Yankee Shirts

I know you've all been asking me over the years, so here it is. 17 Yankee shirts. Yes, Seventeen. Why you may ask? Just to piss you all off. And after 7 straight years of exclusively wearing them, and 2 more of 50% of the days (other 50% are other t shirts, mostly bands), I can tell you its working. Pissing you off much.

But here's the real reason...I like my choice in clothing. I am very proud that I've only once been the owner of a polo, which was a gift, and I wore once. I hate clothes like that. T shirts are comfortable, I like wearing them. I like the Yankees, and I like to display my team pride. There is nothing I like more than showing it all off. I take tremendous pride knowing that I wear WHAT I WANT TO WEAR. And it pisses you off, also something I like.

And since you all want to know, these are the active Yankee shirts I have and wear.

1. (P) CC Sabathia, 52
2. (P) AJ Burnett, 34
3. (P) Andy Pettitte, 46
4. (P) Chien Ming Wang, 40
5. (P) Joba Chamberlin, 62
6. (P) Phil Huges, 65
7. (P) Mariano Rivera, 42
8. (C) Jorge Posada, 20
9. (1B) Mark Teixiera, 25
10. (2B) Robinson Cano, 24
11. (3B) Alex Rodriguez, 13
12. (SS) Derek Jeter, 2
13. (OF) Brett Gardner, 11
14. (OF) Melky Cabrera, 28 (old shirt)
15. (OF) Johnny Damon, 18
16. (OF) Nick Swisher, 33
17. (OF) Hideki Matsui, 55

Yes, 17 active Yankees. Dating back to last year, there was also Catcher Ivan Rodriguez, 1B Jason Giambi, OF Bobby Abreu, P Mike Mussina. I've never seen a Nady, but I can assure you I'd by one. I've been on the record saying I'd buy a Farnsworth one back in the day. Hell, I bought a Pudge Rodriguez one, one of the worst Yankees of all time. Rest assure, I'll continue to buy them as long as they make them.

Thoughts on the new layout styles?

and the image? I played around with it for like 20 minutes tonight and this is where I was simultaneously bored and satisfied.

I guess I need to post something

So I tried to so something with the layout, but it didn't work. So then I tried to delete the post I made, also didn't work. So I guess I'll throw something in here.....Summer! Good topic idea!

Summer thus far has been great. For those of you asking how my job search is going, it is non-existant. I am happily not working this summer, and getting things done. "Like what?" you may ask. Well there have been two main things.

1) I bought a bike and I've been trying to get into better shape. I try to bike to the gym every day, and usually keep with that 5 days a week. Its also saved me plenty on gas because I don't drive much at all.
2) I've been catching up on TV shows I've wanted to start watching. So far this summer I've done...

• All 4 seasons of "How I Met Your Mother"
• Both seasons of "Big Bang Theory"
• 3/4 Seasons of "Weeds" on DVD
• I've also re-watched most or all of "Scrubs", "Arrested Development", "Band of Brothers", "Freaks and Geeks", and "Psych"
• Due up in my waiting list are "Mad Men", "Breaking Bad", and "Burn Notice"
• Welcome to suggestions/recommendations.

So yeah, I've been keeping busy all summer. I only hope I don't have to add "Fixing my laptop" to my summer hobbies as it was in 2007....we'll find out next week.

Other summer highlights

• Yankees Baseball! First Place!
• Looking forward to "Funny People" next Friday
• Shows as previously blogged about
• Jersey Food

Warped Tour 2009

"These thieves, These thieves, in their flip flops, and bro attitudes
are the very reason we do what we do
When I say 'Fuck The Man', it's what I believe
No matter who that man happens to be"
-The Lawrence Arms in "Warped Summer Extravaganza (Major Excellence)"

The song quoted above is about the Lawrence Arms' banning from the Warped Tour and their feelings of what the Tour has become. Today was the 15th annual (third for me) Vans' Warped Tour, and it was a pretty good time. I went with Tom and Shannon Dillon as always and ran into some familiar faces there. 8 bands I like, 7 and a half hours, and a sore body later, I had a lot of fun...which is never a guarantee for Warped I've found out.

It took a little while too long to get there because of traffic, but not nearly as bad as the 4 hour-50 mile fiasco that was Warped Tour 07. The first band we really watched was Anti-Flag, and despite Justin Sane knowing NOTHING about the economy and the bailouts, they were really good. I'm not a huge fan, but I knew enough songs to have a good time to kick off the day.

Next up was my favorite band, Jersey's own, Streetlight Manifesto. Tomas was in a sling, so Sean from my former favorite band, Big D & the Kids Table (more on them later) filled in on guitar, and did a great job. Their set was pretty short cause of the half hour time slot, but they played "Moment of Violence", "We Will Fall Together", "Failing, Flailing", "Would You Be Impressed?", "Here's to Life", and "Somewhere in the Between". Not the best set list, but its Warped, gotta take what you can get.

Next was another "former favorite band", Less Than Jake. They were my personal highlight of the day. They played songs from 1996-2008, at least 13 songs in the 40 minutes, including 4 off of "Losing Streak" and 0 from "In with the Out Crowd". They were very into it the whole time. Buddy the trombone player had a SuperSoaker and JR the sax player had a T Shirt gun. Great set and they didn't even play 1/4 of their "usual" songs. Plus I was at the barricade at the front for the whole thing.

I stayed up front for NOFX, the most interesting set of the day. Fat Mike was hammered, and without lying flat out said "There are so many other places I'd rather be than here". Their set was sloppy, hammered, and so much fun. They're always funny, and the songs still were great to hear despite no energy coming from the front man. Plus any Fishbone cameo is a good one. Fat Mike got more into it as it went along, so things went well

Then.....sigh......Big D and the Kids Table. They played "Noise Complaint" (fucked it up), "I, I, I" (sounded like shit live), "Shining On" (sounded off), "Not Fucking Around"....and then we left. It was horrible. I heard they didn't even play "Little Bitch". Plus they had 2 of those fucking annoying girls on stage, and they just overall sucked. It was bad....

....BUT GOT BETTER! Cause at the same time, Flogging Molly was on the Main Stage! I watched from the outside, but they were excellent in my first time seeing them finally.

I then travelled over to see the always amazing Westbound Train. And as always, they were amazing. They played a fun set (nothing too old though..kind of a let down), covered "Stand By Me" and "Shout", which were a lot of fun. Plus it wasn't packed, so you could dance without hitting anyone. Afterwards, I caught the second half of the Bad Religion set, who were very good to cap off the night (sorry All Time Low, left before you.....)

But the Lawrence Arms are right, Warped is full of fucking crooks. 40$ tickets? 6$ hot dogs? Oh, and you get upset when I don't tip for my 4$ water bottle? Fuck that. Their song covers it perfectly, how in 15 years its gone from a punk community tour to what the "punk" bands on tour claim to be singing about. Thankfully there are bands like NOFX, seeing 2$ water bottles at their merch booth, helping out those who really matter...the fans as opposed to sponsors like Kia or Monster. I'll leave with more from The Lawrence Arms...

"Well I got my bottled water and my nachos, they came in at under 20 bucks...
This Kevin (Tour founder Kevin Lyman) or that one it all seems the same
Exploit the avenues, fix all the gains
Well maybe they'll buy everything that you sell
But I'm outside the fences, rolling fast down that hill....
.....FUCK YOUR WARPED IDEALS"

MLB mid season...Clearly I'm not Psychic

So the All-Star break has come and gone (Thanks Adam Jones for the AL home field advantage, maybe one day the Orioles will get to use that!), and I think this is a good time to see how my pre-season predictions have fared.

AL East (My predictions, actual standings)

1. Yankees Red Sox
2. Red Sox Yankees
3. Rays Rays
4. Blue Jays Blue Jays
5. Orioles Orioles

AL Central (Mine, Actual)

1. Twins Tigers
2. Tigers White Sox
3. White Sox Twins
4. Royals Royals
5. Indians Indians

AL West

1. Angels Angels
2. A's Rangers
3. Rangers Mariners
4. Mariners A's

NL East

1. Phillies Phillies
2. Mets Marlins
3. Braves Braves
4. Marlins Mets
5. Nats Nats

NL Central

1. Cubs Cardinals
2. Cardinals Brewers
3. Brewers Astros
4. Astros Cubs
5. Reds Reds
6. Pirates Pirates

NL West

1. Dodgers Dodgers
2. D Backs Giants
3. Rockies Rockies
4. Giants D Backs
5. Padres Padres

Predicted Right: 14/30. Playoff teams right: 5/8.

Not too bad, especially my playoff teams predicted right. Only wrong on AL central, NL Central/Wild card.

Roller Coasters and Good Music...Good Weekend

Like the title says, it was a very good weekend I must say. Friday I went to Six Flags Great Adventure and then saw The Flaming Tsunamis final Jersey show and Saturday I saw Reel Big Fish and the English Beat. All of these were with my dear, dear friend Amy, who is finally home from her year in Iceland. To top all this off, Saturday ended with the playing of "The Young and the Hopeless", the timeless album by Good Charlotte...but more on that later on.

For my second trip to Great Adventure this summer, it was finally good weather. Fantastic weather, beautiful as a whore's ass, water ride good. First we went on Bizzaro (which will always to me be Medusa East), great as always. Other rides ridden were El Toro, Superman: Ultimate Flight, Nitro, Congo River Rapids, and Batman: The Ride. I'm not used to having to wait on line there, which was kind of annoying because like Shawn Spencer, "I don't wait in lines". As a result, Medusa was the only one we went on twice. I don't know why Kingda Ka was closed...oh well, it'll be open other times.

Afterwards we went to Long Branch to The Flaming Tsunamis (http://www.myspace.com/theflamingtsunamis) final New Jersey show. Opening were 4 Community Records bands, most of which were good, but I wasn't familiar with them. However, Fatter Than Albert (http://www.myspace.com/fatterthanalbert) was really good for my first time seeing them. The Venue, The Brighton, was really cool. Small bar with half of the room devoted to an all-ages show, re-entry and 3 blocks from the beach. Good shit. Then after being very late, The Flaming Tsunamis finally arrived. Their set was short, maybe only 8 songs tops, but they were GREAT. The atmosphere of the venue made it even more fun as they rock Jersey one final time. I've seen them at least 5 or 6 times, and despite being a short set, this was the best I've seen them. They will be missed.

Saturday's show was at Starland Ballroom....a venue that often pisses me off. This was one of those shows, it just gets too packed indoors. But that didn't ruin this amazing show. The Waffle Stompers (http://www.myspace.com/thewafflestompers) put on a great show, good set for my first time seeing this New Brunswick ska band. Next up were the Supervillains (http://www.myspace.com/therealsupervillains), who are much more enjoyable when not playing with Pepper. Then came the English Beat (http://www.myspace.com/officialbeatspace). After 30 years of being a band, the English Beat are still amazing. I described them as the same as Turk's ring tone in Scrubs....I defy you not to dance to them. Great set. Not as good as when I saw them in January, but this set was also about 45 minutes shorter. If you think you don't know them, listen to the song "Rotating Heads", you'll recognize it from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".

Finally the headliners, Reel Big Fish (http://www.myspace.com/reelbigfish). Probably the best set I've seen them put on. I only wish they played "Trendy" and "Join the Club", but other than that they played all my favorite tunes. Kicking it off with "Take On Me" and ending it all with "Sell Out", nothing to complain about with their performance.

On the way home we listened to "The Young and the Hopeless", the amazingly catchy album by punk rawkers Good Charlotte. This cd was great in 8th grade and it didn't take long for me to remember why I loved it then. After 7 years or so, I still remembered about 60% of all the lyrics. If you have it, listen to it again. Its just very enjoyable and hilariously ironic....not to mention oh so true..."Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money"....God damn gold diggers.

"Fluent In Stroll" and Christina Ponzio...two things that need to make less noise

This blog post is dedicated to Tina, who insisted that I updated for it has been over a week, even though I could look at that Yankee team all day and not get bored. Well she's getting her wish.

Today in the mail from Amazon, i received "Fluent In Stroll", the 5th full length album from my formerly favorite band, Big D & the Kids Table. As I said when I first heard some new songs (http://bgklein.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-big-d-songs.html) and when I said my most anticipated albums of the summer (http://bgklein.blogspot.com/2009/05/summer-albums.html), I did not have high hopes for this album. Boy was I right.

"Fluent In Stroll" sucks. No way around it. Its not good at all. While "Strictly Rude" had too many fast-paced ska songs, this has basically none. Some of the songs are better than i expected them to be, some are far worse. The most annoying part is the girls who sing during all the songs. Who are they? And why are they on this album? Its not being creative or new, its just bad.

Bottom line is this. I used to love Big D for their combination of ska and punk. They mixed the two perfectly. Even though I'm hard on "Strictly Rude", as an album and not live its a great cd, so much fun to listen to. I may be being too harsh on "Fluent In Stroll" after just one listen, but there is a reason why in the past year Big D has dropped to my second favorite band while Streetlight Manifesto continues to amaze me on album and live. Should be interesting to see them both at Warped Tour the 19th.


Back to Tina. Read her blog here: http://tponz.wordpress.com/ . I also link it on the side of my page with Romo's and Allen Sepinwall's (TV Critic for the Star Ledger).