FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL ๐ซ๐๐บ๐ฝ️๐. This photo of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 classic "To Catch a Thief" is the large Twitter photo on my @hbbtruth account
Beautiful Strandvรคgen, the grand boulevard in รstermalm, in central Stockholm, Sweden, along Nybroviken. In my previous life, I was DEFINITELY born and raised there!
Memorial Stadium, Bloomington, home of the Hoosiers; Fernando Mendoza TD dive on 4th Down leads to IU's first nat'l football title; The Team; The Head Coach, Curt Cignetti and the Hoosiers 2026 football schedule
Somewhat unexpectedly, I now find myself suddenly planning on being at Broward County Govt. HQ first thing in the morning. Surprise! Thanks to a head's-up from Charlotte Greenbarg and Robert Wolfe, me, my camera and some McDonald's coffee will be attending tomorrow morning's just-announced Broward County EthicsComm. meeting that's in response to some members of the Broward County Commission trying to figure out some means to create legal obstacles to their required votein less than two months on the proposed ethics package, so they can say that it wasn't really them stalling, it was just some Judge who prevented them from doing something that's LONG, LONG OVERDUE. That attitude certainly explains a lot about what passes for public service and democracy in this county, and the county's citizen taxpayers lack of trust and respect for them.
It's my hope that by contacting you now, at least some of you all might get the chance to make an appearance and let your voice be heard -in-person.
If you choose to do so, you can also send something to the Committee's county liaison Monica Cepero, at the email below and request that it be read and made part of the public record.
This afternoon's Broward Politics blog contained a post from Brittany Wallman dealing with an excellent and insightful response from Robert Wechsler to the unexpected news yesterday -at bottom- that some legal skull-duggery was being tried at the Eleventh Hour.
You may recall that when I first started attending the Ethics meetings last year, I first encouraged you all to check out and Bookmark Mr. Wechsler's excellent www.cityethics.org website.
As you might guess, I also send him some things from time-to-time that I think fall within his wide-ranging ethics beat, so he can connect-the-dots more clearly on what's going on down here in the county, as well as closer to home in Hallandale Beach, where the state's Sunshine Laws are just considered Suggestions by those wielding power at City Hall. I also have a response from Comm. Ken Keechl at the bottom that Charlottejust shared with me, too.
For more on the Ethics Commission and their proposals:http://www.broward.org/EthicsCommission/Pages/Default.aspx ----- Broward Politics blog Ethicist/blogger critical of Broward County Commission's latest move
Posted by Brittany Wallman on June 17, 2010 03:09 PM
Robert Wechsler, an ethicist with a blog called cityethics.org, weighed into the mire that Broward County's proposed ethics reform ordinance is stuck in.
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 4:03 PM To: 'Alfreda Coward'; 'Carl Shechter'; 'Comm. Carl Shechter'; 'Felicia M. Brunson'; 'Howard Bakalar'; Jardine, Arlene; 'Julie Lakosky'; 'Kenneth Fink'; Leu, Leah; Cepero, Monica; 'Neal de Jesus'; 'Paul White'; Robert Wolfe; 'Robin Rorapaugh'; Russo, Jean; Seff, Bradley; Teitler, Robert; 'Washington Collado'; 'William Scherer' Cc: Newton, Jeffrey; Henry, Bertha; Madison, Pamela; Bieber, Josephine; Jardine, Arlene Subject: Ethics Commission Meeting called for THIS FRIDAY, June 18, 2010 at 9am Importance: High
Chairman Neal de Jesus, of the Broward County Ethics Commission has called a meeting of the Ethics Commission for THIS FRIDAY, June 18th at 9am. It will be held in room 430 of the Government Center (same room all of your meetings were held in).
The meeting will be sunshined from 9am-11am.
Please let me know as soon as possible of your availability to attend, as we will need a physical quorum in order to proceed with the meeting. Please copy my assistant Arlene Jardine on your response as well, as she is helping coordinate the meeting.
Thank you,
Monica
Monica Cepero
Assistant to the County Administrator
115 S Andrews Ave,
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
Phone 954 357 7354
------------------ From: Keechl, Ken Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 3:13 PM To: 'Charlotte Greenbarg' Subject: RE: 6/16/10 Broward Politics blog: Broward commissioners accused of derailing ethics reform
Charlotte
I can’t speak for anyone but me, but I intend to vote for the original ordinance as presented by the Ethics Commission You know me better than that. I have said this from day one-over and over. I voted in favor of the lawsuit (9-0) so the judge could rule that the ordinance is legal. However, after thinking about it more, I doubt that any court could rule on this by the deadline for the vote: August 10. I truly don’t believe anyone was trying to derail the ordinance. Thanks.
Broward County Mayor Ken Keechl,
District 4 Commissioner
From: Charlotte Greenbarg Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 2:00 PM To: 'Charlotte Greenbarg' Cc: Jones, Albert; Wasserman-Rubin, Diana; Lieberman, Ilene; Rodstrom, John; Keechl, Ken; Jacobs, Kristin; Lois Wexler; Ritter, Stacy; Gunzburger, Suzanne Subject: FW: 6/16/10 Broward Politics blog: Broward commissioners accused of derailing ethics reform Importance: High
Read Sue Gunzburger's excellent rebuttal to the effort to derail ethics reform. Let them know how you feel.
Charlotte
From:hallandalebeachblog@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 11:58 AM Subject: FYI: 6/16/10 Broward Politics blog: Broward commissioners accused of derailing ethics reform
Reader comments below are as of 11:45 a.m. Thursday
Today's episode of the creative culture vs. corporate entertainment wars brings us to to New York Post theater critic Michael Riedel's column, wherein he quite accurately takes the measure of the Broadway establishment and gives us his variation of the classic Stix Nix Hix Pix, where Broadway Inc.brings the corn-pone to the Corn Belt via their votes for the Tony Awards. Yes, say hello again to our old friend, "Coals to Newcastle."
I watched 99% of the Tony awards last night and having read so many stories and reviews of the shows involved, as well as similar criticisms that even for cynical critics, a new nadir was being reached, I tend to give MichaelRiedel the benefit of the doubt on this issue, especially when you read his column and discover exactly who has been specifically prevented from voting this year. To him, the "fix" was in.
And be sure to notice while looking at his column the new New York Post article layout, sponsored by search engine Bing, with articles superimposed over a great color photo of Central Park. Very Cool!
For the Miami Herald to be as cool down here by incorporating some geographical representation of the area into their current articles, they'd probably have to go old-school and dig up some of those photos of Cristo and Jeanne Claude's Surrounded islands, the iconic project from the early '80's which my Mom helped out with as one of the dozens of volunteers, while I was away at IU in Bloomington. If I'd been here. I'd have lent a hand, too.
See http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/si.shtml and NY Times article at bottom.
----- New York Post More Tony baloney Lame 'Memphis' beats fab 'Fela!' Last Updated: 1:55 PM, June 14, 2010 Posted: 1:42 AM, June 14, 2010 By Michael Riedel http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/more_tony_baloney_2gIuPLUHE9FLH820o0WMHN
Riedel's prediction column New York Post Blood on the red carpet Last Updated: 10:12 AM, June 11, 2010, Posted: 12:24 AM, June 11, 2010, By Michael Riedel http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/blood_on_the_red_carpet_vw0QeIw48ggfh6NIUEdF6J
New York Post And the winners aren't ... Hailing actors Tony won't love Last Updated: 2:11 PM, June 9, 2010 Posted: 1:58 AM, June 9, 2010 By Michael Riedel http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/and_the_winners_aren_3TZgMxnGnZoPMylafy33iP
Katie Finneran’s Acceptance Speech - Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Promises, Promises
Glee's Lea Michele & Matthew Morrison performing at the 2010 Tony Awards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlPZjWLLcYQ
It seemed to me that the Orchestra definitely played a little too fast at the beginning, but Lea Michelle was spectacular -as usual!
See more photos and video from last night's Tony telecast onCBS athttp://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/index.htmland http://www.cbs.com/specials/tony_awards/video/
The New York Times'complete coverage of last night's Tony Awards, including Patrick Healy's take on the Broadway juggernauts that never were this season, is at: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/theater/theaterspecial/index.html
Before I leave today, I want to share with you an idea that's been percolating in my head for a while about a Broadway show that -with the right music and cast, of course- would be a money-making hit while it skewered contemporary American pop culture, theloathed MSM and the East Coast professional political class.(Sure!)
Drum roll... a show about John & Elizabeth Edwards, Rielle Hunter, hypocrisy, the plucky National Enquirer, Oprah as confessor and the sad-sack MSM who were so desperately in love withthe ideaof the Edwards Family, that they could not bear to see or report on what was right in front of them: galling hypocrisy of the worst sort by someone who aspired for the highest office in this country. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/arts/television/30oprah.html
But Slate'sMickey Kaus saw him for what he was, just like me. That's just one of the reasons why I've been reading kausfiles for so very long. See http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/kausfiles/default.aspx
Maybe Martin Amis will take up the idea and take pen to paper. And win a Tony.
----- New York Times Christo Drapes Miami Isles in Pink
By GRACE GLUECK
May 5, 1983
MIAMI, May 4 - The color of dawn, breaking over Biscayne Bay this morning, found its match in masses of shiny pink fabric as hundreds of workers began to release the first of the voluminous skirts that will surround 11 tiny islands in a two-week, $3.1 million extravaganza by the artist Christo.
Dashing from island to island in a speedboat, followed by a swarm of boats and helicopters filled with newsmen and photographers from this country and abroad, the artist shouted orders to his hired hands through a bullhorn. He paused to tell his wife and project partner, Jeanne-Claude Christo, who hovered in a nearby boat, that things were going well, even though a forecast of wind and rain suspended the proceedings this morning for several hours. The project is scheduled to be completed Thursday, with the skirts contouring each island and extending 200 feet out.
"Surrounded Islands," as the Miami spectacular is called, is the fifth of Christo's major exercises in ephemerality. Others include the 1972 suspension of a fabric curtain between a pair of Colorado mountain peaks and the construction, in 1976, of a 24-mile nylon "running fence" in northern California. By the artist's design, the works are dismantled after being recorded on film. And so, after two weeks, will the "Surrounded Islands" project, whose 6.5 million square miles of fabric are intended as a surface that will "translate the rich colors of the sky and the bay and the physical movement of the water."
Skirts Float in the Bay
The spoil islands, as they are called, are man-made. They were formed in the 1920's when an intercoastal waterway was built. Uninhabited and until now garbage-strewn - the garbage has been removed by Christo's crews - they run north to south more than five miles in Biscayne Bay, the shallow, sparkling body of water that separates Miami from Miami Beach.
The skirts, of pink, woven polypropylene fabric - likened to the color of frangipani by some writers, to that of bubble gum by others - cover the beaches of each island and float out 200 feet into the water, attached at the end to Styrofoam booms that are anchored to the bay's bottom.
The Bulgarian-born artist has had the notion of the Miami project in his head since 1974, when he did a small version of it, what he calls a "sketch," for a sculpture festival in Newport, R.I. After stretching fabric on the water and beach of a cove, he decided to undertake a larger project showing the relationship between land and water.
"I had visited Miami earlier, and was very influenced by the flatness and horizontality of the landscape; also the way earth and water mix gently here," he said. "And then there's the relationship of people to it. They use Biscayne Bay as a water, rather than a grass, park." Refers to Monet
The horizontality of the fabric float gives the project the aspect of a painting, Christo noted, smiling as he added, "If some people want to say the islands resemble Monet's 'Water Lilies,' that's O.K." He chose pink for a number of reasons. It's a "Latin" color, he said, and he admires what he called the "Latinity" of Miami. Pink is also a man-made color, he said, different from natural earth and water tones, and an "extremely sensitive" color for reflections.
"Surrounded Islands" was originally scheduled for completion in 1982 as the visual arts centerpiece for Miami's financially disastrous New World Festival for the Arts. It was delayed by Christo's own testing procedures, the need for 10 permits from government agencies, seven public hearings and the protests environmentalists, who were concerned about nesting ospreys and the bay's manatees, large plant-eating aquatic mammals. This morning, by court permission, an environmental group known as the National Wildlife Rescue Team, headed by Jack Kassewitz, an opponent of the project, was out patrolling the islands in a speedboat.
For Christo, the complications are all part of his art process. "Listen, for two and a half years hundreds of thousands of people in South Florida have been discussing the project," he said. "They've been thinking and fantasying about it.
"Imagine, in one of our court hearings, a Federal judge, usually occupied with grimmer matters, spent four days discussing birds and flowers." Artist Provides Financing
As has been the case with all of his projects, Christo is financing "Surrounded Islands" himself, with money from the sale of artworks related to this and other projects. He has also borrowed $700,000 from Citibank, possibly the first instance of a bank's lending money to an artist who has used his own work as collateral.
Today, a number of art followers -mainly from New York - and hundreds of news people, including those from televison networks in this country and abroad, converged on the Pelican Harbor Yacht Club, headquarters for the project.
As helicopters buzzed overhead, speedboats raced through the water and bullhorns blared, the scene had more the aspect of a full-scale media event than an esthetic experience. Yet from above, as seen by many observers from the tall office and residential buildings that overlook the bay, the first tentative blooming of the fabric played stunningly against the shifting blue-greens of the bay, giving the impression of a trail of giant flowers on the water's surface.
"Thanks to Christo, people will now see those once-grubby islands as jewels," said Jan van der Marck, director of Miami's new Center for the Fine Arts, who as co-sponsor of the New World Festival invited the artist here to do the project.
"Aside from the painterly beauty he's given the islands," he said, "50 years worth of garbage have been removed from them. Those people who've complained about the environmental impact should do as much to enhance it as he has."
Noting that Dade County tourism officials had estimated that 20,000 visitors would come to Miami solely to see the islands, Mr. van der Mark added, "Besides, he's filling hotels and restaurants and putting local people to work."
Christo had been offered $200,000 of financing from the Festival, Mr. van der Marck added, but the artist refused it on the ground that he wanted to support his projects himself. The estimated $3.1 million cost to the artist includes $50,000 for the rental of a staging area from the state, a $13,000 per month rental for the islands, pay of $28 a day for the more than 400 workers and substantial gifts of artworks to state and local governments.
Today, the artist, who is still working on proposals to wrap the Reichstag in Berlin, build a giant mastaba of oil drums in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, and plant 27 miles of walkway in New York's Central Park with banners attached to steel gates, smiled mischievously as he spoke of himself as a corporate entrepreneur.
"With the $3 million cost of this project," he said, "my company, C.V.G. (for his full name, Christo Vladirov Javacheff) comes third after Exxon and Philip Morris in spending money on the visual arts."
To those of you who have written or called me over the past few weeks and inquired whether or not I'd noticed the frequent personal attacks on me, especially over at the Broward PalmBeach New Times, by Hallandale Beach's self-appointed Political Commissar Andrew Markoff, yes, I have, which is why a blog post on this strange individual will be forthcoming in the not-too-distant future.Probably before the Fourth of July, but it's hardly a priority of mine, given some other local issues I'm currently busy working on, and as nearly everyone has said to some degree or another in their various communications to me, "consider the source." Oh, yes, "Consider the source." Sometimes, the classic nostrums really do their job, and this is such a case.
Oh, dear! Soon I'll have to spend some time and energy that could obviously be better spent illuminating a genuine problem hereabouts, constructing a measured and observant character study on this strange character in our midst, someone who seems so eager to be listened to, even while saying so very little of merit and irritating people in the process. Think of it as a valuable learning experience. When I do so, I shall paint a picture of him with words that, necessarily, wound his feelings, if any. So be it.
Soon I'll have to describe just some of the reasons why the majority of local residents who have actually dealt with him or who have, like me, foolishly tried to help him, have so quickly tired of his childish naivete, churlish sensibility and grand sense of importance, where everything is always about him, even when it's clearly not. A person who seems to view all disappointment as a personal attack on him. There's just no winning with him -and then he turns on you.
Even more puzzling to many is Markoff's perplexing need to attack some of the very few people in the community who are actually trying to bring about some genuine and long-overdue reform, accountability and transparency to this city, to make it a better place to live in the future. People like Michael Butler and Comm. Keith London among others.
Yes, a place where real ideas can be discussed openly and intelligently based on commonly-held information, where people are attracted to be part of it in some way, and share something of themselves, not repelled from participating in its civic life. Above, the Hallandale Beach City Hall monument sign off U.S.-1/South Federal Highway, Hallandale Beach, FL. June 10, 2010 photo bySouth Beach Hoosier In that future post, I'll try my best to keep to a minimum my descriptions of the dozens of hours I spent with him over the course of about two years trying to explain and explore some of the longstanding self-evident problems within this city, describing the historical context for why certain things were the way they were, since logic and reason seldom were apparent. In almost every case, he knew nothing of it prior to my pointing them out to him -in person- even though he's lived here longer than me.
When he was (illegally) detained by the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. last year, in yet another one of their typical screw-ups to intimidate the people who pay their salaries and pensions, he actually asked me what I thought he should do in response.
I told him that what had happened to him was not new behavior, based on many police-civilian incidents I'd been told about by honest first-hand observers, and I told him that he ought to file a formal complaint.
Later, when mendacious Hallandale Beach Police Chief Thomas Magill and his unethical cronies called him to basically try to talk him out of filing a formal complaint, in part because they have to keep public records of it, Markoff reminded me of their having previously broken state law in a previous incident years before when he'd been a witness to elder abuse, and yet his identity was later revealed to the guilty parties by the HBPD. All the more reason to file the complaint said I.
But somehow, after my not exchanging more than ten words with him since he asked my opinion, due largely to his complete invisibility at any of the meetings or events that have completely absorbed the community the past year, me, the person who has helped him, I'm now somehow the jerk? The object of his barbs? Huh?
Well, my friends and I in this community who have actually done considerably more than simply talking or writing pedantic attack screeds in the New Times, are only too happy to be considered enemies of self-styled HB Political Commissar Andrew Markoff and his creepy behavior.
We wear his scorn and enmity like a golden crown of laurels, since anyone paying attention knows who's really doing something positive in this community, and who's ALL TALK.
Above, the entrance off U.S.-1/South Federal Highway to the Hallandale Beach City Hall and next-door Hallandale Beach Police Dept., Hallandale Beach, FL. June 10, 2010 photo bySouth Beach Hoosier. Exactly one day after HB City Manager Mike Good was formally fired, there was STILL NOTa single directional road sign in the entire 4.2 square-mile ocean-side city indicating where City Hall or the Police Dept. HQ is located. That's the kind of city it is and has been all these years under Mike Good and mayor Joy Cooper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfEevQvdp0w IU AthleticsYouTube Channel:http://www.youtube.com/user/IUAthletics IU Athletics Dept.website: http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/index-main.html
Over the next few months, I will be tuning-up my other blog, South Beach Hoosier, http://www.southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/
It's my expectation that by the time the college football preview magazines are starting to crowd bookstore periodical shelves and Dolphins pre-season football is looming,South Beach Hoosier will not only be updated and have a more attractive look, but will also have features, stories and anecdotes that you won't find elsewhere in South Florida.
Truth be told, I literally have dozens and dozens of sports-related blog posts that I have just sat on over the past year that I never posted here, about all manner of sports and personalities and issues, not least of all conference expansion, contraction and extinction.
Today, Nebraskaformally asks for admission to the Big Ten Conference, Colorado leaves the Big 12 in the dust and heads for the Pac-10, and Texas and Texas A&M fans and alumni wait to see what they do next week, with Aggie fans afraid they will be left in the dust with Kansas and Missouri if the Longhorns head west for greener pastures.
As usual, The Dallas Morning News is all over the story, as they have among the best college football reporters in the country: http://collegesportsblog.dallasnews.com/
Sources: Texas, Texas A&M may head in different directions 12:40 PM CDT on Friday, June 11, 2010 By CHUCK CARLTON / The Dallas Morning News http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/061110dnsporealignment.19064ac.html I agree that A&M is a better fit for SEC, and if that happens, Utah would be a good fit to move to the Pac-10 also, which fits given their recent football, basketball and gymnastics success.
Columnist Tim Cowlishaw gives his take here: Cowlishaw: 16 things to ponder about life with the Pac-16, without the Big 12 10:38 PM CDT on Thursday, June 10, 2010 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/061110dnspocowlishaw.ffc3a1.html Not surprisingly, one of the constants of those particular posts I never posted here are what I believe to be the rather low-caliber of South Florida sports reporting and writing, and its increasing turn towards corporate sycophancy, leaving real sports fans the losers. The multiple golly-gee stories last year about Dolphin owner Stephen Ross' dim-witted marketing ideas were the most egregious.
I know, I know.This hardly represents a surprising admission from me, given my previous negative comments here over the years, especially about local sports radio and the Miami Herald's very erratic and myopic sports section.
With all the changes afoot for the conferences, with TV money and TV markets the principal driving force on this issue, how difficult must it be for the Herald to report on this story given their consistently dreadful coverage of The BigTenNetwork since it started with a bang and Appalachian State's victory over Michigan at Ann Arbor? A game that didn't appear in the sports section's TV schedule. Though they've existed for a few years now, despite the particular demographics of South Florida, the Herald hascompletely ignoredit, not even bothering to run their TV schedule in the Sports Today graphic, even when they have Top 10 teams playing each other in football or basketball. For instance, the first time the Heraldever mentioned the BigTenNetwork, they got a very basic fact WRONG:
COLLEGE FOOTBALL FIU
September 5, 2008
By PETE PELEGRIN
O-LINE MIGHT GET A MAKEOVER The FIU offensive line could have a new look when the Golden Panthers visit Iowa on Saturday.
Coach Mario Cristobal said redshirt freshman right guard Chris Cawthon has "caught up to" junior starting right guard Joe Alajajian, and both players are now co-starters, with the decision on the starter expected to be made before kickoff. * Starting left guard Mario Caraballo, who missed camp and the opener at Kansas with a foot injury, began jogging, and Cristobal said he "will definitely" be ready for the Golden Panthers' first home game Sept. 20 against South Florida.
A TV HIT OR MISS Depending on the type of cable package they have, FIU fans might be able to see Saturday's game against the Hawkeyes on the Big Ten Network. The game is being transmitted among the local Big Ten affiliates, meaning only in Iowa and Florida. However, most sports bars use DirecTV and not local cable boxes. DirecTV boxes get the Big Ten national signal, not the local one, so they will show Marshall vs. Wisconsin instead. Fans who have the Big Ten Network with local cable companies will be able to watch the game at home.
Actually, fans like me who have the package can watch any of the games they want, which is why they have the overflow channels, and not just Channel 610.Real sports fans know that, but not the very people writing about it. Par for the course at the Herald.
Then, the BigTenNetwork doesn't get mentioned again in the Herald for another 17 months, despite all the stories last year about conference expansion and Notre Dame or Rutgers or Pittsburgh. WTF kind of self-respecting newspaper Sports Dept. completely ignores the largest college conference TV network in the country for YEARS?
Talk of Big Ten expansion doesn't have everyone's support
From Miami Herald Wire Services
February 28, 2010
Big Ten university presidents and athletic directors said a handful of factors will determine whether the conference expands. Listen closely, though, and it sounds like one outweighs them all: Money.
The Big Ten generates more money than any other conference, thanks in part to its one-of-a-kind Big Ten Network. And no one in the conference, not even enthusiastic expansion advocates such as Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, wants to sacrifice a dime of the roughly $22 million each school gets a year.
"You just don't jump into the league and get a full share of what everyone else in this league has established over time," Alvarez said. "I think someone has to buy their way into the league."
Alvarez sees expansion as a path toward the kind of football title game that keeps the SEC and other conferences on national TV and fans' radar after Thanksgiving, when the Big Ten typically begins a multiweek break before the bowls.
"You take a look at the championship week in December and we're non-players," said Alvarez, the former coach who led Wisconsin to football prominence. "We're irrelevant."
Texas, Missouri, Rutgers, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame have all been mentioned as possible targets since the Big Ten announced in December that it was evaluating the possibility of expanding the 11-team conference.
"If you look at the college landscape across the country, look at television contracts that are coming up over the next 5-8 years, this is probably the right time for us to see if there is any value in trying to add a team or teams," Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said at the time. The three big factors Big Ten presidents and ADs said any new member would have to bring to the discussion are academic credentials, a strong geographic fit and money.
Stanley Ikenberry was the president at Illinois the last time the Big Ten expanded, adding Penn State in 1990. He said the decision to admit Penn State was driven less by money than by academics.
---------- Despite all the fervent emotions expressed on ESPN and on sports talk radio as well as well-known national sports blogs, the Herald's most recent story on college athletic conference expansion is this one -from last Thursday!Guess they're stuck in a time warp, which seems to be a real problem over at One Herald Plaza, as you will soon see me demonstrate here to a rather convincing and embarrassing degree.
Miami Herald SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE SPRING MEETING: SEC playing waiting game on decision whether to expand - Like the other major football conferences, the SEC is watching the Big Ten closely before deciding on possible realignment.
By Joseph Goodman June 3, 2010
The Southeastern Conference has a plan to keep up with the Big Ten if the latter expands.
Now the waiting game begins for the SEC, one of college football's most powerful leagues -- its teams have won the past four BCS national championships.
SEC officials, athletic directors and football coaches met Wednesday during the annual spring meeting at the Sandestin Hilton to discuss league rules and current contracts with ESPN, CBS Sports and Sirius/XM Satellite Radio. Also on the day's agenda: the hot topic of expansion. Although the possibility of adding new members was discussed by league officials, talks were preliminary, according to Alabama athletic director Mal Moore.
The outcome of any expansion or contraction among the NCAA's major conferences, including the SEC, hinges upon the Big Ten.
The 11-member Big Ten, which owns the Big Ten Network and would like to increase TV revenue and add a conference championship game, announced in December that it would study the possibility of expansion.
Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany has said his league might consider expanding to 12, 14 or 16 teams. Since then, speculation has been rife and multiple scenarios have been bandied about, including Notre Dame joining the Big Ten; the Big Ten dismantling the Big East; or the Big Ten and Pacific-10 cherry-picking teams from the Big 12.
According to commissioner Mike Slive, the SEC will act proactively if the Big Ten attempts to increase its size, power and revenue.
''If there's a significant shift in the conference paradigm, we will be thoughtful,'' Slive said. ''We'll be strategic, and our goal is for us to maintain our position as one of the most successful conferences in the country.''
In other words, if the Big Ten grows into a mega-conference of 16 members, then the SEC will not sit idly by while a rival attempts to become the most powerful conference in college football.
The SEC would not reveal its preliminary plan for conference expansion if the dominoes actually begin falling, but a source familiar with the SEC's vision said the league might consider ''expanding its nine-state footprint.''
Notre Dame is considered the wild card in conference-realignment speculation. If the Big Ten adds Notre Dame and two or four other major football powers, bringing its league total to 14 or 16 teams, then the SEC might follow suit in a revenue-driven chess match of major college football.
Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick has stated his university would like to remain independent.
Alabama coach Nick Saban, who coached at Big Ten member Michigan State from 1995 to '99, said Tuesday that he believes most of the conference-expansion chatter is being driven by the possibility of Notre Dame joining the Big Ten.
''Even when I was back in the Big Ten, and I really think that's the key to all this stuff, it was always about Notre Dame then,'' Saban said. ''Each year, there was a big discussion about trying to get Notre Dame to join the Big Ten, and I think that's a lot of what it's about now.''
In the event of a realignment, the SEC would prefer to add major programs from states with universities currently not aligned with SEC, according to a source, but the source emphasized that ''it's all speculation at this point.''
For their part, most SEC college football coaches prefer the status quo, a 12-team SEC divided into two competitive six-team divisions.
Florida coach Urban Meyer indicated Tuesday that he would not be in favor of conference expansion. Georgia coach Mark Richt said he isn't necessarily against conference expansion, but does not like the idea of adding another conference game.
For the latest move in the conference chess match, see the New York Times College Football webpage: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/sports/ncaafootball/index.html
The BigTenNetwork
The BigTenNetwork - My lifeline to the normalcy of the American Midwest and college sports.
-------- SonyStyle blog Mr Sun shines on Sony Dash By: SukhjitPosted: 6/08/2010 Posted in News & Announcements
This week television viewers in the Washington DC and the San Francisco Bay Area will be introduced to Sony Dash with a new TV spot. If you’re familiar with Dash you know, it is a brand new way to face the day. Among its many uses, the Sony Dash is a bedside internet device that lets you customize your wake up with apps like Facebook, Pandora internet music, live traffic, weather… just about anything you need (aside from a morning espresso) to start the day.
Read the rest of the post at the Sony Style blog at: http://blog.discover.sonystyle.com/mr-sun-shines-on-sony-dash In the middle of the year 2010, the Miami Herald currently only has two widgets for use with Chumby, and has no widgets on its own website for bloggers to place on their own blogs, if they were so inclined -which I'm not- but how do you have NOTHING in 2010? Way to keep up with the times!
Why isn't Bridget Carey doing something about this?
Une question sans rรฉponse: What is Love?Diane Birch vs. Haddaway.Meant to post this three months ago, but mieux vaut tard que jamais.
And the funny one that never gets old... Saturday Night Live's recurring skit of The Roxbury Guys, with Chris Kattan & Will Ferrell, here with guest Jim Carrey. http://www.myvideo.de/watch/5743419/Saturday_Night_Live_Roxbury_What_Is_Love
For more: Billboard homepage: http://www.billboard.com/#/ Billboard video homepage: http://www.billboard.com/#/video?tag=nav
This is one of those things where you either have to take my word for it -or you don't.
When I first saw the truly despicable interview with Helen Thomas -pictured below, and her now vacant chair in the front row of the White House Press Room- the very first thing that I thought of was one of the great scenes in Franรงois Truffaut's masterful 1966 adaption of Ray Bradbury'sFahrenheit 451, which airs on Turner Classic Movie on Sunday June 13th at 3:45 a.m. Julie Christie = heavenly! :-)
See the Original Trailer at:http://www.tcm.com/video/videoPlayer/?cid=72250&titleId=74448Film info at:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060390/ I first saw that film roughly about eight years after it came out, when I was atJ.F.K. Junior High in North Miami Beach, and it made quite an indelible mark on me and my smart and impressionable friends, none of whom had read the novel yet, despite being avid readers.
Oh, those miserable pre-videotape, pre-DVD primitive cinema days when you could only see films in theaters or on TV, with local TV stations being nothing like ones in other cities that showed classic films late at night. :- (And yours truly stuck at the end of the No Man's Land film universe of South Florida. Well, at least I was close to the two WOMETCO theaters at the 163rd Street Shopping Center, one of my handful of home-away-from-home homes. Well, at least it was less than six blocks away.) When I was still living in the D.C. area, I'd heard the story thatMel Gibson waspositively eager to do a re-make of 451 in order to get that anti-censorship, anti-conformity message out again for a new generation of movie-goers. Usually, I'm dead-set against remakes, but knowing what his motivation was, I was cool with it, and hoped for the best. In the scene that ran in my head about the tenth time I saw the Helen Thomas self-immolation -get it, fire?- our hero, Guy Montag, played by Oskar Werner, the former fireman who is now a converted book-lover, and hiding from the authorities hot on his trail, encounters the various people who inhabit the forest who have memorized entire books so that their words and stories will be forever protected from the Fire Dept. that burns books. Yes, the "Book People," the so-called "wandering intellectuals" who burn their own books after memorizing them. After being told by Granger, the head of this literary enterprise, who the various people walking around talking to themselves are, that is to say, what books they "are," a blond teenage girl (Yvonne Blake, also the film's Assistant Costume Designer) ambles over to meet Montag and says forthrightly, "I'm Jean-Paul Sartre's The Jewish Question. Delighted to meet you." #kaboom! Granger: Oh, you see the little blonde coming towards us? Watch her blush. "I'm Jean-Paul Sartre's The Jewish Question.Delighted to meet you."Screenshots above by South Beach Hoosier, i.e. me,of Yvonne Blake and Oskar Werner are from my videotape of this great film, just one of many from Truffaut that I have enjoyed thru the years, esp. at the National Gallery of Art's film series.
And yes, in case you were wondering, I actually used to read Cahiers du Cinรฉma as well as BFI's Sight & Sound, while in school at IU, down in the amazing basement that held the IU Library'sPeriodicals Room.
That was one of my favorite haunts, especially when I had time to kill before meeting friends elsewhere in the building noted then and now for its high sociability factor, where I also first read The National Journal and the Washington Post, and where I first saw huge ads on the front page of a newspaper, Helsingfors Sanomat, the Helsinki newspaper, just like the commercials ads we take for granted now on European soccer team uniforms/kits. I later read them regularly while I was in Washington, either over at the Library of Congress for free, or, from a copy I bought at the Trover Books on Connecticut Avenue in Dupont Circle.
In the latter case, in those pre-Internet days, often on weekends before walking over to Georgetown to meet friends and see a foreign film, and later sip some great coffee over at Au Pied du Cochon on Wisconsin Avenue, along with some delicious deserts. TRรS, TRรS FUN!
My favorite excerpt from above: By allowing such a degradation in its premium advertising space (a home page is supposed to be just that), the HuffPo acknowledges that its content is, in fact, cheap. It therefore admits that volume, rather than targeting or relevance, drives the value of its content. Of course, I like that because it tends to correspond to my intuition about the HuffPo, but... on the other hand, I actually read Arianna's book on Picasso when it first came out over 20 years ago, when she had a very different persona.
Her great-grandfather bought the Washington Post during the Great Depression. Her grandmother brought it to prominence during Watergate. Katharine Weymouth on the challenges she faces as publisher of the paper in the digital age. You also may want to check out this Aspen Institute event at FORA.tv/ Washington Post CEO Katharine Weymouth on Future of News http://fora.tv/2008/11/24/Washington_Post_CEO_Katharine_Weymouth_on_Future_of_News#chapter_02
