Book Reviews

The 6+ hour flight to Alaska a few weeks back allowed me to catch up on some reading as the cheapo airlines didn't have inflight movies. With that, some recent reads:

Football

In the spirit of the upcoming football season, a good read about the craze of  football in the U.S.A. with fantasy football and mock drafts ALL YEAR LONG. How it's impossible to compare Jim Thorpe to Barry Sanders; both great players in their respective eras but can't compare. My favorite  portion of the book is where the author references a study that was done on how long a football game actually lasts using a stop watch (https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/football-games-have-11-minutes-of-action). Start on the snap and stop at the whistle and it turns out games only last about 11 minutes!!! We're all in it for three hours (at least) however.

Raised on Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine & Payola – the AOR Glory Years 1976-1986

A good read covering the bands my siblings got me into growing up (fortunate to grow up in the era), such as Journey, Heart, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Boston, Pat Benatar, Rainbow, Styx and Van Halen to name a few. 

Written in the oral history format with interviews with members of the groups, it reads like a book version of "Behind the Music." All seemed to have the same story, drugs got in the way, egos got too big, management screwed them over and the groups had many bumps along the way after reaching the mountain top.

Ozzy Osbourne - Last Rites

Ozzy. Thankfully he had a co-author as it reminded me a bit of Keith Richards bio where you get a few "as I recall" references but could hear his voice in the dialogue. Instead of the word 'because', we have many references to 'cos instead, which works.

The book speeds through Ozzy's early years and focuses more on his later years, his health issues and his final tour before he passed. I would have to believe if it weren't for his wife Sharon, I don't think he would have made it as far as he did. 

Northern Exposure

The tour headed north this past week to dip my feet into the Alaska experience, and met up with a couple friends while doing so. 

I signed up for a trolley car/bus city tour along with a guide supported mountain bike ride at Chugach State Park ahead of the trip so I had all my ducks in a row. 

The trolley/bus tour was outstanding as we learned about the earthquake of 1964 and why the mud flats off of the shoreline prevented some serious tsunamis from happening. In addition, we got a sprinkle of some Iditarod dog race history, fireworks in the daylight (it's light at 11 PM on July 4th in Alaska) along with learning that every person with multiple generations growing up in the area seems to have a two seat Cessna plane, handed down from each generation. 

The mountain bike ride unfortunately got cancelled. The company doing the ride also do guided tours on the Coastal Trail, a paved path along the coast that has a bit more demand than the mountain bike ride. Not too many vacationing senior citizens go mountain biking for some reason...   Long story short, one of the guides for the paved path tour threw his back out so they pulled the mountain bike guide onto the paved tour and cancelled our ride. I was bummed but understand as there were only two of us mountain biking and probably about 10 on the paved tour. Alaska has a short summer tourist season and it came down to numbers. I ended up taking the paved tour and enjoyed it; saw a couple moose in the process.

While winding down after the ride, I texted friend Rob as he sometimes works in the state and it turned out he and wife Wendy were in town and we had dinner with another couple. 

A great, beautiful state. While I don't think I could ever live there on a permanent basis, I will be back to get that mountain bike ride in, guide of no guide next time. I'll just make sure to pack the bear spray.

Trail Head

Chugach Mountains

salmon snaggers

large melon in tourist mode

Iditarod dog tribute