ghost of miles

I'd honestly rather see the Yankees pursue Harper than Machado, even if Machado takes care of an immediate problem with Didi being out for at least half of 2019. We have plenty of right-handed hitting as it is, and while Harper rubs me the wrong way sometimes too, he doesn't bring nearly the baggage that Machado apparently would--and he's got the short fence in right to swing for as well. But I'm not sure where we'd put Harper, unless we tried him at first base (his stated willingness to play that position this summer was seen by some as a telegraph to the Yankees, who were going through their Greg Bird struggles at the time), or traded Aaron Hicks and put Harper in center. I'm guessing that we won't pick up Gardner's option and that Stanton will see more time in LF next year. More importantly, I think we need to pursue signing Patrick Corbin and possibly trying to lure Nathan Eovaldi back to NY as well. OTOH Boone's entire coaching staff is coming back, which makes me less than optimistic that we'll be anything other than a super-talented under-achieving team again in 2019. I'm really enjoying the NLCS, by the way, what I've managed to catch of it. On the AL side it's definitely a backs-to-the-wall moment for Houston--they do not want to go down 3-1 to the Sox with two out of three possible games left at Fenway. Sounds like there's a decent chance that Chris Sale will start game 5.

I recently purchased a box-set of British films on Blu-Ray that are not available in a region 1 format and am looking to buy a multi-region Blu-Ray/DVD player. Anybody here have any recommendations? I'm eyeballing this Sony model, though it's apparently not, in its elemental form, a multi-region player--for a $40 "upgrade" you get multi-region capability. (Does the seller go in and hack it to make it multi-region? I'm less than knowledgeable about how such things work.) Mods, feel free to move this to non-music miscellaneous if that seems like a more appropriate forum, since this topic doesn't really deal with audio issues. The British film box-set, by the way, looks to be a beaut, and comes with a nice booklet of essays, as well as tons of extras on the discs themselves: Woodfall:  A Revolution in British Cinema

A gritty game going on in L.A. tonight. Tied at 1 after seven innings.

Boston at home so far in the postseason: 2-2 Boston on the road so far in the postseason: 3-0 And Jackie Bradley Jr. is once again the offensive hero.

The Kim Gordon memoir is excellent. It begins with Sonic Youth's final concert, then moves into a rather Joan Didion-esque rendering of her adolescence in southern California late 1960s/early 1970s, and then jumps to NYC at the beginning of the 1980s. She crossed paths with a lot of people early on who went on to become "notable" in one way or another, which is also interesting. BTW, I highly recommend the deluxe edition of Daydream Nation. The second disc includes some covers from the Daydream Nation period (an awesome one of the Beatles' "Within You Without You"--I bought the various-artists Sg. Pepper Knew Our Fathers tribute in 1988 just to get this track) and live versions of all the DN songs from 1988-89 concerts. Good booklet, too.

Recently reading Kim Gordon's memoir Girl In A Band sent me back to some of the Sonic Youth records that I lived with in the late 1980s and early 90s, and they still hold up really well, especially Daydream Nation (which marks its 30th anniversary this Thursday). God, they were an amazing band. I really need to check out some of the later records... sort of drifted away from them after Dirty (not because I disliked that record--I like it better than many other SY fans do, I think--but just because I'd been listening to them so intensively for 6-7 years at that point and felt a bit burned out). Daydream Nation, though, man, that's practically a Sgt Pepper of American indie rock for me, and it capped an incredible run of albums (Bad Moon Rising 1985, Evol 1986, Sister 1987).

I think I was merely accepted as a little bundle o' love , though my poll ratings fluctuated wildly during my adolescent years.

I was born that day! (Dec 9, 1965) Arrived in the morning, doubt my mom was tuned into CBS that evening, though.

Yep, and much of the concert has been released on CD—but D and C in Blue is not included: Duke Ellington and Friends: the First Connecticut Jazz Festival I came across mention of this particular post-Newport Gonsalves performance yesterday in Eddie Lambert’s invaluable book on Ellington. Not sure yet, but I may have turned up a digital download of this track for purchase on Amazon; only other place I’ve found it so far has been the YouTube link above.

Three weeks after Newport ‘56, Gonsalves takes 37 choruses on D & C in Blue:

Well, the rhythm section alone is enough to pull me on board for this one.

Going to be introducing some Ellington pieces at a concert tomorrow night in Bloomington, including selections from Afro-Bossa, so revisiting this set tonight:

Boston's much-maligned pen has actually done a good job tonight, following another not-so-great outing from David Price--though Cora did have to lean on a starter again (Porcello this time) to pitch the 8th. Kimbrel will be taking at least a two-run lead into the 9th; Sox have a good chance at going to Houston with the series tied.

Night-and-day difference watching the Astros play the Red Sox as opposed to the Yankees. Plate discipline, for starters. Unfortunately, the NY Post has reported that Boone's entire coaching staff is coming back for 2019, which doesn't leave me feeling optimistic about the team changing its approach much.

Brewers just drew first blood in a pitching duel.

Hey Joe, last update I received was in mid-June, saying that all of the tracks for the set had been successfully licensed. Nothing since then--it's supposed to be coming out at the end of this year, I believe.

... just to keep him from pitching against us anymore! I do wonder what NY will do re the shortstop situation. Gleyber Torres is actually a natural shortstop, so they could move him over there for the first half of the season, and maybe resign Walker to play second base. Defensively speaking, Machado is supposedly much better as a third baseman than a shortstop, but that would entail (a) Machado being willing to play third (he's said he wants to play ss) and (b) moving Andujar elsewhere--first base, maybe? Left field? I dunno. Anyways... here's a preview of Houston vs Boston, and one of Milwaukee vs Los Angeles. Also, if this report is true, Kris Bryant is an idiot, IMO. Maybe the landscape will be different in 2022 when he hits free agency, but he'll still be 30 years old by then, which is becoming a fatal milestone, contractually speaking, in modern-day baseball.

Whoa! I had not seen that news... wouldn't be surprised if that at least includes the likelihood of NY going after Machado. The priority still needs to be pitching, though--pursuing most likely Corbin and perhaps even Yankee-turned-Ray-turned-Red-Soxer Eovaldi. Looks like Price is slotted to start Game 2 at home against Houston? As you pointed out, Dan, his stats line up much better against them than NY. Easy to forget in all of the "can't-beat-the-yankees" hubbub that he was one of the best starting pitchers in the American League for the second half of 2018.

Don't forget this Perry, who fronted Spitter for many years:

Anybody see a track listing for this set yet? I surely hope Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power” makes the cut:

Wow--so sorry to hear that. The only upside of the Yankees losing for me is that I've got so much work on my plate for the next several weeks that not being as intensely engaged with the playoffs will be somewhat of a blessing. But Houston-Boston promises to be a great match-up, and I'll be following it as much as possible--just unfortunate that Joe West will have such a prominent place at the party.

Yeah, I just ran into Jason on the street today actually (my friend who owns/runs Landlocked) and we were talking about how there's still a strong demand for CDs in Japan especially, and in Germany as well. They shouldn't have any trouble selling a run of 500-1000. Jason thought it was really unwise of them last year to take the no-CD stance on a release like this, but maybe they were just trying to push people like me into buying the vinyl. I like that Resonance usually doesn't wait very long to make CD versions available after they put out vinyl for Record Store Day releases.

Welp, turns out Tompkins Square has decided to reissue this on CD after all (they told our local record-store owner last year that they wouldn't be releasing it in CD format): Sonny Clark: The 1960 Time Sessions

We re-aired Late Autumn: Stan Getz 1987-91 last week on Night Lights, and it remains archived for online listening.