Matthew

Pablo Sandoval, looking semi-in-shape for the upcoming year, the bad news is that he seems to be falling under Barry Bonds tutelage. Bonds trainer, Greg Oliver, is now working on Panda, and this is a guy that is forbidden to come to the Giant clubhouse. Not sure how good of an influence Bonds is at this point, be we'll see. Don't know about the Giants for this season, the offense might be a problem again, they will have a full year with Madison Boumgartner, and that pitching staff will keep the in every game, they'll be hanging around the top for the year, I don't see any team in the NL West getting any better.

I've played all three a couple of times, and they sound good to me -- of course, I have nothing to compare them with, it's the first time I have heard them.

The Ultimate Weird Tales Collection by Clark Ashton Smith. Nice short stories in the H. P Lovecraft vein, very enjoyable.

No One Will Ever Believe You -- Stories about Bill Murray

For the life of me, I couldn't figure out a way to phrase my question correctly. Luckily, Mr. Kart understood my awkward question. Glad I entertained!

Are you a baseball fan, or was the writing part of the book something that an editor asked you to do?

Baseball's Top 50 Ejections NB: It comes after the infamous "pine tar" ejection.

Sad news, RIP Charlie.

Well, just my crappy opinion, but when you come out with an answer like this: I'm not counting on depth of insight... but, that's probably just me.

One of the nice things about it is that it takes itself less seriously than the better known Prog-rock of the time - there's a sort of Lewis Carroll/Edward Lear feel to it. Yet the instrumental playing is as skilled as anything in the genre. It's a very English approach - eggheadism on the one hand; and then embarrassment about appearing too clever that results in the silliness. I always think of the way the English use the term "amusing," not falling down funny but amusing in an enjoyable, fun, understated manner -- if that makes sense. John Banville has written about the use of amusing in some of his novels (yes, I know he's not English, but he's U.K.). So, it would be amusing music they make.

That was my first prog rock album, summer of '71! I liked it a lot, but their immediately previous album called If I Could Do It All Over Again I liked even more. Thanks for the tip! I put on my list for my next Amoeba run. I agree too! Add 'Waterloo Lily' (which has a different but still excellent keyboard player) and you have the three great Caravan records. Be prepared for whimsy, adolescent double-entendres, wonderful tunes, marvellous extended instrumental passages and some very inventive electric bass playing. You can listen to these records just following the bass. After which you'll need the two Hatfield and the North albums and the first two National Health albums! Thanks for the tips, looks like there's some English pro-rock in my future.

Yeah, Miles was in a very dark place during this time, it makes for some ugly reading. Though, I also often wonder how much is Miles putting on the "Dark Miles" persona that he favored, to keep people at arms length.

These two quotes sum up what a mess the Angels are: What were the Angels thinking? Rest of story

I'm still thinking about whether to get this or not. I have my reservation code and everything, but still... $424.00 is a lot of money...

That was my first prog rock album, summer of '71! I liked it a lot, but their immediately previous album called If I Could Do It All Over Again I liked even more. Thanks for the tip! I put on my list for my next Amoeba run.

Many thanks Lon!

Went to Amoeba for some strange rock cravings I had: Hawkwind: Levitation (Limited ed. 3 disk version). Hawkwind: Space Ritual V.2 Hawkwind: Quark, Strangeness And Charm Ozric Tentacles: Strangeitude Barnaby Bye: Touch Barnaby Bye: Room To Crow Caravan: In The Land Of Grey And Pink Thirty Days Out: Thirty Days Out John Phillips: John The Wolfking Of L.A. John Phillips: Jack Of Diamonds

The Lawrence Welk Show. Yeah, I know, but I enjoy it.

Lon: Do you happen to remember what cd this was? (I'm on a Jobim kick right now).

A Legend In The Making: The New York Yankees In 1939 by Richard J. Tofel. Nice book on the '39 Yankees, which was the year that Lou Gehrig had to quit baseball because of ALS (which in America in known as "Lou Gehrig's disease). Many consider this one of the best teams of all-time. Interesting cast of characters, with Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey, Red Ruffing, etc. Ghost of Miles: If you haven't read it yet, I think you'd enjoy it.

Thanks for posting this book, I was able to check out a copy from the local library. I kept meaning to read Chandler's biography at some point, and you gave me a nice shove.

I had to laugh when I read this over at Hoffman: "They're obviously idiots over there at Rhino/Grateful Dead, that's obvious. They announce a box, we all bite, then they can't handle it. At $450 a pop. Ridiculous." It's true, how could they be unprepared for the rush, especially after the 1969 Filmore West fiasco?

I don't understand why clubs agree to these player opt-out clauses, I've yet to hear what a club gains from this...

I wonder how many orders are from merchants buying 100 copies, to appear on ebay at $2,500 a set? Grateful Dead / Rhino are a joke.

Article on ESPN about Brian Cashman disowning the Soriano deal, which, let's face, is really a one year deal because Boras always has his clients declare free-agency whenever they can. Seems like the Steinbrenners are following George's steps, going with over priced deals for players, bidding against themselves to get a player, ignoring the advice of their "baseball people". Cashman & Giradi also are telling us that Joba is remaining in the bullpen. The Yankee's have jerked Chamberlain around for his whole career, and every move they make doesn't work out. The future doesn't look too bright if this is how the Yankee's are going to be run -- Cashman's probably gone after this year. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said he did not want to sign Rafael Soriano because he didn't feel paying closer money to the team's setup man made sense. And, in the end, Cashman said he did not participate in negotiations with Soriano's agent, Scott Boras. Rest of the story.