Over the last few weeks I have been accused of proselytizing for WordPress, and while I do speak of WP’s virtues to whoever will listen or whenever someone brings up a competing content management system, it is not proselytization because my arguments are based on facts.
I can remember my days playing little league more clearly then almost anything else from my childhood; the sound of the wooden bat making solid contact, the satisfying vibrations in my hands, the relief of making it to base safely.
The pure innocent joy that I remember is like very little that I have experienced since, and even though my interests quickly turned away from baseball to other sports, girls, music, etc. baseball still has a very special place in my internal mythos.
I think this is why I have had such a visceral reaction to the farce that Major League Baseball has turned into, and in my mind is personified by Barry Bonds. About the same time I was learning how to turn a double play, I watched Hank Aaron hit that Al Downing pitch over the wall to break Babe Ruth’s homerun record and I will be damned if I am going to support an organization that is planning on celebrating the aforementioned Mr. Bonds breaking Hammerin’ Hank’s record with the (alleged) aid of performance enhancing drugs.
I say alleged because it has never been proven that Bonds has ever used steroids; he has never tested positive, but come on, anyone that is the least bit unbiased can look at the evidence and come to a fair conclusion that there is very little doubt that he is/was not juiced. If you need more evidence than his physical transformation, the fact that he has gotten significantly higher production at point in his career when all pre-juice era players production falls off, and his laughable grand jury testimony, just read the excerpt from Game of Shadows and I think that you’ll get all of the evidence you need.
Early in this MLB season, Bonds will pass Babe Ruth to become the second most prolific home run hitter in Major League history. But I won’t see it. I am not going to watch the first baseball game this year, I am not watching the highlights on Sport Center, I will not attend a game, read any baseball news online, nothing. I am boycotting MLB because they are complicit in allowing this to happen and I want nothing to do with it.
If Bonds hits homeruns at the same pace this year as he has in the last few seasons, he will pass Henry Aaron later in the season to be baseball’s all time homerun hitter. I don’t care if you put an asterisk next to his name, tell me that nobody is going to think about this record the same way as Hank’s, etc. MLB is not only going to let it happen they are going to celebrate it - and it is a travesty, a miscarriage of justice and I will not be a part of it. I am boycotting MLB and I ask each of you to look inside yourself and decide if you want to support this farce.
If you watch baseball on TV, go to a game, buy merchandise – then you are an accomplice in this ludicrous, empty show – this mockery, this sham. Join me in letting Bud Selig and Barry Bonds know that this is NOT okay, that we are not going to be part of this travesty.
Join me in my Boycott of 2006 Major League Baseball.
The Tupelo Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Elvis Presley Festival have announced the dates for the 50th Anniversary of Elvis� Homecoming to Tupelo, Mississippi at the 8th Annual Elvis Presley Festival!
This year the Festival will be held June 2-4, 2006, and the lineup has not been officially announced yet.
Relive the day in 1956 when Tupelo�s most famous native son came home for the first time to perform as a star. Festivities begin on Friday,June 2nd with the 8th Annual Elvis Presley Festival, featuring a fabulous music line-up and fun festival activities in a family-friendly atmosphere!
You can download the flier for the festival here.
Looks like it is going to be a great time, and Tupelo is a cool little city in North Mississippi, if you haven’t ever been you owe it to yourself to check it out.
If you are like me, you just can’t get enough Black Keys. I have been a fan since I first heard the initial feedback of ThinkFreakness way back when. Turns out there are a couple of very cool videos available on their website. Check out the videos for Set You Free and 10 am Automatic here.
Erika Wennerstrom fronts Fat Possums Heartless Bastards and describes herself like this:
I’m 27 years old and from Dayton, Ohio. I’ve wanted to be a songwriter and performer since I was born. I have a band now, Heartless Bastards. Mike Lamping plays bass, Kevin Vaughn, drums, and I write the songs, play guitar, and sing.
Check out a couple of MP3’s that they have made available: New Resolution and Onions
They are in the studio now working on the follow up to Stairs and Elevators which made the New Yorker’s list of underappreciated pop records of 2005.
I have penned a new article about the blogosphere over on JTk. I think that blogging and the blogosphere is one of the most misunderstood issues by non techies because the mass media either misrepresents it or doesn’t understand it.
While the word “blogs” gets thrown around allot, it is mostly misunderstood and often mis-represented by the mainstream press. Blogging software, the blogosphere, and bloggers themselves represent nothing short of a shift in the paradigm of how regular folks use the web and of how news is published.
Click on over to read what I think about it.
While the word “blogs” gets thrown around allot, it is mostly misunderstood and often mis-represented by the mainstream press. Blogging software, the blogosphere, and bloggers themselves represent nothing short of a shift in the paradigm of how regular folks use the web and of how news is published.
Back in the old days (the nineties) web site operators were focused on publishing information on the web that users of a site consumed. Companies chased banner ad dollars publishing articles and individuals published their home pages – and the visitors of their sites read their content and that was the end of the transaction.
If you are unfamiliar with James “Jimbo” Mathus his decidedly low tech site is well worth a click. You can check out some of his music, (we like “little hand, big gun” ) look around his studio ( it don’t look like it works, but it do; just ask Elvis Costello) in Clarksdale, or read his unique history.
He’s either a throw back or an original depending on how you look at it, but either way this site gives you a singular look at the music still being made in the heart of the fountainhead of modern music.
Hey Now, allot of you guys have already seen this, but we have officially released the Green River WordPress Theme over on JTk.
I like it - it is different, trying new things, trying to continue to improve as a designer.