“no more baseballs to my head”

I don’t understand how Major League Baseball can alternately proclaim that the game is healthier than ever while making moves to disenfranchise the average fan.  One trend that makes almost no sense to me is the shrinking number of seats in new stadiums.  The Mets new ballpark CitiField (which, I will admit, looks incredible in the plans) will have 9,000 fewer seats than Shea Stadium.  At the same time, the Mets are promoting their young, charismatic team to the point where many now question the Yankees’ dominance in New York.

Or take a team on the west coast – the Oakland Athletics (or whatever they’ll be known as once they move out to the ‘burbs).  Their proposed new stadium will fit 32,000 fans.  From the AP:

With only 32,000 seats, the stadium would be baseball’s most intimate venue, [A's co-owner Lew] Wolff said.

Of course, we know that “intimate” means -  higher ticket prices and fewer “average fans.”  While the move to smaller stadiums might make financial sense – economics dictates that by shrinking the supply, the asking price rises – is it really a wise PR move for a sport that desperately needs to attract younger fans?  Baseball faces stiff competition for America’s entertainment dollar from the NFL, NBA, and the booming video game industry.  It doesn’t make sense to charge $40 for upper deck seats and effectively shutting out families in exchange for corporate suits.  Sure, it brings in money right now but in 20 years who will come to the games?

[Forgive the Yahoo link that will expire in 2 weeks or so - I looked for something on the Oakland A's stadium on their website but it had no information - perhaps they don't want to anger their current fanbase with news about a stadium outside of Oakland?]

HOF / New Music

Congrats (several days late) to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class of 2007 – Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, The Ronettes, Van Halen (Hagar & DLR!  Who shows up to the ceremony, and do they both share the stage?), Patti Smith, and the heroes of my adolescence, R.E.M.  The idea of Smith and Stipe sharing the stage for a duet on “E-Bow the Letter” is quite exciting.  If you happen to have an connection that can get me into the ceremony, let me know.

Here’s an interesting article from the Guardian on the 2005 performance of Smith’s Horses (which is included on the Deluxe Version of the album).  It’s a very interesting read about one of the most influential albums of its era.

Enough of the past though – there’s a whole bunch of new and exciting music coming out in the next few months.  The new Shins album Wincing the Night Away (out 1/23) is quite good – I listened to it last night and really enjoyed it.  I think I might even like it more than their previous albums (although to be fair, I don’t think I loved them as much as many others did).

I’ve also heard the new Bloc Party album A Weekend in the City (out 2/6) and on a first listen it’s quite sporadic.  Some bits are excellent and exciting and others sound like lesser retreads from the last album.

Other albums I’ll check out soon: The new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (which I should get my download link from Insound any time now), Apples in Stereo (I really like the single “Energy” and I think Stereogum has a link to its Elijah Wood directed video), Deerhoof (although I should probably listen to their other albums first) and LCD Soundsystem (which has leaked already).

Further off in the future there’s new albums from the Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes, and Ted Leo (who appears to be officially using the moniker “Ted Leo and the Pharmacists” rather than the CVS-esque “Ted Leo / Pharmacists”).   The Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible (out 3/6) seems to be leaking one track at a time, so keep your eyes peeled because the band / Merge Records shuts down the links just as soon as they pop up.  There’s also supposed to be a new Wilco album at some point too, and I’m sure a bunch more that I’m forgetting.

Meanwhile, Pitchfork has the first single “Sons of Cain” from Ted Leo’s Living with the Living (out 3/20).  The song’s been around for a while (look on The Hype Machine and I’m sure you can find the version from the KEXP sessions a year and a half ago) but the studio version has me excited for the album.  I think that the arrangement (especially the piano falls and the acoustic guitar in the bridge) suggests a bit more depth than the stripped down, straight-ahead rock on 2004’s Shake the Sheets.

Needless to say, it looks like the first half of 2007 will give me lots of new music to digest.   It also means I’ll be playing a lot of new things on Left of the Dial when that starts up again in a few weeks.

Wow, this feels like a “real blog” today.  Enjoy.

BW

Housekeeping

Happy new year!

I added a couple new links including one to my radio show (I don’t understand why it took me so long to add that!) So enjoy those websites & blogs!

I imagine I’ll have new stuff to say / share with you soon.

BW