Kazanjian's Value Investing with the Masters (out of print) is more comprehensive, but this one has interviews with smart folks like Rich Pzena and Sarah Ketterer from smaller firms .

Read this

Do yourself a favor and go read Midnighters #1: The Secret Hour right now. If you get the book tonight, you can be done by Monday. It reads that fast. There is so much to like here, from characters to world-building to pitch-perfect rendering of teenagers and their depredations. Great stuff. Recommended without reservation.

Random time-wasting exercise

Page 123 Meme

The rules:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.


Here 'tis:
"They could detect light, though."

Too late

The ever-hopeful fans at Red Hot Mama have compiled a quiz to help Reds fans choose an appropriate player jersey for themselves. Unfortunately for me, I seem to stack up better with the first baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates.



Sean Casey
Personable, caring, and loyal describe a person you can look up to, so Sean Casey's jersey is the one for you.



By wearing #21, you demonstrate a commitment to community, friendship, and the American way. But Casey's not a Red anymore, you might say. That's OK. No one else is going to be wearing #21 in Cincy for a long, long, long time.



Your fortune: An old schoolyard crush has been thinking about you and will be looking you up soon. It's probably about time you took those pictures off your website.
Which Jersey Should You Wear?

Coincidence

Today's word count, oddly enough: 2006

Fat list

I keep a list of books I want to read. The list helps me avoid my tendency towards random gluttony in bookstores and libraries, and reminds me of books that were recommended to me--which is the best way to discover a book. Alas, my list has grown now to 86 items: 45 fiction, 36 non-fiction and five graphic novels. I despair of ever getting through them all, but what a delightful despair to have so many things to read.

Now playing: Hindemith, Symphonic Metamorphosis, Philadelphia Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch
Now reading: Tiger Eye, Marjorie Liu; Midnighters #1: The Secret Hour, Scott Westerfeld

Sour grapes, OR Thugs shouldn't get game balls

I was not expecting Louisville to be competitive with Virginia Tech. I was pleasantly surprised by their play in the first three quarters, but Hunter Cantwell, tough as he obviously is, is not Brian Brohm. The fourth quarter looked just like the West Virginia game, where Louisville just couldn't put the thing away. Cheers to Frank Beamer for righting the VT ship at halftime. The sloppy play of the first half was completely erased in the second half.

That said, this analysis on ESPN.com hailing Marcus Vick for his "mistake-free" performance is as absurd a lie as ever I have read in sports journalism. Vick could not complete a pass during the first half. He could not run in the first half. To his credit he had great success converting third downs, but to his SHAME he sullied himself forever in my book by STOMPING on a player (Elivs Dumervil) who had the audacity to tackle him. Apparently the only people in the entire stadium not to see that were the officials. Even Vick's own quarterbacks coach at VT was livid at his juvenile and thoughtless action. Thugs who play dirty shouldn't get game balls, regardless of the final score--and regardless of whether they give an eye-rolling "sorry" after the game.