This has been a strange week. Busted it up with a mid-week day off to take in a show at the historic Columbia City Theater in Seattle. Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Elllington and Quincy Jones among the artists to pass through its doors. For me, the attractions was Jon Dee Graham, Mike June and Simon Kornelius, younger brother of former Sun writer and current Seattle Weekly music editor Chris Kornelius. They were great, and I’m having a hard time getting some of Jon Dee’s lyrics out of my head.
Codeine, Codine
Brown whiskey, red, red wine
Don’t you ever tell a soul you saw me cry
Of course, this was the night after seeing Deadstring Brother in Ballard. Kurtis Brothers. One man, one band. Definitely worth the $7.
It was good stuff. Live music, you can’t beat it.
It didn’t take long to get back in the swing of things at work. It’s one of those solo weekends in the office because the rest of the staff is spread out covering state high school events.
So in honor of that, here’s some links on a crazy Saturday that — ah, take a deep breath — wraps up another high school sports year:
Willie Bloomquist keeps grinding for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Still having a hard time with John Harbottle’s death. Not like I was a close friend, but the guy was just so gracious and smart and way, way too young to die. In case you missed it, here’s an obit from Todd Milles of the Tacoma News Tribune that ran in our paper and online.
Mike Curto, the voice of the Tacoma Rainiers and a good guy, writes a pretty newly blog about the Rainiers, PCL and other stuff he finds interesting. Check out Booth, Justice and the American Pastime.
Liviu Bird, Kitsap Pumas backup keeper, breaks down the MLS salaries that were just released. Kind of interesting to see what the lads of summer are making these days. Check out his Boot Room Blog.
The three toughest outs in baseball? The ninth inning, right? Wrong, writes Joe Posnanski. It’s the first three outs. Read his very long and interesting post right here.
Questions and Answers
Q: Do you really think tight ends Kellen Winslow and Zach Miller will be the west coast’s version of New England’s Ron Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez?
A: No way. The Patriots offense is geared to its passing attack, and Gronk and Hernandez give teams crazy matchup problems. Winslow’s still a good athlete, but age and injuries are taking a toll. He’s still worth the 7th round draft pick Seattle go him for, but Seattle’s not going to go away from the pounding running game it was able to establish late in the season.
Q: Would the Seattle SuperSonics beat the toast of the time right now off Howard Schultz had kept the team in Seattle and didn’t sell it to Clay Bennett?
A: Probably not. Owner Clay Bennett brought in GM Sam Presti, who built the Thunder into a championship-caliber team. I don’t have confidence that the Howard Schultz-led Sonics would have made the same kind of decisions. An aside, I’m not much of an NBA fan anymore but I’d be pulling for the Thunder if my uncle, unbeknownst to me, had not put down a $20 bet for me on the Spurs winning it all.
Q: Want to buy me something for my birthday?
A; Didn’t think so. But if you want to treat yourself to a fun night out, get a couple tickets to the Sept. 18 show at the Neptune Theatre in Seattle featuring The Gourds and James McMurtry. I don’t think you’ll regret it.
