Bebel Gilberto, Brazilian chanteuse extraordinaire


What a great show in a great venue. I haven’t been to The Fillmore in years though after this visit, I’ll make sure to show up more often.

My spouse and I (along with another couple which includes a Brazilian) went to the show last night. I’ve been steadily listening to more Brazilian music over the past few years and this was a great chance to see a popular performer put on a high energy and passionate show. Most of the songs played were new to me, I could only identify two from the entire set, but that didn’t really matter. A mixed crowd of Brazilian ex-pats along with the San Francisco natives were engaged and happy. It was something of an older crowd (thankfully) but still managed to muster good enthusiasm for the show.

The band was great and was comprised of two guitar players, two percussionists, and a utility wind player that switched between instruments. But the star of the show was Bebel and her smooth vocal stylings. Many of the lyrics were in Portuguese but that didn’t really matter as the music conveyed the feeling behind each piece. The place was packed and friendly, the music was great, the company was great, what more could you ask for?

The only other things I’ll observe is, it was overly loud for the type of music being presented – I think that’s come to be expected here. The other thing was a couple that stood in front of us most of the concert that seemed to be engaged in a bad Saturday Night Live parody of Dirty Dancing. Hey, Baby says “get a room!” That may be the unfortunate side effect of the concert; as a Bebel song played this morning all I could think of was that couple dancing and I started laughing…

If you haven’t heard the great Bebel Gilberto sounds, visit her site and have a listen. It’s great. So Nice (Summer Samba) is my favorite.

Louisville RB Anthony Allen runs for 275 yards/2 TDs


That’s right folks, it’s Friday morning which must mean that the Big East played football last night (aka as basketball on grass.)

Louisville has an undeniably effective offense. In the first two games of the year, they’ve put up 131 points and have amassed 1,381 yards. Good thing, because it’s also undeniable that Louisville has a rotten defense getting exposed last night to the tune of 555 yards and 42 points. No, this wasn’t against Hawaii, Boise St, or Cal, it was against that offensive powerhouse from the Sun Belt Conference, Middle Tennesee State. The same team that managed to score 14 points in a loss against Florida Atlantic last week. Cardinal fans, enjoy that #8 ranking; it won’t last.

The other game featured Cincinnati at home against Oregon State. Most observers expected Oregon State to win in a walk. Well, Cincy seems to be the one Big East team that plays defense forcing 7 turnovers, SEVEN! That resulted in a convincing 34-3 win. Former coach Mark Dantonio had this team on its way up and current coach Brian Kelley is continuing the journey. Congratulations to the Bearcats in a big win over a quality opponent. Will Cincy win the Big East? Probably not as the offense is still a work in progress. But Louisville, look out, the October visit to the Queen City could be unpleasant…

Can’t wait for Saturday with the second full week of action!

The Sippy Cups on stage


If you happen to be the parent of an under 8 year old, you might want to know about this…Over the weekend, we went to family day at Bay Meadows to hear the kids band The Sippy Cups play. It was a bunch of fun (and hats off to Bay Meadows for making the infield Lollapalooza for kids.) While I find most kids music repellent, the stuff The Sippy Cups played was tolerable and some of it was even, I dare say, good!

To calibrate, The Sippy Cups are doing largely soft-punk, 1980’s vintage kids tunes. Some are straight covers and some are original tunes with the same flavor. My favorite was a cover of the Ramones tune “I want to be sedated” with the lyrics changed to be kid friendly “I want to be elated.” If you’re bored of the same old kid music crap, check them out. The CD Electric Storyland is highly recommended.

Saturday September 8th the University of Akron Zips travel to Ohio Stadium to play the Ohio State University Buckeyes. Full data about the starting line ups, key players, statistics, et al can be found in this excellent preview provided by Bucknuts. Rather than rehash those areas, I want to forecast how I believe the game will play out.

Akron travels to the ‘Shoe with a one game win streak having beaten Army 22-14 last Saturday. A solid start for the Zips against a DI team (something the Buckeyes can’t claim) – although, of 119 DI teams, Army has been perennially living in the bottom of the division and arguably in the last 10 years could be considered one of the worst, if not the worst, DI team (no offense to competing bottom-feeders Buffalo, Florida International, etc.)

In the game last week, Akron had a strong first half scoring 19 of their 22 points. The attack was balanced, but a little anemic with 133 rushing and 154 passing yards. Curiously, the return game generated more yards than either rushing or passing with 172. The defense got on the score board with a pick-six, held the Army offense to 58 rushing and 184 passing yards. Army managed only one sustained drive for a touchdown during the game. The summary is, this was a solid effort across the board against bad DI competition. As we know, the Bucks turned in a solid effort across the board in a win against good DIAA competition last week.

In week one, we wanted to see how Todd Boeckman would perform, what the running game looked like, how the defensive line would attack, and how well the secondary would hold up. The secondary and Boeckman exceeded expectations, the defensive line turned in an average performance, and the running game was a disappointment. This week, it’s going to be about reducing mental errors (5 false starts and 2 substitution penalties) and getting the running game going. Akron will be motivated and will not simply give up. That being said, unless there’s a “Michigan Meltdown” (remember, you heard that term here first!) the Buckeyes should get a step up in competition but turn in a similar result.

On the defensive side, I see one or two sustained Akron drives, one or two bad field position possessions, and one or two turnovers generated during the course of Saturday’s game. Let’s call it two sustained drives resulting in a touchdown and field goal and one bad field position situation yielding a field goal; that provides an offensive point total of 13. I don’t see the Akron defense picking up points in this contest. I do think the Bucks will substitute liberally throughout the course of the game to a) combat heat induced fatigue and b) understand how different players react in different live game situations. I do expect a better push upfront from the defensive line and that at least one turnover is forced during the course of the game.

On the offensive side, I think OSU scores on 60% of their possessions. There will be 10-12 possessions over the course of the game, so let’s go for the low end and call it 6 scoring drives. I think it’s likely that the majority are touchdowns, but a field goal or two would be good to get the unit game time practice. Call it 38 points with 5 TDs and 1 FG. Early going it may feel a little slow, but over the course of the game, I expect the improved offensive line play and running game to grind the Zips down.

So there you have it, a prediction of a 38-13 win. The spread today lists OSU as 28.5 point favorites…..I don’t think they cover this weekend, but I do think they win. We’ll revisit this after the game to see how wrong these predictions were. Enjoy the game and GO BUCKS!

Originally published at Montara Energy Ventures.

Buy a $10 Ticket to buy this E85 Chopper


The Iowa Farm Bureau and Orange County Choppers have teamed up to build this great looking bike to increase ethanol awareness. It’s a great message, you don’t have to be a tech-weenie to be able to have a cool vehicle that also has a little lighter footprint on the planet. This plus what Tesla is doing on the electric vehicle front should help to start change the perceptions that your only choice is to drive a dorky looking, efficient car.

The drawing is tomorrow, September 7, so there’s still time to buy that ticket (if you can get to Iowa.) An aside: MeV owns an E85 vehicle, we can attest that the fuel works great. As a California company, it is disappointing as there are only 4 gas stations with E85 in the whole state.