I wish I was a little bit taller...

ha, it's been a while, I know. Just realized I had this good ole weblog again. Needless to say work and real life(and GTA IV) have been keeping me pretty busy these days.

Anywho, blogging from my iPhone. Not the new fancy 3g ones, but good old 1st gen with new 2.0 firmware. Loving the new Aps.

AIM, net news wire lite, super monkey ball. So excited.

Wasting Time To Get It Right

I've been thinking a lot about how I'm going to do my NL and AL preview this year, and honestly, I haven't a clue. What I do have is a quick little post on my thoughts about the Yankees. I'll do this for the infield, outfield, bullpen, bench and starting staff. Today we'll start with the infield. One of the best parts of the Yankees I feel comfortable with.


Before I get on with that, I just want to share my though†s on a few current affairs. First of all, Eliot Spitzer. Wow! What the hell were you thinking. Seriously, couldn't you have had å mistress. It would have been expensive, sure, but voters are more likely to pass off allegations of a mistress over a prostitution ring scandal. Man, and the looks from his wife during that speech. Whoa, cold as ice.

Why is Billy Crystal getting to play with the Yankees for a day. Sure he's sixty and a mega-movie and comedy star. But seriously, where do you get in line at the Devil's door to get some of that. One at bat and my soul is for sale. I pose this question, better movie, City Slickers or Princess Bride... Let the debate begin.

OK, we all know that Lost Boys was a great movie, some 20 years ago. Why Dear GOD are they remaking it, or making the sequel. It's disturbing, the recent trend to remake movies, series and trying to wrangle people ino seeing these things, due to some sort of nostalgia. I'm over it. Please, no more Knight Rider, Terminator, Lost Boys, etc... Stop. Originality, it's a great thing. However, I will say, Corey Feldman has aged nicely. Good for him.



Ok On with the Yankees.

After dizzying few weeks in November when it looked like A-Rod was a goner, the biggest save of the year may go to Jimmy Buffet. The man that made A-Rod grow a set and hush agent Scott Boras, to rush back to the Yankes and negotiate his own deal with Hank and Hal. It seems we are pretty well set in the infield – at this point it looks like A-Rod, Jeter, Cano and a combination of Wilson Betemet, Shelley Duncan and Jason Giambi at first. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Johnny Damon and Jorge Posada get some playing time at first, as well. We know what A-Rod can do, and hopefully he can replicate his MVP performance of 2007. And even if he doesn’t, as long as he puts up his season average of, 44, 128, .306, he should make people happy. Jeter has been a solid, .300, 100 runs scored guy at the top of the order, though I cannot lie and say, I would not mind to see both him and A-Rod run a lot more. Can you believe Jeter only stole 15 bases last year, after a career high 34 in 06? And could someone please tell me how someone with his speed ranks up 21 double plays? Anyone? I know no one wants to hear this, but I think we may have seen the beginning of Jeter’s decline last year. He will be 34 in June. Hopefully with Betemit spelling him a little this year, the Captain will be able to remain fresh and not so banged up. Cano got off to an abysmal start, hitting .240 through mid-May, but wound up at .306 with 19 homers and 97 RBIs, being one of the most solid producers in the 2nd half, as well as the post-season.

Now, lets move over to the albatross that is first base. Forget about trying to figure out the situation at first, and seeing who could be useful to this team. It seems Cashmoney has as well. It appears we will have Wilson Betemet, Shelley Duncan and Jason Giambi, all sharing time at first and possibly being very unproductive. If Giambi can stay healthy, he should be a contributor in some capacity. General Joe Girardi, has said he's like Giambi to play 100 games at first. Frankly, I think that would be a miracle, but who knows. It is a contract year for Giambi after all. I mean, it'd be great to finally see him all sweaty in the dougout and finally have a reason for it. Betemit has shown, that unless he gets regular playing time, he’s just not gonna get the at bats to get himself sorted. Which is kinda sad, because I can see him being a semi-useful player with regular playing time. Duncan, well, I love the kid’s enthusiasm, but he strikes out too much and doesn’t make nearly as much contact, as you would want from someone coming off the bench. There could be some folks on the bench who can be actual threats in late innings depending on how the team shakes out during the rest of the month, though I doubt we’d see anyone else make the team except maybe the attorney general, Alberto Gonzalez as a utility guy or Morgan Ensberg, as the utility, 3b, OF, DH kind of guy. Then, there is Eric Duncan, who if he could somehow overcome his injuries and slumping prospect status, could make the roster at some point during the year, though I could see Juan Miranda getting a call first. Maybe a guy like Jason Lane sneaks onto the roster at some point during the year as well, though, I honestly can't see him being useful in any sort of way.

At catcher is Jorge Posada, who is coming off a career year, also a contract year. I think we can see him regress to his norms of .280, 18, 80 kinda year. Which would be fantastic for a 36 year old catcher. I love Benji Molina as the back up as well. He's very solid behind the plate, and can hit lefties well. So there you have it. A guy that can spell Jorge when necessary. About time we had one of those.

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So there you have it. My infield preview. The rest of the team coming to a weblog near you soon.

Listening Pile:
I'm not even gonna try to explain this one. I'm so in love with Lykke Li and her wonderful music. Watch this video and I"m sure you will be too. And, yes. Those are members of the Shout Out Louds in the video. And Peter, from PB&J produced the album. Until Next Time. Cheers.

take this sinking boat and point it home

Alright. Before we get things started. I wanted to say how awesome it is to see Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova win an Oscar for their song, 'Falling Slowly', from the movie Once. The movie was amazing and by far one of the best "music" films in recent memory. I was so happy to see them perform their song in itself(the highlight of the Oscars), but to win, is a major accomplishment, not only for Glen and Marketa, but for music in general. Marketa and Glen's speeches were really on the money, talking about indie artists and their struggles and how they never imagined being where they were. Being a huge fan of Glen's band the Frames for some time now, I'm really psyched for that band to finally get some of the recognition they deserve. Their most recent album, The Cost is where I first heard a few of the songs featured in Once. And big props to John Stewart, who was a fantastic host of the festivities, and also when he recognized that Marketa had been cut-off before making her speech. Him calling her onstage to finish, was huge and super classy.

While I'm talking about the Oscars, and how it's all some big fancy ass kissing fest, with fancy outfits. I'm glad to finally see some great indie films and music get their fair props. So glad to see Juno and Once, among other great indie films represented. And seriously, what is up with John Travolta's face. Did he forget to take off the makeup from Hairspray or what. The Grand Wizard is getting scary looking. Jeez, I should be careful. I don't want to get blackballed by the Scientologists.


Has anyone been watching Dexter on CBS? Wow, from the first ten minutes of it's debut on the network last week, I thought to myself, 'WOW, is this show good'. I think I'm over watching it on CBS and about to get the DVD's with the original Showtime episodes, fully intact and uncut. Michael C. Hall plays that character so incredibly perfect. He's creepy, smart, funny, disturbed and so likable all at the same time. It truly takes a special actor to pull off what he's doing. I'd been meaning to watch this show for some time now and even had it in my Netflix que, but damn, is it getting moved to the top, along with season 2. Honestly, one of the only good things to come out of the writers strike. And more youtube watching. Came across a link to this beauty the other day. Man, what a lame attempt to recreate the super-bowl shuffle.


Listening Pile:
Been meaning to give iliketrains a mention on here for some time. Part of the fertile Leeds scene but creating musical soundscapes that stand apart from their contemporaries, iLIKETRAiNS played their first gig in February 2004. The band uses visual backdrops by using antique projectors to display their way through films of disaster, films of snow and a film of Raquel Welch in a bikini. The songs are all concerned with catastrophic events and historical figures. Their music is dark, atmospheric, and brooding. I'm a big fan of their EP, Progress Reform and subsequent full length, Elegies to Lessons Learnt
which culminates into everything this band has attempted to this point, with tracks flowing into one another like the glacial disasters displayed in their films. It takes a certain mood to listen to them, or maybe they just put you into that mood after listening to them. Not so sure. But it's not necessarily a bad place.

let's go to synaesthesia

This photo really cracked me up earlier today. My thinking had always been, how the hell did Humberto Sanchez come hurt from Detroit in the Sheffield deal? Well, now we know why he's hurt. He's spending time with Captain Glass Ass himself, Carla Pavano. There should be some sort of mandate that all pitchers are to keep at least 10 feet away from the man. It seems like whatever he's got, is contagious. Why is he in camp anyway? Ugh! That depresses me. The guy somehow had me fooled last year. He fooled a lot of folks into thinking he could finally be healthy and contribute to the team. Hell, he even started on opening day! Oh man, what a waste of some 40 million smackers. I could have contributed more for 1/40th of that.

Love that Jeter, Posada and Mariano all showed up and threw some support for Andy Pettitte the other day, during his news conference. Think that will go a long way in establishing some comradery in the clubhouse for the Yanks. They will surely need it and be tested this year, with all that uncertainty in the pitching rotation and bullpen.

Last night I came across this game called Rez HD. I'd read a few things about it's remake for the Xbox 360 and how it supposedly had this amazing soundtrack and sorta surreal game-play. "Enjoy electronic music? How about first-person shooters? Rez HD combines both seamlessly."

The information age comes to a deadly halt when the core of society's technological memory an AI unit called Eden begins to feel the strain of too much data. Struggling to keep up, the technology actually begins to question its own existence and goes into a futuristic freak out. Now, you must journey deep into the realm of 3D cyberspace in order to fix the system, a task that will require hacking codes and battling fierce creatures.

I read that tag the other day and thought, OK, I'm game. Sounds like it could be pretty cool. And it most certainly was. I downloaded the game demo and proceeded to get my socks knocked off. Rez contains almost no sound effects or spoken dialogue. Instead, the game is set to trance music, which plays in the background and gradually evolves as the player moves among levels. The music is enhanced by musical effects (such as trills and drums) generated by the player's actions, enemies and surroundings.It's a simple game. It's not rocket science, but one hell of a game. I am hooked.


listening pile:
M83, known to his family and friends, as French electro-artist Anthony Gonzalez, is releasing his new album called Saturdays = Youth on Mute Records, in April. "Couleurs", the first single is sick and up for streaming at their MySpace page. It's dense and epic, checking in at some 9 minutes of bliss. It's gonna be digitally released next week, along with a remix by Jori Hulkkonen, because hey, that's what the kids dig these days. Any really, any remix by a guy named Hulkkonne has got to be monstrous. Thank you, there's a 8 and 10 o'clock show, ladies and gentlemen.

I have cried til I'm half blind.

Um...Paul. Didn't you get the memo? Came across this story the other day on the NY Times' Bats Blog. Not only did the Yankees assign Paul O'Neil's #21 to Morgan Ensberg!?!, but the Bombers didn't even bother telling Pauly about it. Strange, I honestly thought "The Warrior" as Mr. Steinbrenner loved to call him, would have his number retired. This is kinda blowin me away. I can only imagine about how it makes good ole' Pauly feels. It's pretty strange seeing how some of the young kids are being assigned numbers in the 80's and 90's tho. Not sure how I feel about the number changes for some players tho, like Phil Hughes going to 34. He should have taken a good number, like 11 or 22, or something. Not sure if he has some sort of affinity for it like Ian Kennedy and his #31, which he wore in high school.

So, I honestly don't know what to think about the whole Clemens congressional hearings. Cept, his response to him not knowing what a vegan was, is priceless. Honestly, I think the whole thing is pretty ridiculous, as are the Spygate investigation in Football. The fact that all these congressmen have enough time to look into these issues when much more serious issues are at hand, is just a joke of our government. You're telling me it's more important for congress to worry about whether a bunch of athletes are lying, cheating or taking drugs, than oh, I don't know, world peace, the economy going into the crapper, the lack of health insurance for many Americans and education. Hmmm!


Listening Pile:
The Magnetic Fields have been making consistently wonderful records for a long time now. Generally filled with synthy and indie-pop music about love and life, with clever and humorous lyrics. The new album Distortion, varies from the clean formula Stephen Merritt has been known to practice, it's loud, fuzzy and deliberately dirty and unsurprisingly features a lot of distortion, this album's theme. There are a few fantastic songs on this album, including my favorite, "Please Stop Dancing", with it's irreverent humor, squelch of feedback, minor piano chords and boy-girl echoing. It in many ways is a perfect snapshot of the record.

These Cheese Doodles Are Delicious!

Holy Snikes! It's been a while since I've posted. Dunno what it is about post holiday cheer/depression that puts me into hibernation for a few months. But hot damn! So much going on this week and last!

How about a seven things I think I think? You want it, I want it, don't say no.

1. The Giants won the Super Bowl. Yes, the New York Giants. And no, the invincible Tom Brady wasn't hurt, nor were the entire New England Patriots team stricken with the flu or gang green, or whatever.
The Giants D played their faces off and won. Wow. That double miracle play when Eli Manning snuck away from the Pats D and then the reception by David Tyree. What the hell was that. Talk about a play for all ages. That was nuts. Congrats to the Giants. Boooooooo to Bill Bellichek, the grumpiest sucker this side of Walter Matheau.

2. The celebrity rehab show with Dr. Drew is the best thing on TV right now besides new LOST episodes. Well, and that Breaking Bad show, which seems to only air new episodes every other week? Thank god the writers are back! Finally we may get some new episodes of some of our favorite TV shows back. I read we should get a few more episodes of the aforementioned LOST, however it may end up with a vastly different ending than initially planned. We should also get 4-5 new 30 Rock(honestly, Tracy Morgan needs to get back to work), Office, Chuck and Pushing Daisies, episodes. This is good news, because unless Eva Mendes and Kirsten Dunst joined Dr. Drew, that was about to get boring real quick. I mean, you can only watch China loose her shit so many times.

3. Smell that? It's grass and dirt on the baseball fields in Arizona and Florida. Spring Training has arrived. Pitcher and Catchers have reported this week and position players arrive next week. This is the best thing about February. Really! I cannot think of one other thing that could better this month. Valentines Day, Presidents Day, The ProBowl, Black History Month, nope. They got nothing on pitchers and catchers. The countdown for the first real game is about 45 days. I cannot wait for this year to start. I have tix for the last and first game of this, the final year at the hallowed Yankee Stadium. Plus, I get to go to the All-Star game, the Home Run Derby and about a dozen other games. If it weren't for the catastrophic events that would happen personally and globally by hitting the fast forward button, it would be March 28th today. You can thank that horrible Adam Sandler movie for that!

4. Shin splints! I've never really had a problem with them before, but got em pretty bad this time around. So much that my mileage over the last 3 weeks has been 0, and the previous 2 weeks about 5 per week. Great! The doc told me to stay off it for about another 2 weeks and spend a lot of money on orthotics, painkillers and some cortizone. Luckily, I've been fortunate enough to ride the stationary bike at the wonderful Chinatown YMCA, which may have the most intriguing grouping of patrons you could ever imagine. The shit I've seen has been ridiculous. Really! I'm constantly blown away by the wardrobe people have for the gym, and that's not even counting the people that parade around in their bathing suits(and sadly, by people I mean men too).

5. I don't know if I've mentioned my disdain for a Mr. Stephen P. Jobs, but I will reiterate it here today. Why, oh why did you make my iPod die the day before Christmas with one of your fancy "DEATH" updates? How convenient that it worked before I plugged it in for a "NEW" update? And then afterwards, it just happens to not work again, ever! It's a neat trick you played on me SPJ. I'll get you back some day. You cost me $200 smackers to get a new nano, which is actually pretty nice, but has horrible synching issues that are driving me nuts. And I love that I can't run it on my ibook since I'm still not even on Leopard with it(I guess kitty doesn't do it). You know who I'm blaming this on. I just hope that when I finally spring the $500 to get an iPhone, it doesn't meet the same fate.

6. All I'm going to say about this, is it's about time someone realized this no-talent assclown is really not all that good. Poor Stephen A. got canned from his job at the Philly Inquirer. Ha. Sadly for the US public, he is ready to resume his broadcasting career(which he is so great at) and ready to blog. HA. If anything his abrasive and warm personality should only be read, not seen on TV. Ugh! When will ESPN finally get rid of this clown.


7. Pedro Martinez, everybody's favorite crazy cockfighting Dominican nursing home bouncer is at it again. Giddy over Johan Santana joining the Mets, says he's like a glass of water on a hot day. Sexy. Very, Very Sexy. And when he talked about how he dominated in the steroids era, saying,

"I have a small frame and when I hurt all I could do was take a couple of Aleve or Advil, a cup of coffee and a little mango and an egg -- and let it go!"

I'm just wondering where can I get some of that little mango and eggs. Cus that sucker was just lights out for about 6-7 years. I hated when the Yanks had to face him back then.

Listening Pile:
Been listening a lot to Working for a Nuclear Free City. The Manchester quartet's Businessmen & Ghosts drops a nostalgic view and huge nod to some of Manchester's finest, including early Roses and the Happy Mondays. WFANFC create a drugged-out concoction of beat-laden soundscapes, dense bass grooves, and dreamy comedowns.

Originally released in the UK in early ‘07 to critical acclaim, the new US version has been updated with a whole new album’s worth of songs, WFANFC has recorded since. Working For A Nuclear City began as a studio project involving Gary McClure and Phil Kay (keys/production). In 2004, they took to the stage, recruiting Phil's brother Jon on drums and Ed Hulme on bass.