Suppose you want to plan a road trip around this great country of ours.
Now, you want to visit all 48 contiguous states. But you're kind of anal retentive. So you want a path that will take you through all 48 without returning to any state once you've left it. The following is true:
Your path will either start in Maine or end in Maine;
If your path starts in Maine, the first seven states you visit will be (in order): Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York;
If your path ends in Maine, the last seven states you visit will be (in order): New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine.
Colorway performing at the Old 78 Farm Fall Festival
Ethan and I were at the ninth annual Old 78 Farm Fall Festival. It's an all-day music festival (though some insisted that it's a one-day sh'-bang-bang) in Warwick, VT. Ethan was there as a workaway, having spent the entire week up there helping to prepare. I drove up Friday night so I could attend, maybe help out, and then drive him home. I was kind of torn about whether to be a workaway or an attendee. As an attendee I'd have to pay the $15 fee for a ticket -- but I would have the freedom to relax and not work. In the end, I paid for the ticket so that I could refuse to work, but did help out a little. Emphasize "little."
Interesting thing about the name. You hear "Old 78" and "music festival" and assume the name is a reference to the old 78 RPM records. In fact, it's because the festival is physically on top of old route 78. For that little fact (and more information, the festival's website is here.
Anyway, the festival seemed to have a good variety of bands -- some bluegrass, acid blues, power pop. Psychedelic pop... No one I'd ever heard of, but that's fine. You'll never hear music if you never hear music you never heard. One interesting highlight was the band, August First, who did bluegrass versions of "Life in Wartime" and "White Rabbit."
But my purpose here isn't to review the festival. I couldn't stay through the whole thing, and Ethan had a cold, so we left early. And I don;t want this blog to degenerate into a series of reviews. I do, however, want to share what was the highlight for me. Colorway, a power-pop trio was playing. It came late in their set. I was chilling with Ethan, just chatting while the music surrounded. And then I heard it. Have you ever heard a song for the first time and immediately thought "Holy shit! This is what music is supposed to be!"? I've had that experience maybe a half dozen times in my life, and this was one of those times.
I thought, based on the refrain, that it was called "Shelter from the Storm," but lead singer Alex Johnson corrected me -- it was "Heidi." I had asked because the group had a few CDs for sale, and I wanted to buy the one with that song. Sadly, Johnson had to explain to me that the song was by his former band, Drunk Stuntmen. I know it's probably bad form to post a video from a band that wasn't part of the festival, but that song was just so good I have to share it with my reader:
The file is ,chock full of charts, but the above is the 2018 version of the dream chart that got me doing this in the first place: Cumulative games over .500 for every major league franchise ever.
Of course, the file also looks at cumulative wins, and groups statistics by location, by state (or state-like entity), and by name.
Highlights for this year in terms of wins:
No franchise passed any other franchise.
Los Angeles passed Washington and Baltimore to become the 10th-winningest location. Since Los Angeles is one of only three locations that currently have two teams (the others are New York and Chicago -- which are in first and second places), it makes sense that it would be moving up in rank.
Milwaukee passed Kansas City to become the 15th-winningest location.
Miami passed Providence to besome the 34th-winningest location.Of course, Providence hasn't had a franchise since the 1880s. Miami didn't have one until 2012, so it is now in the process of passing all those locations that used to have franchises but don't anymore.
No state (or state-like entity) passed any other this year -- something which surprised me.
"Twins" passed "Browns" to become the 17th-winningest team name. Congratulations to Minnesota fans.
"Rays" passed "Superbas," "White Stockings" and "Naps" to become the 37th-winningest team name. The other three fall to 38th, 39th and 40th. I have an uncle in the Tampa area, so I should probably congratulate him.
Session: Beastly Black and White, Week 2 Movie 2: Mad Love (1935) Directed by Karl Freund As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL
Plot:
An brilliant but obsessed doctor agrees to repair the hands of the husband of the woman he loves. But such devotion has a price. Hilarity ensues.
Reaction:
In this adaptation of the 1920 French novel, The Hands of Orlac, Peter Lorre proves himself as one of the great silver screen's great madmen. His nervous manner made him constantly seem like he was just one twitch away from a violent eruption.
One of the sequences I found most interesting was one particular bit of misdirection. After Gogol transplants the hands from the beheaded criminal, we see the criminal explaining it to Orlac. I, watching the film, was thinking "hey...wait a minute...he'd dead!" But then I rationalized it by figuring that maybe Gogol was just so good he could reattach a head and bring the victim back to life. That kind of confusion kept me into the film.
It's kind of interesting to watch an old movie that had such an effect on things that came later but that I saw earlier. Every time Orlac threw a knife, I was thinking Frankenhooker, and somehow the plot kept reminding me of a specific episode of M*A*S*H.
In retrospect, maybe I should have given this a higher rating...
Suppose you want to plan a road trip around this great country of ours.
