Kensington Blues

I spent a lovely day with family in the Pennsylvania hinterlands, which means I’m reading Beerleaguer comments to get a feel for today’s unlikely win over Ubaldo Jimenez and the Rockies. One reader shared this gem from today’s Philly Inquirer:

Putting a nice little bow on the procession of no-comments, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. was not available to talk about the change in hitting coaches or to update his comments about the rotation.

After the Phillies optioned Kendrick on Tuesday, the general manager said, “I think we know exactly what we’re going to do [Saturday]. I just choose not to tell you.”

We now know why. Who would have believed him if he said Kendrick was being replaced by Kendrick in the rotation?

Ouch, Ruben. That’s gotta hurt.

You know what will hurt more? The Phillies acquiring Roy Oswalt, going on a tear, yet falling just short of the wild card. As always, the Phils will probably have to win the division to make the playoffs. The NL West is doing the other two divisions no favors.

Thanks for nothing, Padres! Why didn’t you just suck like everyone expected you to so we could grab Heath Bell for our run to the World Series?

I’ve documented my struggles with pizza here in the City of Brotherly love. It ain’t easy to find a good pie in town. Philly foodie phenom Drew Lazor has a great look at all the best spots to get a slice in town in the most recent issue of City Paper and it’s worth checking out. Read it here.

N.B. he doesn’t highlight any spots that deliver or even are known for take-out. For what it’s worth I’m thrilled that he didn’t profile the execrable, overpriced Rustica in NoLibs either. Do I even have to mention that I’m absolutely in love with Zavino’s Kennett pie?

Want more Lazor in your life? Follow him on Twitter. He’s a hoot. He also contributes to City Paper’s Meal Ticket, which has swept me off my feet since Kirsten Henri left for Philly Mag. Now with Adam Erace! They’re a powerhouse!

I had no idea that anything I’d ever written, least of all a review of a middling album by Spiral Stairs, would ever gain this degree of infamy, but then this story broke this week. Turns out Spiral Stairs is upset at Pitchfork for their appraisal of his body of work post-Pavement. That’s totally his prerogative, but wouldn’t it have helped if he didn’t insist on rewriting “Coolin’ by Sound” and just giving it new titles?

For the record, that review stands as one of the most puerile pieces of criticism I’ve ever written. Bear in mind that it was written at a time when people actually wrote negative reviews about music, and those reviews were often long than 140 characters. Want to know a secret? The original was longer AND meaner. Hard to believe, right?

For what it’s worth, I loved Pavement. I’m not a hopeless nostalgic for the band, however, and I’ve felt that both Kannberg and Malkmus overestimated their talents in their solo efforts. I listened to Monsoon hoping to hear something different from Kannberg. How do you root against the underdog? The unfortunate thing was that I didn’t find anything to like and he’s been shockingly consistent in underwhelming critics and consumers. This may be why he was so frustrated in Pavement. Malkmus was too shrewd an editor to allow him to contribute material like this.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t note the praise I lavished on Kannberg for really working to preserve Pavement’s legacy as one of the great acts of the ’90s. I meant what I said about him undertaking the thankless task of unlocking gems from old tapes that he had to literally cook before they could be prepared for remastering. I think I can speak on behalf of Pavement fans everywhere when I say that effort was appreciated.

It’s a shame he can’t get past these bad reviews and just move on. He shouldn’t be discouraged by a handful of bad Pitchfork reviews. At least someone’s listening to these albums and promoting them at all. Will he ever play sold out tours across mid-sized venues as a solo artist? No. But he’d do himself a favor by lowering his expectations and maybe enjoy the fans who do come out to see him perform. Is that so much to ask?

Quick shout to Eric Smith, who is something of a bloggy wunderkind here in Philadelphia. We’ve never met properly, but he and I have slowly built what I hope is a mutual admiration society as we wend our way through the dense thicket that’s known today as content creation and curation.

If you’re not hip to what he’s up to, do yourself a favor and catch up. It’s worth noting that Geekadelphia is one of my favorite local reads.

I love everything about the Awl (and have been meaning to pitch them, too), but one of my favorite reads there has been Sam Biddle’s Diary of an Unemployed Class of ’10 Philosophy Major in New York City. Is it wrong to think it sounds like Goethe’s Werther? Just hope he doesn’t meet a woman named Lotte.

You can read his entries here.

(N.B. Must be said that this strikes awfully close to home, having spent the better part of ’02 in a hot Brooklyn apartment wondering what it was I was going to do with my life.)