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Author: Bryant

Upward from here

October 24, 2004
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Some things that are important about the just concluded Game One of the World Series:

That could well have been the worst starting pitching the Cardinals will have to face this series. Wakefield is pretty bad when he’s not on his game. Four out of the remaining six games will feature Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling, and while Pedro has certainly declined, there’s no question but that he’s better than Wakefield was today. The other two games are Lowe and Wakefield, both of whom are capable of raising the bar somewhat higher.

Meanwhile, we’ve seen Woody Williams, who’s been stellar in the last few months. The rest of the Cardinals pitchers don’t suck, but there is no reason to think that they will pitch any better than Williams did. Also, Matt Morris will be pitching on three games rest on Sunday. Scary.

All this means nothing if Schilling’s ankle gives way. Urk.

The Red Sox will not have another four-error game this series. I feel pretty confident about that, actually.

Tony Womack may not be back after he got hit by Ortiz’ wicked single. He’s had collarbone problems in the past, it seems. This is bad for the Cardinals, since he’s a .307 hitter this year. (And he broke camp with Boston… although I’m not gonna complain about having Bellhorn at second, not tonight.)

All in all, I’m feeling pretty good about this one. It’s looking quite sunny for Boston.

Hiring policy

October 22, 2004
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The most terrifying sentence in this Washington Post article about Kerry’s cabinet choices is this: “John Sasso, who was recently put on the Kerry plane to restore order and discipline, is making a move for chief of staff, too, campaign sources say.”

In case anyone was under any false impressions, John Sasso is not a nicer person than Karl Rove. He just happens to be on Kerry’s side.

It’s a pretty pro-Kerry article, by the by. The first few paragraphs are particularly beneficial — the article starts out with a joke about Kerry having a tough time making decisions, but then defuses the negative implications by pointing out that Kerry may well make the tough bi-partisan decision to put a Republican in as Secretary of State. That speculation also helps shore up Kerry’s image as a uniter who can fix the problems Bush has created.

Meanwhile, the equivalent Bush article talks about major changes in his cabinet, which leaves one with the implication that Bush’s first term cabinet wasn’t doing such a great job. Warms the cockles of my heart, it does.

Nihilesque

October 21, 2004
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Never did get around to talking about Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, did I? Well, I didn’t really like it that much.

I didn’t mind the violence. I didn’t even find it very distressing. Yeah, there’s a lengthy scene during which a young woman gets electrocuted. I’ve seen True Lies; you can’t faze me. I also didn’t have any objection to the theme of the movie — “the desire for vengeance reduces everyone to the same primitive level.”

What bugged me was the farce and the coincidence. I don’t think you can get any serious discussion about the human condition out of a movie that sticks a retarded guy into the middle of the plot for no reason; sure, you needed a character there, but he didn’t actually need to be handicapped. It’s just a chance to chuckle. The kids masturbating to the sound of someone writhing in pain, since they assume it’s passion? That doesn’t have any weight behind it, it’s just something for us to laugh at. And there’s a lot of that sort of thing in the movie.

This is vengeance porn made by a pretty talented director who invites us to snicker at the stupid people. Cause really, that’s the not so subtle message. “These people are dumber than you.” The movie is populated by caricatures and thus forfeits any ability to pretend to be about the general human condition… and once it loses that pretense, it’s just a flick about dumb people hurting each other.

Sultans of swat

October 21, 2004
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You get a shiver in the dark
It’s been raining in the park but meantime
South of the river you stop and you hold everything.

So here’s what I said last year at this time. Kinda sucks to use up all the best words early; but I burn with a fierce bright joy in this moment, realizing that I was right, so very right, simply off by a year in the one small detail that matters most of all.

I think they will win tomorrow. I think Pedro will find the hard core of anger at his center that he uses to pitch his very best games. I think Roger will falter in the final game of his career, as perverse payback for 1986. I think the heart of the Red Sox batting order — a heart which is, make no mistake, nine men large — has remembered how to bat. I think we’ll see a classic, and I think that when the dust clears the Red Sox will stand in the midst of the enemy, victorious.

But if the worst happens, I know that I will still be telling stories of this season decades from now. The year I came back to Boston, the Red Sox wrote a story to remember. I thank them.

What arrogance! To assume the story would only last a year. We were young then, and callow.

And a crowd of young boys they’re fooling around in the corner
Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles

It’s odd. Somehow it seems as though the Yankees and the Red Sox should meet next year in the World Series. It feels wrong that this is impossible. The next few days, this coming week? I find myself incapable of understanding it. Eighteen years ago, I was sitting in a hotel room in London watching the BBC recap show. They’d go an hour, showing only the most important clips from the game. It was game six. There were twenty minutes left in the hour. I kept telling myself that the last ten minutes would be the celebration after the victory.

And Harry doesn’t mind if he doesn’t make the scene
He’s got a daytime job, he’s doing alright
He can play honky tonk just like anything
Saving it up for Friday night

I don’t know how to react to seeing the Red Sox in the World Series. I have no earthly idea. But I know how to celebrate what they’ve just done.

And then the man he steps right up to the microphone
And says at last just as the time bell rings
“Thank you, good night, now it’s time to go home,”
And he makes it fast with one more thing
“We are the Sultans —
“We are the Sultans of Swing.”

Dirty water

October 21, 2004
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I’m gonna tell you a story
I’m gonna tell you about my town
I’m gonna tell you a big bad story, baby
Aww, it’s all about my town

Yeah, down by the river
Down by the banks of the river Charles (aw, that’s what’s happenin’ baby)
That’s where you’ll find me
Along with lovers, fuggers, and thieves (aw, but they’re cool people)
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston, you’re my home (oh, you’re the Number One place)
Frustrated women (I mean they’re frustrated)
Have to be in by twelve o’clock (oh, that’s a shame)
But I’m wishin’ and a-hopin, oh
That just once those doors weren’t locked (I like to save time for my baby to walk around)
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston, you’re my home (oh, yeah)

Because I love that dirty water
Oh, oh, Boston, you’re my home (oh, yeah)

Well, I love that dirty water (I love it, baby)
I love that dirty water (I love Baw-stun)
I love that dirty water (Have you heard about the Strangler?)
I love that dirty water (I’m the man, I’m the man)
I love that dirty water (Owww!)
I love that dirty water (Come on, come on) [fade]

Killing blow

October 18, 2004
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Eric Raymond flips allll the way over into the cult of tradition with a resounding thud:

“A deadly genius is a talent so impressive that he can break and remake all the rules of the form, and seduce others into trying to emulate his disruptive brilliance — even when those followers lack the raw ability or grounding to make art in the new idiom the the genius has defined.”

He then goes on to explain that Picasso, Coltrane, Joyce, Schoenberg, and Brancusi killed their respective fields by being so brilliant. For bonus points, he posits that the problem was caused by the death of the patronage system. You see, once artists were permitted to do whatever they liked, some of them produced deadly work.

The former sentence is not an exaggeration. The exact quote: “Geniuses were not permitted to become deadly.” I.e., geniuses were not allowed to break and remake all the rules of the form. And, in Eric Raymond’s eyes, this was a good thing.

This obsession with safety over risk is really getting out of hand.