west coast

We're in Vancouver for the next few days (and then a few days in Seattle before returning East). Already, I'm loving the fact I can actually see snow-covered mountains on the horizon, as well as the water. I miss both living in D.C.

Ithaca=gorges

The town slogan - Ithaca is gorges - makes for an easy-to-overuse pun. And overuse it I did last weekend, during a quick trip to Ithaca.

The gorges in question are a few deeply-cut waterways on the edges of town. Not far on the edges, either - one of them ends in a waterfall about three blocks from the house where we were staying, which was itself just three blocks from the center of Ithaca's downtown.

Beyond the gorges, Ithaca itself is a quirky college town well away from anything else in upstate New York. Our weekend trip coincided (not really coincidentally) with the town festival, which turned the main downtown strip into a market. The street was lined with tent stalls, each filled with some sort of craft for sale - unless it was food for sale. Two stages featured live music. There was nothing particularly unique about the event, although as always it's more fun to visit an area filled with people enjoying themselves (and it didn't hurt that the weather was perfect).

Of more interest to me was the opportunity to take my own day trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, a 2 1/2 hour drive from Ithaca.

Perhaps it's from being spoiled, living in a city filled with Smithsonians, but I was slightly surprised by the size of the HOF
. For as many artifacts as the place must have, the two floors of exhibits are just a taste. There were a few display areas were it seemed the hall had tried too hard for a clean and modern museum look, and the spacious rooms were sparsely decorated.

Where the hall shone were the areas that were far more crammed in with displays and artifacts. The first few displays on the history of the game were the most fulfilling, mostly because they played to my bias - the older the baseball era, the more fascinated I am by it.

An exhibit allowing you to virtually explore a computer rendering of Ebbetts Field or Boston's South End Grounds was great, but left me wanting more parks. (I wanted to see the Polo Grounds and the Baker Bowl).

The last spot hit is the actual hall filled with the plaques of those selected for induction. It was a respectfully somber and inspiring area to wander about and read the accomplishments of the biggest names in the sport. The only downside is the sometimes atrocious likenesses on the plaques.

Make no mistake - I loved the hall. Walking among the pieces of baseball history was exactly how I wanted to spend the afternoon. There were just a few things I wished were there but weren't. Perhaps No. 1 on my wish list would be an area with a computer station to browse through video/audio of old games. There is a small area honoring broadcasters and writers who have covered the game throughout the years, but few examples of their work. If I had the ability to sit and watch old game broadcasts, or at least clips of historic moments, I could spend days doing so.

rem/modest mouse

Wednesday night, we braved the traffic (which wasn't all that bad) and headed up to Maryland to see R.E.M. and Modest Mouse.

(It was a good deal for me. R.E.M. happens to be my wife's favorite band, and the concert happened to be on her birthday. Gift. Easy.)

I'm actually a bigger fan of Modest Mouse, or at least I listen to Modest Mouse far more often. I hadn't seen them in person before, and after seeing them at an outdoor amphitheater in front of a crowd obviously there for another band, I have to say MM would be much better suited to a small club than an expansive outdoor setting (although it's pretty hard to compare their set, without any extra stage decoration or A/V displays, to R.E.M., which had giant big screens constantly showing video tied to the music).

Before we went I knew to expect the oddest thing about Modest Mouse: the fact that lead singer Issac Brock sounds like he should be a thin hipster but actually looks like an aging frat guy. No matter - I'm still a fan of the sound and the lyrics.

The new odd thing I noted was the fact the band's stage presence seemed to hint at an odd chemistry - Brock was set up well to one side of the stage, while all his bandmates congregated well on the other side. Again, no matter as far as the listener is concerned.

So the MM set simply made me want to see them again in the future, preferably in a smaller, darker venue.

R.E.M., however, is the perfect band for an expansive outdoor setting. The visual props help, but after decades of practice the band has a simply amazing stage presence. Stipe was joking with the crowd, talking just enough to give the crowd the feeling he was showing them something personal, but not enough to get in the way of the songs. And the songs filled the space, energized the crowd. Where the space and disinterested crowd seemed to swallow Modest Mouse, the R.E.M. experience more than filled the area.

I haven't listened to much of the new album (or, really, much of anything they've released since Automatic for the People). I don't consider myself much of a fan of R.E.M., although I do appreciate the sound, but they certainly shine in a concert setting. There's enough singles from different eras in the catelog they could slip a few in for everyone in between the newer or more obscure selections.

It didn't hurt that the sun went down just before they took the stage, turning the spotlight on them even more. It's been a while since we've seen a large-scale show, and this was a good one.

rain delay

Thankfully, I've managed to avoid being stuck covering any baseball games with a rain delay so far this year.

Unfortunately, tonight I'm out at a soccer game which is in its second rain delay. It's going to be a long evening.

s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g b-e-e

This weekend I landed one of the more unique assignments I've had (certainly the one which got the most reaction when I told people). I attended the National Spelling Bee as a credentialed representative for the Associated Press (no, I didn't write the story you read in your paper. I was assisting.)

The oddest thing about being at the spelling bee, other than the fact I was at a spelling bee, was the atmosphere. The finals of the bee were held Friday night and were shown on ABC, which meant one thing to the audience: we were subjected to TV time-outs.

The setting was a hotel conference room, and there were no monitors set up to show ABC's coverage. So to start, a couple of kids would walk in front of the mic, spell a word, then everyone would wait and go dead quiet as an announcement as made: ABC is in a five-minute commercial break. ABC is showing a taped feature. ABC is in a six-minute commercial break.
Then another couple kids would spell, and everything would stop again. I can't imagine this was good for the nerves of whoever was up next when the action stopped.

The finals took just over the two hours allocated, and the pace moved up in the last half hour or so - there was a sigh of relief from the crowd when just before 10 p.m. the producer announced ABC had taken its final commercial break.

The spelling itself was as expected - I can't believe how easy the 12- and 13-year-olds (and even 11- and as young as 8-year-olds) make it seem. I can honestly say of the eight or so rounds we watched Friday night, I was able to spell about four words, which was four more than I'd expected.

And I have to say, I liked the winner. He just had an air about him that said he was having fun with the whole thing.