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The Human Zoo/August 15, 2011
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around The Human Experience...
CAPSULE FREE CONCERT AT THE BOTTOM OF A SKI JUMP REVIEW: G Love and Special Sauce, Howelson Hill Ampitheater, Steamboat Springs, Colorado: The Woman and I were out to breakfast Saturday morning - and it may, or it may not, be helpful to know that we've relocated to Colorado - when we saw in the newspaper a story about G Love and Special Sauce and how they were this week's performance in the local free summer concert series.
Extra! Extra! Read All About It: The paper in Steamboat, the Pilot and Today, is free Monday through Saturday, so we both had our own copy.
Back On Message: Now, you are probably thinking The Woman made some of her infamous noises about going, but actually yours truly beat her to it and, in the upset of the year, was the one who suggested we go.
Don't Worry, He's Probably Never Read Your Hack Column Anyway: This despite the fact neither of us had heard of G Love until reading the article.
Do Re Mi: We are not particularly qualified to judge the technical aspects of G Love's performance, of course, One, we're not musicians and, despite the fact we collected 45's and listened to Casey Kasem as a kid, know some zero nothing about judging the work of professional musicians.
Don't Let That Stop You: Two, our idea of new music is the second Boston album. It appears to us that G Love and Special Sauce play some sort of rockish blues type music, with some rap/hip hop (we really don't know the difference) thrown in there, too.
Ten Hut! G Love had our attention from the second he took the stage, sat down with his guitar and harmonica, and said he was going to sing a song about coffee. His presence was so compelling The Woman and I moved from the patch of grass we were sitting on so we could stand as close to the stage as possible.
Celebrity Death Match: We'd like to see G Love and Bruce Springsteen in a guitar/harmonica competition. It would be close.
Second Hand Pot Smoke Review: Evidently they take their weed seriously in Colorado. It was some primo stuff. Or so I heard. We just say no here at the Writer's Shack.
Standard Internet Disclaimer: Gaylon is not a professional free concert at the base of a ski jump reviewer. In fact, this was his first, so his opinions, like most of the other crap reviewed here, are based not any type of expert, professional criteria, but on his own subjective tastes.
We Interrupt This Program For A Word From The Ratings Department:Following Is The Official Writer's Shack Capsule Review Rating scale:
EX - Excellent; as good as the medium can produce in every respect.
VG - Very Good. Well worth your time.
GD - Good. More or less worth your time.
AR - All Right. Not completely without merit.
SP - Nothing of substance; a steaming pile, utterly without merit.
Final Rating: VG. G Love and Special Sauce had the two traits we demand out of a great show: one, we didn't want it to end, despite the fact he provided over two hours of music, which is kind of long for us because we tend to lose interest in entertainment after an hour or so.
Two, G Love gave the impression he had waited his entire tour to perform for us, that of all the shows he has and would play this year, this was the one he had really, truly been waiting for. This is a trait all the great ones, in any field of human endeavor, have. So go see G Love and Special Sauce. The music is good and when they are playing for you, it is plain there is nothing else is they would rather be doing.
HEY BATTER, BATTER: Guy Hecker, a pitcher for the Louisville Colonels of the then-major league American Association (AA) has one of the greatest days batting in major league history on this date in 1886
Playing in the second game of doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles, Hecker goes 6-6 with three home runs and three singles, seven runs scored and 15 total bases.
Get Out Your Record Books: In one game Hecker established new major league records for most runs in a game - which still stands - and total bases. He also tied the existing records for most hits and home runs in a game.
Amongst pitchers, he is the only one with six hits in a game, though Jim Tobin of the Boston Braves became the second pitcher to hit three home runs in a game in 1942. His 15 total bases is still the record for pitchers.
An equivalent performance today would require a batter to score eight runs, get seven hits, four of them home runs and no less than 20 total bases in a nine inning game.
FanFacts: Hecker played nine years in the big leagues, compiled a 175-142 record on the mound while batting .282. He is the only big league player to lead a major league in both wins (52, 1884, AA) and batting average (.341, 1886, AA).
Oh Yeah: Hecker was the winning pitcher in the 22-5 win. The Colonels won the opener, too, 13-6. Despite the sweep, the Colonels remained ten games behind the St. Louis Browns, who smacked around the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers 19-0.
The Post Game Show Is Brought To You By Coca-Cola, Which Will Be Founded In Six Years: In other American Association action the Philadelphia Athletics defeated the Cincinnati Reds 3-1. The National League took the day off.
A Long Time Ago, In A Galazy Far, Far Away…Maybe: What History now refers to as the Wow! Signal was picked up by a telescope at Ohio State University on this date in 1997.
The Wow! Signal is a radio transmission suspected to be of non-terrestrial, non-solar system origin. It gets it's name from the term Dr. Jerry Ehrman wrote 'wow!' in the margin on the print out of the transmission.
What The Hell's Going On Here? Nobody is entirely certain what the Wow! Signal was, but it has the characteristics those involved with the project thought an alien transmission might have. For example, the transmission lasted for the full 72 seconds the telescope was able to listen to the target area, and the signal got stronger until peaking halfway through and then got weaker the second half. There were other characteristics, too, but most are beyond the scope of this column, which some cynics might interpret to mean we really didn't understand them.
Dry, Technical Matter: Despite repeated attempts, the signal was never again detected, and while it may very well have been a one-time signal from an alien race hell bent on our destruction, it may very well have been a signal from earth that got reflected back.
Thought For The Day: Truth between candid minds can never do harm. - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Abigail Adams.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The trivia question had the day off last time.
Today's Stumper: How many current National League teams began in the American Association? - Answer next time!
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