Cooperstown

I recently got to spend some time in Cooperstown, which is best known for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. If you live in the northeast, it's worth taking a trip as it's only about 3-4 hours from NYC or Boston. Here's some photos of the trip. The town seems to be dependent on tourists, with the peak of the season being in the summer. Since I was there in November, it was a lot quieter.


The best way to sum up "downtown" Cooperstown is that people describe things in relation to the one traffic light.


This is a view of the back of the Hall of Fame. It's kind of hard to see but there are statues of a guy pitching to a catcher, and also through those glass windows are all the famous plaques.


Some turkeys at the Fly Creek Cider Mill, just outside of town. The cider mill is more of just a store, but for a quarter you can hand feed these turkeys and they'll eat right out of your hands.

The town is pretty nice, most people could spend a weekend getaway there and enjoy it. It's much quieter than the City and is a small town that is surrounded by other small towns and farms.

Black Friday

I spent Black Friday in Maryland this year. Here are two photos from the day. This first one is from Circuit City around 4am, 1 hour before opening. The line was pretty long, and the green awning on the left isn't even the entrance to the store. The actual entrance was about 100 feet to the left. The scene got pretty bad once the doors opened, and people really ran around and formed a mob entering the store.

This second photo is from inside Staples, around 6:15am. Staples opened at 6am, but look how crowded it is!

November 20, 2006 - Houston Rockets at NY Knicks

I swore that this year I wouldn't give any money to the Dolans and Cablevision as far as the NY Knicks were concerned. But I couldn't help but notice that lately there was a lot more advertising for Knicks tickets, which meant that there were probably tickets available. So instead, I hit the streets, and got tickets to section 62, normally $100 each for only $60 each. In return, I got a great view of the Knicks and the Rockets. The game was actually fairly close, but the Rockets ended up winning behind strong efforts from Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. Sadly for the home team, the best Knicks players at the game were Allan Houston, Patrick Ewing and Charlie Ward, all who were either watching the game from the sidelines (Houston, Ewing) or coaching (Ward). Amazingly, Steve Francis and Stephon Marbury hardly played any minutes at all, a fact that did not go unnoticed in the next day's tabloid papers.

Crabcakes

If you're ever in the Baltimore area, I highly recommend that you visit G&M, a restaurant that has some of the best crab cakes I've ever had. You can get a platter of two crab cakes that are 8oz each of lump crab meat. There's almost no filler and they are delicious. I took a photo of one that I brought home to heat up later but it doesn't really do justice to the cakes. You can order them and have them delivered anywhere.

Too Much Madden 2005

I should probably increase the difficulty to "All-Madden" level from "All-Pro." My team was the Jets, of course.

And yes, I'm still playing Madden 2005 (which came out two years ago).

Remember?

Remember this? A George W. Bush interview on salon.com with David Horowitz, May 6, 1999. I've been thinking about this famous response lately.

---------

Q: In a year when Republicans lost ground or had trouble holding on to it, you won reelection with 69 percent of the total, 49 percent of the Hispanic vote, and the endorsement of every major Democratic politician in the state. How did you do it?

A: First, I did in office what I said I would do. I campaigned on school reform, accountability, charters and choice. And I signed bills to that effect. I campaigned on tort reform, juvenile justice reform and welfare reform, and on all I signed bills. And shared credit. I didn't try to take all the credit, I shared credit with the people, both Republicans and Democrats, who helped achieve these reforms.

Second, I showed the people of Texas that I'm a uniter, not a divider. I refuse to play the politics of putting people into groups and pitting one group against another.

Third, during the course of the campaign, I didn't talk about the past; I talked about the future. I laid out additional plans for tax cuts, for school reforms like ending social promotion, by initiatives that would say to kids that if you carry a gun illegally there will be a consequence, and I think the people of Texas listened, because I had credibility, and had done what I said I would do.

Always Low Prices

I went to Walmart for the first time on Monday. There isn't a Walmart in any of the areas of New York that I've grown up or lived in, so I didn't know what the big deal was. We have Costco, Kmart and Target, but none of them prepared me for the spectacle of Walmart.

I had heard so much about Walmart, the way they do business, they way they screen products, the way they treat employees, and of course, the greeters.

When I stepped inside, there was a burly man in a blue Walmart apron in a wheelchair handing out shopping carts. "Ah! The greeters." I thought to myself, although I had imagined a pair of grandparents instead of the wheelchair fellow. Then as I stepped further into the store (or warehouse), I was taken aback by the giant supermarket that was connected to the giant everything else store. It was sort of similar to Costco, but at Costco you feel like it's "land of the giants" since everything comes in such large, bulk packaging. Walmart has individual items. And it was much larger than any Target or Kmart I'd ever seen.

The prices were so low, too. It's no wonder this company is so big and has such an impact on our country. I was so blown away by the enormity of the whole experience, I forgot what I had gone in there to buy (I had to go back the next day). I never did get a chance to consult the workers regarding their wages or health insurance. There was a Walmart greeter, however.

Quick Sports News

The Yankees will face the Tigers in the first round of the playoffs. The Tigers have sort of limped towards the post season, so it will be interesting to see if the Yankees can take advantage, especially with the possibility that Randy Johnson will be out. I wonder if the A's can knock off Minnesota, and make sure the Yankees won't have to deal with Santana. Also, I can't wait to see how Kenny Rogers does against the Yankees, a team he has had a lot of trouble beating in the past. The Tigers have some nice players but I think the Yankees can take them.

As for the NFL, I haven't been this excited after a Jets loss in a while. Normally, a Jets loss sends me into a tizzy, but this one was a gutty, aggressive game. The offense was able to move the ball quite well but the defense couldn't stop the Colts at all. In the 3rd quarter, with the score tied 14-14, Jets coach Eric Mangini decided to go for the TD on 4th down at the Colts 2 yd line over kicking a FG. The next play, Chad Pennington was picked off in the end zone. That would have never happened under the previous coaching regime. Between going for it in the close game, and then also kicking an onside kick in the second quarter when the score was tied 7-7, it's clear that Mangini is willing to play an aggressive style of ball. It almost paid off, as the Jets came very close to winning the game, but Peyton Manning was able to drive down field with no timeouts and less than two minutes left. Part of the reason that I wasn't too sad about the loss is the way that on the last play of the game, the Jets attempted an amazing circus play with multiple laterals and almost got away with it!

Here's the play

Hasselhoff

8/11/06 - LA Angels of Anaheim vs New York Yankees

I remember going to this game but I don't remember that much more about it. I think Corey Lidle started it and the Yankees lost. We had nice seats that I got on eBay and the weather was great.

Croc Hunter

Sadly, the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, passed away yesterday after encountering a stingray. He was a pretty charming TV personality, and his programs were always entertaining. But I suppose that his line of work was also particularly dangerous. It always impressed me how fearless he was around the animals.

Jets Preview

I haven't been following the NFL too closely, but I have seen most of the first three Jets preseason games. It's going to be a long year for the Jets. While I think they are better than the four wins they had last year, they look like the kind of team that will take a few weeks early in the season before things start to really work out well.

On offense, it's been pretty miserable so far. They haven't been able to score points, and they haven't gotten much of a passing or running game together. The offense has also had a lot of drives killed by penalties. It looks like Pennington will be the QB and Barlow and Blaylock should be enough to be serviceable at RB. WR is surprisingly deep with Coles, McCairens, Cotchery, Dwight and Smith, but the issue will be whether or not anyone can get them the ball. TE was supposed to be a possible offensive option but the TE's haven't seen much preseason action. In general, there's some nice talent on this side of the ball, and a lot more speed than they've had in the past, but most of it's pretty raw, and they'll need to do better with sustaining drives if they want to win.

Players on defense have all been asked to make pretty major adjustments since the scheme now includes 3-4 and 4-3 formations. The defense hasn't looked too bad so far in the preseason, although it would be nice to see a little more pass rush. A number of players will need to improve in order to make the defense work, including Bryan Thomas, Shawn Ellis and Dewayne Robertson. Cornerback may end up being a position of relative depth with Dyson, Barrett, Miller, Strait, and Mickens. So far in the preseason, the first team defense seems to have held up well against the opponents, but I suspect that once the season starts, the Jets will have a lot of 3 & outs on offense, leading to the defense getting worn down.

Finally, special teams seems to be the unit that may be the best for the Jets. Unfortunately, special teams are so unreliable for point production that this may not make much difference. Justin Miller and Leon Washington have been excellent return men so far this preseason, and I think special teams had TD's in the last 2 preseason games. The one weak link may be kicker Mike Nugent, who has still been somewhat unreliable in the preseason.

All in all, I think the Jets could improve at best to about 8-8, and I think they will certainly improve on their 4-12 campaign from last year. That would be a respectable debut for Coach Mangini.

Yankee Mustaches

Three new mustaches sprouted up on the Yankees recently. They look kind of sleazy, if you ask me. Since they all showed up around the same time, I think that Damon, Giambi and Wright must all be in on it together.

Q: Is Jason Giambi Growing a Mustache?

A: Yes, and it looks VERY cheesy.

6/14/06 - Cleveland Indians vs. New York Yankees

Yeah, I know it's been a while, but enjoy this shot from the Yankees game over a month ago vs Cleveland. In this game, Randy Johnson hit Eduardo Perez with a pitch after Jorge Posada got hit. Always fun to see the players tussle a little bit.



As for the Bobby Abreu and Corey Lidle acquisitions, hopefully they'll work out. I don't think they gave up a ton, and Abreu likely replaces Sheffield in the OF for 2007. I don't really think the Yanks can win the championship this year, but they've been pretty resiliant. In the current format, just making the playoffs gives a team a good shot at winning it all.

Superman Returns

Spoiler free

I saw Superman Returns in IMAX 3D yesterday at 8am. The show was well-sold.

The parts I liked, I really liked in the movie - like Brandon Routh as Superman. The music and effects were also great.

The parts I didn't like, I really didn't like. Kate Bosworth wasn't a great Lois Lane. Lex Luthor in Smallville is a better take on the character. A few other plot points that spoil the movie.

IMAX made the movie better. The 3D less so. The landscapes looked spectacular but some of the action was hard to watch in 3D.

The writers definitely watched a lot of the 1978 Superman movie.

Overall, a nice film, although I don't agree with a number of the creative decisions. I think a few of these things have been brought up in other reviews.

Amendments

The proposal to ban flag burning in the Constitution failed. Now Congress should set its sights on something more useful: a Constitutional amendment banning stupid Constitutional amendments.

Larry Brown is Out

The New York Knicks are a disaster. What will make this firing even worse is that coming off a historic worst season, the team will almost certainly have a better record next year, which they will of course, then attribute to the new coach, Isiah Thomas.

Tags: basketball, Isiah Thomas, Knicks, Larry Brown, NBA

Misc Baseball Comments

Item #1
I haven't been reading Bill Simmons a lot lately, but he had a decent column today about the Mets / Dodgers game on Tuesday that featured the reunion of Nomar, Pedro and Derek Lowe.

Item #2
Jason Grimsley admitted to using human growth hormone. Was it working? His career ERA is 4.88! Up until now, Jason Grimsley was best known for stealing Albert Belle's corked bat.

Item #3
Greg Nettles had some comments about Barry Bonds passing Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list. He pointed out how Barry Bonds cheated. Nettles is one to talk (see #9 on this list). Someone GAVE him a bat full of superballs? Come on!
Tags: baseball, MLB

Pearl Jam: Life Wasted Music Video

Just trying out that handy YouTube embed feature again.

This is Pearl Jam's first music video in years, since the animated video to Do the Evolution. Artist Fernando Apodaca was involved in this process. I've also seen a video for World Wide Suicide out there, but for some reason that one isn't considered official?




Tags: Life Wasted, music, Pearl Jam, videos

Sink

This is the photo of a sink in a restaurant bathroom I was in recently. Isn't it strange? The water comes through the clear tube and drips down the large center hole. Then the water goes into a drain under those rocks. How unnecessary!


Tags: faucets, sinks

Pearl Jam at Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, NJ - 6/1/06

My second Pearl Jam concert of the year was a great one. It's the last concert I'll go to for a while. The last few months, I got to see U2 at MSG in November, then Pearl Jam at Irving Plaza in May.

Overall, I've been to 8 Pearl Jam concerts now. In 1998 in Boston at Great Woods, then 2000 for 2 shows at Jones Beach, 2003 at Nassau Coliseum and 2 shows at MSG, Irving Plaza and now the Meadowlands.

We had fan club tickets for this one. Section 110, almost directly off stage right.

It was a very solid show, although there were a few odd miscues. The sound on vocals and Stone Gossard's guitar went out in the middle of the song "Alone" causing the band to pause, the stagehands to come out, and then the band resumed. Eddie Vedder jumped in the air at the end of "Alive" and landed funny, falling to the ground. He limped off stage and returned for a second encore with a bit of a limp. Eddie mixed up the words to "Once" as well.

I think we could see Susan Sarandon off on stage left with her son. Eddie looked over there a few times. It's possible that the Olsens were there too.

It was a great show. Surprisingly they had laser lights for the first song, "Severed Hand." I think that was the most lighting effects I've ever seen at a Pearl Jam show. They played 7 songs off the new album, 5 songs off Ten (their first album) and 5 off Vs (their second). The set was 30 songs in all, about 2 hrs & 15 mins.

The concert was well received in the press, with positive reviews from the Post, Newsday and a Jersey paper I don't recognize.

A funny thing at the concert - Eddie Vedder mentions the "last time the band was here" they got booed playing the song Bushleaguer. Not quite - they got booed at Nassau Collesium (I was there) in April, 2003. Apparently the band was flustered by this and cut their set short (see 4/30/03 concert here).

Back on 7/9/03 at MSG, Eddie Vedder read a bunch of signs in the crowd, including one that read, "Play Leash, you pussies!" (Leash is a rarely performed song). Eddie said at the time, "There's fuckin' children here, you know? You fuckin' cocksucker motherfuckin' asshole prick!"

This time, he mentioned that sign and said, "You know, I think it shows we're a resiliant type of band. You boo us, call us pussies and yet we still come back every fuckin' time." They then played Leash!! Pretty awesome. At the end of the song, Eddie said, "Pussies no more!"

What a great way to play to the crowd.

A great show all around. I wish I could have gone again on 6/3.

You can get download this concert (and previous PJ concerts) for $9.99. I just downloaded my copy and it sounds pretty good, although there were a few drum solos where the mix is a little heavy on the guitars, making it hard to hear the drums.

Setlist:
Severed Hand, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Do The Evolution, Marker In The Sand, Given To Fly, Dissident, Even Flow, Army Reserve, Immortality, Green Disease, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Alone, Jeremy, Why Go, Life Wasted, Rearviewmirror
Encore 1: Wasted Reprise, Man Of The Hour, Come Back, Footsteps, Once, Alive
Encore 2: Last Exit, Comatose, Leatherman, Glorified G, Leash, Baba O'Riley, Indifference


Tags: concerts, music, Pearl Jam, rock

Google Spreadsheets

Who knows if it'll be any good, but Google will be testing a new web-based spreadsheet. You will be able to download the sheets to your computer and edit them, and also invite other users to sign in and work on the web saved sheets. Apparently they will also be looking to do the same for word processing.

I don't know if this idea will work, after all, there are a ton of different functions one can use in Excel, and it's not clear if many of them will be available on the web-based spreadsheet. But one thing is clear to me, and that is that Google is really on the forefront of innovation. Yahoo! and Microsoft seem to be lagging behind in their web services. GMail forced the competing web-based email services to offer more space and Google Maps forced Yahoo and Microsoft to update their maps programs. Then the Google Desktop software allows you to search documents on your PC better than anything included with Windows, and has little Gadgets that are essentially duplicates of the Yahoo Widgets.

The innovation at Google is pretty cool. They're coming up with new ways to do "old" things (like Calendar) or new things altogether. Google Spreadsheets is just another example.
Tags: Google

2,000 Pounds!

Pat Robertson leg presses 1000 pounds in the video, but 2000 pounds in the photo.

The New York Times reports that Robertson is 76 years old and the world record for leg press is 1335 pounds. It's probably just liberal bias.


UPDATE (6/7/06):
Here's the video of him lifting 1,000 pounds.


Tags: Pat Robertson, weight lifting

Chrebet Retires

Wayne Chrebet retired officially from the New York Jets the other day, and he must have been one of the most popular Jets ever.

The story is pretty well known but here it goes again: a 5'10", WR with small size from Hofstra University walks on to the New York Jets training camp and eventually makes it to the team and has a pretty major role over 11 years.

The New York Jets website has a nice video interview with Chrebet on the front page and they did a nice news article with a ton of quotes from teammates, coaches and opposing coaches (including Edwards, Parcells, Belichick, Crennel, Mangini, Coughlin). Pennington, Coles and Martin also had nice things to say, with Martin's quote getting picked up in the AP story:

“He inspired me every day. I loved the way he played and how he never backed down from anything. He was an incredible teammate. He was a warrior; and I always felt you’d have to kill him to get the upper hand on him. If every player in the NFL had as much heart and desire as he had, football would be illegal.”

In general, I don't find much emotion in sports stories but this one I think is particularly touching. What a great career, and just a beloved player. I wonder if his #80 will ever get retired, a rarity in football since you need just about every number you can get.

Tags: Chrebet, football, Jets, NFL

Baseball

There's a lot of talk that the Boston / Yankees series this week will be for first place, but a lot of people are forgetting that Toronto has a great opportunity here. If the Yanks and Sox split, and Toronto takes a few from the Orioles, then they might be able to sneak into first. Toronto! See what a little money can do?

The Yankees have played Boston a lot recently. 4 series in the last 6 weeks?

The Yankee line up is looking a lot like spring training. Cairo, Phillips, Thompson, Cabrera, except now if I want to pay to see them it will cost more than $10.

Tags: baseball, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Yankees

Spoon!

The Tick Animated TV series is going to finally hit DVD! No, this isn't the silly live version with Putty from Seinfeld as the Tick, it's the original Fox Kids series that can now be found on Toon Disney channel at 4am. I think the reason for the delay on this DVD set is related to legal problems that came about after Disney acquired this programming from the purchase of FOX Family(along with Power Rangers and some other shows). It's about time for this classic to reach DVD.

I watched one the other day featuring the Tick's super-hero class with the student, Sarcastro, a sarcastic super hero who looks like Castro.


Tick: "everyone passes, except for Sarcastro....who passes with flying colors!"
Sarcastro: "really?"
Tick: "No"


Tags: cartoons, dvd, Sarcastro, The Tick, tv

Stop Twisting the Bible

Without weighing in either way on gay marriage, I'd like to point out that CNN.com's top story today was about how the President was going to lobby for a Constitutional Ammendment banning gay marriage.

CNN.com then posted this photo along with the link to the story:



Being curious about this, I was curious what the Bible really said. After all, Jesus was never one to speak in equation format.

Here's what I got from www.biblegateway.com which supposedly has an online searchable King James Bible. From what I can tell, he's not talking about gays anywhere here! It sounds more like Jesus is talking about divorce. Shame on CNN and the AP as well for using this sign. I'm sure we can look through the Bible and justify about anything if we take things out of context.

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Matthew 19

1And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan;

2And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.

3The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?

4And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,

5And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

6Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

7They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?

8He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

9And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

10His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.

11But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.

12For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.
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I would like to recommend that those who use the Bible instead refer to verse 19 of the very same chapter:

19 ‘Honor your father and your mother,’[h] and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”[i]

Tags: Bible, CNN, gay marriage, Jesus

Security

I know everyone in the US feels like they're in danger following the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01, and everyone wants a bigger share of Federal money, but these recent Homeland Security grant changes are a joke.

This has got to upset anyone who feels like the Federal government wastes money, regardless of where you live or what you think about terrorism.

If you want to be safe, sounds like it's time to move to Louisville, Omaha or Charlotte.

Some highlights from the article (NY Times 5/31/06, by Eric Lipton):
The net effect was that the grant to New York City, which was $207.6 million last year, will drop to $124.5 million this year, while Washington will see its grant dollars drop a similar 40 percent, to $46.5 million this year.

Meanwhile, grants for cities like Louisville, Omaha and Charlotte, N.C., each jumped by about 40 percent, to about $8.5 million each. Newark and Jersey City, which received a combined grant, also saw a large increase, rising 44 percent to $34 million.

Overall, New York State will get $183.7 million, which is a 20 percent drop from last year. That means New York State's per capita share of grant funds, which totals $2.78 per person, will drop to an even lower level compared to some rural states, like Wyoming, which will get $14.83 per person this year.

Ms. Henke, who recently took over the office that distributed anti-terrorism grants, said the relative changes in the grant dollars are based on just the kind of detailed analysis of threat and vulnerability that officials in Washington have been calling for in criticizing past awards.

The competition for the grants this year kicked off in January when Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that in the fourth year of these awards, which were started after the 2001 attacks, the department would put much more emphasis on directing the money to the most likely possible terrorist targets.
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So NY and Washington get less Federal money after a revised system to allocate dollars based on threat analysis, vulnerability and more probable terrorist targets. Maybe someone should have double checked this algorithm!
Tags: Homeland Security, terrorism

Broken Rules

As far as I can tell, this story clearly breaks the first and second rules of Fight Club.

Tags: Fight Club

Bonds 715

Since Barry Bonds hit his 715th HR today, passing Babe Ruth, it led me to thinking about if he'll go after Hank Aaron's career record of 755 HR's. After all, in one or two years, he could easily reach that.

Bonds is in the last year of his contract. If he went to the AL next year, he could be a DH and not have to worry about playing in the field. I think a team like the Kansas City Royals, who won't be able to turn their misery around in one year, should seriously consider trying to sign Bonds. At the very least they should see if it's economically feasible to do so. A Bonds signing would bring an excitement to their team like they haven't had in years. Sure, they might not be winning, but the place would be packed full of people trying to see Barry reach what was thought to be unattainable. The team's media coverage and profile would be elevated as well. Considering all the revenue sharing money they get, I think this would be an excellent idea. Also, the media scrutiny is probably less intense in the heartland than it would be on the coasts as well.

Some might point to Wade Boggs getting his 3000th career hit with the Devil Rays as a reason this wouldn't work. I doubt that the Boggs milestone had such an impact on team popularity. But in this case, things are different. Boggs' milestone was purely personal. The HR record has a bigger significance for most people than that.

Tags: 715, Barry Bonds, baseball, home run, MLB, sports

Baseball Notes

I haven't been paying attention to enough baseball lately.

Can you believe Barry Bonds still hasn't passed Babe Ruth? He's really breaking down, huh?

Scott Proctor just entered the game for the Yankees. I think he's a pretty good pitcher, but the Yankees are just TRYING to wear him out. He has thrown the most pitches this season of any reliever. He's going to get Tom Gordon Syndrome, or at least a Tanyon Sturtze Irritation.

While on MLB's main page, I just found out that Jason Bay has 10 HR in his last 10 games (pretty cool), the Pirates played an 18 inning game last night.

Here's my last oddity that I wasn't aware of. The Twins turned a triple play, two weeks after being caught in one! Both are worth watching on MLB's site.

Oh, and the Tigers and White Sox look like pretty good clubs. Toronto's record is almost as good as the Yankees'. How about those Mets?

Looks like it'll be an exciting year for baseball. Is this a return to competitive balance? Can we attribute this to revenue sharing?

Tags: baseball, MLB, sports

Yankees Just Got Their Copy of Moneyball

Well, at least they just finished reading it. Check out the following players in their major and minor league systems (parentheses for years with Oakland):

Jason Giambi ('95-'01)
Terrence Long ('00-'03)
Johnny Damon ('01)
Carlos Pena ('02)
Erubiel Durazo ('03-'05)
Octavio Dotel ('04-'05)

Tags: A'sbaseball, Moneyball, New York Yankees, Yankees

NBA Notes

A few NBA Notes:

Nothing like the Chicago getting the #2 pick in the NBA draft by way of the Knicks to remind everyone of the horrible Eddy Curry trade. I was thinking about this, however, since most people are surprised the Knicks gave up a pick that was not lottery-protected. If the Knicks traded a lottery-protected pick, it probably would have been a pick for at least 2010! Of course, for me, the jaded Knicks fan, the draft lottery provides an opportunity to read a whole new set of entertaining "Fire Isiah" and "Brown vs. Thomas" stories in the tabloids.

If Larry Brown leaves the Knicks, and coaches elsewhere, he could be getting paid by three teams next year! That's got to be a first.

This year's NBA Playoffs sure seems like it's been interesting! Three series-deciding games over the last few days, and LeBron James took the Pistons to the maximum in his first playoff appearance. The Heat then upset the Pistons last night. Unforuntaely, I'm not watching. The west coast games are on too late, and when they go to single or double overtime (which they did quite often), it's just too late to stay up. The schedule of the games is also so widely spaced out. There were no games on Saturday! It's too hard to follow, I'll just read the news items and watch a few highlights tomorrow.

A nice interview with Jeff Van Gundy by Mike and the Mad Dog today.
Tags: basketball, Knicks, NBA, Playoffs, sports

Just Shut Up Awards

The ESPN Radio "Mike and Mike" show have some sort of contest called the "Just Shut Up Awards." They advertise this contest on the Pardon the Interruption podcast each day. I can't stand the Mike and Mike show, it's uninteresting and uninspired. I nominated them for the Just Shut Up Awards and suggest you do the same.
Tags: ESPN Radio, Just Shut Up Awards, Mike and Mike, sports

Click

The Adam Sandler movie, Click, sounds very similar to something I wrote two years ago.
Tags: Adam Sandler, click, movies, tivo

Face the Nation 5/21/06

Bob Schieffer made the following comments last Sunday on Face the Nation. I'm really starting to like this show (which I listen to on podcast). I particularly like the line at the end about the Capitol.

------------------------------------
The English Language Debate

WASHINGTON, May. 21, 2006

(CBS) Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News anchor and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

It's official! The Senate voted to make English the national language of the United States.

Do you feel a lot better knowing that? Or were you like me and thought English was our national language?

Sort of like we know the Washington Monument honors George Washington even though it doesn't have a sign on it that says Official Monument to George Washington. Even I figured that one out.

Of course new citizens should speak English but why would the Senate spend hours debating whether to make English our national language?

Let me break it to you gently: because it gives Senators something to do while they avoid addressing the real problems -- the war, health care, the ballooning deficit and immigration, for that matter.

Working on real problems that have to do with national security and the country's fiscal well-being take determination, political courage and the ability to compromise -- all of which have become the missing ingredients of modern politics.

So we'll hear more about silly issues between now and election day and come to think if it...

Maybe we should make the Washington Monument the national monument to our first president, otherwise people might think it honors the Washington Airport.

And if Senators designate Grants Tomb the official tomb of General Grant, maybe that old joke about who is buried there would go away.

And while they're at it, maybe senators could declare the U.S. Capitol to be the national monument to wasting time and avoiding responsibility.

Actually, I doubt any of us needs to be reminded of that.

Tags: Bob Schieffer, CBS, Face the Nation, politics, tv

Clintons, Bushes

The NY Times ran an article about the Clintons' personal life today, and it made me wonder, if Hillary became President in '08, would that be such a bad thing? After all, if we could elect George Bush's son, then why not Bill Clinton's wife?

Then I got to thinking... Wouldn't it be funny if Hillary won in '08 and '12? Then Jeb Bush, who's always been lurking in the Republican background won in '16 and '20? By then, Chelsea Clinton would be 40, and thus, eligible for the White House. There's probably a few Bush family members who could take over after her! It would be remarkable - Presidents Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton, Bush. That would, in a strange way, turn the Bush and Clinton families into sort of monarchies of sorts. Can we get someone working on making this ridiculous scenario happen??

Tags: Bush, Clinton, President

24 Fifth Season

Spoiler Free

The fifth season of 24 ended last night, with a little bit of everything that 24 is known for. There were a few, "I'm glad that happened" moments, a few "Jack Bauer is so cool" moments, a few "Whatever happened to the story with..." moments and a few "That seems ridiculous" moments.

The show's format is intriguing and also limiting. A good thing is that they are able to turn over the cast however they want, since any given day, the status quo around that day could have changed and allows them to create a whole cast. The limiting factor is that nothing ever feels really complete, since it's all happening in the same day. Since the show has gotten more popular and has a little bit of a mini-universe now, I'm sure people wish they could see more than just these snippets of the characters.

I'm surprised nobody's tried to write 24 "the books" in the way that Star Wars or Star Trek have been serialized as novels. It seems like that would be a good spin-off product, with each chapter representing an hour or something. *Note: I looked on amazon.com after writing this - there are 24: the books out there, I guess they're not that popular.*

I'm not sure how they can go on with this show for three more seasons. They've been trying hard to top themselves year after year. This season, in my opinion, started really well, and then slowed down about two-thirds of the way in, until the finale. The fourth season had a similar feel but I think it was a little better.

You can download the first episodes from season 1 and season 5 for free at Myspace, and the entire seasons 1-5 are available for purchase on myspace. iTunes also carries season 5.

Tags: 24, Jack Bauer, TV

2 Years Old, and Still Kitchen Fresh

Today is the last day of the second year of the Kitchen Fresh Blog. Thanks to all who have participated in making this blog what it is -- a silly little place where I can feel a little more important each day.
Tags: blogs, Kitchen Fresh Blog

Juiced

OJ Simpson pulls a gag in his movie/DVD, "Juiced," where he pretends to sell his white bronco, saying that, "it helped me get away." Makes me think there should be a saying to the effect of, "anyone who can laugh about his murder acquittal... is probably guilty!"
Tags: OJ Simpson

Trash Train

I think I've said it before in this space, but seeing the "Trash Train" really stinks (pun intended). When this thing pulls into your subway station, the station's not only full of garbage, but it means a train isn't coming in on your track. Here it is in action:


Tags: subway

Two Yankee Games: 4/13/06 and 5/11/06

I forgot to post some photos from my $5 Yankee experience on 4/13/06 versus the KC Royals. We saw the Yankees beat the Royals, and the Big Unit was on the hill. That's back when he was pitching well (week 2 of the season). He pitched great, and I was hoping to see Rivera pitch, but then the Yanks exploded for a bunch of runs in the 8th, making the game a blowout.


Then last night, I went to the Red Sox vs Yankees game. The story of this ticket is that I didn't look at the quantity of tickets when I bid for them on eBay and ended up buying one ticket, not two. Fortunately, it only cost $20 for a face value $45 ticket, so it wasn't too bad.

I missed Matsui breaking his wrist in the first inning. Here are some other notes and observations from the game:

The game was really slow. Shawn Chacon could only last 4+ innings, and was battling throughout. I thought the Yankees were pretty lucky to be leading late in the game since they had Bubba Crosby steal a HR from Mike Lowell in the top of the 3rd inning, and Johnny Damon take away a big double from Doug Mirabelli (which I heard John Sterling erroneously describe as a possible HR.

In the top of the sixth, the Yankees used four pitchers. Tough to watch and very slow. If Proctor had gotten it done sooner, Ortiz would have come up in the next inning, which would have slowed things down a little bit. Whenever Scott Proctor enters a game, I wish they would play a sound clip from Police Academy of Capt Harris calling for Lt Proctor (Proctor? Where is Proctor?)

There didn't seem to be a lot of BoSox fans at the game from my vantage point in Loge section (under the covering, and avoiding the rain). Usually there's a pretty vocal contingent.

They show a blooper reel all the time at Yankee games and they continue to show this clip of Tommy Lasorda getting knocked over by a bat at the All-Star Game about 5 years ago. It was funny then, but actually sort of frightening, and not really that funny any more. Can they update the blooper reel?

In the top of the 7th, A-Rod struck out with a chance to tie the game. Poor A-Rod. Everyone wants him to do well, but when he struck out, the groans were really loud. It was clear that the crowd was thinking about what the papers say about A-Rod "not doing it in a big spot."

Not Miguel Cairo's finest hour. He had 4 K's, looked foolish against Tim Wakefield's knuckleball and lost the ball tagging a runner at 1B, allowing Boston's go ahead run to score.

I was noticing that Boston has a lot of former NL players, and also former NL players on teams that beat the Yankees in the past. These include Beckett, Schilling, Lowell, A Gonzalez and Loretta. Considering that a lot of people think the AL is tougher than the NL, I'm a little surprised by these imports. I guess there's something to be said for not being intimidated by a rival?

Matsui's injury sounds pretty serious. Bubba Crosby played great. I wonder if he just played himself to a trade to another team. I hope not. I like rooting for guys named "Bubba."


Tags: baseball, Boston Red Sox, MLB, New York Yankees, Red Sox, Yankees

Pearl Jam

Last week was a big Pearl Jam week. Their album was released on Tuesday and they played a number of shows in New York City. The first show they played was on 5/4, and through my membership in the Ten Club, I tried to get free tickets, but was unsuccessful (there were only about 175 pairs of tickets available).

Then suddenly, it was announced that they would play a show on 5/5 at Irving Plaza. How do you get tickets? Buy the new album on 5/2 at Tower Records on 4th and Broadway. I decided to camp out and get tickets. We arrived at 8am and waited until midnight to get the tickets.

When we arrived at 8am we were told we were about #200 in line. Rumor was they would have about 400 tickets, so we thought we were in pretty good shape. Around 11am they handed out wristbands and it allowed us to relax a little more that we were going to end up with tickets. All in all, I didn't expect the waiting to be so tough. My allergies were going haywire from all the dirt on the street, and fortunately we were pretty much able to go back and forth from the line fairly regularly, otherwise it would have been really awful. I brought a ton of stuff to read but it was pretty draining to just sit around and wait. Frankly, I should have realized waiting on the street would have been that dirty!

Here's a picture of where we were waiting:


Around 11pm, the line started moving. Clive Davis, founder of J records came and handed out doughnuts to the crowd. Nobody really knew who he was, but thanks to my LG VX9800, I noticed on wikipedia that he had signed big music names like Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel. Pretty cool, here's a blurry picture of him:



We finally got our ticket and the album.


I noticed that the retail version of the album differed from the Ten Club (fan club) pre-order version.


The fan club version (top) was more like a little book, while the retail version was similar to the other albums (I believe it's called, digipak). The CD art was different too. Sort of a nice touch to pre-ordering.

The concert was great. Here are some blurry photos of the band. Unfortunately, I didn't learn how to zoom my camera phone until after the concert, so we're a bit far away from everyone. We were really close to the band. They played a great 2 hr set that included Garden for the first time in 6 years, 5 songs off of Ten, and we got to choose between "campfire Betterman" and State of Love and Trust. We chose SofL&T. There was a huge 90's flashback when a guy with a Rodney Hampton Giants jersey climbed onto a raised platform and jumped into the crowd. There were at least 3 crowd surfers (who all got removed by security). A lot of celebrities were in the balcony, including Eddie Vedder's wife and kid, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and their child, Flea from RHCP, the Strokes lead singer (and supposedly Drew Barrymore), supermodel Giselle Bundchen and Mary Kate Olsen (who was dancing as if she was listening to the song, Aquarius and at a hippie concert).

Set:
World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Marker In The Sand, Come Back, Garden, Even Flow, Insignificance, Given To Fly, Army Reserve, Gone, Why Go, Present Tense, Do The Evolution, Comatose
Encore 1: Man Of The Hour, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, State Of Love And Trust, Porch
Encore 2: Alive, Yellow Ledbetter

Blurry photos, the red arrow of this top photo is pointing to blurry Mary Kate.







An awesome concert. I noticed the guy standing next to me text his friend before the show "I am at the concert of a lifetime."

Tags: concert, Irving Plaza, music, Pearl Jam, rock

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Stadium Arcadium

I just picked up the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, Stadium Arcadium. It had gotten some good reviews and I enjoyed the album Californication, so I decided to take a chance. In the end, this 2 disc album, isn't too bad, but it's not that great either. Considering the four other RHCP albums that I own (Blood Sugar Sex Magik, One Hot Minute, Californication and By the Way), this one feels redundant. The group's sound hasn't changed too much and towards the middle of the 28 track album, I really thought I had heard a lot of these songs before. In a way, this album reminds me of how I felt about the Smashing Pumpkins 2-CD set, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, because it's just too much overload. Too bad they couldn't have trimmed this down to an extra long CD (16-17 tracks).

Have any rock groups really ever put out a really successful double CD? Excluding compilations, of course. Guns N Roses came pretty close with their simultaneous release of Use Your Illusion 1 & 2 but this RHCP CD isn't quite there. I enjoyed the Foo Fighters' In Your Honor, but it also isn't a classic. Then there's the aforementioned Smashing Pumpkins' disc, which like I mentioned before, was just Billy Corgan overload.

Tags: music, Red Hot Chili Peppers, rock, Stadium Arcadium

NSA Surveillance and Guns

Today the President acknowledged that the government had received phone records from phone companies regarding calls that terror suspects had made. USA Today suggests that the calls weren't just those of terror suspects, but also those of ordinary Americans.

Now let's say the government is creating a large database of phone records. This will likely infuriate liberals and the ACLU.

Those who see no problem with this measure will likely be conservatives and say that this is necessary to protect our citizens, and that anyone who isn't doing anything wrong will be fine.

I'd like to see if those same conservatives support firearm registration. After all, what I've heard about firearm registration is that citizens are concerned the government would then have a list of people with guns who it can go after. But if you aren't doing anything wrong, and just hunting, why should you worry? For that matter, why doesn't the ACLU oppose firearm registration? After all, every citizen has the right to carry a firearm.

A similar sort of inconsistency always struck me with those people who are anti-abortion and pro-capital punishment (a common set of opinions?). After all, if it's not ok to kill a fetus, why is it ok to kill an adult, regardless of what awful thing they've done?

Tags: firearms, guns, NSA, surveillance

David Blaine

Thursday night we saw David Blaine while he was at Lincoln Center preparing for his latest ABC special. He was sitting down by the time I took these pictures. Is what he does magic or is it more like daredevil-type stuff? I guess it doesn't matter, it's kind of cool and kind of excessive at the same time.

Tags: ABC, David Blaine, Lincoln Center, magic, TV

New Mets Song

In the grand tradition of "Go NY, Go NY, Go!," "Meet the Mets," "Lets Go Mets Go" and "Here Come the Yankees!" is a new and hilarious theme song for the Mets.

New York Mets: Our Team, Our Time!

An aside, while looking for audio of the songs above, I stumbled across the new Nets song, "Go N-E-T-S!"

Tags: baseball, basketball, Knicks, Mets, MLB, NBA, Nets, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, New York Mets, New York Yankees, sports, theme song, Yankees

Ain't Wet

I don't know why I find this so funny, but I do.

Tags: wet paint

Awards

The Barry Bonds player profile on ESPN.com has a section for Awards, including his many MVP awards, Gold Gloves and... ESPY awards?


Who cares about the ESPY's? I really hate this sort of artificial inflation of these stupid award shows.

Thankfully his CBS Sportsline page doesn't include this faux honor.




Tags: Barry Bonds, baseball, ESPN, ESPYs, MLB

Barry Bonds and Perjury

I don't really understand what the big deal about Barry Bonds and perjury is. The case that's being investigated is whether or not he lied to a grand jury in 2003. It's been reported previously that Bonds told the grand jury that he used the "cream" and the "clear" which turned out to be steroids, but didn't know what they were. The question is whether or not Bonds knew that these were steroids. Seems pretty hard to prove.

But is ignorance any excuse for breaking the law? I always thought the answer was no. If you killed someone and then said, "well, I thought it was ok" you wouldn't gain any more sympathy. Likewise if Barry Bonds had been smoking crack. In other words, who cares if he lied, he took steroids, that should be the end of the question. While we may wonder about the duration of how long he took steroids, it seems to me a more constructive question would be to find out who else was taking steroids.


Tags: Barry Bonds, baseball, MLB, perjury, steroids

Double Meaning?

Let's just say that for a moment, I thought this headline on CNN.com was about Venus Williams.

Probe photographs Venus' south pole

I know, this is a really classy operation I've got going on here.

Tags: CNN, Venus, Venus Williams

Fox News Ratings

I just heard that the President's approval ratings, along with the Republicans in Congress were at an all time low in a recent Washington Post / ABC News poll.

Thinking about this some more, I was curious to find out if there was any relationship between the ratings of Fox News Channel and the general negative perception of the Republican Party. Since Fox News is generally perceived to have a conservative bias, it would seem to me that either 1) ratings would not change if a loyal base of viewers are responsible for most of the audience or 2) ratings would drop if their viewers represented a broader spectrum of attitudes. Of course, there's some other data that would be necessary to fully relate the two to each other (increases in ratings with improved approval ratings, current affairs, changes with other news networks).

My personal suspicion is that the ratings are fairly immune to the approval ratings but I could be wrong.

Tags: Fox News, George W. Bush, politics,
President, ratings, Republicans, tv

Snow Doubt

Snow on April 5 in New York City?



Yes. I can't believe it!


Tags: New York City, snow, weather

Boot Camp

Apple is introducing Boot Camp, a program that allows new Intel Mac users to run Windows XP if they'd like. While this is a nice idea, since so many people are familiar with the Windows OS, it's sort of funny that a new selling point to a Mac will be that it can run a somewhat inferior product. They should market this as, "You know all those crazy viruses and trojans that keep cripping your friends' computers? Well now you can get them too!"

Tags: Intel, Macintosh, Microsoft, OS X, Windows XP

Enter Sandman

Do yourself a favor and go to the WFAN webpage and listen to: Joe Benigno "Tue. Mar. 4th - Joe is invaded by Mike Francesa and Don Imus as they discuss Billy Wagner and his 'Enter Sandman' theme song." This stuff is hilarious.

Here's the issue. When Mariano Rivera enters a Yankees game at Yankee Stadium, they play Metallica's "Enter Sandman" to the game. It's actually pretty cool - the place goes wild and they even now put the lyrics up to try and get everyone to sing along. When Billy Wagner entered games for the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies, he too, played the song "Enter Sandman." So on Monday, when Wagner was asked to get a save for the Mets, "Enter Sandman" was played and sports talk radio went crazy! How it's inappropriate, how it's ridiculous, and that Wagner should change his song.

Yes, it's probably not the best move for Wagner to be playing the same song as Rivera but who really cares? I suppose people would see it the same way if the Yankees got a big top hat in center field with an apple popping out of it after every home run, or if the Mets started playing Cotton Eyed Joe or YMCA at every game.

Great stuff. Talk about a meaningless argument!

Tags: baseball, Enter Sandman, MLB, New York Mets, New York Yankees

Flight 93 Movie

A movie dramatizing Flight 93 (the one that crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11) is on its way. The Daily News reports that the trailer brought some filmgoers to tears.

I know it's Hollywood's way to take any tragic / historic / heroic event and turn it into a film. There's no event that is immune from being turned into a film. Also, regardless of when it is turned into a movie, there's also no doubt that there will be questions that it is "too soon" or "insensitive." But this still doesn't sit well with me. Maybe it's because this was so much closer to me than a World War 2 film, but something about this film bugs me a little.


Tags: 9/11, Flight 93, movies

D'Oh!

A Simpsons movie? I love the show but is this really necessary? It looks like they are just trying to milk the franchise for every last drop before they let it go.

Tags: movies, Simpsons, TV

Jimmy Rollins' Hit Streak

There's a lot being written about Jimmy Rollins, the Philadelphia Phillies shortstop, who got a hit last night in his 37th consecutive game. This of course, brings up the topic of Joe DiMaggio, who managed to hit in 56 consecutive games. DiMaggio had his streak in one season, where Rollins is running his streak from the end of one season to the beginning of the next. Does that make a difference?

I'm not really sure what all the fuss is about. Yes, what Rollins is doing is remarkable and would approach the "most consecutive games" streak in a literal sense. But what DiMaggio did is quite different since it was all in the same season.

I guess it boils down to baseball being a game where everybody loves to talk about records. The DiMaggio record is pretty hallowed ground. One thing I'd like to note is that we don't ever discuss most of these "records" as over more than one season. We never say, who has the most consecutive wins (not necessarily in one season) or HR / RBI in a 162 game period. I guess we might have to make that distinction now. For Rollins, while the winter break between seasons is certainly a big hump to overcome, I think he will certainly benefit from decreased media coverage since he isn't doing this all in a single season.


Tags: baseball, hit streak, MLB

Opening Day

It's Major League Baseball Opening Day!

Yay! Now ESPN.com's front page can remove all their *yawn* Women's NCAA Final Four stories (no offense, but nobody's watching) and focus on MLB (which admittedly, fewer people are watching these days).

Opening Day is always exciting, especially this year, when a lot of teams have much higher hopes than in the last few years. I think it was a little silly for there to have been a game last night (White Sox / Indians) only because it seems a little bit isolated.

A few years back (2001, I believe), I skipped work in the afternoon and was lucky enough to go to the Yankees season opener. That was probably my favorite opening day. Tonight, the Yanks start on the west coast, with the A's. They had been starting the year on the left coast for a while, but then in the last few years were on the east coast. Now I guess they're mixing it up again.


Tags: baseball, Major League Baseball, MLB, Opening Day, Yankees

Basic Instinct 2, Sequels

I don't follow movies as closely as I used to, but I was surprised to hear that this weekend, Basic Instinct 2 will be opening. Upon further research, I confirmed that the first movie was made in 1992, nearly 15 years ago! I don't like when sequels come out so far after the original. That got me thinking about other films. Long gaps like this aren't as uncommon as I had thought. Unfortunately it looks like the movies that come after the long gaps are rarely as good as the previous installments.

There were 8 years between installments of Bad Boys. The Terminator franchise had two big gaps - 7 years between 1 & 2, then 12 years between 2 & 3! Checking further, Godfather 3 came out sixteen years after Godfather 2. Likewise sixteen years passed between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. Ten years separated Get Shorty and Be Cool. Fourteen years passed between Predator 2 and Alien vs. Predator, (7 years between AVP and Alien Resurrection) although now it's more of a stretch to find the relationship.

Eight years passed between Fletch and Fletch Lives, the same amount of time as two other Chevy Chase movies, Christmas and Vegas Vacations. Eddie Murphy waited 7 years to make Beverly Hills Cop 3, and 8 years to make Another 48 Hours. Eleven years passed from The Mask to Son of the Mask. 1980's Blues Brothers had a sequel in 1998, aptly named, Blues Brothers 2000.

Kevin Smith's Clerks 2 will be due out 12 years after the original. If a fourth Indiana Jones feature were to happen, it would be eighteen years since the last one. It will be about 16 years if Rocky (as rumored) hits the screen again. Die Hard 4, also rumored, would be 11 years after the last installment.

By the way, Bambi got a direct-to-video sequel 64 years after the original. I guess the Basic Instinct gap shouldn't have surprised me.

I'm sure I've forgotten critical

Side note: While we're talking about Sharon Stone films, the movie "Slither" that opens this week keeps making me want to say "Sliver," the movie about the voyeur that Sharon Stone was in following the original Basic Instinct.

Tags: Basic Instinct, movies, sequels

Music Releases

It seems to me that all the bands I listen to tend to release their albums all at the same time. Last year, Dave Matthews Band and Audioslave released albums within a few weeks of each other. This year, it looks like a banner year for Pearl Jam, Audioslave and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The hype machine seems to be in full force. I know that no artist would suggest that their upcoming album is not something fans and the public would enjoy, but it is interesting to hear bands say that the next album is always the "best one yet."

That stretch in May-June will be a pretty exciting musical month for me. I'll be seeing Pearl Jam at Continental Airlines Arena on June 1. Pearl Jam's upcoming album can be preordered at their website with the bonus of receiving MP3's to the album at 12:01am on the release date, as well as an additional live recording from a New Year's Eve concert in 1992. I'm leaning strongly towards picking that up, since those Ten-era concerts were probably pretty wild.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers just released a good portion of their recent catalong on iTunes with some pretty intriguing bonus songs from their albums Blood Sugar Sex Magik, One Hot Minute, Californication and By the Way. Unfortunately the bonus stuff is only available if you purchase the album digitally. Since I already own those albums, it's too bad. I wish I could purchase those tracks (2-3 per album) individually.



Pearl Jam - self-titled album, release date: 5/2/06
"It's easily the best stuff we've done but also some of the hardest stuff." -Eddie Vedder


Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium, release date 5/9/06
"...the best thing we've ever done." - Flea

Audioslave, Revelations, release date June 2006 (album art not available)
"My vocal cadence is different, my approach to the vocal is different. And with this band, we have the ability to go into more of a soul/R&B direction and have it be authentic. It's exciting." - Chris Cornell

Tags: Audioslave, Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder, Flea, music, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, rock music

Yao Ming Playing Well

Yao Ming is playing well, but the Houston Rockets are not. It's too bad for Yao, who is putting up the best numbers of his career, that Tracy McGrady is out. While the games might be relatively meaningless for the Rockets at this point, Yao is playing great, with double-doubles in 12 of his last 14 games, scoring 20 points or more in every game during that stretch. I might have to try and catch a few Rockets games on TV while their season's still going.

Tags: basketball, NBARockets, Yao Ming

Knicks Beat the Pistons

What's that? The basement-dwelling Knicks beat the Eastern Conference Champion Pistons? I would have never believed it. They won the game in green uniforms? Wait a second, isn't there another team (in the same division) that wears Green, Irish-influenced uniforms?

Is this a new Knicks tradition? Those are ugly uniforms. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if they played the Celtics on St. Patrick's Day and broke those green duds out?

Tags: basketball, Detroit Pistons, NBA, New York Knicks, St. Patrick's Day, uniforms

Doughnut Plant

Doughnut Plant
379 Grand Street (between Essex & Norfolk Streets)
New York, NY 10002
Phone/Fax: (212)505-3700

I went to this place on Saturday morning. It was well worth it. Much better than Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donuts, this store usually sells out of doughnuts by 2pm. We bought a ton of doughnuts including chocolate cake, cinnamon cake, coconut creme, jelly and orange glaze. The cake doughnuts were the worst, and the coconut creme was the best. The doughnuts were huge and I had a sugar high for a while afterwards. Check it out if you're on the Lower East Side. I was going to try and post a photo but for some reason the Blogger photo uploading is having problems.


Tags: doughnut, donut, Lower East Side, New York City, restaurant

Pearl Jam's New Album

Pearl Jam has a new self-titled album coming out in May, their first in three or so years. It's their first with their new label, J records, and it looks like the band is making a pretty big push, with a website makeover, release of their new single, World Wide Suicide, on myspace (it's no longer available) and now the single available on iTunes, complete with a second track from the album, Unemployable. They've also announced a tour. Maybe my favorite band will actually become current again.

This is my first post in March!


Tags: music, Unemployable, World Wide Suicide