Our Kevin Bacon game, so far:
The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney produced – and is the husband of – Michelle Branch, who was featured on Santana’s “The Game of Love.” On a later album, Santana collaborated with Metallica, who backed up Lou Reed, who was in The Velvet Underground with John Cale, who wrote an album with Brian Eno, who produced the first DEVO album.
I was pretty nonplussed about the return of sports during a pandemic. I get that the masses need entertainment under any circumstances and more so during times of great strife, but it always seemed greedy and callous no matter how much the participants approve. Now that it’s happening, however, I could not be happier about the NHL playoffs format that they have decided upon. I’m also excited to have MotoGP back, but the Stanley Cup playoffs will provide a lot of much-needed diversions. Now that I’ve gotten used to the empty arena, I have started to think that playing the playoffs in a bubble really makes it as even a playing field as you can expect to have. The way the Super Bowl is played at a neutral location, I’d love to see at least the final round played in this manner moving forward. Once the semi-final round is decided, the two teams move into accommodations in the appointed city (hosted by a team at the bottom of the league), and a best-of-seven series is played all at the same location. The home field advantage goes away and every variable outside of the actual games is removed. Wouldn’t that be a great and definitive way to see who is the best while letting a less-successful city benefit financially from hosting a championship? If anyone from the NHL, NBA or MLB finds that interesting at all, hit me up. I have more ideas.
New Album A Day 