Well, that's the way the ball bounces...
SOMETIMES, I don't mind being WRONG...

Today was "Championship Sunday", the day that we all find out who's gonna be in the Super Bowl. And, I didn't watch that much football this year, so I had no idea of how convincingly the Seattle Seahawks would win over the Carolina Panthers, 34-14. And, I'll admit right here, right now, "I WAS WRONG". Not the first time! Of course, I also had no idea that the Carolina Quarterback would get intercepted three times, either! Or that the 'Hawks defense would totally shut Carolina down. The Fox Sports commentators had remarked that Carolina had won a lot of "road games" in a row to get to this game, and that the Panthers were "beaten up" with injuries and tired from traveling around the country the last few weeks. I don't think that should take anything away from the Seahawks' victory; after all, they had been undefeated at home and played a lot of good football this season. Now the 'Hawks go to play Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl in 2 weeks. Who will win?

Do I have to make a prediction now? Hoo-boy, the pressure's on! I would give Pittsburgh the edge, because the Seahawks have never been to the Super Bowl before. Of course, I'd given Carolina the edge today; the Seahawks hadn't won a playoff game since '84. So much for speculation! The Steelers will have "relative" home-field advantage in the Super Bowl; Detroit, where the Super Bowl is this year, is a lot closer to Pittsburgh than Seattle, after all. Both teams have dynamite offenses and defenses. It could be a high-point shootout or a low-scoring defensive battle. I WANT the Seahawks to win, but I don't have to predict anything right now. Coming up in the newspaper this week, I am sure the depth of both teams will be analyzed to the 'nth' degree. I'll predict the Super Bowl winner in this blog, sometime before the Super Bowl. I do believe it's gonna be one of the "better" Super Bowls; that event is known for not-so-good games where one team blows away the other.
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Looking for "Love" in all the right places dept..: This week, a record I purchased on Ebay arrived in the mail, and I was really looking forward to hearing it. I'm a big fan of the late-60's group "Love" which was led by Arthur Lee, who wrote and sang most of the group's songs. In the early '70's, Lee, who is black, actually recorded a bunch of tracks with Jimi Hendrix. Well, due to complications, all but ONE of those tracks has been "locked in the vaults" for years. One Hendrix-Lee track did get out, and it's on 1970's "False Start" album, by "Love". The group underwent many different personnel lineups thru the years; Arthur Lee would then replace them, all the while, keeping the "Love" group name. (No "Love" lost, I guess, ha ha). In the late '60s, the member-lineup stayed relatively the same, but in the 70s, each Love album had a different set of group members.

In 1972, he made another album titled "Vindicator", totally replacing almost everyone in the group with 4 members of a band called "Band-Aid". This time around, he didn't use the "Love" name; he put his own name, Arthur Lee, on the album's cover. Again, Lee wrote everything on the album, which sounds like a "Love" album. (which it "is", really) Lee brings a really strange lyrical sense to his songs; in addition, the music can veer from bossa-nova to bone-crunching hard rock; you never know what to expect, which is what makes his music so interesting. I mentioned that Lee is black; that doesn't have anything to do with anything; but much of the time he doesn't sound black; he comes across as more of a flower-power psychedelic rocker who can throw elements of "soul" into his music as well. Just interesting stuff. This is the album I listened to last night and I really enjoyed it.

I do know that Rhino Records has re-issued quite a lot of "Love's" 60's music; the group had made 4 albums up thru 1969. Those "Love" CD's on "Rhino" are pretty easy to find. It might be harder to find his 70's stuff, because that music was recorded for several different record companies. I would say that if you crossed Jefferson Airplane with Jimi Hendrix and threw in a little bit of Sly and the Family Stone, you'd have an idea of what "Love's" music sounds like. Just another one of those really good bands that never became well-known. I've got 6 of "Love's" albums now and I have another one on order; it's a rare double-album from the early 70s. I'm really looking forward to hearing it.
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For those of you who only come to this blog for the pictures dept.: I've got a really nice postcard coming up here; it's a really great 1971 view looking across Coeur d'Alene Lake with Higgens Point and Blue Creek Bay off in the far-off distance, and here 'tis:

I wouldn't be surprised if the spot where this picture was taken has a house on it now. This view gives one a good idea of how large our lake is. And, actually, this photo looks across one of the "narrower" portions of the lake. You can see where the hills were cut away, so the highway could skirt the lake's shore. Obviously, that photo wasn't taken in the wintertime, either! What a nice view; hope ya's enjoys it.
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Speaking of being WRONG dept.: The A & E network is showing a movie MONDAY night (Monday, January 30th), called "Flight 93", about the plane hijacked on "9/11", the one that the passengers took over from the hijackers; it later crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. A & E will probably show that movie several times that week. (I previously listed the wrong date. (Jan. 23rd) Hope that didn't screw things up for ya too much.)

Looks like I kinda got long-winded this time, but I still managed to touch upon four different topics. It's my hope this blog is much more readable since I try to put different things in here. Not only that, but if I run across a noteworthy news item on TV or wherever, I can "pop" back into this blog entry and post yet another subject in it (which I've done several times). Speaking of which, 2 more coal miners died recently in West Virginia. How sad. It's a dangerous business, that coal mining. See ya during the coming week...