Listened: "Blood in the Cage" by L. Jon Wertheim

Listened: Blood in the Cage: mixed martial arts, Pat Miletich, and the furious rise of the UFC by L. Jon Wertheim, 2009, from Overdrive.com

A history of MMA competition paired with a biography of fighter and trainer Miletich. The history closely matches my own knowledge and interest in the sport.

First starting with no-holds-barred fights the UFC's first owners played up the violence. Blood and knockouts were a big draw. Par-per-view purses were huge until government pressure came in with accusations of "human cockfighting". Gov pressure on cable companies dried up the PPV money. State licensing boards would refuse to allow fights. I too was turned off by the heavy violence that looked like a version of white trash, ex-con, gang member heaven.

The sport evolved from matching one martial arts discipline versus another to the current amalgamation of jiu jitsu/wrestling/boxing/etc. it is now. As skilled and disciplined fighters joined the competition the tough-guys and brawlers and bouncers were quickly weeded from the higher ranks. A key argument for MMA, and one I agree with, is that MMA is actually safer than many other sports like football and boxing.

One key ingredient to the safety level is a fighter's option to tap out. No shame is involved in a tap-out. Sure, some guys would tough it out and refuse to surrender even after a bone was broken. Matching fighters of equal skills avoids the knockouts and win-loss inflation of boxing. Fighters don't have massive padded gloves allowing endless punches to the brain box without breaking hands.

UFC was bought by the current owners and had some struggles. The Ultimate Fighter tv show and hard work by the owners led to an explosion in popularity. I was among the many who watched the incredible fight at the end of season one that boosted the UFC's success.

Pat Miletich's story is an impressive one. He was an angry bar brawler with athletic talent and a background as a high school wrestling and football star. He tried out a karate session one day and was hooked. Miletich's recreational life revolved around karate. He branched out into other disciplines and competed in smaller regional competitions. Miletich's drive and incredible training regime led to his fighting success and he started his own training gym.

Comments:

1. Narrator Phil Gigante does his usual good work. Gigante does excellent work reading Landsale's Hap and Leonard series.

2. Wertheim is a fan but also a journalist. He does not overly gush as a fanboy and looks at things with an appropriately critical eye.

3. Wertheim mentions several times that the UFC has banned writers and journalists who are critical of the UFC and it's owners. I wounder if he had blowback from this.

4. I bought this in paper for work but do not know how well it 'circ'ed. I was never getting around to reading it so I'm glad I picked this audio version out.

fan but also jounralist who sees nonsense

Viewed: "Once Upon An Island" by Richard Quinney

Viewed: Once Upon An Island by Richard Quinney, 2011, 9780981562063.

Photography book with two short sections of text. Quinney moved to New York City in the 1960s and took lots of photos. Quinney loved living in NYC after farm life in Wisconsin and took his camera everywhere.

After Quinney left the city his slides and negatives followed him to every new home. He looked through after the images after 9/11. Quinney had spent many weekends photographing the construction of the World Trade Center and was emotionally struck after seeing the photos. So, he published his work.

Comments:

1. I'm not a photographer. The artistry in this kind of work goes right by me.

2. I do like nudes though.

3. Many photos have people carrying or reading newspapers. Were newspapers so prevalent in city life at that time or was this chance? Did Quinney like to take photos of people reading or carrying things? I suppose there were still several dailies published during that time.

4. The photos made me think how so many things never change.
4.a. People wear clothes, go to work, talk to one another, protest in parades.
4.b. People eat hot dogs, dump trucks are filthy, American flag decals are on car windows.
4.c. Buildings are demolished, buildings are built, people drink beer.
4.d. People go and look at the Trade Center site.
5. The color photos connected me to the place and people much more than the black and white ones.

Read: "Return to Perdition" by Max Allan Collins

Read: Return to Perdition by Max Allan Collins, art by Terry Beatty, 2011, 9781401223830.

Comic book novel. Third and presumably last in the series. Or so I thought. I just checked Collin's webpage and there are a few other tales packed in there. Now I have to find those.

Michael Satariano, Jr. is the son of Michael who was a kid in Road to Perdition. Michael joins the Army and goes to Vietnam. Michael is captured in 1973 and imprisoned in Laos. Michael and otehrs are rescued in a black op. Michael is kept isolated. Michael is told his father, mother, and sister were murdered by the mob after the dad turned evidence.

Michael is recruited to get back against the mob in a CIA black op. Michael trains at FBI academy and then starts assassinating mobsters. Michael's last hit is supposed to be mob hanger in Florida. Michael becomes his driver/bodyguard. Michael falls for his niece. Michael cannot kill mobster when niece around. Michael and niece flee when mobster catches her blowing him.

Michael gets one more assignment to kill a priest. Priest is Michael's father post-plastic surgery. Joyous reunion occurs. Joyous reunion interrupted by a hit team. Michael and dad team up. Michael and recently ordained dad are deadly. Things turn out just dandy for everyone but the dead guys.

Comments:

1. This was more short story than novel and well done.

2. BBC 6 Music is playing Nick Lowe. So it goes.

3. Set in the '70s with lots of sideburns.

4. I liked this art better than the work in Perdition.

5. I saw some anachronisms. At least I think they were anachronisms. I was 8 years old in 1979.

6. Someone in France keeps returning to my blog comments on Perdition and Purgatory. I have no idea why. Maybe they will land here as well.

7. Michael, Jr. grew up as a mob kid but was well insulated from the crime. Michael, Jr. is not the mess that Michael, Sr. was as a younger man. Road to Paradise has Michael, Sr. and the sister on the road like in Perdition. I wonder how young the sister character was in that one and the effects on her.

Done Listening: "City of the Sun" by David Levien

Done Listening: City of the Sun by David Levien, 2008 (print), audio downloaded from Overdrive.

I was searching Overdrive and lucked out on seeing this one. I liked it. Levien's name is too difficult to spell. He should change it to Smith.

First of the Frank Behr novels of which Thirteen Million Dollar Pop was the third. I liked this one better than Pop.

This novel has more about Behr and his background. A farm kid from Oregon (Washington?), Behr graduated with a criminal justice degree and was hired by Indianapolis P.D. Behr was a real go-getter and made a name for himself. He got married and was going pretty until his son died and he went downhill. Behr's wife left him, he lost his job and and he became a private eye.

Behr is hired by Paul who is still trying to find the 12 year old son who disappeared about 14 months ago. Behr does not want a case reminding him of his dead son. Behr does not want a missing kid case when the kid is likely dead. He takes the case anyway when he reads the dad's file on the case.

Behr starts digging. Behr is gruff. Behr is big. Behr does Joe Pike runs up hills with a weighted backpack. Behr uses his old cop contacts. Behr does the digging the cops skipped and finds a lead.

Meanwhile Levien-Smith follows a couple guys responsible for the boy's abduction. Levien-Smith first person views Paul and Behr and bad guys. Bad guys are nasty, nasty people. One bad guy kills the other. Behr figures lots of things out. Behr figures out a broker for kidnapped kids was selling the kids. The broker is a vile piece of amoral crap who considers child abduction, child rape, and child murder a business transaction.

Behr and Paul chase broker. Broker dies right after revealing where kids taken. Behr and Paul head to Mexico. Behr and Paul dig around. Behr and Paul find remote compound where kids taken. Lo and behold Missing Kid alive and rescued. Behr is mauled by a Presa Canario.

Comments:

1. Smith writes some really vile bad guys and makes them believable.

2. Treatment of rape. This was something that I thought about throughout the book. How the act of rape is often glazed over in drama and fiction. That a raped woman is ruined and ashamed. How a rescuer hopes to rescue a woman before she is defiled. How many flicks can you name where the hero arrives right just before the sexual assault? The same kind of treatment here with the missing kid. He is kept by a wealthy Mexican who is saving him. Missing Kid is not sexually assaulted. But, I was happy to have that. I didn't want the kid to be raped, abused, beaten, assaulted, [other words].

3. Greedy strippers. One bad guy worked in a strip club and was hot for a dancer. The dancer had no interest because he had no money. Behr gets her to talk by saying the bow dead guy was secretly wealthy. The stripper thinks back to the money she missed out on, how the guy was maybe not so bad.

4. BBC 6 Music is playing an acoustic tune by Martha Wainwright.

5. Charter Arms .44 Special love.

6. Punching technique love.

Quick Read: "Company K" by William March

Quick Read: Company K by William March, 1957 ( paper edition from Sagamore Press), LOC #57-9761.

I like WWI stories. I ran across a clip or promo for the movie version of this and decided to check it out. This copy was ILL'd from UW-Parkside. 183 pages.

March was William E Campbell. According to Literary Reference Center March joined the Marines for WWI, fought in several battles, and was awarded the DSC and Navy Cross. After the war March went into the overseas shipping business and thrived. He started writing short fiction in the '20s as therapy and Company K came out in 1933. He started writing full time in 1938. I've read that March's 1954 serial killer novel Bad Seed is his most famous. I read a description of Bad Seed and the plot sounds very familiar to something I recently read about online.

Anther source, a 1977 issue of Papers on Language and Literature, says March started writing when he was 15. That piece agrees his first short stories were therapy and first came out in '29.

Company K is written like Spoon River Anthology with many short stories told by multiple characters with no character telling more than one tale; and some telling their story from the grave. Each vignette is matter-of-fact; something that several reviewers remarked upon. Some characters are philosophical and doubting modern morality and truth. Other characters are murderous turds who believe every rumor they are told.

A key event in the novel - and one told by several characters - is the murder of a group of German prisoners. A Sergeant is commanded by an officer to kill some prisoners. He assigns a squad of automatic riflemen for the task. The corporal in charge is happy to do the job. The corporal is convinced the krauts send men over to surrender and those men then lie in wait to attack from the rear during a German attack. Another man sneaks back to rob the bodies. Others are sickened, one runs away, years later one last Marine is on death row refusing a chaplain's visit.

Like Spoon River Anthology I kept flipping back and forth trying to track down characters from story to story. An annotated edition with a complete index would be ideal. This is worth re-reading to try and connect all the characters. But, I have too many other books to get to.

Comments:

1. One character is gassed and blinded. Left in a dugout he hears and feels an artillery barrage and then hears the German attack. Gas seeps into his dugout and he feels his way out, helpless. The Germans kill him. I felt sorrow for his death and then felt conflicted when a later story showed what a shit he was.

2. Lots of gas attacks.

3. Incompetent officers.

4. An officer whose pride makes him ignore an NCO's advice and gets people killed.

5. I never did get around to reading Sassoon's third novel in his autobio sequence.

6. During my freshman year at Gustavus we had a wrestling practice with Parkside during our J-term trip and I got clobbered. That was humiliating.

7. A bio of March came out in 1985 or so. I won't read it but wonder what he did during WWII. I would think his shipping experience would have been valued. Would he have wanted to re-enlist? Did he fall into the bottle like so many contemporaries?
8. EDIT: A few entries ago I was recalling that all the recent books i read had prostitutes. This did too. One soldier is encouraged to lose his virginity and is set-up with a French hooker by his pals.

Done: "The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse" by Mabel Maney

Done: The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse by Mabel Maney, 1993, 093941676x.

I saw the novel's cover illustration online. Probably something Christa Faust linked to. I'm surprised the book was in the catalog; Watertown owns it. According to the book bio and wikipedia Maney is from WI. I presume much of the book bio is silliness.

If you read this in expectation of hot lesbo action you will be disappointed. If you read this in expectation of a silly mix of lesbian characters and Nancy Drew detective fiction you will be happy.

Cherry Aimless is a new nurse in Seattle General Hospital circa 1955 or so. Cherry is incredibly earnest and devoted to her work. No matter how much her mother hopes her to find a man the doctors and interns just don't interest her. A Seattle General patient has amnesia and Cherry is sure she can sleuth her identity but then the patient goes missing! Oh dear!

Cherry is due to vacation in San Francisco and visit her aunt. The head nurse requests Cherry drop off a gift in Oregon during her drive. Cherry is followed by mysterious men. Men try to steal away the gift. Cherry visits her parents and then goes to Oregon town to drop gift. Cherry lost the address and is directed to a bar to ask around. How strange, all the bar patrons are women. One women seems particularly interested in Cherry. How darling!

Cherry meets a gal who looks just like her and then meets that gal's close friend and roommate. They are the people she is looking for. What a coincidence! New friend is mistaken for Cherry and is kidnapped! Oh no!

Cherry and roommate head to SF. Cherry searches for famous girl detective Nancy Clue who is visiting SF. Cherry and Nancy meet and head back to Nancy's hotel. (Presumably hot lesbo action happens.) Cherry's aunt is missing. Nuns are involved. Priests are involved. Men are so crude, foul, and rude! More mystery. Kidnappings. Derring do. Plucky teenager involved. Nuns are rescued from scheming priests.

Cherry heads to parent's house to nurse her injured father. Cherry misses Nancy terribly. Nancy and co. come to town to enlist Cherry to solve new and urgent mystery.

Comments:
1. Silliness of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries. Lots of coincidences and plucky action.
2. Cherry's dad is a bump on a log who returns home from work and sits in a chair until dinner and bedtime.
3. Many descriptions of clothes and shoes. How cute!
4. Good natured earnestness and optimism.
5. Sex puns.
6. This only numbers 184 pages and I thought it went about 20-30 pages too long.

Heard: "Concrete Blonde" by Michael Connelly

Heard: Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly, 1994 (print), downloaded from Overdrive.com

There was a recent online discussion about serial killer novels and respondents posted whether they liked them. This came out in 1994 which, if I remember correctly, was during the height of serial killer popularity. Listening to it now, in 2012, it is passe.

Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch is an LAPD detective. He used to be in the elite Robbery-Homicide unit until he killed a serial killer four years before. The killer, nicknamed the Dollmaker, was guilty, but Bosch got in administrative trouble for not calling for help before the confrontation and was subsequently transferred. Now, Bosch is being sued in federal court for denying due process to the dead guy and faking the evidence against him (he didn't).

At the beginning of the trial a note is dropped off at a police station claiming the writer is the Dollmaker and still killing. The note leads to a body encased in concrete. The concrete covered blonde fits the killer's pattern and has a specific tell-tale clue. Bosch starts to worry a bit.

Bosch is under pressure from the court case. Bosch is under pressure thinking he may have screwed up. Bosch is also dating the widow of a policeman whose death Bosch investigated. Bosch is under pressure from girlfriend who wants more emotional connection.

Bosch investigates. Opposing trial attorney is skilled and ruthless. LAPD Lieutenant is an ass. Bosch's city lawyer is inexperienced and fat. Bosch and others investigate and figure note writer is a copycat killer. Bosch has a suspect. Oops, wrong guy. Bosch has another suspect. Oops, wrong guy again. Bosch has a third suspect. Oh good, the correct guy. Bosch and girlfriend reconnect. Everyone lives happily ever after except for the dead people.

Comments:
1. The first Bosch book I read/listened to. The Mickey Haller series is quite good.
2. Connelly with an E not an O.
3. Three main topics: the trial, the murder investigation, Harry's troubled brain.
4. Harry is one of crime fiction's shut down dudes. He never knew his father, his mother was a murdered street walker, he was foster homed, time in Vietnam, time in the police department. He doesn't drink too much like other Shut Down Dudes be he has difficulty connecting with people. Anyone outside of police work is dismissed for their naivety. Harry knows he is emotionally closed off. Harry wants to speak to Girlfriend about his life but is incapable of doing so.
5. One reason I never tried reading these novels is the name Hieronymus. It made the book sound gimmicky.
6. Harry does not like porn, the pron industry, or the results he sees on the actors.
7. I don't recall what physical description Connelly gave Bosch but Bosch must be a smaller guy to have been a tunnel rat.
8. Harry is often the "grouchy cop." He can be a real dickhead.
9. Indoor smoking at bars.
10. No cell phones.
11. Beepers.
12. Narration by Dick Hill is sub par. Sometimes Hill really annoys me. He adds in throat clearing, whiny voices, grunts, and uhms. His female voices are almost always whiny and meek.
13. Harry really dislikes young lawyers questioning his experience and theories.
14. Henry Weinhard beer. I'm pretty sure I used to buy that in Arizona.