i'm tired of the fantasy, because it doesn't really exist... and there are never really any surprises, and it never really...

the next word of the quote (from "high fidelity") is 'delivers...' but i beg to differ because i have FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO PUT FUCKIN PHOTOS ON THIS THING!!! therefore, i will celebrate accordingly - see above...

and besides, this is about 200,000 times more interesting than anything i've ever written here, right?

a lot of people go to college for seven years... i know - they're called doctors...

it really is extraordinary... people tell me they find baseball boring, especially in the middle of the regular season - even if they like it... ok, fine, i'll admit it - pretty much all regular season games, especially at this point of the year, aren't exactly frickin must see tv...

but i'm telling you, the sox and the yanks - they transcend everything... so many issues, storylines, plot twists and character flaws become exposed for all to see more frequently and more graphically when they play each other... maybe i should be used to it after this long, but i don't think that will ever happen...

for starters, it's the reactionary gene prevalent in all breathing members of red sox nation... this town is as reactionary as it gets as we all know, but when the yanks are on the docket, it's heightened, as if that's possible... shaughnessy writes a whole column about how they lost saturday's game because of a baserunning snafu, neglecting to mention the hideous starting pitching performance that put them in a 6-run hole, the almost home run by papi that would have changed things drastically, or the amount of men left on base... second-guessing to the nth degree...

it's the way the two teams play each other... every damn game has to be in some way out of the ordinary... thursday its schilling's triumphant/horrifying return, friday its a 17-1 beatdown, saturday it's fateful stuff (that ball papi hit went 420 goddamn feet and was an out!!!) and tonight was bad luck at the worst time (to go from bases loaded with no one out and two runs home against rivera to the game being over in the span of 2 pitches is quite a little mood swing, no?)... seemingly every game they've played the last three years have been like that... the red sox won't play say kansas city a game like any of these twice, EVER...

it's the atmosphere at fenway for a game... sox games i've been to at yankee stadium are always exciting, always packed, always more intense than any old game and always less magnetic by half than when the teams play here... thursday night, we saw the sox blow leads of 4-0, 5-2 and 6-5, watched sheffield and a-fraud play like the hall-of-famers they are, witnessed another go-ahead, late-inning homer by papi and even saw bellhorn strike out twice, all before the real shit started... when schilling walked out to the pen in the sixth, he got a standing o for the entire way... when he warmed up in the eighth, he got a huge round of applause... when he came in the game in the ninth with the score 6-6, i felt like i'd been teleported straight into the playoffs... fenway was shaking down to its roots... flashbulbs were going off as if it was the frickin oscars... it felt like john wayne or steve mcqueen or some other great american movie hero was returning home after a long mission... and then he took the mound, threw 7 pitches and was behind 8-6... in the span of three minutes, fenway went from the most ebullient i've ever seen it to a mausoleum... between grumblings that the great schilling-as-a-closer experiment was already a failure after one outing and others blaming the whole thing (and the kennedy assassination) on millar and bellhorn, you could hear a pindrop... think that shit ever happens, has happened or will happen against anyone else ever, especially in the middle of july? nope...

about the only thing not at a boiling point was the fenway faithful's reaction to yankee fans... i heard myself called a traitor a couple of times for being with the captain in all her yankee garbed-glory, was asked how i could possibly seen in public with someone in a yankee hat and shirt at least once and may have heard a couple people say "nice shirt!" or something else equally clever to her in passing... but it was otherwise civilized, a far cry even from just a year ago at this time... amazing what the greatest comeback/chokejob and a championship will do for the fans, eh?

i guess the point is it all just never ceases to floor me... i'll bet nothing i've written is even remotely surprising to anyone who has ever seen, heard or read anything about a sox-yanks game... but there i was, at least once during each game of the weekend, whether i was at fenway or in front of a tv, utterly stunned at what was happening before my eyes...

man, thank god they have the division rival d-rays coming in tomorrow...

quick sidenote: the t-shirt purveyors are finally starting to smarten up a touch... witness shirts recently spotted from both vantage points...
SOX - instead of the witty, imaginative 'jeter swallows,' we now have 'jeter drinks wine coolers'
YANKEES - (courtesy of the captain) on the front, in sox-style lettering, 'there was no curse,' and on the back, with the B logo smack in the middle, 'the red sox just sucked for 86 years'

not bad, eh?

they'll be looking for us at maury's, but they won't be looking for... not us

so i'm thinking about some things...

- played golf yesterday and on the fifth hole, i hit my tee shot right and through a very narrow strip of trees and onto the rough of the parallel hole... well, i got to it and saw that i had a window through which i could hit the ball and if i hit it good, there was tons of room for it to go down the fairway and put me in good position for my approach to the green... well, i grabbed my 3-wood, lined it up and swung... the sound was the most beautiful you want to hear on a golf course when you strike the ball - just total, perfect contact... everything felt right as i swung, hit the ball and followed through... and the ball hit a tree and bounced back behind where i had initially played from... tough game, ya know?

- so the sox are in first place by 3 full games and everyone's acting like they're in the frickin basement... sure the yankees are surging, there's big problems with the bullpen and some of the players are pissed that clement and timlin didn't make the all-star team... but come on, folks, they're still in first place! last year at this time, they were hovering around .500 and LISTLESS! and i know it's still only july and all, but even if they weren't where they are, it would be too early to freak out... everyone in that clubhouse should shut up, remember what got them to the promised land last year - a lot of which was togetherness and chemistry - and just play... that and count the minutes till the all-star break starts after sunday's game... lord knows they need it...

- separate sox note: schilling as a temporary (and i stress temporary) bullpen guy is a great idea... he can get himself back into shape out there so that come august and the stretch drive, he'll be starting again... plus, it's gonna be sweet to watch him get the save against the shitty yankees in the first game after the break next thursday...

- was watching the first "x-men" last night and i kept thinking that even though its a good, entertaining movie, the sequel was way better... just like "spiderman-2" and "batman begins" it's a case of sequel being stronger than original... it's like the first movie in a comic book series has to spend so much time explaining situations and introducing characters that some of the excitement is sucked right out... which is why i think i'm going to pass on "fantastic 4"... it looks kinda cheesy anyway...

- also on the comic book movie tip, next summer we'll get "x-3" and "superman returns," in 2007, there's "spiderman-3," another new "batman" and, if its a hit, a probably a sequel to "fantastic 4"... let's hope these are all more like spidey2 and less like "daredevil"... man, can you believe jen garner not only married affleck, she's knocked up with his kid? sometimes you really have to wonder...

- oops, almost forgot... rodriguez and frank miller are already working on a sequel to "sin city" which was only one of the two or three best movies i've seen in a long time... WOO-HOO!!

- i can't believe i'm about to say this but (gulp) here goes: derek jeter not being on the all-star team is the worst snub of all... look, i hate the guy and his team, but, as my man bill simmons said earlier, he's just a guy who should automatically make it every year no matter how he's playing or how good his team is... i probably respect him as much as any player i've ever seen and believe me, i feel like bleeding out my eyeballs for thinking that way about a yankee...

- pats training camp starts in 3 weeks... football, baby!!!

- if anyone who reads this is interested in seeing some extremely cool artwork, you should check this illustration friday thing out... me, i can't even draw a stick figure and even if i could, i still haven't figured out how to post pictures on this thing... but two of my favorite people, the captain and the fabulous chacha, each do a piece every week which has led me to not just see their stuff, but plenty of other stuff too... check it out - it's awesome...

- can't stop reading about what happened in london yesterday (one of the bombs went off four blocks from where i lived when i was over there)... but that's beside the point... it's just proof positive that this shit can still happen anywhere at any time and that's pretty scary... thank god the casualties and damage were not as severe as sept. 11, but even so, that doesn't make what happened all that easier to handle... i could state a grand, sweeping political opinion here, but i'll spare you - all i'll say is that the deepest thoughts go to the people who experienced it... courage, bravery and the steadfast belief in what's good will hopefully carry them through... and with that, i'm out... lates.

go to school, joel... learn something...

ok back in business and rarin to go thanks to the second quote from "risky business" in four posts... by the way, could anyone have imagined back in fuckin 1983 when that movie came out that tom cruise would turn into such a freakshow?

it's music day folks, so without further ado, i say please go buy or download the new foo fighters record, "in your honor"... it's actually a double disc with disc 1 comprised of typical foos rock-out type stuff and disc 2 being chill, quiet, mostly acoustic, kinda experimental stuff... i was a bit wary when i picked it up - the most recent records by weezer, dave matthews and queens of the stone age, three of my favorite all-time groups, are all not as good as they should be/have been in the past, so i figured it wouldn't be a surprise if the foos, also an all-time fave, pulled the same shit...

but its not even close... the first disc is excellent, bordering on vintage... howling, screaming, rockin shit... the opening track, also called "in your honor" sets the tone - it begins with a scream but still has somewhere to build to, then sustains a steady pace until a pause that yout think is the end, but actually is just a quick break so our lads can recharge and kick the shit out of the next minute or so...

it sets a tone, ya know? side 1, track 1's are so damn important because they can make or break the tone of the whole record... that's why when jack black says john cusack's suggestion of the top 5 track 1, side 1's is too obvious in "high fidelity," he's missing the point... it may be obvious, but its also critical... the best track on the record doesn't have to be the first one... but the hookiest, most relevant one should be...

anyway, it goes on and stays solid... the single, "best of you," is a really good song and it's not even in the top 5 on the record... there isn't a weak link in the bunch but a couple of examples of top level stuff are "doa," "end over end," no way back" and "resolve" - the best in addition to the title track... they're all pretty traditional rock songs that will prbably sound like something you've heard before, but the energy makes them different...

and the mellowness of the second disc is the right companion... its just chillin after you just rocked out for a good 45 minutes at a show or something like that... there's some stuff there that's a little precious and maybe even too experimental ("virginia moon" is a bossa nova duet with norah jones??!!) but, especially if you listen to it right after the first disc, it's settling... my favorite tracks are "on the mend" and "razor" and there are some cool guests like john paul jones and josh homme too... so get it - it's only $12 even though it's a double record... worth every penny...

ok, i could write about asshole pitchers who beat up cameramen and break fingers and toes punching/kicking things when they suck or my girl jennifer garner being married and knocked up by everyone's favorite free-falling actor, ben affleck, or how the sox aren't going anywhere without a major bullpen blood transfusion or how even though it's barely the 4th, "batman begins" is the best movie of the summer or how the celtics are set up to be great in 5 years but will probably stink for at least the next 3 or even the discovery of mad cows in texas (where else, right?)... but its been a while since i've been here and i'm out of breath...

i will, however, quickly note that earlier today on hbo 6 or something, "risky business" and "the girl next door" were aired back-to-back... this means 2 things: #1 - some executive at hbo must be reading this site, and #2 - that same executive is obviously both extremely intelligent and deserving of a raise thanks to #1... lates.