Football Weekend Re-Cap

The Ducks smashed the #6 Cal Bears 42-3 on Saturday and moved up to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the Pac-10. For me, of course, this is OUTSTANDING. My football weekend was made right there. Next up for the Quackers is WSU. Good news: the Ducks are still improving and have the opportunity to go to 4-1 next week. No guarantee, I know. But, the opportunity is there for the taking. Bad news: despite improvement, I'm not too happy with the number of fumbles.

Meanwhile, my second favorite college football team - the Iowa Hawkeyes - took down #5 Penn State at Penn State. Both my parents attended Iowa and my father graduated undergrad and medical school there. Oh, and I was born at the university hospital. So, I literally got my start in life at the University of Iowa...and I root for the Hawkeyes each year. Right now, they are 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the Big Ten.

Back on the west coast, the Huskies couldn't stop the run vs. Stanford and despite all the hype, UW QB Locker threw two interceptions and fumbled once to help the Dawgs plummet back to earth this week with a loss to the Trees. I'm sure Locker will have a career day vs. the Ducks later this season (I am serious by the way), but this week he did not look that good.

I was impressed with South Carolina beating #4 Ole Miss this week. I was equally impressed with #11 VA Tech beating #9 Miami, #17 Houston beating Texas Tech and South Florida beating FSU.

I was unimpressed with #2 Texas pounding mighty UTEP, #8 Boise State beating up on Bowling Green, #16 Oklahoma State dominating Grambling State and #25 Nebraska trouncing Louisiana-Lafayette. You feel me? Unimpressed again this week with supposedly "good" team beating vastly inferior opponents.

And oh what a long season it is going to be in NFL land. The depleted but very neon green Seahawks dropped their game vs. Chicago. The Bears are not that good, and the Hawks are apparently worse. That anticipated NFC West champion season is looking more and more like a 7-9 or 6-10 type of year.

Video Clips of the Manic's Seattle Show

For any of you who've read my review of the recent Manic Street Preachers show in Seattle who want a bit more on what they look and sound like, below are a few video clips off YouTube (not filmed by me) of their performance in here on Sept. 21.

Click on the song titles below to get to the YouTube video:

Faster

Peeled Apples

If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next

Motorcycle Emptiness

Manic Street Preachers Play Seattle - A Review

As readers of this blog know, one of my favorite rock bands is a group called Manic Street Preachers. They’re huge in the UK and most the rest of the world, but not so much in the U.S.

As a result, they don’t play here very often. In fact, it’s been 10 years since the last time they ventured to the States to play gigs.

That is until this week.

Riding on a wave of success and critical acclaim for their most recent album titled Journal for Plague Lovers (read my review of that album and some background on the group by clicking here), this three piece band from Wales at long last decided it was time to come back to the USA and play some shows.

And where did the band pick to play their first US show in a decade? Yep, Seattle.

And so it was that last Monday – Sept. 21 – my buddy Paul and I went to see the band at Neumos on Capital Hill. (Below - Manic Street Preachers on stage in Seattle on Sept. 21, 2009. Photo by Marc Osborn.)

Naturally, our expectations were high and, I have to say, they were exceeded as the band threw down an exciting, impassioned and extremely entertaining set – all in a very small venue where you could get right up close. For those of you unfamiliar with the Manic Street Preacher’s sound, it’s rock and roll with the standard set up of guitar, bass, drum and a few effects. The band’s style has ranged from raging but melodic punk, epic and soaring rock, chilled art rock and a bunch of sounds in between...all with intelligent and thought provoking lyrics.

The other thing to know is that in their early years, the band had four members. In early 1995, their primary lyric writer and second guitarist, Richey Edwards, went missing. He’s never been found and is presumed dead - leaving surviving members James Dean Bradfield (vocals, guitar), Nicky Wire (bass, vocals) and Sean Moore (drums) to carry on. Journal for Plague lovers is the Manic’s ninth studio album and its first featuring all-Richey lyrics since that time.

But anyway, back to the show. Our evening started out as Paul and I walked past the venue and heard the band running through the sound check. As the song Peeled Apples boomed out beyond the walls of Neumos, we knew we were in for a good show.

Meeting James Dean Bradfield
Later, after we’d had a bite to eat, we were again walking near the venue in the warm late-summer evening on our way to a bar when we ran right into lead singer James Dean Bradfield. Yep. He was out on the street corner. So, I walked up to him and thanked him for coming to Seattle. After a hand shake he quickly asked, “What’s your name?” I thought this was a really great response and one that was instantly engaging. I mean, he could have easily said thanks and walked away. Instead, we introduced ourselves and he mentioned that it had been 10 years since they’d been to Seattle and that the band members were huge REM fans – and they know Peter Buck lives in the area. I mentioned to James that indeed Buck is still around and that he comes out to shows pretty regularly. I also mentioned that they were playing the same Seattle venue a decade later, and he asked what the name of it was back then. I told him it was called Areo.Space ten years ago. He said, “This place?” I confirmed. At that point, I just said thanks again and let him know we were looking forward to the show. James graciously said thanks and was on his way. The whole conversation was about a minute. So, was this short chance meeting some sort of serious intellectual exchange or bonding moment? No. But, it was great because James was approachable, nice and willing to talk. Sometimes when you meet people you admire in person, they disappoint. This was clearly not so this time. Thank you James for taking a minute to talk to us.

Pleased as punch to have met the lead singer for one of our favorite bands, Paul and I did then make it to the bar right next to Neumos. As we passed through the door we saw James again…this time snared by a few guys asking him to sign a bunch of records and other Manics items. In hindsight, I’m really glad I didn’t do that to him as that action tends to simply come across to the performer as “this is just about me getting something from you” rather than any other type of conversation you could have.

The Venue and Vibe
After some conversations at the bar with some cool guys from a band named Post Adolescence, we headed on into the main venue to get a spot for the show.

By my assessment, Neumos was more three-quarters full. Not sold out. While it was tightly packed near the stage, toward the back there was plenty of room. This must be a bit strange for the band because everywhere else in the world they play its in big stadiums or arenas…and that’s why this was an even more special gig. Great band, small venue, cheap ticket.

The crowd seemed to be people age 40 and under with the majority looking to be in their late 20s, early 30s…and a few of us geezers right at the 40 mark. As you might expect, the crowd was also majority male – but not dominantly.

The Show
Finally, the band came on stage to loud cheers looking ready to go. Bradfield was dressed in black and began the show with his white Gibson Les Paul, Wire sported a red glittery bass and wore a white jacket that he kept on the entire time - concealing what appeared to be an Elvis Presley t-shirt - and Sean Moore...well, you could barely see him, but it looked like he was wearing a black t-shirt with some soft of design on it. You can see more pictures I took at the show here and here.

The band quickly ripped into one of their older but best songs, Motorcycle Emptiness. The full set list is below:

Motorcycle Emptiness
No Surface All Feeling
Peeled Apples
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
La Tristessa Durera
Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
Let Robeson Sing
You Love Us
Everything Must Go
Faster
Take The Skinheads Bowling
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
Small Black Flowers (acoustic)
This is Yesterday (acoustic)
Send Away The Tigers
You Stole The Sun
All or Nothing into Motown Junk
Me And Stephen Hawking
Little Baby Nothing
This Joke Sport Severed
Design For Life

The sound system they set up was perhaps the best I’ve heard at Neumos as all instruments and vocals were clear and dialed in.

I was impressed with the diversity of the songs from their back-catalogue and that they played some of the best stuff off their latest album. For my expectations, this set really delivered with my favorites being Jackie Collins Existential Question Time, Peeled Apples and Faster. However, all songs were great. I like that they sprinkled in a few surprises like their cover of Take the Skinheads Bowling and the ode to singer/actor/athlete/activist Paul Robeson called Let Robeson Sing. I assume the later was a cheeky dig at the U.S. But, it’s a good song with intelligent lyrics. I liked that it was included.

In terms of performance, I have just say this…it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. I cannot underscore this enough. This show had it all - talent aplenty, great songs, engaged, passionate and energy to burn. This band was by my observation really glad to be there and put on a great performance. James Dean Bradfield in particular delivered the goods with his powerful vocals, jumping around, spinning around and generally kicking ass. I was also glad that at one point near the beginning of the show, Bradfield announced that it had been 10 years since they’d been in Seattle and that the last time they played here the venue was called “Aero-Smith or something like that.” I had to laugh. I assumed he was going on our little exchange on the street…at least that’s what I’ll go ahead and believe.

Nicky Wire did something that I noticed in the show 10 years ago…he played almost the entire set with his eyes closed. I’m not sure if that’s a regular thing with him or if the small venue was the reason. But, he also jumped around and did his scissor kicks a few times and had a few words for the audience.

Details for Fans
For fans out there who might be wondering small details, here are some to report:

• After a few seconds of Your Love Alone…James stopped the band and said that “one thing about getting older – not old, but older – is a low tolerance for an out of tune guitar.” He then promptly swapped out his white Gibson for another guitar and re-started the song from the beginning.
• When introducing the song Faster, bassist Nicky Wire said that, “Richey never made it to Seattle, but his music did. He would have loved it here for all its beautiful pretentiousness.” After the song, Wire said, “I meant pretentiousness in a good way.”
• The Manics are selling t-shirts at the US gigs. The ones we saw were the Working Class Hero shirt and two slightly different black shirts – both with the cover art from Journal for Plague Lovers on them. While I like the cover art for the album, I’m not too keen on wearing it around on my chest. But that’s me.
• As mentioned, Nicky Wire did seem to be fully mobile and no longer suffering from his previous back problems.
• Drummer Sean Moore got quite a few shout outs during the show…more than I thought he would.
• There was not Manics stage backdrop art. Just a basic stage setup. In fact, the stage was so small that Moore really was pretty invisible as his drums were not on a riser (that I could see anyway).
• There were two other performers on stage with the band. A second guitarist and a keyboard player. Both were clearly part of the band (in other words not hidden in back or anything), but also clearly off to one side of the small stage.
• The concert closed with Bradfield announcing that “this is our last song tonight. It’s called Design for Life.” And with that followed with a note-perfect performance of that great tune. After their thank-yous and leaving the stage, the crowd cheered mightily for them to come back for a few more songs, but it was not to be. Normally, I might be disappointed in this. However, the Manics played about an hour and a half of great rock and roll – so, I’ll give them a break.

After the show, Paul and I went across the street for one last drink and to go over what we’d just witnessed. We summarized many of the points I’ve made above in this post and concluded that this one is right up there with the best we’d seen. I mean, in the end…when you get to see a band of this caliber that’s one of your all-time favorites in such a small venue with great sound and oh by the way meet the lead singer (and he’s cool)…well, it just doesn’t get any better than that.

Ears ringing, smiles on our faces and full of the knowledge that we’d just seen a truly unlikely but spectacular show…we headed home.

My Football Weekend Recap

My thoughts on the football weekend just past...

My Ducks beat #18 Utah 31-24. Good news: the team is improving week to week and starting to look like the unit that went 10-3 last year and finished #9 in the polls. And, they won this game despite missing some injured players who will be back in the lineup next week. Bad news: the UO passing game was almost non-existent in the second half and the Ducks tried to give this one away with turnovers that directly let to 10 points for the other team. Next week: Cal Bears at Oregon. Should be a good one.

I was impressed with the UW win against USC. That was a surprise. Sure, scoring only 16 points won't win you most games, but you have to give it to the UW squad. They really got it done. Good news: this one helps out every other team in the Pac-10 not named USC. So, thanks Washington. Bad news: with two wins in a row, my experience tells me many UW fans will return to the mindset that their team is, was and always will be dominate over all other teams on the face of the earth since day one...and will be happy to tell you so. At any rate, the clash between the Ducks and Dawgs in October just got a bit more interesting. We'll see.

And, lets have a shout out for WSU who threw down a bit of surprise by beating SMU.

I was very unimpressed with the following:

• Alabama beating mighty North Texas
• Ole Miss topping the always potent SE Louisiana
• Penn St. trouncing Temple
• LSU winning over the formidable Louisiana-Lafayette
• Oklahoma dominating Tulsa
• Oklahoma St. beating Rice
• Kansas ripping Duke
• Michigan beating Eastern Michigan

You get my drift on the above? While schools like UO and UW are out there playing ranked teams, a lot of these supposedly good teams are playing cupcakes to pad their record. Un-im-press-ive.

As for the Seahawks performance against the 49ers, lets put it this way...I sat down to watch the game after Diane and I ran in the Freemont Oktoberfest run this Sunday. By halftime I was getting kinda sleepy and dozed off. Well, I think the Hawks took a nap in the second half too because when I woke up it was late 4th quarter and they were down 23-10 having scored no more points than when I drifted off to sleep close to an hour before. Oh, and did I mention the team lost a bunch of players to injury including their starting QB? Oh boy. Despite the week one win vs. the Rams, I think this might be a long season for the Seahawks. Here's hoping I'm wrong.

Idiot America: 75% of OK Students Can't Name First US President

Seventy-five percent of Oklahoma high school students cannot name the first president of the United States. So say results of a recent survey.

I'm sure Oklahoma is not the only state with such ignorant teenagers, but here's the story from a TV station in Oklahoma.

Note the full set of questions and how many "Sooner state" youth correctly answered them.

The one most correctly answered? "Which ocean is on the east coast of the United States?" Of course, more than a third got that wrong, but at least 61 percent were able to piece it together and answer "the Atlantic Ocean."

Know Your History: 65th Anniversary of Market Garden

Today is the 65th anniversary of the start of Operation Market-Garden

Don't know what that was? Want to know why you should care?

Well, let me tell you.

To summarize, Market Garden was a massive campaign by the Americans and British to try and end World War II by Christmas 1944. Kicking off on Sept. 17, 1944 the goal was to drop thousands of paratroopers behind German lines in Holland to pave the way for Allied ground forces to advance across that country and directly into Germany. How this operation happened is both a testament to courage, but also has lessons for today.

If you've read the book or seen the movie "A Bridge Too Far" you know this story. Skip the background info immediately below and move on to a couple of my pictures and observations.

If you don't know the story, stick with me for a moment and read the background first as it's relevant to the observations below.

Background
The paratroopers were the "Market" portion of the operation. Their objective was to land behind the lines and capture a series of bridges over rivers and canals so that the "Garden" ground forces could advance across them. At the time the operation was planned, German forces were reeling backwards toward Germany in the aftermath of D-Day in June. Allied leadership felt that this was a perfect time to strike and, despite receiving some information to the contrary, simply assumed that opposition would be light. These were calculations they would regret.

The American 101st Airborne Division landed near the town of Eindhoven and took bridges in that area. The American 82nd Airborne Division landed near the city of Nijmegen (also the city where rock star Eddie Van Halen would later grow up by the way) and took several major bridges there - in particular the Nijmengen Bridge witch they captured in dramatic fashion by crossing the Waal River in little hand paddled boats and under fire. (Above: A picture of the Nijmegen Bridge that I took in 1994)

The British airborne forces dropped near the town of Arnhem, quickly moved into the city and secured the last and final key bridge of the operation there - the one across the Rhine. They were reinforced by Polish paratroops. (Below: A picture of the Arnhem Bridge I took in 1994)

Meanwhile, the British Garden ground forces had advanced over the other bridges secured by the Americans and had nearly reached Arnhem. But, German forces all along the route across Holland, and in particular near Arnhem, were significantly stronger than anticipated and ultimately after nine days of fighting the British had to withdraw from Arnhem. With the failure to capture and hold this last bridge, the overall operation failed in that the Allies couldn't cross the Rhine River and move on into Germany despite having captured a lot of enemy territory. And this is where the title of the book, the movie and the saying, "A Bridge Too Far" comes from. The war went on for another seven months.

Observations
OK, so...why remember this anniversary? Two reasons:

First and foremost, this was a HUGE operation that did help win the war overall despite failing in its own objectives. This success was not gained without loss of life. It is estimated that the Allies suffered 15,000-17,000 casualties in Operation Market Garden. So for those people's sacrifice alone I think it's worth taking a moment to remember the day they set off for their ultimate journey to defend freedom.

Second, I think that lessons of history are hard learned and this anniversary offers a reminder. One of the major reasons that Market Garden didn't fully succeed was faulty assumptions about the enemy and a willingness to look the other way when presented with info that might delay or cancel the operation. Sound familiar? It ought to given how we got into Iraq. So, my point here is that it is worth remembering the anniversary of Market Garden as a cautionary tale about over-excitement to enact military operations...even to the degree of ignoring significant danger signs or dismissing intelligence that suggests other actions would be better.

Ever Seen "Jay Walking" on the Tonight Show?

Then you'll love this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUPMjC9mq5Y

Wow.

PS - I am not sanctioning the group IDed at the very end of this video. Rather, I am equal parts impressed by how this guy did this video and shocked by the intellects on display throughout.

Football Now In Full Swing

Yeah! The Ducks won last night. They're 1-1 now with much improvement over last week. While my expectations have been lowered for what the team will do this season, at least they got the W. Utah up next week for a game at Autzen.

I also saw that UW beat Idaho to win its first game in two years. Congrats to them and good luck against USC. Seriously, I'm no UW fan...and I know the odds are decisively against a UW win next week...but the game is in Seattle, and if there is any chance for USC to lose I'm all for it. "Go Huskies" for that game.

Now, lets see if those Seahawks can get it going today and get the season off on the right foot.

Go Hawks!

Conservative Organization Drives Debate Again

Last month, I observed how organized, committed and energized the right wing is with a post to this blog. Click here to read it.

The right is clearly dominate in their ability to drive public debate. They are passionate, organized, action-oriented and on-message while moderates and liberals are slow, lazy, prone to debate facts and issues and generally willing to acquiesce to whatever the right wants to yell out.

Mind you, facts and what's in their own self interest usually has nothing to do with the right's approach. No, it's more about an extremely vocal minority spewing out pent up emotion over a vague set of values such as freedom, small government and family values....set off I suspect over displeasure in losing the 2008 elections so badly to Obama and Democrats.

But the do it really, really well.

And with that approach, they drive the national political agenda despite being in the minority.

And so...what's the talk in the media in the wake of Obama's healthcare speech? Is it about the merits of healthcare reform? Is it about why this nation is going bankrupt specifically because of the healthcare system we have now? Is it about how it was, in fact, the conservative-run government that led is into historically massive debt?

No, it's about a bunch of ticked off conservatives saying that we're heading for USSR-style communism, calling Obama a liar, hoisting signs of Obama looking like The Joker or Hitler and saying that he's going to lead us to ruin.

But don't take my word for it.

For fresh evidence of what I'm talking about, read about the march today in Washington, DC in the AP story here. Note the photo collection featuring some of the fine intellectual points being made by the marchers.

Also, you can get a perspective on what's going on from the article in today's Boston Globe by clicking here.

The good news is that something must be hitting a nerve with these people, and I for one say that if you're really pissing off the far right wing...you must be doing something correctly.

Obama Healthcare Speech

I thought the events occurring at the U.S. Capitol last night served as an insightful microcosm for the entire debate on healthcare.

• On the one hand, you had the President articulating the need for reform of the system both from an economic and moral perspective. He used facts, re-capped history, declared principles, gave reasons why reform is needed, tied in how a better healthcare system will help the greater economy, provided an overview of what reform would and would not be, dispelled falsehoods and rumors, challenged Congress to act and appealed to a greater sense of our nation's well-being. This has been the approach of those leading the healthcare reform debate so far, but much more compelling coming from Obama himself.

• And on the other hand, you had an emotional outburst from a Republican Congressman from South Carolina shouting at the President and calling him a liar during the speech. And the rest of the Republicans (and a few Democrats too to be fair) who are against reforming the healthcare system? Well, they sat on their hands most of the speech in stony silent support of the current system we have today. Histrionics, unsubstantiated assertions, whipping up fear and stubbornness have been the primary tactics for those opposed to reform, and we saw that in spades last night too.

To summarize: Facts, reason and a moral appeal by Obama. "You lie!" shouted from the other side...and on an issue that Obama was not lying or even shading the truth about. That's where we're at in this big debate.

Emotion usually wins the day, so up to now the "you lie" stuff has been pretty effective. Perhaps the addition of the moral component by Obama will balance things out or bring a much needed reality check to the whole process. We shall see.

Happy Birthday Diane!

Happy birthday to my wonderful wife, Diane!

I love you sweets!

100 Year Old Color Pictures of Russia

Sticking with the theme of pictures from eastern Europe this week, I stumbled across a really interesting online exhibit of color photos taken in Russia from 1905 to 1916.

The official photographer of Czar Nicholas II's royal court was commissioned to roam the country and take pictures, and it's truly fascinating to see these images from so long ago in vibrant color. I love black and white photography, and certainly that was the norm at that time, but seeing these color pictures really bring that era to life.

The full Library of Congress exhibit of these pictures is viewable at the link - here. Newsweek also has a gallery - here.

Keep in mind as you view, these pictures are not colorized...they're actually glass plate color pictures taken 100 years ago. Here are a couple examples...

Poland Pictures on Anniversary of Invasion

I had no idea when I posted my entry yesterday with pictures of Warsaw, Poland that Sept. 1, 2009 was the 70th anniversary of Germany invading Poland - generally considered the initiation of World War II.

But it was.

Diane and I visited Poland in 2002 on an adventure to find where many of her relatives came from, and we had a really good time...nice people, rich history, wonderful food and great beer, beautiful architecture (in parts not destroyed by WW II), and a sobering reality check on what humanity is capable of with a visit the former Auschwitz concentration camp.

Today Poland is doing well in the post-Soviet era. It's a country moving forward, but not forgetting its past. I would recommend a visit if you're looking for something a little different but equally European than the typical France, Italy, Germany experience.

I've uploaded some more pictures of Poland such as the ones below to my Flickr Photostream. You can see the set by clicking - here.

Pictures of Warsaw, Poland

Want to know what Warsaw, Poland looks like? Well, I've posted some pictures from our trip there in 2002 on my Flickr Photostream.

Click here to check them out.

I'll be posting more images from Poland, including more from Warsaw, some from Krakow, a sobering visit to the site of the Auschwitz Concentration camp and more.

Meantime, here are a couple examples from the set: