Born November 13, 1911 and died October 6, 2006.

With the upcoming Baseball Hall of Fame Nominations we got to thinking about Buck O'Neil. He may be one of the greatest men in baseball history. He is certainly one of our favorites. Not because he had the stats, or the skills, but because he had the heart. He loved baseball, and he loved talking baseball. Anyone who has watched the Ken Burns Baseball documentary knows.

Earlier this year, after learning he wasn't nominated for the special Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for Negro League players, managers and executives, Buck said,

"God's been good to me. They didn't think Buck was good enough to be in the Hall of Fame. That's the way they thought about it and that's the way it is, so we're going to live with that. Now, if I'm a Hall of Famer for you, that's all right with me. Just keep loving old Buck. Don't weep for Buck. No, man, be happy, be thankful."

Well, you're a Hall of Famer to us Buck. We love you. We'll miss you. Take it away.

Is it too late to say, "Turkey is delicious."

You don't like it? It's too dry? Well, you cooked it wrong! Don't blame the bird, blame the chef!

Turkey is a treat. God made it for us to devour and exclaim, "Man that was so damn good that I have to take a nap now."

That tryptophan is a tricky one. The government should serve nothing but turkey in prisons. Never again would there be another prison riot. We'd have thousands of really sleepy guys in orange jumpsuits politely requesting seconds on pie.

But not for schools! Those kids need some caffeine. More soda machines. No. Wait. Soda machines filled with Starbucks-brand double shot espresso drinks. And surge. And Monster energy drinks.

Turkey is delicious. Lucky for us there's enough left-overs to feed an army. A grateful somnambulist army dreaming of buttered-nut squash and egg-nog. Now that's an army!

The junior high usses would be crapping their collective pants over this one.

$250 dollars gets you your own set of semi-virtual reality glasses that hook up to your ipod, multimedia player, dvd player, phone et al. The SeepuStar (DV230) is here, and it demands your full undivided attention!

The 13-year-old usees would say, "Eat your heart out Alicia Silverstone. Eat your heart out Jordie LaForge. We have the future strapped to our heads."

However, the older, more responsible, usses say, "250 dollars? Man. You could get a really nice bottle of wine for 250 dollars."

And the 13-year-old usses wouldn't come to our house to play anymore.

And that's probably for the best. It's weird enough hanging out with 13-year-olds, let alone those that look and act a lot like you. And they wouldn't appreciate the complexity and subtle notes of our expensive bottle of wine anyway.

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We have another new song started for the Old Deluder Satan Law project.

Up was contributed by San Deigo's favorite singer-songwriter Annie Bethancourt.

We're thinking that a chorus voices would really fill this thing out. Anybody and everybody who's willing please record yourself singing the simple refrain (the words are on the song's page) or come over and sing it at the "studio."

We're getting pretty close here folks. We have one more song in the works, penned by dmh about family, entomology, and a certain southern author. After that, how many more songs should we try to make? 1? 5? 10? 15? Should we whittle down to a favorite 5 eventually? Originally we had planned to make a 4 song vinyl-only 10 inch (with free downloads of the finished tracks for the turntable-less). Should we include more songs? Should we put it out on CD as well? We've got a few months to think about this, but y'all are part of this too, what do you think?

Thanks for all the continued contribution. Please keep sending stuff in, we'll definitely keep using it.

Rock and Roll.

Lasse Gjertsen can't play piano.

Neither can Lasse Gjertsen play drums.

Yet somehow he blows both the Mouse and the Billionaire to Timbuktu through some fantastic performance editing.

Befriend Lasse Gjertsen at myspace. Maybe he's looking for a bassist. While you're there, watch a few of his other videos. They're good.

via

The video to the left is a somewhat recent parody on the growing fad of "picture a day for x many years" youTube craze.

What is interesting is not how many of these experiments exist (see here, here and here for examples), but, rather, how many parodies there are.

The video here is great. It's pretty inventive, clever, and well-executed. This is not the case, however, for the majority of the parodies on youTube. Most frequently, we see the Guy Takes a Picture oh Himself every Second for Nine Seconds variety, which is neither inventive, clever, nor well-executed. It seems that any idiot with a video camera thinks he has the proper tools or wit to comment on culture at large. Or maybe that is culture at large. Shows like The Family Guy show us that is far easier (and sometimes more successful/profitable) to simply mock or "pay homage to" pre-existing reference points. Why take the time or effort to set-up, string-along, and construct the perfect payoff/punchline of a joke/gag/situation when you can reference music videos from the 80s?

Or are the parodists commenting on the narcissistic undertones such videos are destined to have? If so, why? So much of art is narcissism, almost intrinsically so. Would Annie Hall have been as good if it didn't contain so much of Woody Allen's own private struggles? Would Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov carry the same weight? What about the majority of pop music? Would Joe Cocker's "You are So Beautiful" meant as much if he had never experienced beauty?

As humans we have an innate fascination with the self. It's who we spend the most time with, and often we want to express those secret thoughts, ideas, and passions with the rest of the world through music, painting, blogs, essays, novels, dance, drama and more. Let's agree to contribute to that conversation intelligently, with thoughtful consideration and dialogue, and not with scorn and mockery.

A video like the one above, which has taken the time to present an interesting glimpse at the author's thoughts on the "picture-a-day" phenomena is worth thousands that merely point and laugh.

Hello friends,

We've put up some photography from throughout the years in the Photography section. Give 'em a look, and see what you think. You might be in a few yourself.

It reminds us of long-gone Bayou nights, day trips on the Gold Line, seemingly-endless drives in a smelly RV through west Texas wastelands, pleasant stops for Splash Cafe Clam Chowder with fresh crambeat on top, singing to the stars with two new friends and a shared bottle of wine, and walking tours of small-town Americana with a camera hanging from our necks and a cigarette dangling from our lips.

It's nice to take photos. Whether digital or SLR (though looking back at all these prints, we prefer the SLR) there's something special about recording those memories to share with others.

Let's do it more often.

TGIF dudes! T. G. I. F!

Here comes the weekend, time to throw on some shades an lounge around in the backyard. Sleep in and relax the days away. Spend some time with the ones you love. Throw some ball in the park and drink a frosty cold beer at the neighborhood....

Huh?

Tuesday?

No, it's Friday. Thursday at the earliest.

Really?

That can't be right. It's Wednesday. Is it Wednesday?

No? C'mon! You're pulling my leg. It's got to be Wednesday. Good ol' Wednesday! No? ... Tuesday night? ... Lunch time?

It's going to be a long damn week.

Calvin agrees.

Anyways, to the matter at hand. It's a few days late, we know. But, better late than never. How many of y'all actually listen to this anyway?

The October Mouse and the Mixtape, your monthly dose of musical ADD, featuring the likes of:

• Menomena


• Regina Spektor


• Peggy Lee


• Tin Ear Tanner


• Ratatat


• Muddy Waters


• White Flight


• The Zombies


• Tom Waits, and


• Billy Holiday

Check it out.

It goes up real quick, then hits hard, like an atom bomb, before digging a deep hole an burrying you in the sand.

Enjoy.

As promised, check out the new Old Deluder Satan Law song Big Sur.

This song features the one and only performance of the Big Sur Cheap Red WineTet with members Lisa Bethancourt, Matt Bethancourt, Mike Sycz and Pat Mackenzie.

Big Sur (mp3).

Hope you like it. All Deluderists, give us your thoughts/ideas in the comments.