vivalaultra

I just bought my tickets to this year's Austin City Limits festival for Sept. 14th-16th after having such a wonderful time the last two years there. There's only a very preliminary list of scheduled acts out so far. Of the acts so far announced, I'm looking forward to seeing Andrew Bird, Charlie Musselwhite, Rev. Horton Heat, Robert Earl Keen, and Ben Kweller (who I like more than Ben Folds). It's been confirmed that neither the Police nor Pearl Jam will play at the festival and the promoters have said recently that the three headliners will be 'bigger' than either Red Hot Chili Peppers or Radiohead. Early speculation is some combination of Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and maybe Springsteen, all of which would be great.

"Do it Rock-a-pella!" "Where in the world is...(deep voice) Willy Aybar?" Speaking of missing middle infielders, did they ever find Pokey Reese?

Four homeruns in a row? Zuh? It's a rookie and it's Fenway, but...good gawd!

They put more effort into the 'secret online alternate universe' promotion thing than they did into the actual album, I think.

I don't know if he explicitly said that he would be stying in Houston, but there was definitely a general consensus that he would stay. He was a guy that everyone in the city bent over backwards trying to convince to say; fans took up donations to give to his favorite charity, Jeff Bagwell took out a full-page ad in the newspaper in Beltran's hometown thanking him for playing and saying that he hoped he'd stay in Houston, managment and players all talked about how much they liked Beltran and all that. And I know Beltran made comments about how much he enjoyed playing in Houston and living there and how he didn't want to be in a big city with lots of craziness. Then, he blew off a 7 yr/$112 million contract to sign for SLIGHTLY more in New York, actually it was basically for the same amount, since Texas doesn't have a state income tax. There were oodles of angry fans in Houston after he left. The first Mets' series in MMP after he went up there was craziness. They had fans out on the streets sellings shirts that said "Beltran $ucks" and so forth. They had some fans in left field that had a fishing pool with a dollar bill on it that would lower it down over his head while he was playing. Stuff like that. I was upset to see him go at the time, but, meh, he's a great player and baseball's still a business, so, yeah. And at least with Carlos Lee leaving, the Brewers got some good players in return-Cordero especially. When Beltran (and Pettitte) went to New York, the 'Stros got nothing.

Yes. And Ortiz's contract extension was 4/$52. Wasn't the Lee contract going to be 4/$48? Either way, Carlos Lee is a classy guy who did good things for Milwaukee; they shouldn't boo him just because he left town, it's not like he 'Beltraned' them.

It would've been neater if Caballao would've hit a monster homerun to left field to shutup some of those knucklehead fans that are booing him.

So...Gonzaga vs. Couture? That'll be...interesting to see.

Between Serra/GSP and Gonzaga/Cro Cop, UFC's been turned topsy-turvy in April.

OMG!!! WTF?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!? There are not enough acronyms to describe my shock right now. He Cro-Copped Cro-Cop!

Maybe they should just bite the bullet and trade Leiber for less than the high price that they're looking for and call up that J.A. Happ kid or somebody from the minors to go into the pen. I'm no Phillies expert, so I don't know what kind of arms they have in the minors, but certainly, this is not the best option neither for the short term nor the long term.

Personally, I don't think Myers was given enough starts to pitch himself out of the rotation, nor do I think that 2 appearances out of the bullpen are enough to justify him being in the bullpen. Lieber was no great shakes this season before his start against Cincy, either. In effect, the Phillies weakened their rotation to slightly strengthen their bullpen. If a guy's a good pitcher and is able to be in the rotation, he should be in the rotation. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face. If Myers was pitching shitty but striking out alot of guys in the middle of May and Lieber was doing mediocre to good in the bullpen, this decision would've made more sense, but since it came a week into the season, it's kind of a WTF decision that reeks of desperation and throwing shit at the walls.

Even if Cole Hamels is the ace of the staff, Brett Myers was still, at least, the best right-handed pitcher and the second best pitcher of the rotation. It's still a stupid move to put even the second best pitcher in the rotation in a set-up role. Making him a closer would have been a little more understandable, giving Tom Gordon's pitching thus far, but taking possibly the best pitcher on the team and putting him in an 8th inning role is a stupid desperation move any way you slice it.

"It's like God is looking at you, just for a second. And if you're careful, you can look back." "And what do you see?" "Beauty." -stolen liberally from "American Beauty"

Is that the same channel with that show where Billy Ray Cyrus is a doctor and where they have the kids judging the talent show with Joey from Full House hosting? I have the complete run of 'The Wonder Years' on VHS cuz I'm old school. Best show ever. I could do a favorite episodes list, but I'd have to do two, one for Winnie episodes and one for non-Winnie episodes. My personal favorite season was Season 4. The Kevin/Winnie storyline that season was just wonderful, starting with "Heartbreak" (where they break up at the museum with great background narration in the form of an exhibit on extinct animals) to "Denial" (where Kevin and his Dad have a really wonderful scene in the garage to end the show) to "The Accident" (where Kevin and Winnie proclaim their love over a kinda inapporpriate, but still moving Bob Seger song). I also really loved all of the episodes involving Mr. Collins, Kevin's Math teacher and the two episodes involving Kevin and Paul going to the Lake where Kevin hooked up with that chick that smoked. And I really liked the episode where Wayne's friend Wart came back from Vietnam and was all messed up and was standing in his underwear crying on the football field. Such a great, great show that makes me type in long, rambling sentences.

So, Craig Biggio just hit a grand slam to give the 'Stros a 6-2 lead in the 9th inning against the Brewers. Where I come from, the way the 'Stros have been playing the last week or so, we call that clutch, yo.

So, do I get a Gold Star sticker? I'm gonna print this thread out and put it up on my refrigerator.

I think you have to be British...at least that's what wikipedia says. I always thought Pavement had shoegaze tendencies. Maybe I don't understand the genre at all.

One band that I like that might or might not be shoegaze depending on definition of the genre is Mineral. They might be emo, too. I'm not sure, but they're good.

Is Henry Owens the one that has that funky kinda hunched over delivery that looks really, really painful? Of what I saw from Lindstrom, Tankersly, and Owens in the series in Houston, I thought that Lindstrom looked like he had the best stuff. He looked like he was hitting 100 mph with ease.

I think Panda Bear's more retro-sixties chamber pop. I like Slowdive.

Yeah, but how many people actually read the book? It was a really good book, but, still... 'Stros get another come from behind win against the Reds and win 8-6. They're now in a solid second place with a three-game set against the Brewers coming up.

Granted, Joe Girardi was a great manager, but the Marlins last year were a very good team as it was. Dontrelle Willis, Miguel Cabrera, ROTY Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, Josh Willingham, Joe Borowski reviving his career. Even without Girardi managing them, I imagine they still would've won 75 games probably. And I heard that Cabrera hurt himself tonite. What's the deal with that?

Second nite in a row, 'Stros come back in the 8th. This time, after being down 6-2, the bench comes through again. Luke Scott hit a bases clearing triple to make the score 7-6 'Stros. However, Josh Hamilton will get one more at-bat; I hope his next AB doesn't add to his growing legend.

Josh Hamilton tonite so far, 2 for 3 with a double and a homerun, 4 RBI. Tripp Sigman...or Roy Hobbs?