Music Friday: "Please Stay"

This past week I watched my daughter sing in her high school chorus for their fall concert. The advanced chorus sang this song. It was pretty darn compelling. 

The description before the performance gives you the lowdown. 



My daughter's high school director did a great job with the piece. At the end of it, the chorus came out into the aisles among audience as they were singing the song toward the last minute of so of the piece.  

Sunday Hangover: Tennessee

I was kind of surprised the yearly tradition of Alabama playing Tennessee was televised on the CBS afternoon game because the Tide were heavy favorites, but I guess CBS hadn't had the Crimson Tide for a game yet this season, so they went with the traditional rivalry. 

Cigars were smoked after this one. 

What I found surprising in the game plan for Alabama is that Damien Harris, one of the leaders of the team, didn't play much. Josh Jacobs started the game, and if remember right, Najee Harris was the second back in the game. There is bound to be some speculation on InteWeb message boards about all that, but maybe the offensive coordinator wanted to try a different rotation for whatever reason? Or maybe Damien is banged up a bit? I don't know. 

Hurts gave up a bizarre interception, but he looked good once again in a backup role. By the time he was in the game, the Tide offense was trying not to be jerks. So it was run play this way and run play that way. The game got pretty boring toward the end. 

I suspect the game in Baton Rouge will not boring in two weeks. Both teams have byes before they play.

Music Friday: "See a Little Light"

This week I've been listening to a lot of Bob Mould. 

The other day it dawned on me that Workbook came out in 1989. It's an outstanding album. Just plain damn outstanding.

Here's one of the more famous tracks from the album. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I heard something the other day that flannel shirts are coming back in style. Finally after toting around those shirts from Kirksville, MO to Tuscaloosa, AL to St. Louis, MO and finally to Charleston, IL I'm ready to unleash them on the fashion scene. 

Well, to be truthful, I've been wearing them from time to time all these years. I just didn't really care what people think. 

My daughter went up to watch the Purdue-Illinois game on Saturday. Since she's been indoctrinated correctly, she cheered against the Illini. Of the Big Ten teams out there, that would be probably the last team I'd root for. 

When I go to a store of some sort, when I ask for something, and the clerk/worker calls me "boss" it bothers me. If I go to one of local grocery stores and ask for something from meat counter, the clerk might call me "boss." I don't like it. The guy (usually a guy) says something like "Sure thing, boss" or "Right away, boss." I don't get the reasoning behind calling me "boss." All I am asking for is some meat from you. I don't need you bringing up a word choice that denotes some kind of out-of-whack power differential. 

It kind of reminds me of Marcie calling Peppermint Patty "sir" in the Peanuts comic strip. 

Sunday Hangover: Mizzou

I went into watching this game with a bit of trepidation because of Diggs being out indefinitely because of the broken foot he suffered against Arkansas. 

The Tide's D played much better in this game. Granted, Mizzou's top two receivers were not in the game, but the Tigers do have a decent offense. 

I'm still not liking that teams are able to run on the D as much as they have. Mizzou didn't have a 100-yard rusher, but that Rountree guy has some really nice runs, runs that should have been stopped. 

The offense had two 100-yard receivers in this game. Irv Smith is quickly becoming one of my favorite players on the team. He didn't have a great game production wise, but he's a force as a tight end. 

The two guys in the middle of the line had outstanding games: Quinnen Williams and Raekwon Davis. In particular, Williams had two tackles for loss, a sack, and two quarterback hurries. 

Next up is a hungry Tennessee team. The game is at Knoxville, and the Volunteers are coming off a big upset of Auburn. 

Music Friday: "Great Pumpkin Waltz"

I got busy yesterday, forgot about posting this, and then remembered to post later in the day. Then I went to a high school football game. I got home, watched some TV, and feel asleep on the couch. 

So I'm late. 

I was listening to an album from the Vince Guaraldi Trio yesterday, and this was one of the songs on the album. 

As a kid, I loved Peanuts. I would check out those hardbound versions of the comics all the time when I was in grade school. Snoopy was my hero even though sometimes I felt like Charlie Brown. 

But as Charlie Brown specials go, the Halloween one was probably my least favorite because I thought the Great Pumpkin premise was stupid. 

But it has a good song associated it. So here it is. 

The Great Pumpkin reminds me of the numerous times I've gone with the Nasty family to buy a bunch of pumpkins, spending a small fortune on gourds. 

Sunday Hangover: Arkansas

The Crimson Tide did not punt yesterday. 

The offense had two receivers have over 100 yards receiving (Jeudy and Irv). 

To my surprise, they did have a 100-yard rusher. Harris rushed for 111 net yards on 15 carries. 

I'm sure Coach Saban will have plenty of talking points about what the team needs to improve on defense. The Hogs' Boyd had a 102 net yards rushing. That's the first time in a while that a running back gained 100 yards on the Tide. 

The Tide did give up 31 points, which will get some players into trouble in the film room. However, 14 of those points happened in the fourth quarter when second- and third-teamers were in the game. 

Still, the Tide gave up 31 points to a rebuilding Arkansas team. I worry about the next matchup versus Mizzou. 

Music Friday: "Couldn't Stand the Weather"

Here's a classic tune from the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan to start out the weekend right. 

Enjoy.