Gotta be handy with the steel{15}
It was a busy weekend for a lot of folks in Toronto and as such my boys The Regulators were short a couple of players. Now, I haven’t played a full game of baseball in probably 10 years so I was pretty apprehensive about donning a jersey and swinging the old bat around but I went out, played two solid games of baseball in the rain and had a whale of a good time doing it. I’m normally pretty hard on myself but I feel like I played pretty well overall and am looking forward to playing some more and hopefully uppin’ my baseball game!
The politics of skin
I’ve been vegan for close to half my life at this point and I’ve had plenty of time to weigh different options and make my decisions based on what I think is right vs. what I think will make me a “better veganâ€.
Plastics / synthetic materials (like those found in POS baseball gloves) are often extremely environmentally unfriendly and often don’t last the way that leather does – with that said I don’t feel comfortable walking into a store and buying leather as if it weren’t the skin off an animal’s back so used leather is a good option for those of us that see the usefulness of the material but don’t want to contribute directly to the cycle.
If I’m going to start playing baseball regularly, or even if I just wanna chuck around the ball with my girl I figured I might as own a decent glove. It’s the type of thing that a guy like me only needs to buy once in a lifetime so I figured what the hell? Fortunately for me, I was able to find this Rawlings, barely used but worked in enough to already be comfortable for a good price – ethics in check, wallet in good shape.
I mean, if I really wanted to avoid buying a leather glove I supposed I could have gotten a custom made Carpenter but $50 for a good quality, lightly used leather glove vs. $250 for a Carpenter? To quote Dr. Italiano aka Robbie Blyth: Not gonna happen, not today.
After the games we hit up the Rogers Picnic at Fort York (Thanks Hammie / Debbie) and got there just in time to catch the second half of Cat Power’s set. She sounded great but was maybe a little boring / disengaged so we went and stole some chairs from the Nokia booth and found a nice place to sit down before posting up in the VI; undetected like a stealth.
C & C Music Factory, who headlined the fest, were incredible and have a really soulful, almost bluesy sound when playing live that I really enjoy. During the set, these two giant (10’ +) glowing globes made their way out into the crowd and my lady took off like a bat out of hell to get her hands on one of them and bash it into the section we were standing in. The festival staff, who were trying desperately to maintain control of the balls, were hopelessly outgunned. We win!
On a somewhat unrelated note: one of the things that my lady noticed about the festival, which I wholeheartedly agree with, is what a good job they did “branding†the event – every little sign; from the Food, to the Beer Gardens, to the Hand Sanitization Station was written in the festival font – these are the types of details that are often overlooked and I think that if you’re going to try to create a unique feeling at an event like this, a cohesive brand strategy is a great way to do it. Well done, Adam.
On a completely unrelated note: the last time I was at Fort York was probably 20 years ago as a cub scout – we spent the night in the barracks and Bernie Attard stole Charles Kenwright’s teddy bear and spent the better part of the night farting on it in his bunk. The next trip we took as cubs was to Rattlesnake Point – Charles made the mistake of bringing his teddy and it was unanimously voted that it would be thrown off the Escarpment. We were terrible kids. RIP Teddy.
Jul 21, 2008 @ 15:24:35
Yo dude your blog is pretty sweet. I love the photos you post. What camera do you use? Is it just a cell phone?
Jul 21, 2008 @ 15:28:49
Thanks Jess – love the photos you post as well, obviously! They’re fucking amazing!
No, I use the Lumix LX-2 – it’s probably my poor photog. skills that make them look like cell phone shots. hahaha
http://makergo.com/shutup/?p=228
Jul 21, 2008 @ 15:46:40
I understand and sometimes agree with straight-edge or strick-vegan principles, but my one concern is that it takes the process of decision making out of the private conscience of the individual and into the realm of public scrutiny and peer-pressure conformity.
I understand that sometimes that can be a good thing to help hold people accountable for their actions, but on the down side, it can lead to a “groupthink” mentality.
As an older Vegan, you have the advantage of being able to check your ethics & principles without as much scrutiny because by this time (I hope) people recognize that it’s better to question your decisions that to blindly follow a rule.
Not to be gay, but I’m proud that you can take these issues seriously and weigh them and make decisions that sit right with your own personal definition of ethics. (which just happens to be %99.9 percent vegan anyway).
Please God, gone be the days of finding each other’s loopholes & hypocrisies. At the end of the day, the only person you are accountable to is yourself (or God, if you will).
Jul 21, 2008 @ 16:21:47
Very well said! I think that one of the most important parts of growing up is the realization of personal accountability in decision making which is one of the reasons why (in this context) either choosing adopt a certain lifestyle can either be an extremely positive or an extremely negative choice depending on who you are and what your life choices are based on – there are very few universal truths.
Jul 21, 2008 @ 16:28:37
Yes I suppose it depends on who you are and what it means to you. Even though there’s a collective conciousness, unless you’re completely maliable or mildly retarded, your individual conciousness should and will be the final decider.
I just don’t know why there needs to be names and labels assigned to things. Is that to better identify like-minders? Or to remind yourself of your accountability?
Jul 21, 2008 @ 16:41:45
er, malleable.
Jul 21, 2008 @ 16:48:15
The Regulators salute your selfless sacrifice!
Jul 21, 2008 @ 17:06:07
Poopy pants
Jul 21, 2008 @ 19:01:00
Wait, is this THAT C+C music factory? Like the ‘gonna make you sweat ’til you bleed’ C+C music factory? And if so, WTF?!
Jul 21, 2008 @ 23:48:12
I nearly lost my shit when they didn’t play “Things that make you go hmmmm” – I did actually lose my shirt when they played “Everybody dance now!”
Jul 21, 2008 @ 23:51:30
I should also mention – I’m aware that I pretty much only posted photos of myself in the Regulators thread… I almost never get to post pictures of myself on the old blogerino so let me have my moment, mmmmk?
Jul 22, 2008 @ 14:14:08
hey does that mean you bought marc’s place on the team?
Jul 22, 2008 @ 14:50:54
Hahaha, unbelievable…
Jul 23, 2008 @ 09:53:11
Look at that perfect toe-tap!
Jul 23, 2008 @ 13:22:41
It’s the only kind I know how to do.