Woodshed

Getting Ready for Saturday

What IA can expect on 11-4-17 when OSU comes to Kinnick . . . GULP!!

Heartbreaker!

Game-Winner as Time Expires!

We'll See What Happens After It Happens

A LOT has been made of the Iowa Hawkeyes welcoming the Penn State Nittany Lions to Kinnick Stadium on Saturday (tomorrow) night. This article in the Cedar Rapids Gazette - Hlas: At Kinnick, light creates electricity Home night games burn brightly in Iowa memories Sep 22, 2017 at 9:01 am - paints a great picture as to what viewers will likely expect. I will not be one of those viewers as I will be at my oldest niece's wedding in Rock Island - Karen has already declared that she hopes there are no TVs at the reception hall. Thus, I will just have to hope to catch the late night news or that my cell phone battery is holding out during the reception to glance just long enough to get a final score.

Last year, "the Nittany Lions humbled the Hawkeyes, 41-14."

This year? We'll see what happens and, for me, it will be after it has happened.

New Old Bayside Tunes

It was with great joy that I saw Bayside released 13 (!!) videos yesterday! I created a playlist for the videos:

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That's so cool! It's the 10 year anniversary of "The Walking Wounded" and so they are celebrating that with some gigs - closest one is Chicago at a festival called Riot Fest on Saturday, September 16th. It was pre-planned months ago what we're doing that weekend. We have tickets for the UNI football game in Cedar Falls.

I never really considered going to Chicago.

Back to Bayside, I would truly love to update this page: Bayside Concerts

That's why I sincerely hope the band is using this 10 year anniversary as a brief pause before embarking upon a second leg of their tour in support of "Vacancy," which I still listen to frequently. I know they didn't stop in Des Moines or Iowa City (which they usually do on their tours) and I'd really like to hear "The Ghost" in person. Today, because I don't know of their specific plans for a second leg, I'm full of hope and anticipation that I will be able to see them in concert prior to, oh, the end of 2018. I have my fingers crossed.

In other 'favorite band' news, I know Metallica is off to Europe this fall for a leg of their world tour so I don't expect to hear of any concerts in the area until later this year, which is when I hope they announce another summer tour in stadiums / outside venues. Maybe, just maybe, Kinnick Stadium will get the call to hold another fundraiser for Ashton Kucher's charity!

Nope

Despite my mental & metal telepathy powers, Metallica is not playing in Iowa on their summer 2017 tour. There's no stop at Kinnick Stadium or at the UNI-Dome or even Des Moines or Moline. I had told Alex that my ideal world would be that Metallica plays in Chicago the day after the final day of Chicago Open Air (July 17), but they don't have a gig that day in Chicago. Here are the dates:

1. May 10 – Baltimore, MD – M&T Bank Stadium
2. May 12 – Philadelphia, PA – Lincoln Financial Field
3. May 14 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium
4. May 17 – Uniondale, NY – The New Coliseum Presented by NYCB
5. May 19 – Foxborough, MA – Gillette Stadium
6. May 21 – Columbus, OH – Rock On The Range @ MAPFRE Stadium
7. June 4 – St. Louis, MO – Busch Stadium <== Day after Alex's graduation party
8. June 7 – Denver, CO – Sports Authority Field at Mile High
9. June 11 – Houston, TX – NRG Stadium
10. June 14 – San Antonio, TX – Alamodome
11. June 16 – Dallas, TX – AT&T Stadium
12. June 18 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field <== Father's Day!!!!
13. July 5 – Orlando, FL – Camping World Stadium
14. July 7 – Miami, FL – Hard Rock Stadium
15. July 9 – Atlanta, GA – SunTrust Park
16. June 12 – Detroit, MI – Comerica Park
17. July 14 - Quebec City, QC – Festival D'Ete de Quebec
18. June 16 – Toronto, ON – Rogers Centre
19. July 19 – Montreal, QC – Parc Jean-Drapeau
20. July 29 – Los Angeles, CA – Rose Bowl
21. August 4 – Phoenix, AZ – University of Phoenix Stadium
22. August 6 – San Diego, CA – Petco Park
23. August 9 – Seattle, WA – CenturyLink Field
24. August 14 – Vancouver, BC – BC Place
25. August 16 – Edmonton, AB – Commonwealth Stadium

This is Interesting

On Nov 25, 2016 at 1:02 pm, this article was published about "what the rest of America thinks about today’s Nebraska-Iowa football game." Out of the 30 picks (some have multiple panelists in a single row above), 16 picked NE, 15 picked IA.

1. I picked Iowa in the Gazette’s Pick ‘Ems (great name, huh?), but without a whit of confidence. 
2. Ralph D. Russo, Associated Press: Nebraska, 20-17
3. SI.com: Four panelists pick Nebraska, three take Iowa 
4. Garry Smits, Florida Times-Union: Nebraska, 16-14
5. Brett Nierengarten, Daily Nebraskan: Nebraska, 17-13
6. USA TODAY.com: Five panelists pick Iowa, two take Nebraska
7. Stewart Mandel, FoxSports.com: Iowa, 24-17
8. Teddy Greenstein, Chicago Tribune: Iowa to cover 1.5 points
9. Lee Barfknecht, Omaha World-Herald: Iowa, 16-13
10. Tom Shatel, Omaha World-Herald: Nebraska, 20-17
11. Andy Greder, St. Paul Pioneer Press: Iowa, 23-20
12. ESPN.com: Four panelists pick Nebraska one takes Iowa
13. Mike Carmin, Lafayette Journal & Courier: Iowa, 18-12
14. Dave Bangert, Lafayette Journal & Courier: Nebraska, 23-21
15. Jill Heemstra, Corn Nation: Nebraska, 27-20

Of course, Kinnick Stadium was rocking as Iowa rolled over NE, 40 - 10.
Original article: How America is picking Huskers-Hawkeyes

VICTORY

Win a Butt-Kicking Contest on Crutches

Have I wrote about this before? 

Even though there is a football game on Friday against Nebraska, there is concern about the recruiting practices of the Iowa Hawkeyes. According to this article, Iowa lost a 4th recruit: "Holmes is the fourth decommit, all of whom are from Texas, who cited Iowa’s policy of no recruiting visits once you pledge to the Hawkeyes."

I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I think that if the Hawkeyes make an offer to a recruit and the recruit says, "I accept," then there is an understanding that the recruit is going to come to Iowa City. On the other hand, if the coaches and staff sincerely believe that Iowa has the best opportunity for the recruit, then I don't see any harm in the student-athlete (notice the order of that compound noun) should be able to make sure that the recruit believes they are going to have the best opportunity at Iowa. We live in a day and age where high school recruits are being asked to do a lot when they arrive on campus. Not only do they need to fit in with their teammates, they have to fit in to the other responsibilities thrust upon them. I don't want any high school senior to choose to attend the University of Iowa and to play within the historic Kinnick Stadium unless it is the right fit for them, as both a person and an athlete.

In Iowa, there are a large number of outstanding high school football players. The All-state football teams were announced yesterday and you can see the rosters here.

Pre-Game

I hope the Hawks win on Saturday night - but I'm not confident they will. Read about it here.

Editor's Note: This was discovered in a Drafts folder on 11/14, after the IA v. MI game.

What is sports schadenfreude?

North Dakota State trolls Michigan after Iowa upsets Wolverines

Even better than last night

I am disobeying my desire to replace actual URLs with descriptive links to point out that the word "Iowa" is misspelled in this hyperlink:
http://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sports/college/iowa/football/2016/11/13/iwoa-michigan-upset-gary-dolphin-radio-call/93758788/

Duh

Not cool... not cool at all...

CFB: All-American Iowa CB Desmond King appears to flip off refs after unsportsmanlike penalty — Video in Team Stream

Tooling

There's a lot of talk about Tool putting out a new album - I think they sound great here.

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Maybe there could be a co-headlining Metallica / Tool gig at Kinnick Stadium or the UNI-Dome?!?

Metallica is Touring

This is what Metallica played last night.

 

I am slightly curious whether or not additional songs find their way into the setlist. The notable tunes that are not included in this setlist but that have seemed to be popular with the band for including are "Fuel," "The Memory Remains," and "Blackened." Also, there is not a single tune from "Death Magnetic," their most recent album. I hope "All Nightmare Long" and / or "Cyanide" finds a way into the setlist. I really would not cry if "Whiskey in the Jar" or "Nothing Else Matters" were banished. I do like that "Moth into Flame" is included! All that said, watching this video gives me goose bumps and makes me not really care what songs they have on their setlist - as long as they play near me, in eastern Iowa.

And that's when I start thinking about how I can't wait to hear these or other tunes live in Kinnick Stadium and / or the UNI-Dome - as if repeating it over and over will make it happen. At football games in both of these stadiums, I have heard "Enter Sandman" over the PA system. Whenever I hear that tune, I say to whomever I'm next to, "I would really love to hear this song live where I'm sitting." If it's in Cedar Falls @ the UNI-Dome, Mark, my brother-in-law, usually just smirks - he's not a Metallica fan.

Touring the World and Some Acoustacallica

I think there is plenty of room for a date in Iowa on the following list of Metallica tour dates in 2016-17 (so far):

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Oct 26: San Juan Coliseo, Puerto Rico
Oct 29: Quito Parque Bicentenario, Ecuador
Nov 01: Bogota Hipodromo de los Andes, Colombia
Nov 03: Guatemala City Estadio Cementos Progreso, Guatemala
Nov 05: San Jose Estadio Nacional, Costa Rica
Jan 11: Seoul Gocheok Sky Dome, South Korea
Jan 20: Hong Kong AsiaWorld-Expo, China
Feb 03: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark
Feb 05: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark
Feb 07: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark
Feb 09: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark
Mar 25-26: Sao Paulo Interlagos Racetrack, Brazil
Mar 31,-Apr 01: Buenos Aires Hippodrome San Isidro, Argentina
Apr 01-02: Santiago Parque O’Higgins, Chile

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I'm thinking a concert at Kinnick Stadium in late August - right before the 2017 football season begins - would be perfectly awesome!

I saw this as well:

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Off to never-never land... #metallica #entersandman #bridge30 #metatbridgeschool

A video posted by Metallica (@metallica) on Oct 24, 2016 at 12:24am PDT

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From here.

So Much for the Relocation Option

Iowa approves $89.9M 'revitalization' of Kinnick Stadium's entire north end zone

Shivers

Over the weekend, I talked with Chris, one of my favorite sister-in-laws, about Metallica. I had just seen the video below and was giddy about them. I babbled about how they needed to be booked at the UNI-Dome (Cedar Falls) or Kinnick Stadium (Iowa City). I found myself fleshing out the theory that if Metallica played in Cedar Falls, it would attract fans from the following markets, especially if they didn't schedule another concert in Iowa.

• southern MN
• Des Moines
• Cedar Rapids / Iowa City
• Quad Cities

I'm not going to pretend that they actually will play in Cedar Falls or in Iowa City, but WOW, I would be one of the first in line to purchase a ticket if they were! Until then, I will immerse myself in videos like this one:

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We Need to Commence with the Melting of My Face

Just come to Iowa - either Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City or the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls - and melt my face!

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