vivalaultra

AL MVP: 1. A-Rod 2. Magglio Ordonez 3. Carlos Pena 4. Vlad~! 5. Ichiro 6. Big Papi 7. Jorge Posada 8. Sizemore 9. Curtis Granderson 10. Mike Lowell NL MVP: 1. Matt Holliday 2. Prince Fielder 3. J-Roll 4. David Wright 5. Albert Pujols 6. Hanley Ramirez 7. Ryan Howard 8. Carlos Lee 9. Miguel Cabrera 10. Chipper Jones AL Cy Young: 1. C.C. Sabathia 2. Josh Beckett 3. John Lackey NL Cy Young: 1. Jake Peavy 2. Brandon Webb 3. Jose Valverde AL ROY: 1. Pedroia 2. Matsuzaka 3. Okajima NL ROY: 1. Ryan Braun 2. Hunter Pence 3. Troy Tulowitzki AL MOY: 1. Eric Wedge 2. Mike Sciosia 3. Tito Francona NL MOY: 1. Bob Melvin (defying the laws of Pythagoras) 2. Charlie Manuel (quite the turnaround from the beginning of the year...) 3. Manny Acta

Josh Anderson's been quite productive this past month, small sample size though it is. And he wasn't ever THAT bad in the minors, especially not bad enough to get 'Juan Pierre-lite' comments about him. I'd much rather see the Astros go with an outfield of Lee, Anderson, and Pence and save money to spend on some type of pitching than overpay for Torii Hunter or Andruw Jones. The only cheap alternative would be Aaron Rowand and I think he'll be overpayed anyway. Play the kids and all that.

The fuckin' Cubs clinched the division. That's ca-rah-zee! Oh well. The Astros signed Cecil Cooper to a 2-year deal w/ a 3rd year option. He'll become the first Af. American manager of the Astros ever. As long as he makes a commitment to put Josh Anderson in CF and JR Towles (who had his 1st ML strikeout after 39 ABs just a minute ago) behind the plate, he'll be fine by me.

In news that nobody other than myself (on this forum) cares about, Jason Lane was traded to the Padres for cash. Huzzah! I fully support Ed Wade's first move as Houston GM.

He died in the same sense that Peter and Sylar died, which, according to what's happened so far, is to say not at all. Good first episode. I'm interested to see where it goes from here.

Congrats to the Angels and Indians (and the Sox) for clinching playoff spots. It's looking like the Cubs are probably going to take the Central. I'd hate to see my predictions from before the season; I think I was wrong in every division except a couple. I'm going out on a limb and predict a D'backs/Indians World Series. That would be somewhat new and refreshing.

The Astros are thumping the Cardinals 18-1. Rookie catcher J.R. Towles has 8 RBI on the nite, second most in the majors this season after Garrett Anderson's 10 RBI a few months ago.

I know it's a really small sample size, but seeing some of the Astros' September callups, especially J.R. Towles (5 RBI tonite against the Cards), Josh Anderson (.450 BA over the past two weeks), Juan Gutierrez, and Felipe Paulino gets me excited about the future of the team, presuming that the Astros do something completely wacky and let the kids play next year instead of bringing in a bunch of scrubs and bench players to fill spots. Also Dennis Safarte, picked up from the Brewers for cash last week, has been pretty good. Supposedly he can't throw anything but 97 mph fastballs, though.

The Astros have hired former Phillies GM Ed Wade to take over the team (in name only, since Drayton McClane's still gonna call most the shots, of course). Al or other knowledgable fans, how's Wade as a GM? I heard that he was responsible for drafting Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Brett Myers, but I also know that he's made some boneheaded moves. Edit: It might just be the grammarian in me, but this quote of Wade's from today's press conference: "We added stability and continuity and built a team that was successful, but just not successful enough to get to the postseason. It's that type of experience that I believe prepares me for this opportunity." strikes me as odd. Is he saying that the fact that he can put together a team that plays well in the regular season but can't hack it in the postseason qualifies him to be the GM?

Not big market my fucking ass. This coming from the team that paid out the ass for half a season of Roger Clemens. I don't mean big-market as far as payroll; I meant as far as national play goes. It was basically a shot at the Sox and Yankees. As far as teams in the public consciousness goes, I wouldn't put the Astros in the Top 10, maybe not even the Top 15.

Yeah, of course he gives one up right after I post. It's depressing to watch the Astros, but, like Berkman said the night before last when they were officially eliminated, this is the first time they've played meaningless games in four years; that's pretty good for a franchise that's not 'big-market'. And watching some of the young kids play gives me hope for next year. I think Cooper's going to be more of a manager that plays to win than a manager that plays guys to keep em happy.

Conspiracy! Oswalt's missing his start tonite because his wife's giving birth. Woody Williams was taken out of the rotation due to suckiness and Paulino got his spot. Matt Albers has been in and out of the rotation all year. Really, the only Astros' pitcher that you couldn't put in a triumvirate of suck is Oswalt. And Paulino looked really, really good for 4 innings last nite. Gutierrez has been crisp and dominant so far tonite.

I went to the first one back in 1999, back when it was just called 'Voodoo Fest'. Back then it was mainly just mid-level alterna/grunge bands. I remember The Toadies being there. I can't recall who headlined, but I wanna say it was Rage Against the Machine.

Ben Sheets, pitching on 3-days rest, just left his start against the Astros in the bottom of the 2nd because he hurt his hamstring warming up.

I am completely satisfied with my decision. Yo La Tengo was playing on the stage with the fucked up sound (The PA for the stage they were on has been shitty for every show the past two years). And Ryan Shaw can sing. He sounds like Wilson Pickett or Otis Redding or Jackie Wilson. And I've seen Yo La Tengo in the past. Seriously, I don't know how anybody feels about good, old-fashioned soul/R&B, but Ryan Shaw is amazing.

When I read what you said about them thinking it was menengitis and then in the article about her having headaches, I thought that it might possibly have been some type of venal clotting in the brain. This past December, my sister, who has been completely healthy her entire life, just got the worst headache ever and was bascially imobolized from it. I brought her to the ER and they thought it might be menengitis but ruled it out after tests. They did an MRI and noticed clotting in the veins in her brain. However, my sister said she never felt any type of stomach pains and the article mentioned stomach pains, so I don't know. Sad story. My condolences.

Looking at a list of 2008 FA starters, a few names interest me: Paul Byrd (I've always liked him. Must be the wind-up. He's done better than league average this year.) Bartolo Colon (Ok, he's been pretty bad recently because of injury, but he was good once and will probably be at least decent again.) Curt Schilling Randy Wolf Freddy Garcia Hey, Jeff Weaver's on the market again! Yeah, that list is depressing. Hmmm...Roger Clemens is a free agent again this offseason.

Anderson doesn't even have good OBPs in the minors. He has no power or plate discipline, and given a full time job he's Juan Pierre lite. That's not a good thing. .342's not THAT bad. It's not that good, either especially for a leadoff hitter. But Anderson's a left-handed slap hitter with speed and from what I've seen of him in the minors and the last couple weeks in Houston, he'd be more like a poor man's Willy Taveras than Juan Pierre lite. I think Anderson would have a high-enough BA to keep his OBP up in the .340 range. And he'd be cheap, which would give the Astros enough money to play with to try to add a starting pitcher in the offseason. Does anybody have a list of which starters are going to be available? I know the FA class on starting pitching is the dregs this year, unless a team wants to sign a one-year deal for an injured player like a Randy Wolf, or a Jason Jennings, or a Freddy Garcia.

Josh Anderson for NL ROTY!!!! Yeah, but seriously, the Astros' rookie CF prospect has reached base 9 times in his last 9 ABs and has a nice average and OBP since he's been starting over the past week. Hopefully the new GM and Cecil Cooper taking over as manager will help the Astros get out of their 'Don't call a guy up till he's 29 years old, potential and stats be damned!' phase. Having Anderson in center, Pence in right, Burke at 2B, and Everett at SS will give the Astros good defense up the middle and a nice, solid core of speed to complement the sluggers. And it would be relatively thrifty instead of investing in Aaron Rowand or someone to play center.

Yes! I survived (and thrived). I actually got to Zilker Park right as the fire started (about 2:00 PM Friday), right as Pete Yorn was playing. Nobody had any clue what was going on, just that there was a large cloud of black smoke billowing skyward for about 20 minutes. Word is that some unventilated propane tanks exploded and caught two 18-wheelers at the festival on fire. Two ACL volunteers were critically injured, but no fans were hurt. Fifteen random ACL thoughts are below: 1. Peter, Bjorn, and John were pretty alrite overall, but I don't think the crowd really got into them and their European sense of humor. Peter's a pretty good whisteler, however. (Although not the best whisteler at ACL, mind you.) 2. Crowded House looked old, but sounded really, really good from my vantage point a stage away. 3. LCD Soundsystem rocked the Hell out of Austin. James Murphy hit all the right notes-he bitched about the weather, insulted the corporate AT&T sponsorship ('Back in 1983 when I was in a punk rock band, it was always my dream to one day rock out...with five bars of coverage!'), insulted the crowd ('You guys should do like the little kids at Austin Kiddie Limits do when they wanna leave and cry and tell your Mom to take you home.'), and proceeded to rock shit out. I got the impression that he really liked his drummer Pat; he introduced Pat about 15 times. 4. Willy Mason made my girlfriend cry because he brought his Mom out on stage to sing a couple songs with him. He also wore un-ironically thick glasses. 5. Steve Earle started his set with a Townes Van Zandt cover that I missed cuz the sound was fucked up. 6. Andrew Bird is absolutely incredible. I had heard stories about his whistling prowess, but I had no idea what an exceptional whistler he is. Seriously, if I tell people that I saw Andrew Bird at ACL and I describe him as a guy that plays violin and whistle, they'll think it sucked, but it was amazing. He like...played a melody on the violin while whistling a completely different countermelody and then looped it and played two different melodies on top of it. This guy next to me that had never heard of Andrew Bird before said to his friend halfway through the set-"Wow. He can whistle pretty good!". And he's absolutely right. Andrew Bird could kick Peter from Peter, Bjorn, and John's ass in a whistling contest. If you take away one thing from reading this, know that Andrew Bird is the greatest whistler ever known to man. The Arcade Fire went on after Andrew Bird, but nothing could top hearing 'Fake Palindromes' live with a whistling solo, so we left. I heard Arcade Fire's set wasn't very good anyway. 7. I skipped Yo La Tengo to go watch Ryan Shaw. He's great. He's soulful like Otis Redding. Greatest voice I've ever heard live. My girlfriend and I argued about whether the best vocal instrumentation at the festival was Ryan Shaw's voice or Andrew Bird's whistle. Ryan Shaw did a cover of 'Let It Be' that moved me to tears. His set left me in a really good mood. 8. The National depressed me. Matt Berninger is a very sad man. The sound was fucked up. They played 'Mr. November' last and my girlfriend was happy because she likes that song. 9. Robert Earl Keen's sound was messed up, too so we didn't stay long, but I saw him at the rodeo a few times and he's really good. 10. My girlfriend wanted to see DevotchKa, but instead we drank iced tea and sat under a tree and waited for Patterson Hood. She's not happy about that because DevotchKa uses accordians. Any band that uses accordians, my girlfriend will probably like. 11. I like Patterson Hood. He's the lead singer of Drive-By Truckers. Some people say that Drive-By Truckers is the new Lynyrd Skynyrd, but I wasn't a big fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd and I think Drive-By Truckers are much better lyrically and musically. And they had two guys from Centro-Matic that played with him. I like Centro-Matic, too. Anybody ever heard of Centro-Matic? 12. Next was a choice between Regina Spektor and an all-black jazz band from New Orleans. I wanted to see the jazz band, but the tent was full so I went to the AT&T kiosk and checked my gmail. 13. My Morning Jacket was awesome. They came out dressed in beachwear and had girls holding pineapples for the whole set. They brought the rock and Jim James played a flying V which upped the rock by about 85%. Also, Andrew Bird came out for a few songs, also dressed in beachwear. He whistled again, but quietly. That's one of the amazing things about Andrew Bird's whistling-he knows when to hold back so as to not take away from the other musicians. Like, he could've totally stolen the show with his harmonious whistling, but he played it cool. I was depressed to miss Wilco, but My Morning Jacket was really, really good. 14. We left during the Decemberists because I like them but not enough to stand around with 80,000 people and watch them and because I have to give a test on 'Of Mice and Men' tomorrow and I haven't actually written the test yet. 15. On the way home, we stopped at Freebird's Burritos. They have good burritos there-and big!

My teeth aren't good, but if I talk like so...you can't see the not goodness. I drink a lot of iced tea and coffee and I smoke, but they're not discolored that much. They're pretty straight. Most of the really bad ones are in the back. I used to have a uh...snaggletooth like Alaskan songstress Jewel has back when I was about 8 or so. I had to get it removed. I don't have dental insurance through my work, but I should get some. Bad teeth run in my family. My Dad had to get all of his yanked recently and that seems like it would be a bitch to go through.

So, I'm going to Austin City Limits this weekend. I really, really wanted to see the White Stripes, but they cancelled for 'undisclosed medical reasons'. Four days before the show, they cancelled. Now I'm going to be forced to go watch Arcade Fire packed in with all the fat, sweaty teenagers wearing eyeliner and those stupid train conductor caps. And instead of adding anybody good to replace the White Stripes, they instead just gave Muse a headlining slot opposite Arcade Fire. And Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela dropped out (I really, really wanted to see them, too) and they replaced them with Common. I'm relatively interested in checking out Common as long as he doesn't do all of his 'love raps' from his last couple CDs. And they still have Wilco playing directly opposite My Morning Jacket. I wish I could clone myself and see both.

It was mentioned. Either in this thread or in the super-special "Rick Ankiel + HGH = BFF" thread. It'll probably die down soon, ala the GMJ/HGH story earlier this season.

Brian Giles was a Pirate for 4 or so seasons a few years ago and he was really, really, really good. Salomon Torres has been there forever.

Disregarding almostcandenza's mindless post, here's a few reasons why I think it should be reuired reading more often. -It is the rare kind of novel that actually has the kind of power capable of making a person realize potentials they might have no idea they actually have. With its contagious exuberance it can carry a high schooler without a pre-set lifeplan towards greater things than the usual traps of adulthood such as permanent factory/restaurant/etc employment or worthless fringe existences (drug/alcohol-based lives, etc). While On The Road might seem to not be the kind of novel that can lead a teenager away from a meaningless future based on drugs/alcohol/nothing at all it actually often can. By creating passions to explore, to meet diverse new people without attachments of prejudice, it can lay a foundation for college success, happier lives in new communities, and potential artistic growth that might not otherwise have been followed. -With well-led discussion it might provide very useful lessons on human relationships, responsibilities, trappings of both excess & conservatism. -It illuminates social classes often left ignored...the homeless, the addicted, the restless, the bottom-end working class, the unpublished poets, the insane, homosexuals, etc. -Also, it can be read as history. While the Leave It To Beaverness & McCarthyism of the Post-War generation are often taught in high schools the constantly moving & desperately creating counterculture of that era is largley ignored. Beyond the primary history of its own time, On The Road also catches a vivid moment that has been repeated many times since & will continue to do so for generations to come. And that, the past & its impact on future, is supposed to be one of the key points of history education. I agree completely that On the Road should be taught more in high school. After I finished my syllabus and sent it to my Dept. Head for approval, I really wanted to revise it to include On the Road. All the reasons you mentioned (minus the history aspect, which I'm not extremely up to date on besides all of the tertiary matters, so I don't think I could do it justice) are reasons I wanted to put it in. I think the 'willingness to engage w/o prejudices' and the marginalized social classes and everything would be really good ways to approch the material on a high school level, and the story's really good and can be appreciated on that level. Next year, unless I get moved to like...7th grade or something, I plan on including it.