Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Pay Day
£500,000 (or about 105,000 dozen donuts) for a new playground. Hope the kids enjoy it.
Times are hard. At the end of the pay month, there was enough money in the account to buy about three-and-a-half dozen donuts.
Radiohead playing games with fans.
50 years ago (yesterday): dem bums play the last game at Ebbets Field. By the time I turned up on Long Island, Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds (home of the New York baseball Giants) were memories, though much fresher than now.
I saw all my baseball games at the Big Shea (including a "home" game for the briefly itinerant, hated Yankees). Dodger and Giant series were the big tickets given that both teams had only just left the area. Add to that, there were a couple of favourites from the 50s, like Wille Mays and Don Drysdale, still playing for those clubs.
My first game at Shea was to see the Dodgers on a hot Sunday afternoon in June 1968. We got held up in traffic and missed the first few innings. Sat in the upper deck, which was so high we could touch the sun. Or to be precise, the sun touched us with a severe burn. I did not have a beer (being slightly under age at the time).
My beer is Rheingold, the dry beer
Think Rheingold whenever you buy beer
That plastic batting helmet was still around in my parents house in the 80s.
iPod-olatry
"Niger" - Mali Music
"Brandenburg Concerto No.1 (J.S. Bach)" - Muenchener Bach-Orchester
"Shadow Pugilist" - June of 44
"Run! Christian, Run!" - Super Furry Animals
"Vent" - Tricky
"Bird in the Hand" - Sebadoh
"The Girls Want to Be With the Girls" - Talking Heads
"intercourse" - Techno Animal
"Our Way to Fall" - Yo La Tengo
"Trick Bag (Shoppin' for My Tombstone)" - John Lee Hooker
"Falling" - Julee Cruise
"Man Research (Clapper)" - Gorillaz
"Inside Elevation" - Pan American
"Send a Message to Her" - Beck
"Shoes" - Atmosphere
"Leaning Against the Wall" - Kings of Convenience
"Mr. F" - The Sea and Cake
""Peace - a Theme" - King Crimson
Labels: Barnstaple, baseball, daily bollocks, iPod, money, radiohead
:: Posted by pete @ 
Monday, September 24, 2007
Yawn, It's Monday
Camp Nou or is it Nou Camp? To be turned into a urinal or tread worn tire.
"Samples of earth taken by Russians who planted a flag on the seabed below the North Pole last month show beyond doubt the Arctic is Russian, its natural resources ministry said..." Might as well go further and annex Alaska on the basis that Siberia was once linked to it.
Baseball news: Washington Nationals play last game at RFK. Check back in April in case the building schedule on the new digs slips. Meanwhile, the cynics weigh in against the club's hitherto parsimony. Misschatter was serving mojitos.
iPod-olatry
"Driftwood" - Sickoakes
"It's Not My Cross to Bear" - The Allman Brothers' Band
"Untitled" - HIM
"Exit Right" - Eleventh Dream Day
"The Long Narrow Road" - John Surman
"You Were Right" - Built to Spill
"Side Netting" - Telstar Ponies
"Lachrymae Antiquae" (John Dowland) - Kronos Quartet
"Improv - Some Pussyfooting" - King Crimson
"Polynomial C" - Aphex Twin
"Down by the River" - Low/Dirty Three
"I Get My Kicks for You" - June of 44
"Pipeline/Kill Time" - Sonic Youth
"Nomanisisland" - Subtle
Labels: baseball, daily bollocks, soccer, un convention of the law of the sea
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Mercy Rule
Make your web ads count. Use:
- plain text
- faces, and
- cleavage
Does Major League Baseball need to adopt a mercy rule? Texas batters Baltimore 30-3 in the first game of a doubleheader. In the nightcap, the Rangers shade the Birds 9-7 - wimps.
Some of the numbers are mind boggling. Despite the record breaking score, Balmer used only 4 pitchers. Texas reliever Wes Littleton got a save - i.e. credit for protecting a lead (the ol’ three innings preserving any lead rule). That qualifies as the ultimate cheap save.
Quite apart from 2 grand slams, every starter getting two hits and 7 runs batted in each for the No. 8 and No.9 hitters, "...the Rangers added five points to their team batting average, raising it to .258...Baltimore’s ERA went from 4.39 to 4.60." You might see that in an early season game were stats fluctuate due to small sample size, but not in late August after 130 odd games. Texas also stranded 18 runners.
It's official: Tim Henman, Britain's best tennis player in several decades is retiring. Never a Grand Slam winner, but always a place in the hearts of Middle England.
...when I reflect on my career, I was always able to maximise my potential. This was as good as I could have been. Regarding Wimbledon and the press, I'd be the first to admit that I'd probably be judged on whether I won Wimbledon or not. I don't think that's right.
Bush is more like 1930s appeaser Neville Chamberlain than Bush's hero and Chamberlain's successor, Winston Churchill.
iPod-olatory
"Tourisme" - Kante
"Big Time in the Jungle" - Old Crow Medicine Show
"Soko Yhinka" - Ali Farka Toure
"Brandenburg Concerto No.5" (J.S. Bach) - Muenchener Bach-Orchester
"Good Morning, Good Morning" - The Beatles
"Mary of the Wild Moor" - Johnny Cash
"Bears See Things Pretty Much the Way They Are" - Don Caballero
"Red Morning" - Devics
"Hornswoggle" - Humcrush
Orchid Watch
Despite a good effort to kill off this orchid - too much water, keeping it in a dark room - counter efforts to revive seem to be bearing fruit or buds even.
Labels: baseball, George Bush, iPod, Neville Chamberlain, orchid, orchid watch, tennis, Tim Henman, web ads, Winston Churchill