text:
the boards are all posted online now. (has that been said?)
no more speculation: here they are (as pdfs)
field ops
1 2 3
1 2
(this "day in the park" is awesome. i love that they gave the itinerary of a deer.)
4 (kind of interesting to compare to mla's "day in the park" ...)
oh thank you heather for posting those. I did not realize they had FINALLY made the full boards available online, since last I looked they had only the three 3D renderings .... I tried again to get photos of the boards today and it was not very successful. they were on display at the chinatown library under less than ideal conditions, perched precariously on tables almost back-to-back.
and of course I couldn't prowl around taking pictures of them without getting drawn into conversations with total strangers who were looking at them too, some of whom had *quite a lot* to say. pretty cool, but made me late for the next stop on my busy day.
Ok, up to this point, I've been full of spit and hot air regarding the project teams. Thanks Heather for posting the links!
First- didn't know that elysian park hosts a population of deer. Coyote, yes, but bambi?????? And where are the skate boarders, gang bangers, taggers, homeless, and the insane? do they get to spend a day in the park?
Graphic style aside, there are distinct stylistic tendencies of Ha and MoFo that can be traced through many of their other projects. Ha love those lozenge shaped berms like they've droped onto the site next to the river- those are his signature (along with spiraling paths which are m.i.a.). fO has the sexy geometery of paths (that seem to respond best to the site conditions) along with the layers of plantings/terraces. The liniarity of the gardens and sports feilds provides for a very dense and urban experience - especially when most movement through the park will be perpendicular to the long axis. The plantings proposted by the MoFo park also provide the best buffering of the southern edge.
That said, MLA seems the least confident and sure of what marks she's making on the ground. Her rounded (olmsteadian? please!!!) paths create the simplist circulation patterns that have the least interaction with the site or the surrounding context - go walk in figure eights till you get dizzy! The MLA plan also produces the least convincing link to Elysian Park.
looking towards the next steps- the Ha scheme seems the most adaptive towards further development. The edges of the different zones seem flexible towards shifting around- less pure geometry that will break (like fO's hard linear edge). There is enough variations and open spaces left in the plan to allow community input towards the final concept. fO's geometric feilds and lines of programs seems the most fixed in what the park can accept- how can you fit anything else into the site? MLA's tentativenes feels like a bowl of jello quivering on the site- there is no overarching order to inform the placement of program items beyond the historic traces of the rail yard. Cornfields ain't no Duisburg Nord with a robust post-industrial infrastructure- evoking the trainyards is a one-liner that can't carry an entire park.
yes, MLA has proposed the most 'historicist' park, but it is still half-assed. If she wants to bring the traces of all historic occurances of the park, why focus on the shortest lived - the rail yard? why not bring in the gabrilino cultivation and villages back? why not the spanish gardens and law of the indies? Why not recreated (a la williamsburg) or transport historic structures from around the city onto the site? the again, why not provide a tutorial on the development of park types- start with the garden of eden, recreate the hanging gardens of babylon, a few persian hunting enclosure, jump to a chinese garden, recreate the alhambra, versaille, hampstead heath, the village green, boston public garden, central park, and la villette?
The again there seems to be little etymology of the name either 'cornfields' (where is iowa?) or 'los angeles historic park'.
hargreaves ... gum drops and oversized rail plaza thing plus a giagantoid lawn = boring and predictable to me. if you're looking for cheesy historicism you can find here in the cultural gardens.
mofo has a real mesemerizing plan graphic but at the scale of cornfields one long straight thing seems like a copout. they've built a giant sports complex. i like the feel of such things, but why not some more interest...of course we know why.
mla has more intricacy in their plan than i think it's given credit here. there's too much meadow and grass and tree areas, but the strands are actually quite elegant, such as at the visitor center and the topography with the prow and visitor center embedded are cool. i think someone walking around MLA's park (if it could be built to this plan!) would eat it up. i think people actually like curving paths...
as far as connectivity to elysian park, all that structural mumbo jumbo is just a bit delusional. how often is it really worth our resources to connect open space with more open space by building massive landbridges... unless you're really gonna connect to isolated and significant habitats? i'd rather see 5 pedestrian bridges on all sides of elsysian park and the lariver. maybe there should be a gondola to the top of radio hill??
steven: the "hispanic/dog owner comment" was my opinion and did not appear in any competioion proposal. it is a reflection of the idea that public space in other cities is part of the total public conscience, whereas in LA it is significantly less so.
jkaliski: i'm native. to respond to my comment with, "go to a park" is a "facile" rebuttal.
The project proposals were engaging. This is a great thread. reconciling ideas and budgets is difficult. Lanscaping a desert like Los Angeles is always a curious notion.
we need more desert landscapes in the LA basin... not meditereanian lushness of imported exotic trees and flowers. Bird of Paradise has become our national flower! I'd rather have a subtle black sage (Salvia mellifera or another member of the coastal scrub gracing the park, then palms and bannana trees.
I was just speculating that the Bristle Cone Pine (Pinus aristata would be a great species for green roofs since it loves very dry conditions with poor soils - wouldn't work so great in LA (zone 9/10) since it prefers zones 4-7 up in the mountains of the basin and range... but maybe? Anybody with a green thumb want to try an experiment?
Marlin, You must be one of the few natives living in Los Angeles! I would be interested in learning more about your definition of desert. The basin at least was described as quite wet in times past. Certainly early descriptions describe a river and wetlands and it can get quite wet here at times, though certainly not as wet as Seattle. With regard to parks, I still think you should get out more - the parks I am familiar with are all very heavily used.
by most workable definitions of desert, los angeles is not a desert. semi-desert is one label I've heard used. some prefer to call it a mediterranean climate, which it is. it's that combination of lengthy dry season alternating with a rainy season that can come on like gangbusters that makes it so interesting. they didn't channelize the river just for exercise, they did it because it got urbanized right up to its banks and then whoops, turns out it floods like a thousand freight trains from time to time, and more so when you've paved all around it. awkward place to have put a city, but it's not as if they had other choices in the days before the aqueduct.
we urbanized in a big hurry here. everyone was in a big rush to get rich and it sure didn't seem like we needed to build ourselves parks as a respite from the city. look! mountains! beaches! all right there! I see a few people posting here still with that attitude - what are you whining about los angeles, you with your year-round farmer's markets and roses in January, you got the beaches! and the mountains!
we do, but we've paved over just about everything else that was pavable, and look where we are - the most park poor major city in the country. one of the most gorgeous climates anywhere, and it's sheer hell to be outside in vast stretches of this city. if it wasn't a desert before, we've done a good job of approximating one.
treekiller, I envision a green roof of chaparral species, think it could be done? chaparral soils are thin, rocky, nutrient poor, etc. if I owned a roof I would be in a better position to experiment. if they can do green roofs in spain, we can surely do them here.
Definition of desert : A biome with an average annual rainfall of 10 inches or less and sparse vegetation, typically having thin, dry, and crumbly soil. A desert has an aridity index greater than 4.0.(from www.everythingbio.com)
Los Angeles' average rainfall is approximately 15" with a high of up to 30" in wet years (look at the NOAA website).
With regard to older descriptions of the LA River this is from the description of Blake Gumprecht's book, The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death and Possible Rebirth (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999):
"Three centuries ago, the Los Angeles River meandered through marshes and forests of willow and sycamore. Trout spawned in its waters and grizzly bears roamed its shores. The bountiful environment the river helped create supported one of the largest concentrations of Indians in North America. Today, the river is made almost entirely of concrete. Chain-link fence and barbed wire line its course. Shopping carts and trash litter its channel. Little water flows in the river most of the year, and nearly all that does is treated sewage and oily street runoff. On much of its course, the river looks more like a deserted freeway than a river.
"The river's contemporary image belies its former character and its importance to the development of Southern California. Los Angeles would not exist were it not for the river, and the river was crucial to its growth. Recognizing its past and future potential, a potent movement has developed to revitalize its course. The Los Angeles River offers the first comprehensive account of a river that helped give birth to one of the world's great cities, significantly shaped its history, and promises to play a key role in its future."
My question is, is it really visionary to imagine that it must remain as a concrete channel? Or is this a capitulation to completely discredited Army Corps of Engineering mid-20th Century engineering tropes. Los Angeles was located where it was located precisely because of the river. It was turned into a concrete channel because of its propensity to flood. Much of downtown east of Main Street lies within flood planes and would revert to wetlands without control. Say what you will for the idea of putting a five story garage into and/or next to the Cornfields but fundamentally it is choosing to place a parking garage in a floodplain over a former wetland.
FYI Allan Loomis, a contributer to this site, did some wonderful research on all of this years ago at SCI-Arc. (http://www.deliriousla.net/lariver/index.htm). Look at it the front pages; it was very green and wet and lots of water flowed through, albeit, more at wet season times of the year.
With regard to Olmstead, as his work progressed it became more and more about eco-infrastructure in the modern sense even as it was certainly more passive in its emphasis than today's recreational interests demand. Nevertheless he did plan for a full range of outdoor activities and my sense is that people go to parks for a respite from the strains of daily urban life in much the same way that they did one hundred years ago.
What does all this mean with regard to the Cornfields? Only that many people have been thinking about this for a long time and my guess is that the scheme and the team that manages to pay respect to the facts on the ground in the clearest way will win.This competition in essence was not held in a vacuum. I have not plowed through all the boards to form my own opinion, but am fascinated in reading all of yours, though I do think that a bit more respect should be paid to the enourmous effort that it takes to be selected and produce one of the schemes. I would not be so quick to dismiss the intelligence or the efforts of any of the team's based upon hype or the regular participation, or not, of some of the firms in academic discourses amongst a small number of institutions.
JKaliski: LA is a desert. It benefits from being directly south of the only east-west running mountain range in all of California. Discussing this through the lens of technical definition is dull. Like nit said, "semi-desert is one label I've heard used." Pardon my brevity. Equally dull is telling me to go to parks, an argumentative stance you described earlier as "facile". As your daughter would say, "no offense." But like you said later, "I have not plowed through all the boards to form my own opinion," even though you went to great lenghts to express it on page 1.
albeit a bit Banana-ist (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything), keep up the insightful commentary.
Here's a bibliography of the LA River for further readings on this topic.
Davis, Margaret; Rivers In The Desert: William Mulholland And The Inventing Of Los Angeles. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993.
Fogelson, Robert; The Fragmented Metropolis – Los Angeles, 1850-1930. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.
***Gumprecht, Blake; The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
Hall, Clarence A., et al- editors; The History of Water: Eastern Sierra Nevada, Owens Valley, White-Inyo Mountains. White Mountain Research Station Symposium, Volume 4. Los Angeles: University of California 1992
Hoffman, Abraham; Vision Or Villainy: Origins Of The Owens Valley-Los Angeles Water Controversy. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1981.
**Hundley, Norris; The Great Thirst – California and Water: A History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
Kahrl, William L.; Water And Power: The Controversy Over Los Angeles' Water Supply In The Owens Valley. Berkeley: University Of California Press, 1982.
Kreissman, Bernard; California, An Environmental Atlas & Guide. Davis, CA: Bear Klaw Press, 1991.
Mayer, Robert; Los Angeles: A Chronological & Documentary History, 1542-1976. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1978.
Mulholland, Catherine; William Mulholland And The Rise Of Los Angeles. Berkeley: University Of California Press, 2000.
Mulholland, William; Complete Report on Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Los Angeles, Department of Publics Service of the City of Los Angeles, 1916.
***Orsi, Jared; Hazardous Metropolis: Flooding And Urban Ecology In Los Angeles. Berkeley: University Of California Press, 2004.
Ostrom, Vincent; Water & Politics: a Study of Water Policies and Administration in the Development of Los Angeles. Los Angeles: Haynes Foundation, 1953.
**Reisner, Marc; Cadillac Desert. New York: Viking, 1986.
Scott, Allen & Edward Soja, editors.; The City: Los Angeles And Urban Theory At The End Of The Twentieth Century. Berkeley: University Of California Press, 1996.
Wood, R. Coke; The Owens Valley and the Los Angeles Water Controversy - Owens Valley as I Knew It. Stockton CA: University of the Pacific, 1973
***best reads***
Marlin- I do not want this to be personal- I certainly would not call your person much less your arguments dull, but I did use facile for a reason, and the reason was not related to you as a person. You can always have the last word in your response; the power of the blogosphere.
There is a tendency for all of us to use terms and make definitive statements that distort our ability to see things clearly for what they are, not what popular opinion or myth tells us they are. It is a popular idea that Los Angeles is a desert that should not be in its current location due to lack of water. This ideas forms many people's notions as to viable futures and forms for this city. While there are certainly more people here than the natural system can support (Mike Davis suggests an ability to support 500,000 to 600,000 people based upon natural water resources; lack of water was the case in Rome as well 2000 years ago and Rome, if not the empire is still there), LA is not a desert by any definition that is commonly used. The mountains and proximity to the ocean do cause air to rise and drop moisture and that is also part of the reason LA is not a desert. History's commentators also offer abundent descriptions of the wetness of the LA Basin. For me these are important facts to clarify when considering the array of opinions that ultilately frame selection of designers and designs.
As far as LA parkland, there are such abundent facts associated with the scant quantity and over use of parks in LA that it bears little comment until people, whether people that live in the city or people that design, assume broad generalizations about parks, park use, and open space that would lead to the formulation of ideas for parks . Yes, I am doubtful, though not completely closed off to the notion, that building a garage and a baseball stadium over open space that was dearly obtained and historically critical to the LA water basin is good public policy regardless of the sophistication of the design (and I expressed this doubt to Thom some weeks ago). I think these latter designer's and their team have to prove the viability and cultural correctness of their notions and their design is an attempt to do this. But my my main interest here is not to formulate a definitive opinion about the best design but to learn more from everybody what the actual situation on the ground is. Hopefully this conversationwould lead in some small way to a richer discussuion of the merits and constraints of each scheme.
I would maintain that one of the factors that help in an assessment of the approach that each team took is the team's willingness to consider ecosystem potential. In this regard at least, I think it useful to consider that LA in downtown, along the length of the river, in the vicinity of the Cornfields, is not a desert.
the desert comment was initially a throwaway comment. Landscaping in a dry, arid, climate like LA is interesting to me. This was the depth of the comment as i had originally used it. I'm still surprised that my reference to this hot, seasonless metropolis as a desert inspired such a flood of rebuttal.
we sustain ourselves by diverting enourmous quantities of water from other states.
well, marlin, you can call it desert, semi-desert, or the ninth circle of hell, just as you choose, but you seem pretty anxious to convince everyone that los angeles, the river, etc. is a certain way.
you've got an army of straw men on the march here:
...that the river is a dry, dirty ditch; that nobody (or nobody much) engages public space here; that nobody cares about history here; that a stadium would be the best proposed 'significant attractor' to the cornfields site and that none of the program elements already specified for the park would attract anybody (except perhaps for the HALF of the population that is hispanic,) that this city is a desert (and therefore - what? shouldn't have parks? shouldn't have planting?)
well, slap my fanny and call me a nitpicker, but I just don't follow your logic.
I applaud the comment by jkaliski -- "I do think that a bit more respect should be paid to the enourmous effort that it takes to be selected and produce one of the schemes. I would not be so quick to dismiss the intelligence or the efforts of any of the team's based upon hype or the regular participation, or not, of some of the firms in academic discourses amongst a small number of institutions." His or her comments are generally thoughtful and interesting.
The level of other discourse on this blog unfortunately can be astounding, descending to personal attacks and inbred comments about classmates and other professional ties. The derisive comments about Mia Lehrer, a woman and Latina, seem particularly inappropriate.
I would have thought there would be a richer, fact based discussion regarding the values at stake in creating the Los Angeles State Historic Park -- What are the needs of the people surrounding the site? How can the Park serve those needs? How can the design and design team serve those needs? What can the CA Department of Parks and Recreation do to serve those needs? What are the obstacles, and ways around those obtacles?
I would be grateful for citations regarding the claims made about Hispanics and park use in Los Angeles and Chicago -- are those statements evidence based? We have done extensive research about how different cultures value parks, but I can recall nothing along those lines.
The following and similar comments about beaches are also interesting -- in light of ongoing efforts to privatize public beaches, the lack of transit to the beach for those who cannot drive there, and the history of discriminatory beach access -- beaches, like parks, were off limits to people of color for much of the 20th century -- "the beaches are the most democratic place in LA with the greatest demographic range - even 'exclusive' wet sand below the high tide line in Malibu." Is there some support for that statement? Take a look at clipi.org/ourwork/beachaccess.html.
Hi all - Jan Dyer here. Hi Ann - It was good to see you at the presentation! While I am not a part of any of the design teams I work for a landscape architectural firm in Los Angeles and due to more reasons than you want to know I am very passionate about the Los Angeles River and it's potential revitalization. I was capitvated by all three presentations and while of course I have my favorite that is irrelevant as are all of your opinons....While all of the designs had grand "big ideas" as they teach at UCLA (Ann you can vouch for that!!) I felt there was only once concept that could withstand the test of time. We are all faced with, on a daily basis, post modern architecture, the addition of columns or corbels where they do not belong, but in someone's concept this is a grand idea.We can look to Europe and European architecture and landscape architecture as something that withstands the test of time... A classic design that is not trendy and when looked at 50-100 years from now will not be dated to a particular year or "style." That is what needs to be achieved in this design - classic design to withstand the test of time.I know you all feel the reference to Olmstead is overdone, but my friends it worked and it withstood the test of time, not only in NY but in Boston and even here in Los Angeles in Palos Verdes. So in the analysis here by you all are we way more self absorbed or self righteous?? Are you looking at the overall good and lasting legacy of the project or just a moment in time, a trendy design, to be dated and quickly out of date...While all three had intrinsically viable components there was one design that stood the test of time... Mia Lehrer's design was something that you could walk through today, in 2006 or in 100 years in 2106. FO was out in left field (no pun intended....) and left themselves open for critique and criticism.. While ultimately their solution might be the best, it was not in keeping with the master plan and fell short on the ears that were there in that room during the presentation. Hargreaves was interesting but seemed to be a cookie cutter of all Hargreaves projects and while it had potential, the area of the grand "plaza" if you put some scale to the plan was about 14 acres. We all know what Pershing Square looks like and that is an unbelievablly unfriendly place to be in - just think about the character of the space... I think we need to get off of the trendy bandwagon and start looking at what makes a place a destination, human scale, friendly, organic etc. What generates life in a space?? People... And how do you draw people?? You make it human scale, friendly, comfortable... a place that draws the community from near and far. So what we need here is not trendy and out of the box, we need a classic, timeless park with design elements that pass the test of time... In my mind Mia and team hit the nail on the head - ecologically correct ( who was that who posted about not being ecologically correct - that is all she has done for 20 plus years - there are bioswales and photovoltaics all over the place - get over it) and it has a timeliess, albeit not trendy design with graceful "s" curves you could die for to meander you through the space. We need to be thinking timeless not timewasted on a park of this stature... Sorry to be so lengthy on my first post...
OOPS - should have done spell check first - sorry - Jan
OOPS - should have done spell check first - sorry - Jan
And by the way how does one mistakenly measure success in terms of how outlandish a concept is proposed rather than based on functionality and form. What happened to function and form?? Has that gone by the wayside???
stop blaming the forum and stop being groupies.
nobody is using the term "inbred" except the person who is complaining about the level of discourse.
[i]...the area of the grand "plaza" if you put some scale to the plan was about 14 acres. We all know what Pershing Square looks like and that is an unbelievablly unfriendly place to be in - just think about the character of the space...[i]
i don't know what pershing square looks like, and i wouldn't assume that hargreaves' 14 acres would mimic it. i'll have to speak as one of the converted here: i questioned our 'great lawn' in louisville for the same reasons of scale and use.
guess what! i was so completely wrong. the great lawn has indeed become louisville's front yard, its welcome mat. it's a place where a concert can happen and there is still room for a soccer game and two ultimate frisbee games. and, with the adjacent spaces of different character, you can hang back off the lawn and watch, you can walk your dog, a different event can be going on entirely.
i'd warn against assuming that you know what 14 acres means by comparing it to something you don't like. look at the design implications of that 14 acres in the context of the larger scheme.
RG- If I was critiquing Mia on a personal/racial/sexist level, I would have compared her beauty to Mary Margaret's. But no, that is not my language or thoughts behind my disappointment with her skills as a Landscape Architect were aimed at.
As a professional landscape architect/urban designer with a passion for the Los Angeles River and the entire watershed of Los Angeles (from the Owens Valley, the Colorado River, to the Sacramento River), I have been attempting to reconcile MLA's lackluster performance on the Los Angeles River Revitalization Masterplan, with similar projects around the world. Maybe I should blame the parochial interests in Los Angeles for never letting go of their agendas for the sake of the bigger picture (or is this just a phenomina in San Diego?)
My disclosure of ties to Ha or Mo-fO, was an attempt to make a journalistic full disclosure so that I could objectively make comments and not just root for people I know. Yes, I know people in MLA's office too.
Jan- lots of good thoughts and comments- welcome to the discussion/archinect. For lots of reasons, I don't think that Olmstead is the appropriate model for a 21st century urban park in los angeles. (Anne Winston Spirn has a great essay about him that I just read in [i]Uncommon Ground[i] edited by William Cronon). Yes, I grew up in boston, in one of his garden suburbs too... but we use parks differently today (and will in the future). A pastoral greensward with curvilinear paths don't provide the layering of programatic uses that the LASHP will be be asked to perform. Not sure if any of the schemes may provide for the intensity of uses or address the urban conditions/context of the site. even the two 'day at the park' scenarios are rather sparse with presenting the amount of potential visitors (though Ha's diagram is more evocative by tracing their routes).
Importing english pastoral ideals (which were interpretations of Chinese gardens) to Los Angeles seems an academic project with no potential. What about basing a design on the conditions, constraints, history, and place of the site? Of that MLA did trace the erased RR tracks and while fO engages a bigger issue of Elysian Park. Yes, the Ha scheme is a cut and paste adaptation of their other parks. 14 acres is a large lawn to not have any shade in the hot soCal sun, but then the other schemes have equally large shadeless expanses....
hi Jan! wow, everyone is finding their way here! are we turning up on Google or something?
first of all, although there have been plenty of ad hominem attacks and snark going on here, a lot of it fairly ill-informed, I don't see any evidence that anyone is criticizing any of the designers based on gender or ethnicity. it would be nice if everyone based their criticisms solely on the details of the designs, but of course this IS a small world where a lot of people know other people, and personalities go into the mix too.
as for which designs are "classic" and "timeless," personally I don't think there is such a thing, not even in nature, let alone human design. Olmsted's designs were a product of a specific historic moment; many of their elements have gone on being useful, while others haven't or have been subject to alteration.
And Central Park, far from being a timeless monument, has had a fairly dramatic history, and has gone through several significant periods of neglect and abuse. in recent decades it took a monumental effort by a pubic-private partnership to pull it back from the brink of doom, it was not so long ago that it was a symbol of everything that was hellish about cities in the fiscal crisis years. it functions beautifully today, but it takes a LOT of intensive management and widespread investment by multiple constituencies to keep it going.
not that any of the above necessarily argues for or against an 'olmstedian' design, but I think the point could be made that there are many, many examples of designs that were of their time and yet go on having vital relationships with their users. a certain degree of adaptability helps, and investment (both financial and otherwise) in the place by its users.
and right now I feel compelled to add: yes, I've been guilty of snark too, in my latest response to marlin.
so, marlin, this is my open message to you: you've said a lot of stuff in the course of this discussion that comes off as fairly dismissive, generalizations that aren't supportable, even some things that some might find offensive. and yet you've also stated that you enjoy the discussion, hearing everyone's opinions, etc.
so I do wonder, do you really mean all that you've said, or are you just trying to stir (stuff) up?
if your point is that people shouldn't be sentimental or unrealistic about various realities here in Los Angeles, I couldn't agree with you more, even if I don't suppose we'd exactly agree on all those realities. there is undoubtably a danger of over-earnestness when we discuss these matters.
but, you seem to be unwilling to acknowledge that the current situation might change. the river might just be altered, both from an engineering and a design standpoint. there are efforts under way to do just that. new parks might be created, and not just this one. given that we're in a dry climate, and we have this problematic civic relationship with parkland/open space, and all the rest of it, what are we going to do about it? do we have anything constructive to offer? which 'gestures' are the right ones?
I guess what I'm trying to say is, I don't really believe you *are* as cynical as a lot of your remarks sound.
it's nice to see jkaliski using Rome as a positive precedent. Since Romans basically invented the civil engineering that made it possible to drain all its wetlands and swampland with a massive sewer system to allow "Rome" as we know it to exist at all.
it's amazing how a radical intervention can allow opportunity for beauty to blossom. or maybe Rome would have been better had they just proposed some pleasant landscaping and 'curvy' paths?
no, it was ROME.
just like it's LA.
come on. this park isn't by a granola farm in oregon, it's by the 8th most populated city on earth. really. the olmstedian pastoral model was last relevant in the 1920's. is there seriously still thoughts that this model makes any sense at all in the 21st century?
maybe not in l.a. don't know.
but for some people in some places: yes!
nit: writing long winded responses takes time. I'll see if I can do this without diverting too much from your open comment. I'm not good at including emoticons, so I urge you to hear the voice delivering this post as one from by a modest guy with a genuine smile on his face.
"... that people shouldn't be sentimental or unrealistic about various
realities here in Los Angeles" Yeah, I'd agree this is my point. Let's start with a few premises, and then we can work from there:
The fate of the LA river and the Cornfield Proposals are individual subjects, so when i talk about the river in a way that may seem derisive, it in no way reflects my genuine appreciation for the Cornfield proposals.
For me to say that Hispanics seem to engage open space in Los Angeles with great frequency and activity shouldn't be misconstrued as racist, or otherwise need to be backed up by statistical data. It's an observation stemming from a lifelong residency in Los Angeles. Hispanic culture is festive, to say the least, and for me to say this does not necessarily make the converse my opinion: that white people don't engage public space. A good example may be Pan-Pacific park on 3rd street in West Hollywood: it sits at the base of Park La Brea, a predominantly white, middle and upper class, housing project, and on any given weekend, the park is populated by Hispanics engaged in pickup games of soccer with incredible explosions of balloon colors and piñata candy celebrating a birthday for a young Hispanic child. The same is true for the public park at the corner of Robertson Blvd and Olympic Blvd at the edge of Beverly Hills, where most often a soccer game is underway initiated by Hispanics whose clothes and contractor trucks suggest that they are not residents of the nearby muiltbazillion-dollar houses. What does this say about the nearby residents and their desire to engage public space? Without statistical data, i can't say for certain. Are there other people in the park as well? Certainly. But if a particular culture engages public space in Los Angeles more so than any other, the behaviors of their engagement seem like a good place to start in terms of developing public space. Ergo MLA's and FO's proposals I enjoyed very much. For the sake of brevity, it's worth quickly acknowledging that there are examples of other public spaces that are engaged primarily by citizens of other classes and cultures: Liemert Park in South Central, Balboa Park in Reseda.
Calling LA a desert: Jkaliski misconstrued this as derisive. I never used the term in a way that should have led you to conclude this. This is my home, this Mediterranean desert Los Angeles. I find landscape design in arid climes fascinating as a result. LA is a funny place: there's no burst of fall color and no seasonal change. One day the leaves turn brown, and the next day they're being swept out of the gutter by a street cleaner. My love is a Magnolia blossom.
That the river is a dry, dirty ditch: Do I really have to argue to support this claim? . One possible rebuttal may point out those areas of Frogtown that are not concrete-bottomed, or the efforts of FOLAR to landscape the fringes and walkway paths, but otherwise a ditch is what it is. Another rebuttal might be that at some time in the distant past it was a watershed not yet paved over by the Army Corps. Your question, though, is about whether or not I think this can change in favor of some picturesque vitality and life. I don't think it needs to. I think a lot of the sentimentalism can be attributed to the idea that its current condition as a ditch starkly contrasts pastoral visions of the future stemming from the title "river", which always seemed to me to be a goofy misnomer. Call it a channel. Unlike "rivers" in other cities, the LA river is neither a border condition nor an active waterway thoroughfare. However, the freeway infrastructure inherits both of these qualities. The "other side of the tracks†in LA always seemed to me to manifest as "the other side of the freeway,†and the 10 freeway along Midcity is the most visible example. Unique proposals for competitions tend to pop out of the minds of natives instead of non-natives: FO's proposal to open Chavez Ravine up as public space in favor of a fiscally self-sustaining attractor like a ballpark placed at the Cornfields; Gehry and COA's notion of a linear Downtown district along the Wilshire Blvd corridor, Craig Hodgetts' proposal for the Artspark competition in the Sepulveda Basin. Why these things tend to be so radically different is worth considering. Again, any time you choose to abandon a brief, it is a slap in the face of the organizations that took the time and effort to put it together, while simultaneously these slaps can raise questions about alternative options for land use.
Historic parks in LA: I don't know. Whose history do we acknowledge and at the expense of who else? Whose eradication is worse? There are already some parks that acknowledge the history of Los Angeles by being built from old infrastructure: the Nike Missile Station atop Mulholland Drive (named after the city's most famous water czar,) was restored and planned by the LA Conservancy, and provides hiking and biking trails with infographics stations telling the story of LA as a defense installation during the Red Scare era: Angelinos can learn about the deactivated missile batteries beneath the Sepulveda Basin. At the base of the hill leading up to Jerde's (?) successful civic open space attractor of CityWalk, is the historic park Campo de Cahuenga, where Mexican commander Ardres Pico surrendered to General John Fremont (an army topographer who coined other fun misnomers, "the great basin†and the "Golden Gate), thus giving birth to the American state of California. Stories can be written about both of these installations that make them sore points in someone's history, nevermind that the Presidio (Nike station) and the Campo are the two dominant secular infrastructural typologies imported by the Spanish. The aforementioned is an architectural history, and California's botanical history is just as colored: America's "amber waves of grain†in part references the Slender Wild Oat, brought over accidentally on the hooves of Spanish horses and quietly and irrepressibly destroyed the state's thriving wild grass species. This is an example of a fun story of subjugation that goes unacknowledged by the cornfield competition proposals. Another piece of Angelino botanical history concerns California's Mendel, Luther Burbank, after whom the Angelino subcity of Burbank is named. This guy cross-pollinated the heck out of every species he could find, developing new species of Plums, Prunes, and Potatoes. Should the cornfield historic park offer up a location that pays tribute to bioengineering and the fruits of Burbank's developments? Maybe. I think this stuff's rad, but again, whose history do we acknowledge, and how? California's plant life consistently mocks conventional notions of abundance and scale. As part of a historic narrative, Where are these plant types in the cornfield proposals? This again, asks, "how exactly do you tell a story?â€
I don't have the right answer to anything. Right is like Truth, and both are evasive. As a native, I have another unique and uncanny idea: focus the development of public space along the freeway edges. I like the river the way it is. As a teenager, I spent hours and hours frolicking along its retaining walls with drunk graffiti writers. I like that it is this meandering perspective occasionally popping up along every condensed view of the city experienced from any freeway, and can cheekily remind the city that it's tied together with threads of its own absurdity. To restore it to a traditional river might actually create a border condition that further segregates Los Angeles. For me, I like that the LA river in its current state can make any Angelino life instantaneously extraordinary, like when an extreme kayaker has to be fished out of a storm rush by the National Guard copters, and the rescue footage is played over and over on local news. Or that any of us can grab our '39 Mercury choptop and nostalgize the drag race scene in Grease. Or that a graffiti writer has an art gallery visible from the entire city, and the sloped banks are echoing the fame endowed him by other graffiti writers when he wins an afternoon-long graffiti battle.
This city, the "riverâ€, is fucking weird, and I love it.
I love the cornfield proposals, mainly because I couldn't conjure them up myself. The Hargreaves scheme is sorely lacking in benches and seating, and the drumlins are a bit hokey, but whatever: it's better than I could do. Thanks for redacting your last comment towards me, nit. I hope I covered all the points of your concern.
i love this thread.
Marlin- only a native angeleno can know about some of those places- great comment.
But LA is a city of outsiders, of immigrants and emmigrants. So the power of Mo-fO's scheme is in the tradition of outsiders reinventing LA. Even Mia is an migrant (don't know if her partner Ester is native). There are very few native Landscape Architects in LA that I ever met... Maybe Mark Rios, but he wasn't invited- though would have been a better local choice.
so glad that there is a discussion about landscape architecture/urban design in LA. As previously stated, it is much needed. Thank you for jumpstarting and discussing these projects from an inside perspective.
IMO, the MO-FO scheme is the most historical scheme. True, I appreciate that they bucked the ridiculous-to-achieve design/program wish list of the competition and am very glad not to have to read an embarrassing text/program that dots every possible i in the competition outline, but the whole design seems very Hausman-late 19th Paris-rigid. And it is in bed with some developer who stands to gain a lot. There is nothing organic in their proposal; everything is structured, serves a purpose and has its place. It works well as a graphic but if I imagine the place, it feels very elitist. It feels like the cornfield area is the new border between the haves and have-a-lot-lesses and everyone should know their place. Nothing like a Duisberg Nord.
The HA scheme is fine but lacks a grander design gesture. It would probably be a nice place since HA does good, solid work that actually can energize an urban area. Something that FO has not achieved to date, right?
The MLA scheme seems to suffer from too many cooks. The broader gestures--the strands and the peeled-up ground to create building underneath and berm above--are really nice. The Thomas Kinkade renderings, the pirate plank (what is that??), the dizzying uberprogram is cluttering the nice design (which btw was designed by David Fletcher who is one of the guys behind the winning Strangler Fig MAK center competition--hmm, which design is more radical given the context??)
someone said they wanted a Duisberg Nord, which is not a Robert Smithson Notes from Passiac type minimal landscape, and I agree that would be fantastic (just dry up that LA Riverbed and make it a skate park) or a West8 post-Pop silliness or even a lawsuit-waiting-to-happen Gustafson, but is the US capable of appreciating it? There is no LA/UD school in the US that supports this kind of discussion. Please all of you, start alternative Landscape Arch/Urban Design schools in your town a la SCI-Arc 1972 and keep the interest and debate going.
all the projects are the same (similar) static proposals with mastery of form making and etc. white birds in chinese cages. or white elefants in the cornfields. all with a touch of romance and green love. relying on rendering program dynamism.
i like marlin's project of freeway / combo that has a real possibility of connecting this city through parks and pedestrians.
his idea is dynamic and it has a futuristic possibilities. not just an exercise in the better park designing confined to the cornfields area.
why do we always have to bust conc. of the la river for our renderings?
when it rains it all goes into la river. it is like a big raging brown drainage water when it rains heavily in two days in a row. these projects are way too expensive.
big jump is already done, i believe by just establishing the cornfield which the city should built on it, instead of spending another big money on some spectacular.
that program is an overkill. it is not an idea/vision program it is a rearrengement/design program. too bad. i don't think anybody is criticing the 21st century but eloborating further on the la citta capitalista.
if mofo were gonna break the rules, they should have a really radically different approach.
sorry, i don't think relocating the dodger stadium down the hill and carving some plots for developers is hardly a visionary idea worthy of breaking the states guidelines.
Parasitelily- welcome and great first post. Alternate LA schools- huh? I know of a few alternate non-accredited programs that are more horticultural/environmental in pedagogy.The again, penn tries to push it's students towards crazy pie-in-the-sky ideas more then any of the other schools out there. So do we really need another grad school to fight over the few students who are entering our profession? There is a shortage of LAs entering practice per the ASLA. Creating an alternate school is one way to cultivate fresh talent! I like the idea of going for a sci-LArch attitude- sign me up to teach!
Orhan - mofo has shown that they will break the rules- but is there approach strong enough to blossom into a full blown scheme that does the site proud? there is nothing that will prevent the selected team from tossing out the initial scheme with the rainwater flowing down the fovick.
wasn't there am early 90's project to create an architectural cloud over the 101 freeway near where the cathedral now is? maybe it's time to bring back that idea. Then there was the student filming a devil frolicking along the 10 that shut down traffic for a while- maybe playing next to the freeway isn't the best idea.
i'd push this blog to continue talking about what does public space mean in los angeles? is the need greater as density in korea town rivals that of new york? what about the uncounted illegal immigrants who live in crowded apartments near the cornfields site?
there are huge economic disparities in los angeles, as well as socio-economic and racial segregation - although there is more racial mixing than people would think. as an la native, i don't meet as many mixed heritage people any where else as i do in la. given the socio-economic and racial aspects of los angeles the olmsteadian - democratic park idea still holds weight. not necessarily his pastoral style, but his meaty idea that a park can be a leveling field. this is particularly interesting to me in the la context where most "public space" is couched in capitalism - third street promenade, pasadena old town and shopping malls of course. the beach is the closest thing we have to a unifying open space, but it does have this protected feeling that it's the backyard of the people wealthy enough to live near the beach.
so my rant, is primarily to prod us to think about what is public space in la, and why is it needed? maybe that discussion will lead to better comments at public forums for this project and a clearer guage by which to choose the best team.
someone said that the jury will pick the best design team, not necessarily the best concept design. having said that, we have to admit that we aren't privy to the other half of their competition work - their rfp books.
designer personalities are fun to talk about - who can resist to notice that rem always wears prada - we are a small community, but as the populace, let's dream and question and hopefully push the designer forward when we go to these public comment forums.
fyi - i worked at mla. while the environment could be stressful, i had a great experience. the firm is earnestly interested in discussing ideas and learning and moving the profession forward. so la natives, let your blogosphere ideas spill into the real world - i know that jan goes to all the la river meetings - go jan!
also i'd like to clarify that mla is not the only landscape arch firm on the la river master plan. it's a large team made up of civitas, wenk & associates, tetra tech and mla.
Dean Treekiller, you've got the job. I hear there is a former cornfield in downtown LA that won't be used for a while. . .SCI-LARC?
Just please don't hire Mark how-to-run-a-LA-program-into-the-ground Rios. (seriously, how do you start with 20+ students and five years later have only 1 and still get a decent salary?)
Clover, absolutely. I lean away from cynicism and toward idealism when it comes to the projects and the Cornfield competition and yearn for more public space and interaction in this town. But that doesn't mean that I don't get upset about the lack of presence of this profession in the greater design field. Competitions like these and the discussions that follow (on all levels) help gather momentum internally while externally educating the public about the field and show that LAs can do more than place a tree.
I was wondering what happened to USC...
The good news for landscape in Los Angeles is that ucla extension is on the ascendence- now if they would only get LAAB accreditation. Maybe the origin myth of sci-larch will be a group of rebel ucla-exers lead by nitpicker, breaking away and moving into a werehouse in... Azusa to be near the monopolistic/omnipresent monrovia nursery, or a great post-industrial spaces down in San Pedro.
Too bad they had to give this up for developer's collective wet dreams and their designer pawns.
How big is this bonanza? Thats what i'd like somebody to post about, if any.
Don't give me the City needs more park crap because i know adjacent elysian park is hardly full over the years.
more pictures of mo better park idea
fraction of the cost, mind you.
Is there a bring back the Cornfields campaign anywhere?
Further beef.
Even wall to wall park designers will be made to compromise big time once the process starts.
That's why i said before; Mayne-Fo (yet another name tagging?) plan was ahead of everybody, I said that in my first reaction to these presentations here.
Because that team already plotted the private development in forms of pro sports venture (big one for that; dodgers), and some would be, ah so silica condos, with people sun tanning at the poolside, which would have been the Los Angeles dodgers pit, before the project.
Buy and sell buy and sell, worked on that one; they made everybody happy but specially the investors, who are to surface soon after the award, imho.
Mia Lehrer whose artistry is vivid in my mind, remembering her small project in the mists of a nice backyard, a chain link outdoor shower in a NYT Magazine with a special ms. Iovane line, "essence of ease", ten years ago or so. She is good, no doubt.
But she will be sure made to scale down the Olmsted Park Walk and plot out for… umm. Well, let's say it... Maybe a Dodgers stadium? In collaboration with…Frank Gehry? Hahaha…Never say never. This thing is still in Chinese laundry.
Sorry, i didn't really look further into the third proposal because i have no interest in it for my purposes. Lehrer's project is a better sample to represent the 'get the project first and deal with the developers and public later' side of the physical plan argument.
Today, i saw these photos of the Cornfield in the Flickr which i linked in an above post. I was stunned by the beauty of that field and realized that it already had the qualities of a nature site, a living museum, and I loved the way it off set the development around it. Also, it had flexibility and humbleness of a farmland about it that I am sure many residents of this mechanical city would appreciate dearly.
Obviously, our almost national veggie is too un-profitable in this venture.
This kind of speedy moves, forwarding hastily put together floor plans, pushing to move on to the next phase next phase (twice please), teaming up and morever, behind the curtains alliances and other city, state corridor nods, and fantastic Malibu dinners? Where are the 'makers'? I know they are there…
Something is overkilled here…
Who aggrees with me?
24 acres at $200/sf to build a park over the hollywood freeway- wow! that's the most exciting idea that the LA city council/CRA has thought about in many years. Go to the meeting tonight - wish I could make it.
Hope they go for a competition and don't just chose a politically connected local firm...
whatcha think?
public money better spent with this one.
i knew marlin's mind was more brilliant than of those cornfield killers. (no relation to treekiller).
First let me say I am a proud graduate of ML+A, the firm is committed to excellence. The works is intense; the Partners are passionate about what they do.
I am working elsewhere and I have come to realize that pressure, in good design forms comes with the territory. I am pleased for share the firms accomplishments with my students.
I went to look at the boards, the ML+A team has a great project.
Thoughtful response to community issues.
Promenades - Paseos linking Spring and Broadway. Wonderful bridges and connections to Elysian Elysian, Solano and across the River. The River project and the park wetlands are wonderfully integrated to the design.
The Meadow areas are seductive people places, Is it daring? Yes, it is.
Creating a picturesque landscape is daring.
The bridges and buildings are great places to enjoy city site. The site plan has movement, the lifted edges allow for program.
This is a Park a vision for a Park, not buildings. A Park.
Lets make it happen in Los Angeles.
the freeway park is awesome. awesome awesome awesome. all my friends (99.9% of which are not in this industry) are talking about it and hve been passing information on like crazy.
the community loves it so far, have we heard of any NIMBY's rearing their heads yet?
Orhan - the cornfields was defined as a temporary *art* piece. i believe the artist considered it to be a living sculpture, and not a park. others may have more specific info to back this up (or disprove?) but I'm under the impression that it's considered art.
sure it is very artistic. i believe it could be sustainable and repeatable. perhaps free tomatoes for the angelinos? watermelons anybody?
i am also in favor of hollywood proposal. but i also see it as a whole different issue.
do you remember frank o. gehry's temporary contemporary? still the best museum space in los angeles.
i'm looking forward to this thread morphing into a joint information/discussion source on the cornfield project and the freeway park project!
Siggy: any links or information or gossip or meeting minutes reviews, don't hesitate to share!
marlin - so far just the news articles, found some things through the hollywood chamber's website and newsletter. the names are there, i figure it's just a matter of getting to them and doing some, um, networking. they 'have' their engineering firm (parsons...85% sure on that) however this firm is also responsible for the big dig and thus the big dig ceiling collapse.
perhaps we should move to another thread in order not to hijack this one, b/c i'm sure there is more cornfield love to come. ;)
orhan - there is the fallen fruit website for community fruit "shareage" http://www.fallenfruit.org/ While a city-sponsored watermelon and tomato field would be, quite simply, amazing, i'm not sure it is using the space to its full potential...i'd rather have a place to go running or reading than go to eat a cherry tomato. ha!
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Broadway Beat Tony Interview Special: Whoopi Goldberg!
The 2011 Tony Award nominees were announced live from the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in New York City on Tuesday, May 3, 2011. The next day, proud nominees gathered at the Millenium Hotel in Times Square to celebrate and meet the press. Broadway Beat was on hand, of course, to speak with all of the proud nominees. In anticipation of Tony night on June 12, 2011, BroadwayWorld will be bringing you new clips of the stars in conversation each week so be sure to check back!
Below, we bring you Whoopi Goldberg, Producer of the Sister Act, the recipient of 5 Tony nomintions including Mest Musical. Goldberg starred in the original film of Sister Act, and has appeared on Broadway herself in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Xanadu, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and two self-titled solo shows.
For a complete list of the nominees, CLICK HERE!
To read the nominees first reactions to their good news, CLICK HERE!
The American Theatre Wing's 65th Annual Antoinette Perry "Tony" Awards, which are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, will air on CBS on Sunday, June 12th from 8:00 - 11:00 PM (ET/PT time delay).
THE 65th ANNUAL TONY AWARDS take place at the Beacon Theatre. The awards will be followed by the invite-only Tony Gala which will take place at The Plaza Hotel in New York City.
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subset: commoncrawl


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It's time for a change. I've decided to focus my attention on my writing blog, www.vivianleemahoney.com. Hope to see you there!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Readergirlz, Self-Worth and Teen Dating
Edited to add: I decided to change the picture in this post, because I found this cool photo.
Ahhh. Sweet Love. For some reason, the first crush or first love, seems to be something people remember even when they're considered to be too ancient to understand such matters. And the very idea of love sparks imagination, hope, laughter and a jump up to the stars elation that lights up a smile with no end. If only that feeling stayed constant. It would make life easy and joyful. Don't you think?
But love is definitely not something for the weak of heart. Love can be consuming, demanding and unkind. If put in the right hands and handled with respect, all the tough aspects of love can be worked on and nurtured into a deep love that will last a lifetime. But if these negative qualities are left in the wrong hands, left to fester and rot, it is going to be a toxic situation that will leave souls imprisoned behind walls of hopelessness and despair. And this is one situation that doesn't discriminate. These dangerous situations can develop regardless of gender, race, religion, morality or socioeconomic status.
Most people want to find love and will wade through all the crap to keep it. The key is to find out what is worth fighting for and what is best left behind for someone else to pick at. As quickly as possible. Adults have a difficult and confusing enough time of this...is it any wonder that teenagers, who are in such a rush to grow up and experience life, may deny what is hazardous in a relationship?
I'm a little late to the program here, but this is too important and needs to be shared. Today is the fourth day of the National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week. Take a look at these sad facts compiled by the National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline founded by Liz Claiborne, Inc. 1 in 5 teens have experienced physical abuse. 1 in 4 teens have reported constant verbal abuse.
With these kind of numbers, it is important to keep the open lines of communication with your teen or friend. How do you know if your teen or friend is experiencing dating abuse, the kind where someone uses a series of destructive means to control their boyfriend or girlfriend? Have them take this quiz. And if you want to find ways to help them, start here. Or call the National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline at 1-866-331-9474 or 1-866-331-8453 TTY. Help teens realize they deserve better.
And if you're an adult caught up in a dangerous relationship, break your silence and get help. You are so worth it.
Love is not abuse. Love is not about control. Love is not about destroying someone's self-worth or self-esteem.
Love is all about respect and empowerment. Love is about honor. Remember that. Because you deserve to be honored and respected. You are so worth it.
6 comments:
Wow. Thanks for this post. It's hard enough thinking that one day my child will start dating, but the odds are there that there's chance of dating abuse?
- HipWriterMama said...
m. thompson,
I know. It is scary isn't it? All I know is I'm going to be educating my kids so that by the time they start dating, hopefully they'll be aware of what to watch for.
- Little Willow said...
"Love is not abuse. Love is not about control. Love is not about destroying someone's self-worth or self-esteem."
Dear girl in picture, Cover your belly. :)
- HipWriterMama said...
That's funny, LW. I didn't even notice the belly until now. The pictures one can find on Microsoft Clipart.
- mrspilkington said...
Powerful post. I've known too many girls (including my younger self) who didn't realize that they deserved to be respected and honoured -- even as they tried to project a kind of surface bravado...and have realized that I have to help my 4-year-old daughter understand these things now.
- ng2000 said...
Valuable resource of teen dating news summaries: http://ng2000.com/ng2000bb/YaBB.pl?num=1221610713


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Tigers manager Jim Leyland made one thing clear before even touching on the topic of tough postseason moves: "I'm not going to pinch-hit for Cabrera."
Nope, Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera would be batting for the Tigers with the season on the line, all right. Even after Yankees manager Joe Girardi's switch to pinch-hitter Raul Ibanez in place of Alex Rodriguez paid off huge with a stunning two-homer night in Wednesday's 3-2, 12-inning victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
"You have to be prepared for everything. And you try to be prepared for everything," Leyland said before Game 5 of the AL Division Series in Oakland.
Ibanez hit a tying homer in the bottom of the ninth and a game-ending drive in the 12th.
"So far it's been a great postseason," Leyland said. "What happened last night in New York is mind-
REMOTE CHANCE: Orioles left fielder Nate McLouth had no problem avoiding the constant TV replays of Ibanez's two homers that led the Yankees to a 3-2, 12-inning victory in Game 3.
His wife was with him in New York. When his wife traveled with the team, McLouth has little chance at watching sports recap shows.
"I can promise you we're not watching many highlights after the game, unless they show them on the Food Network," McLouth said.
McLouth had a team-high four hits in 13 at-bats in the postseason entering Game 4 but he doesn't get control of the remote in the hotel.
"I think we stuck with Property Brothers last night, so I haven't seen the replay yet," he said. "It's not something you want to sit there and watch 10 times in your room afterwards."
SHIFTING SPOTS: Oakland's Josh Donaldson looked like a natural third baseman when he dived into foul territory to rob Detroit's Johnny Peralta of a hit late in Game 4 of their AL Division Series.
Yet Donaldson, a catcher by trade, had never played third base in the majors until this season but has excelled there for the Athletics since being recalled from the minors.
"Josh Donaldson is a great athlete," manager Bob Melvin said. "His position is catcher, but he could probably play anywhere on the diamond. He's a football player, baseball player, truly a guy that could probably play anywhere on the diamond."
We're lucky to have those athletes."
Donaldson is far from alone in learning a new position in Oakland's patchwork infield. Outfielder Brandon Moss, a former Augusta GreenJacket, became a power-hitting first baseman who looks natural scooping throws in the dirt and shortstop Cliff Pennington moved to second base late in the season.
Only shortstop Stephen Drew is playing his natural position in the playoffs for the A's.
"It's been a little bit of a work-in-progress," Melvin said. "I think our defense is as good as it's been all year now."


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Cynthia Rowley's "Hide and Seek"
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Last February, NYC taxi riders were treated to a backseat viewing of Cynthia Rowley's fall 2009 collection,featured in a short film called "Musical Chairs." Now the designer, in collaboration with Andy Spade and Red Bucket Films, presents her spring 2010 collection in a playful cinematic piece titled "Hide and Seek," which is currently airing in 5,500 cabs throughout the five boroughs—and on www.cynthiarowley.com.
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—Erin Clements
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Bodhi Tree; Life in Prison
EUREKA- Convicted for double murder and attempted murder, Bodhi Tree, will spend the rest of his life in prison, serving a combined sentence of 105 years.
Tree was sentenced by a Humboldt County Superior Court judge Friday afternoon in a packed courtroom. Family members of the two killed spoke in court as family members and friends cried.
Presiding Judge Dale Reinholtsen said Tree showed no remorse.
Family and friends of both victims were in the courtroom. Tree shot and killed Alan "Sunshine" Marcet and Christina Schwarz last year in May at a home in Arcata. He also shot and wounded Rhett August at his home in Eureka a few days prior.
The victim's family said they were glad he would not victimize anyone else. They are criticizing realignment and are calling on state legislators to change the way they convict and release criminals with mental illness.
Tree was released from prison before the shootings.


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Iam a very honest and can somewhat be a very blunt person, I am comfortable enough with myself to speak my mind....with that being said, in getting right to the point, so is not to waste anyone's time, I know what I want from life and in a significant other and i know what i am worth and what i can contribute to a relationship. If i meet someone who is worth my time and effort, I promise, they will not be disappointed! :) I DONT tolerate liars, cheaters, and fake people, so please please just be honest with me from the get go, and all will be good, even if your not interested! Just say so, dont beat around the bush about it, it wont hurt my feelings. I am way too independent and strong willed to let something like "just not interested" for any reason to get me down :)
I recently disabled my profile, but now I am back! ;)
If you wanna find out more, and you can hold an interesting conversation feel free to inbox or message me.
I have a big personality to match my big heart! I love to be spontaneous and adventurous! I love making people laugh just as much as I love to laugh and have a good time! if you have a sense of humor then we will get along just fine, if you are a controlling PRUDE, then we will NOT. Im not really that shy, and I will answer just about any question you may have for me. I have recently found my inner wild side and I am fully embracing it!! I used to be one of those girls that was somewhat shy, and didnt really feel comfortable around guys, because of my own insecurities, but as of late, I feel as if Iam a GODDESS and so shall i act like it. Please dont mistake my new found confidence for narcissism, Iam a VERY humble person, and because of that I feel that this makes me unique in every aspect of the word.:) Iam NOT a cookie-cutter type of girl, physically, mentally, or personality wise, so if that is what you are looking for then im sorry you're not MY type. I do have tattoos and plan on getting more, as of now only one is visible but the ones in the future will not be, (only to that lucky one ;)lol)
I am funny, cute, sexy, laid back, spontaneous
"Everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together."--Marilyn Monroe♥♥♥
My favorite foods are Chocolate, Japanese,Korean, and soul food, but I like most anything, and love trying new and different kinds of foods!!
As for books, i like all kinds of books as long as they are written well, and movies I love all kinds of movies, rarely do i find a movie that i dont like.
having interesting conversations with new and interesting people.
love tall men (the taller the better) lol
like slightly older men (just a preference, not requirement)


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Passenger Cars:
According to Pakistan Used Car Import Policy, upto 3 years old (2014 onwards) passenger cars are allowed to be imported in the country.
Jeeps / SUVs and Commercial Vehicles:
According to Pakistan Used Car Import Policy, upto 5 years old (2012 onwards) Commercial Vehicles are allowed to be imported in the country.
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Toyota, Honda and Suzuki are highly demanded brands with Corolla Fielder, Premio, Mark X, Land Cruiser Prado, Prius Hybrid, Vitz Yaris, Allion, Civic, Mira, Passo, Alto, Swift etc.
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Contact us for more information about Car Junction Pakistan.


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Booked palace rooms with lake view, and was definitely the right choice. Service is exceptional and they tend to your every need. It is also awesome t...ดูรีวิวจากผู้เข้าพักทั้งหมด 58 รายการ
Like a vision from a fairy tale, this white marble palace seems to rise out of Udaipur's Lake Pichola from its island location. You hop onto a private boat from the City Palace on the northeast bank of the lake, and arrive to a warm welcome at Taj Lake Palace. Jagdish Temple and Bagore ki Haveli are both within less than a half-mile (about a half-kilometer).
You can unwind at the full-service Jiva Spa, or enjoy your spa treatments while floating in Lake Pichola on the Jiva Spa Boat. Taj Lake Palace offers your choice of fine-dining at Neel Kamal or at the rooftop restaurant Bhairo. Or if you'd like, you can arrange to enjoy your meals on lake flotillas or by the Lily Pond, a quiet courtyard with fountain. Breakfast is available daily for a surcharge. If morning yoga on the rooftop terrace isn't for you, you can take a dip in the outdoor pool and enjoy a drink by the bar or in the hot and cold spa tubs. Taj Lake Palace also offers Clefs d'Or concierge services, a health center, floor butlers, luggage storage, and 24-hour room service. The hotel has a conference center and business center, and free wireless Internet access in public areas and guestrooms. An airport shuttle is available upon request (surcharge).
All 83 richly decorated rooms and suites come with fireplaces, and you can enjoy breakfast on your balcony overlooking the beautiful surroundings. Each room offers complimentary WiFi and wired high-speed Internet access. Individually decorated to evoke different historical periods and moods, each room has an LCD television with satellite channels, as well as a refrigerator and minibar. Bathrooms include shower/tub combinations with handheld showerheads, bathrobes, slippers, and makeup/shaving mirrors. You can rest easy, with a pillow menu and a nightly turndown service.
Leela palace is situated in a great location with views of the City Palace and lake. The moment you arrive you'll feel how incredible the service is. ...ดูรีวิวจากผู้เข้าพักทั้งหมด 42 รายการ
fabulous vacation.ดูรีวิวจากผู้เข้าพักทั้งหมด 18 รายการ
The helpful staff made our stay very enjoyable.ดูรีวิวจากผู้เข้าพักทั้งหมด 75 รายการ
Toilets were dirty, safe did not work, remote control for tv did not work, bathroom fan did not work, so if you showered with hot water it set off the...ดูรีวิวจากผู้เข้าพักทั้งหมด 68 รายการ
This place is a great oasis! My friends and I stayed here and we were completely satisified with not leaving at all :) Rooms are great and spacious, r...ดูรีวิวจากผู้เข้าพักทั้งหมด 34 รายการ
it was a special treat staying at the shiv niwas given its history. kids will love watching james bond's octopussy and seeing so many familiar sights....ดูรีวิวจากผู้เข้าพักทั้งหมด 37 รายการ
Nice place. Nice location. Food was spicey but it was good. Breakfast buffet has good choice of both western and Indian.ดูรีวิวจากผู้เข้าพักทั้งหมด 27 รายการ
If you have never lived in a palace, this is your opportunity. Set in the grounds of the City Palace and overlooking the city, Fateh Prakash is elegan...ดูรีวิวจากผู้เข้าพักทั้งหมด 18 รายการ
staff not trained food was stale terrible room condition not good cleaning not goodดูรีวิวจากผู้เข้าพักทั้งหมด 19 รายการ
Took 4 calls to get a car scheduled to pick me up at the airport, check in and check out took way too long and they seemed in no rush at all. They als...ดูรีวิวจากผู้เข้าพักทั้งหมด 20 รายการ


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PHILADELPHIA - The No. 10 Penn women's fencing team will travel to Columbus, Ohio on Sunday for the 3rd annual U.S. Collegiate Weapon Squad Championships. The Quakers followed up the overall team title two years ago with a 4th place finish last year. Ohio State takes over as host this season after the prior two competitions were held at NYU.
The Championships follow a different scoring system than in a typical NCAA bout. With teams divided amongst their individual weapon groups and seeded, two schools meet in an attempt to accumulate 45 points. The winning team moves on to the next round in a bracket format. Last season, Penn's saber squad was the best overall finisher for the Red and Blue, reaching the semifinals after wins over Johns Hopkins and North Carolina. Both foil and epee were knocked off in quarterfinals bouts. This time around, the Quakers will be up against a strong field including squads from Princeton, Northwestern, and, of course, the host Buckeyes.
The Penn foil squad has won 16 times in 19 chances this season, and will likely enjoy a high seed in its respective bracket. The four main members of the foil team have all won at least 25 bouts apiece, led by the 39-win seasons of both Sarah Parmacek and Wendy Zhao. Last season's NCAA runner-up Luona Wang has the best overall winning percentage on the team at 28-5 (.848).
The epee team brings a record of 13-6 into this weekend and has multiple options, with five members of the team fencing more than 20 times already this season. Amrit Bhinder sits at 29-9 on the year. Saber has compiled an 11-8 record in 2012-13. Tiffany Chan has had an impressive start in her freshman year, putting together a record of 29-15 to lead the team in wins.
Following this weekend, Penn will travel to Harvard for the rescheduled Ivy League Round-Robins on March 2-3. The Quakers will have six bouts over the course of two days, taking on three ranked teams in the process.


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Young Women of Prague
This work is about the lives of young "ordinary" Czech women who came of age in the aftermath of the 1989 Velvet Revolution. The book contains a collection of interviews with 14 women of similiar age and education, but with varying work, marital and childbearing experiences. Three additional chapters outline the design of the study, the social and historical forces that have shaped these women's lives, and the common themes emerging out of the interviews, linking them to both legacies of communism and the postcommunist transition.
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Top Pin of the Day: A Shaker-Style Staircase
Today's top pin is a staircase that echoes Shaker design. For more inspiring photos and ideas, follow us on Pinterest.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Architect Ruard Veltman designed the entry hall in a North Carolina house to be beautiful but unassuming. His staircase echoes Shaker design: Its railing is unadorned except for the lamb's tongue that connects to the newel post. The Oly bench is upholstered in Innovations' Mont Blanc mohair; the wall sconces are by Dennis & Leen.
More from House Beautiful:


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Assessment of Severe Extremity Wound Bioburden at the Time of Definitive Wound Closure or Coverage (Bioburden)
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
|Open Fracture
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Observational Model: Cohort
Time Perspective: Prospective
|Official Title:
|Assessment of Severe Extremity Wound Bioburden at the Time of Definitive Wound Closure or Coverage: Correlation With Subsequent Post-Closure Deep Wound Infection: Bioburden Study
- Infection [ Time Frame: 1 year ]The presence of a deep surgical site infection will be defined by the criteria of the Centers for Disease Control. Deep SSI occurs within 30 days after the operation if no implant is left in place, or within one year if implant is in place and the infection appears to be related to the operation.
- Classification of Appropriate Antibiotic Care [ Time Frame: 1 year ]An expert panel consisting of the study PI, two additional orthopaedic trauma surgeons and at least three infectious disease experts will be convened to develop a classification grid for the most common and/or expected microbial species to be found in this study and the related antibiotic treatment regimens used in the initial care of these patients. For each microbial species, the expert panel will classify a given antibiotic regimen as "appropriate" and "not appropriate", based on the best available published data.
Biospecimen Retention: Samples With DNA
|Estimated Enrollment:
|Study Start Date:
|September 2011
|Estimated Study Completion Date:
|June 2017
|Primary Completion Date:
|September 2016 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
|severe open fractures of the tibia bone
Detailed Description:
Infection remains the most common and significant complication following high energy fractures. The strategies used in the prevention of deep infection following severe open fracture wounds have remained constant for the past 20 years.
This project is designed to analyze the microbiology profiles of wounds from severe tibia fractures at closure by comparing two methods: routine microbiology techniques and PCR methods using the Ibis T5000 Biosensor System. The results from both identification methods will be compared to the pathogens associated with deep surgical site infections that occur post closure of the wound. Currently it is unknown which of these methods will yield information that can lower complication rates and better function of the leg. Our goal is to perform a multi-center, prospective cohort study of wound bacterial bioburden and associated antibiotic care in severe open lower extremity fractures.
Primary Aim: In a subset of 60 patients, compare the bioburden, as detected by Ibis technology, from each of three sampling techniques (deep tissue; soft tissue composite; composite of tissue from the length and depth of the wound). Samples obtained using the most effective technique identified in this step will be processed using Ibis in subsequent tissue analysis. Effectiveness is defined as the ability to identify key wound infection-causing pathogens.
Primary Hypothesis: The composite sampling approach will be the most effective technique.
Secondary Aim: Characterize the wound bioburden at the time of definitive wound closure or coverage using the Ibis T5000 Biosensor System PCR technology as compared to standard microbiology techniques.
Hypothesis 2: The Ibis technology will detect more species of pathogens than standard microbiology techniques. The percent of patients for whom Ibis will detect all species identified by standard microbiology will be greater than 95%.
Specific Aim 3: Characterize the wound bioburden in the patients who develop deep infection within one year of wound closure, and determine the association between infecting pathogens with initial wound closure bioburden as measured jointly by Ibis and standard microbiology techniques.
Specific Aim 4: Document the variability in antibiotic selection and duration, and examine the impact of this selection on subsequent deep infection.
Hypothesis 4a: Among patients treated with antibiotic regimens that are appropriate for the pathogens identified by standard microbiology, there will be a lower probability of deep infection than among those patients who received inappropriate antibiotic regimens.
Hypothesis 4b: Among patients treated with antibiotic regimens that are appropriate for the pathogens identified by Ibis, there will be a lower probability of deep infection than among those patients who received inappropriate antibiotic regimens.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years to 64 Years (Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
|Sampling Method:
|Non-Probability Sample
Inclusion Criteria:
- All open Grade III tibia fractures (plateau, shaft, pilon) requiring a second procedure following fixation, or traumatic transtibial amputations requiring delayed primary closure, skin grafting and/ or flap coverage.
- Ages 18 - 64 years inclusive
- Patients may have risk factors for infection including diabetes, immunosuppression from steroids or other medications, HIV, or other infections.
- Patients may have a traumatic brain injury.
- Patients may have other fractures including spine, upper extremity fractures, contralateral lower extremity injuries, ipsilateral pelvis, hip, femur or foot injuries.
- Patients may be treated initially at an outside institution prior to transfer to the study institution, as long as the definitive fixation was not performed prior to entrance into the study.
- Patients with bilateral injuries that meet inclusion criteria may be included, but only the limb rated as "more severe" by the treating surgeon will be enrolled in the study.
- Patients may have co-existing non-tibial infection, with or without antibiotic treatment.
- Patients may have an existing infection of the surgical wound under treatment at the time of wound closure.
- Patients may be definitively fixed using any method (nail, plate, ex fix)
- Patients may have a fasciotomy
Exclusion Criteria:
- Patient speaks neither English nor Spanish
- Patient is a prisoner
- Patient has been diagnosed with a severe psychiatric condition
- Patient is intellectually challenged without adequate family support
- Patient lives outside the hospital's catchment area
- Patients with planned follow-up at another medical center
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01496014
Show 40 Study Locations
|Principal Investigator:
|Michael J Bosse, MD
|Carolinas Medical Center
|Responsible Party:
|Major Extremity Trauma Research Consortium
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT01496014 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|November 7, 2011
|Last Updated:
|December 22, 2016
Keywords provided by Major Extremity Trauma Research Consortium:
open fracture wounds
tibia fractures
antibiotic therapies in severe fractures
All severe open fracture of the tibia bone
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Fractures, Open
Fractures, Bone
Wounds and Injuries
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on August 23, 2017


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A retired New Malden serviceman may have died after coming into contact with asbestos up to 50 years before, an inquest has heard.
Raymond Greengrass, 68, of Beresford Road, died on October 28 last year at Princess Alice Hospice from mesothelioma.
No family were at the inquest at West London Coroner's Court on Thursday.
Mr Greengrass's daughter wrote how her father believed the only time he may have come in contact with asbestos was working for a book supplier in Neasden as a teenager.
She said: "He used to have to go down to the cellar and get the accounts."
The inquest heard smoker Mr Greengrass refused antibiotics and preferred a symptom control treatment.
He went to accident and emergency the day before he was admitted to the hospice, where he died the same day.


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Act Beyond: Strategy to take gospel to unreached groups
- January 23, 2014
- By Ken Camp / Managing Editor
PLANO—Missions expert Kent Parks believes Christians are called to share the gospel—not just haphazardly but strategically to spark movements among previously unreached people groups.
Act Beyond, formerly known as Mission to Unreached Peoples."When we focus on starting movements, it is more comprehensive and transformative than a lot of the random stuff we call missions," said Parks, president of
Not that Parks lacks respect for traditional missions methods. Born in Indonesia to missionary parents, he spent 20 years as a missionary in Southeast Asia with the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and he holds a doctorate in missiology.
However, he believes when Christians genuinely follow the New Testament model—particularly the way Jesus sent out his disciples as recorded in Luke 10—it begins movements that result in multiplied numbers of disciples and churches.
"In the book of Acts, only three people—Paul, the Ethiopian eunuch and Sergius Paulus—came to faith by themselves. All others came to faith in a group," he observed.
"Today, we are seeing whole groups coming to faith. The context in which first-century Christians served was just as complex and multicultural as it is today. We are called to do the same thing they did. And lo and behold, we find it works."
That's why the organization Parks leads changed its name and fine-tuned its purpose.
"Six years ago, … (Mission to Unreached Peoples) existed to send anybody who wanted to do missions, with little definition," he noted.
Today, Act Beyond focuses on equipping mission teams to go to unreached people groups with the strategic goal of starting movements that result in multiplied numbers of churches and disciples. The new name challenges Christians to "act beyond" what has been done before and recognizes God's desire to "act beyond" all that can be asked or imagined, he noted.
'Movements of God'
Parks likes to speak generally of "movements of God" rather than church-starting movements or disciple-making movements, because both aspects are involved, and he wants to avoid a perceived overemphasis on one to the exclusion of the other.
He points to several characteristics of movements born out of a Luke 10 model: Prayer dominates the process; Christians who enter new areas ask God to guide them to a "person of peace" who can influence his or her neighbors and open doors; Christians teach simple Bible lessons to households; and "outsiders" equip "insiders" to become group leaders and equippers who rely on the Holy Spirit.
Christians from outside the culture should function as catalysts, not "providers" of ongoing ministry, Parks insisted. Act Beyond's approach emphasizes the importance of demonstrating a simple Bible study method and then handing over leadership as quickly as possible to people within the group being reached.
"People who have never made groups of disciples become effective at reproducing disciples," he said. "It's about reproducing disciple groups that will transform society from within."
The approach Act Beyond advocates—coupled with a focus on unreached people groups—has resulted in remarkable missions advances, Parks' father, Keith Parks—former president of the SBC Foreign Mission Board and first global missions coordinator for the CBF—writes in God's Secret Plan.
"We are witnessing perhaps the greatest expansion of the gospel since the early centuries," he writes. "Why are we amazed when biblical models work?"
6,000 unreached people groups
Some missiologists estimate 29 percent of the world lacks access to the gospel, and they have divided 6,000 unreached people groups into 43 clusters within 12 affinity blocs, Kent Parks explained.
Strategically, groups that focus on sparking church-starting and disciple-making movements have estimated 43,000 teams of two to six members each could reach these 43 clusters. Act Beyond set a goal of equipping and sending 1 percent of the total—430 teams—in 10 years, Parks said.
The approach is simple to teach and replicate, but it can be difficult for churches to grasp, he acknowledged. Even so, he is able to point to several Texas Baptist churches that "get it" and have pledged support—notably First Baptist Church in Plano.
The Plano church provided Mission to Unreached Peoples office space and continues to include Act Beyond in its missions offering. Pastor Jerry Carlisle serves as chair of Act Beyond's board of directors.
"The methods Act Beyond equips leaders to employ are holistic, sustainable, collaborative and transformational," Carlisle said. "As a congregation, we embrace that kind of ministry and are seeking to initiate church planting movements here in Plano and among the Hulu people of Southeast Asia.
"I am privileged to lead a board that reflects Act Beyond field personnel—strong, innovative, diverse, dedicated and effective."
While its key leaders are deeply rooted in Baptist life, Act Beyond operates across denominational lines. The approach it advocates demands diversity, collaboration and cooperation, Parks noted.
"I have never seen a more comprehensive way to deliver the gospel in word and deed than this biblical approach," he said. "It's not an approach that is complex and shallow. This is simple and deep.
"It will transform many lives. It's already changing people's lives around the world."


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An undisclosed injury has forced Chad Griggs out of his future bout at UFC on Fox 4 bout against Phil Davis. Filling the void left by Griggs absence is undefeated prospect Wagner Prado. Prado is a young and talented Brazilian out of the Nogueira training camp. Prado is making the jump to the UFC with an inaugural bout against a very tough wrestler in Davis.
Phil Davis is coming off of his first professional loss to Rashad Evans and is looking to get back on the winning track against the inexperienced new comer.
Prado is entering the UFC octagon for the first time and has gone on record to say that fighting in the UFC is a dream come true.
"My biggest dream is to be the UFC light heavyweight champion of the world and thank God I'm on the right track, but I'll go up one step at a time. I'm working toward achieving my goal and one day I'll be there," said Prado in April.
The UFC on Fox 4 card is set to take place August 4 live on Fox from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.Tags: featured, MMA NEWS, ufc news


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The London receptionist, 21, will go head to head with student Ray Quinn to win the coveted ITV talent contest.
"It's unbelievable," said Lewis, who is currently favourite to become the show's first female winner with odds of 1-6. Quinn, 18, has odds of 7-2 to win.
"The only person we can compare Leona to is Kelly Clarkson, a true star," said William Hill's Rupert Adams.
"Leona is by far the best X Factor contestant in three years of the show and we wouldn't dream of taking bets on her achieving at least five number ones in 2007."
Student Quinn said he was "stunned" on learning of his place in the final. "Thank you so much to anybody out there who supported me, it's such an honour."
The winner of X Factor is currently 2-9 odds-on favourite for the Christmas number one single slot, following in the footsteps of 2005's Shayne Ward.
Both singers are mentored by pop mogul Simon Cowell.
Meanwhile, in BBC One's celebrity talent contest Strictly Come Dancing, former EastEnders star Louisa Lytton was knocked out of the show.
The 17-year-old actress performed a tense dance-off against singer Emma Bunton after the two celebrities received the lowest number of votes from judges and public combined.
An emotional send-off saw Lytton, and her partner Vincent Simone, receive a standing ovation from the judges and audience.
Bunton, cricketer Mark Ramprakash and rugby player Matt Dawson will compete in next week's semi-final.
Most Popular Now | 56,514 people are reading stories on the site right now.";


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"There was no good time for Victor to say he's leaving"
Tito Vilanova spoke to the press in advance of tomorrow's game away to Real Sociedad, with many of the questions focusing on Victor and Pep.
In the pre-match press conference before tomorrow's game against Real Sociedad Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova admitted to being surprised, to a certain extent, by Victor Valdés' decision not to renew his contract. "It's never a good time for a keeper like Valdés to say that he is leaving, but it has to be respected".
Victor Valdés: "I have spoken to him. Everyone is free to work where they want to. He hasn't asked to leave, rather that he will see out his contract and then he'll continue playing somewhere else. It has to be respected. He's going to keep playing for us as he has up to now, and it would be positive thing for him to leave the club on good terms".
See out his contract: "He never said he wanted to leave, rather that he wouldn't continue past 2014. Maybe it's not a good time for it, but there never is. The club now has time to find a replacement. Some people will think he should have said it later, others that he should have said it earlier, but I don't doubt his professionalism, and I've seen that he is happy".
News: "I heard about it after the meeting. Zubi [Zubizaretta, Barcelona sporting director] called me to tell me. It was sufficiently important to do so".
In the team: "If he keeps training and working as he does at the moment, he'll start games. I'll repeat myself: he hasn't said he wants to leave, but that he won't renew his contract".
Problems with club?: "I don't think he's got any issues with the club. Sometimes we think this is the best city and the best club, but everyone has the right to play elsewhere. It's his decision".
Effect on the team: "It doesn't upset my plans. I know he'll work hard. It does affect me. It makes me sad, because he's the ideal keeper for Barcelona".
Fans: "He didn't give the club room to negotiate. He can't be called mercenary. The fans have to understand his decision and respect it. He's won three Champions Leagues with Barcelona and was important to each and every one. He's the best keeper Barça have had in many, many years".
The squad: "I don't how the players have taken it, although they will be a little surprised because it wasn't expected. But they are professionals and if things go badly tomorrow they won't be able to say it's because of this. Barcelona is constantly in the news".
Disappointment after expecting him to renew: "It's clear I'm not a fortune teller. I knew the club were looking to renew his contract because Zubi told me and I saw that Victor looked happy".
Sell him now? : "We should forget about it now. Tomorrow we have a game".
Substitute: "There are good keepers on the market. Here we ask for other things, but the important thing for a keeper is to make saves, that shouldn't be forgotten. Whoever comes in will be supported. You only have to see how much better Pinto has got with his feet. Every team finds it hard to locate a keeper, but in 100 and something years a lot of players have left and the club has kept going".
Guardiola: "It's great news for the Bundesliga. Bayern are one of four or five teams where he could have gone, for the history, the infrastructure... He'll bring a lot to German football. The best coach in the world should be coaching. We won't talk about Barça style any more. This team has won a lot of trophies with their own style".
Draw with Málaga: "It doesn't change my plans. We always think about it beforehand. Tomorrow is Saturday and we play Málaga on Thursday. There is time".
Real Sociedad: "The two times we've been up there with the first team we haven't managed to win. They are dangerous, fast on the wings, and good on the break".


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'The dog ate my superannuation fund' sounds like the punchline to a bad joke, but that doesn't mean it's any less ridiculous than most of the other excuses people use for not saving for retirement.
These three excuses are just as implausible, irresponsible and simply terrible as casting man's best friend as the real villain. If you've been using one of these shocker excuses for putting off saving for your retirement, you've no one to blame but yourself.
1. "It's ages away"
If you're in your mid-twenties, there is actually a small chance you could be just as close to retirement as you are to your toddler years. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics highlights how 5 per cent of Australians actually retire at the spry age of 40-45. If that doesn't make you spit the dummy, a further 16 per cent are retired at 55-59. Put this into real numbers, and it means that approximately one in every five Australians is retiring by their 60th birthday – a full five years before they hit the official retirement age in Australia.
So before you go thinking that retirement doesn't kick in until much later in life, remember that it's not really all that far away.
2. "I won't need much when I'm older"
Think you're going to live off two-minute noodles in a wee granny flat above your kids' house after you leave the workforce? While frugal aspirations may be admirable, it's likely you'll need more than you think.
Basic living expenses – including everything from medical costs to furniture – may rise over time, and don't forget about that lifelong dream to cruise around the world, spoil your grandkids rotten and live out your golden years in the lap of luxury!
3. "I don't know how"
Potentially the most inexcusable excuse of them all, not knowing how to save for retirement really is about as illogical as the dog eating your homework. All you need to do is ask.
A parent, a financial advisor, a trusted friend, or even your bank. There are plenty of places to go for help and advice and many people willing to give you a hand. Don't hesitate to give Virgin Money a call to chat about your superannuation options.
What's your excuse?


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SOME of the world's most famous artists proved the inspiration for a group of residents at Salisbury's John Baker House taking part in a glass fusing workshop.
Guided by artist Sif Wolthers, the residents learned how to make a variety of objects including tile hangings, coasters and window hangings by using folded glass heated in a kiln.
Project worker Catherine Hamer, who organised the sessions, said: "We're always on the lookout for new and challenging experiences for our residents to take part in.
"Glass fusing is a practice few people have experience of, so it's been a novel way of spending a weekend."
The arts project, which has been running over five weekends, is part of the Participatory Arts Workshops (PAWS) scheme run by Wiltshire Council.