Ah, Good Friday. No meat today, and I got a couple of teams...okay, a trio, I would love to see crucified...with a loss. San Hoser in women's water polo, Oral Roberts in baseball, and Hawaii in men's volleyball.
Now, if I may continue with the summer lists, I would like to disseminate my top 10 songs with the word “Summer” in it.
1. The Boys of Summer – Don Henley
This songs has a great kick to it. A timeless 80’s melody riff. The live version by the Eagles is a great example of this at work, as well as the DJ Sammy cover, which has a bumping beat that echoes shining chicks in bikinis bathing in the sun.
2. Summer of 69’ – Bryan Adams
A tune that characterizes Adams’s signature sound of classicrock with an 80’s edge to it. A light power ballad worth boogieing to.
3. Our Last Summer – ABBA
A melancholy ballad of lost love, and a guy named Harry who is a football fan. And a family man. And the guy of a downtrodden girl’s dreams. And worth a listen.
4. Summertime – Will Smith
A nice hip-hop number that shows a slice of life in the summer that is still true today. If you’re in the city.
5. Hot Fun In The Summertime – Sly Stone
Perhaps an inspiration for Genesis’ “Misunderstanding,” it’s an easy number with some great harmonies.
6. Long Hot Summer Night – Jimi Hendrix
Great bluesy number with the Experience, although “Hey Joe” and “All Along The Watchtower” are my favorites from this group.
7. Summertime Blues – Eddie Cochran
This is a song about perseverance in the times of youth. Poor Eddie got killed in a car crash, and was unable to continue his dreams of becoming one of the best musicians in history. This is the only memory of him.
8. Hot Time, Summer In The City – The Lovin’ Spoonful
Great 60’s-style song about summer in the city. The piano is quintessential novelty.
9. In the Good Old Summertime – Captain Kangaroo
This is one for the little brats. But it’s novelty, and it’s timeless, and it’s sung by Captain Kanga-fuckin-roo, people! Raise a pint of bee-uh for him!
10. The Summer Wind – Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett, whoever sung it first.
You may have heard this from “The Simpsons,” but I love a good big band “Rat Pack” song, and this one completes the list.
Ten great songs with summer on it
Fruits for the Summer
Everyone likes to eat something sweet and fresh. So, with Spring going through its course, Summer is coming very soon. Hot days, warm nights, and lots of lovemaking underneath the stars require some fruit to fit the season. In a little bit of a deviance from the usual posts I make on BoBA and LoLi, I would like to make a list of my favorite fruits to ea during the summer. A top 10 list, if you will, in no particular order.
1. Watermelon. Glamorized by many anime classics (whacking the watermelon on the beach), this large green wonder is a perfect refreshing treat when sliced up. It quenches you, and makes you feel good. Make sure you take the seedless varieties, if you can find them.
2. Pineapple. A spiky wonder that lends a Hawaiian touch. Simply take of the crown, and slice it in chunks or rings. Maui Gold is my favorite variety. There ar actually different types of pineapple, from red ones, to purple ones. Look it up on Wiki.
3. Cantaloupe. I like to eat this when the fruit is shaved into strings, and placed in a pitcher with water, ice and sugar, then placed in the fridge. Who needs iced tea anyway!?
4. Strawberries. Although I like to eat this in the Spring, strawberries taste fantastic in the summertime as well. Take off the green top, gather them in a bunch and add cream to it.
5. Oranges. A handy snack. The color reflects the season.
6. Fuji apples. I know some people like brands like Gala, Granny Smith, and even that evil apple known as Red Delicious (ugh), but Fuji apples are what real apples should taste like. Try it. You’ll get addicted to it.
7. Nashi pears. Another thirst quencher. Some people also like a Chinese version, called Ya Li pears. That is unique in its own right, but inferior to Nashi, straight from Japan.
8. Bananas. For those of you whose minds are fixated-no, make that hellbent on fellatio-infested fornication this summer, this is the fruit for you. And it’s got a potassium kick when you at it in bunches. Go ape-crazy on this one.
9. Mangoes. Messy fruit this is, undelicious this isn’t! Enjoy this luxurious treat wherever and wherever you can get your hands on it.
10. Coconuts. Might be a bit fattening for some who are obsessed with being anorexic, but otherwise, this is a no-brainer. Enjoy!
On softball and how it turned to more than just a playground game
I always thought of softball as one of those playground games. I first saw a softball pitch when I was a young kid, walking around Admiral Kidd Park. That park was just a few minutes from my house. I saw how the field looked like. The infield was made of dirt and clay, while the outfield was grass. I thought at first that this was another example of a baseball field, until I found out that it was for a different game altogether.
Softball was an offshoot of baseball. The ball was larger, and pitches were thrown underhand. Further, there were three varieties of the game: slow-pitch, which has a very big ball, a deeper field, and no gloves needed, fast-pitch, which has a yellow ball, and was defensive oriented, and modified-pitch, which was somewhere in between the former two.
My university’s softball team played the fast-pitch variety. It’s an NCAA rule to have it be this way, and it probably is the most challenging of the three types. So I was watching the ladies take on Cal State Northridge for a three game series in two days. The first day was a doubleheader. They lost the first game, and I screamed at the ladies to wake up and get the job done. They would win the second game thanks to the heroics of one Kelly Cross. Brigitte Pagano, the pitcher who lost the first game, came right back to atone for her transgressions by winning the deciding rubber match on Sunday. On that day, one of the softball boosters gave me a shirt. On Sunday, the day of that third game, a group of kids from Los Altos Bobby Sox came over to watch. It’s a good thing they weren’t disappointed.
I suppose softball is one of those games that makes you feel like a little kid again.
Fast forward a week, and now in between watching Oral Roberts taking on the Dirtbags, the volleyball team of men finishing their home campaign against Hawaii, catching up on my IS 380 homework and blogging and drawing, I am watching the softball team take on Cal State Fullerton.
I told Ryan Kobane of the Long Beach Union Weekly that my work’s not done yet, and with the Dirtbags hogging the April dates, it’s set to be that way. We did win our last game. Could we be turning the ship around and prove that our last win against the Zot scum wasn’t a fluke?
I leave it to the schmucks who call the Blair home to figure out the answer.
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