Shuffle #89 (July 8, 2016)

No Future In Your Eyes – Ace

Rockit – Herbie Hancock

Lovely Day – Bill Withers

Dedicated To The One I Love – The Shirelles

It’s Different For Girls – Joe Jackson

Can’t Hold Us – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Carmelita – Warren Zevon

Gypsy Queen (Part One) – Gypsy

Like The Weather – 10,000 Maniacs

Email, Email, Email …

Comey’s extraordinary remarks (usual excellent take from Post columnist Ruth Marcus)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-comeys-remarks-on-the-clinton-email-case-were-extraordinary/2016/07/05/b964813c-42e0-11e6-8856-f26de2537a9d_story.html

 

The email lesson for Ms. Clinton (Post editorial)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/clinton-was-extremely-careless-that-is-not-a-crime-but-she-must-do-better-in-the-future/2016/07/05/d85ba064-42d8-11e6-8856-f26de2537a9d_story.html

 

Question to ponder: if FBI Director James Comey decided to run for President and somehow managed to get on the ballot in all 50 states, how well would he do?

July 5, 2016 – Brewers 5, Nationals 2 – Nationals Park

http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/188086618/hill-davies-lead-brewers-to-win-over-nats/

 

Attendance: 25,138

Game Time: 2:52

Weather: 89 degrees, partly cloudy

Wind: 7 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Jeff Nelson, First Base - Greg Gibson, Second Base - Nic Lentz, Third Base - Cory Blaser

 

Highlights – it didn’t rain … Nats did get 12 hits … traffic both down and back was better than usual … had a good time despite the quality of baseball (see below)

 

Other – shoddy fielding, questionable base-running, gopher-prone pitching, very little clutch hitting (Brewers lefty Will Smith came in to fan Harper with 2 out and the bases loaded in the seventh) … only 25,000 folks were interested in the Bryce Harper Chia Pet giveaway … humidity increased steadily as the game went on

Comic of the Day #3 – July 6, 2016

Big Nate – “Honor Roll Kids And Bumper Stickers”

 

http://www.gocomics.com/bignate/2016/07/06

July 3, 2016 – Nationals 12, Reds 1 – Nationals Park

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/187685716/espinosa-strasburg-lead-nats-rout-of-reds

 

Attendance: 37,328

Game Time: 3:08

Weather: 75 degrees, cloudy

Wind: 1 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Adrian Johnson, First Base - Ramon DeJesus, Second Base - Gary Cederstrom, Third Base - Eric Cooper

Seventh-inning stretch song: Can’t Stop The Feeling – Justin Timberlake

 

Highlights – in his return from the DL, Strasburg pitched 6 ⅔ hitless innings … Nats tied team record with 6 homers in the game, starting with a Wilson Ramos solo shot in the second … for the second time in 4 games, Danny Espinosa hit homers from each side of the plate, including a grand slam each time, totaling 15 RBI for the series (2 short of the major league record)

 

Other – was hot in the sun initially despite the mild temp, overcast and muggy later, with some light rain the last couple innings and on the way home … we arrived prior to the gates opening, beating most of the traffic and in time to get autograph vouchers (Rivero and Solis) … cheesesteak was better than I expected

Mary Chapin Carpenter w/ The Milk Carton Kids – Wolf Trap, 7/2/2016

Row J, Seat 33 (almost dead center)

 

It was encouraging to see Mary Chapin Carpenter come on to the stage Saturday evening with four bandmates, including longtime mainstays Jon Carroll and Don Dixon. She quickly confirmed that the energetic Chapin of yesteryear was back, starting with the two most upbeat songs from her latest album (“Map Of My Heart” and “Something Tamed Something Wild”) and following those with “Passionate Kisses” and “Shut Up And Kiss Me”. My personal favorite “Stones In The Road” followed. The stretch of more contemplative material that came next was a little long and might have been better broken into two pieces, but she picked things up again with “I Feel Lucky” and “The Bug” (which I don’t recall her performing in quite a while), before concluding the main set with “The Hard Way”.

 

The crowd seemed to fill most of the lower level at least of the house, although its energy level didn’t match that of the headliner; almost no one rose for the initial encore (“He Thinks He’ll Keep Her”), and she had to coax everyone to stand for “Down At The Twist And Shout”. Perhaps getting the message, she decided to do a solo acoustic version of the title track from her 2016 CD The Things That We Are Made Of to send everyone home.

 

Setlist

 

The Milk Carton Kids, a new personal favorite of mine, contributed an equally fine 45-minute opening set. With two guys, two acoustic guitars, and one microphone, the comparisons to early (pre-electric) Simon & Garfunkel are quite apt, with some great between-songs banter (particularly prior to “Charlie”) that does bring to mind the Smothers Brothers. I especially enjoyed “Monterey”, “The Ash & Clay”, and “The City Of Our Lady”, but there really wasn’t a weak spot in the entire 9-song set, and the vast majority of the crowd was both attentive and appreciative throughout.

 

Setlist 

Serendipity #61

Young Folks – Peter Bjorn & John

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIRE6iw-ws4

Heard 7/2/2016 around 12:00, at Roti (Pike & Rose)

Owen Danoff w/ Mike Schiavo, The Hamilton, 6/30/2016

Table for 8, left-center, about halfway back (good view)

 

The previous two times I had seen Owen Danoff perform in person, it had just been him and his acoustic guitar, so I was somewhat surprised Thursday evening when he came out with four bandmates for his sold-out “homecoming” show at The Hamilton. It totally worked, however, as there really wasn’t a weak spot in the entire 90-minute set, whether they were doing old favorites (such as the opening “Hometown Headstone”, “Amsterdam”, and “Have I Ever Fallen”), newer tunes (“No Such Thing” and the soon-to-be-released “Love On Your Side”), or a few well-chosen covers (including Death Cab for Cutie’s “I Will Follow You Into The Dark”). The band was top-notch throughout, adding a touch of rock snarl to songs such as “See This Through”. Danoff provided some variety by going back to his solo acoustic roots for several songs midway through his set, including “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right” (which he had used as his audition for The Voice). He wound things up with a great take on “Alexander Hamilton” (from that musical you might have heard of) and crowd favorite “Never Been Kissed”.

 

Given his superlative songwriting, singing, improved confidence, and band, Danoff is now the complete package, with a show that can play anywhere. With any luck, he’ll be able to leverage the visibility and contacts he got from his appearances on The Voice into the stardom that he clearly deserves. (Hint to Adam Levine: how about an opening slot on the next Maroon 5 tour?)

 

Fellow Voice contestant (and Danoff roommate) Mike Schiavo opened with a 40-minute solo set of mostly original material (although he did include an interesting cover of Tove Lo’s “Talking Body”). Best of luck to him as well, although for me his songs aren’t nearly as strong as Owen’s. Of course, you could say that about a lot of people these days.

June 29, 2016 – Nationals 4, Mets 2 – Nationals Park

http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/186989444/scherzer-murphy-lead-nats-to-sweep-of-mets

 

Attendance: 33,386

Game Time: 3:01

Weather: 80 degrees, clear

Wind: 7 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Alfonso Marquez, First Base - Larry Vanover, Second Base - David Rackley, Third Base - Chris Guccione

 

Highlights – Scherzer fanned 10, only allowed 2 hits, and pitched shutout ball into the eighth … Murphy continued to torment his former teammates, kicking off the scoring with a solo HR in the second and providing some welcome insurance with a 2-run blast in the bottom of the eighth

 

Other – not as historic a performance as the last time we car-pooled down on a Wednesday to see one of Max's starts, but traffic was (somewhat) better, I was able to use my 2-For-1-Nats-Dogs coupon, and the weather was perfect

Paul Simon – Wolf Trap, 6/27/2016

Row J, Seat 45

 

This was one of the rare Wolf Trap shows that started somewhat late (about 8:15), perhaps because much of the crowd still wasn’t seated by 8:00. Since there was no opening act and no intermission, it really didn’t matter, as he did pretty much the same 130-minute set as in previous tour stops. The audience enthusiasm level seemed higher than at some Filene Center shows, with everyone spontaneously rising when the band started “Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard” relatively early in the show, and later on several other occasions, most notably “You Can Call Me Al” (which closed the main set). We also provided great “lie-la-lies” for the chorus of “The Boxer”, if I do say so myself.

 

Simon was in fine form throughout, both vocally and with his whistling on “Rewrite” and “Julio”. I was a little surprised that he wasn’t wearing a cap, which seemed to have been always present when I had seen him on TV. He actually has a compelling stage presence, particularly when he wasn’t playing guitar; he’s definitely of the “less is more” school of movement, but his gestures were very effective, reminding me more of crooners than of typical rock stars. (He also contributed some awkwardly endearing white-boy dance moves on an extended version of the zydeco-flavored “That Was Your Mother”, which was one of the high points of the show.)

 

His 9-piece band was also great, although unfortunately he never introduced them; I don’t think you can apply unless you play at least three different instruments. Many of the songs were re-arranged at least slightly from their studio versions to spotlight various band members.

 

The songs ranged from early Simon & Garfunkel classics such as “Boxer” and “Homeward Bound” through three tracks from his latest album Stranger to Stranger (the title track, “The Werewolf”, and initial single “Wristband”, which was the first of seven encore songs). Despite the excellent work by the band, some of the best moments were during the ballads, with my favorite being Simon’s poignant solo version of “American Tune” to end the evening. If you haven’t gone back and listened to that one in a while, you really should.

 

Setlist