Pink bats, Pink Martini, and Pink Floyd
Monday, May 14, 2007
I have three pink-related stories for you at this ridiculously early morning hour:
1. Yesterday, on Mother’s Day, over 200 Major League Baseball players used bright pink bats during their games. And many more wore pink sweatbands and wristbands. This is the second straight Mother’s Day that MLB and the Susan G. Komen foundation have partnered to raise awareness/funds to fight breast cancer. “Major League Baseball and its fans collectively raised $350,000 last year in that unprecedented first usage of symbolic pink bats on Mother’s Day, and the goal this time is at least $1 million,” says MLB.com. Pretty cool. You can also buy a pink Louisville Slugger for $70.
I played in a similarly themed tennis tournament in 2002 that benefited breast cancer research. We used pink tennis balls. Which was actually kind of distracting, because your eye has to get used to following a different color through space. I also remember that the tournament t-shirts were silkscreened with gigantic hot pink ribbons (which might have been OK if but the amount of pink had been closer to “tasteful” than “retina-burning”). I gave my t-shirt to my then-girlfriend to sleep in, or destroy, or whatever. She didn’t like pink either.
After reading about pink baseball bats, I also clicked around a bit and ended up getting distracted by the History of the Game section of MLB.com. So many useless stats, so little time!
2. Portland-based Pink Martini‘s new album Hey Eugene! is due out tomorrow. Listen to them at NPR or visit pinkmartini.com.
3. Pink Floyd almost kinda-sorta had a reunion concert in London last week. The surviving members of Pink Floyd all took part in a May 10 tribute concert to pay respects to their late former frontman, Syd Barrett. And no, if you were wondering, all four members did not actually perform together. Roger Waters played separately from the other three. Apparently David Gilmour and Waters are still feuding and have yet to make nice. Pity.
Careful with that axe, Eugene!
Lastly, Pink Floyd is the subject of a new 62-minute DVD called Pink Floyd – Meddle: A Classic Album Under Review (beware: it’s a Region 2 DVD).
Have a pink day!
P.S. If you forgot to send your mom a Mother’s Day card last week, well, now it’s going to cost you 41 cents to mail it. The latest postage rate increase went into effect today.