sports: As I am writing this the first couple of college football games of the year have already come and gone on Thursday night. It is time to look forward to the rest of the season and what it should have to offer us. It is totally insane to think that anyone could cover all of college football in one article, and I have no intention of trying. So I am going to just stick to some of what I think are the most exciting, interesting, and important points.
And what better place to start than some of the marquee match-ups of opening weekend. Probably the two biggest games of the first weekend of college football are Michigan vs. Alabama at the billion dollar funhouse in Dallas and Boise St. on the road playing Michigan St. The Michigan Alabama game is the bigger of the two match-ups, with two top ten non-conference teams playing each other to start the season. Alabama comes into the game as a perennial National Championship contender. Though they would still be considered one of the best teams in the country, their tough opening week game will show if that is going to remain true this year. Alabama lost a lot of their dominant defense from last year to the draft as well as their Heisman finalist running back Trent Richardson. For the first time under Nick Saban the question of whether their defense will be good or great does exist. Also for the first time under Saban their best offensive player will be their quarterback, pocket passing A.J. McCarron. How the Crimson Tide will do without a dominant runner will be something to watch. As far as their opponent goes. Michigan is coming into this game, and the season, on a mission to restore the program to prominence. Coach Brady Hoke has turned the program around admirably from the debacle of the Rich Rodriguez era. The defense is tough, and they arguably have the most dynamic player in college football in Denard Robinson. For Michigan to take that next step from top ten team to title contender, Robinson will have to prove that his dual threat game is more than just excitement, that it is also a winning game. In this opening week game we should see just how much both teams have to offer. Michigan has not faced a team in the past couple of years with the pedigree of an Alabama. And Alabama has never faced someone as dynamic as Robinson. Whoever handles who better should tell us who is a true contender going forward.
The other big game of the opening weekend, Boise St. vs Michigan St. is the story of two teams looking to prove they still belong. The Broncos have now graduated most of the players that are part of the winningest class of college football. They are going to be looking to prove that they still belong amongst the elite programs in college football and weren't just a byproduct of getting some great players. Michigan St. is looking to do the same after having lost their career passing leader, Kirk Cousins, to the NFL draft. While the Spartan's defense should be as tough and physical as ever, that everlasting chip on the Bronco's shoulders will be tough to deal with. This game ultimately comes down to finding out who belongs. In a tough Big Ten where teams are sure to beat each other from time to time the Spartans are looking to show that they are still among the conferences best. And if they win they will have shown they can be that. If the Broncos win, they will have all but solidified themselves as a true program and the only true chaos team, now that TCU has moved to the Big 12.
Having more or less microscoped these two games as part of the bigger picture it is now time to take a look around the country in a broader sense. Lets start with a conference hilighted in one of these two match-ups, and certainly the best in the country recently, the SEC. Although conventional wisdom hasn't served well in the SEC, I am going to go their. Alabama's flaws, or at least questions, have already been pointed out. LSU has lost its star defensive player and emotional leader in Tyrann Mathieu due to off the field problems. To think that they can simply overcome this by plugging some freshman stud, as some have conjectured, is insane. Mathieu's production, both on defense and special teams, was just outrageous, and his way of turning momentum in LSU's favor can't be quantified with stats. Arkansas has easily the best offense in the SEC, led by future first round pick, quarterback Tyler Wilson. But their defense has had problems keeping top shelf oppenents like LSU from putting up enough points to keep up with them in the conference title race. If the Razorback defense can make even a slight improvement while dealing with the coaching and administrative upheaval from coaching scandal over the summer(we'll call this the F you attitude factor), they could be the cream rising to the top of the best conference in football. On the other side of the SEC, Georgia seems to be the heavy favorites. They have most of their starters returning from a top twenty defense, not to mention Heisman hopeful Aaron Murray at quarterback, who is looking to for his third 3000 yard season. If he can limit the mental errors, those killer fantasy stats should turn them into one of the more scary teams facing the rest of the country. As these teams play each other, someone has to lose. And that is where my conventional wisdom that seems to fail every year stands. When great teams face each other someone still has to lose.
The Big Ten, also featured in this weekends big games, looks like a slightly less powerful SEC. There are a ton of good teams but not one that should runaway with the conference. The reason they are less powerful than the SEC is that unless someone does runaway with the conference no one appears to be a legit national title contender, whereas the SEC winner will more or less automatically be considered. Michigan and Michigan St. clearly look to be in the mix for the conference title. Wisconsin has its Heisman finalist running back from last year, Monte Ball, back and is hoping for another transfer quarterback, this time Danny O'Brien, to be the difference maker. And despite their ineligibility for bowl games and a conference title, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Urban Meyer should bring massive improvement to Ohio State, where disappointment is the word that described their season last year. With the Buckeyes out of the picture though, it should be all about Michigan's defense and Robinson, potentially ascending from exciting to great, as the Wolverines prove to be the Big Ten's best team. The Big Ten teams should not only hand each other losses as the season rolls on but should prove to be good but not quite the nations best.
The Big 12 is next, and they only have a few points to address. Oklahoma is in the top five again. And while their defense is going to be as fierce as ever, Landry Jones has yet to prove himself as more than a fantasy quarterback. Sure he is the schools all time leading passer, but in crucial games and big moments, he has come up short. He may be able to grow into that, but until he delivers all year, instead of most of the year, it is hard to get behind the Sooners. The other big note in the Big 12 is that TCU is now there. It is great for the Horned Frogs as they try to prove, like Boise St., that they belong in the discussion of the country's top teams. For anyone out there who love chaos, it is terrible because there is one less legitimate non-power-conference team out there to muck up the works as other teams lose games. But hopefully TCU will not only get the chance that they seem to deserve, but thrive in their new situation. The other Big 12 contender could be new comer West Virginia. Led by the hugely (and physically huge) talented Geno Smith, the West Virginia will be tough to stop no matter what conference they are in. While stiffened competition should be a wake up call to this team, they should be able to out gun enough teams to put themselves in any discussion that involves the best of the best
Now onto the Pac 12. This conference appears to be more or less a two teams race. In the post-Andrew Luck era, Stanford should finish a very respectable third. But this one should really come down to USC and Oregon. The Trojans will be running out an offense with enough talent that every starting player should be in the NFL someday. What they need is a defense that it is merely better than last year. Not great but good, and able to stop the run, so that the offense can out score every other team in the nation, literally. I know I said this about Arkansas, but it holds even more true for the Trojan offense led by Matt Barkley, who is not only the Heisman favorite but the projected top pick in the upcoming NFL draft. For Oregon it is a little more simple. Their fast as hell offense just needs to keep every single team they play on their heals until they totally run out of breath and give up. The conundrum in this conference is that along with a regular season USC vs. Oregon game, they will have to play each other in the conference title game now that the conference is split into divisions. To think that either team could win two games against the other is almost unimaginable considering their quality.
The conference with the best chance to produce an undefeated team may be the ACC. Florida St. had the eighth ranked defense last year and should have a much improved offense led by quarterback E.J. Manuel. With an offense that should catch up to their defense, and a conference where top tier teams shouldn't cancel each other out, the Seminoles have a great chance to get into the mix by the end of the season. Their greatest resistance should be met from Clemson, though their defense, which allowed 70 in a bowl game last year, needs some some massive improvements in order to allow for their high flying offense to win more games for them.
If I had to make predictions before the season has really gotten started, I would probably go more or less chalk. I would take USC and some SEC team in the title game and Matt Barkley edging out Marcus Lattimore, the running back from South Carolina, for the Heisman with Geno Smith making it interesting. But we all know that upsets will happen and some player we hadn't really considered will come about, like Cam Newton and RGIII. As I have looked up and down the conferences and teams their does certainly seem to be more questions than certainties. Who comes out on top will be answered by which team answer those questions. This year its not just about playing to your strengths but dealing with your weaknesses.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
breaking bad's dead freight
tv: Very rarely, if ever, have I done a review of single episode of a series. With this not being a full time job it gets hard to write every hour of everything that I watch. This week, however, Breaking Bad aired the fifth episode of its fifth and final season, title Dead Freight. As one of the great episodes I've maybe ever seen anywhere on television, it definitely is worthy of its own moment to shine.
With all of the terror and tension that has been built over the first four episodes of the fifth season leaving viewers feeling nothing short of needing to take shower after episodes, Dead Freight offered a change of pace(relatively of course). It picks up right where the previous episode left off. Mike, Walt, and Jesse are dealing with the fact that they believe Lydia planted a tracking device on a barrel of methlamine in order to avoid doing business with this crew after her being investigated by the D.E.A. The way our three guys, that comprise this crew, deal with their suspicion of Lydia is by bringing her to a brutal and cold interrogation that, all involved, including Lydia, believe will end in her death. As the tension mounts and Lydia's life hangs in the balance, the ultra-tweaked, tense, jittery, terrified performance of Laura Fraser brings everything in the scene to a tipping point as she tries to deal with Walt and fight off Mike's urge to get revenge on the hit she put out on him only episodes ago. Her life is saved by a call made to Hank thanks to a bug Walt plants, in one of his coldest and boldest moments, as he plays on his brother-in-laws decency by coming to his office to confess the growing troubles of his marriage. Once Hank leaves the office to get a broken down Walt a drink, Walt plants the bug that proves Lydia is allowed to live yet again. This is when the real fun begins.
Lydia presents a new way for the guys to get enough methlamine to not need her warehouse barrels to keep their business up and running: rob a train. From their on the show becomes a full on heist thriller with small interjections to make one wonder about the future of those involved in the show. But the train job itself is one of the most exciting things maybe ever captured on television. The preparation is well displayed as we see our crew plot their crime while leaving enough unknowns that we can't wait to see the job go down. Then when it does the action goes full tilt. The train arrives at the desired destination and Walt, Jesse, Todd(from Vamonos Pest), and Mike go to work. From their we see what really becomes heist movie play out as the edge of your seat action unfolds. The methlamine flows, complications occur, and of course, Walt pushes the job to its last and most dangerous envelope as we see his recently found arrogance continue to take hold.
As with everything in the world of Breaking Bad, things don't go as smoothly as planned. Mike's foreshadowing during Lydia's interrogation about their being two kinds of jobs, ones where everyone dies and ones where you leave witnesses, comes into play despite Jesse's best efforts to keep anyone from getting killed in his plan. And with a swift bang in the final seconds that bring a halt to the howling of success, we are reminded of the show we are watching. This may have been the best heist caught on film since Heat, but this is still Breaking Bad. Everything has consequences, and because of the horrific nature of Walt's and Jesse's actions, those consequences are almost always horrific. Not only do we see Walt break bad over the course of the series, but we see every action and reaction relating to his decisions break bad as well, and despite the resounding success of the train heist, this is no different.
Dead Freight laid in some threads that could be interesting to see play out as the series continues. As the pending danger of Walt's actions envelops the White family, the pieces continue to be put in place for a brutal and messy end to this story. Skylar's continued reminder that the kids are safe at Hank and Marie's is almost certainly an indication that they are not, especially now that both Walt and Hank have had their trajectories meet at the word boss. And as Skylar coninues to chainsmoke her husband's cancer back (or so she hopes) the risen cigarette hides in their bedroom waiting for its moment of use. But what will be remembered from this portion of season five and this episode is how awesome a great heist can be. Whether it be in the great crime films or on certain TV shows we find ourselves on the edge of our seat, and despite our better judgement, rooting for the bad guys to pull it off. Dead Freight gave us that excitement and thrill in a 45 minute episode and thus became one of those rare episodes of television that will not be forgotten anytime soon.
With all of the terror and tension that has been built over the first four episodes of the fifth season leaving viewers feeling nothing short of needing to take shower after episodes, Dead Freight offered a change of pace(relatively of course). It picks up right where the previous episode left off. Mike, Walt, and Jesse are dealing with the fact that they believe Lydia planted a tracking device on a barrel of methlamine in order to avoid doing business with this crew after her being investigated by the D.E.A. The way our three guys, that comprise this crew, deal with their suspicion of Lydia is by bringing her to a brutal and cold interrogation that, all involved, including Lydia, believe will end in her death. As the tension mounts and Lydia's life hangs in the balance, the ultra-tweaked, tense, jittery, terrified performance of Laura Fraser brings everything in the scene to a tipping point as she tries to deal with Walt and fight off Mike's urge to get revenge on the hit she put out on him only episodes ago. Her life is saved by a call made to Hank thanks to a bug Walt plants, in one of his coldest and boldest moments, as he plays on his brother-in-laws decency by coming to his office to confess the growing troubles of his marriage. Once Hank leaves the office to get a broken down Walt a drink, Walt plants the bug that proves Lydia is allowed to live yet again. This is when the real fun begins.
Lydia presents a new way for the guys to get enough methlamine to not need her warehouse barrels to keep their business up and running: rob a train. From their on the show becomes a full on heist thriller with small interjections to make one wonder about the future of those involved in the show. But the train job itself is one of the most exciting things maybe ever captured on television. The preparation is well displayed as we see our crew plot their crime while leaving enough unknowns that we can't wait to see the job go down. Then when it does the action goes full tilt. The train arrives at the desired destination and Walt, Jesse, Todd(from Vamonos Pest), and Mike go to work. From their we see what really becomes heist movie play out as the edge of your seat action unfolds. The methlamine flows, complications occur, and of course, Walt pushes the job to its last and most dangerous envelope as we see his recently found arrogance continue to take hold.
As with everything in the world of Breaking Bad, things don't go as smoothly as planned. Mike's foreshadowing during Lydia's interrogation about their being two kinds of jobs, ones where everyone dies and ones where you leave witnesses, comes into play despite Jesse's best efforts to keep anyone from getting killed in his plan. And with a swift bang in the final seconds that bring a halt to the howling of success, we are reminded of the show we are watching. This may have been the best heist caught on film since Heat, but this is still Breaking Bad. Everything has consequences, and because of the horrific nature of Walt's and Jesse's actions, those consequences are almost always horrific. Not only do we see Walt break bad over the course of the series, but we see every action and reaction relating to his decisions break bad as well, and despite the resounding success of the train heist, this is no different.
Dead Freight laid in some threads that could be interesting to see play out as the series continues. As the pending danger of Walt's actions envelops the White family, the pieces continue to be put in place for a brutal and messy end to this story. Skylar's continued reminder that the kids are safe at Hank and Marie's is almost certainly an indication that they are not, especially now that both Walt and Hank have had their trajectories meet at the word boss. And as Skylar coninues to chainsmoke her husband's cancer back (or so she hopes) the risen cigarette hides in their bedroom waiting for its moment of use. But what will be remembered from this portion of season five and this episode is how awesome a great heist can be. Whether it be in the great crime films or on certain TV shows we find ourselves on the edge of our seat, and despite our better judgement, rooting for the bad guys to pull it off. Dead Freight gave us that excitement and thrill in a 45 minute episode and thus became one of those rare episodes of television that will not be forgotten anytime soon.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
the killers and great american rock
music: The Killers recently released their single Runaways from their upcoming album Battle Born. It is the classic youth love story with a twist. Runaways is the story of a young American guy who falls for the classic blonde American beauty. She is in the process of running away from the life she has to start a new and the guy just can't let her go. He loves her and follows her and eventually wins her over. Despite this youthfully romantic notion, the narrative doesn't end well. After winning over the love of his life and eventually marrying her, he finds himself discontent with the life he now has. He is stumbling home late after a night trying to find his life in a bottle with home not quite feeling like home. And thus the plural of Runaways is born.
Brandon Flowers paints this story with beautiful lyrics. "Blond hair blowin' in the summer wind" as they meet. "I knew that when I met you I'm not gonna let you runaway" as he falls in love. Wishing for the past as he nostalgically talks about confessing their dreams to the summer stars in some forgotten time gone by. And finally "Stumbling like a ghost I haunt these halls.... I recognize the girl but I can't settle in these walls" as the fantasy of that blonde girl playing in the sand is not the life he now has. It is a lyrically stark presentation of a once great love gone wrong.
What makes the song great though is the sound of it. Over the straightforward acoustics that begin the song Flowers sings his nostalgic tale. As he continues through the song, every ounce of it crescendos. The verse builds to a swelling beautiful chorus. The verses gain pace to eventually meet the humongous size of that chorus. The hook isn't infectious but the scope is.
As the song soars towards its arena sized end the Killers remind of what rock once was: Big. The song is big and bigger, and then even bigger. Designed for loud radio in a car on a beautiful day. Also designed for those rock sized arenas they are sure to fill on the tour for their new album. This song is no doubt a fist pumper and crowdpleaser.
As all of this epic sense of song is being brought to life by the band, Flowers sings in a way that is also reminiscent of a day gone by. The song itself is not a throwback, nor are his vocal stylings. It is more the way he sings. He sings like the rock gods that have created the anthems that inspired Runaways. He sings as if he doesn't give his all something tragic really will happen in the world. And as he does this he finds something within himself and within the song not found since the tail of Tommy and Gina. It is a song reminiscent of great American rock anthems. I am not going to say that Runaways is as good as something like Glory Days or Born To Run or Living On A Prayer, but it is certainly in the vain of those songs. It feels like those songs. It is something that seems to no longer exist in that way. It may be the new American rock classic. Thank you Killers for going big and not going home.
Brandon Flowers paints this story with beautiful lyrics. "Blond hair blowin' in the summer wind" as they meet. "I knew that when I met you I'm not gonna let you runaway" as he falls in love. Wishing for the past as he nostalgically talks about confessing their dreams to the summer stars in some forgotten time gone by. And finally "Stumbling like a ghost I haunt these halls.... I recognize the girl but I can't settle in these walls" as the fantasy of that blonde girl playing in the sand is not the life he now has. It is a lyrically stark presentation of a once great love gone wrong.
What makes the song great though is the sound of it. Over the straightforward acoustics that begin the song Flowers sings his nostalgic tale. As he continues through the song, every ounce of it crescendos. The verse builds to a swelling beautiful chorus. The verses gain pace to eventually meet the humongous size of that chorus. The hook isn't infectious but the scope is.
As the song soars towards its arena sized end the Killers remind of what rock once was: Big. The song is big and bigger, and then even bigger. Designed for loud radio in a car on a beautiful day. Also designed for those rock sized arenas they are sure to fill on the tour for their new album. This song is no doubt a fist pumper and crowdpleaser.
As all of this epic sense of song is being brought to life by the band, Flowers sings in a way that is also reminiscent of a day gone by. The song itself is not a throwback, nor are his vocal stylings. It is more the way he sings. He sings like the rock gods that have created the anthems that inspired Runaways. He sings as if he doesn't give his all something tragic really will happen in the world. And as he does this he finds something within himself and within the song not found since the tail of Tommy and Gina. It is a song reminiscent of great American rock anthems. I am not going to say that Runaways is as good as something like Glory Days or Born To Run or Living On A Prayer, but it is certainly in the vain of those songs. It feels like those songs. It is something that seems to no longer exist in that way. It may be the new American rock classic. Thank you Killers for going big and not going home.
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