Well, well, well…it looks like we have a winning streak. Three games in a row to bring the record to 3-5. Certainly a happier team than the one that was 0-5. I had thought coming in that Dover would be a solid match for Windham as they too had been beat up by Winnacunnet and were a Division I team while Windham is a DII effort. This was not quite the test predicted though with Windham coming away with an 11-5 win. Again the ability to win faceoffs paid dividends over and over again in this game as did the recent addition of Chris Billone to the team. I’d also love to see Dan Charest be allowed to play more offense than simply running the ball across the midfield and then running off. His speed is a killer. Defense could still use a good deal of work as there is too much stickwork and not enough bodywork, positioning, and cutting of angles. But…I’ll take it for now as they begin a stretch of games that are well within their wheelhouse to win.
Windham Varsity Lacrosse vs. Dover 5/4/21
Windham Varsity Lacrosse vs. Winnacunnet 04/20/21
While my comfort in photographing the sport increase substantially between game one and game three, unfortunately Windham’s end result did not. An overtime 8-7 loss to Winnacunnet was driven at least in part by an own goal that ruined an otherwise decent effort. More controlled passing and offense, some 40/60 or 30/70 breakdown of losses on faceoffs, and a marginally better effort on defense kept the game close. Just not quite enough to get over the hurdle for the year’s first win. Still think there is not nearly enough physical play by Windham. Only two penalties have been called on Windham in three games and the opportunity to take the body more (not stick work…body work) is warranted. Unfortunately I’ll be away for this Thursday and Saturday’s games but back photographing next week I hope.
Windham Varsity Lacrosse vs. Portsmouth 04/13/21
Well now….that wasn’t what we wanted was it? An 11-5 loss to start the season when nothing seemed to work right. Tons of standing around on offense with no cutters, few shots and no drives to the net outside of the first five minutes of the game. Defense? Well…it was there…It just didn’t come to play much. Almost no physicality, no one was being a pest…no price was paid for Portsmouth to reach the goal mouth again and again and again. No one gave up the body to block the shots that were had over and over. Goalie’s? Not really known. They certainly faced a ton of shots but not one of the three that came in stood out given what they faced. Lastly, faceoffs….well…when you lose some 75%+ of them you are automatically giving the opposing team way too many possessions that if you aren’t going to play aggressive defense, are going to continue to end up with balls in the back of the net. Well…Next time it is boys. Gotta bring more than this in the next game. Portsmouth may simply be the better team but Windham can certainly close the gap and make it harder on them at the least.
As for me? Well, lacrosse is unquestionably more difficult to photograph than either basketball or football. Football is agonizingly slow in comparison to both sports which makes finding the action easy. Basketball has the advantage of a lack of equipment which makes getting great facial expressions easy. Lacrosse? It moves very fast with lots of intersecting traffic on top of all the face hiding helmets and many of the players you want to shoot never come close to you if you stay on one side or the other of the field and the endlines are “verboten” due to the “danger” of being hit by a ball. The only good thing is the light. Being outdoors and during daylight hours at least let you crank the shutter speed. So a big learning curve for me to. Hopefully I will bring a better photography game to the rest of the year.
So a toast to us both…may we all bring a better effort in the days to come.
Book Review: The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
The second in McCarthy’s “Border Trilogy” series, “The Crossing” finds itself in an odd position of being a “sequel” that is better than its progenitor but also far less well known.
Much of that has to do with the poorly received “All the Pretty Horses” film. Still, “The Crossing” is the better of the two works. More complex than ATPH it shifts between three distinct stories, each connected to the protagonist’s three trips across the border into Mexico. The most remarked upon is the first of these three in an attempt by the young man to return a wolf to its supposed native mountains across the border. The book ends with that same character’s efforts to discover and return his siblings bones to the United States.
What occurs in between are numerous highs, lows, quasi-mystical conversations, horrific violence (of course), descriptions of nature worthy of a naturalist poet, and an adherence to an outmoded sense of honor. Like ATPH this work is headed by a young male who encounters events and people constantly at odds with his view of life. At every turn life is set against him only to fail in grinding him beneath its boot. Yes, Billy Parnham, like John Grady Cole in ATPH is a husk of himself by the end but…its a husk that is still upright and holds to his ideals.
Be forewarned...the book is hard, as all McCarthy’s are for one reason or another…Here it is McCarthy’s lack of English translations for speech between characters conversing in Spanish. No help is given to the reader in translating these sections were are very significant. Some contextual cues surround these passages but it is largely left up to the reader to either understand it or not. It gives the book a feeling like much of McCarthy’s works—that you are missing something. That there is something just under the surface that you are missing that might help you understand what stands behind the passages but just out of your grasp. That’s not a bad thing.
Windham JV Basketball vs. Salem 02/19/21
And this is the collection of the JV game photos. JV team had a good season and shows potential for replacing a number of the Senior players on the Varsity team though they exhibit the same issues as the Varsity team—good, but inconsistent outside shooting and a lack of inside presence. Some players have the size and strength and aggression to play inside but never appear to have been taught to do so and defer to outside shooting and shooters. That has to change for the team to advance farther than it has.
Windham Varsity vs. Salem 02/19/21
Delayed here but finally getting the time to go back and finish up the two Salem games at the end of Windham basketball season. Varsity photos here. Good season, but they will HAVE to be better on the inside in order to keep the opposing defense off of their outside shooters next year. Its good to have that three point shooting but…its too easy to shut down or go cold at this level without a legitimate threat of inside scoring and rebounding—which Windham never had this year.
Windham JV Basketball vs. Pinkerton 02/25/21
Well, this was the last game of the year for the JV team. It was a loss as was the prior away game at Pinkerton who is just too big a team for Windham to deal with. Out rebounded and outskilled down low, this was a tough matchup. Unlike the prior away game vs. Pinkerton this one went Windham’s way for the first half when they brought more effort and passion than they have brought all year. But a short let down from their top energy was all that Pinkerton needed to cut the deficit and return to a leading spot from where Windham could not fully recover. JV finished the year with an 8-4 record and should be very happy with the result. In truth I think they should have finished 8-2 as the only team they were outclassed by was Pinkerton. The other losses were a matter of focus and effort. Something they will have to work on as many of these players move on to Varsity next year.
Nissans at Dubai International Baja 2021
There may not have been any (yes, ANY) Nissans at this year’s Dakar but as we saw at the Russia based Northern Forest Rally, there are Nissans out there in rally-raids globally. Last weekend was the Dubai International Baja. As a FIA “baja” event its fairly short…nothing the length of Dakar or Morocco or similar but still a great test for top end teams. Last weekend saw the event won by perennial frontrunner in Rally Raid events including a number of Dakar stage wins, Yazeed al-Raji in his Hi-Lux developed by the Overdrive team followed by three other Dakar factory (or former factory) vehicles in one JCW Mini and two “Pugs”
Three Nissans entered the FIA level event—a Nissan “pickup” run by Khaled al Feraihi, a South Africa built V8 Navara piloted by Thomas Bell and another Nissan “pickup” driven by Khalid al Helei. Three other Nissan Patrols entered the National event. So a full 20% of the entries between the two levels of entrants were Nissans.
Results? Well…not as good. al Helei who was the highest seeded driver bowed out and DNF’d with a mechanical issue while al Feraihi looks to have suffered some difficulties as was the second to last of the finishers in the FIA class with 14 hours of penalties in 11th place. Thomas Bell actually performed well, with 30 minutes of penalties, finishing some 4 hours behind the winner in 10th place. None of the three Patrols looks to have finished in the regional class.
From the looks of the photos the event was dune heavy and I’m guessing the more limited Patrols were unable to get through the sand in an adequate fashion with the lighter, nimbler, UTVs in their class were able to fly through them. Photos of Bell’s Red-Lined Motorsport Navara look incredible though! Photos credited to MCH Photo
Windham JV Basketball vs. Alvrine 02/12/21
This was the away game of the usual home-and-home games with Alvrine. As is typical, Windham blew Alvrine out in one and struggled mightily in the other, resulting in a loss. Stringing multiple successes together is something the JV team (nor Varsity) has been good at. Alvrine’s gym is dark which made photos a bit tougher though I did like the balcony gym that was open on the second floor and overlooked the court as a neat feature.
Windham JV Basketball vs. Alvrine 02/10/21
Another game another win. Windham again blew this team out in what was a rebound from their prior loss. When they play aggressive they win handily. Unfortunately overconfidence and a softness to their game creeps in quickly resulting in a very up and down season. Also have to adjust better to different defensive schemes and full court presses which with a limited number of true ball handlers they can have issues with.
Baja Russia Northern Forest 2021
I’ve always liked this rally-raid event. The only one held on snow, its wildly different than the rest of the either Baja or Cross-Country rally events put on by the FIA. No sand here…just brutal temps and deep drifts. It also rarely brings competitors from anywhere other than Russia and similar Eastern Euro countries. I do be Nasser has run the race once…but that’s about it. You aren’t seeing a lot of the top flight Middle Eastern or Western Euro competitors here. 2021 was no different. The event was won by the properly Russian Vladimir Vasilyev who is typically in the top ten or so of competitors in the Dakar or other major rally-raids but doesn’t truly compete for wins outside this event. The race was also subject to true winter conditions with a full on blizzard, zero visibility, and giant snowdrifts impeding the roads all being present on one of racing days.
In the end the top three finishers were all Russians. Not surprising. Vladimir’s BMW X3 is a top flight vehicle, not quite that of the current Mini’s run by XRaid but of the just prior generation of builds so it had plenty to hold off the Russian developed G-Force Protos of the 2nd and 3rd place finishers.
In the FIA top level of entries, there was one vehicle listed as a “Nissan”, that of the #204 of Sergey Uspenskiy listed as a Nissan NP300, while there were a few others in the Russian Championship Series running the same event but not in the FIA classes with the #601 Nissan NP300 and #611 Nissan Patrol. The #611 doesn’t appear to have even started the event while the #601 finished 9th of 35 Russian Championship entries. Uspenskiy shows as finishing 12th or last in the FIA class….but I don’t really count that vehicle anyway…I believe its a Nissan frame but has had a swap of some kind in the powerplant…so….we don’t really like them anyway….Regardless…some photos of the event are here and you can see why Uspenskiy didn’t finish so well.
Book Review: A Short History of Financial Euphoria by John Kenneth Galbraith
And by “short” he really means “short”. Only some 70 pages or so in length Galbraith gets right to the point and does so in plain English. This is no Economic tome requiring lengthy rereadings to understand. Its simple in its supposition and examinations declaring unabashedly that all financial crashes are, at their root, caused by speculation in the “markets". Whether the speculation is in tulips, real estate, stocks, art, etc. doesn’t matter. What matters is the psyche of the public at large that causes these events through heavy investment of capital in any subject that is viewed as being infallibly worth more tomorrow than it is today.
I grabbed this book due to the recent (and quite moronic) speculation in various cryptocurrency “coins” and stocks (see the utterly worthless speculation in Gamestop). Recognizing these events for what they are—ponzi schemes in which ever dumber and dumber people pile in with ever more and more capital they cannot afford to lose, I wanted to read on those who have summarized such events in the past—crash of ‘87, ‘29 and on and on and on.
Galbraith brilliantly goes through these various events and covers the inability of the “market”—his words for the “common folk” to recognize speculation for what it is and for people’s over-valuing of the opinions of those with money. Its his belief that people of means get there largely through luck, happenstance, or willingness to go along to get along and not intelligence, wisdom, or other characteristic often associated with wealth. Combine the gullible, “keeping up with the Jonses”, FOMO, nature of the public with the lack of selfawareness of the investing class (what today would be the SPAC speculators and those in Silicon Valley thinking they know all) and you have a recipe for disaster that repeats over and over. Which is another of his lessons…that we never learn. The “market” is too willing to believe that THIS time is different, that they aren’t as stupid as those of the past…and of course…they’re wrong.
None of which is to say that I take all of Galbraith here to heart. I doubt the man has ever met a government program he doesn’t like, he attributes all crashes to pure speculation discarding regulatory and governmental issues as being inconsequential, he was a huge fan of both Communist China and the USSR, and a host of other issues. Add to that his Harvard base of academia and “I know better than the proles” attitude and…well…I imagine he was insufferable as a human being.
But here? Solely in regards to the destruction that unwarranted speculation can be attributed to, he is remarkable in the ability to cut through the BS and slap society in the face, placing the blame squarely where it belongs—on the rubes who participate in such speculation simply because they are jealous of the rich, their neighbor, or attribute financial acumen on those possessing wealth rather than looking at the root of their income.
And perhaps that is why I enjoyed the book greatly. It preaches skepticism in all things. Much like Carl Sagan and others I have enjoyed, it asks the public to ask hard questions, not accept easy answers, not follow the herd, and forge one’s own path. In this case its the financial and investment arena he is asking you to apply this too. Its a shame more won’t listen to this…but instead we’ll get more Madoffs, more Enrons, more of the lower classes being defrauded of their income out of a blind faith in the news and family and friends. Then we’ll turn around and blame some faceless “system” for the cause rather than looking inward at our own stupidity. I don’t have faith enough in humanity to be able to assess themselves honestly…and neither did Galbraith. Anyone who has even contemplated following along with dimwit Redditors and Instabook investment hardos should consider this a must read.
Windam Varsity Basketball vs. Bishop Guertin
The home game of the home and home series vs. BG. After romping to a 16 point win at BG Windham went flat at home, unable to hit a shot. Seriously…the first have was unbelievably gross in terms of offensive abilities. This is the issue that Windham has…if they don’t hit from 3—particularly DaSilva, they don’t have sufficient confidence from their younger players and particularly their low post players to make it hard on the other team. A certain willingness to bang around in the paint is missing. To truly be a special team they will need both abilities or else they will be completely reliant upon staying hot…all the time—a difficult proposition when DaSilva gets double teamed or has an off night. This loss ran their record to 4-2 on the year.
Book Review: Hammer's Slammers by David Drake
Wish I could say I got through this and enjoyed it. Not to be however. As I’ve stated previously, I have made an executive decision to put books down and move on that I don’t enjoy rather than struggling through them to completion as I used to. There is just too little time for bad books.
So what made me put it down? I mean its kinda in my wheelhouse being a military sci-fi work right? Well, it falls into a category of those same works that really turns me off…which are sci-fi books in general and military sci-fi books in particular that project waaaaay out into the future (interplanetary travel, multi-world empires, and so on) and yet incorporate so much of what is present in our current world as to be unbelievable. There is zero possibility of a suspension of disbelief on my part or an investment in a story when the author is project some thousands of years in the future and yet…here we are with protagonists using “guns” and fission power plants, and adhering to what we have as modern religions which drive entire societies. Sorry but your book felt aged a year after it hit print and it feels grossly aged now.
Drake, for whatever his military and educational background (which is seemingly deep and notable) lacks for imagination beyond what he sees in front of him today (or 1979 as it were when he wrote it). His military experience from Vietnam is taken and projected far into the future and it reads that way—a mishmash of militarisms from 50 years ago mixed with technologies that we are already familiar with but projected thousands of years forward. Sorry…but we have drones, we have fission, we have homosexuals serving in the military, we have advanced laser weapons, small scale nukes, and, yes, relevant here, even large scale mercenary armies operating at the whim of various governments. The book reads like someone imagined the military of 1985 from a position of 1979 and then picked it up and transplanted it to the year 3500 with nothing having changed in between. Been there, done that, and moved on. I much prefer a work like The Forever War by Joe Haldeman which also falls into the military sci-fi genre but is more focused on the depth of characters and human nature than machines and technology. Human nature endures. Technology does not.
Add to that the “pulpy” nature of the work (just the name of the book alone sends shivers down my spine) and it feels like an unserious piece. Just couldn’t do it. Its content and flavor belong more in a pre-teen’s comic book than it does in a deep military-sci-fi work. Next!
Windham JV Basketball vs. Bishop Guertin 2/5/21
Game one of the two? Not good. Blowout city. A struggle from beginning to end exhibiting the team’s lack of rebounding and difficulty with the press. An inside scoring presence has begun to emerge in Conrad but the entire team needs to improve its rebounding and take on a more committed attitude when it comes to the game. Good action in the game however as Windham struggled to stay within shouting distance of BG who was definitely the best team they have faced this year and played almost in an opposite manner from Windham with nary a 3-pointer shot by them in the game. All cuts, speed and aggression to the hoop.
Windham Varsity vs. Nashua South 01/29/21
Well, it had to happen eventually right? A loss on the last Friday in January put Windham down to defeat for the first time this season. As Joey DaSilva goes, so goes this team. Secondary scoring is an issue as is a willingness to play tough down low. More offense out of Jack Runde is desperately needed despite his age and inexperience. A low post presence would open up DaSilva for more unpressured shots. For now, DaSilva will be resorting to shooting with 2 or 3 guys in his face and usually from far outside the three point line in desperation which isn’t a recipe for success long term.
Deer Leap in Winter
Just a quick post on visiting Deer Leap yesterday. I’d been waiting all winter to see if we got a good snow storm to go and photograph the cliff of Deer Leap here in Windham. With Moekel Pond now actually filled in again with water I thought there would be an opportunity to walk out on frozen ice and shoot the cliffs from an angle that hadn’t been seen in a few years (previously being a slow moving swap that would not have been all that fun to cross any time of year. Snowshoeing in was relatively easy though you couldn’t part at Moekel Dam due to the road being “unmaintained” and the town of Pelham simply creating a 5 foot high pile of snow on it preventing access. The ice was frozen though slushing in parts and it was pretty cool to see. I think this is the tallest cliff in Windham (not 100% sure) and it was interesting to see covered in fresh snow. A really neat piece of conservation land so close to home. Now if only people would stop spraypainting crap all over the rocks and ruining the environment for selfish reasons…
Book Review: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
I always seem to have an issue starting Cormac McCarthy works. The lack of punctuation, capitalization, and other structure devices throws me for a loop to start and makes me wonder if I really want to continue with the novel. It truly does get you to reframe how you read and how you interpret what are the thoughts or descriptions of the author vs. statements and viewpoints of the character.
I always continue however simply because the content is just so damn good. Yes its violent and highly masculine in nature. Yes it borrows from Hemingway and other “male” authors. Yes, it is highly likely to be “cancelled” along with his other works in the near future as being a last vestige of an older world version of what is quality writing. There is no magic-realism, there are traditional male/female roles presented, violence is a way of getting things done, now discarded ideas of independence, stoicism, honor, objective truth, and so on are seen as valuable. In short? Your modern high school teacher having been “educated” at Smith or Marist or other Liberal Arts junk factories will not only hate it but seek to eliminate it from acknowledgement.
Now, as for All the Pretty Horses itself, its by far the most “enjoyable” of McCarthy’s works I’ve read so far (others being Blood Meridian and Outer Dark) but still tells the tale of a doomed protagonist. From the beginning, no matter how pleasant the scenario (and maybe this is just from knowing McCarthy’s tendencies) the reader can feel the guillotine hanging over the characters, readying its fall at any moment. None escape the impact of seemingly inconsequential actions and associations.
I won’t get into the exact details, many of which you may know if you have watched the generally detested film version of this novel that came out in 2000 and which I’ll now have to go back and rewatch simply to make my own comparison after having read the book as I originally viewed it some decade or more ago and do not remember any feelings on it one way or another.
The core of the novel takes place in the ranchland and deserts of Northern Mexico though does venture into the towns and a prison of that same area in the just post WWII period. We often think of films and works like The Wild Bunch and others as showing the true end of the American West as being something taking place in the late 1800s or at the latest, very early 1900s, but McCarthy has drawn the closing of the American West forward some 50-80 years to the mid 20th century. In truth, McCarthy is pointing out that these issues, these cultures, these landscapes and the “hardness” that they demand, never go away. The independence and self reliance that is seen as an outdated characteristic associated with the white, American, cowboy, never really go away just because times change—thus the reason why McCarthy has moved his same motifs into very current periods with No Country for Old Men and his flashier pop-spinoffs like Taylor Sheridan have put forth works like Sicario and Yellowstone.
Backing all of McCarthy’s prose is his clearly deep love of the terrain and environment itself. His descriptions of the brush, dirt, dust, animals, vegetation, landscapes are near without equal (Edward Abbey perhaps?) in my various readings. This is not a novel written by someone who has a cursory knowledge of the hardscrabble lives of those living on the Western edges of our country (whether that is US or Mexico) but someone who has lived it first hand. The phrase “write what you know” comes to mind and McCarthy knows the depths of both man and nature better than almost anyone else I have read.
Windham JV Basketball vs. Nashua South 01/29/21
Well…a win is a win, and this moved the JV team to 4-0 on the year. Though they won by only a single point, a number of their players had been called up to the Varsity team to provide bench help there so they were without some of their better players. This did mean that some players got more crucial playing time than they normally have. Good for the experience and confidence of these players and should continue to make them stronger. Next up on 2/4 is a big challenge in facing Bishop Guertin which is one of the true top 6 or so programs in the state. Shots will have to fall more and the team will need to go stronger to the hoop more often if they seek to continue undefeated.
Windham JV Basketball vs. Nashua South 01/26/21
Another game, another win for the Windham JV team. This game was never in much doubt as Windham was hitting inside and out, grabbing loose balls, and making crisp passes. What has really come to be noticed is the communication and help/collapse defense they play. Really a strong point, shooters rarely have to face anything less than two defenders and even when passing out of such spots, the defense quickly adjusts to the new ball holder and is not beaten by the man left open.
