1a. Along with all the new material we've been working on, David and I are working on the arrangement for a cover of Paul McCartney's "Tug Of War". Why? Well, a few weeks ago we were watching the "Chaos and Creation" bonus DVD and there's one section where Nigel Godrich says something about having a disagreement with Paul over a certain section of one of the new songs, and then he quotes the "middle 8" of "Tug Of War", mentioning that he never owned the album but simply heard it as an 8-year-old and it had stuck with him ever since. David's eyes lit up, and I mentioned that I didn't actually know that song. David flipped out, grabbed the nearest acoustic guitar, and played it for me - and I was instantly smitten with it. I went over to his house last weekend where he played me the original version on LP so I could hear it; if you're at all familiar with the original recording, then I should mention that we're going to be doing something a bit different - obviously without all the tarted-up horns and choral swells and early-80s bombast. We're playing it a bit slower, and with a lot more space and atmosphere - in other words, we're trying to make it sound like a Good Evening song, which may or may not qualify as blasphemy. Nobody can sing a Paul McCartney melody as beautifully as Paul can, but David does a pretty compelling job of it, considering that it was David's solo acoustic version that sold me 100% on it.
2. It doesn't necessarily make me feel any better, but I'm glad to see that it's not just the Yankees who are getting assraped by poor umpiring decisions; what is this, a basketball game? I've watched a lot of post-season baseball over the last 10 years, and I've NEVER seen so many ridiculously absurd calls - I've CERTAINLY never seen so many calls that directly impacted the final result of a playoff game. I know that if you as so much as whisper the phrase "instant replay" within 100 yards of a baseball stadium you are automatically castrated, but it seems to be that the integrity of the game takes a serious blow when umpires make incredibly poor decisions.
Um, I'll try to come up with more later.
