Yep, it's Gerrit Cole Day in the Yankiverse - the beardless photo opp. And as Cooperstown Cashman does his shopping - (of J.A. Happ) - let's ponder the last 10 years, a lost and miserable decade for our heroes. The hope brought by Cole - via Hal's Scrooge-like conversion - is that the Roaring Twenties will restore luster, and a few rings, to the Yankees.
But the Yankees weren't alone in slogging through the 2010s. Here's my list of things that suffered over the last 10 years.
Star Wars. Sorry, but once upon a time, in a universe far far away, this was THE gold standard for American cinema and story telling. Now, it's just another soul-less Disney money machine, right up there with the Twilight saga or the Hunger Games. Yeah, they'll spend a billion and probably bank two. But the more the story goes on, the more dreary it becomes.
Newspapers. Okay, I'm biased. For 30 years, I worked for them. For all the warts and typos, they were a true daily miracle; putting it out was like running a war. Now, they're dead or dying - in the case of my town, by owner-heirs who surrendered without even firing a shot. Today, politicians pick the districts they'll represent, and people pick the facts they'll believe. Historians will look back and say it was no coincidence that when the print media died, clowns took over the world.
Rock 'n Roll. I listen to a local "rock" station. What a joke. Most of the actual rock stems from the nineties, as the reliance on oldies has choked off new bands and actually what we consider to be rock music. Springsteen is singing cowboy ditties. Okay, I'm biased, but there is only one great actual rock 'n roll band in America. Wanna hear some rock? Listen...
New York pro sports. How did the greatest city in America turn into such a runt? Of course, it's the owners, none of whom built their fortunes. They are second or third generation billionaires who face no financial consequences for the mediocrity of their products. Small market franchises battle just to survive. In NY, the owners cannot be touched. Dare we truly believe that Hal Steinbrenner has changed?
The planet. Okay, no politics, right? I don't mean to start something here. As I've said other times: I was completely wrong about Jesus Montero, so I might be completely wrong again. But as one who grew up in a staunch Goldwater Republican family, I have to wonder: How did we get to the point where our leaders think there are no consequences for polluting the air and water? Come on. Look, everything else can be fixed - Republicans, Democrats, it's all just the folly of humankind - but are we really going to deny science and pretend the bees are doing fine, the coral reefs are healthy, the continent-sized zones of plastic in the oceans are no problem, and that the polar caps are not shrinking? Do we really think rolling back auto efficiency standards or pushing laws to reopen coal mines is smart policy? Come on, Trumpers. We need you. We're all in this one together.
So there you have it. I'm a tree-hugger. I'm a prospect-hugger. But at least I'm not a Disney-hugger. Here's to 2020 - the Hugh Downs Year. (Get it?)
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21 comments:
I grok what you're mixin', Duque.
Fuck you Hal.
"Ditto," "Amen," "Check," and "yes" to everything you said, Duque.
Especially about picking what they believe. That's part of the problem. We no longer have a baseline of what to argue about, discuss and debate. When you cannot agree on the facts, everything else stops.
And - "Historians will look back and say it was no coincidence that when the print media died, clowns took over the world."
Yup.
[nods sagely]
[still thinking "Fuck you Hal."]
Dark days, indeed. Idiocy on the loose. Ignorance celebrated as a virtue. Lies and "beliefs" accepted as truth.
I never thought I'd say it, but I miss the 70s. Even the 80s (Yankees excluded, except for Mattingly).
Personally, it's been a pretty bad year. It could've been worse, but it definitely wasn't good. Here's hoping Hugh Downs turns out better.
And hey--how can Buzzr run "Classic Concentration" and show the series hosted by Alex Trebeck? "Classic" Concentration was hosted by Hugh Downs. Trebeck was an interloper then and he's still no Art Fleming.
Amen, Duque, amen.
I got my first job on a newspaper, too, at the tender age of 13: the Gloucester Daily Times. Had to learn how to type to keep it. It still exists, at least, but I don't know if it will through another decade. And without such papers, especially in small towns, who will keep the local pols, cops, and business honchos honest? Nobody.
The demise of rock is part of a bigger problem, namely that our culture seems to be dead or dying.
My local grocery blares nothing but mediocre, 19780s Top 40 fare all day, to please "boomers" like me. I feel sorry for the kids working there—not that they have anything better.
Hip-hop is now 40 years old. Golden oldies? If there had been a station around in the '70s playing nothing but 1920s megaphone music, nobody would've listened to it.
But we're a top-down, imposed culture now, nothing allowed to bubble up to the mainstream. Or to use an old-fashioned analogy, the needle's stuck on our record.
Where, for that matter, are our great buildings, stupendous novels, breathtaking movies? Nine Star Wars, and more sure to come?
You talk about the different decades: it seems to me often that the '80s never ended (except that everything got even worse).
The needle's stuck—the needle's stuck—the needle's stuck—
And yes, worst of all is the environment. Bruce may have sung, "Those jobs are leavin' here/ And they ain't comin' back," but now the same can be said for the climate. Our recklessness is astonishing, and we should be ashamed of the world we are leaving to our kids.
But hey: how about those Yankees??
Tonight it will get down to 10 degrees here in CT. That's a big deal these days. I remarked to my bride of 40-some years that when we were first married we had WEEKS when it didn't get above 10 degrees. Climate change? I dunno, but it sure seems so.
Society has become so thin-skinned that people are easily offended. I once taught a class at work and extemporized that some bosses treat their employees like galley slaves. I visualized the segment of Ben Hur where the hero was one. Anyway, someone complained. Apparently a perfectly good and neutral in itself word was verboten.
On a baseball note, perhaps the twenties will mirror the 1920's: the Yankees will win six pennants and three World Series.
Chance Adams got DFA'd...
I'M GONNA STAY OUT OF THIS ONE AS YOU ALL KNOW WHAT SIDE OF THE AISLE I'M ON.
....BUT I WILL SAY....
"TURN IT UP!"
I LIKE IT!
In regards to the planet; it has less to do with Trump, Republicans, and Democrats and way more to do with India and China. Nobody burns more coal than China and they have resolved to build more plants in the coming years than all of Europe already has combined. Their whole stance is Europe did this for years so we will too.
The rest of that list is equally sad, except Star Wars. Loved it as a kid, but it has been ruined so long that I enjoy watching it burn and all of the fans complain.
It is time to remember that the first 18 years of every century is dominated by the Red Sox.
The rest of it belongs to New York.
Amen, Anonymous. May that fat lady in Duque's roque ensemble is belting her voice about mine ears.
Finally, attestation from a grand source for my decision, years, ago, not to engage in Star Wars or other ballads of outrageous science fiction. I am the only American never to have watched even single version.
I agree totally that the death of newspapers was the death of truth. Exactly what fascists require, regardless of their hair color.
As for the planet, who can not agree? And we cannot simply say, " well China is worse." All the pollution will even ruin the taste of egg rolls.
My concern of the day, however, is a biblical one. Shaving off Cole's facial hair to honor an antiquated policy concerns me.
Ans if he suddenly tanks...that will be the use.
AMEN El Duque, A- fuckin' MEN!
I absolutely 1000000000000% agree with everything you wrote, especially concerning the poisoning of the environment.
I'm a tree hugger as well, AND a heavy metal/ hard rock hugger, and concerning the crisis of today's music industry, I will say that there is a bright ray of hope in the sense that the means of production has shifted big time, it's now possible to create, produce and distribute music affordably without needing the blessings and big bucks of the record industry. True not every band is great, in fact many many suck, and it's mostly impossible to make a living making music (URRGGG), BUT I continue to discover an exponentially diverse universe of music being made through sites like Bandcamp, and on radio stations such as WFMU in Jersey City, and all of it is available to be listened to globally via the web. It takes more detective work than before to find your favorite new bands, but they are all out there and rawking their hearts out as I write this,,,,,
And I think we discussed this when we met last Summer, here's the link to my band GROWLER, for a healthy dose of authentic old fashioned Brooklyn heavy rock!!
https://growler.bandcamp.com/releases
I ABSOLUTELY ENDORSE GROWLER!
I ABSOLUTELY ENDORSE GROWLER!
Glad to hear, Ken of Brooklyn.
And Leinstery, they actually have a point: 'Oh, you guys all used everything you could to get the point where you lived like kings—while simultaneously actually conquering and running our countries for yourselves—and now nobody can develop anymore?'
How would anyone accept that?
Thing is though—while I have no love for the Chinese dictatorship—they are apparently building non-fossil fuel facilities and technologies as fast as they can. In the old days, that would've been us and the Europeans, coming up with the next new, big thing, and selling it to the world.
Instead, for some reason, the people who run the West now seem to worship the burning of fossil fuels the way cargo cults used to worship discarded military containers.
I think all of us would gladly give our plutocrats all the patents and profits they want, if they would just go ahead and build solar plants, develop wind energy, just keep the world going.
But they don't. They have a religious attachment to doing things just the way they always have, much like Brian Cashman when it comes to drafting and developing young pitchers.
THANK YOU El Duque, I am honored my friend!
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