Music review (20 years later): Seventh Son of a Seventh Son by Iron Maiden
When I decided I wanted to revisit music I had listened to 20 years earlier, I hadn’t expected that I would enjoy any of the music I had listened to 20 years earlier more in the present than I had at the time. But Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is just that. At the time of its release in 1988, the album suffered from the perception that Iron Maiden was getting “soft” for a couple of reasons. They had incorporated keyboards and synthesizers on their previous album, Somewhere in Time, and Seventh Son starts off with keyboards right away on “Moonchild.” The tempi of the songs on Seventh Son were more moderate compared to earlier efforts and to the speed/thrash metal of the time. Also, Maiden was becoming considered out of date compared to other pop/hair metal bands such as Poison and Bon Jovi which were all the rage in the late 80s. Because of that, 20 years ago my thoughts about Seventh Son were that the song “Can I Play With Madness” was a good song but the rest of the album wasn’t much worth listening to.
I was wrong. Not about “Can I Play With Madness” but about the rest of the album. I remembered “Moonchild” being a decent song and it still is, but several other songs revealed themselves to be standouts over time, such as “The Evil That Men Do,” “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son,” and “The Clairvoyant.” “Infinite Dreams” is probably the best song on the album, with its changing rhythm and a guitar riff similar to “Revelations” from Piece of Mind.
As for a rating, it would seem too obvious or clichéd to give an album entitled “Seventh Son of a a Seventh Son” a rating of 7 out of 10, but that is truly what it deserves.
Rating: 7 out of 10.
Baseball All-Star Prediction
While I do not claim to know who will or will not be voted and selected to this year’s all-star teams, I do know that there will be a loud outcry from the media and fans about the players they think should have been on the team but are not. Every year there is the same sentiment, even more prevalent in your local media than in the national media, of “how could our guy(s) be left off the team.” Griping about who got snubbed is merely something for the media and fans to do to pass the time in late June which is typically one of the slowest times of the year for sports news.
I believe the managers selecting the teams almost always do the best possible job they can given the job they are tasked with, which is to fill in the remaining slots after both the fans and players vote, then field a team using at least one player from each team in the league. The managers have to complete a puzzle that someone else started but may have filled in a few wrong pieces to begin with. This means that there are almost always some very good and deserving players that get left off the all-star roster. And in my opinion, that is ok. Instead of complaining about who got left off or about how the entire voting and selection process works, I accept that the All-Star game is an enjoyable exhibition that I will watch no matter who is invited to attend.
PTI and Baseball
Major League Baseball is being played these days. In fact, baseball is the only major professional sport being played in this last week of June. But you wouldn’t know it from watching Pardon The Interruption or even the beginning of the 6pm SportsCenter which follows PTI on ESPN. On the Tuesday June 26 episode of PTI, baseball was not even mentioned until the ninth topic. I find it hard to believe that there were 8 topics more important than something, anything, related to baseball. But apparently, a new TV show with Shaquille O’Neal and pictures of Tiger Woods new baby rate higher than baseball.
I realize that the NBA draft is only two days away, so naturally coverage of that would be on the radar. But can you really tell me that it isn’t worth discussing C.C. Sabathia or Brad Penny winning their 11th and 10th games, respectively? Or a feature on any of the surprise teams this year such as the first place Diamondbacks or Brewers? Anything related to baseball would be better than yet another Pacman Jones update.
Greg Oden vs. Kevin Durant
The Portland Trailblazers claim they are not sure which player they will take with the number one pick in this Thursday’s NBA draft: Kevin Durant or Greg Oden. Who are they trying to kid? Greg Oden will be the number one pick. No team is going to pass up a 7-footer with the skills of Oden. Size matters a whole lot in the NBA, and the combination of size and skills make Oden a no-brainer pick. Durant is not the second coming of Michael Jordan but still may go on to have a decent NBA career. To me as UCONN Huskies fan, Durant reminds me of Ray Allen: a player with a good NBA career but not a hall of famer. Oden has hall of fame potential. Portland would be foolish to pass on Oden.
Three Recent Baseball Observations
First, Alfonso Soriano’s admiring of his home run the other night by walking backwards angered some old school baseball types. They believe that the unwritten rule states that no matter how great a play you’ve made that you are not allowed to draw any attention to yourself as a player. I disagree. I think there is a line between a player celebrating their accomplishments and taunting the other team. Taunting crosses that line, celebrating does not. There is a difference between being excited or proud of your accomplishments and belittling the other players or team. Saying “Yea me!” is ok. Saying “ha ha, you lost!” is not acceptable or sportsmanlike behavior. Do these same people take offense when a team wins the World Series, clinches a playoff berth, or even wins a game on a walk-off home run then celebrates on the field? I don’t think they do. So why can’t someone celebrate a big home run in the seventh inning?
Second is Rick Ankiel. Rick Ankiel is no longer a pitcher who can’t find the plate after getting the yips in the 2000 post-season, but is apparently having success in the minor leagues as an outfielder. With Jim Edmonds going on the DL recently, there was talk that the Cardinals would call up Ankiel from AAA. The Cards claim they are not calling him up to the big leagues because he is out of options and are worried he wouldn’t clear waivers if they need to send him down. I don’t believe it. I think they aren’t calling him up because they know he really can’t ever have a career as a major league hitter. It is simply too hard to make the transition from pitcher to outfielder, or rather from pitcher to hitter. Having short-term success in the minors is one thing, hitting against the best in the world in the majors is another. Plus at 27 years old, he has already reached his peak.
And finally, it was great to see Peter Gammons back in the studio on Baseball Tonight recently. I am not sure if he has been on the show this year before Tuesday night, but this was the first I had seen him (not counting covering the Sunday night game from the ballpark).
Book review: The Real Frank Zappa Book
I’ve read The Real Frank Zappa Book twice. Once when I first started listening to Zappa and again just last year. It is written in a very conversational tone, because it was simply dictated by Zappa to the co-author. It bounces around between any number of topics, ranging from his life, “the road,” symphony orchestras, and censorship in the context of the PMRC. When re-reading it there were some parts I remembered clear as day and others I’d totally forgotten. One thing that I also realized while reading this book is that sometimes when reading opinions that I completely and obviously agree with doesn’t always make for compelling reading (the parts about censorship). When he refers to specific songs, it helped to have heard those songs before but it really didn’t take anything away from the enjoyment of the book the first time I had read it. It just brings more context to the book having heard “Village of the Sun,” “Stevie’s Spanking”, “Promiscuous” or “Let’s Make the Water Turn Black” to name a few.
If you want a further glimpse into Zappa’s mind, The Real Frank Zappa Book is the book to read.
English Soccer
I first began watching English soccer during the 1999/2000 season as a way to get my “fix” of sports on a Sunday night. I admit that I was so addicted to sports at that time in my life that I couldn’t go a single night without watching a sporting event on television. On Sunday nights beginning in January 2000, after the Simpsons would end at 8:30pm, I would channel surf looking for some sports to watch and would inevitably land on my local Fox Sports Network (Fox Sports New York) because they, being owned by an Australian and having a large presence in the UK, broadcast a two-hour review show of English Premier League soccer. And to me it was sports, so I watched. At first, I watched with only a passing interest, but I grew to enjoy the mix of edited matches, highlights, and analysis thrown into the two hour show. And the commentary and analysis from hosts Lionel Bienvenue and Max Bretos was aimed at Americans. They treated the viewer not as a rabid fan who grew up in England and knows everything about the history of the game, but rather as someone who thinks football is played with a pigskin. This show was about soccer.
I realized that my interest was piqued enough to know that once the season ended in May of that year, I wanted to continue watching next season, which for soccer is only after a three month summer break. Before the start of the 2000/2001 season, I discovered something about english soccer that served to add more fuel to my interest: fantasy leagues. As a rabid enthusiast of both baseball and football fantasy leagues, I was intrigued by the prospect of playing a fantasy league as a way to learn more about english soccer. Signing up for Yahoo’s fantasy EPL game gave me added motivation to learn about players and teams and follow the games each week.
After that first season of watching only the recap show, my cable company added the Fox Sports World channel (now called Fox Soccer Channel) to their digital cable package. This added yet another dimension to the game, as I could now watch several entire games a week, plus daily news regarding the sport. The more I watched the more I discovered that some cliches and criticisms of soccer were simply not true, realizing that even a game that resulted in a 0-0 draw could have plenty of excitement and drama. And I couldn’t help but be impressed by the feats of athleticism put on display each week.
Being a fan of the New York Yankees, I immediately gravitated towards rooting for Manchester United. Similarities abound between the two teams, with the recent success and commitment to winning (by spending a lot of money on players) being the obvious commonalities, and there was a marketing agreement between them at about the time I began watching soccer.
I no longer play in any soccer fantasy leagues, so I no longer follow the news as closely as I used to. But I still follow Manchester United and watch most of their games that are televised here in the states. When I first began watching English soccer, I wasn’t sure if my interest would be a passing fad or if this would be something that I continue to follow years later. Here I am 8 years later and I still enjoy the game and anticipate watching for years to come.
Music Review: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
I first listened to The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan in 2005, which was 43 years after is was released. I can’t help thinking that “you had to be there” to appreciate this music, because I just don’t see why this is considered a classic album. While it may be a landmark album that launched Bob Dylan’s fame, the music itself is unspectacular. “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” are great songs – but that’s it for the entire album. “Girl from the North Country” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” are pleasant enough songs to listen to, but are by no means all-time classics. Those are the only songs even worth mentioning because there is nothing good to remark about any of the others.
I don’t relate to the songs that are meant to be political and I fail to find anything funny about the songs that are meant to be humorous. Part of my feelings may have to do with knowing in advance that this album is considered a classic, but an album as highly regarded as this should have more than two good songs on it.
Rating: 3 out of 10.
PTI and Probability
As a viewer of ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption (PTI), it sometimes amazes me how Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon consistently overstate the odds of an event occurring during the Oddsmakers or Toss Up segments. Recently, two examples illustrate this point. First is the odds that the Cleveland Cavaliers will return to the NBA Finals next year, meaning they will represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. Kornheiser gave this a 55% chance. There are 14 other teams in the conference, meaning he is giving the remaining 14 teams only a 45% chance of going to the finals. I realize that the Knicks play in the East, but you still have other teams with a very good chance to make the Finals in the East beside the Cavs. Giving Cleveland a 55% chance means Kornheiser is taking the Cavs against the field, which to me seems crazy. Not because of any feelings about how good LeBron James is or how the Cavs will do as a team next year, but simply from the perspective of the mathematical probability of this event occurring.
“The field” is almost always the better bet, even when it comes to another question asked before every major golf tournament: “Who ya got: Tiger or the field?” Just look to history and perform a little math for the answer. I count Tiger Woods having played in 41 major tournaments since turning pro. He has won 12 of them, or just under 30 percent (29.3% to be more exact). If someone gave you even money on Tiger vs. the field for every major tournament and you always took the field, you’d be a rich man. Las Vegas obviously did the same math that I did, because the current line on Tiger to win this weekend’s U.S. Open is +316, meaning they give Tiger a 31.6% of winning.
Interesting side note: +316 does not mean 316/1000 but rather 100/316, which in this case just so happens to equal almost exactly the same percentage, which also happens to be the square root of 10 divided by 10. If the line was +320, the odds of winning would not be 32%, but rather 100/320 or 31.25%. How Las Vegas came up with Tiger’s odds of winning to be the square root of 10 divided by 10, I’ll never know.
Book review: Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis
My first encounter with the writings of Michael Lewis was from reading Moneyball, one of the truly great baseball books. Because of how convincingly Moneyball is written, I expected more out of Liar’s Poker. Liar’s Poker details the rise and fall of Wall Street’s biggest bond trading firm, Salomon Brothers, during the 1980s both from the author’s own experiences and those of the company in general.
Approximately half the book details the creation and history of the mortgage trading department at Salomon Brothers. Does that sound exciting? It’s not. The details of certain corporate executive’s struggles for power do little other than to put off the reader.
The book is at its best when it details the author’s personal experiences learning what it takes to be a bond trader on Wall Street and his tales and successes as his career progresses. But as mentioned earlier, I expected to get more out of this book. Stories about Wall Street excesses fail to shock and the realization that traders act only in their own self-interest and not in the interest of their customers is nothing new. Nor are anecdotes about the fraternity house environment of the trading floor.
Some of these aspects may have had more impact when the book was released in 1990, but now it seems like a tell-all book where the stories have already been told.
Rating: 5 out of 10.
