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Red Sox win! Red Sox win!! Has being 8½ games out of first place ever felt so good? The Sox just made a miraculous comeback against the Yankees after laying the smack down on the Empirettes. Jason Varitek is my hero. So is Billy Mueller. And Official Soxer of A Cry for Help, Trot Nixon, was no joke in defending our friend Gabe Kapler. Not that I saw it from the bleachers or anything, but damn, the fight was nice and the game was better. Three runs and a walk-off homer off Señor Automatic Mariano Rivera?! Best game all year. Did I mention, as of right now, I hate Nightwing, who was at today's game, about as much as I hate Fox announcers Joe Buck and Tim McCarver? Bastards all. Seriously though, I had to mute the television for innings at a time to keep from being aurally jizzed on as McCarver gave 10-minute broadcast blowjobs to Jeter and A-rod (and Sheffield and Matsui and Joe Torre and...). And Curse Shmurse. Some people can't take the heat.

I just witnessed a bench clearing Yankees - Red Sox brawl from the bleachers at Fenway. That is all. UPDATE - What a fucking awesome game.

I just saw Boston Mayor Tom Menino, when asked why all traffic was barred from I-93, say that "these missles they have nowadays, they can fit in the back of a car" (paraphrase). Missles. I know the 9/11 report just came out saying we had a failure to imagine what terrorists could do to us, but missles!? Fired at the Fleet Center from the highway?! Sounds like a video game, doesn't it? What about mortar fire from across the Charles? Never can be too careful... Besides, I thought Kerry was bin Laden's man. Why would those who hate freedom try to hurt the Democrats?

It's Nomar Garciaparra's birthday! If history is our guide, number 5 will destroy the Yankees tonight, with at least two home runs and 5 RBI. I love Nomar!! A Cry for Help loves Nomar! As you can see, even our despondant header-dweller has put up her Nomar poster! Happy birthday buddy!

In keeping with my "long-after-release" listening to of new music, I just picked up Good News for People Who Love Bad News, from Modest Mouse. (Though, if you'll allow my to defend my snooty hipness, I did have a short-live indie-rock stage around 2000 when Modest Mouse and Built to Spill and others were constantly in my CD player). Anyway, it's a pretty good album, despite my weird feeling that it's half of one of the best Pixies albums I never heard. I don't do music reviews (that's Nightwing's job 'round here), but I did want to mention one particular track, in case you're one to buy singles from iTunes or just like certain cult literary figures. Track 8 is a song called Bukowski, as in Charles, the notorious love-em or hate-em American poet and writer. In high school, a friend of mine bought me a copy of his Tales of Ordinary Madness, after she had read one of his other books. The book was filled with short stories of violence and mysogeny, and I was altogether uncomfortable with it. I don't think I even finished it. That's why my ears perked up at MM's song, with lyrics like: That seemed so right to me. The rest of the song has some Bukowski-esque lyrics. I should probably go dust off that book; I'm sure the intervening years will change my opinion, one way or the other. Any Buk fans out there who might recommend his best work?

I just got back from something that I never thought I would have the right to attend - the RI Monthly 'Best Of Rhode Island' party. In a year that has seen more local press then I ever thought possible for the little improv group that could (or couldn't, depending on the night), we landed the mother of them all. In the August issue of RI monthly, Unexpected Company was named Rhode Island's best comedy troupe. You read that right - Unexpected Company, not Ocean State Follies. Those out of state may not understand how big a deal this is. I went to lunch at a place called 'Duffy's Tavern' today. On the front of their menu they had the best of RI logo... From their best seafood win in 1996. Now we can do that, and we have the plaque to prove it. The event was great. Held at Trinity Rep, free food, open bar, psuedo Rhody celebs crawling all over the place - all the while me and my UC associate sticking out like a sore thumb. One of the highlights was the auction of RI centric items. The crown jewel was a walk on role in the upcoming 'Prince Of Providence' film (it only went for $1,200!). That stuff was cool and all, but the real cool thing was the fact that we were even there to begin with. Since I joined this group (consisting of 5 people at the first rehersal), I have been through a ton of shit in a year and a half. There have been the good: cover feature in projo arts, sold out one year anniversary show, providence improv fest. And the bad: selfish people along the way, shows at other venues that no one wanted to see or perform at (Bil - you were at one of those), and other thankless work. Ups and downs aside, taking over as Artistic Director for the company in December has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my entire life. I hope to some day run a local theatre in RI (ideally Warwick) and it is days like today that make that feel more and more like a reality. Check out a show sometime and say hi.

Do not elect this man! After presiding over an ethical cesspool in the RI legislature, then mucking through a sex scandal which forced him to step down as speaker of the house (which could have been a moot point had some electoral "inconsistancies" not allowed him to eke out a win over A WRITE-IN CANDIDATE last election), Rep. John Harwood wants to be leader of the House once more. If you live in Pawtucket's 59th House district, vote early, vote often, vote against this sleazy pol (you've even got two chances, in the Dem primary then again in November!)

Perhaps you were interested in what blog post Matt sent me the other day that inspired this Cry for Help? (if you were, you sure didn't comment about it, dammit) Well, to answer your unasked question, it had to do with funding cuts at the Providence Public Library, the jewel of RI's lending library system and our capital's yardstick of civilization (wait, maybe that's soap?) Anyway, I am sad to say that I didn't follow this story more closely here on aC4H, but David and Brian were on it. Plus there's a clearinghouse of information here, detailing what a raw deal the library staff (and all of us) were handed. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much we can do at this point, so, uh, yeah. Sucks.

I read this story the other day, via Jimspot, about one woman's experience on an airline flight with 14 Syrians. It's pretty scary, but when I was done reading it there was something that didn't sit right with me. The article seemed so self-consciously inflammatory, and too perfect in its terrifying plot. But honestly, they even said they deliberated on publishing it, and then I saw it picked up by one of the cable news shows yesterday. Apparently, though, it didn't sit right with another columnist (who's also an airline pilot, how's that for a combo?). He writes in Salon his thoughts on the whole situation. It especially interests me because I try to be aware of the state of fear that passes for everyday life nowadays. Take a peek. And if you want to be scared of something that actually did happen, James has the story.

For some reason, it struck me yesterday to dust off the old comic book collection. It was a neat little visit to the past. Then I went to the comic book store on Thayer Street last night to see how much I'd missed. Not surprisingly, there were quite a few titles I'd never heard of, and the characters on the covers of my old favorites were strangers to me. I got into reading comics later than most kids, I think. I remember where I got my start, though, and it's kind of funny. Sometime in late 1993 I was watching late-night TV, flipping around. Something on the home shopping network caught my eye, and I ended up watching the show. They were selling a six book set of X-men comics with holograms on the cover. Over and over they talked about how much these special issues would be worth one day, how the story was unprecedented (it was the one where Wolverine has his adamantium ripped out by Magneto [did I just lose everyone?]). A few months later, I went to the Rocky Point Flea Market (how's that for a blast from the past, my fellow 'wicks?) with my mom and someone had a comics table set up. There were piles of those hologram issues, all six, being sold for $1 a piece. The words of the cable shopping salesman rushed back into my mind, and I talked my mom into buying me one issue of each, as an "investment." Naturally I read those books, and I wanted to know what happened next. I went back to the flea market the next week and picked up a few more recent issues of X-Men. Then I started visiting comic book shops, setting up subscriptions, and otherwise blowing my money on everything X-Men. I tried to get back-issues when I could (including an ill-advised $40 outlay for a marginally good copy of X-Men #25 from the 1960s), and I branched out to related superhero books. I never did get into other series, though. No Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Image Comics... just X-Men. I had a decent collection. When I was maybe 17 or 18, other books started to catch my eye, generally from the Vertigo imprint or smaller publishers. I started reading Preacher, Stray Bullets, and my all-time favorite, Optic Nerve. I can imagine what the clerks thought of my buying some well-written, artsy books with my X-Men. At the store last night it was nice to find that I hadn't actually missed many installments of some of the small press books. I stopped collecting in 1999, I think (when I found much better things to spend my money on in New Orleans). So now I am going through my boxes and boxes of books, fighting a powerful urge to catalog them with a spreadsheet (I didn't even own a computer while I was collecting!) It also struck me how surprisingly few comprehensive fan sites there were out there. Come on, geeks, get it together! I tried to find out simple things like "when was this series canceled?" and "where did this book come from?!" and it took way too long. Were I sixteen now I would make all sorts of sweet pages (as it stands now, though, I can barely update my current obsession site). Any other lapsed comic collectors?

How weird is this: Matt, my good friend in real life, has a conversation with a stranger while dining out. Stranger gives Matt a business card which lists a website, which Matt reads, and follows a link from. Thinking I'd be interested in the subject, Matt sends the link on to me. Turns out the post was from David Grenier's blog, via Brian Hull, both of whose blogs are near the top of my daily reads! Both have even commented here once or twice. I think that's awesome (and totally random). I love it when the weird world of blogging bleeds into real life.

Today is Em's birthday!!!