Clearly, last night's World Series game was a disaster.
I don't really believe it was anyone's fault, but a disaster none the less. Blaming this on anyone, would literally be blaming them for the rain. I don't know that I'd like to give anyone that power. We can blame it ON the rain, much like Milli Vanilli did, but I don't know that I'd like to blame the rain ON anyone.
In retrospect, perhaps things could have been handled differently.
If there was a meeting with Bud Selig and the teams before the game discussing the possibility of dismissing rules in order to play a full game, I think that probably should have been public before the game. I think it was the right decision, no one wants a World Series game to end after a 5 inning game, but I think probably people could have known that possibility existed.
Maybe they could have shut things down an inning early. If the weather is too messy for the infield fly rule to exist, perhaps it's too messy to play the World Series. Just a thought.
In any case, it is what it is, and what happened, happened, and we'll finish it up Wednesday it looks like.
That's not how we see it here in Philly though. I love this city, and I love the people, I do. The passion is truly unmatched. Anywhere. In no place do people live or die with their teams like they do in Philadelphia. The problem, is that it comes at the cost of perspective and reality.
The thought that the announcers and the officials are always against us is funny. I've got no problem with that. In no way, in any case, is it true, ever. Regardless, it's a fun thing to think. In addition, everyone here is SO convinced of it, that there's no convincing anyone otherwise anyway. The same people who are so convinced that the umps are against us, apparently missed the strike zone that Scott Kazmir had to pitch to last night. I guess they missed that call where Jimmy Rollins was clearly tagged out in a rundown but ruled safe. Maybe the umpires are bad, but they are surely not biased. They're a bunch of fat, old guys. Anyone who thinks they're the most qualified to officiate a professional sport is out of their minds anyway.
Back to today... I expected to wake up to a dissapointed city. A city hoping to celebrate last night was left with nothing. Just to wait another couple of days. I was hoping though, that we could just wake up dissapointed and not angry.
Boy, was I wrong.
"We got screwed." "Bud Selig is a moron." This is what I wake up to.
Again, sure it was messy. But did I miss something? Did we have to play in the rain while Tampa played in the sun?
From Philly.COM:
"Major League Baseball is all about [sportscaster] Joe Buck and the ratings - they don't want to see Philadelphia win a championship," said Michael Hughes of Holland, Bucks County, in a comment that seemed to capture the sour and even conspiratorial mood at the rain-drenched ballpark.
Um, what? Why doesn't MLB want Philadelphia to win a championship? To what end? We're a bigger market than Tampa. We buy more tickets than Tampa. We have more money to spend than Tampa. If this was about money, they'd be favoring Philly. I have ZERO idea where the Joe Buck part comes in. Maybe that's the big twist of the World Series. Maybe the fix it so Joe Buck wins.
Also from Philly.COM:
""The fact that Major League Baseball, with all the weather reports and all the technology, went ahead with this game just points to money and greed," said Jeff Sherry of Havertown, who came with his son Danny. "Just another chance to suck the money out of the fans.""
Ok, well first of all, I don't know that they did this because of "money and greed." They still play the same number of games. They're not secretly adding games. Maybe they made a mistake, but I don't think it was a calculated decision based on greed. Also, they won't be selling more tickets, and you can park with the same stub that you parked with, so additionally, they will not be "sucking any money out of the fans."
In addition, I don't know if you've noticed, Jeff, but the weather reports and technology fail us on a pretty regular basis. Whatever Doppler 85,000 that the local TV stations use are generally wrong about 86% of the time. I'm not going to blame MLB for the fact that we can not now, nor have we ever, been able to accurately predict the weather.
Be bummed, sure. Be dissapointed, sure. Just leave the notion that people are trying to keep victory from the city out of your head.
Let's save our energy for the parade.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Chinese Democracy
So I've heard this song before.
If you're a Guns N' Roses fan, and you have the internet, you've heard this song before.
And I don't mean "I've heard this song before," in some clever "I've heard it all before" way or in a "oh, we've heard this story before" way. I mean, I've actually heard Chinese Democracy before.
I guess that's what happens when you mix the internet with 15 years of waiting for an album, things get out there.
The official first single from the long, long, long, LONG awaited Chinese Democracy album was released to radio and the world today at 5am. I'm here, at WYSP, to download the song and give it to Frank Lario so he can play it at 8am.
I'm sitting in a production studio, about to listen to the final mix of the song for the first time. Since we have a "no repeat" policy here at 94 WYSP, I won't be able to play it during my show, so this is going to be the big first listen for me.
I may sound old here, but this is something the internet ruined for me. The internet ruined it for me by allowing me to hear an unfinished version of the song months ago. Unfinished versions of some of the songs on the album, years ago. And even though I knew it couldn't possibly help my experience when I actually got the real album for the first time, curiousity almost always got the better of me, and I listened.
Guns N' Roses, had they not broken up, would have been the most important band to me in my lifetime. They did break up though, and in retrospect, never had enough material to really become that band. So Metallica became that band. Back in the day though, there were NO albums I listened to more than Appetite For Destruction and the Use Your Illusions. I even listened to LIES a lot. No bullshit.
For today, and for this week, I'm going to suspend the "it's not really Guns N' Roses" talk. It's been done. No, this is not the same band that recorded Appetite For Destruction. That's for sure. But it wasn't the same Metallica that recorded Death Magnetic that recorded The Black Album that recorded Master Of Puppets. I guess this is more members than just the bass player, and I guess it's different, but this is still more of GNR to me than Velvet Revolver ever was or will be.
Sure, Izzy wrote a lot of songs.
Slash played the guitar as only Slash can.
But by and large, Guns N' Roses was always Axl Rose. I'll still take Axl and a bunch of weirdos playing the songs right than Slash, Duff and ANYONE singing. Would I prefer Slash, Duff and Axl, sure. They're all too rich to make that happen right now though. So this is the best of what we got.
With that, I'm going to listen to "Chinese Democracy" and write as I do it.
Here goes:
Stars off ominously with sound effects.
People talking in the background. Perhaps they're Chinese.
More intro... People talking. More ominous music.
UH OH. BIG DRUM HITS. There's guitar.
There's the riff. It's a big, bad riff. I've heard it before, but it definitely sounds bigger and better.
Chills, for real. Fuck, I'm really excited. What a dork I am.
I hate that Axl has put this effect on his voice on a lot of the new stuff. You're not Cher, Axl.
Dude, this is a BAD ASS TUNE.
"All I got is precious time," is quite an Axl line.
This is not an industrial bullshit tune like "Oh My God" was. Even though I liked "Oh My God." No bullshit.
It's not a bad solo, not at all. It doesn't sound like Axl, and it's a little digitized sounding, but not a bad solo.
The song's got a pretty nice tone to it as well.
"It don't really matter..." is very Axl as well.
Hahaha! Ends with a giant explosion. Maybe that's China being blown up. Who knows.
There it is. It's badass. It's a good tune. It's not the best GNR tune ever, but it didn't have to be. Not for me.
You're going to hear a lot of "we waited 15 years for THIS?" Those people are right, and they're wrong. They're right because sure, there's no way this can lead up to the build of 15 years. It's a song. I don't know a song that could have. I don't know that I'd want something that would instantly grab me like that, because I don't know how long that'd last. It's right because it's been an ridiculous delay. I will resist calling it unecessary, because clearly, on some level it was. I kind of respect Axl's craziness and his obvious dedication to the art of it. This is clearly not about money. He will have lost a lot of money by waiting this long. Because he's not as relevant as he once was. Because the industry isn't what it once was. He never was in this record for the money though. He didn't wait this long to make more money, he waited this long to get it right, at least in his head.
"We waited 15 years for THIS" is wrong because we were the only ones counting down the time to a deadline that was never set. Axl never said "you're going to have to wait 15 years for the next record."
Did he? Well it doesn't matter what I, or you think. On some level, to him, it probably just matters what he thinks. He's an ego-maniac and a headcase for sure. But he's a rock star, and he's supposed to be.
Let's hope he sticks around for a bit. We could use his attitude. Concerts have been starting WAY too early.
If you're a Guns N' Roses fan, and you have the internet, you've heard this song before.
And I don't mean "I've heard this song before," in some clever "I've heard it all before" way or in a "oh, we've heard this story before" way. I mean, I've actually heard Chinese Democracy before.
I guess that's what happens when you mix the internet with 15 years of waiting for an album, things get out there.
The official first single from the long, long, long, LONG awaited Chinese Democracy album was released to radio and the world today at 5am. I'm here, at WYSP, to download the song and give it to Frank Lario so he can play it at 8am.
I'm sitting in a production studio, about to listen to the final mix of the song for the first time. Since we have a "no repeat" policy here at 94 WYSP, I won't be able to play it during my show, so this is going to be the big first listen for me.
I may sound old here, but this is something the internet ruined for me. The internet ruined it for me by allowing me to hear an unfinished version of the song months ago. Unfinished versions of some of the songs on the album, years ago. And even though I knew it couldn't possibly help my experience when I actually got the real album for the first time, curiousity almost always got the better of me, and I listened.
Guns N' Roses, had they not broken up, would have been the most important band to me in my lifetime. They did break up though, and in retrospect, never had enough material to really become that band. So Metallica became that band. Back in the day though, there were NO albums I listened to more than Appetite For Destruction and the Use Your Illusions. I even listened to LIES a lot. No bullshit.
For today, and for this week, I'm going to suspend the "it's not really Guns N' Roses" talk. It's been done. No, this is not the same band that recorded Appetite For Destruction. That's for sure. But it wasn't the same Metallica that recorded Death Magnetic that recorded The Black Album that recorded Master Of Puppets. I guess this is more members than just the bass player, and I guess it's different, but this is still more of GNR to me than Velvet Revolver ever was or will be.
Sure, Izzy wrote a lot of songs.
Slash played the guitar as only Slash can.
But by and large, Guns N' Roses was always Axl Rose. I'll still take Axl and a bunch of weirdos playing the songs right than Slash, Duff and ANYONE singing. Would I prefer Slash, Duff and Axl, sure. They're all too rich to make that happen right now though. So this is the best of what we got.
With that, I'm going to listen to "Chinese Democracy" and write as I do it.
Here goes:
Stars off ominously with sound effects.
People talking in the background. Perhaps they're Chinese.
More intro... People talking. More ominous music.
UH OH. BIG DRUM HITS. There's guitar.
There's the riff. It's a big, bad riff. I've heard it before, but it definitely sounds bigger and better.
Chills, for real. Fuck, I'm really excited. What a dork I am.
I hate that Axl has put this effect on his voice on a lot of the new stuff. You're not Cher, Axl.
Dude, this is a BAD ASS TUNE.
"All I got is precious time," is quite an Axl line.
This is not an industrial bullshit tune like "Oh My God" was. Even though I liked "Oh My God." No bullshit.
It's not a bad solo, not at all. It doesn't sound like Axl, and it's a little digitized sounding, but not a bad solo.
The song's got a pretty nice tone to it as well.
"It don't really matter..." is very Axl as well.
Hahaha! Ends with a giant explosion. Maybe that's China being blown up. Who knows.
There it is. It's badass. It's a good tune. It's not the best GNR tune ever, but it didn't have to be. Not for me.
You're going to hear a lot of "we waited 15 years for THIS?" Those people are right, and they're wrong. They're right because sure, there's no way this can lead up to the build of 15 years. It's a song. I don't know a song that could have. I don't know that I'd want something that would instantly grab me like that, because I don't know how long that'd last. It's right because it's been an ridiculous delay. I will resist calling it unecessary, because clearly, on some level it was. I kind of respect Axl's craziness and his obvious dedication to the art of it. This is clearly not about money. He will have lost a lot of money by waiting this long. Because he's not as relevant as he once was. Because the industry isn't what it once was. He never was in this record for the money though. He didn't wait this long to make more money, he waited this long to get it right, at least in his head.
"We waited 15 years for THIS" is wrong because we were the only ones counting down the time to a deadline that was never set. Axl never said "you're going to have to wait 15 years for the next record."
Did he? Well it doesn't matter what I, or you think. On some level, to him, it probably just matters what he thinks. He's an ego-maniac and a headcase for sure. But he's a rock star, and he's supposed to be.
Let's hope he sticks around for a bit. We could use his attitude. Concerts have been starting WAY too early.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
8 From The 80's - Day 2
1. George Thorogood - Bad To The Bone
2. Lita Ford & Ozzy Osbourne - If I Close My Eyes Forever
3. Van Halen - Everybody Wants Some
4. Warrant - Heaven
5. Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane
6. Motley Crue - Wild Side
7. Tesla - Signs
8. Guns N' Roses - Mr Brownstone
2. Lita Ford & Ozzy Osbourne - If I Close My Eyes Forever
3. Van Halen - Everybody Wants Some
4. Warrant - Heaven
5. Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane
6. Motley Crue - Wild Side
7. Tesla - Signs
8. Guns N' Roses - Mr Brownstone
Monday, October 13, 2008
8 From The 80's - Day 1
Today was the first day for "8 From The 80's," which will happen every day at noon.
Anything worth listening to was recorded in the 80's. You know that.
Here's day 1:
1 - Skid Row - 18 and Life
2 - Iron Maiden - Run To The Hills
3 - Rush - Limelight
4 - Metallica - Master Of Puppets
5 - AC/DC - Back In Black
6 - Cinderella - Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)
7 - Guns N' Roses - Welcome To The Jungle (Live)
8 - Def Leppard - Love Bites
Anything worth listening to was recorded in the 80's. You know that.
Here's day 1:
1 - Skid Row - 18 and Life
2 - Iron Maiden - Run To The Hills
3 - Rush - Limelight
4 - Metallica - Master Of Puppets
5 - AC/DC - Back In Black
6 - Cinderella - Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)
7 - Guns N' Roses - Welcome To The Jungle (Live)
8 - Def Leppard - Love Bites
Thursday, October 2, 2008
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