mecca and the planets

hmm... looks like mecca the ladybug from digable planets fame is coming out with a new album. I might have to check it out. Apparently the planets are also on a reunion tour. I wonder if a new album will follow or not...

mpg

Finally did my first fill up for the Odyssey. The majority of the driving on this tank was city (>75%?), but i was still disappointed at the 17.5 mpg. This should improve after a few tanks (or so I've read), so I'll keep monitoring it. But I was definitely hoping for better, somewhere in the low to mid 20's.

Frank, Mary, and Nanking

The last two books I've read have been a little on the morbid side. That's one reason that I'm reading "Moneyball" now...

"And The Dead Shall Rise" is about the murder of a 13 year old girl in Atlanta, Georgia in the early 1900s and the subsequent lynching of Leo Frank who was found guilty of the crime. I found the details of the murder and trial (which is quite convoluted) sometimes to be quite tedious and dull to read. The most interesting part of the book is when it discusses the social environment under which the trial and subsequent lynching was conducted. There is a lot of background information given to each major player, and it's quite interesting to see how southern whites, urban blacks, and transplanted Jews handled living in that type of extremely prejudice and discriminatory post-Civil War, pre-Civil Rights American South. The fact that a lynching of that scale could happen and go unpunished is still quite shocking. The book is rather long (600+ pages), but the glimpse of the prevailing social attitudes in Georgia just one hundred years ago is a worthy payoff if you find this type of thing interesting.

"The Devil of Nanking" is one of those disturbing books that you don't want to really keep reading but can't put down. Even though it's a work of fiction, in that sense it is quite like "The Rape of Nanking" by Iris Chang, which I recommend, if for nothing more than the education you get, but can only bring myself to read once. "The Devil of Nanking" is also quite morbid. It's set in Japan, but I can't say that you really notice that too much, even though the author does spend some time describing the Japanese characters and Tokyo environment. It's just that the two main characters are British and Chinese, in addition to the fact that half the book is a diary written by the Chinese character, so the present day setting is somewhat in the background. The cover is quite creepy and appears on the back too, so you can't even put it face down! : )

Basketball

So I tivo'ed Game 1 of the NBA finals. I couldn't watch more than a few minutes before i looked at what else was recorded. Instead I watched "NBA's Greatest Games, 1988: Hawks/Celtics, Game 7". I know it's unfair to compare this game with today's games since it is one of the all time greats and they show only certain sections of the game, but indulge me...

One of the things that struck me is that it seemed like the game flowed a lot more fluidly back then. Some shots seem rushed and the pace seemed ragged at time, but as you watch more, it seemed like attacking quickly was quite natural then, instead of *always* trying to work in the half court set.

I grew up watching Dominique and hating the Celtics, so this was quite nostalgic. However, I forgot this shoot out was a game 7 event, for some reason i remembered it as game 6. I found a box score for it here. Everyone knows about the crazy stuff between 'Nique and Bird, but everyone was lights out that game. The Hawks were an unheard-of-by-today's standards 57% from the field. Boston was even better at almost 61%. They shot 92% and 89% from the line respectively. I know this game was quite exceptional and I'd be interested to see the league's stats for that year for fg% and ft%, but I wonder if that wasn't just representative of that era compared to today's game.

That game also made me wonder why Antoine Carr wasn't a better NBA player. He seems to possess all the tools, but that never seemed to pan out.

Even as explosive as 'Nique is and as much as i loved watching him as a young kid, it's so obvious now how much better Bird was. His focus and energy level never wavers, whereas 'Nique will have periodic lapses. His shot doesn't always fall (although it did in this game), but you rarely see him make bad decisions or take bad shots.

You also got broadcasting gems from Tommy Heinsohn like, "It's a duel, put down your saber!" Good times...

Odyssey Update

Some random thoughts after driving it a few weeks.

• I like the fact that the cruise control stays on, even after you stop and restart the ignition. In my other older car, you'd have to turn on the cruise every time you drove.
• I haven't grown tired of playing with the sliding doors yet. The safety features get some getting use to. For example, you can't open the doors if the car isn't in Park and the doors aren't unlocked. This makes total sense, just when you're in a rush you tend to forget, which is probably they designed it that way. But you can't just have people "hop in" like in a regular car. This is obviously good for kids though.
• It's nice to have a sun roof.
• Haven't finished the first tank of gas yet, but it seems like the mpg might come in lower than I had hoped. I'm hoping I will remember to keep track of this for at least the first few tanks of gas.

Entertainment

So I caught Cinderella Man this weekend, the new Ron Howard film that has a lot of Oscar buzz. A few things I found interesting:

• Even with all the Oscar talk, it only took in $18M in it's opening weekend, putting it 4th behind Madagascar ($28M), The Longest Yard ($26M), and Star Wars ($25M): yahoo box office stats.
  
• Didn't realize it's been 10 years since the release of Apollo 13 (another Ron Howard movie), which made me feel old!
• Ron Howard is going to direct the movie adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code" and it's going to star Tom Hanks (among others). I'm quite high on Richie Cunningham after seeing Cinderella Man, so that seems somewhat promising.
  

In other entertainment news of the sporting nature, the Spurs and Pistons are in the NBA Finals. Outside of San Antonio and Detriot, I can't believe anyone is excited about this series. Seems like the ratings are going to be quite low for this snooze fest, and I'd consider myself an NBA fan.