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July 28, 2005

Sac Lunch is the greatest musical endeavor in the history of civilization

I can’t even describe how amped I get listening to this stuff. These are mostly just raw mixes, so take them in that vein. But do listen and enjoy. And feel free to make comments, including on such questions as: what you like and don’t like, how we should order the tracks on the CD, and what we should title the CD.

Dig.

[Ed. With the completion of the audio masters, these files have been removed.]

Posted by alex at 01:03 PM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2005

Pujols for MVP

Ok, look, I’m biased, I admit that. But to me, it seems that Albert Pujols is, at this point, the frontrunner for the National League MVP. I understand that this is a minority opinion, so let me explain why.

The conventional wisdom has Derrek Lee of the Cubs as the MVP favorite, for pretty obvious reasons. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of their stats, including where those stats rank in the NL, through July 20’s games:

PujolsLee
AVG.338 (3rd).375 (1st)
OBP.425 (4th).445 (1st)
SLG.617 (2nd).741 (1st)
OPS1.043 (2nd)1.186 (1st)
HR26 (3rd)31 (1st)
RBI77 (2nd)78 (1st)
TB217 (2nd)253 (1st)
Runs78 (1st)77 (2nd)

Clearly, Lee beats Pujols in nearly every category, and in fact he’s leading in all three Triple Crown categories (Batting Average, Home Runs, and RBI) as well as the sabermatricians’ two favorite stats, On-Base Percentage and Slugging Percentage. Is Derrek Lee having a better season than Albert Pujols? Yes. Yes he is. But that’s only half the story.

As great as Lee’s season has been, Pujols isn’t exactly stinking up the joint either. Albert is in the top three in every major offensive category except OBP (where he’s fourth), including the top three for the Triple Crown categories, not to mention he’s leading the league in runs scored (and isn’t scoring runs kind of the point of the game?). He’s on pace to finish the season with a .338 average, 45 HR, 133 RBI and 134 Runs—in many seasons, that’d be a slam dunk MVP year.

Nevertheless, by itself this only means that, just as in the past four years with Barry Bonds, Pujols is having the second-best season in the National League. Here’s what tips the scales in his favor: his team has both the best record and the best offense in the National League. The Cardinals are 13 games in front of the Cubs and have scored 477 runs—tops in the NL and almost 10% better than the Cubs’ 437.

“But the Cardinals have a better lineup than the Cubs; naturally they score more runs. Why should Lee be punished for his teammates mediocrity?” He shouldn’t, and the Cardinals lineup is superior to the Cubs—maybe. Last year it featured three MVP candidates in Pujols, Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen, along with the best-hitting shortstop in the NL, Edgar Renteria. But Renteria departed in the offseason for Boston, Rolen was out for six weeks with a shoulder injury and has struggled even when healthy enough to play, and Edmonds, while solid, isn’t putting up the kinds of numbers he had last year. In fact, Pujols is the only Cardinals starter hitting over .286 and the only one other than Edmonds with more than 44 RBI.

The rest of the Cubs lineup, meanwhile, isn’t that far behind. They have two starters (Lee and Aramis Ramirez) batting over .300 and three starters (Lee, Ramirez, and Jeromy Burnitz) with over 50 RBI. The Cubs actually have a higher slugging percentage than the Cardinals, due in part to the fact that they’ve hit 20 more home runs (125 to 105) than the Redbirds so far this season.

So, yes: Derrek Lee is having a slightly better season than Albert Pujols, and his numbers are slightly higher. And yes, he is carrying his team—but so is Pujols, and his team is doing better than Lee’s. Isn’t that the very definition of valuable?

Posted by alex at 03:03 AM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2005

Tuesday at the Village Vanguard

I’ve been in New York City since Sunday afternoon, and it’s been wonderful, even more so than I had expected. Here’s what I’ve been up to in a nutshell:

So it’s just been a whilewind. Right now I’m taking it easy, resting and relaxing before the shopping later. It’s hard to believe I’ve only been here two full days so far; what a great vacation.

Posted by alex at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2005

Saturday in Syracuse

I’m in Syracuse with Mari and Eliza, and I’m having a great time. It’s so so good to seem them again; I’ve really missed them both. Mari looks great, she’s in fantastic shape, and apparently she’s pretty committed to staying in great shape, since she “can’t gain a pound and still fit into [her] wedding dress.”

We went out to a farmer’s market this morning and then on to the Syracuse Arts and Crafts fair. Not surprisingly, this one is pretty much isomorphic to the Clayton Arts and Crafts fair to which I went with Carol Ann last month. Still, it’s fun to walk up and down and see what there is to be seen. We also walked over the the Syracuse Blues Fest, which was taking place just a few blocks away.

On a sad note, Mari and I witnessed someone die, perhaps of heat stroke. We had wanted to use the ATM at a local bank branch, and this man was standing there before us, looking strange. Mari thought he was perhaps a bit drunk, while I thought he was perhaps a not-fully-together homeless man. He was a large man, pretty obese, wearing an apron that made him look like a short-order cook (which perhaps he was). Anyway, he was standing at the ATM in such a way as to make us a bit nervous, so we left and went to a different ATM.

Ten minutes later, we happened to be passing by on our way to the Blues Fest, and we saw an ambulence and three fire trucks at the ATM. Naturally, we were curious. We walked over and saw the man lying on his back surrounded by paramedics applying an oxygen mask. The man was literally blue, like a blueberry, his eyes were open but his body limp like dead weight. The paramedics were treating him as if he were alive, so we assumed he was. They put him into the ambulence and we left.

Later on we passed again on our way back to the Arts Fair, and we saw a police officer taking crime scene photos. We asked about the man, and he said he had died, probably of health-related causes. He speculated on heat stroke and high blood pressure, and apparently before he collapsed the man had been saying that he had just got off of work where it had been really hot.

His death is sad, to be sure, but also sad is the fact that we saw him ten minutes before he died and instead of approaching him and seeing if he was okay, we avoided him altogether. Mari and I are not thoughtless people, of course—if we had suspected he was in some sort of trouble, we would have done something immediately. What’s sad is that instead of assuming he was simply someone in need of help, we assumed he was someone drunk or troubled, or otherwise potentially dangerous and to be avoided.

While this certainly put a sober edge to the day, the rest of it was fun. We met a couple with a 14-week-old puppy, the cutest little dog I’ve ever seen. It’s a breed I’d never heard of before: a Coton de Tulear. Completely adorable, like a mini sheep dog. Right now we’re homing resting before going out to a movie. Tomorrow morning, Mari and I are driving in to NYC, where I’ll be for the next week.

Posted by alex at 04:44 PM | Comments (1)

July 10, 2005

First day at HFH

Yesterday was my first day actually on the job at Habitat For Humanity. They sent me an email announcing an introductory meeting for people interested in being crew leaders, so I wanted to attend that. As it turns out, the “meeting” wasn’t much more than a brief introduction to the Site Coordinator, a very friendly guy named William, who outlined the basics and then assigned me to a house.

Generally, here’s how it works: on this site, HFH is building about a dozen or so houses on two or three adjacent streets. William is in charge of directing construction at the entire site—naturally, what this really means is he goes around from house to house checking in and making sure things are running smoothly and resolving whatever issues might arise, be they construction-, materials-, or personnel-related. Each house has one or two House Leaders who are, obviously, in charge of construction for that particular house. They determine what needs to be done and then delegate jobs to the Crew Leaders, who then direct the volunteers.

At least, that’s the idea. In practice (at least, on this particular day at this particular house—this, was, after all, only my first day), things are less rigidly structured. We had about eight or nine volunteers at my house, including two House Leaders and three Crew Leaders, so perhaps we had a pretty high “* Leaders”-to-volunteers ratio. Mike (one of the House Leaders) reminded me that as a Crew Leader, I needed to make sure the volunteers were happily and busily employed, and that if I found myself at work while volunteers were standing around doing nothing, than something was wrong. I was glad for the reminder, although since it was my first day, I really felt more like a volunteer than a Crew Leader anyway.

The house at this stage isn’t much more than an empty box. The concrete for the foundation had been poured only last week, and we had two major tasks to complete in our 9-3 work shift. First we fitted a large vinyl sheet around the outside of the foundation to act as waterproofing, and secondly we installed a cap of two-by-fours on top of the basement walls, on which the rest of the house will be built. It seems that a foundation rarely ends up being perfectly level, and so these two-by-fours are laid out and shimmed underneath so as to insure a smooth, level platform on which the rest of the house can sit.

We finished maybe 90% of the job by 1:00, but between lunch and the overwhelming heat, the last 10% really took all of the last two hours. The heat was really amazing and oppressive. The forecast said highs around 93 with a heat index of 100, and I believe that, but our work was below ground level in an empty box—in other words, without shade or breeze. Fortunately, someone had brought a large cooler of water, or else we’d have been in trouble; in fact I heard that someone got heat stroke at one of the other houses. I’d forgotten to get sunscreen, but I borrowed some from one of the other volunteers, so while I’m pretty pink right now, at least I’m not severely burned.

I really had a great time. The people were all fun, friendly, and mostly easy to work with. The work itself wasn’t overwhelmingly difficult, but it provided enough physical challenge to make it enjoyable. I was really nervous at the start of the day, typical first-day jitters, but now I’m looking forward to going back, and in fact I’m a bit sorry I won’t be able to return for three weeks.

Posted by alex at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)

July 08, 2005

This is why I don’t have a TV

Brody has done something evil to me. He has gotten me hooked on a video game (Champions of Norath, for the PS2), and we’ve played it for six-to-eight hours at a time three of the last four days. Now it’s past 3am, and I’m just now winding down.

And so to explain today’s entry title: I don’t know whether or not I’m easily addicted to drugs or gambling (I do know I’m not addicted to alcohol), but I’m clearly capable of becoming addicted to the screen. I noticed this a few years ago when Kelly and I lived up in North County. Every night we’d eat dinner in front of the TV and then spend the next several (meaning six to eight) hours channel surfing. It didn’t matter that nothing was on—I couldn’t stop. And I mean until 2 or 3 in the morning; I’d be watching infomercials and practicing scales on the guitar. It was terrible. When we moved into different apartments, I swore I wouldn’t get a TV, and I’m so so SO glad I haven’t.

I’m still pretty hooked on it, to be honest. I watch a disturbing amount of DVDs on my computer, and it really prevents me from getting the stuff done that I want and/or need to do. For me, it’s an irresistable distraction, and I mean irresistable almost literally.

Fortunately, I’ll be leaving town for three weeks starting on Tuesday, and this will pull me away from the TV and the video games and the DVDs and force my computer usage to more worthwhile pursuits—like blogging! :)

Posted by alex at 03:10 AM | Comments (3)

July 05, 2005

Some observations at baseball’s halfway point

The All-Star break is next week, but the half-way mark of the baseball season—at least for the Cardinals—was yesterday. With last night’s 9-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Cards advanced their record to 52-30, putting them 11.5 games in front of the second-place Cubs and on pace to win 102 games this season. Which is awesome, of course.

Some observations:

I don’t know why it took me so long to start commenting on baseball, but I’m going to keep it up. It’s just too fun. :) And maybe I’ll even consider stooping low enough to comment on the American League…

Posted by alex at 12:47 PM | Comments (2)

July 04, 2005

My Music: A Meme

I’m pretty late coming to this party, but I received the baton from davidissimo, so here goes:

TOTAL VOLUME OF MUSIC ON MY COMPUTER:
I have 41.27 GB worth of music, for a total of 7864 songs. That averages out to 5.2 MB per song, but I think that’s misleadingly high, since I have some audiobooks and podcasts on there that probably push the average higher, not to mention Glen Gould’s 1981 recording of The Goldberg Variations, which is all one 51-minute track.

THE LAST CD I BOUGHT:
I went CD shopping Friday for the first time in months. I went to Vintage Vinyl first and naturally, they didn’t have anything I was looking for. So I went to Borders and got the following badass CDs:

I don’t want to hear any crap about the John Mayer—he gets a bad rap for his Top 40 pop, but the truth is he’s really an excellent guitarist and musician, and he just happens to be cursed (although I’m sure both he and his accountant would say “blessed”) with that silly breathy voice.

SONG PLAYING RIGHT NOW:
Belle & Sebastion, “Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying”, from If You’re Feeling Sinister. This is one of those records which I’m not sure how it came to be in my collection, but now that it’s here, I feel like I ought to give it a listen, at least.

FIVE SONGS I LISTEN TO A LOT, OR THAT MEAN A LOT TO ME:
*sigh* This is pretty hard to do. But here’s some old standbys I always come back to and never seem to get tired of:

FIVE PEOPLE TO WHOM I’M PASSING THE BATON:
Sandeep, Alli, Jacob, Mari, Brody. I know some (most?) of you don’t already have a public forum in which to answer this, so write yours in the comments.

BTW, a shoutout to iTunes. My CDs are in such a state of disarray right now, it’s almost unmanageable—except that iTunes manages them just fine. Thank god.

Posted by alex at 09:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 03, 2005

Take me out to the ballgame

Playing: King’s X, Faith Hope Love

Lots to say; I probably should have posted yesterday, but I didn’t have a chance. So here goes:

Friday night, Bequette (as Steve has said he wants to call us now; we’ll see if it sticks) played Off Broadway. I had a great time—I did my schtick, with the jumping around and dancing, etc., and it was a lot of fun. Some of my friends have asked me how I can enjoy being in this band when the music isn’t all that great, and the answer is simply that I love playing music. I just love it, on a very physical, visceral level. I mean, I don’t love every single gig, and there are times when it’s a drag, but playing live in front of an appreciative crowd that digs what I’m doing (even if, objectively speaking, I wouldn’t dig it myself) is an incredible turn-on.

Plus, I think my contributions have made the music better. It’s still not The Beatles, but it’s better than it was, and hopefully it’ll continue to improve.

I’m going to break with the chronological telling of events here to ask for opinions on the following: Steve called me up today to say “great show last night” and then he launched into fifteen minutes worth of “you’re a great bassist and I’m glad you’re in the band, etc. etc., but we need to improve your image. As shallow as it is, A&R reps go through a hundred press kits a day, and if they don’t like the look of the band in the picture, they don’t even bother to listen to the demo CD. With that in mind, I’d like to take you shopping to buy hipper clothes. I’d like you to consider shaving your beard, or at least wear a goatee, and I’d like you to color at least the grey out. I’d like you to work out a bit and lose a few pounds, do some pushups or something. I don’t myself care what you look like or what you wear, but we’re trying to land a record deal…” (obviously I’m paraphrasing)

He’s brought this up before, and I blew him off then. It seems to have resurfaced, though, so I guess I have to consider it. What do you think? On the one hand, fuck that, right? But on the other hand, what do I care what I wear on stage? I mean, he’s not saying I have to wear hipper clothes on my own time, just during shows. And hair is temporary—if I hate it, it’ll grow back. I don’t know…

Kelly came to visit to cheer me up, just for the night; she left Chicago around 7:00 and arrived shortly after I got home from the show and then left this afternoon around 3:00. We had a great time hanging out, and we went to the King & I for lunch, to which I haven’t been in almost a year. She’s such a devoted friend, and I’m really lucky to have her in my life.

I decided to go to the Cardinal’s game tonight, and I tried to round up some people to come with me, but I couldn’t generate any interest. As it turned out, I’m glad I didn’t, because going on my own was amazing. There weren’t any non-single tickets left (standing room only), but there was a single ticket available in the lowest section, 10 rows RIGHT BEHIND HOME PLATE. Totally sweet, totally worth the $66. I mean, I was about twenty yards from the batter’s box. I could see the break of the pitches better than I’ve ever seen it before, and it’s fascinating.

But it gets better than that: when I got there, an older man was sitting in my seat, so I asked him if maybe I’d gotten my seat wrong—turns out he did, his ticket said seat #9, and but he sat in #8; totally no big deal—so after moving, we introduced ourselves. Turns out he’s a scout for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, attending the game to scout out the Cardinal’s pitchers in case they want to make a trade.

Let me be clear: this is a guy (Don something…) in his late sixties who’s spent his entire life in professional baseball. He signed with the Brooklyn (!) Dodgers at age 17 in 1953. Actually, this was a dumb move on his part: he was a shortstop/second baseman, and as anyone who knows anything about baseball knows, the 50’s Dodgers featured Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson—both Hall of Famers—in the middle infield, so Don was stuck in the minor leagues with no chance of breaking into the majors. He could have signed with the St. Louis, Philedelphia, or Baltimore, but his dad was a big Dodgers fan, so…

Anyway, after his playing days were over, he went to San Diego as a coach, and then went into scouting. I could go on and on, but my point is this is the closest I’ve ever been to professional baseball, and it was awesome. This guy has seen it all, he knows ten times more about the game than I’ll ever hope to know, and I just wanted to keep talking to him all night. Every time I asked a question or made an observation, I felt like such a naive, clueless fool, but so what? What a thrilling experience.

Too bad the Cards lost (3-1 to Colorado). Albert broke my heart twice, once in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out, and he popped out, and then again in the ninth with one out and two men on—a double would tie the game, a homer would win it—and he grounded into a game-ending double play. Arrghh.

My god, it’s late. I was going to write about having had a good time hanging out with Ben and Carol Ann after the game, but yo, it’s bedtime.

Posted by alex at 02:39 AM | Comments (2)