There's this PBS series called American Experience, and this week the topic (at least as shown on WUNC in Chapel Hill, and WPBT in Miami) is Roberto Clemente.

Because he died in 1972, and I was so young, I've never really thought much about him, except anytime his name comes up my first thoughts are always: 1.) He was one of my favorite ballplayers  2.) He died too young, and on his way to do good things.

I'm pretty sure nearly all who consider themselves baseball fans credit it as a sort of "inheritance" from immediate family members--usually, but not always, from dads, uncles, grandfathers--the close male family members.  I'm in that group.   For me, it was Granpa, technically my paternal step-grandfather.  I'm also pretty sure that all of us who grew up learning to love baseball, while we may not think about it regularly, we recognize there was a whole lot more we learned in the process, above and beyond the intricacies of the balk rule. 

My step-grandfather was born in 1899 in Lexington County, South Carolina.  Because Granpa had to shed this mortal coil in 1974, he didn't have alot of time to teach me about baseball, but he also didn't waste any of the time he *did* have.

He was, in terms of ethnicity, very western European.  Blue eyes.  In fact, all his brothers and sisters had blue eyes.  Perhaps it's obvious I never saw his parents, but it would be a good bet they were both blue-eyed, too. 

I learned my baseball fundamentals from a blue-eyed "white" man, who was was born, bred, lived, worked, and played in Lexington County, South Carolina, excepting his stints in the U.S. Navy for WWI  and WWII.  At this point, I ask you to please spend some time considering your general notion of what those "white" men were like, who had little formal education (Granpa quit school in 1st grade), who grew up in rural Southern agricultural communities, who were in their 50's and 60's, still living in the South during the 1950's and 1960's.  This is the man who taught me all about baseball.

He is the only person who could possibly understand *exactly* what I mean when I say, "The all-time homerun record is 755."  I consider it one of humanity's injustices that Granpa died 3 months and a few days short of 715. 

I watched 715 happen on TV.  I still remember seeing it at Granpa's brother's house.  The only thing wrong was that Granpa was not sitting there in the room with me.  Granpa had recruited me, nearly from the crib, in rooting for Hank to break a record that was last set by a man whom my Granpa characterized as a pompous, mean-spirited, wealthy, abusive drunk with no respect for people from lower socio-economic classes.  He had lots of stories about how Babe Ruth was a bad person, and let there be no doubt: my Granpa hated Babe Ruth.  I think his brother--whom I knew as Uncle Pink (no kidding, and I have no idea  why he was called Pink, but I think it was his legal name, too--his initials were E.P.), who made sure I got to see the record tied and broken--likewise had no love for Babe Ruth.

The thing is, when we are kids, growing up, learning baseball, we are undoubtedly influenced by those who are teaching us--we acquire lifelong fan-doms:  I never got to see Warren Spahn play, but I'm also a Spahn fan via Granpa.  Granpa died before I hit puberty (and became combative and contrary towards parental types), so all my early baseball heroes were definitely influenced by Granpa.

Anyways, loads of baseball people have heard me talk about Hank and Granpa and growing up.  Not so many know about where Roberto Clemente falls in my baseball life, though.  Again, this is mainly because Clemente died so early in my baseball education.

Tonight, on this PBS show, I learned stuff I never got a chance to learn from Granpa.  It makes sense, now, that I know more about Clemente, that Granpa encouraged me in admiring the man.  Like Hank, Roberto also had to battle the prejudices of color and culture, although I was unaware of this in the early 70's.

The first surprise for me this evening was how old Clemente was when I being amazed by his sportmanship during the '71 post-season.  Over all these years, I've always assumed he was the "usual" baseball age: say 26 - 32.  I've always thought he was around 28, and despite having had his Topps cards in 1971 and 1972, somehow over the years, I'd come to think of him as having started baseball in the mid-60's sometime.  Hah.  He debuted in 1955.  In 1971, when I picked him as a 2nd to Hank, he was 37. 

When I was choosing Clemente as a favorite player, I know my Granpa encouraged me, and he liked Clemente alot, but I don't remember ever talking about race issues like we did with Hank.  Hank's struggles were  readily observable in the way broadcasters and news-writers approached him and covered his story as he chased 714.  Tonight, I learned Roberto dealt with a bevy of race issues himself, although the worst of it was in the decade before I was born.  By the time I was seeing him on TV and knowing who he was, he'd overcome a great deal of prejudice, to the point I was completely unaware he'd ever struggled.  I imagine part of my Granpa's approval of my choice of Clemente as a favorite was a factor of Granpa's knowledge that Clemente had battled and largely won against narrow-minded culturally-biased injustice.  We didn't talk about that--the things happening with Aaron were much more critical at the time.  Maybe, if Granpa had had a couple, three years more to share with me after 715, we'd have talked about Clemente's life.

In this American Experience documentary, they included archival footage from the 1971 WS.  Probably the first time I've seen it since 1971, and yet, the key element of Clemente's post-game interview brought back the memory of my experience 36+ years ago, completely:   Before Roberto answered questions for the reporters, he took his first moments at the microphone to say something to his family, friends, and country, in Spanish.  I think it was the first time in my life I'd ever heard Spanish.

Human brains are fascinating in how they store information.  It was all still in there, including a child's wondering what he said and why he did it in Spanish.  I don't remember my Granpa's specific answer, but I do remember learning that what he did was the right thing to do, because he loved his family and friends, they helped him get where he was, and some of them didn't speak English, so he needed to let them know how he felt before he talked to everyone else.  I remember wondering why he said something "most people" couldn't understand, I remember learning that it was because he respected the people who mattered most in his life, and I remember being satisfied understanding why he did that and that it was the right thing to do.

Growing up and living almost my entire life in the U.S. South, I've known my share of men who fit Neil Young's "Southern Man" model.   My Granpa was not one of them.  Sometimes I wonder how Granpa came to hold the beliefs and creed he carried and passed on to me; he left before I was ever able to think about asking him directly.  I only know the things he taught me; as I've grown up, I'm left to puzzle over where he acquired his wisdom and insight.  It was not typical to the region.  He was rather the dissident, as it turns out, and for that I am grateful.

!  Who'd a thunk a request for Burial would lead to Rush 2112 (Overture)?  !

It sure as hell did.  Really, I wanted Mahoghany Rush's "Guit Wars" but we don't have that in the station.  Overture from 2112 was just perfect, tho'.  IMHO (In My Haughty Opinion).  Check it 'n' see:


...and giving away tickets was a sporting proposition this evening, of the variety that causes me to delight in ticket give-aways.  Let's just say I hope my Polish ticket winner, Mr. Brzrwskrzbhkrzpyclhski* enjoyed the reggae at the Cradle: he assured me he had ID to confirm his name at the door.




*not actual spelling

Myspace.

When am I gonna move to a real blog, I ask myself.

.sigh.


Listen to the new Earth CD, "The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull," it's on the Southern Lord label.

Yo!  I came in a bit early:




So, I'm posting this like a week late, and I've forgotten everything that happened...
or the nothing that happened... 
but no matter what, that's the music that happened, in that link ^up there^

W000000ooo7t7t1i!i3e3eeeeeeeee-W00t!!1

Thanks to Alyssa's facebook youtube video post, at least now I know exactly who Tenor Saw is!

We gotta have that in the station... I just don't know where/how to find it yet.

Currently listening:
Berkeley
90.7FM
Since 1962

This was a happy, busy show, with inspirational requests for MLK, Jr., which gave me an opportunity to briefly revisit what’s going on in Atlanta with reference to Kathryn Johnston:


I plan to do a better job reviewing and briefing on the Kathryn Johnston incident next week--hopefully that’ll get realized.  Till then I can redirect you to these old links from this blog:

November 22, 2006
November 24, 2006
December 1, 2006
December 3, 2006  <<< This entry has info you can use to access
December 3, 2006  <<< The Atlanta Journal Constitution and its free archives
December 3, 2006  <<< if you don’t want to create an account for yourself.
December 3, 2006  <<< Please use it.
December 8, 2006

Some of the links in those old articles may have expired by now, or may have been moved to the pay archives of the AJC, but I did cut-and-paste the important breaking news.  I think I’ve had a couple entries as the situation has slowly been coming to a resolution, but I don’t have time to search my blog right now (myspace blogs suck for archiving, yeah? Hellah suck.).  In stories like these, however, the beginning is the thing that usually gets rewritten a gazillion times, so the initial info is more important, IMO. 

Hopefully that on-air telephone interview that was supposed to take place after my show went OK.  I didn’t realize there was an interview, and the guy doing it had never taken on-air phone calls before.  I spent an extra 30 minutes showing him how to do it and trying to correct that phase-shifted feedback that we get...  if anyone heard the interview, please let me know if it went over-the-air alright.  I’m slightly annoyed that people seemed to think I had time to either cover the air after my show and/or spend time training without asking me--nevermind that I’d brought my friend Betty and we were meeting her family after for an already late dinner afterwards.  If I’d known I needed to allow an extra 30 minutes after 9pm, it would have been better to find out before 8:57pm.  Maybe we could have gotten dinner earlier, for example.  The last words said to me were, "I think the band’s gonna call, so I got it."  No one ever said "Thank You." 

Like, you know the deal:


I got an 80’s request, that’s a good thang. You know, especially with our WXYC fundraiser 80’s dance and all, happening tonight at the Cradle. You may also notice said motif in my setlist.

Got a request for Tenor Saw that yielded exactly nichts in the hard copy card catalogue, and nichts in the computerized library database. Nichts in reggae. Nichts in rock. Nichts in hiphop. Seems like I recall getting a Tenor Saw request before... maybe I should check the blog and see if I did, did I have success before?


Oh! And one of the more eclectic requests I’ve ever had, for an astrological report. With no prep I did what I could, visiting that tried-and-true astrological weather forecast site, www.alabe.com. After a bit of thought, I felt I needed to offer a bit of an explanantion for why I didn’t report on the sun signs Cancer and Taurus, because although the requester didn’t specifically ask me to do a sun sign report, it was implicit in the requester’s revelation of the sun signs of those present. While it’s true I indulge in astrology from time-to-time, I still can’t escape my science background: no reading with any pretense to legitimacy can be made knowing only a person’s sun sign. Remember that before you plunk down cash for any "astrologer" or "psychic." Here are some numbers to remember: Everyone is born into one of 12 sun signs, so a report I’d give for "Taurus" would have to have specifically personal relevance for roughly 565 million people scattered all across the globe, ranging in age from almost a year old to probably over 110 years old. It just can not be done. Horary astrology, however, does have possibly useful application for large populations, so... ’dat’s what you guys will be gettesins from me if’n n’when’n you make requests for astrological readings. Happy to oblige. It’s always good to know when the moon is void, I say.

And I forgot to specifically say this on the air after I played ’em, but:

If these links are directed as "bad" links, I’m writing those idiots who set up the anti-spam/phish/virus intercept because clearly they’re lazy asses and have targeted the whole geocities domain instead of actually determining whether a site is malicious.
First, my own Impaled Northern Moonforest geocities site.  Grim.
Next, another more "minimal" geocities site I began and never finished.
Finally, a very important TW2002 link from days of yore.
I know for a fact *none* of these sites have *anything* malicious.  They are as pure as the driven snow.
If you click a link above and it says it’s bad, if you’re in a mood to bitch at Tom, feel free to complain about discriminating against yahoo/geocities websites.

Here are the links I attempted to use above, so you can check them yourself by copy and paste:
http://www.geocities.com/return_of_the_necrobation/impaled_northern_moonforest/
http://www.geocities.com/zorak_in_chapel_hill/
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/5721/files.html

I am well aware that I am something of a blasphemous heretic living in Chapel Hill, NC, being a (currently unenrolled) student at UNC-CH while being more or less oblivious to the ways of the NCAA (I think those are the right letters?) and even to basketball in general.  Don’t get me wrong: I always want us to win, and I do so hate Dook.  I just don’t have any sense of what’s going on in the process.  It’s a language that eludes me.  For example, I think we have a player called Tyler or Taylor Hansborough or Hansbrough or something like that...  and I think we just won our position in the "Sweet Sixteen."  I’m not sure, but there will next be some set of eight?  The Great Eight?  Hell, I don’t know.

Anyways, for me, "March Madness" has come to mean a kind of mildly frustrating aggravation resulting from repeatedly hearing all kinds of newscasters and people on the street talk about Brak-a-tology only to later discern that what they’re talking about has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with derelict criminal space cats incarcerated on the Ghost Planet.



*Hey, for some reason myspace is claiming the Brak page I linked above is spam or phishing.  It is not.  It is a yahoo/geocities page of Brak things.  If you want to learn about Brak-a-tology as I understand it, copy and paste this url into your browser:    http://www.geocities.com/wackybraky/brak.html
Sorry that myspace won’t let me link to yahoo/geocities webpages.  It kinda blows the timing, and it definitely blows in principle.

Eh.  You guys were mighty quiet tonight. I was all excited to have actually planned something before I came in for a change, but as I sit to write, I have no idea if my brilliant "flying winged insect beast" set found ears other than mine:


Happily, the one request I got (Danzig) I could spin with  no reservation.  And whoever it was who won those Cradle tix for Del Tha Funkee Homosapien was the kind of enthusiastic that makes me happy to do give-aways.  Thanks fer callin’, thanks fer lisnin’...

Sitting in the prod room, struggling with "Amateur Tools," I just overheard this snippet of conversation between a new dj and a semi-vet dj finding stuff to play during the show:

New dj: "So has anyone ever actually played Metal Machine Music on the air?"


New djs can be so charmingly naive.

35 years after its release, Metal Machine Music still generates these kinds of conversations...

They’re mixing it up right now on the air with a couple other discs of cacophony that Reed never could have imagined. 

He thought he was being so clever at the time, back in 1973, when he had accidentally tripped over the threshold of the future without even realizing it.  Oblivious to what he’d fallen into, he stood up, turned around and tragically went on to make "Red Joy Stick." 

The world did not come to an end when Lou sold out, despite my firm belief Armageddon was surely about to fall, especially with Ronnie "bombing in 5 minutes" Ray-gun in the White House. 

Even as a sell-out, Reed’s still got more cred than Rod Stewart.

Today is definitely one of those days I needed three CD players in the control room. 

We have two.

 All-in-all I had fun, but I was plagued by a dearth of requests, which gave me ample time to think about this thing I wanted to do, but couldn’t do because we have but two CD players, not three, and I was clearly not coordinated enough today to be able to manage the physical agility to pull it off.  I tried to do a part of it, blew it somewhat, and so, gave up.


There was the Thelonious Monk request, which was nice.  I also had one for the Doors’ Light My Fire, but I’m pretty sure it was from the same person who wanted the Monk, and I don’t like the Doors so much, *and* I was really just not in a Morrison-tolerant mood.  If there had been more different requests, I may have played the Morrison, but there wasn’t enough to buffer it to a pH I could tolerate.  Also, it came when I was still thinking I could be der Übermensch and manage this crazy thing I was thinking about. 

More of a creative planning mood than a creative executing mood. 

Maybe it’s the humidity?

Speaking of which, my native English-speaking brain short-circuited my acquired German-speaking brain.  T. Raumschmiere’s "Erlösung Durch Strom" means "Release (or "Redemption") Through Current" or "Release Through the Stream" or "Release Through Electricity" which may be somewhat related to an electrical stoRm, but really it’s more of a stReam thing. Strom is often the equivalent of "lights" in American English -- as in, "Duke power will turn your lights off if you don’t pay your bill." -- but it can also be like a stream... you can figure it out, yeah?  And for those old enough to remember the Strom from SC, auf deutsch, we say Stroam (rhymes with "foam"), not Stromm, therefore let there be no confusion: i.e., Redemption Through Strom (Thurmond) is one fukt concept.

Final summary of Spring Break sign-ups: 

This is gonna be real quick:

Thanks fer da couple requests, and thanks especially to the dude promoting The Whores of Toledo!  When calls like that aren’t pranks, it’s just too fucking priceless! 

Rumors that I am a vampire are either patently false, or I have stumbled upon a patented medication that allows me to walk outside in full sunlight without spontaneously combusting!  Let the rumors begin!

Did you know I did not get a single phone call or IM for this whole show?  It’s true.



Alright, well, I gotta get outta here and do stuff today...

I’ll be on tomorrow from 6pm-9pm Eastern Time, and I think I’m gonna be on Saturday afternoon from 3pm-6pm, but I’m waiting till tomorrow to send out any bulletin, since last time I tried to send it out two days in advance, it got changed.

Anyways... if not before... Tomorrow!

On Mondays and Fridays we have this thing called "The Inside Track" where the music director assigns a full CD that’s new/in rotation, to be played in its entirety, if possible.  I prolly shoulda separated it from my regular show on the flow sheet, but it didn’t occur to me till afterwards. 

So below the Kali Fasteau/Kidd Jordan "Live at the Kerava Jazz Festival," round about 10pm, that’s where I started picking stuff out:



After over an hour of begging for requests, we finally got a Coltrane and a Daft Punk...  so there!

The dj after me came in a little late, so you got a couple long tracks and some Looney Tunes to carry ya through at the end there.

Oh, and if you read the bulletin I sent it out, it looks like someone else wanted to do the Friday 3-6pm this weekend, so I’ll just be doing a 3 hour show from 6pm-9pm...