2008 college football predictions week 6
another stellar week last week. 7 for 10. had it not been for usc’s stumble things would have been better on numerous levels. over all total is now at 31 for 50.
before i get going and do my usual don’t bet my picks rap i just wanted to say a word about how i pick the games each week. i pick the games i like before the odds come out. it’s that simple. i just go through the schedule and pick 10 that strike my fancy. some weeks are easier than others picking games wise. of course, most weeks i’m pac 10 heavy or old wac conference heavy. my two favorite conferences. what can i say?
i will say taking what i deliver here to any legal or illegal avenue for betting on games would be stupid or maybe even insane. yes, i’m doing pretty good most of the time. but that’s how you get hurt. don’t be stupid. this is for entertainment purposes only.
let’s rock ‘n’ roll.
oregon st at utah. utah favored by 11.5 points. it opened at 10.5 points. should be an interesting game especially after what the beavers did to usc last week. mike riley can coach. if i had a kid or relative who was being recruited by mike riley i’d tell them to go oregon st. or to where ever ty willingham is or pete carroll or norm chow or mike bellotti for that matter. though with no home crowd and with the fact of them still probably slapping each other on the backs i’m taking utah with the hope that they have figured out how to stop the oregon st running game. it’s either that or wait till next year for the utes. take utah to win and cover the spread.
byu at utah st. byu favored by 28.5 points. once again a bunch of points. i don’t think it matters. byu and utah are on a mission this year. no pun intended. if byu stays focused it’s no problem. take byu to win and cover the points.
penn st at purdue. penn st favored by 13 points. this one might have been more interesting if purdue had done a bit better before coming into this one. joe pa and the boys are another team on a mission. i’m gonna ride with them until the wheels fall off. take penn st to win and cover the points.
s. carolina at mississippi. miss favored by 2.5 points. just remember i picked miss over florida last week. well, ok. the trojans over the beavers as well. what does it all mean? the old ball coach will have his hands full down in mississippi this saturday. take miss to win and cover.
texas at colorado. texas favored by 13.5 points. gone are the days when texas colorado was one of those maybe i ought to watch games. sadly, that is no longer true. against a gut feeling i’m taking texas to win and cover.
arizona st at california. cal favored by 9 points. this ought to be a good game. ought being the primary word. if cal doesn’t go into their late november swoon early they should be able to deal with stuff. although they will play without their star running back, best, this game. take cal to win and cover the points.
kentucky at alabama. bama favored by 16.5 points. the tide is on a roll. a big time roll tide roll. yes, kentucky is an improved team over last years model and not to be taken lightly. point being the game is in alabama. bama will cover the points and win. if the game were in kentucky, well, my thinking might be different. take bama to win. ROLL TIDE!!! please.
oklahoma at baylor. oklahoma favored by 27. big number point spread for the undefeated sooners. the game is at baylor and it is baylor’s texas vs oklahoma game. another of the mighty falls. take baylor to cover the spread and maybe even win.
ohio st at wisconsin. ohio st favored by 2.5 points. this is one of those might as well be even games with a slight nod to the buckeyes. the badgers need to step up for a change and do the right thing and beat woody hayes’ buckeyes. ah, sorry. old pac 8 vs big ten grudges die hard, folks. take wisconsin to win or cover.
oregon at usc. usc favored by 16 points. the humiliated trojans will make their return against the ducks a sad day for duck fans everywhere. myself included. though i predicted back in may the trojans would win this game. i’m still saying it. the pete carroll deer in the headlights look will be gone this saturday night. count on it. unless coach mike has come up with a 5′6″ speedy running back this past week i don’t see the trojans losing or not covering the points. yes, of course, the ducks have the two stellar running backs. usc has a stellar defense. it’s a home game for the trojans. the trojans (almost) never lose to good teams at home. take usc to win and cover.
alright. there ya go. this weeks picks and the season is till young. lots more fun coming down the college football pike. plenty of surprises as well. just leave your wallet alone and safe in your pocket. don’t get stupid.
jmh
t. e. lawrence or if its this hot it must be the desert or is it just etta james and tower of power up on stage(?)
this weekend i came to realize why i hadn’t been out to the desert for a good number of years. yes, i live in the desert and i love the desert for it’s stark sunrise and sunset beauty. however, the real desert moonscape, an hour and a half drive to the east of here, is at least a good 20 degrees hotter than this portion of the desert. there’s something odd about going outside after 11pm and the temperature is still hovering around 91 degrees. weird flashback memories of singapore and ladies walking around in the hot steamy evenings wearing long sleeve knit dresses. but that’s a veer.
thankfully, we were able to check in early at our hotel, the hotel at indian palms resort. the room a/c dialed down to a nice 60 degrees. though it was still hot if you moved around. we didn’t. until shower time. i watched college football and the brown eyed girl napped fitfully while watching football. she worries about my picks. she’ a good girl. at any rate, i’d stay there again if we had the same room and were going to the same music venue.
the main point of our desert jaunt was the trip to, the spotlight 29 casino, for an evening concert with tower of power and the legendary etta james. not that tower of power isn’t legendary in their own right. showtime was 8pm. we arrived at around 4:30pm in order to gamble, drink, and eat before the show. it’s a fairly nice casino and all three things were well taken care of. the brown eyed girl even won over $80 playing slots. i won zip.
the showroom at the casino is pretty nice as well. comfortable seats but nothing special. we had great seats. row 7 center. bleeding sweet.
tower of power opened the show with about an hour and fifteen minute set. a set loaded with enough old sweaty dynamite to blow up a good portion of the palm springs area. halfway through the set the place was a seething cauldron of old hipsters and a few youngsters up and dancing. dancing up front at the stage or by their seats. an air conditioning system not made for the likes of tower of power’s power over an audience that came to see the 40 year old legends of r & b kick out the jams.
four members of the original band still remain: tenor sax, emilio castillo; baritone sax, stephen ‘doc’ kupka; bass, francis ‘rocco’ prestia; and drummer dave garibaldi. kids, if you ever get a chance to see these guys live you owe it to yourself to do whatever it takes. it’s been a number of years since i’ve seen a band grab on and hold and not let go of an audience till well after they’ve left the stage with the encore still ringing in our ears. fuck yeah. tower of power is that good. no doubt.
etta james. one of my all time favorite female singers is still kicking out some jams herself. along with two of her sons, donto james on drums, and sametto james on bass. plus the rest of an extremely talented and professional, roots band, as back up.
the roots band started the set off with a couple of rockin’ instrumental blues numbers. then ms etta sauntered out on stage and took things into her her own hands and laid out some of the best female vocals i’ve heard in many a year.
yes, of course, she is older than i am and has had numerous health issues over the years. but kids, i’ll tell you what, when she sits on her bar stool type chair and belts out an old blues standard or one of her own signature tunes like, ‘id rather go blind’ or ‘at last’ and then she starts playin’ around with herself along with an imaginary guitar playing male on the stage things became electric and amazing to say the least.
her singing/story telling came to a head with her tale of being a youngster and on the road with her friends and mentors, johnny ‘guitar’ watson and johnny otis. the johnny ‘guitar’ watson story about the perpetual towel on his lap while they drove to different venues was worth the price of admission alone. watson always had a towel on his lap when in the car. etta asked him why. johnny went off on stuff with of course the towel getting up off his lap unassisted at various times. story by etta went on with song and music in between the telling. at any rate, johnny finally told her it was a snake doing the moving. etta said that it’s not a snake. johnny said it was. etta finally said, yeah it was a snake. much to the delight of the audience
as was her very young granddaughter coming on stage and helping grandma out with one of her tunes. sweet and touching. hopefully, in the future, we’ll have another lady james singing the blues.
it’s been said that etta james is the best performing blues singer since billie holliday. i never got to see billie holliday perform live. i finally got to see etta james perform live this past weekend. i’m sorry it took so long to do so but i’ll tell you what: i would go see etta james perform live again in a heartbeat. count on it.
all in all, the evening was one of those stellar lifetime memory thingys. i put it right up there with seeing the stones back in 1969. or any other of the legends back in the day. yep. that good. plus, i got to share the evening with the brown eyed girl. nothing else needs to be said.
the photos that follow were taken with a cell phone camera and aren’t of the best quality. the etta photos in particular. the battery was running low. the good digital camera was cooling it’s heels back in the hotel room. i guess the brown eyed girl and i were just lucky we remembered to bring the tickets along with us.
tower of power.
ms etta james.
jmh
ode to lenny(?)
i’ve been clinking around and reading some stuff here and there and it’s gotten me to think about history. history on a number of fronts. and the total lack of understanding most americans have of history. though to be fair, i imagine history isn’t much of a strong point anywhere anymore.
my friend, dfr, sent me some nice photos today. so my contribution to the history lesson for the day will be, lenny bruce. yeah, the sick comedian. you can say what you want about lenny. sure at times he wasn’t particularly funny just crude and crass. you could also make the point that maybe if he had been left alone he would have just disappeared off the radar eventually. his point was made but it just became tedious after awhile. yeah, so sue me.
of course, i swear like an old soldier. funny, i was one once. plus my favorite uncle was always swearing. but i’ve gone down that road before. lenny bruce was out there on stage doing it before anyone else could go out on stage and do it. yes, you could probably go see redd fox back in his early days and get pretty much the same thing lenny was doing. the difference being redd was probably funnier. plus the point being, redd wasn’t playing the venues lenny was. redd didn’t have lenny’s issues. redd had his own.
i’ve made this statement off and on here in blogs before. i’m really tired of seeing every other blog space kid’s photo showing them flipping the viewer off. i suppose they think it’s hip or funny or god knows what. i’m old and obviously haven’t a clue as to why they think they have to flip everyone off all the damn time.
point being is they haven’t a clue either. plus no clue as to just who they should be thanking for going down the tubes before them because he was the first to make a point of flipping folks off. he went to jail for his actions. he felt that strongly about what he was doing. fine. kids, it was lenny bruce.
yes, mr and mrs uptight american. lenny rode the crest of the beat generation right into the slammer. then he slammed shit into his veins and died early. early and now more or less forgotten. just a sorta odd footnote to american and world history. he’s not the only one. folks who’ve done more for mankind other than making it possible for kids to flip me off here on blog space. folks who have come up with stuff that we really need in our daily lives. we don’t really need to flip folks off. oh, we might at times while we are out and about dealing with what has become our daily madness but that’s another story.
maybe if kids had a sense of history or a sense of proportion things might be different. deal is kids never have had a sense of proportion in any regard. they it least used to have a sense of history.
lenny bruce.
jmh
Nudie, a Los Angeles Legend
i mentioned nudie in a blog from last week or maybe sunday. doesn’t really matter. i don’t have much to say except that he was country way before country was any where near cool. enjoy the photos.
2008 college football predictions week 5
after a very poor week 3 showing i bounced back to a very respectable 7 for 10 in week 4. bringing my overall total to a tepid 24 for 40. i need to bring the stats up a notch or two. this week just might be the one. however, that’s what they all say as the house payment slip slides away. for you, my gentle readers, just remember this is for entertainment purposes only and using what i deal out here to fatten your bankroll would be folly at best. all that being said, let’s rock ‘n’ roll.
usc at oregon st. usc favored by 23.5 points. the last time the trojans played up in corvallis they lost. they are fully aware of the booby traps involved up in the land of the beavers. plus pat riley is a fine coach.
so is pete carrol. once bitten twice shy as the old song and wheeze goes should be the trojan’s thursday night mantra for the game. prime time and the only game in town. pete carroll can almost smell the the bcs title and crystal football. losing again at corvallis is not an option if he and the boys want to be anywhere near the bcs title game, other than in the stands, come january 8 or whenever. it’s a bunch of points but the trojans will win and cover the spread. FIGHT ON USC!!!
mississppi at florida. florida favored by 23.5 points. florida should have no problem with ol’ miss. however, just remember that any team in mississippi is capable of beating any other sec team on any given weekend. this is my sleeper of the week. take miss and the points. miss covers. they may not win but…
houston at east carolina. east carolina favored by 10.5 points. so far i’ve stayed away from the media darling team this year. it was only a matter of time before they got it handed to them and last week was the week. east carolina is human after all. byu on the other hand… but that’s a drift. houston was supposed to be a giant killer this year as well. air force did them in. houston needs this one this week. take houston to cover and or win.
purdue at notre dame. irish favored by a hefty 2.5 points. i guess they are favored as it’s a home game under the shadow of the golden dome. i don’t see it. if anyone does let me know. ok? purdue should cover and or win.
minnesota at ohio st. ohio st favored by 17.5 points. i have a feeling about this one. i feel ohio st winning but not by much. take another visitor to at least cover the points. take minnesota.
stanford at washington. washington favored by 4. an interesting match-up. ty’s old school comes into town. stanford hasn’t shown anything since ty left with the exception of a few stellar performances they have been pretty bad. you can say the same for ty as well. things aren’t looking good up in seattle. the huskies should win this one. whether or not they will remains to be seen. take washington to win or cover.
alabama at georgia. georgia favored by 6 points. some of the pundits and wags are jumping on bama’s bandwagon. myself and a few others never got off the damn thing. probably the best game of the week, kids. and one not to miss. though i will. i’ll be on the road. it’s road trip weekend for us. any the ways, take bama to cover the spread and maybe even win. in the grand scheme of things the proposed black jerseys of georgia mean nothing. ROLL TIDE!!!
fresno st at ucla. fresno st favored by 6.5 points. the ucla bruins are just a year or two away from going 6 and 6. yeah, i thought they were gonna do it this year. quality coaching not with standing. or maybe it’s the players coach karl collected before his demise. i really don’t know. fresno st will embarrass the bruins. take fresno st to win or cover.
oregon at washington st. oregon favored by 19.5 points. does mike bellotti have any eligibility left? maybe joey h has some hidden away and he can make it to the game. yes, the cougars look pretty bad this year. boise st made a statement last week against the ducks. i just hope the ducks shake it off and play better this saturday. hold on. i have plenty of eligibility left. coach mike give me a call. an over the hill old guy who played a bit of qb in junior high school, before they realized i couldn’t play the position, is willing and ready to go. please, ducks, at least cover the spread this week. take the ducks. GO DUCKS!!!
illinois at penn st. penn st favored by 14 points. another of the schools that look for real this year is penn st. they should have no trouble with the illini. take the only other home team of the week to cover and or win, penn st.
another week of insanity. i’ll be on the road going to see etta james along with tower of power out in the heat of the so calif desert. hopefully, i’ll get a chance to see a bit of the games. as for you guys, just remember to keep your money safely in your wallets and things will be fine.
jmh
an ode to gram parsons
let’s see…ok. the boys, dfr & jwfh, were over this past evening and i cooked up a nice sorta southern down home meal for my brothers. jwfh says i got the job. dfr as well. sweet. their lips to the food network’s ears. for those that are wondering, the brown eyed girl was busy doing stuff with her nephew.
at any rate, my sorta cooking skills aren’t why i’m here. ah, no. at one point i stuck john’s cd, ‘mojave’ on the cd player. yeah, well. i’ve been down this road before a year or so ago. none the less, ‘mojave’, by john harrelson still kicks ass and those of you that haven’t bothered need to bother because it is that good. trust me. the link will follow.
we are like eating and i’m yammering about this and that music wise on the cd. jwfh is yammering back. i tell him the title track, ‘mojave’, is stellar and i love it when he does it live. like who wouldn’t?
then we got to the tune, “joshua tree ‘73″. one of the finest hippy country western tunes ever written. fuck yeah. ” under the influence of loneliness, morphine, and desire “…sweet, jesus. write it and sing it, jwfh. i told jwfh that i needed to hear him do the tune next time he did a live gig. he smiled and said, ‘yeah.’
then he went off into something i hadn’t heard before. turns out writing the song was one of those deals that just comes from beyond type deals. a channeling of sorts according to john. a tune nothing like he’d ever written before. after it it was written he was like, ‘where the hell did this come from?’
then jwfh says, ‘it’s the suicide note gram parsons never got to write.’ whoa. fine. i’m there. the tune is one of those late 60’s early 70’s country western tunes that sings of life on the edge. life, ala charlie bukowski, dressed up in a country western nudie suit. as a veer, google, ‘nudie’ and country western outfits. life ala what country western music means to me. not the sugar coated crapola stuff of today. the old days of hank williams and outlaw country. the old hippy cosmic country. real life angst and despair. angst and despair dealt out from the bottom of the deck. country as i remember it was and should still be.
my point? you should probably, no, you should, go to: http://cdbaby.com/cd/harrelson and buy the cd, ‘mojave’. if you like country western/blues/rock ‘n’ roll by someone who’s lived several lifetimes playing and writing it then this cd is for you. it’s time to jump on the bandwagon before it pulls out and heads west into that morphine induced unwritten note sunset. um, yeah. it’s ok, jwfh. i understand.
‘mojave’, is one of those cd’s you listen to and need to listen to a bunch in order to get it. it just gets better with each listen. my brother, know this. you knew it and did it. i just hope there’s more comin’ down the pike. capice?
i wrote this last night after the boys left. i sat at the computer and listened to “joshua tree ‘73″ a number of times while i finished off a bottle of sicilian red. it’s early morning and the sun is still around an hour away. i’m sitting at the computer again. this time drinking coffee. the only sound is the keyboard and the lonely night time wail of a freight train echoing north from down in de onta. i’m still haunted by john’s joshua tree tune. haunted by gram parsons. haunted by my youth.
i wish i was out in joshua tree this morning. sitting on a rock someplace and smoking a very large bowl of something or another while waiting for the sun to rise. there’s magic out there and there’s magic in john harrelson’s tune, “joshua tree ‘73″.
joshua tree national monument, ca.
gram parsons wearing a nudie suit.
john harrelson.
jmh
love and its mutual
i have a new love.
its mutual.
when i go there
she’s happy to see me.
i’m happy to see her
as well.
i make her happy
she makes me happy.
like i said
its mutual.
my new love
comes to me
touching
and rubbing me
in all the usual
right places.
especially if she’s
missed me
and i haven’t
seen her
for a day
or two.
she’s got her
motor runnin’
lookin’ for adventure
or maybe just a
wadded up sheet
of paper
tossed or kicked
around by me.
yeah, my new love.
kayla, the k kat
kitty girl.
jmh
another wine whine
the brown eyed girl popped her cooking cherry at my place last night. yeah, it was her first time cooking here. she made a really good pizza for us. pizza on indo naan bread. yep. don’t knock it less you tried it. olive oil, roasted tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, mushrooms, mozzarella, and fresh basil. just outstanding. i cooked up some organic squash as a side dish. yellow squash, zucchini, shallots, olive oil, thyme, and sage. sounds good, huh? well, believe me it was.
i wanted to score a nice bottle of vino for the occasion. we’d been out and about and on the way home we stopped a local vino institution known for carrying high quality stuff. i wandered around a bit and picked up a bottle of really really good ruby red california port. for those that are interested it’s, ficklin vineyard’s 10 year old tawny port. probably the best port this side of spain and portugal. the bottle of vino i picked up was another story.
i decided on a local winery’s zinfandel. another of the last standing and producing wineries here in socal. not the one in the painting blog or the recent tasting place. supposedly local grapes. zin grapes. still searching for the holy zin grail. at any rate, it was a 2001 galleano winery, zinfandel. it wasn’t cheap either. we were both excited about tasting it.
of course, it turned out to be another in a long line of expensive vino that turns out to be crapola. the stuff was not good. way to sweet and oxidized. we couldn’t finish it. i actually tossed out a bit less than half a bottle along with what was left in our glasses. it was that bad. plus it’s something i rarely if ever do.
my point? once again. find inexpensive wine you like and stick with it. pure and simple. going outside that vino realm is a crap shoot at best. plus those are words to live by. trust me.
for those that missed it here’s one of john budicin’s lovely oils once again.
‘are they zn?’
jmh
2008 college football predictions week 4
last weeks picks could be considered nothing more than a dark and dismal affair. a totally insipid 3 for 10. yes, i know the texas arkansas game was canceled due to ike but i’m taking it as a lose. just to keep the figures more or less rounded out. speaking of which, i’m now a paltry 17 for 30. some of the teams i did pick, did win but weren’t able to cover the points. there lies the rub and why this venture is for entertainment purposes only. reader beware. that being said, time to rock ‘n’ roll.
miss st at georgia tech. georgia favored by 7.5 points. miss st looked good last week in their 3 – 2 baseball loss to auburn. i’m thinking georgia tech can handle st’s defense and manage to win and cover the points. take georgia tech.
wyoming at byu. byu favored by 27.5 points. yes, the cougars made ucla look pretty horrid last week. yes, the byu boys scored at will. wyoming has a better team. wyoming is on probation. wyoming will cover the points and maybe even win. this is their early and maybe only bowl game.
lsu at auburn. lsu favored by 3. if auburn can find an offense i think they will win and or cover the spread in this game. if they can’t it’s going to be another long afternoon for everyone watching the game. take auburn to cover and win.
alabama at arkansas. bama favored by 9.5 points. one of the sec’s all time rivalry games. arkansas had an unscheduled week off. i don’t think that helped much. the tide should roll in and win or cover the points. take bama. ROLL TIDE!!!
notre dame at michigan st. michigan st favored by 8.5 points. despite the irish winning big last week they are back to being an underdog again. i guess the other michigan is even worse than the irish. i just don’t see the golden domers winning two in a row against the state of michigan. let alone michigan st. take michigan to win and or cover the spread.
boise st at oregon. oregon favored by 12 points. if this game was on the smurf turf in boise i’d probably take boise to cover the points and maybe even win. however, even with oregon’s passing qb, roper, out for the game and maybe 3 more weeks the home town auzten crowd will make up for any deficiencies in the ducks offense. blount and johnson will roll up some impressive yardage. the ducks might even roll up some impressive points as well. yes, a lack luster first half on the road last week not with standing. push come to shove the ducks can do it. just do it again this week, gentlemen. take the ducks to win or cover the points. GO DUCKS!!!!
utah at air force. utah favored by 7.5 points. yeah, maybe if the game was in utah. it isn’t. air force not only covered the spread last week but won the game as well in houston. air force is a force to be reckoned with so far this season. the falcons soar again this week. take air force to cover the spread or even win.
florida at tenn. florida favored by 7.5 points. take florida to cover and or win.
georgia at arizona st. georgia favored by 6.5 points. arizona st was embarrassed last week in their overtime lose to unlv. georgia is a better football team than unlv. can the sun devils bounce back? can georgia handle scottsdale’s summertime deep fryer temps? good questions. yes, i’m stalling here. take georgia to win or cover the points.
arizona at ucla. arizona favored by 1.5 points. this one could be the stinker of the week. good thing is one of them will eventually have to win the game. so much for the praise heaped upon the new old coaching faces at ucla for their game one comeback. the game against byu was a complete and utter beat down. is there anything good to say about either of these teams? so far not much. take the wildcats to win and cover. ucla might be hopeless.
there ya go, kids week 4 predictions. remember if the lines move a bit i don’t care but if they move a bunch and i hear about it i’ll probably change something. maybe. the only thing you have to remember is to keep your money in your wallet, just sit back, have a nice cold beverage, and enjoy the greatest game, college football.
jmh
just a pickin’ and a grinin’
this past friday night the brown eyed girl and i went to claremont to see my friend, john harrelson, sit in with the all girl band ’sugar mountain mama serenade’. the music was great and the the village was rockin’ with several live music venues for the city’s ‘wine walk’ evening.
john was in fine form as were ’sugar mountain mama serenade’. ’sugar mountain mama’ line up– jen rosen, guitar; kay stone, banjo; joy mcallister, harmonica; anna alquitela, ukulele; jenn toney, bass; mary beth fletcher, percussion. it’s always a pleasure to see john out and performing regardless the venue or whatever. friday night was no exception. rock ‘n’ roll.
john harrelson.
sugar mountain mam serenade with jwfh.
jmh
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