This Royals' season has been more fun, in some ways, than the last 5 or 6 put together. But it is likely time to call the club to account for their tendency to stick with commitments that aren't working. The Davies-Hochevar-Francoeur era has definitely had a Hogan's Heroes-meets-Bad News Bears quality to it.
One year of Santana and two years of Shields are available to us now--the clock is ticking on this infusion of reliable starting pitching. The wasted starts are killing Royals fans.
The Golden Motors will be heading up to Salem in a couple weeks to play a show with Monoplane. It's neat to be playing a show with these guys, in part, because years ago I played a coffee shop gig in our state's capital and the only members of the audience were Monoplane guitarist Mitch Duafa (then in high school) and his buddy. I played the whole show to just them and it was great. Mitch and I have stayed in touch and I have posted a number of pretend customer complaints on his Facebook page about non-existent hardware he did not sell me at True Value. I also know David Ballantyne from dropping by Ranch Records over the years. Also: THEIR BAND ROCKS.
In a wild rupture of daily routine, I went running this morning instead of in the evening, and it was great. I didn't have to dodge lacrosse balls at the track or frisbees at the frisbee golf park, and as of noon, the benefits of exercise have really made this an enjoyable day. I feel like I could jump into a barrel of monkeys, keep my composure, and get 'em all dressed for church. I've always reserved mornings for introspective time, writing, reading, and especially Morning Pages, inspired by The Artist's Way. But there are many ways to approach things.
Here's the slow jog shuffle playlist:
Yoko Ono: Healing
J Mascis: Make It Right
Tommy Keene: Down, Down, Down
Paul Westerberg: All That I Had
Reptile House: Keel Haul Love
Marnie Stern: Year of the Glad
Fucked Up: Manqueller Man
Camera Obscura: Lunar Sea
Neil Young: Driftin' Back
This is a tune I came up with a while back, after a Golden Motors gig with Redray Frazier and The My Oh My's. I'm doing a solo opener for them tonight in Portland and that reminded me to take another run at this song, Garageband style. You can download it for free, or choose to hit the tip jar by using the "name your price" feature. The Golden Motors record is heading into the mixing stage and any patronage helps get 'er done!
best regards,
dsj4
So, we fell out of first place last night, so what--The Kansas City Royals in first place one day shy of one month into the season is still a special thing. What an amazing turnaround in starting pitching--and with an offense that is bound to improve. Last I checked Jason Upton still had more homers than us. Really pulling for the guys who are struggling--that has to suck.
I'm looking forward to Punk Rock Bowling fest. Some footage of Flag has been showing up on the web, but I don't want to see it. I want to hear the opening chords ringing out, in person, and feel the crowd surge. That doesn't happen too often, and it definitely doesn't happen on Youtube.
