Those of my readers that live in the more Southerly states (i.e., the ones that have no seasons) may be laughing at me when it is December and I am essentially scraping glass off my car's windshield after an ice storm, but there's really no better season than the fall in a flyover state.
Recently I had to drive to a teeny town in west-central Illinois to cover, of all things, a soccer game. This meant meandering on state highways through cornfields and small towns with brick European style downtowns, and also wide places in the road with wood and stone Old-Western style "downtowns".*
*Never go to Van Brandenburg, Ill. If you blink, you'd miss it, and also be slapped with a $100 speeding ticket for blinking.
I don't say this so that you might pity me (although, I did hurt my back while carrying around a camera on the sidelines). I say it because it might be the most enjoyable drive I have made this year.
It rained the entire way. I never once got on the interstate, instead opting to look at the colors of the country. Well, the colors that were left. It had been so windy that many of the leaves skipped the transformation stage altogether and just flew off branches in waves.
I was listening to this fall mix I just made. (Mark always has good ideas about these things and made me want to make one of my own.) It's sad bastard music, maybe, but it's autumnal. Autumn is a sad bastard time of year. It makes you think — mostly about how cold it's going to be in a short amount of time and why didn't you spend more time outside and what the hell happened in the ALCS and what am I still doing here with myself?
Hopefully that's a good thing and not a bad thing. If you'd like to see for yourself, you can download said mix here. I don't think it's as good as Mark's (which you should go find here) but it works for my current Midwestern mood.
1. "Tractor Rape Chain" - Guided By Voices
2. "Route" - Son Volt
3. "Trans Canada" - The Constantines
4. "In The Morning" - Junior Boys
5. "Should Have Taken Acid With You" - Neon Indian
6. "Cause = Time" - Broken Social Scene
7. "Age Of Consent" - New Order
8. "Vapour Trail" - Ride
9. "The Boy In The Bubble" - Paul Simon
10. "Everyday Is Like Sunday" - Morrissey
11. "Going To Acapulco" - Bob Dylan & The Band
12. "Unreal Is Here" - Chavez
13. "Ice Hockey Hair" - Super Furry Animals
14. "These Days" - R.E.M.
15. "Feel The Pain" - Dinosaur Jr.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Pitching Pioneers
Here's the story I wrote for the Effingham Daily News on a couple of local prospects that were selected in the most recent MLB draft and pitched in the Pioneer League this season. You can find a link to the full story here, but if you want to see the front page of Thursday's sports section (for which I designed the main centerpiece graphic), I'm including it here. Click on the photo for a bigger view.
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