Book #5 - A Garden of Vipers

A Garden of Vipers is Jack Kerley's third book. Each of Kerley's books are set in Mobile, Alabama and feature Detectives Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus. These homicide detectives also comprise the department's "special" team of detectives qualified to deal with psychologically deranged offenders. Kerley's books are good, he does get a little caught up in his own idea of clever wordplay, primarily creating some overdone description, but overall the books are pretty good.

A Garden of Vipers finds Carson and Harry on the trail of a potentially disturbed killer, and while Kerley includes some fairly obvious red herrings, the final set of twists is pretty good here. Kerley seems to be developing as a writer, and A Garden of Vipers was a pretty good book.

Book #4 - You Suck! A Love Story

This little ditty is another book by Christopher Moore and instead of whales with creatures driving them, this book is about a couple of novice vampires and a sixteen year old goth girl whom they choose to be their minion. Like the book Fluke, You Suck! is humorous, but at times lets cleverness get in the way of the plot. I'm sure that in some literary way, Moore is making some grand point, but in reading these two books, it feels almost like the reader is being talked down to, which as a reader I don't like too much.

Two books in a row by the same author isn't too unusual for me, but I think I'll pass on Christopher Moore for a little while now. Back to the killing and death in the next book.

Book #3 - Fluke

The third book of the week was the strangest. It was a story of marine biology, but it wasn't really about marine biology at all. I'm not sure what to make of it, other than a fairly satiric look at science and religion. Funny, and kinda witty. I'm not sure that I can keep up this pace though, it was touch and go getting three books in this week.

Wasteful, they probably just light money on fire

for fun. Or at least to get rid of it. Anyway, America is littered with government programs and departments that are slowly outliving their usefulness and the Mint is getting there. I know that we need someone to make our money, but lately they just seem to be channelling the fools over at the Franklin Mint, trying to make product. The State Quarter program was kinda cool when it started, but you know, about seven years have passed and have you seen some of the crap on the other side of your quarters? Most of it looks like bad junior high art projects gone awry. What's next? Official painted coins? Plates? Maybe the dime can have pictures of state birds on the back. Ridiculous right? Well, maybe not.

Anyway, rather than learn from the waning popularity of the quarter program, the mint has again attempted to revive the dollar coin. People do not want the dollar coin. It's that simple, and it has been proved time and time again. Susan B. Anthony, the Eisenhower, and Sacajawea were all failures. Expensive ones at that. But here we are with an new one. This one has pictures of presidents on it. Oh, the fun. It is about as innovative as the religious trading cards Ned was selling at the flea market on that Simpsons episode. I can just hear the collecters now, "Wow, did you get the new Grover Cleveland? I don't think he looks as good as the John Quincy Adams."

Maybe the mint will understand when we go paperless, and they are out looking for jobs that we don't need collectibles from them. We just need the money.

It Takes a Thief

If you have spent any amount of time on the internet the past couple of days, then surely you know about the incident that went down between Joe Rogan and Carlos Mencia. For the past couple of years Rogan has been very vocal about Mencia being a joke thief. It all kind of became public when George Lopez went backstage and assaulted Mencia for stealing "13 minutes" or so on Mencia's HBO One Night Stand. This was depressing to me because at one time I liked Mencia's stand up act. He was funny the first time I saw him live and I enjoyed his cd Take a Joke America. Mencia has been on a downward spiral as far as material goes for several years, and maybe this is what led to his thievery, or maybe he's just not stealing enough lately because Mind of Mencia has never really been any good. Either way I find it incredibly difficult to in any way support someone who has built a career on the efforts of others, so screw Carlos.

Hopefully the fallout from this incident will be more significant than Rogan being banned from The Comedy Store, and Mencia can perhaps realize that his success should be predicated on his own talents and abilities, rather than "borrowing" the work of others. Until that happens, Comedy Central should really take a hard look at what they are putting on television. We may accept illegal aliens Ned, but we don't like thieving liars.

Book #2 - Jinn

Jinn is a first novel by writer Matthew Delaney.  It is a strange novel
that follows in the footsteps of the works of Stephen King, Dean Koontz,
and John Connelly.  Jinn blends modern horror with police procedural in a
longish tale of reincarnation and demonology.  I am not sure if I actually
like this book.  I enjoyed the first 400 pages immensely, but the last 150
were trite and simplistic.  It felt as if Delaney really couldn't figure
out a way to end the book and went with sappiness over the gritty darkness
that led up to the conclusion.  Overall, I would be interested in reading
another book by this writer, but I hope that maturity helps him craft a
more engaging work than Jinn.

The versatile belt

I never knew how versatile a belt could be, it can hold up your pants, AND function as outerwear. Apparently this woman is a wrestler, so be careful if you want to criticize her fashion choices, she just might kick your ass. Just a heads up!

Book #1 - The Colorado Kid

This book was part of the Hard Case Crime series, a new run of noir-style mysteries. This entry was written by Stephen King. Outside of a great narrator, and typical Maine local color, King's story is uninspired and weak. There is no darkness either physical or emotional, which is part of the genre. This short novel is very disappointing. Avoid if possible.

3 Books a Week

I have way too much free time these days, so I was looking for things to do (other than write, for some reason it's just not working) and I came up for this little challenge for myself. I am going to read at least three books a week until the end of the school year. I'll post up the names of the books as i read them with some quick impressions, just to keep track. So to recap that is 48 books by the end of May. The Company was a fantastic book, a bit long, but outstanding. If you ever have an opportunity to read Robert Littell, do it.

When is a celebrity sex tape not

a celebrity sex tape? That's a damn good question. I would think that it isn't when the people involved aren't celebrities. I was bumping around the internet yesterday and there is much being made about the Kim Kardashian sex tape that is about to be released. As I was reading about this, I came up with a rule of thumb regarding these things (which I have previously alluded to here) and quite simply, if the only video I can see you in is only available at Fascinations or the Castle Megastore, you are not a celebrity, you are a porn star. The fact that I know that Kardashian participates in "golden showers" not only disturbs me, it is an indictment of the hideous culture of celebrity that we live in today.

Kardashian is now suing to stop the release of this tape, which she has been rumored to be responsible for, claiming that she hurt and embarrassed about the situation. Here is a great rule of thumb, which I wrote after the whole Screech and Keeley Hazell situation a month or so ago:

So here's my advice to any celebrity or deviant who wants to avoid this type of public shame (I mean really, did anyone need to know that Screech likes to pull the Dirty Sanchez? I could have lived happily without it): DON'T TAPE YOURSELF HAVING SEX!

There you go. Simple huh?

Hall of Fame (pt. 2)

It came out last week that Van Halen was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Before I get to the issue of Van Halen getting into this place, I just want to address the idea of a Hall of Fame for rock and roll. Who the hell is defining “rock and roll” here? Jan Werner and all of his buddies at Rolling Stone? Rock critics? It seems that they have a pretty liberal interpretation of the concept of “rock and roll” in this place. I am not decrying anyone being included in this place, because seriously, who cares? It is a museum of music which, along with the Experience Music museum in Seattle, should be regarded as a place to commemorate this fairly popular aspect of contemporary culture. It just seems like we are seeing a very narrow, elitist approach to who gets into this “hall,” much like what the Baseball Writers of America Association does with their Hall of Fame.

As far as Van Halen goes, it is a little unfathomable to me that they could have been excluded for as long as they were, but the sad fact about this band is that their immature and unprofessional approach to the business of music has cost them dearly. Their repeated feuds with ex-vocalists has reduced them to a joke in the eyes of most casual observers. This is a band that burned as hot as any in their prime. From 1978-1982 that band was untouchable. No, they weren’t socially conscious, they didn’t have an agenda other than to have a good time; but to label them as lightweight or inconsequential is a mistake. They connected with millions of fans, many of them freakishly passionate, because their music was passionate and unique. It was a complex blend of blues, classic rock, and vaudeville which sometimes nudged the listener in the ribs with sly humor and other times hit them over the head with some amazing musical interplay.

The music industry hated Van Halen; dismissed them as a bar band with a great guitar player and a buffoon as a lead singer. They got it partly right, but that was the point. They didn’t have the pretensions of some musicians (watch Spinal Tap for what I’m talking about here), their fans loved them because they seemed just like us. Themo made the comment the other day that I liked David Lee Roth’s book because I wanted to be him, or do the things that he did. That’s not really it, I like the book because it shows me that what I was hearing and seeing as a fourteen year old boy in northern California was real. There was schtick to what Roth and the rest of Van Halen were selling, but they weren’t playing at it like KISS, Journey, or the other faceless acts of the early eighties. Their music wasn’t crafted and saccharine, packaged to sell to the masses; it was who they were, what they experienced.

I’m not going to get into the vocalist changes or which era of the band produced better music, because it is all subject to taste, but in the end what I really want is for the band to show up (and I mean all of them: Dave, Ed, Alex, Mike, and Sam), accept the recognition with grace and dignity, and then go quietly off into that good night. I don’t need to be reminded about how Roth has turned into a parody of himself, unable to perform without the witticisms of 25 years ago; or about how EVH cannot play at a level anywhere near professional, let alone the elite level of musicianship he used to have; or the junior high drama of their catfights or infights or whatever the hell their social inadequacies are put out there for the world to see. If I sound bitter or disillusioned about this band, it is because that is what they have done to their fanbase with all of their crap. Over the last 8-11 years they have destroyed the goodwill that they had built up so completely that I just want them to do one thing from here on out: I want them to make me not embarrassed to have been a Van Halen fan.

Thanks for reading.

Hall of Fame

So the baseball hall of fame inductees were announced today. No big shocks here as Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. were the only players taken into the hall this year. It was touted as an indictment of the Steroid Era (somehow this has taken on proper noun status) as the Baseball Writers Association of America were going to stonewall Mark McGwire and keep him and his 580+ home runs out. It is to cleanse the game they tell us; that McGwire, Canseco, and the rest of their ilk had sullied the game and made a mockery of the record books. They cheated, or so the media would have us believe.

Or maybe not. Steroids were not against the rules until very recently, and at that, there are still no rules against the most prevalent form of performance enhancement: Human Growth Hormone. But still, the hall must be protected. From cheaters. Like Ty Cobb and all those nasty allegations of fixing games. Like Gaylord Perry who was well known for his doctoring of the baseball. Or from all of the guys who were amped up on amphetamines for forty years, when they were just as illegal as steroids.

Screw it, forget the hypocrisies of the voters on the whole cheating thing, I'd take their moralism much easier if they didn't exhibit unbelievable stupidity every year. The big news this year is that Ripken and Gwynn were elected with near record percentages. Near records, 98-97%. So let me get this straight: We are supposed to accept the moral judgments of writers who clearly have never watched a game. That is the only reason that there can be for no player to ever have been unanimously being elected to this "hall of fame." Babe Ruth? Cy Young? The aforementioned Cobb? NO ONE. What does a person have to do? More importantly, when their credibility is strained to the point of Barry Bond's, why should I give a damn about their opinion, it is clearly less valid than any other fan of the game's.

Oh well, to McGwire, Bert Blyleven, Goose Gossage, Andre Dawson, and Jim Rice (who are some of the greatest players of their generations), if you do ever get inducted to this little club, I'd hope at some point in your acceptance speech, you take these ingrates to task. They style themselves as the protectors of the game, and their actions show that they are merely bitter malcontents who have raised themselves far above the point of their usefulness.

Happy New Year!

As we glide into this new year, it is good to reflect back on the past and figure out what out objectives are for the new year. So I thought that I'd just post this note today to get this started. 2006 was good in many ways, but there are several areas that I'd like to improve for 2007. I'll get to those in individual posts, but today I'd like to thank my wife and family for all that they have done for me this year and wish them all the best for the year to come. It should be an exciting one. And yes, I'll spend most of it on the couch.

Book 7. Finally.

So billionaire author J. K. Rowling decided to officially title her book today. In case you are surfing the web from under a rock, it will be called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Not exactly falling off of the tongue, but it could be worse. I am an unabashed Harry Potter freak, and yes you will find me somewhere at midnight when this is released purchasing this book, but isn't this book a huge risk for Rowling?

I respect what she has accomplished, but let's be honest here, she could have finished this a few years ago if she would have spent less time fiddling with the movie aspect of her empire. The movies are a massive disappointment, as both movies and adaptations. The movies would work better as movies if she were to let some of the storylines be excised for the sake of time and bloat. You can forgive these digressions in the novels because they add flavor and color to the books, but in a movie, it just adds butt-numbing time to the equation.

At the end of the day though, Rowling doesn't care about what I think, after all I'll buy the book, probably see the movies, and she'll pocket the cash. I just hope she stays vigilant and finishes the books in the manner in which she has envisioned. It would be easy for her to be reactionary and kill Harry off so there will be no sequel, or to leave it open to her return in a few years. She has stated on many occasions that she knows how the books will end, I hope we will get to read that vision. She hasn't dodged difficult issues thus far, so I'm hopeful. Ultimately many people will love these books and others will be disappointed, but I am looking forward to the resolution of the series and hope that Rowling will find new avenues to mine in her writing future. And if not, she can always have a Smithers-esque moneyfight to brighten her day.

Bad Light Liz

I know today has been mammary-heavy, which really is never a horrible thing, but wow, I didn't know that Elizabeth Hurly had a scruffy-looking twin. It reminds me of that Seinfeld episode when Jerry was dating that one lady who looked good in some lighting, and terrifying in others. These pictures are Bad Lighting Liz, she's not scary, but the lighting is very unflattering.

This girl is underage?

I know it is a cheap excuse to post pictures of a coke-snorting, drunken bisexual like Tara Conner, but I was stunned when, in the course of reading about her travails, I found out she is under twenty-one. If this young lady isn't careful she's going to look like Tara Reid in about four years. Maybe five. I don't watch beauty pageants due to their inherent hypocrisies, but I just want to know what her talent was on the show. Maybe it wasn't laughing when the Donald approached her for the judges "Seal of Approval." It was either that or she didn't mind when that ferret he has stapled to his head bit her.

Suspect unfit for trial in Elizabeth Smart case

So what was their first clue? The kidnapping, the unkempt appearance, or the suspects belief in his own purity and religious significance? I mean who among us hasn't tried to kidnap a 14 year old girl in order to complete God's mission for us? So what if he isn't fit for trial, throw him in a crazy bin and wait for him to become fit. If he gets Dahmerized while he's in there too bad.

Suspect unfit for trial in Elizabeth Smart case

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP) -- The man accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart from her bedroom in 2002 and holding her for nine months was again declared unfit to stand trial Monday after screaming at a judge to "forsake those robes and kneel in the dust."

A hearing to review Brian David Mitchell's mental competency was quickly ended after his loud stream of outbursts and discussion of a report by his doctor.

"Repent ye, repent ye. Forsake your idolatry," said Mitchell, whose hands were cuffed to a chain around his waist.

"How dare you sit in those filthy robes, those robes of false priesthood," he told Third District Judge Judith Atherton. "Forsake those robes and kneel in the dust."

Mitchell is charged with aggravated kidnapping, sexual assault, aggravated burglary, and conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping.

Mitchell, 53, and his estranged wife, Wanda Barzee, 61, who also is charged with kidnapping Smart when she was 14, are being held at the Utah State Hospital.

Doctors have been trying to treat Mitchell without drugs, but prosecutor Kent Morgan said after Monday's scene in court that a request likely will be made for permission to forcibly administer drugs.

The Utah Supreme Court is considering whether Barzee, who also was found unfit to stand trial, can be forced to take drugs to improve her mental health.

In 2003, Smart was found walking along a street in suburban Sandy with Barzee and Mitchell. All were wearing robes, and the teen also had a veil over her face.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

Pink is a girl?

I know it's a cheap shot, but really, who is more manly in that picture? I know her husband was the sane one in his season of the Surreal Life (not a difficult task when you are in a house with Janice Dickinson, Jose Canseco, and C.C. DeVille), and he seems like a genuine guy, but come on. He is either gay and in denial or Pink is the world's greatest practitioner of the oral arts.

I'm going with option one, but that's just me. It is sad that their marriage is reportedly in trouble, but how hard would it be to end the marriage as most states wouldn't recognize it anyway?

Self-check out lines; indecisive drivers; Edward Van Halen

Three things that just make me want to scream. I was in Wal-Mart today (which is the topic of a completely different rant altogether) to deposit a check and grab a couple of things for dinner. I was the third person in line in a self-check out line. The two people in front of me didn't look qualified to breathe and blink their eyes at the same time let alone operate that intricate piece of machinery. When you consider the quality of individual that mans the check-out lane at the local Wal-Mart, this should tell you something. These people should have been hunted down and sterilized so they could live happily without the responsibility of children or what their progeny might do to the culture of our fine country.

Indecisive drivers is a topic that has been taken on by far better writers and thinkers than I but they still deserve mention in this rant along with stupid Wal-Mart people and Eddie Van Halen, because these are all people who should by all rights know better than to do the stupid crap they do. I think I have alluded to the fact that Van Halen is going to tour with his son as the bass player. His son, who is almost sixteen and been playing the bass for about five months now. But he is some kind of musical genius. The really sad part is that there are people out there defending EVH. What a joke. Van Halen the band is dead. The quicker the corpse realizes this the happier we'll all be. What is really funny is that they are trying to get David Lee Roth as their frontman, as if it were 1986 again. Obviously Ed didn't see any of the publicity from DLR's bluegrass/Van Halen album. Horrifying. What a summer is in store for us all: there will be more and more Wal-Marts built, Van Halen will be touring with the Crypt-master singing lead, a living corpse playing guitar and a neophyte musician playing live for the first time; and all of the sane people will be driving with their head on a swivel to try and avoid all of them.

On a related note

In the last post I noted the dearth of quality men's magazines. It seems you are either half-gay or 17 years old in the eyes of editors, but that was the last rant. Anyway, I was watching CNN last night and they ran a brief story about how the "men's magazine" business is so cutthroat. Apparently, not very many people actually buy Maxim, FHM, or any of their knock-offs. They also reported that FHM USA, which publishes an American version of the British magazine FHM is closing it's doors. I'm not sure what the world is going to do without another outlet for C-list starlets and borderline porn stars to hawk their wares, but we must be brave.

Again, maybe if editors didn't act like it was rush week and all of their readers were pledging for their frat, they could sell more magazines. But that might just make too much sense.

Sausage Fest

I have a subscription to ESPN the magazine. I’ll admit it, I love
sports. This magazine is really pretty interesting, but the main reason I receive it is the fact that the ESPN website is fantastic for sports fans, but most of the really interesting stuff is considered “premium content.” Because of that, you need to pay to be an “ESPN Insider” to read it. So what do they use as an inducement to read their web site? They include their magazine for a year with your Insider payment. It’s a pretty good trade-off but that is not why I am posting this.

No, I am posting this because despite the fact that the readership of
this magazine is nearly 100% men, it is littered with the same overtly
homoerotic advertising as GQ, Esquire, and Details. Look, I don’t need to see semi-naked women in all of the advertising in magazine, but since I don’t subscribe to Advocate or any of the other “alternative lifestyle” magazines, why do I want to see effeminate men pouting to the camera for me to buy a watch for $1000? And that is the ad with Derek Jeter in it. It would be nice to read a magazine for real men; how to get into shape reasonably, how to look good from a fashion sense without looking like you are trolling for dudes, and how to further your career/financial opportunities in order to get more stuff. Actually I think that I just described what Playboy used to be, without the nudity of course.

The greater point is this; there are too many media outlets missing the point about men. We are a diverse and difficult to pigeonhole group. We like lots of different things, but mostly we are not looking to act like frat-house rejects, drunken louts, or Haute couture fashionistas. And damn it, when we do we want to feel like men while we are doing it.

Anyway, rant over, I wonder where I can get a manicure and a Movado 800?

Sun Devil Pride

Back in November ASU fired Dirk Koetter. It was time for him to go, but the search for his replacement seemed to never really gain "traction," which is Lisa Love's term for what she is looking for in her football program. Well yesterday she hired Dennis Erickson to guide the underachieving Sun Devils.

At first glance, I hated the move. He has been a vagabond coach; moving from team to team, always looking for a bigger platform. But after giving it some thought, I like the hire. Erickson's too old to go anywhere after this. He's 59 and if he turns this program into what he did at Oregon State; a fast, physical team that goes 11-1, I don't think a bigger program is going to take a chance on a 62-63 year-old coach to start over. Either way, his teams win and win big and I am excited about the prospects in Sun Devil land.

Stupid Fantasy Football . . .

I am writing this post to express my disgust for all things fantasy football right now. My team is fighting for the playoffs and I am playing against the guy who is in third place. His running backs have been horrid the past couple of weeks, but what happens in Thursday's game? Willie Parker runs for 223 yards and a touchdown. Not cool at all. So basically, I have a playoff game this week as well and if the game continues the way it is now, I may have to jump off of the ASU water tower. Wish me luck!

Oh yeah, the pictures are of some of the guys on my team:

32-Rudi Johnson
46-Ladell Betts
21-Willis McGahee
80-Andre Johnson

The Historian Review

The Historian is a novel about Dracula, vampires, and strange Cold War-era locations. It sounds really creepy, and Nay stopped reading the story because she felt that it would be too scary. I guess that I will address this early; this is not a scary book. Dracula and the vampire aspects of this story are used more for suspense, rather than scares.

At its core, this book is about the author’s love of history and the searching for answers to problems in the distant past. The way in which the author detailed searching for those little scraps of information hidden for hundreds of years in library collections was fascinating. A few years ago a fellow teacher went to Oxford for a summer exchange program and he came back with all of these pictures of Oxford’s libraries, some of which appear in this book, which are exactly like you would expect. These types of libraries are almost museums to the past, where secrets are still waiting to be discovered. Ultimately, Dracula’s desires in the book have less to do with blood and sex and more to do with ferreting out the secrets of history.

The novel tells the story of a young woman who finds a book in her father’s library. It is an old leather-bound book with a woodcut of a dragon in the middle. There is nothing else in the book. The girl’s father is an American diplomat who travels from country to country mediating international affairs, and in the course of these journeys, she asks him about the book and he begins to tell her the strange story about that book and how it related to his past.

The history of Vlad Dracula is sick and twisted, but intensely interesting and Kostova obviously has a firm grasp of what is known about the Wallachian prince. The mystery of what really happened to Dracula plays into the story’s main ideas. The Historian is a very good novel. It does have some flaws, but as a first novel it is an impressive work. It is too easy to generalize Dracula as a character worthy of a hack like Clive Barker or Anne Rice, but The Historian shows that vampires can be the basis of a more mature work as well.

According to reports The Historian was optioned as a movie, which I can only hope avoids the pratfalls of most literary adaptations. I would hate to see this turned into another Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula. I enjoyed the book and am interested to see what Elizabeth Kostovoa writes next.

The Historian

So I am in Costco about a year ago and there is a book sitting there in hardcover for about $13.00. It's titled The Historian and there is a pretty good buzz going on about the book. I'm feeling rich that day, so I pick it up and promptly read about five pages. I am bored stiff by the writing and put it in my closet, chalking it up to me being a sucker.

Fast forward about a year and I am bored at work without a novel to read during Silent Sustained Reading. Sitting in my closet is that book. It is a story dealing with the legends and history of Vlad Dracula. So I start reading it again and it is really interesting. He was one sick man. The great thing about the book is that it has found a way to be informative, with real information about Vlad the Impaler, and at the same time be pretty entertaining. I am almost finished, so when I get done I'll review the book in depth.

Oh, the picture of Kate is because in the movie Van Helsing she was a vampire hunter or something. It works, trust me.

Which one is wearing more make-up?

So I'm browsing online tonight and see that Christina has a wax figure that looks amazingly like her. I think it was easier for the wax artist, because Christina wears so much make up that she really doesn't have skin tones. I wonder if the new Brittney figure will have razor burn on her choochie?

When people ask why I don't coach anymore

I just need to show them this article in this weeks San Francisco Chronicle. I never had to deal with anything like this, but to a lesser degree, all coaches today deal with problems like this. It is a joke and the first thing that I would have told my administration in response to a situation like this would be to cram their $3000 a season job, but I respect the fact that she didn't because then the parents win.

Castro Valley hoops coach can't win

C. W. Nevis

Thursday, November 30, 2006

The results are in at Castro Valley High School. That's where a group of parents were in an uproar over girls varsity basketball coach Nancy Nibarger and demanded that her team be picked by a six-person panel. This week the team roster was posted.

None of the disgruntled parents' daughters made it.

If you think that's poetic justice and the end of things, you clearly haven't been following the situation. The parents are not going to let this go.

"The panel was a joke,'' Patty Goodman, the wife of Alameda County Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman, who has been in the vanguard of the angry parents, wrote in an e-mail exchange with me on Wednesday.

Really? Wasn't the panel their idea?

"The bottom line is that the parents got what they wanted,'' says Clay Kallam, a veteran East Bay women's basketball coach. "But they didn't like how it turned out.''

Sadly, the accusations and innuendo continue to fly. Patty Goodman, for example, wrote to me that "There has been a letter written by one of the panel members stating that the coach was displaying inappropriate behavior during tryouts. Nibarger even got in his face.''

"That absolutely never happened,'' says Bob Oates, who was appointed "ombudsman" by the school board to attend and oversee all the team's practices this season. Oates, who retired as principal at San Leandro High 11 years ago, says he did not know Nibarger when he took the job.

Not only that, he said this week, "I was going to look for anything" to confirm the behavior the parents were complaining about. "And if it had happened, I am sure I would have seen it.''

But try to convince the parents of that. On Internet bulletin boards, they rage that the panel was stacked with Nibarger supporters and that she ran the process. In fact, Nibarger says not only had she never met the panelists before, but "to this day I don't know their names.''

Assistant Principal Marci Plummer, who joined Castro Valley High in August, says she chose one of the panelists from a list submitted by the parents' group and then chose two longtime, "equitable and fair basketball experts whose reputation precedes them.''

And, in case there is any doubt, Plummer adds that the final decisions on cuts were "consensus-based and supported by the vast majority of the group.''

Nope, the parents continue to insist. It was a conspiracy. They wanted Nibarger fired this year, and if they couldn't get that (and they couldn't after formal complaints to the principal, district and school board), they were going to make her life miserable.

After a 12-hour meeting with the school board in August, Nibarger was ordered to have an ombudsman watching her during practices. Nor would she be allowed to pick her own team. The six-person panel -- which included Nibarger and her two assistants, each of whom had one vote -- would do that.

The restrictions seemed so unreasonable that coaches around the Bay Area expressed their outrage, and the entire 12-person football staff at Castro Valley eventually resigned.

But Nibarger stayed and hopes the worst is over.

"We don't need any more war,'' Nibarger says. "Everybody loses in a war.''

Oates, who was a high school athletic director in Southern California before moving to the East Bay, and whose daughters graduated from Castro Valley High and played sports there, might have the best perspective.

"I believe the Goodmans and the other parents are fabulous people,'' he says. "And I think they honestly believe what they have heard. But I think what we will find is that when it is our children that we believe have been treated unfairly, we will go to the ends of the Earth.''

The elusive part of the story is what it is that Nibarger has done. Jay-Marie Hill, a co-captain on last year's team who is now a student at Stanford University, says Nibarger barked at her when she wanted to go to a church event instead of a basketball tournament. Although Hill had a sprained ankle and couldn't play, Nibarger wanted her there as a team leader. The two had words and, depending on whom you speak to, one of them hung up on the other.

"I told her two weeks later that I felt very disrespected by that,'' says Hill, who elected to come to the game after all but was hurt by the fact that Nibarger didn't say hello. "To me, that just shows a lack of character.''

Frankly, it sounds as if Nibarger could work on her communication skills. That's what the school board said after its meeting. But at least Hill had the maturity to go to Nibarger and speak to her personally instead of hiring an attorney.

Still, that incident was all it took to fracture their relationship. Hill, who once spent lunch hours in Nibarger's office chatting, and got a glowing letter of recommendation from her coach, now says she supports the unhappy parents. There's even talk of a lawsuit for "violation of civil rights.''

You think you have a civil right to be on the basketball team?

The season began Tuesday night at the Castro Valley gym, where Nibarger's Trojans were clobbered by powerhouse Foothill High of Pleasanton. But despite the drama swirling around, at that moment it looked like nothing more than a high school girls basketball game.

About 130 parents and friends sat in the bleachers as girls sprinted up and down the court. It isn't hard to imagine that this is how it will be next year. The unhappy seniors will be gone, their parents will be on to other things, and we'll be back to the game -- maybe a little older and wiser.

"There's a lesson here for everybody,'' says Mark Neal, an assistant principal at Creekside Middle School in Castro Valley and one of Nibarger's assistants. "But nobody is listening, because everybody is so upset about what happened to them.''

All that is missing is an attic and a tree

and Kate Bosworth can play the corpse of Anne Frank. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with these people? I know, it's a disease. Bull. Eat a damn sandwich and get back to your C-list movie career. At least at this rate we will know what she looks like without her skin. Of course she is getting more notoriety for her weight than her acting, so on second thought, great move Kate. Way to keep yourself in the public eye. Bravo

How did this happen???

Let's not go crazy and call this girl classy, but how did she end up relatively normal? I don't get it. Just a couple of years ago Christina was on the short track to her own gonzo-style porn. Didn't she want to get dirty? Really, I guess she figured out the difference between singing about it and living it like Brittney. I always knew she was more talented than Ms. Spears, but now you're trying to tell me she is smarter than her too?

The truly sad part is the way we as a society glorify the talentless, and give them the platform and attention they crave. Does Paris have a discernible talent other than the one she showed off in her video? Other than a pre-packaged reputation for being "sexy," which I have always found dubious, Brittney has nothing either. I guess it's a good thing that they hang out now. Now we are reduced to seeing pictures of Brit's who-ha. Kill me now, really. The fact that I know anything about either of those two people is a damning indictment of our society. I'll be off now, I need to find something to numb the pain of seeing all of those Brittney pictures, I wonder if I have an ice-pick anywhere. . .

It's been a while

I know I promised more updates, but the only person reading this is my wife. She knows I've been busy. Anyway, here is a picture of that super-mom Pamela Anderson (Lee, Rock, whatever). She has been a "sex symbol" for almost 16 years now and I think that maybe she takes that status a little too seriously. I mean really, at some point isn't she going to have to wear clothes in public? I don't mean to sound totally emasculated here, but there is nothing sexy about this woman. She was pretty hot about ten boob jobs ago (this is kind of tongue-in-cheek, but really how many sets of breasts has she gone through over the years?) but she just needs to grow up. At some point most people learn that her particular lifestyle is a dead end. On the other hand, since she is nearing 40 and thrives on acting like she is 17, she can be a role model for Demi Moore.

So do we really need this?

I'll admit that I am as big a pig as the next guy. Really, in fact my wife might argue that I am not normal in many ways, but rumors are circulating that K-Fed is shopping a four hour sex tape that he and Britney made early in their marriage have me horrified. Do we really need to see this? I can think of a number of diseases I would rather have than this video. She was never that attractive to begin with and all of that walking into dirty public bathrooms without shoes didn't help. I was going to rant on about this topic for a while, but I think I'll go vomit now.

Happy Monday!

Well, I finally got the Echo Park review up, it was a good book, but really, outside of Chasing the Dime, Connelly hasn't ever really written a clunker. I really enjoy his writing style. This month has some good new books coming out which I am excited about. Greg Iles' new book is due in December as is the newest from James Grippando. Before I get to either of those books, I am reading Stephen King's newest called Lisey's Story. So far I am enjoying it, but I have been really pressed for time lately.

It was a good weekend for on the fantasy football front, as the Kamikazes evened their record at 5-5. So I am going to go bask for a while. Thanks for stopping by!

Echo Park

Echo Park is the twelfth Harry Bosch book that Michael Connelly has written, and it is one of the best as well. After all of this time it would be easy for Connelly to recycle Bosch projects and for the series to become stale, but this hasn’t happened. For some reason, the Harry Bosch of Echo Park is as vital as ever.

The plot of Echo Park is good, but not great. Bosch now works in a cold-case unit where he and his partner review and work cases that have gone dead over the years. This is where Bosch landed when he returned to the LAPD. It is a good fit for Bosch’s talents and temperament, as he has always been more of an avenging angle than a mere detective over the years. But it isn’t the plot that drives Connelly’s work, it is the man himself Harry Bosch.

Over the series, Connelly has worked at creating a character worthy of having a series. In Harry, Connelly has created a very complex man whose existence feels real. Other mystery/thriller writers have created characters of some complexity, but all of them seem to fall into various archetypes. Bosch does to an extent, but there is a consistency of character in Bosch which keeps him from falling to the same problems that plague other characters like Sanford’s Lucas Davenport or Burke’s Robicheaux. These characters seem to break character to try to create some life of domesticity, which is obviously impossible due to the nature of their work and their personalities. Both make compromises which are not in the character’s inherent nature to try to accommodate these plot twists. The families that the writers create act and feel more like plot devices rather than actual people, which is the difference between Connelly’s writing and theirs.

In Echo Park Bosch ultimately bends some rules, both legal and moral ones, to ultimately find some kind of justice. He is not Dirty Harry, but he does try to find ways to bring justice and peace to the victims and victims families. In a way, I find it very easy to imagine Bosch as the policeman that all police officers would love to be. Thematically, Connelly seems to continue to attempt to find out where Bosch’s limit is. How far will Harry go for justice? He certainly sabotages his prospects of domestic bliss with his actions, but again that is the point. A true idealist has only two options available: to be fabulously successful or to stay true to his or her ideals and end up alone. Harry obviously is on that latter path, and he is comfortable with his plight, which makes reading these novels so engaging.

Finally, it feels like Connelly has found a pace, and a place, for Bosch’s character to continue on in his quest of being the voice for the lost. Hopefully he will continue to mine the depths of Bosch’s character and burrowing into the dark beauty of Los Angles until Harry needs to retire.

Things I Am Grateful For

I posted in another blog about the things that I am thankful for, and it was an idea I wanted to expand on here. Of course I am grateful for my family. They are relatively happy and healthy for which I am profoundly grateful. Additionally, my wife is my favorite person on this planet. She is fantastic, as well as the possessor of the best sense of humor that I have ever seen.

But beyond the obvious, over the next few weeks, I'll be adding little tidbits of things that make my life just a little more enjoyable. Today's little tidbit? Van Halen, although right about now I would be grateful if they went away. Van Halen has been a soundtrack to my life since I was 14. I play the guitar because of the man (although I play too much like EVH) and I used to look forward to new releases like kids looked forward to Christmas, it was an event which would lead to hours and hours of listening. Unfortunately, their circus has turned into a pathetic joke that should end. The idea of touring with David Lee Roth as a singer would be okay. The idea of them touring with DLR and Wolfgang Van Halen on bass??? That is nothing less than a joke.

Anyway, this has been fun, I'll post some more soon.