“Jesus Christ” is a 1940 Woody Guthrie song. There are covers by Arlo Guthrie and U2 from Woody Guthrie tributes.
Month: January 2024
50th Anniversary of Court and Spark
Joni Mitchell’s great album Court and Spark was released 50 years ago. It’s a lot more accessible than her earlier albums and she is backed by a full band.
The Ravens will beat the Houston Texans today
Ravens fans are nervous because of what happened in 2019. The Ravens were the top seed then too and lost in a shocking upset. This year is different. This team is more mature and balanced. I predict the score will be 31-20. The weather here will be terrible – wind chill will be around 10 degrees.
The Ravens are favored by 9.5 points and the over/under is 43.5 points.
The Ravens have had a great season. I have written about most of these before.
- They won 10 games vs teams that finished over .500, an NFL record. The prior record was 8. They tied an NFL record with 14 games vs. teams that finished over .500
- They are the first team to lead the NFL in all three of these defensive statistics: sacks, lowest points allowed, and takeaways (tied for first)
- Of the 14 playoff teams, they had the best strength of schedule and second-best strength of wins. They had the best record in the NFL this year even with a tough schedule.
- They led for 11 hours, 32 minutes and 57 seconds of game time. This is the second-best total since 2000.
- They were never behind by more than seven points until the meaningless last game. In that game, they were behind by 10 for about three minutes.
- Second-highest point differential ever against playoff teams
There is an urgency to win this year. Over 20 players are free agents after this season and there is now way the Ravens can keep them all. In addition, they will probably lose coaches and front office guys too. Both offensive and defensive coordinators have been interviewed for head coaching jobs, Three other coaches have been interviewed for coordinator jobs. Two front office members have been interviewed for jobs with other teams.
A couple examples of how special this year has been:
- Tylan Wallace is a wide receiver who had one reception this year. He had to return punts for the first time in the NFL in the Rams game. He returned one 76 yards for a game-winning touchdown in overtime.
- Some people think the 49ers could beat the Ravens in a rematch. I don’t see it. Sure, there were some tipped balls but the 49ers could have gotten them too. The Ravens scored on seven consecutive drives. That’s not luck.
- Lamar Jackson is a better QB than he was in 2019. He is making great decisions. Roquan Smith brings leadership on the defensive side that the Ravens haven’t had since Ray Lewis was here.
Bob Dylan and the Band – 1/20/68
I have posted these before. They’re from the Woody Guthrie Tribute Concert. Bob Dylan, backed by the guys who would become the Band, played three loud versions of Guthrie songs. The performances are great. The Band was young and healthy.
The recording quality is not great. A deluxe version of the recordings of the two tribute concerts was released six years ago.
Tweets on gerrymandering in Louisiana
Tweets on the great film director Yasujiro Ozu
American audiences were not aware of him until Tokyo Story (1953) was released here in 1972. It’s the best of his films that I have seen and is regarded by critics as his finest too but there are many other good films he directed.
Tokyo Story and other Ozu films are available on discs from the Criterion Collection.
Samuel Basallo is the next Orioles hot prospect
The Orioles are loaded with minor league prospects
Jackson Holliday will be in the majors sometime in 2024, maybe even on opening day. I think he’ll play second base with Henderson at short
Samuel Basallo could make it to the majors this year. He is only 19. I think he could catch some to give Rutschman a rest and also DH.
Coby Mayo, to me, is the third untradeable prospect. He should be in the majors in 2024 playing some 3rd base, 1st base and DHing.
Bleacher Report top 100 prospects
More tweets on physical media
The Baltimore Sun has been sold to an extreme right-wing owner
This is terrible news. I encourage everyone to read the Baltimore Banner.
Sad! 