When I was a child, my parents and I went on a lot of road trips. While logging many miles on the highways of Canada and the United States, we listened to a lot of music. There was one particular road trip that stands out in my mind. It is a vivid recollection – not of the destination itself, but of the impact a few precious moments in time had on me during that trip. Funny thing is, those precious moments were in our driveway.
I think I was probably about 14 years old, maybe a little older. The dates escape me. We were just arriving in Brockville after returning from a road trip to points lost in memory. I was sitting in the back of our silver Toyota Celica. My parents always occupied the front seats – I had the back all to myself.
We had just pulled into our driveway when a song came on the radio. I distinctly remember that the first few chords stunned me. My father was just about to take the key out of the ignition and I remember asking him to keep the radio on until the end of the song.
The song? It was “Crossroads” – a live version recorded by Cream on March 10, 1968 at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. At this moment in time, I was exposed to Eric Clapton’s stunning solo in this Robert Johnson classic. I’d never heard anything like it. Crossroads. Wow. There was something absolutely magical about it.
I was floored. I realized that I had to find out just who this Robert Johnson was. What I was to discover was that nobody really knew.
For those who ever doubted, mark my words – Sarah Palin is running for President in 2012. I can see it coming in the distance. It’s much like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and realizing that it is in fact the train approaching, not the dawning of a new day. And either we wake up now and smell the coffee, or we all move to Canada to avoid watching the eventual demise of this great nation should ex-Governor Palin actually gain enough votes to become the next President. Palin is a made-for-TV reality show persona. She is hugely popular and somehow managed to rank #2 in a recent Gallop poll survey of the most admired women of 2010 (behind Hilary Clinton, and ahead of Oprah Winfrey). I guess it must be her TV show “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” on TLC that puts her in that kind of esteemed group. Sadly, her Andy Warhol-ian 15 minutes of fame should have been up a long, long time ago.
As a 21st century celebrity, she has mastered the “cult of personality” mentality that seems to be pervasive within our society these days. The scary part is that every time she opens her mouth, she spews vitriol and insanity – or perhaps even makes up a word or two like “refudiate”. But being a celebrity politician brings with it many potential inherent dangers. In Palin’s case, just take a peek at a couple of pieces of her social policy agenda – her perspectives on religion and health.
It’s been many years since I have been to the Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL). I think the last time I set foot on Zilker Park for ACL was to see Al Green in 2003. In the same breath, it has been even more years since I have gone to the South By Southwest Music Festival (SXSW). I think that would take me back to the Tragically Hip at the Liberty Lunch back in 1995 (3/18/95 to be exact). I can say that I remember the days when Austin was a cool, funky music place that nobody really knew about. I remember the times when you could go to SXSW with a $25 wristband and take in 15 unsigned bands over 2 or 3 nights and be totally stoked about each of them. It was all about the vibe, the raw edge, the soul.For fear of sounding like some old curmudgeon, it has become easy to make note of the obvious commercialization with both SXSW and ACL. Living in Austin, being a part of the music scene here, has always been a great thing. But when you buy a wristband and have virtually no access to much of anything – without tremendous lines and huge numbers of people – it loses its edge, especially when most bands have passed through here before and have played smaller venues in the process. Nowadays, ACL jams Zilker Park with 60,000 of your closest friends. The times, Dylan once said, are a’changin’.
In the midst of all this, it was easy to lose sight of that which drives it all – the music itself. That was until ACL this past October 2010. I was provided with an opportunity to return to the vibe, to the purity of the music, to the beauty of sharing it, and experiencing it. It took me back to a time of great discovery and exploration.
And you know what? It really is about the music.
The challenge has been laid down in front of him. If Mack Brown is truly the coach that everyone claims that he is – if he is really more than just a CEO figure in a multi-million dollar corporation – now is the time to confirm it. Within days of Greg Davis “resigning” from the Longhorns, defensive coordinator – and “head coach in waiting” – Will Muschamp headed on to greener pastures. The SEC now welcomes Will as the next head coach at the University of Florida. I suspect a lot of 2011 opponents may be salivating right now.
Muschamp was at the University of Texas for three seasons. Total defense numbers looked great in years one and two. Last season, the Longhorns were 3rd in the nation in total defense. But this year took a tremendous nosedive. The pre-season talk was of “the best defense in the Mack Brown era”, with plenty of talented athletes, especially in the secondary. But as they say, talk is cheap. At home, the Longhorns could only muster #56 in the country (#3 in 2009) – never the best place to play your worst. The defensive secondary was consistently burned for big play after big play. The blitzing defense of years past became a rather pedestrian unit this year that really wasn’t that good at much of anything. Scratch that – they were very consistent at giving up at least one big pass play and one big run play per game – at the minimum. And they made a lot of mediocre offenses look pretty darn good. Can you say “UCLA”?
Muschamp used the role of “coach-in-waiting” to leverage his salary to double what he would have normally made, putting him at $900,000. This was with no guarantee of him ever sticking around to take the head coaching position. I am sure there was a pretty significant dose of “good faith bargaining” involved. But the bottom line right now is that the “coach-in-waiting” concept was a total failure, and an expensive one at that.
However, I would suggest that perhaps the loss of both Muschamp and Davis may in fact be a blessing in disguise.
It has been a few weeks since I have posted an episode of Rhubarb Ruminations. It’s not that there hasn’t been plenty of Rhubarb in the news of late. Frankly, the truth that is the world of news is almost always stranger than fiction. Besides, the insanity that is college football has taken my attention away from the insanity that is the news of the world. But it is now time for yet another dose of Rhubarb-ination. Once again, I will run the gamut from sport to religion and politics. Strange bedfellows, indeed.
1. Speaking of strange, as in “the land of strange drug testing and athlete doping stories”, we have none other than cyclist Alberto Contador and runner LaShawn Merritt. Rumor has it that Tour de France champion Contador ingested some clenbuterol in some Spanish meat. Sounds plausible, yes? Perhaps. But how about the plasticizers that the drug police found in his blood along with that clenbuterol? Yummy. Innocent until proven guilty, Alberto, but one has to wonder.
And in the “are you serious?” category – LaShawn Merritt, 400m gold medalist in Beijing, received a 21 month suspension. The charges? He tested positive for an over-the-counter male enhancement product. No witty repartee necessary here, but I have to admit that that is the craziest drug offense I have ever heard.
2. This certainly won’t be the first or last time that you’ll hear me discuss the First Amendment and the separation of church and state. How a Canadian living in Texas has managed to find this so important, while most Americans just don’t seem to care, bewilders me to no end.
With that in mind (and taking in a deep breath), we can now note the strange world of the Texas Board of Education.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Bevo World. Ho ho ho, Longhorn football faithful. Imagine this – there are a few coaches that won’t be joining us for the holiday season this year. Offensive coordinator Greg Davis, oft-noted on these pages (and typically for all the wrong reasons) announced his resignation on Monday. Along with this stunning development, offensive line coach Mac McWhorter and defensive line coach Mike Tolleson are retiring. Maybe, just maybe, this is the sign of an upcoming joyous post-bowl game period. The Longhorns may not be going bowling this year, but if this season is what was required to incite change, then so be it. I’ll gladly sacrifice a season for it. At least we beat Nebraska this year. Enough said on that one.
Of course, the news brought talk of all the accolades these coaches have received while on the Forty Acres. We were reminded of how Davis has “mentored” three NFL quarterbacks from the UT roster – Vince Young, Chris Simms, and Colt McCoy. Suffice it to say that at least two of these players (you make the selection) were going to find a way to win regardless of the game plan. I would have you think back to Young’s stunning 4th-and-eternity scramble against Kansas, or his National Championship “Reggie Who?” all-world performance. Not that I am debating the offensive statistics that have been garnered over the years – but when you have talent like that, it’s tough to look bad.
Speaking of talent, the offensive and defensive lines have plenty of talent recruited from the state of Texas. How we were unable to take advantage of this in 2010, I will never understand.
But the bigger story is that Mack Brown finally parted ways with Greg Davis. Perhaps it required an Act of Congress, or a special stealth legislative session in the Texas House, but either way, we’re moving forward from what was a dismal offensive display this year, and a very predictable display in years past. So now, Longhorn faithful, we’re left to ponder who should become the next offensive coordinator. Maybe Opie? Or how about the Pirate?
I can’t say that I was ever terribly excited about the creation of the Big 12 conference in the first place. Take the Big 8 – Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Missouri – and add in Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, and Texas Tech (from the Southwest Conference), and voila you have the Big 12 conference. I had never really been a fan of Big 8 football. Nebraska used to bore me to tears. Oklahoma was about the same, though at least they had the Red River Rivalry with the University of Texas. Though the conference was created on February 25, 1994, conference play would start on August 31, 1996. The Big 12 has produced some great football and basketball programs. The Big 12 football championship has been won by Oklahoma 7 times, Texas 3 times, and Nebraska twice (Texas A&M, Colorado, and Kansas State have all won it once). I think it is pretty safe to say that over that time period, it became readily apparent that the conference just wasn’t big enough for Texas and Nebraska. The Cornhuskers have always been owned by the Horns in football (much to their chagrin), and were certainly no longer the “high profile program” that they may have once been in the Big 8.
So with that in mind, Nebraska moved to the Big 10 conference. They claim that it was a better fit academically, but I suspect that Athletic Director Tom Osborne no longer wanted to play second fiddle to Texas in terms of conference television revenues, among other things. Call that just an educated guess on my part.
The Huskers went into Big 12 play this season with hopes of making a parting shot at the conference, while looking forward to the promised land of 2011 in the Big 10. But it’s not been a bed of roses for the Children of the Corn.
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