From the Sports Desk

At 7:00 pm tonight, we will finally get the answer to the question all of America is asking: can the unranked but undefeated Georgia State Panthers (4-0) keep its win streak alive against the 2-2 Trojans of Troy? GSU is a 1-point favorite.

Panther QB Darren Grainger (73-105, 69.5%) will get his 1,000th passing yard of the season today. His 263 rushing yards are second on the team only to running back Marcus Carroll (508 yards). 

James Madison U, who beat Troy by 2 points two weeks ago, play South Alabama today. A James Madison loss today, combined with a GSU Panther win, will give Georgia State sole possession of first place in the East Division of the Sun Belt Conference.

The Georgia Bulldogs are playing Auburn University at 3:30 this afternoon, so that should be exciting. After four weeks of home games, this is finally Georgia’s first road trip of the season. The Bulldogs have won back-to-back national championships, are ranked No. 1, have won 21 games in a row, and have the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. The unranked Auburn Tigers, also known as the War Eagles for some reason, lost last week to unranked Texas A&M and are 14.5-point underdogs.  

But at least Auburn has fielded some good teams in the past and is in the Southeast Conference.  Today's game is the first of even for Georgia against SEC opponents. Two of those seven teams (Kentucky and Missouri) are currently undefeated and after last week's results, four are in the AP Top 25. Okay, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Florida and Missouri are only No. 20 through 23, respectively, but that's still Top 25 and better than the other 110 schools in the FBS.  

Besides, Georgia's playing for a three-peat national championship, not the status of a high mid-season ranking. Championships are determined by making, and more importantly winning, playoff games. Georgia will make the playoffs and will win the next National Championship Belt.

Auburn doesn't stand a chance.

Georgia plays Kentucky next week, and today the Wildcats put their 4-0 win streak on the line against No. 22 Florida (3-1). This game should be interesting to Georgia fans, not only because it’s an SEC game (and naturally just more interesting than any non-conference game), but it should preview what kind of Kentucky team we will be facing next week. If Kentucky wins, we can expect a 5-0 Wildcat team to be nationally ranked and confident, a dangerous combination, and a Georgia victory over Kentucky the next week should count as a “quality win” and go a long way to redeem the reputation of Georgia’s perceived “soft” schedule. If Florida wins, it will suggest that the Gators are indeed back and we will be playing a significantly improved team in Jacksonville on October 28 (Week 9).

So Kentucky-Florida is the most interesting 12:00 noon game today. Clemson plays Syracuse today at noon but no one cares anymore. The only thing interesting at this point about Colorado hosting No. 8 USC is seeing how well the two PAC-12 teams perform at 10:00 am Denver time (noon here in the East). For their sake, I hope they have a Starbucks on the sidelines.

What else? No. 2 Michigan plays Nebraska but no one cares. No. 3 Texas is a 16.5-point favorite over No. 24 Kansas, so that should be boring. No. 4 Ohio State and No. 5 Florida State are both off this week, but at least we’ll be spared another one of Buckeye Coach Ryan Day’s white-boy-aggrievement “everyone hates Ohio State” speeches.

Georgia versus Auburn is clearly the best game today. It’s the oldest college rivalry in the Deep South, and it’s an SEC game and so should feature higher-caliber performances than in any non-Conference game. And it’s the GEORGIA FREAKING BULLDOGS!!!

After the Georgia game, South Carolina at Tennessee could be worth watching (7:30 pm). Last year, QB Spencer Rattler and the Gamecocks absolutely destroyed a confident Tennessee team that had just pulled off an epic upset over Alabama. No. 21 Tennessee has been pretty suspect this season. Sure, they beat Virginia, but then so did James Madison. They lost to Florida, who lost to Utah, who lost to Oregon State last night. Will the Volunteers get their revenge this week, or will South Carolina prove its continued superiority over Tennessee? Exciting stuff, even if it doesn’t have national playoff implications. For what it's worth, Georgia beat South Carolina two weeks ago and plays Tennessee Nov. 18.

Have fun, y’all and GO DAWGS!

 

Big Ears Preview, Part 2

The process of discovery continues as I further research the lineup for the 2024 Big Ears Festival.

Flutist and saxophonist Anna Webber and pianist Matt Mitchell both work near the intersection of abstract jazz and 21st Century composition.  Both are new to me.

Canadian Anna Webber moved to Germany in 2011 to study at the Jazz Institut Berlin where she began working on compositions for larger ensembles.  Now based in Brooklyn, her releases from 2013 to 2016 have alternated between her Percussive Mechanics septet and her Simple Trio. Percussive Mechanics, featuring James Wylie, Elias Stemeseder, Julius Heise, Igor Spallati, Martin Kruemmling, and Max Andrzejewski, was released in 2013 and the title track is posted up above.  

In the late 1990s, Matt Mitchell completed a master's degree at the Eastman School of Music and then settled in New York, where he met saxophonist Tim Berne (Mitchell was later part of Berne's Snakeoil band). Mitchell has written and published several collections of piano études, and a New York Times reviewer commented in 2011 that Mitchell's music "approaches the technical level of études but. . . churns and whirls and leaves spaces for broad interpretation." The Matt Mitchell Quartet, which includes Chris Speed (tenor sax and clarinet), Chris Tordini (bass), and Dan Weiss (drums), perform Select Your Existence down below.

The common element of the two seems to be drummer John Hollenbeck. Webber studied with Hollenbeck during her time in Germany, while Mitchell was a member of Hollenbeck's Large Ensemble and Claudia Quintet. In 2014, Webber released the LP Simple with Mitchell and Hollenbeck. The Simple Trio went on to release Binary in 2016 and Idiom in 2021. 

Anna Webber and Matt Mitchell will perform together next year at Big Ears. No word yet if it will be a strictly duet set, or if Hollenbeck or others will be joining them.

J Noa Appreciation Post

I know, but don't fully understand why, some people are not fans of latin hip-hop.  But even those folks have to admit that this is some next-level shit.  J Noa's technique - her flow, her rapid delivery, her energy - are unparalleled, and she's performing with a real, live, bona-fide instrumental band, not just a producer with a thumb drive full of sampled beats (although there's not necessarily anything wrong with that). Talk about breath control! And she's self-taught and only 17!

This is probably the best new thing I've heard in a while, and it bodes well for the future of music. 

 

Colorado lost their football game last night to Oregon.  As a matter of fact, they got blown out, 42-6. Colorado is now 3-1 on the season, not a bad record, but the toughest part of their schedule is still ahead of them.  

But I truly don't understand the hatred and contempt I'm seeing all over the internets against Colorado and their flamboyant coach, "Prime Time" Neon Deion Sanders.

On the face of it, it's a great sports story.  A struggling football program, one of the worst if not THE worst in the country, hires an outspoken and colorful head coach whose only prior coaching experience has been at the prep school and HBCU level. Never mind that said coach was a college football and NFL standout, as well as an accomplished baseball player.  

What's more, Coach Prime brought his two sons along, starting one as the team's quarterback and the other as a defender.  Butt as it turns out, they're both good.  Even after yesterday's shellacking, Shedeur Sanders has the second most number of yards among QBs in the FBS, and Shilo Sanders leads the team in tackles. It might be nepotism, but it's nepotism that works.

This inexperienced but outspoken team then won its first game against TCU, the team that was in the National Championship Game just last January.  Granted, TCU's QB graduated last spring and they aren't what they were back then, but it's still a good win nonetheless.  Then they beat Nebraska, who's glory days are far behind but are still a college football legend, and then they beat their instate rival, Colorado State.

3-0 is not a bad start for a team that was 1-11 the year before.  But Colorado is in the short-lived and ill-fated PAC-12 Conference, and until last night hadn't played any PAC-12 opponents. 

Sports fans love their Cinderella stories, and Colorado's turnaround has all the earmarks of a classic Cinderella.  But many sports fans, especially those inclined to post comments on Facebook and the ESPN and other sports websites, had an almost violent level of contempt and anger over Colorado.  They were downright gleeful in their joy of seeing the team beaten and were contemptuous of anyone who so much as suggests that the team might improve as a result of yesterday's drubbing. 

I don't get it. Sports fans don't react this way when some random basketball team unexpectedly makes it to the Final Four.  Or when a baseball or hockey team has a "worst-to-first" turnaround season.

Why this hated then for Coach Prime and the Sanders brothers?  Race couldn't possibly have anything to do with it, could it?

From the Sports Desk

Tonight (7:00 pm), the No. 1 ranked, repeat national champion University of Georgia Bulldogs, holders of the 2021 and 2022 championship belts, host the unranked University of Alabama - Birmingham Blazers. The Bulldogs are 40.5-point favorites.

There’s really nothing more to be said about the game, except this is the last non-conference cupcake on Georgia’s schedule this year, with the possible exception of their traditional season-ending grudge match against in-state rival Georgia Tech. After this game and until Tech, it’s all SEC teams, including three currently ranked teams (Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee). It gets better after this week.

But boy howdy, what a day we have today otherwise! The Big Game today is arguably No. 6 Ohio State at No. 9 Notre Dame, but I can’t stand either team - with a white-hot, borderline psychopathic hatred of the Irish - so I don’t care. The Buckeyes are 3.5-point favorites, but I wish there was a way both teams could somehow lose.

There’s also a big SEC showdown today, with No. 13 Alabama hosting No. 15 Ole Miss. Alabama’s looking uncharacteristically vulnerable this year, and 3-0 Ole Miss might turn out to be the toughest team on Georgia’s schedule this year, but that’s not the game that everyone’s looking forward to today.

Like most of the rest of America (apparently), I’m looking forward to this afternoon’s Colorado vs Oregon game. Buffaloes against Ducks. The Sanders family vs. Bonix. Coach Prime vs. Dan Lanning. PAC-12 underdog vs PAC-12 powerhouse.

There are so many angles to this game to make it interesting, not the least of which is it’s the first big test to see if Colorado, one of the worst college football teams in the country last year (1-11), has really turned it around this year under new coach Deion Sanders. Bonix & the Dux are 21-point favorites, so the consensus opinion is that despite a good, 3-0 start against TCU, Nebraska, and Colorado State, the Buffaloes are not ready for the Big Time yet and will get wrecked by the elite, nationally ranked, PAC-12 big boys.

But those of us who like our underdogs are hoping that Coach Prime and his sons can prove the naysayers wrong once again. They were “supposed” to lose every game so far this season. But if they can put enough defensive pressure on Bonix, if Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders can find some open receivers, if Prime Time can outguess Coach Lanning. . . anything can happen.

But the even bigger story here is the PAC-12 itself. This was a conference that was self-destructing all year. The big, glamorous Southern California teams (USC and UCLA) both bolted for the Big-10, and then the other teams followed, joining the ACC, the Big-12, and other conferences, until there were only 2 teams left (Oregon State and Washington State) and even they are looking to move to the Mountain West.

The Pacific Coast Conference has been around in one form or another since 1915. As long as I’ve known about college football, teams like USC, Stanford, and Washington were always in the championship conversations. For years, the Rose Bowl game in Pasadena was the de facto national title game before the modern playoff system evolved.

College football without a PAC-12 conference seemed unthinkable until suddenly there was no more PAC-12 conference. This is the conference’s last year.

But it’s going out with a roar. Eight of the currently ranked Top 25 teams are from the PAC-12. Those 8 teams are all undefeated - not a single loss among them after some 24 games.

Today’s Colorado-Oregon game is the most anticipated game in the country this week, but on top of that, we also have:

• No. 11 Utah (3-0) vs No. 22 UCLA (3-0)
• No. 14 Oregon State (3-0) vs No. 21 Washington State (3-0)
• No. 5 USC (3-0) vs unranked Arizona State (1-2)
• No. 8 Washington (3-0) vs unranked California (2-1)

That’s quite a bit for a conference that was supposed to be a laughingstock this season, that seemed about to be embarrassed out of existence. I’m still a fanatical SEC fan, but as improbable as it might seem, it appears that for at least this one season, the geographic center of football supremacy has shifted a little to the west.

That’s Week Four. Enjoy, and GO DAWGS!

92-year-old Rupert Murdoch announced that he will be stepping down as chair of his media empire, including the Fox News Channel and News Corporation, which owns the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, among other newspapers. 

In 1996 the Australian-born mogul launched Fox News with media specialist Roger Ailes, who had packaged Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon in 1968 by presenting him to audiences in highly scripted television appearances. 

The Fox News Channel initially presented news from a conservative viewpoint, but over time its opinion shows, delivered as if they were news, came to dominate the channel. Those shows presented a simple narrative in which Americans—overwhelmingly white and rural—wanted the government to leave them alone but “socialists” who wanted social welfare programs demanded their tax dollars. Isolated in the fantasy world of Fox News, its viewers became such fanatic adherents to right-wing politics that Fox wholeheartedly trumpeted Trump’s Big Lie after he lost the 2020 presidential election because viewers turned away from Fox when some of its personalities acknowledged that Biden had won.

In Fox News, Murdoch created a uniquely destructive force in American democracy and public life, one that ushered in an era of division where racist and post-truth politics thrive. Fox was a shameless propaganda outfit, reaping massive profits even as it attacked core democratic values such as tolerance, truth and fair elections. Murdoch wreaked untold havoc on American democracy.

Murdoch sees it differently. In his resignation letter, he attacked “bureaucracies” who wanted to “silence those who would question their provenance and purpose” and “elites” who “have open contempt for those who are not members of their rarefied class.”  He wrote that “most of the media is in cahoots with those elites, peddling political narratives rather than pursuing the truth." 

Forbes estimates that their media empire has enabled Murdoch and his family to amass a fortune of more than $17 billion.

I'm not angry that a Senator is allowed to wear a hoodie on the floor.

I'm more amused than angry that a congresswoman can vape and grope her boyfriend in a theater crowded with families, then lie about it and blame it on her divorce when video evidence surfaces that proves her wrong. 

Nope. I don't care much about those things.

What does make me angry is that one major political party is intent on discarding representative democracy in an attempt to foist their unpopular positions and policies onto an unwilling people, is embracing a dictatorial ideology, and trying to distract the public with cheap theatrics and non-sequitur "culture war" issues.

That fucking pisses me off.  

 

With nothing better to do with this time, the Retired Old Man watched today's House Judiciary Committee hearing on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland (you know, the man who should be on the Supreme Court instead of Kneel Gorsuch).

There's four hours of my life I'll never get back.

"During a grueling and combative hearing before the House Judiciary Committee," the Times reports, "Many of the claims and insinuations leveled against Mr. Garland by Republicans — that he is part of a coordinated Democratic effort to shield the Bidens and persecute Mr. Trump — were not supported by fact. And much of the specific evidence presented, particularly the testimony of an investigator who questioned key decisions in the Biden investigation, was given without context or contradictory information."

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California) accused the committee of attempting to interfere in the multiple on-going prosecutions of Donald Trump (R-Loser) by making the committee "a kind of criminal defense firm for the former president.” 

Schiff went on that committee chairman Gym Jordan (R-Maga) would have it that the rule of law should apply to almost everyone — just not the leader of the Republican party. “According to this alternate proposition, if you were the president of the United States, and you lose your re-election, you can violate the law and Constitution to try to stay in power. And if you are successful, well, then maybe you get to be president for life. And if you fail, there is no repercussion." 

“This proposition is also well known to the world," he added, saying "it is called dictatorship.”

Weather Blog

And just like that, as if someone somewhere had flipped a switch, the weather cooled, the air dried, and it was suddenly pleasant to be outside again.

Gnats, skeeters, and other flying insects are disappointed They've apparently gone back to whatever circle of hell from which they spawn.   

I got outside today for my exercise walk along the Northwest Beltline (Tanyard Creek section). 2.5 miles. First time out since mid-August. 

No hurricanes out in the Atlantic threatening the North America mainland.

The long-term, 10-day forecast is for these pleasant conditions to remain.

Life is good. 

 

Buffalo Tipping

Yesterday, repeat National Champions and No.1-ranked Georgia fell behind unranked South Carolina 14-3 by Halftime, but the Bulldog defense shut out the Gamecocks in the Second Half and Georgia won the game, 24-14.  Despite the embarrassing First Half struggle, Georgia still got enough top votes (57 of 63) in today’s revised AP Poll to remain No. 1. The Bulldogs have been in the No. 1 spot since October 16, 2022.

It probably didn’t hurt Georgia that No. 2 Michigan didn’t put up big numbers in their 31-6 win over unranked Bowling Green, that it took 3 quarters for Texas to put away unranked Wyoming, and that it took a school-record 18 penalties by BC for Florida State to squeak past the Eagles, 31-29 (the Seminoles fell from No. 3 to No. 4).

But this post isn't about the Georgia Bulldogs. Last night, I stayed up until 2:30 am watching the Colorado-Colorado State game. The Buffaloes had fallen behind by 11 points in the 4th quarter and it really looked like it was all over for them.  But late in the game, after a 41-yard FG, they completed a 98-yard drive capped by a 2-pt conversion and forced OT. Colorado won the game, 43-35, in double OT when they stopped State’s final drive. Despite the thrilling win, the Buffaloes actually fell from No. 18 to 19 in today's poll, probably because it took them a miracle drive and 2 OTs to beat an unranked, 23.5-point underdog. 

Last year, Colorado was one of the worst teams in all of college football, winning only one game the entire season. Then they made the highly improbable move of hiring Deion “Prime Time” Sanders as head coach. Neon Deion, of course, is a highly celebrated college (Florida State) and pro (Falcons, 49ers, Cowboys, and more) football player, as well as a baseball player (Braves, Yankees, and more). But his only prior coaching experience has been at the prep-school and HBCU level.

And to make things even more interesting, Coach Prime brought along his sons, Shedeur and Shilo, as starting QB and defensive safety, respectively. This smacks of nepotism and on paper shouldn’t work, but after three games they’re undefeated, Shedeur is second only to Washington's Penix in passing yards, and Shilo has led the team in tackles and got a Pick-6 against the Rams last night for the game’s first points. On top of all that, Coach Prime is a master trash-talker and has done a great job of hyping up every game this season. 

Talk about a high-wire act: Sanders is out to prove not only his own abilities and those of his sons but the overall legitimacy of HBCU programs as a whole.

It’s hard not to watch.

It seems like there’s always some epic meta-narrative around Colorado teams. This goes way back before Prime Time - we have to go back to at least the late 1980s. In 1988, when Deion was still at Florida State and I was living in Albany, NY, Colorado went 8-4 behind the rushing of running back Eric Bieniemy. If the name sounds familiar, he later became the running backs coach and later offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, taking them to two Super Bowl championships. He’s assistant head coach and offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders now.

After Hershel Walker’s career in the early ‘80s, running backs were almost as celebrated in college football as quarterbacks. Bieniemy had the potential to be the next running back superstar - the next Hershel or O.J. or Earl Campbell. His exciting play made it fun to watch the Colorado Buffaloes. 

Colorado lost 17-20 to BYU in the Freedom Bowl that year. During that game, coaches and players noticed that QB Sal Aunese looked sluggish and was not his usual self. In the months following the game, Aunese began coughing and vomiting up blood, causing him to miss many workouts. In March 1989, Aunese was diagnosed with a rare form of inoperable stomach cancer and given six months to live. He died at University Hospital in Denver on September 23, 1989.

The Buffaloes dedicated their 1989 season to Aunese, sewing the name "Sal" into the sleeves of their jerseys. They were ranked only No. 14 in the preseason poll, but led by Bieniemy’s rushing yards, Colorado beat both Nebraska and Oklahoma in a single season for the first time in 27 years, and romped through the rest of their Big-8 schedule. (The Big-12 conference was called “Big-8” back then, and Colorado’s 2011 move with Utah from the Big-8 to the “PAC-10,” creating the PAC-12, and then this year’s decision to leave the PAC-12 to go back to the Big-12 or whatever they’ll call it, is a whole other story.)

Anyway, in 1989, Colorado went a perfect 11-0 and by the end of the regular season, they were ranked No. 1. But as Colorado tore through their schedule, stories began to emerge in the press about lawlessness and recklessness among the players. Many wondered if head coach Bill McCartney had any control over his team at all. The rumors did not stop after it was discovered that before he passed away, QB Sal Aunese fathered a child by McCartney’s own daughter.

Buffalo made it to the Orange Bowl that year but lost the game to Notre Dame and finished the season ranked No. 4. I hated Notre Dame even before that game, but after they beat the Buffs and spoiled their perfect “Sal” season, my hatred turned into the white-hot loathing it is today. 

Then things got weird.

In the 1990 season, Colorado tied Tennessee in their first game, beat Stanford in the second, and lost to Illinois in the third. But it’s Game 6 against Missouri that’s remembered by most. 

Trailing 31-27 and with less than three minutes to go, Colorado took possession of the ball deep in its own territory. With about 40 seconds left in the game, Colorado completed a deep pass but the receiver slipped on the turf and fell just yards short of the goal line. 

The play gave the Buffaloes a first down, and Colorado spiked the ball to stop the clock. On second down, Bieniemy was stopped just short of the goal line. Colorado then called its final timeout, but during the timeout, a chain crew member got distracted by EMTs desperately performing CPR on a fan who had suffered a fatal heart attack in the stands. Because of the distraction or for whatever other reason, the crew neglected to flip the down marker from second down to third.

On the next play, with the down marker showing second down when it was really third, Bieniemy was again stopped short of the end zone. Colorado spiked the ball again to stop the clock with two seconds left, thinking it was third down when it was really fourth. On the following play – fourth down according to the marker, but "fifth down" in reality – the Colorado QB ran the ball into the end zone for a touchdown. The clock expired, the game ended, and Colorado won, 33-31.

The officiating crew, realizing their error, spent the next 20 minutes conferring on what to do, but finally allowed the TD to stand. And as if all that controversy weren’t enough, replays showed that Colorado was actually stopped short of the goal line on the final touchdown run. But the score stood and Colorado won what is to today called the “Fifth Down Game.”

I know, crazy, right?

Colorado won the rest of their games that season, including wins over rivals Nebraska and Oklahoma. Ranked No. 1 at the end of their regular season (10-1-1), they drew Notre Dame again for their bowl game. To my delight, this time the Buffaloes won, beating the Irish, 10-9, for their first bowl win in 19 years.

For a final touch of weirdness, that same year (1990) Georgia Tech beat Georgia and finished the season undefeated, the only blemish on their record a 13-13 tie with North Carolina. As a result, Tech won the UPI coach’s poll and Colorado won the AP sportswriters’ poll. Many people believe it was the Missouri “Fifth Down Game” that prevented the Buffaloes from winning both polls. Officially, Colorado and Georgia Tech are listed as “co-champions” for 1990.

My point is there’s always something wild going on behind the scenes - or just as often, out in the open, right on the field - with Colorado. It’s entertaining, it amuses me. The flamboyant style of Coach Prime and his sons is just the latest phase of this long-running sports dramedy.

Next week: Coach Prime meets Bonix and the Oregon Dux.

From the Sports Desk

Welcome to Week 3 - unofficially, the most boring weekend in the CFB schedule!

How boring is it? Usually, when a No. 1 team plays an unranked opponent, it’s considered a boring affair, but the most interesting game today is arguably the repeat National Champion and No. 1-ranked Georgia Bulldogs hosting the unranked University of South Carolina (the real USC) Gamecocks (“You can beat our team but you can’t lick our ‘Cocks!”). After two weeks of beating cream-puff teams (sorry, U. Tenn-Martin and Ball State), the Dogs are finally playing an SEC opponent, even if they aren’t an elite, nationally-ranked opponent. 

But South Carolina has long posed an early-season test for the Bullldogs. We beat them last year, 48-7, and this year we’re 27.5-point favorites. But Bulldogs fans well remember 2019, when South Carolina beat Georgia 20-17 in double OT. South Carolina won 4 out of 5 games between 2010 and 2014 - those losses may have cost former Georgia head coach Mark Richt his job. 

And the history! Georgia first played South Carolina in 1894, back when the President was named Grover Cleveland. The game has been played annually since 1992, although as a result of conference expansion and realignment, it will cease to be an annual matchup next year. Georgia leads the series 54-19-2.

Today’s game (3:30 pm) should be interesting to see, if nothing else, how the Bulldog defense handles South Carolina QB Spencer Rattler.  Despite last year’s Georgia loss, Rattler can be a potent player - he scored 6 TDs last season against Tennessee, going a near-perfect 30-37 for 438 yards. And last weekend, he went 25-for-27 for 345 yards and 3 TDs against Furman, despite getting sacked 3 times. Ominously, Georgia has only one sack all season even though both games were against over-matched, unranked opponents. 

Today’s game may be the first real test to see if Georgia has a team capable of three-peating the National Championship.

Other games today get pretty boring after that. Tennessee vs. Florida would have been interesting back in 2010, but both teams have fallen on hard times since then. No. 11 Tennessee is on the come-back trail, but unranked Florida has lost to Georgia 5 of the last 6 years. 

No. 18 Colorado (2-0) vs. unranked Colorado State (0-1) should have been boring, but it’s gotten somewhat more interesting after the Colorado State coach criticized Prime Time’s fashion sense,  saying something like “My mamma taught me to take off my hat and sunglasses when indoors” after a Coach Prime press conference. Neon Deion came back and said something like, “Oh, you just made it personal! It’s on, baby! It’s on!” The Colorado Buffalos are 23.5-point favorites over the State Rams.

Including the Colorado game, teams representing the ill-fated and short-lived PAC-12 are favorites in 10 of their 11 games today. The only exception is Fresno State (2-0) as a mere 3-point favorite over Arizona State (1-1). It’s entirely possible that the PAC-12 runs the table today and wins all of their scheduled games.

Penix and the Huskies put the Magnificent Seven Championship Belts and the Holy, Moley, Guacamole One True Belt (blessed be its name) up against a Big-10 opponent (Michigan State). Washington is a 16.5-point favorite, but it’s probably the most at-risk the belts have been since Penix took them away from Bonix. 

What else? Not much. None of the Top 25 teams play a ranked opponent. Florida State (No. 3, 2-0) play the unranked Eagles at Boston College and I’ll say it again - I hate the fucking Eagles, man (I'm a BU man, myself). The “Texas Is Back!” Longhorns (No. 4, 2-0) are 48.5-point favorites over the unranked Wyoming Cowboys, and we can expect the boasting to be unbearable as Texas claims “The only real Cowboys are from Texas!” or some other stupid redneck shit.

So watch the games today to see if Georgia passes its first test in the South Carolina game, if the PAC-12 can go undefeated today, and if Penix can keep the belts from going to the Big-10 before Washington joins the conference next year.  Everything else is just mere product for the networks to use to sell some advertising time.

Oh, You Might Think You’re Cool, But You’re Not 1961 Ann Margaret Cool

 

And So It Begins . . .

With the release of the 2024 Big Ears festival lineup begins the months-long process of revisiting the music of our long-time favorites and heroes, as well as discovering and exploring new artists. My Spotify and YouTube search engines have been getting quite the workout the past 24 hours as I scroll through the various artists listed in the lineup announcement.

I can start anywhere sharing what I've uncovered so far, but out of sheer randomness I'll start with jazz bassist Dave Holland.  He's no stranger to jazz fans and far from an unfamiliar face. If you have a collection of jazz recordings of any size at all, chances are good Dave Holland is in there somewhere.  Way back in the 1960s, he started playing with Miles Davis, replacing the esteemed bassist Ron Carter in the Miles Davis Quintet.  Holland plays on some tracks on the Quartet's last studio recording, Filles de Kilimanjaro, and then essential Miles fusion albums like Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way.  His subsequent discography is massive - far too much to list here - but he notably recorded with leading free-jazz musicians of the 1970s like Sam Rivers and Anthony Braxton.  His album Conference of the Birds included Rivers and Braxton as well as drummer Barry Altschul and is considered a cult favorite in some circles (including here). The man is a bona fide jazz legend, and at 76 he's still going strong with no signs of slowing down. 

His most recent project has been the Dave Holland New Quartet, featuring pianist Kris Davis, sax player Jaleel Shaw, and drummer Nasheet Waits.  They haven't released an album yet as far as I know, and the few videos I've found online of performances at European jazz festivals were of poor sound quality - I didn't repost them here out of deep respect for Holland. But above is an outstanding, professionally recorded set from a 2009 festival in Belgium, with Chris Potter on tenor, Steve Nelson on vibes and marimba, and Nate Smith on the drums.

So as I'm sure you've surmised by now, the Dave Holland New Quartet will be playing Big Ears 2024. That's reason enough for excitement right there, but to make it even more epic, the band will include the Brooklyn-based Pakistani musician Arooj Aftab.  To keep it a quartet, the band will play without a percussionist, which is not unusual for Aftab.

Aftab has played Big Ears the past two years, and while I like her music, I missed her both times. To be fair, with 200 to 300 performances each year, I usually wind up missing 80 to 85% of the acts over the festival weekends. Each year, painful decisions have to be made. Here she is below doing a Tiny Desk (Home) Concert in 2021 with her Vulture Prince Ensemble: Maeve Gilchrist on harp, Gyan Riley on guitar, the great Shahzad Ismaily on bass, and Darian Donovan Thomas on violin (no percussion). 

It's exciting to imagine what a merger of the two bands - the Dave Holland New Quartet and Arooj Aftab's Vulture Prince Ensemble - will sound like. I just hope they don't schedule this set at the same time as some other must-see show like they have with Aftab in the past.

Annals of Medicine

I went to the doctor yesterday for my 30-day checkup to see how I was responding to my new medication. 

I don't like sharing medical information online, but if all this is to honest at all, then I can't leave out real-life, existential, life-and-death information.  That sounds more dire than I meant, but one night last July I wound up in the Emergency Room.

The diagnosis (which by the way, I don't believe) was a UTI.  But my urinary track felt fine (TMI, I know) and my symptoms were inconsistent with anything I've read about UTIs in men.  I don't doubt that the bloodwork and urinalysis showed an elevated level of white-blood cells, but I think that (and even a possible UTI) were a side effect of some larger and as yet still unknown problem that had me self-checking into the hospital on a Friday night. But the doctors saw the elevated white blood cell count, concluded I had a UTI, and gave me some antibiotics and sent me home.

During a follow-up exam the next week, the doctor was more concerned about my high blood pressure than anything else. He directed me to get a home monitor and check my blood pressure every morning for two weeks.  Surprisingly, I did, and it confirmed that my blood pressure was consistently in the dangerous Stage 2 hypertension phase. The doc put me on an ACE Inhibitor, Lisinopril, and told me to check back with him in 30 days.

During the past month, I continued to check my blood pressure every morning. I mean, I paid $150 for the damn monitor, so I'm going to get my money's worth out of my new toy. After starting on Lisinopril, my blood pressure almost immediately dropped from the Stage 2 level, but only to the Stage 1 or merely "Elevated" levels.  I was disappointed that the readings didn't improve during the course of treatment.

That brings us up to yesterday.  To my surprise, the doctor was quite pleased with the results. The average levels were right at the boundary between Stage 1 and Elevated, and that was good enough for him. 

But there was an issue with side effects - ever since starting on Lisinopril, I've had a fairly consistent, ticklish cough in the back of my throat.  It's more annoying than painful, but a few times it's woken me up in the middle of the night and I found it difficult to fall back asleep. I'm not a sound sleeper as it is, and the added challenge was unwelcome, as was the cough itself.  

Doc shared my concern, and switched my medication from Losinopril to Losartan, an Angiotensin II Receptor Blocker (ARB), whatever that means. Doc says it works just as well, and there's no need to put up with the coughing side effect.

I picked up the script today, along with a recommended tetanus shot and a booster for the shingles vaccine I got last year (I got a pneumonia vaccine yesterday at the doctor's office).  I start the new meds tomorrow.  

Obviously, I hope for the best.

Big Ears 2024

It's Big Ears lineup announcement day! A major event for a certain class of music nerds.

This is probably the "safest" and most predictable Big Ears lineup I've seen yet. Many if not most of the performers have played Big Ears in the past, and Charles Lloyd, Marc Ribot, Shabaka Hutchings, Christian McBride, Mary Halvorson, Jason Moran, and Julian Lage have all played in the past two years, if not last March.

Biggest surprise: no Bill Frisell. I don't think I've been to a Big Ears festival without Frisell somewhere in the lineup (and who knows, he may be on a stage there somewhere supporting someone else).

This will be my fifth Big Ears, and if I've seen most of the headliners before, it's because they're among my favorites. Laurie Anderson is the only bucket-list artist I haven't yet seen live, although I'm also excited to see Henry Threadgill in the lineup.   

I saw Herbie Hancock in NYC back in the mid-1970s during the Headhunters years. As an indication of how big a star Herbie was back then, Miles Davis opened for him.

In 1993, I saw Digable Planets at the club Rosebud in Pittsburgh's Strip District.  

As for the undercard, I just recently discovered Ash Fure after she was included in Bang on a Can's Long Play festival (I didn't go, but I heard Fure's music when researching the lineup).  Bitchin Bajas have been one of my favorite electronic bands ever since I first heard their album of highly original Sun Ra covers. Dave Holland is a jazz institution, and James Brandon Lewis is the future of jazz, especially after the passing of the great Jaimie Branch. Tomeka Reid is somewhere in between the two. I'm trying to resist name-dropping every performer ("Look! There's Roger Eno! And there's JG Thirlwell!"), but I would be remiss not to mention the post-rock band Horse Lords.

And then there's all those artists I haven't yet heard of, but I can't wait to start researching and listening to. 

So after a few brief moments of indecision, I'll be going next year.  It's who I am - it's what I do. It would be irresponsible of me to miss it.

New Favorite Songs

From the Sports Desk

Good morning! When you woke up this morning, did you feel a little something extra in the air? Did colors seem a little brighter, sounds oddly musical? Did you find that you had a certain bounce to your step?  Well, it’s probably just mental illness, but it also might be - perhaps, maybe - the fact that it’s September 9 (Day of the World Course according to the Universal Solar Calendar) and the Second Saturday of the Georgia Bulldogs’ campaign to be the three-peat National Champion of Futbol Americano.

Today, Georgia plays the Cardinals of Ball State University, not the toughest opponent for a defending National Champion, I’ll admit, but there will be plenty of time for tough games later in the season. Georgia is a 42.5-point favorite, and you’re excused if you skip watching the game, if you can find it at all (it’s broadcast on SEC Network only).

Other than Bulldog fans, all eyes will be on the undefeated but ill-fated PAC-12 Conference. Penix and the Washington Huskies will defend the Magnificent Seven Championship Belts and the Holy, Moley, Guacamole One True Belt (blessed be its name) against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (1-0), while Bonix and the Dux travel to Tex-ass to play the 0-1 Red Raiders of Texas Tech. In Prime Time, the Colorado Buffalos and the Sanders (father and sons) will host 0-1 Nebraska. 

It should also be noted that late tonight (10:30 pm), the SEC’s Auburn Tigers go to Berkeley to play the California Golden Bears. Auburn’s favored by 4.5 points. Another SEC/PAC-12 matchup has Mississippi State hosting Arizona. The Miss State Bulldogs are favored by 9 points. All four teams are undefeated (1-0).

Beyond unranked Auburn and Mississippi State, the big SEC match-up of the day has No. 3 Alabama (1-0) hosting the No. 11 Tex-ass Longhorns (1-0). I don’t often cheer for the Crimson Tide, but when I do it’s against Texas. Alabama are 7-point favorites.

Also of note, downtown Atlanta’s Georgia State Panthers (1-0) will host the UConn Huskies (0-1) at 7:00 tonight. The Panthers play in the old Turner Field (after the “Atlanta” Braves moved out to suburban Smyrna, Georgia), so expect a lot of empty seats if you can find a broadcast of the game at all.

That’s about it. Will the doomed PAC-12 Conference stay undefeated after two games against the SEC (among other opponents)? Will Prime Time magic continue at Colorado? Will Georgia cover the six TD spread? We’ll know all this and more soon.

GO, DAWGS!!!!

 

I'm doom-scrolling the news this morning and I hear former VP and present-day presidential candidate Mike Pence talking about "our freedoms." He claimed that if Biden and Harris weren't voted out of the White House next year and replaced by a Republican administration, it would mean the end of "our freedoms."

This confused me.  I associate the Biden-Harris administration with freedom much more than the Republicans.  Pence is enthusiastically and adamantly anti-abortion and has praised the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade. That ruling took away a freedom Americans had enjoyed for several decades, making us literally less free than we were before. 

Some in the current Republican Party are taking things even further.  There are bans on pregnant women traveling out of states that have banned abortion to get the procedure elsewhere.  They've further criminalized assisting women seeking out-of-state abortions, making it illegal to transport them, to provide money, and even to give them basic information and advice on abortion providers. This is the opposite of liberty - this is not freedom.  

They've endorsed the banning of books they feel are contrary to their views, limiting our First Amendment freedom to read what we want and to share divergent opinions.  They're limiting the freedom of teachers to discuss slavery and the civil rights movement. They've even endorsed an alternative-reality history, claiming that slavery was actually beneficial to captured Africans, as it taught them many useful trades and skills for a "civilized" society.

And last but certainly not least, they continue to support Trump's demonstrably false claims over election fraud. They defend the fake electors sent to Washington to falsely certify the vote. They continue to limit access to the polling places. The State of Alabama has even gone so far as to defy the decidedly conservative Supreme Court and refuse to redraw their gerrymandered electoral district maps to give proportional representation to minorities. They're taking away our freedom to meaningfully participate in democracy.

So why does Pence say a Democratic administration would take away "our freedoms?" 

Then I remembered that Pence, a caucasian, was talking in "white speak." When he says "our," he's not including women.  He's not a woman (as far as we know), so why would he include them in the term "our?" He's not black either, and his "our" most assuredly does not include people of color. And his worldview has not progressed significantly beyond 1950s high-school social studies, so his "our" doesn't include intellectuals, historians, artists, and creatives.

No, when he says "our," he means white cis males. And "freedom" doesn't include reproductive rights, First-Amendment rights, or the right to vote.  It means for white cis males to do whatever they want, act however they wish, and treat others in any way that pleases them without consequence or retribution. Punch a queer, refuse service to black people, make your rape victim bear your child - that's what he means by "our freedoms."

And he's right - Biden and Harris will continue the fight against his twisted idea of "our rights."           

On behalf of the ruling class, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr just indicted 61 of those who protested against Cop City on racketeering charges under the RICO Act. Most of those indicted have already been charged for their alleged involvement in the protests under other laws, including "domestic terrorism." This after charging the protesters' legal defense fund with money laundering, trying to dismiss a petition to get a referendum on this project on the ballot, and, oh yes, killing a protester in cold blood during a botched raid.

Q: What are they so afraid of? A: Us. 

Space Needle, Seattle, 2012

There's an integrity to mind if you watch it. Stay close and do nothing.  

 

Friendly Reminder

One out of every four U.S. workers is age 55 or older. But age discrimination persists in offices, keeping many of those people out of jobs. Older workers face long periods of unemployment, stressful job hunts, and mounting bills. 

Many older workers left their jobs during the pandemic, but now inflation is squeezing bank accounts and prompting many to un-retire.  The labor market, while robust overall, has deteriorated for older workers.

According to an analysis of federal data, workers over the age of 50 are unemployed for three times as long as their younger counterparts. Employers admit they're looking for younger talent. Forty-seven percent say they're worried about older workers' tech skills, and 25% say they'd pick a 30-year-old over a 60-year-old if equally qualified. 

"Ageism is the last acceptable 'ism,'" according to Carly Roszkowski of AARP.

Employers are missing out on an entire generation of life experience.  Older workers often have skills especially valuable to struggling industries. For example, some 300,000 accountants have left the workforce in the last several years, chiefly due to retirement, so the pipeline of new accountants has run dry. The talent is concentrated among older workers, but older workers are discouraged in their job searches at almost every turn.

I don't have a dog in this fight. I retired at age 65 and am not looking to get back on the treadmill. While I recognize that a rewarding career can give some people meaning to life, I am no longer among those people. In fact, I would caution younger workers to not overly identify with their professional lives - you are who you are, not what you do.

But I do encounter ageism, frequently. Almost daily. "How old is it, sir?" I'm asked when I have a tech problem with some device or another, because naturally, any device I own - cell phone, television, laptop, etc. - must have been purchased back before the tech support was born. Opinions are summarily dismissed, advice ignored, and experience considered irrelevant.  It's as if I retired in 1919, not 2019.

We don't dismiss people because of their gender.  We don't dismiss based on race. It's not cool to discriminate based on sexual orientation. Why, then, is it still acceptable to generalize based on age?

Someone should ask Joe Biden.      

From the Sports Desk

Here we are, then, in the first full week of the last season of College Football as we know it. 

Today is called “Cloud Hammer” in the Universal Solar Calendar and this morning, it became official: Cal, Stanford, and SMU will join the ACC. Oregon State and Washington State will be the only teams left in the PAC-12, if they don’t go and join the Mountain West Conference. So after this last season, we’ll have two California teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and two SoCal teams (USC and UCLA) and two PNW teams (Oregon and Washington) in the Big-10 (or Big-20 or whatever they’re calling themselves these days). 

Yes, College Football is changing - not only massive Conference realignment but starting next season, we’ll have a 12-team playoff system. Already this season, the clock won’t automatically stop on 1st Down so that the networks can squeeze in more advertising time. And for over a year now, we’ve had players getting paid for their Name-Image-Likeness, transferring through a magic portal if they feel they’re not getting enough playing time, and opting out of games just minutes before kickoff if they’re concerned a potential injury might hurt their pro prospects. No, 21st-Century Schizoid Football ain’t your Big Brother’s sport anymore.

But today, Cloud Hammer, marks the start of the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs’ season and their quest for a three-peat National Championship. Can they do it? I’ll be the first to admit they have the easiest schedule in the SEC. Of the 13 teams on their regular-season schedule, only two teams (No. 12 Tennessee and No. 22 Mississippi) are in the Top 25.  Tennessee might be the most dangerous game on Georgia’s schedule because although the Vols don’t have much Playoff potential, they might decide to play spoiler and crush the dreams of other contenders (they also have a game at Alabama). Other than that, it looks like a cakewalk for Georgia. Florida, the Dogs’ traditional arch-rival, has fallen on hard times and looked awful Thursday night in their 24-11 loss to No. 14 Utah (nine penalties cost them 46 yards and their QB got sacked five times). 

My big worry is Georgia will go undefeated during the regular season but then, having never been seriously challenged, get blown out in the SEC Championship (probably by Alabama) or in the Playoffs if they win the SEC.

Today, the Dogs start their campaign in probably the most one-sided mismatch of the season. No. 1 Georgia, the repeat National Champion, is so heavily favored against unranked UT-Martin you can’t even bet on the game - Vegas and the sports books don’t even have a line for the game. And good luck trying to watch it - you have to subscribe to the SEC Network if you want to see the game.

I live in the South so of course I get the SEC Network, and I’ll be watching the game because of mental-health issues. Also to see how Georgia’s new starting QB, Carson Beck, performs. Playing behind Stetson Bennett the last couple years, Beck has appeared in 11 games that Georgia was leading its opponent with blow-out leads. In those games, he threw 58 passes, six of them for touchdowns, but always in “garbage time.” I wanna see how well he plays in Prime Time.

Other games worth watching today include Boise State at No. 10 Washington (3:30, ABC). As previously reported, Penix and the Huskies currently have the Magnificent Seven CFP Championship Belts and the Holy, Moley, Guacamole One True Belt (blessed be Its name) as well as one of the most dynamic offenses in the country. Today, they put their defense of the belts up against the Mountain West favorite. 

If you like regional rivalries, Bonix and the Oregon Ducks play Portland State at 3:30. My dream is to see Bonix get drafted by the Patriots after this season. If you want to get an idea of what coast-to-coast competition might look like after the ACC expansion, Coastal Carolina plays at UCLA 10:30 tonight (warning: last night’s Arizona State-Southern Utah game lasted until 4:00 am this morning).

Finally, tomorrow night No. 5 LSU plays No. 8 Florida State in probably the best matchup of Week 1. It’ll certainly be more interesting than two-time National Champion No. 1 Georgia against unranked UT-Martin. Both the Tigers and the Seminoles are loaded with talent, although LSU will be without DL Maason Smith, who was suspended for receiving an “improper benefit.”

There are other games, but who’s got time for that shit? So enjoy College Football while it’s still around, and GO BULLDOGS!

Wrote This 18 Months Ago, Just Posting It Now

Although every post, every paragraph, every word, and every letter of this blog has been all about me, this is not a blog about me.

There is no me. There is no author just as there is no narrator. There's no reader, either.

There is no “they're” there. No, there is - there is “no.” Know “no.” Know “there is.” 

No there isn't. There is no knowing, only thinking.