Doctober Prescribes a Championship

Being a Phillies fan, I feel that I'm in a fairly good position in terms of how my team is doing. A quick sweep of the Reds, dominated by taking advantage of good opportunities, almost exclusively excellent pitching, and notable Reds' errors marked the series, and now it's time for the San Francisco Giants. Fun fact: the Giants have never won a World Series in San Francisco.

Now as a Phillies fan, I shouldn't be messing with them for that, considering that they have 20 pennants and 5 World Series championships, compared to our 7 pennants and 2 (soon to be 3) World Series championships. But nonetheless, I can take extreme satisfaction in being a Phillies fan at the right point in time. I grew up with the Phillies, but my interest has only grown, becoming real around 2007 and taking off with the success that the Phillies have had. I do predict that the Phillies will win the 2010 World Series, it's just how they do it. I'd like to boastfully predict that the Phillies sweep the Giants and sweep the World Series, but only a few teams in all of sports have never lost a game in the playoffs, the most recent being the Seattle Storm in the WNBA this year.

Realistically, I think the Phillies will win in 5 games (this has no basis in any sort of statistics or data), and win the World Series in 6 games. Who will they face in the World Series? I do like the Rangers a fair amount-I have a little crush on Cliff Lee and Josh Hamilton sounds like a nice guy- but it will probably be the Yankees, which means it's revenge time. But because I want to have some fun with this, the Rangers will beat the Yankees and face the Phillies in the World Series.The Phillies are in a solid position right now, and while they have their challenges ahead of them, they are more than ready and capable of winning their 2nd championship in 3 years and hopefully starting a dynasty.

Wall of Sound

Haven't really posted here for a while, but we'll see if I can actually be consistent in my posting.

This is a new feature entitled 'Wall of Sound', after the famous Phil Spector producing technique. I might post one song, a couple of songs, or in the rare event, even more. Some context may be given based up what I have read (mostly from Wikipedia-a truly academic source).

The first song for today will be "He's a Rebel", written by Gene Pitney and credited to the Crystals, but actually sung by Darlene Love. The song, in honor of the feature's title, was produced by Phil Spector (who is slowly rotting in jail as we speak).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TE5cd5Z4y8

The thing I like about the song is the straight-forward singing of Darlene Love. I think the voice and singing is the part of the song to follow the most. The chorus that starts around 50 seconds in the video is my favorite part, just the vocals with a little bit of music with an attitude. The music behind the vocals can be a little cheesy, like when the music starts, but once the chorus hits, the music turns tough, which is appropriate considering the subject matter and the name of the song.

The song harkens back to the age of greasers and old-school tough guys. I think of Grease, James Dean, and the Outsiders when I hear this song. The POV of the song is that of a girl who's in love or going out with the 'rebel', making the stern singing all the more appropriate during the chorus. Overall, an excellent song that can be listened to for fun any time.