A season over the air

March 31, 2008


Baseball season starts today. For Twins fans, at least.

And while television brings us most of the games, I’m still stuck on getting my baseball the old fashioned way. The way I learned when first rediscovering the Twins after several seasons of indifference. By radio.

To me, Twins season means toting my portable radio around, tuned to 1140 KSOO, bringing Dan Gladden and John Gordon around with me, lamenting the loss of the great Herb Carneal, pouring over every statistic in an old folksy way and learning names before faces, wondering later at how oddly they seemed to be spelled.

I used to listen to the Twins while working at the Parks Department in St. Cloud. I’d sit back in the shelter with the radio tuned to the day’s game, soaking in the stats, reacquiring the taste I once had as an errant Cardinals fan, the sun of someone else’s reception or event warming their heads, the sound of sport warming mine.

In past years, I’ve listened to the Twins while digging gardens, planting flowers and laying stone borders. I’ve listened to the them while cutting sod and cleaning the garage, while rewiring light switches and organizing our basement, during grill-out parties and while completely by myself.

It’s the smell of dirt and mown grass and dust and sunflower seeds, as if a little portion of the game itself was being wafted through the speakers toward me. Hard work. Leisurely rest. A glass of water or a bottle of cold beer.

What’s great about baseball on the radio is that no matter how long the season gets, you never have to stop doing what you’re doing to catch a game.

How much is a nostalgic longing for times? Times I was never old enough to experience? And how much is an actual dedication to great baseball on the radio is?

I’ll never know. Maybe it’s a little bit of old soul that’s been stuck in me. But give me the crackle of the radio any day.

Tags: Baseball, Minnesota Twins, Outdoors, Sports |

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ABC3D

March 28, 2008


ABCs. In 3D.

Via Projectionist.

Tags: Random YouTube, Words |

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I want to write books

March 28, 2008


Someday, I want to write books.

Books of short stories, probably. I can’t even wrap my mind around writing a novel. It’s just too big. Too daunting.

I’ve got some ideas, already. Some have been done. Others have not. All hold promise. All just need some push and a lot of time.

I want to write about two friends who discover a horrible secret at a lake house.

I want to write about what it was like to witness my grandfather as he died of cancer.

I want to write stories based on the songs from Ween’s Chocolate and Cheese.

I want to write stories.

Who knows. Maybe one of these will turn into a book. It’s happened before. A short story by the title of “Rabbit, Run” turned into book, which in turn created a multiple time Pulitzer Prize winning series and made John Updike the name we know today.

Someday, I’ll write a book of short stories. I’ll make time to write more than just a hastily created blog post. I’ll struggle to have it published. I’ll frame my rejection letters. I’ll create cover art in MS Paint. I’ll hide it in a drawer. I’ll create seventeen DVD copies of the file and scatter them throughout the world, just in case.

In fact, I’ve already started. Who knows how long it will take. Really, who knows how long anything will take.

Tags: Books, Career, Writing |

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Life Insurance Awareness Month

March 28, 2008


Life Insurance Awareness MonthThis is about six months early (or late), but did you know that September is Life Insurance Awareness Month?

With so many Awareness Months claiming their cause, This shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s just kind of, I don’t know, disingenuous, like we’re promoting FLEX Spending Awareness Month or Flight Insurance Awareness Month.

My favorite, though, might be that the 2007 spokesperson for Life Insurance Awareness Month was Molly Shannon. Molly Shannon? What, Chris Kattan wasn’t available? Kevin McDonald was busy?

Listen. I understand the need for life insurance. I get how important it is. But a Life Insurance Awareness Month? It kind of doesn’t have the same ring as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Excuse me for thinking this, but it smacks of opportunism and commercial pandering.

The big question: I wonder what the cause ribbon looks like. And do they make lapel pins?

Tags: Annoyances |

8 Comments

Three years (and one month and six days)

March 26, 2008


Oops. I guess it was Black Marks on Wood Pulp’s birthday one month and six days ago.

I celebrated the occasion with a bunch of posts on movies. No wonder I missed it - I was too busy gushing about Becket and Braveheart and attempting to design a blog with little to know design sense or skill. And you, the faithful reader and commenter, were too busy gushing over Andrew Saikali’s list (or more accurately, Andrew and David Chilton’s conversation on directors in the comments).

If you’re curious about what I wrote on my first day as amateur blogger, check out the first post, aptly titled “The First Post.”

So, yeah. Happy birthday, you tremendous time waste and career networking tool!

Tags: Blogging, Meta |

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Muxin’ it up

March 26, 2008


The mix tape is getting a lot of play this year, it seems.

With good reason. We’ve become so used to single-serving songs that we’ve begun to miss the organization that we once had. We’ve lost the full album as art; the idea that each song leads into the next, like the chapters of a book, furthering the cause and complementing each other.

Now, albums are more like anthologies than novels - each song playing on its own like a solitary short story. You’ll find three or four great songs and eight or nine filler songs. The album could be shuffled and nothing would change. And that’s sad.

Regardless of the status of the album, we’ve all longed to create our own perfect track lists - hence, the mix tape was born. It’s nearly ironic - something that with the word “mix” in it often tends to be a carefully constructed, organized flow of music. Mix the songs and the effect isn’t the same.

So it’s only natural that mix tapes would garner some nostalgic support. It seems like ten or more “mix tape” Web sites have sprouted up as music lovers search their inner Rob Gordon and develop the Web 2.1 version of the plastic cased Maxell cassette tape.

I’ve found one that’s easy to use and fun to listen to: Muxtape. Upload up to 12 songs, organize and release.

I’ve got 55 minutes of well-considered mix-tape magic there - what I’d choose if people actually cared about the mix CDs (and their natural predecessors, the mix tapes) I used to make. Check it out: The Black Marks on Wood Pulp Muxtape.

Muxtape


(Credit: Charisma18, the Rick Roll’n cad.)

Tags: Music, Random Links |

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Turning on my team

March 25, 2008


Sometimes, fanhood can be difficult.

I’ve been rather silent all year in regards to my beloved Pacers, laughing stock of the league and second worst situation in all of basketball (Thanks, Knicks!)

Yet, here we are. Less than a month from the end of the season. The postseason hunt underway. And the plucky Indiana Pacers, fresh off of a four game winning streak, are just half of a game out of the playoffs.

The playoffs!

It should probably come as no surprise that I’ve counted them out all season. It’s just not working anymore. Jermaine O’Neal is a shell of his former All Star self. Fans are treated to a barrage of inexperienced and underwhelming players every night. Even supposed bright spot Danny Granger has taken his chance to shine and flushed it down the toilet, averaging just 18.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game, even with his team scoring more points than anyone in the Eastern Conference outside of Orlando.

But now, here they are. Eleven games below .500. And sniffing at the playoffs.

And here’s the dilemma. If they make the playoffs – if they somehow sneak in and rest themselves firmly at the eighth seed – they’ll be facing the Boston Celtics. The amazingly rejuvenated Boston Celtics, the team poised to bring home the title for the first time since Larry Bird wore green, since before Jordan was a force, since the last power trio graced the Garden’s parquet floor.

The Boston Celtics. The team I’ve taken on as my team of destiny, rooted for and crossed my fingers for and prayed to the basketball gods for. The team that caused me to cheat on my beloved Pacers.

So that’s the trouble. The Boston Celtics vs. the Indiana Pacers. One love verses another. On one hand, I should root for my team – my scrappy upstarts, my fledgling group of misfits – to go all Golden State on Boston’s ass and upset the Chosen Team.

On the other hand, there’s Kevin Garnett. Paul Pierce. Ray Allen. Three superstars that deserve rings. A foregone conclusion to make the Conference Finals, if not win it all. A team that’s infinitely more fun to watch.

If the Pacers make the playoffs, and they face the Celtics, is it okay for me to root for the wrong team?

Is it okay for me to turn my back on an almost guaranteed loser, to root, for one series only, against Reggie and Rik’s team? If only for this one time. If only to see KG get his ring. If only because the Pacers have given me so little to root for over the past three years.

Yeah. It’s okay. But still, I feel so horrible even thinking about it.

If you’re looking for me, I’ll be the one wearing Celtic Green, a number 5 jersey covering my shame, a paper bag over my head. And when the Celtics win, the bag will come off.

I’m just afraid the smile never will.

——————

(EDIT – The Pacers just lost to the Hornets and now sit between one and two games out, dependant upon how the Hawks and Nets do tonight. Maybe I won’t have to worry about this at all.)

Tags: Basketball, Indiana Pacers, Sports |

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