Powerball (etc)

Two years after Moneyball, here's more worthwhile baseball writing from Michael Lewis.

The Times printed another great baseball story a couple of weeks ago about one Steve Butler, a high-school teammate of Alex Rodriguez, Doug Mientkiewicz, and a few other eventual big-leaguers. Butler was considered the best player on the team back then. According to Robert Andrew Powell's piece, Butler missed out on the majors -- and pro ball, completely -- largely due to his own neglect of his talent. He's now a high school athletic director in Florida with an expanding gut and a mountain of regret, Powell reports. Unfortunately I can't link to it -- you now have to buy the article from the NYT -- but I've got the text here if anyone's interested.


Just heard: Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime." I don't think I've ever heard this song without having a physical reaction. I think we'll still be listening to it in a hundred years. I feel like there's no other artwork that is as successful at describing this specific kind of disorientation, or emotional disturbance, as that song is. I mean, I think it's better than any Kafka I've read, better than everything else that tries to go there. Who else has expressed this same idea as clearly? This is a feeling that should have its own name, and it should be named after David Byrne. It's as if his whole life led up to the point where he could finally articulate this -- just like your whole life can lead up to the point where you say, "This is not my beautiful house."

"Into the blue again/After the money's gone." What's that? Where did that come from?

I've never been able to feel exactly how the transition from verse to chorus works. I always lose the beat somehow, right where the seam is. I know it's straight 4/4. There's no reason why I shouldn't get it, but it's always confusing to me. What a great drum track. What amazing sounds from Eno on top of the groove. And what an incredible vocal from Byrne. How does a person prepare himself to stand in a vocal booth and do that?

There's no way I can think about anything else while "Once In A Lifetime" is playing. (Except maybe Rich Hall.)