folk fest music review

second first of all, this all will also be highly subjective, completely myopic, (i by no means got to all the venues nor performances as i mentioned in the last/next post), and absolutely biased, but it again is the proverbial one man's opinion, and offered in the same way that you know the deal:

every year there's something that i've never heard before, wanted to, and found disappointing. this year that for me was the inuit throat singing--though, to be fair, the alash ensemble of tuvan throat singers from years past set an unconquerable summit of such and in retrospect i should not have been so surprised nor disappointed. (unlike tuvans whose practitioners are largely male, and singing what might be recognizable to anyone as multi-part-harmony songs, the inuits practice primarily between pairs of females, and the huffing and panting is not nearly what might be recognizable to most as songs, though, as they suggested in their introductions, more as a parlor game to be used as a pastime, as, say, children might enter into a staring contest to see who might blink or laugh first). last year's disappointment was the klezmer music, and like the inuit throating, i can honestly say i'm glad i saw it, but lets also just honestly say i won't be buying either record.

on the other hand, every year there's something that i've never heard before, nor knew how much i needed to, but found to love with a passion. (see tuvan throat singing above, and, yes, i bought the record). this year that award goes to local musicians going by the simple moniker "the shodds", and it actually was at a venue not in any way other than coincidence of time and place associated with the (not from) lowell folk festival. (they were on jackson street at the "uptown music and arts festival", and on itunes). "i know a place", and it's "low, lower, lowest, lowell", and you can get there only via this incredible band that is, sadly for the world, no longer except on rare reunion occasion. (sworn to have been the last, be we all know how that can never be predicted with certainty...) the shodds. you know what to do: http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/the-shods/id4255173

beyond that, i loved bill kirchen and too much fun best among the festival acts, and scrupulously avoided the folk fiddle music as i try my best every year. (this year it was chosen to be delivered via some very comely quebec farm girls who i'm sure were the highlight of the show to many, but not for me, and hasn't it all been heard before?) ledward ka'apana's slack key hawaiian guitar was particularly uplifting and soothing, and my other favorite.

what were yours?

OH!!! melvern taylor and his fabulous meltones? FABULOUS! they opened for the shodds over on jackson street, and, with their new bass player, matt murphy, are sounding better than almost ever. (johnny we miss you!). i met up with a college buddy i haven't seen in literally 30 years at a small party on saturday late afternoon, and talked it up just enough to get him there, and he LOVED it. his wife loved it. everybody loved it. there's nothing like it. which gives opportunity to give some props to dave livingston, who plays a remarkably toneful slide guitar for melvern, and a remarkably powerful bass guitar for the shodds, and puts out on the first hand such subtle and soulful backing vocals, and on the second a thoroughly rewarding rock and roll anthem chorus. does anyone else feel like they'll never amount to anything when they see how multi-talented so many talented people can be? but it's an inspiration, too--it's music, it's real, it's from the heart, and you know it's in all of us.

we just have to step up and give it its voice.

i'm practicing extra hard this week.

folk fest food review

first of all, this all will be highly subjective, completely myopic, (i by no means got to all the tents nor venues nor performances for that matter), and absolutely biased, but it's at least one man's opinion, and offered therefore without further excuse.

every year i discover something new to become a "must do" element of my folk festing, and this year it's the nigerian goat stew in front of st anne's church--last year i was too late to that particular location to get any, and now i know on how much i missed out. it's perhaps the "goat" part that will have many readers skipping to the next paragraph, but this was a savory stew of remarkable tenderness, delectability and deliciousness that needs to be tasted to be believed. i made the error of ordering mine without rice, and once i had greedily speared and consumed every last spearable bit, i was scooping through the sauce with my fork like a man dying of thirst in the desert would scoop through water. it was that good. next year--RICE, so to soak up and give body to every last single possible drop of it. this is a "must do" if ever there was one. (speaking of "must do's", the perennial favorite philippino tent on french street was also an important stop, where this year the line was almost back to the canal by lucy larcom--these folks have it going on for sure).

among my other notable gastric discoveries, the lao barbecue by the dutton street dance pavilion combined an amazingly tender and tasty beef skewer with prices that beat everyone else's at the festival--$2 for the beef, a buck for a pair of spring rolls, and the bargains go on and on. the beef was the best i had all weekend, and though i didn't have room for the papaya salad, i'm going to try theirs next year if i can manage it. a great find!!!

the last but not least food-oriented item i'm compelled to recognize were the FREE WINGS! at wings over lowell on market st. their inspections become complete (hopefully) on monday, so they were required to give away their food, but i'm given to understand they would have done it anyway to start a little buzz, and start it they have. the wings are fresh, MEATY, (these are not the previously frozen and dry little drumsticks you get most places around town--these are the real thing), and the sauces plentiful from which to choose. i chose honey mustard, which, i have to say, wouldn't need to be chosen again, but from the line of people in the shop who have had their buffalo and other styles at their hangar in amherst, i'm given to understand i am in for a serious treat when i fire up the real deals this coming week.

some sunday video for your viewing pleasure

paul marion who contributes to the dick howe blog linked this on another forum, and i think it's too good to remain without all possible circulation:

bruce bartlett, former deputy assistant treasury secretary under george h w bush and a policy advisor to ronald reagan, participates in an interview with chris matthews (yes, i know, but this is in this case bartlett's show, so please bear with the forum) and discusses the origins of our present debt difficulties.

the tv guide synopsis might boil it down to "reagan economist calls out dubya on the debt", but partisanship doesn't do any of us any good right now. please watch and think for yourself.

thanks, paul!

are you sure we're talking about the same guy?

some putz (our word for today) at the bleacher report just bragged on the naming of jurgen klinsmann to coach the us national soccer team that "he will focus on creating an organized and defensive side". really?!? hey BR--are you sure we're talking about the same guy???

klinsmann has a great player's resume, including world cup (1990), uefa european championship (1996) titles, and a well-earned international coaching reputation for prioritizing attacking football. he does things like install right-footed defenders in at left back, (hello joachim low), and bench older, more conservative workhorses in favor of younger, flashier players. (oliver kahn, we miss you). but nowhere has anyone ever accused him on prioritizing "organized and defensive" football, and i hardly think he's likely to start now.

the present us team is arguably full of wood-footed overachievers. midfielders maurice edu and michael bradley are more than solid, even if unspectacular players, but they're never going to electrify a stadium as could old klinsmann favorites like michael ballack and bastian schweinsteiger. left back jonathan bornstein, unfairly moved into the us soccer equivalent of the old german russian front from his natural striker position, is no joachim low, and you know he's likely to be the first casualty in the upcoming organizational pogrom that puts a premium on youth, fitness and elan, and not the last.

bradley, to be clear and to be fair, likely has a very prominent role to enjoy among a klinsmann side, if torsten frings' midfield pairing and partnership with michael ballack is any indication. but many other of the older and less imaginative players are likely to find their lockers occupied by younger and hungrier upstarts. (welcome back, freddie adu--all is forgiven).

(apologies to all of the non-soccer fan readership, but it's a big deal, even if that tree falls silently in your particular forest).

2014, baby!!!

that's not my car, that's my big brother's

i read with fascination the court details behind a three-car accident on route 2 this past may (lisa redmond, i love you) in which it was determined via the perpetrator's own car's own on-board computer that the vehicle was traveling at 110 miles per hour upon the moment of the crash. (it was also determined via the perpetrator's own credit card's own computer record from the restaurant he visited immediately prior to the accident that he and his passenger has consumed 2 beers each there, despite the driver's being able to blow .11 on a breathalizer four hours after the accident, a coincidence which would seem to corroborate circumstantial testimony from an emergency room physician that the suspect self-reported having had at least five drinks that night, implying he had topped off at home before heading out, but lets not digress).

first of all, lisa redmond rocks, and there is nothing like one of her courtroom stories in this newspaper or any other.

second of all, it's something i'm sure few people consider, that the little bread crumbs of our daily lives are strewn behind us in a way that's never before been as clear or as easy to follow as in these days of ubiquitous computer records and savvy law enforcement. the cops and the court know exactly how many minutes it took to get from the restaurant to the crash scene, (19, which we could either assume is the car's computer time upon the crash minus the restaurant's credit card machine's computer time, or maybe just the car's computer time), and everything right down to what the alleged perpetrator had for dinner.

interesting times

now you know

i caught a peek at fuse bistro's upcoming menus, and had to guffaw over the last item on their lunch menu, which is the same as the first item on their dinner menu's appetizer section, which is, go figure, the same as the last item on their dinner menu's salad section , and don't ask me why it's required to be listed on a menu comprised of exactly 20 unique items twice: "organic baby lettuces".

"lettuces"???

LOLOLOLOLOL

etymologists might prefer to point out that the origin of the word they're trying to use is the old french plural, "laitues', and so it's essentially plural already when you say, as all we non-pretentious, non-asshole, non-restauranteurs say, "lettuce", (think how you would say "greens", but never "a green" to describe salad fixings), but all we non-pretentious, non-asshole, non-restauranteurs never bother to think in terms beyond "what a putzes".

ok, that's harsh, but i would posit it's no more harsh than asking $7 for what i am willing to bet anyone right here and right now is a tiny little bowl of tiny little leafy bits that wouldn't be enough to cover up the naughty bits on a hamster, with the exact same fat prices for lunch as for dinner. or, put another way: i try to stay away from any place featuring any menu item described as "frites".

i guess it's to be expected of a business incapable of opening in time for the biggest restaurant weekend of lowell's year despite a huge running start that was originally aimed at the month of june long since past, in what is arguably the single most prime restaurant location in the entire city. (in contrast, consider that wings over lowell, in the recent dharma buns space, is open right now and giving away free wings to introduce the locals, as well as all the out-of-towners here for folk fest, to their menu, on which i am pleased to report among the sides there are no frites-and-no-lettuces--just fries, onion rings, and salads with "lettuce" no "s"--what a concept).

yeah, i'm a hater.

:-)

LOL

in the middle of any crazy day, if you're ever interested in reading something so outrageously non-sensical that it makes all your other life insanity look tame by comparison, just reach for the latest loco-emotive column, laugh yourself silly, and then return to your work refreshed to take on any and all inanity. works for me. (don't ask me later at the folk festivities about my earlier day today--you simply don't want to know).

a close friend of mine swears that the "back talk" feature on the editorial page tops 'em all, but though i'll give that props for more consistent availability, (after all, the loco-emotive only stains our daily news three out of the weekdays, and not five), there's nothing like a loco-emotive blathering to set new daily records for irrelevance.

today's bizarre notion is that a weekly fluctuation in the price of lemons is somehow relevant for both a bad pun and a proxy for all that is perceived to be wrong with our present president, deval obama--or was that barack patrick?

the same ridiculous way that #41 could not offer even a ballpark approximation of the cost of a gallon of milk, our "man of the [crazy] people" has apparently never regularly been in the produce section of any local supermarket. on the one hand, one might retrieve actual market data on the historical fluctuation in the price of lemons, (one handy graphical tool to study the data can be found here), but, on the other, one could just as ridiculously conclude, since the price of strawberries is way down right now, that all is rosy in the world, and happy days are here again.

hey, you there, in the ridiculous ball cap that makes a person laugh just to look at--the price of lemons was at its peak in '08, the last year of the dubya presidency, and almost a full 50% higher than it is today. look it up--it's right there on the graph in the link. strawberries, however, have been moving in the other direction, despite the seasonal improvement we enjoy every june and july. but they're cheaper this week, so that must mean the actual statistics can't possibly be right. right?

br-UTHah.

did someone actually grow a clue?

or was this purely by indolent accident?

readers may recall my complaints here about how past winter's snow removal towing and present summer's fire code inspections have been timed here in the fair city of lowell, whether by accident or on purpose, to maximize the damage to downtown businesses. this is, to me, less likely to be a nefarious NIMBY plot, as much as an expression about how little the consequences of government regulation are appreciated in their formulation and execution by those otherwise entrusted to keep things running smoothly.

let's call a spade a spade: it's cold and ridiculous to pick peak saturday night business hours to perform public "service" functions which do a huge disservice to local entertainment businesses. yes, we all want streets clear of snow, and entertainment establishments safe from undue risk of fatal fires, but we all have to agree that these businesses will not be here for us to patronize and enjoy if we do not take their perspectives into account. and, let's further agree, that these businesses are a brave and significant portion of what survives here on our mean streets, and, without them, our downtown would be all that much more of a veritable wasteland of un-filled leases, abandoned storefronts, and communal misery.

so, about today's news:

preparations for each annual folk festival include the blaze-orange mittening of our parking meters and numbered spaces to indicate that no parking during the festival is allowed--and that's all fine, well and good. but at some point a well-meaning public employee (or employees) decided that thursday (today) would be a good day to put on the mittens, even though both thursday and friday are otherwise a hopeful and open-for-business days for our local merchants to try to eek their livings. now, i kept my tongue silent and civil about this, not because it didn't deserve question, but because there are only so many things one can rant about at a time. but i'm happy to say that there's no more need to rant, since someone (or someones) have decided that mittening can just as easily take place on friday, just-in-time as it were, and our local businesses can conduct themselves without the orange unwelcome mats on every parking meter and post in the downtown in the meantime.

glass-half-full types are pleased to give the city kudos for doing something thoughtful and right, though i imagine cynical glass-half-empty types might be tempted to snark a wonder that it all might have been "for a change", and an expression of inefficiency instead... me, i always like to try to be a half-full kinda guy, so whoever wants to take credit for changing the mitten procedure feel free to raise your hand and feel the love. i know all our downtown merchants are appreciative of the gesture!

hype man

when people ask me what i do for a living, i'm generally hard pressed to supply a satisfactory answer. a few weeks back, d-tension, hosting his wednesday night trivia night at major's pub, asked a question challenging participants to identify the prototypical and progenital "hype man".

as proud as i am to say that one of my table-mates correctly called out flava-flav, the irony has only recently become found on me that i should not know the answer--for that, my friends and readership, is exactly what i am. i am a software company hype man.

you know the guy--even non rap fans (that's generally, me, though if you don't have d-tension's latest, you are not quite getting it, and i would recommend trying some of the samples or, better yet, hanging out with me in my car to do the same before dismissing) who listen to white-bread music like steely dan know jerome aniton's inimitable intro to the live version of bodhisatva, even if they don't know it was jerome what did it. (i say "inimitable", because if you watch this guy lip-sync'ing the real thing, you'll know it's true what i say about "inimitable", and all hail "mr whatever"!)

anyway, the reason for this epiphany is an astounding collection of technobabble bullshit from the temple of such in my world--gartner. they used to be "the gartner group", then "gartnergroup", and now, as all impossibly arrogant and self-obsessed to the extreme entertainers eventually become, just the one name, "gartner". they used, upon a time, to pretend to try to study and analyze real things, but as has become the caricature and nature of an entire industry, it's now all down to making, and then analyzing, just the hype.

i would dare anyone to read the specific hype cycle report on my particular area of expertise, (i have it here if you'd like to come over and read it, though "intellectual" property restrictions and good taste prohibit me from sharing directly here), and not start laughing out loud. like all gartner hype cycle reports, this one also takes you on a tour through places like the "trough of disillusionment" and the "plateau of productivity", though in this case on virtual tour buses named things like "platform as a service", and "cloud augmentation applications". even i, who make my living in this general vicinity, and who gets paid to take it seriously, can't help but crack up at how ridiculous the whole thing is--the dictionary definition of ridiculous.

so, yeah, that's me, the "cloud augmentation" hype man. just as our politics have become the art of obfuscation, (no, they're not wealthy people, they're JOB creators!!!"), and just like our tv news is simply an obfuscation of the obfuscation, the software business has become a business not of actual things, but of the hype that's spun to stand in place of them, and a feeding ground for the related bullshit connoisseurs who get fat upon the bloated carcass.

don't get me wrong, i love my job, and the paycheck from whence comes. but, seriously, folks, the problems in this country aren't just all down in washington dc.

get over it already

i have read in the last few days more recaps of the folly that are the "bush tax cuts" than in all the years prior. we get it. without question (in my mind, at least) george dubya bush was the worst president since hoover in terms of damage inflicted on this country, and spare me the patriotic bullshit (14 year old daughter rule) that ignores the rape of our liberty via the "patriot" act in order to promote mass hysteria in place of sane and sound and civilized, not to mention actually effective, response. yes, people have forgotten that slick willy left office presiding over an actual SURPLUS, and that ronald reagan actually raised taxes in his day, not the other way around.

we get it.

what many of us are on about these days is the spending side of this ever teetering teeter-totter, and the absolute absence of excuse for what the present POTUS has directed to happen in the meantime. to wit: while doing absolutely NOTHING about the "bush tax cuts", (he passed romneycare, for crissakes--it's not like ambitious legislative feats are beyond him), the present president has presided over the greatest binge in federal spending in the history of our history. we've blown the deficits into orbit to the point where we are now talking about insolvency, not solutions, and that, my apoplectic bush-haters, is the real issue at hand.

we get it.

bush sucked. he really, really, REALLY sucked. he set the policy course that is driving this country to absolute ruin. he surely did. he cut collection from the richest americans, essentially leaving it to the rest of us to pay for the circumstances of their continued hoovering of whatever assets and income we persist upon retaining, into their fattened and still-fattening purses. he initiated illegal wars that have bled our treasury dry. he extraordinarily renditioned, he tortured, he patriot acted away huge swaths of our now-lost liberty, he SCREWED us. yes he did.

he started it ALL.

and then what?

the present president swallowed all those policy excesses and excrement and DOUBLED DOWN. he got us into MORE illegal wars. he took a bled-dry treasury, and BORROWED MORE against it. his one substantive difference? romneycare. good for him on that one. but all else? he's bush to the 44th power. he's done NOTHING to stop the "bush tax cuts". NOTHING. and now, when all is crisis and catastrophe, he's chosen (as have all the D donkeys out there) to choose that one nit as the rallying cry.

get over it.

get over it already.

we're busted. broke. insolvent. and living beyond our means is living beyond our means. our means were mean when the current administration started. they did nothing. they fiddled while it all burned. and here we are.

cut the spending. to the bone. then turn around and repeal those ridiculous free tax passes handed to people who surely didn't and don't need them. in that order, not as a package.

but spare me that it was some other guy's fault. that part does not matter. it doesn't. what we choose to do right here and right now is all that does.

careful what you wish for

xenophobia and "terrorist" hysteria prompts all sorts of reasonable-sounding measures to establish proof of citizenship as a useful litmus test for many things, voter registration and ballot casting among them. here's one example of a very real consequence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0G01zbHGM8

it's almost 10 minutes long and in need of tighter editing, but the implications are chilling nonetheless. "papers please" is not just a movie cliche.

so you want to run a bar...

tonight's superintendant's downtown neighborhood meeting was chock full of otherwise sobering statistics of downtown drunk and disorderliness. compared to the same first six months of last year, this year the overnight crime stats are up a full 80%, including serious injuries and disfigurements (from broken noses and knocked-out teeth to life-threatening skull fractures requiring extended hospitalization) in addition to naked women in the street. (no lie, there were several of them). four of the downtown bars were associated with the lion's share of the incidents, but before the "don't say anything bad out loud about lowell" pollyannas get down on the process, and the commerce haters jump all over the standouts, let me be the first to say that i LIKE the fact that there have been more arrests downtown lately, and i say kudos to those bars not afraid to be named in the stats because they choose to deny violent drunks entrance to their establishments, and enable the police to arrest those miscreants right up front and before worse ensues. the helpful suggestion from residents was to isolate those incidents from the others that result from overserving patrons IN the bars, so that everyone gets a clearer picture of responsible vs irresponsible bar ownership.

on the topic of irresponsible bar ownership, the injuries are appalling and not to be trifled nor understated. a good percentage of the incidents involved out of town guests, including a passel of underage kids trying to work fake ID's and wise guys intent on stirring up nothing but trouble away from home where it doesn't come back on them. another significant percentage was contributed by domestic incidents in an apartment building down by the river, and not really part of downtown proper, so all-in-all the stats are not nearly so alarming as they appear at face value. but alarming the injuries are, and it's great to see everyone working together to address the problem.

but that's not even what i came here to talk about...

see, there was this nightclub fire down in rhode island awhile back, and the well-intended bureaucrats of our fair commonwealth took it upon themselves to load up on a whole slew of new code requirements for establishments licensed to pack in the people for entertainment purposes. the online availability of the regulations, however well intended, however, leaves gaping holes to be desired, and seemingly endless questions unanswered. our fire department prevention department attended tonight's meeting to go through the rules for our downtown establishments, but a couple of things came immediately clear: first of all, the sweep that took place this past saturday night to start snooping into compliance issues was, for all its noble intentions, also more than a bit mean-spirited and business un-friendly. the regs are nominally directed at avoiding a tragedy, which might make you think that an avid enforcement official might want to take his enforcement tour during peak business hours, (as that's when the crowds are), but the regs are ACTUALLY full of little nit-picky paperwork chores that are just as easily addressed at 10 in the morning, rather than 10 at night. second of all, telling everyone that "it's all online", and then listening to the bar owners honest and thoughtful questions of interpretation illuminates a vast gulf between what ought to be and what is. it's just as clear that, as unprepared as the businesses may be to comply, the fire department is unclear on how the rules ought to be interpreted and enforced.

take one establishment that's divided into two rooms, and only opens one of them on the slower weekday nights. the letter of the code requires "crowd managers" in proportion to their total licensed capacity AT ALL TIMES, regardless of whether half the place is locked up and empty, and there's only a handful of people sitting around wasting time. the letter of the code also requires these "crowd managers" (plural) to be on premise AT ALL TIMES, and in immediate possession of a to-the-patron guest count that is insufficient to be a general "just six or eight folks". so, if your capacity is 300, but you're only seating 3, you STILL need to have two crowd managers on site and keeping a click on a clicker every time one of them goes out or comes back in from having a smoke. this is all ridiculous, yes, but the kicker is that violations of these regulations come with a first-time-offense penalty of $2500 and up to a year and a half in jail. (second offenses start at $25,000 and i tuned out before i waited to hear the jail time).

so you want to run a bar?

practical enforcement of all these things, filled out on a printed 8 1/2" x 11" form every day, by each crowd manager on duty, and filled out anew every time shifts change, and saved on file for an entire year for review upon license renewal, is hard to fathom. i, for one, would not like to make my living signing my name to a piece of paper that puts me PERSONALLY on the hook for any problems later, (it's the crowd manager, not the owner, who's attesting to compliance and taking responsibility for signing the form), and i can't imagine bar owners are going to want to be paying what it might be worth to do it. it's a checklist on everything from entrance and egress ways, signage, fire extinguishers, lighting, etc. etc. etc., and it's only legal if it's signed by someone with a crowd manager certification, and if there's anything on it, ANYTHING, that isn't checked "yes", then the fire department is under obligation to shut the place down. (no joke--two downtown lowell bars were closed at 10pm this past saturday night).

so you want to run a bar?

my suggestion is that the fire department run two sorts of compliance checks, and to conduct the main one in the afternoon so that it doesn't result in the precipitous loss of an evening's commerce by one of the few local businesspeople making a success of a local business. sure, capacity counts and other such stuff needs to be checked as business peaks. but MOST of the checks on the forms are things that can be evaluated and discussed in a quiet afternoon's conversation with an owner, and resolved long before it has to get to that.

just sayin'.

but i'm not in the fire department, nor the bar business, other than attending from time to time when the music's good. (limbo souls at ole on thursday!!!) it's not up to me, and i'm sure they don't appreciate my opinions about it, either.

but, hey, you know me!

all the oars in the water

not.

a few weeks ago, before this sox team went on their current 16-and-4 july tear, i went off on a rant about weakness up the middle, a minor league-heavy rotation and nancy drew hitting sixth, observing that all was not right in paradise. (and by minor league i meant lackey, not miller). well, over this torrid summer stretch, lackey has managed to go 3-and-1 despite an ERA of almost 4 and half, (and giving up nearly eight hits per less-than-six-innings outing), and andrew miller is that same miraculous 3-and-1 while issuing seventeen walks in just over nineteen innings pitched--so, for the reasons we are winning, ones attention has to be first drawn first to our brand spanking new right fielder, mr. josh reddick, he of the .366 batting average and 22 RBI in 33 games, (thats a pace to hit 104 in a 162 game season if you're a math geek like me), who (who knew major league right fielders were supposed to do these things!) throws guys out at the plate and actually catches fly balls instead of letting them drop in front of him. (tito, can this FINALLY be the end of this nancy drew experiment?) we will also be distracted by dustin pedroia and his 6 july homers, (yep, that's also a 22-game hitting streak he's got going there), along with his lineup-mate jacoby ellsbury's SEVEN, (anyone else have a leadoff guy with 58 ribbies and 16 home runs? no, i didn't think so...), but last night's game also gave me the heebie jeebies, (yes, i watched the whole thing live--i'm hooked now that all other meaningful sports are over until the bruins get back to work), and i don't care if we've got the second best record in the majors, this winning streak is just as much of a fluke as the dud of an opening to the season, and we're kidding ourselves if we don't think there's improvement desperately necessary to be made for playoff baseball.

last night, josh reddick almost (almost!) single-handedly wrestled the game from the game kansas city royals. he went 3-for-6 with the lone RBI, and singled to lead off the 12th, taking third on an errant pick-off throw with one out. with his team's spark plug on third, tito put on the squeeze sign, but marco's loan oar wasn't in the water, and he didn't bother to pick up the sign. (your team goes 16-and-4 over the course of a month via pure hitting, hitting and more hitting, while you're batting in front of one of the hottest hitters in the majors, and you LOSE points off your batting average? really?!?) reddick was caught in a rundown, and, just to put the exclamation point on the boneheadedness, scutaro poked a ball into fenway's tiny left field, and managed (quelle surprise!) to get himself thrown out at second to end the inning. the fourteenth was arguably just as bad, with reddick doubling with one out and both salty and scutaro spitting the bit with back-to-back strikeouts. (marco's was with his bat on the shoulder to end the inning--a truly nancy-esque flourish).

*sigh*

you probably think i'm nuts to be complaining about this stuff, but though our catching will likely have to be excused if it can continue to manage to bat .250, our shortstop position remains a reeking pile of burning poop in a paper bag, and somebody's got to do something before games like last night's pile up and amount to something. (or do we forget philly's effortless 2-out-of-3 wins in their home park last month, where they will, naturally, enjoy home-field advantage for any potential world series).

i vote the nats' ian desmond, who is absolutely for sale right now, though we'll see if theo is paying attention.

lowell's best music weekend--lowell music and folk fest music (but no actual lowell folk fest music)

time again for me to rant about the folk fest organizers who do not for even a nanosecond hesitate to trade off of the good name of our fair city, yet so jealousy guard their "lowell folk festival" name against any musicians actually from lowell, threatening legal action and all sorts of other bullying tactics to screw over the locals from whom they stole their good name in the first place.

feh

think about it: from where do all the volunteers come in the first place? from where are all the people inconvenienced most by traffic disruptions, delays in service from public safety personnel, garbage, vandalism and noise? yep, that's right, the city of lowell. from where can musicians never come if they want to participate in the largest free folk festival in north america? yep, that's right... lowell.

if you are a music fan, doubtless you have plans to be in downtown lowell over the course of the weekend. (and good for you--it's a great weekend to be a music fan here). however, if you are a music fan who feels, as i do, that a "lowell folk festival" ought to at least share a nod to music that's actually made in and from the city of lowell, even if they still don't let any people actually from here play as part of their "official" party, you will doubtless be disappointed, yet again, with the dearth of it among the "official" event signage and promotion. (actually, by "dearth" i mean "absolute absence", but who's counting).

yet, fear not!!!

the folks at lowell after dark have once again collaborated with local musicians, local music venues, and local music fans to provide what festival organizers consistently refuse--truly local music, in truly local venues that go out of their way to support BOTH the festival, and the community from which it steals its name. this year, so far, over six dozen separate performances (as in 76 and counting) are already on the list, at a full dozen separate venues (in order of appearance on the website: brians ivy hall, fureys cafe, the worthen house cafe, garcia brogans, majors pub, cobblestones, eyeful beauty, brew'd awakenings, athenian corner, village smokehouse, cappy's copper kettle, and the back page). these are places where you can (generally) sit al fresco and further enjoy the specialties of the house brought right to you as you sit and enjoy and the truly local music.

where else are you going to see local legends the shods, los wunder twins del rap, melvern taylor and his fabulous meltones, amy black, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.? where else are you going to be supporting local music, local businesses, and your entire local community?

don't get me wrong--the lowell folk festival is one of the most amazing events anywhere anytime, and i'm looking forward to enjoying as much of it as i possibly can. don't miss local artisans and artists at the market mills, like linda mcluskey, and elsewhere, like emily schroer at eyeful beauty. and don't forget that some of the best music in the world is made RIGHT HERE and just for you.

see you after dark!

2000,199 and 185

tim wakefield executed his TWO THOUSANDTH career strikeout victim yesterday afternoon on his way to his one hundred and ninety-ninth career victory--185 in a sox uniform--which he won despite giving up a grand slam in the seventh inning, which is pretty much the knuckleballer's life these days. (you lose some, you win more, and the hitters from the other team get theirs every once in awhile, too). the best part for me was seeing the ovations for #2000, as well as the win (how often do you see a guy have to come out of the dugout to tip his cap after just having tossed the other side a 4-run tater?) and dream about what it's going to be like if he's able to toss eight more games like this one.

the next win will be his 200th. to put that in perspective, consider that, since they began playing baseball well over a century ago, there have been only 110 men who have ever. pitching today, there are none--at least until wake tosses his next. and, in the history of the boston red sox, there is only cy young's mark for most franchise wins ahead of him.

congrats, mr wakefield on #185, and may there be many happy returns. i'm guessing it'll become one of the tougher tickets in baseball the closer you get, and sign me up, because i want to be there.

wake da man!

lemme get this straight...

the city of lowell has issued the blue shamrock a license to run an outdoor sound system for dj and/or live band from 10am to 10pm every day of the week from june to october, except on thursdays, fridays and saturdays when they're licensed to run it until MIDNIGHT. (that's outdoors, if you missed that part up top).

to put it in perspective, the lowell summer music series at boardinghouse park doesn't even have a license that generous.

to put it in even further perspective, i'm first-hand aware of neighbors jamming up INDOOR sound systems around downtown lowell with the license commission piling on against the bar owner(s), while, apparently, they were engaged in the process to see that this little hall pass was being handed out to one of their apparent friends.

really???

can't wait to talk to the superintendant about police department enforcement policies while these little inconsistencies are going on. i'm quite sure the answer will be "we can't do anything about licensed activity", which wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that neighbors are not given notice nor opportunity to speak at licensing hearings during which these little ducats are being handed out.

or, as another downtown bar owner put it, "who does he pay off??? i need names. i'll pay them, too".

wonder if the city manager would care to investigate this sort of bullshit (14 year old daughter rule) while he's scrubbing up the back corners of all the other city offices these days...

the hubris of humanity

i work with some brilliant and brilliantly self-centered software engineers, though none of them (that i know and that i hope) are likely to have to face (or, closer to their nature, evade) the kind of truth currently being examined by those enginers in china responsible for designing a "fail safe" system that fails to safeguard disabled trains in cases of power failure. much like the japanese nuclear engineers who could not imagine a catastrophe capable of cutting power to the "fail safe" emergency cooling systems for their reactors, the chinese railroad designers responsible for the zhejiang province railway where a high speed train just obliterated a stalled one on a railway bridge after a lightning strike zapped all available power just didn't see it coming. the death count now continues at 32 and climbing. (story here).

puts me in mind of the interview with world bank's ex top economist, nicholas stern, that appears in the most recent (july/august) issue of MIT's technology review. in the article, stern points out humanity's collective tendency to underestimate the risks and consequences of failure in large systems, and mistake their costs. to stern, of course, unaddressed climate change is "the greatest market failure in history", but i would also postulate that nuclear energy in light of the unaddressed costs of fukushima would also satisfy the point. (how appropriate that the story to immediately follow the stern interview in the MIT pub was a photo essay on the BILLIONS currently necessary to be spending on massive-scale robotic technology to attempt to contain the continued radiation spread from the chernobyl reactor).

somewhere down the list of potential disasters is a rail mishap that leads to hundreds of hospitalizations, and dozens of dead. (not to mention the cost of destruction to the rails and rolling stock). i'm quite sure the testing of the safety systems that would have alerted the oncoming bullet train to the obstruction ahead, and automatically stopped the locomotive, was thoroughly exhaustive and otherwise airtight in any scenario for which power remained to operate it. it's just too bad that the designers were not required to calculate the cost of not preparing for a disaster in which their situational hubris would insist upon conditions that are in no way guaranteed. lightning to an electrified railroad is not so farfetched is it? an earthquake and tsunami of sufficient force to destroy not only local power generation and transmission, but also on-site backup generation capacity to a nuclear power plant, in the world's most earthquakes and tsunami-prone country, isn't either, is it? really? climate conditions that are changing the very face of our planet right before our generation's eyes, that can be observed by anyone with a computer and google earth, aren't so hard to believe, are they? are they???

we're very often very, very smart--right up until we never see the thing coming that is right in front of us every step of our way.

people are self-centered, it's true

no more eloquent evidence for the self-centeredness of human beings is the relative outpouring of facebook, twitter, tumblr and etc. american "grief" for a single dead drug addict and some-time musician, compared with that for the 91 (and counting) mostly children norwegian dead at the hands of a domestic (white christian) terrorist. (sorry about the "white christian" part, but it's something that my self-centeredness can't seem to get over).

some years ago, the alfred p. murrah federal building in oklahoma city, oklahoma, was bombed by a domestic (white christian) terrorist, and 168 people, including 19 children, died. our response, in addition to a convulsive outpouring of national grief, was the "antiterrorism and effective death penalty act" of 1995 and a national culture of "never again". at the time, there was nothing else on our news. a few years later, despite our intentions for vigilance, the world trade center towers were downed via suicide airplane attacks by a collection of (brown muslim) terrorists, and 2977 people, including again more children, died. our response was an even more convulsive outpouring of national grief, the patriot act, invasions of iraq and afghanistan, the department of homeland security, the TSA and full-body airport scans, (though not at the airport at which the actual terrorists boarded their fateful planes, but lets not digress), and countless other hysteria-prompted measures. we created an ongoing culture of national grief and grievance against terrorism in general, and arab muslims in particular, and there was nothing else on our news times a million. we're still obsessed with it today, if opposition to family-oriented community centers that also coincidentally happen to cater to brown muslims is any indication, and the presence of presidential candidates who see no problem whatsoever with such bald-faced religious discrimination and who further endeavor to make it one of their campaign platform planks.

congratulations to us--in answer to the deaths of a grand total of one one thousandth of one percent of our national population, (that's one one hundred thousandth, or the equivalent of one person being murdered in the city of lowell, which, to this point this year, we've had more than, as we always do), we've caused to be killed hundreds of thousands of arab and other muslims, (and kurds and buddhists and you name it), and borrowed chinese and other money beyond the per-capita national debt of now-defaulting greece, and put ourselves on the brink of fiscal default and disaster. (but who's counting).

in the meantime, in oslo, norway, 91 people are confirmed dead, with others still missing and likely dead, out of a national population of well less than 5 million people, or an amount DOUBLE that of the relative impact of both the murrah and world trade center bombings COMBINED to the united states. so what's at the top of our news? how about the likely self-inflicted demise of a some-time musican who, in addition to not being an american citizen, or offing herself anywhere near american soil, and despite some compelling art beloved by many that's now almost five years in the past, showed little likelihood of ever producing anything of meaning or merit ever again. yeah, that's right. apparently, if the kids killed aren't ours, we'd rather gobble up the tabloid headlines about the easily predicted demise of a very sad, self-destructive drug addict (is that redundant?) than contemplate the horror being endured by the entire country of norway at a scale that's well more than twice anything we've ever had to deal with here ourselves. (not to mention the lost potential of those young lives, and the devastating grief to their parents and families).

weren't there some rough seas in japan a little while ago? nah, i don't remember that, either...

it's always the quiet ones you have to watch

cadel evans just rode the perfect tour, and 99% of the people watching never saw it happening--even though it was right in front of our very eyes. thomas voeckler made such a great show of hanging on to the yellow jersey past all reason and expectation, and andy and frank schleck made such an obsession of alberto contador, that every one of cadel's gritty rides to keep the margin close on every one of the stages he never won (ok, he did win the 4th, but, seriously) never quite registered with the impact it deserved. (at least from me). he was hollywood's perfect also-ran, except that when today's time trial around grenoble was finished, we was the entire story from beginning to end. he made up his lost minute to andy schleck even before the first checkpoint, and by the end of the remarkably brief 25 mile ride, he had a jaw-dropping cushion approaching two full minutes in his hip pocket, and the yellow jersey on the only day it really counts--tomorrow, on the ride in to paris.

not to be lost amidst the aussie hooplah (evans is the first australian to ever win the tour) is the stewardship of record-setting tour veteran and yellow jersey domestique, american george hincapie. his sixteenth appearance in le tour this year matches the all-time mark established in '86 by dutchman joop zoetemelk, but even more remarkable is that it's his ninth time serving as teammate to the yellow jersey--something that really stands out for me. (an over 50% success rate makes for a pretty amazing resume). george fronted lance armstrong for all seven of lance's record-setting wins, then served again for alberto contador on the spaniard's first, and now he's the man for another winner, cadel evans. good on ya, george!

on to grenoble!

l'alp d'huez took it's pound of bike racing flesh (finally) out of 10-day race leader thomas voeckler, and winked at alberto "clenbuterol" contador with a 30-second face-saving time advantage that still leaves him well behind time-trialing stud cadel evans, and new maillot jaune bearer, andy schleck. schleck will now get to cling to his less-than-a-minute lead over evans on the 42Km jaunt around grenoble tomorrow with the advantage of riding last. frank schleck sits in second overall, and will know evans' progress as he endeavors to make something out of his few seconds of advantage as well. contador? he's still over five minutes behind andy, and over four behind cadel. couldn't be happening to a nicer guy. (though, to be fair, he put in a great climb today, and an impressive ride). tommy danielson is looking good in 9th spot overall, and did himself proud up l'alp today.

looking forward to grenoble tomorrow, and then paris on sunday--get your luxembourg and/or australia gear ready!

it always seems to be all about l'alp d'huez

it's the mountain that's delivered lance armstrong among so many others in the pantheon of le tour de france, and after today's historic and heroic ride by andy schleck up le col du galibier to re-order everything about this year's tour, it'll be the mountain that could very well decide it all tomorrow.

tommy voeckler, with grit and despite his self-confessed "ceiling" of two days prior, desperately, valiantly and successfully defended his maillot jaune for yet another day in the face of a blistering and near-relentless challenge that let up only at the final few hundred meters, and even then barely. cadel evans, hoping for better, was left to pace the peleton almost the entire way up du galibier in futile pursuit of andy's lead, and cost himself not just second, but also third place in the tour in the process to the other schleck, frank, who had stayed behind to mark the leaders, and then happily snapped up the remaining podium spot at the very end when all remaining evans energy was spent.

so it's voeckler in yellow, with the younger schleck, andy, a mere 15 seconds behind, followed around a minute later by the elder, frank. cadel evans drops to fourth, a minute and twelve off the pace. (though his signature time-trialing excellence gives him a very good trump card to play in two days, if he can't be blown off l'alp d'huez tomorrow). the second best news? (ok, i'm a hater...) alberto "clenbuterol" contador, he of the "i didn't notice" BS when andy lost his chain last year, not to mention the dodgy test results, was definitively broken on the final climb, and dropped to seventh place and going on five minutes off the lead. YEAH!

and the best news for american cycling fans? new england's own tom danielson (east lyme, ct) in his ninth tour is solidly placed in ninth position for chance at a remarkable top-ten result if he can preserve his near two-and-a-half minute advantage over his next competitor.

vive le tour!

FOB col d'izoard

FOB col d'izoard. if you aren't watching le tour this morning, you are missing a great sporting spectacle.

one of the more fascinating tactical elements among tour-style bike racing is that, on any given day, the race leaders are rarely, if ever, in the front of the daily contest. today, andy schleck's leopard trek teammates maxime monfort and joost postuma took off in the early breakaway completely unmarked and disregarded by all the main contenders. just moments ago, on the steepest part of one of the steepest climbs in this year's or any other year's race, directly after traversing the highest point on a course that ends upon the highest finish ever ridden in the history of the tour, andy schleck played his gambit card.

with brother frank left behind to shadow race leader thomas voeckler, second-place rider cadel evans, and three-time champion alberto "clenbuterol" contador, andy launched himself off the front of that pack into what would normally be the breach of no-man's land, and the ultimate folly of a solitary sortie against the wind while the peloton reels him back in.

but, as any successful military commander will attest to the strategic value of a good forward operating base, andy's not going to be alone out there at all.

maxime and joost are converging to andy's vanguard, and nothing in this race is going to be what the other leaders expected it to be.

i think we are watching history here...

damned if you do...

right side of lowell today has a link to a pajamas media poke at CERN "climate change" researchers. it would appear, after complaining about the lack of good sense and practical oversight in the formulation and presentation of past results, pajamas media would like to also imply that any future application of good sense and practical oversight must somehow be an equally nefarious plot against reason and fair debate.

i wish they'd decide which way they'd like it...

i hate polemicists

business insider has a collection of extremely sobering graphs that should be must-reading for everyone concerned about the future vitality of this country. the summary: income inequality has reached historic proportions, and the consequences are unlikely to be pretty.

however, if you'll take the tour through the graphs, you'll suddenly be confronted (along about graph #9) with a partisan whack that "republican tax cuts have significantly increased the wealth gap".

now, i'm not here to dispute that possibility. in fact, i rather believe it. HOWEVER, whatever could possibly be the purpose of injecting that sort of partisan rhetoric and political posturing into an otherwise simply statistical study of where we're at??? from '62 to '04 the wealthiest households went from 125-times the wealth of the poorest, to 190 times. isn't that the salient point? the subsequent graph shows how average tax rates have plummeted by half for the wealthiest--i think that's clear enough, don't you?

it's not about who broke mom's vase. right now, it's all about who and how we are going to put it back together. i absolutely abhor that there are lefties playing politics with the responsibilities here--to me, they are, by that craven coincidence, equally complicit in the problem as the jackasses who got us here, and equally necessary to throw out of office so that we can get clear-eyed representation to solve the problem. and, by the way, the problem can't be that there's inequality--the problem has to be that there may be unfairness, or there's no problem at all.

do democrat politicians get this? they're electoral losers if they don't.

either way, please have a look at the graphs, and figure out what you might think for yourself.

"i've hit my ceiling"

what is it about the french and their proclivity to surrender?

thomas voeckler by all accounts is a smashing surprise in this year's tour de france. as a french rider, he's in front of his home crowd on every stage, and the fact that he's won and defended le maillot jaune for so many days is a credit to his talent and his preparation and his pedigree as a top bike racer. what confuses me is why, after having endured the most intense and insistent attack on his lead in the race yesterday, and successfully defended the top time, he would express to reporters the likelihood that he's already beaten. his exact words were "i've hit my ceiling".

i'm no bike racing expert. i watch le tour every year, sure, but i ride only recreationally, and i know very little about the real insides of the sport. however, i do know that, having put forth the effort as alberto "clenbuterol" contador and his shadow cadel evans have done over the course of the 100 miles between saint-paul-troix-chateau and gap, the vulnerable people in this race today are the ones who spent everything they had NOT finishing ahead of thomas voeckler in the overall standings yesterday--and don't think that andy and frank schleck don't know it. (frank is mere seconds behind evans, and almost 2 entire minutes ahead of contador in the standings even after having given away time yesterday).

it seems to me someone who was "in it to win it", as they say, would be talking about these climbers having thrown everything they had at a lead that they simply were not men enough to re-take on that day, and then going out today to punish them for their impudence. sure, maybe the "ceiling" comment was simply the honest truth, but, if you had the prize in your hands--something you had worked your entire life to achieve--wouldn't you be willing to put everything you had left back on the line to keep it? wouldn't you?

maybe it's gamesmanship. maybe voeckler has a crushing trump card to play when the time is right. maybe he's sandbagging the truth, and hiding his last would-be-champion's effort. but it sure doesn't sound like it to me.

looks like it's anybody's race...

support the troops

you know that young female writer accusing ex-IMF chief dominique strauss-kahn of rape? it get's better. her MOTHER, now 65, suggests that three years earlier than the encounter in question, dominique strauss kahn took HER (consensually, mind you) "with the vulgarity of a soldier". (you can check the account here and here).

i'm thinking our army of one, being all it can be, couldn't buy better press than that.

edited to add, though with little to do with patriotic support for our armed forces, that i am amazed i happened to miss this original quote from tristane banon about the alleged incident in question in 2007, that DSK tried to rape her like a "rutting chimpanzee".

edited also to add that, at the time that ms mansouret, the 65 year old woman of the piece, was taken with her favorite characterization of military bearing, she was best friend's with DSK at-the-time wife, who was also, by coincidence, the godmother of the eventual alleged rape victim. (the old folks were all doing it voluntarily with each other, by all accounts).

ah, paris in the spring...

funniest letter to the editor ever

"in my opinion, peter lucas is the best opinion writer in the country".

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

one wonders if such was decided for inclusion on the op-ed page by the editor based on the consistent criticism received for the pointless inanities appearing in his paper thrice weekly, and, as shakespeare said, wethinks he dost protest too much.

in any case, in response to the "points" made in the letter, "all of his articles are informative" fails the sniff test right off the bat, since this dingbat writes almost without exclusion criticisms of barack patrick and deval obama (or at least that, as i've observed before, is the degree to which he is apparently able to tell the difference) in specific and everything democrat in general, and it's neither news nor worth its waste of space in what otherwise might be intended to be a local paper. (i will stipulate to agree, however, that there is often much humor to be found there, though i may disagree with the letter writer as to which parts are the funny ones, or whether or not such humor was intended by the author).

too funny

if you build it...

surprise, surprise. the westford end of the bruce freeman rail trail which has no public parking is now becoming overrun with illegal parking. (monday's sun, and don't ask for a link--they charge for online content). don't get me wrong--it's good on the planners that they were able to finish this segment of the overall vision so quickly, but it's more than somewhat silly that the plan to this point did not include any arrangement for public access.

i sympathize with the neighbors who are bearing the brunt of the inconvenience, and i feel sorry in advance to those who will be affected by any potential tragedy that will take place owing to people loading and unloading kids by the side of a state highway. i appreciate the challenge of enforcement by the local constabulary, who will doubtless be treated as jackbooted fun police by those who feel it their right to access the trail regardless. i also sympathize with the planners who have done the proverbial "more with less" in getting the public resource built that is now at issue.

can we all agree that approvals to build this thing should have required adequate parking and other access accommodations? i think, if i'm not mistaken, the town of westford which is now complaining bears a bit of the responsibility for this, yes? (in point of fact, the NIMBY's there rejected an article that would have allowed safe access over concerns about "litter and crime"--and, sorry, but this is all just plain mean, not to mention stupid).

reminds me quite a bit of the tyngsborough types that restricted parking around their new riverside park.

he-LOL

i learned today from yesterday's paper (yes, i know, but sometimes mondays are busy) that the editors of my local paper (apparently) believe in a magical, mystical place known as "silicone valley", and further believe that it's next coming to vinal square. (top left story of the local news section: chelmsford seeks to be business bulls-eye")

silicon, people--computer chips are made out of silicon. a silicone valley is that with which women hope to attract those who have been successful in silicon valley.

ok, carry on.

soccer games are for finishers

one of the reasons, i imagine, why many americans fail to care anything at all for soccer, is that the results on the scoreboard appear so loosely tied to the run of play so as to drive any sports fan to distraction. yes, it's a cruel game to anyone who confuses dominance with indomitability, and all the more so when the stakes are all the marbles.

"finishing" is the term often used to try to capture the ephemeral essence of an all-but-unmeasurable quality, and as a defender by nature and by trade, it frustrates me when excellence in the "final third" is confused for something lacking in the opposition. yesterday, while everyone else was watching the us women's team run up and down the field at apparent will over the japanese, i was troubled most not by the posts and crossbars repeatedly being hit by chance after almost us chance, but by the moments of (could it be?) momentary panic at the back of the us formation in front of their own goal. no, the japanese had not mounted any sustained or even acute threat, but there was always this unsettling feeling that, were they to finally, there might very well be a moment when the us could be made to pay.

early on in this tournament, us coach pia sundhage made a subtle but strategically telling change to her lineup, in shifting christie rampone from the right side of the central defense, to the left--a distance of only a few meters (it's soccer--get with the international program, folks!) in terms of the tape-measure, but oh so much further as the potentially dangerous attacking ball bounces. the back left of the us formation had been exploited catastrophically by the swedes, and overmatched amy le pelbeit was finally drawn into committing a red card foul (to be fair, a very subjective one) in that match to put that particular matter out of it's temporary misery. le pelbeit's "pace" wasn't quite what it needed to be, and neither were her decisions with the ball when under pressure and with her back to the attack--a liability any way you look at it, and in the second-worst possible place it could be on the field. (second only to central defense). case closed, right?

the japanese are a technically superior side ("technical" in soccer being used to describe what in ice hockey might be termed stick-handling ability, if that helps) with a remarkable ability to connect passes quickly in a confined space. (coincidentally, the very conditions that describe a well-defended goal). they may have been outrun and outhustled for the ball over 90% of the field yesterday by a determined american side, but they retained their will to resist, and never quit--qualities the americans themselves should have recognized more quickly, as they were the hallmarks of what had enabled the yanks to make the finals as well. twice the united states took the lead on well-earned strikes, and twice the japanese had to decide if they were going to do everything they had in their power to do to make it up.

the first breakdown occured on the back left with barely 10 minutes to play. (usually the sort of duration when a one-goal lead can be made to stand up, but we already know how all this ends). amy le pelbeit was turned inside out by japanese midfielder shinobu ohno, and the resulting opportunity for an easy cross into the box turned out to be the beginning of that particular play's unfortunate-for-the-us end. rachel beuhler did everything that could be done to defend substitute striker karina maruyama and deny her the scoring chance, and she successfully and outstandingly knocked down the crossing ball in superior fashion--but the immediately following moment is the embodiment of everything that could be seen to be troubling about the us defense. in an instant, the weakness at the back left had been parlayed into a loose ball in front of goal, and each subsequent decision would be magnified in its impact to determine the outcome of the entire game.

you know how on airplanes the flight attendants always remind you to check for the nearest exit that might be behind you? they'd make excellent soccer coaches.

rachel beuhler heroically but oh-so-misguidedly sought the exit that was in front of her, which, unfortunately for the american side, was even further to the front of goal. the ball had been what was but a grade-schooler's toe poke from the end line, where the setup for a corner kick would allow the us defense to get reorganized, but that moment of panic induced by le pelbeit's breakdown further induced an otherwise professional defender to forget her best choice, and further fail to respect the danger of the indomitable spirit of the japanese side. beuhler tried to drive it wide across the front of goal, but struck rather the oncoming legs of far-right defender ali krieger, who had been drawn into the center to cover for the vacated space created by christie rampone's having to head out to cover the breakdown by amy le pelbeit. (yes, this is pointedly unflattering to amy le pelbeit--deal with it). krieger's only remaining option was to try to drive it back the other way again across the middle, and the luck ended at the foot of the opportunistic japanese striker maruyama who had no trouble converting the miscue into the tying goal.

and so we go to extra time.

my nomination for us mvp, even above abby wambach, (somebody got her that ball--it just didn't get there for her to head in on its own), megan rapinoe, had already set up the first go-ahead tally, with a savant-like through ball to alex morgan. in the build-up to the second score, she won the midfield ball, drove it into the heart of the defense, and her deflected cross ended up at the feet of alex morgan again, who quickly found abby wambach for the finish. 2-1 with just over ten minutes to play. sound familiar?

the penultimate dagger was a set play--a corner kick where the shorter japanese (the second-shortest side in the tournament at 5'4", and the americans, by contrast have only one single player on their entire roster under 5'5" tall, and she was on the bench) should be on 99 plays out of 100 without any chance at all. but somehow, grace being what it is, or grit, japanese captain homare sawa was able to shake her mark and angle the perfect cross home into the back of the net. 2-2, and on to penalty kicks we go. now THAT's a finish! (worthy of wambach, to coin a possible phrase).

the final result could be portrayed as the spirit of the japanese, or the PK luck finally running out for the americans, or a thousand other things, but, for me, it all stood at the back left of the us defense, in the weak link that could be exploited and broken by a team who would not ever, ever quit. you save away 9 out of 10, and you still wind up guilty. 99 out of 100, even. the measure of a defender is found in that one chance that makes all the difference. can you get there? will you make the right choice? will you deny the best their shot at glory?

yes, it burns me more than a little that the reports for this soccer game, and all the rest for that matter, will not be able to name the failing, just as in other situations they will not be able to name the brilliance that is being able to deny the best in the world their crack at the goal. it's the thankless role of soccer defense, to be missed even by the best-paid commentators. defense wins championships, and yesterday afternoon the us took the field without what was necessary to overcome the japanese. that's a credit to the japanese finishers, and a nod to their defenders, as well as a swipe against the us on both counts. if you can't defend, you can't win, just as surely as if you can't finish either. the japanese defended and finished, and it's all about soccer games being for finishers. all the rest? that's just megan rapinoe being everything in between.

good on the japanese. beating the germans in germany, and the americans anywhere in the world in the same tournament, can't be a coincidence. these are champions. these are finishers.

facepalm

i love the lowell farmers market, and the fresh local products to be found and purchased there. this week's haul included corn, peas, tomatoes, basil, cilantro and a bunch more green stuff that i am enjoying immensely. however, the reaction to my first foray into local protein production from blood farms in west groton can only be summarized by a singular gesture:

facepalm

you know how i am about shaw farm whole milk, whole and straight from the glass bottle. you also likely know in contrast how most "healthy food" nuts are about such given their paranoia about animal fat. do you know if you want to find real yogurt in the grocery store (i spent a good ten minutes by the dairy case in hannaford's yesterday looking for it among the low and no-fat alternatives) you are almost entirely unable to do so anymore? (thank providence for cabot's greek-style yogurt--the ONLY label among hundreds in the fridge there not to be artificially manipulated to eliminate the all-natural milkfat that occurs in the real thing). does anyone stop to realize that whole milk, dietary bogeyman that it has been allowed to be made be, is itself almost 97% fat free AS-IS??? that's right--2% milk carries well more than half that of regular whole milk, and "skim" gives you a benefit of barely 3% overall, and whole milk, rich and creamy straight from the dairy is between 96 and 97% fat free. you can look it up.

consider also that my macro-biotic and "health"food-obsessed ex wife suffers from dry skin ailments requiring prescription medications and digestive system ailments that require prescription medications, both of which would, under normal circumstances, be mitigated by healthy consumption of healthy levels of all-natural dietary animal fat. however, because she has bought into the fat-phobic hysteria promulgated by the promoters of low and non-fat dietary products, she would sooner slit her wrists than risk consumption of even a gram if she can at all help it. (she has never in her life been as frustrated as she was the day we took his-and-hers cholesterol screens, and mine was measured to be "better" than hers). anyone want to bet which one of us is going to live longer? (hint: both my grandfathers reached 99 on full-fat from-the-farm diets exactly like mine, and none of hers managed even close to that).

but what does this have to do with all-natural farm-raised and home-prepared pork sausage from blood farms in west groton, you ask?

i have rarely failed to enjoy a decent, fresh pork sausage. maybe it's my german genetic heritage. maybe it's because it's one of nature's most singularly delicious foods. (no, not quite bacon, but a good solid #2 among carnivores, and you can ask any of us). so how can you go wrong with ingredients limited to all-natural and organic pork, salt, fennel, black pepper and sugar? (beside needing to ask why the national preoccupation with sugar?) i'll tell you how--you can give in to dietary paranoia and go so miserly on the animal fat that there's hardly any left in the end product, and all you're left with is a dry, crumbly and thoroughly dissatisfying experience. and for no good reason. (yes, right here is where you insert the facepalm).

i have a close friend recently recovered from quadruple bypass surgery who is a religious devotee to the no-fat lifestyle, and has been for a full ten years prior to his coronary episode. breakfast at his house includes eggbeater omelets with low-fat skim milk cheese and exactly this kind of dry crumbly non-sausage sausage, and for sure i have noticed where that has gotten him. (his cholesterol numbers, to be fair, do stand "better" than mine by the slightest of degrees if you ask the low-fat "experts", though i'm still 1-0 to the good in the no heart attack sweepstakes and within just a few cholesterol points of him even so). i try very hard not to question his lifestyle choice, because it is not my place to make the decision for him. but i will tell you here that there is a HUGE disparity in the quality of the sausage served for breakfast in our two respective homes, and i see absolutely no purpose for that.

if you, too, want to know why german farmers have been making full-fat sausage out of much of their best all-natural, all-organic farm-raised pork, or how the italians have raised this to an art form, (yes, i will allow the italians this one thing, but not the cars), you will do best not to bother paying for the over-priced, under-fatted blood farms all-natural pork sausage that barely even deserves to be called such. it's not really sausage at all. save yourself the six bucks a pound, and rest confident in the knowledge that you can get better at demoulas.

will ANYONE stop this low-fat nonsense before it kills us???

braincrampanini

nicknames are fun. one of mine is for the "loco-emotive", the doddering for-all-practical-purposes-out-to-pasture republican stooge currently abusing lowell sun resources and clogging its columns thrice weekly as do coagulating particulates in ones privy in favor of decades-old feuds, real or imagined, with democrat politicians, most notably and frequently deval obama and barack patrick. (the names of whom are fairly representative of the loco-emotive's ability to distinguish between the two of them, and i'm quite sure he'd even agree with that much).

having preferred to err on the side of doubtful benefit, i've most often let the benefactor of loco's byline slide, but today's editorial achieves an emotive-worthy level of screed that deserves no such quarter, so here's to republican braincrampanini, and his faux-news-worthy nonsense as well.

the premise of his present contribution to coagulating particulates across the merrimack valley is that he would have us believe "barack obama and tax-and-spend democrats" are taking partisan political advantage of this country to unilaterally raise the nation's debt ceiling so that they can continue to "sleep comfortably over the $1.5 trillion in debt they have added this year to the deficit".

where to begin...

first and foremost in my mind is the impassioned hyperbole insisted upon by senate minority leader (aka capital-R republican) mitch mcconnell, so adamantly in insistence upon raising the debt ceiling that he's advocating congressional legislation to empower a sitting (democrat) president to raise the debt ceiling at whim and without congressional oversight whatsoever. how exactly, mr. braincrampanini, does such complete the screenplay for a democrat plot against the nation, defended alone by brave republican opposition? wouldn't a reasonable person prefer to infer that this is, as any reasonable observer has long since concluded, a two-party heist, aided and abetted in no small way by the ignoramuses of the fourth-class estate?

as republican president, war hero and all around model american, dwight d eisenhower wrote in a letter to his brother in 1954 that "should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of the party again in our political history. there is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believe you can do these things... their number is negligible and they are stupid". (though, unfortunately, today their number isn't quite negligible, though they continue to be no less profoundly stupid.

the current debt ceiling impasse is a game of chicken being played between two political parties interested only in their own power to divide the spoils that are our federal purse. democrat prevaricators would have us believe that their fight is to preserve the programs cited by ike in his letter, and that republicans are insisting upon gutting them. (if only it were that simple). republican lying liars (nods to al franken) are getting behind the bullshit (14 year old daughter rule) that they're interested completely in controlling the to-this-point-inexorable increases in taxation, without any shame that to the very last one, the major spending policies undertaken by the present democrat president are in continuation of policies initiated by his republican predecessor(s), including the wars on terrorism, drugs, and american civil liberties (hel-LO patriot act abominators) and the nationalization of romney-care.

the funniest bit of braincrampanini's polemic is how blithely he disregards the promises of financial armageddon offered by his republican party benefactors among the business community. like republican party rhetoric that insisted on cracking down on immigrants in order to produce what is headed towards a billion dollars in damage to the georgia state agribusiness economy, this present nonsense that is attempting to paint democrats as bullish on taxes in order to control the way in which we empower one political party or the other to raise our debt ceiling, this rubberstampanini column is a profoundly short-sighted and purely partisan exercise in excrement that ignores fact, misstates responsibility, and serves no earthly purpose other than to allow one man to read himself on the toilet.

there's a lot that the present administration is doing wrong. respecting eisenhower and insisting upon thoughtful balance between income and expense in order to put the federal budget in order is not part of that. or has mitch mcconnell suddenly switched his party designation, and do enriching the top fraction of one percent of taxpayers deserve more weight than protecting the fixed incomes of the entire bottom half?

(does anyone remember the largest expansion in our federal government prior to this one, during the reagan administration? i'm willing to bet you won't hear it from braincrampanini).

court yard confounds

amy black shone last night under the mill town moon, as melvern taylor likes to sing, and her emergence as a singer/songwriter/performer is one of the more remarkable musical stories of the many that come out of this beautiful city. it became all the more transparent to me when one of the many popular-for-who-knows-what-reason national acts went through their thoroughly predictable and ultimately empty motions immediately following, and one could see clear as crystal what superior songwriting, talented musicianship, and real heart can bring to an audience.

ok, perhaps i'm being a bit unfair to emily and martie--they're pretty, they dressed nice, and even though emily sometimes can't find the frets of her guitar without counting them (and after additional help from a lucky guess from her bass player), they understand their sound and they deliver it wholeheartedly and with pride. their vocal harmonies are clearly the centerpiece of their show, and they give them out generously and with love on every single number. it's a professional presentation, and very pleasant for what it is.

at one point, emily had to ask the audience why they were being so quiet, and there wasn't time nor place to explain exactly how the bar had been set so high--obviously the hounds had been in their trailer when amy and her band opened the evening, or they might know. (nor would they have had the benefit of knowing firsthand the quality of the preceding headliners this summer, either). i had to scratch my head at a "musicianship" compliment paid elsewhere to them and their band--i will tell you that one of the most uplifting aspects of their show was affirmation that, as poorly practiced and of limited ability as many of us may be, there's a musical place for everyone in this universe, and talent isn't any real barrier to entry. which, of course, is also to say, that the contrast to amy and her band was all that much more remarkable for it.

i enjoyed myself at the show last night, don't get me wrong. i loved amy and her band for the second time this summer, better than ever, and going strong. what a treat! i even enjoyed the chance to share the court yard hounds harmony and enthusiasm.

it's just that, when the talent is upside down in this world, and the real stars carry their own gear, and put it out there so plain and so fair, it's easy to fall in love for how upside down the whole thing is.

amy black and band, thank you for making my evening!

OH!

for those of you not choosing to have court yard hounds tickets for boardinghouse park in hand, tonight it's stephen gostkowski and brian hoyer (you know, tom brady jr.) at lelacheur park, kicking and throwing footballs into the crowd for the game. (go spinnahs!)

gotta love life in downtown shangri-lowell

looking for clues

no, not the classic robert palmer semi-album-title track circa 1980, but the ones that possibly explain certain and future lawlessness among certain members of the coming generation of lowellians...

this afternoon, fully laden with the jackpot of my shopping tour through the lowell farmer's market, i endeavored to travel back across the head of arcand drive in front of city hall, in full view of the lowell police station. (an element to the story which will increase in relevance as the details are added). at any busy time of the day, i generally respect the usual disorganization of the intersection with its five incoming feeds and only three exits by employing the accompanying "walk" signals made so thoughtfully present by the better judgment of our fair city. as the chirp chirp chirp of the audible "go ahead" signal was accompanying the bright white "walk" messages on all the traffic poles, and i ambled comfortably into what i hardly considered the breach, but learned all too quickly certainly was. beside me, lest my height and width be insufficient for daylight, (trust me, it is, but bear with me), walked also a woman with her young (perhaps 4 or 5 years old) son otherwise safely led by the hand, the three of us now making what anyone might hope was an easily visible indication IN THE CROSSWALK, along with both the visible and audible warnings by the traffic signals, that driving through the intersection was to be suspended for the brief duration. (oh, silly me...)

despite all this, through the intersection nevertheless drove a woman in a bedraggled volkswagen golf, absolutely oblivious to the pedestrians present, let alone the traffic signals, nor, possibly, the marked lowell police cruiser literally three cars behind her at the red light. yes, she had to START through the intersection on full red, (she had been stopped successfully at the red light prior to the walk signal being given), and do it in full view of a uniformed city officer at the wheel of his cruiser, as well as in complete view of the lowell police department headquarters.

setting aside the very real threat to life and limb--to myself, the woman walking near me and her somewhere around five year old child--most interesting to me was the conversation that ensued between the woman and her son: "yes, the cars are supposed to stop at the red light". i added my observation of the insult to potential injury by saying "i can't believe she did it right in front of a policeman and he didn't pull her over", to which she added her personal observation to both me and her son that "they never do".

this part, most of all, to me is troubling. not so much that a driver so blithely disregarded traffic signals and put pedestrians at such risk, and not even that she should do it right in front of an authorized city traffic enforcement employee, (to wit, an on-duty cop), but that the message required to be passed along to the impressionable and future generation of this city was that such un-responded-to lawlessness and accompanying lack of care for public safety was the standard procedure of any usual day.

i've lived here long enough to know that the chances of getting pinched for speeding on the lowell connector are pretty good every day of the week. i've also lived her long enough to know that our city police in any situation requiring decisive action are some of the best in the country. (right, mr. burke?) but i guess i haven't lived here long enough to become resigned to complete disinterest on the part of the citizenry and peace officers for clear and present danger to a pedestrian immediately in front of both city hall AND our police headquarters.

any guesses as to the concern said five year old will carry forward into his teenage years for following the rules around town? i, for one, will maintain faith in his mother that he'll do right in spite of growing up amidst such poor example. i'm also encouraged that his "city smarts" are enhanced with a valuable lesson today. but i guess i'm also saying that we need to stop blaming the lawlessness on everybody else, if we aren't willing to raise our hands and say we aren't going to stand by and let the rules be so blithely disregarded, by both citizens and the people we pay to keep our peace.

yeah, it's undoubtedly just a minor lapse of concentration by an otherwise innocent citizen, and i would not even be in favor of writing her a ticket in place of a thoughtful and timely warning. things happen, and there was no harm ultimately done. except, of course, if you might count this as one of a possible accumulation of an eventual thousand cuts to the fabric of our community that might, one day, result in the death of something or somebody, if only our collective respect for our societal rules.

too many hit and run pedestrian accidents occur here, and traffic fatalities, for me to feel confident that there is no relation. wish i was able to get the license number of the offending car, though i will tell you i did get the license number of the disinterested cruiser...

they're doing it to me again, or, three out of four or five or six will have to do

tonight's lineup is one of the best in a long time, and given the standard (last saturday culminating with the limbo souls at the worthen has to be in worthy contention) that's saying a lot.

to start, jen kearney will be gracing the back lawn of the tsongas center as part of the back yard music series of outdoor shows, and if you caught jen's set opening up for what culminated in the limbo souls a the worthen this past saturday night, you know for sure about which i'm talking. it's a 6pm to 8pm cookout and musical celebration, and if you've seen the weather outside, you know this is one of those summer evenings you HAVE to. even if you have tickets to the spinners at lelacheur, you can still catch an hour of this show, and a burger or a dog, before taking the short walk to the ballpark. (you know you want to...)

unfortunately, if you do have tickets to the spinners at lelacheur, your options for the next set of choices will be therefore limited, but, fortunately, if you don't have tickets to the spinners at lelacheur, or prefer performance to baseball, you're on target to attend the freeverse fundraiser at the village smokehouse, and for all the right reasons. everything gets underway at 7:30, so jen kearney fans may be the first 30 minutes tardy, but the fundraiser celebrates the freeverse spoken word youth poetry group's recent regional win to qualify them for the national brave new voices competition in california. the winners need help financing their travel, and it's a great way for people with lowell pride to show their lowell pride in support of yet more great examples of the pride of lowell. spoken word performances by members masada jones, joey banh and ricky orng will be complemented by musical performances by beneath the sheets, d-tension, hetfield and hetfield, and jasper som.

the rest is not nearly so simple. around about 9pm or after, jochemo takes the stage at ole, and arte k (joined by carl johnson) is at fortunato's. rumors also circulate that there's a blues jam at the back page being attended by open mic maestro stephen clements just to make it impossible to get to everything. my option, still pumped as i am from the limbo souls gig on saturday, is to err in favor of arte k and carl johnson (a full 40% of the souls--can't argue against that) playing a full collection of arte k originals, tasteful and tastefully done covers, and the extra or two carl johnson piece they always manage to add in whenever they play together. but, since your preferences and results may vary, you can feel free to make your own best choice and enjoy yourself thoroughly.

it's a great night for live performance in the great city of lowell!

in praise of open communication and the LPD

human police theory and practice over the centuries (millennia) has tended towards opacity of information and might-makes-right. (you need look no further than syria and libya for current extreme examples). recently, here in lowell, we've had opportunity to explore a more enlightened approach, and i, for one, have been thoroughly impressed with both our anthropological progress, as well as our local constabulary.

most prominently among the details of the recent sexual assault, attempted murder and subsequent flight from justice by the perpetrator of the incident on lowell's riverwalk behind lelacheur park had been the initial withholding of police photographs of the primary (only) suspect. i was among the many (all?) who originally cried out in frustration for not being entrusted with the key artifact(s) that would enable me to most-effectively participate in the search for the perpetrator, but, to the everlasting credit of the lowell police department, the associated district attorney's office, and local newspaper reporter bob mills, a reasoned, calm and thorough explanation of why it might be in the best interest of all of us in the community that the photo(s) remained confidential among law enforcement was widely distributed. it was even presented, especially by bob mills, as an opportunity for the community to weigh in on the precariously balanced interests of successful prosecution against the primary and immediate goal of taking the violent offender off the street. i don't know about you, but i felt that concerns from the victim's point of view were allowed to remain prominent alongside the concerns of the entire community, and never did i get the idea that anthropological law enforcement tendencies towards "you don't need to know" and "because we said so" were anywhere in the actions and statements of the LPD, a point which is even more impressive in light of the rapid capture of the suspect even so.

i know there is no winning for the one whose life has been irretrievably altered by this heinous attack. i know there is nothing that can put things back to last week, when a sunny morning run along the river could be a pure uncomplicated joy. but i also know, given all that, that rapid and sure apprehension, indictment and conviction of the perpetrator is the best recourse we civilized people have agreed among ourselves is all that we shall receive, and i'm glad that we are well on our way towards that end.

it's worth remembering that life here is clearly better, even in the face of such atrocity, than life almost everywhere else in the world. our freedoms and rights are our most valuable treasures, guarded at the first line of defense by a department of (mostly) conscientious, honest, hard-working and effective peace officers. (recent questions on the conduct of one bad apple being the exception that we all trust will turn out to prove the rule). when the worst in life invariably continues to happen, it is in the professionalism and achievement of these people that we all retain hope in the best potential of our future. this contribution is best respected by the supporting professionalism and effectiveness of the court system, (something that has not always matched the PD's example while perpetrators are so often released on bail in order reoffend, though we hope in this case it will), and the continued vigilance and open public communication that is supplied by an effective fourth estate. (hats off once again to bob mills).

or, put ironically and another way, i'm supremely comfortable with opacity when it is delivered with such transparency, and backed up with such effectiveness.

even the italians are doing it

fiscal irreverence and irresponsibility around the mediterranean are the stuff of legend, and, yes, the greeks, though cradle of our civilization from which they may be, are the standard by which all others need be measured, yet even so the italians this week have managed to be on track to pass austerity measures of a sort that escape even we protestant-work-ethos-imbued americans. (story here).

are we shamed into action YET???

no, a balanced budget by 2014 isn't humanly possible, even in the nothing-is-impossible country of megan rapinoe and abby wambach. but, seriously folks in washington dc, if even the italians are doing it, there's hardly any excuse left for you and for us.

git er done.

the inexorable march of human learning and achievement

this one is not for the squeamish.

seriously.

(if you read on, it's your own responsibility--i just regurgitate the news, i don't make it).

anyway, under the heading of the inexorable march of human learning and achievement, a woman in garden grove california this week took lorena bobbitt one better, (you remember lorena bobbitt and her acquittal for cutting off half of her abusive husband penis and heaving it into a cornfield, but then thinking better of herself and leading the paramedics back where they could find the offending object, pack it on ice, and get it back to the hospital in time to reunite it with it's other half, making all the news and endless fodder for oprah and others, right?), and drugging her abusive spouse, tying him to the bed, cutting of his ENTIRE member, and then feeding it to the garbage disposal for good measure and to put the situation entirely beyond remediation. (story here).

yes, her new flourishes are a clear refinement to the deed--not only did she premeditatively drug him and tie him up, tricks that the opportunist lorena didn't perhaps need to utilize, she further induced him to awaken before she cut it off, so he could experience the whole thing with her, including the sounds of it going through the disposal. (must be love, right?) like lorena, then, back to the script, the dutiful wife then dialed 911 and alerted the cops and the paramedics to come over and clean up the messier bits. (and don't you just love the charge of "aggravated mayhem", knowing as you now do with me that it means amputation of some body part or another). some intrepid reporter, ever in the model of the british tabloid press, was able to reach the victim on the phone, though the literally emasculated and humbled man could only manage to suggest that "this is a private matter".

(not quite anymore...)

it's remarkable how often and how completely the thin veneer of humanity can be stripped away from our ugliest natures. here in lowell this week we're searching for the perpetrator of an attempted rape and murder, and delicately balancing our interest in our constitutional protections for the innocent until proven guilty, while the monsters are amok, and we wrestle with our instinctive impulses to turn out with torches and pitchforks.

it's never easy.