Doing Eau Gallie High School proud

Your 2009 MLB home run derby champion ...



And Tim Wakefield pitches tomorrow night for the American League.

A review of my latest musical acquisitions

I've been on a music tear lately, picking up an album or two a week. Here are my latest:

Jenni Muldaur - "Dearest Darlin'"

Although my soul and R&B collection isn't the most extensive, there is just something about the voice of old school or neo-soul female R&B singers that just fits. I think it is genre where the ladies lead the way. Jenni Muldaur is one of those women who hit the mark with me. She has an awesome old school voice, as showcases it perfectly throughout "Dearest Darlin'".

"Dearest Darlin'" is a collection of soul and R&B covers mostly from the 50s and 60s. Muldaur covers some of the biggest names in the genre, from Bo Diddley to James Brown, as well as some rare antiques such as a 1934 field holler recorded by Alan Lomax. With the extensive range of content, Muldaur raises the bar quite high, but still nails it. I was really impressed.

Spinal Tap - "Back From The Dead"

The greatest band in the history of music history has returned. "Back From The Dead" is not only a collection of songs from the Spinal Tap movie, but also a few new songs, as well as a few "re-mixes", including a funky rendition of the classic "Sex Farm".

Another great reason to actually buy Spinal Tap instead of downloading their greatness is the included DVD. The DVD is absolutely awesome. Over an hour of the band talking about each song on the DVD. Hilarious.

Street Sweeper Social Club - self-titled

I like far-out riffs of ex-Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello. I like the political rhymes of Boots Riley of The Coup. So naturally I like this album. Although this definitely a solid buy, I do have a few comments:

1) It would have been amazing to have a few Zach De La Rocha cameos.

2) Boots Riley's voice sounds more fitting to funk or rap backbeats.

3) This album is another 1+1 does not equal 2 venture (see Blackout! 2). Close, but not quite. Morello fits perfectly and there are some great anthems, but I think Boots holds back a bit and doesn't get as descriptive as he does on The Coup albums.

Leela James - "Let's Do It Again"

(Ok, Leela James's new album came out in March, but I just bought it, so it's new to me.)

Back in 2005, I used to play Leela James's first album, "Change is Gonna Come", all the time. It was funky, soulful, and one of the best albums of that year. Then Leela James disappeared. I heard absolutely nothing about her.

Four years later, Ms. James finally released her second album, "Let's Do It Again". Like Jenni Muldaur, Leela James does an album full of soul and R&B covers. I don't want to say I am not impressed, because this is a very good album, but I expected more. Where are the new songs? Where is the new material that would spring Ms. James into the mainstream?

Wu-Tang Clan - "Wu-Tang Chamber Music"

This album should have probably been called "The RZA Presents ...". Although listed as a Wu-Tang album, it's really not. First of all, it doesn't have Method Man, the GZA, or Masta Killa on it (three of my favorite MCs, by the way). Second, it is more of an EP than a full-length album. There are few too many short philosophical narratives interspersed between the songs. Although interesting, these short RZA bytes take a bit away from the flow of the album.

Despite its shortfalls, "Chamber Music" is great. In making the album RZA recorded live music to blend with the beats and give the album a very "live" sound. This new Wu sound works best with Wu veterans Inspectah Deck and Ghostface, as they tear up their verses on each of the songs they are on. Guest stars Sean Price, Sadat X, Masta Ace, Havoc, and others also work well. Overall, there is not a bad song on the album, it is just too short. Hopefully Chamber Music is an appetizer, a precursor for a new full-length Wu-Tang album.

Live in the past, we make it last

In the latest Afro-Squad video I star as a time traveler from the future:



If you know where the title of this post came from, consider yourself cool.

Twitter and the Blogosphere

Back in April I joined Twitter. Honestly, at the time I had no idea why. I planned on throwing a few links out there and not much else. But then a funny thing happened ... I figured out the power of Twitter.

I figured it out so well, I've even been talking about it on other sites.

For example, today I commented on Daniel Drezner's blog over at Foreign Affairs.com. Drezner's post is about a post by fellow long-time blogger Laura McKenna in which she discusses the state of the blogosphere.

McKenna lists nine reasons the blogosphere is no longer in blossoming community mode. She claims it has become professionalized and niche-based. (By the way, this definitely applies to the sports blogosphere as well, especially since Deadspin changed it's format.)

Although he doesn't come out and agree with all of her points, Drezner does state that "professionalization, partisanship and speciaization have hit the blogosphere pretty hard." He also states most niche bloggers are now professionals who add their valued insight to the discussion.

Because Drezner doesn't address the use of social media, I added to the discussion of linking and blogrolls by talking about the effect of Twitter on the blogosphere:

"As a blogger, I've found it easier to post interesting links on twitter immediately than to wrap up a bunch of links in a post. Since my twitter followers consist of my blog fans as well as many others, I have more reach there than if I just posted a link dump or included sites in a blogroll.

What this means however is that I push specific data instead of a whole web site reading experience. I am pushing other blogger's information instead of their communities. It is somewhat selfish, honestly. But communities have moved from web sites to social networking platforms.

The love isn't gone, it's just moved."

I think my opinion on Twitter either makes me a genius or a fool. I'm not sure which.

By the way, follow me on Twitter at JordiScrubbings.

Keep politics out of baseball stadiums

July 4th would have been a great day to kick back, go to Space Coast Stadium in Melbourne, FL, watch the Brevard County Manatees play the Daytona Cubs, buy a beer and a hot dog, and enjoy some firework festivities.

Unfortunately, Space Coast Stadium was hijacked by "tea party" protesters. According to Florida Today.com,

About 3,000 opponents collectively criticized the current administration as a free-spending government that is leading the nation with a socialist agenda. They banded together Saturday at Space Coast Stadium for a Fourth of July "tea party."

Long before the 4 p.m. start of the event, crowds gathered to purchase $5 tickets that included a voucher for admission to the Brevard County Manatees-Daytona Cubs baseball game and fireworks show to follow.

Pictures on FloridaToday.com and in the print version of the Florida Today also show "tea party" members inside Space Coast Stadium rallying for their cause.

Hijacking public events cannot become a growing trend. Stadiums across the country have to put the kibosh on this real quick and tell these people that they can not protest inside our sporting events. Of course, we all know the first stadium to take away fans' political signs as they enter the stadium will be accused of violating the fans' 1st amendment rights. What these fans must understand is freedom of expression inside a venue is guided by the rules and regulations of the venue.

Whether or not I agree with these protesters is irrelevant. I just want to make that perfectly clear. But I do think that by allowing a political rally to be held inside the stadium, the powers that be at Space Coast Stadium opened a pandora's box that should not have been opened. By allowing the "tea party" protest to continue in a public area, Space Coast Stadium now has to provide space in the same venue for any and all other gatherings, to include extremists such as the Ku Klux Klan. To not do so would be to exhibit favoritism of expression and to associate Space Coast Stadium with a specific political view.

I seriously doubt Space Coast Stadium will want to be known as a "protester friendly stadium". What the stadium personnel did on July 4th was a mistake. Nothing good can come from it, especially from an economic perspective. Allowing the "tea party" protest to continue through the gates put the stadium on a slippery slope that will do nothing but discourage non-partisan baseball fans from enjoying a day at the ballpark.

If I were a Brevard County Manatee season ticket holder or other frequent visitor to Space Coast Stadium, I would demand an apology from the organization and not attend another game until I had a guarantee that political rallies will no longer be allowed to infringe on the baseball watching experience.

Jimi Hendrix and a family tradition

When I was young and had no sense, I used to wake up on the 4th with contempt. For the first umpteen years of my life, my dad would begin Independence Day by playing the sounds of Jimi Hendrix wailing his rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. It was like Dad's revenge for waking him up early on Christmas morning.

Unfortunately, when I was younger, for whatever unpatriotic, uncounterculture reason, I didn't really like the song. I think I said once it sounded like "a guitar and a bulldozer". But I don't think it bothered the Old Man, he kept on playing it anyway.

Somewhere along the way, my musical tastes started evolving. I went from Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg to George Clinton to James Brown to the blues and wouldn't you know, back to Jimi. By the time I was in my early 20s, I understood the significance of taking a national standard like the Star Spangled Banner and turning it inside-out in the name of counterculture. I could relate to Jimi's frustration at the establishment yet his belief that America was still the best country in the world.

So given that I don't have kids of my own to wake up, I decided to post Jimi Hendrix's "guitar and bulldozer" song, his amazing rendition of Francis Scott Key's "Star Spangled Banner". Hopefully you'll watch, appreciate, and crank it up for the neighbors to hear.

Happy Independence Day.

Another Great Fourth of July reference

Two years ago, I quoted the amazing Fourth of July dialog from the movie "The Sandlot". Today, in honor of America's 133rd birthday, here is another great Fouth of July reference, the lyrics to Soundgarden's aptly named "Fourth of July". Enjoy.

Shower in the dark day
Clean sparks driving down
Cool in the waterway
Where the baptized drown
Naked in the cold sun
Breathing life like fire
Thought I was the only one
But that was just a lie

Cause I heard it in the wind
And I saw it in the sky
And I thought it was the end
And I thought it was the 4th of July

Pale in the flare light
The scared light cracks & disappears
And leads the scorched ones here
And everywhere no one cares
The fire is spreading
And no one wants to speak about it
Down in the hole
Jesus tries to crack a smile
Beneath another shovel load

And I heard it in the wind
And I saw it in the sky
And I thought it was the end
And I thought it was the 4th of July

Now I'm in control
Now I'm in the fall out
Once asleep but now I stand
And I still remember
Your sweet everything
Light a Roman candle
And hold it in your hand

Cause I heard it in the wind
And I saw it in the sky
And I thought it was the end
And I thought it was the 4th of July

Happy 4th of July