Of Brown, Bears and 'Bama

Melissa and I joined our friends Reina and Steven up at Crystal Bay at Lake Tahoe last Friday night to see Junior Brown in concert. Although I like to consider myself musically knowledgeable, I must confess that I'm not really sure I'd ever heard of Junior Brown until last week when Reina asked me if I was interested in going. Junior is out of Austin Texas, and is an old-school Country musician with an unmistakable dash of R&B thrown in. Although I detest new Country music with all it's 'proud to be a redneck' posturing and jingoism contests, I have a real soft spot for traditional--what I would consider "real"--Country music. You know, the Outlaw stuff, from the days before it was all about how very very much the meticulously-image-controlled "artist" loves Jesus and his or her children. Give me Willie Nelson or Johnny Cash (has there ever been another man to walk God's green earth who was as cool as Johnny Cash?), guys who weren't about marketing music to dental technicians, but who understood that the best music, like the best art of any kind, is informed by the pain that comes from hard living and is just a little bit subversive. Junior Brown, with songs like "You're wanted by the po-lice, and my wife thinks you're dead", is something of a call-back to those days and I really appreciated it. Melissa, on the other hand, just can't get in to any sort of Country music and although as always she was a trooper, I got a real sense of relief from her when the show ended.

Driving back along the Lake between Crystal Bay and Incline Village we rounded a bend and came across a black bear along the side of the road. He was a small one, maybe 300 pounds, and looked thin and jittery at a time of year when bears really should look fat and sleepy in anticipation of the coming winter. Bears have been a problem at the Lake this year, breaking into trash containers and on occasion even homes. This guy was probably risking being so close to human settlements because he knows the winter is coming and he must put on weight if he is to survive. Though humans mean danger, they also mean huge amounts of food just sitting around for the taking. I feel bad for him, but I image that for Melissa seeing the bear was probably more memorable than seeing Junior Brown, so at least there's that.

Oh, and I just have to mention that Alabama is now 9-0 heading into the most vital part of the season. Up next is LSU, then Auburn, and then if all goes well the SEC title game, probably against Georgia. 'Bama beat Mississippi State 17-0 yesterday, but didn't score an offensive touchdown and lost another key offensive player, Center J.B. Closner. At this point the Defense looks earth-shaking, having given up one only one touchdown in the last five games, but the offense just can't seem to stick the ball in the endzone.

Now I'm getting pretty sick of friends of mine who keep saying things like 'Oh, Alabama shouldn't have beaten Tennessee' or 'You know, Alabama probably should have lost to Ole' Miss.' And there will probably be a lot of people who want to harp on the continued lack of Offensive production in this game as well. Well let me explain something: The rules of the game say that whichever team scores the most points is the winner. Ergo, if Alabama scores more points than their opponent is able to score and doesn't cheat, then Alabama is the team that "should" win. This reminds me of nothing so much as 1992, when Alabama had a world-beater Defense and a lackluster Offense and won a lot of games that their opponents "should" have won, right up until they beat the Miami Hurricanes in the Sugar Bowl and won the National Championship.

Do I think this team is bound for a National Championship? No, although I didn't think that in '92 either. The point is, a win is a win. The Offense is probably going to have to find a way to score points if Alabama has a prayer of beating LSU, Auburn or Georgia, and the losses of Closner and Tyrone Prothro definitely hurt. But this morning there are three unbeaten teams in College football and Alabama is one of them. Considering where the program has been the last few years, I'm pretty happy with that.