Cinephilia and Beyond gives us this dope post on Chinatown.

Phil Hughes allows a couple of runs in 8 innings of work, a nice day for any pitcher, but particularly for someone as inconsistent as Hughes. Course Derek Holland goes out and masters the Yankee hitters and shuts their asses out on 92 pitches, giving up only 2 hits.

Go fuggin’ figure.

Final Score: Rangers 2, yanks 0.

[Photo Via: Lomography]

Another hot n humid one out there. It’s Hughes and you have to imagine a bunch of homers.

1. Suzuki CF

2. Nix SS

3. Cano DH

4. Wells RF

5. Almonte LF

6. Overbay 1B

7. Adams 2B

8. Gonzalez 3B

9. Romine C

Never mind the sideshow:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Matt Slocum/AP]

Sweatin’.

[Photo Credit: Joakim Eskildsen]

Dig this nice gallery of Yankee fans over at Backspaces.

Smitten Kitchen gives pickled vegetable sandwich slaw. Sign me up.

Over at Newsweek, Andrew Romano interviews Rick Rubin:

Your taste—your ear—has been spot-on again and again, across genres. What’s the secret?

I never decide if an idea is good or bad until I try it. So much of what gets in the way of things being good is thinking that we know. And the more that we can remove any baggage we’re carrying with us, and just be in the moment, use our ears, and pay attention to what’s happening, and just listen to the inner voice that directs us, the better. But it’s not the voice in your head. It’s a different voice. It’s not intellect. It’s not a brain function. It’s a body function, like running from a tiger.

Instinct.

Yes. But being open to using your instincts instead of going, “Oh, that’s not going to work.” Or listening to the part of your brain that goes, “Oh, that’s out of tune.” Or the part of your brain that says, “That’s too loud.” You have to shut off all of those voices and look for these special moments—these moments that you accept you have no control over. So much of my job is to not think—to be open to what’s there, and then use my intuition to see where it takes me.

Photograph by David Walter Banks.

Last night in the Village.

I missed the damn game and only saw that Joba got rocked and the Yanks lost, 8-5. But what’s a game when you’ve got Alex Rodriguez vs. the Yanks to keep you engaged (never mind the news that Mark Teixeira is lost for the season).

Here’s the latest in this silly big bucks soap opera of he-said, he-said from tabloid vets Bill Madden and Wallace Matthews.

Andy…

I’m not around for the line-ups. Let’s go for two straight, huh?

Never mind the sideshow:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Ry Pepper Via Think Different]

Cool Out:

[Painting by Antoni Tapies]

Via the essential Cinephilia and Beyond, here’s a good, long interview with Brian De Palma:

Louis:

Appetite for China gives Kung Pao Bacon: Sure!

Over at audible, you can download the essay, “In Memory of a Friend, Teacher and Mentor” by Phillip Roth for free. Here’s more on the story at the Paris Review.

[Photo Credit: Dan Burn-Forti]

I love this painting by Maggie Siner.

A 1955 PSA by Milton Caniff. Via the most cool site, The Bristol Board.

[Featured image by Sy Kattelson]

You want to rap about Alex Rodriguez acting like a dork and Brian Cashman acting like a dildo? Have at it.

Let’s pick this up at 3-1 in the fifth inning. Leonys Martin had just hit his second homer of the night off Hiroki Kuroda and Yu Darvish had a two-run lead to protect against this year’s gluten-free version of the Yankee lineup. Darvish dropped a little curve ball into Brett Gardner’s trigger zone – low and in – and boom, 3-2.

This curve ball was not the worst curve ball Darvish threw all night, but it was the wrong pitch in the wrong spot to the second best hitter on the New York Yankees (shudder). No, the honors for the worst curve ball of of the night must be split between the loopy bits of nothing Darvish threw to Travis Hafner (in the fourth) and to Jason Nix (in the seventh) which were both also hit for solo jacks.

Yu Darvish has been ridiculously good this year, loading up strikeouts against very few hits and walks. The only thing keeping him from full flight is a few more homers than you’d like to see – 14 after tonight. I can’t speak for the first 11, but for one game at least, he was handing out lollipops.

I snuggled up with Willa, the recent addition in our house and main reason why I’m not around the Banter much this season, and administered her first full-inning dose of Mariano Rivera. She stretched out on my chest and filled her diaper just about the time that Mo’s nastiest cutter reduced Lance Berkman’s bat to so many matchsticks.

Both catchers gunned down potential base stealers in the late innings to ratchet up the excitement a few notches. Chris Stewart pegged Elvis Andrus with the help of Robinson Cano’s nifty sweep tag. But A.J. Pierzynski evened the ledger by wiping Brett Gardner off the map in the bottom of the ninth. If you told me a few years ago that Brett Gardner became the Yankees second best offensive player while simultaneously losing his ability to steal bases, I’d have asked you how you got a hold of Doc Doom’s time machine and why you hadn’t also altered the 2001 and 2004 postseasons if you were planning on creating alternate Yankee universes.

The game seemed destined for extra innings, though with Rivera and Robertson nothing more then empty casings on the dugout floor heading to the top of the 10th, not many extra would likely be required. Then with two strikes and two outs, Ichiro lashed out and bit into a 97 MPH heater from Tanner Scheppers and ended things right then and there. Yankees 4, Rangers 3.

Hiroki Kuroda and Yu Darvish battled to a stand still. Darvish was more brilliant, but inefficient and only lasted six innings. Kuroda had plenty left in the tank and only came out because Leonys Martin had his number. And if any Japanese fans (I know a few who scalped tickets tonight) felt they didn’t get their money’s worth with the double no-decision from the starters, they hit the jackpot when Ichiro said sayonara.

And here’s our newest fan, as captured by my wife just after the homer, happy with a great victory over a good team.

Photos by Jason Szenes (1 & 2) / Getty Images & Kathy Willens (3) / AP & Amelia DeRosa (4)