Matthew

What I said last year still holds... Happy Birthday!

I wonder if they'll play this when the Phillies clinch....

http://www.jazzwisem...jazza-festival- Robert did 'Midnight' and 'At Last I Am Free' way back in the early 80s. Could be accused of being another rock star does standards affair....but he has a long record of making these things his own. I can just hear him doing the final track. With Wyatt's approach to vocals (and music, for that matter), I don't see this falling in the Rod Stewart camp...

I've been listening, and loving, these two all week... Buckethead -- Padmasana The Egg -- Venice Beach

Allen is lucky to play with THB, Goodnes, do I ever love his duets with Braxton (Bynum not Allen's... though I'm sure an Allen Lowe / Anthony Braxton duet would be interesting also....).

The Dodgers are such a incredible mess right now, to think, the idiots who run the team turn to burnouts from the Yankees, of all teams! for managers. I grew up a big Dodger fan, but the McCourts have turned me complete off anything Dodger. It use to mean something, the Dodgers, there was a Dodger Way, they always promoted within, there was a sense of pride wearing the blue, of being a Dodger fan. Now it's a joke. Peter O'Malley is complete right: The McCourts need to sell this team asap, and go back to the darn East Coast. Geesh, just the specter of the four McCourt sons running the team sends shivers down my spine.

Where Erik Bedard will pitch in a game.... maybe

Happy Birthday Dan!!! Hope you have a great day!

On TV 1: A very good documentary on Bootsy Collins

The Padres seem to get a lot of high strung players. Mike Ivie and All Wiggins also come to mind. I remember when Ivie came up, all the scouts said he was just as talented as Johnny Bench. Too bad he turned into a head case.

Not aware of any Sassoon revival over here. I read it c. 1978 and remember being very affected (the Graves too). Worth remembering this is the view from the elite! In fact, if you've an interest in WWI I'd recommend reading 'Forgotten Victory' by Gary Sheffield. Gives a very different interpretation of WWI but starts with an excellent historiography of the war. One thing it points out is how the view of WWI as portrayed in Sassoon, Owen and Graves only began to take shape in the 30s and, particularly, with things like 'Oh What a Lovely War' and the BBC 'The Great War' series in the mid-60s. In the '20s it was generally viewed as a necessary sacrifice with people like Haig treated as heroes. The 'standard' view is actually a revisionist view! Which doesn't alter what you say about the shock of the war. And if it got us bad, then its impact on France, Germany, Russia was many times worse. It's true, the "other ranks" weren't writing books about being in Oxbridge, playing cricket, and jumping around on their horses! Nor were they likely concerned about how they didn't learn war lessons at public school. I would imagine that in the '20s there was still a sense that WWI might still be "the war to end all wars," but in the '30s, with the rise of Hitler, it must have been a jarring realization that round 2 was coming up fast, and that all those deaths were, I don't want to say worthless, but the sacrifice of all those lives did not solve too much. Geesh, Haig! I wonder what was going through his heart-of-hearts when he looked back on the war...

Giants are now tied with the Padres, they might leave San Diego two games in front at this rate. And hey! I'm hugely disappointed in the Padre fans, I grew up watching them, so I have a little residual feeling, but the acres and acres of empty seat is an embarrassment to Padre fans.

Congratulations!

The Memoirs of George Sherston by Siegfried Sassoon. I keep reading that there is a Sassoon revival going on in England, but that has yet to make it across the Atlantic. I remember how excited I was when I finally found a copy of this in a Mount Vernon, WA used bookstore, I had looked for years and years for one. It really is about a world that is long gone, and I imagine for the English, it is a very powerful book. I have never found a book with Sassoon's poetry anywhere, but one day, hopefully, I will. I'm reading it slowly this time, just soaking in the beauty and fearfulness of the writing. I often wonder if any generation has suffered a more harsh disillusion than that 1914 European group, massively unprepared for what lay before them. Think I'll go all the way and read Good Bye To All That after I finish Sassoon.

Then Victorino cried about it forever. Sheesh, the pitch wasn't that close....

Giants Baseball: TORTURE!

Lincecum looks like crap tonight. Again. Man, what is going on with that guy anyway? It's called losing several MPH off your fastball, that's all it is. Just like with Javy Vasquez. Ghost said he saw 91-92 for Javy the other day against the Jays, but they homer and a flyball out the next inning they showed on Baseball Tonight were in the 86-88 zone, and unless you have Greg Maddux movement, have a really good sinker, or you are a crafty lefty, you can't compete with that crap. I get what you're saying, but Vazquez is a 34 veteran, with a lot of miles on him, while Lincecum is 26, and has only three full seasons in the big leagues. I cannot remember another case where a top level pitcher, in his prime, lost 4-5 miles of his fastball, and there is no physical cause. And it goes beyond just loosing some stuff off his fastball, there really is no movement on any pitches he has, change-up, slider, they're all nothing pitches right now. In the SF paper this week, there was a big article where the Giants are saying Lincecum & Panda are out of shape, and that is the source of their problems. I think there's a lot to be said for that, it seems as if Lincecum is wearing down after three seasons, and at the age of 26, he should be getting stronger not weaker.

Lincecum looks like crap tonight.

For some reason, there was just an air of the inevitable about the whole thing, from signing, to now.

These grandstanding umpires forget the three rules of being an umpire: 1. Get the call right 2. It's about the players, not you. 3. IT'S ABOUT THE PLAYERS, NOT YOU!

Well, this guy has the makings of Joe West, which nobody wants....

That would be my hunch. But, would not that be illegal, to pay someone not to testify?

Even as a Braves fan, have to agree that guy had no business tossing him there....man, some of the umps really suck right now, don't they??? That was a ridiculous ejection, and that umpire should be sent back to the minors immediately. Just the way he acted after the first call was bush league....

According to ESPN, this move by the Red Sox is intended to keep Damon from going to the Rays, not New York. I thought and continue to think that letting Damon walk last year was a big mistake on the part of the Yankees. There's something to be said for intangibles. Either way, it's a good move on Boston's part. Why let one of the two teams ahead of you get stronger?

He probably is hoping for the Yankees to get him somehow....