The True Genius of America

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The BIG Show

tonight's the BIG show! Live Special Coverage on npr.org beginning at 7p EST. live streaming audio on the web and on your mobile device wherever you are... npr.org election 2008

warm up the hot stove

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone."
-- A. Bartlett Giamatti'The Green Fields of the Mind' Yale Alumni Magazine, November 1977

and so ends another season for the boston red sox.... this year, defeated in game 7 of the american league championship series by a younger, healthier and superior tampa bay rays team. the rays pitched better, fielded better, ran the bases better and hit better than the red sox and so i harbor no bitterness, no vitriol, no contempt for this year's red sox team and wish the rays (and haverhill's own carlos pena) well in their efforts to win the franchise's first world's championship.

game 5 of this year's ALCS will always be remembered for the red sox dramatic comeback. after appearing all but dead in games 2, 3 and 4 the sox defended their 2007 championship with vigor extendeding the summer if only for a few more nights...

now that the 'season' has ended, theo and the baseball ops group have a lot of work ahead... varitek's free-agency, lowell's ability to come back from surgery, papi's wrist, what to do with julio lugo, buchholz's ability to contribute at the major league level - all these questions will need to be answered this winter

I wrote last year on the night of the red sox second world championship in four seasons about my arrival to sports fan normalcy. After a 162 game regular season that started in japan back in march and a trip to the alcs that ended tonight, i am content to say 'normalcy' will allow me to survive the coming winter without suffering through any of the anger and hurt of seasons past...
*well, normalcy and knowing the defending world champion boston celtics start the defense of the team's 17th title in less than 6 weeks.

remembering jim thistle

taking some time to remember jim thistle. professor thistle was head of the broadcast dept. at bu and my adviser during my junior and senior years. He was the first person who really welcomed me in to the program after i had moved back to boston and transferred in to school there. He was also one of the only people in the department who i felt actually got 'it' and more importantly got me (if only just a little bit).

jim's talents as a journalist and his credentials as a leader in the newsroom gave him more than enough credibility as an academic but it was his personality, his swagger that made me want to put aside my youthful arrogance (okay, i know - i'm still arrogant) and try and learn something from someone else. he was smart, sarcastic, confident (maybe even a little bit cocky) and honest - we liked each other immediately. he was still young then but he carried that cool, classic charm of a reporter from some long ago era when the job was as much an art as a science learned in j-school.

even though he held several well deserved titles in academia, jim was a lot more about doing good journalism than he was about teaching it. he understood that only so much could be taught in a classroom, you had to go and learn the rest by being out in the world - that was the only way you'd ever be smart enough to know to really just make up the rules as you went along.

during my last year at school i convinced him to let me pursue a 'directed study' where i would work in a broadcast newsroom part-time in return for some much needed college credits. at the end of the study i was to provide a long write-up of everything i had learned and present it to him in some sort of abstract. when the semester ended, we met in his office and he asked how it had all gone. i answered him in my own smart, sarcastic, confident (little bit cocky) and honest way that i wouldn't have time for a presentations since i had accepted a full-time position as a producer with the station i had been studying at. jim smirked (with pride? can you smirk with pride?) and said, "well i guess that saves us both from wasting a lot of time". we shook hands that day and again at the podium at graduation - there's a photo of us from that day that still forces a smile from me, jim and i in our academic robes, sharing a look that says to me at least, "how did we ever end up here?"

we hadn't spoken in some years but i always thought of him as a friend... jim thistle was one of those people who was simply good at life and he helped make the lives of those who knew him better as well - he is missed

new and improved

it's time again for another site re-design for adamjmartin.net - this time the focus has moved from trying to come up with a sexxxy graphic design to simplifying the navigation and distributing the content of this site in a more useful way.

formerly this blog was a place for me to rant/vent/exult about boston sports teams (especially the Sox) and also ramble on technology, tv, movies, quantum physics...

recently it has been brought to my attention that I may have what others might consider useful knowledge when i talk about multimedia, cdns, web apps or just theorize on what media orgs should be doing to succeed on various digital platforms (apparently working for a small outfit called npr.org is well regarded by certain types - who knew?)

so there's new navigation to help find that information and there's individual rss feeds and a few widgets on their way to help keep you up to date on the stuff you care about while I (try to) avoid the many rants, musings and ramblings that are sure to continue to take up space on this blog.

so this is my (very minimal) attempt to add something of value to the 'conversation' - use any of the info/tips/tricks you find here only for good, never for evil (that's from the super hero's creed or google or maybe that's the same thing now?) and if you're so inclined, add something of your own in the comments or use the contact page

thanks - hope this place becomes something useful
-- ajm

the top 10 list @ 30

top 10 'life-goals' to reach before 30th birthday (today! 5/9)

10. amass large fortune and become an eccentric philanthropist
uhh yeah... not quite there yet
9. perfect a signature cocktail
done *rye, fresh ginger, simple syrup, lemon, ice... call it 'a damn fine drink'
8. earn college degree
done (twice) got that BS in '01 and an MA in '07 - a real man of letters now
7. be deserving of the respect and admiration of others
2 nephews tell me i'm the coolest guy in the world... good enough for me
6. three ladies at the same time
5. lead Red Sox to 1st World Series title in 86 years
no starts in CF during the 2004 season but i feel my off-the-field contributions had a positive impact on the Sox impossible comeback and WS sweep so I'm saying 'done'
4. buy Porsche 911 Turbo for my old man
sorry Pop didn't quite get to this one... you deserved it though
3. find a career that i can be passionate about
done? i'm definitely living (and sometimes loving) life with npr.org making things happen for public media on the innerwebs but sometimes i think maybe there's something else...?
2. complete work on perpetual motion machine
almost there
1. find good woman to love and take care of my ridiculous ass
done *bonus points because she's good lookin' too

Home Opener 2008

Fenway Park, in Boston, is a lyric little bandbox of a ballpark. Everything is painted green and seems in curiously sharp focus, like the inside of an old-fashioned peeping-type Easter egg. It was built in 1912 and rebuilt in 1934, and offers, as do most Boston artifacts, a compromise between Man’s Euclidian determinations and Nature’s beguiling irregularities. Its right field is one of the deepest in the American League, while its left field is the shortest; the high left-field wall, three hundred and fifteen feet from home plate along the foul line, virtually thrusts its surface at right-handed hitters.

from John Updike’s essay Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu

opening day

“I believe in the Church of Baseball. I’ve tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones… I’ve tried ‘em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.”
Annie - from Bull Durham

It's opening day (morning? the next day?) with your defending World Champion (never gets old) Boston Red Sox taking on the Oakland A's at the... Tokyo Dome?! 6a est is start time, can't say I'll be awake for the first 'official' pitch of the season but that's what TiVo is for...
Not sure how I'll handle this season's posts - maybe play-by-play and running commentary on Twitter?! (or maybe not, I'm thinking that could easily become very annoying for everyone involved so i'm open to suggestions) anyway as always, the sox blog will be the place to go for in-game rants and raves and some post game analysis as the development of AFSAB continues...

LET'S PLAY BALL!

Freezin' for F1rst Jobs

Thanks to everyone who supported this year's Freezin' for F1rst Jobs plunge. There was plenty of snow on the ground at Hampton Beach to add to the overall ridiculousness of the day's event but nine 'plungers' braved the elements to help raise money for the Ernie Martin / F1rst Jobs Scholarship fund. Last year's event raised enough money to provide scholarships and internships for 3 north shore area students and this year we hope to raise even more money through all your support.

Enjoy the video and check out more pics of all your favorite plungers in action
-- AJM
*there's still time to pledge your dollars for this year's plunge - just e-mail adam@adamjmartin.net for more info and updates on future events.