Game 19 - Dropping the Finale

Twins drop the series finale in Cleveland by a final of 4-2. Win to Laffey. Loss to Perkins, which ends a three-game streak of 8 innings, two or fewer earned runs, and four strikeouts in each. He pitched alright today, but that just wasn't enough. Save to Kerry Wood? Hmph. So that's what happened to Kerry Wood. And yeah, he looked fine. A three game series against Tampa Bay begin tomorrow night at 7:10pm at the Metrodome in beautiful Minneapolis.
Today I got my stereo back. For the last three weeks or so, I've had some of our studio gear on my desk, which is where I usually keep my stereo setup. Yesterday, however, I brought the gear back to our rehearsal space/recording studio. Upon returning home around 2:30am, I was in no condition to put it all back together, but when I woke up, I turned on the ballgame and began the art of setting it all up again. That entailed cleaning the desk with a fine polish, wiring and plugging in all the components and speakers, and tweaking everything until it looks and feels right. After all, this is where I'll be doing preliminary mixes for the album.

Today's Music: Origin of Symmetry by Muse.

PXL

Game 18 - Kubel Continues

Our Twins won the second game of a three-game set in Cleveland Tonight by a final score of 7-1. Win to Slowey (8+inn, 1ER, 7K). Loss to Pavano. 2 Homers to Kubel who continues on his tear. Amazingly, though, Gardy continues to pencil Young into the starting lineup even though his poor at-bats, confusing feilding routes, and tonight, bad baserunning mistakes continue to cost our Twins runs in nearly every game. He is a liability and needs to change or leave.Today I watched the game while working from our rehearsal space/recording studio. We had a number of odds and ends to clean up before prepping for vocal tracks, so I took care of those and caught little bits of the game in between. After the last out was recorded I took a little post-sunset walk down to the lake and took this picture. All you can see is the lights on the other side of the lake, but not to worry, many more lake pictures to come throughout the summer.

Today's Music: Red Pens EP by Red Pens

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Game 17 - Blackburn's Gem

Twins win the first of three in Cleveland tonight by a score of 5-1. Win to Blackburn, who was brilliant. Loss to Carmona. The Big Canadian clobbered another one tonight which makes four on the year (through 17 games, he's on pace to hit 38 this year). Morales continues to do a serviceable job filling in on Redmond's off days while Baby Jesus is on the DL, but Young still looks hopelessly lost at the plate... oh, and on the field. If he doesn't stop swinging at every first piece of junk pitch that every schmo pitcher offers, I'm gonna lose it.While I've missed baseball this week (off days and rainouts) and it is nice to have it back, I've been getting tons of work done on music. I've been doing tempo correction in Ableton 8 as well as getting my legs back under me doing preliminary mixes in Acid 7. I continue to listen to a new album everyday in addition to about 45 minutes of guitar playing and an hour of drums each day. On guitar I play whatever I feel like, but drum exercises are split three ways; random warmup and sticking routines, playing along to whatever I'm listening to at the moment, and out of perhaps the finest drum practice book ever written, George L. Stone's Stick Control for the Snare Drummer. I did a bit of everything tonight from the kitchen while tonight's game was being televised and a Westerly wind was bringing in a cold front. Today was a beautiful day in Minneapolis.

Today's Music: Asleep in the Aisle by Asher Roth.

PXL

Games 15 & 16 - Drippy Doubleheader

Today in Boston, our Twins and the Red Sox successfully squeezed in both games of a two-game series between the raindrops that rained out Tuesday night's game. Our Twins lost both games in convincing fashion, 10-1 and 7-3. Game 1 was called in the 7th after the rain became too much to play through, and game 2 went a regulation 9 without any further delays. Wins toknuckleballer Wakefiled and Penny. Losses to Baker and Liriano. No saves needed. Dinger #3 to the Big Canadian Kid.This is a view outside my bedroom window. I haven't been getting out much lately as work on the recordings have been pretty intense. It's fine because I can work all the time, I can do it from my bed essentially, sleep and eat when my body needs it and everything is fine, but I miss outside. I think I'll try to find someone to play catch with tomorrow during the off-day.

Today's Music: Asleep In The Bread Aisle by Asher Roth

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Game 14 - Sweeping the Halos

This afternoon the Twins completed a sweep of the poorly named Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim winning 3-1 in the last of a three-game series. Perkins allowed one run while pitching 8 innings for the third staright start and earned a much deserved win. Loss to Loux. Save to Nathan.

After having so much fun the last three days I decided to stay in today and watch the game at home after church. Overnight a westerly cold front brought dark clouds and drizzle, which made it feel like fitting way to spend a Sunday. I laid on the couch in my empty house wearing my favorite sweater and watched the game from there with a tall glass of water.

Afterward I walked over to my childhood ballfield and the neighboring old junior high in the drizzle. It's empty now with the weather and all, but soon the neighborhood kids and I will spend afternoons here living out lazy summer days in our playclothes. Tonight, however, is family dinner. Tomorrow is our Twins' first off-day of the season. A two-gamer starts in Boston Tuesday night. See you then.

Today's Music: "Immolate Yourself" by Telefon Tel Aviv (RIP Charles Wesley Cooper III)

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Game 13 - The Big Inning

The 'Big Inning' saved the Twins again. They scored 5 in the fifth tonight and that was enough to support Slowey in his bid for his second victory this season. The top of the order came through in a big way as Harris, Morneau and Kubel combined for 9 hits and 7 of Minnesota's runs in a 9-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Orange County of California of The United States of North America of the Western Hemisphere of Planet Earth of the Milky Way Galaxy. Win to Slowey. Loss to Jepsen. Additional loss charged to the fans of our opponents tonight for having to put up with that excruciating name.Tonight also marks the unofficial end to arguably the best weekend that I've had in years. Lonely nights, long work days, boredom, exhaustion and general apathy have plagued my weekends for the better part of three years now as I've tried to forget the two before that. This weekend was different. I went into it all with plans for Thursday and Friday: I'd go out and have fun both nights, but on account of music work. Thursday I had a Paraphasia show in NE Minneapolis, and returned to Northeast the next night for a few reasons; to check out a band we'll be playing with later this month, as well as checking out the venue and hang flyers as we'll be playing there in late June.

During the week, however, I got two invitations for Saturday night gatherings. The first was the birthday party out in the sticks for an old work friend that I hadn't seen in several years. While she didn't really expect me to accept her invitation, I figured I'd surprise her and make an appearance. We then proceeded to have a blast. As they moved the get-together to another bar up the road, I excused myself to attend a second gathering in Uptown. Before fleeing, i took the above picture with the Birthday Girl who looked extraordinary (Unfortunately, I missed out on a photo with her adorable younger sister).

Onto Uptown and another fun venue that we like to call home. It has a pool table, a jukebox and a patio, and comes packed to the gills with lovely people of every variety, make and model. We all moved around and chit-chatted with each other making the rounds with folks that we'd never seen but were dying to blow off. At first I hung with the two people I knew and their two companions, but then decided to venture out and see if I couldn't get coax a slap out of some young philly by making an ass of myself.

Well, I started with one who was very nice, quite enjoyable conversation, but she proved to be a pretty tough nut to crack. Then after we'd moved on from each other, an angel descended from heaven into the middle of the large room right there at the CC Club, the most stunningly and naturally beautiful woman I'd seen in several minutes. We didn't speak the whole night but she caught me looking on more than one occassion (at her eyes, she had eyes like laser beams). It was entirely wholesome, and fruitless as most wholesome things are.

Anyhow, I then made nice with a third girl, a friend of the first who tried to explain a strange romantic situation that she had found herself in. Half kiddingly, I replied that Girl #1 should ditch this other deal and open up to me. When she returned to the room from a phone call regarding 'the situation' I attempted to persuade her to grab the open seat next to mine where we could finish our drinks before they kicked us all out of the bar and the streets filled with intoxicated lovers and those trying to celebrate or forget or both.

In a rather quick turn of events SHE asked ME for my phone number and we proceeded to talk as we swilled cheap beer as the lights came on. I was so stunned that I probably wound up looking foolish as I kept my cool... as if this happens to me all the time. She left with her crew before my group was ready to go, and I bid her farewell and promised that we'd do this again.

Shortly thereafter we decided to follow suit and leave ahead of the crowd. On the way out I was struck again by the piercing eyes of Girl #2 which prompted me to try to make her feel good without any preconceptions or any of the unwanted drunken flirtation that us guys know that women cherish so much. I simply went up behind her and, without introducing myself, whispered in her ear that she was the prettiest girl I'd seen all night, told her to enjoy herself and take care, then I left with a quick wave.

As we walked out, I told my friend about it and felt proud. We had just completed the greatest three-day weekend I'd had in quite a long time. Much overdue, but entirely worth the wait. Thanks to all that participated.

Today's Music: "Come Pick Me Up" by Ryan Adams

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Game 12 - Holy Freakin' Carp

Tonight was the first day of the rest of my life. I left my house for a show tonight when our Twins were down 4-3 in the seventh. A deficit of even one run seems impossible to overcome after that series against Toronto, so I didn't feel too bad about leaving the game for a dingy rock club on Minneapolis' Northeast side. Fortunately, the game was on in the bar and I caught little glimpses here and there. I was on my way to the restroom when I passed a television and saw Jason Kubel comlete the Cycle with a go-ahead Grand Slam and nearly lost my mind. The entire bar though I was on the approaching insanity, but when I dropped to my knees and started laughing my fool head off and pointing at the vaulted television, they understood and proceeded to follow suit. Win to Gurrier. Loss to something called Bulger. Nathan gets the save and Kubel becomes the seenth Twin to hit for the cycle, and the second in as many years after Gomez did on the Southside of Chicago last year.

As previously stated, I spent the night at a show mainly to check out a band we'll be sharing the stage with later this month (Telepathos), scope out a venue we'll be playing in late June (The Terminal Bar), and to hang flyers for said June show. It all went well and my friend Griffin made great company. Later we hung out with our mutual friend Jesse. We walked to another nearby bar (U Otter B Inn?) grabbed a few more drinks and proceeded to get entirely soused. We sang karaoke, hit on a grip of cougars, and stumbled into the streets on a warm spring night. This is how life was intended to be spent; intoxicated, celebratory and posing for cell phone cameras until dawn's early light. God Bless these lives of ours.

Today's Music: "Better Bring You Friends" by The Secret Machines

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Game 11 - Facing Doc Halladay

After this series, I'm hoping that the Toronto Blue Jays are just that good. They've pretty much embarrassed our Twins in the last four games, save for Tuesday's miracle victory. Tonight was no different. A seven-spot for the Jays in the seventh inning pretty much capped a bad week of baseball for the hometown nine in fitting fashion as they've played pretty dreadfully. On the bright side, if there is one, Liriano looked good allowing only two runs, one earned, in six complete innings. Win to Halladay. Loss to Liriano, unfortunately. Dinger to Cuddy.

I watched the game from a booth and the stage where my band, Paraphasia, played a gig tonight. We left the house at 7 (radio), began setting up at 8 (tv), and began playing about the time the game was ending. After seeing Millar's blast, I figured I wasn't gonna miss anything further. We played a great set. Video should be online soon, and I think that we can count on more work to come our way following this set, which was rather impressive thanks to a good sound guy. Mucho appreciado to Sharp Teeth and Sun in the Satellite, two excellent bands that we played with. No thanks to Old Time Religion.

Today's Music: "Hangin' Around" by Counting Crows

PXL

Game 10 - Baker's Dozen

Technically the game just ended, but in reality it'd been over for a while before our Twins ran out of innings. Outside of his first inning, Baker was horrible. He left the ball up in the zone all night and allowed four longballs, five hits, six runs, all earned. That's not to say that the Blue Jays didn't earn the win. Their pitching was good enough to keep our hitters off balance, and that was all it took. Loss to Baker. Win to Richmond. $50 to any Twins pitcher that can keep Toronto's runners off the basepaths... which, lucky for my wallet, happens to be nobody!I only got to see the final two innings on TV, the rest I heard little pieces of on the radio as I was darting in and out of various music stores in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. I was looking for ways to spend my tax refund, and I think I've found it. I'll hold off on telling anyone until it's all final, but let's just say that it'll be a steal and it is much needed.

Today's Music: Carnavas by Silversun Pickups

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Game 9 - Free Baseball, a Walkoff Win and Taxes

That's how seasoned fans refer to extra innings; Free Baseball. You pay for 9 innings, anything after that is gratis. And so after Glen Perkins and Ricky Romero finished their days allowing only two runs a piece, the bullpens got fired up and did their jobs levaing this game to be settled in extra frames. Fortunately for Twins fans, Crede doubled home the Big Canadian Kid with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning for their first walkoff win of the 2009 campaign, and ending a 10-game losing streak to the Blue Jays. Twins win 3-2 over the Jays in 11 innings. Win to 'Boom-Boom' Crain, loss to Carlson, kudos to Crede. Welcome to the new guy.During the game I filed my taxes, a last-minute ritual of mine. I always wait until the last minute, and when I finish I always wonder why, because I inevitably get money refunded to me in decent amounts. I figure that I wait so long so that I have time to daydream about where the money will go. I know that it should go to bills and debts, but this time around it really needs to go to music gear. I'm undecided right now, but I'm sure you'll see how it turns out.

Today's Music: "Return of the Post-Moderns" by Better Than Ezra

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Game 8 - The Way of the Jays

The Twins lost their third straight game tonight, this time the first of a four-game set at home. Loss to Ayala. Win to Frasor. Death to Kalas and Fydrich. Also, two dingers by Toronto's #9 hitter, something called Todd Snider. Let's see if the boys can snap out of their losing streak when they do it again at 7pm CDT tomorrow night.I've figured out more about Ableton Live and am working hard to determine what the album is going to saound like. At first I was frustrated by the lack of flexibility offered by the Drum Rack sampler (not that it'll be utilized that much on the album itself) and thought I might have to install a VSTi drum sampler like iDrum, which is pretty good as well, but after some timnkering, I figured the thing out a little better and am satisfied.

Today's Music: "Down By The Water" by PJ Harvey

PXL

Game 7 - Easter Sunday

Happy Easter to everyone. My the holiday find you and yours as happy and proseperous as me and mine. I attended a beautiful Easter morning service at my home church and promptly returned home for this afternoon's game. Now, onto baseball.

On a warmer day than the two previous, the Twins managed five hits, but only one run against Chicago starter Mark Buehrle. Blackburn allowed 4 runs in 6 innings (including one to Jim Thome that looked eerily similar to the one in game 163 of last season) to take the loss. The good news here as our Twins lost the rubber game on the Southside, was that Delmon Young got his first dinger of the year. While he continues to swing at the first pitch in every blessed at bat (seeing fewer pitches than an ugly chick) he has sown over and over that if someone on a coaching staff somewhere can really get to him, he can be a tremendous talent. My prediction; it won't be soon, and it won't be in Minnesota.

Today's Music: "The Hallelujah Chorus" by Handel

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Game 6 - Shutout by the Sox

The first regional FOX Saturday Baseball game of the season was the perfect place to feature this embarrassment of a game. Our Twins were shutout by the White Sox on the Southside of Chicago today by a final score of 8-0. It was the second shutout Minnesota suffered this year. They failed to plate even a solitary run today against Bartolo Colon, whom Chicago was unsure would receive a rotation spot after Spring Training. Loss to Liriano, who spit the bit and imploded during a four-run fifth inning.

I watched the game from the couch today while eating a few dogs. I kept a clipboard nearby and took notes on the album. I created a checklist of things to do for both the PC as well as the board and final tracking of vocals, overdubs and drum samples. Overall it was a killer way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Minnesota and Chicago will do it again tomorrow at 1pm CDT.

Today's Music: "Silverfuck" by Smashing Pumpkins

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Game 5 - Washing the Sox

The boys had a good night in Chicago tonight winning their first road game, and the first of 18 against the White Sox, by a score of 12-5. Dickey got the win, Contreras was stuck with the loss, the Big Canadian Kid tallied his second dinger of the year, and this kid Carrasco looked like he should be playing in the Peduka Town Ball League. It was windy and cold, which affected play a bit throughout the course of the night, but a win is a win, and I'll take it anyway I can against the Chicago White Sox.I watched the game on television with my neice tonight while working on the album. It's coming along nicely. I finished dumping the raw .wav files onto my external hard drive after dinner and spent the evening watching the ballgame and recording random guitar and bass parts. This is likely how I'll spend my days for the next week or so until i return the board to the studio proper, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Today's Music: "Hey Chicago" by Low

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Game 4 - Series Split

Today our Twins suffered their first shutout of a long season at the hands of the Seattle Mariners. A first inning run by the Mariners held up for the victory as they added an insurance run in the ninth and handed it over to their hapless closer, Brendan Morrow.
This Morrow kid has got some stuff to work through. After spitting the bit on Tuesday night, walking the bases loaded and blowing his first save opportunity, he got a chance to redeem himself this afternoon. He looked like he was on the same path today, but he pulled himself together and made sure our Twins didn't embarrass him again.

He's a talented guy, got a live arm, but threw nothing but fastballs all inning long. I'd like to think that if the heart of our lineup could've laid off a few they'd put him in a bad spot, but Morrow's got plenty of talent and showed his promising future this afternoon.

On another note, weekday games are still not being televised here (God knows why, probably a money thing), so I got to return to hearing John Gordon and Dan Gladden call the game on the radio for my daily fix. I still have a fond place in my heart for them both, but fortunately the organization is continuing the 'Squeezeplay' condensed games the same evening as untelevised games. It'll air at 7pm CDT on FSNorth and will feature video of all the hits and outs of the game with John and Dan's play-by-play in a 30-minute slot. It's a really great deal and I'd encourage you to watch along with me.

Anyhow, back to working on music, which I'll be doing until around 4am again.

Today's Music: "Fat Bottomed Girls" by Queen

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Game 3 - Happy Birthday, El

Tonight I was fortunate enough to get to go to another game at the Metrodome for three reasons; to see a good baseball friend who'd been out of town for the opener, to raise a drink in celebration of the birthday of a good friend who is a long ways away, and of course to see a Twins victory.

After exchanging several leads over the course of the game with help from two dingers off the bats of the Big Canadian Kid and Denard Span, the Twins took a late lead and Joe Nathan came on to shut the door. Afterward, two friends and I retired to one of their apartments for more drinks, late night TV and good conversation.

It was a great way to spend a day. Let's see if we can take another one from Seattle tomorrow afternoon.

Twins win by a final score of 6-5 over the Mariners.

Today's Music: "Beautiful Day" by U2

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Game 2 - The First Win

Now THAT was a game. Tonight, our Twins got their first win. They'd been trailing the whole night and things looked pretty hopeless for a bit, but in the ninth inning with two outs they drew three consecutive walks off of Seattle reliever Morrow, and Alexi Casilla came through with a two-run, game winning, walk-off single to center.

Sadly, I slept through the middle innings, and was working on music the eniter night, but caught enough of the game to frighten the others in the house when I yelped upon the game's closing moments.

On a good note, I discovered a studio shortcut today that will likey save me and the band dozens of hours transferring music from our DAW to my PC for mixing. Also, a good friend woke me up with an unexpected phonecall. I hadn't heard her voice since the first of the year and it was a terrific way to start my day.

Final Score: 6-5 Twins over Seattle

Today's Music: "Valerie Loves Me" by Material Issue

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Game 1 - Home Opener

I went to the game tonight and brought my cousin. Over the last few years he's become quite the fan, so as a 'thank you' for his military service I brought him along. He told me he hadn't been to a game in four years. Even in a place like the Metrodome, that's far too long.

Afterward, a friend was throwing a Morrissey after-party at The Entry downtown. Since it was free and 18+, we hooked up with a friend of mine and went to that. It was nice because I got to show my 18 year-old cousin one of my favorite places in the world an expose him to some stuff he doesn't get too often.

Cleveland lost, Detroit lost, and KC and the ChiSox got rained out, so even though our Twins lost 6-1 to Seattle, there was baseball and it was a good day.

Today's Music: "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve

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Spring Training - First Post

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

-Rogers Hornsby

"It's been a good day. There was baseball."

-Stephen King

With those wonderful words let it be announced that I'd like to chronicle the next 6 months of my life through my favorite game. Each day I'll try to post a photo, thought or other related bit regarding the day's happenings on the field and off. Play Ball.

PXL