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Charles Simone

I am here for Friends

About Me

I'm obsessed with lists, I attended professional baseball umpire school, I'm very tangential, I'm really good at spelling but I had to look up tangential to see if I spelled it correctly. I like rules...that is, I like enforcing and breaking them (so call me a hypocrite). I'm a craft beer enthusiast, amateur music critic, and wanna-be sabermetrician, and quite analytical...kind of to a fault.

My Interests

Baseball, softball, live music, geeky computer stuff, nerdy librarian stuff, obsessing for an entire year about my year-end music compilation, running (when my damn feet allow me to), trying to be a beer snob, wearing my "bad-ass" black pleather jacket every chance I get.

Music:

Space Needle, Varnaline, Shore Leave, Purple Ivy Shadows, Reservoir, Anders Parker, The 'Mericans, The Afrosheens, The Doids, Sean Thompson, Monston VCR, Tater Haters, Airport City, Long River Train, Common Thieves.

Movies:

The Tao of Steve, Once, Ghost World, The Big Lebowski, Monty Python and the Holy Grail...just to name a few.

Television:

Seinfeld, Arrested Development, Grounded for Life, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Squidbillies, South Park, That 70's Show, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Baseball Tonight.

Books:

Neil Young biographies, baseball encyclopedias, books about homebrewing, random shit by and about Kierkegaard, Hornby and Hornbyesque stuff, everything by WP Kinsella, especially The Iowa Baseball Confederacy.

Heroes:

Dead heroes: Chet Laabs, Graham Chapman, Danny Whitten.

Canadian heroes: Neil Young, WP Kinsella, Neil Peart, Donal Logue.

Others: James Iha, Marco Scutaro, Casey Blake, Fritz Gartner, Tzvi Mackson, Brian O'Rourke.

My Blog

Frequent Spins - Jan 08

Alright, a new year and a slightly different approach to this monthly ritual. No more ranked lists, I'm just going to offer my annotated and alphabetized favorites, and maybe a few other comments abou...
Posted by Charles Simone on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:53:00 PST

Best of 2007 - Part 4

Oh yeah...almost forgot about this: 5. The National - Boxer4. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank3. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?2. Band of Horses - Cease to Be...
Posted by Charles Simone on Sat, 05 Jan 2008 11:50:00 PST

Best of 2007 - Part 3

15. Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City14. The Apples in Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder13. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away12. Okkervil River - The Stage Names11. M.I.A. - Kala10. Andrew Bird - Armchai...
Posted by Charles Simone on Sun, 30 Dec 2007 07:17:00 PST

Best of 2007 - Part 2

Oops...forgot to keep up on posting the list here. Once again, if you feel like reading more, go to my other blog, Left Field.32. Rosie Thomas - These Friends of Mine31. Mark Olson - The Salvatio...
Posted by Charles Simone on Thu, 27 Dec 2007 05:59:00 PST

Best of 2007 - Part 1

And so the countdown begins...40. New Buffalo - Somewhere, Anywhere39. Art Brut - It's a Bit Complicated38. Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond37. Aqueduct - Or Give Me Death36. Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer35. Handsome...
Posted by Charles Simone on Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:17:00 PST

Frequent Spins - Nov 07

A little late with the final installment of Frequent Spins for 2007. Next month, it will be replaced with the countdown of my top 40 albums of the year. Not much comes out in December anyway...just a ...
Posted by Charles Simone on Sun, 09 Dec 2007 03:33:00 PST

Frequent Spins - October 07

As anticipated, October was a good month...not as good as March, but among the best of the current annum.1. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin : It only clocks in at about 35 minutes, but is an absolute ...
Posted by Charles Simone on Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:07:00 PST

Curse Reversed?

For years prior to 2004, I'd observed the slogan "Reverse the Curse" all around Boston, include a "Curve" sign on Storrow Drive that was defaced to reflect the locals' favorite slogan at the time. I w...
Posted by Charles Simone on Sat, 06 Oct 2007 10:39:00 PST

Baseball postseason

I initially thought the Red Sox, given the choice, would opt for the shorter series, believing that their rotation is not as top heavy and deeper than the other AL teams. I was wrong, but looking back...
Posted by Charles Simone on Mon, 01 Oct 2007 08:59:00 PST

Frequent Spins - Sept 07

Fall is here, and that means it's time for the second big wave of new releases after a typically slow summer. September was a decent month, but certainly nothing special. October is looking quite prom...
Posted by Charles Simone on Mon, 01 Oct 2007 07:42:00 PST