Phillies

Phillies win the World Series. Brad Lidge appropriately closed it out. 48/48 in save opportunities in 2008. And Philadelphia wins it's first sports championship since the 76ers won in 1983. Way to go Phillies. The second installment of Game 5 was much better than the first, and had as much excitement as some complete postseason games.

Xbox runaway

http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/microsoft-offers-reward-for-missing-xbox-gamer/1260470
Just read this article about a 15 year old who ran away from home because his dad took his Xbox away. He left his house, on his bicycle, on October 13th, which is the day Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving (for some reason).
"I just took away his identity, so I can understand why he got so mad and took off. Before, I couldn't understand why he was taking off for taking his game away."
This is an excerpt from the article, quoting the boy's father. What the hell is going on here? If I read this story without knowing the boy's age I would guess that he was 7. And he's either hiding at his grandmother's house or his best friend Jeff's.
I'm not entirely sure if the father is claiming to be in the wrong or not. At one point he compares taking the Xbox away to "cutting his legs off." WHAT? If taking your son's video games away is tantamount to cutting off his legs, your son has a problem.
When Parra took away my Crash Bandicoot in college I didn't ride off on my bicycle and hide in a shed somewhere. I took it like a man and allocated that block of time for napping and interacting with people.

Theme Time Radio 10/29/08

Another wonderful broadcast of Theme Time Radio Hour by Bob Dylan. This week was an unannounced, "super-sized," President's show. The theme was loosely Presidential. In honor of President's day, Dylan made something of a President's Day sale out of the show. Many of the songs he played were leftovers (from other shows), like the knick knacks you see in store windows on the aforementioned holiday. Dylan called it "cleaning the shelves," but most of the songs were hardly back-of-the-closet material.

Dylan talked about almost all the Presidents. I wouldn't be surprised if he mentioned all of them over the course of the 2 hour special. Lincoln's name popped up often. The most interesting factoid concerned Honest Abe's son, Robert Todd Lincoln. He was present, or nearly present, for three presidential assassinations. The first, naturally, was his father's. He was supposed to be at Ford's theatre watching Our American Cousin with his father, but was tired from a long wagon ride the previous day. In 1881 he was to meet James A. Garfield, our twentieth president, at a train station in D.C. He was late, but not too late to witness Garfield's assassination. Then in 1901, he was to meet William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. Though he was not late for this meeting, by the time he arrived McKinley had been shot through the stomach, kidney, and colon. Ouch. Mr. Robert Lincoln was around for 75% of the presidential assassinations.

Jack White, of the White Stripes, spoke for a moment, from a local video store, about George Washington and his refusal to shake hands while in office. White mentioned that Washington was the only President to not belong to a political party. Interesting. Ruth Brown sang an enthusiastic version of Hello Little Boy that sounded as if her larynx might explode. Dylan then surprised me by playing a They Might be Giants song. It amuses me to imagine him listening to songs like Shoehorn with Teeth or Birdhouse in Your Soul. Naturally the song he played on Theme Time was James K. Polk, an informative summary of the effective single term of our 11th president.

We listened to an audio clip of Jackie Kennedy giving the first television tour of the White House. She sounded more like British royalty than American royalty, which she was, in a way. She spoke about a painting of George Washington that hung in the WH, the only remnant existing from before the fire of 1814, when British troops set it ablaze in retaliation for the Battle of York.

At about the halfway point of the show, Dylan accepted a call from a "listener." The call was clearly bogus- the "caller" was clearly reading off a card- probably someone who works on the show. He asked a question about Presidents with beards, which Dylan instantly spun and announced that only Republican presidents had grown them. The caller then asked for a song that Dylan presciently played, seemingly before the caller had even finished his request. It was much smoother and more amusing than having some real caller fumble through compliments and some silly question about the White House.

The first half of the show wasn't as mellifluous as last weeks', but it improved in the second half. A much sampled song by Roy C. and the Honeydrippers, and then Dylan was talking about FDR and his black cabinet. Now this is something I'd never heard of. Apparently, Roosevelt had a collection of African American advisers, officially known as the Federal Council of Negro Affairs. The council kept Roosevelt aware of increasing needs and opinions of black Americans. They spearheaded the civil rights movement of the '30s and several members of the council held prominent roles in the administration. FDR did it all.

Dylan talked about Nixon "losing" the 1960 Presidential debate to JFK. It was the first televised debate, and many viewers at the time said that's what lost it for Tricky Dick. His 5 o'clock shadow, lack of makeup and bulging sweaty forehead was a grotesque site in comparison to Kennedy's natural and composed good looks and thick shock of hair. Radio listeners almost universally agreed that Nixon won the debate with his superior knowledge of the economy and foreign affairs.

While Dylan promoted the show as an "emptying out (the) closets in honor of presidents day," most of the music was superb. He played a song by Clover, called Mister Moon, which had a swing bite to it that was reminiscent of Elvis Costello's first release, My Aim is True. I say this because Costello fans will recall that Clover was the backing band on My Aim, and the band eventually evolved to become the News of Huey Lewis fame.

The next piece was entitled Gloomy Sunday. A song penned by two Hungarians, it's often referred to as "the suicide song," and it was banned in Hungary because according to legend multitudes of fans killed themselves while listening to the song. Countless reports of people found dead, with this song click click clicking in the groove at the middle of the record. Dylan played Billie Holiday's version. It was a sad song but it didn't make me wanna kill myself. It made me wanna eat toast but I was out of bread. One of the songwriters, Laszlo Javor, took his life by jumping from a building in 1968. Here's a terrific lyric from the song:

Angels have no thought of ever returning you,

would they be angry if I thought of joining you?

This was followed by an excellent track by Ella Johnson about getting rough with her man. It was called "Go Upside your Head." What a sweet honey voice she had. One can be introduced to so many great artists with just one episode of Theme Time Radio Hour. The presidents everyone loves, Dylan said, are the dead presidents. The ones that "jingle in your pocket." No jingle better than the paper rustle of a Salmon P. Chase at your hip. He was a senator, than a Treasury Secretary and finally a Chief justice. But more importantly, he was on the $10,000 bill. Not sure wy they don't have those anymore. Little Walter, blues, "Dead Presidents."

We heard Randy Newman's Have Pity on the Workin' Man, one of many Newman songs about the President and American politics. When complimenting Randy's sardonic lyrical cries and insults, Dylan got on the subject of song poems. Song poems are poems put to music, done professionally, and often through magazine ads. You still see them in the back of magazines. Send in your poem and 50-500 dollars and someone will make a song out of it. Dylan called it a racket and a scam, songwriters busting out as many as 12 songs an hour. He played snippets from a few and they were hilarious. My favorite was about Jimmy Carter, and it could be roughly described as Disco marching band style. Here's a line from it:

can our government be competent,

jimmy carter says yes, jimmy carter says yes.

The show ended with Elvis Presley singing If I Can Dream, an apropos tune, possibly about Elvis' presidential aspirations, which showed off Elvis' gnarling bobcat voice, that was common in his later albums. Another good tune I failed to mention was It's All in the Game, sung by Tommy Edwards. Apparently this song was written by Charles Dawes, who was later vice president under Calvin Coolidge.

***More Wetness

Just found this tasty morsel. Game 4 of the 1911 World Series between the New York Giants and Philadelphia Athletics was postponed six days due to rain. IN PHILADELPHIA. So, this whole business isn't unprecedented after all.
Of course, this isn't the first time a World Series has been postponed. In 1989, in this here city of San Francisco, the WS was held off for 10 days in the wake of a quake.
So it's raining in Philadelphia, and they've got some shit-hole Orange Juice shack of a stadium in Tampa Bay, with catwalks and on field bullpens. Hopefully the rest of the series is exciting or this is going to go down as one of the lousiest WS ever.

A Wet One

Major League Baseball is finally suffering from their avarice. After striking a multi-billion dollar deal with FOX, covering the next few World Series's, it all came crashing down last night, much like the torrential rain that turned Citizen's Bank park into a wading pool.
FOX made a deal with MLB to start the games at 8:30pm, EST, instead of 7 o'clock. Idiotic. Playoff games, like any fan knows, take at least 2 hours. The Sox have had multiple postseason games that have gone longer than 5 hours in the last four years. You can't start a game at 8:30 and expect it to end at a reasonable time. This, of course, is complicated by inclement weather. Now, after rain made play impossible in the 4th, 5th and half of the 6th inning on Monday night, they were forced to postpone the game till tonight. Well the weather in Philadelphia is even less lovely or brotherly tonight. It's just as windy and rainy. So they're pushing it to tomorrow. Or later.
Bud Selig, baseball's unpopular commissioner, is out of excuses. Naturally you can't end a World Series with a shortened game, but you also shouldn't start a game an hour and a half late, because of weather, when the game is already starting at 8:30 pm! It blows my mind that he thinks this makes any type of sense. It's bad enough nobody is watching because it's Rays (who have a handful of out-of-the-woodwork bandwagon fans) vs. the Phillies. I just hope Selig doesn't do to MLB what Bettman has done to the NHL. Maybe it's an unfair comparison but it makes me worry when Selig would sign a deal with FOX that alienates tv fans and ballpark fans alike. FOX, what a joke.

Olympic Ballots

It's October 25th, and you (nobody) know(s) what that means: ballots are due.

I sent out the ballots on September 10th, giving people 6 weeks to fill them out and return them. They could be mailed to MOC (Maine Olympic Committee) headquarters (my parents house) or simply returned in an email reply. Most people have told me it took about 3 minutes to fill out. Well, I've received exactly half of the 22 ballots that went out in September. And that's counting two that were sent home that I've yet to tally. My sister seems to think that's a fair response, and I suppose it would be if I was sending out some boring chain letter but this is a 2009 Maine Summer Olympics ballot. Come on! It took me 10 minutes, tops, to fill it out, and I feel like I put a lot of thought into it.
Either way, it looks like we'll have an alright turnout. At the moment, I've received more ballots from females than males. Usually, the problem with any sporting event or team is acquiring female interest. Breanne says it's just because females are better at returning ballots and that sort of thing. She's probably right (KEITH!).

I'm not at liberty to say much about the totals, but I can reveal that Eating Contest is not going to be one of the events. Probably for the best.

Run 10/25

Went for a run today with Breanne riding beside me. I wanted to try and run around the Presidio and try to avoid some of the big hills that climb up to Broadway street.
We entered the Presidio on Lyon street and ran by the cemetery and up Kobbe street, which is always empty and shoulders lots of tall old brick mansions. Doesn't look like anyone lives in them. After climbing Kobbe, which is just a long gradual uphill until the last 500 ft, we were at the ocean and we took a left and ran along the water. There was a sweaty bald man, running with his shirt in one hand, that I kept passing. I would look at things or take side streets and have to pass him all over again. He wasn't going terribly slow but I was feeling good and trying to keep up with Breanne and her bicycle.
Once we finally escaped the Presidio, we took another left on Lake street and started the long straight away back to the apartment. I crossed about 25 streets before getting to Clay and Washington, where I climbed an unbelievably steep hill that I'd overlooked when planning the route. Breanne had to get off her bike and I ran it up the hill for her and waited at the top.
By the time I got back I was sweaty and sore but I felt I could have gone further. It's so much easier to increase your speed when you have someone biking casually along next to you. It makes you feel like you're not working hard enough. It was around 9 miles all together, but it took me well over an hour. Not a tremendously good pace, but I started really slow and sped up over the last 3 miles. I determined that there is no way to run in my neighborhood without going up a giant hill, but it's good for my training.

Return to the Beach

my artlessness got the best of me again. Today, after Breanne was cancelled at UCSF, we returned to the beach on the other side of the bridge. We discovered that not only is it an unadvertised nude beach, but it's a gay nude beach. We were the only ones there clothed and Breanne was the only one there without a dong, and I can say that indisputably because I saw everyone's white, brown, or black member dangling between their legs. Most of the nudists hung out around the corner, out of site of the main beach, which we discovered when returning to the main road. There was a single spot on the walking path that if you leaned over a bit and peered down, revealed a sandy carpet of flat rocks spotted with naked tanning men.
We probably won't return to the beach. Not because we're homophobic, but because I don't feel comfortable around naked people. I also felt that I was intruding on the nudist area. I actually like the idea of people being comfortable enough to swagger around, sans clothes, in the presence of strangers. It's just not for me.
Oddly, on the walking path on the way down to the beach, Breanne and I were 20 feet or so behind a man with an Ipod. Another man came up the path toward him and goosed him, in the crotch. The Ipod man flipped out, yelled something, but the gooser just walked on casually. I protected myself a bit with the beach bag, not really wanted my crotch grabbed. He ignored me. It occurred to me later that the gooser probably assumed the man with the Ipod was on his way to the nude spot. Still no reason to grab a stranger's knob. We saw another guy with the smallest pair of underwear I've ever seen, a child's speedo or something. Not fun to look at.
I probably should have realized that the nude man I saw yesterday wasn't an anomaly. You'd think I'd have lost a bit of my naivety having lived in Los Angeles in San Francisco for over a year. Not the case.

Nudes

Ran through the Presidio with Breanne leading and sometimes following on a bike. She took a picture of me next to a street sign that bore my last name. It was named in honor of a former Captain of the fort. His first and middle names were Erasmus Darwin. Clearly ambitious parents. Confusing too, for Erasmus was a famous Theologian while Darwin, well, he was Darwin. Erasy did believe in free will in an age of predestination, so we'll give him that.

We rode/ran to the edge of the Presidio, to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean, as Walter Sobchak would say. We walked a winding path to the water, and were provided with a magnificent view of the Golden Gate Bridge, from "behind"- an uncommon angle for most visitors. The waves were tall and the undertow was strong, but not as strong as the inexplicable pull of seeing a nude person on the beach. It was a man, maybe 65, flipping like a fish from one side to the other. I tried not to stare and took a snapshot so I wouldn't have to. It came out well. I particularly like the other man in the forefront, passing with his head trained on his shoe tops.

We made our way over to Chestnut street and as usual had burritos at Los Hermanos. They were more delicious than usual, having just finished a 7 or 8 mile run (with a break to see the ocean up close). We plan to go back next week, maybe to take in some sun, but not naked.

1st show of Theme Time

Just listened to the first BDTTRH episode of season 3. BDTTRH, if it's not obvious, stands for Bob Dylan Theme Time Radio Hour. It was a tremendous episode. The theme was "night." Dylan was clever and funny and rolled out several good anecdotes. He played a dry cleaning jingle. He recited a few poems, the last and best, Goodnight by Carl Sandburg. He talked about Fred Astaire, lullabies, Film Noir, exotic plants, juju, Batman, the Great Blackout, Van Gogh- other bits that slip my mind.

He played two terrific songs before ending with Help me Make it through the Night by Kris Kristofferson. The two songs were by the Latin Playboys and Charles Brown, respectively. Forever Night Shade Mary was the first. It was the type of song that makes your skin crawl with it's simple perfection. I didn't catch the title of the second one but I hope to figure it out. Another great tune was Nightlife, by Willie Nelson.

I looked online to see if the first two seasons has been released on CD. Not yet. There was, however, a scathing review of the show on Amazon, posted amid angry reviews of a few Theme Time CD knock-offs from Britain. It was by a music fan who claimed to have over 200,000 CDs! How is it that this person even has time to listen to Theme Time Radio hour with all those CDs on the shelf? He claimed to know for certain that Dylan did not write what he reads on the radio, and even suggested he was embarrassed by the show. Why would Dylan continue the broadcast if it was a subject of humiliation? Hard to believe.

I'm excited to listen to Dylan every Wednesday. Something to chalk up on the calender and get me through the long months between October and spring training.