Way back around Christmas I told y’all about Amy Winehouse and her great song “Rehab.”
Well, as I mentioned on Sunday, her CD Back to Black hits stores today so I thought I’d put up a plug here so y’all would go out and buy it (or download it at iTunes). Continue reading
Within the past couple days, my car was broken into and my radio was stolen (again — it was the second time in two years). This was annoying on its own, but for the purposes of this blog, I’ll tell you one of the other reasons I was annoyed by it was that I was looking forward to spending the day listening to my new favorite CD, James Morrison‘s Undiscovered. Chances are good you’ve never heard of Morrison, but that’s likely because his CD doesn’t actually hit stores until Tuesday (I scored an advance copy). In brief, he’s another one in the wave of Brits who are releasing albums stateside this year (i.e.: Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Mika, etc.).
Morrison is a singer-songwriter with a bit of soul; he’s kind of like a more upbeat Ray LaMontagne. I’ve also seen comparisons to David Gray, Jeff Buckley, and Damien Rice. The first single off Undiscovered is “You Give Me Something,” and I’d love to link you to it, but instead, I’ll link you to his MySpace page and his official site, both of which have streams of it. You can also download it at iTunes. I can, however, link you to other tracks from his CD, “Wonderful World” and “The Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore.” Also notable on the CD is “Under the Influence.” The CD is out on Tuesday (as is Amy Winehouse’s), and I know it’ll only cost $7.99 at Best Buy (actually, Amy Winehouse’s CD will be on sale for the same price there), so go pick it up.
If you’re interested, I’ve posted photos from Monday, when I went to see the Red Sox in Fort Myers. To see them, just click on this link. Enjoy!
As promised, more pictures from my trip to the Bahamas have been posted here. I didn’t post all of them because in typical fashion, I took many photos of the same things (beaches, beaches, and more beaches), but I did post a lot because I think many of them are really good. So, enjoy. Click here to see the pictures.
While I was away this week, someone posted a pretty funny trailer for the movie adaptation of the Mooninite scare earlier this year (yeah, Hollywood works really quickly). Check it out here.
(No, this is not real.)
I’ve been saying for weeks now that Haley Scarnato will go far on this season of American Idol. Well, now she’s made it to the finals, to the top 12, and I couldn’t be happier for her. Sure, I don’t think she’s actually going to win it all (I’m predicting Jordin Sparks will do that), but since her first appearance on the show, people haven’t been giving her much of a shot while I’ve been saying she’s one of the more underrated contestants this year. Her performance Wednesday night (of Faith Hill’s “If My Heart Had Wings”) was one of her best, and I expect at least a couple more good ones from her. I mean, after all, at the very least, she’s better than Sunjaya! So get used to her, America — Haley’s here to stay.
Not lost on me this week was the big news involving supermarket chain A&P. Now, anyone who knows me knows what one of my favorite jokes of all time is, and for a second there, I thought it had actually come true. Alas, A&P bought Pathmark — not Stop & Shop — meaning my dreams of a store called Stop & P will have to remain just that, dreams. It also means I can keep telling that joke over and over again until it becomes a reality, if it ever becomes a reality. So I’m not too disapointed.
So I have to say, the biggest disappointment about my trip to City of Palms Park on Monday wasn’t the Sox losing 2-1 to the Dodgers, and it wasn’t the fact that Jason Varitek didn’t play, and it wasn’t the fact that I never got to see Gabe Kapler when I went to the minor league facility. No, it wasn’t any of those things. Instead, my biggest disappointment was the fact that City of Palms Park doesn’t sell Fenway Franks. They sell the Globe and the Herald, and they sell old World Series champ merchandise, and they play “Sweet Caroline” midway through the eighth inning. But no, the one piece of Fenway I was most looking forward to on this trip to see the Sox in their springtime home, that I was denied.
Otherwise, it was a great time seeing the Olde Towne Team in Fort Myers. The whole thing had the feeling of a reunion: for the fans, it was the first time we were seeing the boys since October, and many seemed quite happy to have us cheering for them again. For the Sox, it was a chance to hang out with Nomar and Grady Little (Rudy Seanez and J.D. Drew made no visible attempts to hang out with their old teammates). Getting to the stadium at 10:30 for a 1:00 game meant we could hang out and see the guys bonding, laughing, reconnecting, enjoying themselves. It was really fun. Hell, people were even asking Grady Little for his autograph, and Nomar received some of the biggest cheers of the day. And it was also amusing that if you wanted to find Dice-K, all you had to do was look for the mob of Japanese reporters and fans. They travel with him around the stadium in a pack, just like his own personal entourage.
And as if that all wasn’t enough, the weather was near-perfect, the PA system was playing “Ants Marching” and “Margaritaville” and other sumertime classics, there was a too-vocal yahoo fan yelling out stupid stuff throughout the game, my dad and I sat right behind the Dodgers’ dugout, and best of all, hope seemed to be in full supply (despite the loss). For a few brief hours, it was finally spring. And it was awesome.
But no Fenway Franks. That would have made the trip perfect. Ah well. I’ll just have to wait until I get tickets to see the team play at home.
ps: A really cool “star” sighting at the park was Keith Olbermann. I asked him if he’d be giving Ann Coulter hell for her comments Friday night and sure enough, he tipped me off that even though he was on vacation, he’d be phoning in a segment for that night’s show. And he also gave me a good laugh when he said Coulter was “more mannish” than John Edwards. I love Keith Olbermann. He’s the man. (And clearly Terry Francona thinks so too; Keith sat right by his side at the top of the dugout throughout the entire game.)
I’m back in the States, so I thought I’d check in with a quick report about what I’ve been up to since I last posted something here. Wednesday night I flew down to Florida, and Thursday morning I flew to the Bahamas for four days on a (free) press trip. Not too shabby. The trip was to a hotel in the Abacos, and while it wasn’t the most luxurious hotel I’ve been to, I can say it was the nicest one I’ve ever stayed at in the Bahamas — since this was my first time to that part of the world. There were three other journalists on the trip, all around the same age as me and from varied other publications, so that made it fun.
Anyway, as opposed to, say, Nassau or Freeport, the Abacos are a quieter, more laid-back part of the Bahamas, and the trip’s low-key itinerary reflected that. Thursday night we had a nice dinner at the hotel’s restaurant. Friday we went to Hope Town and walked around there during the day; at night we went out to a couple bars near the hotel for drinks and dinner, and danced with the locals at one place where a great band was playing. Saturday the group of us went island hopping aboard a 20-foot motorboat (easily the best part of the trip), and then at night we had dinner al fresco by the pool. After breakfast on Sunday we headed back to the States, and that was that.
I took about 115 photos while I was there, some really great. I’d have taken more, but Saturday my camera got a bit too wet, and let’s just say it is now on the permanent disabled list. I’ll post a link to more of my pictures when I’m back in Boston, but you can get a sampling here. And yes, I came back with a little bit of a sunburn, like I usually do when I go somewhere warm, and actually, I also busted up one of my toes. But there were good things too, including the fact that I ate stuff like conch fritters, something I’d never had before (and probably never will again). And the times on the boats — Saturday, and the ride back from Hope Town to the hotel on Friday — really were a lot of fun.
I want to add that on Saturday I saw one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, on Guana Cay (pronounced key). Of course, I saw it after the camera broke, so I have no photographic proof of its existence, but you have to believe me when I say that I’ve never seen sand that pristine or water that clear. There were even dolphins swimming just off-shore. And I came back with a really unusual, really cool shell, which is a great memento. We had a star sighting in the Fort Lauderdale airport on Thursday; David Caruso, from CSI: Miami, was also going to the Bahamas (I think to Nassau). And I loved that the airport in Marsh Harbour was literally two rooms: one for arrivals and one for departures. There was not even an X-ray or metal detector before you boarded the plane, nor was there an actual baggage claim area. (An interesting piece of trivia is that this is the same airport that Aaliyah left from when she died in 2001.)
So, overall, it was a good time. And now I can say I’ve been to the Bahamas. Tomorrow I’ll fill you in on what I’ve been up to since I got back to Florida.
Martin's Musings 