Review: Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture

Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture by Andy Cohen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am not a pop culture fanatic like the author and never watched Real Housewives, however I enjoyed this author-read audiobook of striving to get into the TV world he adored and honest, self-deprecating and funny career review of CBS, Bravo, etc.

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Review: The Martian Chronicles

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tie-in edition for The Martian Chronicles , a 1980 television three-episode miniseries based on Ray Bradbury's 1950 book dealing with the exploration of Mars and the inhabitants there. The series starred Rock Hudson, Darren McGavin, Bernadette Peters, Roddy McDowall, Fritz Weaver, Barry Morse, and Maria Schell. It was aired on NBC in January 1980 in three episodes with a total running time of just over four hours. I found the series available for streaming on Internet Archive. The series depicts Mars as having a "thin atmosphere" which humans can breathe, with water-filled canals and desert-like vegetation. The miniseries was directed by Michael Anderson and written by Richard Matheson.

The 1980 NBC three-part miniseries makes substantial structural, character, and plot changes to translate Ray Bradbury’s 1950 book—a loosely connected collection of poetic short stories—into a linear, six-hour television drama. This includes Martian physiology (probably more convenient, not having to hire short enough actors), and omitting such stories as "The Earth Men" (Second Expedition) where Martians assume telepathic astronauts are hallucinating and put them in an asylum.

Still reading this edition while enjoying the miniseries was enjoyable.

The book itself feels like an indictment of human greed, xenophobia/racism, and natural disrespect for others through creative science fiction.

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Review: Yachts and Things

Yachts and Things by Truman Capote
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This may be only for the diehard Capote fan. It is a possible unearthed excerpt (maybe not even a full chapter) of an unpublished novel. I was interested in the possible autobiographic details, but these are not spelled out.

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Review: Teasing Secrets from the Dead: My Investigations at America's Most Infamous Crime Scenes

Teasing Secrets from the Dead: My Investigations at America's Most Infamous Crime Scenes by Emily Craig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The subtitle "America's Most Infamous Crime Scenes" is fufilled by content on Waco, the OKC bombing site, 9/11 Twin Towers, etc. But what I found most fascinating from this is the cases most befitting her skills as a forensic anthropologist -- decades old cases. The techniques, process, and success of these unknown victims makes for very interesting reading.

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Review: James Baldwin, an Original

James Baldwin, an Original by Gloria Steinem
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Apparently an article written for Vogue in 1964, this is an interesting overview of James Baldwin. it is part character study part biography and career retrospective. It finds him looking back on a career of essayist and accidental spokesperson for Black Americans while striving to meet his personal goals as a novelist and prove worthy of the support and encouragement given early by Richard Wright.

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Review: After the Stroke: A Journal

After the Stroke: A Journal by May Sarton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I see this book as an arc of stroke to sufficient recovery to look forward and out, away from the medical issues. My copy has this
marginalia:

Dear Julie; - Enjoyed this book very much. Interesting how she hated taking amniodoroni - & to think how many long years the same drug has kept him (dad) going.

Mom.

5/25/92

Amiodarone (commonly known by brand names such as Cordarone and Pacerone and here referred to by its Latin name) is a Class III antiarrhythmic medication used to treat and prevent serious, life-threatening heart rhythm disorders, including ventricular fibrillation and recurrent ventricular tachycardia. Amiodarone slows down electrical signals in the heart by blocking potassium, sodium, and calcium channels, while also having beta-blocking properties. This helps stabilize the heart's rhythm and restore a normal heartbeat. Because amiodarone has a very long half-life (around 58 days) and can build up in body tissues, it has a high risk of side effects, which should be monitored closely by a doctor. Heart rhythm issues and drug side effects dominate Sarton's life to where she is effectively housebound, living a limited and frustrating existence. After those things get under control, she emerges to once again engage with friends, fans, admirers, students, extensive correspondence, gardening, and reading.

She seems to have gained some wisdom changing her priorities to more self-care, etc. and in mentioning her recreational reading she introduced me to a new, favorite poem:

"Invitation" by Robert Francis

You who have meant to come, come now
With strangeness on the morning snow
Before the early morning plow
Makes half the snowy strangeness go.
You who have meant to come, come now
When only your footprints will show,
Before one overburdened bough
Spills snow above on snow below.
You who were meant to come, come now.
If you were meant to come, you'll know.

"Invitation" is, I am sure, published in Robert Francis's definitive career collection, Collected Poems, 1936-1976

Out and about she visits many places, including Jeanne Dueber, resident artist at the Loretto Motherhouse.

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Review: The Deal from Hell: How Moguls and Wall Street Plundered Great American Newspapers

The Deal from Hell: How Moguls and Wall Street Plundered Great American Newspapers by James O'Shea
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

O’Shea is a journalist, author, and editor with broad experience in journalism. He was editor and executive vice president of the Los Angeles Times and managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, where he spent many years overseeing the Tribune’s national/foreign news and investigative reporting staffs. I am not particularly interested in those papers or their period of join ownership. However, he was in leadership positions during a fascinating time to me when information printed daily (atoms) begam to give way to the bits of the internet. Indeed he points to a pivotal meeting where the opportunity to go with the technological current was forgone:

...Brumback realized before most other newspaper executives how the computer and its attendant technology would transform the newspaper industry. After Tribune invested in America Online, in the early 1990s Brumback created Chicago Online, putting the Tribune Company at the vanguard of media and the Internet. He ordered Chicago Tribune content to be placed on the Internet and charged anyone for access to the stories unless they subscribed to the newspaper. He also tried to spread the gospel to the entire industry by promoting something called the New Century Network, or NCN, a consortium of the nine largest newspaper groups in America, to pool their content so they could “monetize it,” or make money. Brumback had zeroed in on what would become a devastating problem for newspapers as the Internet began to thrive. “Charlie had a good idea but it wasn’t the right answer,” said James Cutie, a onetime head of online news for the New York Times and an NCN board member. “The group was too large. It was composed of nine newspaper companies all sitting around the table with the same skills. If someone had had the balls to charge for our digital copy, it would be a whole different ballgame today.” Brumback later told me that he had also encountered opposition from the Chicago Tribune’s circulation department, which viewed the new technology as a threat to its ability to attract print readers. Within three years, the NCN folded, an entrepreneurial dream plagued by differing philosophies, internecine warfare, big companies, and even bigger egos. “Charlie was trying to get Silicon Valley to invest in it, and some guy from Kleiner Perkins [Caufield & Byers] wanted to invest $5 million,” said Cutie. “Can you imagine getting all of that premium content for $5 million. We had this big meeting of all the major newspaper companies to vote...

The excerpt describes the early digital media strategy of Charles Brumback, former Tribune Co. CEO, and the New Century Network (NCN). Recognizing early on that computing would disrupt journalism, Brumback positioned the Tribune Company as an early internet pioneer following an investment in AOL. He launched Chicago Online in the early 1990s, implementing an early paywall model that charged digital readers unless they held a print subscription to the Chicago Tribune. Seeking an industry-wide solution to monetize digital news, Brumback championed the NCN, uniting nine major American newspaper publishers to aggregate digital content. James Cutie, former digital news director for The New York Times and an NCN board member, noted that the consortium was hindered by its unwieldy size, overlapping skill sets, and a collective hesitation to charge consumers for online articles. Domestically, the Chicago Tribune's circulation staff resisted digital expansion, fearing it would undermine physical print readership. Hobbled by competing publisher egos, conflicting philosophies, and corporate infighting, NCN dissolved within three years.

What was happening was an M&A approach to growth along with shady (unethical if not illegal) distribution reporting to mislead advertisers. Meanwhile, internet ventures like Craig's List where eroding crucial income from classified listings. Also, doom was foreshadowed by a decline in newsstand sales as separate from subscription sales.

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