Matthew

Drew injured yet?

It's a good day to stay inside to watch baseball because it's SNOWING here in northern Washington. What the heck?

Great day today, full slate of game on tv. First game I'm watching is the Yankee game, then on to the M's vs. A's, (holy cow, it's hailing in Stanwood right now), then a evening game. Life is good at times.

Just the five listed for the March release. Also has an extra cd with "rare" cuts on it. Most people want the first and last set, the middle one, *yawn*.

The good new is that the first set is starting to ship. I was able to order the SACD box set off of HMV Japan for a cool $128.00, which is a steal compared to European and American prices. Heck, the sacds aren't even being released in the USA. Of course, people at the Steve Hoffman are already flinging around the usual insults. Compressed! Too loud! Nick Drake should be arrested and put in jail for the rest of his life!! (I made that one up ). Should be interesting, I have a stupid weakness for Wind & Wuthering.

I had a real April Fools this morning. My alarm clock is one of those that sets DST automatically; well, of course it sets it for today, so instead of getting up at 5:00, I just discovered that it's really 4:51 a.m. Life sucks at times.

I received my Ictus 30th Anniversary Box yesterday. Was anyone else afraid to open the cds? Hate messing up the beautiful band around the cd. Music is very nice also. Mine is #290. How many set were made? Highly recommended.

See where the Yankees named Carl Pavano as the opening day pitcher. This should be interesting, can you imagine what it would be like if he bombs out? I wonder who'll land on the DL first: JD Drew or Pavano?

The California Here I Come music is outstanding, as will as the, as yet, unreleased cuts of this trio that you will find on the Complete Verve Recordings. I heard a rumor that the entire live recordings were put out on two cds, released only in Japan (of course).

Didn't know Matt was that talented.

Where your really hear the U2 influence is with Contemporary Christian Rock -- every other band has the U2 sound. Yuck! The Kings of Leon are pretty cool, I saw them open for Dylan when he came to Seattle. I liked.

If you have a really good site for your favorite team, that's great also. It's all good. Here's the site I go to first for Seattle Mariner news.

For all you Andy Partridge/XTC freaks out there. His new cd is up for ordering. Monstrance has Andy with Barry Andrews & Martyn Barker, and it should be interesting. From what I understand it's all instrumentals, with a ambient feel to it. All ready ordered my signed copy.

I've been listening a lot to the Bill Evans / Gary McFarland sessions, and it's been interesting. McFarland presents Evens very nicely, and keeps making interesting musical choices, with Richard Davis being a very solid foundation. McFarland's not the greatest vibe player ever, but he makes his playing fit the music. Evans & McFarland seem very simpatico, and if you're interested in arranged jazz with strings, this is a standout. CD goes by the titile of The Gary McFarland Orchestra With Special Guest Soloist Bill Evans. I think I read somewhere it's not available domestically, but if you find it somewhere, buy it.

What are some good baseball websites that people here use? ESPN/Fox/SI have really gone downhill in their baseball coverage, so a good baseball site would be welcome.

It's all Hegelean: thesis---->antithesis---->synthesis! I always knew that B.A. in philosophy would come in handy one day.

Well it is your opinion, be it ever so humble. But its not going to be a matter of Francona working him into the ground, its how Dice adopts from pitching once a week with 140+ pitches and also working extremely hard in between starts to going every five days on a shorter pitch count (I'm guessing 110-120) and figuring out what kind of work is needed in between to stay both strong and maintain command. You know, the interesting thing is that so many "old time" American pitchers have been saying that the problem is coddling pitchers today, that back in the day, to have good arm strength, you threw. In Japan, that is what they do - they throw and they throw. A big deal is made about all of the pitches Dice has thrown, starting with the 250 pitch complete game in that high school tournament. Yet according to that article in SI that Quincy mentioned, when the Sox got the results on the MRI of his arm, it was "clean as a whistle". Is he just unique or is it a function of the training methods? I tell you what, if Dice dominates the league, throwing complete game shutouts, etc., etc., I have to wonder whether there might be some changes coming to the way pitchers are dealt with. Admittedly, its going to be tough to break such an entrenched mind-set. I think when American baseball freaked-out over innings was when Billy Martin had his A's pitchers go for a ton of innings. He went with that four man rotation, and stayed with it all year, and they were never the same after that. I agree that pitchers are coddled nowadays. Warning: Old Geezer Talk. Back in the day, it wasn't that uncommon for a pitcher to go 300 innings in a year, with a lot of complete games. Now it's a "quality start" if someone makes it into the seventh. I tell ya whippersnappers, baseball was a mans game when I was younger.

I know they stretch out, but 105 is still a lot for exhibition baseball, (IMHO, of course ). Sounds like the "conventional wisdom" is for Dice K to tear things up the first time around the league. Probably will have 12-15 wins by the All-Star break. It'll be interesting to see how Terry Francona handles Matsuzaka, I just have a funny feeling he's going to work Dice-K into the ground.

All autographed pre-orders are now sold out (both the regular cd edition and the CD+DVD-V). Yea for me! Got a single cd just under the wire. PS: And my signed Blackfield II shipped yesterday. Steve Wilson now joins Andy Partridge & Colin Moulding in my signed cd pantheon.

What's up with DiceK throwing 105 pitches in a stupid exhibition game! Whose the manager of the Red Sox now? Tommy Lasorda? Sheesh....

I think they were 25-30 dollar range. I bought a VIP ticket through PT's website, so I could get a T-shirt & signed poster , so I had to pay over the regular price.

Anyone going to see Porcupine Tree on this tour? I've already got my tickets for Seattle.

I've been drinking Obsidian Stout lately, and it's very good. Nice dark taste, a good late night listen to jazz beer. It's heavy though, I only drink one at a time. Made out of Oregon. Kudos.

I know I'm way late on this, but you can buy off Ebay the Ictus 30th Anniversary box set through the "Best Offer" option now. I got it for $95.00; you might be able to go lower. It's worth it.

I blame Chaney for this, since he gave me a copy of the one disk introduction to this set about a year ago: Ictus Records' 30th Anniversary Collection Box Set.