The Grey NATO – 325 – Book Club 4

Published on Thu, 17 Apr 2025 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

In this episode of The Graynado (#325), hosts James Stacy and Jason Heaton discuss recent activities and share book recommendations in their fourth installment of Book Club. Jason recounts his recent trip to England for the Goodwood Members Meeting, where he witnessed intense vintage car racing and participated in IWC's activation around their upcoming F1 film. James shares his experience with home renovation and drywall installation.

The main segment focuses on book recommendations, with each host sharing two picks. James recommends Raymond Carver's short story collection "Where I'm Calling From" and Sigurd Olson's nature writing classic "The Singing Wilderness." Jason recommends Mark Twight's climbing memoir "Kiss or Kill" and Sam Smith's automotive writing collection "Smithology," with an honorable mention of the novel "Chain Gang All Stars."

The episode concludes with final notes featuring YouTube channel recommendations: James highlights Home Renovation DIY with Jeff Thorman, while Jason discusses an interesting video about the vintage Seiko Fieldmaster "Contra" watch from the Blair Watch Project channel.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacy Hello and welcome to another episode of the Graynado. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 325 and it's proudly brought to you by the always growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you so much for your continued support. And if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. My name is James Stacy, and I'm joined as ever by my friend, my co-host, and the birthday boy, Jason Heaton. How we doing? I'm doing older.
Jason Heaton A little bit older. I am older. A fraction.
James Stacy Luckily, the fraction gets more narrow each year. You're not as more old as you were last year.
Jason Heaton Correct. Yeah. Yeah. A little older than last week's show, but ever so slightly. Yeah.
James Stacy Happy birthday, man.
Jason Heaton That's great. Yep. Dawning nicely. The sun's out.
James Stacy Took the dog for a nice walk.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Stacy Life's good. That's nice, man. I went for a walk last night. It wasn't cold and it wasn't rainy and there was no snow and it was really nice. Um, I spent the weekend, uh, hanging drywall, which is a new experience for me.
Jason Heaton I've, I've patched a few kind of holes in walls and things, but, um, I've been pretty good. Um, I spent the weekend, uh, hanging drywall, which is a new experience for me. I've, I've patched a few kind of holes in walls and things, but, um, I've been pretty good. Um, I spent the weekend, uh, hanging drywall, which is a new experience for me. I've, I've patched a few kind of holes in walls and things, but, um, And we just tackled it and it took, you know, kind of two full days to do. And I do have a final note related to this that I'll, I'll get to later, but we, um, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, It was a good learning experience and a lot of fun. Quite exhausting, like, you know, not so much the physical part of it, but just like, you know, being on our feet and working two 10, 12 hour days kind of doing it, but in the end, very satisfying. So that was, that's the big news here. I, you know, camping last weekend and drywalling this past weekend. So it's something new. Yeah, it was great.
James Stacy And were you, did you also do the taping and the mudding or did you hire a pro for that?
Jason Heaton Uh, she's going to hire a pro for that. We, we bought the supplies and we're all set to do it, but then just ran out of time with, you know, the actual cutting and, and hanging the drywall took a lot longer than we thought. And for sure, um, that stuff needs to get done before other, you know, kind of plumbing electrical stuff gets, gets done. So it's going to be easier to just hire somebody who can whip it out pretty quickly, but. Yeah, it was it was it was good fun.
James Stacy Yeah. The last time I did a major Renault like with drywall was when I when I previously lived in Hamilton. So we're talking like 2010 2011. Yeah. And we redid the basement and we hung all the drywall, including the ceiling, like myself and some friends. Yeah. And then every single person that I knew in the trades, my brother, my brothers, you know, all these people were like, don't don't mud and tape. It's not that expensive to have a pro come in because they're going to be so much faster.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy And so I hired a guy at their recommendation and I had looked at the room and they're like, well, it's gonna take you like five or six hours and you're always gonna be unhappy with some of the work. Like you'll see it when the sun hits it a certain way or the light from the TV or something like that, it won't be right. And they're like, this guy's gonna come in, it's gonna take him an hour. I was like, there's no way. And I watched this guy for about two minutes and it was like the Tasmanian devil. It was just like a whirlwind, and then he would move out of the way, and the seam would be perfect. It was amazing. What a skill set. So, so pleasing to watch. Somebody who's really good at that. But hanging drywall, I found, you know, as long as you've got the right tools and a process down, pretty fun. Yeah, it is fun. A little bit of problem solving, pretty straightforward.
Jason Heaton Yeah, yeah.
James Stacy Dusted off some of my math, you know, like figuring out certain corners.
Jason Heaton Get the protractor out, for sure. Yeah, right, right, yeah. Well, that's great, man. Well, you had a very different weekend. I did. You were across the pond watching vintage cars race around, right?
James Stacy Yeah, I went for a very quick trip to England for the Goodwood Members Meeting. This is the 82nd annual Goodwood Members Meeting. So Goodwood kind of has three major events on their calendar, I think, which would be Members Meeting, Revival, which is like the throwback event where you dress up in period clothing and it's all vintage cars, and then Festival of Speed, which is the hill climb, which is essentially on the driveway. to to the the property and that sort of thing and and so I've never been to any of them and and it was definitely on my list of car events in the world to get to Something at Goodwood and I got to say man. It might be the best one Wow Especially if you want to see cars Driven really hard like I don't know where else you're gonna see somebody drive a short wheelbase 250 Ferrari You know, I would say let's call it just a nine million dollar car Yeah, and like I have photos of it coming out of the race with like some pretty strong tire rub from another vehicle on its door Wow, yeah, like the the the both the level of driving and the intensity of the driving is unlike anything that car week that I've ever experienced and Super fun. The sound's amazing. The crowd's incredible. The grounds are just stunning. And after years of watching Festival of Speed shootouts on YouTube and really watching a lot of the racing and being able to sit right by the chicane and watch everything from the 28-plus liter Beast of Turin to like, you know, a Ferrari GT3 car come through that. And they even ran the Yoda or Joda. Sorry, I always thought it was Yoda, but apparently they all pronounce it Joda. Joda Racing Team Cadillac, the Le Mans winning, like one of the fastest things on four wheels in the world. Also did a few demo laps. It's really, really, really cool day. We were there with IWC. Obviously they have, a huge thing coming up with the launch of the f1 film which is the end at right at the end of june yeah and uh and so that's a you know a major motion picture same director as top gun maverick uh kaczynski and then the lead is brad pitt and you've got uh damson idris and uh and like a whole cast and i believe it's about a f1 driver coming out of retirement to help a team and iwc has built you know an array of watches a team watch a watch for the leads a watch for brad pitt's character sonny hayes and then they also have you know like the the way the way that they've approached filming The movie, I think this will be more apparent when it comes out, but it's sort of cutting edge. They haven't filmed racing sequences like this, and there are several parts of the movie that were filmed in tandem with last season's F1 races. So it actually takes place with other F1 drivers and their cars on the track. And I've seen some of the tech that goes into how they filmed it. And if you look at something like Top Gun Maverick, really cutting edge ways of displaying a pilot in a cockpit, which isn't that different, all things considered, than a race car driver in the cockpit of a Formula One car. So I think we'll learn more about the film as we get closer to it. And hopefully there's easy opportunities to see it once it comes out in June. I'm excited for the film, maybe more excited for the film than the watches. or that sort of thing. But they did a whole sort of activation where they drove one of the hero cars from the film. It's like an AMG GT, but they chased it with a Mercedes filming SUV, like an ML that's all set up with a Russian arm. And so they did that while broadcasting, you know, the stunt driver kind of driving laps. And then they came out and did like a little scene from the film of the one driver, the young driver played by Damson Idris winning a race. And then it just went back to this insane racing. It was it was a pretty pretty packed and busy day, but really really exciting for sure yeah You know I probably the the high point for me was at the end of the day Sun is starting to set I got lucky enough there. You know I was on a trip with a couple other folks, but I IWC had like more than 50 people there and that included Wesley Smith from Standard H, shout out Wesley. And like, talk about the ideal dude to hang out with at one of these events. We just had a blast and I even got to spend some time, although nowhere near enough, he had to leave early for his very long flight home, but Andy Green from the OT podcast was there. I love these guys. So that was a real treat to not only be in one of my favorite places, you know, a cool car show, but also with some folks that I really enjoy. and so got to walk around with those guys and see some stuff but by the end of the day Andy had left Wesley and I grabbed a beer and kind of hung out on a grassy hill next to the track kind of down away from the front the front straight and watched the Dan Gurney Cup which is all like 60s prototype cars so like Chevron V8s four GTs, and this absolutely darling, one of my favorite cars I've seen in a long time, but this just darling 206S Ferrari, which looks like a little Le Mans car now. And yellow wheels, red, open top, awesome. And they just drove the lug nuts off these cars, man. Like you it I don't even like it kind of defies logic you what I've gone to Laguna Seca and watch classic racing and sometimes that can get kind of heated. These guys were out for blood. Like you're just you're not going to see like I said like we they lost the GT like someone crashed a GT during that race. That poor 206 is going to need some bodywork because it's the front nose was kind of caved in by the time the race was done. It's like it really feels way more intense than than the stuff I've watched in the past from this sort of thing These aren't parade laps. These guys are on it. Yeah. Yeah red-hot glowing brake discs and Squealing tires and cars going off the track and bumping and all this. It's just amazing Wow, I I will see if they've already published the video for the Gurney Cup, and I'll include it in the show notes, but it was absolutely awesome. By the time this comes out, my photo report from the day with IWC at Goodwood should be on Hodinkee, or roughly the same time, might be Wednesday, might be Thursday, but it was just a truly amazing event. A big thank you to IWC for the invite and a huge shout out to Wesley and Andy for hanging out and, you know, holding lenses as I'm switching between one to the other, kind of on the fly as we're walking around. It was a really fun day, packed but fun.
Jason Heaton I'm exhausted. Yeah, I can imagine. Yeah.
James Stacy I got back Sunday night, no clue what time it was, tried to watch the Bahrain GP, and like I was falling asleep for 10 or 15 laps at a time, and I, you know, Sarah would just give me an elbow and I'd wake up and see who was in the lead and drift back off. Just sleepy. But yeah, I'm home now until the Vancouver Time Piece show, which I'm so excited about. We're a little less than two weeks away. And with the show being that close, I can finally share some details about the hangout we're going to be doing this year, much like last year with the Toronto Time Piece show. We're doing a hangout for the Vancouver Time Piece show. It's Sunday night. So to end the show, show ends at about five, event is six to eight at a location which will be shared to those who are SVP and are accepted. You know, we have limited availability. It is with Marathon and with Rolldorf, so it's actually a nice three-way party. Jason Gallop was kind enough to want to be involved, so we should have a really good time. You'll find the link to RSVP, it should already be shared in the Slack by the time you hear this, but it'll also be in the show notes for this episode if you'd like to RSVP. Again, that'll be Sunday night, beer, wine, finger foods, all that sort of stuff. I think it's going to be a really nice way to close out the show. We have roughly the same amount of space for people that we had in Toronto. So I think it's the right number. But obviously, if there's a huge response, it may be difficult to see everybody. So apologies if that ends up being the case. I figure some people will be heading home Sunday evening, and the party will be more available for folks who are either staying through to Monday or kind of live in the area. So hope to see you there. I'm really excited about it. And hit the show notes if you want to RSVP.
Jason Heaton Amazing. Yeah. Geez, you've had such a whirlwind. I mean, April. I mean, yeah, it's been a lot about this month. I mean, Watches and Wonders, the UK for Goodwood, and then Vancouver. I mean, that's yeah, I'm super excited for Vancouver. Yeah, yeah, that's great. I'd love to get to Goodwood. I mean, any one of their events. I think the revival one would be my favorite.
James Stacy But yeah, I think that's yeah, if I get to go back for a revival, I definitely would. I also just realized how long it had been since I was in the UK. And if the scenario were any different, if the workload was a little less, if Sarah wasn't quite as pregnant, if we didn't have as many things going on, I would have tried to extend a day or two. I got some nice messages from folks asking if I might be around for a hangout on Sunday, and I was flying out Sunday midday, so I just didn't have the time this time around. But Ives definitely hadn't been to England in quite some time. We figured probably just before the pandemic even.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Stacy I missed Henry. He was going on Sunday and I was going on Saturday. So shout out Henry. I hope you enjoyed the final day.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And do you have to be invited to these or can anybody go and buy a ticket or how does that work?
James Stacy That's a great question. I literally have no idea. There were so many people there. I have to assume you could buy a ticket and attend. Yeah. Right. But if they were all members, kudos to Goodwood.
Jason Heaton Yeah, you know, whenever we do these episodes that are kind of bookended around trips and stuff, it's this weird time warp because we recorded, you know, the February Q&A, I think last Wednesday. And then, you know, between then and now, you know, you've been to the UK and back and done all of this. And it's just, it seems so weird. I mean, that's just the nature of modern travel. That sounds like a great trip.
James Stacy Yeah. Yep. I enjoyed it. It's easy. It's good when it's a quick trip, because you can really just go in and get out. But as soon as I got there, I was like, maybe it shouldn't have been such a quick trip. It was just nice to be there.
Jason Heaton Great part of the world. All right, well, we have a fun episode. We're revisiting a topic that we haven't done for, gosh, a year and a half. It's been a while. So yeah, right. I'm excited to get into it. But before we do that, let's do some wrist check. What did you wear, by the way, to Goodwood?
James Stacy I wore the CWC. Oh, cool. It needed to go home. Yeah. So yeah, I wore the CWC. Nice. CWN1. Yeah. And yeah, you know, super nice to bring it back back to Britain. I had sent Mal an email just on the off chance that he was going to be at Goodwood. Oh, cool. And we might have gotten a chance to hang out, but it didn't work out this time. Yeah. You know, Silverman's remains on the list for the next time I'm in London with any sort of free time at all. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I, uh, I wore, uh, I wore the CWC, CWN1 and it's, you know, it's just perfect. Easy to wear on time. It's also not a brand that any other brand is good. Like there's like CWC so subtle and specific, like IWC is not going to feel threatened by that. It's not like wearing a Rolex where some people might care. Although I find that nobody cares usually.
Jason Heaton I do have, I do have a little interesting tidbit, uh, along those lines. I remember, so when CWC first, you know, started in the seventies and into the eighties with their watches, they, um, you know, their logo, uh, was just the three letters CWC. There was no oval around it. Like we see now, um, and a very different, very, you know, sans serif, very subtle font. Um, and then when they went to revive that for the 1980 reissue divers a few years back, I believe they either ran afoul of or ran into trouble or had to consult with or maybe got a letter from IWC because there was this thought that without the oval the CWC could be confused with or look too similar to the IWC logo. Um, it was, it was a weird thing. I remember talking to Mal about it years ago, um, that they, you know, they, they either had to convince IWC that they were using a very limited number. You know, they were just making a limited run of watches with that old style logo, but, you know, going forward, they would continue to use the oval, which would be enough of a differentiator. But I always thought that was a weird and kind of interesting overlap. So, you know, I guess the big brands do have some awareness of, of some of these smaller guys, but, uh, yeah, I thought I'd throw that tidbit in there.
James Stacy Yeah, I would assume that from a brand level, they're definitely aware whether or not it bothers a PR person or something like that. It's something I stopped worrying about years ago. If I have a watch from the hosting brand, cool. Otherwise, I just try and pick a watch that matches the sort of vibe of that brand or just something I want to wear. And if I'm actually worried about it, I'll wear a Timex. You're not going to bother anybody with that. But the CWC needed to come back to England. So I think that was fun and a good one for sure. How about you for this week? I think you're wearing quite a fitting watch for today, and one that aligns with a story I just finished reading before we started recording that you put up on your sub-sac today. A great story about this watch.
Jason Heaton Oh, thanks. Yeah, it's my Submariner. So my 14060M that I got back when I turned 40. So a number of years ago on this date, and the back is engraved with the date that I got it. And it's, you know, this came up, this watch was part of our early year kind of tournament where we were picking a one watch and it made it a little ways in, but then it ended up losing out. But Um, it remains, you know, a core piece in my collection and not one that I wear a ton, but I have had it on for probably the past week straight. And I started out with it on the bracelet and then, you know, I switched it over to, I've got it on a Navy blue NATO strap, which looks pretty awesome on ice. But, uh, yeah, I'd forgotten how tight the clearance is when you put the Rolex spring bars in, uh, on these. Uh, five digit Rolex is how tight it is to get a NATO in there, but it looks great.
James Stacy Yeah, definitely back in the day when I got my 16570, I put a leather NATO on it and I pulled it through and just destroyed the strap. Like it had a permanent like, you know, like if you dig your fingernail into like Horween, it kind of goes a brighter color. I just essentially destroyed the strap. I gave it a full pinstripe. Yeah, that's a good one though. Highly recommend everybody check out your story.
Jason Heaton Oh, thanks. Yeah. Yeah, this watch has been through a number of interesting things with me, so it's special.
James Stacy All right. Well, hey, how about we get into a book club? I believe you've put in the notes here that the last one was episode 258, volume 3, which was back in October of 2023. So you definitely can't say we've over indexed on books and this might even be something that suggests we don't read enough. But I have read a handful of books since then, and some I really liked, and I think you too.
Jason Heaton Yeah, right. And I've just found that I'm consuming a lot more books via audio and, you know, things we've talked about, things we haven't. But yeah, I picked a couple of kind of old favorites for this week, so I'm excited to share them. And you've got two, and then you've got an honorable mention as well. So let's dig in.
James Stacy Yeah, for sure. In the past we've had sort of a wider, so I think in the past we've done as many as five books maybe each, you know, with the interest of it not being too much and trying to be focused because a book is a commitment, even a short book is something of a commitment and you have to buy it and all that kind of stuff. So we're going to stick with two. And like you said, I've got an honorable mention of a book that came up in a previous So I'll highlight that as well. But why don't you kick it off with the first on your list?
Jason Heaton Sure. My first book is actually a collection of short stories by a well-known short story writer. I'm not sure he actually ever wrote anything longer for him. Raymond Carver. And the book is called Where I'm Calling From, New and Selected Stories. They were new and selected. back in 1988 when this came out. But I learned about this, this book I guess was released the year, this dates myself and I guess it's a fitting day to do that, the year I graduated from high school. And so I remember in college, as part of an English Lit class, studying Raymond Carver and kind of his mastery of the short story genre. And he was based in the Pacific Northwest, kind of inland Washington state. So not on the coast, um, kind of focused a lot of his stories around average everyday people, um, kind of blue collar existences, um, damaged relationships, uh, you know, personal trauma, you know, not, not terribly cheerful stuff, but he, his writing was so sharp and so poignant, um, that I think he's considered, you know, one of the, probably the top, within the top five, if there's even a way to rate writers, short story writers. And he died prematurely, just I believe, right around this time this book came out or not long after. And there was actually a movie that came out that was based on another series of short stories, some of which are in this book, called Shortcuts. And it was by Robert Altman, the well-known film director who And I recommend that movie. This isn't Film Club, but certainly when that movie came out, it came out with a bunch of acclaim and it was really quite good. And a few of the stories from this book were adapted for that film. But yeah, there are a couple stories that pop out in my head that I remember even from way back when in college reading this and then I have the book and I've got it on my bedside table now and because short stories are kind of a nice thing to read at bedtime because oftentimes you can get through the whole thing. It's really been a nice thing to kind of revisit and I'm just remembering how great Carver is and So, you know, if you're at all interested in the short story genre or kind of that slice of Americana, um, I highly recommend it. He's just a tremendous writer. It's a very spare style of writing. Very, I hesitate to say Hemingway-esque, but you know, in, in that sort of general vibe of, of, uh, minus, minus the, you know, the hyper-masculinity that you get a lot with, with some of Hemingway's stuff. It's just, it's just, just laser, laser, laser focused, um,
James Stacy uh text you know writing it's it's really really good stuff that's great yeah i'm uh i'm currently reading a book you were talking about kind of the writing style being sparse i'm currently reading a book by kevin barry called the heart in winter and i like i do like it i don't want to be unfair it was like i think the number one pick from jrvp on their final episode uh and this is how i find a lot of books is those guys have have tastes that really aligns with mine but there's no punctuation really Oh wow. So there's no quotations when someone's speaking. You don't really know who's speaking. I get lost in it. Yeah. Especially if I'm reading like at the end, like to end my day. Yeah. So I do definitely underline the style can be a big thing and I just have trouble getting into this book because I can't tell what's happening half the time. And maybe it's just a lack of intelligence or a lack of attention at that point in the day. But it can definitely make a big difference for sure. But that sounds great. And I'm a huge fan. And I think most people are because of the approachability of collected works, whether it's short stories or essays. And both of my books today are collected works of writer journalists. And in past ones, we've talked about Patrick Rodden Keefe, very similar thing with Rogues that he wrote that is sort of a collection of the work that he had done for kind of large-scale magazine work and that sort of thing. So I'm a big fan and I agree there's something just right about a short story and you know we've covered Ted Chiang on past Oh, yeah, past episodes of book club. And you know, for those of you who don't know, that's the fellow who he's done a couple collections of incredible science fiction short works, some of which have become movies like Arrival, which is, you know, absolutely fantastic. And also in the film club. So we're deeply indexed on on Mr. Chang. But yeah, there's something about that where you go like, well, I can get that done tonight. Yeah.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy And then, you know, you get it done and you've got 20 more minutes, you go, hey, maybe I'll get into the next one. And then before you know it, you could have just read anything. But yeah, the I like I do like short stories and collected works for sure.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I think. It's such a challenge, you know, I've having written a couple novels and I remember back, you know, years ago when I had graduated from college and I was taking some creative writing classes through a literary center here in town and I took a class on writing short stories and It is, it's its own skill set. And I think, you know, to view a short story as something less than a novel is really wrong because it's such a, you have to have a, you know, beginning, a middle and an end and have your characters kind of follow this arc or this journey over a much shorter space and fill in all of that in a, you know, just in fewer words. And I think Carver just does an amazing job. There's one story that stands out. And I can't exactly remember the title, but the, um, the, the, the concept is very simple and, and, you know, apologies for being a bit of a downer, but basically it's about this, uh, this mother who orders a birthday cake to be made from a local baker, um, for her young son. And, um, before the cake is done and before the birthday arrives, um, her son has an accident, slips into a coma and is in the hospital and, and. And so, you know, the party is long forgotten and the parents are distraught and they're sitting at the hospital bed and whatever. And whenever they go home to check on the house or whatever they need to do, let the dog out or whatever they're doing, there's always a message on the answering machine from this, this baker who's calling to say, your cake is ready. You need to come and pick up your cake. And it gets, he gets more and more kind of surly and confrontational about the fact that they'd never picked up this cake that he made. And it's it's just this weird setup and such a simple concept but there's so much more going on because you know it's the interactions between the husband and the wife and the child and then what's the deal with this mysterious sort of sociopathic baker and it's just it's stuff like that that is just kind of ordinary life but but really kind of deeply troubling and profound um yeah it's uh it's really good stuff i highly recommend carver any of his work Man, that's great. Sounds awesome. Yeah. All right, your turn. What's your first one?
James Stacy My first one is a book I read while we were in the Dominican a little while ago in the DR. And it's a book I read, man, in 2012. And at the time, I did not absorb it. at all. I don't know if I read it too quickly or if I wasn't paying attention. It was a book my brother gave me. Or it could just be that the difference between 2012 and 2025 is I've gotten older and I have a different perspective on some of the stuff that this writer speaks about. It is a collection of Mark Twight's work for a variety of outlets, but mostly outside. Yeah. and it's called Kiss or Kill. It's largely known. It is a bit controversial. Mark Twight's a controversial guy in the spectrum of early 90s and 2000s climbing, for sure. And I think this book is incredible. It has an attitude and a perspective that is entirely unique to the climbing world. Mark Twight's a fascinating guy. I highly recommend, if you're curious, dig into what he's done since being a climber. uh he's a purist he's one of the you know kind of a written you know known as dr doom uh he's one of the sort of first guys to really lean on the idea that um siege style mountaineering is not mountaineering uh that the only way to do this is largely alone and largely with whatever you can carry and certainly he lost a lot of friends in that process. The book is absolutely incredible. I guarantee some of you listening will get about halfway into the first essay and not like it. I really like it. There's a lot of bravado in the way that Twight speaks, but there is also, especially with this, because I have a version of the book which my brother gave me, which includes a consideration from Twight of the story several years later. So he publishes the story as it was written, and then he talks about the problems in his life, the problems in his perspective, you know, things he couldn't get out of his own way, what he thinks about it, areas he wished he had changed, areas he wished he had gone harder. Really intense sort of guy. But he has, you know, some very quotable elements throughout the book, which is really fun. The one I highlighted, which I went back last night and found in my Kindle is, it doesn't have to be fun to be fun. Like that might as well be a tattoo. Like that's really good. He's just a super intense guy, but he, I believe, and this is sometimes some of the controversy that comes up with him was he didn't always make friends in the world because he was a purist. And a lot of people didn't believe some of the claims that he made or he and his partners made in climbing because they were doing things nobody kind of believed were necessarily possible. And in many, you know, this book was first published in 2001. So we're talking about exploits of the late 80s and 90s. And I think a lot of those, you know, it was harder to prove things back in the day, right? You didn't have GPS, you didn't necessarily have a camera and all that kind of stuff. So there was some some of those sorts of things. But the book is wild. And if you love mountaineering books, it's an entirely different. It's almost like the other side of the coin from like an Ed Visters. In terms of the approach. This is very punk rock. You can tell that Mark feels things very strongly. Yeah. When he feels them. And that's that kiss or kill. It comes down to the title of the book. Like he's very on it's a very light switch sort of myopic wave and I find all of it quite appealing even as I get older Yeah, this idea of there is a pure way to do something. There's a way to critique other people's work based on that purity It's not gonna make you popular And certainly, like I said, you can dig deeper. And Mark still shows up on the occasional podcast and that sort of thing, but his role has kind of evolved. He was a climber, then he went more into the climbing photography side, and then he's moved on into other things in more recent times. So I highly recommend you dig in if you're interested, but this is called Kiss or Kill Confessions of a Serial Climber, and I really liked it.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I should read this, but I remember twice name coming up and stories about him and I suppose by him back, you mentioned outside magazine, whatever, back, you know, when I was reading a lot of that magazine back in, um, you know, the nineties and yeah, he was, he was quite the big name and I think Is it, is it he that nowadays is doing a lot of, um, he's kind of shifted into, um, physical training. Physical training for movies. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I thought. Yeah. Yeah. And he's, he's made a name for himself in that as well. So he's reinvented himself a few times, but yeah, I, I remember him being quite controversial and outspoken. So, um, yeah, I should pick this up cause you've talked about it before and definitely, um,
James Stacy Yeah, like I think if you consider the spectrum of sort of well-known American perspective climbing riders, like if you put a Vsters at one end, he has this sort of, and Ed, if you happen to ever be listening, please take this as nothing but a compliment. You're a hero. But he has this grandpa way of explaining things. It's not necessarily about him or how hard it was. It's this wide scope telling you the story. I mean, no shortcuts to the top is amazing. Highly recommend it. Then if you go somewhere in the slider in the middle, you might get a crack hour. Yeah, where he's telling the story, but you get a personal element and you have like krakauer remains From a book that he wrote about a tragedy in 1996. He's still fighting. Yeah, and and getting new information and making corrections. Yeah, he's a true hardcore journalist and then if you take the slider even more into the personality aspect and being more internal there's a very internal feeling to this it's marcus doing something public and external climbing a mountain but he's dealing with pain and perspective and anguish and and and a drive that's all coming from inside sure it's it's a it's a whole different thing and like i said some of you will get into it and go this guy's Gotta be a jerk and that doesn't bother me. That doesn't mean he can't write a great book. He might be a jerk I don't know to be fair. Yeah, and and he's definitely a guy with very strong opinions and strong feelings about stuff Yeah, but I I really enjoyed the book and the storytelling I think is great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, cool I'll send you my copy as I think it is hard to find in paper Oh, you can definitely get it on kindle or whatever. Oh sure. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Awesome Cool, good pick. All right, so what have you got for your second? Yeah, mine is about as different as you could get from both my first pick and your first pick, but it is nature related and I, you know, I'm a real, I have such a soft spot for, I guess the genre would just be kind of And this book is by a well-known outdoor writer from gosh, mid, mid century, mid 20th century named Sigurd Olson. He's quite well-known in these parts. He spent a lot of time up in the boundary country between Canada and Northern Minnesota, the Quetico, Voyagers National Park, Boundary Waters, however you want to call that area. And this book is by a well-known outdoor writer. And this is a book called The Singing Wilderness. It's become quite a classic in the genre. And there are a few other books along these lines. I've got another one called The Long Shadowed Forest, which is kind of a similar in vibe. But if you're kind of headed in that direction or just getting into this style of writing, I recommend The Singing Wilderness because It's just Olson's observations of life in the wilderness, life in the North Country. And, you know, the obvious comparison here is our good buddy, our good buddy, I'll put that very strongly in quotes, TGN hero, let's say Dick Prenike. It's very much along those lines. This is a guy who lived modestly, lived quietly in the woods, kind of among nature, very much in tune with the seasons, the weather, the animals, the plants. And the book is just a series of essays, and it follows the seasons. So there's spring, summer, fall, and winter. And, you know, a story might be about, you know, walking in the, in the woods and discovering, you know, some berries and then that leads down a path, um, you know, writing path, so to speak of, you know, some, something, some nostalgia or something he remembers or the animals that eat it and his observations. But these kinds of books are, I feel like this book in particular, it's a bit of an antidote to kind of our modern world and how we're, we're just bombarded with so much stuff in real time, but what's happening and doom and gloom and you know, everything, which is very important to pay attention to. But this has this timeless quality to it that reminds you of, the beauty of nature and how restorative and how therapeutic it can be. And the copy I have, I've got it in front of me here, and I don't think it's a first edition, but it has these beautiful black and white illustrations by another well-known guy named Francis Lee Jacques, who is a kind of a nature artist. And so the book is kind of interspersed with these lovely little kind of sketches. And I don't know, it's just, it's one of those books, I have a few books in this genre that you don't need to read all the way through. And this definitely does not encourage that. It's because I said, it's, it's written in these, the cycle of the seasons. Sometimes I'll pick it up. You know, we talked earlier in the show about the weather and, and April's a great time to like sit and kind of thumb through the spring section. And then I might set it aside. And you know, when I'm sitting outside on a sweltering day on the patio, you know, trying to get some shade, uh, I might pick it up and read about, you know, Sigurd Olsen's experience. jumping in a lake to cool off in the summer or something like that. And it's just, it's just that kind of book. I just find it timeless and beautiful and really well written and kind of a classic of its genre. So yeah, check it out. It's called The Singing Wilderness by Sigurd Olsson.
James Stacy Oh, that's great, man. Sounds incredible. Yeah. I don't, I don't know it. So this is a fun, and I don't know Sigurd Olsson. So this is a new rabbit hole.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's probably one of those books that you end up finding books like this always end up turning up in some box at an estate sale or in the back of a used bookstore, you know, in the nature writing area or something. And they're always fun to find them. They always kind of have the same look to the, to the, to the jacket cover and the spine and the, the, the fonts that are used in the images and stuff. They just have this. sort of warm mid-century nostalgia to them that I just love.
James Stacy Absolutely. Yeah, that's great. Good suggestion. Yeah. All right. My second one is another collected works of one of my most favorite writers. We're leaving the world of alpinism and extreme alpinism in many ways, and we're going to the automotive world. And it's called Smithology. It's thoughts, travels, and semi-plausible car writings, 2003 to 2023, from one of my absolute favorite car writers and hosts, automotive personalities ever, Sam Smith. If you don't know Sam, he's an award-winning journalist. I'll just read it right off of Goodreads because I'm not going to do better than this. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and humorist, an amateur racing driver, and a former executive editor of Road & Track. He is being a professional mechanic and a TV host for NBC Sports, and he once put the word blarg into a magazine read by more than half a million people. Most of all, though, he's in love with the automobile and what it does for us, and he can't sit still. This is an incredible collection of writing. I think you do need to like Kars because Sam's talent is derived from the love of Kars. His passion for Kars is what makes his writing so interesting. But he's exceptionally funny, very easy to read. I think I've read the majority of these stories in this book at least once just over the last 20 years. But some of the early stuff was brand new to me, like stuff I hadn't come across from the road and track days and that sort of thing. And it's just some really good storytelling. And if you want automotive themed writing that isn't necessarily about a brand new car, but more about what it is to be part of that world and to be in this guy's brain, I think he just does a fantastic job. And if you're unsure, go on YouTube, look up Sam Smith, find him on a podcast, and I think within about five minutes you'll get his personality. And it comes through exactly the same in writing. I read this book listening to his voice. He's been on, you know, Smoking Tire several times, it's great, and that sort of thing. This is a fantastic book, especially if you like cars, but the quality of the writing is also so high. It's one of those ones like, I finish one of these essays, I'm kind of laughing throughout the process, I get to the end and I kind of get sad because I'm like, I'm probably not capable of this. And it's what I aspire to. If I could be something like the Sam Smith of watches or the Sam Smith of TGN topics, that would be amazing. But let's be clear, I don't have it. I just don't.
Jason Heaton Well, it's, he's, he's incredible. I think this is an interesting pick, um, because it is adjacent to, you know, car writing is, and you've done your share of automotive writing, but you know, it is adjacent to kind of our weird world of watch writing. It's this, it's these disciplines of, of a very niche, um, sort of hobby or pursuit or whatever you want to call it. Um, that on the surface, you know, you might, you know, if you just told somebody what you did for a living or what, what you enjoyed, I could be like, what's to write about watches? Or what's to write about cars? Is this like a car review or whatever? And no, there's just so much more to it. And I think the best in each of these businesses transcends that. And it does truly become good writing. So I'm guessing that's what this is. That's really cool. Yeah, it's great stuff. Highly recommend. Yeah, good. Nice. And then to close it out. Yeah, you've got an honorable mention. So why don't you drop that one in there? I think this is one you have talked about before.
James Stacy I did. Yeah, this was on a final notes, but I didn't want it to get lost. If we're doing a book club, this is probably my favorite thing I've read in the last, you know, recent, especially for something brand new. Yeah. You know, I had read Kiss or Kill before, and this is a fiction, which is not my normal home, but it's something I've gotten much more used to taking recommendations from Sarah, my wife, who's a much more avid reader than me and much more fine to kind of move in and out of different genres and takes. and this is called Chain Gang All Stars by Nanakweme Adjibrenya. Apologies if I didn't catch that name perfectly. I adore this book. It's amazing. I can give you the tagline or the description here. um two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved prison uh private prison system not far removed from america's own so it's a commentary on the prison system in which this sort of gladiator scenario has been brought back and if you last long enough and kill enough people you get your freedom yeah and it's attacked from multiple Angles both people on the inside and outside of the process leaders people on chain gangs like you know criminals Convicted criminals and and people who are part of this and it's it's violent and exciting and kind of nothing like anything I've read before Yeah, it's really well written And eventually, I believe it will, you know, somebody will turn this into a really incredible movie. And if they pick the right director, the right actors, that sort of thing, and keep the author in step, I think they could make something quite exciting. But it's a really, really fascinating story about a very successful woman in this space coming to terms with the fact that to be free, they essentially have to go deeper into criminality, into death and murder and violence and And the whole thing is they become sort of media entities within this space. It's like, you know, the overall perspective of it would be kind of like a commentary on the UFC. Yeah. Or on prizefighting, where these people have followers and taglines and known weapons and special moves and all this kind of stuff. And honestly, I think if you grew up in the last 20 or 30 years of video games and sort of the kind of extreme levels of now casualized violence. I think there's a lot of commentary in this that's especially on a second read. I'm partway through it a second time. I just love it. It's great. Nice. So I've talked about it at least once before, so more of an honorable mention, but I didn't want to lose the chance of getting it in there. Just fantastic work.
Jason Heaton Well, that's great. And we have five good books to kind of round out Book Club volume four. You selected Kiss or Kill by Mark Twight, Smithology by Sam Smith, and Chain Gang All-Stars by Nanakwame Adyebrenya. Hopefully I'm pronouncing that right. Hopefully. Yes.
James Stacy Big fan. I probably should have just watched a YouTube video of him saying his own name. So apologies on that front. It's a great name just outside my lexicon. And you picked Where I'm Calling From by Raymond Carver and The Singing Wilderness by Sigurd Olsen, both of which sound like ones I'm going to try and get on the Kindle and get to this summer. That sounds great. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. Singing Wilderness would be great too. read at the cottage, I would suspect. Oh, yeah. Good hammock book. I like it.
Jason Heaton Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
James Stacy Right. All right. Well, let's get in some final notes then. What have you got for us this week?
Jason Heaton Yeah. Well, I mentioned at the top that I spent the weekend doing some drywall work. And in preparation for that, I watched a number of YouTube videos on techniques and tips and tricks. And one of them was A YouTube channel that people have probably heard of because he has like three and a half million subscribers. He's got a Jeff Thorman. He's an Ontario guy. And his channel is called Home Renovation DIY. And it's just chock full of good tips and tricks. I mean, I kind of just dug into the drywall stuff, but like one of his drywall videos was an hour and a half long, which I ended up, you know, fast forwarding through sections, but like good for him, but like his delivery is great.
James Stacy He's just, these are a bunch of these are really long.
Jason Heaton He's just down to earth. He's got almost a thousand videos. Yeah, I know. And, and it's a productive dude. I like it. Yeah. And, and he's, his delivery is good, but also like his, his techniques and kind of his, his little things are, are just kind of handy. Like he, you know, he had this one tip that like when you're hanging drywall ceiling, you know, take a construction screw and just a scrap of wood and kind of put it into, you know, a rafter or overhead stud and just kind of hang it loosely. And then you can, You know, it's just like these little hacks that, um, you know, experienced folks, you know, know all about, but like to watch it as a bit of a novice, um, with certain things, it's, um, it's a bit eyeopening and, and he does it in a very down to earth approachable way. And, uh, you know, I mean, we, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, We're big YouTube fans. I mean, I think there's so many opportunities to learn great skills, new skills and things on YouTube. And this is just one of them that I came across and I'm really happy with it. And I'll bookmark it and continue to use it for future projects as well. So check it out. Home Renovation DIY with Jeff Thorman. Very cool.
James Stacy Yeah. Great pick. I've subscribed even just to support a guy who's clearly out there working. I love it. That's killer. Yeah. So mine this week is a rare one for me. It's a watch, or it's a video about a watch. And it's actually just a rabbit hole I've fallen down recently. And I've been trading the occasional, you know, WhatsApp message with Kenneth Lamb, Ken Lamb from Arkin. So yeah, this is a video from a YouTube account called Blair Watch Project. Pretty good. Clever. And it's covering this weird watch that I came across on Reddit. And I'm sure some of you did as well. It's a Seiko product called... It's a Fieldmaster, which the nickname it's been given is called the Contra. It's the 2C210080, quote unquote, Contra. And it's a modular sports watch platform where each of the modules kind of spring bars together. to give you more, so there's a little, they both, they all kind of look like Bell and Ross style cases. So think like a square, I think in the video he says they're 25 or 30 millimeter squares. And there's one that just looks like a Seiko dive watch, very cool, small, quartz powered. And then there's another module that has a removable, transparent compass that you can put on a map. And then the watch also includes what's called a map meter, where you can actually set the, you can set the scale or apply the scale of the map to this little gadget that has a wheel. So when you walk the wheel along the path that you're gonna follow on the map, it tells you the distance based on the projection of the map or the scale of the map. I just think wall-to-wall this thing's unbelievably cool. I've really gotten interested in the sort of modules that have been added to watch straps or bracelets over time, you know, the Breitling Co-Pilot for an example. And this is almost like somebody saw that and said, yeah, but that could be the whole watch. so you have you have a little watch that's then spring-barred into a compass and then the whole thing is fitted to like a nato or a nylon style strap and i've just i've gone down the rabbit hole i was watching this video and then i was watching it again i was like well if you're watching the same video but watch twice it's probably a final notes and i i love these a lot i i immediately went to buy one, and they're quite expensive. So clearly, I'm not the only one to like them. I'm just late to this party. But on the off chance that you're late to this party as well, you listening, not just Jason, but anybody listening, I hope you enjoy it. These are very cool. And I don't really want to spend the better part of 1500 bucks, two grand on one. But I do think that they're exceptionally cool, and it's worth the nine minute video, for sure.
Jason Heaton Yeah, these are this is great. I'm going to watch this video because I've been aware of this watch for a while and I did not realize how expensive DC vintage watches, you know, hats off good stuff. But like, he's selling one for $1,800 for 1985. Now granted, it's full kit, whatever, but still like, it's it's wild. And it's it but it is such a unique piece of watch history and just kind of shows that that era you know that 80s and we're talking Aqualand era and Arnie and all that kind of stuff when watches were making that transition there were quartz they were whatever but they were just trying to solve problems before the advent of Suunto altimeters and Garmin's and that sort of stuff that we use and dive computers and yeah this is this is really cool I'll check that out
James Stacy The video's from a few years ago, it's from three years ago, but I really like this and I mean this as a plus. It feels like a YouTube video from a decade ago. It's just very down to earth the way that it's presented. It's very factual. I used to make videos like this where you're sitting behind the camera and you're kind of hugging the tripod and holding the watch in front of the camera and just talking about a subject and showing how it works. I just found this whole thing to be great. Big shout out to Blair. I'm going to get that wrong every time because of the movie. Big shout out to Blair Watch Project on covering this. It's got 1,400 views, which doesn't feel like enough. I highly recommend more people get into it. He's got 4,000 subscribers. I feel like we could get that number up a little bit. And a lot of it's about his favorite Seiko. So I think there's a bunch here, certainly more for me to dig into, but anybody else who might be interested in that world. And if you happen to have a Fieldmaster Contra, please share the photos on the Slack. I would love to see more. I'd love to see more of it on people's wrists or kind of like I'd love to see a picture in the field of somebody wearing it and just kind of what it looks like because it has that. And it's interesting because right at the top, The host of the video kind of shows That the I guess the module the quartz module in the little watch for the Contra is Similar to the module in an Arnie and when you see the two together you go like oh that's these are from the same world like this there could have been somebody else in predator wearing this Fieldmaster or like imagine being able to use this in a movie and Yeah, like where you pull out the little map meter and you know, maybe it's something like the edge or yeah or that sort of thing and you're lost in the wilderness. I just I this all made me very excited. So yeah, I'm sharing it along. It's also the the industrial design of the product is very good. I think it's very cool. Yeah, but yeah, if you've ever had a button compass and you decided it needed to be a whole watch, I think I think you'll dig this for sure.
Jason Heaton All right, well, final notes, two good YouTube suggestions of very different sorts. And yeah, that rounds out an episode. Well, as always, thanks so much for listening. If you want to subscribe to The Show Notes, get into the comments for each episode, or consider supporting the show directly, and maybe even grab a new TGN signed NATO, please visit TheGreyNATO.com. Music throughout a siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive.
James Stacy And we'll leave you with this very well known quote from Groucho Marx, which I'm sure some of you could even predict. Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.