Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Another really lovely photograph, which says so much about the sixties.

This is Johnny Delvin & The Detours

Class act.

Click to see full-size image.

[TightEnd]

a world cup journalist took a souvenir from the phone book in his Rio hotel room

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

a world cup journalist took a souvenir from the phone book in his Rio hotel room

Click to see full-size image.

Crikey, Ronnie left Brazil in 2001.

[tikay]

Vegas reading material.

I enjoy an hour before bed with a good book in Vegas, to provide balance to poker, sticky buns & the general Vegas hedonism. Not sure I could manage a month without books either, so it's mandatory to feed my addiction.

This year, I took 5 books, & finished 4 of them.

Flash Boys

Started really well  but tailed off dreadfully. Subject matter was essentially High Speed Electronic (Stock Market) Trading. Faster data communications means that brokers could front-run the market. To get faster data transmission, brokers did 2 things. First, data cable transmits faster if it is in a straight line, so they dug a trench to run a x hundred mile long cable from Manhatten to wherever, but tried to keep it's purpose secret duing comstruction. Then they learned that the nearer the server is to the point of original data, the faster the info is transmitted. Milli-seconds, with computerised automatic rapid trading, make all the difference.  So suddenly, previously abandoned & low-cost buildings near the Stock Exchanges suddenly became worth a fortune, as the Brokers all vied to occupy them.

Then the NYSE & NASDAQ opened up Data Centres well away from Manhattan, & then allowed the Brokers to rent space in that buiding, right next to the servers, to get even faster access.

Really interesting stuff, but the book ran out of steam late on.

4/10.



      

[tikay]

Alex Ferguson, Autobiography

I'm a great admirer of this man, who is one of, if not the, greatest ever Football Managers, ahead even of Herbert Chapman & Arsene Wenger. All three very much changed the way football players were managed.

I most wanted to read little anecdotes about his players, & especially his transfer dealings. On those scores, it succeeded.

That apart, nothing memorable in the book.

He discusses Rock of Gibralter, his (?) fabulously successful racehorse, but we did not learn the real truth behind the spectacular ownership dispute between him & Mr Magnier. Magnier was a major shareholder in Man U at the time, so it must all have been frightfully awkward.  

Not sure if it was ghosted. It reads like he dictated it, & it was then tidied up by a proper writer, which of course is fine.

I did like the complete lack of fluffy prose in it. None of that "it was a grey morning, the low-slung clouds pregnant with impending rain" shite.  

The cover photo makes him look really smug. With his results, & money, he can afford to be.

3/10

Click to see full-size image.

 

[tikay]

Wolf on Wall Street

Doubt any book better summed up the corruption & excess the chosen few enjoyed in Wall Steeet at the time.

It's an autobiography of this man, though much embellished I suspect.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Belfort

Click to see full-size image.

Plus his then wife, aka "The Duchess"......

Click to see full-size image.

He built the biggest, most successful, & most corrupt "Boiler Room" ever, & was soon worth hundreds of millions of dollars, just as well, as he spent it an an alarming rate.

Then his drug habit, surely the most excessive drug habit ever, kicked in, & it all came tumbling down, & JB soon ended up skint, & in prison.

In his heyday, he had property all over the place, a yacht (it sunk), a helicopter, private jet, a fleet of supercars, & a domestic staff totalling over 30. He used hookers extensively even though he had the most beautiful wife & children, who he doted on.

Eventually he ends up in rehab, & gets off drugs, then he gets arrested & sent to prison.

These days he is an After Dinner Speaker, charging $30,000 a pop. He owes the US Government $110 million in restitution fees, but they'll not see too much of that, as he's a bit wide.

Really enjoyed the first 70% of the book, but he rushed the last third, as if he had missed his print deadline, & it ended up a bit of a mess. The closing lines of the book hint heavily at a sequel.

It was made into a film, & I think he was paid $1 million for the rights to the story. The film was quite dreadful, I watched it on the flight to Vegas.  

Great story though. Embellished "Papillon" style, yes, but a thrilling read & a real page-turner for the most part.  

7/10.

[RED-DOG]

I did like the complete lack of fluffy prose in it. None of that "it was a grey morning, the low-slung clouds pregnant with impending rain" shite.  

Strange, I love all that descriptive stuff if it's well done.  I'm sure your guilty of it in some of your better pieces. 

[RED-DOG]

"Like a teenage butterfly, drawn to the flame that was San Francisco...."

Ralph Shalston.

[tikay]

One Summer, America, 1927

Within that drab title lies a real peach of a book, perhaps Bryson's 2nd best ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Summer:_America_1927

It centres around a few characters, over a 5 month period that year. The main characters were....


Charles Lindbergh

Babe Ruth & the New York Yankees

Herbert Hoover

Calvin Coolidge, President of the USA

Charles Ponzi, he of the "ponzi scheme".

Henry Ford

The Van Sweringen brothers.

Some interesting characters there, but Bryson has the knack of weedling out interesting facts about them, & somehow, that motley collection supports one of the most enjoyable books you could ever read.  

Babe Ruth in particular was a thrilling read, what a story his life was. He first played for the Baltimore Oriels, who were not a MLB team then. He was soon with the Boston Red Sox, & then New York Yankees, & the Yankees built a stadium on the money he earned them via huge crowds. When he debuted in MLB, he had never before even seen a MLB game, nor had he ever previously left Baltimore, where he had been raised in an Institution.

Charles Lindbergh. Who? He was the most admired & seen man on earth at the time. He was feted the world over, & huge crowds greeted him wherever he visited. But later he fell into disrepute after it became known he was a Nazi sympathiser & racist.

His son was kidnapped & murdered, & he eventually left America to find a peaceful life. He lived in Kent for some years, & described it as the happiest time of his life, before later moving to France, & then back to the USA.

He was a very strict & puritan husband & father, or so it was thought.  After his death it became known that he had a string of mistresses in several European countries, & had fathered at least 6 children by different young ladies.  

Great, great, book, I'm sure few could read it & not feel enriched.

Bryson does it again.

9.5/10




 

[tikay]

I did like the complete lack of fluffy prose in it. None of that "it was a grey morning, the low-slung clouds pregnant with impending rain" shite.  

Strange, I love all that descriptive stuff if it's well done.  I'm sure your guilty of it in some of your better pieces. 

It's all "fill" Tom, just bollox.

Give me the facts, let me paint the pretty pictures in my mind.

[tikay]

"Like a teenage butterfly, drawn to the flame that was San Francisco...."

Ralph Shalston.

Ahh, love that stuff.

[RED-DOG]

That said, I'm loving the book reviews. Please keep them coming. (No spoilers though please, I don't think venue read the foreword until I've finished the book incase it gives something away).

I currently reading 'Serious' by John Mcenroe. It's a great insight into a very complex mind.

[RED-DOG]

I did like the complete lack of fluffy prose in it. None of that "it was a grey morning, the low-slung clouds pregnant with impending rain" shite.  

Strange, I love all that descriptive stuff if it's well done.  I'm sure your guilty of it in some of your better pieces. 

It's all "fill" Tom, just bollox.

Give me the facts, let me paint the pretty pictures in my mind.

Tosser. Fact.

[tikay]

Straight Flush

Not finished this yet, so will not comment much until I do.

It's the cradle to grave story of AbsolutePoker.com.

These people liked it though. Ish.


http://www.onlinepokerreport.com/6762/mezrich-speaks-about-straight-flush-criticisms/

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

That said, I'm loving the book reviews. Please keep them coming. (No spoilers though please, I don't think venue read the foreword until I've finished the book incase it gives something away).

I currently reading 'Serious' by John Mcenroe. It's a great insight into a very complex mind.

I loved that book, & admired John very much more as a result. Off-court, he was a big softie & a very proud Dad.

I might just re-visit it.