Triberious is not a word, but all the same, it IS the CoC title and maybe I'll come up with a definition later.
Sufjan Stevens – Eugene
Carrie and Lowell is on many (if not most) Best Of lists this year (though no Grammy nods), and with amazingly good reason. This album is one of the most heartfelt, wonderful, awful records I've ever heard. More or less written about his childhood, the complicated relationship between him and his mother, and the time of her death (if you want more background, it's out there and easy to find, so I won't go too much further into the backstory).
I know there's been some pushback on the whiney singer/songwriter wailing over his acoustic recently, and this album could be construed as that, but I don't think it applies. In my mind, he wrote this album strictly for himself. He was kind enough to invite us in on what must have been a substantial and devastating cathartic journey. Littered throughout are so many baldly personal, terrible little slices of life. Take the first two verses this song alone:
Light struck from the lemon tree
What if I’d never seen hysterical light from Eugene?
Lemon yogurt, remember I pulled at your shirt
I dropped the ashtray on the floor
I just wanted to be near you
Emerald Park, wonders never cease
The man who taught me to swim, he couldn't quite say my first name
Like a Father he led
Community water on my head
And he called me “Subaru”
And now I want to be near you
It may not be my favorite of his (I mean, my god, Age of Adz), but it is definitely his finest work to this point. Sparse, sharply honed, and expertly crafted. A simply masterful album from one of my favorite craftsmen.
...oh, right, I should probably play the song now.
2015
Sorry, I wanted to find something professionally done from this album, however, strangely, none seem to exist.
Anyway, if this piques your interest, here's the album version of the first track, also awfully wonderful/depressing:
(6 votes, average: 7.50 out of 10)You must be a WGOM Citizen to rate WGOM Videos.
Loading... Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free
httpv://youtu.be/VvlTwSWyqUM
Here's the title track off of Something More Than Free, which has taken over Metamodern Sounds as the album I listen to probably too much, but I just can't help it. I'm still highly debating the concert in February. Bonus "Hudson Commodore" after the break. Continue reading Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free
(6 votes, average: 7.67 out of 10)You must be a WGOM Citizen to rate WGOM Videos.
Loading... 
1965 Rewind: Game Seventy-one
CALIFORNIA 5, MINNESOTA 0 IN CALIFORNIA
Date: Wednesday, June 30.
Batting stars: None. The Twins had only two hits, both singles.
Pitching stars: Jim Perry pitched three innings of relief, giving up one run on one hit and two walks with one strikeout. Jerry Fosnow struck out three in three shutout innings, giving up one hit and one walk.
Opposition stars: Fred Newman pitched a complete game shutout, allowing two hits and one walk with two strikeouts. Buck Rodgers was 2-for-3 with a triple, scoring once and driving in two. Joe Adcock was 2-for-4 with a run.
The game: All the scoring came early. A single, a Buck Rodgers triple, and three more singles produced three Angels runs in the second. In the third, California loaded the bases with none out and hit a pair of sacrifice flies. And that was it. The closest the Twins came to a threat was in the second inning, when a one-out walk to Harmon Killebrew and a two-out single by Jerry Kindall put men on first and second. Jerry Zimmerman grounded out to end the inning.
Of note: Zoilo Versalles was 0-for-4. Sandy Valdespino was 0-for-4. Tony Oliva was 0-for-3. Jimmie Hall was 0-for-3. Killebrew was 0-for-2 with a walk. Starter Bill Pleis pitched two innings, giving up four runs on seven hits and one walk with no strikeouts.
Record: The loss made the Twins 43-28 and kept them in second place, a game behind Cleveland. The top four teams in the league all lost, with Chicago dropping a doubleheader.
Notes: So who is this awesome pitcher, Fred Newman? Well, he played for the Angels in parts of six seasons. He had two seasons in which he was very good, 1964 and 1965. His won-lost record doesn't show it--he was 13-10 in 1964 and 14-16 in 1965--but he had ERAs below three both seasons. Even granting that it was a pitchers' era, that's pretty good. He was never a strikeout pitcher, averaging less than four strikeouts per nine innings. He pitched 260 innings in 1965 at age twenty-three, which appears to have led to both injury and ineffectiveness. He made nineteen starts with an ERA well over four in 1966, was injured most of 1967, was a minor league relief pitcher in 1968, and then was done. He passed away due to injuries suffered in an automobile accident in June of 1987.
Happy Birthday–December 15
Nig Clarke (1882)
Eddie Robinson (1920)
Ray Herbert (1929)
Haywood Sullivan (1930)
Sammy Esposito (1931)
Stan Bahnsen (1944)
Art Howe (1946)
Mike Proly (1950)
Bud Bulling (1952)
Mo Vaughn (1967)
Rick Helling (1970)
Kevin Cameron (1979)
Ryan Pressly (1988)
December 15, 2015: Optimist
My elder daughter is saying she hopes it snows here this year.
1965 Rewind: Game Seventy
MINNESOTA 7, CHICAGO 6 IN MINNESOTA
Date: Tuesday, June 29.
Batting stars: Harmon Killebrew was 2-for-4 with a double, scoring once and driving in two. Jimmie Hall was 2-for-4 with a double, scoring once and driving in two. Tony Oliva was 1-for-4 with a double and two runs.
Pitching star: Jim Kaat pitched 7.1 innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits and one walk with three strikeouts.
Opposition stars: Danny Cater was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk, scoring once and driving in two. John Romano was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk, scoring twice. Smoky Burgess was 1-for-1 with a pinch-hit two-run homer, his second.
The game: Hall doubled in a run and Killebrew singled in another to give the Twins a 2-0 lead in the first. Single runs in the second and third made it 4-0. Cater doubled in a run in the fourth, but the Twins tallied twice in the fifth, one on Killebrew's RBI double, to take a seemingly comfortable 6-1 lead. In the sixth, however, Cater singled home a run and Ron Hansen drove in two with another single to make it 6-4. With one out in the ninth, Burgess hit a pinch-hit two-run homer off Dick Stigman to tie it 6-6. Bernie Allen led off the ninth with a double and was pinch-run for by Dave Boswell. Joe Nossek bunted him to third and Zolio Versalles hit a sacrifice fly to center to bring home the winning run.
Of note: Versalles was 0-for-3 with two sacrifice flies. Sandy Valdespino was 2-for-4.
Record: The win made the Twins 43-27 and lifted them into second place, a half game behind Cleveland.
Notes: Bob Allison was apparently dealing with some sort of injury, as he was in and out of the lineup int his period. Sandy Valdespino was playing left field in his place. Hall's day raised his average to .325. He was batting fourth in this stretch, between Oliva and Killebrew. Burgess had sixteen pinch-hit home runs in his career.
Monday Book Day: Re-Reads
Apologies for missing the first Monday.
I finished the Great Vonnegut (Re)-Read of 2015 by finishing his last novel, Timequake, right at the end of November. When I decided to read all of Vonnegut's novels, Timequake was the one that I was most interested in re-reading. I read it in 1997 when it was first published and I was in 10th grade. And I don't think I got it. I had always been perplexed when people have good things to say about the book because I thought it was my least favorite book of his. So, I was very interested in what my reaction would be to it this time around, moreso than any of the other books. (One nice thing about that being that it served as a very nice motivator to keep the project going, I had to get to Timequake to see how it had changed for me).
This time around, I loved it. I'm not going to argue that it's a great novel. It's half of a novel at best. But if you spend time with Vonnegut, especially post-Breakfast of Champions Vonnegut, this book is a near perfect epilogue to his career. Through this whole year I got the perspective that I was missing back in 1997. The payoff to the project was pretty good.
This summer, I got in a friendly argument with my Dad about re-reading books. He refuses to do it, using the "there's too many books I haven't read out there and not nearly enough time to read them all" argument. He could not understand why I would choose to re-read all of Vonnegut's novels or start The Wheel of Time over from the beginning when the final three books started coming out. So I went back and looked through my reading spreadsheets and found that I really don't re-read very much. I feel like that's the majority opinion, most people feel like they don't read enough and so why spend time reading something again? But the effect of my Vonnegut re-read is making me question that a little bit. There are books that I've said I'd like to go back and spend some more time with (2666 is the one that leaps to mind), but I don't know that I ever would have. Now I'm reconsidering a little bit. Maybe that will be a project for a future year. Re-read one book per month that I've wanted to revisit? Could be interesting.
So, do you ever re-read? Never re-read? What books would you revisit if the feeling struck you?
December 14, 2015: Parched
I think my lack of water intake over the last few years may be contributing to my desire to leave. Damn dry climate.
Happy Birthday–December 14
John Anderson (1873)
Lefty Tyler (1889)
Bob Weiland (1905)
Eddie Smith (1913)
Rusty Peters (1914)
Bobby Adams (1921)
Sad Sam Jones (1925)
Bob Clear (1927)
Pete Whisenant (1929)
Jim Roland (1942)
Jerry May (1943)
Greg Goossen (1945)
Bill Buckner (1949)
Craig Biggio (1965)
Ken Hill (1965)
Scott Hatteberg (1969)
Marcus Jensen (1972)
Billy Koch (1974)
Rodrigo Lopez (1975)
Dave Gassner (1978)
Bob Clear was in baseball from 1945-1987 as a minor league player and manager, major league coach, and as a scout.