The Shining Example

The Shining (1977)

The Collector's Edition of The Shining that our household has includes an introduction by Ken Follett.  I don't remember when exactly in my life I was taught the lesson (and Follett says it himself in the intro) to wait to read an introduction to a book you are looking forward to until after you've read it and use it as an afterword, but the advice is invaluable - and this one is no exception.

The Shining was to become Stephen King's "First Great Novel", and prior to starting this re-read I kind of assumed that's because it was chock-a-block full of the wild terrors and strange vignettes that we will come to expect from King's 80s Masterpieces like It and The Stand, but what is so striking about this book is just how small a story it really is.  The epic history of The Overlook is baked in there, absolutely, but what makes this novel great is that it is really just a simple story of a simple family who are suffering some simple problems.

The novel is a startling reminder that although the world around us may often threaten us with Sinister Forces, and we may at times have some support from The White, mostly our lives and our problems and stories are made up of little simple things.  Our faults and our strengths.  Yes, Jack Torrance is an alcoholic.  But he also suffers deeply from imposter syndrome, trying to find some success as a writer after having failed as an English teacher and father and husband.  He's also keenly susceptible to micro-aggressions or minor slights, and has a petty mean streak (as well as a bit of a temper!).

It is a remarkable novel.  Enjoyable, and amazing how much of it exists just as this story of this family.  The thickness of the pages that add up to the Kubrick vision of The Shining is a pinky width - maybe less, yet that is what we imagine when we imagine it, I think.  That's why King was so pissed - although Kubrick made a great movie, it certainly was not a filmic version of his novel.  But now, I think King has come to realize that's okay.
(9.15.26 - 11.7.26)

tl;dr

 For the last year or so, on an off, I have cultivated the habit of playing an audiobook at fairly low volume as I drift off to sleep.  

It felt like an improvement of my prior sleep plan of having movies or beloved episodes (oddly mostly musicals for both!?) playing on my laptop next to me in bed, but I dunno - I'm not sleep doctor.

At first, I was using the opportunity to 'collect' books I had read previously, mostly from long ago, and re-capture them.  I also listened through all of The Dark Tower again, as well as some Middle Earth and Narnia tales. 

Primarily, I was listening via EverAnd, a book app I subscribe to, until I realized that most of the audiobooks on that site are subject to a limited number of hours of listening, so I was blocking my access for my commuting and other reading opportunities - and so I switched my night-time listening almost exclusively over to my good friend Libby!

Subject to availability, I have been listening to whatever the rest of Milwaukee (shhhhhh!) hasn't been lately that strikes my fancy, but also, fairly firmly strikes me that at this point in my life I fully expect not to read in its entirety... Including: 

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, by Matthew Perry (Read by the Author)

When Chandler Bing's memoir came out in the fall of 2022 I was driving drugs and listening to more audiobooks than I had at any point in my entire life, so I thought to put the memoir on my Holds list at the library, but it seems the entirety of Milwaukee County had the same idea.
Perry had always been my favorite of the Friends, and his comedic work in The Whole Nine Yards and even his brief stint on The West Wing were brilliant, and there had always been a deep sense of pain and cynicism at the core of his art.
The book came out almost a year to the date before Perry died, age 54.  Hearing him read his own memoir, now 3 years past his death, may seem a bit ghastly, but it also made the sometimes tea-spill-y Hollywood nature of the book have a bit more gravity.  Perry was fully aware how fraught his situation was - although the book (as memoirs almost have to do) ends on a hopeful note - and that fraught-ness and exploitative network around him makes his story all that much more sadder.  Rest in Peace, my Friend.
(15 - 23 September 2026)

Spare, by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex (Read by the Author)

When I heard Prince Harry had written a memoir I almost could not have cared much less.  I knew a little bit about Harry and Megan's precarious situation (I think there was a The Oprah Interview that we watched).  I don't have anything particularly against Harry (if I had to choose he would probably be my favorite of the current Royals).  And it has been a particularly good time for English Harrys these last couple of decades (tho Prince Harry probably ranks last for me amongst the Harrys Potter, Kane, Styles who are bubbling about our culture at present).
But the book is actually quite good.  It is a bit spare - fairly flatly told - an epically weird family comes off frequently looking not only weird, but also bad... mean, really.  
The book is also a parallel chronology - The Princes are of ages that would make them Elder Millennials, and I am a Gen X (theYounger) (I think of myself as a 'Cusper, but we can figure that another time) - so hearing his resume, where each line is like, several chapters, matched up with my own personal history of questionable professional, social, and familial choices... so that's fun.
(23 October - 5 October 2026)

Freedom, by Angela Merkel (Read by Julliet Stevenson)

I am of German... I grew up speaking German and knowing more about German politics as I did about anywhere else in the world's politics excepting our sorta boring USofA politics.
Although I got through her lustig memoir several times - the moment of her life that I know more than any other (of course. that time that George W. Bush sneaks up behind her and gives her a jokey shoulder rub - which is among the best of all moments in W's - even considering his shoe thrown at him moment which is the other.) I heard not a mention - I can't think of a filmed moment in all of history that I would like narrated by the acted upon! 
Her story is incredible.  In exactly the sort of 20th Century biography that seems utterly impossible at any other moment in human history (in fact Merkel makes that observation herself in the introduction {i hear a lot of introductions even if i miss a lot that comes after}, but perhaps those lives will become more an more commonplace as we move forward - rather than vestiges of the singular 20th Century).  Merkel was born into an East German regime in 1954.  The Berlin Wall went up when she was 7 and came down when she was 35.  Imagine living all of your formative years under one set of certainties only to have all that thrown in to chaos just at the age when you're supposed to be fully engaged in adulting. 
Of course, if nothing else, this book shows us that Merkel, and Germans in general, have been adulting for the greater part of their lives.  No room for jokey shoulder rubs.
(19 October - 2 November 2026)

A Bear's Scorigami (and more firsts)

What a Weekend!! (13 September 2026 - 3:35pm CT)

The Chicago Bears kicked off their season in Charlotte today looking sloppy, but dominant in a Scorigami 59-37 win.  Nottingham Forest got their first win of the season yesterday in a game where their new head coach felt like he out-coached Unai Emery (widely thought of as great Premier League manager).  The Brewers clinched a playoff spot on Friday with a 20-0 win over the Reds.

Most points ever in an opening week game in the NFL (and the Bears most points ever in their opener).  552 Total Yards (just 261 of those passing!).

Since the Bears game kicked off at noon today, I've had an odd (heightened) feeling in and amongst my head - almost a buzzing or a sort of background hum.  I know what you're thinking (or at least what Brooke would say), and I say in response... "It's NOT A TUMOR!"

I think it is an underlying panic of "all is okay..."* (when, of course, all is categorically not okay, but it kinda sorta feels like it maybe could be sometime soon).  And I don't mean just sports...
Nate Silver's FLIPR model gives democrats a 58.6% chance of taking the senate in November, and while AI CEOs and staffers are screaming to be heard by the same journalists eager to publish anything they say about their p(doom) takes.

 

What Happened?!? (23 September 2026 - 6:50pm CT)

soooo... The Bears scored 3 points, and Caleb Williams walked off hurt in the 4th Quarter (at least they're averaging 31 points per game.)  The Brewers are back within 1 game of losing out on Top Seed in The National League.  And Forest lost to bottom of the league Coventry at home!

I know what you're thinking (or at least what Brooke would say), and I say in response, "poppycock!"

At least Forest have come to a pause for 3 weeks, so that can't get any worse...

I guess it's a Wash?!!? (4 October 2026 - 5:59 pm CT) 

The Bears took their second in-a-row from the NFL's east coast green elite, beating the NY Jets comfortably today, and Eagles last week on Monday Night Football.  Neither victory looked seamless, but it's two wins in a row with a backup quarterback starting, so that's got to mean something, right?

Currently, the Brewers are a run down with one out left in the Top of the 9th against the Padres.  They held on to the best record in baseball fairly comfortably as it turns out, and won Game 1 yesterday.

Just got the 3rd out so let's see if we can get one back, eh!?

 guess it's a Wash?!!? (11 October 2026 - 7:15 pm ET) 

Well, now we’re in to it!

I had the wonderful chance to watch Nottingham Forest play their comeback Premier League match from the International Break versus Crystal Palace (whom they have NEVER before lost a Premier League match to), and later, a Chicago Bears matchup coming in to Lambeau Field where they were favored to win for the first time in 20 years (granted just by a couple of points since they’re still sporting a 2nd {or 3rd?} string quarter back). 

Oof, I watched at Smithfield Hall and The Waylon (a decidedly home bar and the decidedly away bar) for the two games. Both went very badly. 

Brewers first pitch is 40 minutes away. I expect all will be well by then. 

:(

'Salem's (a) Lot

When I was driving drugs for a few years, I was listening to more audiobooks than I had ever before in my life, and was able to revisit Jerusalem's Lot again in anticipation for the release of the new adaptation in the Fall of 2024.  

True to form, I read it again, but still haven't gotten around to watching the movie, despite it sitting on My List on HBOMax lo these many months...

'Salem's Lot (1975)

On this re-read, I was struck by how dense this book is.  It's certainly not the doorstop that King will release in the '80s (It, The Stand, etc.), but the story just reads slow to me - that's what I had always thought of it since I first read it around the age of 12 and found the mass market paperback on my brother's bookshelf (he in turn had found it on a shelf at Jerome & Shirley's lake cabin - an unlikely find from that source).

On this reading, I think it's that just not that much happens in the story for the number of pages it takes up.  The plot occurs (except for the bookends) over the course of just a single month (September 5 - October 6, 1975), and King spends so much time exploring all the little peccadillos of the townsfolk - it is a rich picture of a small town to be sure, but (I suppose just like in an actual small town) just not that much actually happens.

Sure, kids die, go knocking on windows of other kids, and people drink and eat dinner and maybe play badminton, but the actual conflict - the battle of The White versus the forces of The Black (or the red? The Crimson?) - takes up very few pages compared with all the rest.  I was shocked to re-read the final battle and how quickly it's just done and dusted with Barlow.

Father Callahan is the character I am most familiar with from this novel (thanks to his after story that we learn of in Wolves of the Calla), and I think the most surprising thing to me on this re-read was the fact that the unkind thought he has at one of the Glick boys' funerals is nowhere to be found, even though he reads it in the version of the book that he finds and reads from Calvin Tower's collection.
(8.8.26 - 8.31.26)

'Salem's Lot (2024)

The most striking thing about this adaptation is the pacing.  113 minutes, and the movie dives immediately into the action.  Susan and Ben get their meet cute at Crockett's real estate office, where Ben also learns about the purchase of the Marsten House.  Susan's father is conveniently killed off, so no 'Meet the Parents' shenanigans necessary.  Matt Burke is transformed into an elementary school teacher (of Mark Petrie and The Glicks), so they're all wrapped up in all of it earlier on.

It's a faithful, fun, and elevated modern update for a not-perfect, but still great novel and a classic core horror original adaptation that I have always found lacking.  Tobe Hooper's original feels as slow-paced as the novel.  One choice that was held over from Hooper's is the fundamental monstrosity of the vampires.  In the novel, the transformation is minimal and downplayed, the undead are life-like and the only change noted is their teeth for the most part.  Both in Hooper's version and this newer update, the vampires are transformed, glowing eyes and distorted faces, animalized mouths full of sharp teeth.

Perhaps the most significant change (for me) is the death of Father Callahan.  He doesn't get the grand showdown (which he loses in the novel) with Barlow, and instead is a mere casualty of the attack on Mark Petrie's house.  He isn't afforded the pathetic end of his story, asking the bus driver to buy him a fifth of whiskey and starting on his long road to drunken hobo.
(9.4.26)

Carrie (on your way back home)

 This year I am embarking on my own Great Stephen King ReReaD - following in the footsteps of some great appreciators of Stephen King, including Grady Hendrix (whose novels and appearances on The KingCast I have come to appreciate very much), Richard Chizmar (whose essay links all seem to go to the Cemetery Dance Main Page today), and my own Brother Andy (who read Carrie* again way back in 2024 to mark the 50th Anniversary of its publication).

Grady started his re-read in 2012, and Richard his in 2014 (perhaps a nod to the then 40th Anniversary that was upon him), and since I have always enjoyed a bit of calendric calisthenics, perhaps I have started in on this venture as both a nod to the 50th Anniversary of the release of DePalma's Carrie.  Perhaps this ReReaD will be as much a celebration of King Adaptations as it is of the novels themselves, and so maybe I also started Carrie now because Mike Flanagan's new miniseries is due just two months from today.

Carrie (1974) 

The first thing I noticed, that had never before occurred to me before (likely because I first encountered Carrie White in any of its various versions in the late 80s or early 90s when all this was in the far past), was that even though the novel was written in '73 and published in '74, the events of the book occur in 1979.

This seems at first just a throwaway factoid, but it's certainly an odd choice, even for a science fiction adjacent book.  Most stories unless specifically set at a specific moment in history (or future history!) happen in a vague "now" and that illusion only fades when we encounter a calendar or an event poster that sets it in time (or with the passage of time and it feeling 'dated).

Stephen King has just opened the Stephen King Universe (SKU) with this novel, however, and as we will come to learn, There Are Other Worlds Than These.

And so I submit to you, Dear Reader, that the placement of this novel 5 years in the future is very intentional, even if King himself may not know quite why yet.  Another SKU touchpoint in the novel is when Carrie destroys Teddy's Amoco on her way from the high school to home - a gas station owned and operated first by Teddy Duchamp and later by Teddy's son after Teddy's death in 1968.  

Teddy Duchamp is also, of course, a resident of Castle Rock, Maine in "The Body", and could almost be the same person who operates a gas station in Chamberlain some years later, but probably not.  I would submit that these two Teddys are Twinners - the same person (or almost so) but in another world.  Just like in some King works The Overlook Hotel is a real place that was destroyed (e.g. Billy Summers) and other times its the place in that horror movie about the haunted hotel, I would suggest that one of these worlds (the world of Carrie or that of "The Body" is a bit more real than the other one.
(7.22.26 - 8.3.26)

Carrie (2002)

This was my first ever encounter with this version of Carrie, a made-for-TV movie that aired on NBC in 2002.  While the budget constraints and moment-in-time definitely shows through in the special effects after Carrie absents herself from The Prom, the version on the whole is a fair adaptation - not exactly a whole lot new - but it hits most of the right notes, mostly.  The shower scene is less cruel (tampons pop out of Carrie's locker, rather than being pelted at her in the locker room), adjusted for the less direct form of bullying found in late 90s / very early 00s high schools. 

It's interesting to me that technology plays such a small part of this movie, given the moment and the ubiquity of ICQ, aolChat, etc.  The frame narrative of the police interview works well as a call back to the documentary nature of the novel, which switches between narration and citation from various books and interviews on the subject of "The Carrie White Incident".

Perhaps most interesting in this version is the change in the ending, that Carrie lives, and the hilarious randomness of Sue Snell driving her to Florida - where presumably a telekinetic teenager can just kinda blend in...
(8.12.26)

Three in a Row!!!

 The World Cup Final has just kicked off, and while I am mostly a neutral and mostly just hoping for a good game, I guess if I have to choose - I will prefer [2:55] Messi to win a 2nd with Argentina rather than Spain getting their 2nd.

Almost at every stage of this tournament (as per usual), I have been disappointed in the actual results.  Unlike "real" fans (or perhaps better tradFans) of the Beautiful Game, I tend to cheer for underdogs - and for that reason, I am unabashedly a USA Men's National Team fan.  But even outside of their sad and unworthy crashing out of the tourney [8:57] most rounds I have rooted for those routed.  I would much have loved a France - England final today (and while their wild 3rd place game yesterday was fun, it was, after all, a 3rd place match).  Despite mostly supporting England in most of their great run, the one time I decided to embrace the underdog storyline was their matchup versus Norway, and cheered for Braut Haaland and the Norse as they came up just a little bit short.

All that being said, this has (once again), been an AMAZING tournament and a delightfully good time.  At every stage, from the early days of tournament debutants getting their first ever WC goal (Curaçao equalizing against Germany [25:38 - Hydration Break!!] before giving up an additional 6), point (Haiti's amazing draw against Scotland, albeit in their 2nd WC), and advancing to the knockout round (Cape Verde and their exciting run), plus the joy that fans from all over the world were finding in the various host cities (Scotland fans drinking Boston dry, and fans from everywhere embracing the American greatness that is Ranch Dressing) as well as the phenomenon of non-Spanish speaking American fans watching the Telemundo broadcast rather than the English-language broadcast on Fox because there is so much more joy and less desperate "love our sport, please" energy in the Andrés Cantor broadcasts (and yes, this is still the same sentence [39:29]).

And yes, that is not to say that the tournament has been without some significant blemishes.  In fact, this is the 3rd World Cup in a row where it is difficult to say whether corruption in soccer's governing body (FIFA) or that of the host nation (Russia, Quatar, and now US*) is more extreme.  The treatment of Iran's national team this tournament is truly shameful.  Balogun-gate and The Orange One getting involved at all beyond, ok, attending the final, fine, but pretending like he cares at all is only slightly less embarrassing than the fact that FIFA invented a peace prize just for him.

[73:01]

But come on, a Half Time Show!!?? [currently on now] - that's so American, and this tournament has been awesomely and narratively and unabashedly American and cool not just in spite of it, but kinda sorta because of it.
The Biggest World Cup Ever! with the Most Matches and Most Host Countries and Extra Commercial Breaks (ok, that sucked, but, naja, capitalism, what are you gonna do, am i right?).
Plus Muppets and Madonna and little kids singing, come on... Pair that with more goals than ever, and some amazing underdog stories, plus the concurrence with the American Semi-quincentennial it all really adds up to an amazing, complicated, fraught but fun World Cup for the Ages... [57:00].

I am not holding my breath for a final to live up to 2022's absolute classic, but that one really didn't get off the ground either until about 20 minutes remaining, so we'll see, eh? [74:52]

Note: Thanks again, and as always (hopefully, from now on) to Brendan Hunt and Rebecca Lowe for their wonderful Watch-aLong podcast again this tournament: After The Whistle!

*Yes yes yes, I know the tournament was officially hosted by the USA, Mexico, and Canada, but as the host of the final match and majority of the matches, I think we can still take the brunt of the corruption criticism.

Bird Alert

 OK, America… it has become clear to me that you still need me. 

I am sorry for my long absence, but I have been toying with a transition to Substack (don’t worry, a Roman Numeral J premium subscription will never cost more than $.19 a month for longtime readers, just use the promo code {REDACTED*} to lock in a lifetime price). 

TODAY: 

A bird, a large bird, perhaps a falcon or some other monster invaded our back yard today and wrought this: 

At first we thought it was a bunny (of which we host many) but on closer examination it was “just” a gray bird - still awful but, well, ok  

We have been working, fairly intentionally at making a safe space, a “site” of sorts in our back yard. [Brooke has pointed out that since I have been collecting concrete sculptures, some of the visiting animals may fear that I am some sort of dark wizard who may turn them to stone as well…]

But we are really looking at some optimal space for all (no bugs tho, you guys suck) back here and this travesty - tearing apart some fine feathered friend… it’s just terrible, sorry my man  

Our yard will win out!

L’il fellas and birds and whomever - this is a place for you!

We have a newly established bird feeder -  a big ole concrete bird bath on the way (plus a rusty ole bird bath in our yard now). 

#post4birds

*just text me, but don’t pass along too far - this may be my retirement plan 🖖