Photograph by Bama Wester.

Put the needle to the groove.

[Photo Credit: 1950s Unlimited]

Happiness is…this.

[Photo Via: Nothing Less]

On a rainy day like today, best move is to stick close to the buildings and stay away from the outer part of the sidewalk. You can find some shelter close to the building, although you have to be mindful of the water pouring off of the awnings. Also, the further away from the street, the safer you are from a car splashing you.

Especially when you don’t wear your galoshes, right?

[Photo Credit: Chrisozer via This Isn’t Happiness]

Swell oral history on “Cheers” by Brian Raftery over at GQ. Anyone who ever loved that show, well, you’re in for a treat.

Photo: AP

The Yankees took a break from the chaotic American League playoff race with a leisurely 5-0 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. In a game played with as much intensity and crowd interest as you’d expect in the early Spring, the Yankees frittered away an opportunity to take a two game lead in the A.L. East.

Considering the lopsided pitching matchup, the Yankees seemed to be playing from behind before the first pitch. Unfortunately, Ivan Nova did little to dispel that impression. The right hander allowed a two-run homer in the third and two-run double in fifth, which not only put his team behind 4-0, but also set a new franchise record for most extra bases hits allowed in a season. The 87 extra base hits allowed by Nova surpassed Andy Hawkins’ previous record of 86, which was set in 1989. Needless to say, that’s not the kind of anchor the Yankees were hoping Nova would become.

To be fair, it probably wouldn’t have mattered whom the Yankees pitched because Brandon Morrow continued his string of dominance over the Bronx Bombers in Toronto by throwing seven shutout innings. In five career starts against the Yankees at Rogers Centre, the hard throwing righty is now 3-0 with a 1.04 ERA in 34 2/3 innings. Maybe by throwing Nova to the wolf, there was a method to Girardi’s madness after all?

Although Morrow was efficient, he wasn’t overpowering. In fact, the Yankees had a base runner in every inning but the second, but could never break through against the right hander. For the most part, Morrow seemed to bear down with runners on base, but in the fourth inning, he needed a great running catch by left fielder Anthony Gose to escape unscathed.  Otherwise, it was lackluster performance by the Yankee bats, who were shutout for the sixth time this season.

With a one game lead and six remaining, the conclusion to this season promises to be memorable. Unfortunately, a very forgettable game got in the way. Then again, if the Yankees lose the division by that game, it could be the one that haunts them.

It’s Ivan Nova vs. a tough customer in Brandon Morrow. I always get bad vibes when the Yanks play in Toronto and with so much riding on this series that hasn’t changed. Sure as hell hope I’m wrong.

Derek Jeter SS
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher 1B
Curtis Granderson CF
Russell Martin C
Raul Ibanez LF
Jayson Nix 3B

Another day, another important game. The Orioles are off. Yanks win, they go up by two games; lose, it’s down to one with six left.

Never mind the fretting: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: APOD]

Joe Posnanski talked to Glen Perkins and the closer detailed how he retired the Yankees on Tuesday night:

“What was my first thought?” Perkins asks. “I guess it was that he’s got 40 home runs. … I mean, I knew exactly what the Yankees wanted to do. They’re down two, so they want to hit three solo home runs to win the game. That’s the way their team plays. I figured everyone would come to the plate looking to hit one out.

“With Granderson, he’s hit 40 home runs, and I’d bet that just about all 40 were pulled. So I’m thinking, he’s not going to get a pitch that he can pull. It’s fastballs away. But then, I’m not sure he will go chasing fastballs. So I think maybe I need to get in on him a little bit. Most of all, I want to get two strikes on him and then try to get him to hit a breaking ball the other way … or get it so he swings and misses.”

Perkins’ first pitch, a 95-mph two-seam fastball away, misses. “I know he’s not going to just take the first pitch,” Perkins says. “I can’t just get ahead with a first-pitch fastball. I threw a pretty good pitch, he laid off.”

Granderson then took a slider for a strike, and fouled off a 96-mph fastball for strike two. Perkins had his set-up. “I wanted to throw him a good slider, hopefully get him to chase.”

Perkins threw the slider and Granderson grounded out to shortstop for the first out. But Perkins was not happy with the pitch. “I got a little more of the plate than I liked with it,” he says. “I thought he got good wood on it. The ball sounded good coming off the bat. Maybe when you have 40 home runs, everything sounds loud off the bat. Anyway, Pedro [Florimon, the shortstop] made the play. I wouldn’t say I got lucky; Pedro didn’t have to make a great play. But I think I caught too much of the plate.”

[Photo Credit: East Lake Tumblr]

Them again. Thank you, Jerry Seinfeld.

Photograph by Todd Klassy.

House to haus does fennel.

[Photo Credit: Sandy Spring CSA]

The title of this piece, is by Bronx based baseball and human interest writer Todd Drew and was the name a column he wrote. Todd was a gem of a person and was taken from us far too early. This is my tribute to him and it begins with a big hands/feet fill I call “The Stampede”, to show my anger for his life being way too short. Todd appreciated “heady” music and loved jazz, latin & funk. I did my best to combine a lot of this in his honor.

The A section is an advanced linear version of the “Purdie Shuffle” and each phrase ends in a drum fill. The first half of the melody reminds me of Eric Dolphy (another one taken too early), while the second half strangely reminds me of Fleetwood Mac. Todd would love the dichotomy!
The B section is a latin-jazz groove in the Elvin Jones vein, circa his 1960’s work with the brilliant Wayne Shorter. This leads into a straight latin section, based around an Afro-Cuban 6/8.

I’m proud of the big solo section, which begins with a Tony Williams (who also died too soon…) influenced swing and leads into a long marimba solo, enhanced by vibraphone and supported wholly by the drums.

Dig it:

Shadow Games

Over at ESPN, Jorge Arangure, Jr. profiles Rafael Soriano. And here is a piece Daniel Barbarisi wrote on Soriano in July.

[Photo Credit: Mike Stobe/Getty Images]

I’m a big fan of Michael Mooney’s writing. Head on over to SB Nation’s Longform and check out his piece on a gaming convention in Dallas called QuakeCon:

The next morning the room was full of similarly bleary-eyed, disheveled, computer-toting young people. There were two lines: the one Chris and his friends were in — which was first-come-first-serve — and the Reserved line, for people who’d paid the extra $50 ahead of time. By lunchtime, both lines twisted back through the winding, Kubrickian hotel hallways and nobody seemed to be moving.

The Anatole is a four-star convention hotel, two separate towers decorated in an oriental theme — not the kind of place you’d expect to see thousands of greasy-faced videogame enthusiasts. While the gamers gathered on the west side of the hotel, there was a Mary Kay convention going on at the other end. On the walls in the wing where QuakeCon was held are large paintings of faceless Chinese masses and various deceased Chinese leaders. There’s an 8-foot Buddha in repose right next to the bar. A glass case near the concierge desk houses wooden figures from the Han Dynasty, which ended in 220 A.D., and glazed pottery from the Tang Dynasty, which ran from 618 to 907. And greeting QuakeCon guests just inside the front door were two immaculate life-size wooden elephants, hand-carved in Thailand from a pair of 12-foot Monkey Pod trees. The elephants were donated by a local real estate developer for the 1984 Republican National Convention, when the Anatole hosted both President Reagan and Vice-President Bush (in opposite towers).

In line, some people were laying down, with a lucky, exhausted few managing to sleep through the all-night rumblings of strangers. Some played drinking games. Two separate groups, hundreds of feet apart in line, were both playing intense games of flip cup — a pastime that requires not only chugging skills, but also post-consumption dexterity. Plenty of people were eating the $15 large pepperoni pizzas Pizza Hut was selling in the parking lot — and when the line got long enough, someone turned a discarded box into a sign reading WAIT-CON. There were lots of blankets, pillows, sleeping bags. A few people brought consoles and televisions and set them up along the walls to help pass the time. Some people did card tricks on top of the over-sized boxes and dollies carrying their computers, while others marched around showing off their matching clan T-shirts. One guy offered strangers passing him “free high-fives.” Another guy argued that, if they were forced to fight by some sort of evil overlord, the Hulk could easily do away with Thor.

Check out this short movie by Pablo Korona.

Baby, I’m so glad you’re here…

[Photo Credit: 26.media]

Not all of the old spots are gone on the Upper West Side yet. Yes, Brooks Brothers and Barneys have made the place hard to recognize from the one I knew as a kid. But Murray’s is still there.

Now, I never shopped at Murray’s–maybe I bought some dried apricots there once. Still, it’s reassuring to know it’s there. So long as it is I can picture my grandparents and my father. The past is alive.

Or mostly dead. Last week I had lunch with a guy who is from New York but now lives in L.A. He wanted to pick up a paper one morning and had to walk three blocks to find one. I thought of him when I was on Lexington Avenue last weekend and saw this–a rare site, for sure.

The Yanks washed away last night’s loss with a swift ass-whippin’ of the Twins this afternoon. They scored six runs in the third inning, highlighted by a bases loaded double from Robinson Cano and a two-run triple by Curtis Granderson. Chris Dickerson later jacked a two-run bomb well over the high wall in right field. CC did his thing, allowing just a couple of runs over eight innings. Cody Eppley pitched a scoreless ninth and the Yanks head to Toronto sporting a two-game lead over the Orioles.

Final Score: Yanks 8, Twins 2.

Today was a good day.

[Photo Credit: SP Photos; Hannah Foslien/Getty Images]

CC and nothing fancy, boys: Just win.

Ichiro Suzuki RF
Derek Jeter SS
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher 1B
Curtis Granderson CF
Eric Chavez 3B
Raul Ibanez DH
Chris Stewart C
Chris Dickerson LF

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Film is God; Andy Brannan]

Over at Time, Cormac McCarthy talks movies with the Coens.