O! Captain, My Captain!

Jason Varitek agrees to a new deal with the Red Sox. Check out the link to the video below!


http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200901303787124

25 Random Things About Me

1. I am currently watching the movie For a Few Dollars More, starring Clint Eastwood.
2. I would high-five anyone who would completely understand what I mean if I were to use the phrase "the Baumer" in a conversation.
3. I think Lee Van Cleef is badass.
4. Sadly, I have given up trying to find the answer to the question, "who let the dogs out?".
5. I often wonder what it would be like to be a professional mountain climber.
6. I have, on occasion, eaten an entire bag of Doritos in one sitting (the Four Cheese Doritos, but unfortunately, they are no longer made).
7. One of these days, I am going to write to my local congressmen and try to get him to back a bill in which a law would be made to ensure that when listening to Metallica, it MUST be played a certain volume level. And of course it would be a high volume level.
8. I become frustrated and even a little angry when people don't know any other Shakespeare play besides Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet.
9. My ankle bones crack a lot.
10. The next time the cat knocks over her water dish, I am going to use her as a mop to clean it up!
11. I used to collect key chains when I was a kid.
12. During homecoming week at Red Land, I turned my classroom into a disco dance club complete with strobe lights and a disco ball.
13. I thoroughly enjoy the music of Ennio Morricone.
14. I never knew Bernie Mac was a Chicago Bears fan.
15. I enjoy hot sauce in my eggs.
16. I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller....
17. It is probably best that I am not a millionaire, because even if I did have a million dollars, I don't know what I would do with it.
18. I consider myself to be a pretty good whistler.
19. I think golf is lame.
20. Currently, my favorite brand of cigar is Padron.
21. Persephone, one of my cats, is a huge pain in the ass.
22. One of my guilty pleasures is listening to and rocking out to heavy metal hair bands.
23. It would be cool to be the guy who changes the scoreboard at Fenway Park for a living.
24. Scotch whiskey is great, but I can't drink a lot of it in one sitting or I get heart burn... I don't get it.
25. I could probably stare at the blue flames of a campfire for hours on end without breaking my concentration.

Thoughts of Uncle Walt

"O! I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul,
O! I say now these are the soul!" - from "I Sing the Body Electric" (1855)

Thank God, Vishnu, Jehovah, Buddha, and Allah, and all other known (and unknown) deities for Walt Whitman. If only ALL humans could search the soul the way Whitman did, we could finally all be able to communicate and express ourselves.

I never, ever, before considered Whitman as a favorite poet of mine. I was always turned off by it because I had this preconceived notion that it was not as "good" as the more formal and structured poems of the pre-modern eras. I had this lofty idea of what "art" was. Longfellow and Lowell and Holmes, for example, would never use free verse, as it did not embody the sophistication of the European forms of writing poetry. They wanted to showcase their art as being explicitly American, yet wanted to prove to Europe that Americans could be artists (yet, to be an artist they had to use European artforms and standards). Walt Whitman, on the other hand, along with the likes of Emily Dickenson, dared to be different. Isn't that what made America NOT part of Europe??? That we dared to take risks, dared to buck the system, set our own ways, and cut our own path out of the wilderness is what made us free.

Not living in that era, I guess I can never fully know what was going through the minds of poets like Longfellow. Maybe it was just that even though America wanted to stand alone and have its own identity, America was still insecure... having only been cut off from its colonial masters for 50 years. Maybe, by the time Walt came around, America had garnered some strength to strike out at the world and reveal its individualism.

Whitman is becoming more and more a favorite of mine. I have yet to read all of Leaves of Grass. But I am going to make it a priority this summer. Consider this a delayed New Year's resolution.

It's time to unleash my "barbaric yawp!" on the world. Until next time...

Why only Europe????

So, upon checking up on one of my favorite power/thrash metal bands, Iced Earth, I was pleasantly suprised to see a news headline saying that they were going to be co-headlining a month-long, intensive tour with fellow old-school heavy metal titans Saxon. My interest was sparked and I decided to read the article. Everything sounded good...the return of a former lead singer, the promise of extended guitar solos, the promotion of a soon-to-be-released new album... I was hooked, what I wanted to know next was when are they coming around here, and how can I get tickets.
That is when I was shattered... the tour begins Feb. 1, and ends March 1. ALL SHOW LOCATIONS ARE IN EUROPE!!!!!! Ugh... well, forget that. I will just be rocking out to my car stereo, I guess...

Snow Day at 320 Cartref

The first "real" snow day at our new house!

Fare Thee Well, Sean Casey

Today, we say goodbye to Sean Casey. He has announced his desire to retire from professional baseball to pursue a career in television.
I could easily see the big first-basemen along side the likes of John Kruk and Harold Reynolds on Baseball Tonight... but even better, I could see Casey as a late night talk show host. He was always seen as a likable, friendly, and enthusiastic player. I am sure he could bring that same charisma to the small screen. Let's just hope it isn't something trashy, like T.O. TV (Terrell Owens new reality tv show). Whatever he does, I am sure it will be a class act. Here's to you, Sean Casey!

This is only a test...

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.

This has only been a test. We will not return you to your regularly programed broadcast.