VAGUE SPACE

Phillies in Phirst After Shaky Phirst Half

World championship hangovers are as frequent as my own hangovers when I mix liquor and beer, but the Phillies tried not to mix with the ingredients of their recent success too much in the offseason, hoping to come out of the gate stronger than they have in recent years, where they have relied on strong Septembers and Mets collapses to win the division.  And this year, April was a lot stronger, but June was a disaster, and only a 9 of 10 streak at home in July has put the Phillies back in the position every fan hoped they'd be in -- back on top of the division, with the Mets way behind.  How did they get there?  Will it continue?  Will the Mets rise from the ashes?  Should I start worrying about Florida and Atlanta?  Or is a third straight playoff appearance inevitable at this point and should we start thinking about repeat?  Do we need Halladay to make that happen?  These are a lot of questions, and I don't have all the answers.  But come along for the ride.

Vague Space All Time Playlist

I've been keeping a spreadsheet total of every song played on my iPod (or iTunes) since I first purchased an iPod in March of 2004.  And since 99% of the music I've listened to since I bought my iPod has been on my iPod(s) or iTunes, it's a pretty accurate representation of the bands that I've spent the most time listening to in the past 5 years.  This may be interesting to no one but me, but hey, it's my blog.  Maybe someone out there will like to see this.  Without further ado, here is the list of every single artist played on my iPod since March 2004, in order.

1.  Bright Eyes  4,569 plays
2.  Mogwai  3,763
3.  Sunset Rubdown  3,702
4.  Okkervil River  3,608
5.  Sufjan Stevens  2,941

Bright Eyes still holds a huge 800+ play lead based on the strength of 1000+ plays in each of 2004 through 2006 (1st, 1st, and 3rd in each year).  Mogwai peaked with the most ever in one year, 1725 plays in 2006, but they haven't done much this year and are about to get caught by two bands that didn't even appear in 2004.  Okkervil River first appeared on my iPod with 268 plays at the end of 2005, and have stormed up the charts ever since (they've had 1000+ in each of the past three years).  Sunset Rubdown didn't appear until 2006! (with 654 plays) but they had the most in 2007 and are already at 1105 in 2009, definitely on pace to break Mogwai's single year peak and very much on pace to be the 2nd most played of any band by the end of this year.  Sufjan had 1000+ years in 2005 and 2006, but hasn't done much since (he also hasn't released an album since -- what is he waiting for?)

• Download Bright Eyes - "Method Acting".mp3
• Download Mogwai - "Secret Pint".mp3
• Download Sunset Rubdown - "Hope You Don't Stoop to Dirty Words II".mp3
• Download Okkervil River - "Blanket and Crib".mp3
• Download Sufjan Stevens - "The First Full Moon".mp3
  

Tour de France Settles Down in Pyrenees

After a super-exciting first four stages of this year's Tour de France, the riders came to the first mountain stages in the Pyrenees and ... did nothing.  Three stages this weekend in the high mountains on the southern border between France and Spain saw a lot of fireworks among lesser riders but very little fighting among the overall Tour contenders.  In fact, besides Alberto Contador's somewhat controversial attack on his own Astana teammates (including Lance Armstrong) on Friday that gained him 21 seconds on his rivals, no other contender took any time from the others this weekend.  Andy Schleck made an attempt on Saturday's mountain, and Cadel Evans made a very early attack (before the mountains) on the same stage, both of them perhaps trying to lure Astana out into a fight that might fracture the team or at least put them in the position of defending the yellow, but alas, nothing came of either attempt and Sunday they didn't even try.  In fact, Sunday's stage was won by Frenchman Pierreck Fredrigo over Giro d'Italia third place Franco Pellizotti, but only 30 seconds behind was a big enough peloton that sprinter Oscar Freire took third.  When Freire is still with the peloton after a long mountain stage, you know that no one was really trying.  Admittedly, the course was set up on both Saturday and Sunday with long stretches after the last mountain, which makes it difficult for any break to stay away (Pellizotti and Fredrigo were over 5 minutes up when they crested the Col du Tourmalet, but barely held on at the finish) but I was still hoping for some fireworks.  Alas, we're going to have to wait for the Alps, which are still a week and a half away.  

Rounders

With four games left in my team's softball season, the Rounders are an inexplicable 10-10, by far our best record this late in the season in the decade or so since the team was originally formed by Rudnick and me and some guys from our office who had never held a softball mitt in their lives.  The team has obviously dramatically improved from the days when we had a soccer player roaming the outfield because at least he had the speed to chase down the long smashes and hold home runs to triples, but we do have basically the same exact team that we've had for the last several years and yet we're finally competing on a level basis with almost all our opponents.  Is it truly the "new" Rounders as our erstwhile manager likes to claim?  Or is it just a weaker league/easier schedule than we've faced in years past?  Let's go to the videotape...

The lineup this year is largely the same as last year's, when we won about 5 or 6 games on the whole season.  I think I've played more regularly than in any year in recent memory (despite coming off ACL reconstruction surgery), but that couldn't have helped, and we lost our catcher combo from last year's squad, but other than that, it's the same players.  Brunner and Cheese have been hitting well in the middle of the order, but they did so last year, and I don't see any huge improvements in our lineup otherwise.  We do seem to have strung together several two-out rallies and have won a number of close games, so perhaps -- even though it's not a major league skill -- we have been more "clutch" than in years past.  Certainly our manager was about as clutch as he's ever been when he hit a grand slam in the 7th of a tie game on Monday, but perhaps the steroids are just finally kicking in.  Either that, or he wisely gave up on his strategy to emulate his hero Derek Jeter in everything he does, including aiming for right field with every at bat.

New Music Tuesday

Ok, I know it's not Tuesday but this got pre-empted by my Tour de France coverage yesterday, so here it is one day late...

Jonsi and Alex are releasing their first album of ambient/instrumental rock July 21st on XL Recordings in North America, titled Riceboy Sleeps.  You can get a download of a song from the album by putting in your email address at their website (or below).  "Riceboy Sleeps" was the original name of the band formed by Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi Birgisson and his partner Alex Somers, but they've chosen to rename themselves Jonsi and Alex for the album release.  The song I received through email is "Boy 1904" but the song I'm providing below appeared on the Dark Was the Night compilation in the spring and is quite representative.  Check it out.

• Download Jonsi and Alex - "Happiness".mp3
• Jonsi and Alex

Astana Wins Team Time Trial, Spartacus Keeps Yellow

After what has been the most exciting race I have ever watched this early in a Tour de France, there is a virtual tie at the top of the standings between Fabian Cancellara, who has held yellow since the opening stage, and an unknown rider who we've never seen before named Lance Armstrong.  By fractions of a second, Fabian "Tony Spartacus" Cancellara (pictured at right showing his margin of lead "00") kept the yellow jersey just ahead of Lance,  but it was an absolutely wonderful stage today after a wonderful stage yesterday and we're just getting started.  Team Astana -- the super-team of Lance, Levi Leipheimer, and pre-Tour favorite Alberto Contador - won today's team time trial in Montpelier by 18 seconds over Garmin-Slipstream and 40 seconds over third place Saxo Bank, which just so happened to be the exact margin that Cancellara held over Armstrong going into the stage.  As a result, the race officials had to take hundreds of seconds into account from the first stage and Cance ended up on top.  For today at least.  Overall, it's looking like an Astana domination...

1. CANCELLARA Fabian 33 TEAM SAXO BANK 10h 38’ 07"
2. ARMSTRONG Lance 22 ASTANA 10h 38’ 07" + 00’ 00"
3. CONTADOR Alberto 21 ASTANA 10h 38’ 26" + 00’ 19"
4. KLÖDEN Andréas 23 ASTANA 10h 38’ 30" + 00’ 23"
5. LEIPHEIMER Levi 24 ASTANA 10h 38’ 38" + 00’ 31"
6. WIGGINS Bradley 58 GARMIN – SLIPSTREAM 10h 38’ 45" + 00’ 38"
7. ZUBELDIA Haimar 29 ASTANA 10h 38’ 58" + 00’ 51"
8. MARTIN Tony 76 TEAM COLUMBIA – HTC 10h 38’ 59" + 00’ 52"
9. ZABRISKIE David 59 GARMIN – SLIPSTREAM 10h 39’ 13" + 01’ 06"
10. MILLAR David 56 GARMIN – SLIPSTREAM 10h 39’ 14" + 01’ 07"
11. PAULINHO Sergio 26 ASTANA 10h 39’ 23" + 01’ 16"
12. VANDE VELDE Christian 51 GARMIN – SLIPSTREAM 10h 39’ 23" + 01’ 16"
13. LARSSON Gustav 34 TEAM SAXO BANK 10h 39’ 29" + 01’ 22"
14. MONFORT Maxime 77 TEAM COLUMBIA – HTC 10h 39’ 36" + 01’ 29"
15. KREUZIGER Roman 93 LIQUIGAS 10h 39’ 38" + 01’ 31"
16. ROGERS Michael 79 TEAM COLUMBIA – HTC 10h 39’ 39" + 01’ 32"
17. HINCAPIE George 74 TEAM COLUMBIA – HTC 10h 39’ 43" + 01’ 36"
18. POPOVYCH Yaroslav 27 ASTANA 10h 39’ 43" + 01’ 36"
19. NIBALI Vincenzo 95 LIQUIGAS 10h 39’ 43" + 01’ 36"
20. SCHLECK Andy 31 TEAM SAXO BANK 10h 39’ 48" + 01’ 41"

Yes, that's 2 through 5 for Team Astana, and Cancellara, no matter how much he is loved in the world of cycling, is not a mountain climber and will not be competing once the road turns upwards.  So it's four Astana teammates -- all four with serious Tour de France repertoires -- in the top positions for the overall win.  Their closest GC competitors are Christian ValdeVelde in 12th (1:16 back), Roman Kreuziger in 15th, Mick Rogers in 16th, Vincenzo Nibali in 19th, and Andy Schleck (my pre-race 2nd favorite) in 20th, 1:41 behind.  Defending champion Carlos Sastre is 2:44 back, in 29th place, seemingly out of the race (although he could shock us in the mountains), while two-time defending 2nd place Cadel Evans is in 35th, 2:59 back.  It seems like he is definitely out of this race.

Cancellara and Cavendish Dominate the Weekend

On the first stage of the 2009 Tour de France Saturday, Fabian Cancellara overcame a 6 second deficit to Alberto Contador at the halfway point of an exhilarating 15K individual time trial and stormed down the streets of Monaco for a blistering second half to win his fourth career Tour de France stage by 18 seconds over the yellow jersey favorite.  The Beijing Olympic time trial champion did not disappoint in the opening battle of this year's Tour, going off fourth from last but passing defending Giro d'Italia champion Denis Menchov -- who started 1:30 ahead of him! -- on the road leading up to the finish line to beat leader Bradley Wiggins by 19 seconds and then wait and watch Contador try to challenge but not come close to surpassing the Tour de Suisse champion's time.  Fabulous Fabian or "Fabu" as he's known in his home country of Switzerland (where his first ever Tour de Suisse victory captivated the crowds less than a month ago) took over the yellow jersey as leader of the Tour and hopes to defend it through the entirety of the first week of this year's Tour, right up until the Stage 7 mountaintop finish in the Pyrenees on Friday. 

On Sunday's stage, cycling's best sprinter equaled what cycling's best time trialist had done a day earlier as Mark Cavendish won a disjointed bunch sprint behind a great leadout from Mark Renshaw and George Hincapie and his other Columbia teammates to take home the fifth Tour de France stage win of his career.  Cav was the heavy favorite going into the stage and he likewise did not disappoint as he used the power of the Team Columbia train to hold off all potential contenders other than Garmin's Tyler Farrar and then held off Farrar by a full bike length at the line.  Thor Hushovd came in fourth, but his expected green jersey and sprinting challengers Tom Boonen and Oscar Freire were nowhere to be found at the end of this stage, perhaps simply conceding the race to the superior British sprinter or to the superior American-based team.  Cancellara held onto the yellow jersey (and his team, Saxo Bank, put in the hard work during the stage to keep touch with a four-man break that was caught at the 15K mark) and the overall standings didn't change.

July, July!

Happy 4th of July, readers!

• Download The Decemberists - "July, July!".mp3

there is a road that meets the road
that goes to my house
and how the green grows there
and we've got special boots
to beat the path to my house
and it's careful and it's careful when i'm there

and i say your uncle was a crooked french Canadian
and he was gut-shot runnin' gin
and how his guts were all suspended in his fingers
and how he held 'em
how he held 'em held, 'em in

and the water rolls down the drain, the water rolls down the drain, oh what a lonely thing! in a lonely drain!

july, july, july! never seemed so strange (x2)

this is the story of the road that goes to my house
and what ghosts there do remain
and all the troughs that run the length and breadth of my house
and the chickens how they rattle chicken chains

and we'll remember this when we are old and ancient
though the specifics might be vague
and i'll say your camisole was a sprightly light magenta
when in fact it was a nappy blueish gray

and the water rolls down the drain
the blood rolls down the drain
oh what a lonely thing
in a blood red drain

july, july, july! it never seemed so strange (x2)

Tour de France Preview

Contador.  Armstrong.  Competitors.  Rivals.  Teammates.  Enemies?  Yes, Lance is back to the Tour de France after a 3-year absence and although his comeback season has been far from successful due to injury and perhaps too long of a layoff, on Saturday he will be back on his favorite racing turf -- the streets and mountains of France, where he won a record 7 straight titles before retiring from the sport in 2006.  But since he's been gone, a young Spanish rider has taken over and dominated cycling, having won three of the four Grand Tours that he entered, including the 2008 Tour de France.  Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong are on the same Astana team that promised to dominate the cycling season but instead has been a disaster and nearly folded from lack of funds; they do come to the Tour with easily the most powerful team in years.  Will the teammates get along?  Will Lance be able to keep up with the young star, or somehow even surpass him?  What of Levi and Kloden and Haimer Zubeldia, all leaders of other teams for years, now working for Contador and/or Lance on Astana?  And how will team manager Johan Bruyneel keep these egos in check, especially after pissing off Contador by not selecting fellow Spaniard climber Benjamin Noval for the Tour and Lance by not selecting fellow American climber Chris Horner as well (and for picking a token Kazakh rider by Astana instead)?  No one knows, but this could prove to be the most exciting Tour of the decade and one in which drugs do not play a role at all thanks to super-strict testing and standards by the French authorities (Alejandro Valverde isn't riding due to probable -- unproven -- involvement in a scandal over three years ago, and Tom Boonen has been banned due to probable -- and seemingly questionable -- cocaine use, not a performing enhancing drug).  If the Tour is simply fought on the streets and mountains of France and not in a beaker in a lab somewhere in Paris, we will all be a lot happier.

Top Songs of 2009 So Far

As we hit the halfway point of 2009, I've compiled a Spencer Krug-heavy list of my favorite songs of the year to date.  Obviously, Dragonslayer has played the biggest role in my musical enjoyment this year, but there have been a number of other highly worthy tracks, and not just from Spencer-related bands.  Yes, the toughest decision was which Sunset Rubdown track would top the list, but this has been a strong year for Superchunk, Asobi Seksu, Mono, The Decemberists, Saxon Shore, and the Spencer and Spencer-adjacent bands Swan Lake and Handsome Furs as well.  Hope you enjoy the included tracks if you haven't heard them.  And come back in December to see how many make the final top 100 list of the decade.

1. Silver Moons - Sunset Rubdown
2. You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II) - Sunset Rubdown
   • Download Sunset Rubdown - "You Go On Ahead".mp3
3. Dragon's Lair - Sunset Rubdown
4. Familiar Light - Asobi Seksu
   • Download Asobi Seksu - "Familiar Light".mp3
5. Learned to Surf - Superchunk
   • Download Superchunk - "Learned to Surf".mp3
     
6. Radio Kaliningrad - Handsome Furs
7. Nightingale / December Song - Sunset Rubdown
8. Warlock Psychologist - Swan Lake
9. Nothing Changes - Saxon Shore
10. Idiot Heart - Sunset Rubdown
11. Transparence - Asobi Seksu
12. The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid - The Decemberists
    • Download The Decemberists - "The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid".mp3
      
13. All We Want, Baby, is Everything - Handsome Furs
    • Download Handsome Furs - "All We Want, Baby, Is Everything".mp3
14. Ashes in the Snow - Mono
15. Ex-Girl Collection - Will Sheff
    • Download Will Sheff - "Ex-Girl Collection".mp3
16. Harm and Boon - Balmorhea
17. Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh! - Sunset Rubdown
18. Jim Cain - Bill Callahan
19. Harmless Lover's Discourse - Odawas
    • Download Odawas - "Harmless Lover's Discourse".mp3
      
20. So Far Around the Bend - The National
21. Misfits & Mistakes - Superchunk
22. Coming to at Dawn - Sunset Rubdown
23. Settle on Your Skin - Swan Lake
24. The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All) - The Decemberists
25. Heartswarm - Swan Lake
26. Seaside - Kestrels
27. Cello Song - Jose Gonzalez and The Books
    • Download The Books and Jose Gonzalez - "Cello Song".mp3
28. The Rake's Song - The Decemberists
29. Paper Lace - Swan Lake
30. Hey, Snow White - The New Pornographers
31. Ghost of My Old Dog - Jason Lytle
32. I Let It Go - The Thermals
    • Download The Thermals - "I Let it Go".mp3
      
33. A Hand at Dusk - Swan Lake
    • Download Swan Lake - "A Hand at Dusk".mp3
      
34. Settler - Balmorhea
35. Air Lines / Land Lines - Bell Orchestre
36. Young Adult Friction - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
    • Download The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Young Adult Friction".mp3
37. Sunday St - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
38. People Got a Lotta Nerve - Neko Case
39. Summertime Clothes - Animal Collective
40. Something Is Squeezing My Skull - Morrissey