Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

Carlos Sanchez, the actor that has been playing Juan Valdez for the past 37 years, is retiring. He's actually the second actor to play the role, a Cubano portrayed the fictitious coffee grower in the 1960's.

The character is being reired, and will be replaced with an actual grower with a "compelling story".

The mule, by the way, had a name, Conchita. Who knew?


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

More videos from mah yoof. I found Marillion's "Kayleigh," which really wasn't a hit here, but everyone seemed to have heard it. It made it to #2 on the British Chart.

The lead singer of Marillion was a guy who called himself Fish. His real name was Derek Dick, which isn't much of a stage name, so I understand the need for the monkier. Fish was probably the second silliest rock name in the 80's, the first being Blow Monkeys lead singer Dr. Robert. Yeah, I don't want to remember the Blow Monkeys either.

Fish was later replaced, after numerous drug problems (I know, shocking) with a fellow named Steve Hogarth, who calls himself "H."

I remember Mark Goodman interviewing Fish on MTV about his influences, he said "Yes, Floyd, Crimson, Genesis..." sounding very much like a fifteen year-old describing his record collection, or at least someone describing this fifteen-year old's record collection. The Genesis influence could be seen most strikingly in Fish's Peter Gabriel style vocals. Apparently, Yes bassist Chris Squire was not too amused by the band, probably because he thought the lead singer's name infringed some implied copyright he had. The reaction of old line prog rock bands to these guys was a good preview of the amusing reaction of the guys in Led Zeppelin to Whitesnake and Kingdom Come a few years later.



Oh, and I also found this one. Can anyone identify that tartan?




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I get the Major League Soccer Direct Kick package, which means I could, theoretically, watch every darn game in the season. I don't. Yes, even I don't. I only watched three games yesterday.

The Direct Kick package shows the local broadcasts of the games, so I get to see who some of the local Fox affiliates think are soccer experts. Mostly, they are local sports broadcasters who like soccer (a rare breed indeed) and some ex-player or coach. Although, they seem to make some of these ex-players seem like bigger deals than they are. For example, watching the games where Ethan Zohn was doing color would leave one with the impression that he was the American equivalent of Franz Beckenbauer, instead of the journeyman player that played for two third division teams (oh, and the Zimbabwe first division!) and was never capped. Heck, at least Greg Lalas played some MLS games.

The best broadcasters seem to consistently be the ones for the New England games (Brad Feldman and ex-Rev and Mutineer Greg Lalas), although the Houston broadcasters are fairly good too, although the anchor seems to ask former San Jose defender John Doyle for explanations of the rules a bit too much. The worst are the Columbus broadcasts, which include embarassing-to-watch fawning "oh aren't these players so cute and fun when they are at home" segments at halftime.

But, all of these broadcasters fall into traps and sometimes can't say how they really feel. So, here is my guide to what they really mean:

When they say...	...they mean...
"The Chivas defense is at sixes and sevens."	"I heard that using British slang will convey soccer expertise."
"And he passes to Cobi Jones, the wily veteran."	"Is that guy STILL playing?"
"As a player, you've got to know you never do that."	"I hope no one remembers when I made that mistake and blew a huge game."
"The tension is rising in this game, and you will start to see more hard tackling like that."	"The referee is about to lose control of this game."
"Message sent!"	"The referee has totally lost control of this game."
"Well, he's from [Country Here], and they have a certain style of play there."	"I actually don't know much about soccer in that country, but I am about to make an overly broad and possibly racist statement."
"They haven't suffered from international call-ups."	"Nobody on this team is good enough to be called up for a national team, even that guy from Surinam didn't get called up."
"New York has always struggled; they need that final piece of the puzzle."	"The league has arranged for this team to get every big international allocation, and they haven't been close to winning anything, ever."
"This is a lot like a zone defense in basketball."	"My employers are under the impression that if I make comparisons to other sports, no matter how much of a stretch they are, fans of other sports will start watching."
"This team is still rebuilding and getting to know each other."	"Six games into the season, and they still haven't won."
"These fans are well known for their enthusiasm."	"These fans are well known for being drunks that hurl obscenities at anyone: players, ball kids, security guys, their own team."
"Thornton is a commanding presence in the box."	"Zach Thornton is a large black man."
"Expect them to fall into a defensive posture and maintain possession."	"Expect twenty minutes of keep-away."
"You can't expect a player like Carlos Ruiz to come back into the midfield."	"This arrogant goal-poacher plays for the team that pays me, so I have to make excuses for him."
"Beautiful build up, great pass, but Twellman just couldn't convert."	"Geez, Taylor, you blew ANOTHER shot?"

Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

So, my brother reads the news, turns to me and asks, "Who is Desmond Dekker?"

Wow, man, you suck. I am supposed to care when he has lunch with one of the Sadies, but he doesn't know who Desmond Dekker was. That's like not knowing who Bill Haley was.


To help Tom, and the rest of you, here is a clip of Dekker, who died this week, performing his song "Israelites." The song was a mild hit here and helped break Jamaican music world wide. I think that it was not called Reggae yet when he did it; I think it was still "Rocksteady." Someone can correct me on that one.




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I won the raffle! At Tucson Roller Derby events, they sell raffle tickets. Prizes range from dinners at local restaurants, CDs to body piercing.

Lucky for me, I didn't win a certificate for Halo, or a custom purse.

I did, however, win a "Kronik Energy Drink Pack," which included a four pack of Kronik (my roomate nabbed one before I could take the picture), a T-shirt (not in my size, but it was free) a hat and a mess of stickers.


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I've spent waaaaay too much time on You Tube lately. One of the things you'll find are old music videos. I know that posting these violate You Tube's rules, but that doesn't seem to stop anyone.

This is Rush's "Distant Early Warning." Cable TV came to my neighborhood in 1983, and this was in heavy rotation on MTV in 1984. "Heavy Rotation" in those days meant that the video was only shown four times a day, and there was a bit more time to show actual videos, kind of like MTV2. This is a complicated way of me saying that this was one of the first videos I saw over and over again.

For all the talk that people my age try to pretend we were all sensitive and sophisticated listening to the Cure and the Smiths during the 80's, when I was fourteen, this effin' rawked.

One thing about this that I find funny now is that Geddy Lee feels the need to put the bass guitar aside and play the keyboard line. It seems silly to take the trouble to do this, since they aren't actually playing, right?




By the way, the talk from fundamentalists at the time was that bands like Rush and Kiss adopted those monikers because they were satanic acronyms. Come on! Everyone knew that Rush was a drug reference. However, the pentagram on their website has been altered a little bit so it doesn't look like, well...you know.

The most ridiculous was the allegation that the name AC/DC was a satanic reference, totally missing out on the fact that it was a reference to bisexuality. We could laugh at them back then because they didn't run any major portion of the federal government. 'Cept for Ed Meese.


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The new ads for Diet Ocean Spray brag about "5 little calories." That's nice, but little words at the bottom of the screen say "5 Calories per 8 oz." The drink is only sold in 12 oz. and 16 oz. bottles.


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Okay, only Prairie and Ed Lova will be able to say a darned thing about this but...

What the heck was with that red card? I mean, it was clearly an "advantage" call since Barcelona was able to score, and if the standard is "last man," that clearly was not met since he was able to pass to another player.

I love both teams, and was happy with the game. 'Cept that Arsenal seemed to think they could sit on a one goal lead when they were playing the best offense in the history of mankind. Heck, Ronaldinho alone is the best offense in human history...

Sorry, the rest of you will have to just put up with this post.


The commentators were decent...former Colorado Rapid Marcello Balboa, Tommy Smyth, Derek Rae (I remember him when he had no accent) and former Rev Janusz Michallik. Adrian Healy and Seamus Malin made appearances too, along with, of all people Anthony LaPaglia. For those who don't know, LaPaglia played on the Australian National U-18 team as a goalkeeper. He also plays goal for Hollywood United, a well known amateur team in Los Angeles.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Ronaldinho v Thierry Henry...and it's on while I am at work. Does this timer work?


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So, some things that have bugged me about the last few episodes of The West Wing:

• They keep saying that this situation with Leo McGarry dying is "unprecedented" and are in a lather about what to do with the electors. This happened twice: in 1872, Democratic nominee Horace Greeley died shortly after the popular vote was cast and before the electoral college votes were cast. 1912 Republican Vice-Presidential nominee James Sherman died shortly before election day. Both of these were losing candidates.


• Vincente? What the heck is that? Isn't the name Vicente? People always like to add the "n," whether it is actually there or not.


• What ever happened to Mandy Hampton? Weren't we promised an explanation?


• I'm sorry, but Donna Moss always bugged the heck out of me.

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As some of you know, I had to turn off anonymous comments on my political blog a couple of months back because the vitriol got to be too much. On here, I just let it go because what is the worst that can happen? Luke Knipe posted a couple of times, and I suppose a DC United fan would take issue with my pronouncements.

I had a post last week about, of all people, Jane Wiedlin. How can a post about cute, innocent, sweet Jane Wiedlin inspire any sort of vitriol in anyone?

Well, someone calling himself Hitler had a problem with it. Word to you Mr. Hitler: I think that moniker has been taken.

Another word of advice: get yourself a proofreader...it can be a nice Aryan one if you'd like. The reason is that the rest of us will question your claims of supremacy if you can't put a decent sentence together.


His comments are the first on the flags I use. You'd think they wouldn't be a problem since they are for a nation that doesn't actually exist.


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I've been seeing signs up all over town announcing that Joan Sebastian is coming to town.

Will he be getting the Lovin' Spoonful back together?


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I had to help two students with their essay writing yesterday. I talked about how important it is to write an outline.

As many of you have no doubt figured out, I hardly ever outline anything before I write.


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This is the new banner for the Fall's web page, as suggested by Fall über-fan Conway Patton. They have gone ahead and changed it to something else. No fun what so ever.


The band scrapped plans to bring on the Chicago-based Cairo Gang as a new temporary back-up for Mark and Eleni Smith. I guess someone thought about it and realized that an alt-Country conglomeration without a drummer may not be the most appropriate back up band. The replacements for Ben Pritchard, Steve Trafford and Spencer Birtwistle apparently performed admirably at a show last night in San Diego. They were:

Tim Presley - Guitar (from Darker My Love)
Rob Barbato - Bass (from Darker My Love)
Orpheo McCord - Drums (from On the Hill)

These three are the first Americans to play with the band since a certain young lady born Elise Sallinger left after her second tour of duty in 1997.

A guy named Presley in the Fall? That's pretty cool.


Wait...did I just say that the Fall's drummer is now a guy named Orpheo?


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From the Boston Globe, Taylor Twellman doing some well deserved posing in front of a fan sign (painted by TPMP reader Prairie Clayton!) after a, to say the least, disappointing week for him.


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My review of Saturday's Fall show has been posted to Tucson Scene. Yes, I am the next Lester Bangs. If you don't know who he is, then your name is Luke Knipe and you should go back to Portland.

I didn't take the pictures or write the captions, that was Tucson Scene's netzmeister James Hudson. So, James was the guy who kept snapping the flash, eh? My pictures were posted here.

An account of the Phoenix show is on Pitchfork's website.


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From the Unofficial Fall Site:

The night started with the barman saying they had their liquor license pulled on Friday. Yeay. There were maybe 50-60 people at the show. $25/head on a Sunday in downtown Phoenix - no surprise. But still, it's THE FALL for fecks sake. We missed the first band, and the second sent me to the bar to stare into my coke. The ice was nice - the kind that crumbles in your mouth.

I've always liked the Fall, but wouldn't call myself a "fan," with only two or three of their how many records, and having never seen them before (not for lack of want, but for lack of availability). The show opened with promise, with a nice video/audio distortion of Queen & Elvis. Then the band came on, only to find that the keyboard hadn't been set up by the crew. Huh? WTF? Minor chaos, but fixed fairly quickly. Mark takes the stage - I had no idea he was so tiny. He seemed to be in good spirits despite the pathetically small audience, so I thought, "Okay, we might actually get to hear a few songs." Second song in (no idea what was played, sorry) and the singer from the 2nd opener (The Talk) runs on stage and throws something at Mark's head. He rips off his jacket and chases after him out the back door. And so does half the audience. And the chick keyboard player. The rest of the band keeps playing. The crowd gets pushed back in, and a few minutes later back comes Mark. We get maybe two more songs (one being "I Can Hear the Grass Grow"), and the keyboards don't seem right. Crew can't manage to get things straight, Mark and her walk off in the middle of the song. Band left alone to play out the tune (clearly they're used to it). Then they all leave and eventually keyboard chick comes back and said something about "Sorry, but we were getting violently abused and disrespected, yada yada." Hello - it was your own tourmate and the crew that did the damage, not us. She walks off in disgust, some people start chanting "USA" and that was that. Hooray - I've seen the Fall once in my life!

Also, someone posted a reply from opening band, The Talk:

what you don't understand is the band was quitting anyway you're lucky they played as long as they did they played for less than that a few days ago mark is a d*** and his band hates him and his wife they flew home tonight without him even knowing he pulled a corkscrew on steven the bass player poured beer and ashed on their tour managers head while he was driving and tonight was his last show as well and they weren't even going to play tonight but we asked them to do it for us so don't be a d*** unless you know what's going on thanks.... THE TALK

The Talk seemed like such nice fellows.

At least the Okmoniks didn't cause trouble...did you guys and gal?


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Saturday night, the Fall played at Club Congress. I wrote a review of the show that will appear on Tucson Scene.

The band at first looked angry, but they got better as time went on.

I was up front, and the place was packed. I was right in front of Eleni Poulou-Smith's keyboard (she's tiny but she carries a HUGE purse, by the way), which limited me in what pictures I could get. Also, they didn't allow flash photography, which didn't stop a couple of people. This made me a little more reluctant to take a lot of pictures, since I didn't want to be snapping when a flash went off and get myself kicked out.

Mark Edward Smith, Manchester's greatest citizen.

Keyboardist Eleni Poulou-Smith, looking very very happy to be there.



The two Smiths (but not THOSE Manchester Smiths) plus bassist Steve Trafford. Trafford, a nice name for a Manchester boy. Sort of like a guy from Green Bay being named Lambeau.

Because they were in weird, darker places on the stage, I didn't get decent pictures of guitarist Ben Pritchard or drummer Spencer Birtwhistle.


Smith, still singing but messing with his wife's amp. He seemed to like to do that.

Smith playing Eleni's keyboard. Sometimes she would play her line at the same time when he'd do this, other times she would just stand back, mildly frustrated.

Her keyboard, by the way, was an old tiny Korg. If the thing even had three complete octaves I'd be suprised. It also had big knobs and what appeared to be plugs for wires like an old style telephone switchboard.

I don't know this guy's name, but he was Smith's manager. Smith apparently had problems with the road manager. I know, it's shocking to find out that he is a little hard to get along with. This guy has been a friend of Smith's for years. He came out and sang back up vocals on "Boxcotosis." He had a very different manner from Smith, clapping his hands and getting the crowd into the song.

We stood up front with some people who came down from Phoenix. They came down because they didn't want to be up late on a Sunday. Also, they had to admit that they couldn't be sure if the Phoenix show would actually be played.

I also met a guy from Houston who said he partied with Smith and the Fall last time they played there. Oh...so it was your fault the last tour got cancelled.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

The opening act at last night's Fall show at Hotel Congress was the Talk from North Carolina. They seemed to be a great bunch of guys. I spoke to them a bit after the show.




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Jim Delsing, one of the best major league outfielders of the 1940's and 1950's, has died. Delsing played in an era before the "Golden Glove" award, but he earned a career fielding percentage of .989. One of the things that was a source of irritation for him was that despite his stellar career, he is best remembered for only one thing: he pinch ran for midget Eddie Gaedel in a St. Louis Browns game.

He is now also remembered for one other thing: he was the grandfather of New England Revolution forward Taylor Twellman. Twellman scored a goal today in the Revs' stunning 4-0 victory against the Los Angeles Galaxy. Somewhere, Jim is smiling.


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Okay...only a few hours until THE MIGHTY FALL. But you still have time to look at another Fall video, this one from back in 1990 for the song "Telephone Thing." There is also a rather amusing article in the Orange County Weekly on the band.




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Today is Cinco de Mayo, the day when Anglo frat boys everywhere who otherwise don't have much use for anything Mexicano the other three-hundred and sixty some odd days of the year, put that aside to drink Coronas and celebrate Mexican Independence Day.

Trouble is, it isn't even Mexican Independence Day. Details!


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.