Ramsayings

I’ve been paring down my CD collection in recent weeks and it’s given me occasion to reflect on my behavior in roughly a decade or so of heavy music consumption.

What have I learned? Who was that guy? I remember spending many a night at Mondo Kim’s or AKA or pretty much any record store, fiending in the used bin for anything noteworthy. Now I’m reaping the whirlwind.

There are discs that I’ve owned for ages that remain unopened, yet they still have sentimental value simply because I can remember buying them and then carrying them from dorm to apartment to dorm to apartment to house. Yet I can’t part with them.

I’ve come to the decidedly rockist conclusion that the endgame of this purge is to select those artists whose work has ongoing meaning in my life and hold them fast and shake the rest out. Another way of saying this is that I’m applying the auteur theory in the most vulgar manner possible to reduce the number of total CDs in my collection, those that I won’t just rip and forget for all eternity.

For those of us clinging to physical media in a digital media world, it’s a game of “desert island discs” renewed, with a twist. What CDs would you keep to avoid your favorite tunes vanishing into the ether after your harddrive crashed?

They appear to be pretty good. Guess they answered the “but can they hit?” question early. Never thought Wilson Valdez and Ben Francisco would be early heroes. Polanco’s not shabby either.

How much do you want to bet that Jimmy’s talking to Charlie nonstop about jumping back into the leadoff spot? If Charlie’s smart he’ll keep him batting third. Feel like the bottom of the lineup is fluid, which is great. Like the idea of dropping guys like Raul down if Francisco is hot. Want Mayberry Jr. to get some experience and maybe spell Raul from time to time.

Not convinced that the bench will be as helpful as hoped. Love Ross Gload. Didn’t like what I saw out of Orr at 2nd last night. Might be okay at third, which is fine because Charlie needs to handle Polly with kid gloves. Valdez can do it all if asked.

Starting rotation? Goes without saying, but I’m shocked at how efficient Doc and Cliff have been and how effective Roy Oswalt was in his start. Cole? He’ll bounce back. Blame it on the bad weather. Blanton? Anyone else think Charlie left him out there to die as an object lesson in conditioning? Dude just can’t seem to pull it together in early going, and with a staff like ours, there’s really no excuse.

Bullpen? Some question marks there, too. Romero, Herndon and Baez frighten me. Kendrick surprised me in the mop up role. Got love for Contreras, but I fear we’re asking for trouble when Madson looks to have superstar closer stuff. Why postpone the inevitable? If it’s solely for leverage, that probably won’t change much when the time comes for negotiations. Get Madson in the closer role. That changeup can’t be touched.

Glad that like last season Amaro didn’t panic and rush to add a bat, right-handed or otherwise, when Utley went down and Werth left town. Let the offense play out and see where you are at the deadline. Blanton’s value will increase, especially if Utley’s able to come back before the deadline.

Looking forward to seeing where the Phillies stand at the end of April. Have a good feeling about their hot start.

Exciting, I know, but I’ve really reached a crossroads with my current setup. See, I’m old enough to remember when music critics like Yancey and Sasha suffered some pretty amazing hard drive crashes in the last decade. They spent time ripping their discs to hard drives, only to watch their collections vanish, thanks to hardware failures. It wasn’t pretty.

So I waited. I bided my time hoping that someday I would feel confident enough in technology to make the leap. Fact of the matter is, I’m still not confident, but my modest rowhome won’t really accomodate stuff like cd collections these days. Add a kid to the mix and you’re suddenly not as concerned about the black metal collection you’ve compiled that you hardly ever have time (or patience) to listen to. Thus… (more…)

Love when my regular morning reads include Beerleaguer, Crashburn Alley, Phillies Nation and more of my favorite Phillies blogs. Following the games on Twitter is a treat, although Chris @LONG_DRIVE isn’t in midseason form, yet. Miss checking the Fightins for all the great flubs. I caught a bad typo on the new Phillies scoreboard at the On Deck game against the Pirates in tribute.

I love the 2011 team. I know everyone’s freaking about Utley, but c’mon people, get it together already. Look at the injuries we had in 2008 and 2010. We may not have won it all in 2010, but it wasn’t because injuries held us back. The 2011 team needs to do what it’s doing right now: beat the bad teams handily and let pitching keep the good ones in check. I think the Phillies fan mentality aligns with Charlie Manuel’s too much, i.e. we need home run sluggers to win games. Truth is, you get a few guys to hit doubles reliably and we’re still scoring runs in bunches, just like last night. The home runs will come, but it’s great that you’re not waiting for that salvific at bat.

For someone like me who loves low-scoring games, this team is a dream. Watching Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee back to back, pitching for my team, is just unreal. When Roy Oswalt is going against the other team’s #3, it’s just not fair. Heck, even Joe Blanton is going to get some very favorable matchups over the course of the season. It’s a thing of beauty to know you have 4 All Star-caliber pitchers out there going every day.

Will we win it all? Hard to say. How far can the Phearsome Phoursome take us? I love Madson, but there isn’t a great deal of reliable help out there. Which Raul will we see after the break? Will Francisco figure out right? Can Dom Brown be an impact player down the stretch? Can Jimmy play like it’s 2006 again? Lots of questions.

If this team makes the playoffs, watch out. It’s hard to imagine even elite teams not finding themselves down 2-0 just on the strength of our pitching. If we get Utley back at any point, or if Dom Brown can rejoin and contribute meaningfully, we may being marching down Broad Street again.

(Also, how many teams are thinking they could use a spare starter right now? Boston’s been brutalized by the Rangers to start the season. Wonder if they’d be interested in Kentucky Joe. Can’t wait to see how the Yankees rotation plays out, either.)

Remember when music start-ups were such a source of frustration for me? Now I really enjoy some of them! Chief among them is ex.fm, which my friend Mark showed me just the other day. Possibly the most useful Google Chrome extension that doesn’t involve a Google product.

What does it do? It sniffs out all the mp3s on a page and stores them temporarily in the extension, which allows you to browse away from their source while you listen via a sleek player. I’ve been playing Mark’s blog like a mixtape thanks to it, as well as blogs like Songs from Treme and more.

Now if it could just travel back in time to 2003…