Greatest Song Evah 4/7/23

Tumbling Dice

Every great band has a unique alchemy that makes them stand apart from others. In the Rolling Stones’ case two passionate fans of classic American blues music combined with a jazz drummer to create an as yet unheard of sound. There were many other bands that travelled in their wake & did their best to duplicate the Stones’ signature sound, but the Stones did it first and did it best.

They were an outstanding band for years before and would continue to bang out classic tracks for years afterwards, but their apotheosis occurred during the time frame roughly lasting from Beggars Banquet through Exile On Main Street. It was during that era in which they perfected the ingredients in their rock & roll stew. Tumbling Dice is an ideal example. The opening guitar line leads directly into Charlie Watts’ drum groove - Watts was rarely better than he was here - and Mick Jagger slurs his vocals impeccably. The vocal mix is perfectly buried within the muddy production of the instrumental track, and the backup vocals work with the instrumentation to create a wonderful extended coda. A peak Stones performance in the peak Stones era.

St. Louis Picks Fights With Its Players The Right Way

Outsiders rarely know what’s going on in major league clubhouses; they traditionally contain a what stays in Vegas kinda vibe. Because of that there’s likely a lot of background info that few of us are privy to, but the snippiness coming out of St. Louis is very striking. In a game earlier this week outfielder Tyler O’Neill was thrown out at home by several feet. It’s worth noting that it was on a throw by Ronald Acuna Jr. who has a rocket arm, and it was a perfect throw to boot. Cardinals manager Oli Marmol criticized O’Neill postgame, saying that his effort was halfhearted.

In this day and age it’s unusual for a manager to call out one of his players so publicly, and O’Neill pushed back. He was adamant that he was giving his all, insisting that the throw was the major factor in the outcome. Marmol wasn’t having that excuse, and he held O’Neill out of the lineup the next day, whilst repeating the standard Cardinals talking points about how there is a right way that we play, the rest of the team is on the same page, etc. All this he said-he said back and forth has succeeded in turning what should be a one-day story into something that now lingers. There’s clearly bad blood between player and team and I’m not sure why both parties are so publicly airing their dirty laundry.

O’Neill is coming off of a disappointing, injury filled season, but as recently as 2021 he showed a lot of promise. The guy has got 30-30 potential. The Cardinals have a deep outfield and a thin rotation. This seems to be an ideal situation in which they could deal from strength to improve a weaker portion of their team, but sniping at him in this way can only lessen his trade value. This drama is worth keeping an eye on; we’ll have to see if this is a minor incident that will blow over in a couple more days or if the relationship is irreparable.

Kim Mulkey

Another byproduct of LSU’s title is that it entrenches Kim Mulkey even further into the pantheon of all-time great coaches. Her accolades are much deserved; her success speaks for itself and she has now joined Rick Pitino as the only coaches to lead two different schools to championships. Unfortunately the fact that it happened this year of all years proves there is no such thing as basketball karma. Standing on the mountaintop in the wake of the terrible way she has handled Brittney Griner’s ordeal doesn’t feel right.

Mulkey has been a central figure in women’s basketball going back to the days when she was the pigtailed point guard on the 1984 Olympic team. She has been a very polarizing figure in her coaching career as she established a powerhouse at Baylor. She has always been a speak first, think second person; quick to defend her school from outside criticism even as multiple sexual assault allegations occurred. I suppose that can be excused as circling the wagons; her treatment of Griner cannot be excused.

Griner was one of history’s most dominant college basketball players, leading Baylor to one of Mulkey’s championships. Mulkey and the administration instructed Griner to keep her sexual orientation private. It was a fairly ridiculous order; her sexuality was obvious. The problem was that she was mercilessly and cruelly mocked by hecklers at opposing schools; it’s awful that the school failed to stand behind her and essentially left her to fend for herself.

Griner has gone on to have an accomplished professional and international career, and as a visible LBGTQ figure, a lot of those stories about her treatment at Baylor faded from memory. Her arrested and prolonged incarceration in Russia brought that all back. Mulkey remained silent in the early days, which is not a major issue in and of itself. Both Griner’s wife & the State Department asked people to remain quiet as they were trying to silently negotiate her release. Once it was clear how long the process was taking, her wife asked others to speak up and many did, from her fellow WNBA players to the majority of college coaches, Dawn Staley in particular. There was still silence from her old college coach.

It came to a head when a writer at a press conference last year noted to Mulkey that he had not seen any public comments from her about Griner’s ordeal. Her response? “And you won’t.” My God, how callous and how flippant can she be about someone who was so meaningful for her career and whom she should allegedly care about. I lost so much respect for Kim Mulkey. I feel very happy for the LSU players, but I can’t feel the same for their coach.

April Madness

It’s the final weekend of the NBA regular season and Carrie Mathison & Charlie Kelly are still hard at work trying to figure out all of the tiebreakers and potential playoff scenarios.

The Eastern Conference is fairly well-settled, but the Western is still chaotic. Multiple teams remain as tightly packed as they have been for most of the season. This weekend will be a scoreboard watcher’s paradise. The best part is that the tight pack makes it less likely that teams will be too cutesy and won’t try to manipulate the standings by trying to intentionally set up an ideal first round matchup. There are too many scenarios to do so, especially considering that any team whose seeding is set will be resting their top players this weekend.

SNL Preview

SNL episodes hosted by alumni are generally very satisfying. There’s a high level of comfort that works in both directions, as the host is familiar with how things work & the current cast & crew are well-versed in the host’s body of work. Molly Shannon is no exception. Her tenure as a cast member ran from 1995-2001, which means she was likely a strong inspiration for several of the current cast members. She was solidly reliable during her time; never reaching the stardom level of someone like Will Ferrell, but she made an immediate splash and maintained a strong presence. She was one of those comedians who always gave max effort; she fully committed to concept and character at all times, although constantly revving up into 4th gear could get a little exhausting after a while. And she wasn’t always in full Sally O’Malley or Helen Madden mode; nothing topped her NPR Delicious Dish sketches. She so perfectly underplayed that role, which let her generate laughs from much more than simple Schweddy balls. That skill is why she has been such a reliably strong comedic actor in the years since she has left SNL. Look no further than her outstanding work on The Other Two, which just happens to be returning for its third season next month. Perfect time to catch up if you haven’t seen the first two seasons yet; it’s tremendous.

Shannon is returning to host for the first time since way back in 2007. At this point in her career, she certainly has no desire to put herself through a Mary Katherine Gallagher role; hurling her body into scenery like that is best left in the past. But she will likely put her character building skills to good use. I can already see her sharing quality screen time with Heidi Gardner and Sarah Sherman.

The Party Of Small Government Strikes Again

A major reason why this week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election was so important is that there is some real evil s*** going down in state houses throughout the country. Just this week alone we’ve seen some terrible stuff, and it’s not just confined to Tennessee. And WTF? Taking steps to expel lawmakers is bad enough; but removing the 2 black lawmakers, but not the 1 white one? The phrase “saying the quiet part out loud” has been much overused, but things don’t get more blatant than this. Seriously, if you had seen this in a bad 1980s movie, you would have dismissed it for being implausibly over the top. Utterly disgraceful.

Red states appear to be in a competition to see which can pass the most draconian anti-abortion measure. For instance, Idaho was feeling nostalgic for the days of the Fugitive Slave Act, as that state has passed a law making it illegal for minor to leave the state to obtain an abortion. So much for the right to travel freely. And there is something odd in North Carolina. A Democratic member of the state house, who represents a safely blue district, has switched her party affiliation, which now gives the GOP a supermajority in that chamber.

But nothing tops what is happening in Kansas. The state legislature overrode the governor’s veto, passing an extreme anti-transgender law. Trans athletes are prohibited from participating in girl’s sports; as part of the law’s enforcement one of its sponsors suggested mandatory genital inspections. To be fair, that is not explicitly listed as a part of this lie, but for it to even be suggested clearly shows how monstrous some of these people are. Genital inspections of teen girls? From the party constantly fanning fears about alleged groomers? And it’s not as if this law is even responding to a true problem. State records show that last year among Kansas high school athletes 2 identified as transgender. Not 2%; 2 in total. It cannot be repeated enough - the cruelty is the point.

And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor

The Mets are the latest team that will have advertising patches on their jerseys. They did a great job with it; seamlessly incorporating the patches into the uniform design. As more teams include advertising space on their unis, they should follow the Mets’ example. This sponsor placement is very subtle and unobtrusive; see if you can find it.

Insert standard joke about the Mets of all teams being sponsored by a hospital.

Until We Meet Again

Have a great weekend, everyone. Thanks for reading.