Atmosphere. Short Takes For Mid-March. Freebird.

The Passion And Energy Of San Siro. My Takes For The Week. We Have Lost Another Great Guitarist.


  • The pageantry of sports. The feeling of supporting your team in your stadium or arena, with a sold-out crowd singing and chanting – it really is an audio-visual spectacle. In the college football world, many stadiums are full and include a large proportion of students screaming and yelling for their team. Ohio State’s “Shoe” and “The Big House” in Ann Arbor, Michigan come to mind as two massive stadiums that sell out every game. Many stadiums around the world enjoy the same atmosphere, including Milan’s San Siro Stadium, home to A.C. Milan, who for historical sake would be similar to the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League. The atmosphere, fan experience, and choreography in the video below tells us about the passion and support of their fans. The visual spectacle of how the stadium looks is awesome, along with the passion displayed by the fans starting at the 4:05 mark of this video. In a word, amazing.
Milan, Italy’s San Siro Stadium.

A Few Short Takes For the Second Sunday of March:

  • Are the Norfolk Southern derailments just coincidental? Two in Ohio and one last Thursday in Alabama. I certainly hope so.
  • Apple + releases the third season of Ted Lasso on Wednesday. Whether you are a soccer fan or not, this series is fantastic.

  • To all of you daylight savings time naysayers: relax as we will be back to the early days of darkness on Sunday, November 5. Does Congress put a halt to changing the clock twice a year? 🙂
  • It all started with Moody’s Investors Service informing SVB Financial Group, the parent of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), that they were downgrading the bank’s credit. That pending announcement, along with some missteps by SVB, began the process toward Friday’s collapse of the lender, who focused on California’s startup entities, mostly in the technology sector. Another hard and difficult lesson showing all of us how quickly confidence in financial institutions can erode.
  • The 95th Academy Awards is on ABC tonight. Jimmy Kimmel is the host and let us hope that the award-winners accept their award with grace and a bit of dignity.
  • A few family members and friends have new-fangled turntables. I really never thought that vinyl records would outsell CDs…for the first time since 1987.
  • There has been continuing bad press coming out of Mexico. The abduction and murder of two Americans has again put Mexico and their drug cartels on the front page. It is really a sad state of affairs as Mexico has so many great things to offer. From Mexico City to Monterey, to the areas of Tulum, Mexico has been a great country for my previous visits. The good is often overshadowed by the cartels and their never-ending murderous endeavors. Very, very sad.
  • The annual March Madness college basketball craziness starts this Thursday. I am having someone who knows nothing about college basketball populate my bracket as last year only 74% of my picks were correct.
  • A big shout out to C.A., as her eldest of her three boys was married last night. Congratulations…one down and two to go!

  • I have had a number of family and friends who have played in bands, most of them focusing on the guitar. In previous posts, I have mentioned how much I like guitar riffs, especially from the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Eddie Van Halen. I unfortunately never recognized Gary Rossington, the guitarist from the legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd band. Shame on me as he was magical with his riffs and slide guitar playing. Rossington, last of the original Lynyrd Skynyrd, passed away last week at the age of seventy-one. They are all free as a bird now…RIP Gary Rossington.
“Freebird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, performed at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, England in 2016.

Adios, pay if forward, be safe, and have a Funday Sunday!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.