New sounds from The Boss, and same old sounds from The Boss

Item One: Thank you Cleveland

As I mentioned last week, only one thing could provide me with some solace about the monu-Met-al collapse of my team down the stretch in the baseball season, and that solace came in the form of the Cleveland Indians defeating the Evil Empire, eliminating them from the playoffs in the first round for the third consecutive year.

All that money spent, and all it could purchase the Yankees was 1 playoff victory, which is 1 more than my company's softball team has - and we don't even have a softball team (yet). So now, I could care less who wins the World Series, because at least it won't be the Yankees (again). 7 years, $1.5+ billion in salary (you read that right, billion), and no rings to show for it.

And then Steinbrenner, jackass that he is, says that Torre will go if they don't win? Hey George, there you go, always able to find a scapegoat. How about taking the hit yourself for a change? How about your GM? Or, and this shocks me that he always gets a pass, how about Derek "4 for 17 with 1 RBI and no runs scored" Jeter? The captain is supposed to lead, not let others take the fall for him.

Thank you Cleveland for also preventing us from seeing another "victory lap" from Roger Clemens. Made me feel great seeing him limp off the field Sunday - hey Roger, get a better cell phone connection and stay retired this time. If nothing else, it will save us from having to hear Yankees announcer Susan Waldmyn from climaxing on the radio again.

Typical Steinbrenner, fire the manager. Hey George, maybe Buck Showalter will come back to manage for you, or Clyde King, or Yogi. Hell, knowing you, you'll find a way to exhume Billy Martin's body and have him manage again. Your act is tired - sell the damn team already or have someone else run it - do the one thing you didn't do your entire reign as owner by selling the team and leaving with some class and dignity.


Item Two: Springsteen is still a Magic Man
When I heard that Bruce Springsteen had put the E Street Band back together for another studio album and tour, I winced in hesitation at first. Consider that music has changed (whether for the better or not is another topic), he'll always have any album measured by the classics from early in his career, and the advance info about the songs being "laced with politics" had me concerned. Like any great athlete or entertainer in the latter stages of their career, you hope for the best and expect the worst, hoping they "didn't stay on stage too long". But when I saw them on The Today Show, I just had a feeling of anticipation I hadn't felt about his music since the Live album came out.

I've listened to "Magic" all the way through about 10 times now, and while it doesn't stand on it's own measured against his top work, it still delivers what I want out of music. And unlike The Rising (which I found cathartic after 9/11) and his solo efforts, what makes this album work for me is not just Bruce, but the band as well. It's great to hear Clarence Clemons regain his title as best saxophone player on the planet; it's refreshing to here Roy Bittan's piano provide a strong undertone; Max Weinberg can still bang the drums as well as anyone; and despite the fact that most of us are still a little bit twirked off because of the way The Sopranos ended, you can hear a lot of Silvio, I mean, Steve Van Zandt's influence.

Speaking of influence, I credit my father for cluing me into the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds years ago, and you can hear some of that in "Girls in their Summer Clothes". My favorite track so far is "Long Walk Home".

Throughout the album, you can hear pieces of the old great albums of his (Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, and The River - my all-time fave), yet the songs don't sound like leftovers from early albums that were thrown in. Yes, if you listen solely to the lyrics, it does sound like a political ad, with plenty of anti-Bush, anti-war messages. But as was the case in the 80's with Born in the USA, you can enjoy the music for what it is and use the lyrics to spark discussion and reflection about where we've gone wrong as a country. You can clearly hear this if you listen the The Rising album and then Magic back-to-back. Still, the great thing about his music, and the meanings in the lyrics, have always been about the context of the music. Maybe I'm showing my age, but I like somebody who isn't just singing about bouncing in low-riders and pimping their Ho's.

Is the album as great as The River or Born to Run? No, but I'll put it this way. Jack Nicholson was brilliant in The Departed, but that performance wasn't anywhere close to his roles in Five Easy Pieces or Cuckoo's Nest or The Shining. But it still was brilliant for this time period. Magic delivers what true Bruce fans want and need: the great sound of a band in tune with it's leader, cranking out hard charging and thought provoking sounds, providing some well-needed substance in this current "style always wins" era of music. In other words: it sounds like Jersey when I listen to it, complicated, diverse, battle-scarred. Go buy it.


Item Three: Random stuff
So things are going great for Mahalo these days. We're making tremendous inroads within search, we've started to see a turn in opinions from those that initially didn't know or didn't want us to succeed, and it's growing rapidly. Some doubted we'd stay standing long enough to reach 10,000 search results by years end. Well, we're streaking past 15,000 and the group is turning it up another notch. You've gotta check out some of the How-to's we're generating, and the Greenhouse is kicking ass and taking names. Looks like I'll be returning to days after completing a 90-day run on the overnights. While I lament the solitude of the evenings, I'm excited about rejoining my daytime colleagues, and stepping up my game in the process... I've disbanded the Friday Football Forecast website, so I'll occasionally make some selections here going forward from time-to-time... and I'm really glad that hockey is back - but it's obvious my Devils are going to struggle a lot this year...Finally, sounds like a company outing is happening at the end of the month, and rumor has it that it will involve karaoke. For those of you that have seen my act back East, I guess you know what's in store for those that haven't seen it yet here out West, "...wait 'til they get a load of me!" Keep you posted on that...

One more time Yankee fans, "Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead!!!!!"