It's no secret that I've been away from this blog for a bit. Consider these past few months a little hiatus for me from the hobby. There's a lot of reasons for why I've been away, a new job chief among them.
What's really consumed my free time has basically been me watching cartoons again. Ducktales and The Owl House chief among them. Both are Disney Channel cartoons but pretty well made, Ducktales in particular. Both even got me drawing fanart for the first time in over a decade.
Also helps that The Owl House had trading cards drop. Yeeeee!
Also doesn't help that my interest in sports dipped. It's just hard to get into it this year with *gestures at everything*. As that goes so too does my interest in cards. The odd TTM request that trickled in was neat but other than that almost nothing really kept me going.
Emphasis on almost.
One of the few things that were worth paying attention for me was Luis Torrens getting baseball cards. Topps made a spot for him in Topps Total's 2020 offering and naturally I was snatching them up. I am a wee bit curious if Torrens pops up in 2020 Update or 2021 Series 1, but as for now I at least have this.
And this.
And this.
Now all that's left is the 1/1. And speaking of 1/1's...
I can also now call my Anthony Seigler collection official thanks to this 1/1 printing plate.
I really appreciate that the back of this plate is loyal to the card it was made to make and not some boring text.
At the risk of turning this into a show and tell post the other sports pick-up I made in recent times that wasn't a 1/1 was this BoChro auto of Yoendrys Gomez. The recent offerings from Bowman Chrome have been excellent in terms of being primarily Latin American prospects I need to round out my Top 30 prospects project. At the moment they're not too expensive (though not too cheap either) and Gomez was the one I actually won by putting in the lone bid. Works for me because I like Gomez a lot since he follows me on Twitter, although he was active for like a week then disappeared before 2019 even ended lmao.
Anyway that's just a little show and tell/proof of life post from me. I hope you're all doing well.
Remember to stay safe, socially distance and remember that COVID-19 is still a threat. Wash your hands, wear a mask when in public and make sure to follow procedures set out by the CDC and other appropriate authorities. BLM, defund the police and fund local communities, take care.
My first return this period came from former Yankee Tony Womack. Womack was originally drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the seventh round of the 1991 MLB Player Draft out of Guilford College. Womack made his MLB debut shortly after in 1993 and after a few more seasons spent going up and down the minors and big leagues, remained with the big league Buccos after a breakout 1997 season that saw him lead the league in steals and earn an All Star Game nod (as well as some MVP votes and ROY votes). He'd lead the league in steals again for two more seasons after that, one of which came after he was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Womack would later spend much of his career bouncing around as a journeyman as he went to the Colorado Rockies, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds before returning to the Cubs for one last trip in 2006. Overall he managed to carve out a pretty nice career for someone whose main calling card was speed. Playing well into his 30's in an era where the longball reigned supreme.
This signing was a mail-in signing but the organizer was kind enough to send a picture of Mr. Womack signing my card for me. That Womack card is one of the few NYY cards I've kept with me from my actual childhood, long before I was involved in any of this collecting nonsense, and to see it finally get signed was a trip. But boy howdy am I still happy either way. This was a paid TTM signing, but absolutely worth every penny.
Received On: 09/28/2020
Next up is a return from New York Islanders goaltender, Thomas Greiss. Greiss hails from Füssen, Germany and played in youth hockey in Germany before reaching the local pro ranks. He played well enough to get noticed on NHL radars and would be drafted by the San Jose Sharks in the third round of the 2004 NHL Player Draft. He'd stay in the DEL in Germany before coming stateside for the 2006-07 season, after which he spent a few seasons in the minors before making to the NHL in the 2009-10 season. He became a backup goaltender at the big league level and eventually he'd bounce around from the Arizona Coyotes to the Pittsburgh Penguins before landing with the New York Islanders before the 2015-16 season. He's been with the Islanders since.
Received On: 10/01/2020
Here's a return from Cardinals catching prospect Pedro Pages. Pages was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the sixth round of the 2019 MLB Player Draft out of Florida Atlantic University. Born in Maracay, Venezuela but hailing from Doral, Florida, Pages is a very solid catching prospect who is very good defensively and has a knack for getting threats on the basepaths out of the way. Pages had a very good first season of pro ball that oddly fits his profile as a catcher with solid hitting prowess. Not a ton of power to speak of but worth a watch going forward as the Cardinals move on from the Yadier Molina era for their backstop core.
And those were my returns this past period. Big thanks to Mr. Womack, Greiss and Pages for the awesome returns. And as always thank you (the readers) for stopping by and take care :). Please remember to wash your hands, wear a mask when outside your house, maintain a safe distance from others in public, stay informed with the latest COVID-19 updates provided by the CDC and other appropriate authorities.
Leaf is a very polarizing brand to me. They've given me so many Luís Torrens cards to collect over the years, but they pull all kinds of stupid bullshit. Whether it's that shady "Rize" brand they tried pulling off (still not touching that crap), or this.
This my friends is a Holiday Bonus buyback autograph of Torrens from 2017 Leaf. I don't know what product this originated in and I really don't give a fuck, and none of you should either. The only thing that matters is that it is now mine.
That fact matters a lot to me because this Leaf Metal Draft rainbow is the ONLY thing I've got that could be considered close to a master rainbow. I'm still a printing plate auto away from completion, but now I can at least sleep at night knowing some dumb gimmicky 1/1 isn't floating out in the ether, taunting me with its existence.
Anyway now that Torrens has been the Seattle Mariner's everyday catcher for roughly a week things have been going pretty well for my favorite player ever. For starters he hit his first MLB career home run. A milestone that eluded him in spacious PetCo Park but was finally achieved in Safeco Field T-Mobile Park. In addition to that his productivity at the plate has been very promising, if not exciting. He's managed to reach base safely in most of his games, and his at-bats are very productive. He's also swinging with a lot of power that's generating a fair amount of exit-velo right off the bat. The rep on him back when he was a Yankees prospect was that he wouldn't be a dinger hitter but he's showing that he does have a fair bit that he's using with authority.
Luís Torrens has been, somewhat, the forgotten man in the massive trade that sent Austin Nola to San Diego. But there's something intriguing going on with his bat that bears monitoring over the rest of the season: https://t.co/f4aXCN7xTT
The Mariners' SB Nation blog Lookout Landing had a very nice piece that went into Torrens specifically. Noting that he could be one of the more interesting pieces the Mariners got in that trade, and of course they are 100% right. That article featured one of my tweets BTW, check it out.
Look at that frame job. Torrens' defense was also highly heralded in the minors thanks to his rocket arm and his genuine ability to just fucking catch, and he's finally getting a chance to show it with consistency against the greatest players in the world. He's doing a lot with a brand new pitching staff and a new pitching philosophy and he's done a a very good job on the fly.
It's still too early to say whether the Padres' shenanigans in 2017 messed up Torrens' development but as of now it looks like he's finally starting to come into his own as a very good catcher and it's been nothing short of exciting to see him be given a fair honest shot with zero roadblocks ahead of him. Will he be traded like so many kinda expect? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, he's being given a chance to show he's worth keeping around to the M's brass and also showing that he's worth trading for to other teams. And he's been making the most of it.
Also say hi to Torrens' puppy, Kygo!
All in all I now have 19 Torrens 1/1 cards. One of these days I may take a pic of all 19 together but for now I'd rather watch Torrens play when nature allows. I'm still worried about the stuff going on on the west coast and wish everybody who's been affected by it the best and a swift recovery.
And as always thank you (the readers) for stopping by. Please remember to wash your hands, wear a mask when outside your house, maintain a safe distance from others in public, stay informed with the latest COVID-19 updates provided by the CDC and other appropriate authorities. Defund/abolish the police and reinvest in communities to make neighborhoods better and safer for everybody. ACAB.
Back when Star Wars Rebels concluded I wrote a whole review post dedicated to the series. I had plans to do so for Star Wars The Clone Wars but I wanted to wait out what would happen in the show or the events in it given how there was a lot more content coming out in the form of novels and comic books. That move proved to pay off because one last season of The Clone Wars cartoon came back here in 2020.
So now that I finally got around to seeing the last of the Clone Wars in all of it's CGI glory and now is the time to blog about it.
I could talk about the series as a whole, but there are way too many awesome parts of it that deserve their own individual write-ups when I see fit.
Instead I wanted to go into what made the show so great and why the final season (especially the last two episodes) really capped the show off in a way that left me feeling very satisfied but also very sad and very empty.
Attachments
The Jedi order forbid Jedi from forming attachments but we viewers are not Jedi, we're citizens. We grew so attached to these characters over time that seeing them continue to get hurt (physically and emotionally) in a war that we all know is just a farce to set up Darth Sidious' rise to power gets very saddening.
For me I started watching The Clone Wars cartoon sometime during Season 3. So 2010-ish. Right when I was transitioning from middle school to high school. In a way I grew up with these characters since I came of age right with this show (and in theory many of the characters).
The biggest strength behind this show is just how it was able to present us with the ever changing perspectives of Jedi who were new to war, as well as the perspectives of the clones who were specifically bred for the war and are fighting for it in spite of how it kills them in droves.
Put another way, it made us care about the characters. Something the prequel trilogy didn't do properly.
In the early going Ahsoka Tano wasn't a very celebrated character. But during the course of the show she changes a lot and so too does our perception of her. In the beginning she was cocky and very confident, as time goes on she grows wiser but also a lot more confused about her role in the galaxy.
We grew to love her more and more as a character. It didn't take long before we genuinely got concerned about if Ahsoka survives Order 66. What's even more amazing is that Star Wars Rebels, a successor series of sorts for The Clone Wars, already confirmed that Ahsoka does live beyond the events of Revenge of the Sith, and even beyond Return of the Jedi where she's pushing 40. In spite of knowing what was to come anyway, we still cared enough about Ahsoka that the last two episodes of The Clone Wars hurt us. Because predetermined conclusion or not, seeing the events of Order 66 unfurl and hurt Ahsoka hurts us too. She's already seen enough clones die because of the war, the last thing she wants is for there to be more even more clone casualties by her hand. And we share the same feelings she does.
Speaking of which in the movies the clones were pretty replaceable, generic and not worth caring about. This show changes that and gives us what they go through and we the audience grow to love them a lot.
During the course of the show we end up seeing a whole 5-man clone squad called "Domino Squad" go from underperforming cadets at the training facility to holding some of the highest ranks in the 501st Legion. We also see them perish during the war one by one, leading to a point where there's only one Domino Squad member, Echo, remaining and he ends up leaving the 501st and joins another group of clones.
Thanks to these five in particular, along with many other clones, we get a sense of just how the clones are individuals in a really messed up situation. Every time a clone dies in battle, even a nameless clone in the background, it's very disheartening. Just the very nature of a character being a clone trooper gives us a feeling that we know what they've been through and we don't want THAT character to suffer. At all. This is again incredible considering that we do know what the clones actually go on to do in Episode III and as the Republic phases into the Empire.
Of course the clone the fans (myself included) cares about the most is Captain Rex. While we don't see him go from a cadet to a clone captain, we do see the war take a toll on him. In the earlier seasons he's a loyal soldier fighting for the Republic. Near the end of the show he's become very disillusioned with the war after losing so many of his clone brothers and becomes even more concerned after clone trooper Fives (also from Domino Squad) reveals to him that there are chips in the clones' brains that appear to have an unspecified purpose.
And again like Ahsoka, we know that Rex survives past Order 66 thanks to Rebels. We also know he never fights for the Empire and instead joins the Rebel Alliance. He even fights with Han Solo and company at the Battle of Endor in Episode VI!
Yet, none of that matters or takes away anything from the last two episodes. Rex cries twice, and internally so do we. Once when he's ordered to carry out Order 66 and kill Ahsoka, the second when he's internalized that his clone brothers are determined to kill Ahsoka and him for protecting Ahsoka. The pain and grief Rex is feeling here is immense. In a war that's taken so much from him, it's trying to take everything he has left at the end.
The combination of the pain Ahsoka feels and the pain Rex feels is what makes the last two episodes a real punch to the gut.
Because in the end none of it mattered. Anakin Skywalker still falls to the darkside and becomes Darth Vader. The Jedi are no more. The Republic is transformed into the Empire. Ahsoka, Rex and pretty much everyone else we cared about (shout outs to Darth Maul too) were merely pawns in an insidious game.
Maybe the fact that we all know what's coming only adds to it.
I keep harping on that because this show was facing an uphill battle, making a story compelling when the end result is well known and more importantly not a happy one for the people involved is tough.
Looking back on it, the earlier seasons went about with a warm and friendly vibe that gave off a bit of hope that peace might actually be obtainable. The events in Episode III seemed lightyears away and maybe the Jedi and the Republic can pull something off. Of course that stops being the case as the show gets darker and darker as it goes on.
The staff behind the show really put effort into making the atmosphere feel completely different, the more upbeat and triumphant tunes from the earlier seasons are long gone (notice how the trumpets are gone in the background songs for this last season) and in their place are haunting tunes that sound peaceful in the moment but nonetheless erie and foreboding. There's a lot of melancholy near silence to really set the atmosphere, something Star Wars hasn't quite mastered since the 2003 Clone Wars cartoon did it.
Fans had almost 12 years to prepare for the fateful words "Initiate Order 66" to be uttered in The Clone Wars and even then we weren't ready. We knew we weren't even gonna have to say goodbye to some of these characters, but we still weren't ready. We didn't want this to end or for that last bit of hope that things might end on a happy note to disappear. Only it did, it shattered into a million pieces like the Venator class star destroyer falling out of the sky and crashing onto the moon.
The way Arc Trooper Jesse, who has a big Republic logo tattoo'd on his face and helmet ends up carrying out Order 66 under allegations of treason against Ahsoka and Rex (something he himself was charged of and nearly executed for during an earlier episode in the show's run) also shows the fall of the republic. Jesse also represents the last of the clone troopers fans care about. By this point Rex, Echo, Fives, Hardcase and Kix all at least have an answer as to whether they survive beyond the final events in the clone wars (some don't, some do). Jesse is the last question mark and serves as a proxy of sorts for the clone troopers fans care about that didn't die earlier or go on to live. Like I said earlier, seeing clones themselves carry out Order 66 in and of itself is heartbreaking, but seeing a clone we've come to know and really like do it only adds to it.
In the last episode there are a ton of notable shots that represent so much.
The shot of Ahsoka looking over the graves she (and Rex) dug for the clone troopers who died after the star destroyer crashed (and even after they tried to kill her) is a pretty powerful one that's probably the second most important shot in the final episode. Note how the background features wreckage of the Venator along with wreckage of vehicles that will be synonymous with the clone wars like AT-TE walker and the Republic Gunship. It's not just a graveyard for the clones, it's a graveyard for the clone wars as a whole.
But obviously the most important image is the last image. The shot of a clone trooper helmet buried in snow showing a reflection of Darth Vader walking away. By this point the clone troopers have phased into stormtroopers and the helmet itself is a relic of a bygone era. Adding to that is how it is one of the custom painted helmets that were a tribute to Ahsoka. The helmet is an old cracked obsolete relic from a war that only contributed one thing to the galaxy, the birth of Darth Vader.
Dave Filoni and the crew did not mess around with the show's ending and damn did my heart feel it. Based on the responses I read on the internet it looks like we all felt it. This was Star Wars to an entire generation of fans (young, old and everything in between) and, well, to see it end like this just left us empty. Satisfied but empty.
In a way this is a fascinating tale of a kids cartoon that ended with the bad guys winning out in the end and all hope is lost. A complete 180 from the Rebels finale which was much more triumphant and was chock full of hope that also left itself open to new adventures.
But this show couldn't have ended any other way. "And they lived happily ever after" was never an option for this show, and at least this show did it the best way it could have.
What Next?
With the end of the Clone Wars (both the show and the actual war within it), the key question is what's next. Canonically the events following this have already been represented with Star Wars Rebels. That show did however set us up for potential future adventures with Ahsoka Tano. Captain Rex's long term future is murkier and more depressing thanks to his advanced aging programing. Also I'm pretty sure that Ahsoka is still alive and kicking somewhere in the Star Wars universe even during the events in the new trilogy since she'd be around 71 years old.
As it stands I think this Empire-era Star Wars timeline will now be occupied by events in The Mandalorian for a while. Then when that show runs its course there will be a new concept at some point. What that entails I don't know though maybe one of those many TV show ideas being tossed around might actually happen.
Honestly I think Disney will slowly but surely start to move further along in the future. The events in between Episodes V and VI especially are ripe for new material and what the (now also cancelled) Star Wars Resistance showed is that there are also plenty of stories to be told in the new sequel trilogy era as well. Actually scratch that, they need that kind of "fill in the blank" stuff desperately.
Final Verdict
I look at how this cartoon singlehandedly managed to make Episode III and the Rebels cartoon much more lively and richer to me. It leaves me wondering just how much the new sequel trilogy would benefit from that. I like the new three movies don't get me wrong, but I think having an additional show to flesh out the characters would go a long way in making the lore and stories of the First Order era of the universe that much more compelling. Dave Filoni and his crew have proven time and time again that they are more than capable of creating compelling storylines and complex characters that only add and enrich the Star Wars lore, even in live action if the hype around The Mandalorian is true. Give them the reigns to do stuff in this area even more and I think things will go splendidly. They've at least earned the benefit of the doubt.
Big thanks to Filoni and his team for all of the awesome entertainment they've provided throughout the years.
During his high school days, he was a catcher in baseball, and a quarterback in football, he'd shine as an MVP in both, then join the Twins as the first overall pick in the 2002 draft. He's won the batting title a record setting three times, he earned the MVP in the 2009, his superstar reputation is well established. His caught stealing percentage is also high and, at the moment, his the best offensive and defensive catcher in the major leagues.
Joe Mauer in Sega Card Gen was nothing short of elite. Makes sense given how the late 2000's/early 2010's were when he was at the height of his powers. The in-game stats on the back of the foil here are pretty insane. His contact was stupid high (especially for a catcher), his throwing arm and defense were also pretty up there. Just the kind of guy every fan wants their catcher to be but they never will be.
I can't remember if it was the rare foil from 2011 or perhaps the rare from 2010, but one of them back when SCG was around went for a huge amount of yen (think like $200 USD). Because that one was the one where he had the highest cumulative game stats out of every catcher ever. I stubbornly stuck with Jorge Posada as a catcher on my teams and never got anywhere in the playoffs. Meanwhile every single championship team I saw participating in tournaments and all that made sure to have some rare form of Mauer on their roster, he was that good and that much of a difference maker.
As always thanks for stopping by. Please remember to wash your hands, wear a mask when outside your house, maintain a safe distance from others in public, stay informed with the latest COVID-19 updates provided by the CDC and other appropriate authorities.
Before the end times I had received an interesting card from P-Town Tom.
It was a rookie redemption card from 2019-20 Upper Deck NHL Artifacts, I pulled it out of a pack of said product that PTT sent me last year. These are normal rookie cards but take a while to actually get physically made because Upper Deck isn't allowed to make cards of players in the NHL unless they're actually in NHL uniforms (or an agreement similar to something of that nature unless it's for something else that's been agreed upon after licensing approval). I redeemed the code back in 2019 but proceeded to forget about it until it popped into my mailbox last week.
It's as normal as a card numbered to 999 copies can be.
The redemption was for a Dallas Stars rookie and it ended up being a center prospect named Rhett Gardner. A name that immediately makes me think of New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner.
Rhett Gardner hails from Saskatchewan, Canada (so I don't think he's related to Brett) and after a few seasons in junior hockey he eventually went to the University of North Dakota and was eventually drafted by the Dallas Stars in the fourth round of the 2016 NHL Player Draft. He spent four years at North Dakota before going pro. Since then he's spent most of his time in the AHL with the Texas Stars but he's managed to get a few cups of coffee in the NHL with Dallas.
According to SBNation's Mark Zimmerman, Gardner's a center who doesn't score goals a ton, but he appears to be a highly capable forward who can make things happen for his teammates and he's pretty good at 1-on-1 faceoffs. He's also pretty good defensively thanks to his ability to possess the puck, which is crucial in hockey since it's like commanding the zone for pitchers. The likeliness of him never being an elite scorer will probably mean that he's doomed to be a fourth line center who's yo-yo'd up and down the NHL and AHL, but if he can continue to hone in on everything else, he might be a shrewd pickup for the Stars for a fourth round pick.
So yeah, interesting card. It's the first time I've had Upper Deck send me something and at least now I can say that I've redeemed a rookie. Thanks Tom!
As always thanks for stopping by. Please remember to wash your hands, wear a mask when outside your house, maintain a safe distance from others in public, stay informed with the latest COVID-19 updates provided by the CDC and other appropriate authorities.
Take care.
Ever since I made that post about those baseball cards that come with Utz chips I've come to learn that Utz appears to be a regional brand. More specifically one limited to the east coast. In some ways I was shocked because for as long as I can remember Utz has always been a brand that's just been on shelves but I never checked it out. I'm more of a Cape Cod chips guy. There's even been big ads for it on Yankee Stadium (both old and new) for years. But apparently it's not a thing for other parts of the country. Oh well.
In the weeks since I posted about these I've bought three more bags, which is to say I've acquired nine more cards. I know I said I wouldn't bother but my local Stop & Shop reduced the prices down to $4 (plus tax) per bag. That's not a bad deal relative to other snacks I would buy and definitely a good deal compared to loose packs of cards I could buy at big box stores that don't even come with food. So I thought I might as well.
Last time the cards greeting me in packs one and two were Rockies. A truly disheartening experience that made me cold, bitter and resentful towards the world. Rounds three and four went a lot smoother.
The cards greeting me this time were Dustin May (LAD) and Dylan Cease (CWS). Followed by Austin Meadows (TB), Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD), Trey Mancini (BAL) and Shohei Ohtani (LAA).
May, Tatis and Ohtani would've made for an incredible trio so I'm pretty psyched to have gotten them over most of the other players in the set. Meadows and Mancini represent awful unpopular and unwanted teams but at least they're decent names so I can dump them onto Gavin or someone like him at some point. Cease is someone I have zero strong feelings about but since he's got that White Sox logo I do have places to send him to. Which is good.
If you're wondering why round five/the last three cards weren't scanned above. Well.
They were duplicates!
Now to be clear, getting Shohei Ohtani twice in a food-issue exclusive is far from a bad thing. I'm a huge Ohtani fan and as a dude with Japanese ancestry in me I'll always support Shobae.
Getting two Rays is always a terrible thing but again, these are bound for Gavin or to a Pirates fan who still likes Meadows even as he turns into a forgettable semi-star in Tampa who eventually gets traded to some contending team in the midwest (or Texas) where his performance is slightly recognized more but nowhere near where it would be if he were in New York or Los Angeles.
Getting two Dodgers rookies is far from terrible though. Especially since I like Dustin May a lot. If I ever have the opportunity I'm probably gonna ask him to sign one of those two food issues for me.
My feelings on Bowman can be described as, mixed at best. I guess some could describe it as a love-hate relationship but both of those words are too strong for me to use. I don't love a product because I believe that brand loyalty is dumb. Nor do I hate a product because if I didn't like something I just wouldn't buy it.
No my issue with Bowman comes down to how there are always some things about it that I care about and other things about that I don't care about. Usually putting me in a spot where I just ignore it entirely because my preference leans towards IPs/TTMs anyway.
Caring: Players I Like
Alright so the kind of stuff I care about is quite simple. The prospects. It's the only reason anyone should care about Bowman.
But when I say I care about the prospects, I don't mean it in a "I'm going to take out a mortgage to buy this player's BoChro autos!". What I really mean is that I'm happy that some of my favorite prospects are getting paid to have their likenesses, names and autographs used on cardboard. It's no secret that minor leaguers are very underpaid, if they can earn even a little bit more to help them in their pursuit to the big leagues that's very good in my book. Obviously a Topps contract isn't going to make anyone rich but I'm sure every little bit helps.
That's why when I see that my favorite prospects are getting Topps/Bowman cards, I get a little happy. The Jasson Dominguezes/Adley Rutschmans of the world will always get these deals but guys on my radar like Ezequiel Duran are a whole other thing entirely. I want "Zeke" to reap some benefits of being a really intriguing prospect. Seeing him get a Bowman Chrome autograph signals to me that he got a check from Topps, that makes me very happy for him. To most of you this name probably isn't much outside of "cool, his name Ezequiel is pretty unique.". But to me he's someone I've seen in person and left me impressed. It's players like Ezequiel who make Bowman a good brand to me.
Of course they can't all be Duran. Duran is unique in that he's actually good. So what about the rest?
Not Caring: Players I Don't Like As Much
This is probably more of a problem I have since I'm an extreme player collector who focuses on select few individuals with immense precision, but seeing the names in a checklist filled with people who don't mean anything to me is what makes me not care about the Bowman offerings, and really most card offerings in general.
Looking at the autograph checklist (because that's all that matters), the key thing to note is that most of the checklist is meh. Unless you pull someone with a Yankees logo, Bobby Witt Jr., Xavier Edwards, Vidal Brujan and maybe Brennan Davis the rest of the prospects in the product are mediocre and won't make you back any money.
And even if I didn't care about money, on a pure personal basis the non-Yanks don't mean anything to me. Am I going to root for them and become a superfan because I pulled their cards? No, I'm going to denounce the product and myself for being dumb enough to buy it instead of putting my money into a savings account that accrues interest (if such a thing exists anymore) so that by the time the Duran superfractor auto shows up I could just buy that instead.
When people say Bowman isn't for them, I know where they're coming from. It's tough to care about a developing player in a sport where development is anything but linear and success isn't guaranteed at all. And a product filled with players like that isn't going to work for everyone. It barely works for me half of the time.
And this is to say nothing of how I firmly believe Bowman and Bowman Chrome continuing to put in MLB players is bad. Established MLB players do not belong in a prospect oriented set. Putting in rookies is as far as a Bowman offering should go. Maybe have an insert set dedicated to former prospects or draft picks or something if they're so inclined, but not the base set. We're already drowning in millions of base cards made for the likes of Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw, we don't need more.
These prices will drastically drop in a few months
Now if you'll excuse me I need to be on the hunt for Ezequiel Duran.
Also if any of you pulls a paper autograph of Ken Waldichuk from Bowman retail let me know. I'm on the prowl for that too.
There are certain characters in Star Wars that hold a special place for many fans of the franchise. The reasons why they're special may differ, but that doesn't change their uniqueness and charm.
For example, Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Thrawn, aka Mitth'raw'nurudo was an military leader who notably played a part as one of the Empire's most cunning admirals and tacticians. Noted for his unique methods of combat that centered on making careful moves after spending time studying and researching his opponents and their habits. He's also one of the few non-humans to play a significant role within the predominantly human Empire.
Thrawn's introduction to Star Wars lore dates back to 1991 when author Timothy Zahn published the book Heir to the Empire. A book detailing the aftermath of the fall of the Empire five years after the events in Return of the Jedi, as well as the first in the "Thrawn Trilogy" novels with Dark Force Rising and The Last Command also coming out in 1992 and 1993 respectively.
Although these books aren't canon anymore in Star Wars lore post-Disney acquisition, they were instrumental in starting what would go on to be the Star Wars Expanded Universe. A huge jumbled mess of different storylines, predominantly focused on events after Episode VI or far before Episode I. Outside of this trilogy and the KOTOR video game most of these expanded universe things were honestly terrible and Disney giving them the axe was very welcome.
Thrawn is significant in that he's one of the best things to come from that EU. As such there were few characters that rivaled him in popularity in terms of who fans have been waiting to see in a medium other than novels or comic books. Maybe he could've shown up in the prequels? Or the Clone Wars cartoon? Neither of that happened but he did finally join the new Star Wars canon thanks to the Disney cartoon Star Wars Rebels.
The character wasted no time making an impact when he did finally show up.
Thrawn's noted features of being very cunning, calculating and patient carried over into the cartoon version. Complete with a calm yet sinister voice provided by Lars Mikkelsen (brother of Mads Mikkelsen who played Galen Erso in Rogue One), and an incredible haunting theme produced by Kevin Kiner.
He is ruthlessly efficient and strives to take every single battle he's a part of as a learning experience. Win or lose the key for him is always knowledge. Knowledge about the very opponents he's going up against and using their characteristics, culture and tactics against them to destroy them in the long run.
In a way Thrawn's character was a welcome sight and yet somewhat underwhelming. Not because of Thrawn himself but because he's the type of threat who, by all rights, should be more than plenty to bring down Ezra Bridger and the early Rebel Alliance. And yet the Rebels portrayal of him showed him losing small battles and the only real major victory shown on screen was nearly destroying the Rebel Alliance but just having to settle for making them flee their secret base.
The other military leaders around him often set him back more than the rebels themselves did. In a way the one thing he couldn't comprehend, the nature of The Force, is what technically led to his downfall but the Empire's inability to get anything meaningful done kinda set things up to go bad for him. Not like Disney would allow a scenario where the bad guys wins anyway.
Personally Admiral Thrawn getting bested by Bridger and his band of rebels was something I kinda saw coming anyway and accepted. I know some hardcore Thrawn stans were super pissed but luckily for me I didn't care.
No, what made me care was that Thrawn (and his species the Chiss in general) are tied to a much more interesting concept/potential threat, the Yuuzhan Vong. An outside threat to the Republic/Empire/galaxy as a whole due to how they were essentially invaders from another galaxy with advanced weapons and tactics that the galaxy had never fought against.
The new Disney canon does not have the Vong (although it has been confirmed that there were ideas to bring them into the picture in The Clone Wars), but instead it has the "Grysks" now. This is all written in Zahn's Thrawn book from 2018, Thrawn: Alliances. Thrawn vs the rebel alliance doesn't interest me nearly as much as Thrawn vs the Vong/Grysks. A true external threat that is neither Jedi or Sith that will give the galaxy a huge shakeup is extremely my shit (it's why I was a huge fan of the Eternal Empire in The Old Republic MMO).
Thrawn's fate following the liberation of Lothal in Rebels remains to be seen but Filoni has confirmed that the character is still alive. What he did afterwards is a story for another time and I just hope the Thrawn vs Grysks conflict takes precedence over whatever the Empire does because the Empire vs Rebel Alliance stuff bores me. I'm also low-key hoping it comes in the form of a movie or TV show rather than a book. Thrawn's such an interesting character that it's fun to read about him, but it's even more fun to see him fully realized as an on-screen character brought to life.
Anyway I bought the Lars Mikkelson autograph seen a few times in this post on eBay a while ago. Mainly while I was in a huge Star Wars mode while watching the final season of The Clone Wars (which I will talk about in a future post). Originally I was looking for either Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano) or Sam Witwer (Darth Maul) for obvious reasons, but when I saw the Thrawn autograph for fairly cheap it was a no-brainer.
Star Wars High Tek has slowly but surely become my favorite brand of Star Wars collectible cards. The thin card stock suits me and my binder pages just fine and considering how all of my favorite Star Wars autographs are in Tek format, at this point this has stuck.
I'm still looking for Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios), Eckstein and Witwer, and also Sarah Michelle Gellar (Seventh Sister) in Tek auto form but I'm willing to be patient with them. Eckstein and Witwer will inevitably fall back down to reasonable prices after the Clone Wars finale hype has come and gone. Buffy the Jedi Slayer might be tougher by virtue of who she is, but considering how I already have her husband Freddie Prinze Jr. in my Star Wars autograph collection I might as well.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
For the past four years (at least) I've had a quasi-goal of obtaining a vintage card of Shigeru Sugishita. Preferably from his playing days. Because while the modern cards featuring cards of him from his prime are cool and everything, I do admit that the charm of vintage is that nothing can really beat something that was made in the moment.
This is something that was pretty difficult to do in Japan. For whatever reason baseball card shops don't really deal with vintage too much and even longtime card dealers say they never saw Sugishita's vintage stuff in the flesh in all of their years in the profession. And they live in Nagoya! I've got my own theories on why but that doesn't matter.
Instead they're a lot easier to find in America apparently. I don't know why or how, but they are. Or rather they must be because, well, look!
Yes friends, that is a vintage Shigeru Sugishita card from 1950. Sent to me by NPBCardGuy who runs Japanese Baseball Cards.
The card in question is from the 1950 JBR set (according to NPBCG's blog). A name I have to assume some gaijin collector bestowed upon the set (probably an acronym or something) because none of my Japanese sources recollected any type of name of that nature. Also looking it un in Japanese produced bupkis.
The design reminds me of 1947 Bowman, what with the black and white photography and the white border around it. Also the two are pretty much the same in terms of size.
NPBCardGuy didn't stop there. There was also this second vintage Sugishita card. One I like even more because the full-bleed, no border-ness of it is absolutely fantastic to me.
Trying to look up information on this card was tough. I couldn't just ask NPBCG what it was because that'd be too easy and convenient. I had to do stupid roundabout shit like spending well north of two hours looking far and wide throughout the internet in both English and Japanese. Which produced bupkis too. My educated guess is that this is something along the lines of a bromide from the 1950s because a lot of vintage bromides at that time were done in this black and white photography format with the players' name and/or the team name (and/or occasionally the position) written somewhere around the player.
I didn't scan the backs of these because they were both blanks (a sure sign that both of these are bromides for sure). But rest assured that they also reek of vintage character.
Accompanying the two cards were a crisp $20 bill that I only meant as a joke but NPBCG actually followed through on it. As well as a business card.
NPBCG alerted me to this package/PWE a few days before it actually arrived and by that point I had all but forgotten that he even owed me anything. Mainly because the biggest benefit I got from our trade (which you can read here, here and here) is that I got to dump a bunch of stuff on him. In return he sends back two vintage bromides of a Japanese baseball God and cold hard cash before a recession. Now that's nothing short of awesome.
Of course now the issue is "I have the vintage stuff, do I dare attempt a TTM?".
I want to but currently I've got three issues.
1). I lost Sugishita's address
Back in 2017 I got Sugishita's address through a Japanese TTM collector. That collector has been offline for years now and I never properly recorded the address. I did manage to find another address for Mr. Sugishita but I'm not 100% sure it's accurate.
2). Japan Post isn't accepting any international mail
I'm not sure if Japan isn't taking any mail that's been sent from overseas (aka outside Japan), but as of right now it isn't accepting any mail headed overseas (aka from Japan to elsewhere). Which is to say that even if I were to get my letter to Mr. Sugishita (assuming the address I found is correct), there's no guarantee it's coming back until the Japan Post decides to ship things outside of Japan again.
3). Sugishita is 94 years old
The last thing I want to do is absentmindedly transmit the virus to Mr. Sugishita through something as stupid as a TTM request. On one hand I'm not super knowledgable on if the virus is transmittable through mail (doesn't look like it's likely but it's not entirely impossible either), on the other hand it's much better to be safe than sorry.
We'll see what happens here I guess. It'd be a shame if the bromides went unsigned for the rest of their existences, but if nothing else I absolutely love that I'm in a position to wonder about the optics of possibly doing something.
So big thanks to NPB Card Guy for the two awesome bromides in exchange for taking a huge load of stuff off of my hands.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
During a few of my recent-ish runs to the grocery store I finally found them.
The Utz chips that come with baseball cards.
I passed on these last year for no reason in particular but this time around I thought "why not?" and picked up two bags.
To me baseball cards coming along with potato chips isn't new. I spent my high school years in Japan where Calbee chips and cards are a staple and part of the cultural zeitgeist.
But what is new is buying a giant bag with 12 small bags inside and that only gets you three cards total. In Japan a bag of Calbee chips is like one dollar and it comes with two cards, one of which could be an insert. Hmm.
The chips that I got were the plain flavored chips. Nothing really special. I've made chips like these before with sliced potatoes, 350 degree (Fahrenheit) oil and a dab of salt.
Just yesterday I saw that they finally had the chips with actual flavors come with cards too. I didn't pick these up because I opted for cookies instead, but good to know these exist too.
As for the cards? They're perfectly serviceable but they honestly kinda just give off the vibe of what those Honus Bonus cards from 2017 would look like if they had logos.
Also good grief does your heart sink when you're greeted by Rockies. Although Trevor Story and Charlie Blackmon are salvageable in that they do sign TTM autographs (provided you send along a donation to the Colorado Rockies Foundation). If/when baseball resumes I might look into that. I'm a sucker for getting food-issue oddballs signed.
For the curious, the non-Rockies were Tim Anderson, Rafael Devers, Justin Verlander and Lorenzo Cain. Also two $1 off coupons for packs of 2020 Flagship (Series 1, 2 or Update). Fine, sure, whatever. I already have designated homes for these cards BTW.
The backs look like this. As you can see whatever the color of the front is will determine what the color of the back is. Is this insightful commentary? Probably not since just noticing things and saying them isn't really adding much, but that's all I've got.
These aren't prospect cards, these aren't rainbow building cards, these aren't Luis Torrens cards, these are merely regular cards. Mirrors how the chips are merely regular potato chips.
These past few weeks have been a non-stop stream of the world perpetually feeling like it's crumbling. The more time spent at home ultimately equates to more time being alone with my thoughts, which is to say that I'm finding myself dicking around on Twitter a lot more.
Being on Twitter is a double-edged sword. On one hand it's the lone thing keeping me connected to "the world" in this current period where I can't physically connect with other people. On the other hand Twitter has never been anything more than a hellsite where it feels like the world is constantly burning to the ground and the near constant exposure to it (or more than usual in recent times) probably isn't the best thing ever.
Now onto more specific topics and my takes.
The USPS being in danger has me very worried
I know that we all have had and probably still have issues with the USPS, but for me there's an immense comfort in still having it around and serving its role as the American institution this country needs a lot more than it thinks it does.
I'm not too comfortable bringing my own politics into this blog but fuck it, this is important and it's better to stand for something than sit on the fence. I do have (to put it mildly) less-than-positive views on privatizing things I feel the public sector should be doing and those views definitely apply to what could potentially happen to the mail service if it's privatized. If it's anything like what's going on with healthcare and eduction, things will go bad real quick for a lot of people because these things pretty much never work out for ordinary consumers.
Not sure exactly what'll happen here but I just really hope the USPS doesn't go kaput for everyone's sake. I might only use it for this hobby right now but not everyone has that luxury. There are a lot of jobs and livelihoods at stake across all walks of life.
So yeah with what I'd consider to be the most important issue I'll get to today out of the way, I'll admit that I haven't had a ton of time to ruminate on baseball or sports. Of course the fact that there's nothing going on isn't helping. Not to shame anyone who still does think about sports, I'm happy for those who can cope by using sports in whatever way they can, but for me right now I'm more worried about people in my life (and even those who aren't in it) being in danger.
That said every now and then there are some sports topics that come up and in baseball world it's basically been all of the ideas being tossed around to bring baseball back at some point this season. I have takes on them.
These are merely ideas, don't think MLB is seriously going to enact any of these
I've noticed a lot of people treating these ideas like the Arizona-only games or the AZL/GCL realignment games or playing games in countries that have flattened the curve to be like actual measures MLB are setting in stone but as of now they are just ideas. The optics on all of these ideas lean towards being very bad in a world where we're currently without a vaccine for COVID-19.
Like my prediction for if North American baseball does try to come back prematurely in May or June is that they try to get a game in, but before long a player (and likely several key personnel around the teams/broadcast crews) tests positive and the season is suspended indefinitely again, possibly even longer than if they had just waited it out a bit longer do to the now increased likelihood of exposure. My take is, don't risk it and more importantly don't make it worse.
And I get that there a lot of factors at play putting everyone in an uncomfortable situation where they need to have a resolution to the seasons that are/were about to be underway. There's a lot of money at stake, much of it tied to those huge multi-million dollar broadcast deals, and a lot of sports leagues and teams can't really afford to wait until a vaccine is readily available. A massive expansion of testing is a start, possibly one that might be enough to get the ball rolling, but even that seems far away given how we're seeing how that's turning out in general in real time.
Only MLB has the luxury of seriously discussing a 2020 season
The reason fans can still speculate on MLB's return (and to a lesser extent NFL) is because MLB has had the luxury of having zero major league baseball players test positive for COVID-19 so far. There have been a few confirmed cases of minor league baseball players testing positive, but none of the big leaguers have gotten it (that we know of anyway).
I bring up this point because a little after the NHL followed NBA's lead and temporarily suspended the season, there were talks that the season would eventually go on as normal within a matter of weeks. However those talks immediately vanished when multiple hockey players, personnel and venue staff started testing positive for COVID-19, not coincidentally that's around the time that shit got crazy in America too. The same will happen to baseball if even one member of the MLB ranks gets the virus. And that very much is inevitable because the amount of people it requires to make a baseball game happen (even if you shrunk it down to the tiniest crew ever) is still just enough that an outbreak can occur.
Cut your losses, focus more on preserving 2021 and 2022
I haven't completely given up on sports coming back in 2020, but at this point I'm more resigned to the fact that the number two priority for the sports leagues (after player/personnel/staff safety being number one of course) is making sure the 2021 season is not jeopardized for sake of some vain attempt to salvage the 2020 season.
Like if MLB is going to run a shortened 2020 season or if the NBA/NHL are going to try to jam in the 2019-20 playoffs, they should do all of these things in a way that doesn't have a major affect in 2021/2020-21. As a fan I would much rather forgo a season in 2020 if it means that 2021 can remain a normal season that's absolutely untouched.
There's already discourse surrounding the optics of a shortened 2020 season, imagine having two of those seasons in a row with 2021 also falling victim to it just because they tried cramming some shit in. I doubt anyone's gonna think that's okay.
Of course whether or not 2021 remains in tact is also very much up in the air since it won't be until sometime in fall 2021 that we realistically get a legitimate vaccine or at least an answer for COVID-19 (and I assume that most of the public will not have immediate access to it due to combination of short supply or just because most Americans likely won't be able to afford it anyway). For the time being we have to entertain the possibility that 2020 is lost beyond all measure and 2021 is the real year where a shortened season gets taken more seriously as a measure that can be taken. Then at that point get even more serious about keeping 2022 in tact.
Really at the end of the day we are in uncharted territory. We're going through a pandemic mankind hasn't faced in a while and the third "once in a generation financial collapse" in my lifetime (I was there for the Dot-com crash and the Housing Crisis too ya know), anything goes beyond this point because the metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel once this is over is going to be a whole new world altered by COVID-19. What that world entails in the scope of sports remains to be seen.
Initially I'd hoped that people take this as a wake-up call that the safety nets in America (and across the world) need to be reinforced and improved to better the lives of all people but after these past few weeks my enthusiasm is vanishing. We're already getting to a point where people are basically admitting that they're okay with "acceptable losses" among their fellow Americans that they see as expendable so long as their own lives aren't inconvenienced. It's pretty disheartening.
Although in turn this whole thing has only made me a lot more sure of my own beliefs (politically or socially or what have you) and what I'm going to be voting for going forward.
Not sure if I sound super preachy today, that wasn't my intention. But then again I'm not used to having this kind of tone on this blog.
As always thanks for stopping by and I hope that all of you and your loved ones practice safe distancing and stay healthy during this madness.
As time has gone on COMC has largely fallen out of favor with me. Once upon a time I liked it for what it was in terms of being a convenient to use site with cards that I could pick up on a whim while also treating the site like a database.
Fast forward to 2020 and most of the cards there are overpriced and I actively try to avoid buying from that site if I can help it. eBay might've ramped up costs by taking more in eBay sales taxes, but that would still probably leave you with more than if you'd gone straight to COMC.
Fortunately for me I already have most of the cards that are on that site. Unfortunately for me when a card I do actually need pops up I feel like I have to acquire other cards along with it to justify the shipping costs.
Case in point is the first new Luis Torrens addition from a real card company I've had in months. A camo parallel of Torrens from 2018 Topps Series 2. These parallels are a pain because these are numbered to 25 copies. You'd think that in the age of eBay/comc/etc... it'd be a lot easier to find these but because of a combination of a lot of things (mainly mass production spreading these out so far that the chances of even more than three of them seeing the light of day is slim) that's not the case. In any event I've had my eye on this on COMC for months and I finally pulled the trigger on it.
It's numbered 13/25, and thank fuck because it saves me the moral quandary of wondering if I should send it to Gavin for his X-Mas card collection.
I've got a small Dark Magicial Girl collection going on and I'm a sucker for oddballs like these. As far as I can tell these were made in North America for a North American audience.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).
My favorite song ever is Somebody Told Me by The Killers. Off of their debut album Hot Fuss. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that in passing before, but I don't think I ever dedicated an entire post to it.
Today is March 15th, meaning it's the 16th anniversary of Somebody Told Me getting released as a single. I probably should've waited four more years for an even/cooler 20th anniversary but my patience ran out.
And why wouldn't it, this is my favorite song ever here!
Alright, I might have to pump the brakes a bit. I love the song dearly, but repeated listens have diminished it just a liiiiiittle bit for me over the years. That said, I still do enjoy the song a lot whenever I hear it, and after a long break away from it I found myself loving it all over again.
Like recently I discovered this demo version of Somebody Told Me. Apparently all it takes is a slight reworking of this song to get me to fall in love with it all over again. This is great. It's at "almost ruins the studio version for me", levels of great.
So anyway, much like the last few times I spoke about a song on it's own, I think it's best to look at this.
I kinda noticed that in the past I focused more on lyrics and didn't pay too much attention to how the songs sound sonically. To be honest, I struggle with that because I'm not too knowledgable about instruments or chords or any of that. I couldn't tell you if what we're hearing is super sophisticated or innovative or new or simple or standard or old. What I do know is that this track features a slick ass bassline courtesy of bassist Mark Stoermer and an equally kick ass guitarline by guitarist Dave Keuning. Both of which I adore to hell and back. This track's groove is the very reason I'll never get tired of it. It's just so bouncy, fun and full of energy that I love it. Can't say much more than that in terms of how it sounds to me.
Alright, let's get to the lyrics.
Now in an interview with Rolling Stone's Garin Pirnia, Killers frontman Brandon Flowers described the song as "the story of trying to meet someone in a club". I mean that's true enough when you take the lyrics at face value, but I've always had an alternate interpretation of the song. My take is that this song is about how hard it is to make songs. Follow along with me as I explain my thought process as well as list how it could go the other way too.
Verse 1
Breaking my back just to know your name
Seventeen tracks and I've had it with this game
I'm breaking my back just to know your name
At Face Value: This guy is at a club that's really into a girl, and desperately trying to get even the most basic things about her. Starting with her name.
My Take: This guy is so stressed about this song he's trying to make that he can't even come up with a name for it (probably not even a working title). Sidenote, it wouldn't surprise me if Somebody Told Me was like the 17th track Flowers (or possibly Keunig, Stoermer or Killers drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr.) ever wrote professionally. I'll go into why this is a little later.
But heaven ain't close in a place like this
Anything goes but don't blink, you might miss
Cause heaven ain't close in a place like this
I said heaven ain't close in a place like this
At Face Value: The Gods are not shining down on this poor soul tonight, for his whole night is about to be ruined.
My Take: The Gods are not shining down on this poor soul tonight, for his inability to make progress on the song is his personal hell. And it feels three times worse! Also the only time he does appear to get some inspiration, it's gone in a flash. Reinforcing the state of hell he's in.
Bridge 1
Bring it back down, bring it back down tonight
Never thought I'd let a rumor ruin my moonlight
At Face Value: I'm going to take liberties here and assume this is alluding to the protagonist guy having been high in love(?) before but crashing down in a hurry. Why? Because his night is ruined after hearing a rumor about this girl he's into.
My Take: He finally finds something he can vibe to, immediately bringing it back and hoping to turn the recreated magic into something. But then he hears something that destroys whatever positive emotion that gave this troubled artist a moment of sweet release.
Chorus 1
Well, somebody told me you had a boyfriend
Who looked like a girlfriend
That I had in February of last year
It's not confidential
I've got potential
At Face Value: Well rumor has it that girl had a boyfriend, who looked like a girlfriend, that the guy had back months ago. And that it's common knowledge, and yet despite all of whatever that was, he thinks he can make it work.
My Take: After he finally got something going, someone tells the artist that the song they created sounds like the music the artist was listening to last February. It's pretty obvious, yet it's still salvageable in a way.
See, this brings me back to why earlier I said I wouldn't be surprised if this was literally the 17th song Flowers (et. al) ever wrote as a published artist. In an interview with NME, Flowers was quoted as saying he felt depressed after hearing The Strokes' album, Is This It. Reason being that Flowers thought it was perfect and decided to throw away everything he'd been working on for up until that point minus the song Mr. Brightside. What that means is that Somebody Told Me was not in that contingent of songs thrown away (duh), there may have been 17 of them, and that the inspiration for this chorus could very well be his inability to create something that felt different enough from the material on Is This It. Assuming my interpretation holds any water (which, maybe it doesn't).
Verse 2
Ready, let's roll onto something new
Taking its toll, and I'm leaving without you
Cause heaven ain't close in a place like this
I said heaven ain't close in a place like this
At Face Value: The guy is ready to move on from the topic, even though it also eats him up inside. To the point where he's pretty much ready to move on from the girl. And it's hell for him.
My Take: The artist is ready to try again. After all it has potential to be something good and still different enough. But the process of continuing to make it is still hell.
Bridge 2
Bring it back down, bring it back down tonight
Never thought I'd let a rumor ruin my moonlight
At Face Value: Same as before kinda. This is going downhill really fast.
My Take: "Okay, we've got something else here! Maybe this will work, run it back, soundcheck it and all that. Wait. Oh don't fucking tell me..."
Chorus 2
Well, somebody told me you had a boyfriend
Who looked like a girlfriend
That I had in February of last year
It's not confidential
I've got potential
Rushing, rushing around
At Face Value: This rumor is really messing with him. His mind's racing and going back and forth.
My Take: "Shit, this still sounds like the music I was into last February!". Doesn't look like the tweaks did much to change how the song is perceived, or how it sounds. Now they're really pressing and hurrying themselves to get something out of this.
Verse 3(?)
I'm not sure if this is a verse or a refrain, but it's here so...
Pace yourself for me (for me)
I said maybe, baby please
But I just don't know now (maybe, baby)
When all I wanna do is try
At Face Value: The girl is apparently distraught when confronted with these rumors, the guy knows they're just he-say, she-say, but he's not sure what to think anymore. All he wants is some ass.
My Take: The artist is calming himself down. Or possibly receiving a pep talk from whoever broke the news to him that his stuff is a rehash of that stuff from last February. But the artist is more lost than ever. Even so, his will to make something anyway remains because all he wants to do is create music. To create art.
Chorus 3 (x3)
Well somebody told me you had a boyfriend
Who looked like a girlfriend
That I had in February of last year
It's not confidential
I've got potential
Rushing, rushing around
Minus the word "well" there at the start, the song ends with the chorus getting repeated three times. So let's just do it once.
At Face Value: Yet the rumors still permeate his mind. I don't think dude's getting in them jeans tonight.
My Take: The artist keeps working and working to recreate his song but it always sounds like that shit from last February (read: Is This It).
And that's pretty much the lyrics.
From what Flowers has said in interviews, I take it that he has a weird relationship with this song. Mainly because he seems to be really upset that people (read: his record label) wants for him to make Somebody Told Me Part 2 when he wants to make other things, which is his right (and honestly for the best).
He also seems to have developed an aversion to his Hot Fuss era voice, as he's gone on record saying he wishes he could have a do-over. As well as him generally expressing his displeasure with how he thinks he sounded on his debut.
Personally, I love how this song sounds and Flowers' vocals are a big part of that. The bassline and guitarline will keep me chained to this song for all of eternity, but Flowers' vocals and the subject matter makes it something really worth keeping around forever to me. The double meanings, and the frustration in Flowers' voice that can be considered both sexual frustration or just general work frustration is what really sells it for me in a way that so few other songs (even by The Killers) ever will. Everything about this song works for me.
And that's why it's my favorite song of all time. Ironically enough my second favorite is Daft Punk's Instant Crush, which features The Strokes' frontman Julian Casablancas. Small world.
So big thanks to Brandon Flowers, Dave Keuning, Mark Stoermer and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. for bringing the world this gem.
As always thank you (the readers) for stopping by :).
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