take me out to the ballgame...

finally... after several months of down time, and suffering through meaningless spring training games, today is the first game of the season for the los angeles dodgers. perhaps the most consistent roden family ritual is attending the first game of the season with my mom. over the last 20 years we've rarely missed opening day at dodger stadium (one of the few places left in los angeles that still feels as it did 35 years ago); and while it was relatively uncool to wear a dodger shirt to art school (particularly without irony), i can't imagine summer afternoons in my studio without the radio blasting vin scully's majestic voice calling the game. that voice is the true essence of the arrival of spring.

by some miracle, this RPPC eluded baseball collectors, and i snared it for nearly nothing. it is not only a really nice band photo (complete with the town sheriff!), but a great shot of some early ballplayers (probably amateurs). clearly there is a potential train wreck here, with either a baseball team made up of musicians, or perhaps worse; a musical band made up of ball players (which probably sounded like ornette coleman's shape of jazz to come 60 years before it came...).

anyways, today i will be singing "take me out to the ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch, as well as enjoying abusing my stomach with hot dogs, peanuts, ice cream, and one or two giant cokes...

but lest you think i've gone and turned airforms into a sports blog... tomorrow is the first day of april, which just happens to be national poetry month, and i've got a few gems in mind to post. unless the dodgers win the world series, this will most likely be my only baseball post of the season... (go blue!).