Like Sublime? Thank The Clash.

Anyone who has hung out with me in the last two months knows that I have been on a huge Clash kick. It pretty much started in February when a few friends and I visited the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame Annex in the city, where the museum had an exhibition on The Clash. Though I had always liked the band, my knowledge of the group basically started and ended with the album London Calling. However, after visiting the museum I now have every album on my Ipod and a collection of live bootlegs.

Additionally, anyone who has been friends with me over the last 10 years knows I also love Sublime. The origins of this love-affair date back to being 15-years-old and blasting "The Wrong Way" on my friend Dan's boombox during hockey practice.

What I and many people who I encounter cite as their reason for appreciating Sublime was the band's diversity in music. In particular what was impressive was the bands seemingly effortless blend of punk and reggae music. Certainly to their credit, the band were masters at this and though other groups such as Slightly Stoopid and Pepper have tried to duplicate the sound, there is still no substitute for the Bradley, Eric, Bud and Lou Dog.

Yet, what very few people of my generation realize is that the road that Sublime traveled was actually built two decades earlier by The Clash.

Now The Clash are by no means unappreciated and this blog post is not intended to diminish Sublime while building them up. I'm simply writing this to show that all rock has it's roots somewhere.

Check out these two side-by-side comparisons between Sublime and The Clash:

First up, the classic "Same in the End" off of Sublime's self-titled album.



Ok, one quick caveat here. Obviously the use of distortion in rock music really hit its peak in the 1990s. During the Clash's era, distortion wouldn't even be considered.

Now, the Clash's "Police on My Back."



You have all the basic elements of punk there and, generation gap notwithstanding, the two bands are similar.

Now check it out as both bands switch it up and drop some reggae beats on us.

Sublime's 5446/Ball and Chain (I know that 5446 is actually a cover, but for the sake of showing their ability to play the genre, please stay with me):



Now The Clash mixing things up with some reggae of their own with "Revolution Rock."



So there you have it, the evolution of the punk-reggae genre.

P.S. I also want to recommend The Clash Live at Shea Stadium for anyone who wants to hear more from the band. It's really one of the best live albums I have ever heard.

Opening Day: One of The Greatest Days of the Year

I love baseball.

As long as I can remember I have been in love with the sport and, of course, my favorite team the New York Yankees. I started playing the game at 5-years-old. However, unlike most kids across the country at that age I never played t-ball. In my hometown we had a pitching machine that fired actual baseballs at you from about 40 feet away. It was a spinning wheel on a tripod about four-feet-high. I remember one time my friend Walter ran right into the machine while going after a pop up - he looked like Freddy Krueger for about a month.

I kept playing baseball every summer until I was 19, when work and the lack of a local team kept me from playing. Today, with the exception of the occasional beer-tainted softball performance, my playing days are unfortunately over.

Yet every year on this day I get as excited as I was 20 years ago, back when I would read biographies on Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Babe Ruth.

I'll spare you all the rest of the tired cliches; the hope springing anew etc.

Yet today's terrible Yankee performance aside, I'm pretty optimistic about the pinstripes chances this season. Assuming the team can stay healthy, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better rotation in baseball with Sabathia, Wang, Burnett, Pettite and Chamberlain on the hill; there's no off day for opponents. Granted, I know that this isn't Andy Pettite circa 1996 or even 2003, but the guy is still a big game pitcher and will rise to the occasion (see 2007 ALDS losing effort).

On the offensive side I have a little more cause for worry. The Texeira addition was a great move, but the bottom of the lineup is weak. Nady is a .280 25 HR 85 RBI hitter at the absolute best, i'm still not convinced Corey Ransom is an actual person and Brett Gardner, while extremely quick and showing improvement every day has a lot to prove. Combine that with an injury prone Hideki Matsui, recovering Jorge Posada and a Robinson Cano in limbo and you really are banking on the top three (Jeter, Damon and Texeira) to carry the offensive load.

I don't even want to get into Alex "Total Embarassment" Rodriguez. That will be another post for another day.

Yet, if this team gels (and based on the dumping of some of the more abrasive personalities Giambi, Abreu and Mussina it's definitely possible) they are going to be contenders.

But enough about the Yankees...

One thing I can never understand is people that say baseball is boring. Now as you all slap your collective foreheads, hear me out.

Ok, I'm not as oblivious as to not admit that baseball is a slower moving game from a tempo perspective than soccer, hockey, basketball and football. From that perspective it is a "slower" moving game.

However, to call baseball boring in my opinion is the telltale sign of someone who doesn't really understand the game.

Baseball is really a thinking-mans sport. On every pitch every single player on the field needs to know what they are going to do and what everyone else on the field is going to do, when the ball is hit to them.

You need to know exactly how to pitch to each hitter, how to get him out on a 2-1 count with runners on second and third base. The hitter in turn, needs to know exactly what that pitcher has up his sleeve, whether that pitch that's coming at him right now at 85-miles-per-hour is gonna cut away from him and, if it does, whether or not he's going to be able to slap at it the opposite way for a base hit.

It's a chess match, with one team trying to think not only about the hitter at hand, but two or hitters ahead.

It's a chess match, but every move is determined in the blink of an eye.

For someone to say that baseball is boring is simply watching it the wrong way. You can't watch baseball like you would a hockey game, there simply isn't enough stimulation there for you. However, if you really study the game and understand everything that's going on, there is no sport that offers the excitement and intrigue that baseball does.

For those of you who are looking for some eye candy in this post, check out my fantasy baseball team:

First Post

Welcome to my blog.

If you are here it means that you are either interested in my opinion on things, have too much free time on your hands or a combination of the two.

A little bit about myself, I'm a 25-year-old graduate student at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies in the Public Relations and Corporate Communication program. I graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2006 with a double major in Journalism and History. Over the last three years I've worked in Democratic politics, first as a Press Secretary for the Connecticut House of Representatives (Feb. 2007-June 2008), as a Field Organizer for President Obama's campaign (Oregon Primary, Michigan and Nevada in the general election), as a temporary Staff Assistant for Congressman Steve Rothman (NJ-9) and now as a member of Mayor Jerramiah Healy's re-election campaign in Jersey City.

Though I've been working in Jersey since January, I actually live on East 20th Street in New York City. This means that unlike most of the millions of people that surround the tri-state area, I actually commute out of the city every day.

My politics are progressive, my favorite baseball team is the Yankees, I love nearly all rock and roll, I am a coffee addict and I've been to 44 out of the 50 states in this great nation.

At the risk of getting too cozy right away, I'll leave you all with a video of the Red Hot Chili Peppers performing "Venice Queen" at Slane Castle in Ireland. This is an amazing concert and the best song of the night (I also refuse to use the phrase "in my opinion" on this blog because, who else's opinion could it be?).

What's really awesome about this song is that for the first two minutes or so, guitarist John Frusciante is recording the guitar riff that will play throughout the remainder of the song. Check it out, if you're an RHCP fan or a rock fan in general you'll love the video.