THE CRIBS MARR NEW YORK YANKEES

I got two things on my mind. Two things. Two things.

These boys:





And this:





Motherlovin edifices of- one Johnny Marr (edifice of incredible guitar, putting up with Morrissey for ten years, and managing to stay cooler than the cool boys in the room almost 30 years later) inserted into my fave NOW brit pseudo punk funboy band AND THE OTHER an edifice of New York, history, certain decades of absolute dominance, hating the Red Sox and in general majesty. MAJESTY.

We will do the first, first.

Johnny Marr joined the Cribs. It's a time for "for those who don't live inside me head" mo, in that: The Cribs are Ryan, Gary, and Ross Jarman, all brothers, from Wakefield, England who play what I could only describe as enthusiastic punk rock with incredily catchy tunes and a valuable adherence to the integrity of the three minute pop song, haircuts, and screaming at jeeyust the right spots. AND NOW if only for a brief period of time, Johnny Marr managed to insert himself into one of the tightest functioning bands playing today - three brothers and two of them twins who I'm sure have a Jarman language invented already but then a JARMANTWIN language on top of it? C'mon Johnny we know you're from the North too but it's a bit presumptuous of you to throw your hat in that ring. Oh but wait. Then again of course, you're Johnny Marr.

And why this important? Oh this important. It begins with one of those overall feelings that it is so important, that I cannot explain how incredible and important Johnny Marr is. Sean asked me why Johnny Marr? about twenty minutes ago, so let's try to figure this out. To begin with, I loved Johnny Marr because of Noel Gallagher and the fact that he said when he was seventeen and saw the Smiths on TV, he just wanted to be as cool as Johnny Marr was. Because Johnny Marr is the same as Noel, skinny small guys from Manchester who are yes humble, but in their moments of arrogance are at least taking the piss just at least a little bit. On the musical end, it is because even if you don't like how Morrissey sounds, listen to The Smiths' guitar parts and try to figure out where the hell he came from. Then figure how many bands you listen to are trying to do what he did. Put on Meat is Murder, which isn't the best Smiths album, but arguably has some of the best guitar parts. Then put on the Queen is Dead, just the one song, and that's it. I'm not one to go on about guitars, because guitar wankery has ruined a good part of rock and roll and it's those cockthrusting, long hair having guitar wankers that have made it even worse. You take yourselves so seriously boys. Johnny Marr is not a guitar wanker. He was next to Morrissey and there he was, just the guitarist on stage. With The The, or Modest Mouse, or Electronic, and now the Cribs, he plays the guitar. Come to think of it, and now to sum up, I love Johnny Marr because fuck you Jimmy Page.

And the absolute audacity of this mid-forties, unassuming musician to take part in and become a member of some of the only good bands we have today. Marrinserted. Johnny Marr is a Crib.



To the other edifice and high on the list of things I love.

The New York Yankees have a new stadium. I will be the first to tell you that I was pissed at first and of course sad to see the old one go. It did not make sense to get rid of home for my home team. That ballpark felt like home like coming over the Brooklyn Bridge, or on the Belt from JFK feels like coming home. Throughout the winter it just seemed like a mess of luxury as they went through the build out, just stacking one suite/bar/corporate box on top of another and oh yeah, good luck trying to afford the regular seats anyway. Mohegan Sun Bar? Hard Rock Cafe? Are you fucking kidding me?

I've always had this strong image of what baseball was from my Dad, from East Tremont Ave in the Bronx and as a result born a Yankee fan... sort of. My grandfather, his father, was born in Brooklyn and a civil rights advocate and by way of his lefty commy Brooklyn Jewishness he rooted for Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers. My Dad grew up during the Yankees 50s barnstorming while his father, his mother, and his sister rooted for dem bums, and of course got to see them win one World Series in '55. New York Baseball in the 1950s is one of the reasons why I am proud to be a New Yorker and proud to be a Yankee fan. The Yankees outlasted both of those other teams. And that's why we aren't Mets fans. Because the Mets couldn't even hold onto "Shea." No history.

So I went to the stadium for an exhibition game against the Cubs with a mix of reservation and excitement. Excitement because I spent the last month reading about all the changes they made, the things they tried to keep the same, and godhelpus the sponsorships. So hop out of the train and see one stadium on the left and one stadium on the right. The new one is a whole lot more open, and one of the coolest parts is that you can walk all the way around the stadium, where you couldn't in the old one with the bleachers and monument park being cut off from everything else. The corridors are all wide and the ramps up to the grandstands have plenty of space. The upper decks are also on a graduated incline and you don't get that old stadium vertigo that the cheap seats had. The field and field dimensions are the same, and the bleachers/scoreboard/adspace looks completely different than the old one.

It's weird, this new one is a lot more convenient for the fan experience or whatever the fuck that means, but it's just not where things were and where things have always been. It's new. And I think any fan of an old shitty ballpark (in fairness Yankee stadium wasn't as bad as others with an f to an e to an n to a w etc) would argue that the inconvenience was part of the experience. Home was just where things were supposed to be. Plus it feels strange because the Yankees just aren't as strong as the team I mostly grew up with. And it's incredibly skewed in some ways that my deal as a Yankee fan is being sad during the years when my team doesn't make it to October when some schmo from Kansas City will never see the Royals do anything, all the same it's my deal as a Yankee fan. Being kinda sad that I won't get to see an October like I did age 11-16 and Derek Jeter as a puppy, my fave Scottie Brosius, MARIANO, and with playoff red white and blue bunting curving around the stadium, night navy blue and another one won.

Proper edifices.

Good night.