Quote:

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”--Martin Luther King

Monday, September 30, 2013

Excerpt/Lee Santa


A Journey Into Jazz
Recollections of a Jazz Fan, With Photos
Anecdotes and Photos of a Jazz Fan

Introduction

I’m not a musician. I’m not a music critic.  I am simply a fan of jazz who is also a photographer.  Though I didn't know what it was called at the time, my earliest recollection of jazz occurred while growing up in 1950's Indiana.  My father had a couple of LP albums I liked listening to; one was by Stan Kenton and the other was the sound track from the film "The Glenn Miller Story," which had James Stewart and June Allison on the cover.

My interest in jazz and music didn't really begin until after we moved to Sacramento, California.  Our home had a basement where my father set up a work bench.  We fooled around with electronics; dad repaired our TV and radio when they occasionally blinkered out, and I experimented with a variety of projects.  Above his work bench my father placed an FM radio he had salvaged.  I learned about jazz by listening to a Sacramento FM station located in the Elks Building in downtown Sacramento.  Its call letters may have been KHIQ.  Whatever station it was, it was in business prior to KZAP which followed it at the same location.

During my sophomore or junior year in high school I first heard Dave Brubeck and became a fan.  It wasn't long before I began frequenting Sacramento record stores. My favorites were Tower Records (which was the very first one and located in the same building as the Tower Theater), Pacific Records downtown on J Street, and another downtown on K Street.  Around this time I joined the Columbia Record Club and subscribed to Down Beat magazine.  The first LP album I purchased was Gone With the Wind by The Dave Brubeck Quartet and the second was Kind of Blue by Miles Davis.  Listening to Kind of Blue, I became a huge fan of John Coltrane.  Down Beat magazine and ESP records helped me discover musicians such as Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Eric Dolphy, Sun Ra, Sunny Murray, Milford Graves, Jackie McLean, Don Pullen and Albert Ayler.



About 1961 I went to see the Dave Brubeck Quartet in concert at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, the first jazz concert I ever attended.  The first half of the program the quartet played with the Sacramento Symphony under the direction of Howard Brubeck, Dave's brother.  The second half of the program was just the quartet.  Fifteen minutes prior to the scheduled start of the concert, I decided to go backstage with some of the albums to gather autographs.  Off to stage right was a room where Brubeck and the rest of the Quartet (Paul Desmond, Gene Wright and Joe Morello) and others were busy preparing for the concert.  Holding my albums, I walked part way into the room.  I was quite nervous and I had no idea how I was going to penetrate the situation.   Since everyone was so busy it seemed like I was unnoticed.  Standing alone on the right of the room, Desmond looked lost in deep introspection or meditation.  I stood there for what seemed to be an eternity, wondering what to do when Desmond casually walked across the room and simply stood next to me without saying a word.   At the time I didn't understand what he had done for me.  I seized the opportunity and ask Mr. Desmond for his autograph.  It would be a few years before I was able to recognize the implication of Desmond's gesture.  The beauty of that moment will never be lost for me.  I only regret that I did not understand it at the time so I could have told him so.

______________

RBP will publish A Journey Into Jazz early next year.


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Pilger



Pilger is better than the sum of this Al Jazeera documentary, but he makes enough cogent points in it to carry the day.  It also has moments of stunning visual clarity.


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Hot


Just read Diane di Prima's raunchy Memoirs of a Beatnik, first published in 1969.

I have no idea why I haven't picked this up until now, but I'm glad I didn't.  It might have damaged my innocent mind.

There's a lot of great writing in it and even better sex.

The final chapter is a bit of a disclaimer, but getting there is worthwhile.  Reminds me of the methodology Miller and Nin used in a previous era.

Highly recommended.


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Wordstock


As if you could possibly need more lit stimulus after having discovered Round Bend Press and its brilliant authors, there's always this corporate kissfest.

Might give you something to do next weekend if you live in Portland--or can jet in for the weekend--while I watch football day and night.

I won't be there in other words, but I may send Dooley.  Maybe he can snag a few autographs that he can slobber over before he sells them down the road to buy a bottle of cheap booze.

Now, if this sounds to you like the bitterness of a man who knows he has no rightful place among the glittering literati of his times, slap yourself on the back.  You have nailed it.

But that in and of itself doesn't make you as smart as Dooley, who is the real genius in the crowd.


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Friday, September 27, 2013

Chuckie


Watching Utah State's excellent QB Chuckie Keeton play this evening, I could't help but wonder what the world would be like if every famous person in history named Charles went by Chuckie.

Here's a partial list:

Chuckie Darwin
Chuckie Dickens
Chuckie Shultz
Chuckie Lindbergh
Chuckie Bukowski
Chuckie Baudelaire
Chuckie Nelson Reilly
Chuckie Mingus
Chuckie De Gaulle
Chuckie Manson
Chuckie Deemer
Chuckie Lucas

Chuckie is a cool name, isn't it?  Because it is odd, and innocent? Perhaps...

I have no idea why I mention this, so I'm sorry.  It seems kind of stupid in hindsight.

Back to the game.


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Thursday, September 26, 2013

Blown Coverage

Just watched Portland State blow a perfectly good opportunity to knock off Cal Poly, the number 18 team in the FCS.

Leading by two TDs at the half, PSU came out and did nothing but make mistakes for most of the second half before rallying for a final score that made the game appear closer than it was.

The Viks fall 38-34.

This team needs to figure out how to protect a lead and play smart through four quarters.  Got a bunch of ranked teams in the Big Sky and more opportunity ahead, but the Viks lack discipline, rack up dumb penalties, and let up for some reason.

Will they learn?  Oh well...

Better get their heads out.


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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

QMS



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Have Another Hit


Four of the five Pac-12 games this weekend start at 7 p.m. (PT) or later. The Oregon State/Colorado game  in Corvallis is the lone exception.  That one kicks off at 3 p.m.**

This is scheduling designed by TV network moguls, and it is unfortunate. The PAC is strong this year, but with this kind of coverage casual fans who live east of the Mississippi won't have a chance to gauge the conference for themselves.

Most of them will be counting sheep in their sleep rather than counting TDs when some of the PAC's best teams are racking up the points in the wee hours EDT.

Does it matter?  Of course not, but allow me...

I long for the good old days when every game started at 1:30 local time.  During my two years in Eugene while attending Oregon I went to every home game, didn't miss a single one.  There was a pleasant symmetry to college-football Saturdays back then.

Get up, take a toke.  Go to breakfast, take a toke.  Go to the store and buy wine for the bota bag, take a toke.  Walk the footbridge across the Willamette to Autzen, take a toke...

Sit in glorious sunshine (even if it rained) and watch football the way it was meant to be enjoyed (toked up).

Ah...

You could toke up in the stands back then, too.  There weren't very many people at the games.  Security was sort of lax, not like today.

That paper due on Monday?  I spewed it out on Sunday between tokes.

Most easterners will miss what ought to be a fantastic night in Seattle, where Washington State hosts Stanford at CenturyLink Field in a game I think WSU has a realistic chance of winning.

Or am I just high?

Across town, on the edge of Lake Washington, the Huskies of UW host Arizona in a game featuring two of the nation's best running backs, Arizona's Ka'Deem Carey and Washington's Bishop Sankey, both of whom average nearly 150 YPG.

Talk about entertainment...with or without a toke.

Hardcore eastern football fans know about the PAC, but they're usually sleep deprived and so few in number that the sheer mass of the uninformed confirms the rule of ignorance--one of the disadvantages of democracy you could surmise.

Talking sense to the casual east coast fan about college ball is like trying to tell a teabagger convention about truth and justice.

Hopeless.

Many of them had a little taste of Oregon earlier this month when the Ducks went out to Charlottesville and pounded Virginia.

Doesn't matter.  Denial has always been big in the South.

Well, the Ducks weren't playing Florida State, Clemson or Alabama, so the PAC is irrelevant. Right?

They'll be a sorry lot if Cal comes into Autzen and upsets Oregon this weekend, won't they?

Not likely to happen, but if I lived back there and wanted somebody to beat the Ducks I'd be up all night, blurry-eyed, hoping against hope.

But then I'm a hardcore fan like my wasted, toked up brethren in Hoboken, who'll stay up all night to watch a real game.

**I blew the start times on two of these games.  OSU/Colorado starts at noon PT.  UW/Arizona starts at 4 p.m. PT.  Hey, it doesn't completely invalidate my argument.  What if I said all the variant kickoff times simply make fans more confused than ever?  Would you buy that?  Or you could blame it on short-term memory loss.


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Monday, September 23, 2013

Good Vibes



Don't ignore this.  It is a gem.


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MNF

I'm sitting here watching Monday Night Football.  I'll tell you this, I'm not a big NFL fan, and over the years I've watched few games on Monday nights.

I loathed it, usually.  The hype, the announcers, all of it.

When MNF started years ago, I usually had something better to do than watch TV, even if it was just going out and getting crazy with my friends.

That really isn't the case anymore. I don't go out with my friends these days.  The few I have are doing fine without me, and besides I'm in no shape to get crazy.  I'm bored, old, and I watch too much football now. Alone.

I'm sitting here watching the Broncos' Peyton Manning dismantle the Oakland Raiders. One time years ago, when I was a kid and didn't know any better, the Raiders meant something to me.  Ken Stabler was the QB for the Raiders back then.

Another favorite, Tom Flores, was once the coach of the Raiders, the first Hispanic head coach in the NFL.

This is Hispanic Week in the NFL.  Hooray!

I don't like Manning, or his little brother Eli, the QB of the Giants.

I liked their old man, Archie.  He was cool,  but I liked him because we were young together.

Alas there is a genetic element to quarterbacking.  Peyton is really good, and so is Eli, but you wouldn't know it this year.

What's tomorrow?  Tuesday?

I can't wait.


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Sunday, September 22, 2013

Short Work




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Food for Thought

This tasty piece was the best reading of my weekend.

Savor it as much as I did.








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Friday, September 20, 2013

Bonus

Hey, a game is on tonight that isn't too bad!  Boise State/Fresno State.  I didn't see it on the schedule, and the nice thing is it's at Fresno, which means I can watch it.

I can't watch BSU's home games.  That ugly blue turf of theirs makes me sick, hurts my eyes, ruins the game for me.

Good fun, but the announcers are a couple of fools. At one point they claimed Boise's head coach Chris Petersen "worked with Chip Kelly at Oregon."  Not true.  He was at Oregon with Mike Bellotti.  Before that he worked at Portland State with Tim Walsh.  He went to Boise in 2001 and took over as head coach there in 2006.  Kelly was still in New Hampshire back then.

Oh well, damn the details...

Petersen's BSU team gave Chip Kelly his first loss however, one of Kelly's seven as Oregon's head coach. That was the year of the famous LeGarrette Blount meltdown in Boise--the Punch.


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Full Concert




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Publishing: Santa and CD

Charles Deemer's new book of poetry, his fifth publication for RBP, is primed and ready for release, Oct. 26.

We selected this date to coincide with CD's 74th birthday (you're kidding me; only yesterday we were young and raising hell in Northwest Portland) and this season's big UCLA vs. Oregon football game, capping what the one-time Cal Tech quarterback imagines will be a crowning triptych of the mind--a celebration of survival, a humiliating loss to his Bruins by Nike University, and the appearance of the poems in "A Majority of One."

Two for three ain't bad.  I can't blame him for being sentimental, even delusional, but I hope he is not too disappointed when Oregon crushes UCLA that day.

While we both understand football to be an entertainment and convenient diversion, we also know that the publication of a good book takes precedence--in this case it also becomes a shield, a salve to the wounds CD will suffer when Oregon puts up 50 before halftime and his team calls it quits.

As we move closer to publishing--and the bloody battle--I'll post a few of the poems here and attempt to explain why I like them so much, along with my obnoxious analysis of what makes Oregon so darn good.

Meanwhile, I also have the photos and text for Lee Santa's jazz memoir, "A Journey Into Jazz: Recollections of a Jazz Fan, with Photos," at hand.

Busy editing that.  Look for its appearance in January, a profound way to begin a new year, RBP's fourth in its remarkable quest to enrich your lives.


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Thursday, September 19, 2013

Trapped

A rough weather front is moving into the vicinity, violent storms are on the horizon, rain will soon be falling like it did in Noah's day, and I will gather the hours like a man cursed with the blues.

Summer is over.

I have lived here for the vast majority of my 63 years, and I've never adapted, never liked our winters.

Why didn't I move?

As I've said every year for ages, maybe next year.

For now, I'm trapped again.


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Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Maisel

Ivan Maisel can't talk (try listening to his podcasts sometime) but he's a very funny writer.

Here he looks at the weak week in college football scheduling for Saturday.

Personally, I'd like to see ASU beat Stanford Saturday night. Really is the only game worth watching.

Everything else is blowoutsville, man.  And if that doesn't involve Oregon, I ain't hip to it.


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Collins on Norton Sr.

Nigel Collins remembers Ken Norton Sr.

He fought in the era of the great heavyweights, which came just before the great welterweight and middleweight years of the 1980s.

My interest in boxing was at its peak then.  Loved it.

Fond memories.  I was a big fan, beginning with Ali, but alas fighting eventually diminished for me for some reason. Don't really know why. Perhaps because there are fewer great fighters now?

Incidentally,  Norton Jr., a former UCLA football star, now works for the Seattle Seahawks.

I'd forgotten, until I listened to Nigel Collins recall Norton's great fights, that Norton once broke Ali's jaw.


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Break Time


Ken Goe wonders what we're gonna do.

David Macaray has one possible answer, but not really.

While Moyers and Company tell you where it's all going; back on the taxpayer, like so much else.

Oregon has a bye this weekend, a chance to soak it all in.

My...my...I love the game, but certainly see the bigger picture, which is problematic.

Like so much else.


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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Series



A fast and furious trip through what is commonly referred to as U.S. History.  This is pretty darn good stuff, and surprisingly nuanced given its format.


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Breakfast and Lunch

If this is what Bo Pelini thinks of the Nebraska faithful imagine what Mark Helfrich must be thinking about The Oregonian's Jason Quick about now.

Don't say it, MH.  Be cool.

What would college football be without its weekly sideshows?

Back on the field, it is way too early to think about the meat of Oregon's schedule (the Ducks must dispatch Cal at home and go to Boulder first) but the mid-section of the PAC race looks daunting for my Quackers.

I expect shootouts with Washington in Seattle and UCLA at home to seal the deal for Oregon one way or another.

I'll go out on a limb here and say both of those teams have better chances to beat Oregon than Stanford does.

I could be wrong, but the Pope could be a pimp, too.


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(gasp)

















Gun rights!

                                                      Gun rights!


                           Gun rights!


Gun rights!


                                          Gun rights!


     Gun rights!


                                                              Gun rights!


Gun righ....



                                           Gun ri...


Gun...


                                     Gu...


G...


                                                     (gasp)


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Monday, September 16, 2013

2013




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1934




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The Lives of Others



I had no idea this was online.  It is one of the best movies I've ever seen.  Unfortunately this version hasn't subtitles, but I post it for my German-speaking friends and anyone else who simply likes good cinema from a technical and visual standpoint.

This review is in English.


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Sunday, September 15, 2013

Belly of the Beast















(Photo by the Daily Emerald, Eugene)

The monsters of Tennessee devoured an Oregon player on Sat. in Eugene.  While the player wearing the yellow shoes disappeared on this play, there were enough other Ducks on the scene to continue playing the game, which Oregon won.


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Friday, September 13, 2013

Oop

Here's the deal.

Jason Quick with the goods on the big game.








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Thursday, September 12, 2013

Saul Landau

Just read this.  Quite moving.

RIP, Saul Landau.  One of my favorites in the CounterPunch crowd, the second big CP voice to perish recently.

Founder Alexander Cockburn died in July last year.




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Louis Armstrong



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John Lee Hooker




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Short Film



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A Metaphor Too Far

Ought to be a Star Wars-style weekend of college ball.  With both UCLA and Washington on furloughs last weekend, two of the PAC's best squads were MIA.

The MREs are a whole lot better this weekend, though Stanford vs. Army has the aura of an ugly Highway of Death mismatch and figures to be a real slaughter.

In other words, Stanford figures to drop a nuclear warhead on Army.

This is a game full of minefields for Army who will likely be KIA, if you know what I mean, like Custer.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to torture you (but if you have any complaints call Geneva, she'll know what to do).

I don't really care for Stanford's cerebral, CIA style, while admitting it is more effective than the SDI, obviously.  The future EXXON executives took Oregon down last year at a most inopportune time by employing their Condoleezza Rice-designed, DOD-approved shock and awe strategy--that was Ed Reynolds chasing MM down from behind while DAT flaunted his ICBM-like speed at the front, thus missing the target and costing Oregon the battle, which lost the team a BCSNC medal.

Speaking of surveillance...and further ridiculousness...

UCLA travels to Lincoln to play the Nebraska Cornhuskers in an intriguing Operation Groggy Morning conflict between ranked companies, and Washington takes a battalion across several rivers to Champaign, Illinois for night maneuvers a little later. These two skirmishes will provide us with some heretofore known unknowns about the strength of the PAC's insurgency across the USA.

I don't have enough  listening and imaging devices to monitor all the action this weekend, and then there is this conflict of interest--Oregon and Tennessee trade sorties at the same time Alabama and TAMU get it on in the propaganda war of the week.

Johnny Football vs. the Evil Empire.

If I surveille the action at home I can put up several windows at a time for maximum infiltration, I guess. Thanks to the miracle of computing technology passed down to us commoners by the MIC. I'll click back and forth like a drone pilot.  But more likely I'll just grow immersed in the Oregon game and wait for the other games' highlights--watch the carnage unfold from outer space.

Who doesn't like surveilling Oregon?  Not me.  I expect up-and-coming Tennessee to battle to the end like Davy Crockett. Ought to be entertaining as heck, unless the Ducks commit treason in the fourth quarter and expose their secret playbook as a sham.

If that happens I'll just kill myself and get it over with.

A case of PTSD.  I won't LOL this time.  I mean it.


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Legend of The Fall



The Fall is a favorite of Buddy Dooley's occasional friend and collaborator, the local television wizard Terence Connery.  TC also sends along this:



Thanks, TC.  Thanks, BD.

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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

12



In memory of the thousands who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the hundreds of thousands more who have died since in individual and State-sponsored terrorist attacks, manifest daily from Newtown to Karachi and from Baghdad to Kabul and from Boston to Mogadishu and from D.C. to Damascus and from London to Delhi and elsewhere, and which will not stop until human beings take the initiative to say no more and learn to live with one another in peace. While we cannot expect this to happen soon, we can as individuals resist the inevitability of madness wherever it raises its ugly head and demand equality among races and creeds, and everybody in between; while the world will never become a perfect Utopia, it sure as hell could be better than its demonstrable present.


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Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Satie



A New Yorker piece on Satie.

Vincent van Gogh bio.


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In the Beginning



A short history of the brothers.


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Future Shock, or Hold Your Horses and Wait One Dang Moment

Mike Vick made a telling comment post-game last night, one I'd be worried about if I was a die-hard Eagles and Chip Kelly fan, which I'm not despite the coach's many victories at Oregon.

Vick told reporters that after the first quarter he felt like the Eagles had already played a half.  He said, "It's going to be a long season."

Obviously Vick made the statements in a celebratory moment, but they have a double meaning.  The fast-paced style, if it persists game after game, will wear the Eagles out.

Pro teams carry a roster of 53 players and play 16 grueling regular season games.  The Eagles are back at it next Sunday, a scant six days from now.  Will they recover in time from this first flourish of uptempo exercise?

My theory is they'll be fine, even good, for a few weeks early in the season, but down the road they'll lose their legs. Vick is an old man by football standards, at 33.  The kids will have a better chance of surviving for a longer period of time, but Vick is gonna be toast soon enough.

If he holds up the entire season I'll buy you a beer.

The irony is I love this kind of football; it is one of the reasons I enjoy the college game more than the staid professional variety.  But NCAA rosters have the numbers to play fast.  Look at Oregon.  Kelly's success there was predicated on having a lot of players. Thirty defensive players got in the game against Virginia last weekend.  Most of them were Kelly's guys, players selected and molded to fit his approach to the game.

But in order for this to ultimately work league-wide in the NFL, teams will have to restructure their employment philosophies, pay the bucks to expand their rosters, and go for it.

They have no real incentive to do this, however.  Pro football fans are among the most loyal in sports. Even losing teams sell out weekly, so why would owners want to change the scheme of things?

I look for the Eagles to go strong for half the season before fading into a tired-assed funk.

It'll be entertaining as hell for awhile, but then it will settle into the ordinary show of typical professional football.

Slow down here, fellas.  What's the hurry?  We're makin' money, ain't we?


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Monday, September 9, 2013

Short Film




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Early Van Sant




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Bessie Smith




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Week Two

Notes on the football weekend past:

He has the best name in college football this year, but Munchie Legaux went down with a season-ending injury in Cincinnati's loss to Illinois.

Fortunately, he doesn't have to play to keep his best-name title because the other guy with a dazzling handle isn't playing either--Jadeveon Clowney is simply going through the motions while criticizing his coaches, two of whom appear to dislike each other.

Or is that just heat-of-battle stuff?

UCLA lost a player to a horrible accident unrelated to football Sunday morning. How will his teammates respond as they prepare for this weekend's big game with Nebraska?  Sad story.

UCLA and Washington had the weekend off; they're to be scrutinized closely this week because both appear to be legitimate threats to Stanford and Oregon dominance in Pac-12 play.

Ha! Ha! Ha!...USC lost at home to Washington State and tumbled out of the Top 25.  Ha! Ha! Ha!

I graded Oregon's new coaches up and down with equal vigor Saturday.  Like the team itself, they were inconsistent.  Mariota's QB draw was brilliantly conceived and executed, but...but...

Despite the trendy status quo Oregon popularized in college ball, which dictates a go go go offense all the time, the Ducks needed to slow things down and evaluate what was in front of them at times Saturday.

Virginia's defense was ready for the fast stuff.  Oregon's uber-talent won that game but the offense hurried itself out of a couple of good first-half drives and at least one touchdown.

Am I sinning by saying so?

Three-and-out is not the Oregon way, and Dooley doesn't want to see it happen very often, citing a history of irritable bowel syndrome caused by stubborn, ineffective play-calling.

The looming question of the week--will Thomas Tyner play early in the game Saturday vs. Tennessee?

The kid appears to be slicker than the snot on a lunatic's nose, so give him a few carries in the first quarter and see what happens.

My Vikings...my lovable, heart-breaking, deeply unappreciated neighborhood Vikings--you had a chance. You did good, but came up just short.  

I won't quit on you, though.  I think you'll make a statement in the Big Sky this year.  Portland is yours if you want her.


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Saturday, September 7, 2013

Chris and Vicki



Hey, Chris Pilon and his lovely wife Vicki are visiting from Houston. Hooray!

Hope to get together with them this afternoon, see how they liked the Northwest Music Festival, one of the reasons they're vacationing here this week.

Sometimes knowing someone and deciding you're of like mind and can be simpatico boils down to one perfect statement.

Pilon leaned over to me one time when U2 came on the juke while we were killing a few brews in a local pub.

With a knowing expression that informed me a great truth was about to be revealed, he said "U2 is the Irish Journey."

Yep.


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Friday, September 6, 2013

Saturday

Do you know what tomorrow is?

Of course you do.  It's Saturday.

You know what else?

That's right.  It's football Saturday.

That's all I've got.

Later.


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Thursday, September 5, 2013

Pokey Allen

The owner of the restaurant/tavern where I worked  during the early 1990s was a big Portland State booster.  PSU's football coaching staff came into the joint regularly to have lunch and down a few draft beers.

Head Coach Pokey Allen was a charming and friendly man.  He often came up to the bar to chat a little when his crew at the adjoined tables on the main floor became too loud.  He was the boss and exempt from it, but his assistants ribbed each other pretty good all the time; he'd take in a little of the ribaldry before escaping to the bar.

Let them have their fun.

We talked golf.  Pokey loved golf, he said, and I was just taking the sport up at that time.  He said once, "ninety percent of all golfers never break a hundred."

I don't know if that was true then, or now.  But it came from Pokey, so I wasn't going to question it.

Yeah, we agreed.  Golf is a tough game.

I was at that time working on a few plays for the stage.  Good, Pokey said.  He liked the theatre.  You see, Pokey was a well-rounded guy, a smart man.

He was like Chip Kelly without the terseness and arrogance.

My workplace became a sort of recreational nerve-center for PSU's football staff during the final two years of Pokey's reign.  The Vikings played in two NCAA Division II championship games in a row in Florence, Ala. and lost both of them.

But they got to the final game, that is what counted.  The games were televised nationally, too.  A few of my friends were lucky enough to go to those games.  One of them, my co-worker Char Wolters, was the official team photographer.

I got to stay home and work when my boss and Char went to Florence.  Which was fine, I wouldn't have had the money to pay for the trip anyway.

The Vikings played their home games in the same stadium they play in today.  Now it is called Jeld-Wen Field. Then it was just Multnomah Stadium, and sometime later PGE Park.

It's much nicer now, after the renovation for Major League Soccer, but the seating capacity hasn't really changed much since Pokey's day--around 20,000.

With that kind of capacity, Portland usually won the nod to host a playoff game or three under the Division II playoff system.  Few D-II stadiums around the country hold that many people.

The stadium easily filled up during the playoffs.  Then, just like now, it was about the asses you could put in the seats--the money.

Like the linked article above notes, David Hersh is back in town with a new sports promotions business and he's working with PSU to raise the visibility of the school's current lackluster program.

Understandably, they'd like to reclaim the old days while playing in the FCS, a considerable step up from Division II.

I wish them luck.

But there were two keys to the success and sellouts PSU enjoyed in that era.  Number one, the Vikings were a good team because Pokey Allen was a great coach, meaning they won a lot.

Number two, Pokey Allen's honesty and personality made him a great promoter.

Here's something that might start the ball rolling again for PSU and Mr. Hersh.  PSU needs to go down to Berkeley Saturday and beat Cal.

Not likely going to happen, but you never know.  Look at what happened in Corvallis last weekend.

ED:  RBP poet Charles Deemer reminds that he was a hand-selected stand-in Viking team mascot for one playoff game in the halcyon days of PSU football.  Who could forget that?  I was there and remember it well. Could have been another career!


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Garbage Collection

NPR's Steve Inskeep grills Sen. Tom Udall about Syria on Morning Edition this morning.

Udall doesn't support a strike against Syria and voices a number of legitimate concerns, albeit with the silky touch of a politician who knows where his bread is buttered.

Inskeep, without the slightest mention of the sentiments of the majority in the U.S., doesn't tolerate even a hint of anti-war reasoning.

This is our media, folks, demonstrating an unquestioning loyalty to U.S. militarism.

Think about it the next time NPR's little minions come panhandling for your contribution to support this garbage.


TS

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Woody




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Sylvia




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The Meaning of Life



Let's be honest, there is no other reason to live but for Oregon football.


TS

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

New Links!

Please note the two new permalinks at my sidebar, one to Common Dreams, the other to CounterPunch.  I link to stories at these sites regularly, but you shouldn't have to wait for me.

Sometimes I am lackadaisical and avoid the work that is required to make this site as dynamic as it should be.

While I recognize it is my responsibility to help you shed your lazy and complacent thinking, I also believe it is time for you to go out on your own and take the risks required to become a self-educated political boor like me.  Thus the links.

I'm also in the process of winnowing through a few conservative sites to add to the list, but it's a real challenge to find one that works for me.

I'll keep trying though, because I owe my readers a chance to measure any argument fully and make an informed opinion about whether continuing to fuck around with the Middle East is a good idea, whether the minimum wage is to too damned high, whether food stamps make people lazy, whether Mexicans are evil, whether saving Social Security is a disgrace to the Constitution, and whether Negroes should continue to have the right to vote or access to drivers licenses.

I'm also very curious about why the rich should be forced to pay taxes when there are so many poor people who seem, let's face it, ungrateful to be Americans.

Also, I'm looking for a reason why Rick Santorum shouldn't be the next Republican presidential nominee. He seems like a bright enough guy after all, blessed as he is with real solid American values.

Similarly, I'd like someone to explain to me why Hillary stinks without resorting to name-calling and the obvious.


TS

A&L Daily

Maybe you've seen these already, either because I have Arts & Letters Daily linked at my sidebar and you're so damn curious you couldn't resist, or because you're just naturally smart and have beat me to the goodies.

In any case, here are three lit-related pieces that might interest you:

This one reveals a few interesting things about Pynchon.

Here's a bitchy look at Kerouac from an oh-so-precious critic.  He presents a few decent points, but mainly misses the mark by skewing his subject matter--the Beats--so thoroughly that he seems silly.  He strikes me as being a Log Cabin Republican, one of a group with nothing on the Beats--unless arrogance and money count for more than imagination. Which in fact is plausible.

This one tackles the success vs. talent question, one of my favorite subjects, because I know I have one inch of talent and zero success. Unless you consider this blog a success, in which case you should send me some money to help offset my monthly rent.

In fact, if I had it to do over again I'd do something else.  I don't know what, but certainly not this.


TS

Monday, September 2, 2013

Hmmm...

Now, I wonder why my link function at Blogger isn't working?

Anyway, I wanted to link a cool story from Common Dreams and can't.

There, it finally worked!

Nothing is simple any more, particularly for me.  I'll bet I couldn't even wash dishes in a restaurant these days without confronting some new technological facet of the modern dish machine that would befuddle me.

I'd have to go to a community college to learn the proper application of the pertinent code/logic to run the damn thing.

Interfacing with Your Dish Machine, 101.  How to turn the machine on.  

TS

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Movie of the Week




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TW



Classic and good enough for Sunday.


TS