Breakdowns

I'm in the mood again for a good theme post.  Late last week, I received a package from Defgav at Baseball Card Breakdown with some great cards for my Brewers collection. Since I love music and discovering new music, I thought, "hey, I'll see what comes up when I try to find songs called 'Breakdown'".  

There were five cards that I scanned in the envelope, so five songs called "Breakdown" will go with these cards.

Thusly I spake unto him that a card blog theme post was born.  And it was good.

I hope.

1.  Super Junior-M, "BREAK DOWN"

So, who's up for a Chinese-South Korean boy band (a/k/a Mandopop)? This song was released on SJ-M's second studio album also called Break Down.  The Chinese version of the album hit number one on the Billboard World Album chart and number forty-nine on the Billboard "Heatseekers" Album Chart (I think that's the "Top 200 Albums").  

In case you don't listen or watch, it's a strangle melange of Mandarin and English with Korean subtitles that occasionally show up in English too.  It's a super-catchy, poppy song. If you're not careful, you'll get it stuck in your head.  

Its card equivalent?

A Bowman Gold Parallel of Zack Greinke. Why? Well, the gold catches your eye.  It's flashy -- almost catchy -- and having Zack on the Brewers appears to be a strange melange as compared to the current team.  I mean, to have a real pitcher on the team?  Nearly inexplicable.

If you're not careful, the thought of the Brewers being good might get stuck in your head!

2.  Jack Johnson, "Breakdown"

I saw Jack Johnson in concert once. One of my work seminars took me to Palm Springs, California -- I know, tough life, someone has to do it -- and to the incredible La Quinta Resort.  I had been in the Middle East the week before in Dubai (to see if I wanted to move there...two words: Hell. No.) so I was all out of sorts. 

It took until Thursday for me to find out that the Coachella Music Festival was going on that weekend.  If I had known that, I'd have stayed the whole weekend.  Instead, I could go only on Friday.  So, I did.  It was excellent, too -- saw The Verve, The Raconteurs, Serj Tankian from System of a Down...and Jack Johnson.

I remember two things from that concert.  One of my friends got completely baked, and I ended up tracking him -- not babysitting, mind you...just tracking him.  The other thing was the fact that nearly every woman in the crowd knew every word to every song that Jack Johnson sang -- including this one.  To me, they all sounded the same.  

His music is innocent enough.  It's harmless. I don't actively avoid his music, but I don't seek it out either. I just am not that big of a fan.

Sort of like Bowman Chrome and its X-Fractors. It's harmless and innocent enough.  There are a ton of people who just love the stuff. And, as with Jack Johnson, it's not that I actively avoid the cards -- I just am not that big of a fan.  

I was surprised to learn that this Cole Gillespie is the same Cole Gillespie that played for the Diamondbacks a few years ago and continues to play in the Miami Marlins system this year. The dude is Quad-A through and through -- too good for Triple-A, not good enough for the major leagues.

Sort of like Jack Johnson.

3.  Noisestorm, "Breakdown"

I know a lot of people like triphop/dubstep/techno/electro/whatever the hell this is called. I don't mind it, for the most part.  Honestly, it just gets boring to me after a while. 

Then again, I never understood the allure of jam bands until I took a hit of a hippie's pipe at a Bela Fleck and the Flecktones show at Music Midtown in Atlanta.  When I emerged from haze I found myself in, I felt like I'd lost a day -- but I knew Bela Fleck was the coolest act ever.

So, I just haven't taken the right medications, I suppose, to make this make sense.

On the other hand, I'm not sure there are enough medications to make Danny Klassen make sense.  Let's just move on before I roll a spliff.

Not that I could, mind you.

Ahem.

4. Seether, "Breakdown"

I thought I needed drugs for that last one?

Yikes.

Seether is a very earnest sounding alt rock band who have songs that I've thought were decent in the past -- Remedy is pretty catchy and all -- but this one sounds like 2009.  It just does.  

But it has that throwback feel about it too.  It's new, but it feels like mid-90s rock.  

Likewise, the Topps Archives 2001 set were new, but they felt old.  Like this reprinted 1981 Topps Sal Bando, mocking Brewers fans for (at that time) the futility of the 1990s under Bando's watch as the Brewers General Manager (until August 12, 1999, when he finally resigned his position and the equally inept Dean Taylor took over).

Sal was very earnest about his position as well, to be fair. He loved Milwaukee, became a paragon in the business community, and really seemed to want the best for the team.  

But it was like the Green Bay Packers in the 1980s -- only after the team threw off the shackles of past glories (such as, for Green Bay, hiring first Bart Starr and then Forrest Gregg as its head coach) could the team succeed.  

5.  Tom Petty, "Breakdown"

This is a classic off Petty's first album, performed here live in 1978.  I picked this because the versions with the album cut are literally the song playing with a single PowerPoint slide saying "Tom Petty - Breakdown" on it for the whole song.  

This is almost certainly the best known song called Breakdown, at least to me. It is the one that I could sing along with, certainly.  

I actually like it.  I hate to say that about anything from Gainesville (other than Johnny at the Trading Spot), but I like this song.

Nothing, though, can approach this Bronze Topps Clubhouse Relic from 2004 serial numbered to 99.  I had the base of this relic in my collection previously, but I did not have this one.  

Trust me when I say that it's far better than Tom Petty in my book. 

Let me close by saying I echo the thoughts of Defgav's cable company, as set forth on the advertisement to protect the cards enroute:

Thank you, Gavin, for these great cards.  I think some Reggie Jacksons might have to come your way!

On the Chopping Block

This week at Miller Park, a new feature will be debuting.  The feature is comprised of 1500 square feet of artifacts and gear to honor retired Commissioner Emeritus and former Brewers Owner Allan H. "Bud" Selig.  It's called "The Selig Experience at Miller Park."

The highlight, or perhaps the climax, of the show is "a surprising encounter with the Commissioner himself inside an authentic reproduction of Selig's County Stadium office, using a technology found in only a handful of exhibits around the world.  After the show, Milwaukee fans will be delighted to take a sneak peek into Selig's office for themselves."

Speaking for myself, that is not a tour I would want to take.  Now, don't get me wrong -- I appreciate all of Selig's hard work in tirelessly crusading for the return of baseball to Milwaukee in the time between the Braves left until Selig and his team of financiers took the Pilots from Seattle and bankruptcy.  I appreciate his willingness to spend money in the late 1970s and early 1980s -- before we heard Selig complaint about how competitive balance would be destroyed by free agency -- to build a team that could and did win and made it to the World Series.  

But I have to admit that the Selig Experience leaves me cold.  Again, don't misunderstand -- he made sure as the commissioner that revenue sharing was put into place, that the smaller markets might have a chance to succeed.  The biggest problem I have with Selig is that he spent his time worrying about being Commissioner for far too long as his own team rotted. Selig became acting commissioner in September of 1992.  The Brewers finished 1992 with a 92-70 record, 4 games out of first.

In my opinion, it is not a coincidence that the Brewers did not have another non-losing season -- even a .500 season -- until 2005.  Guess what happened in January of 2005? Yup, the Selig family sold the Brewers to current owner Mark Attanasio.  The problem is clear when you hear what he told his former fraternity brother at the University of Wisconsin, Lew Wolff, who owns the Oakland Athletics:  "When you join this, try to put baseball first and your team a very close second."

From 1992 to 2005, the Brewers were a very distant second.  Or maybe third, behind carrying the torch that small-market teams could not compete with larger market teams and making sure that the team was so bad to prove his own point.  

Perhaps it's fitting that the team has sucked this year.  It is, after all, the Selig Experience.



I had to get that off my chest.  

Now, to a far more positive experience -- the Chopping Block.

Specifically, I am talking about getting cards from the Chop Keeper himself, Steve from the Card Chop.  I know there are a lot of Dodgers bloggers out there, but I seem to trade with more Braves bloggers than anyone else.  That might have something to do with my location in Atlanta, I suppose.

A few weeks ago, Steve ripped through some Gypsy Queen packs and pulled one of those white framed parallels of one of my PC guys, Ryan Braun.  I had to claim it, of course, and it showed up shortly after.

Being the awesome guy that he is, that was not the only card to make its way to the ATL from the Card Chop.  Indeed, that is probably the lesser of the two top cards:

This Team Tandems from the Absolute Memorabilia set -- one of those Donruss sets with 200 cards and 2000 parallels from the mid-2000s -- features one-and-a-half year wonder Danny Kolb, who racked up 60 saves between July 19, 2003 and the end of 2004 -- and none other than one of my PCs, Ben Sheets. 

Sheets will be representing the Brewers at the 2015 MLB Draft on June 8.  Others appearing include Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson (for the Yankees), Andre Dawson and Tony Perez (for the Marlins), and Mike Schmidt for the Phillies.  Lesser lights appearing include Bob Boone for the Nationals, Lee Smith for the Giants, and B.J. Surhoff...for the Orioles.

For the Braves? Ralph Garr and Greg McMichael.  

I bet that will still be more uplifting to me than The Selig Experience!

Steve, thank you very much for these and the other cards you sent to me -- they are greatly appreciated!

A Quickly Delivered, Strong and Vigorous Blow

As a lawyer, I often end up writing words that mean the same thing as someone else has used but changing them either to make more sense, be more descriptive, or otherwise avoiding plagiarism.  So, in my effort not to repeat what others have said, my title is actually a strange way to say that I was Zippy Zapped.  

Yeah, this effort is weak, but I was distracted.  It's time for one of my theme posts -- it's been a little while -- and ZZ provided me with the perfect foil for a theme post: Japanese Idols. Now, I don't begin to understand all the strange sounding write-ups and issues on Wikipedia for a lot of these groups -- I think it's due to Wiki-translations and due simply to my own inability to understand the whole idol culture.  

But Zippy Zappy understands it.  So, hopefully, I won't butcher it too badly.

I figured, heck, let's compare some cards to some of the idol groups.  I did some research (and ask Jaybarkerfan about my research) to come up with a list of idols and gravure idols to highlight and talk about the cards that Zippy Zappy sent me.

1. Morning Musume

Let's start with the basics of both idols and this package.  If you have read Ryan's excellent Blog "This Card is Cool" in which Ryan writes about all of his card collecting, chances are that you have heard of Morning Musume.  They were one of the first "cyber idols" in Japan, or at least that is what Wikipedia told me.  Because of Ryan's blog, Morning Musume is one of the few idol groups I've have heard of -- they are the basic idols to me as a result. 

Here's a photo of what is I think their current iteration.

The basics of this Zapping were 1979 Topps...lots of them too:

Sixto Lezcano looks a little bit seedy with that very light mustache and goatee he has going on there...it's kind of how I feel sometimes looking at some of these idols!

2.  AKB48

According to my sources (Tsunagujapan.com here), AKB48 is the all-time leader on the singles chart for all-time sales for any female group.  Apparently, though, AKB48 could be banned from performing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics because the organizing committee thinks they are "Embarrasing" and "the shame of Japan."  Perhaps the best way to describe them comes from the Washington Post, which said:

It is as if Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and the entire cast of Twilight were placed in to a saucepan and simmered on a low boil until nothing remained but the sweet, cloying essence of fame, and if that fame were then poured into pleated tartan skirts and given pigtails.

Really?

Really.

I tend to view Bowman's efforts as similar to this in many respects.  Both Bowman and AKB48 put out new efforts every year. Every year, Bowman and AKB48 try to find the brightest, newest stars -- AKB48 through tryouts, Bowman through the draft. Both mostly feature new stars in their late teens and early 20s.  In the end, though, I don't collect anything from AKB48, but I do collect Bowman:

No matter whether you're talking about teenaged girls or boys, it still strikes me as a little creepy...well, at least if you're talking about kids under 18.  

3. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

In 2013, the Wall Street Journal published a blog post about Kiriko Takemura -- the real name of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.  Apparently, KPP (because I don't want to type that name over and over) grew up with a very strict mother who scolded her constantly for leaving the house dressed as if she was "insane" thanks to her odd sense of fashion.  KPP, though, has more substance than many of the idol groups, and isn't just a singer by being "cute" or "kawaii."  The readers of Muripo voted her the second top idol that Japan would love for the rest of the world to appreciate.  Her breakthrough song was PonPonPon..the very weird video is below. 

Perhaps she is a closet Green Bay Packers fan, or at least a closet Wisconsinite for wearing a Cheesehead in the video.  Please ignore the floating donuts and the flying sharks.

Something similarly sweet and yet more substantive are Kellogg's cards, one of which I was zippily zapped with.  You have to love Larry Hisle.

Okay, let's move on to the "older" women in Japan...the "gravure" idols. Why?  Because ZZ said so:

These four photos of Yumi Sugimoto are the fronts and backs of two cards that led off this package when I opened it.  Yumi is 26 years old, so I don't feel too bad for ogling her just a bit (of course, she's probably like 19 in these photos and I'm still going to hell). I am curious about the "City of Hartsville Public Safety" half shirt she is wearing.  Just strange..

On to the last three categories....represented by the Top 3 Gravure idols of 2014 as selected by Axiommagazine.jp.

3.  Mikie Hara

Mikie Hara is 27 years old.  Her Wikipedia page lists 9 different "Photobooks" that feature her, the most recent of which is called BLUSH Accident which can be purchased on CD Japan for $24.64 plus $8.21 shipping (for the cheapest available shipping). Here she is reading the book to a group of Japanese school children.

Okay, I lied about that last part.

So, at number three in the remaining card countdown, I have a tie between a blue 2014 Museum Collection Ryan Braun parallel (SN99) and a2014 Monte Harrison autograph:

2.  Ai Shinozaki

She's 23 years old and started modeling at the age of 14.  The issue there was that she was a very, ahem, curvy 14-year-old and caused quite a bit of consternation among Westerners who found out about her. She has been able to have a career as an actress, a singer, and even as a wrestler with "Pro Wrestling Wave"...at least, again, that's what Wikipedia says. She is an attractive women, of course:

What is is really attractive?  Well, there are a few items that fall into this category...Sega Card-Gen, of course! Tons of them...and please ignore the small margins my scanner put on some of these:

What could possibly top Sega Card-Gen? It has to be something truly special. Just like it has to be a very special gravure idol to top Ai Shinozaki. 

1.  Risa Yoshiki

I have to say that any time you get a model who holds a university degree, was born in China, produced two music albums, and wanted to be a manga artist, you're talking about someone pretty special. It doesn't hurt that she is a stunning woman as well:

What was the most stunning card that Zippy Zappy sent to me?

That's far easier than picking out a top gravure model.  This one is a no-brainer:

Meet Joe Lake of the St. Louis Browns on a T-206 with a Piedmont cigarette back. How absolutely cool is this?  I mean, this card was issued first when my grandparents were 2 years old! The St. Louis Browns actually represented the first team to move from its original city after the formation of the American League in 1901.  

The Browns became the Browns in 1902 after leaving Milwaukee.  The old AL Brewers were managed by eventual Hall of Famer Hugh Duffy as a player/manager for just one year.  In 1954, the Browns became the Baltimore Orioles -- the year after major league baseball returned to Milwaukee in the form of the Braves.

Zippy Zappings never hurt. They always put a smile on my face.  But this time, it's in the form of a card that I can always show off to anyone and say, "Yup, that's definitely my oldest card!"

Thanks, ZZ!