micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links |
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Welcome to the musings and notes of a Cadillac, Michigan based writer named Micah Holmquist, who is bothered by his own sarcasm. Please send him email at micahth@chartermi.net. Holmquist's full archives are listed here.
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Sites Holmquist trys, and often fails, to go no more than a couple of days without visiting (some of which Holmquist regularly swipes links from without attribution) Aljazeera.Net English Blogs that for one reason or another Holmquist would like to read on at least something of a regular basis (always in development) Thivai Abhor |
Sunday, October 27, 2002
My beloved Spartans scored 21 points to Wisconsin’s 14 in the second half of yesterday’s game. Of course it should be noted that MSU was down 28-3 at halftime and thus lost the game, 42-24. With a 3-5 record and 4 games left, the Michigan State football team still has a dim shot at a winning record and a bowl game but I don’t see it happening. I think it is possible that the offensive will somewhat get its act together but I doubt it will have much of a running attack and so the overall struggles will continue. The defense, however, is likely to continue giving up lots of points. As I alluded to on Friday, my hope is that MSU will try to get the right coaches to improve its defense over the off season. A team with a mediocre offense and a defense that doesn’t give up more than 15 or 20 points and which causes turnovers would probably do a lot better than this squad. And I should also note that next week the Spartans play intrastate rivals Michigan –a school I attended oddly enough- in Ann Arbor. They haven’t won there since 1990 and it doesn’t look like this year this end that trend, but if they do they will have won 5 out of the last 10 meetings with the Wolverines. I don’t know this for sure but my hunch is that MSU has played as well against Michigan over the last 10 or 15 years as any Big Ten school. (By the way my Spartan fandom has lead Douglas Anders to dedicate a post to me. Although I am jealous that he is Fozzie while I am Rowlf, I do want to thank Douglas for usually sending a half dozen or so people my way every day. Maybe that doesn’t sound like much but day in and day out I receive more hits from him than any other source. And then there is the great blog he runs. I’m especially fond of his post on the job of children.) And yes listened to most of the game as my cousin’s wedding reception was going on as I said I would probably do yesterday. The affair had the atmosphere of the wedding reception in Riding in Cars with Boys but without the family drama or Drew but with a lot of Keith Whitley songs. Make of that what you will. I did have on revelation about music that makes me rethink some of yesterday’s comments. For many, perhaps most, people music is something they enjoy but which they aren’t compelled to think about constantly. I, on the other hand, do think about it constantly and thus I am critical of the mediocrity and blandness that I see regularly. I want music that challenges me intellectually and/or makes an emotional connection with me. Many people, particularly those who program and enjoy the music played at every wedding reception I’ve ever been to, just want something fun and to create some background noise. “Love Shack” by the B52’s is an appropriate example of how this plays out. When I hear “Bang Bang on the Door Baby” towards the end, I can’t help but think that there is some dark implication even if I have no idea what it is. The people I saw dancing to it last night saw this section as a time to slow down their joyous dancing. I am not trying to say that my appreciation of music is better than theirs but only that it is very different. At the same time, I figure there are probably many people who can just let ago and enjoy music at social setting who do get into music on a deeper level on other occasions. For better or worse, I just don’t seem to be able do that. |