Well, that was cool.

Non-expert predictions: Cards over Dodgers in 4, Rockies over Phillies in 5, Yankees over Twins in 5, Angels over Red Sox in 5. Cards over Rockies in 6. Yankees over Angels in 5. Cards over Yankees in 7.

Yes, it's for the championship of the weakest division in baseball. Still, there's nothing like a one-game playoff.

Tomato Rasmus Soup



1. Dice a couple of Cardinal-red Roma tomatoes and put it in a pot.

2. Open a can of cream of mushroom soup and put its contents in a pot.

3. Fill the can with skim milk, and dump that in the pot.

4. Put a bread-slice's worth of bread crumbs in the pot.

5. Start the simmer.

6. Put a big handful of shredded colby in the pot.

7. Put some pepper in there, and just a tiny bit of hot sauce.

8. Let it simmer for a while.

9. Put some Fogerty on the turntable.

10. Salt to taste.


(form of post shamelessly stolen from Eileen's Kitchen and Matty Lite)

August in the River City comes to a crisp close with the local nine up ten. The town already buzzes with playoff talk. What a month.

In September, big (as in 119-page) projects continue for the well-oiled machine that is the R&P MPO. We're rehearsing and fine-tuning the Strike score (premiering Sep 27 at Webster) while writing the Nosferatu score (premiering Oct 31 at Vanderbilt). Wyoming St. headquarters buzzes with bowed strings and horn flourishes. The Strike score is the most challenging and sophisticated work of Mssrs Lite and The Dean yet. If you're in the STL on the 27th, then don't miss it.

Kind of Blue is fifty years old. Jazz at Lincoln Center had a concert for both Kind of Blue and Coltrane's Giant Steps, which also is fifty years old. Both records have first-rate songs through-and-through, but both records in and of themselves also were singular recording achievements ... a convergence of design and of luck (but, as they say, is not luck the residue of design?).

Kind of Blue's design ... Bill Evans and Miles Davis wrote the template for modal jazz - harmonically spacious and open - the musicians with room to breathe and to explore. And Miles Davis assembled such great musicians - Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, Wynton Kelly, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, and Davis & Evans. Everyone on the same page and everyone at the height of their powers.

Kind of Blue's luck ... songs in one take, almost miraculous in how sublime they are. The sum of the music greater than its constituent parts. But, then again also the residue of design. Davis assembled and coached the personnel.

Kind of Blue is the album that both lovers of jazz and general-dislikers of jazz love. I've always thought its that incredible openness of the album, both harmonically and spiritually, to which so many people of varying tastes respond. To me, that harmonic and spiritual openness has a certain American ethos to it, like Copland. And at the same time, the musicians who create that harmonic and spiritual openness are a larger part of the music - even when one musician is "soloing."

Don't get me wrong ... I think Giant Steps too is an amazing album. It's just as much design and miracle as Kind of Blue. (That much of the personnel for both albums overlap is pretty cool.) Indeed, it would seem that jazz for the most part took toward the Giant Steps direction than the Kind of Blue direction - more and more playing "outside" of the harmonic framework of the song. The soloist often in a sense becomes oppositional to the harmonic structure ... individual inventiveness and virtuosity become a premium. The group lives or dies for the most part on the individual musicians. This too is an American ethos.

To get really cliché, Kind of Blue and its progeny is like basketball and Giant Steps and its progeny is like baseball. Basketball has this individual element ... the good shot, the player who can drive the lane, the player who can rebound ... but all of those things are so very dependent upon how the other players on the team interact and interplay with each other - how they set it up. Baseball too is a team game, but so much more of being a successful team hinges on discreet instances of individual performance ... the situational skill and inventiveness of the hitter and of the pitcher.

Both sports are fantastic. Both albums are fantastic. But musically-speaking, I guess I am more a basketball fan than a baseball fan.

Here's a nice documentary on Kind of Blue:

Childhood Television Nostalgia, Part 7:

Way to go, Pooey! I'm pleasantly surprised.

The pennant series are set. There's no love lost between the Rays and Sox, but what about the Tommy Ladorda-Phillie Phanatic imbroglio? From Tommy Lasorda's blog Tommy's Lasorda's World:

The next time we were in Philadelphia, I confronted the Phanatic. I told
it not to use my jersey anymore, and so the next time he did, I was forced to act. I went right up to it and body slammed it to the turf.

I wish I could have seen that.

Rays in 6. Dodgers in 7. You heard it here first.

I'm on. Who's with me?

I got links like ... Bob Evans:

• Greenwald on MSNBC replacing Olbermann/Matthews with Gregory.

• A good anti-Cubs post at LG&M.

• Speaking of sports, the Rams look really awful. Fans are upset.

• Triumph at the RNC.

• Can you figure out the picture in the candy? I sure can't.

It's kind of a stupid argument, but I'm afraid that if MLB starts allowing instant replay for home run calls, then allowing it for other calls will soon follow. Then, before you know it, we'll have Major League umpires peering into curtained booths just as much as referees in the NFL. To me, that's not a good thing for baseball. What I love about baseball is its acceptance of the human element in officiating. What often annoys me about the NFL is its futile struggle to try and eliminate that human element of officiating as much as possible.

linkles in time:

How is a "time horizon" not a "timetable?"

STL's "fake Beatles" the Aerovons, plus a link to an article about them in the RFT by Mr. Toon.

Worst. All-Star. Performance. Ever.

Yes, this could finally be the year that cell-phone-only voters make political polling inaccurate.

Byrds Friday:

Uh, yeah, so ... that All-Star Game went kind of long, so ... uh, yeah, tomorrow I'll totally have a real substantive post about something. Promise. For reals.

R.I.P., Rufus.

uh oh.

Albert Pujols leaves destruction in his wake.

Taken from Cardinals Diaspora.

"Say it ain't so Jimmy!"

Jim Edmonds a Cub?

General manager Jim Hendry wouldn't comment on Edmonds, 37, because he technically remains property of the San Diego Padres until he clears release waivers.

But multiple Cubs sources said the team plans to pursue Edmonds, and one said Edmonds has told his agent to talk to no one before talking to the Cubs. The Cubs have considered a left-handed bat a need for weeks.

While I certainly acknowledge that baseball is a business, and that a player should play for whichever team he can get the best deal, I still have a negative visceral reaction against the sight of Jim Edmonds in a Cub uniform.

Nevertheless, if it does happen, that July 4th weekend series vs. the Cubs at Busch will be very interesting.

priorities.

linkz

I'll take a break from paper-writing to provide you, dear readerz (all 10 of you), with the following linkz:

• The Field sez "look at the damn graphs."

• The Hardball Timez prezentz "Throwing a baseball: an exercise in dynamic systems, and complexity…"

• I think you'll enjoy hopping aboard the Railroad Train to Heaven. Start here at the very beginning and catch yourselvez up.

• And if anyone out there can come up with a clever title for a paper involving involuntary electroconvulsive therapy and Missouri law, pleaze tell me by Tuezday, 9am Central.

Peaze out. (Yes, even c's can be zeed. I'm that extreme.)