So my seven-day, six-city baseball roadtrip is over and it was a ton of fun. I think the weirdest part was how routine the whole experience became. I'm a big baseball fan but I don't generally need to go to a lot of games, and driving across the Midwest in a Civic isn't objectively my idea of fun either. That said, Foon's Civic was very roomy and seeing the different ballparks was worth sitting through some less-than-fascinating games. In the end we saw Comerica (Detroit), Rogers Centre nee Skydome (Toronto), PNC (Pittsburgh), Jacobs Field (Cleveland), Wrigley (Chicago) and Miller Park (Milwaukee). Thoughts:

1. Detroit sucks.
2. Jacobs Field has the most food options.
3. Toronto seems really fucking cool. The only city on the trip I would go out of my way to see again.
4. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is surprisingly small and not terribly impressive.
5. The College Football HOF is notably better. That said, neither is worth going out of your way to see.
6. Prince Fielder is going to be a stud.
7. Of the Hiltons in Windsor, Pittsburgh, and Toronto, the Toronto one was easily the best.
8. Brian has a serious nose for grabbing baseballs (three on the trip).
9. No souvenir cups in Pittsburgh--what the fuck???
10. The vast majority of people still have no clue how to take a picture with a digital camera. We asked random people to take pictures of us at every park and they managed to actually take a picture about 30% of the time. Not a good picture mind you, but just successfully push the button.
11. If you think that if the Blue Jays' striking out seven opposing batters means that you can redeem your Blue Jays ticket for a free slice at any Pizza Pizza in Ontario, you can't. They are liars. I am hand-writing them a letter. And a sternly-worded one at that.

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The fantastic Walsh Brothers are up to a lot. I'll be going to a slew of their shows in the next couple months, shout if you want in.

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KevNev asked me a couple weeks back about the Bloc Party song in the new Target ad campaign. It's "Always New Depths," which is good enough to have been on the LP but instead was a B-side. blog are for dogs kindly contributes the track:

Bloc Party / "Always New Depths"

The Target campaign--cumbersomely called "Odds Against 7even"--isn't half-bad, especially given it's a Target ad campaign. Basically, it's a series of shorts on TV and their website about kids moving into freshman dorms and trying to get a band for their first party. I also can't be too critical because the soundtrack is alarmingly similar to some of my most recent playlists.

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The release of Broken Social Scene's forthcoming album is drawing nigh (10/4)...and here's another leaked track. Sounds about as good to me as 7/4 (Shorelines), which I like a lot. Jason Collett sings on this one instead of Leslie Feist however. Pillaged from the excellent Touch That Dial.

Broken Social Scene / "Superconnected"

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In terms of getting a good overview of the damage and conditions in New Orleans, the the NYT offers perhaps the most helpful interactive maps and features.

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As the last person in the world who has no interest in reading any of the Harry Potter books, I find the notion of driving by a crowd of people waiting to buy the new book and shouting out the surprise ending absolutely fantastic.

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The Chuck Norris random fact generator.

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The Bloodhound Gang is back!

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What Would Tyler Durden Do amuses me long time.