I did not watch today’s game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Cleveland Browns, but I did check the score around 2 pm (the Falcons had 10 and the Browns had 7) and again in the early evening. The predatory birds won 23 to 20. Based on the back-and-forth of touchdowns and field goal, I’m guessing it would have been a fun game to watch, but I was spending much needed time outdoors.
Get game summary, stats, and play-by-play here.
Green Day wants to be your “Dominated Love Slave” at the same time the Refreshments have “gone to the hardware store” and will procure “a really big hammer” because they want “Girly” eventually to “beat [them] till [they’re] black and blue, and [they’re] hanging by a thread.” Meanwhile, Florence + the Machine insist on a “Kiss With a Fist.” There’s plenty of corporeal bruising and property damage, isn’t there? Not much self-confidence either. I mean:
“You can spank me when I do not behave
Smack me in the forehead with a chain.”
“I’m gonna buy you a really heavy baseball bat
Girly won’t you knock these thoughts out of my head”
“A kick to the teeth is good for some
A kiss with a fist is better than none”
On a completely unrelated note, the reason why employers, acquaintances, coworkers, and random strangers may want to know where you grew up, where you received any form of education, and what you like to do in your free time is because familiarity and shared appreciation of an experience or cultural text are shortcuts to intimacy. However tenuous and superficial it may seem, just knowing that your new hire, new boss, potential new friend, or the other side of a customer service interaction is fond of or has heard about your alma mater, hometown, or comfort music can generate a field of trustworthiness where there previously was none.
I went to get groceries today from a Fresh Market and had entered an aisle when I noticed the employee, who was stocking shelves at the time, was grooving to some kind of music. It was in a nuanced way, evidenced by some hip and leg motions that may not have registered with someone who isn’t fluent in the visual language of the way rhythms and beats compel the human body to react. He saw me approach; I smiled even though I was wearing a mask.
“What are you listening to?”
He hesitated.
“What genre?”
“Hip-hop.”
“What decade?”
“90s…Wu-Tang.”
“Ahh, the good stuff,” I said, my voice softening to convey a mental high-five.
His demeanor softened and brightened. He praised my jade pendant, asked if I was finding everything all right, and to let him know if I needed anything.
Of course I have no way to confirm what he was thinking when he saw me walking towards him, but the shift in his body language and facial expressions suggests to me that he had assumed as neutral a presence as possible upon seeing me, was ready to move closer to one side of the aisle if necessary, and didn’t know what my opinions were on any genre of music, and thus, didn’t want to have an unpleasant interaction. It was low-key marvelous to see the change in his posture and countenance.
On an even more unrelated note, NFL Films has a segment on “Cordarrelle Patterson’s Journey in the NFL.” His first name is pronounced like “core-darryl” not “core derr-ell.”
Pic cred: YT screenshot
Today’s deep thought: the older you get, televised sports game go by faster and faster. One minute it’s the top of the second quarter, the next it’s the bottom of the third.
The scoring was close throughout today’s game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Seattle Seahawks. The home team scored first with a field goal, to which the Falcons responded with a touchdown courtesy of their quarterback, Marcus Mariota. Going into halftime, the Seahawks were three points ahead with 20 to Atlanta’s 17. The Falcons tied the score with a 54-yard field goal by kicker Younghoe Koo in the top of the third. Towards the end of the quarter, the Seahawks shrugged off that tie with a field goal. On the Falcons’ next possession, though, they took the lead with a touchdown (via wide receiver Drake London) Atlanta 27 and Seattle 23. Not much happened in the fourth quarter until the Seahawks recovered a fumbled Falcons ball with five minutes left to play. Nevertheless, the Falcons held on to their three-point lead. Final score Atlant 27 and Seattle 23.
If the Falcons can play like they did today at a bare minimum, but enter the middle of the fourth quarter with at least eight points more than their opponent, the two-minute warning would be satisfying to watch in terms athletic spectacle and with less probability for a penalty or an interception to pull a 180 with the outcome of the game.
Get game summary, stats, and play-by-play here.
It would have been nice if the fourth quarter scoring ascension that the Atlanta Falcons implemented ended up with their getting into the Los Angeles Rams‘ area (in LA no less), but such an outcome was not in the cards. I watched the first quarter up to the moment when the Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo missed the 44-yard field goal. I resumed watching the game towards the end of the second quarter. If you want to watch highlights of the game, go straight to the fourth quarter: the Falcons’ defense demonstrated some skill with the franchise’s first blocked punt return since 1990, which led to more points on the board for them than I thought I’d see so late in the game. The Rams ended up winning the game 31 to 27.
Get game summary, stats, and play-by-play here.
Now, please enjoy BlackPink‘s dance practice video of “Shut Down.”
Well, maybe not mooncake, more like moonpinch. It just so happens to be the Mid-Autumn Festival this weekend in addition to the symbolic reign of one monarch moving to another and twenty-one years after lots of metal, paper, and flesh and bones fell from the sky in one particular American metropolis.
I did not watch any of the pre-season games this year, but I was not going to miss watching the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons make their first 2022 regular season impressions. It’s premature to expect but perhaps not improbable for the Falcons to replicate certain thematic elements from the season opener: score whatever points in the first half of the game, come back with renewed energies in the third through middle of the fourth, and then surprise everybody by not being able to maintain a sixteen-point lead and then lose by a point.
Oh yes, the Saints capitalized on the Falcons’ penalties in the last four minutes in the fourth quarter to whisper by with a victory of 27 to 26. Final score. Of course I was hoping the Falcons would stay on top no matter how small a lead, nevertheless, losing by one point can be a more effective motivator for Atlanta to do better next week than if they’d won by a dozen points. I am curious to see what patterns of athleticism emerge over the season from Falcons quarterback Marcus Mariota. Moreover, I imagine that Dennis Allen, the newly promoted head coach for the Saints, feels more relief now than he did when he woke up this morning. It’s possible he got out of bed hoping his players woulddo their best or that they’d win by a few or many points, but I’m inclined to believe that winning against the Falcons (or any NFL team for that matter) by one point is more satisfying than a victory of a landslide.
If I could weave a motif for the 2022 Falcons, it would be thus: a TD or two by the end of the first quarter/top of the second, at least one interceptions-returned-for-a-TD by the end of the second, a quiet but penalty-free third quarter, and then however many points it takes to take the lead by the middle of the fourth quarter. At which juncture, maybe the other team slips in a field goal to (re)take the lead, but with three minutes left to play, the Falcons manage to be on top with a three to six-point lead and remain penalty-free until there’s under a minute left to play, whereupon, any penalties will be legitimate face-plants and gaffes and not some oh-come-on ruling.
Get stats, summary, and play-by-play here.
Mooncake pic cred: Alexa Soh, unsplash
Sitting Pugs: Sports Movies 