Seeing Red

First, the Reds get rid of Griffey–which was a big enough blow in itself–but yesterday they got rid of Adam Dunn too! Not only that, as of now for both of those players the Reds have gotten a bunch of no-names. And in typical Reds fashion, the pitcher they got for Adam Dunn is a single A pitcher that just had Tommy John’s surgery this past year. Are you kidding me?! How does this make sense?? It also blows my mind that apparently a lot of Reds fans wanted the both of them gone and are now happy about it. Well, there you go. You got your wish. And look what we got in return for them!! Things will be sooo much better now that those two are gone. Idiots. All they have is “we are rebuilding with our young players…freeing up money..etc”. Wow..that’s original. How many times can you say that without having any results to back it up?

Also, can somebody explain to me why there even is a trade deadline? Seems like they always make a big deal about a trade deadline and when it has come and gone, there are still trades going on anyway–e.g. Adam Dunn was traded a week after the deadline. It doesn’t make sense to me so if anyone knows how that works, I’d seriously like to know.

So long, Junior

This past week the Cincinnati Reds reached the end of an era as they saw Ken Griffey Jr. get traded to the Chicago White Sox. Many Reds fans will say that it was an era of disappointment as Griffey was plagued with injuries throughout his career in Cincinnati. There is some truth to this since he just recently reached the 600 career home run mark and that mark could have been conceivably much higher than this since he missed over 400 games throughout his 7 seasons with the Reds.

Another thing is that he was perceived in the sports media as being “fan-unfriendly”. That being said I went to a Reds game a week before he was traded and our seats were down on the field level 4 rows behind the first base side. Being down there I saw a lot of things that you never really catch on the televised games. One of the things that I saw was that the “fan-unfriendly” label appeared to be total bullshit. While warming up you could constantly see Griffey having fun and interacting with the fans in the stands and appeared to be all smiles a majority of the time. I would even see him interact with kids in the stands during the game as he would be coming into the dugout after the 3rd out. He would find some kids in the stands and take the ball over to them and even say a few words and kid around with them–during the game!

I’m not sure where this whole “unapproachable” label came from but I must admit, I bought into it as well. It’s a shame that the media finds it necessary to paint these kind of pictures of people. And now that he is gone, I have read reports on how he liked to do all of these things for kids, charities, etc. and preferred to do so under the radar. That’s the way it should be and I am really glad I got to witness that game and see Griffey Jr. the way he should be seen.

Yet another loss…

I was shocked to learn today that musician/songwriter/producer Natasha Shneider passed away a few days ago after losing her battle with cancer. Natasha and her husband Alain are the core of the band Eleven, who I have been a huge fan of ever since their first record “Awake in A Dream” came out in the early 90’s. They released 5 records in all but have also worked as a production/songwriting team. They both played a huge part in the creative process of Chris Cornell’s first solo record “Euphoria Mourning” and most recently worked with Queens of the Stone Age in the studio and on the road, and on King’s X frontman Dug Pinnick’s recent solo record “Strum Sum Up” among many others. The two of them are such unique talents and always seemed to create amazing music together. It’s really sad to me that their collaborations have come to an end and even more sad when I think of the loss that Alain must feel. I never met Alain or Natasha but it’s no secret when you hear some of the music they have made together that they really had something special that surely went far beyond the scope of their music. Do yourself a favor sometime if you haven’t already…listen to Eleven.

Explain this to me…

In roughly a week’s time we have sadly lost two important voices of our time: Meet the Press anchorman Tim Russert and comic genius George Carlin. In the meantime, hacks like Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly and rip-off artist/comedian Carlos Mencia keep trucking along.

It’s a cruel world…

Outtakes at their finest

I’ve always been a fan of the “bloopers” type shows and outtake reels that some dvds include in their special features. That being said, here is a hilarious clip from comedian Zach Galifianakis’ dvd called “Live at the Purple Onion”. For the dvd he did a series of scenes assuming a character named Seth Galifianakis who is supposed to be Zach’s long lost brother. The clip is all of the outtakes from those interview sketches which appear to be mostly improv judging by their inability to keep it together. Another bonus is the fact that it is shown in spilt screen so you can see both of their reactions in real time. This still never fails to make me laugh til I cry. Enjoy!