Joke Murder Was the Case That They Gave Me

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

Juliet of the Spirits by Fellini

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/VkxvxfJUn1A" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/VkxvxfJUn1A</a>

Very good movie too.  I thought you only liked Fellini's neorealist period!   

Well, he has more masterpieces in that period.

But 8 1/2 and Juliet of the Spirits are career peaks.  It was an explosion of pure visual imagination like no other...however I think he lost it pretty quick after those 2 movies.

8 1/2 is his best movie and the subject is him running out of ideas!  It's about Fellini losing it.

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

I'd recommend Houses of the Holy or Physical Graffiti.

4 is great but it's a victim of overplaying.

[Tripp]

yep

[Jesse]

I like 8 1/2, though I tend to enjoy the Ken Finkleman tribute "More Tears" more - at least I watch it more often. But that's just me.

As far as Zep goes, the early stuff is too derivative for me - I do dig Physical Graffiti. One caveat - the lyrics are indeed stupid and pretentious. If you pretend they're not, or try to ignore them, you'll just embarrass yourself the moment you start thinking about the bustle in your hedgerow. Just embrace the totality of the band for the idiot savants that they were.

And enjoy the drumming. Seriously. Bonzo was a ridiculously good drummer. When I listen to him, I think of my old boss's comments about "the mighty Stan". There aren't too many folks who can anchor a band like that.

[Bizarro]

I'll give 'em a shot. Recently, I've been getting over my bias against 60s British blues bands and as part of that, it seems like I ought to give Zep another shot.

[Jesse]

Tonight, I'm going to the book party for The Ancient Book of Sex and Science. All four artists will be there signing... is this a must-have for anyone here?

[bebopbalogna]

What better song is the drum riff that counts off this song aping?

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/-2w19in0nXk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/-2w19in0nXk</a>

first thing i thought was DBTs "February 14"

[Doctor Rock]

Needs cowbell. 

[Tripp]

Physical Graffiti does have some of my favorite Zep tunes..  In the Light,  ten Years Gone, House of the Holy,  Trampled Underfoot, Custard Pie, Kashmir, Night Flight...

[Tripp]

I believe Denny's exact words regarding Stan were   "he's a monster."

[Tripp]

he also compared him to Al Jackson.

[Jesse]

He is an awe-inspiring drummer. I'm glad he's rocking again.

[Bizarro]

For the handful of baseball fans here:

Meet Stephen Strasburg. He throws 103 miles per hour. He has a devastating slider, curve, and change-up. He is the sure first #1 draft pick going to the Washington Nationals. Why is this soooooo significant? Scouts peg him as joining the rotation immediately and thus completely skipping the minors. Unreal.  It is an small, elite list who have done so and practically unheard of in the modern era. However, there are those with some worries.

He no-hit the Air Force Academy last week. He's averaging around 2 strikeouts per innings against college hitters.

Highlights from a 23 strikeout game he threw against Utah this year:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/8pVyw2JlloM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/8pVyw2JlloM</a>

His agent, Scott Boras, is looking for a contract in the range of 6 years, $50 million.

Also:

One of those articles links to an article on Steve Dalkowski, believed to be the hardest throwing pitcher who ever lived. His control was as bas as his fastball was amazing, so he never made it.

An anecdote:

... a hot spring day in Miami, Fla. Dalkowski is pitching batting practice for the Baltimore Orioles while Ted Williams watches curiously from behind the batting cage. After a few minutes Williams picks up a bat and steps into the cage. Reporters and players, who had been watching with only casual interest, move quickly around the cage to watch this classic confrontation. Williams takes three level, disciplined practice swings, cocks his bat and then motions with his head for Dalkowski to deliver the ball. Dalkowski goes into his spare pump. His right leg rises a few inches off the ground. His left arm pulls back and then flicks out from the side of his body like an attacking cobra. There is a sharp crack as his wrist snaps the ball toward the plate. Then silence. The ball does not rip through the air like most fastballs, but seems to just reappear silently in the catcher’s glove as if it had somehow decomposed and then recomposed itself without anyone having followed its progress.

The catcher holds the ball for a few seconds. It is just a few inches under Williams’ chin. Williams looks back at the ball, then out at Dalkowski, who is squinting at him. Then he drops the bat and steps out of the cage.

The writers immediately ask Williams how fast Steve Dalkowski really is. Williams, whose eyes were said to be so sharp that he could count the stitches on a baseball as it rotated toward the plate, says that he did not see the pitch, and that Steve Dalkowski is the fastest pitcher he ever faced and probably who ever lived, and that he would be damned if he would ever face him again if he could help it.

- In high school, he had an 18-strikeout, 18-walk no-hitter.

- On Aug. 31, 1957, in an Appalachian League game, Dalkowski struck out 24, walked 18, hit four batters, threw six wild pitches, and lost 8-4.

- In one Northern League game, Dalkowski threw a one-hitter, striking out 15, but walked 17 and lost 9-8.

- In the California League, he threw a four-hitter, striking out 19, but lost 8-3.

- In one extra-inning game in the Eastern League, Dalkowski struck out 27 batters and walked 16 while throwing 283 pitches.

- One time he was pulled in the second inning after throwing 120 pitches.

- A Dalkowski pitch once tore off part of a batter’s ear.

- A Dalkowski pitch once struck a batter on the helmet and the ball rebounded to second base.

- In one game, Dalkowski threw three pitches that penetrated the backstop screen, sending fans scattering.

- On a bet, Dalkowski fired a baseball through a wooden outfield fence.

- Also on a bet, Dalkowski threw a ball from second base over the roof of a clubhouse beyond the center field fence.

- Dalkowski misread his catcher’s sign for a curve, and threw the fastball instead. The catcher missed the pitch entirely, and it struck home plate umpire Doug Harvey flush in the mask, breaking it in three places, knocking Harvey back several feet and requiring him to be hospitalized for three days with a severe concussion.

- In his only appearance in a major league stadium, an exhibition game at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium in March 1959 against the Cincinnati Reds, Dalkowski pitched the ninth inning and struck out the side on 12 pitches.

- Dalkowski’s catchers wore not one, not two, but three extra pads inside the mitt.

- When Dalkowski warmed up in the bullpen, an extra player would stand behind the bullpen catcher, to flag down errant pitches.

[Bizarro]

he also compared him to Al Jackson.

I can totally hear that.

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

Those are great Dalkowski stories but are unfair to Strasburg, who has never been wild.

He averages less than 2 walks per 9 innings for his career.