Music: The Year 2010 in Music (a list of sorts...)

no introduction...no explanation...no methodology... just this man's top 10 full album releases from 2010 (enjoy)

The Stuyvesants
"Brooklyn's Finest" http://thestuyvesants.com/
"2010's Soundtrack to the Summer" -- me


The Legendary Roots Crew
"How I Got Over"
Dear God 2.0 featuring Monsters of Folk


Big Boi
"Sir Lucious Left Foot...The Son Of Chico Dusty"
"it's all in the album title" -- (also) me

Janelle Monae
"The ArchAndroid"
"good album, great live show" -- this reviewer


Erykah Badu
"New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh)"
"this album was good enough to get my wife to leave the baby at home to go see her live"

Bilal
"Airtight's Revenge"
"that boy good...good and crazy" -- me after one listen

Foreign Exchange
"Authenticity" http://www.theforeignexchangemusic.com/
"go to the website, stream music, be happy" -- good advice from me


Ghostface Killah (aka the Wally Champ aka the Wallabee Kingpin aka P Tone, aka...)
"Apollo Kids"
"your favorite blogger's (me) favorite rapper"

Jay Electronica
"Victory"
"ok NOT a full album release, Jay never got close to putting out a full studio album in 2010 but this is too good not to include on any list - find it at your local barbershop / carwash / bittorrent / hustleman"


Kanye West
"My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy"
"I'M A !@#$%^?¡ MONSTER" -- nuff said

Best.Day.At.Work.Ever

The True Genius of America

349 - 162

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.

A Welcome Arrival to Sports Fan Normalcy

The joy, exhilaration, fulfillment and satisfaction that come from this latest Red Sox World Series Championship cannot be matched by the complete and overwhelming sense of 'normalcy' I now feel.

This is what it should be like to be a fan of a professional sports team. You cheer your team all season long enjoying the wins while agonizing over the losses. The team is successful and reaches the playoffs where the intensity of each game rises to a higher level. The wins become more rewarding, the losses more painful. But there is no sense of sickening dread. No feeling of physical anguish, no heart-stopping, stroke-causing, mind-crippling, comatose-inducing accompaniment to every...win (the losses go beyond any literary description I am capable of)

I thought (hoped, wished, prayed) those feelings would have left me after the glorious 2004 Season. That October, The 25 triumphed over 86 years of not hopelessness, hope is what had made it all so cruel...
Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane©Red What that Team did was triumph over all the forces; cosmic, karmic... demonic, that had made being a Red Sox fan a fantastically miserable one that could only be understood by those who had staggered on as survivors of the team's tortured history.

Sadly though, those same feelings persisted. Once the elation of 2004 subsided and a new season began, they returned once again. Only now they were accompanied by a new feeling nearly as devastating as 'what if I never see them win it?'. The feeling that 'what if I never see them win another one?'. Those fans of the 1918 Red Sox had no idea what their life and the lives of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren would become. But fans of the 2004 Red Sox knew all to well the burden that had been hoisted upon us... "what if there are no more championships? what have we done to future generations who will be born in to this unholy cadre with only the mythical memories of the names of Ortiz, Schilling, Varitek, Ramirez and Foulke... no more real to them then the names Ruth, Hooper, Mays, Leonard and Strunk are to our generation?"

But now, after the Boston Red Sox second World Series championship in the last four seaons I feel a sense of... normalcy - which as a fan, is all I've ever wanted. I don't need to cheer for a team that wins Back-to-Back-to-Back' championships or becomes a 'Dynasty'. As a fan, all I have ever really wanted is simply the chance to enjoy the game. To know that if my team possesses the necessary talent and performs to their potential over the course of the season, that as a fan, I will be rewarded quite logically (remember the word 'logically' once held no meaning for Red Sox fans) with a Championship.

No longer does each season carry with it a sense of dread. No more intolerable anguish. All those feelings can now be replaced with normalcy. Happiness follows a win, disappointment a loss... and that's it. Am I somehow less of a fan now? I don't think so. Is being a Red Sox fan somehow less special, the experience less singular than it once was - probably. Is being a member of 'The Nation' now just like being a fan of any other successful sports team? I hope so...

The 25 made a chance at normalcy a possibility on October 27, 2004 but it wasn't until tonight, October 28, 2007, that Sports Fan Normalcy became a reality.
So Thank You and Congratulation to the 2007 Boston Red Sox - World Series Champions and bringers of normalcy to Red Sox Nation.

¡Alegría!

¡Alegría! the 'Joy of Beisbol' is back! Pedro Martinez returned to the mound today for the first time this season, completing his recovery from shoulder surgery. His final line, 5 IP 2 ER 4 K (including punchado #3000) was not a vintage performance as Pedro worked mostly in the mid-80s with his fastball relying heavily on his cutter + changeup but it was enough against the Reds for career win number 207. More importantly he provided the Mets with an emotional boost that may carry them deep into October.

"Having him back in the clubhouse is a shot of life," -- David Wright.

'Life' is something Pedro will always bring to the game. The Pedro Martinez that dominated baseball from 1997 - 2002 will never be seen again. The 96 mph fastball he used to intimidate hitters before baffling them with his Bugs Bunny changeup is gone and he's no longer able to summon the vicious curveball that left batters motionless. His tattered, torn and now surgically repaired shoulder won't allow him to call upon his once unparalleled physical talent for pitching a baseball. But the alegria, the joy, that is inside of him cannot be suppressed by age or injury. All of us who are fortunate enough to witness him on a mound even at this stage of his career should welcome his return to the Game with his same passion and joy.

Best.Cover.Song.Ever

came across a promo CD for Chris Cornell's new solo album Carry On today... even though Audioslave disappointed, I'll still throw down on some Soundgarden and Cornell's voice will always be one of the all-time illest for me (check back for a post on this topic sometime soon - top 10 voices from rock to hip-hop or something equally Vh1-ish) so I gave a listen...

after several tracks it's okay, not Badmotorfinger or Superunknown level but Cornell's voice is still on point and it's a good listen until about halfway through the album... more slow, plaintive guitars and Cornell whispering, almost to himself, sounding like a man all alone who just received the worst news he's ever heard and is down to his last cigarette and beer, with little hope of receiving any comfort from either...

"She was more like a beauty queen / from a movie scene / I said don't mind but what do you mean I am the one...?"

almost instinctively I found myself singing the familiar words along with him in this strange, mournful cadence

"Who will dance on the floor in the round / She says I am the one / Who will dance on the floor in the round/"

wait... wtf?! how do I even know a song from an advanced copy of a promotional CD I had no idea existed until earlier today? and then just a few more bars in...

"People always told me be careful what you do / Don't go around breaking young girls' hearts /"

wow?! BILLY !@#$%* JEAN! Chris Cornell, the greatest voice from the '90s alternative/grunge era, the sound that defined that decade covering the song/artist that (for me at least) defined the 1980's. Well, let me just finish by saying I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Cornell's version of this timeless classic and feel duty and honor bound to share it with the world before it becomes lost forever.
So please, enjoy... Chris Cornell -- Billy Jean

hitting is fifty percent above the shoulders*

the greatest player I have ever witnessed in my lifetime was talking with 'the commissioner' about the game and what it's been like pursuing The Record. Not much of interest really until he was asked 'what's been the toughest thing now that you're so close to the record?' The greatest player I have ever witnessed in my lifetime began to give another practiced answer but then paused, thought and said something of much greater interest...

'the only thing that gets me is when they change the balls - I gotta try and not see that change. In my mind, when I see the ball change, that's when you know something different is going on'

Wait? What did he mean 'when they change the balls'? and then it hit me - MLB places a special stamp on balls they want to verify for historic reasons, a way to make sure those moral stalwarts in the memorabilia business don't cheat the public (or at least don't cheat MLB and other moral stalwarts in the memorabilia business)

So in the less than the 0.42 seconds it takes a ball moving in excess of 90mph to travel the distance from a pitcher's hand to home plate, the greatest player I have ever witnessed in my lifetime eye/mind (1.) recognizes the stamp (2.) thinks 'hmmm...that's different - ooooh yeah, I'm only a few homeruns away from The Record, they'll want to be able to get that ball back' (3.) determines if the pitch is one he will choose to send hurtling back through the atmosphere at a great distance and even greater speed.
*For those of you unfamiliar with the game of baseball - this is not easily accomplished or really, even fathomed. It's not quite TGHWL© reading the label off a spinning 45 from across the room - but it's close

I'm not naive, I've read Game of Shadows, I've followed his career since his call up in '86 and I've seen all the physical changes... I also know without any doubt, that Barry Lamar Bonds is the greatest player I have ever witnessed in my lifetime.

*attributed to 'The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived'

heroes get remembered but legends never die...

two recent articles, this one by Eric Neel and Joe Posnaski's 'The Legend of Bo', got me thinking about the players I will always remember. The men who's stories I hope to share with my children and theirs when I'm old, senile and can't remember much other than Pedro's line from 1999 (23 -4 2.07 ERA 313 Ks) the geometric perfection in the arc of Griffey's swing or the speed and grace of a man called Kirby who measured 5'8" and 240+ lbs...
so over the coming weeks and months I hope to fill this space with the memories I have of the 'legends' of the game... maybe not a list of all-time greats (although there will be those) and maybe not even everyone an all-star... but a list of the players, the games, the moments that deserve re-telling, to be shared for years to come so they can always be remembered

the breaks of the game....

Rest in Peace, David Halberstam (1934 - 2007)
Harvard graduate, NY Times reporter, Pulitzer by the age of 30, essential works on Robert and John F. Kennedy, The Vietnam War and the American Media... Summer of '49 and The Teammates, two amazing reads about Baseball in the Golden Age and the meaning of friendship... but it is The Breaks of The Game that stands out. It is still possibly the best book ever written about baseketball or any American sport. More than that, it uses the uniqueness of a team (the 1978 Portland Trailblazers) and of an individual (Bill Walton, when he was still an enigmatic, supremely talented athlete and not the hyperbolic voice of ESPN's nba coverage - "THROW IT DOOOOWWWN BIG FELLAH") to examine American culture and society. If you own it, pull it down and give it another read (as I'm about to do) and if you don't have a copy - order one and enjoy...
Mr. Halberstam - you will be missed

**edit** more Halberstam - from the Boston Globe, 'Day Spent with One of the Greats' (spending a day talking with Ted Williams is near the top of my list of 'things to do when I get to heaven/hell' - whichever place people like myself and Mr. Williams come to reside)

in the beginning...

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
call me Ismael...
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
for as long as I can remember, all I ever wanted was to be a gangster
back in the days when I was a teenager/before I had status and before I had a pager...