Friday, September 9, 2011

White Stripes -- "I'm Bound to Pack It Up" (2000)



The bus is warm and softly lit
And a hundred people are ridin' it
I guess I'm just another running away


Adam Sandler was filming a movie on Cape Cod when I was there this summer.  They've changed the name from "I Hate My Father" to "Donny's Boy," but it's always possible that the final name will be something else.

I have no idea how this fits into the plot, but the movie crew built a kid-sized replica of Fenway Park at a middle school that's only a couple of miles from our house.  Here's a picture of it.


Here's a closer view:


The facsimile of Fenway isn't intended to stand in for the real thing.  It may be presented as a youth baseball park or a minor-league park.  It's a little small for an adult baseball stadium, but the standings that appear on the left-field wall are not major-league standings (which appear on the real "Green Monster") but simulated Cape Cod League standings.

The Cape Cod League is the oldest summer collegiate league in the country.  Its 10 teams consist of college players from all over the country, most of whom are considered professional prospects.  They use wooden bats, not aluminum bats, which enables pro scouts to better judge the potential of the players to succeed in the major leagues.

The Orleans (MA) Cape Cod League field
Some of the more prominent Cape Cod League alumni are Lance Berkman (who played for Rice), Jacoby Ellsbury (Oregon State), Nomar Garciaparra (Georgia Tech), Todd Helton (Tennessee), Tim Lincecum (Washington), Evan Longoria (Long Beach State), Nick Swisher (Ohio State), Frank Thomas (Auburn), Chase Utley (UCLA), Brian Wilson (LSU), and Kevin Youkilis (Cincinnati).

Here's two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum pitching in the Cape Cod League in 2005:


Here's what the left-field wall of the replica Fenway Park looked like from behind. 


Here's a view of the real Fenway Park:


Note the CITGO sign that towers over the left-field wall, and is a beloved local landmark and symbol of the Red Sox.  CITGO is the property of the Venezuelan state-owned petroleum company, which means that is essentially owned by Venezuela's crackpot president-for-life, Hugo Chávez.  (As if there weren't enough reasons already to despise the Red Sox.)

Chávez is one of the ten most despicable people in the world, along with Jonathan Papelbon, Jason Varitek, Josh Beckett, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, and Pedro Martinez.  (Kim Il-sung just missed the top ten.)

Here's the crew getting ready for the day's filming:


As for "I'm Bound to Pack It Up," it's on the White Stripes' second album, De Stijl.  ("De Stijl" -- "The Style" in English -- was a post-World War I art movement in the Netherlands.  The movement's most famous practitioner was the painter Mondrian, whose paintings were simple geometric compositions that used the three primary colors plus black and white.)

Piet Mondrian's "Composition No. 10" (1939-42)
This song is uncharacteristic of the blues/punk style of most of the songs on the first two White Stripes album.  The song's structure is very simple -- three verses alternate with the chorus.  The muscial accompaniment is also very basic.

Here's "I'm Bound to Pack It Up," which I think is rather Led Zeppelin-ish:



Here's the Aluminium version:




Here's a link you can use to order the song from Amazon:

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