Review: "That First Season"

Just got through reading the Kindle version of "That First Season: How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory" by John Eisenberg. It's a look at Vince Lombardi's first season as head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers, way back in 1959.

I'm a longtime diehard Packer fan, jumping on board in 1971, just as the Lombardi era was drawing to a close (and leading to two decades of futility). So, I was really looking forward to this read, which isolates an amazing accomplishment: the Packers went from a one-win season in 1958 to a winning season in 1959, setting the stage for an appearance in the NFL championship game in 1960, and five NFL championships or Super Bowl titles between 1961-67.  

Just what did Lombardi do to reinvent a struggling, undersized, thoroughly demoralized organization, laying the foundation for a decade of success to follow? What did he do to turn raw, misjudged or just average players into a mix of Hall of Famers and bit players who dominated their opponents? What were the secrets behind Lombardi's offensive strategy, which was to dramatically condense the playbook to roughly a dozen plays -- but run those dozen plays to perfection, making the Packers unstoppable even when you knew what play was coming?

For business people, those are intriguing questions, because they can translate to all kinds of workplace issues and challenges. So, for me, I not only embraced the book as a Packer fan but a manager looking for new ideas.

Unfortunately, the book goes so deep in the weeds on game-by-game action that the story behind Lombardi's strategic thinking gets only superficial treatment, repeating oft-told stories about Lombardi's brutal conditioning programs, verbal abuse of grown men and the focus on execution over gameplan creativity.

I picked up a lot of nuggets from a Packer-fan perspective and would recommend "That First Season" to hardcore Cheeseheads, but for casual fans or business people looking for some self-help reading, it's a pass.

I'm not O'Neil

I love Android's very smart predictive text feature, which makes the virtual keyboards on the Droid smartphone a joy to use. With one exception: "I'm" not "O'Neil."

When I type "I'm", the predictive text thinks I mean "O'Neil," which I don't. Either it's a bug or Google's data mining has determined there are many people out there who are typing "O'Neil" when they mean "I'm".

Whatever the reason, I've had to backtrack and erase "O'Neil" dozens of times after inadvertently selecting that option. What I need is Droid to really be a "smart" phone and learn from my behavior or for Google to issue a patch.

I didn't have much experience with predictive text before the Droid. Is this a common problem with other smartphones with the predictive-text feature?

The little-known instrument heard on many famous songs

The Mellotron is a little-known and often misunderstood musical instrument that is getting some love courtesy of a new documentary called "Mellodrama."

WNYC's excellent "Soundcheck" program provided a nice overview of the Mellotron and its enormous impact on music over the past 50 years. The Mellotron, which was sold in the States as the Chamberlin, was the first electronic sampler, using a variety of keys to trigger prerecorded sounds on strips of tape. Crude technology, yes, but it was good enough to serve as the foundation for tons of classic songs, including "Strawberry Fields Forever," Nights in White Satin," "2112" and "Kashmir." Today, the Mellotron is relatively ancient technology, but even Kanye West has just discovered its magic.

I've known of Mellotrons for years, after first reading about them on the liner notes to "In the Court of the Crimson King."  But I never really knew what they did or how they worked or that it basically sampled the sounds of other instruments. Or that its use was so widespread, and not just to add quick textures to songs. I've been inspired to go back and listen to lots of old music with a near ear.

So, we have documentaries on the Mellotron and the Theremin (see previous post). What's next? The E-bow, as suggested by a Soundcheck reader? Naw. My vote goes to the Linn drum machine, which for better or worse, dramatically changed drumming with its robotic precision but flat sound.