Matthew

I'm not sure about the "prisoners of the California culture" thing. It seems to me that a lot of what the Beach Boys were about from Smiley Smile -- L.A., was breaking away from the California culture in their music, granted they might not have succeeded, but it was a hard fought struggle none-the-less, with some glorious results.

1990-1995 Grateful Dead, *yawn*, I'm not that into having those years..

Pretty lifeless showing by Holland today, losing to Denmark 1 - 0, last twenty minutes they looked exhausted. Van Persie did nothing, if fact, had a good chance and did nothing with it. Now they have Portugal & Germany to get some points -- tough road.

I'm not a big fan of The Fab Five, but they went to two NCAA finals in their two years together, that's pretty substantial, granted, they (or CWeb) fell apart at the end of the North Carolina game, with the infamous time-out and everything, but they were good.

No teaching of the chiastic structure in English Literature anymore?

The first two games were interesting, Greece lost out with the missed penalty, and the Russia / Czechoslovakia game was a nice one to watch. I'm looking forward to the rest of the tournament, slowly, I'm becoming a soccer fan, it's starting to becoming interesting for me.

Learn something new everyday, thanks...

What does "cowpat Classical" mean? I've never heard that phrase before....

Which, if true that Wilson and Love have reconciled, is great for them and shows good emotional maturity. It might sound obvious, be at peace with someone because your time on earth is short, but in counseling families, I find that is rare. There's nothing worse than meeting with a family before a funeral, and people are in tears because a family member died, and they're crying because of the very fact that they did not reconcile with the deceased. Life is short.

Harrison was flat-out nasty last night, the Giants never had a chance. 95 mph fast ball, painting the corners with off speed, not a chance and a great game by Harrison.

Bad, cynical Matthew says: Money covers a multitude of problems. Good Matthew says: BW ML

I wonder if there is anyway for Brian Wilson to come to terms, or at peace, with Mike Love. Speaking of the whole original Smile fiasco, ML comes off as a huge jerk, who didn't care what kind of damage he did to Wilson, or to his music -- Love's treatment of Van Dyke Parks, his whole "What the f' do these lyrics mean!" bs, causing VDP to walk out, was supposedly the turning point of the whole thing, when Wilson really started to fall apart.

Book I just read, Catch A Wave: The Rise, Fall & Redemption Of The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson by Peter Ames Carlin, claims that Wilson made his peace with the past in the remake of Smile. His theory is that album was such a freak-out for Wilson, that it effected his mental/emotional life ever after, but with the remake, Wilson achieved some sort of peace with all the went before. Still thinking about that one...

Greece suffered from a very dubious red card in the first half, though their player wasn't great either. Poland missed a lot of chances to add a goal.

Some Boston love for D-Wade

I know that this will not be everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed this concert. DJ Spooky / Matthew Shipp / William Parker / Guillermo Brown. New York Bobigny Live 2003

*Sigh* Sad news

One bad thing about the Rangers going to play the Giants is no DH. For some reason, I'm really looking forward to this weekend series, maybe it just 2010 memories playing in my mind.

I like that there is a lot of Daniel Carter in this box set, count me as a huge Carter fan.

Barry Zito, of all people, pitched a great game yesterday, going eight full innings before being taken out after walking a batter in the ninth. Zito's 5-2 now, and looking very good, as are the Giants. With Kemp out for the Dodgers, the Giants are well positioned to make up a lot of games on The Blue in the next couple of weeks. The Rangers come into San Francisco for a weekend series this Friday that will be a fun series to watch. AT&T Park will absolutely mess with their minds, they'll be hitting these bombs that will die in the outfield, if Hamilton doesn't pull it down the right field line, he'll just be making long outs for the series. It's going to be interesting, that's for sure, can't wait for it to begin.

Had a long trip, with many hours in airports etc., so I was able to do a lot of reading. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. This is really a great novel. There's not much action, but Chandler explores major emotional issues in this book. It stuck me at the end that why Philip Marlowe in so invested in Terry Lennox is not so much because of the mysteries of friendship, but rather Marlowe was getting a look at his own inner life through the mirror of his relationship with Lennox. This Lennox who has no depth or reality to him, as Lennox himself says: "In here, he [Lennox] tapped his chest with the lighter -- "there isn't anything. I've had it, Marlowe. I had it long ago." I think what's haunting Marlowe about his relationship with Lennox is the worry that he, Marlowe, is just like Lennox: He's had it, there's nothing in his life, Marlowe is empty. It struck me that the ending in Robert Altman's movie of this book is a literal rendition of what Marlowe did emotionally to Lennox at the end. Catch A Wave: The Rise, Fall & Redemption Of The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson by Peter Ames Carlin. A nice book that sums up what was going on in Wilson's life at various stages. The music analysis is not very good, but if someone would like just the basic outline of Wilson's life, this is a good book to start with. On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio by John Dunning. Highly entertaining read about old time radio, reviews of every program aired, it really is a look into days gone bye. Highly recommended. Bull - Dog Drummond by Cyril McNeile. Very enjoyable book to pass the time.

Ha! And that was the pre-sanitized Balboa Park, which was a really scruffy place.

Now, for a different take on the Beach Boys...

I often wonder why I have such conflicting emotions about the Beach Boys. They were ubiquitous as I grew up in San Diego in the 70s, and I knew the world they were signing about, and as someone who was outside of the "surfer" scene or ethos, I always had a love/hate relationship with them. The thing I always felt about Brian Wilson was that he wrote from the outside looking in. Yes, he wrote songs that celebrated that whole surfer mentality that was permeating San Diego that I lived in, but if was of a viewpoint of: "Yes, it's groovy and wonderful, and beautiful, but I'm not a part of it -- it's a mirage." It was a wish that Brian had, he saw it, was attracted to it, but was never a part of it. That whole surfer/beach culture in SoCal was a prison that a lot of my friends got sucked into, and never got out of; it was a culture that had a very nasty tone of "whose with us and whose against us." Even though I hated that culture, I never felt Brian Wilson was a part of it, I thought of him of wanting that idealized version of SoCal life, but realizing that he had too much Hawthorne in him, that soul draining, white middle class existence, that those of use who grew up in the culture know all too well. His music has such a longing to it, but also the realization, that if he attained what he longed for, it would destroy him. He fought his demons, and who knows, in running away from that danger, he fell in many more traps. Who knows, maybe I'm just full of shit tonight.

I always counted it one of my great youthful memories that I saw Mays hit a home run in person, and make a min-Vick Wertz catch, all the same game (of course, anyone looked great against the Padres in those days). What a player he must have been in his prime; I'm still trying to forget his World Series hand-off though.