"What's up, homeslice?": Ichiro Enters Hall of Fame, Of course.

"The history of baseball is very important," Ichiro said. "We're able to play the game today because of players of the past. I really want to understand them and know more about them. I think we all need to know the game of the past, things of the past, so we can keep moving it forward."

Ichiro's plaque in the Hall suggests the closing of a historical, cultural, and symbolic loop that fuses two great baseball cultures:

It was the converging of paths, joining the practice of yakyu [Japanese baseball], with echoes of the code of the samurai, the game Ichiro began playing at age 3, and the pastime of American baseball, the game he played with an ornate, highly ritualistic, flamboyantly stylistic, and yet still always in perfect discipline and equanimity. 

For all of the cultural significance and the historic nature of Ichiro's induction, it's this work ethic and his singular style that is almost certainly going to be his greatest legacy. And it's one that spins into the future, as he blazes a path to serve as a guide for the Japanese and American stars of the future. This exquisite balance of baseball skills fundamentals and personal style. I can't say this is a salient feature with every Japanese baseball player but there is no denying it in Ohtani. 

Before Shohei Ohtani, there was Ichiro. Before Ichiro, there were many but none who followed the path that perhaps only he could. He played professional baseball for 27 years, the last 19 in MLB, 14 for the M's. Amazing contact hitter, fast, great arm, but his athletic skills were not what separated him. It was his expert game. His craft and style. 

Ichiro like his mononymous name was a one of a kind baseball player. 

HOF tells the story of Japanese baseball

PJ Harvey: Big Complex Female Voice in a Slight Rock Star Package

Let's begin with "Joe," a Demo from 1992's Dry recordings. The vocal performance, so uncannily assured and unselfconscious, is one thing. Then the duet setting of her effortless vocal heaviness against the abstracted slabs of industrial grunge guitar gives the song demo a post-punk conceptual feel. She's a little package but a powerhouse voice and personality. And I'm not just trying to objectify her with that contrast. It seems integral to her power. Like Iggy Pop's "Five Foot One," the power in her voice taunts those that might underestimate her diminutive frame.  

Dinosaur riff rock gets stomped on and dominated by Ms. Harvey in one of her perhaps underrated periods. It's a boss performance in England in 1998 circa her album Is This Desire? 

"The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore," from 2000's Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, my running favorite Harvey album but I need to give some others more attention-Anyway, this number is an absolute rock & roll hall of fame grand salami of a rock single but, I just checked, it didn't chart and she's actually another one not in the official R&R Hall in Cleveland. (More of what's wrong with people and the authorities, I'm telling you!) Harvey doesn't have any big hits but her albums chart okay, a couple top tens. And her audience, or cult, if you prefer, is a sizable alt-rock audience and surely big enough for the Hall's consideration?! Maybe they're still trying to catch up with the '90s? I know how that goes but PJ Harvey is a historic rock star original and past due for serious consideration for recognition by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. 

Also, by 2000's Stories..., note how in the song "Good Fortune" she's still doing her Smithian vocal stylings, my first critical hesitation with her music back in '92/'93, but now she's tossing this stuff off like she's dancing in the streets, like it ain't no thing. Or it's just another kind of art song style she does, no sweat. Patti gives Bruce "Because The Night." PJ gives a confident nod to Patti while maybe throwing in some Stevie Nicks for good measure. Masterful mistress of the late rock era. 

 More evidence: "When I'm On Ether," from 2007's White Chalk. If not psychedelic, a drug song masterpiece.  

Don't have time to get into it too much but I think Harvey is a tremendously rich source of evidence for the rockist argument. I.e., rock is essentially pop with an oppositional, iconoclastic, counter cultural, and/or anti-commercial streak built in. Its authenticity isn't rooted so much in class as in personality; its "wokeness" is a reflexive antagonism to straight authority. It's "alternative," by definition and in principle. Harvey's art insists on her individual identity while at the same time making use of various musical legacies and traditions. Progressive art song and heavy blues rock, for two. And she's part of a long line, if small club, of shamanistic rock stars with big vocal diva prowess. 

For heaven's sake, PJ Harvey belongs in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame if ever there was or is such a thing?! Not that I have any idea whether or not she would appreciate the honor or even care. Hall of Fames are bs but if you're going to do bs why not show some judgement and try to make your bs count? 

Three pop songs homaging the psychedelic bliss sounds of '90s EDM, two legacy superstars and one former child-star from Sweden showing their love--

"Ray of Light," Madonna (1998)

 

"Beautiful Day," U2 (2000)

"Dream On," Robyn (2006)

Why isn't there a reality tv show where people dance around the kitchen to their favorite pop music while making a meal together? Aren't people doing that everywhere? If they're not wouldn't that be what they'd like to be doing while making something to eat? Or cleaning up afterwards. You know, household chores. Try playing these three bangers in a row; get jiggy w/ it. Sunshine pop in dark disco packages. Feel something, or not. They work every time for me.