Thursday, May 25, 2006

Notes on Sports

Odd as it may seem, the most surprising thing in the sports world to me right now is not the struggles the Pistons are having in the playoffs. It is the fact that the Tigers have the best record in Major League Baseball. Granted, they've only played two games so far against teams in the AL East (home of the Yankees and Red Sox, among others), but they're playing equally well at home and on the road (7 losses each), and to be where they are 46 games into the season is almost shocking. It's almost like '84 again! As my grandpa says, they have essentially the same team as last year--but the new manager seems to be whipping them into shape. You go, Jim Leyland! And go, Tigers! Or, as they used to say in the old days, 'Bless you boys!'

# posted by Eric : 4:17 AM  0 comments (you got somethin' to say about that?)

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Notes on Notes

1. I've recently started downloading some stuff by Songs: Ohia. I'm especially digging the first two tracks off the the 2003 album 'The Magnolia Electric Co'. I also dig the fact that the main dude is from the same town as my maternal gradmother (Lorain, OH).

2. John Fahey has put together an interesting album of early American music. It's called 'American Primitive, vol. 1--Raw Pre-War Gospel 1926-36' and is on the Revenant Records label. I only have three songs from it at the moment: 'I'll Be Rested (When the Roll is Called)', by Blind Roosevelt Graves and Brother (this song is fantastic); 'Oh Death', by Charlie Patton and Bertha Lee; and 'Holy Mountain', by Elder Otis Jones. In this last one, the music stops for a piece mid-song as the elder preaches it from Isaiah. Then the music kicks back in again with energy and verve.

Did I just say 'verve'?

# posted by Eric : 6:18 AM  0 comments (you got somethin' to say about that?)

Blech.

Well, the Pistons beat themselves again last night. I don't want to hear a word about Wade, Shaq, blah, blah, blah. The simple fact of the matter is that the Pistons can't put any points on the board right now. The problem is one of offense, and this was true even in a game in which the Pistons had only 6 turnovers and outplayed Miami on the offensive glass. Yes, they allowed too many points (and easy ones) to secondary players on the Heat, but with a (much) more solid offensive performance, they could still take games such as that. Look at it this way: in any of their last 8 games, by scoring 92 points or more, they win them all--every single one, including all three losses to Cleveland and last night's loss to Miami. They've managed to win 4 games out of those eight, 2 on nights when they've put up points in the mid-90s and up, and 2 without doing it. They're holding teams to fairly low scoring (in spite of Miami's ridiculously high field-goal percentage--75% in the first quarter?!?), but aren't doing much scoring themselves. They haven't, I don't think, broken 86 points since Game 2 of the Cleveland series--and this from a team that averaged somewhere around 97 points per game during the regular season. Come on, boys--it's time to keep up defensive pressure and click that offense into high gear.

# posted by Eric : 6:09 AM  0 comments (you got somethin' to say about that?)

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Notes on Notes

Some stuff that's been rocking my proverbial face:

1. 'Roll on John': Bob Dylan, from the Smithsonian Folkways Various Artists album There Is No Eye: Music for Photographs.

2. Summer in Abaddon: Pinback. I've been kind of out of the loop, so I didn't realize Pinback had come out with a new album a couple years ago. I'm not sure what the significance of the album title is for the album or the band, but 'summer in hell' certainly does not sound pleasant, with its 'hotter than hot' connotations, etc. The first track reminds me of their last album, and the rest strikes me as a little different.

3. 'Sinner's Prayer': BB Kind and Ray Charles, from the Genius Loves Company album.

4. 'If I Needed You': Townes Van Zandt and Emmylou Harris, from Texas Rain. I really dig Townes Van Zandt, and Emmylou's voice is about enough to break your heart. Other great Emmylou duets with dudes: 'Gulf Coast Highway' with Willie Nelson; 'Oh My Sweet Carolina' with Ryan Adams.

5. Anything by Matt Pond PA. Seriously. Anything. Especially The Nature of Maps.

6. Lucinda Williams' version of 'Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor', from the Ramblin' album.

# posted by Eric : 3:06 PM  4 comments (you got somethin' to say about that?)

What Neil Diamond Song Are You?

Apparently, I'm 'Coming to America'.

By the way, the HTML won't work right for this. Sorry.


What Neil Diamond Song Are You?

Coming To America

Click Here to Take This Quiz
Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.


# posted by Eric : 2:58 PM  0 comments (you got somethin' to say about that?)

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Computer Question

Hey everybody--I just saw on nba.com/video that you can download NBA playoff games for cheap from Google, but when I try clicking on it, Google tells me it's not available in my location. Does anyone know anything about this? Is it always impossible to download their stuff then not in the U.S.? Is there a legal way to do it through a proxy or anything?

# posted by Eric : 4:33 PM  2 comments (you got somethin' to say about that?)

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Kobe Bryant Vocabulary Quiz Game

From an article on Yahoo! Sports:
Bryant was tossed by referee Leon Wood after complaining that a hard foul against Brown should have been called flagrant.

"He didn't like my toneage, if that's a word." Bryant said. "He's the decider. Is that a word, decider?"

# posted by Eric : 6:10 AM  0 comments (you got somethin' to say about that?)

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