Happy Birthday–August 28

Joe Yeager (1875)
Dode Paskert (1881)
Aaron Ward (1896)
Charlie Grimm (1898)
Paul Bowa (1918)
Tony Gonzalez (1936)
Tom Satriano (1940)
Lou Piniella (1943)
Mike Torrez (1946)
Ron Guidry (1950)
Joel Youngblood (1951)
Darren Lewis (1967)
Jay Witasick (1972)
Tom Shearn (1977)
Ryan Madson (1980)
Carlos Quentin (1982)

Paul Bowa is the father of Larry Bowa and the grandfather of Nick Johnson.  He was a minor league infielder who reached as high as AAA, and later became a minor league manager in the St.  Louis Cardinals’ organization.

We would also like to wish a very happy birthday to bhiggum.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–August 28

Friday Music Day: Schedule

Here's what I had back in April:

Zack: 8/19 through 9/9
Can of Corn: 9/16 through 10/21
Philosopher: 10/28 through 12/2

I think Zack may have been thrown off by the site's vacation last weekend. I'm taking today; I can give you two weeks in December if you want them, Z.
----
I've been reading bits of Freaky Trigger's essays about every British Number 1. (They just finished 2001!) I've mostly 1990-forward about those about songs I'm familiar with. One of the most recent ones had this passage I really like:

What pop does better than anything else does is to take feelings and situations, and crush and simplify them, making them immediate and thrilling and useful. It applies no moral filter. People feel self-righteous and wrathful, and so ultimately pop will product songs that are diamonds of self-righteousness and wrath.

("Pop" sensu lato here.) I think I've tried to express similar thoughts (but much less succinctly) about pop and emotions (though not necessarily those emotions).
From the same review, I love this line, which is more particularly about the song in question: "a church-inspired song that celebrates the dark joy of excommunication."

Remodeled basement. Same half-baked taste.