Mr Thursday’s Book Shelf 3: Catch-22
May 5, 2007
Joseph Heller’s black satire, Catch-22, is widely regarded as one of the best war novels to come out of World War II. Heller’s style is impressive, displaying a near-constant string of juxtapositions and contradictions. Through these contradictions, Heller creates humor, but also creates a complexity in his characters that might not be possible otherwise. These contradictions start off humorously (”The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous, and likable. In three days, no one could stand him.”), but as the book progresses, these seemingly innocuous conflicts become a matter of desperate frustration, as we view the world through the eyes of Capt. John Yossarian, the protagonist.
The title comes from an interaction between Yossarian and Doc Daneeka about getting grounded. The passage is after the break.
GoodEnough: Tim the Enchanter
May 4, 2007
“There are some who call me…Tim.”
The San Francisco Giants are, apparently, calling up a rookie pitcher, Timothy LeRoy Lincecum. For those of you who aren’t familiar, the kid is a STUD. He’s ranks as part of the Big 3 for this year’s pitching prospects (alongside Phil Hughes and the Reds’ Homer Bailey). What’s unusual–and exciting–about Lincecum is his heavily unorthodox delivery. He’s only 5′10″ tall, and throws high 90s heat. Baseball Think Factory does a fantastic analysis of his delivery here.
The only downside of this call-up, of course, is that he’ll be pitching against my Phillies. Lucky for you, however, he debuts on Sunday Night Baseball, so no matter where you are, you can watch him toss. Here’s hoping Joe Morgan doesn’t have something stupid to say about him. In either case, I’m rooting for a rough debut, and then the pleasure of watching The Enchanter fly up the leaderboard. Be gone John Danks! You shall sully my Top 5 no longer with your incredible WHIP!
Lincecum has been absolutely incredible through just about every phase of his career thus far. He doesn’t give up home runs; he strikes out EVERYBODY; people can’t hit him. The only problem? Fella can get a little wild. Through three years of college, his BB/9 ran: 6.57, 6.12. 4.57, and last year in the minors (high and low A ball) it sank even a bit further to 3.46. It’s still a bit higher than you’d like, and, especially with against patient major leaguers, he could run into some trouble with the free passes. To his credit, the walks are trending downward, and Randy Johnson was a pretty good pitcher, even when he was walking 5 batters per 27 outs. If The Enchanter can get them to float around 3BB/9IP, he could be devastating. A patient team, however, could give him a lot of trouble.
Here’s hoping for that. Ya know, just for one night.
Do They All Die?: “Death of a President”
May 4, 2007
Gabriel Range’s “Death of a President” premiered amidst heavy controversy at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2006. When you consider the plot, it’s pretty easy to see why. The film is astoundingly multi-leveled and multi-modal: a fictional narrative about the events following the assassination of President George W. Bush in October 2007 done as a documentary a year after it “happened,” all within the overarching framework of a mockumentary/shockumentary, since October 2007 has not happened and George Bush has not been assassinated nor will he be, insh’allah, as they say [insh'allah is Arabic for "God willing"]. Politicians across the American political spectrum roundly condemned the film, though it is unclear if they ever saw the film, when one considers that their comments were irrelevant and that the film couldn’t get distributed in any mainstream theatre.
The film’s modal confusion leaves us with the answer to our question (President George W. Bush dies) but little else. The film refuses to make truth claims and questions our capacity to know any kind of absolute truth in the American political climate minutely covered by 24-hour network news. More on this ambitious picture after you click.
Sine Macula: Friday Night in San Francisco
May 3, 2007
For roughly the the past decade, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani pick up some guitarist with blazing fast electric guitar skills, and they go around touring as “G3″ in front of adoring fans. I’ve never seen the tour, nor been particularly inclined to, but it’s not hard to imagine that they got the idea for G3 from this album. Friday Night in San Francisco is the 1980 release of Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin, and Paco DeLucia. It’s (mostly) a live album, and it features nothing more than 3 of the world’s greatest guitarists playing an unmatchable acoustic set in front of an enthusiastic audience.
All three guitarists, especially DiMeola have a reputation for being highly skilled, technique-oriented clinicians. DiMeola himself has said that, in the studio, he personally writes out all the musical parts for himself and for each of his complementary performers. This is no small task, given the speed and duration of the music–a lot of little black dots to appear. Nonetheless, this album is as loose and spontaneous and enjoyable as you’ll find any of these greats, and, with such unmatched skill on their instruments, it’s an inimitably dynamic and brilliant performance.
For the record, if you’re going to pick it up, it’s worthwhile listening to this on a good pair of headphones, as it’s more than worthwhile being able to distinguish one guitarist from the other.
Self-Help: The Rap Album
May 2, 2007
Today, boys and girls, we’re going to explore what it is that makes a successful rap album. Clearly, not every rap album is the same but recently, they all seem to have a few common threads which we shall delve into in hopes that, should you ever be consumed with the desire to release a rap album, you’ll have the know-how to make it a hit.
The steps, after the break.
GoodEnough for Me: Noooo!
May 1, 2007
Phil Hughes was much, much better in his second start, pitching 6 1/3 innings of no-hit ball against the Texas Rangers. After 19 stellar outs, though, he left the game… due to injury. Haven’t been able to find any info on the injury, but here’s hoping it’s not serious.
We’ll update as soon as possible about this.
GoodEnough for Me: A Couple of Noobs
May 1, 2007
GoodEnough for Me is an on-going analysis of the rookie pitchers during the 2007 baseball season. The series was inspired by, and serves as companion piece to, The Extrapolater’s Smells Like Pujols series, which is taking a look at some of the top rookie position players. You can find Smells Like Pujols HERE.
Just a quick one today.
ESPN fixed their HTML, and finally I can sort for the proper rookie stats. The leaderboard has been updated, and you can look at it right here. As we can see, a lot of pitchers made their debuts this week. The biggest name, of course, was Phil Hughes for the Yankees, who was certainly a bit rough–more likely a product of nerves than a lack of talent or polish. Hughes has been lauded for his excellent control, but it’s only natural that he will need a little adjustment learned just how good that control has to be in The Show.
For Oakland, lefty Dallas Braden made his debut on the Tuesday, and, for his part, pitched very well–giving up only 1 run in 6 innings, with 6 strikeouts to boot–against Baltimore. His second start, however, came against the Tampa Bay offensive juggernaut, and Braden never made it out of the 5. He pitched 4 1/3, and gave up 5 runs on 6 hits, including 3 home runs. He did, however, strike out 5 in that time. So far, Braden’s got solid numbers–the walks are slightly higher than ideal, and there’s definitely too many home runs allowed, but, thankfully, most offenses aren’t quite as good as the Devil Rays can be. Braden was a strikeout pitcher in the minors (249 strikeouts in 217IP), and it looks like he can continue to be effective in the majors if he can keep those fly balls in the park.
The only other debut starter on our chart is Brian Bannisterfor Kansas City–formerly of the Mets’ organization. He was a good but not overwhelming pitcher in the minors, and so far, as a major leaguer, has had significant control problems. He has 22 walks and 19 strikeouts in a call-up with New York last year, and he’s got 4 walks and 5 strikeouts so far this year. That does not bode well for him. If he can’t find the strike zone, he won’t last long beyond this rookie year.
