The Phantom Bowls For Pizza or… The Bucks Meet the Ducks

New Years Day… the traditional wrap up to the holiday season.  Parades, football, and one more day when you can indulge in snacking and not feel guilty.  After going to bed following New Years Eve festivities around 4AM, I woke to find a great documentary on the making of the stage production of the Phantom of the Opera.  All of the build up, near closing turmoils leading up to its West End  premiere, and backstage drama were retold.

The first of many traditions came next: the viewing of the Tournament of Roses Parade.  Always a toss up as to which network to view it on as there are so many that broadcast it.  I always enjoy Al Roker’s colorful play-by-play full of moans and groans from his one liners but he is never boring.  A few of the highlights for me were the Ohio State School for the Blind Marching Band.  When I heard that they would be marching their way through the five-mile route, I was amazed.  Each member had a guide beside them tapping their shoulder for right turns and left turns.  Really amazing… they never did say how they learned the music, but if Beethoven can compose some of his best music deaf then why can’t a blind group play and march?

Another highlight was the float for Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance Dog Food.  It featured a number of various breeds of pooches snowboarding down an incline and then being taken back up the hill in a motorized contraption.  Really adorable!  Sorry, could not find a video to show.

A non-highlight came with a half hour to go in NBC’s coverage.   Our affiliate decided to go to a Time-Life music of the 60s infomercial.  So we decided to turn over to ABC in time for the Capital One Bowl in which Penn State defeated LSU 19-17 in the Mud Bowl..  GO BIG 10!

Then…. the granddaddy of them all… the 96th Rose Bowl Game.  Time to see if Coach Tressel could lead the Bucks out of their bowl game funk and “Young Terrelle Pryor could finally silence the critics and come out fighting!  First Buckeye drive proved just that: five plays=7 points!  I have to laugh every time Brett (“the Mustardburger”) Musberger exclaims “nothing doin”. Sounds like a good drinking game to me.

Ok… time for may gripe pitch.  Amidst the homemade pizza we were enjoying, the Duck’s Marching Band was shown playing the National Anthem at pregame.  They were then given three or four minutes of halftime air time and the song they played was easily recognizable as “Highlights from Back to the Future.”  If you throw in the yellow and green pukey windsuit outfits and ball caps they remarkably call uniforms, we were left with a rather unimpressive performance.  I wanted to shout out a rather colorful expletive that rhymes with Duck and it was not “Shucks.”

And where pray tell was the Best Damn Band in the Land (sorry, but that is their official designation… many people would not recognize the acronym TBDITL)?  If you count the time they were shown being covered up by those nay saying analysts behind the desk at halftime and the 30-45 seconds they were shown unimpeded, then I guess you could say they were given equal screen time? NOT!

But the outcome of the game kicked off the New Year in splendid fashion.  Sophomore Quarterback Pryor lived up to the remarkable hype put on him by the media and fans (He’s only a sophomore, people!) by having a season day.  The Bucks erased all memory of the horrendous defeat by that other Pac-10 team early in the season to rest by beating the Ducks 26-17.  So much for the critics… most of which put the Buckeyes in the L column.  Including a former Michigan player (Really… where do they get these guys?)

So… 2010 has kicked off to a fine start in the sports arena… let’s hope that it continues all year long… GO BUCKS!

march_bandAnd Now A Real, Non-Nike Band Uniform: