Book Review: Carry Me Down

My sister recommended MJ Hyland’s Carry Me Down after I finished Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves last year. She described it like this:

House of Leaves is truly unique, but at times it seems like the author is exploring new writing styles just because he can – more for the gimmick than for the act of telling the story. Carry Me Down is just as unique in its main character and the means of the story, but it never feels forced or fake.

I didn’t read the book right away because it wasn’t available on Kindle. Thankfully, there’s a really handy website called Mysteria which will regularly ping Amazon to see if they have the book you want converted as ebook. Conveniently, Mysteria e-mailed me about Carry Me Down on Thursday just before my flight. I promptly downloaded the book and read it on my westward journey.

Nothing makes a flight more enjoyable than a good book to read. And mostly, I agree with Alicia’s opinion above. Carry Me Down never felt forced and it had a subject matter that was very clever and mostly untouched in the literary world. That said, I don’t think you would ever want to put Carry Me Down and House of Leaves in the same sentence let alone the same bookshelf. House of Leaves is a suspenseful book whose subject matter steps far into the paranormal – Carry Me Down is just a story about a boy. There are no endless hallways or monsters lurking out of view, it’s just decent story telling.

It’s a pretty short book too which is nice. I read it in about 6 hours of flying.

Next up, I’ll be reading Going to Extremes with book enthusiast Tony E. If you’d like to join our impromptu book club, pick the book up and plan on finishing the first 2 chapters by next weekend.

Until then, keep reading!

Derby!

On Saturday night the Connecticut Roller Girls amassed once again at the CT Sport’s Center, this time to do battle against visiting team The Utica Clubbers. Unlike many of the recent bouts where the Stepford Sabotage has been in the spotlight, this bout highlighted CT’s second team: The Yankee Brutals.

The crowds came in huge numbers to watch the girls skate. In all the bouts I’ve watched, few have been as tightly packed as this one. With 15 minutes left before game time, the bleachers were full. But the crowd kept pouring in. The anxious fans didn’t have to wait long. As 7:00pm rolled around, M.C. Hitman Hank strolled out and started the night. First to be introduced were the Utica Clubbers.

The Utica Clubbers are a newer team having formed in late 2007 in Central NY. Nine girls came out to play supported by their coaching staff led by player Little Bastard (#5).

The ladies of CNYRD:

A Lee Thal Vixen #91
BamBam ThunderJam #54
Farmer’s Slaughter #36D
Grrrl Next Door #69
Gutshot #56-89
LadyDieMentia #3
Mean Squeak #27
Murder Antoinette #999
Slay West #13
Vy O Later #921

Dressed in pink, the Yankee Brutals came out for their introductions next with a few new faces in their ranks. Let’s say hello to the hometown heroines:

Babe Vigoda (co-captain) #56
Paula G. Imnaughty (co-captain) #NC-17
Anita Chainsaw #992
Cali Ripskin #DVB
Crash Corpse #6ft
Dee Nasty #921
Guns N’ Bruises #2012
I. Harley Knew’em #81
Jean Mutation #X2
Murphy’s Outlaw #15
Pam Terror #9
Rinko Starr #64

This was the debut bout for Cali Ripskin, Crash Corpse, Dee Nasty, and I. Harley Knew’em. This was also Jean Mutation’s first bout back after an extended leave. Welcome back Jean!

After the obligatory ‘derby how to’ for all the first time visitors, the action got underway. Utica’s Gutshot rolled up to the jamming line to oppose Murphy’s Outlaw. On the first whistle, pivots I. Harley Knew’em and Farmer’s Slaughter started the pack off. On the second whistle, Gutshot took got a quick few steps ahead of Murphy’s Outlaw. Not one to be left behind, Murphy’s Outlaw stayed close as Gutshot expertly weaved through the pack. As the jammers came around for their first scoring pass, it was all Gutshot could do to sneak one quick point and end the jam before Murphy’s Outlaw had a chance to follow suit.

The jams proceeded in this fashion for much of the first half. It seemed like a perpetual give and take. The Utica Clubbers would get a point, and the Yankee Brutals would be right behind them to get the next point. As testimony to this, the girls traded off lead jamming status with almost eerie balance.

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(note: data presented here came from my unofficial notes)

Especially noteworthy in the first half was Gutshot’s taking advantage (with 12 points) of a late end of jam call by Murphy in the 4th jam and Farmer’s Slaughter’s exceptional skating in the 6th as she screamed past the pack along the outside edge of the track pulling in four points. Connecticut had its own moments of glory, my favorite being Paula G’s remarkable resistance to a strong hit by Slay West in the 16th jam. Slay came barreling around the first corner and dropped her shoulder right into Paula’s side… but Paula had braced for it and instead of Paula going down, Slay careened off balanced and fell to the ground. Paula took advantage of her downed opposing jammer and scored four points for the girls in pink.

The first half ended with 53 points for the Yankee Brutals and 51 points for the Ultica Clubbers.

The second half was an entirely different game. The Yankee Brutals put Pam Terror on the line and while Utica was focused on getting Gutshot past Paula G, Pam came out of nowhere, took lead jamming status, and snagged 4 more points for her team. Perhaps it was these early points from Pam that turned on Utica’s aggression… but from that jam onward the ladies of central New York found themselves heading to the penalty box with an unfortunate regularity. Jammer Mean Squeak got sent out on a penalty jamming against Rinko Starr… and then right after she got back in, she cut the track and was sent out again! Not a team to pass up an opportunity, the Yankee Brutals hit hard and hit strong. They snagged lead jamming status for the first 5 jams of the second half and widened the score gap from a nail-biting two (53 to 51) to a dominating forty (91 – 51).

The blocking support for the jammers was essential for Connecitcut’s break-away. I Harley Knew’em, Babe Vigoda, and Cali Ripskin each had key moments where their shoulders cleared the way for their approaching jammer.

As the clock ticked down those final seconds the Utica Clubbers got back a little life, though it wasn’t enough to recover from Connecticut’s onslaught.

End score: 115 to 81

Statistics!

Most Valuable Players!
Yankee Brutals: Murphy’s Outlaw
Utica Clubbers: Farmer’s Slaughter

Penalty Queens
Connecticut:
Pam Terror: three trips
Guns N’ Bruises: three trips

Central NY:
Mean Squeak: five trips

I had the pleasure of attending the after-party at the Westside Bar and Grille on Whalley Ave in New Haven. It’s great to see the social side of the roller girls and the camaraderie between them. I Harley Knew’em got up on the mic and thanked Utica for visiting and applauded everyone’s support. It’s truly a wonderful group of people AND, you can join them if you’re so inclined. The CT Roller girls are having try-outs this Thursday November 12th. If you’re interested in getting additional information you can e-mail info@ctrollerderby.com

Or, just head over to CTRollerDerby.com

Great job to all the players and supporting staff. Saturday was a huge success.

The Kitchen. Part V.

With the bead board up, it was time to throw in some appliances. I got a great deal on a refrigerator from the Sears outlet store. Regularly $2,500, I got mine for about 1/2 price. Awesome! It has some scratches, but they are conveniently hidden on the wall side of the appliance.

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Whoa! Huge Fridge!

The Oven was reasonably simple, though I had to build a little stand of wood for it to sit on.

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The brand new oven cooking the very first pizza.

The Range… was a complete disaster. I bought a snazzy gas range, but the one it was replacing was some weird funky non-standard size. When I got home and tried to fit the new range… it didn’t fit at all. This was extremely frustrating. In order to get it to fit I had to buy a tile cutting blade and tear apart my counter. The end result was totally snazzy and completely worth it. Check it out:

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Awesome! (note the under cabinet lighting and the flashy new hood)

It was now time to pick a color for the front of the soffit. Because I love red more than anything, it was the obvious choice. I got a lot of flak from friends who didn’t think the red would go with the wooden cabinets, but I think everyone agrees that it came out pretty sweet.

Once it was painted red, Shamus helped me with the crown molding. And hooooly crap crown molding is annoying. Thankfully, I purchased a chop saw to make the job easier. Without it, the job would be 1000x more miserable.

The end result:

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Snazzy!

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The end of the pennisula, with the exciting new pendant lights.

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The three pendant lights brightening up the kitchen.

Overall, the project was a huge success. It was extremely painful to endure, but the result is beautiful. I’m so happy with it. The lighting is awesome. Four bright lights underneath the soffit, three more centered in the room, three pendant lights, and brand new under cabinet lighting which adds a lot of character and convenience when chopping and cutting delicious things. Someday I might re-do the cabinets as well, but for now I’m pretty happy.

A kitchen is a hugely important part of a house. I’m proud to have this new kitchen at the House of Rock.