moon traveller herald

The Rooters showed up at the grounds one day They found their seats had all been sold McGreevey led the charge into the park Stormed the gates and put the game on hold The Rooters gave the other team a dreadful fright Boston's tenth man could not be wrong Up from "Third Base" to Huntington They'd sing another victory song My father and his brother were separated by a decade in age, and the difference between being born in 1903 and in 1913 was pretty sharp. They'd meet at family gatherings, but not much else. Toward the end of my uncle’s life someone decided the two of them should get together. My brother and I took them to a Red Sox game. Up in years as they were, they couldn’t last but three innings in the hot August sun of a Saturday afternoon game on what is now known as Yawkey Way – was then Jersey St. But it was a kick. At one point my uncle said he used to watch the team play on Huntington Avenue. My brother and I were not baseball historians. We thought the...

Big hair big heart - Up unto a point, Portner Wagoner for me was big hair and wild Nudie suits. Like out of Altman's Nashville. Porter and Dolly. Kind of a period piece. Only recently I actually got hip to this incredibly soulful muiscian. Wagonmaster is a 2007 release - produced ably and caringly by Marty Stuart - that showcases Wagoner's depth of talent for the ages. The single on this one for me is "I'm Just Passing Through." Writ from the heart, and sung from even deeper. It's the story of a street person who has something of a satisfied mind. He is philosophical about our ulitmate temporal evaporation and ascent to heaven. He takes a gift from a passer by and explains: "Im just passing through wearing holely clothes and shoes .. " He is an walking buddha and it is all history to him. And Jesus is at his side. His body, he says, is: "Just a place to hang my hat til I gets home." Echos of Ginsberg's "Ballad of the Skeletons...

Cleveland, Oct 19, 2007 – When the Boston players began Thursday night’s game with the Clevelands, their backs were to the wall. Trailing three games to one in the American League Championship series, the Hubsters needed a win just to stay alive as the teams met at Jacobs Field. When it was over, the Crimson Hose succeeded in holding off the Clevelands, benefiting from a five-hit effort by ace Josh ‘Waiting for Godot’ Beckett, outscoring the Erie Lake fellows 7-1. In the game, the latter half of the Boston order continued to struggle, but a first-inning solo home run and a sixth-inning run-scoring double by First Baseman Kevin Youkilis greatly helped the Townies’ cause. After the sixth-inning double, and after Indian’s manager Drake Heartfelt replaced starter Mongo Sabathia with relif pitcher Raphael Betancourt, Youkilis scored on a sacrifice fly driven by clutch-hitter David Ortiz. It was the third inning when Ortiz, who had walked, scored on a long-single by Manny ‘Manny being Manny’...

The great Gordon Thomas continues to write about film for BrighlightsFilm.com. Among last month's reviews is one on a new Allen Ginsberg DVD, The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg. Apparently there are alot of cool extras, including an MTV music video of Ballad of the Skeletons. We were going to get together with Gordon this weekend, but he is on deadline! Next up for the writer driven by a formative Godzilla experience: H.P. Lovecraft on film [or disk, rather]. Hey, Gordon, can I borrow that Ginsberg thing? Last month's Gordon on BrightlightsFilm.com The Gordon Thomas Brightlights archives Gordon Thomas on MoonTraveller

Jake and I got up there to Lowel on my brief summer vacation end of August. Not quite stuff of epiphany, but Lowell always has a vibe, as a Lowelite would know. Jake liked the general tenor of the presentation which showed the city, road pics, the music, and the publishing artifacts of his life. The manuscript itself under Plexiglas as if at a jewelers - a bit weird, but what a throwback. Anyone who worked with cheap news print or teletype rolls would find memory. Hey look a typewriter, I say to Jake, and punch on the Underwood on display. Just a different meter to composition on a mechanical thing like that. A more physical experience. A more physical age. Just the basics: The manuscript has no paragraph breaks. It is single-spaced. It has no page breaks. Kerouac was a helleva typist. One sees few mistakes. It is explained that it is not on teletype roll but is tracing paper somehow pasted on one long teletype roll. I guess tracing paper was something you could erase. The names are th...

A girl named Star hit the front pages of the Boston papers not long ago. Star Simpson, an MIT student, was at the airport, going through Security, when all hell broke lose. She was wearing a PC circuit board populated by blinking LEDs connected to a 9V battery. Not too imposing, but to the TSA folks, a suspect device. Push all the alarms. Get on the walkie talkies. Close the perimeter. This is the Post 9/11 world! Shut down the airport. Chaos necessarily ensued. What would the old time Boston comedian Jack Burns say? Probably something like: ‘Katy bah the doah?’ In this age where everything has changed, you may not be aware that MIT students have also changed. Few have sheathed calculators on their belts. Some like Star, have the look of the slacker, if an achieving one, in this case with vividly dyed hair. And SocketToMe embroidered on her sweatshirt back. Artsy. But techno artsy. As in Performance Art meets Radio Shack. Thus the Hello World breadboard and Nine-Volter. We smell headli...