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2/28/02 - Anyone catch the Grammy's last night? A few years ago I would make sure
I watched every minute, but it seems to get less interesting every year. So last night I just
checked in now and again, and I'm so glad I caught it when Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch and
Emmylou Harris sang together. I'm just not sure it gets much better than that. And after they
sang, it went right into the legendary Ralph Stanley. At the Grammys! Hah. Five years ago
you wouldn't have a prayer seeing that in prime time.
The ides of March are coming two
weeks early for Dan Duquette. I can hear those bells ringing now......the ones at the beginning of
AC/DC's "Hells Bells." There could be as many as 50 job changes in the Red Sox organization. I send
them my resume every year. Of course I never hear anything and my calls go unanswered. It's all
good.
Last day of February, which means the temperatures in Boston have nowhere to go but up. What
a relief!
2/25/02 - I remember when I was a kid (okay, a teenager) and I'd always watch
the news and read the newspaper (still do) and see articles about drought conditions and
water bans. Seems like these things only happened in places like California and Arizona, etc.
I took a trip out to California, in fact, back in 1994 and thought it so strange that
there was actually a water ban in place at the time and there were signs everywhere telling peope
what time and day they could water their garden, wash their cars, etc. Very strange stuff. I always
took it for granted. Well, lo and behold, I hear that
New England might have to adopt those
very same water bans and drought conditions this summer if we don't get some precipitation
soon, because our conditions right now are moderate to severe. Yikes.
Remember how I said England invaded Spain last week?
Now
we know why. Heh heh.
My best friend from high school is an assistant coach for the Brown University women's basketball
team. So every now and then I have to check out how the team is doing. Well, they suck. They're
like 5-21 or something and he's miserable. But over the weekend, while checking on the Brown team,
I decided to check to see how my alma mater, Kent State, is doing is hoops. And holy cow! They're
22-5 and have already clinched first place in their division, automatically qualifying them for
the big tournament. Truth be told, I don't really give a crap because I hate basketball, but it's
nice to see Kent State doing well in something. So rest assured, I hereby pledge to you,
my one reader, that I will never allow the sport of basketball to be mentioned on this page
again. By the way, for the four years I spent at Kent State, our football team was
1-39. No lie. I went to the one game they won, too.
2/22/02 -
Quasi seems to be a really excellent band. If you're a fan of Built To Spill or The Olivia
Tremor Control, then be assured you'll dig these guys.
What's the big deal with
this? I try and celebrate as often as I possibly can. Heh. Actually, I'm not that bad. I mean,
I get to the gym 2-3 times a week for an hour-long workout, so I feel like I do enough. And check it,
we just drove out to my sister's house last Monday and picked up a treadmill for our house. Damn Sam.
Treadmills (this one in particular, anyway) are friggin' heavy! It's a nice one, it seems. It has all
kinds of buttons and readouts and heart rate monitors and crap. It was originally purchased by
my parents, and it got used a little bit, but it still seems to be in next-to-new condition, so
not a bad pick up, eh? Free treadmills look a little like this:
Really excited for the U.S.-Russia hockey game tonight. The winner plays Canada in the gold
medal game on Sunday, which should be equally excellent. If you've never seen hockey or haven't
appreciated it, tonight and Sunday are the times to watch.
2/19/02 - Bought three albums today:
The Bottle Rockets, "Songs Of Sahm" - If you don't know who Doug Sahm is, you might want
to consider marching out to your local record store (support your local record store!) and
picking up
The Best of Doug Sahm (1968-1975). This guy wrote and sang so many good songs that it
should be criminal. Of course none of them ever made it onto the radio, but don't get me started
on that. Anyway, Doug Sahm died last July so The Bottle Rockets, a damn great band in their
own right, put this album togther of all their favorite Doug Sahm songs. Can't go wrong.
No Doubt, "Rock Steady" - I remarked a couple days ago how much I was enjoying the songs
I heard on this album, so now I own it. Upon first listen, it's a gas. I was never so much
into No Doubt, now all of a sudden I think this Gwen Stefani character has some staying power.
This album is filled with great, upbeat dance songs, and I cannot even believe it, but I think
it's great. What the hell did I just say?
Plastic Ono Band, (self-titled) - This is simply an astonishing album. It was John Lennon's
first album after leaving The Beatles, and it may as well be Lennon on your couch - him
the patient, you the shrink. From him crying out for his mother in the aptly titled "Mother"
to singing "I don't believe in
beatles" (on the song "Love"), this is really one of Lennon's finest moments, unshackled and crying
out in freedom, in happiness, in terror and in love. A must have.
I checked my credit card online today and found that the Red Sox charged me $50 less for the
4-game value pack I ordered. This either means I only got 3 games, or that I got downgraded in seating,
which sucks! Me in my Beavis voice: it sucks!
World events right now are not exactly terrific, so I was shocked to see that Britian
actually
invaded Spain today. Okay, it was an accident (???). But I would have loved to have
seen the exchange when they landed on Spain's soil. "Oh, sorry mate. We're a bunch of blokes, no?"
2/17/02 - I'm unsure if this makes me odd, but being in the shower is
one of my favorite activities, and has been for years and years. I have no
explanation for this whatsoever. Perhaps it's just the warmth from the water or something, I really
don't know. I have been known to stay in the shower from time to time for as long as an hour,
though. I do believe one time
during my college days I took a 90 minute shower. There was another time in college when I took a shower
and drank a beer at the same time. I don't even do anything in there, either - I just stand there and let
the water hit me. Inexplicable, isn't it? I mention this because I just returtned from
my parents place in Gilford, New Hampshire, and had the privledge of receiving an excellent
shower head from them - it looks something like this:
My dad and I stayed up until 2am last night watching the
U.S. hockey team tie the
Russians, 2-2. A great
game from start-to-finish - fast pace, crisp passing, good hitting and great goaltending. They
say that this week you'll see some of the best hockey in history. So far, so good.
One of the things about taking a two-hour drive to New Hampshire is that you get to spend
some time listening to music. Yesterday I got reacquinted with the amazing
Built To Spill,
who hail from the musical hotbed of Boise, Idaho. Their album called
Perfect From Now On, is
well-worth having and contains one of my absolute favorite indie-rock songs "I Could Hurt A Fly."
Great stuff. Also been digging No Doubt's new album, too. Am I going mainstream? Stay tuned...
2/14/02 - I've previously waxed poetic about the great
Clem Snide, but last night was my first opportunity to see them play live, and
they were incredible. Their albums, at times, tend to drift off into a slow netherworld,
so I'm glad they realize that trying to pull that off in a live setting wouldn't be
incredibly exciting. So they proceeded to do a healthy mix of the etheral and the loud, and it
was really quite great. They moved themselves up a few notches on my list of favorite bands
for sure. Small world note: turns out I actually know one of the guys in the band. I hadn't
seen him or talked to him for about 2 or 3 years, but I couldn't believe it! Anyway, I highly
recommend their new album,
The Ghost Of Fashion. "The foot's on the other shoe." Really great stuff.
Sports radio update: I now have a running bet with Sean McDonough, TV broadcaster for the Red Sox
and host of 1510AM's afternoon drive-time sports radio show. If the Tampa Bay Devil Rays finish
within 10 games of the Wild Card spot in the AL this season, I get to co-host the show with
him. If not, I have to buy him and two other dudes from the show dinner at some restaurant in
Peabody. Not a bad deal for them, really, as I don't expect the Devil Rays to do that, but you
never know - the Patriots were 5-11 last season.....and nobody ever expected the Minnesota Twins
to ever be good again......we'll see!
Some small changes to the site - I replaced the text headers in the orange table over there to
your left with images. It looks kinda crappy there because they don't line up so well. I'm
trying to figure out how to fix that. Also made the robot picture bigger - a few people
mentioned they didn't know what it was. It's a robot - you are looking over it's left shoulder
from behind.
Site update: the table header images look better now - I centered them.
2/11/02 - Okay, it's one thing to watch The Wizard of Oz and synch up
Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" and watch the eerie similarities unfold, but
this is truly ridiculous and laughable. Read the "update"
page, too - it's no wonder nobody reacted to it - it's pure stupidity!
I swear that I am going to improve this site eventually. I just keep forgetting to "borrow"
Photoshop from work and install it on my home PC so I can re-size images and stuff. I have
a bunch of photos ready to go, but they're just too big, as these
pictures demonstrate. I just need the time.......
I bought myself a 4-game package for the Red Sox. I was THIS close (picture me with my
thumb and forefinger like 1 centimeter apart) to buying 8 games - even had the envelope
sealed - but in a common fit of frugality, I ripped it open and crossed out the extra
four games. I still got 4 good ones, though. I got the Yankees in a Sunday night game, the
World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks, the Baltimore Orioles, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays,
who are my sleeper pick to surprise a lot of people this season. They won't challenge for
the division title or anything, but they'll do better.
Today is Jennifer Aniston's 32nd birthday, Burt Reynolds 71st and it's also Leslie Neilsen's 76th birthday. Given the
choice, I'd take Leslie Neilsen's movies over any episode of "Friends." Speaking of "Friends,"
apparantly last night's episode of Futurama featured aliens watching "Friends" and wondering
"why doesn't the tall geeky one (Ross) just eat all of the other friends?" That's pretty funny. But
both of those birthdays pale in comparison to this day in 1847, when Thomas Edison was born.
Inventing the light bulb was surely enough, but also inventing the phonograph!!?? I'd love to be
in that guy's head for a day - back then - not now, of course. "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration."
2/8/02 - Let me tell you, I am always the first one to browbeat commercial
radio - I hate it. I hate what it stands for, I hate most of the songs, I especially hate the business
practices, I hate the process of how a record gets to be played - the works. But I was standing
in a Circuit City Express store last weekend and I couldn't help but be completely enamored
of that song by Pink - what's it called - "Get This Party Started" or something like that?
What the hell is happening to me? Suddenly and out of nowhere, me the music snob likes something because I saw
a video in a Circuit City? I can't help it. I love the song, I love the dancing, I think she's
cool. I will now hit myself in the head with a metal shovel.
On the music tip, the new
Weezer album is so kick-assingly terrific. The thing that really tickles me is that
it's 11 songs, but the entire album is just 35 minutes long. It is my humble opinion that the
United States government ought to enact a law stating that no music album can be longer than
40 minutes. Who the heck has the time to listen to some narcissistic fool sing songs for like
70 minutes? Hello, Sting. Goodbye, Jeff. Anyway, get that Weezer album - it's so delicious. It's the
kind of album that you know by heart after about 3 listens. No kidding. And I hear they have
another one coming out in April!
And while we're on the subject of music, there is a Kinks tribute album coming out in a couple
of months, and I had the good fortune of getting my dirty little hands on a copy of it this week.
Let me be the first to tell you how excellent it is. Not only are the songs on the obscure side
of The Kinks catalogue, but they're done so friggin' excellent it kills me. Cracker, Queens of the
Stone Age, Steve Forbert, Fountains Of Wayne, Matthew Sweet and Fastball are just a few of the
bands on this thing. And Ray Davies actually appears on his own tribute album, which is incredibly
ironic and yet wonderful. He does a new version of the amazing "Waterloo Sunset." Anyway, the album
comes out in April. Usually tribute albums suck. Back in the days when I ran a record label, we
put out a tribute album to a person that nobody has really ever heard of. In fact, the guy
actually coordinated his own tribute album - he recruited the bands, told them which songs to play,
etc etc. It was done with our tongues firmly planted in our cheeks, which is pretty much the
way we ran the label. We even considered releasing an album by one of our bands with just one
listed song - and like 13 "hidden tracks." What a bunch of dorks, huh? Yep, that's me.
2/6/02 - I made it onto Boston sports radio on Monday evening, believe it
or not. I had just got in the car and flipped on 1510AM with Sean McDonough and Steve DeOssie
and they were talking about the Red Sox and Patriots so I said "what the hell" and I gave it
a shot - sure enough, it rang and before I knew it I was on the air! I babbled about Tom Brady
not deserving the MVP and also the '93 World Series (see below), because McDonough was actually
doing play-by-play for that game. It was pretty cool.
When March comes around and you don't see me for like three months, you'll know that I had
received my copy of the new 3DO baseball game for the PC,
High Heat Baseball 2003. Anyone who is a baseball fan would LOVE this game. I got so addicted
to it last season I ended up playing an entire season, taking the Red Sox to the World Series. This
season I'm going to take a National League team, either the Cubs or the Padres, I think. I want
to challenge myself. The game is so real from all points of view it's startling. You manage
and play the major league team, and also manage all levels of the minor leagues down to rookie
ball. It's like drugs, except you won't die or go broke using it.
Got myself a
CD recorder over the weekend. A dual deck beauty. Contact me if you
need any kick-ass mixes, because it's all new and fresh and I'm using it a ton.
2/4/02 - Before yesterday, there were three sports moments in my life
that I considered to be some of the best memories I could ever hope to take with me
when this life is over:
1. Being a live witness to the Joe Carter home run that won the World Series for the
Toronto Blue Jays in 1993. Truly one of the most magical moments of my life and one of the
most famous occurences in baseball, for it was only the second time in the history of the game
that a World Series was ended by a home run. I still remember standing in between
the Blue Jays dugout and the 3rd base camera area, frozen in time, watching that
baseball clear the wall, and the Skydome subsequently emitting the single loudest
noise I have ever heard in my life. I remember it like it was three hours ago. It's forever
stamped into my brain and will never go away. This moment will never be unseated as my #1
sports moment unless I attend Game 7 of the World Series and the Red Sox win it.
2. Beating Gardner in high school hockey.
I was a junior in high school and we were in the middle of the standings and going nowhere. Gardner was a
state powerhouse and hadn't lost a regular season game in two years, they were 18-0 when
we played them. You know what's coming, right? Oh yes you do. We went to their rink, in
front of a raucous home crowd on a Saturday night and beat them 5-3. I had two goals and an
assist. What a feeling.
3. Watching the New York Yankees unravel and become unglued in the bottom of the 9th inning
of this years World Series. Aside from the fact that I hate the Yankees, this was a moment in
baseball that was just about guaranteed - Mariano Rivera pitching, bottom of the ninth, Game
7 and he had never - never - blown a playoff save. And the Diamondbacks did it! When I went
to bed that night, my girlfriend asked me "what was all that noise you were making?"
Uh, yeah - that was me jumping around the living room like a monkey in a banana warehouse.
So, now it's time to add a fourth. Last night, our hometown New England Patriots won the Super Bowl
on a last second kick. Of course, I only watch the playoff games, but these three playoff
games were three of the best football games I have ever seen. All for now.
2/2/02 - February is a great month, because it means that I will get
paid twice in thirteen days. My past two jobs have gone on the "get paid on the 15th
and 30th" scenario, which I like. I think ideally I'd like to be paid weekly, though.
Either way, I consider myself lucky to be employed at all these days, so I'm not
being picky. I do feel bad for people who are paid monthly - that has got to suck eggs,
especially around the 29th of the month.
February also means that we're only about 15-20 days from the start of
spring training,
a sure sign that the winter thaw is coming soon. This offseason has been a great one
and there have been a lot of compelling storylines already developing across the league. Baseball is really my favorite
game on Earth. There is nothing better than experiencing that combination of strategy,
athletics, and a perfect, lush green grass field on a nice summer night at Fenway Park.
I cannot wait - I love trying to play "manager" and guessing what a team will do in certain
situations. Ahhhh. It's almost time. I am actively trying to recruit a friend or two to
split season tickets with me. I can't afford them alone.
You've got to read this page. A pretty
amazing story (and others did the same). I really want to try it and see where "I" end up.
Oh, one more thing, one of my favorite bands,
Sloan, have been signed
by RCA. They were previously putting their records out in the U.S. on their own record
label (a travesty, although they probably made more money that way). At this point, they
are one of the biggest bands in Canada. They had a big record
deal fall apart in the States back in '95, so I'm not getting too excited about this one, but
I do think they're a band that deserves more acclaim that they get. I hope it works out
for them - they've provided me with hundreds of hand-clapping and singing-at-the-top-of-my-lungs
incidents on the highway, with the volume waaaay up. People catch me doing it all the time.
I just smile.
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