The classic 12-5 upset. If you know what that means just skip to the next paragraph while I explain it here. In the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament the game involving the 12/5 seeded teams usually provides at least one upset among the 4 games played. In 2014 and 2013, three of the #12 seeds defeated the #5 seeded teams (click here.) A 12 seed has upset a 5 seed in 29 of the last 32 years since the tournament expanded to 64 teams.
Yesterday, two of the #12 seeded teams defeated their higher seeded #5 opponents. As soon as I saw Maryland slotted in as a #5 seed I thought “Oh no, the 12/5 jinx will bite them.” Here is hoping that the two upsets yesterday were it for this year and that Maryland doesn’t fall victim to it today when they play South Dakota. (Programming note – their game begins at 4:30 and will be on at Buzzy’s Country Store. I will be somewhere else watching it however simply because I don’t want to be with a bunch of folks when the Terps blow it and the Ridge boy in me comes out. Not a pretty sight.)
But because it is Flashback Friday, I wanted to do something on George Martin, the Beatles’ producer/engineer, who died a few days ago. Following his death, all of his Beatles’ past connections, including his honorary title “the 5th Beatle,” were rehashed and replayed. He was credited with helping to make the Beatles as great as they were.
I’ll give him his due but I got to think that as good as the Beatles were individually and collectively, I could have produced them and they still would have made it big. Martin gets credit for encouraging the Beatles to experiment in the studio and to do things like record backwards and incorporate orchestral sounds etc.. For me, who likes my music straight up with no chaser, I didn’t particularly care for all that messing around. (That said however, I did spend I don’t know how many hours high and playing Beatles records backwards just to hear “Turn me on dead man” or “I buried Paul” said in there somewhere. Maybe I shouldn’t be so critical.)
Martin also produced tunes for several other groups (click here.) One of those groups was America with this nice little song and video (below.) (I was looking for a song from America for the Terps today but all I could come up with was A Horse With No Name, a song I still don’t know what the hell they were talking about. )