Song of the Day: Fill Her Up

Two songs in one. The first is a twangy, steel guitar country fell. Then there's a nice dreamy transition into a gospel-y thing and and then a nice driving run to the end.

This is from Sting's Brand New Day album, which is very good from front to back. There's a couple of clunkers (3,5) but "Desert Rose" and "Brand New Day" (harmonica by Stevie Wonder) are very good and Ghost Story is a very nice swooner. Wanna hear Sting as a street walking hooker? Track 6, "Tomorrow will see" is a treat. Don't take my word for it, here's some of what the amazon.com review says about the album:

There is a difference between being an inspired musician and an informed musician. Sting is the latter. As always, he surrounds himself with ultratalented artists: this time around Stevie Wonder, Branford Marsalis, James Taylor, guitarist Dominic Miller, and the prince of rai Cheb Mami, fill the roster. Brand New Day exhibits about as many musical styles as there are tracks, all encased in dense, meticulous production.

Obama

Excellent speech, I thought. I couldn't think of anything he should've done differently.

Happy Anniversary, Someday I Will!

It was exactly one year ago today that I started this blog. I wasn't sure it would be around long enough to warrant this post. There was certainly doubt that there would be so many posts between the first and this one.

Song of the Day: Lollipop

Tuned into Sirius Ch 5, Sirius Gold yesterday on the way home and heard this familiar classic. It's a great little song. But anytime someone criticizes today's music for being too shallow or simple or unsophisticated, I'm pulling this one out. Anyone want to count how many times they sing the world lollipop?

Still, good little tune.

boomp3.com

Beantown to Greentown

Good news in the Globe today.

The city's largest property owner - spurred by high energy prices and rising demand from tenants - is seeking "green" certification for all of its office buildings, marking a major milestone in Mayor Thomas M. Menino's push to make Boston the nation's most environmentally friendly city.

Equity Office Properties Trust, which owns 20 structures in and around Boston, is outfitting its buildings with features ranging from energy-saving heating and cooling units to new bike racks as part of a multimillion-dollar effort to stamp its buildings with the green label.

They're doing it as a social responsibility thing (it's a good thing to do) but also as a marketing and bottom line thing. They say clients are demanding green buildings when they shop for office space and that energy prices are getting so high that their initial investment in the work they do to "green" the buildings will pay off in the not so long haul.

And here's another motivating factor for companies looking to squeeze more out of workers. Modern benefit: this one won't kill workers.

Studies have shown that implementation of green technologies can increase productivity between 10 and 15 percent, according to the State Environmental Resources Center, an organization that tracks the impacts of green energy policies. The group cites research showing that cleaner air quality and better temperature control improves alertness of employees and decreases absenteeism.

Am I missing something?

Shawne Merriman has two torn knee ligaments; a possible career threatening injury, the surgery for which would take six months of recovery and rehab.

So he's going to skip the surgery and play football.

Is there any way this ends well for him? Is there nobody that can convince him this could be a very, very serious mistake? Four separate Doctors could not do the job, apparently.

Go Bubba

Bill Clinton is a very talented speaker and a very smart man. I think he did a great job pumping up Obama and breaking down Bush/McCain. Every time I see him speak I'm sorry that he squandered so much of his political capital with a premature and overambitious health care plan and those other petty issues/scandals he allowed himself to get mired in.

Kerry is also doing a pretty damn good hatchet job on Bush/McCain.

Song of the Day: Stand By Your Man

Anyone who thought Hillary Clinton would do anything but come to Denver and be supportive of Barack Obama is not giving her enough credit. She is a pro. She knows how the game is played and the role she had to play last night.

Obama is the nominee for the Democratic Party and as a long-time and very effective promoter of the Democratic Party, Hillary jumped on board last night.

Is she happy about it? Could she do more? I don't know. Maybe there have been some things done wrong on both sides in dealing with the other. But when it came down to it, Hillary remained what she has always been; a loyal soldier in the Democratic Party. If the pieces fall a certain way, she may be the General in four years. Her performance last night certainly should have left that door open with Obama fans.



BTW: The "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling" is a great line.

DNC humor

My favorite line so far was delivered by Ohio Governor Ted Strickland:

"You know, it was once said of the first George Bush that he was born on third base and thought he'd hit a triple. Well, with the 22 million new jobs and the budget surplus Bill Clinton left behind, George W. Bush came into office on third base, and then he stole second. And John McCain cheered him every step of the way."

Most entertaining speaker so far has been Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer. What a charming and funny guy.

Jimmy Buffett

If anyone is interested in going to the Sat, Sep 6 Buffett show at Great Woods* let me know. Post something in the comments and we can email about it. I have two extra lawn seats.


*I know that's not the current name, but that's what I call it

Song of the Day: I am Woman

Hillary Clinton will speak at the DNC tonight and figures to get a rousing reception. No, she is not going to be the first woman to win the nomination, so that bit of history-making will wait for another day. Today will wrap up Hillary Clinton's acheivement as the first really credible female candidate for a position that has existed for 219 years. That's no small feat and should be respected regardless of politics. The Boston Globe has a nice editorial about it today.

Magic Wand: "Midwestern Values"

Watching the DNC right now and Jesse Jackson, Jr just invoked good old fashioned "Midwestern values." What the hell is that, exactly? They have a monopoly on some sort of values out there that we should aspire to?

Important note, this is a bipartisan sin. It's really a nonpolitical thing.

What about good old fashioned northeastern intelligence and achievement? What about good old fashioned west coast creativity?

It would seem that if there were a value that should be held above others, it would involve humility. Invoking "Midwestern values" the way people do doesn't seem very humble, though.

Go to Sam's Bakery in Fall River

Growing up, my "second mother" used to bring meat pies and spinach pies from Sam's Bakery in Fall River to the beach. My seond mom is actually my mom's best friend, who lived with her family on the third floor of an apartment building in which we lived on the first floor.* My sisters and I grew up with her kids (one of them is Big Daddy Thug) and used to frequent Horseneck Beach waaaaaaaaay back in the day.

Sam's is a Lebanese/Syrian Bakery, so the meat pies are soft Syrian bread folded into triangles and stuffed with deliciousness. As I said, they come in meat, spinach and something called laben, which is meat with some yogurt mixed in. The laben is incredible. Much better than you might think. They have chourico pies, too, but we never got them.

We used to get something else from there called maneesh (found it online mentioned as manakeesh) and a sweet pie. The meneesh we used to call birdseed pizza. It's a large, flat, round syrian bread covered in sesame seeds with a paste featuring olive oil and thyme. Very strong taste, but out of this world if you have, or aquire, the taste for it. The sweet pie, I think, uses honey, sugar and cinnamon instead of the oil and thyme. It is also made on a large, flat, round syrian bread and has lots of sesame seeds sprinkled on top.

My sister was stopping by Sam's on her way back north of the city yesterday and was kind enough to pick us up a big bag of stuff. Delicious. I had a sweet pie last night and some today. Dinner tonight will be meat pies, spinach pies and laben, with salad and maybe some maneesh/manakeesh also.

If you're in the Fall River area, make sure you head to the Flint section of the city and stop by Sam's for some meat pies, etc. It's all good hot or cold, but I think it's best lightly warmed. The pies are about the size of your full, open hand, so you should order lots. They freeze well.

*Sadly, Rolling Green is no longer Rolling Green. A few years ago it was sold by one real estate company to another large real estate company who felt the need to rebrand it.

You're safe here

I won't be "liveblogging" the Democratic National Convention. Several reasons.

--Most of America doesn't care to vote, never mind follow a convention or read someone else's opinion about a convention.

--I generally don't like to use too much of my blog space and my blog readers time reading about things that are going to get so much coverage elsewhere.

--Even I don't want to pay THAT much attention to speeches that tend to be thematically very similar.

--I'm voting for Barack Obama. I love Joe Biden. See the difference? That's politics sometimes. You choose the offered person you like best. But you lay back a little on the enthusiasm.

I may comment here or there if I find something interesting (in a good or a bad way) but don't expect comprehensive coverage here.

Song of the Day: She's Always a Woman to Me

Boomp3.com

You've heard it a million times and you may have gone through alternating periods of loving and hating this song. Hopefully it's been a while since you've heard it and you can enjoy it here and now. I know the Eagles Greatest Hits is the highest selling album of all time. Could Billy Joel's Greatest Hits be too far down on the list? It's just as chock full of hits and most of them are just as timeless.

"To date it is the 6th best selling album in American music history according to the RIAA." according to Wiki on Joel.

Wow. Tied with Garth Brooks and Shania Twain. There are a few above it that I think Joel can pass. But Twain and Brooks may pass him as well. This all assumes people will buy albums in the future. (And by album, I don't mean a wax disk, I mean an entire collection of songs released together in a group)

Boy they do fireworks!

Saw some of the closing ceremonies last night. There was some good stuff, some very bad stuff. I was commenting during the show that it must be hard to walk the fine line between a show that has is entertaining to a broad range of people and one that looks like a giant "Up With People" show. I didn't see anything that was as cool as the drummers and karate guys from the opening ceremonies. Here's the hits and misses:

Hit: Guys hanging off the tower. How does someone think of this and then convince someone else that this will work?

Miss: Opera and Pop music. The kids looked like Up With People. The opera singers...well, I just didn't think it worked.

Hit: The kids. Always a hit to have adorable, smiling little mugs everywhere.

Miss: Hundreds in costumers. I couldn't help but wonder that some of these people spent a lot of time putting on very complex costumes that could not be seen by those in the stadium and were only seen in a 1.5 second passing on TV.

Hit: The fireworks and pyro. Top notch. It's as if the Chinese said: 4th of July? America? Hell, we invented fireworks. We make all the fireworks in the world. THIS is how you do fireworks!!! Brilliant. Every Olympics should just subcontract the fireworks to whoever was in charge in Beijing.

Miss: Any athelete that misses the closing ceremonies. I could see people skipping the opening ceremony because they have an event coming up the next day or they want to stay focused. But why miss the end? You're finished with competing and likely don't have anything big coming up for a while. And it's one of the biggest, most unique parties you'll every be invited to. I don't get atheletes that leave before the closing ceremonies. If I was done on the second day of the Olympics, I'd stick around and soak up as much as possible. Get tickets to other competitions, use my Olympic cache to land privelaged sightseeing opportunities. And, if I were young and single like most of them are, party my ass off and try to meet global girls. What's with rushing to get home?

Song of the Day: You've Got A Friend In Me

This song was chosen as an ode to Joe Biden being selected VP candidate for Barack Obama. Biden was the guy I was rooting for. I think he'll be great on the stump and on the campaign trail. And I think he'd be an excellent Vice President. I think he's got all the qualifications McCain thinks of himself having.

That being said, I'm going to now pay more attention to Randy Newman, singer of the featured song and so many more.

Who doesn't love Randy Newman? I remember him from way back when, hitting "big" with Short People. Hilarious. Always thought it was one of the funniest songs I'd ever heard. And to think it got significant national airplay! "Little cars that go beep beep beep." Genius!


And as much as I really don't, the song I Love L.A. is a great little ditty. Honestly, it's got it all over Dirty Water.

The Red Sox

Beckett has a lingering problem. JD Drew has a herniated disk.

This is not good, my friends.

BTW: I really don't like the Blue Jays. They always seem to give us fits. Vernon Wells is the worst of them all. And our last pair of tickets this season is for a game against the Blue Jays. ratznfratzenrigumschmiggen

Song of the Day: Cocaine Blues

No Red Sox last night. And the Olympics featured a good deal of platform diving by very young, boyish Chinese women and being color commentated by a woman with a southern/Texan accent that was grating on me.

Luckily, I found documentary on PBS about Johnny Cash's legendary concert at Folsom Prison. Interesting--as noted by the producer during the fundraising break--that they'd be able to do a documentary about a concert when there is no video of the conert.

Anyway, this has always been my favorite track on the record. It's got a very straight forward rythm that just keeps on chugging. Not very complex, musically, but strong. And it supports the lyrics of the song very well. Here's a guy that knew how to sing his songs. (and knew the audience to sing them to)

McCain is no regular guy

If someone asks you how many homes you own, you'd probably consider that an easy question, right? Not John McCain. He apparently needs "people" to help him with a doozy like that. Here's how he answered.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.

"I think — I'll have my staff get to you," McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. "It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you."

The Obama folks were more prepared for the question than McCain, apparently. They just launched the ad below.

If you don't want to watch, it's seven. McCain and his wife own no less than 7 (SEVEN) homes. One for each day of the week, I guess.

I have eight. Rooms. Counting the kitchen, but not the bathrooms or basement family room.

Song of the Day: Corona and Lime

If you go on youtube looking for something, you might notice a new song/video. And you might actually watch it and enjoy it. Happened to me and this song by Shwayze. I'm posting just the song, not the video. But you could find the video easily enough.

Good groove here. Summery, just like a nice cold Corona and lime.

Boomp3.com

My opinion, since you're paying for it

My choice for Obama's VP would be Joe Biden. I like his resume as it relates to legal and diplomatic issues and he's got a ton of experience.

And I like his style. He's wicked smart.

The others pale in comparison, I think.

Song of the Day: #41

Sad news that LeRoi Moore, a founding member of the Dave Matthews Band has died. He was the big burly saxaphone player known for wearing the dark sunglasses.

He was in an ATV at the end of June, but had been released from the hospital and started rehabilitation. Some complication landed him back in the hospital and he eventually died.

I've seen DMB twice in Foxboro. They do a great live show. They're one of the bands whose live albums--and they've done several offical releases--are even better than their studio ones. Sure they were the popular group among the "Abercrombie" set and I've never seen as many pretty teen/college age kids wearing plaid and pre-frayed hats in one place than at those DMB shows. But the fan base always sort of belied their musical talent to me.

Here's a YouTube of a live show featuring the playing Moore.

Song of the Day: Bad Medicine

In light of the poll noted earlier, I give you this Bon Jovi gem.

I know more than a few people who will enjoy seeing Bon Jovi featured, though I'm not sure whether this is the tune they prefer. Though not a Bon Jovi afficianado, it was difficult to avoid them, even if you wanted to. I'd prefer something like "Wanted, Dead or Alive" because it's a decent tune from a great movie.

Back in the day my sister and her boyfriend had some last minute tickets to accompany them to a Bon Jovi show at Great Woods, with Keel opening. A buddy of mine and I weren't big fans, but we had nothing better to do, so we went. Pretty good time. I'd love to go back in time and people watch in that crowd now.

Boomp3.com

This week's sign that the Apocalypse is upon us

Ugh.

More than half of randomly surveyed adults -- 57 percent -- said God's intervention could save a family member even if physicians declared treatment would be futile.

Are we supposed to close the medical schools? Or should we continue to develop science so we can keep people alive long enough until god gets around to everyone?

I'm all for keeping the machines and the treatment going a little while after the Doctor says it's futile, if that's what a family wants or a patient asks for in legal documents. It's not allowing time for a miracle from god, though. It's hoping for a lucky fluke.

There's a thread here I'd like to pick up at some point; A question of whether money used to extend treatment when Doctors advise against it might better be used to give basic treatment (preventative or otherwise) to people who aren't getting it.

Song of the Day: Olympic Fanfare

This is only a small part of the entire piece. But it's good listenin'.

Listen

Why surprise at the Olympics?

I've heard a few people--sports fans, mostly--say they are surprised at how much they are watching the Olympics. Really? Doesn't a very large part of the universe get sucked into watching the two week event every time? It's one of the things that is guranteed to generate water cooler talk for the entire two weeks. Great stuff. Why would anyone expect they wouldn't end up watching?

Song of the Day: Can't Find My Way Home

By the time this posts goes up, my week at the beach will be winding to a close, which is sad. A week on the Cape is something to forward to from a long ways back. In a few weeks, after the wonderful relaxing effect begins to wear off a bit, I will start to look forward to next year's trip. Until then, my mind will be intoxicated but not interested in finding its way "home" to normal.

boomp3.com

Clapton plays, Stevie Windwood sings on this Blind Faith classic. Brilliance.

Song of the Day: I'm not in love

Here's another one from poolside at Rolling Green. 10CC is the band. I thought I had used this one for Song of the Day before, but I find no record of it, so here goes.

boomp3.com

Song of the Day: Sister Golden Hair

22A Rolling Green Drive
Mid-70s
The speakers coming out of the Community Center by the pools played this tune on a regular basis. Did you know it was the #1 song in the country for a week?

I can still hear it and see it and feel it.

Thanks to the band America and whoever controled the music at Rolling Green. This one's for the "Rolling Green Good Guys."

Song of the Day: Wouldn't it be nice

Ah, the Beach Boys. The sounds of summer.

boomp3.com

Song of the Day: Nobody Knows You When Your'e Down and Out

Longest song title so far in Song of the Day? Probably. Probably the longest post title ever on the blog, too.

This is from the MTV: Unplugged disk, which is ecxellent throughout. If you've heard them too much, go ahead and skip "Tears in Heaven" and the remake of "Layla," but listen to the rest. Quality stuff.

boomp3.com

Song of the Day: Hey Joe

boomp3.com

Hey...what is this?

--Jimi Hendrix.

I know. Why are you playing Jimi?

--Because I like to listen to him.

That's the problem. Y'all listen.

--What am I supposed to do, eat it?

No. You're supposed to hear it.

--I said I like to listen to him.

There's a difference between hearing and listening. White people can't hear Jimi. You listen.

(The song that started the discussion was actually Purple Haze, but I like this one better.)

Song of the Day: Criminal

I don't know what happened to Fiona Apple. Maybe she only had one good album in her. Maybe her somber, honey-dripping style ran out of appeal. Could be that whatever made her so somber drover her career off the tracks. But there's some seriously good songs and style on her album Tidal, and its most successful single, Criminal.

boomp3.com

Song of the Day: Sleep through the Static

Great tune. See if you can guess what it's about?

Young people don't care? Maybe that's not quite so true.

Song of the Day: The Real Me

You knew this Rockefellar chap had to be hiding quite a bit. I wonder if we'll ever get all of it.

Consider, if you will...

--How many aliases does an innocent man need?
--They changed his daughter's name during the divorce.
--He gave up custody of his child rather than his real identity.
--Despite being the primary caregiver for the child, his visits were supervised.

I can't help but wonder what his ex-wife knows OR if she was in on anything along the way. As soon as he left, they had a list of aliases for him. And she knew what button to push during the divorce to make him give it all up. Either she's going to fill in a lot of gaps or tell us she knew nothing about his past that turned out to be real.

Ah, the pieces they are coming together

So Rockefellar turns out to be Chichester, from California. Or Crowe after he left California. But Chichester was just the name of one of Reiter's teachers in Berlin. That's Berlin in Connecticut, not Berlin in Germany, which is where Reiter was Streiter...or Gerhartstreiter.

Reading comprehension question: How many people are discussed in the paragraph?

A week or two ago even his wife didn't know much about Clark Rockefellar. But once things get rolling, we find things out. We now know that Christian Gerhartstreiter was "deficient" in bookkeeping while a German high school student.

Mission Accomplished

I bought myself a basketball hoop last night. I've been trolling Craig's List looking for one and finally found one that looked good, was cheap enough and was still available when I got in touch with the person.

It's an inground pole with a clear, rectangular backboard that came with a brand new sleeve for setting in the ground. Only $50! It looks like this when it's lying down at its former home.



Right now it is resting against a tree in my backyard. We'll dig the hole and do all the cement stuff shortly. I'll be raining 3s very soon.

Song of the Day II: The Rockafeller Skank

Should've posted this a week or so ago, given the news. In it's original incarnation, SOTD was much more topical than it is today. Then again, the library available was much larger. I could get and use just about any song under the Sun. But I still would like to make a better effort.

So, um, this Rockefeller cat is a bit odd, yes?

boomp3.com

Song of the Day: Pilgrim

From one of Clapton's less celebrated albums comes one of Clapton's lesser known songs. The song is Pilgrim, from the album of the same name. I've always liked both the song and the rest of the album.

boomp3.com

Proud to be ignorant?

Is there anything more ignorant than someone bragging about what they can't do or what they don't know? Reminds me of people saying they "aren't good with computers" as if to say they are also incapable and unwilling to learn how to use a computer.

It's all spin in politics

A few nits with a HubBlog post today, specifically the update to a post.

I don't want to say the "Hub Blog friend" is wrong, but consider these factors:

--He was attending a fundraising event...where insiders and supporters need to put a shine on things, especially if polls are going in the wrong direction.

--In Massachusetts....When was the last time Dems here had reason to be anything other than overly confident?

--Annonymity is fine and I trust Jay's judgement on "Hub Blog friend's" judgement. But his conclusion, without either a supporting argument OR a known identity has to be taken with a huuuuge grain of salt.

I'll freely admit that all of this is coming from a guy that hopes he's wrong. And I hope Dems do take a "take no prisoners" approach to the campaign.

I think more important would be judging the work the campaigns are doing on the ground in states like Ohio, Florida, Virginia, etc. What's going on there right now that might turn the tide one way or the other in November? Frankly, I'm not sure the attitude of anyone at a fundraiser in Boston in August can really be used in a forecast.

And--though this does not apply specifically to Hub Blog--can we stop pointing to "the" reason this election or that was lost? Can we stop insulting everyone's intelligence and admit that there are about 5,000 reasons why any election goes one way or another?

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!

I like monkeys. Gorillas count. The estimated world population of one group of gorillas just skyrocketed when someone stumbled across what must be the ultimate Gorilla City. The figure the area they found has about 125,000 lowland gorillas living there.

The good news comes the same week as some really bad related news:

News of the discovery of the Western lowland gorillas in northern Congo comes the same week as a report that almost 50 percent of the world's primates are in danger of extinction.

The report, also delivered to the Edinburgh conference, cites habitat loss and hunting as the greatest threats. The situation is especially dire in Asia, where the report says more than 70 percent of monkeys, apes, and other primates are classified as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered.

I like monkeys.

.

Song of the Day: No. 9 Dream

After not hearing this song for many, many years, I heard this Lennon classic and fell in love with it. Ignore the cheesy images and just enjoy the song. I couldn't find it on the site that I usually use to post songs here, so I had to go the youtube route.

No, this isn't necessarily a Beatles theme week. It's just starting out that way.

Myanmar update

There's going to be a lot of coverage of the Olympics in the next few weeks. They kick off this Friday, August 8.

We're a bit spoiled in the United States, as we have so many athletes participating in so many events and EXPECTED to win so many medals. But for most countries, that's not the case, which makes the experience a little sweeter and maybe a bit more pure for their nations and their athletes.

Since my adopted country is Myanmar, I thought I'd let you know that, according to Xinhuanet.com...

"Myanmar will send a 20-member sports delegation including six athletes -- four men and two women -- to compete in track and field, swimming, archery, rowing and canoeing/kayat [sic] in the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in China from Aug. 8 to 24."

More coverage from the Telegraph, in London.

According to a press release from the official Olympic website, two women athletes participated in the last games, in Greece. One was in archery, the other in weightlifting. When I get some time, I'll try to find out how they did.

Good for Massachusetts

The Governor and Legislature ended the session last week and are getting raves for their work on environmental issues.

The Globe's Business team has a quick roundup of bills passed and how they'll help.

I think it's great that our state government is taking a lead on this issue and I hope these bills all get the ball rolling a little faster.

Magic Wand: 110%

You can't give 110%. I don't care how hard you try. The maximum amount of effort you can give is 100%.

Athletes are the most common offenders when it comes to giving 110%. What they're really saying is: "we tried as much as we could this time but since we can't say we were't giving 100% every other time, we need something more than 100%."

I think anyone that says they gave 110% is either a little dishonest or a little stupid.

Song of the Day: Golden Slumbers/Carry that Weight/The End

The Beatles were soooo good and had so many good songs, that sometimes you loose track. Golden Slumbers is one of my all time under-rated favorites. It comes, of course, from the Abbey Road album. Go back and punch up that album in the next few days and listen all the way through. You don't get many albums that strong from start to finish. The Beatles had many of them.

If you've got the "Beatles 1" album with all the #1 hits, I wouldn't suggest listening to it all that often. Get the albums and appreciate each one in its entirety.

As is often the case, Golden Slumbers is here combined with the songs following it on the album; Carry that Weight and The End: "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."

boomp3.com

The Jason Bay Era

Attended the game Saturday night and it was interesting.

There's a definite split among fans over the Manny thing. There were lots of Manny shirts proudly worn and the rack with Manny stuff at 50% off was busy.

Of course, there were Manny or Red Sox shirts that had been modified in various ways and signs bidding Manny a not so fond farewell.

In the line for sausages were two guys standing next to each other with game jerseys on; one a Ramirez 24, the other a Garciapara 5. Stranger still were the two guys sitting in the section in front of us. One guy was sporting the Ramirez game jersey, the other a t-shirt with the name and number for Jason Bay on the back.

There was surely a lot of enthusiasm for Jason Bay. He got several standing ovations when he came to the plate. Granted, he hit a three run jack, but the reaction for Bay at this point is crazy. This is a guy most probably couldn't name a week ago. Maybe some of it is Red Sox nation warmly welcoming its newest warrior. But it certainly feels like part of it is their way of celebrating the fact that he's not Manny.

Nice to see the offense wake up in a big way, though.

Welcome to Boston, "Just" Jason Bay

We have a new leftfielder.

My thoughts on the trade? Remember Bill Clinton's first campaign when the story was that there was a sign in the headquarters reading "It's the economy, stupid" to remind them to stay focused on the main goal? I can't help but wonder if there's was a sign in the front office over on Landsdowne that read "Trade Manny: By any means necessary."

The Dodgers have one of the best hitters in the game and they won't have to write a single paycheck. The Pirates got four cheap young players. And while Hansen and Moss are not established front-line major leaguers, they are ready for the big leagues and will only get better. They are very good values to the Pirates.

I know Manny didn't want to be here and was a distraction. Trading Manny was a good thing. But paying the salary AND adding two young players seems too much for "Just" Jason Bay. How hard can you hit the panic button?

Song of the Day: Babe, I'm gonna leave you

For all of those who changed addresses before--or just shortly after--4pm yesterday.

I'll leave you when the summertime
Leave you when the summer comes a rollin
Leave you when the summer comes along

It always sounds to me like they had about four words written before they went into the studio to record this song. I wouldn't be surprised if they only had that single riff, too; just went in the studio with that and ripped it up. Tremendous song!

boomp3.com

I have tickets for Saturday night's game. Curious to get the feel of the park. The team has been extremely listless. I don't accept Manny as the excuse.