Regardless
of all the crap these guys got about beating out Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Kanye,
and Jay-Z for Best Rap Album, this song has one of the great anthem-type
choruses of the century. (They also deserve credit for “Same Love”, and “Thrift
Shop” is kind of fun if you stick to the version edited for radio airplay.) I
fully expect it to be played at sporting events as long as, say, “Seven Nation
Army”, and hopefully long after the powers that be mercifully retire the
woefully-overplayed “Mammy Blue”.
Thursday, October 20, 2016
How to address the post-election anger
Great column
by the always-thoughtful E.J. Dionne Jr. about how we need “to understand why
Trump happened and to face up to how failures on the left and center-left have
contributed to the flourishing of a new far right…”
Friday, October 14, 2016
October 13, 2016 (NLDS Game 5) – Dodgers 4, Nationals 3 – Nationals Park
Attendance: 43,936
Game Time: 4:32 (!)
Weather: 67 degrees, clear
Wind: 11 mph
Umpires: Home Plate - Jeff Kellogg, First
Base - Manny Gonzalez, Second Base - Dan Bellino, Third Base - Chris Guccione,
Left Field - Ron Kulpa, Right Field - Tom Hallion
Seventh-inning stretch song: We’re Not Gonna
Take It – Twisted Sister
Highlights – Nats took a quick lead in the
bottom of the second, when Murphy singled, stole second, and scored on an
Espinosa single … Max held LA scoreless until the seventh, pitching out of a
bases-loaded jam in the fifth … after the Dodgers took the lead with 4 in the
top of the seventh, the Nats rallied after the stretch, cutting the lead to one
on a leadoff walk by Espinosa and a pinch-HR by Chris Heisey
Lowlights – in the bottom of the sixth with
two outs, Nats 3rd-base coach Bob Henley attempted to score Jayson
Werth from first on a Zimmerman double (He was out. By a lot.) … Scherzer’s
only pitch in the seventh was hit out of the park by Joc Pederson … 5 Nats
relievers (!) allowed 3 more runs before the inning was over, keyed by a pinch
RBI single by Carlos Ruiz and a two-run triple by Justin Turner … LA put closer
Kenley Jansen in the game with one on and none out in the bottom of the seventh
… after Jansen walked two in the bottom of the ninth, Clayton Kershaw came in
after pitching into the seventh inning two days earlier to retire Murphy and
last-man-standing Wilmer Difo to end Washington’s season, losing yet another
first-round series despite having home-field advantage
Other – Livan Hernandez got a nice round of
applause for throwing out the first pitch … in typical Nats fashion, they ran
out of paper towels in one of the men’s rooms before the game even started, and
ran out of pizza on the upper level in the fifth inning … we all booed the “last
call” announcement for Metro in protest of WMATA’s decision not to extend the
midnight closing time … game lasted 45 minutes longer than September’s
Springsteen concert … getting out of DC seemed to take forever; it was past 2am
when we finally got back to Westat
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
The GOP’s venomous charlatan
Very seldom
am I a fan of George Will’s political columns (as opposed to his baseball
columns, which are fantastic), but I did enjoy this one.
Question: Is
DJT on his way to taking down more people along with him than anyone since
Samson? (Please forgive me for mixing Trump and a Biblical reference in the
same sentence.)
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
#131 Home Is Where The Hatred Is – Gil Scott-Heron (1971)
Although I’d
heard a few Gil Scott-Heron cuts (“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”, “Johannesburg”)
back when they came out, I didn’t become aware of this one until Kanye sampled
it for “My Way Home” on his Late Registration
album. (In case you’re wondering, I bought that album because another one of
its tracks, “Hey Mama”, sampled “Today Won’t Come Again,” by folk
singer-songwriter and WAMA Hall-of-Famer Donal Leace.)
Shuffle #93 (October 11, 2016)
Rocket Love –
Stevie Wonder
Black And
Blue – The Secret Sisters
Dreams –
Fleetwood Mac
America –
Simon & Garfunkel
Tobacco Road
– Lou Rawls
I’m The One
Who Loves You – The Impressions
When My Time
Comes – Dawes
Love (Makes
Me Do Foolish Things) – Martha & The Vandellas
Monday, October 10, 2016
October 9, 2016 (NLDS Game 2) – Nationals 5, Dodgers 2 – Nationals Park
Attendance: 43,826
Game Time: 3:55
Weather: 62 degrees, sunny
Wind: 8 mph
Umpires: Home Plate - Chris Guccione, First
Base - Ron Kulpa, Second Base - Tom Hallion, Third Base - Jeff Kellogg, Left
Field - Manny Gonzalez, Right Field - Dan Bellino
Seventh-inning stretch song: Jump – Van Halen
Highlights – Nats catcher Jose Lobaton turned
the game and series around with a 3-run homer in the bottom of the fourth
(after ending an earlier bases-loaded threat with an inning-ending double play
and dropping a throw at the plate as LA scored its second run) … Daniel Murphy
had 3 hits and a walk, driving in insurance runs in the fifth and seventh …
Trea had two singles, a stolen base, and a run scored … Roark was not at his
best but limited the damage to 2 runs in 4.1 innings … 5 Nats relievers blanked
the Dodgers on 1 hit the rest of the way
Other – first inning was déjà vu all over
again, as Seager hit a solo homer for LA and all 3 Nats batters fanned in the
bottom of the frame … enjoyed an early lunch at the “Budweiser Brew House”
(fish tacos, pizza, wings, hot cider, and hot chocolate) … the sun made it
surprisingly comfortable during the game in the upper level, despite windy
conditions on the field … not sure whether official crowd figure counted the
many pigeons that decided to attend … our chauffeur won the Designated Driver
of the Game drawing; we all chuckled when his prize turned out to be a Nationals
beer stein … game was originally scheduled for Saturday, but they decided to
postpone it about 5 minutes after we arrived (we had expected a delayed start
but not a postponement)
Saturday, October 8, 2016
October 7, 2016 (NLDS Game 1) – Dodgers 4, Nationals 3 – Nationals Park
Attendance: 43,915
Game Time: 3:46
Weather: 72 degrees, partly cloudy
Wind: 7 mph
Umpires: Home Plate - Dan Bellino, First
Base - Chris Guccione, Second Base - Ron Kulpa, Third Base - Tom Hallion, Left
Field - Jeff Kellogg, Right Field - Manny Gonzalez
Seventh-inning stretch song: You Shook Me
All Night Long – AC/DC
Section 305, Row E, Seats 21-23 (our seats
for all home NL playoff games) – same level as usual but 3 sections away (about
halfway down the left-field line) … only 2 seats away from the aisle, making
the relocation a reasonably good trade-off
Highlights – injured catcher Wilson Ramos
threw out the first pitch, as Livan Hernandez was unable to make it up from
Florida due to Hurricane Matthew … after falling into an early 4-0 hole against
LA ace Clayton Kershaw, the Nats got a 2-run single in the third by Rendon
(following a Harper double, Werth walk, and a double steal), and got one more
back the next inning, when Pedro Severino doubled, advanced to third on a
Scherzer ground out, and scored on Turner’s sac fly … Scherzer (who went 6), Solis,
and Melancon blanked the Dodgers over the final 6 innings
Other – Max gave up a solo homer to Corey
Seager in the first, and 3 more runs in the top of the third, keyed by a 2-run
Justin Turner shot … Nats got plenty of hits off Kershaw, but only one with a
runner in scoring position … Espinosa fanned in each of his 3 at-bats, with 2
men on each time … Nats managed only 1 hit in 5 innings off the LA bullpen … Metro
acquitted itself well in both directions (although on the way back we just
missed getting on a crowded Red Line train that was waiting as we arrived) …
getting out of the park after the game (at the same time with 40,000+ other
folks) took forever, as our experiment of taking the left field ramp was not a
great success
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Rod Temperton
According to
the BBC story above, British songwriter/producer/musician Rod Temperton “was
nicknamed The Invisible Man because of his low profile”. No kidding – I’m not
sure he even got his 15 minutes of fame, in spite of writing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”
and a couple big hits for James Ingram, as well as the tracks listed below. I
did mention him earlier on my blog, since he also wrote one of my all-time
favorite songs (which unfortunately is even more obscure than he is).
Favorite
songs:
Rock With
You
Off The Wall
Sweet
Freedom
Always And
Forever
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
What’s really behind Trump’s appeal
Nice column
by Chris Cillizza, elaborating on Chris Matthews’ take on the subject
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