Speaking of which, this Saturday is setting up to be a huge day, starting almost immediately with Washington and Michigan (9 a.m. Pacific), and running through the evening with Maryland and Notre Dame (5 p.m.). All of which I shall watch at Joxer's, of course; although I'm certain the management isn't picking up the college football package, the games I want to see this weekend are all on either direct cable or ABC. Of course, my old school, CAL, opens on Saturday against Baylor, but even if that were being broadcast somewhere, I couldn't inflict that on another human being.

Afterwards, the Samurai Homeboys perform at the bar, which will make the whole day perfect. If you haven't seen the Homeboys before, its kind of like what it would have been to see Springsteen play in New Jersey, circa 1973. 3-4 hours of solid, real R&B/rock, sung by a local bartender with the justified rep of being the "Irish James Brown". Sadly, the sort of music performed by the Homeboys (and Springsteen) is becoming as anachronistic as Big Band vocalists were in 1960. I don't mean to slight hip-hop in any way, since, for the most part, I really like it, but its a repudiation of rock, not a continuation. Does that make me sound old?