The California Surf Project: Eric Soderquist and Chris Burkard

Chris Burkard and Eric Soderquist have created a beautiful tale of two friends living out a life-long dream and combining their talents to share excellent photography, art, video, and print of the entire journey. The friends set out with a grant from the Follow the Light Foundation- which was founded in memory of legendary surf photographer Larry Moore who tragically passed in 2005 from brain cancer (R.I.P.)- to start at the Oregon border and make their way to the Mexican border surfing, bumming, and collecting parking tickets on Soderquist's 1978 VW Bus. The 50 day trek hits breaks at everyone's favorite spots in CA including Humboldt, San Onofre, and my own back yard on the sharkey Sonoma coast. One of the best aspects of the book other than the epic photography of Burkard and the art and funny descriptions  from Soderquist is the lack of what my hard-core surfing, San Diego native roommate would call "Brolosophy." Soderquist's descriptions are a fun read and sound intelligent despite his often laid back approach. He doesn't get into some 5th grade take on eastern philosophy or tell you how they were one with the waves. It's just two big kids in the candy store of life on the left coast where magic remains eternal. Thanks guys.

Anna Karenina: Leo Tolstoy

Hmmmmmm......Well. Have you read this? Will you ever read this? No. I'm going to go ahead and say probably not. Did I enjoy it? No. Did it remind me of the pain and torture that I felt as a kid being forced to read books for junior high and high school english when I tried to forge on despite being blind with bordom? Pretty much. Sure, Tolstoy writes with some lovely similes, metaphors, and analogies, which all in all adds up to some lovely style and prose, but this book could be about a thousand pages shorter. By the time she finally committed suicide I was just sitting there thinking, "Wow, there it was. The one thing that could have saved this book if it happened months ago." I would have killed her myself if I had to read her cry-baby garbage for another ten pages. I know Tolstoy was purposefully pointing the finger at hypocrites in Russian high society, but it reads like five seasons of "The Days of our Lives." The characters that I liked at the front end of this monster, Levin and Oblonsky, became so tiresome and annoying by the end that I could no longer bear them either. Can we revisit the same arguments again Mr. Tolstoy? I haven't heard them drag on about the state of the Russian class system or share-cropping quite enough. Maybe Anna can say the exact same thing for the 37th time? Part of this project is to try and read these masters, but this book makes me think that an attempt at War and Peace could be the end of me. I'm sure there are a million critics who would write me off as an idiot from now on if they somehow stumbled upon and read this, but I just have to be honest. This book drags like a dog's dirty butt across a freshly cleaned shag carpet and has less entertainment value then watching such an act. Keep reading.

Cities of the Plain: Cormac McCarthy

Well, The Border Trilogy had to come to an end sometime. In this third novel everything comes together and as one may have started to suspect in the second installment, The Crossing, Billy Parham is instantly shown to have a love for John Grady Cole due to the latter resembling the former's younger brother Boyd who was also extremely gifted with horses. Billy seems to have learned to appreciate Cole's hard headed nature and at eight years older certainly plays the role of big brother and best friend. This book was shorter and a much quicker read then the first two and despite it giving a feeling as if it were the book McCarthy originally conceptualized and the first two were just brilliantly formulated background; I would still have to agree that All the Pretty Horses was the best of the three. I missed the character of Lacey Rawlings who was John Grady's cousin and travelling companion in the first novel. Despite the fact that Billy was a similar character of thoughtful action as opposed to the instinctive and impulsive nature of the gifted horsemen that were John Grady and Boyd Parham I couldn't help, but hope that he would reappear in this conclusion. McCarthy does create characters that a reader grows attached to and this is true of all five of the main cowboys of the trilogy and even some of the smaller roles, particularly the other ranch hands in this finale. I also will admit that I found myself saddened to leave my new friends at the ending as the Los Angeles Book Review writer (quoted in the opening pages) had told me I would be. The end was shocking and abrupt and then the epilogue jumped so far into the future that I longed to know of the missing years. Overall, I enjoyed these books despite the death and the often dark philosophy. McCarthy truly is a gifted storyteller and I still desire to read more from him, namely, No Country for Old Men. Thanks.

The March of the Midge

Here we are in April and the Midge trudges on at about 7 books off of the pace. Still trying to make-up for a rough February and March.........The Border Trilogy is almost at a close and so is the never ending Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I also have Doctor Zhivago freshly purchased and sitting by on the bedside table. So....here is a poem for the time being. I'd hate to leave all of my millions of fans suffering....

An Al Green Record

An Al Green Record
No. A Paul McCartney ballad
A bee sting. My allergic reaction.
Like the World isn't ending
or like its ok.
A Perfect Authentic Cadence........Resolution
A Nervous Breakdown
Manic Depression
No. Bob Marley
Bobby Kennedy, Barack Obama, Sunrise,
Tequila Sunrise, Twilight, The In Between
A B S O L U T E  M U S I C
Debussy, Ravel, Berlioz, Mahler, Sturm und Drang, Requiem, Fantasia
N O C T U R N E
Chopin, Brahms Chamber Music

It's like "When she Believes," or "You're Gonna Make me Lonesome When you go."
Like "Jesus, etc." and "I'm the Man who Loves You."

No it's and Al Green Record
The Wood Brothers, Martin Sexton, Otis Redding

Hoping
                          It's the Same
Knowing

"Still the Same," "Here, there, Everywhere."
Too Much. Too Many to Understand. All at Once. Full too Far, Far too Big.
The ones I can't bear when you're not there.
Segar, The Kings, "Radio King," "Jesus," "You are my Face," "Eitherway."
Ups, Downs, Highs, Lows, Can't keep even keel.
So many more new highs
Much Much More Mucho More
Everything Better, More Vivid, Important, True, Real, Fun.
It's "Simply Beautiful," "The Happy Song." I wouldn't dare play Otis except "The Happy Song."

There's more. It could poor. I could revise, edit, rewrite.
I don't know if it'd be better.
It's Organ, Piano, Stripped down, Bare Bones, Three Chords, Catchy Tune, Sappy Song, Cheezy Lyrics, and a poor arrangement.

It's Love Dummy. It hurts and heals and smiles and kneals and waits and waits...
You make me feel like an Al Green Record.

The Crossing: Cormac McCarthy

Well this one really froze me up for a bit. There are Books I-IV and they can really feel as such. Again, McCarthy has lulled me into his slowly developing tale, but along the way I became attached to Billy Parham much in the same way I had with John Grady Cole. I love McCarthy's descriptions of the land and his attention to details regarding the joys of simple work, the majesty of horses and other animals, and to the difference between age-old wisdom and book smarts among men. The only parts in The Crossing that can really wear on a reader and slow one's progress through this novel are the often long and extremely detailed stories told by random acquaintances met on the road. To be sure, this is where Mr. McCarthy reveals a deep understanding of philosophy and local history and some critics may find these tales of oral-aural history from the random gypsies, vaqueros, and priests of McCarthy's old Mexico to be the true splendor of his prose, but they pop up out of nowhere and sometimes drag on. I am also willing to admit that they give great insight to his character's patience and wisdom beyond their years as John Grady, or in this chapter Billy Parham sit listening only to reply with thoughtfully formed questions, but again, I found myself getting stuck on them and longing to get on with the plot. The Crossing, much like All The Pretty Horses, is a sad story and it makes me expect nothing different from Cities of the Plain, which I have thus far sped through about 50 pages or so excited about the prospect of these two great characters coming together. It seems that Billy will certainly take to John Grady, seeing the resemblance between he and poor Boyd. Often one must find a character to grow attached to for a novel to grab a hold of he or she and McCarthy will give you those, but I am finding that the author's style of purposefully keeping his reader in the dark and slowly revealing truths as he sees fit and his simple, understated way of writing dialogue are growing on me just the same way. Keep reading and I'll keep trying to catch up.

Slaughterhouse Five: Kurt Vonnegut

Another high-school beaute. I wasn't one hundred percent sure that I hadn't read Slaughterhouse Five when I picked it up and started reading chapter one in the aisle of an undisclosed corporate monstrosity of a book store. Vonnegut's time-travel timeline kept me uncertain long enough to become thoroughly sucked in before realizing I definitely hadn't been assigned this one. Mr. Vonnegut's decision to choose such a sad character as his hero may be an extreme factor in its timeless effect and popularity. Billy Pilgrim's adventures in space, time, and sanity have undoubtedly influenced artists and authors and the literary technique of a skipping plot line has remained popular and prominent in works ranging from Quantum Leap to the movies of Quentin Tarantino. Of course, Vonnegut didn't invent the idea of time travel or the schizophrenic plot jumps, but his innovative description of what was once called shell-shock and is now referred to as post traumatic stress disorder was unprecedented and arguably more true than a non-fiction report on World War II or the Dresden firebombing (just ask Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried). Like many Americans I find myself always drawn to and interested in anything World War II. Part of this may revolve around the fact that my grandfather was shot down over the Mediterranean Sea and spent two years in a Nazi prison camp. The story surrounding his parachuting, being picked up by a German ship, being marched right through a Hitler rally, and surviving in POW camp while his friends were all shot trying to escape is too remarkable to not have a profound effect on me and make me stop to thank god that I exist every now and then. John Brown somehow survived and continued to raise his family and was an amazing grandfather and so it goes. As for Slaughterhouse Five, it is short and you should read it. If you don't believe me check the Wikipedia article, which in this case is well referenced and beautifully concise and informative. Grazie.

Oil!: Upton Sinclair

Oil! is the 1927 novel by Pulitzer-Prize winning author and socialist politician, Upton Sinclair. Sinclair doesn't hesitate to reveal his pink blood in this work of semi-fiction, which claims to be full of truths which have been shuffled like the cards of a poker game. I suppose at the time of it's publication the public was much more aware of his political aspirations and even his failed attempt to create a utopian society in New Jersey, but I had only thought he was a socialist journalist and sympathizer until doing further research mid-story. The plot is not like There Will be Blood at all. At All. Sure, there are some of the same characters and the beginning's match up a bit, but the main character of the book is the son, J. Arnold Ross Jr. (Bunny), and the tale revolves much more heavily around Bunny's socialist struggles including the creation of a four-page paper, the attending of meetings world wide, and the borrowing of dad's money to bail out political prisoners of the party. Oil! also features a loose fictional expose of the early years of the Union Oil Company of California (Unocal), mixed and "shuffled" with what Sinclair claims as facts (at least some of which can be verified through U.S Senate reports and Historical texts) about Sinclair Oil and Edward L. Doheny's roles in the Teapot Dome scandal of the Harding administration. Teapot Dome, for readers of my generation who don't remember from U.S. History, was the biggest government scandal before Watergate and involved oil tycoons bribing government officials to acquire private leases of U.S. Naval Oil Fields in Wyoming and in Elk Hills and Buena Vista of Southern California. In the novel, our hero's father and some of his powerful associates purchase the entire presidency and pay off cabinet officials through a company in Canada. One direct correlation to known fact in the novel is the $100,000 bribe made by "Dad" and Vernon Roscoe, which is the exact dollar amount paid by Harry Sinclair to Albert B. Fall, then Secretary of the Interior, who was eventually indicted on charges of conspiracy and accepting bribes and eventually served prison time.  All in all, this book was much longer and slower than The Jungle and in my opinion is much less of a must read. I did enjoy Oil!, as historical fiction, but honestly found myself becoming more and more attached to J. Arnold Ross Sr. despite his shady dealings. Sure, he was paying off government officials and making moves on some unsuspecting country bumpkins, but he was an extremely loving and understanding father. He built his own American dream by playing the game the way the people in power played and he always respected Bunny's ideals and even strove to be as fair and understanding of the worker's plight as he could until he was overpowered by the big boy's of the Oil Manufacturer's Legion. Bunny was a good kid and really wanted to do good in the world and figure things out for himself, but his lack of guts and street smarts just wore me out long before the slow and bitter descent to a sad ending spawned from Mr. Upton Sinclair and his party's failure to create change in our capitalist society and government. Boo Hoo.