I'm on a movie kick and a reading kick. I need something to fill my nights now that I'm not spending that time sitting in a bar...or sleeping. The voices have been particularly annoying lately and last nights dreams involved rabid leaping iguanas, very unsettling.
Anyway FWIW:
Movie
Half Nelson. Junior High teacher smokes crack. Worth getting but about 30% longer than necessary. Shareeka Epps is going to be a star someday.
Books
A Dog In A Hat, by Joe Parkin. Joe Parkin's account of his experiences as an American bicycle racer in Belgium in the late 80's. Easy read, fun, interesting. A lot is being made about the sections on drugs. The book does take an honest look at drugs in cycling, but offers a good bit more than that. Recommended.
Goodbye Amelia by Simone Felice. I got this because I'm a fan of the Felice Brothers and this book had decent reviews. Its essentially a short story followed by a series of poems. I couldn't get through the poems and I found the short story to be depressing. The text is written with the feel of song lyrics which might be good for a CD jewel case, but starts to lose its appeal after 40 pages. There are parts that tease with being really well done, but just miss the mark. This is Felice's first book, and I suspect that he'll get better in time. Not recommended.
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2 comments:
I'm mostly with you on Parkin's book. I wanted to like it more, though.
Many of Parkin's stories start off great but end like the SNL sketches that appear after midnight.
Still, the stories are good enough that the journeys, if you will, are worth the sometimes lousy final destinations.
Why is it that certain confessed or admitted dopers, like David Millar, Basso, and more recently, Joe Parkin (http://velocitynation.com/content/interviews/2009/joe-parkin-interview) are treated like rehabilitated and wise elders of the sport, meriting of respect and consideration, while other riders who have either practiced the same level of candor about revealing their doping or been even more forthcoming (speaking not just about their own "mistake" or temptations, but the systematic doping that has existed for decades in cycling), are skewered unendingly by "the media?"
Parkin doped, he admits it, he admits to being privy to the buying and selling of races, and Schmalz fawns over the guy in their interview:
**schmalz You had a great line in the book, you said you could tell your parents you had a bad day and look them in the eye, or you could stare at their feet while they congratulated you. I think that sums it up pretty well.
>>Parkin Yeah.
**schmalz Well, this is all the time we have, unfortunately, but thanks for a great book and thanks for being so forthcoming, I appreciate it.
>>Parkin Thank you.
I dope, get caught, admit it, contribute to sanctions being handed down on at least three other dopers, and I still get crucified two years later. If I wrote a book and included details about the time when my teammate, who won a stage of the Vuelta, shot me up with pot belge before one particular race near Pantani's home town, I'd be treated like a f*cking Nazi.
Hypocrites. (not you, Flick. this is just a rant)
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