Musicians of the day: The Great Guitars!

That's the name of the trio of jazz guitarists Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd. Of course, they lived up to the high standard of that name. I enjoyed the DVD of their concert a lot. Guitar Player, the magazine, has made available theirinterview dated back to 1974 from the archive. It was a good read.

Local sports radio newcomer FM95.7

I found this station when I was looking for Oakland A's radio broadcast this season (like the Raiders, these team changes radio station almost every season, which is not the case of their crosstown neighbours, the Giants and 49ers) Surprisingly it's a full-time sports radio station and it's on FM, not an usual combination! And it's growing on me. I used to listen to AM680 or 1050 (when they do not simulcast) a lot but they have lost quite a bit of my time to the newcomer. I enjoy the shows featuring Dan Dibley (formerly 680) and Chris Townsend covering A's. It's always good to have competitions.

Sports highlights: NASCAR at Sonoma

There are a few interesting sport events in the weekend: Super 15 Rugby playoff began its first round, the wildcard round. Those follow NFL would be familiar with this format: top 2 seeds get a bye week with the next 4 seeds playing each other. Both the Crusaders (they are like the recent years' Patriots of NFL) and the Blues advanced. The next weekend will be even more exciting. It was also fun watching the Giants swept the Indians despite their low-scoring offense.
The biggest highlight for me though, is watching NASCAR Sprint Cup race live at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, for the first time in my life :D Here were a few of my observations:
- The most popular driver seems to be Jeff Gordon, who was born in Vallejo, a city nearby. He got a tons of cheer, especially near the end of the race, where he reeled in cars in front of him one-by-one and eventually finished 2nd, after not being that competitive most part of the race.
- The least popular driver is definitely Kyle Busch. He was boo-ed during introduction. And when his car hit Montoya's and sent both spinning right in front of our section (turn 3) late in the race, lots of people cheered :P
- These cars are powerful and required tons of skills to drive. Even for a slight turn (like those described on mapping websites) that seems to be a no-brainer to go through, some lines were better than others. In fact, most drivers picked a particular line, which apparently is a good one.