So we're up 1-0 and they're down 1-0, just as we planned it.

I love that Cy Wang had nothing tonight. 12-3. Very fun at our house tonight. Tomorrow they face Carmona, who better be on. I'll listen to their 5:00 game on my 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics portable radio while I watch batting practice at Fenway before our game.

We've got Dice against Escobar. Escobar had a four-game stretch in which his ERA was right around 10, before throwing a nice game in his last start. I hope Dice's "one bad inning" isn't too bad. We should be okay.

I forgot to mention the Nellie McKay show we saw on Tuesday at the Paradise. The opening band started really late, and during their set, they told us that Nellie wasn't there yet. So after they finished, we all waited at least a half an hour, probably more. She finally gets there, and her first few songs were just kind of tired. But then she started getting all self-deprecating, and it was really funny. That made her more comfortable, and she started playing better. And even when she did mess up, she just made a joke out of it. During one song, she broke into some kind of "Sylvia Plath comedy hour." It was bizzarre. I don't know if she does that on the album.... She also broke out a ukelele for a few tunes, and finished with her "Halloween single," which I believe was released in the summertime.

But she was quite pissed at herself for being lost and late, saying she wished her plane had crashed, followed by telling us possible things that her epitaph might read. This self-deprecation worked, which is good, because it seems like about five years ago, self-dep became trendy--just another way to try and show how cool you are. "I'm so horrible, terrible job by me--isn't this funny? Aren't I great for being so bad? God, I rule for being so self-deprecating. Everyone loves me. I love me. I'm so brilliant to have thought of this chick-scoring technique." Am I right? Back in the day, people who were self-deprecating really hated themselves! At least they were being honest. Anyway, whatever Nellie was doing worked for me. Self-dep is back, baby!

I also wondered what it would be like to see her outside of New York. It seemed to me like her audience was your posh, Upper East Side, "50 is the new 30," "we read the New York Times and it says we should go see Nellie McKay, only we are classy enough to understand her"-types. Then I realized: that's because every time I've seen her, it was in some high-end place, as opposed to a "rock club" like the Paradise. The moment I realized that was when she came out onto the Paradise stage and her hair hadn't been professionally done, Grammy-night-style. I'd only seen her at that Lincoln Center jazz place, and two other fancy-schmancy places in NYC whose names I can't think of right now. But the Boston "rock club" crowd dug her, and showed their support. And Nellie, overall, kicked butt as usual.

Speaking of people named McKay or MacKaye, did you hear that some newspaper reported that Ian Mackaye was hit by a car and died? But that he totally never got hit or anything, and is totally fine? I'm glad I didn't hear about this until after the truth came out. I would have been pissed. One time I heard Tom Hanks died, and I was kind of freaking out. And I only liked Hanks in a couple of films, and in his SNL hosting stints. Imagine how I would've felt if I'd thought one of my true idols had died? Terrible job, whoever came up with those hoaxes.