Photo Finish Friday

This is a scan of a shot I took back in 1991 of one of my all-time favorite racehorses, Captain Condo. My horseracing post earlier this week got me thinking of him.

Back in '89 - '93 or so I used to visit Longacres Park in Renton, WA, quite frequently. I loved the smells, the horses, the atmosphere . . . it was a small park, intimate, and I enjoyed going down there with $30 or $40 for a Saturday afternoon. Even if I came home with nothing it was still an inexpensive outing, and usually had a meal as well. Sometimes I'd come back with more then I arrived with, and that was always a bonus.

Condo was a local favorite. As a nine year-old, when this picture was taken, he won several races. He was a closer, which means he would often be back in the pack as they hit the final turn and he would come charging down the stretch, gobbling up other horses with huge strides. It was exciting and breathtaking. His personality was larger than life as he strode around the paddock, well aware that all eyes were on him. I really loved watching that horse run. This bit from his bio tells the story very well:

What is the source of Captain Condo’s tremendous appeal? It’s not just about longevity, for there have been other successful older runners, including his contemporaries Kent Green and Snipledo. Nor is it entirely about ability. Captain Condo never won the Longacres Mile, traditionally the most important showcase for talent in the Pacific northwest each year. And it is unlikely to be rooted in his versatility as a runner, though he won stakes from six furlongs to a mile and a sixteenth. Instead, it was the combination of all those attributes with something extra, a competitive spirit recognized by everyone who saw him run. Lonny Powell, general manager and chief operating officer at Longacres at the time, captured it best when he said “You kill for these horses. One of the greatest challenges of running a racetrack is finding a hero.”
A hero – a good description of Captain Condo, but there are others. The late Mark Kaufman, manager of racing and media relations at Longacres, tried to quantify it when he said “He is the only horse racing at Longacres that impacts the handle.” And rider Gary Baze gave a jockey’s view of him when he said, “The first time I rode him . . . I was surprised at how hard he goes after those last few horses. He’s so fiercely competitive. He really bears down hard on them . . . Most horses couldn’t care less if they won or lost, but he’s different.” Different, indeed. After he lost a race by a nose, trainer Ashby had to call the vet and have him tranquilized. “He just wouldn’t settle down,” according to Ashby. “He really didn’t get a chance to run his race and I think he knew that.”

Those were the days. I still have a Captain Condo button in my little box of "life memorabilia" that I've saved.


Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of writer/blogger Leah J. Utas.

Who Gets Redemption?

I watched the last quarter-and-a-half of the Eagles/Vikings game last night online. I don't really like either team, but I was on the computer anyway and had it on. Plus I was a little curious to see Michael Vick play, as the sports world has been abuzz with how great he has been this year. I listen to the local sports radio station when I am out driving around, and often during the day while I work, and all the pundits were talking about how this "easy game" should have been a perfect opportunity for Vick to seal up his claim to league MVP this year. Amusingly enough, he didn't do so well. A game which many said Minnesota had "absolutely no chance to win" actually turned out to be a win for Minnesota. That amuses the hell out of me. That's why I love sports radio. People are such loudmouth blowhards about shit I really don't need to care about. It's like political talk radio without the stakes in breeding ignorance that can ultimately hit me where I live. In other words, sports radio rarely pisses me off.

Most people know about Michael Vick. Even people who aren't sports fans know about the guy. His wikipedia page has an excellent breakdown on all of his problems with the law as a young man, which culminated in a conviction for his role in a dogfighting ring called Bad Newz Kennels. He was suspended from the league, served his time in prison, went bankrupt, and ultimately got out of prison and signed by the Philadelphia Eagles after two years out of the game. Many people thought his career would never be rekindled, that the rage over his involvement in killing dogs would never allow it, that the public would never accept him.

So this year the guy comes back big time. Lands the starting slot at quarterback for the Eagles when the original starter gets hurt, then proceeds to have his best season ever. At one time Vick had the most votes of any other player in the fan balloting for the Pro Bowl. Ultimately he comes in at #2 (last I checked) and will be the starting quarterback for the NFC when the game happens. Pundits and those around him talk about his comeback, how grown up he is, how he served his time and, as part of community service, has spoken to children about the evils of dogfighting. But is that enough? Has the guy earned redemption, which clearly he has in the eyes of many people, or were his crimes so heinous that he should never get a second chance? President Obama called the Eagles' owner and thanked him for giving Vick a shot at redemption. Does the guy deserve it?

I've thought about this a lot. I was never a fan of the guy in the first place, and his crimes were abhorrent. I don't have a stake in it, though I confess I root against the guy because I don't like the Eagles. Spiritually, I believe in redemption and forgiveness. It's not a Christian thing for me, which I'm definitely not; it's a human thing. This situation pushes the boundaries of that conviction, though, and it has been quite a journey for me to even get this far, where I grudgingly admit the guy has earned a second chance. Personally, I think his prison time should have been greater, but that is a different issue. Point is he did his time as dictated by Society, of which I am part, and if he keeps his nose clean and becomes a stand-up guy then I would agree it is an amazing story.

I also understand why some people can't get there. But I wonder about the motivations beneath the surface of that position. We are a nation of dog lovers, absolutely. Is it because he essentially tortured and murdered dogs specifically, or just that he would treat any animal that way? For people who see themselves as animal lovers, are any of those folks consumers of factory-raised beef, chicken, etc.? There is all the testimony you could want available about the horrors of slaughterhouses; how does one justify condemnation of Michael Vick while tucking into a Baconator, prime rib or three-piece crispy with a side of mashed and gravy? Mike Vick just happened to be more hands-on in his destruction of life, but is it really any different?

I think there is some hypocrisy involved, but I'm curious in other people's takes on this. I totally understand folks who aren't willing to forgive this guy, but I'm also interested to know how they justify those feelings in light of their own actions . . . or if they feel they are even comparable. What do you think? Is Mike Vick irredeemable? If he is, then where is the line in what someone can be forgiven for and what they can't? Finally, am I off-base in my own take on this?

Don't Tell My Wife

Watch this horse race. It's got one of the greatest stretch calls I've ever heard.



What are the odds of that happening?

Photo Finish Friday

Took this shot at my parents' house on Thanksgiving. With all the snow we've gotten since, and with more to come according to the forecast for the next 24 hours, there's no doubt our Christmas is going to be white. Just like it's supposed to be.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas and an excellent weekend!



Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of blogger Leah J. Utas.

That Might Hurt a Little

More throwdown combat video for people who can't get enough:

It'll Do 'til the Mess Gets Here

I'm sitting here poised on the brink of seeing the new True Grit movie. Was gonna wait until Christmas day, but I don't think I'm going to make it. I love the cast, I love the Coens, and I love a good Western. There have been some excellent ones released in the last few years, just not enough of them. I read somewhere a few years ago, or heard it on the radio, I don't remember for sure, but the idea was that the Western has been supplanted by cop and crime shows and movies. The case was made about the similarities and it made sense to me at the time, even though it saddened me. I like good cop stuff too, but the archetype just isn't the same in modern times, at least not to me. I want big hats, sixguns and thundering hooves!

Today I've just about wrapped up listening to James Lee Burke's Rain Gods, which I downloaded from audible.com. I liked it; thought it would make a great movie. It brought to mind Victor Gischler's novel The Deputy, which I read this year and enjoyed. It's a bit different from Burke's novel -- more action movie-ish, more pulpy -- but similar enough. It too would make an excellent film. I know they'd do well because the stories are strong and in the right hands a film version could be wildly successful. No Country for Old Men, also a Coen Brothers flick, was hugely successful. Hell, I thought the movie was better than Cormac McCarthy's novel.



What these stories all have in common is that gritty, overheated, life-on-the-border setting that I love, which really calls to mind classic movie Westerns. Why aren't there more of these types? In recent years we've had The Town, The Departed, Gone, Baby, Gone, etc., all movies with urban settings. New York/Boston/LA get enough love . . . why not more from the Southwest, eh?

So I'm looking for suggestions of more books and movies with settings from around 1970 on, that have some dirt and sweat in their DNA. Bring it, people!

It's the Best Of Time of Year

As 2010 gasps its death rattle, we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of the season for putting together Best Of lists. I've got a couple things planned for this blog; possibly a movie list, and possibly a return to a 2010 version of one for the ladies. So to get things kicked off, here are links to a couple lists I've had posted elsewhere.

Nobody Asked You -- The Best in Music 2010

My buddy Peter Farris has a rock solid heavy rock pedigree and has a debut novel being published by Tom Doherty Associates/Forge Books next year. On his blog, The Sentence Salvo, he asked a few of us to offer up our favorite music released this year, and I was happy to oblige.

Now, It was a down year for me for buying music this year for many reasons (mostly having to do with me being a jaded old bastard), though I did reload some back catalog stuff. It's not something I'm proud of, it has just been one of those phases, you know? So for my list I decided to note the records released in 2010 I DID buy this year (there are 13), and why I chose them. I'm not saying they're necessarily all great, they all just had something about them that made me want to buy them. Check out my list, as well as everyone else's, RIGHT HERE.

The Best of Whatever at Day Labor

Day Labor is the official blog of Crimefactory Magazine. When editor (and writer, and all around hardest-working-guy-in-crime-fiction) Keith Rawson asked if I would be interested in supplying a 2010 Best Of list, of anything I read or saw or thought about in 2010 (didn't have to be released in that year, it just had to be something I experienced in 2010), I didn't have to think twice. I stuck with books, and came up with eleven. You can check out my list RIGHT HERE. Then look at some of the other lists -- there is some great stuff being talked about!

Hardest part about these lists is leaving stuff. Who knows, maybe I'll mention a few more over the next week. There's just a ton of great stuff out there worth talking about!

Big thanks to Pete and Keith for giving a rip about my opinion enough to ask for my contributions!

Head, Body, Head, Body

The last two movies Julia and I saw in the theater were boxing-related movies, and we enjoyed them both. Watching them makes me wish for a couple things. First of all, that I didn't have to pay exorbitant costs for cable television 24x7 just to watch a couple evenings a month of bouts I want to see, and secondly, I wish boxing were more popular than it is. It seems odd to me that boxing isn't more popular, because as this article from Ring Magazine notes, Hollywood sure doesn't have a problem getting studios behind the making of boxing movies.

Boxing movies have never had a problem earning critical acclaim. Two of them, Rocky and Million Dollar Baby, were named Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Another Best Picture winner, On The Waterfront, was about an ex-boxer. And a boxing movie that didn’t win Best Picture, Raging Bull, was recognized by many critics at the end of the 1980s as the best film of the decade.

To put things in perspective, in the entire 82-year history of the Oscars, only one sports movie that wasn’t about boxing, Chariots Of Fire, has ever won the top prize.

Think of the Bruce Willis segment of the classic Tarantino film, Pulp Fiction, where he played a boxer. Classic! As a sport, though, boxing has itself to blame in many ways for its fall from grace. That, and the lack of real excitement in its money division, the heavyweights. Which is unfortunate, because Manny Pacquiao is a freakin' living legend.

In the world of letters, boxing fiction has a great pulp tradition as well. I was inspired to write a tale of my own after reading a collection of Robert E. Howard's boxing stories; that story is appearing in the upcoming Kung Fu Factory special edition, which features stories all about fighting, being released by Crimefactory. So yeah, I'm a fan of The Sweet Science.

The Fighter

We saw this movie opening night this past Friday, and we both enjoyed the hell out of it. It's the (based on a true) story of "Irish" Micky Ward and his half-brother, Dicky Ecklund. Micky is the younger brother being trained by his more famous brother, who squandered a boxing career of his own by succumbing to a drug habit. The primary characters are played by Mark Wahlberg (as Micky), Christian Bale (as Dicky), and Amy Adams (as Charlene Fleming, Micky's girlfriend). All are excellent in their roles, with Bale getting the most acclaim, rightfully so, as the hyperactive older brother who has yet to live beyond a single moment in his boxing life where he put Sugar Ray Leonard on the mat. Melissa Leo turns in a fantastic performance as Alice Ward, the mother of the two men, as well.

To call this film simply a "boxing movie" sells it woefully short. It is about many things: family, loyalty, drug addiction, and redemption. There is also plenty of humor in it as well, more than in your average comedy these days. The characters are realistic because they are based on real people, and its obvious that the project was approached with a lot of love and respect by all people involved. I'd put this up there with such excellent boxing films as Cinderella Man and Million Dollar Baby, easily. Highly recommended. I enjoyed the hell out of it.



Boxing Gym

Julia and I saw this at the legendary Loft Cinema while we were in Tucson last weekend. This little documentary isn't your typical movie at all. It isn't even your typical "documentary." There's no narration, no voice-over, no explanation, nothing. The camera simply serves as an eye into the goings-on at Lord's Gym, an Austin, TX, boxing gym which was founded sixteen years ago by Richard Lord, a former professional boxer. From the gym's website:

What you won't find at Lord's Gym:
People with fake tans in spandex
Girls in makeup
A date for Friday
A sales pitch every time you come in to workout
People looking to pick a fight

What you WILL FIND is:
A good solid workout
Professional boxing instruction
Results YOU can see in the mirror
A real gym environment, not a yuppie haven
Friendly and helpful training partners
A community of like-minded individuals
Busy people like YOU looking to get fit fast

Director Frederick Wiseman's camera follows all the different people working out at the gym -- professional boxers, children, women, out-of-shape "normal" people looking to get fit; just about anyone you can imagine. It's like taking a random sample of folks you might see while people watching at the mall and dropping them into shorts and boxing gloves and pointing them at a bag to take punches at. We also see owner Richard Lord and his trainers working people out, or watch Lord talk to newcomers from the office while signing them up to work out. It's a simple concept that works. It probably isn't for everybody, but I found the movie heartwarming in its way, and inspiring. I wish we had a straight-up boxing gym in Missoula.

Trailer for Frederick Wiseman's BOXING GYM from Dossier on Vimeo.

Photo Finish Friday

This week's picture probably doesn't look like much, but it's got sentimental value.

Julia and I spent last weekend in Tucson. Back when we were a'courtin', I used to visit her there whenever I could. It gets pretty hot in the desert (no, really!), and we would often retreat to the Borders Books on North Oracle to relax in the cafe, have something to drink and read magazines. Especially when we were working on the strawbale house she built the year before she moved up here, it was great to retreat to the A/C of the store and just chill. So last weekend, with a couple hours to kill, we visited again, and I snapped this picture of the table between us as we meandered through some glossies.



Photo Finish Friday is the brainchild of blogger Leah J. Utas.

Somewhere in the USA, there is Sunshine and Warmth

Julia and I returned yesterday from a long weekend/mini-vacation in Tucson, where we visited her family. We left this behind --

-- and went in search of this:

We got all this --

-- and more, considering how much stuff I didn't take a picture of.

It's a Bike Town, You Know

A few months ago I picked up the summer issue of Wend Magazine, a rag out of Portland I'd never seen before. I enjoyed it; obviously aimed at a younger, hipper demographic than I represent, but cool nonetheless. In particular there was an article in there by Heidi Swift called "The Cyclocross Diaries: My Love Affairs with Men, Wheels and Mud." I started watching her other stuff online for Wend and ultimately followed her on twitter. Cyclocross intrigued me as something that seemed like a sport I could get into. Plus it turns out she isn't boring with the things she posts. In my quest to know as many interesting people as possible, that's a success!

Fast forward to the last couple days. I had to make a really quick trip to Portland for work which would have me there early on a Sunday, looking for something to do that didn't involve me spending ridiculous amounts of money (i.e. Powell's Books). Heidi had posted about a big race being held in Portland through Sunday -- the USGP at Portland International Raceway. I decided to check it out, and I ended up having a great time.

I landed at PDX around 9:30 AM, grabbed my rental car and headed straight for the event. The event for men 35 and older was underway (or maybe it was 45+, I don't know). It was windy and sort of chilly, but not too bad.

From what I gather, the way cyclocross works is you don't race a set distance, you race a set time. So if it's a 45 minute race, the first person to cross the finish line after 45 minutes wins. The course was 3 km long, with muddy spots, straightaways on pavement, winding curves, hills, and obstacles that had to be traversed carrying the bike. Spectators are all along the course, ringing cowbells and shouting encouragement to the racers. There are tents for the various racing teams in the infield (the race was held on parts of the motocross track at the race track in Portland), as well as gear vendors and food vendors and things like that.

This guy flying over these barriers won the 55+ division, I believe it was. A guy from Missoula came in third!

As the day went on, the sun came out and the day turned glorious. A drum group fired up and provided loud accompaniment to the proceedings.

I scored a delicious lunch for myself that I washed down with a couple local brews.

Another race started, and these dudes were flying. I took a position at the top of a big hill that the racers would ride up to, then carry their bikes up, then ride the rest of the way back down. It was a large field, and from atop the hill I could see the huge pack of them racing around the flat pavement, then along the backstretch, then start twisting their way around the turns until they finally approached the hill. They charged up --

-- then flew down the other side.

I found this to be one of those events where I am a restless spectator. Like a soccer game, I'd rather be doing it then watching it! It looks friggin' exhausting though. For the time this race was scheduled for, I think the guys did five laps. So that is essentially 40 minutes all out, riding, climbing hills, jumping off and on the bike, etc. I'd be lucky to get around the thing once!

The last race I watched was the Elite Women. This was pretty cool. I watched them queue up at the starting line, then they took off to the thunder of drums and the rattle of countless cowbells.




Then I hustled back to the top of the climbing hill to watch their approach. I apologize for the poor quality of the video; I took it with my phone.



One thing I saw a couple women do that none of the men did was actually ride up this hill instead of carry the bike on foot. I wondered about that. I concluded that for someone with more strength, running up with the bike may actually be faster than riding the bike, because those women who did were moving pretty slow by the time they crested the hill. I don't know, maybe they just wanted to challenge themselves. It certainly drew cheers from the people assembled there to watch!

Some showed signs of wipeouts as well, though I only saw two.

It was fun moving around and watching from various points along the track to see the strategy involved.

In the end, all three women atop the podium race for the same team!

It was a good time, and a great way to spend a few hours outdoors in the fresh air and sunlight, surrounded by fit, healthy, fun-loving people of all ages. I could get hooked, that's for sure. I like the solitary nature of it, that the amount of effort and hard work one puts in has a direct correlation to how successful one is. Like my respect for fighters, it isn't exactly the competition I find compelling so much as it is the commitment to training. I admire that, and find it to be very inspiring.

Anyway, here is a report from Heidi herself about the event. Fun stuff! I need to see what is going on with cyclocross around Missoula, that's for sure. Then get a bike and get in shape. I just don't know about me in a spandex onesie, though. . . .