John Prine, "Paradise"

Above, courtesy of jordanthecat, is a clip of a young John Prine, on the steps of what had been his family's house in Maywood, Illinois, with his "number one partner in crime", John Burns, singing "Paradise", a lament for his parents' home town in Kentucky. Here's jordanthecat's description of the provenance of this song and clip:

"Paradise" is one of the three songs John Prine first performed on stage- the others being "Sam Stone" and "Hello In There." He still plays all of these songs in his concerts today, almost forty years later.

Muhlenb[e]rg County, in western Kentucky, was once one of North America's largest coal-producing regions. The Peabody Coal Company, now called Peabody Energy, is to this day one of the world's largest coal companies.

The town of Paradise[,] in Muhlenb[e]rg County, was flooded by the waters of the Green River in 1969 when a dam was erected, in order to facilitate barge traffic to and from the Peabody coal fields.

This clip is from the outstanding "JOHN PRINE LIVE ON SOUNDSTAGE 1980" DVD, released in March, 2007.

John Prine's site: http://www.ohboy.com/

Today is John Prine's sixty third birthday. Many more years of good living and singing, John.

Baseball playoffs: where I stand.

So long as the Red Sox are in it, I'll root for them. Spousal loyalty and all that.

If the Sox fail to make it to the Series, I'll root for the National League team, unless that team is the Dodgers, in which instance I'll back the Designated Hitter League team, even if that team is the Yankees.

Update: The Yanks trashed the Twins in the ALDS opener Wednesday, and yesterday the Sox fell 5-0 to the Angels, which my wife, using convoluted Bay State logic, takes to be a good sign. Meanwhile, in the Real Baseball League, the Phils went one up on the Rockies, and the Cards, doing their best Mets impression, blew it on an error and lost to the Dodgers. So far, so bad.

artandsoul says, anyone but the Yankees. Twif says, if the Sox are eliminated, he'll return to repeated viewings of Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Second update: I hadn't considered the possibility of an Angels/Dodgers Series. Perhaps I should check Netflix for availability of Harold and the Purple Crayon.