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Speaker: KICK IT! The Highest Mountain, and an Ode to Robert Green
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No, but I find the needling a little boring and sad, so ciao to all.
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Don't go, Giovanni. We can learn a lot from you. I know so little about soccer--don't even know the offside rule!
I guess I'm guilty, and sorry if it was getting tiresome, or seemed personal in any way. Nothing the Italian papers haven't said already though, right? Just re-reading your page one translations.
Maybe you could forgive us a little bravado, as it sort of doesn't happen, well, ever, when it comes to Football in New Zealand.
Personally I hope both New Zealand and Italy win, we both go through, and everyone is happy.
(Anyone here from Paraguay?)
Dont worry - once Italy have been eliminated next week we wont need an Italian perspective anymore.
Don't be mean. Living on this side of the Tasman, it gets a bit much being needled about NZ all the time, especially if it's something of which I'm secretly rather proud. It's just not a nice thing to do.
A nation has only really arrived at the World Cup when they have a proper controversy, leading to years of indignation, buttressed by photographic "evidence" and a rumour mill that's always hiring.
Did it cross the line? Should it have been a red card? Was it handball? Was it offside? (Answers No, Yes, Yes and Yes, with reference to 1966, 1982, 1986, and 2002, respectively). There are dozens more.
I don't think Italy's dodgy penalty and NZ's offside goal quite measure up. Not when one team is overjoyed with the result, and the other team can still qualify anyway.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to elimination at the hands of the FIFA tosser. That would be a grievance worth nurturing.
Giovanni, stick around. The PA Football XI is under-strength as it is.
Two fabulous results and football is really penetrating the NZ pysche. The Paraguay game will probably be the hardest of the three with the South American style so foreign to us.
Mind you our style will certainly unsettle them and if we carry on creating 3 or 4 genuine chances every game we will always be in with a real chance of a result.May this golden run never end.
And just a little icing on the cake for me :
BBC Team of the day, 4 Brazilians, 3 Paraguayans and 4 All Whites
Meanwhile, One News trailers feature All Whites goalscoring hero, John Key. Yes, it's all about the politicians, that's the real story here. Vomit.
Bugger, I was enjoying Giovanni's informed comments too.
Don't be mean.
Eh? We are talking sport here. We have every right to feel proud. It's a massive world competition, of which it is a survival of the fittest, test against each country of which I'll add, players leave their respective employment to represent. It is not tea and biscuits.
Really Deborah, I guess in an ideal world, we could all eat brioche, but it's not ideal so let's us sing the praises of our All White champions of the night, if you don't mind. :)
Don't go Gio
I recall one of your earlier spirited defences of the importance of different football philosophies - in the context of footballing 'romantics' (myself included) unnecessarily lamenting the 1982 defeat of an extravagantly gifted Brazilian team by a very pragmatic (and also very gifted) Italian team.
Forgetting then, as in all sporting contests, that there is always more than one way to skin a cat, so to speak - just ask Jose Mourinho (or even some of the more utilitarian rugby coaches in recent years when playing the All Blacks). There is an art to containing the artist and in turn employing your own strengths to good effect.
And at the same time, the artist needs to appeciate that they cannot win by skill and virtuosity alone - each team needs a more prosaic element - or as Cantona dismissively said of an esrtwhile team-mate, a 'water carrier' (or in rugby terms a 'Jerry').
As for genuine kiwi disappointment at perceived unfairness - some lessons in gamesmanship for all I'm sure, but its been clear for the last 6-7 world cups that FIFA has no intention of seriously addressing that side of the game - so if you can't beat em ....
And I am also reminded of Australia and the Grosso penalty 4 years ago. At the time I recall a european friend saying that perceived footballing injustice can fuel a team and a nation for decades to come - its an important part of a relatively 'new' football nation building a lasting footballing legacy and history :)
What a day for NZ soccer - I'm saving already for Brazil 2014.
BBC Team of the day, 4 Brazilians, 3 Paraguayans and 4 All Whites.
That's worth getting excited about, right? Four of our players were ahead of several of the top players, and most highly paid no doubt, in the world, at least by this assessment.
I'll add, players leave their respective employment to represent.
I loved it when the commentators announced the last substitution 'Financial Analyst from Wellington'.
The consensus seems to be that while Smeltz was offside it would have been a tough to call to make
He couldn't have been offside. If he had been offside, the linesman would have put his flag up.
What a day for NZ soccer - I'm saving already for Brazil 2014.
It'll be great watching us defending our title there.
Gio, let me join the team in wishing you back, I always enjoy your comments, whatever the topic.
And remember 82, the Azzurri started with 3 draws and won the tournament, I was lucky enough to be there for all their games from the 2nd round onwards and love Italian football and fans.
Forza Italia and Forza All Whites :)
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And I am also reminded of Australia and the Grosso penalty 4 years ago. At the time I recall a european friend saying that perceived footballing injustice can fuel a team and a nation for decades to come - its an important part of a relatively 'new' football nation building a lasting footballing legacy and history :)
Oh, they're still upset about that here.
For what it's worth these things do make for a more difficult contest to watch, but things are what they are, and as Richard said, it's not going to change. Just like doping and cycling - it's not always a fair contest, but it's still enjoyable to watch.
Don't be mean.... It's just not a nice thing to do.
Yeah, coz there is nothing nastier than suggesting Italy wont make it past the first round in the World Cup.
Cry me a river...
I like how Gio has turned this thread into a postmodern performance piece by cunningly emulating the dramatic behaviour of his compatriots. Bravo!
I like how Gio has turned this thread into a postmodern performance piece by cunningly emulating the dramatic behaviour of his compatriots. Bravo!
Yes, and I can't imagine he left for good either.He's probably just having a moment.or at least drinking his new bottles of wine. Rigged I say ;)
laughing it up in a cafe somewhere
I'd just like to say that Kyle Matthews knows his football punditry. Just saying.
Anyway Gio; think of it this way. Rugby sides all round the world get pissed off at the way that All Black open-side flankers (well before the current master) have played the laws to the limit.
That's how we've always played it, we're good at it, and so be it.
Italian football is much the same.
For what it's worth what's annoyed me more over the years with Italian sides is the sitting back on early leads. Fortunately, that didn't happen last night; it was a great spectacle.
Michael Jones wasn't reknowned for cheating at the breakdown was he? More for beautiful running, passing and smashing tackles. Kronfeld on the other hand dipped his hands in there a bit more. McCaw is a master of it.
What would probably help a bit would be all players wearing elbow pads like skateboarders, helmets with face protectors and rather than wearing shirts your teams colours are painted on.
I bet there was no shirt pulling in that nude rugby game in the weekend. Though there may have been some tackles tackled.
Anyway Gio; think of it this way. Rugby sides all round the world get pissed off at the way that All Black open-side flankers (well before the current master) have played the laws to the limit.
My view is that many/most competitive athletes have a drive to 'do whatever it takes' to win a contest. That means they will inevitably push the laws or the adjudicator to the limit to seek an edge.
The notion of 'spirit of the game' is somewhat of an anachronism that people mistakenly cling to only because it still remains possible to win contests with overwhelming skill or power on the upside, with the 'bending the rules' only needed on the downside risk.
If we as sport-lovers want to preserve the notion of a 'spirit' or a pure ideal of how to play a particular sport, rather than look to the players we'd be better off to look to the law-makers. Introduce more risk of penalty to a team for pushing the rules, and behaviour will surely change.
All fairly obvious I know, so why does the fiefdom of Blatter (or indeed the IRB) not take fairly rational steps to minimise the less attractive side of the game? What preserves the status quo?
I love it when rugby heads talk about soccer :-)
My soccer coach never taught me that, dude. Though come to think of it, my soccer coach didn't seem to know much about soccer.
Anyway, I'm a motorsport fan, plus whatever's free on the tele, so rugby doesn't get much of a look in these days. Not seeing much of this world cup either. :shrug:
Gio spent a lot of time here today, translating Italian newspapers for everyone, generally trying to be good spirited about it all, even though he was probably aching a bit inside, just the way that lots of us do when the All Blacks don't even make it into the semis, and when he said, actually guys, I can't manage this anymore, no one let up. It must be possible to celebrate the New Zealand draw, without at the same time making nasty comments about the Italians.
C'mon everyone. How about looking after a member of this community, especially someone who has so freely given his expertise to enable us to celebrate? Would it really hurt you to do so?
Also, even if the Italian player dived to make it blatantly obvious, it was still a foul. Also, also, the NZ goal was kind of dodgy too. Also, also, also, wasn't the result fair enough? It's still an amazing result for NZ, and one we will celebrate for years to come.
Best of all, we're doing better than the Aussies.
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Soto hopes Reading Program catches on
ARLINGTON -- While he continues to make the final adjustments so that he can return to the diamond from a torn meniscus in his left knee after the All-Star break, Rangers catcher Geovany Soto is doing a little bit of work in the library as well.
Soto is the spokesman for the Texas Rangers Summer Reading Program, a program opened to students from kindergarten to 12th grade throughout the duration of the summer.
Students can obtain reading logs from any of the participating libraries in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to track how many minutes they read each day.
Those students who track every day -- Monday through Friday -- for four weeks, have the opportunity to become summer Reading Club All-Stars. Additionally, students can receive discounted tickets for a Rangers-Angels game on Aug. 17.
Soto will do a meet-and-greet and autograph a poster for one student from each library.
And if all goes according to schedule, Soto should be back in a Rangers uniform by then.
Grace Raynor is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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It is natural for change to cause anxiety.
The rate of changes I have been making in my life and business has the unexpected challenge of creating a considerable amount of personal anxiety. There is a dark formless dread hanging in the background of my mind, like a shadowy monster ready to devour me.
My commitment to one small daily sustainable action is contributing to a domino effect of change, both due to its effects, but also due to the amount of change I have to make to bring about one change. Small it may be these changes, but there is research to be done, telephone calls to make, obstacles to overcome, false starts and sacrifices. Not only am I making the sort of changes I blog about each day, but I am also thinking, reviewing and working towards other changes each day to keep my momentum going.
The ideal of one small sustainable action each day is good, but the actual manifestation of these changes is the challenge. The human mind likes the security of the known, the secure and the routine. Now I am in a chaotic period of multiple changes into the unknown. Due to this change, insecurity and uncertainty a fog of anxiety has grown up. My "get off the fence" approach is cutting through obstacles, external and internal, but that feeds rather than diminishes the anxiety. However, I am reaping good beneficial results from my changes.
Fortunately there are mind techniques for dealing with this nameless dread. The human subconscious has no sense of reality, so creative visualisation can pay huge dividends. I remember that for a long time my fear of heights was so bad that I had trouble going up even a flight of stairs on the outside of buildings; I visualised a big hand protecting me ready to catch me if I fell; I thus overcame my fear sufficiently to climb such stairs without being reduced to a jelly. A similar approach I shall use against the nameless dread, the form of the visualisation remains to be decided.
Sustainability action 6 : use Ecosia search engine.
We can support the environment by using our power as voters, consumers and supporters to deal with those people, groups, organisations, products and services that contribute to a sustainable planet. Amongst the many search engines is Ecosia, whose unique selling point is that it will contribute 80% of income to save the Amazon rainforest. The income comes from users clicking the advertisements on Ecosia, or buying products from advertisers displaying an "EcoLink" sign.
Ecosia is not as efficient in search results as Google, so is a bad tool to use for research projects, but for general searches for regular sites like "WordPress" or "Twitter" it is good to use. Nobody is perfect, criticism is levelled at Ecosia for the contributions of income it pays to Bing and Yahoo for access to their search tools; they are criticised for their dependency upon third-party search servers which undermines their claims of a neutral or negative carbon footprint per search. To date Ecosia has contributed £913,612 to the Amazon rainforest, which at least makes them a search engine worth supporting as users.
My sustainability action today is to use Ecosia for general searches instead of Google from now on.


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[size=18:6bd6f552f6]Heat can't erase 23-point deficit as Artest leads rested Pacers[/size]
INDIANAPOLIS - The Heat came into its second-round series on a euphoric high, evident from the downright giddiness in the pregame locker room to the quick start to Thursday's game.
The Indiana Pacers, though, have a way of taking the joy out of the playoff experience. They did it to the Boston Celtics when they swept them out of the first round, and they started the Heat off in the same fashion.
Despite the resilient Heat's attempt to stay within shouting distance, the Pacers won 94-81 at Conseco Fieldhouse to take a 1-0 advantage in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference semifinal series. Game 2 is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday.
Ron Artest, who received his Defensive Player of the Year Award from NBA legend Bill Russell before the game, led the Pacers with his offense, scoring 25 points on 7-of-17 shooting, and Jamaal Tinsley contributed 17 points, all but two coming from three-point range.
In typical Indiana fashion, the Pacers perfected the inside-outside halfcourt attack, going inside to Jermaine O'Neal and Artest, then finding open shooters who went 9 of 18 from three-point range.
''They stick with their game plan, they run their sets, and if they don't like the first option they go to the second,'' said Heat reserve point guard Rafer Alston, who had his best game of the postseason with 17 points and four assists. ``If they don't like the second they go right back to the first.''
While it's the vaunted Indiana inside game that got the Pacers this far, O'Neal had just 13 points on 5-of-17 shooting. Tinsley, meanwhile, hit five of his six three-point attempts, three coming during a devastating 26-5 run that gave the Pacers a 60-37 lead with 7:57 left in the third quarter.
The Heat tried to recover, trimming their deficit to eight several times in the fourth quarter, but could not complete the comeback. Dwyane Wade, who finished with 22 points and seven rebounds, led the Heat's comeback attempt with 15 second-half points.
''I just felt that I wasn't taking what the defense was giving me. I was trying to take more,'' Wade said of his first half. ``In the second half I just took what they gave me.''
Regardless of how the Pacers got their 1-0 advantage in the series, it's a comfortable position. The Pacers have never lost a second-round series in five previous trips. And the team is 11-2 in playoff series after winning the first game.
The Heat, on the other hand, is 1-4 when losing the first game of a series, the only win coming after losing Game 1 of the 1997 second-round series against the Knicks. The Heat won that series in seven games.
The start of this series was promising for the Heat, as Wade began the game with a three-point play and Caron Butler followed with a jumper that gave Miami a 5-0 lead 1:35 into the game. Another Butler jumper 20 seconds later gave the Heat a 7-2 lead, and it looked like the momentum from Tuesday's Game 7 traveled with the Heat to Conseco Fieldhouse.
But, these were still the Pacers, which had beaten the Heat in nine previous meetings, so it wouldn't stay that easy for long.
Artest led the Pacers' surge, scoring 15 first-half points and forcing Miami to double-team him in the post. That opened up Tinsley and Reggie Miller on the perimeter.
''It's tough,'' Alston said of Indiana's three-point shooting. ``It stops you from wanting to help.
``But you need to help sometimes, especially when guys get it going. Artest, he got it going tonight.''
The Heat's growing frustration was evident on the bench, too, when one Pacer tried to interfere with a Miami huddle.
Lamar Odom's 0-for-5 start also stalled the Heat's early push, and the team missed 13 straight shots at one point in the first quarter.
Eddie Jones took just three shots and played only 24 minutes due to foul trouble. He finished with four points. That took all the joy out of the once-euphoric Heat, and the Pacers took full advantage.
''Looks can be deceiving,'' said Odom, who finished with 12 points on 5-of-15 shooting. ``We didn't do anything different. It's the same Miami Heat basketball. We just lost.''
[size=18:6bd6f552f6]How to avoid being roadkill?[/size]
INDIANAPOLIS -- There are no moral victories, not this time of year, not when only eight NBA teams are still breathing, but you have to admire the way the fearless Miami Heat keeps coming into these fights face first.
The mighty Indiana Pacers kept throwing the Heat down a flight of stairs Thursday night, telling them to stay down, but Miami is too young and stupid to be afraid. So they kept wobbling back up those stairs, looking for more, Caron Butler and Lamar Odom literally bloodied during the fray but asking through a winded, weary smile, ``Is that all you got?''
Reggie Miller finally finished Miami on this 94-81 night, finished the Heat the way he has been finishing NBA teams since Dwyane Wade was 9 years old, but not before Miami sent a message that was both warning and truth:
We're not going away quietly.
Indiana has its bloody hands full.
One problem: The Heat has played a lot of very good basketball during this season of resurrection, but virtually none of it has been on the road.
This is not a criticism as much as it is a statement of irrefutable and mathematical fact: The Heat is a bad professional basketball team outside of Miami.
Not mediocre. Not decent. Not even almost-kind-of-sort-of OK.
So the Pacers literally bloodied Lamar Odom (three stitches under the chin) and Caron Butler (knee to the face) before figuratively throwing the rest of their teammates in the trunk of the car, too. Miami banged around back there for a while when things got desperate, making a lot of noise when panicked in the fourth quarter, but never found anything that resembled light or escape.
Miami again became roadkill.
You know how many winning teams Miami has beaten away from home this season?
Think about that for a second.
Miami has played half of its 90 games this wonderful season away from home and has not once managed to luck into or stumble upon a triumph against a team that finished the season with a winning record.
Usually, when you find this kind of stink on the road, it is surrounded by circling buzzards.
It isn't a lack of talent. It isn't a lack of want or will. And it certainly isn't a lack of effort.
It is, however, a lack of confidence.
They don't expect to win on the road because they have nothing in the way of tangible proof that they can.
Confidence is built by stacking successes atop one another, but Miami was 13-28 on the road this season, losing more than twice as often as it won. This is normal for teams this young, the travel wearying the body in a game where fresh legs are pretty important.
''Miami was tired,'' Miller said. ``You could see it. Late in the game, they were dragging.''
Miami was better than teams like New York this season but still managed to lose by 29 to the Knicks on the road.
And now all it must do to advance in these playoffs is win at least once here against the team with the NBA's best record, a team that was 34-7 at home this season.
You never see the fist-pumping, chest-beating Wade on the road. He reserves the histrionics and outward displays of emotion for the home crowd that showers him with love. He'll learn, over the years, to derive a certain joy from the silencing of the rabid strangers on the road, too, but that's something that is going to come with growth.
About the best you can say for the Heat on this night? They didn't quit. They never do. Unfortunately, that's something that only gets said about losing teams.
Doesn't help that Indiana got the star treatment from the referees. Miami has no stars, so they aren't going to get any calls. Refs are human, too. They watch TV commercials. They know that's MVP candidate Jermaine O'Neal out there with the ball. And they get a certain thrill from making the big look-at-me call that makes 20,000 people scream as if they had flipped a noise switch.
Miami might as well have had players in foul trouble before the game even started.
Miami won't win a game in this series if Jamaal Tinsley (6 of 7, 17 points) shoots this way when the Heat is busy double-teaming the real threats, O'Neal and Ron Artest. But there is some solace to be taken from keeping the game close late despite a 32-18 free-throw disadvantage and Tinsley's absurd shooting, especially given the 22-point deficit that inflated when a shaky Miami kept shooting airballs and missing point-blank shots.
You've seen those NBA commercials where various NBA stars pretend to flirt with the golden NBA trophy as if it were a pretty girl?
The Heat can't expect her to just land in its lap.
It needs to go on the road and get her.
[size=18:6bd6f552f6]Heart matters more[/size]
INDIANAPOLIS -- The general consensus entering this NBA playoff series was that Miami's valiant season had been sentenced to death. There would be no appeal, either. No last-minute stay. So strong was the assignment of doom, you half expected Heat players to walk onto the Conseco Fieldhouse court here Thursday night wearing blindfolds and smoking cigarettes, lined up and helpless but to face their fate.
Indiana's Pacers would be required to show up, sure, technically -- if only for appearances' sake -- but the prohibitive favorites would be gliding on auto pilot. Before long, the Game 1 rout on, you imagined Pacers players huddled beside their bench around a small TV, dabbing tears while watching the final episode of Friends.
The idea that this series' conclusion was foregone -- over before it began -- seemed like a fairly grievous disregard and disrespecting of the Heat.
It also seemed a rather unearned pedestal for the Pacers, who, despite the league's best regular-season record, brought no championship pedigree into this postseason.
Game 1 drew the teams a little closer, is what it did. In perception, at the very least. Game 1 should siphon a little of whatever overconfidence may have existed among the Pacers, and should give a little bit of hope (a little) to the Heat.
The Pacers won 94-81, yes, but the Heat won a measure of respect.
Indiana should win this series. Should. But it might not be in four or five games. And it will not be without a fight. That's what Thursday showed.
It was more than not quitting, even as the Indiana lead ballooned past 20 in the second half. It was the idea the young Heat was not intimidated -- despite its awful road record, despite the Pacers' great success at home.
It was the idea the Heat still believes, even if nobody else outside of its hard-core fandom does.
Miami got a struggling night from Lamar Odom, next to no offense from Brian Grant, and hardly anything at all of Eddie Jones.
And yet the Heat gave itself a modest chance, cutting the lead to eight with time to play.
Of course, the fact we are praising the Heat effort after a 13-point defeat tells you how much work Miami has to do.
The disparity between the teams seemed accurate in spurts and batches Thursday night, and it remains an onus on the Heat to prove it's not.
If Thursday was a small moral victory, those are consolations that won't cut it for Miami anymore. Not now.
It's going to take a Heat win on the road, right here, somehow, for the underdogs to have any chance in this series.
And a Heat team with a 13-32 road record, against a Pacers team 37-7 at home, looks to be as close to an impossible task as you'll find anywhere in these playoffs.
Again: Can the Heat prove it's not?
The Pacers have been saying all the right things to publicly respect the Heat, even as Indiana entered this series as confident as it was rested.
Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal complimented Miami's spunk, saying, ``Heart can be tougher to play against than talent.''
It's a nice bon mot. Ready made for a fortune cookie, or maybe a Hallmark verse. But it's pretty much a lie, too.
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle? He likened Dwyane Wade's game to no less than that of LeBron James.
For all the Pacers' praise, Miami in this series faces Jermaine O'Neal, a true star, not the sort-of one New Orleans' Jamaal Magloire supposedly was. It faces Reggie Miller, thespian, dive artist, one of great clutch performers in NBA history. And it faces Defensive Player of the Year Ron Artest, whose hobby is collecting technicals.
Earning a measure of national respect will be easy for this Heat team if it works throughout this series as hard as it did Thursday night.
But earning more than that -- earning an elusive, essential road victory to have any chance at all in this series -- will be immeasurably tougher.
The Heat can show all the heart it has and all of the fight it can muster in this series, and it still might not be enough.
[size=18:6bd6f552f6]Odom comes up short[/size]
By STEPHEN HOLDER
INDIANAPOLIS - This postseason has been Lamar Odom's personal coming-out party, his opportunity to show the world what he was so thoroughly convinced of long ago. It was his chance to prove he belongs here -- in the playoffs, in big games, among the best.
And then Thursday arrived.
The Pacers crashed Odom's party with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, frustrating the Heat's go-to man, forcing him into a poor shooting display. He missed eight of his first 10 shot attempts in this 94-81 loss to kick off the second round.
Odom tried to rally his team in the fourth quarter, long after the Heat had fallen behind by as many as 23. Odom added three big baskets in the fourth quarter and finished with 12 points on 5-of-15 shooting, but six points through three quarters was far from enough.
Odom's fourth-quarter contributions were too little and too late for the Heat's primary offensive option. His team needed him to get things going three quarters before, back when the Pacers were playing as if they didn't want this crucial game, back when the Heat was screaming for an individual to take a stand.
Instead, that's when Indiana sent Odom to the locker room, where he was treated for a cut to his chin that required several stitches, his second such injury during the playoffs.
''That's one thing I didn't need when I started off cold, to come in here and get stitches,'' Odom said. ``It's not an excuse. I didn't play well offensively. I came up a little short.''
In Game 3 at New Orleans, Odom needed stitches on his eyelid just as he was beginning to heat up after a long afternoon. It's the third time this season Odom has required stitches during a game, but, like a boxer, he keeps getting up off the mat.
''It's like a fighter who keeps getting cut in the same area,'' Heat coach Stan Van Gundy said.
But after leaving late in the first quarter and returning early in the second, Odom couldn't connect. He missed from the perimeter, missed in the paint, missed from pretty much everywhere.
By halftime, when the Heat trailed by 10, Odom had had a minimal impact on the game, his 1-for-7 accuracy and three points registering barely a blip on Miami's radar.
Had this been almost any other Heat player, maybe Miami could withstand it. But this was Odom, the most consistent player the Heat has in these playoffs, and in this eighth postseason game, the Heat had long become accustomed to getting big efforts from its biggest star.
Odom had led the Heat in scoring through the postseason, averaging 16.3 points per game against the New Orleans Hornets. He also shot 43.8 percent despite being guarded by P.J. Brown, a very capable and experienced defender.
Odom had dropped 25 points on the Hornets in Game 4, 18 points in Game 3 and 17 in Game 1. But, suddenly, Al Harrington and Jeff Foster of the Pacers had found a way to disrupt Odom's rhythm -- or, more accurately, found a way to prevent Odom from finding that rhythm in the first place.
''It's going to be like that sometimes,'' Odom said. ``I just have to keep plugging, keep going. Nothing changes from my part.''
[size=18:6bd6f552f6]Pacers take control with halfcourt game[/size]
By MICHAEL POINTER
Special to the Herald
INDIANAPOLIS - Perhaps the last thing Indiana coach Rick Carlisle wanted to see was a game played at breakneck speed Thursday night.
''They play with an angular, hard-driving kind of force,'' Carlisle said before Indiana's opening game against the Heat. ``We've got to make sure we don't turn this into a track meet. If we turn this into a 100-yard dash, we're going to get beat.''
Mission accomplished. The veteran, deep Pacers got the Heat into a halfcourt game early and withstood a mild rally en route to victory.
''We've got to play at our tempo, which is an opportunistic transition tempo, and we've got to play inside-out as often as we can,'' Carlisle said. ``It's tough because Miami makes it tough to get the ball into the post.''
Still, there isn't much to complain about in Indianapolis. Average winning margin through five playoff games is 16 points. The 11-day layoff since the Pacers swept Boston in an opening-round series hardly seemed to bother them.
If anything, it may have made them fresher -- especially against the Heat, which had just one day to get ready for the Pacers after a Game 7 victory over New Orleans.
''Miami was tired,'' Indiana's Reggie Miller said. ``You could see it at the beginning of the game. They were really dragging. They really didn't have time to prepare for us.''
Added Carlisle: ``It really felt good to go out and play the game. The effort was there. I thought we were a little overanxious at times. But I thought we played pretty well.''
Ron Artest, who missed the Pacers' morning shootaround because of a headache, scored 25 points and added six rebounds. Indiana's Jamaal Tinsley had a career playoff high of 17 points. He was 5 for 6 from three-point range.
''He made some mistakes along the way, but he did a great job of making shots,'' Carlisle said. ``He made some three-pointers when we kicked it out from a double-team in the paint that came at really key times.''
The Pacers took the lead for good when Artest's two field goals made the score 11-10 with 5:51 left in the first half.
They stretched their first-half lead to 10 points three times, the final coming when Jonathan Bender's basket with 3.9 seconds left made the score 46-36 at the break.
Indiana then opened the second half with a 14-1 run. Miami did not get its first basket of the second half until Rafer Alston hit a free throw with 7:43 remaining. The Heat played better after that, but the game was out of reach. They cut the deficit to 84-76 on Caron Butler's basket with 3:26 left.
But Miller answered with a three-pointer 15 seconds later, and the Pacers coasted home.
''Miami is going to keep coming at you,'' Carlisle said. ``They've got a strong will. I'm afraid when we go and look at the tape, we're going to see they outworked us at times.


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Is it possible to add a "Mark forums read" link at the top of the section of "View new posts"?
Be well.
mikenz66 wrote:Hi MP,
I appreciate that people read these Forums in various ways, but, depending on what you are trying to do, you may also find it useful to experiment with the "View new posts" and "View active topics" links on the home page.
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$61 billion payoff from Eagle Ford
Updated 1:34 am, Wednesday, March 27, 2013
AUSTIN — Last year, the Eagle Ford Shale had a $61 billion impact and supported 116,000 jobs across a 20-county swath of South Texas — a once-sleepy region increasingly defined by an oil and gas boom.
The latest numbers from an ongoing University of Texas at San Antonio study continue to show a ballooning financial effect as the industry races to drill oil wells in the region.
The results of the study were released Tuesday at a meeting at the Capitol of the House Energy Caucus and Eagle Ford Shale Caucus, a group of South Texas lawmakers hoping to bring attention to the road, water, health, housing and other infrastructure needs brought on by the influx of workers and truck traffic into the region.
America's Natural Gas Alliance, an industry trade group, paid for the study.
It calculates the direct economic impacts of oil and gas exploration, as well as the so-called indirect and "induced" economic activity created from things such as service companies building warehouses and offices or workers spending their paychecks.


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Efficacy and Safety of Asenapine With Placebo and Haloperidol (41023)(P05926)(COMPLETED)
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
Schizophrenia is a brain disease. The primary features of schizophrenia are characterized by Positive symptoms (symptoms that should not be there, inability to think clearly, to distinguish reality from fantasy i.e., hearing voices) and Negative symptoms (a reduction or absence of normal behaviors or emotions, i.e., unable to manage emotions, make decisions and relate to others). Other symptoms include reduced ability to recall and learn new information, difficulty with problem solving, or maintaining productive employment. The symptoms of schizophrenia may be due to an imbalance in chemicals in the brain, primarily dopamine and serotonin, which enables brain cells to communicate with each other.
Asenapine is an investigational drug that may help to correct the inbalance in dopamine and serotonin. This is a 6-week trial to test the efficacy and safety of asenapine, compared with placebo, using an active comparator agent (haloperidol) in the treatment of patients with an acute exacerbation of schizophrenia. Patients who complete the 6-week trial will have the option of continuing in an additional one year extension trial.
|Drug: Asenapine Drug: Haloperidol Other: Placebo arm
|Phase 3
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Quadruple (Participant, Care Provider, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary Purpose: Treatment
|Official Title:
|A Multicenter, Randomized, Double-Blind, Fixed-Dose, 6-Week Trial of the Efficacy and Safety of Asenapine Compared With Placebo Using Haloperidol Positive Control in Subjects With an Acute Exacerbation of Schizophrenia
- Improvement in schizophrenia (change in total PANSS score) from baseline to endpoint (LOCF/MMRM) [ Time Frame: Primary outcome measured weekly for 6 weeks ]
- Other dimensions of schizophrenia (positive, negative, disorganized thought, hostility/excitement, anxiety/depression, and general psychopathology) CGI-S; CGI-I [ Time Frame: At weekly intervals throughout the 6-week trial. ]
- Neurocognition and cognitive functioning [ Time Frame: Baseline and Endpoint ( Day 42) ]
- CDSS [ Time Frame: Days 21 and 42(Endpoint). ]
- Suicidal thinking ( ISST modified) [ Time Frame: Days 14 and 42 (Endpoint) ]
- Quality of life and patient functionality (QLS; Q-LES-Q ;PETIT0; Physical exam; Pregnancy test [ Time Frame: Baseline and Day 42(Endpoint) ]
- Readiness to discharge [ Time Frame: At weekly intervals during the 6-week trial ]
- EPS ( AIMS; BARS; SARS) [ Time Frame: At weekly intervals during the 6-week triaL ]
- Labs; Vital Signs; Weight and girth; ECG [ Time Frame: Days 14; 28 and 42 (Endpoint) ]
- Safety and Tolerability
|Actual Study Start Date:
|July 1, 2005
|Study Completion Date:
|September 16, 2006
|Primary Completion Date:
|August 18, 2006 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
|Assigned Interventions
Experimental: 1
Asenapine 5 mg BID
Drug: Asenapine
5 mg BID
Experimental: 2
Asenapine 10 mg BID
Drug: Asenapine
10 mg BID
Active Comparator: 3
Haloperidol 4m mg BID
Drug: Haloperidol
4 mg BID
Placebo Comparator: 4
|Other: Placebo arm
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years and older (Adult, Senior)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- Currently suffering from an acute exacerbation of schizophrenia. Caregiver required.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Have an uncontrolled, unstable medical condition. Have any other pyschiatric disorder other than schizophrenia as a primary diagnosis.
No Contacts or Locations Provided
Study Data/Documents: CSR Synopsis
Publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):
|Responsible Party:
|Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00156104 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|September 7, 2005
|Last Updated:
|August 18, 2017
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders
Mental Disorders
Haloperidol decanoate
Autonomic Agents
Peripheral Nervous System Agents
Physiological Effects of Drugs
Gastrointestinal Agents
Antipsychotic Agents
Tranquilizing Agents
Central Nervous System Depressants
Psychotropic Drugs
Dopamine Antagonists
Dopamine Agents
Neurotransmitter Agents
Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action
Anti-Dyskinesia Agents
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017


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Star Lotulelei, one of the top prospects for the 2013 NFL Draft, will not be allowed to work out on Monday at the Scouting Combine as he has a heart condition that requires more testing, sources told ESPN.com.
Lotulelei's agent, Bruce Tollner, told ESPN.com's Joe Schad that Lotuletei, a former Utah defensive tackle, had an abnormal test result as part of a physical and is set to visit a specialist this week.
Lotulelei was discovered with an abnormally low Ejection Fraction, according to the report. It was detected that the left ventricle of his heart had been pumping at only 44 percent efficiency, sources told ESPN.com. The normal range of efficiency is between 55 and 70 percent.
Tollner told ESPN.com that Lotulelei was asked to by combine officials to not participate until seeing a specialist. He does plan on participating in Utah's Pro Day, which will be March 20. He is also being interviewed by teams in Indianapolis at the Scouting Combine.
Lotulelei was projected to go to the Jacksonville Jaguars with the No. 2 pick in SN's latest mock draft.


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sattva wrote:Hi! Yesterday after dialysis, I was getting out of my sister's car. I took one step backwards so I could move my oxygen tank out of the way to shut the car door. Stepped on a patch of ice or snow and my foot slipped. Landed hard on my limited padding buttaroo. Head hit the ground next and the oxygen tank fell on my left knee. So, my sister and I got me onto my feet (which wasn't easy), back into the car, and returned to the hospital. This time to the emergency room. I was there over 3 hours and had x-rays and CT scans. Turns out I am alright, just very sore. The goose egg sized lump on my head is already almost gone! So, I have a lot to be thankful for! No broken bones, no concussion and my sister and I between our obvious distress, got a few laughs about it. For instance, if I had waited, like I was suppose to, for her to help me, I would have probably taken us both out. Then, where would we be?!
Happy day to everyone!
ps. The title of your post made me think of this song by the Beatles
Taijitu wrote:Just came back from hospital visiting a friend who gave me a rune with the marking Gebo on it.
I like this gift as it represents a magical exchange and balance to me.
Am I the only one in a happy place right now?
You are the only one in a happy place right now.
Barbara wrote:My happy place?
Here and now
ES06 wrote:Talking about being slippery...
Today I had to go out and streets were extremely slippery, almost like an ice rink! I had to watch my every step and concentrate on walking there - right mindfulness in action. It was almost meditative!
Now I am just happy I am at home and I didn't fell at all...
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Great Basin
gets $9.5M
in funding
Great Basin
gets $9.5M
in funding
Great Basin Corp., a Utah firm that is developing an easy-to-use molecular diagnostic test, received $9.5 million in new capital provided by previous investors. It will be used to expand manufacturing and research. Great Basin received FDA clearance in May to market its first product, a test for a deadly hospital-acquired infection.
Usana nabbed
most awards
ever in 2012
Usana Health Sciences, the Utah multilevel marketing company, earned more than 85 national and international accolades in 2012 for its products and strategic partnerships with athletes, scientific experts and research institutions. That was double the number in 2011.
Apple reports
40 billion apps
Apple says users have downloaded more than 40 billion apps for the iPhone, iPad and the iPod Touch, nearly half of them in 2012. In December more than 2 billion apps were downloaded, Apple said, noting there are 775,000 individual applications available in its app store.
China in talks
to acquire
China's sovereign wealth fund is in talks about possibly buying a stake in German luxury automaker Daimler. The People's Daily, the main Communist Party newspaper, said China Investment might buy 4 percent to 10 percent of Daimler, which sold its stake in Chrysler in 2007.


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This 1931 Bugatti Royale Type 41 Cabriolet is one of six. The 779 cubic inch (yes, 779!), straight 8 engine developed 300 hp. The car weighs 7035 pounds and cost $43,000 when new (body by Weinberger). I was lucky to be present (as a child) when this car was presented to the museum during the Old Car Show sometime in the late 1950s.
The United States is one of the most diverse countries on earth, jam packed full of amazing sights from St. Patrick's cathedral in New York to Mount Hollywood California.The Northeast region is where it all started. Thirteen British colonies fought the American Revolution from here and won their independence in the first successful colonial rebellion in history. Take a look at these rolling hills carpeted with foliage along the Hudson river here, north of New York City.The American south is known for its polite people and slow pace of life. Probably they move slowly because it's so hot. Southerners tend not to trust people from "up north" because they talk too fast. Here's a cemetery in Georgia where you can find graves of soldiers from the Civil War.The West Coast is sort of like another country that exists to make the east coast jealous. California is full of nothing but grizzly old miners digging for gold, a few gangster rappers, and then actors. That is to say, the West Coast functions as the imagination of the US, like a weird little brother who teases everybody then gets famous for making freaky art.The central part of the country is flat farmland all the way over to the Rocky Mountains. Up in the northwest corner you can find creative people in places like Portland and Seattle, along with awesome snowboarding and good beer. Text by Steve Smith.


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'The message was clear after the Buffalo Sabres' boring 2-1 overtime victory over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday: low-scoring hockey is back in the NHL, so get used to it. It might've been the first time this season the Sabres gutted out a tight-checking contest, but it won't be the last. "There's going to be a lot of it this year," Sabres goalie Ryan Miller said. "That's the way the league's kind of shifting."'
You are here: Home / SabresBeat / Sabres 'gut out' win over Bruins


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CHHS News
Displaying Articles for Category: CHHS June 2012 E-Newsletter (view all categories)
WKU KPHA Student Chapter Wins Award for Video (June 15th, 2012)
CHHS Spotlight-Stakeholder Dr. Keith R. Knapp (June 11th, 2012)
CHHS Spotlight- Alumni Dr. Jeremiah Jaggers (June 11th, 2012)
Nursing Students Donate to Newborns in Need (June 11th, 2012)
8th Annual Hilltopper Black Bag Classic (June 11th, 2012)
Department of Communication Disorders wins WalkingWorks® Challenge (June 11th, 2012)
MPH Alum Admitted to University of Iowa Doctoral Program (June 11th, 2012)
Dr. Martha Jenkins Honored with Jefferson Award (June 11th, 2012)
Dental Hygiene Students Achieve 100% Pass Rate (June 11th, 2012)
Congratulations to School of Nursing Faculty Member (June 11th, 2012)
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BP Comment Quick Links
|Strength of Schedule Report
October 11, 2012
Playoff Prospectus
ALDS Game Three Recap: Yankees 3, Orioles 2
The questions addressed to Joe Girardi in his pre-game press conference looked a lot like the ones he fielded several hours later, after the Yankees had come from behind to beat Baltimore 3-2 in 12 innings and take a 2-1 series lead. Both times, the emphasis was on Alex Rodriguez, with a bit of Raul Ibanez. Girardi's responses about A-Rod earlier in the day weren't very revealing. But by the time the second presser started, the questions almost didn't have to be asked. Girardi's in-game actions had already supplied the answers.
The Yankees broke Baltimore's string of 16 straight extra-inning wins, handed the O's their first loss of the season in which they held a lead after seven innings, and homered off of Jim Johnson—who'd entered the series having allowed three home runs all year, and none since June 5th—for the second time in three days. To hear Girardi tell it, they owed it all to his insides.
Girardi credited three separate body parts—his heart, his gut, and his stomach—with being behind the move. If his brain (or his binder) played a role, it barely merited a mention. Here's the lone mention of any data-driven decision-making from his post-game presser:
"But I just had a gut feeling. We talked about it in the pre-game about being a great pinch-hitter, and you've got a left-handed hitter who's a low-ball hitter in a sense, and you've got a low-ball pitcher. I just kind of had a gut feeling."
The impetus for the move wasn't whatever information came up in that meeting. Girardi mentioned the objective factors in favor of the matchup almost apologetically, sandwiching them between two references to his guts, which were clearly calling the shots. And while it's easy to make fun of gut feelings, sometimes they contain truths.
This chart shows where Johnson has delivered his pitches this season. As Girardi suggested, he's a low-ball pitcher, working most often in the middle of the zone and below.
And here's Ibanez' True Average by location against right-handed pitchers during the PITCHf/x era:
Again, a lot of red low in the zone. The areas where Johnson tends to throw the ball most often have a lot of overlap with the areas where Ibanez tends to hit the ball best.
So Girardi went with the platoon advantage—though Johnson has a career reverse split—and the low-ball pitcher against the low-ball hitter. But where did he get the gut feeling?
Maybe Ibanez' recent pinch-hit heroics had made an impression. Maybe he remembered Johnson striking out A-Rod like this the night before.
Or maybe he simply didn't like the way A-Rod had looked going 0-for-3 with 2 Ks earlier in the game. But I think there might be a bit more to it. This season, Ibanez has been very good against righties and very good at home, which makes sense, given typical platoon splits and the way Yankee Stadium tends to treat left-handed hitters. But when both of those advantages have been combined—against righties, and at home—Ibanez has been an absolute beast. In 175 plate appearances and 156 at-bats against right-handers at home, Ibanez hit .276/.354/.596, with 14 home runs. That's a rate of one home run every 11.1 at-bats. Babe Ruth, overall, hit a home run every 11.8 at-bats. Yankee Stadium is the House That Should Have Been Built for Ibanez.
Wieters was set up outside, but Johnson missed his target, and the pitch ended up inside and a little below the belt—right in Raul's happy zone.
With that pinch-hit homer, Ibanez' homer rate against righties at home rose to one every 10.5 at-bats. The walk-off shot came off a lefty, Brian Matusz, whom I dubbed one of the toughest pitchers for a left-handed hitter to hit after Game Two.
Small-sample splits like these are ephemeral. Take Ibanez's stats as a pinch-hitter, which Girardi cited in the excerpt above. Before last night, Ibanez had hit .320/.379/.640 in 29 pinch-hit plate appearances as a Yankee. Girardi called for each of those plate appearances personally, then witnessed what happened firsthand. Having been rewarded for calling on Ibanez before, it's only natural that Girardi would have a high opinion of his abilities off the bench. But something interesting happens when you look at the bigger picture instead of the last few frames: in 150 career regular-season PA as a pinch-hitter, Ibanez has hit .188/.267/.323. Maybe he's perfected the art of pinch-hitting at age 40, or maybe his last 29—sorry, make that 30—pinch-hit plate appearances aren't at all representative of his true talent. That sky-high homer rate probably isn't either, but it held out long enough to make Girardi look good.
It's inevitable that Girardi's decision will be compared to Joe Torre's choice to drop Rodriguez to eighth in the order in Game Four of the 2006 ALDS, but the similarities between the two situations are superficial. In 2006, Rodriguez was 30 years old and between two MVP seasons. He'd ended the regular season hot, having hit .358/.465/.691 in September. Torre was basing his decision on A-Rod going 1-for-11 in the first three games of that series, after having struggled in the 2005 ALDS and the last few games of the 2004 ALCS. Essentially, he was allowing his expectations for Rodriguez to be swayed by a small sample of postseason games spread across three seasons, rather than his much larger, more recent record of regular-season success (or, for that matter, his past successes in the playoffs). Not only was the demotion an affront to A-Rod's honor, but it was a misguided move from a tactical perspective.
Things have changed. Rodriguez is 37, increasingly fragile, and less potent at the plate with every passing season. In my Game One recap, I made a montage of A-Rod missing fat fastballs, which has become a familiar sight. Matthew Leach backed up that observation with some stats at MLB.com:
After Game Two, I joined the chorus of writers calling for Rodriguez to bat lower in the lineup—not because it's October, or because I think he's un-clutch, but because I think Robinson Cano is too good not to bat higher. Girardi didn't make that move. Instead, he made an even bolder one. Whether it was the right move might be debatable; whether it worked is not. Either way, we just witnessed one of the defining decisions of Girardi's managerial career, a moment when he risked everything for a move that felt right. Luckily for him, Ibanez came through; as much as we might harp on the primacy of process over results, most managers' job security depends on whether their players deliver.
"I'm one of the leaders of this team," Rodriguez insisted in the clubhouse after the game, sounding as if he was reassuring himself as much as he was reminding the assembled writers. Maybe so, but players who don't produce, or who lose the trust of the team in big spots, don't tend to stay leaders for long. Rodriguez said that this wouldn't cause tension, that he accepted the decision and stood on the top step to watch the at-bat, and that no one was happier for Ibanez than he was, which was certainly how it appeared. But the Yankees have to figure out how to handle him not just for the rest of this series and any subsequent rounds, but for the next five years. Barring a rebound, the answers aren't going to be easy.
Had Girardi not made the move he did, or had Ibanez not rewarded him as richly, I would have had plenty of other storylines to write a recap about. The home run hit by Manny Machado (on an 84-mph slider out over the plate, one of the few mistakes made by Hiroki Kuroda), who became the second-youngest player ever to go deep in the postseason (after Andruw Jones). The starts by Miguel Gonzalez and Kuroda, who allowed a combined 10 hits (most of them soft) in 15 1/3 innings. (Gonzalez, who struck out eight without a walk in seven innings, was particularly dominant.) The way Adam Jones played Jeter's third-inning fly ball into a triple, which may have cost the Orioles the game. But in the end, all of those stories took a back seat to Ibanez—and, as always, A-Rod.
A bunch of bullet points to tide you over until tonight:
Thanks to Rob McQuown for research assistance.
Ben Lindbergh is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @benlindbergh
12 comments have been left for this article.
BP Comment Quick Links
I really hope that Saunders can do in tonight's game what he did in Texas - but with that super short porch in right-field I'm less confident.
Oct 11, 2012 08:28 AM
When the lineups were announced yesterday, I was astounded that Ibanez wasn't in the lineup (in place of Ichiro or Chavez, I didn't expect A-rod to be benched)because of the record at home vs righties. Did anyone ask Joe why he started Raul in Baltimore but Chavez in New York?
Oct 11, 2012 08:36 AM
Ben Lindbergh
BP staff
Yes. From the pre-game presser transcript:
Oct 11, 2012 10:09 AM
Brutal loss last night for the O's. Everything that worked for the O's this season failed them last night. It was a rare one run loss. It was their first loss when leading after 7 innings. It broke the streak of 16 straight extra inning wins.
Oct 11, 2012 08:42 AM
At least now we can say that A-Rod contributed significantly to this series...by sucking so badly that the hitter Girardi used to pinch-hit for him eventually won the game.
Oct 11, 2012 08:44 AM
Not a peep about Adam Jones' misplay of Jeter's (eventual) triple early in the game? I've read about (and seen) Jones' problems going back on balls .... this one DID keep carrying, but ....
Oct 11, 2012 09:59 AM
Ben Lindbergh
BP staff
I mentioned it before the bullet points. Didn't have too much more to say about it, but I agree that it wasn't a good route.
Oct 11, 2012 10:04 AM
Ben ... I'm sorry .... totally missed it (just like Adam Jones did) :-)
Oct 11, 2012 10:06 AM
His first step was IN and then he coasted...he just badly misplayed that ball, which is RARE.
Oct 11, 2012 11:44 AM
And the obligatory knock on Jeter' fielding. Why do you and seemngly everyone else on this site feel the need to hit the guy at every opportunity?
Oct 11, 2012 14:31 PM
It is not that Jeter is a bad fielder, it is that he has no range...when he was younger maybe yes, not now!
Oct 11, 2012 15:44 PM
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This was a once-in-a-lifetime event; all four Charles Ives symphonies in a single night.
On the last night of a very hectic New York research trip, I was lucky enough to attend the Charles Ives "Total Immersion" concert, featuring Leonard Slatkin conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, in a marathon evening which tackled nothing less than the performance of all four of Charles Ives' symphonies, a taxing assignment for any orchestral group, but particular in the case of the justly famous Fourth Symphony, which is so complex that it requires two conductors, a huge orchestra, and a complete choral group to bring the work to life.
As you can see in the video above, the Fourth combines so many musical themes and such a wide array of instrumentation that any presentation of the work is daunting; it also comes with the considerable difficulty of containing, in several of its movements, two time signatures running simultaneously at two different tempos, which is why the second conductor is so necessary. I was staying in a hotel right around the corner from Carnegie Hall, and noticed a poster for the evening when I first arrived, at the astounding price of only $25 a ticket for any seat in the house.
Obtaining two tickets in the dress circle early Monday morning the week of the concert, I wondered all week long whether or not I would have the stamina to last through the entire evening, which started at 7:30 and didn't conclude until nearly 11PM, especially since I had to get up the next morning at 5AM to catch a flight home. At the last minute, I decided that whatever the hardship in lack of sleep, this was an evening not to be missed, and I am deeply, deeply happy that I made that decision.
Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony were in top form, and the packed house knew it from the first downbeat; here was an ensemble that brought Ives' often difficult music to life, and an amazing opportunity to track Ives' development as a composer from the rather traditional First Symphony — which nevertheless boasts a spectacular First Movement (breaking concert hall protocol, the audience interrupted the orchestra after the movement was complete for a lengthy round of enthusiastic applause, rather than waiting for the entire piece to conclude). The Second was darker and more experimental, while the Third — which astoundingly won the Pulitzer Prize — was the briefest and least impressive, and then came, as one of my seatmates put it, "the main event."
The Ives Fourth has been one of my favorite pieces of music since I can remember — indeed, I scored an entire film of mine, The DC 5 Memorial Film (1969) to the Fourth Movement in its entirety — and Skatkin's interpretation of this intense, difficult, and ultimately transcendent piece of music was absolutely faultless. I was very pleased when I read James R. Oestreich's review in The New York Times to find that he, too, was impressed by the evening; as he wrote, "the high point came on Friday evening with Detroit's audacious presentation of an 'Ives Immersion': all four of Charles Ives's numbered symphonies in chronological order.
Obvious in retrospect (though not likely to be repeated often, given its strenuous demands on performers and listeners alike), the program made for an extraordinary journey, from the relatively conventional sensibility of a prodigious student composer in the First Symphony to the unfettered one of an indomitable master in the Fourth . . .
Taken together, the four symphonies could almost be read as individual movements of a gigantic whole, so natural and compelling was the flow. After that First Symphony — first movement, as it were — the Second came as a sort of scherzo, gamboling through old folk and hymn tunes, with 'Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean' as anchor. The Third Symphony, relatively restrained and more focused in its borrowing, seemed a calming slow movement before the all-out radicalization of the Fourth.
Mr. Slatkin preceded his performance of the Fourth Symphony with a brief, brilliant demonstration of the work's complexities. He had the orchestra play a four-measure mashup of tunes and rhythms from the second movement, then had the various sections play individual layers. And what should appear but 'Turkey in the Straw' in the violins, scarcely to be heard behind the blaring trumpets and under the accumulated weight of other instruments when everything was put back together. In similar fashion, Mr. Slatkin showed why a second conductor (Teddy Abrams) was needed in parts of the second and fourth movements, dismantling, then remantling the conflicting meters."
All in all, a brilliant evening, and another, much needed reminder of how essential the arts are in today's society.


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CLEARLAKE -- Business owner Bunnie Carter said she hoped to inspire change within Clearlake by being an honest and personable councilwoman.
"My heart is in the community. I believe it could change to a beautiful place if the right people are on the council," Carter, 62, said.
The co-owner of Tatonka Trading and Tatonka Land Miniature Golf on Lakeshore Drive is a longtime Clearlake resident. She vies for one of three council seats up for grabs in the November election.
Carter opposes placing a shopping center on the airport property and instead advocates for a manufacturing plant, suggesting either the hemp or bottling industries.
"I want jobs for the community, full-time jobs with benefits ... It would be better for our community instead of part-time jobs in retail," she said.
The city should begin taxing medical marijuana dispensaries and look toward licensing marijuana growers, according to Carter.
"They need to start paying taxes on the money that they are making, and hopefully the crime won't be as bad because people aren't stealing the plants out of gardens and turning around and selling them for cash to the pot stores. The pot stores (would) have to buy from the licensed growers," she said.
Carter said her primary concern would be addressing issues with Clear Lake.
"The lake needs to be cleaned. There won't be any businesses if we don't do something about the lake. That's my priority," Carter added.
Enhancing the downtown business corridor would be another focus for her.
"I would love to see Lakeshore Drive (improved). They've been promising this for a long time and I just want to see it fulfilled," she said.
Carter also pushes for the city to bring in more recreational centers such as a skating rink or drive-in movie theater, "so people have something else to do besides the lake."
Carter lives in the city with her husband, Robert Coker.
Jeremy Walsh is a staff reporter for Lake County Publishing. Reach him at 263-5636, ext. 37 or email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter, @JeremyDWalsh.


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Gisele Bundchen Bikini Pictures With Ben Brady in Caribbean
Bikini-Clad Gisele Bundchen Teaches Ben Brady to Swim in the Caribbean!
Gisele Bundchen hit the beach in a tiny bikini with her son Benjamin Brady in the Caribbean yesterday. Ben, who turns 2 on Dec. 8, worked on his skills in the water with swimmies on his arms and shared a snack of watermelon with his mom. Gisele models a swimsuit on Harpers Bazaar Brazil for its first-ever issue, and she also looked amazing in her skimpy two-piece as she frolicked with her little guy. Gisele recently opened up about Ben and her stepson Jack Moynahan in Vogue UK, saying that she has convinced her younger one that broccoli is dessert and that the elder is starting martial arts this Fall.
Gisele's Caribbean getaway will fuel rumors that she is the new face of Givenchy. Gisele allegedly shot the 2012 Givenchy campaign in Jamaica last week after a male model tweeted that he was heading to the island for the job. While Gisele is taking advantage of her latest on-location work, her husband Tom Brady is gearing up for another big game this weekend. The New England Patriots will take on the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday.