Spare change:

  • Have been downloading TONS of live music from both the Live Music Archive and from Dime A Dozen. The former is all MP3’s, while the latter has the far better selection and a stunning amount of live music, but many extra steps to convert the format to MP3. So far, it’s worth the extra work and time involved, as I’ve found live shows from Dramarama, The Byrds, Drive-ByTruckers, The James Gang, The Racontuers and Nada Surf, among dozens of others. It’s overwhelming scrolling through – get this – 13,000+ live recordings.
  • Caught the Tigers-Yankees game last night. I’m firmly on the Tigers bandwagon for the postseason, as their story is the best baseball story since the Red Sox won it in 2004 and I’m always a sucker for the underdog anyway. The Yankees did their typical wash job last night and I don’t expect the Tigers to get out of this series victorious, but it would be nice to see them make a series out of it. It’s certainly possible. If they falter, I’ll root for the Dodgers.
  • The Tommy Lasorda commercials are pretty damn funny. He’s trying to console fans of teams who didn’t make the playoffs. My favorite? Him trying to get Cleveland Indians fans to come out of their kitchen cabinets and watch the playoffs with him. You know that when they were doing concepts for this, someone had the idea of putting them in closets instead of cabinets. The Red Sox one isn’t as funny, but it’s still decent.
  • I’m not yet totally sold on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip yet, but so far I’m enjoying it. The similarities to The West Wing are painfully obvious. It’s the same show with a different setting. I totally burned out on The West Wing after watching just one season, but I’m clearly in the minority on that one. I know this: it’s the best show to come out yet with a Friends character in it.
  • NBC’s “The Office” is like a 25 year-old five tool baseball player right now – they are hitting it on ALL cylinders.
  • Julia-Louis Dreyfus deserves every accolade she’s getting for her show, “The New Adventures of Old Christine.” It’s a straight-ahead, purely formulaic sitcom, laugh tracks and all, but I keep watching because once or twice a week she makes me laugh out loud. Good medicine.
  • In cruising through some Todd Rundgren shows I found on Dime A Dozen, I was psyched to see he still plays a lot of the tunes from his seminal 1970s work Something/Anything live. Regulars appear to be “Black Maria,” (one of my faves), “Slut” and I even saw “Piss Aaron” once. I bet it’s worth the trip to see him live (and NOT with the New Cars).
  • The Bruins only have 5 guys on the current team from their opening night roster last season. I have but one thing to say at this point about the Bruins: prove it to me.
  • Steph and I were both kind of embarassed that we couldn’t remember the name of the song for our first dance at our wedding. We both know it was Billie Holliday and I know what album we pulled it from, but neither of us can remember the name of the song. In looking at the CD, I know now that it was “The Very Thought Of You.” Do you remember your wedding song?