Greatest Song Evah 10/20/23

Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright

This just might be the most beautiful melody that Bob Dylan ever composed, which is saying a lot. The song comes from his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, which is where he essentially Became Dylan. His debut album mostly consisted of covers of old folk and blues standards, but this followup album was entirely made up of Dylan originals. At such a young age he had already found his songwriting voice by this point, and the rest was history.

In this song he conveys a wide range of emotion in such a short period of time. There are moments of deep bitterness, yet at the same time there is a clear sense of longing. The more biting lines serve as a coping mechanism. It’s tough to beat “I gave her my heart but she wanted my soul.”

What really makes this so essential is the arrangement. I don’t think it would be anywhere near as effective had it been recorded even 3 or 4 years later. 1963 recording technology didn’t have the multitrack capability that would be soon to come. The relatively primitive production makes this one sound almost haunting, especially with the subtle echo.

They Aced That Test

Bad pun, yes, but I regret nothing. The Las Vegas Aces wrapped up the WNBA title in 4 games, becoming the first team in the league to repeat as champs in more than 20 years. I’m not sure which was the more surprising aspect of their victory - the fact that they won with Candace Parker and Chelsea Gray sitting on the bench in street clothes, or that the Liberty went down with Breanna Stewart struggling through an awful shooting night. Really, that was so uncharacteristic of her. Time and time again she has come up big in championship scenarios, it was bizarre to see her miss so many open looks. Her game has been a bit off throughout the entire playoffs; it would not surprise me if we later learn of some sort of physical issue that had been kept quiet.

As for the Aces, they more than earned this title. WNBA playoff series don’t run seven games, so it wasn’t a precise match. But they only lost 1 game in this run, making it a close replica of the famous Moses Malone led fo-fo-fo journey. And A’ja Wilson sure played like someone who took that third place finish in the MVP vote personally. Until further notice, she is the best player in the world. Also, the injuries forced players who had been welded to the bench to step up and contribute. That’s a perfect example of the value of keeping even the last person on the roster engaged and ready.

The final game had everything one would wish for in a series clincher - a raucous home crowd, a major comeback, a close finish punctuated by a potential game winner missed at the buzzer, and yes, Sabrina Ionescu ralphing into a trash bucket during a timeout. With looming expansion and a group of major college stars entering the league in the next two years, this is an exciting time for the W.

One Season Ends, Another Starts

The NBA season tips off next week and I’ve got a couple of quick points to make. The first involves the never ending drama that surrounds James Harden. For a third time in his career he’s attempting to force his way off of a team and it is beyond tiresome. It’s clearly reasonable to say that he has the right to be angry this time if Philadelphia did truly renege on a promise to extend his contract. However, he has lost benefit of the doubt after his petulant behavior leading up to his departures from Houston and Brooklyn. His history suggests that this won’t end well. There is mutual interest between Harden and the Clippers, so he hasn’t burned every bridge in the league, but Sixers president Daryl Morey has a history of refusing to settle. As the elongated Ben Simmons standoff showed, he will not make a trade until he’s satisfied with the return package.

I was encouraged by remarks that Adam Silver made to Stephen A. Smith this week regarding the All-Star Game. He hinted that the format is likely to return to the traditional East vs. West matchup. That’s a long time coming. I understand the need to try something different to get people to care about the ASG game, but choosing sides wasn’t a solution. I could wrap my head around conference matchups. This guy plays for an eastern team, this guy plays for a western team, etc. It’s too much effort to try to figure out who is on Team LeBron or Team Giannis. Silver did not indicate if the league is still planning on using the Elam Ending for the game, in which the game ends once one of the teams hits a target score. That one worked, I hope they keep it.

You Elect Clowns.. Fill In The Rest

It bears repeating - there were times when Nancy Pelosi had just as slim of a majority as the GOP currently has, yet she was still able to keep her coalition together and pass legislation. The difference is that the most extreme members of the Republican caucus have little interest in public service or in governing; the chief concerns of the Feces Throwing Wing of the party are to s***post on Twitter and to own the libs.

The latest candidate making a seemingly futile run for the speakership is a perfect example. Gym Jordan spends so much of his time throwing out rhetorical bombs on Fox News, but how much actual congressional work does he do? Observers have pointed out that this is his 9th term in Congress, and he has never passed a single bill. That’s remarkable, especially considering that one of the chief responsibilities of a speaker would be to count votes. Now, I don’t live in his district, so I can’t vouch for what sort of constituent service he provides. I hope he has a hard working and conscientious staff, because I can’t imagine that he personally could be bothered to help someone accelerate the procession of a passport application.

Now, many Republican members of Congress are experiencing their own version of the Leopard Face Eating Party meme. Several of those that have voted against Jordan have claimed that they or their family have been receiving death threats. I’m not suggesting in any way that Jordan or anyone in his staff are behind those threats, but he and his ilk are absolutely responsible for festering the type of atmosphere that makes such threats possible. Yet still almost 200 of his colleagues called his name in the most recent round of voting. That party is broken.

Late word came out that Jordan will be holding a press conference at 8AM today, so we will know a lot more about what comes next by the time you all read this.

Frightening Times

It’s never a good time to have a leadership void in Congress, but it’s hard to imagine a worse time than now for this nonsense. Related to those death threats mentioned above is the surge of hatred that has permeated society. We’re paying for the refusal to fully condemn ugly rhetoric, in fact too often the GOP has indulged it. Remember how readily they embraced the term “deplorable?”

Antisemitism, both domestic and internationally, has become epidemic. In one of my previous jobs I occasionally had to work onsite in a synagogue on the Upper East Side. I had to go through security to do so, and what always struck me was how sad it was to have to go through a metal detector in order to enter a house of worship. That should be the ultimate safe space, but not in this world. And to hear that a synagogue was firebombed in Berlin earlier this week is chilling.

It’s more than just that. America has a knack for finding a way to weaponize ignorance towards whichever ethnic group is the target du jour. Just look at the surge of hate crimes committed against Asians during the COVID era, regardless of which Asian country the victims had come from. The terror attack committed by Hamas has spurred a tragic reprise of post 9/11 hatred. The 6 year old boy murdered by his landlord is only the most prominent example; there has been a noticeable increase of attacks on people of Middle Eastern origin. I don’t want to seem alarmist and reflexively chalk up any incident as part of a backlash, but I got flashbacks when I saw a story this week of a Sikh man being attacked on a bus in New York. Beyond the fact that such attacks are uncalled for, the man had nothing to do with the tragic circumstances in Israel and Gaza. But because he is brown and wearing a turban he is an easy target. Things are ugly out there.

The Newest Ballot

Looks like I can’t go a day without something Hall Of Fame related to talk about. Yesterday the ballot was released for this year’s edition of The Artist Formerly Known As The Veterans Committee. This time the committee will vote on post-1980 managers/front office officials/umpires. Nothing against these 8 men, but my preference is to unclog that bottleneck of deserving players. I can’t imagine many fans outside of family members who would pump their fists shouting “yes!” as the results are announced. Side note - THESE are the photos chosen for Johnson & Piniella? Both had significantly more success with different teams. They could have made a better choice for Leyland as well, but Detroit is at least somewhat defensible.

I had jumped the gun earlier this month when I had speculated on Terry Francona’s chances of making it onto the ballot. A manager needs to have been retired for 6 months to be eligible, so Tito will need to wait. There are a couple of names that jump out for me, but I’ll dive into the ballot a bit deeper at a later date. Results will be announced at the winter meetings in early December.

This Can Not Stand

It’s bad enough that the Texas Rangers have used the music of Creed for inspiration. It’s bad enough that Creed streams on Spotify have increased 175% since the start of the ALCS. It’s bad enough that the members of the band have shown up at Globe Life Park to cheer on the Rangers. Where does this nightmare end? How can we as individuals stop this? Man, this used to be a proper country.

Shut Up And Deal

That’s all for now, have a terrific weekend everybody, and remember - Do Not Taunt Happy Fun Ball! See you on Monday.