Month: August 2005

I have nothing particularly pithy to say. New Orleans, which thought it had dodged a bullet, is devastated by weather, infrastructure failure and human behavior. The gulf states are facing damage in terms of life and property that we won’t really know the extent of for days, as officials frantically try to rescue what’s salvageable. So, I’ve decided, and maybe you’ll decide, to donate to the Red Cross.

So, how to do this that might work to maximize the effort among folks reading this? How about this: I will give $1 to the Red Cross for every person going to my blog – they don’t even have to read it, though obviously I wish they would – between now and the end of Labor Day (Monday) at 10 pm EDT. (The counter is at 144.) The challenge is for every blogger and web person to do something similar. The need is extraordinary.

NAME: Larry Young (with Charlie Allard and Matt Smith)
BLOG NAME: AiT/PlanetLar
NAME OF CD: Astronauts in Trouble
NUMBER OF CUTS: 20
RUNNING TIME: 51:38 (the first CD I received that was shorter than mine)
COVER ART: Label
SONG LIST:
1. Prof. Hawking’s Channel Seven Promo: The World’s Smartest Man Watches Channel 7 (talk)
2. 21st Century Newscast: We Will Rock You Bipartisan Mix-EBN
3. Hayescorp Command Center: Apollo 11 Mission Control, Houston (talk)
4. AiT/TMP Opening Titles: Sing Sing Sing (with a Swing)-Louis Prima
5. In the Newsvan Tapedeck: Bad Astronaut-James Kolchaka
6. Re-Align the Low-Gain: Turn It On-the Flaming Lips
7. Heck’s Got a Hangover: Absurd- http://www.absurdfluke.com/ Fluke
8. The Moon from Inside of a Spacesuit: Oye Como Va-Santana
9. Neil and Buzz: Tranquility Base 20 July 1969 (talk)
10. Pepperoni Pizza Nightmares: Dean’s Dream-the Dead Milkmen
11. Float Me Another One: Feelin Existential-Mojo Nixon
12. Cry Me to the Moon: St. Cajetan-Cracker
13. Static, Baby-Open Frequency- http://www.sharpeworld.com/marcy/pages/article.html Dr Zomb’s Stereo Obscura
14. Annie’s Suit Radio: Greetings to the New Brunette-Billy Bragg
15. The Cows Go In: Ring of Fire-Johnny Cash
16. Home Box Office: Tom Hanks Apollo 13 (talk)
17. Not Enough Coffee to Go Around: Fade to Black-Dire Straits
18. AiT;TMP End Credits: Hi Side-the Mad Capsule Markets
19. Doomsday Plus One: Press conference-President Ronald Reagan Talk)
20. Hot Mike: Canon Help Desk-Troubleshooting (talk)
ALREADY REVIEWED BY: Gordon on August 24
GENERAL THOUGHTS: Not only did I get a CD, I (and all of the other participants) received a book. An interesting mix of talk and music, not surprising space-related.
THINGS I PARTICULARLY LOVED: All the talk snippets except the last; 3-I have a couple Benny Goodman versions, but was unfamiliar with the Prima doing it; 12-17 (I own the last three song tracks).
ON THE OTHER HAND: 7-some sort of techno-grunge that would have been OK in a short piece, but the 6-minute track felt like twice that long. 20- wasn’t prepared for the obscenity-laden tirade.
OFFICE FRIENDLY: 5 is naughty, 10 has F-bomb but it’s down so much in the mix, I nearly missed it. 20-that’s a big time no.
ONLY VAGUELY RELATED: I’m looking forward to the Johnny Cash biopic, Walk the Line, this fall.

NAME: Logan Polk
BLOG NAME: House of the Ded
NAME OF CD: The Ded Mix Vol. 2-Songs I Know By Heart
NUMBER OF CUTS: 19
RUNNING TIME: 76:59
COVER ART: Typed
SONG LIST:
1. Anyway-Dynamite Hack
2. Screaming Infidelities-Dashboard Confessionals
3. Now That It’s Over-Everclear
4. One Thing-Finger Eleven
5. Superhero Girl-Eve 6
6. Someday We’ll Know-New Radicals
7. Songs About Rain-Gary Allen
8. C’mon C’mon-Sheryl Crow
9. Always on My Mind-Phantom Planet
10. I Can’t Stand Losing You-Blue Flannel
11. Everything to Everyone-Everclear
12. Long Drive Home-John Oszajca
13. Solitude-Edwin McCain & Darius Rucker
14. She Talks to Angels-the Black Crowes
15. Stepping Stone-the Monkees
16. Lonely of Faith-Kid Rock
17. Recollection Phoenix-Willie Nelson
18. Walls-Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
19. ???????-???????
ALREADY REVIEWED BY: Gordon on June 30
GENERAL THOUGHTS: These things don’t HAVE to start with a rocker, but it usually a good formula; no exception here. The album bounces back and forth between rockin’ and more mid-tempo stuff.
Most of these songs I DON’T know by heart- only the Heartbreakers, Crow, Black Crowes, and Monkees; hmm, some sort of animal theme developing. The disc has introduced me to people I might have heard of or even caught on the radio, but the DJs almost NEVER announce the performer anymore. So, Logan has broadened my horizons.
THINGS I PARTICULARLY LOVED: 1, 6, 7 (esp. the chorus), 9, 10 (esp. lyrics), 11, the quirky horn of 12, 16 (oh, no, I like a Kid Rock song).
ON THE OTHER HAND: Nothing really. I just didn’t really get engaged in the disc until the second quarter. Oh, and the completist in me needs to know what/who is on track 19.
OFFICE FRIENDLY: F*** in 1, 3, 5, S*** in 12
ONLY VAGUELY RELATED:

I have had an irrational addiction to the Petty song since I heard it on the “She the One” soundtrack.

Dear Mr. Will:

I am a big fan of your baseball stories, such as the one that appeared in our local paper the Times Union (Albany, NY) this week. We too have a team that plays in a stadium called the Joe, named for Joseph Bruno, the Majority Leader of the State Senate.

The team is the Tri-City Valley Cats in the New York-Penn League, playing out of Troy, NY. This is a single A , short season (roughly Father’s Day to Labor Day) . In our league, there is the Staten Island Yankees, an affiliate, of course, of the NYY.

You described your team as “low A”. I inferred (and I think others will as well) that it is the “lowest A”, which I don’t believe it is. The short season A I believe to be on the lowest rung. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Thank you.
Roger Green

Dear Mr. Green,

Thank you for contacting the office of George F. Will. Mr. Will is thankful to have actively engaged readers like yourself. In single-A ball, there is class A-advanced, class A and class A-short season. The column used class A low (also used by minor league officials and the RiverDogs staff) to distinguish the level from class A-advanced. You may access a list of all the minor league teams by classification via [this site] Thank you for your readership and have a nice day.

Best Wishes,
Office of George F. Will

I learn something new every day. I suppose I should note that I agree with George Will on most baseball things, but not usually political things.
***
And re: the Little League World Series final, it was a great game. Since I wasn’t going to be home Sunday, I taped the ABC broadcast and watched it later, making sure not to hear the score.
It was a great game. The Curacao pitcher walked the first three Hawai’i batters, and then the relief pitcher struck out two and got another out without giving up a run. The scoring went back and forth. Hawai’i was down by three in the bottom of the sixth (the last scheduled inning), but rallied to score three to force the first extra innings game in about 35 years.
ABC then sent the game to ESPN2. Since I wasn’t home, I missed the dramatic 7th-inning home run that won the game for Hawai’i. Sigh.

“It’s a one-in-a-lifetime thing!”
“Yeah, but the money, the time away from the family, the hassle, the traffic.”

Oh, sorry, I was just rehashing the debate I was having with myself a couple weeks ago when I read, on the front page of the Albany Times Union, that the Rolling Stones were coming to Albany, NY, maybe three blocks from where I work, on September 19.

On one hand, it’s the Rolling Stones!
On the other hand, the tickets started at $60, and I’m sure those seats would have required balls of cotton to stop the nosebleed, not to mention binoculars. So, I would have wanted the $100 seats. Wife Carol showed no interest in going, so it would have been a night that I’d be off while she had to stay home. this would require some sort of later trade-off.

But it’s the Rolling @#$%^&* Stones! With Alanis Morissette opening, it was recently announced.
The (Naming Rights Sold to a Soft-Drink Company) Arena was doing that “get in line for the wristband on a Friday so that you would be eligible to buy a ticket on Saturday” thing. What a pain. Moreover, that all took place a weekend I was out of town anyway.
On the other hand, my student intern was going to go get tickets ANYWAY for her and her MOTHER and her mother’s boyfriend. (Why does that make me feel just slightly OLD?) And there was an 8-ticket maximum, so I could have given her the money to buy one more. Oh, but she didn’t get any, either, because while she was early in line for the wristbands, they started with a “random number” that came AFTER hers. (She said she would rather have slept in the ticket line overnight, rather than go through that frustrating ordeal.)

One of the things that I read recently made seeing the Stones more interesting. On their upcoming album, A Bigger Bang, they reportedly have a song with the lyrics:
You call yourself a Christian,
I call you a hypocrite.
You call yourself a patriot,
Well, I think you’re full of s***.
How come you’re so wrong,
My sweet neo-con?
Will they play the song? And if so, what will be the reaction?

Well, it’s all moot now, unless I win a ticket in the contest offered by the Berkshire Bank (located just downstairs from my office), or unless I want to buy a $351 ticket ($1 more than the previous highest ticket sold at the venue.) If spending $100 brought me pause…
***
And speaking of the Rolling Stones, there’s a new album of jazz covers of their tunes, called The Rolling Stones Project. It features:
Norah Jones-Wild Horses
Bill Frisell-Waiting on a Friend
Sheryl Crow (with Keith Richards, Ron Wood and Charlie Watts!) -Slipping Away
John Scofielfd-Satisfaction
Bill Charlap-Paint it, Black
It’s reviewed pretty well, FWIW. I could buy THAT album, plus A Bigger Bang, AND insure domestic tranquility.