Milton blog

Good Canadian boy Jeff Francis gets the Game One start leading the red-hot Rockies into the World Series vs. the Red Sox

2007 World Series Preview

Having won 20 of their last 21 games, the Rockies enter the 2007 World Series on an unprecedented hot streak. After scoring three runs in the bottom of the 13th to eliminate my Padres in a one-game playoff (I’m still not sure Matt Holliday touched the plate, but that’s a discussion for another day), then shredding the Phillies and Diamondbacks effortlessly, they look almost unbeatable.

That is, until they were forced to wait 9 days to begin the World Series thanks to the deep-thinking baseball schedule-makers. This will be the Rockies’ longest layoff without playing a game since February! Combine that with the fact that they’re matched up against a Bosox team that just rebounded from a 3-1 deficit to beat a very talented Indians squad, outscoring them 30-5 over the last 3 games, and suddenly you realize that even though they’ve won 20 of 21 (I still can’t believe that), they come into Fenway Park tonight as a huge underdog.

Although the Red Sox relied heavily on a couple of rookies (Youkilis and Pedroia) in winning the ALCS, you have to like their experience with many of the players still around from the 2004 championship team that rallied from 3-0 down to take out the Yanks and then the Cardinals for the title. Todd Helton is the token wiley old vet on the Rockies’ roster, but he had yet to reach the postseason before this year.

This should be a good series if you like offence - both Fenway and Coors Field are two of the best hitters’ parks in the game, humidor or not. Boston’s pitching should be ok though - I can’t see Colorado hitting Beckett at Fenway, although they may score some runs off a tired Dice-K as the series moves along, and I’m interested to see if Francona pitches knuckleballer Wakefield in the thin air in Denver in games 3, 4 or 5. The talk is that the higher altitude could really wreak havoc on that knuckleball, so that could be fun. Otherwise, I can’t see Boston’s offence letting up after they completely dismantled the Indians pitching staff. Colorado has some nice arms, and Canadian Jeff Francis has been impressive, but this isn’t your average cream puff National League lineup. The Red Sox have an intimidating array of hitters and I’m afraid things may get ugly…

I can see the games in Boston getting out of control quickly if the young Rockies start to fall behind and get rattled by the tough Fenway crowd. The games in Denver could get ugly also if guys like Ramirez and Ortiz start nailing 400+ ft. homers in the thin air and the Rockies’ offence sputters…

Basically, what I’m saying is that despite the streak, I just don’t like the Rockies’ chances here. Believe me, I have no love for the Sox and will be openly cheering against them (imagine adding Colorado to the list of newer teams that have won championships over the last few years that are just hard to accept: Angels, Diamondbacks, Marlins, Lightning, Ducks, Hurricanes to name a few), but it’s their year. They’ve been the best team in the majors all season and they enter the World Series arguably as hot as the Rockies given their pounding of the Indians, and they’re much more ‘fresh’, having only 2 off days to Colorado’s 9.

My prediction then? Well, I’ll have to say Red Sox in five games. Things could get interesting if Colorado can come up big and steal one of the first two in Fenway, but I see things shaking down like this: Boston easily sweeps the first two at home, then they go up 3-0 in Colorado before the Rockies take one only to lose in 5. I’m also predicting that the Sox victories will be big - much like the last 3 games vs. the Tribe where they unmercifully just kept piling on the runs.

Let’s hope the Rockies make it a series, but my gut is telling me that between the Red Sox and Patriots, it’s a good year to be a sports fan in Beantown.

Now Milton, what do you think?

The $80 Radiohead box set features download, vinyl and CD versions of In Rainbows and a booklet of artwork by longtime Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood.

MiltonSearch.com Album Review

(3.5 stars out of 4)

We all hate hype, but Radiohead is one act absolutely deserving of the mass geek excitement its every move attracts.

Yes, the Oxfordshire quintet tends to inspire a bit of critical hyperbole, but there’s nothing “overrated” about it.

I’ve witnessed Radiohead live shows that reduced me to giggling awe, one at a small theatre in New York four years ago that reduced nearly an entire row of concertgoers to tears. Its first six studio recordings have traced an artful, if intermittently – and admirably – perplexing arc of dogged, self-conscious musical growth that few bands in rock history have attempted or attained, let alone translated into enormous commercial success. Kid A was the sound of a new-school prog-rock band taking the nattering experimental electronic of Aphex Twin and Autechre to the top of the Billboard album chart in 2000. And let’s not forget: this is a group that has actually shifted the mainstream forward. There aren’t many of ‘em out there.

In Rainbows, released in the wee hours Wednesday on a “pay what you can” download from www.radiohead.com – and, a couple of hours hence, every BitTorrent-esque file-sharing site on the planet for free – is the most hyped album of Radiohead’s career. One of the most-hyped albums ever, actually, given its industry-shaking means of delivery. (Watch for this procedure become commonplace once sales figures are released – Radiohead was keeping them secret yesterday – and In Rainbows, though ineligible for “official” chart rankings, becomes the smashing success today’s incessant online traffic suggests it is.)

Bloggers lost sleep to register their general approval for the record first, websites such as PitchforkMedia.com and NME.com were updating their thoughts on the album religiously throughout the day and, while the download process itself drew praise for being, as one Chicago Tribune columnist put it, “smooth as silk,” traffic through the Radiohead site to get to the record was enough to cripple it early in the day.

“A staggering system seems to be in operation, meaning most fans have been able to download the record without any problems,” NME reported. “However, those trying to get the album today are having more difficulties with Radiohead.com, the portal that takes you through to the album download site.”

An average tally of the price fans were putting forth in the band’s “honesty box” for In Rainbows was unavailable, but Billboard.com claimed “unofficial sources suggest most customers have chosen to pay around five pounds ($10.17) for the download edition.”

Interestingly, the $80 box set featuring download, vinyl and CD versions of the album and a lavish new booklet of artwork by longtime Radiohead collaborator Stanley Donwood had exceeded the digital file in pre-orders, according to the artist himself. With good reason, he added.

“The finished product is quite a lush thing. It’s the most over-the-top project I’ve done with (Radiohead),” he told The Scotsman. “It weighs about half a kilo.”

And what of In Rainbows itself? Will it be obscured by its news value?

Hell, no. This thing’s aces all the way, definitely better than 2003’s Hail to the Thief, which was the first Radiohead album since The Bends to sound mildly predictable.

In Rainbows is, admittedly, also kind of what we expect from Radiohead at this point, as it continues the rebalancing between the band’s heady OK-Computer era “rockist” side and the fractured electronics of Kid A that’s been going on since 2001’s highly underappreciated Amnesiac.

The synthesis is much more complete here, though, since the band road-tested these tunes on a short tour last year and drummer Phil Selway – who freakin’ owns the album – operates on an utterly inhuman level throughout, bringing captivatingly erratic, “organic” accompaniment to 10 songs that give Thom Yorke’s singular voice and warm instrumentation (acoustic guitars, strings, piano) played by human beings precedence over the machines. The songs seem to hit a bit harder than those on Thief, too, although I write this on only my third pass through the album.

Anyway, here’s how it breaks down on early approach, track by track:

“15 Step”
In Rainbows is all about rhythm. The frantic beats are broken from the British drum-and-bass template, with Jonny Greenwood’s guitar lines weaving tendril-like through the fray and the eerie atmospheres in the background setting the tone for what is – surprise, surprise – a pretty bleak, end-of-the-world sort of album. Yorke sounds glum. A stab of sampled children screaming “Yay!” is a nice touch.

“Bodysnatchers”
This one’s a beast. A gristled, punkish juggernaut shot through with Raw Power’s riveting, assembly-line punk. The rocking-est thing Radiohead’s done since “The National Anthem.”

“Nude”
Jazz guitar chords, nudgy bassline, more of those eerie crooner harmonies Yorke’s been employing since he got into the Ink Spots circa Amnesiac. Yes, Radiohead knows a thing or two about atmosphere.

“Weird Fishes / Arpeggi”
Reminiscent of Yorke’s excellent solo album from last year, The Eraser, in its faintly hopeful take on personal Armageddon. He imagines an “earth on fire” where “everybody’d leave if they had chance,” but finds bittersweet solace in knowing that once we die and are eaten by the worms and returned to the sea, “we’re fishes.” Gorgeous track, this one.

“All I Need”
“I’m a next step waiting in the wings / I’m an atom bomb trapped in your hard core.” A theme develops. Piano piled up against a snarling undertow. Pretty gripping.

“Faust Arp”
Elliott Smith with snaky “Eleanor Rigby” strings. Almost folky and quite atypical of later-period Radiohead.

“Reckoner”
Tell me the last time you heard percussion recorded this well. All hail Phil Selway!

“House of Cards”
Considerably less oppressive and more concerned with human matters (of lust) than its surroundings, it’s still got some terrific Greenwood feedback etchings strafing the distance.

“Jigsaw Falling Into Place”
Acoustic guitars weave into a streamlined rhythmic freefall. Reminiscent of both Sonic Youth and Dire Straits, if that’s possible. Cool, but it reminds me of something other than Radiohead.

“Videotape”
Well, you knew this had to end with a death march. Mostly ominous piano chords and machine-gun rattles with Yorke concluding: “I know I should be afraid / Because this has been the most perfect day I’ve ever seen.” Radiohead’s not optimistic about the future, then – has it ever been? – but it definitely leaves us optimistic about Radiohead’s future.

By Ben Rayner

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Radiohead’s bold gambit: Don’t misunderstand Radiohead: It’s not out to smash the music industry, merely to force some adjustment and much-needed self-examination upon it.