An Artist I Love: Gillian Welch

Posted on September 16, 2013 by fromabrooklynbasement
Gillian and Dave Rawlings

Gillian and Dave Rawlings

For recent Music Mondays, I’ve taken to writing posts about albums I like. I was all set to do this for Gillian Welch, but then I realized I couldn’t choose between her last two albums, Soul Journey and The Harrow and the Harvest. And, really, since Gillian is one of the two or three artists I’ve listened to the most in the last six months, I figured she deserved a longer post that talks about why I love her music so much, and why I love those two very different but equally awesome albums.

First comes the part where I talk about how I discovered Gillian’s music. I was a sophomore in college, and I went to the movies with a girl as part of one of those evenings that you hope will be a date because you like the girl, but you know it’s not because she’s not really interested in you. We saw a movie called O Brother Where Art Thou. I know, you’re shocked, shocked! that this was where I first heard of Gillian Welch and Allison Krauss and Emmylou Harris and bluegrass music–just like everyone else my age. But seriously, I spent most of my teenage years listening to hip hop. Even my knowledge of rock music was hardly encyclopedic back then. Country music? Fucking forget it.

But then I found myself tapping my feet to the music, and it was like, hey, wait a second, this isn’t corny Garth Brooks my-girl-left-me-and-stole-my-pickup-truck music. This country music sounds … good. I bought the movie soundtrack, just like everyone else, and totally played it out. Really, if you want to trace how my musical tastes got where they are today, the night I went to see O Brother is a pretty good place to start. (Thanks, Coen Brothers!) There are great artists all over that album, but the one whose music really hit me was Gillian Welch.

Now’s the part where I mention that when you say “Gillian Welch,” you’re not just talking about Gillian Welch. “Gillian Welch” is really a duo, with the eponymous singer and her longtime partner, David Rawlings. Welch grew up in L.A., raised by adoptive parents who wrote music for the Carol Burnett Show. She went to school at UC Santa Cruz and then the famous Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she met Rawlings. In the early ’90s they moved to Nashville, as people trying to make it as country singers are wont to do, where they eventually met T-Bone Burnett, the producer extraordinaire who was the man behind the soundtrack of O Brother and pretty much any other movie that has good music in it. (Fun fact: Gillian appears in one scene in the film, as a woman trying to buy a copy of the Soggy Bottom Boys’ Man of Constant Sorrow.)

Their first album, Revival, came out in 1996 and scored a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album. Welch played guitar and banjo and sang, and Rawlings played a unique, virtuosic lead guitar and sang harmony that formed perfectly to Gillian’s voice. The songs had old souls, telling stories of orphan girls and moonshiners, flatbed Fords on dusty roads and Jesus on the cross. They were slow and acoustic and felt like they’d been unearthed from some long lost cache of Depression-era songs. And yet, there was something new about the way the bluegrass, gospel, traditional country, and rock elements came together. In recent years, tastemakers (or rather, music industry flaks who think they have to label artists to sell them to listeners) have popularized the term “Americana” to refer to the suddenly popular genre of revived traditional American music, and there is no more “Americana” group than Welch and Rawlings. Just watch them do the bluegrass/gospel standard I’ll Fly Away.

They followed Revival with the similarly dark Hell Among the Yearlings, best known for its lead track, Caleb Meyer, which cleverly flips the script on the classic conventions of a murder ballad by telling the story of a farm girl who cuts a man’s throat to ward off an attempted rape. Then came Time (The Revelator), which, while still traditional, included odes to Elvis and a live recording of I Want to Sing That Rock and Roll.

As great as those albums are, I didn’t fully dive into Gillian Welch’s music until I heard their 2003 album Soul Journey. It’s a departure from their earlier albums, as they incorporated bass, drums, and electric instruments into the recordings (the first thing you hear on the album is a bass guitar). I was instantly enchanted by the album’s opening track, Look at Miss Ohio, a song about running away from responsibility that somehow manages to be melancholy and uplifting at the same time, and that features one of my favorite lyrics in all of pop music: “I wanna do right, but not right now.”

The next track on the album is a soulful cover of the great Mississippi John Hurt’s blues song Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor, and the third track is one of my personal favorites, Wayside/Back In Time, featuring another verse that struck a chord deeply with me: “Too much beer and whiskey to ever be employed/And when I got to Nashville, there was too much soldier’s joy.”

Beyond those songs, Soul Journey featured some of Gillian’s most personal songwriting. No One Knows My Name opens with the lyrics, “My mother was just a girl, seventeen … and my dad was passing through, doing things a man will do,” which reflect the totality of her knowledge of her birth parents, who gave her up for adoption immediately after she was born. The album closes with Wrecking Ball, a song about her wild and crazy days in a California oceanside college town (something I can definitely relate t0).

The duo didn’t release an album for eight years after Soul Journey. When they finally did, what came was The Harrow and the Harvest, which returned to their previous milieu of acoustic duets. Their duet style aged over the years like fine whiskey in an oak barrel, and The Harrow and the Harvest was their best album yet, a collection of ten songs that Welch referred to as “ten kinds of sadness” in an NPR interview. Rawlings does his best guitar work on these songs, in particular on the uptempo The Way It Goes and the dark album opener Scarlet Town. I hesitate to even single out any other tracks on this album, because they’re all so good, but Hard Times really is a standout. It’s an incredibly sad song about a lonely farmer watching his way of life slip away with the passing of time, and yet it accomplishes the same trick as Miss Ohio did, being depressing and inspiring at the same time, with the chorus, “Hard times/Ain’t gonna rule my mind, no more.”

Welch and Rawlings played a 40-minute set at the Warren Hellman tribute show in San Francisco last year, largely composed of songs from The Harrow and the Harvest. Some noble soul recorded the whole set, and if I’ve done my job and gotten you interested in this duo’s wonderful music, watching the video is a great way to get a sense of what they’re all about. The set opens with Hard Times, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll be hooked from the very first notes.

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Niners Week One Awards

Posted on September 11, 2013 by fromabrooklynbasement

49ers-Logo-Red

One of the plans I’ve had for this blog, since its inception, has been to write a recap of each game played by my beloved San Francisco 49ers. I originally envisioned these posts to be multi-thousand-word affairs in which I broke down the nuances of each game from start to finish, looking at the big plays–both the glaringly obvious and the under-the-radar ones–that led to to that week’s result. Basically, a professional, in-depth analysis.

Then I remembered that A) I am not a professional football analyst, and B) I watch all these games at Finnerty’s, meaning I miss most of the nuances because I’m drunk and in a crowded-ass bar full of screaming crazy people.

So, instead, what you’re going to get every week is a half-assed series of awards, cobbled together from my hazy recollections of whatever the hell happened Sunday afternoon. First up, we have the Green Bay Packers, who the Niners played in Week One in what I refer to, when I can speak coherently about these games,  as “The Semi-Annual Niners-Packers Holy War.” (I probably shouldn’t say that on 9/11, but oh well.) The Niners triumphed in a tense, sometimes heated 34-28 battle. I got drunk. It was good. On to the Awards.

The Jerry Rice Award (Most Dominant Player on the Field): Anquan Boldin

One of the biggest worries for Niners fans entering this season is our wide receiver corps, depleted by the injuries to Michael Crabtree and Mario Manningham. Boldin was acquired to be the number two receiver, but the injuries elevated him to number one, and while he was huge for the Ravens in the playoffs last year, given his pedestrian recent regular seasons and his age (he turns 33 next month), it was no sure thing he was up to the task.

This was a familiar sight on Sunday

This was a frequent sight on Sunday

Until yesterday, that is, when Boldin caught 13 ball for 208 yards and a TD. Boldin isn’t fast, but neither was Jerry Rice. Bodin is incredibly strong and smart, though, and he was able to get open on every big play, including two huge catches on the final clock-killing drive. For one day, anyway, Boldin answered all the questions about the Niners receiveing corps.

The Joe Montana Award (Coolest Player on the Field): Colin Kaepernick

People always try to pigeon-hole Kaepernick. Running QB. Read Option QB. Tattoos. Etc, etc. What the mainstream media seems to miss about this guy is that he is the complete package: Strong accurate arm, high IQ, incredible athleticism, guts, and hard-working dedication. In the playoffs last year, he gashed the Pack with his legs. In Week One, he did it with his arm, to the tune of 412 yards and 3 TDs. And he dropped a quote worthy of Joe Cool after the game, telling the Packers, who spent all week talking about how they were going to hit Kaepernick every chance they got, and levied at least one ridiculous cheap shot at him: “If intimidation is your game plan, I hope you have a better one.” I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I fucking love Colin Kaepernick.

The Emmitt Smith Award (Most Hated Opponent): Clay Matthews

The Packers linebacker and Motley Crue reject contributed to a lot of the pregame talk about hitting Kaepernick, and in the second quarter he launched himself at the Niners QB and clotheslined him when he was already well out of bounds. Given the talk before the game, I think you could argue Matthews deserved to be ejected from the game, or at least fined afterward. Douchebag.

The Justin Smith Award (Big Guy Who Breaks Things): Joe Staley

The Niners’ stalwart left tackle stepped up to Matthews after the dirty hit, telling the stringy-haired dirtbag to kindly fuck off.

Fuck you, Matthews!

Fuck you, Matthews!

Now, to address the officiating on this play. There has been some chatter about the officials mistakenly replaying third down, instead of making it fourth down, after the offsetting dead ball fouls (Boldin scored on the replayed third down). There has been somewhat less talk about the officials admitting that Staley was mistakenly flagged. Meaning that there should have been just the penalty on Matthews, which would have given the Niners first and goal anyway. So, I think we can agree that the two mistakes are a wash, and did not cost the Packers all that badly.

The Ronnie Lott Award (Guy Who Is Such a Badass He’d Cut His Own Finger Off To Make a Play): Eric Reid

Since this award is named after the greatest safety in NFL history, let’s give it to a safety, rookie Eric Reid, who looked pretty good in his first start, intercepting two passes (one was nullified by an offsides penalty) and generally playing pretty well against both the run and the pass.

The Adam Walker Award (Player Whose Actions Most Led to Defeat): The Secondary

Obviously, the Niners won this game, so criticism will be light here. And you can’t really blame them too much for giving up a lot of yards and points–the Packers have Aaron Rodgers, who is awesome, and a deep group of fast wide receivers. What’s more, the defensive line really didn’t get that much pressure on Rodgers yesterday, and when you give him time, he’s going to make plays. With that said, Niners defensive backs missed several open field tackles that led to big plays, one by Eric Reid on the Jermichael Finley touchdown and one by Nnamdi Asomugha on a long Jordy Nelson catch-and-run in the second half. That shit can’t happen.

Overall Rating For This Game (On a scale of Zero to Twelve Anchors, in honor of San Francisco’s favorite beverage): 7.5 Anchors

Just to give you an idea of the scale, it’s almost impossible to get a 12 Anchor rating without winning the Super Bowl, and even a Super Bowl doesn’t necessarily get a full 12-pack (the Chargers Super Bowl would be like 9 Anchors, because the game was over after five minutes). I was six months old for “The Catch,” and I didn’t see Montana-to-Taylor live, so I can’t really rate either of those. The 1999 Young-to-Owens Wild Card win over the Packers gets 10 Anchors (downgraded a bit because they lost in an uninspiring effort the following weekend at Atlanta). The Niners smoking the hated Cowboys in the NFC Championship Game in 1995 gets 11 Anchors. The highest-rated regular season game, for me, actually came in a year when the Niners sucked, 2000, when T.O. incited a riot by celebrating on the star midfield at Texas Stadium (I really really really hate the Cowboys, so I give that like 8.5 Anchors). The only Niners game I’ve seen that gets a 12-pack is the NFC Division Round comeback against the Saints two years ago. That game had everything.

For Week One, I’m going 7.5 anchors. The rating is boosted by the great performances by Kaepernick and Boldin. It loses a little bit of its liquid gold rating because the team looked sloppy at times, and really should have gone into half time up by 10 instead of tied, which led to the game being in doubt all the way through the fourth quarter. On the other hand, it’s a win over the Packers, who, along with being a hated rival, are also, I think, one of the five best teams in football this year. So 7.5 feels about right.

YES

YES!

So that’s it for the biggest game of the opening part of the Niners’ season … oh, wait, what’s that you say? The Niners go to Seattle for the Sunday night game next weekend? Yikes. I’m just gonna start drinking again right now.

Posted in football, Sports | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

An Album I Love: Mescalito

Posted on September 9, 2013 by fromabrooklynbasement

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One problem I’ve run into with my taste in music is that the majority of the artists I like tend to be, well, dead. My favorite guitar player (and everyone else’s), Jimi Hendrix, died eleven years before I was born. John Lennon died six months before I was born. I didn’t start listening to Townes Van Zandt until after his death. Even when I discover somebody relatively contemporary, like, say, Elliott Smith … well, you know what happened there. Given this ongoing problem, I take special pleasure in finding a young artist whose albums I’ll get to listen to for years to come. Someone like Ryan Bingham.

I discovered Bingham the way many of his fans did, in the film Crazy Heart, for which Bingham wrote (along with the omnipresent T-Bone Burnett) and performed The Weary Kind, which won him an Oscar (a rare case of the Academy actually giving the award to someone who deserves it).

I liked Crazy Heart, even if it’s totally corny, and I loved Bingham’s song, with the finger-picked guitar, the imagery of dusty roadside bars and whiskey-soaked dreams, and Bingham’s deep, gravelly voice, which Rolling Stone memorably described as sounding like “Steve Earle’s dad.” So I started looking around for more of his stuff. I was already hooked, but when I found videos of him singing The Times They Are A-Changin’ and This Land Is Your Land at the 2011 protests in Wisconsin, I knew this was a guy whose worldview meshed with my own.

I’ve already spent 250 words rambling about how much I love this guy, and we haven’t even gotten to the subject of this post, Mescalito, Bingham’s 2007 studio debut. He has a lot of great music in his catalog, but I think his strongest work to date is on this album. Bingham was just 25 when Mescalito came out, but he’d already lived a lot of hard years: born in New Mexico, he spent years as a rodeo cowboy in Texas (in interviews, he has described having his teeth kicked out by a bull); in addition, I’m reading between the lines here, but the theme of having a bank repossess a family farm appears way too often in his songs to be a coincidence. You can tell that Bingham isn’t making this stuff up–his hardscrabble stories come from his own life.

And man, those experiences come together to form a kick-ass album. My favorite songs are the sad ones that evoke trains and high plains and lonely highways. Mescalito opens with South Side of Heaven, the album’s signature track, a long, shuffling acoustic blues infused with harmonica that features lyrics that evoke a road-weary traveler’s search for a heaven he just can’t seem to find: “On the south side of heaven, won’t you take me home/Cause I’ve been gone for so long and now it’s getting cold.”

In the same vein, there’s the mournful Don’t Wait For Me, a slow country-blues number that’s a classic warning to not wait for the rambling man, but which Bingham somehow makes fresh. The last verse, in particular, is a favorite of mine: “Don’t wait for me/Sleepin’ in the summer sun/Don’t wait for me/With my pillow lies my gun/Don’t wait for me/I’m gonna finish last/Don’t wait for me/I’m mending fences of my past.” Here’s a live performance of the song that I particularly like.

Bingham doesn’t only do slow, sad songs. He’s got a couple of great upbeat tracks on the album, like the floor-stomping slide guitar jam Bread and Water, which features guitar work from former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford (who produced the album for Bingham). To me, the best of these is Sunrise, with its inventive guitar chords and suggestive chorus: “Oh, my my, see them girls shake their ass underneath the sunrise/Oh my, my, taste the sugar on their lips under that moonlight.” If there were any justice in the world, this would be a platinum-selling single that would get played at every party in America.

But as great as Bingham’s uptempo work can be, my favorite tracks will always be the slow sad ones (I know, I’m so predictable). The highlight of the album, for me, is the penultimate song, Best of Me. The first couple minutes of the track are just Bingham chatting–he hears a train whistle and jokes “There’s always gotta be a fucking train”–and noodling on an acoustic guitar before he begins strumming the chords. The pace of the song is leisurely, and the lyrics take an almost epistolary form, as Bingham describes writing letters and making phone calls to his family:

“I think I’ll go on and call my mama
Tell her nothing you ever did ever drove me away
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to stick around
Just I couldn’t find the courage in the bottom of the bottle to stay

“Well I’ll write my old man a letter
Well then tell him that everything will be okay
And even if you can’t give up on the drinking
Well I guess I couldn’t either and I’m still gonna love you anyways

“Well I’ll call my sister out in Vegas
Well and tell her to roll the dice for me
And if you happen to roll you a seven
Well I hope you can buy you a pretty house out in L.A.”

I don’t know about y’all, but for me, that verse has everything. The loneliness of the road, the longing for home, the inability to pull yourself away from the hard life you’ve fallen into (or chosen). I can’t find a good version of Best of Me on YouTube, so if you want to hear it, you’ll just have to go and buy Mescalito. If your taste in music is anything like mine, that’s ten dollars you won’t regret spending.

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

One of My Favorite Places: Finnerty’s

Posted on September 5, 2013 by fromabrooklynbasement

I have gotten to spend most of my life in New York and San Francisco, which I consider to be the two coolest cities in America. (I love New Orleans too, but I can’t move there–I wouldn’t survive six months.) I’ll never really complain about my hometowns (though I’d like to live somewhere with affordable rent–Portland again?–at some point), but I will say that there is one big downside to the bi-coastal lifestyle: Because I love both places so much, whenever I’m in one, I tend to badly miss the other. But there is one place in New York that mitigates my yearning for San Francisco, though, and that is Finnerty’s.

Only the old school Finns regulars will remember this

Only the old school Finns regulars will remember this

I discovered Finns shortly after I moved to New York in September 2010. My beloved Niners were playing the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints on Monday night, in the second week of the season, and I googled around to find a Bay Area sports bar. One of the cool things about New York is that, because so many people here are from somewhere else, you can always find a bar where the fans of a particular team congregate. (Within two blocks of Finns in the East Village there’s a bar for Boston fans and one for New Orleans fans.) There was a meetup at Finns, and I walked up Second Avenue to 14th Street, where I found a pub full of red and white jerseys, including one worn by Tierney (there’s your shout-out, T), who quickly became one of my best friends in NYC.

The Niners sucked that year–it was the final year of the regrettable Singletary era–and there was never another game that crowded. But that also happened to be the year that the San Francisco Giants went on their Cinderella World Series run. I went to the bar for every single playoff game, and upon the insistence of a bartender named Annie, who by the end of the playoffs had become another one of my best friends in New York, I wore the same shirt, an orange-and-black-flower-print 70’s-style snap-button shirt (it’s as awesome as it sounds) to every game. The night Renteria took Cliff Lee yard, Timmy struck out 10 Rangers, the Beard closed out the World Series, and a standing room only bar went completely fucking insane is one of the five greatest nights of my entire life.

Seriously, if you’re a hardcore sports fan, at some point in your life you should really experience being in a crazy packed bar when your team wins a championship. Nothing tops it.

The funny thing is, as many days and nights as I’ve spent there since, that strike three to Nelson Cruz is actually my last truly great Finnerty’s sports memory. I moved back to San Francisco in September 2011–meaning I’ve lived in the Bay for the entire glorious Harbaugh era, as well as the Giants’ 2012 World Series championship.

But now I’m back in New York, and ridiculously fired up for the Niners and the 2013 season. I can’t wait for this Sunday afternoon, when I’ll be standing in a front of a mirror decorated with a drawing of the Golden Gate Bridge,

A slightly more up-to-date Finns photo

A slightly more up-to-date Finns photo

watching Tierney lose her shit after every bad break and questionable call, talking Annie into making me mimosas,

Mimosas in sports bars--it's a tradition we started that I can't really explain

Mimosas in sports bars–it’s a tradition we started that I can’t really explain

and screaming at Patrick Willis to kill everyone on the Packers.

Bless you, football. Bless you, Finnerty’s.

Posted in Drinks, Sports, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

2013 NFL Season Preview

Posted on September 4, 2013 by fromabrooklynbasement

The end of summer is nigh, with all of its annual traditions: The days are beginning to cool, leaves will soon change color, baseball will turn to pennant races and playoffs, the neighborhood bar will get pumpkin beers on tap, and I’ll sit down to write my NFL Season Preview.

Let the chase for the Lombardi Trophy begin!

Let the chase for the Lombardi Trophy begin!

When last football left us, Baltimore cornerback Jimmy Smith had his arms wrapped around San Francisco wide receiver Michael Crabtree, an obvious pass interference penalty that went uncalled, allowing the Ravens to thwart a desperate Niners rally and hang on to win the Super Bowl.

I mean, seriously, both arms wrapped around him, handful of jersey ... no flag

I mean, seriously, both arms wrapped around him, handful of jersey … no flag

This year, with my beloved Niners again a Super Bowl contender, my season preview has more jinx potential than ever. Usually I maintain a healthy fear of and respect for the football gods by predicting torture for myself: Last year, I predicted the Niners would lose the NFC Championship Game on a missed field goal, which, given the drama of their final two games, and the struggles of then-kicker David Akers, actually came pretty close to coming true. Of course, I predicted they’d lose that game to the eventual Super Bowl Champion … Philadelphia Eagles, who went 4-12 last year. So, if you’re looking for a football preview that has any hope of being correct, you should probably look elsewhere.

But I’m forging ahead anyway. And I’m issuing challenges to my other football fan friends: To Josh and Matt, who I’ve been exchanging preview e-mails with for years, I’m expecting to see your on-the-record predictions in the comments below; and props to my fellow blogsmith Juan (who told me that his wonderfully specific childhood dream job was to be an NFL Defensive Coordinator), who already posted his picks.

Here we go:

NFC East

Philadelphia, 9-7: Yes, I picked the Eagles last year, disastrously so. In fact, I picked them the year before that, also disastrously. No, I haven’t learned my lesson. Yes, their defense is going to be really bad. Yes, college coaches (aside from St. Harbaugh, who doesn’t count because he was an NFL QB for more than a decade) tend to not do so well in the pros. But you know what, with Chip Kelly, Shady McCoy, DeSean Jackson, and Michael Vick (who, for all his shortcomings, sure should fit Chip Kelly’s offense), I think they’ll score points. A lot of points. Enough points to win the weakest division in the NFC, which is BY FAR the stronger of the two conferences this year. Hell, one of these years I have to be right about this team.

New York Giants, 8-8: They’ll start 6-2 and finish 8-8, like pretty much every year. And if they manage to get to 9-7 and squeak into the playoffs, they’ll probably win the Super Bowl, just like always. What a screwy team.

Washington, 8-8: If I was 100-percent sure about RG3, I’d probably pick the ‘Skins to win the division. But are we really sure he’s all the way back from a major knee surgery (his second, by the way) that happened less than eight months ago? And should we be all that excited about the rest of the talent on this team? I could be wrong, but for right now I’m a bit wary of the Washington Racial Slurs.

Dallas, 6-10: Fuck the Cowboys.

NFC South

Atlanta, 10-6: I think Atlanta’s got enough firepower to hang onto the division, but they’re not going 13-3 again this year, not with that defense.

Tampa Bay, 10-6 (Wild Card): I’m definitely on the Tampa bandwagon. They’ve got a nice offense/defense balance, I think they’ll make the playoffs in spite of a tough schedule that sees them playing the two best divisions in football (the NFC West and their own).

New Orleans, 9-7: I have them narrowly missing the playoffs. With Sean Payton back and a lot of weapons on offense, I think they’ll score a lot of points. But their defense still stinks, and don’t even try to tell me that Rob Ryan’s fat, camera-hogging ass is going to magically fix that.

Carolina, 6-10: I actually think the Panthers are going to be pretty good, and was kinda bummed that I missed out on Cam Newton in my fantasy draft (I know, no one cares). But they’re lacking a bit at the skill positions on offense (mostly because they shelled out a ton of money for two mediocre running backs), and they’re really just in the wrong division.

NFC North

Green Bay, 12-4 (First Round Bye): The Packers have some weaknesses on defense and the offensive line, but they’ve still got the best QB in the league, and he has a ton of weapons to throw to (I’m also optimistic about rookie RB Eddie Lacy). And their schedule doesn’t look all that tough to me.

Detroit, 9-7: Maybe I’m overrating the Lions, but I think they’re a lot better than they showed last year (though not as good as they seemed during their 2011 playoff season). I originally had them slotted at 8-8, though in going over their schedule, it looked more like 9-7 to me. I still think they come up a bit short of the playoffs, though.

Chicago, 7-9: If anything, I’m being generous giving the Bears seven wins. I don’t believe in Jay Cutler at all; he’s the modern-day Jeff George.

Minnesota, 6-10: Teams that have a huge jump in wins (like the Vikings did last year in going from 3-13 to 10-6) usually regress the following year; they lost Percy Harvin; I don’t believe in Christian Ponder; and Adrian Peterson can’t be as superhuman as he was last year again–can he?

NFC West

San Francisco 12-4 (Homefield Advantage): I covered the Niners in depth yesterday.

Seattle, 11-5 (Wild Card): They’re the second best team in football–but they happen to play in the same division as the best. Percy Harvin getting hurt, while not exactly a shocking development, might have cost them the chance to leapfrog the Niners.

St. Louis, 9-7: I wouldn’t be at all shocked if the Rams do better than this, and I think they’ve got a decent shot at the playoffs. They’ve got a tough, physical defense, and I think Tavon Austin is going to make an impact on their offense. But the NFC West is so damn tough that I think they’re going to end up on the outside looking in.

Arizona, 6-10: I watched enough Raiders games over the last few years to say with confidence that Carson Palmer is not a good QB. So, how crazy is it that he is actually a huge upgrade for them? They’ve got a decent defense, and Larry Fitzgerald is still a superstar. All of this adds up to … them still being a last place team. The NFC West is brutal.

AFC East

New England, 12-4 (First Round Bye): I really, really don’t like the Patriots this year. But the AFC is bad, and the AFC East is really bad. They get to 12 wins just by virtue of an easy schedule. And having Tom Brady doesn’t hurt.

Miami, 9-7 (Wild Card): Ryan Tannehill actually played reasonably well as a rookie. They got Mike “Where the Fuck is” Wallace to stretch the field, they’ve got good parts on defense, and they’re in a terrible division. After watching Hard Knocks last year, I don’t really believe in their coach, but I still think they’re a Wild Card team.

Buffalo, 5-11: The eternal rebuild continues.

New York Jets, 3-13: Watching this team is going to be like watching someone drown in the ocean.

AFC South

Houston, 10-6: Great defense, pretty good skill position talent, but I don’t think Kubiak and Schaub have what it takes to take this team to the level of true contender. But they’re the class of arguably the worst division in football (the competition: every other division in the AFC), so you can rubber stamp their playoff spot.

Indianapolis, 8-8: Andrew Luck is great, and Ahmad Bradshaw and their offensive line improvements should give their offense a boost. But they MASSIVELY overachieved last year, and the defense is, well, not so good.

Tennessee, 5-11: When you miss on a QB high in the draft, it usually sets your franchise back a few years. Obviously, I’m not a Jake Locker believer.

Jacksonville, 3-13: See: Tennessee, RE: their QB. Worst team in football?

AFC North

Cincinnati, 10-6: I originally picked them to go 8-8 and miss the playoffs, mostly just because they’re the Bengals. But they’ve got a great defense and A.J. Green. And with the Ravens losing so many guys from their championship team, the division seems ripe for the plucking.

Baltimore, 8-8: Are we really sure that Joe Flacco is the guy we saw in the playoffs, and not the guy we’ve seen the last few regular seasons? I’ll admit this pick is at least 10 percent Super Bowl bitterness. Okay, 20 percent.

Pittsburgh, 7-9: They’re really thin at the skill positions on offense, and Roethlisberger always gets hurt.

Cleveland, 6-10: Honestly, I like a lot of the talent Cleveland has, and I think they’d be a good sleeper pick … but Brandon Weeden. That’s not gonna get it done.

AFC West

Denver, 13-3 (Homefield Advantage): They’ve had some injuries and the Von Miller suspension hurts, but they’ve got Peyton Manning and a lot of guys for him to throw to. Honestly, looking at their schedule, I had a hard time even finding three losses.

Kansas City, 10-6 (Wild Card): Every year there are one or two surprise teams that turn around abysmal seasons and shockingly make the playoffs. Sure looks like it could be K.C. this year: new coach, new QB, decent talent on offense and defense, had some bad luck with injuries last year, and when the Chiefs are good, they have a serious homefield advantage. Mark it down: K.C. is making the playoffs.

San Diego, 5-11: One of the worst teams in football. Only the fact that they at least have a decent QB keeps them out of last place.

Oakland, 4-12: Sorry, Juanito (my buddy is a diehard Raiders fan), but there’s not a lot to feel good about here. I love watching Darren McFadden, but the moment he gets hurt, and he will get hurt, this team is toast, because they’ve got nothing else. If Terrelle Pryor really is going to be their starting QB–well, that’s terrifying. They’ll be battling the Jags and the Jets in the Teddy Bridgewater/Jadeveon Clowney sweepstakes.

PLAYOFFS

NFC Wild Card Round

Seattle over Atlanta, 38-27: A rematch of last year’s thrilling NFC Divisional Round game, except this time Seattle gets off to a good start and keeps building a lead in the second half, preventing any Matt Ryan heroics

Tampa Bay over Philadelphia 35-21: Philadelphia’s driving in the fourth quarter with a chance to tie, Vick throws a ball out into the flat … and it’s intercepted, with Darelle Revis going the other way with a game-sealing Pick-Six. Echoes of the 2003 NFC Championship Game.

NFC Divisional Round

Green Bay over Seattle, 21-17: Two seconds left; Seattle has the ball on the Green Bay 35 yard line. Russell Wilson drops back to pass, lofts a ball toward the end zone; Golden Tate rises out of a cluster of players … and gets crushed by Packers safety M.D. Jennings. The ball falls harmlessly to the turf. History, in this case, does not repeat itself.

San Francisco over Tampa Bay, 26-16: The Niners batter Josh Freeman and Kaepernick runs all over the Bucs defense.

NFC Championship Game

San Francisco over Green Bay, 45-31: The exact same score as last year’s Niners-Packers playoff game. History, in this case, does repeat itself.

AFC Wild Card Round

Houston over Kansas City, 21-10: The Chiefs won’t be able to move the ball against the Texans’ dominant front.

Cincinnati over Miami 20-13: Tannehill gets pounded by the Bengals D and loses the game … but he still wins at life.

AFC Divisional Round

New England over Cincinnati, 27-14: I’ve come this far with the Bengals against my better judgment, but you really don’t think I’m picking them on the road against the Pats, do you?

Denver over Houston, 24-17: Peyton Manning over Matt Schaub

AFC Championship Game

Denver over New England 27-24: We get the Brady-Manning matchup everyone wanted last year–maybe the last in their long and storied rivalry? I’ve always been in the Brady camp, but Manning’s got by far the better supporting cast this year, as well as homefield advantage in Denver, adding up to the Broncos going back to the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl XLVIII

San Francisco over Denver, 35-20: The Niners’ defense plasters Manning, the Broncos can’t contain Kaepernick, and the Niners bring the Lombardi Trophy back to the Bay. And now I’ve horribly jinxed my favorite team. I need a drink.

I hope he Kaepernicks with the Lombardi Trophy in his hand. God, I'm jinxing this again. I need another drink.

I hope he Kaepernicks with the Lombardi Trophy in his hand. God, I’m jinxing it again. I need another drink.

Posted in football, Sports | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

2013 San Francisco 49ers Preview

Posted on September 3, 2013 by fromabrooklynbasement

A confession: I am a bit of a fairweather football fan. I don’t follow college football at all, for two reasons: First, I’m just generally a pro sports guy–if I’m going to watch a sport, I want to watch it played at its highest level; second, I went to a college that didn’t have a football team. I’m sure if I’d gone to Cal, or Michigan, or Notre Dame, I’d be a savage college football nut. But I didn’t, so I don’t care. By the way, you shouldn’t feel bad for me on account of this deprivation; after all, this was my college campus:

The photo that launched a million UCSB applications

The photo that launched a million UCSB applications

So I don’t care about college football, and when it comes to the NFL, well, it’s just a lot to ask to spend nine hours parked in front of a TV every Sunday for four straight months. I usually do a fantasy league, and I watch the playoffs and Super Bowl every year, but there’s one factor that determines my investment in any given football season: prospects of the San Francisco 49ers.

The Niners by-and-large, have been a good team to hitch your wagon to over the years. For two solid decades, the 1980s and 1990s, they were unquestionably the league’s model franchise. They followed the greatest quarterback of all time, Joe Montana, with another Hall of Fame QB, Steve Young. They had the best football player who ever lived–and this is INARGUABLE–Jerry Rice. They won five Super Bowls. Hell, even after the end of the dynasty, they managed to be an entertaining team in the early aughts, thanks to Jeff Garcia and Terrell Owens.

Then we entered the dark times. Ken Dorsey started at QB. Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary coached games. Alex Smith was drafted instead of Aaron Rodgers. So, basically, from the time I graduated college until two years ago, the Niners were garbage, and my interest waned.

Then came Harbaugh. Then came Kaepernick. The team, which had actually built a solid talent base during the Singletary era, took off, making the NFC Championship Game two years ago, a game they would have won if not for the two fumbles of which we do not speak, and the Super Bowl last year, a game they would have won if they had actually showed up for the first half, or if the refs had called an obvious pass interference penalty at the end of the team’s final drive.

I mean, seriously, both arms wrapped around him, handful of jersey ... no flag

I mean, seriously, both arms wrapped around him, handful of jersey … no flag

Now the Niners are coming off two deep playoff runs, and are universally regarded as one of the two or three deepest and best teams in football. So, obviously, I’m pretty heavily invested in this upcoming season. Here’s my breakdown of the Niners heading into their Week One semi-annual Holy War with the Green Bay Packers.

The Good:

The Coaches: Jim Harbaugh is generally regarded as one of the two or three best coaches in football, and both his offensive and defensive coordinators, Greg Roman and Vic Fangio, are back with him. When this coaching staff replaced Singletary’s staff for the 2011 season, the team improved by seven wins, despite playing with almost exactly the same roster. That is not a coincidence.

The Quarterback: I covered Colin Kaepernick in-depth here. In brief: For the next ten years, there’s no one else I’d rather have as my starting QB, with the only possible exception being Andrew Luck.

And there's the whole Kapernicking thing, which I think is great

And there’s the whole Kapernicking thing, which I think is great

The Lines: The skill position players get the glory, but where football games are truly won and lost is in the trenches. This is why the Niners win football games, because they have arguably the best O-line/D-line combo in the whole league. The offensive line features stalwart Joe Staley at left tackle, road-grader Anthony Davis at right tackle, and arguably the best guard in football, Mike Iupati. On the defense, side, there’s Aldon Smith (technically a 3-4 line-backer, but he rushes the passer so much he’s basically a defensive end), who only had more sacks in his first two seasons than any player ever, and Justin Smith, one of the most dominant linemen in the NFL (the best evidence of which is the way the Niners defense struggled after he got hurt last year). And in the offseason, the team picked up Glenn Dorsey, a former top-five draft pick, on the cheap, which should help their depth.

Linebackers: Yet another unit that’s collectively one of the two or three best in the NFL. There’s the aformentioned Aldon Smith; young pro-bowler NaVorro Bowman; the very solid Ahmad Brooks; and of course, Patrick Willis, the best linebacker in the league, the Ray Lewis of his generation, a player so awesome, he kills motherfuckers for Kenny Powers.

The Running Backs: Frank Gore, despite predictions of his demise, shows no sign of slowing down; Kendall Hunter, who is extremely underrated, is set to return from injury; and LaMichael James is an intriguing weapon the team began to utilize as the season went along (except it looks like he’ll miss the first few games with a knee injury). It’s a solid group.

Of course, it’s not all roses…

The Bad

The Wide Receivers: The team acquired the solid Anquan Boldin as a salary dump from the Ravens to be their number two receiver … except now he’s the number one, because Michael Crabtree, who broke out after Kaepernick became the starting QB, tore his Achilles and is out for most, if not all of the season. It’s a devastating injury, because receiver is the one area the team had the least depth. Who’s going to play across from Boldin? Kyle Williams is coming back from a knee injury, and wasn’t all that great before he got hurt; first round bust A.J. Jenkins was traded for the Chiefs’ first round bust, Jonathan Baldwin, in the hopes Baldwin can turn around his own floundering career; and I haven’t even heard of most of the other receivers (though rookie Quinton Patton looked pretty good in the preseason). Can Boldin be the dominant player he was in last year’s playoffs, or is he the more pedestrian receiver of the last few regular seasons? Can Vernon Davis, who had a disappointing regular season, pick up the slack from tight end? Can Crabtree make it back? How else will the team adjust for its sudden lack of weapons at receiver? These questions all need answers.

The Secondary: It’s no secret that the team’s pass defense fell apart in the playoffs last year. They survived getting carved up by Matt Ryan in the NFC Championship Game, but then they went and made a Super Bowl MVP out of fucking Joe Flacco. And they’re even shakier this year: Carlos Rogers is solid, though perhaps not spectacular, on one corner; Donte Whitner is a big hitter and run defender, but has struggled at times in coverage at strong safety. After them, question marks: How much will they miss Chris Culliver, who tore his ACL in training camp? (I for one, won’t miss him it all: When you make anti-gay comments during Super Bowl week, and then spend the entire game getting torched by Ravens receivers, you’re not exactly giving me the warm-and-fuzzies.) Can Tarell Brown lock down the other corner spot? Can Nnamdi Asoumgha recover any amount of his previous glory after two horrific years in Philadelphia? And who plays free safety, vacated by Dashon Goldson, who took a big money contract with Tampa Bay: free agent signing Craig Dahl, or first round draft choice Eric Reid? Right now it looks like Reid, who looked pretty good in the little bit of preseason I watched, but even the best defensive back prospects usually struggle as rookies. Frankly, I’m terrified of this team’s pass defense. The Smiths are going to have to get to the other team’s QBs early and often.

The Special Teams: Andy Lee is one of the NFL’s best punters, and Phil Dawson has long been a solid kicker. But last year’s kick coverage teams were awful (remember Jacoby Jones streaking to the end zone at the beginning of the second half of the Super Bowl?) and haven’t looked good in the preseason. Can they get this fixed?

The Injury Bug: Luck with injuries is a big part of success in football, and every once in a while a team just gets crushed with injuries. This year, the Niners have already lost Crabtree and Culliver and seen Patrick Willis break his hand (and now there’s the LaMichael James knee injury). Is this the Niners getting their injury luck out of the way, or a sign of bad things to come? I hate to even mention this, but the Niners don’t have anything resembling a capable backup QB; if Kaepernick gets hurt, kiss the season goodbye.

The Outlook

The Niners have clear weaknesses, but they are great in the trenches, at QB, and at head coach, probably the three most important areas in football. As such, they’re widely considered one of the two best teams in football, along with their division rivals, the Seattle Seahawks. That rivalry is likely to define their season, but the rest of the NFC West is no cakewalk; the Rams are poised to contend for a playoff spot, and the Cardinals look to be much improved. The NFC West is probably the toughest division in football.

Yet, when I look at the schedule, I just see no reason for negativity.Worst case scenario is they split the division slate 4-4 (I think they’ll do better), and they have tough road games at Tampa (who I think is a playoff team) and at the Saints. They also play at the Titans (who suck) and at the Redskins (who I’m skeptical about). There are a couple of tough home games too, against the Packers and Texans, but looking at the schedule, barring a disaster, I don’t see anything less than 10-6. I think they’ll beat that record by a win or two, and that come January, they’ll be battling with the Seahawks and maybe the Packers for a shot at Super Bowl XLVIII right here in New York (well, Jersey, but whatever).

Check in tomorrow for my comprehensive breakdown of and predictions for the rest of the NFL season.

Posted in football, Sports | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

An Album I Love: The Dark Side of the Moon

Posted on September 2, 2013 by fromabrooklynbasement

pink_floyd_-_dark_side_of_the_moon

This one doesn’t need a whole lot of introduction. Dark Side of the Moon stayed on the charts for fifteen years, and is one of the best-selling albums of all time, along with Michael Jackson’s Thriller and the Eagles’ Greatest Hits (I know, I know, everybody hates the fucking Eagles). It’s also legendary for the strange synchronicity to be found when the album is played concurrently with The Wizard of Oz. The band denies this was intentional, but that hasn’t stopped pretty much everyone who has ever smoked a joint from trying to synch the two at some point. Hell, I did it last month, and I’m 32 years old. (Did someone post a synched version on YouTube? Of course! I love the internet.)

Anyway, the album is strange and wonderful and dark. As with many of Pink Floyd’s greatest albums, its central theme is the dissolution of a character’s mental state. This is in large part because Floyd’s original frontman, Syd Barrett, went crazy and left the band. (Wish You Were Here is explicitly about Barrett–legend has it that Syd would show up for recording sessions like he was still in the band; The Wall is less about Barrett and more about Roger Waters’ struggles with the pressures of stardom.) You put it on, and at first all you’re greeted with is silence. It takes around twenty seconds before you hear the gradually rising beat of a heart, which is soon surrounded by clinking cash registers and maniacal laughter, all of it giving way to the tidal wave rush of Breathe In the Air, a song that I’d describe as atmospheric, though that word alone doesn’t really do it justice. Breathe In the Air overtakes the atmosphere, filling your senses, the song becoming the only thing in the world. That may seem a grandiose description, but sit in a dark room and listen to that song on a really expensive stereo (getting stoned helps too), and I guarantee that’s how you’ll feel.

Of course, Dark Side is notable for its songs running together, making the album either one or two full songs (I think of it as two, with the break between The Great Gig in the Sky and Money where you’d flip the record–if you set the album to Wizard of Oz, this is the exact point where Dorothy walks out of black and white Kansas and in to the color of Oz). Breathe segues into the trippy On the Run, which sounds like being inside a crazy guy’s mind while it’s trying to outrun itself–ending in an inevitable crash. Then come the clanging alarm bells of Time, which also features David Gilmour playing one of the best guitar solos in rock ‘n’ roll history. (An aside; those alarms saved my life at least once: I was in a car between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, and was about to fall asleep at the wheel when Time started and snapped me awake. So, thanks Floyd.)

The great thing about Dark Side is that the songs all run together, but the transitions are unexpected. You never know which way they’re going to go. Time may slip seamlessly into The Great Gig in the Sky (maybe the best song title ever, by the way, the perfect name for a vision of the afterlife), but there’s nothing to prepare you for the operatic vocal of Clare Torry. It’s truly stunning. Side Two opens with the return of those clanging cash registers and Money, maybe the most distinctive bass riff in all of rock music, thanks in part to its unique 7/4 time signature. As a background voice says “I was really drunk at the time,” the music slows into the lovely Us and Them, a meditation on the meaninglessness of war and the fragility of life. Then comes the instrumental Any Colour You Like, and finally the album’s famed final two tracks, Brain Damage and Eclipse, both songs about the descent into madness, featuring the “lunatic … on the grass” (I’ve always wondered if this was a JFK grassy-knoll reference). I’ve written about songs that wait until the final line to resolve toward their titles before, but Pink Floyd very nearly works a whole album that way, waiting until Brain Damage to sing the line “I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon.” And the way Eclipse builds to a crescendo, “All that you touch, and all that you see…” with the final line, “And everything under the sun is in tune/And the sun is eclipsed by the moon ” just couldn’t be more awesome.

That’s Dark Side in a nutshell. What’s been missing from this recap is my personal connection to the album. Well, here goes. When I was a freshman in college, my drinking buddies and I used to sit around in one of our rooms in Anacapa and plow through 18 packs of MGD longnecks and handles of Bacardi rum and listen to the same three CDs over and over again: greatest hits albums from Hendrix and Zeppelin, and Dark Side of the Moon. I honestly couldn’t even guess how many times I’ve listened to this album. When those guys looked at my Desert Island Albums list, I think the album they were most surprised to see omitted was Dark Side. I left it off because, as great as it is, I haven’t actually sat down and listened to the whole thing in years (until I wrote this post). I sort of played it out.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t still love the album. It’ll always be one of my favorites, and every time I hear a song from it, I’ll be reminded of those times, those people–which is what all great music does.

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He’s on Fire

Posted on August 30, 2013 by fromabrooklynbasement
HE'S ON FIRE

HE’S ON FIRE!

For basketball fans my age, the words “he’s on fire” carry a special meaning. NBA Jam came out 20 years ago, in 1993, when I was twelve years old. The arcade game quickly became a cultural touchstone, and by far its most memorable contribution to the American lexicon were those three words, spoken in the canned electronic voice of the announcer when a player had hit three shots in a row. From that point, until the other team scored, that player’s shots never missed, literally leaving behind them a wake of fire and smoke.

“He’s on fire” became what we said anytime someone we played with or watched got the hot hand. I’ve played a lot of basketball since 1993, and have said those words many times, but today I want to talk about the most “on fire” I ever saw someone on a basketball court. It wasn’t one of my beloved Splash Brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson; it wasn’t one of the all time great three-point marksmen, Ray Allen or Reggie Miller; it wasn’t even an all time great like Larry Bird or Michael Jordan. It was a guy named Irish Mike.

You’re probably asking, Who? Is that a legend of the Rucker Park or West 4th Street courts? A great high school player whose career was cut short by tragedy? Nope.

Irish Mike. was a guy I knew back in college. Freshman year he lived in the same dorm hall as me, and he became one of my cohort of drinking buddies (hence the name). He also occasionally joined my buddy Josh and I for games of pickup basketball, which was a relief, given that when it was just Josh and I on the court, we played these games of one-on-one that were essentially battles of mutually assured destruction that really deserve their own post. Anyway, Mike was a little better than Josh or I; he was taller, around 6’1″, and built pretty solid, and he had a real smooth jump shot that always had us joking he had “Indiana game.” He was a pretty athletic dude, and had apparently been a decent player for his high school team, but you wouldn’t look at him and think he was going to light up the scoreboard–especially given his pale, freckly complexion and reddish hair (the other reason he was “Irish” Mike).

Now, another thing about Mike: You know how a lot of people go off to college and say they’re going to stay with their high school boyfriend or girlfriend, and then when they come home for the first Thanksgiving break freshman year they immediately break up with said significant other? Well, Mike was one of the rare ones that didn’t do that. He maintained the relationship with his high school girlfriend, who lived in San Diego, a four hour drive from Santa Barbara, where we went to school. As such, he’d only see her once or twice a quarter.

On one such weekend, I believe it was during spring quarter of our freshman year, his girlfriend came up on Friday night–and they immediately disappeared. No one in our group of drunken wastrels saw him all weekend–I wouldn’t be surprised if they never left his room–until after she left on Sunday.

That Sunday evening, after his girlfriend had left, Mike happened to walk by the basketball court where we often played. Josh and I were on the court with three other guys, and we needed one more to run three-on-three. Mike was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, looking very relaxed, all smiles, but he shrugged and, “Sure, I’ll play. Me, Josh, and Justin vs. you guys.”

Now, this seemed like a bad idea, because the three guys we were going up against were all really good at basketball, and they were all really athletic dudes. Any one of their three could take any one of our three in strength, speed, leaping ability, or general basketball skills.

“I’ll shoot for ball,” Mike said. And he stepped up and casually knocked down a shot from the top of the key, as if he had extended a Go-Go-Gadget Arm and gently placed the ball in the basket. Our ball.

Mike inbounded the ball to me. I dribbled a couple of times and passed it back. Without hesitation, he fired, and the ball passed perfectly through the hoop, not even grazing the rim, the net flipping in upon itself, swish, a sound that’s sweeter than any almost any other in sports.

The sweetest of sounds: swish.

The sweetest of sounds: swish

This time I inbounded. Mike juked his defender and I passed the ball. In one motion he caught it and rose up. Swish. Josh and I set screens for Mike, clearing him the tiniest bits of room, just enough space for the ball to make it to his hands, for him to shoot. For the ball to pass through the net. His defender kept pushing him farther and farther out past the three-point line, and it didn’t matter. Mike would catch, and shoot, and hit. I don’t think he dribbled the ball even once the whole game.

I remember one particular possession best: Josh inbounded, and I set a screen for Mike. He had told me before the play to slip the screen (meaning set it just slightly and then slide toward the hoop). As expected, my man ran at Mike; so did Josh’s. We both stood inside the three-point line, no one within ten feet of us, an easy layup if either of us got the ball. Mike caught the inbound pass, at least five feet beyond the arc, NBA three-point distance, all three of the other team’s guys running at him, and fading away, he launched a high-arcing trey that dropped right through the net. Josh and I looked at each other and shook our heads. We’ve all had brief streaks on a basketball court where it felt like we couldn’t miss, but Mike really couldn’t miss. Neither of us had ever seen anything like it. A weekend of getting his pipes cleaned had turned our drinking buddy into the greatest basketball player who ever lived.

Mike and I ended up living in a couple of the same houses during college, but I haven’t talked to him in years, since college graduation. To be honest, we kinda stopped getting along, for reasons that aren’t worth getting into. But twenty years from now, when I think of him, what will I remember? That day on the court next to Anacapa Hall when he couldn’t miss. When Irish Mike was on fire.

Posted in Basketball, College, Sports | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Sunny’s Is Back

Posted on August 26, 2013 by fromabrooklynbasement
Ah, Sunny's

Ah, Sunny’s

I already told the Sunny’s story here, but in brief: The 100-plus-year-old dive bar in Red Hook, Brooklyn is my favorite place in the world, largely because of the magical Saturday night jam it hosts; however, it’s been officially closed ever since it was devastated by Hurricane Sandy (though the jam was still going for awhile under the radar) .

Well, I have good news to report: After several rounds of fundraising, Sunny’s was able to collect enough money to repair the damage from Sandy. The bar was closed for almost a year (and hadn’t hosted a jam in nearly two months), but it officially reopens on Thursday, with a barbeque and a live band. Happily, the reopening party coincides with owner Sunny Balzano’s 79th birthday.

The refurbished (still shabby chic) interior

The refurbished (still shabby chic) interior

Unofficially, Sunny’s had a soft opening this past weekend. On Friday night, John Pinamonti performed, and on Saturday night, Sunny’s once again hosted the Saturday night jam. The inside was clean, but still lovingly worn, and the walls were decorated with large paintings done by the eponymous Sunny. It was a little less crowded than usual (the bar tried to keep attendance down, since they’re still working out some kinks in the slightly updated setup), but there were still about a dozen musicians jamming deep into the night. The music was still going when I left, with a huge smile on my face, at 3 a.m.

The jam is back

The jam is back

So, Sunny’s is back. Now, if you’re looking for me on a Saturday night, you’ll know where to find me.

Posted in Current Events, Music | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Funny Things I’ve Seen While Running in Prospect Park

Posted on August 22, 2013 by fromabrooklynbasement

Park Slope isn’t a perfect neighborhood. It’s expensive, there are WAY too many strollers (people bring their babies to bars around here), and a lot of its residents are those kind of white people who are self-conscious about their lives to the point of self-righteousness–and don’t mind telling you that you should be living your life the same way. (A sub-species of human that’s indigenous to both Brooklyn and Berkeley.)

With all that said, the Slope has a bunch of good bars, even more good restaurants, and, best of all, Prospect Park, an expanse of urban greenery so nice that Frederick Law Olmsted said it was superior to Central Park. He should know: He designed both of them.

My running path

My running path

I probably don’t take quite as much advantage of the park as I should, given that I live two blocks away from it, but it is my main outlet for exercise: I hate running, but the park makes it bearable, and I go running an average of three or four days a week, except in winter. If the temperature creeps below 40, I ain’t running. Because nobody gives a fuck about a 40 degree day–right String?

Anyway, the best part of going running in the park isn’t losing yourself on the wooded trails (though that is nice); it’s the weird, sometimes hilarious things you see people doing. Here are five random cool things that I’ve seen.

1) People driving in the bike lane. If you look at the picture above, you’ll notice that the paved road that rings the edge of the park has four lanes. Two are for runners/pedestrians, one is for bikes, and one is for cars, which are allowed in the park for a narrow window of time at rush hour. Now, at some point during this time, some driver always decides, for some reason or another, to pull into the bike lane (usually because he missed a turn or something). Now, if there’s anyone in the world who’s more self-righteous than a Brooklyn resident, it’s a Brooklyn resident on a bicycle. (Cyclists, in general, are the most obnoxiously self-righteous people on the planet. Oh, you make the wheels of your vehicle turn with your legs? What, you want a cookie? Sorry to my cyclist friends–I still love you guys, in spite of your shortcomings.) Truly, the invective you hear directed at the drivers of these cars is something to behold. In fact, I won’t even describe it; I’ll just let you imagine it.

2) I’m not the most physically fit guy in the world–I’m really more of a jogger than a runner–but it’s not like I’m a fatass. Still, even when I’m putting up my best pace, other runners often blow past me like I’m standing still. One time I got passed by a little girl who was probably ten years old; she wore a cute little pink and purple jogging outfit, had her hair up in a braid, and she sprinted past me effortlessly. It was adorable–and I wanted to kill her. Another time, a guy blasted by me while he was skipping rope. I would have killed him right there, but he was probably a boxer, so my attack would surely have had the reverse of the desired effect.

3) One time, as I jogged past a family standing at the side of the running lane, a kid who couldn’t have been more than three or four years old threw a rock at me. He had the coordination of a toddler, so the rock, which was really more of a pebble, went about two feet, nowhere close to hitting me, but still, he was looking right at me; there was no doubt of the rock’s intended target. I looked at the kid incredulously, and he returned my gaze with a What da fuck you looking at? glare that could not possibly have been more Old School Brooklyn.

4) Some people rig ghetto blasters to their bikes so they have driving music while they’re going around or across the park (this subset of bike rider is awesome and exempt from my previous anti-cyclist rant). By far my favorite instance of this was the time a middle-aged black dude rolled past me absolutely blaring Mariah Carey. This would have been hilarious under any circumstance, but there was an added layer because it was this song:

A disclosure I probably shouldn’t make, but here goes anyway: That song came out shortly after I turned twelve, and it was a huge hit, with the music video on TV pretty much all the time. At least I remember it being on TV all the time, because Mariah Carey rolling around in that tall grass? Yeah … that changed some things for twelve-year-old Justin. We should probably move on.

5) This last one’s not so much funny as just purely awesome: There is a bandshell in Prospect Park, right at the point where my run starts, that hosts concerts. A few weeks, none other than Robert Plant, the lead singer from pretty much my all-time favorite band, performed there. I didn’t go to the show that night, but I did go for my usual run earlier that afternoon, and what was happening but Robert Plant’s soundcheck. Could anything cooler happen while you’re jogging than hearing Robert fucking Plant sing “Baby, baby, baby, I’m gonna leave you”?

The answer to that question is, of course, NO. Prospect Park makes everything awesome–even jogging.

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