VAGUE SPACE

Spring Training Predictions

It's probably a little early for a baseball season preview, what with it still being February and Spring Training having just begun, but it looks like Syracuse's season will unfortunately end in the NIT for the second straight year and I stopped following the NBA and NHL years ago, so there you have it.  It's baseball season.  As you'll see from these predictions (which are not yet based on true scientific study, hence the lack of records included), I like the Phillies chances this year and don't like the Mariners chances.  I've written pages and pages on emails and USS Mariner message boards about how much I hated the Erik Bedard trade and how much we are going to regret losing Adam Jones (and Chris Tillman and George Sherill and Kam Mickolio and Tony Butler), so I won't bore you with that here.  Will we be a better team with Bedard in '08 than the collection of prospects +  starting RF Jones and LH reliever Sherrill?  Probably yes, by a win or two.  But our outfield defense is destroyed by the move, with Ichiro flanked by the worst leftfielder in the majors this side of Manny Ramirez and an oft-injured old guy with declining range.  Actually, that sounds just like last year's horrendous OF defense that was a huge, huge reason for the decline in pitching in the second half of the season that dropped us right out of our unexpected fight for the playoffs.  And our offense is going to suck too.  I mean, besides Ichiro and maybe Beltre if he has a good year, who else in the lineup do you fear?  Vidro?  Ibanez?  Richie "I hope I can hit higher than .210 this year" Sexson?  How is it that all of the horrible elements that hurt us last year are back again this year and we got rid of the one person I was excited about for the future (Jones)?  Oh that's right, our GM is a fucking idiot.  A fucking stupid motherfucking idiot who wouldn't know how to analyze a player or a team if I sat with him for 6 hours and a list of all the DHs in the world who might be able to slug over .400 in their sleep (unlike Vidro).  But I digress... at least I have the Phillies.

Now on to the predictions...

A Very Important Election

If you want to make Elliott Yamin's #1 Fan and a lot of her Yenta friends happy, please take a moment to vote for Mr. Yamin on the poll below.  And according to Robyn, Clay Aiken really sucks and his wacko fans are jamming the polls so that he can win this very important race.  And since we all know a wacko Elliott fan - who she claims are not as wacko as the Clay fans - please take a moment and vote below for Elliott.  And if not for Robyn, then do it for the Divisions.  Because on the one hand, their father is Switsky.  And on the other hand, their mother just drove 6 hours to meet Elliott's mother over the weekend.  At least the kids are pretty good at bowling, even without the bumpers, not that I would know anything about that.  Is Jackson's Dairy Queen still in the freezer?  Let's just get to the voting.

Click here: Idol Thoughts: IDOL MADNESS FINALS: Clay Aiken vs. Elliott Yamin

Yes, Lenny, I am aware this is a low point in Vague Space history.  I had nothing new to post today anyway.

New Music Tuesday

Dan Bejar's Destroyer is ab0ut to release his 9th full-length album on March 18th, the aptly titled Trouble in Dreams.  Here's the blurb from the Merge website:

Trouble in Dreams cements Vancouver, BC's Dan Bejar as an artist as quirky and enigmatic as David Bowie, as symphonic and grandiose as Scott Walker, and as quixotically literary as Bob Dylan. A collection of songs that is fresh and confounding, yet befitting the Destroyer canon. "Of all contemporary songwriters, he's been the biggest influence and inspiration. Because he is pretentious, but in a way that makes it into a game where we all get to pretend to be so grand" - Okkervil River's Will Sheff.

Pre-order the album from Merge.

• Download Destroyer - "Dark Leaves Form a Thread".mp3

Stephen Malkmus has a new album coming out in 2 weeks, on March 4th on Matador Records.  Although Malkmus's solo work includes a song whose title inspired the name of this blog, the former lead singer of a band that landed 10 songs on my Top 200 songs of all-time list has produced an underwhelming release record on his own, at least to my ears.  I haven't heard the new record, so I'm reserving judgment, but the first two leaked tracks are, well... listen for yourself.

Pre-order the album from Amazon.

• Download Stephen Malkmus - "Cold Son".mp3
• Download Stephen Malkmus - "Baltimore".mp3

Headlights' new album Some Racing, Some Stopping is a pretty great sophomore record from a Champaign, Illinois band featuring former members of late '90s shoegaze artists Absinthe Blind.  The lilting backing voice of singer Erin Fein, a former figure skater, lift their songs into some pretty catchy territory.  They are signed to indie mainstay Polyvinyl.

Buy the album from Amazon.

• Download Headlights - "School Boys".mp3
• Download Headlights - "Catch Them All".mp3

I'm Fucking Ben Affleck

The response is rarely better than the original, so Jimmy brought in the big guns for this one.  An absolute instant classic.  Where did he get all those stars from!

Jeter Whines Like a Little Bitch

Derek Jeter arrived at his 16th  spring training labeled the worst shortstop in the majors by a statistical study at Penn.

"Maybe it was a computer glitch," the three-time Gold Glove winner said of the report. But Jeter just didn't laugh this one off. He defended himself, saying, "Every [shortstop] doesn't stay in the same spot, everyone doesn't have the same pitching. Everyone doesn't have the same hitters running, it's impossible to do that."

Jeter, 33, pointed out you can get the exact same ground ball off the exact same pitcher and there could be an average runner or there could be Ichiro running. "How can you compute that?" he asked.

Yankees VP Gene Michael was even more "defensive" (which isn't difficult to be, compared to Jeter):

"Something like that is a disgrace," the scout said. "It made me ill when I read that article. First of all, what pitching staff was out there? Each team has a different staff. Derek doesn't really have a sinkerball pitching staff (EDITOR'S NOTE:  Except for Wang, the #1 groundball pitcher in the majors, and Mussina, #15) whereas other shortstops, you sit behind certain pitchers, you're going to get a lot of ground balls.

"You simply can't do that by those charts, that's a bunch of baloney," Michael added. "It's disgraceful. You have to use a scout's eye to determine range."

What about Jeter's range now in his 13th major league season?

"It's not as good as it was, but it's not bad," Michael said. "You might put some people ahead of him range-wise, but that doesn't mean they are better shortstops. Look how sure-handed he is, look how clutch he is. That makes up for a lot."

I got these quotes from Kevin Kernan's article in the New York Post.  Thanks, Kevin, for the illuminating series of statements that lead me to believe the study in question that labeled Jeter as the worst defensive shortstop in the majors has ruffled some Yankees feathers, which makes me very, very happy.  For oh so many reasons.  Let's discuss.

 

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Hells yeah.

The Science of the Stupid

I wish I could do more than simply present this article from the St. Petersburg Times, which reports the results of a February survey of Floridians regarding their views on evolution and religion.  The only thing I can hope for - "pray" for even - is that the survey method was somehow inherently flawed and that the population of people in Florida are not as incredibly stupid and ill-informed on this issue as it appears.  Although it would go a long way toward explaining why voters had such difficulties punching a hole in a presidential ballot eight years ago.  Here's just a few excerpts if you don't have the stomach to read the entire article.

• 43 percent said human beings evolved over millions of years (Editor's Note: the correct answer), while 45 percent said humans were created directly by God.

• While the vast majority of scientists consider evolution to be backed by strong evidence, nearly two-thirds of those (Editor's note: dumb ass Floridians) polled were skeptical.

  • Twenty-nine percent said evolution is one of several valid theories. Another 16 percent said evolution is not backed up by enough evidence. And 19 percent said evolution is not valid because it is at odds with the Bible.  (Editor's note: that adds to 64% who are wrong)
    

• Sue Sams of Spring Hill, a retired English teacher who describes herself as Protestant, said schools should teach creationism only.   "I don't disagree with the theory of evolution," said Sams, 65. "I'm just not sure it's 100 percent right."  (Editor's note:  Senile old bag, or in the majority?  Sadly, it's the latter).

• Responses such as Sams' fly in the face of endorsements from thousands of scientists and scores of scientific societies, including the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (Editor's note:  Nice work by writers Ron Matus and Donna Winchester, emphasizing how misinformed these poll respondents are, although this is buried in the middle of the article).
  

  • "There is no justification for singling out evolution for special skepticism or critical analysis," wrote Richard T. O'Grady, executive director of the American Institute of Biological Sciences in a Feb. 8 letter to the Board of Education. "Its strength as a scientific theory matches that of the theory of gravitation, atomic theory and the germ theory."

Why are we still having this debate - why is this even a fucking debate in 2008?!!!???  The Scopes Monkey trial was in the fucking 1920s.  Jesus.  Why are we going to religion to explain scientific things that the Bible and religion can't possibly explain?  Why don't we just all claim the earth is the center of the universe, because although science disproved that religious belief some 500 years ago, Darwin disproved the belief that "God" created human beings in their current form nearly 200 years ago.  When will we stop listening to the idiotic entreaties of religious dogmas and start using science - or for crying out loud common sense - to judge the accuracy of facts that we will teach our children.  Does anyone on the "religious right" even remotely notice the "fact" that the people Bush has our soldiers fighting in Iraq are ultra-religious fanatics prone to accept some ancient words in a holy book, or some proclamation from religious leaders, as facts?  Is the parallel beyond them?  Are we really this stupid?  Or is this just a stupid poll that I'm getting way too upset about?  Oy vey.  Read the article and judge for yourself.

Tapes and Tapes and Mountain Goats

Tapes 'n Tapes have leaked the first single from their forthcoming album Walk It Off, available in April on XL Recordings.  Debut full-length The Loon was originally self-released in 2005 before a proper indie label release in 2006.  It ended up finishing 16th on my year-end album list and the band was my 25th most-played artist of the year.  Not bad.  Not bad at all for a debut artist, but in the year and a half that has followed since I first heard them, I still find myself very much enjoying "Insistor" and "Omaha" and "Manitoba," the spirited, playful, understated songs they made for The Loon.  And I find myself surprisingly excited about the prospects for their new album.  The first single is pretty great.  I haven't yet searched out a leak for the full album, but I imagine it won't be too long before I do.  I'm already too excited to wait.

• Download Tapes 'n Tapes - "Hang Them All".mp3
• Download Tapes 'n Tapes - "Insistor".mp3
• Download Tapes 'n Tapes - "Manitoba".mp3
• Download Tapes 'n Tapes - "Omaha (KEXP version)".mp3

Heretic Pride is the the name of the latest album from The Mountain Goats, and it's their seventh album since 2000, following a back catalog of at least that many from prolific singer John Darnielle in the '90s.  He's had a mostly varying lineup of backing musicians in recent years and the latest addition is Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster and you can hear his effect on the new album.  John Vanderslice and Scott Solter handled the producing duties and they've been a part of Darnielle's last three albums, the highly autobiographical trilogy We Shall All Be Healed, The Sunset Tree, and Get Lonely.  I first discovered the band during The Sunset Tree, which was a truly great album, but I never got into 2006's Get Lonely and it failed to make my year-end list of favorite releases that Tapes 'n Tapes above were able to reach.  Other than a few tracks on The Sunset Tree, in fact, I found myself loving Darnielle's older stuff more, sung more in a storytelling mode about desperate characters, peaking with the amazingly brutal "No Children," which made my top 200 songs of all time.  The new release, Heretic Pride, is a return to the storytelling of his older works, and I think it's a welcome return.  It's a pretty great album.

Every song on Heretic Pride is between 2:54 and 3:49 in length and with Darnielle's hard-scrabble delivery, there is a tendency for the songs to sound the same on the initial listens.  But there is enough variety in tempo and subject matter to sustain the rhythm through the full 13 tracks.  The faster tracks definitely work better for me, although the spare "So Desperate" is a touching ode to depression.  But there are several standout tracks that are fast, freewheeling, taut, and flat-out brilliant.  Opener "Sax Rohmer #1," which everyone has certainly heard already is one of their best songs in years.  Title track "Heretic Pride" has such a catchy rhythm that I kept repeating it on my first listen.  "In the Craters of the Moon" and "Lovecraft in Brooklyn" occupy back-to-back places at the middle of the album with pulsating beauty.  I didn't realize the latter was a reference to sci-fi writer H.P. Lovecraft until reading the Pitchfork review, but that didn't stop me from loving the song.  And speaking of love, the 10th track, "How to Embrace a Swamp Creature", and the closer "Michael Myers Resplendent" are probably the most purely beautiful tracks I've heard this year.  "When the scum begins to circle the drain" - what a great line.  Go buy the album today.  No seriously.  Today.  And listen to a couple tracks to tide you over.

• Download The Mountain Goats - "Sax Rohmer #1".mp3
• Download The Mountain Goats - "Heretic Pride".mp3
• Download The Mountain Goats - "Broom People".mp3
• Download The Mountain Goats - "The First Few Desperate Hours".mp3
• Download The Mountain Goats - "Bluejays and Cardinals".mp3
• Download The Mountain Goats - "The Best Death Metal Band in Denton".mp3

I Need to Sleep

The story of my life for the last 18 months has been a lack of sleep.  It's made me sick, constantly fighting off various minor ailments and more serious illnesses that seem to build up overnight and grip me in the morning.  It's made me sleepwalk through my days at the office and sleepwalk through poker games that inexplicably end at 1 am without any money being made by 22 out of 24 players.  It's both the major subject of the novel I'm in the midst of writing and revising and writing and revising and the major result of writing and revising and writing and revising a novel at all hours of the night.  I write best at night, on no sleep, in a state of almost subconscious stream-of-consciousness that somehow makes sense to me, if not to potential readers.  The lack of sleep is caused by the writing and taking graduate classes on writing while working full-time and reading excessively to improve my writing or just confuse my writing.  And then there's this blog and all of the posting and all of the poker and softball and friends and family and Syracuse and baseball and football and fantasy and everything else up to and including Lost.  I'm not complaining, or maybe I am, but I think there's a reason "Fillmore Jive" and "Rebellion (Lies)" and "Oh, You are the Roots that Sleep Beneath My Feet" and "Wake Up" ended up in my Top 200 songs of all time.  And there's a reason my novel is titled Five Day Morning.  And there's a reason I'm so pissed off that my next door neighbor decided Saturday morning at 8 am was the best time to have his windows replaced with all the inherent banging and pounding and slamming and shouting.  Motherfucking motherfucker.  I need to sleep. 

Passed out,
Passed out on your couch
You left me there (thank you)
Let me sleep it off
I need to sleep it off
I need to sleep.
Why don't you let me?
I need to sleep, why don't you
I need to sleep
I need to sleep
I need to sleep
I need to sleep, why won't you let me
I need to sleep
I need to sleep
I need to sleep
Why won't you, why won't you let me sleep?

• Download Pavement - "Fillmore Jive".mp3
• Download Arcade Fire - "Rebellion (Lies)".mp3
• Download Bright Eyes - "Oh, You Are the Roots that Sleep Beneath My Feet".mp3
• Download The Arcade Fire - "Wake Up".mp3
• Download The Walkmen - "Wake Up".mp3
• Download Belle and Sebastian - "Sleep the Clock Around".mp3
• Download Stars - "Sleep Tonight".mp3
• Download Mogwai - "O I Sleep".mp3
• Download My Bloody Valentine - "When You Sleep".mp3
• Download The Microphones - "Don't Wake Me Up".mp3
• Download Postal Service - "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight".mp3
• Download Postal Service - "Sleeping In".mp3
• Download Death Cab for Cutie - "Sleep Spent".mp3
• Download No Age - "I Wanna Sleep".mp3
• Download Working for a Nuclear Free City - "Asleep at the Wheel".mp3
• Download Sonna - "Sleep On It".mp3
• Download The Smiths - "Asleep".mp3
• Download The Magnetic Fields - "Asleep and Dreaming".mp3
• Download LCD Soundsystem - "Never As Tired as When I'm Waking Up".mp3
• Download The Wrens - "This Boy is Exhausted".mp3
• Download KC Accidental - "Tired Hands".mp3
• Download Explosions in the Sky - "With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept".mp3

My Life in HD

I've been quietly researching HDTVs since Christmas.  I've been seriously searching for the past few weeks.  I've spent at least 4 hours a day for the past week at every Internet site imaginable to try to find the cheapest option for the 8 brands of HD sets that I had narrowed down to.  And I've visited every Best Buy and Circuit City within a 30 mile radius of my house to properly compare the visual appeal of those 8 brands.  And then today, finally, I bought the Samsung T5054 50" Plasma that was on sale at PC Richard for $1299 with 18 months no interest financing.  And after a good two to eight hours spent setting it up, I just watched the entire first half of the NBA All-Star game because the picture and sound were so brilliant, I couldn't shut it off.  And I hate the NBA.  But I love my new TV.

My old TV was a 36" flat-screen Toshiba with a deep CRT out the back that made it weigh a good 150 pounds.  It could receive HD channels but it wasn't a true HD, I don't think, because it had the black bars on the top and bottom whenever I watched an HD channel (which I rarely did).  I could get optical surround sound on the HD channels, but this I only discovered recently, so although my TV was pretty big and pretty nice, it was no logner top of the line.  Yet it was only a few years old and was going to be a pain in the ass to move from my living room, so I resisted buying a new set even after everyone I know got the newest and latest high-definition plasma and LCD sets.  Well I finally caved.  I'm still not sure why it took so long.