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Saturday, July 06, 2002
I've been listening off and on to the local classic rock station's Top 1000 countdown. I'm used to hearing Top 500 countdowns around Memorial Day/July 4th/Labor Day, but 1,000 is interesting because it forces the station to drag out songs you know aren't on their normal playlists. I think it's pretty arbitrary where some of these songs are -- Aerosmith's "Janie's Got a Gun" somewhere in the high 900s while Ace's "How Long" at 499, etc. Hopefully they'll put a list online when the countdown is over so I could have some fun picking through the selections. I haven't had the urge/energy to do the radio diary like Tim just yet, but if I've got time on my days off, I may do so.
I'm curious to see what makes the cut in the top 100 given some of the good stuff before it. One time in college, a handful of us sat around our dorm suite on Memorial Day taking bets on the top 10. I think we're all still wondering how ZZ Top's "La Grange" became so popular in Chicago. At least I can see decent reasoning for "Sweet Home Alabama" at the top of classic rock countdown here in Atlanta.
posted at 3:43 PM
The shopping continues as the Yankees get Jeff Weaver from the Tigers in a three-way trade with Oakland. The Yankees end up dealing the surprising Ted Lilly and a couple of really good prospects to the A's while Detroit gets Carlos Pena, who should be better than he is, and a couple of other less notable players. I wonder where that leaves El Duque for the Yankees, although you wonder how much more dealing there will be after getting Raul Mondesi. The A's somehow capture lightning in a bottle and got some decent players from the Yankees. (Everyone is still wondering how John Mabry became such a stud over there). And the Tigers, well, we're not sure about that, although I've already heard a lot from the Detroit bureau already.
posted at 1:30 AM
Geez, is the Splendid Splinter going to be the next Walt Disney?
posted at 12:24 AM
Friday, July 05, 2002
I haven't been as inspired to post stuff the past couple of days. (I'll probably elaborate later.) But with things pretty slow here this evening, let's see what I can dig up ...
R.I.P. Ted Williams
With all of the losses this baseball season, it pretty much seemed fitting that Ted Williams would pass away after a long illness. But like Jack Buck, it's a time for celebration in remembering one of the game's all-time greats (although we've been in that holding pattern since the '99 All-Star Game).
A couple of tangential thoughts about this: Williams wasn't the nicest player out there, but let his bat do the talking to make him a legend. Will Barry Bonds get the same type of attention when he retires. Not just in death, but the icon status that Williams got pretty much after his retirement. Also, will his son John Henry now get the boot from the rookie league team since he said the reason he wanted to play was so his father could see him in a Red Sox uniform?
Mmm, hot dogs
We got the live feed of the hot dog eating contest and it was both sickening and amazing at the same time to see Kobayashi put away 50 1/2 hot dogs in 12 minutes, but was he part of a barber shop quartet in Skokie, Illinois. I won't get into the "controversy" about his near roman-method incident other than given how he lapped the field, would it have mattered or would it be like a runner setting a fast pace and then dropping out?
The right fit?
Lauren would've been astounded to see a really long Daria marathon on The N -- the tween spinoff of Noggin, the Nickelodeon-Sesame Workshop collaboration. While the show was pretty smart, the folks at TV Barn were wondering if their audience would gravitate towards airhead younger sister Quinn as opposed to Daria. That remains to be seen, although it's a nice quirky addition to the lineup that includes a bunch of Nickelodeon tween classics (from just after my time) and a new generation of Degrassi (a personal favorite of mine and Kevin Smith). Of course, I'm still looking around for the old repeats of The Electric Company (Sean caught it when he came by for a visit a couple of years ago and was transfixed) and especially Square One Television, which Craig says is full of Michigan in-jokes (hence why I never picked up on it).
posted at 10:16 PM
Tuesday, July 02, 2002
While many people I know can easily quote Office Space, even though I was one of just a few people to see it in the theater. However, I never realized how much an impact it made on Swingline staplers.
posted at 6:36 PM
Monday, July 01, 2002
Comin' back from Cali
This weekend's family reunion turned out very well. It was held at a religious-based campground/convention center near San Bernadino. Beautiful looking area in the mountains, lots of nature around. A bear that roamed around late Saturday night, prompting a bunch of Yogi Bear jokes. However, after doing an interesting hike up one of the hills in the campground, we were hit in the face that this is southern California as you could see a thick layer of smog on top of the surrounding hills. We were thrown off by the camp rules regarding food since we're used to all-day feasts as opposed to a dinner bell. However, the big thing about this weekend was to get family together. (There were about 90 attendees at different points during the weekend. Most were from the U.S., although we did have a few come from the Philippines.)
I had already spent some time with a number of these relatives in the past, so it's not like I was walking into this cold. However, one thing that really struck us early on was that there was a big part of the family that most of us never knew about. Most of the adult relatives I knew from past gatherings emigrated to the U.S. about 25-30 years ago and then had kids born here (like myself). However, this weekend, many of the adults were born here and of mixed heritage. Take that another generation, and we have plenty of "white-looking" relatives, but it's all family. Talk about having fun with the "So, where are you from?" game that I often run into. Among my closer relatives, we're going in that direction with the cousins (roughly my age) that have recently married.
I had tons of fun with the extended family. It's now getting to the point where a 6-10 year age difference isn't as pronounced as it used to be (especially if we're all old enough to drink). Thus, there were about 20 or so of us in the demographic-friendly 18-34 range that spent a good amount of time together. We even added a couple of more cousins previously unknown to us into the circle. Should make for some fun times down the road.
Capped off the trip with a bit of sightseeing in Hollywood over by Mann's Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre (home of this year's Oscars). It's a spiffy looking area, even when we were there about 10-11 p.m., and tones down the touristy vibe (besides the handprints and stars along Hollywood Boulevard). Seeing the stars on the Walk of Fame was a bit amusing, considering that the stars run up and down the street for a long while. So while it looks pretty cool to have your name by the Chinese Theater or even by the schlocky museums nearby, it seems odd that the stars would run past some lesser areas just a few blocks down, approaching Vine.
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