Stumblin' Along 5/19 '24
Turning Into Stone
Turning Into Stone
- History of Car Advertising
- PGA Championship
- New York Baseball
- YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
Today’s tune on this Sunday Stumblin’ Along is Turning Into Stone by Phantogram. They sampled an Otis Redding record called Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song), which happened to come out on the same album as his Try A Little Tenderness.
Phantogram, which is a altnernate/indie rock duo from Greenwich, New York, has a very unique sound. My favorite song of theirs is When I’m Small which was on in the background of Week to Week Notes’ Week 18, ‘23. The first time I heard When I’m Small was from a Gillette Fushion ProGlide with Flexball Technology Shave Face, which aried back in ‘15.
“Line” is the only lyric that both Phantogram’s Turning Into Stone and Otis Redding’s Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song) share. They sample the beat in the beginning of the song, which sorta sounds similar to the Jeopordy Theme song but better.
The rest of the lyrics to this tune are pretty dark, which wasn’t really what I was going for. I found out about this song through Who Sampled and was looking for another connection with Otis Redding. With this being another form of genre of music, it’s interesting that they took an element of the King of Soul’s choreography and made a cool song of their own out of it.
This song sounds like it should be used in the background for one of those thousands of car commercials we watch while in-between the live sports on television. Maybe it’s just me and my weird connection to the band with the Gillette ProGlide with Flexball Technology Shave Face advertisement. Anyway, again the lyrics are sorta dark, but I promise the sound will grow on you.
On to the history of…
Car Advertising
The first ever car advertisement came from the Winton Motor Carriage Company. They placed an ad in the Ohio newspaper called the Scientific American.
Sidenote: Not only did that publication get the first scoop on cars, but they are also credited for publishing Albert Einstein’s Generalized Theory of Gravitiation in 1950. Pretty cool.
The Winton Motor Carriage Company was established in Cleveland, Ohio, which was America’s first Motor City. Alexander Winton, the CEO of the car company, was a Scottish immigrant and originally was a bicycle company owner. He sold his first car for $1,000 to Robert Allison of Port Carbon, Pennsylvania, on March 24, 1898, right after the ad above was published. By 1899, Alexander Winton sold another 21 horseless carriages. The $22,000 he made of the sales would come out to about $831,091.08 today according to my trusted CPI Inflation Calculator.
Alexander Winton would pass away in 1932. The Winton Motor Carriage Company would have a good run until it was sold to General Motors in 1930, eventually becoming defunct in 1962. (Source: Altered Steel)
Henry Ford, of Detroit, had his first Model T adveritising published inside the Saturday Evening Post Magazine in 1908. His $850 Model T would come out to around $28,969.11 today. In his first year after running the advertisement, Ford sold over 10k Model Ts. Before 1908, the country had only about 100k registered vehicles, so clearly it would end up being a massive success as Detroit would go on to become America’s most prominent Motor City.
I can’t totally authenticate this but I believe the first car TV commercial came from Oldsmobile. In 1948, they produced a black and white commercial advertising the first automatic car. That worked out quite well for them being that 96% of the cars driven in America today are stick shiftless. (Source: Reader’s Digest)
What’s pretty interesting about the commerical is the first 15+ seconds of the advertisement has nothing to do with the car, but more of the suburban American lifestyle. This concept of Americans owning a car with a home was something seen as glamorous. Having an automatic car back was a status symbol.
As American cars would continue to get faster, bigger, and bolder, Volkswagen came along to switch things up. The German car company was struggling to compete with American made cars in the American market so their “Think Small” campaign of 1959 was quite genius. They advertised their Volkswagen Beetle with the simpled down Think Small campaign. The zigging while everybody was zagging worked out well and served as a wake-up call to advertising industry as a whole. There is even a scene in Mad Men Season 1 where Don Draper & Co. are sitting around ripping cigs inside saying they hate the ad. Pretty cool. (Source: Altered Steel)
I could’ve looked up more car advertisements online but instead I figured to check out my issue of the 1992 Sports Illustated Sportman of the Year. It was at my grandparents house for decades, must’ve been either my uncle Robby or Tommy’s. John gave it to me a couple years ago with the good idea that I could use it with Week to Week Notes.
Inside the issue there were 9 car advertisements from the likes of Nissan, Mazda, Toyota, Chevy, Buick, Isuzu, Ford, Suzuki, Infiniti, and Chevy again on the back of the magazine cover. Cars and sports, makes a ton of sense.
Now today, I feel like most car commercial has some epic song on in the background of their advertisement. Of course, this past decade also had the iconic Lincoln series of Matthew McConaghy pondering deep thoughts while playing with a booger. That’s all I got for today’s bit of history on car advertisements.
Highly unlikely, but if there is ever a day where you hear Phantogram’s Turning Into Stone on in the background of a new car zipping through mountains please let me know. Best believe Week to Week Notes needs sourcing.
On to the sports…
PGA Championship ‘24
Leaderboard After Round 3
Collin Morikawa
Collin Morikawa has found the top of the leaderboard heading into Sunday. The ‘20 PGA Championship champion is seeking his 3rd Major. Quick tip, the 27-year-old has had trouble on the 2nd Hole at Valhalla. He bogeyed there in the 1st and 3rd Rounds. Otherwise, Morikawa finds himself in 1st thanks to in excellent approach shots around the green. His 1.88 Around-The-Green rating, which measures a player’s performance within 50 yards of the green has been the best this tournament.
Xander Schauffele
After getting off to a new course record start on Thursday with an incredible 9 birdies, Xander Schauffele has maintained his spot in the last group Sunday. He will tee off with Morikawa. Schauffele has never won a Major since competition on the PGA Tour after turning pro in ‘15. That said, he has finished within the Top 10 12 times so is he due?
Shane Lowry
Holy Shit! Yesterday when I said Shane Lowry had an outside puncher’s chance at winning this, I was talking out of my arse. Lowry had a sensational Saturday round of golf with 9 birdies and 9 pars. He tied Xander Schauffele’s course record of 62 and came about 2 inches away on a putt from setting a new record low at a Major championship event. His 3.62 putting rating since Thursday has been by far the best of the players this tournament. Let’s hope he can keep it up, I’d look brilliant, good man yourself Shane!
Sahith Theegala
Sahith Theegala will be paired up with Lowry at the 2:25 PM ET (7:25 PM Irish time). Heading into this tournament, Theegala suffered a freak rib injury at the Wells Fargo Championship and he wasn’t even sure if he’d be able to play. Theegala has only finished inside the Top 10 of 1 Major in the Masters in ‘23. Outside of Lowry’s putting, Theegala’s 2.65 putting rating is 3rd best this tournament. Expect a showdown on the green between Theegala and Lowry.
Bryson DeChambeau
Bryson DeChambeau ended his Saturday round with an electric eagle chip. It was his 2nd eagle this tournament. If DeChambeau is halfway decent on Sunday around the green, he’ll have a real shot at winning. His 328.6 yards per drive leads the pack. In the past 2 PGA Championships hosted at Valhalla, both Tiger Woods in ‘00 and Rory McIlroy in ‘14, led the field in driving distance as they went on to win. (Source for the stat: @JustinRayGolf)
Robert MacIntyre
Robert MacIntyre is Scottish, hailing from Oban. You never know if the Mc or Mac is Irish or Scottish so I thought he might’ve been a paddy. Fair play, that’s alright. On Friday, MacIntyre hit one foul into the woods. After a half hour back and forth with course officials, he had to drop from a fenced in deck. After a nice shot that got him back on to the fairway, he received an applause. Usuallly when I’m on the links and drill a neighboring home by accident the residents look disgusted and ask wtf is the matter with you with no applause.
JT Thomas
JT Thomas, playing in his home city, gave his Louisville fans something to cheer about on his beautiful shot on Hole 14. Hitting out of the Kentucky blue grass, the Kentuckian JT Thomas found one of his 6 birdies on the day. JT Thomas will need a few more moments like this but expect him to use the hometown crowd to his favor. It will surely be a storyline the CBS Broadcast brings up a few times.
Scottie Scheffler
This was the scene of Scottie Scheffler pulling up to Valhalla on Saturday morning for his tee time. Scottie doesn’t know the amount of internet jokes that will come out of his arrest from Friday morning, but we at Week to Week Notes are here for them. Scheffler had an inauspicious 3rd Round as he shot 3 over par. Many are wondering if the adrenaline from the Friday had worn off, but who’s to say. Saturday was the 1st Round of ‘24 where Scottie Scheffler shot over par, which is even more absurd than his Friday morning.
Game 41 (5/11 ‘24)
- Yanks score 2 in the 2nd. Rizzo walks, Wells doubles, Grisham takes ball 4, and then Anthony Volpe drives in Rizzo & Wells on a bloop single. Trent Grisham inexplicably makes the 3rd out while getting stuck in no-man’s land between 2nd and 3rd base. Juan Soto was up next and that could’ve been a big inning. The Yanks don’t score another run as Nestor Cortes labors through 5.1 innings allowing 4 earned as the Rays win 7-2.
Game 42 (5/12 ‘24)
- Mother’s Day so missed most of the game to hang out with my sweet mother and grandma. Nancy G. made a great point that Yanks’ catcher, Jose Trevino, looks like the Pink Power Ranger with his pink catcher gear for Mother’s Day. Anthony Volpe led off the game with a triple. Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, and Trevino (twice) each homered, but the biggest homer of the day came off the bat of Jahmai Jones. It was the Yanks’ backup utility player’s first career home run after playing 47 games in the Big Leagues over the course of 4 seasons. SP Luis Gil was great as he went 6 scoreless innings. The bullpen got knocked around a bit but Tampa Bay couldn’t muster enough offense to keep up with the Bronx Bombers 4 home runs as the Yanks win 10-6 for the moms!
Game 43 (5/14 ‘24)
- Got home in time for the bottom of the 2nd, the Yanks are already up 2-1 which is always nice. The Knicks just went on a 13-3 1st Quarter run as soon as I sat down, no big deal just saying. In the 3rd inning, Mike Stanton goes yard. An inning later, Aaron Judge scores on a bang-bang play at the plate. I know he’s a ball player, but we can’t be risking the Yanks’ captain getting injured on a play like that in Minnesota in May. New York wins 5-1 as Carlos Rodon goes 6 innings with 6 ks.
Game 44 (5/15 ‘24)
- I got home after work & pints in the 5th. Aaron Judge is having himself a night. He just hit his 2nd 467 ft home run in the past week along with 3 doubles. Tonight I also learned that Michael Kay works out after every broadcast. Yanks win as Marcus Stroman, Luke Weaver, and Caleb Ferguson combine to shut out the Twins.
Game 45 (5/16 ‘24)
- Anthony Volpe leads off the last game in the Minnesota series with a home run. Not a bad start, eh? Later in the 1st inning, Gleyber Torres doubles, scoring Aaron Judge on a non-bang-bang play at the plate. Volpe in the 2nd inning gets a single and steals 2nd. He is awesome. Another player who is awesome is Clarke Schmidt as he goes 8 shut out innings for the 1st time in his career. Yankees sweep the Twins.
Game 46 (5/17 ‘24)
- I missed the game in attendance of the Rooster Cup Draft. Team Coughlin and Team McDonagh’s teams are set. As an unbiased and independent journalist with no associations with the Rooster Cup besides my all-access behind-the-scenes credentialed pass, I would say the teams are quite even. For the 2nd consecutive Rooster Cup, Week to Week Notes will be providing hard-hitting on-the-ground journalism with behind the scene coverage you literally can’t get anywhere else. It will be held in the Poconos with more details to come. Yanks won 4-2, Mike Stanton hit homered again.
Game 47 (5/18 ‘24)
- Luis Gil strikes out 14 White Sox batters, at one point even striking out 7 in a row. Gil goes 6 inning, allowing only run in the top of the first. The Yankee bats continue to flex their power as 4 more homers are hit. Mike Stanton yet again went yard, Jose Trevino hit his 5th of the year, and Juan Soto had 2 more. The New York Yankees through 47 games are now 32-15. Not bad.
During last weekend’s report, the New York Mets were 18-19. Now they are 20-25. Since May 1st, the Metropolitans are 5-11. 3B Brett Baty after getting off to a hot start is now 2 for his last 25 and may be benched. SS Francisco Lindor, who Uncle Stevie Cohen is on the hook for $272.8 million dollars until 2031, is hitting a putird .190. One of the team’s few bright spots is the Polar Bear Pete Alonso and his 10 dingers. Alonso is a free agent at the end of the season. If the Mets continue to struggle, this should be Noted because a recent Steve Cohen Tweet and Delete.
