You’re better than that.

Anyway, on the Junkies in Beijing – yeah, really, June 6. I’m thinking seriously of going and bringing my son as a reward for skipping two years of high school and landing his associate’s degree from Bard College in May at 17. He’s a big Junkies fan – the mango never rolls too far from the tree (that’s what happens when you become more and more ellipsoid as you ripen, I guess). The problem is scoring tickets on this side of the expanding universe. Background radiation (with apologies to the residents of Fukushima): after Mike Timmins and his wife spent four months in China two years ago (she had a teaching fellowship), the Junkies recorded last year’s masterpiece of an album, Renmin Park, in collaboration with several important Chinese rock and folk musicians, including one track wherein the songwriter sings his own number in Chinese. It’s not for everyone but I think you’d get a kick out of it. There are some great songs on that album; I suspect the Beijing festival gig will involve some live collaborations with those musicians. Give it a try. Especially love the title song (two versions, prefer the longer one), a Timmins song called “Stranger Here” that evokes the lives of a variety of martyred Chinese poets, and a Chinese song called “My Fall” that Margo sings in English – haunting stuff. I think Mike Timmins is a legitimate genius. No one else could have come up with a translinguistic, transcultural synthesis like this – and still kick ass.

But, I feel like this story reeks of a piece that has been sitting in the well since the end of last year and was just dropped onto the site today once Samardzija had a tough outing. His performance in prior years has been deservedly criticized – pretty bad stuff. To write such a damning assessment of Samardzija after two innings of work this season seems a bit odd though, no? I like how you noted that he has an ERA of 9.00 after 2 innings. Come on – thats a little dramatic – Samardzija walked two guys today. Mateo and Marshall did everything they could to try to give away today’s game too.
I don’t think there’s really anything new to note about Samardzija’s results that should generate such frustration by Pouliot. I also think the chest-puffing proclamation at the end is kind of funny.

Or maybe I just forgot about that halibut fillet and need to clean the fridge….