Sports: Is this the year New York returns to grace after only the Rangers did any dame last year? It could be both the Mets and the Yanks get past the first round of the playoffs, maybe, just maybe we will be shocked by the Jets and the Giants, and finally I predict the Knicks have to improve over last year, But forget all that, the New York Liberty are in the playoffs!!! Isiah Thomas, possibly the most hated man in MSG history not named Dolan, baffles New York yet again.
Recorded: Streaming the new Gary Clark Jr on NPR and while, admittedly, my expectations couldn’t be lower, it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. “Cold Blooded” is pretty darn good.
Live: If I had the time and the money, I’d be seeing Travi$ Scott, Thee Oh Sees, Milk Carton Kids and Scorpion this week. As it is, I’m not though seriously considering ponying up for Milk Carton Kids
Books: Tidings of great joy, one of our best rock critics, the brilliantly familial Chuck Eddy, is readying a new book of his greatest writing for the fall of 2016. This follows the other book of his greatest writings “Rock and Roll Always Forgets: A Quarter Century of Music Criticism” from 2011. Chuck was a regular contributor to the “Riffs” and “Licks” columns during the Voice’s 1980s golden age, where many of us admired his decentralization of cool. In 1999, Chuck followed in the footsteps of Robert Christgau (give or take) as Music Editor at VV, a thankless task if ever there was one, and yet there was no dip in quality till Chuck left in 2006 and the legendary weekly tab flat lined. With 1991’s “Stairway To Hell: The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe” he singlehandedly made a case for metal and ended to the discussion once and for all. However, “Always Forget” I actually missed, so I’ll be spending today pouring over it with Spotify in my earlugs. Last time I did that, while reading “The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Ten Songs”, I swore to never put myself through the experience again, but I have high hopes on this one: Eddy’s the man, he knows his stuff. See ya Fall of 2016.
The State Of The Union: In what must be a first for world peace, 1200 cadets had their annual pillow fight August 20th, with some of the future officers of America stuffing their pillows with helmets and bricks and sending their fellow plebes to hospital. A West Point spokesperson said: “West Point applauds the cadets’ desire to build esprit and regrets the injuries to our cadets. We are conducting appropriate investigations into the causes of the injuries.” “Aftermath of plebe pillow fight: 2 people medically removed, 3 broken arms, 1 broke neck, many missing teeth, blood.” I guess that explains Afghanista