T-shirt #234 - Long Sleeve People's Food Co-Op - Making Kimchi

T-shirt #234 - Long Sleeve People's Food Co-Op - Making Kimchi

Greetings. I have been backed up with work. So this was originally published incomplete. No longer.

On Friday, 1311.08, I made Kimchi with my dear friend Chris Dilley. I thought this shirt was appropriate for the Kimchi making as we were doing something food-related, and I might not know Chris Dilley if not for my service on the board of the People's Food Co-op of Kalamazoo, on which I served from 2006-2010. I loved my time on the PFC board. I met many awesome people and made many dear friends. I went to a PFC meeting the day I met (actually re-met, but that's a story for another time) my wife, and the boardies can all attest that I was flying higher than a satellite that day.
Satellite of LOVE.

Even though I left the board in 2010 as my work and family demands had become too much to continue to devote the time needed to the board of directors (let alone my position as vice president), I have remained friends with all of my fellow board workers, especially Mr. Chris Dilley, General Manager of the PFC. I originally wrote about the co-op all the way back in T-shirt #9 and again for my adventures in Hawaiian food in T-shirt #199.

Chris and I share many geeky interests, which I did not realize the first few years we knew each other. I admire Chris enormously. I wrote about him in T-shirt #54. Chris is a super good guy, one of the best I know. As someone with great experience in food and the food industry (and co-ops and communication and Chinese, but it's a long story to explain his brilliance), he had actually sung the praises to me before of fermented and/or pickled vegetables, especially Kimchi, which we both love. Chris originally lent me the book pictured here by Sandor Ellix Katz that describes fermenting many things, including vegetables. I had the book on loan for a few months when Chris needed it back, and I never fermented anything. So I asked for the book and a crock for Christmas last year, and Liesel gifted both to me.

I made my first batch of Kimchi in February or March (I think March) of this year (2013), right before I started this blog. After I ate it all up, I had the note on my to-do-list to make a second batch. And then Chris wrote to me and wanted me to send him the recipe for Kimchi, so that he could make another batch.
Without easy copy facilities, I proposed that we make our batches together. It took us a few weeks to work out the logistics as we are both crazy busy worker bees, but we finally met for Kimchi creation on Friday November eighth.

Chris was kind enough to assemble all the ingredients for our Kimchi, and we gathered at his place while his little boy napped. Since we had so many vegetables, I made A TON MORE Kimchi than Chris as evidenced by our jars in pictures farther below.

I am not going to reproduce the entire recipe here. For the full saga of how to make your own Kimchi, buy Katz's book. I like cabbage AND root vegetables, so my Kimchi is an amalgam of two recipes: Baechu (cabbage) Kimchi and Radish/Root Kimchi, the pride of which is Daikon Radishes. Add cabbage, bok choy, carrots, leeks, garlic, ginger, shallots, and turnips together with a chili pepper paste, liberally mixed with sriracha sauce and other spicy goodness, and yummy pleasures await those who pickle well and often.

I like to pickle.
I like pickles.
I like to be pickled.
Go figure.

Our work in progress. The blurred, action knife photo, left. Carrots in process above. Below, the mixing pot before we loaded the jar and the crock.

I let mine soak for 24 hours in the brine before I mixed in the red peppery paste and sriracha and then put the mix in jars, filled to the top with the brine. I am fermenting for a week in the kitchen and will decide at that time if I want to pour off the brine or leave it in.

If  you do not know what Kimchi is, for shame. It's delicious. It's Korean, though often misrepresented or misunderstood to be Chinese. It's Korean spicy pickles.







In Korea (North and South), Kimchi is a national passion. Though Kimchi is made by the food industry and mass-produced (big groceries will have it), three quarters of all Korean Kimchi eaten in Korea is still made in the home, like in our set-up here.

Chris Dilley's big ole jar of Kimchi is the left picture and my pre-brine, pre-sauce crock is the right picture.

During the making of the Kimchi, we drank a beer and some Fennel Liquor, Chris had made with vodka.

Above, the finished pickles of my labor (like fruits of labor but with pickles). Four quart jars of Kimchi in brine and a hot sauce mixture.

I know it will be amazing. But surely, I will report back.

This is my third and final People's Food Co-Op shirt, unless I buy more. Or receive them as GIFTS. So, you never know...Stay Tuned.

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE YEAR: 131 shirts remaining.

- chris tower - first draft - 1311.10 - 19:54
                     - second draft 1311.11 - 17:15

T-shirt #225: Death: you get what anyone gets; you get a lifetime

T-shirt #225: Death: you get what anyone gets; you get a lifetime

Good Friday.

Not THE Good Friday, but this Friday has been a good one. No specific reason for the overall goodness. In part, the goodness can be attributed to Grading Robot reducing the power levels of its production mode, which has caused a decrease in surface tension stress across the membrane of the landscape.

And I like re-reading Dune via the audio edition.

And I am looking forward to Ender's Game the film.

And tomorrow is HUCKFEST, which for those who do not know is an ultimate tournament in Grand Rapids.

And this is Death, for the second day in a row.

And I am leaving this unfinished for now...


Oh, yeah, and this was dinner. Goulash, my mother's recipe, and some kind of Chinese broccoli that I fried somehow.

 I will finish this tomorrow.

Noted 19:34 on 1311.01



Okay, I am back, Saturday morning and decided to leave the original text because it's kind of fun, at least it is for me.


Did I mention that the character on the t-shirt is called "Death"? Of course, I did.

See DEATH(DC Comics) at Wikipedia.

In this incarnation, Death is the creation of Neil Gaiman and Mike Dringenberg, though the entire visualization of Death came from Dringenberg, and no, despite popular urban legends, she is no way based on Gaiman's friend Tori Amos.

Death is one of the "Endless," the family of anthropomorphic beings who are the main cast of Gaiman's Sandman comic book, one of whom is the eponymous title character. The Endless, whose names all start with the letter D, are the most powerful beings in the universe, more powerful than gods. The Endless family consists of Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Despair, Desire, and Delirium.

Though in Gaiman and Dringenberg's incarnation, Death originally appeared in The Sandman #8, the character achieved her most vivid and potentially best loved characterization with the art of Chris Bachalo in two limited series--Death: The High Cost of Living (1993) and Death: The Time of Your Life (1996)--one of which was published immediately after The Sandman ended its publication run. The Sandman had become wildly popular and had a huge cult following, fans rabid for more stories of the Endless gobbled up the book in droves. Death as has also appeared in other related books in the VERTIGO line from DC Comics, including Lucifer and The Books of Magic.

Here's a sampling of some fan ravings about one of the DEATH books: Pai Picks Blog.

The whole rabid fan reaction to The Sandman invokes my contrary and oppositional personality. When faced with too much pushing, too much popularity, something being "jammed down my throat" as Andrew at Fanfare said, I react by going the other way.

Let me start by saying that I like Neil Gaiman's work very much. I have actually corresponded with Neil, and I think he's a super guy and a very talented writer. So, let's just put that out there, shall we?

Yes, I can be critical of him as I was after finishing his new book The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which I reviewed in T-shirt #138.

I also addressed my feelings about The Sandman, somewhat, in T-shirt #160, which contains my list of comic book recommendations for non-comic book people.

It's not that I think The Sandman is a bad comic book. Not at all. It's a very good comic book, and one I enjoyed immensely.

BUT PLEASE, comic book fans need to stop making it the single go-to comic book recommended to non-comic book fans (often women). Even when it was first published in the 1990s, it was not the ONLY comic book that people (often women) who do not usually read comic books would read and like.

And today, with the large selection of both super-hero books and non-super-hero books to choose from, there is no reason to make The Sandman the single most recommended comic book. With our current wealth of comic books to choose from, as I hope I made clear in T-shirt #160, the recommendation should be tailored to the individual. Not everyone is going to LOVE The Sandman. Some readers may prefer Fables and others may prefer The Walking Dead.

With all of that said, I must say that I count Chris Bachalo among my current favorite artists and I may love the Death: The High Cost of Living (1993) and Death: The Time of Your Life (1996) books more than the regular Sandman comics.

There's always a weekly comics list, and it always happens on Friday. Though now that Ultimate is over, I could pick up comics on Wednesdays, though I probably won't.

It is sort of fitting that I featured Death today (and not just because of Halloween) and discussed The Sandman because a new Sandman comic book was released this week, a prelude to the seminal comic book series. I have two other Sandman shirts, so I will delegate future comments to those blog posts.

WEEKLY COMICS LIST

The list below is already somewhat of a cheat as I moved up Saga and brought forward the Tom Strong issue from last week. When I brought home my new stack those two comics were next up, since the next Saga came out this week, I moved up the previous issue and will read both and Tom Strong after Guardians.

Aquaman from last week was already discussed in Monday's Aquaman blog post (BTW, faithful, I figured out how to re-publish the post back in time thus solving the day-to-day dilemma I reported and once again having one post per day since March). Other than that comic, I would say the Lazarus was my next favorite from last week (or tied), and I plan to discuss it in more depth later, though not today.

From last week, I managed to get through almost the entire main stack, not counting the back log, with the exception of Great Pacific. Last night (Friday, which ws the day this was supposedly published but who's counting), I only managed the first two comics before I was too sleepy to continue. I tried to finish Spider-Man and failed.

COMICS FOR 1310.30

X-Men: Battle for the Atom #2
Kick Ass 3: #4
The Superior Spider-Man #020
Guardians of the Galaxy #008
Infinity part five of six
Avengers #22
Avengers AI #005
Saga #15
Aquaman Annual #1
Teen Titans Annual #1
Sandman Overture

Back Log

The Trial of the Punisher #002
Ultimate X-Men #33
Uncanny X-Force #013

SPECIAL PURCHASE

Marvel Comics in the 1960s By Pierre Comtois

- chris tower - originally 1311.01 at 19:34 - revised 1311.02 at 7:33

T-shirt #218: New X-Men by Jim Lee

T-shirt #218: New X-Men by Jim Lee

This is an old T-shirt, and it smells a bit musty, indicating that I may not have worn it in sometime. It is a bit stretched out and the art is a little faded. It is possible that this shirt dates back to about 1991. I was so enamoured of the revamped Psylocke (turning her from buxom, Brit lass to a slimmed down, long-legged Asian psychic ninja) that I had my Dad redraw the art for my MFA reading, which in protest of WMU, I held at KVCC sometime around 1992 or 1993.

The shirt's art is from X-Men #6 published in 1991 featuring a defeated Wolverine in the hands of Sabertooth as Psylocke stands by, apparently having aided the villain. This is one of my favorite images from this era, and Jim Lee is a favorite artist, as I mentioned recently in writing about his current project: Superman Unchained.

Nevertheless, today's shirt exists primarily to allow me to write more about comic book (when do I need an excuse?) with your favorite feature of the week: THE WEEKLY COMICS LIST.

I also have a few remarks on recent audio book pleasures, subjects that fascinate me, blog categories, and the last Root Beer Stand stop of the year.

RECENT AUDIO BOOK PLEASURES: DUNE

I used to be a more spontaneous person. My wife is my spontaneous than I am. For me, generally, things must be planned ahead of time. I am juggling too many things to be spontaneous all the time. When it comes to what I am reading, there's a mixture of spontaneity and planning. For instance, Ender's Game has jumped up my stack for a quick re-read as the movie is due out next week. But my re-reading of Dune has been in the works for about five years. But more recently, I have mentioned it three times on this very blog: T-shirt #181, T-shirt #207, and T-shirt #209 because as you know I love to refer you readers back to previous blog entries. Also, I did just discover the means of searching the blog for keywords, which helped with making that list immensely.

I am loving the re-read of Dune in a full cast recording so much that I am going to re-read the next two volumes (Dune Messiah and Children of Dune) and the other Frank Herbert volumes that I never read (another three volumes). I strongly recommend the book and this full cast audio edition. My experience of the book is much richer this time through.

SUBJECTS THAT FASCINATE ME

I know I go on and on about the same subjects a great deal. This is one of the pitfalls of the blog. It is subject to my own whims and interests, to my daily life, and all the elements that populate it. I keenly remember one reader telling me that he liked the blog though it contained a bit too much about comic books for his taste. This comment gave me pause, and I have given it a lot of thought in the many months since. I have strived for variety. And yet, subjects like comic books, science fiction, Ultimate, and Baseball are going to recur over and over and over and far beyond the interests of some readers, both frequent and infrequent. With this in mind, I changed the header text at the top of every blog page to list the main subjects I define as part of my geekdom. I figured readers who land on my blog via a random search should have some idea of what they are getting into if they venture forward and deeper.


ANOTHER BRIEF NOTE ABOUT THE BLOG: BLOG CATEGORIES

I have been once again reflecting on my blog and its elements: this time, categories. From the top of the first page any given day, scroll down a bit, and you will find a list of categories. So, if you do truly love the Weekly Comics Lists, you can click and bring up all those entries on one page. I have recapped these entries before, and you can view some of these recaps (assuming I have archived them all correctly) via the Blog Recap category.

But a category problem has occurred to me. The categories are not wholly accurate. For instance, the Comic Books category (currently at 65 entries) does not represent sixty-five t-shirts with comic book art or logos.  Looking at those entries will bring up all entries with comic book art and all the entries in which I wrote about comic books, of which just glancing at the most recent there are six in the first 12 or so.

This problem is true for many of the big categories. Baseball shows a list of all the entries in which I wrote about Baseball, not just those entries with shirts devoted to Baseball.

Sub-categories are a bit more accurate. DC Comics will bring up a list of twenty-six shirts with DC Comics art. Likewise, Marvel Comics will bring up a list of sixteen shirts devoted to Marvel Comics. Given that I have "too much about comic books," these numbers strike me as surprisingly low.

Just a "for your information" report on how the blog works, thanks for reading.





THE LAST ROOT BEER STAND STOP OF THE YEAR

I love the Root Beer Stand. Mainly, the one on Westnedge as it is across the street from Fanfare. But any will do. I miss the old Dog 'n Suds drive ins that used to be here in Kalamazoo.

The Root Beer Stand closes for the season tomorrow. So despite the chill, I will have my last chili dogs and root beer of the season today for lunch. This is my picture from last week Friday, what I thought would be the last visit to the Root Beer Stand for the year.

Do not be surprised if I buy a Root Beer Stand T-shirt.

SIDENOTE on the ROOT BEER STAND: I believe that many years ago A&W owned the drive-in here on Westnedge. I was a big fan of these places from a very young age. I was six years old and in first grade when we moved to town, living in Schoolcraft for one year before we moved to Richland.

One day, out shopping with my mom, I wanted to go to the Root Beer Stand. In trying to find it, my mom got lost. Because Westnedge becomes one way in downtown Kalamazoo, she ended up on Park Street North and before she knew it she was heading up onto 131 Business Loop, knowing that this was not the way to the Root Beer Stand. She pulled over somewhere, found a pay phone and called my father. She needed directions back to Schoolcraft because by then it was much too late to go have a root beer.

How much easier is this situation these days with cell phones and GPS? Even without GPS, my mother would have been much less panicked to call my dad from the car than to find a pay phone in a part of Kalamazoo that frightened her.

WEEKLY COMICS LIST


I have been looking forward to Brubaker and Epting's Velvet for months. So have other readers. Check out this fan boy's reviews.

FANBOY FRIDAY - WHY YOU SHOULD BE READING MONTHLY COMICS.

This is a great write up (from two months ago) about many of the comics that I have been raving about, such as Lazarus, Fatale, and Saga. (Okay, I have not quite raved about Saga, but I am going to.)
I think the James Bond feel of Velvet (heh) is going to make for a good read.


And yet, I log it somewhat lower this week than others. Aquaman will always take the top spot when it comes out. I love this book. I have had an Aquaman post in the works for months, quite literally. I mentioned an Aquaman toy in a photo in a blog entry in July! I have intended, since probably the end of June, to write a ton of Aquaman content. But I have not. I have thought about Aquaman and tried to figure why I love the character and the comic book so much. I have collected a stack of all the recent Aquaman issues. I have mentioned my purchase of two volumes of Silver Age Aquaman stories. And yet, I have very little other than a couple of links, a few photos, and a video to share. But with the most recent issue (#24, which I read last night), this content dearth may change.

Ultimate Spider-Man takes the second spot, though this issue was a little bit of a let down, possibly because I am concerned that the upcoming Cataclysm story line will shut down the Ultimate universe entirely. Though I would not be surprised to see the current Spider-Man from Ultimate Comics cross over into the mainstream Marvel universe if this is indeed the planned end of Ultimate universe.

Justice League ranks highly again with a strong issue on the origin of Uberman. The next Battle of the Atom chapter takes the next slot because I finished all the others two nights ago, and I want to find out what happens. Velvet is a bit lower, but all of these comics will get read before next week's comics come out. I would be pouring through the back log more on Sunday during football if not for playing D&D (actually Pathfinder) with several nice young men. Ah well...

Not much else to share about the list, though check out the special purchase. Shades of things to come...

COMICS FOR 1310.23

Aquaman #24
Ultimate Spider-Man #28
Justice League #24
Wolverine and the X-Men #037 - Battle of the Atom Chapter 9
Daredevil  #032
FF #013
Iron Man #017
Nova #009
Young Avengers #011
Flash #24
Velvet #1 (Brubaker/Epting)
Clone #11
Great Pacific #11

Back Log

Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril #4 of 6
Uncanny Avengers #013
Thunderbolts #017
Teen Titans #24
Superman #24
Secret Avengers #010
Satellite Sam #4
Indestructible Hulk #014
Catwoman #24
Sex Criminals #2

Special purchase: CLASSIC SUPERMAN T-SHIRT

- chris tower - 1310.24 - 13:30

T-shirt #199 - People's Food Co-Op of Kalamazoo

T-shirt #199 - People's Food Co-Op of Kalamazoo
or
Adventures in Hawaiian Food

Aloha! I packed my white (cream) People's Food Co-Op of Kalamazoo shirt not just because I had not featured it yet on the blog but also because I wanted to represent. I knew that Hawaii was big on "local" food, though in Hawaii this means something a little different. Local food is a mix of traditional Hawaiian fare, such as poi, and food influenced by the U.S. military presence, such as Spam Musubi.

I was impressed with the numbers of signs I saw for buying local and buying organic in Hawaii, and the daily farmer's market in Hilo is a wonderful foody paradise. So I wore my PFC of Kalamazoo shirt in Hawaii on a number of occasions to "represent" my allegiance to these same beliefs of buying local, buying organic, eating healthy food, and so on.

The picture above failed somehow, so you cannot see the bowl of poi that I am about to try for the first time, which I did drown in sugar. Not my favorite taste, the taro, but not terrible. I do like the leaves wrapping what Hawaiians call Laulua pork, which is delicious pork wrapped in taro leaves.

Today I share a few adventures in food on Hawaii, the big island.

MR. T-SHIRT BLOGGER'S OFFICIAL HIATUS TEXT - Mr. T-shirt Blogger (that's me) is on vacation in Hawaii until October 9th. Blog posts may be simple and brief during this time, or there may be many Hawaii pictures and updates. No promises. It's vacation.

When My wife an I got married four years ago (as of 10/3), we never took a honeymoon. With our difficult work schedules, there has never been a good time to schedule a trip. Given recent life events, we threw out caution and welcomed chaos and uncertainty. Carpe Diem! So, off we go (or by the time you read this, there we are).

Today's shirt - My second People's Food Co-Op of Kalamazoo shirt. I featured the first one way back in T-shirt #9.

Our beers at the Lava Rock Cafe in Volcano
1309.29

Me with the PFC shirt
about to try "local" food
Mac salad - Lava Rock Cafe
1309.29

Back at the Lava Rock Cafe
the morning of 1310.01
Trying my first Loco Moco

Loco Moco is a local breakfast food. It's a mound of rice, either white, brown, or fried, mixed with diced sausage and bacon, topped with a large hamburger patty, further topped with fried eggs and drowned in brown gravy. Picture above is a close up of Loco Moco with fried rice. The picture below shows the Loco Moco with a side of Portugese Sausage, a special kind of local sausage due to the large numbers of Portugese people in Hawaii.

Dinner from 1310.01: Laulau in the foreground, poi up and left, Kalua Pig up and right,
poke farther up and right
Pipi Kaula far up and left

Lava Rock Cafe in Volcano
on the big island of Hawaii

The Kilauea General Store
the covered walkways so common
in Hawaii

Kilauea quilting and gift shop
Next to Lava Rock Cafe and Kilauea General Store

Kilauea Lodge breakfast 1310.04

Dinner for our anniversary at Kilauea Lodge 1310.03
meatloaf "revisited" with mashed potatoes,
red cabbage, and greens

Dinner for our anniversary at Kilauea Lodge 1310.03
place setting and menu

Sunset on Mauna Kea 1310.02

- chris tower - for 1310.06 - 19:33 (4:33 Pacific, we're in Oregon)

T-shirt #173 - Ani DiFranco - Little Plastic Castle

T-shirt #173 - Ani DiFranco - Little Plastic Castle

I went through an Ani DiFranco period from about 1996 through 2003. I am still a fan, but I am not listening to her music as frequently as I did during those years.

Because I was on such an Ani kick and purchased so many Ani T-shirts (four in all), I have more blog time to elaborate on why Ani DiFranco is so great.

I found five tickets from concerts as seen in the photo from my ticket book below, but I think 2-3 tickets are missing as I thought I had seen Ani perform eight times.

An Ani DiFranco concert is a joy to behold. It is clear that Ani is having gooey gobs of fun on stage. She laughs unabashedly and shares her thoughts and feelings between songs. She is one of the most energetic performers I have ever seen. The power seems to cascade from her in waves, bolts, and rolling balls of electrical aura energy, crackling through the venue. If you ever get a chance to see her, and this is the kind of thing you would enjoy, I strongly recommend it.


I already blogged about Ani DiFranco in T-shirt #121, in which I shared about her poem "Grand Canyon" and my use of it in classes and my two favorite songs, as I happen to like the quieter stuff.

This shirt features a quote from the song "Swan Dive" off her eighth studio album Little Plastic Castle from 1998, which is definitely one of her best.

Arguably, her best period may be from 1995-2001.

I have not felt any of Ani's albums really worm into my consciousness and nest since my favorite, the 2001 double effort Revelling/Recknoning.

Though Evolve (2003), Educated Guess (2004), and others since 2001 are good, but there has been something missing for me. However, I am open to the argument that what is missing is not missing from her but from me. By 2003, I had begun to move on to other music, and though I still love Ani DiFranco and count her among my favorite artists, my ardent passion and insatiable hunger for her work has diminished somewhat. Maybe I have just not listened to her newer albums enough. I feel a new Ani binge coming on.


The quote from the shirt "I don't care if they eat me alive, I've got better things to do than survive" is one of the great lines in Ani's catalogue.

"Swan Dive" is a song about taking chances. It may be chance taking in a romantic relationship. It may be chance taking in career, in life, in family, or friendships. That's the thing about Ani's songs. She often leaves them open to multiple interpretations.

The line on the shirt comes from her "Swan Dive" into shark-infested waters, but the question of what it is that she has to do that is more important than surviving, the uncertainty of what happens to you after you take the chance and it eats you alive, hangs unanswered in the song like an empty word balloon in a comic strip: "i'm going to do my best swan dive/in the shark-infested waters/ i'm gonna pull out my tampon/ and start splashing around/// 'cuz i don't care if they eat me alive/ i've got better thing to do than survive/ i've got a memory of your warm skin in my hand/ and i've got a vision of blue sky and dry land."



It seems that the person, the love, is a life raft, a saving grace, but whether this is a past relationship, or whether she is re-entering an old relationship that was painful and "shark-infested" is open to interpretation. Or this may not be about relationships at all (though I think it is).

Okay, sure, some of you readers are thinking I could do a better and more thorough, close reading of this text, but, hey, this is supposed to be a short one. Plus I would prefer to let the music speak for itself without too much pedantic analysis to distract from the impact of the art.

But if you want to investigate on your own, I will share the lyrics for "Swan Dive" after the video of a live version.

Ani DiFranco - Swan Dive (Live in New York)

"Swandive" - by ani difranco - off 1998's Little Plastic Castle

cradling the softest, warmest part of you in my hand
feels like a little baby bird fallen from the nest
i think that your body is something i understand
i think that i'm happy, i think that i'm blessed

i've got a lack of inhibition
i've got a loss of perspective
i've had a little bit to drink
and it's making me think
that i can jump ship and swim
that the ocean will hold me
that there's got to be more
than this boat i'm in

'cuz they can call me crazy if i fail
all the chance that i need
is one-in-a-million
and they can call me brilliant
if i succeed
gravity is nothing to me, moving at the speed of sound
i'm just going to get my feet wet
until i drown

and i teeter between tired
and really, really tired
im wiped and im wired but i guess its just as well
because i built my own empire
out of car tires and chicken wire
and i'm queen of my own compost heap
and i'm getting used to the smell

and i've got a lack of information
but i got a little revelation
and i'm climbing up on the railing
trying not to look down
i'm going to do my best swan dive
in the shark-infested waters
i'm gonna pull out my tampon
and start splashing around

'cuz i don't care if they eat me alive
i've got better thing to do than survive
i've got a memory of your warm skin in my hand
and i've got a vision of blue sky and dry land

i'm cradling the hardest, heaviest part of me in my hand
the ship is pitching and heaving, my limbs are bobbing and weaving
and i think this is what i understand
i just need a little vaccination for my far-away vacation
i'm going to go ahead boldly because a little bird told me
that jumping is easy, that falling is fun
up until you hit the sidewalk, shivering, stunned

and they can call me crazy if i fail
all the chance that i need
is one-in-a-million
and they can call me brilliant
if i succeed
gravity is nothing to me
moving at the speed of sound
i'm just gonna get my feet wet
until i drown...


My wife made a cake.

Cake for breakfast.

My wife is an artist and a genius.

I love my wife.

I love her more than I love Ani DiFranco.

I have not always been able to say that about the people in my life.

Ani may not have made me cake, but she has given me a great deal of art and thought and energy and feeling and memories that I hold dear.

More on Ani with the other two T-shirts before the 365 days is done.

For now, one other video from Little Plastic Castle and one of her "hits," at least with her fans.

"Gravel" Ani Difranco (1998 - America)

- chris tower - 1309.10 - 9:45

T-shirt #132: Detroit Tigers Stadium and Billy Sauce

T-shirt #132: Detroit Tigers, Tigers Stadium, and Billy's Hit-a-Ton Barbecue Sauce & A BIG ROUNDUP OF RANDOM STUFF!!

A GOOD DAY TO BE A DETROIT TIGERS FAN

Good morning from the Bloggy Carnival of Towerness. By the time I finished writing this one, it was no longer morning.

It's Wednesday the last day of July 2013, and it's a good day to be a Detroit Tigers fan.

I was actually watching last night, and I was actually hoping with the power of my mind and heart for the very outcome that occurred as Alex Avila clubbed a two-out, grand slam in the sixth off one of the best pitchers in Baseball, the Washington Nationals' Stephen Strasburg. It was Avila's first career GRAND SALAMI.

Usually, if I send a Twitter message during a game, crowing about something that happens in the game, I jinx the outcome, and the Tigers lose. Last night, I sent the message, and the Tigers still won, by a score of 5-1.

In other Tigers news, a big trade went down last night that will bring Boston shortstop Julio Iglesias to the Tigers as a backup in case regular and All-Star shortstop Jhonny Peralta is suspended by the MLB on the bogus Biongenesis scandal. The Tigers gave up OF Avisail Garcia and RHP Brayan Villarreal in the deal.

Stories. I love Baseball's stories and I love its statistics. History and numbers. The history of numbers. The human interest of stories. The numbered story of history. The personalities and the oddities. Today, I am going to feature a little bit of all that delightful big country buffet in one roundup blog post.

DISLOYAL BARBECUE SAUCE

I have been disloyal.

I bought barbecue sauce featuring a Kansas City Royals player named Billy Butler or as he's known by the nickname: "Country Breakfast."

And this was not an impulse buy in the store. I sent away to Kansas City for this sauce and paid extra fees in Federal Express shipping.

In my defense, proceeds from the sale of the sauce benefit a Kansas City food pantry and community kitchen charity called the Bishop Sullivan Center.

Also, hey, I kind of like the Royals. There, I said it.

The Kansas City Royals would not be on my list of "most hated" Baseball teams. I kind of like the current crop of young players who are making a run in the AL Central. And I have always liked the franchise, going back to the days of George Brett. If a team is going to duke it out with the Tigers down the stretch, I would rather see the Royals in the fight than the Indians and Twins (whom I do hate) or even the Chicago White Sox (about whom I am on the fence).

Plus, I like Billy "Country Breakfast" Butler. He was a pick up on my main fantasy Baseball team a few years back (is anyone surprised that I play FANTASY BASEBALL? I thought not.), and he has "hit a ton" for me ever since.

Plus, in these days of summer, I am keen to try specialty BBQ sauce. And Kansas City intrigues me as a great place to visit.

And though the Royals have produced "Fear the Sauce" T-shirts, I do not expect to purchase and wear one of those shirts. Sauce for another team I will try; T-shirts for another team, a RIVAL team? No way.

If you are interested, here's some LINKS:

HIT-A-TON ROLLS OUT "FEAR THE SAUCE" SHIRTS

BIG LEAGUE STEW: BILLY GETS SAUCED

SALES BOOM FOR BILLY SAUCE!

BISHOP SULLIVAN CENTER - HIT-A-TON SAUCE

FANTASY BASEBALL

Is it any surprise that I play Fantasy Baseball? I thought not. I have played for many years and in many leagues. For the last ten years or so, I have run my own league: The Tiger Towne Baseball League. Our league eschews team stats like RBIs and runs and focuses on more individual stats like OBP and Total Bases.

In 2013, I chose to play in six leagues. I know this sounds like a lot, but it really isn't that difficult once the drafting is done at the beginning of the season. I am not in first place in any of these leagues. But I won each of my main two within the last few years, and I always place highly.

Every morning, I record the Tigers and Cubs scores on my own special log sheets. I read recaps just for those two games (three yesterday as the Cubs played a double-header), and then I study the box scores. After devoting some times and attention (while playing SportsCenter on the TV), I look at each box score from the day's games and watch for what a lot of my fantasy players are doing. After all of that, I set my fantasy lineups. I used to set the week in advance, but I have gotten away from that in an effort to save time on Sunday. This ritual may sound time consuming, but it only takes 30-60 minutes depending on how many non-sports Yahoo stories catch my eye, how tired I am, and if my fantasy teams need new players.

Patience is a virtue in Fantasy Baseball, but too much patience can be a killer. In several leagues, I drafted Victor Martinez because he would qualify as a catcher all season without playing catcher and would get more plate appearances than most catchers. But Victor struggled to start the season batting .221/.290/.274 in April with no homers and .235/.257/.333 in May with two homers. But things started to go up in June, and in July, Victor hit .380/.421/.580 with three homers, ELEVEN doubles, and an OPS of 1.001.

So that's patience, but one of my league mates could not be patient. He dropped Toronto 1B/3B Edwin Encarnación on April 15th just two weeks into the season (before Edwin even qualified at two positions) when Edwin got off to a lousy start at .184/.247/.386 with two homers. I snatched him off the waiver wire immediately. Edwin has gone on to hit 27 homers since April 15th. In July, he has hit .321/.432/.641 for an OPS of 1.073. Not patient enough. In fact, I just noticed that in this league I had not drafted VMart to start but grabbed him off waivers in the same player dump by my friend and his team the Fastball Flakes.

Now, not to say that I will hold on to a player past all reason. In some cases, I will give up on a player. I gambled that Encarnación had more upside than Adam LaRoche, and so I gave up on the Nationals' first baseman when I grabbed Encarnación. How did I fare? LaRoche has 14 homers, and Encarnación has 29. After a decent May and June, LaRoche is batting .167/.237/.298 in July with two homers.

I do switch out relievers a lot. I will rotate these guys based on who is hot and who is not, and who is accumulating HOLDS, which is the most overlooked stat in fantasy, while maintaining high strikeout numbers, low walks, and low ERAs.

It's also key to draft well and spot players who are not on anyone's radar but who are going to out perform top ranked players by miles and miles. Sometimes, I will not even draft these little known players or I will wait and draft them last. Some picks this year include Arizona's SP Patrick Corbin and Seattle's SP Hisashi Iwakuma. The main measure I like best for starting pitchers is the QUALITY START stat, which a pitcher earns if he throws at least six innings while giving up three runs or fewer. Without looking at other important pitching stats, Corbin's 18 Quality Starts puts him in first place in the majors along with Bartolo Colon, Adam Wainwright, Clayton Kershaw, and Travis Wood (many of whom were not the highly touted pitchers by fantasy "experts"). Iwakuma's 15 Quality Starts ranks him 21st on the list, still higher than so-called studs like Justin Verlander, Matt Cain, and CC Sabathia.

For more on Quality Starts and meaningful pitching stats, check out:

FACT OR FICTION: QUALITY STARTS A MISLEADING STAT

I may not be winning that league (I am in third and I am playing 4th place Fastball Flakes this week), but I am holding my own. I will make the playoffs if my team does not have an epic collapse. Still, as much as I banked on these pitchers, I am not leading the league in Quality Starts. I am 5th. However, I am leading this league in pitcher strikeouts, holds, saves,  wins, and WHIP. I am second in ERA. I am not leading in any offensive category, but I am holding my own with decent numbers.

Patience but not too much patience.

THE PITTSBURGH PIRATES AND WHY PITCHING AND DEFENSE MATTER

More on statistics. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, old school Baseball minds evaluated players on "gut" and not so much on numbers. When the old school Baseball scouts, managers, and coaches looked at stats, they looked at things like wins for pitchers and batting average for hitters as key factors. As it turns out, neither statistic is very useful for evaluating performance. As I already mentioned, Quality Starts is a much more revealing statistic for pitching performance than Wins totals. A case for this and other related measures can be made by looking at the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are in first place in the NL Central after taking three games of a five game set (a four game series with a double header for a make up rained out game) from the previously NL Central leading St. Louis Cardinals.

How are they doing it? Not with offense. Their offense is anemic, ranking 20th in Total Bases, 22nd in Runs, and 20th in OPS in the Majors.

The story for the Pirates is pitching and defense and how these work together.

First, some stats history and then back to the Pirates and how this all relates. Bill James began publishing statistical analysis of Baseball in the late 1980s. By the mid-1990s, this stuff was immensely popular among Baseball geeks, like myself. However, most actual MLB teams were not making decisions based on these new statistical innovations (such as runs created, range factor, and win shares) until the coming of Billy Beane to the Oakland Athletics, a transformation immortalized by Micheal Lewis in the 2003 book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. In the book, two key measures helped Beane to make player decisions: drafting or acquiring players for whom a strong set of data existed (relying on high school stats or a scout's "gut" alone was not a good predictor), and the belief that offense is twice as important as defense. In other words, a team could absorb some losses and some of a player's mistakes to benefit from his increased On-Base Percentage and/or Runs Created numbers that translate to WINS and placement in the division.

However, since Moneyball, statistically-minded analysts have discovered that defense does matter, and how defense functions with pitching can make up for an anemic offense depending on divisional competition.

Though the Pittsburgh Pirates have the best ERA in the majors, they are 21st in Quality Starts, 6th in walks allowed, and 10th in strikeouts. So how are the Pirates then second in the MLB in wins by the pitching staff? It's a combination of pitching and defense.

The Pirates get more swinging strikes on bad balls than any team in the NL. When the opposing batters do make contact, the results are batted balls that are easy for the defense to gobble up. Between how well the pitchers fool batters and how easy the results are for the defense to handle, the Pirates may continue to win and stay atop the NL central, breaking a trend of 20 consecutive losing seasons, a record in North American team sports (not just Baseball).

I love this kind of statistical analysis to explain what we see in the standings. For the full explanation, see the following article.

PIRATES MAKING FIRST PLACE PITCH

MAX SCHERZER

It's difficult to have a favorite Detroit Tigers player. For a while, I was a Brandon Inge fan, and then an Alex Avila fan. But how could I not love Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera? And what about Prince Fielder, Victor Martinez, Jhonny Peralta, Doug Fister, and Joaquin Benoit?

They are all favorites. They are all special because they are on my favorite team. Even when the Tigers acquire someone I did not like previously, such as Jose Valverde, I have to come to like the player because he is now a Detroit Tigers player.

I already liked Max Scherzer before reading the Sports Weekly article from July 18th, which is mostly cribbed from these articles by Jeff Seidel of the FREEP:

Detroit Tigers first-time All-Star Max Scherzer takes modesty, intellect to mound

and

Detroit Tigers' Max Scherzer (10-0) shows all his talent, strength.

There's also a good blog post here:

Five awesome things about AL All-Star starter Max Scherzer

What I read in these articles makes me love Max Scherzer all the more. He was an under-valued, smart pick up from the Arizona Diamondbacks, and he's having a career year following a very good year to prove it.
I learned how competitive he is, how much he studies the game, that he loves scuba diving, that he is a kid at heart, and most importantly that he's a life long learner, learning and reading all the time, getting into what he calls "Google Freefalls."

I also learned that his nickname on the team is "Mad Max."

Go Mad Max.

BASEBALL TEAMS - LOVED, LIKED, HATED

Because no one demanded it, but you are all wanting to see it, today's list of loved, liked, and hated MLB teams.

LOVED: The Detroit Tigers and the Chicago Cubs!!

LIKED: In the AL: The Oakland Athletics, The Kansas City Royals, and the Tampa Bay Rays.
In the NL: The Washington Nationals, The Pittsburgh Pirates, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Colorado Rockies.

HATED: In the AL: The Minnesota Twins, The Cleveland Indians, The New York Yankees.
In the NL: The St. Louis Cardinals, and The Atlanta Braves.

I am luke warm or on the fence about all the others.

As I conclude today's blog entry, the Tigers are about to start a day game against the Washington Nationals, whom they beat last night on Avila's Granny.

It's a good day to be a Detroit Tigers fan.

And just because I am not yet done with it, another photo of pages from the ticket book. There are more Tigers tickets in it than any other single thing.

GO TIGERS!!

- chris tower - 1307.31 - 13:01