“Fire Escape” by Alice Neel (1946)

Tasked with holding a 6-2 lead in the 5th inning, Nathan Eovaldi faltered and earned the Ken L Ration Award for the night. His performance was a dog.

He didn’t blow the lead entirely, leaving the game with a 6-5 lead but the damage was done. The Nats tied the score and it remained tied until the bottom of the 10th inning when Andrew Miller gave up his first runs of the season–a two-run home run by Ryan Zimmerman off the right filed foul pole.

Dem things happen, of course, but after a bad week, this loss was regrettable.

Final Score: Nats 8, Yanks 6. 

But that wasn’t the worst of it as Jacoby Ellsbury is headed to the 15-day DL. 

Can I get a “Harumph”?

After a lousy week, the Yanks have a tough couple of games down in D.C.

I’ll settle for a split.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF

Brett Gardner LF

Chris Young RF

Mark Teixeira 1B

Brian McCann C

Chase Headley 3B

Jose Pirela 2B

Stephen Drew SS

It’s Eovaldi vs. Gio Gonzalez.

Never mind the monuments:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Picture by Bags

The Road Warrior is one of my favorite action movies. Mad Max is creepy as hell, too. The thing about the first two Mad Max movies is that for all the unrelenting action, and despite the fantastic premise, it’s all rooted in credibility. I always felt that part of Miller’s achievement was to make you believe you are there–with these guys coming after you. They are a comic book–and the third movie went someplace that didn’t really appeal to me)–but realistic in a strange way; that’s what made them so frightening and effective. (The second movie also has some nice comedic touches).

Plus, I liked Max’s dog.

The new one looks pumped up with the action and pyrotechnics. I hope that same sense of urgency and credibility exist.

Mad Mad: Fury Road is supposed to be dope. Think I’ll have to cart my ass to the theater for this one.

Over at Esquire, our pal Scott Raab profiles Charlize Theron:

Her career is pure stardust.

She was a teenage model in Italy, came to New York City at eighteen, and left for Los Angeles when her knees gave out for good; there she was discovered by her first manager, who was in line at the bank where she was trying—loudly and without success—to cash her last New York modeling-job check to keep her room at the Farmer’s Daughter, formerly an L. A. fleabag. But Theron came up hard in a hard country, on a hard continent.

“On the street where I was raised—75 percent of the people who lived on that street are not alive anymore. For no reason. For nothing. Life means nothing. In my formative years, I was in an environment that was filled with turmoil—political turmoil—in a world that was incredibly unsafe. And still is. In the early nineties, we were number one in homicide in the world. In HIV/AIDS, we’re still number one. We were number one in carjacking; I think we’re now number three. It became a place where the value of life—there was no value of life.

“You can’t oversimplify it; it comes from a very real place. It’s sad, because the people are good. They’re good people, and they’re resilient people, more than anywhere else in the world that I’ve ever come across. There’s something about South African flesh—we get up and we move forward, and we sometimes don’t take a moment for a little bit of self-awareness or self-pity. We’re such beasts at having to survive—I have the utmost respect for that, but it’s not the healthiest way to go through life. We’ve become a generation in South Africa that is driven by very valid anger, but the cost is coming at such a high level—and that’s a painful thing to watch. A lot of my emotional drive comes purely from the fact that I was born on that continent, and that I was raised there, and that it was different. I have a very strong relationship with Africa, one that’s built on lots of love and massive pain.”

Shit’s straight like 9:15…

Wonder Woman by Terry Dodson And Rachel Dodson

“Woman walking, view from the back” by Luc Tuymans (1958)

Flourishing Foodie gives Plantain Chips and Guacamole.

Dig this piece my friend Ben wrote for the Daily Beast:

Many of Orwell’s books and his uniformly excellent essays feature, to one degree or another, passages extolling the quiet glories of nature: conscious respites from the grimmer landscapes of the author’s political explorations. For every bleak London slum or vile kitchen of a French restaurant, a prim, beloved garden. For every deadening trip into the suffocating dark of a coal mine, a journal entry hailing the beauty and the bounty of fruit trees Orwell planted with his own hands.

But his loveliest, longest, and, for those unfamiliar with this side of Orwell, his most unexpected hymn to nature’s wonders is a 1946 essay published under the misleadingly humdrum title “Some Thoughts on the Common Toad.” Here, in 1,600 words, all of the very best characteristics of Orwell’s essays are in evidence: his talent for launching, deftly and without preamble, into his theme; his matter-of-fact eloquence; his avoidance of cant; his empathy for the underdog; his wry humor; his reporter’s eye for the telling detail; his delight in elementary beauty.

Above all, however, the essay’s great strength and abiding charm reside in the evident pleasure Orwell takes not only in nature, but in sharing that appreciation with the reader. More so than in most of the man’s writings, one senses Orwell genuinely enjoying himself while crafting this particular piece.

[Photo Credit: Derek Hudson via MPD]

Drag.

[Photo Credit: Jim McIsaac]

Here she comes again.

Block Party, 1977 Style. 

All freaks off the speakers…except for Jackie.

[Photo Credit: @flaviosamelo]

Picture by Bags

Time flies. I started my tumblr site four years ago today. Man, I love Tumblr. I’ve found so many great sites there, been hipped to so many wonderful pictures.

Check it out if you’re into that sort of thing. Be aware, though, there are some images that are not suitable for the workplace.

[Photo Credit: Mariana Garcia via MPD]

Well, crud. The Yanks got their asses handed to them today in Kansas City and end a long week (3-5) on a tough note.

They’ve got a couple off-days this week. Two-game series vs. the Nats starting Tuesday.

Clear your heads, boys. Time to turn this back around.

It’s a hot Sunday afternoon here in the Bronx. I can only imagine it’ll be hot out in Kansas City, too.

Chris Capuano, just called up from the minors, makes the start.

Never mind those ribs:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Picture by Bags

Chase Headley got a 3-2 change up and slapped at it like it was a whiffle ball. He hit the ball over the fence in left field, good for a 3-run home run. That broke up a 1-1 tie. Alex Rodriguez re-directed a Joe Blanton fastball on the inside part of the plate over the fence in right for a solo homer in the 9th and the rest was left to C.C. Sabathia who was terrific. The Twin Towers polished off the Royals in the 8th and 9th innings respectively and the Yanks had a tidy 5-1 win to end their modest losing streak.

[Photo Credit: Charlie Riedel/AP]

Yanks look to the Big Fella tonight in K.C.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Chris Young LF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Carlos Beltran RF
Chase Headley 3B
Jose Pirela 2B
Stephen Drew SS
John Ryan Murphy C

Never mind the last four games:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Lauren Condoluci/Slate]

Last night’s game was straight up wack. 

Let’s hope, somehow, the Yanks can end this losing streak tonight. But I’m not feeling too confident. You?

The Yanks turn to their ace Michael Pineda to put an end to this three-game losing streak tonight in Kansas City. The Royals are playing well. They scrubs no more.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Brett Gardner LF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Brian McCann C
Carlos Beltran RF
Chase Headley 3B
Stephen Drew 2B
Didi Gregorius SS

Never mind the bbq:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: phdonohue]

Smitten Kitchen gives us a toasted marshmallow milkshake.