Jacksonville, Florida: Potpourri

 It's sometimes hard for me to reconcile that we've been in Jacksonville almost twenty years. What started as a five-year plan for my wife and I turned into a lovely family and two decades of professional and personal immersion in a unique place that certainly feels like home.

In all of that time, I can recall snow flurries (and I'm using that term generously here) in Jacksonville twice. Once, maybe seven or eight years ago, I saw some tiny snow crystals floating lazily on the polar air while jogging in the woods at the University of North Florida. The other instance was more than a decade ago, while playing golf at Windsor Parke. It's the only time I can ever recall quitting golf early due to the cold.

In 1989, Jacksonville had measurable snowfall that stuck on the ground for quite some time. It was such a big deal here in town that MOSH (Jacksonville's Museum of Science and History) still has a small exhibit of that day in their hall covering the city's history.

Florida Times-Union, 1989

Well, as I write this here today in Jacksonville, a storm is barreling toward our city once again. New Orleans is under blizzard warnings (wow...wrap your head around that one!), and we have a winter storm alert here in Jacksonville. That's right--our little hamlet that frequently hits around 105 in August with the heat index might have snow on the ground in the morning.

Sheesh...I'll believe it when I see it, since our low at 7:00 a.m. is only projected to hit 31 degrees before starting to climb again throughout the morning, but I will embrace the unusual weather if it visits. I still love the cold temperatures when we get them, and it would be really fun for the kids to experience some of the weather-related hardships that much of the rest of the country deals with in the winter...

As I write this, I'm also listening to "Jaguars Today," with Mike Dempsey and Tony Smith, on 92.5 FM. It's a great show, with keen reporting on our Jags and lots of fine scrutiny on the roster, organization, and the NFL. The hosts are discussing the Jags' coaching search, and I'll just be honest--the field of candidates in this coaching carousel is simply underwhelming. I don't mind missing out on Ben Johnson because I think he'd have been another Nathaniel Hackett.

We need someone that is authentic, charismatic, tough, fair, and intelligent. We need a communicator that can lead the team from the front and has the toughness (Doug Pederson simply didn't have this quality at the end, it seems to me...) to command respect and discipline from his players. When Aziz Al-Shaair delivered a cheap shot that ended Trevor's season, Dougie P. ran for the hills instead of circling the wagons around his team and his franchise quarterback. 

Mike Tomlin and Mike Vrabel aren't doing that (to name just a few) in a similar situation, and we need a leader that can install a vision and create a culture of toughness and resilience. This team simply rolled over and showed its belly when things got tough in the last year and a half, and we'll need a full roster and front-office overhaul (see ya, Trent) to ever get things moving in the right direction here in town...

So I'm hoping we get two things tonight here in Jacksonville: snow and a package deal of Robert Saleh as head coach and Todd Monken as OC. Let's go, Jags!

No Redemption on the Western Frontier...

 

Peter Berg's American Primeval has been a dark, grim viewing experience. With dozens killed in the first eighty minutes of Netflix's limited series, this violent snapshot of life in the contested American West spares no feelings and pulls no punches. The narrative exposition reveals that the American military, the Mormon militia, the various indigenous populations, and the pioneer groups pushing west are literally at each other's throats (and scalps) in a race to claim their own small piece of North American real estate.

It's a dirty, gritty production, alternating between a sprawling, windswept landscape and a rugged, mountainous setting. Director of Photography Jacques Jouffret does a masterful job of capturing these environments. The shots feel washed out and hyper-realistic, not unlike the unfiltered realism inherenent in Alejandro Inarittu's masterpiece The Revenant (2015). Indeed, these works share a kinship in their violence, mise-en-scene, pacing, and quest for redemption.

Sara Rowell (Betty Gilpin) is a mother hell-bent on a mission to relocate her son from Philadelphia to a western outpost called Crooks Springs. An urbanite with a lot to learn, Rowell is carrying her own set of heavy personal baggage. She is an outlaw and a fugitive, and her pursuit spices the drama with some important narrative urgency. Somewhere between the third and fourth episodes (which become downright surreal when they stumble upon a camp of French maniacs), she undergoes a character transformation and stops making foolish, headstrong decisions in an effort to merely keep herself and her son still breathing. Honestly, it's a miracle they survived the Mountain Meadows Massacre to begin with, given their green attitudes about life on the frontier.

The series has sparked some controversy in its depiction of the much-analyzed Mountain Meadows Massacre. I was born in Utah, and my dad and sister were born in Salt Lake City. Utah's a wonderful place and I have a deep and abiding respect for those practicing the Mormon religion, although our family has always been solidly Presbyterian. The tensions depicted here--between Mormons and those practicing other versions of Christianity--remains very real in Utah. Heck, one need only look at the name of the frequent football clash between the University of Utah and Brigham Young University (the call it The Holy War) to get a sense of how these long-held prejudices still endure in the region.

Many years ago, I read Jon Krakauer's superb Under the Banner of Heaven. The book features a long, heavily detailed passage on the circumstances and residual influences of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Years ago, on a fly-fishing trip to Bend, Oregon, I had a spirited fireside discussion with a devout Mormon about both that book and the massacre, and while we enjoyed some excellent theological and historical discourse, the big takeaway for me was that those in the Mormon church still deny the presence and participation of the Mormon militia in that sordid affair. If you'd like to learn more about one of the primary historical threads fueling American Primeval, I suggest you read Krakauer's book. You won't regret the decision...

Isaac Reed (an excellent, understated turn by Taylor Kitsch) is a reluctant guide, thrust into the role of steward for Rowell and her son, Devin (Preston Mota). Joined by the mute character Two Moons (Shawnee Pourier), an exiled Native American seeking her own shot at safety and independence, they make for a strange party. The casting in this series is uniformly excellent, with a fine ensemble cast that capably depicts the savagery of the era with stoic acceptance.

And savage it is. The series is replete with murder, rape, mayhem, and a shocking early hanging. It's this casual indifference toward violence that is so shocking, as countless characters seemingly navigate life well into their middle age (well, except for all of the children and women murdered in that early massacre, of course) only to find an arrow or a bullet in their brains at the drop of a hat.

It's easy to suspend disbelief and chalk it up to the era and the circumstances of westward expansion, but one need only to look to places like Russia, Ukraine, Palestine, and Israel to understand that we're still fighting these same battles--with the same disdain for the sanctity of human life--in 2025.

American Primeval isn't perfect. It's a dramatization, after all, and very few Hollywood productions can truthfully stake a claim to absolute historical accuracy. But it's a fine, compelling series that compels the viewer into deeper contemplation when the screen goes blank.

And in this--the era of repetitive superhero schlock--that's a win for Berg and his capable cast and crew...

January Reads and Recommendations: The Thicket

While it's impossible to say that I've read everything Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale has written (the man is insanely prolific!), I will note that I've read the majority of his catalogue. Lansdale is one of the greatest living writers, and his oeuvre ramble over every genre--from southern-fried bizarro to horror to action to noir, and on into literary fiction and beyond. Lansdale excels in the field of gripping westerns, and this novel is a perfect introduction into his superior work in that narrative province.

The Thicket is an action-packed revenge drama. Written in the first-person from the amiable--if green--perspective from our narrator Jack Parker, the book opens up with a few scenes of subtle familial loss. Things take a turn when Jack and his sister Lula encounter a pack of outlaws on a ferry as they try to cross the swollen Sabine River. From there, things get a little dicey as Jack is tasked with hunting down his sister and exacting a measure of revenge for his fallen grandfather. 

This is Champion Joe at his best. The novels pacing and attention to scenery is immaculate. I've read this one twice, and both experiences had me turning pages well past it was time to rest my head for the night. Lansdale's dialogue is some of the best in the business, and he builds similes and metaphors into the writing with such ease that we learn so much about about the philosophies and fears of these characters that it feels like we're riding through East Texas on a couple of stollen horses right alongside them.

Shorty is an erudite small person (a midget, as the text never lets us forget) with a lot of hard bark on him. He's been kicked around by the world (both figuratively and literally), but he has a real sense of honor, a hatred for animal abusers, and a quick draw and sure shot with a Sharps long gun.

Eustace is another character with a heart filled with honor and goodness. Set in the years after the Civil War, Eustace is a Black man still coming to grips with the legacy of Southern slavery and his place in the world. He's alternately wise and hilarious, and there's nobody I'd rather have at the vanguard when it comes time to charge a remote cabin packed to the rafters with outlaws.

Cut-throat Bill, our primary antagonist, is a love-starved cretin--a man so detestable in his philosophy and behavior that you'll be rooting for his demise in the last hundred pages right along side this oddly matched posse.

And then there's Hog. Yep, they travel with a semi-domesticated wild pig who also figures heavily in the action. 

Jack Parker has some sand in him, as Lansdale makes readily clear, and his transformation from timid farm boy to driven mercenary is both refreshing and expertly parceled out by the author. Jack is a character we can all get behind.

The traveling party is filled out by a prostitute named Jimmie Sue, a disfigured lawman named Winton, and a jailhouse janitor named Spot. It's an odd collection of characters, to be sure, but that's a huge part of what makes Lansdale's yarns so captivating. In so many of his stories, he brings the downtrodden, the overlooked, and the under-estimated people of the world together to do impossible things. This empathy for humanity and understanding of the emotional complexities of his characters is a large part of what makes his stories so compelling.

Elliott Lester directed a fine film adaption of The Thicket. I watched it this weekend, and Peter Dinklage and Juliette Lewis give excellent turns in what is a gem of a western. 

I'm moving into some pulp territory with my next collection of stories (The Rack) for the new year, but if you haven't read Joe Lansdale and you're looking for a story that is carefully crafted and emotionally poignant, this is a story that should be at the top of your TBR pile for January...

 

January Reads and Recommendations: Never Whistle at Night

 

My sweet daughter gave me a copy of this wonderful anthology this year for Christmas, and it's truly a fantastic collection of compelling storytelling. Editors Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr. have compiled an amazing batch of dark tales that share a kinship in their rich characterization, vivid settings, and haunting incorporation of folklore and myth.

I grew up hearing stories that tread some of these same paths as an adolescent in Eastern Oregon, where the indigenous people of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have a long history and enduring tradition. Reconnecting with elements of some of these tales has been both frightening (there are many grim, grim stories in this book) and invigorating, and the writing has been both engaging and engrossing. These stories leave a bruise, and I mean that in the best possible sense.

If you're drawn to literature that combines folklore, history, and compelling narrative, this is a book that should find a home on your shelf. I'll be looking further into the work of some of these authors in the coming months as I add to my TBR pile for 2025...

The Boys of Fall

 

As I write this here in sunny (and frequently stormy) Jacksonville, Florida, our beloved Jaguars are conducting their first day of practice in full pads. That's right--our players are out there thumping again. The summer seems to have flown by, and another NFL season is right around the corner. It's hard to imagine that the Jags have a game next weekend, but here we are.

I'm bullish on this squad.

After last year's late-season collapse, I give general manger Trent Baalke and head coach Doug Pederson a lot of credit in overhauling this roster. Arik Armstead looks to be a strong veteran presence on an emerging defensive line. If Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker continue to make strides and DaVon Hamilton is fully recovered from his back injury then I think the Jags will have a formidable defensive front this fall.

The wide receiving corps, with the additions of Gabe Davis and Brian Thomas, Jr., in particular, should provide some downfield options for Trevor Lawrence that will help free things up underneath for Evan Engram and Christian Kirk. 

Travis Etienne is poised to take even another step this year as our lead running back, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Tank Bigsby will be much improved as his back-up.

Tyson Campbell, fresh on the heels of a new contract, and Ronald Darby should be fine in the secondary, and I think the addition of rookie Jarrian Jones is huge for this team. I expect Jones to get a lot of time on the field right from the jump, and Andre Cisco, Antonio Johnson, and Darnell Savage are all quality safeties. 

This team has more quality depth than I can ever remember in all of my time in Jacksonville, and we'll need it in a suddenly very competitive AFC South.

But it all falls on the shoulders of Trevor Lawrence. Early reports from training camp indicate that he's been having trouble connecting with his new receivers. He's thrown multiple interceptions in multiple practices, which is certainly not the news you want to hear on a player that just signed one of the richest contracts in professional sports.

But I have every confidence in Trevor and I really endorse the signing. He's an intelligent, charismatic, confident leader and just the right player to have as the face of the franchise and our city. His athletic gifts are undeniable, and his teammates love playing with him. Everything seems to be in place for a bounce-back for Trevor if our offensive line can give him some time and he can avoid the injuries that so clearly limited his performance in the back half of last year.

It's time to go! We have an NFL game this Thursday, and I've never been more excited about the year ahead for the Jacksonville Jaguars...

February Reviews: Gray Mountain, John Grisham

 

I enjoy John Grisham's books very much and I usually knock out a couple per year. I have read three so far in 2024, and his writing is clean, active, and very fluid. He is an excellent plotter and--for the most part--his characterization is keen and compels the reader into a sympathetic investment with the story.

Samantha Kofer is our protagonist in this legal thriller. She is one of the faceless minions in a large New York legal firm charged primarily with reading and revising huge, opaque real estate contracts. The Great Recession looms large in the opening passages of this story, however, and Kofer finds herself out on the street with few options as the firm cuts staff. Her only option is to take a free internship with a non-profit agency of firecracker lawyers in rural Appalachia. Their task? Securing settlements and benefits from big coal for the downtrodden, unskilled workers that toil in the mines under the specter of the dreaded black lung disease.

This book surges forward and Grisham's attention to detail on the ins and outs of the coal industry is admirable. As is the case with most of his books, the research is thorough and the legal tactics employed by big coal are both crushing and draconian. It's sad, really, so read about these small towns whose citizens have been used up and left for dead. Some of the miners have only worked in the mines for a few years before they develop the incurable disease, and that part of the story is heart-breaking.

While critics generally enjoyed the book, I found it a little light overall and thought that the tale needed a bit more exposition and some additional space to really breathe. As Kofer unravels the thread of a major lawsuit against a particularly aggressive mining company and their strong-arm tactics to level mountains and poison the groundwater, death, covert intimidation, and general mayhem ensue. It's interesting enough, to be sure, but the story feels rushed and the conclusion is short and a bit unsatisfying. It shares a kinship with the movie A Civil Action in the sense that there is no real hope for meaningful reform. The big take-away is that these large companies are above the law, and the human capital in rural America will be exhausted without any meaningful recourse.

This is a page-turner and an interesting read that most audiences will enjoy, but it lacks the moral gravitas of many of his better novels (I have read A Time to Kill three times, and still find it one of the best American novels of the last half century). I recommend it, but it's not in the same category as much of Grisham's production, and the other pair of books I have read by this wordsmith in the new year...

January Reviews: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, by George R.R. Martin

 

I continued my January reading with George R.R. Martin's excellent collection of three novellas, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. These longish tales follow a humble hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall after the young squire loses his own knight, Arlan, on the road to a tournament. Duncan (Dunk) is leal (loyal), noble, and freakishly strong. He stands close to seven feet in height, and Gary Gianni's excellent pencil illustrations bring him to life with stunning aplomb in this tome. 

Dunk is ambitious. He is poor, but he aspires to such much more and really only wants some stability in his life. When he stumbles upon a young bald boy bathing in a creek, his future takes a new path as the boy takes an instant liking to Dunk and schemes to become his new squire.

The dynamic between Dunk and Egg (so named for his bald pate) early on is endearing, as Dunk doesn't want a squire and thinks the boy will only slow him down. But Egg is tenacious and hard-working, and before too long the pair become inseparable.

I won't get into too many of the plot dynamics, but Egg is so much more than a humble squire. He is descended from royal blood, and he has an acid tongue, a strong personality, and a full grasp of the turmoil that has rippled through the Seven Kingdoms over the last two decades.

The three novels are consistently well-written, with separate, interconnected adventures. Poor Dunk has a knack for finding himself in tough spots, but his honorable demeanor and thick frame suit him well as he navigates the vagaries of a dangerous world.

Martin's characterization is excellent, and Dunk and Egg are drawn with meticulous care. Dunk's consistent laments that he isn't good enough to claim the honor of calling himself a knight can be tedious at times, but it serves the story well as he ingratiates himself to the various forces to which he aligns himself. 

There is a complex dilemma at the heart of these stories (and one that I won't divulge here), but Dunk and Egg are just a few of the figures in these stories whose hearts are in the right place. It's a very satisfying trio of tales, and I hope that Martin revisits their adventures in future stories. They are certainly worth being told...

January Reviews: Fire & Blood, George R.R. Martin

 

Two or three years ago, I mowed through the six current books in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire saga. That's a figurative embodied metaphor, of course, because I can mow my own lawn here at the house in thirty minutes and reading those amazing books took me the best part of a full year. It was like going to Westeros boot camp, and I was a lowly hedge knight for three hours every evening, eager to lend my sword to any liege lorad with mutton and mead.

It was exhilarating, and I looked forward to those reading sessions all throughout the day.

Martin's stories are told from multiple points of view, allowing the readers all kinds of insights into these lively, round characters. Even though I was reading at the same time that HBO was releasing new episodes of their televisual adaptation (also appointment viewing for us), it was such an enhancement to read those books while seeing the characters on the small screen.

Martin is a wordsmith, a master plotter (I thought we'd never see another writer that could build worlds as adeptly as Tolkien, but perhaps even the great master of the fantasy genre would be impressed with the depth and detail in these tomes...), and a perceptive student of the human condition. He really understands conflict (some of these books will make you wince and squirm and feel a flush of love and joy in a single sitting), and he writes with an active, engaging voice. His understanding of language is impressive, with so many antiquated terms and phrases peppering the writing with great ease.

I loved these books, and Fire & Blood is every bit their equal. In some ways, it exceeds them in its focus on familial history and the broader scope of governance and struggle in the Seven Kingdoms. 

Told in the form of a maester's textbook, the writing is humorous, pointed, and fluid. The work covers long centuries of triumph, tragedy, and conquest before the Ice and Fire books. It's spicy, with lots of sex and romance (if you can call it that) subplots, and there are dozens of dragons in this book. The tale of the Greens and the Blacks, which forms the foundation for HBO's spinoff equally excellent House of the Dragon, is simultaneously heart-breaking and revolting, as these characters stoop to the very depths of treachery in their lust for the Iron Throne. The violence is not for the faint of heart, but it never feels gratuitous or indulgent. It merely serves the narrative arch that sitting atop the Iron Throne and ruling the Seven Kingdoms is Westeros's finest drug--a narcotic so powerful that it causes men, women, and children alike to cast aside any façade of human decency in its pursuit.

This is one of the best books I've read in the last year or so, and I most highly recommend it to those that love the venerable fantasy genre... 

It Was Always the Jaguars!

 

Trevor Lawrance on the run, via the New York Post

Well, that was one the most remarkable seasons that I can remember in all of my years of watching sports. It's taken a few days to process everything that happened this year after that loss to the Chiefs, but we sure had a wild ride out here in Duval County this year.

These Jacksonville Jaguars were a revelation, and the future of this franchise looks very bright. The Jags were in just about every game this season, only suffering a single blow-out to the Detroit Lions, and they illustrated a unified, cohesive, and skilled approach to the game in winning both the AFC South Division and a playoff game over the L.A. Chargers.

Doug Pederson's influences on this young team were immediate and profound. After the clown-show that was Urban Meyer's brief tenure here in Jacksonville (he literally didn't know our players' names and couldn't talk about their status in pre or post-game interviews, and ignorance was the least of his transgressions...), Pederson (we all just call him 'Doug') proved to be motivational, even-keeled, and innovative. I've never seen a coach scheme guys open the way that Doug does. He calls the offensive plays, and our wideouts, backs, and tight ends are consistently open. He coaches with aggressive instincts. I've never seen a team go for it this much on fourth down, but he never becomes a prisoner of the moment. He assesses things, crunches the numbers, and he seems bound by his convictions. He coached one of the most masterful games I've ever seen in my life in that comeback win over the Chargers in the first week of the playoffs and is one of the finest coaches in the league.

Doug is the AFC Coach of the Year, and the award is well-deserved.

The defense showed steady improvement over the course of the year, playing its best football throughout that amazing winning streak we finished the year on. There are some huge financial decisions to make in the offseason, but the future looks bright. Travan Walker flashed (he had a pick and a sack in his first game) some dominating skills and Devin Lloyd won the AFC defensive rookie of the month award to begin his career with JAX. He hit a lull midway through the year, often getting burned in coverage, but finished the season on a much better note. I expect that he will have a really positive offseason and come back ready to start and dominate in 2023/24. He is the answer to guys like Kelce once he gets a better feel for the NFL game, because his athleticism is off the charts. 

Foye Aluokun was last year's best free-agent signing, and the future looks bright for the defense with him as the captain and the defensive maestro. A Yale graduate, he does a good job of setting the defense and putting his teammates in position to make plays. He's a tackling machine that should have been awarded Pro-bowl status, at the very least. I hope defensive coordinator continues to find ways to get Foye into blitzes, because he can go get that quarterback down on the ground just as well as he flies to the football.

Tyson Campbell, Rayshawn Jenkins (our second-half defensive MVP), Andre Cisco, and Darious Williams form the core of a fine secondary. Jenkins is an unrestricted free agent and will garner much interest on the open market. I don't know that he'll be back in Jacksonville next year, but I certainly hope they can find a way to make it happen.

The Jaguars offense was led, of course, by Trevor Lawrence. His maturation in his second season was astounding, and it's pretty clear we've never had a quarterback of this skill level (and we all love you dearly, Mark, Blake, and David!) here in Jacksonville. He threw for more than a thousand yards, distributing the ball in a remarkable balanced fashion to a wideout corps that led the NFL with forty-one drops. Just think of how many more yards he might have if that number is cut in half? That's twenty more completions right there...he is mobile, instinctive (he improvised that two-point conversion in the win over the Chargers in the playoffs), and has a cannon for an arm. He makes throws that only a few others in the league can make, and we're talking the likes of Allen and Mahomes. Lawrence is a superstar, and he just gets it. He's embraced Jacksonville, and I truly think this team will be competitive (and maybe dominant, if Trent Baalke can surround him with some transcendent young talent via the NFL draft) as long as he is at the helm of this offense. We are blessed to have him, for many reasons beyond his prowess on the field...

Travis Etienne went over a 1,000 yards rushing for the first time in his career. He is a homerun back with surprising grit between the tackles. He also catches that little flair screen and gets north/south quickly. He needs to work on ball security and pass-blocking, but I sense that he will come into his own as one of the top eight backs in the NFL as soon as next season. His future is very bright, and I hope we can get JaMycal Hasty extended to continue in his complementary role this offseason. I've read some pundits calling for another back for the room, but I think Snoop Conner can continue to grow into that role as a thumper and we are good at that position for the near future.

Let me say this without qualification: I love Christian Kirk. He is a pro's pro, an engaging, smart young man, and a fast, talented wideout. He had two glaring drops that I can recall off the top of my head (both against KC, and one in each game), but he also made at least ten remarkably difficult, hotly contested catches. He gets credit for those of course, and none was bigger than that catch at the boundary against L.A. in the playoffs. When Calvin Ridley lines up on the opposite side, he'll have even greater opportunity and I expect that he will eclipse this year's fine season next year with some help taking the pressure off of him. 

Zay Jones was awesome as well. Despite a bad game at midseason (he was clearly playing injured), he made contested catches, ran away from defenses, and converted loads of third downs. Ridley, Zay, Christian, and Ags (Jamal Agnew) comprise a formidable wideout corps. Marvin Jones, Jr. possesses some of the best body control I've ever seen and has been a steadying, consistent presence on the team. I'm not sure if he will come back on a cheaper contract next year, but I hope we can find a way to keep him and maybe draft a developmental prospect in the second or third rounds of this year's draft.

Evan Engram is a force, and his play improved on a weekly basis. A true stretch tight end, he is fast, tough, and plays with a chip on his shoulder. Doug schemed him open a lot, and he had a few huge games late in the year. He wants to be here, but he will be expensive. That said, we need to sign him up. He's young, hungry, and has a great rapport with Trevor.

The previously mentioned Agnew was also consistently amazing. He is a weapon returning punts and kicks, and he made a ton of plays on offense. This is his second excellent year in Duval, and he is deserving of a new contract.

Roy Robertson-Harris, Agnew, Engram, Jenkins, Adam Gotsis, Arden Key, Jawaan Taylor, Andrew Wingard, Dawaune Smoot, and kicker Riley Patterson are the most critically important free agents I'd like to see back. Smoot tore his Achilles tendon and I really feel for him, because he has been a consistently solid performer throughout his tenure as a Jaguar. I hope we can bring all of them back, but that is probably asking quite a lot. We need to take care of another batch of rookies, and Doug and Baalke will be working together to scour free agency in the offseason.

That said, the core of this team is talented and impressive. I see more AFC South titles in the near future (the other three teams are all rebuilding, each has QB issues...), and I think Trevor has every tool necessary to mix it up competitively with the likes of Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, and Herbert over the next half-decade.

It was an exhilarating year that culminated with a seven-game win streak, another banner for TIAA Field, and a couple of worthy off-season honors from the NFL. This team will be on prime time next year more frequently, and they will be heavy favorites to repeat as divisional champions.

In short, the future is bright and the foundation has been set. We look young, skilled, and hungry, and in the space of one short season this team has proven its resiliency in a way that none of us--even the most die-hard among us--ever saw coming. 

It was always the Jaguars, my friends, and the positivity surrounding this team is well-deserved and refreshing after a few truly dreadful years of football.

Say it with me: DUUUUUUUUUUUUVAL!

The Powell Family Attends the Jags' Win over Tennessee

Interesting Articles on Communication Theory...

 Happy New Year! This post is meant merely as a repository for some of the more interesting articles on communication theory that I've looked at in the last few years. If anyone reading this is interested in how we connect with one another in a rapidly changing information ecosystem, this list should include some interesting food for thought...

• "Like. Flirt. Ghost: A Journey into the Social Media Lives of Teens." Mary H.K. Choi, writing for Wired
• "Is Cancel Culture Effective?" Nicole Dudenhoefer, writing for Pegasus
• "Who or Whom? One weird trick melts away YEARS of confusion." Amanda Darrach, writing for Columbia Journalism Review
• "I Didn't Want It to Be True, but the Medium Really Is the Message." Ezra Klein, writing for The New York Times
• "Stories From Experts About the Impacts of Digital Life." Pew Research Center

Just a few enticing epistemes, and I hope to add at least a dozen more in 2023.

A Few Odds and Ends as We Shamble Into 2022...

Well, it's been a few months since I dropped by these digital digs and turned the sign around on the front door. As I type this, it's cold and dreary here in Jacksonville. We've had a chilly foray into the new year here in Northeast Florida, and I can't say that I haven't enjoyed getting some cooler air here in Duval County.

It's just lovely running the local trails in shorts and a sweatshirt.

The kids are heading into the second half of the year with good momentum. We all enjoyed some restful and restorative vacations together to Oregon (Thanksgiving) and Washington (Christmas) in the fall. These were our first flights since the beginning of the pandemic, and they were surreal, to say the least. We missed our connection between Atlanta and Jacksonville on the trip home from Washington, and we endured the longest lines I've ever seen for TSA screening. We waited well over an hour to get screened, and the labyrinth was probably a mile long if one could stretch it out.

We enjoyed time with family and friends, though, and we saw some beautiful country and played in the snow. We sledded, went wine tasting, had some really fine meals, played golf, went to the Market in Seattle, and enjoyed a fine turkey dinner at my sister's house in Athena. All in all, the kids loved seeing their cousins, and my daughter has an affinity for travel that she was happy to satisfy with a few long flights. 

We will maybe take another longish trip later in the year, only this one will be just the four of us. We're talking about a trip to the Capital to see the historical sites, or maybe a little jaunt out to Yellowstone in the late summer. Not sure quite yet, but I'm excited at the possibilities.

Down in the Sawgrass Boneyard has been doing fairly well, and I've enjoyed getting started on a new novel and also working on some short stories. I have a few classes that I'm teaching online at present, and then I'll get back into a regular schedule when my contract resumes in the summer. 

Jeanne is doing well in her work at Fletcher, and the kids have enjoyed their experiences in school out at the beach. At some point, we will likely have to look pretty closely at making a move to the beach as the kids immerse themselves in clubs and sports. Lyla is running track, and I'll be coaching Luke's soccer team starting in March.

I just finished re-reading Stephen King's The Bazaar of Bad Dreams and really enjoyed it. Highlights include "The Dune," "Blockade Billy," "That Bus is Another World," and "Summer Thunder." That last tale leaves a pretty good bruise, and I think I'd like to try my hand at something in a similar vein very soon. I enjoyed Jane Campion's truly excellent The Power of the Dog. I think Archive 81 is some of the most tension-filled episodic television that I've seen in a good long while, and 1883 is more than a worthy prequel to the fine show Yellowstone. 

I hope this note finds you hale and hearty wherever you may read it. Keep your wits about you and your eyes on the horizon. Things will continue to improve, even if it doesn't always seem like it...

Down In the Sawgrass Boneyard

 

On an otherwise ordinary spring day in sunny Jacksonville, Florida, an unhinged gunman shreds the fabric of a nation in yet another outburst of senseless gun violence.

His victims are children—innocents walking home from school in those final fleeting days before the promise of spring break and time spent with family and friends.

When the families of the loved and the lost unite in a push for meaningful reform in the national gun laws, the National Rifle Association squelches their efforts with a series of backroom dealings and political saber-rattling.

Nothing changes; but, for so many, nothing will ever be the same again.

This is Darren Torrance’s sudden reality—a life without his family in a world that no longer makes sense.

But there is something he can do. A change that he can make in the names of his son and his wife.

Every few years, a celebration of opulence and excess known simply as the Gathering takes place in the heart of the Florida Everglades. Similar to the infamous Bohemian Grove meetings in California, the Gathering is a week-long celebration of privilege and wealth as attendees shape political policy and forge business deals.

Jackson Ashcroft—the controversial and charismatic President of the NRA—is attending this year and celebrating yet another successful anti-regulatory campaign season.

If Torrance can utterly transform himself and blend into his surroundings in the River of Grass, he just might be able to provide Ashcroft with the ultimate Everglades survival experience.

Down In the Sawgrass Boneyard is Darren’s story of transformation and redemption, as vengeance blooms among the swamp lilies in this gritty thriller about the power and persistence of a father’s love for his family.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Down in the Sawgrass Boneyard

by Daniel Powell

Giveaway ends August 27, 2021.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Summer Reading, Gratis...

It's summer here in Florida, which means beaches in the morning and an inevitable series of thunderstorms and rain showers in the afternoon. Whether you might be lounging in a beach chair or cozying up in your favorite reading spot while the winds rage outside, it's a great time to get some restorative reading knocked out.

Reading is the mind's creative battery for the productive writer, and reading widely certainly stretches out a writer's range. In that spirit, I'd like to post links to a pair of excellent anthologies that you can purchase for free right now on Amazon.

TOR remains one of the finest publishers in the business of commercial fiction, and I love their taste in short stories. If you are interested in an eclectic mixture of intriguing plots, strong writing, and creative speculations, these are superb books. Enjoy!

They typically create an annual anthology of their finest stories, and I just picked up the following tomes:

2019 edition

2020 edition

Movie Review: Da 5 Bloods (2020)

One of the serendipitous outcomes of the 2020 stay-at-home orders (depending on your movie-going habits, of course) was a flood of excellent Hollywood fare migrating directly onto the various streaming platforms. Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods (2020) was one of those highly anticipated films that you can now view on Netflix. It's one of Chadwick Boseman's final roles, and it's a doozy of a film that takes a while to fully process. 

The film is vintage Spike Lee. He's one of my favorite filmmakers for both his ability to tell stories creatively and for the various signatures that stamp his films as uniquely his. Delroy Lindo is amazing in this film as the complex character Paul, and he has one of those great Lee monologues late in the film when he's tramping through the jungle, spouting his philosophy directly into what is probably a steady cam. The film is spliced through with famous stills from the Vietnam War, as well as archival footage of such Civil Rights luminaries as Muhammad Ali and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. These hallmarks of Lee's narrative style add historical context and serve to underline the persistent narrative that both the natives of Viet Nam and the disproportionate number of African American soldiers killed and wounded in action were heavily traumatized by the war. 

The film spans multiple genres. It's a political film, a buddy caper, a heist movie, and an action film all rolled into 150 minutes of compelling, unsettling imagery. The piece builds slowly while characters bond, and the chemistry among the principal cast is authentic and rich. The third act is a pedal-to-the-medal sprint toward redemption, however, and in this way it's also indicative of a few types of film melded into one cohesive work of art.

The plot involves a group of war veterans returning to Viet Nam for two purposes. They hope to recover the remains of their leader, Boseman's Stormin' Norman, but they're also searching for a large cache of gold bars they'd buried in the jungle during their last tour in Viet Nam. Along the way, they encounter all manner of trials and assaults in the run-up to the bloody, strangely satisfying conclusion. 

It's a fine film, illustrating Lee's work at the height of his creative powers. The acting, staging, and writing are superb. It's never a comfortable watch, but it's always compelling--the calling cards of a good Spike Lee film. Give it a watch, but be warned that it can get a little graphic toward the conclusion.  

Shame and Disgust

When the United States of America began an aggressive bombing campaign against top Iraqi government figures in 2003, the campaign was initially labeled one of "shock and awe." That's a military phrase meant to characterize an effort to assert "rapid dominance" over the enemy, and I remember with great clarity the images from CNN depicting a surreal nighttime apocalypse in the Middle East. 

That phrase tripped through my mind two days ago, albeit in a markedly different context, when I watched in horror as hundreds of misguided traitors stormed the United State Capitol building, destroying property, inciting terror, and diminishing the hard-fought legacy of American democracy.

News broke this morning that one of the defenders of the Capitol Building, Officer Brian D. Sicknick, perished last night as a result of injuries he sustained in the melee. So very sad for his family and friends, because this never should have happened!

Nothing else can quite crystallize the toxic effects on logic, rational thinking, groupthink behavior, and misinformation that digital communication platforms have had on the American informational ecosystem as can this particular case study in idiocy. 

While this group of dithering delinquents of despotism claim "revolution" in their unvarnished responses on air, there is nothing so romantic or authentic afoot in this "movement" by hate mongers, conspiracy theorists, and ill-informed conservatives. 

In two short decades, digital communication tools have done so much to inflame the worst behaviors in a small subset of the American people. Their effects include (among so many others that won't be discussed in this blog post):

• Inspiring previously hidden bigots to step out into the light, spewing their hatred indiscriminately and mucking up the larger social media infrastructure with incivility, anger, and misinformation. Sure, these people existed before Twitter, but their reach was confined to shoddy newsletters and clandestine F2F meetings. Now, they congregate online, egging each other on, which leads to:
• Toxic groupthink idiocy. When swept up in the throws of a riot, most human beings behave in ways they never rationally would on their own. This group in particular, being both ignorant of reality (there were more than sixty attempts by trump to overturn election results; few among them were successful) and emboldened by their leader, took things ten steps too far earlier in the week. Goodness, gracious people...
• The fomenting of paranoid conspiracy theories. Look, it's easy to retweet things. It's easy to like things, and to read headlines without checking the veracity of a story. A discouraging percentage of the people that stormed the Capitol believe in the outlandish, ridiculous theories espoused by nameless writers on private threads in the QAnon movement. Look, some of the stories this group disseminates are simply insane. I won't get too deeply into it here, but their reach into the lives of marginalized, disgruntled, ill-informed loners and social pariahs seems to be a serious threat to those doing the difficult work of serving the American government. Some of those duped by these outlandish theories now regret it, and I think the QAnon presence at Wednesday's debacle was pretty significant.
• Lack of quality content-moderation practices. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms either don't care or don't have the wherewithal to delete these inane posts, although I do credit Facebook and Twitter for locking down trump's accounts in the wake of his damning videos whipping these folks into a frenzy.

Ease of dissemination. Inability to discern truth from conspiracy. Toxic hatred. Lack of oversight.

These four ingredients combined in a horrible stew of anti-American destruction on Wednesday, and I didn't feel any sense of shock and awe in the sense of its original meaning. Of course, I was shocked by their behavior and in awe of their brazen stupidity, but that isn't a recipe for "rapid dominance," is it?

Instead, I felt shame and disgust. These people represent a small (but vocal and growing) minority of our American population. They are followers (those same sheep they love to crow about in their tweets) from the margins of American life and society, content to travel around "protesting" (proud boys my ass) instead of improving life in this country. They are divisive, destructive, and deluded. 

Thankfully, our American legislators returned to their work later in the evening and certified President Biden's election victory. That, in my view, is heroic work that speaks to the strength of American democracy.

I am an Oregon democrat living in Jacksonville, and I didn't vote for either George W. Bush or donald trump. In both cases, however, I accepted their victories as the will of my fellow Americans, and I supported them in their efforts to guide our country and move us forward. 

I am a patriot--and no, that isn't a bad word. I am proud to be an American and thankful to live in this country. It's not perfect, of course, but I still feel optimistic about America's promise. 

But, even as a patriot, I cannot support trump. I think he's both dangerous and ignorant, and that's a potentially combustible combination. I echo Colin Powell's views that trump should resign. Powell is a great American, by the way, and his interview touched me because it was so reasonable and assertive. Heck, even that conservative bastion The Wall Street Journal is calling on this man to step down. 

You know, in twelve days all of this is going to change. I felt shame and disgust all day Wednesday and on into yesterday afternoon. I was saddened for this great country. But all of this is about to change, and I feel optimistic again for the future in the wake of Congress completing their work and the national reaction to the heinous actions of so many depraved traitors. May part of their punishments be to actually read the United States Constitution...

Figure 1-1: Not Democracy, Not Revolution

Turning the Page on 2020...

 

We snapped that photograph back in March, in the middle of what was one of the most enjoyable and surreal family vacations that we've ever taken. We travelled down to Everglades National Park over spring break. It was our first trip to the Glades, and the park is simply stunning and one of the world's most wondrous places. I enjoyed it every bit as much as I have such national landmarks as Arizona's Grand Canyon National Park and the Redwoods National Scenic Area in California. 

We saw every manner of wildlife that you would expect, from enormous alligators to docile manatees. We explored the entire park and spent a few enjoyable nights in one of the strangest towns I've ever visited. Stay crazy, Homestead! We spent the night at a resort inside the glades and explored Fort Myers on our way up the gulf side en route to spring training. 

Alas, that was when things got surreal and COVID-19 swept across the face of American life like a Montana whiteout, shuttering sports leagues, restaurants, hotels, museums, and all manner of public venues. We cut the vacation short by a day and, while driving home to Jacksonville through Florida's horse country, sat in silence while the anchors on NPR discussed teh scope and magnitude of the Coronavirus and how it was altering our near future. 

We circled the wagons back at home, sliding into the new normal fairly easily. Luke attended a few more weeks of daycare before taking a long hiatus while Lyla finished the spring semester fully online. My classes for the summer and fall were migrated fully online via Canvas, and Jeanne worked from home throughout the summer before heading back to Fletcher in August. 

We haven't eaten in a restaurant since that trip to the Glades. No Nights of Lights, Spooktacular, corn maze, Riverside Arts Market, or movies since March. Basically, it's been visits to the grocery store and walks in the woods. I've visited Deerwood a few times to retrieve items from my office, but I won't be fully back on campus until May. 

Our families are weathering things as best as can be expected, and for that we are deeply grateful. My mom has a pretty fragile constitution, and she and my dad have done an amazing job of keeping themselves safe. My sisters and their families are doing okay, although my nephews miss being in school with their friends. My niece is thriving in Eugene at the University of Oregon, and she is navigating these strange times as best as can be expected. 

I won't reiterate here what a strange, heart-breaking year 2020 was. No need for that. It strained our relationships and taxed us mentally. The four of us were not immune to that strain. But we made it through and I find myself typing this in early January with a renewed sense of optimism, some new coping skills for dealing with stress, and a fresh perspective on what it really means to struggle and stare into the abyss of self doubt. I am thankful for so many things, with the health of Jeanne, Luke, and Lyla at the top of that list. 

I think we have greatness ahead of us, as a country and as a species. The same existential threats that have plagued us for many years--climate change, inequality in human rights, and global aggression--remain, but I feel slightly better about our ability to persevere after what we saw last year. 

That's not to say that we've done a good job here in the United States with our response to COVID-19. We haven't, and my heart aches for the more than 350,000 Americans that have died in part as a result of COVID. I grieve for their families, and I hope that we can turn our inability to administer these vaccinations around quickly and efficiently. 

Happiness is never more than partial, of course, and we can expect ups and downs in all areas of our lives. But there were many downs in 2020, and I'm optimistic that we'll see just a few more ups in the new year. Happy New Year to you and yours. Stay safe, stay the course, and try to inject positivity in your days as much as you're able...

Friday Throwback Music

 

Summer Reading for the Stay-Inside Set

I don't know about anyone else out there, but I'm on pace to shatter my previous record for total books consumed in a year by the end of 2020. In an ordinary year, I might actually knock back forty-five or fifty traditional book-length works (50,000+ words on the short end, with most checking in around 80,000 words) before Christmas, with another twenty or twenty-five cookbooks mixed in for good measure. I love reading cookbooks, but that's a post for another day.

I've reached the end of my patience with Kindle Unlimited, so I have been borrowing books via the Jacksonville Public Library and purchasing odds and ends at Costco to round out my home library (If It Bleeds is good!).

As good fortune would have it, however, I encountered a pair of worthy stories in the last week that are both skillfully written and downright creepy. 

Matt and Harrison Query recently sold their tale My Wife & I Bought a Ranch to Netflix. It's a six-part tale unfolding on Reddit, and the piece has an enviable, slowly mounting tension beneath its intriguing plot. While it reads a bit like a stream-of-consciousness nightmare in places, that style is also part of its charm. The central characters (I enjoyed Dan's gritty, no-nonsense approach to discussing such absurd shenanigans) are multidimensional and believable. I enjoyed it quite a bit and read it on a stormy afternoon, which enhanced the experience a bit.

Josh Malerman is one of my favorite new authors. I was riveted by Bird Box long before it became a film sensation, and I think his serial novel Carpenter's Farm might be even better than that earlier effort. Characterization, setting, and the author's keen approach to phrasing have made this my favorite novel I've read thus far in 2020. I won't get into the text for fear of spoiling a great story, but I loved the sense of alienation and the uncanny that the author explores here. 

What's scarier, after all, then losing track of ourselves? Of our personal identity?

I hope you are well where you are. As I write this, I haven't been teaching at FSCJ on campus with any regularity in 2020. I won't be, either. We are going fully online again in the fall. While in some ways it feels like a wasted year, in others it has been revelatory. I hope for some calm and positivity in the months to come, and I look forward to brighter days ahead...

Blogging from the Edge of the Apocalypse...

Captain Trips, from Stephen King's The Stand

As I write this, my wife is driving though Lot J down at TIAA Bank Stadium (home of the Jacksonville Jaguars) for a drive-through COVID-19 test. We live in strange times, to be sure, and I'm thankful that she has been isolating in a separate part of the house and following CDC guidelines for testing after her symptoms began to emerge. We are praying that it's merely a chest cold, but it's important to take every precaution we can to stay healthy in these uncertain times.

There have been so many great books about pandemics for those that have been bitten by the macabre voyeurism bug. Stephen King's The Stand is an epic tome, of course, and Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron is once again surging in popularity. Justin Cronin's novels are probably selling like hotcakes, and I'm sure Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" is getting a lot of attention as well. Joe R. Lansdale and Robert McCammon (Swan Song) write these types of stories with such style and humanity that they will inspire you to scratch out your own tales on the subject. I've always enjoyed (and often taught) Stephen King's "Night Surf." It's one of his first published short stories, and it perfectly illustrates the frustration and futility that many of us have experienced in the last month as life around the globe has changed so drastically.

Our kids are doing fine. Children are so unbelievably adaptable. We can learn a lot just by watching them navigate huge life changes in these strange times...

Jeanne and I are doing okay as well as we adjust to new work protocols and practices. As I mentioned to my students at FSCJ last week in a video--this, too, shall pass...

I miss my office. I miss running the trails at the Arboretum and the Timucuan Preserve. I miss sports. I miss trivial, banal complaints about morning traffic. I miss not getting the side-eye if I have the temerity to cough in public.

But these are surreal, interesting times and I know we'll come out of them wiser and more prepared as a result of all of this discomfort. I hope you and yours are safe and healthy.

Oh, and for my own take on the subject of the pandemic, you can read Remnants: A Record of Our Survival for free here, or pick up a Kindle copy for a song here...

Take care...

Book Review: The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise

I just finished Michael Grunwald's The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise. The book left me filled with conflicting emotions. I feel pride for my adopted state of Florida and the people that have worked so hard to make it such a fine place to live, and for our species for recognizing what a remarkable natural resource that The Everglades are. As Grunwald notes in his epilogue, there is "only on Everglades, and we have just about destroyed it. It is our ability to recognize this, and to make amends, that sets us apart from other species" (369). 

It's a fine point, and one can't help but thank folks like Ernest Coe, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Nathaniel Reed, Paul Tudor Jones, Lawton Chiles, countless leaders of the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes, and an untold list of other journalists, politicians, environmentalists, and citizens that dedicated their lives to the restoration of the River of Grass.

But I also feel disgust that the twentieth-century ethic of "slash, cut, dredge, and pave" has left the Glades a shadow of its once-majestic self. I spent some time looking at some of the most recent CERP findings (data set 2012-2017) and, while restoration has yielded some positive benefits, sprawl is still encroaching on the western Everglades and remains a threat to environmentally sensitive areas such as Big Cypress. 

South Florida is essentially built out. Grunwald notes this in his meticulously written book, which was published fifteen years ago, and that statement is even more true now. The limits for horizontal growth in South Florida have been met, and there will need to be drastic changes in how communities continue to plan and develop as we move forward in the new millennium. 

I loved this book, and I purchased a copy for my father--a hydrologist that spent more than forty years with the United State Forest Service watching commerce and conservation clash in communities throughout Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. Grunwald is both a lyrical science writer with an active prose style and a careful technical writer that is able to connect the dots between a vast amount of disparate research items. He covers the topic of the Everglades evenly and fairly, acknowledging the various usurpations and thefts of the American government toward the native people of the region with sympathy and pathos. Like many other chapters in American history, the attempted settlement of the Everglades isn't all butterflies and rainbows, and it's clear that various interests with both positive and nefarious intentions collaborated to severely damage America's Everglades. 

And yet, the text concludes on a slightly optimistic note by pointing toward a twenty-first-century dynamic of restoration and conservation that will allow the River of Grass to return to some semblance of its former glory. I hope I live to see that day, although the projections for restoring water flow to only 70% of its original capacity are still not scheduled to be met for another twenty years into the future. 

I hope to visit the Everglades in the coming months, even if only for a short time, and I wanted to post a quick review saying kudos to Michael Grunwald on writing an important book, and kudos to the various agencies now working to restore these great wetlands to their former glory.

As Marjory Stoneman Douglas said, There are no other Everglades in the world.