Matthew

What do you know? Seattle 35-34, and just 2.5 games out of first. Of course, Mariner fans have been down this road before, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts, plus, the Angels don't look all that hot either.

For some reason, I've have this desire to read a lot of Faulkner, so I'm starting with The Sound and the Fury. The April Seventh, 1928 chapter is amazing.

Chocolate milk, and it's very good.

Bobby Cox is still alive!!!??? Who knew?

Gosh, I really hate the uniforms the Red Sox are wearing tonight! Second game in a row, I thought they were dead yesterday going into the ninth.

You know, I hate to even mention this out loud, but the Mariner ownership digs Japanese players, and has some pitchers/players it's willing to give up, so maybe....

Yeah, he's getting ripped pretty good, Braves just scored run #5. Matzu is just weak right now.

With all the talk of the upcoming Artie Shaw Mosaic, I broke out the Artie Shaw: Begin the Beguine box set; listening to cd five, Alone Together. This is a very good box set for Shaw, ten cds at a cheap price and the sound is very good (most of the time), and I happen to like to vocals also! (hear that Mosaic?)

The Complete CBS Recordings of Eddie Condon and His All Stars. I haven't listened to this in a long time, so I forgot how much I enjoyed it. Mighty fine stuff.

Watched the Cub game this afternoon, a very nice come from behind win after being down 5-1 going into the ninth. Chuck must be a happy camper tonight.

Finished the last of Thomas Merton's Journals. Have very mixed emotions about Merton's life after reading all seven volumes, they do not paint Merton is the best of lights, and in fact, showed Merton's failure as a religious. It is very obvious by the journals that Merton was a conflicted person; striving to find God, live as a hermit, but his emotional make-up did not allow him to do that. One of the tragedies of the whole thing is Merton's inability to pull his life together, in fact, in volume five you witness his disintegration over his falling in love with a student nurse -- he was in very bad shape during that time. By the time he gets to his trip to the Far East, even he knows that his time is up at the monastery in Kentucky, and he will wind up somewhere else. Even so, he dies on that trip, and the casket is flown to his monastery, where he is buried. A very difficult life to understand, where he kept on proclaiming how he wanted to be left alone, and yet, he was unable to accomplish what he wanted his life to be. Truthfully, his last couple of years were a mess. Closed the last journal with a tremendous sense of sadness...

I must be out in left field on this one, but it's not high on my list of Bill Evans favs. It feels too rushed to me, maybe too many ideas but not enough execution (plus, I skip Nardis most of the time ). That's not to say it's not at a high level musically, but it just doesn't hit me, and I find that I rarely listen to this, my least favorite Evans box set.

My all-time favorite Dan Blast! Short, but full of the f-bombs! We dig ya Dan...

Maybe it's a sign that I'm just getting old, but when I watch something like this, or read a book pre-1960, it just seems as if large chunks of American culture have disappeared.

Speaking of Steinbeck: I'm reading In Dubious Battle. They really, really, really, don't write books like this anymore -- which is a great loss for America. You've got me interested in that one Matthew. The book could only have been written in the 1930s, and you don't see books like this now, where the story: 1. Is about someone joining the communist party, and that's seen as a good thing. 2. The book in utterly sincere about the poor and labor. 3. No "winking" at the reader. 4. Historical forces are more important than the characters. In some ways, it's a more amazing book that The Grapes of Wrath.

Well, she does "like to exercise on the couch!"

Speaking of Steinbeck: I'm reading In Dubious Battle. They really, really, really, don't write books like this anymore -- which is a great loss for America.

Great first quarter: 15 to 15. that's about as bad as it gets.

The Los Angeles Version

I forgot to add this snarky comment: I haven't watched the Red Sox a lot this year, I follow a much more interesting team -- the Seattle Mariners.

If you watch them at all, they do that a lot. He just left three seconds early. And this fucking game is infuriating me - Matzuzaka can never pitch for this squad again and I'll be much happier/three outs made at second base/the bases loaded and one out and nobody scores all adding up to a fucking lost series to the utterly unimpressive Rangers (I'm trying to be nice here, Al) at home (where the fucking Rangers haven't won in twelve years or something. What made the attempted steal sick to my mind is that even if Ortiz stole it, a single still would not drive him in...

David Otiz tires to steal a base with two out???? I think his brain is dry also....

Guess if he wasn't picked up on waivers, the Rangers either have to release him, or try to work out a trade. So maybe today's start is a "show-and-trade" start for Padilla. If he does decent, I would not be surprised to see him go by the end of the week.

Normandie and what? Not all of normandie is in da GHETTTTT-TO! you know -- you can get to Whilshire Blvd., off the I10 Normandie exit.

Find it hard to believe that the Red Sox will trade Brad Penny away, for all people, Jeff Francoeur?? What's that about? I know Big Papi is no good any more, but Francoeur the answer? If I'm the Red Sox, pitching is more important than adding another bat.