Music Stuff

Saul Williams, a spoken word/slam poet of considerable talent, has taken a page from Radiohead's playbook with his new album. He's offering his album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust (I'm not sure, but I think that just might be a David Bowie reference) on the internet, either for five dollars, or for free. It's produced by Trent Reznor (which makes sense, since Saul was on a couple of tracks on Reznor's Year Zero album).

Oh, and Buck 65's new album is out. I haven't listened to the whole thing yet, just the track I heard at the show and the track on one of the mixtapes he was selling at the show. Which reminds me, Buck is coming to the Cradle in a couple of weeks and everyone should go. If you don't, it's like a hate crime against all of Canadia. You don't hate the Maple Leaf state, do you?

Oh, and I think this post is the actual hundredth post. I thought it had happened earlier, but the little counter I was going by included drafts of things I never posted. So, yeah. Attention has been paid. Right.

Mostly Baseball

The Braves traded Edgar Renteria (pictured, in what would probably have been a better picture if I wasn't so lazy as to grab the first picture on Wikipedia that I could find) to the Tigers for a couple of prospects. We picked up a pitcher named Jair Jurrjens, who made a handful of starts for the team this season, and a minor league outfielder named Gorkys Hernandez. This would make Yunel Escobar, who had a good season as a backup for Renteria and Chipper Jones (119 OPS+ over 94 games), our primary shortstop, which should be okay, but I liked Edgar's time in Atlanta, and I'm sorry to see him go. Still, the team is on a budget now, and if this shores up our pitching rotation it's all to the good. I'm fairly sure that Mark Teixeira gets a pay raise through arbitration this off season, and we need to find a replacement for Andruw Jones.

I'm ecstatic that Alex Rodriguez is all but certainly done as a Yankee. The man more or less single-handedly took the team to the post season, and still got shit from the Yankees fans for not being Scott Brosius (a true Yankee). I'm curious about where A-Rod will wind up. For Ralph's sake, I'd like to see A-Rod with the Giants (I shudder a little at the thought of him in the National League). At least the Yankees are said to have offered their manager job to Joe Girardi instead of the more heart-warming choice of Don Mattingly. Still, without Rodriguez's bat I can't help but think that the last season in Yankee Stadium won't be a pleasant one.

Obviously I don't get too much credit for predicting that the Red Sox would win the Series. The cover of SI described the Series as "The Red Sox have Beckett, The Rockies have the magic", and anyone with half a brain knows which of those to choose. (Although a disappointing number of sportswriters would undoubtedly still opt for "intangibles" over "tangibles".) The Rockies playoff run was unexpected, and unquestionably impressive, but we could all see that the Sox were the better team. It was disappointing to get another boring World Series (the last World Series that was interesting as a World Series, rather than being interesting for external factors such as a supposed curse or Kenny Rogers cheating, was the Yankees/Marlins series, and that one wasn't all that great)

Quick Thoughts

Hey.

My back's been killing me all day (probably having something to do with the terrible nature of my mattress) so I've spent the entire day lying down and watching the second season of the Office. (The American version). Between James loaning me these DVDs and Keith loaning me the first season of My Name Is Earl, I can't help but feel that my friends are conspiring to get me to watch NBC.

Now I'm rewatching Down By Law. Tom Waits' "Jockey Full of Bourbon" is such a fantastic song. You should all be humming it as you read this.

J.J. Hickson is nothing short of a god wearing human form. He will lead all of us to the promised land if we only have faith in him.

I hate Tim McCarver more than ever. In his keys for the game tonight, he said both teams really should try and win. That was the extent of his advice. I really hate this man.

This Month's eMusic Downloads (October)

Despite being irritated at eMusic for losing the stuff put out on Epitah (yes Keith, I read that Wired article you sent me which explains why it's not eMusic's fault, but I don't care. It's easier to hate the ones who are taking twenty dollars of my money every month) I still am affiliated with their music service. Here's what I grabbed this month:

-The new Little Brother album
-Little Brother's Big Pooh's album
-J. Dilla's "Donuts"
-Daniel Johnston's "Continued Story - Hi How Are You"
-Some tracks from Jeff Mangum's live album (Jeff Mangum was the lead singer of Neutral Milk Hotel, who despite having an irritating band name put out one of the best albums that anyone has ever made)

James and I are going to the Red-White game on Saturday,so expect a love letter about J.J. Hickson on Sunday. It simply cannot be avoided, I'm afraid.

Quick Thoughts on House

-Anyone who thought that Foreman wouldn't wind up back at Princeton-Plainesboro doesn't deserve to watch House.
-I'm sad that the old guy is the one who got canned. I was hoping it was one of the insufferable women. Like I think I mentioned earlier, I don't have a problem with the fake reality show angle- it's totally something House would do, but I'm not that into any of the doctors left. Except for the guy who was the terrorist who took the liberal family hostage at the beginning of last season's 24. He can stay, which almost certainly means he'll be gone next.
-Cameron dying her hair blond was a terrible decision. It's just distracting.
-I could use a little more of Wilson each episode. Less creepy blond Cameron, more Wilson.

World Series starts tomorrow, and for some reason I'm thinking that the Red Sox will take this thing in 5. I'm almost certainly wrong- I didn't really expect the Rockies to make it this far. But I can't help but go with what seems like the conventional wisdom which would suggest that the Boston pitching will carry the day.

Living for giving the devil his due...

Hi kids (note that I say "kids" despite the fact that to the best of my knowledge, no one younger than me reads this with anything approaching regularity.)

I've been meaning to put more stuff up, but I've been busy watching baseball (You had to figure Cleveland would eventually remember that they were Cleveland EDIT: I wrote that when Boston had gone ahead early, but now in the fifth inning the Indians have closed in a little. The Indians might just ruin the plans of Fox executives who want a profitable World Series yet), pouring my hours into my PS2 (Beyond Good and Evil, Kingdom Hearts and College Hoops 2K5 mostly- it just occurred to me that I have no idea if one should italicize video game titles. I mean, if you think of video games as art, which I do, [The real question is whether or not video games are good art] shouldn't one italicize the titles? But I can't remember ever seeing someone do that.) re-reading Terry Pratchett novels (in an attempt to slightly brighten my worldview without sacrificing any of my trademark cynicism) and using the Netflix to catch up on movies I really should have seen by now (Walk the Line, Jacob's Ladder and 300 thus far, although I'm halfway through 300) all the while still trying to find a proper job.

James and I went to NC State's embarrassingly named "B-Ballin' at the Old Barn" on Friday night. It was basicly just an open practice for the men's basketball team, along with a few shooting competitions. The highlights were seeing J.J. Hickson for the first time (this kid is going to be really, really good. I just wish that there was a better chance we'd get him for three years) and seeing Chris Corchiani, who is my absolute favorite basketball player of all time. Between that and the ECU game, it's been a pretty good weekend for NCSU athletics, which is something of a rarity this time of year.

However, because life simply will not allow me to go through a single weekend without something that threatens to drive me to resorting to violence, I did read a rumor that Michael Bay is working on a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Now, The Birds is my least favorite of Hitchcock's major films (hell, I like Spellbound more than The Birds) but still, Alfred doesn't deserve this. Even Tippi Hedren doesn't deserve this. It's bad enough that by the time I finish writing this Hollywood will have finished green-lighting remakes of all of my favorite 70s horror films, but now they're going to start working through Hitchcock? I always figured that the one good thing to come out of Gus Van Sant's attempt to remake Psycho in the late 90s was that it would cure the movie industry of any impulses to touch Hitchcock's back catalog. Of course, this made the key mistake of assuming that Hollywood has the capacity to learn from mistakes. I just can't wait to see how he explains why birds start exploding.

There Was Supposed To Be A Picture of Morbius, the Living Vampire, next to this post.

My point is that Hollywood needs to find a song besides Pete Townshend's "Let My Love Open The Door" to use. It's in the tv commercial for the new Steve Carell movie. It was used in the commercial for the Adam Sandler remake of "Mr. Deeds Goes To Town". It was used in Grosse Point Blank. According to Wikipedia it was also used in "Click", "Along Came Polly", "Evan Almighty", "Jersey Girl" and "Look Who's Talking". I like the song as much as the next guy, but this is getting silly. I'd complain that they never use my favorite Who song, but it was the title for a movie earlier this year...

Anyway, I went to a whole bunch of shows lately. As I alluded to earlier, I was disappointed by the Ninth Wonder album release party, but I enjoyed the Michael Franti and Spearhead show on Friday night (and well into Saturday morning) and the Del show on Saturday was good, even if Del's set was almost indistinguishable from his show last year.

Flipping through the channels, Master P is complaining about the negative image of hip hop in regards to T.I. being arrested. There's like 3 things wrong with this.

I've been really lazy about reading lately (blame the backlog of games for my PS2and the general failure of any books I've picked up lately to really grab me), which is why I haven't mentioned it lately. I have, however succeeded (I think) in getting my mother to start watching my DVDs of Arrested Development. These facts have nothing to do with one another. Neither fact has anything to do with my amazement that the announcers are still talking about Dice-K's alleged "Gyroball", which I thought we had finished discussing in early may. Of course, no one ever accused McCarver of being on top of things.

Oh, and I'm still waiting for credit for correctly calling Al Gore winning a Nobel prize. I don't care if I read the rumor on the internet and then merely retyped what I had just read. I still deserve dap for that. In a completely unrelated digression, I don't believe all that much in omens (at least, not all that much for a sports fan) but I can't help but think that Sidney Lowe beginning to wear his National Championship ring is a good sign.

Bah

Another year, another Nobel Prize in literature, another wrong answer from Stockholm.

Doris Lessing (pictured) won, denying Philip Roth the award once again. In an interview, she admitted she "couldn't care less" about winning the award, which actually kind of makes me respect the decision a little more. According to a rumor I read, apparently Al Gore is a front-runner for the Peace Prize, instead of the clearly more deserving Chipper Jones. (I'm just saying what we all know is true).

The Emmys now officially have more credibility.

The bad news keeps coming. Super Smash Brothers Brawl, the Wii game that I've been looking forward to the most has been delayed until February.

John Schuerholz, probably the second greatest General Manager in the history of baseball (behind only Branch Rickey, who invented the farm system and brought Jackie Robinson into baseball) is stepping down as GM for the Braves after a tenure that included 14 straight division titles, five pennants and one World Series championship. He's staying within the organization, but will no longer be GM.

Oh, and the big Ninth Wonder show at the Cradle last night was something of a train-wreck. We wound up waiting for the doors to open for more than an hour because all of the talent felt the need to make a grand entrance in limousines. Jean Grae's set was only one song. Murs only did 2 and 2/3 songs. The whole evening had the potential to be something really special, but wound up being something less.

But there's hope for the future. Buck 65 is headlining a show at the Cradle in November, the Yankees lost in the playoffs, and it looks like any possible World Series matchup will be good baseball. Oh, and the new Radiohead album is pretty damn good. And the Boondocks is back on television. And we might be getting a new puppy. Everyone loves puppies. But it turns out we might not be getting a new puppy. The comment on the essential lovability of puppies remains valid.

100 posts. Meh.

What just happened is funny. A-Rod just hit a home run, which should silence his critics, right? But here's the thing, because he hit it with no one on base and when the Yankees were down four runs, this home run will be used against him if and when the Yankees lose this game. The critics will accuse him of not being able to hit the home run when there are runners on base, and call this a "selfish" home run. You laugh now, but just wait...

Baseball and Schadenfreude

These playoffs have the chance to be among my favorite ever. The Phillies are being beaten down. The Yankees were humiliated today (although this means that A-Rod will continue to be abused for his own excellence, which is vexing). If the Cubs lose tonight, things will be well on their way to returning to the natural order. For the kind of baseball fan who is only happy when much larger groups of baseball fans, especially casual baseball fans, are unhappy, this is great so far.

Moving Picture Shows Are More Popular Than Ever

So I wound up back at the closing Hollywood Video store, and my self-control vanished. Here's what I wound up buying:

Don't Look Now- One of my favorite movies (and one of Nicholas Halpern's favorites), a British horror movie that you should model your life on.

The King of Comedy- A Martin Scorsese film that I've been looking for for years.

Down By Law- Criterion Collection 2-Disc version. Jarmusch (pictured) and Tom Waits and John Lurie and awesomeness.

Peeping Tom- Another Criterion Collection offering, another British horror movie.
Tokyo Drifter- A third Criterion Collection, a Japanese gangster movie, what the French New Wave would have looks like in Japan.

A 2 disc collection of Bruce Springsteen videos.

Too bad tonight is House night, so I can't really dive into them yet.

New Radiohead Album

Or at least half of it. On October 10. And it costs whatever you want it to cost. Go here and you can pre-order the mp3s of the new album. Apparently, you can put in 0 for the price, but I didn't try it. I'm paying slightly more.

Way of the Future

The Hollywood Video in Apex is going out of business (I can't say for sure if it's because of Netflix and downloading movies from the interwebs, but I'm guessing that's part of it) and they sold me a new copy of The Aviator for eight dollars. Martin Scorsese is better at making movies than anyone else. When all is said and done, only Hitchcock might wind up with a better life's work in cinema. But, I think I read his next movie is another music documentary, this one about George Harrison. This would be the fourth such project of the decade (The miniseries about the Blues that he oversaw and directed one or two parts of, the Dylan film and the upcoming Rolling Stones doc, Shine A LIght are the others) (oh, and if you had all bought Exile On Main Street like I'm sure I've told you to, then you'd know that "Shine A Light" is a track off of that album, which is better than almost anyone else's album.) George Harrison is probably my least favorite Beatle- he always struck me as being the most unpleasant Beatle, and the second most unpleasant Traveling Wilbury (I'm assuming that Jeff Lynne is as unpleasant as ELO's music is.) I wish Scorsese would make something different, like the Teddy Roosevelt movie he's supposedly working on. Of course, if I misread the Harrison thing, I apologize to all the parties involved, especially the late Mr. Harrison. "Within You Without You" only kind of ruins the Sgt. Pepper album...

So, my baseball picks weren't that great. I got three of the AL teams right, but I was 0 for 4 in the NL. I do claim credit for predicting that Alex Rodriguez would continue to be better at baseball than everyone else. That was a bold pick, if you ask me, and when he wins his third MVP, I like to think that I get part of the credit. At least my World Series team, the Red Sox, still has a chance to win the whole thing. And I'm really pulling for the Rockies to win their play-off game and make it into the postseason. I have no idea why. I also can't explain why I find the idea of them winning a World Series (which seems amazingly unlikey, even now) so fascinating. David Nied is somehow involved in this thought process, and that would take longer than anyone cares about to explain.

It looks like I'll finish the Cormac McCarthy book tomorow, so I need to pick another book to read from my pile of shame. I'll let anyone who cares know when that is done.