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Friday, June 30, 2006

Get in the Pit: Rate the Best Punk Albums (by decade)

Michele and Turtle are at it again and this time they are doing the Best Punk Albums by decade.

The 100 Best Punk Songs list they did a little while ago was a lot of fun. It turned out that songs from two of my favorite bands wound up in the top three on the list, which was pretty cool to see (and no, there was no ballot stuffing done on my part).

Now they are starting to let readers pick the Best Punk Albums by Decade starting with the 70's and moving on from there. Readers will pick the best album from each decade, the 70's, 80's, 90's and 00's. Then there will be a battle royal to decided which of the four rules over all.

Hop over there and join in the fun.

Looking straight down the barrel of a nice long weekend...

Hey! It's Friday night and the weekend has officially started for me. I don't have to be back in the office 'till Wednesday. The weather around here is great right now. Nice Sunset goin' down outside, cool breeze, just a nice summer evening. I'm having a few Coronas and getting ready to practice a few tunes on the gee-tarr while I watch the Sox in the background.

The Sox are not doing too good tonight, down by 5 in the 4th. That streak is in jeopardy. Oh well, it can't last forever. Then again, it's only the 4th inning. There's a lot of baseball game left to go here.

As I watch this Sox / Marlins game, I am amazed at how empty that stadium is down in Florida. The place is almost completely empty. The bleachers, fucking empty. It's incredible and at the same time, kind of sad. I mean, this is a team that won the World Series just 3 years ago and their stadium is friggin' empty. As a fan, it makes me appreciate what we've got here in Boston. Hopefully that goes for the players on the field too...

I'll be working on a few songs tonight, trying to learn some of the tunes that the band plays. This is hard for me to believe, and it's actually gotten me quite irritated over the last few days, but there is already some friction with the band. I guess one of the guys is pissed off at me because I was busy busting my ass in my basement this past weekend and could not make practice. That really gets under my skin, but my wife tells me to just show up to practice and see how it goes. Maybe I am making more out of things than is really there. We'll see.

Last week I left my Last.FM counter on while I was practicing and now my stats are all skewed. The fucking BEATLES are at #2 on my most frequently played list last week. Yeah, because I played that damn 'Birthday' song over and over again to figure out how it goes... humph.

Well I better start working on some tunes. I don't know how much I'll be posting this weekend so everybody out there have a safe and happy 4th of July. Don't blow your fingers off with an M-80 or anything.

I would like to say a sincere Thank You to all the men and women in uniform who are out there serving for us and putting their asses on the line for us right now. Think about them while you're kicking back this weekend and make sure you give the Vets a good, loud round of applause when they march by at the 4th of July Parade this weekend.

Tonight's Songs, for those who care:
Turn The Page - Bob Seger
Skulls - The Misfits (mine)
Prison Bound - Social Distortion (mine)
Volcano Girls - Veruca Salt
Megalomaniac - Incubus
Mother Mother - Tracy Bonham

NFL Owner Power Rankings: Kraft #1...

Sports Illustrated recently put out an article that ranked the NFL's team owners.

I found it very interesting that The Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, was ranked as the #1 team owner in the league. Not that I disagree with their assessment, though I am admittedly biased.

The reason I find it interesting is due to the fact that Kraft was once perceived, by the media at least, as a meddlesome owner, a tinkerer who interfered with the Football Operations of the team, who generally got in the way and stuck his nose where it didn't belong.

Looks like that perception in the media is long gone now... I should also mention that that, even though the owner of my team happens to be listed as #1, these Owner Power Rankings, compiled by these so called 'media experts' are about as useful as the Team Power Rankings that are done by the same bunch during the season.

It's cool that Kraft is ranked as #1, but in the end the whole Power Ranking thing is all pretty meaningless. Interesting, but meaningless.

(Did I mention that The Pats Training Camp starts in 4 weeks, on July 28th?)

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Hey Sully, this ain't how we roll in N.E...

When the Pats traded Bethel Johnson to The N.O. Saints in return for for Johnathan Sullivan, I figured it was a pretty good trade. Johnson had a few shining moments here and there as a Patriot, but as a former second round pick with blazing speed, he never lived up to his potential and seemed to spend a lot of time in Coach B's doghouse.

Sullivan, a D-Lineman originally taken in the 1st round by the Saints, was pretty much the same type of player. He seemed to have a lot of potential when he was drafted, but he never lived up to it. His work ethic had been described as 'dubious' and he never really contributed to the Saints D.

The Pats gave Johnson several seasons to pull it together in New England but it never happened, and it did not look like it was going to happen any time soon, so it seemed like it was a good idea for the Pats to swap Johnson for a D-Lineman.

Even if he had not lived up to his 1st round pedigree so far, I felt that if there was anybody in the league that could work with Sullivan to get him on the right track, it was Belichick and The Pats. I figured at the very least he would provide some depth on the D-Line, as opposed to Johnson, who, at times, was not even dressing for games.

Then I read this story about Sullivan getting arrested on drug and driving charges. Although a fairly minor offense, this is not the Patriot way and this kind of crap won't be tolerated here in New England.

Hopefully Sullivan will quickly learn how things work with The Patriots and get his act together. Maybe a couple of the the veterans on the team, perhaps someone like Richard Seymour, can take Sullivan aside, give him a few noogies and knock some sense into him. Otherwise, I would not be surprised at all if at some point The Pats decide not to waste their time with Sullivan and just cut him loose entirely.

It would be nice if The Pats could get something out of this player, but if the headache is not going to be worth the return, why bother?

4 weeks till Training Camp by the way..

GO PATS

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

The magic number 100...

Sox vs. Mets, Game 2:
It's the 4th Inning and Pedro Martinez is already up to 75 pitches heading into the bottom of the inning. As Red Sox fans know well, Pedro has a nearly unbreakable limit of being able to throw no more than 100 pitches in a game.

The Sox got to Pedro early and thanks to a couple of goofs, one by himself and one by Lastings Milledge in left field, the Sox grabbed a nice big lead for Josh Beckett.

3 innings and that's it for Pedro. After giving up 8 runs he's out of the game already as the Mets go to their bullpen. Pedro had said he would have preferred to miss this start at Fenway and I guess we can see why. He is an emotional guy and is known for sometimes getting too keyed up for some opponents. It's almost like he psyches himself out, as we have seen numerous times when he was facing the MFY as a member of the Red Sox..

8-1 Sox, going into the 5th and this one has not turned out to be the pitching battle that I was anticipating, but that is ok. I can deal with a stress free game. Let's hope it stays that way...

Top of the 8th and it's 10-2, Sox. Stress free. I'm curious to see if they bring Pap out to close this one or if they save him and go with Timlin or Option C...

Pedro and The Mets...

Hey waz up you-all? It's been a few days since I've posted anything. I try to post something every day or at least every other day, but sometimes there's just not that much goin' on ya know?

Wake up. Go to work. Come home. Put kids to bed. Wake up. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Today is a very blah day. Rainy. Damp. Depressing. Just 'Blah'.

Earlier I took an afternoon ride down the road to the nearest Dunk's just to get me a pick-me-up. The office coffee machine was not gonna do it for me today. I needed the real juice.

Now I am awake and alert again, but the stuff that I'm supposed to be working on here is broken. Stupid computers... Always breaking. 

Anyway...

The Red Sox will go for their 11th straight win tonight, which is simply amazing, especially when you consider that these wins are all against National League teams. As has been mentioned in the papers and on about 15 other Sox sites, the Red Sox have traditionally sucked at Inter-League Play, but this year things are different, much different. There's been no 'June Swoon' this year. Let's hope The Sox can keep this winning pace going into July, where we'll be seeing teams from the AL Central and AL West...

Before I get to looking too far ahead into next month, tonight's game should be interesting for all kinds of reasons. Unless you are living under a rock, or maybe don't follow baseball at all, by now you are assuredly well aware of the fact that Pedro Martinez will be pitching at Fenway tonight for the first time in a visitors uniform.

The fact that he'll be going against the Sox new young gun, Josh Beckett, adds flavor to the sauce.

Some added spice includes the fact that Pedro will be pitching for The NY Mets as The Sox celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the 1986 Red Sox team, the team that lost the '86 World Series to said Mets in a most painful fashion.

All the elements are there for a potentially classic game tonight.

This Mets series and Pedro's return to Fenway has me thinking about a couple of things...

Regarding the '86 team:
Although the '86 World Series loss is often held up as the most painful of all the Red Sox gaffes over the years, I have to admit that it had hardly any affect on me at the time that it happened. In those years I did not follow the game of baseball at all. In '86 the only teams I followed closely were The Patriots and The Celtics. I had a mild interest in The B's and zero interest in The Sox back then. Of course it did not help that at the time, the Sox and B's were both shown on Channel 38 out of Boston, a UHF channel that was nearly impossible to tune in at my parent's house.

The Pats and Celts were both shown on the major network channels, which were VHF, meaning we could actually tune those channels in and watch the games, though there were occasions when The Pats were blacked out and we had to try and tune The Pats game in on Channel 22 out of Springfield, MA, an extremely difficult operation. When we were forced to watch The Pats on Channel 22, we ended up seeing more static than actual plays in the game. The Pats were the only team that was worthy of such an eye-squinting effort at our house.

In 1986 I knew that the Sox were in the Series that year and I knew they lost, but that's about the extent of my experience regarding the '86 World Series. Back then I was more concerned with finishing my homework, trying to get my drivers license and getting some chick, (ok, any chick,) to make-out with me. I was more upset about The Patriots getting embarrassed by the Chicago Bears in Superbowl XX and Rowdy Roddy Piper losing Wrestle-Mania to Hulk Hogan than I was about the Red Sox losing the World Series. 

Regarding Pedro:
Pedro's return has had me thinking about the 2 occasions I got to see him pitch at Fenway. The first time I saw him in person was vs. the Phillies, which turned out to be the last game he played during that year before going on an extended stint on the DL. I remember I was really looking forward to seeing that game because hey, Pedro was pitching, and I also remember taking a ton of shit from some Phillies fans in the stands that day as Pedro was out there sucking wind on the mound. They were sitting right in front of us in the right field box seats and they would turn around and goad us every time Pedro gave up a hit. 'What's going on with your man Pedro? I thought this guy was supposed to be good!'

I was wondering the same thing myself. A few days after that game, he was on the DL and pretty much done for the season.

The second time I got to seem him was a few years later. I had awesome seats that day, five rows back from the visitor's on deck circle, and Pedro was RIGHT THERE, in real life, not some little speck viewed from a distance in the stands, not an image on the television set; here was the man, up close and personal. I could see the expressions on his face as he pitched. I don't get to a lot of games and for the ones I do get to, I am usually not very close to the field, so being that close to the game that day, it was just incredible. I remember being surprised at how small his frame is. He is not a big man, as far as physical size goes, but man could he throw that ball in there, so fast I could hardly follow it. Believe me I tried. Pedro pitched a masterful game that day.

I have always liked Pedro. Sometimes the little melodramas that he seemed to have once a year would get a little old, but I generally ignored that stuff, and that seemingly unbreakable barrier that seems to exist with him where he's got an arsenal of 100 pitches to throw and no more, could get frustrating, but still those are issues that I could live with for what he brought to the team. After 2004, I knew he would not be back with the Sox and I was bummed to see him leave the team, but that is the business of baseball.

So now with Pedro on the mound wearing a visitor's uniform, it's time to stow those memories away. He's the enemy, for tonight anyway.

Go SOX

Saturday, June 24, 2006

By request... Basement pic

Ok, some people have asked to actually see what this basement I am always writing about looks like.

I worked down there for 12 hours today. Here's how it looks right now:

Floorinprog_1

We actually have more of the floor finished than what is shown in the picture. I just took this while I was taking a quick refreshment break. We are about 1/3 of the way done with getting all of the floor in. We should be able to get the rest of it finished tomorrow..

Playing along with the Sox..

The band I had been playing with for the last few weeks decided they liked me and offered me the position, (or should I say, 'gig'?). I was pretty happy about that. They are a good bunch and it turns out we have a lot of stuff in common besides music, like being Patriots and Red Sox fans for one thing.

In fact, the singer in the band is a humongous Red Sox fan and she knows her shit cold when it comes to the game too. She's like a walking baseball encyclopedia. That's fucking cool.

They told me they had a couple other guys besides me come in and try out a few weeks ago, but they did not work out. I guess one guy had a weird personality, like he thought he was still living in 1985 or something, and the other guy told them that he could play, but when he showed up to the practice he could not keep up with any of the songs they were doing. (It's not like we are doing any incredibly difficult stuff either...) I guess there were some ego issues involved as well.

Hey whatever. I'm in. I'm happy to be in. That's all. I'm pretty easy going when it comes to this stuff. All I care about is that they are open minded about the songs we are playing. I'll put up with a few Beatles tunes as long as we can throw a Social D or Misfits tune in there somewhere down the line.

I worked on a few songs tonight while I had the Sox game on in the background. Beckett was in cruise mode and it was a low stress game, which the Sox eventually won, meaning I could concentrate more on the songs and not what was going on in the game. I saw Gabe the Babe's homer. Awesome.

To learn the songs, I have been looking up the lyrics and copying them into a text document. Then I fill in the chords in the right places with the lyrics. I am not trying to get the exact notes written out right now, as long as it is the right base chord. This is just for me to use as a cheat sheet to help me learn the songs faster.

It seems to be working good so far. I had been trying to download tabs off the interweb but that was not working out. Half the time they were wrong or I could not make sense out of the way they were written. I find this new method I am using is working out good.

The songs I worked on tonight were:
Already Gone - Eagles
Birthday - Beatles
Bitch - Meridith Brooks
Cochise - Audioslave
Every Breath You Take - The Police
Joey - Concrete Blonde
Rockin In the Free World - Neil Young
Don't Take Me For Granted - Social Distortion (That one was mine. Shocking.)

Thursday, June 22, 2006

I, awake

Now that my baby daughter is sleeping through the night, I decided it was time to try and get back to my morning exercise routine, a (mostly) daily 2 mile walk.

I had intended to start up again on Monday but when the alarm clock went off at a shockingly early 5:30 AM, the closest I got to actual exercise was the step I took out of bed to hit the snooze button on the alarm. This same scene repeated itself on Tuesday and Wednesday. Not a good way to start, but each day I simply told myself that I would try again tomorrow.

I finally managed to drag my tired, sleepy ass out of bed this morning and get my walk in. I thought it was appropriate that I started up my routine again on the first full day of summer. I was half asleep through the first mile, but it felt good to get outside and get some fresh air and exercise.

Later in the morning I went to make my coffee for the drive to work and realized that I only had about 4 and 1/2 scoops of coffee left. I usually make my coffee with 3 scoops, so what was I going to do with that last scoop and a half? Make an extra large coffee of course!

By the time I got to work, I was good and fucking wired let me tell ya. Although I need my morning coffee to get me going every day, I don't drink a huge amount of it throughout the day. I usually have a medium sized cup in the morning for the drive to work and a small cup in the afternoon when I start to get that drowsy, 'blah' feeling around 3 o'clock.

Today, not only did I have the extra-large cup of coffee this morning, I had a Pepsi before lunch and the afternoon coffee. For me, that is a lot of caffeine, so now I'm feeling pretty twitchy. Sleep might be a problem later, which could definitely throw a kink in my ability to wake up and exercise tomorrow morning. It's a vicious fucking cycle.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Proper care and feeding of your feeds...

Ok, this is the last time I'm going to write about this, because it's silly, but I have a slight problem with occasionally becoming obsessed with things, so this is my way of 'letting go'.

All the site feeds are working now, for both the old feeds and the new 'burned' feeds.

If you were already a subscriber, (thanks again,) there is no need to re-subscribe to the site feed. In fact, you don't have to do anything. The feed you were subscribed to all along should auto-magically pick up the new Feedburner feed and all the goodies that go along with it, which is nice.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you're probably better off anyway...

On a completely unrelated note, today is the longest day of the year here in the good old Northern Hemisphere. Enjoy it.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

RUN SUPORRRRRRt.. oh wait. They listened!

Wake was on the mound tonight for the Sox and finally, the bats had some life in them. The Sox put up 6 in the second inning to give Tim a nice big cushion to work with.

I was a little surprised that the Nationals Manager, Frank Robinson, actually left pitcher Livan Hernandez in the game as long as he did before he finally gave him the hook.

Hey, I'm not complaining. 11-3, Red Sox.

I was working in my basement while I listened to the game, a nice stress free game while I started clearing out our work area for the next phase. We're putting the floor in this weekend. Woo! I'm hoping it won't be too painful. Once the floor is in, it's cabinets, shelves, trim, closet doors, done. Oh, what a glorious day that will be. The beer is gonna flow like wine...

Feed Me... yeah, sure.

Hi Gang.

I know this is going to sound incredible, but there are people out there who actually find this nonsense interesting enough to subscribe to. I know, amazing!

For those of you who subscribe to the site feed, first of all, thanks! And second of all, I have updated the feed so that it is now linked with Feedburner.

If you are already subscribed, you should not have to do anything. The old feed should still work fine. Or you can re-subscribe to the new 'burned' feed and enjoy all the extra goodies that come with it, like the ability to bother people by e-mailing them my posts, and seeing related items in Technorati and Sphere.

The new feed also makes it easier to subscribe with your favorite RSS feed aggregator. See, I'm always lookin out for you.

Thanks again for subscribing and if you see any wonky weirdness in the the feeds, I'd appreciate it if you could send me a note to let me know. Thanks!

Update:
Um, yeah. So, that all sounded so cool and easy when I first typed this post. Click a few buttons, select a few check marks, done.

The feed seemed to be working right at first but then I noticed the new posts were not being displayed, so after wasting way too much time dicking around with the dang thing, I'm not sure if this new Feedburner setup is working or not, but I don't really have a lot of time to spend messing around with it, (nor do I want to spend a lot of time messing around with it).

I figure I'll check it later and see what's what and if it's still not displaying the new posts, I'll just set it back to the old way. If it ain't broke don't fix it I guess...

If you are subscribed and you notice the feed is not being updated or any other weird behavior, please let me know. Thanks!

Monday, June 19, 2006

20 Minutes Away...

Stanley Cup Finals. Game 7. Game fucking seven. Go Whale. Why win the series in 5, when you can take it in 7?

2nd period intermission: "You are 20 minutes away from the Stanley Cup."

You can almost feel the electricity as we wait for the 3rd Period to start..

The NHL may not be the most popular sport in North America, but in my opinion, there is no other competition that requires so much of an athlete than the NHL playoffs. There is no other game that has the same level of speed, skill and brutality required to win the Championship and to hoist the Trophy at the end. The only thing that comes close to the skill and physicality involved to win is the NFL playoffs, but to win the NFL Championship, you only have to win 4 games, or in many cases, if you are a team that earns a bye week, 3. In the NHL you have to win 16 games. 16 games. That's a lot of tough hockey.

And you know what's really cool? They all shake hands and congratulate each other at the end. You beat the hell out of each other for an entire playoff series and when it's over you shake hands and say, 'good game'.

No other North American professional sport has that great tradition.

We are about to witness twenty minutes of the most intense hockey of entire the season. Carolina has a 2 goal lead but Edmonton is going to come out with everything they've got. Carolina needs to smother Edmonton in the 3rd. Expect to see balls-out, nothing left to lose hockey out of The Oilers...

1:03 into the 3rd and Edmonton scores to make it a 2-1 game. Edmonton is right back in it... See? What did I tell ya... Now they'll ratchet it up another notch. Did I say Go Whale already?

Oh yeah, I did.

Update:
Carolina wins, 3-1. Nice job you guys.


(AP Photo/ National Hockey League/Doug MacLellan)

Skate it baby, skate it!

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Ministry show...

So I saw Ministry and RevCo last night down at the Palladium in Worcester. Rolled my ankle, a-gain. That always seems to happen to me at these things! No ace bandage required afterwards (this time.) And my ears are ringing a little bit, but not too bad. I started out the night with no ear-plugs but wound up putting them in after only a few songs. I'm glad I did or I'd probably be totally deaf today. Also had a slight headache this morning because I drank one too many whiskeys. Always gotta take it a little too far...

I was telling my Wife, 'Boy, I was not paying enough attention to how much my drinks cost. They were like ten bucks each!'

'Ten bucks, what kind of drinks were you getting?'

'A shot and a beer, like always..'

'Ah, that's actually two drinks, dear.'

'Oh. Yeah I guess, technically it is...'

As for the actual show, both RevCo and Ministry put on a great show, just don't ask me what the hell the songs they played were because I have no idea. The only one I recognized was 'Stigmata' which was the last one that Ministry played at the end of the show. Other than that there was lots of double bass drums, and lots of guys singing through bull-horns. And guitars. Lots of guitars.

I thought RevCo was cool. The singer came out wearing a tuxedo and was very fun to watch. Actually the whole band was fun to watch. There was a second guy who also sang a few songs, and when he was not singing he put on some weird looking mask and what looked like a policeman's hat, and he climbed around on top of the speakers a lot. There was a woman playing the bass. Looked good, played good. Al Jourgensen played guitar. He was playing a cool semi-hollow body guitar. I could not tell what kind it was but it was not a Gibson.. I noted that Jourgensen plays real high up on the neck with his pick. Just an interesting tidbit.

At one point between shows I went to visit the men's room and I got in what I thought was the line, at least it looked like the line anyway.. I was just kind of standing there minding my own business, waiting for the line to move, and the guy in front of me is just staring right at me, with a somewhat irritated, stoney expression on his face, like I am invading his personal space or something by standing there. After about a minute of the 'line' not moving, I asked the guy, 'ahh, dude are you in line here?'

'NO' he replied in a very irritated tone.

So I said something along the lines of, 'Well what the fuck dude? Go stand somewhere else...' and with that I got into the real bathroom line.

I saw him again later as I was walking out, having a hissy fit about not being able to smoke a cigarette. Having a little nic-fit I guess..

During the Ministry show some guy fell down in the pit and I went to help him up. I grabbed him by the arm and pulled and my hand just slid right off his arm because it was so sweaty. Gross, but I tried again. Same result. It did not help that he did not seem to be making much of an attempt to get up on his own, so I yelled, 'Get the fuck up ya sweaty fuck!'

'Sorry,' he said after eventually getting up. I've never had anyone tell me 'Sorry' in the middle of a pit before. Funny. I gave him a smile and a shove.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Ministry tonight at the Palladium...

I'll be heading out to see Ministry and RevCo at the Palladium in Worcester later on tonight. It should be a good time and I am looking forward to the show. I am more familiar with Ministry's older releases, like "The Land of Rape and Honey' and 'The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste', but I have heard their last album, 'Houses of Mole' and I thought it was pretty good.

I have not heard anything off their new album at all.

Either way, I like Ministry's music. I love the songs, 'Diety' and 'You Know What You Are', and the album they are on, 'The Land of Rape and Honey', was one of my favorite albums of the late 80's, so when I was checking the concert listings a while back and saw they were coming to Worcester, I thought, 'Why not? They would be cool to see.'

As for The Revolting Cocks, I'm sure I've played a few of their songs way back in the day on the college alt-rock station I used to work at, but I could not tell you how any of them go right now if my life depended on it.

That's ok though. Either way, it should be a fun show and that's all I care about. My Wife is out with the kids visting her folks tonight, so it works out good because otherwise I would just be sitting around at home, by myself, doing nothing. Now I've got something fun to do!

I'm planning on going over to the Irish Times, right across the street from the Palladium, for a few drinks before heading over to the show.

As a testament to my official, 'old guy at the show' status, I will be bringing some earplugs just in case it's too loud.

After I went to see Danzig a few months ago, it took about a week for my hearing to come back after the show and let me tell you, that sucked. I don't want to go through that again. I'd like to be able to hear my kids talking to me this Sunday on Father's Day, so if I start getting that 'blown out' feeling, I will feel no shame in sticking in the ear plugs.

Since I started going to shows again last year, I have felt a little wierd going into these things, like, 'am I a little too old to be doing this stuff now?' I know that it's kind of stupid to feel that way. Who cares right? I mean, it's not like I'm 70 years old or something, and I'm not out to impress anyone, but I still get those feelings anyway. Then I remember, hey, the guys playing in the band are older than me, so there ya go. 'You gotta live before you die.'

I did a quick search for some recent posts about Ministry on Technorati and Google Blog Search and I found a couple recent entries from people who had seen the show. They were all positive, so that is good, and one guy even said it was the loudest show he'd ever seen and, '...I wish I'd brough my ear-plugs!'

See? With age comes wisdom. I'd rather be the un-cool old guy wearing ear-plugs than deaf.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Don't call it a comeback...

I lied. I could not, not watch the Red Sox game.

The Sox loaded the bases twice in the 8th but only managed to get 2 runs across the plate to cut the lead in half, 4-2 Twins.

Now Tavarez is getting the hook after allowing a leadoff hit in the bottom of the 8th. Thank you.

And now here is Javier Lopez, just acquired earlier today by the Sox. Fresh off the plane and into the game... This will be interesting.

... or not. 5-3 Twins. Rats.

Just. Can't. Watch...

I just can't bring myself to watch the Sox and Wake go down in flames again tonight, especially not Wake.

Run support people!! Run SUPPORT!!!

I feel like Tom Cruise in that crazy movie where he wore the mask, and ran around yelling TECH SUPPORT!! TECH SUPPPOOOOORRRRTT!! What was that flick called again? I can't remember... Anyway, RUN SUPPORRRRTTT!!!

Three nights in a row of watching the Sox swing and miss in frustrating futility is just too much, so I'm taking a break. If that means I'm not hard-core, so be it. Whatever. Feel free to make me say, 'boy I wish I'd watched that incredible comeback by the Sox' a little later fellas.

Freed from the commitment of watching the Sox / Twins game, my Wife put on 'The Office', The American version, just to check it out and see how different it is from the original.

Well it did not take me long to come to the determination that it hella sucks!!

As David Brent would say, 'been there, done that, got the t-shirt, next!' Nice try NBC, 'it's always good to have pipe dreams, yea?'

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Effin' Tavarez...

There's nothing like watching a good pitching duel, and last night's Sox / Twinkies game featuring Curt Shilling vs. Johan Santana was living up to its billing as a battle between aces, but when it got to the end of the 9th and the game was still tied 1-1, I was done.

I looked over at my Wife, who was already conked out, and told her, the Sox are just going to have to win this one in my sleep, because I can't stay up any longer.'

'mmmfft,' was her reply, and with that, out went the lights and off went the TV.

The first thing I did when I got up this morning was check the final score. 5-2 Twins.

Dammit.

Next I did a quick check of the game report to see how it happened and noted with much irritation, though unfortunately, not much surprise, that Julian Tavarez had given up the game winning runs. Tavarez. Fucking Tavarez...

Patriots Mini-Camp rolls on...

With the Patriots Mini-Camp in session, all the football chatter has me a little giddy. I'm so psyched to see those guys on the field, even if it is only a 3 day camp. Not that I want to accelerate summer to get to football season or anything... I hope this summer is as long and drawn out as possible, but I do like seeing Football Related Activities taking place in Foxboro.

As expected, Deion Branch is sitting out the Mini-Camp in an attempt to force The Patriots hand on getting a new contract. No surprise there, but I hope this does not become a prolonged issue. As I said previously, Branch is a good receiver. He deserves to be paid, but he does not deserve to be paid as one of the best receivers in the league, because he's not at that level.

Tom over at Pats Pulpit sums it up best:

"Branch is "upper middle class" or maybe the "lower upper class." He's very good, but he's not quite great. You'd rather have him on the field than on the sideline, but you're not counting on him to make the decisive play, or draw defenders off the other receivers."

In other news, Rodney Harrison is not on the field, but he is running and apparently is mashing the crap out of golf balls. Those are all good signs that he is making progress. He will be on the field this season. Maybe not for the opener, but he'll be out there.

The Herald has some good Camp related articles today, so check those out for the round up...

GO PATS and try to stay calm. It is only Mini-Camp...

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Time to thrash it out: The 100 Greatest Punk Rock Songs - Vote now!

With a little help from their faithful readers, Michele and Turtle over at Faster Than The World have compiled a list of the 100 Greatest Punk Rock Songs of all time, ever.

Now it's time to put them in order, 1 through 100, so get your bright blue, steel-toed boots over there and vote! (Otherwise, I'm just gonna vote for all the Social D songs on the list over and over again until they're at the top!*)


(**For anybody who is stopping by from F.T.T.W., just in case it is not obvious, I am a wise-ass and that is a joke. Somebody may be jacking up the count on those songs, but it's not me.)

Monday, June 12, 2006

It's a Mini!

Pats mandatory Mini-Camp. Mandatory Patriots Mini-Post.

Tomorrow... For a football-starved Patriots Nation, this is the first chance to get a small taste of what lies ahead for The Patriots this season. We will finally get to see the 2006-07 Patriots, as they stand at the moment anyway, gathered in one place.

This may be only a short, mini-camp, but this is where the team will start to lay the foundation for the upcoming season. Here are a few things I'm interested in:

- Coaches: Belichick is still running the show, so no worries there, but there are now two new coordinators working both sides of the ball. I am hoping to hear some news about how the new coaching dynamic is playing out.

- Receivers: Deion Branch and his contract will get a lot of ink over the next few days, I'm sure. It sounds like he may be taking the Richard Seymour approach to getting a new deal. Hey, it worked for Richard... Branch deserves to be paid appropriately, but if he's looking for the Pats to break the bank, he may be disappointed. I have a feeling he is aware of this...

- Rookies: It is always exciting to see the new crop of rookies come out and play with the vets. I will be looking forward to hearing how they are meshing with the rest of the team.

- Defense: Tebucky's back along with a hopefully recuperated, Defensive Secondary. I'm hoping to hear some info on how Harrison is doing. I'm not expecting much news, this is The Pats after all, but hopefully we will hear some stories about elusive glimpses of Harrison running around and intimidating the fuck out of anybody that ventures near his area of the field.

- Brady: Word is going around that Tom Brady is more focused than ever after what happened in the Playoff game in Denver last season... I've got goose-bumps...

GO PATS

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Still the balls...

Last night, sitting on the couch with my Wife, watching the end of the Sox game, top O' the 9th...

Papelbon's got that coiled snake look about him, and as Remy points out, he seems to be annoyed with himself for blowing the save in the previous inning. Thankfully the Sox batters had his back and re-took the lead, giving him a second chance. Papelbon gets the first two batters with emphasis on swinging strikes, but the 3rd batter follows up with a single in-field hit.

Mike Lowell knocks the ball down at 3rd before it reaches the outfield but with his bare-handed throw off the wet grass, the ball is a little wide of the plate at first. A nice play by Youk to keep the slick ball inside the lines. 'You want them at the corners, you need them at the corners...' (I still think that thing is a god-damn jinx by the way.)

A pinch runner, now in at first, steals second base, but Pap is focused on home plate and putting an end to this nonsense right here and now. A few giant, swinging cuts at the plate later and it's strike 3. Game over.

Back on my couch, after my own, big, double-pump of the fists, Papelbon style, I look over at my wife, who is shaking her head at the antics.

'That guy Papelbon is the balls.'

"The balls huh?" she asks wryly.

'Yup. The Mutha-Fuckin' BALLS.'

Friday, June 09, 2006

'Awesome!'

One of the most over-used words in my vocabulary is the word, 'awesome'. An extremely versatile word, it can be used to describe both the good and the bad.

For example:

- The insanity that is I-84 in Hartford, CT: Awesome. It's like driving on the highway version of a back-ass country road; the twists, the turns, the left hand lane you're driving in suddenly becoming an exit ramp! One minute the speed limit is 65 MPH, the next minute it's 50. Whee!

- The person driving in front of you doing their best to get somebody killed by cutting off not one, but two tractor trailer trucks: Awesome

- Hanging around doing nothing for three hours because the person you are supposed to meet with today forgot they have meetings all morning: Awesome

- A vending machine bag of peanuts and a Coca-Cola for lunch: Awesome

- The Slayer / Garth Brooks play-list you made for the 2 hour ride home is exactly long enough to get you from door to door: Awesome

- Soft tacos for dinner: Awesome

- With Shilling on the mound and 'Tek at the plate, the Red Sox finally get a win vs the MFY: Awesome

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Beat...

I was going to write something about all the recent goings on in Patriots Nation today but I'm just too beat to get down anything substantial. I had kind of an ass-kicker of a day, a 2 hour drive down to a customer site, make them happy all day, then drive home 2 hours in the driving rain.

Got home kinda late and wound up eating a few pretzels and beers for dinner.

...And I've got to do it all again tomorrow. At least these guys I'm going down to see are nice to deal with, and I'd rather drive home and sleep in my own house than have to spend a night in a lonely hotel room, that's for sure...

A banner day for the site today, went over 5000 visitors. I know some people get that in a month, but for me that's pretty cool. A sincere thanks to everyone that stops by here.

I also had a couple of my favorite songs featured on Faster Than the World today, which is super cool. That site kicks ass on a daily basis.

Rollins Band is going to play Avalon in Boston this August. Dude. I am so there.

No more rain. I think we all need a break from these never ending clouds!!

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Yo Paul-ey!

It was tough to see tonight's game vs the Yankees wind up as a loss for the young Sox pitcher, David Pauley. He pitched well all evening and deserved to get a win, but he made one critical mistake in the 7th when he failed to scoop up a ball that was hit back to the mound for what should have been the last out of the inning.

Once the ball got past Pauley, you could also say that Sox 2nd Baseman Mark Loretta probably should have been able to get to that ball as well, but that did not happen either as he whiffed on a one-handed grab attempt and the ball wound up getting through the infield for a hit.

Pauley left the game with the bases loaded and gave way to Rudy Seanez, who allowed the Yankees go ahead run on a bases loaded walk. The MFY went on to eventually take the game, 2-1.

Yes, Pauley could have ended the inning in the 7th had he gotten that ball, but it should also be pointed out that the Sox bats left him out to dry as well.

I'm not sure which game was more painful, last night's or tonight's. Pick your poison, an embarrassing blow-out or a tight, one run loss... Ug.

Thankfully we've still got two left vs the MFY and a chance for a series split. Shilling needs to be the stopper tomorrow...

Random thoughts during last night's Yankees batting practice session...

- Who kidnapped Josh Beckett and replaced him with this horrible, sucky, look-alike impostor version of Josh Beckett, and, more importantly, why is Francona leaving him in this game?

- I thought batting practice was before the game, not during the game.

- It's the eve of the most evil day ever, 6/6/06. That has got to have something to do with how bad the Sox are playing right now. Satan obviously wants his team to win.

- NESN needs to stop showing that damn Mike Lowell / Kevin Youkilis, 'The Guardians of the Lines' promo. 'You want them at the corners, you need them at the corners...' That thing is a fucking jinx. Ever since NESN started showing that promo, the infield errors have been mounting. STOP IT NOW NESN!

- Well, at least I don't have to worry about annoying the wife by flipping back and forth between this and the Stanley Cup Finals... (Go WHALE!)

- That's gotta suck, losing your goalie in the 1st game of the Cup Finals (we've switched to hockey now, in case you are wondering what's going on.)

- OH MY GOD HE BLEW IT!! FUMBLLLLLLE! (as a 'miscommunication' betweeen Edmonton goalie Ty Conklin and defenseman Jason Smith allowed Carolina to score the game winner).

Opt-In to the National Day of Slayer

Earlier this morning...

Wife sleepily opens her eyes and looks over at me as I'm getting ready for work.

'Good morning,' she says.

'Good morning,' I reply, 'did you have a good sleep?'

'Yes, you?'

'Yeah, but I had a weird dream that I blew up the Death Star while Gil Santos called it in the background, like in a Pats game...'

'Ohhh kayyy. That is a little weird,' she said.

As she is looking a little more awake, I ask her, 'Hey hun, do you know where all my old cassettes are?'

'They are somewhere in the pile of stuff in the (disaster area that is the) basement, why?'

'I need to get my 'Reign in Blood' cassette, it's the National Day of Slayer today.'

'Um, what?' she says.

'National Day of Slayer. Today is June 6, 2006. 666...'

'Yeah, I get it,' she says dryly, wondering where this is going...

She seems confused so I explain, 'You're supposed to play Slayer all day today as loudly as possible, in the car, at work, everywhere...'

She looked at me with a blank expression for a moment and then simply said, 'No thank you. Go ask your daughter, maybe she will listen to Slayer with you today.'

So it looks like my wife will be opting-out of 'Slayer Day' today. Hard to believe, but it's true.

'Good luck finding your cassettes,' she says cheerfully.

Hmf.

Despite my wife's unwillingness to help search the basement for my hidden Slayer cassette, I will still be opting-in to the unholy, godless, black, covered in bloody, putrid foulness that is The National Day of Slayer, though I might bend the rules slightly and throw in some Samhain, Sepultura, Maiden and Danzig to supplement the Slayer tunes...

Friday, June 02, 2006

Practice makes perfect... or something

It's Friday Night and my wife has taken the kids out to visit with her folks, meaning I'm all alone and I can practice my guitar without the headphones on.

I have a list of songs I need to learn for band practice so I'll be working on those while I keep an eye on the Sox game in the background and have a few Reward Friday beers...

For those who are still reading, here is the list of songs I am trying to learn at the moment:

Already Gone - The Eagles
Down On The Corner - Creedence
Heartbreaker - Pat Benatar
Rock Me Right - (unknown artist)
Secret Agent Man - Johnny Rivers (um, yeah, whatever, if I get my way this will offset with something down the road let me tell you...)
Megalomaniac - Incubus
Cochise - Audioslave
You Oughta Know - Alanis Morissette
Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac
Every Breath You Take - The Police

Also played along with, for my own enjoyment:
When She Begins - Social D
Don't Take Me For Granted - Social D (Yes I know, I listen to a lot of Social Distortion. Hey, they're my favorite band...)
The Bars- Black Flag
I Just Wanna Have Something To Do - Ramones
Astro Zombies - Misfits

Thursday, June 01, 2006

It's called Bruins...

So let me get this straight... The Bruins have hired a new GM, Peter Chiarelli, but inexplicably, he can't come to work for the Bruins for another month. He's got to continue working for his current team and The Bruins divisional rival, The Ottawa Senators. So... if I understand this right, before Chiarelli can get to work on improving the floundering B's, he's got to work on improving one of our division rivals first? Ummm... WHAT?? I hate bashing the B's but what the hell kind of screwed up deal is that? It's called Bruins.

In the long run though, I am hoping Chiarelli can help turn things around for the B's. This team desperately needs some new blood in the front office. Once Chiarelli gets to work, I am looking forward to some changes for the better for the Bruins.

Meanwhile, there's 2 min and change left in the Eastern Conference finals and the 'Canes are up 3-2 over Buffalo... Game 7 baby. Nothing like it. LETS GO WHALE!!!

Update:
14 seconds left and Carolina is up 4-2. It's going to be an Edmonton / Carolina Stanley Cup Finals and this is gonna be good...

I like both teams so it's really a no-lose situation for me, but I'll mainly be rooting for the old Hartford club to hoist it at the end.


(AP Photo/ National Hockey League/Doug MacLellan)

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