j (michaelange) ro

Jimmy Rollins went 3 for 5 on Sunday night with three runs scored on Sunday night as the Phils took a three games to one lead over the team I'm pulling for.

I interviewed J-Ro (nice guy) back in 2005 in the clubhouse of the then-new Citizens Bank Park. we talked about music, music and baseball, etc. pretty much exactly like the interviews I was doing around that time with players like Desi Relaford, Jeff Bagwell, Sidney Ponson, Tim Laker, Ben Broussard, Sean Estes, Vance Wilson, Bronson Arroyo . . .

so I figured I'd repost it now that the Phils are in the World Series (and J-Ro's in the news), but I don't know that it really holds up that well.
not the timeliness exactly. I just don't think the writing's that good.
my brother-in-law's photos that day, however, are (see above).

(and in other photo news, the most previous post features Dexter and Sara Romweber, Dexter and Sara with Bloodshot bigwig (and another nice baseball guy) Rob Miller, Walter Salas-Humara playing with I'm Not Jim, my buddy Will Kimbrough, Rodney Crowell (playing in the stairwell at Town Hall before his set) and Rodney with Roseanne Cash)

Part One of Possibly 4th Street session #23 (Howlin' Rain, opening tonight for the Black Crowes at Hammerstein) posted this morning, with Part Two due tomorrow.

also tomorrow my piece with the Hold Steady's Craig Finn and Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers (here in New York at Terminal 5 on November 6 and 7) will appear in the Voice (ed. note: it's up).

and sometime this week a long-form Q and A with Vic Chesnutt, whose new album Dark Developments with Elf Power, releases today.

big saturday

yes, I'm really slow

but it wasn't until Monday morning when the last-minute weekly scheduling began in earnest that I realized that, for at least a few days, CMJ and the World Series run concurrently.
my suspicion is that I never really believed that Tampa would get through, because I would've cared markedly less about a Red Sox-Phillies series.

go (Devil) Rays!

but the last-minute scheduling did cause a very real sense of frustration (since alleviated, somewhat), causing Lambchop's most excellent "Your F@cking Sunny Day" to be played almost repeatedly.
(today was, in fact, sunny here, if a bit on the brisk side)

in honor of Mission of Burma's upcoming show this Thursday at the MHOW, we've got a new album of the week (look to your right).

and some free reading, too. episode 22 of Possibly 4th Street, this with Broken Social Scene's Brendan Canning on the beach at Coney Island, posted this morning.

busy ain't genius, baby.

you could make a case

that the late Governor George Wallace did more to change the face of American politics than any other candidate.
I'm not saying this is a good thing.

but the last three Democratic Presidents - Johnson, Carter and Clinton - were all from the South, a significant base acquired by Nixon in 1972, Reagan in 1980 and most recently Bush 43 in 2000 and 2004 (as a general rule, Southerners voted Democrat (as in "yellow dog") in local and state elections until the Reagan "revolution" successfully adopted a Southern strategy, still in place, that overturned the political landscape like so much top soil).
voters that George Wallace drew from in each of his FOUR terms as the governor of Alabama. voters that George Wallace drew from when he garnered five Southern states in the 1968 presidential election, becoming the last non-Democrat, non-Republican to win electoral votes.
and if somehow you missed ALL OF THAT, you might remember that he was leading the race for the Democratic nomination for President when he was shot in 1972, or that once upon a time HE STOOD IN A SCHOOLHOUSE DOOR at the University of . . .
oh, never mind.

and yet, in this evening post-debate wrap-up by the New York Times, Alessandra Stanley writes:

It was Mr. McCain’s last chance to cast doubt on his opponent’s character and credentials, and he threw the kitchen sink at him — along with the plumber. Mr. McCain invoked class war, culture war and the Iraq war. He cast himself as a victim of a Democratic attack machine, calling Representative John Lewis’s reference to former Gov. George Wallace of Georgia in criticizing the McCain-Palin campaign for stirring up the crowds “so hurtful.”

I know the economy's bad (believe me, I know), but did the Times fire ALL of its fact checkers?

somebody let me know if this error actually makes it to print or whether it'll be a soon forgotten web-only mistake, please.

things we learned today

The Longest Yard (the original with Burt Reynolds and Eddie Albert) = Cool Hand Luke minus Christian symbolism plus football squared minus good acting.

the mother of Annuals lead singer and songwriter Adam Baker doesn't mind when he says whacked stuff in interviews (according to Adam).

Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac acknowledges that "brand names sell" (but we learned that yesterday).

last book I ever read: Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn

todd snider's peace queer

now that football season's over (you know what I'm talking about), we can get back to concentrating on music again.

saw Kurt Wagner's show at Joe's Pub on Wednesday and MGMT and Beck at the United Palace on Thursday.

and yesterday (October 11th) was Todd Snider's umpteenth birthday.
and to celebrate he's giving away a free download of his upcoming 8-song EP Peace Queer through Hallomaween.
grab it, why don'tcha?

Todd will be in town (like the rest of the world) the last weekend of the month (CMJ), including a free show at the Borders at Columbus Circle on Friday evening October 24th around 7 p.m.

the belated Lambchop playlist

how many songs make a suggested playlist?
a good question, and one I don't have an answer to.
where do you stop for a band with more albums, let alone songs, than you have fingers.
I don't know.

"Steve McQueen," "Your F@cking Sunny Day," "The Decline of Country and Western Civilization," "Low Ambition," "I Would Have Waited Here All Day," "Nothing Adventurous Please" and "Prepared (2)" are all great songs (and I'm purposely leaving off everything on the new OH (Ohio) which can be downloaded from Amazon for $6.99).

but let's start here: Nixon's "Up with People," a/k/a five minutes and fifty-nine seconds of indie bliss for only 99 cents.
because if you don't like this, you're not going to like Lambchop.
and you may not like music at all.

in other news: France's Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio won this year's Nobel Prize in Literature (busy ain't genius, baby. busy ain't genius.), which is great news for the University of Nebraska Press.