All posts by freealonzo

Miscellaneous

Diary of a 50-something Widower

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Two years ago May 10th my wife of nearly 24 years passed away after a nasty illness. We had two children of college age living away from home, which meant that I was entering my 50’s flying solo, picking up the pieces of a life that was once a partnership. How does one do that? There’s no survivor’s manual: do A, next is B, then follow up with C and Presto! you now have a life with new routines and go from there. Unsurprisingly it’s not quite that easy. While thinking about that, this Rumi quote has been sticking in my mind lately:

“Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots, so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.”

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2016 Twins Game Logs

Game 27: Twins at Astros

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Tonight please tune in for the latest chapter in Who will have more career wins: Jose Berrios or Alex Meyer?  Last night Berrios finally took the lead with a dominant 5.1-inning outing in a 6-2 victory over the Houston Astros. With that victory, Berrios (career: 1-1) now has a one win lead over Meyer.  But don’t worry Alex Meyer (career: 0-3) fans, he will be facing those same said hapless Astros and odds are pretty good we will once again be tied with both pitchers finally getting their first MLB victory.  Is Alex Meyer up to the challenge in his first Major League start?  Can he stay neck-and-neck with the phenom?  First pitch at 7:10p with DicknRoy calling the game.

2016 Twins Game Logs

Game 21: Native Americans at Co-birthed Siblings

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O.k.  I admit it, I was going to go on an epic rant about the Twins and their seemingly clueless front office: allowing the team to have 14 pitchers on the roster, losing John Hicks because they wanted to call up “I batted .194 in Triple-A” David Murphy and fielding a lousy outfield defense with an offense that strikes out at historic levels.  Plus those damn red uniforms. But then something miraculous happened.  The Twins won a game against the hated Clevelanders and all is right in the world.  So why get upset about John Hicks anyway?  Twins are on a winning streak, staff ace “Big Spot” Ricky Nolasco is on the mound against “I’m a Loser” (It’s his real nickname - look it up) Cody Anderson and you can get a cheeseburger in your Bloody Mary at Hrbek’s place.  So who cares if it might not hit 50 degrees at the ballpark.  What else you going to do, watch Nashville v. Anaheim in hockey?  Oh and did I mention Sano is playing 3rd base?  #winning

So c’mon Twins, let’s get that record to a solid .333 winning percentage and hand Cody (I really am a Loser) Anderson his hat.

2016 Twins Game Logs

Game 14. Brewers v. Twins

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I'm writing this from the Amsterdam airport with so-so free wi-fi.

The suddenly no one wants to play them Minnesota Twins take on the hated Brewers of Milwaukee.   Looking at the weather, not sure I'd this gets in or not.

Ervin Santana mound in his first start since shorning his hair.  Let's hope for good results. I can't let this post go by without mentioning how dumb MLB is to be scheduling this series against the Brew-crew midweek.  This should be on a nice June weekend where the crowds will be plentiful and boisterous. You know create excitement where a kids tells his mom, that was a blast, let's go back again soon.  But then we could write a treatise on MLB and marketing and I have some Heineken and cheese to buy.

Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day — Love

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William Miller: So Russell, what do you love about music?

Russell Hammond: To begin with… everything.

What is it about a band or particular song, or just music that makes you just love it?

Obviously for me this is all about Guided By Voices. Why do I have 1000 songs from this cultish band from Dayton, OH? Why will I spend weekends listening to nothing for GBV for hours on end, looking at web sites, books, old YouTube videos and the like?

I wanted to answer that question as part of this Friday Music Day but found myself flustered. All I can say it’s “the music” maaan. Catchy melodies, esoteric lyrics, the sheer volume of songs, the fact that they never hit it big all gets jumbled in a giant vat of greatness for me. So there. I can’t go deeper than that, sorry.

But fortunately someone has. The article in the link pretty much covers it all. Even though it’s two years old, the article has particular resonance since it appears that a version of the band has reformed and will play at least one show this summer. Who wants to go?

http://overblown.co.uk/losing-game-pricks-guided-voices-retrospective/

So why do you love a particular band? Are you more articulate than me? Put it in the lists.

Friday Music Day

FMD — Cool Show Bro

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Bootsy regaled us with some stories last week of cool ass shows he saw back in the day: U2 and Radiohead at First Avenue. Got me thinking are there shows you saw that were classic? Me, I saw Replacements at their 5 night 7th Street Entry gigs to promote Tim. Also the Replacements at Riot Fest was pretty special and Lydia Loveless shows April and November 2014 was pretty epic. But what other famous concerts or shows do you wish you had seen live?  I have a couple.

Beatles at the Cavern Club – Seeing one of those shows, especially right before they became huge, would have been so cool. The atmosphere, the fact that no one was doing what they were doing. Saying you saw The Beatle at the Cavern would be instant cool cred.

Alan Ginsberg reciting Howl for the first time at Six Gallery. Here’s the backstory. If I could go back in time, this is one place I would go.

Sex Pistols in Manchester – A hundred people saw them and all started bands we all know: The Clash, Joy Division, The Smiths, The Fall, Buzzcocks.

Elvis at Overland Park Memphis. Just 25 days after That's All Right Mama was recorded, this generally considered Elvis's first concert and just maybe the one place you could say Rock and Roll was born.

Dylan Goes Electric at the Newport Jazz Fest. Did people boo or not?

Guided By Voices in Dayton, Ohio early 1990s. Oh to be at one of those shows when only a few knew.

How about you?, What show/concert/performance do you wish you could say “I was there maaaaaan?”

Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day

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What is your attitude on deleting songs from an album on your song library? With I-tunes, it’s so simple to eliminate the songs you don’t like that you can basically re-create any album to your liking. Don’t think Yellow Submarine belongs on Revolver? One key stroke and it’s gone. Me? I’m an album guy and for the most part I don’t eliminate songs from albums. If I want to listen to an album, then I have to listen to the way the artist/producer envisioned it (doesn’t mean I don’t use the skip button if I want to). If an album only has one or two songs I like and the rest has no interest I will take those good songs and put them on some “greatest hits” collection. I will admit that in a few cases I have found a song so odious that I’ve had to delete it; but that’s very rare.

This, of course, brings me to Guided By Voices. Robert Pollard has penned, recorded, and released thousands of songs. Even if he batted a phenomenal .600, that’s literally hundreds of songs that are crap. And believe me, even a freak like me will admit there’s a lot of crap GBV songs out there -- dude could seriously use an editor. But then who knows? One person’s garbage song is another’s treasure.

The album Propeller is a great example of this. Released on 1992, this was the album that finally caught the eye of some record company swell from NYC and Guided By Voices got invited to play in the big City with a resulting record contract. It’s the record that propelled (my pun) GBV from obscure Dayton, OH band to at least a cultish indie-darling band. The album is pretty damn good, but as I mentioned above, there’s some just awful songs on it too. I’ve kept all the GBV songs on I-tunes by album but I’ve also created playlists of their best songs (still way into the multi-hundreds) and sometimes created albums that are all killer, no filler. Propeller is one album that is a go to. If interested below is a playlist for Propeller that in my opinion is much more listenable. Perhaps create it on Spotify and give it a listen.

So drop your lists, and share your attitude about changing albums on your personal song library, do you create albums based on how they should have been released?

Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox
Weedking
Quality of Armor
Metal Mothers
Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Boy
Red Gas Circle
Exit Flagger
14 Cheerleader Coldfront
Ergo Space Pig
Circus World
On the Tundra