F The Yankees!!

It's Christmas and I shouldn't have anything to complain about. More than that I just shouldn't be complaining this time of year. But when the Red Sox let not only the best hitter available, but arguably the best hitter in baseball, go to the Yankees I will complain about it. Bob Ryan says that the deal was "eminent" with the Red Sox. He was getting ready to start writing his article about Texiera and how great of a fit he will be with the Red Sox. How this deal keeps the Red Sox on par with the Yankees and all their winter workings. Then the worst happens...he signs with the one team you secretly wish would fly their plane into a small mountain or into a volcano. It is having your presents sitting under the tree for a couple days only to have your parents, on Christmas morning, tell you that the presents are for your rich neighbor that always has it a little nicer than you...or something like that.
Last night I wasn't devastated about the deal, or lack of deal. I tried to make the most of it. "With Youkilis and Lowell healthy, who needs a guy like Texiera." and "Give me our staff and pen any day of the week...Lester, Beckett, Dice-K, Masterson, the kid who threw the no-hitter at Fenway and nothing else since (I will not say or write his name until he does something worth mentioning...or just throws his fastball for a strike), Delcarmen, Miguel Gonzalez, and Paplebon. Fat CC will be a good pitcher, but give Lester, Burnett says he knows how to pitch now...ha! I am not worried. His numbers allow me "not to worry".

It would be easy to blame Red Sox management. Apparently, 1.5 million a year was the margin that kept the Red Sox from signing Texiera. I understand, to an extent, taking a stand and saying, "no that is all we will pay". But in the world of baseball 1.5 million a year is the equivalent to a weeks worth of lunch money. We will have 162 chances to resent this during the season. We will have 19 chances to watch and pray that Texiera doesn't single handedly destroy the Red Sox.
Even though this deal gives me a cold sweat and makes me a little nauseous, I can't wait until the baseball season starts. Being a Red Sox fan, you have had years to appreciate the "underdog" title (with all due respect to the Pirates and the Royals and the Marlins fans). We haven't been one for a few years now...until today. Thank God for Direct TV. This will allow me to watch all the games this year...to add informed commentary. A root equally for the Red Sox and against the Yankees. It will be a fun year. The AL East will be a bear. 3 teams that could win 95 games. 19 games head to head. Should be pretty great.
I can't lie though, I am devastated!!

If I Completely Forget About An Album Does It Mean I Really Liked It?...It Doesn't Mean I Didn't Like It!

Is an album really your favorite if you completely forget about it?
The Tallest Man On Earth-Shallow Grave
Maybe its not my favorite, but it's in the top five
I am putting it in my list
FORGIVE ME!

Also
The Walkman- You and Me is better than I gave it credit for
The Walkman [mp3] New Country

I am also adding Titus Androndicus because it was awesome and it was stupid of me to forget them
I also liked Times New Viking

They are now added to the list.

Pearl Jam Reissuing Ten

Pearl Jam is reissuing Ten in 4 different forms. It comes out March 24th which is so far away it doesn't even really count. Although it will be here before we realize Christmas happened.

The most basic of these Ten reissues is called the Legacy Edition. It features one CD with the original album remastered and another CD with the album both remastered and remixed by producer Brendan O'Brien. The second disc also includes six bonus tracks: "Brother", "Just a Girl", "State of Love and Trust", "Breath and a Scream", "2,000 Mile Blues", and "Evil Little Goat".

The Deluxe Edition has everything in the Legacy Edition but expands upon it by including a DVD featuring Pearl Jam's "MTV Unplugged" performance from 1992. The "Unplugged" show has never been commercially released before, and this DVD includes a performance of "Oceans" that was never aired.

Then there's the Vinyl Collection edition of the reissue, which is like the Legacy Edition without the bonus tracks and on vinyl: one LP with the original Ten remastered and one LP with Ten remastered and remixed by Brendan O'Brien.

Finally, there's the mother lode: the Super Deluxe Edition. This one collects everything in the Deluxe Edition and the Vinyl Collection but adds a couple very important things: a live set recorded at Seattle's Magnuson Park from September 20, 1992 called Drop in the Park on two vinyl LPs, and a replica of "Momma-Son", Pearl Jam's original demo cassette featuring "Alive", "Once", and "Footsteps". The package also includes a recreation of Vedder's composition notebook with replica notes, images, and other rare memorabilia.

Winning Takes A Little Patience, Not $160 Million (Yankees Suck!!)

I like what is going on in baseball right now. The Winter Meetings are taking place and agents are talking to players and owners and GMs about big signings. The big names out there, Francisco Rodriguez, Mark Texiera, Manny Ramirez, CC Sabathia, all will get huge pay days. Big name teams all bidding for these guys; the Red Sox, the Dodgers, the Mets, and the Yankees. I find the most humor in the Yankees, though. They desperately want to be the team that breeds their talent in their farm system. The Rays are the best example of this. They aren't necessarily doing it as a strategy as much as they are out of necessity. When you pack 13,000 a night into your shitty stadium you have no money for the big name free agents. They want to rely on Chamberlain and Hughes, but they don't have the patience...or maybe they just don't have the scouts to recognize "can't miss talent". They overcompensate for these defficencies (lack of patience, bad scouting, lack of team chemistry) by over paying for "talent". Carl Pavano, Bobby Abreu to name two. They are the fat kid who is paying to have friends. They are a collection of great talent that will not win. The Yankees are not a team, but a mirage that big "names" go to, to get paid and when they get there they realize the fucked up; that the pressure was too much for them to handle and they realize they should have stayed in Milwaukee or in Oakland or in Kansas City.
Sabathia will be the same as the rest of them. He is getting 7 years 160 million, which really is 4 years 160 million because no one can expect him to be effective for 7 years. He is 28 and throws more pitches than anyone in baseball. He has never won 20 games. He got hot last year...very hot...in the National League, not the American League. I expect him to be a good pitcher for the Yankees next year. He won't be great. He is a hired gun who might not think its necessary to throw 9 hard innings anymore. With that kind of pay day it doesn't really matter.

Favorite Albums of 2008

By the end of the year I try to compile a list of my favorite albums released this year. It is hard to think back to January and February and the albums released then. I always seem to forget a couple here and there. I rate them on a couple criteria.
1) When I bought the album did I listen to it over and over and have a hard time listening to anything else. This could be skewed if another good album was released simultaneously. This is not a scientific study though so I don't even think about things being skewed.
2) Could I put this album in 3 months later and still enjoy it. Some albums have not been out for 3 months so do not qualify. I have the ability though, to see into the future and I can tell if I will like the album in 3 months. The ability to see into the future only pertains to deterimining if I will like an album in 3 months. It is disappointing that "the gift" doesn't work for anything else...
So hear is the list. In reverse order...to build up to the suspense of #1...
My Favorite Albums of 2008
14. Times New Viking-Rip It Off
13. The Dodos-Visiter
12. My Morning Jacket- Evil Urges
11. Ryan Adams and The Cardinals- Cardinology
10. She and Him- Volume One
9. Sigur Ros-
**Titus Androndicus-The Airing Of Grievances
8. The Walkmen- You and Me
7. Sun Kil Moon- April
6. The Mountain Goats- Satanic Messiah EP
5. Conor Oberst- Conor Oberst
4. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks- REal Emotional Trash
3. Frightened Rabbit- The Midnight Organ Fight
**The Tallest Man On Earth-Shallow Grave
2. Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes
2. Okkervil River- The Stand Ins
1. Wolf Parade- At Mount Zoomer

There you have it. Probably forgot something in there. Think Beach House came out this year and I enjoyed that album. Haven't listened to some of the albums on other peoples top 50 lists. I see Bon Iver on there quite a bit and should probably see what the fuss is all about. Forgot about Bonnie Prince Billy. I liked Lie Down in the Light. Don't know if it would make this prestigious list or not...

Ben Stein is the Commissioner of The Christmas Season

I can only hope we find God again before it is too late!!



The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning

Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees.. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a crïeche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK..

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talkin g about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is i n.


My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

Ten is still better than any album fools are making today

I can't figure out if this has just been a terrible year for music or if my age is catching up to me. I wonder if I have become the person that feels new music has no relevance and that everything is beginning to sound the same. There hasn't been one album this year that has had me waiting outside a music store for the doors to open.
Last year had Iron and Wine, Band of Horses, The National, Beirut, The Weakerthans, Spoon...Handsome Furs...and on and on. This year has nothing that has interested me for more than a second. Okkervil River Stand-Ins is probably as good as it got this year and that is not bad. I liked the album a lot. I liked it more than Stage Names...
I liked Sigur Ros but you can only listen to that so many times before your brain needs to hear real words. I don't exactly know what I am waiting for, but I am waiting for something.
It was much easier when my expectations soley lay with Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and Radiohead. There are so many more bands to choose from. All the choices have watered down everything. Go back and listen to Ten or Vitology or Tiny Music or Pablo Honey. I liked it when things weren't so complicated. The music was amazing and you didn't have to think about why you liked it. It was just great.
What are you listening to all that other stuff anyway. You should be listening to Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole right now. Where are your priorities and sense of the Christmas season.
In unrelated news here is our christmas tree. We now have a glowing angel on top so add thatto what you are looking at.