Downtown Owl

I just read a book I really didn’t like, by a writer I’m normally very devoted to.

If you don’t know who Chuck Klosterman is, he’s a sort of pop culture critic and writer that I often enjoy. It’s similar to the affection that I have for Rob Sheffield, although I like Rob better. Chuck has published four other books, two of which I own. One of them is Fargo Rock City, which is his critical analysis of and argument for the artistic validity of 80s hair metal. Upon reading the book, I too became a fan of the genre, which I never was before, proudly, and have loaned the book out to many. He’s seen as a sort of expert on metal and has helped me see the light.

Well, that light just went out after reading Downtown Owl, his first work of fiction. Let’s just say, fiction isn’t his strong suit. It’s basically, the story of a handful of locals in Owl, ND and the flow and routines of their lives. It all ends abruptly in a cataclysmic flurry, which is the only way it could have because prior to that it was going nowhere.

My problem with the book is that everyone spoke in the same voice, which is Chuck’s critic voice. There was no sense of character because almost no one had distinct mannerisms or colloquialisms. A lot of the book takes place in bars with people spouting and philosophizing, but they all talk about the stuff Chuck wants them to talk about like music, football, cars, movies and North Dakota, where he’s from. My other problem was that the book takes place in 1983-84, yet no one spoke like that. There was no sense of time or place, except in some of the topics that were being discussed. Surprisingly, he thanks Rob in the book for helping him write it. I wonder if Rob was just too nice to tell him what was up.

If it sounds boring, good, because it was. Sorry, Chuck, but you don’t get a pass this time.

Book Wrap-Up (Bargain Bin Edition)

All of these books were either purchased for a buck at a used book store or found on a SWAG table at my office at Tower Records. They're all old and out of date, but some touch on topics that are still of interest and many haven't changed a bit.

"Scribble Scribble" by Nora Ephron
This one is so inconsequential it’s really not worth writing about. It’s noteworthy for two reasons, 1) Ephron is now a famous screenwriter ("When Harry Met Sally", "Sleepless in Seattle"), and 2) The book is so old that the first entry is on a brand new magazine she thinks might have a future called “People”. Otherwise, it’s largely first person musings on New York luminaries that I’ve never heard of or topics that aren’t really relevant anymore. In fact, it reads, largely, like my blog. Yet, she’s famous and rich and I’m a frustrated nobody. Maybe I should have married Carl Bernstein too. Is Bob Woodward single?

"The Gross" by Peter Bart
Over the years, I have become obsessed with the box office. There is an excellent site called boxofficeguru.com that posts the receipts every week and in the 8 years since I discovered the site, I have yet to miss a week. Bart’s book chronicles the summer of 1998 and tells the back stories and aftershocks of one of the biggest summers in history.

He starts out by running through all the studios and what films they had on the docket and why. The biggest tent pole of the bunch was "Armageddon", with the secondary films being "Deep Impact" (a veritable carbon copy of "Armageddon", a fact that sends serious stress through the industry), "Saving Private Ryan", "Godzilla", "Bullworth" and "The Truman Show" with scores of others also on the list. It also digs into the personalities behind the films and what’s on the line for each individual. For instance, Bruce Willis agreed to do "Armageddon" if the studio could get him out of a film he was in the middle of shooting that wasn’t going very well. Also, given what Bart says about the fiery personality of studio head Peter Guber, it’s interesting to know now that the two would go on to host their own show on AMC, “Shootout”.

The book is dated, obviously, and the same book could have been written about any summer since the business model hasn’t changed. But it was fascinating, if you care about this sort of thing, to hear all the behind the scenes stuff. Plus, the summer of ’98 was one I remember well. I saw virtually all of these movies with my good friend Sally. We practically lived in the theater that summer. Either Sally or Ben Sauter or sometimes both. Good friends, good movies, a hot and fun college summer. Those were the days.

"Fair Ball" by Bob Costas
Baseball’s broken and Costas explains why. He breaks down how the pursuit of profits under the guise of making the game more compelling, is actually not addressing the real issues. What is broken is that the big teams keep getting bigger and the mid to small market teams have no chance to compete because of small payrolls.

His solution is revenue sharing. It evens the playing field and will stimulate fan interest, which would then improve revenue. The teams that win are the teams with money (New York, Boston, Atlanta), so where does that leave the fans in Pittsburgh or Minnesota or Kansas City who can only hope to improve via the farm system rather than free agency. What has contributed to this problem is breaking the standings into three divisions, which may expand the playoff race, but waters down divisional playoffs because teams always have the wild care to fall back on and don’t care anymore about fighting for a division crown. Additionally, gigantic contracts, which is the universal problem in sports today, throws everything out of whack. We see similar problems in the NBA where the first round of the playoffs is now a best of seven series. Does that make the game better or does it just increase profits? The answer is the latter.

The book is a quick read and Costas knows his stuff. Again, the book is out of date, written about seven years ago, it was sad to know that baseball has just gotten worse since the book was published. Costas is a passionately outspoken critic of the steroid era, which wasn’t even an issue when he wrote the book. You just know he’d love to write a sequel with all that’s on his mind now.

"Brave Nu World" by Tommy Udo
Not sure why I even bothered with this one, since I couldn’t care less about every band mentioned. It’s basically an argument for and a criticism of rap metal, the boom that came and went six years ago leaving hundreds of nobodies in its wake.

The book devotes a chapter to each of the major players of the genre, such as Korn, Limp Biskit, and Linkin Park and explains how they got their start and where they stand in the rock hierarchy. Pretty much every band he spotlights no longer has a career worth mentioning, which is funny since he breaks down who he believes has the chops to be in it for the long haul. Anyone heard from Slipknot or Staind or Crazy Town lately? Nope. And we aren’t likely to either.

Udo is careful not to be too effusive. He knows it could have a short shelf life. Thankfully, Fred Durst is called out as the moron he is and Linkin Park are accused of being a manufactured band in the same mold as a Backstreet Boys or Britney Spears. The Deftones, a band I’ve never cared much about even though I knew a couple of the members briefly, are handled with hushed reverence for some reason.

Anyway, does anyone care? Probably not. If you like these bands, check it out. Or, if you are in the mood for a good chuckle reading a six year old book about bands that have already come and gone, go for it. This was a freebie from back in my Tower days, so I figured I’d knock it down real quick.