I hear a symphony

Doug:
So the best thing about this Boston Pops brouhaha is the chick in the white dress is hawt.

 

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Bill:
Smokin' … But seriously,it's bad enough with all the cell phone chattahs at Fenway, but now we have to enduah people who can't seem to shut up at Symphony Hall too.

 

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Doug:
I know. And what's up with all the angah? These are halcyon days for New Englandahs.

 

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Bill:
Yeah, gotta figure that dude was a Yankees fan.

 

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Doug:
True. Totally fits the profile — Ill-mannered philistines with an awful lot to talk about these days what with underperforming, the dysfunction and the flaccid Wang and all.

 

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Bill:
Meanwhile, on the opposite Cartesian grid from underperforming we present Tim Wakefield… a streak of 16 scoreless innings and the new MLB leadah in ERA at 1.79

 

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Doug:
Yeah, and where's my Tim Wakefield inspiahd t-shirt already? C'mon people.

 

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Bill:
You know who else deserves some fan love? Pitching coach John Farrell. He's helping Wakefield, Schilling credits him for his recent success, and look at Beckett?

 

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Doug:
Absolutely. Farrell needs a tag line and t-shirt too.

 

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Comments

[louclinton]

Did somebody say "Beckett"?

Am I to believe that my visit to the Fens on Sunday will end in disappointment?

Naw. Life is Good. Timmy rox.

Is Paps still on the team? Haven;'t seen him for about a week. [heh]

lc

[Harwich Rich]

The Flaccid Wang? OMG,I love it--the line that is :D

[Armen]

I cringed more at the Jays' effort last night than at Pam's post coal-running rant at the beach.

[Rob in CT]

TIMMAH!!!

Knuckle Sandwich? Stupid headline on Boston.com. But, boy oh boy, Wake had the Jays looking pretty stoopid at the plate last night. I want me a Timmah shirt.

[IkeG]

I'm enjoying the heck out of life as a Sox fan these days, but if Cafardo were in the same room with me now I'd kick him in the head.

I'd like to hear from paddy24 ... take us down a peg, please.

Count me in for a Wake t-shirt if anybody finds one.

[Kelly the Ballgal is Hot]

Wasn't the boat in that movie the Great Outdoors w/ John Candy called "Suck my Wake" Someone needs to make that T-Shirt...

[JOinDC]

"Knuckle Down with Timmy"

[JOinDC]

"Knuck You"

[Natalie]

"Wakefield of Dreams?" Meh. Cheesy.

Yeah, Ike, where is paddy24 to pee in our lemonade today?

I need Circle and Tara to show some Tek-esque love to Timmy. Now, he's hawt.

Oh, and can we have a moment thanking our stars Dale Sveum is gone? This is the first time in a long time (Wendell, I am lookin' at you, too) I have not felt as if our third base coach is a drunk air traffic controller...

[JNeu]

For Tim's T:

The Real No-Spin Zone

[IkeG]

Great t-shirt ideas so far ... how about Curly saying "Hey Moe! How do ya get All-Star hitter to look like schmucks? ... Knuck Knuck Knuck".

[Harwich Rich]

"The Knuckleheads"

[Bob]

Boy, this sure seems familar.

Okay, I'll repeat myself:

Can't crack his knuckle.

[louclinton]

With hb's express permission, I am turning to my second favorite topic (after Lisa's nasty streak), Glenn Geffner.

There was a puff piece in the PHB's Globe today, which said, among other things:

"[B]oth of the new guys [Geffner and O'Brien] have been very well received so far," said [Jason]Wolfe [WRKO muckety muck], "so I am very comfortable where we are and I think everything is going as we had planned it."

As you might imagine, I have some views on the subject, which are posted at www.38cliches.com.

Thanks for allowing the shameless plug, hb.

lc

[denversoxfan]

How about a red shirt that just says "WAKE" in big, blue letters?

[SinKC]

All:

h.b. has graciously given me permission to post a link to agencies providing relief for the Greensburg tornado. Problem is, my html skeelz are anything but madd.

If I could prevail upon anyone for an emailed tutorial, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

[Aaron]

The funniest part about that video clip is that the dude lost his shirt during the fight. The general rule of thumb for shows like COPS is that, when they show a guy out in front of his trailer with no shirt on, he's going to jail. Glad to see that eternal rule holds true for the highbrow set as well.

[vasoxfan]

h.b.
thanks for all you do. Do you want to know about the misspelling of dysfunction? (better to miss the c and have the n than the other way around:))
vasoxfan

[pinstripe thunder]

Wake me in September.

Flaccid Wang is good, HB. I'll tack it to the wall as a quiet reminder of how benevolent I want to be later this summer. Feast on the spring of our discontent... it will make September all the sweeter.

PT

[h.b.]

re Misspell
Thanks for the typo tip. I was distracted, obviously, by the flaccid wang.

re SinKC:
Just paste in your URL and I'll go into your comment and add the HTML bits to make it a link.

re Shirtless
Very true. If there's one thing I've learned from Cops it's this: When you see a skinny, drunk, shirtless, redneck an ill wind is sure to blow.

BTW Cops in HD is such a fine use of the technology. The crack whores are made ever more whorier, the meth heads ever more wild-eyed. I feel like I'm there.

[vasoxfan]

>>re Misspell
Thanks for the typo tip. I was distracted, obviously, by the flaccid wang.

Well... isn't that one of our greatest fears.:)
Oops I talk too much...

[h.b.]

What a wonderful Spring...

The children skipping where the weeper stood,
The lovers natural and the beasts all good.

[SinKC]

h.b.:

Thanks. This is sort of a catch-all link from Wichita's newspaper, listing all the available ways in which people can give:

Greensburg Tornado: HOW TO DONATE MONEY

[Kaz]

After watching that fight footage the day it happened, I can almost guarantee you that I know what happened. The "kids" in the row behind the guy who got carted off (the ones laughing at the bald guy leaving with his shirt off, pulling hair) were probably being completely obnoxious. I'm not even sure what they were doing at the Pops other than one of the girls probably wanted to go and the guy(s) got dragged along. He's probably yammering away and making fun of the performers/set/bald guy in front of him/life because he's bored out of his skull since he doesn't have his XBox in front of him for the night. The guy in the blue shirt asks him to quiet down. This only feeds the problem and directs the kid's mouth at him. Niggle, niggle, niggle...the kid gets his wish and baldy goes off on him with a few swings that devolve into hair pulling and then they both actually ended up getting kicked out with possible charges from Boston's finest.

There are some good kids out there, but there's also this pseudo-good kid who goes about the motions of a good kid (like attending a symphony instead of a pharm party) but acts with a complete contempt for anything like he's king of the world and needs to prove it by belittling or disrupting anything he wants to be all alpha in front of his friends. These spoiled bastards need their asses handed to them occasionally, but I don't think baldy was the one to do it that night.

As for Wake T's, I still have Fluttahball! and No Spin Zone as roughed out designs, but I don't plan on any sorta CafePress account or anything so if anyone wants to do something with the ideas, they're welcome to contact me.

As for John Farrell, I'm thinking a wolf's head coming outta the shirt at you (like the old Busch Gardens' Big Bad Wolf ride shirts) with a caption over his ears that says "Farrell Pitching!" or "The Farrell Method!" or "Time to get Farrell!".

[cyn]

Actually, Kaz, according to the reports the exact opposite of what you wrote happened. The "kids" asked the 'older guy' to shut his yap and when he refused they got an usher and the 'older' guy went batshit on them.

Everything isn't always the fault of the young ones.

[h.b.]

Actually, from what I gather, it was the older bald guy who wouldn't stop talking and it was "the kid" who asked him to please stop.

Indeed, from the Globe:

Matthew Ellinger , a 27-year-old graphic designer from Brighton...was there thanks to his girlfriend, Allison Roche, 26, a regular at Symphony Hall who took him to see the Pops for the first time.... Roche said she had been looking forward to the concert, buying tickets the day they went on sale and dressing up for the date. The couple took their seats in the second row of the second balcony.

But instead of enjoying the music, Ellinger said, he found himself distracted by an older couple in the row in front of him.

"He was jibber-jabbering with his wife or girlfriend through the entire first piece and into the second piece, so I tapped him on the shoulder with my program and gave him a little shush gesture," said Ellinger. "Then, they keep going into the third piece. They're still talking. So I tap him on the shoulder and say, 'Hey, it's the Pops here, don't talk.' He turns around and threatens to throw me over the balcony."
At that point, Ellinger said, he left his seat and informed a BSO usher in the hallway about the threat. When he returned to his seat, Ellinger said, he told the man he had reported him. The man then swung at Ellinger, he said, hitting him in the face. Ellinger said the man grabbed him by his hair before they were separated.

From my own day to day experience, 20-somethings tend to be pretty laid back and cool and most of the flip you off, road rage, in your face, "wanna go?" types tend to be your middle-aged white guys.

[pinstripe thunder]

In April they sang festive tunes
By May their hearts swelled like balloons
In June they paused to contemplate
July's first torrid breaths of fate
By August they had lost their way
September brought its dues to pay
October was a happier time
Scorching the links in old Brookline.

[h.b.]

Funny to hear of your pining for October, PT, because, if I'm not mistaken, October hasn't been especially kind to the Yankees and their fans this decade, has it?

And, speaking from experience, actually winning a World Series is a fuck of a lot better than 1) getting bounced out early 2) winning the AL only to lose in the WS and, last but not least, 3) being up 3-0 only to lose 4 straight to your rival who then goes on to take 4 straight from the NL and hoists the WS pennant.

[pinstripe thunder]

I will cheerfully match my ancient October memories against yours, HB. Six years is a small statistical sample in the history of MLB, past, present and future.

I have faith in my October, but I'm afraid the Auden you were looking for is...

Now the leaves are falling fast,
Nurse's flowers will not last;
Nurses to the graves are gone
And the prams go rolling on.

...Starving through the leafless wood
Trolls run scolding for their food
And the nightingale is dumb,
And the angel will not come.

PT

[Kaz]

Yeah, I'm gonna want to hear from the 44 year old, or better yet his girlfriend/wife, too. If you ask the Mooninite bombers, the lite-brite bomb scare was all about art and 70's hair styles at first too. In fact, both people are claiming to be victims (which everyone usually does) and so I'd love to hear from both sides before I decide that the 27 year old wasn't egging the guy into something because he thought it was fun to taunt the happy fun ball.

Maybe I'm wrong and he was sitting behind some messed-up guy with a chip on his shoulder, but 9 times out of 10, the 44-year old who goes to the Pops isn't there to chat and the late-20 something is making the rest of us late-20 somethings look bad. The way the girls in the back row were giggling at the whole thing makes me think we're not getting the real story here.

[birthofasoxfan97]

I am so slow this morning...

COPS is the best damn thing on TV besides a sox game.

I'm just happy "kids" want to go to the Pops.

What's all this MFY yak about "just wait" or "look back at the past record." Boy, the tables have turned...

The remider about Greensburg tornado relief is right on. These kinds of storms are so incredibly destructive - my parents lost everything but the clothes they were wearing and one fly rod in an F5 in Lubbock - today is the anniversary, in fact. So I appreciate the reminder, SinKC and will make a donation today.

To the earlier week's versions of "Don't Speak" my son said yesterday he thinks the Sox are going to win the Series. I didn't know if I should jump with joy because he is finally paying attention or freak out at the potential jinx...

And Natalie, you are right on - Tim is and has been (sorry, Johnny) the hottest Sox.

[Rob in CT]

Kaz-meister:

I am completely not in favor of the "No Spin Zone" concept. Could be cute at face value, but every time I think of that tall sack o' shit Bill O'Reilly, I throw up a little in the back of my mouth. That is not the visceral reaction I want to have associated with our man Mr. Wakefield. Fluttahball is pretty cool, but "juuuuusssst a bit outside". Hmm, gonna have to think on this one.

[h.b.]

ut 9 times out of 10, the 44-year old who goes to the Pops

I don't think this is true, at least not now.

We live in an age for a growing number of people where something as simple as showing up to watch/listen to a performance, be it the the Pops or a game at Fenway, isn't nearly as important as 1) being seen or being able to say you went to said event and 2) being able to do what you want at said event.

Add to it that this wasn't the BSO but the already watered-down classical light of the Pops and then consider that this was a Ben Folds episode of the Pops and I think all bets are off regarding the type of people who show regardless of age. Well, not true, somewhere out there, 50s? 60s? the majority of people still have a sense of what is appropriate for a given time/place.

But you're right that there may be another side to the story.

Still, I'm not convinced even if you were being harassed that hitting someone is the appropriate response (unless you're Gary Sheffield, of course.)

[h.b.]

Ah, yes, PT, your name is Ozymandias, champion of champions and we are to look upon your works and despair.

Yet all we see these days is the decay
of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare and the lone and level sands stretching far away.

Cling to those memories, PT, cling on.

[Jay]

Most likely we are not getting the whole story about the fight, regardless generalizing based upon age isn't a great idea. I know plenty of younger educated people who would NEVER throw a punch. On the other hand I know several older individuals who wouldn't think twice. Either way what happened to the good old "Let's step outside" taunt.

[Monty in CA]

"BTW Cops in HD is such a fine use of the technology. The crack whores are made ever more whorier, the meth heads ever more wild-eyed. I feel like I'm there. "
The snozzberrys taste like snozzberrys...

Wakes T- "Try hitting a butterfly with a bat"

Come on hb, everybody else was ignoring the pinstripe spark like you told us to...

[Kaz]

I'm not putting either one of these guys in the right, h.b. No way. But in trying to figure out the backstory..the part before the camera turns to see a 44 year old being dragged out grabbing the hair of a bleached-blond 20-something in an all black outfit with 2 other 20-something girls behind him chuckling all the way..I can't believe that the 20-something didn't try to send this guy over a tipping point. Maybe it was the champagne they serve before the concert on opening night that let the older guy go unhinged way too fast and loosened his mouth through the opening piece, but I still think the saintly "I was so polite and correct as to inform the staff of the threat against me" flies counter to the "...but I had to throw it in his face by telling him that I tattled to the staff about his behavior". If I'm there in the kid's place, I ask him to quiet (check). Maybe I ask him again the second time. I go tell the staff that he is being a problem (check). If he continues and they do not arrive after my first request, I go back to the staff and mandate that they follow me back and remove him/speak to him. I don't get back to my seat and instigate him with a "I just told on you..you're so busted". At the point that you gave up on dealing with him person-to-person and had to talk to the BSO staff, you don't deal with him any more, you deal with them...unless you're looking to start something more personal.

[Kaz]

I mean it's the farking Boston Pops. People don't even get this rowdy liquored up on the Esplanade and banks of the Charles on July 4th. Buttons were being pushed.

I've got jury duty on May 31st, maybe I'll get lucky and I can tell you all about it afterwards.

[Monty in CA]

"Cling to those memories, PT, cling on."

"Can't throw your arms around a memory"-Johnny Thunders

[h.b.]

Come on hb, everybody else was ignoring the pinstripe spark like you told us to...

Point well-taken!

I'm not myself today. Indeed, I think I'm going to go find some punk 20-something graphic artist and kick the bejeezus out of him. (That usually cures waht ails me.)

[h.b.]

Speaking of good TV, I just read that Friday Night Lights has been picked up for a second season on NBC.

[Matt]

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz
I wonder where the Yankees is?

It will do no Yankee fan any good to call upon Octobers past- all that horseshit went bye-bye in 2004. I do not begrudge them the hope that their team will win, but Clemens notwithstanding, as the teams and division are currently constructed, it's going to be awfully difficult for the MFYs to make up ground. For that to happen, one must assume injuries or a prolonged losing streak. One is unpredictable, and the other is unlikely given the Sox starting rotation.

Can we please get a rational Yankee perspective, Jason O?

[Sonoma Sox]

I'm still for a psychedelic, ScoobyDoo styled tee w/ Wake in the middle of 100 descending circles - the ball spiraling out of his hand...'roids won't help you hit that ball but some of Dr. Leary's potion might.

Speaking of tees:

I know nobody back home has watched the NBA in years (I tuned out in '92) but I've tuned into the Warriors out here recently - strange NBA audience thing happening...everybody wearing the same friggin color tee.

Can't imagine showing up in '84 at the Garden w/ 14thousand others all in kelly green. What gives?

[Kaz]

It's like the Warriors PR people are channeling college ball antics...and I like it, Sonoma.

Speaking of good TV, I just read that Friday Night Lights has been picked up for a second season on NBC.

Life is not fair. I liked The Black Donnellys twenty-times better than FNL and they scrubbed it halfway through its initial run and now I have to watch it on the NBC website each week. :P

[Monty in CA]

SS, local business' giving out free T's at the door. Some bank also did it in Utah.
By the way im just over the hill from you in Petaluma...

[Natalie]

Speaking of good TV, I just read that Friday Night Lights has been picked up for a second season on NBC.

That is the best news I have had all day!!!

[h.b.]

I'm surprised they pulled The Black Donnelys so quickly, though, I confess that I DVR'ed all the episodes but never did ever have the energy/desire to watch them.

Just couldn't get in the mood. Between Sopranos and The Shield I'm already full up on the violent, cops/thugs genre.

I think I've said this before but I have a limited capacity for TV. Then I have to break that limited capacity down into genres.

So I didn't do Heroes (yet) because my sci-fi block was already filled with BSG, Lost, and Doctor Who.

But I had an open space for the high school drama genre, so Friday Night Lights was perfect for me. Love so much about that show.

The good thing though with DVDs is I very often circle back and catch shows at a later time when things free up during the offseason or when a show I'm currently watching reaches its end.

[Sonoma Sox]

Kaz - I'm not sure I like it. They're trying to hard to get fans into the game. No need when Bird, Parrish, McHale, Cornbread were tearing it up.

Monty - If NorCal ever gets a sports bar (Connecticut Yankee is way too far away), we'll have to catch a game. I'm up in Windsor.

[h.b.]

I'm not sure I like it. They're trying to hard to get fans into the game. No need when Bird, Parrish, McHale, Cornbread were tearing it up.

I know what you're saying about the NBA need to attract fans, but I still think this is more of a city that doesn't have a long, rich tradition in a particular sport reaching out to its fans to get help get them motivated.

You see this in MLB too. Remember when the Diamondbacks were in the WS in 2001 and they printed out those "how to understand baseball" pocket guides?

You wouldn't see that in Boston or NY, but you would in Arizona where baseball was still very new as part of the civic culture. Same holds for the "thundersticks" in Anaheim. And didn't Seattle have some gimick that year they beat the Yankees in the ALDS?

[Bob]

The whole Pops episode is getting more and more fascinating. Just saw on TV that the blonde kid has filed charges against the 40-something.

These things are hard to judge on the face of it. That wonderful couple in front of me at the game the other day being a perfect example.

I'd guess they were late 40-ish. But they just wanted things THIER WAY.

By God, if they wanted quiet, they wanted quiet. God forbid a fan should yell and cheer the Red Sox during a rally or anything.

Meathead-ism is age defient.

That said, the 20-something Pops guy looked like a major a-hole.

Then again, you can't judge a porn mag by its cover.