Who's with me?

Toronto's Greg Zaun this year looks a lot like old wrestler Terry Funk. And that's not a good thing.

Song of the Day: A Pirate Looks at 40

Good song. Good setup for tomorrow.

Obama's Reverend problem

Obama went to Reverend Wright’s church for a loooooooong time. He was inspired by the preacher. He had the Reverend marry he and his wife, baptize his children. He made him a part of his campaign and took advantage of his spiritual activity in the Reverend’s church to his political advantage. He named his book after one of the Reverend’s sermons. Finally, it was said, the Democrats have a candidate that can credibly bridge the religion gap that Republicans have exploited.

 

Then some video showed up of the Reverend saying some whacky things. Taken out of context, Obama’s campaign said. Then they said Obama wasn’t aware of this kind of rhetoric, even though he was so close to the Reverend for so long.

 

Then Obama gave a pretty good speech about race. I didn’t think it was the be all end all that some Obama fans thought, mostly because it was forced by political circumstances and about half of it undermined the rest of it. But it was solid attempt to put the issue to rest. And it raised some important issues in an interesting and honest way.

 

Then last week, the Reverend went around doing some interviews and appearances to explain and defend himself. Obama fans were nervous. The Reverend’s case for himself and his messages, while intellectually compelling and maybe understandable, just doesn’t sell with voters. We should celebrate his military career, but no matter the context, can you really explain away saying “God damn America”? Maybe he got “swift-boated.” Interesting, anyway, what was supposed to be a strength for Obama (religion) is turning into a subject they’re losing ground on. Just like Kerry’s military career four years ago.

 

I guess the “uncle that says crazy stuff at the holiday dinner table” wasn’t a blood relative. He’s now being treated like someone that was getting the benefit of the doubt because he married in and has lost that privilege now that the aunt has come to her senses and finally divorced him.

 

Back at the start of this, I questioned Obama’s honesty when he said he didn’t know the Reverend was spouting off such stuff. Now I wonder how it is that he went and gave the defense of himself and the Reverend back then and didn’t find out that the Reverend would do what he’s done this week.

Song of the Day: Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

BJ Thomas gets credit for this now oldie, which was featured in the classic movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

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Reruns

In honor of his appearance on American Idol tonight, I am rerunning a previous post on the man. It was in response to Opening Day at Fenway Park and was subtly titled "Neil Diamond is a Bozo."

Neil Diamond is a Bozo
Since some time in the late 1990s, fans at Fenway Park have been singing along with Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" between the top and bottom of the eighth inning. It's more of an event than the seventh inning stretch.

The fans really get into it. There are times when watching the game on TV when you can clearly and loudly hear fans continuing to do the "oh, oh, oh" even though the PA has been shut off for resumption of play.

It's fun and it's funny. It's an otherwise meaningless song that's kind of schmaltzy and easy to sing along with. I mean, for crying out loud, it's Neil Diamond.

So since this has become such a popular and well known tradition, Neil himself has been invited to Fenway to sing it live for the crowd during a game. From numerous credible reports I have heard he has declined because his price was not been met.

Huh? Neil Diamond?

I can't even imagine how many people who don't ordinarily listen to Neil Diamond have downloaded this song because they've heard and sung it at Fenway Park.

Now comes the 2008 home opener where the Red Sox celebrate another World Series Championship. And Neil Diamond performs Sweet Caroline for Red Sox fans during the eighth inning...via video.

This jerky actually went into a studio with a Red Sox jacket on, with minority owner Tom Werner serving as one of the background singers, and sang the song to Red Sox fans represented by a camera. Then they showed the result on the jumbotron yesterday.

The cherry on top (pun intended) was the announcement that Neil Diamond would be playing a concert at Fenway Park this August. Remember, please, that Fenway Park has hosted single concerts that last few years that have featured the likes of the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Buffett, the Police reunion and the Dave Matthews Band. In other words, shows waaaaay out of Neil Diamond's league.

So Neil Diamond gets to play Fenway Park and all they get out of him is a video performance of Sweet Caroline? I'd say for the privilege of playing Fenway Park, Neil Diamond should have to sing Sweet Caroline at least once a month and during any home playoff games for the next five years.

Neil Diamond is a BOZO and I'm never going to spend money to acquire his music ever again.

Good, bad in Atlanta

Besides the play on the court, there's interesting stuff going on in Atlanta. The other night, after the Hawks pulled the emphatic upset, I noticed the PA played "Dirty Water," as if to mock Boston and the Celtics.

Just a minute ago, they played the Cheers theme during a timeout. Problem was, Atlanta had overcome a 13 point lead, then given up a 9 point lead of their own and was down by 10 points.

Taunting when down 10 in a game and 2-1 in a series doesn't work so well, me thinks.

Midnight Run

is one of the greatest movies ever made. In college, we must've watched it a million times. It was on tonight and I got to watch it almost from the start (sorry Celtics).

If you've never seen the movie, first of all shame on you. It stars Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin as a bounty hunter who's taking a fugitive mob accountanct back to his bail bondsman. It's all in one a comedy, action movie and drama.

My wife loves me so much she bid on and bought me the out of print soundtrack from ebay one Christmas. I'd make something there a Song of the Day, but I haven't figured out the technology for that yet. I'm limited

Song of the Day: Woman

A story about provacative pictures of 15-year old singing/acting superstar Miley Cyrus told me Annie Liebovitz took the pictures.

Quick wiki search of Annie Liebovitz taught me that she took pictures of someone on one of the Chrysler Building gargoyles, which she took while perched on one of the others.

Then I fing out gargoyles is not just a creature. It's a creature on a building used to direct water away from the buildng, through the mouth. If it's just ornamental, they say it's more acurately termed a grotesque.

Annie Liebovitz also took the last pictures of John Lennon. Five hours before he was killed, she shot the picture of a naked John Lennon curled up against a clothed Yoko Ono.

On December 8, 1980, Leibovitz had a photo shoot with John Lennon for the Rolling Stone magazine, promising him he would make the cover of Rolling Stone.[3] After she had initially tried to get a picture with just Lennon alone (she would recall that, "nobody wanted [Ono] on the cover".[4]), Lennon insisted that both him and Yoko Ono be on the cover. Leibovitz then tried to recreate the kissing scene from the Double Fantasy album cover, a picture that she loved.[4] "What is interesting is she said she'd take her top off and I said, 'Leave everything on' ... not really preconceiving the picture at all. Then he curled up next to her and it was very, very strong. You couldn't help but feel that she was cold and he looked like he was clinging on to her[5]... I shot some test Polaroids first and when I showed them to John and Yoko, John said, 'You've captured our relationship exactly. Promise me it'll be on the cover'. I looked him in the eye and we shook on it." She was the last person to professionally photograph John Lennon - he was shot and killed five hours later.

All this led me to think it would be nice to feature John Lennon in today's song of the day.

Lyrics here.
For information on anything else above, please explore Wikipedia. Or pick something your interested in and create your own learning trail.

Song of the Day: The Story

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Today's song of the day comes from last night's wedding of the season.(see Thug Wedding post immediately below this one) It's "The Story", by Brandi Carlile. For the life of us, nobody at the table could come up with the artists name last night, though six of the ten of us (the couples in their 30s) knew the song.

An excellent choice. Similar to the rest of the wedding, it was a nontraditional choice, but suitable in every way.

I love the way this song is sung. There's tons of emotion by her, to the point that her voice cracking at one point near the end is a positive emphasis.

Lyrics for the song are here. Well worth looking at.
Artist information here. If you're a Grey's Anatomy fan you might recognize the voice. The wiki page cited says this and three of her other songs have been featured on the show.

Thug Wedding

Last night I attended the wedding of one of my oldest friends, Big Daddy Thug.

There was some concern in some corners (not this one) that the event would be a little too nontraditional. I mean, in his professional life he goes by the moniker Big Daddy Thug, for crying out loud. And his bride is heavily involved with his ThugLit.com, going by the name Lady Detroit. On top of that, a while back it was told that the officiant for the ceremony was going to be a magician.

It turned out to be one of the best weddings I've ever been to. The wedding was great not because of the beautiful setting, the beautiful bride, the well dressed groom, the fun people invited to share the event or the delicious food, though those were certainly all wonderful elements.

This was one of the best weddings I've ever been to because it was so genuine. It was genuine to the personality and tastes of the Bride and Groom and to their love for each other. While it didn't include all of the formal traditional elements of a wedding, it was clear they didn't mean to mock those rituals. There were vows and rings, formal attire and processions in and out. The magician--who it turns out performs at Coney Island swallowing fire, swords and light bulbs--could've passed for a Midwestern minister, with his suit and sweater vest. It was soon clear that he has obviously done this before.

But though one of the four readings was from the Bible, there was no church or mass and the other three readings included a children's book and a very thoughtful consideration of modern marriage by Kurt Vonnegut. (I'm trying to track that down online, it was from Man Without a Country.)

All of the readings--Vonnegut and the bible passage done first and last by the magician , the children's book done by the Bride's brother and another done by the Groom's sister--were all very poignant, touching and read very well, with feeling and love.

The vows were appropriately written by the Bride and Groom who I'm sure have seldom written in this genre, let alone read it aloud in public.

The first dance was The Story, by Brandi Carlile. It will be featured in the next post as the song of the day. One of the Bride's brothers sang a song at the reception, accompanying himself with guitar and was followed by the Bride's sister singing while another brother played guitar alongside. Both were very done very well.

The groom made an announcement after entering that he and his new wife would not be responding to clinking of glasses with a kiss. That response would only come if someone sang a love song. Though only one table did sing, I'm proud to say it was ours and we probably tallied a dozen over the course of the night.

Favors on the table were as fitting as could be: books. Classic paperbacks from Shakespeare and Pride and Prejudice to Sherlock Holmes and classic American Ghost Stories. Everyone got to pick one on the way out.

Big Daddy Thug is one of my oldest friends. And though we share as many differences as similarities in tastes and personal characteristics and don't see each other nearly enough, I couldn't have been more happy and proud for him and his new Bride. They are a couple, now with a marriage, that is based on a very genuine and well understood love and respect for each other. I could not wish them more happiness than I already do.

I think the wedding was an absolute home run. Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Thug.

Song of the Day: Sunshine On My Shoulders

You can't really get a full understanding of how odd the 70s were without getting a dose of John Denver and Solid Gold. More about Solid Gold at another time. But since the weather has turned nice, let's feature a throwback.

You probably can't be aware of this song, experience our current weather and not listen to a little bit of this. But there's also a good chance you can't get all the way to the end, unless you get distracted by something and it just keeps running in the background. Give it a whirl.

Song of the Day: Three Little Birds

It's a great time of year. The sun is starting to exert more of its warming power and sticking around later into the vening. The trees, plants and flowers are starting to bloom and add their sweet scents to the air. The birds are making music.

So roll down the windows, it's not yet hot enough to require air conditioning. And put on something that calms your nerves. Like "Three Littel Birds", by Bob Marley and the Wailers.

Don worry, bout a ting.
Cause every liddle ting is gonna be alright.
Don worry, bout a ting.
Cause every liddle ting is gonna be alright.

Rise up this mornin,
Smiled with the risin sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin, (this is my message to you-ou-ou)
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140, pending Bal @ Sea

How can you not be super excited about Pedroia and Ellsbury being in that lineup?

And I'm still going to advocate for Jed Lowrie to take over SS from Lugo. I don't care if he's gone 35 for 35. I don't trust he can keep it up. I think Lowrie would be better from now until the end of the season.

UPDATE: We're down to 139, as Baltimore dropped its second straight.

Happy Earth Day!!

Better later in the day than not at all. Besides, why confine Earth Day to one day?

What I did in the last year to benefit the environment:
--started using cf bulbs
--started recycling, big time
--when doing dishes, turn water off when not rinsing.
--turn off lights not in use
--turn off computer when leaving office
--when needed, chose an energy star clothes dryer
--bought real plate, silverware and started using and reusing at work, instead of using and throwing away plastic/paper
--started using insulated lunch box, rather than plastic shopping bags for daily lunch
--bought reusable grocery bags

What I plan to do in the coming year:
--buy rain barrels
--have masssave do an audit of my house
--insulate the crap out of my house
--try to find and buy more locally grown food
--consider having my power bought from wind farms, etc.

Long live Hank!

You gotta love the Steinbrenners...if you're a Red Sox fan. The father seems to have passed along to the son lessons from his early days of managing the Yankees: lots of noise, and ego flying as fast and furious as the spittle.

"I want him as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now," Steinbrenner told The New York Times. "There is no question about it, you don't have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a set-up guy. You just don't do that. You have to be an idiot to do that."

If you're a Red Sox fan, the thought of Brian Cashaman being driven out of the Bronx is the foundation for Christmas wishes. The guy took the Yankees back to the top of the heap and has shown INCREDIBLE humility and discretion in the way he's dealt with his bosses (and his bosses friends). Now he's got to suffer the fool known as Georgie Porgie's little Hank the Crank.

And for all his bluster and ego about his team and ours, it's clear what he really wants is what we have.

Steinbrenner has high expectations for Chamberlain, comparing his potential to that of Boston ace Josh Beckett.

"We need a Beckett, we don't have one, and he's the one that can do it." Steinbrenner said. Through Sunday's games, the Yankees stand at 10-10 and are closer to the bottom of the AL East than the top. New York is three games behind division-leading Boston and just 1½ games ahead of cellar dweller Tampa Bay.

Steinbrenner also took issue with how the Yankees handled Chamberlain's situation last season, before the eldest son of George was in a position to make changes.

"The mistake was already made last year switching him to the bullpen out of panic or whatever," Steinbrenner told The Times. "I had no say in it last year and I wouldn't have allowed it. That was done last year, so now we have to catch up. It has to be done on a schedule so we don't rush him."

Song of the Day: Beautiful Day

The latest in a string of days featuring perfect weather.

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Magic Number: 141

The Red Sox have the best record in the American League, tied for most wins in MLB.

Fatherhood is....

Fixing and using a chainsaw on a fallen tree in the backyard, but not completing the job because you've got to follow a little one into the front yard to...blow bubbles.

Life is Good.

If you don't have the excuse of a little one, try this; buy a bottle of bubbles and head to a quiet, secluded place. A beach might still work. A corporate parking lot on a weekend. The wooded bank of a lake. Any large open place will do. Then take out the bubbles and have a ball. If you want to feel like a child, you've got to act like one every now and then.

Song of the Day: Chariot

I like Gavin DeGraw. I could probably do a week's worth of Song of the Day with just Gavin DeGraw songs.

He's got a new one out; "In love with a girl" that's going to be another favorite here. Check it out if you get a chance. I think it's entering heavy rotation on the hit stations.

Until then here's an older tune, Chariot.

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142

Yardwork kept me from watching the majority of today's game. But the result was familiar; a late game surge carries the Red Sox to victory.

Combined with last night's win and out-of-town games, that drops the magic number to 142.

Celtics started real fast tonight, then gave back most of the lead. I'd be very surprised if they lost game 1.

145

Tonight's win by the Red Sox puts their magic number to clinch the division at 145.

Love that guy

I love that weeme so much I've made it the graphic for the standby screen on my blackberry. You can make and accessorize your own at weeworld.com.



Yes, I am an adult.

Song of the Day: Ice Cream

Went for dinner and then ice cream tonight. First time we've been out to get ice cream this year.

I was looking for another song, but couldn't get what I wanted. This one does the trick. My wife really likes it and it is as pleasant as the weather was today.



Sarah McLachlan is pretty cool. She got even cooler when she redid a song that I've always liked. The original may be featured here someday. Need to think about it, though. There are tender sendibilities involved...again. Different ones this time, though.

Evolution

Several years ago, my wife surprised with an ipod for my birthday. I was the first one in the family to get one. They were nowhere near as popular then. I had to explain to a surprising number of people that yes, ALL of the music I owned was on it. I had a home dock, a connector for the car and cable to connect at the office.

Then, in the fall of 05, at the suggestion of my wife, my mom got me a Sirius radio for my birthday. I was good and ready for 1-9-06 (Stern debut) and ended up getting a second docking cradle to go with the home and auto ones that came with the radio. Then I could take it with me to listen at home, in the car and at work.

Last fall my wife hit another home run on my birthday, getting me a Garmin GPS. You never really appreciate how much you'll use it until you have one. Mapquest, schmapquest.

And because the thriftiness that led me to pack a lunch daily met up with my new found green-ness which made feel guilty for using all those plastic shopping bags to bring my lunch to work, she got me a soft-sided insulated Red Sox lunch box for my birthday last fall, as well. (I bought reusable shopping bags for both of us)

So when I got the GPS, I needed something to tote my electronics. So I took my iPod, Sirius and GPS to Best Buy and found a nifty padded camera bag that fit them all nice and snugly.

But I've been carrying the camera bag, lunch box and coffee to work and back everyday, making me look like I'm ready to juggle.

So with the see-it-in-person assitance of the local ems store and the power of online searches, I was able to find a messanger style bag from Osprey that will hold my lunchbox, camera bag full of electronics a laptop and other various things I need to transport from time to time.

Campmor was the site where I found it on sale...then even cheaper a day later. Ordered it wednesday night and got an email this morning saying it had been shipped. Then before 10 am it arrived.

Merry Christmas to me!

This may not continue, but

Another month of record output here at Someday I Will and we're only just past the halfway mark. But it's taking up a lot of lunch time and free time at night. During the summer, I like to spend more of my lunch time out of doors in good weather. So the posting frequency could take a hit.

On the other hand, a lot of summer night time gets spent watching Red Sox games, which allows the mind to wander to bloggable thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

2008 Patriots schedule

I did not seek it out, but someone sent me the 2008 schedule for the Patriots. So I'm going to go ahead and comment on it.

Looks like the NFL doesn't want to take a chance on the Patriots running the table on the regular season again. A few things jump out. Twice during the season the Patriots will play back-to-back games on the west coast. Four of their final six and three of their last four games are road games. Ugh.

Coming off their Week 4 bye, they will go to San Francisco and then San Diego for a Sunday night game. They then come home to host the Broncos on Monday night.

The Indianapolis game is in the middle of the season and will take place in the middle of the country, in lovely Indianapolis.

After hosting the Steelers in Week 13, they will then travel west on consecutive weeks to play in Seattle and Oakland. The Oakland game is a Sunday nighter. After the Seattle and Oakland trips they will host the Cardinals and then finish the season on December 28 in Buffalo.

Song of the Day: Whiskey in the Jar

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It's a nice warm sunny day. But I feel I've been getting a little mellow with the SOTD, so today we're going to punch it up a bit.

Here's Metallica doing a traditional Irish ssong.

It actually won a Grammy in 2000 for Best Hard Rock Performance!

Still annonymous, but visible

For those of you who have been curious as to what I look like, here I am relaxing.

Song on the Day: Charley on the MTA

I offended some tender sensibilities over at Blue Mass Group earlier today. Seems my questioning the process by which one of the site proprietor's changed his position on a post by a fellow user offended some tender sensibilities. He promoted a post by another user about potential political corruption, then unpromoted it and apologized for promoting it.

I asked how he went from promoting the comment to disavowing it. And, well, I might have suggested the possibility that he could have potentially handled it in a less than courageous way. I think the suggestion that he may have been a Five Star Surrender Monkey was really what turned him off. (I wasn't the only one lobbing questions of courage.)

But since he refused to tell the story, I suggest that he may be a Five Star Surrender Monkey that is taking the fifth. In fairness, though, he may also just have reread the post in question and seen the offensiveness he had not seen before.

Anyway, as a gesture of diplomacy, I am making today's song of the day Charley on the MTA, by the Kingston Trio. His handle on BMG is Charley on the MTA. No hard feelings, Charlie. Not on this end, anyway.

Actually, I'm going to literally wave my magic wand

I would like you all to participate in an exercise. Don't use the words "actually" or "literally."

I would especially like it if you don't use them when speaking to me. These two words are being unnecessarily and incorrectly inserted into conversations at an alarmingly increasing rate.

Have you noticed?

This stuff happens all the time. Trends, I guess. For a long time the word "like" became so overused it was a joke. It's still overused, but it's different than "literally" and "actually." To me, people use the word "like" as a filler, the way they use "ummm" and "uhhh." They arent' really sure how to express their thoughts, either because they don't know enough good descriptive words or because they haven't decided what they really think.

In contrast, people seem to use the words "literally" and "actually" to emphasize things that don't need emphasis. And they often use them incorectly. I always cringe when someone uses the word "literally" when the correct word to use would be "figuratively."

I'm sure with the increasing traffic on this blog, the word will spread and soon the words will stop being used entirely for a time, and then return to correct usage. But just in case, I'm going to use the magic wand to remove them from the lexicon.

Song of the Day: Here We Are

Jimmy Buffett is one of those artists that most people either love or....don't love.

As evidenced by the fact that this blog is named after a Buffett song, I love him. A buddy introduced me to him when we were in college. Two of us went to visit a third over winter break in his parents wintery condo. We drank a lot of beer, watched a lot of football and had a lot of fun. I am forever grateful for the weekend and the introduction to Buffett.

For a few years in a row there, I was going to Buffett shows every year with a big group of fun folks. When we ran out of luck and didn't get tickets one year, the then future Mrs. Noternie and I hosted a party on the night of the show we would've gone to. We decorated the joint, everyone dressed up and we had a good old time. That went on for a few more years before that tradition ran aground.

But I still love Buffett and often tune into Sirius Channel 31: Margaritaville. So here's a recent tune he put out to celebrate his shows and his fans. Every show his folks go out in the parking lot and take video of fans tailgating. They then slap together good bits and play the video during the show that night. This what it looks like.

And yes, I did look like that when I attended shows.

A suggestion

We don't get many comments on this site, which is fine. But a recent spurt came in from a fellow blogger. He goes by the name Sabutai on Blue Mass Group, where he posts quite often. In his comments here he uses the name Quriltai.

I started checking his blog a short time ago and have found some really good posts there. Please go by and check it out. The name of the blog is Quriltai on the Shore. There's a heavy dose of politics there, but lots of other stuff, too, including the highly recommended Bad Weatherman, Good Weatherman post from last week. High comedy.

In case you're wondering, the names behind his postings and blog come from here, quoted from his site...
Quriltai: A meeting of Mongol chieftains, usually to choose a new leader, similar to the Afghan Loya Jirga. The greatest "near miss" of European history was the calling of a quriltai in 1242 after the death of Ogodei Khan (son of Genghis). The greatest Mongol general, Sabutai and his "hordes" turned away from the gates of Vienna and the vulnerable riches of Europe to elect Ogodei's successor. After the quriltai elected Guyuk Khan, the armies never returned to Europe in strength.

Thanks for the comments, Quriltai/Sabutai.

Song of the Day: Angel

This one's for my wife. Short, but powerful. Not my wife, the song. I don't want you to think my wife is some squat East German power lifter. Not that my wife is tall and weak, either. She's very...Aaaaaaaaaaaaah, just listen.



In case you missed something, here are the lyrics.

The artist, Jack Johnson will be featured here again in the future, be sure.
His website here.
Wikipedia gist here.

Unbiased?

One annonymous phone call has triggered what some are saying might be the largest family law case in the history of the country. We gotta git em, them icky poligamists.

In other news, the Pope may actually acknowledge Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandals when he comes to the United States, starting tomorrow; something which took a bit more than an annonymous phone call to uncover. How big of him.

Not that one religion is treated differently than another in this country.

This is a joke. If they're doing something wrong with underage kids down there in Texas, fine. Line them up, take them to trial and march them off to jail. But one annonymous phone call triggers taking hundreds of children into protective custody? Cutting off all contact with their parents?

You wanna see people lose perspective, just throw a dash of religion into the mix.

Boobs

No, no, not that. What kind of blog do you take me for?

I mean the folks running the Yankees. They've got themselves all worked up over this Ortiz jersey buried in the concrete stuff. Five hours they spent on a Sunday digging to remove this unholy cloth from their new cathedral?

Yankees president Randy Levine said team officials at first considered leaving the shirt where it was.

"The first thought was, you know, it's never a good thing to be buried in cement when you're in New York," Levine said. "But then we decided, why reward somebody who had really bad motives and was trying to do a really bad thing?"

Get a life? Uh, yeah. They've actually talked about looking for some criminal charges to file against the guy that did it. Levine called it a "a very, very bad act." Way to have some perspective there, big guy.

And to think, this was the franchise that used to laugh derisively when invoking the Curse of the Bambino. What a bunch of boobs.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad. Yesterday they celebrated 39 years of marriage.

Congratulations to you both. I love you.

And while we're at it, a belated happy birthday to Lenny the Dog. Lenny turned 4 last Tuesday.

mmm, good

This has become one of the favorite regular meals in our house. Easy, quick to make and delicious. Try making double the recipe for the sauce; pour the extra over white rice until it's almost soupy. Super yummy.

Pork tenderloin with creamy mustard sauce
1 lb pork tenderloin or pork chops
salt and pepper
1t vegetable oil
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2T Dijon mustard
2-3 green onions, sliced

Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Cook pork on each side for 2 minutes or until browned and cooked through. Remove from pan and keep warm.

Reduce heat to low. Add evaporated milk; stir to loosen brown bits from bottom of skillet. Stir in mustard and green onions. Return pork to skillet. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickened, turning pork to c0oat with sauce.

Song of the Day: The State of Massachusetts

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Not everyone will like The Dropkick Murphys, but those that do really, really do. They're a Massachusetts based punk/hard rock band. If you've seen Jonathan Paplebon dance or watched the Departed, you've likely heard their "Shipping up to Boston."

Here's a hard rocking tune full of well directed anger. What really makes the song is not the lyrics or the singing, though. It's the great tune.

Lyrics here.
Band website here.
Get the gist at their wikipedia page here.

For what it's worth...

It's an odd experience to hear someone order "a Big Mac with no meat."

And it was an odd looking person who did that yesterday in my presence.

I know there are reasons for it. It's just odd.

Song of the Day: Behind Blue Eyes

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Been a big fan of the Who since the mid-80s, when a friend of mine loaned me a tape of Who's Last. I bought one after another until I had pretty much everthing they did.

I even taped stuff off King Biscuit Flower Hour, a syndicated radio show that ran locally on Sunday nights and played lots of live music. It became something of a hobby of mine to have both tape shows and then use my double tape deck to edit out commericals and unwanted stuff.

Not long ago I pulled out my cassette tape collection to find some stuff I never replaced with CDs or from other electronic sources. One of the first things I pulled out were the live Who tapes. I rigged a walkman to the microphone input on my computer and used a program I donwloaded for free online (Audacity) to record the stuff and save it in a format I could input to iTunes. Now they happily reside on my iPod.

I've since moved lots of my old tapes onto my iPod. Could I have just paid 99 cents a song? Sure, would've been much easier. But moving them from tape to iPod gave me the same enjoyment I got editing those old live tapes.

This isn't live or taken from my cassette collection. But it was available and it's a good song.

Celebrity mug shots

It might offend the tender sensibilities of some readers if I were to post mug shots of celebrities right here on my blog. It would be making light of serious and often troubling times in the personal lives of public people.

But there is some enjoyment to it. So check this link at the Chicago Tribune. There are 80 (!) mug shots, so it's pretty comprehensive. The famous Nick Nolte shot is further toward the end.

Neil Diamond is a BOZO

Since some time in the late 1990s, fans at Fenway Park have been singing along with Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" between the top and bottom of the eighth inning. It's more of an event than the seventh inning stretch.

The fans really get into it. There are times when watching the game on TV when you can clearly and loudly hear fans continuing to do the "oh, oh, oh" even though the PA has been shut off for resumption of play.

It's fun and it's funny. It's an otherwise meaningless song that's kind of schmaltzy and easy to sing along with. I mean, for crying out loud, it's Neil Diamond.

So since this has become such a popular and well known tradition, Neil himself has been invited to Fenway to sing it live for the crowd during a game. From numerous credible reports I have heard he has declined because his price was not been met.

Huh? Neil Diamond?

I can't even imagine how many people who don't ordinarily listen to Neil Diamond have downloaded this song because they've heard and sung it at Fenway Park.

Now comes the 2008 home opener where the Red Sox celebrate another World Series Championship. And Neil Diamond performs Sweet Caroline for Red Sox fans during the eighth inning...via video.

This jerky actually went into a studio with a Red Sox jacket on, with minority owner Tom Werner serving as one of the background singers, and sang the song to Red Sox fans represented by a camera. Then they showed the result on the jumbotron yesterday.

The cherry on top (pun intended) was the announcement that Neil Diamond would be playing a concert at Fenway Park this August. Remember, please, that Fenway Park has hosted single concerts that last few years that have featured the likes of the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Buffett, the Police reunion and the Dave Matthews Band. In other words, shows waaaaay out of Neil Diamond's league.

So Neil Diamond gets to play Fenway Park and all they get out of him is a video performance of Sweet Caroline? I'd say for the privilege of playing Fenway Park, Neil Diamond should have to sing Sweet Caroline at least once a month and during any home playoff games for the next five years.

Neil Diamond is a BOZO and I'm never going to spend money to acquire his music ever again.

Song of the Day: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

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This is actually a combination of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and What a Wonderful World. The artist is Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, sometimes known as Brudder IZ. He was a tremdously overweight Hawaiian singer who died a few years ago.

The guy's got a great voice, much better than the guy that did a version of this on American Idol last night.

The song has been featured on ER (the episode in which Mark Green died) and before that in a major television advertising campaign for the now defunct toys.com. It's been used in a bunch of other places, too. There's a Boston DJ that used to play it as the final song on his Sunday morning show every week.

The song is on the album Facing Forward, available at all fine music outlets. If you have an urge to buy something by Neil Diamond, I suggest you buy this instead.

Great story for two local schools

Thanks to Hub Blog for posting about this story.

This guy went to Tufts in the early 1900s, started a company and married the woman who started Lesley College. So the company goes on to be tremendously successful. He dies, but with no kids, he has his company put in trust to benefit the two schools.

So after he dies, the company continues to prosper--interesting company, too--and each year the trustees distribute a few million $ to each school. Last year the company was sold and the trustees decided to liquidate the trust and distribute all the money to the two schools.

So they're going to split $272 million. Not bad, eh? It triples Lesley's endowment and will get Tufts a new building.

Song of the Day: Overkill

Laugh if you want, but today's song of the day is Overkill by Colin Hay. The song is originally a Men At Work song and the singer was the goofy frontman for the band.

Here's how it sounds.
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It's done here as an acoustic version and sounds great. It was used in an episode of the TV comedy Scrubs, which is one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. But more than funny, the show made tremdous use of music to create or further the emotional flow of the show.

Here's how it looked on the show.

Massachusetts: It's all here

The Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism has created 90 new ads (90!!) to promote the Commonwealth as a tourist destination. Though prodigious, 90 seems an odd number. One wonders if there were ten more that focused on casinos. (ba-dum-bump)

All the ads open with a chalkboard that flips to reveal the message: There's so much to do in Massachusetts, we have to run a new ad every day.

It was tough for me to single out one, but I'm going to go with #9, Horseneck Beach. Scroll through the list and feel your own pangs of love and/or nostalgia.

I like the ads, but is someone in Mississippi going to notice the ads while watching an Everybody Loves Raymond rerun and plan a trip to Massachusetts because the Davis Mega Maze intrigued them? Yes, I think so, too.

If by chance you are from Mississippi and you're intrigued by reading this, you can order a Free Getaway Guide here. Maybe tomorrow we'll pitch a location to all you readers from Wyoming.

Here we go

Home opener at Fenway this afternoon. They'll be handing out the rings, playing moving music-video tributes to the 2007 season and having a big old celebration.

The first pitch will be thrown out by Bill Buckner. There will be so much made of this by local and national media, especially headline writers, that I hesitate to say anything. It is what it is.

I'm undecided

The Olympic torch has had a tough time lately. It's been snuffed out by organizers a few times due to protestors in the streets of Paris. They had some trouble with protests in London. And the Olympic torch relay is facing similar problems as it arrives in San Francisco.

The trouble stems from problems people have with China's human rights record. The biggest concern centers around Tibet, where an area and people's independence is a point of contention.

There are two positions butting heads on this and I'm not sure where I come down; unusual for me.

The Olympics as we know them were created in the 1880s by a Frenchman named Pierre de Coubertin. Sure they existed in ancient Greece in some form and were revived in the 1850s-1870s, but it was de Coubertin who developed the International Olympic Committee and launced the games as a permanent fixture on the world's stage.

Position 1, taken by China, the Olympic Committee and others is that the Olympics have as part of their founding mission a nonpolitical place in the world. They are to be a place where every nation can come together and compete, yes, but also share time together. It is a place where diplomacy can begin. The US ping pong team travelling to China under Nixon is the same thing.

Position 2, taken by the protestors is that murder and the mistreatment of human beings should never be ignored or cast aside. They feel that ignoring this and allowing China to hold the Games as if Tibetans or others are not being abused is letting China off the hook, whitewashing their record. In effect they feel it makes a mockery of the Olympic spirit.

So I don't know where I stand. I have studied politics, foreign relations and actually took full term classes focused on the Sociology of Sport and the History of Sport. Still, I'm torn.

Adrian Dantley...

Adrian Dantley is a Hall of Famer? For real?

I wouldn’t put him in the Hall of Fame.

Song of the Day: Final Countdown

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Europe brings some intense, melodramatic 80s cheese. This one's in honor of the NCAA final game tonight. Go ahead, listen. I won't tell anyone.

Old computers

I know I've had trouble figuring out what to do with old computers in the past. Just learned about this site, which provides leads to organizations that are looking for used computers and companies that will safely recycle your old computer and all the pollutants contained therein.

The places they list that reuse the computers are schools, non-profits and people with disabilities.

As for cleaning your hard drive before you send it along, this program and this program seem to be popular and useful tools to make sure you're only donating your hardware, not your identity. They're both free to download and said to be easy to use.

...and then

On top of all those other legendary movie franchises, we found the Godfather was on last night as well.

"Today I settle all family business..."
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Worth noting

Lehane's books that don't revolve around the activities of Kenzie-Genaro are excellent.

Mystic River was a tremendous book, later made into a movie that's supposed to be tremendous (I haven't seen it yet).

I was a huge fan of Shutter Island, as well. That book is currently being made into a movie that will star Leonardo DiCaprio and is being directed by some guy named Scorese. Ben Kingsley is in it and so is the guy who played Kelly Leak in the old Bad News Bears movies and earned an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor last year.

Unlike Mystic River, Shutter Island isn't a blue collar Boston street story, but it's worth loving for other reasons.

The last book by Lehane I have to read is Coronado. To be honest, I just forgot to go get it. It's worth noting that in order to save the environment--and money--I took most of the Lehane books out of the libary.

So much to occupy the mind

The Final Four is on. So is Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers. So is Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. So is Harry Potter; the Scorcerer's Stone.

And I'm blogging. And searching the web for links for posts on my blog.

And I'm sucking down a Carrot Cake on the rocks.

Since I've got all of the movies on DVD, I'm sticking with the game. But I flipped around during halftime of the Kansas-UNC game and if the blowout contineus, I may abandon it and bounce between Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. I did that last night when they showed the first installments of the series. I started watching during the last third of the movies. Worked out well, I got to see most of the good parts of both movies; both saber fights with Darth Maul, the Bridge at Khazud-Dum, the final fight of Boromir.

Oh yeah? Well, maybe you're a nerd!

Gone, Baby, Gone

Last summer and fall I read all but one of the Dennis Lehane books back-to-back-to back-to...well, I forget how many there were, but I read them all, save Coronado.

They are all excellent. Gritty, dirty, slimey, real and not a cliched happy ending among them. Most of them involve a pair of private detectives operating out of Dorchester, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Genaro. They call it crime noir. My buddy Big Daddy Thug at Thuglit.com is a big fan, producer and propietor.

Anyway, I was excited whenGone, Baby, Gone started filming in Boston. I was a little worried, though, that the brothers Affleck--Ben directing and Casey starring as Kenize--would be less than worthy. I finally got around to seeing the movie yesterday and I needn't have worried.

Casey as Kenzie is very good. In the scenes where he confronts Cheese and faces down Big Dave and his boys at the bar he is excellent. Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris are predictably good. Cheese plays ok as a Hatian rather than the Scandinavian wanna be black, but I found the book's version more amusing/scary. Whoever played Lionel the uncle of the misssing girl, deserves kudos. He was excellent, particularly in the pivotal late scene where he faces old demons.

In terms of characters, Angie really got shortchanged. I don't blame Michelle Monoghan; she seemed perfectly capable of playing the hard boiled "don't treat me like a girl" character Lehane created. But for some reason they didn't use her that way. They didn't seem to use her enough at all, really. Most of the time she seemed simply to be following Kenzie around and acting like a girl.

Bubba, too, played by Boston rapper Slaine, was underused. Maybe they were keeping a tight leash on the novice actor. Maybe it would've been too much to play out on screen the stuff that made Bubba so good in the books. My hope for the rest of the Kenzie/Genaro movies--and there should be several--will be more Bubba.

Other than that, I think Ben did a great job. The opening montage with shots of Boston street coerners and front porches sets the scene perfectly. This is a movie about real people. Many of them fat, ugly, nasty or all of the above. The bar scene in the middle of the movie--mentioned above, when Kenize faces down Big Dave's patrons--is tremendous. Middle of the day darkness made creepy by the real but unreal faces and lives that fil the bar.

Other than Bea--played by Amy Madigan, Mrs. Ray Kinsella from Field of Dreams--the actors that use Boston accents hit them. But more than that, Affleck knows and includes the rythmy and phrases common to the Boston street. Big Dave, Helene, Dottie and Lionel all are Boston come to life when arguing. Absolutely authentic.

I really, really liked this movie. And that's not a given when I've read the book previously. I look forward to the rest of the series being put on film.

Song of the day before today: Work That

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Mary J. Blige has got a tremendous voice. As popular as she is, I don't think her audience is as wide as it could be, or will be one day. Belive it or not, she's only just turned 37! I would've pegged her to be at least 5 years older.

This one's a good head nodder and wraps up our iPod week on Song of the Day. Didn't get a chance to post it yesterday. Oridnarily I think I would just let it slide, but since I was theming this week, I figured I ought to wrap it up.

At last

Tonight the Red Sox will play their first game at a normal time. Not 6am, not 10pm, not a 3:55 mid-week get away Jones.

A good ole 7pm classic. Finally.
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If you have to be told...

Sometimes not knowing the right thing to do is worse than doing the wrong thing.

And when you're realization that you've done the wrong thing is more a result of being pounded repeatedly, I don't think you deserve so much credit.

Did I ever mention I hate Wal-Mart and won't ever shop there? Yes, I think I did.

It bears repeating.

Song of the Day: Jerk it Out

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Another unknown band getting an iPod commerical. At least they were unknown to me. good tune, though. Whoever was picking songs for those spots knew something.

The Caesars is the band.
Here are the lyrics.

Lobie's next marriage should be to NESN

Local TV sports broadcast icon Bob Lobel was unceremoniously dumped by WBZ. He seems to be taking it well, at least.

If I were with the Red Sox or running NESN, I would be in touch with Lobel very soon. The network really needs a boost. Aside from games themselves, I think they are really missing the boat, programming-wise. They could/should be doing much more to have viewers tuning in to additional programming.

I think Lobel would be an excellent addition to the team. But only here and there. The sports reporter debate shows are overdone and I think Lobel looks overdone himself on those programs. He'd be better used as a narrator or host of prerecorded specials. Let him narrate player videographies, a history of Fenway Park, history of baseball in Boston, or major sports stories in Boston history.

It'd be easy, flexible work that would allow him to spend most of his time being retired. His comments reacting to his 'BZ departure seem to indicate he's looking forward to that. And it would give NESN a recognizable and beloved sports broadcasting legend. I like Tom Carron and Hazel Mae is, well, I get why they hired her. But they don't have anyone that brings to the table what Lobie does.

I suspect it won't happen. I've been waiting for NESN to develop more and better shows since the new owners bought the club with TV "genius" Tom Werner part of the team. I'm hungry for new shows on that channel. But so far it's only been more infomercials and a very lame dating show set at Fenway. Easily the most disappointing part of the new owners' tenure.

Song of the Day: Vertigo

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U2 actually had an iPod that was marketed as the U2 iPod. I guess that means they're kind of a big deal. That and the fact that they've sold a few bazillion records over the years. This won't be the last time you see U2 featured on this site, I promise you.

Song lyrics

Band information

Go! GoU! Go U-MASS! GO U-MASS!!

The UMass Minutemen defeat the Florida Gators 78-66 in the NIT semifinals.

Awwwwwwwww, HELL Yeah!

They'll play either Ohio State or Mississippi Thursday night at 7pm on espn.

Let's see if we get any love from the Boston media.

UPDATE: It'll be Ohio State, which will attempt to finish their season by losing a second consecutive tournament final.

googley moogley

Just out of curiosity, I googled Someday I Will. This website was on page 10 of results. The 95th result. Apparenlty some girl named Britney Spears had a song with a similar title. And apparently this Britney Spears generates a lot of attention. Meh.

On a search engine known as dogpile, I came in #32.

more another time, something more important brewing...

60 minutes

What an episode this past Sunday! If you’re a Republican Yankee fan, you probably wouldn’t have like it. But me? I loved every story. I liked it so much I’m going to give you a synopsis and links to watch each of the three stories.

Story 1—Nightmare at Guantanamo. Story about a German national who was picked up after 9/11 in Pakistan. He was brought to Afghanistan, then Guantanamo and held for five years. There was a letter in his file from US intelligence saying there was no connection to Al Qaeda and he was no threat to the United States. After that letter he was held another 3.5 years.

He gives credible information about being tortured. It’s credible because it’s detailed and consistent with what other prisoners have claimed as standard practice there. It’s torture because…well, check it out and see if you think you’d consider it torture if it was being done to you.

Even after his release and never being found to have done anything wrong, he is not allowed in the United States, as he is considered an enemy combatant.

The way this administration is abusing power under the guise of protecting us is disgusting. I would like it if our representatives in the House and Senate would apply a little more pressure to bring some kind of accountability into play. Watch the full story here.


Story 2—Al Gore; the earth’s PR man. He’s won a Nobel Prize and an Oscar for his film about the environmental peril into which we’ve put the Earth. He’s put his money where his mouth is, too. All of his money from the movie and the Nobel Prize—and some of his own—have contributed to what will be a $300 million ad buy to raise awareness and spur action on global warming. I haven’t seen the movie yet. I really need to. Maybe you do, too.

60 Minutes Story on Al Gore.
Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth.
The We Campaign, by the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Story 3—Bill James: Baseball stat guru. The guy has changed the way teams evaluate a player’s worth. He is the godfather of modern baseball statistical analysis. He doesn’t aim to replace scouts or create a formula for team chemistry, just provide a better way to look at how to judge a player’s performance. He was a free agent guru who published his analysis annually in an increasingly popular Bill James Baseball Abstract before the Red Sox hired him to be a staff consultant. Smart move. Smart guy. (Why they needed Bob Costas to say this is beyond me.)

Watch the Bill James story here.

Song of the Day: Are you gonna be my girl

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Upbeat, funky-punky tune by Jet. This is one I downloaded just so I could hear it whenver I wanted. Even though the iPod commercials played more than you wanted them to. Yeah, I liked them that much.

Song lyrics

Band information

,including the fact that "the band took their current name from the song "Jet" from Wings' 1973 album Band on the Run."