Great Writing on the Internet

[Jack]

I am mostly just starting this thread to make sure as many people as possible get the chance to read Joe Posnanski's remarkable essay posted today:

joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2010/11/promise.html

Nominally, it is about Bruce Springsteen's song The Promise, but actually it is about music, and songwriting, and poetry, and fathers and sons, and the American dream, and becoming an adult, and it is a fabulous piece of writing given to us for free. If you are a Springsteen fan, you must read this. If you are a human being and a lover of the English language it is still well worth your time.

Hopefully we can share other examples of genius here from time to time. Either that or I can just post links to every Posnanski entry.

[SirSaxa]

Jack, thanks for posting that link! Excellent!

Hey, if you haven't seen the HBO Doc. on the making of the Darkness album, try to check it out. It isn't great throughout, but it does have some great moments... some of which were mentioned in the article you linked.

[JohnnyJones]

Nov 11, 2010 23:41:07 GMT -5 SirSaxa said:

Jack, thanks for posting that link! Excellent!

Hey, if you haven't seen the HBO Doc. on the making of the Darkness album, try to check it out. It isn't great throughout, but it does have some great moments... some of which were mentioned in the article you linked.

I am a very serious Springsteen fan and was just alerted to Jack's post and this piece. I cannot wait to read it. I will wait to comment until after I have gotten through it. SirSaxa - I thought The Making of Darnkess was great throughout! Although I agree with that for a casual fan, maybe you wouldn't appreciate the whole hour (or 90 minutes - can't remember). The clip of Bruce and Little Steven doing an early version of Sherry Darling (with Steven playing the drums on a pillow) during the Darkness sessions will give any Springsteen fan goosebumps.

Jack - thanks for the heads up on this. Like HoyaTalk during the offseason, I only head to Backstreets.com sporadically during non-recording / non-touring periods, so I might not have found this.

[DanMcQ]

Nov 12, 2010 11:59:05 GMT -5 JohnnyJones said:

Like HoyaTalk during the offseason, I only head to Backstreets.com sporadically during non-recording / non-touring periods, so I might not have found this.

And I had heard you were a real fan. Sigh.

[JohnnyJones]

[Jack]

So I threatened to post every Posnanski article, but figured people might actually pay attention if I just do it every once and while. His Baseball Hall of Fame blog entries were very well done last week and well worth your time if you love baseball like I do.

Today's article on Red Klotz, the man who lost over 10,000 games to the Globertrotters, and what it means to be a winner, however, is a classic almost up there with the Springsteen piece, albeit not as personal:

joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2011/01/basketball-carol.html

I also loved his (extremely personal) piece on Harry Potter and his daughter, and I have never had any interest in reading the books, largely for the same reasons he gave before he started reading:

joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2010/11/harry-potter-and-chamber-of-secrets.html

I look forward to his review of Harry Potter World due out sometime soon (or never, as veteran Pos readers know about his many possible posts that never quite materialize).

[Coast2CoastHoya]

Great stuff, Jack. Thanks for posting and introducing those of us who hadn't read it before to Posnanski's writing.

[theexorcist]

www.esquire.com/features/things-that-carried-him

Worth a read if you haven't seen this yet. So good, and so memorable years after I first read it.

[williambraskyiii]

Thanks exorcist. A long read, but well worth it.

[TBird41]

Jan 5, 2011 15:47:44 GMT -5 Jack said:

I look forward to his review of Harry Potter World due out sometime soon (or never, as veteran Pos readers know about his many possible posts that never quite materialize).

Here's the review of HP World: joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2011/01/katie-prefect.html#more

Maybe we'll see an iPad review sometime soon as well?

[HoyaLawya]

Jan 5, 2011 15:47:44 GMT -5 Jack said:

So I threatened to post every Posnanski article, but figured people might actually pay attention if I just do it every once and while. His Baseball Hall of Fame blog entries were very well done last week and well worth your time if you love baseball like I do.

Today's article on Red Klotz, the man who lost over 10,000 games to the Globertrotters, and what it means to be a winner, however, is a classic almost up there with the Springsteen piece, albeit not as personal:

joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2011/01/basketball-carol.html

I also loved his (extremely personal) piece on Harry Potter and his daughter, and I have never had any interest in reading the books, largely for the same reasons he gave before he started reading:

joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2010/11/harry-potter-and-chamber-of-secrets.html

I look forward to his review of Harry Potter World due out sometime soon (or never, as veteran Pos readers know about his many possible posts that never quite materialize).

Nice piece on Red -- am acquainted with his son Glenn.

[superan]

If you guys are looking for a really awesome aggregation site of the best long-form stories on the internet, here you go:

longreads.com/

First thing I check every morning.

[TBird41]

Jan 25, 2011 9:42:58 GMT -5 superan said:

If you guys are looking for a really awesome aggregation site of the best long-form stories on the internet, here you go:

longreads.com/

First thing I check every morning.

Will second this. I have quickly become addicted to Longreads.

[Jack]

When financial catastrophe strikes, no one better to chronicle it than Michael Lewis:

www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103?printable=true&wpisrc=nl_wonk

I was in Ireland myself right around the time he was writing this - seems like people there are in shock/embarrassed about being bailed out. Nobody knew what else to do.

[ksf42001]

Feb 3, 2011 14:46:04 GMT -5 Jack said:

When financial catastrophe strikes, no one better to chronicle it than Michael Lewis:

www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103?printable=true&wpisrc=nl_wonk

I was in Ireland myself right around the time he was writing this - seems like people there are in shock/embarrassed about being bailed out. Nobody knew what else to do.

Lewis did a similar story about Iceland back in 2009, but Vanity Fair now only has a short intro to it online, since they turned it (and other stories related to the early stages of the economic collapse) into a book.

[Jack]

Wright Thompson explains cricket in modern India and the phenomenon that is Sachin Tendulkar to an American audience. This is exceedingly long, but I find this sort of thing fascinating - a billion Indians revere this man and I knew nothing about him.

[hoyainspirit]

Mar 30, 2011 10:07:25 GMT -5 Jack said:

Wright Thompson explains cricket in modern India and the phenomenon that is Sachin Tendulkar to an American audience. This is exceedingly long, but I find this sort of thing fascinating - a billion Indian's revere this man and I knew nothing about him.

I think Wright Thompson is a fantastic writer. He wrote long form stories for the New Orleans paper early in his career. I have been a fan for quite a while. Thanx for the link.

[theexorcist]

For all the poor things ESPN does, what used to be E-ticket and is now E-60 eliminates so much. Their long-form writing is amazing.

My favorite is about the North Carolina team that Georgetown beat to make the Final Four.

More specifically, it's about their mascot and why he wasn't there during the game.

sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=rayofhope

[PhillyHoya]

Mar 30, 2011 11:34:17 GMT -5 theexorcist said:

For all the poor things ESPN does, what used to be E-ticket and is now E-60 eliminates so much. Their long-form writing is amazing.

My favorite is about the North Carolina team that Georgetown beat to make the Final Four.

More specifically, it's about their mascot and why he wasn't there during the game.

sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=rayofhope

A fantastic writeup. Those of us who were at the GU-BC game in the tournament and stayed to watch UNC-Michigan State unknowlingly saw his last game. I still have a photo of him warming up pregame. Eerie.

[RusskyHoya]

Mar 30, 2011 16:50:44 GMT -5 PhillyHoya said:

Mar 30, 2011 11:34:17 GMT -5 theexorcist said:

For all the poor things ESPN does, what used to be E-ticket and is now E-60 eliminates so much. Their long-form writing is amazing.

My favorite is about the North Carolina team that Georgetown beat to make the Final Four.

More specifically, it's about their mascot and why he wasn't there during the game.

sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=rayofhope

A fantastic writeup. Those of us who were at the GU-BC game in the tournament and stayed to watch UNC-Michigan State unknowlingly saw his last game. I still have a photo of him warming up pregame. Eerie.

Yea, it was definitely on my mind as I was sprinting across that exact same crosswalk-deficient highway to get to the grocery store across from our hotel in Parsippany.