Show notes: The jazz hour had plenty of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. The 9pm-9:20pm soul block hit pretty well. The soul bled into the next 20-min block that ended with some hard-hitting funk. The final 20 mins of the program was a bit of a strange collection of soundtrack + score numbers that have been on my mind.
A recording of the broadcast is available for you here–
As always, the short, repeated instrumentals are used as the DJ “bed” music (the background music that plays while the DJ chats about… whatever).
Announcement– This Friday (8.2.24), I’ll be filling in for the talented DJ Rob Gordon Wainwright of Friday night’s 7pm-9pm Study Hall program. I was given strict instructions (jokes) to play straight soul. I’ve got double duty at KLKT this week and I’m excited to go 120 straight minutes of classic soul. Tune in live on KLKT.org or catch it here a day or two later.
Yardbirds are a good team. They swing lumber. They put the ball in play. If you’re going to beat them, you’ve got to have arms (pitchers), and you can’t make mistakes in the field. Our starting pitcher, Steven Carrizales, once again showed that he can compete against their tough lineup, but our fielding wasn’t sharp and our bullpen struggled with their command*.
The game remained tight after four innings, but the Ybirds opened things up in the fifth, and The Drag did our best to climb out of the hole we got ourselves in.
[*Here’s the asterisk*] Everyone, more or less, knows what they’re getting and what to expect when Umpire Studebaker is plopping around Govalle. To be clear, an “ump” is better than “not an ump,” but it is fair to say that, as the game progressed, his zone got tighter. Just before sundown, I was pretty damn close to home plate taking photos and I had a front-row seat observing Stude ringing up a few hitters on pitches that were well out of the zone and off the plate.
Not to come across as whiney here (regardless of the strikezone’s size, we would’ve lost this game– that’s not the point), but as soon as that sun set, the zone did shrink (which didn’t affect the game’s outcome but it did prolong an inning or two). But, hey, who cares? That’s sandlot. And I’ll repeat this time and time again– I’m all for having a big strikezone. A big zone encourages hitters to be aggressive and keeps innings moving. Both good things.
Enough complaining. Baseball is baseball. Sandlot is sandlot. And Stude calling balls and strikes is still better than volunteer umps or player-umps, so, we’ll take what we can get. Even if some situations/calls look and feel a little strange, a little goofy (which, if I’m not mistaken, A Little Strange, A Little Goofy is the title of Stude’s memoir).
All in all, the game was a good natured, good spirited, good time. It’s a drag that The Drag didn’t play well, but that’s alright. We haven’t been able to put a complete game together vs. the Ybirds… ever, but maybe we’ll figure out how this fall?
Post-game Notes: I don’t care what RJ says, fernet is just a gussied up, rich man’s Mediterranean answer to Jagermeister. “Go ahead, it’s a digestif. It’ll help your tummy” says the bartender. I was unaware that “digestif” meant that it functions as an ejector button for my organs. My god, just a terrible idea to end the evening with fernet chunked on top of however many IPAs I consumed that day. I’ll take whiskey any day over fernet. Lesson learned. Perhaps RJ’s in depth descriptions of his “morning constitutionals” and “scha-poopies” contributed to the ejector button activating? Regardless, the ejector button was activated. Never again.
Unlike most other “live” music engagements– community radio doesn’t do “sound checks.” What I mean by that is, with dozens of people (DJs, programmers, volunteers) constantly rotating through the studio, the equipment is constantly being set and adjusted to each person’s preferences. And with the 77 seconds we have to swap out shows (and whatever equipment and materials DJs bring), that can sometimes make the first block of any show be… less than smooth. But, I feel like I’m running into a single, easily solvable issue with each show and I’m confident that will turn into zero issues soon.
Show notes: The middle 20-minute block of jazz (Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, Allen Toussaint, Duval Timothy) and the first block of the 9 o’clock hour (Tammi Terrell, Dee Clark, The Dominoes, Solomon Burke, Nat King Cole) were the show’s two best blocks of tunes.
A recording of the broadcast is available for you here–
This silly blog has recorded half a dozen or so incidents of sandlotters behaving like assholes. This past Saturday night, I was the asshole. It didn’t go beyond me calling a Jardinero a “dumbass,” but I did regrettably do that and was immediately told, by my teammates and the Jarindero third baseman, to “get out of here” with that kind of crap. Apologies were immediately offered/accepted. The game moved on. There was a paltry reason for me to resort to name-calling, but I shouldn’t have jumped the initial exchange’s demeanor from “bristling chatter” to “name-calling asshole.” The silver lining– my lousy behavior was neutralized as fast as it could’ve been.
On to baseball. The Jardineros won the coinflip for home field. We led off the top of the 1st with a small two-out rally leading to a single run (Nick and Steven coming through). The Jards followed that up with two runs in the bottom of the first.
Thi, the Jards starting pitcher, pitched really well changing speeds and arm angles, but The Drag were able to get a rally going in the 2nd by simply hitting them where they ain’t while also avoiding mistakes on the basepaths.
With a nice cushion, Keith Hyndshaw (SP) settled in and pitched the 2nd through the 6th only allowing one run. Keith did mention that he didn’t have “his best stuff,” but he gutted it out and the defense was able to avoid that dreaded inning of defensive collapse. Hard to say the game was error-free, there were a few plays that could’ve been made, but also hard to rule the few minor defensive mistakes as definitive “errors.” All things considered, for both squads, the game was mostly clean.
Carlos took the hill for the Jards in the 3rd or 4th and did a good job of keeping us off the bases. Both teams’ fielding got real sharp as both teams’ bats went a little quiet. The hits were there, but they didn’t come in bunches. Both teams consistently had threats of plating a few runs, but the pitching/defense was able to get out of it unscathed from the 4th through the 8th.
Steven Carrizales relieved Keith in the 7th and also reported he didn’t feel like he had his best stuff. Carrizales was still able to get us out of the jams though. Limongelli (RF) made some good plays including one where, with the bases loaded, he tracked a well-hit ball to right center that saved us a few runs. Gelli also nearly nailed a guy at first that nearly played out a lot like this.
Offensively, as mentioned the hits were mostly scattered, but Steven, Stillman, and RJ all had multi-hit games. Katy, Gelli, Braden, Jeff, Keith, and Simon all recorded hits. Luke gave a pitch a ride, but it was tracked down in deep left center.
The lights went out in the top of the 9th. Post-game drinks and eats at Kinda Tropical. Was definitely a solid Sandlot Saturday night.
Final score — Drag – a good amount Jardineros – a fair amount
7.20.2024 – Austin Drag vs. Arsenal Abejas (SA) @ Pittman-Sullivan – 11am
I somehow managed to allow my Friday evening get away from me. As one famous quote goes, “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.” Friday night, I might’ve had both. Anyways, I awoke on Saturday morning (gameday) at the time I had expected to depart Austin for San Antonio (9am).
I bet you’d imagine that getting a fairly late start for a game that was 90 minutes away would make me late? Nope. I arrived at 10:45am and had plenty of time to get loose since the game didn’t begin in earnest until 11:25am. Why the delay? I guess “roster constraints” for the local team was the largest factor. I was the last Drag to arrive and brought our numbers up to 14 for the day.
So, how’d the game go? It went without an umpire. Which is fine for the meaningless baseball we play. There are sports, such as ultimate frisbee, that promote themselves as “self-officiated.” The idea being that sports, especially youth sports, don’t always need an authority figure out there enforcing rules and penalizing infractions. These self-officiated games promote that competitors should be able to resolve any and all conflicts with calm and measured discussions.
Ultimate frisbee doesn’t have balls and strikes though. As someone who has volunteered umping dozens of games, it’s not particularly fun, and it’s damn-near impossible to be impartial. So, an already meaningless game without an umpire reduces the game’s “meaning” even further as the 3-5 players volunteering to ump are all going to have varying degrees of game command, knowledge, and considerably different strikezones.
Lastly, as far as I know, most of the sandlot umps we use employ a “three hours or 8/9 innings– whichever comes first” rule. You know what umps are usually good at doing? Keeping the game moving. This game drug. The heat clearly affected gameplay and pace. “Hustle” isn’t something I’d say either team was employing. With the offensive team providing the umpire, it’d be false to say that the strikezones were “pitcher friendly,” which only intensified the game’s dragging (smaller strikezone = more walks = longer innings).
Hey, hey! Are you done bitching yet? Well, no. The delayed start time.
The game lasted from 11:25am to 2:20pm which somehow only netted six innings. The heat certainly got to the hungover and hangry sandlotters that had just about had enough by 2pm.
I’m not even certain if this stupid post is playing these circumstances up or playing them down, but there honestly wasn’t too much bristling between the teams. Most exchanges were pleasant. Understandably, a few disagreements popped up. They were mostly handled in a fine and reasonable manner.
Late in the game, while I was umping from behind the mound, there was a play at the plate that I didn’t actively hustle to get in position to have a good perspective. Even if I had hustled down there, it would’ve been like trying to see what happens when two children dive in an oversized sandbox for a dinnerplate during a dust storm. Who’s to say what actually happened? Braden, the runner, thought he was safe. The catcher thought he was out. I explained that all I saw was a dust cloud and that they should figure it out. Shotgun suggestions were made and not particularly well-received. Then Braden quickly proposed Ro Sham Bo (best 2 out of 3). Braden won. Never dance with the devil.
Did yall actually play baseball? Yeah, and Nick Stillman let everyone know that he knows how to hit. Man went 4-4 with double-digit RBIs. Jeff pitched two good innings. I managed to get through a single iffy inning. Keith was steady as ever, finishing the rest of the game on the mound.
The Drag built a tiny cushion early and maintained it. It was a game of rallies and The Drag were able to record just a few more than The Abejas.
Final thought: a midday game at Pittman-Sullivan in July feels more like an Arizona Ironman Competition (or a scene from Jarhead) than it does a recreational booze-fueled baseball game.
7.20.2024 – South Austin Parakeets vs. North Austin Space Cowboys @ Govalle – 7pm
Godbless. Following the game in San Antonio, I got some much-needed tequila and texmex with some Dragsters in San Marcos, dipped in the river (thank Christ), hustled home, then booked it for Govalle’s friendly confines.
In these dog days of summer, many sandlot rosters tend to experience slight reduction (travel, heat, obligations, whatever). As was the case for the Keets, I got the invite to be their 10th man.
The Keets have arms and bats. Because it’s sandlot, pretty much all our gloves fall asleep from time to time, but the Keets always seem to have a really strong pitching rotation and their lineup catches barrels and puts up runs.
Without a doubt, Saturday was a tale of two games. The evening’s conditions were favorable. Umpire Studebaker kept things moving. Both teams swung lumber and made plays. Honestly, an exceptional Sandlot Saturday night.
The Space Cowboys started a fella in left that I had never seen prior to this game and is someone I can only assume whose moniker is “Big Country.” I have no idea if he’s “country” or not, the dude just looked and moved like a DII weakside linebacker (apologies if he was actually a DI linebacker). Big Country started the game in left and killed The Keets’ first-inning rally by throwing a dart to home to nail a runner. Very impressive throw.
After that, the game featured a lot of offense and pitching (Carlos, Rob, Bryce) on the Keets’ side. The Space Cowboys put together some strong rallies late, but, for the most part, the Keets cruised.
An exceptional Sandlot Saturday night.
My last roll of film was destroyed by operator error (I made a film mistake– dammit). No new photos this time, but here are some older photos (and the google photo folder can be found here).
Show notes: This show was fun. I especially liked the final 20-minute block of jazz and the entire second hour of soul/funk/blues. I’ll try to keep that loose format for the 2nd hour for the next few weeks: -20 mins soul -20 mins funk -20 mins blues
A recording of the broadcast is available for you here–
Quick note– On the final 20-minute block, the Spotify playlist is missing the digital versions of Ike Turner’s tracks “That’s Alright” and “Neckin'” as well as Slim Harpo’s “Lovin’ You the Way I Do” (spotify doesn’t have them). Lowell Fulson’s “Low Society” was the final track to air. The final four tracks on this playlist (those after the final “Feelm Intermissions”) didn’t hit the airwaves. I included Kaki King’s “Gay Sons of Lesbian Mothers” as part of a funny anecdote about Keb’ Mo and Kaki King touring together in 2004.
Show notes: This show featured one full minute of stupidity as my second track, Ramsey Lewis’s “Little Liza Jane” was played on a faster speed due to the turntable being at the 45 rpm setting and not 33. That took an embarrassingly long time to figure out. There were a few other minor technical mistakes as well as some silly moments while speaking into a microphone, but that’s a solo radio show for ya.
A recording of the broadcast is available for you here–
The Spotify playlist is below. Quick note– Della Reese’s version of “Sunny” from her album One More Time! isn’t available on Spotify. For the playlist below, I substituted the Reese’s “lounge” version with the commonly-known Bobby Hebb version.
A note about the Rick’s Canteen spotify playlists– the repeated tracks such as “Thank You All the Same” and “Feelm Intermission” and other similar often-repeated tracks are what I use for the “bed” music (the tunes used when a DJ is chatting about whatever).
For the most part, Episode 6 went fairly well. Curating playlists has always been fun, but I’m still noticeably trying to figure out how to perform off-the-cuff intros + recaps as well as manage even the simplest aspects of broadcasting without error. It’s been enjoyable and I’m learning that I’m much stupider with a hot mic in front of me than without. With time and practice, that should improve.
Since late January/early February, I’ve been taking the required steps towards getting a radio show on the upstart community radio station in Lockhart (107.9, KLKT.org).
It’s been a process. With my live-event DJ experience, I thought being a radio DJ would be simple/easy, but I’m finding out there’s a whole lot of room for improvement.
My initial show proposal to the KLKT board was: “Rick’s Canteen will focus primarily on Jazz, Soul, Blues, Swamp Pop, and Doo Woop (85% focus), with an occasional Classic Country, Americana, or 21st Century Indie (15%) sprinkled in from time to time to mix things up while also noting spheres of influence and any other interesting connections.”
As things have progressed, I’ve tried to play jazz for the first hour and feature mostly soul, R&B, blues, and funk for the back half of the two-hour program.
For the most part, I construct the playlist through Spotify. I mostly play vinyl and often come across situations where the vinyl tracks included in the set aren’t available on Spotify. That said, I still try to piece the sets together digitally before spinning records in the studio.
You can find Episode Five‘s digital playlist without any live on-air ramblings or any of the radio station’s underwriting below here on Spotify. Or…
A note about the spotify playlists– the repeated tracks such as “Thank You All the Same” and “Feelm Intermission” and other similar repeated tracks are the ones used for the “bed” music (the tunes used when a DJ is chatting about whatever).
…Or you can listen to how my set was recorded live– complete with all my blathering and such here (file below).
If your device’s media player doesn’t work well with WordPress’s audio player, you can also find all the live audio files in this google folder (provided Google treats you better than WordPress).
A note about the recorded files. The first bit of audio you’ll hear is the tail-end of the 6pm-8pm program belonging to DJ Russet Burbank. Rick’s Canteen doesn’t generally get goin until three or so minutes after 8pm.
Episode Four – 6.25.24
And the spotify playlist–
Episode Three – 6.18.24
My first three shows were cut to one hour due to scheduling concerns for the board members. The recording below is two hours, but my show only ran from 8pm-9pm. It’ll be easy to tell once it cuts to automation.
Episode Two – 6.11.24
Same as Episode Three. One hour of Rick’s Canteen and another of automation.
Episode One – 6.4.24
Same as Episodes Three and Two. One hour of Rick’s Canteen and another of automation.
6.23.2024 – Gulf Coast Sugar vs. Mashup of Ramblers + Playboys + Smoke @ Wishing Well – 3pm
Fun game. I had previously never taken the field with The Sugar and hadn’t taken the field against them since some time before 2020. Players began showing up for the mashup squad and as those numbers approached 16, since the other dugout looked a little on the light side, I jumped over to The Sugar.
As stated, really fun game. The Sugar are some old-school ballplayers and long-time pals. It shows on and off the field. Great guys and good ballplayers. Happy they let me hop on.
It was a close game all the way through but The Sugar went home with the sugar bowl.
Post-game note: Godbless. The Wishing Well is a great time, but boy howdy, it’s also pretty darn hot out there.
6.29.2024 – Town Lake Nightcrawlers vs. Austin Drag @ Govalle – 3pm Game’s instagram post.
We were able to put up some runs in the first. Then our offense cooled way off as Brandon Terrell (The Nightcrawler’s SP) got settled in. At one point he sat down eight (or so, maybe nine) consecutive Dragsters.
Chill Hand Luke thankfully broke that streak to begin a much-needed two-out rally that plated two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Defensively, Steven Carrizales (RJ’s best friend) was lights out on the mound. He threw strikes while avoiding barrels. It felt like anytime there was a threat, Steven would bare down and get us out of it.
Defensive highlights: With a runner on second, Sever (RF) fielded a groundball that got through the right side, then quickly got the ball to Braden (SS) who was behind second. The runner sort of took a second to consider staying at third or breaking for home. The runner broke and Braden fired a strike to nail the runner at the plate. He’s good at that. As a Dragster, he’s fired home to nail at least three runners now (maybe four or five).
“Scotty Doesn’t Know” had an exciting catch in left off the bat of The Worms’ big-swingin’ cleanup hitter, Willie. Braden also made an incredible on-the-run scoop + throw to first to kill a rally.
On the Dragster downer side, we stranded quite a few runners (our 2024 trend) and had a baserunning error or two (another emerging 2024 trend).
No big deal. I have no doubt that we’ll have this whole baseball thing figured out by October (only to forget everything we’ve learned come December).
Final score — Nightcrawlers – an amount Drag – a fair amount
Post-game notes: both games I attended were super clean. I don’t remember any goofy chirping or side-eyed mean mugging or any mumbles or grumbles. Just fun baseball and cold beers. Hear hear!
Photos from Nightcrawlers game + our previous SA game (album link here):