The Inaugural Rant

Welcome to my little corner of the internet. And please rise for the seventh inning stretch. I've decided to name this blog the Seventh Inning Stretch because I'd like to share my two big interests to the world; singing and baseball. Where else but the Seventh Inning Stretch can one find singing and baseball coexisting side be side.

Here I will post things about baseball (especially stuff about the Oakland A's), music, the odd political rant and maybe a few general musings of the life of a young, poor, struggling musician in the San Francisco Bay Area.

So, let the games begin:

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim:

LAME! I know this is not exactly breaking news but I am appalled at the Angels name change. I feel a little bit sorry to out bitter division rivals down south, I just hope it doesn't give the A's ownership any dumb ideas to rename the A's into the San Francisco Athletics of Oakland.

Think of the redundancy in the spanish-language broadcasts. The Angels Angels of Anaheim? I mean Anaheim is about 30 miles from the LA County line and about 60 miles from the actual city of LA. A friend of mine is a long time Angels fan, he's pissed and betrayed and he says he's an A's fan now. I sure hope Arte Moreno get's the George Steinbrenner disease and just meddles too much for the team to win. Just remember how many World Series the Yankees have won now that Steinbrenner has raised payroll to about $200 Mil...ZERO.

I feel that Arte Moreno's little move to try to generate more ad revenue sets a dangerous preceedent for sports in America. If the teams of the MLB can just whore themselves out like that, then it is inevitable that one day during interleague play there will the the Bank of America Bay Bridge Series pitting the Oracle Giants of San Francisco against the Men's Wearhouse Athletics of Oakland. Don't think it will happen? Look at the Japanese Leagues, all the teams have sold out their names to corporations the most blatant and lame of these names belong to the Nippon Ham Fighters.

LET'S GO HAM-FIGHTERS!

Lame and lame.

Ashlee Simpson's "performance" at the FedEx Orange Bowl:

First thing's first... "FedEx Orange Bowl." Another example of the shameless commercialism in college sports. I can't believe the universities of America are making so much money off of amateur athletes. But I am a bit hypocritical, I am a big Cal fan. Well as long as the Rose Bowl is still the Rose Bowl, there's hope. Oh yeah, Cal got cheated, thanks Texas, and losing the Holiday Bowl doesn't mean that Cal sucks, you East Coast Biased Media, Cal almost beat USC at USC while USC steamrolled OU.

Now on to the main event. I saw the Orange Bowl and I was thinking of not watching the halftime show, but I was curious since Ashlee was going to be up and after the SNL flap...so I decided to watch.

Well, curiosity killed the cat.

Most pop singers, like Britney, Ashlee and all those usually use an FX processor to process their voice with some reverb. The FX processor didn't work well that night and I believe Ashlee's voice was more exposed than normal. America finally had a chance to see a pop "star" sing with their real voice.

It was a true assault on the ears, she couldn't keep pitch even if her life depended on it and, her diction was horrible.

It's truly a wonder what money, slick marketing, and an overbearing stage managing dad can do for your career.

Sometimes I wonder why I don't have a recording contract, especially since all these no-talents seem to succeed. But then I am quickly reminded that I am a real musician, and I wouldn't do pop music, period.

Tim Smith, the chair of the Music Department at Cal State Hayward once said, "There will be people who will make obscene amounts of money pretending to be musicans, while real musicians won't make that much money."

I am a real musician, I don't just sing, I create music. I don't need no amplification or FX processors to sing, I have more talent than that. Although I will not make as much money as the pop stars I will have a much longer fulfilling career and I will NOT be a joke. I will make music for the sake of making music, the money will come when it comes.

I am proud to be a real musician with a normal life and non-meddling parents, at least I am not a joke.

There you have it, a baseball rant and a music rant rolled into one. An auspicious start I hope.