Rich Walsh’s posterous

About Me

Professional: IT and Technology Services Leader - http://www.linkedin.com/in/RichWalsh

Fan of: good books, diverse music, Philly sports, SJ Sharks, road bikes, belgian beer & 'The Wire'.

Curator of: http://www.61stPVI.org

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G's first potato harvest!

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Posted 17 days ago

'Broad Street Bullies' on HBO

I really enjoyed tonight's fair-minded 'Broad Street Bullies' documentary on HBO (http://www.hbo.com/#/sports/broad-street-bullies/synopsis.html). That early '70s team made me a life-long hockey fan - and a forever Flyers fan. I appreciate the honest yin/yang perspective on their tactical use of rough play but the Flyers clearly meshed elite players (particularly Clarke, Parent and Barber then) with a wild and ornery assortment of role players to achieve their first success. I think the elite part is often forgotten by critics but the blend certainly did establish the ongoing house style for the franchise. Still amazing to watch video of players who wore no helmets in front of goalies 'protected' by fragile masks and who actually had no masks not so long before. What were they thinking??

It was also nice to see Fred Shero get his props. He was definitely a uniquely motivational coach who marched to his own drummer and was well ahead of his time.

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Posted 2 months ago

'Too Big to Fail' by Andrew Ross Sorkin

[Cross posting last book summary I put out on LinkedIn.]

Too Big to Fail (http://www.amzn.com/0670021253) really is a remarkable work of journalism and just a great read as well.  Though bracketed by a short introduction and a thoughtful epilogue, it is mostly a propulsive chronological account of the 2008 financial crisis starting on March 17th, the day after Bear Stearns was sold, and ending on October 13th, the day the nine remaining major banks agreed to accept the first TARP capital investments.

The author offers only the minimally necessary background on prior events and avoids editorializing in order to focus on his narrative.  What Sorkin does provide, however, is a wealth of details and anecdotes about the events in question and a brisk, cross-cutting style of writing that accentuates the flow and drama of the story.  It is as engrossing as a work of fiction and it's a pity it isn't given how much disruption and pain the facts have caused us all.

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Posted 3 months ago

'The Guns of August' by Barbara Tuchman

[Cross-posting latest book summary I put out on LinkedIn.]

The Guns of August (http://www.amzn.com/0345476093) is a book I've been meaning to read for quite a while and finally did.  It is approaching the 50th anniversary of its acclaimed publication and its subject, the start of World War I, will have its centennial in a few years.  (I suspect there will be many new commemorations as we approach that anniversary.)

In any case, the book is beautifully written by Barbara Tuchman and gave me a much better understanding of one of the great inflection points in modern history.  Beyond the tragedy of the war itself (over 16 million dead), the arc of the rest of the 20th century was spawned or hastened by the results of this war and the peace treaty which followed.  In a sense, Tuchman's organization of the book mirrors this ripple effect as she only focuses on the lead up to the conflict in Germany, France, England and Russia and then the first month of hostilities, where the momentum of pre-determined grand strategies mixed with specific choices and vacillations by variously flawed leaders and the effect of contingent events dictated the course of the rest of the war with its years of stalemate and killing.

It's seems hard to believe now that governments and their citizens could have so grossly miscalculated the length and severity of the war as they entered into it.  Of course, this sort of failure in perception is not unique.  Countries, companies and people do it all the time, just rarely with such fateful consequences.

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Posted 4 months ago

My Albums of the Decade

WXPN published their top 88 Albums of the Decade last week: http://xpn.org/allaboutthemusic/xpns-albums-of-the-decade-6146. This prompted me to compile my personal favorites list in chronological order, which I tried to restrict to less than 20 entries.

  • Sailing to Philadelphia by Mark Knopfler (2000)
  • Look into the Eyeball by David Byrne (2001)
  • Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco (2002)
  • Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips (2002)
  • Cuatros Caminos by Café Tacvba (2003)
      though Sino (2007) is also excellent

  • Feast of Wire by Calexico (2003)
      though Carried to Dust (2008) is also excellent

  • O by Damien Rice (2003)
  • Electric Version by The New Pornographers (2003)
      though I really enjoyed all four of their recordings in the decade

  • The Clarence Greenwood Recordings by Citizen Cope (2004)
  • Illinois by Sufjan Stevens (2005)
  • Plans by Death Cab for Cutie (2005)

  • Fox Confessor Brings the Flood by Neko Case (2006)
  • St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley (2006)
  • Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon (2007)
  • Santogold by Santogold (2008)
  • Asking for Flowers by Kathleen Edwards (2008)

I probably could have included the self-titled Fleet Foxes (2008) on the list and definitely would have if I could have substituted my two favorite tracks from their Sun Giant EP released earlier that year for my least favorite tracks on the full recording.

I noticed I don't have any entries for 2009. I'm not sure if that reflects the quality of the music for the year (or more probably) my tendency like so many others to get and listen to individual tracks rather than becoming immersed in full recordings. That said, I did particularly enjoy Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle by Bill Callahan, Give Up the Ghost by Brandi Carlile, Manners by Passion Pit and Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix.

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Posted 5 months ago

'The Myth of the Rational Market' by Justin Fox

[Cross posting latest book summary I added to LinkedIn.]

I found The Myth of the Rational Market (http://www.amzn.com/0060598999) to be a very informative survey on the evolution of Finance - and its touch points with Economics - throughout the 20th century and into our own.  Justin Fox is a journalist by profession and he strikes a good balance between not trivializing a complex subject while not making it too dense for a reader outside the disciplines covered.
The narrative is roughly in chronological order and the author focuses each chapter on an important contributor or two in this evolution.  However, the linking theme and narrative arc to the story is the gradual rise to pre-eminence of the rational/efficient theory of markets, the impact of this theory on the actual conduct of business in securities markets (including the conceptualization and utilization of new financial instruments like index funds and derivatives) and the eventual backlash of concerns about the limitations of the theory in practice as well as flaws in its intellectual underpinnings, particularly from contributors in the field of behavioral economics.
The book was effectively completed before the most recent financial crisis, though the author does conclude with an epilogue which addresses the crisis in the context of his themes and how these events clearly underscored the concerns and limitations with the rationality of markets and its participants.  However, he does not offer any prescriptive guidance as to where to go next.
There are a *lot* of players to this story and I found the 'Cast of Characters' summary very helpful over the course of my reading.  Also, Justin Fox was a guest on EconTalk shortly after the book was published (http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/07/justin_fox_on_t.html) and the discussion is helpful in both complementing and amplifying his thinking.  In fact, this conversation was the reason I bought the book in the first place.

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Posted 5 months ago

Habaneros

Last chilis ripening for the season on our incredibly prolific - and super hot - habanero plant.

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Posted 7 months ago

Frozen Birdbath

This was an odd early morning sight in our San Jose backyard.

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Posted 7 months ago

'Nixonland' by Rick Perlstein

[Cross-posting latest book summary I put out on LinkedIn.]

Despite its title, this book (http://www.amzn.com/074324303X) is more a political-cultural history of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the US than a biography of Richard Nixon per se.  However, Rick Perlstein's thesis is that Nixon both stoked and gained from the 'angers, anxieties and resentments' of the time and is thus the engine of the story.  In that sense, Nixonland is the author's shorthand term for illuminating the partisan divide that he believes originated in the mid-60s and persists to this day - albeit in a less antagonistic form (which may seem surprising until you learn - or are reminded of - some of the violent events that happened during those years).

Perlstein is a vibrant writer who weaves extensive research into a propulsive narrative about a period in US history where a stew of racial, class, generational and Vietnam war tensions boiled over.  He uses an interesting organizational framework for the book, dividing it into four sections that more or less revolve around the biennial elections between 1966 and 1972.  While he clearly writes from a leftist point of view, Perlstein seems to be fairly equal opportunity in his critiques of various politicians and other luminaries, irrespective of party affiliation.  Perlstein does mostly skewer Nixon, though it is hard to argue with that judgment of a fascinating but very deeply flawed leader.

My biggest complaint is that the book is probably too long by a hundred pages or so and it could have used some tighter editing to convey the key themes without extraneous details or diversions.

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Posted 7 months ago

Christopher Burkett

Photographer Christopher Burkett showing some of his eye popping large format nature studies during a reception at Photography West in Carmel.  His website is: http://www.christopherburkett.com/

 

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Posted 8 months ago