One of limitless reasons why I love baseball

Interesting how Roberto Alomar got his first career hit off of Nolan Ryan, but was also the last out of Ryan's last no-hitter, striking out on a 2-2 count.

TARENTEL REVIVAL

I remember when I worked at the Laughing Elephant warehouse and Nick the Bear kept trying to get me into to Tarentel, a San Francisco psychedelic rock outfit. It wasn't even that I was resistant to it back then, I think the Tarentel receptors in my brain and energetics network just hadn't been built or finished yet. The last couple of months, the finishing touches have gone off without a hitch, as my "new" love for psych rock (maybe just a rekindling passed over from '60s shit to the now, yo!) has been fueled by the last couple years' listenings of Grails, The Alps and the likes. Sometimes, at least in my philosophy, it's not that you dislike a type of music, but that a key is turned and a circuit is completed and you and the style of sound 'get' each other. You find the kind of stuff that gives you boners and then you find more. Well Nick, I'm sorry it took me so long. If it's any consolation, this band fucking rocks in a totally non-traditional rocking way. Right the fuck on!

LENT is fun to poke fun at!

I need help my friends (or those I pretend are my friends in the ether). It's Lent, I'm not Catholic and I clearly have many vices to choose from which I could give up for this annual celebration of self-deprivation. Won't you help me with some suggestions?

Spring Baseball

This gentleman hit an absolute bomb to left against the Yanks today. Good job, man, good job. Brian Buscher also dumped in a long 2-run double to break it open (still only the 3rd inning). Liriano looked scarily hittable, though.

Happy Birthday Paul

Today has been a pretty good one. Paul's Boutique turns 20 and somebody saw fit to reissue it (somebody making money). The vinyl got me all excited, even though I already own a copy of the older 4-gatefold version, because it touted 180 gram wax inside the wrapper. Unfortunately, my expectations were quickly dashed and let down. The wax is 180 gram alright, but only one friggin' platter!!! Are you fuckin' kidding me?!? If you're going to reissue a canon-defining, epoch-outlasting album such as this, then get your head out of your ass and put it on two platters of 180 gram wax!!!
Nonetheless, it is a joy to listen to again. Better yet, good to have a reason to listen to it again, particularly while I finish up acquiring tickets to my first ever game at Wrigley Field!!!!!!!!!!! That's right folks, I'm gonna catch a ballgame in the friendly confines of Wrigley this Summer. I know it's crazy, but...ballgame in the afternoon on a weekday!!! Can't wait!

Lookin' for Love in all the wrong places.

I think Johnny Lee put it best when he sang "Lookin For Love."
I was discussing the search for love, relationships and women with Peter and Jud after the inauguration party tonight. Peter and I were commiserating about annoying tendencies of that dating/selection scene. I brought up one about the photo section and some people's selections. I get really tired of the pictures of white girls standing in a dusty field or a jungle clearing or on a white sandy beach posing with locals (mostly children) that are always, and I fucking mean always, people of black, brown, yellow or red skin tones. This has come to be identified as the 21st century equivalent to a prevalent '90s malady of white people talking themselves up in the context of having black friends, or all my black friends say........Quit showing it to prove something. Do what you do, love and hate the entirety of humanity, but don't try to polish the turd that is you by placing it next to a bunch of African kids you took a quarter off of your privileged college life to "help". (this notion, by the way, ties into the previous post and the nod to Baldwin). So, anyways, maybe this is just the lonely, backed up me finding anything and everything wrong with prospective mates (nod to Mr Hicks), or maybe I'm just right. Who knows and, probably, who fuckin cares?

don't turn my tenets into tenements, cuz then all I'm housing is projects and resentments, the next time we meet it'll all be harsh sentiments

One of my worries after today is that the white liberal mainstream and the media will own this moment of Obama's inauguration in a way that proliferates the same ol same ol. Essentially, when we remember the basic tenet of a lot of what James Baldwin said was that true and compelling Black Liberation went, intrinsically locked together, hand in hand with a liberation for White people as well, because they needed to be liberated from the incumbent power structures and thought paradigms that create and enable things to be as they are. Now, I know a lot of people will answer my cynicism with something to the effect that electing Obama is the proof of such major change, but I disagree, we still have humongous racial divides/issues/problems in our society (as well as gender, sexual-orientation, ad nauseum). So, are white people any different on Nov. 4th than they were before? A little, but not in the big way that is necessary for true change in this instance. Are they different even after today? Maybe even a little more, but we need to start truly confronting our issues and stop skirting them based on our PC desires to remain comfortable and feel good about ourselves. This is not that well worded, argued, whatever. It's just a though-fart, just needed to get this out that we need to keep the ball rolling and not just sit complacent after making the change of electing Barack Obama, which is, in case you think I'm a total downer asshole, totally fucking awesome. Let's just keep expanding the possibilities and realization of those possibilities of awesomeness.