Finger crossing
Mood:  sad
Now Playing: Coldplay - Viva La Vida (album)
Topic: Music

So I just got an e-mail from The Stone Church about upcoming concerts there. For those who don't know, The Stone Church is in Newmarket, N.H., and is simply the best place to hear live music in New Hampshire.

The venue is historic - yes, it was a church at one time, along with other ventures before music hotspot - and worth a far better fate than what could happen. Apparently the owners have large debt, mainly stemming from the grand renovations afew years ago, and a slower economic stream (I wonder why?), which is making it less viable.

The owners are considering the option of going nonprofit, but that's not an easy process. It is much easier for a business to start as a nonprofit than to become one. Either way, the owners are hoping to generate some interest and bucks with some fundraising.

I wish I could be of more help than writing a blog entry in a blog that no one reads. I have been to the Stone Church countless times in the past 14 years, though apologetically only once in the past four years.

I produced/promoted a couple shows there in conjunction with Jam Music Magazine, a now-defunct monthly music newsprint magazine of which I once was editor/publisher. I have seen many, many music acts perform there, such as Truffle, The Samples, Percy Hill, thanks to gravity, Lemon Fresh Kids, Pondering Judd, Famous, Eric Colville, Seeking Homer, Dreadnaught, Ron Noyes Band, and on and on.

It would be extremely sad to see this landmark become some other type of business, or worse, neglected.

Below is a link to a story that ran in the Portsmouth Herald:

http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080606/NEWS/806060423

And please visit The Stone Church Web site http://www.thestonechurch.com - maybe you'll notice a band, artist, or musical style that intrigues you and will get you back to this great place (or visiting for the first time).

With Jam, there was a time (2002?) when we reported on the imminent demise of The Stone Church, when the previous owners could no longer tackle this labor of love. The Church was stagnant and quiet for awhile before the current ownership group took it over. I hope if this team ceases operation that maybe, just maybe, another optimistic group will come in and have better success.

 

Ironically, I received an e-mail yesterday from The Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry about their upcoming shows. They too were announcing business-related news within their regular mailing. However, they were confirming rumors of growth.

The Tupelo, formerly known as the Muse at the Gray Goose, has been having a much better time than the Church. Catering mostly to a different demographic, the Tupelo is another great N.H venue, having hosted (or will hot) such acts as The Fixx, Paula Cole, Livingston Taylor, Glen Phillips, Melissa Ferrick, Cowboy Junkies, Arlo Guthrie, Bill Morrissey, Pendragon, Tim Janis, Bruce Cockburn, Tim Reynolds, and on and on.

The owners of The Tupelo are planning a move to neighboring Derry, which will include a state-of-the-art facility, more seating, more parking, 20,000 sq. ft. of retail space, and 20,000 sq. ft. of office space on nine acres of land.

Hopefully, The Stone Church can buck this current economic downswing (recession) and thrive upon the other side; probably never as surprisingly successful as the Tupelo, but no less vital and important to the state's music and arts communities.

Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Snow Patrol -

It's been a busy few weeks. Lots of springtime yard work, play time with my wife and son, 6th wedding anniversary, a date night, bathroom shopping, work and work, more Strat teams, a Strat championship (my 2nd), listening to and trying to find great music, and getting a new (used) car. Phew!

I have been thinking about trying to load up my site with my old published clips, many many links to my credits that are online, and writing new things here on the blog. Maybe I will start reviewing new music here and people will come from town around (typo and non-tech intended) to read what I have to say again.

Also, I've been thinking that Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" is a pretty damn good theme song:

"My God, what have I done?!"

"How did I get here?"

But in a good way, because truthfully EVERYTHING is once in a lifetime. Every decision made leads to more decisions. Even if some decisions are the same over and over (e.g., turn left or right here?), every decision, choice, option, event, etc. is once only, for that moment in time.

That's it for now. I have a meeting to go to.

Defense in Boston
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Strat-O-Matic
Fielding in Fenway for the Red Sox has always been a mixed bag. But winning the Gold Glove is not common in Boston.

And they had Dwight Evans in RF, who is still one of the best defensive RF I have ever seen - 8 gold gloves.
In the '80s they went through a plethora of CF looking for that one guy who could hit and field. Rick Miller, Reid Nichols, Garry Hancock, Tony Armas, Dave Henderson, Kevin Romine, etc. until they finally got Ellis Burks (1 gold glove). Of course, I think Crisp could have gotten one last year, and maybe Ellsbury will in the future.
In LF, they've always settled for the offense, though some have played better defensively than others: Teddy Ballgame, Yaz, Jim Ed, Greenie, Troy O'Leary, and Manny. Yaz (7 gold gloves) was easily the best of that bunch defensively.
First base was often where older or slower guys played, a la Yaz, Buckner, Baylor, Vaughn, Ortiz. Though Youkilis is a Gold Glover now, and with Lowell out, Sean Casey is not shabby there.
Catcher was always pretty good, though more about knowing how to call a game and manage pitchers than be a Gold Glover: Gedman, MacFarlane, Tony Pena (1 gold glove), Cerone, Mike Stanley, and Varitek (one gold glove).
Middle infield was weird. For a long time, they seemed to shuffle through guys trying to find the right blend. Marty Barrett, Jackie Gutierrez, Glenn Hoffman, Spike Owen, Luis Rivera, Jody Reed, and so on. Then they had some good ones for a while with John Valentin, Nomah!, Scott Fletcher, Scott Cooper, and Tim Naehring. In fact, I bet they're best infield defense of the 1980-2000 era was when they had Valentin at 2B, Nomar at SS, and Naehring at 3B.
Wade Boggs was the only Red Sox infielder in this period to win any gold gloves, except he wasn't a Red Sox by then. Statistically, if you go by the research done by www.baseball-reference.com, Boggs had his best defensive seasons in 1995 and 1996 in New York, but he got the GG in 1994 and 1995.

An aside: When Boggs first came up in 1982, they tried him at 1B because third was occupied by Carney Lansford. In the offseason, they let Lansford go via FA, and Boggs got the 3B job. Dave Stapleton was the full-time 1B, though Boggs played 44 games there in 1982.

Also, as for 1s at 3B in Strat, I recall Gary Gaetti and Robin Ventura being among the few to get them in the '80s and early '90s (with Pendleton and Schmidt, so a 2 was deemed great when I played tabletop. In fact I think guys like Kelly Gruber and Tim Wallach were never 1s in Strat, though they won gold gloves.

Lastly, Keith Hernandez and Jody Davis are 2s in 1986 Strat - but won the Gold Glove. For Hernandez, it was his 9th of 11 honors.

Reflections
Mood:  not sure

I was entered into a reflective mood this morning thanks to a prompt about a past workplace.

It reminded me about how I had to get where I got, and where I am now.

I struggled, fought, and often did things my way to finally get to where I wanted to be in the journalistic world. I did everything in a bass ackwards way. My college education was incomplete as it turns out. It was kind of superficial, and no one encouraged, let alone pushed, me to do an internship anywhere. I was somehow fooled into believing that education and the college newspaper was all that was needed to enter the professional world.

My result was that I moved to the city of a paper I liked and made a nuisance of myself with the paper's HR manager until I finally got a job as a layout specialist. This was before pagination, so people like myself were responsible for taking columns of raw copy and pasting it onto grids that were then shot by a camera to become film, which then in turn was made into plates that were put on the press.

I learned more about page design, journalism, newspaper protocol, office politics, how to work with people, and more from my three years doing that than anything in college.

In the meantime, I was trying to endear myself with some folks at the paper. To get them to believe I could be a reporter - sports, news, whatever. I even quit for a summer in order to get published. I had been there two years and the paper would not "assign" me stories on top of the full-time position I held. So I left and pursued free-lancing, which really meant getting this paper to take me seriously. I did mostly feature stories and soft news that summer, and had all but two stories accepted and published.

Then I ran out of money. I got my old layout specialist position back, but with an addendum - I got a column covering the local music scene, which introduced me into a whole new world with which I fell in love.

Subsequently I and a paper colleague started our own music magazine in 1996. It was a tabloid newsprint-sized monthly. Two years later my partner decided he wanted out, so I acquired his portion of the paper and after 24 months and issues as a partnership, I published 76 more issues before I sold it.

During that time I left the daily newspaper, lost thousands of dollars to my business, and spent time working as a pizza delivery guy and as a banquet captain at an upscale inn.

Learning the music business while learning how to run a publishing business was quite the education unto itself. I knew far less than I thought, but in the end knew far more than many journalists I know because I had to do it all - sell ads, distribute, market, design pages, write, hire, fire, balance books, etc.

I left the magazine behind to get back into the daily news world, taking a job as wire and entertainment editor of a small free daily. It was a great experience. And I learned more about publishing there. And I learned more about myself and my abilities. I never once doubted I could do anything I wanted, even when others were unsure and unconvinced.

But in 2007, I left the news biz behind again. And this time, probably for good. I became a daddy in 2006. And the grueling schedules of a daily newpaper editor is not a conducive lifestyle for a family man. Family is always first for me. Always. So I had to look for something different. Part of me was ready for anything, even if it had nothing to do with English, journalism, publishing, etc.

Now I am at a great company where I am an editor working on educational material. In some small way I am helping our youth and helping our struggling education system in America. And my strengths that were often overlooked or undervalued in the newspaper biz are challenged and rewarded everyday.

But first and foremost, I am husband and father. And that is where I am now.

Strat heaven
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Strat-O-Matic

So, I reached 1,600 wins Monday morning.

As of Tuesday morning I have not reached 1,600 losses, though it will happen tonight. I feel like I have finally secured a better than .500 win pct. But, then I have 9 1986 teams, and 6 have winning records.

 Now the challenge is to see if I can win a second ATG3 ring. And maybe throw in a 1986 one while I'm at it.

Live show specifics
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: Keane - Hopes and Fears
Topic: Music

Some of the notable shows from my list for specifics:
Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead was my first-ever concert. July 4, 1987, Foxboro Stadium. Now that's an indoctrination.
I saw the first Lollapalooza tour (Jane's, Living Colour, NIN, etc.).
My two Dave Matthews Band shows were when they were opening for The Samples at the Orpheum in Boston and State Theater in Portland, Maine - 1993 or 1994 I think. Yup - blew my friggin' mind. Best opening band ever.
I first saw Neil Young in 1991 in Tampa, Fla. He was awesome, touring for Ragged Glory, and still on that Freedom high. Sonic Youth and Social Distortion opened. Social D played 5-6 songs and was awesome, though I was bummed the set was so short. Sonic Youth came out, played "Kool Thing" and then launched into some distortion/feedback thing, placed their guitars next to the amps and left the stage. It was five minutes of song, about 10 minutes of them making noise, and then another 30 minutes of noise generated from their abandoned instruments. Sucked.
The second time I saw Neil Young was with my wife when he toured for his Glendale concept album. It was fantastic. After doing the whole album, complete with set design and actors performing on stage to the story, Young's "encore" was 30 minutes of his most popular tunes.

And I was working sound for a friends band, who managed to get an opening gig for a Roomful of Blues show (roughly 1997). So to work sound in a nice opera house, meet some cool sound techs (who knew more and could do more with a pinky finger than I ever knew), and hear Roomful from the board (best place to hear live music) was pretty neat.

One of the most interesting concerts I ever attended had a rather sparse crowd. I was booking music into an inn. It was presented by my magazine, the artist got the door and the inn got food and beverage sales. There's this fantastic singer-songwriter from the Boston area that I wanted to introduce to this market I was in. Eric Colville is his name. Well, long story short. Eric played for me and my wife. No one showed up that night. I was overconfident that the pedigree of past shows would offer trust to those audiences to try this show out. I should have booked Eric as an opener for someone else, but ultimately it was awesome. Eric is a genuinely nice guy, a great songwriter, and his first CD is a personal favorite. So my wife and I have this great memory of having a private concert.