Lady Gaga Rocks Super Bowl LI

Last night, Lady Gaga not merely lived up to the hype of her Super Bowl LI halftime performance but crushed it exceeding it with this fine live non-lip-synched performance. Enjoy the initial patriotic medly performance followed by a medley of her greatest hits accompanied by a dazzling visual performance sans technical flops and wardrobe malfunctions such as have plagued other recent Super Bowl halftime shows.

Virtues of Patience, Persistence, & Perseverance

Today into tonight's Super Bowl 51 was a game for the ages, by super bowl or playoff game or regular season game or preseason game standards of greatness. For me the simple takeaway were the virtues of patience, persistence, and perseverance. Tom Brady, love him or hate him, put on a clinic showing the value of those virtues. He seemed to be on his back all game long but kept getting back up off turf and willing himself and his team to victory over a younger and healthier and more energetic team.

A Rose Bowl For The Ages

I am still wrapping my mind around the 103rd Rose Bowl played today into tonight featuring the resurgent USC Trojans vs. Penn State Nittany Lions. Both schools are rebuilding from NCAA sanctions (USC's sanctions related to the Reggie Bush scandal and Penn State's sanctions related to a child molestation scandal). Both football programs appear to be back to national prominence. Tonight's climactic finish was a last-second/game-winning field goal by USC which capped a 17-point comeback in the final quarter to win 52-49. Above is the complete game and dramatic introduction to this year's match-up. Below is merely a highlight reel for those wanting to merely see the big plays.


Below is the very best editorial analysis of the 103rd Rose Bowl Game.

Everything's Coming Up Roses

Today it was announced that USC is ranked #9 in the land and will be representing the Pac-12 in the Rose Bowl this coming January 2nd.

The Granddaddy of Them All Needs Trojans

I need to get this off my chest. Yes, the USC Trojans should not have lost to the Utah Utes early in the season in the waning minutes of the game. Had they played a complete game that night in Utah, they would have finished the season 8-1 in the Pac-12, 10-2 overall and would own all tiebreakers except with the Stanford Cardinals who do not matter in this year's equation following their fade down the stretch.

The Colorado Buffaloes, who are also in the Pac-12 South, finished 8-1 (10-2 overall with their only conference loss being to USC) in conference ahead of USC's 7-2 record. Had Colorado finished the season tied with USC, the Trojans would have gone to tonight's Pac-12 Championship Game ahead of them due to the tiebreaker. The Pac-12 North is represented by the Washington Huskies who finished 8-1 in conference (11-1 overall with their own loss being to USC at home) and who are ranked #4 in the land.

Tonight, the Washington Huskies played an imperfect game again an inferior opponent in the Colorado Buffaloes and won 41-10 in Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, CA, in the first Pac-12 Championship game not won by the Oregon Ducks or Standford since the games inception several years ago. Few people in college football feel that there are many teams playing better football than USC who down the stretch played up to their talent level and commensurate capabilities, blowing out all opponents over a 7-game winning streak apart from a 26-13 victory over Washington in the Huskies' raucous house that did not feel or look as close a game as the final score indicates.

Watching tonight's game and thinking about how USC is now playing, one is left with but one conclusion: had they been in tonight's game in place of Colorado, Washington would have experienced a nightmare night in Santa Clara, CA. The areas in which Washington looked weak, USC would have exploited even worse and the areas in which Washington looked good tonight were the very areas USC embarrassed them a few weeks ago in the new Husky Stadium.

Given the new college football playoff system and Washington's #4 ranking, if they hold onto that ranking after tonight's game, they go into the new playoff featuring the top four teams in the country. Given Colorado's destruction at the hands of Washington tonight, if the Buffaloes fall out of the #8 spot far enough for #11 USC to rank ahead of them, then the Rose Bowl selection committee could select the Trojans to represent the Pac-12 in that iconic matchup against whomever the Big Ten sends to "The Granddaddy of Them All" on January 2, 2017.

USC ought to play in the Rose Bowl or else something is quite wrong with the current system which already is almost managing to exclude them from any meaningful post-season games aside from perhaps an upper middling bowl game in late December. 

Tecolote Fire From Dodger Stadium

Today I was in the strange position of being in attendance of my first ever Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game when a major wildfire broke out right in front of my in the distance in the San Gabriel Canyon area of the Angeles National Forest in the San Gabriel Mountains of eastern Los Angeles County. The fire is called the Tecolote Incident and has burned hundreds of acres as of this blog posting. Below are some images I captured of the incident as it unfolded before me many dozens of miles to the east of my location. Check HERE for an account of the rest of my day's adventure.

Those clouds are NOT pyocumuluus clouds but were there before the fire began shortly before this image was taken.

It seemed serendipitous that this third-generation fire chaser would be situated facing the fire as it unfolded in the distance.

I'm still getting used to my telephoto lens and hence my slanted image orientation.

I'm using this image a second time as it shows the reason I was down there (Faith  Family Day) but also the fire which soon distracted me from a most forgettable game on the field.

The previous image above and this one and the ones following show a spot fire blow-up well away from the main firefront.

Unfortunately during this blow up which featured our first glimpse of pyrocumulus clouds from this fire, my group was trying to fight through the main crowd to get down to the field level for the religious service after the game. Thus, I was unable to get into position to get some really good images of this column and the clouds atop it.

Once settled in for the service I was able to get this image and the next one.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

My First Ever Dodgers Game

Today I carpooled with three friends down to the Los Angeles Dodgers' game against the Milwaukee Brewers. This was my first-ever Dodger's game experience having merely watched them on television over the course of my life. Our primary purpose was to attend the after-game Faith & Family event where four Dodgers shared their personal Christian testimony, two Christian music artists I'm unfamiliar with performed and money was raised for the Not For Sale campaign. For me being a lifelong Dodger's fan it was more of an even split as I did not spend $30 on a ticket and $10 on gas for a simple church service which I could have experienced at home: I came for the game just as much. Below is a photographic record of my Dodger Stadium experience.
To view more Tecolote Fire pics taken from the stadium check HERE.

It is so "LA" to be blase even when the home team is #1 in their division as evidenced by the empty space in this lot.

An iconic skyline dominated by the First Interstate Tower.

Mount Wilson crowing the iconic San Gabriel Mountains in the distance.

This was my first-ever glimple and photograph of the stadium interior.

And here is my second ever such shot.

And my third ever such shot!

Our seats were on the other half of the main grandstand so this was to be my view this game.

We arrived early which I'm glad as it gave me an opportunity to drink in the scenery before it got crowded around me.

I was surprised at the degree to which my mountains dominated to background as seen from this stadium.

I cannot articulate accurately how deeply satisfying it was to finally attend a game here and on such a gorgeous day.

The stadium is actually quite beautiful in a classic sort of way.

There is a visually satisfying design to many aspects of this structure.

Mount Wilson and Henninger Flats through my telephoto lens.

The press box wasn't full yet at this point but I hoped to later see living legend Vin Scully.

I'm embarrassed to say that coming into this game I had no idea my Dodgers led their division... as did the Brewers.

It was cool seeing the cameras in person that make possible watching the game on television.

And another camera position with Mt. Lukens or another such antennae-crowned peak beyond it.

Mt Baldy way off to the east.

The throng coming into the game brought to mind a zombie horde.

Another rampart of Mt. Wilson.

The television pregame analysis.

All day I was captivated by not only the mountain backdrop by also the activities of the ground crews...

And the grounds look immaculate and amazing.

There were artistic patterns generated by the grounds crews activities such as here and following.

It got toasty enough the pregame talking heads had to cover up.

These guys were busy all day both before, during, and after the game.

Lots of geometric patterns fill the playing field.

More goes into the process of a game than I had a clue of prior to this game.

The lieutenant commander gave some brief comments and led us in one of the symbolic gestures before the game.

Dodger Cuisine.

A couple of Dodger wives/girlfriends doing some camera time...

... and how they looked.

Living legend Tommy Lasorda was not here today but his presence certainly was.

Tis been too long since the last world championship.

Jessica Alba was in attendance and did some sharing about her childhood experience as a Dodgers fan.

Were this blog monetized I'd make a mint just for having Jessica Alba images featured.

This was a live image of the skyline of downtown Los Angeles but the screen is backdropped the other way with the iconic San Gabriel Mountains beyond it.

An LAPD helicopter on patrol nearby.

Jessica Alba preparing to toss out the first pitch.

At least she got it to the left field line even if it missed home plate.

She is rather kittenishly cute.

One final pep talk from Alba.

How iconic: a baseball player signing a boy's whatever.

One of my first ever baseball pitch pictures... this of starting pitcher Dan Heran...

Who got roughed up early with this first inning two-run home run swing I captured by chance.

These are players coming home from a three-run home run in the second inning.

As the game got out of hand for the Dodgers I felt less into it and was distracted by the scenery.

What a gorgeous playing field!

I was unable to take my eyes off those mountains all day which dominate the horizon and loom over the LA Basin.

Matt Kemp was probably the biggest star suited up for the Dodgers today.

Not familiar with the guy on the left but most definitely am with the guy on the right... who shared a funny little bit about being good patrons in the stands during the game.

This was about the last we saw of Heran who gave up 2-3-1-1 in the first four innings.

Still no Vin Scully and never saw him all day.

There were a lot of people but I expected more.. perhaps the upper 80's/low 90's temps scared them away.

Thank God we were seated in the shade!

The grounds people did this smoothing action between each inning.

One last shot of Kemp who was pretty quiet all day.

After this loomed up from San Gabriel Canyon on the Angeles National Forest I was 100% distracted from the game.

The final score, but the real drama was beyond the score board.

All in all a gorgeous day to be in Chavez Ravine.

To me that pyrocumulus cloud from the distant Telocote Fire spoke louder than what issued forth from these speakers.

Christian singer Anthony Evans started things off with a performance.

Four Christian Dodgers gave their testimony: Adrian Gonzalez, AJ Ellis, Scott Van Slyke, and pictured above, Cy Young Award-winning Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw.

During the service the Tecolote Fire continued to rage off to the east... not that I was paying any attention.

The groundskeepers kept working on the playing field even during our service.

As iconic a skyline as any in the United States.

It was exhilarating to drink in this view as I left the stadium on foot.

View of the Capitol Records building as viewed from northbound Hollywood Freeway.
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).