The Merkin downticket

[Mandos]

Here's an attack web site by Kay Hagen's campaign in North Carolina to unseat Elizabeth Dole.

http://www.liddysslippers.com/

[skdadl]

They are getting very well organized at grassroots level, the Merkins are, and a lot of it is happening online. I read and envy sometimes -- they're much better at it than we are so far.

What I find most interesting is the left-liberal anger against the sell-out Dems, especially the leadership. I read more than a few people who would be happy to contribute to someone who could realistically contest Pelosi, although I think it's too late for that. But it has been or is being done in a few places.

[Mandos]

This appears to be a grassroots effort from some elements on the other side of the aisle, as it were, about a California gay-marriage-banning plebiscite.

[youtube:n9q8t5zl]DcVI0-xESCQ[/youtube:n9q8t5zl]

I can't help but admire the artistry put into this.

[skdadl]

I suppose that melodrama, raised past the baroque all the way to the rococo, is art of a kind. It's just that it's a kind I've never liked.

I often enjoy singing anthems, but I also often feel uncomfortable listening to them.
And it bothers me that so much contemporary music sounds like anthems.

[Mandos]

I love melodrama a lot, myself.  And the timing and rhythm of the promo work very well for what they're trying to sell.

[Croghan27]

I suppose that melodrama, raised past the baroque all the way to the rococo, is art of a kind. It's just that it's a kind I've never liked.

I often enjoy singing anthems, but I also often feel uncomfortable listening to them.
And it bothers me that so much contemporary music sounds like anthems.

Harry Caray made singing "Take me out to the ball game" after 7 1/2 innings, something of an institution in Chicago. He sang it at both Cubbies and White Sox games. It became an expected part of the specticle.

Now, I see last night during the World Series, they had some military lady sing: "God Bless America."
I am not much of a fan of singing even the national anthem at sporting events .... the people are not all that interested, wating for the event, and in the case of professional teams, the idea of using my country to sell a commercial product leaves me .... uncomfortable, if not cold. If an amature teams wants to do it ... then go ahead ... but in the pros, fer-get-it!

Drop the chauvinism during these games .... okay, for the Olympics, there someone is representing the country, but it is both irksome and unnecessary for hockey/baseball whatever games.

[skdadl]

Let's hear it for the seventh-inning stretch!

In Toronto, we all get up and do calisthenics to "OK, Blue Jays," but I've seen other variations. I've seen John Denver, eg, lead choruses of "Thank God I'm a Country Boy,"  although I forget where that was, maybe Ballmer Merlin, but maybe farther south.

Overtime tied games are especially fun. If they go fourteen innings, you get a second performance. And I once watched a twenty-first-inning stretch, although that was so long ago ...

[chester]

Skadadl's a baseball fan!  who knew?

[skdadl]

skdadl loved baseball, but it broke her heart.  

[Croghan27]

skdadl loved baseball, but it broke her heart.  

skdadl is (was) a Cubbies fan?

[skdadl]

Oh, no. skdadl is not that strong on the National League, partly just out of ignorance. She does know the Cubbies mythology, but no, she is AL all the way. As they eliminated themselves, she liked Toronto first, then Boston, then it was a toss-up between the White Sox and Kansas. That was in the days of Carlton Fisk, mind you. What a magnificent man he was (and I hope he still is).

But it is all kind of hopeless now. Buy a team and win. That's not how we felt at first.  

[chester]

i loved the expos but they never made the post season.  i loved the National league 'cause baseball is played with 9 players and i loved it when pitchers could also hit.  but i couldn't care less about the game now.

[skdadl]

Yup. I think a lot of us have ended up feeling that, chester.

When I think back to the eighties, when the Blue Jays were building -- man, that was fun. Where did the fun go?

[k'in]

chester-you must be a young 'un...the 'spos of '81 participated in one of the classic NLCS of all time...losing the series 3-2 to the Dodgers when Rick Monday homered top of the ninth off Steve Rogers...one for the ages and a heart-breaker for the Expos...as was '94, the strike year where it is generally accepted that Montreal had the best team in baseball ...

[chester]

chester-you must be a young 'un...the 'spos of '81 participated in one of the classic NLCS of all time...losing the series 3-2 to the Dodgers when Rick Monday homered top of the ninth off Steve Rogers...one for the ages and a heart-breaker for the Expos...as was '94, the strike year where it is generally accepted that Montreal had the best team in baseball ...

trust me, sweety, i ain't young   .  I'm not that smart either, i thought that game was a playoff for a tie of something;  i think i had it confused with the strike year.  i'll always remember rogers hanging his head after monday connected...i believe i cried.

remember the dodgers, kirk gibson and tommy Lasorda?  unbelievable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Gibson