The Working Poor

Casey McGahee rolls pretzels for Auntie Anne's at the mall during the offseason.

Life Sentence

Before being farmed out for more experience, Bob Wiesler made quite an impression in the Yankee training camp. Wiesler's big problem appeared to be control. He just couldn't put the ball over.

"What would happen," wondered a reporter, "if he were roomed with Tommy Byrne, the wild man of the Yankee staff?"

"Neither of them would be able to get into the room," somebody said. "They wouldn't be able to find the keyhole."

Mack's No Difference

George Earnshaw was pitching against the Yankees one day and having his share of trouble. His chief jinx was Lou Gehrig, who smacked two homers into the right-field seats. After the second clout, Manager Connie Mack yanked George, who started for the showers.

But Mack called him back. "Sit right her, I want you to see how Mahaffey pitches to that fella." Gehrig came up again and Mahaffey turned on his power. Crash! This time Gehrig sliced a homer into the left-field stands.

A long, awkward silence followed. Then Earnshaw nodded. "I see," he said, "Made him change direction."

Even more on mash-ups

The Rumpus reviewed Reality Hunger by David Shields today and it made me think more of what we were talking about earlier about mash-ups. This is how Shields structures his book -

Reality Hunger is a 205-page compilation 618 numbered paragraphs, only a handful of which are written by Shields. The rest are quotes from a wide range of writers, entertainers and thinkers: everyone from Homer to Herzog. It may take a while to realize this, as the paragraphs lack attribution (although they are listed in the back by the order of “Random House lawyers”). Shields sums up his intent thusly: “My interest is to write the ars poetica for a burgeoning group of interrelated (but unconnected) artists in a multitude of forms and media (lyric essay, prose poem, collage novel, visual art, film, television, radio, performance art, rap, stand-up comedy) who are breaking larger and larger chunks of ‘reality’ into their work.”

I don't understand this fascination with not attributing quotes in writing. What is gained from this (besides avoiding looking like Bartlett's Famous Quotations, as the reviewer notes)? Maybe I'm missing the point, not having read Reality Hunger, but having thought about it, I've soured on Hegemann's argument for including paragraphs of other people's books into her own -

“There’s no such thing as originality anyway, just authenticity,” said Hegemann in response to accusations of plagiarism.

...

If a d.j. can thread together twenty different songs and package the end product as her own, why can’t a writer? This seems to be the question Hegemann is using as a defense.

I never really bought the justification, but ignored it since the only included example in the article was a character who quoted from a blogpost and the book never mentioned that the character was quoting somebody, which I think is alright, although the utility of having a character quote somebody is only gained when the reader is aware that the character is using somebody else's words and then thinks, "This character is the type of person who memorizes quotes from (wherever) for use in conversation." It would make sense that a professor of Shakespeare might use quotes from Shakespeare in daily conversation without attribution, but nothing is gained for the reader if the reader is unaware of it or the reader will start wondering why this character speaks in iambic pentameter in the year 2010. Books don't need to change to stay modern. What is happening is that the remix culture of movies and music is giving movies and music stylistic choices and forms that books have always had. It's not just because of technological advances that allows mash-ups but also the accumulation of the language of film into our culture. Here is Julian Sanchez on remix culture using the brat-pack/Lisztomania mash-up that progressed to the kids in Brooklyn 'covering' the video to the San Francisco hipsters who make a similar video in response as an example of "how remix is becoming a platform for collective expression by—and conversations between—social groups" -



Or, a more filmic representation of the same argument, here is a scene from Swingers that is itself a comment on how the characters in Swingers wish to see themselves as cool as the characters in Reservoir Dogs -



Paraphrasing Sanchez, when we live in a world saturated with digital media, copyrights are no longer just about incentivizing the creation of new work, but about how much control we get to have over our social reality, and that's where the argument for the unattributed co-option of other people's words into books falls apart because the point of mash-ups or remixes is not to diminish the role of the original author, but to highlight how this art has succeeded in influencing and being subsumed into our culture and even our personalities. Books have always had the ability to convey that truth through stylistic voices, like if a kid in a book kept on using the word 'phony' we'd know that the kid probably sees himself as an heir-apparent to Holden Caulfield. Authors shouldn't be looking towards mash-ups as the future form of the novel, but towards how the people who make and relate to remixes and mash-ups see, identify, and communicate their world. The challenge is that so much of the vocabulary we use to place ourselves in the world is through images rather than language. It doesn't mean that the most truthful/honest way of representing our reality is through film or television, but that the words authors use to present character's inner lives need to identify back towards cultural images as opposed to words. James Joyce could use a "style that borrows from (and parodies) the prose of both moralizing, sentimental literature and consumer-oriented women’s magazines" to convey the inner life of a girl, Gerty MacDowell, in the Nausicaa section of Ulysses. The tv show, The Hills, might serve a similar use for a current author who wanted to define how a girl sees herself in the world today, but the author would have to create the vocabulary to communicate that reality to the world - there is no prose to borrow/parody in The Hills - but I think an author has the ability to communicate that view of the world in such a way that the reader is aware of what the author is doing without the author having to resort to explicitly referencing The Hills like, "Gerty sat in the restaurant discussing her crush on Brody to Angela with the intensity learned from hours studying Lauren Conrad." Going back to Hegemann, an author could show that a girl relates to Lauren Conrad by having her read her book and then blockquoting a passage of Conrad's book into the other book, but why would you not attribute the source of the quote if the whole point is to show that the girl relates to Lauren Conrad? I'm at a loss, maybe I need to read one of these books I think about all the time.

Anyway, whatever. This is all probably self-evident for you, but I promised Scott I'd write about something besides baseball today.

Hair-Raising Order

Bobby Bragan, Braves manager, takes every defeat to heart. Once, when his team was in the middle of a losing streak, he walked into his favorite barbershop, where he received a gushy welcome from his barber, who then asked, "How will you have your haircut, Mr. Bragan?"

"In deep silence, please," snapped Bobby.

Godzilla Haiku

Out at Home, Safety First

Here's 2 because I missed yesterday -

Out at Home

Colorful Larry McLean used to catch for the Giants. Once, with a man on second, the batter shot a single to right on which the runner tried to score. He made a desperate slide, raising a cloud of dust. McLean was bowled over and the ball knocked out of his hand. The runner, however, missed the plate.

McLean scrambled after the ball, picked it up, and turned to make the tag. Alas, the dust was so thick that he couldn't distinguish the runner from the umpire. All he could see were four feet. He tagged each foot as fast as he could.

"I don't know which of youse is which," he exclaimed, "but one of youse is out!"

Safety First

Trailing Philadelphia by a run in the eighth inning, Detroit put the first two men on base and then elected to bunt. Ferris Fain, the daring Athletic first sacker, plunged in, grabbed the bunt, and threw to third. His throw eluded Pete Suder and the runner scored the tying run standing up.

"Darn it, Ferris!" sputtered Connie Mack when the A's came back to the bench. "I don't want you ever to try that play again!"

Most of Mack's employees would have sat down and sulked. Not the high-spirited Fain. "What did you want me to do with the ball?" he bellowed. "Eat it!"

"Well, by golly!" Mack yelled right back. "It'd be a whole lot safer in your mouth!"

Safe at Home

Some years ago, when Joe Medwick was in his prime with the St. Louis Cardinals, he toured Europe with a group of entertainers. Upon reaching Rome, the troupe was granted an audience with Pope Pius. His Holiness politely asked each the nature of his business.

"I'm a comedian," answered one.

"I'm a singer," replied another.

Then came Medwick's turn. With simple dignity he said, "Your Holiness, I'm a Cardinal."

Anthony Witrado of the Journal-Sentinel asked Fielder if the celebration was worth the ball in the back.

"Hell yeah," Fielder said. "That's something I did with me and my teammates. It has nothing to do with them."

"You're damn right it was worth it."

Courtesy of NBC Sports

Incarcerated Pantherfaces

My school -

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee officials said they had to use pepper spray Thursday to help break up a rally at the campus after some protesters became violent while trying to enter the building that contains the chancellor's office.

Sixteen people were detained and 15 were arrested during the afternoon rally, university spokesman Tom Luljak said. The rally coincided with rallies at colleges nationwide, criticizing the rising cost of higher education.

Luljak said university police sprayed pepper spray in the air and called the Milwaukee Police Department for help after some protesters attempted to storm Chapman Hall, the building that houses Chancellor Carlos Santiago's office. Protesters were punching and kicking officers while some also threw snowballs and ice at the officers, Luljak said.

Video! There was some better video of cops getting pelted with snowballs on the 5:00 news, but I don't want to bother looking for it.

I'm not a protester because I can't really bring myself to feel so strongly about a position that I'll let some person I don't know direct me in some goofy chant while standing next to a guy with the American flag draped around him but I agree with them (even though UWM is still pretty cheap in my eyes, especially after Creighton). It's a question of priorities, and as long as the state feels comfortable passing costs onto students it won't stop. Do we really think the California model is the way to go?

The governor's plan aims to bring back the days when the state funneled more money into University of California and California State University classrooms than into its prisons. It has been at least five years since that has been the case. It comes at a time when tuitions are soaring and course offerings are being cut.

The state's public universities, long considered an economic engine and a source of pride for California, have proved to be an easier target for budget cuts than other major programs, which are protected by politically powerful unions, deep pocketed corporate interests or federal laws limiting the state's ability to cut.

"What does it say about a state that focuses more on prison uniforms than caps and gowns?" Schwarzenegger said. "The priorities have become out of whack. . . . Thirty years ago, 10% of the general fund went to higher education and 3% went to prisons. Today, almost 11% goes to prisons and only 7.5% goes to higher education."

Wisconsin already spends 73 cents on incarceration for every dollar spent on education. More -

Between 1987 and 2007, Wisconsin actually cut its support for higher education by 6%. Only 6 states reduced their investment in higher ed by more. During the same period, Wisconsin increased corrections spending by 251%, 8th highest nation, despite a declining crime rate.

Wisconsin's incarceration rates are higher than the neighboring states of Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa and the state's African American incarceration rate is the nation's highest.

Lumps for Dessert

Bobo Newsom was getting his lumps from the Athletics. The score mounted rapidly and by the seventh inning the A's showed a 15-0 lead. Bobo came back to the dugout wearing a disgusted look.

"What's eating you, Bobo?" asked a teammate.

"What do you think?" snarled the angry pitcher. "How can a guy win any ball games if you don't give him any runs?"

More Pavement

GQ decides to list Pavement's 10 best songs. Pavement is so great that I can't really argue with any of the songs they picked, but to leave off "Here" is a travesty.

Grist for the Miller

In the heyday of the Yankees' Murderers Row, Koenig once led off an inning with a triple. Lazzeri scored him with a line double. Then Ruth and Gehrig smote terrific homers. That brought up Dugan, who shortened up and laid down a perfect bunt single. Manager Miller Huggins came storming out of the dugout. "Idiot!" he bellowed, "I ought to fine you a hundred bucks for breaking up a rally!"

Seems similar to what it would be like playing under Dusty Baker.

Subversion

Just as it has always been with Williams and Musical, the players always crowed around the batting cage when Willie Mays steps in to take his practice licks. Down in Phoenix one spring, Jose Pagan gasped as Willie blasted one ball after another out of sight.

Finally, Jose shook his head. "The Constitution of the United States just has to be wrong," he muttered.

"What do you mean?" asked Coach Whitey Lockman.

"Well," the light-hitting shortstop snapped, "doesn't it say that all men are created equal?"