It Could Have Been Worse

Spent a fair amount of time and money in three repair shops on Thursday and Today. When you buy a used car, cheap, it's going to be far from perfect. First I had the brakes fixed, this morning the exhaust and in the afternoon I had the thermostat replaced.



The car now stops, sounds quiet and has amazing heat. There are a few more things that need to be taken care of, but not yet. Probably after we return from our trip east in two weeks.

Hoping we have better weather than what's been going on the past couple of weekends. Long Island got socked with snow. Luckily one of my brothers and nephew helped dig my parents out. They're not getting younger, and my stepfather has a bad shoulder that prohibits him from a lot of physical activity. So I worry.

Tomorrow, my oldest brother turns fifty - and I'm right behind him.

Going to combine this entry with a list of the books I read this year. I did read a few more than this, but they were lost to bad memory and a failed hard drive. Not time to give lengthy reviews, but if you see three stars it means the book was very good. Four stars is a superior read. No stars means I got through it, but it was nothing special.

So here's the list of the books I read in 2010.

1) We're Going to See the Beatles. Garry Berman. 284 p.
2) Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend. Larry Tye. 392 p.
3) A Couple of Ways of Doing Something. Chuck Close, Bob Holman
4) No Poet's Corner in the Abbey - David Phillips. 222 p.
5) The Horse Boy - Rupert Isaacson.357 p. ***
6) Tooth and Nail. Ian Rankin. 290 p. ***
7) Words in Your Face. Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz. 371 p. ***
8) Open: An Autobiography. Andre Agassi. 385 p. ***
9) Corn Flakes with John Lennon. Robert Hilburn. 296 p.
10) Just Kids. Patti Smith. 278 p. ***
11) Sakura Park. Rachel Wetzteon. 115 p.
12) Marriage and Other Acts of Charity. Kate Braestrup. 217 p.
13) Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine and the End of France. Michael Sternberger. 243 p.
14) Point Omega. Don Delillo. 117 p.
15) As it was Written. Sujatha Hampton. 370 p.
16) Me, the Mob and the Music. Tommy James with Martin Fitzpatrick. 227 p.
17) Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. Barbara Demick. 314 p. ***
18) Marilyn Johnson - This Book is Overdue. How Libraries and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. 272 p.
19) The United States of Poetry. 176 p.
20) Secret Historian - The Life & Times of Samuel Steward. Justin Spring. 478 p. **** (best non-fiction)
21) The Half Life of Planets. Emily Franklin & Brendan Halpin. 247 p. ***
22) You Lost Me There. Rosencrans Baldwin. 296 p. ***
23) Eaarth. Bill McKibben. 253 p. ***
24) Lay the Favorites - A Memoir of Gambling. Beth Rayner. 228 p.
25) Pat Conroy - My Reading History. 337 p. ***
26) Emma Donaguhe - Room. 321 p. **** (best fiction)
27) Keith Richards - Life. 564 p. ***
28) Patricia Smith - Big Towns, Big Talk. 114 p.
29) Maus Book 1. Art Spiegelman. 158 p. ****
30) Great House. Nicole Krauss. 289 p.
31) Gold Medal Killer. Diana Britt Franklin. 210 p.
32) Pat Benatar - Between a Rock and a Hard Place. 256 p. ***
33) The Passage - Justin Cronin. 784 p.
34) The Outside Boy - Jeanine Cummins. 384 p.
35) Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend - James S. Hirsch. 640 p. ***
36) The Autism Mom's Survival Guide (For Dad's Too) - Susan Senator. 208 p. ***
37) Ian Rankin - Strip Jack. 320 p. ***
38) This Body of Death - Elizabeth George. 692 p. ***
39) Tooth and Nail - Ian Rankin. 304 p.
40) A Good Hanging - Ian Rankin. 253 p.
41) Little Bee - Chris Cleave. 304 p.
42) The Emptiness of Our Hands: A Lent Lived on the Streets - Phyllis Cole-Dai & James Murray. 243 p. ***
43) The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron - Howard Bryant. 624 p. ***
44) Shutout - Brendan Halpin. 189 p.
45) Paul Murray - Skippy Dies. 672 p. ***
46) Super Sad True Love Story - Gary Shteynegert.. 352 p. ***
47) Medium Raw - Anthony Bourdain. 304 p.
48) Poisoner's Handbook - Deborah Blum. 336 p. ***
49) Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So - Mark Vonnegut. 203 p.
50) Wilson - Daniel Clowes - 77 p.
51) How to Read the Air - Dinaw Mengestu - 305 p.
52) Voices of Autism: The Healing Companion: Stories for Courage, Comfort and Strength. 243 p.
53) Solar - Ian McEwan. 304 p. 480 p.
54) Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. Daniel Okrent.
55) An Object of Beauty - Steve Martin. 304 p. ***
56) Stephen King - Full Dark, No Stars. 368 p. ***
57) The Walking Dead Volume One - Robert Kirkham and Tony Moore
58) Jennifer Egan - A Visit from the Goon Squad. 288 p.
59) Ian Rankin - The Black Room. 336 p.

Time Ticking in My Hand

The time change usually has an adverse effect on my son. So far so good today. He was in his room and I asked what he was up to. I believe he said, "Causing trouble." It's something I say to him when he's up there alone. He's plotting things up there, I know it.

Now he's sitting next to me with a book. I asked what he was doing, he said, "you reading a book." We got him looking through Green Eggs and Ham. He's showing a lot of interest in it.

I've been on a lucky streak with books myself. There was Room which I followed up with Pat Conroy's "My Reading Life." His last two works of fiction have not really done it for me, especially his last one. His non-fiction works though. In the new one he gives a lot of shout outs to his teachers and why Gone With the Wind is one of the best works of American fiction. His storytelling is at a peak here and I found it to be very entertaining.

I'm following these two books with Keith Richards' autobiography, which is very enlightening and rousing - and I'm only at the point the Stones are still forming.

While the Bills are 0-7

It's depressing listening or watching your team fail week after week for over a decade. Thought about headed to the sports bar up north for the game, but had a better time looking in the creepy but cool antique store in German Village and trying to find a serviceable liquor cabinet.

It was more fun talking to the people at Spoonful Records about Belle and Sebastian than eventually getting home in time to find a radio feed of the game and hear the Bills lose in overtime.

Before that, I finished the best fiction I've read this year.



Room takes it's story from recent headlines. More specifically the horrors of the Fritzl case, reduces the people involved to the kidnapper, his victim and the son she gave birth to. The story is told from the viewpoint of the child, Jack, who is now five years old. All Jack has seen of the world during his entire life is in a room that is eleven by eleven.

It's a brilliant story of their relationship. Jack's Mother is determined to give Jack an education, to teach him about a world that he may never see, while trying to keep her own wits about her in a brutal situation. It's a very intense story that really stirs up emotions, with quite a few passages that are incredible page turners.

Donaghue manages to sustain the voice of a five year old rather skillfully but confuses the reader as to where the book takes place. She uses a lot of words that could mean the book takes place in the U.K., but the book takes place in the United States. A good editor could have solved that problem. The last third of the book loses some intensity, but we find out a few unpleasant things that resolve themselves in a fair conclusion.

I Do Not Know How People Survive

A newly released draft poem by Ted Hughes has been making the electronic rounds. The poem is Hughes' attempt to write out his feelings about the death of Sylvia Plath.

I keep thinking about Frieda Hughes, their daughter, what kind of life she must have, and what kind of mettle she has in dealing with everything.



The paintbrush has been a release for her, and she has published poetry and children's books.

How does one deal with a parent killing themselves while you're three years old and in the next room? Then, dad's next partner kills herself and your half sister in the same way your mother died. After that, your father, Ted Hughes, is demonized for destroying your mother's journals. A few years later he's made Poet Laureate of England.

I'm no fan of Hughes, and lack familiarity with most of his work. There's a ton of family drama here. Plenty of room for dislike. On his deathbed, Hughes finally speaks out on his first wife's death by publishing Birthday Letters. A mediocre movie about the Hughes/Plath marriage is released.

What is it like to have your family's history and words to be deconstructed and scrutinized by scholars, strangers and archivers with vitriol?

Then, to top it all off her younger brother killed himself a couple of years ago due to his depression. Frieda's third marriage also fell apart earlier this year.

What does she do to cope? Honestly.

Down for Maintenance

The laptop is in the shop so I'm not quite sure when the blogging can recommence.

Here's a great book you should be reading in the meantime. Not for the squeamish as it has santorum coming out of many of the pages.

Snooking in the Heat

I'm not really a reader of true crime books, but occasionally I'll jump at one when it crosses my desk.

Gold Medal Killer is about a notorious crime that happened in Columbus in 1929. In short, a respected Veterinary faculty member of the Ohio State University and a gold medal winner for pistol shooting in the 1920 Olympics was having an affair with a woman half his age. He ended up killing her at a shooting range at the corner of Fisher and Dublin Road.

Many details of their sex lives were exposed at the trial, and it was a the scandalous trial of the day.

James Snook was convicted of the crime of first degree murder of Theora Hix and was put to death in the electric chair. For sixty five years, the location of his body was kept secret. The rest of that story is here.



How many times can you say you have seen the grave of an Olympic gold medalist who was executed? And right in Columbus.

I think the story is more interesting than the book, and perhaps an author with more talent could have told it in a better style. Gold Medal Killer is worth seeking out though for its capture of an era of Columbus history.

While at Greenlawn, near the Snook grave, I noticed this juxtaposition.



My wife thinks it would be even funnier if I were fifteen again.

We Will Be Invincible

It's not that England would have won yesterday's World Cup match. The goal that was completely missed by all the officials would have tied the game at two. But, there would have been a shifting in momentum and urgency by both teams that could have changed the complexion of the game. I think Germany would have won, and decidedly so, we'll never know now.

Missing or allowing goals due to blown offside calls is one thing. Screwing up when the ball has clearly past the goal line is another thing entirely. FIFA have a great deal to answer for. They're earning billions with this tournament and for a goal to be clearly missed in the net messes with the game's integrity.



I was very impressed by this memoir by Pat Benatar. A very compelling story of being one of the only female rock stars in the early eighties. During that time, there really were not many solo rock women out there other than Debbie Harry, Joan Jett and Chrissie Hynde. She is one of the few stars who never went into rehab or hit any deep rock bottoms in her personal life. Despite unbelievable pressure by a douchebag record company to produce music and an incredible amount of sexism she prevailed and is now living her own life on her terms. She has a story to tell, and slapping a record company executive is a stunning part of this book.

I was not overly wowed by The Passage, Justin Cronin's thick book about the end of the world. American scientists have created a virus that may slow down the aging process, it's put into convicts, things go horribly wrong. For the first 150 pages it was quite the page turner, then the point of view shifted and I was left bored and stranded. I plodded on through the last 450 pages and could not wait for the book to end. It reads a lot of Stephen King's The Stand and even includes a pious and wise black woman for spiritual relief. Ugh. After finishing the book I was told it's to be a trilogy. Books two and three will not be in my house.

Been trying to shake a cold. Now Captain Trips has invaded my sinus cavity.

The Everton Connection

Very cool to see Tim Howard made the save, then the throw to and eventual game winning goal by Landon Donovan in yesterday's World Cup match. Three months playing for Everton turned Donovan into a man!

Had it on at work, listening in headphones. They know, and appreciate my updates. I don't cuss and click the screen on when something exciting may happen. When the goal was scored I clapped loudly.

Feeling like a wreck physically so I was far from 100% at last night's slam. It's no excuse but my energy was not there. Came in sixth out of seven and had a great time while doing so. My three minute did not grab the crowd but my one minute had them, but not the judges. Oh well, another night perhaps. It's good to have a one minute poem to be able to use on the subway or in a pinch.

Been reading a book that I'm plodding through. Started out exciting enough then took a point of view turn about a third of the way through that initially turned me off, but I'm dealing with it. If it was not over six hundred pages I'd be bailing.

Tonight at the Ohio Theater the CAPA Summer Movie Series is presenting Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr and Second Chances. Both will have scores performed by Clark Wilson on the Mighty Morton Organ. I've seen both of these films, but never in this setting. My Scottish Wife has not seen either of these treasures. It's going to be a spectacular night at the cinema!

From Fact to Fiction

Six years after the publication of her true crime memoir A Rip in Heaven, Jeanine Cummins returns with her first novel, The Outside Boy.



It's the story of Christy, a young Irish Traveller living in Ireland in the late 1950's. His Grandfather dies, a photograph comes into his possession - secrets are kept and revealed.

Cummins prose is quite rich, emotions run high while a deft sense of humor runs throughout the book. The plot gets a bit predictible and nearly crosses into Lifetime Movie territory, but it stays on the side of being rational. It's a novel that will please readers of many genres, be they historical, dramatic or books about a family that loves each other.

Bow Down to Number Twenty Four

All I can say about his therapy is that he seems to be eager to go. Once we're there he climbs up on the table, lays down and is ready for the session. No fussing at all.

We went to the grocery after this morning's session. I only had a few things to get so I did not put him in the cart. He held my hand and we walked around the whole store with no problems at all.

He's been so good I got out his wagon, which he turned over and walked on immediately.

I had donuts, it's been a good morning.



Really enjoyed reading Hirsch's biography. It's authorized but we are still allowed to see some of the cracks in the legend. I thought it stopped a bit short when we read about Mays' hospitalizations during a couple of seasons. I thought his being 'tired' was a brush off. Mays' relationship with his first manager Leo Durocher is described fully and I had no idea how warm and respectful it was.

Mays is probably the best living baseball player at this time. He played in the Negro League as it faded after the game was slowly segregated. Mays was not the fiery player Jackie Robinson was, nor did he speak out for equal rights the way Robinson did. Mays brought his joy to one person, one stadium full of people at a time, and if you did not get that it was your loss.

I only got to see Mays play at the end of his career with the Mets. A very sad year he never should have started. His appearances though made me appreciate and love him for what he was, and why I own a New York Giants 1954 replica baseball hat. The only major league cap I wear.

Ed From Ohio Says...

Spring has arrived and I hope I'm able to sit and write a bit in this beautiful weather. Too sweet out there to coop up inside. Took my Scottish Wife to work, waiting for my son to arrive for the day. I'm looking after him during half of his spring break. A shame we could not go to Daytona, or Cancun. I'd make a decent wing man for him.

My friend Sue's new book arrived in the mail yesterday.



The Autism Mom's Survival Guide is a necessary book for parents who are struggling to cope with how to function at anything resembling normal where there is an autistic child in the house.

Upbeat and honest, but never condescending or perky. The book manages to be very supportive but keeps an arms length from the dark places autism can take a family. It does offer real, balanced advice from someone who has been and will always be there. She and her husband have three children, one of whom is autistic. Susan is a great guide to have as she leads you through some effective methods of handling the day to day activities with a special needs child.

This is Susan's second book on autism. This is not a sequel though. Her first, Making Peace with Autism, is also worth seeking out.

I found the book to be geared mainly toward autism moms, (although there is plenty for fathers to get from this) who are the true heroes in the struggle to understand this condition.

If you have a child with autism in your life, you may find yourself nodding your head with many of the stories Susan and the parents she writes about have experienced. If you're new, you will find out very quickly what it is like to be a part of an autistic child's family.

Full disclosure: I'm one of the autism parents that were interviewed for this book.

To conclude this morning.

2/30 He Poops?

Like his Dad, he reads on the same throne
The material is not the same, nor is his purpose of the visit
It's social hour! Time to see how creatively hands can touch the floor
How to sit as back or forward as he can without drawing the wrath of parents
A test of the room's acoustics is part of the agenda
The purpose, is avoided, until fifteen minutes after the visit has ended
Occasionally, the mission will be a success
Yet praise and promises of extra computer time are not remembered
Each visit a blank slate resulting in a usually empty receptacle
The whoops and yells he makes are repeated back by his father
The volume and sounds become more and more ridiculous until
He looks his father directly in the eye
With a smile on his face he says,
"You're silly!"
Unprompted and natural
Before bending over the side of the seat
The one closest to the wall

It's Old. It's Grey, and Confusing

The car is falling apart. The rear window windshield wiper arm broke off in my hand one frozen morning. The driver's side bezel for the headlights vibrated off on I-70 one night.

Brakes wear down, it's natural. Ended up taking the day off since the shop had to special order brake pads. What? You don't have parts for an '88 Volvo 760 (with a 740 4 cylinder engine!) behind the counter?

While I waited for them to figure out what they were ordering I got a substantial part of Ian Rankin's 'Strip Jack' read. What a pleasure the Rebus story is. A brilliantly put together character with plenty of flaws and humanity. Only thirteen more in the series. I'm reading them in order, and not really rushing the process. Rankin's awesome.



So in the meantime I've been minimally productive. I got a haircut and then went to Nancy's for some food. First time back since the reopening. Home fries undercooked, toast passed under a 100 watt bulb for five seconds. Yes, they're back!

I'm listening to Lily Allen do a cover of Straight to Hell, yes the Clash song. Know what? It does not suck.

Things that are Happening, and what Already Has

This weekend, starting on Saturday night, Scott Woods is once again doing a 24 hour poetry reading.

There's even a schedule here.

A couple of nights ago I went to the Poetry Forum at the Rumba Cafe and went to Joanna Schroeder's feature.



She is one of the most supportive humans on the planet and a very hard working poet. It was my pleasure to go out on a night I was feeling cranky and have my grouchiness reduced by a night of wonderful poetry.

All the blow back from health care reform passing has turned up my ire this week. Man, so much anger out there. This country really needs to sit back and exhale for a minute.

I was a bit disappointed in the new book by Marilyn Johnson. You know I love librarians and libraries but this book had a lot of east coast bias, probably due to limited time and finances to research, but it was more descriptive in librarian fashion than in any real discussion of libraries in the modern world. What exactly is going on was blurred more by the longest chapter in the book, on Second Life, that brought the book to a screeching halt for me. There is some good value in chapters on how the New York Public Library is adapting but too much of the text is about cupcakes and twee while ignoring any real substance. Read The Dead Beat instead.

Slam tonight at Kafe Kerouac. It's time to be in a poetry slam instead of reading about race and poetry slam. We do it better than talk it to death, at least this week, I think. This white, middle aged man is ready to bring it.

First, to wake the kid up for school.

Shane MacGowan has Teeth Now

I do not know much about North Korea, few do as it's a country and culture that keeps hidden in the dark. Their regime, in an appropriate use of the term, should die in a fire.

Learned a bit how sad and horrifying life is there after reading Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick. The book is an oral history of six people, their lives, loves and belief in a system that brainwashed the population and eventually betrayed them. There is a lot of bleakness and at times the book is hard to read. Depictions of starvation and food deprivation will do that to you. A few more pictures of the people interviewed would have helped in putting faces to the story but I understand how difficult it would have been as some of the defectors still have family struggling in the north.



In other news, the Ohio State Hockey Team did not renew coach John Markell's contract. After fifteen years of inconsistency, he's been let go. I called it in a post I made about this very subject last year around this time. Now speculation about who the next coach begins. Going to be an interesting off season, for the wrong reasons. Again: I have no grudge or animosity toward Markell, but it was time for him to move on. I wish him well and am glad he was coaching the team during a very rough transition. He ran a clean program, recruited and successfully taught many young men. He should be proud of that accomplishment.

Just Don't Call it Bubblegum

First generation immigrants from India fall in love with Catholics and Americans in Sujatha Hampton's debut novel As it was Written. It's a book of a curse about dying for love, and trying to survive it. Hampton possesses a gift of touching your core with the line, "He leapt up and stood in front of her and when he pointed the camera she was looking at him with so much love he had to lower it to check if it was real, but when he raised it back to his eye, it was still there." It was a bit tough for me to follow the lengthy Indian names, but I managed to muddle through the cultural divisions and have my heart broken, a little, at its end.



While I'm not a huge fan of Tommy James' music, you cannot dispute his popularity. He's written a book about his rise in the music business and his connections with organized crime. The character Hesh Rabkin on the Sopranos is based on Morris Levy, who signed James on to his record label, Roulette Records. Me, the Mob, and the Music, is a fast paced and entertaining look at the music industry by someone who started out as a wide eyed eighteen year old from Michigan who became a rock star, and saw things that few have seen.

Things that are here, things that are on the way

My friend Susan an an article on siblings and autism in today's New York Times Magazine. You can read it here.

She also has a book coming out in March.

Another friend, Sujatha Hampton, has her first book coming out on Tuesday.

I'm surrounded by writers doing big things. Using their talents to change lives, including their own.

Nothing beats going up in front of a billion people though.



I have a chapbook. The pages were stapled together, by me.

One step at a time.

To Redeem the Earth From Fools

Took the Jeopardy online test again. I'm not confident.

Check this out.



She's someone I've always wanted to see live. I'd sit at her feet, touch the hem of her garment, anoint her feet in my hair, whatever it takes.

I'm reading her new book, Just Kids, a memoir of her friendship with Robert Mapplethope and it's as poetic, beautiful and mysterious as Bob Dylan's Chronicles.

In other news, the ban on Haggis is being lifted!

Less Cranky

It's 12:45 and there has been no gunfire yet. The night's still young though.

Managed to get some editing done. Also did some culling of the pile of work in my bag. So many duplicates.



Found a couple of poems stashed away deep in the back of a file folder.

Started reading Andre Agassi's book. First few pages and I'm wondering who his ghost writer is. I look in the back in the acknowledgments section and see that it's J. R. Moehringer, who wrote this gem a few years back. It's a decent book, and he pulls no punches towards his adversaries - and he's rather hard on himself, the way his father was toward him, but not as hard as Clapton was on himself in his autobiography.