Pencilmarks

Watching The Oregonian die

2008-04-29T17:37:17Z

The Oregonian is our local wrap here in Portland, and every day one can see it dying a slow, not so sad death. You can tell by the headlines, which are relevant to no one. This morning, for example, the banner...well, everything above the fold...is the release of a new Grand Theft Auto video game.

This is news in a local paper? There are a million people in Portland and the surrounding area, and The Oregonian could find nothing interesting to write about? Yesterday the headline was about the Pittsburgh Steelers, or the NFL draft, or something pointless outside Oregon. Here in Portland, where there is no football team, where a football team isn't wanted, and where sports is the last thing on almost everyone's mind, the banner is given to the NFL. Nothing new here. Every morning brings news of some sports feat, but with the new GTA, they no longer hide the fact that they simply publish whatever press releases are sent their way as news. This is the noble profession of journalism.

The sports news everyday on the front page is the most aggravating. Those who read this blog know I'm a sports fan, but sports belongs on the back page; it's a pastime, not news. The Oregonian seems satisfied to print the most pointless sports, even to sports fans, on the front page. Brandon Roy, for instance, scored some points in the NBA All-Star game and was celebrated with a banner. Why is this special? He could have twirled a triple double and I'm not sure it would be front page news.

Another indicator of hard times is a willingness to give the paper away. I saw someone at the transit center last week giving away "three weeks free." I didn't know time wasn't free, but I think what they meant was three weeks of The Oregonian for free. He seemed puzzled when I wasn't interested.

Last Sunday I was at an event at the Expo center. The Oregonian had a table and was selling delivery for 25% off, or something like that. Again I said no. The sales rep asked me why I didn't want the paper, and I asked her if she reads it. Her uncomfortable laugh seemed to tell me she, and perhaps other employees, know the paper sucks.

It'll be gone soon. Not that it will stop publication, but it's certainly waning in relevance, and what future is there for a paper that thinks a new video game is the most important news to citizens of Portland?

Facebook, where's my RSS!

2008-04-24T22:25:21Z

I had a Facebook account, and deactivated it when they started their Beacon nonsense a few months back. I never made much use of it because it just added yet another social network tool for me to check every day. I reactivated that account to see if I could make use of it as I desperately try to break free of email.

Reactivating Facebook is a bit spooky. Everything is as I left it, sort of frozen in time. It looked neglected, but I figured I can take care of that later. The first thing I want is an RSS feed. I don't want to have to check every communication system and device only to find nothing is new; instead I want new stuff to find me. Which is why I use RSS and why I want all my information in an RSS stream I can get in my reader. A single source of information. And I want to publish to various tools remotely from my RSS reader, so I also hope to find an XMLRPC or Atom interface. Not on Facebook, though. In fact, not on any social network tool I use.

OK, so the shiny progressive Facebook is not up to the technology available. They do use RSS, to be fair here, but it's a feed consumed by a widget on a Facebook page. Maybe I missed it, but feeds should be obvious, and plentiful. But I could at least update my friends list. They have this nifty feature that lets you 'find friends' in your email contacts. You just enter your email address and password (not a bright thing to do if you still cling to the illusion of privacy) and it prowls your address book looking for other Facebook users. I don't mind providing my email address and letting it snoop, so off it went and in a matter of seconds I discovered, of the 300+ people in my email list, exactly 20 have Facebook accounts, of whom 10 I know well enough to invite, half of those being professional contacts. Three hundred addresses and I can communicate with 5 of them using Facebook.

In the end I only wound up feeling depressed and lonely. The Facebook account is deactivated again.

Flyers hockey - a different sort of game

2008-04-16T22:02:54Z

If you don't follow Ted Leonsis, you should. Ted owns the Washington Capitals, and, if his character is really in what he writes, is one of the game's true gentlemen. Ted's blog is updated often, and is always a pleasure to read, mostly because he's not ashamed to let his love of the game, or the Caps, show through. But you won't find a negative word or personal attack on anyone or any team. He doesn't write that way. Leonsis understands that even if you are not a Caps fan, you are still a fan of the game, and what a magnificent game it is when fans can engage in a bit of competition along with their teams. As a long time, old time, Flyers fan, this all makes for an interesting week as the Flyers and Caps square off in a first round playoff matchup.

Ted's all over it of course. And with usual insight, he quickly cuts to the nature of Flyers hockey, or at least how it's presented and marketed: "Orange!!!!!!!!!!; show fight clips; Vengeance is ours!; show fight clips; Orange!!!;— show fight clips; make fun of Caps fans; show old fight clips; Orange!!; show more fight clips; Orange!; show greatest hits clips; show fight clips.Orange! Show fight clips.Vengeance is ours!; show more fight clips." Sad that this hasn't changed since 1973. The Flyers, or at least their front office, still want to be the Broad Street Bullies. The more distant they get from that legacy, the more they seem to embrace it. Fortunately they've moved past it on the ice. Mike Richards showed us that last night, and to someone like Ted Leonsis, well, that's gotta hurt. Richards scored on a penalty shot, and the Flyers are up 2-1 in the series. They'll win, I hope, but here's one case where it would be nice to see both teams earn the prize. If for nothing else, just to read what my fellow hockey fan Leonsis would write about it.

Go Flyers! And much respect to the Caps.

Where is the easy, smart RSS filter?

2008-03-18T21:23:24Z

Most of what I read online I read in RSS feeds. It's easy to accumulate feeds, too many feeds maybe, but there is no shortage of information in them. Finding information relevant to my interest is the challenge.

Lately we have seen a number of websites claiming to organize and filter web feeds. Yahoo Pipes may be the well known option, with sites like Feed Rinse offering flexibility and functionality. The list is fair, ReadWriteWeb offers a good summary, but in the end, as good as tools like Feed Rinse are, they still require an unacceptable amount of manual manipulation to get them to work. I have to construct keyword based filters to sift information out of a collection of feeds, which doesn't really help if I don't have a clear understanding of what those keywords should be.

Think of it this way. Each keyword is a white dot on a black page. Let's say that keyword is Flyers, as in Philadelphia Flyers hockey. I set up my filter for Flyers, and all pages with Flyers get through. But surrounding the keyword, our white dot, is a whole spectrum of gray containing ancillary keywords of associated interest. Names of Flyers players or coaches, for example, may be in an article not naming the team specifically. It feels like these filtering tools still put the burden on me to cope with associated information by laboriously constructing filters to accommodate it.

It's a dicey proposition. Will these RSS filter sites be able to figure out an article on Eric Lindros' may be of interest to me because he once played hockey for a team I like? We'll have to wait and see, but until then, I'll just skip over what's not relevant. It's still quicker that way.

Jaxer. What took so long?

2008-02-12T20:32:43Z

I've been spending time with Jaxer, Aptana's JavaScript server. I'm impressed. I thought for a while that we'd see server side JavaScript eventually, especially given the popularity of Ajax, but it took until last month for a reasonable, implementation ready product to arrive. And, thankfully, it works well.

Server side JavaScript is not new. I used JavaScript...well...Microsoft's bastardized version called JScript, to build ASP pages in 2000 and 2001. JScript's flexibility and extensibility made sense, but I never understood why it wasn't popular; why VBScript was the defacto standard for ASP.

After the demise of ASP, not willing to invest further in Microsoft technologies, PHP was really the only practical option, even with it's quirks and flaws. But with Jaxer, the best of all worlds are available. I can write all my scripting in a single language, use available, mature Ajax libraries, and reuse client side code on the server. My first real project will be a gallery demo to see if I can replace my PHP galleries with Jaxer.

Technorati tags: jaxer, aptana, ajax, web development

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New work - 3B28 vacuum tube

2008-02-07T22:36:25Z

Some of the first new work in about a year. I finished this last Fall, but never got around to having it scanned until recently. This is part of the continuing vacuum tube project I started about 2 years ago or so. You can see more on the still life gallery page.

The 3B28 is a xenon filled half wave rectifier. The xenon offers distinct advantages over other gas tubes such as mercury vapor tubes, which makes the 3B28 better suited for radio and audio applications. Plus they're big, and look cool. Sort of like a barrel in a bottle.

Technorati tags: vacuum tube, 3b28, graphite, pencil, drawing, tube, valve

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Police on the train

2007-11-13T18:56:54Z

I saw a police officer on the train this morning. Two, in fact, checking people for valid fare. For those who haven't experienced it, Portland has an odd light rail system, very convenient, but run entirely on the honor system. There are no gated platforms, no ticket agent, no conductor. A passenger buys a ticket from a machine by the tracks, and gets on a train. The train operator is in a sealed compartment, has no contact with passengers, and the tickets aren't checked.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out all passengers may not have valid fare when riding the train. Good for them if they can work a system with designed flexibility, and thanks for a system that provides some leeway for folks who might be in a tough spot and still need to get somewhere. Heck, I've ridden without fare more than once, and appreciate the accommodation. But the openness of the system invites more than just a free ride, which is why it's surprising to see police on the train so rarely.

Anyone familiar with local propaganda in Portland knows transit crime has been much in the news lately. The fourth estate has found "outrage" over transit crime, and excitement bubbles from the pages as from children playing with a new toy. It's good Christmas marketing (shop downtown, you'll be safe), and while tempted to ask, why now, the real question is, why did it take so long to notice? The system is set up for crime. There is no security on the train, and between stations, if crime happens, where do you go?

I've been riding public transportation in Portland nearly everyday for 5 years, and saw my first police officer on the train this morning. In contrast, I've witnessed more than one criminal act, and the first was not recent. Understand, we are not talking felonies here, just the annoying, pain in the ass behavior no one likes to see. I saw a fist fight on a bus. More than once I've seen inebriated and momentarily enamored men fawn over unreceptive young women. Arguments are plenty, and sometimes domestic. The level of profanity in loud conversations is near intolerable, and lately, I now get panhandled when riding downtown. I've seen people smoke on the bus and drink on the train. None of this is really jail time crime, and not all of it is even crime, but it all adds up to an uncomfortable, unpleasant, journey that, even if not, is easy to perceive as threatening. Which gets thoroughly compounded by Portland's particular pains in the ass canvassing for political signatures on any number of petitions, OSPRIG drones and Greenpeace obnoxiously cluttering every platform downtown, and the endless, I mean endless, parade of panhandlers.

It's a mess that needs cleaning, and while we thankfully don't have the level of crime as other cities, we are but a step away. And even though the heat just add an additional hassle to the ride, their presence may get people to calm down a little. I question the commitment, however. When I saw the police officer this morning, he was the first I've seen on a train or bus ever. The first one in 5 years; the first one in what I estimate at a minimum of 2 trips a day, not always on weekends, and not counting transfers, about 3400 rides. Not surprisingly, I mentioned it, noting my surprise at finally seeing a cop on the train. His reply was characteristically direct, "we've been riding the train for 9 years." The truth is, no they haven't.

In Portland, they hang out in front of Peterson's, or park on the sidewalk next to Starbuck's at the US Bancorp Tower. In Beaverton, there is more of a police presence at the transit center, and to their credit, they occasionally get out of their cars, but understand that in both Beaverton, and Portland, the police do not ride on the trains. Gresham authorities are taking a very self congratulating public stand about putting cops on the trains, but, well, no shit. A 72 year old man was beaten with a baseball bat there last week while getting off the train. The Gresham police chief's response was, in essence, "we can't be everywhere." So no kidding they make a big production out of patrolling the transportation system. Finally

On the West Side, the mayor of Beaverton is trying to organize a transit police department for Washington County. This is good news, and has apparently been in the works for a while, but Beaverton has always seemed more proactive about transit security than elsewhere.

Overall, however, the commitment isn't real. Tri-Met, the transit authority, doesn't seem interested in security, and have offered the standard response of pledging to install cameras. Cameras don't stop a beating, or break up a drug deal. Plus they've taken a very cool attitude to the appearance of the Guardian Angels. The Angels have been in Portland a few years, but their interest is in helping people, not protecting property and business, so it's natural authority will not welcome them. The revisionist attitude displayed by the police officer on the train this morning is the real give away, however. If it seems they have always been there, the problem, then, must really not be any worse. And one has to assume it's all for show until transit crime is no longer front page news. Which should be sometime in early January I suppose.

An online gallery generator

2007-11-08T00:01:01Z

I've been spending a large amount of time over the past few weeks designing a website with a focus on photography. I have several requirements, such as being easy to update, having a simple database, sporting a clean design, as well as displaying only photo content. What's not on my list is just as important as what is. I don't want, tagging, comments, blog; any content other than pictures. But of all the site requirements, the most important is the ease of update, which means I want as automated a process as possible to upload photo galleries.

At first I had 2 choices: I could build the system myself, or I could look for an existing solution. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, and lacking any motivation to code from scratch what I was certain already existed, I started rooting about the web for a good application to create my galleries. I decided any gallery generator should meet certain criteria:

It must be an off line generator. I'm not fond of maintaining a dynamic gallery, and prefer the ability to package a gallery, and treat that as a site object, which meant an offline application to generate the gallery.
It must output pages with my choice of file extension. I want PHP files, and although I don't want a dynamic online system, the site is PHP and integration is important.
It must be template based.
It must resize images and create thumbnails by itself, to my specifications.
All photos must be on my server only.

My first thought was to look at Adobe Lightroom. I use Lightroom to organize my images, so it seemed logical to me that I'd do best if I could use the Web module to create my gallery. It failed on all but the first count. It is an offline generator, but does not allow me to change the file extension (I only get *.html files) so no PHP, and it's not template based. One can create a custom template for Lightroom, but it's not simple and requires a snowstorm of XML config files, plus XSLT to create the final output. It's not that XSLT is bad necessarily (a disappointment maybe, but not bad), it's just not my tool for this simple job.

Then I began to search for other solutions. Of course, the online galleries such as Flickr were out because the require my pictures reside on their servers. Other systems, such as Zenphoto (an excellent PHP photo gallery) were server side applications where I upload photos via a browser based admin interface and it creates galleries on the fly.

I was really tempted to use Zenphoto, or use it as a starting point and modify it to my own use, but I really prefer not to have a server side solution. I don't want to have to protect an admin page which grants dangerous access to my content and database. This only provides an unnecessary attack vector, and I choose peace of mind over possible security concern. Plus, I don't want the images to be central to the site. I want each gallery package to be an individual unit, instead of a dynamically generated collection of individual units.

So I kept looking and found little that met my requirements. Many of the tools I tried fell short on one or more points and I'm not yet willing to compromise. Some output beautiful, valid XHTML code, with no way to customize to a useful degree. Others provided no template mechanism, just some built in themes. Most are quite useful for sharing family photos or vacation shots, but not as the workhorse of a commercial photography website.

I finally demoed Extreme Thumbnail Generator from Extreme Internet Software. This tool hit the mark on the template requirement, and has enough options to allow me almost full control over gallery generation. I'm not that pleased to see output in HTML tables, but I can work around that and apply my own style. I was able to get gallery templates built, configured, saved, and have a gallery generated that integrates perfectly with my PHP site in about an hour and a half. After a few more tweaks and tests, I was gladly filling out a purchase form for a full license.

My one frustration came in trying to set up the thumbnail page menu bars. I want the menu bar to show, in order, a link to the first page, a link to the previous page, a link to each page by number, a link to the next page, and a link to the last page. ETG did everything but the numbered links. From a usability standpoint, this would have been a showstopper for me, but they do provide a variety of template tags, page count among them, that I can generate number links with just a few lines of PHP script.

I've now got a solution that works, and has enough flexibility to provide me enough room to grow over time as the site (like all eventually do) expands. I'm able to upload the gallery folder, add the details to the database using the MySQL query tool, and let the site take care of the rest. Now, on to building the other pages. Will have code samples up soon, along with links to new site when live.

The team with the worst logo

2007-10-23T23:32:09Z

The World Series will come and go, and I doubt I'll notice much of it. One thing I'm glad to see, though, is that we won't have to see that offensive Cleveland logo anymore this year. Think about it. Is there anyone who really thinks, in 2007, that this:

is a repectful or appropriate logo for anything?

Grass Roots

2007-10-21T00:08:19Z

I wanted to use comic books as props. I have thousands of them stuffed in the attic (yes I've read them all) and they do nothing but take up storage space. It was nice to get them down and try to create a story with stories. It took a week to organize them and put them back in the attic, but I'll use them again.

An evening with Norman Leyden

2007-10-18T20:19:24Z

The Oregon symphony hasn't been noted of late for groundbreaking or original performances. Their uninspiring programs have lost the luster of years past with stiff performances seeming more like high school music class. Despite the plummet toward irrelevance, however, they can still, on occasion, offer an evening of fine entertainment. Norman Leyden's performance, on occasion of his 90th birthday, at the Arlene Schnitzer concert hall last night was the best offering the Oregon Symphony has had since, well, Norman's retirement performance several years ago, and the sold out crowd seemed to agree, clapping wildly throughout and even spontaneously bursting into a verse of "Happy Birthday" late in the show.

Hearing Norman's big band is always a treat. I've heard him conduct the Oregon Symphony Pops, and perform with Pink Martini, but he always seems at his best in front of a big band. It's also one of the few occasions on which you can hear the classics of the big band era performed as they were intended. Leyden's history as an arranger, and his 300 plus arrangements make him an authority on the big band sound, and he is always true to the style of a time when stockings had seems, men wore hats, and movie stars smoked on screen. Most interesting is how the old arrangements lack the clutter heard in even the best of their modern counterparts. It's not to say the traditional is better, just different...and disappearing.

Norman Leyden is 90 years old, and we have cause to celebrate. Where he once occupied a regular place in the Symphony's season, his appearances are now rare and special. This obviously wasn't lost on the audience, many of whom appeared to be Norman's contemporaries. Outside prior to the show, while waiting for my party to arrive, I was struck by how intent many were to be there. Many in attendance had obvious difficulty getting around, requiring walkers and assistants, and moving with great effort, but they weren't going to be left out. In spite of the struggle, once inside, the music brought out inspiring youth in everyone. At the end of the show, balloons were dropped from the ceiling as a birthday cake was brought onstage, and before long, the crowd was throwing the balloons around like a beach ball at a Van Halen concert. The energy was both unexpected and exhilarating, and Leyden and the band responded in kind.

The band stand was decorated white, and the band all wore white for a very clean presentation. From the opening note of Tommy Dorsey's Hawaiian War Chant they hit the ground running to a welcoming standing ovation. The expected classics were all included. Pennsylvania 6-5000 and American Patrol, 2 Glenn Miller classics, featured dancing by Dance West from Beaverton. Leyden himself lifted the microphone to sing Chattanooga Choo Choo and the highlight of the evening came with a jumping performance of In the Mood featuring scorching solos by Dick Saunders and Paul Mazzio. The band tore through the song with enthusiasm to a point where they sounded on the verge of chaos, but never out of control, as Saunders and Mazzio traded licks on sax and trumpet.

Some intimate moments of the night came in the voice of Renee Cleland and songs such as September in the Rain, and Music Maestro, Please. Cleland's daughter Aubrey took the stage for what I thought was a less well known song, 6 Lessons from Madame LaZonga, but the cheers and snickers in the audience told me otherwise. Young Cleland performed with a maturity beyond her 14 years, returning later to perform an uplifting version of A-Tisket A Tasket. Other vocals were provided by Leyden regular Rod Lucich, and Hailey Niswanger joined the band on saxophone for several numbers.

By the time it was over the audience was well satisfied and the band well played. For all the musical excitement, though, Leyden himself seemed to almost revel in the evening, especially when bantering with the audience. Hopefully, the Oregon Symphony will take notice. This was the kind of evening Portland audiences expect, whether comprised of casual popular music such as performed by the Leyden band, or a thoughtful interpretation of an interesting classical program. It also doesn't go unnoticed that this was the first time in a long while I saw the Schnitz sold out for a Symphony sponsored event. In case your listening, Symphony, give us more quality like we saw last night, and bring Norman Leyden back for at least one performance each season. Maybe then you won't seem so irrelevant.

My top 6 Portland art galleries

2007-10-12T17:47:20Z

I don't get out to art galleries as often as I should, but when I do, there are a few I make sure to always visit. Portland sports a vast number of galleries, and not just in the Pearl. Recently, the east side has seen the growth of galleries and offers First Friday as an answer to First Thursday, the established art walk of the Pearl and Old Town districts. And we all know of the hemp fuelled revelry on Alberta on Last Thursdays. It can a be too much to see, but I do have my favorites, and here are six of them.

The Lawrence Gallery - Portland's premier art gallery and my personal favorite. The work here is always first class, and the variety offers something for everyone. Make a point to visit and check out the paintings by Jennifer Gray.
The Attic Gallery - Don't let the website fool you. It may look like it was designed in 1997, and probably was, but the Attic Gallery is huge and fun. Their new digs on NW 10th make a great place to view art...really big art, which I remember from my last few visits. Plus the staff is surprisingly friendly.
Laura Russo Gallery - Consistent quality and a beautiful space make this gallery worth many return visits. As with all galleries on this list, they have wonderful people working there, and their openings are intimate events that put you in the company of some of the finest artists in Portland.
Quality Pictures - The new kid on the block, QP specializes in photography, an art form sadly neglected in Portland. While the space is small, the quality of work shown more than makes up for it.
Newspace - Newspace isn't a gallery per se, they offer a wide range of activities for photography, such as studio rental, classes, darkroom, etc; but they also have a gallery where photographers can share their work. If you have an interest in what the locals are shooting, stop by and check it out.
Working Artist Studio - Also not just a gallery, WAS could only exist in Portland. Established as a place where artists can find studio space, and classes on art business, they occassionaly have member shows at their location and other spaces around town.

Technorati tags: portland, art, gallery, galleries, artist, arts, photography, artists

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Web design made simple

2007-10-10T19:57:30Z

Web design is a simple process. Over the years the concept of a web page has been pretty well defined. It looks a certain way, based on one of a few basic forms. Nothing ever really begins from scratch. Seth Godin points this out in a recent post. I disagree with the idea of "good enough" in anything, the work should reflect the best you have to give, but Godin's point is well taken that web design is not a start-from-scratch process. Godin is also right asserting that developers not be invited to the table unless the design is complete. I've built more websites than I can count, and have yet to encounter a desgin that is "unbuildable." The argument is often made that developers must be involved in the design process to ensure a buildable design, but I don't see it. A developer who knows his craft can build anything, it's just a matter of how long and how much. Web development is no different from any other art form. The practiced hand builds the effective site, and we can't hedge our bet by meddling in the design process.

The art of everything

2007-10-08T20:52:19Z

OK, enough nonsense. Baseball season is over and it's time to get back to business writing about art. When I first started this blog it was to write about my art, and document a move to a new home and studio. With that pretty much done, there seemed less to say about my work, but enough to say about art all around us, and while I continue to write about what I do, and occasionally post new images of current projects, more and more I notice the art of everyday things.

Last week I bought an accessory for my iPhone, and once again experienced the beauty of Apple products. Is it art? I believe so because I believe one of the defining factors of art is the thought behind the piece, whether it be a bluetooth headset, a beautiful painting, or a great athletic performance. Nothing artistic happens spontaneously, it requires extensive thought and preparation, and where Apple is concerned, the beauty encompasses everything including the packaging and even disclosures. Joel Spolsky writes about Apple's design prowess and aptly sums up what makes Apple Apple.

Beyond everyday devices, the phones and jackets and shoes, there are examples of art in everything both useful and aesthetic. The things that are art are the things that are extensions of their creators. A beautiful building is art if it contains the heart and soul of an architect, which, as I sit here looking out over the skyscrape of downtown Portland, describes few buildings indeed. And while we can use a standard formula or process, things like the golden ratio et al to create items of accurate proportion or scale, they are merely superficial without the volume of thought and skill of an artist's mind and hand.

Does that mean everything beautiful is art? No. Of course not. Art is an inherent, undefinable quality of an object which can only be described like pornography. I can't explain it, but I know it when I see it. Or hear it, for that matter, for there is plenty of music that qualifies as art. But let's leave the definitions to others and simply open our eyes, which is what this blog has become about. The art of everything, all things around us, all activities and sounds, have the potential to present us with art, however common.

Think about it next time you watch some dull program on PBS or Discovery, or wherever they show them, when they show film of an ancient civilization and fawn over the daily objects unearthed from their buried villages. These are pots, and plates, and utensils, everyday household goods that are now invaluable, not so much because they are art, but because there are so few of them they wind up in art museums as examples of culture itself. Do things today have the potential to hold such value? Wait 5,000 years and see. If they do, I'd rather enjoy it now, before it's distilled into an unrecycled and empty Talking Rain bottle behind the glass of some future civilizations cultural museum.

In the meantime, let's explore the art of everything together. Let the unusual, and overlooked art of our world be documented and recognized in and of it's time, before they become relics or commonly obsolete. And, by the way, the last several months worth of drawings are finally being scanned....for anyone who may have wondered what happened to the art on this site.

Phillies stumble, Rockies take commanding lead

2007-10-05T18:19:09Z

It will be talked about all winter, and with some truth, that Charlie Manuel should have left well enough alone in the fourth inning of yesterday's game. I can't say I disagree, but neither am I the Phillies manager. For those who missed it, with a fragile 3-2 lead, starting pitcher Kyle Kendrick loaded the bases with 2 out and Manuel brought the hook in favor of Kyle Lohse, whose low inside fast ball missed and wound up in the right field seats for a spirit breaking grand slam. Let's face it, even if Manuel hadn't gone to the struggling bull pen too early in the game, the Rockies so far are the better team. The Phillies bats can't solve Colorado pitching, and Philly pitching isn't up to the task. But it's hard to get too broken up. After all, there are only 8 teams still playing baseball this year and the Phillies are one of them. Not for long maybe, but getting this far is still something to be proud of. For some honest, well thought analysis, Beer Leaguer, as always, has a great discussion and commentary.