Thursday 2/13/25
People's near-total lack of curiosity has much to do with the killing off of humanness. Their interest in themselves blocks out an interest in anything else. They have no idea there is anything else. They become the planet around which they also attempt to revolve, and of course that won't work.
There's a business at the end of my street next to the Starbucks called JOI Salon and each time I see the sign I think, "Oh dear."
Real science people always have less followers than fake science people.
Watched the video of Dan Hurley walking off the court mocking the Creighton crowd and saying "Two rings! Two rings!" while tugging his ring finger. What a clown. You're not some eighteen-year-old kid who has a lot of growing up to do. This is a fifty-two-year-old man. I was surprised, incidentally, to learn he's only fifty-two. Looks a lot older. That's embarrassing behavior. What's wrong with everybody? Are there no adults anymore? Of course, many people cheer on this kind of thing, because it's immature and they are immature.
You can't burn a bridge that doesn't exist or wasn't ever going to be there anyway.
Downloaded the audience recording of the Grateful Dead's 11/13/72 performance in Kansas City. It's a high-level audience tape--made by Owsley "Can You Hear Me Now" Stanley--and features and important version of "Dark Star." No one will get that Stanley reference. In addition to being an audio engineer, he produced LSD and supplied rock musicians. During a 1967 performance on BBC radio, Jimi Hendrix yelled out, "Oh, Owsley, can you hear me now!" during his guitar solo.
It was on this day in 1970 that the Grateful Dead played a show at the Fillmore East that you could argue is the best show anyone's ever played in rock and roll. The next day, at Leeds University, the Who played a show about which you could argue the same thing. Back to back days. Can you imagine anything like that happening in the world right now? No way, right? And that doesn't mean anything? Kind of seems like it means something.
Walked three miles and did 100 push-ups and five circuits of stairs in the Monument yesterday. There was a woman--petite, fit, perhaps thirty--working out as well. This is very rare, of course. I think she may have been the woman one of the rangers had told me about who had started coming to train for a trip she was taking to hike some mountains in Europe.
You catch attitude everywhere it seems. She was coming down the first time I was going up. She was on the right, I was on the right--both of us where we were supposed to be. And she lets out this "thank you" with condescension in it, like at least I was smart enough to know not to get in her way. It was in the tone and the needlessness of what she said. She wasn't trying to be friendly.
Sometimes when people are trying to friendly, they'll say things that don't make strict sense. But unless I am very much mistaken, that's not what this was. I can't imagine coming down and saying this to a woman--or anyone. The implication is one of "Hey, at least you didn't screw up, credit to you."
I'm sure she thought what she was doing was notable because it's hard and who else would do such a thing and I was some person doing what everyone else does when they go to the Bunker Hill Monument. I then passed her three times. Which is good, because like I said, she was fit so that is a decent sign. I've not been in the Monument as much as I'd like to be of late or should be, but I felt pretty strong and I was moving at a decent clip.
But I must also remind myself that people can also come across a given way without meaning or wanting to. She could be very nice. It's like Orson Welles said: We must remember that our heart is God's little garden. He didn't mean God in a religious sense. He meant keep your heart open and leave some room for people despite their shortcomings or for you to be wrong about them.
Wrote a piece on the Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby" yesterday that was excellent. Also worked on the title for my book of my rock and roll-related writings. Some of them. A very few of them (for this book).
Moved the op-ed on the Beatles that I wrote.
The Red Sox signed Alex Bregman. He's been a little better than mediocre. Peaked at twenty-five, hasn't come close to that level since. Might hit 20 homers with 72 RBI and a 108 OPS+, but "he's a gamer."
That doesn't mean a lot if you don't also have star-level talent on the roster. Gamers (Trot Nixon is an example) are useful then. Otherwise, they're you're best players, and if they are, you won't be good enough. Or good at all.
I suspect the Sox will play Bregman at second base, but he's not a second baseman and this won't shore up their infield defense. Here's a baseball truth: You can't take a third baseman in his thirties--I don't care if it's his early thirties--and put him at second base and have it go the way you wish it to. It's not going to happen. Bregman has played thirty-two innings at second base in his entire MLB career. Sounds super. What could go wrong? And who is the back-up shortstop for when Trevor Story gets a hangnail and has his season end?
Here's something else about Bregman. He once led the league in walks with 119. You know how many times he walked last year? Forty-four times. When you see that, a guy is losing it. That shouldn't happen. You go from leading the league in walks to a player who walks a negligible amount of times? You're not seeing the ball like you used to.
Here's the bottom line: Bregman isn't that good. He's okay. Red Sox fans are talking about him like they just signed Mike Schmidt, when he's much more in keeping with the fading, retread type of players they've been bringing for the last few years. He just cost more than some of them, but he didn't cost what elite talent costs. You may have gotten more out of Tyler O'Neill last year than you'll get out of Bregman this year.
And why is no one but me--as per usual--bringing up things like that walk stat? Why is no one at any sports outlet saying things of that nature? It's right there on his baseball-reference page. Do people not even look? Do they not understand how to read that page? That's a huge and telling drop off. That is a big deal.
It always blows my mind how sports fans are so stupid now that they have no idea what time is or how it works. They think that every player is the same as they always were. Because they know nothing. All they do is see the name and whatever that name represents to them. There isn't any thinking. No awareness of age, of changing bodies, career arcs.
I keep hearing, though, how the Red Sox are better this year. I'm not buying that. Expecting last place or, at best, fourth in the division. Duran won't do what he did last year and he's a dick that isn't the type of guy you want around anyway. Devers could join Bregman in that 23 home run, 79 RBI range. Those power numbers could lead the team. And look who they have as the closer: a guy who walks six batters per nine innings. This won't go well. I will be very surprised if it does or is anything different than more of what it's been for a while now with the old town team.
It's weird to think that for what seems like all of their domination, the Dodgers have half as many World Series titles this century as the Red Sox.
It annoys me to hear Charlie McAvoy talk about this ridiculous Four Nations tournament--which means nothing, won't be remembered by anyone, and will have no role in the story of the history of hockey--like he cares a lot more about it than he does the actual team he plays for. What a random, forced exercise this tournament is.
"As a full-time YouTuber..." Just be gone.
The number of people who try to sound smart on social media and write "per say" is enough to make you pull an Oedipus (post-epiphany).
Downloaded the Vines' early demos and some shows of theirs from Philly, Chicago, and LA in 2002.
I saw this guy on Threads who has this go-to comment he likes to make when women post a question--for the mindless collection of clicks and attention--such as, "What helps you relax?" His go-to comment in these instances is "Anal creampie."
I thought, "That surely makes for a smart way to approach life," so I clicked on his profile. You sort of want to see who's behind some of these things. Morbid curiosity. And there was a titan of a man. Let's say, late fifties, with a massive slope of a gut that you could could ski down, chins to spare, and a big old fish that he was holding. Caught that himself he did.
The rest of his profile was him sharing his brilliant insights on sports. I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes a football GM in the near future. And this guy--he of the chins, the big fish, the charming manner, and the openness about his fondness for anal creampies--has more followers than I do.
And yet that's how so many people measure things now, isn't it?
Also: Guys look like hell. They reach an age, and they look like hell. Can there be no exercise? Is health just something to be urinated on? Because that's how it looks a lot of the time.
People now use the word "intention" the way that sportscasters use the word "pace," like it could only have one meaning. "He wasn't dating with intention." "They need to play with pace." Which, in addition to being ignorant, really is pretty narcissistic when you think about it. The thing I want this word to mean will be all that it can mean despite its other meanings and everyone else should just know what I mean.
You can tell from the way they produced the song--they loaded up all of the tracks--that Pulp was very consciously going for an anthemic hit with "Common People." They were like, "Enough of the scuffling!"
Starbucks treats its customers like it despises them and doesn't want them around. They just want their money and to otherwise stay as far away as possible. It's a curious model they've adopted and which they keep tweaking.
Walked four more miles today and did another 100 push-ups. Was on my way to the Monument when something came up.
Additional work on "Hero of Mine." Really have something now.
