NCAA Tourney and other stuff

NCAA TOURNAMENT

So, the Arizona Wildcats made it to the Big Dance after all. It's interesting that one of the teams tied for 5th place in the Pac-10 regular season standings (Oregon) and the 7th place team in the Pac-10 (Arizona) made it in, but the other team tied for fifth place (Arizona State) did not. Not only that, but as I've said in a previous post, ASU swept Arizona this year. Clearly, Arizona State got screwed.

All day long today I've heard about UA's strength of schedule and strong RPI getting them in, while ASU's weak RPI hurt their chances. Yet, I can't buy it. The Pac-10 was easily the best or second-best conference in the nation this year. The Big East got 8 teams in, while the Pac-10 got 6. The last Big East team to get in (Villanova) was obviously a bad choice. Their RPI and strength of schedule was probably worse than ASU's, and a better decision would have been to exclude them, invite ASU, and have both the Big East and Pac-10 with 7 teams each. Don't get me wrong, I'm a UA Wildcat fan to the core, and our arch rivals are the ASU Sun Devils. I've spent the last 25 years hating them. But make no mistake about it, they got screwed. If UA was good enough to get in, so was ASU.

My Final Four choices are North Carolina, Georgetown, UCLA and Stanford, with UCLA beating North Carolina in the final game. Bring it on!!!


PAUL McCARTNEY'S DIVORCE

I can't help but feel sickened by seeing Heather Mills McCartney ending up with almost 50 million dollars in the divorce settlement with Sir Paul. She just seems to me to be the ultimate gold-digger. They were only married for what, four years or so. She wasn't there for his glory years with The Beatles or Wings, she wasn't part of the raising of most of his children, and while she gave him a baby girl, we're not talking about child support here, we're talking about Heather's portion of the estate. It just doesn't sit right with me, not that that matters to anyone, other than me.


NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (spoilers alert)

Like seemingly every year, I am playing catch-up with the Academy Award winners. I finally got to see this movie, and I thought it was great, although not as great as "Fargo". Javier Bardem was the scariest villain in a movie since Anthony Hopkins in "Silence of the Lambs", and the Coen Brothers have clearly gotten over their recent slump. However, I have three questions that either I couldn't figure out from the movie, or the movie just didn't tell us:
1. What happened to the money?
2. How did the Mexicans find Lewellyn's motel? If they were following his wife, she hadn't gotten there yet, so how did they do it?
3. Did Anton kill Lewellyn's wife, or not?

All comments/theories are welcome.


THE SEEGER SESSIONS BAND LIVE IN DUBLIN

As an earlier post of mine declared, I am no fan of Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions album, "We Shall Overcome." After four or five unsuccessful attempts, I was finally able to listen to the whole thing recently. And while some of it is all right, there is way too much stuff like "Erie Canal", "Froggy's Gone a-Courtin'", and "John Henry." Sorry, but those songs may have captivated me when I was five years old, but not anymore. And I still say there are just too many instruments in the band.

So I was totally shocked a few weeks ago, when I found myself in an excellent used record/CD store in Phoenix and stumbled across a used copy of the double CD of the Sessions Band playing live in Dublin. The setlist intrigued me, as it included Springsteen standards such as "Blinded by the Light", "Growin' Up", "Atlantic City", "Further on up the Road", and "Long Time Comin'". Since it was only eight bucks, I picked it up.

And holy crap, it's actually pretty good. In fact, it's downright great in spots. There's still some bad songs that bring the whole energy to a screaming halt ("Highway Patrolman", for example), but for the most part, this thing cooks. Mixing elements of bluegrass, New Orleans jazz, gospel, and folk, the songs are hot and the performance is outstanding. The new versions of the old classics are terrific, and Bruce sounds like he's having a blast. Damn, I actually regret now not seeing a show on that tour. Oh well.

Only three more weeks til Bruce and the E Street Band!!!!!