Intergalactic House of Paisley

On the off chance that some of you might not be connected to me via all the other social media, a brief recap. I went into the emergency room at KU Med at 4a on March 15, where I was diagnosed with a heart attack (one of several over the week, it appears) and three cardiac arterial blockages. On the 17th, I had a triple bypass. On the 21st, I was sent home. I feel much better now. I feel better than James Brown. So let's have some music, hey?


1) Hold My Life, The Replacements

2) Trivani -- Sacred Knot, Tony Scott

3) Life On Mars?, barbra streisand (this is a real thing! I am shocked!)

4) Hippie Dream, Gitar (yes, a hip-hop Neil Young cover)

5) Almost Cut My Hair, David Crosby and Graham Nash [The Arlington Theater Santa Barbara, California March 27, 2011] (well, they did shave most of mine)

6) New Mama, Neil Young & the Stray Gators (3/11/73, Civic Auditorium, Bakersfield, CA)

7) Following The River, The Rolling Stones

8) dreams, railcars

9) Hungry Wolf, X

10) 1-2-Another, Mirror Kisses


MOAR!!


11) Satisfied 'N' Tickled Too (Mississippi John Hurt cover), Taj Mahal

12) Habanera, Dweezil Zappa/Dweezil Zappa

13) Keep The Car Running, Arcade Fire


And here we are on the other side. Since I am off work until June or so, I'll probably be dropping by here a bit more often with whatever I happen to have on hand at the time. We shall see. And get a checkup, people! Plus Opening Day (US version) is Monday (except for the Sunday part [fuck you Bud Selig!])!

For SABR. This one is on the 1984 Detroit Tigers. The perfect gift for the baseball fan in your life!

DETROIT TIGERS 1984: What a Start! What a Finish!
Mark Pattison and David Raglin, editors
$19.95 paperback (SABR Member Price: $9.95, ISBN 978-1-933599-44-1)
$9.99 ebook (SABR Member Price: $5.99, ISBN 978-1-933599-45-8)
8.5x11", 250 pages (Over 230,000 words!)

Buy the paperback at Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/4095563

Ebooks for sale at
B&N Nookstore: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1113979748?ean=2940016069166
Amazon Kindle Store: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AOEY71K

No Friday Random 10+ this week, getting ready to leave for Minicon! But, in honor of the start of opening day, the greatest baseball song evar1!!11!leventy!!

A couple of months ago, I answered a post from the lovely and talented Cecilia Tan, who was looking for someone to put together a book for SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research. I jumped at the opportunity, and now it has come to fruition. Available from Lulu, Can He Play? is a great collection of stories, interviews and biographies about the folks who found and signed some of the greats of baseball. Well worth checking out if you are a fan.

Also available in ebook formats.

For the second straight year, Alex Rodriguez has ended the New York Yankees' season by striking out to end the last game of the series. Life is good.

Due to Jon being gone this week, I have had to work every day (still only 7 hours, but still!) this week! And late Tuesday, suddenly it was realized that the Maker Faire was this weekend, and all the signs and banners and such needed to be printed in time for it. So in addition to working all week, Wednesday and Thursday were 9+ hour days (but no overtime, alas). Now here's some music to get me moving toward going to work today.


1) Uncertain Smile (Original Version), The The

2) Blackout, British Sea Power

3) Fantasy Sequins, George Harrison

4) French Disko, Stereolab (Irving Plaza 2008-10-02)

5) Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye, Leonard Cohen

6) That's All, the Old Believers

7) Leave Me Alone, Lou Reed

8) Hotel California, Gipsy Kings

9) G Wants the Same Capital, ToToM (Nine Inch Nails - Capital G vs. Scissor Sisters - Everybody Wants the Same Thing)

10) Country At War, X


plus plus plus


11) The Perfect Me, Deerhoof

12) Helter Skelter, Dwight Twilley

13) Caroline Knows, Splitsville


Tonight it's off to see the Cubs and Royals. Ideally another home run will be hit to us on the party porch, and we'll show up on MLB.com in the highlights. Saturday I'll be helping the Means family move for a bit. Sunday might have a meeting in the afternoon, then NPulsifer and I are planning to check out a 50+ musician tribute/show to honor local singer-songwriter Howard Iceberg and his ever-mutating band, the Titanics. It's also a release party for his 7-cd box set, "Welcome Aboard!" Come on down to the Crosstown Station, 1522 McGee. $5 to get in (proceeds go to the local community radio station, KKFI) and you get a free cd!

Another reasonably busy week at work, though the current projects are winding down quickly, and nothing seems to be in the queue. Eh. Music.


1) Flashlights, Women (Subbacultcha CMJ Showcase 2008-10-22)

2) Sun Giant, Fleet Foxes (The Metro, Sydney, Australia - January 3rd, 2009)

3) I Kissed a Girl, Katy Perry

4) Party Up in Here, The Brides Of Funkenstein

5) Von, Sigur Rós

6) Happiness, TMBG?*

7) Spider Man, The Ramones

8) 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, Pere Ubu

9) Preachin' Blues, Jeremy Lyons

10) Beautiful, Belle & Sebastian


and then some


11) I Like The Way You Werk It, Information Society

12) Closer To Rock n' Roll, Smash-Up Derby (Joan Jett vs. NIN)

13) Just, Nickel Creek


Got a bunch of stuff to do this weekend, including the first ballgame of the season tomorrow! Royals/Angels, followed by the Royals' Triple-A and Double-A farm teams facing off. A chance to see all these amazing prospects who will be leading us to glory and victory and World Serieseses real soon now. Sure, we're dreaming and hoping. It's all we got.

Could be worse, we could be Cubs fans, and only have delusions to keep us going.

Which reminds me:




That one's for you, mom



*From a miscellaneous mix–labeled TMBG, but sounds like Matthew Sweet to me. More research needed.

After a annoyingly irritating day at work, I raced home, where Dragonet and Rohanna awaited with my birthday presents. Ro got me a four pack of boxer shorts[1], which included a pair that could be billed as Steampunk shorts, given the gears and such printed on them; the new Neil Young album, Le Noise, which I am very much looking forward to listening to; and, from the clearance rack, a lovely orange and yellow Hawai'ian shirt featuring palm trees and (pun alert!) bottles of "Wrecked Stout." Dragonet got me a bottle of Glenfiddich 15 y.o. single malt Scotch. Nom nom.

We then traveled to NPulsifer and Gisele's abode, where a lovely Stephen King/Shari Lewis mashup dinner[2] went into the oven whilst we went to the new local bar Swagger, where he treated Ro and I to shots of Bushmill's 21 year old single malt. At one point, our waitress came by, and I mentioned that it was my birthday. She returned shortly with shots of Jameson's for us all. Then the the owner came by to chat, and after determining that I was the natality victim, asked if I had ever had Bushmill's 1608, their 400th anniversary release. I replied that I had, once, and he asked if I would like a shot. Somehow, I managed to remain calm while responding, "Yes, thank you very much, I'd love one." He brought back a very generous pour of that wondrous elixir, which I shared with my friends. An entertaining discussion of the differences between the three whiskys followed. And then a waitress brought a slice of cheesecake by for "whoever's got a birthday." It was quite good, too.

Ro and I talked to the owner for a bit, and we both agree that this is the kind of neighborhood bar we have been looking for for a very long time. I told the owner I would be pimping the shit out of the place here, and so I am. If you are in KC, and looking for a fun bar with lots of beers on tap (53) and many more in bottles, plus good foo, Swagger is the place to check out. We will be back, probably on a Wednesday, which features the crab leg special (not a euphemism). And for the professional eater, there is the Dead Texan: Two Texas toast grilled cheese sandwiches with a 1/3 lb. burger, 1 egg, 3 slices of bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, jalapenos, and peppercorn mayo in between. Be still, my clogging arteries. While I won't be touching that with a 10-foot stent, I do think I know where I will be celebrating my birthday for the forseeable future.

We headed back to NPulsifer's, where the lamb was perfectly done. We were joined by our friends Liz and Joe (NPulsifer's son [by Star and I] Eric had met us at Swagger), and settled down to watch Game Six of the ALCS. As the Rangers slowly built their lead, we had a great time picking on Joe, who had doubled down on his masochistic sports fetish by wearing a Yankees t-shirt over a Cowboys shirt. As Slappy Rodriguez[3] stood at the plate looking at strike three like it was some kind of endangered species he should avoid swinging on penalty of death, all but one of us cheered. Even better, I never saw ex-President Smirky anywhere, acting like he had anything to do with the team now that it was successful.

All in all, one of the best birthday celebrations I have had. Thanks to everyone for their kind wishes. And best of luck to the San Francisco Giants, because Mike Sweeney getting into the World Series is almost as big a sign of the apocalype as the time he stole home off Andy Pettitte. No, really, I was there! It happened! I saw it! The baseline opened up, and a plague of burnt ends came forth! But the Fucking Yankees still won that night (in thirteen innings).



[1] When one goes to pull up a pair of underwear, and can see through the space next to the central seam, said shorts are defunct. Similarly (for males at least) when one takes the appropriate position before the "R. Mutt" sculpture on the wall of the restroom and reaches through one's open pants fly to deploy the equipment for micturation, only to discover multiple openings available for said deployment that were not part of the original design, said shorts are also geschvinkto.

[2] What, you never heard of "The Lamb Shank Redemption"?

[3] almost certainly the first player to appear in a baseball playoff series while being paid by both teams involved.

Friday: at work from 9a until almost 7p, raced home to meet with the gang to see Tool. Show: awesome, as always. Bonus points for a decent opening act (what I saw/heard of them, due to the length of the lines to get in through the metal detector*/wand stop at the doors). Last time it was Meshuggah, which is apparently Finnish for Suck (Eric fell asleep during their performance). Got home and to bed by midnight.

Saturday: Up as 6a, and off to work to do a bunch of rush crap for, you guessed it, Ha//mark (when you don't care enough to get your end of the production cycle done on time, but still want your crap done by the original deadline, or even sooner on 24 hours notice). 6.75 hours later, home for a shower, then off to Lawrence to drop the Story in a Bottle™ off with McKitterick for the Campbell Conference next month. Quick stops at Brits and Free State, then home via NFM (Ro bought a table for her boss at work there, and was unwilling to pay the $51 delivery fee to their office in Grandview on a $109 table, so we picked it up on the way home). Brief nap, then I grilled steaks for dinner and we watched the rebroadcast of the Royals-Cards game (we lost, 5-2, damnit/we won 5-2, yay!**). Having caught up on LJ and email, time for bed.

Tomorrow: not a damned thing on the schedule, and beef short ribs in the crockpot for dinner.

*Though some would consider this redundant, I consider Tool more post-industrial psychedelic rock than metal.

**Yes, I am both a Royals and Cardinals fan. The '85 World Series was a bit complex for me

Armando Galarraga of Detroit just threw the third perfect game in major league baseball in the last month (there had been 20 in the 100+ years of the game before tonight). Unfortunately, the first base umpire, Jim Joyce, blew an easy call on the last out, so it doesn't count. The play was very obvious from several replay angles. Absolutely ridiculous.

If MLB is allowing replays for home runs, they should also give each manager one challenge a game. There is no excuse for this sort of thing any more.