Happy Passover

Happy Passover to readers of this journal who are observing the holiday.

The Kris Kristofferson - Bob Dylan Connections

When one picks up a magazine you don't know when an article will really hit you. Certainly Rolling Stone Magazine normally appeals to people much younger than I. Some time ago I was offerred a free subscription to it for about 6 months. In the April 16th issue there was an article titled The Last Outlaw Poet by Ethan Hawke about Kris Kristofferson. I didn't realize what a multfaceted ferformer Kris really is. When I looked at my Joel Whitburn Top Pop Book, Kris had only 7 Top 100 pop hits with only one hitting the top 20. Kris was better known as a country music artist. I didn't realize that Kris appeared in 70 films. Ethan Hawke made the following statement in the article:

"There are many musicians who have dabbled in film and actors who have tried their hand at a recording session. But only Frank Sinatra has done both on the level that Kris has, and with Sinatra it was different: Sinatra was a showman. Kris is a poet who sometimes sings and acts extremely well."

The photo above is of Kris and Dylan in the movie "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid." Kris was the host of the 30th Anniversary Tribute Concert to Dylan popularly known as the Bobfest on October 16, 1992. In 1986 on the album Knocked Out Loaded Dylan cover a Kris Kristofferson song called "They Killed Him." Kris said:

"Havin' Dylan cover one of your songs is like being a playright and having Shakespeare act in your play" That is some compliment.

Mets Win Season Opener 2-1 in Cincinnati

The Mets started their season on the road at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. I was able to listen to part of the game on the radio while I was in my office this afternoon. Daniel Murphy hit a home run early in the game while Johann Santana held the Reds to one run in 5 2/3 innings. This time the bullpen, last season's big weakness, held the Red scoreless as the Amazins won 2-1. Recap.

Hello Citifield. It was nice meeting you today

The construction of Citifield began during the summer of 2006. Whenever I passed the site on the #7 train I would always look out the window to see how the construction was progressing. However in Fall 2008 when the deconstruction of Shea Stadium began, I just couldn’t look. Now that the Shea is down I now look at Citifield as I anticipate the beginning of the 2009 baseball season.

Some months ago I bought a package of 15 game tickets for this season. A few weeks ago I received some tickets from the Mets to see the team workout on April 5th, the day before the start of the season. The purpose of our trip today was to see the new ball park, not necessarily to see batting practice.

W entered through the right field entrance and walked toward home plate. The corridors are very wide like the new ballparks that we visited on the Jay Buckley baseball tours of 2006 and 2007. There were plenty of food concession stands and souvenir shops. There is plenty of space to stand whenever there is a rain delay. We took a full tour of the ballpark. The mini amusement park that stood outside of Shea Stadium is now back of centerfield. There are plenty of TV monitors where you can see replays. We enjoyed the Jackie Robinson Rotunda placed by the home plate side of the park. We walked up to section 527 in the upper deck on the third base side where our plan tickets are to get a preview of our view.

From there we went to a souvenir shop where everyone got a tee shirt commemorating the opening of the park. We also bought to small model of Citifield to add to our set of New York City stadium models that include Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds, Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium.

Our last stop was the Home Run Apple that was taken from Shea Stadium. Citifield has a new apple which is in centerfield. You can see photos of our day at http://picasaweb.google.com/bigtownman/HelloCitifield More will be written about Citifield and the Mets in future journal entries.

Shopping for Suits Today

I hadn't bought a new suit since Lee's Bar Mitzvah in 2001. I guess there just haven't been too many occasions where it was necessary to wear a suit in the past 8 years. We drove over the the Men's Wearhouse in Bayside to buy a suit for myself and for Lee. In late May we are going to the Bar Mitzvah of my brother-in-law Paul's step son. It's nice to get all dressed up once in a while.

Beatles Song of the Day - Rain

I hope it stops raining today so the Mets and Yankees can play their first major league games at their new stadia. It is scheduled to be Mets vs Red Sox and Yankees vs. Cubs.

WABC Rewound will only be heard online this year

For readers who are not radio enthusiasts WABC was the greatest Top 40 music station from 1960 until 1982 when it became a talk radio station. For about 10 years on Memorial Day for about 12 hours the station featured WABC Rewound where airchecks from the music radio era where played. We were able to hear classic DJs like Herb Oscar Anderson, Bruce Morrow, Dan Ingram, Charlie Greer and others. I have read tonight on several radio message boards that this year Rewound will be heard only online. Here is a post that I submitted to the Yahoo Saturday Night Oldies Board:

There are possible reasons for the demise of WABC Rewound on the Air:

1. There is a new program director. Very often when there is a new boss he/shelikes to assert managerial muscles and makes changes for to show who is in charge. Perhaps she does not have an appreciation for the heritage of thestation.

2. They may have run out of Musicradio WABC airchecks and just did not want toplay repeats.

3. Not enough advertising revenue which has been said before.I feel that listenership to talk radio would be very light on a major summerholiday. How many people would listen to repeats of Limbaugh or Hannity? Howmuch advertising would 12 hours of talk radio bring in? It seems that thisonline only Rewound could be a compromise. I guess it is not known how long itwill be or if there will be a show with Mark Simone, Alan Sniffen, and WABC DJs. Another compromise could be having a shortened over the air show. Nothing in this world lasts forever.