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East London Brass Band scoops fifth place at national championship

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:26:47 +0000

Conductor Jayne Murrill

Wednesday, October 7, 2009
4:00 PM

By Else Kvist A brass band with many members living in the East End has come fifth in the brass band equivalent of the FA cup – despite nearly not getting to the competition. The East London Brass Band

By Else Kvist

A brass band with many members living in the East End has come fifth in the brass band equivalent of the FA cup – despite nearly not getting to the competition.

The East London Brass Band had struggled from near collapse two years ago to winning a place at National Brass Band Championships – much like the film Brassed Off.

But the band nearly had to pull out as they didn’t have enough brass to get to the championships in Harrogate. The credit crunch had hit the band hard with local authorities and fete organisations no longer having the funds to book a live band.

But the band managed to raise £550 during a free concert in Walthamstow, featured in the Advertiser, which took them to the £4,000 target needed for transport and accommodation.

The hard work paid off after the band representing the Southern counties came fifth out of 17 bands from across the country at the championships.

Conductor Jayne Murill said: “The band is trilled to have come so far in the past year and I’m very proud of their hard work and dedication, which paid off.”

The band which blew its first note in 1909 is now preparing to commemorate its centenary with a special free concert on December 5 at Trinity Walthamstow Church

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Article source: http://www.edp24.co.uk/east_london_brass_band_scoops_fifth_place_at_national_championship_1_669622

Brass to tackle cops’ NYPD blues

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:26:43 +0000

NYPD bosses are stepping up efforts to encourage troubled cops to get help, after the recent suicides of two officers less than a week apart, sources said.

Many cops are afraid that seeking help for psychological problems could derail their careers, sources said.

Supervisors “want guys to see a psychiatrist at least once a year to see if they have any underlying problems,” one source said.

A second source added, “Cops are dealing with a lot of stress, particularly these young cops.”

Sources told The Post cops worry they could be put on desk duty or get fired if they ask for help.

Article source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brass_to_tackle_cops_nypd_blues_mwAtopPfzatpfPbJ9nKqCN?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=

300 Win Magnum Ballistics for Android

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:26:24 +0000

Article source: http://download.cnet.com/300-Win-Magnum-Ballistics/3000-2136_4-75650102.html

Full AVENGERS Super Bowl Commercial

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:26:23 +0000

Reloading on dip while the Avengers Super Bowl commercial debuted during the second quarter of the Patriots/Giants match-up? Just want to relive it frame by frame? Well, here it is!

And here’s the 1:05 extended version, posted on Marvel Studios’ Avengers Facebook page:

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Article source: http://blog.newsarama.com/2012/02/05/full-avengers-super-bowl-commercial/

Lake Wobegon Brass Band makes name for itself

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:23:17 +0000

A Minnesota brass band is trying to make a mark on British culture.

As it celebrates its 20th anniversary next month, the Lake Wobegon Brass Band has commissioned a piece, written in the British style, from over the pond.

Co-founder Gordon Nilsen (tuba) granted that the group could have had a fine musical composition written locally. But members of the group had met renowned composer Philip Wilby during one of two trips the band has made to England. They knew that any Wilby composition is likely to be played again and again by brass bands on the British competitive circuit, spreading the band’s influence internationally. Wilby will be on hand for the Feb. 16 premier of “Beyond Far Horizons” at the Minnesota Music Educators Association conference in Minneapolis.

About the Lake Wobegon name: Nilsen said the group wanted a moniker with a strong regional identification. Though they had the blessing of Garrison Keillor and the folks at “A Prairie Home Companion,” the band is not affiliated with the popular Minnesota Public Radio program or Keillor’s fictitious hometown. The group did, however, play on the show’s 35th anniversary live broadcast two years ago in Avon, Minn.

The band did have its birth in Keillor’s real-life hometown of Anoka.

Nilsen was band director at what was then Fred Moore Middle School (now Anoka Middle School for the Arts). In 1989, he and Dave Peterson, band director at Northdale Middle School in Coon Rapids, pulled together a band for a one-time Fourth of July performance. Two years later, after attending the North American Brass Band Association’s national convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the two joined with Anoka-Ramsey Community College music professor Rick Perkins to bring the band back together for keeps.

The ensemble could have gone in any direction. But the founders were fond of the British brass band tradition, which features instruments that are rare in American brass bands: flugelhorn, euphonium and cornets, for example. There were other reasons: Nilsen and others liked the flexibility of the genre; British brass bands play marches, hymns and overtures. Besides, there was nothing else like it around here.

“There were many other wind bands and community orchestras, but this was something different,” Nilsen said.

During a recent Saturday morning practice, the brass tubas flashed under the stage lights in the Andover High School auditorium. Conductor Michael Halstenson (also music director at Anoka High School) ran the brass and percussion through bits and pieces of numbers the group will play during its winter series, which starts this month.

Normally, the group plays three series of concerts, in the fall, around the holidays and in the winter, preceded by several weeks of rehearsals at their usual rehearsal home, Anoka-Ramsey Community College in Coon Rapids. Next week, Wilby will guest-conduct as the group works to perfect his composition.

Unlike their British counterparts, the group does not compete.

“So many of us were music teachers,” Nilsen said. “We spent so much time getting kids ready for competitions, and wanted this to be fun for us. That’s the idea. We play for the fun of it.”

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409

Article source: http://www.startribune.com/local/north/138242654.html

Sunday Rockpile: Rockies done reloading for 2012, now it’s up to the players to prove their firepower

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:22:42 +0000

The Rockies have one of the best signings of the off season (Ramon Hernandez) and one of the worst (Michael Cuddyer) according to a position by position opinion piece by L.A. Times writer Mike DiGiovanna. While I think many would agree with his picks, DiGiovanna focuses a bit too much on cost and age, and not enough on contribution (or at least on the wrong aspects of contribution) to leave me feeling that it’s any sort of authoritative piece on the matter.

After Thursday’s post about the numbers of pitchers the Rockies have competing for rotation slots, one critical thought was that the sheer volume of arms wouldn’t allow for enough innings to properly evaluate them during Spring training. Although I haven’t seen anyone from the Rockies come out and say it, it’s a dilemma not lost on most MLB organizations, as Boston manager Bobby Valentine puts it:

“You rely on your evaluators and you make sure you’re not fooled by results,” Valentine said last night. “You’ve got to understand what you’re looking at, and then hope that the bright lights don’t change anything. I think you can make a proper talent evaluation given seven weeks of spring training.”

The Rockies have an advantage over the Red Sox and several other teams in that most of the pitchers that Colorado will be attempting to evaluate in these conditions have minor league options left, meaning they can hold them back at Salt River for just a little longer if necessary to be certain.

Frankly, it’s much better to be in the position of having too many arms than not enough. It means that somebody has to step up and actualy reach their potential to get noticed. As the Rockies new elder statesman once put it to young Philadelphia Phillies pitchers:

“You know why I’m still pitching in the majors? Because none of you have taken my job. I invite every one of you to come take my job. That’s the way this game works.”

What Jamie Moyer’s saying is that professional baseball’s evolved over 130 years or so to allow true young talent to shine through when it’s ready. There really aren’t super star prospects that get blocked by veterans, but there are hyped mediocrities that aren’t really ready for the Show.

The Rockies don’t really need a Felipe Paulino, a pitcher that will only become good after released when the season’s over and nothing matters, nothing’s on the line to play for. They need a couple of pitchers that are clearly going to be assets from day one. The kind that can show enough separation from the pack in the short time given to be an obvious choice. If none of them are really capable of this, I don’t know how much, if any, difference on the team’s season will be made by making the wrong choices. It would be a case of having no cream to rise to the top.

It shouldn’t surprise any Rockies fan to learn that the team has the most Venezuelans of any MLB team on the 40 man roster, with nine. I would say that eight of the nine (the suspended Eliézer Alfonzo being the exception) have a decent shot at breaking camp on the 25 man roster. Pitchers Edgmer Escalona and Guillermo Moscoso, and infielder Jonathan Herrera are on the bubble for bench or bottom of the rotation jobs, with Rafael Betancourt, Jhoulys Chacín, Ramón Hernández, Marco Scutaro and Carlos González being locks to make the team in prominent roles.

One more Venezuelan that could have had a job, but turned the Rockies down (link in Spanish) was Melvin Mora, who wishes to play for a team closer to his Maryland home. After Mora rejected the Rockies overtures, they turned their attention to Casey Blake to fill the same role as a place-holder to keep third base warm while Nolan Arenado develops. I bring this up because Mora is even more obviously a partial season fix, almost a back-up plan, than Blake is. I think a lot of Rockies fans are assuming that the third base job is Blake’s to lose, but it might be more accurately stated that it’s Arenado’s to win.

Baseball America has put out it’s early top 100 for the 2012 draft. With the Rockies having five picks in the top three rounds (#10, #46, #71, #102, #124) it’s fairly likely that a few of these names might be in the organization within a few months. It should be pointed out, however, that two names, #90 Peter O’Brien and #95 Preston Tucker, already could have been in the organization had the Rockies been able to sign them after drafting them in 2011. That said, I’m still fairly convinced that it will turn out to be a mistake on O’Brien’s part to turn down the Rockies, as his eligibility at Miami is still up in the air and with a slow start, he could easily get passed by prospects not currently on the national radar. With fairly rigid slotting rules now in place, he’ll still get drafted, but likely get only as much or even less on the table than the Rockies offered last season and have a year of pro development get lost in the process.

The decision to re-enter may not work out for Tucker, either, but I’m actually much more sanguine on his prospects, and lean toward the opinion that in his case it was a mistake on the Rockies part not to reach out a little further.

Article source: http://www.purplerow.com/2012/2/5/2772760/sunday-rockpile-rockies-done-reloading-for-2012-now-its-up-to-the

Top Rank brass impressed with Melindo

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 11:22:45 +0000

MANILA, Philippines – Top Rank Inc. matchmakers are impressed with undefeated Filipino flyweight prospect Milan “El Metodico” Melindo, according to the promotion’s chief executive officer Bob Arum.

Arum met with ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer during his latest visit to Manila in order to discuss the possibility of including Filipino boxers in future Top Rank cards.

In an interview with Ronnie Nathanielsz of Boxing Scene, Arum said the Top Rank matchmakers are “all impressed with Milan Melindo.”

“I’ve never seen him, but they say that this kid has all the tools and he’s a future great,” Arum added.

Melindo is currently undefeated with a 24-0 win-loss record, with eight wins via knockout. He most recently defeated Juan Esquer in Pinoy Pride XI via a technical knockout.

Arum said he is “very, very anxious to see” Melindo, who is the reigning WBC Youth Intercontinental flyweight champion.

The promoter said they are planning to “have some Filipino fighters sent to Las Vegas to train in the Top Rank Gym, get some really good sparring and we will use them over a six-month period.”

“Some will go back to the Philippines and fight there, maybe all of them, and we are going to keep using this program to develop the Filipino fighters both for the Philippines and the United States,” Arum added.

Aldeguer told Boxing Scene that Robert Garcia, the trainer of Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire, is willing help train the Filipino boxers.

Article source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/sports/02/05/12/top-rank-brass-impressed-melindo

8×10 Deck ATV, Snowmobile or Utility Trailer $800

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:20:30 +0000

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16’ X 7 1/2 ‘ Enclosed Camper Utility Trailer $450

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:20:29 +0000

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Article source: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=218&sid=72770&ad=19118869

Horse Racing: Today at Santa Anita, Feb. 4

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:16:21 +0000

Today at Santa Anita Park

By Richard Eng

Post Time 12:30 p.m.

Race 1 – 6 furlongs, Purse $56,000, Maiden special weights, 3-year-olds

5 Mile High Magic – Bob Baffert has an uncoupled entry so expect one to get his picture taken; watch the tote board for clues.

4 Et Tu Walker – John Sadler FTS is enough to merit a look; that Joel Rosario takes the call is worth additional looks.

Long Shot – 7 Eaton Hall

Race 2 – 6 furlongs, Purse $16,000, Claiming $12,500, 4-year-olds and up

3 Seek the Light – Rafael Bejarano had options and chose to ride for Melody Conlon; underrated trainer just claimed this horse.

2 His Boy Elroy – Beaten favorite exits turf and route for this dirt sprint; value comes with Eldwin Maldonato taking over.

Long Shot – 6 Me Salty

Race 3 – 1 mile (turf, rail at 8 feet), $150,000 Arcadia, 4-year-olds and up

8 Mr. Commons – Looks like a man playing with boys in this field; even money will be value if you can get it.

2 Pathfork – Last time out took on the great Frankel in Newmarket; no Frankel’s in here so expect a stronger result.

Long Shot – 5 El Gato Malo

Race 4 – 6 1/2 furlongs, Purse $56,000, Maiden special weights, Cal-breds, 3-year-olds

5 Real Conundrum – Not a bad debut race from post 11 at Hollywood; flattered when Corner Office won next out.

10 Jonny’s Choice – Exits a MSW where Midnight Transfer made mincemeat of the field; big shot with a step of improvement.

Long Shot – 7 Good Luck Redd

Race 5 – 6 1/2 furlongs (turf, rail at 8 feet), Purse $56,000, Maiden special weights, Fillies, 3-year-olds

10 Miss Communication – Mike Mitchell is reloading his barn with imports and young horses like this one; should keep improving.

2 Belle Passe – Peter Eurton has an uncoupled entry and both have a puncher’s chance; note he’s using Bejarano and Rosario.

Long Shot – 4 Sydney’s Darling

Race 6 – 1 1/16th miles, $200,000 Robert B. Lewis, 3-year-olds

1 Liaison – Bob Baffert has an uncoupled entry and both are very live; steady improvement from this son of Indian Charlie.

5 Sky Kingdom – Got a confidence booster win in last, albeit in slow time; is bred to be a late developer and marathon runner.

Long Shot – 6 Rousing Sermon

Race 7 – 1 1/8th miles (turf, rail at 8 feet), Purse $58,000, Optional claiming 440,000, 4-year-olds and up

4 Wall Dance – Should get value on a colt stretching out around 2-turns; late developer has always been well regarded.

9 Gab Power – Tepid chalk in a harder than looks race; he likes to rally late, albeit too late in many instances.

Long Shot – 5 Tippety Tap Tap

Race 8 – 1 1/8th miles, $200,000 Strub, 4-year-olds

7 Tapizar – This is one talented colt but he seemingly has head issues; he’s a lot like Twirling Candy, better to let them roll.

1 Jaycito – Bob Baffert has an uncoupled entry and both are very live; this colt has great ability but can be his own worst enemy.

Long Shot – 2 Prayer for Relief

Race 9 – 6 1/2 furlongs (turf, rail at 8 feet), Purse $32,000, 4-year-olds and up

3 Mark the Bench – Mike Mitchell claim looks ready to fire a big one; returns to the price tag that he was claimed at.

2 Crossing The Line – Has turned in a lot of good races without winning one; logical chalk is clearly beatable at this level.

Long Shot – 11 Striking Spirit

Race 10 – 1 1/16th miles, Purse $58,000, Optional claiming $40,000, 4-year-olds and up

8 Fiddlers Afleet – Midwest invader makes his SoCal debut; like the resume he has on dirt, 8-of-10 races in the money.

1 Setsuko – How the mighty have fallen; grade 1 quality animal is still eligible for NW2L, he’s supposed to win for fun.

Long Shot – 10 American Blend

Best Bet – 8 Mr. Commons (race 3)

Santa Anita Park Friday – Picks/Winners/Mutuels, 16/3/$23.60; Long Shots, 8/2/$27.80; Best Bet, 1/0/$0

Santa Anita Park Totals – 408/102/$640.80; Long Shots, 207/31/$387.70; Best Bets, 23/9/$33.80

SIMULCAST PLAY OF THE DAY – #7 Font (4/1) in race 10 at Gulfstream Park. For scoring purposes, we’ll make a hypothetical $2 win, place and show bet, $6 total. On Friday, Captain’s Cat was scratched at Aqueduct. Stats – 22/17/$182.10; Follow him on Twitter: @richeng4propick

Article source: http://www.lvrj.com/sports/horse-racing-138702329.html

Brass group’s workshop and concert

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:07:07 +0000

Brass ensemble Onyx are coming to Cheddar

Report by Alex Evans, Reporter
Friday, February 3, 2012
3:42 PM

A BRASS ensemble described by the BBC as ‘the classiest in Britain’ will be coming to a Somerset village on  Monday.

Onyx will be holding an afternoon workshop with brass players from the Cheddar Valley Music Club before an evening concert with participation from the young amateurs.

The band, who have built a name for themselves with  concerts across Europe, will play at the Kings Theatre in Cheddar at 7pm.

Tickets, priced £6.50-8.50, are available on 01934 744939.

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Article source: http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/what-s-on/brass_group_s_workshop_and_concert_1_1197945

Outdoors: A phone call from the NRA – Corvallis Gazette

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:06:22 +0000

“Hello, Mr. Wray. This is John from the National Rifle
Association. How are you doing tonight?”

“Fine, thanks.”

“Mr. Wray, as a Life Member of the NRA I know you are concerned
with our right to bear arms. Are you aware of Obama’s
under-the-radar effort to destroy our 2nd Amendment rights?”

“You mean President Obama?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Say it.”

“President Obama.”

“Good. Now for the remainder of this conversation every time you
mention his name the word President will precede it. Is that
clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now, what were you complaining about?”

“Well, er, President Obama is conducting an under-the-radar
attack on our right to bear arms.”

“What makes it under the radar?”

“His administration is not talking about it.”

“Then how do you know what he plans to do?”

“Well, Mr. Wray, you have to look no further than his
appointees. Consider that Attorney General Eric Holder is on record
as supporting the re-establishment of the Clinton ban on assault
weapons.”

“Holder brought that up within of month of his appointment three
years ago and quickly was shut down by the President. Haven’t heard
a peep, since. What else you got?”

“Um, he appointed two of the most rabidly anti-gun Supreme Court
justices in American history, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Given the advanced ages of several of the other judges, a second
term may well give President Obama the chance to appoint three more
justices.”

“So, our liberal president appointed two liberal justices. What
a surprise! You expected what, another Clarence Thomas? I guess
we’ll have to hope that all of his appointees grow an independent
streak and decide their cases according to our Constitution. Just
like we always do. It’s hard for me to interpret Supreme Court
nominees as an assault on my gun rights.”

“Mr. Wray, are you aware that this administration reversed
long-standing American opposition and now supports an International
Arms Trade Treaty that will ban or restrict our gun ownership in
this country? O … er … President Obama knows he can’t get
restrictive gun rules through the U.S. Congress so he’s going to
come at us through the U.N.”

“You know, I’ve been seeing those emails and so I started doing
some checking. It turns out that the U.N. treaty is aimed at
restricting dealers who provide arms to insurgencies, rebellions
and civil wars. There is specific wording in place, put there by
the United States, to protect national sovereignty regarding
firearms purchase and ownership.”

“Mr. Wray, our people have done extensive research into the
administration’s goals and we know what President Obama is going to
do.”

“Sure, you know because of what he said, except that all he’s
ever said is that he supports the 2nd Amendment and has no plans to
take anyone’s guns. You know because of what he has done, except
that he’s made no move in any way to restrict gun ownership. In
fact, he’s signed a law permitting guns in National Parks, signed
another law allowing guns in checked baggage on Amtrak trains
…”

“Those were just a diversion, Mr. Wray, a smokescreen to hide
his true objectives.”

“So, even when President Obama does exactly what you guys want,
signs laws that you had a hand in writing, you still don’t give him
credit. Did all of you intern at Pravda, or what? Here’s what I
think, John. I am worried about gun control. I’ve been in Great
Britain and Australia and Canada and talked with the people there
who’ve had their guns taken away. I know it can be done. I also
know there are people here who want to do the same thing. That’s
why I’m a life member of the NRA. But the way NRA people simplify
and demonize and lie about things — the way you create crises where
there are none is abhorrent to me. The NRA singlehandedly created
the mass hysteria following President Obama’s election that
resulted in ammunition and reloading supplies disappearing off the
shelves for more than a year. You did that. And all you can say now
is ‘This time he’s REALLY going after our guns! Trust us!’

“Sorry, John. Somehow the words NRA and trust don’t fit together
very well for me.”

Pat Wray writes about the outdoors. He can be reached at
patwray@comcast.net.

Article source: http://www.gazettetimes.com/sports/recreation/outdoors-a-phone-call-from-the-nra/article_33b00f32-4df5-11e1-8339-001871e3ce6c.html

Vintage rifles offer shooters’ challenge

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:06:21 +0000

The big rifles are barking up and down the firing line. To my
right is a WW II U.S. M1 Garand. To my left thunders a 1942
British Enfield, a couple of Russian Mosin-Nagants and on the
end, an 1898 U.S. Krag-Jorgensen, a veteran of the
Spanish-American War.

Today, I am shooting two Nikon cameras and a 1944 U.S. M1 Garand
.30 caliber rifle. In the hands of the “Greatest Generation,”
some of these vintage rifles battled tyranny to the ends of the
earth and literally saved the free world.

These rifles are now in the hands of another generation who are
testing their skills at a Civilian Marksmanship Program high
power rifle match run by The Brea Rifle Pistol Club at the
Lytle Creek Firing Line in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Army veteran Tom Gagan of Lake Forest, who trained with a later
generation rifle, tries to explain his fondness for the vintage
WW II M1 rifle, “It’s hard to explain,” he said, “It feels like a
real rifle.”

The CMP match at 100 yards consists of 55 rounds, including
sighting in shots and stages of prone position slow-fire,
standing to sitting and standing to prone rapid-fire strings
against the clock, and finally standing unsupported slow-fire.

Cal Poly Pomona student Steven Wan, one of the youngest members
of the club who was shooting a 1939 Russina Mosin-Nagant rifle
explained, “It’s the history. I like it. It’s sort of shooting
where I aim it. I’m still working on that.”

Although U.S. Military rifles are most popular, Ryan Sandford of
San Dimas is also a fan of the vintage Russian rifle. “It’s
cheap, about the best rifle for the money, a great entry level
rifle for about $99-130,” he said.

For my money, General George Patton had it right when he said in
1945, “In my opinion, the M-1 Rifle is the greatest battle
implement ever devised.”

I had not shot my M-1 in a rifle match in a few years. It was
both exhilarating and stressful to go from standing to sitting
and fire 10 aimed shots including reloading in 80 seconds. Trying
to control pulse and breathing during the standing off-hand stage
at a 100-yard target is always a mind game.

The beginner-friendly Brea Rifle Pistol CMP matches are
held at the Lytle Creek Firing Line in the San Bernardino
Mountains six times a year and are open to the public. For more
information about fees and entry requirements go to: brearifleandpistolclub.org.

The Civilian Marksmanship’s mission is “To promote firearm safety
and marksmanship training with an emphasis on youth.” They can be
found at thecmp.org. Shooters who
complete the course and a background check are eligible to
purchase military surplus rifles and ammunition from the Civilian
Marksmanship Program.

Although almost any centerfire rifle will do, most shoot vintage
“as-issued military rifles.”

Besides ammunition, shooters need to bring safety glasses, ear
protection and a shooting mat. A telescope to see the target is
also useful.

Article source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46245837

Football: National champ St. Xavier lands several Joliet-area recruits – Chicago Sun

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:06:19 +0000

By Phil Arvia
parvia@southtownstar.com

February 2, 2012 6:52PM

Austin Feeney, of Morris, will be attending St. Xavier in the fall. | File photo

Updated: February 3, 2012 2:28AM

In some ways, winning a national title has made recruiting easier for St. Xavier football coach Mike Feminis.

“I think it did,” he said, “from the standpoint of awareness.”

In others, St. Xavier’s run to its win in the Dec. 17 NAIA title game made reloading tougher.

“We got a late start,” the American Football Coaches Association Coach of the Year said.

So Feminis did what he’s always done, concentrating on the talent he knows best. To a large degree, those players hail from Joliet-area schools.

Of the first five recruits St. Xavier announced during Wednesday’s National Letter of Intent signing day, four came from the Joliet area, which Feminis scoured as an eight-year assistant to Gordie Gillespie at St. Francis — where he flourished as a player, as well.

The fifth, quarterback John Rhode, began his career at Marian Catholic, Feminis’ alma mater, before transferring to and winning a state title at Montini.

St. Xavier’s local haul includes Morris running back/receiver Austin Feeney. Joliet Catholic offensive lineman Jake Jankowski, and defensive linemen Nick Cemeno, of Providence, and Alex Hamilton, of Minooka.

“The thing about the Joliet area, I played my college ball at St. Francis for Gordie, I was the defensive coordinator there until 1998,” Feminis said. “I developed a lot of great relationships there, and I know how good the football is. I want to get as many guys from Joliet Catholic, Providence, Minooka, Morris and the Lincoln-Ways as I can.”

Feeney was a quarterback at Morris, but Feminis has other plans for him at SXU.

“As of right now, we think he can help us sooner than later as a running back or slot receiver, but eventually doing some things as a Wildcat quarterback, too,” Feminis said. “Jake really fills a need for us at the tackle position. … Nick and Alex are two future starters on the defensive line.”

Article source: http://heraldnews.suntimes.com/sports/10393141-419/football-national-champ-st-xavier-lands-several-joliet-area-recruits.html

Top Buys by Top Brass: COO Gluski's $199.2K Bet on AES

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:06:11 +0000

A company’s own top management tend to have the best inside view into the business, so when company officers make major buys, investors are wise to take notice. Presumably the only reason an insider would take their hard-earned cash and use it to buy stock of their company in the open market, is that they expect to make money — maybe they find the stock very undervalued, or maybe they see exciting progress within the company, or maybe both. So in this series we look at the largest insider buys by the ”top brass” over the trailing six month period, one of which was a total of $199.2K by Andres Gluski, COO at AES Corp. (NYSE: AES).

Click here to find out which other top insider buys by the ”top brass” you need to know about »

Gluski bets big on AES:

Gluski’s average cost works out to $9.99/share. Shares of AES Corp. were changing hands at $12.99 at last check, trading down about 0.1% on Friday. The chart below shows the one year performance of AES shares, versus its 200 day moving average:

Looking at the chart above, AES’s low point in its 52 week range is $9.00 per share, with $13.50 as the 52 week high point — that compares with a last trade of $12.99.

According to the ETF Finder at ETF Channel, AES makes up 2.55% of the Rydex SP 500 Equal Weight Utilities ETF (AMEX: RYU) which is trading up by about 0.4% on the day Friday.

See what other ETFs contain AES »
See what other stocks are held by RYU »

Special Offer: Find out what Dave Moenning is holding in the ETF Channel Flexible Growth Investment Portfolio with a special 20% off coupon from Forbes and 30 Days Free.

Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/energystockchannel/2012/02/03/top-buys-by-top-brass-coo-gluskis-199-2k-bet-on-aes/?feed=rss_home

Top Buys by Top Brass: CFO Denninger's $197.8K Bet on KAMN

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:06:09 +0000

A company’s own top management tend to have the best inside view into the business, so when company officers make major buys, investors are wise to take notice. Presumably the only reason an insider would take their hard-earned cash and use it to buy stock of their company in the open market, is that they expect to make money — maybe they find the stock very undervalued, or maybe they see exciting progress within the company, or maybe both. So in this series we look at the largest insider buys by the ”top brass” over the trailing six month period, one of which was a total of $197.8K by William C. Denninger, Senior Vice President / CFO at Kaman Corp. (NASD: KAMN).

Click here to find out which other top insider buys by the ”top brass” you need to know about »

Denninger bets big on KAMN:

Denninger’s average cost works out to $27.10/share. Shares of Kaman Corp. were changing hands at $33.27 at last check, trading up about 3.6% on Friday. The chart below shows the one year performance of KAMN shares, versus its 200 day moving average:

Looking at the chart above, KAMN’s low point in its 52 week range is $25.73 per share, with $38.40 as the 52 week high point — that compares with a last trade of $33.27.

According to the ETF Finder at ETF Channel, KAMN makes up 1.08% of the SP SmallCap Industrials Portfolio ETF (NASD: PSCI) which is trading higher by about 2.9% on the day Friday.

See what other ETFs contain KAMN »
See what other stocks are held by PSCI »

Special Offer: Find out what Dave Moenning is holding in the ETF Channel Flexible Growth Investment Portfolio with a special 20% off coupon from Forbes and 30 Days Free.

2008 feature on Micron’s Steve Appleton: ‘I don’t have any regrets’ – Idaho Press

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:06:06 +0000

It’s Los Angeles in the early ’60s. Steve Appleton and his two
siblings were born by the time their mom was 20 years old. Sister
Adrienne is 18 months older than Steve; brother Chris is 15 months
younger. His young parents created a healthy home environment for
their kids, but they lived in a rough neighborhood. Some of
Appleton’s friends were gang members. Although he didn’t take part
in their illegal activities, he thinks his friendships may have
protected his home, leaving it untouched while neighbors were
robbed.

Appleton’s strong work ethic started to surface early on. He had
a paper route and mowed lawns when he was 6 or 7 years old. He
recalls a time when he and his brother were supposed to be cutting
and stacking branches in the yard. They didn’t know Mom was in the
kitchen filming the whole thing. When they replayed the movie
later, it showed Appleton sawing and doing the work while his
brother rode his bicycle.

He looked up to his dad, who was also a hard worker. Dad
introduced him to sports and taught him the importance of being
exposed to new experiences throughout life. From the time he could
read, his dad gave him one book after another. As a young teenager,
he read two books that were especially challenging: “The Origin of
Species” by Charles Darwin and “The Rise and Fall of the Third
Reich” by William Lawrence Shirer.

As he got older, Appleton became more involved in academics and
sports. When he was about 12 years old, he decided he wanted to be
a professional tennis player, and if he couldn’t do that, he wanted
to work for a corporation. In high school, he became a musician, a
student conductor of the orchestra and drum major of the marching
band. He even played the trumpet and other brass instruments. While
he remained friends with some of the rougher crowd, he didn’t get
caught up in stakes that went “from sticks and rocks to knives and
guns.” He earned tennis and academic scholarships to attend Boise
State University, but some of his friends didn’t make it out of
L.A. They were in prison by the time he attended his 10-year high
school reunion.

College

Appleton took BSU’s tennis team by storm when he arrived in
1978. Greg Patton, then coach at the University of California,
Irvine, heard about Appleton’s tennis talent during his junior year
of college. Appleton’s teammates also realized that this new
recruit was exceptional.

“I was No. 1 on the team my first three years, and then this
freshman came along from California. I hadn’t seen a player as good
as Steve at Boise State,” says Mike Megale, a former tennis
teammate of Appleton’s.

Greg Wall was a senior on the tennis team when Appleton arrived.
“We all wanted to be No. 1, and here comes this freshman. He beat
us all,” Wall says.

Word of Appleton’s tennis prowess even reached his economics
professor, Richard Payne. Payne, also a tennis player, told his
students there were two ways they could earn an A in his class:
Take all the exams and get A’s or beat Payne at tennis.

When Appleton heard this, he thought, “Perfect match. It can’t
get any better than this.” Moments later, Payne announced one
exception to his proposal: The deal didn’t apply to Steve Appleton.
Appleton recalls feeling that he was lifted to great heights and
crushed in a single moment. Luckily for him, he was able to earn an
A in the class the old-fashioned way.

Appleton kept in touch with Payne even after they were no longer
in class together. He visited Payne’s BSU office from time to time
to talk about tennis, life and career opportunities. Payne
remembers Appleton as a hard worker. “Everything he did, he did it
with a purpose to the best of his ability,” Payne says, adding that
Appleton also has a great sense of humor. After Appleton fell on
his right thumb in a college match, Payne joked with him, “I think
I can beat you now.” Appleton looked him in the eye and said he
could still beat him with his left hand. Payne believed him.

Appleton worked hard on and off the court during college, often
holding down two jobs to pay for school and living expenses. He
speculates that this probably contributed to his drive to
overachieve.

“I simply did not have the money for any kind of car until I was
a junior in college. I mean, I rode my bike to and from everywhere.
Think about asking for a date when all you have is a bicycle,”
Appleton says. When he was a junior in college, he finally had
enough money to buy a wrecked Toyota Corolla from his uncle for a
thousand bucks.

Appleton spent his first two years at BSU trying to transfer to
another college. He was having a tough time adjusting to life in a
town that was so different from L.A. He also didn’t think he could
optimize his tennis game at BSU. The University of San Diego tried
to recruit him, but he learned he’d have to sit out for a year
after the transfer. “I’m not a person to sit around,” Appleton
says, adding that a new BSU tennis coach also discouraged him from
transferring. So he decided to stay at BSU.

“Steve was one of those guys that wouldn’t quit. He gave 110
percent on the tennis court. He gives 110 percent at Micron,” Payne
says. And Appleton probably wouldn’t have ended up at Micron if it
hadn’t been for Payne.

Micron

Appleton graduated from BSU with a bachelor’s degree in
business. He wanted to play tennis professionally after college. He
played the Satellite Circuit and some professional tournaments, but
didn’t think he was good enough to make a living at it. He returned
to California to start a master’s program in computer science at
California Polytechnic State University, Pomona. But the timing
wasn’t right, and he needed to wait a couple of months because the
university was on a quarter system. He returned to Boise to visit
friends while he waited. He decided he needed a job, so he visited
Payne to seek advice on where he should work. Payne knew Joe
Parkinson, one of Micron’s founders, so he connected the two.

At about the same time, Appleton applied for bank trainee and
insurance sales positions. But in 1983, he was hired at Micron and
started working the graveyard shift on the chip fabrication line.
His starting wage was $4.46 per hour.

“Steve and I started at Micron in the fab together back in the
early 1980s, and we’ve had the pleasure of working closely together
through the years as the company has grown into a global technology
leader,” says Mark Durcan, Micron president and chief operating
officer.

Appleton worked his way up to vice president of operations in
1989 and president and chief operating officer in 1992. In 1994, he
was the chairman, CEO, and president of the company. At age 34, he
was the third youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

The road was sometimes rocky as he rose through the ranks.
Micron’s board of directors fired him in 1996, but he was back in
the driver’s seat eight days later. The memory chip market also
created bumps along the way. Under his sometimes controversial
leadership, the company’s performance has fluctuated between
extreme profits and losses. Appleton says he’s now in what he
refers to as his seventh cycle since he started working at Micron,
so the current downturn is nothing new to him.

Other companies have tried to recruit him, and blogs sometimes
flood with rumors of his resignation. So what’s kept him at Micron
for 25 years? He doesn’t have to keep working. He does it because
he wants to. His job offers him “an enormous amount of variety,”
and he gets to represent the company worldwide.

“I’m proud of Micron. I think despite the fact that we have gone
through difficult times, it’s an incredible story …; an
incredible story,” he says. “Micron is a legend. …; People gave
us up for dead in the ’80s, and we have continued to grow and
acquire and thrive and continue to be a player when, by any other
measurement, most people thought we would have been buried a couple
of decades ago. And we’ve overcome. We’ve overcome the odds time
and time again. … I promise you, we will reemerge, and we will
lead our industry again, and we’ll be strong.”

Appleton is passionate when he talks about Micron. Without
hesitation, he answers that the toughest part of his job is when
the company is forced to restructure, and employees, who are like
family, lose their jobs.

“It’s just not human nature to enjoy that, and if you do enjoy
that, you’re probably not a very good leader. And it doesn’t change
what has to be done in order to move forward and still be a
competitive company and have jobs for people because the
alternative is you go away to bankruptcy. And most people forget
we’re it. We’re the last of the Mohicans in the United States. I
mean we’re it. There is nobody else that’s survived in this
business, and there used to be 20 of us that made this kind of
product. And so we have to continue to restructure and mold the
company to do what’s needed to survive so that we can continue on
to the next stage because we will emerge stronger …;”

Appleton says there is no question that restructuring is more
difficult in Boise than anywhere else in the world because it’s the
company’s headquarters and because it is closely scrutinized
locally. He’s disappointed at times because he doesn’t feel that
the “home team,” media or otherwise, roots for Micron.

“We’ve had lots and lots of criticism, and that’s fine. …; I’m
open to criticism, and I’ve gotta take the criticism with the
praise. …; I’ve been through this quite a few times. This is not
devastating to me for someone to say, ‘Hey, we don’t think the CEO
of Micron’s any good.’ You know, I’ve been through all of this, but
for our people, it’s hard.”

President Bush toured Micron’s Virginia plant in February 2007
because despite a challenging business climate in the U.S., the
company continues to have a presence in the country. Seventy
percent of Micron products are sold elsewhere, and Appleton says
that number continues to increase. He shares advice for future
business leaders: Get exposure to international markets because 95
percent of the world’s population lives outside of the U.S. He says
companies need to recognize this and try to adapt.

He also cautions leaders against taking all the credit for their
success. While they do need to be hard working and knowledgeable,
Appleton says there’s also a lot of luck involved. And he believes
in starting with a level of respect for everyone.

“I would hope that people who interact with me and know me know
I’m not a legend in my own mind. …; I don’t run around thinking
that I’m better than anybody else. Maybe it’s because of how I grew
up and didn’t have anything.”

Despite some of the challenges he’s faced at Micron, Appleton’s
glad he stayed in Boise. Not only has he had a successful career
(11 promotions in nine years), he thinks Boise is a great place to
live. He’s spent his adult life being part of the community and
watching it evolve. “It’s frustrating when people who’ve only been
here a couple of years try to tell those of us who’ve been part of
the community for 30 years -; driving hard, contributing, doing
things in the community -; what we ought to do or shouldn’t do,”
Appleton says.

Philanthropy

Appleton’s friends describe him as a generous man with a big
heart. In 2005, he was awarded the Intercollegiate Tennis
Association Achievement Award. The award, presented by Montblanc,
was created in 1994 to pay tribute to past participants in the
world of collegiate tennis who have achieved excellence in their
chosen careers, according to the association. The distinguished
person is honored for his or her professional successes and
contributions to society.

Appleton has contributed to various causes in the local
community. BSU’s current president, Dr. Robert Kustra, says
Appleton continues to be a loyal supporter of education
individually and through the Micron Foundation. Kustra met Appleton
in 2003 and interacts with him in his role as co-chair of the
university’s campaign steering committee.

Kustra said Appleton’s only requirement for agreeing to serve on
the committee was that he not be in the limelight. “He’s not
looking for press. He’s not looking for applause. To Steve, it’s
just simply about getting the job done,” Kustra says. He describes
Appleton as an incredible intellect and an unassuming CEO who
“doesn’t expect to be treated differently than anyone else.”

Appleton and Micron have made substantial donations to the
university, including $12.5 million for the College of Business and
Economics. The university also has received financial support for
its engineering program. “The success we enjoy in that program
stems largely from Micron and Steve Appleton’s leadership. He has
had an enormous impact on the university, both personally and
professionally,” Kustra says.

Another of Appleton’s contributions turned an old tennis
facility into a palace, according to Boise State’s coach Patton.
BSU and its athletic department raised some of the money to
rebuild, and Appleton was part of the fundraising effort. Patton
says Appleton gave more than $3 million to build the Appleton
Tennis Center, which opened in 2002 in the heart of the campus.

Appleton has mentored BSU tennis teams in the past. He’s even
played a match or two with them. Patton recalls a time when
Appleton came out to play “in old retro sweats.” Patton says he
wasn’t trying to con the players, but some thought he was like some
guy out of Saturday Night Live, and they weren’t taking him
seriously. It didn’t take long for Appleton to show his competitive
side. “He was playing with these elite college players and winning
points,” Patton says. “He is like a hungry coyote on the
prairie.”

Beyond the board room

There’s no doubt Appleton has an appetite for intense
activities: flying stunt planes, racing cars, motocross, skydiving,
water skiing, wakeboarding, parasailing and more. His friends say
he masters any activity he pursues. “He was the most focused person
I’ve ever met in my life,” Jackson says. “I can beat him at golf
and racquetball, but nothing else.” Former teammate and college
roommate Mark Jackson says Appleton excels in sports ranging from
weight lifting to ping pong. He admits that if Appleton puts his
mind to it, he can probably conquer him in golf and racquetball
too. “The thing that’s so uncanny about Steve is that he’s so good
at so many things,” Patton says.

For the past 14 years, Appleton and the rest of his college
tennis teammates have continued to hold regular reunions in places
such as McCall, Coeur d’Alene, Hawaii and Montana. Some trips are
more adventurous than others. Megale recalls the 1997 trip to
Hawaii. Appleton planned the group’s itinerary to the minute. One
day, he announced that they were all going on a field trip. He kept
their destination a surprise but told the guys to wear hiking shoes
and swimming trunks. They hiked up a dry creek bed for about an
hour, climbing higher into the mountains. Finally, they reached a
dark cave with an opening the size of two large double doors in the
side of the mountain. It was full of water, and the only light came
from Appleton’s head lamp. Although they didn’t know what lurked
below the surface, the guys got in and started swimming. Megale
says that it was unbelievably scary, but they just kept following
the beam of light from Appleton’s lamp. Finally, they made it out
of the cave and Appleton announced, “We’re here!” About 20 yards
further, a massive waterfall crashed into an abyss …; and the
guys were supposed to jump into it. Appleton jumped first and
coaxed everyone else down. “Talk about a bonding experience,”
Megale says. Wall and Megale agree that they always feel safe with
Appleton. “The thing is, all of us trust him to the point that we
would do this,” Megale says.

Some of Appleton’s activities are daring, to say the least. He
says he’s probably taken his biggest physical risks in aviation and
flying aerobatics. He started piloting planes in the mid-’80s
because skydiving bored him. He decided he’d rather fly the planes
than jump out of them. “A lot of people think flying aerobatics is
about thrill seeking, and it never was for me,” he says. He admits
that flying an inverted plane 500 mph, 50 feet off the ground is
pretty exciting. But it’s also important that the maneuvers foster
precision and develop a pilot’s skills.

In July 2004, he was performing stunt maneuvers in his plane
when it crashed. He suffered serious injuries but still spent less
than a day in the hospital and was soon back to work. Despite an
event that could have had a fatal ending, Appleton says he wasn’t
afraid of flying after the crash because he knew exactly what
caused it.

Appleton even manages to maintain a sense of humor when it comes
to flying. When he and Brian Halla, CEO of National Semiconductor,
met in 1996, Appleton told him about a time when he was testing out
a new airplane he had just purchased. He was flying upside down
when the engine froze. Wide-eyed, Halla asked Appleton what he did
next. Appleton replied, “I took it back to the dealer.”

One summer, he flew in a California air show near Halla’s home.
With a pair of binoculars, Halla watched a bright red plane fly
upside down and perform loops and rolls. Halla thought it might be
Appleton, so he asked him about it the next time they spoke.
Appleton confirmed that he had been flying in the show and told
Halla he should have given him a call that day because he had his
phone in the cockpit.

Appleton joined National Semiconductor’s board of directors in
2001. Halla says that even though Appleton is the youngest member
of the board, he’s probably the most influential. “He’s always a
‘peer plus one.’ He takes control, not in a dominating way, but
adds value,” Halla says, adding that he’s very committed to every
task he undertakes. Appleton never missed a meeting when he chaired
the Semiconductor Industry Association. And Halla recalls that on
more than one occasion, Appleton has held the board of directors
spellbound with stories of weekend adventures.

But Appleton has a slightly different viewpoint when it comes to
risk. His philosophy is that although young people tend to take
more risks, people can actually afford to take more chances the
older they get because they no longer have their entire lives ahead
of them. In 2006, he and other executives demonstrated their
willingness to throw caution to the wind by entering an off-road
car race in Baja, Calif. Appleton actually won the race in his
category, ahead of 20 other cars.

Four Micron cars raced, recording video on equipment featuring
the company’s NAND flash memory and image sensors. This allowed
Micron to capture images of the entire race for the first time -; a
clever way to market the company, the product and the CEO.

But Appleton’s focus isn’t limited to sports and death-defying
hobbies. Although he’s never been much of a fiction reader, he and
Jackson tell the story of a time during college when he holed up
and read every book written by American frontier author Louis
L’Amour.

Jackson visited Appleton after college. He describes an
apartment that was cluttered with evidence of Appleton’s latest
interests: Bicycles, tennis rackets, running accessories …; even
gun reloading equipment. Jackson says at one point, Appleton got
into woodworking. He bought tools and built fancy shelves, then
gave the tools away when he was ready to take on a new
challenge.

The future

So what’s next for Appleton? He still has hopes and dreams for
his family and for himself. Like most parents, he wants to see his
children graduate from college and be contributing members of
society. “You know, parents can’t take responsibility for
everything their kids turn out to be, and I’m fortunate that so
far, everybody’s on track and pretty good,” he says.

Taking his dad’s advice to heart, he continues to pursue new
experiences. He still wants to see the Seven Wonders of the World.
Although he climbed Mount Fuji in the early ’90s, he hopes to
someday climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Not surprisingly, a man who
embraces risk and adventure isn’t plagued with regrets.

“I don’t have any regrets. I have lived a great, great life, and
I have experienced so much more than one person should be
allowed.”

Brenda Ceja is the business reporter for the Idaho
Press-Tribune. She can be reached at bceja@idahopress.com or
465-8120. On the Web: www. micron.com

Article source: http://www.idahopress.com/news/local/feature-on-micron-s-steve-appleton-i-don-t-have/article_4069e259-0783-5fd7-a57b-12eb37fb11ca.html

George Lopez Is Hopping On The Prepaid Card Bandwagon

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:05:22 +0000

“I love the Mango Card’s 6% APY, not only because it’s over 33 times the current national average for savings accounts, which is 0.18%, but also because it encourages people to hold onto their money for longer instead of just spending whatever they bring in each month,” Papadimitrious said.

2. Free customer service. Whether by email, chat, phone or snail mail all customer service is FREE. That’s a plus considering other prepaid cards like Orman’s Approved card, for example, only offer one free customer service call each month then charge $2 for every call after that.

3. Direct deposit bonus. Enroll in direct deposit within the first 90 days of opening your account (and throw in at least $50) and Mango will hand you a cool 20 bucks.

4. Comparable fees. Compared with Green Dot, Suze’s Approved Card, Walmart’s Money Card and the RushCard, the Mango Card won’t ding you for cash reloading or replacements.

Cons of the Mango Prepaid Card

1. ATM and balance checking fees. The ATM withdrawal fee is $2, PLUS whatever the ATM charges. There’s also a strange 50 cent fee for balance inquiries made via ATM, automated phone system, or customer service.

“While the Mango Card does not charge a maintenance fee for months that you load at least $500, the fact that you have to pay $2 per ATM withdrawal regardless of the ATM in addition to the average ATM owner surcharge fee of around $2.33 means that it (could be) prohibitively expensive when used as either a replacement checking account or a financial literacy teaching tool,” said Papadimitrious.

That said, Jebson offered a way to circumvent the problem.

“If you go to a store and make a purchase, you can ask for cash back and there’s no fee,” said Jebson, adding that the company is working on ways “to minimize things.”

Article source: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-02-02/news/31016076_1_direct-deposit-customer-service-atm-charges

Time to organize the old man cave

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:05:21 +0000

I’m a lousy housekeeper, I’ll admit that right up front. Now
that the long, intense cold snap we’ve had in Big Lake (we’re
always 10-15 degrees colder than the rest of the world east and
south of us) has eased off, I can think about doing more outdoor
things. But I’ve still got a lot of work ahead of me in order to
finish what I had started over the last couple of weeks.

When we first moved into our home back in the early 1990s, my wife
said I could claim the basement as my primary domain, or “man
cave.” I have a friend who refers to my basement as a “treasure
trove,” but that just goes to prove one man’s junk …

I set up my gun room and reloading area in a small den-like room
along with my books on the built-in shelves. In another small area,
I set up my office space, where I am writing this column. My
outdoor clothes are scattered in three places in the basement and
other outdoor items I use irregularly are piled, along with other
miscellaneous stuff, in the spare bedroom. You have to turn
sideways to even walk through that room and the bed is covered 3
feet deep in important “stuff.”

My book collection has expanded greatly since we moved in and,
while the vast majority of books are stacked on the built-in
bookshelves, dozens more live on most any flat surface available in
the basement. You will also find smaller stacks in the living room
upstairs and on the nightstand on my side of the bed. There’s even
a small pile beginning to appear on the stairs to the basement,
just below the small landing. All the bookshelves in the basement,
both built-in and added over time, are already full. Believe it or
not, I’ve even actually read some of them.

I’m a hoarder/piler. There, I said it. I guess I can now begin my
recovery.

At one time, I had all my outdoor clothes organized and sorted by
green camouflage vs. brown camouflage, neatly folded and stored. My
winter camouflage gear was in a third large duffle. Now stuff lives
in piles in those three locations previously mentioned. It takes a
little longer now, but I can still find any clothing item I’m
looking for, but there’s one knife I packed last hunting season
that is still eluding me.

My reloading bench was also, at one time, neatly organized with
more than adequate space to reload any reasonable quantity of
cartridges. Over time, I started piling stuff on the bench until “I
could get to it.” It didn’t take too long before the entire
horizontal surface was at least two items deep and reloading
anything became a fond dream.

I’ve mentioned before about volunteering at the Upper Susitna
Shooters’ Association during the summer as a range safety officer
(RSO). Obviously, I took advantage of my time there to do some
shooting. Over the three or four years I’ve been doing the RSO
thing, I’ve fired a fair number of shots. Some were rimfire
cartridges that are not reloadable. Most have been centerfire
rounds that are reloadable. The empty cartridge boxes were part of
the accumulating pile on the reloading bench.

I will also admit that, back during the 2008 presidential campaign,
I bought some extra powder and primers, just in case things went as
some feared (they still could, if you’ve been paying attention to
happenings in D.C.). That’s actually when my unplanned covering of
the reloading bench began in earnest. I had a pretty good supply of
reloaded ammunition, so I wasn’t overly concerned about running out
of shootables for a while.

Well, time has a funny way of passing by and I began running low on
certain calibers of ammo. I also have a good friend for whom I have
done some reloading over the years and he asked if I could reload
his small supply of empty cases — that was a year and a half ago! I
noticed his stack of cases on the bench awhile ago and thought
maybe I’d better get him caught up. That’s when this whole monster
of a process began. The weather was too cold to do much outside, so
why not get things organized in the basement? Besides, I needed to
sort through and reorganize my own stocks of ammunition and get the
empties reloaded as well.

Boy did I bite off a big project! First, I wanted to get my bullet
inventory organized so I would know what I might need to buy to do
the reloading. Then I started on getting my own reloaded ammo
organized by caliber and sorted to know how much of each caliber
needed replenishing. Just those two operations took several days
and filled more GI ammo cans than I should probably admit to — and
I’m still not quite done. I have enough space on the reloading
bench now to keep my commitment to my friend, however.

I haven’t touched a single book and have done nothing meaningful in
the way of organizing the clothes (I have run a couple of laundry
loads just to clean up stuff I should have washed after the hunting
seasons ended). To be honest, I’m not sure where I can put any of
this stuff and still be able to do any reloading.

My treasure trove, as my friend calls it, is a semi-disorganized
mess. However, now that I’ve begun the process, I’m committed to
restoring my basement to its former well-organized state — or at
least to having better organized piles scattered around the
premises.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska
Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by
emailing sports@frontiersman.com.

Article source: http://www.frontiersman.com/sports/outdoors/time-to-organize-the-old-man-cave/article_ed5b7cd8-4e3a-11e1-918e-001871e3ce6c.html

Reloading in Reno: Romney looks past Gingrich, blasts Obama

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:05:20 +0000

Presenting himself as the presumptive GOP nominee, Mitt Romney focused his attention on President Barack Obama in a Thursday speech in Reno.

Romney — coming off a 14.5 percent win in Florida on Tuesday — never once mentioned Newt Gingrich, his biggest rival.

He told a standing-room-only crowd at a south Reno meeting hall that Obama’s policies are “hurting the country.”

About 600 people packed The Grove for his speech, while about 200 more outside couldn’t get in because the fire marshal wouldn’t allow it.

Romney appeased those outside with a brief speech to them before entering the hall.

“I’m anxious to get him out of office,” he said of Obama. “So we can get Americans working again, get the economy growing again.” Romney is the favorite heading into Saturday’s Nevada Republican caucuses.

He said that people are suffering because of Obama’s mishandling of the economy and that the median family income in America has decreased by 10 percent in the past three years.

Romney quoted Thomas Paine from the American Revolution as saying people have three choices: Lead, follow, or get out of the way.

“This president’s policies have not worked,” Romney said. “He was elected to lead. He chose to follow, and now it’s time to get out of the way,”

Romney said that from succeeding in private industry, to rescuing the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, to getting Massachusetts out of a $3 billion debt, he has proven leadership skills that he will take to Washington, D.C.

“This isn’t just about replacing a president,” he said. “It’s about setting a course for America.”

Romney charged that Obama’s policies would lead the country into greater and greater debt.

“I will not just slow the growth of government,” he said. “I will get rid of some of them. I will cut, cap and balance the budget.”

But he made it clear that under a Romney administration, those cuts wouldn’t be to the military. Where Obama has proposed $500 billion in cuts in military spending, Romney said he would add an 11th aircraft carrier group, modernize the Air Force and expand the active-duty military force by 50,000 to 100,000 troops instead of reducing it.

“A strong military is the best preventer of conflict,” he said. “I want a military so strong nobody would even think of testing it.”

He also said he would repeal the health care package “and return your health care to you and private providers.”

Introducing Romney, Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki said the overflow crowd was “a good sign.”

“All the momentum from Florida is here now,” he said.

Romney won the 2008 Nevada caucus with 51.1 percent. Ron Paul, also a GOP candidate for president this year, finished second in the state that year, with 13.7 percent.

One of the reasons Romney, a Mormon, is favorited is his ability to carry Nevada’s Mormon vote. Roughly nine in 10 Mormon voters backed Romney in 2008 in the Nevada caucuses, fueling his easy victory in a contest most candidates conceded to him.

“Along with seniors, they are as reliable of a voting bloc as there is,” said Robert Uithoven, a Republican consultant based in Reno. “I don’t care if it is snowing sideways on Election Day — they show up.”

There are just over 175,000 Mormons in the state, roughly 7 percent of Nevada’s population. But they carry more clout than that because they turn out in such high numbers. Nearly a quarter of all 2008 Republican presidential caucus voters here were Mormon.

With so much at stake, Paul, former House Speaker Gingrich and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania are working to make their own cases that they share Mormon values. But it’s hard to compete with Romney’s support from his church brothers and sisters.

Nevada is the first state in the Republican nomination fight where that could make much of a difference.

Whereas Romney’s faith was widely viewed nationally as a liability in 2008, running as a Mormon in the West guarantees a built-in voting bloc. Nearly 2.9 million members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints live in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, California and Arizona. By contrast, according to church estimates, there are barely 206,000 Mormons in the first four GOP primary or caucus states — New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Florida.

• The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Article source: http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20120203/NEWS/120209925/1070&ParentProfile=1058

Roberta Flack Puts Her Soul Into the Beatles

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:02:45 +0000

By MARC MYERS

For a singer who built her career on slowing down songs to a sensual crawl, Roberta Flack excites easily. During a recent conversation about “Let It Be Roberta” (429 Records)—a soul-house reloading of Beatles hits—Ms. Flack was quick to play tracks from her new CD to illustrate points.

Brian T. Silak

Killing It Softly: Roberta Flack

“Listen to this—on ‘Hey Jude’ I decided to leave out the la-la-la-la’s at the end,” said Ms. Flack, 74. “They’re lovely vowels to sing and verbalize, but I wanted my interpretation to be quieter and more sentimental.”

On each track, Ms. Flack transforms the familiar with her penetrating, soulful voice and passionate phrasing. A longtime friend and neighbor of Yoko Ono’s and the late John Lennon, Ms. Flack shared the finished master with Ms. Ono, who gave her blessing and wrote the CD’s liner notes.

“I purposefully chose songs that had a hymn-like quality,” Ms. Flack said. “I also wanted the arrangements to emphasize acoustic and electric guitars.” Big beats and electronica also are drizzled in, and much of the credit for the youthful results belongs to guitarist-producer-arranger Sherrod Barnes, who combined soul, folk, house and rap for backdrops.

This is not a conventional Beatles tribute album—nor a traditional Roberta Flack album, for that matter. “I know that some of my older fans are going to say, ‘What the ham sandwich was she thinking?’ ” Ms. Flack said, laughing. “But the timeless quality of the music takes care of all that. Besides, how freaky can anyone get on these beautiful songs? You can go too far, of course, but then it becomes a mockery.”

On the album, Ms. Flack’s alto voice still rings with yearning and cooing vulnerability. In the early 1970s, her slow-burners “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Killing Me Softly With His Song” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love” crystallized the romantic desires and dreams of adult women. In all, Ms. Flack has recorded 18 Billboard Hot 100 hits—her most recent in 1991—and has won four Grammys.

Ms. Flack singles out producer-DJ Johnny De Mairo for suggesting the Beatles concept. She said Mr. De Mairo had the idea after hearing a tape of her singing “Here, There and Everywhere” at a Carnegie Hall concert in May 1971 (her new CD lists the year incorrectly as 1972). This previously unreleased track ends the new CD.

Ms. Flack’s traditionally smooth, earthy quality extends to the contemporary tracks. On “Oh Darling,” she went for a bluesy feel. “I channeled Ray Charles, moving from side to side when I was singing to get that groove,” she said. On “The Long and Winding Road,” she sings a blistering duet with Mr. Barnes. She also completely alters “I Should Have Known Better,” rendering it unrecognizable but compelling.

As comebacks go, Ms. Flack’s seems to be well under way. At last year’s Grammy Awards, she and Maxwell performed her hit “Where Is the Love.” Is she appearing at this year’s ceremony on Feb. 12? “I’m not sure yet,” she said. “My dream would be to perform ‘I Should Have Known Better’ as a duet with Lady Gaga—with the two of us on grand pianos. Wouldn’t that be something?”

Article source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204652904577195304165697504.html

Swartz Creek police add twist with new Tasers

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:02:43 +0000

SWARTZ CREEK, Michigan — Tasers are no longer a one-shot deal in Swartz Creek.

City officers have started carrying new Tasers capable of firing two zaps, allowing police to potentially stun two suspects without reloading.

Flint Journal file photoA non-lethal Taser weapon is shown having just released electrodes darts at the end of 21-foot copper wires.The old Tasers the department used shot only one electrode dart.

Swartz Creek police Chief Rick Clolinger said the new Tasers are more efficient in cases where the first shot misses or two suspects are resisting arrest.

Clolinger said safety concerns surrounding the use of Tasers were taken into account by the department.

Clolinger said there have been reports in other jurisdictions outside Genesee County where people were seriously injured or killed in arrests involving Tasers, but said those reports also indicated there were certain drugs in the suspects system or a pre existing condition that caused injury or death, not the Taser itself.

Most of the department went through
8-hour training on how to safely use the new equipment, while other
officers who were already certified with the older model went through a
4-hour training update on the new Tasers, said Clolinger.

“When I put it in the hands of my officers, I want my citizens and my community and the people who go through our community that it may be used against, to know it has been looked at and scrutinized as much as possible.” Clolinger said.

The Tasers cost about $4,000 each, according to Flint Journal files.

Swartz Creek police Officer Brian Farlin said he sees the Taser as a valuable tool in the deterrent of suspects resisting arrest or becoming violent.

“It gives us another tool in a potentially lethal situation.” Farlin said.

Along with the new Tasers, the department replaced expired body armor vests, the old vests were close to two years past their replacement date.

Article source: http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2012/02/post_285.html

A New Prepaid Debit Card Comparison Tool

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:02:41 +0000

Prepaid debit cards are often promoted as an alternative to checking accounts. You put money on them each month and spend it down, using the card to finance purchases and pay bills.

But fees for reloading and using the cards can be substantial, depending on which card you select and the specifics of how you use it. To help you figure out which of the myriad of cards available might work best for you, a Web site, NerdWallet, has compiled an online tool that helps in comparing more than 50 available prepaid options.

The tool lets you enter such information as how often you will load the card each month, whether you will use direct deposit to fund the card and how many debit-card transactions and A.T.M. withdrawals you expect to make.

Then, based on the information, it spits out an estimated annual cost and ranks the cards — and also offers the option of comparing the cards with checking accounts. A regular checking account is usually a less costly option, as long as you are careful about not overdrawing your account and incurring hefty overdraft fees, NerdWallet’s founder, Tim Chen, notes in an e-mail.

Take a look at the tool and let us know what you think in the comments.

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/a-new-prepaid-debit-card-comparison-tool/

Top Buys by Top Brass: CAO Morris's $214.8K Bet on AEGN

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:02:42 +0000

A company’s own top management tend to have the best inside view into the business, so when company officers make major buys, investors are wise to take notice. Presumably the only reason an insider would take their hard-earned cash and use it to buy stock of their company in the open market, is that they expect to make money — maybe they find the stock very undervalued, or maybe they see exciting progress within the company, or maybe both. So in this series we look at the largest insider buys by the ”top brass” over the trailing six month period, one of which was a total of $214.8K by David F. Morris, CAO at Aegion Corp (NASD: AEGN).

Click here to find out which other top insider buys by the ”top brass” you need to know about »

Morris bets big on AEGN:

Morris’s average cost works out to $15.85/share. Shares of Aegion Corp were changing hands at $17.35 at last check, trading up about 1% on Thursday. The chart below shows the one year performance of AEGN shares, versus its 200 day moving average:

Looking at the chart above, AEGN’s low point in its 52 week range is $10.45 per share, with $30.00 as the 52 week high point — that compares with a last trade of $17.35.

According to the ETF Finder at ETF Channel, AEGN makes up 3.35% of the Water Resources Portfolio ETF (AMEX: PHO) which is trading lower by about 0.2% on the day Thursday.

See what other ETFs contain AEGN »
See what other stocks are held by PHO »

Special Offer: Find out what Dave Moenning is holding in the ETF Channel Flexible Growth Investment Portfolio with a special 20% off coupon from Forbes and 30 Days Free.

The true costs of prepaid debit cards

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:59:37 +0000

Anisha Sekar of Nerdwallet has officially launched a comparison tool which allows you to work out which prepaid debit card might be best for you — and, crucially, allows you to compare the cost of a prepaid debit card to the cost of a bank account. Nerdwallet has run the numbers about as many ways as is humanly possible, and has come to the empirical conclusion that it “is very rarely the case” that prepaid debit is cheaper than checking.

Suze Orman and other prepaid-debit apologists, of course, won’t agree with Anisha here. They’re all convinced that even if checking accounts don’t have higher-than-prepaid-debit fees now, they will in future. And that therefore it’s a good idea to switch to prepaid debit now, before you get hit with those hypothetical future fees.

But the fact is that checking accounts, now and for the foreseeable future, are nearly always the best bet for people who want to maximize the number of things they can do with their money, while minimizing the amount of money they’re paying for the privilege.

I encourage you to use the Nerdwallet tool yourself. It has a bunch of default settings which may or may not correspond to your own particular circumstances, but even those are very interesting. For instance, Suze Orman, pushing her card, says you should never pay more than $36 per year in fees. But under Nerdwallet’s defaults, her card ranks 11th out of 46 cards, with fees of $192 per year.

How come? Well, the one thing that everybody needs is cash — and so Nerdwallet assumes that you’ll make two ATM withdrawals per month. And it also assumes that you need to put cash onto the card as well — and that you’ll be doing that by reloading your card twice a month at $125 a pop. All of those transactions cost money. In order to bring Orman’s card down to $36 per year, you have to never reload your card; instead, you have to set up a direct-deposit operation where your paycheck gets automatically deposited onto your card. That, in turn, allows you to use in-network ATMs at no cost.

Are you willing to do all that? In that case, push the “cash reload” slider down to 0, and switch the answer to “Will you use direct deposit?” to “Yes”, while selecting some non-zero amount for that deposit, say $1,000 per month.

Now, Orman’s card looks much better — and does indeed charge only $36 in fees. But that’s still only good enough for 5th place. The Green Dot card is the cheapest, at $5 per year, while Capital One and American Express both have options running about $2 per month.

Then, click on the button saying that you want to compare debit-card options to checking-account options. At that point, Perkstreet’s checking-account debit card immediately tops the list, costing absolutely nothing; indeed, its cost is negative, since it rebates money back to you every time you use the card. Capital One and Bank of America, too, offer online checking accounts which are genuinely free. And the Suze Orman card is now down to 8th out of 57 options.

The fact is that debit cards, just like checking accounts, will happily let you run up enormous fees if you’re not careful. And they never allow you to do simple things like deposit checks or cash at no fee — something that all checking accounts do as a matter of course.

In principle, it shouldn’t necessarily be this way. Checking accounts are inherently quite expensive things, involving statements and branches and a lot of bank infrastructure which prepaid debit cards don’t need. On top of that, prepaid debit cards get much more interchange income for their issuers than checking-account debit cards do, since they’re not subject to Durbin Amendment caps.

Certainly there are bad-deal checking accounts out there, and if you have one, you should close it. But between online bank accounts and your friendly neighborhood credit union, it’s extremely unlikely that a prepaid debit card is your best option. Being banked is nearly always better than being unbanked. So move your money to a bank which doesn’t charge you fees, rather than moving to a prepaid debit card.

Prepaid debit cards can be useful for purposes other than replacing a checking account, of course, but they still charge fees. So if you’re thinking of using a prepaid debit card as a way of paying your child’s allowance, then fire up that Nerdwallet tool, and work out which one is cheapest. And, at the same time, ask yourself whether a checking account might not be better in that case, too. Not all checking accounts are good. But many are. And most prepaid debit cards are pretty bad.

Article source: http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/02/01/the-true-costs-of-prepaid-debit-cards/

Signing day: BYU’s Mendenhall calls 2012 class ‘most qualified to do it all’

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:59:35 +0000

PROVO — While introducing the 17 players that signed with BYU on Wednesday, coach Bronco Mendenhall called his 2012 collection of recruits “the most qualified class to do it all.”

By that he meant both on and off the field.

Mendenhall said one of his goals is to have “the most complete program in the world,” adding that “the standards are not going down. They are going up and they are going up in all areas.”

“That’s what we’re trying to accomplish, is bringing in the right players that are complete players,” said recruiting coordinator Joe DuPaix.

Those signees are in varying stages of the completion process. There’s Taysom Hill, an athletic quarterback who hails from Idaho that originally committed to Stanford and recently returned home from an LDS mission; and Jamaal Williams, a 16-year-old, non-LDS running back from California.

After signing just one quarterback in each of the last two years, BYU signed three on Wednesday — Hill, Tanner Mangum, who is regarded as one of the top prep QBs in the country — and Ammon Olsen.

Jake Heaps, who was considered the No. 1 high school quarterback two years ago, opted to leave BYU last December and transfer to Kansas. But the Cougar coaching staff is reloading and that position appears to be well-stocked for years to come.

“We’ve spent hours and hours talking about our quarterback position,” Mendenhall said. “You’ll see a cluster fighting for our quarterback job after this next season (when starter Riley Nelson graduates). … It takes a ton of planning.”

Hill and Olsen are already enrolled in school and will participate in spring drills. Mangum will serve a mission before enrolling.

“If we err at quarterback, we’re going to err on too many, rather than not enough, because of the impact of that position,” Mendenhall said.

Of Mangum, the co-MVP of the prestigious Elite 11 camp, Mendenhall said, “What a refreshing thing to have someone that highly recruited come in and be thankful to get an offer from BYU. Not entitled to get an offer from BYU, but thankful to get an offer from BYU.”

Mendenhall said Hill is making an immediate impact. “He’s only been home (from his mission) a month-and-a-half and is already one of the fastest players on our team,” he said.

Speaking of fast, Williams’ mother was a member of the U.S. Olympic track team. Oregon made a late push for Williams, but he maintained his commitment to the Cougars.

Considering that Williams is only 16 — he turns 17 this spring — what makes the coaching staff believe he can thrive in Provo?

“What his heart is, and the way he acts, and who he is and what he stands for. He comes from a phenomenal family,” DuPaix said. “He is a great football player, a physical football player. He likes to run people over.”

Article source: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700221175/BYU-football-Mendenhall-calls-2012-class-most-qualified-to-do-it-all.html

UW football: Reloading offensive line was priority No. 1 in ‘insane’ recruiting period

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:59:34 +0000

University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema and his
three holdover assistant coaches weren’t the only ones working
overtime to hold this year’s recruiting class together during a
month Bielema called “insane.”

Guard Dan Voltz, from Barrington, Ill., was one of the Badgers’
first oral commitments and he started working the phones, calling
the other players in the class, following the departure of six UW
assistant coaches.

“When I committed, I committed to the university, not
necessarily to the coaching staff,” Voltz said. “I told a lot of
guys why I committed.

“I think that had a lot of influence on a lot of guys.
Obviously, everyone makes their own decisions and we lost some
guys, but we have a great recruiting class still and things are
still looking great for Wisconsin.”

Voltz was one of 12 scholarship players who signed with the
Badgers on Wednesday, along with seven preferred walk-ons.

Replenishing the offensive line was the No. 1 priority in this
small class, about half of the size of most years. That was also
the position with the most turmoil in recruiting, following the
departure of line coach Bob Bostad, who was named the offensive
coordinator and line coach at Pittsburgh.

At one time, UW had three commitments from offensive linemen who
were ranked with four stars out of five by both Rivals and Scout.
But Voltz was the only one who signed.

J.J. Denman, from Fairless Hills, Pa., signed with Rutgers,
announcing his change of heart after Bostad left. Kyle Dodson, from
Cleveland, opted for Ohio State, announcing his decision on signing
day.

But Voltz remains as steadfast as ever about his reasons for
choosing UW. One of the major reasons he picked the school was its
history of preparing offensive linemen for the NFL.

“I get goose bumps thinking about it,” said Voltz, one of three
recruits who are already enrolled and taking classes, along with
cornerback Hugs Etienne and running back Vonte Jackson. “I couldn’t
be more excited to be an offensive lineman here. I don’t think
there’s a better school in the country.”

Voltz doesn’t believe that will change with the transition to
new offensive line coach Mike Markuson, who spent the previous 14
years working for Houston Nutt at Arkansas and Mississippi.

While Voltz never wavered in his commitment, he did admit to
some anxiety until Markuson was named the coach.

“Obviously, I was disappointed when coach Bostad left,” Voltz
said. “I had a lot of respect for him. But I embraced the
transition. I had a little meeting with coach Markuson and got to
know his philosophy a little bit, just get to know him as a person.
I couldn’t be more excited to play for him.”

Bielema didn’t waste any time putting Markuson to work on the
recruiting trail. After the hiring was official, Markuson flew into
Madison, spent about an hour at the football offices filling out
paperwork, then took another flight out to start recruiting.

It quickly paid off with the addition of Jake Meador, an
offensive lineman from Whiteland, Ind., who visited last weekend
and was the last commitment in the class. Markuson recruited Meador
at Mississippi and initially got him to commit there until Nutt’s
staff was fired.

“It was amazing,” Markuson said. “I’m home, fired in Oxford,
Mississippi, sitting with my wife drinking coffee and (Meador) was
calling me. … I was unemployed so I could talk to him as much as
I wanted. … Just unbelievable how it worked out.”

The other offensive lineman in the class is Walker Williams,
from Tacoma, Wash., who also stayed strong in his commitment.

“What a gregarious personality,” Markuson said. “He’s going to
light up Madison.”

Despite all of the turmoil in the past month, Markuson was able
to assure recruits the future is as bright as ever. Markuson
regards UW as one of the best offensive line jobs in college
football. He also turned down an opportunity to be an assistant
offensive line coach for an NFL team, after accepting Bielema’s
offer.

“It’s important for us to establish some roots,” Markuson said
of his family. “I’m not a big move guy. I had some real stability
with coach Nutt. … I’m not one of those guys that’s going to move
around. I like to get my feet planted.

“Obviously, coach B has given me a great opportunity to do that
here.”

Article source: http://host.madison.com/sports/college/football/uw-football-reloading-offensive-line-was-priority-no-in-insane/article_3194b1b0-4d48-11e1-a75c-001871e3ce6c.html

Eclectic Philadelphia Brass performs in Allentown

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:58:21 +0000

Few ensembles like mixing it up as much as the Philadelphia Brass. Its repertoire ranges from tunes based on Gregorian chant to swing standards. It collaborates with dancers, choruses and organists.

On Sunday the group will mix it up with Stephen Williams, organist and director of music at St. John’s Evangelical Church in Allentown, and timpanist Steve Mathiesen in a concert at the church postponed from Oct. 30 because of the freak snowstorm.

The Philadelphia Brass is now in its 25th year and to celebrate that milestone, it produced the “Anniversary Album,” featuring works transcribed or written especially for the ensemble. Much of the program comes from that CD, the group’s fifth.

“The concert will be typical of our standard format, with a ‘serious’ first half and a more playful second half where we branch out more,” says trumpeter Lawrence Wright, who has been in the group for 25 years. Wright is well-known to Lehigh Valley audiences for his performances as principal trumpet with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Sinfonia and the Bethlehem Bach Festival Orchestra.

The Philadelphia Brass, in addition to Wright, include fellow trumpeter Brian Kuszyk; Anthony Cecere, French horn; Scott Mendoker, tuba, and Robert Gale, trombone.

The “serious” half of the program certainly doesn’t lack in excitement, featuring four major works for brass, organ and timpani. Contemporary American composer Craig Phillips’ “Suite for Organ, Brass Quintet and Percussion” is majestic and lyrical, with a wonderful sense of power. Marcel Dupré’s “Poème Héroïque, for Organ, Brass and Percussion” of 1936 was composed for the rededication ceremony of the restored Cathedral of Verdun on the 20th anniversary of that horrific battle, which ruined the church in 1916.

A transcription of Maurice Durufle’s “Ubi Caritas,” originally for voice and based on Gregorian themes, was arranged just for the Philadelphia Brass. “Many of the pieces we play were transcribed from choral works — we find that brass lends itself well to that kind of lyricism,” Wright says. Organ and timpani figure prominently in “Pray the Lord with Drums and Cymbals” by the late Romantic German composer Sigfrid Karg-Elert.

Lacking organ and timpani, but just as impressive, is Steve Heitzer’s arrangement of Bach’s Cantata BWV 78, “Wir Eilen Mit Schwachen,” and “The Promise of Living,” by Aaron Copland, arranged by Erik Morales. Originally a choral piece from Copland’s only opera, “The Tender Land,” composed in 1954, the piece is one of two numbers from the opera that have become choral favorites.

On the playful side will be some favorite standards, including Jerry Gray’s “A String of Pearls,” arranged by Don Hetrick; Jimmy Van Heusen’s “Here’s that Rainy Day,” arranged by Dale Devoe, and Duke Ellington’s iconic “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing,” arranged by David Kosmyna.

•Philadelphia Brass with organist Stephen Williams and timpanist Steve Mathiesen, 4 p.m. Sunday, St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 37 S. Fifth St., Allentown. Tickets: suggested donation $10-$25. 610-435-1641, http://www.stjohnsallentown.org.

Nobuo Kitagawa oboe recital

How about this for a pre-game show for Super Bowl Sunday? Oboist Nobuo Kitagawa, accompanied by pianist Anna Maria Marzullo performs at 3 p.m. at Wesley Church and promises you’ll still have plenty of time to catch the game.

Kitagawa, a frequent performer in the area, and Marzullo are on the music faculty at Lafayette College. Kitagawa is a graduate of the Tokyo University of Arts and a member of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem Festival Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Sinfonia and the Orchestra of New England.

The concert promises to be a grand pre-game show, with two standard works bracketing a pair of lesser-known pieces.

The standards are Bach’s G minor Oboe sonata, BWV 1030b, and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Oboe Sonata in D Major or 1921. The dark horses are Antonio Pasculli’s “Melodia” for English horn and Julius Roentgen’s Sonata No. 1 for Oboe and Piano.

Roentgen’s sonata was even unknown to Kitagawa, until Marzullo heard it on the radio one day, found a free download and sent it to him. “This is not the X-ray guy of the same name, although interestingly they both came from Germany and ended up in Amsterdam,” says Kitagawa. “As soon as I heard it, I just loved it. Nineteenth-century masterpieces are almost completely non-existent for the oboe. This is really in the late Romantic spirit, in the vein of Brahms, with I think a touch of Schoenberg and late 19th-century German stuff.”

It takes confidence to declare oneself “the Paganini of the oboe,” as the 19th-century Italian oboist/composer Antonio Pasculli boldly did. But his “Melodia” is not the typical Pasculli fireworks display, demanding constant use of arpeggios, trills and mandatory circular breathing. “This one is very melodic. And as I like to point out, the entire opening slow movement is completely ripped off from Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata.’ He just wrote the melody on top of it. It’s very operatic — a short, sweet piece,” Kitagawa says.

Bach’s G minor sonata is perhaps better known in its later version for flute and harpsichord, where it was re-cast in B minor. For the earlier version only the harpsichord part remains, and it is a matter of conjecture which instrument Bach really intended. But played on the oboe, the epic nature of the piece is even more evident. It is the only large scale solo work for oboe players left by Bach.

Saint-Saëns’ oboe sonata was the first of his final three works, completed over the course of a couple of months in early 1921. The sonata is a standard work in the oboe repertoire, giving the performer a gratifying match between technical challenges and melodic expression.

It is interesting that Francis Poulenc’s oboe sonata was also that composer’s final work. Says Kitagawa, “I tell people either you have to be very mature to write an oboe sonata, or that writing one will kill you.”

Article source: http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/mc-classical-philadelphia-brass-0202-20120201,0,4606887.story?track=rss

Notre Dame Recruiting: Gunnar Kiel and Defensive Linemen Highlight a Quality Class

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:58:07 +0000

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To the surprise of Les Miles and his staff, Kiel never arrived in Louisiana, and a few weeks later committed to Notre Dame. There were some rumblings that his family was not happy with the distance between his home in Columbus, Ind. and LSU’s campus.

The Irish also picked up a four star running back William Mahone, a 6’0, 200-pound back with a strong compact running style. The knock on Mahone is a big one: his speed. However, Mahone has been a very effective running back and return man in high school so it will be interesting to see how he transitions into the college ranks.

The Irish got stronger along their interior defensive line, picking up two stud defensive tackle prospects in Jarron Jones and Sheldon Day. Both players were early commits and have been in the stable since August but they form a bulky chunk of the class both in talent and pure size.

Day is 6’2 and weights 286 pounds, while Jones, who went to football factory Aquinas Institute in Rochester, NY is already 6’7 and weighs in at 308 pounds. Both should be an imposing force along the defensive front.

The Irish also bring in Tee Shepard, one of the top defensive backs in the nation. Coming out of Fresno, Calif. Shepard is rangy defender who has played both safety and cornerback in high school projects more as a corner at the next level due to his lack of size (6′, 172 lbs.) and a lack of real toughness near the line of scrimmage.

Shepard was ineligible for his entire senior season which had brought into question his status with the Irish. But he played well in two different post season All-Star games and has said publicly that he intends to enroll early in South Bend.

Joining Shepard in the backfield will be Elijah Shumate from one of the top high school teams in the country Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey. Shumate is 6’1″ and weighs 205 pounds; he was an outside linebacker this year for Bosco but is projected as a safety in college.

Because of the position shift he is going to have to work on his coverage skills but he demonstrated an ability to cover slot receivers from his outside linebacker position at the high school level.

Though no one can predict which of these players will truly be able to come through and make an impact, the Fighting Irish seem to be reloading and may have the foundations in place for a solid future.

Here is the complete Notre Dame recruiting class:

Name Position Height Weight

Gunnar Kiel QB 6’4″ 220

Sheldon Day DT 6’2″ 286

Jarron Jones DT 6’7″ 308

KeiVarae Russell ATH 6’0″ 170

Ronnie Stanley OL 6’7″ 285

Tee Shepard DB 6’1″ 180

Elijah Shumate DB 6’1″ 205

Nicky Baratti ATH 6’2″ 215

Chris Brown WR 6’2″ 185

Justin Ferguson WR 6’2″ 205

Mark Harrell OL 6’5″ 270

Romeo Okwara DE 6’5″ 240

C.J. Prosise DB 6’1″ 202

John Turner DB 6’2″ 205

Scott Daly OL 6’4″ 230

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Article source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/291336/20120201/notre-dame-recruiting-class-gunnar-kiel.htm

Reloading offensive line was priority No. 1 in ‘insane’ recruiting period

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:58:06 +0000