Michael Silver -- I just don't get it...

Now if James WERE talking to the potted plant in the corner, that would be a detail worth including.

 

While it's hard to argue with The Jones' expertise in the realm of cocktails, cordials and apertifs - and their meanings - my gut tells me the drink reference was pretty casual, and that Mr. Silver wasn't necessarily freighting it with any interpretative weight. Why? Because the second half of that same sentence carries no detail at all - "assemblage"? "lovely ladies"? - and makes no nod toward color or description or individuation. It sounds to me rather that Mr. Silver simply wrote out the drink order as he heard it, then retrieved it from his notebook when he started writing.

Which is fine, but like S'Fly, I'd rather hear that the drink was his usual; or his fourth; or that it made him wince; or made him mellow; or that he held it without drinking it; or that it cost $12 and he ordered a round for all the "ladies"; or that he ordered it as if he'd never tried one before; or that four college guys at the next table were drinking the same and that's how the idea came to him, etc., ad inf.

That my beloved Jones could decode and tease out the meaning of the drink says more to me about him - and about the breadth and depth of his writerly instinct - than it does about what Mr. Silver actually put on the page. But that's just me, and there's plenty of room for disagreement on the point.

Do not, however, get me started on Mr. Silver's all-seeing "I".

 

Oh, jgmacg, as usual, I agree with you 100 proof. That kind of scene deserves a couple of fat grafs, at least, with lots of telling detail -- and that's if the story's just a short hit.

If you're writing it up as a feature, you could (and should) write a couple thousand words just watching a guy like that work a bar -- what he drinks, how he interacts with people, how people interact with him, how he moves to music, who he arrives with and who ends up in the bathroom stall with him.

Of course, that kind of story would be most effective if you're just a ghost taking notes. Pretty sure that's not Silver's style.

 

Does it make you madder than Tony Soprano when he's catching a bad beat at the table, Mr. jgmacg?

 

Jonesy, you only agree with him 50 percent?

;D 8)

 

Kids these days, so damn literal.

 

That hurts, Jones, that hurts...you've got a decade or so on me -- that's not too much

 

jgmac is right -- (he or she has become a voice of reason around here, hasn't he/she?) -- the drink is a throw-away detail. it doesnt add much to the scene (it's not even a scene!!!) but it does add something. my guess is silver would've added the dialogue if he could, but sometimes noise, women or too many lime-flavored drinks prevent a reporter from getting every single detail.

let's not confuse the story for what it is. it's not an in-depth, soul-searching narrative on edge's quest for redemption. it's just a let's-check-in-with-edge type of story.

yes, silver likes to flaunt his access. yes, it can be annoying. ... but it also helps the story.

 

If I'm 14-years-old, I want to know what my sports heroes drink so I can emulate them. I don't think its any better or any worse than celeb profiles that mention what an actor is wearing or what they choose from the menu. It leaves me cold, but it probably helps justify the expense of a bar tab by mentioning it in the story. Might also lead to possible product placement opportunities for the ad reps.

 

And more confused than the cast of "John from Cincinnati."

 

I've never seen anyone so good at explaining why certain writing works and why it just fails.

About the damn drink: There's nothing wrong with stating the drink....but that's all he did, he stated it. No shading, no context....there's an art to making a simple statement and leaving bullet holes no one will find for a week. It's Patron, you don't pussy it up with Rose's--my reaction. Silver states it like it's cool, maybe he thinks it is. Mixed message, or worse, no message...a missed opportunity to paint a picture. Lovely ladies? Assemblage? It sounds like the bingo caller describing the church gals on Friday night. I read it as, 'I was here, just take my word for it.'

 

Like you said, sometimes a drink can make a statement.

For instance, what if James were at a bar with Cardinals teammates and he were drinking ginger ale while everyone else was getting loaded? And what if it were because he gave up alcohol for some reason?

THAT would be quite the story.