VAGUE SPACE

Basso, Ullrich Gone

What the fuck?!!!  I wake up this morning to find this news...  Jan Ullrich, Oscar Sevilla, and team manager Rudy Pevenage kicked out of the Tour by Team T-Mobile for links to the Spanish doping scandal, and then later heavy favorite Ivan Basso removed by Team CSC.  Unfuckingbelievable.  I don't even know what to say.  So far 31 names have been revealed in Operation Puerto and will not be partaking in the Tour de France - which starts tomorrow - or in any other cycling event any time soon.  In addition to Ullrich and Basso, other contenders who are linked include Francisco Mancebo, Joseba Beloki, and just about the entire Astana-Wurth team of Alexander Vinokourov, except for Vino, who remains clear to race at the moment (although without any teammates).  There's upwards of 56 names linked in this scandal, so it is possible that more names will come out later today.

I have no idea what this means for the race that begins tomorrow.  Or for the future of cycling.  They are trying to clean up the sport for once and for all, but they tried this back in 1999 during the Team Festina scandal but obviously it didn't rid the sport of doping.  All it did for me was take out a couple of people that I recognized to root for.  I'm not saying that if Basso and Ullrich are guilty that they should be allowed to ride.  But this just sucks.  It puts a huge hit into my interest in this year's race. 

Who's going to win now?  I have no idea.  No one does.  Rising Spanish star Alejandro Valverde may be the new favorite, along with the Russians like Vino and Menchov, and the American contingent just went from podium contenders to champion contention.  Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, and even George Hincapie could walk away with an 8th straight victory for the United States.  And that would be amazing.  No one's going to be happy for the next 2 weeks though.  This is just too huge a blow to the sport.

Don't Call it a Comeback

Quietly - so quietly that I don't think they've been mentioned by this blog this season - my 2nd favorite baseball team has squeaked into the pennant race, now only three games out in the American League West.  The Mariners are at .500 this deep into a season for the first time since 2003, back when they used to be good in the pre-Bavasi years.  I expected just about nothing from them this season, almost hoping for a collapse that would have fired the entire management regime, from waste-of-life GM Bill Bavasi to asleep-at-the-wheel manager Mike Hargrove and hopefully all the way up to president Howard Lincoln, who hired these stiffs.  And while things started out as predicted with a dreadful end of April and entirety of May, the combination of a weak division and a monster June have at the very least delayed any bloodletting and the team - despite just a .500 record - has already surpassed my wildest dreams.  Bravo, M's.  Bravo.

Le Tour de France

It's back...  Starting Saturday with the Prologue through the streets of Stradsbourg (what is that in, Germany?  Austria?  France?  I don't have the energy to look it up, but I'm certain it's in Europe), the 2006 Tour de France is set to begin.  And I've never been more excited about the race since Lance Armstrong turned it into an annual search for 2nd place.  The route heads north for the first week, through each of the three countries known collectively as Benelux, before heading across France, down into the mountains of the Pyrenees, and ending in the French Alps.  The course seems to be fairly easy, at least compared to other years, with less mountain finishes and less mountain passes overall, including the skipping of the famed Mont Ventoux.  L'Alpe d'Huez is there though, on a brutal Stage 15 that may be the deciding day of the grueling event.  And like last year, there is a final Time Trial on the penultimate day of the Tour, a 56km Individual TT that may play a major factor in the overall standings (or at least a bigger factor than when Lance coasted to victory in 2005).  There is no Team Time Trial for the first time in a while, and that will be a major factor as well, as riders from weaker teams will not be hurt as in previous years.  But the biggest question, the most wide open one of all, is who will be wearing Yellow at the end?

First Half Music Review

2006 has been a slow year in terms of good new indie rock music in my opinion, but there's still been a number of quality releases.  I was expecting a lot, with new albums from Grandaddy (their final release), Mogwai, Morrissey, Built to Spill, Calexico, Belle & Sebastien, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Cat Power.  Not only were those releases rather hit-and-miss but there's been a dearth of new artists' albums that I've purchased and been impressed with this year.  Last year it seemed like we were overflowing with Wolf Parades and Okkervil Rivers and The Nationals.  But for better or worse, I've spent much of the last two weeks listening to The Replacements latest Best-Of collection, which includes a bunch of songs over 20 years old.  Not good times.  Anyway, here's the list of my favorite albums of the year so far...

1. Mogwai - Mr. Beast
2. Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I am Dreaming
3. Grandaddy - Just Like the Fambly Cat
4.  Built to Spill - You in Reverse
5. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy Appendix
6. Bright Eyes - Motion Sickness
7. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
8. Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors
9. Birdmonster - No Midnight
10. Jose Gonzalez - Veneer

Sleepy Music

Sleeping is giving in, no matter what the time is.
Sleeping is giving in, so lift those heavy eyelids.

People say that you'll die, faster than without water.
But we know it's just a lie, scare your son, scare your daughter.

People say that your dreams are the only things that save you.
Come on baby in our dreams, we can live our misbehavior.

Every time you close your eyes (lies, lies)
Every time you close your eyes (lies, lies)
Every time you close your eyes

People try and hide the night, underneath the covers.
People try and hide the light, underneath the covers.
Come on hide your lovers, underneath the covers,
Come on hide your lovers, underneath the covers,
Hide 'em from your brothers, underneath the covers,
Come on hide your lovers, underneath the covers.

People say that you'll die, faster than without water.
But we know it's just a lie, scare your son scare your daughter.

Now here's the sun, it's alright (lies, lies)
Now here's the moon, it's alright (lies, lies)
Every time you close your eyes (lies, lies)
Every time you close your eyes (lies, lies)
Every time you close your eyes...
Lies, lies.

In recent days, I've found myself dreaming of sleeping -- like just being able to lie in bed with the rain outside, under the covers, and not have to worry about waking up and doing a million stupid things like going to work.  These songs are not songs to fall asleep to, rather they are songs about sleep.  And that's all I can think about these days.

• Download Arcade Fire - "Rebellion (Lies)".mp3
• Download Pavement - "Fillmore Jive".mp3
• Download My Bloody Valentine - "When You Sleep".mp3
• Download Stars - "Sleep Tonight".mp3
• Download Belle & Sebastien - "Sleep the Clock Around".mp3
• Download Sondre Lerche - "Sleep on Needles".mp3
• Download The Album Leaf - "Asleep".mp3
• Download The Magnetic Fields - "Asleep and Dreaming".mp3
• Download Explosions in the Sky - "With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept".mp3

2 Weeks in 2 Posts Part 2

(aka "Rather Ripped", or "Don't drink so fucking much when you're in your mid-'30s")...continued from yesterday's post... we're up to Tuesday a week ago in the "adventure"...

Tuesday night we went to the Yankees game, which was pretty good. The traffic getting to the Stadium wasn’t bad at all, the seats were excellent (if prohibitively expensive – F Steinbrenner), and except on the first level, the concourses weren’t as excessively crowded and stench-filled as usual. I ate a foot-long, some fries, and half a nachos grande, which including some sort of liquefied “meat” product that tasted pretty good, but played predictable havoc with my stomach. I think Rob’s still sick to this day. The Yankees ended up winning, which pretty much ruined the evening, and I didn’t get back until after midnight. Again.

2 Weeks in 2 Posts

This site has been admittedly lacking in what I would describe as new and interesting material in recent weeks, for a variety of reasons that all come down to a single one… I’ve been too damn busy to post. At least 3/4^th of my writing on this site is related to television and music and I haven’t seen a single new television episode besides Entourage in 2 weeks and haven’t listened to a single new album besides Sonic Youth’s rather impressive Rather Ripped. I haven’t been to the movies in forever, haven’t had a moment to catalog any best-of lists from the ‘80s, and certainly haven’t had any time to create some semi-hilarious scenario involving my friends and a poker game. Plus you know, being so busy kind of makes me too busy to post. So there’s that.

Tonight is the first night that I’ve been able to spend entirely at home since Thursday a week ago, which certainly seems like a long time ago. My house is in deep desperate need of a cleaning, the weeds in my garden have successfully waged a war with the mulch I’d buried them under, and that odor in my kitchen from the combination of heat, humidity, bad turkey, and neglect is not something I wish to ever encounter again. I’m trying to look for a new job, I’m supposed to be training for a 5k, and at some point I’d actually like to open the Netflix packages that have been sitting on my coffee table since Mother’s Day, but alas, things have been more than a little crazy. And what have I learned from the past two weeks of insanity? Sleep is a very valuable thing that is really, really missed when it’s really missed; there is such a thing as too much alcohol; and most importantly, do not drink milk that’s been sitting out on the counter all night because you were too drunk and tired to remember to place it into the refrigerator even though you weren’t too drunk and tired to remember to stop at the WaWa and pick it up less than two minutes earlier. That, really, is a lesson for everyone.

New Music Tuesday

Off their second album News & Tributes, released last week, here is the lead single from the U.K. rockers The Futureheads and their engaging "classic" new-wave sound.  Better than Franz Ferdinand and The Killers and all of those indie pop wave artists streaming from Britain these days.

• Download The Futureheads - "Skip to the End".mp3

And this is the lead track off that album...

• Download The Futureheads - "Yes/No".mp3

Off their latest album, also released last week, here are Glasgow's pop sextet Camera Obscura with a couple tracks from Let's Get Out of This Country.

• Download Camera Obscura - "Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken".mp3
• Download Camera Obscura - "Country Mile".mp3

And the latest from Sonic Youth, the rather brilliant Rather Ripped, which features some of the best Kim Gordon I've heard in over a decade, and the always spectacular Thurston Moore.

• Download Sonic Youth - "Incinerate".mp3
• Download Sonic Youth - "Pink Steam".mp3

State of the Phillies

The Good News:  The Atlanta Braves are 30-39 and in dead last in the National League East, behind the completely rebuilding Marlins and perennial doormat Montr Washington.

The Bad News:  Everything else.

Finally - finally - after a dozen years of dominating the division, the Braves have fallen apart, mostly in the area of their greatest strength - pitching - and find themselves 13 1/2 games out of first place.  Unfortunately, the Phillies find themselves looking up at another foe, a familiar one just up the Turnpike, through a few ghettos and sewers and past an airport to the Dump known as Shea Stadium, where the New York Mets have played themselves into the best record in the National League, while the Phillies have played themselves into a disgraceful 34-35 performance closing in on the All-Star break.  Not good times.  At all.

Ned Lamont

I was at the car dealer today, waiting for them to fix broken rear stabilizer joints on my car, that had caused a loud clunking sound whenever I went over a bump or even pulled into a driveway ramp, something that had occurred for at least a couple months but I never had time to fix.  But this post is not about my lackadaisical approach toward auto maintenance, or about the great service at Ray Catena of Edison, NJ (everything covered under warranty + flavored coffees and Internet service while you wait!), but rather about what happened when a middle-aged woman asked aloud if she could switch the television station from ESPN Sportscenter to a news channel, because "The President of the United States is speaking Live!"  And I used capital letters because of the way the woman announced it, with a force and tenor that demanded respect.  The PRESIDENT was speaking, we must all stop reading our sports sections of the USA Today and cease sipping our french vanilla moccachino and pay attention!  When no one protested and the channel was changed, I had to stifle a yawn.