The View from Sucker Bleachers

Well, it was without a doubt a beautiful day for football on Saturday, made even more beautiful by Cal's knock-down, drag-out win. Me and my football companions paid the big bucks for our seats, unlike those on Tightwad Hill, but I didn't really feel like I got $60 worth of football, I have to admit. Beyond the game, which everyone knows by now was not the blowout we were expecting, I was disappointed by my favorite part of the game: halftime. The Cal Band played an almost incoherent hip-hop medley and the Stanford band wasn't even allowed to take the field. I think they were suspended earlier in the season for burning down the 'Band Shack' -- but still! Who's made to suffer here, the band or the fans? So, to my dismay, I still have not seen the scatter band in action. Alas.

But I did enjoy a really rousing Memorial Stadium wave, which went around at least 10 or 12 times, and skipped the Stanford sections because they wouldn't get up offa their asses (what? Stanford's against the wave?!? How un-American can you get??). Also, the Cal Student section had this incredible choreographed animation, accomplished by holding up colored cards. Something to do with Oski (the Golden Bear) ripping up and/or peeing on the Tree. Great show -- somehow 3000 undergrads can get it together to pull this thing off, but I can't get 22 students to show up on time on any given day? Anyway, here's a photo of four happy Cal fans (and one unhappy one: the woman floating above us told me that she'd attended 50 Big Games in her life, and that tickets used to cost $5. Yeah, that would piss me off, too.)