Stanford 57, San Jose State 3, Archers of Loaf 0

Terry and I watched two hours of the Stanford versus San Jose State football game Saturday, which Stanford won 57-3 behind Heisman candidate Andrew Luck's leadership, and some stalwart defense against their south Santa Clara County brothers-in-pads.

We had comp tickets courtesy of Terry's employment at the Stanford Hospital. We had relatively mixed loyalties in that neither of us is a Stanford alum. Terry got her MFA, and my mother a BA in Sociology, from San Jose State (and I a Master's from Berkeley) that she completed while I was in high school, as a returning student.

But despite these factors, and my predilection towards underdogs, I found myself quite partisan and quickly jumping on the bandwagon for David Shaw's boys. I took a cue from the souvenir drink tumbler I bought and cheered for #3 Michael Thomas the FS to keep up the tough coverage -- not that he heard me from the opposite goal-line and three fourths of the way to Sky City. 

I snapped one photo, of Luck's 2Q third-and-goal touchdown to Ryan Hewitt that made it 27-0. We left the game after a couple series of the second half. For music lovers, I recall the band playing Green Day's "Welcome to Paradise" and Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" in reference to their visit to Miami and The Orange Bowl last January. I imagine there is an app or site that chronicles their entire playlist deadbase.

Meanwhile I was thinking back to 7th grade at Terman in 1978 and riding my bike to games to watch Darrin Nelson, Ken Margerum, et al. I remember sitting with throngs of my classmates and shredding the Stanford Daily into confetti. I have to admit I miss the old bowl and its simplicity -- none of this two-tier complexity.

A beyond-football highlight Saturday was chatting with Ellen Fletcher the former Palo Alto Council member and bike route activist, who was volunteering her time at Silicon Valley Bike Coalition corral.

My mind for several days, and various blog posts, was also preoccupied during the game with the prospects of Archers of Loaf (AOL) doing a reunion tour and playing two nights at Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. The Archers were indie darlings from Chapel Hill, North Carolina music scene who re-formed this year after a hiatus. I recall that the night in March 1995 they played Cubberley (with Plexi, and Frightwig, who included my Terman and Gunn classmate Mia Levin) there was so much rain that the Sharks game was cancelled. When the band finally showed up a couple hours late, they were like gods crossing the Atlantic to the new world.

When they returned to Cubberley in 1998, with Beulah, I made a poster with a likeness of Muhammed Ali, in reference to the AOL song "The Greatest of All Time."

It would be great to get bands like Archers of Loaf to start playing Varsity Theatre in Palo Alto; I actually left a voice mail to their agent Jim Romeo of Ground Control Touring in North Carolina asking if the band could play a nooner in Palo Alto -- I was thinking Lytton Plaza -- on behalf of the Varsity Theatre Revival campaign, which I also call Last Picture Waltz initiative, but got no response yet. We ended up grilling rather than going into the City to hear music.

I've posted here a couple versions of AOL's most famous song "Web in Front." I have no idea what it is about; something about unrequited love, or not giving up, or admitting some emotions are out of proportion. The refrain says "All I ever wanted was to be your spine." 

Yeah, it's a possibility. (Stanford national champions, AOL playing The Varsity).