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)

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 🖖

"hork!-heimer"

I just learned that Jürgen Habermas has died - even though it was over a month ago, and I guess I was pretty sure that he had been dead lo these many years - it has come as quite a shock to me.   

Not the sort of shock that has all that much real work effect on me, more the sort that makes you briefly pause, and go, “...huh!” before returning to your previous thoughtfulless meanderings.

But as i was reading through his obituary, I was being reminded of his ideas about the vitality of public discourse and his centrality (whether acknowledged or not) in the need for ‘third space’.  In the description of his thought (to be clear, I have not read Habermas in a long time - and not really even that deeply, but…) I was struck how Habermas had failed to take into consideration the concept of performance (a la Erving Goffman) in relation to his desire for enlightened conversation.

Given my own nascent political ruminations (stay tuned…), and its particular connection to Conversation, I thought I should outline some basic thoughts in these directions - but thankfully, someone has already taken care of that part for me.  Thank you Italo!