DrW

Bijan Robinson (RB Texas). Today against Kansas: 172 yards, 3 TD in the first half...

My wife commented that the colors of Sean Lennon's outfit did not match well with the color of his guitar... Well, if this is the only problem - the rest is impressive. They play a King Crimson and a Pink Floyd cover, and those fit very well with their own songs.

I completely agree. It reminds me of an other case of cancer which took a life much too early. In 2017, the front woman of Those Darlins, Jessi Zazu, died of ovarian cancer at the age of 28. A couple of years earlier, she had written a song "Ain't Afraid". It is not clear if she knew about her cancer diagnosis when she wrote this song.

Interestingly, the fake injury drama is much less prevalent in women's soccer, although I noticed that they start to adopt this bad habit from the men.

This should at least initially give an advantage to teams who have a core of players from the same club team, like Germany (7 players from Bayern Munich) or Spain (7 players from Barcelona). After the group games, the teams which make it into the knock-out round have gained some familiarity among their players and the quality of the games usually improves.

I agree with your objection to diving and faking injuries; long-term, this is really a more recent development. Even 10 years ago, it was not this much of an issue. On the other hand, the criticism "it’s so long between anything actually happening" is ridiculous. In soccer, there is constant movement of all players and something can happen anytime - it is a constant back and forth; typically, each team possesses the ball more than 100 times. Soccer games have two halves of 45 minutes each, each half without a commercial interruption. Compare this to (American) football (which I love) where you have 60 minutes of action in a three-hour game, and each team possesses the ball perhaps 8-10 times. OK, let's get to the original questions: Being German, of course I watch, and I obviously root for Germany (with the US as the other team getting my attention). In our department, the graduate student organization holds a world cup bracket tournament. In 2014, I won, because I was the only one who had Germany as champions. Interestingly, Mario Goetze who scored the winning goal in the 2014 finals against Argentina, is back in the squad this time.

Robert Wyatt's "Rock Bottom" is one of my favorite albums. IMHO, the best track is "Sea Song". I just learned very recently that a live version exists. Here is the original studio recording; it is so beautiful...

Ever heard of The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger? If not, can you guess the identity of the lead guitarist/vocalist? Here we have them in a band set-up... And here as an acoustic duo...

Rock/Jazz from England, from 1970 (thanks to German public TV). Sadly, Dick Heckstall-Smith (sax) and John Hiseman (dr) are no longer with us.

Some bands which are out of the musical range I usually listen to did some interesting covers of songs I like. Example A (I bought the CD; all other songs are crap)

Beatles. For me, their best phase encompasses just three albums: Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, and the White Album> Although the last one contains some material that could have been omitted, I like the wide variety of genres. Their best song ever: "A Day in the Life". Rolling Stones. Their great days ended with "Exile on Main Street". Hearing Mick Jagger wail "Angie" on "Goats Head Soup" is painful. Their best song ever: "Sympathy for the Devil". Grateful Dead. I would agree with everybody who puts their glory period in the 60s and 70s. After a first album with mostly covers, "Anthem of the Sun" was an excellent start for their own style and song-writing (I have heard rumors of 90-minute versions of "Alligator", but I could never find one.). For me, the last great album was "Blues for Allah" ("Crazy Fingers" is my favorite). "Terrapin Station" (Can somebody please shut up Donna Godchaux?) was already a step down, with only half an LP of new songs. Jefferson Airplane. On their first album (JA Takes Off), their singer, Signe Toly Anderson, shows some promise - she could belt the blues ("Chauffer's Blues"). However, she retired and was replaced by Grace Slick, and JA really took off. To me, "Volunteers" was their last great album. There were just a few memorable songs afterward. As a German, Grace piqued my interest on "Bark" with her song ""Never Argue with a German If You're Tired or European Song", but, honestly, I cannot understand a single word of the song which is supposed to be in German. After their split, the Jefferson Starship version went down the drain, while Hot Tuna produced some nice albums.

Today I did a teaching peer review for one of our younger faculty members (this is where senior faculty observes a lecture and gives constructive criticism). In general, the lecture was well-done. However, every time a slide contained some written text, the young assistant professor read it (which is fine), but also accompanied his words by following the slide text with a pointer. Of course, this is completely unnecessary, but I also remembered I had seen that before... (You have to be a bit patient; the first occurrence is around 1:45)

Well, it is not art cinema, but I love "My Cousin Vinny". The interplay between Pesci and Tomei is so funny, and the courtroom scenes are more convincing than in many courtroom dramas. I have seen the beginning of the movie perhaps 10 times, but the end more than 30 times. Every time I see it on the TV schedule, I switch to it, independent of how far we are into the movie.

I am relieved. At least the Special Teams are hunky-dory.

A classic...

Lots of years ago I had a Dutch girlfriend. She gave me the LP "10 Mistakes" by the Dutch band Gruppo Sportivo. Pretty funny stuff. The song I like best is "Superman". If the long (2 minute) intro sounds familiar to you, it is Zappa's "Take your clothes of when you dance". The real fun starts afterward (the lyrics are the main attraction).

Seems like Russell Wilson does not want to poop at all.

Punk live albums are rare. My favorite is the Black Flag - Who's got the 10 1/2? And my favorite post-punk album: "Nocturne" - Siouxsie and the Banshees

An arguably even better source is the German TV show "Rockpalast" that started in 1974 and continues to these days. The list of artists they recorded live is lengthy (google it). Initially (I do not remember for how long) they had Rockpalast Nights, a concert with several bands. Where else can you find Pete Townshend jamming with the Grateful Dead? I would also like to mention that the A/V quality of their shows was phenomenal for the time (the linked song was recorded more than 40 years ago) .

Joni Mitchell - Shadows and Light My main con: Many songs are not this different from her studio recordings and there is very little interaction with the audience. My main pros: A) The musicians are first-rate; B) You can also have it on DVD or watch it on youtube (see below); C) It is just awesome -Joni makes very complicated songs accessible to a wider audience.

I agree (and I don't even like Lynyrd Skynyrd very much).

Having watched every Longhorn game in the last five years (my son was playing tuba in their marching band), I was always convinced that Sam Ehlinger would make a borderline starter-quality NFL quarterback (clearly better than his 6th round pick indicates). His arm strength and accuracy are nothing special, but he is smart and good on his feet. Most importantly, he seems to have the drive to succeed. His life so far was not without set-backs. In 2013, his father died while running an ironman marathon, and in 2021 his brother due to a drug overdose.

Oingo Boingo - Farewell: Halloween 1995 (CD or DVD)

For me, the best live albums should have an element that elevates the songs beyond the versions on studio albums. In some cases, there are longer jams which take you far away from the original song, but manage to return to it some five or ten minutes later. Best examples here are "Dark Star" on Grateful Dead's Live/Dead or "The Low Spark of High-heeled Boys" on Traffic's "Live On The Road". In other cases, it is the interaction with the audience that makes a live recording special. Unfortunately, often this interaction is left off the released album. This is why I like Frank Zappa's live albums, where he reacts to the audience. The prime example: The Helsinki Concerts (found on "You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2"). First, Zappa plans to play a Finnish tango (well, we are in Helsinki). His band has never played it before, but all of them are able to read sheet music. Thus, he asks for the lights to be left on so that they can play the piece. Later in the concert, a somewhat inebriated member of the audience asks them to play "Whipping Post". Zappa, not familiar with the Allman Brothers' song, still modified the lyrics of "Montana" to include "whipping floss". Several years later, Zappa actually played a cover of "Whipping Post" in concerts; in Bobby Martin, his keyboard player at that time, he had found somebody able to sing the blues.