Greatest Song Evah 6/6/25
Brick
Ben Folds has a well deserved reputation for being a funny guy. His lyrics are often humorous, with a wit that can be either biting or whimsical depending upon the song. He once collaborated on an album with William Shatner of all people. That off-kilter sensibility even extends to the name of his band. They were called Ben Folds Five, but they were actually a trio. Brick, one of his biggest hits, did not follow that pattern. There was nothing light hearted about this record.
An outlier in his discography, the song deals with a serious topic quite sensitively. The song, which Folds later confirmed to be autobiographical, tells the story of a young man driving his girlfriend to the hospital for an abortion procedure. It is largely told from his perspective, but we briefly hear her point of view as well, with both separately stating that they are feeling more alone than they ever had before. It is also crystal clear that the relationship between the two is ultimately doomed.
The lyrics are filled with small details and observations which create a vivid picture. The arrangement is fairly sparse as well. The instrumental lineup of the trio is vastly different from what one would expect to see in a rock band: piano, double bass, & drums. No guitar. Folds would often add additional instruments when warranted, but that’s not the case here. Any additional musical augmentation would have detracted from the power of the basic track.
Folds’s vocals on the song are equally heartfelt. He had a tendency to default to adding an ironic detachment to his vocals, but here he is smart enough to understand that that sort of lilt would have detracted from the song. Brick would prove to be Ben Folds’s biggest radio hit, either with the Five or solo. He was recently in the news after he resigned from his position as an adviser to the Kennedy Center when you know who took over. He did the right thing, but it had to have been a personal and professional disappointment to walk away from a prestigious role such as that. My hope is that awarding him Greatest Song Evah will serve as a nice consolation prize.
Baseball Tidbits
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. You do NOT want to face the Colorado Rockies once the calendar turns to June. They just completed a three game sweep of the Florida Marlins. (Not sure if that result tells us more about the Marlins or the Rockies.) That means they have a 3-1 record since June 1; if they keep up that pace for the remainder of the season… It probably still wouldn’t be enough to earn a wild card, they’ll need to step up even further if they want to experience Rocktober V2.0. It’s unfortunate timing that the Mets will play them this weekend right on the heels of a hard fought series against the Dodgers. Why must the Mets face the hottest team in the league when they’re likely emotionally spent from playing LA?
Speaking of the Mets it was inevitable that this would be the year of Dumb Juan Soto Discourse. The combo of grumpy sportswriters, hot take addicted WFAN hosts, and delusional WFAN callers meant that at the first sniff of blood in the water they would gather in a feeding frenzy. At first it came in the form of amateur body language experts who were certain that they could tell that he hates his teammates, he hates being a Met, etc. That was soon followed by the “he doesn’t hustle” accusations in which a few instances in which he had admittedly given up on plays early and wasn’t running out routine infield grounders made for a bad look. It all came to a head in the recent series in Fenway Park when he stood in the batter’s box admiring a long drive to left field, realized too late that it would not clear the Green Monster, and was held to a long single. Never mind that he stole second immediately. Never mind that Pete Alonso did the exact same thing in the exact same game, except he was thrown out while trying to stretch into a double, which he would have easily done had he run out of the box, but he got nowhere near the amount of criticism that Soto did.
I’m not in denial, Soto is off to a relatively slow start by his high standards. But, despite everything he still has an OPS around .800. If that’s what he finishes with it would be his lowest in a full season, but I am a big believer in the theory that the back of the baseball card don’t lie. I have 100% confidence that by the end of the season he will have put together the same numbers that he has been producing year after year thus far.
Basketball Tidbits
I suppose that on balance the rewards make it all worthwhile, but damn is it tough to be a manager or head coach in one of the Big 4 professional team sports. When you’re hired the countdown clock to your inevitable firing starts ticking immediately. Only a small minority get to leave on their own terms. This year in the NBA has been particularly vicious. The Grizzlies fired Taylor Jenkins with fewer than 10 games to go in the season as they were in a furious battle for playoff positioning. The Nuggets took that one step further, parting ways with Michael Malone with only 3 games left even though they were in the thick of the battle for playoff home court advantage and he had coached them to a championship only 2 years ago.
That’s why it’s not a huge surprise that the Knicks let Tom Thibodeau go after their elimination in the Eastern Conference Finals. The organization felt that Thibs brought the team as far he could, but he just doesn’t have what it takes to lead them all the way. Sort of a Doug Collins/Phil Jackson dynamic. It’s only partially an example of James Dolan being James Dolan, this is almost par for the course in the league. I’m only partially joking when I sat that one day soon we may see a coach fired in the middle of a playoff series.
I can see both sides of the Thibs argument. His refusal to acknowledge that the Knicks have a bench and that he is actually allowed to use his bench players in a game aggravated me. On the other hand, he deserved more respect than that. The Knicks have been laughingstocks for years. I personally had largely abandoned the Knicks in recent years, my disdain for James Dolan is so large. That’s saying a lot for someone who continued to passionately root for a baseball team owned by the Wilpons. This has been a fun Knicks team to root for; I’m not all the way back yet, but I’m getting there. Thibodeau deserves a lot of credit for that. As for his potential replacement, Malone is a strong contender for the job, and if there is any team that could entice Jay Wright to return to coaching all of the Villanova alumni on roster would make this the one. Allow me to suggest an out of the box candidate. He was not elected Pope, so he is available. I want to see Knicks coach Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
ABC/ESPN’s broadcast booth has been a bit of a mess, and there are already whispers that changes could be in store for next year. This is a contrarian take, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the Jeff Van Gundy/Mark Jackson combo. I don’t think Jackson added much. In fact I was always hoping that some team would hire him as coach so that Doris Burke could move into the #1 booth. As for Van Gundy, he is a terrific analyst and was a lovable curmudgeon, but he too often fell into “get off my lawn” territory with his constant complaints about the state of play. He was never so bad that he reached Smoltz levels of “back in my day,” but he came uncomfortably close a few times.
Burke has been a disappointment on the A-team. She knows the game like the back of her hand and can break down a play with the best of them, but she hasn’t been able to establish a good rapport with any of her co-analysts. To be fair, there has been a merry go round in that second seat, with Doc Rivers and JJ Redick both quickly moving on to coaching. The buzz is that Burke’s position could be in jeopardy for next season. I would hate to see that; she is damn good and I don’t think the weakness of the present booth should be entirely laid at her feet. Hopefully an exciting Finals will bring out the best in all 3 voices. Last night’s huge 4th quarter comeback from Indiana is a good start.
50 Years Ago - One Day At a Time
One Day At a Time was a slight anomaly in Norman Lear’s career. It shares some of the standard characteristics of his biggest hits - it dealt with the issues of the day in a comedic manner. Unlike many of his other shows, which tended to have an irritable character lashing out at everything in their orbit as the lead, ODAAT had an agreeable personality leading the way.
Set in Indianapolis, Bonnie Franklin starred as Ann Romano, a recently divorced woman raising two teenage daughters. In 1975 it was rare to see a divorcée on TV not portrayed as some sort of fallen woman. Remember, the original premise of the Mary Tyler Moore show was that Mary was divorced before they changed it to make her a woman moving to Minneapolis to start a new life after breaking up with her longtime boyfriend. TV audiences weren’t yet ready to root for a divorced woman in 1970, they were more prepared to do so in 1975. This show also reflected early wave feminism, women had only recently been allowed to take out credit cards under their own name. Ann also used the Ms. salutation, or as one of her bosses portrayed by John Hillerman patronizingly called her, “M.S. Romano.”
No sitcom of its time would be complete without a wacky neighbor, in this case the building super Schneider portrayed by Pat Harrington. I could take him or leave him, he was no better or worse than similar stock characters. He had a very silly “always remember and never forget” catchphrase, and at times it felt a little icky to see him constantly barging into an apartment where teenage girls lived. In time the show eventually found the proper dynamic for his character. Calling him a surrogate father figure is a stretch, think of him as more of an avuncular uncle figure.
Ann’s daughters Julie and Barbara were respectively played by Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli. The show tended to suffer from Very Special Episode Syndrome, and many of those would focus on Julie. That was especially the case when Phillips dealt with substance abuse issues in real life, and she was written in and out of the show on multiple occasions. There was some shaming involved when her character departed, although I would imagine that in retrospect the show producers would have second thoughts about libeling her on the way out the door. We would not learn until years later what a monster her father John was, which explains Mackenzie’s personal problems to some extent.
It’s to be expected with a show that lasts for 9 seasons, but Barbara’s character evolved greatly over the years. She was somewhat of a tomboy in the earliest episodes, but as she went further into her teen and young adult days Bertinelli, and her character by proxy, became the collective crush of Gen-X. Really, you could see the evolution of the generation’s hair and fashion styles over the years just by looking at the many phases of Valerie Bertinelli. It’s no wonder she went on to marry Eddie Van Halen. They basically had the same hair (and same face) at any one time.
The very special episodes generally involved the standard primetime equivalents of afterschool specials: drug use, mental health, body issues, etc. There was also an annual tradition; the show would build an episode around Ann’s birthday and would end with an extended monologue in which she would look into a mirror Stuart Smalley style and give herself a “you’re gonna be OK, kiddo” pep talk.
It also goes without saying that like most long running sitcoms which had young actors in the beginning ODAAT made up for the characters moving into adulthood by introducing a younger character a few seasons into the run. Glenn Scarpelli was the adolescent son of a boyfriend of Ann’s who would be killed in a car crash. Scarpelli’s character wound up living with the Romanos. I wouldn’t go as far as to call him a Cousin Oliver, but he was close.
This show aged a little better than some of Norman Lear’s other classics. It was of its time, but there was not the large number of abrasive characters that was seen in many of his other shows, which helped make this a more pleasant watch. The premise was malleable enough that it was successfully rebooted a few years ago with a focus on a Latin family and starred Justina Machado and Rita Moreno.
Closing Laughs
Must not express schadenfreude over the POTUS/Elon feud. Must not express schadenfreude over the POTUS/Elon feud. Time to stock up on the Orville Redenbacher. Have a great weekend everyone. See you on Monday.
