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Book of the Month... August 2003 |
by Alan Eisenstock
The premise of this book - a group of men have a weekly basketball game that anchors their lives - is so wholesome and therapeutic, it's easy to go into it with a jaded eye. But that won't last for long, since Eisenstock's account is surprisingly unsentimental. A veteran TV writer (Sanford and Son; What's Happening!; etc.), Eisenstock, like many other Los Angelenos of means, moved his family out of the city and up to Santa Monica soon after the Rodney King riots. At his palatial new spread, he realizes a long-festering dream: to have a basketball hoop like he had at his childhood home back East. As it's a crime to let a hoop go unused, Eisenstock assembles an informal pickup game of 10 guys every Sunday that quickly evolves into something much greater. The game becomes the place where these men - almost exclusively white, affluent and professional - can come and, in short, monosyllabic style, of course, talk about their lives with someone besides their spouses or therapists. Months turn into years, and the game becomes an almost-sacrosanct institution that these men plan their weeks around. Befitting his background in TV writing, Eisenstock has an ear for fast, punchy dialogue and quickly capturing a mood. There's little sermonizing about what this guys' coffee klatch ultimately means, but when the game finally comes to a close, there's no doubt the players will miss their weekly ritual.
Publisher Weekly Review
You must read this book! That's all there is to it.
Jim Bracewell, Editor, MENSIGHT
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TEN ON SUNDAY Excerpt.. Chapter One |
I grab my basketball, jog outside, and start to pop. The backboard is soft and dead, causing more shots than not to drop through the net. I'm used to playground baskets, gunmetal backboards sporting tight rust-colored double rims. Nothing falls unless it's dead-solid perfect. This is better. Shoot, swish; shoot, swish; shoot, swish. I'm in a zone. I got the feeling. Flush with success, I lower the rim to six feet and I am Shaq. Quick power bursts to the rim, two-handed over my head. Slammmmmdunk! I return the rim to regulation and hit thirteen foul shots in a row.
Exuberant, I huff into the kitchen, where Bobbie, a silent smile on her face, sits at the table, flipping through the newspaper. I swig a glass of water.
"Nice shooting," she says.
"It's the hoop. It's perfect."
She smiles wider.
"How would you feel about having a game here?" I ask her.
"When?"
"I don't know. Sunday morning, how's that?"
"This Sunday or every Sunday?"
I wipe my mouth with the bottom of my T-shirt.
"You know I've always wanted a weekly game."
"I know. Okay, call some people," she says.
"I think I will."
"No assholes," she warns.
"You're making this tough," I say.
Read all of Chapter One
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Columns, Articles and NEWS... |
MEN'S NEWS TICKER © 2000 - Click on headline for story details
GUEST ARTICLE... by Glenn Sacks
The Betrayal of the Military Father
When Gary, a San Diego-based US Navy SEAL, was deployed in Afghanistan in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, he never dreamed that his service to his country would cost him his little son. Gary's son was not taken from him by a terrorist or a kidnapper. This 17-year Navy veteran with an unblemished military and civilian record was stripped of his right to be a father by a California court.
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GUEST ARTICLE... by Joanne Mariner
Stopping Prison Rape
Back in 1824, the Reverend Louis Dwight traveled down the East Coast and through the South, visiting prisons. Reporting back, he agitated for reform, so troubled was he by the abuses he had uncovered.
"I have found melancholy testimony to establish one general fact, viz., that boys are prostituted to the lust of old convicts," Dwight described. "Nature and humanity cry aloud for redemption from this dreadful degradation."
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Click here to support the Prison Rape Reduction Act of 2003
COYOTE... monthly column by Dick Prosapio
Extraordinary..
Responsible historians want to get the facts straight, and that's not an easy task. They know, just as we do, the truth of the saying, "The victors write the history". In addition there's the distortion that takes place as the event recedes in time and first person accounts, unreliable as they can be, are lost and we are left with second, third, fourth hand and finally mythical reports of what "really happened".
Go to Article Coyote Archive
JEFF'S LIFE... monthly column by Jeff Stimpson
Wing Ning Ning
This sunny Sunday, Jill thinks we should take Alex and Ned on a train ride. She suggests a half-hour ride to Westchester County on Metro-North, a local commuter line.
Go to Article Jeff's Life Archive
Men Facing End-of-Life Decisions... series by Charles Antoni, LCSW, RN
Charlie D's Story
"Yeah yesterday I was a gentleman and today I’m a bum." Oh Really why is that? "Well ya see, yesterday (actually three years ago) I had my own house, a Cadillac, and a hundred thousand in the bank. Today, I’m busted and they are talkin bout throwin me and the ol’ lady out of here". What had happened to change Charlie from prince to pauper? Approximately three years before our conversation Charlie had been caring for his wife (she had dementia related to alcoholism) in their home. He was capable of managing her and the house. On the way to the grocery store one day he was rear ended and sustained a back injury. His care giver days were over and they were forced to look for some sort of accommodations. They settled on an affordable Assisted Living Facility. The price was 1500.00 dollars a piece per month (room and board only and no incidentals). I am sure you can do the math; three thousand a month x 3 years = 96,000.00 and change.
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THE NEW INTIMACY... monthly column by Judith Sherven, Ph.D. and James Sniechowski, Ph.D.
The Unexpected Spiritual Teachers of Real Life Love
Over the past fourteen years, while providing thousands of workshops on relationship skills and gender reconciliation for both couples and singles, scores of people have asked us, "Why does love have to be so hard? I've been in therapy and read the books, but I keep having the same problems."
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Guest Article... in three parts by Donald R. Walker
The Haunted Forest: A Spiritwalk: Part 2
After I'd primed my spiritual pump, it wasn't long until I heard the call of the Otherworld once again. One day I was watching the celebration of the Eucharist and I suddenly experienced the Ashvamedha-the Vedic Horse Sacrifice-superimposed over the Anglican ritual. This wasn't an hallucination-the vestments were not magically transformed to the garb of northern India 6,000 years ago, the priests weren't intoning Sanskrit. But the Christian imagery of the Eucharist was stripped away and the deep structure of the ritual-the ancient cycle of death and renewal was manifest. I don't think the Ashvamedha was significant-I was reading a selection of hymns from the Rig Veda at the time-but it could just as easily have been the Greek tale of Demeter and Kore or the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris.
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Click here to support the Prison Rape Reduction Act of 2003
MENSIGHT Magazine is another free service of The Men's Resource Network, Inc. (MRN). It has grown out of the response that we have received from articles posted on TheMensCenter.com (TMC), our official web-site. The first issue went on-line on May 1, 2000. (Archive)
MENSIGHT is dedicated to publishing diverse articles for and about men. We believe that there are valuable lessons to be learned from the advocates of all the various men's issues.
MENSIGHT will publish articles, stories and information that will be welcomed by many and controversial to others. We offer the magazine for your edification but you are free to disagree or reject what you do not like. Be advised that we do not necessarily agree with every position that is expressed here.
We hope that you will be entertained, informed, educated, stimulated, and/or motivated by what you read here. We seek to empower men to be the authority of their own lives. We do not seek to tell men what to think or feel.
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