VAGUE SPACE

Phillies Playoff Preview

It's been one hell of a season.  A super-hot start, an All Star break fade, treading water in July, falling several games behind the Mets in August, making an early September run, falling back again, and then winning 10 out of 11 games while the Mets performed their annual September swoon to grab the division title with a day of the season to spare.  Congratulations to a job... done.  Back to back titles is nothing to sneeze at for this traditionally pathetic phranchise, although I have to admit I thought we'd make the playoffs coming into this season, thought we'd win the division easily in the first couple months, and only gave up on them a half-dozen times in August and September before they turned it on at the end to win.  So congrats to the team, and to the very long-suffering fans.  Just think, Philadelphia, we're only eleven wins away from ending a 25 year drought of city championships.  Woo hoo?

The tale of the team is definitely the tale of three seasons -- hot starts by Chase Utley and Pat Burrell, accompanied by horrible starts by Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins;  sad middle portion where no one was hitting, especially Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins; and then a closing September with Ryan Howard on crazy fire, with Rollins and Utley hitting better and Burrell collapsing.  All in all, the offense has been a dysfunctional mess, with a boom or bust mentality day to day -- they either get shut out or score 8 runs it seems -- and has not been the strength of the team as expected.  The strength of the team?  Shockingly, very shockingly, has been the pitching, particularly in the bullpen.  A bunch of no-names and journeymen thrown together in front of Brad Lidge - himself coming off of two lost seasons - and somehow they became one of the best bullpens in the league.  They held this team together the entire season behind a rotation that featured Cole Hamels, Jamie Moyer, and a bunch of often shaky performances.  Amazing job by Pat Gillick putting the staff together.  And an equally amazing job from the following pitchers:

Brad Lidge, 41 saves in 41 tries (including Saturday's near, near, near miss), 1.95 ERA
JC Romero, 2.75 ERA in 59 IP (with52 K)
Chad Durbin(!), 2.87 ERA in 87 IP (!)
Ryan Madson, 3.05 ERA in 82 IP
Clay Condrey, 3.31 ERA in 68 IP
Rudy Seanez, 3.56 ERA in 43 IP off the scrap heap
Scott Eyre, 1.88 ERA in 14 IP after being released by the Cubs with a 7.15 ERA

The Office Season 5 Premiere

The Office premiered this week with "Weight Loss," a rather ingenious episode that handled the hour-long structure of the show with brilliance while also exploring "what happened this summer" at the offices of Dunder-Mifflin.  With title cards beginning with "Week 1, June 30" and extending through the episode, we see the company's attempts at a group weight loss program while also watching what happens to everyone during those months.  When we last left the gang, Michael found a new love in HR rep Holly (Amy Ryan from Gone Baby Gone) but also found out old love Jan was pregnant; Jim wanted to propose to Pam but Andy stole his thunder with Angela; Angela was cheating on him with Dwight; and Ryan went to prison.  All those stories were touched upon, in pretty hilarious fashion, along with a new storyline - Pam no longer works at Dunder-Mifflin!  She's quit (temporarily?) to attend a graphics design course at the Pratt Institute in NYC.  Which means Jim is left alone, at least at the office, and the temp agency sends over a middle-aged woman named Ronnie to replace her.

Jim:  I don't really know Ronnie. But I have a feeling I will get to know her in the next few years, and eventually declare my love for her.

Phillies Win NL East

Two years in a row!  That's a first since 1977-78, unless you count the split title in the strike year of 1981.  Well done Phighten's!  And well done Jamie Moyer, who led my Mariners into the playoffs a couple times back when he was still in his thirties.  He's now 45 and just picked up his 16th win.  Unbelievable.  Excellent work by Mr. Moyer and the whole team.  And let's not laugh at the Mets annual collapse.  If the Phillies hadn't collapsed in the middle of this season, we would have run away with the title.  Look for a playoff preview early next week.  Not sure if I want the Brewers or Mets to win tomorrow (we'd play the Brewers in the former case, the Dodgers in the latter), but it's time to celebrate tonight.  Go Phillies!

Trainwreck

Wow.   Doesn't McCain have to dump her by now?  She don't have a freakin' clue what she's talking about.  Oh my god, it's frightening. 

Her answers sound like the responses Couric would get if she interview[ed] one of my friends. At three A.M. After a night of drinking. (Source)

Katie:  "I'm just going to ask you one more time, not to belabor the point, [but] specific examples in McCain's 26 years [in the Senate] of pushing for more regulation."

Palin:  "Uhhh... I'll try to find some and I'll bring them to ya."

 

Bright Eyes

Bright Eyes ranks at #4 on my ongoing list of favorite bands, a band that unfortunately seemed to have peaked with 2002's brilliant Lifted, or the Story is in the Soil and has followed with the overlong, but filled with gems, double-album collection from January 2005 and then the truly disappointing 2007 release Cassadaga.  Lead singer (and let's be honest, the entire force behind the "band") Conor Oberst came out with his first solo album since his teenage years in August of this year, and since he's insisting this is a truly solo effort divorced from the band, I won't hold its tepid, boring collection against Bright Eyes.  But it does continue what is now a disturbing trend.  So why is the band still at #4, edging out the likes of Mogwai and Superchunk and hard-charging Okkervil River, Explosions in the Sky, and Sunset Rubdown?  Letting off the Happiness.  Fevers and Mirrors.  Every Day and Every Night EP.  Oh Holy Fools Split EP.  Drunk Kid Catholic EP.  And, of course, Lifted.  I pretty much loved everything the band recorded between 1998 and 2002.  And he recorded a ton of shit between 1998 and 2002.  So the stumbles since haven't fully hit yet.  Plus, he wrote "When the President Talks to God" about George Bush back before the rest of us knew what a freakin' disaster he was.  So that was pretty awesome.  But the next album is certainly crucial.  They could start dropping like a rocket or working to fill a permanent place in the top 5, something the 3 bands ahead of them have all achieved.

Album	Release date	Label	Chart positions
			US	UK
A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997	January 1998	Saddle Creek	-	-
Letting Off the Happiness	November 2, 1998	Saddle Creek	-	-
Fevers and Mirrors	May 29, 2000	Saddle Creek	-	-
Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground	August 13, 2002	Saddle Creek	161	-
I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning	January 25, 2005	Saddle Creek	10	23
Digital Ash in a Digital Urn	January 25, 2005	Saddle Creek	15	43
Motion Sickness: Live Recordings	November 15, 2005	Team Love	-	-
Noise Floor (Rarities: 1998-2005)	October 24, 2006	Saddle Creek	-	-
Cassadaga	April 10, 2007	Saddle Creek	4	13

Obama the Elitist

Ignore the facts.  Ignore everything.  Stick your head in the sand and hope for four more years of the same never-ending mess that we've been in for the past 8 years.  Oh, and don't vote for the black guy because he's pretty damn smart so he must be an "elitist."  That's pretty much all the Republicans have left.  They don't care if it's a meaningless triviality.  They don't care if it's a lie.  It's all they have left!  Oh, and they really mean that "don't vote for the black guy" part.  Sadly, that's still worth a lot in our country. 

By the way, the graphic below includes what are called "facts".  If you're a Republican voter, you may not know what that word means, but here's a handy guide.

New Music Tuesday

I've listened to Mogwai's The Hawk is Howling for close to a month now.  The overall tone is slower, more subdued than their most recent releases, although there are plenty of exceptions ("Batcat" for one).  And while the album is missing some of the soft/loud dynamics that we've all come to know and love from the band, the work has grown on me with every listen.  "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead" leads off things, a beautiful, sad, wonderful nearly 7 minute track that is every bit as good as any Mogwai song.  After "Batcat" (which I don't really like at all), "Danphe and the Brain" is another beautiful release that blends Mogwai's trademark guitar work with a subdued sound that works incredibly well.  This song, and perhaps many others on the album, would fit right in with Happy Songs for Happy People, a much-maligned Mogwai album that I happen to love.  There's no rip-roaring explosion of guitars that takes over your soul on this album, like say "Mogwai Fear Satan" but it's been a decade since Young Team and that music probably isn't walking through the door again.   "I Love You, I'm Going to Blow Up Your School" is wonderful (especially the title), "Scotland's Shame"  and "The Precipice" are strong, and "Thank You Space Expert" is a sad and beautiful affair.  "The Sun Smells Too Loud" works very well in the middle of the album (much better than I thought it would when I first heard it) and rounds out a very good release for the Scottish rockers. 

Oh, and they were absolutely mind-blowing in concert on Friday.  But unfortunately an illness to one of the band members has canceled the rest of the North American leg of the tour with Fuck Buttons.  Hopefully, he feels better soon.

• Download Mogwai - "I Love You, I'm Going to Blow Up Your School".mp3
• Buy The Hawk is Howling
• Download Fuck Buttons - "Sweet Love for Planet Earth (Andrew Weatherall Remix)".mp3
• Download Mogwai - "Killing All the Flies".mp3

Sunset Rubdown Live in Philly

I saw Sunset Rubdown for the 2nd time in Philadelphia last week, this time at the First Unitarian Church basement on Chestnut Street and 23rd.  It's an odd, small venue that holds about 200-300 people and despite the cool temperatures outside it was a solid 115 degrees packed in with all those bodies in a small enclosed space.  Spencer was sweating like a madman and Camilla complained about the heat, but it was an absolutely incredible performance.  Spencer tried a boatload of new material and said we were only the 4th audience to hear the new stuff, which they were just premiering on this small, month-long tour.  He said that they intend to go into the studio to record a new album as soon as the tour is done, which would probably mean early November or so.  I don't know when we can expect that album to hit the street, but I'm already excited.  Spencer might possibly be the most prolific indie rock artist ever, releasing 5 albums since 2005 (2 for Sunset Rubdown, 2 for Wolf Parade, 1 for Swan Lake) and now prepping another for early 2009.  That doesn't even mention all his other recordings in that time (helping out his former band Frog Eyes on their new album, for instance) and his constant touring in support of the bands.  I really don't know where he has the time to write.  And to keep coming up with such great songs.  It's really mind-blowing.

Hilarious

Do Mets fans have this much free time at games because they suck?  I don't know, but I will give them credit for one thing.  This is pretty fucking funny.  Especially towards the end when the cup tower gets higher and higher.  Stay with it, you will not be disappointed.

New TV Show Review

Thanks to the power of my DirecTV HD DVR, I've taped all of the new fall season premieres that remotely interested me, and I've watched at least part of those shows.  Why?  So you don't have to!  And believe me, you don't want to.  Of all the new shows I've "previewed", only one is going to make it to a second week's viewing.  The rest?  Well, they weren't all horrible, but definitely not worth watching again.

So here they are in order of preference:

True Blood (HBO, Sundays 9 pm)

I never watched Six Feet Under and I didn't particularly like American Beauty, so my hopes weren't very high on the latest series from the creator of those two programs, but hey - it's about vampires and I always like a good vampire story.  The show is set in Louisiana and has a creepy, Gothic style.  There was a very graphic sex scene that was a little off putting and some very graphic violence as well.  But overall, it was a riveting premiere episode, very well cast, and it promises a lot in the future.  The basic premise is that the Japanese developed a synthetic blood a couple years ago that allows the vampires to stop killing humans and join our race as harmless equals.  Vampire-rights advocates are on the airwaves, and even dingy gas stations in the middle of nowhere sell "Tru Blood," right next to the liquor.  But all is not well.  Not everyone is convinced that vampires are friendly now, and when one walks into a bar in the small town where the show is set, all of the patrons are more than a little wary - except for Anna Paquin, who plays the main character, a girl who can read other people's minds (at least some of the time, not sure how they're explaining why we can hear everyone's thoughts at some points, which gets really annoying really fast, and at other points we don't).  There are also drug addicts who get high off of vampire blood, which is another complication, and Paquin's brother ends up possibly killing a chick he was having rough sex with.  So there's a lot going on in the first episode, but not too much, and I absolutely loved the tone and eerie Gothic horror of it.  Doesn't mean this will be a great series (the ridiculous characterizations of the two black characters was pretty offensive -- the "sassy" young girl with a bad attitude, and the "super-gay" guy who cross-dresses and walks around like Lamar from Revenge of the Nerds), but I do have high hopes.