John Adams HBO Miniseries Review

Having recently read John Adams by David McCullough, I felt the need to go back and re-watch the excellent HBO Miniseries based on the book. For those who haven’t seen it (and are intimidated by the 700+ page biography), I would highly recommend it! Currently, it can be viewed free by Amazon Prime members. My review of the book can be found at https://rdperryauthor.blogspot.com/2020/03/john-adams-by-david-mccullough-book.html

The miniseries from 2008 received numerous awards including 13 Primetime Emmys and a slew of Golden Globes. Writers, directors, producers, actors, musicians, and others were recognized in almost every possible category. It is a wonderful adaptation of an amazing book. (And you know, we English teachers are usually highly critical of such projects!)

To begin, the show is historically accurate following closely to an incredibly researched book. Over the course of seven episodes, the story plays out in great detail and follows the rise of John Adams from a Boston lawyer and gentleman farmer to a long and illustrious career as a patriot, revolutionary, and politician. The love story of John and Abigail is wonderfully portrayed, as are his complex friendships with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

Secondly, it a beautiful experience. The music is fantastic, the costumes and scenery spot-on, and it is simply a captivating and well-told story. I confess, I probably cried at least once per episode. Adams lived in tumultuous times. In both his public and private lives, he experienced more than his share of tragedies. There were also times of triumph and throughout the series, I laughed and rejoiced, as often as I cried.

Finally, the best part of the series is the incredible cast! Paul Giamatti, as Adams, is absolutely amazing. Laura Linney makes a fantastic Abigail. Tom Wilkerson steals most of his scenes as Benjamin Franklin, and it is no surprise that all three won both Emmys and Golden Globes for the series. Stephen Dillane and David Morse are also great in their portrayals of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Almost every character is compelling and well cast.

In the end, as with the book, I came away with a great appreciation for the founding fathers and the sacrifices they made. John Adams, underappreciated in his lifetime to a large degree, remains today a rather unappreciated historical figure. If (like me before the book) you don’t know much about the man, take the time to watch this wonderful miniseries. And read the book too! Although honestly, in this case, the movie is just as good!

(Now that I’m so interested in the American Revolution, I’ve also begun listening to the soundtrack to the musical Hamilton at the suggestion of a friend. Not a big fan of rap or hip hop, but the concept is intriguing. Of course, in the Adams biography, Alexander Hamilton is an absolute scoundrel! Just saying.)

The 2020 National Football League Draft – A Classic TBT

This Thursday is the annual NFL Draft. It will no doubt be one of the strangest ones in recent memory. In the midst of our pandemic mania, the league will use all the available technology they can muster to conduct the draft online, and although it will seem new and different, the process feels more like a throw-back to earlier times. It should be interesting.

Let’s take a quick look back at the history of the draft. First held in 1936, the professional football draft was the brain-child of Philadelphia Eagles owner Bert Bell, who was trying to find a way to get a few decent players. In the early years of pro football, the best players were signed by whichever team made them the best offer. Whether motivated by money, location, or the chance to win, players were free to pick the team they preferred. Teams in smaller markets suffered and struggled to compete with other teams who often had distinct advantages in building their rosters.

In the beginning, the draft pool was determined by reputation and the recommendations of college coaches, but eventually teams began to invest in their own scouts to seek out the best players from around the country. A more open competition began again in 1960 with the start of the AFL. The leagues instituted a common draft in 1967 prior to the merger of 1970. The late seventies and early eighties saw the beginnings of a more systematic approach to identifying the best talent available and the development of the combine which led to the insane amount of advance preparation we see by teams today.

(For a more detailed look at the history of the draft and some interesting trivia, check out these two articles:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1077925-history-of-the-nfl-draft-how-has-the-process-evolved-over-time

https://landryfootball.com/nfl-draft-history-free/)

This year of course, there was no combine. Teams have had limited opportunities to meet potential draftees face to face, and personal workouts and physicals have also fallen by the wayside. Almost like the old days! Teams are depending heavily on game films and scouting reports which may lead to some surprises in the coming season.

The other big fear is that somehow the technology will betray them. Without the big war rooms, each team’s executives and coaching personnel may be scattered and out of touch. Here’s hoping the phone lines and computer connections hold up to the demands of this particular draft. Nobody wants to lose out on their preferred pick because of some unforeseen glitch. (If something sinister does happen, of course it will somehow be blamed on the Patriots, right?) Meanwhile the Cowboys (who suck), are taking advantage of their family connections to enable them to assemble more of their war room than any other team.

Anyway, to the draft itself. Here are my less than brilliant predictions.

·         Teams will reach, especially for quarterbacks, and at least three will probably go in the first six picks.

·         At least one of those top three will have a less than spectacular career, probably Burrow or whoever else is unfortunate enough to be selected by the Bengals in the first spot. (The greatest blog I’ve yet to write is titled “The Luck of Andrew” which examines the unlucky quarterbacks who suffer from being picked first by the weakest team in the entire league. Andrew Luck was indeed lucky to go to a pretty good team who blatantly tanked the season to secure the first pick. My next greatest unwritten blog is “The Romo Effect” which illustrates how quarterbacks, even average ones, benefit greatly from being picked in the mid to late rounds by fairly good teams.)

·         A bunch of teams will draft offensive lineman. Yawn.

·         Running backs will get zero respect and maybe one might get picked near the end of the first round.

·         Wide receivers and edge rushers will get lots of respect and there are some good ones who will go in the first round. Cornerbacks, too.

·         My team, the Texans will not pick in the first round. Do we ever? Maybe someday when we have a real General Manager again, we’ll manage to hang onto at least an occasional first round pick. (Then again has any team ever traded away more first round franchise-type players? I’m thinking Mario Williams, Jadeveon Clowney, and DeAndre Hopkins were some awful good picks to have ended up playing elsewhere so soon after they were drafted. Maybe we’re better off without any first round picks!)

Anyway, whatever happens, I guess the teams can always blame their mistakes on the computer, or the lack of a combine or whatever. But honestly, the good organizations will have done enough scouting to come out okay, and those teams with poor owners and/or management will find a way to screw up their picks like always. Either way, it should make for an entertaining draft.

A New Direction for the Blog

One of the primary purposes of my blog is to promote (and sell) the books I've written. According to all the marketing experts (Ha) from the many writing websites I read/ follow, an author must have a blog!

I suppose the theory is that people who read my blog (and like the style, content, or whatever) will eventually (maybe) be curious enough to buy one or more of my books. Of course, in the meantime, just trying to promote and encourage people to read the FREE blog is a challenge!

If I tweet the link daily and drop at least one or two posts on Facebook each week, I can usually get above 100 readers - more than enough to feed my ego and make me feel like a real author, but far too few to translate into actual book sales. (Amazingly enough, I do get readers from several foreign countries.)

All of which leads to a more pressing question - where does, or should, the writer devote the majority of the limited time available to write? Admittedly, the time taken to scribble the weekly blog is often less than an hour, but sometimes I find it difficult to budget even that small amount. And growing the audience for the blog remains difficult. Of course, I also routinely break one of the cardinal rules of blogging.

Again, according to those experts, in writing a blog, you should stick to one particular topic or theme. Boring! I prefer to write about a variety of subjects. I like to respond to current events such as the political issues of the day. Sometimes, I write reviews of books when I come across something really good (or bad). Occasionally, I write movie reviews. And I talk about my books or writing in general.

So anyway, I've decided that every now and then, I should just demonstrate my writing. I've shared poetry before, but I'm thinking maybe a few short passages from my novels or short stories? Something that will perhaps make a reader curious enough to want more?

For example, here is the Prologue from my first novel, The What If Project. Somewhere in the final editing process, I cut this out, but I still like it.

He opened his eyes slowly, smiling as he looked in amazement into his own past. He sat very still allowing the sights and sounds of his childhood to embrace him as if calling him home. He was momentarily struck by the unreality of his surroundings, but in his heart, he knew it was real. He had been here before. Taking a deep breath, he watched the idle movement of the old swings swaying gently in the slight breeze. There was a light, metallic sound as the chain links brushed against the steel poles anchored in the ground. Even before he had opened his eyes, the sound had told him where he was. When, he was.

But why? That was the question. Why was he here and what did he hope to accomplish? But that wasn’t right either. It was a different question that had brought him here. What if? What if you could go back in time and change one thing from your past? He knew his own answer and that was why he was here. He thought back to how it all began and smiled once more.

Let me know what you think! In the meantime, thanks for reading and have a great week!

The Nasty Side of Politics

I’ve been actively trying to avoid writing about the current pandemic, but I can’t take it anymore! I just have to open my big mouth and make a few comments! As much as I love the “home school” memes and the other examples of people who have maintained a healthy sense of humor, it’s basically impossible to not be bombarded by the negative news coming daily from a particular political party and it’s driving me crazy.

I had originally planned to support my argument with some clips from Pelosi and Schiff and Schumer and Abrams and Acosta or just the media in general, but I realized that doing so would just bring even more attention to these horrible people. I use that word (intentionally) to describe all those individuals who are more interested in establishing blame than actually doing or saying anything remotely helpful.

Set up a good timeline and do just a bit of research and you will quickly find that most of these people are still as hypocritical as ever. Most of them have already made plenty of contradictory statements about the current state of affairs, but now of course, they are working as hard as they can to find any way to blame the President despite their own constant efforts to interfere with his administration’s handling of the crisis. (Travel ban = racism, Stimulus bill = chance to further the Liberal agenda, etc.)

If you really want to blame someone, why not start with the obvious. The (Communist) Chinese government failed to contain the virus within their own borders by refusing to even acknowledge the problem until they no longer had a choice. Even now, they continue to vastly under-report the number of cases and fatalities. To be fair, the leaders of every other country in the world (including the USA) were forced to make decisions based on faulty information due to China’s lack of honesty. (Please do use enough common sense to realize that this does not mean you should blame any individual who happens to be Chinese!)

In the meantime, politics have proven (yet again) to be an exceptionally nasty business. The President can’t hold a press conference without being accused of lying. (How dare he be optimistic!) And being daily asked “gotcha” questions. Really, we’re not so stupid that we can’t tell the difference between a legitimate question about the virus and a question designed to point out the Left’s opinion that the President has somehow failed to act appropriately. (And the Democrats have already openly admitted their plan to use this as their next ridiculous basis for impeachment? Unbelievable!)

Just for laughs, someone should ask one of these idiots to actually outline their plan for handling this pandemic. (Not Joe Biden, please! The man can barely tie two sentences together without babbling incoherently!) I’ve yet to hear any of them offer a solution. Easier to just criticize others than actually try to be a “leader” themselves.

So, how about this - Instead of criticizing every decision made by our state and national leaders, can we just support our elected leaders and put our petty stupid political games aside for just a little while? Can we just get past this pandemic first, before we start worrying about the 2020 election? Can we just hold off till summer before we start pushing our own political agendas? Can we just pass one single bill in Congress that doesn’t have to be full of tons of unnecessary crap to further party interests? Aren’t we better than that? We should be!

Maybe we could act like we’re all Americans and try to work together for the good of our country. Wouldn’t that be nice for a change?