What's Going On

• Second weekend of "The King and I" is over, two days of school shows Tuesday and Wednesday plus the final weekend starting Friday night.
  
  
• Christmas Cantata Sunday morning I'm leading with 10-piece orchestra and full choir. No solo this year...well, not a typical solo - I'm doing puppets in one number. After that and the final "King and I" matinée that afternoon, I'll be finished with most of my major performance responsibilities for the year.
  
  
• Youth drama comes up in three weeks, with rehearsals scattered about until then.
  
  It's nice to be taking my breather this early in the season - we're usually booked solid throughout December, now (knock on wood) we may have a less hectic Christmas this year.
  
  It's kind of like a football open date coming mid-season instead of late...
  
  Speaking of football:
  
• UT Vols: Unimpressive win over Kentucky that was over much later than it should've been. Arian Foster, RB, needs to pack it in and warm the bench with perennial fourth-stringer David Yantzey. The two times one-time starter Foster touched the ball, he ran backwards or was caught in the backfield. Apparently a combination of the early-season injury, his mid-season arrest for fighting and losing his starting job has caused him to lose any competitive spirit he once had. He's now a liability to the team and shouldn't see playing time unless desperately needed, especially not on special teams. I feel sorry for the guy, but he looks like Eric Ainge did last year - maybe next year he'll bounce back, too.
  
  
• Who else but UT could accomplish two fourth down conversions in a game-winning drive? And who else but UT could once again stop Kentucky on a 1st-and-goal to preserve a lead and a win (see 1987)?
  
  
• How much longer can the Vol Network continue to give the game-calling responsibilities to Bob Kesling? I'm sure he's a nice guy in real life and he has a great radio voice and personality, but the sheer volume of mistakes he makes during a broadcast are embarrassing. Michael is on record as hating the TV announcers for their bias against UT, and I have to have the local analysis of the game while watching it at home, but it's simply painful to hear constant missed downs, missed distances, missed player names or numbers, missed estimates of how far for a first down, etc. Some of it could be chalked up to bad spotters but someone who's really good at what they do should cover those mistakes.
  
  As much as I love hearing Mike Keith call the Titans games, he belongs at home behind the, er, mike at a UT game. Come home, Mike!
  
  
• Speaking of the Tennessee Titans.......
  
  Music City Miracle II
  
  Each of the five teams left on the schedule is beatable - with the Colts next week being the toughest test, followed by the finale at home vs. New England. Other than those two, we have Houston and Buffalo (better than average chance) and Jacksonville (a toss-up). It's quite possible the Titans could end up with a 9-7 or 8-6 record after starting 0-5.
  
  Playoffs? Still highly unlikely, and we'll probably end up 6-10....but hey, Miracles happen in Nashville more than once....!