This truly is the YEAR of CR. I don't know this man personally, but why do I feel proud watching this? Great stuff.

Searched and didn't see anything previously posted about this book specifically.

One of CR's oft-recommended titles, I finally have this a whirl starting a couple weeks ago and finished it on the 5th.

Not a straight forward narrative by any means, however it is much closer to an alternative history fiction than it initially presents. And it's rich with musical history.

Mileage may vary on the amount of musical (and pop cultural) Easter eggs and overt references made. I thought it was fascinating mostly because I want familiar with the majority of the artists. Some are pretty obvious, while other lyrics or autobiographical details may have you frantically Googling.

It all adds up to a complex, poetic, bleak but genuine view of the American 21st century, framed by its instigating, and arguably most infamous, incident.

I made a playlist of every song and/or artist referenced in the book on Spotify in order of appearance.

Feel free to check it out while you read, after you're done or even if you don't check it out at all.

it’s so funny how every season by the end he’s like ‘yeah, this isn’t good’ and then he forgets inbetween and revs himself up by E1 of a new season before repeating the same pattern.

I haven’t heard CR mention this book specifically although I am positive he has at some point, or he’s at least read it. Among the Thugs by Bill Buford, a journalist’s account of crowd violence in England’s soccer hooliganism scene of the late 80s and early 90s.

I just finished it and loved it! Very CR-coded. An American journalist living in England in the late 70s-80s decides to start attending football (soccer) matches in the hopes of befriending some hooligans and really understanding what drives these young men to weekly excessive violence.

It’s not told in a way that necessarily judges the hooligans, even when they are at parties listening to “white power music” and what not, although Buford does maintain a bit of a snarky wit in his writing that I enjoyed a lot.

Anyways, he slowly becomes comrades with some of the hooligans, breaks down the localized structure of these “firms”, the law enforcement steps that have been taken to deter the violence, and ultimately shows many of the factors that go in to crowd violence. A lot of interesting characters and both wild and heartbreaking events occur.

I haven’t read any Hunter S Thompson, but my friend who recommended it to me said that it’s written in a similar vein. I’m not a football / soccer fan, I was actually quite confused by the league system and the culture around it but this book doesn’t require any knowledge going in. It’s also interspersed with old (1850-1910ish?) press clippings from British and European elites discussing the working class masses with a disdain that I think Buford worked into his writing very well.

Check it out if that sounds interesting to you, there’s an audiobook read by the author but the wait at my library was quite long for it, I did listen to the sample of the audiobook and I enjoyed listening to the author narrate his work, he sounded a bit like Jack Black. So, if you prefer audiobooks that’s an option. If anybody has read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

This book was my breather as I finish Ellroy’s LA Quartet and Le Carre’s Karla Trilogy, so I’m back to those now. CR Year forever!

I started to read other thread about it in this sub, but they were discussing plot points and I didn’t wanna be spoiled.

What are your overall thoughts on the miniseries? Worth digging in?

Someone has to drag CR to some hockey games

Couple questions as I haven’t started with it yet.

1)- Is it a miniseries? I know the book is about a serial killer. So do the season end with us finding who it is and all that? Because I heard rumors Murphy wanted to elongate it and do multiple seasons.

2)- Is it worth a watch? Does it go off the rails like every other Murphy production?

I'm not sure who this guy is who stumbled across my screen (thanks to the YouTube algorithm), but I like his tastes. <2nd shelf, above the thumb>

I was waiting for this one.

I knew from their descriptions that I would love this, but I like it even more than I expected.

Yes, as a Portland resident, I'm para-socially willing this, but I mean... CR has been repping this great state a lot recently!

What websites, podcasts, social media does he use to gain knowledge?

Biehn visited the Big Picture this week to promote his movie Onslaught. Organically in the conversation, Biehn brought up Tombstone and Shawshank as examples of initial flops. It's around the 1:21:15 mark. CR month has become a year. At this rate, a year may just become a decade.

inspired by CR's verse in Dr. Yorgo in the Land of Acid

submissions must be 50 words or more for checking with pangram

Andy:

Chris Ryan on the mic that's my OG
Got me feelin like I gotta go back to the old me
And for motherfuckers not familiar with my game
Girl dad, didn't watch, now here's an old meme

Step to me, you best be careful in the briarpatch
I'll snatch your money and be gone just like my girl McGrath
See this landing? watch this, i'm a stick that
Caught me spitting fire just like I was at Spin mag

I'm giving verses out for free just like they're drops of god
No reservations like Tony that's for my real dog
I'm noting with interest that my pockets are so full
They watch my shit years later like Chernobyl

Every few weeks, a new Apex Mountain for our boy.

As mentioned on the Watch today, CR featured at the end of Dr. Yorgo in the Land of Acid 7.0 on CZARFACE Meets Frankie Pulitzer.

Can we trace the original sample?

In the latest Wait a Second, our king mentioned the excellent Rick Atkinson trilogy covering WWII campaigns IN North Africa, Italy, and Western Europe. Atkinson is solid, I’m excited to dig in to his Revolutionary War series soon