A Few Dawg-Related Items

A few items on this Thursday evening:

• I know this phrase has been used in one form or another for quite some time, but can we please refrain from saying that spending Saturdays Between the Hedges is spending time with 92,746 of your best friends?!? The last time I checked, there weren't 92,746 Dawg fans filling Sanford Stadium. There are usually several thousand people, and always at least a few hundred, cheering against the Silver Britches. And while I am willing to call all other Dawg fans in Sanford my best friends when that in itself is likely untrue, I am nowhere near willing to consider those of the opposite colors and allegiances my best friends.


• Awful Announcing shared today ESPN's college football announcing and studio teams for the upcoming season. There are a few interesting things to note:

1. The ESPN College Football Primetime (Saturday) has morphed from Mike Patrick, Todd Blackledge, and Holly Rowe to Brad Nessler, Blackledge and Erin Andrews. I am pleased to see Nessler calling these games rather than Patrick, who has now been put on ABC Saturday Afternoon games. It's likely we may see Patrick calling the action in either the Oklahoma State or Georgia Tech game, but at least he and Britney Spears are now far from ESPN Saturday nights. Oh, and Andrews on the sidelines rather than Rowe is definitely not a bad thing either.
   
2. The University of Georgia will be well represented on ESPN with both David Pollack and Matt Stinchcomb doing a good bit of studio work for the WWL.
3. ESPNU's SEC Saturday Primetime will be handled by Eric Collins and Brock Huard. I have no idea who Collins is and I really haven't heard much of Huard's work. However, I can't help but wonder why Huard, a former quarterback in the Pac10, would get the analyst job over a man with a great TV presence like Stinchcomb, an SEC alum. Interesting. Perhaps Stinchcomb will have to cut his ESPN teeth in the studio but may later work his way into the booth.
4. Dave Neal will be handling play-by-play duties for ESPN's SEC Network. However, the other Daves, Baker and Rowe, will not be joining him. Andre Ware - I don't recall him ever being lauded for his analyst work - and Cara Capuano will be replacing the other Daves.

Thanks to Bubba 'N Earl and Georgia Sports Blog, I came across the following gems from Gordon Beckham via CNNSI.com's Extra Mustard:

Click the photo for a larger view.

At the Proverbial Fork in the Road

Athens, Georgia.

The Classic City.

Home to the University of Georgia.

Home to Widespread Panic and R.E.M., among many others.

My home for the last 11 years and a total of 12 of my 29 years here on the third stone from the sun.

There is a lot that can be said about Athens. In the last several years, several magazines, newspapers, and organizations have tabbed the town with a variety of interesting awards and rankings. And how can you blame them for thinking so highly of Athens? The music scene is widely known. A host of awesome restaurants are located in the vicinity. The university is a great place to get an education and experience the essential college life. There is almost always something going on in the community. And in essence it truly is nothing more than a small town with many hints of a much larger city.

I moved to Athens in July 1998, one month prior to the start of my freshman year at UGA. Before I even began school I joined the ranks of multitudes before me (and undoubtedly many more after me) by putting in my obligatory time at the old outbound branch of DialAmerica that used to be on Research Road. (That gig lasted all of four weeks in case you were wondering.) Since that late summer integration into the Athens and university communities I have done and seen a lot in this town. Reflecting upon all that has happened since I arrived, it has become increasingly obvious to me over time that I was raised in my hometown…but I grew up in Athens, GA.

Over these last 11 years…

• I have lived at 16 different addresses with lengths of residence ranging from four weeks to two years
• I have had 15 different jobs for 7 different organizations/companies with duties ranging from cleaning bathrooms at the Classic Center and Sanford Stadium to supervising the communications office within a highly visible university office
• I have obtained one undergraduate degree and am in the process of procuring a graduate degree
• I have seen countless concerts at a variety of venues
• I have been in attendance at some damn good (and not so good) sporting events
• I have watched numerous friends and roommates come and go
• I have met the girl who quickly became the love of my life and my best friend
• I have been blessed with two kick ass dogs
• I have been given the amazing role of being an uncle, two times over
• I have been fortunate enough to travel to some amazing parts of the country after never having flown prior to entering college
• I have experienced and had to learn to live with some tough life changes and events
• I have learned a lot about a lot of things

I don’t list these items to fluff myself or gush about the cool things that have happened to me while I have lived in Athens. Rather, my listing of the above achievements and events is an attempt to illustrate exactly how much I have experienced and grown since July 1998. I have a lot of memories that have been made here and am forever grateful for everything that has happened in my time here…yes, that even includes the bad things because even they have some worthwhile lessons hidden within.

One of the Athens-centric things I learned along the way, though, is that as great as Athens is, it can become somewhat of a black hole if you let it. I have directly and indirectly known several people who have come here at a young age, whether it be for school, music, or some other reason, and eventually found themselves seemingly bound to the town, whether intentionally or not. Such is the role in which I currently find myself.

Initially I remained in Athens following my December 2003 UGA graduation, as I had no idea what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. I contemplated a move option or two, but never reached a point of action. Soon thereafter I began dating the girl I never thought I would meet, took a full time job on campus, and transitioned into the second phase of my Athens tenure. After a handful of twists and turns over the next three plus years, some good and some not so good, I made the radical decision to enroll in graduate school (radical because I previously had sworn off any further schooling following completion of my undergraduate years). Because I am taking classes, all of which are day classes, while also working full time, I have had to extend my program over a longer period of time than the normal track. As such, I will be in Athens possibly through December of 2010. And though I love this town and am proud to have called it home for a long period of time and will continue to do so for at least another year…it’s time.

As we all know and have heard many times in our lives, life is a continual journey and a constant learning process. Having reached the point in which I currently find myself, I am feeling more and more like I have learned about all that I can from living in Athens. I feel that I have slipped into a rut…and though there are indeed a few things about my future that I am certain of, I think the time has come to see what else is out there.


Author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader Howard Thurman once said:

Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Such is the filter through which I now look forward to wrapping up my time in Athens and moving on to the next adventure. For some time and in many ways I have held myself back with varying results. But now I find myself with “coming alive” knocking at the door, looking for me to take action. So, dear old Athens, I thank you for everything you have given me. There have some incredible highs and unfortunate lows, but that’s life. I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything. Of course this is somewhat premature, as I will have to wait up to another year and a half before moving on. But, if nothing else, that just gives me something to look forward to.

And as a final note, I can’t help but chuckle a little as I wrap up this post. It was just the other day that I shared the following thought:

As awesome as fall (aka football season) is in this town, there's nothing quite like Athens in the summer.

In saying that and now penning this post, such is an example of the dichotomous situation in which I currently live here in dear old Athenstown.

Happy Birthday To One Helluva Guitar Player

I wrote this post on Sunday and scheduled it to post Monday morning as I was traveling on Monday. For some reason it did not post, so it's a day late.

The man turns 30 today, but Derek Trucks is already widely considered one of the best guitar players in the world. He is one of my two favorite guitarists of all time and never ceases to amaze me. Here are a few clips that are just the tip of the iceberg:







Happy birthday, Derek!

Friday Funny: When I Grow Up, I Want To Be Like Turd Ferguson

It's been a while since the last Friday Funny, so what the hell.

A discussion over dinner at The Varsity* last night eventually found its way to Saturday Night Live's famous Jeopardy sketches. There are certain recurring SNL sketches that seem to stand the test of time and Jeopardy is one of those. Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek, Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery, Norm MacDonald as Burt Reynolds (aka Turd Ferguson), and a host of other cast members and hosts typically had viewers rolling in laughter.

A quick search of Hulu yielded the following clips. The first two clips I have seen several times, but the final clip is from a recent episode and one that I had not seen until last night. I don't think the third clip is as strong as the other two, but it is pretty good nonetheless.

So Ryan, Matthew, Parker, and Justin, these are for y'all:







* I had a chilli dog, hamburger, fries, and sweet tea in case you were wondering how I answered "What'll ya have?"

Because A Little Nostalgia Never Hurt Anyone

First off I just realized that my previous post was number 250. Woo hoo, I suppose.

And speaking of my last post, it had a little nostalgia to it with the theme song of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, one of my favorite shows growing up.

For some reason another show popped into my head today. I don't remember how long ago it was that I last saw it, but it's been a long time for sure. Grape Ape, anyone?

The Great Grape Ape Show
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Of Carmen Sandiego and Fluteboxing

Yesterday, some coworkers and I were reminiscing about some TV shows we watched growing up and looking up the theme songs online. A couple of the shows touched on were Kids Incorporated and Ghostwriter. I have no idea what Ghost Writer is, but I was all about some Kids Inc. back in the day.

Eventually, the conversation led to the search for the theme song to Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? I remember watching this game show on TV pretty darn regularly and was a big fan of the computer game of the same name we got to play in school. A quick YouTube search later and voila! Hit it, Rockapella:



Hells to the yeah! That's what I'm talking about.

So in the natural progression of the conversation, I recalled a story I heard on NPR the other day about a guy who would play hit flute on the street but would never receive much compensation for his entertainment. The guy said that he eventually would begin beatboxing while playing the flute. This, he found, was where the money started coming in.

As I was searching for this online a coworker said he had seen something similar before and asked me to search for that video online. A few minutes later we found it. Eighteen minutes after that I picked my jaw up off the floor. Let's see what reaction this elicits from you:



Wow! Having played instruments before and having a great appreciation for the ability to make music and lay down a good rhythm I am blown away by those 18 minutes. I must also say that I am slightly jealous.

Where The Hell Have You Been?

Nearly one month after my last posts, here I am. Now, now. Let's not go getting too excited here. I wouldn't want all two...okay, one...of you who read my blog to start too much of a ruckus.

So why has it been almost a month since I posted something? Well, part of it is due to laziness, part to not even thinking about my blog, some of it due to a lack of conviction on any topics. But there were a few things I took note of in preparation for posting along the way.

I was *this* close to writing about:

• Urban Meyer's latest round of douchebaggery like only that jackass can do. Are you kidding me? What a self-righteous waste of space. (But we already knew that, didn't we?) How will he answer questions about his loyalty to Florida once he leaves?


• The ridiculous uproar over Carrie Prejean's response to Perez Hilton's question in April's Miss USA pageant. Leave it to The Daily Show to best sum up the silly shitstorm.


• Further discussion as to whether the University of Georgia could consistently fill a 100,000 seat Sanford Stadium should current master plans become reality. I am still not convinced that it would. But again, part of me would still like to see it come to be.

So there's a quick summary of what should have come to be the subjects of their own posts. But, alas.

Now if I can just get my lazy ass in gear and get back to writing...

Trev Was Nearly A Damn Good Dawg

Love him or hate him, Trev Alberts developed somewhat of a man crush with the Georgia Bulldogs football team during his tenures at ESPN and CSTV/CBS College Sports. Unfortunately, we will not get to hear him gush again for a while at least as he has been named the new director of athletics at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

Work on the inscription of Alberts' name into the Circle of Honor has been halted until further notice.

Tip o' the hat to Marc Weiszer.

So You Think You Can Dance?

So does Snowball. Unfortunately for us, however, his music of choice is Backstreet Boys.

Impressive nonetheless:

Two famous parrots and a bevy of YouTube videos have now convinced scientists that people aren't the only ones who can groove to a musical beat.

...(A) couple of years ago, a neurobiologist named Aniruddh Patel was astonished when someone e-mailed him a link to a YouTube video of a sulfur-crested cockatoo named Snowball dancing to the Backstreet Boys.

More Stafford On The Big Stage

Well, he's been on Fallon and followed by TMZ. But I would imagine neither of those compare to his time spent with Maria Sharapova, which will be documented on ESPN's E:60 next Tuesday at 7:00pm.

Welcome To The Big Time, Matt Stafford

When TMZ starts following you, you know you are "in."

Red And Black Get Big Weekend Off To Good Start

This is a busy weekend for the Georgia Bulldogs and several of the school's teams got the weekend off to a great start.

The Diamond Dogs opened their three game home series with Arkansas with a 4-3 win as Matt Cerione drove in Jonathan Taylor with a game winning single in the bottom of the ninth inning. Bryce Massanari gave UGA a 3-1 lead after one inning as he golfed a home run deep over the left field wall. Hogs' starter Dallas Keuchel settled down, though, holding Georgia scoreless over his next six innings. Reliever Mike Bolsinger followed with 1.1 scoreless frames of his own. Georgia starter Trevor Holder pitched a great game giving up three runs on five hits with five strikeouts and only one walk. The 'Backs put one on the board in the fifth and one in the seventh to tie the game at three.

With that score holding tight, Arkansas had a pinch runner, Jarrod McKinney, on first with two outs in the top of the ninth. McKinney stole second and put himself in scoring position with outfielder Collin Kuhn at the plate. Kuhn drilled a hot shot to shortstop Levi Hyams who was unable to field the ball cleanly. McKinney, running on contact with two outs, rounded third and took off for home on the error. Thankfully for the home team, Hyams recovered well and fired the ball to catcher Joey Lewis who applied the tag to prevent the run from scoring and end the inning.

Georgia put in Taylor to pinch hit and lead off the bottom of the ninth. JT forced a walk with the hero of the moment, Hyams, up next. Taylor was nearly caught stealing and advanced to second only by the grace of a throwing error by the Arkansas catcher. Hyams was unable to get a bunt down and ended up striking out. Michael Demperio drew a walk of his own to put runners at first and second with only one out. With leftie Cerione due up, the Hogs went to the pen for a second time, this time calling in their stud left handed reliever Stephen Richards. After falling behind 0-1 to Richards, Cerione sent a shot into left center field that fell in for a single and drove home Taylor for the Georgia victory.

A few other defensive gems to mention:

Cerione made a diving catch on a ball that was hit to right center field...Lewis picked off a runner on first base to end the first inning...Lewis took a pitch in the dirt and proceeded to throw out a runner trying to steal second.

In other sports:

The men's golf team leads the SEC championships on St Simons by eight strokes heading into the second round.

Fifth place is where the women's golf team stands after day one of the SEC championships in South Carolina.

Courtney Kupets landed two perfect 10s in leading the Gym Dogs to national title number 10 in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The equestrian team got off to a solid start at day one of the national championships on Thursday. The program is seeking its fourth national title at this weekend's competition in Waco, Texas.

On tap for the rest of the weekend:

The golf teams continue competition at the SEC championships on Saturday and Sunday.

The men's (home) and women's (away) tennis teams take on Tennessee on Saturday.

Arkansas and the Diamond Dogs play two more on Saturday and Sunday.

Softball plays a double header at Auburn on Saturday and one more game on Sunday.

Several Gym Dogs will compete in the individual championships on Saturday.

Equestrian wraps up competition at nationals on Saturday.

Track and field competes at home in the Bulldog Limited on Saturday.

Whew. What a weekend this will be for the Georgia Bulldogs.

A Night For 10s

Behind two perfect 10s from all-world senior Courtney Kupets, the University of Georgia Gym Dogs captured national title number 10 tonight at the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Gym Dogs edged long time rivals Alabama and Utah by .3 and .4 points respectively to secure the program's fifth consecutive national title and send head coach Suzanne Yoculan into retirement a winner.


In capturing the meet's all-around title, Kupets set a career high with a 39.9, coming incredibly close to matching the lone perfect 40 in NCAA history set by UGA's Karin Lichey in 1996. Kupets' 10s came on bars and vault. She added 9.95s on both floor and beam.


Congratulations to the Gym Dogs for another amazing year and an incredible run of success. And kudos to Yoculan for a quarter century of unparalleled and sustained excellence at the helm of the wildly popular and successful Georgia gymnastics program. Her gaudy numbers?

She leaves with 10 NCAA championships, 16 SEC titles and 21 regional titles. In addition, the Georgia program has produced 33 individual champions under her guidance.

A five-time national coach of the year, Yoculan’s teams finished in the top four 20 of the past 22 seasons.

It is only fitting that Yoculan walks away from her final meet as coach on top of the sport that she has done many years worth of work to promote and share with sports fans. She will be missed, but she has put down a solid foundation for the program that long-time assistant coach and new head coach Jay Clark will inherit. I think the program will be fine for years to come and Yoculan should be credited with much of that security.

Oh, and Utah...about those t-shirts. What will you do with them now?

Late Night With Matt Stafford

Former Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Matthew Stafford went Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night. Stafford was on for about five or six minutes, but there was nothing remotely earth shattering in his interview.

Here is a clip of the last minute and a half or so courtesy of the Late Night website:

Oh Teh Ironing

Did this exchange, the part starting at just after the 3:30 mark, really take place on the O'Reilly Factor? Why, yes. Yes it did. No surprise, really. High horsing it is a common occurrence for our fearless Culture Warrior and his cronies. Apparently, so is amnesia.

Ingraham: I don't think they would've interrupted the person like that woman did. That was really a very disturbing display not only of media bias but total elitism....These people aren't reporting the real news.

Bill O': The debate is the thing that should be respected. And it is certainly not being respected by the liberal media that wants to shut it down or denigrate it.

Good lord, thank you to all that is good and holy that He of the No Spin Zone never disrespects the debate or tries to shut it down or denigrate it. What that CNN reporter did would never happen on the Factor. NEVER!

Let me shout it now from the mountain top:

The world truly is a better place with Bill O'Reilly in it.

Hallelujah. Holy shit. Where's the Tylenol?