I've been working on finishing my top 65 records list (not to mention being outnumbered by people under three feet tall and watching Mad Men), and I got sidetracked, forgetting to put up December's mix. We'll have to see if anyone other than Zakcq still reads this thing. The year end mix and top 65 list should be up very soon.

Stupid Mark Teixiera and CC Sabathia.

1. Tobacco - Dirt (ft. Aesop Rock)
2. Unbunny - The Path
3. Jeremy Messersmith - Dead End Job
4. Mount Eerie - Who?
5. Department Of Eagles - No One Does It Like You
6. Sydney Wayser - Ode To A Frenchman
7. Guilty Simpson - The American Dream
8. From Monument To Masses - Beyond God & Elvis
9. Jolie Holland - Mexico City
10. Cold War Kids - Against Privacy
11. The Uglysuit - Let it be Known
12. Plus-Minus - Snowblind
13. Koufax - Drivers
14. Tokyo Police Club - The Baskervilles f. Aesop Rock and Yak Ballz (Amplive Remix)

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Previously: Mix #35, September '08

I have been on the Rays bandwagon for a few years. This year I called them to make the playoffs in spring training. They have many of my absolute favorite players. Carl Crawford has been one of my favorites for years. How can you not like David Price, who's going to be the best pitcher in the AL east for a long time? BJ Upton is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma (I love how he has skinny power, draws tons of walks and strikes out all the time, and still manages to bring a decent average). Bartlett was my favorite scrappy (mediocre white guy) Twin for the last few years. I love that Mets fans get to at least see Scott Kazmir in the World Series. Grant Balfour has my favorite name for a pitcher (better even than Kevin Slowey, Josh Outman, and Homer Bailey). Matt Garza is their third best starter. Andy Sonnanstine has a beard. They have a sidearmer. Evan Longoria is a pretty good hitter.

But I cannot root for them in good conscience. Not having any sort of history has nothing to do with it. They've been around for ten years, but they've had their current hats and uniforms for one. The fans clearly have been fans for a month. I mean, nobody is wearing a throwback 2007 BJ Upton jersey. Even at a Twins game there are noticable amounts of people with baby blue Oliva and Killebrew shirts, 1991 Puckett shirts. I just can't root for a team where the fans have been on the bandwagon for three years less than I have. The same fans who cheer like it's a walkoff home run every time a ball is hit out of the infield. They ignore good baserunning and fielding. Some idiot plays his damn wiener cowbell every time there are two strikes. The cowbell makes the home broadcast as hard on the ears as the College World Series. The mohawk thing is getting on my nerves. It was one thing when the players did it. It was another thing when the manager cut one. Now the fans have pink mohawks on their pets and babies. They also have cheerleaders. In baseball.

There are valid reason to root for the Phillies, though. Chase Utley, for example. Ryan Howard will strike out 14 times and hit 3 home runs. I hear Cole Hamels is talented. That idiot Brett Myers was amazing on my fantasy team this year. Brad Lidge was the best closer in baseball this year (41/41 in saves is infinitely more impressive than 62/69), and it's nice to see him back after that Pujols homerun. Jimmy Rollins has been underrated his entire career (until going into this year, where he was slightly overtouted). I'm worried JC Romero will twitch out of his skin. Pedro Feliz has a beard. I always like watching Pat the bat. He is so taguchi. Plus I already have a Phillies hat, and with the economy, that's really the main reason,

Why can't us?

Go Dodgers!

1. The Dead Science - Make Mine Marvel
2. Calexico - The News About William
3. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Black Yogurt [With Mike Watt]
4. Don Caballero - lord krepelka
5. David Vandervelde - Lyin' In Bed
6. Ane Brun - Armour
7. Mirah - Location Temporary
8. Mogwai - I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead
9. The Baseball Project - Ted Fucking Williams
10. Wye Oak - Please Concrete
11. Marching Band - Markeup Artist
12. Born Ruffians - Red, Yellow & Blue
13. Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You
14. Of Montreal - An Eluardian Instance
15. Emiliana Torrini - Birds
16. Lambchop - Slipped Dissolved And Loosed
17. Doveman - Holding Out For A Hero
18. What Laura Says Thinks And Feels - Dot Dot Dot
19. The Cotton Jones Basket Ride - I Was 17 (Starflyer 59 Cover)

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Previously: Mix #35, September '08

I know I'm a day late and a quarter short (or is that Twin Cities transit passengers?), but I keep putting off my playoff picks. The Twins put me in a bit of a foul mood. Since that Thursday game where we sat in the second to last row in the upper deck directly behind the plate (not terrible seats, plus they were free, thanks to Bethany's boss) that they came back from a 6-1 defecit to win 7-6 in extra innings to take first place, they've been absolutely terrible offensively.

I'm going with LA, Boston, Tampa, and Philly. The World Series will be LA against Boston, and will be one of the most exciting series ever.

I'm not just being a homer with LA, I really think the Cubs aren't as good as people think. The Dodgers had the pitching, top of the rotation and bullpen, and dropping Manny in the middle of the lineup improves it exponentially. And we can't forget Casey Blake, who is a nice player to have batting eighth. He may be a Twin next year, and he'd probably bat fifth for us. Or even fourth if Gardy (I agree with Posnanski here, Gardy is one of the better managers in the game. My other favorite? Ozzie Guillen with a bullet) gets smart and bats Mauer second, behind Span, sends Gomez to the minors, and publicly apologizes for pitching Brian Bass so much in games closer than five runs. The Dodgers got Furcal back too. If I told you your team could take Angel Berroa's career .305 OBP out of your lineup in favor of Rafael Furcal's .352, is that something that you'd be interested in?

It's suddenly fall here. Coincidentally there was a lot of good fall music I heard last month (although it seemed like it was 90 degrees every day in August), but just in time for the cool weather, they're on a mix.

Everything I heard about St Paul during the convention was that it was a tomb. I guess even if you add a crowd of people larger than the town in which Sarah Palin was mayor to downtown St Paul, it still feels like a ghost town. With idiot protesters. And tear gas. Is it a coincidence that will all of the republicans in town that I couldn't step into a crosswalk in St Paul without twice nearly getting run over by an SUV? (It's normally only once).

Anyways, this Sarah Palin thing is absolutely fantastic. Who's McCain planning on having as his Secretary of State? The mayor of Hayward, WI? Is his UPS guy going to run the Department of Defense? Maybe Harriet Miers can be Attorney General. This whole thing is making Obama look like Henry Kissinger. My favorite spin is the one where she's qualified because she has more executive experience than McCain.

1. Lackthereof - Ask Permission
2. Bowerbirds - La Denigración
3. Paper Airplanes - An Account Of Surprising Accuracy, Given The Messenger
4. Death Vessel - Block My Eye
5. Laura Marling - Failure
6. Conor Oberst - Milk Thistle
7. Elephant9 - Dodovoodoo
8. The Sea and Cake - Window Sills
9. Parenthetical Girls - Four Words
10. Clare & The Reasons - Nothing-Nowhere
11. Randy Newman - Potholes
12. Neil Halstead - Oh! Mighty Engine
13. The New Year - Folios
14. Mount Eerie & Julie Doiron - You Swan, Go On
15. Inara George & Van Dyke Parks - Idaho
16. A Weather - Shirley Road Shirley
17. Dilla Ghost Doom - Murder Goons feat. Ghostface Killah
18. Stereolab - Self Portrait with Electric Brain
19. Talkdemonic - Civilian
20. Nana Grizol - Circles 'Round The Moon

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Previously: Mix #34, August '08

Eliot fell asleep while eating pizza today. She was chewing in her sleep. When she ran out of slice, she kept chewing nothing.

1. One Day As A Lion - If You Fear Dying
2. Why? - As I Went Out One Morning (Bob Dylan Cover)
3. The Walkmen - Canadian Girl
4. Damien Jurado - Sheets
5. Red Sparowes - We Left The Apes To Rot, But Find The Fang Grows Within
6. Beck - Modern Guilt
7. Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire - flaming home
8. Aimee Mann - Medicine Wheel
9. Josephine Foster - The Garden of Earthly Delights
10. Okkervil River - Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed On The Roof Of The Chelsea Hotel, 1979
11. Meso Meso - frost
12. The Mars Volta - 05 Goliath
13. Pygmy Lush - Mount Hope
14. Peter Broderick - A Beginning

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Previously: Mix #33, July '08

I don't know about this. It sounds kind of like a sweeping generalization of a lot of people based on a small sample.

I pretty much keep my mouth shut at work unless somebody asks me a question, which I always answer as helpfully as possible. I don't enforce any of the company's stupid stroller rules (contrary to the video, the company's policy when they first told us about the damn stroller thing was pretty much what the guy did, presumably with less lip). I only say anything at all to the 10% of riders who even bother look at the driver for a greeting. The only rule I really enforce now that those wienie walkie talkie phones went out of fashion (that fad didn't last long) is the no eating rule. Have you ever noticed how a sack of food from McDonalds smells like a sack of monkey buttholes? I can't believe people go near that stuff. I still get about 15-20 bogus complaints per year. I imagine if I had a big mouth like these two, I'd get more. A hundred and whatever is a lot, but how many of them are bogus? The only examples they have are a guy getting mad because people run out in front of the bus, one guy enforcing the first version of a relatively new company policy, a number of people that call to complain, and two guys with big mouths, one of whom doesn't work for the company any more. There's not much to work with, they should be commended for making a whole story with what they had.

The lady in the glasses, by the way, who said something about us leaving her in second was on my bus last week. She was waiting in a stop at 38th St station that was clearly marked for a different route. My route's stop was about 80 feet behind this stop. After I made my stop, waited three minutes for the train, and pulled away, she ran out in front of me as I passed the other route's stop waving her arms. Nice guy that I am (I've never had a real commendation call either - my only two are also bogus), I stop in the middle of the street to let her on. She screamed at me for trying to leave without her. I think that one is a little nuts anyway. She yells at a lot of people.

Anyway, it's Fox 9. What do you really expect from them anyway? It's basically a blog with money.

Welcome to the squad, Mr Dunn. If you've got 20 dingers left in that bat, I'll be very happy. Make me proud.

It's short, but it's good. I'm particularly enjoying the first two tracks lately, but it's a solid mix. There some good local music, and an all-time classic at the end.

1. Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook
2. Dr. Dog - The Breeze
3. Ben Sollee - A Change is Gonna Come
4. Ghosty - Like a Bad Lie
5. Haley Bonar - Better Half
6. Pivot - Sweet Memory (Clark Remix)
7. The Battle of Land and Sea - Saltwater Queen
8. Eef Barzelay - Lose Big
9. Lucinda Black Bear - Kites
10. Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come

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Previously: Mix #32, June '08

My man Matt Kemp reached on an error, stole second, reached third on another error, and scored on a sac fly. That's quality baseball.

Kind of reminds me of the Dodger offense in Sandy's perfect game. That hit didn't come until after the run scored.

Delmon hit one out today.