Trout Shoes

I thought of you when I saw this, Norm...

The baseball All-Star game happened just recently (literally yesterday as of this post), and for the All-Star game, the bosses loosened the rules on what ball-players could wear in regards to shoes and cleats. It seems like a silly concession, but it looked like so many players just love neon colors that the decision would be considered a success by those bosses.

Currently in baseball the best player is also one of the youngest, a giant of a young man playing in the outfield down here for the Angels. His name is Mike Trout. Instead of neon cleats and shoes, he wore:

Rainbow trout colored baseball cleats...

At the Cabin

I'll have more to say on this some time later...but:

And:

Cuteness...

Missed it...Happy Birthday to the Norms

I missed both of you boys on all of the sites...

Happy Birthday Norm (III) and Happy Birthday Norman (IV)! I hope, Norm, your travails along the rails were as enlightening as I imagine the zen-like time could be.

I'm looking forward to seeing you two in a few weeks, up at the Cabin. I have a small writing project I'm working on to leave up there...a somewhat fictional gonzo treatment of a week in the life of a, eh, resident T.

Norman, Chilling--eyes on the sea-bass...

Until next time...

Discovery at Powell's, the King of America's Independent Bookstores

I'd read plenty about Powell's Bookstore in Portland, Oregon. It's the de facto King of the American Independent Bookstore. Once we'd decided to go to Portland, this was one place I really wanted to visit.

In a later post on the regular blog I'll be going into some more detail about the discoveries at Powell's, but until then, Norm, here's something that you may appreciate:

These guys have a rare-book room, but this was definitely not found there. The cover art and the ad-copy inside are pretty neat.

I'm not sure how Powell's stacks up against Manhattan's the Strand...

I need to think about that with some more depth, but I certainly never saw anything like this chilling on the shelf in New York.

Update: Rellerindos

Norm, there's good news and bad news. First the bad.

I've just been informed that my new favorite hard candy:

...is only available for sale in Tijuana (and random spots that have regular TJ runs).

The good news is that a trip is being planned by my current source, and he said he would procure some for the both of us.

Just a Test

One two...

Buckle my shoe...

Downtown LA from 4th Street, just west of the 110:

Skyline of downtown Los Angeles, from the Slauson metro stop, one of my new daily routines, and in no way connected with the above picture:

This was only a test of posting pictures directly from my phone. It was a success...

Happy New Year

2013 saw both a new Pynchon book and, in an easy way to trivialize a new Pynchon book, a new baby for Norm! Congratulations, brother!

Time to get over to this blog to type ramblings about authors is hard enough for me to make, and I have zero babies. But, in keeping with the general vibe of posts over here, I'm back with another random Dollar Bookstore discovery.

I finished the latest book I wrote about over here, Richard Flanagan's Wanting. I found it good, but certainly not as outstanding as I had hoped, but that's my fault.

Saying something truthful, like "Well, it's not as a good as Gould's Book of Fish," is like complaining Pudd'nhead Wilson isn't as good as Huck Finn--how could it be? In both cases, one is good book by a genius, and the other is a masterpiece.

But, since Flanagan doesn't get the recognition he deserves, sometimes his books end up on the margins, and for me in downtown Long Beach, those margins are manifested in the physical world by our Dollar Bookstore.

So the other day I found another new book to get to once my Christmas reading has finished:

The premise is that a stripper wakes up one morning to see her face all over the news as a newly wanted terrorist. After reading Wanting, I am curious to see how Flanagan deals with a more modern narrative. The first and last chapters of Gould's... notwithstanding, I've only seen his prose in specific historical time periods, and this idea seems like it could have some legs.

Also, having read Wanting, I know where to set my expectations so I won't face disappointment.