Showing posts with label women. Show all posts
Showing posts with label women. Show all posts
Friday, April 5, 2024
Too close to call...well, I like to think so!
Screenwriting has kept me away from posting more blogs all this time.
Speaking of screenwriting...you can't really write a better script than the way this season's two NCAA Division 1 basketball tournaments have been turning out.
Okay...I'm cheating...I'm typing this during the third quarter of the North Carolina State-South Carolina women's basketball game. But I'm still going to go out on a limb and make predictions for how college hoops' final six games of 2023-24 will turn out.
Here goes:
WOMEN: South Carolina over North Carolina State, Connecticut over Iowa (but I smell a Hawkeye victory tonight over the Huskies), then the Gamecocks staying unbeaten at the expense of the Huskies...whose 2015-16 team was the last D-1 squad, men's or women's, to get through unscathed.
MEN: Connecticut over Alabama, North Carolina State over Purdue...followed by the Huskies taking the Wolfpack down on 4-8-2024 for a second consecutive title (something not done in D-1 men's hoops since Florida doubled up in 2005-06 and 2006-07).
But what a season it's been...especially with Iowa's Caitlin Clark breaking records left and right and Purdue's Zach Edey picking up where he left off.
And we're at a point in the season where any of those eight teams could win it all.
Well...time for me to get back to the South Carolina-NC State game. But before I go...I can't help but ask:
Which teams do YOU think will win it all here in 2023-24?
Friday, March 31, 2023
Vive la difference!
Great to see some different teams than the usual ones win regionals in this season's NCAA Division 1 men's and women's basketball tournaments.
No Number One seeds left at the moment in the NCAA D-1 men's tourney (Alabama, Purdue, Houston, and defending champion Kansas all went down before the regional finals)...and two remaining in the NCAA D-1 women's tourney (Virginia Tech and last season's champ, still-unbeaten South Carolina).
The Hokies and Gamecocks spearhead a women's D-1 Final Four that includes a Louisiana State team that hadn't won a regional final since 2008...and an Iowa squad making just its second trip to the women's D-1 Final Four. (The first happened in 1993.)
Now...how about the D-1 men's side?
Three teams in the men's D-1 Final Four for the first time ever!
Two of those first-time teams (Florida Atlantic and San Diego State) taste it up tomorrow...when Miami (FL) takes on one of its old rival from its Big East days, Connecticut.
That's right...a University of Connecticut basketball team made the Final Four after all.
Dan Hurley's...not Geno Auriemma's.
So...2022-23 is the first season the Huskies' men's team got to a Final Four since 2014 and the first campaign where the Huskies' women's squad got left out of a Final Four since 2007.
And, here in 2022-23, not a single Number One seed among the men's D-1 regional semifinalists...a first.
All right...I'm going to try some predictions about the last team standing in each D-1 NCAA tourney this season.
WOMEN: Louisiana State over Virginia Tech, South Carolina over Iowa...and then on Sunday, an all-SEC final in which Dawn Staley's Gamecocks make it back-to-back titles.
MEN: Florida Atlantic over San Diego State, Connecticut over Miami (FL)...with Hurley's squad cutting down the nets late Monday night for its first title since 2011.
The watchdogs chalk it all up to the transfer portal...something that's redistributed the talent in both women's and men's Division 1 hoops. (You know what I say? Right on for the portal!)
I'm going to be watching...hope you'll be watching, too.
Friday, April 1, 2022
Hey! We've been here before!
Have you been following either or both of this season's NCAA Division 1 basketball tournaments?
I was disappointed at both Iowa basketball teams, pleased at how far both Iowa State hoops squads did, but...I wasn't surprised at how the season ended for Nebraska's women, Creighton's men, and Creighton's women.
Now each tourney is down to four clubs...and here's how I think it'll all end:
WOMEN: South Carolina over Louisville, Stanford over Connecticut (although I smell a win for the Huskies against the Cardinal), and South Carolina ending Stanford's reign.
MEN: Villanova over Kansas, Duke over North Carolina, and Duke sending Mike Krzyzewski into retirement in style by stopping Villanova.
There you are: Eight teams that've already been to the Final Four before...seven of them have won it all before. (Only Louisville's women have yet to be the last to cut down the nets.)
Well, let's just sit back this weekend and see what REALLY happens.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
A Moral Obligation
He's disparaged Mexicans, labeling them as murderers, rapists, and drug runners.
He's called African-American people lazy...and said "they can't help it."
He's talked about banning (or at least curtailing) immigration to America, and he doesn't want Muslims to travel to these United States "until we can figure out what to do with them."
He still wants to build that wall along the US-Mexico border.
His weapons of first choice: Nuclear bombs.
He's made dirty, rotten, filthy remarks about women of all colors. To say he's got utter contempt for women is an understatement.
He poked fun at a reporter (Serge Kovaleski of The New York Times) who's surviving cerebral palsy.
He's made it clear that if you disagree with him in any way, shape, or form (especially if you're a news reporter), you'll suffer dire consequences. (Just ask the folks at The Washington Post. They're not allowed to interview him anymore.)
He still insists Barack Obama (who's got the job our subject is after) wasn't even born here in the US...despite planeloads of evidence showing otherwise.
He's got a cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin...and thinks it's cool for the KGB to spy on Americans.
He's suggested that his chief 2016 US presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, should be murdered by Second Amendment advocates.
As a real-estate tycoon, he's filed for bankruptcy six times and been sued 3,000 times.
He's too darned chicken to disclose his income tax returns.
He's been known to shortchange his rank-and-file employees and to stiff his contractors. What's more, he wants to see the nation's minimum wage lowered.
All along the campaign trail, he's incited violence...time and time and tiresome time again.
He's got too enormous an ego to compromise, to delegate...to actually do the job he's seeking.
With his authoritarian bent, he isn't really running for the presidency. He's running to be the nation's first dictator.
He doesn't give a crap about the country's rank-and-file citizens. It's all about HIM, HIM, HIM.
His whole campaign has been built on bigotry.
With him in front of the Republican Party, the GOP continues to represent the biggest threat to any hope for democracy in these United States.
He's been treating his whole campaign as if it were another season of The Apprentice.
The bottom line:
We Americans have a moral obligation to make DOGGONE SURE Donald John Trump doesn't give the next inaugural address.
After all, the whole world is watching us.
He's called African-American people lazy...and said "they can't help it."
He's talked about banning (or at least curtailing) immigration to America, and he doesn't want Muslims to travel to these United States "until we can figure out what to do with them."
He still wants to build that wall along the US-Mexico border.
His weapons of first choice: Nuclear bombs.
He's made dirty, rotten, filthy remarks about women of all colors. To say he's got utter contempt for women is an understatement.
He poked fun at a reporter (Serge Kovaleski of The New York Times) who's surviving cerebral palsy.
He's made it clear that if you disagree with him in any way, shape, or form (especially if you're a news reporter), you'll suffer dire consequences. (Just ask the folks at The Washington Post. They're not allowed to interview him anymore.)
He still insists Barack Obama (who's got the job our subject is after) wasn't even born here in the US...despite planeloads of evidence showing otherwise.
He's got a cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin...and thinks it's cool for the KGB to spy on Americans.
He's suggested that his chief 2016 US presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, should be murdered by Second Amendment advocates.
As a real-estate tycoon, he's filed for bankruptcy six times and been sued 3,000 times.
He's too darned chicken to disclose his income tax returns.
He's been known to shortchange his rank-and-file employees and to stiff his contractors. What's more, he wants to see the nation's minimum wage lowered.
All along the campaign trail, he's incited violence...time and time and tiresome time again.
He's got too enormous an ego to compromise, to delegate...to actually do the job he's seeking.
With his authoritarian bent, he isn't really running for the presidency. He's running to be the nation's first dictator.
He doesn't give a crap about the country's rank-and-file citizens. It's all about HIM, HIM, HIM.
His whole campaign has been built on bigotry.
With him in front of the Republican Party, the GOP continues to represent the biggest threat to any hope for democracy in these United States.
He's been treating his whole campaign as if it were another season of The Apprentice.
The bottom line:
We Americans have a moral obligation to make DOGGONE SURE Donald John Trump doesn't give the next inaugural address.
After all, the whole world is watching us.
Sunday, April 17, 2016
What's Wrong with This Picture? How'd We Get Here?
Out of the 127 total artists on Billboard's Power 100 List for 2015, 15 of the acts were female. (Never mind that Lana Del Rey made the cover of the magazine the very week the list was published.)
PRS for Music found out that out of 95,000 composers and songwriters, just 13% were born female.
Less than 5% of established engineers and producers in the music industry are women.
When it comes to people in said profession making at least $30,000 per year, 22% of men in the field get to bring home that kind of bacon...but only 6% of women do.
And according to Creative & Cultural Skills, men have 68% of all the jobs in the music industry, women the remaining 32%.
All the jobs...and that, of course, includes Del Rey and other recording artists.
Seems as if, since the 20th Century came to an end, the percentage of women placing their tunes on Billboard's various US music charts has dwindled...even with Taylor Swift, Beyonce Knowles, Carrie Underwood, Iggy Azalea, and some other big names joining Del Rey at the top.
It's not just in rock or country or hip-hop/R&B [with hip-hop/R&B having a long history of being more paternalistic than the other aforementioned forms of music...which, in part, might be understandable when you consider the great lengths America's biggest social-and-cultural leaders (and leaders of other kinds) have gone to ever since the early 17th Century to treat African-American males as less than human beings, let alone as adults, in addition to denying any manhood in African-American males].
That's another can of worms in itself.
Anyway, I've noticed how the percentage of female performers competing in the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival (this year's event takes place in Oxford, MS, next month) has been evaporating since the current century got under way. (In 1999, seven female contestants went at it, at a time when the Holiday Inn Select in Decatur, IL, was the contest site; the next year, six did.) Thus far this year, only one woman- first-time Regular Division contestant Anita Malhotra, from Gatineau, QC, Canada- has pledged to go after the Big Money.
Last year, the final Illinois (East Peoria) OTPP iteration saw five female pianists- four in the Junior Division- step up to the challenge. And the Reg Division would've been a fraternity for the second straight year if contest coordinator Faye Ballard hadn't signed up to join JDs Nina Freeman, Megan Jobe, Mia Yara, and Amberlyn Aimone.
Besides being in a ragtime club here in the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area, I'm in the local chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society. When I joined the River City Theatre Organ Society in late 1984 (and subsequently got involved in ATOS, too), several women were concertizing all over at least the United States on Mighty Wurlitzers and on competing brands of theater pipe organs.
Since then, only Donna Parker and Patti Simon Zollman are still out there
...having outlasted equally-outstanding organists like Melissa Ambrose and Candi Carley-Roth. [In addition, death robbed the world of Edna Sellers (in 1989) and her daughter, Barbara Sellers Matranga (who passed away in 2014). And those deaths sandwiched that of Rosa Rio (in 2010).]
Been thinking about all of this for the last few days, and I've got just one question about all this:
"What in the world happened to put more women and girls on music's sidelines?"
Even with YouTube, Vimeo, and other video-oriented sites right here on the Web, the playing field (no pun intended) is still lopsided.
One of the factors skewing the whole situation came into prominence in the early 1980s.
That's right: Music videos.
Eventually, things got to the point where, if you wanted to sign a recording contract (especially if you were born with a vagina), you had to be some kind of attractive before given the chance to have something to say.
TV shows like American Idol haven't helped, either. On that now-deceased series, the judges found room for NFL-sized (and enormously-talented) Ruben Studdard, the show's 2003 champ.
Two years later, Missy, Mandy, and Erin Maynard tried out for the show...but Simon Cowell labeled the threesome as "too fat!"
Result: In today's music industry, there's no room for the Cass Elliots and Spanky McFarlands anymore. (Remember what happened to Carnie Wilson? Remember how she was treated, especially by video directors?)
Last year, Pitchfork senior editor Jessica Hopper put out a Twitter call that went like this:
The responses came by the hundreds.
I read every last one of them.
You talk about infuriating!
More often than not, this is what greets you if you're female and want to become a musician and/or vocalist. More often than not, some you-know-whats are going to tell you that you just don't belong...regardless of what you've got to say.
If you've ever been the parent of a daughter, what was your reaction when she told you that she wanted to play a musical instrument...especially one usually associated with boys?
If you're a music teacher at an elementary school (or at a middle school or a high school), if you've discouraged any female students from taking up the axes of their dreams (especially the instruments usually associated with male students), then you're part of the problem.
Admit it. Don't kid yourself.
If you've ever said or written "Girl bands suck" or "Chick bands suck," you're- let's face it- part of the problem.
It's long been time to encourage people who want to sing and/or play...regardless of gender. We need to hear as many voices as possible, and we need to take their efforts seriously.
Roughly half the people in this world are female...and music, among other activities, loses when women (and other marginalized people) aren't allowed to be heard.
After all, good is good.
You can find Hopper's Twitter call at https://storify.com/Laupina_/from-the-margins. And you're invited to visit coastalbeatsmedia.com/2016/03/29, where Gabby authored a fine post, "Editor's Essay: Women in the Music Industry," where I got some of the info found on the post you've been reading.
PRS for Music found out that out of 95,000 composers and songwriters, just 13% were born female.
Less than 5% of established engineers and producers in the music industry are women.
And according to Creative & Cultural Skills, men have 68% of all the jobs in the music industry, women the remaining 32%.
All the jobs...and that, of course, includes Del Rey and other recording artists.
Seems as if, since the 20th Century came to an end, the percentage of women placing their tunes on Billboard's various US music charts has dwindled...even with Taylor Swift, Beyonce Knowles, Carrie Underwood, Iggy Azalea, and some other big names joining Del Rey at the top.
It's not just in rock or country or hip-hop/R&B [with hip-hop/R&B having a long history of being more paternalistic than the other aforementioned forms of music...which, in part, might be understandable when you consider the great lengths America's biggest social-and-cultural leaders (and leaders of other kinds) have gone to ever since the early 17th Century to treat African-American males as less than human beings, let alone as adults, in addition to denying any manhood in African-American males].
That's another can of worms in itself.
Anyway, I've noticed how the percentage of female performers competing in the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival (this year's event takes place in Oxford, MS, next month) has been evaporating since the current century got under way. (In 1999, seven female contestants went at it, at a time when the Holiday Inn Select in Decatur, IL, was the contest site; the next year, six did.) Thus far this year, only one woman- first-time Regular Division contestant Anita Malhotra, from Gatineau, QC, Canada- has pledged to go after the Big Money.
Last year, the final Illinois (East Peoria) OTPP iteration saw five female pianists- four in the Junior Division- step up to the challenge. And the Reg Division would've been a fraternity for the second straight year if contest coordinator Faye Ballard hadn't signed up to join JDs Nina Freeman, Megan Jobe, Mia Yara, and Amberlyn Aimone.
Besides being in a ragtime club here in the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area, I'm in the local chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society. When I joined the River City Theatre Organ Society in late 1984 (and subsequently got involved in ATOS, too), several women were concertizing all over at least the United States on Mighty Wurlitzers and on competing brands of theater pipe organs.
Since then, only Donna Parker and Patti Simon Zollman are still out there
Been thinking about all of this for the last few days, and I've got just one question about all this:
"What in the world happened to put more women and girls on music's sidelines?"
Even with YouTube, Vimeo, and other video-oriented sites right here on the Web, the playing field (no pun intended) is still lopsided.
One of the factors skewing the whole situation came into prominence in the early 1980s.
That's right: Music videos.
Eventually, things got to the point where, if you wanted to sign a recording contract (especially if you were born with a vagina), you had to be some kind of attractive before given the chance to have something to say.
TV shows like American Idol haven't helped, either. On that now-deceased series, the judges found room for NFL-sized (and enormously-talented) Ruben Studdard, the show's 2003 champ.
Two years later, Missy, Mandy, and Erin Maynard tried out for the show...but Simon Cowell labeled the threesome as "too fat!"
Result: In today's music industry, there's no room for the Cass Elliots and Spanky McFarlands anymore. (Remember what happened to Carnie Wilson? Remember how she was treated, especially by video directors?)
Last year, Pitchfork senior editor Jessica Hopper put out a Twitter call that went like this:
The responses came by the hundreds.
I read every last one of them.
You talk about infuriating!
More often than not, this is what greets you if you're female and want to become a musician and/or vocalist. More often than not, some you-know-whats are going to tell you that you just don't belong...regardless of what you've got to say.
If you've ever been the parent of a daughter, what was your reaction when she told you that she wanted to play a musical instrument...especially one usually associated with boys?
If you're a music teacher at an elementary school (or at a middle school or a high school), if you've discouraged any female students from taking up the axes of their dreams (especially the instruments usually associated with male students), then you're part of the problem.
Admit it. Don't kid yourself.
If you've ever said or written "Girl bands suck" or "Chick bands suck," you're- let's face it- part of the problem.
It's long been time to encourage people who want to sing and/or play...regardless of gender. We need to hear as many voices as possible, and we need to take their efforts seriously.
Roughly half the people in this world are female...and music, among other activities, loses when women (and other marginalized people) aren't allowed to be heard.
After all, good is good.
You can find Hopper's Twitter call at https://storify.com/Laupina_/from-the-margins. And you're invited to visit coastalbeatsmedia.com/2016/03/29, where Gabby authored a fine post, "Editor's Essay: Women in the Music Industry," where I got some of the info found on the post you've been reading.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! (5-25-2014, That Is!)
It's gone from an event held outdoors and subject to at least the worst atmospheric conditions Central Illinois tends to face in late May to an event held in hotels that keep getting better. (Every time this event has to find a new venue, the next venue tends to work out better than the old one.)
At first, it was a contest hurting for participants. Then it got to the point where so many contestants entered that a limit was eventually put on the field (26 is now the max).
When the event began, pianists of all ages competed for one prize. Then in 1985, a Junior Division was created so that players 17 or younger could go for the glory. (Now, performers in that division and the Regular Division fight for ten cash prizes...and the winner in each sector gets a trophy.)
And it's gone from a competition whose first five championships went to two women (1975-76 champ Joybelle Squibb and 1977-79 titleholder Dorothy Herrold) to an event whose biggest prize hasn't gone to a woman since Mimi Blais added the 2000 title to the championship she won in 1994 to a contest where its Regular Division hasn't had a female participant since 2012...the first (and- thus far- only) year Tennessee's Diana Stein went for the Big Trophy.
This year, people who spent Memorial Day weekend at Illinois' Embassy Suites East Peoria missed out on the chance to hear a Texan named Melissa Roen Williams show off her old-time piano skills.
And that's how eleven RD contestants (to go with seven Junior Division participants) ended up competing in the 40th annual World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival.
After 13-year-old Daniel Souvigny got his Junior Division crown back on 5-24-2014, it was up to contest judges Brian Holland, Patrick Holland, and Terry Parrish to eliminate one Regular Division contestant and send the remaining ten into the next day's semifinals.
This year's unlucky so-and-so was...was...was...
Well, actually, all eleven RD players moved on to the OTPP semifinals!
As was the case in the previous day's prelims, Damit Senanayake went first. I didn't get to find out what his first semifinal piece was (maybe one of you reading this blog can disclose the answer)...but I do know his second selection was "Blue Room."
Another thing about OTPP: You get fifteen minutes of rehearsal time before it's your turn to play the contest piano, that 1883 Weber upright better known as "Moby Dink." (As contest coordinator Faye Ballard- who spent the 1976-2010 period as a contestant before becoming just the second coordinator in C&F history- likes to say: "If you snooze, you lose.")
I put in the rehearsal time...after hearing Michael J. Winstanley pump out his two semifinal tunes during his own rehearsal time: "If You Knew Susie" and "Smiles and Shuffles."
And so, while Michael J. went to River E and F (the combined space where the actual competition took place) to perform his two semifinal selections, I took over at the rehearsal piano (a 1960s Hamilton studio piano placed just outside the Green Room).
To tell you the truth...I felt more comfortable during the semifinal round (my first semis since 1994!) than I did during the 2014 prelims. This round, I picked out "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" and an obscurity from 1902, "Robardina Rag," a number written by a St. Louis composer named E. Warren Furry.
Plus: I was so pumped up about making the semifinals that I did the same thing that Sunday as the day before: I ran to the stage.
And, just like the day before, Ted Lemen had to tell me: "No running!"
Domingo Mancuello was next up to bat...and he DID hit it out the park, with "I Get the Blues When It Rains" and "She Was Just a Sailor's Sweetheart."
William McNally followed, playing Joseph Lamb's "Topliner Rag" and the weekend's second edition of "Limehouse Blues."
Then came the man with the only other "Limehouse" rendition: Ethan Uslan.
Whereas William M. came out in a different tuxedo than the one he put on for the prelims, Ethan hit the stage wearing a...straw hat, striped T-shirt, swim trunks, and a life preserver.
And when Kate's husband (and Ben's and Henry's dad) got to the Embassy Suites stage in that getup, I figured: "That did it. Give Ethan the trophy!"
Ethan made it stick by stroking out "By the Beautiful Sea" and one called "Yack-a-Hula-Wicki-Doola."
All of that gave William Bennett a tough, tough act to follow.
And the Ann Arbor native did it, too! His semifinal entries were "How'd You Like to Spoon with Me?" and "Hothouse Rag."
David Cavalari brings some interesting, off-the-beaten-path numbers to the contest, and this round was no exception. In it, David rocked out "Impecunious Davis" and "Running Water."
"Perfessor" Bill Edwards followed up with "Swampy River" and "Old Folks at Home." (That's right...THAT "Old Folks at Home!")
John Remmers carries Ann Arbor's banner, too (he used to teach at the University of Michigan). With that great style of his, you know you can count on John reaching the semis year after year. And this time, he staked his claim with James Scott's "Prosperity Rag" and one titled "The Whistler and His Dog."
Now it was Samuel Schalla's turn to round out the 2014 OTPP second round...and I like what this physics student did with Joe Jordan's "That Teasin' Rag" and Luckey Roberts' "Nothin'."
When the semifinals were finished, Brian, Patrick, and Terry went off to do some more ciphering; Ted and fellow emcee Adam Swanson kicked back for a while; and the audience did some kicking back all its own...either inside River E and F or just outside the two combined rooms.
After all the judges' ciphering came to an end...Bill Edwards came back onstage to tackle ol' Moby Dink.
And tackle that 1883 Weber upright he did, hammering out "Red Raven Rag" and "The Blues (My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me)," a 1920 number made famous by Ted Lewis, the bandleader famous for "Is Everybody Happy Now?"
This year's wildcard theme was (drum roll)...color!
As things turned out, the other Bill ended up getting in line to get paid. As a result, we got a chance to hear the now four-time New Rag kingpin do "Green River Blues" and Maceo Pinkard's "Liza."
Bill McNally was followed by one of old-time piano's most passionate performers. (You guessed it...Domingo!)
After Domingo got the crowd a date with "Me and My Shadow," he invited the fans to say "Hello, Bluebird."
Adam and Ted regaled the OTPP audience with tunes (as well as old-time piano pointers) after Domingo's and the Two Bills' final sets. And after one last clinic, the two hosts turned it over to David...who turned in Duke Ellington's and Bub Miley's "Black and Tan Fantasy" as well as the romping "Shreveport Stomp."
This left Ethan as the last finalist...and he came out dressed like Abraham Lincoln (right down to the black suit, stovepipe hat, and fake beard).
Ethan picked up the Stephen Foster baton that "Perfessor" Bill ran with in the semifinals, and the 2007 and 2012 RD titleholder nailed "Old Black Joe" and "Oh, Susanna."
Well, in a nutshell, Bill E. finished fifth and won $250, David got fourth prize and earned $400 for it, Domingo outdid his 2013 showing by grabbing off third (that meant $550), and Bill M. won second place...and walked away with $800.
And Ethan racked up his third Regular Division title, good for $1,350 and that Ted Lemen Traveling Trophy.
And so it's time to practice up for next year...and to see what 2015 will bring. .
At first, it was a contest hurting for participants. Then it got to the point where so many contestants entered that a limit was eventually put on the field (26 is now the max).
When the event began, pianists of all ages competed for one prize. Then in 1985, a Junior Division was created so that players 17 or younger could go for the glory. (Now, performers in that division and the Regular Division fight for ten cash prizes...and the winner in each sector gets a trophy.)
And it's gone from a competition whose first five championships went to two women (1975-76 champ Joybelle Squibb and 1977-79 titleholder Dorothy Herrold) to an event whose biggest prize hasn't gone to a woman since Mimi Blais added the 2000 title to the championship she won in 1994 to a contest where its Regular Division hasn't had a female participant since 2012...the first (and- thus far- only) year Tennessee's Diana Stein went for the Big Trophy.
This year, people who spent Memorial Day weekend at Illinois' Embassy Suites East Peoria missed out on the chance to hear a Texan named Melissa Roen Williams show off her old-time piano skills.
And that's how eleven RD contestants (to go with seven Junior Division participants) ended up competing in the 40th annual World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival.
After 13-year-old Daniel Souvigny got his Junior Division crown back on 5-24-2014, it was up to contest judges Brian Holland, Patrick Holland, and Terry Parrish to eliminate one Regular Division contestant and send the remaining ten into the next day's semifinals.
This year's unlucky so-and-so was...was...was...
Well, actually, all eleven RD players moved on to the OTPP semifinals!
As was the case in the previous day's prelims, Damit Senanayake went first. I didn't get to find out what his first semifinal piece was (maybe one of you reading this blog can disclose the answer)...but I do know his second selection was "Blue Room."
Another thing about OTPP: You get fifteen minutes of rehearsal time before it's your turn to play the contest piano, that 1883 Weber upright better known as "Moby Dink." (As contest coordinator Faye Ballard- who spent the 1976-2010 period as a contestant before becoming just the second coordinator in C&F history- likes to say: "If you snooze, you lose.")
I put in the rehearsal time...after hearing Michael J. Winstanley pump out his two semifinal tunes during his own rehearsal time: "If You Knew Susie" and "Smiles and Shuffles."
And so, while Michael J. went to River E and F (the combined space where the actual competition took place) to perform his two semifinal selections, I took over at the rehearsal piano (a 1960s Hamilton studio piano placed just outside the Green Room).
To tell you the truth...I felt more comfortable during the semifinal round (my first semis since 1994!) than I did during the 2014 prelims. This round, I picked out "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" and an obscurity from 1902, "Robardina Rag," a number written by a St. Louis composer named E. Warren Furry.
Plus: I was so pumped up about making the semifinals that I did the same thing that Sunday as the day before: I ran to the stage.
And, just like the day before, Ted Lemen had to tell me: "No running!"
Domingo Mancuello was next up to bat...and he DID hit it out the park, with "I Get the Blues When It Rains" and "She Was Just a Sailor's Sweetheart."
William McNally followed, playing Joseph Lamb's "Topliner Rag" and the weekend's second edition of "Limehouse Blues."
Then came the man with the only other "Limehouse" rendition: Ethan Uslan.
Whereas William M. came out in a different tuxedo than the one he put on for the prelims, Ethan hit the stage wearing a...straw hat, striped T-shirt, swim trunks, and a life preserver.
And when Kate's husband (and Ben's and Henry's dad) got to the Embassy Suites stage in that getup, I figured: "That did it. Give Ethan the trophy!"
Ethan made it stick by stroking out "By the Beautiful Sea" and one called "Yack-a-Hula-Wicki-Doola."
All of that gave William Bennett a tough, tough act to follow.
And the Ann Arbor native did it, too! His semifinal entries were "How'd You Like to Spoon with Me?" and "Hothouse Rag."
David Cavalari brings some interesting, off-the-beaten-path numbers to the contest, and this round was no exception. In it, David rocked out "Impecunious Davis" and "Running Water."
"Perfessor" Bill Edwards followed up with "Swampy River" and "Old Folks at Home." (That's right...THAT "Old Folks at Home!")
John Remmers carries Ann Arbor's banner, too (he used to teach at the University of Michigan). With that great style of his, you know you can count on John reaching the semis year after year. And this time, he staked his claim with James Scott's "Prosperity Rag" and one titled "The Whistler and His Dog."
Now it was Samuel Schalla's turn to round out the 2014 OTPP second round...and I like what this physics student did with Joe Jordan's "That Teasin' Rag" and Luckey Roberts' "Nothin'."
When the semifinals were finished, Brian, Patrick, and Terry went off to do some more ciphering; Ted and fellow emcee Adam Swanson kicked back for a while; and the audience did some kicking back all its own...either inside River E and F or just outside the two combined rooms.
After all the judges' ciphering came to an end...Bill Edwards came back onstage to tackle ol' Moby Dink.
And tackle that 1883 Weber upright he did, hammering out "Red Raven Rag" and "The Blues (My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me)," a 1920 number made famous by Ted Lewis, the bandleader famous for "Is Everybody Happy Now?"
This year's wildcard theme was (drum roll)...color!
As things turned out, the other Bill ended up getting in line to get paid. As a result, we got a chance to hear the now four-time New Rag kingpin do "Green River Blues" and Maceo Pinkard's "Liza."
Bill McNally was followed by one of old-time piano's most passionate performers. (You guessed it...Domingo!)
After Domingo got the crowd a date with "Me and My Shadow," he invited the fans to say "Hello, Bluebird."
Adam and Ted regaled the OTPP audience with tunes (as well as old-time piano pointers) after Domingo's and the Two Bills' final sets. And after one last clinic, the two hosts turned it over to David...who turned in Duke Ellington's and Bub Miley's "Black and Tan Fantasy" as well as the romping "Shreveport Stomp."
This left Ethan as the last finalist...and he came out dressed like Abraham Lincoln (right down to the black suit, stovepipe hat, and fake beard).
Ethan picked up the Stephen Foster baton that "Perfessor" Bill ran with in the semifinals, and the 2007 and 2012 RD titleholder nailed "Old Black Joe" and "Oh, Susanna."
Well, in a nutshell, Bill E. finished fifth and won $250, David got fourth prize and earned $400 for it, Domingo outdid his 2013 showing by grabbing off third (that meant $550), and Bill M. won second place...and walked away with $800.
And Ethan racked up his third Regular Division title, good for $1,350 and that Ted Lemen Traveling Trophy.
And so it's time to practice up for next year...and to see what 2015 will bring. .
Friday, March 22, 2013
Well, at Long Last, I Did It! (Part 2)
Well...I see the men's bracket I filled out already got thrown out the window.
It was all because La Salle beat Boise State in the first round. Yesterday, Harvard took it to New Mexico, 68-62; California edged UNLV, 64-61; and Colorado State handed Missouri an 84-72 verdict.
But I'm still pressing on...and I'm ready to give you my predictions on how this year's NCAA Division 1 women's basketball tournament will turn out:
FIRST ROUND: Midwest- Baylor over Prairie View
Florida State over Princeton
Louisville over Middle Tennessee State
Purdue over Liberty
Oklahoma over Central Michigan
UCLA over Stetson
Creighton over Syracuse
Tennessee over Oral Roberts
FIRST ROUND: West- Stanford over Tulsa
Villanova over Michigan
Iowa State over Gonzaga
Georgia over Montana
Wisconsin-Green Bay over Louisiana State
Penn State over Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
Texas Tech over South Florida
California over Fresno State
FIRST ROUND: South- Notre Dame over Tennessee-Martin
Miami (FL) over Iowa
Colorado over Kansas
South Carolina over South Dakota State
Nebraska over Tennessee-Chattanooga
Texas A&M over Wichita State
DePaul over Oklahoma State
Duke over Hampton
FIRST ROUND: East- Connecticut over Idaho
Vanderbilt over St. Joseph's
Marist over Michigan State
Maryland over Quinnipiac
Delaware over West Virginia
North Carolina over Albany
St. John's (NY) over Dayton
Kentucky over Navy
SECOND ROUND: Midwest- Baylor over Florida State
Louisville over Purdue
Oklahoma over UCLA
Tennessee over Creighton
SECOND ROUND: West- Stanford over Villanova
Georgia over Iowa State
Penn State over Wisconsin-Green Bay
California over Texas Tech
SECOND ROUND: South- Notre Dame over Miami (FL)
South Carolina over Colorado
Texas A&M over Nebraska
Duke over DePaul
SECOND ROUND: East- Connecticut over Vanderbilt
Maryland over Marist
North Carolina over Delaware
Kentucky over St. John's (NY)
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS: Midwest- Baylor over Louisville
Tennessee over Oklahoma
West- Stanford over Georgia
Penn State over California
South- Notre Dame over South Carolina
Duke over Texas A&M
East- Connecticut over Maryland
Kentucky over North Carolina
REGIONAL FINALS: Baylor over Tennessee
Stanford over Penn State
Notre Dame over Duke
Connecticut over Kentucky
NATIONAL SEMIFINALS: Baylor over Stanford
Notre Dame over Connecticut
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Baylor over Notre Dame
See if you agree that Kim Mulkey's Bears will clip those nets down at New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, LA. In fact, see if you agree with any of these picks...I'd like to hear from you.
I'm Jim Boston...thanks for reading this blog!
It was all because La Salle beat Boise State in the first round. Yesterday, Harvard took it to New Mexico, 68-62; California edged UNLV, 64-61; and Colorado State handed Missouri an 84-72 verdict.
But I'm still pressing on...and I'm ready to give you my predictions on how this year's NCAA Division 1 women's basketball tournament will turn out:
FIRST ROUND: Midwest- Baylor over Prairie View
Florida State over Princeton
Louisville over Middle Tennessee State
Purdue over Liberty
Oklahoma over Central Michigan
UCLA over Stetson
Creighton over Syracuse
Tennessee over Oral Roberts
FIRST ROUND: West- Stanford over Tulsa
Villanova over Michigan
Iowa State over Gonzaga
Georgia over Montana
Wisconsin-Green Bay over Louisiana State
Penn State over Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
Texas Tech over South Florida
California over Fresno State
FIRST ROUND: South- Notre Dame over Tennessee-Martin
Miami (FL) over Iowa
Colorado over Kansas
South Carolina over South Dakota State
Nebraska over Tennessee-Chattanooga
Texas A&M over Wichita State
DePaul over Oklahoma State
Duke over Hampton
FIRST ROUND: East- Connecticut over Idaho
Vanderbilt over St. Joseph's
Marist over Michigan State
Maryland over Quinnipiac
Delaware over West Virginia
North Carolina over Albany
St. John's (NY) over Dayton
Kentucky over Navy
SECOND ROUND: Midwest- Baylor over Florida State
Louisville over Purdue
Oklahoma over UCLA
Tennessee over Creighton
SECOND ROUND: West- Stanford over Villanova
Georgia over Iowa State
Penn State over Wisconsin-Green Bay
California over Texas Tech
SECOND ROUND: South- Notre Dame over Miami (FL)
South Carolina over Colorado
Texas A&M over Nebraska
Duke over DePaul
SECOND ROUND: East- Connecticut over Vanderbilt
Maryland over Marist
North Carolina over Delaware
Kentucky over St. John's (NY)
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS: Midwest- Baylor over Louisville
Tennessee over Oklahoma
West- Stanford over Georgia
Penn State over California
South- Notre Dame over South Carolina
Duke over Texas A&M
East- Connecticut over Maryland
Kentucky over North Carolina
REGIONAL FINALS: Baylor over Tennessee
Stanford over Penn State
Notre Dame over Duke
Connecticut over Kentucky
NATIONAL SEMIFINALS: Baylor over Stanford
Notre Dame over Connecticut
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Baylor over Notre Dame
See if you agree that Kim Mulkey's Bears will clip those nets down at New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, LA. In fact, see if you agree with any of these picks...I'd like to hear from you.
I'm Jim Boston...thanks for reading this blog!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
America's Favorite...and Second to None
And don't forget that he published an 1899 Scott Joplin piece, "Original Rags."
The above slogan's also one that Charles' grandniece, Nan Bostick, adopted.
Nan was no slouch as a composer, either, what with winners like "Ragtime in Randall," "Bean Whistle Rag," and "That Missing You Rag."
I'm one of the many missing her, too. Recently, Nan lost her battle with lung cancer.
Nan was a veteran of many ragtime festivals nationwide, including California's Sutter Creek event (held every August since that get-together's 2000 inception) and that same state's West Coast Ragtime Festival.
She even performed at the Ragtime to Riches Festival, coming to the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area in 2006 and 2007. (I remember when, at the 2006 festival, she jammed alongside another of that year's featured performers, Pat Boilesen.)
Nan Bostick really was second to none when it came to giving workshops; hers were some of the most entertaining workshops you'd ever attended.
One of her most famous workshops focused on the work her granduncle put together, starting in his Missouri/Kansas days...when Charles' "Hiawatha" touched off a brief craze for songs about Native American people.
Funny thing about it, "Hiawatha" wasn't about a Native American...it was about a Kansas town that bears said name.
I learned from Nan that during the 1897-1917 period, roughly 350 women composed at least one ragtime tune apiece.
And Charles N. Daniels got some of them published, too.
I've tried some of those pieces myself...and had a ball working on 'em. One of those numbers is "That Poker Rag," by Charlotte Blake. Others include Irene Giblin's "Chicken Chowder" and Nellie Stokes' "Snowball."
By the way...my favorite Nan Bostick composition is "Bean Whistle Rag." (You get to, as the sheet music says, ad lib...and have fun!)
She encouraged me to concentrate on giving workshops; Nan, somehow, liked the ones I'd given. (Well, to tell you the truth, I'd rather put giving workshops and performing together. But still...)
Nan was one of ragtime's best and most tireless researchers; it showed in every concert she gave and every workshop she conducted. I admire how she liked going to different schools nationwide to show children just what old-time piano's really like.
Nan...thank you for helping to show me (and plenty of other people) what old-time piano's really like.
Thank you for being part of my life...and allowing me to be in yours.
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